5.7.2011

Friday afternoon I felt like getting back to some heavy weights after sectionals. The last 6 weeks I've avoided doing anything too heavy so I could stay fresh for the Open WODs. I've been looking forward to adding some significant strength into my training again! After work, I did:

16min AMRAP of:
3 Deadlifts (315#)
13 Box Jumps (24")
3 Muscle Ups

I did 6 rounds + 1 deadlift. I REALLY focused on form. Had I let my form go, I think I could have finished a few more rounds. But, I'm sticking with what I've tried to always do - back down on the weight if my form is not where it should be and work my way back up with perfect form. By doing this most of my life through athletics, power-lifting, etc, I have avoided ever having a significant injury. It's hard to do this, especially when competing. I want to push myself beyond my limits, but I know I have stick with good form. It pays off in the end!

Today (Saturday) I went in and did some skill work.. started with 5 sets of 200m row sprints with 45 seconds of rest.

1st set - 20% intensity, 2nd - 40%, 3rd - 60%, 4th - 80%, 5th - 100%. I ended up holding a 1:29 on the last one!!

Then I worked on getting a better CTB butterfly. I was trying to figure out how to do CTB butterflies and make a significant separation in form in comparison to regular pullup butterflies. There is a fairly large difference between the two. It seemed like CTB butterflies work better when I keep my body more vertical through the whole movement. With regular pullup butterflies, I have a much larger angle with respect to the ground. I also realized how much more important my legs were in CTB butterflies.

After this, I worked on my strict press form followed by a set of 7 reps done in singles, 20 seconds rest between each single. I used 125#.

I finished the day off with 3 X 1 min wall hand stand holds and 15 minutes of stretching.

5.4.2011

Ridiculous performance of 11.6!! Check it out:

http://pd.crossfit.com/games/video/Games2011Open_DanBaileyWOD11-6.mov

I found some time to sneak into the box after work tonight and hit:

"Karabel"

10 Rounds of:
3 Snatches (135#/90#)
15 Wallballs (20#/15#)

My time was 18:32RX - The snatches were nasty until I really focused on splitting my deadlift out of the movement.. deadlift--hit my knees and EXPLODE into the shrug and snatch. It really helps. Once I figured that out (around round 4), it was more of a matter of lungs than weight.

I took the last 4 days off to rest after sectionals as well as out of necessity from work and school requirements.. 4.75 hours of sleep doesn't really make WODing a great idea! I can always notice a significant difference in my output when I don't get enough sleep (e.g. 6-8 hours a night). It seems like my fuel runs out much quicker and the weight always feels heavier! The weeks when I do get the sleep I need, I'm usually able to hit my 'second wind' halfway through a WOD and keep a consistent pace. Sometimes though, when you don't have a choice when it comes to sleep, I do find even if the WOD was terrible and I felt like I was going to fall over and most likely not get up for a week or two, I generally feel much better afterwards. 1.5 weeks and this semester is over!!! I can't wait to tear through some non-stress-relief WODs!

5.1.2011

I read a fairly interesting article on SICFIT earlier about people cheating in the Open because of loose judging from some affiliates. This has been based on people who know the output of some of these athletes from competing side by side with them recently etc.. and saw impossible  submissions from the same athletes.. Personally, I have always been impressed with the honor system of CrossFit. I've watched many of our coaches and athletes no-rep themselves in wods, which yes, is frustrating, but if we want to judge our actual athletic output and progress, we have to have a static set of standards we follow. If we cheat and sneak a few wall balls too short of the line, a clean a jerk without full extension and our head through, a shallow squat, or a few less burpees, we are undermining the whole idea of CrossFit and just hurting ourselves. The essence of CrossFit is forcing those wall balls to the line, rocking out solid form on the clean and jerks, breaking parallel on our squats and sweating, screaming, and muscling out those last brutal burpees.... The reward for honesty is recovering on the floor writhing around waiting for the pain to stop, stumbling to the wall and writing your name and time on the white-board and knowing that EVERY REP counted. 

Here is a quote from the article on SICFIT by Ronnie Teasedale I thought described why we do what we do really well:

"“The magic” of the WOD happens not when you finish, but in those final moments when you are in a territory you have never been in. You know this because you might barely be able to stand, or breath, or keep your food down,…. You might be faced with putting a barbell over your head that you are barely holding on your shoulders. It is in these situations that you don’t know,… and… against all other wishes your body may have: you keep going. You gather all the strength you have, both physically and mentally. You might think back to a time you were strong to get you through this current dilemma. You might take a second to tighten up every rep,… Whatever it is, and however it plays out you get through it,… you were in a place you never have been before,… and you push through it. You gained access to that territory. You got your 4 min Fran, or you climbed the rope with no feet all the way to the ceiling, or you got 400 reps on Fight Gone Bad…. Whatever it is,… it’s yours."


Here is the last few days workouts:


Friday: 
I had been really busy this week with school, 2 tests this week and finals coming up in 2 weeks. so, Wednesday morning at 5am I did 11.6 which is -


11.6:
7 Min AMRAP
100# Thrusters
Chest to Bar Pullups
Rep Scheme - 3,3,9,9,12,12,15,15,18,18,21,21,etc,etc...


I finished the sets of 15 and got 14 thrusters into 18 for a total rep count of 104.


I'm re-naming this WOD "Death By Fran"... 


I followed 11.6 with some mobility and foam rolling..
Fri (morning) - warmed up, mobility and foam rolled
Fri (afternoon) - 1.5 mile run + 1000m row (split into 200m sprints, no time domain, just until I caught my breath)


Then Saturday I did 11.6 again during our sectionals at Premier and attempted to "strategize" the wod. I figured I'd pace it and try and just stay consistent. I ended up with 98 total reps. 7 minutes was too short to attempt to slow down, I went all out on Tuesday and had 6 more reps!!


Overall rank in the region is 73 (as of 12:31pm).. On the bubble!!! I dropped quite a few from 92 last week, but not enough. Time to start training for next year! I met my goal of being in the top 100, but no regionals bonus round. 


I'm excited for the next few months - training with our athletes who qualified and pushing them to rock regionals, adding more strength into my training, ASRX tour event in Dallas in August, Olympic Lifting Cert sometime soon after that, should be fun!



Also...

Watch more video of The 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games on sicfit.com