Working out at home

So I had missed a couple of days and knew I had some making up to do - but I didn't have a gym available. I had spent the last couple of days working on my hand stand push-up, including moving from head to floor to a raised 5" or so platform.

Today, I decided I needed a metcon workout - so I put together what bodyweight exercises I could and came up with the following:

50 HSPU (head to floor)
100 push-ups
150 air squats

I then cleared out a spot on the wall and started my HSPUs. These are tough - especially after 25 or so. Toward the end, I was doing these in increments of 3, 2 or even 1 - but my ability to get on the wall as well as push them out has greatly improved.

I finished the set of 50 in 11:09 and then moved into the push-ups. As I had hoped, the HSPUs were harmful enough to those general muscles that it made the push-ups more difficult than normal - knocking out only 40 in the first set and 20 in subsequent sets. I finished these at 15:40 - 4:31 total for the push-ups. I then moved into the air squats, which were harder than I expected, since I hadn't done much leg or abs, etc. to have an adverse affect - but I was very fatigued and winded from the HSPUs and PUs - so I finished these in 5:10 at 20:50.

This was more work than I had originally expected, which I am glad about!

Bench Press Day

Decided to give my back a rest today and lay on the flat bench with a series of heavy benches, in hopes of reaching a 1RM PR.

I started off with the warm-up as usual - skipping the pull-ups because someone was using the pulley devices at the pull-up station. So my warm-up went as follows:

1/2 mile run: 4:31
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
10x135# bench press

I then moved into the main event - starting at 205#. I decided to start here and do an amount of reps that didn't bring me to failure, but gave me a good workout on each weight that I completed.

At 205# I did 5 repetitions.
I followed this by hanging off the chin-up bar to stretch my back muscles and decided to do a pull-up. I decided after each set on the bench I would do pull-ups - more than the previous set, but certainly not to failure.

I moved the bar to 225# and completed 3 repetitions, followed by 2 pull-ups.

I moved up to 245# - unsure whether I would be able to do 2 repetitions, as I had never done 2 reps at this weight before. But I pushed it out, feeling pretty confident after the first rep. I followed this with 3 pull-ups.

I decided to make a daring jump to above my 1RM PR of 260 and jumped to 265#. Of course, I didn't have a spotter, as usual and I was using a free weight bar, so I knew I had to be careful.

I pushed the bar off the rack and extended my arms all the way. I could tell pushing it off the rack that this would be a challenge. I brought the weight down and must admit that I changed my mind before getting all the way down - I probably had between 1-2 inches of clearance on my chest before I started pushing the bar up. Other than the less than full range of motion, I did get this repetition out. Next time around I'll working on getting my chest before pushing off. Until then, I think I will start doing some supplemental bench work after the WOD - perhaps in the 185-225 range, depending on how drained the WOD has made me.

After my 265, I did 5 pull-ups and then un-racked all but 135# and did 10 thrusters to finish off the workout.

Max Dead Lift

I decided to go with 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Dead Lifts today after having taken the weekend off. Go big or go home.

I warmed up as follows:

800m Run - 4:29
10 pull-ups
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
15 30# KB
5 x 135# Dead Lift

Today, the goal was to get a PR and also to increase my PR for the pronated grip as well as mixed grip - using my lifting hooks only when I didn't think I could lift any more otherwise.

So, using pronated grip on both hands (working on the hook grip) I did the following:

225-275-305-330

My previous record before going to mixed grip was 305 - so this was a new record there by 25#. The success didn't stop there, as the new PR here was already a tied PR for my mixed grip.

I only did 1 lift mixed, using my left arm for the supine grip - 365#. When I finished my left and paused at the full up position, I felt that the bar was starting to slip out of my hands - but still a PR by 35#. I then switched to my lifting hooks and continued on.

I went to top my previous PR next, which was 390# and loaded 395# on. This went up quite a bit easier than I expected, considering how slowly 390 had gone up when I set that PR. Since it was so much easier than last time around, I decided to go for a big jump and loaded all weights 25+ that were available -

45# bar + 6 45# plates + 2 35# plates + 2 25# plates.
So (7*45)+(2*35)+2*25)=435#

This was an extremely tough lift. I only got the bar 4 or so inches off the floor before it tried to stop going up. The rest of the trip up was more of a series of stop and start again than a good lift - kind of like a slow chatter to the top. However, letting out a groan, I managed to lock out at the top of the lift.

So my new PR, up 45# from 390 on October 26 is 435#.

I finished off the workout with 225x10 so I could stress my grip a little more and as more or less of a cool down. Then I did a little light KB work - overhead presses, a few swings - 2 & 1 handed, and then just some back and forth swings to stretch the muscles in my back.

I can tell my back will be sore and tired tomorrow. I'm thinking I may go for a max bench, so as to do something that won't cause me to over strain my back and lead to an injury.

Found this site:
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/weight.htm

He has a 1RM calculator at the bottom of the page which I used to look at the standards for my weight (now down to about 180) I used it to calculate the following standards:

Exercise: Novice: Experienced: Advanced:
Military Press: 110 137 163
Bench Press: 163 200 274
Squat: 219 268 366
Dead Lift: 273 314 436
Clean: 157 193 263

I can easily do the Experienced weight on any of these exercises. I can almost get the advanced on all of them as well - Dead Lift, I'm 1# short. Clean I have a little ways to go - 60# or so. Bench press I have 15-20# to make up.

Not feeling it

I'm not sure why, but I just wasn't feeling it today. I went down to do the WOD from yesterday:
Complete three rounds for time of:
Run 800m
155 pound Power cleans, 21 reps

However, when I got down there, there were 2 people on the treadmill and the third was out of service.
Instead of my 800m warm-up jog, I decided to do the row - which I sometimes end up going overboard on. This was just the case today:

1000m row - 3:43.4 - way too fast for a warm-up, which I should probably slow down to as much as 4 minutes or more. After this I did:
5 very wide grip dead-hang full range of motion pull-ups, coming to a complete 2-5 seconds stop at the bottom
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips
3x 135# power cleans to get the feel of the exercise of the day.

I had planned on doing something else - perhaps some heavy lifts today, but by the time I got to my dips, one of the treadmills was clearing out - so I had a spot to do my 800m run - so I decided to proceed with the WOD.

So I set up 155# on the bar and jumped on the treadmill and started my watch. I could feel at the beginning of the workout that I was less than 100%. It could have been the row being too much, or the fact that it was 3:45 and I had only had a small bowl of cereal, an english muffin, an activia yogurt, a banana and a protein shake for nutrients so far today causing low blood sugar - but either way, I just wasn't feeling it.

I kicked the treadmill up to 10.1 MPH for a just-under-3-minute 800 - of course, with the treadmill getting up to speed, it ended up taking me 3:04. Perhaps this was my second mistake (or third, if you count barely eating any calories) - as when I finished, I had to take a short break before starting the power cleans - and when I did, I only knocked out 5 before stopping. It didn't get any better from there either. Going on 10 minutes after finishing my 800 - and perhaps another 5-6 sets of power cleans, I was finally finishing set 1 at 13:10. I knew I had done something wrong, as other people on the forums had posted between 15 and 30 minutes - at this pace I was looking at not possibly finishing before 40.

I decided to stop - not completely, I ended up racking the bar and doing another 21 reps of bench press at 155# (this only took me 2 sets - 1 of 15 and 1 of 6).

This isn't the only time recently I just "haven't felt it" and had a hard time getting through the workouts. I'm wonder if it really is because of my eating schedule, or if I'm hitting a proverbial wall. Perhaps a change in diet?

Granted, my regular schedule was knocked out of whack - going to bed at the same time as usual (perhaps even a little later), I was up at least an hour earlier than usual - eating a full 1-1.5 hours earlier than usual (at 6:30 AM I had my small cereal) - started the day with a large coffee instead of a large glass of water, had little to drink throughout the day and also little food. I'm also coming off the holiday binge which isn't good - so who knows, perhaps I'll bounce back. Either way, I'll make note of what I am eating/drinking and what kind of sleep I'm getting as I post my near future workouts.

Kettle bell day

I only made it to the gym due to some needed coaxing from a co-worked that usually goes down at the same time - originally planning to run, I just didn't have a lot in me. So I decided to do some kettle bell work - which I had brought in to my work gym from home.

Warm-up
1000m row - 3:29.6
5 pull-ups
20 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

What I did have in me, the 1000m row took out - for the most part - I was pretty exhausted after (not a great idea for a warm-up, I know - but I wanted to push that one!)

I then completed the following with my 30# Kettle Bell

KB Swing:
2 handed x35
1 handed x20 right arm
1 handed x20 left arm
Clean and Press:
10 L arm
10 R arm
Swing:
Alternating catch and release x30
Windmills:
10 R
10 L
Overhead Carry:
R arm - 86 steps (4x the length of the gym)
L arm - 86 steps

It was a good workout - for my lower back anyway. Still sore from the Angie/Fran back to back on the 20th/21st - the muscles on either side of my elbow - forearm and bicep included. Now that I think about it, doing Angie the day before Fran probably didn't help my time either!

Improvised PT

I was at my unit all by myself - and extremely busy with no help. I was completing an inventory turn-in, which included putting the gear into a portable pod. This pod was located at the end of a parking lot in a fenced-in area - about 100-150 yards away from my supply room. I was packing all my stuff into boxes or ruck sacks for the most part - which I ended up loading into my vehicle to transport. But there were a few items that I did not pack into boxes and only stacked in the transport module.

These items would have been wasted stacking in my vehicle, because I would have had to loaded them onto a cart to get them out of my supply cages - load them into the car, and then again unload them and load them into the pod. Instead I decided to handle them less times and pull/push my cart all the way to the cage with these items.

I did this at a high rate of speed - pulling the cart while running backwards - which resulted in a great thigh workout. On the way back, with the cart empty I either pushed the cart in front of me (glutes and hamstrings) or held it beside me in one hand as I ran. The alter resulted in a great abdominal workout as I had to work with them at full contraction while running.

That was basically my workout for the day - but I thought it was pretty good and inspired me with some ideas for relay races and etc. that I can incorporate into my unit PT.

Meeting with Fran

Fran had come up in the WOD on the main site - and I was looking to improve my time. So I decided to take a whack.

The circumstances were not ideal, the gym that I was in (military gym) only had a nautilus assistance pull-up station for pull-ups. This didn't work out well - I held the assistance seat down with a dumbbell - but the positioning of all the bars and etc. only left room for a dead-hang pull - which meant no kipping.

I warmed up with:
1 mile run (9:44)
5 pull-ups
30 sit-ups
10 135# bench press
30 2x3# DB squats
10 dips

I then waited for my heart rate to come back down a bit and started in on Fran:
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

I ended up finishing in 7:48 - slower than last time.

I'm upset - hate to make excuses, but I think it was caused by the inadequate pull-up station.

Afterwards I decided to work on my sit-ups:
10 20# decline sit-ups @ 45 degrees
10 decline sit-ups @ 45 degrees
AMRAP sit-ups in 2 minutes - 71

The 71 is good - my feet were anchored, so there was a better hold than if a person was holding my feet as in the APFT - but I still didn't make 100% reps - granted I was 1 Fran and a bunch of decline sit-ups in.

All-in-all, good workout.

Revenge on Angie

So I got another go at Angie - a few days behind the main site WOD, due to the crick in my neck - but I wanted to take another whack at Angie, so I made the workout up.

I last attempted Angie on September 26th. On that day it took me 27:36 to complete:
100 pull-ups
100 push-ups
100 sit-ups
100 squats
In that order, completing each set of 100 before moving to the next exercise - taking as many sets as needed to complete the 100.

Today I used a little strategy and didn't go near failure before finishing the set. This way, I didn't go from 25 reps on the first set of pull-ups to 15 sets of 5 to finish.

So I warmed up as follows, mostly avoiding the exercises I would be performing:
1/2 mile Run: 4:28
5 pull-ups
15 30# KB Swings
10 Dips
5/side 30# KB WindMill

Here are the results, with the total count of completed reps at the end of each set:

Pull-ups - 10,20,30,40,50,60,70,79,80,87,90,95,100 - 07:10
Push-ups - 25, 50, 65, 80, 90, 100 - 11:40
Sit-Ups - 15,25,35,45,55,65,75,85,90,95,100 - 19:50
Squats - 40,60,80,100 - 22:50

I improved my time by 4:46 in a little over a month and a half - but produced a very large and ripped blister on my left hand during the pull-ups.

Bench Press Max and Tabata Treadmill

So I've done 3 months of CrossFit - perhaps a month of which was self Rx'd, doing maybe 3 days with the Bench Press - but on those 3 days never going over body weight (185).

They say that the only way to train for doing heavy lifts is to do heavy lifts. Today - or yesterday, rather - I decided to put that theory to the test. Before this 3 month stint, I had a 1 rep max of 260 - but this was doing bench press 1-2 times a week - and usually going at least as heavy as 225 for a couple reps. So now, doing no more than 185 - and otherwise doing nothing more than push-ups so far as that particular pushing motion goes for 3 months - how would I fare?

I warmed up with:

1/2 mile run @ 1% incline: 4:41
10 Pull-ups30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

And then some stretching. I then moved into the bench press - starting low to do some more warm-up.

135# - 8 reps
185# - 4 reps

Right here, I can say that it felt like a not-so-good day. As I said, my neck is still bothering me - and though I have done 21 (or was it 13?) reps of my bodyweight in the past (recently), these 4 felt kind of difficult. To be honest, I was a little worried - but really, even if I didn't go very heavy today, I would know that it was because I was feeling "off" and that I could try again in a week or so for a better test.

That said, I moved on to my 1 rep weights, starting with 225. 225 felt pretty good, so I made another appreciable jump to 245. Again, no problems - it went up a little slow, but easy enough that I knew I could do more. I again cut my weight jump in half and went to 255 - with no spotter, using a free weight. This went up, but very slowly. I probably could have gotten that extra 5 pounds for 260 - which again is my best EVER and I think I've only ever done it once. So I would say that without a doubt, I have lost no strength in the bench press as a result of taking 3 months of to switch to CrossFit - with no specific training.

However, I would say that I feel confident that I could modify my training, still keeping true to crossfit - and make much more rapid gains than before to break 300 in the near future.

Will that be my next 300 quest? CrossFit my way to a 300# bench? We'll see.

So after my bench press I moved into a tabata treadmill run - 12% incline at 30 seconds below my 5K pace (which should be about 21 minutes - a 7 minute mile) putting my pace at 7:30/mile - or 8MPH.

In the past I have been overzealous on the tabata treadmill run - and also failed at the 7:30 pace for the tabata's older brother - 30 seconds work followed by 20 seconds rest, instead of 20 seconds work with 10 seconds rest.

So I was determined to make my pace all the way through.

I hit the quick start button and cranked the incline to 12% and then started speeding the track up until I hit my pace. I waited for the 1 minute mark and jumped on. After 2 repetitions, I was still feeling pretty good - until the end of the rest period, when I realised how quickly I had to jump back on. But I did anyway, telling myself I was 1/4 of the way done.

After 4, my lungs were already burning. It's amazing how quickly this routine hits you. During my 6th repetition, my legs were telling me to stop - but I didn't listen. I worried my legs might give out during the 7th rep - but I made it through. During my 10 seconds rest, I told myself I only have to hold on for 20 more seconds.

And that's what I did. 8 rounds at a 7:30 pace! That's smoking. I hit my goal - and I'll be happy to move forward - though I'll still use the same speed for at least the next few sessions.

Clean and Push Press

I actually did this one a week ago now, but hadn't posted it. In fact, I have a few make-up days to get on here.

This was done on 11/12 - the main site WOD was 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 clean and jerk. I haven't done the jerk before, and didn't feel comfortable with steel plates/no bumper plate and unsupervised - so I swapped for Clean and Push Press. I stopped doing push press after failure, but continued doing cleans up to 7 sets of 1 rep.

I warmed up with:
1000m row - 3:39
10 overhead squats - 45#
10 pull-ups
115# clean and press x 5

I then moved into the exercise. My previous PR on clean was 175 and 165 on the push press.

I started out nice and light - 135.

I took, including swapping the weights around 2 minutes rest between attempts. I did 155 next pretty easily and moved to 185. This went up, but it was a good struggle - PR by 10# and 20# for clean and push press respectively.

I then moved to 195 - clean was no problem - but when I got to the push press, I didn't quite make a full lockout before I felt a severe discomfort, somewhere between a pop and a pinch in my left shoulder. A week later, this is still causing my neck to be stiff - not exactly sure what happened, but it didn't feel good.

So after that, I opted to just do cleans (yeah, yeah - I maybe should have stopped). I pulled off 205 fairly easily, so I thought - getting nice and low with the full squat. Afterwards, I got a little over-zealous and attempted 220. This didn't make it to the rack position after 2 attempts. The first attempt barely got beyond a dead lift position before I brought it back down - it didn't feel like it was going up, so I stopped and went back down.

I probably should have given my self some rest, but instead, just adjusted my footing and grip and went back in for another go. This time I almost got it all the way through, but just couldn't get under it.

I dropped the weight to 210 and tried again - again maybe a little too quick - and I failed again.

So my PR for clean stands at 205 and my push press at 185. Good improvement!

300 Results

Here is my result post for the 300 challenge:

After 3 months of training, at the beginning of which I failed to complete the 300 challenge - flunking out after 24 minutes or so, only half way through the floor wipers. Also, I'll mention that when I first attempted this routine, I used a standard bench for your bench press - thinking this was about 24". However, when I built my 24" jumping box, I realized it was no-where near 24" - perhaps 18-20" at best - so I was doing a lot less jumping than I ended up doing in the finale.

So anyway, here are my results - total reps; exercise; # completed for each set; finish time:

25 Pull-ups - 25 - 00:38
50 Deadlifts (135#) - 30, 20 - 03:20
50 push-ups - 50 - 04:18
50 Box Jumps (24") - 20, 15, 15 - 09:40
50 Floor Wipers (135#) - 20, 15, 15 - 18:00
50 KB Clean and Press (30#) - 50 - 21:35
25 Pull-Ups - 10, 5, 5, 5 - 23:55

So after finishing the floor wipers, which was my longest event (08:20), I took an additional 05:55 to finish the entire challenge. Last time around I quit out less than half-way through the floor wipers. This means that last time around I would have had at LEAST another 6 minutes to add on to my time - bringing my total over half an hour - and I would venture to say I would have added at least another 4-5 minutes on top of that, since that should be about how long the remaining floor wipers took me.

So we are looking at an estimated 10-11 minute improvement - or about a 33% improvement in stamina and strength endurance over a period of only 90 days.

You can also see results just by comparing the number of sets it took to complete each exercise - the original results:

Pull-Ups - 24,25
135# Deadlift - 17,30,40,50
Push-Ups - 50
Box-Jumps - 10,25,40,50
Floor Wipers - 15, 26
Stop.

My 1st pull-up and deadlift sets were cut in half. In fact, if you look at the deaflift, my first two sets got me to 30 reps in my original attempt - which is where I stopped on my first set for the second go.

The box jumps were only a 25% improvement in sets - but then again, the jump was 4-6 inches higher!
The floor wipers, I was only just over half done after 2 sets - dropping from 15 to 11 reps - this time around, I was done after 3 sets - completing no less than 15 reps per set.

I am extremely happy with my results. Granted, I think I will continue to work and perhaps try this again down the road - but getting down to it, this routine was no harder than some of the every day routines I complete with CrossFit.

I'm going to stay the routine. My last APFT was under what I had hoped and expected - especially on the run - so I will work on getting my run and sit-ups up to 100%. Once I have done that, I will do what I need to improve, or at the very least maintain - but I won't focus on them. That means more cardio (or really, anaerobic endurance and running) routines in the near future - probably whenever I don't have all required equipment available to perform the WOD.

My revenge for Cindy

Today I get to do a comparison post! My first Cindy can be found at Day 28 of the 300 Challenge, 8/25/2009.

Today I took my revenge on Cindy after 2 and a half months or so of CrossFit. As expected, I saw an improvement.

First time around, I completed 18 Full Rounds + 5 pull-ups + 8 push-ups in 20 minutes.

This time, I noticed a marked difference in my stamina - I was getting more out of the way more quickly and feeling less tired. I also was having no problem doing all reps for each exercise without any rest.

My results: 20 rounds + 5 pull-ups.

I posted last time that I did Cindy that 1 set per minute was a good goal - and CrossFit has helped me to achieve that goal - so I am happy with that. Next time I expect to do better - perhaps I can eventually reach 25 rounds? I'll probably try Chelsea before then - the same as Cindy, except you never pre-load your sets - do 1 set on the minute, every minute until you can no longer complete the set within the minute - up to 30 minutes. This would allow me to still hit the 20 in 20 that I got today, but keep going and try to keep the same pace for 10 more rounds - which would certainly help with stamina - then I can start working on speed.

Anyway, I found the results for 300 - I'll post those in a few under a new post.

Run Day

I have my results from the 300 challenge - I just have to find them so I can post them. In the mean-time, I'll go ahead and post today's workout.

Self Rx'd today - I did 3 intervals on the treadmill at 12, 11 and 10 MPH respectively holding the pace for as long as possible (distance/time).

Results:
12MPH - .5 mile - 2:32
11MPH - .39 mile - 2:14
10MPH - .36 mile - 2:15

Times of course included acceleration. Total: 1.25 mi in 7:01.

Rest time was just until my heart rate dropped down to the same rate it was after my warm-up (approx. 140).

This was a good workout and IMHO seemed to be just about as daunting and effective as a tabata run.

Before this, I warmed-up with:
1/2 mile run - 4:54
10 pull-ups
30 sit-ups
25 push-ups
20 squats
10 dips

As I got my results from my recent PT test, I am going to be doing a lot of CFE style runs until I can get my 2 mile run time below 13 minutes - preferably 12:30 or so, so that I'm safe on a bad day. I'll also be ensuring that I continue to include high rep sit-ups in my warm-up. I may even start putting a set of sit ups at the beginning and end of my warm-up, e.g.:

25 SU, 10 Pull-Up, 20 squats, 20 push-ups, 25 SU, 10 Dips

This way I end up with more sit-ups total and don't do any sets that are particularly stressful. Other than that, I'm going to basically keep with the CrossFit WODs. In fact, I'll likely make up Friday's:
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
65 pound Power snatch, 12 reps
10 Push-ups

And today's Cindy

300 - Day 91 - Dead Lift

I wanted to make up the 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 Dead Lift posted on the main site on Saturday, so I did that today as the main site had a rest day anyway.

So I warmed up as usual and then stacked the weights. I decided to start out with 225, because I don't have bumper plates available, so its hard to get extra 45s on without racking the bar, which interrupts the workout. With 225, I can stack well over my previous PR using just the 35s, 25s, 10s, 5s and 2.5s. I actually got some lifting hooks for after my grip gives out on the bar. I lift as much as I can with a raw grip and then rather than switching to an alternating/mixed grip, I switch to the hooks - though I may go higher with mixed grips as well in the future, though usually I will workout with less than what I can lift with a regular grip.

That said, here was my progression -

225
275
315 (previous PR with regular grip)
335 - had to use hooks, failed without
345 - previous PR
365
375
390!!

The previous PR was with alternating/mixed grip and this time around it was hook from 335 up. Next time I go for heavy dead-lifts, I'll use a mixed grip at least to 345 - and I'll do at least 2 reps with mixed grip, one with left supine and right prone and one vice versa.

The 390 was HEAVY. This came up SLOW. But I was really happy to hit it. Next time around I plan to hit 400 - but I'll need to do a lot of lower weight work first! I can't wait until my next Linda, when I can do it as Rx'd (290)!

300 - Day 90 - APFT Test

Unfortunately yesterday's PT test was moved to today - so taking both Thursday and Friday off was kind of unnecessary - despite that I'm sure it helped the tight neck muscle. I ended up doing a little bit of light skill work last night, having not done any exercising in 3 days, I really just couldn't help it with a gym readily available - I was sleeping at the reserve center with a gym all to myself. I practised the snatch and cleans.

Anyway, I had my PT test today - back in April before starting CrossFit, I did 90 push-ups, 67 sit-ups and ran my 2 mile run in 14:06. I managed this score by basically focusing on these three movements (push-up, sit-up, run) for about 2-3 months prior to the PT test - greatly improving over my last score, especially in the push-up. Before this PT test, I was running 6 miles at least once a week, and shorter runs 2-3 times a week. I was doing lots of sets of max push-ups and max sit-ups and supplementing this with an average gym workout.

Today, without having emphasised any of these (I don't think I usually run once a week these days...) in the same 1:10 as I did before (I have 2 minutes, but don't use it) I completed 95 push-ups, which certainly could have been more - but I felt my abs getting tired and had the sit-ups to go. I improved my sit-ups to 74 repetitions in 2 minutes - and this felt a lot easier than my previous 67 which I struggled for - and my run actually slowed a little bit to 14:28. I partly attribute the run to not having anyone push me for most of the time. My last run, I was chasing two guys starting at about the 1/4 mile mark - this time I was out in front for almost the entire run - one of the guys that was out ahead of me last time around slowed his time and didn't catch me until the 1 and 1/4 mile mark - he had a much better second half than I did, keeping his splits within seconds of each other.

Anyway, it was an improvement overall, so I can't complain about the run. I will continue to work the CFE WOD into my routine to improve this - and in fact, I'll try to take another PT test in two weeks when I have drill again to see if supplementing the WOD with focus runs and sit-ups will help to get that 300 that I am now so close to obtaining.

300 - Day 86 - Tabata Treadmill pt II.

I didn't do yesterday's workout - which was Tabata Something Else - 8x20:10 for max reps of pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups and squats. I didn't do this for two reasons - one being that if I can gather the needed time, I will be putting my Army Reserve unit through this very workout this weekend. It'll be easier to do this if I don't have to try to keep my own time - and I get to torture my troops with a good workout, which is an added bonus.

The second reason being that my neck was still rather tight. I even ended up taking asprin - which is not normal for me - to loosen the muscles up to help heal faster.

So I skipped yesterday and made up for it today with my return to the Tabata Treadmill workout. I had already been planning to do this today - and then as luck had it, the CFE site had the same workout I had been planning. The minor variation was that instead of 20:10 intervals, it specified 30:20 intervals at a 12% incline. This sounded good to me - so that's what I did.

I learned my lesson last time, stating at a 6:30 pace - so this time I put the speed at 8mph, or a 7:30 pace. This ended up being almost tolerable for the entire distance. I ended up needing to drop the incline to 10% for the last two rounds - but otherwise, it was a much better experience than last time. I grabbed the handles at the end of the last interval and it measured my heart rate at 189 - wow.

I'll use this same pace next time around until I can complete all rounds as Rx'd - and then I'll think about increasing the speed.

300 - Day 84 - Weighted pull-ups

Finally felt good enough to get back to the action today. A good day for it too - WOD is weighted pull-ups - 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

So I weighed myself in at 183.6# with my shoes and clothes - making note of this so that I can reference it for the same workout in the future. I then warmed up as follows:

1/2 mi run on 2% incline: 4:41
20 push-ups
40 sit-ups
15 dips
20 squats
2x5 pull-ups with body weight (strict dead-hang w/ full ROM)

I then strapped 2 10# ankle weights to my ankles - which I was really hoping I would need - and then grabbed my 30# kettlebell for rep 1.

Rep 1 was 50#.
This was fairly easy, so I got a 45# dumbbell, keeping the ankle-weights on and knocked that out. Again, fairly easy. My 7 reps ended up going like this:

50#
65#
75# (PR)
80#
90#
100# (f) - missed by 3-4 inches
100# - went neutral grip.

All strict, no kip, w/ full ROM:

I hung on for a good 5 seconds trying to muscle the failed rep out - but you know once you stop moving half-way up, you have no chance. Unfortunately, I strained a muscle in my neck trying to get that - as I spent those 5 seconds or so giving it everything I had from the muscle region - and my shoulders were still sore from the Hang Squat Cleans. Hopefully this feels better for tomorrows workout - but if not, then I'll have to rest again - I have a PT test coming up this coming weekend and only a few more days after that before I have my 300 test - so I don't want to exacerbate anything before either of those.

Anyway, hanging on to dumbbells with your feet is easier than expected - I only had up to 80# which ended up being my limit combined with the ankle weights - good thing I had those available - not sure what I'll do when I start being able to do more than 100... I actually think the ankle weights made it more awkward - though, they provided padding.

Cooled down with
5x20# weighted pull-ups
5 BW pull-ups
62 sit-ups - 1x max reps without rest - that 100% on sit-ups is in my reach.
500m row @ 2:03

300 - Day 80

So I ended up taking some more days off - still more sick than I thought and Fran didn't help the situation at all. Either way, the way I see it, its better to take a few days off to recuperate so that you can work at full intensity than it is to work a few days at less-than-your-best.

So I took my time off and waited for a good day to return. I thought today's workout sounded good - I even almost recommended it as a nice easy workout for someone at the office who is wanting to get into Crossfit - but keeps hesitating, being a little intimidated.

It's probably a good thing it slipped my mind. The WOD:
Five rounds for time of:
135 pound Hang squat clean, 15 reps
30 Push-ups

It didn't sound bad - but I should realise by now that those are the worst ones.

This was a brutal, brutal workout. I tried to do it as Rx'd - but after round 3, I knew I wouldn't be able to grip the bar long enough to complete another HSC - my forearms were that destroyed. So I lowered the weight to 115 and continued. To give you an idea, here are my times for each round:

Round 1 - 4:56
Round 2 - 12:18
Round 3 - 23:00
Round 4 - 31:00 (didn't stop the clock while I changed weights)
Round 5 - 37:50

With push-ups being a strong suit for me - I finished all my sets unbroken - you can tell how much work I need at the hang squat clean. I just didn't expect this to be as demanding as it was.

As I post this now (2 days later) my shoulders are BURNING still. I needed to ask my wife for a massage earlier - and even that was excruciating. My forearms are still sore and even my legs, which are my most powerful muscles are quite sore.

When I finished this workout, my pulse rate was about 160 - borderline on the cardio zone for my age - which just goes to show how demanding Crossfit is - nearing 40 minutes of cardio work with full-body heavy weight exercises.

If this workout comes up again any time soon, I'll definitely consider modifying the weight at the beginning of the workout until I can do this exercise less broken. I took both yesterday and today off because of the soreness - no symptoms of rhabdo yet though! Today though, I did do some running and monkeying around at the playground with the kids. Something to get the heart rate going anyway.

300 - Day 77

I took a few days off because of a cold. It was a real shame too - I would have liked to have run the 5K - I'm going to try and work it in on a day when I don't have the proper equipment available.

Today I decided to make up yesterday's WOD - after missing the 5K, the next day was a rest day and yesterday was Fran. I've seen people post times for Fran recently and wanted to give it a shot. I've done Fran before with a time of 7:37. I've seen times posted as low as 4 minutes or so - so I wanted to make a fairly drastic improvement.

Fran sounds quick and easy:
Three rounds, 21-15- and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound Thruster
Pull-ups

The trick though is doing the Thrusters in a full squat. Thinking back, I'm sure my first Fran was probably closer to a push-press, where instead of going into a full squat, you simply do a power position. This severely decreases the power output.

So with that in mind, this time around, I was doing full ass-to-grass squats - still hoping for a time improvement. But today wasn't the day. I was apparently still more sick than I thought as my respiratory system just wasn't cooperating and I finished with a time of 8:34. Almost a full minute slower.

Oh well - I'll get it next time around.

300 - Day 73 - Sumo!

The WOD for 10/8/09:
Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Row 250 meters
Sumo deadlift highpull 95 pounds, 21 reps
Pull-ups 15 reps

I have gotten in the habit of reviewing the older posts - the "compare to" date to see what I'm up against and to find an approximate average that I can strive to beat. In doing so, many of the workouts that I have compared, it looks like the average Crossfit athlete has improved. So for today's WOD, after reviewing the results from 05/25/2004, where the average rounds of completion was 4, I expected to see today's Crossfitters achieving 5-6 rounds on average.

After round 1, I realised I was sorely mistaken. I finished my second 250m row at the 5 minute mark. It's amazing just how quickly the Sumo deadlift high pull can crush your pull-up performance. Usually I can start my pull-ups off with sets of 15. Not today. After punishing my muscles with the SDLHP, I was only able to knock out 5 at a time. And that was kipping. I quickly realised it would be a feat to even finish 4 rounds - as while I was still fresh, I was barely ahead of schedule to do that.

However, I muscled through and finished round 4 with 19:43 on the clock - not even enough time to get my feet clipped in to start a new round of rowing. 20 minutes of punishment.
It's still amazing that nearly 3 months of this - and still, each workout is as demanding as was the first.

Crossfit is a way of life.