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!