chewed up, spit out

Hardest 3-day cycle I've had in  recent memory.  Bum heel cord, sore SORE hallux.  Trying to stay one rep ahead of the DL.  Coulda made a strong argument for rest but I've missed all the training days I'm going to for a while.  So, turn up the heat.

A) "GRACE"  30 x 135# Clean and Jerk for time
Pretty painful as triple extension requires some jack out of the toe.  Every rep was like bashing my thumb with a hammer except it was my toe.  Toe toe toe.  Lou the toe Groza.  Lambert's toe.  Toe Jurtle.  Hide the toe!  9:33.  Hurt.


B) "ZEUS"  3RFT:
30 WB/30 SDHP/30 box jump/30 push press/30 cal row/30 push ups/10 BW back squat
Hardest WOD I've done since 100 thrusters/5 burpees every minute.  Disgusting.  This one got in my brain and started to eat at the foundations.  Big big trouble.  Very cleverly designed, evil, devious in its movement sequencing.  And the back squat is just a kick in the groin.  I did mine at 165 and sorta regret it now, b/c I could have done 180 (BW) and the difference wouldn't have been all that much.  The SDHP and PP were at 75#, the box jumps 20" (rx'd)  You start out doing 15's and 20's but the movements get harder so you get beat into 10's but by that time you're starting to flag and so they're slow 10s and then you're crying like a baby.  Sigh. . .Sears Catalog (5's).  Every time you try to bite in, the movements are fast enough that you jump off the hypoxic cliff, and let seconds spill trying to get vision back.  I found this one to be very very challenging.  50:03


C) RUN 5K
I almost called no joy on Zeus and rowed instead.  Glad I didn't.  Sorta.  When this posted I knew I wouldn't be running.  And the thought of rowing any kind of max effort gave me existential chills.  Plus by game time I was sorer than a leper, beat down, worn out and maybe underfed.  Had a dream of seeing the 20th minute.  Alas it was not to be.  I guess you'd say I left myself too much work to do at the end, but I had no kick to speak off.  The end looked a lot like the middle and the start.  2:05 pace.  Still, a pr of sorts, just not the kind I thought I was capable of.  ROW 5K--21:03.

One more dollar, boys, and I'm coming home

Dangnabbit

A) 12-9-6-3: 95#power snatch/burpees
"Death, though painful when it comes, is mercifully swift."  You gotta run at this one or you won't get what you need.  Try to pace yourself and you'll be out of a workout.  I knew I had to finish under 8 and tried to get close to 5 as I could.  Two sets of unbroken snatches, first and last.  Last probably doesn't count.  6:13

B) "Hamilton"  3RFT:  1000m row/50 push ups/1000m run/50 pull ups.
One round is plenty.  Planned to cap myself at 1 hour and the whole thing just had me sour.  Still not a runner yet, so I did a 1250m row for the run.  First round I rowed 2:00pace.  After that the number just plumpered.  Pull ups kinda gummed me up.  I guess from all the oar pulling.  Plus I usually train in a fasted state so anything over 20 minutes and I bonk pretty hard.  Pushes not too bad.  This makes for a busted afternoon.  57:58

C)  7 rounds for time & load: 35 double unders/1 snatch rep.
So you pick a weight that will challenge you, but if you miss them all, no points.  Tied this one on at CrossFit Garfield with Lut.  Hit a pr snatch 130 and then went at it with some gusto.  I was worried about the double unders b/c of late ankle stuff.  Not really a problem until it was all finished.  Missed seventh rep just in front, barbell came down, smashed my ditch-witch shin and I think smashed my right hallux on [something, I don't know what].  Blood, searing pain, throbbing pain.  It was some wreck.  Either I smashed my toe or I wore it out on the double unders.  DU's was my first theory, I didn't notice anything until after my hr recovered and shin pain subsided.  Beginning to think smashed, however.  Good and swollen, little b & b.  Tender, but better than last night.  Calling this one bad luck rather than stupidity.  Which is progress.  Still.  Don't get hurt.  15:01/480lbs (120)  Lut: 14:25/665lbs (95)

Hear a funky noise? That's the tightening of the screws.

healing?

A) 15 min AMRAP:  10 2p-KB/10 box jumps/10 ring dips
dips kept me in it, box jumps almost knocked me out.  7 rounds + two box jumps

B) Back Squat: 135-145-155-160-160
wide-leg, parallel box.  Pretty happy with these.  Form much improved.  Torso upright!

C) 3-3-3-3-3-3-3 push press
135-155-150-155-155x-155-155x-155x


but there's no love, man, there's no love and the kids are uptight

A) "Hortman" 45Min AMRAP  800m/80 squats/8 muscle ups
Shin and ankles kept me on the rower, 1k/round.  80 squats is a lot of squats.   Hell, 40 is a lot and you gotta do that twice.  Did all my muscle ups in singles.  Had a goal of doing 30 in the workout but I missed a couple late and it really gummed things up.  You've seen the harrowing muscle up miss, right?  Everyone has, it seems.  Have had a couple of my own, even one in this wod, but I've never seen the truly disastrous.  Are people GOOD at missing?  I don't get it.  OR are the stakes so high that people just find a way to stay connected and not get limb avulsed?  Post thoughts to comments.  Very close to connecting some muscle ups and that will mean 30 for time is around the corner.   Strict not far away either.  3 full rounds, +row+squats+2muscle ups.  I think D was 2 muscle ups behind me, but ONLY b/c of the muscle ups.  Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while.


B) 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 power clean
jumper still sore.  Warmed up and added weight until I missed, that was at 155.  Tried to stay there.  Alas, it got heavy and there were many misses.  But they were at the very margins and now I'm power cleaning what took me a squat clean 3 wks ago.  After a dozen or so reps I backed the weight down to something un-light but makable.  155-160x-160x-160x-155x155-155x-150-150x-145x-145-135-135-135.   D was around 128 or 133

correction: Early on I say "good jumping position" it's not actually, but it is a good starting position (or, one I'm okay with): heels inside hips, chest up, butt up, shoulders slightly forward of bar, good spine.

C) 7RFT: 7 155 push jerk/7CTB/7 burpees
In the old days I would have left it heavy and taken 40 minutes.  In warm up I could get 4 jerks at that weight w/o putting the bar down, but pretty easy to tell from posted times that that wasn't the stimulus they had in mind.  To be clear I don't think I could touch sub 10 with a pvc but I was determined to keep the line between speed and strength scrambled.  135#.  Which felt like a metric shit ton in round 6 and 7.  Super strict C-T-B pulls, actually even harder than chest,--as high as I could pull (these help with the muscle ups.) and I did a few rounds unbroken which led to severe cardiac distress.  Please, please, please be under 20.  18:37.  Dawn a full round ahead at #95.

Got to do it on the good foot

GRAS

A) 2 RFT: 100 double unders/ 50 STO #95/25 T2B
Nice lower leg thing to deal with on top of touchy-to-begin-with ankles.  Have been working assiduously on double unders.  + third wod in 5 days with jumping and or jump roping.  That's my lead-in to admitting I have not been taking care of calf business.  Heel cord finally called BS, oh about 10 double unders in to this wod, that I had real designs on attacking.  Came down on what I thought must have been a railroad spike in my heel.  Nope, just a junky Achilles (the great Warrior and I, much in common) and short, ignored gastrocs.    First set of 100 du's took, oh, NINE MINUTES of agony when only the day before I ripped off 100 in about 2min.  Decided to just plow through and take what I got, b/c I deserved it for being so dumb.  Stretch your bidness, folks.  I got a handle on it, now, but still a little touchy and in need of remediation.  33:59.  I think this wod would take Jabba the Hut 25.



B) 2-2-2-2-2-2-2  hang squat clean
Good thing there is no jumping involved in olympic lifting.  My shins couldn't really take it.  Warmed up a ton, started doing doubles until I wasn't sure if i could get two every time.  That was 135.  Five of them.  Then one at 140.  Then a make and a miss at 145.  Caught on vid below by the boy.  I post to show new app called Coach's Eye.  Kinda nifty.  Also so you can hear the camera guy rooting the old man on, which I didn't until watching it later.  I was so touched and bummed I couldn't him the second.   But I think I had the weight right.  I hope to put one up with some analysis soon.  Taking requests.  VID



C) "Jackie" 1000m Row/50 thrusters #45/30 pull ups
Every time I've done Jackie, I've scalded myself on the row and then limped in.  It struck me today that maybe that's not the best strategy.  I mean you can row a 3:40 1k, and then be all but blind and have to pick up the barbell, or you can keep it spicy but still  have something left to get on with things, like thrusters and pull ups. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the nose. Rowed a 3:55, amazingly still had 50 thrusters and 30 pull ups left.  Didn't put the bar down, but sure wanted to.  Pull ups 10-10-5-5.  Beat Dawn off the rower then she blew by me thrustering.  Caught her on the pull ups and then gave up the ghost.  I really thought she was gonna rest one more time.  Extra bad news: she used rx'd weight when she could have gone women's barbell.  Had me by 10 seconds easy. 9:18

You'll see the Zulu King down on St Claude and Dumaine

lacerating

tough three-on for me.  Three pretty big scales, a substitution, and a doozy box jump.  Give us what you got in comments.  Mockery, ridicule, the works.

A) 20 front squat/30 30" box jumps/40 KB swings/50 wall ball

205# front squat was rx'd, a bit out of my reach.  My last 1rep max was 165 (Pee-eww) and I knew the wod weight was intended to be heavy-ish.  I reasoned that in stronger days 205 would have been around 80-90% max and I put 145 on the bar.  Got 9 to start which was a nice surprise.  Actually beat Dawn (115, I think) to the box jump where I promptly gave up the lead.  On jump 30 of thirty I had a critical mental lapse thinking how high 30 inches is, thinking about the KB, thinking about the eternal verities.  WHAM.  Shin on box!  Don't look, don't look, don't look.  Completed KBs, hobbled to wall ball where I felt wet in my sock.  Uh-oh.  Don't look, don't look.  At rep 25 I looked.  Not pretty.  Finished wall ball, called for the cut man.  The cut man was Dawn, in her 3rd semester of nursing school.  She advised stitches, as did my mother and just about anyone who looked at it.  I was standing in line at CVS and a woman turned to me and said, You really oughta have that stitched.  Alas, I have had my fill of medical establishments.  Finally did go to ER last night.  Was scolded for not coming in sooner, praised for excellent wound care, and shot up with some tetanus.  12:24

B)  3x1000m row, 2min rest.

RX'd was 800m runs. I just don't run yet and the shin made it clear trying today would not be a highly regarded time to begin.  So.  I needed a goal to chase.  I thought I might make a run at a 3:30 1k and then let the chips fall where they fell.  I mean to be clear, I think you run (row) them all guts out if you're doing it right, but I just needed to see some shape or structure to the long dark tunnel I was about to enter.  I thought 3 under 4 would be tough and faster total than if I scalded myself and then limped in.  I don't know, seems recreant now that I explain it, but at the time it seemed like a somewhat ambitious plan.  3:44.0--3:58.7--3:59.9  Whew.  I sorta bow to the erg when I walk past, out of respect.

C) 7MIN AMRAP: 7dead lift/20m sprint/14 pistols/21 Double unders/20m sprint

315 DL rx'd, probably right around 1rm for me.  Again, I knew it was to be HEAVY, a motif of the cycle.  My last 5rm was 265.  The BrandX scale called for 275.  I shrugged my shoulders and thought If I only get one round, I only get one round. 275.  In the first round I pulled 7 unbroken.  Ha.   Pistols still a challenge for me, so I did them to a sub-parallel box.  If this wod came up last week, I wouldn't have finished one round b/c of the double unders but I've been working on them so they were not a stopper.  2 full rounds and 4 deads.  OMG, you should have seen my "sprints"

I meet the King of Candy at a quarter to two.  I meet the King of Candy at a quarter to two.

Challenge

All right.  That was fun.  1,000,000 meters.  Expressed as a % of the lifting involved:

LPotter: 30%
CPotter: 14%
LSant: 13%
HGirvin 12%
NPotter: 10%
SNaughton: 10%
CCopeland: 6%
BCipriani: 5%

Upcoming individual challenges: Valentine's day, March Madness.  The next team challenge is The World Erg Challenge.  The prizes are better.  You'll let me know if you're interested.  This means you KME, big talker.  I for one will cheer like mad for Birdie as she tackles March Madness.  I have been in contact with C2.  Turns out the Team challenge and the million meter team challenge are meant to be discrete events.  But they will allow overlap.  Paperwork is complete and the patches (and certificates!) are in the mail.  You can download a iron-on decal for the team challenge...in case you didn't know.  Good work team.  I'm going to give some thought to the Marathon challenge in May.  You should too.

Today: 3RFT:  30 pulls/30 DL #155/30 box jumps.  Perfectly calibrated to make you hurt.  Had a vague hope to finish in 20.  Knew that wasn't happing in the first round.  Deads came out of nowhere and slobberknocked me.  Oh god did it smart.  24:40.  Dawn was going to tackle 155 but I talked her out of it. How come no one talks my weights down?  She was blistering at #95.  16 and change.

Richard Wagner's letters to his lover Mathilde were a mess

TWO DAYS ONLY!

Hard C2 intervals sunday.  10 x :42 1:00 r  200 MTG.  Missed Monday for travel.  Good check up in Boston.  Wasn't sorry to miss the reverse 50.  Have missed a couple choice wods recently by dumb luck.  I fear the retribution.  Today, "GWEN"  I was really stumped by what weight to try.  Won't bore you with the back and forth.  But you should know your choice is critical.  Went with 115 and at rep 8 of the set of 15 I was deeply sorry I had.  Honestly, don't know how I finished.  I was all but sure I could not.  Just kept doing one more.  I found this wod terribly painful and demanding.  Good test.  115.  Matt dumped out of 185 after 9 reps, did all three sets at 165.  His last set of 9, went 7 and 2 so fast that I think he could have done 20 reps in 5 min being able to put the bar down, which was an open wod a couple years ago.  Of course you cant put the bar down and it's like being kicked in the crotch while trying to move heavy weight.  Dawn, 83, made it look easy.  Check out the mainsite vid of a woman doing 140.  Have someplace for your jaw to drop.

Tomorrow and the next day to row.  If we can't get it from here, we dont deserve it.  Everyone still owes 4k a day.  Some of us already made that deposit (and MUCH more).

Sparks fly on E Street when the boy prophet walks it handsome and hot.

Mortimer the mortiser

About three days after we moved into our house a broom fell snugly between the hinge-side of the coat-closet door and jamb.  Of course the door was quickly closed and the broom handle became a very useful fulcrum against which to pry the hinge away from the door with a  tearing, twisting force.  Welcome to your new home.  I attempted a fix that involved (I'm not proud of this) liquid nails.  IE: Glue.  It was fugly and cheapass but the door closed and my son was learning to walk, so, meh. Pick up on the door when you close it, what's the big deal?  About a month ago, similar scenario, something in between the jamb and the slap-dash hinge.  Add a 5 year old determined to shut the door like she'd been told.  Liquid nails were kinda brittle at this point.  Now the door is off the top hinge completely and just way trashy looking even for us.  I contemplated it for a couple weeks.  This is carpentry above my pay grade.  For starters: Um, it's door hanging.  I dont know much but i know the tolerances aren't that great.  Second, I gotta REHANG the door.  Third: not phillips, not, regular, not hex or torx.  But something called a Roberson screw, its a square in the screwhead.  Sometimes called a square screw or screwlox. They are quite popular in Canada.  Fella at the True-Value very helpful on these points. Fourth, the hinge is mortised not on the door which would be tricky but at least you could move your elbows.  Deep Breath.  Collect all the tools.  Dont let it get you down.  Plenty of people dont know how to fix a door.  They all wear tu-tus and leotards but whatever.  Using my big primate brain and opposable thumbs I elected to just shade the hinge down and expand the existing mortise to accomodate.  I was flying solo so there was lots of colorful language, holding the door with my foot, awkward positioning of neck and elbows but not a ton of chiseling.  Yeah, chiseling.  When you're using a sharp object and blunt force to affect changes in the 1/4 inch range, you are just way beyond my dexterity and, more importantly, patience.  But, it worked.  Robertson screws and all.  Until four days ago.  Heather closed the door really quite normally, though I was inclined to see it differently in the moment.  Tearing, cracking sound of wood being mangled.  Robertson screws dropping neatly, ting ting ting.  The problem with the small-move-of-the-hinge-idea was that the wood at that part of the door had been too severely compromised to hold the (robertson) screws, well or eventually at all.

Once more unto the breech.  Bite off more than you can chew and then chew it.  New mortise, hand-chiseled, painstakingly measured and remeasured.  Turns out the hinge and the door and the jamb all like to be plumb which comes from the Latin word for lead which is another way of saying: dead solid perfect.  Unless you don't mind not being able to close the door.  All the way, I mean.  This can take some error and trial.  But who's counting? and it's so fun to learn new things under the gun.  I am now more or less conversant on the theory if not the practice of door hanging.  Some of you may be wondering why not just get a new door or hire a carpenter and to you I say, don't you know anything?


Missed the hero wod for sickness.  Got two 10k's however.  Today: 3-3-3-3-3 Deads.  Calculations based on 5x put me at 280 for three (5x).  I was almost beat psychologically from the jump.  Thats the most ive picked up in well over a year.  Started at 265, got some confidence, 275, put on a belt, 280, 285, 290.  At 280 I had to decide if to pull two more at theoretical max or go higher.  I think I played it right; two above make up for two below.  I didn't have a pound or rep more.

If you don't like Hank Williams, honey, you can kiss my ass.