7/6 - "Isabel"

I love "Isabel" and while I was hoping that the next time I met her I'd be able to do her Rx today was not that day.  Still a lot of work to do to get my Snatch up by 10kg.

Warm-up
Skipping/running chaos
Burgener Warm-up

There was quite a large turn-out for the noon class today - must have been the Friday sunshine.  Anyway, Coach Match had a fun and crazy warm-up for us.  It involved finding a place to skip facing any one of the four walls in the box.  The structure was 5-10-15-20-25 single skips and in between each set run and touch the wall in front of you and the wall behind you while avoiding anyone who was skipping/ also running.  Now this all seems reasonable until you realize that there were 15 people all facing different walls and therefore running and skipping in perpendicular directions.   I'm pretty sure Kirst came back into the room after we'd started and laughed wondering what was going on.  We did this a second time with everyone turning 90 degrees and therefore running for the other two walls.  It was both funny and scary (depending on how close you had to get to swinging ropes to get back to your spot).

We followed that up with a much more controlled run through the Burgener warm-up (similar to this).

WOD
"Isabel"
30 Snatches (45/60kg)
6:04 (35kg)

I initially wanted to do this at 40kg (38kg is my PR) but couldn't get a lift in - mostly I think because of confidence so I dropped the weight so I could concentrate on good form while moving quickly.  I had some reps where I was borderline pushing out my arms and I tried to ensure I was dropping under the bar.  There were other reps where I was dropping but instead of sending my butt and hips back I was spreading my feet really wide - not pretty.  That being said I had a few beautiful reps too, even near the end which I loved and need to really focus on more.  Practice, practice, practice.  This WOD wrapped up the end of our Snatch month and we'll do it again in a few months so hopefully I'll be stronger with better form then and be able to do it at 40kg (at least).

Two more WODs next week (Monday and Tuesday) then a month of vacation and a chance to check out Crossfit Kitsilano (which opened just before I moved two blocks away from where I used to live).  Can't wait!

Also, strange things happening at the box today after the WOD...

12/12 - "Isabel"

Benchmark WOD: “Isabel”
30 snatches for time (45/60kg)
3:55 (28kg)

Was a little scared of this one when I saw it on the board as I don't have much practice doing snatches and it's a little intimidating throwing a heavy weight straight overhead.  I also recalled doing "Grace" last week ("Isabel's" sister) and how hard that was on my shoulders.

I wasn't sure what weight to load up - Match said it all just depends/ no correlation to the weight for "Grace" so I loaded it up the same - 28kg - and tried a few practice reps.  It felt heavy.  I did two consecutive reps and assumed that for the WOD I'd be doing single reps - that's how it felt.  I actually thought about dropping the weight down but Tim saw me from across the room and gave me a little nod that told me I could do it...  he gave me a few pointers about focusing on keeping the bar close to my body and not throwing it behind me and encouraged me that I could do it - even if it was one rep at a time.  Thanks Tim - I needed it!

Once the beeping of the clock counted down...  3,2,1... we were off and the adrenaline started flowing through me - I banged out the first 5 reps straight, no problems.  I then went with reps of 3 for a bit, a few twos.  Somewhere in there I also got out another 4 or 5 straight (it all became a blur) - the only thing I know is that it 'felt' easy... as long as I had good form, committed to the movement and flung it over head getting locked out as quick as possible I knew I was good.  Once or twice I didn't quite get locked out but because of the weight was able to push it up.  I know that I can go heavier on this - realized it when I was done though it felt easier once the "pressure" was on... now I know for next time and I know there will be a next time.

Note - I'm totally paying the price for this today - in the very small muscles on the front of my shoulders (delts?)...  It's the source of all my shoulder problems actually so I'm frantically icing and hoping some rolling helps it go away tonight because I don't want to have to pull way back in order to prevent this...ugh! 

WOD #2
10 min AMRAP of burpees
sprint 100m on the minute, every minute
52 burpees

I suck at burpees, this is a fact.  I knew that going into this WOD I made a game of it - pushing me harder on the sprint portions... I didn't try and bust out the last burpee, instead I was first out the door - my goal being to not let anyone catch me on the sprint... it for the most part worked.  Around rep 7 or 8 I heard Zaki right behind me at the turnaround say to himself and James to try and catch me so I went harder - as did he - he caught me just before heading back inside the box.  All good fun.  My goal was 50 burpees so I managed that - it was so hard with having time after the sprints and trying to get your breathing slowed down to not die... good times.

Afterwards I did TWO unassisted pull-ups with my chin fully over the bar even hanging up there on the first one for a bit so Jack could see... it felt awesome.  I'm all over this... feeling stronger everyday!