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