CrossFit workouts: August 2008 Archives

The gym had a barbecue last Friday night after lots and lots of people ran through Fight Gone Bad. My score was 276 278. This score was fine with me--the middle of the range I've scored in the past five or so times I've done FGB. My CrossFit workouts have been sporadic lately and mixed in with weightlifting and bike rides and a few runs. So I'm glad to see I haven't lost tons of conditioning.

Individual exercise scores in rounds 1, 2, and 3:
Wallball (12 lbs): 30, 22, 22
Sumo HP DL (24-kg kettlebell): 25, 19, 16
Box jump: 25, 17, 18
Pushpress (24-kg barbell): 20, 14, 19
Row (calories): 13, 10, 8

I hadn't realized how much my elbow tendonitis was bugging me. Well, I think it's tendonitis, anyway. It was making me reluctant to work out. I was doing snatches and cleans and a CrossFit workout or two a week. On Tuesday night I went with a friend--my neighbor Beth--to work out with a running trainer at the Green Lake track, and after that (we ran four or five miles), my elbow felt almost back to normal. I suppose it had to do with getting lots of blood flow into the joint and connective tissues without using it to lift anything in the process.

On Thursday I got up in the morning and went running along the lake and up the hill from Leschi, to continue working on my elbow. I'm not really into running any distance for its own sake as I prefer weightlifting, CrossFit, and other short workouts. That night I did a CrossFit workout involving a barbell complex. I'm learning to let the weight down in a safer way that puts less strain on my elbows; either dropping the weight if it's bumper plates, or letting it crash down onto my thighs if it's an unloaded bar. I think the way I hurt my elbow was by catching the weight at the bottom, stopping it with slightly bent arms.

Next day, the elbow felt pretty good. I did a bunch of cleans and then the CrossFit workout at 5:00--the dreaded kettlebell line-up. It was like a hundred degrees out and everyone was moping. I slowly completed the final round of 24-kg clean, squat, and push-press--whew. A while later I had the great pleasure of seeing one of my ex-trainees doing really strong cleans with the 24-kilo kettlebell--yay!

Today I did some deadlifting, up to five reps at 92 kg (80 percent of my max of 115), then three singles at 100 and one at 105. That was enough. My elbow feels pretty good. Not normal but not as bad as it had been.