Wednesday turned out to be another rest day - my chest and rib cage muscles are still a little upset with me. Did a little work on box jumps this evening though - the "box" was only about 13 inches high, but I focused on cycling, opening my hips at the top of the movement, and keeping my eyes forward (which, turns out, helped me open my hips).

Sectionals Wrap-Up

This weekend I participated in the VA/DC/WV sectional, held at NOVA's Annandale campus. I'm still processing everything that happened and will probably have more to say in the coming days and weeks, but suffice it to say that it was a dramatically humbling, motivating, and educational experience. It was amazing to personally take part, but also to watch so many bad-ass men and women compete on such a high level. Props to all of the PCF folks that took part in the weekend (competitors, obviously, and supporters especially), and a special shout-out to Jen N, Erika, and Chris K for advancing to regionals!

Anyhow, onto the specifics of the weekend: WOD 1 on Saturday was Weighted Cindy, which meant

20 min AMRAP of

5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

with a 14# weighted vest. This was easily the least pleasant workout for me - I got frustrated after failing on a couple of pullups in the first round and decided to take the weight vest off. I completed the rest of the WOD sans vest (and have no idea how many rounds I ended up with) , but this meant I got zero total points. Blah, right? In hindsight, though, it was a wonderfully crystallizing experience for me: pullups for me are still a weakness, and I need to spend more time developing both upper body strength and the coordination necessary to kip effectively.

WOD 2, about 4 hours later, was

AMRAP 3 min of

Clean and Jerks (115 lb)

I ended up with 3 as rx'd. Another rep was taken away because I didn't reset my feet after splitting (d'oh!), and 2 other reps weren't counted because I pressed them out at the end. Also it didn't matter for judging purposes, but my power cleans were kind of ugly (I didn't want to excessively tax myself by doing squat cleans). Despite my 3 failed reps, I was ecstatic after this - 115 lbs was my previous 1 rep max, so being able to do nearly 6 of them in 3 minutes was pretty awesome.

WOD 3, on Sunday, was

AMRAP 12 minutes of

20 OHS (75 lbs)
2 laps around court

I finished with 54 total reps, so about 2.75 rounds. Just as with the rest of the WODs, I placed pretty low here, but I was so incredibly amazed that I was able to do that many at all that I was happy.

And last, but not least, WOD 4, which was

AMRAP 7 minutes of

12 box jumps (20")
8 SDLHP (65 lbs)

I finished with 5 rounds and 8 box jumps, which ranked pretty low comparatively, but hell, I was just happy to have not dropped dead. Box jumps are a real weakness of mine: it's pretty clear that the women who had better scores tended to be much more efficient at cycling them.

All in all, it was a good weekend and it was great to get that kind of experience under my belt. I have already started compiling a list of obvious weaknesses and researching ways to help myself improve, but more on that later. Today and tomorrow will be off days - my upper body is so incredibly sore right now that it hurts to shiver, and my ripped hands are still pretty unhappy. Hopefully I'll feel better by Wednesday so I can get back into the box!

1 rep max snatch tonight at Oly Lifting class. I got up 72, which is still off my best of 80, but it's all good. I think I should tape my wrists next time.

Sectionals is this weekend, and I'm looking forward to taking part. All of the workouts will be wicked hard for me and I may end up scaling some of them, but it'll be a good experience and fun to watch everyone else from PCF do it up.

Wednesday = Rest day.

Tonight was Oly Lifting class. Our skill for the evening was dead-stop front squats, which basically meant we racked the bar at the bottom of our squat, and then pushed out from there. This was a really great drill for me since my front squat sucks. When I focused on keeping my head neutral and my back upright and tight throughout, the lift felt ten times lighter than usual. We then worked on full clean and split jerks. I worked up to 115 and ended up failing not on the clean, but the jerk, which was weird and disappointing. Back still feels pretty good.

Did today's WOD at home:

Back Squat 5x3 (105-115-125-140-150)

Then

21-15-9

Cleans (55 lb)
Pullups

14:01

Took it relatively easy on the back in both parts of the WOD. It's been awhile since I've done high-volume pullups, and it showed.

Today was

20 min AMRAP

20 unbroken wall balls (12 lb, 8 ft target)
20 unbroken double unders

7.5 unbroken rounds, which should have been 8, but I crapped out at 19 double unders with 10 seconds left. I usually despise long metcons, but this one was an exception. If I had to do it again, I'd probably try to shorten my rest times a little more, but not by much more until my double under abilities improve - I tended to be pretty conservative on rest before even attempting double unders, because I didn't want to have to start over.

Back's feeling pretty good right now - only residual soreness - but I haven't tested it with any heavy loads since the injury. I plan to continue to take it easy and focus on rehab for awhile longer; I really don't want to chance getting hurt again, given that a. it sucked, and b. I can't work if it happens again.

Friday was a rest day. Saturday we didn't make it to the box in the AM, so Alex did the WOD at home and I did some relatively light front squat and overhead squat work before doing

50 burpees

3:02

Then

3 sets 10 weighted back extensions

Another Oly Lifting day. Skills for the day were the "bounce" and the transition from front squat to jerk. Warmed up with some high bar back squats and front squats, and then spent the rest of the time working on hang squat cleans, with some occasional presses/push presses/split jerks worked in. Did a squat clean at 110 that felt pretty good.

Stretched before and stretched and rolled afterward in an effort to speed the back recovery. Really need to make sure I do this a lot if I hope to avoid any future back issues.

Tuesday I crept cautiously back into the world of olympic lifting. All we did were some behind-the-neck split jerks, and I did it with pretty light weights, but it felt good to move around.

Wednesday we did

Push Press 7x1 (85- 95-100-105-110f-110f-ran out of time)

Then

3 rounds

20 DB hang squat cleans (20 lb)
20 box jumps (4 45 lb plates and 1 25 lb plate, putting me probably at 18 inches)
20 DB push presses (20 lb)
20 box jumps

14:29

This was horrible, but it felt good to get moving. Back felt ok - I lowered the box jump height partially to protect it but also to work on cycling, and I think that was a good choice.

Tuesday through Monday has been a rest/ice/massage/sleep/get back closer to Paleo fest. Back's feeling much better as a result. Not sure when I'll be able to work out again, but we'll see.

So Tuesday started out with promise - I slept well, the weather was great, and I got up intending to do a morning WOD so I'd be fresh for oly lifting later. I decided to do a test run of Grace at 95 lbs - it was my first attempt at the Rx'd weight, but based on my recent oly lifting progress, it felt well within my reach. All went well until the 5th rep, when I felt a twinge in my lower back. Not exactly sure why it happened, although I suspect slightly sloppy form, residual soreness, and an inadequate warmup may be largely to blame. In any event, I'm not super optimistic about being able to do anything other than rest, ice, and massage for a few more days. Thank goodness I don't have to work anytime soon, because funky back + lifting patients does not equal fun.

Sunday was a work day. Monday was a suck day. WOD was

Back squat 3x5 (135-155-160[2])

Then

On the minute
20 double unders
3 strict pullups

2 rounds as Rx'd, 3 rounds with flexed arm hangs, and then DNF the final 5 rounds.

Back squat form was not perfect, but I didn't fail because of the weight - the positioning of the bar on my back was really bothering my shoulders, so I attempted to re-rack after the 2nd rep only to give up. The suck continued with the met con, where things went downhill quickly and then after giving myself a monstrous welt on the back of one of my arms, I just stopped and sat down. Egh.

Friday was a work/rest day that lasted way too long. As a result, on Saturday I woke up feeling like I had been run over by a truck, and did not make it to the WOD.

Oly lifting class tonight. We worked first on snatch grip deadlifts (first to below the knees, then to above the knees) both off and off blocks, then did a few snatch pulls at heavy weights, then did a couple 2 rep power snatches.

Afterward did another 5 sets of belly-to-the-wall handstand "running." Wrists were a little tired so I didn't do quite as many in the later rounds as I did in the first 3. Facing the wall definitely requires more core work than the other way around, so it poops me out a little faster than a normal handstand would.

Decided to take a rest day today, mostly because my upper body is pretty sore.

First day of Intermediate Olympic Lifting class. We did some talking about goals and then worked on full squat snatches. 55 felt good, as did 65. I got 1 or 2 at 70 and then missed out front 3 times at 75. Need to focus on a. speed during second pull, b. layback, and c. being tight at bottom of snatch.

I then did 5 sets of about 30 seconds of belly-to-the-wall handstand "running" as part of my HSPU/overhead work for the month. Being flipped around took some getting used to, but I got pretty comfortable pretty quickly. I'm going to work on this just a few times a week (3 times, max) and see if I can't work my way up toward doing it for 5 minutes straight.

Tonight's WOD was

Front Squat 5x3 (105-115-125-135-115)

Then

3 rounds

50 double unders

15 ring dips (first just black band, then black and red)

15 DB swings (45 lb)

12:54

Started to cantilever forward a bit on the 135 front squat, but I was happy to be able to do it at all! Met con sucked, mostly because of the ring dips.