Crossfit log for Wednesday, December 21st

Today's workout was Fight Gone Bad

I've done this before, but don't have time look it up right now to compare:

3 rounds 5 minute (1 min at each station)
-wallball 20# med ball
-sumo dead lift high pull 75# bar
-box jumps 24" box
-push press
-row

1 rep/1 calorie = 1 point. Score 182.

Should've gone lighter had to stop too much due to muscle fatigue. Even 65# and 14# would've made a big difference. Next time.

Last time score was 176.

Used a 14# med ball.
Box was 22".

It wasn't clear in my post what weight I used on the bar. I'm guessing I would've used 75#, I remember having a hard time on the push press.

So definite improvement. 

 

Followed that up with 4 rounds of: jack up car, remove summer tire, install winter tire, lower car.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 19th

It only took 8 months, but finally the powers that be put together two exercise I can do well in the same WOD.

Today was 3 sets 21-15-9 of 23" box jumps and pull-ups.

But first we did thruster for strength work, 8-5-4-4-4 did 65#, 75#, 85#, 85#, 95#.

16 straight pull-ups first round. When I got back to the box I was really winded. Had to take a second to make sure I wouldn't wreck.

My heart was pounding by the time I got to the pull-up bar the second time. Managed 6 pull-ups, then 5, and 4.
Last round I did 4 then 5.

Finished in 5:23

This was the first time my heart was the limiter. Felt great. First time I ever finished a WOD first. That felt good too.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, December 14th

Did squats today, wasn't into it. Managed 125lbs 5 reps back squat, 3 reps front squat.

No issues with my back at all, so I guess the massage really helped, just needed a bit of time to kick in. Shoulders are still a bit achy and stiff.

WOD was a 12 minute AMRAP (as many rounds as possible):
8 kettle bell snatches (change sides each round). 16kg
8 push-ups
8 ab-mat wall ball sit ups, 8lbs

Managed 5 rounds and got to 7 of 8 sit ups (1 rep away from 6 rounds).

At the gym at lunch I rolled around on a tennis ball around my scapula and found where worst of my shoulder issues are stemming from (trapezius and supraspinatus area). Worked out a lot of kinks and it feels a lot better now.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, December 13th

Ahhhhh.....

Massage yesterday afternoon, feel much better. Shoulders are fully functional and lower back is about 99% recovered.

So naturally today's WOD was dead lifts!

12 rounds for time:
5 dead lifts 115#
4x45ft farmer walk 24kg

18:03

Figured since I couldn't go heavy on the dead lifts I'd go all out on the farmer walks. Hadn't considered the impact on grip strength! Oops:

The workout called for 80% of max dead lift for weight, and I've done 235lbs before, but since my back is still recovering, I played around a bit to find a weight. I tried as high as 165lbs, but that was too much for that many reps. I almost decide not to do the WOD at all, but then decided to drop the weight all the way down to 95# and started the WOD. I quickly realized I could do more. I asked coach Isabelle to swap out the 25lbs plates for 35s taking it to 115lbs, and that was just right.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 12th

5 rounds for time:
10 wall squats (because I can't do overhead squats)
10 kettle bell swings 20kg
10 wall balls 14lbs
10 hand to toe situps (v-snaps)
10 push press 65lbs

17:41

Shoulders are sore from Jackie and the burpees from Wednesday. I thankfully have a massage later today to workout those knots.

Rx called for overhead squats, but I don't have the mobility to do them, so instead of even the front squats, Isabelle insisted I do wall squats, which means no weight, just stand inches from the wall and squat with your hands overhead going as low as you can without touching the wall. It wasn't very low! Well some weren't too bad, but that's the point.

Crossfit log for Friday, December 9th

Today we did Jackie. I like named WODs I can do Rx.

Jackie is Row 1000m, 50 thrusters (45#) and 30 pull-ups. I particularly like WODs I can do Rx that have pull-ups in them.

Last time I did Jackie, back on October 7th, I went 15:09. I had trouble with the kipping pull-ups that day, and we had done strength work before the WOD.

I was hoping for a big PB, but my back still isn't 100%, and I could feel it during the row. Thruster are rough no matter how little weight you use, that full range of motion, from deep squat to over head press just gets to you, especially have rowing 1000m! Pull-ups were solid, did 10, 10, 5, 5 with very little break between.

Went 13:55, not huge, but a PB by over a minute. I'll take it. Rack position was pretty good for the thrusters, need to work on keeping the core tight throughout.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, December 7th

Yesterday was a good workout today. Still taking it easy on my back.

For strength work we did back squats, focusing on bracing and form.
4 sets of 12-10-8-5 at 95#-115#-125#-135#.

Workout:
10 rounds of
kettle bell swings 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Burpees 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10

7:36

Used 16kg kettle bell. Could have went heavier, the burpees were the limiter, but I wanted to go easy on my back.

Crossfit log for Thursday, December 1st: The day my back went out

So last Thursday's WOD was a nice one. I saw it on the whiteboard and thought, this will be good.

Like Fran, it was 21-15-9 reps, but 95# power cleans with the pull-ups, instead of thrusters. I'm pretty good doing power cleans, and my pull ups are solid. Power cleans you don't squat to get under the bar, so you have to lift it a bit higher to get under it than a squat clean.

I'm better at hang cleans (start bar hanging at the hips, dip, thrust, shrug, get under the bar, receive on deltoids) as opposed to full cleans (dead lift from ground, thrust, shrug, get under the bar, receive on deltoids), and the WOD gave the option. Good.

Enter Ego. Laura next to me is doing full cleans. I should've let it go and just done my hang cleans. But I didn't.

On the 20th clean, first round, during the first pull, just before the thrust, my back said "That'll be enough of that!" and a pain like I have rarely felt ripped through my lower back. I didn't brace properly and I was done. F#@|<! Spent Thrusday on my back, had a massage Friday, long hot bath Saturday, and by Sunday I was fully function with about 95% range of motion.

I thought I'd be out longer, but with small kids, what choice do you really have? Ice, heat, ibuprofen and as much rest as I could muster and I'm doing pretty good.

I think my recovery has been quick because of Crossfit, all the supporting muscles are actually doing their job and supporting the weakened muscles. I think it's pretty cool.

Crossfit log for Monday, December 5th

So today, I went to the gym with the plan to take it easy. Don't do anything that caused any discomfort. Brace for every movement.

I did okay.

First thing up was bar bell rows. Wasn't sure how that was going to go, but I tried with just the empty bar and it was fine. I really braced and eased in to the movement.

So it was 4 sets of 12-10-8-5 with progressively heavier weight. Started with a couple of 10s on the 45# bar for 65# at 12 reps, and it was good. No discomfort. Added 2 10s for 85# on the set of 10, swapped out the 10s for 25s for 95# at 8 reps and finally added 10s again for 115# on the 5. That last was hard. I had to brace really tight with the core, but it was over quickly.

So okay, a little bit of discomfort, but it was manageable.

Then we did some dead hang, strict pull ups. Haven't tried these in ages. Best I've ever done is 5. We'll I'm still there, but at least I did 3 sets, not sure I could have done that before (actually I did 5, 4 and 5). Felt good, and my back wasn't in the equation at all.

The actual WOD was 4 rounds for time with incrementing reps (10-20-30-40) of:
-Wallball 20#
-ab mat sit ups (wasn't sure I'd be able to do them)
-kettle bell swings 16kg

Went easy. First round was okay, only 10, core was good on the kettle bell swings. After round 2, the kettle bell swings were harder as core was weakened from the sit ups.

Took round three really easy. And round 4 was stop and go.

Finished in 20:16.

I think I managed it nicely.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, November 30th

Really good workout today.

It was a 20 minute AMRAP:
10 Thrusters 65# (scaled was 75#, Rx 95#)
2 lengths weighted overhead walking lunges (35#) about 22 steps
2 lengths "waiter walk" 16kg kettle bell
4 lengths "farmer walk" 2 20kg kettle bells.

Did 4 rounds + 5 thrusters. Those lunges were killer after the thrusters!

Had a breakthrough finding my rack position on the thrusters. Finally! Hands wider than shoulders but elbows in at shoulder width allowed me to rest the bar on my deltoids without breaking my wrists, and more importantly not resting the bar on my fingers, but in the palm of my hand. Granted my elbows weren't as high as I'd like for say a front squat, but worked well for the thrusters. I need to try heavier now!

Crossfit log for Monday, November 29th

I want to get this down before the feeling fades.

I missed Crossfit this morning because Dex was up at around 3:30am to 4:30am and my alarm had been set for 5:30am. Well, when I got back to bed lets just say the alarm was no longer set, but I digress.

I decided to go tonight, but on Mondays the 7:30pm class (the only one I could go to), wasn't Crossfit, it was Olympic Lifting, with professional weightlifting coach Daniel Robitaille.

"Today we'll be doing the snatch". Crap. I've never done a snatch and I can't even overhead squat, a necessary part of the snatch. Thankfully he asked if there was anyone who had never done a snatch before, and sadly I was the only person to raise their hand.

"Okay, I'll keep a closer eye on you", and I suddenly felt like he was in my corner.

The first thing we did was overhead squats to warm up. I just couldn't do them. Not sure if it's a shoulder mobility issue, or a thoracic spine mobility issue, immediately Dan turns to Francois (our Crossfit coach and Dan's protégé) "You know what he needs? He needs to do a split snatch" then he turns to me and says "They don't do it anymore, but I did it in my day and held the Canadian record doing it".

He seemed almost excited by the prospect, like he'd been waiting for some time for an opportunity to teach someone this technique that had fallen into disuse.

So after a few minutes of instruction and a couple of trial lifts with an empty bar, I was doing snatches like everyone else, but in my own special way.

Then we started putting weight on the bar and working parts of the lift, just the catch, just the landing, driving with the bar across our shoulders instead of from the ground, catch it, then squat (or for me lunge), the putting pieces together until we had a bit more weight on the bar and were doing the full snatch.

It started to gel for me, and more often than not I actually looked like I knew what I was doing. To receive praise from a guy like Dan, who's been there and coached world championship bronze medallists says a lot. He asked me three times "Are you sure you've never done a snatch before".

I pulled one really good one off and from across the room I heard him yell out "Now that was a good split snatch".

It was really gratifying to have someone of his experience giving such positive praise for my effort, telling me I was a strong athlete and had great body control. Granted, he's a coach, it's his job to do that, but it felt wonderful. Really wonderful.

Crossfit log for Saturday, November 26th

Good workout today

"Helen" meets "Grace"
Helen is 3 rounds for time
-run 400m (more like 300m)
30 kettlebell swings
12 pull-ups

Grace is 30 clean and jerks (Rx was 135# men/105# women)

It was a two person teams. Both had to compete each of the three runs from Helen together, the rest could be traded of at will.

But we had to use the same kettle bell and the same bar bell.

I teamed up with Kamil, who sometimes comes to the morning workouts, we are pretty evenly match, I'm better at some things, him at others.

We agreed on 75# for the Grace, but afterward I think we agreed that 95# would've been doable.

We finshed in 14:08.

I'm stronger in the pull ups so he wanted to start them and I'd take over when he hit his limit (usually 4 or 5), so first round of Helen he did 15 kb swings, then I did 15, so he'd be ready to go on the pull ups, next round I finished the run ahead so was aloud to start the kb swings, and did 10, the he did 10 and I finished with 10 while he went to the pull up bar. Third rounds I was back first again, but could only manage 5 swings, then he did 15 and I finished with 10. It worked out well.

Grace went well, considering the fatigue from Helen. We split up the clean and jerks unevenly Kamil taking most of them (K/J : 8/7 5/5 5).

Crossfit log for Friday, November 25th

DNF
4 rounds for time:
15 Thrusters 95#/65#
20 kettle bell swings 20kg/16kg

I don't know what went wrong today. I chose the women's weight and still only managed two rounds before throwing in the towel.

I've been sore in some corners around the shoulder, 65# thrusters shouldn't be a problem for me.

Now on top of shoulder mobility, hamstring tightness I think I can add upper thoracic mobility to the mix.

Well I guess the bright side is that the more weakness I find, the more of them I can work to correct.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, November 23rd

Cindy is another one of those WODs I've been looking forward to doing, ever since I learned to do the kipping pull-up.

Finally got my chance today. Cindy is a 20 AMRAP: 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats.

Almost made it to 12: 11 + 10 squats.

My limiter was the push-ups. I think it's because I have a bunch of knots in my upper lats near the shoulder, in my delts and my traps again near the shoulder, not to mention my ticeps, tight pecs and biceps. Essentially I'm a mess.

Needless to say I'll be doing some mobility work at the gym at lunch.

After the WOD I did something called a Landmine bar twist, tabata (8 rounds of 20 seconds all out, 10 seconds rest, so 4 minutes).

Basically holding one end of a 45# barbell with the other end anchored to a pivot point on the floor, you rotate your body keeping your arms straight, bringing the bar to waist height on one side, than back up to the start position, and down the other side. Good core workout.

Feels good to get a solid workout done.

Crossfit log for Monday, November 21st

Fran really does a number on some major muscle groups.

Traps are a bit sore, lats are really sore, pecs are tight, triceps are tight, delts are sore, biceps are tight, hips are tight.

Always make for an interesting workout, next time.

Back squats went okay. No PRs to be had, wasn't looking for any!

Did 5 sets of 8-5-5-3-3 at 115-135-135-155-155.

I have an issue when I push my knees outward to open my hips, my feet tend to splay (like a duck), which is not ideal. Tight aductors aparently. So focused on that today, and it went well.

The WOD look fairly easy.
3 rounds for time
12 burpee tuck jumps
8 strict press

I went 8:04, and sucked on the presses. I can't push my body through my arms and I can't seem to lock out my elbows. Ever. I'll talk to my RMT about it, see if she has any ideas.

My triceps and shoulders were still trashed from Saturday, so I had to resort to push press by round 2.

I'll go work out the kinks at lunch at the Y.

Crossfit log for Saturday, November 19th

Today we had a choice to make. We could either do Jackie, or we could do Fran. It was an individual choice, not a group one. Two people opted for Jackie, since there were only 2 rowers, I figured it would make sense to just do Fran.

Jackie is row 1000m, 50 thrusters @ 45#, 30 pull-ups, the thrusters are light, but rough after the row, and 30 pull-ups is 30 pull-ups.

Fran is three rounds, 21, 15 and 9 reps of 95# thrusters and pull-ups, so a total of 45 each, but the thrusters are heavier and they are broken up.

I've done Jackie before in 15:09, at prescribed weight and unassisted pull-ups, but I can't to 95# thrusters and have to scale it to 75# (which took me 9:44).

I decided to try and do Fran at 85#, 10# closer to Rx.

It was rough. Took me 13 and half minutes. The pull-ups were fine, but man that 10# more make a big difference.

Some that were lighter weight and assisted pull-ups were close to 6:00 and Francois said they needed to up the weight and us less assistive bands. So I think that's my plan. I'll go back to 75# until I can go sub 7:00 or sub 6:30 before I increase the weight again.

So at the very least, I got a good plan out of today's workout.

Crossfit log for Friday, November 18th

Despite the fact that I despise Turkish get-ups, I had a great workout this am:

5 rounds for time:
10 hang power clean 85#
2 turkish get-ups 12kg - left side
2 turkish get-ups 12kg - right side

14:38. Rx for the "blue" or scaled group, which I am still solidly in.

Had to do power clean, which is fine, I can't drop into a squat to receive the bar well enough yet.

Cleans definitely got better once my arms were too tired to do the work instead of my hips and traps!

Crossfit log for Tuesday, November 15th

Today was a team WOD. Two 3 member teams
- Run 2 laps ~ 250m
- Box jumps (not sure about the height, which got lower half way through!)
- KB swing 16kg for me

While 1 member was running the other two would tally up box jumps and kettle bell swings. Getting back from the run, get the current number of box jumps from the jumper, and keep counting from there, while the jumper get the current number of kettle bell swings from the.. um.. swinger and keeps counting from that number. Swinger goes for a run. Rinse repeat. For 25 minutes.

The sum of the total numbers of swings and jumps was the score.

I was teamed up with Jennifer and Laura. Our total was 1002 (if I remember correctly 521 swings + 481 jumps)

The teams were closely matched, I think they had like 985 or something. Anyway, very close.

Crossfit log for Monday, Novermber 14th

Good workout today.

The "scaled" workout called for 5 rounds of 5 x 225# (for men, 135# for women) dead lifts and 30 x double unders.

I can't dead lift 225 twenty five times, so I scaled it further to 165#.

I started out trying to do double unders, but got frustrated and did the alternate (tuck jumps) which also suck, but don't require as much skill.

Finished in 9:27

We did weighted planks, that was interesting. I know there's been some controversy about them, but even the 10# plates are 18 inches in diameter to the weight is distributed away from the lumbar spine.

We did 3 sets of 1 minute each. The first one we did with no weight, then I tried with 20# and that went well, the next one I put on 35# (to match Laura, mother of 1 year old twins who I wasn't about to let go heavier than me!) it was tough, Felt it mostly in my shoulder, trying to hold a hollow body position. I don't love them. I think hollow rocks and event regular sit ups give a better abs workout than planks.

Beer Mile!

Today's WOD:

4 rounds for time
-drink a beer
-run 400m

Official rules can be found here.
Colour me impressed Dave B.

Much like the last beer mile with my buddy David Grant , I was slower drinking the first beer than DB and my buddy Chris, and once again ego kicked to try and catch the leaders. Although my mind was saying, take it easy, you'll catch them on the second beer.

Well apparently not, Dave just ripped through beer #2 and I was out of breath from trying to catch up. Even Chris got out of T2 before me.

I kept them close during lap 2, but tried to dial it down so I wouldn't be so out of breath and hopefully drink my way closer to first place, but still Dave was out of T3 before I even started my beer. I finally caught up to Chris on lap 3, had dropped Al and knew there was no way I'd catch Dave, although he was running pretty slow on his final lap, I knew I couldn't drink fast enough to catch him.

When I left T4 Irongirl yelled out 8:20, so I knew sub 9:00 was out of the question, but knowing I had no beer to drink I turned it on for the last lap, I wish I had taken splits. I'll try and upload my Garmin data and figure them out.

9:47 is still a PB, and my first legit distance (first was a short track, second was a "Garmin measured" trail). The Garmin Walk with Delilah and Dexter measured 410m, the extra 10m will be attributed to Garmin inaccuracy.

It was a great event, it was nice to have 4 runners, there were 2 no-shows and Rick bailed due to a sore back, which was too bad, 7 runners would've been so cool. Next time perhaps.

It sure was a wicked buzz all afternoon!

Thanks racers for coming out! Thanks fans and spectators for cheering us along, and laughing at us. Thanks Rick for the great photos.

Thanks especially to Kiza for your help and patience. You're the best.

Crossfit log for Friday, November 11th

Did back squats today:
12 - 10 - 8
115# - 135# - 135#


Remembrance Day WOD:

11 min AMRAP
11 kettle bell snatch right hand 16kg
11 pull ups
11 kettle bell snatch left hand 16kg
11 wall balls 20#

4 + 5 kb snatch right.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, November 9th

Today's Workout of the Day:
3 rounds for time:
15 Thrusters 65lbs
2 lengths kettle bell farmer walk 20kg kettle bell in each hand
15 ab-mat situps
2 lengths kettle bell farmer walk 20kg kettle bell in each hand

13:59

The first round of Thruster were rough until I found a rhythm and I was warmed up. Perhaps a better warm up next time.
Sit-ups were the worst, my abs were still sore from yesterday.

Prescribed weight for the Thrusters was 95lbs men/65lbs women, but they had a "scaled version" which was 75lbs men/45lbs women. I tried 65 to warm up and found it tough, so stuck with that. In hind sight, with a proper warm up I should have done 75lbs.

Prescribed weight for the kettle bells was 24kg men/16kg women (I don't remember the scaled numbers), here I split the difference and went with 20kg.

Strength:
Dead lifts 15-12-10-10 135# (did only 7 on the last one, I was done).

Running log for Wednesday, November 9th

So I did a treadmill workout I've been meaning to try at lunch today.

It's from an old issue of Canadian Running in a piece by Matt McInnes (http://runningmagazine.ca/2009/10/secti ... he-spring/)

He calls the workout "Frog in a pot of boiling water" and describes it thus:

Matt McInnes wrote:By the end of this workout, you’ll be running at a pace that you never would have thought possible from a cold start. Again, start at the pace of a typical moderate run. Now increase your pace by 0.5 km/hr every two minutes. How long is the workout? You decide. An appropriate starting pace will allow you to get to 20 minutes without significant exertion. (For a longer workout, increase the pace only every three or four minutes.) You’re unlikely to last beyond 30 minutes. Humans, unlike frogs, always jump out of the pot.

The treadmill I use at the Y can only be adjusted in 0.2 km/h increments so I alternated 0.4 and 0.6 km/h increases. Started at 5:39/km pace (11.6 km/h) and after 2 minutes went to 12.0, then 12.4, 13.0, etc... made it to 14:00 maxing out at 4.27/km.

I'm going to do this workout regularly and see how long I can go. I might start at 6:00/km next time for a longer workout.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, November 8th

Surprisingly good workout today. My shoulder was achy from the flu shot, but didn't seem to impact the workout.

Started with the WOD.
10 AMRAP:
-2xDead lift (I did 135#)
-10 ring push-ups

I did surprisingly well in the ring push ups, considering how lately the regular push ups have been giving me so much grief.

Managed 4 rounds + the dead lifts of round 5 and 5 push ups. I'll take it.

For strength we did 4x12 barbell rows. I did 75# and it was borderline too heavy.

Then we did ab work, 3 rounds (I did only 2 because I'm a wimp)
10 v-snaps
20 hollow rocks
1:30 hollow plank

Good workout.

Crossfit log for Monday, November 7th

Rough morning at Crossfit.

We did strict shoulder press and it sucked. I was able to do 12 the first round, but was doing them wrong. Bad back position, bad rack position, not finishing with an externally rotated shoulder, etc...

When I did them properly I couldn't get past 7 reps. And that was only 65#! Was supposed to do 12-12-12-10-8 getting heavier on the last two.

Next time, just the bar, and focus on technique. It's not like in a WOD where intensity is important, the strength portion is about just that, strength; and technique.


The WOD was brutal:
10 rounds (yes that is a one and a zero - ten)
5 burpees
10 Kettle bell swings (16kg)
15 toe to bar (ended up doing knee to elbow, because toe to bar is really really hard).

The first two rounds, trying to get my toes to the bar took a lot out of me. Made the rest of the rounds worse.

25:03

Longest WOD ever! (well not really, but it seemed that way while I was doing it).

Crossfit log for Friday, November 4th

Strength. Front Squats.
5-5-3-3-3
135-135-155-145-145

My rack position is getting better. Back is still weak, especially after the massage yesterday, Angela warned me that I wouldn't be as strong for a day or two. Thankfully, cause I sucked.

WOD
15 min AMRAP
Push Press (95#/65#) did 75# then dropped to 65#, it was impossible to keep my core braced.
22 overhead walking lunges, (45#/25#) did 35#, brutal.
30 med ball twists 20# did 20# yay me!

Managed only 3 rounds with the weight change in the middle of the second round on the push press.

It was horrible.

On the good side, I've been on this Paleo diet for almost a month and I'm down 8lbs and under 180 for the first time in a long while.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, November 2nd

Strength - Sumo dead lifts (without the high pull)
10-8-6-6-15
135#-155#-185#-185#-135# (12 reps on the last one)

185# was probably a bit too heavy, I couldn't hold my back braced for all 6 reps. But sometimes you have to push you limits to find where they are.

WOD:
4 rounds 25-20-15-10
Wall balls 20#
Push ups

I hate push ups. I did them in sets of 5, resting my burning triceps for several seconds in between sets. But at least I didn't resort to my knees. Took longer but worth it.

Time: 11:11

Core:
3 rounds of :
-15 hyper extensions,
-15 ring rows,
0:45 sec hollow plank

Then 100 ab-mat situps. Got to 50 without problem, after that is was a "just get them done". Brutal.

Crossfit log for Monday, October 31st

Strength: Back squats
5 sets of 10-8-6-4-4
Did 95#-125#-135#-155#-165#

Workout of the Day (WOD):
... 5 rounds
5 hang clean 95# (Rx was 125#)
10 burpees
4 Turkish get-ups (2 per side) 8kg (I hate these)
Time - 15:20

The hang clean is different from the regular clean in that you don't started each clean from the ground, but lift the bar to your waste and start each rep from there. Did good, as I got fatigued, I had to really focus on technique to get the bar to my shoulders.

Burpees are bearable if you can get your feet close to your hands before you get up.

Turkish get-ups are stupid.

So 165lbs squats and solid hang cleans on the plus side.
Burpees and Turkish get-ups on the minus side.

A well balanced day!

Crossfit log for Friday, October 28th

Today being my birthday I didn't know what to expect. Some times they can be brutal.

It turned out to be tough, but not ridiculously so.

20 pull-ups
20 burpees
30 kettle bell swings 16kg
30 sit ups
41 double under
41 sumo dead lift high pulls
50 Russian twists 20# med ball
100 air squats

I had a massage yesterday and it really opened my chest and traps. I was able to do the 20 pull ups unbroken. The most I've ever done before without stopping is 9.

Double unders slowed me down again but strung together a bunch of 2, 3, 4 and some 5 in a row streaks.

The twists were rough, did essentially 5 sets of 10. That worked well.

Squats got hard at 25, so that's where I broke it up and did 4 sets.

Felt pretty good about it. Halo securely in place.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 26th

Solid workout today, even it I technically DNF'd

Strength was dead lifts, my back was just recovered from Monday, and I felt pretty solid.
5 sets 12-12-12-15-20 going lighter as the reps wen up.

Did 135#-135#-135#-115#-95#

Back was good, legs were good. Forearms, were not good. Had to take short breaks in the last 12, the 15 and the 20 rep sets, I just couldn't hold on to the bar. The lifting was fine.

WOD- was brutal.
5 rounds (did only 3)
5 front squats (heavy - I went with 135#)
25 push-ups.

I had really good form (for me) on the front squat, it was heavy for me but I held my form well. The push-ups killed me. Even the first round, the 3rd I had to do them on my knees. (luckily I'm an honorary lady in the mornings, so it was all good).

Time was 8:55. Stupid push-ups.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, October 25th

Rough day at Crossfit. Back is sore from yesterday, made it hard to keep my core braced.

Strength:
Shoulder press 12 -8-6-4-4 (progressively heavier)
Actual: 65#x10 - 65#x8 (last 2 push press) - 65#x6 - 75#x4 (last one push press) - 75#x3 ugh.

WOD: 21-15-9 wallballs 20#, palm-up, bent-over, barbell rows 65#
Time: 4:26

Then we did this weird leaping med ball throw.

Crossfit log for Monday, October 24th

Back at it after 2 days off.

Strength: Back squats (yes, again).
- 3x8reps, 2x15reps (heavier/lighter).
Did 145# 8-8-6 115# 15-12

My form is improving, but it's identifying more weaknesses. Especially in my lower back.

WOD:
5 rounds for time:
5-5-5-5-5 Dead lifts (could only manage 135# after the squats)
30-25-20-15-10 double unders, (did a mix of DU and singles 3 for 1 i.e. three single count for 1 double).

I would've been faster if I'd just done triple the singles, but I wanted to at least try and get the first 10 of each set as doubles.

Again with the dead lifts, new weaknesses discovered, upper back. Holding my shoulders back and down and chest out is proving harder that I would've imagined.

I guess that means some weaknesses have gotten stronger, if new ones are suddenly becoming apparent!

Crossfit log for Friday, October 21st

Didn't like the WOD today.

Strength we did back squats again. 5 sets 10-8-6-6-6 progressively higher weight.
Did: 95#-125#-145#-145#-145#

The WOD was a 10min AMRAP:
4 Turkish get-ups (2 each arm) (8kg kettle-bell)
15 Sumo dead lift high pull (16kg kettle-bell)
15 ab-mat sit-ups
15 Goblet squats (12kg kettle-bell)
15 push-ups

This was a disaster. Get-ups really slowed me down, they are a complicated move, especially when you aren't used to them. Then I forgot the push-ups the first round.

I only got through 2 rounds and started the get-ups on the third (3 of 4), but missing 15 push-ups. What a mess.

Made up for it on the core workout.
3 rounds not timed:
10 hollow rocks
10 knee to chest
10 med ball side throws.

It started to hurt on the 3rd round, I really should've done a fourth round.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 19th

Practised Cleans. I suck. But it's a skill that takes time to develop.

There are many different pieces that just don't come naturally. You really have to train your brain. Then putting them together becomes insane.

WOD:
4 rounds for time
-24 overhead walking lunges (2 lengths of the gym) 25#. Rx was 45#  yikes!
-20 burpees (my favorite)

13:42.

My poor hamstrings and glutes.

Tuesday I ran: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=5149460

Just shy of 7km in 35 minutes.

The 2011 Wellness Challenge 5km for the GCWCC

I ran this race last year and blew up pretty bad. I had been in really good shape at the time having run my current 5km PB of 20:33 only a month later. Last year's edition of this race was just poorly executed.

I haven't done a ton of running lately, with my Crossfit Experiment in full swing, and the Army run out of the way, I've been less than motivated. But thanks to the Army run and some lunch time runs, I felt that a sub 22:00 should be attainable.

Last year I arrived just in time to get my chip and start running. This year, I entered my department as a team and got the bibs/chips in advance, so I decided to run to the venue, about 3.5km from where I work. This was a great idea. I ran relatively easy and was there with about 10 minutes to spare. I kept moving and anxiously awaited the start which was very anti-climactic. No horn, no gun. All of the sudden people were running.

This is a charity event put on by Stats Can, and the majority of the runners aren't experienced, so naturally they hadn't seeded themselves very well, even worse than normal races. So the first km was dodging slower runners. The second km was dodging somewhat faster runners who had started out too fast. I focused on running the tangents and running hard.

I pushed hard in the last km, because I was doing time math and thought I could get close to 21:00, but I ran out of steam with less than 500m to go, and just held of for dear life until I crossed the finish line. It was rough with no water stations or water belt, but I had a bottle stashed near the finish and went straight to it after the race.

I finished in 21:22 (chip) 62nd overall, which, as I just figured out, is actually faster than any of the four 5km races in 4 weeks I did at the beginning of the summer. So I have to be happy with that. Sub 20 is coming. Next season, for sure!

Crossfit log for Monday, October 17th

On Friday, despite not feeling well enough to do the WOD, I still managed the strength portion:

Front Squats 3x3 @ 145# happy with that.

I didn't feel like crap til the first round of the WOD. But I should've known better, the warm-up had me winded!

My first DNF

I don't think there is a worse feeling in the world than sitting on the side lines while your crew does a hard WOD.

I was going try and go Saturday, but I felt even worse. Thankfully Kiza let me spend most of the day in bed.

Today we did Dead lifts for strength:
4 sets 12-10-8-6
95#-125#-145#-155#
Then Kamil and I decided to add 10# and do 4 reps at 165#. It was starting to get heavy but doable.
I made the mistake of telling Isabelle that I was sure I could go over 200#, naturally she said: "Do it". So I did 205#. It wasn't that hard.

I looked at my old logs and found I had done 235# in the past (back when I didn't really know what I was doing). Next time 265# for sure, maybe even try for 275#.

The WOD was 5 rounds for time:
-5 Push press (65#)
-20 kettle bell swings (12kg)
-10 pull-ups (kipping)
-10 ab mat sit-ups

I think I was 13:55. It was rough, not fully recovered from my cold, and those KB swings were brutal.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 25th

So I've essentially done nothing since Fran. I was so sore, I spend Sunday and Monday either stretching or rolling around on a tennis or street hockey ball, to work out the kinks in my lats, traps and chest.

I was feeling better this morning, except for Delilah 4am accident, and she wouldn't go back to sleep again. Grrr. (Turns out she did fall asleep just after I left for the gym).

It was good to be back.

Strength work was barbell rows. Hard on the hamstrings.
4 sets of 8 to 12 reps. Settled on 75#
Did 8 - 12 - 9 - 12

WOD was 5 rounds for time of:
15 wallballs
15 med ball cleans
with a 20# medicine ball.
Time: 12:41

We were supposed to go lighter on the wall balls, but the girls were using the 14# one for their med ball cleans, so Kamil and I decided to just use the 20# ball for the whole thing.

Holy crap 20# is heavy! But I got 'er done. Lots of hip action on this one. Dead lifting the ball, drive with the hips and shrug to get it in the air, then get under it into a deep squat, the back up driving with the hips, then the wallballs are all about hip drive. So 30 hip drives per round x 5. Thats 150 hip drives under 20# load. Ugh.

I stretched my hip flexors at lunch, but after I ran 5km.

Ran 12:22 out and 12:18 back. Felt really good. I haven't been running enough lately.

Crossfit log for Saturday, October 8th

Fran.

On Sept 2nd, I wrote:Struggled through the thrusters, looking forward to the pull-ups (never ever thought I'd say that!) and managed a 13:22. Not bad for a first attempt.

So we tackled Fran again at Physics Crossfit today. François put a 10:00 minute cap on it. So I'm thinking: great! I won't even finish.

I put on 75# again, like last time. I knew I couldn't handle 95#.

I went all out, tried to take fewer and shorter breaks than last time, and really rifle through the pull ups. Had good practice yesterday with Jackie, so I still had the rhythm.

Thruster were still rough. After the first round I couldn't do more than 5 in a row, but my breaks were short.

I guess I've improved somewhat. Finished in 9:44! PB by 3:38. Not Rx (yet) but still a definite improvement.

Fran = 3 rounds 21-15-9 Thrusters - Pull-ups

Crossfit log for Friday, October 7th

This morning we did "Jackie" which is row 1000m, 50 reps of 45lbs thrusters, and 30 pull-ups, for time.

But first we did the strength workout: 5 sets of 5 back squats. I settle on 135lbs, and did well. Last time I did 115lbs but it was 4 sets of 10 reps. The thing is, I'm strong enough to lift it no problem, I was even able to recover one that I had lost my balance, but when doing the proper technique I have trouble, hip and should and spine mobility are the issue. I expect as these weaknesses develop I'll be able to go much heavier fairly quickly.

My time for Jackie was 15:09

Thrusters were rougher than expected after the row. Couldn't get the pull-up going, so I resorted to the band for 8 of the first 12, alternating kipping and band, getting frustrated that I couldn't get the kip going, finally after 12 I got mad and did 7 kipping then quickly did 3 more, then 7 and finally had to get back on the bar for 1 last one.

Done. Halo in place.

Lunch, I'll do the core workout we didn't have time for this am and do some mobility stuff on my shoulders.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, October 5th

Today was Glute day at Physics Crossfit.

The warmup consisted of mostly glute work. I don't know what most of it was called but here's the description:

10x kneeling with straight body, bring bum to heels and back up, keeping core and glutes tight.

30sec some kind of half bridge with feet planted, shins vertical and shoulders on the ground, pelvis in straight line between knees and shoulders.

15x pump from above position, bring pelvis to floor, and back, keeping glutes and core tight.

10x each side "fire hydrants", think dog taking a leak.

10x each side start on all fours, like "fire hydrant" but extend one leg straight back, and opposing arm straight forward, again, clenching glutes and maintaining neutral spine.

Repeat. I had a hard time keeping my pelvis from rotating sideways during the last two.

Strength: Bulgarian Split Squat (aka Isabelle's latest form of torture)
2 8kg kettle bells 4x8reps each leg.

WOD:
5 Rounds for time
Dead lift: 135# 5-5-5-5-5
Double unders: 25-20-15-10-5

Time: 7:03
135# was the perfect weight, I was able to maintain good form throughout. And I managed to string together 4-5 double unders in a row.

I did good.

Core: 75 Abmat sit-ups. Sucked. After 50, sucked even more. Actually I was solid up until the high 40s, then it got progressively harder.

Crossfit log for Monday, October 3rd

Today we did:
Strength : straight leg dead lift 4x10 @ 75#

Legs could have gone heavier but keeping my back neutral and shoulders down and back was hard.

WOD:
10 min AMRAP:
10 wall balls 14#
10 knee to chest
10 burpees (yuck)

did 5 rounds. 1st round was easy, fell apart quickly thereafter.

Core work:
Tabata Russian Twists. Brutal.

Tabata Bench dips. This was not such a good idea and not really traditional Crossfit to be doing such an isolated movement. Triceps are gonna be sore.

Bonus workout carrying both kids down the stairs at the same time (very slowly).

Crossfit log for Monday, October 1st

Today we did Fight Gone Bad.

Designed for an MMA fighter, when asked what he thought of it after he'd finished it he said: "That felt like a fight, gone bad".

The workout is high intensity 5 minute rounds with 1 minute break.

Each round is five stations for 1 minute each:

Push Press - Rx 75#/45# for reps
Row for calories
Wall ball - Rx 20#/14# (I did 14#) for reps
Sumo dead lift high pull - Rx 75#/45# for reps
Box jumps - Rx 20" (I did 22") for reps

Each rep or calorie is a point.

My total: 176

Didn't puke.

Core workout post FGB

We did :
10 V-snaps (aka hand to toe sit-up or v-ups http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aviRfr_y4N4)
30 Hollow rocks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzxiORnGYAE)
0:30 plank.

SUCKED! OMG the hollow rocks were so hard because everything was so fatigued already. Ugh.

Crossfit log for Friday, September 30th

This morning at Physics Crossfit:

Strength: Back Squats 4x10 @ 115#
Got good external rotation in the hips, pushing my knees out as I squatted. Form wasn't perfect, but some elements were really good.

WOD: (with a 12kg kettlebell)
15min AMRAP:
5 kettlebell snatch left side
10 goblet squats with kettlebell
5 kettlebell snatch right side
Run 1 lap (approx. 130m)

Managed 8 rounds, left on the run with 22 seconds left on the clock, got back it was already at zero, so I don't know how far over I was, or if the last run should really count, but meh. Did 8 rounds.

Muscle fatigue wasn't a factor, next time go heavier with the kettlebell.

Ran at lunch.

5.63km in 27:30 (4:53/km) comfortably hard.

Crossfit log for Thursday, September 29th

Did the "Washboard" at the Y today:
2 rounds of:
12 GHD extensions
1:00 plank
20 sit-ups (no ab mat thankyouverymuch)
20 Mountain climbers (crossfit style!)

Second time around was rough.

Ran on the treadmill for 10 min, then did some mobility exercises on my shoulders.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, September 28th

Day 2
No strength work today.
Did a weird drill:
Lateral wall walk, bear crawl, jump over bench, more bear crawl, crab walk, jump over bench, more crab walk. 3x.

Jumping was tough, my hams weren't 100% after Monday's dead lifts, so the first couple of jumps I almost didn't make it.

WOD:
2 rounds of:
Run 2 laps (approx: 260m)
50 double kettle bell swings (one kb in each hand)
25 knees to chest (hanging from a pull-up bar)
25 alternating jumping lunges (sucked)
50 air squats (could really feel it in the hips near the end)

It was tough, but not too tough, I was able to sustain my effort throughout without taking huge breaks. 16:25 not bad.

Everything seems to tie in to strengthening the core, which I'm beginning to realize is even more important than I've always thought.

Yoga at lunch.

Crossfit log for Monday, September 26th

First day of "Foundation" classes at Physics Crossfit.

Got my little black log book, to track my progress. Feels like being in school. We'll see how long that lasts

Warmed up on the rower for 400m then walking with a kettle bell in various positions: over head, at shoulder, "suit-case walk" while holding core tight to prevent wobbling and leaning.

Then did the strength portion: Dead lifts 3x 8-10
Settle on 145# did 10-8-7. Form got sloppy on second set, and Isabelle suggested going down to 135# next time, but I think if I focus more I'll be fine. I'll try again at 145# and if my form suffers again, I'll drop to 135#. promise.

The WOD was body weight only:
3 rounds for time of:
30 ring rows
30 push ups
30 double under

Which didn't seem bad, until I noticed the "3" rounds. Ugh. 2 would've been manageable, for 3 rounds of 20 reps would have been nice. But 3 of 30 was brutal.

Yuck. 18:38

Then we did the ab workout.
12 GHD hip extensions,
1 min plank,
20 ab mat sit ups,
20 mountain climbers (of which I did 4)

My whole body is going to be in agony tomorrow (and likely Wednesday).

Stretched the crap out of everything at lunch. Hopefully that will stave off the DOMS!

Crossfit log for Friday, September 23rd

Missed my first CF class this AM (due to a bed wetting incident, don't worry it wasn't me).

I'm feeling pretty bummed. Only had 1 real workout this week, so I was itching to do something, but thought I really should do some mobility stuff.

So today at lunch I stretched the crap out of my shoulders and hips. This is going to take time.

Crossfit log for Thursday, September 22nd

Did the final On Ramp session yesterday.

More mobility issues. We saw the press series, should press, push press, push jerk.

I cannot for the life of me, get my straight arms overhead behind the plane of my body without arcing my back. And that's just one example.

It bugs me that my limiter is my mobility/flexibility. I really shouldn't be surprise, much of the trouble I had with my swim was from shoulder mobility.

So the bad news is I'll need to put myself through the wringer to work out these kinks, but the good news is that if I am successful my next triathlon training cycle will benefit tremendously.

The adventure begins.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, September 20th: an exercise in frustration!

Got up early to go to l'Usine this morning. I have two classes left, so I figured why not use one now while I wait for my final On Ramp session at Physics.

Got out of the house a couple of minutes later than I needed to, so I walked fast, but alas, the two buses I could've taken zoomed by before I got to the bus stop.

And thanks to the new services from OC Transpo, it was a good 15 minutes before the next bus came along. I get to the Rideau Center and it's almost 7:45, the bus I needed to catch left 5 minutes ago.

So I hope on another bus that takes me to Terrace de la Chaudiere station where my bus stops, closer to the gym. But before crossing the bridge at Lebreton, the operator just sits at the light for THREE CYCLES! I was not happy.

Get to Terrace Station, and the bus has already gone, quick look at the maps, and calls to the info line and it's 7:05 and the next bus is in 11 minute. CRAP!

There is no way I'm missing this workout because of stupid public transportation, not again. Not after dragging my butt out of bed at 5:30 after only 6 hours sleep (if that)!

So I ran. With three bags, I ran the 3km in 15 to 20 minutes. When I got there I was warmed up. They'd already started 14 minutes earlier, so I jumped in.

"What are we doing?" I said. "What aren't we doing?" was the reply from Reza.

Here's the WOD.
100 burpees (really?)
90 double-unders (tried doubles, did singles)
80 squat jumps (really??)
70 double-unders (did singles)
60 box jumps (come on!)
50 double-unders (did singles)
40 burpee thrusters (what sicko invented these?)
30 double-unders (Reza made me do 3x singles, grrrr so 90!)
20 jump over the box (this is just stupid!)
Run to stop sign & back (approx 550m).

34:55

Lots of sweat.

Also, I ran 4.73km at lunch. To Pretoria bridge and back.

24:27 (5:10/km on trashed legs).

Hard fought Army Run Pace Bunny Report

That was hard.

My training has been more Crossfit than running, and most of my running was geared towards the series of 5km races in the spring and early summer, I mean, I haven't run for much more than 1h without stopping since last year's Army Run. In the weeks leading up to the race, I really wasn't sure I'd be able to pull it off.

As a parent, leaving Delilah and Dexter with our friends Jo-Jo and Andrea was hard enough, but I was so worried about the race that it didn't occupy my mind for very long.

Then somehow, standing in the corral with 20 minutes to go, I knew I would do it. I knew that I would make it happen, even if it hurt, I had it within me to push myself, to make sure I didn't let these people down. Suddenly the nerves were gone. I was calm.

A friend of mine in the military, Ken, and I found each other in the corral and waited for the Howitzer to go off. Fellow RunningMania members Marg and Carla spotted us and came by for hugs. Carla joked that she and Ken, both from Alberta, had to cross the country to meet up for a hug! Then they went to find their corral, and soon, it was time to go.

So it was that, armed with the Coolest Race Shirt Ever (thanks Cynthia), my rabbit ears and good old pace bunny sign from every other Army run (with my splits taped to the back), I took off to the exploding sound of a Howitzer.

Starting with an up hill to the War memorial is never fun, but then you get to enjoy the long steady downhill from Parliament to the Portage bridge which really helps you sort out your pace for the first kilometre.

As we passed the War Museum I kept watching my Garmin, to make sure I was on pace. The paranoia of the pace bunny can get pretty severe. It seemed every time I looked up from my Garmin, Ken was right there in front or beside me. It was around this point, before the 4km turn around that I started making a mental note of the people around me. Besides Ken, there was "Ponytail girl", TEAM guy and the girl I presume he was pacing, yellow shirt sweaty guy and a few others, who would end up staying with me most of the way to the end. It was also around this point that the fasties started coming back the other way, which was very cool and inspiring. I yelled out a couple of time, but mostly my cheers were for the other bunnies, or people I knew.

On the way back I got a shout out from Cynthia, Denise and Al, but somehow missed Kiza.

Bunny paranoia also requires that you verify you splits, because, you know, Garmin isn't 100% accurate and technology has been known to fail. My splits were consistently 15 to 20 seconds ahead, which I figured was good, since the hilly Gatineau side would cost me some time.

Just before crossing the bridge into Quebec, I see this guy standing on concrete divider, cheering us on, and I said "Hey, I know that guy", it was none other than  Dave Grant another one of the RunningMania crew. Gave me a real boost as we headed for the worst of the hills.

It's funny, I didn't really notice the unattractive area of Gatineau the race took us through, it was just the hills. A corner followed by a hill, followed by a corner, followed by a hill, followed by another corner and another hill. "The next one is a heart breaker" I yelled as we turned on to Hotel de Ville and faced a short but steep climb. I was glad when that was behind us.

Even after the hilliest parts, my splits were still 10 seconds ahead. I figured, take it while I can, it'll get harder before the end. As we crossed the bridge back into Ottawa, I was feeling really good, but I didn't want to get too confident, a bit more than half way to go, there was still plenty of time for things to go wrong.

It was around this point that I lost sight of Ken, this worried me briefly, but I had to focus on my job.

So far I had made pretty good use of the water stations, and hadn't even touched my bottle of Gatorade, but at the Foreign Affairs building, after the overpass, I started to notice the heat, and the balance of my water went on my head instead of the ground.

The kilometre markers were coming in rapid succession now, it seemed I hardly had time to look up the expected time for the next split and we were upon it. Thankfully still several seconds ahead.

Coming back from the Governor General's estate, who should show up beside me, David Dazé, preparing for Chicago. His marathon race pace was close enough to my pace that he decide to join me for a while. It was my favourite part of the race. (His too I would guess, because he got a ton of cheers due to bunny proximity!!) We had a pretty good chat along Sussex, which would seem to indicate that I wasn't pushing too hard to hold pace.

We got a shout out from the Jesses and finally, Kiza, who had to cross the median and practically run into on coming runners on my side to get my attention as we crossed paths at the Foreign Affairs building water station.

The hardest part of the race for me came just after the 17km marker. Perhaps it wasn't in the right spot, but for the first time my time was behind the schedule for 17km, by less than 3 seconds, but I had been over 10 seconds ahead. This might not have been so bad, but 17km is just before the long slow steady incline that is MacKenzie between St-Patrick and Rideau. I knew I had to pickup the pace to stay on track, let alone get back to where I was, but this far in to a half marathon on that incline, I had to work so hard, and I felt so slow. For the first time I felt doubt. I complained audibly enough for Dave to come to my rescue. "It gets better up ahead, we'll make it up, no problem". Of course he was right. And that was exactly what I needed to hear. Just hold on over this bump in the road and everything will work it self out. Thanks Dave, I owe you one.

The worst was over, but I was still working hard, there was still plenty of time to fall apart. At Pretoria bridge I didn't even think to look for Jo-Jo so focused was I.

David had put on his final kick with just over 2km to go. I had to remind myself of my job so I didn't try and follow him in!

The last kilometre was rough. David Grant appeared out of nowhere to cheer us in to the finish. Then the crowds carried us. The last few hundred meters were autopilot. The clock said 1:50:45 when I last saw it and Garmin said 1:49:34, so I knew I had done my job. I downed my nearly full Gatoraid bottle and went in search of my kids.

I was happy with my performance. I was under 1:50 chip, which I hadn't been the last two years (1:50:07 and 1:50:28) and knowing that I can pull off a 1:50 half with a few long runs and residual fitness makes me feel proud and confident.

I like this gig. Being "the" 1:50 continous pace bunny of the Army Run is a very cool job indeed. Now I'll have to add 2012 to the back of my shirt before next year. (And hopefully run longer than an hour straight, between now and then)!!!

Crossfit log for Thursday, September 15th

Session 2 of 3 of the "On ramp"

Not as bad as the squats! Reviewed dead lifts, sumo dead lifts high pull, med ball cleans and GHD sit-ups and hip extensions.

When done right, these moves really tax your hamstrings.

Time to take a break from Crossfit until after the Army Run.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, September 13th

Wow. Just got my ass handed to me and we didn't even use any weights.

Went to the mandatory "on ramp" session at the new Crossfit gym. I have a lot of work to do, to get more flexible and strengthen my core. Everything in Crossfit depends on the core.

We did simple stuff. Some rowing, a variety of squats, Kettle bell swings, Hollow body rocking, pushups.

Francois is like a Nazi, "Tight core", "Tight core", "Tight core"!

I'm gonna feel it tomorrow.

Crossfit log for Monday, September 12th

Did the recovery workout:

Two rounds of 15 of:
-GHD sit-ups
-GHD hip extensions
-16kg Kettle Bell swings
-Push-ups
-Pull-ups
-Air Squats

it was nice to be able to do the pull-ups.

Only did two rounds, but still 30 reps, then did a bunch of mobility stuff. Ankle, adductors, hips, etc... then I tried to hold a full squat position and it was way better than last time I tried.

Crossfit log for Saturday, September 10th: The Physics adventure begins.

First WOD at the new Gym: Physics Crossfit.

Really nice facility. There were over 20 people, being the last free class of their opening week so we made 6 teams of 4 and each member had to wait until the person ahead of them had finished an exercise before starting. It was kinda neat. Not your standard Crossfit fare, but then again, at Crossfit you need expect the unexpected.

Of course I didn't get my time in all the confusion, but it was fun nonetheless.

Here is the WOD:

50 double unders (or 100 singles)
20 sit-ups
50 air squats
20 burpee pull ups
30 med ball side toss (15 each side)
Run 300m

I only did 15 burpee pull ups, and realized it during the side tosses, so I went back and found some room at the bar and did the 5 along side my team mate.

It was fun. Really pumped that it's so close. They'll have 6:00am classes, so I could be home before 7:00 to help with the kids and get ready for work.

This is awesome.

Crossfit log for Thursday, September 8th

This AM's WOD:

for time:
-Run to red slide and back (860m approx.)
- 21 Press (65#)
-Run to red slide and back (860m approx.)
- 21 Push Press (65#)
- Run to red slide and back (via shortcut) (770m approx.)
- 21 Jerk Press (65#)

Press was hard. Push press was easy. Push jerk was near impossible.

Done. Halo in place.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, September 7th

10 minute squat test

This was hard.

WOD was a fail.

Was going to do the CFE WOD
12:00 AMRAP
12 Front Squats 155#/115#
15 Ring Dips

Kenny at the Y had some rings the other day, and I expected them to be available. Bad assumption. He'd brought them home (as they are his own). Practiced Front Squats, but got frustrated with my poor position made evident by the above mobility WOD.

I did manage a solid 135# front squat, with fairly good racking position, but my feet automatically splay when I squat. Grrrr.


Yesterday's WOD:

1 round for time: Run 15km.

Did 15.5 in 1:22:37

Crossfit log for Monday, September 5th

It's been 3 days and I'm still sore from Fran.

Went to L'Usine anyway, because it's gonna hurt no matter what. Turned out okay.

We did "Death by Clean and Jerk" where you start with 1 rep / minutes and each minute add 1 rep until you can't finish the number of resp within the minute.

I've not really done Clean and Jerk before. Done each separately, but not together. So it was novel, and I got to practice my clean, which I'm actively working on.

Tried 95# again, but it wasn't happening, so dropped to 75# and managed 7 rounds, while the other went on to 8 and 10 rounds I just practised my clean.

Afterwards I tried to practise my kipping pull-ups and I couldn't even get one. My lats are so sore from Fran I just couldn't get it. Crazy!

Crossfit log for Friday, September 2nd: First time Fran

I tried to 95lbs thrusters, I really did. But there was no way.

Even warming up with 75lbs (45lbs bar and 2 15lbs bumpers) I was thinking I wouldn't manage much more. So I added two 10lbs weights to make the 95lbs and I'd try to get through the first round (21 reps) and if I had to, I'd just quickly take off the 10s to a more manageable 75lbs.

We after two reps into the first round, the 10s came off. There was just no way.

Thankfully the kipping pull ups were awesome! 10 in a row. I could never do 10 strict pull-ups in a row!

Felt good to get something right.

Struggled through the thrusters, looking forward to the pull-ups (never ever thought I'd say that!) and managed a 13:22. Not bad for a first attempt.

Yay me!

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 31st

Interesting workout today: Bear Complex: clean, squat, press, back squat, press.

This is what it looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WOP9J7QPwI

Our WOD was
15 reps @ 95#/65#, 2min rest
15 reps @ 65#/45#, 2 min rest
3min AMRAP @ 65#/45#

The AMRAP was the real test.

Chose to do the Women's weight again, I may try this again in the future with the men's weight. Just to see.

was 13:50 for the first 2 parts and managed 11 reps in the 3:00 AMRAP. Sweat buckets.

But the big breakthrough came before the WOD, we worked on kipping pull-ups. It clicked. I managed to string together 3 in a row. My hands were sore from yesterday's workout, but I'm definitely looking forward to practising these some more. It was very cool.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, August 30th

After a warm up and a frustrating time trying to find max shoulder press, (no racks with enough space over head for me to press, or not attached to a bench) I did the WOD from the Crossfit Endurance site:

3 rounds for time:
Row 500m, rest 2:00
21 Kettle bell swings 20kg, rest 2:00
12 pull-ups, rest 2:00

28:48

Pull-ups again were my Achilles heel. Did what I could without bands.

Crossfit log for Monday, August 29th

Did power cleans today.
3-3-3-3-x
45#-65#-95#-115#-135#

One of the 95# went really well. I've been practising my technique on the clean, and racking position at the top, following the Burgener warm-up and what not. And I guess one of them the planets aligned and it was really easy. So I'm getting better, but after that, it wasn't gelling anymore.

Should have tried 125#, but once I added the two 10lbs plates I wasn't turning back, and when I failed 2 attempts, I was done. I wanted to get out for my run.

Ran 5km hard. Warmed up to Laurier. Ran hard to the Ritz (10:42), took 2:00 to get some water in me, then ran easier back (12:49) plus 800m from the Y to the bridge and back at an easy pace. (total 36:09 for 6.46km - 5:35/km avg pace).

Now I'm hungry!

Running log for Saturday, August 27th

Ran the Army run route Saturday morning. 2:04 and change.

Might have made sub 2 if I hadn't stopped to help a young lady who was having trouble getting the chain back on her bike. (it was one of those "is everything okay"? courtesy comments, expecting her to say, everything's fine, but turn out it wasn't, so kinda had to jump in and help)!

It was a good run.

Crossfit log for Thursday, August 25th

Did Reza's WOD from last week:
2 rounds:
50 double unders
40 wall balls
30 kettle bell swings
20 pull ups
10 front squat (95/65)

Failed on DUs, did 100 singles instead.
Only had 7kg med ball (felt heavier)
16kg Kettle bell
Pull-ups really slowed me down (no bands at the Y)
Still can't rack the front squat properly but did 95# all the same.
Tough workout.

24:58

Running log for Wednesday, August 24th

Kilometre repeats on the treadmill:

2km @ 6:00/km
1km @ 4:41/km
4:00 recovery @ 6:00/km
1km @ 4:36/km
4:00 recovery @6:00/km
1km @ 4:32/km

34:37 6.5km (5:19/km avg. pace)

Wanted to do 4, but the third one was rough, so that was that, Still a better interval session than I've had in a very long time.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 24th

Made it to the gym today.

Warm up was simple (Reza's back) 30 air squats, 10 hip rotations, 10 arm rotations, 30 air squats (had practiced a few double unders before hand).

Skills, we worked on handstands and handstand walk (not) and rolls (aka somersault). I did surprisingly well except the handstand walk part.

Then to the WOD:
3 rounds:
30 second L-Sit
5 ring dips
10 pull-ups (strict)
15 push-ups (hand release)
1 min rest

The L-Sit I did in 1 10 second and 4 5 second stretches. The first round (which I was using 35lbs dumbbells on the floor to grip),
I was impressed that I managed 5 ring dips. (3+quick break + 2)
The pull ups, I figured I could do 5 on my own, I should be able to handle 10 with the purple (medium) band. But the 9th and 10th were really tough, and this was just round 1.
Push up were okay, after the ring dips, getting the 15 done was hard near the end.

Round 2 sucked. After over a minute of trying to get my feet off the ground, I gave up on the L-sit.
Ring dips were really tough, did 2, then break then 1, 1 and 1 with breaks in between.
Pull ups were 4, break, 2, break, 2, break, 1 break 1. Ugh.
Push-ups, just took more time.

Round three, went to the L-Sit between to boxes, this way I didn't need to get my feet above my hips, which is bad form, but at least I did it (20 seconds break 10 seconds) which was better than round 2!
I could only do 1 dip, so I opted for the scaled option: regular triceps dips using a box. Way easier.
Pull-ups, switched to green (large) band, and zipped through 10. (maybe I should've just added a black band, oh well).
Push through the push-ups and done!

14:16.

I didn't like this workout, I felt it hammered the triceps too much. Really didn't like the L-sit.

Running log for Tuesday, August 23rd

Opted for a run today, before the humidity returns tomorrow.

Went to Bronson. 10.8km
5:20/km going out, 5:16/km coming back.

Felt good.

Crossfit log for Monday, August 22nd

Post Midsummer night's run workout.

Did the recovery workout:
3 sets (not timed) of 12 reps each:
GHD sit-ups
GHD hip extensions
16kg kettle bell swing
hand release push ups
air squats
165lbs pull downs

was able to do 8 uninterrupted pull downs at 165lbs. Then did the 4 after a short break.

Felt good. Stretched a lot.

My legs keep no pace with my desire - A Midsummer Night's Run

Well I lived up to the theme of this year's midsummer night's run.

"My legs keep no pace with my desire..."

My goals weren't aggressive, but the humidity and the killer Crossfit workout Thursday morning weren't a good mix. As a confidence builder for pacing the Army Run (1:50 continuous) I wanted to hold 5:00/km pace and I wanted to take no walk breaks. Missed the mark on both counts.

I drove to Kitchener Friday after work and had a reasonable night's sleep, but come morning I could still feel my glutes and hams after the walking lunges from Thursday morning's Crossfit WOD. I had brought a street hockey ball and sat on that most of the day to try and work out the kinks. I think Advil would have been a good idea, but it didn't occur to me until after. So I rolled, I stretched, I squatted, anything I could think of to get in race shape by the evening.

I spent a couple of hours at a business seminar my older sister wanted us to attend, so I was off my feet and rolled that hockey ball a lot.

I drove down to the race start and got my kit, then went to my friend Lesley's (thank you gracious host) and got ready. And after getting a $40 parking ticked, headed back to the race start area where I ran in to a few running friends. Just before the start of the 15km, I went for a warm up run backward along the 30km route, I figured I might see some of my friends running the 30km, and as luck would have it, I ran into Jesse, and ran a fun couple of hundred meters with her.

The race started pretty well, I had to work hard to keep my pace slow, and I succeeded for the most part, I was hitting the kilometre markers at 5:00 bang on. At 5km some guy asked me what our time was and it was 25:00 even. The next 5km got harder, I'd often be slipping in my pace, slower than 5:15s, but i was always able to pick up it up as soon as I noticed and keep my average pace at 5:00/km. I spotted Lesley on my way back from the turn around and she was having a good race. She was working hard, to be sure, but she wasn't hurting. It was gonna be good. We (me and the guy from 5km) hit the 10km marker at 50:31, so slipping a bit, but acceptable variance. There was still 5km to go, so it wasn't a big deal.

But it started to get harder to pick it up when I noticed I was lagging. I started to get sore in place I don't normally get sore: my knees, IT band/TFL. My legs were trying to compensate for my under performing glutes and hams. Then I got the water station just before 12km and the volunteer hadn't been keeping up filling cups of water, as I ran past the station I had been unable to nab a cup.

Right after passing the station I came to the realization that I'd really been looking forward to some water (I only had gatoraid on me) so I stopped and went back to get some and they had to fill one for me as none were ready.

I thereby aborted goal #2. From that point it just kept getting harder and harder. Pace was slipping and it looked more and more like goal #1 was going to happen either, so I just gave up. I ran with what I could muster, I took a couple more walk breaks. In the last two km, a group of 3 runners passed me, going marginally faster than I was, I picked it up to try and follow them in, and I held on to them for good stretch, but ultimately I couldn't and did the unthinkable, I walked in the last kilometre of a race!

I crossed the finish line, spent. 1:19:42, worse than last year, if that was at all possible. Got my giant medal and awesome water bottle. But I felt defeated. I'm still  glad I did it, my body will adapt stronger for it.

I didn't stick around after the race. I had a long drive back to Ottawa ahead of me and figured the sooner I got the road the better. I was treated to a fantastic lightening show in the last hour and a half of the way home which had me laughing out loud it was so awesome.

I've had some great runs lately, but in cooler, dryer weather, so I'm NOT really worried about the Army run, but a solid long run next weekend would be really nice.

Crossfit log for Thursday, August 18th

Early morning to get to l'Usine. Yawn!

Started with a 1 mile run. I think their measurement is short, I was 6:55, but it didn't feel like a 7:00/mile pace.

Any way, the we worked on hand stand push up skills. I have none. Managed to get a handstand going, but as soon as I locked out my shoulders it would push my body forward away from the wall.

I got one half push up. Meaning from hand stand, head to ground, but not back up. Ended up doing them with my feet on the ground, in a downward dog pike position (similar muscle recruitment).

The WOD was only 15min AMRAP, so to fill the time Reza added 150 weighted walking lunges (I thought he's said 100, so that's what I did, oops). ****.

The WOD was simple enough:
5 min AMRAP of each: Push-up, Sit-up and HSPU.

I managed 63-76-15 for a total of 154. I'll take it.

Run at lunch, rest day tomorrow, race on Saturday.

Running log for Thursday, August 18th

Brutal post lunges, pre rainstorm, stifling heat 5km run at lunch. (29min and change),

Sucked big time.

On the bright side the steam room at the Y is fixed now! Yay!

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 17th

Did some front squats. Have a hard time racking the bar. Not sure if it's a wrist, triceps or shoulder issue. (likely all three )

Did 3-3-3-3
65#-95#-115#-145#

Then I did 5 rounds for time of
-10 Push press 57.5#
-10 box jumps
in 6:03

Nothing crazy, but an okay workout.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, August 16th

Reza's mini vacation continued today, so it was David, the owner who was on hand to torture us.

Like Robin (and unlike Reza) the warm-ups are a workout in themselves.

Normally the skills work is related to the workout, but the workout didn't include and skills-based movements, so we chose Cleans.

I'm starting to get it, my brain just has to process everything before my body will do it, but I'm getting there.

WOD was straight forward: 50 pull-ups.

But...
If you stop, you have to do 5 kettle bell swings and 5 burpees.

Started with the Green (thickest) band, but had the black (narrowest) installed in case I needed it. I took a page out of John Stanton's book and decided to do 10 at a time instead of going to failure before hitting the KB swings and burpees. I figured I would suffer less at the end that way.

Worked well enough, first 10 (=10)were okay, second 10 (=20) were hard to finish, third 10 ended at 5 (=25). So I made it halfway on the green band alone. Added the black band and that made a big difference, did 10 fairly easy (=35), again the second 10 (=45) was getting tough at the end, then just had 5 to do which was a snap. Part of me says I should've tortured myself and stuck with the green band only, but, meh, it's done.

Ran at lunch, 8.93km in 48:21

Hot in the sun. Nice in the shade.

Crossfit log for Monday, August 15th

Was supposed to go to Crossfit this am but after my 18km run last night in a puny thunderstorm, I decided last night to bail.

Good call, as Delilah decided she was done sleeping at 2:00am and didn't fall back to sleep until 5:00am. Grrrr.

So I zombied over to the Y at noon and did the recovery day workout

Three rounds of 12 of
-GHD sit-ups
-GHD hip extensions
-16kg Kettle Bell swings
-Push-ups
-Pull-downs (instead of pull ups 150#)
-Air Squats

Was able to do 12 reps on the pull down at 150#, tried to up it to 165# on second rep, but couldn't get past 8. Did 12 @ 150# on the third rep. Pleased with that.

Everything seemed easier than last time. Good sign I guess.

Last night's run was solid too.

Definitely Crossfit tomorrow am.

Cheers.

Crossfit log for Friday, August 12th

Made it to l'Usine. Reza wasn't there, Robin, another instructor was. Not as sadistic as Reza, but more by the book.

Still it was intense for a first time back in over 3 weeks. The nausea is just passing now (1 hour post workout).

The warm up was brutal. run 550m, 20 burpees, run 420m, 10 burpees, then some dynamic stretching: leg swings front/back, side/side, then hug 1 knee to into a walking lunge, then spiderman walk, the elephant walk.

Then into the workout, "Jackie" 1000m row (4:06) followed by 50 thrusters (35#) and finally 30 pull-ups (green band). I had a hard time getting into the thrusters after the row and lost a lot of time. Pull-ups are pull-ups, even with the green band to assist me 30 is a lot.

But it's done. Halo securely in place for the day!

Cheers.

total time 19:20.

Running log for Thursday, August 11th

So my back is sore. I didn't go to l'Usine this morning.

But it's a good sore, a DOMS sore, not a "I think I pulled something" sore, so it will be stronger. Which is the whole point.

Crossfit tomorrow.

Ran instead. Cool weather felt nice.

Went 7km in 35:10 (4:58/km) http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=4711065

18:03 there (5:06/km), 17:07 back (4:50/km)

Very happy with this. The way back was hard, but good hard.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, August 10th

Need to get back to l'Usine.

Did 500m row to warmup, 2:05

Did 3-3-3-3-3 Dead lifts

95#-135#-185#-205#-235# new PR. I think I could lift more, but it would not be good for my back. Next time I'll aim for 250#

Then I did 3 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups and 15 sit-ups. 4:20.

Then I stretched and called it a day.

With my luck tomorrow's WOD at l'Usine will be dead lifts!

Crossfit log for Friday, July 22nd to Sunday, August 7th

Okay,

Just coming to the end of 2 weeks of vacation and I haven't been completely idle.

I did 2 Crossfit workouts while at the lake, on one my own, 5 rounds of 20 squats, 15 sit-ups, 10 push-ups and one with my Kiza's cousin who is also a Crossfitter.

We found a big metal pipe and put a big metal pry bar in it and estimated its weight at ~75# He did Fran (21-15-9 for time of Thrusters, Pull ups) and I substituted sit-ups for the pull-ups.

Was just under 6:00.

I got a couple of runs in and officially started training for Army run pace bunny duties with a 16km run yesterday morning.

Crossfit log for Friday, July 22nd

I missed the class this AM, snooze button on my cellphone is too small for my 5:30am fingers to find correctly

So I did the WOD from the CFE site:
15:00 AMRAP
10 Back Squats 95# it called for 135#
15 KB Swings 20kg it called for 1.5pood which is closer to 24kg
20 GHD Sit-ups

Did 4 rounds + up to 5 GHD sit-ups.

Not bad. Worked really hard on keeping a neutral back and outward rotating my hips during the squats.

Dave Grant's Beer Mile

Dave was totally I'm gonna kick ass here dudes, and he drank his first beer pretty quick so I was nervous cause in my other beer mile, my fisrt beer was my fastest and it just got slower from there, but i tried top ace my self, but I couldn't let him jkust run awayu, so i tried to stay with him in the first 400 bad idea managed to get my breathing under control and finshed my beer before him

NOw I was runnin gmy own pace and was better for it, not so out o f breath at beer 2 and 3. Afer beer 4 i ran for all i was worht since didn't need to save breath for another beer.

Broke 10 minutes!!! YEAH!@

9:52!  I ROCK!!!!!

Crossfit log for Thursday, July 21st

Back feels good today. A bit sore, but a good sore, like "I worked hard" sore, not "I can't bend over" sore.
Shoulders are sore too.

Today's WOD at the Y.

5 rounds of:
10 wall balls
10 t2b
10 push ups
10 sit ups
10 double-unders

Harder than I expected it to be.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, July 20th

Good WOD today. Tough one.

10 rounds of: max rep. 65% 1RM Clean, max rep. pull-up. 30min time limit.

Pause more than 5 seconds and you're done, let go of the bar and you're done.

Don't know my 1 rep max clean, so picked a relatively light weight I felt I could manage (85lbs). We could only use one band, but all the green ones were taken, so I use purple.

12/6, 10/5, 12/5, 10/5, 9/5, 6/3, 7/4, 7/4, 3/2, 0/0

I really focused on keeping my back neutral during the cleans. and felt good. It's a bit sore now, but a good sore, not like last week. We'll see how if feels tomorrow.

Next time I think I'll go even lighter using the 15lbs bar instead of the 35lbs "women's" bar.

Crossfit log for Monday, July 18th

Wow, a day off followed by a weekend trip to visit family and suddenly I've had 4 days off.

Back is much better, so I eased back in to it and did the recovery day workout (15 reps of push-ups, GHD situps, GHD extensions, air squats, pull-ups (did 170lbs on the pull-down machine)) then I added some shoulder press (also 15 reps).

Then I got on the treadmill for 10 minutes, then stretched. My back soreness is more related to my hips, hams and glutes than anything else, so I gave them a good stretch.

Back at it tomorrow AM.

Crossfit log for Wednesday July 13th

Practised double-unders today with my brand new skipping rope.

Bounced around like an idiot for 15 to 20 minutes and got a couple of good runs, 5 and 6 in row and managed once to do 8 in a row. Surprisingly exciting accomplishment.

Did some GHD situps and hip extensions. (10 of each)

Then I got on the rower and did 1500m in 6:12. Solid, but exhausting.

I was hoping to get 10 double-under in a row, but I'm happy with 8, if felt really good to string them together like that.

But mostly I feel sore. All the time. It seems like I'm putting my body through the ringer ever other day. But them sometimes I feel strong. I jumped on the rower the other day for 500m and felt awesome, better than I've ever felt, holding pace seem effortless.

My running isn't improving, yet. I need to be more disciplined and do the intervals and not bail and go for a long run, like yesterday.

I'm really looking forward to getting on the bike, maybe in the fall, and see how that feels. Or in the pool, with all this upper body work I hope to see some improvement there too.

Really now I need to be patient and do the work and look for results later, if I look now I'm afraid I'll get discouraged and throw in the towel prematurely.

Running log for Tuesday, July 12th

I decided instead of intervals to go for a long run.

Long being just under 9km, since I haven't run over 5km in ages.

Next time I get a hair brained idea like that, someone make sure I don't do it on a day that's 80% humidity and if feel like 30ºC

But I did it. Stopped at every water fountain, but I did it. 50:51 5:44/km I'll take it.

Crossfit log for Monday, July 11th

Decided to go, since I needed to bring the van to the dealership anyway, it was a good morning to drive in instead of the lengthy bus commute.

Naturally having done Wall-balls yesterday, today's workout: you guessed it: wall-balls.  "Karen": 150 wall balls for time.

After warm-up and 2:00 AMRAP of double-under, (which I managed like 20!) we did the wall-balls. I used a 15lbs ball, instead of the 20lbs prescribed. I tried doing them in groups of 25 but that wasn't happening, decide to aim for 10 at a time and that worked nicely. Managed it in 13:41.

Sweat bullets. Halo firmly in place. Maybe some intervals at lunch.

Crossfit log for Saturday, July 9th

On Wednesday, I told Reza I'd be back Friday or maybe Saturday. He said I should come Saturday, the workout would be great (said with a sadistic smile).

Today I went and the workout was nuts, I barely made if half way.

We did, Diane 21-15-9
Dead lifts (225/155), Handstand push-ups
followed by Elizabeth 21-15-9
Cleans (135/95), Ring dips
and then Fran 21-15-9
Thrusters (95/65), Pull-ups

I didn't even finish Elizabeth!

I can't do hand stand push-up, or ring dips, or pull-ups very well. So, Diane is Dead lifts (145#) and Handstand pushups with my feet on a box, started Elizabeth (95#), on the round of 15 I was running out of time, so I just kept doing Cleans, working on my form and technique, until time ran out. My technique was starting to get better near the end.

My lower back is sore now. I should probably make an appointment with Angela

Crossfit log for Friday, July 8th

Went to the Y hoping to do another custom WOD, but it just didn't workout, I did some dead lifts, just to work on my form, nothing too heavy, gradually go up to 205lbs.

The WOD I wanted to do included box jumps, but there is nothing a the Y that his high enough and stable enough to do them,

While I thought about what to do I tried to do some strict pull-ups and managed surprisingly to do 4 in row.  Ended up calling a day.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, July 6th

Reza is a sick sick man. He made us run 400m in the warm up holding 2 25lbs dumbbells. It was not fun.

Skills work was Press, Push Press and Thrusters. I have a hard time doing the drills with a broomstick and no weight to counterbalance your moves. It feels very lame, but I guess it's important.

Today's WOD:
run 500m
30 Thrusters (95/65)
run 500m

We practiced our thrusters with gradually increasing weight as part of the warm up and I knew (even before we started) that 30 Thrusters @ 95# wasn't happening.

I tried with 65#, and it felt pretty easy. And I done 65# Thrusters as part of a recent WOD so I knew I could do that, but I wanted to do more, so I tried with 85# and it was tough. I might have been able to pull it off, but decided to hedge my bets and go with 75#. It was a good call. I did Thruster in just over 5 min, doing sets of 5 before dropping the bar. Which means I had to do 4 cleans to get the bar in position, so more work, but it worked out well, the last Thruster almost didn't make it. It wasn't pretty, but I did it.

Not a long or brutal workout (like Monday) but challenging and fun.

Finished in 10:38

Crossfit log for Tuesday, July 5th

Made up my own WOD today.

It was harder than I expected it to be.

I wanted legs and core so I decided to do squats and toe-to-bar. I wasn't sure how many to do, one frequent formula is three rounds of 21-15-9. Then I looked around at some crossfit sites to see what they were doing. www.Crossfit.com main site: rest day (of course), www.CrossFitEndurance.com had: 5 rounds each for time of (3 Front Squats 70% 1RM, 6 Box Jumps 30″/24″, Row 9 cals (I don't know what that is)).

So I thought, 5 rounds for time sounds good but how many???

So then I went to www.CrossfitPei.ca, they were doing (10Min AMRAP - 5 Thruster, 10 Burpees) AMRAP - yuck, burpees - hmmm

I scrolled down and yesterday they had: 5 rounds for time of: 5 Cleans, 10 Box Jumps, 15 Pushups.

Ah ha! I'll do 5 rounds for time of 5 squats (weight to be determined), 10 toe-to-bar and 15 burpees. Sounds great!

I get to the gym and part of my warm up I do some air squats and GHD sit ups and hip extensions and I try a couple of toe-to-bars. Um... yeah... not doing 5 rounds of 10 of those.

So as I start doing squats with just the bar (then adding a little weight to find what I can handle), I'm rethinking my custom WOD.

Final decision: 5 rounds for time of 5 squats (settled on 115lbs), 5 toe-to-bar, and 5 burpees.

I could have done more burpees, but I wanted numbers that were either the same all round, or all incremental. So 5 rounds of 5 each was the formula I chose.

It was very challenging. I did it in 9:15, I'll have to try it again some day to see if I can do it faster. The squats were rough, but the T2B were worse. The burpees just tired me out.

So I'll call it a success!

Yay me!

Oh and I almost forgot to add I did 500m on the rowing machine to cool down.

Crossfit log for Monday, July 4th

After a brutal Canada Day race, I took the weekend off.

This morning back at it, with 3-3-3-3-3 Cleans, manage to do 115lbs. I have the strength to go heavier, but my technique is lacking. The lift part is getting pretty good, but the clean part lacks coordination.

Then we did the WOD: 10 rounds of 10 box jumps, 10 pull ups.

Box jumps were a snap. I love doing those. (except when combined with squats or dead lifts).

But I hate pull ups. Passionately. Started with the green band and after the 3rd round went to get a black one to give me an extra boost, and even then it was a struggle.

But I did it, 100 box jumps, 100 pull-ups. 20:37

I may run a lunch.

Four of Five (but really of Four) - Canada Day 5km

Brutal.

Morning was chaotic, getting everyone loaded up and ready to go. We were late leaving, but still made time to stop at *$. We picked up Denise and drove out to Kanata for the Canada Day Race put on by Bushtukah.

My warmup consisted mostly of running back and forth to the van to bring back some item we no longer needed or to fetch something we'd forgotten.

Left the kids in the care of Jo-Jo, Denise and Clarisse and headed to the start line, wished Kiza  good luck and seeded myself near the front. I saw Nick and wished him luck.

I didn't think it would go nearly as well as I was hoping. My hips and back were still sore for recent workouts, and during my "warmup" I felt tight. But I was determined to let it ride.

We took off at a crazy pace and immediately hit an up hill. So much for pancake flat there Andy!  Pace was like 3:45 or something. Saw a big sign that said 1km way to soon to be the actual 1km marker, but then I noticed my stopwatch hadn't started! Grrrrr!

I settled down a bit, focused on running the tangents and taking note of the people around me. But I was already starting to feel it wasn't happening by 2km. I was hot, sore and out of breath and decide to walk the water station, get some fluids down and get my heart rate down, the hammer it home.

I must of left my hammer at home. My pace kept climbing and energy level kept dropping. By 3.5km I was in damage control. I rallied in the last kilometre and managed to hold pretty good form, if not pace, to the end.

I've been asking to much of my body lately. I have to remember this is a long term goal and plan, I'll continue CrossFit over the summer and re-test in the fall. Maybe beat Beethoven (the first 5km I ever did).

I was so wiped that I fell asleep in the van on the way home.

Final time: 22:37

Again, brutal.

Crossfit log for Wednesday, June 29th

Because I'm an idiot, I missed my Crossfit this AM.

Grrrr.

I'll still do the tabata at lunch.

Maybe giving the old body a rest won't be a bad thing.

Crossfit log for Tuesday, June 28th

Crossfit this morning was brutal.

Every minute on the minute 3 power cleans, 5 thrusters (95# men/65# women)

I used the girls weight again.

Had less problems with the cleans than Saturday, but the thrusters, holy cow, a lot harder than just squats!

If you couldn't make the 5 thrusters before the minutes was out, you'd drop one and your new number would be 3 and 4. Your lowest number was your score.

Although I went back up to 3 and 3, my lowest was 3 and 2, so that's my score.

I'm think my massage today will focus on my posterior chain, it's been getting a lot of work lately and is very sore.

So tomorrow, Crossfit in the morning, whatever the WOD may be, then Tabata (I'll try to hold 4:45/km at 12%) on the treadmill at lunch. Then nothing until race day on Friday.

Can't wait to see how that works out!

Running log for Monday, June 27th

Thanks to psychological manipulation from Kiza I did my intervals tonight, so I won't have to do them post massage tomorrow.

Did a 10min warm up followed by 5 x 400m on 1:50 rest

1:38, 1:37, 1:31, 1:32, 1:33

Crossfit log for Monday, June 27th

Recovery workout today.

3 rounds, not timed.
10-15 push-ups
10-15 strict pull-ups (yeah right, I'll maybe do 5 or pull down on the machine with 150lbs)
10-15 kettle bell swings 20kg
10-15 GHD sit ups
10-15 GHD hip extensions
10-15 air squats

Done. 15 reps for everything (except pull-downs) all three rounds.

Couldn't manage 15 pull downs even at 150lbs. Did 10 the first round, 7 the second (drop the weight to 135lbs and did the last 3), then did 10 at 135lbs for the last round. Yuck.

Three of Five - Crazy Eights

Today I ran the third of five 5km races in my (personal, since nobody else decided to join) "shallonge". Race #3 was the Smiths Falls Figure Eight 5km. A more apt name would be crazy eights.

The way this zany course is laid out, I cannot fathom how they couldn't find an extra 500m somewhere along the way to make it the whole 5km long.

They said that due to construction the course was shortened by 200m. The course was notorious for being short, however the math they apparently used assumed the original race was 5km, minus 200m giving 4.8km. Now depending on who you trust for the actual distance, my race is either an incremental success or a bitter setback.

The official race distance, which Sportstats used to calculate paces, is 4.8km, so my result of 20:21 gives an average pace of 4:15/km and therefore a 5km time of 21:15

Andy's Garmin said it was 4.67km which give a pace of 4:21/km and a 5km extrapolation of 21:47

and finally my Garmin said it was only 4:48km, which in turn give 4:32/km and 22:42.

Judging solely by how it felt, I'd guess mine was closest, but averaging it out I guess I'll take Andy's.

I went to pick up Clarisse at a sleep over in Greely and made it to the race site in time to pick up our kits get our numbers on, chit chat with Joe and Jessie (of Zoomphoto) and get ready to start. Our races started at nearly the same time, but at two different locations on either side of the finish line, so by the time I got Clarisse squared away, there was no time for any kind of warm up.

Plus yesterday's workout took a big toll, and my massage on Friday did too. I couldn't hold my form, and every step seem like more effort than it should've been.

The course was crazy, we ran on recreational paths, on grass, through an RV park, on gravel, on packed dirt, up a steep grassy hill, over a bridge, on roads, sidewalks through trees. Why they couldn't throw in a 100m out and back to make up the lost distance is quite beyond me. It was insane.

Andy took off from the get go, and there was no way I was catching him. A bunch of kids not much older than my daughter did too, I caught one or two of them, but they passed my easily later in the race.

The last two km were really rough, I had nothing left to kick at the end. I pushed myself hard and my body just couldn't respond.

I can't say I'm surprised, my demands have been very high a lot lately, and my body had reached its limit.

Clarisse was no doubt tired from the late night sleep over and early wake up call, plus Emilie's run 1km the day before, she ran a respectable 13:18, not her best but solid for the amount of sleep she got.

Maybe I'll give my self a bit of a rest before the Canada Day run next Friday.

Crossfit log for Saturday, June 25th

Went to Crossfit today. Brought Clarisse as a spectator.

It was rough.

burpees 3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3-3
power clean 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
front squat 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10
135#/95#

I might have managed the girl's weight on the squat, but not the clean. Did 65# instead. Brutal 18:47

I don't remember the last time I sweated as much.

Back is still feeling weak after the dead lifts on Thursday, so maybe on fresh muscles I could manage 95# on the clean too.

The good news is that I'm not nearly as sore I as I expected to be today.

Race tomorrow, the Crossfit again on Monday AM.

Crossfit log for Thursday, June 23rd

Up early to bus it to L'Usine Gatineau.

Did "Annie" 50, 40, 30, 20, 10 reps of
Double-unders (which I can't do)
Sit-ups (which suck)

I had the option of doing singles but 3x the number (so 150 skips, 50 sit-ups, etc) which I did for the first round, but felt guilty, I can manage 2 or 3 Double-unders in a row, so I did that for the 40, 30.. down to 10.

Took me 20:18, last by at least 4 minutes. meh, I'm probably 10 to 15 years older than the next oldest person there, so I'm good with that.

Then, the part I was looking forward to. Find max dead lift. Never done a real dead lift before, tough to get the form right. I tend to round my back, which I guess is fine for the weight I'm lifting, but it is something I have to correct before I can progress.

Started with 2x25lbs plates (1 on each side) on a 35lbs bar (so 85lbs), no problem lifting it but took many tries to get the form right.
Bumped it to 4x25lbs + bar = 135lbs same deal, easy, but form sucked, but started to get it.
Went to 2x35lbs + 2x25lbs + bar = 155lbs. Better form, wider stance, bar under shoulders. No too hard.
Went to 4x35lbs + bar = 175lbs. Not too much trouble, not sure how my form was holding up for this one.
Added a a 10lbs and a 2.5lbs to each side for an even 200lbs, this was a bit tough, but still doable, I think my back was rounding on this one.
Finally took off the 10lbs and 2.5lbs and added a 25lbs to each side for 225lbs. This was tougher, and Reza noticed my rounding back. He said before putting any more weight we need to straighten out you back to keep a neutral spine. I tried it 2 more times, but was a no go, and the last one I managed to get up, but didn't keep my back straight.

I'll drop down to 175lbs or 185lbs to work on the form then give it another go in a few weeks.

My abs hurt.

At lunch I can decide if I'll do 400m repeats outside or 1km repeats on the treadmill. It's raining, but warm. Maybe I'll split the difference and do 1km repeats outside

Crossfit log for Monday, June 20th

I did my first "real" WOD this morning with a "real" CrossFit class.

We did
Run 1 mile
50 Thrusters 45/30
30 pull-ups

So for me easiest to hardest. The mile was a snap, just over 7:00, the thruster were not bad, just the bar. Thank goodness for chalk. Pull-ups were murder. I had the purple and black band and still couldn't get past 25, added a black band for the last 5 and still had to stop after 3 cause I didn't get my chin over the bar for the #29. I rested a bit before the last 2.

Just under or just over 20:00, not sure exactly. I'll have to ask Reza (the instructor). My forearms and biceps were so sore after. They will hate me tomorrow and Wednesday.

Since I raced yesterday I won't to the Endurance WOD today, I'll Row tomorrow and do some repeats in the evening. Then Thursday do a tabata on the TM.

Thursday after the WOD, Reza said we will all try to find our max dead lift. This is something I really want to do, I hope I'll feel up to it.

With race two done, and Smiths Falls distance questionable, I'm really looking forward to Canada Day.