Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Two (mediocre) CrossFit workouts

I'm clearly still feeling the effects of the race on Saturday, despite two rest days. I would never have needed two rest days after a race like this 20 years ago or even 10 years ago. But, I guess that's what happens when you get old(er).

Last night, I rode to CrossFit after work. The warm-up was ten minutes of stretching and foam rolling - whatever you wanted to work on. I used the foam roller the entire time, really focusing on a slightly sore ITB where it attaches to my right knee. I worked on my quads a bit as well.

Then, we had ten minute of rope jumping practice. I'm getting closer and closer on double-unders. I had a least 10 times that I got one rep, and once that I got two. Within a month or so, I think I'll have it down. I have to remember to stay on my toes and not get "happy feet" and start jumping too quickly as the rope speeds up. I also need to get the pulsing of the rope rotation down - fast, slow, fast, slow, fast, slow...

Then, we had the following main workout.

3 rounds, as many reps as possible, do each exercise for 40 seconds, and then use 20 seconds to transition to the next:
Box Jumps
Med Ball Slams
Kettlebell Swings
Wall Balls
Kettlebell sumo deadlift high pulls
Burpees

Because I was still feeling the effects from Saturday, I chose the weights for level 2. This worked fine except for the high pulls, where I definitely should have had more weight. I did 239 total reps in 12 minutes of work - about 20 reps/minute of active time. I was soaked with sweat, but it was a good workout for me after the run on Saturday. It was fast without being too much stress on my tired leg muscles.

After the workout, I rode home, helped to cook dinner (I grilled salmon and made Bearnaise sauce as my contribution), and headed to bed early.

At 4:45 this morning, the alarm went off and I got dressed to head back to the gym on my bike. I was surprised by how dark it was, and when I left a little after 5:00, it was still darker than I'd like. I used a flashing light on my back, but I could have used a headlight too. I was about a mile from the gym when my bike started to act a bit funny. It took a bit for me to remember the feeling that comes from a flat tire, but that's what it was. I rode for a bit more until the tire was really flat and then walked the last half mile to the gym, just in time for the workout.

This morning was a Wendler Strict Press workout - the last heavy day before we'll do a test in a couple weeks.

Here is the workout as scheduled:
5 reps at 105
3 reps at 115
1 rep (or more) at 127.5 - my best ever is 125

I got the first two sets, but failed badly on the last. I did a couple push-presses at the weight, just to get the feeling of having it overhead.

Then, 10x5 close grip bench presses
3x10 band-assisted chin-ups

And, the main workout:

12 minutes, as many reps as possible:
10 toes to bar, or knees to armpits, or knee-ups (I did knee ups and need to work on all of these)

I had never done wall climbs before and did not do them nearly as well as the demos at the link. After three rounds of wall climbs, I switched to the alternate movement - push-ups with a five second hold at the top of each rep.

I completed 6 rounds plus 5 push-ups in the 12 minutes. My shoulders are trashed right now.

After the workout, I fixed my flat tire. The flat had been caused by a staple. I'm not sure how I picked up a staple on the road, but that's what I found. I rode home, showered, packed to go home for the rest of the week, and then managed to miss the bus to work. I managed to catch a later bus and got to work much later than usual.

I'm leaving early this afternoon and taking some time off this week. I haven't really had any time off this summer, so just a shortened week this week will be nice. Saturday, I'm meeting a couple friends to run long on the Kingdom trails at Burke Mountain.

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