The schedule has been in place for a few weeks now and I am starting to feel settled in.  I'm finishing week one of the Whole 30 and while I feel a bit less stamina while at Capital City I expected that at this point of the month.  Here's a few pictures from the week that show some of the work I've been doing.  It was week 3 so I will sum up the heavy lifts for the week's program.

Shoulder Press heavy sets were at 135, Deadlift Heavy sets of 420, Back Squats at 295, Front Squats at 240.  Loved the heavy work but ready to get the third cycle started sot hat I can test next week.  I worry that these posts don't do my training justice.  A few pictures and a quick bit about the week is hard to capture what's been going on.  The heat finally broke and so it is no longer a test of your ability to maintain through the crazy heat and humidity everytime you go in to workout.  Today actually felt cool and the workout was enjoyable because you didn't immediately sweat through everything just warming up.  I'm still working extra pullups, dips, and other movements to strengthen the shoulder.  Today I did Bear Crawls, and then the WOD was Jackie so I was doing lightweight Thrusters and then Pull ups.  I did the actual pull ups this time and while it took almost two minutes longer than the ring row time I felt better about the outcome.  This week is a great chance to recharge and find a balance with my body before pushing into the last phase before testing.

Busy week feels like it flew by but also feels like it took forever to make it through till today.  I don't know how it can be both but I'll try to sum everything up in a quick post and then leave things open for a longer post now that I've finished all three load weeks of One Man One Barbell and next week is the deload.

Thursday Barbell Club, Snatch Pulls, Cleans from floor, and a Hang Clean for good measure.

Power/Push Jerk 155x3 keep making progress with the shoulder.

So what did I do this week? Well to start off I squatted every single day, sometimes twice a day.  I did a ton of shoulder stuff thanks to the programmed WODs from Em.  Posted a sub 9 minute Jackie, 30 reps of Bear Complex, lots of pullups, and finished the week with McGhee.  Overall a great way to end my time at CrossFit Mokena before moving to Springfield for the next four months.  But what about my One Man One Barbell work, well that went as planned.  The Deadlifts were horrible, 330x2 a minute for 15 minutes was rough.  The Back Squats weren't so bad, the had work squatting if paying off for sure, they didn't feel nearly as heavy as I expected.  I'm still working on my Front Squat technique.   I believe that my feet are too close together and that's forcing a slight move to the toes.  Also I'm working on staying more vertical throughout the movement.  But even those reps didn't feel too bad till the last couple minutes.  I have enjoyed the work for the last three weeks.  I'm looking forward to a deload and then seeing where to go from there.

You know what I did after doing nearly 100 reps of some sort of weighted squat yesterday, why I did some more squats today.  Tuesday morning was time for the barbell crew to do some Snatch.   It was my first day doing them since I hurt the shoulder so I went pretty light and stayed in the power position.  Felt really good to get back to another lift that I haven't been able to do for a long time.  The Barbell Crew is always a fun way to spend a little time, and by little I usually end up there 2 plus hours.  The time flies by and I will miss that time moving weight some such a great group of people.  After finishing the Snatch work and the accessories, which included Back Squats today. It was time to get going on the OMOB week 3 for the Deadlift.  I had been looking forward to this knowing that it was going to be a time to pull some decent weight from the floor.  After the squats yesterday, the barbell work today, and the squats that were a part of this I knew I was in trouble.  Heavy single for the day was 410, then my EMOM work was 330 for 15 minutes.  You have not hated your life till you try to move 330 for 30 reps when your hands are killing you from the last two day's worth of work, and your legs are jello from all the squats.  But I made it through, I feel one of the key components to this training is the mental side of things during these every minute rep schemes.  Just pushing yourself and picking up that bar everytime the timer beeps is huge.  It isn't always the prettiest rep, but I make it past it and get myself ready for the next round.   Afternoon workload included what?  If you guessed squats you were right.  More of them, this time from the front, and then a nice little outside workout.  Lap on the track, KB Snatch, Air Squats, OH Lunge.  At the end of the day I collapsed into a chair and didn't move for a couple hours.  Even know I'm pretty sure that I won't make it out of bed in the morning.  I know that I'm going to pay for the volume I've put my legs through, but I'm pushing on to finish this week.  It's my last week up here for a while so next week I'll be doing my deload back at Capital city, and then I need to get ready to start another cycle.  I think that I'll be swapping out a couple of choices for some different ones, and seeing how that goes.  A few captures from today, don't I just make awesome faces when I lift heavy stuff?

To steal Jon North's tagline: Slam Bars Kill PR's it was my theme for today.  No OMOB programming but instead a good double today of Barbell class in the morning and the afternoon WOD.  After yesterday's shennanigans where my body decided that it didn't like to do work anymore it was great to be in the gym and doing what I feel like I was meant to do.  Become the best version of myself that I can be.  That means working on the parts of my technique that I'm not good at, lifting heavy things daily, and pushing myself past limits that I never thought possible.  Today's PR was was hitting a new best for Split Jerk since the shoulder injury.  I've got a few shots from the morning, I love the work that is captured in these shots.

After some time to recover and watch a little tv it was time for the afternoon workout.  Following the programming for CrossFit Mokena today was a good one.  Strength was 5x1 Deadlift.  I only got 3 reps before I was reminded that I did heavy deadlifts yesterday and that I should rest.  So only one pull over 400.  Not bad and I'll take it, first time I've picked up anything over 400 since before the injury.  

WOD was 
3x400 Meter Run rest 1 minute between.
Then:
5 Rds
10 Wallballs
10 Pushups
10 Toes to Bar (I subbed GHD situps because of shoulder)

Total time 17:11
Runs: 1:31/1:24/1:25
 
Felt great, and I was the first one done, nothing like winning the WOD to brighten up your day.  I'm kidding of course, you can't win the WOD.  Just goes to prove the point that everyday is a new start, and that you can't let what happened yesterday detract from what you may be able to do today.  Get out of your head and get things done.  It's amazing how quickly that the people of CrossFit Mokena have welcomed me in as one of their own.  Now that I'm looking at being away for a little bit for work I'm sad to go.  You have made this place feel like home very quickly, I'm going to be happy to be back when I'm done working down in Springfield.  At the same time I am very happy to be headed back to Capital City and seeing everyone day in and day out again.  

I've been missing for a few days, here's a quick update of what I was up to.

-Sunday open gym double work for One Man One Barbell, Front Squats and the beginning of week 2 Shoulder Press.
-Monday and Tuesday big time family vacation at Cedar Point for rollercoasters and camping
Wednesday I get back into the gym for week 2 of Deadlifts.  Today's heavy set was 370x3 and EMOM work at 285.  Then followed that up with the programmed WOD for CrossFit Mokena......Grindy....and just like that I died.  Pretty sure I died more than once, and that I only came back so that I could be even more miserable.  This is the first workout in a long time that I really felt like I could do nothing right.  Tonight had a 30 minute cap and I got my first Did Not Finish in a long time.  The bright spot for the day was my Deadlifts for the day.  One thing about CrossFit is that you're not going to do well everyday but when you have those bad days you can always look forward to getting another chance to do better next time.

A few shots from today:

Here we go again, day 2 of programming, and day 2 of the split workout schedule.  Morning WOD was a simple 3 rd couplet.  Run 1k, 50 Situps, took me 21 minutes, overall not too bad.  Then it was time for the afternoon.  Headed back into CrossFit Mokena it was time to take on the programming that was set up.  Today was The Chief, you have to love a good Hero WOD.  CrossFit Hero Workouts can really bring the pain, and keeping pace with this one.   Following that it was time to get to work Deadlift day!  Always good to pick up heavy things.  The thing that I'm finding out quickly about One Man One Barbell is that it is nice having the same percentage work no matter what the lift is.  It makes it simple.  Having already done yesterday's work I knew the percentages to work from.  A quick set of calculations and I was ready to go.  Week 1 Phase 1 is 4 reps at the percentages and then EMOM work.  It really didn't feel heavy till I hit the heavy set, it's the first time I've pulled over 350 in a while so getting that last set of four especially after all the other work today felt good.  After the heavy set it was time to drop down and do the 4 reps/minute at 245 which felt much lighter and faster.  I took video but Youtube decided that it didn't like the videos so I guess it's pictures only today.  Tomorrow is a no morning workout day.  I am scaling back my schedule a bit.  It is weird to think that it's only Wednesday night and I've already done 5 workouts.  Included this week was a Benchmark (Karen), long run (5 miles), short runs (3x 1k/50 situps), OMOB shoulder, OMOB Deadlift, a Hero WOD (The Chief), and a normal Strength/METCON combo (Front Squats/partial Filthy Fifty).   I earned my can of Kill Cliff after that workout.

I'm going to be discussing some of the things that I use and where I go a bit more in upcoming posts, if you read this and have something you think I should give a go, or you work for a company looking to have someone test something out email me please.