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.

8/10 - Saturday Sports Class

1) Back Squats

10x3rep @85% (+ 5kg's to last week)

10x3 @73kg

2) Comp WOD

9min AMRAP of;
3 Muscle-ups 6 pull-ups/ 6 dips
6 Thrusters 60/42.5kg

4 +6 pull-ups + 6 dips (30kg thrusters)

3) 10 x 100m Sprints
*rest will be determind by your group/partners 

No time for these (thankfully!!!)

It always feels like I’ve just left when I return for Saturday sports class.  It also feels like the sun shining is really the only difference – it barely feels like I’ve had a nights sleep to rest and this was especially true after the rope climbs and KB swings of last night.  My shoulders were heavy when I woke up and my legs just tired.  You can imagine how much I was looking forward to more squatting but alas, the burpee rule still applies – no negative talk about backsquats or you guessed it… burpee penalty (self-imposed).

Anyway, we started with a full hour to get through the back squats.  This was sufficient time and I managed to get them all done without failing any even though the weight was actually 91% of my 1RM backsquat (really curious to see what it will be after all this).  Worked through with Sacha which was good, we got a chance to chat and work on our hip mobility in between sets.  I tried to rest a minimum of 3 minutes between rounds which at times was closer to 4 or 5 which was needed.  I also had Sacha spot me for most of them as well again, ‘just in case’ because of how I was feeling.  You just never know and since we’re not supposed to drop the bar but rather get through the movement it worked to be aware.

Following this we set up for the WOD.  I usually love going first but when the girls (Ali and Sacha) made me go first without thought I almost dreaded it.  I had no motivation or desire as I was just so physically exhausted.  I kept the weight low on the thrusters and knew that with the current state (still) of my hands I wasn’t going to get c2b (what we were supposed to scale to) so I just did pull-ups and dips (on the bars, not the rings),  It was still crazy hard.  I didn’t even think about counting (had Ali for that thankfully) and when Sacha asked me at the end how many rounds I’d gotten I truly had no idea and I really didn’t care.  I had to ask Ali.  This WOD however for me what just to focus on each movement and get through them rather than racing the clock or whatnot.  I had to break up the pull-ups because of my hands and then dips were the part that failed first.  They are similar to HSPU’s in that when they go they go so you need to back off before failure.  It was still tough but I made it through (mostly) the full range of motion.  I struggled but it was one of those days.  The thrusters felt solid – Coach Hayden told me to keep my elbows up and really drive through which made a huge difference and definitely made me feel stronger (as could be on the day).

Followed it up with a well earned breakfast of pancakes and bacon and eggs which I struggled to eat with a knife and fork as I could barely lift my arms at this point (I think the feeling was similar for many who had done the Friday night WOD).  I had to use two hands to hold my coffee.  Hard times.  Timmy and Jack came by Foam though - awesome to catch up with them too and compare rope climb marks.  Miss you boys!

Rest day Sunday – so happy!!

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.

7/9 – Testing Week Continues

And so we continue on with testing week – the one that we did back in April.  It’s fun to compare the results though I didn’t actually do tonight’s WOD the last go around.  Here’s my chance.

WOD #1

400m run/row

1:25

It was raining so we all rowed.  I asked Hayden why we didn’t run in the rain later on and he pointed to the flooded street out front.  Good call Coach.  Never noticed this before.  It was pretty much a lake and I kind of feared a bit for my car stalling out as I was leaving the box.  Why is my life enveloped in flooding right now (two Canadian cities are under water, ugh).

The row was good.  I was thinking about 1:30 going into it and managed to hold under 1:50/500m split throughout though I was definitely feeling it in my legs – my hammies were still tight from all the squats the night before.  I also had a higher stroke rate that I’d have preferred – it was over 30 the entire way indicating that I wasn’t being as efficient as I could be though that being said, if I can get my split to drop at the (slightly) higher stroke rate then I can then focus on lowering the stroke rate at the same speed.  Give and take.

WOD #2

12-9-6

Power cleans (60/42.5kg)

50 unbroken DU’s

5:45 (42.5kg, broken DU’s)

Started on this one thinking the power cleans would be heavy though they didn’t feel too bad (as Brendo noted – the weight gets lighter as soon as 3-2-1-Go… is called – truth).  I did 7 and 5 on the first set, 5-4 and then 6 unbroken (ouch).  I also planned to go for unbroken DU’s as I’ve done 50 unbroken twice in the past week, I started out on the first set and had to struggle to hang on from 40 onward and tripped up at 47.  Argh…  this definitely took a lot out of me and I knew from then on that I wouldn’t be going unbroken – my shoulders (from HSPU’s) and forearms were screaming already so I bailed out of the ‘unbroken’ at that point but continued on at that point starting my DU’s at zero.  Did about 35 then finished off before hitting the cleans again.  I did managed to do most of the first two sets of cleans with a hook grip though – improvement right there though touch and go it got a little weird.  Anyway, something I need to get used to it helped.

Afterward went next door for open gym and did a bit of skill work – Steph and I have plans to be awesome…

I did

3 x 5 ring dips with the yellow band,

then

3x5 jumping muscle up transitions on the rings

Got some good feedback from Rhys on the jumping MU’s too – getting my head through and into a dip rather than trying to just straight into the locked out position.  Helped and started to feel like a MU would.  Baby steps.

Rolled out for a while and gossiped with Mikey and Shaun while waiting for the torrential downpour to stop – at least it eventually died down.

7/8 – HSPU’s and Backsquats and Oly

I can’t believe three months have passed since we last did these testing WODs.  It feels like it’s more recent than that.  Time flies.  So we had a chance last night to go through them again and see (any) improvement (or not).

WOD

5 Minute AMRAP

Handstand Push Up (to 1 abmat)

44 (previous was 34 reps)

Then

Find your 1RM Back Squat (in 20 minutes)

20kg x 10 reps

50kg x 5 reps

60kg x 3 reps

70kg x 2 reps

then singles at:

75-77.5-81(f) (previous and current 1RM PR is 80kg)

Was really happy with the new PR on the HSPU’s though it felt way harder than last time.  I started out with a set of 9 (came off the wall just before the 10^th which was what I was aiming for) but still happy with that set as I think my previous max was 5 reps.  I didn’t have any set plan for this go – I think last time I was aiming for 5 reps every thirty seconds but this time I just came down, shook it out and went back up.  I tried to really focus on getting a good kip, back on the wall, knees to chest and kicking into the wall.  Coach Claire told me to get my hips into it more than I was, getting that explosiveness similar to a clean.  It helped especially as I started to tire.

No new PR on my backsquat.  There was plenty of time to give 81kg another go but I really wasn’t feeling it.  I remember last time how badly I wanted the 80kg’s but last night I just didn’t have much motivation at all.  I got the 81kg back up but Tara had to help me as I just collapsed forward with the bar, it felt sloppy and I kind of gave up.  Not my finest moment but with the ‘chill’ in the air it was where I was at.

Afterward went over to the barbell room planning to work on some weaknesses with Steph but since it wasn’t open gym time our ring dips and pistols got shunned (managed one set of each though first) by Coach Scotty and we had to do the Oly session instead so…

Barbell Club

Oly

Clean and Jerk

5 x (2+1) – two cleans one jerk

Warm-up 25-35-40

Working 45-45-45-45-45

Clean Pulls

3x3

Working 55-55-55

Last time I did this work was back on May 13^th (again how time flies – what happened to June?).  I did working sets then at 50kg though being at 45kg was better today since I’d already done the backsquats – the second rep of each squat clean was a bit taxing and my shoulders definitely felt the HSPU’s on the jerks.  Managed to get through them and love working with Steph since we’re fairly similar and got a lot of feedback from Coach Scotty.  Needing to be more aggressive and faster on the dip and drive on the jerk and then speeding up sooner on the clean pulls (and if rolling slightly onto your toes is a byproduct of this then that’s okay).  

Was a good session and obviously we skipped the backsquat work.