04/09/2012 – Monday’s Workout

Another week ahead of us. Trying to make it a good one. It’s the last week of my Nutrition Program and I want to be able to go all out this week.

We worked on Power Cleans today. I warmed up with 5 sets at 33# and 63#.

Power Clean: 73#(5)-93#(3)-103#(3)-108#(1)-108#(1)-108#(1)

Last week, I wrote out the rep scheme that I wanted to do this week. I’m glad I did that, because I hate second guessing myself. I had to different rep schemes that I could go to, depending on how the 103# felt. 103# okay, but I wasn’t confident that I could go up 10 pounds, so I stuck to 5 pounds. I did 108# twice, and then Tim wanted me to do it again. He showed me that I was jumping away from the bar as if I was afraid of it, therefore making the turnover more difficult. My setup position was at the blue line, and as I did the clean, my toes were about an inch or two away from the line. Not good. Gotta work on that. Hopefully next week I can get up to 113# or 118#.

Here was our WOD:

For Time:

21 DB Burpee Snatches, Right Hand(45#/30#)

21 Ring Dips

21 DB Burpee Snatches, Left Hand(45#/30#)

21 Ring Dips

The burpee snatches felt good, but the ring dips are my nemesis. Even using the pink band, I still didn’t go low enough. It was definitely a fun WOD though. Must practice weaknesses.

Result: 9:31

03/21/2012 – Zercher Squat PR and Elizabeth

Today was definitely a good day at CFPA. I got to ring dem bells for my PR! I worked by myself today because a lot of our five tribe members were out. Bronwyn and I were the only ones who represented for the girls. Where my girls at?!

It’s our second week for Zercher Squats, so after doing a warm up set and readjusting the height of the rack multiple times, I finally felt like I was in a good groove. Here were my loads:

Zercher Squats: 85#(5) – 105#(3) – 115#(3) – 135#(1) – 145#(1)

The squats already felt heavy at 105, maybe because I jumped too high too soon. That is why the jump between the second and third set wasn’t as high. I then made the jump to my single reps. 135 felt great, and then I loaded the bar with 140#. I checked and realized my previous PR back in December 2010 was 140. Why do my PR again, just try and add more weight. I got 145# and was happy!! Hopefully I can get to 150 or more. The PR wasn’t pretty, but when are your maxes ever pretty?

Elizabeth

21 Power Cleans(135#/95#)

21 Ring Dips

15 Power Cleans

15 Ring Dips

9 Power Cleans

9 Ring Dips

I used 83# today for the power cleans. They felt great and I tried to focus more with the hip explosion. Soon, I will conquer the 95# RX weight, SOON!!! For the ring dips, I used the red band. Another goal would be for me to do a WOD with RX’d ring dips. That would be INSANE!!!

Result: 9:53…I think I wrote 9:43 on the board, and that’s probably not right.

02/29/2012 – Wednesday’s WOD

Here’s a quick recap of yesterday’s WOD. It was our last week to work on Ring dips and I was able to get 4 BW Ring Dips. I couldn’t push out the 5th one, but I’m happy with the progress I got this cycle. I just need to practice them more.

Our WOD was a quick one.

5 Rounds For Time:

9 Deadlifts(135#/95#)

6 Hang Snatches

3 Overhead Squats

At first I thought I could do 73#, but I was testing the hang snatches at 63# and decided to stick with it. It was ugly, but I made it through. My strategy was to rest after the 5th snatch, so I could have enough energy to get the OHS done without putting down the bar. Definitely a good one.

Result: 5:54 (63#)

12/15/2012 – It’s only Wednesday…

I’ve been thinking it’s Thursday and wondering why I haven’t gotten paid yet. SIGH…I’m a day ahead. Hate that feeling.

Today at CFPA we worked on Ring Dips. I didn’t feel as strong as last week, so I think I got to practice A LOT more! I’m still stuck at 3 bodyweight reps, and I did do 1 with a 5# dumbbell. Jackie, my partner, was kicking BUTT! So awesome to be working out beside her!

Ring Dips: Red Band(5)-Purple Band(5)- Bodyweight(2)- Bodyweight(3) – Bodyweight(3) – BW+5#(1)

Our WOD was really nice and very short!

4 Rounds

5 Chin Ups

10 Power Cleans(95#/65#)

30 Running Jumps

Now the chin ups were the hardest, and I really wish I could do this workout over again. I didn’t use a kip for the first 2 rounds. When I was on the second round of the chin ups, I was doing them one at a time and jumping onto the box to get set. Why didn’t I just freakin’ kip it!! For some reason, I didn’t think I was getting the same range of motion, but everyone else got it. So, I kipped the chin ups for the last two rounds, and it went by much much faster. Still happy with my results, just wished I had gone faster with the chin ups.

Result: 6:09 RX’d

02/08/2012 – Ring Dips and 3/4 Nicole

Fun stuff today at CrossFit Palo Alto! I left the box feeling accomplished and really happy about my progress. Funny thing is, I asked my friend on Monday if I can borrow the Rogue rings that she had at her house. She said she put them in storage and would get them for me this weekend. And to my surprise, we are working on ring dips this cycle! YAAHOOOOO!

Ring Dips: 5(Red band)-5(Purple Band)-5(Purple Band)-2(BW)-2(BW)-3(BW)

Woo hoo! I got some ring dips that were body weight. It’s been a long time coming. I’m not sure they were all perfect, but it was better than the last cycle. I made progress last cycle, but when I tried to do the body weight, I couldn’t get myself out of the bottom position. So today, when I was using the band, I made sure I paused at the bottom, and focused on using my upper body and core to get me back up. Hopefully I can do 5 body weight ring dips by the end of the cycle.

Today, our WOD was 3/4 of Nicole.

AMRAP of 15 minutes:

400m Run

Max Pull Ups

I ran a total of 4 times with 4 rounds of pull ups. The breakdown was 17, 11, 12, and 10. 17 pull ups without stopping! Another YAHOOOO! My goal is to get 20 pull ups, and I never have the motivation to work on them. I always do 5 here, 5 there, with maybe 10 sometimes. I guess it has to be in a WOD for me to get them done. I need that adrenaline rush! LOL. So happy!

Results: 50 Pull Ups

11/09/2011 – Front Squats

Gotta love Front Squat days! I paired up with Rachel and we quickly did our sets.

Front Squat: 73#(5)-83#(5)-93#(5)-103#(3)-113#(3)

All the sets felt good, but I was getting tired, so I was hunching a little bit. Hopefully I can get to my PR of 140# by the end of my cycle.

Our WOD was a quick one.

For Time:

10 Ring Dips

1 Box Jump(24″/20″)

9 Ring Dips

2 Box Jumps

….

2 Ring Dips

9 Box Jumps

1 Ring Dip

10 Box Jumps

I used the purple band throughout the WOD. It seemed to fly by and I didn’t have too much trouble with the ring dips. BUT I tried an unassisted ring dip after the WOD and couldn’t do it. So weird. I know my core is weak, but why can’t I just get 1 ring dip. I’m going to try tomorrow, or work on more core exercises.

Result- 7:11

10/28/2011 – Friday’s Workout

I wasn’t too happy about how I did on Friday’s WOD, hence the late post. We did this last year, but I forgot to record it online. I was psyching myself out right before the WOD, because I looked at the time I got last year and I wanted to do better. In the end, I was slower by a minute, and my form just felt off. Thrusters took FOOORRREEEVVAAA to do.

For Time:

400m Run

21 SDHP(95#/65#)

400m Run

21 Push Press

400m Run

21 Thrusters

Result: 13:32 RX’d..I think.

We worked on Ring Dips as a strength, and nothing changed except I’m trying to work on form.

10/21/2011 – Ring Dips & The 22′s

Aaah finally Friday, and finally another great day at CFPA. It’s always great to see the same faces at 5AM on Monday when we are dead tired from the weekend. Then comes Friday, and we are all still tired, but happy that we made it through a week of strength and met-cons together. Despite any soreness or aches and pains that we may have been feeling. I love The Five Tribe!

Today we worked on Ring Dips. I felt a little stronger with the Ring Dips because I was able to use one strand of the pink band for assistance instead of the usually two. I tried to do one un-assisted but again, the core was too weak and my elbows keep flaring out. I will try again next week!

Our WOD included two movements I despise most, but want to get better at. Double Under and Rowing.

For Time do the following:

22 KB Swings(32kg/24kg)

500m Row

22 Burpees

100 Double Unders

22 KB Swings

I knew I wasn’t ready to go RX’d with the swings because I’m just not that strong yet. I grabbed the 16kg bell and thought it was a little light. So, I found the 40# bell, and it was perfect for a heavy swing. The first set of swings were easy and I got through them unbroken. I took it easy with the row and focused on using my legs to get a good pull in the end. I wasn’t going to go balls to the walls with the row. Having good form will get me the time I want…I think. I checked the clock when I was finished and it was a little over 3 minutes. Not bad I guess. The burpees took forever, and so did the double unders. I’m getting a slight improvement with the double unders because I’m not doing 3 or 4 singles in between each double under. I’m only going ONE! Slowly but surely I will get those damn double unders. The last set of swings were tough. I stopped at around 15 to take a breather. Shouldn’t of, but I did.

Result: 11:47

10/14/2011 – Tabata WOD

This will be a quick recap of Friday’s workout.

Ring dips- Just work on them. Goal is to get one unassisted with good range of motion.

TABATA

Wall balls

100m Sprints

Roll Ups

Yay for wall balls! I’m getting height on these suckers! I probably hit the 10′ target with half if my reps, and because I counted the reps that didn’t hit the target, this WOD was not RX’d.

Total Reps: 148
Wall Balls-41
Sprints-46
Roll Ups-61

05/13/2011 – Ring Dips & 2008 Games WOD

I woke up extra early today and got to CFPA before Tim, but it didn’t take long for him to arrive. This is our last day in our 3 week strength cycle and I haven’t done much this time around. We worked on ring dips, and I stuck with the purple band the entire time, trying to get that range of motion going. I’m definitely working on core strength once this baby is out. Planks, push ups, ab-mat sit ups, etc. All the good stuff.

Our WOD was a quick one, well for the “elites”. It was a 2008 Games WOD:

30 Squat Clean and Jerks(155/100)

I put 83# on the bar, and didn’t really think about going heavier. I’ve done 105# squat cleans during a WOD, but it sucked ass!!! So 83# was a good weight for me. First, I did maybe two or 3 without hesitation, but suddenly the wind caught up to me, and I rested maybe 6 -10 seconds between each rep. At the beginning, I wasn’t even facing the rest of the class, so I didn’t know how fast or slow everyone was going. I just know I was going slow, slow as a turtle!

Then around the 8th rep, I turned around and wanted to face everyone, and knew by the look on everyone else’s faces, they were feeling what I was feeling. Pure torture! Good torture though, but after every rep all of us were just pausing and catching our breathe. My form was not good either, because I started to go on my toes a lot, and then I’d cramp up. Not good. I love these fast and heavy workouts, I just wish I was going FASTER!

Result: 8:09

Happy Friday everyone!!