I’ve done three days of CrossFit, so I get today off;  well, sorta.  I did a jump rope work out this morning.  5 sets of 200 single-unders, followed by 5 sets of 100 alternating foot jumps with 1 minute of rest between sets.  It took me just under a half-hour which is a little slower than I want.  I’d like to have the coordination and fitness to have done it in about 22 minutes (that’s 150 jumps per minute), but I’m just not there yet.  Maybe I’ll be faster when I finish my progression in two more weeks.

4 Rounds of:

4 Deadlifts at 85% of 1 Rep Max (If you don’t know your max, we’ll find a weight that works)
Sprint to Truck (300M)
7 Burpees

When I looked at today’s workout, I knew that I’d be able to push through it pretty quickly.  On the 10th, we did a 5x3rep deadlifting skills workout.  I did two reps at 221#, but stepped it down because Kyle didn’t like my form.  I don’t know my 1RM.  So, I could have probably done 187# on this workout, but Ben didn’t like my form when lowering the bar at 133# so I went with 155#.   I tried to pace myself on the sprints.  In the past, I’ve gone out too quickly from the gate, and then my last rounds are really slow.  I felt like the burpees were really efficient.  I was able to do a hop and drop myself on the floor without incurring the energy wasting penalty of lowering myself to the floor.  I was really happy with my performance today.

Time: 7:05 @ 155#

Quick workout today.

WOD:

Row 2,000 Meters for Time

About a year and a half ago, I rowed a 2k in 9:32.  I definitely did not know what I was doing on a rower at that time, well,  I still really don’t, but I’ve gotten some good tips from the CrossFit C-Ville trainers, and from the CrossFit Journal.  I started out with a pretty quick pace, and probably should have been a little bit slower.  I stopped rowing two times, and was slacking a lot on a number of pulls towards the end.  I pushed through, finishing with a time of 7:45.  I’m pretty happy!

A lot of reps of some standard exercises today.

WOD for Time:

1 Minute Handstand Hold
40 Pullups
40 Burpees
40 Situps
40 Air Squats

We did some front squats as part of the warm up (3x15reps). My PR 3rep FS was 75# a year and a half ago, but I also didn’t know what I was doing. I went with 67# today and got a good workout. My wrists need some stretching work so I’ll be adding the Reverse Namaste stretch to my warm up. I found another good tip online to think about pushing your elbows into the wall in front of you when doing front squats. This will create a bigger shelf for the bar and will give an extra half-inch or so for your hands.

On to the WOD. I think I can do a hand-stand, but holding it for 1 minute is definitely out. The substitution was a plank hold and even that was making my arms shake by the end of the minute. I was able to do 7 dead-hang pull ups, and the rest were jumping pull ups. The burpees were slow, but as Rx. Situps on an ab-mat.

Final time- 12:48

I’ve done the Cindy workout before; two times in January of 2008.  At that time I was regularly doing pull ups in the mornings and was going to the gym a couple times a week.  When I saw that Cindy was to be our workout today, I thought to myself that this would be a great benchmark to show how fit I am now compared to a year and a half ago.  Well, It seems that doing two hard workouts the two days before Cindy does not create a good environment for a PR.  Also, Jon had us do some kipping pullup practice before the workout, so my pullups were shot before I even started.  A year and a half ago, I did 6 RX rounds; today, I got 13 rounds (-2 squats) doing jumping pull ups and only the first two rounds with strict push ups.  I’ve got a lot of work to do.

My jump rope schedule told me to do 80 basic jumps and 40 alternating foot jumps. My breathing and heart rate were much faster on this one, compared to yesterday’s. Also, my forearms started to get a little pumped, like I had been rock climbing. I missed about 10 jumps throughout the workout. I’m looking forward to a day off before I attempt 5×100 5×50 on Friday.

Today’s workout:

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
Burpees
Knees to Elbows

The warmup today included 50 sumo deadlift high pulls.  My back isn’t as strong as it needs to be, so i didn’t have a good curve to my spine.  I also tend to dip/drive on deadlifts, which is very wrong.  I need to focus on getting some tension on the bar and explosively push with my legs.  Don’t think about pulling the bar up; think about pushing the floor away.

I went into the workout saying to myself that there would be no cheating.  No knee-burpees, no knee-raises.  In actuality, I was pretty close.  I had to push off the ground a little bit in order to get the knees to elbows, but my burpees were good.  Final time- 14:52

I mentioned the other day, that I would be working my way up to 500 jump ropes.  Yesterday was supposed to be the first day, but my calves were very tight from my weekend run and I didn’t want to pull anything.  Today I did 5 sets of 60 basic jumps, and 5 sets of 30 alternating foot jumps (think running in place with a jump rope).  My arms started to get tired by the end of the last two sets, but other than that, the workout went well.  Tomorrow morning I’ll step up the reps.

My God!!!  What a horrible, torturous workout.

21 Squat Jumps (45# Men / 35# Women)
2 Lengths Bear Walks
15 Squat Jumps
4 Lengths Bear Walks
9 Squat Jumps
6 Lengths Bear Walks

Kyle had us doing med-ball cleans before the workout, so I went into the workout with tired legs.

I used a 35# bar for the workout. I was getting very tired by the third length of bear walks. Somehow, on the last two lengths, I figured out a better, more efficient way of doing them, and was able to power my way through to an exhausting end. I finished in about 8:29.

I ordered a Buddy Lee jump rope a couple of days ago, and was surprised to find it at my doorstep today.  I immediately opened up the package, adjusted the rope for my height, and gave it a whirl.  It’s nice!  I don’t know that it’s completely worth the money, but it is very smooth and easy to use.

My double-unders aren’t that great, so I’m going to work on my jump roping.  Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I’ll be working my up to 500 consecutive jumps and my double-unders.  Buddy published a 6-week schedule in a CrossFit Journal at the end of 2007, so I’m starting at week three.  This should be fun!

Today’s workout was a fun one – running and barbell work.

4 Rounds of:
Sprint 250M
6x Hang Power Clean (155# Men / 95# Women)
3x Push Jerk/Press (155# Men / 95# Women)

My time was 6:12 using 77# for the HPC and PP.

Times for each round:

• :41 run / :40 weights
• :51 run / :37 weights
• :54 run / :50 weights
• :58 run / :41 weights

The first and third barbell sets were slower because I accidentally lowered the bar to a hang after the 6th rep and had to re-clean it before starting the presses.  I’ll have to throw a little more weight on the bar next time, since I wasn’t having to dip much at all when catching the bar for the clean, and was doing straight push presses. Adding a little more weight will force me to shrug more explosively to get the bar up when cleaning, and make me catch the bar lower on the press.  I’ll probably move up to at least 89# next time.

Today’s Workout is a new one.  I’m kinda surprised that they’re doing this on a non-free day.

“Pace Yourself”

50 pull ups
Run to Stop Sign on Market (800M)
50 push ups
Run to Guard Rail (400M)
50 burpees
Run to Truck (~250M)

I scaled it down to 30 reps instead of 50.  I got six or seven good pull-ups in, but then switched to jumping pull-ups.  My 800m sprint was 3:44 (pretty good for me).  I got almost all of my push-ups, only having to do 4 knee push-ups.  My next 400m took me 2:01.  I was drained from the push-ups, so I did my burpees on my knees.  Final sprint was  51 seconds.

Total time: 15:52.