3/28/2016

30:00 easy pace of:
10 assault bike calories
3 wall walks
50m light reverse sled drag
10 ski erg calories
3 dead hang to inverted
100 50 single unders with heavy super heavy rope 

complete
70# on sled


I knew training was going to be rough today, I was feeling extremely heavy after all the pizza and ice cream I consumed over the weekend. HASHTAG NO REGRETS. 

Jump ropes with the super heavy rope got pretty tough, Heather and Jenn had a good laugh while they were watching me do it. I'm definitely looking forward to a few days of chill recovery. 


And now, a segment I like to call "Why So Serious?" It's the part of my blog where I start to talk about my thoughts and feelings. Please enjoy.

While I was coaching the Monday evening classes, Duprie was redoing 16.5. He knew he needed to shave of some time from his previous score to put himself in a better spot for the Master's Qualifier. Whenever it was time for Duprie to do burpees, Conner would hop off the assault bike and do the burpees with him to keep him on pace. I'll be honest, I actually got a bit choked up watching this. I was watching one teammate helping out another teammate because he wanted him to succeed. Conner was not doing the burpees with Duprie for selfish reasons, he didn't refuse to help him because he was afraid his score would be beaten. He did it because he's a good teammate and a good friend. While this whole thing was happening I wanted to just yell, "THIS is what sportsmanship looks like. This is what it means to be on a team"

I'm going to be honest here, because this is my blog and these are my feelings. Over the past five weeks I witnessed some really disappointing and borderline infuriating behavior from one individual directed towards our most humble and hard-working male athletes. It was actually hard to watch. People don't seem to realize that just because you contribute every single week or even get the top score on a workout, it doesn't mean you'll crush the regionals workouts. People who smash the Open don't necessarily make great Regionals athletes(not always, but sometimes) and people who destroy regionals workouts might not always perform well in the Open. This isn't true 100% of the time but it definitely happens. The workouts at regionals could be very different from the workouts in the Open. 

Also, WE'RE ALL ON THE SAME TEAM. All of us. Every single person from CSC that signs up for the Open is part of the team. Every single person has the ability to contribute, depending on the workout. The Open is not a "me against them" situation, it's a "CSC against the region" situation. So the fact that I kept hearing someone tell our nicest, best athletes that they should plan on having the second and third best scores, and that calculations were being done to ensure they would be beaten by one rep, that's just insane to me. These are your teammates, your training partners, your friends. I can't imagine walking up to Emily or Megan and telling them I was going to redo the workout just to beat them by one rep or one second. I can't picture those words even coming out of my mouth. They are my teammates and best friends, and I want them to succeed. I want them to do better than me! If I'm contributing on a 20 minute workout then I would be scared for our team. I know when I'm going to do well and when I won't. We're all in this together and it's crazy to me that someone would actually hope people do worse just so they have a better chance at a top score. Regionals is a TEAM event and from what I saw, that was just completely lost. 

If you've gone up to one of your fellow athletes and told them you're going to redo the workout to try and beat them by one rep, you're doing it wrong. A good teammate will ask you your score not because they want to try and beat it, but because they hope you did well. A good teammate will support you and encourage you. A good teammate will do 84 burpees with you when you ask them if it means it will help you. At the end of the day, we're all just a group of friends working out together, and I really hope everyone remembers that. 

3/27/2016

30:00 easy aerobic work

40:00 hike @Ault Park w/Heather

Spring is here!

3/26/2016

A. Hang power clean, build quickly to a crisp triple 

+

For time w/a partner @easy effort- only 1 working @ a time:

80 toes to bar

1600m row

240 double unders

80 kettlebell swings

800m run

+

10:00 mobility work of choice

A. 165

+

17:38 w/Main Street Deet

+

complete

Came to the gym feeling extremely sore this morning. Lats, shoulders, legs, you name it. It all hurt. 

It felt good to do heavy cleans, although I know 165 is pretty pathetic for a triple. This was as much as I could muster today. 

It was really fun doing the partner workout with Emily. We traded sets of five on the toes to bar, traded 400s on the row, sixty on the double unders, ten on the kettlebell, and 200s on the run. This was one of my favorite class partner workouts we've done so far. 

3/25/2016

AM
16.5 movement prep

PM
16.5

AM
complete

PM
13:24 (1:10 faster than 2014)


The final Open workout is finally here! Honestly, I was really bummed there weren't ring muscle ups in 16.5. I really thought there would be muscle ups and/or a max lift of some sort. But alas, it was another aerobic workout with burpees. I decided to go into this with a good attitude and a goal of beating my time from 2014. 

I broke up the thrusters into sets of two. 11/10, 10/8, 8/7, 6/6, 5/4, then the 6 and 3 were unbroken. I actually felt really good all the way through the set of 15. I was trying to focus on breathing and staying steady on the burpees. I could hear Jenn telling me to keep breathing and I was thinking to myself, "I'm actually doing really well on this!" and then the set of 12 hit. I totally hit a wall on the set of twelve burpees, they slowed down so much. The set of nine thrusters wasn't too slow, I know I probably rested too much between the set of five and four but the nine burpees were SOOOOO SLOW. I couldn't imagine finishing these, it seemed like they were going to last forever. I should have picked up speed on the set of 6 but I slowed down even more. I was able to kick it into gear for the final three burpees. This hurt just as much as I remember it, if not a little more this time around. 

I know this is not a stellar score, but I'm happy with it. I took over a minute off my previous time, so that's a huge improvement. I won't be redoing this again. There's no way I'll contribute on this workout and I'm happy with this time, even if it isn't competitive. I feel good about being one and done on this one. 

It's hard to believe the Open is already over. This Open was so.....weird. And different. It was the complete opposite from last year in both the workouts and atmosphere. Overall, I'm happy with my performance. I only contributed one week, but it was the week I knew I would contribute. The workouts just weren't good for me this year and I've accepted that. I know what I have to work on for next season and my plan is still the same: have fun with my training and work hard as usual. I'll be writing a much longer blog post in the next week about my overall Open experience, but for now I'll say I'm glad it's over and I'm ready to get back to normal training. It's always a good learning experience and I always love seeing my friends crush it. Now back to our regularly scheduled programming. 

3/24/2016

10:00 bike @Z1
+
10 sets:
:30 bike @high aerobic effort- sprint the last :15 of the last set
:30 bike easy
+
10:00 bike @Z1

complete
+
complete
+
complete 

3/23/2016

AM
30:00 airdyne @Z1
+
15:00 mobility 

PM
A. Squat snatch, build quickly to a single @80-90% 1RM
+
3:00 @90%
1 muscle up
3 thrusters, 85
2 muscle ups
6 thrusters, 85
3 muscle ups
9 thrusters, 85
and so on...
+
:60 rest
+
3:00 @90%
box jumps w/step down
+
:60 rest
+
3:00 to build to a tough (not max) overhead squat triple from the ground

AM
complete
+
complete

PM
A. 145
+
40 reps
+
50 box jumps
+
145


Snatching wasn't great today, I was still really tight from 16.4 on Monday. Lower back and hamstrings were still really sore. I was able to build to 145 in three lifts but it wasn't the prettiest snatch I've ever done. 

The muscle up/thruster workout was tough, thrusters felt really heavy. Muscle ups were easy as usual but I was resting too much during the transition between thrusters/MUs. 

Box jumps were not great, my lower back was totally blown up for this. I know this is a pretty pathetic number but I tried to stay moving. Everything was just so tight.

The overhead squat was hard, although I should have started heavier. I did one set at 125 and one set at 145. I wish I would have started at 130 or 135 and gone to 150. 

3/22/2016

AM
30:00 bike @Z1

PM
A. Bear crawl, 5x10' forward + 10' backward slow and controlled; :60 rest
B. Reverse hyper, 3x7-10 tough; :90 rest
+
5 sets:
4 alternating pistols- deep and controlled throughout
500m row @85%- high but sustainable effort within & across all sets
2:00 walk rest
+
Crossover Symmetry recovery
+
10:00 assault bike cool-down

AM
complete

PM
A. complete
B. complete, 90#/side
+
(these are just the row times, not including pistols)
2:04.8
2:03.3
2:03.6
2:02.1
2:03.5
+
DNS
+
complete
10:00 @Chels pace
then an extra 10:00 @Conner pace 


Oh my. I am very sore. Hamstrings and glutes were really tight today. 

I wore my lifting shoes and knee sleeves for the pistols. Honestly, if pistols come up in the Open I'll probably have to wear both of those. I'm much faster and more efficient with pistols when I have my lifters and knee sleeves on. The rows hurt a lot, not aerobically but physically. My lower body was really tight from the 16.4 redo yesterday. My lower back was still sore and I wasn't getting any power in my legs for the row, hence the slower times this week. This was legitimately my 85% today. 

Ended up not getting to the COS, it was occupied so I hopped on the assault bike and accidentally forgot about it. 

As I was doing my assault bike cool-down, Conner was also sitting on an assault bike and asked me what my watts were at the moment. I was pedaling at a glacial 71 watts. Conner said I should probably be closer to 130-150 watts when I'm doing any Z1 on the assault bike. Since I was almost done with my 10:00, I decided to add on an extra 10:00 at the pace he recommended. I got a lot more out of it and I was actually working instead of sitting there slowly pedaling while I dick around on my phone. He said I should feel like I'm running an easy 5k and that I need to make the most of my Z1 time. He was totally right and I really appreciated his advice, especially after my previous blog post about my goals. Good looking out, Conner. I have definitely lost sight of how important my Z1 sessions are, and the Open reminded me how much work I still have to do aerobically. No more zombie-pedaling while staring at my phone.