Saturday Triple WOD Extravaganza - 01/23/10

I was a little nervous Friday night not knowing what the workouts would look like the following day. I figured they would be short and that was good. I got to bed early, about 9:30, but was wide awake at 5am. Sleeping in wasn't an option.

I was the first one at the gym. Took care of business, got the blood pumping and I was primed and ready to go. The first workout was right up my alley!

500m row - 440m run

The row went well - pulled a 126.4 - which is my PR 500m row. Matt wasn't too far behind me. I took a couple of seconds to unstrap and stand up. The first 15 strides felt clumsy. Matt popped off his rower like a jack in the box.

The run didn't feel strong. Matt passed me in the last 50m which was disappointing. I didn't seem to have a whole lot of strength in my hamstrings to push faster and couldn't quite find my stride. I would have been better off running a slow 800m warm up before the WOD. I'll have to remember that next go around when running is involved.

Matt 3:13
Garth 3:18
Pete 3:25
Tom 3:36
Brit 3:57

WDO #2 didn't play to my strengths but I feel like I did ok considering the previous week of workouts.

:90 Clean and Jerks
:30 Rest
:90 Ring Dips
:30 Rest
:90 Front Squats
:30 Rest
:90 Burpees

I put my hands on the bar and never let go on the clean and jerks for a total of 23. I figured out how to speed up at about 10 reps by thrusting out of a moderate squat after the clean. If I'd figured out the movement earlier, I could have squeezed in a few more reps! This is going to come into play next time I do Grace. Sub 3 minutes easy :)

The ring dips were really disappointing - burned out early. I tried going too long too fast - right out of the gate. If I'd broken it up into sets of 3 with short rests, I would have been able to do more. After 17, I couldn't quite get my arms straight and after 2 failed attempts, I gave it up and moved on.

I cranked out 25 front squats but dropped the bar with 10 seconds left on the clock. That was stupid! I thought I'd save it for the burpees but that was a very bad idea. I should have held onto the bar and cranked out another 5 front squats. In a WOD like this, I'll absolutely remember that on the next go around.

Burpees were horrible - don't know that I could have sped these up. I was having one hell of a time getting back up after hitting the ground. Finished 22 burpees.

Pete 118
Tom 101
Matt 96
Garth 87
Brit 65

So if I could have come up with 3 more clusters, 5 more front squats and 5 more ring dips, I would have hit that hundred mark. Tough WOD!

The last WOD was the most disappointing for me. I knew it was going to be tough and was dreading the overhead walking lunges but really had no idea how bad those would get me. I should have known based on the last WOD that included that movement. Definitely not a strong point for me.

440m Run
10 Deadlifts (100/60)
20 Box Jumps 24"
30 KB Swings (24/16)
40 Wall Ball Shots (20/14)
50m Overhead Walking Lunges (20/10)
400m Run

I knew this was going to be a grind so I didn't go balls out on the first run. Matt got an early lead and I just settled in behind him.

10 deadlifts were no problem - never let go of the bar and bounced it hard on the ground each time, remembering to set my back.

The first 5 box jumps were a bit clumsy but then I found a rythm and cranked them out fast.

Matt was about 3 swings ahead of me at the kettle bells but I grabbed onto the bell and never let go - cranked thru 30. I never even thought about setting it down - figured it would be more work than to simply keep going.

I started to come apart on the wall balls - should have repped out 4 sets of 10 but got lazy and kept putting the ball down at 5. It was especially frustrating when a rep didn't count - got called out for not hitting the height on 3 reps - once for not getting depth in the squat. The height call was obvious but losing a rep to squat depth was demoralizing and I stepped back for a 5 second rest at that point which wasn't really needed. 4 sets of 10 next time! Suck it up.

My overhead walking lunges need work. Not at all sure what I'm doing wrong but something is going on there. I lose balance, it kills my back and I can't seem to string many together before everything seems to come apart. I think it likely plays into the same difficulty I have with OHS and setting my core - sucking in the gut. I'm definitely going to practice these in the coming week. Surprisingly, I was out ahead of everybody on these by a solid 20 seconds but by 30m, everybody had passed me up and it was all I could do to finish, let alone speed up. The final run was a misery. My legs felt like jello and I was dizzy - seeing stars. It wasn't until the last 20m that I was able to start speeding up - thought we had to run all the way into the gym? That last bit was amusing :)

Pete 12:37
Matt 12:43
Tom 12:49
Brit 12:52
Garth 13:27

Ah well! Next time. If it had been 50 pullups instead of 50 overhead walking lunges, I probably would have done better.

Gotta find time to work on the video - have some great footage. It'll be good :)

GYG 1-22-10

Push Jerk 5-5-5+ 65%-75%-85% of 1RM

Some of Gattone's cues really are paying off - have the bar higher on my chest and elbows a bit forward of the bar - take a deep breath and use that shelf I've created to push the bar into the air. Solid performance today - should have stuck it out and got 7 on the 85k!

60 - 70 - 85 x 5

Another sneaky WOD - figured it couldn't be too bad going in? I've done 200 kettle bell swings and I've done 180 pushups so been there done that. The combination of the two turned out to be toxic!

50-40-30-20-10 reps of
KB Swings at 24k
Push Ups

I got thru the first set of KB swings unbroken and the rest looked like 20/20-15/15-11/9 and 10 to finish them off. Grip started to suffer in round 3 big time but sucked it up and kept going - focused on pulling the kettle bell down on each swing.

The pushups were a lost cause - didn't realize kettle bells took so much out of the chest! Pure agony - started with sets of 5 but quickly degraded to 3 then 2 then single reps as I struggled thru each round.

Finished 18:29 - glad that one is over! :)

Overhead Squats are Brutal! 1-20-10

Today's workout was rough. It was just Season and I at the GYG.

Started off with a 1000m row and finished in 3:33 - not a record but not too shabby either!

Power Snatch 2-2-2-2-2

Still figuring out that 2nd knee bend - drilled at 50k and did 4 x 5. It all started to come together - looking good in the 4th round. I was popping the bar up with power, full arm lock out and catching it low in the squat. Exciting stuff!

21-15-9
Overhead Squats at 50k
Burpees

I've done well with workouts that incorporated overhead squats in the past but this one kicked my ass. I did the first 21 overhead squats unbroken but it destroyed my shoulders, wrists and quads. The burpees were pure agony. I failed on a couple of early OHS attempts in round two and had to walk away from the bar for 15-20 seconds to recover. Tough! I got thru it in 8:44 - video to follow.

GYG 01-20-10 from Garth Huckabay on Vimeo.

Isabel 1-19-10

I took Monday as a rest day - worried about a large proposal due the following week and feeling a bit sore all over.

Tuesday morning, I wasn't feeling all that refreshed. I got off to a slow start.

Warmed up with a 1000m row. My legs and ass were aching. So much for rest days! Maybe I need a rest week.

We also had some fun with crab walks, broad jumps and loaded up a bar for some snatch practice.

I considered scaling Isabel. 60k felt really heavy. I popped 4 snatches in a row and figured another 30 shouldn't be too bad. Yeah, right!

Here's the video in all it's ugly glory. Where's the snatch technique? I've still got a lot of work to do!

Garth - Isabel from Garth Huckabay on Vimeo.

Team Saturday 1-16-10

In Teams of 4, complete:

4,000m row
200 dumbbell thrusters
200 pull-ups

I partnered up with Tom, Matt and Ryan. Started out on the rower and ended up on the rower. Matt killed the dumbell thrusters. I found them very challenging and had a hard time keeping on my heels. Tom dominated the pullup bar - cranked out something like 23 to start. Ryan was all over the place doing his part. Personally, I felt like I slacked too much, let the other guys do the majority of the work. I tried to make up for it with a strong 600m row to finish up the WOD.

Sumo Deadlift Highpulls are Hard!

Today's workout was brutal. When I saw it on the board, I was a bit nervous. Zach had us warm up with a 1000m row and my legs, ass and arms were all sore from last night's 2 hour olympic lifting instruction at Gattone's gym in Buffalo Grove. I learned a lot and I'm looking forward to putting some of those refined techniques to good use but no such luck in this WOD!

Started off with Back Squats - 5,5,5+ at 65%, 75% and 85% of your single rep max.

My max is 130k so I went with 85k, 100k and 110k for 7 reps. Felt good - that 7th rep was a near miss but I got it done.

The WOD
500m row
25 pushups
50 sumo dead lift highpulls at 40k
50 pushups
50 sumo dead lift highpulls again
25 pushups again
500m row again

Finished 16:09

Gag! That workout was horrible but in a good way I suppose. My first 500m row was 1:30. I was able to crank out 10 sumos to start but quickly dropped to sets of 5. The sumos were where I was able to make the best time - taking very short rests between each set. My pushup capacity sucks and after that first set of sumos, I couldn't string together more than 3 pushups. The pushups took me a loooonnnnngggg time! My last 500m row was 1:55.

"Grace" land - 1/13/10

Grace - 30 Clean and Jerks for time

Grace 1-13-10 from Garth Huckabay on Vimeo.

Went RX'd at 60k and finished in 3:14

PR'd by 50 seconds since when I last took on this WOD October of 2009.

I was disappointed in my performance. I went into the workout planning to hold onto the bar throughout but lost it at 14 reps - put the bar down and never really got back into a groove. I should have sucked it up and kept going. It was a tough WOD but I didn't feel completely trashed in the end. I still had more gas in the tank. Sub 3 next time for sure!