The Miseducation of Jimbo Slice

22-1-10

Smolov Pull Ups:
bodyweight +10kg 5x7

Power Snatch:
40kg x3
50kg x2
55kg x1
60kg x1
65kg x1
70kg x1
75kg 3x1

Incline Bench:
60kg x5
80kg 2x5

Pulldown Abs:
stack +25kg 2x5

Squats:
60kg x5
90kg x5
120kg x5
140kg x5

CFI September Invitational WOD 1:
7 rounds for time
7 overhead squats w/ 45kg
7 wall balls
7 pull ups
TIME: 7 minutes 45 seconds - 15 second PR

<<Anything Can Happen In The Next Half Hour>>

Smolov Pull Ups:
bodyweight +15kg 10x3

Powah Snatch:
40kg x3
50kg x3
60kg x2
65kg x1
70kg 3x2

SLDL:
70kg x5
110kg x5
150kg 2x5

Incline Bench:
60kg x5
85kg 2x5

Pulldown Abs:
stack +27.5kg 2x5 - PR

Glute and Hip Flexor stretching



Maaaaaaaan that was an easy session. Feels nice to have a bit of a break from the last few weeks of madness. I'll probably take it easy enough again tomorrow... Power Cleans w/ 105-110 2x3 Squats w/ like 180 x1, 160 x3 and 140 x5 beltless, Pendlay Rows 95 2x5, Incline Bench 80 2x5 and Pulldown Abs 25 2x5
Pull ups were nice. I'm actually surprised how little the 15kg reps are bothering me. Reckon I'd do a set of 5 with 20kg now if I pushed it. Once again, Smolov kills.

Snatches were decent today... Worked on keeping my hips lower at the start and I was extending with more power and attacking the middle better as a result. The bar's still geting a bit away from me. Gonna have to work on fixing that.

SLDL's were handy. Gonna keep ticking away with them.

Incline benches were grand... I'd knock out a few sets of stress free 90kg 2x5's at the moment, and that's after doing them like 4 times in the past week so it's not like I'm 100% fresh.

Pulldown abs were cool. They drove my squat up last time, hoping they'll do it again. 30 2x5 would be a big milestone. Hopefully I'll get to tackle it in a few weeks time.

Worked hard on loosening up my hips and could really feel them tearing apart, it's hard to describe, but ya know that "nice" feeling where you can feel fibres being almost pulled apart.. well I got that!!

G86 wrote: »

You should sooo try the deadlift/burpee WOD with the 400m run's thrown in..fun times

I'm probably gonna have to pass on that one to be honest....

<<I'm on a boat muthafcuka>>

Power Snatch:
40kg x3
50kg x2
60kg x1
65kg x1
70kg x1
75kg x1
80kg x1
65kg 2x3

SLDL:
70kg x5
110kg x5
150kg 2x5

Pendlay Rows:
70kg x5
95kg 2x5

Incline Bench:
60kg x5
80kg 2x5

Pulldown Abs:
stack +25kg 2x5

Total FRANness:
15/12/9
60kg thrusters
+10kg pull ups
TIME: 6 minutes 26 seconds - 50 second PR

Good solid workout. The power snatches were good. Sharp enough like. worked on pulling a bit harder near the top.

SLDL's were the usual, same with Pendlays which are actually feeling very strong and incline benches which felt smeh.

Pulldown abs were good... reckon there's a set of 10 in me.

Total FRANness was good today... surprised how much my time's down, but it was like 4 months since I last did it.

Feeling good... Linda tomorrow. Sketch!

<<YOU'RE THE VOICE TRY AND UNDERSTAND IT, MAKE A NOISE AND MAKE IT CLEAR...>>

Power Snatch:
40kg x2
50kg x2
60kg x2
65kg x2
70kg x2
75kg x2 - PR I believe

SLDL:
70kg x5
110kg x5
140kg x5
160kg x6

Pendlay Rows:
60kg x5
80kg x5
100kg x5

Incline Bench:
60kg x5
80kg x5
90kg x5

Crossfit's Linda;
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Deadlift - 145kg
Bench - 95kg
Clean - 72.5kg
TIME: 29 minutes 57 seconds

So... 4th session in a 36 hour period. Saved the hardest for last too, REAL smart. I'm ashamed to say that last two nights have been absolutely mental as well, like REALLY bad. So I asked a fair bit of myself this weekend and just about survived.

Power Snatches were alright. My form's still a work in progress. Tried to keep the bar closer today and pull a bit harder in the middle, sorta worked. The second rep with 75kg was still fairly solid like.

SLDL's were grand, nothing special there.

Pendlay's were fine... I'll need to start using straps again on them to keep pushing the weight.

Incline bench was cool... surprisingly solid on the 90kg!!

Linda was just the worst thing I've ever done. I'm literally KO'd and unable to form a coherent sentence which describes how bad it was. I wanted to die all the way thru. I had to use 2 bars, one for DL and one for bench and cleans, which meant moving the bar outta the rack and changing weights after my benches which i reckon cost me at least 45 seconds a round, maybe 60+. It was complete and utter negative craic the whole way thru.

THEN, LAST SATURDAY (6th FEB)

think I’ve finally recovered enough to give my account of the Crossfit Ireland February Invitational…

The week leading up to it wasn’t a great one for me. I was stuck down in rural Mayo with work in a small hotel with no pool or gym. Normally I don’t do full deloads but this one was enforced. I was stiff as a board by the end of the week because I was sitting down all day and then had almost a 4.5 hour drive back thanks to traffic jams. The only actual “exercise” type work I did for the week was 2 nights of stretching to try and keep loose.

Got back in to Dublin at 7.30pm on Friday and was back in town for 8.30 for a work reunion party. Told myself I was only having 3 drinks. Ended up having a 3x that amount, and a bit on the way to a brilliant night with lots of laughter and stories, so it was worth it. Decided the best was to counteract the alcohol was with copious amounts of water, so 5l was consumed between 11.30pm and 2am when I eventually made it to bed.

Was on the road to CFI at 8.15am feeling remarkably fresh. It was nice to get there a few hours before the WOD’s commenced, gave me lots of time to wake up properly and get stretched out.

First WOD was a Tabata mash up (20 seconds on, 10 rest for 8 rounds of each);

-Deadlifts w/ 100kg
-Chest to bar pull ups

I knew I was going to kill the deadlifts, but would probably suffer on the C2B pull ups so I gamed accordingly. I averaged about 4 pull ups per round, slightly less perhaps, but managed to score 113 which was good enough for first. I think second place came in at 107. So I woulda pulled 89 deadlifts during the 8 rounds – 11 per round or a deadlift every 2 seconds, fairly happy with that.

I generally don’t do recovery well. I have absolutely no problem turning off that little part of my brain that tells me to stop, but I usually suffer for it afterwards because I can’t move. I knew that coming into the day so sandbagged the first workout a bit. Call it 95% effort to try and keep a bit in reserve for WOD 2 and 3.

By the time WOD 2 rolled around I still wasn’t feeling 100% so thank god I took the first one easy. It was max rounds in 10 minutes of;

3 snatches w/ 40kg
6 toes to bars
9kcal row

I scored 7 rounds plus 1 snatch and promptly fell on my ass attempting the second snatch right as the clock ran out. That was good enough for 3rd place. It was a tough WOD but manageable, mainly thanks to the cycle time of the snatches and the strapping in and out of the rower giving an extra bit of time to catch my breath. The hardest part of the WOD was the toes to bar. My left shoulder’s extremely dodge and tends to try and subluxate if I spend any time handing or kipping on a bar. I can bust out a strict set of 10-12 when I’m fresh without any trouble but as I got fatigued my ability to lock my shoulder down just disappeared, so even tho the 6’s woulda been ok, I had to drop off mid set each time and shake my shoulder out. I wouldn’t have gotten thru this WOD as well as I did if it wasn’t for 3 reasons – chasing Dominic beside me, Garvan shouting abuse the whole way thru and having Will give constant encouragement and tips, so thanks a million for that guys. Will had to take a few snatches off me for not hitting full extenstion (musta been 5 or 6?) and I dropped the bar on my head mid way thru. Good fun other than that.

I was joint first after all that, and staring down the barrel of a straight slug off with David S in the final WOD.

WOD 3 was always gonna suuuuuuuuuuuuck. I just knew by the look of it that it’d be my weakest event by a mile, and probably David’s strongest!! Total reps scored decided placings, it was 3 rounds of;

-1 minute of thrusters w/ 45kg
-1 minute of box jumps to a 24 inch box
-1 minute of KB swings with a 24kg ‘bell
-1 minute rest

Decided my best option was to try and get my reps on the thrusters and swings, and I was right – I nearly fell off the box about a million times trying to get up onto it, left some of my skin on it too. Myself and David were dead even coming into the final round, I’d won the first by 6, he won the second by the same margin. During the last round of KB swings is probably the single hardest I’ve ever pushed myself in any Metcon. I’m pretty sure I was out on my feet for the last 5 reps. All I remember is blurry tunnel vision, a big crowd screaming encouragement, and pain, that horrible burning pain EVERYWHERE. I could see David all the way thru outta the corner of my eye and could sense myself pulling away a bit on them, but I didn’t know how many box jumps more he had done than me so I just pushed as hard as I could. As soon as time was called I didn’t even bother trying to stop the swing of the ‘bell, I just let it go between my legs and got catapulted forward to the floor. I don’t think I moved for about 20 minutes after it. I didn’t feel even 90% for a solid 2 hours afterwards either.

In the end, David edged me out by 4 reps. 162 versus my 158. Speaking to him afterwards, I got 1 more thruster on the final round, and I think 3 or 4 more swings. The bloody box jumps got me in the end!! Fair play to the guy tho, I pushed absolutely as hard as I could, and came up short.

A thousands thanks to David S and Dominic B for being such hard ass competitors (and really nice guys too!), I don’t think any of us woulda done what we did without us all being so close together, thanks to Shane for keeping his top on and to all the other competitors and spectators for making it a great day. Thanks to Tony for spotting me in WOD 1, Will in WOD 2 and Stephen (Special K) in WOD 3, I wouldn’t have gotten thru the workouts as well as I did without their help and encouragement. Same goes for the crowd all the way thru. Hitting WOD’s with a wall of sound behind me gives that extra 5% that isn’t always there in the gym on your own.

As I’ve said elsewhere, thanks to Colm, Will and Tom for organising, Amy for keeping things running smoothly, Louise and Marianne (I think?) for their treats (which I barely got to sample, but all reports said were delish) and to anyone else I’m forgetting (sorry!!).

I can’t wait to see the videos and photos of the day!! It was great meeting everyone again, and getting to meet others for the first time. Not gonna single anyone out at all, because you’re all worth a mention for one reason or another!!

In summation, I went from 13th as a fat 110kg powerlifter with like a 41 inch waist and 21mm calliper reading at the May ’09 Invitational to a 2nd place finish as an almost lean 95kg powerlifter with a waist under 34 inches and calliper reading of sub 10mm on Saturday. I’m stronger, fitter, in better condition and in much better shape now than I was then, and you can bet your life on me coming back even stronger, leaner and with a much higher level of conditioning on May 22nd for the next one.

<<I NEED A WINN DIXIE GROCERY BAG>>

Smolov Intense - Week 1, Day 2

Squats:
60kg 2x5
100kg x3
130kg x3
150kg x3
170kg x3
*belt*
190kg 2x3
*wraps*
190kg x3
*wraps off*
180kg 2x5

Sumos:
worked up to 240kg - it was crap

Convo Deads:
worked up to 240kg and didn't bother pulling it - crap

SLDL:
160kg 2x5

2 Board Press:
110kg 2x5 (paused)

Bleh tbh!! Got thru the squats ok, suppose that's the important part!! Deads are a work in progress. Gonna make a plan tomorrow to get after them.