New Year, New Me....Sort of

After spending most of 2014 focusing on strength training, I'm taking my training and this blog in a new direction. First though, a quick recap of my progress over the past 12 months. I spent most of the year running my own modified version of the 5-3-1 program. I stuck pretty strictly to the program for my main lifts and fed my "mix things up" nature by constantly switching my accessory work. For a couple months I did exactly what the program called for and then I spent a couple months of accessorizing with Boring But Big (main lifts plus 5x10 with a complimentary lift). And yet another couple of months doing whatever the heck struck my fancy on the particular day. While I have no doubt I probably could have made even more progress if I’d just strictly followed any one program, being able to customize and switch up a small part of the program kept me from getting bored or burnt out any one thing in particular. As for the results, I’m pretty pleased with how my strength has progressed over the past 12 months. I’ve PR’d just about every lift containing a barbell and I’m most proud of a full 50 pound jump on my deadlift. I hit 450 at the beginning of November and that added strength carried over well to my power clean as well. Despite not working Olympic lifts in nearly 6 months, I cleaned 245 for a healthy 20 pound PR and felt like I had more in the tank (not to mention how awful my form from lack of practice).

On to the next shiny thing though….I’ve become enamored with mud and obstacle races over the past month and a half or so. I’ve set a goal to run several different races in 2015, culminating in the Spartan Beast in November. That will be a 12+ mile race, which would be considerably farther than I’ve ever run before in my entire life. I’ve already started tailoring my training to longer, more endurance based sessions. My strength portions, at least for now, will be Boring But Big for the main lifts which will hopefully keep me losing too much strength while at the same time help build some muscular endurance. I’m also adding in some longer metcons instead of accessory lifts and of course there will be a lot of running in my future. I’ve found some great trails relatively close to my home and running on softer surfaces seems to cut down on the stress of running on pavement.

All in all, I guess this was nothing more than a quick New Years, new me type of post….cliche I know, but it is what it is. I wanted to write something and that’s what came out. I’m going to try and post weekly training updates as well as track my progress as the year continues.

Graham Holmberg and Sam Briggs Deserve to go the Games

Regionals are completed and the Games field is complete. As with every year, there are some exciting new athletes and there are some

notable absences. While turnover is to be expected, there are a couple of athletes that really got the short end of the stick from Crossfit HQ this year: Sam Briggs and Graham Holmberg. They will be missing the Games for different reasons but regardless of the reasons why, these two athletes SHOULD BE AT THE GAMES! If the goal of the Open and Regionals is to get the fittest individuals to California, then the process failed Briggs and Holmberg.

The Case for Sam Briggs: The case for Briggs is twofold. First and foremost, she’s the reigning champ. Crossfit has never had a reigning champ fail to defend their title when healthy (Annie obviously missed last year with an injury). Prior to this year, any former champion was entitled to a trip to the Games. Kristan Clever didn’t qualify last year but was invited to the Games. HQ removed that rule this year and Briggs suffering because of it. But Briggs isn’t a charity case. She didn’t finish 12th in her region or perform terribly at Regionals. In fact, out of seven events she recorded three wins (more than any other female in her region) and two other top five finishes. She had a disaster finish in the handstand walk, tumbling after just 65 feet, and finished a disastrous 26th place. She totaled 44 points on the weekend, but 26 of them came in that event. Had she walked 20 extra feet, in an event that’s more “skill” than “fitness,” she would have qualified for the Games. On the cross regional leaderboard Briggs shows up at 27th which isn’t great but it’s certainly within the top 40 and without a doubt worthy of a trip to the Games.

The Case for Graham Holmberg: Everything I just said about past champions is true in Holmberg’s case as well. Plus Holmberg’s fourth spot would have qualified even if he wasn’t a former champion because Froning took first in his region and under the former rules; Froning’s qualifying spot would have opened it up for the fourth place male to go to the Games as well. Even outside of that though, Holmberg’s case might be even stronger than Briggs. Holmberg finished in the top ten of every event of the region except one and the exception was an 11th place finish. He also won two events and logged another top five finish. On the cross regional leaderboard, Holmberg was tenth in the world and would have won ten other regions. Needless to say he would have qualified for the Games in any other region in the world. He is a Games level athlete and deserves to be there in July.

Castro’s proclamation that there would be no wild cards or special invites seems not only short sided but bad for the sport of Crossfit. Two of the “fittest” athletes in the world are missing the Games because HQ decided to change the rules. If the goal is to find the FITTEST, Briggs and Holmberg deserve the chance to compete for that crown.

Strength Training Over the Month of May

I keep thinking I’ll be able to write more often and then I look up and two weeks have gone by (or almost a month in this case), but oh well. It’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to……or something like that. May has been a pretty solid month of training and I’m really loving this 5-3-1 program with Boring But Big as my main assistance work. I’m feeling stronger than ever and even my gimpy shoulder is finally feeling strong and stable again. I’ve also removed the regularly scheduled deload weeks and instead will just listen to my body and take the easy week when I feel wrecked.

Some notable PR’s over the month of May:

Cinco de Mayo = Deadlift Day

Whew, today was a Monday and what better way to start off the week than with a heavy leg day. It started with my 3X3 sets on deadlift (285, 325 and 360), but for some reason on the first set I did five reps and decided to just keep pushing through with five reps on all three sets. What can I say? I’m not terribly an intelligent programmer. I felt strong today after two days off and just decided to push through. The final set at 360 was pretty brutal but luckily I was in my garage instead of the gym so I was able to let out some blood curdling screams with the last couple reps. The deadlifts, although certainly heavy, felt strong and 360 for five is certainly a PR. I was tempted to try and bang out a couple more sets of doubles at a heavier weight just because it felt like a good day, but I was up against it time wise. I felt like getting in the accessory work was probably more important that t couple more sets at heavier weights. Who knows though, I left the weight on the bar so I might knock out a couple more sets after work. I also want to try some deficit DL’s or maybe some block pulls, but we’ll see....

After deadlift, I jumped straight into my second week of the Boring but Big routine with 5X10 back squats at 195. I could already tell this was a bit easier than last week. It had been a long time since I remember doing any back squats for 10 reps so it felt much more difficult last Monday, which is even more encouraging because last Monday the squats were done well after I finished my deadlifts. This week I jumped right into the squats though with minimal rest. Again, I might throw in some front squats when I get home. I wanted to do more during lunch but time wasn’t on my side.

Crossfit Already Looking Past the Games and into the Off Season

Towards the end of Thursday night’s Dave Castro said something that peaked my interest when he quickly mentioned some of the plans that HQ had for the upcoming off season. In years past there has been a significant “Games Hangover.” That means basically that the sport disapears for several months following the Games in July. There's very little news out of HQ, very few competitions and little to no buzz. I almost compare the CF yearly rotation to most Olympic sports. For three years they're totally out of sight, then one year we're all supposed to care and then they vanish again. For the past couple years Crossfit has been comparably cyclical, building in excitement and momentum from January to July, then falling off a cliff right after the Games.

We’ll normally get video clips of the events at the affiliate Big Sky event and the past two years they’ve started the USA vs. the World competition but that’s really all Crossfit HQ has had to offer from basically late July through the end of the year. During that time most athletes dive into off season training programs that center on getting stronger or shoring up individual weaknesses, not to mention allowing time for their bodies to recover from the grind that Games preparation demands. While that down time and off season training is necessary, it frankly sucks if you're a fan of the sport. While it’s an unfair comparison, I look at how the NFL manages to stay top of mind all year round despite their season only running from August to February. The NFL is the top of the sports pyramid in the US, so why not try to copy some of their methods? There are ways that Crossfit could stay on the 'front burner' during the off season, so what can Crossfit HQ do to change this recent trend?

2014 Crossfit Games Open 14.5: Reactions and Looking Forward to What's Next

Well Dave Castro didn’t disappoint last night as he rolled out another “first” for the Crossfit Open. Despite using only the two movements that everyone expected, Castro shocked us all by turning 14.5 into the first “for time” Open WOD. Needless to say, all these “firsts” are going to make predicting any future Open WODs virtually impossible (as if they weren’t already). So on to the workout…

So it’s basically a buffet of thrusters and burpees. Have fun with that!!

Crossfit Games Open 2014: Predicting 14.5

The final live announcement of the 2014 Crossfit Games Open is less than 12 hours away and it should be quite an entertaining show. Five, past and present, champions will compete head to head in the live throwdown. Of those five, we have the top two men and women in the world after four weeks of the Open. Yes, Rich Froning, Jason Khalipa, Graham Holmberg, Sam Briggs and Annie Thorisdottir step onto the big stage tonight to take on a WOD that just about everyone in the world thinks will center around burpees and thrusters. After four weeks of WODs, those are the two major movements that have yet to show up, but Dave Castro has shown that he’s willing to break from the mold in 2014.

Last week we saw a rower for the first time in an Open competition and while it created arguably more debate than any other WOD so far in 2014, it’s clear that HQ wants to take the Open in a different direction. Despite their claims of the Open being “inclusive,” I think they’ve proven this year that their only goal is get the fittest of the fit to Regionals and also that they’d really like all of these Open WODs to be completed at a CF box. I’ve never personally completed an Open WOD from home and had to upload a video submission but the process of videoing all the components of 14.4 would have been a nightmare, not to mention that the WOD included the use of a piece of equipment that costs nearly $1,000 brand new. My home gym, which has only been open a couple years only, has one rower so even for us completing this WOD took some time. Enough of that though back to the task at hand, which is of course, predicting 14.5.

With the movements that have been eliminated so far in the Open, just about anyone who’s in the guessing game is thinking that 14.5 has to be centered around burpees and thrusters, even the Games Update show predicted those two movements. It’s for that reason, and that reason alone that I think Castro will pull something else out of his hat tonight. I think he’ll want to surprise everyone will something else entirely new. I also think this is finally the week where we finally see a triplet. So with that being said, here’s our fearless prediction:

12 minute AMRAP
15 Thrusters
12 Bar Facing Burpees
9 Sumo Deadlift Highpulls

I'm thinking they start at 95 pounds and increase each round. That gets two of the major missing movements involved while also throwing something at everyone that hasn’t been seen before in the Open. Sumo deadlift high pulls are a fundamental CF movement though and I’m sure almost every person who’s been in a CF box for any length of time is pretty familiar with the movement. So what are your guesses?