Saturday was the kickoff for the Nutritional Challenge at the gym. Part of the proceedings was a benchmark workout, so I wasn't exactly sure whether I would hit up the WOD beforehand. That all changed when Rachel sent me a message on Friday about coming in to do Competitors Class at 7am. It sounded like the last thing I wanted to do, which also meant that it was probably exactly what I did need to be doing.
Got up in the dark once again, stumbled about getting ready for the gym, and drove over to the Annex. The lights were on this time. Hooray! The door was locked. Shit! I was starting to think the Competitors Class was just a myth. A minute later, Rachel showed up and we decided to check the main gym. I ran over, found Aimee and Michal inside, and let Rachel know we were working out over there.
The workout was starting off with 2 rounds of 100 double unders. A week ago, this would have been one of the last things I wanted to see as part of a workout. But a tiny bit of double under success breeds all sorts of irrational confidence. I thought I could work through sets of about 8-10 reps and not fall too behind my three workout partners. I could not have been more incorrect. Aimee and Michal flew through the first 100 reps with Rachel not too far behind. I was somewhere around 40 at that point. By the time Aimee and Michal had finished their second round of 100, Rachel had 53 reps left in her second round, while I was still struggling to finish my first 100. I was seriously concerned that I would have to stop before finishing the 200 double unders or else I would be seriously delaying the class. Has anyone ever been time-capped less than halfway through a class? I am a trail blazer.
While the girls started warming up for the next part of the workout, I kept chugging along, finishing the first round, pausing briefly, and then starting round two. A bunch of sets of 4-5 reps, a few sets of 7-8 and the second round of 100 was feeling smoother than the first round, even if my arms were fatigued. The snatch pull/snatch portion of the proceedings was already in progress, but I did manage to finish the second round of 100 without holding everyone up too much. On to snatching!
As my unfortunate encounter with Isabel showed, I haven't been pulling as much as I need to during the snatch, especially as I've gotten fatigued. Aimee watched me during my pulls and noticed I'm trying to float the bar above my head. With the snatch, I seem to have one of two problems: 1) The bar isn't making contact with my hip crease, so I just try to yank the thing above my head, which is a big problem as the weight gets heavy or 2) I do make contact with my hip crease, but just expect that momentum to carry the bar (aka: the aforementioned floating) above my head without a big pull. If I could remember both of those things, I'd be golden, but it is still very much a work in progress. I did try to use the workout to focus on pulling more and I made my way up to 145 before we moved on the next segment.
The third and final part turned out to be the benchmark workout for the Nutritional Challenge. I honestly thought I would have to come back at 11 to do this, so I was happily surprised that I would be getting this over with now. The workout was a 10 minute AMRAP of 9 burpees, 15 med ball cleans (20/14) and 21 push press (95/65). 9 burpees at a time seemed tolerable, med ball cleans are mental, and push presses at a somewhat lighter weight are something that I tend to be good at, so I thought I could post a good score. After seeing the scores from the day before, I made it my goal to finish 3 full rounds. And being the competitive idiot that I am, I wanted to try and beat Rachel. Right off the bat, Aimee was ahead of all of us as she can fly through burpees. Rachel and I were moving at about the same pace, with Michal just behind us. Round 1 was done in a smidge more than 2 minutes, with round 2 done closer to the 5:30 mark. Not finishing three rounds would be really disappointing at this point. I got through the burpees, got through the med ball cleans, and told myself to pick up that barbell. As I did my first rep, Rachel was picking up her barbell, meaning I was racing her and the clock. I stopped looking at both and tried to make my way through the push presses as quickly as I could. Did a set of 10 and dropped the bar. Quick breather, picked it up, and did 6 more. Looked back over at Rachel and saw she was still working. Picked up the bar one last time, finished 5 reps, and peeked at the clock, which was nearing 9:35. I had no doubt that Rachel would be right on my heels, so I forced myself to do quick burpees until I heard time. As I was clapping for my 6th burpee, I heard time, and finished with a total of 141.
The clock didn't stop though, as the 2nd half of the benchmark was to find a 1 rep max front squat. Out of breath as usual, it was nearly 5 minutes in before I did my first lift. My max is 260, but my calves were shot and I had no faith I'd reach that high. I thought I could get to 245. I went to try 235 with a couple minutes left, got the bar off the rack, and as I began to squat, the bar started sliding down my sweat-soaked shirt. I tried to control it, but as I began coming up, it was gone. That was a waste! Now I had to hurry to strip the bar, get it on the rack, re-load it, and get 235, or else 215 would be my starting weight for the challenge. Got everything set up and had an "easy lift" (according to Aimee) at 235, but didn't have enough time for 245. A little disappointing, but not nearly as bad as if I had only gotten 215.
Still, the worst part was yet to come. I have no ambitions of winning the Nutritional Challenge, but I'll certainly try my best and part ways with $5 no problem. What I did not know was that I would have to take my shirt off for pictures. See, I have much more of a "keep your shirt on" physique. I have never taken my shirt off during a workout, even though there were many times during the summer that I wanted to. Let's just say I'm doing the gym a favor by keeping it on. After we had finished, Aimee turned into a drill instructor, barking at Michal, Rachel, and I to take our shirts off for photos. Like in the middle of the gym. With the 9am class there. I was going to say "thanks, but no thanks", except Michal and Rachel did it (like me, they were wearing sports bras), and then I really would have felt like a wimp saying I wouldn't do it. So reluctantly I did it and only got a mild amount of mocking from Michal.
At 11, I returned to the gym for measurements and ice cream. I was getting paid off on my ice cream bet, and really, that was the only way to make up for the earlier embarrassment. After all...
I was kinda excited about getting my measurements, if only because I have never known what my body fat percentage was. I was morbidly curious as to what large double-digit number would be the result. When I went in to get the measurements, I was informed once again that I would have to take off my shirt (might as well get it all over with the same day) and once again received more light-hearted mocking from Michal. The results:
Nearly 23% body fat and almost 50 pounds of body fat! Wow. At least I'm acceptable (yay?)
The rest of the day was spent helping fill in the stats for all of the other folks doing the Nutritional Challenge, followed by listening to a lecture on what we'll be attempting the next 30 days. And since the "lifestyle change" doesn't start until Monday, I capped off the day with this:
Thanks Jill!
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