Almost time

Today was the last big workout day before I begin my taper and rest up for the Qualifiers. The workouts at the Qualifiers are as follows:

WOD #1
3 Rounds for time of:
8 Deadlifts, 300#/195#
400m Run

WOD #2
3 Rounds for time of:
10 Chest to Bar Pullups
10 Front Squats, 165#/105#
10 Burpees

My comments: These look really good. Heavy, but good. It's a little weird that they are both 3 rounds, but at least one is a couplet and one is a triplet. My initial reaction was that these are going to be really short, and they might be for some people. I think the weight is heavy enough though that it will really slow things down.

Today, I had planned on deadlifting, and then when the WODs were announced yesterday, I decided I definitely needed to deadlift. Last time I deadlifted, it didn't go so well. More than anything, today, I needed a confidence booster. I just needed to know that I hadn't lost all my deadlift strength.

WOD 090511

Buy In: 3 sets of 5 HSPU with red band.

Deadlift

• 175x5
• 195x8 Yay! I can do it!

Metcon.
Thanks (I think) to Shana Alverson for this WOD. Oops, I used the wrong weight.

5 Rounds for time of:
5 Squat Cleans, 105#
7 Burpees
9 Chest-to-bar Pullups

8:50

Meh. I had hoped for faster. I wasn't feeling super good today, and I thought about not even doing a metcon. I maybe shouldn't have, but I guess in light of that, my time wasn't too bad. Shana did this in 7:44 with 100# squat cleans. I watched her video and I notice she doesn't let go of the bar between cleans. I do, and my bar bounces all over the frickin' place. I really need to try just holding onto it. I rest too much.

Cash Out: Massage. Thanks Nicole Snow!

My throat hurts. I think I might be coming down with my boyfriend's cold. Bastard. (just kidding).

No news isn't always good news

In this case, though, no news is an indicator of total laziness on my part. I had good intentions to post something non-workout related, non-injury related, and just plain happy, to show my readers (all 3 of them) that I hadn't lost all hope.

But, I got busy.

I do have great news, however! I was able to workout today. In fact, I had a great workout. I have a little bit of pain during pretty much all movements, BUT it was not very much pain. Except ring dips. Supporting myself at the top of the rings is not gonna happen for a while. Cross your fingers and hope there are no ring dips/muscle ups at my qualifiers!

Buy In: Handstand Pushups. Three sets of 5 with the red band.

WOD:
21-15-9 reps for time of:
65# Squat Snatch
Chest-to-bar Pullups

10:29

Thank you Jeff Tucker. My chest-to-bar pullups are soooo much better now, after learning so much at the gymnastics cert. My rib hurts a little on the forward (chest-open) swing, but it's barely noticeable during the workout. It doesn't hurt as bad as my arms do :) I didn't feel any pain at all in my rib during the squat snatches.

I had a hard time getting the intensity up today. The 5 days off was hard. Mentally, it's hard to push yourself very hard when you get out of the habit of doing so. Also, I had no real competition. I mean, I worked out with my brother, but I was pretty sure he would beat me. I also worked out with Loni, who was doing a scaled Elizabeth. I actually pushed pretty hard to try to beat her (she beat me by 2 seconds - great job Loni! If only I had done my last 9 pullups all in a row...) but it's just not the same when someone is doing a totally different workout. Or, maybe I just tell myself that. Who knows.

I am really happy with this time though, because it would have gotten me 6th place in WOD #4 at the Mid-Atlantic qualifier. AND, I know I could have gone faster/harder with the adrenaline of a competition. That's really reassuring for me :)

AND, here's a video of my awesome boyfriend front squatting 305#. Nice.

Ben Front Squats 305# from Jenna Rettenmayer on Vimeo.

Just Another Workout

Yesterday was Day 2 of the Paleo Diet. I feel really good. I have a LOT on my plate right now, so it's good to not have to think too much about my food.

And, because I have so much on my plate, this will be a really short post. Yesterday we did a WOD that we made up. We are evil. Very evil.

AMRAP in 20 minutes of:
5 Ring Dips
10 CTB Pullups
15 Front Squats, 65#

8 rounds

The last couple of rounds I did my ring dips 1 at a time. I managed to get more than 1 in a row for the first 6 rounds, so that was pretty good. I am sore today, but not like I used to be after a WOD with ring dips.

I know my pullup form is pretty terrible - at least when I do chest to bar. I need to work on my form, but at the same time, I need to keep the intensity of my workouts up at this point - get ready for the qualifiers. I'll keep working on my form in as skill-work, but during the workouts, I'm going to get my chest up there however I can.

The front squats were really hard - I would say they were the toughest part...but I think the ring dips were still harder. The front squats were definitely harder than I thought they would be.

Overall, I was pretty destroyed after this WOD. I had to push pretty hard to finish 8 rounds, that's for sure.

Enough is enough

My body hurts. Twenty-one rounds of Cindy is no small task, as it turns out. It was all I could do to stay away yesterday afternoon. Of course, when I went to bed, I couldn't sleep easily. I had a lot on my mind...and maybe I'm training a bit too hard.

We decided to for-go this morning's strength session in the name of Time and Energy. I tried an air squat - ouch. My adductors are really sore, not to mention the rest of my legs. My shoulders hurt, my calves are sore. Everything hurts.

So, what better time to try the recently-famed Fab Four workout (as named by Shana Alverson of CF East Decatur)? Admittedly, the only part of my shoulders that didn't hurt were the muscle responsible for HSPU. My pull-up muscles were pretty sore, but there's not a ton of pullups in this WOD. Deadlifts - eh, usually they are okay. 135# felt unusually heavy today. My box jumps I thought were pretty good, until I saw Shana jump.

I warmed up with a LOT of box jumps. I was trying to get faster. I can't seem to link my jumps very well without an extra hop between jumps. That was definitely slowing me down.

3 Rounds for time of:
4 HSPU
8 Chest-to-bar Pullups
12 Deadlifts, 135#
16 Box Jumps, 20"

6:08

If only I hadn't rested in my last set of deadlifts...I could have been sub-6. (There's a goal right there - have no more workouts where I think "I could have been faster if only...").

I am pretty pleased with this time. I really wasn't feeling well. I'm not particularly good at any of those movements, except for maybe the pullups, and usually my DL is at least stronger than it felt today. I'd love to hit this WOD again, when I am a little more fresh. But then again, I'm not going to spend too much time trying to beat Jolie/Caity in this one workout. I'm pretty sure if I had been doing this WOD side-by-side with these girls, my time would have been faster.

I also really don't think there are going to be box jumps at the games or the qualifiers. They're just so hard to judge - most people don't stand up all the way at the top. I was reviewing the video of me doing the WOD and I wasn't standing up enough on some of them. I was trying to go faster and faster, and even though I thought I was standing up all the way, I apparently wasn't. (You can see for yourself when I post the video - probably Thursday).

Food yesterday:
I fell a couple of hundred calories short of 2k yesterday, so before bed I had a nice big spoonful of peanut butter. Yum!

• Calories: 2006
• Protein: 123 g (20.6%)
  
• Carbs: 79 g (13.28%)
  
• Fat: 175 g (66.11%)

I definitely like this better in terms of macronutrient ratios. That's a LOT of fat - I'm surprised it didn't add up to more calories. Protein is good - close to bodyweight. Carbs are nice and low, despite the fact that I started out the day with a banana!