Games Finale 2011 (for me anyway)

I am truly humbled.  I've been waiting for the chance to do Fran again, since I've gained some ground on pullups with bands, and I feel like RX'ing the weight is very doable now.  But today had a bit of a wake up call in store for me, as I truly battled through this one to get what I would describe as a meager result at best. 

CrossFit Games Open 11.6

Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes of the following rep scheme:
Thruster, 3 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
3 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Thruster, 6 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
6 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Thruster, 9 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
9 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Thruster, 12 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
12 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Thruster, 15 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
15 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Thruster, 18 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
18 Chest to bar Pull-ups
Thruster, 21 reps (men: 100# / women: 65#)
21 Chest to bar Pull-ups…
This is a timed workout. If you complete the round of 21, go on to 24. If you complete 24, go on to 27, etc.

OK so it's seven minutes.  I'm treating this one like Fran because I am doing the pullups the same way I would do them in Fran.  My original Fran time is 8:08, and that was with ring rows subbed for pullups and light weight.  Now I know that the difference between 95 lbs and 100 lbs is more significant than people think.  After 30 reps that's an extra 150lbs of aggregate weight moved overhead...so I'm not being fair to say it's exactly the same, but I do feel like this is a valid test of my ability to improve my Fran time.  Completing the round of 15 on this WOD will be the same amount of reps as Fran, so I know where I need to get to if I think I stand a chance of improving next time I face the 21-15-9.  I was on a sole mission this time.  Most people did the WOD yesterday, and the official WOD (since today was a rest day on the CF Main Site) in the gym was more deadlifts.  I think we can agree I blew my load on those a couple days ago ;).  Anyway I got set up, got psyched up, and was as ready as I'll ever be...

3...2...1...Go!  The thrusters felt heavy, but I still felt solid in the first few rounds.  I was using both bands for the pullups, so I didn't really slow down until after the round of 6.  I think the explosiveness of the thrusters took away from my ability to cruise through more than a few pullups at a time.  But as the minutes left morphed into seconds left I was attacking the round of 12 as best I could.  I finished the thrusters and was really pulling from the depths of my soul on the pullups, but I was only able to get two at a time, then one at a time.  And inevitably my end came just after I hit eight reps into the set.

Could it have been the end-of-week shred on my shoulders?  Maybe.  I've certainly done more pullups than this in plenty of WODs before.  But likely time domain is the main issue here.  Anytime I've put up higher numbers of pullups it's been in far longer time domains than seven minutes.  In that respect this was a fantastic exercise to show me how far I still have to go to link a serious amount of pullups together.

Before any major regrets set in I had the pleasure of watching Sara do the games WOD just minutes after I finished.  She did chest-to-bar chinups and (in my opinion) crushed it by making the full round of 15 at the buzzer.  I was psyched for her, but also realized that she hit the goal I had set for myself.  If Sara, who is years into her Crossfit journey, hit 90 reps in seven minutes, all of a sudden I don't feel so terrible about my meager score of 56.

I'm learning every day, but I'm finding encouragement around every corner.  I'm psyched to work harder on making the most of my Fran time, but coming away from this WOD I realize that there are far more telling benchmarks than beating my 8:08 time.  At this point a tie would be nice.  We'll see soon enough ;).

Peace...

Dude...More Bench!

I was absolutely shocked this morning that I was able to walk (OK limp was more like it), but after 90 minutes of solid stretching and some light mobility work I made my way to the Back Box, ready for my second attempt at the bench press since starting Crossfit.

WOD - "Lynne"
Five rounds for max reps of:
Body weight bench press
Pull-ups

We buddied up two to a bench and got started.  I remembered the two crucial things that Sara imparted to us last time...squeeze your shoulder blades together and drive your feet through the floor.  I ended up doing OK, given that I wasn't expecting to be physically capable of working out today...

Bench Press @ 155
12 – 10 – 7 – 6 – 6

Pullups
16 – 11 – 7 – 8 – 10

155 turned out to be a decent weight for the bench.  I'm capable of more, but not much more to get 10+ reps.  I'll likely go heavier next time.  As always I did the pullups double-banded.  I know this will eventually change, but I'm not rushing anything.  It's still very challenging.  I was happy to do 50+ Pullups no matter how I was getting over the bar.

It's hard not to consider this a bonus WOD, so I feel great about another solid week on the books. 

More to come...

Easy Dippin

Sometimes you look at a WOD and you laugh because you KNOW there's no way it's happening today.  I literally looked at it and chuckled, but I still made the journey to Crossfit NYC for some reason.  I remember thinking that maybe Sara would let me do 150 kettle bell swings for time, which is a rest day WOD I missed last month and would LOVE to do sometime...funny how you always gravitate to the exercises you're good at.  Maybe that's why I couldn't imagine doing this one, even if it was ridiculously scaled:

WOD
30 Muscle-ups for time
If you cannot do the muscle-ups do 120 pull-ups and 120 dips.

OH I see...just 120 pullups and 120 ring dips...Wasn't it Monday when I almost collapsed doing 70 pullups and 40 ring dips?  120...yeah...um, no...obviously I'm a year or so away from doing muscle ups, so I didn't even consider attempting those...

Sara mentioned scaling to 60 of each.  OK now we're talkin, even though she suggested that they needed to be strict pullups and dips.  I was happy to set up my bands and make it happen.  For the dips Sara said we could put bands across the rings.  This is something Kevin shied away from on Monday, as he said the stability of doing box dips builds strength for ring dips without the dynamic, unpredictable motion of the rings.  But in the spirit of being constantly varied, I was excited to try both approaches in the same week and see how I did.  Sara said I could break up the sets into whatever combinations made sense, so I settled on alternating sets of 10.

3...2...1...GO!  I knew pretty early on that I made the ring dips too easy with the thick band...swapping sets of 10 made the earlier rounds pretty quick.  The latter two rounds were much slower, but doing three and four reps at a time I got through it without much problem.

WOD Time: 14:42

Dare I say it, but I made this workout too easy...maybe I should have done more reps...maybe I should have used a lesser band for the last half of the dips.  I dunno...but it's the first time ever after a Crossfit workout that I was comfortably on my feet.  I guess there's something to be said for my progress, but this was much more of a strength workout than a metcon.  C'est la vie...I'm not disappointed at all...just surprised.  I'll be back on Monday to satisfy my inner masochist.  For now I'm happy to end another strong 4-day week at Crossfit on a solid note.

Peace...

Dip Fail

I didn't realize someone brought in a camera today

No problem...

I come back from a peaceful weekend with family...resting nicely and getting my legs back from last week's crushing, and I casually check the main site for my nice little Monday...HOLY SHIT!

For time:
75 Squats
50 Pull-ups
20 Ring dips
50 Squats
35 Pull-ups
15 Ring dips
25 Squats
20 Pull-ups
10 Ring dips

Um...OK then.  I guess there's some scaling in order for these pullups.  I mean I'm really happy with my progress lately, but 105 of them is a bit too big of a chunk to bite into.  I talked to Kevin about scaling and he sliced them down to 35, 20 and 15.  And I wasn't expecting the ring dips to be a walk in the park, but Kevin talked about scaling to box dips, and I figured I would give it a try at the RX'ed reps...I was so distracted by the number of pullups the dips weren't even a concern, even though they would end up being my undoing...

We warmed up with some standard stuff...some GHD situps (hadn't done these in quite a while...ouch!) and some good mornings with a PVC pipe.  MAN these were amazing for the hamstrings...I need to do more of them...felt great to get that heavy of a stretch with such a light movement...an excellent addition to my newfound mobility pallette.  Anyway we went through a couple of rounds, got set up and Kevin started the AC/DC...

3...2...1...GO!  The air squats were completely fine.   If there's an exercise in Crossfit I can handle any reasonable amount of reps in it's air squats.  I knew these wouldn't be a problem, especially after three days rest.  I broke up the pullups into groups of 5 at a time and rested about 20-30 seconds inbetween...maybe about a minute for the last two sets...the dips were TOUGH.  I broke those up too and got through the first couple of rounds.  By the last round of air squats I caught some wind and did them unbroken, but I really shredded myself during those pullups...15 very tough ones, and then I went to shit on the dips.  Had to do them one at a time, and I finally (with the entire gym already done and cheering) got full extension on the final rep...

WOD Time: 21:42

What can I say...I suck at bodyweight stuff.  I still have a lot of body weight to lose, so at some point the equation will flip and I'll be able to manage exercises like these a lot better.  For now I'll plow through and live to fight another day.

Peace...

Getting Fed Through the Chipper

"Chipper"

You hear the word and it conjures up equal parts fear and excitement.  Two syllables and the average Crossfitter knows they're about to face an opportunity to blaze a new trail in their fitness.  It's the ultimate test of both the physical and the mental.  The chipper is in its own category of metcon...large amounts of reps, and an array of exercises that do not repeat...you just have to do a shit ton of each of them.  Some days you get fed through the chipper.  Other days the chipper feeds through you...

My first chipper was the Filthy Fifty.  I was happy to scale it to the "Dirty Thirty" at the time, but I know next time it comes around the days of scaling reps on something like that are done.  I've arrived, and instead of not even registering on the performance spectrum I feel like I've earned my place, regardless of how buried I am in the "novice" category.  Today's chipper was a beast, and I knew I'd have to bring my A+ game to make it through this one:

WOD
For time:
70 Burpees
60 Sit-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 poods
40 Pull-ups
30 Handstand push-ups

I went to the store within an hour of seeing the WOD posted, as I had to find something to protect my knees.  The last time I did more than 50 burpees my knees were literally bleeding...something about the way I hit the deck scrapes away at the skin until the last 20 or so are excruciating.  I found some knee pads but they were too tight.  I ended up grabbing some big, flexible band aids that covered my knees...turns out they work like a charm.

I didn't know what to do for the warmup...I didn't want to waste an ounce of energy...so I did a modified version of Sara's gymnastics warmup day 1, which is:

Kick up to a handstand (3x)
5 ring pushups
frog stand (10 secs)
10 overhead squats (pvc)
10 kettle bell deadlifts (12 kg)

I usually do 5 handstand pushups for step 1 of the warmup, but I wanted to save every bit of those for the WOD.  So I just held the handstand for like 10 seconds and kicked back down.  We didn't do too many rounds of the warmup before it was go time.

3...2...1...Go!  You could feel everyone blazing out of the gate for this one...those initial bursts from a full class can be pretty powerful.  Once people settled into their pace everyone started getting a bit more methodical.  My approach, as always, was slow and steady.  I kept it going, the band-aids were holding out, and before I blinked I was halfway done with the burpees.  The last 20 or so were challenging, but I got some encouragement from some folks and kept at it. 

Soon enough I was on to the situps, realizing only then that I was a full round behind the pack...pretty standard (shrug). I asked Sara if I could do butterfly situps, and she was completely cool with it.  So I cranked through that set...my biggest problem with situps is keeping my mammoth legs together, so butterfly made it a lot easier for me.  Those probably took the least amount of time out of any of the exercises.  By far the kettle bell swings were my strongest exercise out of the lot, and I might have put the KB down 3-4 times during the set.  I love this exercise, and even though my form was messier than most other times, I was able to crank through this set without much trouble.  Pullups were just a matter of breaking up the reps so I was able to maintain explosive energy and momentum from the resistance bands.  The last 15 or so were tough, and a cool guy Matt who I've seen around the gym came over to help get me through them.  Sets of five became sets of four, became sets of 3.  Somehow I got there, and I was onto what became a WOD unto itself...the handstand pushups...

Matt is a fucking hero...I cranked out like 7 or 8 of them without much of a problem, but with 22 to go, and very little gas in the tank, we started with sets of three.  That quickly became sets of two as I fell out a couple of times.  I was breathing heavy, staring down the bumper plate that dictated my depth in this exercise.  With like 18 to go I was averaging two reps every 2-3 minutes, and I think while we were both determined, a distant cloud of doubt was floating into the room as to whether I was going to finish.  Very long story short, after what seemed like an eternity I got there.  HUGE props to Matt for sticking with me through that absolute mess.

WOD Time: 41:04

My reps weren't pretty, but I got full (scaled) depth and full extension.  I would say MOST of the WOD was challenging but very doable.  But that final hill of the handstand pushups was a vertical climb.  After launching into the chipper with strength and confidence, I got spit out the other end...shredded, in pain, but alive, well, and more fit than yesterday.

I like the chippers.  They don't quite like me yet...they'll warm up to me over time, I'm sure of it :).

Over and Over and Over the Bar...

I didn't even realize today was my fourth day at Crossfit this week.  I guess mostly that's because we started out the week with a skill day.  Those aren't too taxing on the body the way a metcon or heavy lifting day is, so I had no reservations about coming in and attempting this one:

WOD

Self-Portrait

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able. Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Fun stuff...I did four rounds of the warmup, which was day one of Sara's two gymnastics warmups:

Kick up to a handstand (x3)
Frog Stand (10 secs)
Tuck L Hang (10 secs)
10 Kettle Bell Swings (16 kg)

Since I've had little problem getting into the handstand, I've been doing 5 reps of handstand pushups instead of just kicking up into the handstand.  I haven't explored much depth, as I keep three abmats stacked on top of each other under my head so I only come down a couple of inches for each rep.  Over time I'll take out the pads progressively, but I'm in no rush...

3...2...1...Go!  We started with one pullup (I used my typical 1.5 thick bands) and, as I'm sure is typical, people were laughing and making light of the fact that there was a minute rest after that.  But the minutes went by quick and one became two, two became three, and before I knew it I was eight minutes in, hoping to get through the round of nine.  I was breaking up all post-5 minute rounds into the first 5, then whatever was left.  It was a decent strategy, but skill (or lack thereof) caught up with me and I found myself one pullup into the 10th round and I was cooked.

So we're watching and encouraging as some of the more impressive CF'ers got into rounds 12, 13, 14, and I think one of them got close to 15 but alas we were all done after that, when all of a sudden Sara says:

"OK...same thing, but Burpees..."

I joked that I could be there all day doing burpees, but I petered out just before the round of 9.  That was a great audible from Sara...I don't think the class before us did that extra workout, and it was cool to get in an extra sweat while we still had time left.

A fun, solid WOD, and happily my last one of the week.  Time for some much-needed rest and relaxation.  Looks like only one WOD next week before the next rest day, so let's hope I come back to something serious.  Either way I'll be there, and that's what counts most of all...

Peace...

Dude...Bro...What do you bench?

Today was the first time I've bench-pressed since I was 16.  I saw it come up on the WOD and I had to laugh.  I was loving the scheme of the WOD, even though it didn't quite turn out as RX'ed:

Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes of:
185 pound Bench press, 3 reps
225 pound Back squat, 5 reps

Because of limited hardware Sara decided that we should scrap the AMRAP and do seven rounds, not for time.  I was fine with that because I was much more into getting myself set on the back squats instead of rushing my way through them to try and get as many rounds as possible.  I settled on starting out at 135 on the bench and 185 on the back squat.  Since my quads were burning from yesterday's sprints I decided to low-bar the back squats, which uses glutes and hamstrings far more than quads.  This is what ultimately saved me.  If we had to high-bar like last week's back squat WOD I would have been in some serious trouble.

Here's what ended up happening:

Warmup: 25 pullups - 40 kettle bell swings (light - 16kg) - 3 tuck "L" hangs

Back Squats (5 reps)
185 (2 rounds)
205 (3 rounds)
225 (2 rounds)

Bench Press (3 reps)
135 (1 round)
155 (6 rounds)

I'm excited for the next skill day that focuses on the back squat.  I really feel like by the time we work on 1-rep max loads I'll be able to push into 300+ without a problem...I guess we'll wait and see, and depending on the day I might not be in a space to come close to that, but I'll definitely try.

The bench press sets were fine...pretty uneventful.  Knowing how infrequently this exercise comes up in WODs it was more of an experiment than anything.  I could have gone higher than 155 but I felt no reason to push it.

Fun WOD...more tomorrow!

16 Minutes of Glory

What an AMAZING feeling putting up a sub-20-minute time for a WOD where I RX'ed the weight (i.e. lifted using the prescribed men's weight...no scaling, for the lift anyway). I've never done it before, but I'm starting to feel like I'm going to start doing so more regularly. I think my consistency is really paying off in droves, and I'm confident in my ability to lift heavy with good form (in most cases...at least for the first 5 reps or so ;).

Warmup: 20 pullups, 30 kettlebell swings

WOD - Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Back squat, 20 reps
Handstand walk 20 yards

Sara went through the class one by one and asked what weight people maxed on their last back squat. I reminded her that she basically laughed at me after I put up 245 x3 and she felt like it looked like a warmup set. So she said to go for 135 and I was quick to get set up. We also discussed the handstand walk, which obviously I had to scale (seems most people do).  So we tried a "wall walk" where I started in pushup position with my feet against a pole, and I tried to walk backwards until I was flush with the pole, but I lost it each time I tried.  So she said since I've been dying to do handstand pushups in a WOD, she prescribed 7 of them per round after each set of back squats.

Something interesting about the back squats was that Sara prescribed a high-bar back squat.  This confused me because last week we went over how crucial the low-bar position was to back squatting, to emphasize the use of the posterior chain vs the quads.  She said high bar back squats might as well be front squats, as they use the same muscles.  But apparently because of the volume of back squats she still maintained it was best to do high-bar, as she said low-bar would shred our shoulders, which would destroy our ability to do the other parts of the WOD.  I was nobody to argue, as I needed every edge I could get to make this one happen.

3...2...1...Go!  I did the first set of back squats unbroken, and had little trouble doing the handstand pushups, especially because I placed three abmats on the floor under where my head comes down to minimize the depth (I'm still very green on this exercise and there's no reason to push it yet).  Each back squat set after that was broken up into mini-rounds of 10.  I did the last one as 11 & 9, a tip I picked up from one of the regulars, and what a difference it made in getting the second part of the set done.  I'll remember that for future WODs...something happens psychologically that gets you through the remaining reps so much quicker when you have a single digit of reps left...Before I knew it I was done.

WOD Time - 16:00

I turned around and two people weren't done yet.  I was so psyched to encourage other people for a change.  Sara made sure I absorbed the moment. "You did 100 back squats and 35 handstand pushups in 16 minutes...SIXTEEN MINUTES".  I froze as I contemplated what a milestone this was.  I'm really feeling like this past week has been a massive breakthrough for my fitness.  I'm wearing smaller pants yet again, I owned the back squats last Friday and today, did the unbroken runs on Tuesday...what an incredibly productive week!

I look forward to rest and stretching galore this weekend.  Other than that, you may see some diet-related posts.  Otherwise, see you after the next WOD 8-).

Peace...

One for "Mick"

Some days things just come together.  A lot of the time you could say I'm kind of "chasing it" energy wise during Crossfit workouts.  I feel like I do well, and much better than when I started.  But in general there comes a time in many WODs where I hit the wall and it takes everything I have to push through and get it done.  There's no mystery there...I still have a long way to go before I would say I'm fit, and my sleep during the week is horrendous.  So once in a while when I crush a workout it feels damn spectacular...ESPECIALLY when it's a WOD of this magnitude.  Today was no fuckin joke, and I surprised even myself when I had some breakthroughs along the way.

WOD - "McCluskey"
Three rounds of:
9 Muscle-ups
15 Burpee pull-ups
21 Pull-ups
Run 800 meters

This was a "Hero WOD" - one that is named after a soldier who died defending our country.  This one was for Jason "Mick" McCluskey of Oklahoma who sadly died at the age of 26 in Afghanistan.  I think of where I was at 26...I hadn't even met my wife yet...so much of my life hadn't started yet.  At 38 I have a lot to be thankful for, so I was happy to lay it all on the table for Mr. McCluskey one time.

The scaling for this one was pretty cool.  Sara had us grab a pair of 35-lb dumbbells.  For muscle ups we did a pushup while holding the dumbbells, then at the top of the pushup we did a dumbbell row with each arm.  For burpee pullups I did a burpee then jumped up on a box and did a jumping pullup.  The regular pullups I did with 1.3 thick bands (the .5 was being used so I sucked it up and used a smaller one for my second one)

When you look at this WOD it's pretty crushing.  I love the 21-15-9 rep scheme, and it's very cool how they reverse it here...but adding the run is sadism at its finest.  Being the massochist that I am this one had my name all over it.

3...2...1...Go! I got a solid pace going and purposely didn't go to failure on the first round of pullups.  I broke it up into 6-5-5-5 and it went pretty smoothly.  The huge surprise came during the first run.  I ran out to 6th Ave, kept a steady pace, and by the time I rounded 24th St I realized that I didn't need to stop and walk...I just kept running...and running...until holy shit I rounded back onto 26th and finished the first run UNBROKEN.  How sick is that?  I've never run more than a block at a time in my entire life! I was sizzling on adrenaline and cruised through the second round, that is until the pullups.  By the second half of the set I was doing 1-2 at a time, but I got it done and out I went for run #2.  BOOM!  Unbroken again...what the hell was happening?  What an incredible feeling to run this consistently for this long...I sailed back in after the run and kept plugging away.  I could tell this one was running long, but if the firebreathers were putting up times of 25+ minutes I knew I was going to clock in at about an hour, which was fine with me...as long as I finished.  Somehow I got through the pullups again and I raced toward the door.  Then a pretty crazy thing happened...

...Wayne is the coolest of the cool.  An elder gentleman who started Crossfitting a couple months back.  We've had some pleasant exchanges about the challenge of Crossfit and we've seen each other at the Black Box many times, as we both come several times a week.  Anyway Wayne had finished the WOD already, but as I passed him to head down the stairs he said "I think I'll come along for this round."  I couldn't believe it.  He was DONE.  Something about my taking forever on these WODs possesses people to do extra rounds.  I don't know who is more demented...but obviously I was flattered that Wayne gave THAT much of a shit about me to join me for the final run.  As it turned out my pace was so rocking that he easily walked beside me as I ran, but hey I RAN, and once again...UNBROKEN!

WOD Time - 54:21

The encouragement, feedback, and general comaraderie at the gym has been humbling to say the least.  I'm having a blast with Crossfit...and there's no doubt a lot of the above has to do as much with my progress as any physical gains I've had.  This is turning out to be quite the life experience.

I don't know how well I honored McCluskey's memory, but I'm satisfied that if I had the chance to meet him I'd be honest when I say I gave this one absolutely everything, and it gave me back even more.

Cindy - 2011-02-22

Today's WOD caused a major conflict for me, because I love deadlifts and would love to see where I'm at for sets of 3. But I've never done Cindy before, and I just had to set a benchmark to see where I'm at for that workout.  I missed it on Monday (we had the choice between Cindy and Mary), and as soon as I saw it on the schedule I knew I HAD to make up Cindy.  It seems to be one of the quintessential Crossfit workouts.  Firebreather Matt Chan says that Crossfit comes down to pushups, pullups & squats, so in a way Cindy is a true marker of your Crossfit metcon performance.

WOD
"Cindy"
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

I warmed up with four sets of three handstand pushups, with three abmats under my head.  I'm feeling great about these, and hopefully next time they show up in a WOD I can do them with some depth.  We'll see...
I also did some stretches with the PVC (shoulder rolls, shoulder dislocates, overhead squats).

Sara and I discussed where I'm at with pushups, as I still have to scale to knees.  I can do like 5 actual unbroken pushups, but my belly still drags me down and they're really brutal to try RX'ed.  So for something like Cindy I didn't have much choice if I wanted to get through multiple rounds.  Also Sara was saying that 10 rounds was a realistic expectation given my recent gains (isn't she always the optimist ;)  I was also planning on scaling the pullups using the 1.5 bands I've been using recently.  i wasn't anticipating a problem with the air squats, as I was actually not in any sort of leg pain for the first time in a while.  I crush squats under these conditions, and today was no exception.

3...2...1...Go!  I was doin pretty well out of the gate, and if pullups weren't involved I feel like I might have actually gotten 10 rounds.  But after the third or fourth round it was really challenging to get more than one pullup at a time.

Result: 7 Rounds plus 4 Pullups

I'm happy, even though it would have been nice to put up double digits.  Sara asked me what my Cindy number was in Elements, and I remembered that we did a half Cindy, and I couldn't get past the first round of pushups.  So if I was looking for perspective, there it is.  Progress is good, and today showed that my few months of Crossfit have paid massive dividends.

Peace...

Might as Well JUMP!

Chalk outlines are for the weak - I leave a sweat puddle

I watched the sample video of today's WOD last night and was psyched to get into what seemed to be a classic Crossfit workout.

WOD
"Wittman"
Seven rounds for time of:
1.5 pood Kettlebell swing, 15 reps
95 pound Power clean, 15 reps
15 Box jumps, 24" box

Sara was back and I chose one of her two standard warmups, which typically call for dead-hang pullups, L-hang from the bar, and Kettle Bell swings.  Since there were 105 KBS in the WOD I chose to just focus on pullups, and I got 20 of them (broken up into sets of 5) using two resistance bands.  Elliott commented about my improvement and said I looked like I knew what I was doing. I'm glad I at least have him fooled ;).  I mixed in some shoulder rolls and shoulder dislocates with the PVC, because I was still hurting pretty good from Monday's WOD.

I had one of those mornings where I woke up in serious pain (I was tellin people I felt like I had a pain vest on), but I hoped by the time I arrived and warmed up I'd be ready to go.  That's actually how it panned out, which was great because I needed every ounce of my energy to get this one done.

I scaled as follows:

35 lb Kettle Bell
65 lb Power Clean
20" Box Jumps

As is the case with any WOD involving box jumps, I promised myself I would at least do the first round of them before switching to step-ups.  I'm still trying to be conscious of my leg, but the only pain I felt was in my quads, which were pretty shredded from Monday.  Boy was I in for a surprise.

WOD Time: 32:11

I did EVERY FUCKING BOX JUMP.  EVERY ONE. Done.  ME.  I did ALL of them. EVERY! BOX! JUMP!

This is pretty damn huge.  Not only did I finish the WOD, but I've never even done a DOZEN box jumps.  Today I did 105!!  I think all these weeks of shredding my legs is starting to reap rewards.  I struggled through the last rounds a bit, but nothing like I have in the past.  Sara felt that my choices of weight for both KBS and Cleans were too light.  I really thought I was planning ahead for the final 2-3 rounds but I think she's right.  I could've gone 50 lbs on the KBS and 75-85 on the Cleans. 

Either way I was leveled after it was done, and every inch of my clothes was drenched.  Mission accomplished I say.  We'll tighten up the weight next time.  Sara even mentioned that we should explore RX'ing the weights and paring down the reps so I get more accustomed to RX'ed weight.  We'll work on it moving forward, but for now I'm psyched that I was able to hit this one hard and finish it.

Peace...

What Rhymes with Phlebitis?

This is what I look like with Phlebitis

So last spring I was the shit.  I strutted my stuff around Planet Fitness like I owned the place.  I mean after all I was back up to an hour a night (and sometimes each morning too) on the elliptical machines.  But in April I kicked it up huge and went for those vertical super-motherfucker elliptical machines that made you look like you were rock-climbing your way through a seizure.  One night I finished 30 minutes on one of those bad boys and the pain in my knee was just mixed into my standard post-"workout" euphoria...that is, until I went to the doctor a few days later to explore the three bumps around my knee and calf that were hot to the touch.  Yep...Phlebitis. An inflammation of my veins that meant an increased chance I could end up with a blood clot.  Turns out all I could do (once they confirmed it wasn't in my "deep system", which would be bad) is wear compression stockings (think Tim Curry in Rocky Horror) for a few weeks and hope for the best.  I asked the vascular doc if the benchmark exercise had anything to do with it and he was certain that it didn't.

Fast forward to last week.  I'm coming off a week where I was near-debilitated from 225 air squats in a kick-ass WOD. I recover just in time for three epic days of snowboarding in Utah.  Just before the trip I discover a nickel-sized bump on my left calf.  By day three my quads are pretty cooked, so I take it easy and do half the runs I did the previous two days.  Regardless, the trip leaves me with some serious pain, mainly in my left calf. Fast forward to Saturday night (after seeing the doctor on Friday). Yep...easy to figure this one out.  I have Phlebitis again, albeit far smaller and more superficial than last time. So I promised myself that I would listen to my body and give it the time it needed to heal.  After skipping today's skill day (it would have been my first day back at CF in over a week) I tried some air squats tonight and it seems while the bump is there the pain in my calves has subsided.  I'm going to try tomorrow's WOD and see how it goes.  If the pain comes back at all I might just cash out with some pushups, pullups or something else that's not leg-intensive.  I know this life change is a marathon not a sprint, but it's hard not to at least get back in there and make SOMETHING happen.

A random aside...as part of the triage checkin at the hospital they asked me to hop on the scale to get a weight.  This turned into a pretty big moment as I haven't weighed myself since last spring. While that weight was 320 pounds I easily packed on 10-20 more before starting Crossfit in November. So here it went...the moment I was sparing myself as I realized that weight isn't nearly as important as the size of my pants (which it's not).  But lo and behold, even considering that I'm 4-5 inches smaller around the waist, and I know I'm so much stronger, I couldn't help but get pumped when she read off the number:

298.5!!!!

Holy shit I haven't weighed 2-something in YEARS. What a crazy milestone. It feels amazing to have come so far in such a short time.  And considering what must be significant muscle gain I feel GREAT about losing that much weight.  I've recently been thinking about tightening up my Paleo into the Zone but it seems what I'm doing is working well enough for now.  I'm maintaining probably about 90% Paleo, with the other 10% being the whey & casein protein I eat for recovery, as well as balsamic vinaigrette 1-2 times a week (many of my lunch salads have olive oil & balsamic vinegar).  I guess it's time for a post about diet sometime soon so we can break it down and maybe I can get some feedback.  For now I coast back into the Black Box tomorrow on a cloud.  This stuff is working so well.  I hope my veins hold out until I drop another 75 pounds or so :).

Peace and Love to you all...

Deadlifting Oswego

Surprise!!  No snow this morning (at least by 4AM)! So I rolled into Crossfit unexpectedly for today's skill day.  I missed both deadlift days last week, which I was particularly bummed about, because it's been since December and I really wanted to get some weight on the bar and give it a shot.  Last time I "PR'ed" at 215, knowing it was far below my threshold, and when I saw deadlifts on WODs on both Saturday and Sunday of last week I figured I screwed myself until at least March or April (since I can't make it into the city on weekends).  Lo and behold today's skill day involved deadlifts for the warmup and Rack Pulls for the WOD.  But I was determined to focus strictly on deadlifts to really get into it and see where I'm at.

Warmup
20 Pullups (5x4 Double-Banded)
30 KB Swings (50 lb)

WOD
Deadlifts - 235 x3 - 275 x3 - 285 x3 - 295 x1 - 305 x1 - 305 x1 - 315 x1 (1 rep max PR)

I was dead set on getting over the 300 mark.  While I have no idea how much I weigh (last I weighed myself I was 330 lbs in the spring of 2010) I assume I hit close to my bodyweight today, which I'm pretty psyched about.  I was going to stop at 305 so I could say that I dealifted Miami (word to Scott in the 305), but I powered through and deadlifted 315, so I guess I'll have to settle for deadlifting Oswego, NY. I guess next time I'll try to pull for Roscoe, TX (325)...we'll see...

My quads are thumping from yesterday.  Not psyched to limp my way through the evening commute (in a blizzard). Pray for me...

Peace.

Squat...Me Worry!

I came into today feeling pretty damn good.  I hadn't done a decent volume of squats in a while, but I figured if I could power through the 100 burpees last week I could make this happen.  I think out of everything I attempt at Crossfit, air squats are my strongest exercise.  I knew once I hit the third round it would take some serious focus to power through the last 50 or so.  So I was a bit worried about hitting all 225 of them.

Warmup
Handstand (held for about a minute...flirted with the pushup while I was there)
10 Jumping Ring Dips
Frog Stand (20 seconds)
Death Stretch (ouch!)
Hip Stretches

Pullups - So Sara tells me she knew I got 1/2 a pullup last week because she reads my blog...<blush>. She asked me to set up the band so I could show her.  I got halfway up a couple of times.  Then she grabs another band and puts them together.  BOOM! I did 3 or 4 pullups with multiple bands...kind of surreal to be traveling over the bar...even if it did take a truck tire's worth of rubber to get me up there.  Gotta start somewhere...we talked about scaling the 12 muscle ups for the WOD (see below), and she decided on 24 jumping pullups and 12 banded ring dips per round.  Before I knew it, it was go time...

WOD
Three rounds for time of:
12 Muscle-ups
75 Squats

I cranked through the first round without much problem.  Sara said I had the best squat in the room (she's a good motivator), and she also was on me to keep going whenever I was hunched over, feeling I couldn't crank out another 40, 30, 5 ...whatever it was.  A couple of the guys helped me through round two.  When I finished the squats one of them thought I was done and he yelled "time".  He obviously isn't familiar with my pace ;-).

In round 3 I did the jumping pullups 1-3 at a time, and slopped my way through the ring dips (likely a couple of sketchy reps in there for sure).  Then came the final 75 squats.  I was really giving it everything I had and I didn't know how I was getting through this one.  I hit 25 and I really didn't know where the other 50 were going to come from.  I had the guys on either side of me eggin me on and Sara in the middle...she was relentless.  The problem (at the time anyway) was that she's seen what I'm capable of.  So when I came up from 5 more and hunched over she just wasn't havin' it.  I just kept chipping away...5 more, 10 more, 3 more, etc.  Finally I got there...

Time: 23:09

I know I'm still miles away from RX'ing an entire WOD, but it feels great to be cranking out these high numbers of reps.  I'm hitting milestones left and right, and it feels amazing!

It's snowing already...again.  Looks like another shovel WOD is waiting for me at home, and with tomorrow being a rest day I guess it's good timing that I'll have to wake up and shovel, missing yet another Crossfit day so my driveway doesn't end up a sheet of ice. C'est la Vie...

Psyched for Thursday!

Snatched from the Jaws of Pain...

If I wake up very sore I've learned to just get my body moving and I'll be alright .  A couple of times the pain has cost me a day at Crossfit.  But I've learned that by the time I get to the Black Box it's almost three hours after I wake, and I'm likely favored to power through a workout without much trouble.  If a metcon was on the schedule today that would have been very questionable.  The only way I was getting through today was the fact that it was all skillwork...a nice chill day where we focus on the ill-named but ever-powerful "Snatch".

A nice visual breakdown of the Snatch

I was happy to get some weight on the bar and see where I stood with this exercise.  I don't remember doing a straight-up power snatch (from the floor)...several times we went over the muscle snatch (starting from the bar at mid-thigh) and we did snatch balances a couple of times in the past (or maybe once in NYC and once in Morristown). 

Warmup:
Pullup Attempt (got 1/2 way up with thickest band several times...this is HUGE for me)
30 Kettle Bell Swings (16 kg)
20 Ring Rows
10 GHD Situps
5 mins Double-Under practice

Snatch:
6-7 warmups with bar (45 lb)
65 lbs (x3)
85 lbs (x3)
105 lbs (x3)

I'm pretty sure the WOD called for seven rounds of one rep, but I really wanted to get comfortable with the exercise, and Sara was more concerned with that than adhering to the exact number.  She had a lot of helpful comments, and she mentioned that my snatch form was better than my cleans.  I felt good with the weight, and I feel like if I pushed heavier it would be borderline.  I didn't want to get so heavy that I compromised the form of the exercise (or bring myself any additional pain).  It gets meaningless when you do that, even though it's the most common thing I see in other types of gyms.

Either way another productive skill day in the books, and I'll have a solid reference point next time we revisit the snatch.  The soreness from yesterday's madness didn't slow me down at all, but you can bet there's some solid rest coming up this weekend before I attack next week's Crossfit schedule.

Peace...

Dope on a Rope

OK, so I can only imagine that the day I actually climb a rope...what a glorious day that will be...for now though I scale, and I scale hard...

WOD
Five rounds of:
15' Rope climb, max reps in 3 minutes

Scale to - Grab Rings overhead, start in squat position, jump & touch chest.  3 reps = 1 rope climb rep

Reps
42 - 35 - 33 - 36 - 34

So I imagined myself burning out by the third round, but I was actually able to power through this one OK.  Kevin gave us some amazing stretches to do afterward, which likely save my wrists, forearms, and chest.  He said we likely couldn't tell, but the compression of our chest to get up to the rings was intense, and without the stretch we would feel it hard (I'll likely be feeling it hard no matter what).

Also a great warmup today.  I feel more confident rowing, especially for shorter spurts like 500m.  I average around 1:50 per round, but depending on what else is in the warmup I easily go over 2 minutes (I didn't pay attention to the exact times today).  Here's what we did:
(2 Rounds)

500m row
10 Pushups
10 GHD Situps
10 Hip Extensions
10 Overhead Squats (PVC)
10 Pullups (Scale to Ring Rows)

All in all a decent Monday.  With tomorrow being a rest day I might ask to do one of the previous metcons, as I'm itching to tackle a big one that is way out of my comfort zone.

I need to get some bonus posts in about some amazing things I've been reading, on the web in general, but more specifically in the Crossfit Journal.  If you haven't subscribed yet it will be the best $2 a month you ever plunked down.  More on this soon...so many directions to choose from.  I've been nerding out on this shit hard.

For now...peace...

THE HICCUPS WOD

I was actually fired up to come into Crossfit today but it turned into a bit of a blase day.  I got a lot out of the workout skill-wise, but I didn't push the weight at all (I hadn't done half of the exercises before) so it was more of a skill-builder than a typical skill day workout.  We had the option of doing Wednesday's WOD, since CF NYC was closed that morning from the snow storm.  But I opted to stay on task...I guess going into the weekend it would have been a better choice to do the Wed WOD...either way, here was what I did:

(5 Rounds)
Hang Clean
Clean
Push Jerk
Split Jerk

Hey...HCPS...the HICCUPS WOD!  I'm such a fuckin nerd...

Weight: 65 lbs.

Now I've done 100+ lbs on push jerks before, but I wasn't going to make the mistake of thinking that automatically translates to cleans.  So I started with 65 and felt good about just staying there.  It was just enough weight to emulate proper form, but not too light to feel like I wasn't getting a workout out of it.  All in all I was happy with my progress on the split jerk, but it was a lighter day at Crossfit for sure.  One thing I was psyched about was that during the warmup I tried an assisted pullup and I actually came up 3-4 inches, using the largest assistance band.  I'll get there...fun to check in on the pullups from time to time...after that I just hung from the bar a few times.

I had a 2-3 minute staredown with the support beam that I did the handstand against the other day.  The beam won...I'll try again on Monday ;-).

Getting Easier...

Shout out to my good buddy Elliot from the 6:00 class...an inspiration to say the least...

Warmup (x2):
500m row
20 PVC Overhead Squats
8 Handstand Pushups (scale to pike pushups)
10 GHD situps
10 Hip Extensions

I finished the rowing in 1:59 and 2:11 respectively.  I'm really starting to be able to feel the warmups as exactly that.  I used to feel like I would do two workouts per session, but now my body is starting to gain strength and capacity I didn't have before.  Two months ago this warmup alone would crush me.  Today it got my blood pumping and I broke a sweat, but it was completely manageable.  I stopped the 2nd round of GHD situps because I used my upper body too much 1/2 way through, and paid the price...almost pulled something.  I think I'm going to ask for more help on form with those.  I'm most excited to get GHDs happening almost daily.

WOD (as RX'ed):
3 rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Overhead squats, 75 pounds
21 Pullups

I scaled to 65 lbs. for the squats and ring rows for the pullups. I walked some of the way on the runs, once after I ran through a random lady's cigarette cloud...nice...good morning to me...

Time: 32:05

Sometimes it's the smallest changes that make the biggest impact.  I completed today's metcon, scaling and all.  Was it one of our hardest?  No.  Did I give it everything I had?  Yes.  Did I finish and collapse to the floor like a weeping, sweaty pulp like after most of the past metcons?  No.  I didn't.  I just took a knee for a few seconds, got up, grabbed my bag and hit the showers.  There...that was IT.  Did you see that?

I'm getting stronger.  I can feel it as I get deep into the WOD.  The ring rows were hard for sure.  But I did five at a time in the third round...even a month ago on the third round of anything I would be doing one at a time.

It feels great to really start seeing the difference.

More to come tomorrow...

Going "Nutts"

I saw yesterday's WOD online and memories of "Filthy Friday" popped into my head:

"Nutts"

For time:
10 Handstand push-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
25 Box jumps, 30 inch box
50 Pull-ups
100 Wallball shots, 20 pounds, 10'
200 Double-unders
Run 400 meters with a 45lb plate

With all of the shoulder press skill days last week and back squats last Friday, I was ready for a serious  metcon.  Problem was this was yesterday's WOD...and CF NYC hadn't posted the Monday WOD yet.  So I look to see what's in store for us in the Crossfit main site (NYC abides by the national site's WODs), and lo and behold we were scheduled to do back squats the same as last Friday, five sets of three.  I remember this guy Elliot from the class before me doing a previous day's WOD sometime last month, which I thought was very cool.  But I wouldn't imagine I'd break off from the pack to do it myself so soon after that.

So I emailed myself the WOD (scaled of course) in case Kevin was cool with my doing "Nutts" instead of more back squats.  I was psyched when Kevin was completely cool with it, so I went about setting up my stations.  Here's what I scaled to:

10 Pike Pushups
185 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
25 Step-ups, 24 inch box
35 Ring Rows
70 Wallball shots, 20 pounds, 10'
120 Double-unders
Run 400 meters with a 25lb plate

I could have tried the box jumps, as my knee has improved, but I'd rather not get back to where I was so quickly.  I decided to do step-ups, but in retrospect I should have done at least 10 of the box jumps to just try and get back into it.  Next time I'll push myself more.  Frankly the step-ups were pretty damn tough toward the end...two feet high is no joke...

While I've maxed higher than 185 on the deadlifts, I haven't done 15 in a row before, so I played that one cautiously as well.  I got through the ring rows quicker than any set I've done yet...I can feel the strength building.  I really want to do pullups!  Wall balls were super-tough, but I did them 10 at a time, and before I knew it I was done.  I did 120 single-unders, about 5-10 at a time, with the longest stretch being 18. After 120 though I felt like I should do more since it called for doubles, so I asked Kevin and he said to work on doubles.  I spent a few minutes trying, and someone gave me some solid pointers, but it just wasn't happening today.  I grabbed the weight and ran out the door to finish it off.  Coming back up the stairs was a bit of a kick in the balls to finish off the WOD, but I made it, and it felt great.

24:36

Was this WOD tough?  Absolutely...was I COMPLETELY spent the way I was after Filthy Friday?  No.  But I'm happy I was able to do this WOD, and I look forward to the next metcon.

I can feel the progress...good stuff!

Press Your Luck

I like when the main Crossfit site says "rest day" because it's always a "skill day" at the Black Box. We always focus on a particular exercise or a family of them, and really nail down the form so we can use them efficiently in future WODs.

Warmup:
10 PVC Shoulder dislocates
10 PVC shoulder rolls
20 walking lunges (with twisting to opp side)
10 GHD situps
10 hip extensions
10 pullups (sub ring rows)
2 mins double unders (sub singles)

Today's WOD was the shoulder press.  Five sets of five reps.  I've done a bunch of push press so far, but it's amazing how different an exercise the shoulder press is because you're not creating momentum from your hips to get the weight up.  You just get the bar above your head, lock out and repeat.  Check out this video of the shoulder press, push press, and push jerk observed side by side.

I started with a good test weight, since these were my first shoulder presses.  95 lbs. felt good, and I knew I could do a bit more.  Here are my stats:

Reps    Weight
5          95
5          115
3          125
5          105
5          115

We did a "cash out" of 30-20-10 double-unders and situps.  I'm still nowhere near getting a double under, so I did twice the RX'ed number of single-unders.  I counted up to 18 at a time that I'm able to do, which buries the max of two I was able to do just over a month ago.  Anyway I got through the cashout in 6:35...

Solid WOD to ease back into Crossfit after a much-needed weekend rest for my aching muscles.