Tag Archives: HSPU

Snatches and HSPU

Well, it’s Thursday and I have only gotten one workout in this week so far. I was busy Monday, I got one in on Tuesday, and yesterday (Wednesday), I felt like I was going to fall asleep around 4:30pm.

Tuesday, 4/19/2011

7x

  • 12 snatches @ 95#
  • 6 hand stand push ups

Time: 23:08. This didn’t look so awful written on the board, but man, 7 rounds of this was nasty. 5 was a struggle. I have no idea how I gutted out 2 more rounds.  I quit several times during the WOD only to get right back to it to keep plugging along. I know that we always say that CrossFit makes you a better person. This is exactly why. It’s an allegory for life. When things get hard, do you quit? Even if you do “quit”, do you come back to it anyway? This is why I want my kids to do this. It will make them mentally strong.

I went the whole time without scaling, which I am proud of. I will say though, that if this were competition, none of my HSPU would have counted. I still need depth and ROM there.

If this were competition… those word make me think of something I saw recently. Web Smith (of SICFIT fame) recently posted a link to an article where a CrossFitter was quoting Blair Morrison. You can read the article for yourself, but boiled down, here are the main take home points:

  1. This dude is already burnt out on the CrossFit Open.
  2. It seems like some competitors are too.

In the quote from Blair Morrison, he says “Well… I am officially “Opened” out.”. He goes on to talk about why, but I have to say, somewhat reluctantly, that I agree with him.

I really don’t want to come off like I am complaining here. There is a really bright side to all of this in that I have been forced to work on some skills over the past weeks that I would likely otherwise brush off or leave for “another time” like heavy cleans, 24″ box jumps, etc.

It seemed like a great idea and something that would be lots of fun at first, but for me, it has been anything but. It’s been a pain in the ass to find times to get to the gym to do these workouts since they are not part of the regularly scheduled programming. It’s been stressful to think about how I am going to get my normal programming FOR HEALTH in so that I am not sore for and able to even attempt these WODs. I sort of miss the days when I could go to the gym, feel competitive if I wanted to, and really just have fun.

A few weeks ago, the term “Leader boarding” came out… where you check the leaderboard constantly to see where people are ranked. I can’t say that I suffer from this. In fact, I barely remember to submit my scores. If I am over this whole thing already, I can’t imagine what someone who has to check the scores every 5 minutes must feel like.

It’s almost over and then we can go back to our regularly scheduled programming. The worst part of all of this is that I actually feel bad for wishing that this were over with already so I could go back to “just working out” and having fun.

By the way, I realize that the second half of this post completely contradicts the first part. Mostly, I am feeling just burnt out on it and ranting…

Heavy Deads and HSPU

I was planning on skipping last night, then I saw the WOD and knew I had to go and try for another dead lift PR.

The WOD was 3 – 3 – 3 – 1 – 1 – 1 dead lift with max rep HSPU in between. No time component.

Here’s how it broke down for me:

  1. 345lb + 6
  2. 365lb + 6
  3. 375lb + 5
  4. 445lb (Fail) + 3
  5. 435lb (Fail) + 4
  6. 415lb (PR!) + 5

The HSPU (29 total) were done with one pad under my head but were as full ROM as I could make them against the wall.

What went well?

The first three sets of dead lifts were awesome. They were challenging but not impossible. My previous PR going into this was 410lb, so I am happy to have raised that up a bit. My HSPU are also a PR for me. I really surprised myself doing all of the against the wall with no help.

What needs improvement?

My jump from 375lb >> 445lb was definitely over ambitious. I should not have tried to go up so much in weight. Also, I fought really hard to get that lift up. Although I got it about 98% there, about 3 inches from complete, I just couldn’t do it. That fight ruined me for the rest of the lifts as I felt that I had nothing left in me. I didn’t even get 435lb off the ground.

Overall feel.

I think that had this been a 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 – 1 WOD, I would have gotten the 445lb PR. Next time. There’s always next time. I feel good during this WOD. Again, I felt strong and my energy levels were good. I think I would have had a shot at 435lb if I wouldn’t have gone all Moby Dick on the 445lb lift.

This week’s stuff…

This week has been busy. As it’s getting closer to the wedding, I am finding that more and more of my “free time” is taken up with planning, making decisions and really, just trying to figure stuff out.

Today, Sunday (4/11/2010), I am flying to Albany for work. Although I hate traveling for my job, I am a little excited about this one as I will get to visit CrossFit Albany! Also, today, I am finding myself to be REALLY sore in almost every body part due to this week’s workouts.

On Wednesday (4/7/2010), we did this:

  • 50 ring dips
  • 400m run
  • 50 push ups
  • 400m run
  • 50 HSPU
  • 400m run

My time was 21:51.

This workout sucked. Really. It sucked. It was really hard. I tried a few HSPU before the WOD started and planned to try to do SOME of them as Rx’d during the WOD, but that didn’t happen. I was able to do about 25 of the ring dips Rx’d before I could no long hold myself up. I had to put one foot on a box at that point.

I went out for my run. On the way back, I was thinking “Ok, 50 push ups… this is cake… bust ‘em out”. Yeah. That didn’t happen either. I came back in, got down and did about 6 at which point I looked my coach and said “I’m not even out of breath! My chest is just shot.”. She laughed. Ha ha. I ended up doing 2-3 at a time until I eventually got to 50.

Another run, no problems.

I’ll bet you can guess what happened with my HSPU. =)

They didn’t really work out. Dave came outside and told me that I could do negatives. I tried that and made it until about 10 reps. At that point, I couldn’t hold the handstand anymore, so I moved over to using the box in the pike push up position, thing. That sucked. It sucked hard. I am still sore.

Friday (4/9/2010) was another awesome heavy metal night at CFCP. We essentially did a repeat of the first week, working on the Bergner warm up and snatch, but then we did the Bergner warm up and skill transfers with weight. That was SO much fun! Dave had us do a really short WOD consisting of the following:

3x

  • 5 muscle snatch
  • 5 snatch balance
  • 5 overhead squats

This one wasn’t for time so I didn’t time it or push hard to finish fast. This was strictly to work on form on all three of these movements. Also, I didn’t use a lot of weight, just 65lbs. It’s nice to do these WODs where you can focus on the form and learning the movement.

When we got home, we were both itching to do something else. Victoria came up with a terrible fast WOD. We jokingly called it “sorta-bata”. It’s basically Tabata sprints based on the 20/10 interval/rest, but instead, you 3s of rest. The caveat is that you have to do 4 burpees before you can rest. So, sprint, burpee, rest, repeat 8x. The faster you do your burpees, the more rest time you get. I wanted to puke by the 3rd round.

Saturday (4/10/2010) we came to open gym at CrossFit Cedar Park and did the following partner WOD:

  • Red stripe run (~200m)
  • 100 burpees
  • Red stripe run (~200m)
  • 100 squats
  • Red stripe run (~200m)
  • 50 of those things where you lay on the grown, raise your legs, and your partner throws your feet down

This was a partner WOD. The rules were:

  • You could split the work any way you want to.
  • You can’t do any work without your partner. Meaning, if your partner’s lagging on the run, you have to wait for them to get back before you can get to work on your next thing.

Me and V finished in ~13 minutes (somewhere between 13 and 14) which I am pretty happy with. I thought we did a great job, actually. We split the burpees and squats by alternating 5 each. That worked out really well. I think we were a little more haphazard with the last ab thing, but we still finished quickly,

I said to V this weekend “do you notice that you’re not always last anymore?” and she said she did and noted that we have quite a few new people. So, after being at CrossFit Cedar Park for almost a year we have definitely made gains. We finished this WOD sort of middle of the field. What I love about this group is that everyone hung around when they finished and cheered on the people that were still going.

After this WOD we went back inside and Dave the destroyer made us do planks. At that point in time, my upper body didn’t really have much left to give. We did three 1-minute holds. I was able to do the first one all the way through. The second and third had at least 2 drops. There was nothing left there. Oh well. Maybe a few days of recovery are in order.

So, now, right this second (1pm on Sunday) I am on a plane headed to Albany (well, DC to get a connection, anyway). I got lucky on this trip and got 1st class tickets on the way there. Honestly, I didn’t even realize they were 1st class when I booked it but here I am. I don’t know if I will be able to go back to coach again. =)

The main difference I notice is in food service and quality. Sure, the seats are bigger and more comfy and you get to get on and off the plane first, but the food is noticeably better and served on actual real plates. It’s really weird to me. Also, there’s one flight attendant dedicated to the 8 seats in first class, so you can get what you want when you want it. Weird.

Anyway. When I land in DC, I’ll have about an hour to get connecting flight to Albany. Once there, I need to get my car. I decided to go with Hertz this time. After renting from that P.O.S company last time, I won’t use a little guy anymore. Usually, I like to patronize small businesses, but that last rental company was just horrible. Just horrible.

I am trying to decide what day to go to CrossFit Albany. Truth be told, I am leaning toward Tuesday and Wednesday as I am really freaking sore. Yes, even my hands are sore. Go figure. My only argument for going on Monday would be to talk to some of the people there to see if they can recommend any good places in town to get some paleo food. That’s really the worst thing about traveling for work.

Trying to stay paleo on the road is relatively difficult as you really can’t be sure of lots of ingredients when every meal is prepared by someone else. Sure, you can stay “low-carb” but avoiding grains, bread, pastas, potatoes, but to be truly paleo to the degree that WE do is hard. Good luck finding grassfed, free range, or even just “organic” meat out in restaurants. Lame. Hopefully the guys at CF Albany will have a few suggestions.