Games WOD 5 - Getting Crushed on Film

So there's a reporter who's taken some interest in Crossfit, and he's writing a story that will feature my recent fitness escapades (not sure when it's coming out).  He came by the Black Box today to check out Games WOD #5; my first competition WOD in three weeks.  I missed #3 because I tweaked my hip, and I missed #4 because I was working late, and AMRAP Clean & Jerks on two hours of sleep is likely less than healthy.  So here I was...ready to take on another Games WOD and put up some numbers for the team.  Safe to say those numbers figure to round out the lesser end of the spectrum, but I was giving it everything I got, and would hopefully be in for a surprise.  Meantime the reporter requested to see a handstand, and it just so happened that today's warmup was Gymnastics Warmup #1:

5 Handstand Pushups
Frog Stand (10 secs)
5 Ring Pushups
10 Overhead Squats (PVC)
10 Kettlebell Deadlifts

I ran through the warmup a few times amidst conversations with the reporter, and we got to talking about today's Games WOD:

Crossfit Games Sectionals
WOD #5

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 Power cleans (145# for men / 100# for women)
10 Toes to bar
15 Wall balls (20# to 10′ target for men / 14# to 9′ target for women)

The Power Clean

Power Cleans?  Not a problem, but not at that weight.  I think it had been too long since I did a bunch of them in a WOD.  I decided to do women's weight.  Toes to Bar?  More like a very spirited knees to elbows...I'd give it my best but that one figured to look a little ugly.  Wall Balls?  That's my shit baby...no problem.  Squats, Thrusters, Wall Ball, Deadlifts...you name an exercise that uses my lower body and I'll sum up my strengths in Crossfit.  This one was gonna be fun.  Load the bar?  Check.  Chalk the hands?  Check. Set up the ball?  Check.

3...2...1...Go!  OK so maybe I went a little light on the cleans.  These were fine...I should have made them a little tougher.  Toes to bar found me getting my knees up to just above parallel.  I broke these up into two sets when I could, but eventually I'd be doing 3-4 at a time.  Wall Balls were cake, even with the caveat that we had to hit the ceiling because of the height requirements from the Games folk.  I powered through the first few rounds without a problem.  Being a 20-minute amrap I just wanted to keep a decent pace but not gas myself too early.  I noticed the reporter snapping pictures of me...can't imagine he got too many ideal shots, as I was doing knees to elbows and that likely didn't make for good photo...we'll see I guess.

Before I knew it six rounds were in the can and I had to do the toes to bar six at a time.  If I only got through those a bit quicker I would have maybe nailed seven rounds...that would have been sweet, and was so attainable...BUT...with the countdown fast approaching I hit the wall balls hard, but still came up four reps short of seven rounds.

WOD Results
Six Rounds plus 11 Wall Balls

I'm definitely happy with the results, but you always look back and know that there were extra seconds you could have shaved off the clock by picking up the bar quicker, cranking out just one more rep per set, etc.  But at the end of the day this is what I had in me, and as I lay on the floor recovering I felt like I put up some solid numbers for where I'm at.  I thought this was a great workout...I can see myself doing this one again someday.  Not this week though ;).

Peace...

The Return of the Snatch

WOD

Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

I've been watching a lot of videos featuring elite Crossfitters, power lifters, and lots of people who have a much greater handle on the Olympic lifts than I do.  The snatch is such an elusive lift.  There are so many things to be aware of when you're in the movement.  Oftentimes I forget one key thing and the end result is shit.  But every once in a while I put up a decent snatch, and, like today, I get encouraged that one day I might actually be capable of doing these.

Sara ran us through the Bergener Warmup, ran through the movement a couple of times, and we got setup and got ready to do our best.

WOD
65 – 85 – 85 – 85 – 95 – 95 – 100

So the last one definitely belongs in the Shit category, but leading up to that I felt like I was on to something.  Needless to say I was pulling a little less than the guys in the above video today. I didn’t feel as lost as I typically do with the snatch…I just don’t think it comes up often enough for me to gain much ground on this lift.

The Outside-Inside WOD

I rolled up to an incredible sight on the sidewalk out in front of the building that houses Crossfit NYC.  People were doing the WOD right there on the sidewalk...pushups, sit-ups, squats and Supermans subbed for back extensions.  Not that I'd be embarrassed to hit the streets with them, but something about the discomfort of pavement and/or cement takes a bit of the charm out of the WOD.  Granted if you're going to do a workout that would make the everyman vomit, you might as well throw in some unforgiving hard ground for good measure.  Safe to say though, if I had the option to do the WOD inside I'd happily take what comforts the floors of the Black Box afford me.

WOD
Three rounds for time of:
Run 100 meters
50 Push-ups
Run 100 meters
50 Sit-ups
Run 100 meters
50 Squats
Run 100 meters
50 Back extensions

Kevin went over the movements and gave us the choice to do the WOD inside.  There were cones set up on opposite sides of the room to measure out the runs.  Three lengths of the room equaled 100 meters.  I knew the volume of pushups was going to be challenging, but I figured at this point if I can't crank out 150 pushups in a WOD, well, I guess I'll just have to do less :).  And that, unfortunately, is exactly what I did...but for reasons other than capacity...

3...2...1...Go! I hobbled a bit through the first run...those lunges weren't letting go of me just yet, but I wasn't in enough pain to slow my pace down.  Either way 100 meters at a time was very doable, even if I needed to warm up through the first round before the soreness subsided.  I cranked out pushups 10 at a time, swung my arms out between sets, and got through them without much trouble.  Round after round the runs got better, the reps more fluid, and I definitely hit my stride, but I realized my pace wasn't to fantastic...

As the clock was in the 50s and I was starting the third round, I did the math and I simply didn't have time to finish and make it to work on time if I did 50 reps of each exercise.  Kevin told us before the WOD started that we could scale to 35 reps, and I didn't consider this for a second until now.  So I figured that's just how it had to be...rounds 1 & 2 RX'ed, round 3 scaled...not a big deal...still more than 500 reps total, and one hell of a workout.

WOD Time: 39:43

A big thanks to Anthony & Tim for continuing their tradition of doing the exercises alongside me for my last round, even though their workout was already done. Shout out to the street people…I’m sure there were plenty of Paleo-friendly snacks on the sidewalk no matter which way you turned your head. If you looked hard enough I’m sure you could see the remains of my quadriceps, which have been MIA ever since International Lunge Day.

And of course, thanks to Kevin P for allowing me to demonstrate back extensions going into minute 40 of my WOD, so the new folks can see what it looks like to lose control of your form, your balance, and your glands after 540 reps and running a 1/4 mile.

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...

Taking the pLUNGE

"Just so we get things straight here, you will not be able to walk tomorrow"

...such were the words of our trainer Sara as we contemplated today's creative, yet sadistic WOD:

400 meter Walking lunge

As I walked toward the Black Box this morning I saw the 6:15 class lunging their way down 6th Avenue and I knew I was in for some pain.  I was happy this past month when Kevin put some lunges into our warmup and I got through them without a problem, but this was another level entirely.  400 Meters.  A quarter mile!

3...2...1...Go! We got started and I gravitated toward the back of the pack, keeping a slow pace alongside Sam, a cool guy who does the level 2 (advanced) WODs, and had just completed the newest Games WOD.  Great...I'm pacing myself behind a guy who already finished a brutal workout...sounds about right ;)

I kept it slow & steady, and got to 1/4 of the way there when Sara dropped the bomb on me that would seal my fate for days to come - "Reis I think you should scale this one to 200 meters".  "OK" I said, knowing full well I simply had to RX this one now.  I was well behind the pack at this point and Sara told me she had to go inside with the rest of the class, so I wouldn't be able to know my time.  I was fine with that...at this point she didn't know I intended to finish the full 400, and finishing was now all I cared about.  I waved her off and away they all went, leaving me, myself and my lunges, getting occasional encouragement from random passers by as I lunged step after step in sheer agony.

Turning the corner with the last 100 meters to go, Richard (a friendly CF regular) came back to check on me and actually cranked out a few lunges next to me.  Then Sara came running down..."I told you to scale" she said.  "I'm not responsible if you get Rhabdo".  I smiled and said "yes, you are...you got me to this point".  She really did...thanks to Sara I've gained more confidence in pushing my limits, and while this might have flipped the equation into the danger category, I was ready to accept the pain.  I wasn't stopping now.  Lunge after painful lunge I kept at it...there was like 30 feet to go and with every step I had to wave away the easy option of quitting right then and there.  She broke up sets for me into about 10 feet at a time.  Of course for the last few steps my knee had to come down on hard metal...oh the advantages of Crossfitting on the streets on NYC...

I yelled with each final step, and embraced the pain as I finally completed the WOD, and hey...I got my time!

WOD TIME: 27:14

My legs are jelly...as I sit in my sedentary job atmosphere I feel the tightness rolling in like a fog over my legs.  I'm doubling the stretch/mobility sessions tonight.  If I don't get ahead of the recovery curve this one could take me out for days...

I love it :)

All Jerked Up

BLACK BOX WOD (current skill: the jerk):
jerk 3-3-3-3-3


I love the Push Jerk, but haven't been able to do it in a WOD in a few months. It was cool to get back to this exercise. Another fun strength day at the Black Box.

Warmup: 45x3 - 65x3
WOD (x3): 95 - 115 - 135 - 135 - 155 

A Minute to Win It

Looks like it was max effort day. 
He's really on the ball

My hip is feeling a lot better, and it helps that there's no running, deadlifts or any other hip-heavy exercises today, so I can keep away from it one more day...every little bit helps.  I haven't tried to mobilize the hip capsule again yet, and I think I'll wait a while until I'm confident I won't mess it up again.

Today was mellow, as is the case with a lot of strength days.  It's good that we're focusing on the shoulder press, because I feel like I need all of the shoulder strength I can muster if I want to improve with pullups, handstand pushups, ring dips, and heavier lifting overhead.

Warmup (3 Rounds with PVC):
10 Shoulder Dislocates
10 Good Mornings
10-second handstand hold

WOD
Resting 60 seconds between sets:
Press 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

We paired up on the racks and got going quicky.  Pretty cool WOD, though in retrospect we didn't think ahead about how limiting the minute rest time was as far as increasing weight goes.  Frankly neither of us was a superstar on the press, so we were happy to stay around 85-95 lbs for the whole WOD and just focused on pressing well with good speed, and fighting my urge to push press.  We got through it quickly, and Kevin programmed a little "cashout" metcon since we had some spare time left:

CASHOUT
Five Rounds for Time:
10 Ring Rows
10 Situps

Time: 7:11

That was a nice little workout.  Not the most blistering day of work at Crossfit but a good sweat and some solid strength work.

Ready for more tomorrow...

Home WOD #1

So it's been a couple of days and I have been on the foam roller, doing light (non-hip) mobility work, and taking Wobenzym regularly, and it's been working well.  I feel my hip far less than I did on Tuesday, and it seems I just had to give it some time.  So hmmm...a Saturday night at home...just me, my Abmat and a random crazy thought...

HOME WOD!

What better way to get back in action than a little home-grown Crossfit programming?  Maybe some air squats...yeah just air squats...and a lot of em...like 100 or 200...yeah that'll do it.  Then I called Scott in Miami, and he had the great idea of throwing in some situps.  Ahh...a couplet...GENIUS I thought (I'm a little slow on weekends).  So here it is....

Home WOD #1
4 Rounds for time
50 Air Squats
25 Situps

The tough choice was selecting the heavy metal channel or the hip hop classics channel...hip hop won, as it seemed they were in the midst of an LL Cool J-a-thon and that seemed like the right prescription for this WOD.  Got my towel laid out, filled the water bottle and it was go time...


3...2...1...GO! Man I have to say squats are my thing...I guess I violated the enduring rule in CF programming, which says when programming your own workouts, program your "Goats", or your absolute weaknesses.  Not this time folks...I was crankin out squats like they were nothing.  At less than 2 minutes per exercise I had a good pace going...the situps were like nothing (the Abmat really really helps).  I guess I'll program 50 of those per round next time.  But before I knew it I was cranking out the last round...20 unbroken squats, then sets of 10...unbroken situps and I was done...


WOD Time: 14:55

Felt great!  No hip issues, and so easy to get a solid sweat on...SO much better than surfing the web, blogging (sorry) or watching the tube.  Seems this might be a trend on Saturdays if I have any more three day weeks at the Black Box.  The jury's out on whether it'll make sense to do a home WOD if I've done four days already.  But this was a good one, and I'm preparing for mad quad burn tomorrow.  Hopefully by Monday I'll be fresh and ready to go...

Bonus WOD

So while resting my hip I won my weekly poker game on Tuesday night, which would have not happened if I was in shape to do the new Games WOD on Wednesday.  Sometimes it pays to rest :).  It felt almost weird to take a day off, knowing I wasn't coming in for the rest of the week.  And then the CF main site posts this for Thursday:

WOD - "J.T."
21-15-9 reps of:
Handstand push-ups
Ring dips
Push-ups

Hmmm...arms, arms, and more arms.  I texted Sara right away to ask if I was missing anything about this workout that would compromise my hip's recovery.  While I didn't hear back from her I figured even if I scaled the shit out of this one at least I'd be doing SOMETHING, and likely not putting my hip at much risk.

Sara texted me back as I was already boarding the train to NYC, but it was reassuring to see that she told me to come on in.  She would have easily told me to not be an idiot if I was going to be at any bit of risk.  So I was psyched to get my handstands on...

I didn't do much of a warmup...just some stuff with the PVC.  Sara suggested that we strongly consider 15-12-9 for the rep scheme, as she was confident that none of us would make it through to the final 9.  I felt fine scaling...I was just happy to be there and put in a third workout this week.  So scale I did.

3...2...1...GO!  I was off and, well, handstanding...I put a few plates under my head to reduce my required depth. Though I had been using three Abmats for this purpose, Sara said she didn't like using  those because if our head hit them it would go down further than our desired depth.  So I put a 45, a 25, and a 10-lb plate, which gave me like 3 inches of depth...fine for a WOD with this many HSPUs.

The ring dips were fine, as I used the thick band again.  I tried during warmups time to use the half-thick band and it was too weak, so i stuck with the thick band, even though it made the ring dips pretty easy...I still felt it in my arms, which I guess is mission accomplished.  Pushups got tough as the WOD went on, and I had to finish in sets of three.  But I finished, and with everyone's encouragement, got there before the 20-minute mark.

WOD Time - 19:57

I have zero complaints.  I got a great workout and a bonus day when I thought I had to rest no matter what.  That makes three workouts this week, which is really what I would consider my minimum at this point.  It seems like I really have to step up my game on those pushups...anytime they are in a WOD I am crushed.

Hopefully by Monday I'll be fresh as a daisy...until then...

De-Mobilized

Shit...

I'm as careful as the next guy when doing these workouts, and while I finish all of my WODs I'm hugely conscious of not taking myself to the point of injury by doing something too quickly or recklessly.  And while my trainers would have a word or two about how well I do this, I'm very conscious of maintaining the best form possible so I don't tweak, pull, tear, or anything else that could put the kibosh on this whole process.  So leave it to the Mobility WOD to be the source of my first stumbling block since my bruised knee this past winter.

I had been doing hip MOBs (short for mobilizations) courtesy of Kelly Starrett of San Francisco Crossfit and his free site Mobility WOD.  The site has truly blown open a new dimension in my training and performance, and I dedicate 5-10 minutes each evening to stretching and mobilizing my body...usually things that will help with the following day's workout.  So there I am, well, mobilizing one night and I get up to find that I can feel the back of my hip.  No pain, but a noticeable feeling that somehow my femur has gained some wanderlust and isn't tightly resting in the back of my hip capsule.  FUCKIN GREAT! 

So coming in this morning I decided to try some gentler mobility stuff to get things working again, and while it helped for a few minutes, the feeling would come back to my hip pretty quickly.  It wasn't getting in the way of my warmup, but I dealifted a kettlebell and could tell I shouldn't be lifting from the ground anytime soon.  I should mention today's WOD to put the rest in perspective:

WOD - "Michael"

Three rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters
50 Back Extensions
50 Sit-ups

I told Sara about my hip and we agreed that I'd run the first round, and if I felt like it was getting worse I should row the next two.  The WOD was pretty straight-forward, so I hit the ground running with the first group and got started.

3...2...1...GO!  I did the 800m run in round 1 unbroken...felt quite a bit faster than last time I had 800m runs as part of a WOD but I didn't time myself.  I can't say that it got any worse, but weighing my options I came to the (rather uninformed) conclusion that I should row the rest just to be safe.  The situps weren't too brutal (I ended up doing those first because the GHDs were all occupied after I finished the run) but MAN those back extensions were intense...especially the last 20 of each round.  And finishing the back extensions and hitting the rower right away was absolutely insane...my back was in WTF mode for the first half of each round...tough to get a solid pace going with that painful transition.  But I got through it and put up an OK time, considering the situation...

WOD Time: 36:53

Later on after the workout I got into a really helpful dialogue with Sean M. and Mike K on the CFNYC blog comments discussion, and they helped me to realize I needed a few days off.  Another CFer named "MC" recommended an anti-inflammatory named "Wobenzym".  I just bought some, as I've read a few things recently about Ibuprofen and it seems it might be best for Advil to not be my goto (in addition to fish oil) each night to reduce inflammation.

So yeah...my hip actually felt better after the WOD, but the feeling is back now and I need to give this thing time to settle down.  Looks like this might be a 2-WOD week.  Sucks, but I'm sure my body will appreciate the rest.

Sigh...