Pool Time

Not to be confused with business time. I mixed it up a bit and went to the Olympic Club to experience some of the water confidence training that PJs are exposed to. My comfort level in the water wasn't near where I thought it would be. I'm definitely impressed with those who have the resolve to last through that type of training. Swimming is one aspect of athleticism that I frequently forget about, mostly because I don't have regular access to a pool. Matt suggested I look into a Master's swim team if I want to improve my swimming and overall skills in the water. I know I'm not a very dynamic athlete when I can crush a workout like yesterday's and feel like a drowned kitten the next. Always room for improvement.

Wednesday May 28, 2008

When Adrian says we're doing his favorite workout, I know exactly what's coming.

5 rounds of:

• 5 press
• 10 push-press
• 15 push-jerk

10:54

Men's prescribed weight is 95#. Something felt right tonight because I cut quite a bit of time off of the last time we did this. Granted, I had a hard time washing my hair when I got home, but it still felt good.

Play on the beach

Because it was great weather out on the beach near Crissy Field, we headed out across the street, heavy dumbell (50#) in tow. Kelly had us play around with some different movements. First he set up a distance in the sand that we would be moving back and forth across, cleaning and heaving the weight forward in a 'shotput-like' movement, breaking up each trip with 15 pushups. Next we did walking lunges with weight locked out overhead, sprint, and lunge back with weight overhead again on the other arm. Then we finished up with 3 rounds of sprints.

Sprinting on sand is hard, and fun in a weird sort of way. Doing all this with a sunset and the Golden Gate in the background probably made it a bit easier. I forget how much I love this place sometimes.

Saturday May 24, 2008

I was unsure of what to post here for this day, mainly due to my performance.
Kelly had us run some 'sprint' rounds of Helen (3x {400m run, 21 kettlebell swings 53#, 12 pullups}). It was modified down to a short sprint distance, probably around 40-50 yards or so, 10 swings, and 6 pullups. For most, the work round was right around a minute. The alternating group setup gave us a minute's rest between rounds. We'd go until our performance began to drop off considerably. That ended up at 7 rounds total.

I'd never swung the 2 pood (32kg/70lbs) bell before so I thought I'd give it a try. Part of me wants to think that was a mistake, the other part knows it was time to step up the weight, despite whatever might occur.

Rounds 1-5 I was consistantly able to keep my time between 49 sec and 54 sec. The problem was just that though. I only completed rounds 1-5. Halfway through the rest period after round 5 my lower back siezed up and I couldn't stand. I layed down before I fell over, and started spazzing out. It felt like someone took a cane and snuck up behind me and beat me a few times across my back. I know I was already a bit worn out from some heavy deadlifting a couple days prior, and I think the heavy swings I wasn't used to pushed me over the line. It made me more upset that I had to accept a big DNF. Personal pride check I suppose. I don't know what the lesson learned is, but I think there's one in there somewhere about limits our bodies imposed on us. One thing I think I've learned/taught myself through CF'ing for a while now is to ignore certain aches and discomfort because it's just that. Maybe there's a balance the other way as well?

Thursday May 22, 2008

We 'sprinted' three rounds, with a little recovery between rounds, attempting to match or better our time for each.

Row 300m
12 Deadlift 225#
9 Pullups

You could use whatever weight you wanted for the lift, I went for 225. One thing I didn't expect was to have my grip taken away from me for the pullups immediately after the lift. Tricky Kevin. I was pleased with my consistant output.

Round 1: 3:04
Round 2: 3:01
Round 3: 3:04

Frankenchipper

Take all your favorite or otherwise miserable building blocks of various crossfit workouts and throw them all together. Behold Frankenchipper. Tuesday night's abomination was:

500m row

Hydrant run
21 kettlebell swings (53#)
12 pullups

50 unweighted barbell thrusters

3 rounds of Cindy (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats)

30 box jumps
21 handstand pushups
30 knees to elbows
30 double unders

14:13

Monday May 19, 2008

6 pm class

We worked on front squatting a bit; up to a moderate weight for 3x3. I ended up just doing 205, and regretting it afterwards after having a lot left in the tank.

A follow-up met-con piece to round out the night:

5 rounds of

• Hydrant run
• 30 double unders

11:06.

Saturday May 17, 2008

Kevin was coaching this morning at 745. We did a partner workout that stepped down from 9 reps to 1 of push-pressing, with a series of increasing distance sprints and backpedaling. Matt and I used 135#. I thought the barbell would be the limiting factor for me, but it turned out to be the opposite.

14:28

Nancy

May 15, 2008 6pm

Nancy
5 rounds for time of:

• 400m run
• 15 overhead squat 95#

I really didn't like this. My weak running reared it ugly head again. Don't recall my exact time, it's on the board @ the gym. 18 minutes and change.

Elizabeth

Tonight I got a crack at another one of the named girls that I'd never tried before. I've been doing my best to attempt all 'official' workouts as prescribed, even if I think it will take me an hour to finish it.

Elizabeth is

21-15-9 of

• Squat Clean (135#)
• Ring Dip

11:53

Even though I didn't know what to expect the first time through, I'm not really too happy with my time. Looking back, I think I psyched myself out on the middle round and rested way more than necessary.

Monday May 12, 2008

Either Angel is backing off of the intensity/load on Mondays, or I'm just getting used to it. At first glance of today's workout I was thinking it would take 20 minutes minimum.

After we started with a set of tabata pullups we moved on to:

21-18-15-12-9-6-3
Hang Power Clean (95#)
Burpee

Each round started with a run to the canoes and back.

16:09

Rounded out the night with 3 minutes of planking and some stretching.

Saturday May 10, 2008

Late update. Saturday morning, 7:45 class.

7 rounds of
12 SDHP - 75#
12 hand-stand pushups

9 minutes and change. I forget exactly. That's what I get for waiting for 3 days to post. >.<

Isabel

Tuesday evening was an exposure to one of the girls that I'd never done before. Isabel.

Isabel is 30 snatches for time. Prescribed men's weight is 135#. I did it with 95# in 2:38. Now I have a goal to be able to complete it in a reasonable amount of time with the correct weight, which I think will be a challenge, seeing as 135# is a weight that I still fail on snatching sometimes. I'd consider it my one rep max. Part of that I believe is just practice, or lack of.

Monday May 5, 2008

6pm

Max rounds in 20 minutes of:

• 10 thrusters (95#)
• 10 pullups

I finished 3 pullups short of 10 rounds. (9 + 10/7). This workout was like a never ending Fran. It sucked, and I didn't do well.

Clean and Jerk Saturday

Today we focused on the clean and jerk. The plan was to start on a "prescribed" weight for men/women, move up some, then finish with a lighter load. We would crank out 12 reps of a given weight as fast as we can, letting people cycle through the bar until everyone had gone before we add or remove weight.

The men's progression was C&J 135 x 12, then 155, then 95. My times were 0:50, 2:11*, 0:24, respectively.



Round 1, not knowing how I expected it to go or how many I could link, I finished in an acceptable time. I know I gave it 100%.

Round 2 was going better than I expected until rep 7. The end of the barbell broke off at the end of that repetition. It surprised me because I wasn't really sure what to do. I ended up waiting until someone next to me was done w/ 135, took my 10 plates and moved them, then finished the rest of the set unbroken (5). I'd imagine the downtime was between 30 and 40 seconds. The funny thing was that another bar had the same thing happen not 1 minute later by someone else.

Round 3 felt like I could throw the bar over to the Golden Gate, after the first 2 rounds being heavier. The cycle time on that felt impeded by how fast I could get it back down to the ground. Gravity wasn't enough; I felt as if I had to pull it down myself to go faster. Thanks to Kelly yelling at me to go faster. I think it helped a bit.

Push Jerks from Thursday

Adrian took a sequence of photos of me doing the pj on Thursday. He wrote about it here. Thanks Adrian.

Enter the Jerk: The most efficient way to blast something over your head...the weightlifting equivalent to a slap in the face. Learning to jerk means learning to rapidly open and close your hips. This of course leads to greater athletic development as most activities are powered and controlled by (you guessed it) the hips. Learning to jerk also means learning to throw your body at an object as a unit, as opposed to a scattered collection of body parts. More 'one-pieced-ness' means more muscle behind the movement means more power produced means more weight lifted. Fun!

Note how Aaron gets his hip fully extended (or open: no angle between his femur and torso) before he rapidly pulls back under the weight to lockout. Also note how vertical his initial dip is (chest and shoulders do not drop or lean forward at all)...both are critical for a good jerk. How's your jerk?

Who doesn't love the jerk?
-Boz

Thursday May 1, 2008

Part of me wants to take the barbell over the dumbells, and the other part knows I should be reaching for the more challenging of the two. Forced into it (thanks to Adrian) tonight, we did:

5 rounds of

• 12 push-jerk w/ 2, 40# dumbells
• Hydrant Run

Someone from the group did some measuring and figured that a trip to the hydrant and back 5 times, not 4, makes a full mile; it was a bit shorter than previously thought.

I finished in 11:24.

Corinne wanted to brag about beating Michael's time from the AM, so here ya go Corinne.

Wednesday April 30, 2008

Five rounds for time of

• 7 squat snatch right
• 7 squat snatch left
• 20 double-unders

40#, 9:24