Push ups and a mustahce

WOD
Tabata Push-ups (Gamed)
11-11-11-11-11-11-11-12
89 total

Gym was closed today so couldn't make up anything.

Later today I will be getting into character for Halloween. This year I will be going as Magnum PI. This means that I'll have to wear an awesome mustache for the duration for the weekend. I'm find any excuse to grow a mustache.

Fighting a Goat

Started a new plan to get better at push-ups today. I've been fighting this goat long enough and came up with a plan to fix that. I figured the best way to get better is to do them. I recall Joe saying that the most efficient way of working push-ups was with tabata, so here is what I came up with.

Mondays-1 round max reps
Wednesdays-Tabata Push-ups All out each round
Fridays-Tabata Push-ups Game each round

Even if this isn't the most efficient program I'm bound to make progress through brute repetition. My goal is 200 on either tabata and over 100 on max reps. This should be a fun little experiment.

1st Wednesday
Tabata Push-ups All-out
20-15-12-9-8-8-7-8
87 total

Nate

WOD
Nate
AMRAP in 20
2 Muscle Ups
4 HSPU
8 2 pood KB swings

13 rounds +1 HSPU

Once again I did bar muscle ups, it was easier than sharing rings. HSPU were tough after round 10 or so and took the most time to complete. The KB swings weren't bad. This was a fun one since none of the movements drained me too bad.

Lunges/Situps

WOD
4 rounds for time
50 Steps walking lunges
50 Sit-ups

9:12

It was nice doing this one outside, but I think I found a puddle or something while doing sit-ups.

Friday

WOD
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
155 lb Power Clean
C2B Pull-ups
1.5 Pood KB swings

17:51

This was a wod used in the northeastern qualifier...it had a 15 minute cut off. Coulda/shoulda/woulda gone fast if/but/because...No excuses.

Tabata Something Else

Today I ran Tabata Something Else since I missed it yesterday and did a pack run instead (we'll get to that later). TSE went well and I pr'd but once again I was disappointed with my push-up performance. I'm going to have to do something about that. Here's how it went.

WOD
Tabata Something Else
Pull-ups 18-13-9-10-10-9-10-10 = 89
Push-ups 12-12-11-10-9-8-6-6 = 74
Sit-ups 13-14-15-14-14-14-15 = 112
Squats 21-21-21-21-21-21-22-22 = 170

Total = 445

Sit-ups were performed unanchored with the soles of my feet together. I came all the way up and touched my feet on each rep. Hopefully everything else was full rom (I tried to keep it legit). Also, I jumped the gun and did one pull-up round before the time really started. I got 19 on that round and nullified it since it was not on the clock. Not sure how much that affected total reps.

Tuesday WOD
1.5 Mile back pack run with 25->16.5lbs

Untimed but I pushed the pace.

Since I couldn't make it to Medford yesterday, I decided to through some weight on my back and run. I do not however have any weight so I improvised with three one gallon jugs formerly filled with chocolate and now filled with water to total 25lbs. It started out fairly well, but about a block into my run I felt a little trickle down the back of my legs which continued to swamp my shoes and leave a trail of my path. One of the jugs had lost its top and my 25lb pack slowly became a 16.5lb pack and I slowly became soaked. I didn't really care that much and continued the run. However, about .5 miles into the run my ipod stopped, once again I didn't care all that much and mushed on. As it turns out, my ipod is now a fancy paperweight since it apparently shorted out from being soaked. So, I am in the market for a new ipod and coincidentally a job to pay for the new ipod. How convenient.

Muscle up redemption

Well, I still haven't gotten over that mental block for doing ring muscle ups, but I have redeemed myself for the poor showing on the 30 MU's for time I did a while back.

WOD
Tyler
5 Rounds
7 muscle ups
21 SDHP at 95lbs

16:15

That means I either squeezed 5 muscle ups and 105 SDHP into about a minute (based on my most recent 30 rep time), or I was more efficient. In this case, I think the latter is more likely. Ha. This was a good little wod. I was able to take the muscle ups (done on a bar) one at a time and rarely missed. I split the SDHP into 11-10 each round except the 4th which was 7-7-7 and the 5th which was 12-9.

This was my first workout in about a week. Last week I got sick while driving to Penn State, which by the way was a nice little trip/interview except for the nasty sinus infection I picked up. Luckily the interview went well and the sinus infection didn't hang on for more and a few days. However, last week had its ups and downs. The interview was an up for sure, but when I got back to Boston, I found out that I once again had to start from scratch on the job hunt since neither of the companies were offering me a position. So for the past few days I've been applying to everything I can. This time around I'm also going to try and find something short term that will start soon so I can start earning money (should have done this in the beginning). At least this job hunt is keeping life interesting.

Fran = Black Lung

Today I went face to face with Fran. We hadn't crossed paths since last September (and I was just fine with that). I figure it is a good annual event. As usual it hurt afterward, a lot, but not as bad as I can recall from before, a good sign. I also felt much better during the workout, another good sign. Overall I was happy with the trial and was able to make a substantial pr.

WOD
Fran
21-15-9
95lb thrusters
pull-ups

3:50 (pr by 1:05)

Maybe next time I can drop another minute. Ha. That would be cool.

This will be my only wod for a few days. Tomorrow, I will b leaving of Hershey, PA for an interview with the Penn State School of Medicine. This will be my first interview for med school and I am really excited to get it underway. Now if I could only get a response from those jobs out here. I still haven't heard anything from Harvard or Cataldo Ambulance and it's over a week beyond when they siad they would contact me. In addition to these two companies going MIA, Tutor.com apparently doesn't see me either. I was supposed to have a mock session online today for this reputable online tutoring company. I scheduled the session last week for noon, and I'll be darned if they didn't show up, so after waiting for 15 minutes (like they said) I left with hopes of finding a gig at McDonalds or something. Seriously, does anyone else go through this when looking for a job. Is it common practice to interview someone and then just not follow up? I sure hope that I'm just an anomaly and that this doesn't happen to anyone else. Oh well. Everything will come together in good time, I'm not terribly worried about it. At this point I'm just trying to enjoy the free time.

Also, check out the video I posted under random thoughts. It's SFW, so no worries. I really liked his take on the attitude of many people today and the whole 'the world owes me mentality.' Something to keep life in perspective and maybe even find a little happiness in the small things.

5 for the 5th

Well, today was my 5th day on and what better way to celebrate than a 5k? To add to a suiting wod, the weather was perfect-a light drizzle on an overcast day. I really do like running in the rain, so it was almost ideal.

Friday WOD
5k
22:22

Was shooting for sub 20 minutes, maybe when I'm not recovering. However, that's the name of the game, constantly varied (movements and conditions). Keeps it fun.

4th in a row

Today was my 4th day on and although I am sore, I feel pretty good about it. I may even go in tomorrow and hit 5 in a row, who knows.

Wednesday 091007
Thrusters
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
155-160-165-170(pr)-175(pr)-180(pr)-185(pr)-190(pr)-195(fx3)

I haven't done 1rm thrusters since the end of January so I pr'd pretty hard. It was awesome. I just couldn't explode when I was going for 195. Next time.

Thursday
WOD
AMRAP in 20
250m row
21 SDHP 95lbs
15 pull-ups

5 rounds

I think I started out a little too slowly, but this one was tough. I was shooting for 5 and hoping for 6, so I'm glad I was able to hit 5 but as always need to keep pushing to get to that next level.

Mainsite 091004

Today I did Sunday's mainstie WOD.

WOD
21-18-15-12-9-6-3
95lb Power Cleans
Sit-ups
Back Extensions

9:50

This wod felt great. All sets unbroken. I just took my frustrations from yesterday and went to it. I wasn't going to stop unless my arms fell off, and it was great. There were some faster posts on the mainsite, and I don't mean to discredit them, but all of my movements were full rom, so I'm happy with that.

I was looking for info on paleo diets and whatnot today and came across the Paleo Brands site. There is some good info on there, but I learned that a lot of the food I eat is not on their 'paleo' menu. This included bacon, sausage, and eggs (at least the amount I'm eating). I figure since their basing their lives around correct paleo info, I'm going to try and switch up what I eat so that it fits in with their parameters (list under paleo do's and don'ts). Now all I need to do is find some easy cheap recipes that I can make in bulk and eat day after day. Hopefully success will follow.

Muscle up? More like muscle down!

I haven't done muscle-ups since the last time we did muscle-ups in Omaha, so 5 months give or take. As I recall, the last time I did 30, I felt like I should have gone faster. This time around I feel doubly so. For some reason I just couldn't pull off muscle ups like I'm used to. I spent the time between struggling on the rings and knocking some bar muscle ups out. As a matter of fact most of the muscle ups this time were done on a bar. Aggravating to say the least. The tough part of it was that I know it was a mental thing, not a physical one.

WOD
30 muscle-ups for time (and a little sip from the humble cup)
~15 minute

On a lighter note, I was able to string together 82 double-unders before the workout so that was cool.

I'm still waiting to hear back on some jobs and I'm dying for at least a little structure in my life. It may sound weird, but I think I function better when I'm busy. Right now, my diet is treating me oddly, so I'm going to have to tweak it. Having other crossfitters to workout with has been awesome, but I'm finding it hard to mentally get into workouts. I guess I'm just at a weird place in time. I'm sure it will all workout in time, but for now it's kind of funky and not in the cool 70's way.

The first of the tenth

Howdy, today will probably wrap up my workouts for the week. That is unless I get some motivation tomorrow before Harpoon's Octoberfest. We shall see.

On Tuesday the mainsite called for snatch 1rm. As you may or may not know the snatch does terrible things to my shoulder. However, I am determined to find a way of making it work. While talking with the Medford crew about my dilemma, Danielle dropped some knowledge from the Burgener cert she went to the weekend prior by sharing proper shoulder positioning for the catch. I have seen many videos of people straining to keep the weight overhead while having their arms really far back. Every time I see that I cringe because that is where my shoulder is weakest. However, the tip she gave me was not to try and catch the weight that far back (fair enough, I try to do that anyway), but the fact of the matter is that further up the shoulder is actually held in joint by the scapula and the surrounding muscles. Your shoulder position should be similar to when you lift your arms overhead with palms raised vertically, like when you do the Y in YMCA. I worked on catching like that and sure enough it felt a lot better. With that in mind I went forth the tackle the mental barrier I had put in place to protect my shoulder.

Tuesday WOD

Snatch 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Got to 140 and failed at 145 4 times. That's a pr for me but in the end, I was simply not comfortable catching that much weight overhead. The mental block remains, however smaller than before.

Thursday WOD

Do each exercise unbroken
30 DB thrusters at 35lbs
30 sit-ups
30 goblet squats at 50lbs
30 push-ups
30 DB swings at 50lbs

6:07

This one was kind of fun. I liked the idea of trying to make 30 reps of each in an unbroken set (I was inspired by a workout posted on the CFB page which was inspired by OPT). The thrusters were tough, but the push-ups were by far the hardest. I didn't get out of the push-up position until I hit 30 but I did rest a bit. Even though it's not a lot of reps, I felt this workout after finishing.

Random Stuff

If you like music you should check out thesixtyone.com if you haven't already. I just found it the other day and it's full of stuff you've probably never heard. Enjoy!