Saturday, January 31, 2015

2015-01-31 WOD

Tough one today!

WARM
std warmup
20 air squats
10 thrusters
10 pullups

MAIN

A. "Daniel" (hero wod)
{
50 pullups
400m run
21 Thrusters 95#
800m run
21 Thrusters 95#
400m run
50 pullups
}
Time: 21:15 Rx

I added:

B. HSHolds, 
3x30s

Friday, January 30, 2015

2015-01-30 WOD

WARM
std warmup
200m run

MAIN
A. 5x5 deadlift, add 20-30# from last week
warm: 5x45, 5x135, 5x225
main: 5x5@245

B. 21-15-9
{
KBS 53#
HSPU
}
If done in <5 minutes, rest until 5 min mark. Otherwise timecapped at 5 min, then go IMMEDIATELY to part C.
(I got through the 21's and 15's with strict HSPU & russian swings)

C. 20-15-10 - also 5 min time cap
{
wallball
burpees
}
got through 20's and 15's

I added:

D. MU practice
(working on strict - all failed)

Thursday, January 29, 2015

2015-01-29 WOD

Took a couple days off while travelling, and after not having a rest day for ~9 days or so. Did makeup for Tuesday today.

WARM
crossfit warmup: 3 rounds
{
10s samson stretch
10 OH Squats (PVC)
10 pushups
10 situps
10 supermans
10 pullups
}

MAIN

A. Press complex, 4 rounds, 2 min rest b/t
{
- 3 OH Press
- 3 push press
- 3 push jerk
no rest between reps
}
warm: 45
working: 75,85,95,105

B. 8 min EMOM
{
6 OH Plate lunge 45# (3/side)
6 burpee to plate
}

C. 3x12 dips (superset with D)

D. 3x12 GHD situps

I added:

E. Strict MU practice (4 failed, but close)

Monday, January 26, 2015

2015-01-26 WOD

WARM
std warmup
25 wallball passes

MAIN
A. Skill work. 3 rounds not for time
{
1 rope climb 15'
30 DU
10 T2B
}

B. 4x8 Back Squat heavier than last week
warm: 45x8
main: 155x8 x 4 sets

C. 4x3 Power Cleans, increasing weight w each set
warm: 45x3, 75x3
main: 135x3, 155x3, 165x3, 165x3

D. For time:
{
50 cal row
40 Russian KBS 53#
30 pullups
20 goblet squat 53#
10 burpees
}
time:9:43. (pullups were the limiter - shoulders still smoked from this weekend and last week)

Sunday, January 25, 2015

2015-01-25 CF Level 1 certificate course day 2

Again, lots of drills today. 

WARM
drills:
Deadlift, sumo deadlift high pull, med ball clean, GHD, MU compression.

MAIN
A. 8 min amrap
{
8 pushups
10 med ball clean
12 situps
}
Count: 5 rounds + 12 reps

B. MU Practice
FIRST STRICT MU ON RINGS! One simple queue (head back, look up) to engage more back muscles and I popped right up. Somewhat squirrely out of the dip, but I'll take it!

2015-01-24 CF Level 1 certificate course day 1

Did day 1 of my L1 today. Will post thoughts when done, but in the meantime, wod details.
WARM
LOTS of PVC drills and work on basic movement. Squat, Front Squat, OH Squat, Press, push press, push jerk.
MAIN
A. 3 rounds for time
{
15 thruster 95# (I scaled to 65#)
12 burpees
}
Time: 4:55

Saturday, January 24, 2015

2015-01-23 WOD

Warm:

Std warmup
200m run

Main:

A. 5x10 deadlift,  add 10# from last week
Warm: 8x135, 8x185
Main: 5x205, 5x205, 5x215, 5x215,  5x215

B. 15 min amrap
{
5 wall ball 20#
3 c2b pullups
1 clean 205# (I scaled to 135#)
}
16 rounds plus 6 reps

2015-01-22 WOD

Active recovery day. Did some rowing and skills work
A. Row 15 min
3300m
B. Work to a heavy CJ
5x95, 5x135,
3x145,3x155,2x165, 1x 175 clean (failed the jerk)
C. 5 rounds
{
10 GHD sit ups
1 hs hold - 30s
}
D. 3x BarMU

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

2015-01-21 WOD

WARM
std warmup
2x20 SU
10+20 DU
10 air squats

MAIN

A. "Annie" - 50,40,30,20,10 of
{
DUs
Situps
}
time: 8:20 (10 seconds off my PR of 8:10)

B. "Nancy" - 5 rounds for time of
{
15 OH Squat 95#
400m run
}
time: 22:30
This was 4:30 over my PR of 18:00, and I was no rep'ing MANY of the squats. Will need to do better next time. Shoulder was hurting a lot and I didn't use wrist wraps. Both of those were factors, but mostly I'm just sore and out of shape.

I added:

C. MU work
several failed attempts

D. strict pullups
2x5

E. HSHolds
3x~30s, for balance

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

2015-01-20 WOD

WARM
std warmup
3 min airdyne
3x10 DB Snatch 30#

MAIN
A. Supersets of OHPress & Dips 5x10
{
OH Press 75# (had to pushpress last 2-3 reps of last 2 sets)
Dips (unbroken first 3 sets, broke them up last two sets)
}

B. 3 min AMRAP T2B
count: 49

C. 3 min AMRAP KBS 53#
count: 52


Monday, January 19, 2015

2015-01-19 WOD

WARM
std warmup
15 air squats
200m run
5 wallball

MAIN
A. Max UB Wallball
Count: 45 (was still sore from yesterday. Could probably do better. Was still a PR though)

B. Supersets of Backsquat and Bulgarian Split Squats
5 rounds
{
10 Back Squat 135#
10 Bulgarian Split Squat 2x30# db
}

C. Metcon - 3 rounds for time
{
15 Power Snatch 75#
10 Box Jump over 24"
3-5 MU
}
This one didn't go well for me. Took me 10 minutes, screwed up the first 5 snatches thinking they were Hang Power Snatch, then failed most of the MUs (Got 2 MUs, 2 BarMUs, between the 9 reps)

I added:
D. HSHold
1x 1min

Sunday, January 18, 2015

2015-01-18 WOD

Make-up wod for Saturday.

WARM
std warmup
15 air squats
10 pushups
10 pullups

MAIN
"Hamilton" - 3 rounds for time
{
1000m row
50 pushups
1000m run
50 pullups
}
time: 50:28

Friday, January 16, 2015

2015-01-16 WOD

WARM
std warmup
shuttle runs
OH Squat drills

MAIN
A. EMOM 6
{
5 OH Squats 115 (I scaled to 95) - 1st rep as full snatch, but after a few rounds I went power snatch
5 pullups
}

B. Deadlift 5x10, increase 10# from last week
warm: 5x95 5x135
main: 10x195, 10x195, 10x195, 10x205, 10x205

C. AMRAP 5
burpee box jumps 24"
count: 48

Thursday, January 15, 2015

2015-01-15 WOD

WARM
std warmup

MAIN
A. 50(!) Turkish Get Up. Not for time
25/arm. Did 23 with 26#, last 2/arm with 35#

B. Row 2k at 70%
~8:30

I added

C. MU practice
2 successful, 2 failed

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

2015-01-14 WOD

WARM
std warmup
clean practice

MAIN
A. Skill work
~3 rounds, not for time, 20 min work
{
12 T2B
10' HS Walk (I did a mix of HSHold + assisted HS walk)
50 DU
3-5 MU (I did 2-3 BarMU)
}

B. "Elizabeth" - 21-15-9 of
{
(Squat) Cleans 135#
Ring Dips
}
Time: 14:07 Rx (PR!)

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

2015-01-13 WOD

WARM
std warmup
1k row
3x HS Hold, 20s

MAIN

A. Supersets
{
5x10 OH Press 75#. Unbroken for first 3 sets. 4th, 5th set did pushpress for last couple reps
Pushups until fail (14, 12, 12, 10, 8)
}

B. 12 min amrap. 3, 6, 9, 12, 15
{
Wallball 20#
T2B
}
Got through the 21's, plus 3 wallball (87 wallball + 84 T2B = 171 reps)

Monday, January 12, 2015

2015-01-12 WOD

WARM
std warmup
30 wallball passes
200m run

MAIN
A. Supersets - 5x10
{
BackSquat 125# (10# over last week)
Front Rack Lunges 115# (I didn't do 5/leg all 5 sets. 5,4,3,3,3)
}

B. 3x8-12 strict pullups
did 3 sets of 8, all unbroken w good form

C. 10 min AMRAP
{
15 Power Snatch 95# (I scaled to 75#)
30 Burpee to 45# plate
3-5 MU (I scaled to 3 BarMU)
}

1 full round, 1 round through to barMU's but only got 1

Sunday, January 11, 2015

2015-01-11 Sunday Run

First time doing any >5k distance since the half-marathon a month ago. Felt pretty good.

A. 10.6km run - 47min - 4:25 min/km pace

[Sept 2015 update: Looking back at my notes I realized this was definitely a 10k PR. I didn't note the time at exactly 10k, but was probably about 44:30. Didn't note it in my PRs at right, but thought I'd note it here.]

Saturday, January 10, 2015

2015-01-10 WOD

Today's WOD was a repeat of 2014 open 14.5. Nice to go back and compare performance.

WARM
std warmup
20 wallball passes
10 thrusters 45#
5 burpees
5 thrusters 95#
5 burpees

MAIN

A. 14.5. For time: 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3 of:
{
Thrusters 95#
Bar-facing burpees
}
Time: 19:11

My time back in 2014 Open was 21:35, so a decent improvement, but I can do better. Still my previous score had me falling in the 43rd percentile of people in my age group, and this one would have ranked me at 35th.

B. 1K Row, not for time

Friday, January 9, 2015

2015-01-09 WOD

WARM
std warmup
deadlift practice 5x95#, 5x135#

MAIN
A. 5x10 @ 185#

B. 3x5 Power Clean @ 95#

C. 5 rounds for time, 12 min timecap
{
8 Box Jumps 24"
10 T2B (all unbroken)
12 S2O 115#
}
time: 11:24

I added:

D. HSHolds (and practice balance off the wall)
3x~30s

Thursday, January 8, 2015

2015-01-08 WOD

Active recovery day

WARM
std warmup
mobility work

MAIN
A. 1k row

B. Round the world. 4 rounds of:
{
1 min box step-ups 24"
1 min KBS 35#
1 min hollow-rocks
1 min airdyne
1 min HS Hold (3 of these I held unbroken for 1 min)
}

C. Rowing sprint-starts
3x
{
5 partial pulls, followed by
10 full pulls, all-out
}
pace: 1:28, 1:29, 1:32

I added:

D. MU Practice
2 Ring MU attempts (both failed)
3 BarMU

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

2015-01-07 WOD

WARM
std warmup
3 rounds
{
8 KBS 35#
8 wallball 14#
}
20 wallball passes

MAIN
A. 3 rounds, not for time
{
2 rope climbs, 15'
30 DUs
10 T2B
}

B. 20 min AMRAP
{
400m run
10 Squat Clean Thrusters 115#
10 strict pullups
}
3 rounds + 4 reps (run + 3 thrusters)

Tuesday, January 6, 2015

2015-01-06 WOD

WARM
std warmup
200m run

MAIN
A.Supersets of OH Press & Dips. 5 rounds of
{
10 OH Press 65#  (~50%)
10 Dips (did all unbroken except last set)
}

B. With partner, 3 rounds each for time. Rest when partner does their sets
{
20 Wallball 20#
15 KBS 70#
10 weighted situp (25# plate held overhead)
}
time: 12:59 Rx

I added:

C. 2x 45s HSHold

D. 2x BarMU (just to see if I still have them!)


Monday, January 5, 2015

2015-01-05 WOD & Bodpod weigh-in

New strength cycle started today. Also, weigh-in for the next bodpod challenge

WARM
std warmup
200m run

MAIN
A. 5x10 Backsquat 115#

B. 3x10 Bulgarian squats w 2x30# dumbells

C. 3 rounds, each for time, on the 5 minute mark (0,5,10 min)
{
200m run
10 Power Cleans (touch n go, though I broken on second, 3rd rounds). 135# 1st, 2nd round. 145# 3rd round
5 burpees
}
times: 1:40, 1:50, 2:05

BODPOD Weigh-In
163.6 lbs
13.6% body fat (22.3 lbs)
86.4% lean mass (141.3 lbs)

I'm actually DOWN about 4-5 lbs since leaving for Asia in late november, and I can tell I'm fatter, so I've certainly lost some muscle mass. Discouraging.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

2015-01-03 WOD

WARM
std warmup
footwork practice
5 deadlifts 135#, 5x185#

MAIN.

10 Deadlift 185#
1 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

9 Deadlift 185#
2 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

8 Deadlift 185#
3 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

7 Deadlift 185#
4 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

6 Deadlift 185#
5 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

5 Deadlift 185#
3 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

4 Deadlift 185#
3 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

3 Deadlift 185#
2 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

2 Deadlift 185#
2 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

1 Deadlift 185#
1 rope climb 12'
5 box jump 24"

2015-01-02 WOD

WARM
Std warmup
5 front squats 95#
5 burpees
750m row

MAIN
A. 10 min emom
{
4 front squat 115 (6 rounds, then dropped to 95 for last 4 rounds)
6 burpee over bar
}

B. For time, 15 min cap
{
50 pull ups
50 hspu (all strict)
50 t2b - I only got 12 of these by the cap
}

C. Not for time
{
500m row
200 dus
}

2015-01-01 WOD

WARM
std warmup
5 each of the movements below

MAIN
"Luke"
400m Run
15 CJ 135#
400m Run
30 T2B
400m Run
45 Wallball 20#
400m Run
45 KBS 53#
400m Run
30 Ring dips
400m Run
15 barbell lunge 135#
400m Run
Time:32:44

2014 Year in review, and goals for 2015

As with the past couple years, I thought I'd post some thoughts on goals for the year, how I did against last year's goals, and thoughts on Crossfit and my training in general.

It was a good year for me, I made progress across the board, in particular in the latter half of the year, after the BodPod Challenge (more on this later). I did well enough against goals that I added more of them (some of which I missed). Here's the list. Green for those achieved, Red for those I missed. Yellow for partially done.

1. Get a Muscle-up 
2. 135# Snatch.
3. Move from 3rd quartile in the Open to around 50-60% range, for men 40-44. 
4. Participate in at least 2 events, one of them being a CF event. 
- Ended up doing five: Bridge-to-Brews 10k run, Crossfit Open, Mid-Valley Melee (came in 3rd in scaled division!), Bulldog Battle, and Angkor Wat half-marathon.
5. 10' HS Walk
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran & Grace (Grace, Yes. Fran, No.)
7. 325# Deadlift
8. Break 21 minutes for 5k run

Mid-year I added some stretch goals:
9. String together 3 ring muscle ups. So close. Got 2 and *almost* a 3rd.
10. 200# CJ 
11. Back lever, or Front lever. (calling this good because I held a front lever for like 2-3 seconds. It wasn't super pretty, but I'll keep working on it.)
12. Sub 10% body-fat. No. Got closer with the bod-pod challenge, but regained at the end of the year.

So in total, 6 of my original 9 goals, and 8 of 13 total

In terms of lifting, it was interesting that I didn't make any improvement on Cleans, Clean & Jerk, which I'd improved last year, but improved Benchpress, OH Press, and Deadlift, which had all plateau'd last year. Also moderate increases on front & back squat. Happy with the 365 deadlift, and can see 400# coming, only a 10% increase needed


I made good gains on a bunch of benchmark workouts. Knocked a minute off Annie, got Murph done under 40 minutes, Knocked 2 minutes off Jackie and Grace.

Conditioning & gymnastics: 10% improvement in my 800m, 1 mile and 5k times. 10 minutes off my 10k time, and ran my first half-marathon (hitting my goal of under 2hrs). I got 100 double unders unbroken (double last year's PR), and got my first triple-under. Increased my max unbroken pullups and unbroken toes-to-bar. Got my first bar muscle-up in April, eventually getting 5 unbroken. Went on to get the ring muscle up in June (something of a crossfit milestone).



So, goals for 2015. I'm going to take the 2014 ones I missed, and add a couple:

1. Get my L1 cert (not that I ever plan on being a trainer, but will help with my own programming)
2. 135# Snatch
3. 200# CJ
4. 400# Deadlift
5. Do at least 3 events
6. Learn the butterfly pullup
7. Sub-7 minute Fran
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open (not sure how this will work as they are changing the structure, so this one is a little tbd)
9. 10' handstand walk
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups

Friday, January 2, 2015

2015-01-01 - Angkor WatHalf-Marathon post-mortem

I'm back from my trip and so have a little time to do the post-mortem on my half-marathon that I did a few weeks back in Cambodia.

This was my first half, and the first time I'd set out to do any event over 10k. As prep, I did a few things:
- Read some reviews of the event itself to know what to expect of course, conditions, etc
- Researched half-marathon training plans, and came up with one of my own based on these
- Trained according to the plan I'd come up with... at least at first. More on this below.

Research:

What I read about the event prepared me for the following: The course was super flat, with almost zero elevation change. It would be humid*, but with a 6am start time not too hot - though by 8am it would likely get pretty warm. Most of it would be paved, with a few portions on some packed gravel.

What I wasn't prepared for: The density of the crowd for the first 5k. This likely cost me 2 minutes on my total time, as there was a lot of traffic jams. The first few hundred yards, even after the chip-crossing, were at walking pace. I was consistently passing people for the first 7k or so, and it required a lot of zig-zagging, running on the gravel shoulder, etc, all of which cost me time.

*Regarding humidity, it was probably overly detailed for my needs, but I read this great blog post by Sami Inkinen, where he looked into studies of athletes' performance under different temperatures and humidity conditions. Bottom line is that (a) you can't cool yourself as well as temperature and humidity go up (thus the fastest marathon times usually being on colder-climate courses), and (b) it's worse the larger you are, because you are moving more mass, and can't cool it as well. Not that you can really DO anything about either one, but prepare to train to run as efficiently as possible, hydrate yourself appropriately, and set expectations as to your times. i.e. If I wanted to run a 1:55 time, I should be able to do 1:45 under cooler (i.e. Portland) conditions.

Training Plan:

The plan I came up with was to, over 3 months, do two 5k runs on Tuesdays, Thursdays; a varied set of strength-building runs (run with weight vest, sprints, hill runs, etc) on Fridays, and do a long run on Sundays, starting at 10k, then going up by 2k every 2 weeks. The plan on the long runs was to make every second one faster. So 12k for the first time, then 12k at race pace; 14k for the first time, then 14k at race pace. I planned to taper the last 2 weeks before the event. This was in addition to 6x week crossfit workouts.

I recorded all my results, as well as some runs that BCF had us do

Here's how it worked out. Top table was the plan, bottom was the actuals, with red being a miss, yellow being a 'below plan'. Green is close to or above target.

Some takeaways:
Initially, all was good, but as I upped the distance on Sundays, getting in another two 5ks plus a strength run, was just too much. You can see all the red as I dropped the Friday and Tuesday plans. Then, work got insanely busy before I headed out on Sabbatical, so that didn't help.

That said, things were proceeding well. The "increase distance every second Sunday, Increase pace every other Sunday" was working well. In the graph below, you can see all my pace times. The colors are for different distances. The purple are for the Sunday runs, and you can see that I was doing well up until early November both increasing distance AND speed. The blue line was my goal pace for a 2hr half-marathon, and the green horizontal line was the stretch goal for 1:40 time. By early Nov I was doing that pace for 18k, so pretty well on track, depending what heat and humidity would do to me. 

However, in late November I started developing a problem in my foot. Plantar Fascitis? Not sure. All I knew was that it hurt like heck to do even 5k, and it affected my pace time. You can see where the purple dots at that point go up to ~5:30pace, and those were all short runs. More on this below.

Stuff you can't prepare for:

1. Um, "digestive issues". We got some bugs from the food in Asia. Suffice it to say that things were not, err, optimal. I was worried I might have to pull off the course for a pit stop, but managed to not do so. Still, I think the disruption to diet over the week or two before the event cost me some time.

2. Injury. This was the big one for me. With all the training I was doing, everything went smoothly. Then about 3 weeks before the event, I did a 5k run and developed a massive throbbing pain in one of my feet. Not sure what caused it but it was concerning. I did no running for about a week, tried again, and it kicked in after about 2k. I decided there was nothing I could do but choose to do zero running until the event itself, and then hope for the best. It ended up doing the trick. It started to hurt a little about 5k in, but nowhere near as bad, and held out for the whole run. I do suspect that my shoes weren't fitting right, though, because it seemed to be related to that, and also one of my toenails turned completely black after the event. I plan on doing a proper fitting/assessment at one of the running stores in Portland when I get back.

Race Day:

The event itself was a blast. I got up at 4:30am, downed a protein shake and a coffee, got a tuk-tuk with some other racers from the hotel, and had a bumpy ride into the start line in front of the Angkor Wat temple, getting there at 5:30. Watched the sunrise before the start, then enjoyed the view of ancient temples through the course, high-fiving adorable Cambodian kids along the way, who'd all come out to watch.
Results:

My plan had been to get under 2hrs (a pace of 5:41 min/km), with a stretch goal of getting 1:40 (a pace of 4:44). The end result was a time of 1:54:39. Considering the injured foot, running with abdominal cramps most of the way, the crowd, and the heat, I'm happy with the result.

I'd said following the race that I'd never do it again, but... sure would be nice to get a full marathon under my belt. Hmm...