11/2/2013

A. Snatch pull clusters, 3 x 1.1.1 @ 105% snatch max
B. Hang power snatch, build to a max
+
6 sets for times:
2 squat clean & jerks, 75% 1RM
15 wall balls
450m row @ 2:05/500m
3:00 rest

A. complete @150
B. 130 (PR+15) (135 Fx2)
+
1. 4:00 (2:02 row)
2. 3:57 (2:03.2)
3. 4:10 (2:02.3)
4. 4:10 (2:02.2)
5. 4:16 (2:03.5)
6. 4:30 (2:03.4)
clean and jerks @145


Really happy with the hang power snatch PR, I was not expecting that. I wish I would have gotten 135, I came pretty close the first time but the second attempt was not even close. Oh well, I think I could get it next time. The clean and jerk/row workout was pretty terrible, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. The clean and jerks got pretty heavy after the 4th round and that's where I took the most rest. Wall balls were unbroken the first round, then 10/5 until the 5th round then it was 5/5/5 for the last two sets. All the rows actually felt really good and pretty steady, I'm happy with that and I was able to keep it under 2:05 each time. I'm noticing that I'm recovering much faster. Between each round I was able to recover enough to the point where I felt decent enough to start the next round, and after my 6th set it only took me a couple minutes to recover before I was feeling good again. Definitely pleased with this. 

10/31/2013

A1. Close-grip bench press, 6-4-2; 2:00 rest
A2. Pull-ups, 3 x AMRAP (-2); 2:00 rest
+
20:00 @ 80%:
750m row
6 wall walks
4 clean & jerks, 135
2 rope climbs

A1. 105-115-125
A2. 20-15-10 (stopped a little early on this one because I was going to tear)
+
complete


My butterfly pull ups are getting so much better, I think 20 is the most I have ever done. I had to stop a little early on the third set because I could feel I was going to tear soon. The 20:00 workout felt great, I tried to think about what James said about sustainability. I just tried to keep moving the entire time, quick transitions and steady movement. I thought back to the athlete camp when he drew the circle on the board, that's what 80% is supposed to be. Constant movement, steady breathing. Since the athlete camp, I see things so differently now. 

10/30/2013

3 sets of:
3 touch-and-go power snatches, heavy
100m sprint @ 95%
4:00 rest
+
3 sets of:4 touch-and-go power cleans, moderate
:30 AirDyne @ 97%
5:00 rest
+
3 sets of:
5 touch-and-go deadlifts, light/moderate
:40 row @ 100%
6:00 rest



complete @105
+
complete @135
+
complete @205
rows were 1:41, 1:44 (wtf?) and 1:40


Good day today, tried to keep all lifts fast and powerful. The snatches felt really good, I was trying to get more aggressive with my power snatch like Chelsea Kyle did when she was here. The run was a little slower than normal because it had just rained so all the gravel outside was slick and I didn't want to slip and fall but I was still trying to keep it at a relatively fast sprint. The most difficult part was the deadlifts right into the row, usually I don't do any lifts before my row sprints so I felt like my legs were giving out faster since I had to do deadlifts first. The row sprints were also making the deadlifts more difficult since I was fatigued. 

What I took away from the OPT Athlete Camp

James Fitzgerald came to CSC October 26-27 for an athlete camp. Over the weekend he discussed numerous topics from nutrition, to programming, to mental toughness, to the politics of CrossFit. He also had us do two workouts each day which tested us physically and mentally. I learned so much from him and learned a lot about myself over those two days, so I wanted to get all my thoughts organized and reflect on the camp. It is probably impossible for me to discuss EVERYTHING I learned because there was so much information, so here were some of my biggest takeaways from the weekend:

1. My warm up needs to change entirely. Usually I would come in, hop on an airdyne for five minutes at a Z1 pace, roll with a lacrosse ball for awhile, stretch, more lacrosse ball, and then I would start my workout. Nothing in this warm up got my blood pumping or heart rate up AT ALL. James told us when we warm up, it should be spending short amounts of time on everything. Hop on a rower and row for 60 seconds, then get on an airdyne, then run around the gym. Leave the mobility shit at home. The warm up should get your heart rate up. Look at what the workout is and do stretches/movements that mimic the movements that are going to appear in your workout. This sounds obvious but I was not doing this at all before, I was doing the exact same warm up every day. I am interested to see how changing my warm up affects my performance in my workouts. 
2. It's really ok if you are breathing heavy during a workout. Anyone who works out with me in the gym knows that breathing is my weakest area. Workouts longer than ten minutes basically kill me, I do not have a good engine. Granted, it has definitely improved since Stephen started programming for me (row sprints, amiright?) but I just do not enjoy long metcon workouts where I know I will be breathing heavily through the whole thing. Usually when I start a workout that I know will take me 15-20 minutes, I panic once I realize I am out of breath. I think to myself "I'm ALREADY breathing hard? Jesus, it has only been one round and I have four more to go. I am so out of shape, I hate this". This was the case during the first workout on the second day, a 5 round workout of toes to bar, wall balls, and double unders. I burned through the first round and then freaked the fuck out because I was already out of breath and I knew I still had four more rounds to go. Side note: I did pace this workout incorrectly, and that is something I also need to work on. I went out way too fast and flamed out pretty quickly. Afterwards, I told James how I tend to beat myself up over breathing heavy. He basically said "you're working hard, you are working out, it is normal to be breathing heavy. What YOU have to do is just accept it" Accept the pain and move through it. My body is working hard, and I am breathing hard. This is nothing to freak out about and it does not mean I am out of shape. I accept the fact that I am breathing hard and I continue to move and work. Quick transitions, steady pace, I never stop moving. From now on I will not panic when I start breathing hard, I will accept it and keep working. 
3. If you're going to do competitions, learn to detach yourself from the results. Those of us who do competitions know that we do them for fun but we also want to do well. In February I did a competition at CrossFit Conjugate. The first two workouts were completely in my wheelhouse. First there was a clean ladder (YES) and second was burpee muscle ups. The third workout, however, was rowing, rope climbs, snatches, and pistols. At the time I was terrible at rowing and rope climbs, and had JUST learned how to do pistols a few days before the competition. Needless to say I did not do well and my score from the third workout dropped me to a 7th place finish overall. I looked at the 7th place finish and thought "I suck. 7th place? That's pathetic" instead of celebrating the fact that I had just cleaned 180 pounds which was a PR at the time, and didn't fail a single muscle up. I focused on the negative, not the positive. We tend to think the results of competitions define us, when in fact sometimes shit just doesn't go well and it's not in our wheelhouse. James talked about detaching yourself from results of competition, placing poorly does not mean you're a bad athlete, it does not mean you're not "fit", it does not mean you're a bad person. Maybe you just had a bad day, or maybe it opened your eyes to shit you need to work harder on. Either way, it's only a competition so don't let it affect your view of yourself. A poor performance does not define you, so if you're going to do competitions you need to learn to separate yourself from the results.
4. You can train for sport or you can train for health. Training for sport means you have a specific goal, and you will do whatever it takes to reach that goal. It's the Rich Fronings, Sam Briggs, Jason Khalipas, Amanda Goodmans, the people who will quit their jobs, move across the country to train with people who will make them better, the people who will train four times a day, the people who live and breath this sport. They have their eye on a single goal and nothing else matters. Training for health is people like me, who do it for fun, do it to stay healthy, do it to improve skills and to be able to hold my own in competitions but that's about as far as it goes. I do it to learn about myself as an athlete, to become a better person, to compete, to learn new things, and to test myself. I have no aspirations to make the Games, or to make it to Regionals as an individual. I am only 23 years old and I have plenty of time to change my goals, but for right now my goal is to become a better overall athlete and to get strong. James basically said if you want it, you will do whatever it takes to get there. If that's not the way you think, then you're not doing it for sport, you're doing it for health. I think that was a hard pill for some people to swallow, but for me it just reaffirmed why I am doing this. I do it for me, I do it for fun, I do it to become better. I don't have dreams of making the podium, I just want to be happy with myself as an athlete and a person. 

These were just a few of the many things James spoke about over the weekend, I learned so much from him and came away from the camp feeling excited and inspired. As a person, James is just so cool. He knows the science behind everything but is also able to get in touch with the emotional side of training. He is hilarious and has a lot of great stories, and I could listen to him talk for hours and hours. I really respect his honest outlook on everything, and I appreciate the fact that he does not sugar coat things or try to tell you what you want to hear. He is straight up, honest, and tells it like it is, and I respect that. I feel very lucky to have spent time with him over the weekend, getting to ask him whatever we wanted and pick his brain about basically everything. This athlete camp was incredible and so extremely beneficial in so many ways, I will never forget it! 

10/29/2013

A. 1 squat clean + 1 front squat, 12 x 1 @ 145; begin a set every :60
+
5 sets of:
15 double-unders
2 muscle-ups
15 double-unders
:60 rest
+
5 sets of:
3 overhead squats, 95 from the ground
5 kipping handstand push-ups
7 toes-to-bar
:60 rest

A. complete
+
complete, all rounds between 1:30-2:00
+
complete, all rounds between 1:00-1:30


Muscle ups were MUCH better today than last week. Today I just tried to not over think it and I got all the muscle ups! I was not able to string any together, which was a little frustrating because I feel like I am still taking two steps backwards, but it's better than failing all of them. During the third round I failed two in a row for some reason, I just wasn't really focusing. But those were the only misses I had, so I was very relieved. The overhead squat workout felt good, although I haven't done overhead squats in a really long time so those got a little iffy at times but everything else was good, handstand pushups were fast and toes to bar were easy. 

OPT Athlete Camp Day 1

8:00 to establish a 1RM power clean

2:00 rest

8:00 AMRAP power cleans at 90%

rest a few hours

3 sets max effort:
250 row
10 KBS (53#)
10 burpee
10 KBS
10 burpee
10 KBS
250 row

12:00 rest

200 (PR+10)

2:00 rest

23 reps and 4 misses @180

+

5:09

5:56

5:50

Wow what an amazing day. I learned so much from James, he is so smart and fun to listen to, and really funny. He just knows so much about programming, nutrition, the way the body reacts during workouts, why things happen the way they do, etc. I learned a ton today and can't wait to learn even more tomorrow. Everything he says is so valuable and I'm really happy he came to CSC to do this athlete camp. The first workout today went really well, I did that one back in June so I already knew what to expect. I wasn't expecting to PR today, but I cleaned 185 and it felt good so I figured I would go for a PR. I went for 195 and got it, PR! That felt really good too so I went for got 200 and got it! Yay! I am so excited. I think I could have cleaned 205 but then the 8:00 was up. Next time! The next part was AMRAP power cleans in 8:00 at 90%. I cleaned 180 pounds 23 times and had 4 misses. I missed one clean in the middle and three at the end, I was trying to push it but was too fatigued to get tight in the set up. The second workout was FUCKING AWFUL. Oh my god. Holy shit. It was the closest I have come to throwing up after a workout, ever. I knew it was going to be bad but I didn't think I would be THAT fucked up after each round. Wow. I really did feel like I was pushing at max effort and my transitions were relatively quick so that's good. The KB swings were probably the easiest part, the burpees and rows sucked a lot. This workout was just terrible, I really felt like I was going to throw up after each round. I'm happy I was able to push through and finish. I am definitely going to work on getting comfortable with being uncomfortable and pushing through pain. As James said today, "You meet pain right in the eyes and say fuck you"

10/24/2013

A1. Close-grip bench press, 8-6-4; 2:00 rest
A2. COVP pull-ups, 3 x AMRAP (-1); 2:00 rest
+
@ an easy pace:
20 alternating DB snatches, 50
15 wall walks
10 rope climbs

A1. 95-105-115
A2. 15-14-12
+
complete


Today was pretty relaxed. The COVP pull ups felt pretty good, it's too bad you can't really butterfly those, otherwise I think I would have gotten a lot more. The DB snatches were easy, so were the wall walks. I was moving kind of slow since it was at an easy pace. Rope climbs felt good but I was definitely resting way too long between each climb since it wasn't timed. But those are really improving. Afterwards I did some pistol practice, I wore my bees knees to  test it out and they made such a difference! I was able to pop right out of the bottom of every pistol, I only failed one or two on the left leg because I lost my balance, not because I couldn't come up out of the bottom like last week. It was so awesome! I'm going to keep practicing them with the bees knees and then eventually practice them without because I don't want to have to always rely on them to do pistols, but for now they really help a lot.