Down in Jim's Garage

[Jim Colby]

Looking for a thread name I can identify with (I've changed it a couple of times recently), but I think I'll stick with this one for a while. I do almost all of my workouts in my garage, which is outfitted pretty well, and being one of the older guys on the board, "borrowed" the Frank Zappa Joe's Garage theme. The temperature in the garrage ranges from 0 F to 100+F during the year, but that's part of the fun. I will never add a space heater or a fan. I've been doing CrossFit for about a year, but had to take a recent 2-1/2 month break for a torn rectus abdominis muscle. It's feeling better, although not 100%, and I'm back into CrossFit. I cycled a lot during the break, but lost a lot of strength and strength-endurance. I do some endurance training in addition to CrossFit and work it into the CrossFit schedule.

June 10
Warm-Up
2.7 mile hill run (with the dog)
25:04
The dog didn't want to go, but I dragged her sorry butt out the door. She was happy that she went, trust me. My legs felt tired and stiff after yesterday's WOD.
Deadlifts: 10x135, 7x185
WOD
Deadlift 5x5
5x225,250,250,270,285
Could have gone heavier, but didn't want to push it this soon. I'll save it for next time. Hands felt better tonight, as they have hardened up a bit since getting back into CrossFit.

[Jim Colby]

June 11
Warm-Up
3x(jump rope drills, 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 squats, shoulder stretches). After my lay-off, I was pleasantly surprised that my DUs were ok at first. Unfortunately I seemed to have completely lost my rythm during the past couple of days. It's hard to explain and frustrating.

WOD
15 rounds for time of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats
10:39

I'm glad we weren't doing the full Cindy today, as this hurt the whole time. Pull-ups were the limiting factor and I was doing singles for the last 5 rounds. I was able to keep up a decent pace of unbroken pushups and squats, but my legs are sore from the front squats, deadlifts and hill runs and my arms were sore from the pullups. My last Cindy before getting hurt was 26 rounds, but I felt a LONG way from that today. I was really slowing down by the end.

Looking forward to the rest day tomorrow. Hope to get a little golf in and watch the U.S./England football match. Upset in the making? Its a bit of a long shot, but you never know........

[Jim Colby]

June 12
Planned rest day.

June 13
Had to catch up on some office work before taking my son and his friends to Six Flags. No WOD, but we had a blast on the 'coasters and did a couple of circuits on Kinda Ka. Great day.

June 14
Golf outing at Winged Foot. Unbelievable course. Wide fairways, but tough around the green. Once again, no WOD, but I'm not complaining. Awesome day.

June 15
Ok, time to make up some WOD's after three days off!
Warm-Up
3x(5 mins jump rope, 10 push ups, 15 sit ups, 5 pull ups, squat clean practice)
WOD
"Elizabeth"
21-15-9 reps of:
Clean 135 pounds
Ring dips
Still working my way back from the injury, and I never really worked much on squat cleans, so I went light today.
8:39 (95#, full squat cleans and chest to hands on ring dips).

Time to move up the weight! I was pretty happy with the result today. The last time I did this was 11/26/09 (also at 95# with full squat cleans) and it took me 14:30. The time before that was on 10/19/09 and it took me 6:46 with power cleans and 135#. There is a world of difference between full squat cleans and power cleans with this WOD.

I'm travelling in Europe through Saturday, but will try to hit the WOD's each day, as the hotels I am staying at seem to be well-equipped. I may not post until I return on the weekend.

Have a great week.

[Jim Colby]

June 16
Travel day to Europe.

June 17
For time:
Row 2K
50 20# WB Shots
Row 1K
35 WBS, 20#
Row 500M
20 WBS, 20#

At hotel with no rower or 20# ball, so substituted 1 mile, 1/2 mile, 1/4 mile runs on the dreadmill at a 1% grade for the rows and Thrusters with 10K dumbells in each hand for the WBS.
20:13
Good workout with HR hitting 164.

[Jim Colby]

June 18 and 19
I was surprised to see that there was no place to work out at all at the hotel I stayed at in Paris, so I took another two days off (from cross-fit, not from great food and wine though). Tough life, I know. June 19 was also a travel day back to the States.

June 20
Warm-Up
3x(5 mins jump rope drills, 15 sit ups, 5 pull ups, hand stand practice, OHS - 45 up to 85, bench press warm-up 65 up to 185, shoulder stretches). DUs finally coming back a bit, but still bad at them compared to most people on this board.

WOD
For time:
Row 500 meters
Body weight Bench press, 30 reps
Row 1000 meters
Body weight Bench press, 20 reps
Row 2000 meters
Body weight Bench press, 10 reps

I don't have a rower so subbed, 400M, 800M and 1600M hill runs for the rowing. Benched slightly more than Rx'd at 190#.
26:31

Great workout. HR hit 164 bpm. Very hot outside and in the garage. The hill made its presence known today! I haven't benched in ages and wasn't sure how this would go, but it went ok.

Golfed 9 holes carrying clubs afterwards. Forgot to eat after WOD and bonked towards the end of the round. Real smart, I know. Played well though.

[Jim Colby]

June 21
Warm-Up
Biked to/from work: 20 hilly miles, then
Jogged 1/2 mile to HS track,
stretched the legs out and began the WOD
WOD
Ten rounds, each for time of:
100 meter Sprint
Rest 90 seconds
It was hard to get precise times, since I was using my HR monitor, but the first few were at 15/16 seconds and the last few were at 16/17 seconds.
Warm-Down
Jogged 1/2 mile home
Extensive leg stretching.

The cycling/sprinting brick workout was pretty potent, I can assure you, as evidenced by the last 20M of each sprint. Still feeling jet lagged from the Europe trip, lack of sleep and yesterday's bonk after not eating properly. Felt pretty weak on the bike today, but better-than-expected on the sprints. I will sleep well tonight!

[Jim Colby]

June 22
Warm-Up
Golfed nine holes carrying clubs.
3x(5 mins jump rope drills, 10 push-ups, 15 sit-ups, 5 pull-ups, shoulder stretches)
WOD
Five rounds for time of:
45 pound barbell Overhead walking lunges, 50 feet
21 Burpees
13:38
Warm-Down
Shoulder stretching.

Not quite rx'd since I had to stop a couple times quickly, once to get a quick drink of water and once when I had to change a song. Couldn't get my right knee to the ground due to my recovering rectus abdominus tear. That particular movement really hurts if I go too deep on that side. I have a love/hate relationship with burpees at the best of times and it really hurt tonight since my pecs are still sore from the 60 reps of 190# bench presses the other day. I almost gave up after round three, but then called BS on myself and finished with a HR of 167. Nice WOD.....hopefully it blasted some of the lactic acid build-up in the pecs. I sure hope so since RJ looms tomorrow with 250 push-ups. Oh yeah, jump roping felt solid tonight for the first time in ages.

[Jim Colby]

June 23 and 24
Really busy at work and felt like crap, so took the days off. Ordered 15' rope from Rogue to hang in garage.

June 25
Warm-Up
Cycled to/from work (20 miles total). Got dragged into a meeting the minute I walked in the door and couldn't eat anything until 12:30. Felt light-headed after cycling with no food for four hours and that screwed me up for the rest of the day. Cycled home from work, hung rope in garage (took 10 mins) and did:
WOD
"RJ"
Five rounds for time of:
Run 800 meters (up and down 1/4 mile hill)
15 ft Rope Climb, 5 ascents (not rx'd see below)
50 Push-ups (rx'd 25/10/5/5/5)
39:36
Did 5 rope climbs (about 12 feet), then switched to 25 pull-ups per round for the remainder of the workout. I started to get a nasty rope burn on the inside of my ankle after the first five rope climbs and was getting tired from using my arms too much. I'll have to work on the climbs and perhaps wear longer socks or sweats for them next time. They are definitely a lot harder than the pull-ups. HR hit 162, so it was a good workout. The last hill climb was tough.
Warm-Down
Stretching.

[Jim Colby]

June 26
Warm-Up
2.7 mile hill run
25:42
WOD
Five rounds for time of:
30 pound dumbbell Thruster (30# in each hand), 15 reps
30 unanchored sit-ups
30 Box jumps, 24 inch box
20 Kettlebell swings, 1.5 pood
25:38
Warm-Down
Extensive stretching

Felt sluggish and flat after yesterday's hard workout. Legs hurt throughout the warm-up run. I don't get a good enough aerobic effort from DU's, since I am not able to string enough together consecutively, so I substituted Wednesday's workout instead for the DUs. Since GHD's aggravate my stomach injury, I subbed straight unanchored situps for the GHDs. This was another long, tiring workout. I'll probably need to take it easier tomorrow, but we'll see how I feel.

[Jim Colby]

June 27
Warm-Up
Ran 1/2 mile to track. 1 mile in 7:41 at track. Ran 1/2 mile home.
WOD
5 rounds for time of
20 jump ropes with cross-overs
20 single leg jump ropes
5 DUs
5 DLs @ 225#
5 Ring Pull-Ups
5 Ring Dips
16:40
Warm-Down
Lots of stretching.

I wanted to get a bit more running in today, as well as combine elements of the last two WODs to catch up to the crossfit calendar after my trip. I pushed it pretty hard over the past two days, so I decided to keep today's workout light and metcon-oriented. It was very hot and humid outside and in the garage this afternoon and I lost a lot of water today. Aimed for good extension on the ring dips and pull ups. I'll be working these into the daily routine a lot more often (along with rope climbs) in order to get an MU under my belt. I never really focused on the MU, as my emphasis has always been leg strength and endurance, but the MU is starting to bug me, so its a new goal. I'll add OHS, HSPU and DUs to that list and plan to spend some time on all of those.