Friday was a work day, Saturday was an extra rest day, and Sunday I did

5 rounds

5 power cleans (105 lb)

10 pullups

15 box jumps

14:06

Power cleans took some time as I was dropping the bar every time, but I was able to keep a decent rhythm on them and they felt relatively good, especially when I caught the bar a little lower. Looking forward to the day when I can cycle my pullups better - once that happens, I could finish a WOD like this a good 2-3 minutes faster or be able to up the weight on the cleans without going grossly over on time. Box jumps are nothing else but a gut check, as always.

Today was graduation day for Oly Lifting Foundations. We worked toward 1 RM snatch and 1RM clean and jerk. For the snatch, I managed to stick 70, and failed at 75 a number of times. All of my problems can be traced back to f-ing up the first pull and me getting in my own head. The clean and jerk portion of the evening went much better - I got one at 115, and caught 120 but couldn't get it out of the bottom of my squat. I'll get it next time, though!

Today was

Push Press 5x3 (85-95-105-110f-105[2])

Then

30-20-10

DB snatch (30 lb)

Situps

Box jumps

7:45

Push presses felt ok - I worked a lot on keeping a good "porch" so the bar didn't slide on me. Erika gave me a good cue about pushing my knees out that I think will help keep my torso more upright. My limiting factor during the metcon was the quart of milk I drank at about noon today. Ew.

In the interest of not overdoing it (given my crappy sleep on Sunday night), I decided to only do the Oly lifting class tonight. We worked on the split, which previously has terrified me but is now less scary. I then did a handful of a few clean and split jerks at pretty light weights and then 95 lbs, and they all went up easy!

Once home I did another 5 rounds of Death By Handstand Pushup.

Monday was a rest day due to an extreme lack of sleep the night before. I think I jinxed myself by bringing gym clothes with me on my Sunday shift, in the hopes that I could just go straight to the box after work...

Friday was a work day.

Saturday was Quarter Gone Bad, which was

5 rounds

15 sec thrusters (85 lb)

45 sec rest

15 sec deadhang pullups

45 sec rest

15 sec burpees

45 sec rest

My final total was 72. I ended up with 5 thrusters in the first round and 4 in the last 4 rounds, 4 pullups in the first round and 3 in the last 4 rounds, and 7 burpees every round. Considering I did this workout about 10 months ago with 65 lb thrusters and kipping pullups with a tan band, I feel pretty good.

By the way, I recently hit my 1 year mark at PCF. I haven't made as much progress as I might like in my first year, but I do recognize that a. I've made some pretty big strides despite at times not being as committed to training and nutrition as I wish I was, b. this is all a journey anyhow, and I'm really glad I've found an athletic outlet that I really enjoy, and c. PCF is a uniquely wonderful place!

Olympic lifting class only tonight. Worked on cleans - first second pull, then first pull, then some complexes, then full squat cleans. Did several squat cleans at 95. Felt good, once I worked on fast elbows and lay back (bar was hitting my boobs a lot). The only serious limiting factor (relatively speaking) when I'm really focused is my front squat ability.

Back in the box after a slightly longer than anticipated break. Did

Bench Press 3x5 (85, 90[4], 85)

and

5 rounds

30 double unders

20 KB swings (1 pood)

10 jumping lunges

12:11

Still getting used to the wider grip for bench press. Felt ok. Double unders still slowed me down more than I would have liked, but I was just glad that my teeth didn't hurt at all during the WOD so I'll take whatever I got today and be happy about it.

Last weekend was a marathon of work, as I had shifts Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Yesterday and today I've been dealing with a wicked abcessed tooth (and subsequent root canal). Hopefully the pain will have subsided enough by tomorrow to allow me back in the gym...

Today was

Power Clean 3x3 (hung out at 105 for all of these)

Clean 3x2 (85-105-110)

Really tried to work on a good first pull and fast elbows.

Metcon was

4 rounds

5 Front Squats (85 lb)

25 DUs (scaled down from 50)

6:26

More practice on front squats is always a good thing. Double unders were hard, especially because I was a. tired and b. I was doing them for the first time in WL shoes.

An hour later was Oly Lifting class. We worked on snatches, moving from OHS and behind-the-neck snatch-grip push presses to snatch balances, tall snatches, and then a receiving-position complex (muscle, power, half, full squat). Learned tonight that I really need to concentrate on a. pulling myself under the bar quickly, b. keeping a neutral gaze, and c. staying tight at the bottom. Put a little weight (55 lb) on the complex at the end and was happy to discover that it still felt good even though I was a little tired.

Tonight the box was closed (due to blizzard), so I stayed home and did Death By Assisted HSPU, in which Alex held my ankles and pulled when I needed help (which was often on the pushup part). Managed 5 complete rounds on that one. Whew. Then after a sizeable Caps-watching break, I did 3 sets of 10 second flexed arm hangs, and finished everything off with a little GFIT warmup work - namely, the tucked L sit and the straddle position.

Tonight was Jackie, which is

1000m row

50 thrusters (35 lb)

30 pullups

My time was 11:34, which is about what I got last time with banded pullups. I felt good about the row, so-so about the thrusters, and really really hope that I'll be able to string pullups together while tired sometime soon.

I then went to the Olympic Lifting class, where we worked on the first pull of the snatch. Good times.

Sunday was a rest day. Geaux Saints!

Monday was

5x3 Back Squat (125-135-145-145-145)

Then

3 rounds

5 weighted pullups (5 lb)

10 hang power DB snatch (25 lb)

5 burpees

4:17

Back squats felt pretty good. I likely could have gone a little higher but chose to hang out at 145 lb and really focus on driving through my heels. Metcon was fine, I kept the 5 lb weight in my sports bra and it kept coming loose, which slowed me down...

Friday was a work/rest day, which was mostly restful except for carrying that lady up a flight of stairs to her house...thankfully she was small.

Saturday I did

walk a mile to box in snow wearing turnout pants and boots

"Angie"

50 pullups

75 pushups

100 situps

100 squats

22:45

walk a mile back home in snow wearing turnout pants and boots

I'm pretty pooped now, not gonna lie.

Today was my first Oly Lifting Foundations class. We didn't sling any real weight to speak of, but we worked a lot on snatch drills, first with PVC and then with the bar. Sadly, my shoulders were a little tired toward the end of the hour. I then farted around the gym waiting for Alex's Foundations class to end; I ended up doing some skin-the-cats, a quasi-Death By DB Press (7 rounds at 25 lbs), and a tiny bit of kipping pullup work before calling it a day.

Today was my first day back in the box after a couple of days of being laid out on the couch. Still feeling a little weak, so I only did the strength component:

Push Jerk (2-2-2-2-2-2-2)

85-95-100-100-100-100-ran out of time

I then worked on my kipping pullups while the rest of the class rowed. Felt pretty good considering it's been a few days, and I actually managed to crank out 5 in a row! I probably could have done another one or two, but I was so surprised/pleased that I popped right off the bar, oops. This makes me feel better about my goal of getting 10 in a row by the end of February.

January Review

So in keeping with my goal-making at the beginning of the year, here's a look back at the month:

Food: pretty dang Paleo, with the exception of the end of the month when I was sick.

Fish Oil: pretty good, except for the end of the month when I couldn't really keep much down.

Sleep: not so great, mostly because of work. This is the area that I feel like I need to improve on the most, because it affects so many other areas of my life (including my ability to work out). I am attempting to cut down on my hours in an effort to improve the number of quality sleep hours I get every week.

Goats: Met and exceeded my double under expectations. Not quite there on kipping pullups, but made good progress. Besides working on keeping a good rhythm, I can also use an increase in upper body and grip strength.

WOD attendance and stretching: I didn't meet my goals for the month, but I am certain that my sleep is the major reason for my downfall in these departments.

Besides trying to work less and sleep more, in February I'll continue to work on kipping pullups. I really would like to increase the number of consecutive ones I can get to 8-10. I'll also be working on Oly lifts - something I'll be accomplishing through the twice-weekly Oly classes I'll be taking with Jon.

Still sick today...

Yesterday I came down with some kind of nasty GI bug that I think I picked up from a patient, so Sunday and Monday are both ending up as rest days. Blech.