Full body

Limited time today, so I did some shoulder strength work, followed by a fixed-time metcon.

Military press - 5, 5, 3, 3, 2
65, 75, 80, 85, 90 (1)

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Yesterday's main site wod.

"The Chief"
Max rounds in 3 minutes of:
115lb power cleans, 3 reps
6 push-ups
9 air squats
Rest 1 minute. Repeat for a total of 5 cycles.

Scores:
3 rounds + 5 squats
3 rounds + 3 cleans
3 rounds + 3 cleans
3 rounds + 2 cleans
3 rounds + 2 cleans

The RXed weight is 135lb, which is close to my max for cleans. I think 115lb was the right weight for this routine, which is 20lb heavier than the women's RXed weight, so my ego remains intact. Most reps were t&g, but with some of the later reps I needed to quickly reset. Sometimes when I do cleans I get doms in my biceps, which means I've been curling the bar and not using my shoulders enough. However, two hours later I'm already starting to feel sore in my traps. Hopefully, that means my technique was good. Here's the CrossFit demo video.

Full body / Cindy

I don't usually train on Sundays, just because I take rest day after my Saturday personal training sessions. However, because I trained with Paul on Friday, I rested yesterday and was itching to do something today. I started with power cleans, but I tried a different strategy to normal.

Power cleans, t&g
95 x 3
120 x 3
135 x 3
140 x 2
140 x 1

I wanted to try getting to the heavy stuff more quickly than usual. Last time I did power cleans, I went from 95lb to 115lb, then 125lb, 130lb, 135lb, finishing with 140lb. I thought that perhaps I might save my strength for the later sets by taking heavier jumps between sets, but it didn't work out that way. Oh, well - it was worth a try and it was only an experiment, so I'm not going to get too frustrated by the result.

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I felt like doing a girl WOD today, and - coincidentally - Cindy came up on the main site.

Cindy - amrap 20:
5 x pull-ups
10 x push-ups
15 x air squats
Score = 16 rounds + 3 pull-ups

The last time I did this was back in July, when I tried a "death by" type of strategy. For as long as I could manage, I would only start the pull-ups on the minute, and when I finished the last squat I would rest for the remainder of that minute. Today's score was identical to July's, which was a PR. However, back then I started my workout with Cindy, whereas this morning I started about three minutes after I'd completed the cleans. I didn't use the "death by" technique today, opting for just going when I felt ready. I rested with the slow breathing method I've been using for recent metcons, and I definitely felt comfortable with that. I know that kipping pull-ups are allowed with Cindy, but I started off by doing strict ones and only really resorted for a slight swinging motion about halfway through the routine. That meant I didn't get out of breath too quickly, which seems a bit smarter than attempting to sprint all the way through; that never works out well. 

I didn't improve on my previous score, but a big positive for me was that all of the rounds of pull-ups and air squats were unbroken, except for the last three pull-ups, which I knocked out as singles straight after completing round 16. It's a good thing I did, as I hadn't made a note of my PR, so I didn't realise until now that I'd matched it. I would have been pissed if I'd missed out by one or two reps.

Full body conditioning

Personal training with Paul

Amrap 10
1 deadlift @ 225lb, 1 burpee, 2/2, 3/3 etc.
Score = 9 rounds exactly

Edit: I only just checked back to see my score when I did something similar but easier a few weeks ago. Back then I did jump squats instead of the RXed burpees, which I did today. Even though my lungs burned like hell this morning, I did much better.

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"Ensign"
3 x 3 minute rounds of:
3 power cleans @ 115lb
6 push-ups
9 air squats

Scores:
3 rounds + 3 power cleans
3 rounds + 6 squats
3 rounds + 6 push-ups

I'm not surprised that the second round was better than the first. I deliberately moved slower, which allowed me to breathe slower. I slowed down in the third round just because I was fatigued.

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3 rounds:
10 ab rollouts
20 sit-ups (strict)

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It's two hours later, and my lower back is already seizing up from the deadlifts! Great workout, though. I'm used to one of the routines in my PT session knocking me on my ass, but not two at the beginning!

Barbara

I don't usually train on Friday, but (a) I had a rest day on Wednesday, and (b) I won't have my regular personal training session tomorrow, only a gentle 3k run with Madi.

Barbara - 5 rft:
20 kipping pull-ups
30 push-ups
40 sit-ups
50 air squats
Time = 38:56

Okay, this is 19 seconds slower than last time, which was over a year ago. A couple of things to note, neither of which I'm offering as excuses, only observations.

1. This time, I did strict sit-ups, not the old "hands-over-head" that gave me some momentum. That may or may not have slowed me down, but, on the other hand, I hope I'm stronger than I was in September 2011. Also, the air squats were a2g; I can't remember if I only broke parallel last year.

2. Usually when I do a significant number of pull-ups in a metcon, I start with strict pull-ups rather than the kipping version. This is to enable my shoulders to warm up a bit before I start resorting to kipping. This morning, however, I went into straight into kipping because I wanted to move as quickly as possible from the beginning. My form was fucking awful; I lacked control and although I managed 12 consecutive reps before I had to rest, I was already out of breath. From that point onward I was struggling with breathing too hard, and that meant I needed to take too many breaks throughout the rest of the routine, just so I could catch my breath. Not a smart start by any means.

Regardless of whether or not I could/should have done better, this was still a good workout. I'm typing this a couple of hours after I left the gym, and I'm already seizing up. My moobs are sore as hell! Thankfully, tomorrow's Santa Pur-Suit won't be too taxing.

Conditioning

Picture of me - with one-year-old Madi - taken in July 2005. Man boobs!
Compare this to a couple of days ago...

Short of time today - again - so I made up a quick routine that I could do in Stonecroft's gym.

In 20 minutes:
Buy-in - Row 1km

Amrap in remaining time:
10 x sit ups
10 x burpees
10 x air squats (a2g)

Score = 7 rounds + 10 sit ups and 9 burpees