Friday - Saturday. Metcon, 21-15-9 of: sandbag cleans, sandbag lunges, wall balls. Rope climbs. One mile run with sandbag. Karen.
We spent the past couple of days in the countryside so it was quite obvious it's gonna be more or less outdoor metcons all the way. Had one rest day on the New Year's Eve but then I tried to find some time for rather quick workouts. Weather was snowy and suited very well for training outside.
Metcon.
21-15-9 of:
Sandbag cleans
Sandbag lunges
Wall ball shots
This was an intense one for sure. It was the first time I played around with a new sandbag I got from Toni and couple of colleagues as a farewell present as I changed workplace recently. I went to the store and bought sandpit sand and filled it up with Kari. It says it can be added up to 28kg but it simply wasn't possible. The little bags inside are full and it possibly weighs only about 20 kilos.
Getting it a bit heavier would be great. However, it's definitely not an issue. There are plenty of ways to use this tool. It also helps that there are handles on different sides of the bag. That enables various grips and tosses around. Doing ground-to-shoulder's a good bunch in a row puts breathing heavier. This was a very quick workout. Everything unbroken and without pauses. On the lunges I had the bag on my back. That brought a good pressure on my arms and made my forearms burn somewhat.
Skills.
Rope climbs
Later on we went to goof around with the rope. It's always a hassle to get the rope up on the tree branch so we have been thinking how to get it up and down on the branch without climbing ladders. We finally seemed to get it through. In the middle of the process I took couple of reps rope climbs for fun.
Run.
1 mile sandbag run
This happened on Saturday morning. We were going shopping but I negotiated 15 extra minutes in order to do a metcon. Had no time to think about it so I just grabbed the sandbag and hit it right away without warm-up.
I went back and forth a 200 meter leg of the road. Dropped the bag after every 200 meters because holding it in back rack position started to make my forearms go numb. This was a fun little piece to start the day.
Karen.
150 wall ball shots
In the evening I also had something like 8 minutes spare time left for a workout =) There was Finland's ice hockey game just about to start against Canada. And what a game it was! Under 20 year old world championship game playoffs are going on and this is huge. It was a great game but before it started I grabbed my wall ball and started throwing it against the wall.
I went 20-20-20-20-20-20-15-15 reps to finish Karen. It was more of an emom training. I took 15 breaths in between sets. Didn't have a timer on as I didn't have in any of the workouts. With that said, I worked like the timer was pushing me. No difference there.
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!!!
Friday. AM: Strength, overhead squats 6x3 (max 70kg). PM: Outdoor metcon, 15min amrap of: 20m sandbag (20kg) lunges, 15 burpees, 7 t2b. Result, 6rds + 6 burpees. Had to modify in the middle of the workout.
We headed to the gym early in the morning with Pauliina for some strength work. It was about time to replace those overhead squats I missed Tuesday when we were working out with my bro at Liikuntamylly. OHS had been banging in the back of my head since then so I had to do couple of sets. In the afternoon I squeezed in a metcon at our backyard.
Strength.
Overhead squats
3-3-3-3-3-2 (50, 60, 62.5, 65, 67.5, 70kg)
Talk about a weakness. Here it is. Squat snatch and overhead squats are not that comfortable movements. I always feel like there are mobility issues restricting me to lower myself perfectly. That's naturally just an excuse, I should be working those weak spots and make both movements my "thing". I would like to have a little more narrow grip. Currently I'm having my hands in the very end of the barbell. If the grip is more towards a jerk grip, I can't get low enough. The thing is that I believe my body leans a little too much forward and I can't hold my weight on the heels. This is something I need to be working on.
70kh ohs
This is kind of a complex movement, even though you can do it with a slow pace. Compare to squat snatch where you have to explode under the bar. I was able to handle the weights today pretty well no matter the technical issues. Plus I was able to hit the depth on the squats well. On the last set's 3rd rep my right elbows just gave away and bent on my way up. Result was the bar started coming down and I had to throw it forward. That kind of bugged me as it was so close to nail the sets with success.
Recap of overhead squats
Played a little in the end with overhead squats at 40kg and double unders. Not a workout, not for time, just wanted couple of longer sets overhead squats. I took sets of 15 reps. I changed my "metcon sneakers" on and it was a totally different thing to do overhead squats with. Oly lifting shoes are so much stable in all squats. On my sneakers it felt like the form was twisting more than normally.
Metcon. Result 6 rounds + 6 reps
15min amrap of:
20m sandy lunges
15 burpees
7 toes-to-bar
After eating and chilling I walked my lady to the train station as she was out to see a friend. That was a perfect time slot for me to throw in another metcon as I only did strength in the morning. I was thinking about the gear I have in the cellar and what movements to combine in the workout. The answer was Sandy, our beloved 20kg sandbag that we created together with Toni for "HC Triplet II - In the Woods". It was nasty then, and it still has her moments.
My goal in this one was to have my lungs make some work, get the breathing heavy and you've reached your goal. Burpees is another great tool for that purpose. Plus I wanted it to last for a little longer, 15 minutes was what I ended up with. Having only lunges and burpees would have been a little boring so I added t2b's to get something extra in the game.
Backyard workout
This was a good one, I really enjoyed working through it. In general, working outdoors is great. I get the kicks out of it, every time, no matter the weather. But, today the weather was just beautiful at the same time. Sun has been shining nicely throughout the week, couldn't have asked for a better one for this holiday week. Wind was blowing roughly today, but the buildings were protecting a lot so it didn't bother at all, it was a slight cool breeze.
I did those t2b's on the kids' swing. On the 4th round the little people came to play at their swing so naturally I left the t2b's alone and concentrated in solely lunges and burpees. The result was 3 normal rounds and then 3 rounds without toes-to-bar plus lunges and 6 burpees on the 7th round. So there were a total of 7 round of lunges and 96 burpees, and 21 t2b.
Now it's time to chill for this Friday evening, eat some more and let this body recover. By the way, Crossfit Open 14.3 seemed like a great workout. Take a look!
Monday. AM: Working out at Liikuntamylly. Skills, handstand. Couple of clean & jerks (60-80kg). Benchmark workout Grace. Time 2.50. PM: Sandy action.
I'm on a holiday this week. Didn't use much of my leave last summer so I've had the possibility to take some time off of work and focus on training. That gives me a possibility to train at these magnificent places in the morning times. After a Super Bowl night, after sleeping all 3 hours I gave Pauliina a ride to work and went directly to Liikuntamylly, my favorite place as an athlete. It was time to take a nap and do another workout in the evening with a sandbag at our backyard.
Skills.
Handstand
This skills movement is sick, I love it. When you give me the possibility to do it, I'll do it. It felt like my body was very tired in the morning but once I got to go inverted it was getting better. First I did some handstand hold, trying got stay as firm and balanced, having my legs together pointing in the air. Then I practiced the handstand walk. It went okay. Was able to stay still pretty well and move forward as planned.
Grace. Time 2.50
Benchmark workout
30 clean & jerks, 60kg
This workout is something sacred for me. Grace and Fran, 2 of the most classic and prestigious workouts that come to my mind when you talk about benchmark workouts in crossfit. They both make me nervous like nothing else. They are cruel workouts. Quick ones, it should always be an all-in effort from the very first rep. There's short amount of repetitions and no excuses to keep rest periods. I've been working my ass off to get strength in my shoulders in order for this 60kg weight to being something I'd be able to manhandle every time I touch the barbell.
Both of these benchmarks should be repeated once in a while in order to see whether development has taken place. This test of an athlete's muscle endurance is brutal and it got me nervous for a reason. Still, I was able to smash this one. I was hoping to get a PR from my previous time of 3.48. But never in my dreams did I see this time coming, a new record with a time of 2.50! That was sick, I'm on cloud number 9 right now for the performance I was able to do =)
I didn't quite know what kind of tactic to use on this one. Thought 6 sets of 5 reps would make it nicely if I'd do one set per 30 seconds for as long as possible. That would make it to 3:00 exactly. However, on the first set I already changed my strategy on the fly and completed 6 reps. On my 10sec break I thought to change it to 5 sets of 6 reps. On the second set I felt like I had unbalanced grip so I dropped the bar after 3 reps, readjusted and took another 3 reps. I was at 12 reps.
After another 10sec break I was looking to get another 6 reps. No way man. I took 3 reps in a row, break and another 2 reps, total of 17 reps. From there on I decided to throw those strategies in to trash bin and as Jason Khalipa says it: "throw balls to the wall". Just close your mindset and give your everything. The bar felt very heavy after 19 reps and that might be seen from my face also from the video. Each rep hurt in my shoulders and legs. Grace has never felt this bad on my thighs, they were burning in a smilier was as my shoulders.
It was a totally different ball game to complete Grace here in Liikuntamylly where you can drop bar compared to my home gym. You save tons of energy by dropping the bar instead of bringing it down gently. Of course you can go faster by doing touch'n'go reps but once you're hammered already, you simply can't do multiple reps. Afterwards, I realized it was a good strategy drop the bar after 20 reps every time I got a rep and grab the bar right away.
I was super stoked after I saw the time after the 30th rep. Probably my best performance every, the improvement was such great compared to last Grace. This one took all my energy and I was left with nothing in the tank. I hung around in Liikuntamylly for a while and stretched before going home for a lunch and a nap.
Sandy-metcon.
4 rounds of:
20 walking lunges with a sandbag, 25kg
20 strict press with a sandbag, 25kg
I thought another metcon is about to happen. Thought about what elements to utilize at our backyard. I have some stuff in the storage: kettlebells, weighted vest and self-made sandbag. Decided to go with the sandbag, a.k.a. Sandy.
Didn't want it to be an extremely long one so while I was warming up I came up with a simple workout: 10 walking lunges, then turn and complete the same steps back to starting point. Followed by 20 strict press with the sandbag. Those presses killed my shoulders! Even though the weight wasn't heavy, the odd object element might have made a difference.
I went unbroken on the strict presses for 2 rounds. On the last 2 rounds it was 15+5 and 12+8. Lunges went ub all rounds. It was a good evening workout to get some body fluids flowing. Now I'm gonna just eat for the rest of the evening and get ready for tomorrow's workouts. I'm eager to hear how Toni demolishes Crossfit Total at his Box today!
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
