Weekend in Klaukkala, always a treat! We arrived yesterday evening to spend couple of days here to enjoy the summery countryside. It went late yesterday after the cruise with my colleagues and then the soccer match too. But we slept late, ate breakfast, and then it was a good time for me to prepare myself mentally for some uphill training. Running and kettlebells. After eating couple more times I was ready to pump it up again with burpees and wall balls. Both of these metcons were good metcons for work capacity.
Metcon. Time 12.50. Compare to 10.8.2013
- 6 rounds of:
- Uphill run and back down
- 20 kettlebell swings, 32kg
I did this workout last summer in the same place. That time I completed 6 rounds of work in 15min amrap. Today I tried to beat those 6 rounds and complete it in a shorter time. And I just got that done, as planned. I had squats done on Friday so my legs were pretty smashed already before this. Difficult to say how far away the spot was up there on the hill where I made the u-turn and came back down.
That uphill run was a painful experience on my legs. Kettlebell swings definitely didn't make it any easier, there as practically no rest at all for lower body on this one. I originally got inspired to do this kind of workout from Blair Morrison as he wrote about something similar in his blog.
Anyway, last year I got 3 rounds unbroken on the kettlebells, this time I got it unbroken all the way. That made me a little proud of myself. Doing 20 kb swings with this little thing ain't the easiest on grip strength during a metcon. But today I was able to push it through despite the pain cave. I tried to keep the transition times as short as possible. First round was 1:48, next two rounds were 2:00 and 2:08 and the last three rounds were between 2:14 and 2:22, the last being fastest. So I gotta say I feel good considering the disastrous feeling in my hammies and quads. It was time to head back to base camp to eat and recover.
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| Chicken skewer for lunch, yammy! |
Metcon. Time 15.14
- 20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 of:
- Burpees
- Wall ball
After couple of hours chilling and spending quality time with my love I decided to put on some training gear on and started warming up. Bodyweight stuff was ahead of me. That wall ball is phenomenal. Excellent tool for metcons as it activates the entire body: legs, shoulders and lungs especially.
I got some parts of it on video but the cable is at home so I'll add some recap tomorrow on these moves. I grabbed the wall ball with me with high hopes there would be some spot to throw the ball against. It turned out to be the perfect place for that one just outside the door. So burpees and wb combo was about to take place.
Starting at 20 reps, coming down 2 reps after each set, starting with burpees and alternating with wb's all the time. First round was easy because it was the first one, the round of 18's already got my breathing go heavy, and the actual grind was through rounds of 16's to 10's. After that I saw some positive signals as the rounds got so much shorter compared to the beginning.
My round times got shorter pretty much throughout the workout so the game plan was solid. Just keep on moving. It doesn't feel good, that was for sure already before the workout. But both of these bodyweight movements are manageable and it's all about mental strength / weakness to keep going or making a conscious decision to stop moving.
Saturday was a cruel training day for sure and I felt it in my body afterwards. Even though I ate like a monster throughout the day I still felt tired for until I took a short power nap (and ate some more). The muscles had been burning a lot so they needed fuel to get back in track. It was a great Saturday training-wise and in other sense too. It was great to spend this day with Pauliina here to chill out and relax.
Updated a video on this one
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