Thursday was a rest day. Friday I went in to the 630 WOD before work, which was

4 rounds

1 min row

1 min burpees

1 min pullups

3 min rest

My totals were 40-45-42-39, I think. Holy buckets morning workouts suck.

Saturday was another rest/work day, as I was at the fire station all day long. Got in some shoveling there, but I wouldn't call it strenuous.

Tonight's WOD was

Push Press 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

85-95-105-115f-115f-110-115f

Bar was sliding on me; I finally corrected it on the last try but was too gassed to get 115 up.

Then we did

10 rounds

20 double unders

5 jump squats

9:54 was my time. Each round it took me a couple of tries to get going (in fact, I would estimate that at least 4:00 of my time was spent gathering myself each round), but once I did, I was able to rip off at least 12 each round (and I made it through all 20 a couple times).

Tonight's WOD was Tabata Something Else. My score was 288, mostly because my pullup and pushup numbers stink. On the bright side, this was the first time that I was able to do it as Rx'd, so I should celebrate my progress, no matter how incremental it may seem at times...

Sunday was a work/rest day. Unless I get some serious sleep between now and the afternoon WODs, I think Monday's going to be a rest day too. Boo.

Friday was a work/rest day.

Saturday we did

5 rounds

3 front squats (85 lb)

6 strict pullups (managed this for 1 round, after which I did kipping)

9 burpees

8:47

Probably could have gone a bit heavier than 85 lb, but given that pullup speed is still my limiting factor (and I was aiming for under 10 minutes), I think 85 was an ok choice. Was glad to get more kipping practice in - I got several sets of 3 consecutive ones, so 5 can't be too far off! Best thing about today's WOD, though, was that my fiancee was able to come along, as he finished his second foundations class on Thursday.

Today I warmed up with about 140 double unders, give or take a few. Things started off great - I got one set of 25 and another 30 in there - but then my sets went drastically down in terms of consecutiveness after 100. I was glad to get to my goal of 25 in a row for the month, but am now shooting for a little more consistency.

WOD was

Squat Cleans 1-1-1-1-1-1-1?

My work sets started at 85 and I worked up to 110 after failing at 115 a few times. Egh. I haven't squat cleaned anything in a few weeks, so I shouldn't be too discouraged, but I feel like getting better at Oly lifts wouldn't take much doing besides consistent practice, which I am not doing at the moment. Ah well, another thing to put on the list.

Met con afterward was

10 rounds

30 sec KB swings (1 pood)

30 sec wall balls (16 lb)

My goal was to get to 200, but I only managed 191. Stopped early a couple of times in the late rounds, which did me in.

Afterward I worked on kipping a little bit, and was pleased to get a couple (2, then 3-ish) in a row! For some reason the rhythm just clicked for me today, and I was grateful for that. I was not grateful, however, for the parking ticket I found on my windshield after the WOD, though. D'oh!

Had a technically Paleo, but too sugar-heavy day today. Was discouraged at my failure to resist the pull of fruit (and then some dark chocolate), but am now feeling recommitted to a fruit- and sunbutter-free existence for the rest of the early spring.

Tuesday was a travel day. Today I did some double under work (did 5 sets of 15, along with a bunch of incomplete sets ranging from 5-14 reps), then hit 1 rep shoulder presses (65-70-75-80f-80f-80f) before doing

3 rounds

15 push press (47 lb)

15 overhead lunges (47 lb)

15 box jumps (20 inch)

8:48

Given that I haven't been consistently working out in the past week, I was terrified of the overhead lunges beforehand, so I picked a weight I knew I could manage without breaking them up too much. Did the first set of them unbroken, then broke up the last two sets approximately in half. Ate too much sunbutter this afternoon, which made my stomach a little uncooperative during the WOD.

Friday was a work day. Saturday I couldn't muster the energy to work out. Sunday was a work day, but I did work on pullups at home and at work (they have a door gym too, turns out). Monday I did a little pullup work in the morning, but in the evening I got to the box, warmed up, did some double under work, stretched, and then decided to call it quits. I did later go home and do the weighted pullup portion of the WOD, and ended up with (BW+2.5+5+7.5+10[1]). Not terrible, but I don't like how my sleep schedule is getting royally screwed here.

Had a terrible, non-work-related night's sleep last night. Am really looking forward to getting my ZMA capsules in to see if that can't help me wind down and stay asleep during the night. In any case, I decided to skip the WOD today and just stretch, eat well, listen to Robb Wolf podcasts, and do a little pullup work at home:

Since I only have the door gym inside (and it was a bit too cold to finish working on my new outdoor bar), I can't kip, but that shouldn't stop me from developing skills that will serve me well in my quest to kip more effectively. So I did Death By Dead-Hang Pullup. I finished 4 rounds within the alloted time period and then completed the 5th after time expired. A little while later and in order to get some volume, I did 10 sets of negatives, varying between 5 and 10 seconds in duration.

In Paleo clean news, I decided today to try giving up fruit entirely for awhile. The more I read and learn, the more I am convinced that I need to stop whacking my system with a ton of fructose all at once (at least for a bit while I am trying to lean out a bit more). This means I'm going to need to shove even more veggies down my gullet to compensate, but I am up for the challenge.

Today's WOD was

Bench Press 5x3 (65-75-85[2]-85-85)

Then

3 rounds

500 m row

rest 3:00

1:57, 2:00, 2:02

Turns out there are more things I suck at.

Worked a little on kipping today, but my calluses were really bothering me so it was a little discouraging.

If I ever came into some money, the first thing I would buy would be the services of a personal chef. You know, someone to make me fresh, grass-fed, Paleo food all the live long day. I'd then pay that person a little extra to come to the gym with me and count my reps, because I suck at it.

Before the WOD I worked a little on kip swinging, but I need to redouble my efforts on this. In any event, today's WOD was

5 rounds

1 minute KB swings (1 pood)

1 minute DB burpees (15 lbs)

rest 2 minutes

I ended up with 210 reps, which is a slightly conservative estimate (as a result of my crappy counting skills).

On a Paleo-related note, today I discovered the $3.99 packs of precooked chicken sausages at Trader Joe's. Unless I'm missing something (and I don't think I am, because I made sure I could pronounce everything on the ingredient list), this find is easily the best thing that's happened to me all week.

Sunday was a 24-hour shift day; no workout. Did stay Paleo, which I am proud of. Used 1 of my 2 alloted apples to wake myself up on a long run to southern Maryland when it looked like I would have to turn to caffeine. Even though we weren't busy at night, I didn't get a ton of sleep, and I had freelance work to finish today, so I didn't get to nap like I wanted. In any event, I came to the evening WOD, and after working a little bit on my kip swing, we did

Back Squat 5x3

I only had 4 true work sets: 135-145-150-150(2). The last failure was totally mental; my heart just wasn't in it.

We then did 8 alternating rounds of Tabata double unders and situps. I was pretty pleased with double unders this time around; even when I started to fatigue, I managed to at least string together 8-10 in a row each round. Total reps for both was 268; I'd say that a little over 100 were situps, so it looks like I averaged nearly 20 double unders per round. Yay! I've been feeling kind of discouraged about my progress lately, so seeing such quick improvement in double unders is nice to see.

The Unknown and the Unknowable

Yesterday (Friday) was supposed to be a rest day, but I had to carry too many patients up far too many steps for the day to actually qualify as one of "rest," so I'm taking it easy today. I will say I was proud of my (Crossfit-bestowed) ability to safely handle my end of a patient-laden stretcher yesterday, especially after we were initially told a. the patients were much lighter than they actually were, and b. there were no steps at any of the residences when in fact there were several steep ones at all of them. Its days like this that reminds me why I'm doing Crossfit - PRs are great, but being able to hold my own in a big, burly world is pretty awesome.

Today was

Deadlift 7 x 1

I got something like 195-205-215f-210-215 before running out of time. Felt rushed and not good about it at all. We then did

AMRAP 10:00

15 Russian KB swings (1 pood)

30 box jumps (20")

Alison and I set a steady pace and ended up with 4 rounds + 15 KB swings + 5 box jumps. This was torture.

Worked on both goats today before the WOD. Did 10 sets of 8 double unders, which for the most part felt pretty good, and practiced my kip swing with Curtis. Didn't string together any yet, but I'm starting to understand what I need to do, so I'm optimistic about what will happen if I continue to plug away.

For the WOD, did

Shoulder Press 3x5 (55-65-65)

Then

2k row (8:54)

Felt ok about both. Shoulder press was a subpar effort, in my opinion, but it's likely my arms were still tired from all the handstand holds yesterday. D'oh. Didn't feel like I was about to drop dead after the row, so I probably should have started my kick a little sooner.

Did an at-home WOD today:

First, Tabata Bottom-To-Bottom Squats. First time doing this, so I now have a true appreciation for how wicked it is. Set breakdown was 15-13-10-10-10-10-10-10. I then did 6 x 1 minute handstands.

On the Paleo clean front, all goes well thus far - I survived the first 24-hour shift without Coke Zero, I've been preparing most of my meals in advance in the crockpot, and most importantly, I'm adjusting to the decreased fruit intake. I may decrease it further depending on how my body responds to the clean after a few weeks.

Before the WOD I did 10 sets of 6 unbroken double unders. Then instead of doing the front squat strength part of the WOD, I did high bar back squats, with the rep scheme of 5x1, I think. Numbers came out to

105-125-135-145-155(f)

This was my first time doing for real high bar back squats, so it took some adjusting to get used to. We then did

3 rounds, for time

15 thrusters (35 lb)

15 unbroken jumping pullups

3:30

In hindsight, I probably should have gone slightly heavier on the thrusters; also, my range of motion on a few jumping pullups was shady. I slowed down a bit in the last 2 rounds to make sure I did them right after I was corrected. After the WOD, did another 10 rounds of 6 unbroken double unders. Felt pretty dang good.

Sunday I was on the ambulance all day, so it was also a rest day for me. Other than some desperation protein in the form of some lightly breaded chicken tenders, diet was good! And we didn't get any calls in the middle of the night, so I got at least 6 hours of sleep!

Today's WOD was "Danny." I scaled down and did

AMRAP 20 minutes

15 box jumps

15 push presses (65 lb)

20 pullups

4 rounds plus 7 box jumps

This was brutal. I hoped to do box jumps unbroken, but it didn't happen. I have an open sore on my clavicle from the thrusters today, which did not help matters for the push presses. I did try to work on keeping good form throughout the push presses, though, by keeping the bar on a stable platform. Even though I didn't string more than 2 pullups together, 80 is definitely a lot more pullups than I've done in any single workout, so I'm relatively happy about that.

Afterward I played dodgeball (yay!) and then stretched. Legs still feel a little spicy after yesterday's WOD.

After cleaning the gym this morning, I did 10 sets of 5 unbroken double unders. Once I got going and lengthened my rope a little bit, I didn't have to restart that many times.

Later, I went to the 6 pm WOD. After a pretty serious warmup - thanks to Tes - we did

15-12-9

Thrusters (85 lb)

Jumping Lunges (R + L = 1)

12:43

This was brutal, particularly because I stink at transferring power from my front squat to the bar on the way up.