10-05-28: "Nutts"

CrossFit WoD for May 28th, 2010

"Nutts"

For time:
10 Handstand push-ups
250 pound Deadlift, 15 reps
25 Box jumps, 30 inch box Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls
50 Pull-ups
100 Wallball shots, 20 pounds, 10'
200 Double-unders Row (went for 6:00 based on time to complete 10 rows)
Run walk/stagger 400 meters with a 45lb plate

As always, a workout with a name is a terrifying thing.  This one, in memoriam of Lieutenant Andrew Richard Nuttall, is no different.  Note the quickly climbing rep count per exercise, as well as the masterful switching from upside-down to full-body pull, to jumping, to power squats, to pull-ups, to more leg power stuff, to full body control movement with a fairly annoying weight (for every marine/soldier/sailor/airman/guard/cop/firefighter/etc who's ever run with heavy equipment, I feel your pain a bit better. Probably not a whole lot better, but every little bit counts.

7 minutes on the elliptical to warm-up

Active stretching

"Nutts"

Time = 33:36

As usual, pull-ups were definitely a problem, time-wise.  I'd say I spent an easy 10 minutes just doing pull-ups, and my forearms were shot about 10 in.  True, I haven't done them since Tuesday (and Monday!), but for that amount of work, it just wasn't enough rest, I guess.  Typing right now kinda sucks! ;)

Everything else actually felt pretty good.  I'm sure I needed another 8-10" of range on my hand-stand push-ups, but I was happy just to have any motion at all...so I'll work on that!  Deadlifts were heavy (only 25# shy of my PR), but doable.  Dumo deadlift high pulls were ok, in an unbroken set, wall balls were done in sets of 25-10-15-20-25-5, rowing took 6m as noted, and the 400m was done at 3.6mph on a treadmill.  Ugh. ;)  That one was for you, Nutts.

10-05-26: L-Sits, Good Mornings, Sit-Ups, Back Extensions

CrossFit WoD for May 26th, 2010:


Three Four rounds for time of:

• 60 30 seconds L-sit
• 45 pound barbell Good mornings, 30 15 reps
• 60 30 Abmat sit-ups 
• 25 pound plate Back Extensions, 30 15 reps

For the L-sit, accumulate 60 30 sec. For the Good mornings and Back extensions, minimize rest over speeding the movement. For the Abmat sit-ups (substitute a rolled-up towel if needed), feet unanchored with soles together.

Subbed and scaled as noted, with the decision to add in a 4th round at the end of the 3rd.  I'm glad I didn't attempt the full amount for three rounds, as there is pretty much no way I would have gotten the 60 seconds for the first L-sits, much less two more times! I can barely do them as a press off the floor, so tried to sub in doing hanging from the frame of our otherwise useless Smith machine.  I paid for the last two days' worth of pull-ups on that decision, but it really was the only way.  (Damn, just watched the CF video for L-Sits...definitely easier with parallelettes.)

For the sit-ups, I ended up doing the final 45 on a decline bench.  More ROM, but with feet/knees anchored.  I just didn't have the oomph do any more on the floor with a rolled up shirt under me without each one turning into a full body flop to get moving.  Not sure if a more supportive Abmat would have helped with that, never having worked with one.

Total time @24 minutes (short break before opting for the 4th round, so not sure of an accurate timing)

10-05-25 - "Fran"

CrossFit WoD for Tuesday, May 25th, 2010:


"Fran"
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:

• 95# Thruster 35# Dumb-bell Thrusters
• Pull-ups

I truly hate having to workout with the little kiddies in the school. Unfortunately, I lost my claim to the straight-bar, and had to make do with dumb-bells, and also had to wait to work in on the lone pull-up machine.  Time does NOT include enforced waiting (though I also noted that, as well.)  All pull-ups were body weight.


Time: 12min (almost on the dot)
Total time (included enforced rest): @15 minutes.


Really thought I was going to die on this one. The room was hot, humid, and vaguely airless, there were too many kids doing pointless activities and annoying me (the one* where they hold the curl bar behind their backs and flex their forearms is particularly aggravating.  Must be nice to have so much time to waste on completely worthless activities.  They're gonna look jacked next time they surf onto chatroulette.com and do what young guys apparently do there... ew. *Video is of random person, not one of our guys...i hope.)


Started and ended the workout with 7 minute warm-ups and cool-downs on the bike, and did active stretching before jumping into the workout itself.

10-05-24: Pull-ups, Push-Ups, SDLHPs

CrossFit Football WoD for May 24th, 2010:

Complete as many rounds as possible in 12 minutes:

5 Pull Ups
10 Push Ups
15 Double Unders Sumo Deadlift High-Pulls

Subbed in the SDLHPs to avoid punishing my knees any more so than necessary.

6 rounds.  Could have gone for a partial 7th, but my lungs were already beyond bursting, so decided to just take the final 40 seconds as a gift to myself. :S

10-05-20: Running in the Park

Took some time during lunch to run in Central Park. It went a little something like this:

4:22 run (sorry J, I slowed you WAAAY down!)

15 x Pull-ups

15 x Push-ups

5:xx run

15 x Pull-Ups

15 x Push-Ups

Tried to focus on POSE running essentials, mid-foot striking, etc. Knees feel fine, so far, but with my legs already annihilated from the previous two days, its possible that's a pain that will slide in later. This was my *first* time doing anything that put my knees in obvious danger in about a month or so. So, we'll see what happens with that... wish me luck! 

Spent the entire time thinking it would be much cooler to be wearing Vibrams... one day, maybe...

10-05-19: GHD Sit-ups, Back Extensions, and Med-Ball Slams

CrossFit Endurance Anaerobic Endurance WoD for Monday, May 17th, 2010.

5 Rounds For Total Time of, Rest (120sec) between each Round

• 10 GHD Sit Ups
• 15 GHD Glute Ham Raises
• 20 Med-Ball slams (Med-ball is raised over head and slammed down to the ground in a full squat)

There were three of us cycling in and out on one GHD machine, so before the second and third rounds, I actually got an extra minute of rest. No biggie.

Total Time 22:08.

Minus rests: 12:08

As expected, my quads were shot to shite by the previous day's wall-balls and rowing, but just tried to warm-up as best as I could. 7 minutes of stationary bike, fairly intense to get the blood going, followed by active stretching.  Around the 2nd or 3rd round, my lower back started to scream at me (I likened it to having shards of glass packed around the vertebrae), but I could tell it was really just weird muscle stuff going on. So, I used my 2-3 minutes rest between rounds to stretch my back, quads, and hamstrings. All good, made it all the way through.  Yay me!  Course, now I'm walking like a saddle-sore hurtin' buckaroo, but still, I FEEL GOOD. ;)

10-05-18: "Karen" - 150 Wallball shots

CrossFit WoD for Thursday, May 13th:

Made up "Karen" from last week:

150 Wallballs


Untimed...dammit! Still, I KNOW it was a better performance than the last time I  
did it. Sets of 30 or 20, rather than 15s, so more work faster! ;)  I can assure you my time had nothing on Jason Khalipa (2008 Crossfit Games champion)


Followed it up with a nice relaxed 2.3k row, followed by a 200m row sprint. I'm sure I'll feel that the next day!

10-05-14: Throwing in Central Park

Got in a solid 40 minutes of tossin' the B in Central Park today. There was a bit of a breeze, just enough to make playing the angles more difficult. If there's one thing I need to get more of in my work outs, it's stuff that doesn't kill me. Thanks to J for coming out.

10-05-12: Pull-Ups, Dips, 135# C&Js, Row 220m x5

CrossFit WoD for May 12th, 2010

Five rounds for time:

• 5 Muscle-ups 10 Pull-ups & 10 Dips
• 135 pound Power clean, 10 reps
• Run Row 220 meters

@ 35 minutes.

7 minute warm-up on the bike, followed by active stretching.

This workout was a LOT too similar to yesterday's, so the same muscles were getting targeted. While that's ok for a larger muscle, like the quad, the focus area over the past two days has been the forearm and wrist area (pull-ups, dips, cleans, etc.).  It did NOT help that my knee-sparing sub of rowing for running had the added effect of never giving my hands/forearms a rest.  Put it this way...typing this is a bit painful! :S

Tried to work on my power clean technique, having just reread most of the relevant chapter in Coach Rip's authoritative text, Starting Strength.  Definitely having an issue of getting set, then ducking just a hair lower, so that when I extend my legs at the start of the lift, there's a moment when the weight isn't moving as that slack is taken out of my arms, resulting in a "thud" as everything locks in. Not only hard on the shoulders, but it wastes valuable lift time from the legs, when they aren't doing any real work.  Gotta work on that!!  The catch still sucks, since I'm nowhere near flexible enough to get the weight onto the front delts, but that seems to be a secondary problem, especially with the heart of the lift being a little goofy.

I also realized about 1/2 way through the 3rd round that I must be getting my daughter's cold, as I nearly hocked a loogy i didn't realize I had in the back of my throat during one of the cleans. Since, my throat has been kind of sore...no runny nose to compare with the little princess' leaky nose of horrors, but still.  It doesn't bode well, I know that.  No extra vitamin C here at work, no extra multi-vitamins, no nothing. Argh!!! I don't wanna get sick!!

10-05-11: HSPUs, DB Squat Cleans, L-Pull-Ups

CrossFit WoD for May 10th, 2010:

Seven rounds for time of:

• 10 Handstand elevated pike push-ups
• 45 35# dumbbells Squat clean, 10 reps
• 10 L-pull-ups (jumping pull-ups, whatever works...)

7 minutes of warm up on the exercise bike, followed by active stretching.

Actually did the pull-ups right after the push-ups, since there were two of us using the same Smith machine frame for our pull-ups.  For all 7 rounds, the push-ups were fairly easy...at least, I could do all 10 in one quick shot.  The pull-ups became ever more labored and slow, and quickly devolved from L-sit pull-ups to jumping pull-ups, as I fought to just get off the damn floor!  Dumbbell squat cleans had only the slightest squat, but were damn tiring anyways.  Last few sets had to be broken into 5-5.

Basically, I wanted to quit after the second round. And after the fourth. And definitely after the 5th. Didn't mind after the 6th, because who quits that close to the end. I realized I wish I had about 10 seconds into the 7th round, but kept going, because why quit *that* close to the end??

Ugh.

@ 25 minutes to complete. Including some very welcome chit-chat regarding the possibilities of getting the school to pay for CrossFit level one certification.  That would rule...but they would probably want me to do the squat cleans with some squat going on.  Like I say: Ugh.

10-05-06: AMRAP 7: 95# Squat Cleans x10, Sit-Ups x20

CrossFit WoD for May 6, 2010:
Complete as many rounds in seven minutes as you can of:

• 95 pound Squat clean, 10 reps
• 20 Sit-ups

The standard for the sit-up is feet anchored, back of the hands touch the ground above your head on the bottom, and hands touch the anchor at the top. No Abmat.

4 rounds (I was shooting for 3+, so this actually made me VERY happy.)

Warmed up with a little rowing, and about 7 minutes of bike, just to loosen up the old knees, etc.
Active stretching.

Hit the timer and started cranking through the workout.  Managed to get the first two rounds done without having to stop to suck wind...but MAN did I ever want to! :S  After that, there were intermittent breaks, usually for no more than 3 deep breaths before continuing on.  Used the bar as my anchor for the sit-ups, and did the whole thing in socks.  I am LOVING the feel of olympic lifting without wearing running shoes...there is a definite increase in control when your shoes aren't trying to cushion you.  Imagine lifting weights standing on pillows, and you'll get a pretty good idea of why running shoes make lousy lifting shoes!  If only we had a real platform to lift on (instead of a rubberized floor...see the grumbles about shoes), that would be awesome.  Of course, with iron plates, that platform would have to be a beast to not be destroyed instantly...but since the floor underneath the rubberized matting is crumbling, it still might be a good (read: SAFE) idea to get something like that.  I guess after we manage to talk them into getting their cheezy Nautlilus-style machines out of the way...

10-05-05: Dumbbell Complex

Warm-up:

7:00 Elliptical Machine

Active Stretching

CFWoD for 5/5/10:

Five rounds of:

5 Dumbbell deadlifts

5 Dumbbell hang cleans

5 Dumbbell push presses

5 Dumbbell squats

Increase the load each round. Rest as necessary between rounds.

25#/35#/40#/45#/50#

Having had to run for the train this morning, my knees were acting up all day long, leading to this workout.  They seemed to loosen up enough, but on both the hang cleans and the push presses, I just could not translate the leg energy into bar motion, meaning both exercises were almost ALL arm...which is bad.   The first 1-2 rounds were easy, the 3rd and 4th were getting difficult, but I almost failed out repeatedly on the last round. Deadlifts were easy, the hang cleans were doable, but the push presses were almost beyond me. Between fatigue, and the fact that my attempts at driving the dumbbells from the hips were only successful in unbalancing the weights on my shoulders, leaving me to try to just force them up using only arm and shoulder...ugh.  Twice, I lost control of the weights, and ended up with them on my thighs, gasping for air.  However, not having put them down at any point, I get to consider those unbroken sets, ugly and miserable as they were.  :S

10-05-03 - 21-15-9 95# Squat Snatch/Pull-Ups

CrossFit WoD for 05-02-10

• 95lb. Power/Squat Snatches
• Pull-Ups

3 rounds, of 21, then 15, then 9 reps of each.

@15:30

Warmed up with exercise bike for several minutes over increasing resistance, followed by active stretching. Felt pretty good going through this, though the pull-ups caught up to me in the last round. Knees were fine throughout.