11/29 Goodness Gracious!!!

Back squat 3x5
Standing press 3x5
Weighted pullup 3x5

Not much of note today, the usual Monday strength grind.  Everything's progressing nicely: back squat at 255#, press (finally on track) at 130#, and pullups at 45#, all for 3 sets of 5 across.   Power cleans and handstand pushup variations tomorrow.  Some conditioning too.
J

11/27 Stepbrothers and Applejacks



Rope climbs kill shoes

"Annie"
50-40-30-20-10 for time:
Doubleunders
Situps

6:07.  Not my best.  Two flippin' seconds off my PR of 6:05.  The fact that doubleunders were broken just once, and situps just twice makes this particularly vexxing.  Not happy, and worse, not sure how to improve this.  Early this week I intend to give "Elizabeth" a go.  Maybe that'll wash the bad taste out of my mouth.
J

11/26 Shazam!!!

Deadlift 1x5
Weighted ring dip 3x5

4 Rounds for time:
6 Handstand pushups
2 Rope climbs 15'
12 Back extensions

Good to be back in the ClubHouse after yesterday's nutritional debauchery.  Yesterday I sat and ate for a solid two hours before staggering from the table, unbuckling my belt, and attempting to stay awake for another three hours of football.  Funny how a few pounds of turkey, more starch than I've had in a month, and a glass or three of a tasty chiraz will droop your eyelids.  This morning my knees were feeling the gluten and my head was feeling the chiraz.  Nothing like deadlifts and a little gut-wrenching metcon to get the blood flowing and shake out the cobwebs.
Went up 10# in the dead to 325#, again lifting and lowering slowly and deliberately, and regripping at the bottom to avoid any bounce.  Ring dips went up 5# to an even 40.  The metcon was fun.  HSPUs were unbroken until the final 2 reps.  The rope climbs went well also, though my grip and biceps were fatiguing badly by the last round.  Had to slow them down a bit in the interest of safety.  Also managed to completely destroy an old running shoe on the descent, to the point that I was starting to feel the heat from the friction of the rope on the bottom of my foot.  I threw the back extensions in just to get a bit more low back and hamstring volume in for the week.  These were unbroken.  Naturally.
Kirsten, a CrossFitter from St. Louis, dropped in to work out with the 10:30 group.  Super sweet gal with nothing but glowing things to say about the box and our community of athletes and trainers.  Great meeting you Kirsten.  Hope we see you again soon.
Afterward, I got an hour and a half of soft tissue work from Tina, our resident massage therapist.  Like a little miracle.  Left shoulder's feeling good and my sore heel's feeling the best it has in weeks.  Helluva good morning.
J

11/25 Thanksgiving

Front squat 3x5
Bench press 3x5
Ring row 3x max reps

A Happy Thanksgiving to all my brothers and sisters out there in CrossFit nation.  I'm thankful for a lot of things and a lot of people.  I'll not go into details or I'd be here for a week.
Front squats and bench presses are progressing just like they should be.  210# in the FS, 190# in the BP, for sets across.  I've become bored with strict pullups so I decided on ring rows today.  I set the height of the rings about 12" above the pads of my GHD, which I rested my feet on.  Reps went 16, 15, 14.
Deadlifts, weighted ring dips, and some conditioning tomorrow.  Oh, and some soft tissue work with Tina.  Yesssssssss...
J

11/23 That's My Nut F**ker!!!

Power clean 5x3
Ring dips, strict 3x max reps

3 Rounds for time:
50 Doubleunders
10 C2B pullups
10 Clapping pushups

Hit this little dilly around 8:30pm at the ClubHouse with Rick, one of our members.  My hopes weren't high, as sleep was crap again last night.  The bruised heel was feeling a little better, not to the point that I'm able to use my oly shoes, but good enough to add a little weight in the power clean from last week.  Warmed up with 135 and 155# and hit the sets across with 175#.  Kept the weight moving fast and form was good.  Ring dips went 13, 11, 14.  Need to warm up better before these.  For the 2nd week in a row, my best set was the last.  In the WOD, I had my sights set on sub-5:00.  I finished the 1st round completely unbroken, picked up my jumprope, and my forearms were just screamin'.  Last 2 sets of doubleunders were badly broken into 10s and 20s, though the pullups weren't really a challenge.  I dropped off the pullup bar in the 3rd round at 4:51 and limped through the final set of pushups to finish in 5:38.  It never fails to amaze me how doubleunders can wreck the movements that proceed them.  I've heard some (who most likely struggle with the movement, if they've even tried) say that they're just a skill, and don't offer much benefit over plain ol' jumping rope.  WRONG.  Totally different movement, with far greater demands on the shoulders, core, grip, lungs, and concentration.
Rest tomorrow.
J

11/22 Cherry Passion

Back squat 3x5
Standing press 3x5
Weighted pullup 3x5

Nothing too exciting here.  A troubling issue had me up much of the night.  Was unable to clear my head, much less find recuperative sleep, so energy was pretty shitty overall for most of the day.  Stuck with 250# in the squat since last week was such a crusher.  Felt much, much lighter today.  Also of note, I've started to use my oly shoes for back squats, which I've never done in the past, as well as using a lifting belt for my heaviest sets, something I haven't done since college.  Some argue that the use of a belt limits development of the core, but I would disagree.  I believe I have a very strong core to begin with, do lots of extra core work on top of the major lifts, and have recently read a couple of excellent articles highlighting the advantages of their use from both Westside Barbell and Justin over at '70s Big.  Worth checking out if you care to search for it.  Still trying to find the ideal starting weight in the press.  Last week went 135, 115, 125#, so I'd hoped 130# would work out for all 3 sets across.  My left shoulder had other plans.  Ended up going 130, 125, 125#.  Maybe next week.  Weighted pullups went well, pretty easy at 40#.  I do these strict, on rings, starting in a pronated grip, finishing in a supinated grip.
Hopefully get some work done this week on my shoulder and still-troublesome bruised heel.  We have an excellent sports massage therapist at CFWC who is also a L1 certified trainer.  More on that later.
J

11/20 Whispers and Giggles

Complete as many rounds as possible in 8:00:
4 Handstand pushups
8 American kettlebell swings 70# (scaled up from 53#)
12 Anchored situps

Wrapped up our latest Paleo Challenge at CFWC this morning.  This was the benchmark WOD for the challenge and I was able to jump in with the group.  This is the 3rd iteration of this WOD (which is a scaled version of one from the '09 CrossFit Games) I've performed.  The 1st was with 70# and GHD situps (6 rounds and change), the 2nd, at the Paleo Challenge kick-off (9 rounds and change on 9/11) with 53# and like today, anchored situps.  Today, I managed 8 rounds+12.  HSPUs weren't bad, situps were fast, but as usual, that bigass kettlebell was just a bitch.  Breaks my heart every time.  The next natural step, of course, is to do the full, unscaled CFG version: parallette HSPUs, 70# KBSs, and GHD situps.  Have to give it a go in the next few weeks.
J