CFF Day 108 – Fun?

Wednesday August 5, 2009 6:00 PM

Last night I strained my quad muscle again and was hoping not to see a running/sprinting WOD on the board. I got what I wanted b/c it was all arms today! Well…..almost all arms….

Warmup
Sprint Driveway
10 x OH Squats
10 x Pushups
10 sec Handstand
Sprint Driveway
10 x Pull ups
10 x Handstand Push ups
10 x Walking Lunges

Strength: Front Squats 5-5-5 @ 50k-60k-70K -PR

For Fun: 3 x 10 Front Squats @ 30K

WOD: AMRAP in 15:00
5 Hand Stand Push Ups (Green, Blue Bands)
5 Pull Ups (Green Band)
10.5 Rounds

Thoughts:
Strength- These felt really heavy at first, so much so that I thought I wouldn’t be able to go up in weight. Eventually I loosened up and was able to go after it. I still need major work on my squat b/c my elbows kept dipping from the poor form. The weight was a lot, but nothing I shouldn’t be able to do. That is frustrating! I have so many things to work on…why can’t I be perfect at everything?!
WOD – HSPU – these were really hard. The last round I couldn’t even kick into the Hand Stand, so I stopped and did another set of pull ups, by then my shoulders had recovered enough to give me my last set of HSPU, they were ultra hard and I know my arms are going to be drained for a little while. Pullups – Much easier than the HSPU, b/c I was using the green band – I have to start using the Blue for everything, but the target rounds was 12 and I knew I wouldn’t get there with the blue. From now on if it is 7 or Less pullups, I’m using blue and 8 or more I’m using Green. I have to get off of them eventually….the faster the better!

++ My handstand on the wall is getting better, I came off for three times for 2-3 seconds apiece – progress!
—Squats – need to work on them more during downtime

CFF Day 106 – Wild Bill’s Frakenstein

Monday August 3, 2009 6:00 PM

It's Alive...It's alive, but I'm not after that one!!!

Warmup:
Sprint 150Mx2
10 Walking Lunges
10 Pull ups
Sprint 150Mx2
10 Hand stand push ups
10 Pullups

WOD: 3 Rounds for time
150 Single Unders
15 Burpee Deadlifts (45K)
15 Box Jumps (24″)
15 Pullups (Green Band)
15 Knees to Elbows

 

28:29

Thoughts:
I really liked this workout. When Bill put it together, he intended it to be 5 rounds, I like the credit he gives us, but that may have killed me. Going through the workout…Single unders – I’m not sure when, but I’ve become really good at these, I did the first 150 unbroken, only stopped twice the second set, and did 50×3 the third set, it was very nice to be in control of a movement. Burpee Deadlifts- these were fun, to explain these – you roll the bar to your ankles, then you kick your legs out, do a pushup with your hands still on the bar, bring your legs back, set up and do a deadlift. Box Jumps – did 24″, for some reason I’ve been hesitent to get on the 24″ box lately, but these went just fine. Pull ups – these are fine with the green band, had I used the blue band, I would have gotten a DNF. Knees to elbows – I.HATE.KNEES.TO.ELBOWS. For some reason, I can’t do them. Of my 28:29 time, I’m guessing that I spent about 10 minutes on K2E. I single repped all 45 of them. I’m having trobules holding my body weight up while doing the movement. If I try to do two, I feel like my hands will slip off the bar. I’m not sure if it is a weak core, arms or what, but I don’t think that these should be as difficult as they are for me. All in all, I did really well on this workout, I would have done very well if my K2E were on par with the rest of the exercises.

++Good Jump Ropes
—K2E, ask Zach or WB to watch next time to see where I am lacking, b/c when I do them on the floor, I can do 8,000,000 in a row and be just fine.

Crossfitter of the Day - Beth – I came in and she was rocking this one out from the previous class. She really has dedicated herself to being more fit, and you can definitely tell!! She also brought in some cool books for Tiegan to read. Thanks Beth!

CFF Day 102 – CF Nasty Girl ‘Fran’

Thursday July 30, 2009 5:30 AM

No, not Hurricane Fran, but it felt like it!!!!

This is the workout that we were supposed to do on Tuesday when the mayor forgot his keys. He was nice enough to come in on his day off and have a make-up class. I felt like crap this morning. Yesterday’s workout was very tough, last night from 7pm on, all I wanted to do was go to bed! On top of that, I slept like garbage. But, always happy to be at the fort!

Warmup: 500m Row – I sprinted the first half and worked on form the 2nd, felt good.
WOD: “Fran”
21-15-9
Thrusters (30K)
Pull-ups (Blue Band)
Time: 9:35

Thoughts:
It just might be impossible to convey how hard this workout actually is through words. I finished somewhere around 6:20. I still have the ‘exercise shakes’ 5 hours later. Lets break it down.
21 Thrusters – Did these unbroken, felt great!
21 Pullups – Perhaps I should have used the green band for this one, but I was being stubborn. I did a set of 5s, then all 3s, 2s and four 1s to end it. When I couldn’t do more than 1 in a row, I really fought with myself to have Ryan set up the green band for me. Also, I was having great difficulties with the box being in the wrong spot, I kept hitting it on my way down.
15 Thrusters – Drained, I still repped out 5,5,5 – on my middle 5 my left knee started to go out, doing thrusters with one leg is pretty stinking difficult!
15 Pullups – Fixed the box and began with 4 good ones with the intention of doing 5,5,5 – it went way downhill from there. 4,3,2,1,1,1,1,1
9 Thrusters – knee still hurting, this is when I start to see the light at the end of the tunnel, 5,4
9 Pullups – really hurting, did 3,2,1,1,1,1
As you know by now, I’m competitive. I don’t like losing, I don’t like being the last to finish. I was last to finish this one, by a longshot. I don’t like that I have to use the band and everyone else is doing regular pull ups. Since I didn’t have a baseline on this one for myself, I compare myself with the other guys, and they whooped up on me today. I know, I have to keep perspective…I couldn’t do one pull up 3 months ago, and now I’m mad that I finished minutes behind elite athletes who have been doing it for longer, who are stronger and weigh less???? (Yes, Dammit, I am!!) My heart is mad, but my brain knows that I will get there, just have to keep pushing.

++Finished without having Ryan put up another band for me
—Keep my elbows up, they dipped a few times and that caused me to lose my form on my thrusters

Quote of the day: Me, about an hour ago to Q. “I’m too exhausted to even blog about that workout”

Crossfitter of the day: so many choices here, I’ll list what I’m thinking and let you weigh in…
The Mayor Zach – coming in and doing right by the GYG for the makeup Fran
Tommy Mo – Came in at 5:30 in the morning to CHEER for us, and take pics and video
The Garth Show – Came in to say hi, and then to Run a 9K with Brit and finished in 46 minutes
Brit – Ran a 9K with Garth (hopefully you had headphones LOL j/k Garth) -And finished in 46 minutes
Audra – Ran 3.7 miles – (she has gone on the record as saying she despises running)
Pete – Pushed himself so hard that he nearly passed out
Super Dave – took a minute + off of his Fran time, while doing 22lbs more!
Brandon – Also took a minute + off of his Fran time – extra props for doing it without much time at the fort lately.
Ryan – my partner, did a great job counting and cheering for me, also doing this for the first time, did full pull ups and was a sweaty mess afterwards!

CFF Day 83 – Team Saturday

Saturday July 11, 2009 9:00 AM

Came to the Fort feeling good again. Considering how many people are out, the 12-14 people at the gym was awesome. Zach is leading this team challenge, and I’m told its one of the first he’s designed. That makes me scared and excited all at the same time!

Standard Warm-up

WOD:
In Teams of Two (partner was Super Dave), AMRAP in 35:00

1st Person Run 400M
2nd Person
-5 Push Ups
-20 Sit Ups
-5 Pull Ups

When Both people are done, go outside and flip the huge tractor tire together, then jump into and out of it one at a time.

Then, 2nd person runs while 1st person does PU, SU, PU. Then Flip and Jump again. That is One Round.

Super Dave and I completed 9.5 Rounds to take the WIN!

Totals: in 35:00
Push Ups: 50
Situps:185
Pullups: 40
Run: 2 miles
Tire Flips: 18
Tire Jumps: 36

By the end, the hardest thing for me was the situps. and Sunday and Monday, I felt it! I used the Blue band for the first 6 rounds and then switched to the green. I was proud of this one. There was a lot of strong teams that we were competing against. The first 2-3 Rounds we were playing catch up because Boyd and Ryan got out to a phenomonal start. We didn’t quit, kept going and pulled out the W. Dave is a phenomonal partner and pretty much was flipping those tires on his own by the end!

Posing with Super Dave and our Belt!

Weight:
203.5 up a little, but not bad considering the diet and missing M, T, TH this week.

CFF Day 82 – Got to keep on movin’

Friday July 10, 2009 6:00 pm

No Thurs morn class and couldn’t make it to the 6PM or 7PM class on Thurs night, cuz I had a previous appointment @ 6:30, so I had the day off. Came into the gym ready to rock and roll on this one. Obviously I’ve been concentrating on pullups lately, so I was happy to see that there was a lot of pull up work today.

Strength: 5,5,5,3,3,3 Weighted Pull ups – All Blue Band

WOD:
AMRAP in 10:00 of:
7 Hang Power Cleans (20K)
7 Knees 2 Elbows (Laying on Ground)

18 Full Rounds

Thoughts:
Pull ups:
Since we’re still working with the band, I kept there, but used the blue band the whole way. It made them hard, but doable. Very excited that I’m on the blue band now. At the end, Zach had us try to do an unassisted dead hang pull up, which I did, and a above the bar hang. I was really happy with my time on this, no one kept track, but I was up there a fairly long time comparatively.
WOD:
Zach had said he wanted 15 rounds, so scale so you know you can get there. I feel like maybe I scaled a bit too much, but I consulted with Zach before we started and he thought it was a good weight. I flew! It was awesome. The bar was so light that I was able to rep them out very quickly. A fun thing happened about midway through. The bar was getting heavier, but still very managable, and my form just fell right into place, I could feel the shrug on every one, and my explosion up was very noticable. I’m excited to try cleans again after this WOD with my new found form. I didn’t really feel like I was working as hard as in a normal metcon, but when everything was said and done, I was dripping with sweat and panting…perhaps I’m actually starting to get in shape?

CFF – Day 80 – Nasty Girl ‘Helen’

July 8, 2009 4:00 PM

Came to the gym today at 4pm. Have a big project to wrap up by the weekend so I need to be as efficient with my time as possible. Although I was feeling much better, I was still a little anxious about my legs. I even share this concern with Wild Bill over email during the day, tell him I’m coming in the afternoon and he ‘forgets’ to mention that we are doing Helen today…which involves a 3 400m runs as fast as you can….thanks Billiam! Well, it all worked out fine, so I guess he was right not to tell me…

Strength Work: Front Squats 3-3-3-3-3-3
40-45-50-55-60-65 (pr)

WOD: Helen
3 Rounds:
- 400M Run
- 21 Kettle bell Swings (16K)
- 12 Pull-ups (Green Band)

11:16

Thoughts:
Class: This was my first time working out with Dad, what a great guy, we trained on the same rack for the strength, he had some problems getting his elbows up so that the bar rested on his shoulders, but once he does, he’ll be squatting a whole lot more weight, he looked really powerful at the 65 that we ended at, I wouldn’t be surprised if he jumped up to 90 once he gets that flexibility. Also, want to give a shout out to Kris, she put up 57.6k on the front squat, I’m not sure what her PR is, but that was super impressive!

Strength: I dislike the front squats, my squat is laughable and that doesn’t make for a very good front squat. The one nice thing is that I have good flexibility in my arms and I’m able to point my elbows fairly easily. Have to work on squats!

WOD: I liked Helen, I pushed myself pretty good on this. My runs were pretty steady and I did all the KB swings and pull ups unbroken. My time was pretty good, I know the running is slowing me down, and as I get lighter and stronger, they will get faster. I was psyched about doing pullups today, let me tell you why… Tuesday at softball I was standing at the entrance in the dugout, watching the game with my hands on the crossbar above me. During a lull, I absentmindedly gripped the bar and started pulling. It was about 3/4 of the way up when I realized that if I was concentrating on it, I could probably do a pull up unassisted. That is crazy! I haven’t been able to do that in at least a decade. Crazy. Of course you know when I got to the gym, I tried it, and I didn’t get all the way up, but it was darn near 7/8 of the way, so I’ll take it for now. Obviously it is a combination of losing weight and getting stronger, but my pull-ups have progressed very quickly. The assistance bands are ranked by most thick and least elastic to least thick and most elastic. The rank is: Orange, Black, Green, Blue. When I started, I had very seriously considered asking for two of the orange bands. No joke, the pullups were that hard for me. After a short time though, I was able to do 10 unbroken with good form, so it was time to graduate to the black. The same thing happened and then I was on to the green. And now, after ‘Helen’, I think I might be moving on to the blue. Kids, after blue, it’s just you. That’s kind of a scary thought for a guy who couldn’t lift himself more than a couple inches on the pull up bar just 4 months ago.

Before CFF, this was the closest I got to a Pull Up

++Great pull ups, good PR in the front squat
—Front squat form, need to get deeper, and not let the chest/elbows drop at the higher weights.

Weight: still nervous about weighing myself, I’ve missed 2 workouts this week and my eating hasn’t been spectacular, I don’t think I’m under the 203 from the other day, I don’t want to see the setback on the scale.

Day 67 & Day 68 CFF – Push, Pull, Mile, Burpee

Thursday June 25, 2009 – 5:00 PM

Another hot day, another CFF workout. Came to the gym feeling great, and ready to roll. Thursdays are typically longer WOD’s although I didn’t remember that until halfway thru the WOD. There was no strength work on its own today.

WOD:
AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) in 20:00
10 Push Press (35K)
10 Pull Ups (Green Band)

Completed 9 Rounds + 5 Push Presses

I’m not sure of the exact breakdown, but I was flying up until the 10:00 mark and then just hit the wall. As I stated earlier, thursday is the longer workouts, and I hadn’t paced correctly to ensure I would have enough energy to finish well. Had I paced properly, I think I could have gotten to 11 rounds.
Felt great afterwards, I was a sweaty mess, it was awesome.

++ Rx’d on this was 40k, so I was nearly Rx, which is great, and I actually did more weight than the women Rx, that is something that doesn’t happen often
–Need to pace better

Weight: 207.2 – Down From yesterday, good to see, lots of water weight, but we’ll take it!

Friday June 26, 2009 – 5:30 AM
Back to the GYG for the first time this week. It felt good. Looks like Lisa has become a pretty permanet fixture in the GYG, with Season on her way as well, I’m guessing Audra has been recruiting. Nate should be back from Fishing next week, and Pete is working back in after his injury. Brandon and Matt L were there as well…pretty full class for 5:30am

Strength – Ring Dips – 6 sets of AMrAP with the Blue Band
11-8-10-8-10-8-8

WOD – 15:00
Run 1 Mile
When Back, do AMrAP – Burpees

8:07 Mile
51 Burpees

This one excited me when I saw it. Because “the mile” is something that has been measured throughout your whole life, it makes for a great benchmark. I haven’t done it that often, but I’ve been doing it since 5th grade, and I think I remember all of my times.

5th grade: 7:10
10th grade: 5:36
12th grade: 6:10
13th grade: 6:26
16th grade: 8:30
Today @ CFF: 8:07

I know I’m going to get faster. So that is cool. I didn’t leave much for the burpees, b/c I wanted to kill the mile. The one good thing about my burpees was that I didn’t rest, not once. I took about 30seconds after my mile, then got right into them, they were sloppy, but I did them, true to form, every one.
They will get better as I get stronger. Season said she was thinking about riding her bike to the workout. I think that’s a fantastic idea. Perhaps I can get my bike out and do the same. That would definitely help me get acclamated on it.

++Super happy with my mile time
–Burpees were sloppy and slow.

Weight: 206.4 – Slowly working my way down to 197. @ 197 I get to go have a delightfully horrible meal that is not anywhere close to good for me. Chicken Tetrazinni from Papa Joe’s on the south side. My favorite meal of all time. I chose 197 because I figure I’m going to gain at least 2lbs from that meal, but prolly not more than 3. I told myself that once I’m under 2 bills, I’m under for life.

CFF Day 51

Comment on yesterday’s workout – seemed easy, but legs were very weak and tired. So…good workout!

Woke up today in a great mood, suprising b/c I got nearly no sleep at all, went to bed at 11.15, and the baby was up at 12 and 2…uggghhh – Got to the gym to find a tough warmup and a tough workout

Warmup:
Walking Lunges (6 lengths of the gym)
2 Rounds of Cindy – [7 Pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats]

Strength: Overhead Squats 5-5-5-3-3-3 @ 20k-20k-20k-20k-20k-20k-

WOD: AMRAP of Pull ups to the max, 100M sprint in 15 Minutes
RESULT: 80 Body Rows – 7 Greenband Pull-ups, in 11 Rounds

Thoughts: Was flat on my back after this one, I finished with the sprint with one second to go, and I was beat!! Very cool!
++Happy that I was able to knock out the GB PU after doing all those body rows
–Keep working on getting a more mature squat so I can put more weight on the OH Squats

Weight:
CRAZY!! So…last night @7.30 I weighed myself and I was happily at 215.3 – For giggles, I weighed myself this morning and was 211.2 – HOLY CRAP! Only 15ish lbs away from going down to the Souf Side for some Tasty Chicken Tetrazinni!! Clothes feel good, not a ton of comments yet, Q. has, but he knows everything I’m doing.

Total Weight Lost from high of @ 249: 37.8 LBS