Wednesday June 11, 2008
7:30pm Beginning Weightlifting with Becca
Warm Up
1200m run
PVC Deadlift and Front Squat skill warm up
Workout
10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 -3 - 2 -1
Deadlift - 165#
Pushups X2
Front Squat 65#
Time: 29:34
Killer workout. On the 6 rep round I was pretty certain I wouldn’t finish. I haven’t done deadlifts in a while. My form was breaking down toward the end, especially on the way down: I didn’t get my weight back far enough and my knees would get in the way. When Becca pointed that out I’d compensate by straightening my legs rather than putting my weight back in my heels. And then I’d just collapse and let my back round. Ug. So much think about when I’m trying to breathe!
Pushups felt good, and like Stanwyck said, they were the rest period of this workout.
I had to go somewhat light on the squats since my freaking injury flared up on heavier weights. Still challenging though. It’s quite hard to breathe during the front squats with that heavy bar squeezing my esophagus closed.
Glad I finished, cause I really thought about quitting at one point. Thanks Ben, John, Stanwyck, and Becca for all the yelling. It got me through.
Now to bed and my sweet soft pillows…wait…those aren’t pillows!
Monday June 9, 2008
7:30pm Beginner Class with Jonesy
Warm Up (AKA Jonesy loves Abba)
A 400m Run
B 400m Backward Run
B 400m Backward Run
A 400m Run
2X
20 Walking lunges
10 Arch Rocks
15 Situps
Cool walking stretches that made me feel like I was failing a sobriety test on the side of the road…I was wobbling all over the place.
Workout
AMRAP in 20 Minutes
5 Dead Hang Pull Ups (black band)
10 Burpees
15 Box jumps
Score: 5 rounds plus 2 pullups.
Great class. Very challenging. Running backwards hurt like hell and was a lot of fun. Got all sorts of fun looks from passing motorists. Going back to forward running felt really weird on the last 400m. I was starting to get used to the backward form…I think you automatically run more in Pose going backward…I definitely landed on my toes the whole time.
Burpees and Box Jumps still kill me. I nearly ate it a few times on the box jumps…and my left leg got a bit bothered by all the jumping.
My pullups are getting better, but were slow going. Got super sweaty and took my shirt off for the first time in class. What a milestone. It’s too bad more of the womens weren’t around to see it
Was very nervous about this workout. It was my first time doing the Fran, and my left quad injury was active again, making squatting motions stiff and a bit painful. I’m glad I spent some time warming up with a 600m run, 20 pushups, 20 squats, and some overall stretching. Once the workout started I didn’t feel the pain, but I did when the workout was done.
Happy with my time. I do think I can beat it next time, since I took a few rests during the second and third rounds of thrusters. Also I bet I can increase my pace on the thrusters. I hope that my injury will be a distant memory by then, though I don’t think it held me back that much today.
It’s amazing how much damage 4 little minutes can inflict. It took me another 20 minutes to fully recover. I see now why the Fran is such a popular workout. Fun morning.
Great workout. Shrugs and squats get me so winded. The double-unders were OK. I could get about 3 at a time, but usually I got 1 and had to stop. I get too excited when I get more than 1 at a time and I start to freak out a little bit and my form goes to hell. My pushups were great and the fastest part of the workout.
My pull-ups continue to improve. Glad I moved down to the mini-band.
I love this workout and its devilish simplicity; unlike the “Murph,” which makes me tired just reading it, “Cindy” looks easy on paper. Then she slams you hard.
“Cindy” worked me toward the end. But I never went to my knees for pushups. And my pull-ups were actually my “rest” period in this workout: they felt freaking awesome. I think I’ve got a kip going. Finally. Looking forward to getting off of the assistance bands. The squats were the slowest, but thankfully no pain in my left quad tonight. I’m knocking wood (and other things) in the hopes that my injury is nearly healed.
This will be a great workout to test again in a few months. I’d really like to get close to a score of 20 someday. A boy can dream…
My abs are still feeling the Ab-Do from Saturday. Tonight’s Ab-Mat situps were slow going.
5 Rounds: Max Bench Press - 100# (need to weigh myself. This is about 1/2 my bodyweight I believe) Max Walking Lunges - Zero # (due to pain in my left quad when using any weight - worked on form)
Fun fun fun (except for the Spear in my leg, I just need to be patient with it.)
Love weightlifting. Bench Press felt good. Worked on my breathing and keeping my whole body activated throughout. I think I improved my form on the walking lunges.
Oh…and I also did the Trevor Win’E Memorial Fundraiser.
My team: Oli, Monica, Ryan V. and me.
The workout:
300 pullups
400 pushups
500 situps
600 squats
only two people working at a time.
Time: 37:37 ? (I know it was 37 something.)
I had a whole strategy worked out for this thing beforehand with a very specific breakdown of how many of each exercise we needed to do. But then reality hit, and it hit me hard. This was a great, but challenging workout. I thought it might be easier than the Angie due to the breaks when the others are working. But I was wrong. It was just as hard.
My pullups got very weak toward the end. I started with one black band, then went to a black and small red one, and then to a purple band. My squats were terrible. They were burning from rep #1. Situps were OK, though I wasn’t the best anchor for Ryan - I was too tired to apply much pressure to his feet. Pushups were actually the best for me, though I did go to knees at one point. I felt good about my effort, but I may have been the weak link on my team. Regardless, it was another great day at PF. I had a great team, and the support from everyone was amazing.
When we finished, my peripheral vision went a bit hazy. I was worried that I might pass out. So I sat on the floor for a bit. And while my heart rate returned to some semblance of normal, the haziness remained. After a few minutes, I got up and I walked outside to get some water. The sun was shining so the courtyard area was super bright. As I stepped outside, all I could see was this intense white fuzzy light. It was quite lovely. I seriously thought for a second that maybe I had died and was stepping into heaven. Then I realized I was walking around the second best place imaginable: Petranek Fitness.
And then, I somehow ended up with the video camera taping the last round. Luckily my vision was back, but I’m a little worried about the quality of the video I shot because my arms were quite shaky. I hope the steady-cam was on.
After all was said and done, I got some great informational footage of Zeb teaching the Butterfly Kip. I don’t want to brag, but I think it’s my Citizen Kane. I’ll try to remember all of you in my Oscar speech.
Pullup Practice
deadhangs various grips
negatives various grips
kipping practice - standard grip
30 more pushups on walk home (3x 10 pushups at various intervals on the walk.)
Notes:
Bummed my pushup numbers went down this week, but I did more rounds from the toes this time. Soon they all be from the toes and then watch out! Perhaps the Tabata squats warmed me up to do the extra pushups. Also, this week I wasn’t feeling the pressue to beat my last week’s numbers. Regardless, they felt good. So did the 30 extra I did about 20 minutes later.
The pullup bars at the middle school are very small in diameter and they hurt my hands much more than the bars at PF. But they’re toughening me up. Kipping is almost there. Once I get that down and can bang out a bunch of pullups, I definitely want to try out the ButterFly Kip (Check out the cool video from the CrossFit site. Zeb should definitely make his own video of his kips; they’re pretty amazing if you haven’t seen them).
Been avoiding any squatting motions to allow my quad to heal. It feels better, but is still somewhat sore. I hope it feels ok for the Trevor Win’E Challenge. Can’t let my team down.
Workout
AMRAP in 20
1 Power Clean
2 Front Squats
3 Should Press
4 Back Squats
65#
13 Rounds
Just me and Cindy, the two injured beginner’s, battling it out for CrossFit glory. (Cindy kicked my ass.)
Becca adjusted the workout for us gimps so that it didn’t feature as many explosive movements. Thank you Becca.
This workout was awesome, and super tough. My note in my log book sums it up perfectly: “Great. Very Tough. Lover back aches. Cleans-tough.” Of course I meant Lower Back…but I like Lover Back better.
Warm Up
1200m run
3X
10 Wall Ball
1 Spiderman Walk - up/down length of gym
1 rope climb (worked on anchor - did 5 each round)
10 Burpees
Workout
AMRAP in 15
500m Row
10 Turkish Get Ups - 20#
15 Squats
Result: 2 rounds plus 150m row
The warm-up totally winded me. Those 30 Burpees did me in. But I think I got my rope climb anchor. I got about halfway up the rope at one point, which is huge for me, as I’ve never climbed a rope before. Spiderman walk is weird and got my quads burning.
This was a fun workout. I love the Turkish Get Ups, but man they are hard. Even with a light weight. (last time I did Turkish getups I used 30#, but it was only 8 Get-ups per round). I’d like to get better at the Get Ups and bang them out faster.
My left-hip-flexor-Spear hurt quite a bit on the right-side Get Ups, but I was able to work through the pain. I’m looking forward to when this pain is gone.
Felt pretty good about my rowing and squats…though I could get faster on each.
THE FINAL PROGRESS REPORT (I only performed 6 rounds the first week, as I was initially following the protocol I found on the CrossFit Message Boards. I decided before the 2nd week that I wanted to follow the classic Tabata protocol. So, in order to compare like-to-like as simply as possible, I’ll compare Week 1 with the first 6 rounds of Week 12):
Squats Total
Week 1: 74
Week 12: 112
Pushups Total
Week 1: 52 (4 rounds from knees)
Week 12: 69 (1 round from knees)
Sit-Ups Total
Week 1: 70
Week 12: 86
I’m getting a bit tired of hearing myself say that I’m surprised by my results and progress. I’m like a broken record (or for you kids out there, a broken MP3 file, though I don’t think that analogy works…).
So, even though I am still genuinely surprised, from here on out, I will no longer be surprised or shocked if I see progress in my numbers.
This 12 Week Tabata Experiment has been awesome. I’m very happy with how far I’ve come, and I’m eager to continue improving these numbers. I will keep some Tabata as part of my weekly routine, though I may switch up from week to week, throwing in some Tabata sit-ups one week, some Tabata push-ups the next week, etc.
Today’s workout was tough. I may be still tired from the Helen yesterday. I felt more pain from the Spear in my hip flexor during the first round of squats than I’ve felt in the last few days. But after round two it was gone.
My pushups were not as “bouncy” this week. But they still felt OK. I’d like to see more progress there.
My sit-ups felt the worst, so I’m surprised…NO!...I’m stoked that my numbers went up
I now want to focus on improving my pull-up strength and getting my kipping down. Once I get the kip, I think I’ll do a weekly Tabata pull-up workout. What a bitch that’s going to be…
But if the Tabata workout can improve my pullup numbers the way it has improved my squats, pushups, and sit-ups, it’ll be worth it.
And with that, I now officially hand off the 12 Week Tabata Experiment to Ben (and his fancy shoes).
Enjoy…
This workout is based on the 12 Week Tabata ProjectI read about on the CrossFit message boards.
My protocol: 20 seconds work/10 seconds rest, 8 rounds. I do this workout once a week. All exercises on the same day, in one session. I rest several minutes between exercises. I record the numbers on a small digital recorder (the audio sounds like the soundtrack to some weird adult film where every 20 seconds the guy shouts out some random number in between a bunch of heavy breathing). I am counting total reps.
Beginner Level
3X
400m run
21 Kettle Bell Swings (16kg)
24 Jumping pull-ups
BASELINE: 17:40 NEW TIME: 13:21
I was aiming for sub 15 minutes, so I’m super pleased with this time.
And 4 minutes and 19 seconds of improvement!! Wow.
I was totally shocked, but not totally surprised, by the results. Shocked because during the event, I felt awful. I was working at The Cliff pretty much the whole time. I started out OK, running Pose, but I came in from that first 400m and my mouth was dry, my throat parched, my breathing labored. I thought - there is no way I can keep up a decent pace.
On the third 400m run, my Pose was gone, my stomach started to cramp slightly and I thought I might get sick along 14th street. My 3rd KB swings kept pulling my weight to my toes and I started to lose balance.
So, I was pretty certain I would only shave off a few seconds. I even thought I might not beat my old time. It was truly shocking to see my time once I emerged from the post Helen haze. I even asked Emily, who had been counting my reps, if I miscounted. She assured me that I did all the swings and pull-ups. I just couldn’t believe it.
But I’m not totally surprised because I have officially become a CrossFit believer. It works. No doubts here.
And what a great day. These events are great on so many levels:
They’re great competition. As a participant it feels like everyone gets just as nervous, focused and serious as if this were any other sporting competition.
The camaraderie and support is just amazing. When you do these events there is just a wall of sound urging you on. It helps so much and helps push you further than you thought you could go.
As an observer, it’s totally awe inspiring to see the amazing athleticism of all the PF clients and staff (my favorite heat of the day was the second to last one when Becca and Cill were neck in neck on the pull-ups and both called time and fell to the floor at the same time. It was a nail-biter of an ending; my second favorite moment was when Andy went from his last KB Swings to the pull-ups and the crowd went nuts cheering him on to beat 8:30 - which he did. Awesome).
Then looking up at the whiteboard and seeing everyone’s progress is such great inspiration. It’s also a great social scene with lots of really cool people.
I had some dental surgery yesterday. Nothing too major, but the dentist said I should avoid any rigorous exercise for the next 2-3 days. I started to expalin that I do this thing called CrossFit. He asked, “What’s that?” I said that it’s a program designed to develop elite levels of fitness that stresses functional movements and mixes elements of Olympic Weightlifting, gymnastics, plyometrics, running…
He just put up his hand, shook his head, and said, “No, no, no. Two days at the very least before you do anything like that.” “But it’s really fun! And Wednesday is Weighlfiting Wednesday with Becca and waa waaa waaa I want to go.” “No!” And with that, he numbed me up and screwed an implant in my jaw.
I’m totally bummed out because I feel fine today and I am itching to workout. Of course, I don’t want to jeopardize the health of my mouth. It’s too important. It’s where the food goes. So, tonight it’s just sitting at home, getting bored with American Idol, and dreaming of deadlifts and Split Jerks for me…
I have to note that Petranek Fitness and CrossFit have not only started to transform my body (with major transformations yet to come!), but have also started to transform my whole relationship with working out. I never used to look forward to workouts. And I never used to feel badly if a doctor told me I had to miss a workout. And I never dreamed that I’d look forward to or pine for workouts that left me feeling like someone just kicked the crap out of me with some highly focused Bukido. But that is what I do these days. And I like it.
I was a bit afraid of this workout for a couple reasons: one - it involves a lot of explosive squats which could have aggravated the Spear in my left leg; and two - the class before did a much tougher version of this workout and they were all wrecked hard. Thankfully, my leg felt fine.
Box Jumps are still really tough, but getting better. Did a few jumping back down instead of stepping down, but gave that up after about 5.
It was my first time doing Wall Balls, which are hard, but fun. I like having to focus on hitting the X. Takes my mind off of the agony the whole thing is causing me. They’re similar to Thrusters, but more fun in my opinion.
