Angie

Today our coach programmed Angie.  100 pull ups, 100 push ups, 100 sit ups, 100 squats.  You are not allowed to break up the rep scheme.  In other words, you must complete the 100 pull ups before moving onto the 100 push ups.  The only bad part of this workout for me was my push ups.  I finished the workout in 26:59 and about 10-15 minutes of that was the push ups.  I realize they are something I should be working on a lot.  After the gym, I decided to go take my motorcycle knowledge test at icbc.  I've been meaning to do it for a while, and one of our gym members pushed me to get it.  I hadn't studied for the test, but thought it would be easy enough to do the first time.  I failed with 75%.  There were a few questions that I should have answered correctly that I messed up.  I need 80% to pass, and I'm sure I'll get it tomorrow.

Open Recap

This years crossfit open was a big success for me.  I learned that I have improved a lot from last year.  In 2011 I finished around the 86th percentile in Canada West.  This year I finished 343rd out of 671 places.  That translates to the 51st percentile.  I wanted to finish in the top half, and very nearly achieved that goal.  I think if my shoulder to overhead and snatch were a bit better, then I would have scored higher on WOD's 12.2 and 12.3.  I've signed up to volunteer at the regionals which will be held at the end of April out at the Richmond Olympic facility.  The next thing I want to nail down is my diet.  I have been to lax recently.  More on this to come, perhaps an April Paleo challenge.

Final Open WOD Finished

After 5 weeks, the crossfit open competition is over for me.  I did the final workout this morning.  Last year I managed to get 78 reps.  I bested that effort this year with 96 reps.  I'm quite happy with my result.  Initially I thought I'd like to get somewhere around 100.  Then after seeing the scores posted before today, I started thinking that 90 was more realistic.  I'll have to wait until Monday to see where I ended up in the overall standings, but I think I'll be around the middle of the pack in Canada West, which pleases me.  After the workout, many of our gym members went for a delicious lunch at Earls to reward our hard work.  This open competition was a great success for me.  It showed me how much I have improved from last year (a lot).  I look forward to watching the regionals and games.

Open WOD 12.5

So 12.5 got announced yesterday evening.  It is a repeat of last years final open workout.  A 7 minute escalating Fran ladder.  The rep scheme is:  3 thrusters, 3 chest to bar pull ups, 6 thrusters, 6 CTB pull ups, 9 thrusters, 9 CTB pull ups etc.  The thruster weight for the guys is 100lbs, 5 pounds heavier than Fran.  Last year I managed to get 78 reps.  My initial goal for this year is 100 reps.  I think I should be able to do the round of 9 unbroken, and then I'll have to start breaking up the thrusters and pacing myself.  I did Fran for the first time late last year. It took me 5:56 and completely messed me up.  Thankfully this workout is quite different from Fran.  If you don't pace yourself a bit, you will burn out fast.  It's still going to hurt though.

Deadlift PR!

I had a good workout this morning. 5x2 back squat to kick it off.  Then 5 sets of 1 deadlift, working up to a one rep max.  I managed to lift 325lbs, beating out my old record by 5 pounds.  Next we did a bit of handstand push up work, which I desperately need.  Right now I can only do 3 or 4 in a row.  In November I could hit 6 straight.  I'm planning on putting in extra work to try and improve them.  To finish off the morning we did a 2000m row for time. It took me 7:31, another personal best.  It was a good morning, hopefully tomorrow will bring good news with the announcement of workout 12.5.

12.4 down, 1 more to go

The 4th open WOD went really well for me, as I predicted.  It was an AMRAP in 12 minutes of 150 wall balls, 90 double unders, and 30 muscle ups.  I knew this workout would heavily rely on my execution on the double unders.  If I could get through the 90 with at least 20 seconds to spare, I knew I could get at least 1 muscle up.  Many people don't have muscle ups, so if I could get one, I knew I'd place much higher in the rankings.  I did the workout yesterday morning.  I took the advice of my coach and went all out on the wall balls. I hit 40 on my first set, then continued doing sets of 10 with as little rest as possible in between sets.  I finished the wall balls around 8 minutes in and started on the double unders.  Thankfully I rocked it.  I hit a set of 46, and then a couple smaller sets to finish the 90.  I was left with two minutes to get as many muscle ups as I could muster.  The first one was much harder that I expected.  I into the dip position, then really had to fight it to get to full extension. I ended up getting 3 muscle ups, which puts me in the top half of western Canada.  Only one more workout to go.

Weekend In Kelowna

I took two days off this weekend to visit family in Kelowna.  I drove up with my mother on Saturday.  We spent most of our time at our Aunts place helping move lots of furniture around.  They were moving three bedrooms around because my Grandpa is sick and has a hard time going up and down stairs.  Both nights we had great dinners.  The first night, my Grandmother made a turkey along with stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and the works.  The second night we decided to order sushi, and we ordered a lot.  I ate way too much both nights, so I was very happy to get home today and hit the gym for an evening workout.  5 rounds of 6 rep front squat, followed by 12 pullups followed by 1 minute of rest.  I managed to do every round unbroken at 155lbs on the front squat.  The second part of the workout was a handstand pushup and running WOD.  Max hspu, 800m run, max hspu, 400m run, max hspu.  The handstand push up is something I greatly need to work on.  I'm hoping it doesn't show up in any of the open workouts.  I have a good feeling it wont.

WOD 12.3 Complete

I complete open WOD 12.3 this morning.  I watched a few videos on the games site and mobilitywod.com to get some tips for the workout.  Kelly Star advised everyone to make sure you warm up very well, so I spent about 1/2 hour warming up the three separate movements.  I mainly worked on getting my legs loose and practicing my box jumps.  I also stretched out my shoulders quite a bit and worked up to the 115lb push press.  After lifting a couple, I knew it would be the hardest part of the workout.  Once I felt warmed up enough I started.  The 18 minutes went by much quicker than I expected.  As I predicted, the push press was the hardest part of the workout.  I split the sets up into two sets of 6.  I was able to maintain this for the first 3 rounds, but around round 4 I started doing 6-3-3, then 3-3-3-3.   My score was 6 rounds even.  I'm not sure I could have done much better.  I was breathing very heavily throughout most of the WOD.  The only advice I'd have for anyone is not to spend any time in the rack position on the push press.  Either get it right back overhead when you bring it down, or drop it.  The few times I rested in the rack really tired me out.  I'm looking forward to a relaxing weekend in Kelowna and Wednesday when the next workout will be announced.

12.3 Looming

Open WOD 12.3 was announced yesterday at 5pm.  It is an 18 minute AMRAP of 15 box jumps, 12 push press at 115lbs and 9 toes to bar.  I'm not sure what part of this workout will be the hardest.  Initially I thought the push press would be the hardest for sure, but I'm not the greatest at box jumps either.  The toes to bar is a fairly small number and I don't think they will be a problem until later in the workout.  I'm going away to Kelowna this weekend with my Mom to visit my family, so I'll be doing the workout tomorrow morning rather than on Saturday with the rest of the gym.  I don't really have a target score because the workout is pretty long.  I just hope my legs recover from all the snowboarding I've been doing!

12.2 In the Books

I just completed the open WOD 12.2 snatch ladder this morning.  I said initially that I would like to get at least 40 reps.  I ended up getting 46.  I'm still not fully satisfied with the result though.  Once lifted the 135lb bar a couple of times, I realized it wasn't as bad as I thought.  My judge told me to try and hit a lift every 20 seconds.  I followed that advice and did pretty well.  I only missed one lift.  I still think if I didn't miss that lift, and I had pushed myself harder that I could have made it to 50 reps.  Afterwards I got a haircut. I'm thinking it will help for next weeks WOD.

Open WOD 12.2 Announced

I had a great day snowboarding up Grouse Mountain yesterday with my friend Jon.  It had snowed 13cm overnight and we got the second lift up the mountain.  There was almost nobody there, and every run was covered in fresh powder.  I had my camera with me, so I was a bit more cautious than usual.  After a few runs we hit the jib park.  We had to make our own tracks in order to get enough speed to hit the features.  I ended up doing my first rails and boxes.  They had a mini rainbow rail and a small kinked rail, both of which I rode.  I also tried boardsliding a box, which ended with me falling hard on my ass.  It was a really fun day, and my legs were really sore by the end of it.

Once I got how I looked up the next crossfit open WOD, as it had been released on the website.  It is a 10 minute timecap of:
30 snatch at 75lbs
30 snatch at 135lbs
30 snatch at 165lbs
AMRAP snatch at 210 lbs

I love doing snatch workouts, but I don't have a very heavy snatch.  My 1 rep max right now is 135.  I could probably hit 145, but the 30 reps at 135 is going to be a huge challenge.  I would like to hit 40 reps or higher.  I think that is a realistic goal for me.  We'll see how it goes on Saturday!