Friday January 17th, 2014

Mobility

Today was a rest day, so I came in and spent some time working on my mobility.

• rumble rolling
• lacrosse ball work
• band distractions
• squat position

Felt really good after the work. I am a bit tired from the week and need to make sure that I get more adequate rest throughout the week. I have been running on between 5.5 and 6 hours per night, and I can feel the fatigue creeping up on me. My nutrition has been pretty solid this week, and I need to maintain that for the weekend and into next week.  

Thursday January 16th, 2014

Thursday:

A. 10 x 1 hang snatch

I was able to work up to #125 on this. Still didn't feel comfortable on the catch.

B. 3 Sets.

  10 KBS at #70

  10 Burpees as fast as possible

  20 double unders.

  3:00 rest

These sets felt pretty good. I did the DUs unbroken for each set. I finished each in 49 seconds. I was fully recovered by the end of the 3 minutes. Cycle time on the KBS felt a bit slow, but I'm not sure how to increase the efficiency of this movement. 

10:00 Z1 on Airdyne

I kept the pace to around 15-185 watts for the duration. Felt like a good flush of the whole system.

Wednesday January 15th, 2014

A. High Bar BAck Squats - 5-5-5-5-5
 I was able to go 225-245-255-260-265 on these. Reps felt pretty good. Last set was tough, 270 for 5 may be doable. I did have some popping in my knees, just noisy not painful. I need to get better at getting out of the pocket.

B. EMOM 16 minutes

  odds: 5 touch and go #275 deadlifts

  evens:  3 strict handstand push-ups

I held the #275 for the whole sequence, felt pretty solid. I had absolutely zero back issues on these. Looking at the video, I need to cycle them faster.  

The 3 strict HSPU felt solid and easy, not sure how fast I was moving on them, but these felt good. The volume was easy to handle. I did loose focus on round 6 and did not keep my core engaged and felt off after the 2nd, but went right back to hit number 3. All other rounds were completed unbroken.

C. AirDyne - 3 sets -  15s all out effort - 2:45 easy spin on bike. 

Wow. The 15 seconds was tough! I felt good through the first 10-11 seconds and then felt like I was fighting against the current. I was able to hit for 12 - 14 calories each of the 15 max effort segment, and held the pace to around 125 watts on the 2:45 easy spin. I definitely felt the AirDyne when I stepped away from the beast.

I feel pretty good after the work the past three days. No major issues. 

Tuesday January 14th, 2014

Squat Clean:

Building quickly to a 5RM.

 I was able to hit #175 on this.  I felt like I was getting knocked back on my heels toward the end of the cycle. I definitely felt my hips being high.  I need to focus on getting lower and moving the bar straight up. I think I can get #185.

Then 

6 rounds

2 muscle ups, 6 burpees over box (24"), 9 wall ball (10'/20lbs), 40 DU. Rest 2 minutes. 

1 - 1:25 - MUs felt good, BOB felt good, I don't feel like I can cycle Wall Balls very well.  Started doing my double unders on the turf, the extra drag always pull-s me out of my rhythm.

2 - 1:20 - felt good, stayed unbroken, DUs we 15 & 25

3 - 1:20 - recovered well, missed 2nd muscle up, but didn't drop off the rings. DUs went unbroken this
round

4 - 1:20 - MUs felt like I was getting high n the rings before turning over, DUs unbroken again. 

5 - 1:23 - Everything went smooth until I got the DUs, dropped my rope, and was off for the first 15 or so. 

6 - 1:20 - felt pretty fresh, went unbroken on the DUs.

I felt I was able to keep it under the red line and was ready to tackle each successive round. The wall balls are something that seem tough for me to cycle much faster. Overall I felt this session went pretty well. 

Monday January 13th, 2014

Later this week registration begins for the 2014 CrossFit Games Open. Today begins a training cycle that will prepare me for February 27th and beyond. Today was definitely a focus on my weaknesses. Being a bit of a cardio-jockey, I need to focus in being more proficient in the technical aspects if the lifts.  

A. Snatch Balance 1-1-1-1-1

95-95-100-100-100

Felt hard to drive under the bar without a dip. This is not a movement that I have done a lot. 

B.  Squat Snatch - 15 minutes to build to a max. 

I was able to successfully work out to #125, but could not get #135 locked out. I need to get smoother in the technique, keep the bar close, and work on my catch position. I need to invest some time with hip and shoulder mobility every day!

C1.  Shoulder Press  5-5-5-5-5  - rest 10 seconds

C2. Amrap CTB Pullups - 5 sets.  

Rest 2 minutes 

1 - #125 and 6 CTB - starting weight was probably too light, probably needed to hit a better warm-up, which would have let me connect more CTB.

2 - #130 and 10 CTB - weight was easy, form broke after 4 and the last 6 were a struggle. 

3 - #135 and 11 CTB - reps were solid, same issues with the form. 

4 - #145 and 10 CTB - really tough to get these with no dip/drive, tried a closed grip and felt stronger connection with the bar, but cycling did not feel as smooth. 

5 - #150 and 11 CTB - first 3 reps felt solid, struggled with rep 4 and could not get rep 5 up with out a dip, was able to cycle through the first 5, then had to reset to keep going. I don't drop off the bar, and barely got my chest to the bar on rep 11. 

This was a very different workout for me. I struggled with some of the position in the balance and squat snatch portions. I fell I should have been a bit more aggressive in my starting and initial weights on the third portion.  I need to invest time for getting smoother on my pull-up technique. 

January 6th, 2013 Training

10 min EMOM

3 power cleans

3 front squats

3 jerks

All of these were preformed at #155. These felt very heavy today. I'm not sure my warm-up was sufficient to get my blood moving and ready to perform these movement at this weight. My sleep was frequently interupted last night, and I may have been felling some fatigue from it as well. I was able to maintain the 3-3-3 for the full 10 minutes with usually 20-24 seconds to recover before going again.  

The second portion of this mornings work was another EMOM, this time for 12 minutes. 

12 min EMOM

7 toes to bar

35 double unders

I felt better on this than the first, these movements are more in my comfort zone. I was able to go unbroken on all of the toes to bar, and unbroken for the first 8 rounds of the double unders, and missed in the high 20s on the next 3 rounds, but was able to finish unbroken on the last round. I finished the work with around 24 - 26 seconds left on each round. 

Accountability

It's been quite a while since I posted to my blog. I am going to try to keep this going a bit longer than last year. I have been following Patrick McCarty on his training blog (Training & Stirring) have have felt more motivated to share and reflect on my own training. Lately I have been following Ben Bergeron's Competitor's WOD blog to get outside of programing for myself, where I tend to avoid movements at which I don't necessarily excel.


Today's work:
Clean and Jerk
AMRAP in :20, rest 1:40 between rounds


3 rounds #195 hitting 3 reps, 3 reps, and 2 reps, first round felt solid, second round I went a bit fast on the 3 rep and felt loose in my lower back, the third round I was able to clean the third rep, but ran out of time to get it overhead. Overall pleased with the #195. I need to push this to establish my upper end on this lift. 

3 rounds #175 I was able to hit 4 reps on each. These felt pretty solid and light overall. 

3 rounds #155 I hit 5 reps each. Again these felt good, and I was able to cycle them and hold technique. 

3 rounds at #135 felt really good at this weight, I was able to hit 6 reps pretty clean. 

3 rounds at #115 I felt like I was not as solid on the reps, felt very light, and I was muscling it up to hit the 7 reps. 

Overall, this was a needed push with some reps at heavier weight and technique focus, I need to see how heavy I can go in the coming weeks. 

Metcon
21-15-9:
C2B
Burpee
400m run

I finish just over the 10 minute mark at 10:41, and I felt very off on the chest to bar pull-ups, I need to invest time in working on cycling these outside of a metcon. I tend to flail after 4-5 reps. The burpees were ok, and the runs felt better than they had in a few weeks.