Deadlift - Metcon

Friday, February 7, 2025

Westbound CrossFit (Coach Loni)

1200 (6 of us)

WARM UP

AMRAP 4

5 lateral burpees over bar

10 PVC thrusters

5 SLOW BB RDLs

MOVEMENT/MOBILITY - PVC, barbell

:20 wide grip PVC lat activation (bend PVC around hips)

5/5 PVC single leg RDLs

5/5 stagger stance BB RDL

5 hollow to arch rolls

5 glute bridge walkouts

5/5 quadruped hip CARs

*bb @ first warm up weight

3/3 stagger stance RDLs

3 deadlifts, :05 down

:20 book t-spine opener / side

12 hollow rocks

*bb @ second warm up weight

3/3 stagger stance RDLs

3 deadlifts, :05 down

PRIMER - bb @ 95/65#

5 thrusters

5 lateral burpees over bar

4 thrusters

STRENGTH

15:00 to Complete

6 Sets

2/2/2/1/1/1 Deadlifts @ 70% and Building to Heavy Single

----2:00 Rest B/t----

Deadlift

1 x 2

1 x 1

I wasn't feeling too great, but warm ups at 135 and 185 felt better than I expected.  I ended up going:

225

255

285

305

325

340 (nearly matching my previous best of 341 pounds at the AFA Powerlifting Meet)

It went up really well and I might have another 10 pounds in me.  I was pretty excited and thought I had a 5 pound personal best.

METCON

Health

For Time (15:00 CAP)

5-4-3-2-1

Thruster (45/35#)

Lateral Burpee Over Bar

+

5-4-3-2-1

Thruster (65/45#)

Lateral Burpee Over Bar

+

5-4-3-2-1

Thruster (75/55#)

Lateral Burpee Over Bar

This sucked.  I did plank jacks and reduced the loading to 45-55-65 pounds.  I grinded through in  14:19, but may have messed up the rep count in round 2.

Westbound CrossFit - Review

I started at Westbound CrossFit November 12, 2024 with Chad 1000.  Nisha was looking for an offseason training program and I needed a refresher as I had been putting on weight.  Nisha lasted about a month before deciding it was not for her.  I have continued to train there and have really enjoyed it.

Owner: Ryley - Great athlete, committed gym owner, good coach

Coaching Staff - Kyle (Oly), Bryn, Loni, Jenn, Rachel; all have strengths and are dedicated to their craft

I like the programming.  There are major cycles every 6 weeks to focus on squat, bench, deadlift, clean, snatch, etc.  There are skill days and long metabolic conditioning days. The programming includes a lot of echo bike that I do not really care for.  I think it adds an inordinate amount of time to transition.  They always post Performance, Health and Rx+ loading.

The gym itself is well laid out, but not big enough to accommodate the 25 athlete cap.  With 18 athletes it is chaos.  With 6 athletes it is perfect.  There are plenty of barbells and weights.  It is limited by row ergs, bike ergs and rig space.

It is really nice that they offer Olympic Weightlifting.  Kyle is an interesting personality and definitely a knowledgeable coach.

There are a few niceties like a cold plunge and InBody scan.  They offer challenges and promote the CrossFit Open.

Open Gym time is somewhat limited, but meets my needs.

2025 CrossFit Open

1. 2016 CrossFit Open - MBS CrossFit, Old Pueblo CrossFit - all scaled
2. 2017 CrossFit Open - West Metro CrossFit - Rx/s
3. 2018 CrossFit Open - Aspire Fitness (did not register) - all scaled
4. 2019 CrossFit Open - CrossFit Golden - Rx/s
5. 2020 CrossFit Open - CrossFit Golden - Rx
6. 2021 CrossFit Open - Garage Gym - Rx
7. 2022 CrossFit Open - CrossFit Golden - Rx
8. 2023 CrossFit Open - Garage Gym - Rx
9. 2024 CrossFit Open - Garage Gym  - Rx/s
10. 2025 CrossFit Open - Westbound CrossFit - TBD

CrossFit has seen a lot of changes since 2015 when I started training at CrossFit Undeniable.  The brand was strong and full of hope.  There were no controversy with racism or misogyny.  It was a community without a corporate face, just the affable Greg Glassman and David Castro.  With the sale to private equity, the brand has lost its luster, but at the affiliate level community endures.

The CrossFit Games have had their share of controversy as well.  The most recent being the lack of transparency surround Lazar Dukic's death during the 2024 CrossFit Games.

My why has not changed.  I believe in constantly varied functional fitness performed at high intensity.  That model has been a part of achieving physical, mental and spiritual resilience.  On a more mundane note, I like measuring up against the world.  Good or bad, it is still a measure.  I want to maintain my work capacity as I age.  I do not want to be a burden to society, my wife or my children due to poor decisions.

Metcon

Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Westbound CrossFit (Coach Ryley)

1640 (6 of us)

Warm Up

1:30 row, no straps

slow rope skips

1:00 row, no straps

fast rope skips

:30 row

double under practice

barbell hold top

barbell hold bottom

barbell bench press

5 slow arm circles forward

5 slow arm circles backward

METCON

Health

4 Sets

AMRAP - 1:30

15/12 Cal Row

Max Rep Bench Press (75/55#)

----2:00 Rest B/t----

+ 6-8min Transition

4 Sets

AMRAP - 1:30

15/12 Cal Row

Max Rep Single Under

----2:00 Rest B/t----

SCORE - **Every 5 Single Under = 1 Rep

Total Bench Press + Total SU

I scaled the rows down to 12 calories and bumped the bench press weight up to 95 pounds.  I managed 10+9+11+11 = 41 bench press and 9+7+7+8 = 31 single under points (5 rope skips = 1 point).

As we finished early I did a pull-up finisher with 6 reps EMOM style.

Pump Session at The Dragon's Lair

Tuesday, February 4, 2025

The Dragon's Lair

0900

Warm Up

Hip Hammy Flow

Kettelbell Halos

Pump Session

Flat Bench

Incline Bench

Seated Biangular Row

Pendulum Pull Down*

Donkey Calf Raise*

Single Leg Kneeling Hamstring Curls*

Pullovers

Seated Cable Row

DB Biceps Curls

Triceps Push Downs

*indicates machines I have never seen or used in the past

The Dragon's Lair is absolutely as cool as advertised and well worth the trip if you find yourself in the area.  The gym is primarily fitted with custom Arsenal Strength equipment that feels good and functions perfectly.  There is every machine I could think of and several new ones that I had not worked with.  The majority are plate loaded, but there are selectorized machines as well.  The free weights are no laughing matter.  This is the first time I have seen a gym with dumbbells going up to 200 pounds (American Barbell branded).  The custom stitching, graphics, decals are all a nice touch.

The clients are no-nonsense.  They are there to train.  It is friendly, but not really social.  The front desk is very friendly and got me set up with a day pass and even helped me look for sizes when I wanted to grab a t-shirt.

Uber to and from the gym $35

Day pass $30

T-shirt and towel $45

Training at The Dragon's Lair Priceless

900 Yard Pool Swim

Monday, February 3, 2025

Nomad Pool (Las Vegas)

1000

900 Yard Pool Swim

1x500 FR

1x50 BA

1x150 BR

1x200 FR

--

900 yards total (30 minutes)

Refreshing and nice to have the pool to myself.  Kind of weird swimming without lane lines or flags.

2025 Hyrox Las Vegas

2025 Hyrox Las Vegas is done and dusted.  I signed up for this destination race in September 2024 and have been steadily chipping away at training for the past 5 months with a focus on more running, burpee broad jumps, walking lunges and wall ball shots.  My friend Dave and I signed up.  He finished in 1:41 and I was a mere 35 minutes behind.

Prep went well.  I showed up on race day reasonably well rested.  I had a cup of tea at 7 AM when we walked over and a Larabar at 8 AM prior to a 8:40 start.  I did my hip hammy flow, pushed/pulled the sleds, took a couple of steps with the sandbag and finally a couple hundred meters on the ski erg and row erg.  

Out of the gate, I waited for the field to take off and then settled into an easy run.  My plan was 7:30 splits and I ended up averaging 8:20

7:46

7:02

7:13

7:30

9:15 (stopped to pee ~2 min)

7:58

8:28

11:16 (post sandbag lunges, walked)

Ski Erg plan - plan 6, finished in 5:47

Sled Push - plan 8, finished in 3:39 (this felt great)

Sled Pull - plan 8, finished in 6:11 (not bad)

Burpee Broad Jumps - planned 15, finished in 10:44

Row - plan 6, finished in 6:30

Farmers Carry - planned 4, finished in 3:09

Lunges - planned 12, finished in 11:14

Wall Balls - planned 10, finished in 10:11

Rox Zone - Plan 8:00 (actual 11:33)

It was actually an amazingly well executed race plan.  Aside from some early spikes in the 150s-160's, my heart rate stayed safely in the 140's or lower.  The stations went incredibly smoothly until the sandbag lunges.  My right hamstring started to lock up and the left hamstring was not far behind.  I would take a step, take a few breaths and repeat.  I walked the last run and was fortunate to get through the wall balls as planned as a 10 minute EMOM.

Final data, I was 94th out of 102 50-54 year old open men.  1100th out of 1153 open men.

Post race, my legs were absolutely shot.  I tried walking, stretching, holding them in the air against a wall and nothing was helping.  I did some serious damage to my hamstrings.  Swimming on Monday helped a little and by the time I flew home Tuesday, they were just normal sore.  I did have mild nipple chafe (from all of the running and stations) and a decent bruise on my right arm that I assume is from the sled.

I am not sure what I would do different in a future event.  To be successful, I would have to up my mileage to 10-15 miles per week with speed work, tempo run and long run approaching 8 miles.  I would also overload train with a 70 pound sandbag and 20 pound med ball.  Finally, I would train with electrolyte replacement and make sure I had some training sessions in the 90 minute time domain.