I was awakened at 3:47am by the sound of Meg opening the dresser drawers – all eight of them. Damn cat. As I had planned on getting out of bed by 4, I wasn’t all that upset with her. Good kitty!
I’m in far less of a foul mood than I was yesterday, but still feeling somewhat out of sorts. I’m hoping my business trip to NJ next and personal trip to mother’s the following week will help me get over my funk.
Back to today… I arrived at CFZ at 4:50, and spent 20 minutes on mobility.
Strength
Dead-lifts
I completed two warm up sets of 5 reps @ 135, 185, and 225#. Uhm, we were supposed to do 3×3 @ 75% of 3RM but I had in my mind 1×5 – so that’s what I did, 5 reps @ 240#. I recorded and reviewed all lifts, and my form was good. That is all.
No kettle bell swings for me today. I did try a few, but as I shouldn’t go heavy I didn’t think it useful to do 30 reps at a lower weight.
I had planned on doing burpee pull-ups, but changed my mind at the last minute and instead did the following:
18-minute AMRAP
200m run
10 plyo (clapping) pushups
My goal was to make it through a minimum of 10 rounds of plyo pushups without breaking plank, i.e., without lowering knees to the floor, and to indeed clap my hands together for each and every rep. I exceeded this goal in that I completed 10 rounds of plyo pushups unbroken, i.e., without pausing between any reps. I did, however, pause during the last few reps of the last rounds. And that’s okay.
This was a very fun and challenging met-con. I kept up intensity during running, not allowing myself to slow down and use the run for active recovery. During about the seventh round of plyo pushups I sensed that I might not make it to 10 reps without having to put my knees down. I reminded myself, “Tight abs, tight ass!” That did the trick! Coach, coach thyself. As folks arrived, I asked Lauren to keep track of the diminishing time. Thomas did so instead. I heard him yell, “Four minutes!” and I replied, “You’re not Lauren!” Thanks for counting down, Thomas. Next time don’t cheer for me. You sound too much like your brother when you do.
I completed 12 rounds + 200m & 6 pushups; 2600m (1.6 mi) run and 126 plyo pushups.
I was a sweaty mess, and had but 3 minutes to spare before 6am session began. We began with 5 minutes of yoga stretching, including pigeon stretches, and then did an additional 10 minutes of mobility. Good times, good times.
I recorded most everyone as they did one of their last sets of dead-lifts, so they could see why I was provided the specific feedback I provided.
Prior to 3 rounds of 30 KB swings, we spent 5 minutes on partner mobility. I shall never forget a certain someone saying, in essence, “Paul, do my daughter.” Hahahaha! We finished the day with 3 minutes of practicing double unders. Slow is fast, listen to your feet, establish a rhythm, and (perhaps most importantly) relax. I’m talking to you in particular, Burt.
Tags: dead-lifts, plyometric pushups, running
