11-02-08: Squats and tabata running

CrossFit Garden City WoD for January xx, 2011
Warmup:

Dynamic Warmup
Strength:
Back Squat
Beginner - 3-3-3-3-3 (41X0 Tempo)
Conditioning:
10 meter sprints on the minute (don't worry...indoors)
i.e. 1st minute = 1 10 meter sprint, 2nd minute 2 10 meter sprints etc...

Tabata interval runs: 4 minutes (8 rounds), 20 seconds on, 10 seconds rest, 10mph on treadmill

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I could totally squat more with a rack to start from. Um... not this much, though. YET. (Cutting Edge Crossfit)

Why sprinting is way better than Long Slow Distance. (However, if you had to run 20 miles, Skeletor would probably win, so in terms of constantly varied functional movements, you should train long distances as well. Dammit.) (In Joe We Trust)

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In all truth, there should have been a workout posted from Friday, but since I screwed the pooch on that one (it was supposed to be the benchmark workout "Elizabeth," but I messed up my knee with the barbell while warming up, and it killed my ability to do a clean without absolutely crappy form because I was so afraid of another collision. Weak, but it freaking hurt and was bleeding like crazy...rotten blood-thinning fish oil!)  I spent the remainder of that workout working on headstands, handstand push-ups, and frog-stands, all with some success...until a nasty landing from a handstand against the wall caused me to scrape my bloody knee on the gross gross GROSS floor, suddenly making my knee the perfect incubator for the black death or something like that. Ew.

So, after a long weekend spent getting my daughter to do push-ups and squats, and full-body leg raises (so that only your hands, shoulders and head are on the ground... probably a real name for those), I was back at it today. Yet again, it would be a squat workout, and I am still sadly without a squat rack... or a bar long enough to allow me to place my hands wide enough to try a good low-back position squat. That said, since I would have to clean and jerk or snatch the bar up overhead, and then lower it down onto my back, the likelihood of ever getting the bar into that low back position were basically nil going in.  Lame. Still.

Did my usual warm-up of jump-rope, shooting for longer durations of single bounce and running steps, as well as repeated L or R foot bouncing.  Followed that up with an abbreviated active stretching, then a little bit of ring work, but I didn't want to tire out my shoulders too much right before cranking my shoulder girdle into the annoying position required by squats under the bar.

Started out with a warm-up set with the empty bar (35#), followed by a heavier warm-up with 85#. After that, I loaded up the bar with a pair of 45# plates, for a total of 125# and squeezed out my reps. I realized in the 3rd set that I was doing sets of 5 reps...not the Rx'ed 3 reps. However, since the weights were being constrained by my ability to get them onto my back in the first place, this wasn't *that* big a deal. However, I did the proper reps for the final two sets.

The end of the 4th set was nearly an accident, as I failed to control the bar very well on its way back down. I had pretty much asked for it by push pressing the bar off the back of my shoulders, and rather than either catching it at full extension or trying to bring it down to the front rack position, I let it continue to fall, more or less completely out of control. As the slack in my arms ran out, the bar slammed back towards me, giving me a nasty shot on the left quad. However, it was all sting and no impact, as there was no effect on my performance, and no bruising either. Whew!

Back squat weights: (coming soon)



The conditioning part of the workout was supposed to be 'Death by 10 Meters,' a hideously simple workout that I've managed to avoid ever doing in my entire life. I'm both looking forward to changing that, and terrified of the experience at the same time.  Being pressed for time, I chose to run a Tabata interval on the treadmill at the highest speed setting (10mph). 4 minutes, with 8 rounds of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off.  It actually ended up not being too bad. It may not feel it, but my cardio capacity is definitely going up, since that intensity of running would have destroyed me just a few months ago.

I tried to finish out the workout with a few more ring dips, but failed horribly. I opted instead for some ring knee raises, focusing on minimizing swing and any extraneous motion. It felt pretty damn good.