I did a WOD at CrossFit Aspire in Cherry Hill, New Jersey today:

Strength:Back Squat 5, 5, 5

Metcon:
50 Mountain Climbers
15 Front Squats w/155#s (apprx 50% of back squat weight)
50 Double Unders
40 Mountain Climbers
12 Front Squats
40 Double Unders
30 Mountain Climbers
9 Front Squats
30 Double Unders

295, 305, 315
Time: 13:48

I got up to 315# X 5 on the back squats, which I think is a PR (can’t recall the last time I did a 5 rep set of back squats). Then the direction that we were given for the front squats weight for the metcon was to use a weight that was about 50% of the back squat 5 rep weight.

High rep mountain climbers in a WOD are horrible. They killed me! As did going straight from them right into heavy front squats. Time 13:48. Humidity here in New Jersey is much different than what I am used to. Felt like I was in a hot yoga studio during this WOD.

WOD:

5 rounds for time of:
- 10 OHS w/120#s
- 15 pull-ups

Time: 24:00

I did this WOD @ LA Fitness in Mount Laurel NJ. No bumper plates, so I could not drop the bar and therefore I could not push too hard towards failure. As I result, my time sucked. I did take the weight from a rack, because I was going to have to be snatching the weight up sooo many times. I lost it once and and failed inside the rack and strained my forearms a little trying to 'catch' the weight before it clanged into the squat rack.

Oh well, pretty good on pull-ups today and got in a truckload of OHS.

WOD:

'Room Service'

20 rounds for time:
- 5 push-ups
- 5 sit-ups
- 5 squats

Time: 8:57 (3:09 PR!)

Had a really bad go of it yesterday, so this was a built of a confidence builder. Still on the road for at least a week. Going into a global gym tomorrow morning and then may hit a local CF gym in New Jersey later this week.

FAIL!!!

Arrived at my hotel (in Mount Laurel, NJ) at about 12 midnight Thursday. Had trouble getting to sleep and then woke up early. Took a 'rest' day Friday, but worked about 12 hours and did not sleep well Friday either.

Went to a local high school track to run a 5k. Got to about 2 miles at a decent pace and then started to muscle cramp up in my upper abs. Ran another lap and the cramps got worse. Stopped running with 3 laps to go at 18:30. Cramps were bad enough to bend me over. Walked around for about 20 minutes and the let up. Dehydration? Not used to the local humidity? I am a giant poof?

There was a pull-up bar at the track, so I did 5 x 8 of wide grip pull-ups alternating pulling to the front of the neck and the back of the neck. Then did 5 sets of unbroken double-unders. Neither were for time.

To add to the fun my right foot started to hurt in the same way that it did about 6 months back. I have a pain ball with me and rolled my foot a couple times today and it seemed to get better.

Not a good day.

Kind of short on time today. Flying back east for work.

WOD:

Back Squat 3-3-3-3-3

Double under practice for 5-10 minutes

50 knees to elbows for time.

Bsquats: 265-286-305-325-330

50 K2Es time was 3:52


Back squat weight not a PR (337x3 is my PR). Started to loose form and since I was going to be on airplanes all day and not able to stretch, etc., I did not want to tweek something.

Going to rough finding time and a place to train this next couple of weeks, living out of a hotel room and working 11-12 hours a day.

WOD:
5 Rope climbs (15')
5 Clean & Jerks, 145#s
4 Rope climbs
4 Clean & Jerks, 165#s
3 Rope climbs
3 Clean & Jerks, 1855#s
2 Rope climbs
2 Clean & Jerks, 205#s
1 Rope climb
1 Clean & Jerk, 225#s

Time: DNF!!!!

Failed over and over again at 225, did not get under the bar fast enough/hestiated during the jerk. Could not get my timing right and could not muscle it up. Most likely this is partially due to a little fatigue from 'Freddy's Revenge still, but very frustrating regardless

Like I said back in August 'Need to work on split jerks and push jerks.'

Double-unders - I don't hate you, but I don't like you either.

WOD:

5 rounds for time of:
- 35 double-unders
- 200 meter run

Time: 9:31

Not bad for me on a double-under WOD (a weakeness). Went unbroken on the DUs the first round and then tripped up a couple times the second. Not bad the rest.

Still a weakness, but getting better.

WOD:

'Freddy's Revenge'

5 rounds for time:
- 5 Shoulder to overhead, 185# (from a rack)
- 10 burpees

Time - 16:31

Don't get me wrong, 185#s is heavy on any given day. But tonight it felt like 1000 lbs. First round was about 2 minutes, but the wheels came of the bus immediately afterwards. Definitely feeling that this is the 4th WOD in 3 days, but still need a lot of work on my jerks. Did almost all of them behind th neck. Really hard to catch 185#s on neck without banging myself up. Took a least two really hard shots to the neck. Ouch!

September 17th, 2011 - 2nd WOD

WOD:

Rest 60 seconds between sets:

Deadlift

2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

375#s

Goal I set for myself was unbroken doubles with a challenging weight in straight sets across all 10 minutes. Got it.

Working in a few double workout days to get ready for a 3 day beat down in a few weeks at CrossFit Taranis Winter Challenge 2011.

September 17th, 2011 - Fight Gone Bad

WOD:

'Fight Gone Bad'

3 Rounds of:

- Wallball shots, 20# ball (for reps)

- Sumo deadlift high-pulls, 75#s (for reps)

- Box jumps, 20" (for reps)

- Push presses, 75# (for reps)

- Row (for calories)

* one minute rest

One minute stations for each exerise, no stop or rest in between exercises. There is a one minute rest after rowing station before the next round is started. One point for each rep/calorie on the rower.

Score: 318 (40 point PR from 278 last time)

Finally broke 300! Still more work to do on the push press at light weight.

September 13th, 2011

WOD:

Squat Cleans 1,1,1,1,1

225, 240, 250 (F), 250 PR!, 250 (F)

I had planned on hitting rack jerks and clean pull after the squat cleans, but I was pretty zapped after the Squat Cleans alone. I did play with both a little, but all my 'pop' was gone.

Only a 5# PR, but after no increase on my clean for so long I will definitely take it. Weight felt good/not crazy heavy, just did not reach full extension and bent arms on heavy reps (when the arm bends, the power ends) when going into 2nd pull. Will work Hang squat snatch and hang squat cleans at moderate weight, concentrating on form, next couple of weeks.

Skill practice:

3 rounds, not for time, of:

- 5 rope climbs

- 30 double-unders

This was 'practice' and not a timed WOD, so I took lots of rest and just concentrated on getting up the rope as fast as possible, locking in first foot lock on the rope and the getting double-unders as unbroken as possible. Rope climbs still a little rusty, but double-unders felt good.

WOD:

10 min AMRAP

- 3 HSPU

- 6 C2B pull-ups

- 9 Box jumps, 24"

6 rounds + 1 HSPU

Went to a wedding in California over the weekend and ate and drank too much. Affected me a little today, but mainly I just *suck* at HSPUs. The C2B pull-ups and box jumps (at this amount particularly) were all unbroken and very doable. HSPUs just have not improved lately.

WOD:

Front squat 3-3-3-3-3 reps

...then…

For time:

400m run

20 Wall Ball Shots

20 Double unders

Row 300m

20 push ups

20 Kettlebell swings (70/53#)

400m run

225, 235,245, 255, 260 (PR, but only 5#s)

7:06

Sort of felt wiped out before even starting to work out today.

Stopped at 260 because I was starting to get a little ugly in my form on my last rep. Rack felt good, but was failing a little at the core.

Wimped out a little on the KB swings during the metcon. Put the KB down at 12 reps because my grip felt weak (why?). Need to man up on KB swings.

I WANT ONE OF THESE (the sled)!!

Worked up to a 5 RM OHs

Warmed up and then did 115 x 5, 145 x5 and 165 X 5 (failed at 4). Just could not hold a solid overhead position. Still feeling wiped out from 4 days of WODs in a row I think, shoulders were feeling really tired but from what? PR on Snatch maybe?

WOD:

15-12-9-6-3 reps for time of:
135 pound Power clean
Bar-facing burpee

6 minutes flat. On Jeff's advice, went almost all 'muscle clean' at first (with little or no re-dip). It was very fast, but I could not hold onto the bar all the way through the 12. We did a lot of movement prep, which is hit and miss benefit to me on these short intense WODs. It was a 'miss' here because I was already warmed/stretched out from the OHS work. Ryan beat me by about 25 seconds. He was flying through the cleans and the burpees. Came extremely close to chatting with Pukie aftwards. Even dry heaved a couple of times. Might have been the heat/humidity, but it has been way worse this summer and I did not feelt that. Not looking forward to doing this one again anytime soon.

WOD:

5 rounds for time:
- 400 meter run
- 21 box jumps
- 8 strict pull-ups

Time: 19:07

Pretty decent on box jumps today, but not great. Fell into a pretty good rythm on them, but many did them in batches of 5-8.  Run was not too bag and the strict pull-ups came pretty easy the first couple of rounds.

Labor Day Party

Our gym held a Labor Day Party at a member's home.  We did a short but brutal WOD before eating.  Everyone was split up into teams of 5 and each team had to run up a very really steep hill carrying a 1 pood kettlebell, a 20# medicine ball, a 25# bumper plate and a 35# bumper plate.  The hill was horrible, even though  it was only about 8/10 of a mile long.  Would have much rather ran 1 1/2 miles carrying all the gear on flat ground.  

Did not really time it and we had sort of a sloppy finish.

Sick part of me wants to run the hill on a semi-regular basis.

WOD:


Worked on the power snatch for about 15-25 minutes, doing some doubles and working up to some heavy singles.  Hit a new PR of 195!!!  Then I did:


Girls, Girls, Girls (from WODfest in Seattle August 2011)
- 21 x 225# deadlitx
- 21 x CF games style push-ups
- 15 x 135# ground to overhead
- 9 x 95# thrusters
- 9 pull-ups

Time 5:03 (using one bar and switching out the plates during the WOD)

Did this with Ryan and we were neck in neck the whole way.  I was ahead at the end of the deadlifts, then he pulled ahead during the push-ups.  Then I pulled ahead again during the ground to overhead and keep ahead.  Ryan has come a long way on the deadlifts and the ground to overhead over the summer.  He was only 1-2 reps behind me on the deadlifts and neither of us every let go of the bar.

I should have hit some doubles or even triples on the ground to overhead.  I dropped every one :(

I need to constantly push that.  Grip was a little tired from the snatches, but that is just an excuse.

Very excited about the 195 Snatch, which is a 15# PR!!! 25#s away from a BW Snatch. Still a lot of improvement to be had on the olympic lifts (better 3rd pull, drop under the bar faster, etc) simply through better technique.

WOD:

15 min. AMRAP (vs. 20 minute rx'd) version of 'Jack'
- 10 Push presses w/105#s
- 10 Kettle bell swings w/1.5 pood KB
- 10 box jumps, 24" box

8 rounds + 2 push presses
Pretty good considering my last 20 minute Rx'd Jack I got 8 rounds + 1 push press.  Big improvement on the push presses and box jumps.

Wow!  Do I not enjoy the Jack combo.  Ryan and I were choosing between this and Cindy and we went with this.  This is another Jeff 'weakness' WOD.  They 'good' in CrossFit way that really kicks my butt.  At 10 minutes I was really feeling the suck factor, but with only 5 minutes left to go you have to keep pushing.  Really uncomfortable last couple of minutes.  Great WOD to train to push through that 'I think I am gonna puke feeling'.  Box jumps and push presses (for reps) are weaknesses, so this was a great WOD for me to do.  Got all my box jumps and kettle bells unbroken.  Push presses I got unbroken for 2 rounds (maybe 3?) and then the next round was 7 & 3 and then almost all of the rest were 5 & 5.  Felt pretty good on box jumps and better than usual on the push presses.

WOD:

10 minute AMRAP
- 3 HSPU*
- 6 chest-2-bar pull-ups
- 9 squats

 *hands on 25# bumper plates and head to abmat stuck between plates

6 rounds + 1 HSPU

The HSPUs were rough today, not that I am usually strong on them but they were especially bad. C@B pull-ups were pretty easy with this rep scheme.  Got almost of all of them unbroken. Air squats were kind of a non-factor.  If I do this again I need to up the amount or change them to box jumps or something. Maybe they would be better balanced if I was better at HSPUs.

Kind of weird to do 2 back-to-back 10 min. AMRAPs.  The Weds. one was a main site WOD and today's was a 'weakness' WOD that Jeff Vale programmed for me.