Saturday 6/27

The Patch

Went to the Patch obstacle course at UC Riverside with a big, fun group from the gym.  It was fun to work some new movements - bear crawl down the stairs, bear crawl backwards up the stairs, ...  Very hard on the hands though.  Between the Patch gravel, the track surface and the stairs my hands were red and sore before we finished the warmup.  I was definitely a little wiped and sore from the week and I tired pretty quickly.  After 2 rounds through the obstacles I was pretty much done.  I just didn’t have the energy and there’s no real way to half-ass jumping over logs.  I joined the group in the shade who had also reached their limit and we cheered on all the badasses who were still going.  Good times!

Friday 6/26

WOD (7am class):
6x Franklin Hill Sprints
1:04
1:10
1:09
1:15
1:16
1:11

I missed the first time we did these so I didn’t know what to expect but I knew it would suck.  Definitely need to work on my speed.  In the 3rd sprint I was chugging along and about half way up Kelsey started to fade about 10 yards in front of me.  I realized I might be able to catch her and I found a gear I didn’t know I had.  I ran past her and came across the finish convinced I had just ran my fastest split.  Yeah, 1 second faster than last time but 5 seconds slower than my first - haha!  The next 2 were a good effort, but I had no rabbit to chase.  On the last one Kristen was barrelling down on me from the get go and it took all I had to stay in front of her.  I ended up faster than my previous 2.  So, I basically suck at motivating myself apparently.  I’ve got to work on bringing on that feeling of chasing/being chased internally without the need for external stimulus to provide it.

WOD (2:30pm on my own):
Military Press
45x5
45x5
50x5
55x5
60x5
65x4
65x3
65x3

I wanted to get in some heavy lifting.  I originally wanted to do some squats since I’m trying to build that up but there was NO way I could attempt it after Thursdays WOD so I went ahead and did the morning sprint WOD and decided to play with some pressing in the afternoon.  This is the first time I’ve gone heavy overhead since my shoulder started bothering me.  It felt pretty good during this.  No real pain, but not very strong.  I think it was a combo of just being tired from the last few days of WODs and losing a little shoulder strength.  I used to have no problem with 3 worksets of 65x5 but it was just not happening today.  At least I put in the effort!

Thursday 6/25

WOD:
4 rounds
35 squat jumps
10 burpees
20 jumping lunges
2 rope climbs
22:33

This was a bitch.  Legs, Legs, Legs and more Legs (since I don’t do rope climbs without an anchor).  The actual workout went pretty well.  I was really good at going in intense spurts instead of slowly slogging through the movements.  The real pain came in the next few days as my ass tightened up into boulders.

Tuesday 6/23

WU:
10 min run
3 rounds
10 slow wall squats
20 2-cnt bicycles
then some skin the cats

WOD:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
OH squat
SDLHP
Push Press
15:52 (65#)

Didn’t feel quite as super strong as yesterday, but still pretty solid.  This is the first time since my shoulder started giving me trouble that I’ve put more than 45# overhead. (YAY!) I’m still gonna be careful with weight (the shoulder still felt weak) but I’m back to overhead work.  With the lower weight (Rx was 80#) I was able to do all the OH squat and push press unbroken.  I also managed to rack the last press each round on my back and rest there before starting the squats.  This eliminated a ton of effort and time to get the bar up for the squats.

Monday 6/22

WU:
1500m row

WOD:
Back squat 3-3-3-3-3
115/120/125/130/135

rest ~5 minutes

AMRAP 8 min
pullup
burpee
kb swing (16kg)
start with 1 of each and increase reps each round
8 rounds

Squats felt very strong today.  I probably could have gone heavier without failing, but my form would have suffered.  I’ve been really working on a slow descent with no bounce at the bottom and not letting my ass come up before my back (i.e. the stripper squat).  I was very good at controlling both though that last squat at 135 was a wee bit x-rated.  The AMRAP was a great little kick in the pants.  Michael was right about it feeling pretty good through round 4.  Round 5 is about where the hurt really started to kick in.  I think it has to do with the burpees, they just seem so much more manageable at reps <5.  I did keep a good steady pace through this and didn’t come out at the beginning too fast.  I probably could have gotten 1/3-2/3 more rounds if I sucked up the pain a little more on the burpees and picked up the pace on them.

Saturday 9/20

Jackie Prelims
1000m row
50 thrusters (45#)
30 pullups
10:00

Took the row a little easy as I was very conscious of not burning out on the thrusters.  ~2:15-2:17 pace the first 500m then down to 2:12-2:15 second 500m.  I could definitely up the pace a little bit next time.  Thrusters were done in sets of 10 with a few quick steps in between shaking out the legs.  Next time I’d like to try 15/15/10/10 and rest with the bar on my back rather than putting it down.  Pullups were 5/5/5/5/3/2/3/2.  Not much I could have done differently this time around.  I’m hoping for the final to pull off 5 sets of 6 with very quick breaks to just shake out my arms.  Overall this WOD felt really good. I was shooting for under 10 but missed it by a second so not too bad.

Friday 6/19

WU:
1200m run
muscle-up transition practice
10 squat cleans

WOD:
Nasty Girls
3 rounds
50 squats
7 muscle-ups (sub 14 transition plus ring support)
10 hang power cleans (95#)
16:06

Transitions felt good (i.e. I could do them well) but they really did a number on my shoulder by the end of the workout.  The cleans felt a little sloppy.  I could feel pain in my shoulder after the first round and probably should have gone with a lower weight but I powered through anyway.

Wednesday 6/17

WU:
1200m run
Rope anchor practice
thrusters
15 walking lunges

WOD:
1 rope climb
3 thrusters (45#)
30 doube unders
2 rope climb
6 thrusters
60 doube unders
3 rope climb
9 thrusters
90 doube unders
4 rope climb
12 thrusters
120 doube unders
5 rope climb
35 min time limit - 4 rounds plus 2 rope climb

This was absolutely brutal.  I had to go light on the thrusters since straight overhead work still bothers my shoulder.  I was surprised at how much the rope climbs aggravated it.  Not really painful, but stiff.  Double unders of course sucked balls.  It took me about 8 or 9 minutes to get through the 120 round.  Man do I need to work on these.

Monday 6/15

WU:
1200m run
3 rounds:
10 jump shrugs from ground (42#)
10 GHD back ext
1 time across gym inchworm

WOD:
4 rounds:
15 burpees
10 pullups (C2B)
5 C&J (72#)
18:55

I was sweating so hard after one round of the warmup and it just got worse from then on.  Had to go light on the C&J as my shoulder could not take more weight in a pure overhead exercise.  Burpees didn’t bother it again so that’s good.  I really need to work on linking C2B pullups together.  I did each one individually which made for a much slower go.  A good kick in the ass after the weekend.

Saturday 6/13

Helped out with the Beach demo today after a great, fun turnout at the Bring A Friend Day.

WOD #1:
Sandbag 4-0 (~30# sandbag)
40m sandbag drag
80m sprint
40m sandbag toss
40 sandbag swings
5:05

WOD #2:
3 rounds
10 kb snatch (16kg)
15 burpees
20m scramble
8:03

I needed to get in a workout so I thought it would be much more fun to head down to the beach with Michael, Becca, Naz, Jonesy and CrossFit Dave than to just go home and slog through something on my own.  The sandbag workout was “fun” and very different from what we get in the gym.  The second WOD was not so much fun for me.  I did all the kb snatches with my right arm since I’m still a little worried about my left shoulder.  Not only did my arm get tired, but I haven’t practiced these in a while and it showed.  The burpees didn’t bother my shoulder which is an improvement!  As for the scramble, if I was ever in the circumstance of needing to scramble to avoid danger I’d much rather just walk upright and get shot at.

Thursday 6/11

WOD:
21-15-9
box jump (24”)
KB swing (16kg)
SDHP (65#)
7:??

Burch was talking about this workout yesterday and looking for a WOD partner so I offered myself up.  This one was pretty brutal.  24” jumps necessitates that I jump up and step off rather than try to get in a jump on/off rhythm.  They also got ridiculously hard after the SDHPs.  The swings felt pretty good and I was able to do them unbroken.  SDHP was a bitch as usual.  I’ve been taking it easy on my injured left shoulder and I was a little worried thinking about the workout, but I figured if I was doing the movements correctly, and really using a powerful hip extension to move the weight, then my shoulder wouldn’t take the brunt of the work.  Once I thought about this my apprehension for the workout wore off quite a bit.  It still kicked my ass as I knew it would, but I didn’t feel any pain in my shoulder.

Tuesday 6/9

WOD:
5 rounds
21 thrusters (subbed front squat) 45#
400m run
20:04

Wow. Did this suck.  I am no big fan of running.  I did manage to do all the squats unbroken each round - my penalty to myself for not being able to do a full thruster.

Monday 6/8

WOD:
Erin
5 rounds
15 DB split cleans (25#)
21 pullups (subbed 12 DH pu w/ green & black band)
18:15

My shoulder has slowly gotten worse since the race a couple weeks ago.  Ignoring and working through the pain has not provided much success.  I’ve decided to modify workouts and see if I can’t get it back to normal.  The cleans felt ok, but I wasn’t as explosive as I could/should have been.  I was very strict on the pullups as I didn’t want to dynamically load my shoulder with any kipping.  Decided to cut down the reps in the first round or I would have been there forever finishing.

Friday 6/5

Warmup:
~500m row
3 rounds
Spiderman across gym
Crabwalk across gym
10 burpees

WOD:
5 rounds
2 muscleups (sub 4pu/4dip each)
30 wallball (12#/10’)
6 SDHP (85#)
28:21

This was brutal.  Wallball is a huge goat for me.  I am amazingly better with 12# than with 14#.  Pullups were singles because I wanted to get c2b.  Dips were with the green band.  I was going to try the muscleups with a band but I tried the black band in the warmup and it’s so much help that it screws up my form.  I’d like to try it with the green band and see if it works.  I was just happy I finished all 5 rounds in the 30 minute limit.

Thursday 6/4

Did this one with Tim at home.

Warmup:
Run around the block ~1000m
3 rounds
18 lunges
20 situps

WOD:
500m run
50 pushups
500m run
100 squats
10:31

Pushups took a while, but felt pretty strong.  Fun to do this out in the park.