Session last night was good.

Warmup

2x
10 Hang Cleans from open hip position PVC
10 OHS Pressing the bar up from behind the neck PVC

2x
10 Hang Cleans from open hip position 20kg
10 OHS Pressing the bar up from behind the neck with 20kg

Workout
C&J going up in 10kg increments. Best lift 100kg, failed on 110kg

2x5 100kg B Press

10 x 40kg Thrusters
5 x 50kg Thrusters
5 x 60kg Thrusters

So I am happy with the 100kg C&J. I think it was mental than physical and I hope that I will start seeing more progress. It was more of a power clean and Jerk, still having problems getting under the bar.

With both the 50kg and 60kg Thrusters, I reckon that I had easyly ten in me exxcept for my wrists.

Olympic Cert.

On the weekend I sat through the Club Weightlifting and Sports power coach licence level 1. It was definitely one of the better coarse I have ever attended. The coarse was run by Lyn Jones, a driving force behind weightlifting for many years. His experience and depth of knowledge help to produce a rich coarse. Now Lyn is not exactly a spring chicken, when he started to quote things that happened in the 50's was the only hint of his age, his athleticism, agility and strength was of some of at least 20 years his junior. He should be the poster boy of what weigh training can do for you.

Lyn's assistant on the coarse Phil, who complete level 1 and 2 weightlifting under Lyn in Belfast of all places worked well to complement Lyns teaching. I was able to spend more time with Phil and some of his drills I will be including into my regular program.

The coarse was held at the ACTAS Strength and Conditioning centre in Lyneham, ACT. The Centre would have to be one of the best set up gyms in the ACT, unfortunately it is not open to the public. There were three power racks and six lifting platforms with quality bars and well set out plate racks. Another high lite of the gym was a tumbling mat that I geuss is more used for sprint training.

I also ment some great people over the weekend including Darren and Nadine from Crossfit Ignite. Nadine is one of the qualifiers traveling to the US represent Australia in the Crossfit Games.

I would recommend this coarse to any one.

Change to Program.
I am going to incorporate some more Oly lifting in with my Wednesday night strength session. I am also going to change my 3x5 to 3x8 for the next three months.

Monday Rest Day
Tuesday Metcon
Wednesday Strength 3x8 Plus some oly lifts and technique work
Thursday Rest Day
Friday WOD
Saturday Oly Lifting
Sunday Strength 3x8

This morning I hit grace, the idea was to work in sets of 4 or 3 and get it under three minutes. Overall I stuck to the plan but just missed out on my goal. Time 3:05

Sharon also did ver well at 3:15

This morning we did a clean ladder with 60kg. I am very please that I improved by two rounds. that is a 19 more actually lifts with a total of 55. Really felt it in the lungs more than any were else, but that might almost be training in 4c.

In tonights strength session I focused on Olympic lifts. I managed add 5kg to my PB to 95kg CJ. I need to work on catching the bar. I have enough strength to get the bar up just need the speed. It is amazing how just a few lifts gets the old hart pumping and sweats going.

On Friday I was given a challenge. Doug wanted to go toe to toe on grace. Grace has to be one of the most enjoyable workouts that I have encounted since beginning Crossfit. The workout went.

This time I actually thought about my approach to the work out.

First, I was going to focus on racking the bar well on my shoulders to take some pressure off my arms and utilises more leg in the push.

Second, was to pace the work out. 30 reps, one every 6 seconds would equal 3minutes. 10 a minute.

Three, Dont expend to much energy trying to control the decent.

I managed to keep the above pace for both the first minute and the last 10 was done in 45 seconds. It was the middle ten reps that let me down. For the first 10 I talked out aloud to keep me focused. The second ten was when the breathing became a little harder and I was un able to track my progress mentally. The last 10 I just went hell for leather.

Overall it was a hard work out but I believe that I had more in the tank as I finished the last 5 reps almost continues.

So time 3:45. 33 seconds off my last grace and more importantly I kicked Doug's arse.

Next time I am going to attempt to average one every 5 seconds. I might also have them in groups of three to save time resetting the bar.

This morning I did something stupid, more on that later.

Last nights 3x5 went well. I actually deviated off the schedules and did some heavy sets of 3 and some singles. This weekend we are doing out totals again so I wanted to work out some niggles plus work out what my first attempt weight should be. We have been a little bit relaxed on rules with the CFT but this weekend we will be sticking to the guidelines as written by Rippetoe. One of the things that we have been relaxed on is multiple attempts and depth on the squat so i am hoping i beat my last total squat at 180kg.

Squats: I worked all the way up from 80kg to 140kg in sets of 3 really working on the bounce. I then went up in 10kg increments of singles finishing at 170kg. I was very happy with my final lift and according to my partner easily broke parallel.

Press: Took a similar approach as with the squats. Best lift was 75kg. I tried 80kg but no luck. I believe my last total was 65kg so this is a great improvement. I have lifted 80kg before and I am hoping to get that out on Sunday.

Deadlift: By this time I was pretty stuffed. The over all workout took 2 hours and by the time we got to Deadlift I had nothing left. My girl friend hit her new PR with a lift of 120kg. I struggled with a single at 150kg. She is catching up fast :0 I hit 160kg last time and even if I hit 165kg on Sunday i will be happy.

Now for this morning, I was doing some work on my Clean and Jerk which consisted of rack pulls, hang pulls, that kind of thing. When working on just the push jerk is when I did something really stupid, I hit my self in the jaw with the bar. I was concentrating so much on what my legs were doing i drove the bar straight up into the jaw. I managed to bite my tongue and chip a tooth. Definitely not one of my brightest moves. To add salt to the wound, later when encouraging another girl in the gym to use her legs more in the jerk I smashed my head on the open garage door. yep, it was just one of those days.

Now to prove that I am not the only idiot I have included this video. I was origanaly looking for a video of some one doing the same stupid thing as me but apparently no one else is that silly. If any body finds one please post it in the notes.

Did the follow workout in 17:35

For time:
60kg Squat clean, 10 reps
50 GHD Sit-ups
60kg Squat clean, 8 reps
40 GHD Sit-ups
60kg Squat clean, 6 reps
30 GHD Sit-ups
60kg Squat clean, 4 reps
20 GHD Sit-ups
60kg Squat clean, 2 reps
10 GHD Sit-ups

I still cant catch the bar in the squat position so I just did a powerclean followed by a front squat. This something that I need to work on and i think going heavy will help. Had a little trouble with the sit ups but I struggled through.

My forearms are the part of my body that felt it the most. I think this is due to not racking the bar correctly in the front squat and carrying the load like I was about to do a thruster.

I will try to get into the gym on Thursday mornings to work on my clean and snatch. Doug did Isabel while I was a way. I really do not think I am up to the Rx'd weight.

This morning we did a clean and jerk ladder. I did the prescribed crossfit warm up which apart from OHS did nothing to warmup my shoulders. After the First lift my right shoulder gave me a lot of grief and i gave up after round three. Last time I did this work out I managed to complete 7 rounds. That might not sound that different but it is actually a difference of 22 lifts. Next time I will stick with the Burgenger warmup.

My right shoulder is quickly becoming a real week spot. It only gives me grief when I pushing over head. If the problem remains I might have to see a physio or my Chinese medicine guy. Both of which are quite expensive.

It shoulder has been good of late and has not giving me much trouble sinse I wrote the Bloody Buck Article in November

Last night i hit the power rack again. Squats went well but I am unsure if I can increase again with the next work out, I will give it a go even if it has to be by 2.5kg. Felt strong with the first set of presses but during the second set I twinged my shoulder. I took it easy and moved on to power cleans. Again, these weren't the best for my shoulder so I only did three sets. I have been focusing on the second pull and my work weight was my previous 1rm weight, Cant weight to smash the 1rm later in the month.

This morning Doug and I did some snatch work. With the shoulder still a bit tender we took it easy. I moved up slowly with the weights as this is the first time of attempting heaver lifts. Doug who has a lot more experience with Olympic lifts made sure that he only just beat me on each attempt. Remember, you dont have to be fast than the lion, just faster than the other guy.

Now for the shoulder, for this I blame a good friend of mine, Buck. Buck dislocated my AC joint a few years back, he thought crash tackling me from behind was a good idea. And it would have been bloody funny if my arms wernt held in. My right shoulder just speared into the ground. There is video footage around, and I do squeal like a stuck pig when I hit the ground. I dont know if this is actually related to the discomfort but I will put the blame in him any way.

3x5 squat 125kg
2x5 press 65kg
3x3 P.clean 70kg