Monday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Push Presses (5-3-3-1-1)

I was still sore from Saturday's lifting class at Catalyst, but oddly enough, I found myself looking forward to getting more practice lifting a barbell overhead. Push presses have never been my forte, and I didn't come close to my max weight today, but it felt good to get in the groove anyway.

Metcon:

• Row 500 meters
• 30 burpees
• 10 shoulder-to-overheads (165# / 95#)

Result: 6:23

This was a quick one, but not quick enough. We last did this workout a year and a half ago, and I finished in 5:52 -- half a minute faster than my time today. I have no idea where the time went; my 500-meter row time didn't vary much, my burpees were steady and unbroken, and I used the same weight as before. Perhaps I'm just getting slow in my old age.

Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

• Strict & Kipping Pull-ups (6 sets of 5-10)

I mistakenly thought we were supposed progress to successive sets of weighted pull-ups, but the name of the game was to concentrate on form: Corkscrewing our arms to engage our lats, and driving our elbows straight down. When it comes to strict pull-ups, I've been sorely out of practice, so it was good to focus on technique rather than strain for maximum weight.

Metcon:

• 21 shoulder-to-overheads (135lbs / 95lbs)
• Row 500 meters
• 21 power cleans (135lbs / 95lbs)
• Run 400 meters
• 21 front squats (135lbs / 95lbs)

I went with 105 pounds, and decided to row 500 a second time rather than running. (My Achilles is still in less-than-spectacular shape, unfortunately.) But despite scaling the workout, I got smoked. Cranking out power cleans and front squats after a stint on the erg was mighty painful, and I ended up taking more mid-set breaks than I would've liked.

Result: 12:24. Molasses-slow. Argh.

Friday's Workout

Hoo-boy. I was supposed to sit out today's 5 a.m. class due to lack of babysitting, but my in-laws graciously volunteered to host the boys for an overnight stay at their house so I could join the rest of the early-morning nutjobs at CrossFit Palo Alto. Good thing, too, because today's was a very, very good one.

As many reps as possible in 20 minutes of:

• 400 meter run
• Max rep shoulder-to-overheads (115lbs / 75 lbs)

In other words, every time the barbell hits the floor, run 400 meters. Total score = total number of shoulder-to-overheads completed.

I went with 95 pounds, figuring it was going to sufficiently challenge me without utterly wrecking me. There've been times when I've vastly overestimated or underestimated what I can do, but judging by how exhausted I felt at the end of this workout, I'm pretty sure I picked the right weight today. 

In the first round, I completed 17 reps before having to set down the barbell. But the presses and running wore me out; by the fifth and final round, I had only 11 reps in me before time ran out.

Result: 68. I'm going to do better (or at least go heavier) next time.

Did I mention how glad I am that I didn't miss this one?

Friday's Workout

I woke up at 3:15 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. But because I'd turned in early last night, I still managed to get 6 hours of sleep. Granted, 6 hours ain't sufficient for optimal health, but at least I was rested enough to keep from dropping a barbell on my head or chucking a kettlebell through some drywall.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Pull-Ups (3 sets of 3, 2 sets of 1)

I fared better than last week, but I'm still not matching some of my previous efforts. I wish I could chalk it up to still being sick, but I suspect that the real culprit is my lack of practice.

Metcon:

For time:

• 500-meter row
• 30 burpees
• 10 shoulder-to-overheads

Yes, more rowing -- but it went surprisingly well (or, at the very least, not altogether shitty) today. I kept up a decent speed while maintaining a low stroke rate, and finished relatively quickly. I usually view the erg as a medieval torture device, but not today.

The burpees were a different matter. Normally, I'm not a burpee-basher -- in fact, there's a part of me (a very, very small part) that gets a sadistic kick out of 'em. But the rowing had injected enough lactic acid into my thighs to make the burpees extra-painful. Instead of reeling off 20 -- or even 10 -- in a row, I had to stop after every few reps just to shake out my legs. (It didn't help, by the way.)

By the time I hobbled over to the barbell, my quads, glutes and hammies were fried. Sadly, my legs weren't yet off the hook: I needed 'em to help jerk the loaded bar overhead. Even with a 115-pound weight (instead of the RXed 165 pounds), I still had to set the bar down twice before completing the set of 10 reps. (Nonetheless, I'm going heavier next time -- even if only to make myself feel like less of a wimp.)

Result: 5:52. This workout may not look like much, but my legs are still feeling it.

Monday's Workout

Still achy from Saturday, so I took it easy (relatively speaking) today.

Strength Skill:

• Cleans (2 sets of 5, 3 sets of 3)

I'm losing my footing a bit when I clean close to my bodyweight. Sloppy. My technique could use a tune-up.

Metcon:

For time:

• Run 800 meters
• 21 shoulder-to-overheads (95-pound barbell)
• Run 800 meters
• 21 shoulder-to-overheads (95-pound barbell)

Short, simple. Result: 11:31.

Monday's Workout

On top of a weekend packed with kid-oriented activities (two Halloween parties, a martial arts class, soccer practice), I spent hours decorating the front of our house, putting up cobwebs, skeletons, torn plastic sheeting, fog, sound effects and spot lighting. It was exhausting, but our neighborhood trick-or-treaters should have awesome nightmares for weeks to come. (Our kids? Not so much. "Scarier, dad. Make it scarier! Add a mummy with hair. It's not scary enough!")

After a festive night of watching baseball and scaring small children, I didn't really feel like getting up at 4:20 a.m. to go exercise. But I did it anyway, because I knew I'd kick myself later if I skipped class.

Strength Skill:

• Cleans (3 sets of 3, followed by 3 sets of 1)

I don't mind doing cleans when the barbells are relatively light, but once it creeps up to my bodyweight (135-140 pounds), I start to struggle a bit. I need to work on developing a quicker, more explosive hip drive to help me get the bar up to rack position.

Metcon:

• Run 200 meters
• 50 plyo box jumps
• 40 overhead kettlebell swings (using a 53-pound kettlebell)
• 30 burpees
• 20 dumbbell shoulder-to-overheads (using a pair of 35-pound dumbbells)

I was fine until the burpees. Normally, I can fly through 'em, but not today -- especially not after doing all those jumps and swings. And the shoulder-to-overheads were much more challenging than I anticipated; post-burpees, I struggled to get my shoulders to do what I wanted them to.

Result: 9:37. Not terrible, but I know I can do better.

Friday's Workout

Strength Skill:

Handstand Push-Ups

(Photo: CrossFit Kids)

I'm now able to crank out a bunch of handstand push-ups -- something I couldn't say just a couple of months ago. Like last week, I did 30 today, in sets of 5, but felt like I could have kept going.

Metcon:

AMRAP in 8 minutes:

• 10-meter dumbbell bear crawl
• 5 dumbbell burpees
• 5 dumbbell power cleans
• 5 dumbbell shoulder-to-overheads (my method of choice: push-presses)

Result: I was one burpee into my seventh round when the clock ran out. This was murder on the wrists, but I thoroughly enjoyed the bear crawls and burpees. (The shoulder-to-overheads? Not so much.)

Monday's Workout

I'm all kinds of terrible at power cleans. I wish I could make them look as easy as this:

Sadly, I look more like this:



As for today's metcon session, I wasn't thrilled to see rowing on the menu again.

For time:

• 500-meter row
• 30 burpees
• 10 shoulder-to-overhead barbell lifts

Result: 6:23