Strength - Workout B - Well, sort of

Went to CrossFit Regina on Saturday morning to attone for a week of ice cream cake eating.

I'm not sure what happened, but when I was doing some warm-up squats at 225lbs, something didn't feel right in my lower back. It hadn't been bothering me before then, and I didn't squat any differently than I otherwise do.

I decided against doing heavy squats. Harlan suggested doing a lighter weight at more reps so the work would be the same. I agreed and instead did:

Three sets of 10 x 140lbs.

It wasn't easy, but I can't say it was nearly as challenging as doing three sets of 5 x 275 would have been.

Afterward, I did bench press:

Three sets of 5 x 140lbs.

And that was pretty much it. Lame, huh?

The worst part is, my back is still bothering me as I write more than two days later. Fuck.

"Angie"

100 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
100 Sit-ups
100 Squats

The last time I did this, it took me 22:20-something. Today, I was about a minute slower with a time of 23:24. It's sort of disappointing, but could be chalked up to a number of things:

-I'm heavier than in November, which is more weight to pull over the band or push off the ground
-decreased metcon capacity due to strength training focus
-less-than-ideal nutrition over the last couple of days
-a shitty night's sleep last night
-stress

I actually don't feel bad about my efforts today. I don't think I took a lot of breaks or half-assed it, and I got a new PR for consecutive pull-ups (32). Although, now that I think about it, I should have held on and done a couple more, since it's my 34th birthday. Dumbass.

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 270 lbs

At the risk of sounding like a total dork... Yay!


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 125 lbs

This was a do-over from last time, when I failed. This time, I got 5, 4, 5.


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 305 lbs

Only got one up. Switched the grip and got another. Tapped out.

“The 16 Ton Toolbox”

As a team, members must accumulate to a total number of reps, calories, and pounds in the following exercises:
Pull-ups 120
Burpees 160
Rowing 200 calories
Deadlift 32000 lbs with 185lb bar

I teamed with Christian, James, and Jordan. I dubbed us "Team SexyFuck" for reasons I can't quite explain.

I came up with the idea of splitting the work into four rounds of:

-8 or 7 pull-ups
-10 burpees
-11 deadlifts
-12.5 calorie row

The advantage to this is that we were able to work in short bursts, with rests built in, because the rowing always took the longest.

We finished in 14:01. It was my fault that we didn't break 14 minutes, because the way that the rotation worked, rowing was my final station. I was the shortest guy, which is a slight disadvantage when you're rowing.

Afterward, we did a tire-dragging relay. Wow, did that suck.

Spirit Away

The backstory on this one is that I did it last year on my birthday and was considering requesting it for this year. As it turns out, it came a week early, so my scheduled rest day was put off.

Five rounds of:

15 overhead squats (115 lbs)
25 burpees
20 weighted sit-ups (30 lbs)
10 snatches (115 lbs)

Last year, I did it with 95 lbs in about 45 minutes. In what is still one of my all-time favourite CrossFit memories, I was the last one still doing the WOD, and had a bunch of fellow CrossFitters cheering me through the last reps. (Update: here's a picture of the final snatch from last year, provided by Robin)


Tonight, I rx'd the fucker and it took me 50:43. I would have liked to get it done around 45:00, and I did spend a lot of time resting, but this is just a nasty little bitch of a workout.

Oh, and once again I was the last person done, and once again, I had a bunch of CrossFitters cheering me on.

That's one of the (many) things I love about CrossFit.

Queensland Australia Sectional WOD #2

After yesterday's Strength work, I wanted to do a CrossFit WOD today and this one is perfect in that it is only 10 minutes of work and shouldn't mess me up too bad to do strength stuff on Thursday or Friday.

10 mins max reps, consisting of the following stations:
4 minutes – Thruster 110/77lb
3 minutes – KB Swing 55/35lb
2 minutes – Muscle-ups
1 minute – Burpees

People like me who cannot do muscle-ups, sub 10 pull-ups. That means I don't get the RX’d star, which is sort of a bummer. I've been meaning to get an MU tutorial, seeing as it's my other major CrossFit goal for the year. The problem is that the Strength workouts take at least an hour, so time is sort of an issue. I should probably just carve out some time to work on some muscle-ups when I know Aaron or Robin is going to be there, and after I've done some work on that, I could do a brief metcon as well. Perhaps I'll try to work that in next week.

Athletes move from one station to the next at the end of the allotted time without rest.

My results:

35 thrusters
43 bell swings
20 pull-ups (equal to 4 MU for the purposes of scoring)
14 burpees
____________96 total. I thought I could break 100 on this. I spent a little too much time trying to catch my breath. Still, I felt pretty good about this. Not necessarily because the result was all that impressive (it wasn't) but just having done it.

Either that, or it just might be a nice day out and I had an extra dose of Vitamin D this morning. Life is good. Go out and hug someone.

Strength - Workout B

Back squats: Three reps of 5 x 265 lbs

Tough. This was my one-rep max the last time I did the Total.


Bench press: Three reps of 5 x 135 lbs

It felt pretty good, but the fifth rep on each of the last two sets was heavy.


Power cleans: Five reps of 3 x 150 lbs.

Felt good.

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 260lbs

Each rep was a struggle. On the second rep of the first set, I had a bit of a balance issue.


Shoulder Press - It was supposed to be three sets of 5 x 125lbs

I failed in each set. First set, I completed three reps; second, four reps; third, two reps.

I'm not sure if it would have made a difference, but my shoulders were still feelin Tuesday's Chelsea WOD. I will repeat this weight the next time I do shoulder presses.

Deadlift - One set of 5 x 295lbs

This was the one that I worried about the most. I got it. My grip was a little sketchy on the later reps.


So, I had sort of planned on stopping with the milk. I'd like to lean back out and see if I could maintain my strength gains. But I think I'm going to keep with it for a while.

Tracey is gonna be thrilled.

Chelsea "DAMMIT!!"

Benchmark Girl “Chelsea”:
“Cindy” on the minute for up to 30 minutes
Cindy = 5 Pull-ups, 10 Push-ups, 15 Squats


Start a round of Cindy on the minute and keep going until you can’t complete the round within the minute. Continue doing rounds of “Cindy” until 30 minutes is up.

The problem with Cindy has always been the push-ups. They burn out your arms FAST. I didn't participate in the push-up challenge that CFR is doing this month, but I may do one on my own starting April 1.


I only got 7 rounds on the minute. The "DAMMIT!!" in the blog post title quotes my reaction upon falling two squats short of eight rounds. It was really ignorant of me to do, because there were CrossFit Kids in the gym. I was extremely pissed off and disappointed in myself, but that's no excuse. I've reigned in my swearing at home and at the gym a fair bit, but I still have work to do.

Then, I wallowed in self-pity for a good minute and ended up with 14 rounds at 20 minutes, which I don't regard as a real Cindy score because of so much resting during the early part, when you're fresh. For example, BrianB did Cindy on the minute for the entire 30 minutes, but his real Cindy score would be higher than 20 if he didn't spend 30 seconds of every minute resting.

After 30 minutes, I got 19 rounds, plus 5 pull-ups, plus 4 push-ups.

Strength Workout B

Back squats: Three sets of 5 x 255lbs

I would say that this felt very heavy, and failure was a real possibility. But slightly less so than last Wednesday at 250lbs.


Bench press: Three sets of 5 x 130lbs

Feelin' good. I need to remember to pay attention to my back (to arch it) and my feet (keep the heels flat).


Power cleans: Five sets of 3 x 145lbs.

Just fine.

How many sets for 100 pull-ups?

We had to do 100 pull-ups, for time.

The catch was, every time you drop off the bar, you have to do 10 thrusters with 2 x 35lbs dumbbells

As rx'd in a seemingly endless 22:43 or something.

Sets of 25-15-11-11-12-8-12-8, and, of course 70 thrusters.

If you add them up, you'll see that I did 102 pull-ups. That's because I can't do math. (74 + 8 does not = 80)

Strength - Workout A

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 250lbs

Not easy. Not easy AT ALL.


Shoulder press - Three sets of 5 x 120lbs

I'm such an idiot. After the first set of 5, I was congratulating myself for how easy it was. Then, I did the math and realized that I used 25-lb plates instead of 35. So I had only pressed 100lbs. I had to do three more sets of five, with another 20 lbs on the bar. The final couple of reps on each one were tough.


Deadlift - One set of 5 x 285lbs

Since I barely got the 285 up last week, Aaron suggested I do it again rather than going up 295. You'd think after the shoulder press math debacle, I would have learned my lesson. Nope. I did a set of five and realized that there was only 275lbs on the bar. So I put a five pound plate on each side and waited a few minutes. The 285 was frickin' tough, but I didn't come as close to losing my grip on the bar this time around.

I didn't have time for weighted pull-ups. Tonight, maybe.

.

Overheard at the Gym

Christian: "Just so you know, I can't do muscle-ups with an erection, so you're gonna have to put your shirt back on."

Strength - Workout B

Back squats - Three sets of 5 x 245lbs

Bench press - Three sets of 5 x 125lbs

Power cleans - Five sets of 3 x 140lbs.