Epic Blog Fail

So, I haven’t posted since the 16th. Epic fail. The holidays, the great 2009 DC blizzard, and other events conspired against me. I still worked out, just didn’t get around to posting. Here’s a recap:

20091217
PCF WOD
Power Snatch
3-3-3-3-3
Bench Press
5-5-5
snatch: 85-95-105-110-115(2). I have GOT to get over the hump at 115/120 and start nailing something higher. Need some more dedicated work at this. Fixing my lingering lower back soreness should help…..just need to figure out how to do that as well.
bench: 105-110-115

20091218
PCF WOD
5 rounds for time:
1 Clean, 90% of 1RM
3 Handstand Push-up
5 Box Jump, 36/28in
7 Strict Pull-up
As rx’d: 12:10 (used 145# on the cleans). This was hard, but felt good. Limfac was definitely the pull ups — was down to 1′s at the end.

20091219
Rest day – had 5 days on in anticipation of leaving for Seattle today. Snowed in, and needed the rest.

20091220
Same

20091221
In addition to (real) snow shoveling to get our car out, went in to PCF for the WOD.
Front Squat
3-3-3-3-3
Press
1-1-1-1-1
Front squat: 125-145-165-175(2)
Press: 85-95-105-110(f)
Have been chasing 105 on the press for a while, so was pretty pleased with that. Should have been able to nail the third FS at 175, but just went soft in the bottom and lost it half way up. Next time.

20091222
PCF WOD
4 Rounds
AMRAP in 4 minutes of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Kettlebell Swings
20 Double Unders
Rest 2 minutes between rounds
This sucked…a lot. For some reason, just couldnt get on my game today and everything felt harder than it should. All kb swings were unbroken, but couldn’t string together the DU if my life depended on it. Terrible, terrible day for me. As rx’d: 10 rounds.

20091223
Rest

20091224
Clean
3-3-3-3-3
Rest 5:00min
For Time:
12-9-6
Overhead Squat, 135/95 lbs
Chest to Bar Pull-ups
115-135-145-150-155
Metcon: As rx’d: 6:24
Really happy with today — 155 for 3 wasn’t too bad on the cleans and I feel like I still had more left in me, so I think next time I can definitely go up. This is awesome, since the last time we did heavy squat cleans (maybe a two weeks ago?) I failed at 160, and today I nailed 155 for three. Yay. Should have made higher jumps at the beginning and I wouldn’t have run out of time. Metcon felt really good, all OHS at 95 were unbroken and CTB were mostly in sets of 3. 95# OHS are starting to get really comfortable for me, which is awesome.

20091225
Rest

20091226
Went to Crossfit Lacy outside of Seattle. Today was an oly day, so I worked on my snatches. Did a lot of work at 105# on squat snatches, which is pretty comfortable to me, and then focused on power snatches for 110 and 115 since my back was pretty tired and I didnt want to overdo it.

20091227
Rest

20091228
WOD at CF Lacy
Row 1000m/rest 1:30
Row 750/rest 1
Row 500/rest :45
Row 375/rest :30
Row 250/rest :20
Row 125
Total time, 12:48
Had to keep the damper at 7 for this (box rules) so my back was KILLING me when I was done. Felt good to move after all the Xmas goodies and overeating.

20091229
WOD at CF Lacy
4 rounds:
10 power snatch (75#)
10 overhead lunges (75#)
10 pull ups
me: 11:31
Really happy with this performance. All snatches were one right after another and all lunges were unbroken except for the last set. Lunges were definitely the biggest struggle. Really liked this WOD.

20091230
Sit on a plane for 6 hours heading back to DC. Feeling those lunges from yesterday.

Tuesday and Wednesday

20091215
PCF WOD:
“Nancy”
5 Rounds: 400m run and 15 OHS (95/65)
as rx’d: 15:24
Pretty happy with this. Not sure what my last time was since it is in an old training log from before I started the blog and I’m too lazy to find it, but I’m pretty sure it was a bit slower. Felt like I was moving faster than normal on the first three runs…last two slowed down a little more than I would have liked. All OHS were unbroken and felt fine.

20091215
PCF WOD:
3-3-3-3-3
Push Jerk
rest
3 min Row (max calories)
rest 60 seconds
3 min AMRAP of 3 CTB pull ups and 3 burpees
rest 60 seconds
3 min AMRAP of power snatch, snatch balance, OHS, hang squat snatch (65#)

Went up to 135(3) on the push jerk. I can go heavier, but I just wasn’t feeling it and didn’t want to hurt myself so I backed off after that. Probably in my best interest.

On the metcon, started with the snatch complex and got 10 rounds. It felt fine, though my legs were a little tired from Nancy the day before. Next, did the CTB/burpee thing, got 6.5 rounds. Finished with the row, 44 calories. Was fairly happy with this and it didn’t feel too bad considering we had done this before (when Aaron, Mark, Jon, Brian and I did the OPT challenge) so I knew what to expect. Row felt like crap at the end, but then again, my rows always do. Alison and I have a date for a rowing lesson, and I am DEFINITELY taking her up on that after we get back from holiday travel. Both Jon and B mentioned how poor my rowing technique remains.

I’ve Got Nothing

So my back has still been feeling a little rough, and I actually didn’t feel too hot over the weekend, so I’ve had a sporadic (read: crappy) past couple days of training (or not, as the case may be). Here’s a recap.

20091211
PCF WOD
Complete 5 rounds for max reps of:
Bench Press, 70% of 1 rep max
Pushups
Post max loads and number of reps for each round to comments.

Coach’s Notes: Bench press should be completed until failure. The athlete should then move immediately to pushups until failure. Rest between sets as needed.

Did this at 90#. The pushups were way harder than I expected after the bench. My rounds were something like: 19, 20, 18, 16, 13.

20091212-13
Rest. Wasn’t feeling great, back was sore, and just knew that I’d be at about 50% effort on WODs so I took a couple rest days.

20091214
PCF WOD
Find 1RM back squat
then
3 rounds for time:
1 Min Double Unders
Rest 30 seconds
1 Min Row
Rest 30 seconds
1 Min Box Jump
Post load and total reps to comments

*Did overhead squat instead of back squat. Worked my way up to 145#. Felt okay, so I think I could have gotten a little more if there were more time. Still, I’ll take it.

Got 236 on the metcon, which included 2 strings (only 10 and 7, but that is better than nothing) of actual consecutive DU (vice doing single-double). Yay for that.

Tuesday, Wednesday and REST!

20091208
PCF WOD:
Annie: 50-40-30-20-10 DU and sit ups
As rx’d: 8:06. Really pleased with this, as it is almost a two minute improvement over the last time (10/29). Looks like all that DU work is paying off. I’m still not great at them and have to do single/double, but at least I am starting to border on respectable and more importantly, these will hopefully be decent enough to not sink me in the next competition.

20091209
PCF WOD:
1 ring dip, 1 sit up, 1 goblet squat (35#)….continue for 20 min, adding 1 rep to each exercise each round. I finished 11 rounds (got up to and completed 11 ring dips, 11 sit ups, 11 goblet squats). This was good practice for me, since I need work on my ring dips. These were obviously the limfac. Made sure to get full ROM on each rep – they were all legit.

Then, did a little finisher with the Games prep group: 10 rounds of max DU in 1 min, rest 30 sec. My reps were: 33, 24, 40, 39, 34, 35, 24, 40, 24, 33. Not great, but they are definitely improving.

20091210:
Rest day. My back is still tweaked, so I need it.

Lumberjack and the Aftermath

20091205
Organized Project Lumberjack for PCF. This was a great fundraiser done in support of the victims of the Nov 5 shooting at Ft Hood. I was so thrilled that so many of our PCF’ers came out and participated despite the less than stellar weather. The early morning heats had freezing rain, and from about 1000 on, folks were getting snowed on during the run. We had a great time, and raised about $2600 for this worthy cause. Thanks to everyone for their support, and to my volunteers and fellow coaches for helping to keep the trains running on time!

I did this with the 1245 heat.
Lumberjack 20
20 Deadlifts (275lbs/185) /Run 400m
20 KB swings (2pood/1.5) /Run 400m
20 Overhead Squats (115lbs/80) /Run 400m
20 Burpees /Run 400m
20 Pullups (Chest to Bar) /Run 400m
20 Box jumps (24″/20″) /Run 400m
20 DB Squat Cleans (45lbs each/30″) /Run 400m

As rx’d: about 32 and some change. The slush and snow on the run definitely slowed me down, but I suspect I would have been trudging along anyway even if the weather had been nice. I screwed up and didnt really warm up properly, and that combined with my tired back from the earlier squat cleans left me feeling pretty beat up. Frustrating since none of the weights on this were all that heavy for me, so I’m annoyed it hurt so bad. Really need to rest the back for a couple days, and work on stretching out my hammies.

20091206
Back was killing me. Hard time getting up/sitting down, so I took a rest day. Lame.

20091207
Couldnt do the PCF WOD today (squats) due to the sore back, so I did bench press and weighted pull ups instead.
Bench: 55(5)-85(5)-95(5)-105(3)-115(3)-115(3)
Pull ups: 5(5)-10(3)-10(3)-15(3)-20(2)-25(1)-30(1)

20091203

PCF WOD:
Squat Cleans
5-5-5
3-3-3
1-1-1

Went light-ish on the 5′s to get warmed up.

95-95-105
125-135-135
145-155-160(f)

I’m pretty sure I can get the 160. Just got stuck coming out of the bottom (and I can front squat 190ish) because I was tired. Wanted to give it another try, but ran out of time since I was running the 7pm WOD. Next time.

Back on the Horse

So I’m back on the paleo/normal WOD schedule horse after the Thanksgiving festivites. However, there are definitely some lingering gross feelings from all the crap I ate, and I’m feeling a little lethargic. That plus a busy week at work plus trying to get everything squared away for the Lumberjack 20 fundraiser have me exhausted. Oh well.

Worked out with the PCF Games training group on Wed.
Hang power cleans 3-3-3
125-135-135
I can do more than this – the goal was to not go too heavy, just get some solid, consistent sets in.

Then, we did ground to overhead any way, 70 reps, in sets of ten (touch and go only, foul if you drop the bar before 10 reps). Rx’d for women was 65#. Did the first 20 as snatches, then alternated between clean and jerk (really more like clean and press) and snatch. Time was a little over 6 minutes, I think 6:15. Not at all happy with this, I should have been closer to five considering my Randy time (75 hang power cleans at 55#) is about 4:30. Just wasnt feeling great today and for some stupid reason, my grip was killing me.

Looking forward to feeling better now that my nutrition is back on track….if only I could start actually getting some good sleep.

Thanksgiving Holiday

So Aaron and I were in Texas for several days over the holidays and needless to say, I ate too much crap and drank too much wine, and did not enough WOD-ing. We did; however, get the opportunity to drop in and see the fine folks at Frisco Crossfit. Cory and Kahle were kind enough to let us work in on a couple of their WODs and work off some of that turkey and cabernet.

Friday:
5 rounds:
10 front squats (about 50% of 1RM, I did this at 95#)
run 400m
rest 5 min
Believe my times were 2:16, 2:29, 2:36, 2:32, 2:30

Saturday:
Did 3 couplets, with about 4-5 min rest in between
3-6-9-6-3
DL (60% 1RM) and ring dips
*note: I screwed this one up and did 155# because I can’t count, 60% would have been closer to 165/170. I probably should have done 175

4-8-12-8-4
wall ball and slam ball
Did this at the men’s weight (20#) and height (10ft). 20# wall balls at 10ft are no joke.

5-10-15-10-5
CTB pull ups
push press (50% 1RM)
I did this at 70#, with CTB

Times escaped my memory by the time I managed to drive myself home to my mom’s house.

All in all, really good visit at Frisco. Liked their programming, and they were some great people in a cool box. Glad we got to stop in, and I thank them for their hospitality.

Now, back on the paleo horse.