Of Castles and Planets

WOD

3 rounds for time:

400 meter run

21 Kettlebell Swings, 2 pood/1.5 pood

21 Burpees, jump to a height 1 foot above reach

14:17

Surprise, surprise. Another brutal workout. This one was a mental battle more than anything. Keep running, keep swinging, keep burpeeing! With only three rounds, few breaks should be taken. However, with heavy swings and nonrhythmic burpees, it was easy to lose focus and take a break. I did manage to complete the first round of swings and the last round of burpees without any rest. I'm happy with that, but wish I could say the same for the other rounds. Luckily I never once had to stop more than once during a set. The weather was great for a workout like this, not too hot and not too cold, a regular Goldilocks day.

For all you zoners out there, here is an awesome blog from Crossfit Santa Cruz that has hundreds of zone specific recipes.
http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-02-24T18%3A09%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7

Below are a few links for Ang, Jeff, and Zach (or anyone else interested in interesting stuff) that provide some more information on a few of the world's mysteries we talked about during breakfast. You know just light conversation like the apocalyptic theory for 2012 and how to harness the earth's magnetic field. Just pleasantries.

2012: there's more information than you'll know what to do with here. A lot of it is pretty thin and some of it is crap, but the beginning kind of goes over what will happen in terms of astronomy during winter solstice 2012.
http://www.greatdreams.com/2012.htm

This is Coral Castle (not cave or cove like I may have said). Once again there are a lot of theories about this guy. Regardless of these, constructing such a structure like this is truly amazing.
http://www.crystalinks.com/coralcastle.html

Title

WOD
Grappler's Tabata

Pull-ups (20w/10r x2)

Thrusters (20w/10r x2)

Hang Squat Clean (20w/10r x2)

Rest 60 seconds

Repeat the above cycle, 5 times

Men use 65#/Ladies use 45#

Another brutal workout was performed in the walls of Crossfit Omaha. Everyone pushed the limits and reaped the rewards. I had trouble functioning for many minutes after the last round. While talking to Zach about how pro athletes achieve peak performance regularly (Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, etc.) I had trouble breathing, thinking, and talking. This was several minutes after the workout, but I had to sit down, take off my jacket and just was for my heart rate to decrease. I guess that's when you know the workout was good. Here were my rounds:
Round 1: 62
Round 2: 56
Round 3: 55
Round 4: 48
Round 5: 49
Total: 270
I'm not sure of the totals for each exercise, but pull-ups were ~120, thrusters ~80, squat cleans ~70. It's give or take on the thrusters and squat cleans, but somewhere around there. The pull-ups were tougher than I thought. I was going to try and do 15 per attempt, nut that only lasted for the very first set. From there I teetered between 13 and 8 per round (slowly declining as the workout progressed). this workout was a mental killer. Thinking about doing the work only made it harder, so it was matter of just doing it. I was also facing another mental/physical struggle that you don't want to hear about. I'll leave it at that.

For those interested, my back is feeling better. The pain is now more localized and doesn't radiate as much. I'll probably be going to the chiropractor once a week until the pain is gone. I hope the plan will work. The chiropractor seems optimistic since I am in "such good general health." I just hopes it's gone soon enough so I can train without that thorn in my side. Not that it would make me any faster, just one less thing to worry about. My shoulder also feels good, and I think the best medicine might be doing snatches. It felt great after those this weekend, and I think that will help strengthen it.

Here is the presentation on peak performance I did last year. It's not much, but maybe it will help get the wheels flowing for something. Also the sources might be of value to some. Enjoy.
http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=d4tnw96_10gr3fntf9

yup

WOD
Front Squat 2x3 208
Sqaut grip dead lift 3x3 198
Press 5RM 110-115-120(x4)

To be continued...
Then again maybe not today

Snatching Hams

Another great day at the gym. Today we worked on snatches and did some GHD exercises.

WOD
Snatch Balance x 3 x 3 (shoulder trouble)
Snatch (full squat) - Heavy Single (110 being careful with the shoulder)
GH Sit ups 2 x 15 (5 lbs in extended arm)
GH Back Extensions 2 x 15 weighted as desired (50lbs)

I was an idiot and did something to my shoulder before we even began warm up while messing around with a PVC pipe. DOH! That kept me ground though. I was really feeling great today and really wanted to attack those snatches. Ha. Unfortunately through trial and error, I have found some of the exact moves that attack my shoulder. One of these is the transition on muscle snatch from the shoulder being flexed to relaxed. Because of this, I was extremely cautious and didn't get under too much weight. Jon D. was having similar issues and showed me a way to get under the bar a little safer, but I still didn't feel very comfortable. In the end I worked with lighter weight to warm up to snatch. I wish my shoulder was more stable because snatch has become one of my favorite lifts. I don't know how because I've never really done it to its fullest. But anyway I worked on the movements during the lift and felt I made some breakthrough on better understanding the technique. Next time I'm going to have to work on landing with my feet a little closer together. Today I worked up to 110 and hope to progress little by little until I know how to keep my shoulder secure during a snatch. Baby steps (so hard to do). Fun stuff as always.