Preparation For The Hopper

This last month has been pretty busy for me. Two competions and a string of ailments. I still have some nagging tendinitis in my shoulder, at this point I am prepared to deal with it for the rest of my life. After the weightlinfting comp, and my poor/untrained methods of warming up, my knees have been sore. Each in different places. Too many warm up reps with too much weight and poor form has come back to annoy me. As of right now, both my shoulder and knees do not limit me in any way. A little sore here and there but once they are warmed up the pain nearly disappears.

To prepare for this Hopper I wanted to get back into some met-cons. I had been working on my Oly lifts and nursing my punk ass shoulder. My endurance level had definitely decreased. I was at the top of my game before the tendinitis and I got dropped right back down to "human status" after all the time off. I feel I am currently back to my "sub fire-breather status" (which is the highest status I have reached in my lifetime). My met-cons are solid and the Oly-lifting has increased my strength and ability, even if I still have A LOT to work on. My pull ups were probably my best skill, they had dropped off significantly with this injury, I believe they are back to semi-pro status (which is the second highest level they have been at in my lifetime).

For the final week of preparation I wanted to hit the gym pretty hard. I haven't had a real solid schedule of met-cons lately due to the obstacles I stated above. I wanted to test myself, see where I was at, improve a bit and become comfortable with my ability again. I want to be confident that I can perform to my potential at this competition. If I didn't have these speed bumps in my training I feel I would be at a level that I have yet to reach. Currently, I feel I have got back to the level I was before my issues, and that is fine and exciting for me. Instead of taking time off and resting, I did the opposite. I have had plenty of rest lately and felt like I needed to wake my body up again. With the exception of the 30 muscle ups for time workout that is a night I have erased from my memory, thanks for bringing it up again asshole.
You're welcome. Relax
Are you talking to yourself?
Maybe and/or yes

Anyways, I feel good. My performance this week really built my confidence that had previously been at its lowest point in a while.

Wednesday and Thursday I wanted "earn my raisins" with a couple short but demanding met-cons. I chose to let my knees rest this last week. I have never wanted to do a high rep squat workout so badly in my life, another good thing with the Hopper among us.

Wednesday WOD:

21-15-9

Pull Ups
185lb deadlift
GHD Sit Ups

I tried to time this workout but I guess I hit the stop button on my watch during my first set of pull ups, either that or I did it in 2.7 seconds. I am pretty sure it was sub 7 if not faster. All of the pull ups were unbroken. It was really important for me to see where I was with my pull ups. The set of 21 felt effortless, that is the feeling I had before my shoulder troubles. It is the feeling I wanted to have at this time, it is a great feeling. The deadlifts were broken into 15 and 6 for the first set and the following sets were unbroken. GHD were 11 and 10 for the first set (I always forget to adjust the machine before I start, I had to break my first set up to slide the foot pads down a couple pegs), the next two sets were unbroken.

Thursday WOD:

500m Row
30 burpees
10 from the ground to overhead any way, 135lbs

6:05

This workout was cool. Just what I needed. I started to get a bit nervous during the row, not my typical "set a PR" nerves but nerves I had never felt before, more like "The Hopper is Saturday" nerves.
Two exercises that I wanted to test this week with regards to my fitness and injuries were pull ups and burpees. The pull ups are just where I want them to be, 20-30 feel reletively simple. I haven't done a burpee in what has to be two months! This was one exercise that really gave my shoulder fits. I decided to cut them out completely. Needless to say, I was anxious to see how I would perform. One word, SPLADAHHHH! That means it went well. All thirty were nearly unbroken, I did fifteen without stopping then three sets of five with (3) second breaks in between. The ground to over head were a great finish. I did it without bumper plates so I couldn't drop the weight. This added to my fatigue as I was forced to lower the bar to the floor in a rather controlled manor. I did about (5) reps as split jerks and (5) as push press. The clean was simple, the press was a bit more challenging. Good workout, I am ready.