9/2 – A week of rest, a new month

After a full 9 days of nothing more than lying on a beach, working on my tan (sunburn?), eating and drinking (the island dry of beer) and a little bit of learning to fly a kite it was back at it on Monday and boy did it hurt (in a good way – I’m still not sure).

WOD

3rds for reps

3min ON / 3mins REST

Row 500m then
Max Ring Dips

1:49/ 10 (yellow band)

1:57/ 5 (orange band)

1:59 (run)/ 10 (orange band)

+60 burpees*

*For those of us in the competitive program for every second we were over 1:30/1:45 we incurred a 2 burpee penalty to be done after the class (or whenever I guess as this wasn’t really specified).  It also wasn’t specified who had to do the burpees either so some of us decided it was better to share.  Sharing is caring (or something like that).

I felt okay on the first row – well, for the first 300m of it at least.  It was a struggle to hold on and even more so when I needed to get back on it.  3 minutes seems like a long time but really it wasn’t much at all.  The second row was a killer.  I finished and could barely feel my legs – well, I could feel them cramping up.  I did a measly 5 ring dips and then during the ‘rest’ I lost feeling completely in my legs – from the arches of my feet right up to my glutes they were solid – ouch.  I could barely walk let alone try and convince myself to get back on the rower.  I decided that I’d run the last round instead (Tara was running the WOD due to a shortage of rowers anyway).  It was a struggle but I think overall it turned out best for my legs as it got some circulation going a bit.  Still a struggle.

Ali and I were alternating on the WOD and since Tara was running she incurred no burpee penalties so Ali and I added ours together and split them three ways.  Ended up doing 4 sets of 11 each and we rotated through so we got to rest while the others were working – this definitely helped with the motivation factor to keep pushing through it.  When we finished Cam still had 150 left (yup!) so we pooled together and helped him out – Ali managed to rope in Lewis and Matt as well so the 6 of us worked doing sets of 6 to get through it.  The last 5 Cam and I did together and he went crazy fast, it was a challenge but I did it.  I ended up doing another 30 (6x5) with his so overall did more than my initial 60.  Was actually fun though doing them that way rather than just on our own.  There were a lot of burpees acquired that day that’s for sure.

My body hurts, feeling everything especially tight in the traps and pecs.  Good to be back into it again though.

Also, thanks to Steph for being awesome George and I are registered for Primal Pairs in October.  Can’t wait.  Should be fun.

7/24 - Pull-ups and planks

WOD

3-3-3-3-3-3-3

Weighted Pull-ups

Use the heaviest weight you can for each set

Rest as needed between sets

Body weight for all

Then

4 x 1 minute plank holds

All unbroken

Partnered up with Lewis for this one – really only helped him to get the weight between his feet when needed.  I did all my sets at body weight and felt strong in the first two pull-ups but somehow struggled (mostly) on the third.   A few times I switched to a mixed grip before the last rep but even that didn’t make much difference.  I’d get almost to the top and then have to fight for the last little bit.  Finished all the sets though which made me quite happy given that my current max set of strict pull-ups is 4. 

The planks were hard (as usual) but fun in that we were chatting and talking about who would be the winners at the Crossfit Games this weekend.  Helped to pass the time (a little) more quickly.  Going into it Coach Scotty said that anyone doing the ‘extra’ work had to do the 4 sets but everyone else could stop after 3.  I was more than impressed that the entire class stayed for all 4 rounds – was afraid initially that I’d be doing the last one on my own while everyone packed up – thankfully not the case.

Finished up with the extra work.

7/19 - Friday Night WODs

Ah, Thursday was a glorious rest day and rest I did.  I loved it.  Back at it on Friday night though for another solid workload starting with the SXF WOD.

Fun time Friday was back again which was awesome – and definitely fun this week.  We divided into two teams for a wheelbarrow race.  Each person carrying the legs of the person in front of them.  I was first against Tarrsha – Lewis had my legs and it went really well except for the part where I almost fell over laughing my head off at Tarrsha’s squeals.  Good times and good ab workout.

WOD

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1

KB Swing 32/20kg
100m Run

8:33 Rx

Lots of running, lots of counting, lots of losing track.  I was working beside Tarrsha and knew I was just behind her but as you come in and out it’s hard to know what round people are on.  I tried asking her at one point but that didn’t work as it required too many braincells to actually converse so I asked Lewis and he said he was on round 3.  I thought we were on the same round so I went with it though in my head I thought I was in the 4’s but like I said, completely lost count.  Turns out I was actually a round behind Lewis and should have been on the 4’s.  I finished the run after my 1 KB swing and realized that Tarrsha was heading out the door for her last run so I knew I’d missed one – I finished on the round of 4’s – not too bad anyway. 

Managed all the KB swings unbroken (the idea of the WOD) though somewhere around the round of 6’s my back really started to tighten up again as it has off and on under stress since the axel deadlifts at the primal throwdown.  I made sure to roll it out directly afterward.

We finished up the class a bit early as they were going through TGU technique (and we did TGU’s in one of our sports wods earlier in the week) so Coach Tara let us head off to get a jump on the extra work of the day – of which there was a lot.