3 rep front squat max, new pr

After looking online and seeing today's WOD, I looked up my previous 3 rep max workout, which helped me out a lot. Today's WOD:

Front Squat x 3,3,3,3,3

Since I had an idea of my max, 175 last week, I had a better idea of where to start, and that made all the difference. My workout went like this:

155, 165, 175, 175, 185

So I did 10 lbs heavier than last week. I felt good while doing this, it was easier to keep the core tight throughout and keep vertical. ...LTC Dan said I could patent my 165 effort because it was so textbook. To be honest, that type of complement means a lot more to me than lifting the heaviest weight. On a separate note, Dan is as strong as an ox. He did Strict press today, and in racking the weight basically did a 155(+?) reverse curl.

After that we had a Met Con Ninja workout:

7 rounds for time:
11 Wallball
11 Burpee
11 Pullup

Did this in 20:55, Wallballs are getting easier, never had to break up the pullups (they're easy now), and Burpees are the worst exercise Man has ever invented.

Another Fran, another PR

Well, Thursday's workout was Fran. When I first learned this, I have to admit that my first reaction was fear. I mean, my lower back is feeling it from deadlifts on Monday, while my quads and pecs were really, really sore from Tabata Something else. I don't like the fact that my first response was to think about excuses for a poor performance, but it was. I then proceeded to chide myself, that everyone here have done the same workouts and experiencing the same thing. Fran in this context shouldn't be used to test you at your optimal rest/recovery, it should test how strong you are while you're doing the WOD's 5-6 times a week. So after telling myself that, I became less and less concerned with the aches and pains my body was experiencing.

I tried to make it to the 9am class, but I was a little too late, only Melissa was there. She mentioned how people have posted some good times, and I said I figured to get a new pr, like a sub 10. She responded with something like, "Oh I think you'll do much better then that." Her comment reminded me that I shouldn't look at Fran as something that will reveal how weak I am, but I should get excited because it demonstrates how strong I am. I'm still not used to thinking of myself as strong (at least in the upper body). When I was warming up at the 5pm class, Chriss commented, unprovoked, that he's noticed I've gotten a lot stronger, and thought I had a sub 9 Fran in me. Earlier this week, when Stacey got back from her six week work detail, she commented that I've gotten a lot faster; Chriss, coming back from an equally long work trip, comments that I've gotten a lot stronger. This is why I joined Crossfit. Well, not to be complimented, but to become faster, stronger, an elite athlete. Ok, so I'm starting to get into a more positive attitude in approaching Fran.

The First round of thrusters was tough, but I felt strong and I only put the bar down once, maybe twice. The pull ups were tough, but I felt like I pushed myself pretty hard. I decided to use the tape grips Crossfit Virtuosity talks about, and I think they did a great job of making it easier on my hands, allowing me to focus on my lats than my hands. Jerry talked about how he doesn't want to see phantom tags, but wanted to see actual contact with our neck/chin/chest with the bar. Although I didn't make contact a couple of times, he also commented if it's clear that your head is way above the bar, contact isn't necessarily needed. This standard really doesn't make it harder for me, it requires more lat strength, but it's the core that gives me difficulty.

The second and third rounds were brutal, and I started feeling light-headed, but I never really felt like I wanted to give up, unlike my first attempt at Fran. During my last round of thrusters, Jerry walked over and told me that I needed to take a deep breath and use that core tension to power the bar up. Unfortunately, I was gasping for air at the time, and holding a big breath of air was proving really difficult. Also, when I had only three more to go, Jerry was like, "Ok just knock out two." I don't know why, but whenever someone gives me a goal that is short of what is needed, I get a strong drive to prove them wrong. So, I responded by finishing up the three without lowering the bar. The last one was really ugly, basically the bar stopped about 3/4 of distance it needed to go, so I ended up strict pressing the bar up into active shoulder, and I imagine it wasn't pretty. The last nine pull ups were surprisingly difficult, I had to bang out the last two one at a time.

After I was done, I just simply collapsed. I tried to yell out time, but just couldn't, although I remember trying to make a T with my hands as I fell to the ground. Although I glimpsed the clock when I went down, it was just for a second. But I didn't care what the time was, I was just happy it was over. I also became a little worried because my hands went numb, like my wrists to my fingers felt like pins and needles. Eventually I got up and then realized I never really heard/knew my time. Mellisa, Matt, and Jack all said 10:5X, and that jarred my memory into 10:55. So after four months and ten days, I lowered my Fran time by 4:38. It's also funny to note that I forgot/was too tired to write up my time on the whiteboard. I mean, fran is the mother of all benchmarks. When two crossfitters meet for the first time, they never talk about their badger or murph time. Inevitably fran comes up within the first five minutes. Regardless, I forgot to post, but I definitely didn't forget the time.

Here's a graph of my Fran times, each one was done Rx'd so they are directly comparable:

This feels like a really big victory. I've been looking for quantifiable proof that coming in to CFOT all this time, eating strict zone for such a long time. Something that will show all of this work hasn't been in vain. This week has been fantastic with people's unprompted comments on how I've improved, and now this. As Jerry pointed out, my first fran was about 20 (19:43) min, my second was around 15 (15:33) min, and now it's around 10 (10:55) min. Can't wait for the next fran, since that's when I'll get my first 5 fran.

Onion skin ( PR!) and yesterday's workout

Guess I'll start off with yesterday's workout:

three rounds for time of:
21 Knees to elbows
21 Kettlebell swing
21 Push-ups
21 Rope Pullups
21 Box jump
21 Good Mornings
150 ft Walking Lunge

My time was 52:02, not the quickest time by any means. I knew this was going to be a tough one because of the rope pull ups. They simply tore up my forearm muscles, the last set I was knocking them out only one at a time. Everything else seemed pretty easy meaning I didn't have to break up a set. Ever since we did Helen, I now know I can do 21 kb swings without stopping. Knowing that, I've been able to push through those times when I want to rest. As I'm finding out how strong I've become, I'm getting better and better at pushing myself even more (more on that later).

The Knees to elbows were fun the first two rounds, but I was really feeling it the last round, wanted to kip so bad! The box jumps were really, really short, so I only needed to use my calf muscles to launch myself up there, so I was pretty damn fast since I never had to step off; I would just jump off, land, and then jump back up. Push ups sucked as usual, and now that I think about it I had to break them up each set, SO ANNOYING! Ah well, with time it will come I suppose. The good mornings were a little tricky, I've felt a bit of a strain on my back last week, and I tried to pay close attention to my lower back so as to not aggrevate it again. This exercise really forces me to open up my hips, which I imagine is a good thing. The lunges were no biggie, but next time I'll try to do them faster.

Today we did "Onion Skin"

5 rounds
max reps strict press (Rx'd at 85)
max pullups

Last time I did this was August 18th, where I did 48 reps with 75 lbs and 54 chins. Today was somewhat better, here's how I performed:

Pull ups: 27, 13, 3, 16, 10 = 69
Strict @ 85: 12, 8, 8, 6, 4 = 38

For the strict press, my reps went down by ten, but the weight went up by ten. On the last one I also hit my head, and although it wasn't hard it did through off my focus.

For the pull ups, I went for a PR, and lo and behold I got it. I'm thinking I'm going to start trying to meet the crossfit standard and always go chest to bar. I mean, it is the standard, and it will get me stronger, right? I'm thinking about waiting until we move into the new place with fixed bars, but I might not wait. ...My bigest problem is getting a good grip on the bar. I think I don't place my hand high enough on the bar, because it really feels like there are eight pebbles being jammed into my hand, and the pain really is a distraction. For example, on the third round I did three, but just had to let go because of the pain in my hands. I don't have any torn calluses, it's simply... pain.

Moving on, I'd like to point out that every time I've attempted a PR this past week or so, I've hit it. It really helps to have a goal, and to know full well your prevous score. That is really starting to provide me with motivation. It's simply been very tough for me to remember my previous performances, but when I do, I notice I do that much better. Now that I'm noticing this and have found my motivation, I think I will really start seeing some results.

high reps workout

This was a really difficult WOD today, completely wore me out. Here it is, although I might have mixed something up:

Wod
25 pull ups
50 hang clean jerk
50 burbees
50 wall ball sit ups
50 box jumps
50 push ups
25 pull ups

I did it in 45:01, one of the longest times of the day. At first I wasn't too happy with this, I feel like I should have somehow pushed myself harder. However, I have to remind myself of where i was four months ago. I remember when I couldn't string more than 15 push ups together, and here I basically did 100 today.

The pull ups weren't difficult, found a good grip early on so I did it in like two sets. The hang clean jerk really worked my core, I put it down a lot more than I'd like to admit, but after a first set of ten I broke it down to reps of 5. I think next time I really need to tell myself to just suck it up and do it. The burbees were awful as usual, my anterior deltoids were numb from use, but I'm starting to get the hang of getting my hips down to power my jump up. The wall balls weren't really hard on my abs, but trying to throw the ball against the wall after the burbees was really hard, felt like I would do the sit up, and then just try to flick the ball to the wall with my wrist. The box jumps took a while, I need to figure out a way to hurry up the dismount, feel like I spend too much time stepping down to the ground. By the time I got to push ups I had recovered some, so I got to bang out 15 at once, but the rest after that were pretty brutal. Got the pull ups in like three sets, I felt like I did a good job on pushing through on this one.

...My plan after the workout was to go home, shower, take a nap, then laundry, but I've come to learn that they've shut off the water main for repairs for the fourth time in the past six weeks. Looks like I'll just have to do laundry tomorrow or Tuesday, and hopefully I can find a place to shower soon.

missed it today...

Well, I just woke up, so I missed today's workout. Can't say I'm too happy right now; this is the first time I've missed a Sunday workout while I'm in town. I couldn't get to sleep until like 4 last night, so when the 7;30 alarm went off today I just hit the off button and rolled back to sleep, figuring I was too tired to really workout. Now that I am up, I feel like I just cheated myself. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now (except maybe go for a run).

...Speaking of running, I had perhaps my best 400m sprint ever on Tuesday. Justin and I sometimes find ourselves finishing workouts with similar times, and Tuesday was one of those days. His upper body strength is much better than mine, so he finished the second round of HSPU/ring dips/push ups before me. So when I started the 400m run, he had probably a 50m head start. I made it my goal to try to catch up to him, and as I left the building I stumbled I was so pumped in trying to sprint my ass off. And when Justin looked back to see who was running so hard, I yelled out "I'm coming for you!" He, in turn, kicked his run up a notch. Suddenly this run wasn't a suck run, it was like a game of tag, it was fun. We ran with such enthusiam that a couple we ran by wasn't sure if I was trying to mug Justin or not. We basically tied in reaching the door, but the outcome wasn't what was important to me, it was the fact that after already running 1800m I was able to sprint 400m and had fun doing it.

Into to the sumo deadlift highpull

Well, it was good to be back. The WOD:

10 rounds or 30 min
100#s
5 squat thruster
7 hang power clean
9 sumo deadlift high pull

I did 7 or 8 rounds before time ran out. This wod made me feel really rusty, like nothing felt very natural. In addition, what slowed me down wasn't really me being weak, but having improper technique causing my lower back to start hurting.

Haven't done thrusters in a while, so it took a bit on an adjustment to go from the rack position to the overhead position. The hang power clean was definitely the easiest, but I couldn't really figure out how to engage my hips, at least it felt that way.

The sumo dlhp was what got me. I mean, just look at this picture: I'm uneven, looks like I'm not keeping my core tight, I only have one of my scapula back, looks like I'm curling my feet inwards, and I'm pulling with my arms before my legs are straight and have engaged my hips. I just couldn't get it to feel like one of my favorite exercises, the kettlebell high pull. I kept front squatting it. I started to feel the strain on my back, which slowed me down a lot. That part was really frustrating, my first round time was like 1:50, but after like the second round my back started to tighten up, slowing me down a lot. I felt like I could do the rx'd weight without hurting my back, as long as I had proper form, so I didn't lighten the load. I also felt like I was capable of doing correct form, I just had to "get it".

Concerning form, with thrusters I really feel something going on with my right hip. It wasn't really pain, it felt more like now that my hips are balanced, some muscles aren't used to working correctly. When I was at the bottom of a squat, I took apicture in my mind of what my body looked like. What I saw was the slight weakness in my right hip causing me to have some bad posture, which engaged my lower right back, emphasizing the strain.

After reading crossfit virtuosity's entry about breathing, I really focused on keeping my core tight while exhaling during the workout. I think helped a lot when I got it right. It's hard to use your back if you're keeping your core tight :)

I think after doing some more sumo dlhps, I'll be ok.

There is no Spoon

So today's WOD was termed "baseline". I should note that with the first round I messed up and did the air squats after the ab mat, doh!

500 m row
40 air squats
30 ab mat
20 push ups
10 pull ups

Although Jerry suggested doing it twice if your time was under 4 min, I went ahead and did three rounds because, well, because I'm a glutton for punishment. I think my times were something like 7:06, 8:24, and 6:53. When I figured out the time for my last round, I was astounded that I improved my time. I mean, my row the third round took like 2 min, 30 sec more than my first round. I talked to Jerry about this, he mentioned that for me now it's all mental, and I have to agree with him. Those seconds I spend sucking air don't help me rocover, all they do is waste time. I guess with that last round I just sucked it up and did it, and that will be the key for my continuation in improvement. Every now and then I get glimpses of what it's like to just ignore the pain and to push through, to simply not feel the exaustion and just go through the motions.

I really am going to try to attend the Tus Thur classes, even though they are only at unGodly hours. I think stepping up to crossfit 5-6 times a week will also help push me over the edge. It's been about four months of crossfit now, it's well past time to start doing this more than 3-4 times a week.

This one was tough. Haven't done the front squat in a long while, it was good to get back to it. The Rx'd weight was 135, which I thought would be easy, but after the first 10 reps my back was just too wobbly, so after that I did 115#s.

The WOD:
Front Squat/ Burbees / Pull ups
10 - 12 - 15
9 - 11 - 14
8 - 10 - 13
7 - 9 - 12
6 - 8 - 11
5 - 7 - 10
4 - 6 - 9
3 - 5 - 8
2 - 4 - 7
1 - 3 - 6

I did it in 43:19 I think, not sure though. Around the 6th round Danny suggested to widen my stance, and those few inches made all the difference in the world. I was approaching the squat with the jumping stance used in all the lifts we've been working on. Turns out it's ok to move your feet out a little wider for squats. After that it was easy, I felt bad only doing 115# near the end, but I wasn't about to re-rack the weight. Burbees are still tough, when I was approaching the pull up bar I just felt really weak in the shoulders.

Feel like I'm starting to turn a corner, like my technique/strength are starting to get to the point where I can work on my strength endurance/conditioning. Of course, I feel like that's happening every other week, but I guess that's a good thing, right?

Learning the snatch

Worked the snatches, this was the first time I've done them so it was a bit of a learning experience.

For time:
30 snatches @ 75#
30 pullups
Run 800m
25 snatches @ 75#
25 pullups
Run 800m
20 snatches @ 75#
20 pullups

Did it in 40:45. Again Danny worked with me, seems like my Kung Fu training makes me go for the horse stance. I dropped the bar a couple of times, but I eventually got it.

For Grace's b-day we did an extra 25 overhead squats, wall-balls, and burpees. I've never done overhead squats before, but again working with Danny I nailed it. Jerry commented that I've really dialed in on the technique, so I'm very happy about that. I really do feel like barbell work is my best work.

On that note, I can't stand pull-ups, they really hurt my hands. I've talked to some non-crossfitters about hand maintenance, and everyone says I shouldn't shave my calluses. ....I know they don't know how crossfit works, but they really seem to know what they're talking about. I'm just not sure what to do now.

New PR and finding my least favorite exercise

Today Jerry had us start out with strength exercises, then finish up with a gasser, which was mean.

Warmup:
5 or 6 rounds
55% of max with mod deads 12 - 20 reps
5 to 10 ring dips with rings out

This was the great part of the WOD. My previous pr for ring dips was one, I couldn't even do that one Monday. Today I knocked out 2, then later got 3, then 4, and finally got 5.

With the deadlift, Andrea corrected my form. My upper back was flat, but she suggested that I stick my chest further out, putting a slight arch in my upper back. This seemed to make everything else come together. Danny watched me bang out a set of 15 later, and commented that I nailed them, always a good feeling. I really struggled to keep my core tight thoughout the movement, but I think I did a good job. ...Once again I feel like I have to comment on how unatural it is for me to engage my abs, I've really tried using them more when sitting at work and walking.

Now for the gasser:

3 rounds for time
25 jumping slam balls with 15# ball
run 400m

I've never done jumping slam balls before, and never will be too soon. After working on my legs though deadlife, I now have to take a 15lb ball, jump up in the air with arms stretches up, slam the ball into the ground by squatting, catch the ball on the bounce, and jump back in the air again. My technique wasn't very good, if you actually slam the ball down the resulting bounce will allow you to not squat all the way down. I, on the other hand, couldn't slam the ball into the ground hard enough to get a bounce, causing me to lower myself beyond what one needs to for a front squat. This just killed my legs. It was such a unusual/horrible sensation it was really hard for me to push through it. Then there was the "run". My legs really felt like jello, and I just couldn't figure out how to push myself to take larger/faster steps. I came in with a good attitude, I kept telling myself I could rest later. I think I did about as good as I could, given I had never experienced anything like that.

Barbell Work Day

Funny note: Tommy and I were the only men at today's 5pm class, it's great to see that crossfit knows no gender boundries. Friday was a barbell work day, and I'm starting to discover that this is the type of workout that I really like. I believe one reason why I struggle with the WOD's is my technique has a way to go. My pull ups are far from the effortless kip that Danny uses (although I'm starting to get there), I use too much energy/muscle in the negative motion of a push-up (one reason why they slow me down), and I just learned that I move too far forward/up with my ab-mat situps, so that I use other muscles after my abs finish engaging.

However, I seem get barbell work. I think it is because I am a visual thinker. It's extremely easy for me to visualise the movement of the bar and the body positions needed to move the bar in the proper way. Not saying I'm perfect, just saying that I intuitively understand a hang clean more than a pull-up.

Since my technique is relatively better I'm able to have better workouts, and it feels good. Here's the WOD:

Record your 5 highest rounds
You may do as many as you want
Round only counts if you don't put the bar down

3X Mod DL
3X Hang power clean
3X Push jerk
3X Front squat

my top 5 scores went as follows: 95, 125, 135, 145, 150

I think what helped me most was my attitude, I thought it was going to be easy, and that made it easy. Well, not easy per se, but doable. My first attempt with the 150 was pretty brutal, deadlift was fine but trying to shrug the weight was not happening. I waited and rested, and the second attempt was much more doable, although I was surprized with the difficulty of the front squat. I can't wait until I become as strong as people like Danny and Chriss; I've got a 60 lb advantage over Danny yet he almost strict pressed 185, amazing.

Missed the 9/11 workout

Since the 9/11 workout is on a Thursday the latest class is 7:30. I normally wake up at around 10, but I tried setting my alarm at the early hour of 6:30. Well, I slept through my alarm and woke up around 1 pm today, guess the 93 workout really wore me out. Alright time to get to work.

A very interesting moment at crossfit

Today's WOD:

5 rounds with a 30 min limit
20 pull-ups
30 push-ups
40 ab mat sit-ups
50 squat(-ups?)

I did the first round a little over 5 min, about on pace with everyone else, but after that my strength really started to leave me. I'm unsure how long the second and third one took me, but I just started the fourth one when time expired. Jerry said we could finish the round so I did and wrapped it up at around the 44 min mark. The toughest part was the push ups. I simply could not do a push up. I would drop the chest to the floor, and then try pushing back up. This was the first time I felt real frustration while working out, and I tried to use it as fuel to get me to finish. Everyone else is done and talking, and I couldn't get a modified push-up. I really dug deep and gave a few grunts/yells/screams, and it worked some of the time. As soon as I was done I felt fine (if not tired), and it's nice to have a better picture of where I need to improve.

FGB

Just when I was thinking I didn't push myself of Friday, I woke up today with sore lats, and a sore right calf and hip muscles. I think I was only sore on my left side because my hip is now in proper alignment.

So today's WOD was fight gone bad. First time I've done it, so here's my score:

Round 1 2 3
Wall Ball 13 12 13
KB High Pull 26 14 2
Box Jump 17 20 13
Push Press 15 15 15
Row 14 11 11
Subtotal: 85 72 54
Total: 211

Because of the enormous class size today (28) we all started at different stations. I started on KB swings, and those 26 reps the first round took out all the leg strength I had. My partner, Lef, made a somewhat similar mistake with starting on the row. He started off with 35 calories on the row, and just couldn't catch his breath after that.

Today really was an awesome day, there were so many people in attendance. Sunday is the one day where the 5om class can meet up with the morning classes.

A tough circuit, a PR, an unorthodox waredrobe choice, and a training question

Well, when I tried to change at work before getting over to CFOT I realized I forgot to pack some exercise shorts. Don't know how I did that, but I figured I could workout in jeans, I've seen Chriss do it plenty of times.

Today's WOD:

For time
30 HSPU
40 pull ups
50 KB Swings 52#
60 abmat situps
70 burpees

This was my second attempt at a hand stand in my life, so I really couldn't do a hand stand push up. Jerry posted if you can't do a Hand-stand to do 4 mini-hands 15 times, so that's what I did. It took forever, not to do the four mini HSPU's, but to just get my hand stand's ready for the mini HPSU's. I just took this part of the WOD as a skill day, I wanted to really get hand stands down. During most of the time I felt a little light-headed, and saw stars prety much the whole time.

Not sure how long it took, but by the time I had finished HSPU's some people were fininishing up pull-ups, others were in the middle of KB, and some were already at ab-mat. I tried to go this part as fast as I could. I banged out 16 PU's, which is a new PR for me. After that I did them in smaller sets. I tried using Danny's big kip at first, but I just couldn't get it right, so I went back to my smaller, more vertical kip. Again, my hands felt like they were getting pretty torn up, but I didn't have any torn calluses. The KB swings were a little tough, I did them in set's of 10 with short breaks in between. The ab mat situps were a bit of a break, I've noticed a real improvement with this exercise.

When it got to burbee time I was having trouble doing them in my jeans, especially since they don't quite fit (a little too loose). So, I decided to go to the men's dressing room and do them in my boxers, with Stuart as a witness. After doing eight the JJ class started to come in and change, so there wasn't any more room. I really couldn't go back to doing them in my jeans, so an idea hit me. I changed into my briefs, then put my boxers back on, and viola: shorts. When I went back into the blue room it got a few laughs/comments/stares, but I was more concerned about finishing up my burbees. I hammered out about 12 more really quickly and then hit a wall. I had to stop and them did them in sets of 10. I couldn't believe the last set was as tough as it was, I just didn't have the strength to do another straight 10. After 5 I just kind of colapsed, even though I kept telling myself the faster I got it over with the faster I would get to rest. When the last five were done, so was I. I'd post a pic of me working out in my boxers, but so far Jerry hasn't posted any of them, guess they didn't turn out so well.

Turns out working out in my "shorts" caused quite the commotion, I heard comments about how I would drive away potential xfitters, comments on how I would help bring in potential xfitters, Danny didn't want to do burbees too close to me (really don't know why), I even heard Jerry mutter "psycho" under his breath after taking a picture of me lying in a puddle of my sweat.
Although I wasn't surprized, I have to say I find it odd that people make a big deal out of it. I think my lack of modesty stems from growing up in a household with a lot of nude people in it. Before you judge let me explain. My father is an artist (I've uploaded one of his drawings here) and he's always done life drawings. Not only were my dad's works everywhere in my house, sometimes he would host art classes in his studio so there would be live nude models. I've never really thought much of this until recently, when Mom told me some galleries wouldn't exhibit Dad's work because of the subject matter. It was only then that I realized that my experieces with the human body were not normal.

Alright, back to Crossfit. I've got a quesiton for the anyone who's reading this. I tend to try to do the WOD's as perscribed, this has been my approach since day one. However, I recognize that I'm still a xfit newbie, and I usually come in last or near last in these exercises. Am I biting off more than I can chew? Would scaling it down and really nailing the workouts provide better results?

Day of Strength

Today was a day to get stronger, the WOD:

5 rounds 1 minute 30 seconds at each station
5 reps of heavy strict press
5 reps of heavy strict chins
Rest (and in a gym who's slogan is "rest later", weird I know)

Here's what I did:

Strict Chins
4 @ 13lbs
1 @ 0

5 @ 0

2 @ 20
3 @ 0

1 @ 10
2 @ 0

4 @ 0

Strict press:
5X95lbs
5X95lbs
5X95lbs
4X95lbs
5X95lbs

I feel like I haven't gotten back up to my pre-Spain strength when it comes to pull-ups, and when comparing it to July it seems like I've got a way to go.

This is how I did 21 July, right before Spain:
5 strict chins
5 chins with 12 lbs
4 chins with 20 lbs
3 chins with 20 lbs
3 chins with 20 lbs


On another note, a week ago when I was at the therapists for my hip I decided to do some of my rotator cuff exercises. That was a mistake, because I pushed a little too hard and have re-aggravated my shoulder. The good news is I know it wasn't crossfit, but I think I might have to take another week off of not working the shoulder. I'm not sure, I'll have to figure it out. It's funny, now that my hip is feeling great, my shoulder is acting up. I feel like an old man.

Ska band concert and our neighbors at Crossfit Alexandria

So last night I went to the rock and roll hotel last night to see my friend Phil's ska band Free Lobster Buffet. They did a great show, including a cover of Reel Big Fish's Beer. Coincidentally, he plays trombone in the Marine Band so a few CFOT people saw him play the other Thursday. When you have a band with at least three Marines, you're guarenteed to have a whole bunch of other Marines show up to see them play. I met one of the Marine's girlfriends, and it turns out she's an assistant coach at our neighbor/faux-arch-nemesis/friend Crossfit Alexandria. We talked about our Fran times. Although I thought her time was very respectable (something like 8:03), she was a little defensive about it, blaming her "long femurs" for taking so much time.

We both recognized that CFOT and CFA seem pretty different in attitude. She commented that the CFA commoderie is based on more friendly ball-busting than here at CFOT. It's interesting to see how different gym's have a differnt feel, but we're all crossfitters, and it's no more appearent when you start talking to a person who was a complete stranger five minutes ago about Fran times.

Day of rest

Deciding to follow Doc's orders and not attend today's class. ...I'll try to make one of tomorrow morning's classes, but I don't know if I'll be up for it (kind of a late night person).

Second date with Fran

Well, today I did Fran for the second time. I was still sore from Friday, and just felt like I had no energy. The memory of my last Fran was fresh in my mind, so was a little intimidated. I was also concerned that this could aggravate my hip, but since I see the osteopath tomorrow this might be my last chance to do squats for a while (I have a feeling he'll tell me not to do them).

My strategy for the first round was to bang out the thrusters 10-11, but at rep 15 I really struggled. Jerry, being the awesome coach that he is, asked if my shoulder was ok. It was everything but the shoulder that was bothering me, and for some reason that fired me up to finish the last 6 quickly. For the pull-ups I made sure to tape up my hands, so no disaster there. I think I need to make my kip smaller, because I use a big swing that eats up time. However, I wasn't going to change now; my lats are still spasming from Badger on Friday and they could use all the help they could get.

I hit the wall on the second round of thrusters, felt real light-headed and simply had no energy, but I aimed for 5-5-5 (think it ended up something like 3-2-3-2-4-1). The pull ups were hard, but nothing too bad. The last set was pretty good, the only thing I'm unhappy about is on the eighth pull up I stopped and had to reset for the last rep, which took up some time.

I did it this time in 15:33, so in five weeks with a two week vacay I cut my Fran time by 4:10. This is a great improvement, and I just can't wait to reach that sub-ten Fran time. I think the next time I see Fran as the WOD, I'll approach it as a way to demonstrate the progress I've made, not as an unpleasant experience.

Hanging my head with Pride

Well, today was definitely an eye opener.

Two weeks away from crossfit and you lose all your endurance. I worked out on Sun and Mon, and I'm a little sore. Ok, I'm really sore. But nothing was going to stop me from working out for the epic battle of the sexes. Here's how the teams score points:

3 pts
400m Farmer's walk
1 pt
500m row
35 ab-mat situps
10 burpees
400m run



I decided to start out on my forte the row machine, then switch over to the point generator that is the farmer's walk. So I get on the row machine, get everything ready, and Jerry yells "go!"

Then I pull out that first stroke, and I already feel tired.

I felt like I had nothing in the tank from the first second. Guess my body got used to relaxation a little too easily. I was still determined to put up a good time for the 2k meter record. Even with a two week break and really not feeling it, I set my PR with 7:40, which is the third fasted time in the class.

So after the row, I took a break with the ab-mat situps. Then the farmer's walk. Last time I did this, I did like 3 carrying 65 lb kettlebells with no problem. After 100m, I had to put down the 35 lb dumbells because my forearms were so fried. Moreover, I was just amazed at how much harder everything was than the last time I did this. It makes me never want to miss a xfit workout again.

So after the 400 farmer's walk with four breaks, I jogged another 400 m. I figured the jogging wouldn't irritate the hip, as opposed to running. Then I went back inside, think I did another set of situps and then another 4k, this time in like 8:30. I remeber reading that rowing helps the hip, and I'd believe it because I can really feel the misalignment when I sit on those row seats.

After that it was burpee time, and I shared some with some other guys. All in all I think I got a measly 17 points, but I really feel like I gave it all that I had. A big shout out to Chriss for scoring 41 points, simply unbelievable.

So the men lost, and I definitely hurt the team. But I gave it my best effort, and I also set a new PR that's the third fastest in the class and for that I am proud. Can't wait to win the tie breaker in this series.