Primal Throwdown 2

My first Crossfit comp apart for the crossfit games 11 open, Finished in 2nd place in the intermediate division. An amazing day with great people and awesome wod's, this has motivated me to enter as many competitions in the future as possible! Thanks to Match, Kirst, Hunter and Jack and all the Cooee Crew who supported me throughout out the day.





Intermediate podium finishers






wod 20/6/11

WOD:
4 rounds for time -
10 1 arm KB thrusters 24kg
10 1 arm KB lunges 24kg
10 competition push-ups
10 V sit-ups
time=11:21

kb was heavy! kept dropping it on the thrusters if i didnt make sure to keep it super close to the chest.. harder than i thought this would be! v sit-ups felt better than the first time i did these

ring strength

5rounds of:

Max strict weighted pull-ups on rings 16kg

Max squats 16kg

Rest between rounds as needed

7/23

6/30

6/35

5/33

4/40

Then 5 rounds of:

Max handstand pushups

Max weighted ring dips 16kg

Rest between rounds as needed

2/4

1/1

1/3

1/3

0/2

As i struggled putting on the 16kg weight vest over my head and fastening it to my chest, a thought popped into my head.. maybe this weight was too heavy for me? nah, i'll just see how i go..

"Wow im dying" was the other thought that popped into my head as i collapsed from my last set of squats.

after resting for a good while, i decided to do some of my weakness "hspu" and some weighted dips, just some extra strength stuff to make me a better crossfitter.

then it was time for a shleep.

'amanda'

Pre wod: Snatches
kettlebell snatch practice-10reps (5 each hand) working up weight..
8kg, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32-(8 reps)
then
work up to max snatch
65kg

wod..
"Amanda"
9-7-5reps of
muscle-ups
squat snatches 40kg (rx=60kg)
time=15:38

Hunter and myself have a few workouts we want to do before he leaves back for the U.S of A and 'Amanda' was one of them. Fair to say that this wod is hard! a mixture of upper body strength and heavy technical movements ensures for a taxing workout. It is also fair to say that i never had a chance beating Hunter on this one.. not only did he have full range of motion on the muscle ups (i didn't lock out at the bottom) and heavier weight on the snatches (rx 60kg) than myself, he finished Amanda in almost half the time with 8:40. You better believe I'm gonna work my ass off on these two movements!

Unfortunately, Amanda passed away last year from melanoma. Not only was she a phenominal athlete but an extremely inspiring individual. I have started reading her blog, both heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time, i hope it may give you some perspective when you think times are tough and inspire you to reach great heights in your own life because life is too short to take for granted.
http://amandaredmiller.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-story.html

rest day



The famous 'FERGBURGER' if your ever in queenstown NZ. Get one!



heavy met-con

Pre-WOD:
Front squat – 9, 7, 7, 5, 5, 3reps
9x 40kg
7x 60kg
7x 60kg
5x 70kg
5x 70kg
3x 80kg

WOD:
Squat cleans 65kg – 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
Double-unders – 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10
Burpee bar hops – 10
time=15:29

This workout was fantastic, nothing more beneficial in my eyes than to master the skill of lifting heaving when at near maximal heart rate.. This workout certainly did just that! the squat cleans were heavy but very achievable, mix this with du's to test your skill when fatigued, and burpee's well.. there just grueling. It was pretty evident  that everyone was truly smoked afterwards.

This framework of heavy lifting within a met-con has been shown to increase strength without comprimising overall fitness. I have come across an article from the crossfit journal about crossfit strength bias, CFSB looks at ways to incorporate strength training into programming without the decrease in metabolic conditioning. For more information see the link below:

http://library.crossfit.com/premium/pdf/CFJ_MartinWhite_StrengthBias.pdf?e=1308554161&h=85dc2728b06bd0847c1e22a67dfd7f1a

Hand-Stand-Push-Ups "HSPU"

WOD:
10 min AMRAP
5 HSPU
20 double unders
total score= 4rounds /4 reps

haven't got the strength quite yet to pull off a high number of strict hspu, so i scaled these first to kipping hspu, then to parallete pike handstand pushups, which involves only half your body weight suspended over paralette's allowing for a deeper dip.

squat clean pr

Today was a serious training day!
Waking up nice and early. Hunter, Jack and myself headed down to cooee for the 6am wod, It was all about the Kettle Bell this morning.. After making an epic meal, we again headed to cooee to meet up with olympic lifting animal Alec, who proceeded to coach us for the next 2 hours. Dialing in on my Clean and Jerk Alec spurred me on to a squat clean pr of 90kg, still need to work on my jerk though, it seems im projecting the bar forward rather than upward which is causing me to miss. Many thanks to Alec for taking the time to come coach us.

Morning wod..
5 rounds for time with 20kg kb
10 1 arm KB front squats
20 1 arm KB swings
20 KB circles
10 overhead lunges with 30kg bumper plate
time=11:43

Post-WOD:
2 min KB American swings
reps x kg = score
40x20=800

Arvo wod..
clean and jerk
60kg x3
70kg x2
80kg x2
85kg
90kg clean (missed jerk)
95kg clean missed attempt
'I can feel the 100kg soon!'

then
split jerks
60/60/70/70/70kg (working on technique)
front squats 3x3
80/85/90kg fail

then
clean pulls 3x3
80/100/100kg

monday 13/6/11

WOD:
3 rounds for time -
20 pull-ups
5 clean & presses 60kg
400m sandbag run 20kg

time=12:20

Felt really good for this workout, think it may have been something to do with dialing in on my diet, mostly paleo foods now and watching portion sizes. I'll continue looking at what foods im eating by keeping a food journal and seeing what works for me and what doesnt.

Nancy

Pre-WOD:
7 x 1 snatch balance
20/20/30/40fail/40/45/50kg

WOD:
CrossFit Benchmark WOD – “Nancy”
5 rounds of -
400m run
15 overhead squats 43kg

time=17:31

Today was great! our friend from Colorado is over for the next three months, and today happened to be his birthday. Happy Birthday Hunter! We did a celebratory wod 'Nancy' with him and he absolutely blitzed it with a time of 12:08.. way to go brother!

Hunter getting down with Nancy..

Nothing like a post wod Birthday cake after a hard day at the office

handstand pushups

WOD:
5 rounds of -
3 HSPU
5 box jumps 28"
7 burpees

time=7:49

wed 8/6/11

WOD:
400m run then
3 rounds of -
30 double-unders
20 mountain climbers
10 push-presses 40kg
finish with 400m run

time=10:27

Farmers Carry

Pre-WOD:
400m KB farmers carry (28kg each hand)

WOD:
5 rounds for time -
30 KB American swings
20 one arm overhead KB lunges
10 KB push-ups
time=17:17

Every part of my body was burning after the farmers carry, I had to rest twice during the 400m but im pretty happy with my effort, damn that will make you stronger!
The wod was a grip burner especially after the pre wod, had to break up the swings just to get some sensation back into the forearms.

rest day

Just a bit of Inspiration

sunday 5/6/11

Morning wod..
10x 300m sprint with 8kg weight vest (90sec rest inbetween sets)
1:06sec
1:11
1:15
1:19
1:22
1:23
1:27
1:27
1:29
1:19

night wod..
practice muscle-ups
then
weighted pullups on rings
5x1kg/5x2kg/5x4kg/5x6kg/5x8kg

today i tested the new weight vest jack bought. It can hold 12 solid blocks, each weighing 1.3kg for a total of 16kg. I have been wanting to do interval sprints ever since my short distance runs have been lagging.. i used the footy goal posts as markers which were approx 300m there and back. With 90 seconds rest in between all out efforts, these became hard, fast. However i am happy i stayed below 1min30sec which was my goal.
At night, Jack and i went down to the park with some rings borrowed from a friend, and found a great little spot to hang them on a tree, blair morrison style. practiced our muscle-ups and used the weight vest to work on strength in our pullups. took some cool pics which i'll load up soon.

saturday strength training

strength:
max squats 60kg
8/15/19reps

3x3 bench press 80kg

shoulder press 5x5
30/35/40/45/50kg

Half Murph

WOD:
1/2 MURPH:
800m run
50 pull-ups
100 push-ups
150 squats
800m run

time=17:06

thurs 5/6/11

Pre-WOD: strength
Thrusters 5-5-3-3-1-1-1
40kg/45/50/55/60/65/70fail

WOD:
3-6-9-12-15-12-9-6-3
Sumo deadlift high-pull 38kg
Overhead squat 38kg
time=18:23

clean and jerk pr

WOD:  Clean & Jerk  -
3 x 3 deadlifts 110kg
3 x 3 power cleans 70kg
3 x 1 squat cleans 80kg
3 x 1 split jerks 80kg
3 x 1 clean & jerk 80kg/85kg/90kg fail

Feeling stronger!
all these strength session are paying off..
previous clean and jerk was 75 kg, pulled off a 85kg and felt light =)
keen to improve even more, have a short term goal to hit 95kg.