Goals, Take Two

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Mobility/Warm up

Row 500 meters
DROM
Shoulder Distraction with band

Group Warm up

Review Gymnastic movements

Gymnastic Warm up

15 minutes or 5 rounds for quality of
20 Double unders
10 Hip extensions
8 Hollow Rocks
4 No false grip Muscle up, floor variation – DEMO VIDEO
2 No False grip muscle ups or bar muscle up variations

Classic Conditioning:

7 Rounds for time of:
5 Handstand Push ups
5 Ring dips
5 Push ups

-20 minute cap-

     Notes:  Focus on quality over time!  Partial range of motion is only allowed for the HSPU.  This is the same number of total reps as the advanced, just in a different format.  Scale down the number of reps as needed!

Advanced Conditioning:

“J.T.”
21-15-9 reps of
Handstand push ups
Ring dips
Push ups

-20 minute cap-    

     Notes:  This workout should be about quality as much as time.  Kipping is allowed for both HSPU and Dips.

Cool Down:

Active Bar Hang, 1 minute
Cat Stretch, 1 minute

The Old Box!

     I’m going to try to build off a post McCoy wrote last year about goals.  In it he asked us to compose one or two goals we had for the entire year of 2013.  Here were mine:

1.  Snatch 250 lbs
2.  Sub 70 minute Sprint Triathlon

     I’m going to explain how I arrived at these two goals, and then ask you fine people a few pointed questions about what you want for 2013. 

     Firstly, I loved that McCoy boiled it down to only one or two things.  The truth is I’ve got a fuck ton more than two goals for this year and if you’re a CrossFitter, so do you.  I want a 500 lbs Back Squat, high or low bar.  Actually, I want a 500 lb x 20 rep Back Squat.  That’s right, 20 reps, and I want it more than I want a 250 lbs Snatch.  Because I love the Back Squat and I’ll never stop doing it.

  If I were a vampire or immortal, my goal by the 30^th Century would be to Back Squat the Himalayas, for reps.   I just said that.  I want a 300 lbs Clean and Jerk, and I also want that more than a 250 lbs Snatch.  I’m more comfortable in the rack position than the overhead position because my shoulder is not awesome.  I want to break 50 pull ups in a row this year, 20 muscle ups, Free standing handstand push ups for reps, at a deficit, and on the rings.  I want to make an L-Sit to Handstand press look easy.  I watched Neal perform his newly learned Back Tucks.  I want those too.  I want to do a planche and a back lever, and perform at least basic level Ring routines because I know even rudimentary gymnastic training will confer upon me staggering levels of upper body strength and neurological control, like a ninja.  But I chose the 250 lbs snatch because it’s the one movement that, if I achieve it, will almost guarantee I hit my goal numbers in virtually every other lift there is!  And as much as I want to, I cannot say the same about my beloved Back Squat, or even the Clean and jerk.  I told McCoy there is nothing quite like a perfectly executed Barbell Snatch in all of sport.  I asked myself, what kind of body would I need to have to be able to do that?  How strong would I need to be?  How fast?  How coordinated and powerful and flexible and athletic?

  I chose 250 lbs because I am unable to wrap my head around improving any more than that in a full year (current PR is 210) but I’m open to it.  In any case, hitting that number, and knowing myself and my body, would buy me improvement in all the other things I want and so I chose it.

     My second goal was a toss up between a sub 70 minute Sprint Tri and sub 3 minute 800 meter repeats.  Metabolic Conditioning (Metcon for short) has always been my greatest weakness.  We know in CrossFit that if you attack your weakness, then everything else gets better, though it rarely ever makes sense metabolically or mechanically.  There are thousands of examples but I am stone cold, living proof of this when I reaped Cooney’s Revenge last year.  Aside from the above choices though, I also want a sub 2:30 minute 800 meter run.  I’ve never broken a sub 8 minute 2K Row (It’s been years but that’s no excuse), I want a sub 60 second 400 meter run.

  I’ve never broken a sub 10 minute ‘Helen’ though it’s been years too.  Any way I cut it, any time I practice and train metcon, especially running, my lifting numbers, gymnastic prowess, and CrossFit WOD data points all shoot in the right direction, and fast.  It works exactly like that, one hundred percent of the time.  Of all the metcon things above, I want the sub 2:30 minute 800 meter run the most.  I also know that sub 3 minute 800 repeats will buy me more improvement in metcon than almost any other modality.  But I also know where I thrived the most, and it was during the time I was training for the sprint tri last year.  I was doing Outlaw Barbell Gymnastics and Strength, while using CrossFit Endurance multi-sport programming for my conditioning.  It worked wonders, and it was also nothing special or new.  Everyone knows it works, it’s simple, and it’s hard.  On the ego and self-esteem, it’s hard.  Do I want to do another Sprint Tri?  F#ck no.  But chances are I will absolutely sign up for the Manhattan Beach Sprint Tri again because I appreciate beyond words what training for the Sprint Tri did for my CrossFit.  So I chose sub 70 minutes as my goal, where I got 78 minutes last time.  

     So I figured, taking into account my strengths and weaknesses, choosing a heavy snatch AND a faster Sprint Tri would in fact garner me, albeit indirectly, almost every goal in CrossFit I subconsciously have.   Now I’ll ask all you PCF peeps, even the people who are reading our blog from far away lands, what are your goals for 2013, and why?  And don’t be afraid to stretch the imagination a bit, like Back Squatting mountain ranges and immortality and such.  We’re nerds like that.