Monday 090817

Double-under for 2 minutes
Sit-up for 2 minutes
Double-under for 90 seconds
Sit-up for 90 seconds
Double-under for 1-minute
Sit-up for 1-minute
Double-under for 30 seconds
Sit-up for 30 seconds

Post numbers of sit-ups and double-unders to comments.

69-70; 51-46; 33-31; 19-16

I was really pleased with this WOD program-wise, effort wise, and results wise.

Programming – I generally hate both double unders and sit-ups but this was a strange, awesome mix of both.  I’ve done Annie before and it was good, but not this good.  This mix made the two together especially brutal.  I usually hate sit-ups because I feel like I could do them forever and not get any better at them and they don’t generally leave me feeling like I got a very good strength or Metcon effect.  But for whatever reason, this combination left me gassed and my stomach muscles are all sore today.

Effort – I didn’t have much energy going in so I didn’t have that high of expectations.  I was at work so I had to go down to the gym which was nice because I was all alone but being down there always pisses me off because it’s so crowded with really bad equipment.  Not to mention that I have to be prepared to stop, up and run upstairs at any moment for a run.  So I have my 5.11 pants and 5.11 boots hanging off the worthless smith machine while I’m doing man work on the power rack. It could also use a few more things.  It has plenty of dumb bells and Olympic stuff.  It has one decent rack and then a whole room full of garbage.  The things it needs most are more floor space, more racks, and some wooden dowel to stretch and practice with.  I’m doing it with the 45lb bar now but it’s still too heavy to really be a warm-up.

Results – Well, simply said.  I far surpassed my expectations in this one and it hurt.  It picked up my whole day.

AMRAP 12 minutes of:

5 10lb db thrusters, 5 burpees

She got 8 rounds + 3 thrusters.

It’s encouraging to me to see her improving so much so quickly.  Her intensity and her burpees were especially great with this WOD.  The burpees are getting better as her push-up is improving.  Be able to push up harder is making her burpee much more efficient.  She went to the doctor and got weighed so she is continually losing weight as well.  I want to get her something to celebrate but I don’t know what or if it would even help.  She’ s pretty encouraged right now as it is.  She’s recovering evermore from the labor and pregnancy as well.  She’s started to introduce small amounts of alcohol and caffeine back into her life when she knows she won’t be breastfeeding for a few hours.  She had a fuzzy navel at the wedding the other night and she has been having a cup of Japanese Sencha tea with breakfast in the mornings.  She never was big on coffee.

Thursday 090820

“Karen”

For time:
150 Wallball shots, 20 pound ball

10:19

Man, I really wanted to break 10 minutes.  Just didn’t have it though.  Looking at everyone else’s times on the comments – I sincerely doubt the depth of their squats.  I was busting my butt and put up a huge effort and seem to have gotten smoked by most people.  And wall ball is one of my stronger movements.  I guess that’s the primary problem with the comments section format of comparing times.  For one, there’s no way to sort it based on gender/size and for two, people can say and use whatever standards they want.

In addition, I learned from reading the comments that most people hate this WOD.  I must be weird because I love it.  I did it this morning so that I could have the whole day to work.  I was babysitting my nephew Caleb so he did it with me.  I found him a miniature empty basketball so while I was wall balling he was throwing that all over the garage and chasing it.  It was funny.  I almost had him use one of the dowels and do thrusters but he wouldn’t have thought that was nearly as fun.  He’s still just a little bit too little to actually start coaching in form.

Another encouraging story and maybe this just goes to illustrate my vanity but it was motivating for me.  I am in a wedding in December so I had to go get fitted for a tux.  It’s at this fancy place in a yuppy neighborhood next to a Alexandra de Markoff cosmetics store.  Old plastic-y faced women are going in one side while suited up businessmen are going in the other.  When I walk in this old black man in a really nice suit with toppik hair building fibers approaches me, “Can I help you sir.”  “I need fitted for a wedding.”  “Right this way sir.”

We go the back and I stand on a pedestal while he starts measuring me with those awkward tape measure hugs.  I can smell his Rocky Patel cigars and he starts grunting, “Oh my.”  “What?”  “You’re built like Ben 10 action figures.  You’re going to be hard to fit.  There’s almost an 11″ differential between your waste size and your chest.  You usually only see a 6″ at most and it’s usually in the other direction.  You life weights and stuff?”  “Ha, yeah, thanks.  I do a little cross-training.”  “You’re at least a 42″ in the chest but your waist is about a 31″.  The pants that come with the 42″ jackets are usually 36″ waists.”

Thursday 090618

For time:
50 Wall-ball shots
50 Pull-ups
35 Wall-ball shots
35 Pull-ups
20 Wall-ball shots
20 Pull-ups

Use 20 pound medicine ball launched to a target ten feet above the ground.

15:35

Love this WOD!  I used to dread wall ball but this new McKlein leather ball makes me look forward to them.  It’s such an awesome movement.  It has to be rhythmic, explosive, controlled, accurate – it requires a lot more of the 10 elements of fitness than most other movements.  To top it off, it has a huge metabolic conditioning and strength effect.  I’m always left sore  and gassed.  It sucked with the old homemade ball.  It was too small and hard so it was difficult to catch and sand would fall into my eye from where it would leak.  Having nice, roughstock equipment makes all the difference in the world.  You can work hard and look good too.

I’m wondering though with this new set-up of mine for wall ball how comparable it is to the regular wall ball.  What I do now is my garage has a slanted ceiling so I measured off where it is 10′ and marked the ceiling.  Instead of throwing it 10′ up against a wall, I throw it up 10′ to hit the ceiling.  I know it produces an awesome workout but I don’t know how comparable it is to other people’s times.  Not that I get to compare myself to other people’s times that often anyway.

5 RFT:

6 25lb db swings, 9 45 degree push-ups, 12 vertical body rows

7:09

I wasn’t there so I don’t have a whole lot to say about this one.  I have started being more specific with the type of each motion she is doing in the log because a push-up, knee assisted push-up, and what I’m calling a 45 degree push-up are all pretty different movements.  A 45 degree push-up is similar to a wall push up but it’s off of anything that will have your body sitting at approximately 45 degrees in the down position such as a table.  Likewise, a body row done against a pillar is very different from one done with your body hanging 45 degrees under a racked Olympic bar.

This is the one that Stacy did at her parents’ house while I was doing Ryan.  The same one that she dropped the weight on her finger so that I came running to check on her.  Her mom also did it with her which was really cool.  She is grossly underweight and always has been (presumably body image issues) so I would love to see her put on some lean, healthy weight.  They are great grandparents.  They are all about kids and pets, buying the kids all the Barney toys they could ever want and buying the pets all the Wonder pets crap they could ever want too.  So between my mom, Stacy, and Stacy’s mom I’m programming for 3 very weak-capacitied “beginners.”  It’s good practice and I’m getting a lot better.

AMRAP 12 minutes of: 3 push-ups, 6 10lb plate good mornings, 9 squats

11 rounds.

This was really encouraging to watch.  Stacy showed gigantic improvement in her knee assisted push-ups already.  Last week she couldn’t do three in a row and this day she was doing three in a row pretty consistently.  She was working hard but she always got them done and got them done cleanly.  I think it was a good mental victory for her too.  None of our parenting tips told us that she would lose such a large amount of strength.  She was really discouraged to find out how weak she was coming back so quick progress does wonders for her confidence and motivation.

This was also the first time that I reintroduced good mornings into her routine.  I had to be careful because she has a similar experience with them as me: they don’t feel like they’re doing anything until the next day when your spine feels like it’s got acid dripping down it.  And I guess it really does in a way – lactic acid.  She did great with them though so there will be many more to come.

Run 200m, 9 burpees, 12 jumping pull-ups, run 200m, 9 burpees, 6 push-ups

8:00

This… didn’t go so well.  This was supposed to be a 2 rounder of all the above but she only did the one.  She wasn’t doing really strong mentally and her body was still sore from days before.  I applaud her for trying at all though.  On days when I feel like this I generally don’t even bother and chock it up to “my body is telling me I need an extra day off.”  How valid that is, I don’t know.  But I’m not a competitive athlete so I can get away with that sometimes so certainly so can she.

She’s doing good still though.  Her attitude is strong and she is making steady improvements.

Sunday 090816

“Ryan“

Five rounds for time of:
7 Muscle-ups
21 Burpees

Post time to comments.

Each burpee terminates with a jump one foot above max standing reach.

29:41 subbed big but regular burpees and stopped the clock for less than 45 seconds to check on Stacy when I heard her screaming from across the yard.  She had dropped a weight on her finger but she is fine.

Well, you know how on the front squat I said some days all the variables just come together in your favor and you do awesome and some days not?  This was very clearly one of the “not” days.  Absolutely pitiful performance.  It’s a shame too.  Burpees and muscle-ups are some of my favorite movements now.  So to discuss some of the variables…

Firstly, and I don’t really know how, Stacy and I attended a $100,000 wedding the night before.  It was a “black tie affair” where everyone was in a full black suit with the exception of a soldier or two in uniform.  It was awesome.  Incredible food, open bar, Portland photography shot the ceremony, live band, and all down at the Cincinnati Music Hall.  They pulled out all the stops.  So between the food, the drink, and the Baccarat Kings cigars, let’s just say my nutrition the night before wasn’t ideal.

We were at Stacy’s parents’ house which had its advantages and disadvantages.  The advantages were that there was a pool that I could jump into right afterward that felt incredible and I found a really awesome tree to hang the rings from for muscle-ups.  The disadvantages were pretty similar.  My mind was on getting in the pool and not the workout.  I just didn’t feel like working out.  I think the long-hung rings are harder to muscle up on for some reason.  And I was doing the burpees in the grass on the side of a hill so they were awkward and I didn’t do the foot high jump burpees but just the regular ones.  I was feeling those CAO cigars from the night before either way.

And like I mentioned before.  I just wasn’t there mentally.  I didn’t have the energy and I didn’t have the motivation.  I was just checking the “I worked out today” box.

It was really hot and humid yesterday and it made it hard to breathe from the burpees and stole my strength for the muscle-ups.  Lame excuse but it was an element and I am discussing the elements.  It did make the pool afterward even more awesome though.

Friday 090814

Front squat 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps

185-195-205-205-215-225-235-245

That’s a huge front squat.  Sometimes all the elements just come together and you have a good day.  Some days not.  This clearly was one of the former.  I had a solid warm up session with my wooden dowels, felt strong, energetic, and moved a lot of weight.  I killed my expectations with this.  Heck, I killed what I thought was my total capacity in this lift.  30lb PR.  Of course, this is the one power day that I didn’t make a video to record how awesome I was doing but I know rock bottom now when I feel it and those were all rock bottom.  Now it’s time to work with Jimmy on my cleans.  With a front squat like that I should be cleaning big now too.  I’m interested to do these again and see if that was a fluke or if I have really just improved that much.

Thursday 090813

With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute… continuing as long as you are able.

Use as many sets each minute as needed.

Post number of minutes completed to comments.

15 minutes

After my training experience yesterday, Jimmy suggested that I take an extra day off to get my mojo back.  I think he was just looking for the edge in training – I need to work through minor mental stuff like that.  Today was a good WOD to bounce back with for multiple reasons: pull-ups are a strength of mine and it’s of the same style as yesterday’s that I botched.

Not unusually – I slept in today.  Damned snooze button.  But unusually, I had huge energy as soon as I hit the floor so the WOD was the first thing I did.  It feels good to have it out of the way.  Now I can just kick back with a genmai cha tea and get some work done without anything on my mind.  Well, anything that I have to do on my mind.  I still have to think of a scaled WOD for Stacy to do.