It's Been Too Long...Back on the Blog!

It's been too long! About time I make my return. First, a little update:

In May, myself and a 5 others from Jogo Crossfit Bellingham competed as a team at the 2010 Northwest Regional Qualifier. We competed valiantly and were in 5th place overall going into the third and final workout, the top 6 teams at the end of the weekend advancing to the 2010 Crossfit Games down in California. We gave it all we had but after the dust settled, our team ended up falling just short, tied for 8th. It was an honor and pleasure to compete side by side with the friends I've come to love through the months of training and preparation leading up to the qualifier. It was also outstanding to go head to head with Loren, Walt and the rest of the Kirkland Crossfit gang. They were just out of the top 6 going into the final workout and put up an outstanding performance to finish in the 4th position overall. As the saying goes, if you can't beat 'em, root for 'em! Were cheering for you guys to take it all come the middle of July!

In the month and a half since then, I've geared down my training in some ways and amped it up in others. I'm trying to give extra focus to the lifts and to the gymnastics skills that are my biggest weaknesses; basically bw pushing and pulling, especially in the handstand position and on the rings. Up to the present, I've done so with varying success. I've not been very productive with the gymnastics programming and am looking to refine what I'm doing to improve. As for the lifts, I've been making decent progress. Until last week, I'd been on a steady progression in load. I had an awful week with the lifts. I think sub-par nutrition and rest in the time since the qualifier finally caught up with me. I'll look to shape up in both of those areas and keep going at it. Stay tuned.

From here on I'll certainly look to be on the blog more consistently. Most often, I'll only be posting when I have pr efforts or when I see a benchmark wod. In the time since the qualifier, I've literally done less than 10 met-cons. Here's a look at a few noteables:

Individual Northwest Qualifier #1

3 rounds for time of:
-10 overhead squats, 135#
-50 double-unders

time=5:04

Walt was in town for this one and we went head to head. I barely clipped him and it was a good battle. I was amazed at how difficult this workout was. I honestly thought I'd finish closer to the 3 minute mark. That last set of overheads was brutal!


"Fight Gone Bad"


score=399

I went after this one last week. I was actually in the gym to lift, was having an awful session, got frustrated and decided to call it and just go after a met-con with the rest of the gym. I wasn't expecting much and was almost in disbelief when I added it up : a 6 rep pr. I'm certain I'll finally eclipse the 400 mark on my next go at 'er.


"Cindy"

AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats

score=15+1

I wasn't happy with this result as I was hoping to be closer to 20 rounds. My body-weight going in was about 240 and I felt every pound. As is usually the case, push-ups destroyed me. I know what I have to work on.


That's it for now, be back sooner than later.

Blog Update-4/20

I've been on a little hiatus from blog land due solely to my own laziness. My apologies. Here's an update of the last couple weeks.

The Level 1 Cert down at Rainier CrossFit was excellent! I learned more than I thought I would and had a great time with Loren and his pals from Kirkland CrossFit. Loren and I went after "Fran" at the cert in an epic head to head battle that left me grounded for upwards of a half hour. We were also taught how to lift atlas stones in what I'd call the realization of a boyhood dream (maybe a bit dramatic, but I've seriously wanted to try my hand at atlas stones since I was a lad watching world's strongest man on espn). Kurtis, owner of Rainier CrossFit, schooled us well in the stones and left me wanting more. By the time it was done, I was able to easily hoist a 230# stone! I'll be looking to add stones to JoGo's repetoire at some point in the future, seriously, stay tuned. Overall, the weekend was great and one I'd describe as an excellent "community" experience.

As for my training, here's a quick look at some notable performances from the Level 1 until now, "Fran" included:


Saturday, 4/10-"Fran"

3 rounds, 21-15-9, AFAP of:
-thrusters, 95#
-pull-ups

time=4:22

I missed my pr by almost a minute (3:27). But the standards with the HQ trainers in your grill were STRICT and I had a number of reps not counted. It was a good eye opener for me to realize I need to be more stringent in attaining full range of motion.


Tuesday, 4/12-"Bionic"

"Bionic" is a JoGo benchmark and a gnarly wod. I first went after it February of 2009 at the first annual JoGo Throwdown competition. I finished in 10:49 that day and the winning time was 7:13 by who else, Jer Ingersoll, the metabolic machine from Kirkland CrossFit. I hoped to challenge that time this go-around.

5 rounds AFAP of:

6 x sdhp, 95#
6 x burpees
6 x front squat, 95#
6 x kb swing, 24kg
6 x hang power snatch, 95#

time=7:29

I went after this one with Jonathan and only clipped him by about 5 seconds. It was a good battle and we pushed each other hard towards Jer's time. Didn't get it but were close and certainly pleased with the result. And, btw, Jon's time at the competition was upwards of 13 minutes. That's a hell of an improvement.

Also on this day in the gym, I realized I'm capable of handstands in space as well as walking on my hands which was exciting. Unfortunately, all the excitement cost me a severely bruised hip...but it was worth it.


Friday, 4/16-heavy snatch balances

I've heard much about, and strongly believe in, the benefit of heavy snatch balances. Their ability to get you confident with putting big weight overhead and develop not only speed strength, but confidence in the snatch (my favorite lift), is second to none. So why haven't I been doing them? Great question, was time to start:

3 x 135
3 x 155
3 x 185
3 x 205
1 x 225
1 x 235
1 x 255
1 x 275, failed 3 attempts

Man, again, talk about building confidence. I started light and patterned my way up and pretty soon was putting weight overhead I didn't realize I was capable of. I was SO CLOSE to getting the first attempt at 275, lost shoulder stability coming out of the bottom. I wish I had a video of that first attempt to see what all went wrong. I got the bright idea to record my efforts after that attempt. Here's a video of the second go at 275 attached below. The camera was flipped and I'm not sure how to rotate the video here (I'm technically inept) so you'll have to turn your head, apologies. I wasn't that close on this one but much can be learned from it. Namely, notice how I inclinate forward on my dip and my elbows are way behind the bar instead of beneath it. Where does the bar go and where do I lose the lift? Forward. I'm convinced if I keep a vertical trunk during the dip and suck my elbows under, I make this lift. That's exciting.




Here's another video of Chris Spealler and Eric o'Connor going at snatch balances: Chris vs Eric

There are some fantastic lifts in this video, especially from Chris.

Fitness Update-4/5 thru 4/9

Friday

Today is Friday 4/9 and I've taken the past two days off. This was my first week back on strict nutrition and I felt it. I was sluggish and having to dig deep to find energy. Now, I'm feeling fantastic but for a few days there, my body was going through some "poor fuel" withdrawls and hollering at me a bit. I'm already down about 10-12 pounds from my weight on Monday (that's some serious food/water weight I was carrying!) and that's without fasting, I've been eating like a horse! I'm stoked to be over the hump. My nutrition this week has been legit and I'm pretty pumped to be feeling the motivation again to stay clean. I think my performance from here on out will really start to reap reward.

This week, I trained hard Monday through Wednesday. As I said, I was struggling but was still able to get a good bit of work done.

Monday-4/5-Running Chipper AFAP:

800m run
50 jump rung pull-ups
40 kb swings, 32kg
400m run
30 box jumps, 24"
20 wall ball shots, 10ft/20#
200m run
15 push-ups
10 kick to supports
100m run

time=14:30

This one had a 15 minute time cap and I just wanted to make sure I came in under the cap.

Tuesday-4/6-"DT", 5 rounds AFAP:

12 deadlifts, 155#
9 hang power cleans, 155#
6 jerks, 155#

time=8:30

Wasn't happy with this time, was shooting for sub-8. I went after it and gassed out. I went unbroken on all the jerks until the very last one and failed rep 6 in round 5. Took me a bit to re-coup and finish the final rep, it was pretty poor. All things considered, I'll look to do this one again in the next month and really think I can come in close to the 7 minute mark.


I'm headed down to the level 1 cert this weekend with my brother from another mother, Loren Winter, and company. It's being held down at Rainier CrossFit and I'm stoked for it! I'm in Snohomish today hanging with the old man before I head down and am toying with swinging into Snohomish CrossFit to get a wod in. But then again it'd probably be wise to save some energy for the weekend. Stay tuned.

Pictures-3/30-Power Hour Pics

At 3pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays, a few of us often get together for the days training session for a time we've affectionately labeled "Power Hour." And today's Hour was one hell of a sesh (see the post below). Em (JoGo visionary, co-coach, teammate, dear friend) sat this one out as she'd gone after a training session earlier in the day. But she decided to stick around for a little moral support. And she snapped a few pics of Jonathan and I getting gnarly while she was at it. Check 'em out. Of note: I outweigh Jonathan by about 60# but only got him by about 15 reps today. Pretty impressive effort at 115# for the young fella, he's becoming a beast. Good stuff brother.

"Sumo-Thruster War Power Hour"

Fitness-3/30-"Sumo-Thruster War"

Tuesday

No lift today, just one hell of a wod. "Sumo-Thruster War" was on the docket today, 20 minutes of pain:

30 seconds thrusters, 115#
30 seconds rest
30 seconds sdhp, 115#
30 seconds rest

repeat for 20 minutes

score=192

I went after this one with my bud and teammate Jonathan by my side. It was a good war indeed as we offset in order to work while the other one rested, a good battle back and forth. My goal was to go after this one hard until I hit a wall and then scrap to finish every round with the same amount of reps as in the round I "crashed." And I did pretty well to do that. My goal going in, however, was to hit 200 reps-I wanted to average 20 reps per minute of work. And I fell 8 reps short which seems like a lot but when you break it down, that's less than an extra 1/2 rep per interval. When I think back to the times I dropped the bar when there were still a few seconds left in the interval, I realize I could've gotten those 8 reps easy. A little disappointed with my resolve during this one but a great wod none the less.

Fitness-3/29-press/push press/split jerk, "Fitness Tests"

Monday

I came into the gym feeling pretty well rested after taking it very easy Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday. Started with some overhead work, here were my best efforts:

press
-5 x 155

push press
-1 x 205

split jerk
-3 x 240

I felt fairly strong going overhead. Attempted a 6th rep at 155 on the press and missed it but am finally starting to see my press strength improve. The jerks felt like butter and 3 at 240 was no problem. This is exciting.

After the lift, went after some fitness tests, taken from one of the events at the 2010 CrossFit Games Hawaii Sectional. In these tests, you've 1 minute to do the prescribed work and even if you end up having time to do more, you stop once you hit the mark required. In other words, it's pass/fail. If you finish before the minute is up, you've the remainder of the minute plus the next minute to rest before starting the next test. There were 5 tests, so the wod was 9 minutes total since the last rest isn't taken into account because the workout is over:

1) 10 ohd squats @ 135#, score=pass, took me about 20 seconds and felt like I could've gone the whole minute
2) 10 unbroken pistols each leg, score=pass, barely got this one right leg needs work...both legs need work
3) 30 unbroken pull-ups, score=fail, I did 28 and grip was the determining factor
4) 45 unbroken 20 inch box jumps, score=pass, finished around 50 seconds
5) 4 unbroken hspu on parallettes, score=fail, I couldn't get one, the parallettes make for a brutal range of motion

Overall, there weren't really any surprises here. I did think I could get 30 pull-ups so was a bit disappointed I didn't. But next time, I will. And the hspu's on the parallettes is a whole new ball game. I plan to start spending a lot of time on them.

Fitness-3/27-cleans/fronts, sandbag stair runs

Saturday

Started off the morning right with some oly work. Went after some sub-max squat cleans to gear up for some front squats, here are my best efforts:

cleans
-3 x 215

fronts
-6 x 245

I took all the cleans from the hang and felt strong. The 6 reps at 245 on the fronts was a good effort for me, I failed on rep 7 unfortunately. I think it was more of a mental failure then physical, gave up on 'er a bit. But still getting stronger.