No strength workout today.  Well, I guess I should say it was one big strength workout.

“Linda”

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:

1.5x Body-weight Deadlift
1x Body-weight Benchpress
.75x Body-weight Squat Cleans

My max deadlift is 1.5x my body weight, so I scaled as follows. I pretty much halved all of my weights.

• Deadlift : 133# (74%)
• Bench Press : 89# (49%)
• Clean : 67# (36%)

I was surprised that, of the three movements, I found the bench press to be the easiest.  When I move my weight up next time, I can probably be more aggressive with my bench press weight.

Time: 23:37

Quick workout today.  Back squats, push-ups, and pull-ups.

3-3-3-3-3 Back Squats (80% of Max)

I did two warm-up sets, then used 121# for my work sets.  I took a big jump in weight since the last time I did 5×3 back squats.  This says my estimated 1RM is 151#.

3 Rounds of:

10 Clapping Push-ups
10 Clapping Pull-ups (be careful)

The first round of clapping push-ups was pretty easy.  I didn’t even attempt the clapping pull-ups, though I was able to do 3 or 4 chest-to-bar pull-ups the first round, then I kipped the rest.  I had to rest between reps a lot more on the second round.  On the third round, I had to do the last seven clapping push-ups on my knees, and could only do one pull-up at a time.

Time: 5:00

Today’s workout was thrusters and something new, burpee pull-ups.

5-5-5-5-5 Thrusters (70% of Max)

I’ve never tried to do heavy thrusters, so my choice of weight was a bit arbitrary.  I did the sets with 77#.

For Time:

60 Burpee Pull-ups (burpee into a jumping pull-up)

I was able to do all pull-ups from the floor.

Time: 10:17

We did back squats again today.  I thought the three reps with a weight of 111# last week was somewhat easy, so I did my first round at that weight.  My 5th rep was a little unstable, so I moved down to 99#.  I felt a lot more stable on my last sets once I got myself to stop unconsciously leaning forward.  I felt good at the end.

The WOD was a little bit of torture.

50-40-30-20-10 reps of:

Push Balls (like a wall ball, but you just push press the ball up)
Situps

I challenged myself on this one and did the first 50 reps with a 14# ball, and the rest with 10#.  There’s not much to say about it.  Maybe could have tried to do the first 25 of the second round with the 14# ball, so as to done half with the heavier ball instead of a third, but I’m not upset about it.

Time: 10:20

Strength workout today was back squats.  I’ve never done them before, so I wasn’t sure what my 75% max weight would be.  I tried 133#, but my third rep was pretty hard.  I moved down to 111# for the other four sets.

“Half Cindy”
Complete as many rounds in 10 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

We did a full Cindy two months ago, and I’ve made some big improvements since then.  I did most of my rounds with jumping pullups last time, and this time I was able to do all kipping pull-ups.  I didn’t note how many rounds of knee push-ups I did last time, probably all of them.  This time I was able to get three rounds of strict push-ups and the rest on my knees.  Push-ups seemed to be everyone’s weak spot though.  I guess I just need to do a few every morning.

Total: 6 rounds + … 10 squats.

No strength workout today.  Just a simple WOD.

“Helen”

Three rounds for time:
Run 400 meters
21 Kettlebell Swings 56#/35#
12 Pull-ups

I’ve done this workout twice before.  Actually my first CrossFit workout was Helen.  I never scaled my workouts, so getting through 12 pull-ups was a chore.  It’s amazing what an effect “being in shape” has on my WOD times.

Prescribed weight is 56#, but I used a 35# kettlebell.  I had tried using a 45# KB in a recent workout and couldn’t do any more than 10 swings.  I guess I could have tried to get as far as I could with 45# before switching, but I was lazy.  My body was really blown about halfway through last time.  I wanted to be able to go strong the entire way through today.

My hand is still a little torn up from last week’s pull-ups.  I found a great video online that shows how to tape your hands so that you can still do pull-ups when they’re torn.  I tried it tonight and, while it didn’t remove all the hurt, I was able to get through the WOD without causing more damage.  I was able to do kipping pull-ups for the first round, and did three on the second.  The rest of my pull-ups were jumpers.

• 1:37 running / 1:30 KB + PU
• 1:52 / 1:23
• 2:11 / 1:10

Total Time: 9:43

For future reference — my average running pace was 1:53.

We continued our shoulder press strength workout today, stepping up the weight, and decreasing the number of reps.  I did five sets of 3 reps with a weight of 89#.  I had poor-ish form, but got every rep, except the very last one.  I guess I had the perfect weight.  This puts my 1RM at about 120#

The WOD was 5 minutes of Tabata intervals (20sec work / 10 sec rest) on the rower using total calories as the score.  I know I’m a pretty strong rower, so I looked at the scores and thought that I’d try to do at least 7 cal per interval.  My first round was 8, and I had 9 cal on a few.  Total score: 84.  Tired but happy.

The workout named “Nicole” is supposed to be 20 minutes: as many rounds as possible (AMRAP) of 400m run and max rep pullups.  Today, we did “Mini Nicole”.

As many rounds as you can do in 10 minutes of:

run to truck and back (~200M)
max kipping or jumping pull ups

We did max rep pull ups last week, so I had a good estimate of how I’d do on this WOD.  I figured I could do six or seven rounds, with an average of three pull ups per round.  I can’t kip, so the strict pull ups would wear me out pretty quickly.  I occasionally will do a kipping pull up as part of my warm up, but I’ve never been able to link two in a row.  I think a lot of the problem was that I just wasn’t committing to it.  Just before the WOD, I claimed my pull up bar and did two kips in a row.  Landon saw me and said basically “if you can do two kips, you’re doing all kips”.  Damn it!   I’m glad I did though.

Here are my splits.

• 0:46 running / :29 pullups (9 reps)
• 1:00 / :30 (8)
• 1:23 (6) [forgot to hit the split button on my watch]
• 1:28 (6) [forgot to hit the split button on my watch]
• 1:02 / :22 (5)
• 1:08 / :16 (3 jumping)
• 1:07 / :16 (3 jumping)
• 0:52

I surprised myself on the first round when I got the nine kipping pullups.  Wow!  It felt great!  I tore a callous during the 5th round of pull ups, and I tried to do a dead-hang on my 6th, but couldn’t get up, so I did jumping pullups on the 6th and 7th rounds.  I need to remember to chalk my hands when I do pull ups.

Total: 10:39. 7 rnds + sprinting. 33 kipping + 6 jumping pull ups

I stayed at work too late today, so I did a workout at home.  I’ve been slowly working on getting my endurance up to the point of being able to do 5 sets of 500 jump ropes.  This evening I did 5 x 280 single unders followed by 5 x 140 alternating foot jumps with 1min rest between sets.  I kept up, but it was pretty tough.  Afterward I did some double under practice.  I tried keeping my jumping pace steady, and just changing the tempo of my rope.  I did pretty well and will add this to my daily warm-up.

Today’s workout started with 5×5 constant weight shoulder presses.  Taking last week’s 5×5 shoulder press progression into consideration, Dave L. suggested that 77# would be a good weight.  I did two warm-up sets of 35# and 45#, then four rounds of 77#.  I Still felt good, so I did 82# on my last set.  I heard that we’ll be doing shoulder presses every week, but adding weight each week, so I’m planning to do 5×82# at that time.

21-15-9

Ring Pushups (scale reps as necessary)
Double Unders

I have never done ring push-ups before.  They are crazy hard.  I can do 25 push-ups easy, but could barely get through 5 ring push-ups.  I was able to do the first 21 strict by breaking them into sets, but on the second and third rounds I had to do knee push-ups.  I didn’t make up any time on my double unders.  My timing was all off.

Time: 10:27

Strength workout today was 3x max reps pull ups. First round I got seven (pretty good for me).  After resting, I got four reps on the second and third sets.  I’ll have to grease the groove with pullups over the next few weeks.

10 Minute AMRAP of:

5 Hand Stand Pushups
10 Box Jumps

I used a 24″ box, doing knee head stand push ups.  Got in 10 rounds, plus all the push ups and 5 box jumps.  The box jumps were my weak spot.