Games WOD #6: Epic fails abound

6a. 3 rounds of
30 Push-ups with hand release
21 Overhead Squats – 95/65lb
*7 minute cap

This one wasn't bad, except for the push-ups. I didn't finish in the time limit, though. I got two rounds plus 19 push-ups.

2 minute rest

6b. 3 rounds of
30 Toes to Bar
21 Ground to Overhead – 95/65lb
*7 minute cap

Toes to bar just suck. Because I spent so much time trying to convince myself to get back on the bar, I didn't come close on this one. One round, plus one extra T2B.

2 minute rest

6c. 3 rounds of
5 Burpee- Bar-Muscle-up (Mod = jump over 24″ box)
3 Rope Climbs
*12 minute cap

Another suck-fest for me. I can't do bar MUs so I subbed the jumps. Those weren't the problem. Thanks to my sisssy hands, I couldn't get any rope climbs in the second round, so I did 15 pull-ups instead (equal to one climb). I ended up with one round plus 15 PLUs.

Strength - Workout B

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 255 lbs

These felt heavy, but fine, especially considering it's been more than a week since my last Strength day. The squat-focused WODs in Calgary probably didn't hurt, but it's still a long time between gym visits.


Bench press - Three sets of 5 x 160 lbs

Got the first set (PR), but then failed on the next two. Second set: four reps. Third set: ONE measly rep. Damn.


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 275 lbs

Got it, but it felt pretty ugly.

Time to eat something.

Another CrossFit Calgary WOD

It was split into two parts. These WODs weren't timed, but we were supposed to record loads.

FIRST PART:

Five rounds of:

2-4 x 3211 overhead squats.
-The idea was to control your descent and ascent (three seconds on the way down, two at the bottom, up in one, rest for one) using a weight that would make this challenging.
Rest 90 seconds
50 double unders in as few sets as possible.
Rest 90 seconds

For the overhead squats, I used 115 for the first two sets, 125 for the third, and 130 for the last two. I did four reps on all of the sets except for the last one.

For the DUs, I never did 50 unbroken. My best sets were 39 and 48 in rounds 1 and 4 respectively.


SECOND PART

Four rounds of:

25 bell swings (unbroken)
Rest 90 seconds
25 wall balls (unbroken)
Rest 90 seconds

I used a 40 lb kettlebell and a 20 lb medicine ball for all of these. I did manage to do them unbroken. I feel like I sort of copped out by not using a 55 lb KB, but I don't think I could have done more than one set unbroken.

Toes to Bar / Back Squats

Stopped into CrossFit Calgary for the WOD:

For time:

30 toes to bar
20 back squats (205 lbs)
20 toes to bar
15 back squats
10 toes to bar
10 back squats

Took me 13:30. The worst part was trying to convince myself to grab the bar for more T2B after my sissy hands started hurting.

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 250 lbs

Shoulder Press - Failed at 130 lbs again. Only got sets of 4, 4, 3.

Power cleans - Five sets of 3 x 170 lbs.

Bell Swing Breathing Ladder - Note to self: Always listen to Aaron

Using a dumbbell or kettlebell, do one rep, one breath, two reps, two breaths, all the way up to 20 reps, then back down again to one. You must take the required breaths, and ONLY take the required breaths during the “rest”; extra breaths are okay during the work portion.

For "Advanced," it was 20 reps with a 55lb kettlebell, which amounts to 400 swings. Since I had never done a breathing ladder before, Aaron suggested that I only do the "Intermediate" version, that goes up to 15 reps and back down, which is... uh, a lot fewer total swings.

Against his advice, I went for the Advanced version. Amazingly, I started regretting it right around 16 reps on the way up.

There was a lot of downtime during sets, as I tried to convince myself to pick up the KB and finish the set.

Final time was 39:16

Back Squats

Today, the WOD at CFR is Back squats 5-5-5-3-3-3.

I wasn't going to do this, because my plan was to do a metcon today, Strength WOD tomorrow, and metcon the day after. But then I figured this would be a good chance to test myself on the squat outside of the linear progression of the Strength work.

We were supposed to start the reps of 5 with 75% of our one-rep max, which I don't know. So I started at 255lbs, which is 10lbs more than what I squatted on Monday, but 15 lbs less than the most I've ever done for five reps. It may have been a bit high to start, but I compensated by keeping the increases low.

So it went like this:

5's: 255, 260, 265 (on this one, I actually didn't go low enough on the fifth one, so I did an extra one that was low enough)

3's: 270, 275(PR), 280(PR)

I've never squatted more than 280 lbs, even for one rep, so I'm pretty satisfied. This actually restored a bit of my confidence in doing squats for the Strength workouts.

Bonus work was to "Skin the Cat" x 15. I did it in sets of 5, 4, 3, 3.

Mine did not look nearly as controlled or graceful as this.

Who's Who: Who, Me?

CrossFit Regina has started posting profiles of its members on a weekly basis. Mine is up today.

Here's a link to the list of Who's Who profiles.

Strength - Workout B

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 245 lbs


Bench press - Three sets of 5 x 155 lbs (PR!)


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 265 lbs

Super Happy Fun Ball

It's a team game involving medicine balls and running and it is neither super, happy or fun. Christian and I took on Nolan and Steve and lost decisively, putting the first ever blemish on my record.

Always throw the ball closest to you. Always!

We lost two points when we failed to do that. We still might have lost, because Nolan and Steve are collectively stronger than Christian and I, and not appreciably slower, but I don't think we would have lost by 4-1 or 5-1, whatever the final score ended up being.

Dot Com WOD

For time, five rounds of:

40 double unders
30 24" box jumps
20 55lb bell swings

This was nasty. Particularly the box jumps.

Took me 26:05

Run/Thrusters

5 rounds for time:
400m Run
10 Thrusters – 135/95lb

I harboured illusions of doing these sets of thrusters in two sets of five. It ended up being 4-3-3 for most of them. And to call them thrusters is a bit generous. For the most part, they were a front squat followed by a push press, rather than one fluid motion.

It took me 19:35. I managed to avoid getting lapped by Blair... until near the end, at least. The worst thing about Blair being such an uber-athlete is that he is such a nice and humble guy. If I turned in his results, I would be an insufferable prick. ("Uh... would be an insufferable prick, Tyler?") Real funny.

I convinced Franz to do this one after a nine-day layoff from CrossFit. He was going to do "Helen" instead. There are at least four benchmark WODs that I've missed recently that I would like to make up, but I told myself that I'm doing the Workout OF THE DAY unless I have a really good reason. So I pestered Franz until he agreed just to keep me from annoying him.

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 240 lbs
Heavy. 'Nuff said.


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 130 lbs.

I went into this thinking that I would probably fail and, guess what? I was right. I got two reps in the first set, four in the second (had to take a step forward on the fourth, though), and two in the third set. Lame.


Power cleans - Five sets of 3 x 165 lbs.

This was okay. I'm getting more comfortable with the hook grip. I bashed my collarbone a couple of times.

Paul's Balls

Paul made this partner WOD up.

With a partner:
1200m medicine ball run (take turns carrying ball on all runs)
30 med ball cleans (each)
800m med ball run
30 wall ball (each)
400m med ball run
30 med ball push-ups (each)
200m med ball run

Nathan and I did this in 23:28.

Fight Gone Bad

This was part of a fundraiser for the CFR team that is going to California for the World Games.

Every time I do FGB, I try not to think about the numbers while I am doing it. I am rarely successful, but my score has always been better than I expected going in.

Not this time. I ended up with 291. It's not a bad score, but it's significantly lower than the last time I did it (319).

I wasn't surprised, though. I think I gassed myself out after round 1. In the second and third, my sumo high pulls were brutal and so were my box jumps. I could barely will myself to do anything. Really, the only thing that I was satisfied with were the push press.

I am not sure what the problem was. I was going head-to-head with D3, which is plenty of motivation. I warmed up pretty good. I was fired up to do it. But when the bell rang for the second round, I barely wanted to get off the stool. Just one of those things, I guess.

I know it's not a bad score. I just know I am capable of better.

I'll have the chance to prove it in a rematch in six months or so.