Tag Archives: Workout

Toes To Fail

Yesterday’s effort was not great. To be honest, I was looking forward to coming in and giving these toe to bar things a try. We very rarely do them and I was quite optimistic after last weeks success with knees to elbows during the “Filthy Fifty”. By the time I got through the warm up and into the WOD, my hands were already close to ripping from the bar activity. Here’s what we did:

Warm Up

  • Stretching/mobility
  • 10 3-way squats (which Fio aptly named “Ménage Squats”)
  • 30 pull ups
  • Stretching/mobility
  • 100 kip swings

WOD

7 minute AMRAP

  • 10 toes to bar
  • 10 push ups

3 minute rest

7 minute AMRAP

  • 15 KB swings (scaled to 1 pood due to back)
  • 10 walking lunges with KB overhead

*Do not put the KB down at any point. 10 burpees penalty for every incident.

Fio gave us a little tutorial on the T2B before getting started and we tried some. I did not have very much success with these. After the 30 pull ups and 100 kip swings, my hands were already hurting pretty bad. After starting the WOD, I got through 1 round really slowly, then on the second round, my right hand ripped up pretty bad and I just couldn’t hold on to the bar anymore. I ended up doing sit ups. Fail.

The next one sucked. It was probably one of the longest 7 minute spans that I can recall. Not being able to put that sucker down really blows. I can’t imagine what that would have been like with 1.5 pood.

More Back Squats

Last night was fun! I know that I usually just write about the workout, but since we did so much during out warm up, I’ll include that too!

Warm Up

  • Death By Double Unders: 10 – 20 – 30 – 40 – 50 – 65 unbroken (5 fails) – I got to the 30’s and got somewhere around 33. Couldn’t get 40s. Oh well.
  • 30 pull ups – I practiced my butterfly kips here and they are certainly coming along. I can get about 5 consistently now.
  • 30 ring push ups
  • 15 burpee box jumps – These just suck. That’s all.
  • Stretching

Strength

Back Squat: 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 – 5 @ 75% of your 1RM. In my case, my 1RM is 345#, so 75% of that is 258#.

After a warm up set with 155#, I moved on and up:

  1. 195#
  2. 225#
  3. 245#
  4. 265#
  5. 275#

WOD

2x

  • 500m Row
  • 25 GHD sit ups
  • 25 GHD back extensions

I did this one in 8:03. The second I finished my first 500m, unhooked my feet from the C2, and stumbled over to the GHD, I immediately regretted my decision to use the GHD. When the WOD was over though, I was happy that I did b/c I think that doing it on the floor would have been too easy.

Filthy Fifty and Dead Hangs

Friday, 3/25/2011

Ah, the “Filthy Fifty”… this brings back some bad, bad memories… the last time I did this WOD, I couldn’t do double-unders, knees to elbows, and I pretty much sucked wind the entire time. I think that I even asked Robin if I could do more than 45# on the push presses b/c “Trevor said to”. Ha.

This time around was much different. Again, here’s what the “Filthy Fifty” is:

  • 50 Box jumps
  • 50 Jumping pull-ups
  • 50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
  • 50 Walking Lunges (50 steps)
  • 50 Knees to elbows
  • 50 Push press, 45 pounds
  • 50 Back extensions
  • 50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
  • 50 Burpees
  • 50 Double unders

My time this time around was 29:42; ~7 minutes better than last time and most importantly [to me], UNDER 30 minutes!! The big difference here from last time was that I can now do double-unders and for some reason, the K2E’s just clicked and was able to get the rhythm. Don’t get me wrong.. this is a miserable 30 minutes. The burpees were by far the worst. They felt like they’d never be over. 

Monday, 3/28/2011

Tonight’s WOD was FUN! It was:

5x

  • 5 strict pull ups
  • 7 strict press @ 95#
  • 15 air squats

This took me 4:44, WAY less time than I thought it would. So, thanks, Fio! I guess those extensive warm-ups really DO help!

Diane and Run/Row

Tuesday, 3/22/2011

15 minutes to find max dead lift. Then,

“Diane”

21 – 15 – 9

  • Dead lift @ 225#
  • Hand stand push up (green + black bands)

Time: 6:58

I really thought I would be able to PR on the deadlift. I got 425# up with relative easy. I then tried 450# and started to feel my back hurting. Again, I had to stop short and I did not want to injure myself. Sucks.

“Diane” was ok. I debated heavily whether or not I wanted to Rx on the dead lifts as my lower back was feeling really sore. After resting for a bit I decided to just do it and pace it out. It worked out fine. The HSPU’s were too easy with the green / black bands.

 

Thursday, 3/24/2011

20 min AMRAP – 2 person team; 1 person rows until the other completes 800m run.

My buddy Chris teamed  up with me on this one. In totally, we got 4 rounds and I think 4134m rowed. Running a mile + rowing a 2k in 20 minutes is not bad at all!

KB Death

Yesterday’s workout was really tough. I thought I would be able to do it as RX’d, but my lower back was not cooperative.

4 rounds:

  • 10 KB Swings (R)
  • 10 KB Swings (L)
  • 10 KB In & Outs (R)
  • 10 KB In & Outs (L)
  • 10 KB Clean & Jerks (R)
  • 10 KB Clean & Jerks (L)

I did the first round and a little bit of the 2nd RX’d, but then my lower back started to get really tight. I decided it would be better to drop the weight and finish the workout rather than hurt myself, so I dropped it down to 1 pood.

My time was 16:18.

CF Open WOD #1

This week has been better than last week for workouts. Yay.

Tuesday, 3/15/2011

4x

  • 500m row
  • 8 push press @ 155#
  • 3 minutes of rest

I was pretty happy with how I did on this one. The only thing that sort of pissed me off was dropping the bar on the 2nd round accidentally as I came too far forward on a push press and was out of control. Oh well, what can you do.

IMG_0466[1]

Times:

  1. 0 – 2:28 = 2:28
  2. 5:28 – 8:07 = 2:39
  3. 11:07 – 13:40 = 2:33
  4. 16:40 – 19:08 = 2:28

Thursday, 3/17/2011

CrossFit Open WOD #1

10 Min AMRAP

  • 30 double unders
  • 15 ground to overhead @ 75#

I got 3 complete rounds + 30 doubles + 11 ground to overhead (total 176 reps). This WOD was way harder than I had anticipated.

These days, in general, I am feeling pretty worn out. Work days have been pretty mentally taxing for both myself and most people that I work with. Growing pains of a small company, I guess. Hopefully, in 5 years, I can look back on this blog and say “yeah, I remember when it was like that…”.

At any rate, I am just trying to keep my eating right, get to the gym as often as I can, all while trying to get done everything that needs to be done. And yes, I know, that once the baby comes, it will just get harder. Thanks for the heads up.

Fit Test 03.14.2011

HOLY CRAP!?! Has it really been a year since the last fit test?! I guess so!

I will spare you the “I’m so tired” and “I didn’t feel like working out” spiel as you have seen it like 234702348023748 times already… Today’s WOD went like this:

Warm up

  • 30 squat snatches – whatever weight you wanted. I started with the bar then worked my way up to 125#. My squat snatches are getting A LOT better.
  • Stretches, during which time a wasp stung my hand. What!?
  • 100 double unders – took about 2:30. Pretty sure that’s a PR.

WOD – Fit Test

  • 400m time trial
  • 1 minute of push ups
  • 1 minute of sit ups
  • Tabata Squats
  • 1 minute of pull ups

My numbers this time were:

  • 400m run: 1:35, previously 1:42
  • Push ups: 44, previously 40
  • Sit ups: 36, previously 31
  • Tabata squats: 135, previously 104
  • Pull Ups: 20

I ran really hard on the 400, so I’m pretty happy with that. I think I can probably do a lot better on the pull ups and push ups. My sit ups… well, I have made peace with them. They are what they are…

“I Do The Impossible”–Finals

Today was the last day of CrossFit Cedar Park’s “I Do The Impossible” challenge. It entailed doing the same workout that we did 8 weeks ago to see if, and how we improved. Although my team ended up coming in last, I have to say that I am really impressed and overjoyed with my results. Here’s how the workout turned out:

Exercise 8 Weeks Ago Today Delta
1RM Deadlift 315# 435# 125#
1min Thrusters 20 24 4
1min Pull Ups 20 24 4
2min C2 523m 530m 7
Triplet* 4:15 3:09 1:04

*3x{5 burpees, 10 push ups, 15 squats}

So, I improved in everything. Yay!

I think that the best part of the day was listening to everyone talk about what goals they set and what was actually accomplished. It’s pretty amazing.

Thanks again to each and every CFCP coach that had a hand in this awesome challenge. It as worth every second.

WODs So Far This Week

Monday 2/21/2011

Again, this will be short. I haven’t been sleeping well, have some stuff to do, and need to get these down for future searching.

20 minute AMRAP (“Yak”)

  • 15 back squats @ 95#
  • 8 step ups (4 each leg) with 95# barbell
  • 10 burpees

I got 5 rounds plus 4 step ups. The step ups with a 95# bar on my back were somewhat scary and really just sucked the life and motivation out of me.

 

Tuesday 2/22/2011

5x 500m Time Trial – Each time must be within 10s of the last run. If not, penalty is a 1 minute hand stand hold.

Times were: 1:50, 1:48.6, 1:51.3, 1:52.8, 1:50.9

I think I gamed this one a little too much out of fear of getting a penalty, like I am 5 and getting a demerit. Instead, I focused on keeping a consistent pace on the rower, which, by my times, looks like I accomplished.

 

Wednesday 2/23/2011

3x

  • 400m run
  • 50 double unders
  • 25 sumo deadlift high pulls

Time: 19:46

The last run may have been a power walk. My mental goal for this one was to do it in under 20 minutes. It was starting to look bleak after minute 16, but somehow, I got it done. My double unders are coming along quite a bit. Now, it’s just a question of having the lungs to keep going. Most of the times I stopped it was because I couldn’t breathe anymore. I was just gassed. The SDHPs were really tough. I had to constantly remember to pop the hips.

WODs for the Week

I have been behind on the blogging a bit. Life’s been busy and I have been taking down time wherever I can get it. The baby’s almost here and work has been kickin’ my butt lately. This will be short.

Tuesday, 2/15/2011

I could not believe how sore I was from “Operation Get Some”. I was barely able to walk when I got into the gym that night. I started warming up and I felt a bit of loosening start to occur. As part of the warm up that night, Fio had us do some shoot throughs. On one of them, a felt one of those “you’re about to really tweak your hamstring” twinges, so I took a little break, got a lacrosse ball, a pull up band and did some more stretching. I stretched through Fio’s skill session on the clean and jerk. Then, I decided to give the WOD a try once I didn’t feel like I was going to pull my hamstring anymore. The WOD was:

“Gwen”

15 – 12 – 9 clean and jerk. Pick a weight to be used for the entire WOD. Touch and go at the ground, no re-gripping. If you stop/re-grip at the ground, that’s a penalty and you have to start over. No dumping the weight. If you dump the weight, you have to start over.

Mean.

If I were not feeling sore and tight, I think I would have attempted 135#, but I didn’t really want to temp the fates. I did a few PC’s with 75# and it was super light. I decided to go with 95#. Although the weight was somewhat light, this was still really challenging.

Wednesday, 2/16/2011

I was the only one that showed up for class on this day! It was nice. Fio and I got to spend a little quality time. It happens so rarely. This WOD was nasty, particularly as we all know my feelings on running. It was:

4x

  • 185# dead lift (Rx was 275#, but I was not really interested in doing that with my back yadda yadda)
  • 800m run (FML)

The deads were OK but I still started to feel a good bit of fatigue in my lower back, so I am happy I kept the weight sort of light. The runs were agony, but Fio came along on all of them which, I felt, really helped me to keep some semblance of a pace and not let up. All in all, this took me 21:48.

Friday, 2/18/2011

  • 3 min pull ups (41)
  • 2 min rest
  • 3 min push ups (60)
  • 2 min rest
  • 3 min dumbbell thrusters (20)
  • 2 min rest
  • 3 min double  unders (70)
  • 2 min rest
  • 3 min 100m sprints (5)
  • 2 min rest

This one was fun! The dumbbell thrusters were BY FAR the hardest part of this workout. They were just miserable. I really thought that I would make up reps on the double unders, but man, by the time I got to them, my shoulders were protesting hard. My total for this one was 196.

Sunday 2/20/2011

There are only 2 weeks left in the “I Do The Impossible” challenge and I think I am doing well the “loose body fat” goal. My pants are looser and I can see the progress on my belt, so that’s awesome. One of my goals was to get a sub-9 minute mile. My last few time trials were all in the ~10 minute area, so I thought that a 9 minute mile was a pretty good stretch.

I remember the conversation that I had with Dave about this. It went something like this:

Me: I want to set some goal around running. I hate it and kinda suck at it and we’ve never really been friends.

Dave: Ok, what do you think is a good mile time?

Me: Well, my last few times, it’s been about 10 minutes. I’d be happy with sub-10.

Dave: I think you can do sub-9.

Me: Well, if you think so, but I don’t know.

So we set the goal to be sub-9 and, yes, I had some SERIOUS doubts about that.

Back to the point. Being that we are 6 weeks in, I decided that I wanted to see where I was at with this goal. I used mapmyrun.com to see what the distance around my block was and it was, to my surprise, exactly .33 miles. I got some clothes on, got m phone and went out on the front porch. I warmed up a bit, got the timer app up, then just went.

I went like an angry mob with guns, knives, pitchforks, and rabid dogs was chasing me. I was SO afraid of missing this goal that I ran like my life depended on it. It hurt and I wanted to slow down and quit numerous times. What kept me from doing that was knowing that if I saw 9:01 on that timer, I would feel awful. I wanted to see 8:59 on there at the very least. Funny how much of a difference 2 seconds can make as part of a mental state. As far as I was concerned, a time of 9:01 was the same as 20 minutes. Didn’t count… might as well have walked.

At one point I remembered that scene from Fight Club when Ed Norton is running out of the policy station and he says “I ran until my muscles burned and my veins pumped batter acid. Then I ran some more…”.

When I got back to my front porch after the third lap around, I nearly fell up the stairs, and completely forgot where I had stashed my phone. After a few seconds, I found it, collapse on the outside futon, and hit stop. When I looked at the time, I was confused. Also, I couldn’t really breath… but I was so confused and happy (let’s call it conappy) that I wasn’t sure if I can run enough laps… maybe I measured wrong… this couldn’t be true.

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Yes… 7:28.

This has NEVER. EVER. EVER happened to me in my life. I am amazed.