Fitting In My Life

I have a new relationship.  It’s with my gym.  More dependable than just about any guy I’ve ever dated.  It’s there when I need it and even when I’m not in the mood.  It makes my days better. It also has it’s quirks and it’s cons. But all in all, I couldn’t ask for a better way to use my time.

Strength - Push Pull Challenge

Muscle Snatch 3x2 @ 60% = 45#, 40*2 

Muscle snatches are a lot harder with weight, just so you know. And I thought these were going to be easy. My 60% is 42#.  I figured, okay, I’ll just go up to 45.  I was able to do 45 but they definitely weren’t pretty, so went for lighter and prettier. I can’t promise I completely succeeded at that, but they weren’t bad.

Snatch High Pull 3x3 @ 85%, 2x3 @ 90%, 65, 70#

On the theme of not following “the rules,” I ended up doing these at 95 and 100%.  I apparently can’t read sometimes.  Weights should have been 60 and 63 (or 65).  We do these warming up snatch during classes, but I hadn’t done these weighted in 18 months.

Power clean 2-2-2 @ 60-65-70%

Power Jerk 2-2-2 @ 60-65-70% 75-85-95#

Same weights for both of these.  There wasn’t anything special to mention.

Strength - Deadlift 5-4-3-2-1-1-1

We don’t do a lot of deadlift work.  I miss that.  I didn’t get to my previous max, I probably would’ve been able to get it but ran out of time to try.  Previous was 255, I made it up to 245. I will say though that I felt stronger through the full movement, especially at 235.  225 and 245 both were slow leaving the ground but finished well. Best part is that I feel great today, not sore from that at all.

WOD - 30 Calorie Row, 15 Burpees for time

Time - 3:09

I’ve been trying to incorporate rowing into my workouts more.  It’s getting cold in Iowa.  What do those have in common? They both meant that I said “screw that” to the gym programmed wod in order to do my rowing programming (sort of) and some lifting.

Rowing-

4 rnds: 500m row @ 22SR, 10 weighted good mornings, 12 racked front lunges, 25 Double Unders, 10 GHD’s

I didn’t really time this.  I took time to breathe when I needed.  I was surprised when racked front lunges didn’t hurt.  I don’t remember that happening before.  I used 55# for the lunges and good mornings. Also, 40 GHDs is kind of a lot at the time but yet later I didn’t feel like I was beat in the ribs.  What gives?

Strength - 4 week push pull work

Snatch: 1, 1, 4x1 @ 60-70-80%

Okay, I was going to follow this as planned but they felt too light.  I will do better. Should have been 1 @ 42#, 1 @ 49# and 4x1 @ 56#.  I ended up doing 1 @ 45, 1 @ 50, 1 @ 55 and 3 @ 60#. The first snatch wasn’t great, I didn’t quite get to a full squat but after that they went quite well.

Squat Clean: 1, 1, 4x1 @ 60-70-80%

Surprise! I didn’t follow either. At some point I want to see where my max is again.  I went 1 rep at each of the following: 75-85-90-95-100-105.  I got the number of reps right at least ;)

Jerk from Rack: 1, 1, 4x1 @ 60-70-80%

I’ll direct you to the summary from Squat Cleans.  I did the same thing.  These were split jerks.

Front Squat: 4, 4, 3x4 @ 60-70-80%

Okay, I did this one mostly right, except for 80% I did one set at 77% and the others at 75%.  So these were 4 @ 95#, 4@ 105#, 4@ 120, then 3x3 @ 115#.  So like I said, almost right.

Strict Press 2x4 @ 60%

60% would’be been 39.  So I did 8 @ 35#, but then I also did 4 @ each of the following 45 - 50 and 55#

Maybe with bombarding all these posts at once no one will notice I was gone??? :D

Strength: Every 90 seconds for 8 sets - 1 squat clean @ 85-88% 1rm

 For me that is 105# (85% = 102 right now (probably not much longer though))

These felt GREAT!  I haven’t felt so good about squat cleans in so long.  For the last 4 sets I added on some more weight, since the guys were doing it after all ;) So that was 110 for 4 rounds.

WOD: For Time - 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Sandbag Get UPs, 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8 Power Cleans @ 95/135#

So this meant 8 get ups/1 Power clean with 9 total reps for each round.  I loved this one.  I used Rx weight through the round of 4 Get ups/ 5 cleans.  I was struggling at this point so i took the weight down to 85#.  Talking with the coach after class (Yay! a coach actually coaching!) he suggested that I just need to work on getting my elbows through faster, the rest of my clean was pretty much on point, Totally rocks.

Accessory Work

4 sets: 6-8 Supine Ring Rows (1-1-1-1), rest 1 min, AMRAP-3 Ring Dips, rest 1 min

These weren’t so bad.  Used a black band for the dips.  Almost had my feet on a 12 inch box for the rows.  I was able to get one from a box each set, the rest were from my feet on the ground.

WOD: 12 minutes for as many BURPEES as possible-

20 Back Squats @ 75% Body Weight

Run 1 Mile

AMRAP Burpees

I Rx’d the weight - 120#, Took just under two minutes to complete the squats.  I was about 10 seconds past the 12 minutes when I got in from the run.  

Score: 0

Something to learn - Working out after a race PR is just plain silly.  I ran the Turkey Trot and then wanted to stay downtown since I was going to be going to lunch with some friends. My house is about 12 miles from the gym and I don’t like driving more than I have to.

Strength - 5 working sets of 1 Shoulder Press, 2 Push Press, 3 Push Jerk

50-55-60-65-70#

Obviously the shoulder press was the hardest part for me.  I’m adding in some more work that will hopefully help this issue. 

2 rnds for time: 400m run or 500m row, 75 Double Unders (150 singles), 15 OHS @ 75/105#

5 whole miles!  Apart from the almost half marathon I ran a couple years ago completely unprepared, I’m quite sure that’s the longest distance I’ve ever run.  

I was at my parents for Thanksgiving.  They still live in the same house I grew up in and I love the neighborhood. My goal was to go out for at least 3.  Once I got to 3 I thought I’d go for 4.  Then once I got to 4 I had to keep going.  Made it to 5 in my parents backyard, some off roading for the first time.  Had my own little Forest Gump moment.

Looked like a reasonable workout, could I do rope climbs or knees to elbows or handstand pushups or wall walks.  Get the idea? Actually it wasn’t so horrible.  I just had no grip, again.  

Accessory: Weighted Reverse Squat to Romanian DL, 3x8 each leg

Did my first two sets at 18#.  They were a bit too “easy.”  They were exactly easy but I needed a bit more of a challenge.  Last set I went up to 24# KBs.

WOD: 8 min AMRAP - 5 Knees to Elbows, 3 HSPU, 1 Rope Climb or 2 Rope Get ups

5 Min Rest

8 min AMRAP- 1 Strict Pull Up, 3 Wall Walks, 5 Toes to Bar

Score: 8+6 and 2+7

I scaled just about everything.  Any hope I had at being able to pull or push seemed to be non-existent. Knees to Elbows were close-ish, most were to my triceps. I warmed up HSPU and could kip a couple off of 2 ab mats but I didn’t think that would be sustainable or really worth it during a work out so I went off a 24″ box. I tried to rope climb during warmup but just couldn’t get my feet to cooperate. I banded all the pull-ups, but I noticed that the bands I used were probably a bit too easy.  Wall Walks, blah- I should do more of these. Sunday I could pull off 5 Toes to Bar without coming off the bar.  I couldn’t even get a single.  

Woot! I did the run thing.  I was totally in the zone and spaced off saying Hi to a friend from my gym as I ran past her. But the run was good - 2.5 miles, including some hills, at an 11:50 pace. I probably could’ve pushed it more than that if I wanted to.  I guess I run faster in the cold.  Good thing I have a race this weekend.  I want to run once more before then.  Will probably do that on Thanksgiving day.

Back Squat 5-5-3-3-3

We had 25 minutes to work through these. Supposedly I had a 3 rep max at 145# previously.  I doubted that for some reason.

What I did - 105, 115, 125, 135, 150

I got to depth.  The only thing I still need to work on is getting my knees out, but they were definitely better than they have been.  And I wasn’t having too much of an issue with keeping my chest up.  Such a plus!

WOD: 4 rnds 30 seconds max Row Meters, 2 minutes rest between sets

Score: 143 - 143 - 147 - 143 = 575

Consistent much??? I know how many pulls it takes me to get to 100m so that helps.

Rowing: Circuit A x 2

Circuit A is supposed to be 10 each of the following: R&L Front lunges, R&L Back Lunges, 10 Burpees, R&L side lunges, 10 GHD’s, 10 Good mornings

I did: 3 sets of -10 R & L Front lunges, 5 R & L Back lunges, 10 Double Unders, 10 GHD’s, 10 Barbell Good mornings

Forgot to add from Friday that I did my Erg workout for the day.  That was 3x2km at a stroke rate of 24, with 4 minutes rest between each.  It’s incredibly hard to keep it at 24 when you’re used to ~28-30.  I suppose it helps get used to longer, controlled distances. Hello Endurance!

Sunday Pre-Football drinking workout

Went to the gym on my own.  I had a hard time forcing myself to take a rest day on Saturday. But it was definitely a good thing that I did.

For Sunday I kind of just made something up.  Sort of based on the crossfit.com workout of the day. Arms were still toast from Friday night so I decided burpees were out.

 Crossfit.com workout: 21-15-9 Deadlift (275#) and bar over burpees, Modified to 21-15-9-3 135# DL and 15# plate situps 

Time- 6:15

And then I did this-

Then 6 rnds for time 5 pushups, rig length sprint, down and back farmer carry 53# KBs, sprint back

Time- 7:36ish

lulz........

It’s true though.  We did a singles mixer at my gym.  It would’ve been better had there been any guys I didn’t already know.  Numbers mostly worked out for this.  We had 7 gals and 5 guys, one of which was not into girls at all. Of course the one guy I wanted to pair with, I never did. 

So the idea was that we had 4 mini workouts.  You switched partner for each one.  And the time between was to be used for mingling.  This was the first time we’ve done this, so it went pretty well. The intention was that you didn’t have to be a crossfitter to attend, that workouts would be scale-able.  All but one person was a crossfitter. Weights for all barbell movements were 65/95#

Round 1 - 5 min AMRAP 10 Back Squats, 5 Pull-ups

I worked with Jared on this one, he goes to my old gym.  I knew him then.  We did pretty well.  Almost finished 6 rounds.  Something like 5+8.  We alternated complete rounds, he started first.  I got through 8 back squats.

Round 2 - 3 min AMRAP 10 Wall ball partner situps, 10 partner pushups

I worked with the only non-crossfitter, a gal named Madison.  We made it through a solid 4 rounds (I think, could’ve been 3). With the partner situps you essentially do 20, but only 10 with the wall ball.  We used 10#, pushups from the knees.

Round 3 - 5 min AMRAP 5 Push Presses, 12 Jump Switch Lunges

I worked with Ben, also from my old gym. Super cute and nice, but would never be a possibility. One person works at a time. We killed this one.  Made it through 8 rounds and like 13? He’s always been good competition.

Round 4 - 3 min AMRAP 8 Sandbag get ups, 10 burpees

I worked with Ryan this time, also from my old gym.  Each person worked at the same time but you couldn’t switch to the other movement until you were each done with yours.  We rocked this with 4+13.  Have I told you I love sandbag get ups? My burpees weren’t horrible that night either.

Hips in action! I loved this workout. 

Strength - 15 minutes to find 1x3 touch and go Clean (squat or power)

I was able to get to 105# for 3.  I was able to get 2 at 110#.  I was a little disappointed in that I couldn’t get that third rep at 110.  I tried twice.  My issue came with not getting into my squat fast enough.  So guess I need to work on that some more.

WOD - TBD emom: Even minutes Row 5+ Calories (add 2 each round), Odd 1 Clean at 1x3 weight

11/17/16 - Running

Let me just start by telling you how awesome it is out today.  76 Degrees and Sunny in Iowa. In November.  How crazy is that?! It’s fantastic.  I ran in shorts and a tank today.

Went out for just under 3 miles.  I had no plan for today.  I just wanted to run. I did not eat or drink very well last night and that was pulling my day down considerably.  I feel so much better after running. I have one more race on the schedule for this year, figured I should probably run a couple times before then.

Rowing Training! It’s a lot harder to stay at one Stroke Rate than you would think. I have to admit, it was quite nice to put my headphones on and be in my own little world on the erg.

Erg Week 1 Day 3

2x2000m @ SR 22, 4 minute rest between

The first 2000 I was good on the SR with the damper set at 7.5 and a time of 10:42.  The second I was on a 8.5 and averaged a 23 SR with a time of 10:36. I guess I’m consistent? The second set I focused on using my legs more and really driving through my heels.