Crossfit Open

Week 2 of the Crossfit Open. I wish I could get more into this. I've been watching some interviews on the website and everyone seems to be attempting the weekly workouts multiple times in order to get the best score. I just don't have time for that. I think my ranking dropped a little after this workout, but I'll have to wait a few days to know for sure. I had been reading the rankings completely wrong. I originally thought that I was in first place on the Central Bucks team, but came to find out that a few guys beat me on one or both of the workouts. I don't know if I'll do too well on pure strength work, but I'm hoping pullups, running, and/or rowing will help bump up my scores.

15 Minute AMRAP

9 Deadlifts (155)
12 Pushups
15 Box Jumps

8 Rounds + 20 reps

Workout comments: I was pretty consistent on the deadlifts. I had to break only once or twice. Pushups killed me. But I was really surprised that I did so well on the box jumps. Granted, they weren't as quick as lightning, but I was still knocking out at least 10 at a stretch, with only a few seconds rest before continuing. Half of the rounds were unbroken as well. There were a couple of close calls when my foot didn't quite make it onto the box, but I recovered well without completely tearing my shin apart.

Upswing

Early morning

AMRAP 7 minutes
5 burpees
10 Deadlifts (80)
8 rounds

AMRAP 7 minutes
15 Double Unders
10 OH Lunges (35)
5 High Low Planks
6 + 20 rounds

AMRAP 7 minutes
15 Box Jumps
10 OH Presses (55)
5 Plank Jacks
7 rounds

Early afternoon

Short trail run with Chris and Paul this afternoon. Runs like today make you realize that you're body doesn't always perform like it's indicating it might. After this morning's workout, I was doubting running, but wanted to hit a certain weekly mileage total. Fearing my legs would quickly fill up with lead, I decided against better judgement to venture out onto the trails. The monsoon-like conditions had left the quarry and nature preserve a veritable swamp-fest. My "jump-right-in" mindset over the past few days came in pretty useful, as entire stretches of trail were submerged in over-flowing creeks and mud that surged almost up to my shins in a few instances.

Honestly, it was the best run all week. My legs felt better than they have in forever during a run. When you factor in this week's activities, I would say that I'm finally on the upswing of what has been almost a year-long cardiovascular depression. Maybe it's too early to make that call. Maybe I should knock on wood before my long run on Sunday. But it just feels good to feel good about running again.

Strength, Short Metcon

Early afternoon

Pullups 6, 8, 6, 6, 10
Deadlift 5 X 3
Load: 210, 260, 260, 280, 300

Power Clean and Jerk 5 X 3
Load: 140, 160, 160, 160, 160
Incline Weighted Situps 5 X 10
Load: 25

Back Squats 5 X 2 X 235
On the minute

Metcon

3 Rounds for Time:
20 DUs
20 Jumping Lunges
20 Box Jumps 18in

Round 1: 1:28
Round 2: 1:58
Round 3: 1:53

Total: 5:19

Workout comments: I felt extremely sluggish this morning, a combination of a restless night's sleep combined with soreness in upper and lower body. This should not be the case, since all I did yesterday was a light run with short sprinting sets. I'm going to try some supplements over the next few weeks to see if this can alleviate the soreness and aid recovery time. Being sore all the time takes away from the feeling of fitness you're supposed to get from exercise.

Strength, Metcon

Afternoon

Strength

Max Pullup Test: 12

Squats 5 x 5
Load: 215

Cleans 5 x 3
Loads: 120, 140, 140, 140, 140

Metcon

3 Rounds for Time

20 DUs
30 Walking Lunges
25 Burpees
20 KB swings 44#
15 Push Press 35# DBs
10 Pushups
20 Box Jumps

Round 1: 6:37
Round 2: 8:43
Round 3: 8:58

Total: 24:18

Workout comments: I'm going to attempt a pullup program laid out by 50pullups.com. A few months ago I tried the Military Pull Program and it helped significantly with the number of strict pullups I could do. I believe in the course of 10 days I progressed from 8-10 max pullups to 15 pullups. I'm still average around 10-12 pullups over multiple sets, but I thought this seemed like a nice long term program that could easily fit into a normal workout schedule. I'm also going to be incorporating much more running into my schedule as the Spring rolls around, and with the numerous parks around my neighborhood, incorporating this into my routine shouldn't be too hard.

Modified Fight Gone Bad, Basketball

Early afternoon

Modified Fight Gone Bad

	R1	R2	R3
Wall Ball	45	38	50
SDHP	37	32	30
Box Jumps	20	17	12
Push Press	15	14	14
Double Unders	20	15	16
Total	137	116	122

Workout comments: Modification of the Fight Gone Bad workout. Total was 375. The rower is replaced with the double-unders. Had to take several breaks throughout the workout, which hurt my total reps. I just couldn't keep these up.

Evening

About 2 hours of basketball with the work league. Just an open gym tonight. I haven't played in almost 3 months, which is to say the game was pretty sloppy. Took some protein in after the game and slept well. Not as sore the following day as I expected to be.

Metcon

Early afternoon

1, 2...10 rep rounds of the following:

Push Press 100
Pushups
Front Squats 100
Double Unders
Power Cleans
Situps
Box Jumps
KB Swings 50
Pullups
Burpees

Workout comments: I didn't make it through to the 10th round. The 9th round took me close to 8 minutes to finish, and I was already at 38:30. I had a huge pile of sweat and aching hamstrings to show for it. Extremely tough workout to finish. Maybe a future goal of finishing in under 30 minutes? The pullups were also strict.

Short Trail Run

Early afternoon

Short Run around Malvern, through the quarry and following the stream, skipping the nature preserve. Maybe 4.5 miles in 40 minutes. Very slow pace to alleviate some of the ankle pain I felt after the run on Friday.

Late afternoon

Metcon

For time:

15, 25, 35

Double Unders

Swings (30#)

Thrusters (30#)

Box Jumps

Situps

Then, untimed:

2 Rounds (AMRAP 30s)

Dips

Decline Pushups

V Sits

One-legged squats (each leg, one leg elevated behind on box)

Plank hold

Workout comments: Unbroken double under rounds (except for the first round when the rope was too short). Did not expect this, but it was almost easier than I remembered. The second rope I used was definitely too long.

Bench Press, Wood Chip, Boot Camp

Early afternoon

Strength

Bench Press 5 X 3
Load: 205, 225, 225, 235, 245

Wood Chop 5 X 10 (each side)
Load: 230

Metcon
5 Rounds for Time

20 OH Walking Lunges 45#
15 DUs
10 Contralateral Pushups
5 Box Jumps 18in

12:34

Ab work

Workout comments: I guess all the upper body work is paying off. Tied my old PR for the 1RM, but doing 3RM. Of course, I was using the equipment in Spring House, which I think is always just a little different than what I've been using in Malvern.

First time doing a serious metcon in a while. Went better than I expected. I only really got held up on the box jumps, but mostly because I'm still thinking I'm going to slip like the last time. They are not the most reliable boxes. Lungs and muscles were burning, but I was still moving through everything pretty quickly. I was defintely feeling the cleans and deadlifts in my hamstrings from yesterday.

Squats, Long Metcon

Early afternoon

Strength
Squats 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1

Loads: 155, 195, 215, 235, 255, 275*, 285*
* Both PRs.

Metcon

Row 800m
50 Box Jumps (18in)
50 Pullups
50 KB swings (35#)
50 Walking Lunges
50 Planks Holds with Knee to Elbow (50 per leg)
50 Push Press (35# DBs)
50 Supermans
50 Burpees
Row 800m

Bench Press, Central Bucks Cross fit

Late afternoon

Strength
Bench Press 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3

Loads: 155, 175, 195, 215, 220, 225

Metcon

4 Rounds
Push Press (75#)
Double Unders
Box Jumps (24in)
KB Swings (50#)
Burpees

23, 53, 16, 22, 14 = 128
22, 56, 13, 14, 13 = 118
24, 46, 13, 16, 11 = 110
26, 41, 10, 16, 11= 104

Total: 460

Workout comments: I was talking to Mike from Central Bucks Crossfit today and this workout basically is modelled after the "Fight Gone Bad" workout. This workout was one of the first few in the Crosfit era, given to a ultimate fighter who, after finishing the workout, said it was like a fight gone bad. The Fight Gone Bad workout consists of3 rounds of SDHP, Push Press, Wall Ball, Rower and Box Jumps. A good score is around 300 and Mike's best was 315. Since Malvern has a rower, maybe I'll give this workout a try soon. They are hosting this workout at CBC on Sunday at 11. If I didn't have tickets for the Phillies game, then I would defintely want to go to this.

PR for the 3RM in the bench press today. This follows a PR in the 3RM in the squat on Monday. Honestly, I was loading the bar without thinking and put 215 on the bar as if I were performing the squat, where I continuously move up in 20lb increments. I didn't realize I had 215 on the bar until the 3rd rep and by then it didn't matter. So I figured I'd go for it, adding 220 and then 225 to the bar. 225 was a struggle, but I got pressed out.

Boot Camp

Early afternoon

Workout: Boot Camp

4 Rounds: AMRAP in 1 minute

Push Press (45# DBs)

KB Swings (55#)

Box Jumps (24in)

Plank Pushups

Squat Thrust w/ Mountain Climber

16, 16, 9, 9, 6

Finished things up with Tabatta situps: 12

Workout comments: I always treat these kinds of workouts on the Tabatta scoring system, because there is really no way to keep track of all the reps during each round. Had no energy today. Little sleep and no breakfast probably are to blame for that. I don't think I have ever had the sensation of honestly wanting to walk out of a workout because I was doing so badly. I probably should have, because I took a spill during the third round of box jumps. Could have been worse, but it was still throbbing pretty bad for the rest of the workout.

Bench Press, Short Metcon

Early afternoon

WU: Shoulder dislocates, squats, pushups, situps, back extensions, Samson Stretch, 10 bench presses (115)

Workout:

Strength: Bench Press 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1

195, 205, 215, 225, 235, 245

Metcon: 2 Rounds for time:

10 Burpees

20 SDHP (77)

30 Box Jumps (18in)

40 KB Swings (40)50 DUs

12:59

Workout comments: It's about time I tried for a 1 rep max on the bench press. While I can't call this a true max effort because it was done on the Smith machine, I'll take what I can get. Will, a guy that I know from work was spotting me on this last rep and mentioned that I might want to try and exhale during the lift, and sometimes that helps him push over that wall where the weight sometimes get stuck. I'll have to try that next time. I have taken this 333111 routine from the Max Effort Black Box routine by Michael Rutherford. I have heard from various sources that this is a legitimate way to increase your 1 rep max for various lifts in an effecient manner.

The metcon was origially supposed to be 3 rounds, although I started running out of time and had to get back to work. Can you believe it? The reps for all stations were pretty much unbroken during the first round, but it was a different story for the second round. Ironically, double unders were giving me trouble in the first round. I found that I could hardly string together 5 reps before faulting. In the second round, I made it through 40 DUs unbroken before I failed. The box jumps were also pretty tough, something I'll have to spend some time working on.

Squats, Moderate Metcon (Malvern Boot Camp)

Late afternoon

WU: 1000m row, squats (loads= 105, 155, 195, 235)

Workout:
Strength: Squats 1, 10, 1, 20, 1, 30
Loads: 255, 205, 245, 175, 245, 145

Approximately 3 minutes rest between sets.

Metcon: 5 Rounds, 5 Stations (45 sec on, 15 sec off). Complete AMRAP during the 45 seconds at each station. I had no way of recording the number of reps during this workout, so I treated it as a Tabatta workout: lowest score at each station recorded.

Box Jump-18 in. 27
Thrusters-25lb dumbbell 17
Mountain Climbers 40
Med Ball Situps-8lb, ball touches floor overhead and then touches the wall 17
Upright rows-30lb bar 22

Workout comments: I'm not sure if I would call this squat workout one of the hardest ever, but it was defintely up there as far as difficulty. It has "strength" written across its face, but my heart was defintely pounding out of my chest during the longer rep portions. Ideally I would have gone for clean-depth, but I'm still feeling the tightness in my hamstrings, hips, and calves that prevent me from keeping a straight back that low to the ground. I was very sore on my way home and tried to keep eating as much protein as possible: Greek yogurt, steak, almonds. I was worried I would wake up unable to move, but I was actually less sore this morning when I woke up. Doesn't change the fact that I was still pretty groggy, even after 8 hours of sleep.

For the metcon, I tried to keep the weights lighter than a normal workout, since it was immediately after the squat workout. The higher reps and quick turnover accounted for several pools of sweat on the gym floor, and a few odd looks from some of the other participants. I should have brought my gym towel.

Front Squat, Weighted Pullups, Short Metcon

Late afternoon

Front Squat: 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3

Loads: 125, 155, 175, 195, 205, 215 (failed second 2 reps)

Weighted Pullups: 5, 5, 5, 3, 3, 3

Loads: 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 (failed 3rd rep), 55

3 rounds for time:

40 DUs
30 Box Jumps (18in box)
20 KB Swings (50#)

10:32 (3:27, 3:36, 3:29)

Supplemental: 20 min light stretching

Workout comments: The major limiting factor on the front squats was the soreness in my wrists as I fought to keep the barbell racked. I just don't know if I have enough flexibility there. I used a Smith machine for this workout, so I'm not sure if my balance was totally centered either.
General comments: My ankle has felt light years better since the chiropractor. I didn't wear the ankle brace for the workout today and felt minimal discomfort. It does start to sore up after walking on it all day, but that's to be expected. Maybe this is the beginning of the end.