Michael

"Michael"
3 rounds of
800m run
50 back extensions
50 sit-ups

Time: 28:02

My new shoes have definately passed their first test. I ran the first 800 in about 3:40, which is good for me. Unfortunately after the first round my back and stomach tightened up and I had trouble running with any decent form. Still, I managed to do pretty well overall.

My first DNF

Kelly
5 rounds of
400m run
30 box jumps (24")
30 wall ball

Time: DNF

Got a knot in the back of my left knee today, mostly because my hamstring and calves are super tight. It made it painful to fully extend my left leg. I'm pretty sure I could have completed the workout but I didn't want to risk further injury.

What's really frustration is that this wasn't even a real injury. It's not like I pulled a muscle or something. It basically happened because I ignored the tightness in my calves and hamstrings. Lesson learned.

Ring Play

Complete five rounds of:
On the rings, lower from an inverted hang, slowly, with straight body and arms, 7 reps
15 Ring Push-ups
Move SLOWLY and methodically attempting perfect execution.

Did four rounds and 10 ring push-ups

It was nice to have a slower day where the workout was more about technique rather than speed.

Fran's fat fucking sister

aka "Heavy Fran"

15-12-9 of
115 lbs thrusters
strict pull-ups w/ green band

Time: 11:01

Did 135lbs for the first set but dropped it down because Nate wanted me to focus more on the intensity aspect of the workout rather than the strength aspect.

Break it down!

How do you eat a 10 pound piece of meat? One bite at a time.

Ever since the Garage games I've been obsessed with getting better. Not that I didn't want to get better before, but now it's about getting better for competition. I'm a competator, always have been, always will be. I don't mind training purely for fitness and that works for most people, just not for me. Having competition to prepare for keeps me focused and pushing harder than if I didn't.

The trouble I've had as of late is, just what do I work on? More Strength days? Less WODs? Double up WODs? There's just so many aspects to Crossfit that it can boggle the mind if you try to plan for everything. And unless you've got roughly 6 hours a day to dedicate purely to training, you probably aren't going to hit everything in a week.

Before I continue, let me mention that I am still very much a beginner at all of this. What I'm talking about is based purely on my own impressions and opinions. If you believe my thinking is flawed, please feel free to share your opinion in a respectful way. I'm always open to suggestions and constructive criticism's

One thing the Army has taught me is how to break everything down into the basics. Figure out what are the basic area's you need to work on and focus on those. If you're airborne infantry, you probably don't need to worry about how to fly a helicopter. And at it's core, the Army (and military as a whole) needs to know how to three basic things. Shoot, Move, Communicate.

Using that as a model, I think you can break Crossfit down into three main categories.

Strength
Cardio/Endurance
Flexability

You have to be strong to lift weights and move your bodyweight in push-ups, pull-ups, etc. You have to have good endurance to maintain your intensity throughout a workout. And you need the flexability to avoid injuries and perform exercises properly.

Now some might say that Skills such as double unders are a seperate topic. I argue that they actually fall under one of the three topics listed above. Just as learning how to fire a rifle would fall under the "Shoot" category. To me, double unders would fall under endurance as they require to do jump alot and it taxes your cardio to keep that going. Whereas I would place pull-ups under strength because a stronger person can likely do more pull-ups than a weaker one.

Now this is not to say that a skill is exclusive to one attribute. Obviously it takes endurance to do a bunch of pull-ups and it takes a certain amount of strength to propel your body upwoards and spin a jump rope quickly. And we can probably argue the different skills and what category they belong in until we're blue in the face...that's not the point. The point is to break everything down into seperate categories so we can figure out how to come up with a focused attack plan designed to accomplish the mission which, in this case, is to prepare for competition.

I also don't mention diet and/or rest because I believe those two items encompass all three categories. If you aren't eating right or getting proper rest then you aren't going to get much better at anything. You can train marksmanship all you want but if you're soldiers are exhausted and about to pass out from last of food, then they aren't going to improve no matter what you do.

The best thing is, this technique can be used for just about anything. The key is to not overthink it. Come up with 3 or 4 basic categories that all your work falls under and then think of what skills fall under those categories. Give it a shot and see what you come up with.

Fran

Fran
21-15-9
95lbs thruster
pull-ups

Time: 9:50

Fran is everything that she was cracked up to be and more. It is now over two hours since I hit this WOD and I still haven't completely recovered. Was my first time doing this as RX'd and my goal was a sub 10. Felt like I was going to meet pukie all throughout the second two rounds. Ouch...

440!

Deadlifts 1-1-1-1-1-1-1
375-405-415-425-435-440 (PR!)

I had some trouble locking 440 out but I got it. 25lbs PR over my last 1 rep max. Can't ask for more than that, I definately needed today mentally.

Tommorrow...FRAN!!! (DUN DUN DUN)

btw - 10 lbs away from 2x bodyweight

Workin it in

Press
110 x 3
120 x 3
140 x Max (4)

Deadlift
260 x 3
300 x 3
325 x Max (2)

Still struggling with Deadlifts...I'm thinking I might have to back off the weight after this first rotation.

Push-Jerk and Afterburner

Split-Jerk
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
190-195-205-210-210-215(F)-215

"After-Burner"
3 rds of
500m Row
15 Burpees
Time: 13:29

Date with 95lbs

AMRAP 20 Min
95 lbs Thrusters, 5 reps
95 lbs Hang Clean, 7 reps
95 lbs SDHP, 10 reps

5 rounds + 3 SDHP

What a bitch...

Hit it and go!

Decided to double up on my lifts today since the rest of the week is going to be hectic.

Bench:
110 x 5
125 x 5
140 x 7 (Max)

Squats:
205 x 5
235 x 5
275 x 7 (Max)

Probably had another rep or two on the final sets but I was in uniform and on a limited timeline. Not bad for only a slight warm-up.

Baby steps...

Deadlifts 5/3/1

240 x 5
280 x 5
320 x 1

Shitty bar in the shitty gym + no chalk = no grip. I could barely get my hands to hold on the 240 without slipping.

WOD
Tabata Squat
Max reps of Muscle-ups in 4 minutes

The Tabata interval is 20 seconds of work followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 intervals. Tabata score is the least number of reps performed in any of the eight intervals. Begin time for muscle-ups immediately after the last 10 second rest interval. Test score equals Tabata score multiplied by number of muscle-ups completed.

I basically did ring rows into a muscle-up.

10 squats x 20 ring row muscle-ups= 200 points

So far this week has started pretty shitty lifts wise. Not sure if I should just keep going with the program and chalk these up as bad days or if I should restart the whole program next week...

I also tried to do a jumping muscle up after this workout and my shoulder cramped up. I need to settle the fuck down and stop trying to rush everything.