blog

After taking Sunday and Monday to rest, I started training again on Tuesday. My WOD was 5 rounds of 1 set of stairs, 30 double-unders and 15 GHD sit-ups. I completed it in 11:13. I did everything unbroken with the exception of a couple of missed double-unders. It was a good way to ease myself back into the week. Fortunately, my conditioning was great and I had virtually no muscle soreness post-competition. Wednesday I did 3×5 high-bar back squat, 3×5 press and 1×5 deadlift. Mike instructed me to not “crush” myself under anything too heavy. The goal of this workout was to just move some medium to heavy weight and maintain my strength. Squat sets were 155 lb., 170 lb. and 185 lb. The press reps were, 65 lb., 75 lb. and 85 lb (and I finished with 6 reps on the final set). For the deadlift I worked up to 255 lb. Thursday I did 2 2K rows with a 2-minute rest between sets. I pulled the first row in 8:00 minutes, and the second in 8:01 minutes. This was exactly what Mike had instructed me to do, so I was happy that I maintained the pace for both sets. Friday was a barbell complex from the 2010 Midwest Sectional. Air Force 20 was 20 reps at 95 lb. of thrusters, sumo deadlift high pulls, jerks, overhead squats and front squats, and you must perform 4 burpees on the minute every minute. I finished in 7:59. I did the thrusters unbroken and got out two sumos when I hit the first minute. I performed the burpees and then finished the rest of the sumos. I went unbroken on the overhead squats, but the jerks punished me. I had to break them up into 3 sets, which added more burpees than I wanted to do. The front squats were done in 5 reps, burpees, then 15 unbroken reps. Compared to the other sectional times, I was fifth. This wasn’t terrible, but of course I speculated on what I could have done better. Basically, what it comes down to is getting stronger at jerking weight. This brings us to Sunday, where I drilled my jerk technique. We really fixed things in the garage this week, and I feel awesome about the future of my jerk! I worked up to some heavy doubles above 115 lb., which is great because I’ve struggled with heavy reps before. I have jerked 142 lb., but I haven’t come close in a really long time, and my confidence with Olympic lifting has been in the toilet. I don’t have an opportunity to do it very often, so my technique doesn’t really improve. But we’re changing that. I finished with snatch balances working up to an easy 115 lb. Check out my video!