brikis98's crossfit journal

[EvilYoda]

Damn, just 2 days? You know your body best, but that's cutting it pretty close. All the competitors at my gym are just tapering this week with one or two metcons to keep things in line.

Good luck, regardless. I can't wait to see how you do...I'll be busy drinking and cheering in San Diego.

 

[brikis98]

Damn, just 2 days? You know your body best, but that's cutting it pretty close. All the competitors at my gym are just tapering this week with one or two metcons to keep things in line.

My usual schedule is 3 on, 1 off but for this week I did 2 on, 2 off, so it's admittedly a bit of a gamble on my part. I often find myself pretty sluggish the first few workouts after even a moderate break (> 3 days), so I'm trying out the idea that a little more rest than normal will let me perform at my best. I think it would work well for me in general, but unfortunately, my timing has been poor: I'm long overdo for a longer break from CF and in this case, just a little rest may not be enough. I guess I'll find out this weekend

Good luck, regardless. I can't wait to see how you do...I'll be busy drinking and cheering in San Diego.

Thanks. Enjoy the games!

 

[Cruisin1]

Good Luck!

I'll be cheering at the sectionals down here in San Diego. You guys competing are serious beasts.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day.

I checked out the Crossfit Games website today and noticed that they have posted the NorCal Sectional Qualifier Results Page. I'm not sure how long it has been up, but it lists the following workouts:

Run - Overhead Squat
Thruster - KB Swing - Pull-Up
Max Floor to Overhead
Chipper

The first two are just saturday's workouts A and B from the original post. Therefore, the last two must be the still unannounced Sunday workouts. The max floor to overhead must be a clean and jerk, which means my utter suckiness at the jerk is going to come back and bite me hard (assuming I even make it to Sunday). I guess that's just the luck of the draw: had the workout been a simple max clean, I'd be in much better shape, but Crossfit always has a way of exposing weakness.

Good Luck!

I'll be cheering at the sectionals down here in San Diego. You guys competing are serious beasts.

Thanks.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day. I'm very sore, bruised and sunburned from this weekends sectional qualifier.

But yeah, man, get a video and I'll see what magic I can work I have a passion for sprints and mid-distance. I'll do anything I can do to help out.

If you're still up for giving some advice, my girlfriend shot a video of me running in the first workout of the qualifier. I'm the guy wearing sunglasses, red shirt, gray shorts and VFFs. It was shot with my digital camera and unfortunately, she used the zoom, so the quality is pretty crappy... but maybe you can make something of it anyway.

My personal take is that I keep my upper body (traps/arms/neck) too tense and that I'm landing with my feet too far in front of my body. However, I ran relatively well that day, lightly jogging the 800m in 2:55, so I'm guessing that my terrible 800m times from the week before were partially due to overtraining.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day. Still recovering from the qualifier. Legs feel fine now, but traps and shoulders are still shot to hell.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 40 minutes

As I have to work late tonight and won't be able to make it to the gym, I just went for a run in the middle of the day. I didn't really plan on any particular distance or time and ended up going for about 40 minutes. My main goal today was to work on my running technique by incorporating SC's advice:

* More forward lean: this felt very unnatural. For whatever reason, I'm much more relaxed and comfortable when I'm totally upright. I tried to lean forward at the ankles, almost fall forward and catch myself by running, which worked well at the start of the run to accelerate, but once I was going, I always ended up straightening out.

* Relaxing my shoulders/traps: I caught myself hunched up a few times, but for the most part did better.

* Better arm swing: this worked out pretty well too. I got a more fluid arm swing going instead of keeping them tucked like a goddamn t-rex

* Land my feet under my body: I tried to accomplish this by increasing my cadence a bit and pulling my feet back up as soon as they landed. Sometimes it felt good, especially at slightly higher speeds, but sometimes I got sloppy and it felt unnatural. I also noticed that I fatigued faster at the higher cadence and would slow down - probably a sign that I need lots more practice.

 

[brikis98]

Squat (deload): 135x5, 225x5, 275x5, 315x3, 335x5
OH press (deload): 95x5, 135x3, 165x3, 175x3

Now that the qualifier is over, I'm taking the opportunity to deload a bunch of my lifts and work my way back up while focusing on technique. Squats went pretty well. OH press was a grind: my shoulders are still not fully recovered from the qualifier.

SD/AZ Sectional Workout 2
Seven rounds for time of:
7 Power snatches 95lbs
7 Box jumps 30"

Time: 8:45

I put this workout into my schedule a few weeks ago, but apparently the box jumps were replaced by double-unders at the actual qualifier, so I can't really compare my time. At any rate, my calves and hamstrings were tight from yesterday's run, and were cramping pretty bad, so I didn't go 100%. Good workout though: jumping high is fun.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Speaking of jumping high, I would have figured one of the CF sectionals would've considered max vertical jump as one of the competitions by now. I'd be curious to see the results. Standing long jump would be a good one too.

 

[brikis98]

Speaking of jumping high, I would have figured one of the CF sectionals would've considered max vertical jump as one of the competitions by now. I'd be curious to see the results. Standing long jump would be a good one too.

They did just that at the Alaska Sectional:

Morning Events
1. Max Clean and Jerk
2. Vertical leap
3. Max Watts on Concept 2 rower
A time limit will be given to complete your best score in all three events.

 

[brikis98]

Run:
4min on, 3min off
2min on, 30sec off
1min on, 3min off
2min on, 30 sec off
4min on. Done!

Cover as much distance as possible in each of the prescribed time intervals.

Total distance covered: ~3.0km

Ran on a path behind my workplace, so the above distance is approximated using Google Maps. My running technique felt significantly better today. I figured out that my arms swing is synchronized with my leg stride, so by getting a faster arm swing going, I got a faster turnover. This simple change helped the rest of my body relax and I feel that my feet weren't landing out in front of me as much. The only bad thing is that my left hamstring still doesn't feel 100%, tightening up a bit when I run. I need to find a good ART person.

 

[Apocalypse23]

interesting work out routine, thanks!

 

[brikis98]

Rest day... Sort of. We drove down to Point Lobos and the primal beauty of the place gave me a massive urge to run... So I ended up jogging a few miles along the coast line. Hope it won't screw up my workouts the next few days, but even if it does, it was totally worth it.

 

[brikis98]

Deadlift: 135x5, 225x5, 315x3, 365x1, 405x1, 435x1, 455x1, 455x1, stopped

I was planning on doing 5 singles with 455, but my hamstring would not have it. It felt sore/tight once the weight got above 315 and for the two pulls with 455, it flat out hurt. I decided not to risk it and stopped. I'm not sure why my hamstring has suddenly gotten worse, but I'm going to have to do something about it.

Midwest Sectionals 54321 WOD:
For Reps:
5 minutes of Rowing for calories
4 minutes of Box Jumps for reps (24")
3 minutes of hang squat snatches for reps (75lbs)
2 minutes of wall balls for reps (20lbs, 10 ft high)
1 minute of Handstand Push-ups for reps

My results:
Rowing: 100
Box jumps: 65
Snatches: 18
Wall ball: 35
HSPU: 5
Total: 223

I think the running yesterday did interfere with my recovery, as I felt really sluggish with this workout and could not go 100%. I mentally gave up at the snatches and just went slowly after that, barely banging out any reps. If I feel like this tomorrow, I'll take a rest day.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Run:
4min on, 3min off
2min on, 30sec off
1min on, 3min off
2min on, 30 sec off
4min on. Done!

Cover as much distance as possible in each of the prescribed time intervals.

Total distance covered: ~3.0km

Ran on a path behind my workplace, so the above distance is approximated using Google Maps. My running technique felt significantly better today. I figured out that my arms swing is synchronized with my leg stride, so by getting a faster arm swing going, I got a faster turnover. This simple change helped the rest of my body relax and I feel that my feet weren't landing out in front of me as much. The only bad thing is that my left hamstring still doesn't feel 100%, tightening up a bit when I run. I need to find a good ART person.

So running's feeling a bit more natural now? That's awesome. Also, with good POSE form in VFF's, my hammies felt really tight and worn out without any injury. Be careful with that leg of your's for now. I noticed it wasn't feeling any better for DL's either. Try the ART and keep the DL frequency down for a bit. Maybe with perfecting your running form, you're utilizing your hamstrings a bit more. That could possibly explain the recent decrease in your hamstring's performance.

 

[brikis98]

So running's feeling a bit more natural now? That's awesome. Also, with good POSE form in VFF's, my hammies felt really tight and worn out without any injury. Be careful with that leg of your's for now. I noticed it wasn't feeling any better for DL's either. Try the ART and keep the DL frequency down for a bit. Maybe with perfecting your running form, you're utilizing your hamstrings a bit more. That could possibly explain the recent decrease in your hamstring's performance.

Running is feeling better, although I obviously need more practice. If you are right about POSE putting more stress on the hamstrings, it might explain my recent hamstring issues: I've run 3 times in the last 4 days, so maybe they are just burned out. I'll try to take it a bit more easy and am calling an ART guy tomorrow.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Running is feeling better, although I obviously need more practice. If you are right about POSE putting more stress on the hamstrings, it might explain my recent hamstring issues: I've run 3 times in the last 4 days, so maybe they are just burned out. I'll try to take it a bit more easy and am calling an ART guy tomorrow.

That would be my guess since most of the running stride in POSE occurs as a result of the hamstring contracting. Plus the frequency of your latest running sessions adds to the equation. Hope it feels better soon, man.

 

[brikis98]

Row: 1 minute ladder
* 1min on, 1 min off
* 1 min on, 50 sec off
* 1 min on, 40 sec off
* 1 min on, 30 sec off
* 1 min on 20 sec off
* 1 min on, 10 sec off
* 1 min on 20 sec off
* 1 min on, 30 sec off
* 1 min on, 40 sec off
* 1 min on, 50 sec off
* 1min on, 1 min off

My Performance

Round 1: 301m
Round 2: 295m
Round 3: 291m
Round 4: 286m
Round 5: 275m
Round 6: 264m
Round 7: 257m
Round 8: 260m
Round 9: 274m
Round 10: 273m
Round 11: 292m
Total: 3068m

This workout was pretty damn painful between rounds 5 and 8, when the rest was under 30 seconds.

Ring muscle-ups: 3, 2, 3, 4

It took me 3 sets to figure out that I was holding the rings off center, making the change over to the dip unnecessarily difficult. After fixing that, getting 4 reps was pretty easy, though my technique still sucks too much to get to 5. To make myself feel better, I jumped on a pull-up bar afterwords and banged out 7 in a row.

Good mornings: PVCx20, PVCx20, 35x20

I did these for a few weeks after the hamstring injury and they seemed to help a lot. After that, I forgot about them, and now my hamstring feels like crap. I'm going to *very* gradually toss them back in at the end of my workouts as rehab.

 

[brikis98]

Snatch (deload): 95x3, 115x3, 135x3, 155x3, 175x3, 175x2, stopped

As with many of my lifts, I'm deloading the snatch to work on technique. I felt pretty good until the last set, when the second rep felt pretty crappy on my hamstring. If this keeps up, I might have to lay off heavy lifting until it heals.

Double-unders and sit-ups
Double-under for 2 minutes
Sit-up for 2 minutes
Double-under for 90 seconds
Sit-up for 90 seconds
Double-under for 1-minute
Sit-up for 1-minute
Double-under for 30 seconds
Sit-up for 30 seconds

My performance
Did the sit-ups on an abmat with feet in the butterfly position.

Double-unders: 332
Sit-ups: 136
Total: 468

Pistols (holding a 10lb weight): 2, 5, 5, 10 (reps are for each leg)

My calves were pretty tight after all the double-unders, so it took a while for my ankles to loosen up so I could properly do the pistols. I still have a pretty big discrepency in flexibility between my legs: pistols with the right leg are much easier and smoother than with the left. Eventually, I warmed up and by the last set banged out 10 per leg pretty quickly.

 

[brikis98]

Rest day. Got a chiro/ART appointment at 4:15 to have my hamstring looked at.

 

[brikis98]

Recovery run: 10 minutes

I had a fun visit to the chiro yesterday for some ART: I think I was there for ~45 minutes while the doc tenderized my left leg. She found lots of "problem spots" (scar tissue, I guess) on the hamstring and spent a while working them out. I also told her to check out the adductor on the same leg, as it had been feeling weird since the hamstring injury: it never hurt, but felt like something was out of place. She quickly found a massive fibrous "problem spot" on it and said that the injury there actually seemed worse than what I had on the hamstring: in fact, she suspected that the popping noise I heard the day I got injured was more likely from this than the hamstrings. I'm skeptical, as it never really hurt, but I could definitely feel the huge anomaly on it now... and it definitely hurt while she worked on it.

Anyways, both my hamstring and adductor were sore today, so I just limited myself to a quick and easy run to get some blood flowing. I followed it up with some stretching, including lots of body weight good mornings and air squats to pump even more blood through the leg.

 

[SociallyChallenged]

Well, technically, you have the hamstring part of the adductor magnus muscle. The injury could have been a strain of that portion of the muscle. It would explain both the spot she found and the feeling you had.

 

[brikis98]

Extra rest day. My hamstring and adductor were still sore and definitely not read for the heavy lifting scheduled for today, so I decided to take the day off.

Well, technically, you have the hamstring part of the adductor magnus muscle. The injury could have been a strain of that portion of the muscle. It would explain both the spot she found and the feeling you had.

Well, the sharp pain I had shortly after the injury was, as far as I could tell, in the biceps femoris: near the top of the "partial tear" in this diagram. The last couple weeks, the pain has been more towards the bottom of the "partial tear". As for the adductor discomfort, the "problem spot" is about 6 inches from the knee, tucked just under/behind the vestas medialis. However, the discomfort I actually felt from it I could feel all the way down into the hamstring part of the adductor, right by the knee.

 

[brikis98]

Run: 4x5 min intervals w/3min recovery between rounds.

Ran in lane 4 of an olympic track (~423m per lap)

Round 1: ~2.65 laps (1120m)
Round 2: ~2.75 laps (1165m)
Round 3: ~2.65 laps (1120m)
Round 4: ~2.60 laps (1100m)

Goal for today was to try to be as consistent as possible with my pace, which meant holding back quite a bit in the beginning so I didn't burn out for the final rounds. I finished each round in more or less the same spot on the track, so I'm definitely getting a little better at pacing. After the run, I took a 3 hour hike with the gf, so my legs are pretty toast.

 

[brikis98]

Front squat: 135x5, 185x3, 225x3, 250x3, 275x3
Push jerk: 95x5, 135x5, 135x3, 165x3, 165x3, 185x3, 185x3, 205x3

I was supposed to do the C&J today, but my hamstring has not been tolerating pulls from the floor lately, so I did front squats instead of cleans. 275x3 wasn't too bad and if I find time to do front squats again, I think I should be able to get 295x3. I then did push jerk to try to improve my horrendous technique. I felt stupid jerking something I can strict press and even dumber when I found myself struggling with the weight. In fact, the 205 triple was so shaky that I will need to re-do it next time.

After the strength workout, I began warming up for a metcon that included burpees, but my right quad started to cramp up pretty bad, so I decided to just go home. I guess all the running & hiking yesterday plus front squats today was more than enough for my legs.