247.0
WOD:
Squat Cleans
1 Rep every minute on the minute for 15 minutes
No prescribed weight but this is what I did on 3/5:
5-5-5-5-5-1-1-1-1
Loads: 95-95-105-115-115-125-135-135-135On 3/23, we did hang power cleans:5-5-3-3-3-1-1-1-1
105-115-125-135-135-145-145-145-145Last Saturday, I worked on power cleans as well and topped out at 135. I've actually gone backwards in cleans over the last two months. My notes on 3/23 suggest I need to do more shrugs and scarecrows. I need to get more serious about cleans, that's for sure.
Today's goal: Squat Clean #145
Here are my results from today:105/110/115/120/125/135/140/145/150/155/160/160/160/160Scott sent some videos of me doing the squat clean at both 120 and 160. In both, there is little to no explosive force, which tells me I'm doing something wrong. At 160, I'm basically using my shoulder muscles to bring the weight up. It's awesome that I'm getting strong enough to do that, but that isn't the point of the lift. Even at 120, where I handle the weight very easily, there's basically no explosive force.
The encouraging part of this is that if I can figure out what I'm doing wrong, I could probably take a huge jump upward in this lift.
Food:
Yogurt with honey, walnuts, blackberries, and rasberry jam
Three Pork Tacos
Two bowls of chili with hamburger and italian sausage
247.2
WOD:
50 Power Snatches #65 9:20
50 Front Squats #85 8:05
Extra Credit:
10 weighted box jumps 20" #25
500m Row - 2 minutes flat
Today was rest/makeup day. I told Scott yesterday that I wanted to work on Power Snatches and Front Squats, so that's what I did.
I like the weighted box jumps. I want to do more of those.
9:20 is my baseline for getting ready for Randy. On Sunday, I need to do snatches again, but go heavy - at least 105. Then next week, if Randy doesn't come up in programming, I'll do something else, like maybe 100 snatches at #55, or maybe just do 75 reps at #65. Actually, the more I think about it, for Power Snatches, I don't think I should do less than #65. I could maybe go less than that for Muscle Snatches though.
One workout alternative that would be good would be 10 Power Snatches/10 Thrusters x 5 for time, or AMRAP 20 Minutes.
247.0
WOD:
Run 5K
Time: 33:05
Previous time on 3/4 was 35:24. One note for this run is that I lost at least a minute at the intersection at 45th.
249.6
Yesterday was day 4 in a row, so I listened to my body and didn't go to CF tonight. Today was a strength day, overhead squats, which I can't do, but I could have worked on something else. All the same, it's late in the day now and I'm starting to think about going to LAF and working on snatches or cleans. I should wait and do that stuff tomorrow.
Ideas for tomorrow: Snatches, cleans, back squats, bench press, inverse rows, rack shrugs, triceps
252.0
WOD:
50 Box jump, 24 inch box
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball
50 Burpees
50 Double unders
Time: 44:05
AB CHALLENGE
150 Sit-up (anchored)
*post new and old times
Me: 60 situps
251.0
Workout:
Deadlifts: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5
Loads: 225, 250, 255, 260, 260, 260
Extra Credit: 2000m row
time: 10:50 (moderate effort)
I really didn't want to work out today, so I decided to keep it simple, get my work done, and get the hell out of there. After the deadlifts, I had a burst of inspiration and hit the rowing machine for 2,000 meters. 2K row is actually a pretty good every day workout. It wouldn't be a bad idea to do that every day for a week or a month. It would probably help with muscular endurance.
Food:
Bacon Cheeseburger
Onion Rings
Coffee
Some shrimp pasta stuff
Chili Cheese Fries
1 drink
250.0
Workout:
Power Snatches: 10-10-5-5-5-5
Loads: 65-75-85-85-95-95
Hang Cleans: 10-5-5-5-5-1-1-1-1-1
Loads: 105-115-125-125-125-125-135-135-135-135-135
I'm not 100% sure if I got the loads and number of sets correct, but this is basically pretty close. A good endurance workout to do later this week might be 10 X 10 Power Snatches at #65.
With the cleans, I need to do shrugs and scarecrows.
Something else to note - my last entry on hang cleans (3/23/10) had me establishing 145 as my 1RM. Today, trying to hang clean 145 felt close to impossible. The goal for next week should be 5 X 5 at 130.
Food:
Panang Curry and White Rice
Coffee
I posted these goals about six weeks ago on 3/7/10:
Weight: 220
400m run: 90 secs
800m run: 3:30
5K Run: 25:00
Deadlift: #325
Back Squat: #250
Pullups: 10
Shoulder Press: #185
Power Clean: #200
I'm shooting for achieving these by my birthday, August 10. Right now, I would say I'm well on target for achieving my goals with the deadlift and the back squat and probably the 5K run as well. For the other runs, I'm not sure because I haven't actually timed them. For Shoulder Press and Power Clean, I still think I can hit those targets even though I'm not quite sure where I am with either one. Today might be a good day to try and bench mark those. The goals I am most unsure of making are the pullups and the weight. Those two are actually pretty closely related.
New Goal: Power Snatches
I've just recently started to take a real interest in the power snatch. It appeals to me, I think, because taking a load from the ground to over your head with velocity is a powerful, powerful movement.
Current 1RM: #105 (can probably snatch #110 or #115 at this point)
Goal: #145 by August 10th
There are two named CrossFit WODs for the Power Snatch - "Randy" and "Isabel".
Randy is 75 snatches at #75 for time
Isabel is 30 snatches at #135 for time
I'd like to be able to do both of these. Realistically, to get a decent time on Isabel, my 1RM will probably need to be #160 or higher.
My approach would be to do two workouts per week as follows:
Workout 1 - "Go Light"
Starting with a lower weight, or even a naked #45 bar, see how many reps I can get to and what my time is. With a naked bar, I can probably do all 75 reps. I might even be able to do that at #55. Repeat this workout once per week on a Monday or Tuesday adding more reps or more weight each time. It may be beneficial to mix things up as well. One week doing 30 reps at #85 and then the next week doing 100 reps with a naked bar.
Workout 2 - "Go Heavy"
5 X 3 starting at #100 or #105
Do this once per week on a Thursday or Friday. The goal is to increase load each week and improve overall strength.
Something to think about is that I may not need to do specialized twice per week workouts if I'm going to CrossFit regularly 4X per week. A lot of the other stuff we do - deadlifts, kettlebells, cleans, sdlhp, box jumps, squats - will help me improve my snatch as well. The methodology is that all of this stuff works together and that specialization is the enemy. Still, it would be cool to hit these two benchmarks in the next few months - Randy in July and Isabel sometime in the fall. I also think that hitting these targets would really help me with my endurance on a lot of different WODs.
Also, when I do these for real, I want to videotape them and put them on YouTube.
250.8
WOD:
Bench Press 5 X 5 75-80% 1RM
Back Squats 5 X 5 75% 1 RM
Loads: #155 for Bench and #175 for Squat
#155 on the bench was not very challenging. #165 is, arguably, what I should have gone with. #175 was a good weight for sets of 5. If I had been doing sets of 3, I would have gone up to #185.
Extra Credit: Power Snatches (hopefully) Update: I only got in about 10 power snatches. There wasn't any time.
Food: 4/23 was just one big eating frenzy. No point in going into too much detail.
252.2
9:50 am: Not at all sure I'll work out today. If I do, I'll probably work on Power Cleans and Snatches. I need to do squats but don't think I'll have it in me after yesterday's deadlifts. I was thinking about rowing 2000m as well, which I haven't done in a really long time.
Speaking of deadlifts, since hitting my new max of #300, I've now done at least two workouts with lots and lots of reps at #225. It might be a good idea to do a 5 X 3 workout next week at something like #250 or #260. I could probably do that as soon as Sunday. But, I also need to do back squats, which I haven't done in like 3 weeks.
250.4
WOD:
"McGee"
5 Deadlifts (#275)
13 Pushups
9 Box Jumps
AMRAP 30 minutes
My load was #225. I finished with 11 complete sets plus 1 more set of deadlifts and 9 pushups. That comes out to:
60 deadlift reps
152 pushups
99 Box Jumps
Food:
Banana
Croissant with cheese
Small Caesar
Burger (patty, cheese,chorizo sausage)
Ice Cream
2 chocolates
2 tacos
cheeseburger
fries
tartar
251.2
WOD:
Tabata
OH Squats #45/65 (Front Squats for me) - 35
Tire Flip #135/250 - 35
KB Swing #26/44 - 50
Push Up - 60
My score was 180, which was easily the lowest. I should have gotten at least 200. Two things killed me: 1) I did squats last, when I was already dead tired and 2) some people were a little bit "math impaired" adding up their repetitions. Seriously, there had to be some grade inflation going on out there.
AB CHALLENGE
Complete 3 rounds of:
AMRAP in 1 minute
Leg Raises
"Superman"
*lay on stomach and lift legs and arms up together, then lower together
Sit-ups (unanchored)
Food:
Banana
Coffee
Jimmy Johns Sandwich
1 chocolate
2 chicken breasts
No morning weight measurement
WOD:
"Fran"
21-15-9
Thrusters (#65, #95)
Pullups
My weight was #65
Time: 9:11
Scott did this one in 3 minutes flat with the RX of #95. Corey used the same weight and came in at ~4:30.
Ab Challenge: Tabata Pike Planks
Food:
Banana
Coffee
Teriyaki Chicken
Cabbage
251.2
Didn't intend for it to work out this way, but today ended up being a rest day. Oh well, long term consistency is still the key. Extra rest days from time to time make sense.
Need to get back on the diet this week and get back to dropping 2-3 pounds per week. Diet Mon-Thur and try to keep it sensible and not out of control on the weekends. This might be tough with the job switch coming up.
253.4
Right now I'm thinking today will be a rest day. I'll update this post if it turns out any differently.
I'm finding lately that I'm more willing to take rest days. As I continue integrating CrossFit into my daily routine, and continue to make progress, there isn't the same kind of urgency as before to get all sorts of stuff in during a given week. I'm becoming much more comfortable with the idea that this is a long-term lifestyle change and that consistency over time is going to be the key. But, I still want to do Back Squats and Deadlifts every week. I'd love to dead lift #400 by the end of the year. How awesome would that be?
250.4
WOD:
Squat Snatch
5-5-5-5-5
This is also called the "Snatch Balance" and it's basically a combo of a power snatch and an overhead squat. I tried a few overhead squats a week or so ago and I saw some minor improvement in range of motion, but it's still extremely limited. I may need a substitute. Last time we did this I did the Squat Clean.
Update:
Power Snatch
5 X 3
85, 95, 95, 105, 95
Since I don't have the range of motion to do snatch balance, Scott had me do power snatch instead. His RX was 5 X 5, but I wanted to go higher weight, so I did 3's. Also, the set at #105 was pretty hard and the last rep barely got up there, so I regressed back to #95 for the last set. Next week it might be good to do some extra sets of this at at lower weight.
Extra Credit:
Squat Clean 2 X 5 at #95
Food:
Cheese
Coffee
Schultzy's
drinks
251.0
WOD:
Deadlift - Power Clean - Front Squat
Do this x3 then run 100m
AMRAP 3 minutes x4 with 90 second rest between rounds
Round 1: 3 sets
Round 2: 2 sets and 2 complex
Round 3: 2 sets and 1 complex
Round 4: 2 sets
Extra Credit:
Ran the Greenlake Inner trail (2.8 miles)
Time: 31:13
Food:
Sandwich
Several cups of coffee
Today was rest/makeup day. The WOD above was one Scott and I came up with. Then, driving home, I saw all the people at Greenlake and since it was a nice day, I decided to go ahead and get my run in.
250.8
WOD:
"Kelly"
400m Run
30 Box Jumps
30 Wall Ball Shots
x5
I scaled this a bit. I did 25 box jumps and 22 wall balls each round and it still wore me out. Final time was approximately 37 minutes.
Food:
Cheeseburger
Multiple cups of coffee
Sausage Sandwich
Donuts
Eating like crap today but at least I got my taxes done.
250.2
WOD:
For time do
40 Push Press
40 Front Squats
#95
9:50
Today is rest/make-up day. I'm going to be gone for 4 days, so Scott told me what tomorrow's workout is, so that's what I did. Shoulder feeling a lot better but I can't totally let loose with stuff like push jerks yet. I have to stick with more controlled movements. So Push Press or Strict Press only for now.
Also, a major limiting factor on a workout like this is the position of your hands. It really does a number on your wrists.
Monday will be strength, so I'll have to find a way to make that one up for sure.
Food:
12" Spicy Italian on wheat
248.6
WOD:
Deadlifts (#225 RX)
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
After each round do the following:
5 pushups
7 situps
12 squats
My abs were killing me so I subbed in pullups and did this:
5 pushups
5 pullups
12 squats
This is the first WOD that I haven't finished in some form or fashion. I DNF'd at about 16-17 minutes after regressing to 185 after the sixes (round 5). The problem was the weight was just too much. When I got down to the sixes, I was completely blown and doing them one at a time, which is not the intention of the workout. 225 is 75% of my 1RM of 300. Appropriate weight for something like this is probably 60% of 1 RM.
Total work achieved:
40 deadlifts at #225
9 deadlifts at #185
35 pushups
35 pullups
84 squats
One reason I did the RX on this one was to help solidify my gains in the deadlift. I expect it worked for that purpose, but at the same time technique goes to shit when you're this tired, which is super bad, especially with deads.
Posting a day late so not sure what my weight was.
WOD:
7 minutes of "Cindy"
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats
AMRAP 7 minutes
I completed 5 rounds and a little bit more
Strict Press (Overhead Press)
3 x 5
Loads: 95, 115, 125
Not sure here, I may have done 135.
SDLHP:
5 x 5
Not sure what my load progression was but I think I finished at 145
Extra Credit: 250 jump rope skips
Food: No idea
249.6
WOD:
800m run
50 dumbell snatches
400m run
35 dumbell snatches
200m run
20 dumbell snatches
#35
17:32
Extra Credit:
Leg Raises
AMRAP 2 mins x 4
1 min rest between sets
39, 42, 36, 38
Food:
Thai Curry Salmon Bowl, no rice
Cheese
3 pork tacos
Decaf Latte
250.2
10:15 am - not sure at this point if I'm going to work out or not. If I do make it to LAF, I may just do lighter weights - 60% 1 RM reps deadlifts, maybe RDLs - focus more on technique and lots of reps than heavy weights. Also, probably do some rowing, jump rope, situps, planks, and back extensions.
Update: Turned into a rest day after all.
Food:
Easter Brunch
Pizza
Wings
249.6
Rest Day
Food:
Pizza
Diablo at Shultzy's
Chili
Bacon Bacon Cheeseburger
Curly Fries
Possibly my worst food day in the last month. Need to get back on the slow carb bandwagon.
No morning weight measurement
WOD:
Pullups
Box Jumps
Sit-ups
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
10:08
Extra Credit:
Back Squats: 5-5-3-3-3-3-3
Loads: 135-155-175-175-175-175-175
My legs felt weak as hell. Maybe because of the deadlifts yesterday?
Food:
Cheese
dried fruit
small bowl of pudding
2 pieces of pizza
Sausage
1 drink
5 or 6 grapes
1 strawberry
No morning weight measurement
WOD:
Deadlifts: 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Loads: 235, 245, 255, 255, 255, 265, 275, 285, 290, 295, 300
Not sure if those loads are 100% accurate except for the last one. I barely got that one up and then failed on 305. It seems like progress will start to plateau at some point, but who knows when that will be? The big thing with the deadlift is leg strength. If your legs can get the load a foot or so off the ground - you've basically got it at that point. In the back of my head, I think I can get to 400 by the end of the year. How awesome would that be?
Food:
Jimmy John's Sandwich
1 chocolate from the candy bowl
coffee
chicken-mushroom-zucchini concoction
No morning weight measurement.
Big day at work. Didn't get out the door until around 7 pm.
WOD:
Thrusters 5, 5, 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1, 1
This is one I missed so I'm just kind of tracking it.
Food:
So busy at work I barely ate all day.
Cheese
chicken
chocolate
zucchini
mushrooms
