Back Squats and Sled Drag suicides

A. Back Squats 3-3-3

225-255-275F

Only got one rep at 275. I hadn't done squats for a while. Perhaps I should do something about that.


B. Sled Drag Suicides (20M, 40M, 60M)x3 - Men-95lb
(to 10m line and back, to 20m line and back, to 30m line and back)
Recover as needed.

:55, :55, :56

Lexi's tip about holding the ropes lower and turning around closer to the line might have shaved a couple of seconds off my earlier times, if I had done it. I'll keep that in mind for next time.

Hang Power Snatch and Rhiannon

A. Hang Power Snatch 3-2-1-1-1 I didn't follow the pattern exactly, because I am sore from Saturday and Robin advised against it.

95(3) 115(2) 135(1)

Robin, watching my awkward-as-hell hang power snatch: "We're going to have to fix your feet before you go any heavier."


B. Rhiannon - Number of double unders in 10 minutes.

319 (PR) That's a strong improvement over my previous best of 274, but I feel I should have broken 300 long ago.

Bridge City Beat Down

Quick and dirty results:

I finished in 10th place out of 20 competitors in the Brutes division (Division 2 and 3). Hard to believe that two years ago I finshed 8th out of 17 in Division 1. I may be a bit less fit than I was then, but really it's because the level of competition and the difficulty of the workouts has gone up considerably.


Detailed results:

EVENT 1: Clean complex (Deadlift, Hang clean, Jerk)


Somewhere, Aaron Maier is weeping at my shitty form

195lbs. This is what I did in practice earlier in the week. It didn't go up easy, so I decided to stop there, rest an extra minute before the row, rather than go for 205. That put me in a three way tie for fifth place.


EVENT 2: 90 second row sprint

Brutal. 446m, which was good for second last place in the event., I was clowning a bit at the start, smiling for the cameras. I don't know if that cost me any distance, but it was probably not a smart move. I didn't want to kill myself at the start and lose steam at the end, though.


EVENT 3: 200m Prowler push.


The only time I was able to keep up with the other guys in my heat.

53 seconds. Not sure how I compared to other guys in the division, but it was probably 12th or 13th. I was dead last in my heat, so I got the pity cheers. Y'know, the ones where you can practically hear the people saying "Aw, look, he's trying so hard."


EVENT 4: "On the Minute"

25 power cleans (75lbs)
12 ring pull-ups
12 fatbar deadlifts (185lbs)
11 parallette jumpthroughs - I'm not sure if my form was bad and I got some no-rep calls. It was loud and I couldn't hear my judge well.
13 wall jump-overs - That was fun. Felt like I was going pretty good.

Total: 73 which was 13th best in my division.


After four events I was down in 16th place in the overall standings, which was pretty humbling.


Event 5: Run, Thrusters, Ring Rows


8:05.4 That was good for fourth place in the event. I did my thrusters and ring rows unbroken in the first set of 15 and the last set of 9, but took a break on the middle set of 12. On one of the runs (the last, I think) my mouth all of a sudden became RIDICULOUSLY dry, but Ryan Baht (husband to Alana, one of the other CFR competitors) appeared alongside the track and handed me some water on the run back to the thruster station. At that point, it was like an angel had dropped down from heaven.

There was a guy from CrossFit Brio who passed me in the second round and we were neck and neck on the last set of thrusters.


That's right, Captain Shirtless. Look right the fuck at me when doing your thrusters.

He was getting some grief on his form from his judge and head judge Chad. I was too busy doing my own thrusters to notice whether his form was actually bad (although when I commiserated with him after the event, he said something about not having been told you gotta put your head through your arms) but either way I felt bad for him. If I had two people telling me my form was wrong on my last set of a grueling day of workouts, it would have been really disruptive. He and I finished our thrusters around the same time and headed into the gym for the ring rows. I managed to get my ring rows done first and had a two-burpee lead on him at the end. I did not want to get passed on the burpees, so it kept me going as fast as I could. He ended up a second and a half behind me.

After a day of my performances ranging from decent-but-not-great to pretty bad, I'm very happy with how I did in the final event. Before the later heats ran, I wasn't sure how my time would hold up against the other competitors' times, but it turned out that it held up okay. The top three guys in the division all were significantly (30-60 seconds) faster, so fourth was plenty good enough for me.

After I was finished, I was just super happy to be done. It was nice to be done early, so I could cheer on the CrossFit Regina athletes in the later heats, eat some beef jerky, and socialize with other CrossFitters. It was another fun year in Saskatoon.

BCBD #1,2,3

Sled Drags with Dowels
A. 5 minutes to find max of
Deadlift+Hang Clean+Jerk (1+1+1)

I got up to 195.


5 minute total time but no time limit for the set.
rest 60 seconds, then

B. Row 90 seconds for max distance

I got 453m, which is a bit better than when I did this yesterday. (I was less exhausted.)

Rest 10-15 minutes, then

C. Sled Drag with Dowel for time
100M + return
M-75lb, W-55lb

Took me 1:33

"The Dog Sled"

“The Dog Sled”
3 rounds:
30 Double-Unders
10 Overhead Squats – 135/95lb

2 min rest

3 rounds
10 Handstand Push-ups (BCBD standards)
100m sled push with dowel – 115/75lb

Finisher for BCBD folks:
3×10 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups or 90 second Row (pick your pain)

37:02 as rx'd

That is a lot of OHS and HSPU. I did the row at the end. Got 426 m.

Modified "31 Heroes"

AMRAP 31 Min (As Many Reps As Possible)
8 Thrusters (115lb)
25 Pull-ups
11 Box Jumps (24″)

While one partner is working, the other is doing a 400m run with a 45lb sandbag.

My partner Felipe and I did 6 rounds, plus 11 plus 11. Total of 159 reps. I think I also did at least four sandbag runs, maybe five.

Push Press and Dot Com 3

A. Push Press 3-3-3

135-155-175(F)

Couldn't even get one of the 175, when I managed three of them the last time we did this in July. Obviously, I'm not pleased, but I probably should have warmed up better and got my head straight if I wanted to take a good run at a new personal best. I'll do better next time.

B. Dot Com 3 from 110828
5 rounds of:
3 Cleans
20 Push-up Burpees
*NOT for time, go as heavy as you can on the cleans

I did 165 for the first round and 175 for the other four.

C. Surprise Finisher 400m run with a 45lb sandbag.

2:09. Not blazing fast, but not bad.

Overhead Squats and DL/T2B: That'll teach me to open my big mouth

Yesterday, I ranted a bit about cherrypicking WODs, and not skipping the gym if you see one you don't like.

It's like the CrossFit gods (or Robin and Aaron) read what I wrote and wanted to test my resolve by including a WOD that is tailor-made for me to ditch.

Hey, what if it included both deadlifts for time AND toes to bar?


A. Overhead Squats 3-3-3

135-155-175(PR)

Barely got the third rep on the 175 and strained my right shoulder a bit in trying to hang on. Nothing serious.

B. Dot Com 2
5 rounds for time:
15 Deadlifts – 185/135lb
15 Toes to Bar

19:58 Just barely got in sub-20. That's about three minutes slower than I would have liked.

I took WAY too many breaks on this, but I found it really tough. Fortunately, I did not tear my sissy hands, though there might be a couple of new blisters in development. Whatever, callouses are manly and sexy.


C. SASKATOON COMPETITORS' BONUS - A 400m run with a medicine ball. Not timed.
I did it, but it was mostly a walk with a few half-hearted jogging spurts. The rain, my sweat and the leftover chalk got things nice and pasty, and the ball was hard to carry.


In a vaguely related matter, the squiggly veins on either side of my forehead are especially pronounced these days after a workout. I realize it's probably nothing, but part of me wonders if I should be concerned. If it gets any more noticeable, I'll be looking like the dude from the Green Lantern movie.

3 x 1km runs: Tyler demonstrates self-awareness

Okay, I'm gonna get really preachy. Possibly even hypocritical

I'm not a big fan of picking and choosing WODs. I believe it's sort of against the CrossFit philosophy to skip the Workout of the Day chosen by the coaches in favour of a previous day's workout unless you have a valid reason. (Worse yet are the people who choose to NOT GO TO THE GYM AT ALL because they don't like the WOD. Please don't do that. It's way better to trade WODs than not go at all.)

Valid reasons for trading WODS include, but are not limited to:
-an injury you are working around
-the WOD will negatively affect your ability to participate in an upcoming athletic event (ie. if you've got a Frisbee tournament Sunday, you may not want to do 800m sprints or boatloads of squats on Saturday and burn out your legs so you can't run.)
-you REALLY want to do the previous day's WOD because it's a benchmark like Fran against which you've been wanting to measure yourself.


Non-valid reasons include, but are not limited to:
-It's a WOD that you don't particularly like.
-It contains a skill or exercise that is a goat (all the more reason to fucking do it)


Here's where I get a bit hypocritical. I've broken these rules in the past, though not often, and me writing this could be considered my pledge to not do so again.

I bring this up because I was considering trading WODs today. When I saw that the WOD today at CrossFit Regina was a 5km run, I started planning to do yesterday's insane metcon, figuring the squat cleans were out of the question because it would take too long, given that I was working out on my lunch hour.

My thinking was that I need to get my still-substandard cardio up back up to snuff, and it's the shorter, intense WODs that would better prepare me for Saskatoon.

Fortunately, Robin had a plan in place for the folks competing in Saskatoon. CrossFit Regina is particularly good at adapting the WOD schedule for upcoming events.

Our special WOD was:

3 x 1km runs, resting five minutes in between.

Also, three sets of 10 ring dips, unbroken. (Synergy is hinting that rings are going to play a significant part in the Bridge City Beat Down WODs.)

Now, for some reason when I do runs like this, my first two times seem to be the same and my third time is a bit slower. The same thing happened the last time we did 800m sprints.

Run #1: 4:30
I actually thought to myself, "I bet I run the same time on Run #2."


Sure enough...

Run #2: 4:30

Robin noted: "That's consistent. Try for the same time on your third."

I replied: "Nope. I will be slower by 14 seconds, even though it will feel like I'm running harder."

Run #3: 4:44
I am Nostra-F'N-damus.

Last time I did 3 x 1km runs, my times were 4:14, 4:14 and 4:16.

So that's a noticeable decline. I was running straight into a strong wind during one of the longer stretches, but I don't think that is the sole or even primary reason for the decline. I could have pushed myself harder today, because I seem to recall running like zombies were chasing me back in June. That day, if I remember correctly, was a nice, cool day with a spitting rain. Today was hot, dry and windy so that may have been a bit of a factor.

But the truth is, despite the fact that I'm probably 10 lbs lighter than I was in early June, I'm simply not as fit as I've been in the past.

One thing I didn't do, which I should have, was refer before the WOD to the last time I did 3 x 1km runs, because it might have given me something to shoot for. Then again, when you're out there running, you don't have a really good concept of time and carrying a stopwatch is not something I would do.

Oh yeah, the ring dips. I had done one set of 10 unbroken ring dips before the runs and I did the other two afterward. Actually, I was a bit surprised I was able to do it. Ring dips are gonna need a little work before Sept. 10.

Frisbee playoffs

In short, our team lost both games and were bounced mercifully from the playoffs. We had 9 people show up, but still no subs for girls, so our ladies were run pretty ragged.

Neither game went to the full 13 points. Both ended as a result of the time cap. We lost the first one by three points to Ramrod. We lost to Discs of Glory (the team we beat in the finals last year) by one point.

I've told the team that I think this season was my last.

After the game, we went to the Brewsters deck and drank beer. I took advantage of the Sunday brunch buffet and absolutely stuffed myself. I did not feel very good about myself afterward.