The work week....

Not sure what happened, but apparently I seem to have fallen a week behind.
Monday:  CrossFit Stations #2 - three rounds
- Wallball (16 lbs)
- Pullups
- Slamball (16 lbs)
- Situps
- Box jumps (16")

For some unknown reason, I was feeling kind of weak.  The 16 lb balls were heavy.  It was very strange.  I'm using the 3 vials of blood that were drawn as my excuse, but that's pretty much just an excuse.   I believe I got in 96, 96, then ...73??  I think I added up to 255 total.  Which means those individual numbers are off.  Hmmm...was I at 265? Possibly.  I'm not entirely certain.  I thought I was close to 100 the first two rounds though.  3rd round, as usual I dropped.  Someday I'll be able to stay semi-consistent on all rounds.

Tuesday: The VinMan - 3 rounds

- 1-1/2 rep goblet squats (25 lbs)
- KB swings (12 kg)
- Glute-ham raises
- Deadlifts (125 lbs
- FitBall hip extensions
- Single-leg goodmornings

This one was designed to "Hammer your glutes 'til your butt's like a bowling ball!" 

....and I suppose it would have if my back didn't lock up so bad it.  To say that I sucked at this one would be the understatement of the year.  I started with the Squats.  First round, my back muscles started tightening probably on the glute ham raises a bit, got to DL's, didn't get in nearly as many as I should have but it wasn't too terrible.  Round 2 & 3, was a bit different.  My back was just too locked up to get much done. I did what I could, but it was just painful.  Grand total, I recorded 199 - but I may have gotten 209ish - I know I counted wrong that 2nd round.  This is the first time, that I've been semi close to tears from the pain, I wasn't, but I was close.  Add to that the frustration of itty-bitty numbers, and it just was not the best day.    I'm still not certain why my back muscles seem to lock up so much.....either I'm doing something wrong, or they just don't like working and make no bones about telling me so.  Again, after I stretched 'em out, all was fine.  Aggravating, I tell ya!

Overhead Anyhow -1-1-1-1-1-1-1

I haven't done this one in a while, for some reason Push Jerks have been feeling a bit off for me lately.  I think it's because once the weight hits a certain heavy point, I'm not fully believing that I have enough spring to hoist overhead.  That's all I can figure out.  

I did the first couple as Push Press..with a bit of jerk involved.  125/135/145.  Missed on the 145. Then I decided to try the Split Jerk - this one doesn't come naturally for me, but watching others do it, I am definitely believing that this is a stronger way to do them.   I didn't believe it at first because of the whole balance thing, but I'm seeing it now.  Never having really done split jerks with much weight, I went down.  I went down, so that I could go up.  Next 4 I did were 95/115/135/145.  Again, missed on the 145.  that could be because it was the last round. I'll have to try it earlier.  The disappointing part is that I didn't increase in weight at all.  CRUD! I didn't realize this little fact until afterwards, when I looked at the board,  I definitely should have been able to get the 145.  Next time.

Friday - 200 meter run x 8 rounds
Running sucks.  I don't think I can say that enough.  We did this one in the park.  I matched my fastest time, and got my longest times ever.  Not sure what that means.   I will say, I felt like I was gasping for air at the end worse than before, either that, or I've blocked it from my memory, kind of like women do with childbirth.  Not sure.  I believe I did 48/50/53/56/102/100/56/102 ....or something along those lines. It's definitely a downward spiral through the later rounds.

Running around Lynne

After being vastly disappointed that I had to miss the long awaited "Dirty Dozen", I was appalled that I was about to have a workout inflicted on me that was nothing but running.  Now really, have I mentioned that I don't like running?  I thought so.  Well, I have to say, this brought out little Miss PPP  (AKA Polly Pissy Pants).    Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you think about it, little Miss P, didn't hang out too long, instead, I ended up trying to bolster the spirits of the other "I'd rather stick my big toe into a vat of sulphuric acid than run" members.  (Ok, maybe not all of them despise running quite THAT much...but still, you get the drift!)

So when the time came, to do the workout  - 200 meter run -8 rounds for time - I had actually kind of psyched myself up.  I went in with the spirit of "I'm going to be the next Joe G - making vast improvements never seen before...amazing to the eye!"  Yep, a bit like superman or any random super hero.  That is what I have determined I'm going to strive for.  If my freaking butt won't shrink despite my finest efforts, then if I'm putting all this work into it, at least I'm gonna do some amazing things!!

Round 1 - my immediate goal was to keep Luke in my sights.  First round, I actually did pretty good.  48 seconds.  Not a world record by any means, but it was 10 seconds faster than my first round the last time we did this.  I was hopeful.

Round 2 - Holy moly - rest is over already?? YIKES!  Still - I managed to eek out a 49.  I can live with that.

Round 3 - the 2 minute rest is over before I could blink!  This time....50...and so the slippage starts

Round 4 - 53 seconds  OY!

Round 5 - 57 or 58 - I just stopped caring.....couldn't breathe.

Round 6 - 58 or 59 - really had a hard time getting through these rounds....REALLY!

Round  7 - 60 seconds - YIPES!! That's longer than it's EVER taken.....

Round 8 - 57  - ok, at least it was under a minute.

So - overall, I'm not certain if I ended up doing better than last time or not.  I kicked it up a notch the first 3 or 4 rounds, but then was totally gassed for the last 4.  Not an ounce of energy was left!

Today was Lynne.  Max rep bench press/max rep pullups - 5 rounds.  Bench Press was supposed to be body weight. HA!  So it was BP at a weight you can do about 10 reps of.   My shoulder has been a bit off since the dips of Friday night (I think that's what sparked it, not sure though.) Nothing bad..just off.  It actually felt great this morning when I got up, but as the day progressed it got twingier.  Apparently working is bad for me! I think I might have to quit my job for the sake of my shoulder...hmmmmmmmm..........

I digress into daydream land.  Back to reality. YIKES! 

So - rather than trying to do body weight bench presses, which I know are ridiculous to think about, I went with 125.  I believe that's what I did last time too, I just wasn't sure whether to go up or not because my shoulder was making feel a bit off.  I did pullups - kipping style, since I have that now, more or less, in the red bands

Round 1 - 12 BP/11 PU

Round 2 - 11 BP/11 PU

Round 3 - 9 BP/9.5 PU - yep - last one was eye level, so I counted it as 1/2.

Round 4 - 8 BP/9 PU

Round 5 - 7 BP/9 PU

Not too bad - bench should have been better, but I was happy with the pullups.  Now I need to see if I can get into the minis so that I can eventually get out of the bands altogether.

There wasn't a whole lot of rest between rounds, and by the end, my biceps were numb.

I still like Lynne.  Gimme Lynne over running any and every day!!

3 days worth!!

Slacker!! Yes, I am a slacker!! As Yoda would say -" several days behind I am!"  Ok - now that really scares me: I'm channeling a Star Wars character - YIKES! What has happened to me???

Not only am I channeling little, ancient, green....ummm...muppets, but I also seem to be at a bit of a stagnant point when it comes to the heavy lifts.  To add to the strange happenings in the galaxy, while the heavy is just sitting there, the Met-Cons are kickin' it into high gear.

Here's the scoop - Monday, CrossFit Total - 2 attempts.   Let me just start out by saying - this completely threw me for a loop when it was posted.  Last time, I psyched myself up for a week.  This time, doing CFT after work...on a Monday to boot, with no mental preparation, I didn't know if I would surprise myself, or really be as weak as I felt.  Well, it wasn't really either one.

Back squat, 1 rep - 1st try - 235 - made it.  2nd attempt - 245 - miss.  Apparently I should have made this one, because despite me feeling like I was maybe at parallel, I was almost there.   I'm not sure what is going on with my squats, but they've felt off the last several times we've done them. I can't pinpoint exactly why.   Wait... now that I think about it, perhaps it's my cracklin' knees.....the noise throws me....hmmm.
Shoulder Press, 1 rep -  1st try - 110  - got it, and it felt pretty good!    2nd attempt -115 -not so good - I could barely move this sucker!
Deadlift, 1 rep -   1st try - 275 - got it.  2nd try - 300 - I was just trying to repeat my last score on this one, and it just didn't work out so well, in fact it was quite laughable.

So - while I didn't break any records, I at least managed to hit the same levels as last time on the Squat and Shoulder Press.  The good news - I'm still in the 3X  score. YAY!!

Tuesday - Crossfit Stations #2 - 3 rounds
- Wallball 16 #
- Pullups  - minis - low bar
- Slamball 16 #
- Situps
- Box jumps 16"

I did pretty good on this.  I think it was a pretty comparable average score to last time, but I was in minis rather than the red bands.  Overall score was 266  - I believe I hit 94, 88, 84.  It averaged to about 88 per round.  So - happy with that!

Tonight:  200 meter run x 8 rounds   2 minute rest between rounds

Lovely.  Running.   I told myself all day that 200 meters was nothing - it was just a hair longer than the sprints we did over the summer.    Hello  - Reality check to Ellen!! Not even close!  Criminy towards the end, it took everything I had not to walk.......but I didn't.  I ended up, ending with a high of 59 seconds, low of 53.   So, overall pretty happy.  

Of course thinking about it, I was running full tilt, putting every ounce of energy into every step.  If you were to add it all up, and by some incredible miracle I was able to tie all 8 rounds  together at the same speed - it would be about  an 8 minute mile.  Not terrible, but for the amount of energy I put into it, kind of sad, and completely unrealistic for me!  Have I mentioned before that running kills me??