Green Army Comp WOD

Thursday - 12.4

Guys, this is a great workout for us! We're wall-ballers at heart, and we've been practicing double-unders while fatigued for 3 weeks (whether you realized it or not.) Be optimistic!

A couple of things from the video: the ball Holmberg is using is made by Rogue. It's sold as 'virtually indestructible' - but it's a terrible ball. It changes shape every time it hits the wall, it's really wide, and the grip sucks. I've used them a few times, and I'm happy we use rubber.

In the demo video, Holmberg also uses an inefficient catch and throw. His hands are on the outside of the ball, squeezing in, which will destroy your shoulders (harder to throw when your shoulders are internally rotated, AND harder to hold while squatting.) Keep your elbows down and under when you throw AND when  you catch. Our balls give us a HUGE advantage.

Also notable: if you drop the ball, you don't have to stand up with it before resquatting. Just squat as you're picking it up.

Finally, aim for the same spot every time. Most shoulder fatigue comes from reaching for the ball, not from catching it. Try an experiment: Hold the ball at arm's length for as long as possible. Then hold it in close to your chest. HUGE difference. Hitting the same spot on the wall every time means that the ball falls into the right 'nest' at your chest every time. Funny mantra for the week: Nest at your chest.

Finally, the muscle-up: it's a chest-to-rings pullup, and a dip. I can think of at least 4 women who are capable (but haven't done it yet.) Today's the day!

We'll set up 2 sets of rings on the monkey bars for the shorter folks (who also need narrower ring setup than what we usually use.) 

KStarr's mobility for this week: http://www.mobilitywod.com/2010/10/episode-53-muscle-up-and-wall-ball-prep.html

Wednesday March 14

Rest. If you rested yesterday, do that workout instead.

Thoughts on Pacing:

If you plan to do the workout twice, it's okay to pace it out the first time. Cam demonstrated that this is an effective method this week. Here are my three concerns with planned pacing on METCON:

1. How will you know that you're not stopping more than necessary? I've had conversations with many top athletes in the last 3 weeks, and they all say the same: your body thinks stopping is necessary about 20% before it really IS.  That's a confusing number, so here's an example: if you believe you'll shut down at 100 squats, the REAL number is 120. 

If you think, "I'll do 6 reps of overhead press and take a break," how do you know that you couldn't have done all 12 on the first 2 rounds, saving you 30 seconds for more reps at the end?

2. No one times the REST times. I see these getting longer and longer as the workout goes on. Where the intent is to spread rest out evenly, rather than take long breaks at the end, BOTH usually happen: athletes take 10 seconds between reps when they're fresh, and then 20 at the end when they're tired. They may have taken the 20 seconds anyway, even without the 10 at the beginning.

3. You take your prescribed rests....AND you rest when you're tired, too. If you push HARDER at the end to make it to your planned rest breaks without stopping, fine. That will balance out the rests you didn't need in the beginning, maybe. But if the rests DON'T force you to push harder when you're working, you're taking too many.

I think pacing can be done effectively, IF it forces you to do 1 or 2 more reps every time you move without stopping. As Pat Sherwood once told me, "the secret to Fran is to do 2 more reps than you really can." If you're trying to make the workout comfortable, though....it's not gonna happen. These aren't aerobic or 'cardio' events. They're a test to see who can still move when their heart is bursting AND you're in extreme pain. Let's get there. Let's find out. 

Event 1 Strategy

Approach today's WOD as an experiment:

Mentally - how long can you keep going without stopping? If you take a break, look at the clock and make a mental note. Also record how many stops you took that lasted 3 seconds or more.

Nutritionally - what's the minimum you can eat to provide ENOUGH energy? You don't want to come into this one full or bloated.

Setup - are you better to drop fast to a soft surface (green/yellow mat) or have a hard surface to push off from? 

Movement - there's a bit of flexibility here. Do you jump your legs in or out?

My thoughts:

Mentality - you don't need to stop. Change is as good as a rest. You can slow down, and drop to your knees, walk your hands out to a pushup; you can jump your feet in narrow or wide. Just keep going. Pick a target number and start counting backward when you get halfway.

Nutritionally - at 7 minutes, you're unlikely to really dip into fat reserves, making carbohydrate intake more critical today. Protein will be necessary only for blood glucose buffering.  Too much carb will pull water into your belly. Just eat normally (for me, that's Zone.)

Setup - if you can jump your feet wide, and land on your heels, your hips (hamstrings/glutes) will propel you upward, and you'll only use larger joint angles, saving your quads. I'd only start jumping inside my hands when my arms/chest are tired, so that the upper body doesn't have to push off as hard.

The rest is optional, but this is critical: you must be in an AEROBIC mode when you start. That means you should be sweating (and not just from nerves) before you start. Your body has to be metabolizing energy in the right pathway when you get rolling, or you'll bonk. Run, skip, row; spike your HR, then recover as you roll out and stretch. Stay warm, and then hit it.

I'm also going to try to do this workout with someone who's faster than me at burpees: Andrew or Mac. I'll use them as rabbits. Sorry, lighter folks, but the pressure's on YOU here! haha.

First Week's Almost Over!

Hope you're feeling well. Adjusting to more volume is never easy; it typically means a short depression in ability (your system becomes overwhelmed) followed by supercompensation (you get better than before.) To make the supercompensatory 'slingshot effect' more pronounced, work hard to rest and recover on your off days, and stretch after the WODs!

What's been your favourite so far?

Diplomacy Wins Again

Well, our poll yesterday solved nothing - 52% to 48% in favour of publicly posting the WODs. So here's what we're going to do, in the model of Gym Jones: email you each your homework every week. Post your results below (Cindy: you're doing it right!) We'll post the WODs on here a few days after they've been done, just so the rest of the Catalyst family can see what you're up to. Great idea by Coach Ty.

One Small Chance For Democracy

Good morning, Green Army. Today is an embarkation point. Before we get started, though, we have a choice to make regarding this blog.

One of the greatest, and most important parts of training for Sectionals is the group dynamic. We're all accountable to one another. If one member skips a workout, the team suffers. To that end, we'd like all workouts - times, weights, as much detail as possible - to be recorded here in the 'comments' section for everyone else to use. Comparison is an athletic necessity. We're not competing with one another, but setting reference points gives us a standard to meet. "I'm going in at 5pm; how many rounds did Lisa get?" That's a great bit of information to have.

We'd also like to make this blog private. You've paid for coaching with more than money: in guts, in sweat, in blood and skin. You've dedicated your time. Others have not. Many would love to see the programming that Coach Ty's put together. Trust me: this is some of his best ever, and that's saying  a LOT.  We'd like to put a password on this blog, and entrust only you with access. We're not trying to keep secrets from the rest of the Catalyst Family, but to draw a line around the Team as a group. You are distinct amid a larger body.

We're limited not by effort, or sweat, or intent, but by technology. We can't have both privacy and group interaction, I'm afraid.  Blogging software will allow us to put a password on this site OR allow comments below each workout post. Here are our options:

• add a password, keep it private, and record results on the chalkboard every day when you're done.
• keep the site wide open, and allow for comments and results to be posted here every day.

Either way, tracking results and dialogue is not an optional part of this process: it's mandatory. It's critical. For once, we're letting you choose. Vote on the right.

Training starts tonight. Game on.