5/28 – “Annie”

WOD “Annie”

50-40-30-20-10

Double Unders

Sit-ups

7:28

First day back from vacation and it was a good little one to get going.  Knew from the way I was feeling that there wouldn’t be any records set but was looking forward to it anyway.  Brendan and I were beside each other and he really pushed me to go faster.  There was a bit of back and forth for the first couple of rounds then I snuck ahead by a few situps and went from there.  He definitely made it challenging knowing in my head I couldn’t stop to rest at all.  Finished almost one minute slower than my PR but was to be expected.

Followed it up with a bit of open gym.  Didn’t really have  a plan but was inspired by the OHS WOD at the regionals so worked on that.

Open Gym

Overhead Squats

Warmup

5x15kg

3x25kg

Working

5x3 @ 35kg

This felt solid. Not sure what my previous OHS PR was but this was probably close to it.  Haven’t done them in ages and it felt good.

1/1 - ASG WODfest - 'Angie', 'Annie' and 'Grace'

ASG WODfest, aka the day of the girls...   

The 'Girls' - Board was empty at the start of the day

Wicked start to 2013.  If today was the measure of how the next 365 days are going to go it’s going to be AMAZING. 

More photos and words below the cut.

12/3 - The day of the PR’s...

Yesterday was a kick ass day at the box.  I think there is something to be said about taking a week off from heavy weights and going easy.  It really was a deload week for me at site last week and it paid off.

My hands were still wrecked (even more so) from Sunday.  I tried to out the whole – leave the skin on and let it heal that way and it had the opposite effect that I was going for – they actually got worse and a little goopy so… I was dealing with that.  Yes, the attractive life of a crossfitter.  Anyway, I wasn’t sure how I’d go if the WOD called for pull-ups or any bar stuff for that matter – I was actually hoping for more body weight and/or cardio based WOD (box jumps maybe?)… well, I got my wish though I had also just done her.  ‘Annie’ was on the board – along with some squat cleans. 

Strength
1 RM squat clean
20-30-40-50-55-57.5-60(PR)

This was fun.  It was only a few weeks ago that I matched my previous squat clean PR when I was doing some clean and jerks and going into this I was looking for 60 all the way.  Coach Tim came by a few times, I think he saw me lift 50kg (with poor form) and noted that it still looked easy even though I didn’t explode well enough and thus compensated with wider legs in my squat (which I realized as well when I did it), I also didn’t get my elbows high which definitely helped when I did focus on it at the heavier weights.  At one point too I hit myself in the chin with the bar because I was thinking it was heavier than it turned out to be.  Love improvement.

I snuck in one last lift just as everyone was clearing away weights – and hit 60kg which I was so stoked about.   Coach Match was a few steps away watching me and I could feel his encouragement as I also got Kayla’s verbally telling me I could do it.  I love the atmosphere of lifting heavy surrounded by inspiring and encouraging people.

One note that I want to mention here – as Coach Tim also brought it up last night… when someone is going for a heavy lift – don’t distract them by walking right in front of them or what-not, let them focus and then once they’ve done the lift go about your business.   

WOD
‘Annie’
50-40-30-20-10
DU’s
Sit-ups 
6:23 (PR)

I did ‘Annie’ last Wednesday on site – alone, on a tennis court, without an ab-mat.  I took 30 seconds off my time then and wasn’t sure I could do it again so soon but…  there was something extremely different about doing the same WOD in a group of people who were also pushing hard.  Namely Kayla who I was near.  She (once again) pushed me to up my game (indirectly).  Just seeing her going for it pushed me even harder to try and keep up.  I took 40 seconds off of my time (and she still kicked my butt by 30 seconds that girl)… love working out with you Kayla, always.  The encouragement and your strength inspire me always.

I only tripped up once on the double unders (with 3 reps remaining in the round of 30) as I got distracted by something and lost my concentration (I know better).   The sit-ups were surprisingly (a little) easier with the ab-mat.  I think because it spread out the pain over a larger  range of muscles than without it.  Paying the price today though, laughing hurts.  Sitting hurts.  Breathing… well, it only kinda hurts.  Ha.

It was an awesome day though – I loved it.  Feeling strong and excited to see how much I can up my snatch by tonight (as apparently facebook is telling me that’s what we’re doing). 

Shoulder Stuff
Had a good chat with Coach Match as well after class about what to do about my shoulder… seeking a bit of advice in a way but also just talking through it from my perspective.  My physio while good at alleviating the issue with my shoulder isn’t someone I trust for advice on how to fix the problem (I miss you Sommer!) so that’s where I was coming from.  My problem isn’t so much a lack of strength but is more a result of me lifting heavier and more often and not getting as much rest as I did when I first started out. 

There were two things that came out of our discussion...  first, I need to listen more closely to my body before I start hurting.  There were clear signs this time that I should have pulled back but I wanted to do certain workouts and therefore didn’t hold back… I did an insane number of hspu’s over the course of a few days and also did ‘Grace’ twice in the same period.   It was a lot of reps on movements that do strain my shoulders and instead of pulling back I pushed it and then had to modify/ scale WODs for several weeks.  Next time (as I’m sure this will happen again as it’s a chronic injury) I need to pull back/scale/modify before I hurt and manage my shoulder from that perspective instead (yes Cam, I can still see you nodding)...

Secondly, I need to mobilize more rather than trying to strengthen opposing muscles.  If I can release the tightness in my pecs and chest (and all those other muscles that I can’t name in the front of my body) then as a result my shoulders should then naturally pull back into the position that they should ultimately be in – a neutral/ relaxed state (rather than rolled forward – thanks for pointing that out Vini).  It’s going to take a lot of focus and dedication on my part to not just mobilize but to do it often, several times a day and really get into things.  I probably will need (a lot) of accountability here (I suck at this part).  So that’s the plan.  Lots of mobilization (on my chest specifically) and listening to my body and backing off when it needs it – I recognize it but mentally need to be strong enough to listen to it.

11/27 – 11/29 - Sunrise Dam WODs

Quick update (with photos) from my trip to site last week… 

Tuesday 

Flew to site extremely early Tuesday morning and upon arrival/searching for the details on their gym/ getting coffee I spotted this:

  

Click 'Read More' for more photos and words...

5/24 - the day with all the wods...

Today was a pretty shit day so what better way to utilize all my emotions than with a whole lotta crossfit.  My good bud Tim met me early at the box so we could get a bit of work in before the class wods - a big thanks to him for both cheering me up and also working out with me on his 'rest' day.

Because it was his rest day we did Annie, ab-mat Annie - no heavy lifting...

WOD #1
"Ab-mat Annie"
50-40-30-20-10
double unders
ab-mat sit-ups
7:24

Tim beat me by 23(?) seconds but most of that was because I tripped a few more times than him on the first round of du's.  He was 6 sit-ups in before I started into the 50.  It was a lot of fun though - knowing we were both going hard pushed us each to go harder to keep up so that was good.  It helped me PR by almost a minute - 53 seconds faster than last time which I loved especially with tripping on the du's - I know I have more time to shave off this wod and it's also the first time I've used an ab-mat as well which seemed to make it harder - something about the full ab extension while gasping for air made it hurt that much more but it was good.

My emotions started to really come through on the last two sets of sit-ups which was both good (getting them out) and bad (as I was struggling enough).  There were however moments where I was solely focused on the workout and my body and that was a sweet relief.

WOD #2
front squats
3-3-3-1
40-50-60-65

I wanted to lift heavy stuff and since we'd done back squats on tuesday I went with front squats just for a bit of a change up.  Clearly I haven't done heavy front squats (or back squats either for that matter) in a while as I PRed by 20kg!  I was quite happy with this and didn't try for anything more as we had 45 reps of front squats in the WOD.  My front squat PR is now 5kg higher than my backsquat which means I need to do some heavy backsquat lifting when my legs are tired (from so many box jumps)

Strength
3RM push press/jerk
20-30-40

I stopped at 40kg as it was the first time in 2 weeks that I'd lifted anything overhead and I felt a bit of strain in my shoulders.  No need to push it and set myself back even further.  Plus we had 45 more reps of push press coming up in the WOD.

WOD #3
21-15-9
push press/jerk (30/45kg)
front squat
8:36 Rx

Was pretty happy with this overall since my shoulders were feeling mostly better.  The push presses were still really hard - to the point where I was in fact push jerking them by the end but I felt solid in the movement, really popping through the hips rather than trying to muscle it out though there were a few reps that I didn't completely lock out my arms and had to push the last bit - just after that I started to push jerk instead which helped a lot more.  The squats were pretty steady and felt really good - it probably had a lot to do with already having gone much heavier on them as well.

AfterWOD (aka WOD #4)
Tabata Cleans
3 reps every 20 seconds
2 reps every 10 seconds
(max. reps last 30 seconds)

This was a lot of fun though after the first 20 seconds it almost became 5 reps at the start of each 10 second as there wasn't much time to put the bar down after the two reps and then pick it up again for the 3.  I did feel really good in this movement - lots of focus on tightening my upper back so that I was smooth from the ground before exploding from the hang position.  I thought the weight would feel heavier toward the end but I didn't slow down at all in the reps - took about 8 seconds each round to do the 3 reps.  Nice change of format and "surprise" after WOD.  It's been a great week or so of change up programming including the warmp-ups (we did another 'team' portion of the warm-up again today too and it was amusing and functional).

The bonus of now having 'extra' time on my hands - besides having to look for a job - I can do more strength training with Tim and Pete leading up to the Primal Throwdown which is in a month.  Focus on the positives.