2/20/2009

Rest Day Topics: This Weeks WOD's, Scores & CFNH News

The Rundown
I. A Sick Little Twist on the WOD from yesterday that trashed our guys (awesome scores regardless)
II. CrossFit NH continues as a Half-way house for freaks like this guy named Kevin, who came up and stayed to help me coach and also tap into some radical thoughts on program twists and spins for him to bring up some weak points in his training.
III.Tales from the Garage: Updates from various training sessions and all the glorious candid pics associated.
IV.People Get Crazy with Handstands and Paralette work because of certain leaderboard contention hot spots.

I.CrossFit HQ WOD Rx'd (02.19.2009)
For time:
50 x Ring Dips
Run 400 meters
50 x Push-ups
Run 400 meters
50 x Handstand push-ups
Run 400 meters

Brutally Modified for CFNH
Complete the following for time
25 x Ring Dips
Run 250m
25 x Ring Dips
Run 250m
50 x Push-Ups
Run 250m
10 x HSPU's
Run 250m
10 x HSPU's
Run 250m
10 x HSPU's

Our reasoning behind changing this WOD's format was to keep everyone gassed out while still allowing for working sets to failure on all three pushing movements. The pattern went push down, push straight, push overhead, and we adjusted sets and reps accordingly to keep the WOD hard and fast while still getting the benefits of training to near failure on the gymnastic based strength movements.
Scores
Jefe 12:35*
Enrique 15:07
Hore-Hay 13:40

Scaled for the Queens of CFNH ... and only because they haven't had ring training exposure yet!
3 Rounds for time of:
Push-Ups 21-15-9
Push Press 21-15-9
Run 250m-250m-250m
Scores
Jill 11:04
Katie 10:53*
How serious do these girls get when it comes to the WOD's? Ask Jill who smashed herself in the chin with a 45lb barbell, chipped a tooth, spent 15 seconds walking it off, showed me the pieces of her tooth on her finger... and then started back up by repeated the REP SHE SMASHED HERSELF WITH. Then she almost overtook her head to head competition, wow.
The five of us that weren't actually doing the WOD with them huddled in stunned reverence while the ladies earned some sicky times.


II.CrossFit Coaching Guests Kevin O. came up from Brockton two days ago and moved onto my couch so he could help me coach and meet the various CrossFitters that have been frequenting CFNH's Garage Facility. This place is a half-way house for CrossFitters anyway and it was nice having someone here around the clock to help me out.

While he was here we put together an interesting medley of CrossFit programs for him to try out. Since he is an avid Triathlete and loves running there was no way he would let me cut out his CFE training (like I would do that anyway), and he is a die hard 3 on one off mainsite guy as well. Kevin really felt his weak points were in his strength, power, and explosiveness with the various complex barbell movements that slaughter us all on met.con's.

After spending some time in the garage working on the Burgener warm-up drills and brainwashing him into performing them prior to any session of training with some PVC pipe or a dowel, we went through some triples sets with a few movements like squat cleans, deadlifts, and front squats. The data and numbers we collected gave Kevin a good idea of where to start come Monday (his first of two dedicated training session a week for strength and power emphasis) and using a set and rep system based on the Max Effort/Dynamic Effort black box (thanks to the endeavors and radical thinking by guys like Mr. Rutherford) he will see some serious improvements over the next few weeks.

The trick is to pay attention to the CrossFit HQ and CFE WOD's and change their stimuli emphasis if needed to keep yourself fresh during the week. There is one complete day off, but for most people two would be better. It will be interesting to see the progress that comes out of this over the next month, and Kevin will be posting his results in our comment section. I know Patrick Haskell will be able to give some solid feedback, as will Mike Molloy, and David Sailor. Everyone is invited to give Kevin some feedback, and me as well. Should be an interesting show.

CrossFit HQ WOD (02.18.2009)
-With a continuously running clock do one pull-up the first minute, two pull-ups the second minute, three pull-ups the third minute... continuing as long as you are able.
-Use as many sets each minute as needed.
-Score is the total # of rounds (minutes) completed.




Scores
Jefe 20 Rounds*
Mike 13 Rounds
Frank 7 Rounds

III.CrossFit HQ WOD (02.17.2009)
Squat Cleans 1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Dynamic Effort Black Box Singles Day
Scores
Jefe 135-155F-155F-155-185-195F-195
Enrique 135-155-175-185-195-205-215F
Hore-Hay 135-155-175-195-205-215-225*

Squat Cleans 
3-3-3-1-1-1-1
Scores
Chalupa 65-85-95-115-125-135-145
The change in sets and reps was because Chalupa was performing squat cleans for the first time today and hadn't yet established set/rep records for this movement. He easily executed the movements with a high regard for technique and immediately shot up with his weight increases as a result, amazing what a month medicine ball cleans can do for ya.
For improvement the only thing we noticed (Enrique picked it up as I was too busy taking glamour shots with my Nikon...) was that the negative side of the final rep was jerking Chalupa's lower back because he was hurrying to floor the barbell.
This is a lesson for everyone, especially with heavy weights: We teach you to keep that barbell on a straight vertical path in its ascension, this should also apply to its decent in a slow controlled manner. Nothing takes the high away from a personal best lift like breaking your lumbar vertebrae and sending your spinal erector muscles shooting across the gym...I'll catch them for you but I'd rather not.

Named WOD "Jackie" (02.16.2009)
Complete For Time
1000m Row
50 x Thrusters (45lb Barbell)
30 x Pull-ups
Scores
Jefe 7:45
Taco 14:03
Chalupa 11:22


CFNH Ladies Group WOD (02.17.2009)
Complete 3 Rnds For Time of
SDHP's (45lbs) 15-12-9
Push-ups 21-15-9
Scores
Jill 3:29
Katie 3:01









4 comments:

Kevin O'Malley said...

hey its kevin the guy hanging out with sammy the last couple of days, I will be back on Saturday for one more day.. I help out at Crossfit South Shore and will be taking on a new challenge with training a local high school football team. Crossfit Nh is a great atmosphere with great people

Patrick Haskell said...

Knew you must be keeping busy with how quiet this blog has been. Still need to get up there and see how that garage gym of yours looks. (Mine finally has it's annual coating of ice on the floor now that we've had a proper thaw-refreeze.)

Wrt Kevin's progam, it sounds ambitious. It's hard to combine focused endurance and strength traininig simultaneously, so there has to be a conscious trade-off between the two. This tradeoff is done fairly nicely on the main page (MP), where cardiovascular endurance is trained mostly at sub-20-minute durations and strength is trained both with ME and with high-volume heavy metcons.

One tricky thing about a ME/MP/CFE hybrid is that while high-volume CF workouts and CFE WODs tend to burn you out when you start overtraining, overtraining for ME strength is much more subtle (unless you totally overdo it and/or lose form). It's less a question of overtraining than under-recovery. You don't feel burned out the same way. Rather, you stall and wonder why you're not getting stronger. In this case, you'll have to be careful about the volume you throw at yourself with your MP/CFE work, especially the days after the ME effort, if you want to keep the strength gains coming. To this end, I'd suggest taking your weekly rest day (wow, that alone scares this old man), the day after an ME effort, especially if you DL or back squat that day, since those produce such a heavy hit on your system.

With underrecovery for strength, you may not notice a decrease in MP/CFE performance, especially given that you've developed considerable stamina in those arenas already. However, they use energy that might otherwise be used to develop strength in response to the ME stimulus. (This is why I favor scheduling the rest days you do have after ME efforts, since that's the time when most adaptation is happening.)

Don't be afraid to take an extra rest day during the week, especially if the volume of MP/CFE are high in their own right. Plenty of folks burn out on that program by itself (although it's possible that ME days might actually help in that regard by reducing total volume, at least where ME efforts are lighter lifts). Scaling the MP volume (sets, not weight - your metcon and stamina will be challenged enough already) is another good strategy for heading off overtraining.

In short, I think you're nuts Kevin, but so are all the best firebreathers in CrossFitLand. You never know what you can do until you try. The greatest training adaptations come when we're slightly overtrained. Manage that with intelligence and you can do some amazing things. Good luck. Looking forward to hearing how things go.

Patrick Haskell said...

A 7:45 Jackie, Jefe? Damn, that's fast.

SRD said...

Hey Patrick,

That is some great information, but Kevin is still in the full throttle, no days off, mode. I remember going through this as well, I think it comes from all the LSD and variants fo training we were used to, high volume and high variation provided some fun and an addiction for some of us. I know you half suffer from it because before we started talking on our own I heard some whining about how long and detailed your warm-up skill work sessions are. I personally kinda do the same thing, but now that there are other guys than me that are feeling the hit on their recovery rate I have severely reigned myself in.

I still have some extremely radical thoughts, ideas, and experiments going on, but they are all tried on me before I even mention them.

It seems so simple an answer for so complex a question but listening to how you feel OBJECTIVELY should give you the warning signs you need, Kevin. I think Patrick was thinking the same thing, and he can definitely be trusted from experience as well.

The other natural point would be keep a goddamn solid logbook. No detail should be left out, sleep hours, sleep quality, nutritional intake down to micronutrient profiles if you are serious enough about it (and you should be with such a brutal undertakine).

Don't think I am turning on you Kevin, I think if everyone met you they would understand that you are probably going to do well IF you pay attention to all those details, and hopefully keep posting updates in the comments so the nutcases up here can chime in and provide you with some feedback.
There are some very talented and expansive minds in this community up here... oh, there's Bam Bam too who is just out of his mind in the best way possible.