I-YAN BAAAAAAAARRRR, I-YAN BAR.

d'Oracle

Eve

10-9-8-....3-2-1

Power Clean 60kg
Box Jumps 18"

13:58

Thats 4+ min improvement.
Which is nice.

2x5 BW Dips.

Thats it till the invitational except maybe some bw squats to keep my hip moving.

d'Oracle

The Crossfit Ireland Fitness invitational competition for fitness.

What a day. Hard, fun and a great workout.
I surprised myself, learned a lot and performed better than I expected.
Colm, Will and Tom have a great thing going out there and should be damn proud of their athletes and the day in general. Top way to spend a day.

WOD 1

1K row
30x 60Kg Jerks (70kg Rx'd)
150 Single under (50 Dbl Unders Rx'd)

13:12

Set off at a steady pace of a row. James "Lt" Phelan, my spotter for the workout told me to keep a steady pace and not gas myself.
I sort of fluctuated between 1:38/500 and 1:50/500 (briefly, before kicking my self back on) and was surprised when I stepped off the rower first, not overly gassed. Jerks went alright, I was shouting and they were raggy by the end. I eyeballed Colm during the last rep cos I sort of went walkabouts while locking it out. He seemed to think it was alright. I think it was the right decision to scale, given the fact that finishing in time was my own aim. Then I skipped 150 times. If I have one real disappointment its that I didn't get double unders before the day.
Incidentally accupuncture and some joint work worked a treat on my "shin splints".
Cutoff time was 15min. I could have done better, but I was stoked after it anyway. This was my best performance of the day.

WOD 2

5 Rounds
200m Run
3xPower Clean 70Kg
5x Ring Dips w/Blue Band (Ring Dips RX'd)

9:26


As I said mid WOD to Garvan Allan my spotter for this event, I hate running. And I do. **** running, its **** and it ****ed up my Cleans.
First run was good, Second was not so good, 3,4 & 5 were trots.
Cleans were ugly except for one sweet one in round 3 or 4. Funny thing was my warm ups were all nice......
Ring dips I have little to no exposure to. The band helped, made them a bit easy till the last round. Garvan was a legend.

WOD 3

This was a frickin Maneater.

10,9,8,.......3,2,1

Front Squats 60Kg
Burpee Pullups

Timed out at 15:00.
5 of 5 Front Squats and 1 burpee pullup
(Which I havent been credited with on the Website.)

First of all I think it was a decent decision to Scale, but I might have been able for 70kg, I will never know.
What I do know is that Burpee pullups are frickin murder. The FS felt solid, but I was utterly GASSED from the BP's. This had the effect of slowing my stronger movement down. James "Jimminy" Sutherland, a stand up dude if there ever was one, was my spotter here and he went on to CRUSH THIS WORKOUT LIKE IT WASN'T NO THANG.

Put simply, I got eaten alive by this WOD. It is bloody super and I will do it again.

Reflections

I had a chat with Hanley, Token and a few others about strength.
This whole day, and the process running up to it, has underlined something for me. If I could front squat 100 for reps, that last WOD would not have eaten me. If my bench was bigger I would have had a lot less hassle getting the ring dip. If I got 12kg more on my press the 70kg jerks would have been no thang. I need to get stronger.

This will light a fire under my ass.

I'm glad I did this, it was a big challenge and I would recommend it to anybody. Especially the few who read this and know they should have goddamn entered.

G86

Well done mister, fair play to ya, especially with the ring dips

d'Oracle

G86 wrote: »

Well done mister, fair play to ya, especially with the ring dips

Cheers.
As Colm said Only 17 weeks till the September invitational.
You better get training.

G86

d'Oracle wrote: »

Cheers.
As Colm said Only 17 weeks till the September invitational.
You better get training.

Haha we'll see, at the mo I'm just focused on getting my ass back in a regular routine.

That third WOD looked like burpee hell... serious kudos to ya for even getting to the end of it!

d'Oracle

G86 wrote: »

Haha we'll see.......

.......You at the September Invitational.

And I didn't get to the end of WOD three.
I should have gotten further, but it was hell.

G86

d'Oracle wrote: »

.......You at the September Invitational.

And I didn't get to the end of WOD three.
I should have gotten further, but it was hell.

Thought ya got to the 15min mark? That's the end of it in my eyes, especially if ya only had one more set left! So hush up and take the praise!:) (see, I'm in a nice mood today, maybe I should go on to everyones log and tell them how super duper great they are, I'm on a roll like!)

itsallaboutheL

G86 wrote: »

Thought ya got to the 15min mark? That's the end of it in my eyes, especially if ya only had one more set left! So hush up and take the praise!:) (see, I'm in a nice mood today, maybe I should go on to everyones log and tell them how super duper great they are, I'm on a roll like!)

Tell me, Tell me

---

Well done yesterday man.

d'Oracle

G86 wrote: »

Thought ya got to the 15min mark? That's the end of it in my eyes, especially if ya only had one more set left! So hush up and take the praise!:) (see, I'm in a nice mood today, maybe I should go on to everyones log and tell them how super duper great they are, I'm on a roll like!)

I got 5 squats and a burpee pull out. Thats 10 front squats and 14 burpees short. I'm not complaining, I'm happy with it.

Incidentally, there was a girl there yesterday who only jerked a bar the first time during the week.
She scaled it and finished the first workout with minutes to spare.
Infact she scaled and finished all the workouts.
Anybody can take part and there were only 6 women competitors out of 30 people. You need to get in on this, G.

token

Impressive performances on Saturday Cormac and fair ****s to you for entering with only a few weeks of crossfit metcons beforehand. Respect!

d'Oracle

Thank you very much Eamonn.
That means a lot.

Edwardius

token wrote: »

Impressive performances on Saturday Cormac and fair ****s to you for entering with only a few weeks of crossfit metcons beforehand. Respect!

What he said, fair play dude.

d'Oracle

Aw you guyyyyys.:)

Transform

token wrote: »

Impressive performances on Saturday Cormac and fair ****s to you for entering with only a few weeks of crossfit metcons beforehand. Respect!

totally agree - serious respect!!

d'Oracle

Back to work.

Squats

20x10, 20x5, 60x5, 80x5, 100x5,
110x3x5

Was a bit hard. Trying to fix a few things. Some reps were almost snappy.
Some were slow and crap.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3, 52.5x4 Fail.
20kgx30

I have not properly recovered from the invitational.
Bar was unstable on the warm ups. My Shoulders felt off and my triceps were weak and sore. I did a heap of bar reps just to keep moving the muscles.

Power Cleans

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x3, 50x3, 60x3, 70x3
72.5x5x3 PR

Some of the were ugly.

d'Oracle

Whinge and piss.

Squat

20x2x5, 60x5, 80x5, 100x3, 110x2,
112.5x5 112.5x 2,3 112.5x2,3

Just sort of put the bar back and readjusted. More than enough to consider them failed sets.
I dunno, I spent the whole time trying to psyche myself up whilst subconsciously not.
More importantly, the reps were incredibly inconsistent.
If I focus on knees out I lift my back, if I maintain my back angle out of the hole my knees drift in. ****ing horrible and a confidence destroyer.
Onwards and upwards.

Bench

20x2x5, 40x5, 60x5, 70x3,
72.5x3x5

Grand. Lost strength but I havent benched in over a month.
Put the bar back between the penultimate and ultimate reps no spotters around. Would have been a good night for a metcon actually.

Deadllift

60x2x5, 100x5, 120x3,
130x5

Or rather 3,1,1.
Only a couple of seconds between 3 and 4. Then had a wee strop between 4 and 5. Aborted a pull and the when I actually pulled it I hitched it on the way up.
I am hating deadlifts. Again probably lost strength.

Now Eat.


And from now on I am thinking of not doing this programme.

Mon: Squat, Bench/Press, Chins.
Wed: Squat, Bench/Press, Deadlift
Fri: Squat, Bench/Press, Power Clean.

Although the order of pulls may change.
Obviously with linear progression.

d'Oracle

Another day another cluster****.

Squat
20x3x5, 60x5, 80x5, 100x3, 110x2
112.5x3,2 110x2,3

Disaster. Felt ok for the first two reps third one was badly ground out.
Its all too heavy. No stomach for the challenge.
I can now not squat. I'm gonna reset, but that seems to be all I do.

I am probably going a bit hard on myself seeing as I just squatted maybe 6 times in a month, but seriously guys, How long am I at this......
On a positive note I decided to squat with my back to the mirror which although moderately terrifying forced me to actually address how the squat felt more. Which will hopefully help.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3
52.5x5, 4,3
Push press 52.5x3

**** too. I pressed 58kg a month ago for about the same reps.
The bench, squat and DL I can take. This kills me. Its so ****ing hard to move the press. Not a happy camper. Although there has been some funny stuff going on in my shoulder since after the invitational.

Chins
3,2,2.

Meh. Funny how these have gone down so much since I put on weight.
Must be with how my nerves have gotten unfit.

itsallaboutheL

Would extending that little mini-deload have been an idea?

What with firing in all the metcons and the skipping etc along with your normal programming i imagine it would have given your joints etc. a fair battering.

d'Oracle

itsallaboutheL wrote: »

Would extending that little mini-deload have been an idea?

What with firing in all the metcons and the skipping etc along with your normal programming i imagine it would have given your joints etc. a fair battering.

Might be, cheers.
Deloading is a fairly new concept to me.

d'Oracle

Video killed the squat rack star.

Squat

20x2x5, 60x5, 80x5, 90x3,
100x3x5

I videoed a few sets, most of them really.
I see me lifting the chest when squatting therefore failing to maintain my back angle at the bottom. Really working at keeping the back solid and in extension.
I must have a proper look at them, but I'm sure I can get them better.

Bench

20x2x5, 50x5, 60x5, 70x3, 72.5x2
75x2x5, 75x4,1

No spotters, **** rep 4, rack it. Rest **** rep.
Nuff said Ron.

Deadlifts

Suck ass
60x2x5, 100x5, 120x3
130x1,1,2,1

All over the place. Got two reps on video.
Bad stuff, back is rounding and I'm not sure what I can do.
Its like I just can't set my back at all. But the setup needs work too.
On review I also need to grow a pair and push myself to do reps.

1 Arm DB Rows

30kgx20 Each arm.

I might add a few more reps, weight and a set or so on these.
But didn't want to charge in.

Gonna use vids a bit more.
Maybe put up a few, get the lads at CFI to have a look.

d'Oracle

Pre Gym.

Some foam rolling and an assault with the Israeli Special Forces that is my tennis ball on the International Aid Flotilla (i.e soft and pink) which is my left glute.

Squat

20x2x5, 60x5, 80x5, 90x3, 100x2
102.5x6,6,5

ACCIDENTAL RX+. TWICE!
I lost count like a retard twice. Actually didn't realise the second time till I watched the video. Little inconsistent, particularly in the second set, but since I started to face away from the mirror I am getting a better idea of how it should feel.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3
52.5x3x5

Smoked this, which is nice. Possibly helped by the amount of moving around and loosening out I did this morning, alongside the amount I slept and the amount I ate yesterday. Eitherway felt like the breaks were off.

Power Clean

20x5, 30x5, 50x3, 60x3, 70x2
75x5x3 PR

Relatively solid. Some reps felt rubbish, but looked alright on video.
I'm gonna try to get a few vids up for these cos I want them looked at.
But PR's are hard to come by these days, so I am happy.

Pendlay Rows
60x3x3

Not sure why, just wanted to try them and didn't feel like only the 1 set.

2x10 Hanging knee raises
20kgx2x15 side bends each side.

Meh.

d'Oracle

Squat

20x2x5, 60x5, 80x5, 90x3, 100x2
105x3x5

Was trying to fix things, but I'm not sure that it wasn't worse.
Work sets felt heavy, bar drifted forward on most reps, sometimes significantly enough to bring my weight onto my toes and cause me to lift my chest. Videos don't look great, But I reckon the barpath is probably the reason my progress crashed. I'm even powing a bit into the bottom on later sets.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3, 52.5x2
53.5x5,5,4 Fail.

Actually fairly stormed through these, just ran out of gas on the last rep.
No biggie, will get it next time.
Done instead of bench due to the presence of bench press man, a bloke who only ever does cardio, Bench and LPD. Badly. Sufficiently badly for me to have concerns as to the sensibility of training in with him.

Chins

4,3,2,2

Added an extra set, as I will do next week.
I will review the scheme when I get 5x5.

Vidja from Saturday:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52fsLRjq5uk

Sangre

First thing that struck me, apart from what you pointed out, was you were shuffling a lot between reps and re-adjusting your stance. I'd find that very off-putting. Imo you should have your stance half set just before you unrack and then finalised before you first rep. I find keeping my feet solid throughout a set really me concentrate on other issues of form. The only adjusting I like to do is to set my chest/elbows after every rep.

d'Oracle

Sangre wrote: »

First thing that struck me, apart from what you pointed out, was you were shuffling a lot between reps and re-adjusting your stance. I'd find that very off-putting. Imo you should have your stance half set just before you unrack and then finalised before you first rep. I find keeping my feet solid throughout a set really me concentrate on other issues of form. The only adjusting I like to do is to set my chest/elbows after every rep.

Yeah, cheers.
I am aware of this and I'm not happy about it. Its a consequence of a few things and something I am working on. Trust me, its a lot better than it used to be.

Hanley

There's not really a whole lot wrong there. Just get stronger!

d'Oracle

How'd today go you ask?

Squat

20x3x5, 60x5, 90x3, 100x2
105x3x5

I was Tired, hungry and in a bad mood.
And some fellow was using the only pair of 2.5kg plates, so I had to stick.
Really focused on keeping the traps engaged to keep the back tight. I.e. keeping my head back. Legs were stiff as fudge, hip was giving me guff and my knee feels funny. Got one vid, but the gym floor has all been rearranged and has killed my angle at the rack.

Bench

20x2x5, 40x5, 60x5, 70x3, 75x2,
77.5x3x2, 77.5x4,1

So I dragged my tired angry ass over to the bench and proceeded to smoke the warmups and go after the work sets like they said **** about me Ma. Ran out of steam a bit on the last reps and as there was nobody worth asking to spot (and I amn't back in PR country yet) I put the bar back for a couple of secs and reset.

Too tired to deadlift so:

Power Clean

20x2x3, 30x3, 40x3, 60x3, 70x2, 75x1
77.5x3x5 PR

Although the last rep was so ****ty it could be considered a miss.
Not pretty, but tough.

Bent over 1 arm rows

Right 35kgx25
Left 35kgx22,3

Done fast.
Just avoiding failure there.

d'Oracle

Friday.

Squat

20x3x5, 60x5, 90x5, 100x3, 105x2
107.5x5,2,3,5

Hadn't got the bar right at all.
Was a bit of a whorebag of a workout, don't remember much else.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3, 52.4x2
53.5x3x5

Ripped through these.
Looked at clock and had to go, collect the good lady from the airport.
So basically I pussed out of another deadlift workout.

---

Tonight.
Hurdle steps, squat stretches, leg swings, spiderman lunges.....ANYTHING TO GET MY DAMN HIP WORKING PROPERLY.

Squat

20x3x5, 60x5, 90x5, 100x3, 105x2
110x3x5

The 20 sets probably looked harder than the 60 if you look at my face.
Hip was really tight and I was getting jabbing pain in either my psoas area or on the inside leg. This is pretty bad now. Someone worked in with the work sets which made me stop pissing around and do the damn squats.
They aren't supposed to be comfortable anyway.

Bench

20x2x5, 40x5, 60x5, 70x3, 75x2
80x5,5,4(?)

More or less hammered these.
But I think I may have gotten a little help on the last rep.
But the spotter touched the bar so its not a rep.

Chins

4,2,2,2,2

Lats were minced after the benching.
Or at least that what I think was wrong.

Pound of mince, Litre of milk, a third of a turnip and some chickpeas PWO.

d'Oracle

Last Night.

Squat

20x3x5, 60x5, 90x5, 102.5x3, 107.5x2
110x3x5.

Better and worse. The previous night I had spent about 30min with a tennis ball trapped between the front of my hip and the floor. Really ground anything I could find in the psoas area. As a result my squat felt a lot less tight, but still not right. Lost concentration on one or two squats so had to grind it back up but I made all the reps so all is good.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3, 53x2
53.8x3x5

Meant to be 54 but my whole microloading set up isn't quite right yet.
Grand. Got easier as it went on.

Deadlift

60x2x5, 100x5, 110x3,
120x5

Probably pussed out, but after missing a workout and missing reps the previous one, I think this need work. Not much else to say.


C'MON IRELAND!

d'Oracle

Squat

20x3x5, 60x5, 95x5, 105x3, 110x2
112.5x3x5

Good.
Largely solid, but a little slow on the last two reps.
Concentration was good, Depth on one rep may have been a little off.
Still scared of them though.

Power Clean

20x5, 50x3, 60x3, 70x2, 75x1
80x3, 80x1 Fail.
70x4x2

Not sure what happened here. Couldn't get the bar up high enough. Jarred my elbows and hit my clavicle. I dragged it up but that was a good sign that I was not gonna finish my reps. Backed off to 70kg to be doing something.

Bench

20x10, 50x5, 60x5, 75x3, 77.5x3
80x3x5

I'll be back in at my PR on Wednesday touch wood.
Fairly solid. Spotters kept their hands away so they all counted. Last one felt real heavy but with a mighty grunt, (loser) I finished it.

One arm DB Rows (not Kroc rows you homos.)

32.5kgx25 Each arm.

Only barely made it with the left arm.


Spent WAAAAAYY too much time talking to people today. Got home about 2.5Hrs after I left.

d'Oracle

Crime and Punishment.

Squat

20x3x5, 60x5, 95x5, 105x3, 110x2
115x3x5 PR

Shoulders are pretty cut up. Big welts on the back of the shoulders in particular. Shiny and angry. Took the guts of 45min with all the warming up and psyching up I had to do. And they were hard, probably harder than they should have been. One rep took a big plunge I lost focus and nearly did an Oly squat with a low bar....and one was probably high.
Hopefully this was down to how frickin tired I was beforehand. Falling asleep on the dart and on the couch when I got home. I might try to stick here for the next session see if I can't hammer them.

Press

20x2x5, 30x5, 40x5, 50x3, 53.5x2
55x3x5

Not much to say, pushed them up, brought them down.

Chins

3,3,2,2,1

Pretty bad there.
I'm putting it down to how inexplicably tired I was.
Probably should have pushed the 4th on the first set.

Gluttony PR: 1 litre of Chocolate milk PWO.