Little late for it, but thought it time I checked against yearly goals I laid out in January
Goals for 2017
1. Reduce number of injuries. Allow recovery time, work on mobility, etc
(so far, so good - couple small things but nothing catastrophic - knock on wood)
2. Get diet back on track and get down to ab-popping body fat range.
Progress - down to #166. Body fat still higher than I'd like.
3. 200# CJ
My Clean weight has dropped if anything. Not on track here.
4. 400# Deadlift
Same as above
5. Do 3 events that scare me, require training, etc
Done. CF Open, Spartan Sprint, and Battle in the Berg.
6. Improve standing in the open (this will be HARD given past year)
Not done. STILL haven't written up my post-mortem - but bottom line is I finished about the same position in the field as 2 years prior, but dropped from last year. Given the injury recovery, I'm ok with that.
7. Handstand improvement: Press to handstand (freestanding) or repeatable 20s HSH, or 10' HSwalk.
Nope. not yet.
8. MU virtuosity: get to a fluid, strict MU w solid form
I've worked hard on this one and it's pretty much there.
9. Front Lever
Progress. Can do a straddle front lever for a few seconds.
10. One-arm chinup
No, and haven't worked the progression here for a while.
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Goals. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 22, 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017
2016 year in review and goals for 2017
2016 was not a great year for progress for three reasons:
1. A new job at work had me travelling a great deal, and so I missed a fair number of workouts (285 posts to this blog vs ~30 more than that in 2014, 2015).
2. A *catatrophic* year for me, injury-wise. Off the top of my head:
- torn ligament in my right shoulder (~3month recovery)
- strain in my left shoulder (not as bad as above)
- torn left bicep tendon (ongoing - likely 3 month recovery)
- pulled groin muscle
- pulled lower back muscle.
- strained ab muscle
- pulled left calf muscle
- pulled right calf muscle (twice)
This may in part have just been a bad year, but I think it was also related to (1) above. going too hard after several days off, etc.
3. Diet went off the rails. Between the travel and then being down about lack of progress due to injury, etc.
Anyhow, as a result, didn't do well against my goals for 2016
1. Get my diet back on track and get back down to the 10% body fat range. NOPE.
2. 115 snatch - but a full squat snatch with proper form. No.
3. 200# CJ. No. Closer, but just missed. 215 HPC, 200 PC, 190 push jerk.
4. 400# deadlift. No.
5. Put in 500km of running over the course of the year. No. haven't done full total, but somewhere around 400km
6. Do 3 events that require training for (the open and 2 others). Nope. Only did the Open.
7. Improve my standing in the open. Yes, but barely.
8. Spend dedicated time on mobility. 15 minutes, 4x week. Nope.
9. Work on a handstand progression, to get either a free standing HS for 20s, or a 10' HS walk. Yes, hit the 20s one, but really a fluke. Did lots of dedicated work on this.
10. Muscle-up virtuosity: Get to a fluid, strict MU with really solid form. No. Was progressing, but then shoulder injury and weight gain has put this right out of reach again.
Bonus: 11. One arm chin-up. Nope.
Other takeaways:
Running was down over past years, between injury and travel. Didn't do detailed accounting like in the past, but somewhere around 400k
Lifting: Some small incremental improvements here. In part because of the injury during last strength cycle, but also because I wasn't working on a dedicated plan for any one of these. Really want to hit my CJ goal and my DL goal this year.
Conditioning: a couple PRs here but quite frankly I was suprised there were any given the injuries and weight gain. back on it in 2017.
Goals for 2017
1. Reduce number of injuries. Allow recovery time, work on mobility, etc
2. Get diet back on track and get down to ab-popping body fat range.
3. 200# CJ
4. 400# Deadlift
5. Do 3 events that scare me, require training, etc
6. Improve standing in the open (this will be HARD given past year)
7. Handstand improvement: Press to handstand (freestanding) or repeatable 20s HSH, or 10' HSwalk.
8. MU virtuosity: get to a fluid, strict MU w solid form
9. Front Lever
10. One-arm chinup
1. A new job at work had me travelling a great deal, and so I missed a fair number of workouts (285 posts to this blog vs ~30 more than that in 2014, 2015).
2. A *catatrophic* year for me, injury-wise. Off the top of my head:
- torn ligament in my right shoulder (~3month recovery)
- strain in my left shoulder (not as bad as above)
- torn left bicep tendon (ongoing - likely 3 month recovery)
- pulled groin muscle
- pulled lower back muscle.
- strained ab muscle
- pulled left calf muscle
- pulled right calf muscle (twice)
This may in part have just been a bad year, but I think it was also related to (1) above. going too hard after several days off, etc.
3. Diet went off the rails. Between the travel and then being down about lack of progress due to injury, etc.
Anyhow, as a result, didn't do well against my goals for 2016
1. Get my diet back on track and get back down to the 10% body fat range. NOPE.
2. 115 snatch - but a full squat snatch with proper form. No.
3. 200# CJ. No. Closer, but just missed. 215 HPC, 200 PC, 190 push jerk.
4. 400# deadlift. No.
5. Put in 500km of running over the course of the year. No. haven't done full total, but somewhere around 400km
6. Do 3 events that require training for (the open and 2 others). Nope. Only did the Open.
7. Improve my standing in the open. Yes, but barely.
8. Spend dedicated time on mobility. 15 minutes, 4x week. Nope.
9. Work on a handstand progression, to get either a free standing HS for 20s, or a 10' HS walk. Yes, hit the 20s one, but really a fluke. Did lots of dedicated work on this.
10. Muscle-up virtuosity: Get to a fluid, strict MU with really solid form. No. Was progressing, but then shoulder injury and weight gain has put this right out of reach again.
Bonus: 11. One arm chin-up. Nope.
Other takeaways:
Running was down over past years, between injury and travel. Didn't do detailed accounting like in the past, but somewhere around 400k
Lifting: Some small incremental improvements here. In part because of the injury during last strength cycle, but also because I wasn't working on a dedicated plan for any one of these. Really want to hit my CJ goal and my DL goal this year.
Conditioning: a couple PRs here but quite frankly I was suprised there were any given the injuries and weight gain. back on it in 2017.
Goals for 2017
1. Reduce number of injuries. Allow recovery time, work on mobility, etc
2. Get diet back on track and get down to ab-popping body fat range.
3. 200# CJ
4. 400# Deadlift
5. Do 3 events that scare me, require training, etc
6. Improve standing in the open (this will be HARD given past year)
7. Handstand improvement: Press to handstand (freestanding) or repeatable 20s HSH, or 10' HSwalk.
8. MU virtuosity: get to a fluid, strict MU w solid form
9. Front Lever
10. One-arm chinup
Wednesday, December 28, 2016
2016-12-28 WOD
WARM
std warmup
3rounds:
{
7 cal row
6 wallball
5 pushup
}
MAIN
A. 3 rounds, not for time
{
50 DU
5 pistols/side
6 HSPU (strict, no abmat)
}
B. 21-15-9
{
row for cals
wallball 20#
pushups (subbed for pullups)
}
time: 6:50
I added:
C. 3 rounds, not for time
{
10 GHD situps
1 HSHold for balance (hit 20s freestanding, which was one of my goals for the year! PR!)
1 dragonflag negative
}
D. BackBridge
3x5s
std warmup
3rounds:
{
7 cal row
6 wallball
5 pushup
}
MAIN
A. 3 rounds, not for time
{
50 DU
5 pistols/side
6 HSPU (strict, no abmat)
}
B. 21-15-9
{
row for cals
wallball 20#
pushups (subbed for pullups)
}
time: 6:50
I added:
C. 3 rounds, not for time
{
10 GHD situps
1 HSHold for balance (hit 20s freestanding, which was one of my goals for the year! PR!)
1 dragonflag negative
}
D. BackBridge
3x5s
Thursday, April 14, 2016
Q1 Goals Check
Little late in doing this, as we're 2 weeks into Q2.
Here are the goals I laid out for the year:
Here are the goals I laid out for the year:
- Get my diet back on track and get back down to the 10% body fat range. I've fallen off the wagon past 3 months or so. - I was on again, off again. It's better, but needs consistency.
- 115 snatch - but a full squat snatch with proper form. Haven't worked on this at all due to shoulder issues.
- 200# CJ. Hit a 200# clean, so I'm getting closer.
- 400# deadlift. not on track, and last heavy DL we did, I came 30# short of my last PR.
- Put in 500km of running over the course of the year. Only put in about 100k in the first quarter, so off track, but not by too much. Need to step it up now that the weather's improving.
- Do 3 events that require training for (the open and 2 others). Just finished the Open, so 1 down, 2 to go.
- Improve my standing in the open. Done, but just barely.
- Spend dedicated time on mobility. 15 minutes, 4x week. Not on track at all.
- Work on a handstand progression, to get either a free standing HS for 20s, or a 10' HS walk. Doing practice, but not much progress.
- Muscle-up virtuosity: Get to a fluid, strict MU with really solid form. Was making progress here, but hurt my shoulder and likely have been set back.
- Bonus: One arm chin-up. Doing progressions, but not much noted progress.
Friday, January 1, 2016
2015 Year in Review, and goals for 2016
First off, goals for 2015 and how I did against them. I hit 7 of the 10 goals I set out at the beginning of the year.
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but close. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - Done: Four events: CF Open, Everyday Warrior, and two BCF Throwdowns in Nov/Dec.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Done. Barely though. strung together 5, but it needs a lot of work to get proficient.
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. DONE
The L1 Cert was educational but not sure I'd recommend it unless someone's planning on being a professional trainer. At $1000 it had limited value. I learned some stuff, and I got a strict muscle-up during the training, which was probably worth a few hundred to me :-).
The 135# snatch was a goal for 2 years. I was glad to hit it, but it was a VERY ugly power snatch. One goal for this year will be on form, even if it means taking a lower target.
I came frustratingly close on the 200# CJ. I just need to dedicate some time to working on this piece by piece.
I was on track (I think) to hit hte 400# deadlift, but injured my back trying to PR my back squat during our last strength cycle. Will be a while to get it back, but I think I'll get there this year.
I hit the events goal, but all of them except the open were just "things I did", whereas events in the past (mid-valley melee, Ankor Wat half marathon) were things I *trained for*. That'll be the goal this year.
6,7,8 were all incremental improvements.
9. I didn't hit, and not for lack of lots of time spent on handstand holds and such. This is going to require a dedicated allotment of time, and a training plan. I need to get serious about it like I did about MU's in the past.
10. Speaking of which, 2015 was the "year of the muscle-up" for me. I got one for the first time in 2014 but didn't have them down and efficient., and I did a total of 20 in the second half of the year. In 2015 I did *680* muscle-ups, 60 of those strict. This was a result of dedicated effort on this movement, working on it after class multiple times a week.
My running was down versus 2014, with all the half-marathon added training I did that year. Total running per year:
2012: 293 km
2013: 478 km
2014: 690 km <-- included a couple months of ~100km/month
2015: 442 km
2015 was lower because I was a little sick of it after the half-marathon was done and just cut out all the long runs altogether. Then later in the year I injured my calf which meant no running for a period of about 6 weeks.
Lifting:
Only some small incremental improvements here. In part because of the injury during last strength cycle, but also because I wasn't working on a dedicated plan for any one of these. that'll have to change. Exception is the snatch, but as I stated above, this was not because of, but despite of, my crappy form. Also will be a goal for the coming year.
Conditioning:
The interesting thing here is just general incremental improvement across a number of these tells me that my 'engine' is getting better, though it sure doesn't feel that way sometimes. I think it's also in part from knowing my own abilities, so I tend to come into these with a plan. Especially true for the long grinds like Murph and Angie.
Goals for 2016:
1. Get my diet back on track and get back down to the 10% body fat range. I've fallen off the wagon past 3 months or so.
2. 115 snatch - but a full squat snatch with proper form.
3. 200# CJ.
4. 400# deadlift.
5. Put in 500km of running over the course of the year.
6. Do 3 events that require training for (the open and 2 others)
7. Improve my standing in the open
8. Spend dedicated time on mobility. 15 minutes, 4x week.
9. Work on a handstand progression, to get either a free standing HS for 20s, or a 10' HS walk
10. Muscle-up virtuosity: Get to a fluid, strict MU with really solid form.
Bonus: 11. One arm chin-up
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but close. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - Done: Four events: CF Open, Everyday Warrior, and two BCF Throwdowns in Nov/Dec.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Done. Barely though. strung together 5, but it needs a lot of work to get proficient.
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. DONE
The L1 Cert was educational but not sure I'd recommend it unless someone's planning on being a professional trainer. At $1000 it had limited value. I learned some stuff, and I got a strict muscle-up during the training, which was probably worth a few hundred to me :-).
The 135# snatch was a goal for 2 years. I was glad to hit it, but it was a VERY ugly power snatch. One goal for this year will be on form, even if it means taking a lower target.
I came frustratingly close on the 200# CJ. I just need to dedicate some time to working on this piece by piece.
I was on track (I think) to hit hte 400# deadlift, but injured my back trying to PR my back squat during our last strength cycle. Will be a while to get it back, but I think I'll get there this year.
I hit the events goal, but all of them except the open were just "things I did", whereas events in the past (mid-valley melee, Ankor Wat half marathon) were things I *trained for*. That'll be the goal this year.
6,7,8 were all incremental improvements.
9. I didn't hit, and not for lack of lots of time spent on handstand holds and such. This is going to require a dedicated allotment of time, and a training plan. I need to get serious about it like I did about MU's in the past.
10. Speaking of which, 2015 was the "year of the muscle-up" for me. I got one for the first time in 2014 but didn't have them down and efficient., and I did a total of 20 in the second half of the year. In 2015 I did *680* muscle-ups, 60 of those strict. This was a result of dedicated effort on this movement, working on it after class multiple times a week.
My running was down versus 2014, with all the half-marathon added training I did that year. Total running per year:
2012: 293 km
2013: 478 km
2014: 690 km <-- included a couple months of ~100km/month
2015: 442 km
2015 was lower because I was a little sick of it after the half-marathon was done and just cut out all the long runs altogether. Then later in the year I injured my calf which meant no running for a period of about 6 weeks.
Lifting:
Only some small incremental improvements here. In part because of the injury during last strength cycle, but also because I wasn't working on a dedicated plan for any one of these. that'll have to change. Exception is the snatch, but as I stated above, this was not because of, but despite of, my crappy form. Also will be a goal for the coming year.
Conditioning:
The interesting thing here is just general incremental improvement across a number of these tells me that my 'engine' is getting better, though it sure doesn't feel that way sometimes. I think it's also in part from knowing my own abilities, so I tend to come into these with a plan. Especially true for the long grinds like Murph and Angie.
Goals for 2016:
1. Get my diet back on track and get back down to the 10% body fat range. I've fallen off the wagon past 3 months or so.
2. 115 snatch - but a full squat snatch with proper form.
3. 200# CJ.
4. 400# deadlift.
5. Put in 500km of running over the course of the year.
6. Do 3 events that require training for (the open and 2 others)
7. Improve my standing in the open
8. Spend dedicated time on mobility. 15 minutes, 4x week.
9. Work on a handstand progression, to get either a free standing HS for 20s, or a 10' HS walk
10. Muscle-up virtuosity: Get to a fluid, strict MU with really solid form.
Bonus: 11. One arm chin-up
Thursday, December 31, 2015
2015-12-31 WOD
WARM
std warmup
10 air squats
300m row
5 burpees
MAIN
A. 5 rounds for time
{
400m run
20 burpees
500m row
}
time: 28:30
B. pullup practice
10 scap retractions
5 strict pullups
5 kipping pullups
butterfly pullup practice
3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5! Which is a PR and was on my goal list for the year. Woot!
std warmup
10 air squats
300m row
5 burpees
MAIN
A. 5 rounds for time
{
400m run
20 burpees
500m row
}
time: 28:30
B. pullup practice
10 scap retractions
5 strict pullups
5 kipping pullups
butterfly pullup practice
3, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5! Which is a PR and was on my goal list for the year. Woot!
Saturday, November 28, 2015
November yearly goals check
Just over a month left in the year, so checking against goals. 6 done, 4 to go. 3 and 6 are maybe possible. 4 and 9 seem less likley.
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - Done: Open, Everyday Warrior, and the Nov28 Throwdown.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. DONE
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - Done: Open, Everyday Warrior, and the Nov28 Throwdown.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. DONE
2015-11-28 Thanksgiving weekend throwdown!
Box was closed for classes this weekend, but they held an informal competition today and I competed. Was a lot of fun.
WARM
std warmup
1k row
clean & thruster warmup
MAIN
WOD 1: Thuster ladder
Every minute, we had to rotate through stations of increasing weight, doing a squat clean thruster. Could attempt as many times as possible in a minute, but, if you failed a weight, you had the remainder of 50 seconds to complete as many deadlifts as possible as a tiebreaker.
I managed 115#, 135#, 155#, 165#, then attemped 175#, cleaned it but failed to get it fully locked out overhead. I then banged out 24 deadlifts. The guy in front of me attempted the same weight twice unsuccessfully, and then only got 10 deadlifts. So, second-to-last on the leaderboard. Not last! Plus 165 was a PR for both thruster and, I think, a full squat clean.
Anyhow, I was happy with it. 165# is a PR for a thruster, and 175# is a PR for a full squat clean (heavier than that I've done from the hang, and/or as a power clean.
WOD 2: Chipper.
This was a 12 minute time cap to do:
{
10 OH Squats (Rx = 135, Masters = 115) (I scaled to 95#)
10 Box jump overs 24"
10 Thrusters (Rx = 115, Masters = 95)
10 Power Cleans (Rx = 185, Masters=165#
10 T2B
10 Burpee-Muscle-Ups (scaled was burpee C2B, but I did the Rx for this one)
10 T2B
WARM
std warmup
1k row
clean & thruster warmup
MAIN
WOD 1: Thuster ladder
Every minute, we had to rotate through stations of increasing weight, doing a squat clean thruster. Could attempt as many times as possible in a minute, but, if you failed a weight, you had the remainder of 50 seconds to complete as many deadlifts as possible as a tiebreaker.
I managed 115#, 135#, 155#, 165#, then attemped 175#, cleaned it but failed to get it fully locked out overhead. I then banged out 24 deadlifts. The guy in front of me attempted the same weight twice unsuccessfully, and then only got 10 deadlifts. So, second-to-last on the leaderboard. Not last! Plus 165 was a PR for both thruster and, I think, a full squat clean.
Anyhow, I was happy with it. 165# is a PR for a thruster, and 175# is a PR for a full squat clean (heavier than that I've done from the hang, and/or as a power clean.
WOD 2: Chipper.
This was a 12 minute time cap to do:
{
10 OH Squats (Rx = 135, Masters = 115) (I scaled to 95#)
10 Box jump overs 24"
10 Thrusters (Rx = 115, Masters = 95)
10 Power Cleans (Rx = 185, Masters=165#
10 T2B
10 Burpee-Muscle-Ups (scaled was burpee C2B, but I did the Rx for this one)
10 T2B
10 Power Cleans (Rx = 185, Masters=165#
10 Thrusters (Rx = 115, Masters = 95)
10 Box jump overs 24"
10 OH Squats (Rx = 135, Masters = 115) (I scaled to 95#)
}
I got 80 reps in 12 min. Made it to the burpee muscle-up "turn-around" and then got the T2B and the cleans done.
No real leader-board placement for this one. Everyone was scaling what made sense for them, unless they were going full Rx. I was pretty pleased to get through that much, especially with the MUs in there (a while ago 10 MUs would have taken 10 minutes!).
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Q4 yearly goals check
3 months left in the year. knocked out another of my goals for the year, so here's where I stand:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. DONE
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. DONE
2015-10-01 WOD
Active recovery day.
WARM
std warmup
50 wallball passes
MAIN
A. 2K row, moderate pace
8:30
B. MU work
5 pullups
5 C2B pullups
2 BarMU
3 Strict BarMU
3 MU
5 MU unbroken (PR! and one of my goals for the year)
C. Benchpress
warm: 8x45, 8x95, 8x115
main: 5x135, 5x155
WARM
std warmup
50 wallball passes
MAIN
A. 2K row, moderate pace
8:30
B. MU work
5 pullups
5 C2B pullups
2 BarMU
3 Strict BarMU
3 MU
5 MU unbroken (PR! and one of my goals for the year)
C. Benchpress
warm: 8x45, 8x95, 8x115
main: 5x135, 5x155
Friday, September 4, 2015
2015-09-04 Q3 yearly goals check
75% of the year somehow evaporated and so it's probably time to check on progress.
Here's what I had as of May 21:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. Have hit 3. I'll get there.
I actually haven't hit any of my listed goals in the last 3 months. I've had a couple nagging injuries (shoulder, pulled calf muscle). And have gotten closer on a couple:
- I got sub-5 min on Grace. Not on the above list, but was another target goal
- Did 30 MU's for time, for the first time. My MUs are getting a lot better (hitting strict ones pretty semi-consistently now. Haven't hit goal #10 above because this shoulder issue has me scared to drop into them from the top. Provided I recover by EOY, I should hit this one.
- Shoulder is also the reason for not working much on #6 above
- Hit #375 deadlift. Could have done 385 most likely but jumped up to 405 and failed. Pretty confident I can hit 400 on next strength cycle.(#4)
- Have been working on HS stability, platewalks, etc, so hopefully I'll progress on #9.
That leaves the 200# CJ (haven't attempted in a while - maybe have a go at this next week) and the events. Not much time to sign up for stuff, guess I'd better look at the calendar!
Here's what I had as of May 21:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. Have hit 3. I'll get there.
I actually haven't hit any of my listed goals in the last 3 months. I've had a couple nagging injuries (shoulder, pulled calf muscle). And have gotten closer on a couple:
- I got sub-5 min on Grace. Not on the above list, but was another target goal
- Did 30 MU's for time, for the first time. My MUs are getting a lot better (hitting strict ones pretty semi-consistently now. Haven't hit goal #10 above because this shoulder issue has me scared to drop into them from the top. Provided I recover by EOY, I should hit this one.
- Shoulder is also the reason for not working much on #6 above
- Hit #375 deadlift. Could have done 385 most likely but jumped up to 405 and failed. Pretty confident I can hit 400 on next strength cycle.(#4)
- Have been working on HS stability, platewalks, etc, so hopefully I'll progress on #9.
That leaves the 200# CJ (haven't attempted in a while - maybe have a go at this next week) and the events. Not much time to sign up for stuff, guess I'd better look at the calendar!
Thursday, May 21, 2015
2015-05-21 WOD & Goals check
Recovery/makeup day. I should have done Tuesday's workout since I missed it. Instead, I decided to do Fran to try and break 7 minutes, which was one of my goals for the year.
WARM
3 rounds
{
5 thrusters
5 pullups
}
A. 1k row. not for time.
B. "Fran" 21-15-9 of
{
Thrusters 95#
pullups
}
time: 6:23 (PR: -0:58)
C. MU Practice
2 singles, the latter of which I tried to turn into a double, but failed the second rep.
Goals Check:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. Have hit 3. I'll get there.
4 out of 10 done, 5 months into the year.
WARM
3 rounds
{
5 thrusters
5 pullups
}
A. 1k row. not for time.
B. "Fran" 21-15-9 of
{
Thrusters 95#
pullups
}
time: 6:23 (PR: -0:58)
C. MU Practice
2 singles, the latter of which I tried to turn into a double, but failed the second rep.
Goals Check:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - DONE
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - DONE
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. Have hit 3. I'll get there.
4 out of 10 done, 5 months into the year.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
2015-04-23 WOD
Active recovery day. Did some rowing and some snatch work
WARM
std warmup
MAIN
A. 2k row
1500m row, then 5x100m sprints with different damper settings
B. Snatch practice
3-3-1-1 complex (hi shrug, hi pull, hang power snatch, full snatch)
2x PVC, 3x45, 2x65, 2x75, 2x95, 2x115, 2x125*, 1x135(PR!)*
Last two didn't include the full snatch, but was happy to hit my goal of 135# hang power snatch. Now just need to work on getting that weight in a full snatch.
Later in the day, did a short run
C. Run 4.76k, 22:07: 4:39min/km
WARM
std warmup
MAIN
A. 2k row
1500m row, then 5x100m sprints with different damper settings
B. Snatch practice
3-3-1-1 complex (hi shrug, hi pull, hang power snatch, full snatch)
2x PVC, 3x45, 2x65, 2x75, 2x95, 2x115, 2x125*, 1x135(PR!)*
Last two didn't include the full snatch, but was happy to hit my goal of 135# hang power snatch. Now just need to work on getting that weight in a full snatch.
Later in the day, did a short run
C. Run 4.76k, 22:07: 4:39min/km
Monday, April 6, 2015
2015 - Q1 Yearly Goals Check
Start of second quarter, and with the Open out of the way, I should check how I'm doing against goals.
Goals for 2015 are:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - not done, and little progress here. Need to get on it.
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - Not done.
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. Have hit 3. I'll get there.
So, have hit 2 of 10 goals, and made progress on 4.
[FWIW, I checked and this is post 1050 to this blog. 15 of those were non-workout posts (like this one), and I'd done 105 CF workouts before starting the blog. That means a total of 1140 workouts so far. That's a lot of expended effort!]
Goals for 2015 are:
1. Get my L1 cert - DONE
2. 135# Snatch - not done, and little progress here. Need to get on it.
3. 200# CJ - not done, but getting closer. 195 clean in 15.1 and almost jerked it.
4. 400# Deadlift - we'll see next strength cycle how this goes
5. Do at least 3 events - One down, two to go.
6. Learn the butterfly pullup - Making some progress here
7. Sub-7 minute Fran - Not done.
8. Improve my standing in the field in the Open - DONE - went from 40th percentile for my age group to the 24th percentile. Didn't do as well as I'd have liked, but I should be happy with this jump.
9. 10' handstand walk - not done. A tiny bit of progress on HS holds and balance here.
10. 5 UB Muscle-ups. Have hit 3. I'll get there.
So, have hit 2 of 10 goals, and made progress on 4.
[FWIW, I checked and this is post 1050 to this blog. 15 of those were non-workout posts (like this one), and I'd done 105 CF workouts before starting the blog. That means a total of 1140 workouts so far. That's a lot of expended effort!]
Friday, April 3, 2015
2015 Crossfit Open Post-Mortem
Monday of this week was the close of score submittals for this year's Open, marking for most of us the end of it for this year. Time to compare scores with friends and the rest of the field, and watch the fire-breathers go on to Regionals, and the best of them move on to the Games.
It is also the best time to look at individual results and see what can be learned about weaknesses, where to improve, etc. This was my fourth Open. I started Crossfit in June 2011, and so did the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Open events and now this year's.
As with the years, I thought it would be fun to crunch the numbers a bit and see how I did versus my plan, versus previous years, and to reflect on how the Open itself is evolving. Most importantly, I wanted to see if I could glean any info about what I should work on for next year. (For anyone interested, here are my summaries for 2014, 2013, 2012).
If you're reading this, you probably already know about the Crossfit Open, and can skip to the next section. If you don't, some understanding of the basics would help. Here's an updated version of what I wrote last year:
[Note that for Masters (40+ age groups) rather than Regionals, they have an additional set of qualifier workouts released online for the top 200 individuals per division, worldwide. Also note that the size of the competitive field thins with older groups (e.g. Women 40-44 had ~6600 competitors; 45-49 had 3600; 50-54 had ~2400; 55-59 had ~1100, and 60+ had 528). Phrased another way, Only 1 in 30 in the 40-44 group will make the top 200, whereas it's better than 10x that. This is somewhat immaterial though, since either way all that matters is the 19 competitors beside you at Regionals. But I digress...]
However, I did 4 of the 5 workouts twice. In 3 of these cases, 15-1, 15-2 and 15-4, I learned something about my technique that let me approach it differently and score more reps. In 15-3 though, I just was hungry for more, and was so wrecked from the first time I did the workout, even after 2 days rest, that I couldn't even manage a few muscle-ups. I did take a lesson away from this, but more on that later.
As with last year, what I did was pulled data from the NW region only (past years said it was more or less statistically representative of all regions). I then compared myself to the Men's division for all ages, also to my age group (45-49) and also to the 40-45 group. The latter of these I included just for comparison's sake, since I was in that group 2 years ago.
The high level take-away from all this is that I'm still improving, and doing so at a rate that exceeds how the rest of the community is improving. My goal was to make it in the 40-50% range for my age group, meaning "outperform 50-60% of the participants". As the bottom right of the above table shows, I beat 76.1% of entrants in my age group, and 63.1% of those who finished all 5 workouts.
The charts below give a visual of year-on-year improvement. The (C) area below the red line shows the number of participants who didn't finish all five workouts. The (B) area below the blue line shows those I beat, and (A) above the blue line are those that beat me. The top table is all men in the NW region. The middle table is the 40-44 age group I was in up until last year, and is only included for comparison. The bottom group is my age group (45-49), and you can see a pretty significant improvement over last year.
The addition of a scaled option was great for folk that otherwise would have been limited right out of the gate by MUs or DUs or HSPUs.
After doing this for almost 4 years now, more of the workouts were familiar. There were fewer of them that I came into with no idea how I'd do. I was able to look back at notes, come up with a plan, estimated finish time, etc... for most of them, but not all. For some of the harder movements, my plan wasn't accurate and I learned something going in, that made me want to do them a second time.
A key observation I made last year that I think still stands and is worth noting:
In looking at the graphs below, They rank the #1 ranked person to the last placed person from left to right. The second 'S-curve' on each graph is for the scaled entries. The graph on the left is for all ages, the graph on the right is for the 45-49 year old division.
15.1 works out to a pretty straight-forward S-curve.
15.1 A, on the other hand, offers some interesting observations.The workout was a one-rep max Clean & Jerk, which had to be performed within the 6 minutes of finishing 15.1.
Once again, we see an S-curve, but with a staircase-type shape to it. Why? Well of course because people load barbells in increments. Not just increments of 5 or 10 lbs, but also more often in increments based on the common plate sizes. So we'd expect to see 135 (bar + 45# plates), 185 (bar + 45+25), 225 (bar+45+45), etc.
And indeed, that's what we see. 10# steps, but the steps at these 'common combinations' are larger (185, 225 for example). The other thing is that for all people lifting a given weight, they were ranked based on weight class. If you look at the chart on the left, I blew up a portion of it to show where I ranked. I lifted 185, but only had a few people at lower body weight than me that lifted the same, and a LOT of people (over 300) that lifted the same weight but weighed more than me.
So what does this mean for strategy? Well, if you know you are going to max out around one of these common configurations, you should REALLY try to get just a bit more on the bar. Even 1 lb plates, if allowed. This is especially true if you are a heavy person compared to others at the same level. On the other hand, if you are on the light side, you should kill yourself to get to that next plateau. I missed my lift at 195 (cleaned it but missed the jerk), and had I nailed it I'd have jumped 300 spots on the leaderboard. Maybe I'd have made it if I knew this ;-)
Since I've only had them for a short while, I didn't know how I'd fair. I came out too strong, tired myself, then missed a bunch of reps. In the end I got the first 7, and did the 150 wallballs and DUs. If I'd gone slower, done them 1 at a time and rested, getting 7/7 instead of 7/12, I mighted have gotten a couple into the second round. I came back 2 days later for another go, but was so sore still that I couldn't get more than 2 MUs and gave up.
If there's a lesson here, its that if you aren't sure of your abilities, you're better off going at a steady methodical pace rather than going all out and fatiguing and/or missing reps.
I thought my limiter was going to be the cleans, since I figured I was at least OK on HSPU. However, they were BOTH limiters for me and here's why.
So, what have we learned?
My lessons I'm taking away to use for next year's Open, or any other comp:
It is also the best time to look at individual results and see what can be learned about weaknesses, where to improve, etc. This was my fourth Open. I started Crossfit in June 2011, and so did the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Open events and now this year's.
As with the years, I thought it would be fun to crunch the numbers a bit and see how I did versus my plan, versus previous years, and to reflect on how the Open itself is evolving. Most importantly, I wanted to see if I could glean any info about what I should work on for next year. (For anyone interested, here are my summaries for 2014, 2013, 2012).
About the Crossfit Open
If you're reading this, you probably already know about the Crossfit Open, and can skip to the next section. If you don't, some understanding of the basics would help. Here's an updated version of what I wrote last year:
It's a competition anyone can enter. 5 workouts over the course of 5 weeks. Workouts released Thursday at 5pm, and scores must be entered online by 5pm Monday. Scores can either be validated by a CF Affiliate, or submitted with a link to a YouTube video showing your performance. If it meets the documented standards, reviewers on the site will approve it as valid. Scores are ranked for each workout, and individual's scores for the whole event are a sum of their ranking (e.g. If you came in 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, your score would be 9). The video submission thing opens the door to a lot of controversy and bickering, but it's fun in the sense that every once in a while there can be a Cinderella story of someone coming out of nowhere and kicking butt.
Top 20 (previously 48 - they are making it harder) men and women in each of 17 regions go on to compete at one of 8 super-regionals, and the top few men and women coming out of those go on to the Games. There are also team categories and Masters categories for different age groups. Roughly 0.25% of entrants will go to regionals (definitely harder than last year), and ~12% of those (0.03% of the total) go on to the Crossfit Games. For most of us, it's really just a chance to compete with our friends and gauge our progress.
[Note that for Masters (40+ age groups) rather than Regionals, they have an additional set of qualifier workouts released online for the top 200 individuals per division, worldwide. Also note that the size of the competitive field thins with older groups (e.g. Women 40-44 had ~6600 competitors; 45-49 had 3600; 50-54 had ~2400; 55-59 had ~1100, and 60+ had 528). Phrased another way, Only 1 in 30 in the 40-44 group will make the top 200, whereas it's better than 10x that. This is somewhat immaterial though, since either way all that matters is the 19 competitors beside you at Regionals. But I digress...]
My Goals for 2014
My goals for this years were simple:- Improve over last year
- Place in the 40-50% percentile for my age group
- NOT do every workout twice (though I did leave room for doing a workout twice if I thought I'd learned a different strategy would have a very different outcome).
- In addition, once they announced there'd be a scaled option, I understood that meant that the workouts would be harder than previous years, and I set a goal of doing them all Rx.
Stats & Ranking for 2015
This year introduced a scaled option, and so that changes the numbers in a couple ways. First off, there's a decision from CF HQ to rank all scaled scores beneath all Rx scores. Not an issue for me as I did all the workouts as prescribed. It's hard to say if having the scaled option encouraged more beginner-level people to sign up, skewing the demographics some. (I don't think that's the case btw, as the growth curve for participants seems to follow the same curve it has since 2011).As with last year, what I did was pulled data from the NW region only (past years said it was more or less statistically representative of all regions). I then compared myself to the Men's division for all ages, also to my age group (45-49) and also to the 40-45 group. The latter of these I included just for comparison's sake, since I was in that group 2 years ago.
The high level take-away from all this is that I'm still improving, and doing so at a rate that exceeds how the rest of the community is improving. My goal was to make it in the 40-50% range for my age group, meaning "outperform 50-60% of the participants". As the bottom right of the above table shows, I beat 76.1% of entrants in my age group, and 63.1% of those who finished all 5 workouts.
The charts below give a visual of year-on-year improvement. The (C) area below the red line shows the number of participants who didn't finish all five workouts. The (B) area below the blue line shows those I beat, and (A) above the blue line are those that beat me. The top table is all men in the NW region. The middle table is the 40-44 age group I was in up until last year, and is only included for comparison. The bottom group is my age group (45-49), and you can see a pretty significant improvement over last year.
Some General Observations
I liked the workouts this year even more than last year. I liked that the addition of a scaled division let them up the stakes on the types of movements & weights involved in the Rx division, while also allowing more people participate in the Open. Having a workout START with MU's, or involving cleans at my one rep max, or snatches at my one rep max - it was just the right level for me to require a serious gut check if I wanted to go Rx on all the workouts. 15.5 was a great workout of the muscle between your ears.The addition of a scaled option was great for folk that otherwise would have been limited right out of the gate by MUs or DUs or HSPUs.
After doing this for almost 4 years now, more of the workouts were familiar. There were fewer of them that I came into with no idea how I'd do. I was able to look back at notes, come up with a plan, estimated finish time, etc... for most of them, but not all. For some of the harder movements, my plan wasn't accurate and I learned something going in, that made me want to do them a second time.
A key observation I made last year that I think still stands and is worth noting:
As the sport grows and the number of participants in the open grows, there is a general trend that your rank becomes increasingly dependent not on how well you do on all the workouts, but on the extent to which you don't do poorly on any single workout. As the leaderboard crowds, a poor showing on one wod can drop you dozens or hundreds of spots. The elite folk get this, but it's true across the board. I like this trend, as it rewards those that are overall well-rounded, but it's important to be aware of I think.This is definitely true. My overall ranking placed me better than any one individual event - this is an indicator that I was more consistent than many. For example, people that beat me on 3-4 events but then couldn't do MUs and tanked on their score on that even, ended up ranking below me overall.
Analysis of the individual workouts:
15.1 & 15.1A
The Open started out differently by grouping two workouts that needed to be done back to back. 15.1 was a triplet of Toes-to-Bar (I'm ok at these), Deadlifts, and Snatches. The latter two were both at 115, which meant the deadlifts were light for me, but the Snatches were at my one rep max(!). As a result, I had a bunch of missed reps due to poor form. I chose to do it a second time, and just concentrated on taking my time and not missing any snatches, even if it slowed me down.In looking at the graphs below, They rank the #1 ranked person to the last placed person from left to right. The second 'S-curve' on each graph is for the scaled entries. The graph on the left is for all ages, the graph on the right is for the 45-49 year old division.
15.1 works out to a pretty straight-forward S-curve.
15.1 A, on the other hand, offers some interesting observations.The workout was a one-rep max Clean & Jerk, which had to be performed within the 6 minutes of finishing 15.1.
Once again, we see an S-curve, but with a staircase-type shape to it. Why? Well of course because people load barbells in increments. Not just increments of 5 or 10 lbs, but also more often in increments based on the common plate sizes. So we'd expect to see 135 (bar + 45# plates), 185 (bar + 45+25), 225 (bar+45+45), etc.
And indeed, that's what we see. 10# steps, but the steps at these 'common combinations' are larger (185, 225 for example). The other thing is that for all people lifting a given weight, they were ranked based on weight class. If you look at the chart on the left, I blew up a portion of it to show where I ranked. I lifted 185, but only had a few people at lower body weight than me that lifted the same, and a LOT of people (over 300) that lifted the same weight but weighed more than me.
15.2
This one was a repeat from last year, a couplet of OH Squats and C2B Pullups, with a rep scheme that increased every 3 minutes. I saw an improvement from last year, but wasn't entirely pleased with my performance. Suprisingly, I finished ahead of more of the field in my age group than I'd expect, but still I know I need to work on OH squats. No surprises here. 15.3
This is where things got serious. Similar to 13.3, but this time -opening- with the muscle-ups. This was a limited for a lot of people, as can be seen by the number of people that went scaled (esp in the 45-49 age group). However, that's why there's a scaled division. Its an advanced movement, but a fundamental one that people should be working on. They sent a message with this that said 'If you don't have your MU yet, you have a hole in your fitness".Since I've only had them for a short while, I didn't know how I'd fair. I came out too strong, tired myself, then missed a bunch of reps. In the end I got the first 7, and did the 150 wallballs and DUs. If I'd gone slower, done them 1 at a time and rested, getting 7/7 instead of 7/12, I mighted have gotten a couple into the second round. I came back 2 days later for another go, but was so sore still that I couldn't get more than 2 MUs and gave up.
If there's a lesson here, its that if you aren't sure of your abilities, you're better off going at a steady methodical pace rather than going all out and fatiguing and/or missing reps.
15.4
This one opened with handstand pushups, another advanced movement, and then paired it with cleans at 185#, which had been my one rep max until 15.1!I thought my limiter was going to be the cleans, since I figured I was at least OK on HSPU. However, they were BOTH limiters for me and here's why.
- There was a new standard for measuring full extension on the handstand pushups. Turned out I'd been bowing my back while doing them.... a lot. As a result I got a lot of failed reps. When I did the workout a second time, I slowed down and focused on form. Lesson: Focus on form.
- When training HSPU, I've been using an ab-mat to not bump my head, but it also let me avoid doing the lowest (hardest) 1". That inch killed me. Lesson: Cutting corners will catch up to you.
- I've been doing HSPU strict - which is harder than kipping. While that's good, when I was fatigued from doing them to full depth, it sure would have helped. However, it was not the time to learn DURING the Open workout. Lesson: get your movements down before, not during, a comp.
- Finally, for the cleans, I learned that due to poor form (early elbow bend), my cleans are better from the hang. Again, not the time to fix this during the open. So when I went back and re-did it, no missed reps.
15.5
This was just a grind. As Dave Castro pointed out (but I only heard this after I'd done it), it mainly tested the muscle between your ears. When gasping for air, hands on your knees, are you going to pick up the bar or not? I'm convinced that my main reason for fairing poorer than I'd have liked on this one is that I didn't have the right attitude. Like with 14.5, or when I PR'd Grace earlier this year, I should have had someone yelling at me, not allowing more than a 5 or 6 second rest after putting the bar down. Also, I have a hunch that going a little easier on the rower would have kept me fresher on the bar (resting less) without too much cost to the rowing time.So, what have we learned?
My lessons I'm taking away to use for next year's Open, or any other comp:
- One of the skills a crossfitter should have is a knowledge of your skills and abilities. I am going to work on training this. I should be able to look at a workout and say "I believe that will take me X minutes", or similar. Then push that envelope, but by a reasonable margin.
- If you are testing a new-ish movement in a comp, better to err on the side of moderate, steady pace, rather than going to hard and falling apart.
- If you have a way of doing something that is flawed in form, but that works for you, work on fixing it, but not during the comp. Do what works for you at that time.
- Cutting corners will catch up with you.
- Form matters - if there's something that you've let work at bad form for a long time, go back and work on it at much lower weight, dial form in before increasing (for me, this will be HSPU, snatches, cleans, OH squat)
- Go in with the right attitude and have a plan of attack, including target split times, length of breaks, etc.
Goals for 2016 Open
Aside from my overall training goals for the year, goals for the open:- Finish ahead of 80% of the field in the 45-49 age group
- Do all the workouts Rx (and I expect them to get harder)
- Be prepared for more of the advanced movements in the Rx workouts: MU's (15.3 will almost certainly come back), HSPU, BarMU, Pistols, etc.
- Also, the weights will go up. I consider myself lucky there wasn't an event with a 135# snatch. I'd better get that down by next year.
- Have a better level of knowledge of my ability with some of the advanced movements to form a better game plan. e.g. If they had a wod that was "AMRAP MUs in 10 minutes", I should have an estimate that isn't too far out. today I have no idea what it would be.
That's it. Comments welcome!
Saturday, January 3, 2015
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
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).
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
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.
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...
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.
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:
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...
Thursday, October 30, 2014
2014-10-30 EoY Goals check
Realized that I'v got 2 months left in the year, 1 month of which I'll be travelling, thought it might be good to check how I'm doing against Year end goals:
1. MU. This is the year. <-- DONE
2. 135# Snatch.
3. Move from 3rd quartile in the Open to around 50-60% range, for men 40-44. <-- DONE
4. Participate in at least 2 events, one of them being a CF event. <-- DONE (Bridge-to-Brews, Open, Mid-Valley Melee, Bulldog Battle, and (upcoming) Ankhor Wat half-marathon)
5. 10' HS Walk
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran & Grace <--Grace DONE, Fran not so much yet
7. 325# Deadlift <-- DONE
8. Break 21 minutes for 5k run <-- DONE
Mid-year I added:
9. String together 3 ring muscle ups.
10. 200# CJ (might change this depending what cycle Mike puts us on)
and Stretch goals:
11. Back lever? or front?
12. Sub 10% body-fat. Maybe? I think I'm at about 12% now but will know for sure next week when they do the follow-up on the bod-pod.
So unattained goals from the above:
1. MU. This is the year. <-- DONE
2. 135# Snatch.
3. Move from 3rd quartile in the Open to around 50-60% range, for men 40-44. <-- DONE
4. Participate in at least 2 events, one of them being a CF event. <-- DONE (Bridge-to-Brews, Open, Mid-Valley Melee, Bulldog Battle, and (upcoming) Ankhor Wat half-marathon)
5. 10' HS Walk
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran & Grace <--Grace DONE, Fran not so much yet
7. 325# Deadlift <-- DONE
8. Break 21 minutes for 5k run <-- DONE
Mid-year I added:
9. String together 3 ring muscle ups.
10. 200# CJ (might change this depending what cycle Mike puts us on)
and Stretch goals:
11. Back lever? or front?
12. Sub 10% body-fat. Maybe? I think I'm at about 12% now but will know for sure next week when they do the follow-up on the bod-pod.
So unattained goals from the above:
2. 135# Snatch. <-- possible, maybe if I work on form
5. 10' HS Walk <-- unlikely. I'm practicing but just cant get the balance for more than a few sec.
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran <-- Maybe? I'll have to try it and see
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran <-- Maybe? I'll have to try it and see
9. String together 3 ring muscle ups. <-- highly unlikely due to shoulders being a bit messed up.
10. 200# CJ <-- possible, need to work on form for the clean.
10. 200# CJ <-- possible, need to work on form for the clean.
11. Back lever? or front? <-- maybe. need to work on this.
12. Sub 10% body-fat. <-- need to start tracking all my intake again. starts today.
Challenge is that 2,6, 10 require a barbell, and means I have basically 3 weeks to nail them. Hmm...
12. Sub 10% body-fat. <-- need to start tracking all my intake again. starts today.
Challenge is that 2,6, 10 require a barbell, and means I have basically 3 weeks to nail them. Hmm...
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Half-Marathon training plan
I signed up for my first half-marathon, the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon in Cambodia in December. It lined up with a trip we are taking there and should be a fun location (view-wise) while also difficult (heat-, humidity-wise).
From what I've read, the race is on a super-flat course, on a mix of packed dirt and pavement, in a hot and humid environment. The winning time was 1:16 (!), and the top 10% finished in under 1:44, top 25% in under 1:52, top 50% in under 2:03. I'd like to be able to place in the top quartile, but have no idea how I'll do with the heat & humidity.
I read a few articles on the web about training for such a thing, and cobbled together the following 14-week plan, which I started about 12 days ago:
Each week consists of 4 running days. Two 5k's at 80%-ish pace. One long run, starting at 10k at week two and going up over time before tapering at T-2wks. Fridays will consist of a mix of mixed sprints, running with weight vest, hill runs, etc. I'm doing this on top of my Crossfit training, with the long run falling on my day off, and one of the 5ks counting as my active recovery that we normally do on Thursdays.
This is what the plan looks like:
* The Thursday Crossfit is an active recovery day, so it's basically that 5k run plus some skills work
** CF-Trvl means my own crossfit-like workout while travelling. Body-weight stuff or hotel gym.
Anyhow, that's the plan. If anyone reads this and has feedback, I'd love to hear it.
From what I've read, the race is on a super-flat course, on a mix of packed dirt and pavement, in a hot and humid environment. The winning time was 1:16 (!), and the top 10% finished in under 1:44, top 25% in under 1:52, top 50% in under 2:03. I'd like to be able to place in the top quartile, but have no idea how I'll do with the heat & humidity.
I read a few articles on the web about training for such a thing, and cobbled together the following 14-week plan, which I started about 12 days ago:
Each week consists of 4 running days. Two 5k's at 80%-ish pace. One long run, starting at 10k at week two and going up over time before tapering at T-2wks. Fridays will consist of a mix of mixed sprints, running with weight vest, hill runs, etc. I'm doing this on top of my Crossfit training, with the long run falling on my day off, and one of the 5ks counting as my active recovery that we normally do on Thursdays.
This is what the plan looks like:
* The Thursday Crossfit is an active recovery day, so it's basically that 5k run plus some skills work
** CF-Trvl means my own crossfit-like workout while travelling. Body-weight stuff or hotel gym.
Anyhow, that's the plan. If anyone reads this and has feedback, I'd love to hear it.
Monday, July 7, 2014
2014-07-07 Mid-year goals check
It's July already, so time to check how I'm doing against goals for the year
Progress against 2014 goals:
1. MU. This is the year. <-- DONE
2. 135# Snatch.
3. Move from 3rd quartile in the Open to around 50-60% range, for men 40-44. <-- DONE
4. Participate in at least 2 events, one of them being a CF event. <-- DONE (Bridge-to-Brews, Open, Mid-Valley Melee)
5. 10' HS Walk
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran & Grace <--Grace DONE, Fran not so much yet
7. 325# Deadlift <-- DONE
8. Break 21 minutes for 5k run <-- DONE
So five and a half of eight goals done. Pretty good for half-way through the year.
I feel like the sub-7 Fran is attainable if I hit it on a good day. will have to do that soon.
I haven't worked on my snatch nearly enough, and if anything my mobility in the shoulders has gotten worse lately. That'll require some focus.
I've worked on handstand holds for both endurance/strength as well as for balance (coming off wall a few seconds at a time). Endurance is improving, but not balance. I'll have to talk to coaches about how to work toward this.
I'm going to add a couple more for the year
9. String together 3 ring muscle ups.
10. 200# CJ (might change this depending what cycle Mike puts us on)
Stretch goals:
11. Back lever? or front?
12. Sub 10% body-fat. Maybe? I think I'm at about 12% now but will know for sure next week when they do the follow-up on the bod-pod.
Progress against 2014 goals:
1. MU. This is the year. <-- DONE
2. 135# Snatch.
3. Move from 3rd quartile in the Open to around 50-60% range, for men 40-44. <-- DONE
4. Participate in at least 2 events, one of them being a CF event. <-- DONE (Bridge-to-Brews, Open, Mid-Valley Melee)
5. 10' HS Walk
6. Break 7 minutes on Fran & Grace <--Grace DONE, Fran not so much yet
7. 325# Deadlift <-- DONE
8. Break 21 minutes for 5k run <-- DONE
So five and a half of eight goals done. Pretty good for half-way through the year.
I feel like the sub-7 Fran is attainable if I hit it on a good day. will have to do that soon.
I haven't worked on my snatch nearly enough, and if anything my mobility in the shoulders has gotten worse lately. That'll require some focus.
I've worked on handstand holds for both endurance/strength as well as for balance (coming off wall a few seconds at a time). Endurance is improving, but not balance. I'll have to talk to coaches about how to work toward this.
I'm going to add a couple more for the year
9. String together 3 ring muscle ups.
10. 200# CJ (might change this depending what cycle Mike puts us on)
Stretch goals:
11. Back lever? or front?
12. Sub 10% body-fat. Maybe? I think I'm at about 12% now but will know for sure next week when they do the follow-up on the bod-pod.
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