Sunday, May 30, 2010

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Whatchu talkin' bout Willis!?

Yesterday I did a modified version of the CFS daily WOD- 30 Box Jumps, 3 rounds of 10 Rack Thrusters, 10 Power Snatches, 10 OHS, 10 SDHP, and 10 Front Squats (all with 95lb), finish with 30 burpees. 19 minutes. Then, to punish myself for my gluttenous ways over the weekend, I followed that workout up with 100 ring rows, a 1mile run, and 100 sit ups. Trust me- I deserved much worse. Today I moved through 10-8-6-4-2-4-6-8-10 of 225lb Backsquat and 135lb Push Press. Good workout. I didn't keep time as I really just wanted to focus on getting in quality reps, particularly with the backsquat. Mission accomplished...I will have a sore rear for sure tomorrow. This summer I'm shying away from the met-con and focusing on lifting heavy bars well.

I've had fun with my training lately. I've been hitting it hard, but overall I'm more relaxed. It's been nice having sectionals and regionals behind me and the opportunity to focus more on important things like family, the CFS box, watching re-runs of The Cosby Show, and making my son do burpees before he gets to eat dinner (you call it child abuse- me and Vin call it his way of saying "please feed me, Daddy"). Now if I can only get him to stop crapping on the floor. Seriously, I'm like, "Dude, you can deadlift like 1 1/2 times your bodyweight...don't you think its time you start dookying in the Elmo potty and not the living room?" Kids are funny.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Chasing 50 Consecutive Pull Ups...

...No more!!! Yesterday I was finally able to crack the 50 rep mark with a PR of 51. It was well-worth the price of admission: a nice deep torn callous at the base of my left pinkie fanger. I'll take it with a big fat smile on my face.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Thursday & Friday WODs

Thursday I did 5 rounds for time of Row 500m & 30 Backsquats at 95lb. Freaking tough- paced the row at 1:50 every round- tried to get the 30 backsquats in a minute every round but that got tough by round 3. Ended up breaking sets a few times on rounds 4 and 5. Finished in 17:49.

Today I did the CFS advanced WOD with a guy named Matt who is a law student at Michigan State. Matt graduated from Missouri State and follows CrossFit Springfield's daily WODs along with a few of his buddies up in Michigan (They post on our site as "Bobs CrossFit" for those who've been around for a while- you may notice the name AND the freakishly fast times they produce). The kid is a beast...probably 23 or 24, about 6'1 200lb- extremely athletic. He definitely gave me a push today as we went head-to-head on 21-15-9 Power Snatch 95lb, Ring Dips, & Run 200m...Nasty WOD. I took the early lead, getting through the 1st round and back to the bar for my set of 15 snatches about 5 or 6 seconds ahead of Matt. On my 15 ring dips, I punked out and came off at 7, giving Matt a window to pass me- which he did. He got back from the second 200m run about 5 or 6 seconds ahead of me. On the round of 9, I was able to get 5 and then 4 power snatches off quickly and passed Matt for good, finishing in 6:59. He came in at 7:11. The fact that this kid is as good of a crossfitter as he is while only working out 2 or 3 times/week while in law school is scary. Thanks for letting me throw down with you today, Matt! I'd much prefer you not come back when you actually have more time to start training for real :)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Monday & Tuesday Musings...

Over the weekend I wrote 8 WODs that I wanted to consider for CrossFit Springfield's upcoming Saturday Individual Competition. I was already dead-set on the first WOD for the event: a 3 rep max thruster. Your score is your 3RM thruster weight x 3 (185 x 3 = 555).

In search of the right WOD 2, on Monday I did:

20 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
5 Burpees
100m Farmer's Walk, 55lb
10 Ring Dips
5 Burpees
100m Prowler Sled Push, 255lb
40 KB Swings, 55lb
5 Burpees
50m OH Alternating Walking Lunges
20 Thrusters, 95lb
5 Burpees
100m Sprint
10 Clean & Jerk, 155lb
5 Burpees

time: 19.37. Didn't warm up- just kind of jumped into it and I paid for that. Afterwards I liked it- but didn't think it was the right WOD for a competition with as many participants as we're expecting this Saturday. It'd take too long to cycle though 40-50 athletes...and with only 4 prowlers- that's a problem. SO....

Tuesday I tackled another home-made WOD. This one is in the same genre as Kalsu and the Air Force WODs....

For time:

50 KB Swings, 55lb
40 Wall Balls, 20/14lb
30 Chest to Bar Pull Ups
20 Ring dips
10 Burpees

* At the top of each min you must perform 2 Squat Clean & Jerks, 155lb before returning to the 50-10 worksets. Your score is your time in seconds (12:59 = 779 seconds)

I knew about 7 minutes into it that this was the WOD for the event. It's as mentally tough as it is physically challenging. It doesn't favor the athlete who is great at lighter met-cons, yet it doesn't favor the athlete who is simply strong enough to throw around 155lb from ground to overhead either. It's a perfect storm that you will either fight through and weather- or will lower your sails and be crushed by the waves. It will be an absolute victory for those who, RX or scaled, decide that they're gonna stay in the fight and finish in under the 25 minute time-limit. My time was 12:59. Brian got 14:53.

To determine the winner we will take the thruster scores and subtract them from the met-con scores. Based on our WOD 2 scores (Jeremy = 779 seconds & Brian = 893), there would be a 114pt differential that Brian would have to overcome in the thruster WOD. That deficit could be made up. Hypothetically: If I were to get 185lb on my 3rep max thruster = 555 and Brian hit 225lb x 3 = 675 the difference would be 120. Your overall score will be the WOD 1 scores subtracted from your WOD 2 score. In my hypothetical case above, I'd have a final score of 224 (779-555). Brian would have a hypothetical score of 218 (893-675). The low score would win- so brian would beat me even though I finished 2min faster on WOD 2.

THE BOTTOM LINE: These 2 events will balance out everyone. You'll have to do well at both in order to finish well! Good Luck!

I had considered competing this weekend...after having put myself through WOD 2...No friggin thanks- I'd rather not try my hand at that workout again for a long, long time to come.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Who's in charge here?

Friday I did Yoga. Gotta lil stretchy stretch. Did the CFS Daily WOD 50KB swings, 100sit up, 150 Double Unders in 7:45. Also tried to get to 1 RM effort OHS. Probably a bad idea after the metcon. PR is 265 and I only got 245- oh well-it was one of those day where I was like "if it happens that I PR then that'd be a great bonus"
Did one of the potential CFS individual saturday challenge WODs today...gonna change it up a bit...it's a little too much as is.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Wednesday & Thursday WODs

Celebrating the end of the North Central Regional competition with some great peeps! Friggin good times!!!

Wednesday: 3 Rounds for time of 150ft Sandbag Walking Lunges, 60lb & 50 Ring Push Ups. Needless to say, my boobs and butt are sore. Time was around 17min.

Thursday: 2010 Midwestern Sectionals WOD 2 which was 5min for max reps of 155lb Clean & Jerk. My score at sectionals in February was 40. Today I hit 41. I forgot how bad this workout feels. You think, "OK...around 40 reps in 5 min...that won't be bad" ...ABSOLUTELY miserable. I tried to game it differently than last time. Instead of pacing from the beginning, I went out hard and fast- It really didn't make a difference. Both strategies led to the same conclusion: SUCKAGE.

Went to Kory at Springfield Massage Works today for a much needed sports massage. It's been a couple of weeks since I've gone so of course, it was painful- but its the kind of pain that leaves you feeling much more recovered when its all said and done.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

30-20-10 Rds of: Backsquat 155lb & Ring Dips


The WOD took me around six to seven minutes. No puking today- that was pleasant. Went against my crossfit constitutional bylaw (article 21.15.9) which states: "Jeremy don't do ab workouts cuz ab workouts is likes the government- thems don't really work". A few sit ups here, some air bikes there, a little planky plank for flair...nothing crazy. I'm sure it was just enough abwork to not allow me to sit up out of bed, laugh at Uli's blog, or so much as contain a fart without feeling like my small and large intestines set fire to my abdominal wall.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Cake!!!


Hit the advanced CFS WOD class today:
WOD 2 from the 2010 FLA sectional...

3min for max reps box jumps, 24/20"
rest 1 min
3 min for max reps pull ups
rest 1 min
3 min for max reps thrusters, 115/85lb

Did 95/75/30 for a score of 200...AND I puked. Yes! First time in awhile. I had it coming with the way I've been eating this past week. Burgers, pizza, the "CAKE!!!" that Vin made me, and some candy here and there (WHAT!?)...It was SO worth it. Now its back to eating clean for me. I'm training for the 2030 Crossfit Games Masters competition :)

Friday, May 7, 2010

Wednesday & Thursday Workouts


Wednesday I hit the CFS noon WOD:

1min TTB, 2min Burpees, 3min parallette push ups, 4min double KB front squats...then 3,2, and 1min back down of the same movements. Tough WOD- I got 210.

Yesterday I wrote up a WOD that me and Grant hit at noon:

10 Squat cleans, 155lb
then 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 Pull Ups alternated with 8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 HSPU
then finish with 10 Squat cleans, 155lb

I liked it- didn't worry about time, but I know it was around 15-20 minutes.

I went up to the track at MSU around 3:30 and grabbed a sprint workout as well:

400m Warm-up
5 x 100m Sprints @ 100%...rested 3-5 min between efforts.
then 5 x 40m parachute sprints @ 100%...rested 1-2 min between efforts
then 1 stadium stair run- from one end to the other and back- honestly this sucked the most out of everything I did all day!

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Back To The Lab...

The 2010 CrossFit Games North Central Regional Qualifier was nothing short of spectacular. The competition, the crowds, the passion, the energy, the anxiety, the calm, the chaos, the athletes, the firebreathers, the altitude, the inspirational performances, the joy, the tears, the precise judging, the pain, the cold, the noise, the grueling WODs, the triumph, and the heartbreak...they all showed up to Castlerock, CO in full force. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the North Central Regional was jam packed with the most elite athetes in the 12 state region. Each athlete bringing with them sincere aspirations of CrossFit glory.

But just as they always do, the fittest prevailed. By 4pm on Sunday, 8 individual athletes and 8 affiliate teams punched their tickets to the Home Depot Center in LA for the 2010 CrossFit Games World Finals.
Here is my rundown of the 4 events as I experienced them:

WOD 1: "The Run" A 1440m uphill winding paved trail run with a steep 150m decline towards the finish. At 8am the temperature was roughly 34 degrees but it was sunny and clear which made for decent running conditions. My strategy was to run at around 90% intensity for the first 1:30, coast at around 75-85% until 3min, and end with a full out sprint the last minute and a half to the finish line. I was shooting for around 4:35-4:45. I executed fairly well with exception of a brief 20-30 seconds in the middle of the run where I really felt myself struggling to keep a strong pace. My official time was 4:53.2. Afterwards, my throat, chest, and lungs felt like they'd been borrowed for a Ronco dehydrator infomercial. All things considered, I was pleased with my performance.

WOD 2: "The Lift" 25min Ground to Overhead 1RM. My heat time was 10:30am. I got a great warm up and worked my progression up to 245lb in the athletes area. I lead with 225lb on my first lift just to get a decent score under my belt. I then jumped to 235 and then 250lb successfully. With my previous PR being 255lb, I then decided to go for it and jumped to 260lb and nailed it for a new PR. The lift felt strong so on my next attempt I went with 270lb. Initially, I told myself I would go in 5lb increments once I hit 260 but in the heat of the moment I figured "what the heck?" and made the jump. Probably a bad choice. I nailed the clean but failed twice on the jerk overhead. Although I managed to outlift and match some very good athletes, our regional produced some monster numbers with 9 male athletes hitting 300+ on WOD 2.

WOD 3: "The Triplet" 3 rounds of 500m row, 12 OHS @ 115lb, and 50 DUs. Without question, this WOD should have produced my best performance...instead- I got owned by it :) The 10:12 time I did it in on the Tuesday prior to the competition quickly slipped away as my O2 consumption began to give me fits. Staying calm, training for the unknown, and conditioning yourself to keep on pushing through severe muscle fatigue means very little when you just can't get air in. I finished in 11:42 and felt completely wrecked.

WOD 4: "The Final" 10 145lb Snatches, 20 C2B Pull Ups, 30 24" Stick Jumps, 40 45lb Ball Slams, 30 Stick Jumps, 20 C2B Pull Ups, 10 145lb Snatches. Saturday night I realized it would do me no good to tackle this WOD agressively from the get-go. My strategy for the final event on Sunday AM was to go slow and steady and not crash. I wanted to make it a point to continue to move through the WOD, taking breaks no longer than 3-5 seconds during the event. I feel I executed that plan well, moving from each modality briskly and fast enough to put up a competitive time yet slow enough to not crash on the last 10 snatches (the last 10 reps held some athletes up for multiple minutes and caused some to drop significantly in the final rankings). My time for the final event was 11:22 which ended up being strong enough to keep me in the top 30 of the final overall standings for the men.

I learned a great deal from my games experience this year. First off, I was reminded time and time again of the amount of guts and courage it takes to compete as a crossfitter at any level and ecspecially on a stage as great as the one that is provided by the CrossFit Games regionals competition. We were witness, many times over, to athletes pushing themselves far past their physical limits in an attempt to simply finish the WODs under the time limits given. Never did I see one competitor give up or walk away until the time limit had been reached. They fought, heart and soul to the very end, no matter what the outcome. To me, it all goes back to the reason I started crossfitting in the first place: I'm an athlete. I love the rush of competition- competition against myself, competition against my peers, competing against a loaded barbell, and competing against the clock. It fuels me- win, lose, or draw- with the peace of knowing that no matter what the outcome and no matter what the circumstance, I will give nothing short of my absolute best. That knowledge carries over into giving my very best in everyday life. I've already been asked if I'm planning to compete in next year's 2011 CrossFit Games season. Hmmm...What do you think?

Monday, May 3, 2010

DONE!!!

North Central Qualifier wrapped up...1st Burger in MONTHS...War stories to follow...now, I sleep.