Level 1 Certification

Friday was a rest day in anticipation of the 16+ hours of Crossfit-ness on Saturday and Sunday, at the Level 1 Certification at Crossfit Fairfax. Needless to say, I learned a lot, and my legs are killing me from the workouts and all of the time I spent hanging out at the bottom of my still-immature air squat.

On Saturday, we did a Tabata squats workout in the morning, and followed that up with a team Fran in the afternoon. I gamed the squats a little bit since our lowest score ended up being the score we reported; 15 was a somewhat solid number, but I'd of course like to do better. Team Fran went relatively well: as a team of 5 (all of the PCF crew who attended the Cert - Jamie, Tara, Jen F, and Laura B), we had to accomplish 200 thrusters (mine were at 65 lb) and 250 pullups. I didn't keep exact track of my numbers, but am guessing I got somewhere in the 45 rep range for thrusters, and about 30 pullups, which were all kipping singles. Ok scores, considering I felt kind of worked over after the morning seminars and WOD. Got some good tips on making my thruster more efficient - I need to keep my elbows down, unlike during normal front squats. This helped me explode a little better into the push press part of the movement.

Sunday they took it a little easier on us and gave us a 10:00 AMRAP couplet of 10 burpees and 10 partner medicine ball situps. The gym was a bit crowded, which may have slowed me down a bit, and I lost count, but I think Jamie and I managed at least 6 rounds, if not 7. Tweaked my burpee form a little bit by widening my stance throughout the burpee, which really helped me get onto my heels and explode out of the pushup position.

I could go on and on about what I learned this weekend, but I have two midterms to study for, and I've already done some serious procrastinating this evening. Monday will be a rest day!

Wednesday was mostly a rest day: all I did was work on deadhang pullups. Did 4-2-2-2.

Today was another modified Stronglifts day:

Back Squat 3x5 (135 lb)

Overhead Press 3x5 (70 lb; 3-4-3)

Deadlift 1x5 (175 lb)

Decided to back off the weight a little for back squats and work on form. I kind of had a feeling today was going to be my first overhead press fail. I'll take another crack at 70 lb next time it comes up in the rotation. Deadlifts were surprisingly hard, probably in large part due to my core being tired by the time it was time to do them.

This evening, I had frisbee practice. Pretty short in terms of time and numbers, but I was glad to get out there and get some short sprints in. I then did 5 sets of 2 pullups with about 90 seconds rest in between before my shoulders called uncle.

Today's WOD was

5 rounds

50 double unders

10 HSPUs

Since I managed a couple of honest-to-goodness HSPUs (albeit with an ab mat) last week and after a consultation with Erika, I decided to try to do at least a few of them each round before going over to a black/blue band harness. Took me around 32 minutes to finish, in equal parts because of my C- double under ability and HSPUs being fricking hard. I also underestimated how much harder double unders would be after a bunch of HSPUs. In any event, it was good practice for both of those movements, and I was happy that I could get an average of 4 ab mat HSPUs every round before going over to the harness. Also, thanks to Ryan P for giving me the "relax" tip on the double unders. It really did help!

Mid-afternoon I worked on deadhang pullups:

3-2-2-2-1-1-1-1-1-1, trying to keep the breaks between sets as small as possible.

I've been frustrated by how hot and cold my pullup ability has been, so I'm going to try and grease the groove as much as I can without overdoing it on my shoulders. After doing the deadhangs, I then worked a little bit on the first part of the kipping pullup progression - swinging back and forth underneath the bar, making sure to employ my shoulders and not my hips to make the movement happen. Props to Again Faster's Mic'd Instructor videos for explaining the progression so well.

After class I did another modified Stronglifts:

Back Squat 3x5 (155 lb; 5-2-1)

Bench Press 3x5 (70 lb)

Power Clean 5x3 (70 lb)

GHD Situps 3x20

I was kind of bummed about failing on the back squats, but it had to happen sometime. The fact that I managed 8 reps on a weight that was 10 lb lower than my previous 1 rep max is probably a good sign, though. I'll probably deload a bit to work on form and work my way back up.

Weekend Update

Didn't get much sleep on Friday night, which resulted in me forgetting that the 12:00 class on Saturday was the free class. I was kind of bummed and also really tired, so couldn't motivate to do the snatch/row WOD on my own. I did decide to work on double unders and a little bit of met con by doing Annie, which is

50 DU

50 situps

40 DU

40 situps

30 DU

30 situps

20 DU

20 situps

10 DU

10 situps

My time ended up right around 13:00, which is pathetically slow, but this was the first time I've been able to do it as Rx'd, so I was pleased about that.

Sunday was frisbee practice, which was short and inside because of the weather. We basically scrimmaged 5s and 4s almost the entire time, which was pretty fun (and a fair amount of running). Resprained my thumb again, though, which sucks.

Thursday turned into another unanticipated rest day. Bleh.

Friday was modified Stronglifts B:

Back Squat 3x5 (150 lb)

Overhead Press 3x5 (65 lb)

Deadlift 1x5 (170 lb)

This workout was made less pleasant by the cold weather (my home gym is in the carport). D'oh! After deadlifts, I tried doing some pullups, and only got 6 done before I decided to take it easy on my shoulders, which were pretty tired from the overhead presses.

Did a modified version of Stronglifts A today:

Back Squat 3x5 (145 lb)

Bench Press 3x5 (65 lb)

Power Clean 3x3 (65 lb)

GHD Situps 3x20

Pushups 3x15

Was a little worried about lingering neck pain from yesterday, but decided to go after it anyhow. Man, does dropping down to 3x5 make a difference! I don't know if it was psychological, but I felt good to great throughout all but the last couple of back squats. Bench press was solid, and power cleans were a fun, welcome (and light, at my chosen starting weight of 65 lb) addition to the workout.

P.S. Neck felt fine throughout workout.