This is a photo of Abbey, Patrick, and I at the Bigfoot Triathlon... Abbey was done because she did the sprint distance (and did she ever!), I was transition sherpa and cheerleader, and Patrick was 1/2 done with his run here... total Level 1 fun!
Strength: Press Advanced 5×4 @ 88% of last CFT Intermediate 4×5 @ 77%
So I started at 5×4 @ from 83# all the way down to 75# ... WTF?! I honestly felt weak … not my day… and definitely not enough good calories today
WOD: Elizabeth (12 min cap) @ 9:31 3 rounds, 21-15-9 of
Squat Clean
Ring Dips I suffered this WOD with 85# and a purple band for the ring dips … started with nice and smooth squat cleans, then by round 2, they got chopped into power cleans with front squats … minimal breaks … work in progress
Post-WOD: 3 rope climbs (15’) + 3 skin the cats ... Rope climbing is fun! Skin the cats are fun! WOD’ing with Japirish is AWESOME!
Took the last 2 days off in the hopes of resting enough for a double today. The goal here is to start getting my body accustomed to long, hard move days on the expedition ... here are my goals for the week
Thu 16/6 - Fri 17/6: Rest Days
Sat 18/6 - here we go!
#1 WOD: CF Total @ 520
Squat: 165 (135-155-165-175f-175f)
Press: 90 (65-85-90-95f-95f)
Deadlift: 265 (185-225-255-265-275f)
Not my best day and definitely no PRs earned, but I still have weight to gain and 11 months of opportunities to improve until we leave for the expedition. Matt validated that the disparity in squat and deadlift results might indicate the need to continue working at those squat movements more and build on that deadlift. There’s definitely an opportunity to fix the knee caving and foot placement... which brings it back to how engaging that glute/ham chain better will help me get more weight moving. I can turn my total into a +600! I think I may also attempt with Billy S and Mike H next time as our #s are closer and they are good to work with.
The fact that I matched my deadlift PR being 20lbs lighter than last year says something about the coaches and new cues they’ve taught me. Just need to do more, get stronger, and more confident with the movements.
Press is down by 12%, but that’s better than down the 25% I was about a month ago. Chip chip chip away!
#2 WOD: 4 Rounds @ 25:40
800M Run
10 Hang Power Snatches (65)
20 Power Wall Balls (14)I REALLY need to improve my running, but I looooove HPS and power wall balls are easier for me to manage than that full squat in regular wall balls ... yes, yes, yes ... I’m working on that! Also, I should rest a little after doing the CF total... ouchy...
Post - TTB and ab wheel from my “Pick 2” list ... Oh yeah, the Ab Wheel of delight... not so much
Randy Simmons, 51, a 27 year LAPD veteran and SWAT team member was killed February 6, 2008 in the line of duty. Officer Simmons is survived by his wife and two children. This is my 2nd year doing this WOD to honour that thin blue line. I love and admire Matt so much, it hurts.
75 power snatches (55#) @ 6:51 … I’d have preferred to go at 50#, but we don’t have a 33# women’s bar ... regardless, this is a :47 gain from 7:38!!! yay!
This is one of my favorite workouts because it feels the most “natural” to me - the ROM feels like when I pick up my backpack so I don’t psyche myself out. Today was my first day back since being sick last week and then judging CF Regionals 12 hours a day all weekend ... so I was looking forward to it.
Overall, I still feel weak and the tank still feels small, but overall, I feel “cleaner”, I’m not as grouchy, and I’m recovering better. Perhaps this is a sign that the paleo diet is starting to kick in and I just need to up the caloric intake and toughen up mentally. yay!
Tuesday 5/31
Pre-WOD: Press 5 x 65-75-80-85(3) ... PR was 90, so I have some work to do. I posted video of the round I failed.
WOD @ home 30-20-10 reps of: (8 min cap)
Push Press (65#)
Kettlebell Swings (1 pood)
6:58... slow, felt weak, and lack 33# bar to scale down at home, but my goal was to go unbroken and keep sub 7:00 ... which I barely did (yay!)
Post-WOD: 10 deadhangs: 3-3-2-2 (I'll get you #4!!!) 20 TTB: 7-5-5-3 still kipping in between but was able to string 2 together a couple of times (yay!) 50 DU: 6-17-21-12 breaking less - I pretended I was Paws!
Hey! I just now noticed that this is the 2nd sub-7:00 workout I’ve done this week. Cool!
Notes: I confess that I’m still not feeling my “GRRR” yet ... Rudy is right about finding the right priorities and setting goals accordingly ... without them, that sense of urgency, commitment, and inner drive won’t be there to push you. I love to climb and the mountains motivate me like no other, but I always find myself mentally wandering until the 6-9 month mark comes around and it hits me like a ton of bricks that it’s time to work. Truthfully, I’m finding the mental/emotional aspect to be my biggest struggle because I want to be more consistent with my training year-round instead of seasonally.
Matt is really good at that and is so disciplined - he’s a good role model in that respect so I just have to keep at it. On a related note, I’ve been v-consistent with my paleo diet and Matt has been inspired to follow suit. I love a good win-win situation!
press: 3x for 7 rounds video of the last 4 rounds... it wasn't pretty... but i didn't give up and i need to set benchmarks.
yes, that was me squawking on the last rep. matt didn't count it (quel surprise!)
but, he did notice my failure points were where i held the bar at the bottom - (1) the bar was too far forward so i wasn't able to get under it for a solid press up and (2) i was too slow at the bottom trying to control it instead of exploding from the bottom and build upward momentum.
rather weak now, but pretty good movement
1RM is 105, so i need to get to work and get more consistent to make up the 20% loss
So out of 10...
mental energy: 8
physical energy: 8
sleep: 6 (see below)
stress: 7 (oh, the list goes on and on)
health: 75% (can't feel good when you're lazy ad eat bad)
diet: -3 (it was strict paleo all day until the pizza and ice cream showed up. matt is evil but i can only blame myself)
"CrossFit Total" Back squat, 1 RM @ 150 (160 PR) Press, 1 RM @ 95 (same as PR) Deadlift, 1RM @ 245 (same as PR) Total: 490 Still struggling with squat depth so I it makes it difficult to improve. Wasted a lot of energy "overthinking" and setting Press and DL. Felt really weak today.
Press 3-3-3+ @ 63%/72%/81% 65(3)-75(3)-83(5) MetCon 4 Rounds @ 12:05- 10 burpees- 500 M row Post WOD- 3 x max ring dips (90 seconds rest) @ 3-2-2- I also worked on hollow swing & deadhangs Overall: I was happy to beat 12:30 goal, but sub 12:00 would've had me woo-hoo'ing. Burpees were steady and unbroken, row was a tad slower than I'd have liked... it's hard to tell, but I think I'm making improvements. Sleep: 5hrsMental Energy: 5Physical Energy: 6Stress: 8Food/Calorie Intake: 6
Press 5-5-5+ of 1rm+5lbs @ 58.5%, 67.5%, 76.5% 58-68-78(4) Ugh! So weak! It's just taking me so long to recover. I want to be 30 again so that I can bounce back right away after being sick. Sheeesh. ... by the way, Weight Math IS different than Normal Math. For some reason, I thought my first round would be 84#, so I loaded it and wondered why it seemed so heavy for a first round ... I could FEEL the coaches rolling their eyes as they laughed and shook their heads. Time to readjust and get to business. The 1st round felt smooth, 2nd round was a little tougher, but the 3rd gave me trouble. I was pretty frustrated that 78# would do that after 3 reps given that I can usually power through weight like this less awkwardly. Keep working... Metcon 5 Rounds @ 6:10 (plus or minus 1 round of push presses) 15 Push press (55#) 15 Box jumps (21") Right. So this is embarrassing. Not only did it take me too long to get set up and psyched, but I managed to drop my IQ along the way as well. I had it in my head that we started with box jumps so I did my 5 rounds ... believing my last round was push presses ... only to realize that I did a 6th extra round when I called time and Coach got a puzzled look on her face... As punishment, I got teased relentlessly ... again ... nothing worse than being ganged up on by Paws, BeeDub, and Mango all at once. 3x max push ups (90s rest) @ 15-10-8 Improving. Wish I could do more. I want to be able to bang out 25 each round
Press 5-3-1+ reps of 1RM @ 67.5%/76.5%/85.5% 53-75-81(5)
It felt good, but I'd hoped for more reps than 5. Enjoyed doing this part with Liz.
Metcon (from 2009 Hell's Half Acre Regional) @ 6:59
21-15-9
Box jump (21")
Kettlebell swings (1 pood/36lbs)
Sumo-deadlift high-pull (60lbs)
I didn't feel as efficient on the KBS as I usually would, my guess is that I need to strengthen my quads and hamstrings more. It was a good workout and I was glad to sneak in under 7:00 ... I could hear Coach pushing me to make the deadline. It was not pleasant.
Still chipping away. I'm glad I stopped myself during yesterday's WOD, I was getting really faint and was given yet another reminder that I am not 100%. I was honestly bummed, but it's time to move on. It is, after all, just 1 workout and I have tomorrow.
WB @ 12: 25-24-22
KB @ 25: 20-17-19
DU's that I bombed: 5-10-7
Total: 159
Went lighter than usual on metcon given recovery. I'm convinced that DU's are a perishable skill ... and that my jumprope had it out for me tonight. If Rudy hadn't been watching, I'd have burned the thing.
HSPU were tough, but it felt good to get full range of motion with band stability and being about 18lbs underweight ;) Presses felt heavy ... still weak and not quite back in my rythym, but getting there bit by bit. 104 days
Hooray! It was so nice to see everyone after being so sick and returning from ice fest. Losing 20lbs made ice climbing easy this past weekend, but not for lifting today ;)
130+85+205=420 ... shamefully weak!!! I'm around 75-85% of my normal performance level. It's so humbling and frustrating. Feels like all the hard work I put in these 4 months went down the drain...
But, I am looking forward to working on squat and DL skills again! Nothing like being lightfooted to get that flexibility back in gear!
This was an ego-buster workout today. I wanted to go heavier, but relented when coach said to go lighter. I may know my body, but not always best. To help my ego understand, I'll ask him why he thought that.
Press 1-1-1 to max @ 80-85-90-95f
I failed at 95#, but will keep working on it. I got good tips on using glut & lats. Need to work on it more!
65# would have slowed me, but I think I would've hit the 12min cap. I'll get there soon enough, though. Will definitely try heavier on SDHP next time and keep my head and chest up. Those burpees gassed me out big time but I didn't break until the middle round (which tends to be where my mental endurance lacks). I was slow, but steady and didn't stop - I think it helped me a lot.
Great energy in the box tonight. Was thinking of Alma and memories of chemo ... much worse and for a lot longer.
Thrusters unbroken round 1, 5's round 2, then 2's round 3. Burpees were strung in 5's, 3's, and then pathetic singles. Burpees are spawns of satan. I hate them almost as much as I hate double-unders. I'm just sayin'
