Wednesday, Gwen

Ok so I've been slacking on the blogging, for that I apologize. I'm going to post some make up posts, and will be better at posting on the same day.

Thursday's exercise was Gwen:

As heavy a weight as you want,

clean and jerk 15-12-9 reps touch and go at the floor only, no regrip and no dumping.

I chose 116 since Jerry advised anyone who was thinking of doing 115 to do one more pound since that's what LTC Dan used. Sorry Dan, Jerry made me do it.

Going from the ground really added a different, more difficult, feel to the motion. 15 was actually pretty tough, but somehow I didn't stop. On the 12 rep set something screwing happened because I was getting tired and Jerry said I only got up to 10 (I knew something happened but couldn't figure out what). The last set was surprisingly easy, but the finisher more than made up for it.

Stacey convinced me, like she always does, to do the finisher, and this was painful. 75 Wallballs for time

3:23

I've noticed a difference in style between Stacey, who consistently gets one of the best scores of the class, and myself. Whenever we start an exercise together I consistently start out faster than her. Now the difference isn't too much, but my pace is slightly faster. However, after a while I have to slow down or stop all together for some period of time, whereas she briefly stops maybe once, if at all, and when she resumes it's the same pace as before.

We talked about this a bit, and I think these strategies accomplish two different goals. For someone who's as advanced as Stacey you probably have a pretty good idea how to pace yourself. This comes partially because as you get into better and better shape, your gains get smaller and smaller. For a noob like me I don't know my pace because I'm still unfamiliar with my body's strength since it's making rather large gains quickly. What pushed me two weeks ago might not be as tough today, so I just go as hard as I can for as long as I can and pray I don't die.

Another reason for sprinting out of the starting gate is I figure it will produce faster gains. My dad once told me that if you practiced running by alternating sprinting with slow jog you will see better improvement than a constant pace, although your time would be better if you kept it constant. Don't know if the same applies to crossfit, but I like any explanation for my still lacking (albeit improving) endurance numbers.