Schedule of CrossFit Athlete Journals:
Mondays – Ingrid Kantola
Wednesdays – Travis Holley
Sundays – Michael Winchester
Ingrid Kantola – Athlete Journal 5/14/12
(Read Ingrid’s Bio here)
I had to go back and look at my workout log from the week to remember everything that has happened!
First of all, Outlaw Rudy Nielsen, made his way to Austin with his beautiful baby Deacon in tow. They coached through four training sessions, including a team workout on Monday, two workouts on Tuesday, and another on Wednesday. Rudy (and Deacon) watched for our strengths and weakness and there were definitely a lot of improvements made. Rudy and the boys planned not to finalize the three ladies on the team until we know more about the Games. We hope to find out more about the workouts and procedures for our team before we make our final roster.
The team workout last Monday was my first team workout in a long time. I had done some partner WODs, but working together with two or more people on your team is something different. Team workouts are focused on work/rest intervals. The intensity of team workouts is a lot higher for me, as I don’t feel the need to take unnecessary rest, but to hold on until transitions to take my rest. The final piece of the team WOD was to find each persons’ 3-rep max front squat. I completed 3 at 165lbs, which is my 3RM personal best.
Rudy likes to program what he calls “barbell gymnastics.” He explained this term is based on the concept that Olympic lifting isn’t just heavy lifting, but that you have to be incredibly dynamic and coordinated, and have great bar/body awareness. I performed a 140lbs hang squat snatch in training on Tuesday. 140lbs is was my PR from the ground. We followed the snatching with a quick WOD and then went home to rest for the second session.
Tuesday night we went down to the RedBlack Gym to get on the platforms. We did more barbell gymnastics, working on our split jerks. Again, I PRd, putting 185lbs overhead. I’m going to have to figure out how to get that from ground to shoulder if I ever want to make 185 my clean and jerk PR. We finished with some squat technique, dialing in high-bar versus low-bar back squat styles. I learned I don’t fully utilize the stretch reflex at the bottom of my squat and lose the “bounce” to power out of the deep squat. A lot of my work with Don Ricci in the next year will be to get super strong and work on strength technique that I have not fully developed. It is one thing to be strong, but to make it look effortless is another task!
By Wednesday we were feeling pretty beat up, so we had a relatively shorter session with 4 sets of 3 minute intervals with one minute transition. We did thrusters, muscle ups, burpees over boxes, and rope climbs to completely empty the tank. I think we were all ready for a rest day on Thursday!
Then I headed off to College Station, TX, home of Texas A&M University, to see my sister receive her PhD. I am very proud of my sister and the work she put into her degree in rangeland ecology. Plus we got to take pictures in our silly costumes.
On the trip I got to do some CrossFit traveling and worked out at BoomFit and CrossFit 979 on Friday and Saturday. Both gyms had great spaces and were very gracious in letting me do my own programming in their boxes, not a common trend for many gyms. Following preset programming kept my visits organized, but working out by myself is never as much fun. I felt like I did a decent job of pushing myself, but know I would have had better marks with teammates in the gym!
This week is going to be another good week. I am starting responsibilities for my updated job position at CrossFit Central as well as my own graduation ceremony this weekend. Plus the NorCal Region competes this weekend, and I need to keep an eye on the leaderboards for my friends at CrossFit East Sac! By the way, did you see how close the finish was for the top spots in the women’s division in the SoCal Region? Eleven points between first and fifth!
