Abbreviated Snertz

Woke up naturally at 6am this morning, felt pretty good, so went to the track around 6:30 and did Snertz. Did it fasted and uncaffeinated, and was surprised that this didn't bother me much.

Warm-up
Set up two cones 40 yards apart.
Do all of these at 50% intensity.
•1 mile jog
•4 x 100 striders
•2 x 40 karaoke. Concentrate on quick feet.
•2 x 40 side shuffles. Stay low, and bend your knees.
•2 x 40 high knees. You can go forwards or backwards on the way back.
•2 x 40 butt kickers.
•2 x 40 skips. For height on the way down, for distance on the way back.
•30 push-ups and 60 sit-ups.
•Rest/recover

Jump’n’Sprint
•4 x (15 ground jumps + 40 yd sprint)
•4 x (15 tuck jumps + 40 yd sprint)
•30 push-ups and 60 sit-ups.
•Rest/recover

Quads of Steel
•2 x 40 lunge/twists.
•2 x 40 one-legged hops for distance.
Do 20 yards on your left leg, 20 on your right, and repeat.
•2 x 10 forward hops, 2 x 10 sideways hops
•30 push-ups and 60 sit-ups.
•Rest/recover

Last set of sprints (This is the abbreviated part, because I didn't write the workout down correctly. Grr.
•4 x 5-10-5 shuttle/cone runs. (Argh, I was supposed to do 10.)
•I was supposed to do 10 x 40 sprints but didn't.

Cool Down
•4 x 100 striders
•½ mile jog
•30 push-ups, then 30 more when I got home, for a total of 150.

Cindy PR

18 rounds. Whoa! Last time I did this (a month ago, April 25), I only got 16 rounds + 5 pull-ups.

What happened? I took Kitch's advice and started off slow - a round at the top of every minute, rather than back-to-back rounds. I failed on the 10th round, and I felt like I was doing pretty slow rounds for the rest of the workout, but apparently not all that slow. Sweet!

(Still doing jumping pull-ups of course...)

150 push-ups, 30 pull-ups

Didn't do enough push-ups or pull-ups yesterday, so doubled up today. I did alternating sets (15 push-ups, 2-3 pull-ups) at the top of every minute for 20 minutes... and then 4 more pull-ups to get up to 30. Time: 21:30.

Ultimate meets CrossFit!

14 of us showed up for the CrossFit workout tonight! I was expecting 10, so I was thrilled with the turnout.

Warm-up: Plyos & dynamic stretching
Workout: The usual intro workout:
500m row
40 squats
30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
10 pull-ups

I finished in under 6 minutes (it was 6:56 last time), but I was using a thicker assistance band than before, so I'm not sure how much I really improved. It felt good though! (So I went through a second time. :-)

Bottom-to-bottom squat tabata - I just did 12-ish squats each round. "Resting" at the bottom is a lot harder than I realized.

Notes: Still psyched about the strong turnout and all the excitement in the room. Good stuff.

Also, today is the first day in several weeks that my back and neck aren't sore at all! Finally!

Ultimate

Night Train practice - I mostly handled during the scrimmage and didn't run all that much, which was okay. I think I'm more worn out than I thought from yesterday's CFT!

Related sidenote - I'm trying out the Zone Diet this week. Scott's not around, so it's easier to measure out dinner for one. If it goes well, maybe I'll get him on board when he gets home. Aiming for 11 blocks/day.

Ate very "cleanly" today, except for a healthy dose of dark chocolate after dinner - definitely makes studying for tomorrow's orgo midterm a little more enjoyable.

Acroyoga

We learned the "beach" pose today, but unfortunately I can't find any pictures of it to post. It's pretty cool though - the base is on her hands and knees, and the flyer puts her chest on the base's back, wraps her arms around the base's body, and then extends her feet straight up into the air. I couldn't quite find my balance, but it was fun to work on. It gets even cooler when the flyer tips her feet back in the direction of the base's feet, which creates a counterbalance allowing the base to lift her hands up. Really cool looking!

Next week is our last week of class, and we're going to have it in Davis's Central Park - very public. Fun!

CFT Chez CFD

Good workout at CrossFit Davis this morning.

Warm-up
4-minute fishy game on the rower (Score: 1140), 15 air squats

CrossFit Total
Back Squat
10 x #45
5 x 65
3 x 95
3 x 135
1 x 155
1 x 165
1 x 168

Press
5 x 45
2 x 65
1 x 75
1 x 85

Deadlift
3 x 135
1 x 155
1 x 185
1 x 197
1 x 205

Score: 458

146 push-ups when I got home.

Notes
Squats - I've squatted 185 before, but I didn't get full depth, so it really doesn't count.
Press - Possibly a PR.
Deadlift - Defiitely a PR. I don't think I've lifted much more than #175 in the past. Whee!
Overall - I was nervous about my back, but it felt good throughout, even on the press. Hopefully it worked itself out...

Sunny, dry, longer hike

Took a 6.8 mile hike along the South Yuba River, in the Sierra foothills. I was diappointed that so much of the trail was so high above the river, but it was definitely nice to be out. We got to have lunch on the beach, so I got to take a little swim then. The water was cold (as cold as Lake Superior), so I didn't stay in long!

Yay Memorial Day!

3 mini-hikes

We'd planned on doing some hiking in the Sierras, but arrived to find that it was still too snowy. Even the road to the campground we wanted to stay at was impassable! We hiked across a little snow to get to the top of a ridge, and then hiked to the top of a different hill where there was a fire watchtower. We were out for 2 hours maybe.

We drove into the foothills and found a great campsite on a lake. We ate some chocolate-covered coffee beans and then set off on a hike around the lake. No trail, just scrambling over boulders and picking our way along tree roots. It was warm enough for me to take a dip! It felt great. (Only the dogs joined me though.)

Lentils, TVP, coconut milk and veggies for dinner - yum.

Sprint workout

Warm-up: jog 1 lap (2+ minutes), plyos & dynamic stretching

Sprints:
300 yds (sprint to a cone 50 yds away and back, 3x)
- Rest 1:15
200 yds (25 and back, 4x)
- Rest 1:15
200 yds
- Rest 5:00
Repeat 300, 200, 200
- Rest 2:00
Jog 2 laps (4:44)
28 sit-ups in 1 minute

Notes: Yards instead of meters because I did this in cleats on a football field. A good workout - as good for the lungs as it was for the legs. Wish I had a partner to throw with afterwards. Wish I could do push-ups! (Although part of me is happy to be free of the push-up challenge for a few days... it does get tedious.) My back doesn't feel as bad today, but maybe that's just because I took some naproxen sodium with breakfast.

I guess I'm recovering from an injury?

Got my back/shoulders/neck and arms massaged for an hour today. It felt great, and Stuart's done a great job on me in the past, but I still hurt. I thought it would be a quick fix, but I'm not cured yet. My guess is that my right lat is injured - so I guess I'll lay off the pull-ups and push-ups for a few days and see how it goes. I was planning to do a track workout tomorrow anyways, and I'll be hiking on Sunday and Monday, so hopefully that will be enough rest and I can get back into the swing of things next week!

What did I DO?

This morning I met a friend at the gym and went over some basics on how to do back squats, dead lifts and presses. In return, she showed me some should exercises she learned as a water polo player. I used light weights and did very few reps. I was pretty much just demonstrating.

This afternoon I visited my hospice patient for an hour and played my violin for her. Nothing fancy. I was a little uncomfortable turning my head all the way to the left, but it wasn't bad.

And now my neck is killing me! I don't really want to move it. Pain radiating down the sides of my spine, up into my scalp, a little down my right arm. What the heck??

Ultimate + Ultimate

Just about 2 hours of Night Train practice, probably a little over an hour of actual running around. Then straight to an IM playoff game, which we lost 13-9 or so. We put up a great fight against a team comprised mostly of college club players.

140 push-ups when I got home.

I made an appointment to get a massage on Friday... I'm not sure what's wrong with my shoulder. Push-ups felt pretty good, but I think I'll lay off pull-ups for a day or two.

25 pull-ups

Intended to do 28, but my right arm/shoulder started hurting after 20, and at 25 I figured I'd better stop. Weird pain, not sure what I did to it. Booo, it's my throwing arm...

Fran (@ CrossFit Davis)

Fran: 21-15-9 reps of:
65# thrusters
Jumping pull-ups

Time: 7:54

Notes: I was worn out this morning, had a tough time getting mentally engaged. Did good work though - my last set of thrusters was unbroken (when I finally remembered how to use my hips). Last time I did this (in March), I did 60# thrusters and assisted pull-ups, and it took me 16 minutes. Amazing how a little competition can motivate you!

Night Train practice

About 2 hours of practice, mostly scrimmaging. Just 1 female sub on our team, so I got to run around a lot, which felt great! I did my 138 push-ups on the sidelines while I was waiting to go back in.

More swimming...

It was already getting warm out when I woke up, so I put on my swimming suit and jumped in.

137 push-ups when I got back to Davis. I tried to do a set of 15 at the top of every minute, but failed on the 7th and 9th minutes. Will keep at it...

Birthday party fun

Spent the weekend celebrating a friend's birthday at his grandfather's ranch. We spent most of our time at the swimming pond, where there was a beautiful deck complete with a rope for swinging in and a little trampoline for jumping in. Several ultimate players in attendance, so lots of crazy layouts into the water. A little hiking around the ranch, and some croquet, and plenty of good food. We slept under the stars.

27 pull-ups

in under 15 minutes.

Sprint tabata + animal conditioning

Ultimate warm-up: plyos, dynamic stretching

Sprint tabata
5-minute (2 lap) cool-down jog

Animal Conditioning
5 x 30/30 tiger prowl
5 x 30/30 crab
5 x 30/30 kangaroo
5 x 15/45 sprint

135 push-ups

Notes: I was testing this out for next week's Night Train track workout, and I really like it! I wasn't sure how the last set of sprints would go, but it actually feels really good to run fast after all those awkward animal movements, and it's great to have 45 seconds of rest. The push-ups were tough - I tried to do a set of 15 at the top of every minute, but I fell behind a few times. I did them in under 12 minutes, I think. I didn't do anything (no push-ups, no pull-ups) yesterday - I was pretty sore, but I should have done them anyways. I'll do some pull-ups to tonight to make up for it.

Night Train practice

Didn't get much of a workout, since Scott and I had to leave after an hour. (Went to hear Ravi & Anoushka Shankar!)

CrossFit Davis - Tabata Ya Gotta Be Kidding

Warm-up
- Fish game on the rower = 4 minutes, 900m, 1035 points. Fun!
- KB swings and 1-arm presses (24#, 28 reps per arm)
- 15 back extensions & 15 GHD sit-ups
- Plyos & dynamic stretching

Tabata of...
Pull-ups (jumping) - 44
Sumo DL HP (65#) - 48
Wall ball (12#) - 74
Squats - 127

Notes
My lungs were fine, but my arms and legs are definitely wiped out. Such a great feeling! Need to keep working on pull-ups. Should figure out kipping one of these days...

Acroyoga!

Perfect day for acroyoga - not to windy, not too hot, and I was in the mood for a rest-ish exercise day. We learned table-on-table (one of the hardest things to base), worked some more on high flying whale, and learned the whale to cross transition, which requires lots of core strength on the part of the flyer. Super fun day!

26 pull-ups when I got home. I decided that my pull-up challenge will be to try to do 20% as many pull-ups as push-ups. Since I'm on about 130 push-ups, that makes 26 pull-ups. It was tough, but I did it! (I included some chin-ups and some alternating grips.)

Night Train practice

One drill, mostly scrimmaging

Lifting, climbing

CFWU x 2 x 12 (4 pull-ups & dips)

Deadlifts
10 x 45#
5 x 65
3 x 95
2 x 115
5 x 135
5 x 155
5 x 165

OH Squats
5 x 45#
5 x 55
2 x 5 x 65
5 x 75

A few presses (10 x 45, 2 x 75, I think)

Climbing
Purple 10c - need to figure out how to do the opening without using features
Purple 9 - (modified: features off and only purple feet) - finally figured out how to top out smoothly!!
Purple 10b "West Arete"
Black 8 - (modified: only black feet) - maybe try with features off next time?
A little bouldering - worked on the purple 11a and the yellow/blue v1

Notes
Deadlifts felt really (surprisingly) good!
OH squats are fun. I bet I can get up to 85# next time.
Climbing was good - my goal for next time is to complete all three purple runs with no stops.

21 pull-ups total today - 8 during the warm-up, 13 after climbing

Scott was at the gym with me - it's so much nicer to lift with someone that all along.

Track workout

Warm-up: Jog to track, plyos

Workout:
4 laps of: sprint the straights, jog the curves
40 throws
1 minute of push-ups (30 reps)
1 minute of sit-ups (23 reps?)
40 throws
4 more laps of sprinting/jogging

Cool-down:
A little work on making good dump cuts
Cool-down plyos, static stretching
Jog home
100 more push-ups (130 total today)

Notes: Pretty good workout - Scott helped me on my sprinting technique, and it felt pretty good, and he said it looked really good, so that's exciting! (More arm pumping, higher knees.) I think I'll assign this workout to Night Train this week.

(Ugh, I'm allergic to something out on the track and am very sneezy and drippy right now.)

Climbing

Warmed up on a 10a (red, Superman). Did my favorite orange 10c very gracefully, and in record time! White 10b+ was uninteresting. Played around on a few 10d's - I'll work on bouldering the openings while Scott the belayer is off in Uganda. Scott felt really woozy at this point - probably because his body is dealing with the 8 vaccinations he just got (yay Uganda!). So we left.

I did 21 pull-ups in the morning, and 3 more when I was done climbing.

Ultimate training

I'm the "Fitness Coordinator" for Night Train this season, which means I get to/have to come up with weekly track practices. I want to incorporate more short, intense work, at the expense of LSD, but it's hard to know where to start. Last year, the weekly schedule included: two practices, one track workout (done in small groups) and one 30-45 minute run. I'm thinking of switching the long-ish run to a tabata, and then doing farlek stuff at the track.

Stuff I've been reading today:
- Cool post about ultimate training by a CrossFitt coach in Portland, OR.
- Responses to that post - a few fun workout ideas - I like the suggestions for incorporating randomness into things, using dice or cards or the last digit on your stopwatch.
- Interview with a CrossFit Endurance guy.

Comments/advice welcome!

127 push-ups

Feeling worn out today. Did the push-ups reluctantly after dinner... they were neither fun nor easy. I've got a little shoulder soreness, I guess from yesterday's lifting. (Funny spot, just posterior to my armpit, if that makes any sense.) Mostly, though, I just feel worn out.

Ultimate + ultimate

About 1.5 hours of scrimmaging with Night Train. Man, I play better when I wear my contact lens! Then an hour-long IM game, which we won. We were tied 3-3 at half and then shut out the other team. We won 8-3 I think? I'm pretty pooped. Not many subs.

20 pull-ups when I got home, over the course of an hour.

Push jerks @ CrossFit Davis!

I finally went to my first class at CrossFit Davis - yaay!

Dynamic warm-up, similar to our ultimate warm-up.

Press, push press and push jerk technique work with PVC.

Warm-up sets with 35# bar: 10 presses, 10 push presses, 10 push jerks
Work sets: 85#, 85, 105, 105, 105, 107

We ended with some rowing to get a little met-con work in:
Row 100m at 1:55 pace, rest 15 seconds. (Towards the end, moved up to 150m rows.) Can't remember how long or how far I went... a good little HR upper to end on.

Acroyoga

Here's what we learned today (except we were outside, so it was even cooler):




125 push-ups when we got home.

Bear Complex, Take II

Based on Mie's recommendation, I tried this workout again...

CFWU x 2 x 12 (2 pull-ups, 4 dips)

Bear complex (clean + 2 thrusters, the second one starting from behind the neck)
60# x 5 x 5, 1 minute rests between sets

Notes: It made more sense today than last time: maybe because I was thinking of it as thrusters instead of squats + push presses, so it was more fluid; maybe because I stayed at just 60# and went for unbroken sets; maybe because I'm a little worn out from the weekend, so it felt tougher than last time? The behind-the-head thrusters were the hardest part. The cleans definitely felt cleanier (and therefore easier) than last time.

Also, I did 20 pull-ups a few hours prior to the workout.

Cramp Up Day 2

Lost our first game 13-8 or so. Single elimination formats are no good - I definitely had enough energy for another game or two. Did not get enough points in. I did play a greater percentage of the points, though, since we switched the gender ratio to 4/3 more often, and one woman was out with a bad ankle.

122 push-ups afterwards, with spectators!

Cramp Up Day 1

Played 4 games:
Won the first one by a little (9-7?).
Won the second by a medium amount (13-8?).
Won the third by a LOT (13-0).
Lost the fourth by a hair (13-12?).

I was pretty happy with how I played, but I certainly would have been happier with more playing time. We had 9 women, so I was only on for about a third of the points, plus I was handling a lot so didn't get to run around as much as I would have liked. It was pretty windy, but at least the rain held off until right after our last game was over!

121 push-ups back at the hotel, and some more at the party - acrobatic push-ups, though, where you do them on top of someone else, or in a big circle with your feet on someone else's shoulders. Fun! I think we got about 4 people stacked up in a head-to-toe plank tower before we collapsed (giggling). No photo documentation, sadly.

20 pull-ups

in 10 minutes

Leaving for Cramp Up (tournament in Ashland) in 20 minutes - yaaaaaay!