“Fran”

21-15-9
thruster 95#/65#
pull-up

9:45

I was unsure what my time would be for Fran as I have only recently been concentrating on unassisted pull-ups and I still have bad memories of the thruster/burpee open workout. I did see that people can do this in a bit over two minutes, but I would have been happy with something under 10. I was able to do the first set of thrusters unbroken, though I did have to pause a couple of times. The later sets I did in set of 5 or 4 or 3 depending on what I felt like. I did kipping pull-ups in sets of three or two the for the entire time. I did make it in under ten minutes, although I may have been off during the 15 rep set during both the thrusters and pull-ups. My mind just tends to wander sometimes.

As of this morning, that time would be good enough to get on the leaderboard at the gym!

I was smart and taped my hands before the workout. No ripped palms this time.

edit: don’t think I made the leaderboard judging from the whiteboard at the end of the day.

30 minutes to find your 1 Rep Max Back Squat.

8 min AMRAP
2-4-6-8-10-etc (ascending reps per round)
Ball Slam 30#/20#
Wall Ball Shot 20#/14#

245# back squat
12+10 AMRAP

I was disappointed in my back squat. I hit 245# easily, but then bailed on 265#. I should have stayed with the lift, but I guess I am getting conservative in my old age (as CS said “It isn’t worth it”). So no Rocket PR for me today, and I find it unlikely anyways I would get close to my lifetime PR any time soon.

The AMRAP was suitably tiring. Most people today got into round 14, but I don’t think I was going that slow. I still break up wall balls in sets of 5, though, maybe I should just start powering through them in AMRAPs.

I went back to open gym hours and did a lot more back squats, since in trying to get a 1RM I didn’t really get that much squat work in (in spite of the AMRAP)

EMOTM – 10 minutes – 85#
1x halting deadlift
1x hang snatch
1x snatch

5 rounds:
12x thruster 75#/45#
12x box jump 24″/20″

11:35

The EMOTM snatch sequence was way off my PR for a snatch (135#), but I always take a long time to warm up my snatch technique. And I find doing the snatch from the hang position to be much harder since one has to do everything faster to complete the move. Or so it seems to me. I did not get a lot of rest between lifts either because I like doing stuff like this slowly and deliberately.

The thrusters and box jumps were painful as expected. I used to like thrusters, too. I am glad Rx weight for the thrusters was 75# and not 95# as one might expect. I only did the first round unbroken then dropped the bar once or twice for the following rounds. I have noticed I do box jumps slower than before (say last year) for some unknown reason. I may be the best way for me to speed up box jumps is to simply lose weight.

2014 MAY 01 THURSDAY

TABATA Ring Plank Support Hold

max weighted pull-up
3-3-2-2-1-1-1

green-blue-0-5-10-18

5 rounds:
2 min row for meters
1 min max toes-to-bar

*score meters & T2B

2564 + 40

The tabata ring planks still sucked.

My max weighted pull-up is 20#, and I think I could have exceeded that, but I was doing them too slow. Not that big a deal. And CS was ragging on me for kicking a little.

I tried to maintain a 2:00/500m pace on the rows, which isn’t all that fast, and managed to do so, but it was harder than I thought. As it turned out, the vast majority of people went slower, which surprised me. I did a lot more toes-to-bar than I anticipated, especially after taking 10 minutes to the 50 during the Open, but they were interrupted by bouts of rowing. I hurriedly wrapped my hands after the pull-ups, but the tape at the gym didn’t stick very well, and it was hard to grip the bar. Of course, I should not blame the tape for my lack of back and core strength.

2014 MAY 02 FRIDAY

TABATA Ring Plank Support Hold

“DT”

5 Rounds
12x DeadLift 155#/105
9x Hang Power Clean
6x Push Jerk

13:59 105#

I was thinking I could do more than 105#, but I decided not to risk it. As expected, I found the hang cleans to be the hardest, but strategic dropping of the bar helped. My grip strength is the biggest limiting factor in a workout like this one; I don’t think adding another 20# would have mattered that much in my time. Bringing the bar down from the front rack to the high hang position was painful for me regardless. I kinda lost count of my rounds, but I was slightly behind everyone else, but they never lapped me. I was actually the last person to finish. I was a bit disappointed with my time, but I had thought I had done this workout before, and it turns out that I did. Six months ago I did it in 19:13 at 95#, so I did get significantly better, which is good.

2014 MAY 03 SATURDAY

TABATA Ring Plank Support Hold

Partner WOD “Med Ball FUN”!

3 Rounds
Run around block w/ med ball (both partners must be touching it the whole time)
50x partner med ball sit-up
40x partner wall ball
30x partner burpees-over-med-ball

25:38 14# ball with KS

As one can tell by the description, this was a tiring workout. The funny thing was that KS was there, and everyone else was thinking, “oh, no, will K be my partner?!?!?!” Fortunately(?) she and I were probably the best people to have together. KS was all “let’s make this a cardio workout and go go go and not stop!”, and I was like “um, maybe”. It was fun though, and having someone like her as a partner definitely pushed me harder than I would have gone otherwise. We finished far ahead of any other teams that day, a first for me in this type of workout.

The run was predictably difficult, mainly because it was awkward to carry the ball and have each team member touching it. Actually, the awkwardness made things easier as we weren’t moving fast enough to really tax the cardio; we actually spent the run talking quite a bit.

I was thinking the sit-ups were going to be the worst, but they weren’t all that bad. The wall balls were very doable since we were using the 14# ball instead of the 20# one that I would normally use. The burpees were rough, though. I think KS was doing them slower than she normally would have in deference to my not-nearly-as-good cardio.

2014 MAY 05 MONDAY

Dan’s Birthday WOD

10x strict pull-up
20x toes-to-bar
30x 1-arm dumbbell snatch 50#
40x walls ball 20#
50x slam ball 40#
60x push-up
70-second total plank hold
80x 1-arm KB swing 44#
90x sit-ups
100x squats

35 minute time cap

28:21?

I came in during the open gym hours and was going to do a few deadlifts, maybe some back squats, maybe some pull-ups, but KS was there and convinced me to do the day’s official workout with her. I actually thought I would not finish as I was not really feeling all that great, but I did it in less than 30 minutes which was faster than all the other people that morning. Except KS, who beat me by 4 minutes or so. Although in a chipper like this I sometimes don’t count the reps right, especially the later ones (sit-ups mainly), so my time may not be accurate.

TABATA Ring Plank Support Hold

KB Windmills 5×5 superset with 5x pull-up
18-18-26-30-35

10 min AMRAP:
100m Farmer’s Carry 2×53#
10x v-up
10x bent-over row 95#

3+1

The tabata ring holds were painful. They always are.

I still can’t really bend to the right when doing KB Windmills. My left arm as usual is noticeably weaker than my right. I should have done more weight with the right hand. I did the pull-ups one at a time (i.e. I dropped off the bar after each one), although the first set I think I did 3 then 2 reps.

I could do the farmer’s carry with 2×70# KBs, but I went lighter since it was an AMRAP. In reality, I still had to stop a couple of times on the later rounds because of lack of grip strength and because I still had my right hand wrapped due to my ripped callouses from last week. Going up to 60+# would not have matter much I think.

the v-ups have been getting easier since we have been doing them all the time lately. I still don’t like them, though, but they are surely good for me.

I probably should have went up on the rows as well. I was thinking that they should be lighter since it was an AMRAP. I did not really do that many rounds, though. The farmer’s carry sucked up a lot of time.