12/17/2013

A. Squat clean, build quickly to a tough single
B. Muscle-ups, 10 x 2 unbroken; begin a set every :90
+
For 10:00:
Evens: 10 hand-release push-ups
Odds: 6 alternating DB snatches, 45

A. 195 (205 Fail)
B. complete. Failed the second muscle up on 9th and 10th set but all unbroken up until that point
+
complete


Squat cleans felt GREAT today. I was able to get to 195 relatively quickly. I went 125-145-165-185-195. I had a feeling I might be able to PR my squat clean so I put 205 on the bar and went for it. I was able to get under it easily but I couldn't stand it up. FUCK. So disappointing, I really thought it was going to happen today. Oh well, next time. The muscle ups went well, all sets were around :10. I failed the 2nd muscle up on the 9th and 10th set which was a little frustrating but I think I was just fatigued. The push up/db snatch workout was good, db snatches were really fast. Good day today. 

12/16/2013

35:00 airdyne @Z1

My session with Lindsey Valenzuela

For the people that don’t know, I am a huge Lindsey fan. Ever since I saw her dominate the clean ladder at the 2012 CrossFit Games, I have always had an immense respect for her. Watching her on that ladder was what really kickstarted my interest in wanting to be successful in Olympic Lifting. I am a fan of her because she is an amazing lifter, has great form, understands and respects the sport of olympic weightlifting, but is also a very talented CrossFitter. She is extremely strong but also very well-rounded in all other aspects of the sport. This year she took 2nd place at the CrossFit Games and it was very well-deserved. Watching her compete is always very inspiring.

When I found out she was going to be coming to CrossFit Conjugate, I was pretty jealous. I thought it was very cool that she traveled to Ohio to work with the Sweatts and Sam Briggs. I figured she would be way too busy to have time to meet me so I never asked. Then last Thursday my dad and I left for what I thought was going to be a lifting session at Cincinnati Strength. I noticed my dad drove past the exit and he said we were going to take a different route. I didn’t think anything of it and didn’t really notice anything weird until we were pulling up to the street where Conjugate is located. Then it finally clicked that we weren’t going to CSC, and he told me he set up an private hour lifting session with Lindsey. To say I was excited would be an understatement.

Yep, this is totally normal. I'm not freaking out AT ALL. 

I met Lindsey and she was super cool. Very chill and very down to earth. I was pretty nervous when she was having me warm up for snatches. I didn’t want to completely choke and have it be a “I swear I’m really not that bad” situation, or even worse have her get really frustrated with me not being able to pick things up fast enough and just say “yeah I can’t help you”. I think she could tell I was nervous because she told me to relax and that she’s a normal person like everyone else haha. Also by some weird coincidence I happened to be wearing my Dogtown CrossFit shirt (Lindsey’s gym), which probably made me seem like an even bigger goob. After about ten minutes I finally calmed down and started to focus. After I warmed up with the bar she watched me snatch a few times and immediately noticed my bar path is going too far away from my body. She pointed out that I am not really shrugging at all and that is resulting in dropping under the bar too slowly and it’s also causing the bar to move away from me. She had me do one shrug and then one full snatch, a few reps and then I would add a little more weight. My first few reps weren’t great, I was trying to think about keeping the bar close, shrugging, driving my feet into the ground, all that. But once I did more reps I started getting the hang of it, and by the time we finished the first part I was keeping the bar in much closer and getting under faster, it felt a lot easier. Lindsey said to think about it as making each lift as easy as possible for myself. She also noticed that when I snatch, I tend to throw my head back which also causes the problem of bringing the bar too far out in front of me. She told me to focus on one thing in front of me and said I couldn’t take my eyes off of it the entire lift. I decided to focus on a white paint spot on the wall. When I first tried it I fell really far forward but then it became much easier and worked so well, my snatches drastically improved when I kept my eyes on one focal point for the whole lift.

After that she had me do some heavy pulls with straps. I have never really used straps before so she had to show me how to wear them and how to wrap them around the bar. It took some getting used to at first but after the first few sets it was starting to feel more normal to use the straps. I was trying to focus on pushing my feet into the ground on each pull. After that, she had me do sets of snatch balances, increasing in weight each time. She told me to focus on punching quickly underneath the bar. By the end of the session I felt like my snatches had drastically improved in just that one hour.

Just shootin the shit with my new pal

I learned so much from Lindsey. I have to work on keeping the bar in close, being patient with the lift, keeping my focus on one point throughout the whole lift, and work on dropping quickly underneath the bar instead of letting it push me down. She had a lot of insightful things to say about lifting. I told her how I tend to get really frustrated if one week everything feels great and then the next week I come in and all my lifts feel like shit. She said that is why Olympic lifting can be so frustrating, you can have a three hour session and out of one thousand reps, maybe only one or two will feel perfect. She said to learn to appreciate those perfect reps and that when my lifts are going poorly I need to break them down to the basics, then put everything back together. She said I have a lot of potential, and that was really awesome to hear. Coming from her, that meant a lot. She is an awesome person, very patient and down to earth, and my respect for her grew even more. Thank you dad for the best surprise Christmas gift ever! Thanks Stephen and my mom and whoever else helped keep it a secret. It was really one of the coolest experiences ever.

what an awesome day!

12/14/2013

A. Power clean & split jerk, 9 x 1 @ 80-90% 1RM; begin a set every :90
B. Weighted ring dips, 5 x 1-2, 20X1; 2:00 rest
+
For time:
5 bar muscle-ups
3 stone-to-shoulders, 95
3 bar muscle-ups
6 stone-to-shoulders, 95
1 bar muscle-up
9 stone-to-shoulders, 95
100m Farmer's walk, 70/hand

A. complete @165
B. 5-10-15-20-25
+
11:42


I think I need to work on my jerk more, I am starting to press it up instead of pushing myself under the bar, and it's causing pain in my wrists. The cleans felt easy but the jerks felt heavy. I was very pleased with the stone/bar mu workout. All bar muscle ups were singles but I was trying to take shorter rest between reps. The stone to shoulder definitely went better than last time, I was trying to take shorter rest with that as well. I'll be happy when I get my bar muscle ups strung together, then these workouts will go much faster. 

12/11/2013

1200m row @ 2:05.0 goal pace
+
6 sets of:
:30 row @ 100%
4:00 rest
+
1200m row @ 2:05.0 goal pace

4:55.9/2:03.3
+
158
160
158
153
158
150
+
4:56.4/2:03.5

12/10/2013

rest day

12/9/2013

A. Front squat, build to a moderate/fast single in no more than 5 sets
+
5:00 @ 80% of [1 muscle-up + 2 touch-and-go squat cleans @ 135 + 50m shuttle run (25 out & back)]
3:00 rest
5:00 @ 80% of row for meters
3:00 rest
5:00 @ 80% of [5 toes-to-bar + 7 hand-release push-ups + 9 box jumps w/step-down @ 20"]
3:00 rest
5:00 @ 80% of row for meters, must be same as 1st set
3:00 rest
5:00 @ 80% of alternating Turkish get-ups @ 35

A. 205
+
complete
+
1129 meters
+
complete
+
1150 meters
+
complete