Mashing myself to a fine paste

We've been hitting things pretty hard and heavy lately. I've been enjoying it and I have to say paleo eating does seem to help a bit with recovery.

09-09-10 - Kelly

One of my favourite grinding metcons!

“Kelly”
Five rounds for time of:
Run 400 meters
30 Box jump, 24 inch box
30 Wall ball shots, 20 pound ball

Tried keeping up with Shae on this one but lost him in the 4th round when he powered through his deads (he subbed them for wallball) and I couldn't catch him. As rx'd in 32:41. I needed to watch my form on the box jumps as I was getting cheeky with not opening my hips fully. I shaved a good six minutes off my time from June.

After was oly club.

Clean and Jerk 1x2 at 75%, 80% and 85% of max (86, 92 amd 97lbs).
Snatch at 2x2 at 70% and 75% of max (55, 65lbs... okay, jumped a bit higher there)
Front squats 3x3 @ 85% of max (135lbs)

09-09-12 - Oly Bar Mile

Another of my fave gringing metcons. This was Pam's birthday choice for a Painstorm. Unfortunately, while I was hoping to really chew through this one, instead my dystonia flared up on me from the front squats onward and I was fighting my brain for control over my muscles for the rest of the WOD and spent a chunk of it twisted up on the ground in the back alley instead of doing hang power cleans. Needless to say, I was a little slower than I would have liked.

At first, I felt a bit sorry for myself because I do love this one and had really been looking forward to it. But, then I reminded myself how lucky I am to even be able to do workouts like this. There are lots of people with the same disability I have who would give anything to have a tenth of the mobility I enjoy. So, yeah, sometimes a bit of perspective is a good thing...

With an Olympic bar (45/35lb), perform the following:
Run 400 M
50 Back Squat
50 Front Squat
50 Overhead Squat
Run 400 M
50 Shoulder Press
50 Push Press
50 Push Jerk
Run 400 M
50 Hang Power Clean
50 Hang Power Snatch
Run 400 M

Ubered with the 45lb bar in 43:50.

09-09-13 Queen City and Filthy Fifty

I'm missing the double header next weekend as we're off to Yorkton to get my grandma's house ready to go onto the market so I decided to schedule my own. It seemed like a good day to do so. I had traded my 7.5km section for Robin's 3.5kms the day before as I didn't want to mess up our time if I was having issues with my dystonia in the early morning. It turned out to be a good call because I was a total mess until just shortly before I was set to race and still symptomatic on the course(yay for ipods to block out noise and keeping my eyes glued to the ground to limit visual stimulation). We came in 10th (chip time, 11th if you go by gun time) but were beaten by Saskatoon. I managed my leg in around 18 minutes.

Next up was Reverse Filthy Fifty.
50 Double-unders
50 Burpees
50 Wall Balls, 20/14lbs
50 Back Extensions or Good Mornings 45/35lbs
50 Push Press, 45/35lbs
50 Knees to Elbows (overhand grip)
50 Lunges
50 Bell Swings, 35/25lbs
50 Jumping Pull-ups
50 Box jump, 24″

Not one of my favourite chippers as it features wall balls, burpees and the dreaded knees to elbows, but I was still game to give it a go. I was slower than expected but still shaved two minutes off my last time with 34:33. I think if I had been fresh and not coming off a painstorm, I could have snuck under 30 minutes.

09-09-14 - Run Chipper Run and Strength Club

What the heck was I doing going to CrossFit again? Seriously, I should have taken a rest day. I do have to say it did help work out some stiffness I was experiencing but my head wasn't into it as much as it should have been.

1K Run
50 Power Cleans – 65/45lbs
25 Ring Dips
50 Wall Ball -20/14lbs
25 GHD Situps
400m Run

I used 65lbs for the cleans, doubled the ring dips as I used the skinny purple band (those took forever) so it was not as rx'd. Time was 21:50.

Strength club after had some new faces (RHM and Danielle - very cool). Turns out this will be my very last strength club for a while as the new plan Leah and I threw together and then had Aaron review ended up with both strength club and oly club taken out of the mix for the next six weeks.

Squats 3x5 @ 155lbs with well behaved knees (we took video)
Bench 3x5 @ 91lbs

We skipped power cleans as we ended up going way over time.

09-09-16 - Snatchtastic
This WOD was freaking FUN and I'm loving the new plan of skill work plus lifting then WOD after plus a bit more work for shits and giggles.

3x3 power snatch @ 65, 75 and 80lbs. Then I used 65lbs for the WOD, which was 5 power snatch attempts on the minute, every minute, for 15 minutes. Missed attempts came with a 5 burpee penalty per snatch and they had to be completed in the minute or you were out. Managed all 15 rounds with nary a burpee (always a good day in my book).

After was 2x400m weighted runs. Manned up and used the 45lb dumbbell (well, Kelly did, too) and managed 2:14 and 2:40. Have a wicked looking bruise from it on my left shoulder.

Nutrition

On the nutrition side of things, the paleo challenge is going well. Paleo=happy eater. It's been way easier than the first time I tried to go a significant length of time this strict. I'm really enjoying this way of eating and I think I'm ready to start dialing in things a bit further. So, I'm taking some of Chris' suggestions for peeps wanting to drop fat and sticking to 500 kcals minus maintenance and around 100g carbs a day. So far, I'm not feeling at all hard done by or even particularly hungry, which I usually have issues with when I'm around 1600kcals a day. I think it's the reduction in carbs and addition of more fat. It's also early on so we'll see how I'm doing with it a few weeks in.

Nancy, Fran, Griff and Babs...

It was a right awesome week at CrossFit. I LOVE IT!

09-08-31
Nancy, as rx'd in 14:44. That would be a gym record for both guys and gals. Yep, I'm pretty excited. It made up for my most shiteous deadlifting. 3x1 @ 235, 245 (f), 245 (f).

After was squat club and I got back into squat detention again thanks to a lovely display of my broke down squats both during Nancy and at strength club. BUT, the good news is Aaron figured out why my knees dance up a storm when I'm supposed to be lifting weights. Thanks, Aaron, for the extra coaching! My stance needs to be wider, with my toes pointed out more. So, I'm starting at sets of 3x5 @135lbs and working my way up again. I will get this!

Here's my knees, NOT, caving in. YES!



After that was shoulder press 3x5 @ 88lbs and power cleans 3x3@ 105lbs.

09-09-02 - Kelly and AngDesj Birthday WOD!
The ladies picked Fran for their birthday WOD but Fran with a twist. As rx'd included 95lbs/135lb thrusters and a buy in of a muscle up and a buy out of a rope climb. I rx'd the weight and the climb and managed a muscle up from a 20" box. Time was 18:02. My lack of pushing power really bit me in the butt with the heavy thruster weight.

09-09-03
Gates of Fire II workout. Since it was "Man-Up Thursdays", I did it with 65lbs instead of 45lbs. It went as follows: 50 sit ups, 50 push ups, 25 front squats, 25 back squats, 25 overhead squats, 25 more front squats, 50 pull ups and 50 sit ups. My time was 17:45.

After was oly club (loves me some oly club even though it doesn't love me).

Snatch: 60lbs x 2, 65lbs x 2, 70lbs x 2
Clean and Jerk: 80lbs x 2, 85lbs x 2, 90lbs x 2 x 2

09-09-05 Full Mission Profile
So glad I got to give one of these a go! It was so much fun. Unfortunately, our diplomat died but, well, you can't win them all I guess. It went as follows:

“PSD AMBUSH”

PHASE I – BREAK CONTACT (@LEGE):
4 ROUNDS OF:
• RUN 400 METERS
• 10 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS (4 COUNT EXERCISE)
• 20 PUSH UPS
• 30 SQUATS

PHASE II – DEFEND PRINCIPAL (INDOORS AT CFR): – *45-MINUTE TIMELINE BEGINS
DECK OF CARDS (WITH JOKERS)
HEARTS — PUSH-UPS
DIAMONDS — DUMBBELL SNATCH – 35/20LB
CLUBS — DB CLEAN – 35/20LB
SPADES — PULL UP (KIPPING)
JOKERS — 15 BURPEES AND DOUBLE THE NEXT CARD

PHASE III – MOVE TO SECURE LOCATION (OUTDOORS AT CFR):
2 ROUNDS OF:
• RUN 400 METERS
• 15 SQUATS
• 10 PUSH UPS
• 5 MOUNTAIN CLIMBERS (4 COUNT EXERCISE)

*MUST COMPLETE PHASES II & III WITHIN 45 MIN OR HELICOPTER LEAVES WITHOUT YOU.

We had the option of catching another helicopter (4 x 400m run, 25 burpees) but we opted to die instead. This is why I work for the government in a cube.

09-09-06 - Griff
Okay, this one surprised me. I thought, hey, running backwards. It has to be similar to running forwards. Turns out, not so much. WOD was as follows: 2 rounds of 800m run forwards, 400m backwards. My time was 13:08. Before the workout we got to do some pistol squats, which I love since it's my one stupid human trick. Then we got to do a variety of sprints as warm ups. Kurt told me I looked like a retard robot. Not a particularly politically correct description but quite apt.

09-09-07
Battle Buddy Bar is one that I'd like to try as a single WOD instead of as a partner WOD. I think it would be interesting to try holding onto the bar without putting it down for that many reps. WOD was as follows:
4 rounds of:
40 squats
40 high pulls
40 push press
400m run

I think it would be good training as you waste a lot of time in WODs dropping the bar to rest and a lot of times it's not necesary and it takes extra energy to clean the bar to get going again. Kat was an awesome partner and agreed to use the men's weight of 45lbs. I didn't catch our time, but it was a lot of fun.

09-09-09 - Barbara\
I was just saying to Kurt the other day that I really wanted to try this WOD so I was very excited to see it come up. It was my first time with Barbara as rx’d. Times were 4:50, 5:10, 5:00, 5:51, and 6:20. Tyler doesn’t have a monopoly on sissy hands. Managed a very small tear at the start of round four’s PLUs and spent a lot of time there after whining instead of doing pull ups. I need to get over hand owies. I can understand a big ass tear but this was just an old blister reopening a little. Working time was 27:11 with total time of 39:11.

Good WOD!