Roaming exerciser

It's been a pretty busy weekend of exercise use, so far.. Some see a long weekend as a chance to rest, but not me! Well.. Rest is lovely and all, but I enjoy the chance to get good workouts in, too. I started off with a little rest.. I opted to skip my early morning workout time because I knew I had a busy day and evening that wouldn't include any rest. I needed to meet up with my team for the upcoming Bracket Buster competition to do a workout which will help to seed the teams (it's a bracket style comp, so I guess they want to at least try to match up teams like they would for March Madness.. We'll see how it goes!) mid-day and one of the guys on the team said he would do the regular days training (he follows the same program that I do) after that workout, so I decided a little extra rest in the morning would be the better option for the day. It wound up working well.. Mason had the day off school, so I knew I needed to not be a tired mommy to keep up with my guys! The morning went pretty much exactly how you hope a morning won't go.. I won't bore with the details, but it was rough! We did manage to get Miles in for a haircut, which was badly needed! So we will call it.. Maybe not a win, but perhaps a draw? Anyway.. My mother in law got in to town (birthday weekend!) and to our house about noon and I had to take off right away to head out to meet with the team.
The team workout went well.. It was:
10 min time cap
(Female partners)
5 over the bar burpees
50 thrusters (45#)
(Then males go w 65# bar)
(Female partners)
10 over the bar burpees
40 shoulder to overhead (65#)
(Males go w 95# bar)
(Female partners)
15 over the bar burpees
30 squats (95#)
(Males go with 135#)
We completed the workout in 9:10.. Hate to say it, but it was a pretty easy workout. I think the hardest part for me was just doing those 15 burpees as quick as I could! Otherwise..felt pretty good! So after that, we did the strength and workout for the day.. It was:
Power snatch from power position: 3@95#,3@105#,2(2@115#)
Strict press: 2 sets of 4@105#, 2 sets of 4@110#
Snatch high pull:4 sets of 5@135#/4x15 back extensions
Then the workout:
15 ground to overhead(GTO)@30#
15 walking lunges (each leg)@30#
50 double unders(DU)
12 GTO
12 lunges
50 du
9 GTO
9 lunges
50 du
6 GTO
6 lunges
50 du
3 GTO
3 lunges
50 du

Not too bad.. Shoulders were burning pretty bad, but I finished in 10:44. And that was it for Friday workouts. I went straight from there down to JoCo to work for the evening, which is always fun! I was stinky and sweaty, but so is everyone else at the gym.. Especially these days with it being so hot, you don't even have to be working out to be a sweaty mess.
Saturday also had a slightly more leisurely start, since we were meeting up in Madison, IN, about an hour and a half away, to do the on-line team series workouts! One of the guys on the team had to work all night, so he requested we not start until 11a.. Didn't even have to set an alarm! But I got my stuff ready, met up with John and his wife, Lisa, and we were on our way! It was a fun day of working out.. We started with:
10 min for all 4 of us to find a 3 rep max front squat.
I had an idea of where I would be and it went pretty well. I started with 185#, which felt pretty good. After the guys took a set, I went again for 195#.. I got that done, but I wouldn't call it pretty.. But no beauty points for squats, so I'll take it! With a 1 rep max front squat at 210, I think that was pretty good for 3.. That third one was rough! I was going to go for 200#, if we had time.. But I was hardly pushing people out if the way to get to it.. Given the ugliness of the 3rd rep at 195, I was a little concerned that things might get rough if I went heavier and this was only the first of 4 workouts to do today.. Didn't want to strain my back! Don't get me wrong.. I would have done it, but when time ran out, I wasn't exactly bummed.. So that was my front squat..
We quickly moved on to the thruster/chest to bar pull-up workout.. It was:
2 m/f partners work to complete:
30 thrusters
30 CTB
20 thrusters
20 CTB
10 thrusters
10 CTB
The male and female work at the same time on the opposite movement, so while the male does thrusters, the female works through CTB. You can't switch movements until your partner is done. Then the next partners do the same..
I was partnered with Nick (Fory) and he was moving quick! I busted my butt to try to keep up as best I could and we finished our part in about 6min.. I hadn't hurt that bad in a while! But it feels good to push hard and I feel like we did well. The whole workout took our team 13:40.
We took a bit more of a break after this one! But then moved on to the relay workout, which was:
1 person at a time:
30 calorie row
30 bar facing burpees
30 hang cleans(95#)
Rowing is a tough one for me.. There's not too much I can do about it, because if I overdo it on the row, it completely blows up my workout..so my part took me about 5:30 and our total time for the team was 18:40 something, I think? Nick went last and he blew through it! I moved alright, but nothing too special. I managed to hang on for 20 hang cleans before a small break and then finishing up the 30..
Last, but not least was a variation of one of the open workouts from this year.. It was:
Alternating rounds with your partner (so a 1:1 work:rest, which was nice!):
30 du
15 snatch (55# for us, 75# for the fellas)
We all moved well through that.. The guys alternated for 12 min, then the girls were up for our 12 minutes. Guys finished 13 rounds +2 du and we completed 12 rounds +18 du. All of us went unbroken on the snatches throughout the workout and I don't think we had many trip ups on the rope..like maybe just 1 trip up each? Not sure, but I felt like we did a good job on that one.. And that was it! Our first weekend of workouts for the team series in the books!
But it doesn't stop there, folks.. Sunday is here and that's always a good time for working out! I had a few things planned.. First I wanted to do some work on my running and then go through a granite games workout.. So I did a 800m warm up, and then 3x1mi repeats with a small break in between each mile. My goal was to be in the 7:20-7:40 range, but I finished my first mile in 6:59, so figured I should try to maintain that pace or even negative split! My next mile was 6:58 and the third was 6:45.. I was happy with that. As JD and I dubbed it my 'crossfit to 5k' plan.. So far seems to be going pretty well. Next up was the sprint/HSPU workout from the upcoming competition..
Run 100'
Run with 60# object (I used our sandbag) 100'
20 HSPU
100' sprint
100' carry
10 HSPU w 9" deficit
100' sprint
100' carry
5 HSPU w 12" deficit
This went pretty well.. I went slightly over the time cap, but I had to adjust my HSPU deficit between rounds, so I think I should be able to go a little faster.. Plus this was the first time for me to try a 12" deficit, so I took it a little slower.. It looked crazy! So mentally had to get myself ready to try it. But once I did, it felt fine, so I should be ok!
Next up was to do my day 6 stuff.. It looked like this..
Overhead squats: 4@115, 4@125, 3(4@135)
Snatch balance(no dip): 4 sets of 3 @85#
Sotts press:4(6@55#)/4x15 GH raises
Then the workout:
21/15/9
Overhead squats(95#)
CTB
This went pretty well.. I know I had just done 60 CTB the previous day, but I have a workout for the competition with 80 CTB in it, so figured I better keep practicing! I tried to go unbroken on the OHS and almost made it!..but my shoulders needed a break at 13 of 15, so I had to set it down for a second.. Not a huge deal.. CTB went well and I did the rounds in 15/6, 10/5, and all 9.. And it felt pretty good! Overall this took me 5:34 to complete.
I took a bit of a break to coach for a bit, but then tried to do some muscle ups.. It wasn't a great day on those and I didn't really have a plan or workout in mind for them.. I did about 15 and just wanted to use it as practice.. And that was all she wrote! Literally.. That's all I'm going to write for now because I'm tired!

Mostly restful

With a pretty busy weekend ahead and a couple solid days of training this week, I was feeling good about having an 'active rest' day today. Since I'm on a crash coarse to improve my 5k run, I started off the day with some running..
400m easy warm up
4x100m sprint on the minute
4x400m run with 200m recovery jog

Each 100m sprint took me about :15-:17 and the 400's took 1:16-1:18, which was better than my last 4x400's, so I'll take it. It is far from magically making my 5k sub 20, but, hey.. I'm workin on it! After my sprints, I did some bench press. Since we started a new cycle, focusing more on snatch and clean and jerk and getting away from some of the basic strength stuff, like bench and Deadlifts, I talked with my coach about how he would suggest I continue to work those lifts.. He said we do a lot of DL work through the pulls in our lifts, but that it wouldn't hurt to do DL 1x a week and to do some bench sets on our active rest/recovery days..so I did DL earlier this week while working on a granite games workout and got my bench on today. I just did:
Bench
4x105, 4x125, 3(4x140)
Then, finally, the actual work for the day, which was a 3k row. This went a little slow today and took me 13:20 to complete it. I tried to keep my form and just row as well as I can.. Not sure if I'll ever really be 'good' at that darn thing..
But that was it for the day. There was a lot of things I could have/should have done around the house today, but Miles and I were feeling pretty lazy. We spend a lot of the week running around doing things, so I felt like it wouldn't be terrible for us to just take a day and chill. Mason has the whole 4 days off for the weekend and Grandma comes in town tomorrow. The boys will have a lot of fun visiting with grandma and grandpa Blunck and their Aunt Melissa this weekend.. Unfortunately I'll be in and out of the house for Friday, Saturday and Sunday..but Monday..for the main event! (Miles birthday) I get to spend time hangin with the fam and our little guy.. Who..at this moment, we hope.. Is settling in for his first nights sleep in his big bed! It wasn't looking too promising, there, at first.. He was having way too much fun enjoying his freedom to roam.. But maybe he's settled in? It's quiet up there, so we will see..

Making lemonade..

Not literally making lemonade, of coarse, but I was feeling a little tired and worn out and like maybe a second workout wouldn't be a great thing for me today, but it turned out to be quite productive! My first workout was pretty good, too, but it felt like it took forever and really wore me down a bit.. It was:
Cleans from power position:2(3@95#),2(3@115#),2(3@125),2(2@135)
Front squats:4@135,4@155,3(4@175)
Jerks from rack:4@145,4@155,4@165,4@175
Clean high pulls:4(4@165)
10 min EMOTM 2 touch n Go cleans @145-155#

Whew! Just that part took quite a while! It didn't help that Miles was feeling extra needy today..especially any time I was setting up or in the middle of something! And then having to go later in the morning, when folks, including myself, are more chatty.. But it was also just a combination of a lot of things that take time and energy.. But never-the-less, it's time for the workout!

10 front squats (145#)
20 burpees over the bar
30 strict HSPU
40 Deadlifts (145#)

This took me 8:34 to complete and it went mostly well, though the HSPU felt quite a bit harder than usual. I thought doing 3 sets of 10 would be a conservative approach, but I could tell right away that this was not going to happen.. I managed sets of 8/8/6/4/4. Deadlifts went in sets of 20/15/5.. And that's it! Not too bad, but definitely feeling the burn. We went home to get some food and some rest.. And pick up another boy! The 3 of us loaded up later in the afternoon and went back for more.. I wanted to get in another go at the clean/MU workout for my comp in a couple weeks, and this seemed like the best chance to get that in.. So despite feeling a bit weary, I went for it.. And turns out, it was a good idea! I felt much better during this attempt. Much more 'in control' vs feeling constantly behind or like the workout is beating me.. I managed to come just shy of the full work in the 9 minute time cap, which was much improved from last week! I also feel good about continuing to improve on that because I know I had to spend some time at/on the rings trying to get folks out of the way enough so I wouldn't kick anyone.. So I'm feeling good! Or much better, anyway.. Biggest improvement was that my cleans felt good all the way through and I didn't have any misses on the rings. I'm sure I'll have at it at least one more time before I head out to Minnesota.. Just might conquer the thing by the time of the big show!.. Maybe? I also wanted to work on my sprint a bit, so I asked a former runner what he suggested and he threw out the idea of doing mt climbers into a sprint?.. So of coarse I said 'sold!' I did 8 rounds of 15s mt climbers and 100m sprint EMOTM.. And it was a good one! I think I'll try to do that maybe once a week over the next couple weeks? We will see.. Or at least maybe something along those lines.. So all in all, definitely a good day of working out.. Which is my symbolic lemonade, you see.. So there we go!

Buns of steel

Suzanne Summers has nothing on CrossFit when it comes to workin that booty. Between squats, snatches, weighted lunges, thrusters, and weighted over the box step overs, my legs are feelin it! Luckily, today didn't call for any squatting, though, obviously that's not to say my legs weren't busy.. Today was:
Power clean from power position: 2 sets of 3@115#, 2 sets of 3@125#, 1 set of 3@135#
Push press: sets of 4@135/145/155#
4 sets of 8 good mornings @75#
4 sets of 6 vertical jumps (working on jumping from power position to help with lifts)

This all went well and felt relatively easy. I'm guessing this is by design..my coach is no dummy and it seems like every time I think something just worked out well by surprise, turns out it was all a part of his master plan (ie: heavy DL before a workout w lighter DL.. Makes the workout wt feel easier!..go figure!). So I'm sure today was supposed to feel easy after a fairly tough day the day yesterday.. One thing that was a little tough, which I intentionally pushed myself on, was the push press. I really had to fight for the last rep at 155#, but I got it!
The workout was:
5 rounds
3 hang cleans (135#)
3 push press (135#)
15 cal row

I felt like I did pretty well on this.. Did all the barbell work unbroken and fairly quickly.. I didn't really rest or mess around in my transitions.. I know my row isn't fast, but I felt like I moved through it as well as I could. All told, it took me 10:09 to complete. I say I 'felt' like I had done well because, A) I was kind of surprised it took me 10 min.. I thought I was moving faster? Time flies when you're having fun, I guess? And B) others of our crew that did this workout seem to be completing it around 7:30?! I honestly don't know how I could have gone over 2 min faster.. I guess I'm just THAT bad at rowing!? Damn it.. Unless I was just moving slower than I thought.. But there's not much I can do about the row.. I work on it and work to optimize what I've got, but if I push it too hard in a workout, I turn into a complete mess and can hardly move through the next thing.. So it's a balancing act, I suppose. But overall, despite how others did, I feel good about how I moved through it. I don't think I had been able to get through hang cleans at 135 as efficiently as I did today in any previous workouts at that weight..and I know my STO (shoulder to overhead) has improved a ton.. So I'll take it. Y'all just keep your speedy rowing and I'll keep my 'cruising down the river with a beer in my hand' pace.. You think you're so cool with your tallness..and your big pulls.. Good for YOU!!
So that was it for the morning sesh. I went home to tend to the young'uns..send Mason off on the bus and gather Miles up for the trip to the gym. I wanted to go back in to practice another one of the granite games workouts that has been released.. Deadlifts and rope climbs and burpees.. I warmed up with some sets of Deadlifts. I went a little heavier than 80% so I could have a bit of that 'ah, this is lighter' effect for the workout.. So I built up to sets of 4 at 265#. The workout is:
5 rounds with a 10 min time cap
2 rope climbs
4 DL(240#)
8 over the bar burpees
This one wasn't too bad! I mean..it hurt and wasn't easy, but I easily finished within the time cap, completing the work in 7:57. I think I can go a little faster, too, which I have no doubt I'll need to if I'm going to hang with the big dogs! I probably shouldn't call them 'dogs', aye? Definitely won't refer to them as such when we are out there competing! I did some core work..50 abmats/50 v-ups/50 rowboats and a couple muscle ups, but otherwise, called it a day! I had to rush home to get Miles' bed delivered, afterall.. Big stuff happening for our little guy.. Hope he's ready!..or more accurately.. I hope WE are ready! And that's about it for today! I have some fun team things to look forward to this weekend.. I think my bracket buster team is going to try to meet on Friday to do the qualifier workout; and then Saturday is a fun-filled day of workouts for the on-line CrossFit Team Series.. Good times! Of coarse, Miles also turns 2 on Monday, so fun times to be had, there, as well! And..right now the poor lil guy is crying for me, so I'd better run!

Case of the Mondays!

So roughly once a year.. I oversleep. This morning was that special time of year! I wasn't overly worked up about it, since I knew I could go in to the gym with Miles later in the morning..but still messed me up a tiny bit.. I just chalked it up to being an indication that I needed a bit more sleep today.. Nothing wrong with that! So I got Mason off to school and Miles and I took off for the gym. Today's work was:
Snatch from power position: 3@85, 3@95, 3@105, 2(2@110)
Squat: 4@155, 4@175, 3(4@200)
Front rack walking lunges: 4 sets of 6(each leg)@125#/4 sets of 15 GHDs
10 EMOTM 2 touch n go snatch @125#
The workout was:
12 min AMRAP
6 MU
4 snatch @125#
200m run

Well.. Everything had been going quite well.. Snatches from power position and the EMOTM both went well. Squats felt strong.. I was feeling good!..til I got to the workout.. For some reason, I thought I should do the workout in regular nanos instead of my combo/lifting shoes. I didn't think it would make a big difference and I'd rather run in regular shoes..but just before I started, I thought to myself..maybe I should have gone with the lifters.. I don't usually do my full lifts in regular shoes.. Nah. I'll be fine.. Famous last words because I sucked at snatches in those shoes! I suppose I could have just been tired, but after doing 20 snatches at 125# in the 10 min EMOTM without any problem..all the sudden I was dropping snatches left and right at the same darn weight. Hmm.. Not cool. I should have started over with different shoes, but I pressed on. Got a tiny bit better, but it was mostly a wash. Silver lining.. My muscle ups went well, all in sets of 4/2. So that was that. Only completed 2 full rounds and then through 2 snatches in the third round. I definitely should have been into the fourth round if I hadn't flubbed those snatches so badly, which was just frustrating.. But, oh, well. I thought about redoing the workout later, but ultimately decided against it because I didn't want to burn myself out with too many snatches and muscle ups in the first day of the week. My shoulders have been a bit tired from all the MU last week and the combo of cleans and MU.. And I still need to work on that later this week, so gotta keep my shoulders fresh! I did end up going back in to the gym for a bit that evening. I really wanted to practice for the second team series workout, which is:
30 thrusters(65#)
30 chest to bar pull-ups
20 thrusters
20 CTB
10 thrusters
10 CTB
OHHhhhh, man. This workout was rough. I wanted to time it out a bit.. Mostly the sets of thrusters because that would kind of dictate how quickly the CTB needed to be completed (it's a team workout and 1 M/F pair works at the same time, so while your partner does thrusters, you complete your CTB.. So the time it takes to complete thrusters should ideally be the same as the time to complete CTB pull-ups). I wanted to test it to see if it was worth it to push high volume sets of CTB, or if small, quick sets would get the job done in enough time to complete the work, but maybe with a little less burn out. Well.. I'd say, for sure, at least for me, smaller sets..like 5's, or maybe something like 8/8/8/6 and 8/8/4.. Then go for all 10 in the last set? We will see. I know I can do better than what I did this evening, but it's going to be tough! I also did the gym's workout, which was rough, too! Especially following the thruster workout.. This workout was:
10-8-6-4-2
GTO (30# db)
Burpee step over the box(30# db/20")

Whew! It probably didn't help that it's the hottest day of the summer, so far.. But, ouch! It took me 6:09 to finish and I really didn't stop the whole time..and I definitely felt it! It was a good workout and I needed it after my snatch failure-fest and death by thrusters and ctb's.. And that's it for today! Looking forward to the rest of the workouts and lifting for the week..

Feelin fresh!..ish

The boys and I went back to the gym Friday evening because.. I figured it would be fun? It was definitely one of the more humin, hot, sticky summer days that we have had..and you know how kids love to be hot and sweaty! Actually, I've learned that if kids are hot and sweaty, but doing something they think is fun? A-OK.. But if they are hot and contained? Not OK. Not OK at all.. But I digress.. We went in to the gym to find that they were running an extra CrossFit kids class that Mason could join in for, so he was excited about that. Miles also had some buddies to play with, so we were off to a good start! I got to work on some practice for the upcoming on-line team event. They released the first workout, which is just a team version of the first open workout from this year, so I didn't really need to 'practice', I guess? But I wanted to time out the rounds (15 power snatch(55#) and 30 double unders) with a 1:1 work:rest ration, to see how I maintain my pace.. I found that, as long as I don't mess up my du, each round takes a minute and the rest is sufficient to maintain that pace. So that was that.. Then I did some snatch/snatch balance work. Nothing heavy, but working on good positioning. Finally, I was ready to do the workout, which was:
400m run
100m walking lunges
400m run w medicine ball(14#)
100m lunges
400m sandbag(60#) run

This was a good one! I finished in 9:45 and felt like I pushed hard. Definitely the hardest part was the sandbag run. My sandbag was flopped around my neck and laying on my chest a bit, which made it feel like I couldn't get a full breath, but other than that, I felt good. Time to head home, eat, sleep, and get back to it!
Saturday I was up early to get my workout in before heading up to Chicago for the night. Today's workout was to find a max for strict press..which mine is still stuck at 120#. I'm getting pretty good at moving that weight.. And it was a huge jump up from where I had been previously stuck, which was at 100#.. But I'm ready to move on to 125, darn it! Next I did tabata strict handstand push-ups, which went a little something like 6/6/6/5/4/4/4/4. Next up was some jumping good mornings(5 sets of 6 at 65#) and max effort paralette L-sits. For some reason, I decided I was getting WAY too good at L-sits (heavy on the sarcasm there.. L-sits are always rough for me), so I made it harder by putting a weight under my feet, forcing me to keep my feet up higher.. So I was only able to manage :20 for each of those holds. The workout was called 'DT' and it is:
5 rounds
12 Deadlift (115#)
9 hang cleans
6 jerks

This one..was rough.. I started strong with doing each round unbroken, but this was requiring too much rest time between rounds (correction.. I did 11 DL, slight pause, then DL the bar up to do all the hang cleans and jerks unbroken) and made the jerks feel awful. Not to mention the concern of whether the bar would involuntarily fling out of my hands during a clean.. So for the last 2 rounds I would pause after the 11 DL, put the bar down after 7 hang cleans, then do the last 2 cleans into the 6 jerks, which felt much better. If I was going to do this over again, I would probably have gone that route earlier to cut down on the rest time.. Live and learn! I finished in 8:09 rxd.
I didn't have much time, but I wanted to have a go at the round of 12/12 cleans(155#) and MU from the Granite Games workout. I knew it would be rough because my grip was shot from DT and my body was just tired, in general, but I figured I should try.. Cleans went ok. I think it still took me about 2 min to complete the 12. It took me longer to start on the rings, though, and then didn't get much better from there.. My MU just weren't happening.. Looking back, I think that set of 12 MU brought my total for the week (sun-sat) to about 100.. And I think that is maybe just a few too many! Good to know.. I think my usual MU count in a week is closer to 50-60, so I was just a bit worn down from the extra work I did this week.. I wouldn't really change anything, because I'm fine and I need to work on them..always.. But I do think I need to be aware of how many I do in a week, especially leading in to a comp, or something.. So.. The week of Granite Games (future self, if you're reading this..), keep the MU total under 30!.. Or at LEAST under 50? I can handle that..
So that was my workout stuff for the week. Our trip to Chicago was pretty successful. I guess I say 'pretty successful' because I am not a great traveler (motion sickness), the kids were tough at times in the car, and it stormed really hard, delaying the baseball game significantly, putting a damper on the birthday party we were at, and made us miss the free OAR concert.. BUT. All of that is not a huge deal and the main purpose of my trip, to visit with friends and hang with their kids, was a huge success.. So I retract my 'pretty' and give our trip 2 thumbs up. I mean.. I got to catch up with friends I haven't seen in over a year.. Got to meet some of their kids for the first time.. Mason got an autograph from an Oriole during the rain delay, though he did change his allegiances to the Cubs after they started beating the O's.. Anyway. It was a fun weekend and I'm starting to feel better from my car sickness..so bring on the next week! We are starting a new cycle, which I'm excited about. I enjoyed the last 12 weeks and focusing more on base strength, but I'm also looking forward to focusing in on the lifts again.. I have made good gains on those over the last 12 weeks.. 10# on the snatch and 15# for my clean and jerk, but I'm ready for more! And more consistency with those 90+% weights.. So here we go!

A week with the 'girls'

Of coarse I'm referring to the CrossFit workouts given girls names, which are used periodically in training programs to assess your progress, and are referred to as 'the girls'. There are several, and I didn't tackle them all this week, but we took on a few.. First was Amanda, which I already mentioned.. But I'll go through what the rest of the week has looked like.
Tuesday was a Deadlift PR at 305#. It wasn't beautiful, but it was far from some of the atrocious Deadlifts at max efforts that I have seen.. I was safe and stopped when I felt the pull in my back, so I walked away with a 10# pr for the day. After that we did some tabata strict pull-ups, which it started with 6, but maintained sets of 4 for the last 2 minutes.. We also built up to a max push press, where I got stuck at 160#. I think 165 is close..just a bit more connection with the legs and push.. Next time.. After some weighted back extensions, it was time for Diane!
Diane is:
21/15/9
Deadlift(155#)
Handstand push-ups

After the heavy Deadlifts to a PR, this felt pretty good! It moved well and I was able to get through all of the workout unbroken. I moved as quickly as I could and finished up in 3:17. After teaching that evening, I did a short swim, but that was it for the day.
Monday was bench press time, but I was only able to match my previous pr of 175#. I tried for 180, since 175 felt fine..but it was a no go.. We also had some tabata strict dips, some RDLs and strict TTB's..and then time to take on Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is:
21/15/9
Squat cleans(95#)
Ring dips

This was a rough one, as far as 'the girls' are concerned, but I knew it would be tough. Regardless of the weight on the bar, that many front squats adds up and that is definitely where I lost some time. I think I broke the sets of cleans in 1 larger set and then another small set or 2 until the round was done. Dips I did in 2 sets. I messed up and put my rings a little low, so wasn't able to figure out a good 'kip' to help me out, but I finished in 7:09 and that was that! I stopped in to the gym again later just for some practice for the Granite Games workout that has been released. It includes 155# cleans and muscle ups, and I was planning to run through the workout the next morning, so I just wanted to get things ready to go. I also worked on some 1 1/4 squats and split jerks.. Just because.
Which brings me to Thursday.. I started off with some 'from the ground' overhead squats to see where my max is there. All was going well up through 155#. I cleaned and put the 165# bar behind my neck, but I forgot that I would do best with a split jerk at that weight, so just didn't get under the bar enough to even try the squat. Again, I think it's there, but I didn't have time to mess around, so I just moved on. Next I was going to try that Granite Games workout:
12/9/6
Cleans(155#)
Muscle ups

Huh. This one is going to be pretty tough. Those cleans, though I'm able to power clean them well, the quantity of them wears me down quite a bit before heading to the rings. I was able to start with a strong set of 4 on the rings, but wasn't able to duplicate that set and ended up missing one. I think I will try the 12 cleans/12 MU combo a couple more times to really dial in on what my sets should be on the rings in order to move through them quickly, but not miss any. The time cap is 9 min and I only got to 1 clean in the round of 6 by then. I decided to finish, just to feel how the whole workout would go.. I think I finished in the 11 min range? More work to do, for sure, but I know I can improve on that.
Finally, for Thursday, the actual work set for the day was a row, which was 8x250m w a 1:00 rest between each set. I worked on my form and continued to try to make my row as efficient as I can.. I held about a 1:56/500m avg pace, which felt good and sustainable.
And now it's Friday.. Fran-tastic Friday! First, though, was building to a heavy front squat. I went for just a 5# pr at 210# and called it good. My legs were already feeling tired, so I just moved on.. To cleans.. These felt good, but I hit a wall at 185#. It just felt heavy today and I wasn't feeling it..at all.. So, again.. I know when it's not gonna happen, so I just moved on.. I always want to PR, or try for PRs, but sometimes it's just not there, and I have to be smart about when to stop trying. I had some clean Deadlifts and some GH raises to do..and then..time for Fran! Fran is a big one, as far as 'the girls' go..
Fran is:
21/15/9
Thrusters(65#)
Pull-ups

I haven't done this workout in a loooong time! It was actually my first workout back when I returned to the gym after having Miles.. Nice way to get back in to it! But my time that day was in the 8 minute range.. Today I finished in 3:06. I didn't stop/rest/break the sets/get chalk..nothing.. I do think I could have moved through my thrusters a bit quicker, though I also think that a steady, even pace on those is better than trying to go like a bat out of hell and burn out.. Mainly, though, I think I need to speed up my pull-ups. I usually rely on a steady, consistent, efficient butterfly pull-up and am able to do well in workouts with those because I can do big sets and not break or change pace at all.. But in such a quick workout where there isn't much room for error or making up time.. I think I need to find a way to cycle them quicker. My goal..loosely..was to be under 3 min, which I was close to.. I really did try to push and go fast, but I just didn't quite make it. Oh, well. It's where I am right now and, as always, gives me more things to work on or think about in a workout like that. If it ever came down to a final workout in a competition and I was rep for rep with someone on pull-ups.. I need to be able to find another speed and get through those faster! So. That's been it for this week, so far. I may go back this evening to do some running/sandbag carry stuff, which is always good for me to do. I'll be taking an actual DAY OFF this Sunday, since we are going to Chicago to visit some friends.. So might as well work hard before then, right?! We have one more 'named workout' to do tomorrow, and it's a good one.. Hope it goes well!

Gonna take you by surprise and make you realize..

Amanda. That was the benchmark workout o' the day.. I was looking forward to it! But first, the business of lifting weights and trying to lift heavier weights needed to be tended to.. Starting with the squat.
I tried to take the 'take a few more warm up reps' approach, but squats were just feeling heavy today. I was able to slowly stand up 245#, which was my current max squat.. Even though it didn't feel awesome, I thought surely I could handle 5 more pounds..right? That way I could make it a nice, even 250?! Well, I was wrong. I made a valiant effort.. Kept my chest high, which I've been working on not allowing my chest to drop and butt to shoot back, so that part was good. I dropped way down to the bottom, which is another part of the squat I have been working to do a better job of.. I've always been technically low enough in my squats, but lately have been trying to get used to getting all the way to the bottom of a squat to allow for use of the 'bounce reflex' out of the bottom, which transfers over well into the strength needed in a clean. Well, I took that 250 to the bottom, bounced up a little..but then got stuck and had to bail.. Luckily I had a spot, so no big deal. Just wasn't quite there yet! Sometimes you can miss a rep and think 'I should try that again'..this was not one of those occasions.. So while the pr wasn't achieved, I still felt good about making a good effort at maintaining the form that I have been working on and which will be the most beneficial for improving my lifts.. Not great, but I'll take it..
Next up was snatching! I was feeling pretty good and the weights moved well all the way up to 150#, which.. If you had told me I would be able to snatch 150 pretty easily, I never would have believed it.. So it was kind of nice to have that feel like an easy snatch. I moved on to 155#, which would match the pr that I hit a couple weeks ago at the competition.. The first few moved really well, and I thought I was going to be able to get under it pretty easily.. But I kept finishing with the bar just a tad out in front and couldn't quite stick it. Again, though.. I was happy with how well it moved and I know it was just a slight positioning thing that was a little off and it would have been an easy lift. The more I tried, though, the more tired I got, so I eventually had to call it a day. Not a big deal, though. I still feel good about how my lifts are progressing.. Sometimes the max just isn't quite ready!
I had some snatch Deadlifts (4x3 @110%, so 175#) and some weighted GHDs (4x10 w 14#) to do before the workout.. Those went fine, thanks for asking!
The workout was Amanda, which, as I said, I was excited about. Amanda is:
9-7-5
Muscle ups
Full snatch (95#)

I've done this workout a couple times before.. I remember the first time I did it, each snatch was basically a 1 rep max and my MU were all in singles.. It was pretty much 'skill work for time' and I'm pretty sure it took around 30 min? The next time I remember doing the workout was around the Open time this year, so early spring? I believe my time was in the 12 minute range and I was pretty excited about that. Well, given all my MU work lately, I was thinking I could do even better than that. Today my time was 7:40. I started off pretty strong with a good set of 5 MU. I thought about going for 6, but didn't want to miss.. Well, I missed my 3rd of the next set, so finished out the 9 with sets of 2. I took the snatches in sets of 3 and that worked well.. I was back to the rings before they stopped swinging! I made it through the set of 7 MU in 4 and 3; snatches did 3/2/2 because I didn't want to wear out my grip. My set of 5 MU was less than perfect.. Did a set of 3, but then missed my second MU of the next set, so had to finish with 2 singles.. Not a huge deal, but definitely could have shaved :30-1:00 off my time without those misses..darn it.. Next time! I did my last 5 snatches unbroken to finish off the workout. And that's all she wrote for today! I'll head back to the gym to work this evening, but since this week is maxes and benchmark workouts, which I want to give myself the best shot at doing well on, so this week I will back off of the 2-a-days.. Back to it next week, though, but then probably a bit of a taper heading in to the competition.. It's coming soon! They just released a workout: 12-9-7 cleans(155) and MU.. Here we go! It's a 9 min time cap.. If it's just power cleans, and not full squat, I may have a shot to finish it all.. Maybe? Full squat would just take longer.. I'll try it out probably a time or 2.. Time to put all this practice to work! They have also said that the first workout will be a 'snatch ladder of sorts'.. Whatever that means! But I'm definitely getting excited!.. And nervous.. But one dy at a time.. For now, I'm just focused on the lifts and workouts planned for this week! Starting off with a solid Amanda pr..now bring on Diane!

Weekend wrap up

As quickly as I can.. Because my time is limited.. I will review my weekend..mostly the contents of my workouts.. Yay!
So Saturday I only had time for the actual workout/strength work for the day.. Not my usual extra barbell work and team workout.. But. It was a good one, so I wasn't exactly feeling like 'gee.. I need to do some more stuff!' As I left the gym.. Which is good! I did:

5 single strict press at 95%, so 115#. These inexplicably got better each rep? Maybe I should do more than 2 warm up reps? Something to think about as we head in to max week.. I'm sure this is not news to most, but I have noticed that my reps often improve toward the end.. Like I needed the first ones to warm up.. Obviously I know warming up is important, but when it comes to lifting heavy, I seem to usually go for a 'get right to it before I'm tired' kind of gal.. But perhaps a few more warm up reps wouldn't be a bad idea? Especially as I get closer to that max weight.. Anyway. I'll try it this week and see how it goes, but that last rep at 115 felt great!
20 min e2motm strict deficit HSPU: I used paralettes for this, which had a 6-7" deficit. I managed 3 sets with 4 reps and the rest were sets of 3. These felt pretty good and are getting better!
4 sets of 10 good mornings @ 75# (ouch!)/ 4 ME L-sits on paralettes-:40x3/:30
Workout..moving odd heavy objects..my fave! I do like it, just not great at it.. But getting better?

20 min AMRAP
10 atlas stones (95)
20 TTB's
100' yoke carry (250#)
200m sandbag carry (60#)

I completed 3 rounds and then got through 11 TTB's into the 4th round. I started a bit slow.. Especially with the yoke carry.. It had been a long time since we had used that and it takes a minute to get back into it, but I picked it up a bit in the next rounds.. Overall, I'm happy with how this workout went. As I said, the heavy, odd object workouts aren't always my best, so I tried to make myself keep moving faster and not just 'get through it', like I may have done in the past.
The dy was a little rainy and gloomy, so Mason, Miles and I took our time before heading out to watch Matt do his sporting thing with his work folks. We made it out in time for the boys to do a little bounce-house-ing and then have lunch.. Matt's crew wasn't doing so hot in the different sports, so.. Not a whole lot of excitement! But it was good to get out to see him and let him introduce the boys around and all..

Today was a pretty productive day of working out for me.. I started out early, meeting our usual cleanup crew at the gym for the regular scrub down.. Then Nicci was meeting me for some fun. I had planned for some sprinting and some sled pushing.. Fun, right?.. I think so.. We warmed up with an easy 800m run, then started in on 8x100m sprints, which we did 'on the minute'. Each one took us about :15 to complete, so the rest was decent enough for us to stay consistent. After those sprints, we did 3 100' sled pushes (180#) each.. Oof. Know what doesn't help your sled pushes?.. Sprints.. So after the sled pushes, we rested a couple minutes and then started in on 4x200m sprints.. Each of these came in at about :35, so we went every 2:30 on this one, again, to maintain a good, consistent effort. So after those sprints, it was 2 more sled pushes each.. By this time, it had started to drizzle and it doesn't take much rain to make sled pushes go from rough to impossible.. We finished that round, though, and decided to finish up our plan for running, which was to do 2x400m runs.. Oh, man... I almost died on a 400m run today, guys! I had a plan for my pace and felt good in the first 200m, but I clearly took it too fast and seriously thought I was going to puke in that second half of the run! It took about 1:14, I think? We recovered a bit and decided we would be a little smarter on this last run. Our feet started slipping right from the take off, so we really didn't have a choice but to slow it down.. Fine by me! This one was more like 1:24.. We decided the slippery sled was done for the day, so finished off with 10 atlas stones instead. Good stuff!
Of coarse, I had more time on my hands, since I was staying to coach open gym.. I've learned to kind of play this by ear.. Sometimes folks show up and need different amounts of coaching.. And sometimes, like today, no one shows up at all! So rather than completely finish up, I plan to do some other things that I can either stop if someone shows up, or get back to later.. Whatever works.. But this time, I was clear the whole time.. I did some 1 1/4 front squats at 85-145#. Not heavy, just perfecting that positioning! Then I did high hang/hang snatch complex from 85-125#. These felt good! Again, nothing crazy, weight-wise, just working on good bar path/muscle memory..all that good stuff. I'm certainly no expert, but it would seem to make sense that practicing would make you better, no? I don't know..
Then after I puttered around a bit, waiting to see if anyone would show up.. getting some calories and fluid in me.. Next, I started in on my muscle up work. My plan was to do 5 MU EMOTM for 4 minutes. This started out with the most amazing set of 5 MU I have ever done.. They felt great! The next set wasn't as magical and I got 3/2 done before the minute was up. I gave myself a little time and then did another 3/2 to finish out 15 MU right at the 3 min mark, which was kind of a benchmark for me from the regional workout, so I was happy with that.. But I still wanted to finish the 20 I had planned on, so finished another 3/2 by about the 4:30 mark. Then.. I figured since I had already done 20..what's 10 more? 30 MU for time is kind of a benchmark workout that we test periodically, and I hadn't done it in a while.. I can't remember exactly, but I think my last milestone I achieved was finishing in the 14 min range, which had been a huge improvement for me at the time.. First time I did the 30 MU, I think it took close to 30 min, but I was just happy to do it. Next I worked my way down to 'sub 20 min', then 'sub 15'.. Well.. Today I finished those 30 MU in 7:10! I was pretty excited about that.. Maybe not the continuous sets of 5's that I wanted, but it will get there..
Finally, I did a row/box jump workout that I got from the NorCal website. I just did a part of it, since I was already pretty tired by this point.. I just did 5 box jumps (start seated on a bench with feet off the ground, then rock forward and right into a 24" box jump)/100m row, then 4 jumps/200m row, 3 jumps/300m row, 2 jumps/400m row, and then 1 jump/500m row. This was meant to start at 10 and work up to a 1k row, so I'll try the full thing some time when I haven't already done a bunch of running..
But that was it! Lots of stretching, hydrating and fueling to recover and get ready for some maxes and benchmark (I feel like I used that word a lot in this post.. Odd because it's not exactly something I say a lot? Oh, well..) workouts this week.. I'm excited!

Cleans are exhausting

Whew. I don't know what it was about today's workout, but it's over 12 hrs later and I'm still feeling the effects. I mean, I'm ok..but I just feel physically tired.. Like even breathing feels like a chore.. Is that normal? I think it's safe to say that this mornings combination of exercises was a good one.. Here's what I did:

5 single front squats at 95%, so 195#. These went well, which always bodes well for a day full of cleans!
20 min e2motm 1 clean at 90-100%: I did 4 sets at 175#, which went well, so I moved to 5 sets of 180#. Somehow that 5# jump felt like a million pounds! but it still went pretty well. I had one miss, but that was just because of poor positioning, and not because I was too tired to lift it.. The rest all went fine. I tried my last rep at 185#, but just didn't have enough left.. Not bad and definitely the most 175#+ cleans that I have ever done in one workout, so I'll take it as a win.
4 sets of 4 clean high pulls at 175#/ 4 sets of 15 GH raises
Pretty tired, lightheaded and I've seen stars multiple times at this point, but the show must go on and time was running low, so bring on the workout!

6 rounds
5 Squat cleans (145#)
5 jerks (145#)
50' handstand walk
1:1 work/rest ratio

Yikes! This was pretty exhausting, like I mentioned before.. And, again..lots of stars.. But each round went about the same.. Finished the cleans in under a minute, connected the 5 jerks in 1 quick set, and then did the handstand walk as quickly as I could. Most rounds took me between 2:00-2:15, with 1 round being 2:30 (waiting patiently for some nice folks to make way for the hs walk) and the last round took under 2:00. All said and done, including the rest, it took me about 24:08. I say 'about' because I was upside down and dizzy, so my memory of the exact time on the clock escapes me..but it was something like that.
After going home and hanging with Miles, doing a little Gymboree music class, taking a lil nap, I thought going back to the gym to hit their 'move odd objects' workout of the day sounded like a good idea.. I wouldn't say it was a 'bad' idea, but I'm also not sure I was able to give 100% on it, either.. Turns out I was still feeling that worn-down-ness from the morning, but I gave it a go.. It was a partner workout, so about a 1:1 work/ rest thing..

6 min AMRAP
60# Sandbag carry (200m increments)
1 min rest
5 min AMRAP
53# farmers carry (100m increments)
1 min rest
4 min AMRAP
180# sled push (100' increments)
Then I added 3 min AMRAP of MU

Like I said, felt a little sluggish, but everything went pretty well..until the sled pushes.. I think my sled was actually 10# over, but I think it was just my tired legs and worn down cardio machine that slowed me down. I did manage to squeak out 13 MU in those 3 minutes, despite being as tired as I was.. Again.. Not outstanding, but I'll take it as a win. So. Better get to bed, since I have an early morning workout and then we get to head out for Matt's work thing..called E-lympics..which usually means I play with the kids on the playground and try to keep them from fussing about wanting to see daddy while he's playing sand volleyball with his co-workers..yay! It's fun for Matt and a good thing for their work community, and I'm sure the kids will have some fun.. But, as with many things, it is usually a lot of driving and wrangling on my part.. But ya gotta do these things some times! Matt certainly does more than his share of those duties during my events and such, so it's my turn and I'm happy to do it. But for now.. We sleep..

Active recovery?

Rest days?.. Don't like 'em. But I certainly understand the need to put down the heavy things from time to time and give the ol bod a rest.. We call it 'active recovery', and I can get behind a phrase like that! Last week our active recovery day was a 5k row.. Not my favorite thing, but definitely a good thing for me to do. I noticed that once you do a longer row a time or 2, all the other distances that come up in a workout seem much less intimidating, so that's a good thing! It's also good to learn how your paces change based on the distances. This week, our active recovery was a 5k run, which I tackled this morning..after I did about 30 minutes of moderate weight overhead squats and snatches.. I know, I know.. I shouldn't lift on my active recovery day.. But.. I needed just that little bit of work. Since Monday wasn't a great snatch day, I needed a more solid day of snatching before we likely head in to next week, where we aim to match or surpass our max. So anyway, I did that little bit of lifting and felt pretty good about it, then quickly turned in to 'fluorescent runner girl' and set out for the 5k! I decided to do the run from the gym VS going home to run because I have found that it's easier to stay in 'workout mode' at the gym, where if I drove home to run, I may not have been in the mood to run as hard.. Maybe it's just me? But I wanted to try to run it hard and didn't want any excuses.. But this meant I was going to have to run in the dark and in kind of a commercial/industrial area where cars can be moving pretty quick and aren't used to runners on that road. Luckily, though, JD decided he wanted to run and that he would stick with me, since I had the watch to tell us the distance and time.. Excellent! JD is a good runner, so he would definitely be able to push me on the pace. Also excellent because he had the idea to get off that road and take a back entrance to the large Lowes/Walmart parking lot where we can run around there with less worry of being hit by a car. Though running circles around large stores isn't exactly scenic, it was still dark, so who cares.. It was safe and didn't require running almost 30 laps around our building, so I was happy. Even though I may not be quite as fast as I have been in the past when I was doing more of it, I still found the run quite enjoyable. I pushed as hard as I could and I think it was a good test of my current running abilities. We managed a 23:15 finish, which I think is about a 7:46 avg pace? Not amazing, but not bad. I'm sure JD could have gone faster, so it was good to have him along to keep me moving. My amazing tunes also kept me moving! It's been way too long since I've listened to my iPod! (I just had it in 1 ear for safety and to not completely ignore my running partner.. I felt bad I couldn't share my tunes with him, because they were delightful!) So now that we have a solid test to pull from, my goal for the next time I run a 5k will be to hold under a 7:40 pace to finish somewhere in the 22:xx range.. Hopefully I can find some time to work on my running pace and plan for a repeat challenge in the next few weeks. Yay, running!

Oh, good! The 2013 fittest woman on earth signed up!

So.. Yikes. What on earth have I gotten myself into, here, with these upcoming Granite Games? Don't get me wrong, I'm still very much excited about it and looking forward to it and see it as a huge opportunity to push myself out of any sort of comfort zone I may have been in, but geesh.. Maybe I could have eased my way out of the comfort zone? Followed a 12 step plan instead of just a giant leap off the comfort zone cliff?! I already knew of some of the big names that I was going to be up against, which were intimidating enough, but I had come to terms with where I would struggle and where I might do a little better.. But now it's been announced that none other than Ms Fittest Alive from the 2013 CrossFit Games, Sam Briggs is coming to town.. To compete.. Against me?! Oh....shit.. Sorry, but there's not really any other way to put it.. I'm sure, as with the other announced heavy hitters, I'll reconcile this and come to terms with how this will go down.. Mostly it's going to be a huge opportunity for me to see how the top athletes get it done. But is it mean to say that I hope every workout includes handstand walks? A lot of them? All over the place? But she's been working on those, too, so not sure that will help. If nothing else, I have the greatest seat in the house for watching her and the other top gals compete..and we will probably become best friends and most likely she will want to exchange emails and braid pigtails and stuff.. So.. FUN, you guys!
So what have I been doing these last couple days to prepare for this showdown? So glad you asked..
Tuesday went a lil something like this:

5 Deadlift singles at 95%, so 285# (what's that? Briggs can pick up more?..damnit..)
20 min e2motm strict CTB pull-ups: I started with a strong set of 7.. Then..couple 6's.. Then finished the rest of the sets with 5's
4 sets of 3 push press(135-155#)/4 sets of 20 back extensions
Workout:

5 rounds
8 dl(205)
16 CTB
50 du

This workout was pretty tough..mostly in breath? DL sets are exhausting, y'all.. I started doing the DL sets unbroken, but realized doing 2 quick sets of 4 would work just as well and not take as much out of me.. Chest to bar pull-ups went well and I maintained sets of 10/6.. No ripped up hands today, but man where they tender! Double unders also went mostly well and the workout took me 15:18.

When I got home, I was trying to decide if/what else I should do for training that day.. I did feel super tired, which made it tough to think of what I needed to do. I also had to recognize that my fairly high volume weekend had left me stuck on my snatches on Monday.. Even though I wound up going back for some good workouts that day, I needed to be aware of what my body was saying.. So. I decided to rest and then just do a quick little 'at home' something-something, so I did 50 burpees and 5 min L-sit and called it good. I used to do burpees at home a few times a week a while back..they still aren't that much fun!
So now to today.. Wednesday..

5 bench singles at 95%, so 170#. This felt pretty heavy, but went well.
20 min e2motm strict ring dips: couple rounds of 8, few rounds of 7, the rest at 6
4 sets of 4 RDL @ 175/ 4 sets of 10 strict TTB's
The workout..

500m row
10 MU
50' front rack lunge w fat bar (115#)
400 m row
8 MU
50' lunge
300 m row
6 MU
50' lunge
200 m row
4 MU
50' lunge
100 m row
2 MU
50' lunge

I started out a little rough on this one.. Thinking maybe the bench and dips may have had something to do with it.. Plus rowing never seems to improve my MU, so I was only able to get 3's in my first set of MU, which slowed me down a bit.. I did that set in 3/3/2/2 and was feeling kinda bummed about that.. But, I soldiered on and kept up my sets of 3 MU throughout the workout. I must have warmed up a bit because I even squeaked out a set or 2 of 4's, so it didn't end up being TOO terrible.. It did take me 23:36, which I'm sure is not exactly speedy for this.. But it's what I got!
I was feeling better today, so planned to head back in with Miles later, and we did just that! I wanted to do some of my 1 1/4 squats, so did sets of 3 of those at 105-165# working on maintaining that full depth/good bottom position. Those went pretty well.. I also wanted to do the gym workout of the day, which (I thought) was a fun one! It was:

50 wallballs
500m shuttle sprint (100m down and back 5x..50m out/50m back..ya dig?)
40 hand release (gamer) push ups
400m shuttle run
30 TTB's
300m shuttle run
20 ring rows
200m shuttle run
10 HSPU
100m shuttle run

Like I said.. Fun! Slowest part for me was the push ups.. Had to break those into 15/10/5/5/5, but I kept the breaks super short and to the point. Toes to bar (TTB's) were done in 20/10, but the rest was unbroken. I tried not to use the run as 'rest', so pushed a little harder throughout and I felt the burn! It took me 11:54 to finish.. Totally same-sies as Sam (can I call her Sam?), I'm sure.. Eesh.. If I ever needed motivation to work hard, not getting completely blown out at Granite Games is a good one! All I can say.. However things go for me in Minnesota.. I know I've been working hard and doing all I can to get myself as ready for whatever they have planned for us as I can. And that's all I can do, right?!

Not so snatch-tastic

Today started a little rough. I'm no meteorologist, but someone check the barometric pressure 'round here because shit felt HEAVY! I realize sometimes we just have days like that.. And I'm not overly upset about it or thinking I'm falling apart.. But it's also not super fun to have bad days, y'all! So today went like this:

5 sets of 1 squat at 95%, so 235#. These went ok, but not exactly easy..
E2MOTM x 20, 1 snatch at 90-100%. Started at 90%, so 140#, which felt fine.. But when I moved to 145#, I just couldn't quite get under it. I wasn't terribly off, which is why I continued to try, but it just wasn't happening.. I felt glued to the floor..
4 sets of 4 snatch high pull at 145#/4 sets of 20 GHDs

I ran out of time in my early am session, so I went back mid morning with Miles to finish up..
The workout was:

15 min AMRAP
5 power snatch (95)
10 OHS (95)
15 box jumps (24")
400m run

I finished almost 4 rounds.. Got through 3 full rounds and then everything through 200m of the run in that 4th round. It felt good. Left me VERY sweaty! It was a good workout and wore me out fairly well, but I also had my eye on the gym's workout of the day, so I cooled down for about 15 min, and then got after it! It was:

2 rounds
500 m row
25 thrusters (45#)
15 pull-ups


Some may recognize that as 'Jackie' broken in to 2 rounds.. Guess what. It's not really any easier broken in to 2 rounds. Slightly different, but still that sneaky burn.. But I feel like I played it about right, if not slightly conservative, given that I had just done a workout right before it.. I paced the row at about 2:05-ish/500m and was able to do the rest unbroken.. Felt pretty good.. Tired, but not puking, or anything.. So I think it went well. I finished in about 7:44..
Of coarse I had to do a couple muscle ups, for good measure.. I just did 10.. A set of 4, a set of 5, and then 1 more.. Oh, and I did the core work, too, which was 50 ab mats, 50 v-ups, and 50 row boats.. All in all, despite being unable to snatch over 90% of my max today.. It felt like a decent day of working out. Not 'bad', but here's hoping tomorrow is a little easier.. Quit trying to hold me down, there, atmosphere!.. I kid..

Triple 3 blunders and a PR

Nice little Sunday over here.. Matt got to experience the joys of finishing a workout (almost) before the sun appears! He is back in training, friends, and he seems serious about this one.. He has another half marathon planned for Nov 1 and my money is on him making it to the start line (and finish line, of coarse..but first things first, yes?) of this one! So since I needed to be out the door by about 7am to go clean/workout/work at the gym, he had to get rolling early. I reminded him that I do this every day to allow him to get to work on time.. He appreciated the reminder, but I continued to help him understand how I've been doing this for him for a couple years now (since I stopped working full time) and that him doing it once a week is really no big deal.. I'm such a big help sometimes.. So he did his run and then I got on my way!
Today I planned to meet up with Jaclyn and Nicci to enjoy some cardio, CrossFit Games style.. We took on the Triple 3! What.. You don't automatically know exactly what I'm talking about? Do you even lift? (Kidding..). So this was a workout which proved to be quite the athlete fave at the games this year!..or not at all. I give crossfitters a hard time on these events because it just seems that there is NO thought to pacing at all. Like they've never run more than 800m at a time, so have no clue how to pace a longer run, yet still try to tackle it at break-neck speed? Only to die at or before the finish line.. Baffling.. I have no idea what the times and paces of the top athletes were in this event, and my argument isn't that they didn't go fast, but that they didn't race smart. I'm sorry, but there really isn't any reason to crumble or lose function of your legs at the end of a 40 minute workout. That's the kind of stuff you see at the end of an ultra event where the body is so out of whack..as in the Ph balance is off in such a way from extreme, prolonged physical exertion that your brain and muscles are no longer communicating or cooperating.. Not because of poor pacing and a lack of understanding their body.. I'm just saying, since events like these seem to appear at the games every year?.. Perhaps it wouldn't be a terrible idea to learn what pace you can maintain to allow for a strong finish.. We put time in to weightlifting.. We wouldn't walk up to a barbell 50# over our 1 rep max and try to snatch it, so why would you try to run a race way over your body's capabilities? Anyhow.. So I was looking forward to taking on this workout with my buddies. I will say this.. Though it took me a bit longer than I had hoped, this was due to lack of proficiency in the double unders and not poor pacing on either the row or the run.. Oh, shoot! I still haven't explained what this 'triple 3' is! It goes a little something like this:
3000m row
300 double unders
3 mi run
Fun, right?! So rowing is not my strong suit and I knew I had to take that part pretty easy to not ruin the rest of the workout. I think I paced around 2:10/500m? Something around there.. Got off the rower around 13:00, which was where I figured I would be. My butt was sore, but overall, it went fine. The double unders, however.. I didn't think this would really be hard, but I've also never really don't 300 of them in one set? I'm sure we have done 300 in a workout before, but doing them all in a row..my shoulders were on fire! I wound up breaking the last 200 into sets of 25, which went fine, but it took me around 6 minutes to finish..yikes! I didn't start my run until after the 20 minute mark..probably closer to 21 minutes..so my goal of 'sub 40' was pretty much out the window at that point. Nicci and I ran together and we ran strong. Not super fast, but held around just under 8 min miles the whole way, so came in at 44:46. Oops? Like I said..the double unders were where I went wrong. I wouldn't have done either of the other 2 parts any differently..at least not at this point in my training.. Guess I need to work on my capacity for bigger sets of double unders? Seriously.. Will my list of things to work on ever get smaller? It has to, right? At some point? Not any time soon, it seems..
After I cooled down from that, I decided that I wanted to see where my overhead squats were these days.. It had been a while since I had looked for a 1 rep max on those, so I just wanted to give it a try. The OHS were feeling pretty good, so I kept going up 10# at a time until I hit what felt like a pretty solid max at 185#! Pretty sure that was a 20# pr for me, so not too shabby. I guess I could have gone for more, since I didn't fail that weight, but it felt like a good place to stop..
Next up..you guessed it! Muscle ups! I did 10 strict and then 20 kipping muscle ups, which went in sets of 5/5/4/4/2.. Those last sets of 4, I just didn't feel like my hands were in the right spot and that 5th wasn't likely to happen..so not perfect, but not too bad..
I called it good after that, so wrapped it up! Like I said.. Nice little Sunday!

Midline Marching to a different drum..

First, to finish off my Friday, I did head back to the gym for a little more work.. I did the gym's workout, but with a slight twist to work on the things I need to work on.. It was:
15 min AMRAP
10 alt kb snatch (I used the men's wt of 53#, because I need to work on the heavier snatch wt)
15 toes to rings (I did sets of 5 MU)
20 alt jumping lunges
400 m run

I made it through 3 rounds of my altered version of the workout and I felt good about it! The sets of 5 on the MU went well and, despite the bruises on my forearms, the snatches actually went well and felt strong. I'm not sure why the bruises came up because it didn't hurt and I didn't have any crashing down/awful rep issues..but anyway, I felt like it was some solid work.
Next up is Saturday fun at the gym! Day 6 workout went like this:

5 sets of 2 strict press at 90%(110#)
50 strict HSPU
4 sets of 6 good mornings(75#)
2:00 paralette L-sit (done in :30 intervals..still not my best movement! But maybe a little better?)

The workout was the 'midline march' from the games
3 rounds
25 GHDs
50' unbroken hs walk
50' overhead lunge(115#, I used a fat bar)

Well. Once again, I'm reminded that I'm not Rich Froning because what took him about 5 min? I think? Took me almost 12.. I mean.. I did use a fat bar, which hurt my wrist and grip more than I expected.. And I did have an extra 50' walk in there due to the way the gym was set up.. But mostly I'm pretty sure he just went faster than me.. But. My handstand walks were fine, my lunges felt strong, and GHDs just take the time that they take, no? I don't rush them, just do what needs to be done there.. So. 11:55 was the time on that one.
Next I did some sets of MU..of coarse.. Then I still had a bit of time before the team workout, so I worked on lighter weight, quality squats.. Still working on that strong bottom position, and they felt good! Worked on sets of 5 from 105-155#.
Finally the team workout for the day and it was a fun one! It was teams of 3..
100 burpees to plate
90 kb swings(53#)
80 overhead lunges(45#)
70 box jumps(24")
60 calorie row
50 HSPU
40 CTB pull-ups
30 pistols (each leg)
20 wall climbs
10 muscle ups
*every _5 min, do 100 du
*Every _10 min, do 100' shuttle run
I enjoyed the workout and had a good group to work with. I was pleased that after all that work, I was still able to get a set of 5 MU, so.. Maybe I'm on the right path there.. Will certainly keep working on it!

It's Friday!

All Fridays really mean for me is a) everyone else seems to be excited about it and in a slightly better mood..and b) I get to have a couple long, non-rushed (sort of) days of training.. So.. Yay, Friday!
Yesterday I just went in to the gym for 1 mid morning workout, since Matt had to leave early for work.. Good news about that was that I think I finally got the quality, uninterrupted sleep that I've been needing! 9 straight hours, y'all. So I was feeling pretty good. Miles and I got Mason off to school and then we headed for the gym. Miles has become quite the pro at hanging in the playroom there..he knows just how he wants things set up..table here.. Chairs there.. Tent up..Computer on.. Snacks on the table.. And then he's pretty much good to go.
All I had planned to get in that day was a 5k row.. Ouch! Hurt a bit, but I feel pretty good about how it went.. My pace was around a 2:12/500 m avg for the whole row.. I held back a bit for the first 3k and then was able to pick it up in the last 2k. My overall time was 22:20. I don't remember what it was last time, but my goal for the next time I row 5k will be to have my avg pace at 2:10 or under.. Something to work for! After I got the feeling in my butt back, I decided to do some snatch complex work.. High hang (work on full extension), push press, snatch balance (work on bottom position), and OHS.. Good times! I did 3 sets of the complex at 85/95/105/115/125. Then I worked on the ol muscle ups..again. I know that, for me, the success of my sets of MU relies completely on my grip on the rings. I'm not sure why, because I watch other folks rep out several MU without seeming to have any concern on how they are holding the rings.. But maybe they DO consider how they hold the rings, but I just can't tell? Or maybe it's something that came more naturally for them, so they don't even know they do it? I don't know.. But, for me..it's all about my grip.. So I'm working on how to put those rings in a better spot to be able to maintain a good grip throughout consecutive MU. I made some progress and did some good sets of 4. I will continue to get back on the plan of working on these things about 4 times a week.. I WILL figure this out!
So that was Thursday..
Today I was excited, but a little unsure of how it would all go, as far as the workout and strength stuff went.. I always think it will all go great, but it doesn't always necessarily workout that way.. So today was:

5 sets of 2 front squats at 90%, so 185#. These went well, so it gave me some positive energy moving into the rest of the work
1 clean EMOTM x 10 min: 3 at 155, 4 at 165, and 3 at 175. This also went well, so starting to get excited about the dy..
3 sets of 5 clean extensions at 100%(190#)/3 sets of 10 GH raises w 15#
And the workout..:

5 clean and jerk at 145#
15 TTB's
4 clean and jerk at 155#
15 TTB's
3 clean and jerk at 165#
15 TTB's
2 clean and jerk at 175#
15 TTB's
1 clean and jerk at 185#
15 TTB's

This took me 19:32, but I got it done! Obviously, since I only reached a 185#+ clean and jerk last weekend, this was the first time doing it in a workout, so I wanted to be slightly cautious to be sure not to have any misses.. And I didn't miss any! The 185 clean may not have been beautiful, but I got it done and I was pretty psyched. I'm hoping to head back in later for some more of that MU work! But we will see.. If not, though..still a pretty solid day of work. For now, though.. Time for a little rest. Gotta get some energy stored up for the weekend!

Sleep walkin through Muscle Ups

Guys.. I'm SO tired!..says pretty much any person out there.. But I don't know what my problem is, I just cannot seem to un-tired myself. I have myself in a little cycle that I'm determined to fix tonight because another day of this.. Wake up kinda tired, but go to and get through early workout anyway.. Almost fall asleep driving home and then be a miserable, tired, grumpy, unproductive fool all morning until I can finally sleep a bit during Miles' nap.. rest like a champ and feel better in the afternoon, then stay up way too stupid late watching stupid TV..finally fall asleep..wake up.. Repeat. NO good! So tonight. Tonight, friends.. No stupid TV. Just early sleep. I need to get back on track with doing 2 workouts, which I took these 2 days off from that partially because of sleep, partially to rest a bit after the busy weekend, and partially to let my baby hands heal up from Monday.. So, anyway.. Here's to getting back on track tomorrow.
But for now.. Here's what was up for today..

5 sets of 2 bench press at 160#
10 EMOTM of 5 strict dips with a :05s descent..fun!
3 sets of Romanian Deadlift at 190#(100% clean max)/3 sets of 15 strict TTB's

'Muscle up biathlon' from the Games:

400m run
18 MU (any time you come off the rings, run 200n)
400 m run
15 MU (same deal with the penalty 200m lap)
400m run
12 MU (same 200m penalty lap)

Well.. I've hit kind of a wall with my sets of muscle ups and I really need to figure this out! I had been working on increasing the sets..first 3's, then 4's..now I need to get 5's consistently and that hasn't quite happened yet. I realize it's just the start of August, which I was increasing the reps in the sets each month.. I think I just need to get back to where I work on the MU sets at least 4 times a week. Between last week going a bit easier and now this week being so tired, I've gotten out of that habit just for a minute and I can definitely tell..so time to get back on track! So given that I had to get on the road to get home for Matt to go to work, I decided to put the time cap, which was used at the games (but not for the same reason, obviously!) of 17 minutes on the workout. I plugged away at the reps and runs until time was up. My sets were all in 4's and 3's, which is what I had been practicing, so no surprise there.. I guess I was just hoping the sets of 5 would just be waiting for me there? Like, you did your 4's last month..we're ready for 5's! But, no. I guess it's an improvement that I was able to maintain those sets of 3 and 4, but also made me realize I still have a lot of work to do. So I made it through the first round of 18 and then through 7 of the 15 MU in the next round. So all in all, I completed 25 MU and about a mile and a half run in the 17 minutes. Not gonna win me first prize at the games, but I guess that's where I am on that skill right now. Kind of bummed.. I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong, dang it! Work harder, I guess..
So that was that. Depending on how this afternoon feels and goes, I may go into the gym for something, but we will see. But first.. REST!

Workin my Ninja Warrier grip strength!

Ah, Tuesday.. Here we are already! I really need to catch up on my sleep, but we will get there, I'm sure.. Some day.. Anyway. Monday I got right back in the swing of things, as far as training Nd everything.. No rest for the wicked! 'WWtED', yknowmsayn.. Probably not. That's fine. But I actually felt fine, body wise.. Even though we were up and about for a long time through the competition weekend, the events were short and spread out and it actually amounted to a relatively lighter workout load for a weekend for me.. I'm not sure what that says about me? But either way, other than a little more sleepy than usual, I felt good to go monday mornin.. So I went!
Mondays workout was:

5 sets of 2 squats at 90%, so 225#.. Which felt heavy, probably because of the sleepiness thing..
10 min EMOTM of 1 snatch at 70-80%, so I did a couple at 125#, which is about 70%, then moved to 135# for the rest! which put me closer to the 80% mark. It went well..felt pretty good.
3 sets of snatch extension at 100%(155#)/3 sets of 15 GHDs with 14# medball
Then the workout! One of the Games workouts that I had wanted to try..

12/15/9 complex

8 Deadlift (115#)
7 cleans (115#)
6 snatch (you guessed it..also at 115#. Wt stays the same through the workout)
8 pull-ups
7 chest to bar pull-ups
6 bar muscle ups
6 DL
5 cleans
4 snatch
6 pu
5 ctb's
4 bar MU
4 DL
3 cleans
2 snatch
4 pu
3 ctb's
2 bar MU

It sounds complicated, but I swear it makes sense and isn't hard to follow along.. Basically there were 21 barbell and bar movements in the first round, 15 of each in the second, and 9 of each in the third round. I knew the bar movements would be stronger for me, so I planned to do singles on cleans and snatches, which worked well. I had practiced the pu/ctb's/bar MU combo connecting them prior to the workout and, though it wasn't easy, I could do it.. But during the workout, I could not get the bar MU to connect out of my CTB pu.. So that took a little extra time, but I just quickly dropped and would re-start the bar MU portion, always doing the rest of the set unbroken. I did run in to a slight hiccup when a significant portion of my hand decided to jump ship and bail on me.. Thanks a lot, hand! It had been a while since I'd dealt with a rip, but I could kind of tell I was about due.. I made it through the weekend just fine, but there was a decent amount of bar and barbell work, so my hands were slightly tender.. Then the bar and barbell work on Monday, my hand had just had it. But I continued and got it done in 8:50. Not quite as fast as I had hoped for. I also think I could have pushed harder because right after the workout, Mike was asking me where the hardest part was and I had a hard time identifying one.. Likely meaning I didn't push it enough. I also quickly transitioned into the gym's workout for the day (with a slight modification to avoid more pull-ups!), which was:

200 m shuttle run
50 squats
40 abmats
3 strict MU (my alteration.. It was 30 pull-ups as written)
200m
40 squats
30 abmats
2 strict MU
200m
30 squats
20 abmats
1 strict MU

So that was it for Monday's exercise! I got to head back later to work, which was fun.. Good stuff!
Now here we are on Tuesday and I'm feeling super sleepy.. Like I canNOT wait for nap time today! But I got my workout in.. Today was:

5 sets of 2 Deadlift at 90%, so 275#. This was made extra interesting with my grip issue dealing with my raw rip. I had wrapped it up in some stretchy tape and didn't think it would be that bad, but every way I tried to grab on to the bar seemed to pinch that raw spot and it hurt like the dickens! (Poor me.. So sad..) So I had to just grab on with my fingers and that made it a little tougher to pull.. But, I guess the good news there is that the weight felt fine..just my hand that was hurting..
Strict pull-ups with :05 second descent: 5 reps EMOTM x 10 min..yeouch! But I made it..
3 sets of 1 push press (155)/3 sets of 15 back extensions(35)

Workout was: heavy/strict Diane (I think)
21/15/9:
Deadlift (205)
Strict HSPU

Again, with the hand/grip issue, I had to keep the DL sets small..mostly 3's with a quick reset to try to hang on. Strict HSPU went pretty well. I broke up the sets of 21 and 15 into 2 smaller sets, but saved enough in the 'HSPU reserve tank' to do the last 9 unbroken.. Finished in 8:34.
So I survived my tender hand issue for the day. I actually think I'm just going to try to rest and heal the rest of the day today.. I have some fun on tap with the rings tomorrow, so my hand better be ready! I'm sure it will be.. It has almost a whole 20-some hours to do so! Maybe I need some more protein..rest? Preparation H? I don't know.. HEAL, little hand! HEAL!.. There.. That ought to do it!

And..CF Unbreakable Garage Games Day 2

You guys..you won't believe it, but we had MORE shenanigans at the competition today.. After we got out there and rehashed yesterday's ridiculousness a bit more, we decided there was nothing left to say or do about it and just to move on and work hard and do our best.. So, we did!
Our first workout set for today was a snatch + overhead squat complex.. You must snatch the weight overhead, and then complete 3 overhead squats (a full squat in the snatch would count as the first OHS, so..of coarse, since I planned to go heavy, if things were going well, I was going to do a snatch + 2 additional OHS.. That's how I roll!). We warmed up and waited our turn. I was feeling pretty good. The weight was moving well and I was starting to think that maybe another PR could be in the works! Jaclyn wasn't feeling as confident, but I knew she would be fine.. She started off at a couple lighter/safer sets, dropped one of them, so we decided she should go with a hang snatch, which she finds to be more consistent, and that worked well. She got the 115# she planned on, and then got a pr match at 125! I started in on the 125# and all was working well. 135, 145.. All were going well, so it was time for the pr match at 150#.. And I got it! It actually felt pretty easy.. We added on the 155# and after an initial slight miss out front, I got it!..and then managed to hang on for the OHS, too. Yay! We had about a minute left, so we went back to 130# to let Jaclyn go for a pr and, despite her lack of confidence going in, she got it! Unfortunately, I think the surprise of it all was a little too much, because she lost it on the OHS, but a pr snatch, none-the-less. So 2 more PR's for the pair of us! We ended up a mere 5# behind the team that was tied with us, which we were actually quite proud of, given that the lifts are a significant strong point for at least one of their gals, so being that close to their numbers was a good thing for us. Especially given that we aren't in a heavy weightlifting focused cycle right now, so only doing snatches 1 or 2 times a week! Anyway.. So we were happy about that..
The second workout was a 21/18/15/12/9/6/3 couplet of Deadlifts (185) and pull-ups. We had talked about how we would break it up..first person on the DL aims for just over half the reps, then as the second person finishes up, they move to the pull-up bar to complete the set unbroken. We executed this plan perfectly, and for that, I'm quite proud of us! We were moving well, communicating well, and through the first, and biggest set, we were rep for rep with the first place gals.. We kept moving, and though their Deadlifts were slightly faster, we were keeping up and catching up on pull-ups.. Then..somehow..things....changed.. We were still moving.. They were still moving.. All at about the same pace, though we seemed to be moving to and through the pull-ups quicker..but then, all of a sudden..they were done? I think we were in our round of 6's or maybe finishing 9, when they were done.. We finished strong and, though confused a bit, went to congratulate them on their work. Looking back, the one gal did seem a bit uncertain of whether she should take the praise, but maybe that's just me looking into things a bit too much, but it did strike me as odd.. At first, I just wondered how we fell so far off pace, but then our 2 JoCo supporters mentioned that 'things seemed odd' and that perhaps a round was missed?! No way, I thought..that couldn't happen..could it!? So I guess we speculated a bit, but obviously couldn't do more than that.. Our suspicions were confirmed, however, when our coach, who had come by to support us and watch the workout..who is known for his 'rain man-esque' ability to count reps (sorry, Mike.. You know people call you that, right? It's a compliment?.. I think?.. Anyway. He has an uncanny ability to keep track of numbers in a workout, and probably other ways, too, I've just never tested him on that.. He may or may not know what kind of underwear they sell at Walmart or what time Jeopardy is on..) and keep track of where people are in the workout (even when you think he's not looking!), said that he watched and was counting and is 100% sure that they skipped the entire round of 15. WHAT?! The whole round?! How does that happen.. How did the judge miss that.. How did they miss that.. Everyone watching.. NO one wants to stand up and ask 'how did they go from matching reps with that team to finishing over a minute ahead of them?'?! Nobody?! I'm sure most would wonder why our coach didn't say anything, but you also have to see it from his side.. How would it look for him to go up to the owner, whom he has never met, to make a big stink 'swearing' that he 'knows' they missed the reps based on nothing but his own counting.. Especially when it would only look like he was trying to boost his own athletes or being a sore loser.. So, no. Though I momentarily wished he had said something, ultimately I can understand that it wouldn't have been the right move.. For anyone.. But, still.. I think anyone that was watching had to think something strange had happened there. Heck, if WE had finished that far ahead of them when it had been clear that we were rep for rep through the workout, I would have immediately wondered what had happened.. You're telling me they didn't find that odd? We are also fairly sure that they watched their recording of it later.. So they knew they cut the workout 30 reps short, but yet said nothing.. We talked a bit about what we would have done, had the roles been reversed.. If we had made a mistake like that in a competition.. Or what we would do if they DID come to us and acknowledge the mistake.. And the bottom line was, we would have just appreciated the acknowledgement and their honesty. We wouldn't have run to the judges or started yelling and carrying on about how the scores should change, etc, etc.. We just would have appreciated that they recognized the mistake and felt bad out it.. But, no. I will say, though.. For sure, their group wouldn't make eye contact with me the rest of the day.. Whether that was because of a guilty conscience or not is obviously just assumption.. But they went from regular, smug smiles and chatting with us to literally avoiding eye contact and not responding when I said 'hello' directly to the girl as I came out of the restroom.. So.. That was kind of weird.. All of it. I still cannot believe such a huge mistake just went unceremoniously swept under the rug.. Huh.. Not doing much to entice us to return to your fine establishment for any more of these competitions that you plan to host, there, CF Unbroken.. I will say, the owner, Jim, seemed aware that something was up.. Something was off with those results.. But, again, unwilling to question further or really look in to solving the problem.. I also find it ironic (or is it coincidental?) that I had overheard this team discussing with Jim that morning about how important it is to have well prepared judges and to be sure that they are clear on the workouts and standards and such..but yet, the poor judging wound up saving them the trouble of completing 30 (THIRTY) of the reps in the workout! Again.. Huh..
Well, so that was that.. Needless to say, we were a bit disheartened after that and I think Jaclyn (understandably) was struggling to get motivated for the next thing.. With feeling screwed over in 2 of the workouts now, and after tweaking her elbow a bit in the OHS.. It wasn't turning out to be quite the day we had hoped for.. And, spoiler alert, but it didn't get much better from there.. The next workout was an atlas stone(65#) ground to shoulder and a sprint.. So for the first round, 1 person had to do 10 atlas stones over the shoulder, and then sprint across a loooong open field, full of high grass and pot holes (are they called pot holes in dirt? I don't know, but you get what I mean, yes?), run back, then the second person completes that work.. Then for the rest of the 12 minutes, you do as many rounds of the 10 stones and sprints, broken up however you want between the 2 partners. We planned on doing 5 each on the stones, and then whoever did the first 5 stones, would do the sprint, switch, repeat, etc.. I think it went well.. We were even with the lead in the first round, but then they slowly pulled away.. I think we just weren't as fast on the stones.. We ran fine, but just couldn't catch back up.. But we gave it our best and, again, wound up in second.. No complaints on this one! We definitely got second..fair and square, which we much prefer to all the drama. Give us a nice clear cut finish over missed reps or boo-hoo-ing fans any day. Of coarse, I wanted to win that, but it was fairly clear from early on that they were cruising through those stones more efficiently than we were.. So. That was that!
Finally, it was time for the 'championship workout', which would be worth double points..which sounds exciting! But in reality, the teams were pretty set.. The final workout was another 'move heavy, odd objects' kind of thing.. Which was fun, but I prefer a more 'technical' kind of workout for a final, but obviously, that is because it suits me better, so you can't always count on that! But, like I said, it was fun and I enjoyed the workout. It was a 500m (each, which I think I PRd on that! I was pretty proud, since rowing is NOT my thing!), then each complete a 200' overhead carry(85#.. Very awkward!), a 200' farmers carry (44#), and a 200' sled push. Guess what..we got..second! Womp womp.. We happened to be up against a crazy good rower, so though we both rowed solid 1:50-ish/500m pace, we were still probably 20 seconds behind? And stayed about there throughout.. So. Again.. That was that. 2 days of work, 3 PRs, lots of solid teamwork and communication, dealing with an abnormal amount of BS in getting worked over by judging/comp directors/other competitors.. All comes out to a second place finish. While I'm never disappointed with a second place, it's certainly harder to take with all the silly crap.
My overall take-away from the weekend? Jaclyn and I make a great team. We worked hard, communicated, stepped up when it was needed, and we did a damn good job. I would partner with her again any time! So, I hope we can find another good comp to get in to.. As for this comp? The volunteers and members from the host gym were all incredibly nice, kind, supportive, interested in our feedback and feedback from other competitors on how things were going and if we needed anything from them. I enjoyed the community at CF Unbroken quite a bit. On the flip side, however, I think that in their effort to impress certain competitors and, what seemed to me as, insecurity on whether or not they were doing a good job, they allowed outside influences to alter the results of the competition, and that really just cannot happen.. I understand that judges aren't perfect and that they just want to do what they can to keep things fair and keep people happy, but to allow for teams and their fans/support crew to get in the ear of the comp director and cause a change in the results of the judges ruling on the 'field of play', is pretty crazy, and not a good thing for the validity of the competition. Finding volunteers that are willing and able to uphold the standards and give out 'no-reps', when they are called for, and to be accountable for keeping track of reps and rounds in the workout that they are judging..it's not easy! But it's such an important part of these competitions and truly can make or break the whole thing. I feel like, though well meaning, the judging at this competition completely dropped the ball. There was a lot of reps allowed that should never have counted.. There was uncertainty in themselves on whether the rep or round or time count was right.. That's the whole thing! That's what you're doing out here! Not that they need to tell me what the workout is, that's on the athlete.. I feel like they were more 'rep counters' than judges, and clearly had some trouble with that part, too. Again.. Don't get me wrong.. I've judged before and it is NOT easy. I feel like a lot of the responsibility is on the director of the competition.. Provide your judges with stop watches, when warranted.. Provide them with score cards that are pre-marked with reps and rounds, so they can physically mark them off as completed, leaving no need to question whether a round was missed..'nope. Marked it off right here. They got all the rounds'(or not.. I'm totally not bitter about that. 30 reps?? No big deal.. Not at all..). Things like that can go a long way.. Then instead of worrying whether their chicken scratch on the paper makes any sense, or whether they are counting right, they can focus on judging the quality of the reps and completion of the workout.
To the folks of Unbreakable and the other competitors this weekend, thank you for your hospitality and for your kind words of support. I thoroughly enjoyed the workouts and was excited to come and complete them and test our abilities on them. The workouts were pretty well rounded and, I thought, fun! Unfortunately, I don't really think I will be back.. Which makes me sad.. Both because it is a nice gym in a decent location for me with kind members, and also because that eliminates a potential source of close competitions to sign up for.. But with all the events of the weekend, I just don't see how it would make much sense to return. I won't even mention the prize packages (oops! I just did..), but the 3rd place gal approached me and she was ticked! I must say, when it was advertised as having 'cash prizes and swag from sponsors' for podium finishers, you kind of expect..some..cash?? Especially when each team paid good money to enter?? I get that this is business, and obviously the host expects to make some money for hosting.. But ALL the money? Generally, some of the entry fee goes to the prize packages.. Generally.. Just sayin.. Any time you sign up for these, you don't plan to win, or to win money..but when it is advertised as such..well.. You kind of expect it. I'm not complaining about the kind donated gifts from their sponsors/vendors, but.. The cash?? Maybe they forgot it??
What, too negative and selfish to end on that note? Hmm.. Nope! That's all I've got. I will say I am SUPER excited about the workouts for this week because we are finally tackling some of those Games workouts I watched the top CF athletes work through about a week(?) ago.. So, I'm psyched! Hope it goes as well in reality as it does in my head! (Spoiler..it never does..) but it will be fun trying!

CF Unbreakable Garage Games day 1

Ok.. So I'm super tired and a little ticked off..but I'll try to focus on the positive and move this along!
Quick question for you, though.. When is a Tie in a TIMED event NOT a tie?? If you have an answer other than 'when members of one of the tied teams pitches a big enough bitch fit to somehow convince a seemingly usually levelheaded and 'no BS' kind of guy to disregard the actual time results and inexplicably hand the win over to that team', then I'd love to hear it. Oh, wait..that's right.. Keeping it positive.. Got it. Honestly. Look. Hosting a CrossFit competition is tough and there are a lot of pieces and parts and room for error.. I get it. Which is why, despite most peoples' reactions when I have explained this situation, while I'm not super impressed with how this was all handled, I can empathize with the director/owner of the gym and see how a poor (in my opinion) decision could be made. You want the whole story?.. Hold on.. I'll get to it. But first, let's go through the events of the day!
So today was day 1 of the Garage Games, hosted by CrossFit Unbreakable, which I had never been to before, or really met anyone from there, either. Their gym is pretty large and the event is modestly sized (8 scaled teams and 8 rx teams for both males and females, I think? Or close to that.. So just 2 heats of each with 4 teams of 2 per heat), so there is plenty of room for competing, warm up, sitting around, etc.. I've been to some competitions where you felt like you couldn't even bend over for a toe touch to warm up without knocking some one or some thing over, so I definitely appreciate the space. We got there plenty early ('we' being Jaclyn, my teammate, and I), though it took me a minute being lost in warehouse hell looking for the place..but I eventually figured it out! So the first event was a 1 rep max clean and jerk with the caveat of having to pick a team starting weight, and then you must move up 'ladder style' in 5 or 10# increments through the 10 minute time limit. Though you have to pick a starting weight, both teammates don't have to lift at each weight.. That was a little confusing to us at first when reading it, but it's basically just a 1 rm.. We warmed up a bit and were feeling good. Jaclyn was aiming for around 150-160#(starting at 135), and I was hoping for a pr of 180/185#. We had attempted maxes a couple weeks ago, so we had a good idea of where we would be. Jaclyn was looking solid through 160, but she short cut her split a bit in the jerk at 165 and wasn't able to hold on to it. 160 was a good showing for her! I was moving pretty well..hit my 175, which had been my pr, and was feeling good, so kept going. 180 went up well. 185 went up just fine.. We still had just under 3 minutes on the clock, so I figured..let's go for it! We added the weight and I walked around a bit. My boys had shown up during this time, so got to wave to them for a little extra boost. I think around the minute mark, I lined up and went for it..and 15# pr! I got 190#?! Not sure where it came from or why it wasn't there a couple weeks ago, but I'm pretty excited about that.. Maybe all those front squats are working?! So that was the first workout and we took second there..
The next workout was a 10 minute AMRAP of 25 double unders and 10 box jumps. You could split up the work however you wanted, but while 1 person jumps, the other holds a 95# bar in the front rack. I way under estimated the effect of that hold! It wasn't physically hard to hold, but it was getting in the way of breathing, which was not helpful.. But we decided to go for 2 rounds at a time, and then switch..repeat..for 10 minutes.. It actually went pretty well. It got to where the DU/ box jumps felt like the rest time, since you were able to breathe through that, while the holds started sucking worse and worse.. But we kept on..didn't slow down and wound up in first for that one to overtake the overall lead.
The final workout of the day was also a good one..and that was where the drama ensued.. So it was a chipper with 60 burpees, which we did in alternating sets of 10; then 40 shoulder to overhead (85#), which we did in something like 15/20/5; the plan was for me to then take all 20 toes to bar, which was fine.. Then it was 60 kettle bell swings(35#).. Jaclyn took 40 of those, again, because the plan was for me to take those TTB's and then hopefully do well with bar MU at the end..but before that, we had 40 thrusters(85#) to get through! This is where it started getting rough, but we soldiered on.. Started with sets of 10 each, then 5's until we were finally done! Jaclyn started us off on the 20 bar MU and she got through 3. I hoped to get up there and just crank them out, but it was just not meant to be! I got us to 10.. Then Jaclyn added 3 more.. I wanted so badly to finish us up (which would have spared us the tie break issue), but my grip said no and I came down with 2 to go.. Jaclyn hopped right up and finished up.. At first, I thought we had edged out the other team.. That's what it looked like from my perspective.. But when the 2 judges turned in their scores, they had us in a tie! Which..was fine by me.. I couldn't see exactly when the other gal finished compared to us, so wasn't going to argue with what the 2 separate, unbiased judges had written down and seen.. Well.. That must just be me because unbeknownst to me at the time, the other team was carrying on about how there was no way we tied and they thought they won..etc, etc.. But there was the judges time sheet, you say? It should just end in a tie because that's what the results from the unbiased judges said? Well.. I guess not.. We were called over to 'discuss the results of the workout', which I had no idea there was even any dispute or anything to discuss, so I was a little caught off guard when I was told not only did we not win, we tied, based on the judges.. BUT..since 'other people' said they saw that team finish first, they are giving them the win. Wait.. What?? Was basically my reaction.. I said, 'based on what?', to which they responded, 'human error'.. Huh??! I still don't get it. I protested slightly, but didn't want to be 'that guy' that makes a big scene over a point at a competitive exercise event for adults.. Apparently I left that role to the others.. So, again.. Look. I get it that they wanted the win.. They thought they won.. But, guess what..we did, too! We just weren't big babies about it, yelling and swearing until I somehow convinced others that the tie should go in my favor.. It never even would have occurred to me to bitch about the tie or the times written down, but I guess that's what ya get for being the nice guy. So..despite actually finishing in a tie for first, we were given second in that workout, which leaves us tied for first (with you know who..) overall heading in to day 2. We have 3-4 workouts tomorrow ( the 4th being the final, should we qualify to participate), so hopefully all will right itself in the end and the silly point that they cried themselves into won't amount to much.. Fresh slate moving in to day 2! I'm looking forward to the workouts, so wish us some luck!