Jim vs. Fight Gone Bad IV

Well, it’s done. Here’s the official description of the workout:

In this workout you spend one minute at each of five stations, resulting in a five-minute round after which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. This event calls for three rounds. The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of ‘rotate,’ the athletes must move to the next station immediately. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower, where each calorie is one point. The stations are:

Wall-ball, 10 ft target (Reps)
Sumo deadlift high-pull (Reps)
Box jump (Reps)
Push-press (Reps)
Row (Calories)

I did the Class A division scaling, or what the Brand X folks would call “Big Dawgs” or CrossFitters in general call “as RX’d”: my wall balls used a 20lb medicine ball, my SDHPs and push presses used a 75 lb barbell, and my box jumps used a 20″ box. I almost never do workouts as RX’d, and this was a helluva time to start. I also did the rowing first, which in hindsight was a bad call: I blasted out a ton of calories right at the start, but it left me wiped for the remaining exercises rather than serving as an “active rest”.

My three goals were: 1) don’t die, 2) don’t puke, 3) break 200. I handled #1 and #2 alright, but came up short on #3 by only scoring a 159. While I was pleased to get through it, I was frustrated at losing a ton of potential reps because I didn’t let the barbell touch down during the SDHPs every time — but I asked for strict judgment on my form and I got it. I was also utterly unprepared for doing wall balls with a 20 lb ball, which ended up being easily the most painful part of the process for me.

All in all, though it was a good experience, and it’s cool to have a benchmark on such an iconic WOD. (And we celebrated by going to Five Guys for burgers, so it was all good.) Thanks again to the folks who donated or came by to give moral support, thanks to CF Ithaca for providing the venue and inspiration, and great job to all who came out and suffered for a great cause!

Jim vs. Clean & Jerks, Muscle-Ups

Two days to Fight Gone Bad. Gonna take tomorrow as a rest day, and go a bit easier again today. Well, as easy as it gets when you’re doing clean and jerks.

95 x 3
105 x 3
115 x 2
125 x 2
135 x 2

Felt pretty good, but definitely doing power cleans as the first part. Not sure I’m shrugging enough on those high weights; I need to start doing the Burgener warm-up on days I do Olympic stuff.

For the second half, I brought out the rings for the first time in a while, and played around with a muscle-up progression that Judd and Charlotte picked up from Clea down at CF Ithaca: instead of starting from a squat with your feet flat on the floor, you start from a kneeling position with your torso and thighs upright and your insteps and the backs of your toes flat on the ground. It felt really good, much more natural and stronger than other progression I’ve done; I was able to knock these out in sets of three and four. Definitely working a few of these into my warm ups as well.

Jim vs. Back Squats, Box Jumps, Rowing

Today was a different sort of strength day: a 5×5 back squat workout, using the same weight each set. The weight was supposed to be near my 5 rep max, but since I haven’t established such a max I just went with 175 (which was the highest weight I used last time I did sets of 5). I got through each set, and that fifth rep always felt tough, so I think I picked a solid weight.

After that I stacked boxes to as close to 20″ as I could get. (I forgot my tape measure, so I used my workout notebook to estimate; I figure it was about 19.25-19-5″ at least.) I then set a timer for a minute, and managed to do 24 jumps in that time. After that I went upstairs to the rowing machines and saw how many calories I could burn in a minute. I got 15, and then finished my 500m in around 2:10.

All this was part of my continued effort to go into Saturday’s Fight Gone Bad with a pace in mind. Not sure if it’ll make a difference, but it at least gives me a bit of perspective on what I might be able to do.

Jim vs. Front Squat, KB Swings, Box Jumps

It was a traveling weekend, which ended up meaning I only got in a little exercise: running a few miles on Saturday with Nina and my sister Jeana. Got back to the gym today, though, with some front squats.

145 x 1
165 x 1
185 x 1
205 x 1
215 x 1

That 205 would’ve  been a new PR on its own, so following it up with 215 felt great. Then it was time to really get my heart pumping.

Three rounds for time of:
50 lb dumbbell swings x 20
16-18″ box jumps x 20

Finished that up in 5:41. The box jumps in Fight Gone Bad are 20″, so I need to bring in a tape measure and practice those for real this week to gauge my performance for Saturday.

Jim vs. Shoulder Press, FGB Skill Work, Rowing

Revisiting shoulder press, with disappointing results.

115 x 1
125 x 1
135 x 0 (fail)
130 x 1
135 x 0 (fail)

Not setting a new PR is one thing; not hitting your old PR is something else.  I then moved on to some skill work for the upcoming Fight Gone Bad IV: a minute apiece of sumo deadlift high pulls and push press, using 95 lbs. I got 13 SDHPs and 15 push presses, which pleased me… and that was before I checked and realized that, as RX’d, FGB only uses 75 lbs for those exercises. Rock.

I finished up with a 2k row, and came in at 8:58. Rowing needs some work, but I do enjoy it.

Jim vs. The Lot

I love me some named workouts. It adds an extra wrinkle to the metadata in my tag cloud. Not a layer, since the tags aren’t hierarchical like the categories; sadly the categories just don’t seem as flexible and oh crap I’m posting this in the wrong blog. Onto the workout!

“The Lot”
Two rounds for time of:
3 overhead squats
6 push jerks
9 front squats
12 hang power cleans
400m run

This workout is intended to use the same bar throughout, which presented me with a conundrum: I was pretty sure I could handle the Pack scaling of 95lbs for the last three exercises, but I knew that even if I could do the OHSs with that much weight, it’d be another blog post full of me bemoaning that my form wasn’t as good as I’d liked. So I used 65lbs for the OHSs and 95lbs for the rest, and it went very well. My form on all the exercises felt good — including the OHSs, on which I definitely got as low as I should’ve — and I finished the workout in 13:13.

Jim vs. Power Cleans, Skill Practice

Today’s workout was a many-splendored thing, which started with more power cleans.

115 x 1
125 x 1
135 x 1
145 x 1
155 x 1

I think that last one’s a PR, but it was an ugly, ugly rep. The rest of the workout involved some skill practice, with the results detailed below:

1km row: 4:27
400m run (treadmill): 1:55
50 consecutive squats: 0:54
Max pull-ups: 16
Max push-ups: 24
Max sit-ups: 32
Max dips: 14

The first two items on the list were supposed to be 800m and 400m runs, but I was stymied by a stretch of sidewalk that’s on all my outdoor routes for those distances being closed today, and the track at Barton Hall being similarly unusable. I did the 400m run on a treadmill, as noted, and it was as crappy as I remembered treadmill running to be. As such, I replaced the 800m run with the aforementioned 1k row, and called it a day. If the sidewalk gets fixed or Barton reopened later in the week, I’ll give those runs another go.

Jim vs. Front Squats, Deadlifts, Box Jumps

My legs being extremely sore, I tried not to be too ambitious today, and may have failed. First, the front squats:

115 x 3
135 x 3
155 x 3
165 x 3
175 x 3

Pretty much in line with my last time doing front squats, and respectable the day after thruster hell. But the next part didn’t go nearly as smoothly.

10 heavy deadlifts
2 box jumps
8 heavy deadlifts
4 box jumps
6 heavy deadlifts
6 box jumps
4 heavy deadlifts
8 box jumps
2 heavy deadlifts
10 box jumps

“Heavy,” in this case, was supposed to be 75% of my max, or 250 lbs. That lasted the first round; the second round I dropped to 245, and after that it was 225. Even at those weights, it was a slog; it felt like my legs had simply said “Enough!” for this week.  All things considered, I can’t really blame them. I finished this in 8:57.

Jim vs. The Bends

Another intimidating name, but I actually liked this workout. Well, “liked” might be too strong, but I’d do it again.

“The Bends”
10 Thrusters at 95lb
20 Thrusters at 65lb
40 Thrusters at 33lb
80 air squats

This was a scaled-down version, with the original calling for loads of 135/95/45 on the first three sets. I did the lower version because a) putting 135lbs over my head once is still a struggle for me on many exercises, and b) when I did the Thruster Challenge last week, I only managed nine 95 lb thrusters in a minute, and it was rough. Turns out that the shoulder presses I’d done that day had more of an effect than I thought: I knocked out my first ten thrusters today in 15 seconds, and finished the whole workout in 5:25.

For all that I felt like I ripped through this one, my legs were still jelly for several minutes after I was finished. I wouldn’t go all the way up to 135 next time, but I’d definitely start at 105 or 115… and I really want to give the Challenge another go next week, with un-blasted shoulders.

Jim vs. Power Cleans, Death by Kettlebell Snatch

It’s a week for bloody-minded workout names. But as is so often the case, we begin with some strength work, specifically a 5×3 power clean workout.

105 x 3
115 x 3
120 x 3
125 x 3
130 x 3

The last rep of that one landed hard enough on my chest that I was worried about bruising, which I usually take as an indicator that I’m bumping up against my limits.  But my day was not yet done.

“Death by Kettlebell Snatch”
With a continuously running clock do one Kettlebell Snatch the first minute, two Kettlebell Snatches the second minute, three Kettlebell Snatches the third minute… continuing as long as you are able. Alternate hands each minute.

Since Teagle still refuses to get kettlebells, I used a 50lb dumbbell for this. I got through nine full rounds, and got seven reps in on the tenth. I love these “ladder” style workouts, but they really have a way of sneaking up on you in those final rounds.