Jim vs. Karen

I’m traveling today, so I needed something Nasty, Brutish, and Short. This scaled, home version of Karen seemed to do the trick.

“Karen”
For time:
Sandbag thrusters (25lbs) x 100

Finished in 4:24, more than 30 seconds faster than when I did this in January. Cool.

Jim vs. Sandbag Fran

Another one where my warm-up was mowing the lawn.

“Sandbag Fran”
21-15-9
Sandbag thrusters (50lb)
Pull-ups

Brought my time on this down the 4:06, nearly 20 seconds faster than when I did it in January. Rawk.

Jim vs. Karen

Another home (and scaled) edition of a classic WOD.

“Karen”
For time:
Sandbag thrusters (25lbs) x 100

Finished in 4:56. Not much else to say.

Jim vs. The Filthy Fifty (or at least the Terrible Thirty-Five)

It’s a long road back.

For time:
35 box jump, 18 inch box
35 jumping pull-ups
35 kettlebell swings, 1 pood
35 jumping lunges
35 Ab-Mat sit-ups
35 push press, 20lb dumbbells
35 Good Mornings
35 sandbag thrusters, 25lb bag
35 burpees
35 (jump rope x 3) (i.e. 105 reps)

This is another one I haven’t touched in over three years. Last time I did it, I did it as Rx’d (with a few substitutions based on limited equipment) and finished in just over 32 minutes. This time I was back to the scaled version, and finished in 20:00 on the nose.

Looking back, I’ve done the 35-rep version in about 15 minutes, but even then I made some key substitutions that probably made this go-round the tougher of the two.

But still: long road back.

Jim vs. Sandbag Fran

Glad to have home field advantage on this one.

I haven’t done Fran in over three years. Last time I did it I used a 75lb barbell and took over six minutes. Today, what I had to work with was a 50lb sandbag.

“Sandbag Fran”
21-15-9
Sandbag thrusters (50lb)
Pull-ups

Finished in 4:25, which is the only sub-5 time I have on record for this one. The load was lighter, but more unwieldy… and since BrandX says you should scale the weight until you get under five minutes, I’d say this was the way to go.

Jim vs. Kettlebell Thrusters

When you don’t have barbells, sometimes you use kettlebells.

Kettlebell thrusters
35 x 1
53 x 1
70 x 1
88 x 1
88 x 1
88 x 1
88 x 1

This was kind of easy; I feel like if I had a second 53lb bell, I could easily do 106 on this one. But lacking that, the offset work was nice.

Jim vs. Deadlifts, Thrusters, Pull-ups, & Burpees

I came into the gym with the mentality that I needed to make up for skipping yesterday’s workout.

Deadlift
325 x 5
300 x 5
270 x 5

300lbs would’ve been a new 5RM for me, so I’m freaking thrilled that I did 325 x 5 — a 30lb jump in my 5RM is kinda crazy, and makes me want to go out and find new a 3RM and a new PR ASAP.  I am liking this reverse pyramid thing quite a bit, and I’ll be bumping up the loads in a notable way next week.

Then a metcon constructed from the bones of the damned:

Five rounds for time of:
75lb thrusters x 7
pull-ups x 7
burpees x 7

Finished in 9:07, and I feel like it should’ve been faster. I slammed through the first round in about a minute, which means the average of the next four rounds was double that. Helluva drop in speed, there; I don’t expect to knock this thing out in five minutes, but I feel like seven or so should be doable.

Jim vs. Thrusters, Push-ups, Pull-ups

I’ve always said that what “Fran” needs is ten more thrusters, ten more pull-ups, and fifty push-ups thrown in for fun.

Oh, wait: I’ve never said that, because that would be insane. And yet…

For time:

10 thrusters
5 push-ups
1 pull-up

9 thrusters
5 push-ups
2 pull-ups

8 thrusters
5 push-ups
3 pull-ups

…

1 thruster
5 push-ups
10 pull-ups

I finished up in 11:43, using 75lbs for the thrusters. It was unpleasant. It’s almost twice as long as my “Fran” time from exactly a year ago, but as noted it added a lot of reps plus many more transitions. So I guess I’m gonna have to do “Fran” again after the break to truly calibrate it.

Fun.

Jim vs. Thrusters, Pull-ups, Push-ups

Thanks to the Summer of Murph, twenty minutes doesn’t seems so long anymore.

AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
5 thrusters, 95lbs.
10 pull-ups
15 push-ups

SoM’s also increased my tolerance to pull-ups and push-ups, but the thrusters proved to be a cruel limiter on my efforts; it didn’t take long for me to be stuck doing one or two at a time, max. I got through seven full rounds, plus the thrusters and pull-ups of an eighth. Muscle fatigue, rather than endurance, was what was holding me back towards the end. And, truth be told, towards the middle.

Jim vs. the Bear Complex

“The Bear Complex”

5 rounds of the Bear Complex at ascending weight with as much rest between rounds as necessary. There is no time component to this workout.

Each round is 7 reps of the complex:

Power Clean
Front Squat
Push Press
Back Squat
Push Press

The bar will touch the floor on each power clean, but resting the bar on the floor constitutes failure. You can rest and regrip with the bar on your shoulders or at your hip. You can combine the movements (thruster), but you cannot do a full squat clean and skip the front squat. You can jerk the weight overhead if necessary.

Last time I did this, I felt like I pushed too fast on the weight: my final two sets then were technically failures. So my goal for today was to be more conservative, and finish each round right.

63 x 7
73 x 7
78 x 7
83 x 7
88 x 7

Mission accomplished: no failures, and those last rounds still sucked sufficiently. I’ll go higher next time now that I’ve found a foundation, but the big lesson today: resting mid-set is not my friend on this kind of workout. The sets when I just pushed through 4-5 reps without stopping actually felt easier than the ones where I was resting after one or two. I’ll keep that in mind from here on out.