15/1/1 - 15/1/4

I seem to be doing more of these weekly updates, that's not a good sign. I was kind of tied up this week by holidays and friends. We had a situation where some friends needed to spend the week in our guest room, which threw off my gym schedule. 

On the first, Thursday, I was talked into "running the stairs" by my wonderful SO. This entails running up and down the flights of seats at the Harvard Stadium. There are 37 sections, I made it through about 25 before my quads started to just stiffen and give out on me. 

Could barely walk the next day, thanks. 

Saturday, the 3rd, went in to the gym even though my calves were still rocks. Worked up to a heavy clean and jerk. 275 felt great on the second attempt, the first one stayed forward the whole way. Hadn't been setting up properly. Hit 285 for an 8lb PR. 

Did a 15 minute workout afterwards where you work for 30 seconds then take 30 seconds off. Just speed work on clean and jerk at 105. Got 93 reps in 15 minutes, hello volume. 

Sunday, the 4th, went in to work out one last time with my weightlifting coach. She's moving for a bit for work, so wanted to get in and hang out with her one more time. Worked up to a heavy snatch. Hit 202, 207, and then 210.5 for a 5.5 lb PR. Got 215 up in front on attempt 1, then threw it over my head on attempt 2. Didn't want to take another attempt though, will save that for later. 
Hit some paused front squats and called it a day. 

Two PR's over a weekend is pretty good for me. 

2014/10/04

Today we were told to find out Olympic total. That's what my lazy lifting was going to be anyway, so I went to class to do it.

Had some trouble with snatches this morning. Everything was out in front. Had to walk forward to clear up so of my attempts and all of my cues were not helping. Still managed to hit 195 lbs and then jumped to 205. I figured that i was already over body weight, might add well try something big. Missed 205 by an inch and then couldn't get 207 to stay put. Lost them both forward, kind of frustrating.

Cleans went really well. Hit 260 easily and then made 270 on the second attempt. Took some effort and readjustment to get out of the hole with it, but that's an easy front squat for me, so I just grunted it up. The jerk would have been red lighted. Like a two inch press out, but I'll take it as an ugly gym PR.

That's a new gym total of a little over 211 kilos. A good day to be sure.

2014/10/03

5:43

That's what I wrote on the wall. It was the time that I got last time I tried this workout. Truthfully, I got 4:37 or so the first time, though I did some scaled version then. 5:43 was the first RX score I got when I ran Fran. It was in December, 10 months ago. 

Today was 4:40. Cut off a minute. I like it.

Fran 
21-15-9
95 lb thrusters
pull ups

Haven't been able string together the necessary pull ups yet. Had to break down the sets of thrusters in half and the pull ups into thirds. Some days the pull ups work, some days they don't. Today wasn't great. But, it worked. 

Then I laid on the floor for like 8 minutes. 

2014/09/18

Landed from my business trip and made my way into the gym. 

Max Clean and Jerk @ ~120 kilos or 265 lbs. 
Smacked myself in the throat with 270 lbs and had trouble swallowing for about a day. Fun stuff. 
Side note, this is a new PR. Didn't realize till afterwards. 

10RM for Deadlift @ 275 lbs. 
Didn't really feel like going too big here, my DL form is shit nowadays and high rep stuff always weirds me out. 

7AMRAP of 
7 Thrusters @ 75 lbs
7 Lateral Bar Burpees

Finished 6 rounds + 9 reps. 

Took a bit of a breather then did the class afterwards. 

3x10 pause back squats
Stayed at 185 lbs for consistency sake, and I was already beat up. 

Then a weird little workout of 
4 rounds on the 4's
300m Row Sprint
1 minute plank hold

I still cannot hold a plank to save my life, don't get it. Core instability? Really? 

2014/09/03

Work up to a heavy double on front squats. 

Got up to 305. Really struggled with that set, but grunted it out. That's a new volume PR for front squats. 

9amrap
3 Pull Ups
6 Hand Stand Push Ups
9 Overhead Squats @95lbs

Just finished four rounds with the clock. Shoulders are on fire.

2014/08/13

Went in to the gym to try out the workouts from this weekend's competitions. Took everything at about 80%, just figuring out the movements. 

Quick super set of 30 pull ups and 30 box jump overs @ 24". Sadly, the workout actually calls for 30" box jump overs, I missed that. Each movement took just under a minute. 

Went and did a couple interval rowing sprints at 250m. Finished in 51.9, 54.6, and 53 seconds. Should be able to hold on to that 53 second finish if I row intelligently. 

Afterwards, tried out the barbell complex. 3 hang cleans, forward lunge, into a thruster. Can't let go of the barbell the whole time, so you're pretty much in front rack for a while. 

Worked up to 205, which sucks for those lunges. Worried that some competitors are going to roll their knees on this one. My biggest problem is going to be my body's prediliction to jerking at the top of my thruster. If I don't get no repped at 205, I'll probably try at 225 as well. 

Wanted to get some CNS action going on afterwards, so I jumped into the squat rack for some heavy squats. 

225 x5
275 x4
315 x3
335 x2
365 x1
385 x1
405 x1

That's a longtime goal for me. I've been searching for 405 since I switched over from low bar to high bar. Pretty pumped. Need to keep track of my maxes... I haven't been logging in my CF book for a while, time to start a page here for maxes. 

2014/06/24

My strength coach and I built some jerk blocks recently and today we got to test them out.
The strength workout was 10 minutes to find maxes on each of the three movements: 5rm on Z Press, 3rm on push press, and 1rm on split jerk. Hit 115 for five and 135 for three on Z Press. 205 for 3 and 225 for 2 on push press. Then hit a 20 lb PR on split jerk at 295lbs.

The WoD was a quick little sprint.
50 double unders
1 rope climb
10 clean and jerks
1 rope climb
50 double unders

Kept the weight light on the c&j at 155 and just flew through this in four minutes even. The double unders were my only stumbling block but I'm getting a lot better at them.

2014/06/20

WoD today wasn't too my liking so I didn't do it. Had an OLY session instead.

Snatch Complex :
Snatch Pull + High Hang Snatch + OHS
3 x 155, 2 x 165, 1 x 185

Jerk Complex :
Push Jerk + 2 Split Jerk
165 - 215 @ 10lb increments

Front Squat
Heavy Doubles
235, 255, 275, 300

Everything felt great today. Little wobble on the heavier snatches and jerks, but nothing that made me miss.
Front squats for s double over three hundred is a milestone. Pretty pumped.