Clean and Jerk PR and Wicked Kettlebells

A must read for the day, from Blair Morrison, Fitness is...

Monday

10 Min-3 cleans, 1 jerk from the high hang
10 min-2 cleans, 1 jerk from just above the knees
10 min-1RM power C&J

Loved the ramp up here to REALLY work on the form.  Top load was 105#, my first Clean and Jerk PR, and a PR (i think) for both lifts individually!

The best part was lifting with my BF Nikki.  We were neck and neck the whole WOD.  Mostly silent, letting each other just do her thing, but there for each other with that "you got this", "fast elbows", "deep breath".  We were so in sync it was great.  Then we both nailed the 105, each of us doubting ourselves, but believing the other had it.  Nothing more rewarding that a morning in the gym with a friend, hitting a ton of badass C&J.

Tuesday

So the strength WOD was 5xback squats with chains.  I realized that 3 weeks back in the box at the start of a six week strength series and mediocre diet are not going to get me 10lb lighter.  I'm consistently weighing in at CFOT at 165lbs.  I would like to be back to 155 by February.  I had my month to work on just getting in the groove again, now its time to hit it hard. That means more met-cons, better food, less sugar, and supplemental cardio. Ugh. I JUST want my pant to fit...I know it will come but i hate sitting all day in tight pants!!

I did the "Alt" WOD this morning...which is most often 2x worse than the oly lifts.  Today looked like this:

Evil Kettlebell WOD
At the "Infidel" level....one less than HTFU....
40 burpess, 80 kettlebell swings, 120 goblet squats, 80 KBHP, 40 jumping lunges.
Women 35/Men 53

Holy crap...doesn't look bad on paper right? Wrong. Hard as nails.  The goal was not to drop the KB, but that didn't happen, yea right. I breezed right on through the burpees, KB swings weren't too bad...knocked those out in sets of 20, squats were the ultimate killer. started with sets of 10, then moved up to sets of 15.  HP's were 10-15 at a time, and I split the lunges into 4 sets of 10.  This was a mental killer.  You just want to stop after about 50 KB swings! I finished in 28:07 and was proud of my effort even though I dropped the weight....a lot.

Small steps

After a little over a week of being sick you have to start back with small steps to see where you body is at. Are you going to hack up a lung? Will your sinuses hold on to the goo for 30 minutes? Will your heart keep a normal beat?

I still have the remanents of my cold/sinus infection, but am "feeling" better.  Yesterday, I tested myself on c_wiss's "10" workout.  I popped in a dvd for distraction and did it in my living room.  Not so much moto here, but got the work done.

"10"
10 pushups
10 abmat situps
10 squats
Time: 17min
After reading her pushup link I vowed to stay off my knees the entire time and I DID IT! They were not beautiful chest to deck, but I went to parallel or beyond each rep and no touching of the thighs on the ground. This cost me a few minutes for sure, but whatevs.  I did all the pushups off my knees and managed not to hack a lung. No more knees for me!

Today I had a little trouble finding some moto to do ANYTHING. We got our orders to report back to Washington DC this morning so my day was consumed with briefings about proper moving procedures. Oh what fun! My mind is elsewhere if you can't tell...counting the days, making appointments, worrying about where we will live next, money, and how I'm going to make all my work clothes fit in 8 short weeks. Well, they will only fit if i get my ass moving!

WOD:
~4 mile train run-easy pace
then
3 rounds
20 kbhp (35#)
20 lunges
10 ring dips (red band)
I didn't time myself on any of this.  I didn't want any pressure given how sick I've been. I'll get back to the intensity when I'm 100%.  The intensity was pretty high though, sweating, heart racing, etc. It all felt good.  Going to hit a strength WOD in the am, then its back to moving chaos!

Not so much CF this week...

So after the great Sunday WOD, Monday turned out to be a crap day--no WOD.  Tuesday I had a bunch of dental work done and was not feeling very well, but did a short WOD anyways--nice little burner

Quick WOD: 4RFT

20 pushups
20 GHD situps
20 Walking lunges-w 25# plate overhead
Time: 12:30

Wednesday I ended up in a spinning class at the gym with a friend.  I remember why I love crossfit---short, fast, varied.  An hour on the bike going nowhere is so not fun anymore. I just keep in mind its good to test the slow twitch muscles sometimes too.

Today was my ATM training run. My friend Mindi joined me on this beautiful evening. Sunny, 65 degrees, slight breeze. Just perfect! We did a great 5 mile loop that took us through the forest, on a path that skirted the forest, through park, and viola--back at my house!   It was 5.2 miles in 50:30.  According to my Garmin we averaged a 9:45min/mile pace.  A great training pace for the 10miler.  Our first few miles were just over 10:00min/miles, but we were clearly cruising at the end. Just how it should be!

Deadlifts, Lunges, Run

Yesterday we did the CFOT workout from earlier this week:

15 Deadlifts
45 Jumping lunges
400m run

12 DL
36 JL
400m run

9 DL
27 JL
400m run
Time: 17ish minutes

I so wanted to hit the elite weight of 175# for women, but had to settle for 155#.  In Jerry's prescribed WOD he wanted touch and go, no dropping.  Well, here there is no dropping whatso ever and I haven't really practiced the lowering part of the DL.  I need to find a video on proper form again. I know it should follow the same track down as it did on the pull, but it still felt weird. Without my beloved CFOT coaches, and moto from team 0515 I opted for lower weight to remain injury free.  For the run, I had to run to the other part of the gym (30-40m) and jump on a treadmill and try to get it to sprinting speed as fast as I could, hence the slow overall time.  Oh well, the workout was still killer and I love the strange looks we get! :)

Chip and I also worked out with some new CF friends--Dominic and Logan.  I met Logan at the Bank getting my German/American bank account...somehow CF got mentioned and viola, emails were exchanged and now we have some new workout buddies.  She is just starting out, but is so excited to have another woman to workout with.  Last night I worked with her on her DL form since she had only done it once or twice before.  I gave Dominic a few pointers too since his back was rounding out quite a bit. We have plans to get together next week too to hit it again.


I hope I can someday do a barbell cert---I really do love this stuff and coach it and watching the body "get it" it really fun.
They are also into mountain biking so there will be plan for that in the spring and Dominic told us about a road bike club that meets on Sundays---and it is German! Can't wait for some warmer weather to get hooked up with that group too.  (It is currently 13 degrees)