CrossFit Open Workout 12.4

This head cold couldn't have come at a worse time. It was one of those head colds where the inside and the outside of your head and face are completely consumed by mucus. That in itself is no fun. And this workout made it significantly less fun. I was able to wait until the tail end of the head cold to complete this workout.

The workout was as follows. 150 wall ball with a 20 pound ball. 90 double unders with a jump rope. And 30 muscle ups. You were only allowed 12 minutes to complete as much of these movements as you could. Let me tell you, I wanted to get to the muscle ups. Bad. Really bad. But alas, I did not. I made it through all 90 double unders with only milli seconds to spare. I am happy with the result. As a result of the head cold, I was fatigued immediately and couldn't breath properly even sooner then that. I missed my old PR of 150 wall ball by only 10 seconds or so. All in all, I'm pleased with my performance. The final workout of the CrossFit Open will be announced this evening. I'm excited to complete the Open and resume my normal training schedule. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Below is a video of Neal Maddox and Jason Kahlipa completely destroying this workout. Enjoy!

CrossFit Open WOD # 12.3

This workout was easily one of the toughest WODS I've done in a really long time. It was as many rounds as possible of 15 box jump at 24 inches, 12 push press at 115 lbs. and 9 toes to bar as you could do in 18 minutes. And as I said before, it was absolutely brutal. I had to make up all my time on the box jumps because I was able to turn them over fairly quickly. I was really slow on my toes to bar because my kip didn't meet the standards and, as a result, 3 out of my first 6 didn't count. And the push press got very heavy very quickly. At one point, around minute 12 my friend and teammate Ryland was yelling at me to get back on the pull up bar for my toes to bar, right when I looked up to jump, everything started to fade to black. So I decided that it would be in my best interest to rest a few more seconds instead of passing out. I ended up with just over 7 rounds. I was really happy with that result and had absolutely no desire to re do that workout.

CrossFit Open WOD 12.2

Sorry I haven't gotten around to posting. I'm about 2 weeks late on this one. This has been a really busy couple of weeks for me. It all starts with WOD 12.2. This particular workout was all about the snatch. And it quickly separated the men from the boys. You start out with 30 snatches at 75 lbs. This was easy enough for just about everybody. Then it became significantly more difficult when the weight jumped to 135 lbs. for 30 reps. This is where the real athletes get separated from the pack. 30 snatches at 165 lbs. Getting through 30 snatches at 165 is an accomplishment if you are capable. Then comes the real deal. As many snatches as you can get at 210 lbs. This is an unreal weight that I can't even fathom snatching over my head. Did I mention that you only had 10 minutes to get as many as you could?

I tried this work out twice. The first time I blew through the 75 lbs. within about 2 minutes. Once I got to 135, I had a lot of problems getting the weight over head. I had 4 missed reps and 2 of them were because I got it up but just couldn't stand up out of the squat. I ended the 10 minutes with a total of 47 reps. I was pretty disappointed, but I didn't think I could do any better. The next day, I had a revelation. The split snatch. It was incredible. I did the workout again, and blew through the 75 lbs. in 2 minutes just like last time. Then I put my new found skill to work. I got all 30 reps at 135 lbs. to get a total of 60 reps. I was completely satisfied with my score. Below is a video of Dan Bailey and the 2011 Games champion Rich Froning crushing this workout. Rich ended up getting 8 reps deep at 210 lbs. and that is phenomenal I assure you.