6/3/10 - Bench Press and Power Snatches

247.2

Not surprised at this weight reading. No, I don't think I gained five pounds overnight, but I imagine all of the salt in last night's meal has me holding in a lot of liquids. Another day of the salad bar and something healthy for dinner should adjust things back.

Strength:
Bench Press
Set 1: 5 reps at 120
Set 2: 5 reps at 135
Set 3: 11 reps at 155
then I cheated and did one more set of 5 at 155

I'm pretty psyched about the Bench Press. I know it isn't the most important CrossFit lift, but it's very important for personal appearance. I would really like to build out my pecs over the next six months. How cool would it be to be able to bench 300 at some point? Also, I think I've mentioned this before, but I really think the Bench Press is underrated as a CrossFit lift. It IS a compound lift that exercises both pecs and triceps and I think there must be some nervous system benefits to pushing heavy loads from that position. Most guys that are strong are at least decent at the Bench Press.

Power Snatches
5, 5, 5, 5, 1
100, 105, 110, 115, 120

This was meant to be all sets of 5 but I failed on my second rep at 120. The original plan was for the Power Snatches to be the metcon, but I decided at the last minute to do a strength progression with them instead. That might not have been the best decision. After hitting them hard last week AND doing deadlifts both last week (for max) and yesterday (wednesday), it might have made more sense to de-load and do something like Randy (75 reps at #75), which coincidentally is what the main site programmed today.

Metcon:
Rowing
1000m warmup
5 X 250m sprints with 1 minute between sets
times: 58, 59, 59, 61, 61

Interesting times on these sprints. Not sure if I should go shorter or longer distance next time. I'm tempted to go shorter - something like 10 X 100m with 30 seconds between sets and THEN do a long one - something like 3 X 1000m or 2 X 2000m.

Food:
Salad Bar
Calzone (late night)

Got stuck at my Mom's house last night and hadn't eaten anything when I was heading back to my place, so I got the late night junk food. Overall, this hasn't been a good week for the diet. Next week is the last week of the contest so I need to make sure I'm eating well each of those days.