These felt pretty good, especially the later round of the squat clean thrusters. I was able to stay unbroken on the TTB, I'm posting the video fro feedback as I'm sure this movement will be coming up in the Open!
3 sets at 95-97% Airdyne 30sec 4:30 walk-rest
Some fine airdyning this morning, and it never gets any easier! I was able to hold most of the interval into the 600 wattage range!
After my Monday evening retest on 14.2 (post coming soon), it was back to the usually 5:30 AM session. My goal today was to keep moving! The Work: A. Back Squat 10 x 2 @65% 1rm. Begin a set every :60 I used #215 for this. My goal was to hit good positions, without Oly shoes or knee sleeves. It felt pretty good this morning. B. 10 min. Amrap at 80%: 4 TGU moderate, 12 KBS, 20 row Cal. I ketp this one moving, using the 1 pood kettlebell for the turkish get-ups and a 2 pood for the kettlebell swings. I was able to get though 4 rounds and a set of TGU. C. 3 sets: 30sec. AD sprint @95%. Rest 4:30 These were soul crushing as usual!
It was back to the gym this morning after a somewhat disappointing showing on 14.2 last night. I finished with 141 reps, 3 shy of making the round of 16s. The CTB pull-ups really smoked me, and I was never in a great rhythm for them. I was down to singles at the end. I feel as though I can make the 16s on a retest (looking like Monday at Alpha Pack in Portsmouth). I don't the bar after OHS #13 during the second set of 14s, I thought it was 14, and would have probably had enough time to get the remaining 3 pull-ups if that hadn't happened. You find weak spots during these Open workouts, because as one of my buddies stated "That guy (Castro) knows what he's doing!"
Saturday's Work: A. Snatch tech work: build to a tough single in 15 minutes Went to #145, worked on positioning and getting deep. Just tried to groove the muscle sthat were still a bit fatigued from the previous night.
B. EMOM 12 minutes
a. Evens: 30 seconds Airdyne 90% The AD always sucks it out of me!
b. Odds: 10 UB wallball, heavy or high
I went heavy(#30) on these, and tried to find my groove. I found a position that felt good. The #30 med ball makes it interesting, because it's not a Dynamax, it's kinda lumpy and isn't always even on the catch!
C. Rest 10 minutes then:
D. Max set double unders – 3 attempts
I went for 110, 114, and 104 for my 3 attempts, Pretty pleased with these. I seem to have this skill, now I need to add Butterfly pull-ups to the quiver!
E. 10 Min. Z1 of choice Hopped on the bike to spin out the legs.
This week has been about trying to keep things sharp for 14.2 coming Thursday evening. A. In 10 minutes work up to a heavy (not a max) thruster I worked up to #185, nothing huge, just getting under some weight for a few reps. B. 5:00 Amrap: 3 Thrusters, 100/65, 3 CTB, then 6, then 9, then 12, etc. During 2012, the open finished with a 7 min version of the workout, and I finished it with 12 full rounds and 10 reps. Today I finished this 5 minute version with 12 full rounds and 14 reps (definitely a significant improvement over 2 years ago). This couplet, in particular, always smokes me. I need to really invest more time in my front rack position so that I can use it to support the bar on the squat portion of the thruster and not spend my grip strength on the bottom portion of this lift. C. Rest 10 minutes then: D. 1 set AMRAP toes to bar I hit for 17 of these, not real smooth toward the end as my grip was starting to go from two days of CTB pull-ups E. 10 Min. Z1 spent rowing just trying to keep the blood flowing.
Back to the training today after hitting Open 14.1 over the weekend. The overall volume today was less than the past few weeks. I always feel like I need more volume or heavier loads. I have to maintain my focus on being ready for the Open workouts on the weekend and trusting the preparation I already have in the bank to see me through. A. HBBS 3-2-1 at 85% effort. 3:00 rest
After hitting some warm-ups sets to prep my legs, I went #255 for 3, #275 for 2 and #295 for 1. My legs felt good and felt like I was able to get low and drive out of the hole.
B. EMOM 10:00
Evens: 1 clean pull, 1 power clean, work up to 85% of 1RM Odds: 7 CTB Pullups I used #195 for the clean pulls and power cleans. These felt solid, I was able to keep my feet from flying way out on the first 3 rounds, but the last 2 I did get a bit wide on the catch. I need to work on getting a better drop an catch by getting my hips down versus getting my feet wide. The CTB pull-ups felt real solid today, I hit all 7 unbroken in good rhythm,
C. 3 sets, :30 row at very high effort, 3:30 rest I hit for 17 calories, 17 calories, and 19 calories in each of my sets on the rower. This felt pretty good as well.
The first WOD of the 2014 CrossFit Games season was announces Thursday night, and it is a repeat of the very first Open workout from 2011. A 10 min AMRAP of 30 Double Unders and 15 Snatches (#75). I did not participate in that first Open as I had yet to find CrossFit. As part of my training leading up to the Games Season, I performed a 7 min version of this one at the beginning of February. I felt like I had a pretty good handle on this workout leading into it.
I decided to hit it after school on Friday. All of my morning workout crew have signed up for the Open this year, and most decided to hit it up then as well. We setup and warmed-up. I ended up going last and post a score of 355 reps. Very solid. I was hoping to be over 350 for it. The bump in the road came after the workout. After uploading the video and posting my score, It became evident that the last 40 seconds of my video was missing. So the online judges, correctly noticed this and informed me of it. In addition, I missed a DU rep during one of the rounds, and my score was reduced to 330. Below is the original attempt at 14.1.
On Saturday morning, less than 14 hours since my previous attempt, I was not ready to do this workout again. I hit some mobility and then went on a 10 mile mountain bike ride (trail and gravel combo) to spin out my legs and get the blood flowing.
Sunday came and I decided to redo the workout. I go with the guys around 11 and began warming up and prepping for the workout. We set-up 2 iPads, an android tablet, and an iPhone to ensure that the video would be there and in it's entirety.
I decided to approach the workout in much the same manner. i hit the first 3 rounds of snatches unbroken, and then switched to 8-7 for two rounds before finishing out with 5-5-5. I hit mostly 31 DUs to ensure that I didn't come up short in this one, and I mistakenly hit an extra snatch during the 3rd round. I finished with a total of 358 reps. I did miss on one round of the DUs. Overall, there are a few places in which to improve my work in this setting. First, I need to make sure I am hitting the prescribed reps and not more. Also, when I put down the bar, I need to be sure to only drop from the wait, no more super-starring it. This caused the bar to travel too far during from my spot during the workout spending precious time and energy recovering it. There are some technique ares to improve as well with bar path and hip contact during the snatch proton to speed up cycle time and shorten the bar path from a swooping one to a tighter line. Below is my 14.1 redo.
I also need to thank my friend for helping film and motivating me to push through this workout. There are with me every morning at 5:30 and have helped keep me motivated and pushing everyday. I can;t say enough of how much that means to me.
