Yesterday's WOD had me tired before I even came in.
3rep Max Back Squat
establish in 15 minutes
300#
5 min Rest
3rep Max Front Squat
establish in 15 minutes
245#
I wasn't really feeling it. John kept asking me what I was shooting for, but I really had no idea. My response was "I'll wait and see how it feels." Well guess it felt better than I thought. I hit 300# on my back squat. For some reason I didn't have any recorded back squats listed in my book, but I knew that it wasn't 300. I was pretty psyched about it. That's a PR Baby!
I was equally happy with my 3rep max Front Squat, 245#. I guess that's a PR as well since I don't think we have done a 3rep Max on that movement before. My 1rep Max was @ 265#. I'd be interested to a see where that would be now.
I felt like I might have had more in the tank, but after going pretty heavy with the Back Squats earlier I didn't have enough juice left in my legs. The issue always seems to be wrist flexibility. After a while they tend to get loose, but man do they hurt sometimes.
Usually my legs are toast for days after I do heavy squats. We'll see what happens tomorrow. Actually it's the day after tomorrow I am worried about. That's when I usually feels the worse.
P.S. Thanks for crushing my weight Teehan. Bastard!!!
I had a pretty busy day planned today and I knew I was going to have trouble getting into the CraicHouse. I tried to make arrangements with John to see if I could come in at another time. Unfortunately we couldn't make any times work. Ballbag! I really wanted to hit this one. Then a miracle happened. John and Glen swung by after they were done at Craic with 2 plates and clips for the bar Glen left behind from a few days ago. It was 7:31 at night and it was on like Donkey Kong!
Malcomb warm up. One beer and go time! Who needs to get loose?
I didn't have any clothes with me so I did it in my jeans which felt a bit awkward. Of course halfway through I pulled a Teehan. If there is one thing in CrossFit that I am getting better at at a furious rate is the Teehan Pull Off!
I gotta tell ya, this one was tougher than I thought. First off it was later at night as opposed to my peak time of afternoon. Secondly, I had zero room for movement. Well, I had just enough room for the range of motion I needed. There was no moving around or dropping of the bar uncontrollably. Inches either way and I would be banging into something. My space was limited, which could work for me or not.
I have a habit of kneeling down and resting in front of the bar. It usually means I am mentally dogging it as opposed to resting. Glen always calls me out on this and did so before we even started. Everyone was on a tight schedule and Glen clearly stated that if I knelt down at anytime he is just walking out. He is also keeping the time and had to leave within 9 minutes of the workout. Lets just say that there was no room for fucking around.
I banged out the first 25 right off the bat. Glen kept saying you're not stopping till you hit 25. Sometimes when I have number in my head I cut myself short of potentially maybe doing more than that target goal. Did that make sense? I actually felt like I should have gone to failure and then started again. Who the hell knows? I suck at most of these things so who am I to game play on movements I am not efficient enough to wipe my ass with.
Regardless, I gave 100% in that moment and I cannot thank Glen and John enough their friendship and their desire to make me better. Friendships aside, their devotion pays more dividends then they probably will ever know. You're a fool not to become a part of this family!
Here are some videos of my rather sloooow "Randy" It was kind of funny. John sent me the vids and I responded back with mucho appreciato <--- TNBlish It was funny. I said to John, "Well even though I suck, at least I look good." He responded with a new TNB motto...
"Look better while sucking!" Ha Ha My own self deprecating humor got the best of me here.
B.C. is now B.T. <-- cryptic! I was looking good till I realized I was working out!
If there is one thing that I always excelled at right away when I came to CrossFit it was lifting heavy shit. Throwing around hundreds of cases a week at my work has probably help build build that foundation. Almost out of the gate I was rather shocked at the amount of weight I could throw around. I never really lifted when I was younger and when I saw Olympic movements on TV it was always intimidating. Plus they make that shit look easy. By no means am I the next Louie Simmons, I prefer to have a neck.
I'm gonna hire him to crush Teehan
Today's WOD:
5 Rounds for time:
5 Bench Press
5 Deadlift
Increase Weight each Set
Rest as Needed Between Sets
BP 225 / DL 375
Oh Baby! I felt strong today. I don't know if it was because of the extra rest or the aligning of the planets, but I had it today. I knew that my 5 rep max on the bench would be at 225. I have done that rep scheme twice recently and I always struggle with the 5th rep at that weight. This time I had no problem. Probably could have gone a bit heavier, but I wasn't sure. Next time I will attempt to establish a new 5 rep PR.
My Deadlifts felt incredibly strong. I played around on the board trying to figure out my sets with the weight. I came up with 2 plans depending upon how strong I felt after the 2nd set. My main goal was to take the board. Sorry Johnny D. I had a bit of trouble trying to figure out where my 5 rep max would lie. My 10 rep max was @315# but that was a while ago. When I finished @375# I knew I had more in me. I am thinking that I might have been able to hit 395# if not real close to it. I told John afterward that I could have PR'd my 1 rep max that night. 425# I wanted to try, but after 25 reps and a lack of time I really couldn't. I just hope I feel this way again soon so I can attempt it.
Good day. With no TapeFactory anymore and Teehan as a no show I had the board. Dave C put up a strong number as well @345# Sic! All I could think of was I was in a Conan the Barbarian Movie. This scene kept running through my head.
I saw today's WOD and was somewhat excited to do it.
3 Rounds for Max reps
1 minute each station
Air Squats
Push Press 45#
Sit ups
Ball Slams
Rest 1 minute between rounds
These are the type of WODS that I need to help improve my speed. I am cardio challenged and anything that doesn't allow me to rest too long in between movements and sets is hugely beneficial for me. I should do Fight Gone Bad style workouts more frequently.
Unfortunately I had some issues today trying to get to the CraicHouse. I couldn't make the noon class like I prefer so I decided to sign up for the 6:30pm class. Hoping that I could sneak out of work for an hour. It is literally only 2 minutes away from work so it really couldn't be anymore convenient, but little did I know that it could be....
Because of the holiday I had an overflow of salesweasels at my store today. Those who played hooky on Monday where seriously interfering with my ability to crush WODS today so now I wasn't going to be able to make the box at all. I settled in at work and starting sampling some potential future products. I remembered something about Caveman Steve telling me a story about how he signed up for a 6:30 class and he was glad he did because he was the only one there. I knew that Glen was pulling doubles for the past week while John was on vacation and I didn't want to make him stay any longer than he needed to. I texted him the following.
Me: I signed up for the 6:30 but all these salesmen keep coming in so I can't make it. Drop off a 45# bar later and a ball and I can do it tonight. :)
Glen: Are you drunk or serious?
Me: Serious. Not drunk yet.
And who shows up at my store with a 45# bar and a 20# med ball, Glen, Coach Condor and Pete. Oh shit! What did I just get myself into?
It seems at home.
After having a brief chat and a quick quality control session it was time to get to work. I knew going in that my kryptonite would be air squats. My legs suck and when I have to do a ton of air squats my knees start to kill me. I am not fan. The push presses shouldn't be too bad early on. 45# doesn't seem like much but I know with history that that shit is gonna get heavy at some point. Sit ups, should be fine and slam balls will hurt later.
1st round 156 reps
2nd round 128 reps
3rd round 121 reps
=405 reps
I was right, my knees started to hate me. This time though I could feel them in the other rounds doing sit ups. That definitely affected me more than I thought because sit ups I can usually breeze through. Push presseswere exactly as I thought. That shit got heavy toward the end. Halfway through I had to pull a Teehan and take my shirt off. I was dying.
This is exactly what I needed! I really can't thank Glen enough along with Coach Dizzle and Pete for showing up and making my night. This just proves to show how much of a community we are and what we are willing to do for each other. Although I was miserable at the end I was glad I accomplished it. At 9pm after sampling tequila, wine and beer. Who knows how many reps I could have gotten clean, sober and at noontime.
Here are some videos The Condor took.
This is Glen's demonstration of Slam Balls. Priceless! By the way, Pete is a born Quality Control Expert!
Glen yells at me. If you listen I believe you hear me telling him to F off around the 8 second mark! Ha Ha
This video is only great because around the 10 to 12 second mark someone knocked a beer over. You can hear it and see me look to my left.
This is me doing my best Teehan impression minus the chiseled body, natural good looks and speed. Bastard!
The aftermath. Miserable while everyone else enjoys a beverage. Caveman Steve randomly stopped by towards the end and was able to watch the final round of carnage.
I'm still trying to figure out if they really stopped by for my benefit or for a beer. Maybe a bit of both, but in the end we were all happy. Well everyone was happy. I was miserable. They did leave the bar behind. Do I smell future back room WODS....
I wasn't really planning on working out today. My body has been in revolt lately and for some reason it feels more tired than normal. I didn't want to miss out on today's WOD though because I thought it would be great to workout in a costume with my fellow CraicHeads. The trick was to find a costume that I could have fun with and be able to function in as well. As you can see with the above picture I chose Jason. Easy costume to put together, but I had an issue with my lower half.<---That's what she said!
Now I knew that if I wanted to really go after this WOD I would have worn shorts, but have you ever seen Jason wearing shorts? It was bad enough that I had to wear sneakers, but I sure as hell couldn't have worn boots for my running and box jumps. I ended up finding an old torn up pair of pants I had gotten from Abercrombie a million years ago. They were perfect to wear for mobility reasons, but quickly turned into a nightmare halfway through my first round. My pants kept falling down. I was tripping on them during the run, but the worst part was trying to box jump with them on. Why was I tripping on them every two seconds? I lost 40 pounds. Guess it's not a bad reason to have. John said that the time cap was 30 minutes and I used up all the time on purpose. I wasn't trying to break any records today. I had a lot of fun with it.
Kept costume on the whole time. RX!
We never looked better.
Tonight was the CraicHouse's Halloween party. Like any true CraicHead party we went late and had a ton of fun. Highlights include, drinking, arm wrestling, crazy Pukie tactics, shotgunning of beers, burpee challenge, food throwing, passing out, dancing, bread eating, walking into things, more drinking, jello shots, and more. I know there are pictures out there and I have a few, but they shall not be revealed. CraicHeads only. I don't think I got home until 4am. Love our parties.
Today's WOD was a 2 rep max Deadlift. After yesterday's let down I knew going into it that I would be able to bring back some of my confidence. Deadlifts are one of my better movements. My 10 rep max is 315#, my 5 rep max is 365# and my 1 rep max is 425# So going in I knew I would fall into the 400# plus mark. Just wasn't exactly sure where. Lifting heavy shit is always a huge condfidence builder for me. I'm usually at the top or close to the top of the board when it comes to heavy weight. Unless of course my arch nemesis Luigi is there and he was and he was waiting for me!
I must break you
Usually TapeFactory(Luigi)and I crush these movements. I knew that he would be the man to beat or tie. Somedays you have it and some days you don't. I felt pretty good today so I knew that I would be right there with him. When I showed up today he was sitting there waiting for me. I tried to extract as much info from him as I could, but he refused to give up his weight that he did earlier. All I knew was that it fell between 400# to 425#. That's a pretty big gap when you get up to that weight. So here I went....
Right off the bat, BOOM 135# like if it was a PVC pipe. Next, 225#. Snore... 315#. Let me know when I gets heavy. 365# was next. Shit! What the Fuck!?!? That was heavier than it should have been. Right there I felt I was in trouble. Now here is where I think I made a tactical error. Instead of going right to 405# I went 10 pounds less @395#. My thought process was that I will slowly work my way into the heavier weight. Oops. At 395# it got heavy real fast. That first lift is always the hardest and for some reason it killed me. Once I got it up though my second rep went down and up. BOOM like nothing. Funny I said later that if someone just handed me the weight I could rep them all day. Picking it up off the floor can be so tiring. Back in the day I would jerk the weight up or round my back, but I made it a point to keep me form as much as possible before it turned to shit where then I would just drop it and save myself a week in traction.
405# sucked! Right there I could see TapeFactory smiling. Here comes the talk. I will give him this though he did try to talk me into 410#, but I went straight to 415#. Thinking process was to use as much energy I had left and just go for it. I got halfway up and then nothing. I could feel myself losing my form so I let it go. Gently of course. I tried one more time, but that was it. Spent. In the end I expected to do better, but considering we haven't worked on deads in a while my main goal was over 400 and I hit it. As far as TapeFactory goes... I'll be there next time. He pushes me as much as I hope I push him. That's another great thing about CrossFit. Yes we all compete. We compete with ourselves and with each other, but in the end we are a family and we will all support each other till the end. I love my CraicHouse and I wouldn't trade it for the world.
On a side note. Johnny Deadlift sent me a few texts today in regard to my running issues that I discussed yesterday. He was right. Who the fuck stays after class and works on 400m runs? No one. I have been so hell bent on my double unders that I wrecked my legs to the point that they became useless for other aspects. He put it in perspective for me. If I did a 100 pull ups everyday my shoulder and hands would be just as sore. That connected. Lets work and focus in on a few goats and spread them out over a time period. Makes sense. Sometimes it takes an outside perspective and one with as much knowledge as John to get you in that place. Thank you John for your never ending support and friendship. I'm glad you rowed your little boat over from Ireland and landed here. Just wish you drank more...
