A minor setback, time to get back on track...

Update update update...

After a tough week of squatting heavy and training hard, my hip decided it had enough and shut down on Saturday morning. I had a weird arcing pain through my glute, groin, and all down my left leg... must have pinched a nerve or something. It hurt to sit down and pretty much move in any direction, which was none too nice.

Sunday was the second go around of our Affiliate team tryouts - we're putting a team into the Canadian regional crossfit championships for a chance to get into the crossfit games team competition. I was really looking forward to the workouts (there were 3 in the span of as many hours) but my hip kept me on the sidelines, or more correctly, in the role of head judge!

Everyone hit the workouts really well, with PB's all over the place. Check http://crossfitzone.ca/crossfit-affiliates-watch-out for more of an in-depth look at the events of the day.

After helping Michelle move and forcing my body to lift, twist, and bend, my hip was starting to feel better. I hopped into the hot tub for a good 45min for some stretching and woke up Monday morning feeling ready to go!! I guess it just needed to settle down a bit or maybe the nerve got back into place...

So that meant two days completely off training, which then means I have some catching up to do.

Monday was a running day - I wanted to get 8x300m repeats with 2min rest in between done. I feel that's a good distance for me for speed endurance work without being super taxing. After a nice 15 minute warm-up through some trails by PISE, I got a solid 7 reps in before my right calf tightened. I finished the session with a good 8 min tempo run.

The plan was to do a double workout and get down to the zone in the evening but I got home after work and crashed. I figured that wasn't going to happen so I stayed away from the gym for the first day in about three weeks!

Today I hit the 430 workout (called "KyleNESS" after one of our prominent members) at the zone and combined it with the workout from Monday. The result was:

Back squat 4x3 reps: 225,245,265,225
Floor press 4x5 reps: 165,185,205,215

then from Monday's workout - "Franata" - which is alternating work periods of thrusters (front squat to press) and pullups, on a ratio of 20s work, 10s rest for 4 complete work intervals each. It went really well, a lot better than the last time I had gone through it:

Thrusters - 9,9,8,8 reps @ 95lb
Pullups - 16,14,11,10

Immediately after that, I hit another four work intervals of bodyweight squats, getting 16-18 per round.

My Franata score ties me for first on the leaderboard, which I am pretty happy with since it's Lucas (the guy who came 2nd in the BC Champs) in first and he is a beast at both thrusters and pullups. I have a feeling he'll get a few more reps next time though!

Tomorrow I'm looking to do a double workout - snatch, clean+jerk technique, handstand pushups and overhead squats in the early afternoon then the rowing portion of the workout at Crossfit Zone in the evening. It's much easier to get the rowing work done in a group setting so I'm looking forward to it!!

That's it for now...

A Date with Diane, New Ergs, Clock Malfunction

Ahhhh yes, Diane... one of the very few ladies I had yet to attempt to conquer. Monday was my first real opportunity and I'll admit I had a small amount of trepidation. Diane consists of 21-15-9 rep rounds of 225lb deadlift and handstand pushups (hspu). Deadlifts I can do, and the goal was to get all reps of them unbroken. HSPU on the other hand are not my strength - after a certain number of reps my shoulders just seem to lock up. Fortunately I have learned how to "kip" with the legs out of the bottom position, which if you time it juuuuusssst right, it makes the hspu infinitely easier.

That being said, I was never going to come close to hitting 2 minutes-ish like Pat "the Manimal" Barber (CrossFit superhero) but the benefit of doing a WOD for the first time ensures that you'll hit a PB no matter what!!

I started strongly, hitting 21 straight reps of deads then right into the hspu. The key for me is to conserve energy on these and not go to failure. I ended up getting through the 21 fairly well, then got 15 deadlifts unbroken. At that point, the wheels kinda fell off on the hspu and I had to chip away at 1-3 reps at a time. 9 more straight deadlifts, then what felt like 30 min to get the last hspu done. time:
13:23, not blazing by any means but I've come a long way since only being able to do 1 hspu about a year ago. Something to improve upon.

Other Monday training - earlier in the day I hit one of my favorite running interval workouts (I've pretty much dropped all steady state running in favor of short to long intervals). It's a combo of 3,2, and 1 minute intervals:

3 min @ 80% effort, 1min rest, 2min @ 90% effort, 1 min rest, 1min @ 95ish effort, 2 min rest. I usually do three cycles through that sequence although this past Monday I had to squeeze it in between some appointments and only got 2 cycles plus another 3 min done. I like this workout because each cycle builds on the speed of the 1 mins and pushes the intensity up each round.

Tuesday was an unintentional rest day, but a great day for the Zone... I managed to swing 6 ergs from Rowing Canada at bargain prices!! Michelle and I took them apart, bundled them into the CSCP truck and my trusty Cavalier, and shipped them down to the Zone. Now our erg fleet is up to 8 machines, with possibly 2 more to come. This is awesome and awful at the same time - we now can do more rowing as a group, and we now have no excuse NOT to do more rowing.

There is power in unified rowing and we found that out on Wednesday night when we lined up all 8 ergs for 8 repeats of 30s on, 30s off for max total metres. This was part of a WOD named after Olympic gold medallist, Andrew Byrnes, and also included working up to a 3 rep max in the front squat and push press. One of the ergs we brought in is actually the very same machine that Andrew trained on leading up to the Beijing Olympics, which is pretty cool to say the least. We also have an erg that Doug Vandor (perennial top national team lightweight rower) trained on before Beijing.

Being that some of us are in "games prep" mode for the Regionals at the end of May, we got the special treat of doing the 8x 30/30 TWICE! For the duration of the workout, I was spurred on by Steve "the beast" Solely, whose effort in training is second only to his rapier wit ;). For the second row, I had on my right the "delicate flower" herself, Krista Kitson, who was putting it ALL into those row intervals... we should have made an audio tape of the second row - sounded like the "monkey house" at the local zoo.

I managed only to drop off by 72m from the first to the second row, which wasn't too shabby, here's a summary of the day's training:

11am: Mobility work and Snatch tech
Snatch balances (3 reps) alternated with squat snatches (2 reps) from the floor: 7-8 sets from 40kg to 60kg

530pm: CFZ "andrew byrnes"
4x3 front squat - 165, 185, 205, 215
4x3 push press - 135, 155, 175, 185 (should have pushed this more, probably had 195/200 in me)
8 x 30/30 #1: 1480m total
Overall Score: 1880
8 x 30/30 #2: 1408m total

1880 was good enough for second on our leaderboard - big Jer Bear destroyed the row with a monster 1549 total m, surprise surprise. This is the same Jer who owned the 2k row at the BC sectionals with a 6:29.9 clocking... deadly.

Thursday was a chance to catch up on the wod I missed on Tuesday - the Helenator. Based off the classic crossfit workout "Helen" (3 rounds for time of 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings (55lb), 12 pullups), my version was geared to a bit more running and a few more pullups:

5 rounds for time of:
15 kettlebell swings (55lb)
200m run
15 pullups
200m run

I had intended on most people wrapping this wod up in around 14-17 minutes but most spirits were crushed with the majority of people being over 20minutes (one person at 29!!! that's savage). Tommy J had the best time on Tuesday with a bit over 15 minutes and I figured I could top that by running fast and staying really consistent with my pullups.

The rest of the class was doing snatch technique so I looked at the timing clock and when it hit 5 minutes I started my workout. It went well, all kettlebell swings unbroken, first three rounds of pullups unbroken (then 10/5 after that), and I kept a decent pace on the runs, picking it up on the parking lot and trying to keep the legs stretching on the downhill back to the gym. Unfortunately, I had set the clock earlier for 16 minutes so when it hit that time(at beginning of my 5th round) it stopped, much to my chagrin. I figured I had four rounds done at 16 min on the clock (11min total time of my workout since I started 5 min in) so can only guess that my time was around 14 minutes... but i can't on good conscience record that on the leaderboard! Oh well, bad luck, I'll have to do it again - and faster!!

All in all, the week has gone well with training so far. I'm looking to do a double tomorrow - cleans, back squats, bench press, ghd's tomorrow midday and a tough metcon tomorrow night (4 rounds for time of 5 muscle ups, 30 double unders, 20 double crunches). Rest on Saturday (or a light row) then affiliate team tryouts on Sunday... good times!

Keep fit and have fun...

Cam

Exercise tourette's syndrome, 500 row pb, lying down for time

Pic of me just post 500m row

Catching up on the weekend of training...

Saturday mornings I train a triathlon group at PISE from 830-930am, which unfortunately conflicts with Sat am classes at the zone. I usually can get down there for 10am, which is the second class, and help run that plus run the "Intro to CrossFit" session at 11. This Saturday, it was the "post" part of the Kelly workout challenge, so I figured I'd catch up on the row + pullup/burpee workout from the day before... I hadn't done a 500m in a while so thought that would be a good one to hit up.

I warmed up for about 15 min while cheering on my friends and was ready to try out a shortened stroke rowing technique I'd seen on youtube a while back. Basically for a short distance like the 500, if you're fit enough, you can do away with the "length" part of the rowing stroke and just hammer away at 40-50 strokes per minute. Note the disclaimer - if you're fit enough! I've seen a lot of "fly - and - dies" using this technique so you still have to control your energy output.

Anyways........ my previous personal best was 1:28.5, not too shabby but I knew I could do better. I got myself amped up, blocked the front and back of the erg with some weight plates, then 3,2,1 GO I hammered off the start. I was hitting 1:18 and 1:19 splits early on, a good sign. I eased off a little but kept the splits at <1:25>

I end up either just yelling with exertion, or better yet, swearing at the bar/exercise/whatever I'm doing. I figure it's got something to do with pent up emotions, but fortunately in CrossFit we let each other do all sorts of crazy things, so it just helps me fit in better ;) In my Saturday row, the yelling started at the end of each stroke from that 250m mark and got progressively louder and louder. I tried to suppress it but just couldn't. It felt like I wasn't pulling hard at all but I was still sitting 1:31-1:33 towards the end.

With 10m left, my "exercise tourette's" kicked in even more and I let out a very loud "F**K YOU!" to the rower and sailed into the finish.... 1:25.9. Everyone had a good laugh as apparently they had stopped to watch me when the yelling started mid-race. I apologized for my obscenity, which drew even more laughs. Good times overall though, a nice PB and incredible lung burn that lasted a good 30 min.

My recovery period took a bit too long and I had to run the intro (which also went long as the guy who did the baseline tapped out at the pushups and laid down for 28.5 min - I timed him in true crossfit fashion haha). I headed home disappointed that I didn't do the remainder of the workout (50 chest to bar pullups followed by 50 burpees).

Fortunately, later that day Michelle and I finished test driving cars and i felt inspired to do the rest of the wod.... well, actually I had just intended on doing the pullups when I first showed up. Quick 10 minute warm up, chalked up, hit the bar for the pullups, looking to put in a decent time. These were chest-to-bar pullups, so just like it sounds, my chest had to physically contact the pullup bar on each rep, which demands a much stronger pull and can be tricky to coordinate. Didn't start well with my arms still fatigued from the row experience early in the day but paced well through the middle and finished the pullups at 3:30 ish. With michelle urging me on, I got right into the burpees, ending up finishing the whole deal at 6:38, a 1:12 improvement over my last time and just :01 better than my buddy TeeJ!

Also trained Sunday night LAAATE (get 'em in when you can!), so here's a summary of the weekend's workouts:

Saturday 1030am: 500m row, damper at 6.5, 1:25.9 (PB by 2.6 sec!!!)

Saturday 6:30pm: OPT pullup and burpee wod: 50 ctb pullups, 50 burpees - 6:38 (PB by 1:12!!)

Sunday 9:45pm: Squat Snatches - 3x65, 3x75, 3x95, 2x115, 2x125, 1x135, 1x145 miss, 1x150 miss, 2 x 125

Front Squats - 3 x 135, 3x185, 1x205, 1x215, 1x235 (belt), 3x190, 3x190

All in all, not a bad weekend, til next time!

Cam

Training Friday April 9

Had to work on some strength and power work today, it's been a while since I worked on squat cleans, jerks, back squats etc. These movements are foundational to my training plan as they develop the raw physical ability to produce force.

With the addition of conditioning work across several time domains, as well as power endurance exercises, I can transfer this raw ability into good performances in crossfit workouts. The goal of these sessions then is twofold - firstly to increase my capability to produce force in basic structural exercises and also to hone technique for the best efficiency of movement.

Training:

Squat Clean and Jerk - 3x40kg, 3x50kg, 3x60kg, 2x70kg, 2x80kg, 1x90kg x 3 sets

Back Squats - sets of 3 reps - 80kg, 90kg, 100kg x 3 sets

Close Grip Bench press - sets of 3 reps - 155lb, 185lb, 195lb, 205lb

Overhead Squats - sets of 4 reps - 30kg, 40kg, 50kg, 60kg x 2 sets

This workout is easing me back into strength work, I will look to really ramp up the poundages as soon as possible, with the goal of hitting 105-110kg in the clean and jerk, 135kg for 3 in the squat, 225 for 3 in the close grip bench, and 80kg+ for a single in the overhead squat.

Training Thurs April 8

I always like when crossfit workouts recur. It gives me a chance to gauge my improvements in fitness and gives me targets to beat. I scheduled "Road Runner" for today, a workout that we've done twice before at CrossFit Zone but that I had not yet done. I knew it would be a good one to test myself with as some of the guys who had done it before had put up some pretty good times.

I decided to try my new New Balance shoes out... they're much lighter than my Adidas trail shoes plus the Adi's are showing significant wear. My right calf has been giving me trouble when I run and row so maybe a change in shoes will help?

Anyhow, here's what went down:

Road Runner:
Run 800m
30 sumo deadlift high pulls (sdhp) @ 95lb
run 400m
20 sdhp
run 200
10 sdhp

I ran the first 800 a little too easy, came in at 2:45 or so, with my PB on the street course being 2:30. Aside from that, hit it all pretty hard, found the anger on the second round of sdhp's, started throwing the bar around, good times.

Finish time: 7:38, all time rank - #1 as seen on www.myfrantime.com ... short but sweet, good lung burn and arm pump

Felt good to put up a good time, sub 6:45 is definitely possible though - target for next time!

Daily Training

So... it's been a few months and I've only posted one blog so I figured at the very least I should post my daily training just to keep the blogs flowing a bit more regularly. I placed 14th in the BC CrossFit sectionals a couple of weekends ago, which means I am now training for the Canadian Regionals that will be held in Calgary at the end of May. I'm hoping to put up a blog about my Sectionals experience with pics soon.

Moving forward, I have a little over 7 weeks to prepare for regionals. I feel that the most important thing for me to work on is developing more power in workouts - the ability to do the work of the wod quicker. I feel my ability to sustain a submaximal pace is pretty good but I really need to have the ability to put the pedal to the metal in some of the shorter metcons. My strength was shown to be a bit of a weakness in the sectionals, so I'll also be focusing on a 4-week block of some pretty heavy strength work.

Training from Wed April 7:

11:30am - Rowing - 4 x 1000m, 5 min rest interval. DF - 125

#1 - 3:36 sr 28

#2 - 3:34 sr 29

#3 - 3:28.6 sr 30

#4 - 3:34 sr 30

followed by: GHD situps, 4x8 (just to get back into these)

As per usual, my stroke rate drifted up over the intervals. All intervals were done with a race start but no ramped finish.

6:30pm - CrossFit Zone WOD - "the LIZ"

3 part workout - 5x4 Deads for top weight, 4x4 hang squat snatch for top weight, 4 min max double unders

Deadlift - 315 (just didn't feel right so didn't go heavier)

HSS - 115 (grip limits pull)

DU's - 240

total score - 670. Not a bad little strength stimulus, worked on accuracy and getting under the bar in the HSS.

Cam