Monday morning. Need I say more?
My weekend was filled with unpleasant surprises. They were unpleasant enough to warrant me spending all day Sunday on my bed, (not in it, there is a difference), reading a book, well two books to be honest. I completed the remaining eighty percent of one book, and read twenty percent of another. Don't judge me. Now, before you go to worrying (like any of you actually do), I am ok, and my family is ok. These surprises were about the house I'm purchasing, and my closing has now been delayed three times. I'm cautiously optimistic (lies, I'm always a pessimist), that I will close this week. We shall see.
This morning, I awoke to my normal alarm of Soulja Boy serenading me with "Turn My Swag On". I haven't slept long enough to hear it in a while, but it has a nice ring to it. Besides, who can do CrossFit without turning their swag on? I'll admit, I'm not hood at all, typically I listen to Ray Lamontagne, Cat Stevens, Damien Rice, or Band of Horses. But this song has a nice little pep to it. It did not, however, help my Monday morning.
Self loathing aside, I was determined to make today a decent day.
Side note: Don't let me fool you, I'm generally a worst case scenario person, just so I can be prepared for it when, I mean if, it happens. I have a generally positive outlook on most things in life, but I like to keep a realistic perspective. I find that people who always expect the best seem to crash the hardest when the best doesn't happen. I try to be cautious with my expectations.
Depressed now? Or just bored? Are you still there?
So anyway, Monday morning. I gave today's WOD a quick glance last night before falling asleep, just enough to know that our ME (max effort) was box squats. I've never done box squats before, Michael Kelley reminds me that I missed those days. Bastard.
We warm up with a choice skill. I choose box squats, because I like them. Today I felt heavy. Very heavy. So heavy in fact that after one jump on the 24" box, I immediately turn it to the 20" box to continue to warm up. I make it to the 24" again after a few, but that first jump was not the prettiest. After a five minute warm up, we're ready to take on the day.
Today's plan:
A. ME Box Squat
B. Thruster-up to heavy single
C. AMRAP 7
20 reverse lunges (50% of B.)
10 grasshoppers
D. Burnout
50-100 of your choice: banded or weighted good mornings, banded kb swings
I got paired up with Jo for box squats. It feels as though I haven't seen her in a while. She's the sweetest. We start with box squats, and at first three reps is feeling good. Once we get a little heavier, into the ninety pound range, we switch off to one rep each set. Michael Kelley says our box squats should typically be about eighty to ninety percent of our back squat. Well, lucky me, I don't know what my new ME back squat is. So I go with my old of 133# just in case (this should be higher by now). I end up on 123# for box squat today. I feel as though I might be able to do more, however, on 123# it was hard to keep my knees out, and the lift felt slow and lacked power, so if I would have increased weight here, it would not have been to my immediate benefit.
Moving on to thrusters. I haven't done thrusters since "Fran". I did 53# with Fran, and that almost killed me. (dramatic enhancement) Today we weren't necessarily working up for a ME rep, but just a heavy single. We had certain amount of time to complete this in. During this time, Michael Kelley walked around telling everyone, "don't sandbag this". I had to ask. He quickly gives me a look of disgust (in my opinion his normal face), and explains what "sandbagging" is. I'm careful not to sandbag this lift. Since we are using a percentage of this lift for our AMRAP, he wanted everyone to still include effort. I ended with 73#. Probably could have gone higher, but time had run out.
On to the AMRAP. Fifty percent of 73# is around 36#. Michael Kelley tells me to round up and use 40#. Okay then. He then uses me to demonstrate grasshoppers. He thinks this is hilarious because last year when he was training me at Lifestyle, I hated these. I use that word a lot, especially with my workouts. Let me clarify. I typically hate things that I am not good at. It doesn't mean I do not do them or I don't see the purpose of them. I understand this is all for my benefit. Doesn't mean I have to see rainbows and butterflies every time I walk into the gym. As I said to a friend this weekend, rainbows end and butterflies die. True story.
So after demonstrating grasshoppers for four repetitions (which I should have taken away from my first round), we were set to go. First and second set of lunges go unbroken, as do grasshoppers. Third set I have to put the bar down after ten. Grasshoppers have me on my knees in between sets. Ouch.
I finish the AMRAP with a total score of 4+11.
Last but not least is the burnout. Now, you see I have a choice here of something and kettlebell swings. Guess which I chose. Ding ding ding!!! NOT kb swings. Imagine that. So I grab the blue band and get to good mornings. Good mornings are interesting. You stand, feet shoulder width or so apart, and bend over, back straight, legs straight, until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings, and then stand back up straight. Burnout is one hundred reps. After fifteen, I move up to the green band, as I feel I can handle it. Good choice.
The new programming is fun. I enjoy the upper/lower body switch, and also enjoy the ME change up every week. Last week was deadlift for lower body, this week was box squats. The programming change up I think has most people very intrigued and interested. It seems everyone likes it.
This week my goal is to focus more in the gym. I tend to get distracted during the WOD, although I also tend to remain distracted in my every day life as well. Michael Kelley will attest to the fact that I wander off into never never land sometimes, or notice things that shouldn't matter when I'm supposed to be focused. It's something to work on. I'll add that to the list of the other million things I should be doing better. I have high goals people.
Lemon, out.
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