Friday March 29, 2013

CrossFit Opens WOD 13.4 : First Attempt

7:00 AMRAP of

3 C&J @ 135#
3 Toes to Bar
6 C&J
6 TTB
9 C&J
9 TTB
12/12, 15/15, etc......


Going into this workout, I had a strategy to maintain a steady pace throughout and try not to spaz out on the first few rounds. There's always a point in these workouts where you get kicked in the nuts. The point where the aerobic threshold ends and the lactic threshold begins!

For me, I think that happened somewhere in the round of 12. Even though I was doing singles, the C&J's started to get tough. But what really screwed me were the TTB's! I had hoped to get through these in nice clean sets of 4. But I lost my kipping rhythm and did these mostly as strict singles. Not only did this cost me time but it was very taxing going into the set of 15 C&J's. Every rep was miserable and I started to wonder if I'd finish before time ran out. I did finish with about :45 left I think. In that :45 seconds I managed 10 TTB's which were again mostly singles with minimal kipping.

All of this earned me a score of 85 reps. I knew that this was not good enough to keep me in the top 20 overall and it was also well short of my goal for the workout. I knew at that point that I would need to repeat this on Sunday and that I'd need a score of 90 or better to stay in the hunt.

Wednesday March 27, 2013

A. High Bar Back Squat @ 60% of 1 rep max plus chains, 2 reps x 10 sets, on the minute every minute @ 20x1
     - All sets at 155 + 80# Chains

B. 10 Rounds for time of the following:
8 Squats Cleans @ 115 lbs
6 Ring Dips
4 Burpee Box Jumps
     - Yeah, this one was tough. Any time you see 10 Rounds and Squat Cleans in the same workout it's never a good thing!!!
     - I made a decision to drop most of my reps very early on in the workout in order to maintain a steady pace. I think it was definitely the right approach because these got challenging even at this light weight. Ring Dips were all unbroken as they should be at only 6 reps. Burpee box jumps were very slow. This is basically the place in the workout where I tried to recover a little bit.
     - Time was 17:42. I figured this as a 15:00 WOD. Guess I underestimated it a little bit!!

Tuesday March 26, 2013

A. Power Snatch, work to a heavy single.

     - I did not do that well on these today. Felt a tweak in my shoulder on one of the first reps I did. Decided to not push it after that. Only worked up to 160#

B. Clean and Jerk @ 80% of your best clean and jerk, 1.1.1 x 3 sets, rest 3 minutes between sets.

     - All sets at 205#. These felt pretty good. Would not mind seeing a heavy clean and jerk come up during the last 2 Opens workouts.

C. 10 Sets of the following:

5 Chest to Bar Pull Ups

rest 30 seconds

5 Kipping Handstand Push Ups

rest 30 seconds

     - These started off pretty shitty as I started to fail on the HSPU's (as I usually do!) on the 3rd round. Coach Kevin came over and told me that I wasn't getting enough of a kip. He's told me this a million times and I've been pretty stubborn about not following his advice. I finally gave in and was really pulling my knees down to my chest. Wow, what a difference!! Only way I can explain it is it's like the difference between a push press and a split jerk. One movement requires soooo much more shoulder strength than the other.

Sunday March 24, 2013

Opens WOD 13.3, Second attempt
     - AMRAP 12:00 of...
     150 Wall-Balls
     90 Double-Unders
     30 Muscle-Ups

I spent my Saturday trying do relax and think of anything besides CrossFit. I did everything possible to relieve the muscle soreness that is inevitable after 150 Wall-Balls. I tried Ice Baths, contrast showers, stretching throughout the day, foam rolling. I also went for about a 2 mile power walk as an active recovery piece.

By Sunday I was still a little sore but overall felt pretty good. Due to my epic failure on my first attempt, I now had to change up my strategy and be a lot more conservative in my whole approach to this workout. I simply could not afford to hit the redline and fail a bunch of Muscle-Up attempts.

So the new strategy was to break up the Wall-Balls into sets of 15 the whole way through and take no more than :10 rest between sets. If executed well, that would mean a time of just under 6:30 for completing the Wall-Balls.

I also decided to be real careful on the Double-Unders. I decided to intentionally break these into 3 sets of 30. I figured if I executed my gameplan well, I should have at least 3:00-3:30 to crank out some Muscle-Ups.

As it turned out, my gameplan was solid. I got done with WB's at 6:28 and D/U's at 8:14. Plenty of time for Muscle-Ups!!

When all was said and done I got 13 Muscle-Ups, same score as last year. I had one very costly miss. I figure this actually cost me 2 reps, the one I missed plus the extra time I had to wait before the next attempt.

Overall, I am pleased with this score even though I know it could have been better. A score of 241 would have completely taken me out of this competition. With a score of 253, I'm still in it but I did not give myself a lot of breathing room going into the last 2 workouts. What are they going to serve up next - a heavy Barbell, short time duration WOD?? Some variation of "Fran"? Is it too much to hope for a 5k Row??!!

Friday March 22, 2013

Opens WOD 13.3, First attempt
     - AMRAP 12:00 of...
     150 Wall-Balls
     90 Double-Unders
     30 Muscle-Ups


Aside from the usual nerves going into one of these workouts, I really expected to do very well on this one. This was mostly because I did it last year and did well and also because these are 3 movements that I'm typically very good at.

Gameplan going in was to finish the wall-balls in just over 6:00 and the Double-Unders in a little under 8:30. I partitioned the Wall-Balls as 25-25-25-25-15-15-10 and planned to take exactly :10 of rest between sets.

My plan started to go awry right around the 100 rep mark on the Wall-Balls. I was breathing heavy and unable to slow my heart rate. Just the same I got through the WB's right around the 6:30 mark, took about :20 before the Double-Unders and started my first set. After missing my second Double-Under, I banged out a big set of almost 50.....BIG mistake!! After that one big set, it was extremely choppy. I was missing frequently, getting frustrated and not taking long enough to recover. Oddly enough, the Double-Unders is exactly where things fell apart for me.

After finishing my 90th Double-Under in just over 9:00 (BRUTAL!). I attempted my first Muscle-Up.....MISS!! Uh-oh, not a good sign. For the remainder of the 12:00 I proceeded to make one successful M/U and miss at least 3 more.

With about a minute left, I more or less tapped out on this workout. I figured that no matter what I was going to have to redo it and no matter what I was going to do better so why wear myself out attempting more M/U's.

This was an extremely humbling experience and I really started to doubt myself and my whole goal of trying to qualify for the CF Games. I decided that I needed an entire day away from the gym to get my mind and body right to take a 2nd shot at this.

Wednesday March 19, 2013

A. High Bar Back Squat @ 55% of 1 rep max plus chains, 2 reps x 8 sets, rest 30 seconds @ 20x1.
     - All sets @ 165#

B. 10 Sets of the following @ 90%:
30 seconds of Rowing
rest 30 seconds
30 seconds of no jump burpees @ top
rest 30 seconds
30 seconds of Hang Power Clean @ 95 lbs
rest 30 seconds
     - Did sets of 20 the whole way through on the HPC's.....those sucked!

Tuesday March 19, 2013

A. Power Snatch @ 80% of your best Power Snatch, 1.1.1 x 3 sets, rest 2-3 minutes.
     - Worked up to 160#. I was not as solid on these as I was last week.

B. Clean and Jerk, work to a heavy single.
    - Worked up to 245.

C. 5 sets of the following @ 80%:
5 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
rest 30 seconds
5 Ring Dips

rest 3 minutes
+
5 sets of the following @ 80%:
5 Burpee Box Jumps
rest 30 seconds
5 Kipping Handstand Push Ups
rest 30 seconds

    - I sucked at the HSPU's today. After my 2nd set, I did sets of only 3 reps. HSPU's are and always have been like Kryptonite to me!!