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2015 Training Diary – Week 14

I was off work this week, using up the last of my annual leave before the new holiday year starts, and so was Darren so we used the opportunity to get a bit of quality time in as well as doing bits and pieces for the wedding and around the house. I managed to fit in a bit of everything except weightlifting this week, something which I’ve let slip the last few weeks. I had hoped to do a bit more yoga, but just didn’t put aside the time for it, though I have now subscribed to a new online yoga service which I’m hoping will encourage me to do it a bit more. This week also saw some fun drunken drawing with friends… prep for my life-drawing hen do in September I guess!

Week 14: 30th March to 5th April 2015

Monday – CrossFit 9:30am. Katie, the editor of PT Magazine, had mentioned to me that she wanted to try CrossFit, so I arranged for her to come to Raeda with me for a trial class so she could see what it’s all about. Ben was coaching and we spent some time going through the clean technique ready for a 6 minute EMOM of 5 x power cleans at 60% of 1RM. Katie picked up the technique really quickly and stormed through the skill work. I worked at 35kg. After this we had 5 x 5 front squats at 75% of 1RM. I worked at 55kg and Katie went slightly lighter but worked on getting the movement down. The WOD was 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:

Kettlebell cleans (16kg)

Down ups

We had to do 10 reps on one arm, then repeat on the other arm, before moving on to the down ups. I finished in 8:18, and Katie shortly after in 9:19. Look out for what Katie thought of CrossFit in PT Magazine or online!

Katie CrossFit

Photo from PT Magazine’s Facebook page

Tuesday – Rest day. We had my friend round today to design our wedding cake, then an engineer to finish the fix to our boiling (yay to heating!), and in the evening I was off to do a couple of sports massages.

Wednesday – CrossFit 6am. Despite being off work I had to get my CrossFit fix! Darren and I were off to pick up our wedding rings from Bluewater today so I got to the 6am class. We worked on pistol squat (single leg squat) technique. This is an exercise that really opens up my flaws for all to see. My calf flexibility is so bad that pistol squats are an impossible task without lifting my heels. Coach Joel pushed me to work to the best I could, and I focused on the start of the eccentric phase of the pistol from a box. I was getting so frustrated with myself, but Joel wasn’t having any of it and snapped me back to reality (thanks Joel!). Then we did 5 x 5 strict press at 60% of our push press 1RM. I worked at 35kg. The WOD was a killer 10 minute AMRAP of:

2 handstand pushups (HSPU)

2 alternating Russian kettlebell swings (16kg)

Increasing by 2 reps each round, with 20 double unders or 40 single skips every 2 minutes.

I opted to go for full HSPUs, after my flop in the last Open WOD, but with two ab mats under my head. I also used the RX kettlebell weight, but with my double unders still so inconsistent I did single skips. It was a bit hard to swallow when I had to put my score up as scaled because of the skipping, especially after fighting it out with HSPUs for a lower score of 61 reps. It did push me to have a stab at double unders afterwards though, as had it not been for that I would have RXd it. I can’t expect to earn an RX if I don’t have all of my movement standards at the same level… FB_IMG_1427905959383 Thursday – Run 11am and yoga afterwards. I opted to do a short 3.5 mile local loop and follow up with a 20 minute yoga stretch as I needed the stretch out. The run was fine, my first since Reading half. I’ve signed up to a free 15 day trial at Yoga Anytime since the yoga class I was going to has been suspended. It seems pretty good so far, with yoga videos of any style and duration available to follow. I did a 20 minute hip opener, great for runners. IMAG2223 In the evening I went out with a couple of friends, Wendy and Kirsten, for a Drink and Draw class at the Turpentine in Brixton, this really cool arty shop and gallery. Though not fitness related, I wanted to talk about this as it was just so much fun. We started out with a couple of arty games (rapidough and blind drawing) to break the ice before the peppers were cracked out for us to start our drunken drawing. The idea is that you bring your own drink, which helps to ease inhibitions, purely artistically you understand, for you to really get into the drawing. We had so much fun and I think we were all fairly proud of our still-life efforts! Thank you Wendy, Kirsten and Amber and Alice from The Turpentine for such a great evening.

Friday – Rest day. Today was our pre-wedding photo shoot with our wedding photographer, which was a perfect opportunity to get to know him and learn to be (slightly) more comfortable in front of the camera. We followed this up with a trip to M&Ms World and an evening in with a takeaway. Saturday – Run 1pm and park workout afterwards. A new outdoor gym has been installed in our local town park, so me and a few friends who are doing an obstacle race together this month decided to check it out. We went for a quick 2.5mile run first, then did a circuit of 1 minute intervals on each of the different stations. I also brought my TRX and attached it to the monkey bars for an extra core hit of tucks and pikes. IMAG2234 Sunday – CrossFit 9:30am. With a couple of (short) runs under my belt I decided to spend the Sunday morning at CrossFit. We did a group warm up of British Bulldog, something I don’t think I’ve played before, where one person starts in the middle and has to catch people to join him as they run past. We then had 15 minutes’ free reign to practice skills. I worked on handstands and had a bit of a breakthrough when my friend Rachel pointed out that some of the people at CrossFit who are really good at free-standing handstands actually look towards the floor with their heads, rather than having their heads in line with their backs. I tried it and managed to hold a handstand for the longest I’ve ever held one away from the wall! Then we moved on to the team WOD, in teams of four, which was a 20 minute EMOM of:

Odd minutes:

Thrusters (30kg, I worked at 25kg), 1 person

Box jumps (20″), 1 person

Hand release burpees, 2 people in unison

Even minutes:

Row for calories, alternating person each minute

I was apparently the only one who got confused by this WOD, ending up doing thrusters during one of my rest minutes, while one of my team-mates was on the rower, but other than that it was a pretty smooth-sailing WOD. The score that went on the board was the lowest of all four exercises. We racked up 178 thrusters, 176 box jumps, 151 burpees and 121 calories on the rower, so our score was 121.

Mileage Tracker

Weekly Miles: 6 miles Running Total: 135 miles

2015 Fitness Goals Progress

Goal Target/Date Progress
Running Twice per week 11 out of 14 weeks
Inversions Unsupported hand/handstand (end Q1) Can hold unsupported once up
Pullups 5 strict (end Q2) Allllllmost one strict (nose height!)
Squat Depth Below parallel (end Q4) Air squat 3/4 depth
Clean & Jerk Body weight (end Q4) 60/72.5kg… slowly getting there!
Snatch 2/3 body weight 40/47.5kg

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