Wodapalooza online qualifier week 1

As I mentioned earlier, I signed up for the Wodapalooza Online Qualifier.  Well, the week one workouts are here!

Workout 1:

AMRAP 9
3 Hang Snatch 75/55
3 Overhead Squat 75/55
30 Double Unders

**Each round the reps on the Snatch and Squat increase by 3 (ex. 3, 6, 9, 12, etc . . .)**

Workout 2:

AMRAP 16
40 Alternating Dumbbell Snatch 50/35
40 Pull-ups
30 Dumbell Burpees 50/35
30 Chest-to-bar Pull-ups
20 Devil Press 50/35
20 Bar Muscle-Up

Workout 1 went pretty crappy.  Double unders are a well documented and long running weakness of mine.  And while I have gotten better at them, as I started breathing harder and harder, they got worse and worse.

Workout 2 went a little better, but still not good.  By the time I got to the Chest to Bar pullups, my grip was gone and I just didn't have any "pull" left.

Here's to next week's workouts.

Post "Vay-Kay" work

**Sorry there was no weekly checkin this week.  Those will resume next Monday.**

Me and my family went on a long weekend / road trip this past week.

I got some workouts in, which is not the norm for me when on vacation.  I usually make excuses to not workout when on vacation, but I have more focus -- more dedication to the grind than I have previously.

Working out in small hotel fitness centers can be a challenge, but if you want to reach your goals, you gotta make time to get it in.

Anyway, on my first day back from vay-kay (Monday), I did a WOD of 5 rounds of  400m run, 3 rope climbs, and 20 box jumps.

On the VERY FIRST box jump, I hit my shin.

Hard.

I didn't get pics at the time, but it swole up like a baseball on my shin.

On Tuesday, we did a partner WOD that consisted of a 14 minute AMRAP of Cindy except with 135# back squats instead of air squats.  But it had a buy-in of 60 clean & jerks @ 135# before the AMRAP started.

It was tough, but good.  I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

#Grow.Stronger

Self Doubt & Pushing Through

On Friday, summer hit in Denton with a vengeance.  It was 95 degrees, but even worse than that, about 80% humidity.  You couldn't walk across the gym with breaking a sweat.

Then I did the scheduled CTM workout for the day.  It was called "Quattro".

According to coach, the intention was to build the engine.  And that was easy to tell by looking at the workout itself.

"Quattro" is:

4RFT
15 Assault Bike Calories
18 Wall ball shots (20# to a 10' target)
15 Kettlebell Swings (53#)
12 Burpees

This workout is way worse than it looks on paper (and it looks pretty bad). Luckily, I had a friend stay and do the workout with me so that I wouldn't have to do it alone.  Her being there definitely made me work a little harder.  Thanks Ally!

So I started the workout and the first round felt great!  I finished the first round in 4 minutes flat. What I didn't know then, was that I went out too fast and that this was about to HURT.

The following three rounds took me 6-6 1/2 minutes per round.  That is a big failure of pacing on my part.  Maybe if I took 5 minutes to do the first round, I could have maintained that pace throughout.

But my pace is not what I wanted to talk about today.  I really wanted to talk about what happened when I got on the Assault Bike at the beginning of the third round.

As I was deep in the pain cave, I had something happen to me that I have never had happen before.  I questioned whether or not I really wanted to keep doing this.  Not just whether or not I wanted to continue with the workout, because I knew I could keep going.

No, I was questioning whether or not I wanted to continue to train for my CrossFit Games goal, or if I wanted to just "throw my hands up" and declare that I was not fit enough to get there.

I know deep down that there are *years* of pain coming if I want to continue with my quest of making the Games in 2020.  But this workout hurt so bad that I was questioning whether or not that was a goal I was really willing to chase.

Well, I am still here.  And I finished "Quattro" in 21 minutes and 19 seconds.

I guess I am "pot committed" now.

Having a "Helen" Good Time

On May 16th, CompTrain Masters (CTM) programmed Helen.  For anyone who doesn't know, Helen is:

3 Rounds for Time of:
     Run 400m
     21 Kettlebell swings @ 53#
     12 Pull-up

So on that day, I did Helen RX for the very first time.

The results?

15:09

Since it is the first time I had ever done Helen RX, that was a PR.  I'll take it.

Then, one week later, on May 23rd, Helen was programmed at CFD.  I was feeling froggy that day, so I decided to do Helen again, even though I had a different metcon programmed that day (which I did two hours later).  The one kicker? The time cap was 13 minutes.  So I would have to PR the workout by almost 2 minutes just to beat the time cap.  The results?

12:52

So what changed in a week?  I didn't get that much fitter in 7 days.

1. I pushed a little harder on the run.  Running in a WOD hurts, but it doesn't hurt that much more to go just a little bit faster.

2. I committed to only taking one break on the KB swings.  I set it down every time after 11, took 5 deep breaths, and then got back on it and did the remaining 10.

If the CTM programming has done anything for me, it has taught me to #sufferbetter.

My first "real" WOD

On Monday, March 4th, I attended my first full, non-OnRamp CrossFit class.  I was excited to really get going.  

Not that the On-Ramp wasn't taxing, because it certainly was, but I had seen such improvement in those first twelve On-Ramp sessions, that I felt I was ready to get to work.

Well, the workout I got didn't disappoint.  The workout was three rounds of the following:

Run 200 meters

Walking Lunge 100 meters

50 Bodyweight Squats

I fully inteded to do all three rounds.  However, intentions don't carry you through those walking lunges.

Bad news, I didn't finish all three rounds

Good news, I did finish two complete rounds before I collasped.

I tried to start the third round, but on my first step of the running segment, my legs crumbled.  I was done.