March 31 - WOD

Thankfully we were not too worn out after yesterday's hike, so today we decided to tackle the 13.4 Open WOD.

The 13.4 Open WOD features only 2 exercises: clean & jerk and toes to bar. These 2 exercises are grouped into rounds with increasing numbers of repetitions, as follows:
3 - Clean & Jerk
3 - Toes to Bar
6 - Clean & Jerk
6 - Toes to Bar
9 - Clean & Jerk
9 - Toes to Bar
12 - Clean & Jerk
12 - Toes to Bar
15 - Clean & Jerk
15 - Toes to Bar

And, as you might guess, there is a time component to this one. The goal is to see just how far you can get in 7 minutes. I used a 75# weight for my clean and jerks. I know my ORM (one rep max) for the clean and jerk is a bit higher, but I wanted to be able to knock out as many reps as possible, so I decided to stick with 75# for today.

I managed to complete the first 3 rounds [the sets of 9 reps] and then did 12 clean and jerks and 7 toes to bar of round #4 before I ran out of time [not to mention running out of gas as well].

My hands are a mess now. I have blisters on both hands and on my right hand, I actually have a blood blister. I did quite a bit of swinging in order to get my toes up to that bar. :+)

Actually, today is the FIRST TIME I managed to do the toes to bar correctly. I have really struggled with this exercise. It works the HECK out of your core. And I am thrilled with the number of rounds/reps I was able to complete.

Sure, I'm going to hurt something fierce tomorrow, but at least I'm feeling pretty good right now.

And in other news ... I got a new pair of lifting shoes this week - they are super flat and so far, I am really liking them for lifting exercises. My feet are not cramping during the cleans like they have been doing lately. I have yet to try them on a more ballistic exercise (like jump rope or box jumps), but I am really pleased with the effect they are having on my straight lifting exercises. I'll write up a full review of the shoes once I have really put them through their paces.