Lonesome

Monday I did the Crossfit Helen workout.

1000 m row, 50 thrusters x 45 lbs, 30 pull ups. Total time was 16:00. (a 3:55 1000 row).

That was all for this week.

Boo.

F! ME

Awesome Friday workout (amidst the busiest, most intense workday yet).

Dead lifts. Singles. Heavy. (for me).
Warm up -155 lbs x 5, then the singles:
225, 245, 265, 275, 295, 305, 315! I think I have 325 in me. No sore back and I thought my form was pretty good.

Then power cleans: 135 x5, x5, x5. I am liking these and my form is coming along. Old Tymey!

Then Standing press. Weak. 85 x7, x6, x2.

Then 1000m row (the foot!) 4:10. Honestly, I phoned that one in. I had 3:50 in me.

Posting for Five

Slackers ;-)

Wednesday lunch workout:
A McCircuit, 3 rounds for time of 400m run, 25 6kg ball slams, 15 pull ups, 15 dips.

Time was a miserable 34 minutes. Its the damn pull ups. I can do 13 in a row the first round, then 5,5,3,2 then 3,3,3,3.... its brutal. Mind you, they are the straight hang, tits to the bar kind of pull up, not the "Weeee! Look at me go up and down fast!" kind that the faux-hawk, wife-beater, half glove types like to do. Do I sound defensive?

Runs were 1:30 and 1:30 respectively. Oh, the last 400m run was a 500m row because of a broken foot. Or Legionnaires disease. Or something, but it hurts a lot. In my foot. And I can't run properly.

BTW, if bicep curls help you answer the phone fast, dips certainly tune you to slam it down.

McSquats

After a long wait for buddy and his 4 plates each side 1/4 squats...

Squats: 135 warm ups then down to business.

245 x 5, 265 x 5, 275 x 5, 285 x 4!, 245 x 5 (deep and punishing for missing the 5th at 285. The 285's were not as low as I would have liked, but certainly lower than the ballerina from above.)

Then deadlifts: 275 x 5 (time to go heavier).

Then finisher squats: 155 x 20 ATG. That's a lot of grunting.

Then 40 front extensions on the GHD.

Catch Up

Last Wednesday:

Front ext. / Back ext. 40

Presses: 100 x 4, 95 x 4, 95 x 4 fuck.
Power cleans: 115 x 5, 135 x 5, 145 x 5.

Then Saturday:

Gruelling 5 k run outside in 25:01. WTF?
60 pushups.

INTENSITY DAY!!

squats: 290x1. thought about going for two. but only for a second.
bench: 150x4, 4, 4.
deadlift: 290x4.

cleaning up the cleans

squats: 155x3, 3, 3. back off day a la the texas method. and i got to work on my form.
push press: 125x5, 5, 5. yay. increase to 130.
chins: 9, 9, 7. so close.

power cleans: lots of practice at light weight. this is terrible. but it will probably allow my achilles to heal while i sort stuff out (and go on vacation).

barbell rollouts: 165x5, 5, 5. this was getting pretty tough.

anterior calf w/ the trusty white body bar: 40, 30.
eccentric calf (straight leg): 60lbs db x5, 5.

Got the runs

Terrible title.

Lunch time work out.

Mile run (1%) 6:19 then a three minute walking rest; 800 m run, 3:09, three minute rest; 400 m run, 1:26.

Max rep rounds of no kip, straight arm pull ups: 13, 5, 4.

powerless cleans

squats: 250x5, 4, 3, 3, 2.
dips: 7, 7, 7. again, really focusing on getting the shoulder below the elbow.
power cleans: 0.

seriously. i was warming up with 135 on my way to up 150 and i couldn't rack it. not even close. i really don't know why. i was re-reading Starting Strength and realized that i had been doing my cleans incorrectly. the jumping point is between half-way and a third of the way up your thigh but i had been jumping at a little below knee height. doing it this way causes the bar to take a long elliptical type trajectory instead of straight up and down. so, the new way i was doing it today should have been more efficient. except that i couldn't do it. uggh. i'll drop the weights and work on my technique.

then i did 6 sets of 10 reps of medicine ball slams. i wanted to do some barbell rollouts but it was tricep circuit day and i couldn't get close to the rack again.

Back Atter

Monday luch.

For time, row for 500 m (1:51) then three rounds of:
50LB db swings x 20
65lb Overhead Lunges x 20
30 push ups (these became 20 push ups after the first round).
Row 500 m.

I skipped clocking the last row... time was 30:05

Then a 1000 m row, 5:51. Sort of exhausting.

Reporting in

I have been trying to publish this f*cker for a week. I wrote it two Satruday mornings ago...

Thursday was;
press 7x1 with 105,115,115,115,110,110,105 then
Power cleans 3x5 with 115, 135, 145 then,
Deadlift, 5 reps with 250.

Friday saw mad 800's. At 1% grade 2:54, 2:56, 3:13. Then I had to stop. It was close to barf time.

Off to China where I'll be exercising my eyelids I suspect...

A ball slam: take a rubber medicine ball (6kg) and lift it over your head. bring it down as hard as you can as though you are trying to smash it to pieces on the floor. Use your legs, arms, abs; grunt. It will bounce and as you come up from the slam place your hands under the ball, heave it up and do it again. Try to make it bounce to head height or more. Once you have the rythm you will start to chant "I've been working on the railroad..." Well, maybe not.

weekend runs

Lovely sunny winter weekends make for great motivation to get outside and run (if procrastinating from work doesn't do the trick).

Saturday's 7km was slow and steady and tough. I just can't seem to get enough fuel in before a morning run. Sunday afternoon's 9 and change was wicked awesome - felt great, and discovered a great new route with two grueling hills smack dab in the middle. I decided to stop looking at the clock for the next few weeks and just concentrating on getting the km's in.

Tomorrow morning's yoga will be a wonderful reward for these tight hip flexors.

max double

had to skip Wednesday because my booster shots filled me with malaise. It said right on the box that it would. But really I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to work out for 24h after.

today -
squats: 285x2. yee haw. (max single last week was 275)
press: 110x4, 5, 5. more first set weirdness. increase to 115.
deadlift: 275x3. my grip totally gave out. the rest of me could have kept going.

bb rollouts: 135x7, 7, 7. increase to 10?

squat volume

squats: 245x5, 5, 5, 4, 2. I have a horrible feeling that my form is terrible. More specifically, that my knees are sliding forward at the bottom. I don't want to go back to ground zero. On the plus side, i could be lifting a lot of weight even with terrible form.
bench press: 145x5, 5, 5. increase to 150.
power cleans: 150x3, 2, 2, 2, 1. Try again next week at 150.

barbell rollouts: 135x5, 5, 5. Increase . . . something. I'll have to see how this affects my core strength later in the week. If it's okay then I will increase the weight and the reps both as I was not at failure.

ankle flexion: with the white body bar x40, 25.

forearms -
wrist flexion: 45 bb x 20, 20, 14.
wrist extension: 20 db x6, 6, 6.

max single

squat: 275 x1. I was feeling pretty good then and kicked it up to 295 and God laughed. Good natured-ly, deep, and warm, but still laughed.
push press: 120 x3, 5, 5. weird first set, i guess. increase to 125.
deadlift: 275 x2. i don't know why i couldn't pull more reps here.

next week I'll try for a max double at 275.

front squats

front squats: 165 x3, 3, 3.
pull-ups: 7, 7, 7.
dips: 6, 6, 6. really focused here on dropping the shoulder below the elbow (therefore not stopping at 90 degrees) which, I imagine, will provide more transfer to the muscle-up.

seated db external rotation: 15 x10, 10, 10.
barbell curls: 75 x5, 5, 5. I really shrug my shoulders here during the movement and I'm not sure why. Maybe because that is what I do during my other majore "curl" exercise, the chin-up.

barbell rollouts: 65 x5, 5, 5.

Azar Nafisi

was well worth cutting last night's run short (I felt like I had another 5k in me - a taste of spring fever I expect). Her conversational responses are just as affective as her written words. And she is lovely, brilliant, and generous to boot.

oh yeah, my run
7.5km - 43:14
and my arms felt great. Am rather curious to know what a ball slam is, might be enough to get me into some of this crossfit business you all post on about :)

A wonderful lunch time yoga class today. Once again, leaving me with the feeling that I can do anything... including, quitting my job. tomorrow.

Stump

That's what each of my legs feels like.

Yesterday:

30 back extensions, 30 front extensions,

5x5x5x5x5 squats, 155 warm ups then 225, 245, 265, 275, 225(deep).

Deadlifts, 5 x 245

Finisher squats, 155 x 20.
Mile run, a gruelling 8:00

Today:

3 rounds for time of 25 x 24" box jumps, 25 x 6kg ball slam, 30both, 30L, 30R skipping, 135 x max rep bbq press and 15 pull ups. Time was ~30 minutes with a bit too much waiting for the pull up station and the bbq bench. Still, pretty taxing; 15, 10,, 9 on the bbq's and 12+3, 5+5+5 and 5+3+2+2+2+1 for the pull ups.

And this past weekend, we built a triple black diamond tubing course. Not kidding.

rode the bus today

squats: 245 x5, 3, 3.
press: 110 x3, 3, 3.
power cleans: 145 x3, 3, 3, 2 (whooops), 3. up the weight to 150.

seated db external rotations: 10 x10, 10, 10.

circuit -
alt db curls: 40 x12, 8, 6.
bb wrist curls: 75 x8, 8, 8.
db wrist ext: 15 x8, 8, 8. I think the form degraded here so I might not up the weight next time out.

anterior calf raises: white body bar x35, x20.

Effing Busy

And sucking.

Monday, at the hotel in OC: Two rounds 400m run, 10 x 40lb DB thrusters, 25 ball situps. wowee. Like 10 minutes of effort and 1 hour of sweating. Followed up with a large Persian meal.

Yesterday: 5K run: 21:06. Weighted pull ups (25lbs) 7, 4, 3. Back to work.