20100531

MURPH

Memorial Day Hero Workout: Murph

Run 1 mile
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
Run 1 mile
-------------------
Time: 33:40
First Mile: 6:05
PT: 18:57
Second Mile: 8:38

Didn't use any partitioning strategy other than sets of 10 pull-ups, 20 push ups, and 25 squats, not necessarily in that order. I just went by how my body felt and did set of each until I reached the numbers

20100526

Rest Day. Going to be out of town for the rest of the weekend for a wedding, probably won't be able to work out

20100525

RUNNING WITH CINDY

5 x 200M Run
5 Rounds Cindy
4 x 200M Run
4 Rounds Cindy
3 x 200M Run
3 Rounds Cindy
2 x 200M Run
2 Rounds Cindy
1 x 200M Run
1 Rounds Cindy
----------------------
Time: 30:14 with 20# vest. I'm going to make it my goal to do at least 1 workout a week in the vest. After my workout last week, I realized how much work I need running with weight on, and doing the bodyweight exercises will add strength. This wasn't quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. The pull-ups and push-ups were fairly easy, but I could definitely feel the added weight on the air squats. Running still needs work, I feel like I'm just plodding along

20100524

PEARL HARBOR

1: 3 rounds AFAP: run 400M, 20 x KB slasher (55#, 10 ea side), 10 x Goblet Squat (55# KB)
2: Work to 1RM Bench Press
3: 10 Rounds for time:
10 x Dead Lift (185#)
10 x Burpees
4: Chipper:
20 x Bench Press @ 90% 1RM
Row 2,000M
125 Push-ups
-------------------
afternoon
1. rx'd
3. WC - Time 16:32. The burpees definitely killed my time on this one. Was able to do all the deadlifts unbroken, but just felt like I couldn't catch my breath while doing the burpees

evening
2. Work up to 1rm Bench Press: 210 (PR). Really impressed with this considering I haven't done ANY benching in probably 5 months
4. rx'd. 20 x Bench Press @ 185#
Ran a mile on the treadmill at 1.0 incline and 6min/mile pace, rower was broken at the Y.
125 push-ups

20100522

Team WOD, 5k Row

Team Workout, with a group of 3:
Sprint 200
15 DB Thrusters, 40#
15 Pushups
Rotate
Sprint 200
15 DB Deadlift, 40#
15 Pullups
400m Relay
250 1-arm Snatch, 40#
--------------------
1 person works at a time, the first 2 segments are done as a whole. Time 25:12


~10 minutes later

Row 5k
-------------
Time: 20:18. This was harder than I thought it would be. I never realized how uncomfortable the seat on a C2 was until I sat on it for more than 10 minutes at a time, but by the end I couldn't wait to get up. Over the last half, I tried to sprint for about 100-150 at a time every 500 in order to get my time down. Really killed it on the last 500

20100521

Squats, Oly Lifting, 7/7/7

Back Squats:
work up to 3x5 - 215

Full Clean:
Form work. Worked up to 165 with a lot of work at lower weights

Snatch:
Form work. Worked up to 125 with a lot of work at lower weights


Short met-con:
AMRAP 7
7 Wall-ball (20#)
7 Burpees
-------------
9 rounds. Maybe 10, I lost count. Did my best to keep moving the whole time, this workout is a killer though if you really go all out

20100520

Rest Day

Feeling drained. Pretty sore in quads and hamstrings. Might try some light rowing/running

20100519

Press, Christine

1. Work up to 1RM Press
2. 5x3 @ 90% 1RM
3. Crossfit Benchmark Workout: Christine
3 rounds for time:
Row 500m
12 deadlifts @ bodyweight
21 box jumps (20")
----------------
1. 125. Tied PR. Still not making much progress on the press, but at least 125 went up fairly easy this time. The top half of my press is my limiting factor, I don't have any problem getting the weight up to my nose or higher, but that's my sticking point. This definitely has carry-over to HSPU, as the bottom portion is my limiting factor there. Might work some top half presses in the future, or stick with HSPU
2. 5x3 @ 110#. Not too bad, the last set was pretty heavy
3. Time: 8:26. Really pleased about this time. Goal going in was under 9 minutes. I focused on maintaining strong, slow strokes on the rower which allowed me to catch my breath and recover for the deadlifts and box jumps. The first 500 was 1:52, and I think the others were also under 2:00

20100518

FROGMAN PT

1. Warm Up: 30 minutes Frogman PT. Choose a variety of fast, full range of motion, body weight exercises with ROM drills interspersed
2. Work Capacity - For time, with 20# vest:
1 mile run
50 push-ups, 75 thrusters (75#), 50 push-ups
1 mile run
3. Durability: 4 x 2 minute plank holds. 2 x 100 4-count flutter kicks.
-----------------
1. Assorted exercises for 30 minutes. Did sit-ups, GHD sit-ups, squats, lunges, pull-ups, chin-ups, dive bomber push-ups, back extensions, double unders, lateral jumps, etc.
2. ~38 minutes with 25# vest. This was my first workout in a vest and it was brutal. Running was difficult because the vest was shifting around. The first mile was around 8 minutes. First set of pushups was pretty quick, but I got crushed on the thrusters. With the tightness of the vest I felt like I was struggling to get full breaths. 2nd set of push-ups was pretty tough as well, because my shoulders were crushed. Last mile was REALLY slow.

This was a very humbling experience, but it showed me that I definitely need to supplement more of my workouts with added weight on bodyweight movements.

20100517

DL/Lunges, assorted skill work

early afternoon

Work up to 1rm Deadlift
95x5, 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 275x3, 315, 365, 385 (f), 365

5 sets of 3x315 DL, 20 weighted lunges (36#)

Didn't feel too strong on the deadlifts today. 365 went up somewhat easy, form felt pretty good. But 385 didn't even move off the ground. I didn't want to push it too hard so once I felt my back start to go I didn't pull anymore. Overall not too bad


evening

Assorted Skill Work

Max burpees - 1 minute: 27
Max l-pullups: 12
Work up to 1rm front squat: 95x5, 135x3, 155x3, 185, 205, 225, 245 (f), 235 (f)
Max # push press (95#): 30
500m Row for time: 1:34.5

Pretty good session overall. I'd like to get 30 burpees eventually, and I think I could if I hadn't eaten right before...they were literally BURPees. Tied my PR on the front squat, and might have gone higher but I started losing my back stability at the higher weights, probably due to the deadlifts. I've got to check but I think this is close to my PR on the 500m row, I made the mistake of slowing up at the end thinking my stroke was going to carry me through the end, which might have cost me a little time, and I was definitely less tired this time than after my last 500, which is good. I was definitely going at a lower stroke rate, and concentrating on stronger pulls.

20100516

Tabata Run/Pushups

Moving all day so I didn't have time for a full workout

Tabata Run:
20:10 x 8. Covered ~.56 miles

~200 pushups over the course of the day

20100514

Squat/Press

Back Squat:
3x5 - 205

Press:
4x5 - 95

20100513

Muscle-Ups/PC/Sprint

5 rounds for time:
5 muscle ups
10 power cleans (135#)
200m sprint
----------------
Time: 17:04. Not very good. I was doing the muscle-ups on really low rings so I was stuck doing singles, and my cleans weren't very strong after yesterday. This was a really hard workout, but overall it was more because of muscle failure rather than cardio.

20100512

Cleans, Pushups

Spent a while working on my clean form. Worked up to 145 (~75% 1RM). This was my first extensive use of the hook grip, and I'm still not a fan. I felt a twinge in my elbow after I got done, which I haven't noticed previously while doing cleans, but they might not be related. Overall a good session. Need to work on getting the bar higher on my shoulders, I was losing my balance forward a bit because of this

Pushup ladder (on the minute)
3-6-9-12-15-18-21-24-(21)

20100511

Fight Gone Bad

Crossfit Benchmark - Fight Gone Bad:

Wall-balls: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate”, the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.
------------------------
Total: 383 (141, 123, 119). PR by 30 points. Really felt like I pushed through a wall on this one. Last time I was dead by the last round, but also didn't feel like I pushed hard enough. This time I was dead but I was able to motivate myself to keep going. Pretty much all 30 points of the PR came from this last round (lt: 95, tt: 119). I also made a more concerted effort to pace myself, rather than going balls to the wall for the whole minute each time, which gave me a little time to catch my breath in between exercises, especially on the first round.

20100510

Deck of Cards

Deck of Cards for time:

Hearts = Burpees
Spades = Squat jumps
Clubs = Mountain Climbers (4 count)
Diamonds = Clapping push-ups
Jokers = 400 meter sprint
-----------------
Time: ~25-30 minutes. I was using a stopwatch on my computer, and it died mid workout. This was really hard. The mountain climbers were a bear, I definitely underestimated them. Doing workouts like this really helps my burpees though, because they're almost completely mental, just being able to keep moving, and when I do them in smaller sets I can keep going unbroken, which build up that mindset.

Max Jerk

Work up to 1rm Split Jerk
-------------
Got 185 up pretty easily. Tried 205 a few times and just couldn't get under it fast enough. This is definitely my limiting factor on the olympic lift, I'm just not comfortable enough to drop under the bar with enough speed to move higher weights. I'm going to work on this later in the week, getting perfect form at lower than max weights. I was happy with the 185 though, because last time I did C&J this was my max, but it took me A LOT of tries to finally get the jerk with 185, so I guess it is some progress

Took it somewhat easy today to rest up for FGB tomorrow

20100507

PFT

Ran a 290 on my PFT today. This is up 13 points from my last one (277). Really happy about the progress, I went from 18 to 20 pull-ups, and dropped my run time from 20:04 to 19:32. I'm hoping over the next month or 2 I can drop another 30 seconds off the run, and hopefully get into the 18:xx range. All in all I'm happy with the score, and it shows me what I need to work on if I want to get one of the slots for OCC-205

20100506

Rest Day

Legs are kind of sore from Helen yesterday. I've got my contracting PFT for OCS tomorrow so I don't want to be dead.

I'm pretty confident I'll get the 20 pull-ups and 100 crunches, so that's 100 points. I just want to get my run time as close as possible to 18:00, so we'll see how it goes

20100505

Helen

Crossfit Benchmark Workout: Helen

3 rounds for time:
Run 400m
21 KB Swings
12 Pull-ups
----------------
Time: 7:47. This felt great. I really killed this workout, almost a minute PR from my last time. This was partly because I found out it was only 12 pull-ups rather than 15, but I also just felt great. All the KB swings were unbroken until the last set (16, 5).

20100427

RWA

Running with Angie:
100 pull-ups
Run 1 mile
100 push-ups
Run 1 mile
100 sit-ups
Run 1 mile
100 squats
Run 1 mile
-------------------
Time = 37:49. No pull-up bar, so I was forced to leave these out. If done rx'd it would probably add 5-8 minutes to my total time. Splits as follows
6:24
4:20 (push ups)
6:18
3:30 (sit ups)
6:47
2:45 (squats)
7:02

Time could have been a little faster, got slowed down because I grabbed my dog in between to take him on the runs. Didn't make a huge difference because the little breaks probably made the runs faster which makes it even out. Felt really good about this workout overall, the push-ups were the worst part probably, I was able to do the squats almost unbroken which I was pretty happy about.

20100426

RINGER

Warm Up: 40-30-20-10 double-unders, weighted sit-ups (45#)
Strength: work to 3RM Weighted Pull-ups
Stamina: 15 x WPU @ 3RM, 75 x ring push-ups, row 2,000M
Work Capacity: AMRAP 20
3 muscle ups;
5 Thrusters (105#)
Durability: 3 mile run at moderate pace. Active stretch
---------------
1. rx'd. Did high singles for the 40-30-20, then tried doubles for the set of 10, took me 4 sets
2. 45
3. rx'd @ 44#. Skipped the row due to time
4. 6 total rounds + 3 rounds of thrusters. I was really excited to do this workout, because I've been feeling good about my muscle-ups. It was awful though. Almost fell through on the first round and I think it got into my head, shoulders just weren't feeling up to it.
5. rx'd after about 30 minutes rest. ~6:50/mile pace

20100423

Birthday Workout

79 Pullups
79 Push-ups
79 GHD Situps
79 Box Jumps
You may partition as needed. Every time you break a set – go run 100M.
---------------------
Time: 16:30. Felt good about this time till I saw some other people do it. I think working out on my own really hurt me on these, because I didn't push quite as hard as I could have on every set, instead I tried to pace myself. Ended up running a lot more than I should have. Oh well. All in all this was a really hard workout, really enjoyed it

20100422

Row/Run II

early afternoon

3 rounds for time:
Row 500m
Run 400m
---------------
Time: 10:49. Much better than earlier. The runs felt stronger, and I did the rowing on a running clock which probably saved a little time.

Row/Run

morning

3 rounds for time:
Row 500m
Run 400m
----------------
Time: 11:23. Rowing splits were 1:51.7, 1:52.0, 1:53.6. Not sure about the runs. Could have gone faster, but I had to reset the rower in between. I'm going to do this again later and try for sub-11

20100421

OHS/FS/BS

Overhead Squat 1-1-1-1-1
Front Squat 1-1-1-1-1
Back Squat 1-1-1-1-1
--------------------
OHS: 45x5, 95x5, 115, 135, 145, 155, 160 (PR)
FS: 135, 155, 175, 185, 205, 215, 225 (PR)
BS: 135, 185, 205, 225, 235, 245

Happy with the OHS and Front Squat, but my back squat has been dropping. I'm getting back to doing the sealfit workouts next week, so hopefully the added strength aspect will help.

20100420

The Countdown, DL/T2B, Max Snatch

8 rounds for reps
On a 2 minute countdown complete:
200M Run
Max # Deadlifts / Max # Toes 2 Bar
1 min Rest
Coaches notes: Rx DL = 185/135, alternate between DL & T2B each round. Score = Total # Reps.
-------------------
DL (27, 22, 22, 22) T2B (22, 21, 18, 19)
Total: 173

Tried to go semi-easy on the run so I wouldn't be toasted on the others, felt good on the deadlifts. Broke them up into sets of 5, ending with a max set. Grip was tired on the toes to bar, and I couldn't get a good rhythm so I had to stop my swinging pretty often. Concentrated on controlling breathing during the rests, and I think it made a really big difference.


Work up to 1RM Snatch
--------------
125. Tried a few times at 135, but I just couldn't mentally get myself to drop under it. Did a good amount of reps at 75-95 to practice dropping under it and catching the weight rather than power snatching it

Weighted Pull-ups

early afternoon

Work up to 3rm pull-ups
bwx5, 12, 15, 18, 23, 28, 35, 40, 45 (3rm)

5x3 @ 40#

Felt strong on the pull-ups especially after rowing and pull-ups yesterday, and how bad my arms felt afterwards. Doing another workout this evening

20100419

Jackie

Crossfit Benchmark Workout - Jackie

For Time:
1000m Row
50 Thrusters @ 45#
30 Pull-ups
-------------------
6:53. Solid time. This was the top time for the day. I didn't feel out of breath while I was rowing, because I stayed at a pretty steady slow pace, rather than going all out (~3:40-50/1000). But as soon as I started the thrusters I was gassed. Could have gone a little faster on them, it's all mental with such a light weight. The pull-ups I broke into 3 sets, so I could have done better on those as well

20100416

Filthy Fifty

Crossfit Benchmark Workout - Filthy Fifty

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: 21:40. Not great. 2 minute PR over last time, but I should have done a lot better. The burpees absolutely destroyed my time, and I can't do double unders so I had to sub tuck jumps.

20100415

Rest Day

Working all day, no time to work out. Still extremely sore in hamstrings and glutes

20100414

Max Pull-ups, Press

Kipping Pull-ups, max reps: 40. PR
Press: 45x5, 65x5, 75x5, 95x3, 105x3, 115x1, 120x1, 125x1

Happy with the pull-up number. This is a PR by 14, but it's also the first time I've really tested them. My grip ended up giving out before my pull strength

Press is the usual story. Felt a little stronger on 120 and 125 than I usually do, so I guess that's some kind of progress, but not much.

20100413

BS, HS Walk

5 rounds for time:
135# Back Squat, 20 reps
20m Handstand Walk
------------------
This was a lot harder than it looked on paper. I got my first and last sets of squats unbroken, the last one with a lot of breathing in between. The best I got on the walk was probably 4 steps. Need to work on getting comfortable with the kick up, I feel like I'm holding back on it for fear of flipping onto my back.

20100412

1RM Clean & Jerk, Box Jump

Work up to 1RM C&J:
45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 155, 165, 175, 180, 185 (fail x 4), 185 (new PR)

Work up to 1RM Box Jump:
35, 36, 38, 40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50 (tied PR)

DH Pull-ups: 3x10

20100410

Grace

Crossfit Benchmark Workout - Grace

30 Clean & Jerk for time @ 135
---------------------
Time: 4:46

This was hard, but in a different way than I thought it would be. My legs were smoked by the end, because I was using a split jerk. As usual, it was the overhead (jerk) that killed me. I did power cleans for the majority, dropping into a little bit of a squat as I fatigued. I really had to push to get it up at first, but I switched to a split jerk and it made it a bit easier. If anything it was good practice for the split jerk, which I could use some work on anyways. I felt a lot more stable dropping into it as I progressed through the workout

20100409

Fight Gone Bad

Crossfit Benchmark - Fight Gone Bad:

Wall-balls: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate”, the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.
------------------------
Total: 353 (140, 118, 95) PR by 25 points. I was totally crushed by the last round, probably went out too fast on the first one. This is definitely one of the hardest workouts from a mental standpoint, because I wanted so bad to just stand around and catch my breath, but had to push through it

Scoring Breakdown:
WB (33, 25, 22)
SDHP (28, 21, 20)
Box (40, 36, 20)
PP (25, 20, 20)
Row (14, 13, 16)

20100408

Pull-ups, 5x800

evening

5 sets of DH pull-ups for max reps:
18, 11, 8, 8, 7.

5x800m run w/90s rest (try to keep within 5 seconds of each other):
3:03, 2:59, 3:00, 3:02, 3:02


Pleased to still get 18 for my max set on the pull-ups, but I'd like to get the following ones a little higher. Preferably all at least double digits. These are the first ones to increase though, so it shouldn't take too long.

For a max score on the PFT I have to do 3 miles in 18 minutes (6/mile), so that was what my goal was on the 800s. They all felt pretty good, and I was glad I as able to stay on my pacing. I used the watch to check 200 splits so I could make sure I stayed on, but by the end I had a pretty good feel for how fast I should be going.

Deadlift

early afternoon

Work up to 1rm deadlift
45x5, 95x5, 135x5, 185x5, 225x3, 315, 365, 385 (fail x 3)

Wasn't really feeling it on the deadlifts today. Probably shouldn't have gone for a max since I just did it a week ago, but my workout partner was dl'ing so I thought I'd try for 400

Pull-ups: 3x7. Just thrown in in between sets of dl

20100401

OHS, Short Metcon

Afternoon

1. Work up to 1rm OHS
2. 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of Squat Clean (light), toes to bar
-----------------
1. 155. Really happy with this, it's a big improvement over my last max. In the end the limiting factor is definitely my overhead strength. I didn't have any problem squatting the weight, but it was really wobbly at first when I lifted it, and I had a lot of trouble finding the sweet spot to hold it.
2. rx'd with 125#. Did the toes to bar lying on the ground and lifting my legs and upper body because my hands are shredded from Cindy last night.

Pressing

Early workout:

1. Work up to 1rm Press
2. 4 rounds of: 3 press @ 90%, 2 rope ascents, 50m buddy carry
-----------
1. 120
2. rx'd @ 105 for presses. Subbed farmers walk with 2x 2 pood kettlebells

Disappointed in the press numbers. I'm going to keep working at it though and hopefully make some progress. The rope ascents were pretty hard, but I enjoy these. Need to add them to some more workouts

20100331

Cindy 30

Cindy 30:
AMRAP 30 minutes of:
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

33 rds in 30 minutes. Not great, compared to some other numbers I've seen put up on this workouts, but relative to what I've done previously this isn't too bad. If I remember correctly I got through about 23-24 rds in 20 minutes, so that's an improvement on my last rx'd Cindy, and then I stayed at around a round a minute for the last 10. Oh well, leaves plenty of room for improvement.

Going for a 2 a day tomorrow

20100330

Semi Rest

Really busy today. Spent the entire morning trying to get up the floor of the old gym which was glued down, turned into almost a workout in itself so I was pretty beat by the afternoon.

~3 miles easy (~8 min/mile)

20100329

Where Mind Leads...Body Follows

Warm Up: 800 M run. 4 x Dumb Bell Snatch Complex. 800 M run
Strength: work to 1 RM Snatch
Stamina: 5 rounds, not timed: 3 x SN @ 90% 1RM, 10 x burpee pull-up, 6 x sprint starts
Work Capacity: Fran+ - 15 - 12 - 9 for time:
Thrusters 115#, Dead Hang Pull-ups
------------------------
1. rx'd
2. 125 (pr)
3. 3 rds @ 115# Snatch. First time doing burpee pull-ups, kind of hard to keep track of the bar, ended up swinging from one hand a couple times cause it was a little high. Liked the sprint starts for explosion practice
4. I think the time was 14:30. This was terrible. Not happy with the time at all, the thrusters crushed me.

20100325

Crossfit Total

1. CFWU, ROM drills
2. Crossfit Total:
1 rm Back Squat
1 rm Press
1 rm Deadlift
----------------------
1. rx'd
2. Squat: 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185, 225, 245, 255
Press: 45x5, 75, 95, 115, 120, 125 (fail x 3)
Deadlift: 95x5, 135x3, 185, 225, 275, 315, 365, 385 (fail), 385 (fail), 385 (PR)

Total: 760

Overall not too bad. This ties my pr for the CFT that I got last time I did it, right after doing SS. I was really pumped about the deadlift, because this was a 10# PR over last time I did it about 3 weeks ago. I got the weight all the way up twice but just couldn't lock out my hips before I actually got it.

I'd like to get the squat numbers up a little bit, but with the amount of strength work I've been doing this isn't too bad.

The press is really disappointing. I haven't gotten above this in a long time, and haven't really progressed. Just the same as I've told myself before, I really need to add presses to my workouts on a regular basis, and stick with it.

20100324

Clean & Jerk, Hamstring Death

1. Jog 800m, CFWU, ROM Drills
2. Strength/Skills: Clean & Jerk
3. For time:
100 Back Extensions
200M Sprint
100 Box Jumps 30″
200M Sprint
----------------
1. rx'd. Adding the Armstrong pull-up program to my warm-up for a couple weeks. Today was 3 sets at normal grip, 3 narrow grip (underhand), 3 wide grip. Sets of 7
2. rx'd. 6x3 @ 95#. Strictly working on form, only using ~50% of 1rm
3. 9:20, using 36" box. This was brutal. The run after the back extensions felt like I was trying to control my fall. My hamstrings would barely move to pick my feet up. The box jumps weren't quite as hard as I was expecting, but I would have liked to get them done a little quicker. Need to work on chaining them together better, all I could get was one at a time, with a couple doubles.

20100323

JT

1. “J.T.”
21-15-9
Handstand Pushups
Ring Dips
Pushups
2. Immediately afterwards, 50 GHD Sit-ups and 5x200m sprint
----------------
1. ~12:35. This was a tough workout. Definitely a tricep killer. I didn't do full HSPU. Put 2 abmats under my head, and used them to judge depth. I think this is a good sub, eventually I'll take one out then both.
2. rx'd, 5x200 with 1 min. in between. Average time: 30.25s. Not too bad for doing a 100 out and back

20100322

Rowing/1 Arm Snatch

Row 1k
50 DB Snatch @ 40#
Row 750m
35 DB Snatch @ 40#
Row 500m
20 DB Snatch @40#
--------------
There was no rx'd way to do the snatches, but I did 5 at a time each hand then switched. Didn't remember to write the time down for this one. For some reason I'm thinking 16:something. But I don't think that's right because it sounds really slow. Row times were: 3:41, 2:53, and then I ran the last because all the rowers were full, so probably around 2 minutes. The workout was kind of messed up because there were more people than rowers, so we were waiting around in between the snatches.

20100306

Randy

1. CFWU, Burgener warm up
2. Snatch practice
3. Randy: 75 power snatches for time @ 75#
------------------
1. rx'd
2. rx'd
3. ~7:40. This was a pretty good workout. I've always heard bad things about Randy because of the high rep snatches and form breakdown, but I felt pretty solid all the way through. Going to have some sore traps tomorrow.

20100305

DL, Cindy Running Late

1. Work up to 1rm DL
2. Cindy Running Late:
On a 20 minute clock:
Max # Bodyweight Front Squats
Run 1 Mile
Max # Cindy rds (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats)
---------------------------
1. 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185x3, 225, 275, 315, 335, 355, 375 (PR). Really pumped about this. Last time I maxed on DL I got 365, and that was right after finishing SS, so to go up 10 pounds without really working on it is awesome, especially since some of my other 1rm scores have suffered slightly.
2. 13 Squats, 16 rounds of Cindy. Really pleased with the Cindy score. Last time I did this workout soon after doing SS I only got 19 rounds in the whole 20 minutes. After doing the squats and the mile, the clock was at 7 min, so I got 16 rounds in 13 minutes (which is on pace for 24 rounds). Hoped I could have gotten more reps on the squat, which I probably could have if I had done back squats rather than front squats. Overall a strong workout.

20100304

Active Recovery

5k at ~95%: 19:28.

I felt awesome today. This is a PR by a good amount over the past couple years, and shows that I've made a lot of progress on my running without doing many running workouts, just sticking with crossfit/sealfit and some CFE stuff.

20100303

NEVER QUIT

1. Warm Up: Sand Bag Get-ups 10 minutes
2. Strength: Work to 1RM Thruster
3. Stamina: 5 Rounds: 3 Thrusters @ 85% 1RM. 6 HSPU. Sampson Stretch
4. Work Capacity: AMRAP 30:
3 x Power Clean (95 - 115)
3 x Hang Squat Clean
3 x Push Press
5. Durability / Awareness: Active Stretch. Breathing exercise - sit comfortably, eyes closed, and do a 10 minute breath cycle of: 6 count in-breath, hold 6 count, 6 count out-breath, hold 6 count.
---------------------------
1. Warm Up: Rx'd, with dumbbells, worked up from 20#-40#
2. Strength: Thruster 1rm = 155#. Not very happy with this, my explosion on the front squat isn't very good, because I think this is right around my 1rm for a push press as well.
3. 3 rounds as rx'd because of time. Used 135 for the thrusters which felt pretty good, and knees on a 24" box for hspu
4. 28 rounds @ 95#. Happy with this. Did rounds on the minute throughout the workout aside from a couple distractions that threw me off a bit, and each round was unbroken. I was struggling with the push press by the end of the workout.
5. Breathing exercise as rx'd. I really like the breathing exercises, I've been adding them in at other points in the day as well to work on breathing and to help with relaxation.

20100301

YOU WANT ME TO DO WHAT?

1. Warm Up: 40 Wall Balls, run 1 mile, 40 Burpees
2. Work Capacity: CF Fran: 21-15-9 Thrusters (95#), Pull-ups
3. Strength: Work to 3RM Back Squat
4. Stamina: Chipper: 15 xBS @ 95% 3RM, 50 x 1-arm Snatch (ea side, 35#), 50 x Slasher (40-55# KB or DB)
5. Durability / Awareness: 10 minutes Yoga. Plank hold 6 minutes total time, vary the plank (front, side on forearms and hands)
-----------------------------
1. rx'd. Started at 10# on the wall balls for 10, then 14 for 10, and 20 for the last 20. Burpees were terrible as always
2. 4:20. Really excited about this. 3 minute PR from my last time doing this a month and a half ago. Shows how much progress I've made since I finished up the SS cycle and switched back to regular CF/Sealfit workouts.
3. Worked up to 215. Probably could have gotten more, but ran out of time, and a class started that used all the squat racks.
4. Wasn't able to do the squats because of class, but did the rest rx'd. Snatches with 40# DB, Slashers with 44# KB. This was my first time doing KB slashers, and they were pretty tough. Really felt it in the abs and obliques.
5. 6 minutes total plank. 1 minute each on elbows, front/right/left. 1 minute each on hands, front/right/left

20100227

Burpees, 1 arm snatch, DU

AMRAP 14 minutes:
7 burpees
14 1-arm snatch (40# DB)
21 double unders

5 rounds. This was completely because of the double unders. At least half of my time was spent jumping rope, and failing double unders. I'm going to add these in a little bit in my warm-ups, but at this point I'm not particularly worried about it. I've made such little progress since I've started that they seem like more skill work than actually providing any benefit to my workouts.

20100226

Thruster/Pull-up Ladder

With a continously running clock perform 1 Thruster & 1 Pullup the first minute, two Thrusters/Pullups the second minute and so forth…continuing as long as you are able to.

12 minutes, using 75# for thrusters. Stopped at the end of the minute rather than moving into the next round. Probably could have gotten at least 12.5, but I felt terrible, run down and sick. Need to rest up this weekend

20100225

1RM Press, Team Workout

1. 1RM Press: Worked up to 125#
2. Team Workout (with a partner): 12:24
4x200 each
100 Wall ball @ 20#, while partner holds a handstand. Switch at failure of either
100 Back Squat @ 95#, while partner does knees to elbows. Switch at failure

The press tied my PR, which was back when I was doing SS, so I guess that's a small plus. But I'm kind of disappointed I haven't made any progress since then. Press is definitely my weakest lift, and even though I've tried to add in some additional work, it hasn't made much difference. Need to add some more overhead stuff, not really sure what though.

Not sure exactly what the time was on the team workout, somewhere around 12:24. My overhead weakness got me on this one too, felt good in the first handstand, but collapsed the second time. Ended up switching over to holding 40# DB overhead

20100224

AMRAP Deadlift/Push-up (DLPU)

AMRAP 20 minutes:
1 Deadlift @ bodyweight, 1 Push-up: 162 @ 155

This was a tough workout. The quick turnover on the deadlift and push-up made it into what basically amounted to a burpee, but with weight. Initially tried to do 10 on the minute, and made it with this for the first 10 minutes, but died after that. Finished with 162 total reps. Not awful but I think I could do better next time

20100223

Max Snatch, OHS/Burpees

1RM Snatch: worked up to 120. Still don't have very good form on this, but it got better during the workout. Need to get more explosive at the top, focus on punching the weight up at the top

22-15-9 Overhead Squat @ 95#, Burpees: 8:31. I think the burpees were tougher on me than the OHS, just wasn't feeling it today. The OHS felt fairly good, need to work on the depth though with weight.

20100222

BRING IT

1. Warm Up: 30-20-10 Box Jumps, Push-ups, Squats
2. Strength: 1 RM Squat Clean
3. Stamina: 15 x Squat Cleans (90% 1RM), 50 x Squat Jumps, 50 x Weighted Sit-ups (45#),
4. Work Capacity: "JT": 21-15-9: HSPU, Ring Dip
---------------------------
1. rx'd
2. 185. PR by 20 pounds. This was the first time I've really felt good doing full squat cleans, and I could tell a huge difference, as shown by the big PR. Form felt great all the way up to 185. Tried for 190 but just couldn't get under it.
3. rx'd with 155# cleans, and 15# bar for the squat jumps.
4. 13 something. didn't finish. This didn't go well at all. I used 115# and did push press, but could only get through the first 2 rounds before my shoulders were crushed

20100220

Lynne

Crossfit benchmark workout: Lynne (max bench @ bodyweight/max pull-ups, 5 rounds)
Total: 173...I'm sure this was the total, don't have the individual rounds written down but I think they went something like this:

Round 1: 12/25
2: 10/25
3: 9/26
4: 7/23
5: 6/21

Pleased with the pull-ups, but not so much with the bench. I guess that's what happens when you don't do it for ~2 months.

20100219

Pistols, BS, 500m row

Pistols: 10x each leg
Back Squat: 45 x 5, 95 x 5, 135 x 5, 185 x 3, 225 x 1, 245 x 1, 255 x 1
500m row for time: 1:33.8
-------------------
Fairly random workout today. Didn't have a set workout so we did some benchmark work. The pistols were fairly easy, didn't max out just wanted to see if I could do 10 each leg. I wasn't too disappointed with the back squat. It's not close to my max of 285 from when I was doing my SS workouts, but between this and the deadlifts earlier in the week it showed me that I need to implement more strength based workouts. I've kind of gone all or nothing since finishing SS, and it's definitely hurt my maximum strength. Need to work on finding more of a happy medium between pure Crossfit WODs and strength focused workouts.

The row felt great. I didn't initially plan on doing this, but got talked into it. I didn't think I was going to get anywhere close to this time, especially after the squats. Legs felt good going in, and I feel like I held a pretty good pace. The max I saw on the monitor was a 1:26/500m, which is a PR as far as that goes. I held right around a 40 stroke/min rate, which isn't ideal for a longer distance, but for a sprint I didn't feel bad about it. Immediately after I got done though I was absolutely shot though, pretty much collapsed off the rower.

20100218

Karen

Crossfit Benchmark workout: Karen

Warm-up: foam rolling, mobility

Workout: Karen - 150 wall ball shots for time
------------
Time: 6:26 (full squat each rep, 20# ball to 10 foot target)

This was my first time doing this workout. Really pleased with the time. Using a med ball to gauge my squat depth made a big difference in the difficulty of the wall ball shots. I think previously I didn't squat down enough, which forced me to use a lot more arms, but with the full squat, I was able to get a lot more power and made them easier.

20100217

2k Row/Push-ups

evening

2000m row
100 push-ups

For total time, and for 2k time
------------------------
7:26 for the row
12:43 total time (5:17 push-ups)

This was the farthest I've ever rowed in a single session, and at an all out pace it was extremely hard. I started out too fast, my first 1000 was in ~3:30-5, and then the next 500 wasn't very good at all. I was able to get up for the last 500 but the middle one really brought my time down. Afterwards my quads were cramped up to the point that I couldn't straighten out to do the push-ups for a while, so the time for those was terrible. Basically what I got out of this was that I need to do some more longer rows, at least just to get used to it

Deadlift/Press

morning

Deadlift: -----------Press:
45 x 5 -------------45 x 5
135 x 5 ------------65 x 5
185 x 5 ------------95 x 5
225 x 5 ------------100 x 3
275 x 3 ------------105 x 3
295 x 3 ------------110 x 1
295 x 5 ------------115 x 1
--------------------120 x 1 (fail, twice)

20100215

Fight Gone Bad

Crossfit benchmark workout: Fight Gone Bad

Wall-balls: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate”, the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.
---------------------
3 Rounds, total score: 327 (122, 101, 104). Not sure what the breakdown was for each exercise off the top of my head. This was my first time doing FGB and I really enjoyed it. The amount of rest in between rounds, and the variation of the exercises really let you go all out each time. In the end I was crushed, but felt fairly satisfied with my score.

20100212

AMRAP, Wall ball/Pull-Ups

AMRAP 20 minutes:
20 Wall ball shots (unbroken)
15 pull-ups

8 rounds + 20 wall ball. Tough workout. Took it easy the first few rounds hoping to get 10 rounds. Finished each round and then started the next one on 2 min, 4 min, etc. Got burned by the wall ball shots, my shoulders were fried by the end. Slowed down a lot more on the last few rounds

20100211

2x800, 4x400

evening

Interval work

2x800 @ 6/mile pace
4x400 @ 6/mile pace

Squat, Shoulder Press

morning

Back squat: 45x5, 95x5, 135x3, 185x3, 205x3, 225x3, 245

Shoulder Press: 45x5, 65x5, 95x3, 100x3, 105x3, 110, 115, 120

20100210

Tabata Sledge Swings/OHS

Tabata Overhead Squats/Sledgehammer swing
Score = total of lowest number for each round

45, using 45# for overhead squats

Round 1 (OHS): 10
Round 2 (swings):12
Round 3 (OHS): 11
Round 4 (swings) 12

20100209

KB Swings/Situps/Back Ext/KTE

5 rounds for time:
25 KB Swings (2 pood)
25 GHD Sit-ups
25 Back Extensions
25 Knees to Elbows

Time: 30:07. This was a fun workout. The KB swings went a lot better than I was expecting, but my core was dead. Using the 2 pood for the past few workouts is going to make a huge difference once when I have to do a workout with the 1.5, I only had to split the sets of 25 up into 13/12 typically, which I was very pleased with. After doing deadlifts yesterday, my lower back was a little tight. I tried to hold strict form on my back extensions and it made a huge difference. They were frying my hamstrings but my back didn't really feel terrible. Knees to elbows were tough but not terrible.

Triceps are very sore from yesterday, and probably going to be worse tomorrow. Not holding out any high hopes for my abs

20100208

Deadlift/HSPU, Short Met-con

Warm-up: 5 min jump rope, DROM drills
20 squats/30 push-ups/20 pull-ups
------------------------
5 rounds of:
Deadlift, 3 reps
HSPU, max reps

315/27, 315/18, 315/15, 315/15, 315/15. HSPU done on box with hands on parallettes. Felt pretty good, got a really good shoulder workout
------------------------
AMRAP 7 minutes (with a partner)
Sprint 50 m
7 KB Swings (2 pood)
7 DB Push Press (40#)

Finished 5 rounds each. By the last 2 sets I could barely lift the DBs for the push presses, my shoulders were shot.

20100206

Front Squat, Sledge Swings, KTE

afternoon

Crossfit Football workout for today: 6 sets of 4 Front Squats. Followed by Tabata intervals of sledgehammer swings, knees to elbows, sledgehammer swings

Front Squats: 95, 135, 185, 175, 175, 175
Got 185 up without failing but it was a little heavy to finish out the workout with. The sets of 175 felt pretty good

Tabata intervals:
Sledgehammer swings (16#): 11, 11, 11, 12, 12, 11, 11, 12
Knees to Elbows: 15, 15, 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 10
Sledgehammer swings (16#): 13, 13, 13, 14, 14, 13, 14, 14

This workout destroyed my forearms. By the end of the knees to elbows I couldn't even hold onto the bar anymore. Combined with the sledgehammer swings, and I could barely use the pen to write down my reps. Rolled them out with a lacrosse ball after I got done though and they feel a lot better. The sledgehammer swings were a fun change of pace, overall an fairly hard workout, but fun.

Burpees/KB Swings

morning

Partner workout, 7 rounds of 7 burpees/7 KB swings (2 pood). One person does a round while the other rests, and then switch off.

Time: 8:50 (for both people). The 2 pood swings were pretty hard, that's the first time I've ever used one for a workout. Burpees felt surprisingly good, or as good as burpees can be.

20100205

100m repeats, 4 miles

10 x 100m on a 35s clock. Averaged 16-18 seconds per repeat

4 mile run home: 27:45 (6:56 pace)

Push Press Death

afternoon

Push Press: 1-10-1-20-1-30

135, 105, 145, 100, 145, 85.   Glad to get some extra shoulder work.  The set of 20 @ 100 was definitely the hardest, absolute killer.  Probably doing some running later

20100204

Evening

Max Push-ups in 2 minutes: 61, chest to deck.  Not very good, push-ups need work

Affiliate Workout

Afternoon

Today we did the final workout from the 2009 Crossfit Games Affiliate Cup

75 Squat Cleans-------------scaled to 50 (135#)
150 Toes-to-bar------------------------100
150 Box Jumps-------------------------100 (24")
75 Thrusters----------------------------50 (95#)
35 Muscle-ups--------------------------20
150 Burpees-----------------------------100
150 Double-unders---------------------100
300 Walking Lunges-------------------200 (35# plate overhead)

The workout was originally intended for teams of 4, but we scaled it back for a team of 3.  This was a great workout because of the variety.  I was able to do a few of something, and then when I got tired, I could switch over to something else, and just chip away at it that way.  Our team did pretty well.

I need to practice my double-unders, I could only get like 1 or 2 at a time and then smack myself in the back with the rope, it looks like somebody whipped me.  Same with the muscle-ups, I can get 1 pretty reliably, but not a lot more in quick succession

20100203

PRANAYAMA

1. Warm Up: Sand Bag drills 10 minutes
2. Strength: Work to 1 RM Front Squat
3. Stamina: 4 Rounds: 4 x front squat @ 80% 1RM, Buddy Carry 100yds, Hip Mobility Drill
4. Work Capacity (Endurance): For Time: Run 2 miles. then 4 rounds [25 x pull-up, 50 x air
squat]. Row 2,000M.
5. Durability / Awareness: Yoga or Active stretch 10 minutes. Breath meditation 5 minutes (see
notes)
------------------------
1. Just did regular CF warm-up, some shoulder mobility
2. 1rm = 215...pretty happy about this. Haven't front squatted in a LONG time
3. 3 rounds of 3 x front squat @ 185, farmer's walk with 2 x 55# KB, Hip Mobility Drill
4. ~30 minutes (watch malfunction). Didn't do the last 2000m row due to time constraints, so probably an add'l 8-9 minutes as rx'd.
5. rx'd. Active stretching, foam rolling, breathing exercises after I got home

As expected, another really tough workout. Still trying to get my pull-ups up to par so I don't have to partition them. Took me 2-3 sets on all rounds. The squats weren't terrible, got easier as I went on and started pacing myself better. Tomorrow's active recovery day is going to be great

20100202

WALK IT OFF

1. Warm-up: Tabata Push-ups, Squats, Pull-ups
2. 5 rounds for time: 800m run, 30 wall ball (20#), 30 KB swings (55#)
3. 400m walking lunges, Active Stretch
---------------------------------
1. rx'd: Push-ups (20, 20, 20, 16, 9, 14, 15, 9) Squats (20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 18, 19) Pull-ups
(8, 8, 8...stopped)
2. Scaled - 4 rounds: 800m row, 25 DB thrusters (20#), 25 KB swings (55#)
29:38
3. 200m walking lunges (130 steps)

Brutal...haven't done tabatas in a while so the push-ups killed me. Tried to pace myself to get 20 in each set, so I stopped short on the first few, but I'm gonna build up to it (20 for 8 sets is my ultimate goal). Squats weren't bad, I took the same approach but my legs were just tired by the end. Pull-ups were pretty bad, just wasn't feeling it and my hand's not quite up to it after tearing it last week.

The main workout was pretty hard, I scaled it back so it wouldn't take me an hour. I can definitely tell a difference in my fitness though, at least as far as how many thrusters/swings I could get without having to stop. Previously I could only get like 10 at a time but I'm up to 15 for the swings and I got the whole last set of thrusters with no stop.

20100201

Push Jerk, C&J, 400m

1. Warm-up: Bear Complex (Power Clean, Front Squat, Push Press, Back Squat, Push Press)
2. Work up to 1rm Push Jerk
3. AMRAP 20 minutes: 15 C&J (95#), 400m
4. 4 x 10 GHD sit-ups, 20 push-ups

1. 75, 85, 95
2. 1rm = 155
3. 5 rounds
4. rx'd

Shoulders were dead. Wasn't initially planning on doing this met-con, or I wouldn't have done all the bear reps and the push jerk. Oh well, still got a solid workout in

20100129

10 x 1min on; 1 min off

evening

10 x 1min on; 1 min off - C2 rower
Total distance: 2747 m, 1:49.2/500m, 29 s/m

1. 259 - 1:55.8
2. 263 - 1:54.0
3. 274 - 1:49.4
4. 273 - 1:49.8
5. 281 - 1:46.7
6. 277 - 1:48.3
7. 278 - 1:47.9
8. 285 - 1:45.2
9. 261 - 1:54.9 Got a late start on this one
10. 295 - 1:41.6

Felt great as I got into the workout, rowing definitely takes some warm-up for me

DROP DEAD

Afternoon

Warm Up: Run 1 mile. 100 push-ups for time.

Strength: 3 RM Dead Lift

Work Capacity / Stamina: For time: 10 rounds: 5 x Dead Lift (185#), 5 x pull-ups then run 800M, then, 10 Rounds: 5 x Push-Press (95#), 5 x pull-ups.

1. 7:17, 3:34 (need to get better at high rep push-ups

2. DL 3rm - 295

3. Part 1 - 6:20. Didn't do part 2 for time because of tear on my palm, did 5 rounds of 5 push press (95#) with 5 strict pull-ups, and then 2x5 strict press with 95...Really liked this workout, going to try again once the hand gets better

20100128

Evening

~3 mile run with the dog (1 mile on beach) - 23:12

20100127

FRONT SIGHT FOCUS

For time:

Run 800 Meters

4 rounds: 10 pull-ups, 15 thrusters (95#), 20 KB swing (55#).

Run 800 M.


24:08

Not the best time, but I felt like I gave it a solid effort. The thrusters were definitely what killed me

20100126

HALO

1. Warm Up: 40-30-20-10 push-ups, sit-ups, squats

2. Work Capacity: 5 round for time: 400M run, 30 KB swings, 30 pull-ups


1. as rx'd

2. 28:38 (4 rounds) this was hard as hell. Really need to work on my pull-ups, they felt like a lot more work than they should be. The swings were hard but as expected.

20100125

Filthy Fifty

Filthy Fifty

50 Box Jumps - 24"
50 Jumping Pull-ups
50 KB Swings - 1 pood
50 Steps, Walking Lunge
50 Knees to Elbows
50 Push Press, 45 pounds
50 Back extensions
50 Wall Ball shots, 20# ball
50 Burpees
50 Double Unders

Time: 23:55

Not a great time. Felt good through most of the workout, but the wall ball shots and the burpees felt like they took probably 10 minutes between the 2 of them, so they took the majority of the time. My shoulders were dead by this point so they were pretty brutal.

20100124

Will and Suffering

WILL AND SUFFERING

BY MARK TWIGHT

"When a person trains once, nothing happens. When a person forces himself to do a thing a hundred or a thousand times, then he certainly has developed in more ways than physical. Is it raining? That doesn't matter. Am I tired? That doesn't matter, either. Then willpower will be no problem."
Emil Zatopek

The difference between a good alpinist and a great one is will. The great climber exercises the discipline required to know himself. He trains to be stronger than he thinks necessary. On a route he eats to sustain energy levels even if it makes him gag, and he drinks regularly to stay hydrated. He stops in the middle of a pitch to pull his hood up if the spindrift gets bad instead of waiting to reach the belay, and he stays dry because of it. He maintains the discipline needed to melt enough ice each night to fill the bottles, and sweeps snow out of the tent instead of letting it melt. He doesn't care if his partner's pack weighs less. He wakes up and starts the stove when the alarm goes off. The great climber recognizes when he's having a bad day and admits it to his partner, then he relinquishes leads where he might slow the team and follows as fast as he can. He does all the cooking that night. A strong-willed climber will fast for a day or two without complaint to wait out bad weather.

Where does this strong will and hardness come from? It derives from recognizing desires and goals and then enduring whatever it takes to fulfill them. A strong will grows from suffering successfully and being rewarded for it. Does a strong will come from years of multi-hour training runs or do those runs result from a dominating will? There is no right answer because will and action feed one another.

Suffering provides the opportunity to exercise will and to develop grit. Replace recreational climbing with specific training to develop confidence. Climb on local crags in weather conditions far worse than any you would intentionally confront in the high mountains. Austrian climber Herman Buhl carried snowballs in his hands to develop his tolerance (psychological) and increase capillarization (physical). He climbed on his local crags all winter long, even in storm conditions, and rode his bike for hundreds of kilometers on the way to the mountains for training. It paid off, of course, when he climbed alone to the summit of Nanga Parbat.

The mind and body adapt to both comfort and deprivation. The difficult experiences of mountaineering may appear irrational and risky from the comfort of the armchair, but learning to deal with them is essential. Relish the challenge of overcoming difficulties that would crush ordinary men.

Michael Gilbert and Scott Backes got soaked to the bone climbing The Waterfall Pitch on the north face of the Eiger. When they stopped for the night at the Brittle Ledges, they discovered their sleeping bags had been drenched as well, Michael asked, "What are we going to do now?" Scott replied, "We're going to suffer." And they did. But it was a little thing compared to the suffering experienced intentionally and otherwise during the evolution of alpinism.

Learn to suffer.

20100123

Clean/Muscle-up Practice

Morning

3x20 push-ups with 25# plate
3x10 strict pull-ups

Olympic lifting practice - Cleans

Got a lot better at getting under the weight, making it more of an actual squat clean as opposed to a power clean.  As I get better at this I'll be able to move a lot more weight without as much effort

Also worked on the rings and got my muscle-ups down better, hopefully chaining these together next week

20100122

Step-ups, Pistols/Burpees/KB Swings

Single-leg practice

Warm-up: Tabata Row - 20 on: 10 off x 8

1. Step-ups - 3 x 6 (each leg)
2. Pistol practice
3. 5 rounds for time of:
3 pistols (each leg)
7 burpees
9 KB swings (55#)

Warm-up: 912 m, PR
1. 3 x 6 @135
2. Pistols on gradually reducing box until done strictly
3. 6:09 - pistols done onto medicine ball

20100121

Press, Push Press, Row/Clean/Pull-ups

1. Work up to 1RM Press, Push Press
2. 5 rounds of 3 PP @ 90% 1RM:
3. 800m Row
    3 rounds of 20 Squat Clean (95#), 20 pull-ups
    800m Row

1. 120 Press, 150 Push Press
2. 5x3 @ 135
3. 25:07

This time is awful for the workout, I should have done a lot better.  Will do better next time

20100120

evening

~3 miles with the dog - 23:10

DL, SDHP, KB Swings

5 rounds: 3 xDL @ 90% 2RM, 15 x KB SDHP (55# or 1.5 pood), 20 KB Swing (same weight)

17:29 - rx'd (275 DL)

Got this workout off Sealfit...this is only the first part of what's supposed to be a longer workout though. No way I'm in shape for the entire thing, but I'm going to work on it. Doing a run later tonight

20100119

Cindy, 3x5 Press

Afternoon:

Cindy: AMRAP 20 minutes

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats

19.5 rounds...really poor showing. I started off way too fast, and was completely burned out by like 15 minutes. Need to get some more work in on met-con's, I lost a lot during SS. Going to do some presses later.


Evening:

Press:
45 - 2x10, 65 - 1x5, 105 - 3x5

20100118

Iron and the Soul

Just read this...really strong words


Iron and the Soul – By Henry Rollins

I believe that the definition of definition is reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself.

Completely.

When I was young I had no sense of myself. All I was, was a product of all the fear and humiliation I suffered. Fear of my parents. The humiliation of teachers calling me “garbage can” and telling me I’d be mowing lawns for a living. And the very real terror of my fellow students. I was threatened and beaten up for the color of my skin and my size. I was skinny and clumsy, and when others would tease me I didn’t run home crying, wondering why. I knew all too well. I was there to be antagonized. In sports I was laughed at. A spaz. I was pretty good at boxing but only because the rage that filled my every waking moment made me wild and unpredictable. I fought with some strange fury. The other boys thought I was crazy.

I hated myself all the time. As stupid at it seems now, I wanted to talk like them, dress like them, carry myself with the ease of knowing that I wasn’t going to get pounded in the hallway between classes. Years passed and I learned to keep it all inside. I only talked to a few boys in my grade. Other losers. Some of them are to this day the greatest people I have ever known. Hang out with a guy who has had his head flushed down a toilet a few times, treat him with respect, and you’ll find a faithful friend forever. But even with friends, school sucked. Teachers gave me hard time. I didn’t think much of them either.

Then came Mr. Pepperman, my advisor. He was a powerfully built Vietnam veteran, and he was scary. No one ever talked out of turn in his class. Once one kid did and Mr. P. lifted him off the ground and pinned him to the blackboard. Mr. P. could see that I was in bad shape, and one Friday in October he asked me if I had ever worked out with weights. I told him no. He told me that I was going to take some of the money that I had saved and buy a hundred-pound set of weights at Sears. As I left his office, I started to think of things I would say to him on Monday when he asked about the weights that I was not going to buy. Still, it made me feel special. My father never really got that close to caring. On Saturday I bought the weights, but I couldn’t even drag them to my mom’s car. An attendant laughed at me as he put them on a dolly.

Monday came and I was called into Mr. P.’s office after school. He said that he was going to show me how to work out. He was going to put me on a program and start hitting me in the solar plexus in the hallway when I wasn’t looking. When I could take the punch we would know that we were getting somewhere. At no time was I to look at myself in the mirror or tell anyone at school what I was doing. In the gym he showed me ten basic exercises. I paid more attention than I ever did in any of my classes. I didn’t want to blow it. I went home that night and started right in.

Weeks passed, and every once in a while Mr. P. would give me a shot and drop me in the hallway, sending my books flying. The other students didn’t know what to think. More weeks passed, and I was steadily adding new weights to the bar. I could sense the power inside my body growing. I could feel it.

Right before Christmas break I was walking to class, and from out of nowhere Mr. Pepperman appeared and gave me a shot in the chest. I laughed and kept going. He said I could look at myself now. I got home and ran to the bathroom and pulled off my shirt. I saw a body, not just the shell that housed my stomach and my heart. My biceps bulged. My chest had definition. I felt strong. It was the first time I can remember having a sense of myself. I had done something and no one could ever take it away. You couldn’t say shit to me.

It took me years to fully appreciate the value of the lessons I have learned from the Iron. I used to think that it was my adversary, that I was trying to lift that which does not want to be lifted. I was wrong. When the Iron doesn’t want to come off the mat, it’s the kindest thing it can do for you. If it flew up and went through the ceiling, it wouldn’t teach you anything. That’s the way the Iron talks to you. It tells you that the material you work with is that which you will come to resemble. That which you work against will always work against you.

It wasn’t until my late twenties that I learned that by working out I had given myself a great gift. I learned that nothing good comes without work and a certain amount of pain. When I finish a set that leaves me shaking, I know more about myself. When something gets bad, I know it can’t be as bad as that workout.

I used to fight the pain, but recently this became clear to me: pain is not my enemy; it is my call to greatness. But when dealing with the Iron, one must be careful to interpret the pain correctly. Most injuries involving the Iron come from ego. I once spent a few weeks lifting weight that my body wasn’t ready for and spent a few months not picking up anything heavier than a fork. Try to lift what you’re not prepared to and the Iron will teach you a little lesson in restraint and self-control.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone’s shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

Yukio Mishima said that he could not entertain the idea of romance if he was not strong. Romance is such a strong and overwhelming passion, a weakened body cannot sustain it for long. I have some of my most romantic thoughts when I am with the Iron. Once I was in love with a woman. I thought about her the most when the pain from a workout was racing through my body.

Everything in me wanted her. So much so that sex was only a fraction of my total desire. It was the single most intense love I have ever felt, but she lived far away and I didn’t see her very often. Working out was a healthy way of dealing with the loneliness. To this day, when I work out I usually listen to ballads.

I prefer to work out alone. It enables me to concentrate on the lessons that the Iron has for me. Learning about what you’re made of is always time well spent, and I have found no better teacher. The Iron had taught me how to live. Life is capable of driving you out of your mind. The way it all comes down these days, it’s some kind of miracle if you’re not insane. People have become separated from their bodies. They are no longer whole.

I see them move from their offices to their cars and on to their suburban homes. They stress out constantly, they lose sleep, they eat badly. And they behave badly. Their egos run wild; they become motivated by that which will eventually give them a massive stroke. They need the Iron Mind.

Through the years, I have combined meditation, action, and the Iron into a single strength. I believe that when the body is strong, the mind thinks strong thoughts. Time spent away from the Iron makes my mind degenerate. I wallow in a thick depression. My body shuts down my mind.

The Iron is the best antidepressant I have ever found. There is no better way to fight weakness than with strength. Once the mind and body have been awakened to their true potential, it’s impossible to turn back.

The Iron never lies to you. You can walk outside and listen to all kinds of talk, get told that you’re a god or a total bastard. The Iron will always kick you the real deal. The Iron is the great reference point, the all-knowing perspective giver. Always there like a beacon in the pitch black. I have found the Iron to be my greatest friend. It never freaks out on me, never runs. Friends may come and go. But two hundred pounds is always two hundred pounds.

Max DL / Short Met-con

Deadlift: 45 - 1x10, 135- 1x5, 185, 225, 275, 315, 335, 350, 365

Met-con:
Sprint 250m
7 knees to elbows
14 sit-ups

Time: 4:19

Pretty good, need to work on form for KTE. I can't really kip on them so I have to stop my swing at the bottom.

20100115

Day 47

Started an "internship" at Crossfit Coastal. Basically just helping out with coaching/timing/whatever. Got a couple solid workouts in today.

Fran: 7:25

5 min AMRAP: 3x Power Clean, 50m sprint - 14 rounds

8 rounds for time: 250m sprint, 8 lunges (4 each leg), 8 box jumps (~28") - 13:17

Definitely can tell a negative difference in my metcon ability compared with before doing the SS cycle. But even with being in not as good a shape that way, I got a better Fran time just because of increased strength, which makes me feel a lot better. My limiting factor on this workout is by far still the thrusters though. I'm going to start supplementing my workouts with some 3x5 shoulder press once or twice a week

The AMRAP was pretty brutal, especially for being only 5 minutes, but definitely fun. This could be a great workout if expanded to 15-20 minutes...possibly with ~200m runs or something along those lines?

Last workout was a killer. The first two were pretty close together and the last one wasn't until this evening, but it was HARD. The runs in between lunges and box jumps (something i've never really done before) were killer. Legs were dead afterwards

Also got my first muscle-up today just messing around. Surprisingly it wasn't too hard, I think I was just limited by the fact that I hadn't had anything quite high enough to hang my rings from

20100113

Day 45

Just got back from the gym where I did my closing CFT for my Starting Strength cycle. Overall I'm pretty pleased with how it went. My shoulder's still bothering me, but just doing single reps wasn't too bad so I just went with it.

Bodyweight: 168.5

Squat: 45 - 2x5, 135 - 1x5, 185, 225, 245, 265, 275, 285, 300 (fail), 300 (fail)
Press: 45 - 2x5, 65 - 1x5, 95, 105, 115, 125, 135 (fail)
Deadlift: 45 - 1x5, 135 - 1x5, 225, 245, 275, 315, 335, 350

I'm fairly pleased with this. Not quite as much improvement as I was expecting...I was hoping for my weights to go up as much as the 5 RM's had, but no luck. I got a little anxious on the squats, and tried for 300 instead of just going up by 5 or 10 like I probably should, and could have, but in the long run I don't think it makes a huge difference. Looking back at my previous PR I'm a lot more happy than I was with this at the gym. 40 pounds on my squat in ~1.5 months is great.

The press is still by far my weakest point. Doing a max was weird though, whereas with the 5 RM I have trouble getting it off my shoulders sometimes, on the 125 I had trouble getting it to lockout. No matter what workout I do after this I'm going to start implementing some 3x5 press before or afterwards a couple times a week.

Deadlift was awesome. I went in hoping for 350, and got it. I probably could have gone a little higher, but with my shoulder feeling like it does I didn't want to chance it. I used straps on the last 3 lifts, didn't really feel like I was losing my grip yet, but I just didn't want the grip to be what kept me from hitting the lift.

Day 45

I've been thinking about the progress I've made so far, and feel like I've gotten what I need to out of this workout. I'm testing my CFT again tonight to see what kind of progress I've made, and then going to take it easy-ish for the next couple days before starting either a regular Crossfit cycle or possibly looking into Sealfit.

20100112

Day 44

Easy 1.8 miles around the neighborhood with my dog...just trying to loosen my legs up

~14:20 min

20100111

Day 43

After a nap I felt a lot more energetic so I figured I'd hit the gym for a run, hoping to not make the day a total waste.

Treadmill - 3 miles, 9.0 mph: 20 minutes

Day 43

SS workout

Squat: 45 - 2x5, 135 - 2x5, 240 - 1x3, 135 - 2x10
Bench:45 - 2x5, 135 - 1x5

Terrible workout overall. My right shoulder was killing me, couldn't hold the bar up on squats, or do much on bench. I didn't even try with power cleans. Going to take it easy the rest of the day and tomorrow and see how I feel on Wednesday

20100109

Day 41

Squat: 45 - 2x5, 135 - 2x5, 235 - 3x5
Press: 45 - 2x5, 75 - 1x5, 110 - 3x5
Deadlift: 45 - 1x5, 135 - 2x5, 225 - 1x5, 280 - 1x5
Pull-ups: Bodyweight +25 - 5x5

Overall not too bad. The squats were pretty heavy but they went up easy enough. Press is still hard, but it's getting easier, it's just going to take a a few workouts at each weight. The deadlift was probably the hardest, but only because my grip was completely gone by the 5th rep.

20100108

Day 40

CFE Workout

1 Minute Ladder (mis-read the CFE post so I didn't to enough reps)

1 min on, 50 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)
1 min on, 40 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)
1 min on, 30 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)
1 min on, 20 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)
1 min on, 10 sec off (2.0 incline, 9.0 mph)
1 min on, 20 sec off (2.0 incline, 9.0 mph)
1 min on, 30 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)
1 min on, 40 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)
1 min on, 50 sec off (2.0 incline, 10.0 mph)

Should have started with 1 min on, 1 min off and finished with the same. Oh well...pretty good workout, need to get run more.

Pull-ups: Bodyweight - 5x7, 2x10 kipping

20100107

Day 39

Squat: 45 - 2x5, 135 - 2x5, 230 - 3x5
Bench: 45 - 2x5, 135 - 2x5, 175 - 3x5
Power Clean: 45 - 1x8, 95 - 1x5, 135 - 1x5, 165 - 5x3
Dips: Bodyweight +25 - 2x8

Another great workout. I've shifted the bar a little lower on my back for squats and can definitely tell a difference. It's a lot easier to keep my back upright, I don't feel myself collapsing forward as much as I start to fatigue. The bench was hard, I started at 180 thinking I could get it but after 1 rep I could tell it was too much. I'll get it next workout though. Power clean was better than last time, same weight but I felt like my form was a lot better and my grip wasn't giving out as bad.

20100106

Day 38

CFE Workout

30 seconds on, 30 seconds off

Rowing:
1 - 123
2 - 130
3 - 131
4 - 126
5 - 126
6 - 132
7 - 133
8 - 132

Pull-ups: Regular/Underhand/Wide grip - sets of 7 - 2 rotations

Really need to work on my rowing form. I feel like I'm busting my ass but I'm not getting anywhere. Going to concentrate on practicing this during my warm-ups

20100105

Day 37

Squat: 45 - 2x5, 135 - 2x5, 225 - 3x5
Press: 45 - 2x5, 75 - 1x5, 110 - 3x5
Deadlift: 45 - 1x5, 135 - 2x5, 225 - 1x5, 275 - 1x5
Pull-ups: Bodyweight - 2x10, Bodyweight +25 - 3,2,1,2,3

GREAT workout. Felt good to be home and well rested. Nutrition has been on point the past couple days and I could really tell a difference. Could finally tell some progress on the press. The first 2 sets were pretty easy, and I got the first 3 of the third set, but then had to give a little bit of a push to get the last 2, hopefully I'll be able to get all 3 sets clean next workout. The deadlift was heavy, but I didn't have a lot of trouble other than acually holding onto it, I could tell my grip was giving on the last 2 reps