Ups and downs

The last couple of workouts have been really fun to have people to workout with but life goes on. Most of the gym revamp is completed, which is awesome because I'm exhausted of moving shit around. feeling a bit worn out today and didn't really warm up. Did the mobility wod and spent 10 minutes (7min in the morning and 3 in the evening) in the bottom of a squat. Right knee feels a little irritated. I guess I really need to research why, so I can attempt to fix myself before something breaks.

For time:
21 Pull-ups
21 Handstand Push-ups
18 Pull-ups
18 Handstand Push-ups
15 Pull-ups
15 Handstand Push-ups
12 Pull-ups
12 Handstand Push-ups
9 Pull-ups
9 Handstand Push-ups
6 Pull-ups
6 Handstand Push-ups
3 Pull-ups
3 Handstand Push-ups
Handstand push-ups are "nose to floor" and pull-ups are "strict" or non-kipping.

23:35
Splits 3:09, 6:13, 4:59, 3:37, 2:41, 2:01, :53

I guess I came out the gate a little hard. Ha ha! First 21 pull ups (11,10) were downstairs then went upstairs to stay out of the way. The 18 set I still tried to tie them together but ended up hitting singles toward the back end. First time doing "nose to floor" HSPUs. Definitely interesting. It reminded me of the lunges on the asphalt. You have to slow down the speed a ton or else it's going to hurt. Only missed 1 HSPU in the 6 set I had a crooked leaner that most would have counted but wanted to hold a higher standard.

Good thing I didn't use a mat as even on the rubber matting my hands started to slide out. Towards the end found it a little easier to do forehead and nose as it was somewhat of a warning before the nose touched.

I was a little less than 4:00 minutes slower than Graham Holmberg so I consider this a big fat WIN!

Test 3

Went to JJ and Donna's Housewarming party last night. It was fun and even better the dog didn't destroy the house. Definitely indulged on some good food and alcohol. Didn't feel too bad this morning.


"Test 3"

Tabata Squat
Max reps of Muscle-ups in 4 minutes

The Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 intervals. Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the eight intervals. Begin time for muscle-ups immediately after the last 10 second rest interval. Test score equals Tabata score multiplied by number of muscle-ups completed.

16x12= 192

I know 16 on a Tabata Squat sounds like total weak sauce but the accumulation of the last couple of days is catching up. Lower back didn't feel too bad in this wod, but definitely still noticeably sore. 20 was what I was shooting for, barely got it for the first three, then round 4 was 18, then 16. Easily held out for the next rounds. Missed my first muscle up (great start right) got in a couple of ugly ones towards the end.

For some reason I thought tomorrow was a rest day... not so much. I can't believe it's only been 2 on.

"Stupid jumping wod"

That's what Bryce named it.

I wasn't planning to do this one until later but Randy offered himself up to join me so I did it early. He also rallied up Alison, Jonny, and Peter to join the fun too. I was the slowest of the group but it was really fun to be working out with other people again. Less than two more weeks!

Tie a five-pound plate to hang an honest 18" above your tiptoe reach and complete 5 rounds for time of:
50 Jump and touch
40 Squats
30 Sit-ups
20-Push-ups
10 Pull-ups

37:53
Splits: 5:20, 7:41, 9:13, 8:51, 6:46

Once again a lot softer in the middle than I need to be. Then again Randy was there to taunt me and let me know how far ahead he was. It was much appreciated. Knew this one wasn't going to be good when I was feeling residual from the lunges two days ago. Wah, wah, wah, blah, blah, blah. Legs felt bad about 25 in the first set of jumps, but for some reason back felt the worst when the wod was over. Tightened up much more a couple hours later and also started to feel my Achilles. Both the back and the Achilles was a little irritated after the lunges but now they are bad. To top it off I dropped a 4x8 piece of particle board on my foot at Home Depot. Doesn't look broken, just bruised.

Get your lunge on

I woke up this morning to see the 6am and get my lunges in as early as possible so I could do them in pants and not die (also, to get as much rest as possible).

400 meter Walking lunge

395 lunges 20:59
100 lunge splits: 4:36, 5:35, 5:42 5:04(95)
Halfway point 10:53 209 lunges

This is the third time that I have done this wod. It was the first time I have timed it. The street asphalt was brutal. It felt great to be on the side walk even if it was only for 60 lunges. Did 40 out the gate then broke them into 10s it was just easier to count this way. Glad to finally reach my rest day.

Grip fatigue

Warm up:
2x15 unbroken butterflies.
These didn't feel as good as the ones yesterday but still unbroken and little slower then yesterday.

30-25-20-15 and 10 rep rounds of:
Burpees
Box jumps, 24 inch box
Toes to bar

25:46

Toe to bars sucked up most of the time. The grip was really fatigued from yesterday's rope climbs and the toe to bar kip is the same pain that I still get in the regular kip. Did this upstairs and burpees on carpet is much worse then on the rubber matting. Breathing on the bottom isn't nice and cool like on the matting. It actually feels obnoxiously hot and itchy. I had my headphones turned up loud but still heard a couple people telling me to suck it up. Karen specifically calling me out on some knee holding.

400m of lunges tomorrow! Aw yeah, bring the pain.

A little help from some friends

This was the first workout in a while that I've had someone around to give me a kick in the ass to keep moving. Thanks Skafidas!

Warm up:
2x15 unbroken pull ups.

Three rounds for time of:
15 ft Rope Climb, 5 ascents
21 Ring dips
50 Squats

20:27

First round was like 4:10, then implosion. Just couldn't muster up the trust in myself to get back on the rope. Last set of squats almost unbroken paused at 50. I have no idea why air squats are so mentally challenging for me. Goal was sub 20, came so close.

Dragging

Yesterday's WOD didn't feel so bad but I'm feeling it today. Sore hammies, sore adductors, sore hip flexors, and fatigued. It has nothing to do with going out last night bowling and drinking. Ha ha. Lolly gagged once again fixing up the box for most of the day then eventually dragged myself to do this wod.

"Nate"

Complete as many rounds in twenty minutes as you can of:
2 Muscle-ups
4 Handstand Push-ups
8 2-Pood Kettlebell swings

9+2MUs

I was definitely expecting a little more but the deceleration of the kb was really bothering my elbow. Almost two hours post wod still feels a little jacked up. All singles for the MUs. Failed 1 MU, broke 1 set of HSPUs because of balance.

SPRINT...and STOP!

I started off a little too slow of a pace but by round three I got it. The worst part about going all out was stopping. My feet really hurt from pounding the pavement. Round 11 I had an additional 20 seconds rest because I ran into someone I haven't seen in years and they pulled over to say hello. I felt like a jerk but I cut it short to finish the WOD out. If I run this wod again I'm going to mark my stopping point and still over run it for a bit more rather than trying to stop an all out sprint. Used my gym boss timer which was super helpful. I still could have my headphones on with the music turned low and still hear the beep. Did this by home at 4pm. It was awfully hot out.

15 rounds for distance of:
Sprint 20 seconds
Rest 40 seconds
Start each round at previous round's end point.

1 Mile even according to mapmyrun.com

Ouch!

Warm up:
I was working with Mike and Mark on BFKs so got plenty of pulls and shoulder rotations in.
1000m row 3:43.6

I knew this was going to be bad when I was warming up. I loaded up the bar to the 75#s and was going to go through back squats, ohs, snatch balance and snatch. I did 3 back squats, easy no problem. The first ohs felt like shit. The second and third didn't feel any better so I didn't even bother going through the rest. Rethinking many of my warm up methods after reading an article Kurt is working on. I set my ego aside and grabbed a 20# bar and went through the warm up 3xbs, ohs, sn bal, snatch. It felt better but still far from good.

F* it! I guess it will be another skill wod.

Three rounds for time of:
30 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball (10.5 foot target)
75 pound Squat snatches, 30 reps (movement initiates with barbell below the knees)

The wallballs weren't so bad sets 2 and 3 had to jump the last 3-5. Had to repeat 3 for missed height/early hit on the wall.

The snatches felt awful. My shoulder didn't like the deceleration of the bar so I didn't chain any of them. Around 15 I was in so much pain I considered scaling it. I did 2 power snatches and then was like "what the f* are you doing!" Didn't count them and kept full snatching. I chased that bar all over the gym. They actually started to feel much better in the second round but it should have been no where near this painful for me to do this.

Anyways once again toughed through and I know a good amount of snatches had to be ugly (forward in the toes) because my right knee is not happy right now.

28:19
Splits 8:19, 10:10, 9:48
Yes, I know. Once again soft in the middle.

11am 6-8 laps at LVAC. Still two kick boards. I lost count somewhere as today I was on a time schedule and didn't lolly-gag. Kick didn't feel as good, it may have been because I smoked out my legs an hour earlier. The wind didn't really help today either.

Got my... kick on

I'd like to say "Got my swim on"... but that would flat out be lying.

Actually made it to the pool today. Didn't feel like a complete tool. Used two kick pads at about chin level and did 10 laps. I'm hoping the pool thins out next week as the teachers and such have to get back to school schedules. Also, finally finished Dan John's "Never Let Go". Good read. Borders the line of training educational and enjoyment reading.

Fatigued

Even though I feel pretty decent body wise, I guess I'm a little more tired then I thought. I slept...and slept...and slept this morning. I just didn't want to get up.

Day didn't go as planned and I missed my swim time but I did get plenty done at the box. So much I almost missed my workout also. Squeezed it in at 7:20 before Nemesis came in...no warm up. I know, I know.

Weighted pull-ups 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

45,55,70,80,90,100f,100f

90 felt light but 100 chin just couldn't break the plane of the bar (both times).

Abdo residual

Just starting to feel the soreness from "Coe" kicking in. Feeling really lazy today. I passed on the warm up and just went straight into the wod.

"Annie"
50-40-30-20 and 10 rep rounds of:
Double-unders
Sit-ups

8:12
I originally thought I made it through the DUs unbroken...but just remembered I actually had a 25/5 split on the 30s. The 50 on the sit-ups was unbroken... das about it. Needed some major arm swing on the 30 set. I really hope that my abs will heal up soon. Damn abdo!

Another Hero

Warm up:
3x sets of 10 pull ups
1000m Row 3:51.7
No way am I getting back in to GH situps or KTEs just yet.

"Coe"
Ten rounds for time of:
95 pound Thruster, 10 reps
10 Ring push-ups

I was looking forward to see how my shoulder would hold up with this one. I originally guestimated 12-15 minutes. Completely off on that one. I seen Mikko Salo time of 9:55 I figured another 5 minutes and I'd be in there. Just checked Mainsite and OPT had a time of 13:47 So I don't really feel that bad about my time.

Coming into it I knew my chest was still fried from ADAMBROWN but still wanted to go hard out of the gate. Did first round unbroken, second was unbroken thrusters and 5/5 push ups, third started to really feel the shoulders starting to fatigue, the wrist pressure start to build and the cardio to get cranked up. Thrusters were mainly 4/3/3. Push ups maintained doubles until the last round. All push up range of motion was rings to arm pits.

22:12
Splits first half at 8:55 second half at 13:16

Abs are still sore from last weeks GH-situps not looking forward to "Annie" tomorrow.

ADAMBROWN

Abs still a wreck and after yesterday my hamstrings were a little sore from "SQT".
Didn't really do much to warm up for this one besides a couple of reps as I was loading up the bars. This one used a lot of space and a whole bunch of weights. I originally thought about scaling this one to make it a good workout but "Hero" workouts are not made to be scaled, they are made to test your mental fortitude and to pay respect.

"ADAMBROWN"
Two rounds for time of:
295 pound Deadlift, 24 reps
24 Box jumps, 24 inch box
24 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
195 pound Bench press, 24 reps
24 Box jumps, 24 inch box
24 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball
145 pound Clean, 24 reps

52:12
First round finished at 24:55

Should have pushed it much harder on the box jumps and wall ball before the bench. I had no idea I would be getting that much rest. Second set started in triples and eventually ended in 15 singles to not waste energy. The good thing is no pain in the shoulder. Trap on the right side (bad shoulder) is fried and not sure if it's from snatches or from the bench press. We'll see how it holds up to "Coe".

Mandie and I went up to her parents house so I could put in some work at the pool. Mandie helped me out and I realized that I need to bend my knees when I kick my legs. I know for most people this is obvious...yes, I'm that bad at swimming. After about an hour in the pool, I'm starting to feel a little more relaxed and comfortable.

Humbled

My swimming adventure today was a very humbling one. I've been in pools and in water, but today made me realize that I haven't really attempted to "work" on swimming since my misadventures in the Marine Corps.

I finally made it to LVAC to use the pool. Alison and Stephanie gave me some homework for the pool. 8 laps using a kick board. Sounds good and easy right?

I get up to the roof deck and there's about 10 people upstairs and of course no one in the pool. I get this feeling of nervousness as I'm about to jump in the pool. I push the kick board out in front of me as instructed and start kicking. In my mind I'm thinking "holy shit this is exhausting" I look up to see how far I am and viola I'm a whole 10' away. No joke. WTF!!! I give it another whirl to exhaustion again and boom another 10'. EMBARRASSING! not that I give two shits about the people watching me but my performance as an individual is humiliating. I consider myself a very kinesthetically aware person and an athlete in general, strong, I move pretty well, flexibility is limited... I know my limitations and swimming could not be this hard! I frantically start shooting out texts and emails to my swim coaches letting them know of my abysmal performance. A very disheartening experience.

I'm planning to work on it 2-3x a week!!! Bryce and Chris said they don't believe me because I always have theses ideas that I don't follow through with. This isn't just a cool thing to do ie like a back tuck. This is a fitness skill that I am horrible at and that is enough for me to want to work on it.

Constantly varied

Warm up: 2x rounds
10 pull ups (abs still brutally sore)
10 snatches 16kg per arm

Took a while to get started but knew it was a shorter one and wanted to get it in before it got super hot. This setting was completely opposite of yesterdays. Did this one outside in the sun, in front of the box at 8am.

"SQT"
Three rounds for time of:
95 pound Ground to overhead, 10 reps
200 yard Shuttle sprint, 50 yards there and back twice

4:41
Splits: 1:19, 1:42, 1:40

First round chained and muscle snatched. Next two rounds a basterdized snatch/clean and jerk thing. Wanted to chain 5/5 split for rounds two and three but back and abs are just still sore. It would have been a bit faster with 100yrds out and back. The turn-arounds almost make it acceptable to slow down.

This is the second workout that felt kind of good. Hopefully I'm hitting a turn around point. It's nice to look froward and not dread wods.

Abdo, bad shrimp, lack of sleep, unplanned intermittent fasting

So the wod from 3 days ago wrecked my hamstrings and definitely still feeling it even today. Funny that I didn't even feel it in my hammies (only my lower back) but yikes. Good thing is my shoulders actually feel pretty good from the muscle-up/ab wrecker wod! Only traps are a little sore. Last night I ate some shrimp that I guess was bad and ended up pukin' until 2am. Fun stuff! Felt better this morning but didn't eat all day until dinner. Alison hooked me up with a iced coffee for my post wod. Awesome!

I was going to start my warm up with pull ups and shoulders felt stiff reaching for the bar so I moved to do 1000m row. Yikes! My abs are jacked up from those GH sit-ups, not like full on abdo status but definitely localized rhabdo. 4:07 row and even that was difficult. Usually in a warm up I sit about 3:38. Damn abdo! Went down to do some pull ups, did a whole two. It's funny how you don't realize how much you use your abs until you need 'em... yeah, real funny. Did some warm up squats at 135 and that didn't feel good stabilizing either. I was just going to go with a belt... but in my last minute before getting at the wod I realized that would destroy the point of the wod with the asymmetrical loading. So 15 seconds until start time I tossed the belt.

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
185 pound Back squat, 7 reps
45 pound dumbbell Overhead walking lunge, 10 steps (right hand)
7 Burpees
45 pound dumbbell Overhead walking lunge, 10 steps (left hand)

The first round took me about 1:57. Definitely got me a little more warmed up, and actually got me pretty amped up as I was like "Damn this is going to be a fun one even with my sore ass abs!" I knew I couldn't keep up that pace but it was going to truly FUN! I also had all the lights off and Eminem jacked up and was prepared to suffer.

Ended up with 6 rounds and 7 burpees. So close to my 7 round goal. I'm sure if I would have measured my splits, I got soft in the middle. Happy with that! They didn't have any men's times and in comments the only familiar name was OPT (not sure if it's the real OPT) but had posted 9 rounds and 3 squats. No matter happy with the wod but like all could have accepted a little more pain.

Not sure if I ever stated it here, and I'll work on a post about it later. I workout without my shirt to be judged. If I'm getting fat I can count on a sarcastic remark from Bryce or Chris to be like "...you fat fuck!" Bryce today said I looked like I was leaning out, so I guess these 20-30 minute wods are paying off because my diet definitely doesn't reflect. I'll weigh in tomorrow. Looking forward to a short intense wod... outside in the heat.

Skill day...not really

Warm up 2x 10 pull ups...ok that's it. I need to fix that. I couldn't motivate myself to get on a rower after yesterday's fun.

Five rounds for time of:
5 Muscle-ups
115 pound Overhead squat, 10 reps
15 Toes to bar
20 GHD Sit-ups

Time: 1:00 No joke.

I'll break down the splits.
First round 5:23 in the last two GH sit-ups felt a slight twinge in my left shoulder...my good shoulder. Attempted one muscle up and it was painful. I couldn't bare to strain my good shoulder so I sat down and figured I was done.

Sitting and contemplating life, the only DNF that I can recollect was my first attempt at Gi-Jane (made it to 50 and called it quits, from then on I realized GregA was a beast). The second time that I came close was Freddy's Revenge. I have it on video where I was thinking, "I can't physically do this work out." That one traumatized me for about 2 weeks. So, 9 minutes later, I figured how much could I have possibly injured myself in a GH sit-up? and started chipping away at the muscle-ups.

I couldn't bare the DNF!

2nd set of muscle-ups 6:20 I waited about 2 minutes for the cleans of the class wod to be done before I got into it.
2nd set OHS, TTB, GH sit 4:07

3rd set of muscle-ups 3:25
other stuff 5:32

4th Set of MUs 7:21 Started to fail and TTB/GH sit up was killing my big kip.
4th other stuff 6:08 Started to feel lower back pain from yesterday's wod.

5th set 8:32 Lots of fails. Pulled up box to use false grip. Still turned every rep out before pulling (BTW did all singles; no deceleration of force on the shoulder) Realized that even slipping in a false grip a little still was easier then the big kip. Losing some of the false grip but having lats flexed and ready to fire helped last painful 3 reps.
5th set other stuff 5:43 2/3s of both TTB and GH sit-ups.

It's funny, looking at this wod the only thing that worried me was the OHS and it goes that was the only easy thing about this wod.

Can't wait until tomorrow to see how the shoulder holds up. Gotta love a rest day.

My back! Wah wah!

Warm up 2x10 unbroken bfk pull ups
2x10 16kg kb snatches

Waited too long and let myself get cold.

Three rounds for time of:
Row 500 meters
30 Box jumps, 24 inch box
25 Back extensions
205 pound Deadlift, 20 reps

21:08
Splits: 5:35, 8:16, 7:16

It's a reoccurring theme of me getting mentally soft in the middle/second round. Still working on embracing a certain level of pain.

Post: roll around on the ground for about 30 min bitching about how tight my back felt. 10xRH @50#s. An hour later worked on a couple of muscle up singles, not going to chain any together to take it easy on my shoulder, not sure what I'm going to do about the swinging rings.

Damn it!

I thought things were going great. Yesterday was a complete month of following the mainsite. However after yesterday's Oly Total I had what in my mind is a giant set back. My shoulder hurts. It's the first time since returning from the honeymoon that I've had discomfort at rest and had a hard time sleeping because of shoulder position. Took an additional rest day but plan on continuing on the mainsite plan for now and continuing to evaluate how things go. If I need, I may just take a month out to focus on shoulder rehab. I guess I could shoot for a 400 back squat too. We'll see.

USAW Comp Total

Snatch, 1 rep
Clean and jerk, 1 rep
As many rounds and reps as possible in ten minutes of:
55kg Squat clean, 6 reps
12 Pull-ups
24 Double-unders

Add together the best snatch (in kg), the best clean and jerk (in kg), and the total reps performed in the triplet for your final score. Post score to comments.

Snatch 165, 175f, 175f

I was pretty excited when 135 didn't feel that bad, but stabilizing 165 and repeatedly trying to stick 175 was absolutely painful both in the shoulders as well as the wrists.

The pulls felt easy but Bryce said they were all painfully slow.

Clean and jerk 225, 245, 255PR, 265f, 265f
Pulls felt good, stabilizing 255 took a bit of shoulder stability. Hands and wrist were done.

The triplet:
4 rounds + 6 cleans
Only chained the first round, did doubles the second round, and then singles for the rest. Besides the hand pain this was really just a cardio thing. Everything was short enough to not be too painful in itself but definitely labored cardio wise.

Total in kilos: 75kg snatch, 116kg c&j, 4 complete rounds = 295kg

2-for-1s

Warm-ups
10 unbroken pull ups
10 OHS bar only (still painful)
10 ghd sit ups

Three rounds for time of:
50 Double-unders
25 Wallball "2-fer-1s", 20 pound ball

Got this one in about noon.

8:30
Splits 2:18, 3:53, 2:19

Definitely got a little mentally soft in the second round but tried to pull it together for the last round. Had to fight for sets of 2-3s. Also, used a butt ball as it smoothed out the 2-for-1 rhythm.

Thruster and CTB

Been a bit stressed getting the new site up and running amongst other things. Sleep sucks and workouts are suffering. I haven't really been amped up to do a WOD in a while. Can't wait to feel that again!

Took another rest day yesterday due to fatigue from lack of sleep.

Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Squat clean thruster, 5 reps
10 Chest to bar pull-ups

8:04
Splits: :51, 1:48, 1:47, 1:59, 1:37

I need to fix my shoulder with these pull ups. Chest bars haven't felt that difficult since I first learned them. Every warm-up (including rest days) will include pull ups (preferably unbroken) and something overhead (squat,snatch, snatch balance).

Running burpees

Slacked and took 2 rest days instead of 1. Actually to tell the truth today was almost another one.

6 rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
25 Burpees

Set up under a bar that is one foot above your reach for the burpees. Jump and touch the bar for each burpee rep.

32:03
Splits: 4:22, 5:27, 5:58, 5:57, 5:53, 4:24

I found it better to rest in the bottom of a burpee than standing. Mentally much faster for me. I guess it's easier for me to pick myself up over throwing myself down.