Saturday. AM: 7 sets of 10 db snatch @ 25kg and uphill sprint. Rest as needed between sets. PM: Metcon, 10rds of: 20m farmer's walk @ 2x25kg db's, 7 double db jerk @ 2x25kg, 30 air squats.
Went outdoors with Kari to hit a session at Tornimäki hill. Dumbbell snatches and sprints up the hill. Hurt legs nicely.
Thursday. Back squat, singles up to 140kg. Chipper, 30 hang power clean (60kg), 30 box, 30 front squat (60kg), 30 pull-ups, 30 jerk (60kg), 30 burpees. Intervals, 30sec on, 30sec off, for 10min: row.
Nice! It was great to get back to the gym. Had to take two days off of training. One day would have been okay but there have been so much things to be taken care of lately that I simply don't have time to hit the gym. I leave home early in the morning and come back late in the evening and go to bed. This has also taken some of my energy, and it showed today.
Strength.
Back squat
5x60, 90kg
3x110kg
1x120, 130, 140kg
There was no chance in going heavy today. It felt tough from the very beginning. Body wasn't very receptive to big loads on my back. But these weights were okay anyway. I'll take these for now.
Chipper.
30 hang power cleans @ 60kg
30 box jumps
30 front squats @ 60kg
30 pull-ups
30 push jerks @ 60kg
30 burpees
This was a great workout, c'mon! Alternating between barbell and bodyweight for six different elements in a chipper style for time. I went 10-7-7-6 on the hang cleans and was able to maintain a solid breathing. Box jumps unbroken, then squats were 12-10-8. My front squats with light weights are at okay level. I can maintain a good form on those, they just burn legs a lot.
Pull-ups were 10 reps at first, then 5's to the end. At this point I started to feel like a car had driven over me. Jerks were not cool at all. At this stage of the workout those felt heavy. I went 8-6-6-5-5 on those but had to take longer breaks than I hoped for. There were elements of mental breakdown =) Once those were done the burpees felt like an eternity. Rarely have those felt so miserable but somehow I crawled to the finish line. Damned it was heavy. For sure my preparation was not on point leading up to this day but this probably would have been bad wod in any case.
Intervals.
30 seconds on, 30 seconds off, for 10 minutes:
Row
After recovering for a while and trying to get myself back in the game I did a short interval work. Rowing pace was at 1:40 on average. Something between 1:38 and 1:41. Felt bad on my legs.
We had a lot of last call errands to be taken care of for the wedding on Friday so there was no chance in getting to the gym at all during the day. We wanted to sleep at different locations so Pauliina stayed at our home with her mother in Helsinki, and my father-in-law Kari took me to their place in Klaukkala. We arrived there at around 8-9 pm and I was anxious to put my sneakers on and do something.
Tornimäki @ Klaukkala
Sprints.
Run uphill for about 15 seconds
Recovery was walk down
Repeat for 5 sprints without rest in between
Rest 2-3 minutes and repeat for a total of 3 rounds
Every single time when we drive to Klaukkala we go by this good looking hill on our left. During winter, it's used for skiing purposes. In the summertime people use it for outdoor activities, hiking and such. I always look at this place with great respect. It is a killer place, I've been there couple of times doing my thing.
Today was perfect opportunity to hit it right there. I wasn't going to carry wall balls and kettlebells with me but sneakers were easier to hide in my carry-ons so that the future wife wouldn't see that haha. She hoped for me not to work out (at least heavy) so I didn't make a big number of this one. That was kinda cute because she wanted me to be in the best shape of my life on Saturday. That is quite understandable.
I have no idea of the distance and on the video the hill doesn't look that steep but it really felt it, and it has always felt like it in this place. The start is easier but then in the middle there's a sudden change in the game. It becomes heavier and that about 15 second sprint brings lactic acid to my thighs big time. I went continuously up and down for a total of 5 sprints. Recovery was the jog back down. Coming down also puts pressure on quads so it's practically no rest.
First set of sprints
After 5 sprints I recovered for a while, best guess is around 2-3 minutes, and then repeated this cycle for a total of 3 rounds. That means 15 total sprints. Good quick stuff. It took about 5 minutes per round. Warm-up and cool down was the jog from Pauliina's parents house. As I went back Kari had prepared dinner for the two of us, and we spent the night eating and spending quality time with each other, thinking about the upcoming day and what it might look like eventually. Never thought it would become such a dream come true!
Thursday. Day in Eltsu. Skills, handstand walk. Mobility, hurdle step-overs. Plyometric, hurdle jump-overs. Sprints, 4x400m. Technique, overhead squats, overhead lunges.
Perfect surroundings in Eltsu. Mother nature was hugging me with astounding weather. It was extremely satisfying to work outdoors at the track. Started with skills training, then moved on to play with hurdles, some mobility drills and plyometric work. Then couple of 400m sprints, finishing it off with one mile run with easy pace. Wanted to touch the barbell too so I went indoors to work on my overhead squats and a newcomer, overhead lunges! My body has taken some hit this week so I kept it at one session today. Took a nap, and ate well to recover.
Track and field.
800m run, easy pace
Handstand walk
Hurdle step-overs 8x8
Hurdle jump-overs 8x6
Sprints, 400m every 3:00 (splits 1.30, 1.28, 1.27, 1.26)
1.600m run, easy pace
After running, warming-up, completing tons of lunges and mobility I took on handstand walking. The platform on a track is simply perfect. Couldn't be better. It was a totally different thing compared to my previous hs session in Klaukkala on grass that wasn't a balanced ground. I still need a flat platform with these skills.
It felt good today and my goal was to walk on my hands, not just trying to find balance. Didn't measure the distances, couple of meters were gained per attempt. It was around 20 seconds of inverted position.
Handstand walk recap
Hurdle work is great. Too rarely do I get the chance to go after them. When I played floorball I had one coach that obviously loved them so we used to play with them quite a lot in the summer time. For us goalies he put us do even more drills to enhance hip mobility. I remember having done hundreds of repetitions per training session.
Then, we used to run a lot after them. It was a totally different style of training that time. It wasn't much of strength work. Mostly core and endurance work by running in different methods. And as a goalie, I didn't run at all during the season =) But I guess my core got in good shape because of those times.
Hurdle recap
Today I reminisced some of those hurdle drills. Started by walking over the obstacles, 8x8. Don't have the best of hip mobility but I still feel like it was smoother than it used to be. There's clearly happened some development, on mobility all over my body. Crossfit has helped tremendously on this issue.
Another drill was jump-overs. I've done lots of box jumps that create explosiveness. This is somewhat similar exercise but also improve on elasticity, balance and coordination. Couple of times I lost rhythm on the jumps which indicate inaccuracy in my concentration. Once I focused it was a good workout! Would be awesome to have these more often.
I also wanted to run once there's a chance for that. Took 400m sprints, not all in effort but still with a good pace. I'd like to see myself running easy 1.20 splits and max effort somewhere sub 1.10. Not there yet. Those times used to be my regular times. I remember having ran 8x400m with an average of 1.22 pace when I started crossfit. That time I ran a lot more and okay, I weighed also 10kg less. I've gained lots of strength and muscle since then. My breathing is under control pretty well but my legs start to go burn on inner thighs a lot during the sprints. Got to run now in the summer time more than during winter to regain that speed. My round times got a little faster by the round.
Barbell. Overhead work
Overhead squat technique (40-50kg)
Overhead lunges 3x10, alternating legs (40kg)
After running for 1.600m for recovery to flush legs it was time to go indoors for some barbell work. Didn't go heavy this time, just worked on my overhead squat technique with rather light weights, mostly 40kg, one set of 50kg was thrown in too. In the beginning I noticed my depth wasn't there but luckily I had my coach (=camera) with me to witness this. He told me to go deeper so I fixed it. Too mostly sets of 5's but in the end a set of 15 reps just for fun.
But hey, how cool is overhead lunges? First time I tried it and now I understand how magnificent element that is. They've done front rack lunges and overhead lunges in Regionals and Games lately and I watched those events with a desire to hit this type of movements myself. They also had similar stuff in Finland's own "Crossfit Games", Winter War as we call it. I had only 40kg on the bar but I got the point.
It's definitely a whole-body movement where you have to keep entire core tight, do lots of work with legs and shoulder to stabilize the bar and not drop it. There's probably not a muscle in the body that you don't work with. I took 3 sets of 10 reps in the end of this training session.
Barbell recap
All in all, it was a great day. Skills, mobility, plyometric work, sprints and some barbell work. Only thing missing was a hardcore metcon. Let's see what tomorrow brings us!
Tuesday. Outdoor training at Pirkkola. Sprints, 4x400m. Skills, bar muscle-ups. Metcon, 4rds of: 350m run, 20 pull-ups, 8/8 kb shoulder-to-overhead (32kg). Time 15.30
Outdoor training at Pirkkola, with my big bro, c'mon! I intend to spend more time here in the spring / summer, goal is to go once a week and practice on my running skills / speed / intervals and also bar muscle-ups. It's also great to combine running into metcons. These are actually all the elements we did today with Sipa, "sprints", bar mu skills and metcon with running. Tough one.
Sprints.
4x400m run
Those sprints were quite pathetic at this time of the spring. Haven't been running much during the winter time. My legs are still out of order from Sunday's funday-squats. They were stiff as wooden logs as we entered Pirkkola. Our goal was to take couple of faster runs on the track. Then hit some skills and metcon. Since it's been a while since running 400's we decided to take it easier on this first track and field session.
It felt like my legs were led. It was far from having a light feeling. My bro's body and steps looked way lighter and he felt like running faster. This was a good season opener, looking to improve my time a lot from today's time. I have actually never in my life timed 400m. Last summer we ran 1.10 when we took some sprints with Sipa and Toni. Today those splits were around 1.30. That's a pace I should have on longer distances too. I've maintained about 1.35min / round pace for 3k in the past.
Skills.
Bar muscle-ups
I can complete bar muscle-ups without problems, have been able for a longer time already. But there are technicalities I need to fix. It's not balanced at all. My lower body does not do the work correctly. My right leg does some sort of kipping whereas left leg just hangs there. That results in landing unbalanced over the pull-up bar. That's not a good thing.
I was trying to fix this issue today with the help of my bro. As you see in the video I can do some sort of kipping movement with my legs but once I need to start pulling myself up I kind of forget the leg work totally. This is another issue that can be fixed here in Pirkkola. Once that's taken care of I aim to learn do the bar muscle-ups without that much of a kip so that I can do them also at my home gym where the pull-up bar is close to the wall. Currently that disturbs me too much so it's difficult to practice this skill there.
Metcon. Time 15.30
4 rounds of:
350m trail run
20 pull-ups
8/8 kettlebell shoulder-to-overhead, 32kg
This looks easier than it was. Huh, my hands got ripped even though I had proper rock tapes on both hands. My palms looked bloody messy after the workout. We completed this so that we ran the distance together my bro. As we came back to the spot I jumped on the pull-up bar and completed 20 pull-ups. At the same time Sipa was doing 2-pood kettlebell swings.
After those sets we changed roles. I did 8 right hand push jerks with the bell, then immediately after 8 left hand jerks. Sipa has some issues with his fingers, some sort of fraction, so he did strict pull-ups. That's also the reason why he did swings instead of jerks. Then we went to run together the same trail run again. Total of four rounds. Pull-ups turned out to be rather tough and jerks sealed the deal. Got the jerks unbroken and pull-ups went 15+5 for the first 3 rounds, and 10+5+5 on the final round.
We were both done after the workout. It took 15.30 to finish this one. Couple of photos, and then back home to spend quality time with my baby. It was awesome to come home to a ready dinner table, prepared by my love one. Power nap and some more eating =)
Wednesday. AM: Heavy back squat doubles 10x2. Metcon, 7min amrap of: 3-3, 6-6, 9-9 etc, front squat (60kg) an box jumps. Result, round of 15's + 7 front squat (97 reps). PM: Sprints 6x400m, with 90sec rest.
Making those legs stronger! Back squat doubles for strength and a leg burner as a metcon. I'll bet I feel this one later on. My hip flexors felt hammered already after the training session. Wanted those squats to feel heavy and put more pressure on hammies and quads with a tough metcon that I got inspired by last Saturday's Winter War.
130kg
Strength. Squats
Back squats 10x2
1x120, 2x125, 7x130kg
This was actually very good style of doing squats. Haven't done heavy doubles like this in a very long time or ever. Have to be creative on these strength workouts. I'm not the guy who gets inspired by doing 5x5 every time I hit the gym. I get bored on those. This was a good way of hitting the heavy weights instead of pounding lighter ones for longer sets.
I only had in mind to do 10 sets of doubles around 120-130kg and leave the rest of it open. I took the first set and realized it was tough but manageable. More would come up if I just added something on the barbell. I took it mildly and added only 5kg. Did 2 sets of which both felt heavy. Still, I understood it's only mental, just add another 5kg and do your work.
Only 2 sets to go
Managed to do the remaining 7 sets @ 130kg. That was good news to me. It's rare to get as many reps done with a weight like that. For me 130kg is already a good stuff. Have to concentrate to get the bar up. Max load is only about 10kg higher. After a total of 5-6 sets it got very tough, especially the second rep. I'm proud I was still able to finish it without any misses or decreasing the weight.
Metcon. Result
7min amrap of:
3-3, 6-6, 9-9…
Front squat, 60kg
Box jump, 61cm
Nice one. They did a similar type of workout in the Winter War, with two changes. It was a 5min amrap and front squats were thrusters, same weight though. It looked good so I wanted to try this type of rep scheme and tease my lower body and lungs. Tomorrow I had planned to push some weight in the air so I didn't take thrusters or anything shoulder-to-overhead movement on this one. No surprise it was a nasty combo with both movements pressuring legs.
It was easy in the beginning but I knew it's deceptive. No surprise because the reps would get bigger each round. I understood this so I took it easier in the beginning as well. Maybe could have speeded it up a bit more in the beginning. It might have slapped me in the face later on though. I did this workout unbroken up to the round of 9's. Box jumps were ub all the way but I had to cut the squats on the round of 12's to 6+6, and on the round of 15's to 3x5reps.
These moves made me suffer in their own special way. Box jumps made thighs burn whereas squats just hurt the muscles in a different way. Very good workout if you ask me! Today was all about legs and conditioning. I had planned to go for some sort of run in the evening too.
Sprints.
6x400m run
90sec rest between sprints
1km recovery run
5 wall climbs
I ran for a while, opened up my hips to get ready for some running intervals. I didn't record the times on the sprints and the rest time was also counted manually. I tried to count the rest precisely after first stint. It was a walk between two landmarks in the woods, and I kept walking between those landmarks between each set. I aimed for 90 seconds every time. I had my clock with me and timed only the last 400m sprint. It took me about 1.22. The distance was also manually measured as I was running in the in the middle of the woods, instead of a track.
My "track"
I was pondering between just completing a recovery run or doing intervals. Couldn't resist doing a little faster sprints. Didn't go with 100% effort because I already smoked my legs in the morning. It's gonna be a training day tomorrow as well. I went jogging for another kilometer or so and spotted a perfect wooden wall in the kids' playground. Had to stop and do couple of wall climb overs. Don't know what you should call them but I guess they called it wall burpees in the Games last year.
Don't know what happened to the colors on this one...
Friday. PM: Skills, emom, 1 ring mu, for 5 min. Metcon, 4rds of: 500m row, 15 pull-ups, 12 push-ups, 9 t2b. Time 15.40. Rest 5min. Metcon, emom, 8 burpees, 8 box, for 5min. Evening: 10x100m sprints.
Skills and conditioning for this Friday session. Already a classic in my mind for starters: ring muscle-ups. I've fell in love with them and the feeling is getting stronger all the time. Got 2 metcons today, all movements with bodyweight. Late evening was reserved for sprints. Don't wanna hold on to the barbell every day. That's part of why I'm able to train almost on a daily basis. I feel like my workouts are versatile in nature and there's a good combination of heavy bars, lighter weights, bodyweight, running and cardio, skills and gymnastics. That has an effect on my recovery.
Skills.
Every minute on the minute:
1 ring muscle-up, for 5min
This was the first time I did muscle-ups this style. I had a plan in the beginning to do 1 rep per minute for a total of 5 minutes. This movement is taxing, it really takes its toll on my body. Every single rep is challenging, it's not automatic thing that I would get up there. So having to complete 1 rep per minute was a great success for me to being able to continue it for 5 minutes. I haven't tried to do more than 5 reps in one session. Maybe it would be worth trying.
Metcon. Time 15.40
4 rounds of:
500m row
15 pull-ups
12 push-ups
9 toes-to-bar
These wods that have rowing as an element… Not nice. They eat me inside =) In "normal" metcons I tend to have quite steady round times and my engine keeps my going. When rowing is involved, it's more difficult for me to keep up the pace. I rowed @ 1.45-1.49 pace in all rounds, that's not where the difference is but it's the transition times between movements.
I did all movements unbroken in this workout. My goal for the row was to have almost the same pace in all rounds. Could have taken it a bit easier on the row to save energy but I definitely wanted to row at same pace all the time. Pull-ups after rowing seems a but more challenging but I got them unbroken. The third rounds seemed to be the toughest. Grip wasn't there and it was difficult to hang on there. Push-ups and t2b's were okay, no problems with them.
Jon Pera with a 400lbs ohs huh!
This workout took my breath away. It was somehow awful but still cool. Most difficult thing was to jump on the pull-up bar after rowing. I walked the pain away after the workout for couple of minutes before busting out the next workout, something I stole from ncfclab.com. That's NorCal Crossfit's creation, a site dedicated to athletes aiming for the Crossfit Games. Definitely worth taking a look at.
Metcon.
Every minute on the minute:
8 burpees
8 box jumps
For 5 minutes
I was still blown away from the previous workout but decided to hit this one anyway. I thought it wouldn't be so tough but god damned it felt bad. Already after the first round I was thinking what the heck. It took me exactly 38 seconds each round. This was mental stuff. It felt bad. But, it was something you can keep on doing for that 38 seconds. Afterwards I was thinking could this workout be suitable if conducted in this same style but "till failure". Keep on going until you can not complete those 16 reps in that time frame. What do you think?
My abs were killing me, felt like my guts were burning inside. I forced myself to keep my body moving with same pattern on every rep and I tried to push the consuming feeling aside. Might try this one for longer time some time. Maybe not another workout before that 'cause it felt like the rowing wod gassed me pretty well.
Great training session!
Chad Mackay
Sprints.
10 x 100m shuttle run sprints (2x50m)
This was on the fly type of workout. It was something around 9pm when it hit me I wanna go running. Pauliina is out on a girls' night and those days are usually reserved for double training sessions so why make this one an exception. Went outdoors, took my warm-up and was ready to go. I measured a distance of 50 meters in the woods and did shuttle runs, back and forth that 50m distance, for a total of 100m. Short recovery and repeat a total of 10 times. That was cool! I really enjoyed the moment.
Friday. Sprints 10 x 200m, work:rest ratio 1:1. Metcon, 5rds of: 8 over the box burpees with 15kg db's, 10 ring dips, 12 t2b. Time 14.32
Pauliina is celebrating pre-Christmas party with some colleagues. That means one thing. I have no rush and therefore my training sessions tend to extend longer than normally. First I went running for sprints, then headed to the gym to work on cardio through a metcon. A bit different moves to get more variation to the workouts. Ended the session with lots of mobility.
Sprints.
10 x 200m run
1:1 work / rest ratio
It was nice to go for a run after a long break. Running in general is not one of my faves but it's definitely something everyone should be doing. I don't like the jogging at all, it feels like useless stuff but running in a metcon or doing sprints / intervals are beneficial for sure. This time I had the possibility to go for a place near my work, just 5min warm-up run up there, then some activation in my body, then it was time to start working. As you see from the picture below, the place was not covered with lights so I ran in the darkness. It was a genuine Rocky feeling. Friday night, no lights in sight, just a man and his sneakers =) I did the sprints 100m back and forth, total of 200m, then took a short rest, I counted 30 inhales, and it was time to go for another one. Total of 10 sets, it felt much better than I thought beforehand.
My track this evening :)
Metcon. Time 14.32
5 rounds of:
8 over the box burpees with 15kg dumbbells both hands
10 ring dips
12 toes-to-bar
A new movement was introduced to Don's life. I saw the "Invitational" document just a while ago, if you missed it see the video from this post. They did a movement called burpee over the box. Holding dumbbells in both hands simultaneously the athlete was supposed to go over the box, no need to straighten to full extension, just go over the box with the dumbbells. Then perform a burpee, hit chest to deck and come back over the box. I wanted to try this one out as well.
Pull-ups at the train station
For some reason ring dips seem to go past my memory, I'd like to do them but I kind of forget them constantly. It would be vital for me to complete them because they're not my strength. Toes-to-bar movement is simply beneficial, always!
Those burpees were awful. They sucked my juice all the way. Going over a box wasn't as smooth as I had foreseen it in my mind. Kind of a clumsy crawling over the barrier. I performed well with the ring dips, unbroken for the first 4 rounds. The first movement put pressure on forearms as there was tension in the hands constantly. T2b's were the "easiest" part of this one. Not that it would have been a walk in the park. My body felt a bit tired after the sprints so this wasn't an all-in version of a metcon.
The biggest news in the crossfit world today is the fact that Tony the Pony has opened his own blog! =) I've been anticipating this day for a long time and finally he made the decision couple of days ago. Didn't take too long to make a post. He's writing in finnish so all the finnish readers go and take a look at the mister's first touch in the blog scene: ponysfit.blogspot.com.
Previous champs: Mikko Salo and Graham Holmberg on a pair metcon, looking good guys
Friday. Skills, muscle-up 11x1, handstand. Sprints 8x100m. Metcon, for completion: 5 rounds of: 10 t2b, 10 ring row.
Friday night. Pauliina was outdoors with her friend so I had some quality time with crossfit =) Decided to work on my weaknesses. Went to Pirkkola, "HC Triplet" venue to do bar muscle-ups and handstand. I also ran 100m sprints, which has been a rarity. Then I hopped on my car and drove to home gym for a metcon and mobility.
Skills.
Muscle-ups, 11x1
Handstand
It's been a while since I did my last muscle-ups. I've practiced on ring muscle-ups but haven't been able to perform a successful rep. Will have to concentrate more on those. However, today was reserved for bar mu's. There's still that awkward twist as I land on the pull-up bar with right side first. That's because my right leg does the "kick" and left leg kinda lags back.
Waiting for muscle-ups to be done
I'm still able to nail every rep I attempt but those definitely consume more energy compared to a situation where I would be pulling higher with both legs doing work equally. So getting reps done is very positive but there's technical work to be fixed in order to make them more effortless. And once I get rid of that biased right side, it will probably ease the ring muscle-ups as well because there you have to keep the package tight and not twist the body to any direction.
Took 20 dips at the top of the pull-up at then end of the last muscle-up. My shoulders were destroyed after this training part so I was able to do only a couple of sets handstand skills. It felt good though in the beginning. Towards the end I felt like there's no strength left in my shoulders so I decided to move on to running.
Friday evening at the gym, surprise there's no one
Sprints.
8 x 100m sprints
When was the last time I did running? Honestly, I don't know. There's been running as part of a metcon. I have intentionally done running metcons when I've been here in Pirkkola or lifting weights in Eltsu because there's also a running track in the weight lifting place. But I haven't been concentrating in running 100 / 400 meter sprints.
Recap
So today I did 8 sets of 100 meter sprints. Recovery was the walk back after which I immediately went for the next run. The latter half of the sprints was agonizing. I gave my all in the running part. In the beginning my shins were hurting a bit but it went away after the first run. Maybe that was only because of lack of running.
On the first 2 runs I felt my pace was around 80-90% of max but from then on my joints were loose enough and it felt good in my body, legs and upper body. Did 8 sets and felt awesome after having done them because it's been such a long time since last running training.
Kiddos playing football during the sprints
Metcon. For completion
5 rounds of:
10 toes-to-bar
10 ring rows
Drove to the gym in order to do bench press for strength. Once I arrived at the Box, I realized the bench was missing the actual bench?!? Not the most comfortable platform to lay on. So I had to modify. Was thinking about floor presses and even tried some dumbbell bench presses. After doing some foam rolling, playing with the barbell I noticed I wanted to concentrate today on bodyweight movements. Let's save the barbells for tomorrow.
Whaaat?
A movement that always needs improvement is toes-to-bar (or knees-to-elbows, doesn't matter). It's awesome movement for a number of reasons. It strengthens the core, shoulders, grip strength, metabolic conditioning, actually the entire body gets it's share. And ring rows are simply nasty. My muscles tend to go tired after just a short number of reps so no harm in doing those once in a while.
Toes-to-bar
Toni was taking a day off today. His talking about doing one of the benchmark girls tomorrow. If he's able to make it to local crossfit affiliate, I'm looking forward to see how he's doing. For finnish speaking guys: if you're in Facebook, look up Crossfit Vantaa and you'll find an interview of Tony the Pony. He's the "crossfitter of the week" =)
Tuesday. Sprints 4x400m with 90sec recovery. Pair wod with my bro. As a team, complete the following set of movements: 150 pull-ups, 150 burpees, 150 kb snatches (20kg). Time 23min.
Yes man! It was time for some outdoors training, one of the best shots of the week. I love these workouts. It's awesome to enjoy the summer weather and do some serious workouts with friends. Today Marko was not able to make it but Toni and my brother came along. We had some pair wod in front of us. Prior to that, we did sprints.
Sprints. Time 10.04
Run 4x400m
Rest 90sec between rounds
Time 10.04. On average this means 1.23.5 min per round. The first round was sick. It was clearly seen we are brothers with Sipa and the rivalry between us is fierce. Even though neither of us openly admits it before a metcon, it's obvious we both need to beat that other guy. Our first sprint was fast compared to our normal running pace. I led the round all the way to 250m, on the following 50m Sipa caught me and the final 100m we ran side by side to the goal line. Neither of us took an extreme sprint in the end because there were 3 rounds more to be completed. I thought the pace was not that fast but I stopped the clock at 1.10 so it definitely was faster than we would normally run.
It took some of the sharpest edge from both of us and pace got slower especially on the last two rounds. Second round was around 1.20 and the last 2 rounds about 1.30. Toni's first round was 1.27, then pace also got a little slower, 1.30 plus minus 5 sec.
Bros
Pair wod. Time 23min
As a team, complete the following set of movements
150 pull-ups
150 burpees
150 kettlebell snatches, 20kg
Our legs were pretty wasted at this moment. Without a proper warm-up they were smashed. It was time to move on the the pull-up bar. The workout we did with my bro included 2 bodyweight movements and one kettlebell move. First, 150 pull-ups in a row, then 150 burpees and finally 150 kb snatches. All pull-ups have to be completed before entering to burpees, and then snatches.
Pair wod, pull-ups and burpees, first 10min
Our strategy was to go in sets of 10 reps throughout the workout. It pretty much went like that. I did 10's in the pull-ups whereas Sipa changed it to 5's after 100 reps. No big difference there. Other than that, we both went as planned. Good job! And those kettlebell snatches were the first ones for bro, he's openly done dumbbell snatches. The movement is almost the same but the way you have to handle the bell in the up-position so that it doesn't destroy your wrists.
KB Snatches
In the pull-ups I had to concentrate to get all those reps unbroken. I could have managed the sets up to 200 reps, I believe. That would have meant 100 reps for me. Burpees got breathing going faster and the snatches were not that difficult for me. We wouldn't have a more suitable weight in the snatches. 32kg would have been too tough? This was a good workout and it was spectacular to do it as a pair wod!
The end of the metcon, kb snatches
Toni's workout.
400m run
2min burpees (40 reps)
400m run
2min double unders (70 reps)
400m run
2min kettlebell swings, 32kg (34 reps)
400m run
2min wood thrusters (34 reps)
Toni was supposed to do this as a pair wod with Marko. The other one runs 400m and the other one does certain movements. Once the first guy finishes his 400m run, they switch roles. However, Marko wasn't able to come today (bit of a flu) so Toni imagined Marko was running for exactly 2min. Works well. Those repetition numbers in brackets above are numbers Toni gave me afterwords. He said those are more like estimates.
Wednesday. Hero workout Bradley. Time 21.11 (including rest).
Today is a sad day for me and people close to me. My life-long friend Benny, my 11-year old golden retriever, passed away in the morning. I'm sad and missing the old man tremendously. I'm happy for him anyway for getting a quick relief and he didn't have to suffer. Hope you can sleep well now in peace. Love you so much Benny! <3
I wanted to get something else in my mind for a second so I hooked up with Marko to do a workout outdoors. Didn't want to sit, cry and sleep all day. I decided to hit it hard and do a hero workout called Bradley, in memory of Benny, consisting of running, pull-ups and burpees. I wrote a workout for Marko with kettlebells and running.
Bradley. Time 21.11 (including rest)
10 rounds of:
100m run
10 pull-ups
100m run
10 burpees
30 sec rest
Total of 2.000m running, 100 pull-ups and 100 burpees. I managed to push it through unbroken with the pull-ups. And burpees too; towards the end the pace got slower but I managed to maintain rhythm with burpees as well. That 30sec rest period between rounds was welcomed with a pleasure. The breathing was heavy, especially as there was 29 degrees outdoors, huh. Had to splash water at my face between the rounds.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
