Tweaked my back

So on Wed we had a strange wod:

10 power cleans (135#)
10 bar push ups
200m run every time you let go/regrip the bar
bd 3 rounds Inf 4 rnds HTFU 5 rnds

I did 3 rnds in like 6:50 and 5 rnds in 12:xx. I seem to be able to rip through the first three rounds, but after that it's game over. Will try to power through 4 rounds next time and see how that goes.

Because of the incentive to not let go of the bar or rest I had to bounce the cleans, touch-and-go if you will. This was ok for the first part but near the end of the workout my form suffered degradation. I thought it was ok but after the workout I def felt a tweak. The tweak has since become more intense. Later that day I felt a huge knot in my lower back, so I did a lot of foam rolling on it with a lacrosse ball. I think that helped a lot but now I'm super sore from the massage. Two days later and it still hurts to sit down, so I'm calling in another rest day. Feel lazy but I know that if I go in I'm going to do something stupid and make it worse. Will continue to massage and see how it feels tomorrow.

Appearent weight loss

So I'm foam rolling with Stuart and others post WOD, and they start to asking me about if I've lost weight. This is the 7:30 crew, so they don't see me that often, and each of the guys mention they've noticed a definite change with me. I tell them that I've stopped eating oatmeal for breakfast and am now eating steak, egg, fruit and veggies, and it's made a big difference for me. But I tell them, "I haven't noticed any weight loss, I still weigh 205." Then I think about it, and decide to weigh myself, and the scale reads "195.0" So I then sheepishly tell them I've lost about ten pounds.

This is really interesting, because lately I feel like I'm cheating on my diet all the time (gf has all kinds of snacks available that are hard to resist when hungry, like yogurt covered pretzels.) and have been eating a bit more than I used to. But whatever the case, I seem to be losing weight, and fairly quickly.

I also seem to be hitting some sort of stride with the WOD's. More and more I find myself going through them with little to no rest (at least the first three rounds). Part of this is skill in the movement, but also I think I can focus and push myself for three rounds. I also think going back to Olga for help with my hip is helping a lot, since tight hips will really slow me down, especially in met-con.

Fo Shizzle My Crizzle

I am finding more and more wods where I simply don't stop moving. I was constantly focused on pushing myself, and my body responded:

600m Run,
10 hang power-clean (85w-135m),
20 Kettlebell Swing (@ 53#)
30 Anchored Situp

Bulldog is three rounds, Infidel is four, HTFU is five.

I managed to do three rounds in 20:53, which relative to the group is fairly fast. I knew I had nothing left in the tank, but I decided to go for a fourth round. That took me like 10 min, and my time was 31:XX for the fourth round.

Did a really good job of pacing myself on the run, hang cleans were easy, and only on the last set did I have to regrip on the kb swings, and that was because of sweat.

I'm starting to see Olga on a more regular basis. I've been ignoring this, but my hip is tightening up again. Been in quite a bit of pain, I'm realizing. I'm trying to figure out what happened because I was responding so well to Olga's treatments and was pain free for like a month while only seeing her once a month. Now I see her but the pain remains.

I think I've finally hit the spot. When I was pain free I would see her on Wednesday and workout on Friday, giving myself like 48 hrs of rest. Lately I've just taken the day of the massage off, and would sometimes workout the next day. I think my body needs that extra time to recover. I saw her this day (Wednesday) and she commented that my hips were feeling like they were when I first started seeing her. Looks like it's back to seeing her on a more regular basis.

3 rep press, push press, and push jerk max

So today we had 7 min apiece to find our three rep max on three diff lifts, strict press, push press, and push jerk in that order.

My first rep of press was 95. I figured since my max is like 135 I could take it up to like 115 for my next rep. I was wrong, I couldn't even get one rep in. So the rest of the time was a battle. I guess my shoulders weren't up to the challenge today. I've had so many issues with them I'm not too surprised, I still keep finding my left shoulder out of socket from a weakness in my supraspinatus, from when I tore it during my second week of crossfit.

Had some improvement with the push press, but had a big problem with dip/Drive with the jerk, only got up to 155 for both.

A bit of a disappointing day, but it was what it was.

Sat Wod

A little catch up post here, Sat we had a chipper:

600m run
box jumps
thrusters (30# dumbbell)
KBHP
GHD
Row calories
Double under
DB Shoulder Press
Jumping Lunges
600m run

I did 50 reps of each. Nothing was horrible, but the thought of doing 50 of XXX as I started the movement felt intimidating. There were times were I won the mental game, like with the thrusters I told my body to shut up and push. I always find it easier to push my legs then my upper body, don't know why though. I didn't really encounter a problem until I got to the shoulder press. by rep 20 I was having issues keeping my core tight, it just didn't have the strength and I was starting to arch. Danya called me out on it, and it was frustrating because I knew what I was doing wrong and was trying to correct it, but my body just wasn't cooperating. I don't want to practice bad habits, but waiting for my body to recoup really wasn't an option. The same went for my jumping lunges, I was fine up to rep 20 and then I really started to falter. My hip was really starting to hurt, and it was throwing off my concentration.

I really like Danya's coaching, she tells me things that I tell myself. Strict in terms of doing it correctly, but very positive as well. I think I was the last one to finish this one, again. I'm starting to get a little tired of finishing last.

Chelsea

So today was the first time we did Chelsea:

30 min
5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 squats each minute

When you can't keep up, you switch over to doing as many rounds as you can within time.

This was frustrating because the pull ups were super easy, the squats weren't challenging, I just couldn't do push ups. It didn't feel like I wasn't pushing myself, it just felt like I had no strength. Like I'm lying on the floor, I tell my arms to extend and to push. I push as hard as I can, but I don't move. It's immensely frustrating. When time was up everyone else was on the ground breathing hard, and while it was obvious I worked out I could still easily walk around and talk. The bottleneck that is push ups really prevented me from really building up the intensity. I talked to Melisa about this, about how I was unable to raise the intensity, and she said I just have to keep working on it. She saw how my push ups used to be, and she said they are so much better now. Once again more proof that I need to start some extra work on my chest. I really felt like things got easier when I started benching. I will def have to start that up again.

3 rep squat clean max

This one was fun, my goal was 200#s, but unfortunately I only got up to 185. I had some difficulty getting under the bar. I think although I set a goal I was having a hard time pumping myself up, I just couldn't get excited.

Tabata sell out

This was a rough one for me:

8 rounds 20 sec on 10 sec off

Wallball
pull ups
burbees
push press (@ 95#)
Row

The pull ups weren't that hard, I got about 10 a round. The burpees were not easy, I was only banging out like 8 a round. The push press was brutal, I wonder if I should've done a lighter weight because I could only get 4-5 a round. I always wonder what is better for my shoulders, a few reps of heavy weight or more reps of lighter weight. The row was nice, got to kick it up a notch.

The push press really did remind me of how weak my shoulders/chest are. I was really enjoying the bench press club on Wednesday's morning but now that it's over I need to start benching on my own time.

Snatch and toes to bar ladder

I was really looking forward to this wod:

10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1

Snatch (115)
toes to bar

For the first round I never let go of the bar, I reset as fast as possible and then power snatched the hell out of the weight. Despite this Russ, who was letting go of the bar after each lift, still finished the set two reps ahead of me. That was a little frustrating, but I tried to not let it slow me down.

I was trying to just bang out the snatches, but recently I'm having such difficulty getting under the bar that I decided to tone down the intensity just a tad (only a little!) and really work on trying to nail the technique. I wanted to dive under the bar, not bring the bar up to over my head. This was pretty difficult. I also noticed that, for whatever reason, I really needed to open up my hips before the snatch attempt. Once I felt the bar whoosh against my hair, this was a little scary because my hair is a lot shorter then what it used to be.

I think near the end I was starting to figure it out, but I would still like to do a lot more work on this. Honestly, I think I just need to watch a couple videos of people snatching some heavy weight. I seem to learn a lot just be seeing an example. ...Danny once commented that he wished everyone was as easy to teach.

Sat workout! Hang cleans and other stuff

Even though my lats were STILL sore from Tues's wod, I really wanted to hit this because of the hang clean.

7 rounds
7 pull ups
7 burbees
7 hang clean @155#
200m run

I was def one of the slower ones, those burbees were hard to push though. I did most of the clean sets unbroken, except for the last two where I had to break it down to like 2 reps apiece. I really enjoyed my shoulder flexibility, as the toughest part was opening my hands to receive the bar in the clean, and then going back to the hook grip without dropping the bar. I figured out that if I simply don't open up my hands it was much easier on my grip, and I can still properly rack the weight without opening up my hands, as Jerry found out a while back in April.

The pull ups were actually pretty fun, I didn't have any rust to shake off with the butterfly kip and I am starting to get my chin over the bar even with the butterfly kip. Running is still a bit of an issue, but with this shorter distance I think I did a better job of having a faster pace. Still didn't have a very fast time, something like 25:24, but I was very happy to make it to a sat wod and really enjoyed the hang cleans.

As I look at the pictures Jerry posted, I can't help but notice how much I'm starting to lean out. I still eat some grains, especially on the weekend (it's hard when your gf loves bread and whatnot), but most of the week I simply don't eat any grains, and it seems to be helping out greatly in my physique. I still seem to be experiencing long periods to recover, but maybe I just need to do more self massage.

Thursday run and double unders

This was a great wod since I was so sore in my back, nice metcon without a lot of heavy lifting.

4 rounds:
400m run
50 double unders

I am still having issues with double unders, but near the end as I started to figure out my wrist movement I was starting to string together 20+ reps as opposed to the standard 7-10 reps I can bang out at will. the DU's seem to be a rhythm thing, and by focusing on my wrist movement I seem to have more control over that rhythm. Did this in 17 and some change, was def not the slowest one out there.

Thruster 1 rep max and a coaching first

So we had to find our thruster max, and I found it pretty quick:

165#s

This really was a core/leg workout, I really struggled to create the pop needed to launch the bar off my shoulders. It really took the breath out of me.

Had a metcon, felt like I did a pretty good job on it:

AMRAP 12min
10 db push press
10 sit ups
30 overhead lunges

got 4 or 5 rounds in.

Today was exciting because Melissa asked me to explain my demo of a thruster. Was a little caught off guard, voice cracked a few times, but I went through the whole progression of grip, approach, rack, etc. I think I was the only person who could tell I was nervous. Regardless, was happy to have an opportunity to improve my coaching.

100 pull ups for time

I've come to realize I really need to work on pull ups. Tuesday's wod:

100 pull ups for time
10 burpees for every time you let go of the bar.

I ended up with one of the slowest times, think 17:27. One guy did it in 5:11. I did get a PR of 20 pull ups, on the fixed bar that's an improvement by 7 reps since April. However, there is a knot in my shoulder that is just not having any of this pull up business. I did the first 20 with the standard kip, after that I tried the butterfly. That wasn't the best effort, so I only got 5 in. After that I had the grip strength for only sets of 10, except for the last set where I forced myself to do 15. Those last 3 were harsh, I could hear/feel my shoulders snapping because I was coming down too quickly. Oh, another positive note is that I didn't tear. Yay for the little things.

I'm foam rolling the sh!t out of my shoulder with a tennis or lacross ball, and hopefully will get that under control in under a week.

I'm also going to try to work on my MU progressions. I've talked about it long enough. Time to man up and actually do something about it.

Been feeling a little... weak. All this running and gymnastic movement really has me feeling slow and bulky. Also has me feeling like I have little to no endurance. Sucks.

Thursday C&J and burbees

I wanted to go back to this wod because I feel like it's the epitome of both what I excel at and have difficulty with.

6 rounds
5 Clean & Jerks (@ 155#)
10 Burbees

I excelled here because every C&J was awesome, with great execution. However, I simply didn't have the focus to really, really push myself. Again, this took forever, 24:23. It took me longer than any one else, and although I'm used to being in this position I'm getting tired of always being last. Perhaps I'm biting off more than I can quickly chew? I don't know. I was a little confused near the end. I was strong enough to nail the C&J, but I was having so much trouble doing this quickly.

I simply don't know how I can get my butt in gear.

I want to be fast, I want to maintain my speed. I think one thing is goal setting is helpful for me. And setting goals means having expectations, but I'm having a tough time forming expectations on wods. If we were to do this wod again I think I would really, really attack it. That's one reason why I find myself approaching Fran different than any other wod.

I don' t know. My physique is still changing for the better. Kristin's sister came into town for the fourth, and in the 5 weeks since she's seen me she was impress with how much more svelte I've become. I've stopped eating oatmeal for breakfast and am now enjoying Steak an eggs with veggies and fruit, so I'm eating more Paleo Zone now. I'm trying to eat more Paleo, and I think it is helping.

My hip is still bothering me some, I thin I may have to start seeing Olga a little more frequently than once a month. There was a period of like one month where I had no pain, and it was simply awesome. It's now an ache, very manageable but if given the choice I'd rather not be in pain. I think now that I'm figuring out how to deal with the symptoms I need to figure out a way to fix the mechanics that's causing the symptoms. For some reason, my right hip is hyper-mobile. It might be a technique thing, I don't know. Perhaps it has to deal with the torn labrum in my right hip, again I don't know.

First Friday: Nancy

Showed up rather late for the last class, so I chose something that I thought I could do quickly, Nancy:

5 rounds
400m run
15 OHS of 95#

The OHS's were easy, but god d*mn the running sucked. I tried to keep it up, but I just couldn't do it. Time was 18:07