Me Getting Strong

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.

My Eyes Were Bigger than My Mouth!

When I was a kid I would go out to eat with my family and I would order a ton of food and I would never be able to finish what I ordered. It was always a bit too much. That's what today's WOD felt like to me.

WOD

Run 400m

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Deadlift – you pick the weight
Pullups
 Run 400m

19:23

Running, blah! Deadlifts and Pull Ups, Gooood!  I get to pick my weight? Excellent. Oops!

I flirted with the idea of 315# for the deads. Why, I'm not sure. I was channeling my inner TapeFactory and I really wanted to set the bar high.  I quickly realized that I have done these schemes before and although it looks easy, that weight gets heavy real quick. I put on 225# and it felt light so I threw on 20 more for a total of 245#.  Johnny Deadlift came over and told me that if I want to get faster this is not the way to do it. Strength is not my problem. It's conditioning. I told him I felt that 245# would work for me. He then said if that's the case, make sure I do everything unbroken.  He knew I would be miserable.

The WOD started off great. I tried to set a comfortable pace on my first 400m run and I came in through the door first at 1:40 seconds. Exactly where I wanted to be. The first 10 Deadlifts were easy as well as the first 10 Pull Ups. Round 9 went similar. On round 8 I had to focus more and I could tell that I was going to be in trouble.  My energy levels were quickly being zapped. Round 7 sucked balls! At this point I was taking a lot of extra time between sets so I could finish everything unbroken at least. Oh why, oh why don't I listen??? 

I was disappointed with myself at the end. I really thought I could blast through this WOD in 15 minutes or less. I like to lift heavy and I think it's hurting my progress at this point. I talked with John later that night and we agreed that I need to focus more on lighter weights to help bring my conditioning up to speed. From now on Johnny Deadlift calls the shots. I am not even going to think about it. When I walk through that door he's just going to tell me what to do and I am going to listen. End of story. Hopefully it get me to where I think I should be and sooner than later.

Oh and we finished up with a 100 sit ups afterwards. Those were fun....

What I see when I look up at Johnny Deadlift!

That Little Extra Kick

Today's WOD was a 5 rep max Push Press. Strength days are fun and more my style. I usually walk away feeling good about myself and towards the top of the board. I know that my one rep max was 205#, but that was a long time ago. I feel like we have done a 5 rep max set before, but I had changed notebooks a while back and I didn't transfer a lot of things over. I looked at the board and scanned for that one name....... TapeFactory.

Tapefactory's weight was 185# for 5 reps. Realistically I thought I could match it. I was paired up with Afghani Steve and we went right into it.

95# for 5
115# for 5
135# for 5
155# for 5
175# for 5
186# for 4

I was so close. I did the old 1/2 pound plate trick to get him by one pound again. Unfortunately it didn't work out for me this time. My last 2 reps, 4/5 felt more like a shoulder press at that point. A third of the way up on my 5th rep I could feel my lower back straining so I just dropped the weight. I actually think I can make this weight. Normally I would have warmed up with my 1st set @ 135#, but Afghani Steve is relatively new to the movement so we made sure we worked up slowly so we could get his form down. Next time.

Right after our strength workout we had a quick WOD.

21-15-9

Push Press @95 Rx

Box Jumps 24' Rx

5 min time cap

Box jumps... We don't get along very well. The push presses at this weight was light, but a little more difficult then I expected after lifting heavy earlier. I had two goals in mind with this quick burner.

A) To finish under 5 minutes

B) To do all my Box Jumps without any step downs.

Time 4:44

I did all my box jumps without doing any step downs and I was happy about that. I did my first two rounds in 4 minutes so I knew I had plenty of time to finish. Funny, because John totally called me out on that.  Yea I could have finished a bit quicker, but my knees were killing me from the jumping. I gave myself just enough time to finish. My box jumps are improving, but it's still a huge goat for me.  A "Goat" is any exercise or movement you dislike doing or like doing but are weak at, or both. All of the above for me on that movement.

I hung around for a bit afterward and was poking around for a little extra work. Glen came up with 100 Toes to Bars for time. Sure why not. I then threw in a cash out of a 100 Double Unders. What the hell was I thinking? I was able to convince Afghani Steve to join in and then Catdoggg jumped in at that point. Afghani Steve and Catdoggg modified the workout, but I was going straight after Glen on this one. Glen and I talked and we figured 10 rounds of ten. How hard could it be? Ha Ha Ha. Right after 20 reps we both knew this was gonna suck. At one point we both stopped and looked at each other and smiled. We were only at 40 and 41 reps. Fortunately for Glen a client walked in and he had to stop. I could see him smiling as he dropped off the bar and walked by me because he knew he didn't have to finish. I continued through though and although it was not easy I did find a rhythm that made it a little less evil.  My split time before I had to cash out with the Double Unders was 100 Toes to Bars  @12:27. It then took me 4:10 to do a 100 Double Unders. I was gassed. 16:37 overall. Not too bad of a time for something that was on the fly. I had a lot of fun with it even though it was pretty tough.

Until tomorrow.

GloboGym. Turn that Frankenstein into Frankenfine!

I wasn't looking forward to today's WOD. It reeked of GloboGym. 5 rep max Bench Press. I had a really difficult time convincing myself to go, but forced myself regardless. How else am I supposed to become the complete package? Oh Baby! One of the many reasons I came to CrossFit though was to get away from these types of workouts. Albeit, this is only the second time we have done them this year, it's still a turn off for me. Part of the reason as well is that I generally suck at bench press. Even when I walked around aimlessly at a globogym I avoided this movement as often as I avoided farting in private.

• A) I could never do any heavy weight.
• B) It was intimating lifting next to a bunch of meatheads glaring you down because they lifted more than you. Dude, your roided chest is huge but the chicken I ate last night had bigger legs than you.
• C) Yea it's great to promote shoulder stability, but it by no means is the determiner of performance.
• D) Give me core strength and working from the middle out any day of the week.  

I walked in and checked out the board. Jack put up 275# for 5. No chance there. Crazy Mike did 245#. No way! Rico put up 235#. Nope. TapeFactory 225# Ugh I could shoot for a tie, but it's gonna be tough. Honestly I felt I could do 205# for 5 and that was it. So here I went.

• 135# for 5. Easy
• 165# for 5. Keeping it light still.
• 195# for 5. Getting heavier, but manageable.
• 215# for 5. I jumped higher than my intended 205# figuring that I still had energy and shoot for it now.

I was then going to do 225#, but Johnny Deadlift convinced me to put the 1/2 pound plates on like he did with Paul T last night. This would be the second day in a row that TapeFactory would be done in by one more pound.

Fuck it! I'll go for it. The first three reps weren't that bad. The fourth rep was tough and then I made a mental mistake...I paused at the top for too long before I attempted my fifth rep and I barely got it up a quarter of the way. Fail! That sucked. I also tweaked my hamstring a bit. The worst part was that Johnny Deadlift was taking a video of this so he could potentially post it up and we could antagonize TapeFactory again. Damn. I was thinking about attempting it again, but I wasn't there mentally until guess who walked back in???  TapeFactory! He immediately starts to give me shit. Oh I can't do it and if I do he'll do 230# right after. Blah Blah Blah. That fired me up and I start to prepare. Johnny Deadlift starts yelling at me to focus, Tapefacory is still giving me shit and then I hear Sean Curry out of my left ear calling me a Pussy and to just do it.  It was go time!

• 1st rep - Done
• 2nd rep -Done
• 3rd rep - Done
• 4th rep - Heavy
• 5th rep - Oh Shit! Puuuuuuuush!

I struggled badly, but I fucking did it. It felt so good to complete that 5th rep and not fail again. Yes, it was on video and TapeFactory did attempt to beat it, but he didn't have anything left in the tank. I'm not sure if the video will be released, but if it is I will definitely post that shit.

I Lift Things Up and Put Them Down!

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...

Until next time TapeFacory!