Saturday. Metcon, "Kettlebell Hell", 3x3min workouts of kb swing, burpees, kb snatch / kb c&j and goblet squats.
Workout outdoors, that's great. Love every minute of it. We are spending the day at Pauliina's parents. Just hanging around and chitchatting. The plan was to hit it early afternoon at their place and throw down together for a training session, all four of us. That's family quality time if you ask me!!!
"Kettlebell Hell"
1. In 3 minutes complete:
25 KB Swings, 32kg
15 Burpees
AMRAP of 1-arm KB Snatches (32kg) from the hang in the remaining time.
Result, 14 snatch
Rest 1 minute
2. In 3 minutes complete:
25 KB Swings, 32kg
15 Burpees
AMRAP of 1-arm KB Clean and Jerks (32kg) from the hang in the remaining time.
Result, 12 c&j
Rest 1 minute
3. In 3 minutes complete:
25 KB Swings, 32kg
15 Burpees
AMRAP of KB Goblet Squats (32kg) in the remaining time.
Result, 20 squats
I'm so proud of this gang as they did this idetical workout with me. Maybe a bit scaled version but still the idea was the same. It was awesome to witness these guys are ready for some serious work! Great attitude.
After I had done my share of the workout I checked how the original post stood at competitorstraining.com and the idea actually was to rest 5min and then repeat the whole thing. Well, I gotta redo this as rx'd some day.
I got all kb swings unbroken each round and paced myself through the burpees with quite a steady pace. Haven't done this heavy kb snatches a lot, maybe once or twice before. To my surprise they weren't that bad. Clean and jerks felt a little tougher. Goblet squats burned my legs. As if they weren't already smashed from squatting two days in a row.
This was a great workout to be done outdoors and I think I'm gonna do this again in the future. That time with the prescribed rest after workout and then redo the whole thing.
Take a look at the following link below, an interview of Rich Froning, four-time Crossfit Games Champion: Article of the Games champion.
Saturday. HC Triplet IV. Three Events, pair workouts. Paired up with Toni against Sipa and Jake.
Awesome!!! What a day! On the other hand, can't call it a surprise. These Triplet throw downs are simply the best crossfit time ever. Having a blast with my training partners. Today was the first time ever we had company with Toni in these Triplets. Sipa and Jake tagged along so it was only natural to do these workouts as pair workouts, teaming up with Toni against Sipa and Jake. It was a tight one!
The gang
Event 1. Toni & Don 22.39. Sipa & Jake 23.05
200 double unders cash in
400m run
40 kettlebell clean & jerks, 32kg
400m run
60 burpees
400m run
80 sit-ups
400m run
100 walking lunges, 25kg sandbag
200 double unders cash out
All these workouts were different style of events. The first one was something like a chipper. One athlete was allowed to work at a time except for the run part. Both were required to run at the same time for the entire 400 meters. On all movements one guy was allowed to move body or weights at a time. The reps were ascending from 40 to 100 reps, changing the element after each run. The workout began and ended with 200 double unders.
I'm very happy on the way Toni was dominating all of these events. There was a time in the past where most of the reps would have fallen for me to complete. But today we are in a situation where this stud has developed tremendously and we were able to complete most of the reps evenly. I think I did a little more burpees and sit-ups but other than that we made the reps fifty fifty.
Recap, Event 1, Sipa & Jake
Our strategy was simple. We got to keep moving all the time, no rest at any time of the workout. Once the other one wears down it's time for the other guy to step in. On the c&j's we had planned on making it in 4 sets of 10 reps but if it starts to burn too much, it's okay to drop it and let the other one perform. We didn't want to see those moments where you try to gasp for air and the kettlebell is not moving at all. Those sets were somewhat challenging but we were able to manhandle them nicely!
On burpees our plan was to do first sets as 5's and then singles, alternating after every rep. On couple of occasions I took couple of extra reps to let Toni rest for a few seconds. We were both moving efficiently and there was no need to stop and breath. Either of us was moving all the time.
Recap, Event 1, Toni & Don
On sit-ups I believe we went through it mostly in sets of 20 reps. That wasn't the most taxing element in this one. I tried to do them as fast as possible with some rage in my mind. This was something I didn't wanna slow down.
Lunges were definitely a pain in the ass, literally =) 100 lunges, which we divided something like 20's. It most definitely burned my lower body. Toni didn't seem to bother at all about this movement, the guy was enjoying his time!
In the end it was time to hit another set of 200 double unders. We had some misses in both ends of the workout on du's but mostly it was okay performance. I believe these were the only one where we could have done better? It was a solid effort all the way from beginning to the end. Running was decent in all rounds. I'm telling you it sucked big time right after burpees! Huh it felt like we were on a slow recovery jog. But then after sit-ups it felt light. The element performed affected a lot.
Sipa and Jake probably ran a little faster. On the other hand we nailed the kettlebell jerks in 4 sets whereas they had about 7 sets. That made a difference to our advantage plus we did Sandy lunges in less sets so we saved some time in the transition. We got this one with about 30sec shorter time.
Event 2. Toni & Don 35.16, Sipa & Jake 30.34
21-15-9-15-21 of:
Wall ball, 10kg / partner in squat hold
Pull-ups / partner holds wall ball overhead, 9kg
Kettlebell swings, 32kg / partner pull-up bar dead hang
On paper this seemed like "the thing". As nasty as it gets. Traditional 21-15-9 rep scheme with a twist as you have to climb back with 15 and 21 reps in the end. Another twist was that while the other athlete is completing the required reps, the other one has a role as well. He has to stay in a static hold position. Either sit in a squat, hold a wall ball overhead, or dead hang from pull-up bar. We had 2 wall balls with us, Jake has a 10kg ball and Sipa 9kg. Those are both home made from a basket ball filled with sand.
Recap, Event 2, Sipa & Jake
Recap, Event 2, Toni & Don
The static hold was the surprise element at least to me. Haven't done anything like that. It really made a difference here. Especially on the pull-up bar dead hang. And think about the order of the elements. Both had to complete all 81 reps of all 3 movements, that is 81 wall balls, 81 pull-ups and 81 kb swings. In addition they had to do those static holds while the other one was doing his share. Lots of work.
Toni started this one with 21 wall balls, I was in squat. After Toni did his reps, we changed positions. After my 21 wb's, Toni jumped on the pull-up bar and did 21 of them while I held the wb overhead. And then changed again. This was the name of the game. Imagine doing pull-ups and then stay up there for static hold as Toni moved on to kettlebell swings. That wasn't cool.
Jake and Sipa beat the crap out of us on this one. Guess there was about 4-5min difference. The difference was made mainly on the pull-up bar. We were evenly good on wall balls, all 4 of us. Even though it felt difficult in the beginning to hit the target with good enough accuracy, it started to feel better and better towards the end. Everybody had misses, it was different to throw the ball on this target compared to a wall.
There was a good amount of reps to be done and those static holds had their influence, no doubt. Because we took some time on the pull-up bar, I got some extra recovery time so I felt pretty good during the workout. Forearms were definitely tingling because all the work but it was manageable. And palms were quite sensitive after the workout. We were afraid how it would affect the last event. They were sore as hell, same on the legs, it felt horrible. These 2 workouts had been taxing! The first one was 20+min and this was about 35min so no wonder we were aching in pretty much all body parts.
Event 3. Toni & Don 4rds + 32 kb snatch. Sipa & Jake 3rds + 17 t2b
20min amrap of:
50 air squats
40 kettlebell snatches, 24kg
30 toes-to-bar
20 goblet squat, 32kg kettlebell
My favorite! We had a good rhythm and fast heart beat from the very beginning. All 4 movements guaranteed heart rate was sky rocketing and muscles hurt. But it was the last event and we had a good vibe going on all the time. We nailed this one. No extra pauses, just kept moving continuously. The only strategy we had was on the t2b's and snatches. We had decided Toni would do 5's and I'd do 10's. We managed to follow that rep scheme for 3 full rounds, on the 4th round we both did something like 4's and 8's.
On snatches we decided to try complete them in 10's for as long as possible. Other than that it was more like "go by feeling", complete as many reps as you can, don't gas yourself but don't give slack either. That worked very well. We did goblet squats in 2 sets all the time, we did something between 8-12 in every round. On the squats I have no idea what happened or how many we did in any of the sets =) We just listened to the judge count the reps and talked during the workout. "You go!"
It was a surprise how well we moved, ourselves and the weights. We were in a zone. Must say I had a great training partner! This day was something like a perfect training day come true. Something I'd like to do if I had a bachelor party some day =)
Entire Event 3, Toni & Don
We were able to top Sipa's / Jake's time on the first one, then on the second one we were beaten roughly. On the third one we made a comeback and got a little over 1 round better result. I'm very happy overall on my personal performance and above all our team's effort. Don't know what we could have strategized better on these events. Double unders could have been better, that I can say out loud. Other than that we kept the motors running constantly. It's pretty obvious Toni's engine has also taken some big steps as he was also able to keep on moving without stopping to gasp. That was some sick action mate!
And probs to Sipa and Jake too. That was some beast mode crossfitting in every workout. You guys had a good and clear strategy as well in each of the 3 cruel events and you stuck to it. It was a pleasure witness your incredible work capacity. There was something cool in the atmosphere during the day. Thanks to Toni, Sipa and Jake for making this day possible. It was definitely a great training day!!!
Thursday. Metcon, 50 bench press (75kg). For every racking, perform 30 air squats. Couple of hours later. Metcon, 4 rounds of: 5/5 kb clean and jerk, 15 kb swings, 15 goblet squats. Kettlebell 2 pood (32kg).
Time for the monthly bench press workout. I've did something like this earlier as well. Today it was high-rep semi-heavy bench metcon with a spice of squatting between bench. I went home, ate well, dropped Pauliina to see her friend, then wore some shorts on again and went to back yard to complete another metcon with kettlebells. Then it was time for the fourth warm meal of the day. I'm a hungry guy.
50 bench for time
Metcon. Time 15.09.
50 bench press @ 75kg
Every time you rack the barbell, perform 30 air squats for penalty
The essence in this workout was to get a lot of repetitions at semi-heavy weights. This is about 75% of my max load. I got 10 reps on the first attempt, then 8, 6 and the rest were between 4-5 reps till the end. Every time I had to put the barbell back on the rack, I did 30 air squats and burnt my quads. This was more stressful on muscles than on breathing / metabolic condition. That's because there was a "compulsory" recovery break between the movements. I had to get some strength back on my chest / shoulders / triceps before taking another attempt on the bench.
It took me a total of 9 sets and 8x30 air squat penalties to finish the workout. That's over 3.5k bench in rather short time domain. I'm happy I got the reps done stylishly with a 75kg bar. That's heaviest I've done in high rep bench metcons.
Those squats started to make my legs feel sorry for themselves. There were 240 reps in total. The most difficult thing was to complete 30 reps in a row. About 20 reps can always be done unbroken. Adding 10 reps to that doesn't sound much but it certainly feels in lower body. It burnt my legs a lot. This 50 bench type of workout is a nice way to incorporate bench press into metcons as well. I originally took influence of this one from Blair Morrison's blog "Anywherefit". He's got some pretty spectacular workouts there.
Metcon. Approximately 12.30.
4 rounds of:
5/5 kettlebell clean & jerks, 32kg
15 kettlebell swings, 32kg
15 goblet squats, 32kg
Uuh mama. Looks simple, feels awful. Those goblet squats just don't feel good. I had my 2 pood kettlebell (equals to 32kg), and that's pretty much all I need for an exhausting workout. The first workout of the day concentrated more on the strength aspect so this one was more on the metabolic side of fitness. Clean & jerk with kb, then swings and finally goblet squats. That's basically a front squat, just hold the kb upside down at your chest. I did 5 c&j's both hands.
Hey c'mon, it's 7 p.m. in Finland and you can't see shit, it's the darkest time of the year as you can see :)
I was thinking about doing a 10min amrap, didn't want to stress about the minutes or rounds when I started. During the workout I realized the reps are gonna stay too low in 10 minutes so I finished 4 rounds in about 12.30. My time got slower towards the end, it got tougher on both my breathing and strength. I call this a training day, versatile stuff, body got what it hungers every day: hard work and dedication.
Impressive and consistent work from both Miranda Oldroyd and Garret Fisher on benchmark workout Fran
It's that time of the year again, time for a Hard Core Triplet number three. I have nothing left in my tank, I mean nothing. The day was superb, exactly what we wanted with Toni. There was a total of 3 mean workouts of which any would have been enough for one day's workout. But the nature of the HC Triplet is to reach your limits and go beyond, we did 3 of them. This was the third time we organized this event and to probably no one's surprise, this was the toughest. The weights have become heavier in time, reps have become higher but one thing remains: the feeling afterwards that you've given your everything and left it on the battlefield. Thanks a lot Toni for sharing this day with me, you were awesome training partner!
You find more pictures in Instagram on Donscrossfit and Ponyschannel under the hash tag #hctriplet. I added a video to the end of this post, a recap of the Triplet. I hope Toni writes his own feelings in the comments so you guys get a good idea of how these workouts felt on his behalf.
Triplet, workout I. Time, Don 20.43, Pony 24.50
400m run
50 kettlebell swings, 32kg
50 squats
400m run
40 kettlebell swings, 32kg
75 squats
400m run
30 kettlebell swings, 32kg
100 squats
The first workout was a humbling experience… Total of 1.200m run, 120 swings with 2 pood bell and 225 squats. The combination of these made both of our backs cry. And of course hamstrings and quads were on a tough test as well. It took me 20-30min to recover from that agonizing back pain.
On the first round I intentionally didn't run too fast 'cause that's not the part where you catch up or lose time. It's the amount of breaks you have to keep during the movements and in the transitions. 50 swings were divided to 35+15 reps and squats I did in 25+25 reps. Swings were not bad, actually it felt surprisingly light in the beginning.
The second round was 10 reps less of swings but 25 reps more of squats. That was the name of the game, decreasing swings and increasing squats. Such a simple movement as air squat is (done with bodyweight only), it starts to burn the thighs, a lot! This workout didn't give much room recovery for legs so that may have had it's sick twist there as well. I did the second round of swings in 25+15 and squats in 3 sets of 25 reps.
Last part of the run was probably a pathetic view, my legs just couldn't keep the pace up and it turned out to be a slow run. But that was not the problem, run was ok today. And it wasn't the swings or the squats either. It was the combination of these that brought some kind of pressure on low back that was increasing by the round. The third round of kb swings was thus painful. I did 3 sets of 10 reps and grimaced my teeth on every rep. The last set of squats went on in sets of 20 reps.
Triplet, workout II. Result, Don 5 rounds & Pony 3 rounds
15min amrap (as many reps as possible) of:
5/5 kettlebell clean & jerk, 32kg
10 pull-ups
5/5 kettlebell snatches, 24kg
10 pull-ups
Loved it! Olympic lift movements done with kettlebells and pull-ups to add some spice to the mix. We used the same 32kg bell for the clean & jerks and Toni's new 24kg bell for the snatches. The idea on the second part of the Triplet was to put more focus on upper body. As you probably realized, the first part was a leg killer =) We wanted to have a good bunch of pull-ups and bully on our upper body with those two different kettlebell movements. I believe we succeeded in that goal perfectly. Plus this was a good breather as well. Lifting stuff overhead puts heart rate always high and this was no exception.
I managed to do this workout unbroken all the way. Total of 5 rounds so there were also 100 pull-ups completed in the 15min time frame. I just realized today after talking it with Toni that my pull-up technique is something of a mixture between kipping and butterfly pull-ups. Maybe there might something to work on so that it would become more "economical" and consume less energy on them. Anyway, they are rolling very well nowadays and I consider them somewhat a strength for me. But there's always things to look for as improvements.
Toughest part of this wod was breathing and c&j was heavier compared to snatches. At least that's what I think. We both haven't done any heavier kb snatches than 20kg prior to this day so it was encouraging to see that the bell was flying up. Maybe it would be smart to try that 32kg bell as well. My snatch PR with barbell is 62.5kg so it's pretty much on the limits whether I can snatch that 2 pood bell or not.
Triplet, workout III. Result, Don 4 rounds + 10m lunges. Pony 3 rounds + 22m lunges
5 rounds of:
22m walking lunges with a sandbag on back, 25kg
50 double unders
20 burpees
15min time cap
What a finish… Looked easier on paper but once the moment got closer to actually perform the workout, I started to add up the number of reps ahead of me. Looking to go for all 5 rounds, it would have been 250 double unders and 100 burpees, plus those weighted lunges. Du's and burpees as a combination at this stage of the day when our hearts had taken a very hard stress on the previous workouts. But hey, we figured that's why this is HC Triplet. Just do it.
Got 4 full rounds and half way on the lunges on the 5th round. Total of 200 double unders and 80 burpees. Burpees were definitely "the thing" on this one. I laughed out loud when Toni speculated earlier on the day that burpees would be the rest part of this metcon. No way man! And I guess you also found it out =)
What can I say about the day as a summary. I simply loved it. Crossfit is what I like to do and I got a chance to do exactly that, these workouts were the essence of crossfit. High heart rate from the beginning to the end. Lots of different type of movements and workouts that were different in nature. I believe there is not a single muscle in my body right now. My body was cramping towards the end of the Triplet and I really felt hard work had been done.
I'm very proud of my training partner today. Toni has increased a lot of his work capacity, skill level and strength base. It also seems to me that his recovery has become more effective. Today he had shorter rest periods during the wods and received good results in my opinion. He's never tried a 32kg kb clean & jerk with 32kg and on the very first rep he made it look easy. Same with the snatches. I've never seen him nailing those kipping pull-ups just like that, I enjoyed looking how well he performed.
HC Triplet will stay in the back of our heads and we'll repeat it after a few months. The first Triplet saw the daylight in September 2012 and this was the third one. Here you can have a recap of Triplet III
