Strength, Rowing, Crossfit Inspire Metcon

Early afternoon


Workout:
4 X max strict weighted pullups (25#)

8, 8, 5, 5


Back Squats 4 X 5
Load: (210#)


Rowing: 30 minute steady state
2:02:3 split; 7358m


Late afternoon


Crossfit Inspire
Workout


Med Ball Cleans (20#), DUs, Push Press (#75)
25-15-5
5-15-25
25-15-5

23:36

Workout comments: I guess I'll make it a habit of working back squats and pullups right before a rowing workout. The rowing was just steady state, but I could defintely feel the squats and pullups about half way through. It's amazing how comfortable I feel after only a few sessions on the erg. I can almost hear the coaches yelling at me to keep my shoulders relaxed and accerlate through the drive. It took four years to pick up these skills and only 4 sessions to get back into the routine of incorporating them. I guess there is much to be said for the power of repetition. I've heard and read many times that it takes 10,000 reps of doing something in order to make it a habit. I guess after that it stays ingrained in your brain until you do it differently another 10,000 times.

The afternoon workout was another group workout at Crossfit Inspire. I wasn't sure what "dubs" were, but I quickly learned they were double unders and felt much better about the workout, especially since they had a huge stock of speed ropes. These are infintely better to swing around then the traditional jump ropes I have been using. The med ball cleans were the limiting factor in this workout, surprisingly, because they essentially require two squats during the movement. I wasn't getting any criticism for locking the push press up overhead, but was hearing some for not locking out my hips during the cleans. I'll take it. I should have glanced up at the leaderboard before the workout, and I would have realized that the best time of the day was close to 19:00. It was tough to gauge where everyone else was in the workout, because there were so many different cycles and sets, so I just went off myself. I was pretty pumped when I finished to find out that I had recorded the third best time of the day.

This is pretty much it for the week trial at Crossfit Inspire. Ultimately, I would love to workout there, but I'm just not sure I can afford it. With the new house and potentially a new car soon, I'm going to need to save up every penny to waste down in Avalon. Maybe I could write a letter to the mayor urging him to lessen the cost of a beer from $5.50. It really takes a toll on your wallet.

Back Squats, Abs, and Jumpies

Early afternoon

WU: Shoulder dislocates, alt. quad stretch, 6 X 30 sec alt. one-legged Bosu Ball holds, air squats.

Workout: Back Squats 5 X 3

Loads: 175#, 195#, 215#, 235#, 245#

AMRAP in 3:00 (Situps)
87

1:00 on, 1:00 off (jumpies) X 3
20, 22, 16

For each jumpie, drop into a full air squat, explode upwards and touch the ceiling. Ceiling was 12-14 inches above my raised arm on flat feet. Failed rep if legs did not drop below parallel or I did not touch the ceiling.

Late afternoon

An easy 4 mile SRT loop in about 37 minutes. One of the few bad things about living in Conshohocken is the lack of running routes in the area. It really is a municipal island in that it is surrounded on all sides by the Schuylkill River, 476, Ridge Ave, and the ritsy hilly neighborhoods of Andorra and Harts Lane. There are few safe crossings across any of these blockades, which means you need to do a little trekking to make it to better surroundings. At least it is close to the bike path and the Wissahickon.

Workout comments: I felt like I could have gone a little higher on the back squats, but this was my first attempt at a 3 rep max. I tried (successfully) to get my legs lower than parallel on each rep. I'm not sure but I think this was some others have referred to as clean depth. I defintely noticed that my calves/ankles lack the flexibility to keep my back straight at the lowest portion of this while still keeping my feet flat on the floor.

I was defintely feeling the strain on my abs during the situp. Normally I can break 100 situps in 3:00, but I was just not feeling it today. Likewise, I had originally intended on 5 intervals of jumpies, but I was feeling some twinge in my ankle, so I cut them short. I don't think I've done jumpies since college, when we use to have to them all the time for crew. I don't think there is anything that I despised more than jumpies after morning practice and now I seem to be doing them willingly.

Back Squat, Complex Movement Trifecta

WU: Shoulder dislocates
21 Thrusters (45# DBs)
21 Pullups

3:10

Back Squat: 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1
Loads: 195#, 235#, 265# (questionable form), 245#, 255#, 265#

3 Rounds:
7 Thrusters (97#)
7 Power Cleans (97#)
7 Push Press (97#)

4:14

Late afternoon
2 miles, easy pace

18:30

Night
300 Squats: 8:40

Workout comments: Despite my improvement on the thrusters portion of Fran, pullups continue to be a weak spot for me. The back squat was done using a Smith machine, because that's all I have access to. I was a little to over-zealous attempting a 265# on the third rep. I guess I had misread my previous PR and was shooting a little too high. I dropped the weight and tried to dip low enough that my quads definitely parallel.

I added the trifecta workout because I have come to the realization that my ankle is definitely not going to be fully healed before the 50K. Even if it does feel normal again, that will leave me with minimal time to get enough training miles in to fully prepare myself. I am going to start seriously overloading my lower body workouts, while trying to control the recovery periods to mimic a long distance race of this sort. I'll have to start paying attention to nutrition in terms of what I'm eating before, during, and after workouts. For the first round of thrusters, I got into a rhythm and performed 10 reps instead of 7.

The afternoon workout was supposed to be a 15K tempo workout, but within a mile from my house, I could tell that it wasn't going to happen. My ankle could not take the pounding even with the brace. With each passing day, my hopes of attempting the NorthFace Challenge 50K become more and more bleak. The amount of frustration I kept feeling was overwhelming. Whatever my motivation was to run: competition, serenity, fitness, etc...I never imagined I depended on it so much until I could not physically do it anymore.
Body: Overall fine, no soreness.
Sleep: Not good. Only about 6-7 hours last night.