Feeling Better

11-30-09 WOD

Tabata Something Else (pull-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, squats)

324 (61,58,80,125)

This is the first time that I have done this WOD, I've done Tabatas before but not with pull-ups. I'm sure that some of my pull-ups were not legit, I dropped from 10 the first three sets to 5 on the last set. Back in April I did Angie (with 100 squats) and I could barley walk for days. Today I did 125 and was just a little wobbly after.

So after six days off that workout was a little harder than it would have been other wise. I'm not sure if I got sick because I overexerted my self or if it was just me getting sick at the same time of year as usual. Either way I decided to give myself the whole weekend at start at it fresh. Just to be on the safe side I am only going to do minimum to get by this week. Next week I'll start throwing in the extras. I want to build myself up slowly this time. I knew I should have taken it slower at the beginning, but I was excited to get as much in as possible. That's why it's usually better to have a coach. It's hard to think of many world class athletes that coach them selves. Edwin Moses is the only one I can think of. But he was able to win 122 consecutive races and set a world record that has only been surpassed once in the last 26 years.

Sick Day

It only took two days, four workouts, one night of sleep deprivation and honestly, not enough food, to wear me down. I have a sore throat a head cold and I feel week. I don't know if I'm sick or if my body is yelling at me to stop. So I took today off and I will take my official day off tomorrow. I'm bummed because I was to do Elizabeth today. Hopefully I'm back up and running on Friday.

Sleep Depravation

I got about five hours of sleep last night. I was so tired that when I realized that I had extra time I took a 10 min nap before heading out. I've always needed at least 7.5 hours a night, but when I'm doing intense workouts I need at least 8.5 hours.

Olympic Weigth Training

Snatch 5x2@75%

Did not do well on this one. I aggravated an old shoulder injury because I'm sleep deprived and I wasn't paying attention. I didn't lock out my shoulders at the bottom of one of my warmup snatches and almost hyper-extended my left shoulder as I lost the weight behind me. It took me so long to get the snatches in that I decided to drop the 5x 2 front squats and 1 clean jerk.

11-24-09 WOD

Micheal 3 rounds of 800m, 50 back extensions, 50 sit-ups

not rx'd, 20:24

I did this at home, so I did abmat sit-ups and "superman" style back extensions. My runs felt good and my times improved each round.

New Week, New and Improved Monday

Run

3x 1 minute on 3 minutes off, try to cover as much distance as possible

300m, 340m, 350m

I ran this on the road with my dog. She is small but can out run most humans. The first two runs were slightly uphill (less than 2%) and the last one was down. I use a gps watch so I round the distance to the nearest 10m, I doubt its even that accurate for the sprints.

11-23-09 WOD

20 minutes, do as many rounds as possible of: 5 handstand push-ups, 10 L pull-ups, 15 walking lunges

not rx'd 6 rounds and 5 handstand push-ups

I'm not quite strong enough to do handstand push-ups. I did handstand push-ups onto a foam roller. I need something a little lower because they were too easy at that height. The L pull-ups however, were really hard.

Rest Day

Fast Olympic Lifts

11-21-09 WOD

10 squat cleans, 135lbs, 50 sit-ups, 8 squat cleans, 135lbs, 40 sit-ups, 6 squat cleans, 135lbs, 30 sit-ups, 4 squat cleans, 135lbs, 20 sit-ups, 2 squat cleans, 135lbs, 10 sit-ups

not rx'd 11:49

I could have done this WOD as rx'd, but I want to work on improving my speed in workouts with olympic lifts. I have decent technique in the lifts but I like taking my time setting up for the lift. So I dropped the weight for the 1st, 3rd and 5th rounds to a weight I new I could do fast and kept the weight at 135 for rounds 2 and 4 and tried to keep up the speed.

Run Day

11-20-09 WOD

4x800 rest as needed

3:21.8, 3:05.8, 3:07ish, 2:58.3

I didn't want to take a long time so I only rested 3 min between runs. I was a sprinter in high school and a hurdler in college so to me a 1:1 rest ratio is short. Three minutes rest is an eternity for endurance guys. This workout was tougher than I thought it would be. I was hoping I could just run it relaxed and be able to run sub 3:00s. Well, it took four tries to break 3:00 and I was definitely feeling the effort after. I'm hoping that by the next time I run this workout my times will be hovering around the 2:30 mark. I'll probably give myself a lot of rest between efforts next time. Its hard to do but I love to sell out on runs like that.

Strength

Shoulder Press 5-5-5-5-5

75,85,95,95,95

My forearms are killing me! They were aching before the presses, but now there throbbing. I thought I was going light, but my arms are still wiped out from wednesday's muscle-ups. My strength (especially upper body) is currently my greatest weakness, so my programming includes a "strength bias". I want to be strong enough to do any WOD that they throw at us as rx'd.

Rest Day

So I am doing my own programming. Usually it is my belief that it's generally better to have someone else do your programming, because it's so easy to tend to programming what you like instead of what you need. But, I need practice with my programming, my wife and I have been accepted to start an affiliate and hopefully we can complete the necessary details with in the next few weeks to make it official. So I am my own ginny-pig. Our schedule will follow a 3 on 1 off 2 on 1 off pattern. We like this pattern best because it's easier for clients to stick to than the 3 on 1 off and the midweek rest day gives the clients a needed recovery day.

Athlete Profile: Jon Akers

Jon Akers

Age:37

Height:5'8"

Weight:160

DOB: 06/16/72

Place of birth: Raleigh, NC

Started CrossFit: April 2009

Lives in Clovis, CA

Fran: 6:55

Cindy: 14

Helen: 9:49

Grace: 13:43

Fight Gone Bad: 256

Deadlift: 345

Press: 120

Back Squat: 270

Snatch: 100

Clean and jerk: 155

Max Pullups: 37

Favorite WOD: Helen or Jackie

Favorite lift: pull-up/deadlift

Least Favorite WOD:

Least Favorite Lift:

30 Muscle-ups For Time!

11-18-09 WOD

30 muscle-ups for time

56:37

Today was an exciting day for me. Before today I had only done a total of 17 muscle-ups. So to be able to complete this workout was a great accomplishment. My muscle-ups are ugly, I let my arms get too wide as I'm pulling and I often get stuck with right arm out to the side. Its hard to complete the muscle-up when one or both hands get away from your body. Luckily I'm good at kipping so I can launch myself high enough to overcome my technical deficiencies. I was also able to get two muscle-ups in a row without letting go of the rings, the second one was the ugliest one I've done and the hardest to finish. In an earlier post I posted a video of my first muscle-up. I believe that that one was both the easiest and technically the best one I've done.

This is a shot of our garage gym. My wife Rosanna is practicing her muscle-up technique.

Tuesday, November 17

Morning technical work

Split Jerks- starting at 115lb working up to 155lb

Today's WOD

Four rounds of 50m lunge walk and 50 sit-ups

15:57 as rx'd, legs not anchored on sit-ups

Lunging happens to be one of the few areas that I'm good at, but my sit-ups are slow. I was checking out the comments on the main site for this workout and found out my time was slow. I have a lot of work ahead.

Monday, November 16

Monday Run

Run with the dog

Monday's WOD

Shoulder Press 1-1-1-1-1 Push Press 3-3-3-3-3 Push Jerk 5-5-5-5-5

It was late when I did this workout. To save time I had the brilliant idea of doing one set a minute, starting low and increasing the weight by 5lb each minute. I used the tabata timer on my ipod touch. I forgot that the reps increased with the change of exercises. I kept on pace through the push presses, then thankfully my ipod died. So I took my sweet time on the push jerks.

SP- 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, PP- 110, 115, 120, 125, 130 PJ- 5x135

The shoulder press weight was too light, the push press was good and the push jerks were tough.

Preparing for the 2010 CrossFit Games

Today I am officially declaring my intent to compete in the 2010 CrossFit Games. I guess it’s no big deal since I am an unknown and no one reads this blog. I will use the blog as my motivator, it will help keep me accountable for my workouts. Over the next 3 to 8 months I will post my workouts and any thoughts that I have on CrossFit matters.