Mar 29, 2011

Murph-esque

I didn't think I would workout today, but with only 2 athletes in the 530 class, I decided to do the WOD with them.

It was basically Murph, or at least the middle section of Murph.

WOD:
Run 800m
21 OHS (135#/95#)
2 rds "Cindy"
15 OHS
4 rds "Cindy"
9 OHS
6 rds "Cindy"
3 OHS
8 rds "Cindy"
Run 800m

Results: 66 minutes; 65# OHS; 1/2 knee pushups

While I didn't have it in me to do 200 Rx pushups tonight, I'm pretty happy with doing 100 unassisted pullups. No rips in my hands, either. Good stuff.

My back felt a little sore as I started, which freaked me out on the two long sets of OHS, but then the pain completely went away.

Mar 28, 2011

Mud Run

Saturday I did a mud run that raised money for multiple sclerosis. Even though it was for a good cause, and by doing it I was helping out a friend, it still just sucked!

I had a lot of theories about why I had such a bad time at my first mud run, but this one clinched it -- I just hate them, no extra reasoning or logic required. The chick who tries everything has finally found something that's a major turn-off.

And it's not that I'm a super girly-girl, far from it. But purposefully submerging into muddy water several times, and then feeling nauseous when you finish because you probably swallowed some amoebas? Not for me.

Getting your feet wet on purpose and then running 6-7 miles? Not for me.

My attitude was not helped by the fact that I still felt like shit (a la Thursday's pitiful attempt at the sectionals WOD), and was the slowest person and only female on the team I was with.

Oh well, I'm just glad it's over, and honestly I don't even care what our time was!

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I felt so beat down on Sunday that I skipped the sectionals WOD do-over, and my score is officially 2 rounds + 24 DUs. Oh well. Maybe I'll get the chance to redeem myself in the next 5 weeks. We'll see what CF HQ comes up with.

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Still feeling like crap today, so I'm taking it easy again. I am going to take the dog out for a super-long walk this afternoon just to get my legs stretched out. I had an adjustment at the chiropractor this morning, and that helped some. Back to WODs tomorrow.

Mar 25, 2011

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.1

I finally did this workout on Friday. The day after I swung the 24kg kettlebell 85 times, plus some other kb fun.

Probably not my best idea...

Results: 2 rounds + 26 DUs


In short, I blew it on the double unders. I did the snatches all 15 in a row both rounds, no problem at all. First round of DUs was pretty smooth -- and why not, they're easy when you're fresh. Starting the 2nd round, I spent minutes doing single DUs, and missing tons of DU attempts. It was as if I regressed back to a time when I couldn't do DUs at all. OMG!

If I can find another coach at my box to judge me, I will attempt a redo on Sunday. I have a mud run to do on Saturday, so hopefully I'm not in the same boat again -- trying to do the WOD while super-sore from the day prior...

Even if I don't get a new score for the "official" CF Games, I will do this again, and DO BETTER!

Mar 23, 2011

Heavy kettlebells are fun

Took Tuesday as a rest day, cause I was pretty sore from my heavy squats and (somewhat) heavy power cleans.

Wednesday it was back to the fun times. I kinda sand-bagged the deadlift portion of the WOD -- still kinda antsy about reintroducing heavy deadlifts, but I went for it on the heavy kb swings, cause I love those. :)

Strength: deadlift 3x5 at 80-85% 1RM

Results: 95-105-125

I've been working on hip position on my return, and am feeling a lot more confident. My natural lordosis (forward hip inclination / "booty pop") has made it a long process for me to learn how to "flatten" my back, instead of hyperextending my lumbar spine. The "stick your butt out" cue is basically over-kill to someone like me -- it's out all the time already!! hehe

All I can say is, thank god for my wonderful coach Doug who is so patient with me, and gives me so much great advice and guidance. With him helping me, I finally have hope that someday I will make it to that 1.5 x bodyweight deadlift. :)

WOD
KB SWINGS 32/24 KG

30 REPS FIRST MINUTE- NEXT MINUTE OFF- FIVE TIMES

GOES DOWN LIKE THIS: YOU MUST DO 30 REPS THE FIRST MINUTE, REST THE SECOND MINUTE, 30 REPS THE THIRD MINUTE, REST THE FOURTH MINUTE, AND SO ON FOR FIVE WORK SETS TOTAL. KEEP TRACK OF ANY MISSED REPS AND PERFORM BURPEES AS A GROUP AT THE END OF THE WOD.

ANY MISSED REP EQUALS A PENALTY OF 3 BURPEES...
Results: using the 24kg kettlebell, and swinging it American-style, I completed 85 total swings: 20-20-15-15-15

So my penalty should've been 195 burpees. I did 40-ish. We ended up capping the burpee penalty for some, especially those who can gone outside their comfort zone with a truly heavy kb.

The hardest part of this WOD for me was just hanging onto the kettlebell at the bottom. Especially swinging overhead, holy crap did that thing pick up speed on it's way down.

After doing this WOD in the morning, I coached in the afternoon, and was messing around with my athletes. I swung the 32kg twice in a row to eye-level, and did about 5 1-armed swings of the 24kg on each arm, also eye-level. Now that was fun! I know, I know -- it is messed up to get some much enjoyment out of swinging giant cannonballs with handles. :-p

Mar 21, 2011

EMOM 10

Slightly modified the posted WOD for today.
Each minute, on the minute, for 10 minutes:
Perform 2 power cleans
Perform 1 seated box jump

Power clean load should be 70-80% of 1RM.
Box jumps should start from a parallel seated position, with a jump to the highest box possible.
Instead of box jumps, I attempted to do 15 double unders. Since I still haven't done my week 1 sectionals WOD, I might as well do as much DU practice as possible before I do.

I got 15 in a row the first round, but things were up and down the rest of the time. A few rounds I only got 3-6 before the minute ended. By minute 5, I readjusted my goal to 10, but I didn't even get that for the whole WOD.

But it was still great practice. In the last 2 minutes I started messing around with the "flat footed forward pop" technique -- you know, where you pop up and don't bend your knees much? And to my surprise, I actually got some that way. I've tried it in the past with no luck. It definitely takes a lot less energy than my current style of "high knees in front", so I think I'll consider doing that style in the sectionals WOD. It's also easier to land lightly when you don't jump as high.

Power cleans were at 95#. Felt good to move heavy weight.

My legs are sore from cleans, and squats yesterday. Yay! My hips and back were a bit tight, but I had an amazing session with my chiro after working out, and those areas are feeling nice and loose now -- he's my hero!

Mar 20, 2011

Back squat 5x3

For my warm-up I did a mini-WOD.

15-10-5
knees to elbows
pushups
pullups
AbMat situps

After a week off, I felt like my heart rate spiked up super-fast even with these simple movements, and resting between movements. I'm glad I decided to take advantage of the week-long extension and do my first Games WOD after I take a few days to get back in the groove.

WOD was back squat, 5x3, at 90% of 1RM.

With a 1RM of 155, that's 140. While looking up my 1RM I saw that I struggled on a WOD with 5 rounds and 3 back squats per round at 135, so I wasn't sure if I could use 140 or not...

Warm-up:
45x5
95x3

Working sets:
125x3
135x3
140x3
140x3
140x3

I was very happy to do 140x3 three times. My biggest challenge was the rack position -- I did low-bar squats today, and my arms felt weird and numb? But I didn't know if I could deal with that much weight in the high bar position -- I'll have to experiment to find out.

Yay heavy squats! :)

Mar 18, 2011

Sickies and links

Well, my last workout was on Tuesday morning. I was all pumped up for attempting to PR on "Helen" on Wednesday morning, since I had just gotten 12 kipping pullups in a row. But alas, the sickies set in Tuesday afternoon. :(

I might've tried to push through it, but my husband came home from work SUPER sick, vomiting and chills and lots of nasty stuff. Seeing him I feared for what would develop if I didn't rest!

So I've been resting all week, though surprisingly I feel a bit worse this morning? But still just congested, tired and headache-y. Nothing horrible, so maybe I've dodged the bullet.

I will be as ready to do the first sectionals WOD tomorrow as I can be! Yesterday I did a couple 55# snatches after judging some of my athletes, and tonight I'm going to practice DUs and try out a speed rope before judging a few more.

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Here's a backlog of links that I've been building. I haven't shared any in quite a while, so enjoy or ignore, whichever is your habit. :)

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Stuck in the SUCK
"We all have stuck in the suck moments. Not the moments where life is difficult externally, but the moments where internally we feel like it’s difficult regardless of what’s really happening. Moments where we lose presence and our highest possible selves cannot be expressed. Those moments are just as much a part of life as the moments where we transcend and achieve."
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Earning your body versus punishing your body
"Stop hating your body, it is not your bodies fault that it isn’t what you want it to be. Embrace what it is. Find out what it can DO. You may be the perfect built to be a weightlifter, you maybe you’d be a really good swimmer. You might be a natural dancer or martial artists. You might love to cycle. Go rockclimb, or do parkour. Run if you want to run. Do something that has a built in reward. Stop punishing your body because it doesn’t fit a mold you want it to."
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I posted about Kallista before. She still rocks.

Two-Time Games Vet At 17: Kallista Pappas 

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"Yoked"
"I got strong for my life. I discovered my life. I found my muscles and I found my voice. "
"I used to look at that girl and wish I was her. I used to look at that girl and think I could never do that, that it was ridiculous, that it was impossible. It was impossible for me. ... But not anymore. No more baggy t-shirts for me. No more being held in place. I went and got strong."
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Go Easy on Yourself - practicing self-compassion will improve your life
“Self-compassion is really conducive to motivation,” Dr. Neff said. “The reason you don’t let your children eat five big tubs of ice cream is because you care about them. With self-compassion, if you care about yourself, you do what’s healthy for you rather than what’s harmful to you.”
H/T Stephanie
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Why Running is Important, by Blair Morrison
"Last, psychologically, running teaches you how thin the walls are between optimal and sub-optimal performance. Lifting weights you often reach a point where you literally cannot do another rep, where your muscles have actually failed and there is nothing you can do about it. At this point, your mind gets a break. It’s off the hook... on vacation. This can’t happen in running. You can always take another step therefore your head never gets a rest (incredible ironman Youtube footage notwithstanding). To get better in this discipline you have to improve your toughness. Period. And that flows over into everything else you do."

Mar 15, 2011

By Land & By Sea

Neat WOD title, huh? Reminds me of "The Viking" from CrossFit Camden. Which is appropriate since Doug programmed this WOD, and he is, in fact, a descendent of the vikings. Seriously! I prefer being Irish. :-p

Did this one on my own after coaching the AM classes. I was so glad I had my iPod armband in my bag from the race this weekend, that helped me keep my intensity up.

"By Land & By Sea"
Row 1000m
Run 800m
Row 750m
Run 600m
Row 500m
Run 400m
Row 250m
Run 200m

Results: 26:47

Not awesome, and not horrible - I'm fine with that.

Rolled out and used the band a ton after the WOD. Also tried this MWOD for calves, since mine get sore so often. Holy crap did it hurt -- more on the left side than the right. That is my "tight" side according to the chiro, so I'm not surprised.

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After the WOD I set a new kipping pullup PR -- 12 in a row! Last week I did 10, and thought that was freaking awesome. And this week I've got 2 more! I'm still not as good with stringing them together during WODs, but I'm more hopefully about that getting better now that I'm able to get more in a row just in practice.

Woot!

I'm thinking an update to my "kipping pullup progress" video is in order. Maybe for that I can bust out 15. :-D


Kipping Pullup Progress - Nov 09 to Jan 10 from c wiss on Vimeo.

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Anybody else doing the OPEN sectionals? I am doing my best to help our affiliate get a team spot at regionals, so hopefully nothing comes up in the workouts that will cause me to DNF. Fingers crossed...

My athlete profile

Mar 14, 2011

Gate River Run 15K

No, that's not a typo in my blog title -- I ran a 15K on Saturday morning.

A 15K with a 2 mile hill. The top of the hill is also the mid-point of a very long, and tall, bridge.

Yes, I did lay down on the ground for a little while after I (finally) crossed the finish line.

Here's my stats:


5K 00:33:15
10K 01:06:43
Chip 01:42:54
Final 01:47:32
Pace 00:11:05

A far cry from my hoped-for pace of 10 minutes/mile -- but hey, what do you expect when you haven't been doing any high mileage training runs? I did do a 5.5 miler last weekend, and I'm glad I did because I think it really cut down on my post-race soreness.

To help combat soreness, I also spent about 30-45 minutes with my lacrosse balls, stretch bands and yoga mat in the parking lot after the race. I still felt pretty tight even after doing all that on race day, but today is 2 days after and I'm feeling pretty much fine. Yay for no DOMS!

Mar 8, 2011

WIdow Maker

Pulled this WOD from CrossFit King of Prussia.

"Widow Maker"
AMRAP in 15 minutes
5 burpees
10 box jumps (20'')
15 double unders

Results: 8 rounds

Was very happy with my result. I was absolutely miserable pretty much the entire time, and had the lung burn too. Hopefully this is helping get my cardio conditioning back where it needs to be!

And this was another day where I was very happy I spent the time learning double unders, so I'd have them when I needed them. I think I only got 2 or maybe 3 rounds with unbroken DUs, though -- I was just so damn winded and my legs were tired!

Mar 7, 2011

Allie

Pulled this WOD from CrossFit Camden. It's a great test of stamina and endurance.

"Allie"
400m run
20 pullups
400m run
15 wall ball shots (14#)
400m run
10 burpees
400m run
5 tire flips

Results: 11:50-ish

Felt the lung burn, so I know I pushed myself -- that was my main goal.

My previous time for this was around 14 minutes, but I think the 400m run at C2 is a bit short.

Mar 6, 2011

Run

Today I simply ran.

We moved into a new place, and I'm finally able to run loops of several miles without any annoying turn-arounds. There's nothing I hate more than an "out and back".

Distance: ~5.5 miles
Time: 53 minutes

Mar 3, 2011

Back at the track

Another Thursday morning at the track.

Didn't time this one.

4 rounds:
400m run
15 double unders
15 goblet squats (45# kb)
30 Abmat situps
10 pushups