”You just keep pushing. You just keep pushing. I made every mistake that could be made, but I just kept pushing.”
- Rene Descartes.
Pain, pain, pain…
10 am, WOD Part 1 – Lions Head for Time: 33 min…
Felt quite strong today, weirdly enough my calves gave up quite early and I couldn’t really push through. Still kept a high pace and the Cape Town heat made me sweat litres. As always, very rewarding and all worth it on the top..
2.30 pm, WOD Part 2 – 5 Rounds For Time:
5 Deadlifts @ 111 kg
10 Dumbell Push Presses @ 2*20 kg
200m Row
Times: 1’16 min, 1’17, 1’17, 1’20, 1’28
Ouff! This was way harder and more painful than the ”five quite easy sprint rounds” that I had in mind. Row was what really smoked me as usual. Kept it pretty fast in the first two rounds, basically around 1’25/500m straight through, but then I just couldn’t stay there for long.
Good feeling to be pushing over head again, weirdly enough that works while pushups etc is totally out of the question right now. More needling done, felt better then before the weekend, and then I got some big, weird ”anti-inflammatory patches” that I’m hoping will help in the healing process. And hey, they smell like eucalyptus, always something…
Less and less volume throughout the week, starting with a full recover day tomorrow. I will be fit for fight on Saturday, I will be fit for fight on Saturday, I will be….
Even though my time isn’t very impressive, this was a good receipt for me! I’ve been resting for two days and taken a lot of good care of my shoulder. Today I did mobility and iced it in the morning and I’ve basically spent every night lying on the painball from hell. What is so good about this is that even though it still is very stiff, it didn’t hurt during or swell afterward the workout. Icing as we speak, so hopefully I won’t experience any setbacks tomorrow.
As for the WOD, I am pretty satisfied with how I gamed it. WB’s was a disaster in the beginning with me missing 6 or 7 reps(!) out of the first 25 just out of pure inexperience, my technique sucked! Got it straight in the end and was not taxed when I got to the triplet. Even though I should be at least a minute faster on the entire wod, I am happy with my slow pacing. I knew I had more to give all the time but kept it back to make sure I didn’t hit any wall. May sound like a chicken to you, but for me this is good stuff right now. Only thing I’m not happy with is the last T2B’s witch I broke very unecessarily at 10 reps, could have shaved some time there. Of course I was tired in the end, but as said I should be able to go faster all in all.
For the clean, won’t use excuses so let’s just state that I did safety lifts on purpose to be sure I got them…
Anyway, how could I not be expecting a decent result after such a perfect day loading up to the wod? Mobility in the morning, followed by a super nice breakfast in Muizenberg with Jobst and his family (thanks a lot guys!), my very first visit to the beautiful Nordhook Beach, and then not to forget, the 1kg of ribs that gave me enough energy for the workout!
Awsome day all in all, now it’s time for some meaningless DVD action, (is there any such by the way?), and some hours of pain on the ball.
I also wanna do a very special shout out to my very special and wonderful sister, Amanda, that has her birthday today. Would give a whole lot to be there with you right now, in my heart I always am!
Since my own workout video today was so lame, this is way more fun to watch!
11.30 am, WOD
A1. Clean High Pull, 3-3-3-3-3: 61kg/3, 70/3, 79/3, 79/3, 79/3 30s rest A2. False Grip L-Ring Pull Ups, to sternum, 5 * 90% of max reps: 8, 5, 5, 5, 5 120s rest to A1
B. Row sprints, 5 * 20 sec (rest like you feel to): Average 500m: 1’29.6, 1’28.4, 1’28.4, 1’28.4, 1’25.4
Not surpisingly, my clean setup felt way off. Haven’t done any OL for 2,5 weeks so guess I have to take that. Dave actually mailed me before I posted this and told me he thinks I too could have a better ”leg drive”, make so much sense.
Wanted to do MU-transitions but shoulder, shoulder, shoulder…
For the row, it was actually meant to be a Tabata, but for some reason I ”forgot” how to set the rower for more than one interval. Anyway, did 5 sprints and it’s just ridiculous that I had to have Jobst over my shoulder to actually do some work, the last one obviusly.
OK, maybe I shouldn’t call my self lazy after just been finishing a four hour straight shift at the box. Intro session, class and then a double Basic Course and as always I don’t even think about it as anything but pure fun. What I’m getting sick and tired of, is me letting my self of easy. I keep on making excuses in my head, ”bah, don’t go for max let the shoulder be you alibi” etc, etc. And that is just damn disturbing. Yes, I agree, rest could be smart and I promise to take the entire day off from training tomorrow, BUT if I’m gonna try to train I can at least do it full hearted.
On another note, or maybe it was the first note considering the video above, anyway, Fittest in Cape Town! It’s been in my aim for months and I refuse to make any kind of injury an excuse for not making my self justice there. Like the mighty Carl Lewis, I will be confident and smash through that competition like it was a dark chocolate piece on a Sunday!
That said, I know the people showing up will bring it as well, so it will be a very interesting chase for the title. I truly like what Jobst has done with the format. Easy movements to perform, judge and watch. However, I doubt there will be anything easy about the rep scheme, weights or how the events will be put together. To this day nobody except the creator himself knows them, exactly as it should be – prepared for the unprepared you know.
It will be a competition displaying work capacity and general fitness skills now that any kind of ”advanced movement” is out of play, I think that is awsome! Everybody will be able to do every exercise and biggest heart, body and soul will prevail.
Went to Dr. Stuart today and needling, I mean needless, to say it was painful. Drove my scooter back to the box with one arm and could barely move the other because of that cramping infraspinatus. Of course, he thought it would be a good idea to do it again asap, back tomorrowmorning it is…
Wanted to test regular Deads and this was way too easy. Grip hardest, but will definitely put this one in for my 5 by 5′s later on. Box Jumps, just didn’t have the passion today. Had just a little time before I had to go to Meggie, the super masseuse that saves my shoulder, so experimented with doing metcons just shortly after eating a full meal. Didn’t feel bad at all actually. Toes to rings was cool since u really can’t kip the same way as on a bar, well at least I have to monkey swing a lot. Unbroken and quite fast if you ask me.
Actually thought that my Tabata GHD was a good performance up til now that I checked my last score of 76. Not especially disturbed by this though, after all it was after a really short break and my thighs was already pretty stiff. Pretty happy for the consistency..
So, on the shoulder note of the day, it wasn’t 100% this morning either. Not bad, but stiff as usual. Hopefully today’s work and the rest of tomorrow will sort it out. Plan is to do short and light impact kind of metcons up til the competition next weekend, 2-3 per session and with short breaks in between.
God damn, after the very first set of PU’s I could barely get my elbows in the rack at all. Still, this period of 5by5′s got me to get 111kg for 5 reps, two times, and I’m pretty sure I can get it for 5*5 when I re-start this programming after the ”Fittest in Cape Town”. ”Super strict” PU’s just mean that I forced my self to keep the hollow position all the time and went from dead hang on every rep. Testing the shoulder, witch is doing better, and this was no problem today. Felt very strong in these actually, sold my self short on every rep and only hard part was the damn pumped forearms…
Well, chose the exercises wisely for my shoulder. For my legs? Not so wisely.. Thought I was gonna do way better on this one so it seems like I somehow managed to throw a 3-0 lead into a submission, damn my laziness and weak forehead!
As said, shoulder is getting better (sorry for repeating, but need to keep track), and I might be wishing for a miracle tomorrow if I say that I want to do 5 by 5′s of Power Cleans? We’ll just have to wait and see, will try not to risk anything so will only go for it if the rack pos is 100%. Body feels surprisingly good actually, maybe all that ball rolling and pancaking is finally paying off? Today I think I might have overdone it a bit when I fell asleep on the floor with the ball underneath my shoulderblade…
Plan was to go out at a slow and steady pace and hopefully keep around 3 mins per round, missed out on that one the first one already. Not meant as an excuse, just a note to self, but I don’t perform very well on an empty stomach in the early morning. Need to think about that for upcomping competitions..
Shoulder was no problem really, I was just slow. Need to find my focus and make sure the next challenge is mine!
However, it is still not healed, very stiff and I can’t really press off with it in a push up position. Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock…
Coached an awsome Beach Workout after that and anything involving a lot of team work including ”Team Push Ups” could only mean a lot of fun!
Sorry for a boring post, today the universe is clearly having it’s issues with me so I think I need to go to bed or something.
”Each morning when I open my eyes I say to myself: I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today.”
- Groucho Marx.
Forgot my cam, so why not review one of my fav-pics lately - I desperately need to get up on a mountain soon again...
11 am, WOD
A1. Good Mornings, 5*8 @ 61 kg 30s rest A2. L-Sit, 5*max: 8s (!), 10, 10, 10, 12 120s rest
B. ”Flight Simulator”, Unbroken Double Unders: 5/10/15…45/50/45/40…./10/5
Time: 11’25 min PB! (-57 s).
Well, trying to be smart and not let the Devil on my shoulder be right. He keeps on wispering: ”come oooon just a few pressing or pulling movements? Don’t be so lame, do ONE push ups at least, or practice a little bit of butterfly technique, pleeeeeeaaaaseee!”…
Good mornings was obviusly light, but oh so painful, my hammies are just toast. What happened with the L-sit? Uh, my quads was barely able to get me in to the position where my feet are over the front parallette, guess I should be happy with getting any kind of work in here.
For the flight sim, I was so pissed off after finishing. Never really pushed it, took it super slow in the middle part and yet I made so many clumsy misstakes. On 25 on the way down I missed 3(!) times, without being out of breath. Sweated hard, but no way near being taxed enough to excuse the misses. That said, I am in retrospect quite satisfied with this. 100% sure I can get it down under 10 mins whenever I try again with a little more focus, and that is where I should be.
Did over an hour of shoulder mobility work in the afternoon, witch actually worked fine. Hopefully I’m well enough to do the Challenge tomorrow as planned!
Oh My God, was basically all I could say during. Did Not Finish, was what I did in the middle & Laughing Out Loud, was what I was doing when I couldn’t even demo the excercises for the Basics Course, after the workout…
Gooood calories, probably excactly what my body needs right now!
4.30 pm, WOD Part 2, Rowing workout from hell! ”Thanks” Dave…
Tempo: Every interval is to be kept sub 1’45 min/500 m.
250m Row, average tempo: 1’43.5 min/500 m 90s rest
500m Row: 1’43.8 180s rest
750m Row: 1’44.1 270s rest
1000m Row: DNF!! (Kept sub 1’45 for 750m then just gave up..). 360s rest
750m Row: 1’44.8 270s rest
500m Row: 1’43.9 180s rest
250m Row: 1’29.7
OK, first let’s just make one thing clear: none of the below is any kind of excuse. It’s just facts of how much I suck at rowing.
That said, this was easily one of the top three worst workouts I’ve ever done, I was throwing up in my mouth after all of the three last rounds. The last one very self inflicted however, very smart to go for max there amigo…
Already from the beginning, I started making excuses in my head: ”Oh, my legs are so tired from the first part today. Oh, my arms are cramping from the Pendlays earlier, etc, etc..”
When I then got to the 1k I actually had my mind set on getting it done. When I couldn’t straighten my arms after 500m, I knew it was going to hurt a lot more. When I got to 750m, that was the point where all the panic in my body kept me from keeping the split and sadly enough I just dropped the handle.
All in all, I am however very satisfied with 1. having rowed 3’750m and 2. the fact that I didn’t give up, but finished the wod after all.
Another one on my never ending list of ”re-do-wods”, but I am definitely doing this soon again with a full conviction of that I can make it all the way through!
After these two weeks of shoulder problems I’ll probably have the strongest lower body in the world, or maybe just gonna end up being the most overtrained dummy out there. In one way I can definitely see improvement though, and I think that the volume put on my legs now will pay of greatly if I just keep on recovering and taking care of my body in between.
”To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.”
- Buddha.
First and last sets!
11 am WOD, Part 1 – ”Work Capacity”
A1. Back Squats (1+1/4), 5*5 @ 111kg 30s rest A2. Pendlay Rows, 5*5 @ 93 kg 120s rest
So, decreasing the rest between 1 & 2 has really increased the perception of conditioning for these work outs, just as I want it to. Happy with the setup and the stability of my Squats, not happy with the first quarter squat in the last few sets. Not sure if there’s any ”rules” for ROM here, but for me it makes sense to at least get up to the ”sticking point” under control and then be explosiv in the re-dip and full squat?
Pendlays not excactly heavy, but obviusly helped increasing the heartrate with this shorter rest.
Good workout, my piriformis & glutes med, (basicly outer parts of my ass), is super tight now. Not so surprising considering all I’m doing right now is hip extension, hip extension and some more hip extensions…
Will be back in the box soon again to do Dave’s crazy row-wod, total of 4k row is probably more than I have ever done before. Besides knowing me, you guys shouldn’t be surprised when I say that I obviusly aim for an average of sub 1’45/500m over the entire wod, probably way to hard but hey, overachiever is my middle name!
Yesterday all about the squat, today all about the deadlift. Sumo is killing my grip so had to use the mix grip after a while. Not super straight in my back but feels ok. Why do I suck at jumping? I’m a pretty explosive guy, think I should be able to do a lot more than this.
Metcon, well without the wait between rounds, I think I should be satisfied to get it unbroken. Rest day tomorrow and I think that my QL’s will be very thankful for that.
On another note, I’ve decided to get some anti inflammatories now. I’m less than three weeks away from competition, really can’t risk not having my shoulder back in place…
Two great things today, first I helped out coaching the regular 5.30 class. Was about Snatching and Over Head Squatting, loved it. Very technical and super challenging for my coaching skills, but the guys did great and I think I got it all together pretty well in the end. As for the second great thing, one of my blog ”fans” brought me the best gift ever. Jobst mother clearly know excactly witch buttons to press to get me to like her instantly:
Not only is the chocolate dark, it’s even BIGGER than the ones I usually get down here!
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