CrossFit workouts: August 2009 Archives

Last Wednesday, August 5:

Deadlift your body weight, or thereabouts, for as many nonstop reps as possible. (Less experienced lifters would not go that heavy; it takes several tries and a lot of deadlifting sessions to know what is a good challenge for this workout.) I used 70 kg and got 22 reps. I didn't go to failure but only to shaky legs. I've seen shaky legs lead to failure too quickly for people because it is so hard not to let go of the bar and stand... just for a second... whoops, the set is over. I need to try to do that to literal failure. But can failure be defined as a bad back position, even if the lift succeeds? Should a trainer stop a trainee's set if the back rounds and the lift is completed? In my opinion, yes, and that's how I'd define it for myself. If the next rep leads to injury, it wasn't worth continuing.

Next we divided into teams of four and each person did 150 wallball. We took turns doing 30. I used the blue ball. Our team was not fast compared to others throughout the day that were on the board - we took 22:12. Love it! I broke up only my last two sets and only for a breath here and there, not for long.

Friday, August 7: "Elizabeth" (21-15-9 full cleans and ring dips) I used 30 kg (Rx is 40) and used dip bars; no jumps on the dips. My time was 8:44.

I think Matt came up with this one.

Run 200 meters (to the corner and back), then immediately do 10 kettlebell swings.

The run starts every two minutes. Finish the whole thing in about 1:30 for almost-adequate rest before next round starts; if you get less than 25 seconds rest, shorten the run.

15 rounds (so the workout took 30 minutes).

This was grueling! I used a 20 kg kettlebell. At round 9 or 10 I thought I was going to have to shorten the run to avoid nausea. But I laid on the floor for 20 seconds before the next round and stuck with the whole run for the rest of the workout without much problem (other than severe discomfort, of course!).

My run strategy, starting around round 5: sprint almost all-out to the fire hydrant - about 40-50 meters - then slow down for the rest of the run. I figured that would save me a few seconds while I was relatively fresh each round. It did that, but it also caused me to surprise people by tearing out ahead of them at full speed, so a few of us ended up loosely competing to keep up with each other. When Alex and Jason got out ahead of me, I was happy to trail them closely rather than trying to pass, but did NOT want to let them get back to the kettlebells more than a couple of steps ahead of me. I think the feeling was mutual when I ran out ahead of them. I liked this pressure cooker, which was caused by everybody starting the run together every time.

As usual with "a lot" of "fast" running (quotes used ironically since I'm not a great runner), I ended up with a little soreness and swelling laterally inside my right knee. This evening it will  be 48 hours and it's getting better. I think our running totalled about 1.8 miles, 200 fast meters at a time. Ouch!