Jim vs. Helen

Needed to run, needed to work with the kettlebells, and this one got posted by BrandX last week.

“Helen”
Three rounds for time of:
400m run
Kettlebell swings x 21
Pull-ups x 12

I did the pack scaling again, as in January, which meant using the 35lb bell. But I finished in 9:50, which is faster than my January time by about 50 seconds, and the fastest I’ve done this workout at any scaling by around 10 seconds.

I’ll take it.

Jim vs. Kettlebell Nancy

Another home variation of a CrossFit WOD.

Kettlebell “Nancy”
Five rounds for time of:
400m run
15 kettlebell overhead squats (35lbs)

I’m doing my best to keep working in running, but it doesn’t seem to make me like it any more. I finished this in 15:15.

Jim vs. 400m Runs, Squats

First of all, yesterday I was gloriously sore. The reverse pyramid may make a comeback.

Secondly, it was sunny and just warm enough for running today.

Thirdly, I still hate running.

Three rounds for time of:
Run 400m
Squats x 35

Finished in 8:42. Turns out I did this one almost exactly four years ago, and I shaved about 40 seconds off my time since then. So that’s something, especially since this is the first running I’ve done in over three months, and only my third running workout in the last six.

EDIT: Hey, I did this one in July 2009, too. So, 30 seconds faster than my last go-round.

Jim vs. Helen

It wasn’t as cold out, and I’m still annoyed by my last round of jump rope, so I did the runs on this one.

“Helen”
Three rounds for time of:
400m run
Kettlebell swings x 21
Pull-ups x 12

Not my best effort: I did the Pack scaling, which meant using the 35lb bell instead of the 53. I finished in 10:39, which is slower than my last go round in which I did use the 53. On the other hand, apparently an air temperature that’s only just above freezing is still enough to almost kick my asthma off, and that “almost” makes me feel better about this one.

But damn: I really lose my running chops fast in the winter. I may need to make time to get onto the track in Barton.

Jim vs. 400m Run, Push-ups, Sit-ups

Brought out a gutbuster from last fall. Did it first thing in the morning, too, for extra fun.

For time:
400m run
75 push-ups
400m run
75 sit-ups
400m run

Finished in 13:05. Over 40 seconds slower than my PR, but I st that PR when I was doing this one every week. So, not bad for getting back into it.

Jim vs. Helen

Kept pushing it, which meant a fourth workout this week.

“Helen”
Three rounds for time of:
400m run
Kettlebell swings x 21
Pull-ups x 12

Used the 53lb bell again, and came in at 10:16. That’s only 13 seconds short of my PR, and my fastest time on this one in over a year.

Hell yeah, I’ll take it.

Jim vs. 400m Run, Squat Cleans, Deadlifts

Today I pushed.

Once again, I moved my stretching to the end, and so I decided to throw a 400m run into my warm-up. Finished in 1:42; not great, not horrible.

Then, I did some cleans. I made sure to catch these in the squat position (except for set #3, which was ugly, and so I did a power clean + front squat kind of thing).

Squat clean
95 x 1
125 x 1
155 x 1
140 x 1
110 x 1

Finally, I wanted to get some deadlifts in, and do something else vaguely metcon-y. So:

Deadlift x 2, on the minute for ten minutes

I used 225lbs on this, same as last time. Felt good, really had me finding my form. Then did some stretching, called it a day.

Jim vs. Olympic Lifts, 400m Run

Today ended up being a long workout, but a really good one. I’d initially intended to just do an off-kilter pyramid of the power snatch, with maybe a similar pyramid of power cleans if I still felt solid.

Power snatch
75 x 1
95 x 1
115 x 1
105 x 1
85 x 1

I still felt solid, so onto the power cleans. I widened the difference in loads for this one, which turned out to be a good call.

Power clean
100 x 1
130 x 1
160 x 1
145 x 1
115 x 1

I was glad to have a bit more leeway in the first two sets to build up to set 3, since it was 95% of my max. After that, I would normally call it a day, but I got it into my head that I wanted to run. And I felt like, for some reason, I could really go all-in on such a run. So:

400m run – 1:34

It was still 4 seconds shy of my PR, but it’s the fastest 400m I’ve run in 17 months. That’s how I like to end a workout.

Jim vs. A Light Workout for the Road

About to travel for a bit, so I did one more light workout before heading out. I was home, so my warmup changed a bit: stretching, pull-ups, push-ups, air squats, sit-ups, kettlebell swings. Still did two rounds, and went back to the untimed 400m runs each round.

Light week complete. Back to full workouts when I get back.

Jim vs. A Light Workout

Realize that it’s been two months since I did a light week, so I decided I was due. I went in, did two rounds of my usual warm-ups — pull-ups, push-ups, dips, light overhead squats, etc. — and put in an untimed 400m run at the end of each round.

Didn’t feel particularly light, though, which indicates that I was, in fact, due.