Minor Victories are Important

I’m not afraid to admit that this year has been a bit of a mixed bag so far. Whatever positive momentum I had built by the middle of January evaporated pretty quickly and February was a bumpy ride as a result. It happens. I’m keeping an optimistic eye towards March.

But I’m coming to recognize that the little victories are important when other things aren’t going as well. Yesterday it was the eval WOD that I shaved a few seconds off of. Today it was something else. Little things matter.

So getting to today, I made it in for the 8:30 class. Coach Drea had Todd, Carrie, Jenny, Sarah, and I this morning. A fun group and I was definitely in a bit better headspace today than yesterday.

We started with some couch stretch, moved to the foam roller, and then did an interesting little 3 round warm-up:

• 100m run/150m row/1 min bike (choose 1)
• 10 snatch balance
• 10 jump and lands in an overhead snatch position
• 10 hollow body holds with overhead press (mimic bar muscle up press)

I did the Devil’s Tricycle for the first one and rowed the other two. And the rest wasn’t too bad with a PVC pipe.

From there we grabbed an unloaded barbell and did some snatch progressions, then talked about the bar muscle-ups and chest-to-bar progressions. My shoulders were a little sore from yesterday, but once they got warmed up a bit the empty bar wasn’t bad. And adding 30# to the bar for 75# power snatches in the workout didn’t feel awful.

The C2B on the other hand… Always a little problematic. That said, I tried some regular kipping C2B and then Todd mentioned pushing down instead of pulling up. After that I actually did two honest C2B’s for the first time ever. (Now, I wasn’t able to reproduce that during the workout, but I will take what I can get. 🙂 )

Minor victory achieved!

Downhill from there. 🙂

The workout was 16.3 from last year’s CrossFit Open:

• 7 minute AMRAP
• 10 power snatches (75/55#)
• 3 bar muscle-ups

Scaled was 45/35# and jumping chest to bars. I stayed with the 75# weight and attempted a mix of kipping and jumping C2B. Didn’t hit my chest on any of them. After my minor victory apparently I was out of victories for the day, which is ok.

I went through the workout 4 full rounds. Last year I was able to at least get the jumping C2B, but I didn’t have them today. And I will survive.

Great work 8:30 class! It was a good one.

As far as later in the week, I’ll be back on Thursday for whatever that holds. And I’m hoping that Castro does a short WOD for 17.2 when he announces it on Thursday night. Guessing something to do with pull-ups and Drea mentioned wall balls. We’ll see if either of them show up. 🙂

Have a good day folks!

16.3

Well, I can’t sleep so I might as well write this up. (We’ll talk about my insomnia at the end, I promise.)

Last night along with a good chunk of the CrossFit community, I watched the 16.3 announcement. And I only swore a little. Bar Muscle Ups? Riiiight.

What’s the workout? A 7 minute AMRAP:

• 10 power snatches (75/55#)
• 3 bar muscle-ups

I have attempted the bar muscle-up halfheartedly a few times, but it hasn’t been in the cards. I’m just getting to the point where chest-to-bar may be an option though, so the scaled workout might be a bit more in my wheel house.

• 10 power snatches (45/35#)
• 5 jumping chest-to-bar pull-ups

That was more in the realm of possibility anyway.

I didn’t get to go watch the rest of the box do their thing, but it looks like (based on what I heard and saw as far as posted video) that quite a few people managed to get bar muscle-ups for the first time – so that was exciting. We were late due to soccer practice, but made it in eventually and saw a few folks work through it.

When I jumped in, I ended up going with my wife and daughter along with one or two other folks. I did not warm up except for trying a few jumping c2b’s to see if they were even possible. Apparently they were. And the bar at 75# felt ok, so we had a plan… Start with the 10 Rx power snatches and then do the rest of the workout scaled.

How’d it go?

I managed the 75# snatches pretty easily. Banged them out and hopped to the rig. And the first set of 5 jumping C2B’s went slow, but steady. Got through them and started again.

Ultimately I got through 3 full rounds and 10 more snatches. I attempted more C2B but had no pull by that point – my forearms were rocks and I lost the ability to pull the bar to my chest. I never dropped the weight on the bar – stuck with 75# – and even to the end those felt ok.

My first two sets of snatches were unbroken and the last two I did 5 and 5, which worked fine. I just wish I’d been able to do a few more chest to bars.

Everybody did an amazing job, though I feel for my wife who struggles with all pull-up movements. Tonight she did the snatches fine but spent the rest of the time attempting to get even a single jumping C2B and couldn’t quite get there. Somehow we have to get her over that hump.

The Conundrum

Here’s my conundrum.

I have two scores. I have a Rx score of 10 reps. And I have a Scaled score of 55 reps (three full rounds – 45 reps – plus ten more snatches = 55).

As far as the Open itself, I’d get more mileage out of an Rx score. But I didn’t do it Rx, so my conscience is telling me I should just put in the scaled score.

I’m not in this thing to *win* the Open. Obviously. I’m just a guy trying to get through each workout to the best of my ability and actually FINISH this year.

So to that end, I’m probably going to enter a scaled score. Ultimately it’s not going to matter to anybody but me, so I need to appease my conscience.

The Insomnia

It’s 3:30am. The madness began after 1am and I went to bed about 10:30. My brain started playing the usual tricks about the ceiling fan…

• it was going to fall
• I had to turn it off
• I had to save the dog and my wife so if it falls they wouldn’t get hurt

It’s ludicrous what my brain throws up. I don’t know why it does it. I avoided caffeine. I avoided alcohol. I drank water. I tried to be a good kid.

But no, the brain doesn’t want me to sleep. A little after 1:30 I came downstairs and played a computer game for a while and now I’m writing this up. It’s maddening.

Not sure why, but at this point I am just looking for a rubber mallet to beat myself over the head with, Wile E Coyote style.

Hopefully you are all getting some sleep for me and I can siphon some energy before I start on the coffee IV in a few hours.

G’nite.