Strength log for Tuesday July 12th

Missed Crossfit. Did the strength component St the Y

8 rep max push press. Mistakenly thought 165#
was a reasonable goal.

Worked up in descending sets, 5@115#, 4@135#, a double@155# felt good.

Plank was 3. 2, 1, 1. 1 for the 8 reps @165#

Ended up being 3. 2, nope.

Then super set 5 close grip bench vs 5 strict pull ups.
Did 95#-115#-135#-145#-145#(4)
And 5-5-5-5-1 for the pull ups

Haven't logged heavy at the Y in agreed, and it showed. But even that felt good. Looking forward to my next strength cycle

Crossfit log for Friday, June 17th

Fell back to sleep after my alarm again.  Delilah was up in the night and it took forever to fall back to sleep. 

But I hustled out the door anyway, and arrived as everyone was finishing the warm up.  Score.

Started with bench press for a 1 rep max. 

Hit 215# with a touch help from my spotter.  Need to work on that soon.

Then we did a horrible combo of 3 sets of 10 dumbbell bench press (35#) 10 abs rolls outs, and 15 reverse flies, 20#

Ugh.

Triceps are shot

Naturally the WOD has HSPU!

14 minute AMRAP:
- 1 rope climb
- 3 bar muscle ups (scaled to chest to bar pull ups)
- 5 strict handstand pushups  (scaled to knees on a box)

Workout was all about hspu. Once I stopped using my hip flexors to help straighten out my arms, it got really hard.

I only made 5 rounds plus 5 reps. 

Oh well.  Done.

Mobility and Olympic Lifting log for Wednesday, March 23rd

Went to the Y with snatches on my mind.

Started with mobility and physio drills, for my intercostals, hips, thoracic spine and shoulders.

Did some overhead squats with light weights for reps, position was okay but not great.  Did a few sets with empty bar, 65# and one at 95#.  The last set at 65# was the best one, 95# wasn't great but I wasn't planning to go very heavy with the snatches so that was fine.

Started with empty bar from the hang and it was not pretty.  Took 5 or 6 tries before it started to gel.

Put 65# on and the first couple didn't go, but I just going no pause until I landed one.  And then another.  

I think I did 4 good reps and then I bumped it up to 85#.  PR was 75#, no sense wasting time there.

85# didn't get it.  Tried again, nothing.  Walked away, tried again, no go. Walked away again, tried and couldn't catch it.

Finally I power snatched it and held it there to get a feel for what I was looking for in the catch.

Tried one more time and nailed it.  PR.  Did it a couple more time just to be sure.  Once I caught it was easy to stabilize in the bottom and stand it up.  The trick is catching it right.

So then I had to try 95#.  I was getting tired but I had to know.  

Set it up and first attempt BAM!  Nailed it. Even better than any of the reps at 85#.

Was going to leave then but went to get my phone and asked Stephanie to film one last attempt. 

I got it but not as nice as the first one. 

As I posted on Facebook: Lots of room for improvement, need to catch way lower, and I'm sinking on the right side. But for something I was physically unable to do 3 weeks ago, and after nearly 4 years of physio and mobility work, it's a pretty good start.

Pretty stoked about this.

Crossfit log for Friday, March 11th: 16.3

Well that went as expected.   Not as I'd hoped.

Kamil, Jocelyn and I did the Open workout, Erin did a modified version since she wasn't doing the Open.  None of us had ever done a bar muscle up.

16.3 is a 7 minute AMRAP of
- 10 snatches  75#/55#
- 3 bar muscle ups

We warmed up for quite a while and finally when Jocelyn started trying to get a muscle up coach said he'd start the time, everyone just do the 10 snatches and we'll take our time trying to get a muscle up, if you get one then we'll count it.  We can try again after a 5-10 minute rest if you want.

So that's what we did. After several attempts Jocelyn finally got one and after a few tries got 3 done and went back to the bar.

Kamil managed to get one but that was it. 

I tried and tried but it wasn't happening.  So my score is 10.

Meh.

Crossfit log for Monday, March 7th: 16.2 Take two

I take it back.  Crossfit Open 16.2 isn't such a complicated workout, as it is complicated to explain.

- 25 toe to bar
- 50 double unders
- 15 squat cleans at 135#

Since I didn't finish this in the 4:00 cap, there is no need to explain further.

Much better showing than last time.  Used a pull up bar with tape instead of those useless leather grips.  Hands didn't rip at all. 

Did the toes to bar in sets of 5 until 15 then a variety of triples, doubles  and singles for the last 10. 

Double unders went better too.  3 or 4 sets.  Was headed to the barbell at 3:00 instead of the lousy 3:40 from Friday

Did the first 3 touch and go, and should have done more that way.  The seconds just bleed at that point, every rep is like 8 seconds.  So my extra 40 seconds bought me exactly 5 extra reps.  7 short of round 2.

Not very happy with it, but that's was as well executed as I could.  I look forward to hitting it again next year to see if I can improve.  

Toes to bar were the weak link for sure.  Might have saved a bit on the double unders, but not much. 

Oh well, done is done.  On to 16.3

Crossfit log for Friday, January 29th

That was rough.

Slept in a bit, and went to the 6:30 class, since I was home with the kids today, there was no need to rush.

It was bit weird working out with a different crew, but I know many of them so it wasn't bad.

The other down side was watching my crew suffer through the end of the WOD.  Many they didn't look like they were having fun.

The warm up was 3 rounds of 10 knees to chest, 10 kettle bell swings, 10 seconds hollow hold, 10 supermans. 

Then we did a 4 minute every 30 seconds for 8 rounds 2 power cleans. Followed by 2 minutes rest and max reps of front squats with the same bar.

I was thinking 165# or 175#.  Kamil had done 155#, so I started with that, which was pretty easy, so quickly added two more 10# plates for 175#.  I made it through 3 rounds of that before deciding it was a bad idea and dropping back down to 155#.

Managed only 11 front squats.  I thought I'd get more, I should've grabbed my belt.

The horrible WOD was
21-15-12-9-6-3
- push ups
- goblet squats
- burpees

FML.

66 reps.  So I broke the push ups in to sets of 5, with 5-10 seconds break from the get go and that saved me.  Goblet squats were not an issue (unbroken expect the first round, 11, 10) Did my usual burpee plan, quick up, quick down, 3 breaths repeat.  Slow but steady. 

Was strong to the end, despite being last, and 3 minutes slower than Kamil. Grrr.

Endurance and accessory log for Thursday, January 28th

Had little time to go to the Y, but I really wanted to put in my 2km time trial on the rower.

So I hurried to get there, and jumped right into it.

Managed a good performance, with some encouragement from Dave, especially in the last 1000m.

Managed 7:52.  Maybe a better rower, maybe my endurance is getting better, maybe I was better rested.  Don't know, but whatever the reason, it was way better than last weeks 8:12.

My best is from May 2015 where I went 7:51, so not bad at all!

I held sub 1:50/500m well into the 700m-800m range.  Then I just held on for dear lift, got back under 2:00/500m in the last 500m.

Collapsed on the floor afterwards.  Man that was tough.

Once I recovered, I did some RDLs and dumbbell rows.

RDLs I did on set of 8 at 185# and a working set at 225# for 5.  Used straps.

Dumbbell rows, did warm up set of 8 each side at 75# and a working set of 6 at 100#.

I forgot to do the aductor version of the RDLs, but I've already done that this week, I can wait until next week for that.

I need to switch it up so that the barbell rows aren't on the same day as the rowing time trial.  So I'll do those on tabata run day, and the RDLs.

Strength and endurance log for Tuesday, January 26th

Once managed to commit to running my tabata workout on the treadmill.

I am happy to report that despite sucking, I didn't suffer nearly as much as last week.

None of that extra second or two before starting the later rounds.  Also didn't have any technical issues with the treadmill.

I warmed up 5 minutes at 6mph and ramped it up to 10% incline at 7.2mph where I stayed regardless of how good I felt at first.

After I had finally recovered I went to the platform were Dave was working on snatches and cleans.  He wasn't using the rack, so I was able to do my back squats at the same time.

Worked up to a single at 295#.  

After that I did my physio homework and hit the steam room.

Olympic lifting, physio and accessory log for Monday, January 25th

Went to the Y with the aim of not working too hard.

Started with accessory work.  Did some Romanian deadlifts, a warm up set at 185# for 8 reps and a working set at 225# for 5.  Was losing my grip at the end.

Then I worked on my split jerk from the rack.  Need to work my way to 225# to match my clean.

Made it up to 205# pretty solidly, but I was getting fatigued, so moved on

I did my physio homework, laterally separating my ankles while holding a yoga block between my knees. It's torture but I'm already able to hold for 15 seconds where before I couldn't make it to 10.

Doing that reminded me of my tight aductors, so I tried the equivalent of RDL in the lateral plane, so holding a 45# plate in one hand, I'd lean to one side, trying to keep my torso and pelvic fixed, taxing one aductor, stretching under tension, like RDLs do for the hamstrings.

Sure felt like it was working, I'll try doing those either on RDL day (might as well fry my legs completely) or if that gets to be too much, on row day.

We'll see.

Strength and Endurance log for Tuesday, January 19th

Finally followed through on my unspoken commitment to run tabata once a week.  Man it sucked.

Arrived at the Y and didn't even look at the squat rack.

Hopped on the thread mill and ran for 5 or 6 minutes at a 6:00/km (ish, 6 mph, stupid treadmills).

Then I ramped up the incline to 10%, and the speed to 7.2 mph (5:11/km) and did the first or 8 rounds of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest.  Felt pretty easy.

Bumped the speed to 7.3 mph (5:06/km).  This was a mistake, by round 4 I was back down to 7.2 and really wanting to drop it more, but I refused.

Definitely took an extra second or two before starting to run on the last 3 rounds, but to make up for it I ran 25 seconds on the last one.

Almost coughed up a lung.

So the plan is to endure 10 minutes of torture, once a week, on Tuesdays, and Thursday, or Friday do a 2km time trial on the rower, and see how close to 7:00 I can get.

I will continues this at least until the Open starts. (Which reminds me I need to register).

After I recovered enough to change my shoes,  I got on the platform for  some front squats.  They did 3 sets of 5 today at Crossfit, while I slept, so I did that.

It seemed so heavy.  So I worked up to a heavy single, and really struggled to stand up 275#.

Then I peeled back to 225# and really struggled to get that 5th rep each time.  In fact, the 3 sets was only 4 reps.  It was poo.  But I worked hard, and will be better for it.

Done.

Olympic lifting and accessory log for Tuesday, January 5th

Went to the Y because I skipped Crossfit this am.  Tired and sore.  Decided to go for broke on the jerks and then do my rows from tomorrow since I likely won't have time go to the gym.

Jerks went well.

Worked only jerks this time, no presses.  45# for 5 or 6 reps, 95#-135#-155# for triples. Did singles at 185#, twice because I didn't like the first one.  Then I caught fire.  Single at 195# pure gold. 205# again, nailed it. 215# (PR) bam! Best jerk of my life. Better than the 3 previous ones.  So I had to try 220#.  I didn't want to push my luck at 225#, so 100kg was a good enough benchmark.

Got right under it. The tiniest press out, as my left wasn't quite locked out, but I held it, and stood it up.

Pretty stoked.  But I'll have to revise my 2016 goals!

Next chance I get to clean and jerk, I'm totally going for 225#!

After that I did a triple of supinated bent over barbell rows at 185#  (after a warm up set of 8 at 135#).

Didn't like the first attempt, so rested a bit and did it again, better.

Then I hit the steam room and went for a beer with my son.  Great day.

New Jerk PR.  

 

Strength:
Bench: 230# November 19, 2014 (up from 225#)
Dead Lift: 365# September 17, 2014 (up from 355#)
Press: 145# September 9, 2014 (up from 140#)
Back Squat: 315# March 2, 2015 (up from 305#)
Front Squat: 280# September 29, 2015 (up from 275#)
Overhead squat: 155# September 22, 2015 (up from 145#) 

 

Power:
Power Clean: 205# July 4, 2015 (up from 195#)
Power snatch:  140# Dec 5, 2014 (up from 125#)
Push Press: 185# Sept 15, 2014 (up from 175#)
Clean: 225# Dec 31, 2015 (up from 215#)
Jerk: 220#  Jan 5th, 2016 (up from 205#)
Snatch: 145# Apr 23, 2015 (up from 135#)
Clean and Jerk: 205# Dec 13, 2014 (up from 175#)

Strength and Olympic lifting log for Thursday, December 31st

A night out with my fiancee (or as Delilah said my beyoncé) a couple of drinks and a bit of congestion in the back of my nose/throat I slept in again, by choice.

Work day new year's eve ended at noon, after we were given the okay to leave for the day, I headed to the Y for my last workout of the year.

Started with squats, since I forgot my gear yesterday.

I worked up to a heavy single of 305#.  I wanted to try for a double, but the weight went forward on the way up. I was able to recover and stand it up, but I was no longer interested in going for another one.

So, then I moved on to cleans.  I figured why not see what I can muster towards my goal of 100kg.

After switching to singles at 185#, I jumped to 205# and it went up very well. Then I was going to go with 215#, my current PR.  At the last minute I figured why not add 2.5# plates for 220# and make it a new record.

And doing the maths, turned out that it would actually be 100kg: my stated goal (although my real goal is two plates, 225#).

Well 220# went up like 205#, I was really stoked, so there was no way I was leaving without at least trying 225#.

I recruited a buddy to film the attempt, and somehow I got it.  Didn't catch it as solidly as 220#, but I got under and had no trouble standing it up.

So new PR for my last workout of 2015.  That's pretty cool.

New Clean PR.  

Strength:
Bench: 230# November 19, 2014 (up from 225#)
Dead Lift: 365# September 17, 2014 (up from 355#)
Press: 145# September 9, 2014 (up from 140#)
Back Squat: 315# March 2, 2015 (up from 305#)
Front Squat: 280# September 29, 2015 (up from 275#)
Overhead squat: 155# September 22, 2015 (up from 145#) 

Power:
Power Clean: 205# July 4, 2015 (up from 195#)
Power snatch:  140# Dec 5, 2014 (up from 125#)
Push Press: 185# Sept 15, 2014 (up from 175#)
Clean: 225# Dec 31, 2015 (up from 215#)
Jerk: 205#  Dec 13, 2014 (up from 185#)
Snatch: 145# Apr 23, 2015 (up from 135#)
Clean and Jerk: 205# Dec 13, 2014 (up from 175#)

Strength log for Friday, November 27th

Forgot to set my alarm and missed max back squat day at Crossfit.

So I went to the Y to make up for it.

Hit 305#, but couldn't get out of the hole at 315#. 

I didn't really fight for it, because my back isn't 100%.  I got about a quarter way up and stalled, contemplated fighting for a second or two, decided not to, dropped back down in to the bottom and sat there for another second or two deciding whether to try again, but I quickly realized if I didn't get it first try, the added fatigue and the fact that I'm essentially paused in the bottom, there would be no come back from this. 

So I let it roll of my back into the cage and called it quits.

Did some supinated rows with the pulley machine. 8 @ 120# and 5 @ 165#

It was pretty good on the pulley system.  I may alternate between the barbell and the pulley.  Maybe not. 

Meh. Another day.

Running log for Wednesday, August 19th

Well 2 people showed up for the RunClub I started at my work, for the Wellness Challenge 5km race in October.

Better than one or zero I suppose.

Route was just over 4km


Time was 26:28

Strength log for Friday, June 19th

So my back and glutes have been really tight since Wednesday's deadlifts.

So I took yesterday off, and this morning too.

I've rolled and massaged, and hot epsom salt bathed and steam roomed and Adviled it to the best of my ability.

Still tight, but much better than yesterday.

So naturally I went to the gym at noon.

Figured I'd do some squats until (or unless) it was unconfortable, and maybe some overhead.

Went really well. I slowly build up to a 275# back squat single after hitting 245# for a triple, but decided to stop there and move on to some overhead press work.

I was happy with 275# and I'm sure 285# or 295# would have been completely doable, but why risk it.

So on to strict press, after a triple at 115#, I struggled a bit for a single at 125#, so I decide to stay there and do 4 more singles.  Challenging, but I did it. 

There are some many things I want to work on an maintain, I don't know how to make it all fit in the time I have while giving myself enough recovery. 

Gah!  This is so complicated!

Running log for Monday, March 23rd

Finally a 45 minute run in the books.

4.57 miles

So the pace isn't bugging me, after 20 minutes at 6:13/km, I upped it to 6:00/km, no difference, then I upped it to 5:45/km, still no difference.

My foot went numb again, just before the 35 minute mark, this time.  So I stopped for 2 minutes to stretch out the calf on the right side.

After that I only had 8 minutes, so I just pushed through the discomfort.  There was no way I was bailing.

Spent a few minutes stretching the crap out of my calves afterwards before hitting the steam room.

Probably wise not to go to Crossfit this morning.  I needed a success on this one. Mission accomplished. 

Crossfit log for Saturday, March 21st - Open WOD 15.4

I feel disappointed with this one.

I set a very conservative goal of making it through two rounds, and I couldn't even pull that off.

The WOD was an 8 minute AMRAP (which goes by really fast when you are struggling and takes forever when you are hurting, I was struggling)

- 3 handstand push ups
- 3 cleans @ 185#
- 6 handstant push ups
- 3 cleans
- 9 hspu
- 3 cleans
- 12 hspu
- 6 cleans... etc

So hspu increase by 3 every round, cleans increase by 3 every 3rd round.

I can do hspu, just not a ton, I can clean 185#, just not at infinitum. So I figured I could clean 185# 6 times at least, and 9 hspu, that should be doable. Maybe a couple more in round 3. I didn't expect to get back to the barbell  third time.

Well I didn't get back to it a second time.  First round went okay.  3 hspu, no problemo, power clean 185#, yeah, no.  The first one went up barely, the 3 fails. Finally realized I'd have to squat clean it, then I go the last 2 in a row. Back to the wall.  First 3 of 6 went okay, a couple of no reps because I came off the wall, but got through them, fought a bit for 4 and 5, but number six was not happening.  I tried and tried and tried, took short breaks, took long breaks, kipped hard, really hard, nothing, fought for at least 3 full minutes on that last hspu of round 2 and couldn't do it.

11 reps.

At least it was Rx and not scaled.  I'll have to be happy with that. Just a bit maddening.

Running and Skill log for Wednesday, March 18th

Well thankfully that went way better than yesterday.

15 minute run at 5:44/km (aka 6.5mph) for 1.6 miles.  Didn't suck. No perceivable tightness in the right calf or achilles. Although I watched the clock often during the last 5 minutes.

Then I did my rings workout (minus the L-sits, which I forgot)

Wow, that was rough. Way better than yesterday, but still rough.

It's really hard to do thing in a public venue that you suck at.  But if you never did them, you'd suck at them forever.

I may not be a great athlete, but I like this feeling of being on the right path.

Running log for Monday, March 9th

Does that say "running log"?

Ugh.  Today is the first day of my new training regimen: 15 minute run.

Wow.  That was a lot of suck.

In order to get ready for the high intensity coming my way with these run workouts, my plan is to run the prescribed length of time for each workout at a moderate pace, until I find my running legs again.

Starting running sucks.  I haven't run since the Wellness challenge 5km that turned in to 9km. And before that I ran for 10 minutes on  March 17th and 15 minutes on March 10th. Add to that the 9km I ran with my buddy Mark on January 26th of LAST YEAR, I haven't done a whole lot of running since Goofy in January 2013.

I know it'll get better, it doesn't take long for the body to adapt.  The mental aspect will be harder I suspect. 

So today I ran for 15 minutes at 7.0mph which it turns out to be  5:20/km.

Happy with that.  Wednesday I'll do 30 minutes.  And Friday, 45 minutes. 

Olympic lifting log for Thursday, March 5th

Okay, so a plan is starting to formulate in my grey matter.

The running plan is simple:  3 workout cycle a. tabata (15min), b. progression (30min), c. intervals (45min).  Runs are on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  The 3 week cycle will repeat Friday's workout on Monday, so as not to always do the same workout the same day of the week as follows: a, b, c, c, a, b, b, c, a.

Tuesdays and Thursday will be Olympic lifting by default.

Then I'll add skill work on the rings, jump rope and bar as I can.

On the days of the tabata run I'll have time to work in some skill training.  I may even be able to do some on the progression run day too.  Keeping in mind that this supplementary work to regular Crossfit which will also work skills and Olympic lifting.

Today I did some snatch work.  Just split snatch, 4 double at 95#, 4 singles at 115#, 2 singles at 135# and 2 failed attempts at 145#.

Should have tried 140# to be sure.  But 135# is my best, I'll use that for my training plan, once I find one.