Wednesday's Workout: The Need for Speed

A fast one today.

Strength Skill:

• Deadlifts (2 sets of 5, 3 sets of 3)

I paired up with Kyle, stacking plates on the bar after every set until I could no longer lift the damned thing off the floor. I managed just one rep on the final set, despite not coming close to reaching my previous PR (set in February).

But hey: It's technique week. Speaking of which, Tim reminded us of one important pointer that I'd entirely forgotten: Keep your head in alignment with your torso, so that your neck is in neutral position relative to your spine. Don't crane up your neck by lifting your chin -- it'll put massive strain on your neck and lower back, and siphon power away from your lift.

Your starting position should look like this:

Not this:

It may not look like a big change, but it definitely helped. A lot. This is why Tim gets paid the big bucks.

To avoid spoiling the surprise for my fellow CrossFit Palo Alto members, the rest of the workout is hidden after the jump. Everyone else can feel free to check it out.


Metcon:

Wow. This one flew by.

For time:

• Run 400 meters
• 30 knees-to-elbows
• Run 400 meters
• 30 push-presses

The running was fine -- nothing spectacular. I just tried to scamper after the two fastest runners in class (the Terminator and Bob) and keep 'em within sight.

The knees-to-elbows weren't too bad, either. Unlike some folks, I can hang from the pull-up bar and touch my knees to my elbows while keeping my arms straight. (I consider this to be one of the few benefits of having a long torso and short legs.) So in one sense, this exercise is easier for me -- I don't really have to pull up with each rep. But on the flip side, I remain in a dead-hang position, which makes it difficult to launch into a strong kip to generate lateral momentum.



As for the push-presses, I just focused on cranking them out. As soon as the bar was locked out overhead, I let it drop to the front of my shoulders, ready for the next dip-drive. I squeezed out a rapid-fire set of 11, then a slightly slower set of 9, and then two ugly, molasses-like sets of 5 to complete the workout.

Result: 7:34 as RXed.

After a week of long metcons, it's been nice to get back to short, explosive workouts. Of course, Memorial Day's just around the corner, and something tells me we're not going to be doing a sub-10-minute WOD...