8/17 – Saturday Sports Class

Saturday sports class started early this week – early at least for getting in the extra work.  We were told to show up for barbell club between 8-10 and get the ‘lift big’ work done for the day which was playing with the yokes.  The sports class at 10am was solely going to be heavy squats (again).

1) Yoke hold

Max weight yoke hold (minimum 20 seconds)

70-90-100-110(pr)

2) Yoke Carry

Max weight yoke carry (over 10m distance)

90-110-120(pr)

3) Backsquats

10x3 @85%+10kg

10x3 @78kg

I was really tight in my traps which made the yoke hold much more uncomfortable.  I think with the carries I was more focused on the walking part that increasing the weight a bit more wasn’t such an issue.  Regardless, it was fun to play with the yokes even if it meant losing an hour of sleep in time.

The backsquats were solid.  I definitely think the lower reps help – three reps is good, four okay and then any more than that makes me lose blood flow in my head.  Even still I had Sacha spotting me for all of them ready just in case which helped me mentally at least.  It’s getting heavy (my 1RM before all this started was 80kg so…)

It was funny when racking the empty bar for the warm-up squats – it felt so light compared to the yoke and then when I reached the bottom of the first squat I almost cried.  There was a definite squeak as my hips were so unhappy.  Lots of mobilization… 

8/16 – Barbell Club WODing and Extra Work

Friday’s Extra

1)SXF WOD (see below)

7+7 reps

2)Backquats

8x4 @80% +10kg

8x4 @74kg

3)EMOM 10

X bar muscle ups

Did not do

WOD tonight included front squats and we were advised (told?) to get our backsquats done before the WOD (unless we wanted to die – those are perhaps my words).  So I planned to meet up with Ali and get the squats done at 4:30 before hitting up the 5:30 WOD.  That didn’t quite happen as planned however it still worked out all right.

Ali was running a little late leaving work and getting to the box so I started without her.  I (surprisingly) managed to talk myself through the first four sets of our 8x4 @80%+10kg (74kg for me) without having a spotter.  I think the difference between Wednesday and tonight was that I hadn’t just done a leg heavy (pistol) WOD and also the fact that there were only 4 reps and not 5.  By the time she arrived however I needed her there – not necessarily to physically help me but more so from a mental aspect.

I noted that having a spotter is as much about having someone there to physically catch you when you’re going to fail as it is about having someone there to be your mental cheerleader when you start to struggle and doubt your ability – just hearing you are looking strong or getting verbal cues to distract you from everything else but technique is a benefit that can’t be quantified.

Got through all my sets without failing which was good.  Ali still had two sets left when 5:30 rolled around so we decided we’d do the WOD in the barbell side rather than hitting up the class.

After we finished squatting Ali did the bar muscle-ups EMOM10 which I just mobilized my hip flexors (ouch).  I skipped out on the c2b pull-ups (scaled version of the bar MU’s) because my shoulder could use the rest.  Then when that was done we did the WOD.

WOD

Clean ladder

1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5…

Power clean (42.5kg)

Front squat

7+7 cleans (Rx)

Four of us (including Ali and I) did this in the barbell room.  It was kind of weird – totally different setting – but also with lots of people doing other work to add cheers here and there which helped.  Was good to change it up.  This WOD most definitely hurt.  The front squats were killer and by far the hardest (mostly mentally I think) part of the WOD.

I started well, going unbroken through all the squats until the round of 7.  The 6^th round unbroken was a struggle so then I went 4-3.  Definitely starting to feel it.  I switched between regular and hook grip on the cleans though didn’t really find my forearms having much issue – it was more about getting myself more comfortable with the hook grip.  It was a long 6 minutes though thankfully Coach Tara was timing it and giving us updates as there was no large clock to see.  The first 4 or 5 rounds went quick then suddenly it seemed to take forever.  Could be from the pain face I had on.

In round 2 I put on my weight belt.  It wasn’t that the weight was that heavy (in comparison to what we’ve been squatting lately) but my lower back just started to cramp up completely on the cleans (even though I was maintaining good form and dropping under the bar rather than going wide with my feet).  Figured it was better safe than sorry though – it didn’t stop the pain but probably kept me from doing any damage which would have sucked completely.

Sacha, Ali and I rewarded ourselves with Nando’s after.  It’s all I could think of before starting the WOD – the reward at the end (I was starving) so good.  Then I promptly wanted to be asleep.  Good times.

8/13 - Death by 10m plus extra work

Another light one last night – seems to be a bit of a deload week for which I (and my body) am thankful.  A few early(-er) nights are also appreciated.  I miss home.

WOD

EMOM8 - alternating

5 Strict Pull-ups

30sec Plank Hold

3 pull-ups with yellow band

Then

Death By 10m

starting at 10

17+17

I did the EMOM with the intention of doing all 5 strict PU’s but my shoulders disagreed with me.  I grabbed the yellow band before we even started thinking I “might” need it and need it I did – right from the start.  I did I think the first 2 reps without it and then it went from there.  We focused on holding the bottom position for a second, a quick pull to the top then a slow 3 second lower which made them hurt just a little bit more (a lot more actually).  I did 4 in the first round (2 with the band that Cam had to help me get into because I hadn’t grabbed a box – thinking still I wouldn’t actually use it) and then I did 3 the rest of the rounds because of how I was feeling.

The planks felt really good – easy actually.  After the reps of 1 minute holds we’ve been doing lately this was nice.  I started the last one 10 seconds early to extend it a bit and made Cam follow suit which was fun.  Laughing while doing it made it a little more challenging in a sadistically fun way.  Cam also called me teacher’s pet as I got to be the demo girl for Tara for the planks – though all I could think of when she commented about keeping a flat back and tight butt was that at that moment everyone in the class was looking at my butt.  Heh. 

Feeling tightness in my traps today – guess the pull-ups had the intended effect.

The Death by 10m was both good and bad.  We have done this before and started at 1 which meant 16+ minutes of running but this time we started at 10.  It shorted the time for running but just started us with a longer distance initially – I wasn’t sure how to pace it but took my time and was the slowest I think for all the rounds but didn’t get my heart rate high or feel at all winded until probably round 16 or 17 which is why when it came time for me to sprint for the last few reps to sneak through it wasn’t an issue.  What was an issue however was how my legs were feeling on each and every turn.  That’s what really started to get me – the planting and pushing on my tired backsquatted out legs.  Ouch.  Seems to be a pretty common point that a lot of people felt (especially those in the extra program).  I tried alternating legs but it was the perfect distance to always hit with one leg for a while then I’d have to stutter step to switch off.  I’m not sure it would have made much difference anyway.  I just barely finished the 17^th rep on the round of 18 so I still had 10m to make to keep going (I’m almost happy I didn’t). 

Was good having the boys (George, Cam, Reegs, Wayno) all cheering me on.  It helped that much more – though I think they thought I was so slow because I was tired when in reality I really didn’t want to stop after each round – I much preferred to go slower and just keep moving.  I watched the clock a little.  Heh.

Tuesday's Extra

1) SXF WOD

(see above)

2) GHD Sit-ups 3 x 15-25reps (if you don't do these very often go easy on these) *rest 90sec between sets

1x15 reps

I did one set of these and around 10 reps in felt quite vomitous.  Really quite nauseous.  Cam convinced me to just do 5 more.  Seriously though, not the best idea ever.  I need to stop l listening to that boy.  I sat on the bench for a long while after this and Cam did note that I was looking paler than usual.  Not good.  I didn’t do the last two reps – there was no way he was going to convince me.  Just thinking of that think still makes me not feel good.  Ugh.  Wonder how to go about ‘fixing’ that?

Spent a little bit of time mobilizing after it all too – quads, calves, hammys and hips.  Good times. 

8/12 – Backsquats, Partner WOD and Extra Work

Back at it tonight after a stellar day of rest on Sunday.  Completely chill and necessary though my shoulders were still screaming (even after a massage on Saturday afternoon – wow).

WOD

Backsquats

6 x 6reps @ 70% (+10kg for those doing the comp training – 5kg more from last week)

Warm-up – 10x20kg, 6x40kg, 6x60kg

6x6 @ 66kg (that’s a lot of 6’s)

Then

In Partners

6min AMRAP

10 Kettlebell Swings 32/20kg

7 Burpees

9 + 13 (9 full rounds plus 10KB swings and 3 burpees)

Tonights class included our backsquats which meant a bit of an easier night overall in terms of timing of things.  The downside however (not a huge deal really) was that I was working alone – Ali got stuck at work and because of the number of squat racks in the gym there was ample space to not have to partner with anyone.  It also meant that I didn’t have anyone to spot me when I was getting tired (and my form paid the price a bit for it).

I was working at 82.5% of my 1RM – and 6kg more than the big boys that were beside me – I felt both badass and tired all in one.  But still managed to get through it all.  I could have used with a partner mostly for the motivation to just push through the reps and to spot me/ be close enough if I needed them.  We were working on doing a set every 3 minutes which at this point is on the lower end of rest time for what I’m doing (not an issue but…).  What it meant was that I would feel solid and strong and go slow for the first 4 reps but then it would suddenly feel really hard and I’d try and rush the last two – bouncing out of the bottom and then dropping my chest and leading up with my butt – not good form.  After the last set I asked Coach Scotty why I was doing this/ what I had to focus on to stop as today was the first time I’ve done this in all the sets we’ve done up to this point.  He said that I was probably pushing my butt back too much from the start and trying to rush the rep.  I likely wasn’t staying tight throughout and activating my glutes (relying more on my hamstrings).  He watched my last set which really helped – as did knowing that it was the last one.  I really focused on going slow and keeping upright right from the start and it worked.  I also really felt the last few in my glutes – a lot.  Guess it was working.    Probably a combo of the items above plus just being fatigued overall.  Glad the number of reps per set decreases through the rest of the week.

The partner WOD was a ton of fun.  I think I was initially partnered with Dan (coaches paired us up) but when it came time for the WOD I was with George.  We worked really well together and both pushed harder because of each other – not wanting to let the other down.  We only had  few seconds to try and figure out our game plan and though we didn’t get it fully defined we both were thinking along the same lines and it worked really well.  He started with 5Kb swings and then I finished them up and then he did all 7 burpees – round 1.  And we continued to alternate from there meaning I started the next round of KB swings then he finished them and I did the burpees and we just kept at it.  Our communication was solid (always a necessity in partner WODs) – brief stating of the rep we were on and switching off seamlessly. 

The numbers worked well.  It was easy and made sense to split the 10KB swings up (even though 20kg isn’t feeling too heavy for me anymore) – George noted that he was pretty much done by the end and I mostly agreed.  The 7 burpees are just enough to hurt but not enough to break them up.  That nasty number of 7 reps.  Heh.

We lost count – thinking initially that we had finished 7 rounds plus a bit but then realized it was actually 9 when Dan and Cam put up their score of 8+ rounds (we were just ahead of them).  I loved it.  Couldn’t have picked a better partner myself and pushed really hard because of it.

Adding the SEX WOD work here because there really wasn’t much more today…

Monday's Extra

1) SXF WOD

Back Squat

6x6rep @70% (+5kg's to last week) – 10kg overall

6x6 @66kg (see above)

Partner WOD

6min AMRAP

10 Kettlebell Swings 32/20kg

7 Burpees

9 + 13 (see above)

2) EMOM for 10mins perform 'x' Handstand Push-ups
* 'x' = a number you can hold across all 10sets 

5-5-5-5-4-4-3-3-3-4 all Rx

3) SXF Yoga Class or 60mins mobility & stretching

60 minutes mobility

Followed up with WOD with HSPU’s EMOM for 10 minutes.  Did this with George and Chris (who did 10 strict for the full 10 minutes – awesome!).  I started optimistically with 5 reps.  My first ever sports class we did this exact WOD at the start.  My numbers from that day back in January (5-5-5-5-4-3-3-3-3-3) are fairly similar with the biggest difference being that tonight I was Rx-ing them – back in January I was using an abmat still.  My kip also felt strong tonight better than before though because I’m  fully tucking now I need to ensure that my  hands aren’t too close to the wall (which they were a few times causing me to just fall off the wall in the tucked position).  I also realized that I’ll always have a mat under my head even while doing them strict as there were a few (too many actually) times that I dropped down hard onto my head because of fatigue in my shoulders.  Still hung on though and was happy to squeeze out that extra rep in the last set.  Totally tired and sore little muscles in my shoulders (also from Saturday’s dips) from this one.

Wasn’t going to stay for yoga though it felt so good last week – it was too late being at 7:30 (getting home by 9).  Instead I did about 45 minutes of solid mobility.  Some on my shoulders, a little on my hamstrings then the majority on my hip flexors.  Started with a solid 5 minutes or so on each side rolling on the lacrosse ball (mostly stayed there until it was about to make me cry).  Followed this up with another 5 minute on each side of pigeon pose.  Walked around a little after that and it was a weird sensation – basically I spent 10 minutes barely moving lying on the ground and then felt like I’d been run over.  Good times.  Lastly I did some solid child’s pose.  Not sure how long I was in this but it was good mostly because Sacha came over at one point and pushed down on my sacrum for a bit and helped me deepen the pose (which is something I was really craving last week in the yoga class).  She then did another set of her HSPU’s then came back and did it again.  Seriously amazing.  Loved it (and her obviously).   So my hips are a lot more mobile and also feeling a bit odd as they haven’t been this open in several weeks now. 

Good night and happy it was over relatively early so that I could spend 2 hours skyping with my best friend – it is the little things!

8/7 – DU’s and Rows and SEX WOD

Another rainy day today which meant that the running portion of the WOD was cancelled in favor of rowing – this is always the case, not because running in the rain is bad (I miss running in the rain) but rather because the road actually floods (quite easily at that) and it would be more like swimming rather than running.

Rowing it was (which we’ve been doing so much of lately).

Before that though we had a little gynamstic-y fun.

Pre-WOD

L - Sit 

3 Max Effort L-Sit Holds

25-25-27 seconds

Then

2 x 6 Minute AMRAP

50 Double Unders

200m Run Row

*2 Minutes Rest between each AMRAP

Round 1 - 3+20 DU’s Rx

Round 2 - 2+50 DU’s +176m Rx

Partnered up with Cam for the WOD today which included the L-sit holds.  He convinced me to give them a go on the parallettes rather than the pull-up bars (parallettes are harder apparently) so I did.  It wasn’t too bad though I did them with bent knees.  My abs were already killing from Monday and Tuesday so that didn’t help.  I managed to get 25 seconds in the first round as Cam counted up by 5’s – I pretty much dropped once it hit 25 seconds like that was my target.  In the second round I wanted to match this.  Going into the third Cam knew that I would be doing the same (this boy knows me for sure) so he didn’t count much above 20, I think he stopped at about 22 seconds then went silent and left it up to me.  Because of this I gained two extra second before dropping.  Felt good to get more but man did it hurt.  He laughed at me (in a good way).

Then it was on to the double AMRAP.  I sneakily got to go first based on the fact that Cam made me go first on the L-sits (I didn’t want to but that’s how it went) so because of this I didn’t have to wait 15 minutes before getting through this – so glad to have it over sooner rather than later – it was a lung burner.

Started out solidly on the DU’s (and as a note, I did 50 unbroken when we were doing the 30 second test before the WOD – I stopped at 50 not wanting to kill myself before the WOD).  The DU’s helped me keep pace with most of the boys.  I think I might have actually been ahead of everyone in my group that was actually doing DU’s (not scaled).  I got big chunks for all though they were diminishing a bit more by the end (down to sets of 10 or so).

I felt solid on the row even though it hurt (butt and hamstring cramping again- still?).  My pace on average throughout both WODs was 1:55/500m or below which I liked.  I also really focused on keeping my stroke rate low so that I could focus on catching my breath.  I noticed that I can maintain the same pace with anywhere between a 28-32 stroke rate so obviously I’m targeting the lower number.  I noticed a lot of the bigger boys in the second round weren’t getting that extra ‘rest’ at the end of the stroke which would make it easier on them if they could time it well – technique on the row makes a huge difference. 

I took my time in the transitions, walking to my rope and shaking out my legs so that I  could get feeling back and then trying to get right into the DU’s and bang out as many as I could before tripping up.  It helped overall I think.  Focused rest when necessary – getting right onto the rope knowing that I didn’t have a huge set but that I’d then get to rest.  Little things make big differences to the overall score.  I was happy to get as far as I did in the second round given that my DU’s sets were getting smaller as I was tiring.  I think I had about 45 seconds or less when I finished the last set of DU’s and headed to the rower.  Cam told me he’d let me know when there were 15 seconds left so I could go all out but I really wanted to finish the 200m so I went hard (as hard as I could anyway) right from the start of that last piece with my split closer to 1:50/500m.  I still didn’t finish but was so close – it definitely hurt but I really did want it and it was worth it.  I rolled off the rower and was so happy to be finished.  Definitely tough to rest for 2 minutes then go again on the same thing.  A new challenge.

Followed that up with the extra work.  There were two parts tonight and while I don’t usually talk about those workouts publicly (top secret y’all) – today I want to for a few reasons.

Sports Extra (SEX) WOD – August 7, 2012

1 x Max Set T2B

12

First we had to do one set of max toes to bar – I have had limited success linking these together in the past though I think my max before today was 4.  I knew I had one chance and I managed to get 12.  Not only get 12 but get 12 solidly and made them look pretty too.  Coach Jono was sitting on the box beside me and noticed and made some comment like ‘don’t screw these up’ and as I kept going and he kept encouraging me I noticed from my peripheral vision that people were stopping what they were doing (barbell club) and watching.  It was both awesome and intimidating all at once.  I felt strong and on every kip could feel the lightness in my grip on the bar and being able to move my hands a bit more, it was amazing.  I managed to get 12 in all before I missed on the 13^th and my abs were on fire – so sore still.  Definitely happy though.  There was a bit of an ‘awesome’ dance afterward.

Backsquats

7x5 @ 75%+5kg

7x5 @68kg

Not much to talk about on the squats themselves specifically but rather on mindset.  My legs are tired and I knew it was going to be another heavy squat day – my hip flexors are crazy tight even with insane amounts of mobility on them and lately I haven’t been looking forward to squatting.  Today I was over 80% of my 1RM for the work but instead of dreading the work all day I decided to be positive.  To love squats.  I made an agreement with myself and told all my friends that if I complained at all about squats that they could give me burpees.  It was set.  I didn’t want burpees (and squats) so I let myself love squats – even as Cam did everything he could to try and agree that the squats were going to be horrible.  And guess what… the squats weren’t horrible.  They were way easier to go overall with my focus being on the positives – getting through one set – knowing I was that much closer to them being done – feeling strong.  Enjoying the movement.  Half way through, only one set left.  All of it helped and they didn’t feel as heavy as they would have if I’d been negative.  So that’s the lesson – focus on the positive, turn things around and they are in fact easier.  Loved it.

7/20 - Saturday Sports Class

Friday night was another long one with Tarrsha and I being mostly motivated by thoughts of Nando’s chicken to get the work done.  We didn’t leave Southern til almost 7pm, grabbed some food and then it felt like bed time.  We wondered what the rest of the world’s Friday night looks like – we weren’t alone though – the box was pretty busy with everyone trying to get the extra stuff done – the energy was awesome.

We were back at it the next morning though we thankfully had a bit of a sleep in with no mandated SXF WOD.  Sports class only starting at 10am.  Sweet.

Partner Warm-up (practice for team stuff)

200m buddy carry (each)

10 bootstraps

10 scorpions

10 lying leg cross

10 inchworms

Then

100m farmer carry with 2x16kg KB (each)

Handstand hold while partner does 10 pull-ups

5 x synchronized barbell complex (deadlift, power clean, front squat, press, ohs = 1 rep)

WOD

EMOM10

2 power cleans @ 70-75% 1RM

45.5kg

Then

2 x 6 minute AMRAP

15 ring dips

15 front squats (42.5/60kg)

30 unbroken double unders

2+18 then 2+10 (Rx squats and du’s, orange band on ring dips)

Partnered up with Steph2 on the warmup which was fun.  Realised after at breakkie that we weigh the same amount too which made the buddy carry that much easier.  It wasn’t too bad though I could feel the tiredness in my glutes and hammies from all the squatting during the week.  We had the option of breaking them up if we wanted but we didn’t bother, just went the entire distance without stopping.  I could tell this was a Coach Scotty warm-up because he throws fun (and different) stuff into them (like the sled push and overhead plate carries the week before).  The entire group was having a good time with it, laughing and being silly with some ass slapping (giddy up horsey) and hip checks happening.  Laughter to wake us up.  Moved through the rest of the warm up pretty easily though the mirroring on the BB complex was funny too, just another little challenge to be in sync with someone else/ work on timing.

For the EMOM WOD I partnered with Ali, that was good.  Going into it I was planning 45kg (71% of my 1RM power clean of 63kg) so that extra 0.5kg wasn’t a big deal.  They felt solid throughout, which became funny after in the second WOD when power cleaning 42.5kg felt heavy.  Um.  Ya.  Coach Scotty told us to focus on technique and to put the bar down and reset for each rep rather than going touch and go which I so wanted to do out of instinct.  It was good though.

The second WOD was another challenge – having a break in the middle then having to fight through it all over again is another aspect that takes more mental power than physical.  You know it’s going to hurt, you know how you performed in the previous go and though you’re more tired you’re pushing for that same score.  I (thankfully) used the orange bands for the ring dips which ware by far a huge weakness for me – even then by the end it was quite tough.  Throughout Ali was busting out the 15 reps without any bands faster than I was doing them assisted.  Definitely need to work on those.

The front squats were a huge struggle.  As I mentioned above cleaning the 42.5kg bar was tough which meant not wanting to put it down but with 15 reps I had no choice.  I think I tried to do 8 or 9 and then 7 or 6 for each round, breaking it up only once.  I’m not sure if it is because of a lack of front squatting lately or the tiredness of a week doing the Smolov intro but my legs weren’t too happy. 

The DU’s though felt good and I managed them all unbroken on the first go even though at times the last couple of reps were a bit of a struggle.  Being solid at these really did help me on this WOD as I could breeze through them and get moving onto the next round even though I’d have to break up the dips and squats.  An asset to have for sure. 

Yesterday (Sunday) was a rest day and was greatly needed.  The weekend overall helped my spirit as well, breakfast (lunch) with the girls after Sports Class was fun as was catching up with Kelly and Pat for coffee in Freo then relaxing over an early dinner with Sharon.  Then yesterday I went to my normal coffee house and instead of writing I had the most beautiful conversation with a lady that has just moved over to Perth at the age of 66 for no reason other than it felt like the place she needed to be.  The world is fun of inspiring people and I’m taking all the time I can lately to connect with them which is buoying me up and I truly feel happiness radiating from within me.  I like it.  Take time for these things, they matter just as much as the hard training.