Thursday

Our warmup was 3 rounds of:

  • 300m row
  • 10 push ups
  • 10 lunges

Our main strength work was back squats.  That’s squatting with the bar behind your head.  You had to start at 80% of your previous maximum and work up 5% at a time until you were at 105% of your previous max.  In the computer, my max was 135.  I ended up doing 145 and it felt really easy so I don’t know how old that old score was.

Then we had to do 3 rounds of walking lunges across the gym with a barbell up under our chins.  I did 43 lbs.

The workout was

  • 90 seconds of maximum effort of push presses at 65# (bar from shoulder to overhead)
  • 90 seconds of slam balls – Hold a  20# little medicine ball overhead, then throw it down on the ground and squat quickly to catch it on the bounce
  • 90 seconds of front squats – Hold the bar at 65# by your chin and squat
  • 90 seconds of burpees

I did 67 total reps.

Tuesday

Warmup started with a 400m partner run.  One partner had to carry a sandbag on their shoulders for the first 200 m and then we switched who was carrying the bag.  That was mean -  especially with what was coming up.

Then we were tortured with PVC pipes again.  We had to jump side to side over them in various combinations of directions and then get into plank position and jump our hands over them.

The strength work today was cleans.  That is taking the bar from the ground to your shoulders.  My max in the computer was 73# and we were doing the same progressive building as we did before with the squats.  I know I can easily do 73# now so I started there and moved up.  I got up to 93# which is where I fell apart a few weeks ago in the Open Competition.  I was sort of screwing around and ended up just power cleaning it.  That means I basically just picked it up on pure arm strength.  As the weights get heavier you rely more on technique to get it moving and then you drop under the weight into a squat to catch it.  Once I tried it with proper technique?  Couldn’t do it at all.  I was thinking too much.

The workout was 5 rounds of:

  • 21 alternating leg pistols – Stand with one leg out in front of you off the ground.  Squat.  Cry.  I can’t do it.  Before we did them supported by hanging onto a post.  Today we had the 12 inch boxes and we had to hold one leg out and then sit onto the box.  We could put the leg down to get up if we had to but ideally we’d keep the leg off the ground.
  • 400 m run – I have to go to the doctor.  I’m not sure if it is allergies or asthma but I’m wheezy.
  • 50 double unders or 200 single jump ropes – I was trying few double unders at the beginning and not getting them.  By the end I decided to try again because, honestly, there was a 25 minute time cap and I had calculated that if I took my time I wouldn’t have to run again.  I started nailing double unders.  Apparently I have to be exhausted to do the harder moves.

I did it three times all the way through and then did the pistols and jump ropes on the 4th round.