brikis98's crossfit journal

[Koing]

Punishing training!

Koing

 

[brikis98]

Snatch: 95x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175xF, 175xF, 175x1, 175xF, 135x5, 155x1, 155x1, 175x1, 175x1, 185x1, 195x1, 205xF, 205xF, 205xF, 205xF (ouch), 205xF, 205xF

Very frustrating day at the gym. It was PACKED and there was no room to work out. I had to wait a full hour for one CF class to finish and was able to sneak into a small corner to do some snatches before the next one started.

Unfortunately, my form was awful for the first several sets. After some very ugly failures at 175, I dropped back down to 135 and only let myself move up in weight when my technique felt perfect. Eventually, things went a bit smoother and for the second week in a row, I worked my way up to 205 but just could not get it. I was getting under it better this week than last, but just could not lock it out, losing it both forwards and backwards. On one rep, I was losing it backwards but didn't get out of the way in time and the weight crashed down on my back. It didn't hurt at all, but it did send me hurtling forward and I almost ended up eating a C2 rower. I was able to just stop myself with my hands, leaving two skidding chalk handprints on the ground.

New South Wales ACT Sectional - Day Two, WOD 1
For Time:
600m run then,
2 rounds of;
Deadlift@80kg[f50], 30 reps
Dummbell Swings @ 25kg[f15], 30 reps
Ring Push-ups @10cm[f30cm], 30 reps

Ran on a treadmill and did KB swings with 50lbs (heaviest KB my gym has).

Time: 12:54

My hamstrings and lower back were absolutely shot after the long snatch session, which made this a workout a miserable experience. I actually had my hamstring cramp up after the first round and had to spend some quality time getting it to calm back down. My time would have given me 29th place out of 94 competitors.

 

[brikis98]

New Zealand Sectional Workout 1
For time:
2km Row
50 Burpee
100 Lateral jump (over 2 x 20kg plate for men/1 x 20kg plate for women)
Complete these tasks in any order, including breaking up the row and the reps as you like.

Time: 14:45

Oof, I did not perform well on this workout. My time would have given me 35th place out of 40 at the sectional. I broke the workout up as follows: 20 burpees, 25 lateral jumps, 10 burpees, 25 lateral jumps, 10 burpees, 25 lateral jumps, 10 burpees, 25 lateral jumps, 2km row. My hamstrings and glutes were completely destroyed from yesterday and the lateral jumps took much longer than I expected. The row was just down right painful and my technique was awful. To be fair though, this is more or less the kind of load I'd expect at a sectional. In fact, the typical sectional has had 3 workouts on the first day (I effectively did 2 yesterday) and one workout on the second day (similar to what I did today). I just need to stop making excuses and work harder to get these times down.

 

[Zebo]

Holy shit superman you could probably kick fedors ass, what a workout congrats!

 

[Koing]

Snatch: 95x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175xF, 175xF, 175x1, 175xF, 135x5, 155x1, 155x1, 175x1, 175x1, 185x1, 195x1, 205xF, 205xF, 205xF, 205xF (ouch), 205xF, 205xF

Very frustrating day at the gym. It was PACKED and there was no room to work out. I had to wait a full hour for one CF class to finish and was able to sneak into a small corner to do some snatches before the next one started.

Unfortunately, my form was awful for the first several sets. After some very ugly failures at 175, I dropped back down to 135 and only let myself move up in weight when my technique felt perfect. Eventually, things went a bit smoother and for the second week in a row, I worked my way up to 205 but just could not get it. I was getting under it better this week than last, but just could not lock it out, losing it both forwards and backwards. On one rep, I was losing it backwards but didn't get out of the way in time and the weight crashed down on my back. It didn't hurt at all, but it did send me hurtling forward and I almost ended up eating a C2 rower. I was able to just stop myself with my hands, leaving two skidding chalk handprints on the ground.

New South Wales ACT Sectional - Day Two, WOD 1
For Time:
600m run then,
2 rounds of;
Deadlift@80kg[f50], 30 reps
Dummbell Swings @ 25kg[f15], 30 reps
Ring Push-ups @10cm[f30cm], 30 reps

Ran on a treadmill and did KB swings with 50lbs (heaviest KB my gym has).

Time: 12:54

My hamstrings and lower back were absolutely shot after the long snatch session, which made this a workout a miserable experience. I actually had my hamstring cramp up after the first round and had to spend some quality time getting it to calm back down. My time would have given me 29th place out of 94 competitors.

You got any videos of your Snatch's?

Sometimes it's best to move up on the Snatch depending how you lost the weight mate. For me if I miss it I move up if it's not an abnormally strange day. But you can tell when you don't have it though. 2 misses, definitely move up unless the miss was no where near getting it imo.

Koing

 

[brikis98]

You got any videos of your Snatch's?

Sometimes it's best to move up on the Snatch depending how you lost the weight mate. For me if I miss it I move up if it's not an abnormally strange day. But you can tell when you don't have it though. 2 misses, definitely move up unless the miss was no where near getting it imo.

Koing

No videos, although I really should take some. My o-lift technique is self taught and very inconsistent, so I'd probably benefit from seeing it from the side. I'll try to remember to ask someone to record me next time.

As for going up in weight after a miss, I do it occasionally, but Monday didn't seem like the day for it. 205 would have been a new PR and although I was very close on it, I think going up to 210 or more would have been counterproductive. If anything, I should probably spend more time doing some lighter doubles or triples to hone in my technique rather than going for a new 1RM over and over again.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day. Hamstrings + glutes are sore as hell.

 

[brikis98]

Power clean & jerk: 135x3, 185x1, 185x1, 205x1, 205x1, 225x1, 225x1, 235x1, 245xF, 245xF, 245xF, 185x3, 205x3

My split jerk form is still terrible. If I got a good drive into the bar, I would be too slow getting under it; if I got under it quickly, I wouldn't have driven it high enough. As a result, I couldn't even match last week's performance of 245. Considering I can strict press 205, I should be able to jerk significantly more. I gotta keep practicing.

AL/TN/MS Sectional, Event 4
As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
5 Handstand Push-ups
95 pound Squat snatch, 7 reps
20" Box jumps, 10 reps

Rounds completed: 7 + 4 HSPU

Tough workout. The full snatches really beat up the quads. My 7+ rounds (159 total reps) would have given me a tie for 13th place out of 65 in the AL/TN/MS sectional.

 

[brikis98]

Tabata Rowing: 20 seconds on 10 seconds off for 8 rounds, all out efforts

Round 1: 106m
Round 2: 106m
Round 3: 104m
Round 4: 102m
Round 5: 99m
Round 6: 99m
Round 7: 96m
Round 8: 98m

Total: 810m

I took the time and actually programmed the workout into the rower, so the distances are actually accurate and don't include the flywheel turning during the rest periods.

Ring muscle-ups: 3+2, 4+1, 4+1, 3+2

Some skill work to get better at muscle-ups on the rings. Although I can do ~10 consecutive muscle-ups on a pull-up bar, I lose the false grip on the rings after 3-4 reps. I was going for sets of 5, so each time I lost the grip, I'd drop down, re-grip and go again.

 

[brikis98]

Squat: 135x5, 225x5, 275x3, 325x3, 365x3xF, 315x5
Bench press: 135x5, 205x5, 245x3, 275x5

Weak squat day. Tried to go for 365x5, but my legs weren't up to it and I had to dump on the 4th rep. On the other hand, bench press went well again. I'm awfully tempted to max out one of these days and see if I can put up 315.

Hawaii Sectional WoD 3
For time:
150 Double-unders
9 Deadlifts (315/185lbs)
100 Double-unders
6 Deadlifts (315/185lbs)
50 Double-unders
3 Deadlifts (315/185lbs)

Time: 6:54

I just got myself a cable jump rope from Rogue Fitness and it worked very well in this workout. It is weighted perfectly and spins damn fast, which really helped with the 300 double-unders today. My time would have been good enough for 3rd place out of 12 in the sectional.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day. My body feels beat up and sore from the last few weeks, but the qualifier is on the 27th, so I gotta keep busting my butt for 1.5 weeks more. After that, I'll take a few days of rest, and head to San Jose for what should be a very interesting weekend.

 

[EvilYoda]

Too bad you're not competing at the SD/AZ qualifier, as a bunch of us will be roadtripping to support people from CFSW! Maybe we'll meet up at the Games.

 

[brikis98]

Too bad you're not competing at the SD/AZ qualifier, as a bunch of us will be roadtripping to support people from CFSW! Maybe we'll meet up at the Games.

Aromas is about an hour from where I live, so assuming I'm not in Europe this July, I'll definitely be there.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 5k loop around Stanford campus

Time: 24:12

I'm working from home today and decided to go for a run during lunch to enjoy the beautiful weather. I picked a random path around campus that measured out to almost exactly 5k on Google maps. I'm pretty happy with the time considering the hills and a couple traffic lights I had to wait for.

The only bad news was that my injured hamstring has felt tweaky all day. It felt a little strained when I woke up this morning and had an odd spasm when I bent down to plug something in. It didn't bother me much during the run but is a bit sore now. I had a rest day yesterday, so I'm not sure what caused this, but I'm a bit worried about it.

 

[gramboh]

Have you done any training with Greg & Aimee at Catalyst? I think with your strength and overall ability, you would put a lot of weight on your snatch and clean & jerk with their coaching, they are legit weightlifting coaches not CF trainers who attended a weekend seminar. I think they have (or used to have) open sessions on Sundays that people can drop in on.

 

[EvilYoda]

Have you done any training with Greg & Aimee at Catalyst? I think with your strength and overall ability, you would put a lot of weight on your snatch and clean & jerk with their coaching, they are legit weightlifting coaches not CF trainers who attended a weekend seminar. I think they have (or used to have) open sessions on Sundays that people can drop in on.

Seriously...and their Performance Menu is an invaluable resource, IMHO.

 

[brikis98]

Have you done any training with Greg & Aimee at Catalyst? I think with your strength and overall ability, you would put a lot of weight on your snatch and clean & jerk with their coaching, they are legit weightlifting coaches not CF trainers who attended a weekend seminar. I think they have (or used to have) open sessions on Sundays that people can drop in on.

My self taught o-lift technique is extremely inconsistent, so I would love to work with the folks at Catalyst. However, I don't see anything about a Sunday session on their website. The only option I've found for o-lift training is to either join their team and do o-lifting 5 days per week (not something I'm interested in) or to use the personal training sessions. The latter would be great, but I just can't justify the cost: $85-115 per hour (as listed on their schedule and fees page) is pretty steep. I love Crossfit and improving my fitness, but I've already dumped a whole bunch of money on it ($70/month on the gym, $25 for the CFJ, $100 to register for the qualifier, a few hundred bucks on equipment/clothes/supplies/etc) and I don't know if it makes sense to spend any more at this point. If at some point in the future I become a serious competitor or try to open my own affiliate, then some proper training would likely payoff. For now, it's just a fun hobby, and I'm doing ok with learning things the hard way.

 

[brikis98]

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, 365x1, 405x1, 435x1, 455x1, 465x1 (PR), 475x1 (PR)

Woot, 20lb deadlift PR. My hamstring was still feeling crappy today, but I threw caution to the wind and just went for it anyway. Oddly, as the weight got heavier, I think my technique got better and the hamstring stopped bothering me (or maybe it just warmed up and stretched out more). At any rate, I'm psyched to be just 20lbs away from a 5 plate deadlift and 25lbs away from being able to say that I deadlifted a quarter ton.

Burpees: 50, for time

Time: 2:00 (PR)

I was supposed to do a CF games qualifier metcon today that involved pull-ups, but I tore open a blister during deadlifts, so I had to skip it. I instead did some short metcons, including these burpees, getting my second PR of the day and completing my first 2010 goal. I did the first 30 straight, then 8 more, and then chipped away 2-3 reps at a time for the remainder.

Row: 500m, for time

Time: 1:35 (ties PR)

As an experiment, I put the damper setting to 10 and busted out a 500m effort. I don't think it was ideal, as my legs were pretty burned out at the end. I still tied my PR, but I suspect that with a lower damper setting, I could've done better.

Handstand push-ups, full depth: 1, 1, 2

I setup some small boxes near a wall and tried some full depth (hands to shoulders) HSPU's on them. I get out of the hole pretty easily, but I had trouble locking the reps out at the top. However, I really like them as an exercise - I felt every muscle in my upper body working hard - and definitely want to practice them some more.

 

[conorvansmack]

Nice deadlift dude, that's inspiring!

 

[brikis98]

Crossfit Qualifier Workouts
The workouts for the NorCal Sectional were posted today. I find it a bit odd to reveal them 1.5 weeks before the competition and I'm wondering if someone screwed up and posted them a week too early. Anyways, I'm not a fan of the variety: both workouts are sub 10 minute light weight metcons that largely revolve around the ability to do high rep squatting with 115lbs. No heavy lifting, no max effort stuff, just a relatively small slice of the "broad time and modal domains" Crossfit is supposed to test. I have a strong impression that the same people will do well at both workouts because of how similar the workouts are and not because those people are necessarily the most fit overall.

Anyways, enough bitching. I tried both workouts out today with ~15 minutes (instead of 4 hours) between them.

Workout A
Against a 6-minute running clock:
Run 800m
Max rep overhead squats (115/75lbs)

Scored by total number of overhead squats.

Reps completed: 35

It turned out that holding 115lbs overhead for 2.5 minutes was by far the toughest part of this workout. My shoulders were absolutely burning. I dumped once at 20 reps and once at 30 and am thinking that I may have benefited from dumping more often to give my shoulders/traps more rest.

Workout B
Max rounds plus reps in 10 minutes of:
7 Thrusters (115/75lbs)
12 Kettlebell Swings (53/35lbs)
7 Pull-ups

Rounds completed: 5 + 7 thrusters + 3 KB swings

I felt like I was dragging ass through out this workout. I thought I'd be able to get ~7 rounds, but my legs and shoulders were pretty burned out from the previous one, so I didn't even make it to 6.

 

[brikis98]

Nice deadlift dude, that's inspiring!

Thanks

 

[gramboh]

On that run + OHS, I'd think you'd want to drop it every 12-15 reps and then power snatch it back up 3-5 seconds later and continue, might help you get a bit more reps than grinding more on the first set?

You are competing at those sectionals right? GL dude!

 

[brikis98]

On that run + OHS, I'd think you'd want to drop it every 12-15 reps and then power snatch it back up 3-5 seconds later and continue, might help you get a bit more reps than grinding more on the first set?

Yea, I think that would be a better strategy. I originally thought I'd be able to hold it for the entire ~2.5 minutes, but my shoulders fatigued long before that. Therefore, dumping the weight at set intervals is likely going to be much more efficient.

You are competing at those sectionals right? GL dude!

Yup, thanks.

 

[IceBergSLiM]

yeah good luck on sectionals! I'm going to cheer on my coaches at the new england ones this weekend.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day.

yeah good luck on sectionals! I'm going to cheer on my coaches at the new england ones this weekend.

Thanks