Canada Regional Team WOD #3:

Teams of four:
600m run - Two members do this
25 95lb OHS - Everyone does the 25 reps, two members working at a time
80 Burpees - Teams split the work, one at a time, in sets of ten
25 95lb High Pulls - Everyone does the reps, two members working at a time
600m run - The two team members who didn't run at the start run now

I worked with Giles, Sarah and Giles's bro Warren.

Our time was 16:08.

Individuals Event #4

For time:
50 double unders
10 speed burpees
40 DUs
10 speed burpees
30 DUs
10 speed burpees
20 DUs
10 speed burpees
10 DUs
10 speed burpees

I got 7:49


Then I did three sets of 5 x 210 lbs. Surprisingly heavy.

Individuals Event #4

Rowing Sprints

5 x 500m, resting four minutes between.

1:38.8
1:41.5
1:45.3
1:43.8
1:43.2

SCFC - "Spring Fling"

57 competitors, three events, one freaking crazy day.

Read about it on the CrossFit Regina website here.

See the final results here.

See pictures from the event here.

My voice was hoarse from screaming at other competitors. There was a great energy in the gym all day, and there were some incredible athletes gathered in one place. But just as inspiring were the regular people who pushed their bodies and spirits to the absolute limit, cheered on by friends and people they had never even met. I am not exaggerating when I say that there were a few times that I almost teared up just watching.

WOD 1 "Bottoms Up"
Concentric back squat (one rep max) plus ring dips.

This was like a max backsquat, except the bar was racked low and you start from that position. Your score on this one was the weight that you lifted plus five points for every ring dip.

You get four attempts at a lift. I did 245 and then 265. I failed on 285 and 275. After the fail on 285, I had a brief but entirely ridiculous spaz-out episode, which subsequently embarrassed me way more than actually missing the lift. That may have messed with my concentration when I went for 275. I didn't even lock the bar down properly on my back before standing up, so it rolled back and was ruled no lift.

I got 15 ring dips, which I think was a PR. I thought that was pretty good, but nearly every other guy in Div 1 beat it.

Total score was 340, which put me at 10th out of 14.

Even though adding the ring dips hurt me as far as the standings went (I would have finished a couple of spots higher if only squat numbers were counted), I thought adding them to this event made it a good balance.

WOD 2 "Pull Through"

45 pull-ups, then
21-15-9 of:
95lb snatch
Row for calories.

I did 26 pull-ups off the start, then finished it off with a few more sets in the 4-6 range. I had a couple of blisters, one on each ring finger. But I taped them up and I don't think they slowed me down on this one.

My strategy was to go as fast as I could though the snatches and not kill myself on the rower. Having said that, the 21 snatches were pretty awful.

There was a guy next to me who could pass for a marine and I figured he'd pull away from the pack, but going into the 15 snatches, I was right on his tail. I think I passed him around the ninth rep. Having someone to chase, and then someone to stay ahead of, really helped me push through this one. And it was nasty.

I did this in 10:28, which was good for 4th out of all the Div 1 men, and moved me to 7th overall. I was definitely surprised that I finished that high (because I went in one of the earlier heats, I was briefly in first place) and I think there were a few other people who were, too.


WOD 3 "Rain or Shine"
Three rounds:

400m run (in the rain)
20 115 lb push press or jerk
20 20" box jump


Because I was in 7th, I got to go in the final heat of the day. That was a blessing and a curse. It was good, because we got to see what worked for the other athletes.

It was bad because I got to see how this wod destroyed people. See, until then, I didn't think it was gonna be that bad.

It was THAT bad.

We had to run in the rain, which was probably better than doing it in oppressive heat. But running at the start of a round instead of the end always presents a bit of a pacing challenge.

On the first 400m run, I wanted to keep a good pace, but leave something in the tank for the push press. My thinking was that it was going to be the push press that really determined who would do well on this one. I had seen the push press just absolutely wipe some people out in earlier heats and I had also seen some freakishly strong people, like Hardcore Ange, crank them out like she was pressing a PVC pipe.

The key would be to put the bar down as little as possible. As I came in from the run I was thinking that I would have to break up the push press into sets of 7, but on the first set, I was able to do 12 straight. I then did eight straight to finish off the set. My technique must have been a bit iffy, because I heard Aaron telling my judge Shae to make sure I locked out at the top and straightened my legs. From what I had seen earlier, Shae didn't cut people a whole lot of slack, so I couldn't have been too bad.

My box jumps were painfully slow. In the previous heat, I saw Brad Flood crank out 20 straight box jumps in his third round to finish before the time limit ran out. Flood was exhausted, but jumped on and off quickly as the entire gym counted in unison. Flood was awesome and that was one of my favourite parts of the day.

I did not provide any box jump-related heroics. I jumped up and stepped down for the vast majority of mine. I just wanted to keep going and not burn myself out.

I don't remember too many specifics about the next two rounds. I think I did pretty good on the push press and when I did set the bar down, I didn'tleave it on the ground for long. Even if I wanted to, I couldn't. I had Shae urging me on and dozens of other people yelling at me. The atmosphere alone probably shaved a good two minutes off the time I would get if this were just the workout of the day. The box jumps were slow and steady, but I did deviate from my stepping down to throw in about four up-and-downs. I'm no Brad Flood, but it was the best I could do.

I finished in 13:20, good for 7th in the event.

After the results were posted, I I was in a three-way tie for 7th overall, which is better than I expected.

I had a great time, and it showed me that I still have a lot of room for improvement, both in my CrossFitness and to how I respond to adversity.

UPDATE:

Here's a cool video focusing on one of the athletes who competed that day. It looks really professional.

Sask CrossFit Challenge: Taryn Romanowich from Colin Tulloch on Vimeo.

"Lift Off"

For time:
20 Snatch (squat or power) 95 lbs
Then 10 rounds of
10 Thrusters 45lb
10 Toes to Bar (sub = straight leg raises)
200M Run

The rx'd weight for the snatch on this is 135 lbs, but the competitors in this weekend's "Spring Fling" were told to do it with 95 lbs. I was going to go ahead and do 135 lbs anyway, because I am so fucking badass.

Then I looked on the whiteboard and saw a bunch of times that were all north of 30 minutes, and many that were 40-plus. So much for being so fucking badass.

Even scaled down, it took me 32:54.

The good: Did all the thrusters without dropping the bar. (Pretty lame, I know.) I was also able to string together a number of T2B before dropping off the bar in each round.

The not-so-good: Toes to Bar just absolutely suck. We were told not to tear our hands, and I didn't, but my Sissy Hands were hurting pretty bad pretty early into this. I do have a nice big blister on my right hand ring finger, so we'll see if that hampers me on Saturday.

Strength - Workout B: Taking the "progression" out of "linear progression"

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 205 lbs

After the last time out, I figured I should start a little farther back from my max than I did since this reboot. 205 was challenging but doable.


Bench press - Three sets of 5 x 135 lbs One set of 5 x 135 and two sets of 5 x 140 lbs.

Kat was spotting for me and said that 135 looked too easy. It really wasn't, but she threw five more pounds on there anyway and I know better than to say no to Kat. Hopefully Christian does, too.


Power clean - Five sets of 3 x 150 lbs.

I've been trying to use the hook grip for these. It seems to be going well.

European Regional WOD (Partnered) / 1km Run

With a partner (mine was Harlan), taking turns, do 20 reps each of:

Pull-ups (managed to do 20 straight)
Box Jumps – 24″
Situps (I did toes-to-bar because that's how the 9AMers did it.
6×10m overhead carry together – 135/95lb (The height difference between Harlan and I was good for a few laughs on this one)
Situps (no toes to bar this time)
Box Jumps
Pull-ups (No 20 straight this time; probably 10-5-5)

Took us 13:33


Then the group did a 1km run. Took me 4:17.

Strength - Workout A (sort of)

Back squats - Four sets of 5 x 255 lbs.

The extra set was because Aaron said I didn't get low enough on a couple of reps in the third set.

Shoulder press - FAIL. It took me three attempts to get five reps on my WARM-UP weight of 115 lbs. I did three reps of 130 before failing.

Deadlift. Three reps of 275lbs. I wanted to do five reps, but my back was sending me some warning signals.

Strength - Workout B - Here I go again

Let's try this again.

My plan is to hit CrossFit Regina four times a week. Two of those days will be Stength work, two will be the scheduled WOD.

I've also got Ultimate Frisbee at least one day a week, so that should keep me pretty busy.

With the Strength stuff, I'm starting a bit below where I was before I hurt myself in mid-March. I should be back in the swing of things in a couple of weeks.

Here's what I did today:


Back Squats - Three sets of 5 x 250 lbs

That's 20 lbs under my max. And it still sucked.


Bench Press - Three sets of 5 x 135 lbs

Five pounds under my max. Plenty heavy.


Power Clean - Five sets of 3 x 145 lbs

Ten pounds under my max. These weren't exactly light for me, but they weren't as concerning as the other two.

Shoulder Press / OPT WOD

Shoulder press 5-5-5:

115, 125 (old PR), 130 (PR)


Then, instead of the scheduled metcon, the sadistic deadlift and clean & jerk-filled “Heavy Duty,” I did the OPT WOD from 11am Saturday alongside Blair, because I believe it’s important to stay humble and there are few things more humbling than working out alonside Blair.

For time, three rounds of
12 115-lb power snatches
12 speed burpees (or "lazy burpees" as Robin likes to call them)
12 30-inch box jumps

Blair got 6:30-something, I think. I got 11:39.

Two-a-day Saturday

A lot of folks were doing two workouts on Saturday. Most of the ComTeam opted for the 9 and 11 a.m. workouts, but I couldn't stay that long, so I did 9 and 10.

9 a.m.: "The Newport Crippler"

For time
30 bodyweight back squats (used 185lbs)
Run one mile.

I did it in 10:03. It's not a bad time at all, but, honestly, that extra three seconds pisses me off SO BAD. And I wouldn't have done even that good, except Leya (who started a full minute after me) was breathing down my neck on the last part of the run.

For the squats, I did them in sets of 15-10-5, although I took a good rest with the bar on my shoulders in the first 15.

10 a.m. "Summer in the City" chipper:

For time
400m run
20 wall ball
30 burpees
40 pull-ups
50 bell swings (35 lbs)
60 sit-ups
70 box jumps 24"
400 m run

I partnered with Nathan. We split the work, except for the runs, which we do together. For the other stuff, only one partner works at a time.

Took us 14:30

Back Squats

I woke up at 5:42 this morning and made a spur of the moment decision to go to CrossFit. I was very glad I did. Not only was my big German CrossFit life-partner Harlan coaching, the WOD was back squats (5x5)

I haven't done heavy back squats since hurting my back warming up for strength work a while ago. I also failed to do much in the way of high-rep, low-weight squats to rehab, because I am a moron.

So today, I decided it was time to get back on the squatty horse, but to do so with caution.

So my sets of five looked like this:

135-205-225-245-255.

My max is 270, but 255 was plenty heavy and I thought I would quit while I was ahead.

Overheard at the Gym:
Janimal: "Hi Dan. I'm Jan. I rhyme with you."

Pull-up Cluster / Wall Ball Run

Part 1:
1 minute max Pull-ups, 1 minute rest
45 seconds max Pull-ups, 45 seconds rest
30 seconds max Pull-ups, 30 seconds rest
15 seconds max Pull-ups.

I got 34, 15, 12, 7

I consider this to be good, though I suppose I should have gotten a few more in the 45-second round. That's a pretty significant drop-off. I was going for a PR in consecutive pull-ups in the first round, and I got it (33), then I added one more before the minute was up.

The pull-ups were supposed to be strict gymnastic pull-ups (this sort of stuff happens whenever Robin gets back from a certification, and she just went to a gymnastics cert). I didn't realize until I had to change that I do more of a frog kick, with my own spazzy flair.

Part 2:
As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes:
200 m Run
20 Wall Ball – 20/14lb

Blair got 7 rounds and something, so I was hoping to get within sniffing distance of that. My runs were pretty damn slow from round 2 on.

I got 6 rounds, plus 200m, plus 2 WB.