April Fool

A)  7:00 AMRAP  3-6-9-12-15. . .  reps of  135# clean/toes-to-bar.
Love this couplet and the rep structure.  It was really challenging on toe that I could barely get into shoe.  Side of the foot, weird positioning, had to get perfectly tight and set for every rep as if attempting a 1rm, which by the end it pretty much was.  Not cycling T2B quickly, but I dont have to come off the bar for fewer than 15.  Went into it thinking I would very likely have to bail out.  Did not, so I'm saying "success."  Got 40, took shoe off, applied ice.


B) 2-2-2-2-2-2-2  thruster



In the rain, muddy deck, iron weight, stiff, fat barbell.  But I was determined, not to miss a day.  Call 'em prison-yard thrusters whatever the total.  Worked up to 145, called that 1.  155 was slow but possible, though the clean was starting to weight the equation. Tried 165, but the front squat to begin made it too tough.  Back to 155 to finish the set.  Had the boy take the pic. I tried to move fast enough to have the bar clearly in motion.  You can sorta talk yourself into that conclusion.  It IS moving.

C) 5RFT: 3 power clean 205/10 burpee pull ups
I took 205 to mean pretty goddamn heavy.  My last power clean max was 165 so I started with 160.  My plan was to strip as necessary.  Heavy as possible WITHOUT standing around.  Pulling weights cost me some time but I was happy to get the heavier reps in.  One round at 160, one at 155, the remainder at 145.  Matt rx'd in a frightening time that had to have been sub 10--I don't know, I was up to my chin in work.  Dawn I thought was around 12 or 13 at 113# (i think).  16:11

next to a mountain

Through the tulips with you.

A)  "Cameron":  50 lunge/25 CTB/50 box jump/25 3under/50 back ext/25 ring dip/50 KTE/25 2-4-1 wb/50 sit up/5 rope climb

Did this last cycle out of order to keep in time with partners who do crazy things like open wods twice.  Not bad as far as heroes go.  Them and this wod.  Still a boatload of work (this wod).  I practiced 3unders and immediately scaled to 40 2xunder.  Relative strengths: lunges, KTE, dips.  Struggles: box jumps, CTB.  The 2fer1's blew me up.  Blammo.  Crushed.  Many no-reps, huge time drain.  Matt in 22 with trips, D in 25 w DU.  Me: 27:30 and rope bloody paws



B) "Nasty Girls":  3RFT:  50 squat/7 MU/10 hang power clean #135

My very first CrossFit workout.  You never forget your first.  Many people get abused by a girl.  Me, a gang.  Squats to a swiss ball, aided pulls, aided dips, power cleans the only thing I could do.  40  mins or so.  Thought I was king of the world.  Exhilarated.  For the next three days I had to lower myself to the floor and then crawl up onto the toilet, so devastated was my posterior chain, though I wouldn't have called it that at the time.  Today, I worried about losing time on the squats, and getting squeezed to multiple sets of HPC.  Worried about everything but what gutted me.  MU's.  Got 5 lickety split in round one and then failed 5 times.  In the heart and the head and the shoulders.  miss miss miss miss miss.  Scaling on the fly I went to HPC owing 2 mus.  Things calmed down and I finished much worse for the wear.  But squats were good, HPC in sets of 5.  MU's took a sidereal year.  made up 2 at the end.  wouldnt have counted in comp but got all the work done.  23:27.  D: 16 ish, I think, w/ 3 mu's per.  Matt: 6 and change (!!)  I think my lifetime best is just under 15.  Hot potata.



C) 5 RFT:  21 dead lift #185/run 400m

Here is where I was going to say that the toe has been coming along nicely.  Lots of double unders, lots of oly lifting.  No trouble. Lunges even.  Except then last night around beddy-bye damn if it didn't start to hurt. Bad.  Almost as bad as when broken.  WTF! (not wild turkey federation).  I dont really understand it. Except it hurts and now Im back to walking on the side of my foot and limping.  Which my ankle and knee have had it with.  Swelling back up.  Damnation.  Back to buddy tape and gimping.  Don't know, guess I overdid it.  Not sure how though, no incident to speak of.  Doc said let pain be your guide.  Pain was not a good guide.  Had I felt any I would have backed off.  Stay tuned.  13.4 oughta be a joy.  I thought this wod would do me in and happily pushed it off til either today or never.  Worried that deads would prove too much to tangle with.  Seriously, beware the middle-weight couplet.  Considered cutting to 165 or even 135.  In warm up was able to pull 11 pretty easily. Decided to go rx'd.  Had to sub 500m of seated dead lift for runs.  dead lifts and seated dead lifts.  feels like ive been branded on the low back, very warm.  D: 20+, HG: 22+ (both at 135), Yours: 19:54  a bright note to finish.


Here's to your good looks baby, now here's to my health.

Peaches

A) Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Desperately wanted to catch 135.  Felt strong enough to do it, was jumping well enough even on fractured hallux.  Worked up to 125, my last 1rm.  Called that one of seven.  The rest went: 135x-135-135x-135x-135x-125.  Whew.  PR.

B) 13.3:  12min AMRAP 150 wall ball (20#/10ft)/ 90 double unders/HA!

No doubt my goal was to finish the double unders but knew that was a tall order.  There is a fairly large delta between counting your own reps of wall ball and someone else counting your reps of wall ball.  I don't care who you are or how strict you are with yourself.  I just don't take bad reps from myself, but my judge took even fewer.  RATE of wall ball was quicker since Jan, but my score was about the same thanks to about 10 no reps and really leaning on it.  Was able to rip off a nice string of broken-toe DU's (tired of it aren't you?  yeah, break your toe and tell me how tired) but good times they are a fleeting.  171.


C) For time: 20 2p KB swings/30 T2B/ 400m

Sub'd a 500m row for the run.  Really wanted to do this under 5.  No-rep'd two KBs, but did not put the bell down.  I don't cycle T2B the way I can KTE, which is likely the point, went 15-10-5 but with a little extra swing pre-kip.  Shot for a 1:45 row, came up two seconds slow.  This is a gunshot to the belly.  5:13

Blow up your TV, throw away your paper

HAT TRIP

A) "Barraza" 18min AMRAP:  200m run/9 deads @ 275/6 burpee bar muscle up.

Still rowing when the rest of the world is running.  I think under 400m there is a pretty even exertion exchange, 400m or greater you have to factor in mechanical advantage of rower and go farther. That's just me.  Would have far preferred running in this one.  And you should just know you're in for a tussle if you scale your workout and it still includes more than 4 #45 plates and garden variety muscle ups.  I cut the deads to 255 and the burpee bar MU's to kipping ring MU.  Kinda.  I can do a BarMU, sometimes.  Other times I cant.  (An example of not one is below)  I dont really know the secret that my arms and the bar are often in on.  I tried every round and every round I got exactly one BBMU.  "Every" is kinda a joke b/c I could have said BOTH.  2 rounds + 1 BBMU.  Most the time spent trying to go faster on the rings.  Deads were not the problem I thought they would be and I might have come in right around 2 rounds at 275, but it felt good to be proficient at them.  To be clear, that's 18min for 600m/27 deads/13 mu's of some description.  I dont even know how to evaluate that except to say I was happy to see it in the rear view.

B) Clean and Jerk  3-3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1

Holy crap.  I'll remind you that in the wod "gwen" the mainsite vid showed a woman do 15 ( and then 12 and 9) unbroken reps at 140.  I thought it astonishing back then.  Now I am plain stupid with awe.  I had a good long warm up and tried working up in triples.  Probably overdid that but whatever.   Missed 3rd jerk at 145. Missed more or less makable 3rd clean in second attempt at 145.  Cowered back to 135 to get a "heavy" triple on the books.  Doubles at 140, 145, 150  Singles (uh, these turned into boots to the teeth) 150 155 160x 160 160.  I never want to do that again.  I wouldn't normally showcase my righteous partners' misses, but they did this before me and gave me zero warning and laughed quite zealously as I got turned into sausage by it.  SO: (A miss at 275 I'd have a hard time feeling bad about.)

C) 12 min AMRAP: 4 shoulder press/8 SDHP/12 front squat @ #75.

no doubt in my mind that this wod was an early tester version of 13.2.  What completely surprised me was how hard I had to work to keep the barbell in the rack.  Flexibility and mobility really exposed here.  Cool b/c i was running out of things to work on.  much harder here to "just keep moving"--putting bar down, resetting stance and grip, excetra excetra.  I decided on unbroken sets, no matter what.  One time I was able to go from FS to SP.  Once.  After that, I so badly wanted out of the rack that I would have done anything to drop the barbell, including drop the barbell. 7 rounds, 2 presses

We'll be taking whatever you got

Pain's Republic

A) 3RFT:  185# OH carry 50yds/185# lunge 25yds/95# farmer carry.

Ortho appt pretty much a waste of time.  Broken toe.  Too long ago to do much about except "rest your toe."  Good alignment, starting to knit.  Let pain be your guide.  Not as gimpy as a week ago.  But still fairly sore, and ankle is tired of walking weirdly.  Mathitude helped me turn set up to this one into a science fair project.  50ft gym, cones at either end and middle.  75ft is, wait.  3ft to a yd?  Is this meters or yards?  OMG I'm gonna go nuts (er).  3 cones?  6 cones?  Whew.  The 185 OH carry was fine.  The 185 clean presented a problem.  Cut to 135.  We have farmer-carry handles which are far preferred, but require scaling up.  Mainsite programs the barbell farmer, I think, to avoid special equipment (like three BB per capita isn't special).  If you have equipment you should use it.  Problem with the barbell carry is it isolates the wrist too much, shoulders, trap and lats not enough.  Whatever.   I had 115 in each hand.   3,2,1 go.  OH to Lunge to. . .DOH! in the lunge one of your main points of contact is?  The big toe.  AGGGH.  Scaling in media res: left leg forward lunge, unweighted.  Oh brother.  Extra lap of OH and farmer carry to compensate.  I think it ended up being 65yds/round, but the lunges were kinda a joke. 16:01  If the RX wod was the idea, my version of the wod was the idea's shadow cast on the gym wall by my dimly flickering intellect.  (liked that one, didn't you?)


B) FT:  row 500m/BWBP x 30/row 1k/BWBP x 20/row 2K/BWBP x 10

Did this one in, get this, May 2009 with 205# (BW 209). 44:03.  I was on a water rower and I suspect  faulty calibration.  Logged a 1:36 500m/3:53 1k/8:10 2k.  Not likely, but who knows with the extra lbs. Perception is not knowledge.  I do remember very well doing the BP in triples doubles and singles.  I tried on the BW (now 180) for size.  Would have been the same thing and I almost did it. BUT: make every wod your own.  I reasoned that the BP's should take about as long as the rows b/c of their a-/de-scending structure.  I think I got it nearly right.  BP at 140, tried to do all rows pretty close to best times, give or take.  Round of 30 whacked me after being teed up by a scalding 500m.  Missed 2 in the 30 and that is a giant headache when training alone, cost me at least 2 minutes.  At least.  Anyway.  Rows: 1:43/3:54/8:12.  BP's in 10's, 5's and 3's except when trying to squeeze out 1 more and missing.  Be greedy but not too greedy.  31:50

Suede, son.  The Platonic form sneaker

C) 13.2: 10min AMRAP 5 STO 115#/10 dead lift 115#/15 box jump 24"

Thought I could do 7 but then saw D and Matt and Cope just squeak past 7.  Common sense told me to revise but I wanted to do 7.  I tried some jumps, but I haven't mentioned I have a broken toe.   Yeah.  It makes things like jumping and lunging painful.  I was a step-up guy the whole way.  STO were ok.  Deads not an issue.  As Cope said, it's a box jump competition.  Or I was a one-legged man in an ass-kicking competition.  Really, my goal was to find a "good" pace and NOT STOP.  I succeeded there, which is not nothing. 186 reps (6 rounds+STO's+1dead) Putting down another broken-toe PR, thanks.



Hazy Davy got really hurt, he ran into the lake in just his socks and a shirt.

a new hope

Think it'll scar?

A) 15min AMRAP:  15 pull ups/30 knee tucks
The Chupacabra had a very good idea:  Scale EVERY wod to suit individual weaknesses, biases.  We're not trying to guild the lily here, though it might seem that way.  I don't want to put x's on your eyes with the details (unless you ask for more), so in pretty broad brush strokes: we three are good coaches for each other.  Matt has damn-close to elite strength but his cardio-vascular fitness needs to improve for him to attain his goals.  Dawn is just as fit as a fiddle and fast besides but she's pretty new to the strength game.  I'm recovering from a bone marrow transplant of all things.  I take improvement wherever I can find it.  The straight dope diagnosis is I gotta get back to fall '11 levels and then see what's next.  That's gonna mean getting a lot stronger and overcoming diminished lung function.  So:  maximize power production in all wods of whatever construction, mono-structural, weightlifting, gymnastics, met-con.  Power production.  If that means making it heaver, so be it.  If that means taking weight off the bar (more likely), we'll do that too.  Power.  The way the new regime applies to todays wod is:  instead of doing CTB pulls in sets of 5 or 3 or lets face it, doubles and standing around waiting for the sand to pull high again, I did regular kipping pulls.  Got two sets unbroken and then some 8-7s and then 5-5-5.  This breakdown alone tells me the approach was right.  I might have gotten 3 rounds of CTB.  Maybe.  Instead of doing knee tucks, I did lifts from ring support, 30/round.  In it's way it was a break through.  Keep moving.  To borrow an analogy from Louie, throw three things at a window, wiffle ball, baseball, cinder block.  Which one is ideal for breaking the window?  Im trying to find the baseball in every workout?  make sense?  Pull ups don't bother my toe a bit. 6 rounds+10 pulls


B) 10min AMRAP:  5 Deadlifts @ 185/ 100m row
Squeezed this one in after long Boston trip, sneaker shopping with the boy and little food for the day. Good check up though.  My best, actually.  Check up PR.  Blood docs it turns out could not be less interested in conditions of the bone or skin.  Bored, truly.  "Why were you jumping on the box, were you trying to crush it?"  No, it was a 3/4in plywood box.  "ooh.  I see.  you were doing it over and over again?"  Yeah, something like that.  "Why did you kick the barbell? In anger?"  Not really--I kinda tripped."  "Try not to get hurt."  Okay.  So.  Very little warm up.  Can't really run.  Tried to keep all the rows around 20sec.  Probably should have used a different start.  As it was I did the punishing long slow pull to start.  9 rounds+5 deads+90m  In retrospect, I might have made this a tad heavier, since i was losing time getting on the rower anyway.  I think deads+just about anything=hard training


C) 3-3-3-3-3 OHS
Topped off at 125 after several lesser in Jan.  Today I wanted to do all of them above that, though I didn't know exactly where that would be.  Worked up to 125 pretty easily.  At 135 things got very dicey. Called that my first work set.  I didn't know how I was gonna do that 4 more times.  But, happily, I got better and stronger.  Mainly remembering cues, stretching the bar.  Sorta surprised myself.  Three at 135.  Even better at 140.  Swung for the fence with 150 in final set.  Got two and fought the 100 years war in 10 seconds of grinder with the barbell in the third rep.  It was a hard one to lose.  Which is probably what the British thought.

If they asked you how it happened, say I forced you into this

13.1

Overnight, hallux pain grew much more severe.  Decided bad news was not going to get better with age and I had grave doubts about doing snatches and burpees with any kind of proficiency.  The great toe is important.  It's like the thumb of your foot and thumbs separate us from the rest of the mammalian hoi polloi.  So toes must be what allow us to jump with barbells and get bunions.  Went to the ER.  Dr.'s name was Ketel(though sadly, no bell), and a recent convert to high-intensity functional fitness.  No time wasted explaining snatches, double unders burpees.  Oddly, his first hypothesis was gout.  Uh-huh.  Build up of uric acid in joints.  The more he talked the more sense it made and I was still doubtful (i mean, it's my hallux) but it's very common with chemotherapy (shudder) and I do consume a boatload of protein.  Maybe, who knows?.  Gout is the so-called condition of kings, b/c royalty were all that could afford to get it.  Kings and BMT exercisers.  BUT wait, here is the x-ray. . .nope, pretty clear fracture of the middle phalanx of the great right toe.  Euclidianly clear.  Busted big toe.  The treatment is "rest your toe." (those are not scare quotes, that's what he said). Rest your toe on this stupid wood-sole open toed shoe.  Heavy, heavy sigh.  I have an appt in Boston on Monday where I'm sure they will give me a finger wagging (for this and the shin. yeah, the shin).  Then an ortho visit sometime next week.  I hope they wrap the thing in concrete and let me get about business.  Of course, you can count on me to keep you posted.  I have a toe fetish.  It's like a thumb fetish but (your own) are harder to suck.  It's like a foot fetish but no magazines cater to it.  Nor does it enjoy as much social approval as other fetishes or thumb sucking.  You gotta pretend you have a foot fetish and then ignore the foot part, get to the toes.  Ever see that photo of Marilyn Monroe doing a USO number for the troops?  Maybe Korea?  One joe reaches just to touch her toe.  Totally understand. (get it, toe-tally?)  Ah-hem.  Wods will be catch-as-catch-can until further notice, but i dont really plan on slowing down, just taking the long way.  Up-sides:  County (or maybe state) record holder in broken-toe snatch (130), free Vicodin rx, plenty of time to work on butterfly pull ups, handstand push ups et al.  Lots of party people at Chupacabra don't have busted toes.  I know.  I'm looking.  They all went at it with vim. Some notables (of the rx'd ilk):  Matt: 150, HG: 145, Dawn:138




It's actually a kind of relief.  The truth, no matter how bad it hurts is always somehow soothing.  I think on a good jumper I could make an honest run at Nate and Cope.  I'll soon have a plan for healing and I'm not totally knocked out. This wasn't going to be the best games season for me anyway; now I can dig in and continue with recovery.  Everything else is coming along.  I wish faster but no denying progress.  I think the lesson is: don't snatch on anything but level surfaces.

And don't get hurt.

Would That Not be Nice?

the buddy system

A) "Adrian" 7RFT: 3 forward rolls/5wall climbs/7T2B/9 30" box jumps

The return of the tall box jump sent shivers down me timbers.  Stopped at a store and bought a pair of shin guards and promptly donned one.  First rep did the ol' swing arms forward smack your thumb on box.  Awesome.  After that I was good.  Jumps were slow but sure.  Wall climbs kinda fit me.  I have no trouble with sets of T2B smaller than 12.  Matt: 15 and change.  Dawn: 21+  Me: 19:40


B) 2RFT: 400m run/15m handstand walk/400m run/30 pistols.

Right after you get the notion that something "fits" you, they show you the big boy pants.  Uh, I had to scale EVERYTHING.  500m row for the run.  Wall handstand "steps" for the walk.  Band assist pistols.  Welcome to the bigs.  Im okay with the row sub, kept them all under 2:00/500m pace.  The handstand step is done against a wall, pick one hand up, touch same-side shoulder, put hand back.  You get good stimulus at trading hands, working the on shoulder, balance. BE VERY CAREFUL with your hands as there is much danger of coming down wrong on a finger.  It would be a couple week injury.  Be careful.  I did 30 a round.  Pistols with a red band, full depth.  24:14.  I think i finished the first round in 8.


C) Max Snatch.

toe with dog

Saving the open wod 13.1 for Sat where my goal will be 100 reps or maybe, maybe just maybe 101.  135 (the second tier of snatches) would be a new PR for me.  Probably not, but maybe.  Today I got 130.  Missed 135, very nearly 3x.  125 was totally within range.

parking only, no loitering

A) 30 muscle up to forward rolls for time
I messed around with a ring forward roll.  I can do them.  They are a tad dizzying and there is a good bit of core work to them.  I scaled back to just 30 MU's for time.  The deal breaker was the rings for muscle ups are over concrete and not next to, but close enough to a rack of dumbbells.  I had a brief vision of disaster and knew risk would be mitigated by cutting out the forward roll.  Though I did practice it.  This is the first time I've tried 30mu/FT in ages.  My time for 15 mu/FT was okay.  Started with a triple and then did doubles until 18.  Last 12 were a real battle, lots of misses, lots of time.  Matt was rx'd in just over 10.  D: 20 mu in 20 or 25 minutes.  Me: 27:46



B) 3 RFT:  200m run/100m lunge step/50 squats
First time I have run in easily 18mos.  Yep.  No running, year and a half.  Really wanted to finish this in less than 20.  You basically fill your quads and glutes with blood and lactic acid and then dare yourself to move.  Had severe jelly leg for hours after and then odd twitches and spasms well into the next day.  D absolutely scorched this, it was impressive and maddening to watch.  It is rumored she does squats at home, for fun. Extra-work is the legal performance enhancing drug, 13 and change.  Matt, rehabbing back and all, 15 and change.  CJP: 19:38 + shin splints

Lancaster Costco

C) 30min AMRAP: rope climbs/pushups
Saw a mainsite post that suggested one climb and 10 pushups until such time that the plan needed reconsideration.  Seemed as good as anything I could come up with, so that's what i did.  I had to learn a new foot trap on the fly b/c rope against my cratered leg was EXCRUCIATING.  So I learned a new foot trap and eh, whaddaya know.  I like it and it's faster.  And it's better (for me) on the way down.  I had no idea what to expect or demand of myself.  Haven't climbed a rope for a very long time.  In late rounds I probably could have goosed my rope climb total doing them in between sets of 5 pushups.  But i was in a groove so just hung with it.  5-shake the arms-5 more.  The rope got dangerouser as the reps piled up.  After five climbs and 50 push ups I took a peek at the clock figuring we were half way through and 10 and 10 would be a goal.  I was quite discouraged to see 22 minutes remaining.  Okay, that means I gotta get 20.  Time expired half way up the rope of my 21st climb.  I finished it out just because.  Only a crazy person would believe that.  Matt had 30 climbs and just shy of 300 push ups.  D had I think 27 climbs and 280 pushes.  20 climbs for me and 200 push ups.  good, fun training.

I'll take those flannel zebra jammies