Triple Cleans

26 May 12 (Sat)

    Warmup

    25 KB Swings  (35lb)

    8 Rounds

    3 Muscle Cleans  (75lb, 85, 95, 105, 115, 125, 135, 145)

    ~1min rest

    Cooldown

    500m Row

  Was going to be 7 rounds, but I felt that I was close to my triple-max, so I did another. Used hook-grip for ~the first time in a lift (this whole WOD). Helped a lot, I think. Last round did third with normal grip & failed it, went to hook quickly and got it up. Heh. Should have listened to you earlier, Coach B.   :)   Mike Burgener's Gym

  I believe that the cleans and snatches that I do to save the knees are muscle-version rather than power cleans. From doing a little reading, I seem to find that they are similar but the muscle-clean is caught in rack position (on front shoulders) without a re-bend of the knees upon receiving the bar. In other words, a hip drive & shrug up and then catching it standing straight up. It's much less powerful than a normal clean or a squat-clean, but I can only do what I have the equipment to do.

  Having said that, this is my clean PR (Personal Record), apparently. At least I didn't have any recorded from the past.   :P

  Picture is Camille LeBlanc-Bazinet doing what she does best. Looking beautiful and kicking ass. Here's her 2012 games-page; she is doing quite well...as always.

Camille's 2012 Games

Push Press & Row

25 May 12 (Fri)

    Warmup

    25     KB Swings   (30lb)

    5 Rounds

    10     Push Press  (65lb)

    250m Row

  Push presses felt good today. Proper weight for the amount and had good hand positions. Technique makes a big difference in lifting-ability.

  Last weekend of regionals for the Crossfit Games. Here's the page for the NW region.

NW Region Crossfit Games

Swim 50s

10 May 12 (Thu)

    10 Rounds

    50m Swim   (various: back kick, side kick, freestyle)

  Bought a nose clip, but couldn't get the damn thing to stay on, I suspect because nose was already wet. Getting better at kick-drills, though.

  Week 3 of Crossfit Games starts tomorrow, and is going to be live on ESPN3. Curious to see how their coverage is. Hope it has the normal Crossfit announcers and not generic ESPN guys who don't know what they're talking about.   :/   Should be fun.

ESPN Crossfit Games Week 3

Swimming

8 May 12 (Tue)

    Warmup

    20 Pullups          (assisted 120lb)

    20 Bench Press   (95lb, smith rack)

    10 Rounds

    50m Swim          (various drills: back kick, prone kick, side kick, freestyle)

  Good and comfortable with the back kick. Still need to work on exhaling underwater in other drills without getting water up nose.

Row & Snatches

7 May 12 (Mon)

    Warmup

    20 Pullups                             (120lb)

    As Many Rounds as Possible

    250m Row

    2 Snatches, +10lb each round  (75lb, 85, 95, 105)

    ***  4 full rounds + 1 row...failed 115lb snatch

    Cooldown

    25 KB Swings                          (40lb)

  Snatches still feel awkward and weak. I suspect that it's because of needing to do power snatches, as well as not being able to move the feet at any point. The knees are really screwing with the mechanics of this lift. I may have to just switch to KB/dumbbell snatches. I'll think on it. It'd be good to switch up just for variety of movement, anyway.

  I'm a bit surprised that I'm still able to drop 10lb of assisted-weight on the pullups weekly, but that may just be from still being in the initial newb-curve of quick, early results from getting back into workouts.

I think that I'm seeing visible bodily slimming and strength gains. I could do a weekly weighing, I suppose, but it kind of goes against the grain to be worried about weight & scales. Would be nice to see some tangible, concrete effects, though. It's a little over 1 1/2 months now, so I guess that's a reasonable time to be seeing some results.  :/

Deadlift 5s

4 May 12 (Fri)

    Warmup

    20 Pullups          (assisted 130lb)

    20 Bench Press   (85lb)

    20 Situps

    25 KB Swings      (30lb)

    5 Rounds

    5 Deadlifts         (135lb, 185, 205, 215, 215)

    ***  ~1min rest

  Back's a little tight after the deads; I knew it would be from the cleans a couple days ago. Not bad, just noticeable. I was considering staying at a lighter weight and working on form, but no.   :/

Swimming 50s

3 May 12 (Thu)

    Warmup

    20 Bench Press  (85lb)

    20 Situps

    20 Pullups         (assisted 130lb)

    10 Rounds

    50m Swim         (50m freestyle, 50m back-kick, alternating each 50m)

    **  ~1min rest

  My back-kick with arms extended is working pretty well, I think. Next time I shall do the same in prone with breathe in head-up, exhale head down. My main problem with trying lap-swimmming has always been that I inhale on one side and exhale on the other, both with head out of water. Once I can get a feel for exhaling underwater, then I feel that I could make good progress in being a consistent swimmer. I have a lifetime's worth of instinct to unlearn, though.   :/

  Above picture is from the swim event at the start of the 2011 Crossfit Games. Was good to see some swimming thrown in there.

2011 Women's Beach Event    2011 Men's Beach Event    2011 ESPN Day 1 with commentary

  The ESPN link doesn't work that well sometimes, and I'm not convinced that it's day one. It does have, however, the commentary from the standard crossfit announcers & athletes that we all know and love. I don't mind ESPN showing the games...in fact I encourage it, but I really wish that there was an archive available somewhere else that I could download like in previous years.

  Here's the Part One of Sevan's behind-the-scenes of the 2011 Games (beach event). As always, Sevan makes a great, personal, funny, interesting documentary. If you only watch one video of the beach event, this is the one.

2011 Games Behind-the-Scenes Part One     Part One Youtube

  Here's an article from the Crossfit Journal written by a reporter who normally covers things like Super Bowls, baseball, etc. It seems that she really enjoyed the 2011 Games & was awed by it. Well written.

NFL Reporter at the Crossfit Games