Day 101: HERO Benchmark WOD: WITTMAN; Endurance Month

Motivation for this month

Monday; December 2nd, 2013 - the Wall @ ROCK JUNGLE CROSSFIT

Warm-Up:

3 Rounds of:

-  10 Knees-to-Elbows
-  20 Air Squats
-  10 Kettle Bell Swing


SKILL/STRENGTH:

EMOM (Every Minute On Minute)  x 8 Minute

-  20 second HOLLOW ROCK


HERO WOD -  'WITTMAN':

7 Rounds of:

-  15 Kettle Bell Swings @ (Men - 53 lb / Women - 35 lb)
-  15 Power Cleans @ (Men - 95 lb / Women - 65 lb)
-  15 Box Jumps @ (Men 24" / Women 20")

25 Minute TIME CAP


Today Coach:  Edward
 Assistant Coach:  Kylie


My Thoughts:
December is deemed Endurance month; and the programming for this month has been designed by Graham.  He's the Endurance coach for Rock Jungle.

Warm-Up; as mention by Kylie; the warm-up will be the same for the entire week.  I guess I better get use to having my callus flatten/ripped off/learn to tape it up/or wear gloves while doing the Knees to Elbow (of course, scaling it accordingly to your fitness level).  I managed to get in the first 5 Knees to Elbows and then switch back to just doing my modified Knees to hip height for the rest of the rounds.  Air Squats are pretty straight forward, trying to ensure you break 90 and keeping your arms above.  It was suggested to keep the weight light on the Kettle Bell as this is still the warm-up.  At some point, the coaches did mention that we should take our time with the warm-up; instead of rushing thru it.  I'll keep that in mind for the rest of the week.

SKILL/STRENGTH; EMOM for 8 minutes; HOLLOW ROCK if possible.  Edward gave us a demo of what a HOLLOW ROCK was and the 4 other scaled down versions.  It reminds me of doing a Tabata; hold for 20 seconds and rest for 40 seconds.   Which seems pretty light compared to other SKILL/STRENGTH we've done in the past.  However, Edward did mention that we should enjoy this relaxation as the WOD will be 'brutal'.   Watching the class before us, I didn't doubt his words.   Think; the Calm before the Storm!!!

HERO WOD - 'WITTMAN';  With it being endurance month; the WOD's will be longer and harder as mention in class.   If you want to read up about this HERO WOD; click on WITTMAN and it'll take you to the link of who he was...
With the number of rounds (7) each with 15 reps; I decided to hold of on increasing the weight of the Kettle Bell from 44 lbs to 53 lbs.   The 44 lbs are starting to feel a bit light, I probably should had lifted one to see what that extra 9 lbs feels like. 
Power Cleans; I should had checked my book on what I had used in the past.  I've seen that I had generally use 65 lbs, this directly a result of going to heavy in the past and dropping down.  However, today I went with 75 lbs and stuck thru it.   I can't say that I did all 15 at once, closer to the end of rounds; I had to break them down to 5, 5, 5 and sucking in a lot of air in between.   Of course, Kylie caught me using my arms more than my hip when doing the power cleans.   She reminded me that doing it wrong; I'll tire out quicker because the use of the arms.   I made the changes, and then she mention that I should try to catch it with a dip.  I tell you; it's great having coaches to catch you when you forget your technique or generally getting sloppy.  Better to catch it early so you don't start developing bad habits. 
I modified the Box Jumps to doing Step-Ups instead.  One of my knees was a bit tire/sore from last weeks box jumps.  I know it shouldn't be the case with the low number of jump and height, but it is what it is.  I kept the height at 24" for the Step-Ups 
With a 25 minute time cap, I managed to only complete 6 rounds.  What do I need to work on?   My power cleans.  I think that was what was slowing me down.  I guess I have another item to practice.

WOD Results; Name / Score / Power Clean # / Kettle Bell #/ " Box Jump

Misc: after stretching out and leaving my sweat angel on the floor.  Decided to stay around and work on my other skills.  I had wanted to do more handstands; but tonight's WOD really taxed my system.  I actually had to lie on the ground for a while resting and was a bit concerned as I had a dizzy spell and wasn't feeling that well.   Went and bought a juice to drink.  Yah, I'll have to check with my doctor.  Why, well I guess I didn't revel this in my earlier blogs.   I'm a type 2 diabetic, and as long as I eat before hand, things should go well.   There are other factors involved in this... but I'll skip those details for another time.

After a little while and I felt generally well, I decided to work on my rope climbing.   Had Leanne show me how she did the climbing and the foot work that is required to hold you up.  It looks easy, but it's not.. Well, for me it's not.  This Elephant can't climb like the rest of the Monkeys in the class.  I say that with a wink and a smile...  That' why I'm staying after class to work on my weakness.  So many things to work on...  I guess I can say that I'll never get bored working on my SKILLS. 

Until next time, thanks for reading...    ...tackling one WOD at a time!!!