More downs than ups...

Last week was a rough week for me in the gym. It sucks that I feel like I've been making some great progress and then 1RM week comes and shit hits the fan.  My back wasn't feeling all that great, so that didn't help either! Along with my mind being in 50 different places at  once...it wasn't exactly an ideal week to max out.

Monday started with Back squat.  Old 1RM is 190, I was hoping for 200. All day I was thinking about that 200, but never felt the confidence to get it. So really I just shoudl've stayed home and not even tried. I got 195 half way up, but couldn't finish the lift. Called it quits and did the wod in a bad mood. Never a good combination.

Tuesday was press. I find this to be THE hardest movement to PR on. It's pure strength, no technique involved. It sucks.  I got 95# last October. I couldn't even get that on Tuesday. At least I was laughing about it that day and wasn't pissed. One of these days I'll get to 100#....I think I'm going to add in some Press strength on my own in hopes of that helping...(Bear any suggestions?)

Thursday was supposed to be weighted dead hang pull-up and max effort unbroken kipping. But since I missed Wednesday's Front Squat 1RM becuase of school, I did that instead. Was determined to get a PR since the week was off to a bad start. I wanted to at least end it on a good note. Old PR was 155 and got 160. I probably could've gotten 165, but was happy with a PR and didn't want to end on a fail if I couldn't get it. So I was happy, but it was short lived once Jer came over and made note of how he destroyed me and with Bear making note of it on FB. My efforts felt pretty worthless.  Then I did the wod which was all legs, 200m sprint, box jumps and thrusters. The first rounds of bj's were awful, my legs felt like they weighed 300# each! But it was a good one nonetheless.

Sunday I went in to open hour to work on DL that I missed on Friday. I was worried about my back so I knew this wasn't going to go as well as I wanted. I wanted 250, old 1RM is 243. But once I got to 235 and it was an ugly lift, I knew 250 was far away. I tried it though, basically stood next to the bar attempted, got like a cm off the ground and was like not worth. Did the same with 245. So I called it quits before I did anything stupid. And moved onto Grace!

Last time I did Grace was after the Life AsRX competition in October and my back was roasted then so it took me nearly 6 min, i think it was 5:43 or something. And prior to that I had never done the actual 95#, it's always been 40kg which is 88#. and that 7# difference is quite the difference. But this time I went through it RX'd in 3:35. I was happy with that. My quads were on fire. I did the first 7 tap and go, then 3, then it was a mix of singles. just dropping the bar and following it down and picking it right back up.

Then Kelly and I decided to do Josh's Hero/Suicide Wod as a team s ince we both wanted to do a little more but not smoke ourselves. took us like 17:06,

Yesterday I went to the gym after school. Only 4 more classes left and the semester is over. I can't wait!
Strength Power Snatch + OHS 1+1x7 @65-75%, I used 85# and actually did 8 rounds.

Really focused on a deadlift than a quick pull from the pockets. I tend to rush the bottom of the lift which makes me jump forward. I'm glad it was power today since I have to drop to the bottom of the squat for this lift all the time. This really made me focus on a quick turnover and landing above parallel. OHS was full depth, I was shortening it before Bear told me to go lower. Which makes sense, since that's where I catch everything and need to work from the hole!

WOD:
4 rounds FT:
20 walking lunges  (I added a womens bar over head)
10 C2D push ups
5 Ring dips  (purple band)
8:46

Saw Hannah add the bar over head in the class before me and I thought that was a good idea to add some core work into it. Sheesh that smoke my shoulders though.  Made the push ups and ring dips much harder than they already are.  Ring dips were by far the hardest part for me on these. Really need to start working on these more....I need more time in my life.

Here we go again

Haven't updated since Friday. Crazy busy and kind of been an emotional wreck and taking it out by snacking on too many apple chips, beef jerky and dark chocolate. blah. I wish I could fix everything with my magic wond and make everything better. :(

Saturday after clinical, I headed to the gym and did a quick wod that was originally programmed for Wednesday this week.

For time:
75 Burpee lateral barrier hops
50 AbMat Situps
25 Supermans

I originally thought of Open Wod 12.1 and guessed it would take me around 6 minutes to complete the burpees. The lateral hop adds to the difficulty of these compare to just jumping up and touching something 6 inches above your reach. I was just about dead on and finished them in 6:19. I could easy transition to the next burpee when I jumped left, but not when I was going right. Weird. Rest of the workout was a walk in the park and finished this one in 8:12.

Monday
Strength: Back Squat 5(60%)-3(70%)-2(80%)-2(90%)-1(95%)
114-133-153-171-181

Like usual, the hips felt pretty tight today. So I was constantly rolling on the ball between sets. I didn't warm up as much as I normall do, so these sets definitely felt heavy.

WOD:
5 Rounds of:
7 Clean and Jerks 95#
250 M row
(stair climbs before and after each row to get to the rower.)
12:34

I really enjoyed this one today. Another one where you just have to keep moving. My reps weren't tap and go on the clean and jerks. But when I dropped them, I made sure to follow the bar down and get right after the next rep. My shoulder felt pretty good during these, so I was happy with that too. Made sure to keep my back tight so I didn't feel any pain there either!
I took the first two rows a little too easy, but the last 3 were all out sprints.

Tuesday:
Strength:
Good Mornings 8-8-8-8 53#-63#-73#-83#
Negative Pull-ups (10 count descent) 3-3-3-3
*Alternate sets

haven't really done good mornings, so I wasn't going for anything heavy. Really focused on not losing my back and keeping it tight. Transitioned to the bar and boy are these difficult. Most of them were more in the 5 second range...not 10. Definite room for improvement!

Since today's wod was changed and was the one I did on Saturday. I decided to go ahead and do what was now Wednesday's wod.

4 Rope Climbs (15ft)
15 Deadlifts 130#
3 Rope Climbs
12 Deadlifts
2 Rope Climbs
9 Deadlifts
1 Rope Climb
6 Deadlifts

12:40

My simple goal through this was to get as far up the rope as possible every round. I just recently got my first rope climb, mainly because I was too chicken to try. So getting anywhere above 10 ft, I was happy. haha. My hands and biceps were smoked from the climbs. I probably got in the 12-15 ft range every climb, so I was satisfied with that. Deads were easy, made sure to keep the back tight and was good to go.

Now, I have like 50 bruises up and down my right leg. I love this sport.

Pitiful Dead lifts...

Woke up pretty tired today, but sure glad it was Thursday because that's one more day closer to Friday! :)

I went in to the gym a little early to get my back squat strength in from Monday.
Back Squat:
5 @ 102
5 @ 117
5 @ 130
5 @ 142
5 @ 157

My hips and PSOAS were super tight today, so squatting felt kind of off today... Tried stretching it out and rolling on the ball, but I think it's going to take a lot of mobility to loosen them up. The other part that sucks about sitting at a desk all day! Aside from the tightness, the weight felt good. 5th rep on the last set was a bit of a struggle, but overall great.

Strength: Jerk
5 @ 77
5 @ 88
5 @ 98
5 @ 108
5 @ 119

We haven't worked on the Jerk in a long time. In the past this has been my least favorite lift, but today I felt pretty good with it. I felt like I was dropping under the bar really well and I didn't feel the pinching in my right shoulder like I tend to with the jerk. The last two sets were definitely heavy. I failed the 5th rep in the last set, my wrists just gave out. But aside from that rep, they all felt really good.

WOD:
7 rounds of:
7 Deadlifts (225/155)
7 Lateral Bar hops
5:46??

Disappointed is all I can say about this one...My DL's were awful. The first two rounds were touch and go and my back was set and felt great. Third round, I did three and had to drop the bar because I felt my back tense up and I started to get cautious. So I started doing single reps on out. I just felt my back getting tighter and tighter. It wasn't a pain or a pinch, it was just tight. For some reason every time there are heavier deads in a wod, this always happens. I worked with Chris after the wod to figure out what to do, so I'm going to have to practice with my form a little more. My butt tends to come up first, so I'm going to have to work on bringing my knees back. ugh. Super frustrating. Once I got frazzled, I lost track of what round I was on. So I'm not sure if I did 6 or 7 or 8 rounds. I did an extra round after my 5:46 time, focusing on my back. So who knows. Definitely not my best performance and my deads definitely need work!

Snow and deadlifts!

Anyone else as excited for snow as I am?! LOVE it! The first snow fall is so pretty and relaxing! Just hope everyone is safe out there!


Strength: Deadlift 1-1-1-1-1
173-193-213-233PR-243PR (12#)

This week has been a bit of a roller coaster at the gym. I've been able to make small PR's, which is I guess is to be expected since I'm still at that year and a half mark. So I won't be making HUGE gains. I was a little nervous for setting a SRM today on the deadlift. Given that I've had a few back issues this year and haven't gone for a heavy single since January last year. But nonetheless, I was ready to tackle it but be cautious at the same time.

Mom and I shared a bar. I love watching mom lift, it's so great to see how far she's come in the gym and that she's not afraid to lift heavy weights. I believe she finished at 233# which was like a 30+ lb PR! So proud of her!

I warmed up with a few light sets just to get my back settled in and loose and ready to go. My first heavy single was at 173 and I slowly went up from there. 231 was my old SRM so I wanted to make sure that my fourth heavy single was over my old PR. 233 felt great going up, so I went up to 243. My lower back felt great through all the reps, which is where I've been having my problems. However, at 243, my upper back kind of rounded. It didn't feel terrible, but I know it wasn't the best. I decided to try and add 10 more pounds. I set up and went to pull, but could tell my upper back was going to start rounding again and decided not to follow through with the lift and just leave the bar happy with my 243 PR. I'm ready to tackle it again in the future. Maybe one day I'll make 300 :-P

WOD:
10:00 Amrap of:
10 Power cleans (115/75#)
20 wall ball sit ups (20/14#)
30 Double Unders
4 rounds +40 reps

I loved this wod! I was ready to get after this one since it was all movements I really like. My rounds of cleans were unbroken, unbroken, 9-1, 6-4, 6-4. These felt a lot better than the ones on Sunday during the hero wod. I think the additional 10# helped me keep better form. All wall ball sit ups were unbroken, and sheesh I forgot how much of a shoulder burner these are! My double unders went unbroken, 29-1 ugh!!, unbroken, 22-5-3, 10. I'm pretty sure that is the absolute most frustrating thing when you trip up on the last rep. ugh. I was shooting to beat 4 rounds and was ideally hoping I could stretch it to 5 full rounds, but fell just short of that. If I didn't trip up on the du's, I probably could've gotten all 5 rounds.

I finished off with 4 rounds of box dips to work on my triceps and keeping my arms close to my body, so I can get those ring dips. I did 4 rounds of 8 reps.

Overall, great day in the gym. Can't wait to get after the cleans tomorrow!

Tell Me Your Goals

First mental/emotional breakdown of the year because of this job, check! Ugh. It’s hard for me to stomach the thought of being at this place for another year. I can only pray that something comes along before then, because I really don’t think it’s good for me. I’m trying so hard to remind myself that it’s only a year, but it seems like so far away. I know it’s only short term, but gosh this feeling sucks.

Deadlift 5-5-5 88(40% of TM)-109(50%)-130(60%) TM=217#

De-load week, taking it easy. Main focus was on form, keeping that back tight and butt down. This video by K-Star really helped me with my form today. Looking into getting a weightlifting belt. Anybody have any thoughts or suggestions?

WOD

3 Rounds:

10 Thrusters (105/70)

15 walking lunges

20 sit-ups

4:10

Goal with this WOD was just to keep moving and do everything unbroken. Thrusters felt alright today, still felt a little tightness in my shoulders and need to drive with the hips more. Pretty satisfied overall. Afterwards, I worked on my ring dip again, I get to the bottom and get stuck. One of these days I'll get them. I also attempted some rope climbs, gotta get the technique down and I think I'll be up that rope in no time. Skill practice every day and I'll make these goals.

Food Log:

Breakfast: 3 eggs with bacon bits, palm full of almonds and an apple. Water. Lunch: 3 oz chicken and some asparagus and 2 squares dark chocolate. Water. Snack: 2 squares dark chocolate. PWO: 6oz protein shake. Dinner: salad with bacon, tomato, and hard boiled egg. 2 squares dark chocolate. Arnold Palmer.

So I’m hoping to get a little more interaction with my blog this time around. I’m hoping to see more comments and discussions either on here or when I post it to FB. So today I’m going to start with goals, inside and outside the gym. Here’s a list of some of them, not really quantifiable and kind of broad, but it’s just giving you an idea:

1. Get a new job.

2. Become a better coach.

3. Be a supportive daughter, girlfriend, friend, coach.

4. Get into the low 150’s high 140’s and maintain it.

5. Work hard at school and get A’s in my classes.

So my questions to you guys are: How can you help me with these goals? Do you have any advice? But more importantly, what are YOUR goals and how can I help you achieve your goals? Whether I’m family, a friend, your coach, or a stranger, I’m here for you, tell me how I can support you!