Doubling up

I like to rest on Tuesdays so that I have a good 48 hours between my chiropractic adjustment and my next WOD. Seems to let things "settle" and help me keep that great "just adjusted" feeling longer.

So Wednesday I decided to double-up, and do Tuesday's WOD and Wednesday's WOD.

First I rowed a 2k for time before coaching a class at 9am.

Result: 8:38

That's only 2 seconds slower than my current PR, which I'll gladly take since I was rowing alone. I almost always go faster when there's someone next to me to "race".

After class I completed Tuesday's metcon, and then Wednesday's strength and 2 short metcons.

For time, partition reps as desired:
50 GHD situps
100 Supermans
25 handstand pushups

Results: 13:43 -- used green+blue band harness for HSPU

Has definitely been too long since I practiced HSPU. Was nice to get in the groove with just 25 total reps. My back felt tired, but not painful, with the Supermans and GHDs. Woohoo!

Bench Press: 3-3-3-3-3-3 @ 85% of 1RM, 2 min rest between sets

Results: 70#, no spotter so just worked on maintaining perfect form on each rep

Now that my low back and hips are pretty much good to go, the next problem area I'm working on with my chiro is mid-back (thoracic spine) and shoulder position. My shoulders are *very* rolled forward, which makes my head and neck too far forward instead of sitting on top of the rest of my spine. At this point my posture has been bad for so long that my pecs have shortened and tightened. I can hardly engage them in movements, or stretch them. This is probably a contributing factor in why I simply suck at pushups, and possibly a clue to my struggles transitioning through a muscle up. Working on it, and I think yoga and some extra chest work and stretches I'm doing will help.

And then two short metcons to finish off Wednesday's WOD.

For time: 100 sledge hammer strikes on tire
Results: 4:04 w/ 16# sledge

For time: 100 AbMat situps
Results: 3:37

I was in the gym all damn morning! Enjoyed having my techno girly music turned up super loud. :-D

Double AMRAP

Thursday's WOD I programmed as two short AMRAPs just because I love those types of WODs. :)

My intent was to practice some difficult upper body exercises in small doses, interspersed with some elements that would keep your heart going. And after trying it, I think the WOD definitely fulfilled it's intended purpose.

AMRAP in 6 min:
5 HSPU
10 jump squats

rest 5 minutes

AMRAP in 8 min:
5 ring dips
Broad jump, 25ft (length of mats)

 Results: I think I got 5 and 6 rounds? Forgot to write this one down

HSPU I did to two AbMats. A few times I got "stuck" in the bottom instead of popping back out. It's like doing front squats or cleans -- if you stop in the bottom, many times you ain't getting back out. :-D

This was a good opportunity to practice -- I can't say I've really been practicing handstands or HSPU much lately. Need to do 10 after each WOD, just like with my pullups.

The second AMRAP didn't go as well as I had hoped. I still fatigue SOOOO quickly on ring dips, and with only 8 minutes, I wasn't going to take the time to recover enough to do them unassisted. So after 3 in a row at the start, I threw on the skinny band. By the time I reached my attempted 7th round, I was just failing on the ring dips. I wasn't getting any more without a nice long rest -- or maybe not even after that.

Broad jumps aren't something we do a lot at our box -- maybe we've never done them before? So it was fun to introduce something completely new to everybody.

The skill for this day was muscle ups. So we taught everybody about using the false grip, and had each of them practice the transition movement from their feet. Fun! We did have one guy do his first 3 muscle ups, which was even more fun. :-D

Getting comfy upside down & interval training

Tuesday was a fun day at the gym. I showed up at 0830 to workout, but ended up coaching, which was cool, because it meant our head coach was busy taking a new person through the on ramp. Yay! :-D

The skill for Tuesday was handstand progressions and handstand pushups progressions.

The reason I broke them down into two areas was in light of my own athletic development in that area. My subtitle for the handstand progressions was "get comfy upside down".

I don't remember if I posted about this, but the first time I tried to kick up into a handstand, I basically just collapsed into a heap on the mat. After the same thing happened on my second attempt, I was gently banned from handstands, and introduced to the headstand and frog stand. I practiced these religiously for weeks, then kind of sporadically for a few more weeks. I think I got more interested in pullup practice at that point.

I didn't really know much else to do to prep myself for kicking up, until one day at CF KoP I was introduced to the concept of facing away from the wall, and walking my feet up the wall to get myself upside down. So then I had a new trick that I practiced to try to convince myself I could support my own weight upside down.

Then I learned about the HSPU harness, and started messing around with that, using it to practice handstand holds and also HSPU.

Finally one day I had the confidence in myself to try to kick up again -- and I could do it! I was so freaking excited by this, you have no idea. It wasn't as much excitement as getting pullups, but it was in my top 5 CrossFit moments.

The moral of the story is to meet your athletes where they're at, and give them a clearly delineated path to success. Learning the progressions for doing handstand pushups isn't necessarily going to translate into being able to kick up into a handstand. Putting your body in pike position off a bench or box, or even hanging your feet over a bar in the rack -- they just don't instill the same skills as other types of handstand practice. So while you're working your progressions for HSPU, don't forget about getting comfy upside down. :)

Hopefully what we taught yesterday will get more of our athletes on the road to confident handstands and eventually handstand pushups. :)

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The WOD for Tuesday wasn't really a CrossFit WOD, because there wasn't any scoring. It was just a straight-up interval and conditioning session, and it was hard!

4 rounds
1 min at each station, 1 minute rest between rounds
Ring rows
Jumping lunges
Ab mat situps -- butterfly
Handstand hold -- if 5 full ROM HSPU, scale up to HSPU

Results: Really fucking tired! hehe

Seriously, I forgot how brutalizing jumping lunges are. If you want your legs to feel like they're going to fall off, or for them to just straight up go numb while you're trying to move them, try jumping lunges. It's a truly explosive movement, very good for developing strength, power, agility and balance.

And ring rows aren't just that exercise for people who can't do pullups yet. Try some, they are really challenging! If you have trouble finishing out your pullups at the top, add some ring rows to develop the shoulder -- make sure to bring the rings into the armpit. This is also a great movement to work the  stabilizing muscles of the core, since you hold a plank position the whole time.

OMG the handstand holds were brutal. I had done some Oly lift practice prior to doing this WOD, and I hope that's the reason why I could barely stay in a handstand hold for 45 seconds. I had to drop at least once every time. Geez. Time to work holds back into my cool downs again.

Weighted pullups and two metcons

Gotta post quick, I want to get this up before I have to be at work so I don't slack off and not post it. :)

I went back to the gym this morning even though I'm still not over this virus. I took a whole week off already, so at this point I think working out is going to help me get better and get this shit cleared out of my system.

We did a multi-part workout.

First:

 Weighted pullups: 5-3-2-1-1-1

My sets went down like this:

• 5: deadhang
• 3: 5# dumbbell
• 2: 8# dumbbell
• 1: 10# dumbbell
• 1: 10# dumbbell
• 1: 10# dumbbell

I was very pleasantly surprised to be able to handle the 10# dumbbell! I did have to kip out of the bottom -- ideally I would like to keep my weighted work strictly deadhang. But for now, I think it works. My work on deadhangs has really paid off, makes me a little bit glad that pullup bar at my workplace is so stinking close to the wall. Scraping your knees on a brick wall is very good incentive to not kip. :-p

Next we did two metcons. I tried to keep moving during these, but honestly I didn't push myself too hard. I just wanted to work and sweat, not kill myself. I'll get back to that in another week or so when all the chest congestion is gone.

AMRAP in 8 min
5 hspu
15 knees to elbows
rest 2 min
AMRAP in 5 min
10 sumo deadlift high pulls (75lbs/55)
15 double unders

1st AMRAP -- 2 rounds + 6 K2E's
2nd AMRAP -- 3 rounds + 5 SDHP's

Double unders were hard because my heart was racing so much. And I totally sucked at K2E's today -- I have good and bad days with those. Honestly, I think I'm better at toes to bar than those, because I practically have to get my feet the height of the bar to touch my knees to my elbows. Time to experiment with form on those, perhaps. For HSPU I used 2 AbMats, and got the input that maybe it's time to drop to 1. I think I agree with that.

Gotta run time to shower for work. Happy Monday, get in the gym!

Cindy and Diane

I meant to blog yesterday, but just didn't get around to it.

On Thursday we did Cindy.

"Cindy"
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

Results: 7 rounds + 5 pullups

I think I did one set of 2 pullups. The rest were singles. And despite my practice session on Tuesday where I kipped over the bar, probably only 20% of the pullups I did for Cindy were "one pull". The rest were those really slow, tortured, double-pull trainwrecks.

Back in early March I did a partner version of Cindy, and did 5 or 6 rounds where I did all 5 pullups in a row. Depressing.

Though I guess I should remind myself that I had to first progress in order to regress... And maybe I'm learning something that will help me coach others through this kind of thing...

If anyone puts 7 rounds up on our PR board, I'm going to erase it. It's fucking embarrassing...

--
Today's WOD was Diane.

"Diane"
21-15-9
Deadlift (225/145)
Handstand pushups

Results: 20:22





Did HSPU with 2 AbMats. That feels a little shallow, even though I go to failure so quickly. It will be time to drop down to 1 mat soon.

I am really proud of how far I've come with handstands. I can kick up into one with no problem now, and it definitely used to be a skill where I was a total disaster. I'd like to learn how to kip, because I think I would need that in order to get my head to the ground, or to do them on plates or paralettes like in competition.

I considered doing 155 deadlifts, but could barely do 145, so I left it alone. My back tightened up a tiny bit on these -- my form wasn't as good as it could have been. And my deadlift return is still a total trainwreck. At least the setup seems to be solid now, and the pull.

--
Video from CrossFit Portland. I feel like I've put this one in a post before, but it's all good, cause it's worth watching again.


A tribute to women of CrossFit Portland from CrossFit Portland on Vimeo.

Trying to get back in the saddle

Ah, an unplanned hiatus... Those are never good.

I've gained back about 5-7 pounds, and based on pullups yesterday, I am back to sucking at those (i.e. lots of singles with 3/4 kip and 1/4 dead hang to finish).

Gah.

This past week was just about getting my ass into the gym; not about performance or skills or anything. Just showing up. Back to the basics, because I am struggling with my headspace right now.

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Saturday, April 24

Went out of town with husband last weekend, and we hit up a little WOD I wrote up in the hotel gym. They had a cable crossover machine with pullup "handles" attached and a tile removed from the ceiling for head clearance -- that was a nice surprise. After a week off, and two weeks of eating total crap, I felt pukey the entire time. But it was very good for me to get my body moving, I'm glad that my husband has such wonderful abilities to motivate me to want to exercise. :)

5 rounds for time:
5 pullups
10 squats
10 situps
10 pushups
10 lunges (each leg)
handstand hold (20 seconds)

Results: ~22 minutes

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Tuesday, April 27

In a word, horrible. I had a bad attitude, and I was sluggish and sucked at ring dips. I hate having to use the freaking band, even the tiny one. Gotta get these ring dips conquered so I can move the fuck on.

21-15-9 for time of:
DB thrusters (35lbs/25)
ring dips
double unders

Results: ~20 minutes

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Wednesday, April 28

I used two abmats for my handstand pushups. After the total debacle the day before, where I finished about 5-10 minutes after everyone else, I decided to scale the HSPU to 10ish per round during the first round. When I got to 11, I just kept failing attempts. So I freaking moved on, and got the freaking WOD done. Not my usual style, but this week was seriously ONLY about showing up and moving.

3 rounds for time of:
15 med ball cleans (20lbs/14)
15 handstand push ups
400m run

Results: ~20 minutes

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Thursday, April 29

I coached this one in the morning, and then came back to WOD with the group that night. I'm glad I did, because the press turned out better than I expected. Plus I shared a bar with 2 dudes, and went heavier than one of them -- it's the little things that make my inner feminist happy. :-D

Press
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
75-85-90-95-95m-85-75

My first 95 went up s-l-o-w-l-y and it was ugly, but I got that bitch locked the fuck out. Booyeah! PR by 10 pounds, hollah! My second attempt at 95 unfortunately did not go anywhere -- guess I only had one in me. But I'm happy because my old PR of 85, and also 90, both went up nicely, very solid. I am convinced doing unscaled pullups is what is making all the difference in my overhead strength. There's some kind of synergy there, where gains in each area helps move the other along.

Then it was metcon time.

Complete the following for time:
1000m row
40 kettlebell swings (24k/16)
25 pull ups
20 kettlebell swings
15 pull ups

Results: 19:45 total time; 4:14 row

That is a sad 1k row time, geesh. But oh well, at least I have a bench mark now -- I didn't have a 1k time written down anywhere.

My pullups in this WOD were so damn ugly, like I said at the beginning of this post. I tore the shit out of my hands with going on and off the bar so damn much doing singles. ARGH! I wanted to punch a hole in the wall I was so angry and frustrated. This was supposed to be a metcon, not some kind of grind-it-out-WOD. Good lord... I just have to keep telling myself that this is what happens when you eat shit, gain weight and take a week off and do nothing.

Not to mention that what I ate on Thursday before the WOD was ridiculous and totally uncalled for... But bad food choices are a topic for another post another day...

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Friday, April 30

Coached at 0630, then a fellow trainer who was hanging around offered for me to do the WOD at 0830 while he coached. No problemo, I needed a kick in the ass to get my workout in today.

5 rounds for time of:
7 front squats* (155lbs/95)
150m run
*wt will come from the ground

Results:  10:04

I could've done this one faster, but overall I was OK with how I did. Did all sets of squats unbroken, though I did take time to rest between the runs and squats to make sure I had enough juice to pump out all the sqauts.

--
And that brings us to today, how nice. Time to go through and put a shit ton of labels on this post and publish it...

Friday & Saturday

Short and sweet WOD on Friday morning, between coaching 0630 and 0830.

6 rounds for time:
5 handstand pushups
10 burpees
15 abmat situps
150m sprint

Results:  17:39

Biggest news here -- I finally kicked up into a handstand against the wall! I started out with my head on top of 3 abmats, and did a frogstand to a headstand, and then pressed up. A little bit of messing around with that, and I decided it was time to kick up. I took some video with the iPod, but that corner of the gym has a lightbulb out, so it turned out really dark. In any case, I did the WOD by kicking up into a handstand and lowering to 2 abmats. Not the most stellar attempt at HSPU, but still an improvement for me, so I'm happy.

Next I need to find out what's better -- continuing to practice full ROM with the harness, or doing negatives while in the wall-supported handstand.

--
Saturday I coached the 0930 WOD -- we did the same group WOD I went through on the 2nd day of my certification seminar.

Here's the writeup we put on the website:

In 12 minutes your team of 5 will perform as many reps as possible of SDHPs, pushups and box jumps. The time it takes to complete one 50m waiter's walk will determine the rotation intervals for your team. There's a rest station, so go hard!

5 stations

1. Rest
2. Kettlebell Sumo deadlift high pull (24kg/16)
3. Pushups
4. Box jumps (20'')
5. 50m waiter's walk (45#/25 plate)

Final team score is total # of reps completed.

Basically the team members rotate from station to station. During the hand off, the person who was just performing the movement tells the person who is arriving to "relieve" them what the current rep count is for that movement. At the end you add them up for the total. The faster you do the waiter's walk (it was a sandbag carry at my cert) the faster your team members rotate through.

We only had 3 ladies come in this morning, so I did the WOD with them. We took out the SDHPs since we still didn't have 5. I had fun, and I think they did too. :)

Afterwards I took them through the core stabilization work that I did with Jenn at CrossFit Pittsburgh. With the 3 following exercises: round 1, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off; round 2, 45 seconds on, 45 seconds off; round 3, 30 secs on and off.

• handstand holds
• plank
• wall sit

I was glad the group was small at this point, because none of my 3 chicas had ever done handstand holds before. I showed them how to "walk up the wall" while facing away from it to get into handstand position. They all did great! I just watched the handstands, but joined them on the other 2 movements.

All in all, a fun morning. :)

My sister just left yesterday, and my parents are arriving this afternoon for a visit, so I'm off to clean and put lots of bedding and towels through the wash. :)

18 minutes

Interesting WOD today, I liked the format. Would be interesting to change up the intervals and the movements.

For total reps:
10 min of handstand push ups
5 min of squats
2 min of pull ups
1 min of push ups

Results: 200 (HSPU - 43, squats - 128, pullups - 10, pushups - 19)

Did the HSPU in the harness on the pullup bar. Wasn't really aiming for a certain number, so I guess 43 was good. Sometimes I feel strong with them, and sometimes I feel shaky. I need to nail down exactly how I should be positioning my hands, head, core/back and legs.

Squats were decent.

I was very pissed about my number of pullups... 10??? WTF? I'm glad I can do them without a band now, but I still have a long way to go...

After feeling so frustrated over pullups, I think that affected my number of pushups. I didn't even do 10 unbroken, which is lame.

Time to shower and hit the road. I'm off to visit my sis this weekend. Hopefully gonna hit up Ultimate CF or maybe try out CrossFit Charlotte, depending on how crappy the weather gets Saturday and Sunday.

Heavy on the arms for my first day back, 1/2 marathon race recap

Need to get caught up since I haven't posted since last Wednesday.

Thursday - rest day (really should've done something, but I was scared about the race!)
Friday - rest day
Saturday - Critz Tybee Run 1/2 Marathon in the morning, then treated myself to some Chik-Fil-A, went to see Sherlock Holmes and had a lovely fancy dinner with my husband. :)

I'm happy to report that I not only survived the 1/2 marathon, but also met my goal of finishing under 2 hours and 30 minutes.

My official chip time was 2:20:00. So fun that it was a totally even number. :)

That works out to an average per mile pace of 10:41, but I definitely wasn't going that slow the entire race. I wasn't wearing a watch, but my guess is that I did most of the miles between 9 and 10 minutes per mile, and then the last 3 were suuuuuper slow, like 11 or even 12 minutes per mile.

A friend told me beforehand that the first 10 miles would be no problem, but the last three would be brutal. She was totally right. I think during mile 11 I realized I was slowing down, and I tried to kick it up a notch, and just didn't have anything left in my legs. By the start of mile 13 I was barely hanging on. It was only by sheer force of will that I kept running the last mile. When I finally stopped, my legs were numb and I almost fell over. Holy shit. What an experience.

The pain in my legs after the day of the race was pretty bad. My shins were aching just below and outside my knees - I guess that maybe that was tendonitis? My hamstrings were freaking *shot*, and calves were sore too. Walking was not pretty, and I had to hang onto my husband to go up and down the stairs.

Oddly, my quads didn't hurt one bit. WTF??

The strangest thing about the post-race experience was how my arms weren't tired at all. It was just freaky odd. There have only been a few times that I've experienced leg muscle fatigue approaching what I felt after finishing the 1/2 -- that was after each of my 2 sprint triathlons and after a few select CrossFit WODs (Eva comes to mind). Those two situations led to more of a full-body fatigue, instead of such a completely leg-isolated fatigue. It felt a lot more "normal" to be tired all over, instead of just having busted legs...

Sunday - Turned tourist and climbed the Tybee Island lighthouse and walked around Fort Pulaski. Treated myself to one last stromboli from our fav pizza joint before the Paleo Challenge starts.

I was very happy that only the hamstring pain was still there on Sunday, and not the knee/shin ache -- I don't like even a hint of knee issues. A bit of soreness developed in my inner thigh -- I was expecting that, since shorter runs usually leave me sore there. I was worried about making it up the steps of the lighthouse (there are 178, I think), but I made it just fine. :)

Monday

Today is the second day after the race, and I'm still hurting pretty bad in my hamstrings. Hence why I chose to makeup an arm-centric WOD my home box did last Friday.

21-15-9 for time of:
Handstand push ups
Ring dips
Knees to elbows GHD situps
Push ups
Pull ups

Results:  48:10

I'm still healing up a palm rip from last Tuesday, and I was feeling wussy to boot, so I substituted GHD situps for the K2Es. Used the skinny band on my ring dips. Used the harness for HSPUs - green + blue with a loop.

Holy cow was this WOD a grind fest...OMG... I could barely get my pullups. They took forever. The best I did was 3 in a row to start off the first set. After that I only strung two together a couple times, most were singles. Even the pushups were a struggle.

Some of the time was taken up by me putting gauze and tape over my palm just before doing my pushups on the first round, but my time still really sucked.

HSPUs felt very strong, though. My shoulders are getting so much stronger in different ranges of motion, I love it. I need to take the loop out of the blue band and/or downgrade to white soon. Need to keep working on static handstands as well.

I'm glad I did something today, but boy was it a mental struggle. I've been on the couch the rest of the day. Oh the joys of quasi-unemployment. :)

OHS, BJ and HSPU

Box jumps isn't usually abbreviated, but I couldn't resist the 3 acronym title. :)

--
Strength: Overhead squat 12-10-8-6-4-2 working sets

Load: 45-55-60-65-70-75

Also did a 1RM of 80# after that. Looks like another 1Q10 goal needs to be evaluated. I set my OHS goal at 85#, and I'm only 5 pounds from reaching that. I'm thinking 100# for the reset.

--
Metcon: For time, 21-15-9

• Box jumps
• Handstand pushups

Results: 9:4?? -- 24in box, green-blue HSPU harness

I liked using the harness, but my finish time was twice as long as everyone else. So typical me. heh

On the set of 21 HSPU, I lost is after 18, and did the last 3 with my feet over a bar on a squat rack. I'm anxious to work on these, though, because at the start of the first two sets I did around 10 in a row, which rocked.

Bad aspect of the harness -- I scraped both of my legs up on the giant box I was using to help myself get into the harness. Well, I scraped when falling out of the harness as my arms were buckling. heh. Definitely need to ask my coaches if we can get some pullup bars against the wall, walking feet up the wall is def the best way to get in and out of the HSPS harness.

HSPU breakthrough

Strength: 3-3-3 max rep sets of handstand pushups (HSPU)

This afternoon I had a HSPU breakthrough -- I finally woman'ed-up and got into the crazy harness thing with two bands. Yikes, that felt *strange*. But at least I finally had a positive experience with being upside down. :)

Note to self: a good reason to setup pullup stations next to a wall is so that you can walk your feet up the wall to get upside down when you're using the bands to assist with HSPUs.

**can't find a picture of the assisted HSPU setup; I'll have to take one myself to illustrate next time I write about these**

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WOD:

30-20-10
Overhead Squat (115/80)
Burpees

Results: 14:30 -- 53.5# OHS (was using a 33.5# ladies bar)

Also of note, I did this from the ground. Which means instead of placing the bar back on the rack, I dropped it to the ground when I had to rest, and then did power snatches (and a couple hang power snatches) to get it back into overhead position.

Bad side effect of that -- I started out with too wide of a grip, and my left wrist was killing me during the first round. That really slowed me down - I was resting more for the wrist than my shoulders or legs. Bryan straightened me out, advising a narrower grip than my usual snatch grip.

Another coaching input from today to remember -- keep the range of motion in the OHS a bit shallower. I am already well-aware that I am a super-deep squatter, I just never thought about how I might be going too deep for the purposes of something like a metcon. Food for thought, I will definitely incorporate that advice in the future.

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Kipping video from after the WOD and some wicked planks (thanks Mie!). I actually did two in a row before this video was taken -- had a little bit of trouble getting the recording to start. Hence why I crap out on the 2nd and 3rd attempts that were caught on camera. :) No biggie, all I really wanted was a historical record of my kipping form now, so I can compare it to how I look in 3 months.

Update: Trying to embed the Vimeo video. Also, for some reason it was uploaded upside down? I dunno -- maybe something I need to figure out with my iPod.

Kipping pullups - Jan 6 2010 from c wiss on Vimeo.

Working on front squats

Strength

Front squat: 8-8-6-6-4-4

Results: 85-95-100-100-100-100

Metcon: 3 rounds for time.

• 15 box jumps (20'')
• 7 handstand push ups
• 5 burpees

Results: 6:29 (feet over barbell for HSPU)

--

Considering how much crappy food I've eaten in the last 2-3 days, I'm not surprised I dumped 105 on my first set of 6, and then just stuck with 100 for the rest of the strength stuff. It just wasn't my day. I also forgot to take off my shoes, and my knee was feeling a little "tweaky" after the first 3 sets. Better once I went barefoot.

Metcon was meh. Was nice to do only 5 burpees, after that other brutal workout with back squats and burpees.

Did some frogstand/headstand work, and some kipping pullups after my GHD situps and stretching. Kips are coming along. When I'm not feeling that "middle of a WOD" intensity, that seems to be when I can't quite kip my chin all the way up to the bar. I ended up doing a few half-kip and half-deadhang, and some dead hangs with the white band.

Jackie - 2nd round

WOD:

For time:

• 1000m row
• 50 thrusters (45/25)
• 30 pullups

Results: 10:19

Previous results: 14:14 according to the spreadsheet in the gym, 14:21 according to what I wrote down

It looks like I brought my time down quite a bit, but a big part of my first time was switching from one band to the other in the middle of everything. I thought I could use the white band, but couldn't get any pullups with it, so I had to switch to the blue. I had the blue set up and ready to go this time.

That said, I know my row was faster. Also, I was able to do big sets of thrusters: 25-10-15. I was pretty freaking proud of those, let me tell you.

Gross moment of the day: I spit into the front of my sports bra 3 times. I just had to spit! And I had nowhere else to do it! This is why I have to go to a CrossFit gym where no one cares instead of a "nice" gym. :-D

--

I worked on my headstands after the WOD. Right now I start off in "tripod" position, with hands and forehead on the mat, and knees balanced on my elbows. Then I work on slowly raising my legs and keeping balanced. I got up into a full headstand today, with my legs straight, which rocked. I'm doing a ton better with these. I did a few self-spotted handstand pushups after that. And finally I did 3 kipping pullup attempts, and on my last one I just about got chin up to the bar in one fluid motion! Woot! I need to start attempting dead hangs as well -- I'm good on the 2nd half of the motion, but not sure I can get started from a hang with just my arms and shoulders.

Back squats and metcon

WOD:

Back squat -- 5-5-5-5-5 working sets

Metcon: 4 rounds for time

• 6 handstand push ups
• 8 power snatch (95lbs/65)
• 12 star jumps

Results:

Back squat: 55-65-70-75-80

Metcon: 13:09 (55lb power snatch)

--

I took it easy on the back squats for two reasons. One, I haven't actually done that movement in a workout before. And two, it was sets of five. The method of holding the bar felt very awkward to me. I will be doing some research into proper form for that movement.

Side note: I would really like to take an Olympic lifting certification.

Metcon was kind of a grinder. The star jumps killed me, my quads were just giving out as I squatted down to do the next jump. Ack. I rested a little bit too much on the power snatches as well, even though I scaled the weight down a bit so I could get the heart racing with a faster pace.

But I hate to rush myself when I'm doing Oly movements. I don't like to just throw the bar around in a rush to get done, I feel like I'm gonna hurt my back and develop bad habits.

I applied a lot of what I learned my second night at Crossfit KoP, and I was once again glad I had the chance to train with Aimee there. A "tune-up" session, or sessions, with her is definitely on my Christmas list. Side note: It's fun to feel the bar fly up when you get all the little things right on an attempt. :)

Popped out a few pullups post-workout, but not a whole bunch because I was running out of time. Next week I need to get more squeezed in to prep for the Jackie re-test coming up in Nov.

Some oly lifts, yay!

"Oly" is slang for "Olympic" -- I picked that up somewhere in my perusal of Crossfit blogs the past week. I like. :)

WOD:

AMRAP 8min of:

• 5 Clean and Jerk (135 lbs/95)
• 7 ring dips

3 min rest

AMRAP 4min of:

• 5 hang power cleans (135lbs/95)
• 7 handstand push ups

Results: 3 rounds (85lbs; bench and box for dips) and 1 3/4 (85lbs, ankles over bar for HSPU)

**AMRAP stands for "as many rounds as possible".

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Wow, this workout was deceptive... I thought I would be throwing the bar up a lot faster than I did, after my first 5 C&Js I was sooooo out of breath, damn! And I was just barely able to get up the HPCs, after the jump my feet were sooo wide. It almost would've been easier to catch in a squat.

But it felt good, I'd like to do this one again sometime. And I'm happy that I learned another way to modify HSPUs. Put a bar on a squat rack, hook your feet over and hang upside down, and try to get as vertical as you can. I was really just bending my elbows a bit and then locking back out, but it's a start. I think at this point I'm going to be as excited about getting a true HSPU as I am about getting a true dead hang pullup.

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This is my last workout in the gym for a while, I'm leaving today on my trip up north. I'm going to do my best to keep working out while I'm on the road, but I do find it challenging to "program" for myself. I think if I was ever a coach or affiliate owner, I would offer "vacation programming" packages to my clients as part of their regular monthly fee. This month I paid for the whole thing, not knowing how long I'd be gone. It would just be nice to still feel like I was getting my $$$$'s worth. And given a set of equipment available, it seems to me they could come up with 5-7 workouts for me to do easily. They are the experts!

I'm taking along my 12lb dumbbells for DB hang squat cleans, thrusters, push presses, front squats, DB swings. I can borrow a broom here or there to keep working on my form for OHS and snatch. And then I've got my in-the-doorway pullup bar that I can use for jumping pullups and maybe some work on negatives. My big focus will be pushups, I'm so damn weak on those. I had worked on them a while back, and got better, but now I'm sucking again. Gotta put some time and effort into that, 2 weeks is enough time to make some decent improvements.

Nancy

Today we did "Nancy".

5 rounds for time of:

• 400 meter run
• Overhead squat (OHS), 15 reps (95/65)

Results: 19:56, 30lbs on OHS

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In hindsight, I maybe could have gone 5lbs heavier on the OHS, up to 35. But I was wary because last time I did OHS in a workout, I tried to use the 45lb bar, and I went over backwards onto my ass at least 3 times, maybe 4. Not pretty. So I worked up from the 15lb bar, and stopped when I felt like it was a good weight for 15 reps.

After the workout was finished I wanted to see how heavy I could go, so I worked up by 5lb increments doing 3-5 squats at each weight. When I hit 50 I felt like that was my upper limit, so next workout I plan to use the 45lb bar and master that weight before moving up any more. Good times.

My runs were kinda sucky. Blah.

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Me and two new chicks at the gym worked on hand stands after the cool down. I made a total ass out of myself slamming into the wall and falling onto my head twice. After that I stuck with working on a head stand, and lifting my legs up from there. I'm going to stick with that til I've mastered it, and then try again on the hand stand position. I'm starting from the very bottom on this skill, so it's good that I'm getting started. :) Hopefully all the strength that I'm gaining in my upper body and abs will help speed up my progress.

Still no "naked" pullups, I'm gonna give it another go tomorrow AM. I know I have at least one band-less kipping pullup in me, if I can do 96 with bands!