Day Two...

So, I think working out yesterday actually helped me.  I coughed a lot, and I think that's just what I needed to get this junk out of my chest.  I am still not feeling 100% energetic, but I can tell I've improved from yesterday morning.  I went in again this morning and got a decent workout - still modified everything, but it was plenty!  I think I'm officially on the road to recovery!  Woo hoo!!

Warm up: practiced weighted, strict, kipping and attempted some c2b

Strength today was snatch balance 5x5, but we had the option of doing overhead squats instead.  Since the snatch balance is a bit of an impact on my leg, I opted for the OHS
5 ea @ 45-50-55-60-65

modified WOD: 10 min amrap

10 thrusters @ 55#
250m row

My score = 4 rounds

Did plenty of coughing this morning too.  I'll be glad when this is over with!

Ugh!

I still feel like crap!!

Last Thursday I woke up feeling worse than ever.  Took the day off work, and rested.  In fact, I rested all weekend.  And still I feel awful.  I got up and went to CrossFit today, thinking maybe I could just sweat it out.  I modified everything, and did a lot of coughing.  I don't know...either I'll get better or I'll die trying.

Strength was hang power cleans 5 sets of 3
my loads:  55-65-75-80-85

WOD

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

3 Hang power cleans (Men 185#, Women 125#)
6 Strict ring dips
9 Box jumps (Men 30” box, Women 24” box)
27 Double-unders

I modified.....

20 min AMRAP
3 hang power clean @ 85#
6 bar dips
10 sit ups
15 squats
= 7 rds + 5 dips

Spent a lot of time coughing and just pacing myself so as not to overdo it.  Felt good to have a barbell back in my hands.  

Damn Germs!

Man, whatever this is I've got is kicking my ass!!  Started an antibiotic on Friday and my symptoms seem to have gotten worse.  I stopped the antibiotic - figure it's something viral.  No sense taking something that's not helping.  Anyway, I feel like crap.  Head full of snot; sore throat, no energy.  Bah!  I've made it to CFJ the past two mornings, but scaled he hell out of everything, due to this nonsense, and the fact that I have a couple nagging injuries.  Gotta keep moving though.

Today's WOD was ridiculous.  Super hot and humid.  I was soaked by the end.

As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes of:

1-50’ Sled push (Men 25#, Women empty sled)
1-10’ Legless rope climb (start from seated position on the floor)
rest 3 minutes
As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes of:
5 Deadlifts (Men 275#, Women 185#)
5 Burpee chest to bar pull-ups
rest 3 minutes
As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes of:
10 GHD Sit-ups
10 Back Extensions
rest 3 minutes
As many rounds as possible in 7 minutes of:
15 Box jumps (Men 24” box, Women 20” box)
15 Wall ball shots (Men 20# ball, Women 14# ball)

Of course I scaled or modified most of these.  Here are my results:

WOD 1: 5 Deadlifts @105 & 5 push ups = 7 rounds
WOD 2: 1 sled push & 1 reclining stiff-leg rope ascent/decent = 5 rounds
WOD 3: 15 kettlebell swings @20# & 15 wall ball @8# = 3 rds + 15 KBS
WOD 4: 10 GHD sit ups & 10 back extensions = 4 rds + 4 GHD

Seriously?!

I went to bed feeling a-ok.  I woke up about 3:30 with a searing pain in my throat and a really bad earache.  WTF?  I don't have time to be sick.  *sigh*

Barbara

Yikes!  This is a tough one.  Body weight, five rounds...just a good old fashioned "gut it out" CrossFit WOD.  My major hurdle was making the decision to do it Rx or scale it.  I decided to go for it!

“Barbara”
5 Rounds, each for time of:
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Squats
Rest precisely 3 minutes between rounds.
Post time for each of the 5 rounds to responses.

My total time:  57:55, Rx - PR
My Rounds:
8:28
9:04
9:24
9:14
9:42

I have only done this one time prior and that was in September of 2008.  At the time I couldn't do a legit pull up.  I was doing jumping pull ups, and I was probably doing "girl" push ups then too.  In 2008, I finished in 51:25.  Today, I did it all, as legit as I possibly could - I'm sure I had a couple snakey push ups in there, but I tried my best to stay tight.  I think I'd call today an improvement, even though I was slower. 

The last 10-12 pull ups were agony.  I could feel blisters forming.  Then I could feel the skin start to move, and then it finally tore.  I wasn't about to give up that close to the finish, though, so I just tried not to grip with those two fingers and finished it off. 

And in other news....I kind of already knew this, but today it was confirmed by an actual professional - I have a stress fracture.  Again!  Damn it.  I am going to return to a more traditional running shoe for anything over just 400m sprints in the workouts.  That is, after I recover.  Six weeks of no impact, no heavy weights.  Damn, damn, damn!!

Hump Day

I've been back from Jamaica for a week now, so I guess I should blog about something.  Ha!  I'm finally caving in and going to see the ortho about my leg.  It's been giving me trouble since I went out for a run back in early May.  I kept putting it off, thinking it would just go away, but it's worse.  Running and jumping make it worse and it just hurts all the time.  I'm betting it's a stress fracture.  Bah.  I think it's time to probably give up the zero drop "barefoot" running shoes.  Damn it.  I love them, and they are so comfortable.  But this is the second time I've had an injury from running in them. 

Anyway...I'm back.  I'll be blogging more regularly.

Today's WOD was Heavy Grace, but I did "Grace Light" in order to not stress my leg too much.

30 clean & jerk at 70# = 4:21

I think that was my time.  I seriously cannot remember. 

TGIF!

What a crazy week this has been.  I've been scrambling to get everything in place for a new company before today, so I can go on vacation.  The last pieces of all this are falling into place today.  It's like I've been running a marathon at work.  I'm ready to relax on the beach. 

On top of the work stress, somehow I have managed to pinch a nerve in my neck and it is excruciating when I move the wrong way.  It hurt just to pick up a barbell today.  We did some back squats with the bar and I decided it wasn't worth the pain.  So I did a leisurely row while everyone else back squatted.

Instead of the posted WOD I did:

Karen

150 wall ball shots for time

My time:  10:22 - scaled

Yes, I even scaled this!  I used an 8 lb ball and my time still sucked.  The humidity this morning made me feel like I was really working hard, though.  Ha ha!

And with that, I'm off to work, and then off to Jamaica tomorrow to enjoy the sand and the sun and the sea.  Ahh....

TGIF!

Hump Day!

Seriously wanted to sleep in today.  I'm tired.  But, I'm on the home stretch headed for vacation, so I made myself get up and work out this morning.

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

10 Toes to bar
10 Box jumps (Men 24” box, Women 20” box)
10 Hang squat snatch (Men 75#, Women 55#)(bar must go below the knee on each rep)

My rounds:  5 + 4 box steps (164 reps)
I stepped the box instead of jumping but all else was Rx.

The complicating factor (there is always one, it seems) in this WOD was the "bar must go below the knee on each rep". Holy cow, what a game changer!  Hang snatches are a piece of cake compared to having to drop below the knee each time.  I was exhausted after the first round!  I split everything up a with lots of rest breaks, and thought somewhere in round 3 I might actually puke.  But I didn't.  :)

Strength today was Squat Snatch - 10 singles

My loads:  40-45-50-55-65-70-75-80-85-90

Pool Party

Pix from the CFJ Pool Party this past weekend.  If you see one you like, you should be able to click on the slide show and go to Picasa and download the pic:

Not a rest day.

Yeah.  I wanted to sleep in until 6 this morning and do a rowing WOD at home.  But guess what?  I woke up at 3:45 am, and could not for the life of me get back to sleep.  This annoyed me to no end, and I decided I might as well go work out anyway, so off to CFJ.

Once I got there, I actually had a good time.  At one point, I even laughed so hard that I snorted.  Hopefully no one heard me over the fans and music.  Ha!  Anyway, I had a good laugh.

So the warm-up was dumbbells, which I don't mind, but those one arm overhead dumbbell squats are a killer, even with 5 lbs.

Strength today was squat clean & jerk, 1 every 90 sec:

My loads:  65-70-75-80-85-95-105-110-120-130 - PR!

Yes, I actually got a 5 lb pr on this lift today.  I wasn't sure at the time, but looking at my "records" my last recorded clean & jerk PR was 125.   I was a little hesitant in calling it a PR for a couple reasons, though.  First of all, I have squat cleaned 145#, but I didn't jerk it.  Then, I have jerked 140#, but only from a rack, and no clean.  Anyway, after asking a couple of other people, I decide that for the actual combination of a clean & jerk, yes, this is a PR.

I'll take it!  See what I would've missed by sleeping in!?

WOD:
As many reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
1 Dumbbell burpee complex (Push-up, Squat Clean & Thruster)
1 Muscle up
2 Dumbbell burpee complex
2 Muscle ups
3 Dumbbell burpee complex
3 Muscle ups
Continue as long as you can adding a rep each round.
Post total reps and dumbbell load to responses.
Substitute burpee pull-ups for muscle ups.

My total reps:  39, w/ 20# DB's and burpee pull ups

What can I say?  Burpee Hell.  Glad that 12 minutes is over with!

Kettlebell Annie

Annie was posted today as the WOD, but I'm trying to let my leg heal up and not doing any jumping right now.  So I subbed in KBS for the double unders.  Couple more weeks I'm hoping this thing is well again! 

Kettlebell Annie

50-40-30-20-10
Kettlebell Swings - 35#
Sit ups

My time:  14:50

Whew!  I was slooowwww on this today.  No excuses, just slow.  :)

Strength was 5 deadlifts every even minute, 5 hspu every odd minute for 10 minutes
I chose 185# for my deadlifts. 

Tough Monday!

Let's start with I'm exhausted from laying sod and shoveling dirt ALL DAY Saturday.  Seriously Exhausted, even after a half day of rest.  The weight for the workout didn't seem that daunting at first glance, but that's a whole lot of thrusters, let me tell ya!!

For time:

20 Power snatch (Men 95#, Women 65#)
40 Thrusters
60 Hang power cleans

My time:  12:49, Rx

I did the snatches in two sets of 10.  My intent with the thrusters was to start with a set of 10, but I ended up doing 8 sets of 5.  It was the only way I could mentally get through it without breaking down.  Every time I picked up the bar I thought, "okay, I'll do 8 this time" and every single time I did 5.  Ha ha!!  I did the cleans in sets of 10 and  tried not to rest too much between.  Didn't mind the cleans at all, just got super winded.  All in all, a nice start to the week with just barbell work.  But it was tough!

Strength was the complex of 2 power snatch-4 thrusters-6 hang power cleans - without putting the bar down.

My loads:  45-55-65-70-75

TGIF!

Okay, I'm going to catch up today.  I have been SO swamped since getting back from vacation, I have had zero free time to speak of.

Today's workout was a doozie!  I told myself I'd scale it to 15 burpees per round, but when I got to 15 on the first round, I felt guilty for being a slacker so I convinced myself to do 21 reps and just scale to 3 rounds.  And, of course, when round 3 started coming to an end, I figured, what the heck, why not just finish the whole damn thing?!  So I did!  105 burpees in all.  Ugh.  But I did it.  And now I'll feel justified in having a couple of beers this weekend.

5 Rounds for time of:

Overhead walking lunges, 50 feet (Men 45# barbell, Women 35# barbell)
21 Burpees
Let trailing knee gently kiss the ground on each lunge.

My time:  21:42, Rx

Thanks to Jeremy and Jennifer for sticking around to push me through those last 7 burpees. Holy cow.  Oh, and this "knee gently kiss" the ground stuff...that only happens in the first round.  Gentle goes out the window pretty quickly.  I put my knee down on those teeny-tiny pebbles several times.  Not so gentle.

Our strength was bench press.  50 reps was the goal, but I only got 40.  So be it.  Bench Press and I are not all that in love.

We also started off the morning with the Jenks Mile.  My stress fractured leg didn't like this very much, but I haven't actually "confirmed" that it's a stress fracture, so I keep running.  I guess when there's bone poking out, I'll deal with it.

Jenks Mile
400 – 2:05
200 – 1:02
400 – 2:08
200 – 1:00
400 – 2:11
Total time: 12:26

TGIF y'all!

New PR!

I think I need to go away and drink and eat too much more often.  I managed to get a 10 lb PR on Hang Squat Clean this morning!  And my nutrition has been crap.  Hmm...

Strength:  Hang Squat Clean
Rep Scheme:  5-3-2-2-1-1-1\
My Loads:  65-785-85-100-115-130 (PR) -135 (PR)

My old PR was 125, but I didn't know that while I was lifting.  I was guessing somewhere around that, but was unsure.  Anyway, felt great to start the day off with a PR.

WOD:

As many rounds as possible in 15 minutes of:
10 Hang power clean (Men 115#, Women 75#)
20 Push-ups
30 Double unders

My score:  4 rds + 2 hang cleans, Rx

The push ups killed my time on this one.  And my double unders were going great until I saw Breck with his camera pointed at me.  For some reason that made me all nervous and I kept screwing up.  The next round, after he moved on, my double unders were just fine again.  Go figure!  

Back from the Bahamas

Spent a few days with the family down in the Bahamas.  We had a great time; ate too much, drank too much, and spent a day at Atlantis enjoying all the water slides.  I skipped the workout today because I was super tired.  Just got in a 20 minute row before work. 

Anyway, just a few pics from the trip.  I'll have a slideshow up over on my other blog soon.

Me and my son, Austin

Allan and me at the hotel

Atlantis Marina

Allan's girls and grandkids.

Spencer and me on shopping day.

Jessica and Austin

Dumbbell Hell

Every minute on the minute for 20 minutes:

5 Dumbbell deadlifts
5 Dumbbell hang power cleans
5 Dumbbell thrusters
The rx’d dumbbell weight is 45% bodyweight for men and 30% bodyweight for women (that is
both dumbbells combined).

Post dumbbell weight used, total minutes completed and total rounds completed thereafter.


My weights - 20's, finished all 20 rounds!


Oh, the love/hate relationship with this one continues.  I love dumbbell workouts in general.  This one forces you to step back and do a gut check. Rather than be creative and come up with a whole new blog, I'm going to reprise my blog from last time this one came around.  And without further ado....


Rounds 1-5:  I feel like a total bad ass, raring to go, finishing the rounds in about 21-25 seconds. I love this. 

Rounds 6-10: Reality sets in that I'm in for a long, grueling workout, but I'm still somehow finishing about 25 seconds in.  Starting to gasp for air like the fat kid on the playground and wishing for a longer recovery period.  Thrusters are starting to burn like Hell, but otherwise feeling pretty good.

Rounds 10-12: The mental battle begins.  Really,  I want to quit.  I want to puke.  I don't need CrossFit!  This is insane!  I am going to lay these dumbbells down and just leave!  Or puke.  Or maybe just lay down on this nice rubber mat for a few minutes, because no way can I walk out of here on so little oxygen.

Rounds 13-15:  Somehow I'm still finishing in under 30 seconds.  But I'm wheezing like an asthmatic kid sneaking a cigar.  I'm going to pass out.  I'm not sure how everyone else is still standing - are they even human? Some of these people don't even look like they're sweating!  They're walking around, talking, getting drinks of water like it's a damn picnic!  I vaguely hear, through the madness in my mind, "only five more rounds".  Since I can hear, I must still be alive. And if I'm alive, I have to keep moving!

Rounds 16-20:  Nothing is left in me except the sheer will to finish this bitch of a workout, and thankfully a little bit of muscle memory from having done these moves so many times.  I'm on some sort of oxygen-deprived, exercise induced high that feels like an out of body experience and the only coherent thought I can form is "please let this end".  I'm on auto-pilot.

Mercifully, the workout ended, and I made it through all 20 rounds.  I spent a good 3-5 minutes just laid out on the floor gasping for air, writhing in misery.

After a little recovery time, I felt like a total bad ass all over again.

“Jackie”

For time:

1000 meter row
50 Thrusters (Men 45 lbs, Women 35 lbs)
30 pull-ups

My time:  12:06, Rx

Some day I'd like to get this one back around 11 minutes.  But today wasn't that day.  I split up the thrusters way too much like always, and my pull ups...bleh.  I started with a set of 5 I think, and then it was 3's and 2's all the way to the end.  Not sure why I cannot mentally just hang onto that bar for 5 reps.  Anyway, it's a good workout.

Strength was 5 sets of 3 push press - 2 push jerk - 1 split jerk

My loads:  55-65-75-85-95

Fun Friday!

“T.S.”

For time:

5 Rope Climbs
23 Hang power cleans (Men 135#, Women 95#)
85 Calorie row
23 Shoulder to overhead
5-50’ Sled pushes (Men sled + 45#, Women sled + 25#)

My time:  18:04

I modified this one.  I did three rope climbs instead of 5, and I didn't touch the beam, although I was probably close enough to reach out and do it at least once...I just didn't.     Then on to the cleans - I used 75# for this.  95 just seemed way too heavy today.  That 85 calorie row just sucks the life out of this workout.  Serious time killer.  The shoulder to overhead went quickly and then I had to force myself to do all the sled pushes.  I was tempted to do just three, to match the rope climbs, but I love sled pushes (really I do) so I gutted it out and got it over with.  This was a fun one, in all honesty, and I kind of wished afterward that I had done all the rope climbs.  Maybe next time.  :)

TGIF!!

Open WOD 11.4

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:

60 Bar-facing burpees
30 Overhead squats (Men 120 lbs, Women 90 lbs)
10 Muscle-ups

My score at 10 min:  67 reps
My score at 15 min:  76 reps

Breck very generously *sarcasm* gave us an extra 5 minutes on this one, so we could get in more reps.  Ha ha.  I still didn't do very well.  The original time I did this during the open I got 70 points, but I was a lot younger then.  Is that an excuse?  Ha ha!

Oh well, it was fun.  As fun as burpees can be anyway.

Strength was snatch balance to two overhead squats

My loads:  45-55-65-75-80

Hump Day

Whatever is going on with my leg (pretty sure it's another stress fracture) it was really hurting this morning, and double-unders would not have been any help at all.  So I re-set the alarm, got an extra hour of sleep and then got on the rower for a 5k.

My time:  24:51.1

Not exactly a record, but still a damn good workout  this morning!