The Waterbed

Workout date: 2/27/15

There are so many different ways I can approach what happened at the gym this evening.  Part of the reason I wanted to write this blog is to show all the different emotions I go through at the gym.  There are highs, there are lows, there are some more lows...wait, I'm getting off track.  Since I tend to be a little pessimistic, let me go with the highs first:

• The Open is one of the best times to be at the gym.  The only other time the atmosphere is that electric is at King and Queen, and even that has a different feel to it.  The Open is that time when people overcome those barriers they didn't think they could get beyond.  It is a time of firsts and it is a time of PRs.  More than anything, it is the biggest showing of camaraderie in a community that regularly exemplifies it.
• Rachel threw up a clean and jerk of 165, getting her name on the gym leaderboard, only 5 pounds away from the top spot.  Take a wild guess at who is showing up on the "lows" bullet points.
• Her boo, Michal, had a 35 pound PR on her clean and jerk.  Jill C hd a 10 pound PR on her clean and jerk.  There are probably many others who can say they PR'd tonight as well.
• Within the last 30 hours, I've heard "I don't think I can do that".  Within those same 30 hours, I've watched those same people do that.
• I saw high fives, fist bumps, hugs, goofy pictures, and people wanting to hang out even more after it was over.

The lows?  Well, the lows are pretty much all going to be self-critical, but you should know that about me by now.

• I lost by 31 reps on 15.1 and by 25 pounds on 15.1a.  So, not very close.
• I thought too much and it cost me.
• My weights for the clean and jerk disappeared during the AMRAP.  True story.
• I got greedy once again.

Let's start with the last one as we try to magically turn those lows into a positive story.  I stated yesterday that my goal for the AMRAP was to get through 3 rounds.  I got through 3 rounds and an additional 8 reps.  Time to crack open the champagne, right?  Of course not, because there was definitely that sense that I left some reps out there.  I strung all 15 of my original set of toes-to-bar (slowly, but I didn't drop from the bar).  The deadlifts were light and the snatch wasn't much of an obstacle.  When I came back from round 2, I dropped from the high bar to the low bar to do quick singles.  Why?  Because I'm a wimp.

Had I even given the high bar a chance, maybe I knock out 5-10 more reps.  And if I had gotten 7 more toes-to-bar, I could have sprinted through 10 deadlifts, maybe even the 5 snatches.  Wasted reps.  All I know is that when I completed the third round, I didn't have that "YES!" moment.  It was more of a "how did I mess this up so badly" moment.

The other tough part was going to do the clean and jerk and discovering that my 10 and 15 pound plates were gone.  Before we started, I talked with Giulia about whether we were allowed to just grab weights from anywhere.  She said I should stockpile my own.  Having no 25 pound plates, I got those, but I was set otherwise.  When 15.1 ended after 9 minutes, there were no 10 or 15 pound plates to be found.  That wasn't good.  I eventually got some 15 pound plates and later stripped a women's bar for some 10 pound plates.  But having additional reasons to stress during these workouts is not helpful.

For the clean and jerk, 165 was fairly easy, 195 more of a struggle, and then 215 was an adventure.  Tonight made me realize that the front of my body is like a waterbed.  When I went to clean 215, the bar got caught somewhere between my belly and my boobs, which I believe is referred to as "Weightlifter's No Man Land".  The bar kind of swam around in that area as I rolled it up my body to my shoulders.  When I went to jerk it, I felt a little apprehension, but I got the bar mostly up.  With a little finagling, I stood up with the weight and realized I had 30 seconds to try my goal of 225.  I threw on some 5 pound weights and had a chance with less than 15 seconds to go.  But you can't rush lifts like that, and I was done soon after it passed my knees.

So as of now, Rachel is ahead 2-0, but I'm strongly considering re-testing 15.1 and 15.1a on Sunday.  I suspect I will still fall short, but I'll have a great time doing it.

Second Anniversary

Workout date: 2/26/15

Two years ago today, I drove over to Crossfit KOP for an introductory session.  As I looked into the gym from the lobby, the thought crossed my mind to say "Oh, this isn't IHOP?  Guess I'll be going."  There were lots of sweaty folks dropping barbells that looked very heavy.  There was music blaring.  I wanted to try this out, but nothing about it resonated with me.  I had never really lifted weights before, aside from the summer between freshman and sophomore year in college when I benched with the guys.  (It was not impressive)

There was one other guy waiting to take the intro.  He was leaner than me (low bar, I know) and I guessed a few years older.  I wondered if he was having the same thoughts I was having.  He was not.  When Coach Jen and Coach Paul came out to meet us, we started chatting about why we were there and what our athletic backgrounds were.  The other guy stated that he knew a couple people at the gym (and of course, right on cue, some guy he knew walked by and yelled hi to him) and that his hobbies included running triathlons.  Jen and Paul nodded, then turned their gaze to the sad sack sitting next to him.  I told them that I watched the Crossfit Games on ESPN2 at 1am and thought I'd give it a try.  I also mentioned that my current athletic background at that time was playing goalie for my wife's company's recreational soccer team.  Slightly less nodding.

After some background about the gym, we were brought into the belly of the beast for a baseline workout.  500 meters rowing, 40 air squats, 30 sit-ups, 20 push-ups, and 10 pull-ups.  Hmmm...never have done a pull-up in my life.  That could be troublesome.  And not for nothing, I had never rowed either.  I could probably fake that though.  Jen showed me how a pull-up could be done with a band, a lesson that I would cling to for most of the next 730 days.  We started to warm up and then before I knew it, we were getting ready to go.  As we started, I pulled on the rower with what I imagine must have been horrific form.  I looked over at my in-shape rival's monitor and saw how fast he was going.  Naturally, I pulled harder and faster until I was going the same pace.  He reached 500 meters before me, but only by a couple seconds.

It wasn't much longer until I figured out what a dumb strategy that was.  I tried to move fast through the air squats, but those suckers hurt.  By the time I got to my sit-ups, I think Mr. Triathlon was already on his push-ups.  When I got to the push-ups, I was hurting.  I did a few legit push-ups, then it was time to do push-ups from my knees.  The other guy was already done.  Perhaps soccer goalies don't get quite as much cardio as triathletes.  After the 20th push-up, I trudged over to the pull-up bar, where my band was awaiting me.  Getting my foot into the band without slinging myself sideways was a challenge.  And my arms were so far gone that I couldn't pull myself up even with the band.  A box was brought over so I could do jumping pull-ups, which were basically just me jumping high with my fingers touching the bar.  There was almost no pulling from my arms.  At the end of my 10th jump, I was told that my time was 8:49.  It felt like 38:49.

(Hey look, I kind of made it on the wall!)

With tonight marking my 2nd anniversary at the gym, I wanted to try that workout again.  Hell, I'd even take on Mr. Triathlon if he wanted a rematch!  (Spoiler: he would have killed me again)  My only concern was the pull-ups.  I've been working on them, but they are still dicey.  When I warmed up tonight, I kipped through a set of four, then several sets of three.  If I could do that at the end of the workout, I'd be fine.

Steph C. (who took that photo above and, if you look in the middle of the list below mine, smoked me with her intro of 5:04) graciously agreed to time me for the second go round.  The row was fast but controlled, probably even faster than my crazy sprint back on my first day.  The air squats were fast and unbroken.  The sit-ups seemed fast, but it's always a little hard to tell with those.  I decided that I wanted to break up the push-ups a bit so I wasn't smoked for the pull-ups.  I went 5, 5, 3, 3, 4.  And when I headed to the pull-up bar, the time read 4:34.

That is when everything went to shit.  I jumped to the high bar and managed 3 kipping pull-ups.  Then I went to do #4 and it didn't happen.  Not the second time either.  Starting to panic, I turned to the lower bar.  Being too big for it and having not used it in a long time, I awkwardly tried to kip to no avail.  Still 7 to go.  I jumped up on the big bar and got #4.  Eventually got #5.  Each attempt would alternate between terrible and barely successful.  After getting #6, I tried the lower bar again.  Just as awkward.  Brittany told me to try a strict pull-up and that worked.  3 left!  Tried another strict pull-up.  Did not go as well the second time.  Failed on the big bar again.  Starting to worry that I won't get 10 at all.  Where's my box to jump off of?  Or a bridge for that matter.  Eventually, #8, #9, and #10 were completed, but the clock had ticked all the way up to 8:41.  I shaved 8 seconds off my time in 2 years.  So disappointing.  Glad I did it RX, but man, I hate me some pull-ups.

The rest of the night was focused on the Open.  In case you missed it, here is Dave Castro's announcement of 15.1:

Dave Castro......talks like......this......every time.....someone.....hands him......a microphone.  And tonight's lengthy monologue involved a workout having two distinct parts.  15.1 is a 9 minute AMRAP involving 15 toes-to-bar, 10 deadlifts (115/75) and 5 snatches (115/75).  Now that you've gone ahead and blown out your shoulders, perhaps I can tempt you with a little 15.1a, a 6 minute quest for your 1 rep max clean and jerk.  Have fun!

The announcement threw a bit of a kink in my bet with Rachel.  Now there is an even number of events (unless other workouts have parts like this).  Plus, 15.1a isn't really fair because I definitely clean and jerk more than her.  So we're going to have to figure out some way of determining who does the higher clean and jerk based on the typical proportion of men's weight to women's weight in a workout.

My goals for the workout: for 15.1, I want to complete 3 rounds.  Toes-to-bar will be tough for me, but if I can get through those, deadlifts and snatches should be right up my alley.  For 15.1a, it's another chance at going after 225.  My plan will be to go 165, 195, 215, then 225.  Hopefully I can go 4 for 4.

The Open begins tomorrow for us!  Excited, terrified, and everything in between!  Hopefully my blog post tomorrow night will not be completely depressing.

Calm Before The Storm

I had planned on taking a rest day today, but I thought I could make it in to the gym for a little practice session (double unders, pull-ups, toes-to-bar) as well as grab a couple of t-shirts that I've been meaning to get.  Unfortunately, work has turned into a mess and I ended up stuck there past 7, so today turned into a full-fledged rest day.  In fact, this evening became more important as a rest day for my mental health than my physical health.  (I have issues)

How does a Crossfit addict enjoy a mental health evening?  For starters, my sister got me what I assume is some sort of "epsom salt on crack" concoction for my birthday, so I treated my old bones to a bath.  And then I binge watched the remainder of the 5 part behind the scenes series on the 2014 Crossfit Games.  By the time I was done, my day long pity party had turned around and I was feeling pumped again for the Open.

I definitely needed that feeling back, because there is a lot going on with the Open officially starting in less than 24 hours.  For those who have read the blog to this point, you know I have my bet with Rachel where the loser has to wear an Outfit of Shame of the winner's choosing to one workout.  To be honest, I have put zero time into thinking about what I would make Rachel wear because I have little belief that I can really beat her.  But I do want to make her work.  I'd like to win one of the first two workouts, if only to push her to even higher levels over the last three workouts.  It will be a disappointment for me if I don't beat her in any of the workouts.  It will be a victory if I somehow manage to snag two.  I would love to force her to have to re-do a couple of the workouts, if only to stoke that Viking anger.  But more than anything, I'm excited for the challenge of how hard I am going to have to push myself in order to make this even remotely compelling.

A year ago, I took part in my first Open.  I was more than mildly terrified as I had seen what the workouts from the year before were like.  There were movements I barely had (double unders, toes-to-bar, pull-ups) and movements I didn't have at all (chest-to-bar pull-ups, muscle ups).  A year later, those movements I barely had are now the ones that are starting to develop (although I lack consistency with them).  I still don't have much in the way of chest-to-bar pull-ups, nor do I have anything in the way of a muscle-up, but I can at least conceive of how to get those movements now.  My mental focus during workouts has improved and I am stronger than I was 12 months ago.  Now it is time to test how far I have really come along.

Plus, I can't let the Orange Team down.  You know, the team that is going to win the Team Competition!  Led by Captain Giulia, the Orange Team has been practicing double unders, wall balls, toes-to-bar, pull-ups, and Olympic lifts so that they are ready for whatever Dave Castro throws at them tomorrow night.  There are three other teams involved in the competition from what I hear.  Each team should have at least 16 participants, which means that Friday nights at KOP should be wild over the next 5 weeks.

Finally, it's time for my two Open predictions: one for 15.1 and one for the Open in general.  My prediction for 15.1 is that the workout will consist of clean and jerks of ascending weights along with chest-to-bar pull-ups.  Where did I come up with that?  Well, let's work backwards.  Last year, right before the Open, I started going from one measly double under to the occasional set of two and the very rare set of three.  I was kinda getting it (but not really).  All I was hoping for was a few additional weeks to kinda get it some more.  So without fail, 14.1 included double unders and I sucked big time.  What movement have I been kinda getting but could use a little more time on?  Pull-ups.  And since they tend to like the chest-to-bar variety during the Open, I expect to see it in 15.1.  The ascending clean and jerk prediction is based on the fact that Froning and Fraser are extremely good with heavy barbell movements.  Since this will be Froning's only individual appearance (he is doing the Team Competition this year - we tried to recruit him for the Orange Team, but no luck), I have to believe the workout will involve heavy barbell movements.  They might even just repeat 14.2 since these guys tied in the overhead squat event at the Crossfit Games last year.  But I think they'll go with clean and jerks instead.  So that's what I'm expecting to see tomorrow night.  Please don't use my crazy logic for gambling purposes.

My broader prediction for the Open is...that this year we will see handstand push-ups in a workout.  There has been a lot of speculation on what the scaled workouts will look like, whether the difficulty of the RX workouts will escalate, etc.  And Dave Castro seems way too pleased with himself when he is able to roll out a surprise.  Putting that together, I can envision handstand push-ups (which are seen very often at regionals) making an earlier appearance this year, with the scale likely being something like use of 2 abmats.

21 hours until it all starts!  And less than 48 hours until we kick things off at KOP!  But before that, I will resist the urge to try Jackie RX tomorrow (I totally want to try that) in lieu of a special workout instead.  Plus thoughts on the real 15.1, coming in tomorrow night's post.

The Estimated PR

Workout date: 2/24/15

Tonight was clean and jerk night at the gym.  The skill component was to take 20 minutes to work on your clean and jerk, with the cash-out portion being a "Clean and Jerk Ladder" at 135/95, which was really a Death by Clean and Jerk.  (Review of what a "Death by..." is: in the first minute, you do 1 rep, in the second minute, you do 2 reps, in the third minute, you do 3 reps, etc.  Any remaining time during each minute is rest.  Fail to complete the number of reps for the respective minute and you are done.)

Part of me was eager to go after 225 tonight for the clean and jerk.  I did 215 last time and felt that 225 was doable if I wasn't so tired.  Plus 225 is a cool weightlifting number.  Getting to put the 45 pound plates on the bar was a benchmark of sorts for me when I started.  Getting to put two on each side for 225 would definitely be progress.  I got to watch Flounder and Mr. Intensity get up to 225 on their front squats on Saturday morning and that was exciting.

Before we began, though, I noticed that a lot of people had "form" written next to their name on the whiteboard.  (Form means that the athlete worked on their form rather than going after a certain number.)  Coach Keith explained that we could go after a 1 rep max if we wanted, but that the workout didn't say find a 1 rep max for a reason.  Given that, I decided I would work on meeting the bar while I progressed through a series of increasing weights.

I loaded a pair of 35 plates on the bar and started with 115.  After only a couple of reps, Keith came over and suggested that I work on my speed, specifically going from the clean right into the jerk.  I tested my speed with a couple of reps like this, then decided that I would start doing sets of 3 as fast as I could.  I think I did 4 sets this way, with about 2 minutes rest in between each set.  Then I added 20 pounds to practice what I would be using in the cash-out.  Again, I did sets of 3 with no pause between the clean and the jerk.  So instead of chasing 225, I spent the skill portion of the workout focusing on form, but more importantly, speed.

I'd get to put my practice to the test pretty much immediately as we got ready for the Death By.  Death By workouts are tricky because the beginning of them lulls you into a false sense of security.  One rep, and 57 seconds of rest?  Sweet!  Then before you know it the end of one round is blending into the beginning of the next and you're done.  I knew I needed to stay focused and to keep my intensity in the early rounds so that I had as much rest as possible for the longer rounds.  The goal was very easy to figure out: complete 8 rounds.  Why?  For starters, it seemed like the breaking point for a lot of people was round 8 or round 9, so I wanted to fall on the right side of that line.  But the main reason was because I knew that if I completed 8 rounds, I'd be setting a PR.  Sort of...

My inner geek (to be fair, I'm all geek, inside and out) noticed that if you added rounds 4 through 8, you'd be doing Grace (4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 = 30 reps at 135 pounds).  You'd also be doing it in 5 minutes.  My PR for Grace was 5:38, so I'd be setting a PR by at least 38 seconds.  And who doesn't love getting PR's???

We started the workout with nothing exciting going on in the first few rounds.  Rich A., who is a powerhouse, was doing fast singles even in the early rounds.  I decided that I wanted to go quickly as I had during the skill portion, not letting go of the bar.  And I think this was definitely optimal, at least for me.  When we got to minute 4, I did 2 sets of 2 instead of stringing them all.  In minute 5, I did a set of 3, then 2 singles.  Minute 6 was the same, a set of 3, then singles.  I was still making good time, leaving myself 30 seconds or more of rest.  Minute 7 was when it got tough.  Sets of 3 were out the window.  I did a set of 2, then decided that fast singles likely made the most sense from here on out.  When I finished the 7th rep, I had just over 15 seconds remaining.  Minute 8 would be tough, but this was the time to push.

I started minute 8 the way I started minute 7, stringing two reps, but with the weight starting to feel heavy, some yelling was necessary to get the second one up.  The tricky part about getting tired and doing fast singles is that the bar bounces on you.  So after each rep, I had to control the bar from bouncing away before setting up for my next lift.  With 15 seconds left, I had 2 reps to go and I felt certain I was making minute 9.  I also felt certain there was no chance at all of getting to minute 10.  I put up rep #7, controlled the bounce of the bar, and got the 8th rep completed with 5-6 seconds left.  When minute 9 started I was still catching my breath.  About 5 seconds in, I started the next round, trying to steadily get through fast singles.  By the end of the minute, I had finished 6 reps for a score of 42.  If I had gotten on it right away, I might have been able to get as high as 8 reps, but I see no way that I could have finished that round.

But if I had...then I could have claimed a 4:00 Grace, as rounds 6 through 9 also equal 30 reps.  As it was, I got 27 reps in those last 4 minutes.  Could I say my Grace PR was 4:54-4:55?  Probably.  However, I think it is fairest to estimate my Grace PR at 5 minutes even, keeping in mind that my goal will be 4 minutes the next time I test it out.

Injuries: my right arm has certainly been weaker lately.  It struggled during the overhead squat portion of the Samson workout and it was struggling again at the tail end of the Death By.  My right wrist wasn't feeling great either.  I think it may be time for me to break out the wrist wraps.

Tomorrow is a scheduled rest day.  I always feel the brunt of a workout 2 days later, so with the first Open workout on Friday, my plan had been to skip whatever was programmed for Wednesday.  Of course, I checked out what the workout was anyway, but didn't find it compelling enough to break my own rule.

The blog tomorrow will probably cover all things regarding the Open including some predictions.  Thursday will be a special post not related to the Open at all, although I'm sure I'll mention the unveiling of 15.1.  And Thursday's workout may be a little different as well.  (So much mystery!)

That's all for tonight!

Bambi On Ice

Workout date: 2/23/15

After writing a post in which I tried to describe all the different types of lifts that might end up in the blog, I come to find that the workout for tonight involves a lift I forgot.  Dumas.  While I did mention the deadlift, I failed to mention there was a variant called the sumo deadlift.  The sumo deadlift involves lifting the weight with a wide stance.  The tradeoff for the more awkward stance is that your waist is lower and you're not lifting the weight as high.  Some people can lift more with a normal deadlift, others can lift more using the sumo stance.  My past experience has been that I lift about the same in each stance, although I definitely feel more comfortable in the normal stance.

The strength component of the workout this evening involved doing 5 sets of 5 reps of the sumo deadlift.  After each set, we were to do as many strict pull-ups as possible.  Warmups were an interesting experience.  I was able to do 3 strict pull-ups which gave me some faith that I would be able to do a decent amount in between deadlift sets.  But my sumo deadlift left a lot to be desired.  I really couldn't remember the last time I did this at the gym and it showed.  As we practiced with a lighter weight, Coach Aimee came around to see how our form looked.  When she got to me, she stopped and said "no, there's something wrong".  She looked at the girl across from me and said "she's doing it right, you're doing something very wrong."

Now for background, Aimee is not one to mince words.  My first experience at the gym involved me trying to do normal deadlifts with some incredibly bad form.  Aimee saw me do a rep and said "your form makes me nauseous."  So I guess I've gone from vomit-inducing to just bad.  Progress!  When Aimee figured out my issue tonight, it did not strike me as terribly surprising.  For the longest time, my knees buckled when I did squats.  I had to focus every time I squatted in order to make the habit go away, although it still rears its head when I stop paying attention to that aspect of the lift.  I was doing the same thing tonight on my sumo deadlifts.  Aimee said I looked like Bambi on ice, which may have been a generous way of describing my badly buckled knees.  I resolved to fix this when I put the real weight on the bar.

The goal for the workout was to start with about 70% of your 1 rep max on the bar and then progress towards 80%.  With a normal deadlift PR of 385 (I couldn't remember what my sumo deadlift PR was), I started off with a weight of 275 and figured I would make my way up to 305.  In an attempt to strengthen my grip, I used a normal grip on the first set.  And it was hard as hell.  Plus the reward for testing my grip was to hop on the pull-up bar.  Maybe I didn't think that through so well.  I did 2 strict pull-ups and fell off before I could get #3.

I added 10 pounds and did 5 reps at 285 with a more comfortable reverse grip (hands facing in opposite directions).  Keith came over and noted that I wasn't keeping the bar as close to my body as I should.  Another thing to fix.  The pull-ups were remarkably similar to the first round, as my struggle to get #3 came up short.  I bumped to 295 and did my best set yet, but the weight was still very difficult.  2 more strict pull-ups and then I got ready for two final sets at 305.  The first 5 reps at 305 were good, but Aimee noted that it could be even better if I kept my back tight.  Did another 2 strict pull-ups.  As the class was wrapping up the strength portion of the workout, I grabbed the bar for my last 5 reps.  Another battle, but I got through it.  My grip was feeling it now though, plus I was tired.  I managed only 1 pull-up in the last round.

If I wasn't so sweaty and tired already, I might have been more optimistic about the cash-out which was 5 round of 10 burpees and 35 double unders.  I didn't see any way I could finish in under 10 minutes, but most earlier times seemed to be below that mark.  I would do my best to keep up.  Not surprisingly, I fell behind rather quickly.  Burpees weren't so bad, but I couldn't string double unders the way a lot of the others in class were doing it.  My first two rounds were close to 2:15 each, but I was sweating buckets and tiring out fast.  The third round was over 3 minutes and I noticed that some people were already finishing up.

Despite the fact that I wasn't performing too far off of what I thought I would do in this cash-out, I started to get angry about the fact that I was nearly two rounds behind.  I used that anger in my fourth round of burpees.  I threw myself at the ground, basically punched the ground to raise myself up, and jumped higher than I did in any of my previous three rounds.  That burst of angry adrenaline got me through 8 burpees.  The last two were more of the kneel and crawl variety.  I hoped to translate this burst into some quality double under sets, but that was wishful thinking.  For every set of 6-7 reps, I'd have about three sets where I only got 1 rep.  When I finished my 35 reps, I looked and saw that only a couple of people were still going.  Plus the 6:30 class had begun their warmup.  More fuel for the last round of burpees.

I had that same burst as in round four, but this time it only lasted for 6 burpees.  Got through the last 4 and it was time to peck away through the double unders.  Slow going once again, but based on my final time, I would guess that my time for rounds 3, 4, and 5 probably were fairly similar.  I finished my last rep, threw the rope away from me, and heard that my time was 14:22.  Just glad it was over.

It didn't turn out to be a workout where I felt bad or good about the experience.  Instead, I really just felt tired.  Giulia wanted to do some Open practice after and I managed to do some toes-to-bar and some kipping pull-ups, but I was pretty drained.  In need of a good night's rest, but looking forward to training some more tomorrow.  Gotta get ready for the Open in a few days!

And congrats to Marci and Jill C. for getting their first strict pull-ups this evening!

I Don't Even Know What That Means

(Crossfit: It Gets The People Going)

I was having a beer with my buddy Rich tonight and he told me he was reading my blog.  I'm consistently flabbergasted when people tell me they are reading this blog.  I enjoy writing and there probably is something very therapeutic about being able to share my triumphs and my failures in the gym.  It's a nice outlet for me.  

I thought a few people might read it.  And I definitely tried to make it entertaining so that those few people would continue reading it.  But the blogging site gives you statistics on how many people are viewing your blog and it really has been mind-blowing how many views my blog has gotten.  So if you've been reading and enjoying the blog, a very sincere thank you.

There was more to my conversation with Rich.  Specifically this:

Me: Wow, I didn't know you were reading it.  That's cool.

Rich: There's one problem.  I don't know what the hell most of those things are that you talk about in the blog.

Me: Oh...

Since I've made this blog purely about my gym experiences, I got the impression that the few people I was referencing earlier would be people from my gym.  I hadn't really considered that anyone else would be interested.  So this blog post goes out to all the folks who have been reading the last 2 months despite the fact that I've been speaking in Crossfit code the whole time.

WOD - "Workout Of The Day" (the T must be silent)

AMRAP - As Many Reps As Possible - this is a workout with a time limit and your score is however many reps you can do before the clock runs out

Shoulder-to-Overhead movements: Shoulder Press, Push Press, Push Jerk, Split Jerk

Shoulder Press: barbell at your shoulders, push to above your head without any knee bend

Push Press: same initial set up, but now you can bend your knees to generate some momentum in pushing the barbell over your head

Push Jerk: same set up as push press, but now after bending your knees to gain momentum, you re-bend the knees to get under the bar, then stand straight up to complete the movement

Split Jerk: same as a push jerk, but now you split your legs (one leg forward, one leg backward) when getting under the bar to give yourself a larger base for supporting the weight

Olympic lifts: Clean and Jerk, Snatch

Clean and Jerk: a two-part movement to get the barbell from the ground to over your head.  The clean is the movement that gets the bar from the ground to your shoulders.  The jerk was covered in the last section.

Snatch: moving the barbell from the ground to over your head in one fluid movement.  The snatch is done with a wider grip than the clean and jerk.

PR - Personal Record - "Before today, I could only bench press 90 pounds, but today I set a new PR when I benched 100!"

Double Unders - jumping rope, but the rope must pass under your feet twice each time you jump

Squats: Back, Front, Overhead, Pistols

Back Squat - squatting to below your hip crease and returning upright with weight on your back

Front Squat - same movement but the weight is now held on your shoulders/collarbone area

Overhead Squat - same movement but the weight is now held over your head

Pistols - one-legged squats, just have to control your body weight and keep your balance

Deadlift - taking a barbell from the ground and standing up with it.  The barbell will be at waist-level when you complete the lift.  This is the lift that you can use the heaviest weight on.

Wall Balls - a movement in which you squat with a medicine ball, then when returning upright, you throw the ball to a certain height.  Generally men use 20lb balls thrown to 10 feet, while women use 14lb balls thrown to 9 feet.

Muscle Up - considered the hardest movement in the gym.  Can be performed either on rings or on a pull-up bar.  The athlete pulls themselves up to the height of the rings (bar) and then presses out of a dip to complete the movement.

KB Swings - kettlebell swings come in two varieties: American and Russian.  An American swing goes from in between the athlete's legs to over their head.  A Russian swing goes from in between the athlete's legs to eye level.

RX - doing a workout "as prescribed".  Each day the WOD is written up with specifications (time, rounds, weight, etc.)  If you do the workout as it is written, you have RX'd the workout as you did it as prescribed.

Scaling - if the workout as prescribed is simply too much, you should scale the workout down to an appropriate weight or number of reps/rounds.

(Higher weight/lower weight) - this signifies what the RX men's weight is and then what the RX women's weight is

There are probably a bunch of things I have forgotten to include, but these were the main ones off the top of my head.  If I remember more, I'll include them in future posts.

Jillian Cardazone

Workout date: 2/21/15

Saturday marked the end of our 5-week Nutrition Challenge at the gym.  Dieting has never been a strength of mine.  Well, I suppose if I ate decently on a day-to-day basis, then dieting would not seem so difficult to me.  As I've gotten older, I've tried to eat better, but I still visit Chick-Fil-A more than most people.  What I do have going for me is willpower.  Challenge me to do something for 5 weeks that I normally would not do and I am intrigued.  Throw in a gambling component and I'm sold.

So what were my takeaways from the Nutrition Challenge?

• The Zone diet is very difficult if you don't cook.  And I don't cook all that much.
• There is not nearly enough fat in my regular diet.
• Until this diet, I thought point #2 was a good thing.
• My meals need to be more balanced.
• The before and after photos showed my back now has more definition.
• They also showed that my boobs are lopsided.
• I should keep my shirt on.

In general, I would say the diet was a success.  I lost 5 pounds overall, but I lost 10 pounds of body fat.  I feel leaner.  Not sure I can say there was a change in my energy, but that is tough to gauge because work has been crazy lately.  My suspicion is that this diet will change my eating habits for the better, but I probably will never do this diet as strictly as I have over the last 5 weeks.

The baseline workout and measurements were supposed to take place at 9am, but Aimee did her best Giulia impression by sending a text earlier in the week about coming to Competitors Class at 7am.  I was more zombie-like than normal, so I didn't get to the gym until 7:15.  Luckily, no one had begun working out yet.  In fact, we decided to do our measurements before working out.  Then we did a warmup consisting of 3 rounds of a minute on the Airdyne followed by 15 med ball cleans.  For a warmup, this sure did feel painful.  Probably not a good sign since med ball cleans were in the baseline workout.  In fact, we decided to skip the Olympic lifting we were going to do and did the baseline workout next.  I had gotten through 3 full rounds and 6 burpees last time, but I feel like I've gotten better with these sprint workouts recently, so my goal was to approach 4 full rounds.  (As a reminder: the baseline workout was a 10 minute AMRAP of 9 burpees, 15 med ball cleans, and 21 push presses - 95 pounds for guys, 65 pounds for ladies)

The first thing I discovered as we went through round 1 was how much heavier the push presses felt.  I had made my way through them pretty quickly five weeks ago, but I was definitely a bit slower this time around, even if I strung them all in the first round.  Like last time, I finished the first round in about 2 minutes.  In round 2, I kept a good pace through the burpees, split up the med ball cleans but went quickly, then split up the push presses into 3 sets.  Round 2 was done, but the clock was nearing 5 minutes.  If my second round took close to 3 minutes, 4 rounds was not going to happen.  I tried to push hard, knowing if I didn't get moving, my score would not be much of an improvement on last time.  The third round of burpees were slower, but I was still doing actual burpees rather than my routine of "kneeling down, dropping my chest to the ground, then crawling and standing up" that I do when I'm really tired.  Med ball cleans hurt, push presses hurt, but I got through round 3.  A little over a minute to go.

Now the goal was to get to the med ball cleans.  I threw myself at the ground trying to get all 9 burpees done in a minute.  I wasn't moving that fast, but I was moving nonetheless.  As I finished the last burpee and grabbed my med ball I saw I had 10 seconds left.  I managed 3 med ball cleans to finish with a score of 147, six reps better than last time.  Not exactly as much improvement as I hoped for, but it was progress.

Once again I was drained for the front squat and once again I needed several minutes to recover.  I wanted 255 before I did the AMRAP, but now I wasn't sure how much I could get.  I did 135, then 185, then 225.  225 felt heavy because my legs were pretty far gone.  Having done 235 in my first test, I went for 245 next.  It was very shaky, but I did manage to get it up.  There was about two minutes left when I got ready for 255 and I thought maybe I could do one more lift if I was successful with this one.  But I couldn't summon the intensity I usually bring when doing a heavy front squat.  I actually had to step away from the bar after doing my setup because it felt so flimsy.  I took a minute to regroup and made 255 my last lift.  I tried to stay tight, but I could feel everything get shaky and I didn't manage to get up very far before needing to bail.  245 would have to be my score.

The best part of the day, though, was getting to see the other people in the challenge do their workout and hear their results.  I tried my best with this challenge, but some people really killed it.  Flounder didn't want to do 225 for his final front squat attempt, but we hollered at him until he put it on the bar, and naturally he was successful.  Same deal with Mr. Intensity, who failed his first attempt at 225, but then was triumphant the second time around.  Jen Solt managed to go from 65 to 125 on her front squat in 5 weeks.

But no one really came close to the performance that Jill C. came up with.  She lost 8 pounds, but her body fat percentage dropped over 50%!  Then she came in and went from 115 reps in the AMRAP workout 5 weeks ago and slapped on another 32 reps to tie me at 147.  (Note: if she got 148, I may have stopped talking to her).  Her front squat try at 175 was the only thing she failed at, meaning that her front squat of 165 at the end was a 5 pound decrease from her initial results.  That sounds like a bit of a bummer until you consider that she set a 20 pound PR on her front squat the first time around.  So to recap, she was first in 1 category, second in 2 others, and the category she did badly in resulted in a 20 pound PR.  Sounds like a winner to me.  (I finished in a tie for 14th.)

With the Nutrition Challenge over, it is time to focus on the Open.  First announcement is on Thursday night.  I'll be blogging about the upcoming team competition as well as the bet with Rachel.  But first, one more blog post that probably should have been made back when I started this thing.

Samson, Without the Hair

Workout date: 2/20/15

Two semi-depressing notes before getting into tonight's blog post:

1) I forgot to post my time from Wednesday night's workout.  It was 25:10.  Most folks finished the workout in the 17-22 minute range.

2) Rich Froning, Matthew Fraser, Jason Khalipa, Josh Bridges, Scott Panchik, Ben Smith, Dan Bailey, Chris Spealler, and Lucas Parker beat me in last year's Open.  Just those 9 guys.  Oh wait...so did 65,000 other guys (ouch).

What made me look up the fact that I finished in 65,010th place among the men who did the Open last year?  An inspirational article from a guy who didn't finish that far behind me and whose experience I can definitely relate to!  If you haven't signed up for this year's Open and this article doesn't inspire you to, then nothing is going to work.  Here's the link: http://games.crossfit.com/article/what-am-i-doing-here

Okay, time to get positive again.  Tonight's WOD was "Samson".  Well technically it is called "Rope Smuggler", but I think it should be renamed.  Ryan Samson loves him some overhead squats and he loves him some rope climbs.  When I read the workout, I imagined him sitting in front of his computer saying "What is this 4 minute rest between rounds crap?  I'm going to do wall ascents during the breaks!"  If there ever was a workout designed for him, this was it.

Now to be fair, I was also kind of giddy about the workout as these have become two of my favorite movements.  But the combination of the two meant that I would have to wear normal sneakers for the workout, as lifting shoes do not mix well with the rope.  And my overhead squats are not nearly as strong without my lifting shoes.  I tend to get off balance and then I start meandering around the room.  But counterbalancing that concern was the plan that I had come up with for the evening.  And  when it comes to my Crossfit plans, well...

(Note: not only does that not make any sense, it is also grossly inaccurate)

My Crossfit plans have become a bit like playing golf.  You go and it seems like nothing is working, but then you get to the 16th hole and you hit a shot that stops about 5 feet from the hole and all of a sudden you say "I can do this!"  I'm not sure what hole I'm on at the Crossfit Country Club, but we ain't reached the 16th hole yet, because none of my plans have worked.  Tonight was the latest shank into the trees.

The workout itself was 4 rounds of a 4 minute AMRAP of 20 overhead squats (115/75) and 4 rope climbs (15').  After seeing earlier scores, I figured I would go with 95 pounds, as the RX scores indicated that people were never getting back to the overheads in a round.  It seemed like a workout where you had to push through those rope climbs and get some cheap quick reps on the overhead squats before time was called.  In between each round, there was a 4 minute rest.  Was that the biggest flashing neon sign ever that I was about to have my ass handed to me?  Yup!  Did that give me any pause prior to the workout?  Of course not.

I consulted with Coach Keith and he advocated using 95 pounds as well.  My plan was to do big sets of the overheads, but instead of dropping the bar when I got tired, I would rest it on my back.  Why did that seem like a good idea to me?  Because putting the bar down leads to me walking away from the bar, before going into a squat to catch my breath, and then I start trying to remember the words to Bohemian Rhapsody and...oops, 30 seconds have ticked off the clock.  This would force me to get active again and get to that rope as soon as possible. Not the worst logic, but like all my previous plans, it fell apart rather quickly.

First round was not so bad.  I strung all 20 overheads, did pretty well in terms of staying active on the rope, was a bit winded for the second set of overheads, but got 15 done for a score of 39.  Needed that 4 minute rest, but still felt like things were going the way I hoped.  Stringing all 20 wasn't going to work for round two, so time to test out that fancy plan of mine.  I did 10 overheads and then placed the bar on my back.  When it was time to go again, I pressed it up and did 5 more, then another break, then the last 5.  As I was finishing the last 5, I heard Cline tell me that I needed to lock my arm out.  That's weird...

I got through the rope climbs again, and made it back to my bar in time to do 5 more overheads for a total of 29 in round 2.  68 after 2 rounds wasn't bad.  The extreme feeling of nausea I was experiencing, however, was bad.  I seriously considered going straight to the bathroom in case I needed to throw up.  After all, I had 4 minutes to relieve myself of my ailment.  I decided to sit down, drink a swig of water, and focus on my breathing.  As I watched the group that was going while I rested, I saw them do rope climbs and felt nauseous again.  The key to getting up that rope quickly is to draw your knees as high as possible on each pull, resulting in a mid-air crunch.  My body wanted no part of that.

For round 3, I wanted to be as controlled as possible.  It wasn't about score now, it was about not puking on the class from 15 feet above them.  I broke up the overheads into 4 sets of 5, but Keith was now telling me that my arm was not locked out.  Apparently, as I was push pressing from my rest spot back up to the overhead position, one of my arms was not fully extending, causing me to look incredibly awkward as I tried to overhead squat.  Then on the 20th rep, I tweaked my wrist.  My body was falling apart on me.  I got to the rope, but I could only manage 2 very slow climbs, ending the round with a score of 22.

During the third round, Keith asked Paul what I could do to fix my arm extension issue and Paul had said to bring my right hand in closer when I gripped the bar.  I was also done with my masterful "resting the bar on my back" plan.  So for the final round, I used a closer grip on my right side and dropped the bar between sets.  

With a bit of a breather in round 3, I was ready to make one last push for round 4.  Except I was so caught up in watching the other group climb ropes, I almost missed the start of the round.  Luckily Samson yelled over to wake me from my trance and I got going on time.  In the final round, I did 8 reps, then 7, then 5, leaving me a smidge over 2 minutes to do the rope climbs.  I really wanted to get back for some last second overheads.  The first rope climb was slow, but decent.  As I made my way on my second climb though, I felt my right calf clench up into a ball.  Not good.  I hate calf cramps about as much as anything, but climbing the rope with it was a whole new level of suck.  Essentially left with only my arms, I completed that climb, but when I came back down, there was less than a minute remaining.

When Keith said "45 seconds", I jumped up and started to climb, but there is a reason I don't do legless rope climbs.  I got a few pulls in, but then slid back down.  With 15 seconds left, I figured I could suck it up one more time, and tried to get a 3rd rope climb.  I shimmied up the rope slowly again, but I was able to tap the 15 foot mark before time expired.  Final round score of 23, total score of 113.

I tried to do my best Samson impression tonight, but as the story goes, a Samson without hair becomes powerless.  He also may have been on the Zone diet.  It's been a while since I've read the Bible.

In conclusion, you should always be focused on the 4 points of performance:

1) Giggling

2) Knees Over Toes

3) Something About Your Lumbar

4) Ass Below Your Knees

Nutrition Challenge ends tomorrow, along with a baseline to see how far we've come!  Until then...

Thanks Michal!!!!!

Workout date: 2/18/15

Let it never be said that I can't take a compliment.

(You know, until the next time I receive a compliment, at which point I will make a self-depricating joke in response.  These things take time.)

It seems like last night's chest-to-bar practice was designed to be 24 hours advanced notice for what we'd be facing at the gym tonight.  The workout for this evening started with a 1,000 meter row, followed by 5 rounds of 5 chest-to-bar pull-ups (scale!), 10 GHD sit-ups, and 20 air squats, which would be finished off by another 1,000 meter row simply for the sake of symmetry.  I may be spending too much time in Coach Keith's classes, as I knew what he was going to say before the workout even began: no bands this evening.  We had spent the second half of last night's class working on kipping pull-ups, so tonight I would be attempting to complete my first ever pull-up workout without the use of bands.  And oddly enough, I felt fairly confident that I could do it.

We got going on the row and I felt a lot smoother with this opening row than I did the other night when we did 14.4.  I've tried to incorporate the tip that Jason left on the blog for me regarding the return of the handle towards the flywheel and it has certainly helped time-wise.  I did the first 500M in a controlled 1:50 and got off the rower at 3:50 without breathing too heavily.  I got over to my bar and focused on what I had practiced last night.  And the first round was about as good as I could have hoped for, with a set of 3 and a set of 2.  In fact, I did a little mini-sprint over to the GHD because I was pumped about it.

I won't go into the GHD sit-ups or the air squats too much.  I can generally do 12-15 GHD sit-ups before running into problems, so I was able to string the sets of 10 throughout this workout without too much of an issue.  Same for the air squats, as 20 was a small enough amount that I could move at a moderate pace and do all 20, or do 12 fast, pause for a second, then do the other 8 fast.  Those weren't the aspects of the workout that would suck up time.  That role would fall to my nemesis: the pull-up bar.

You know it was a difficult workout for me when I can't remember specifics, and those specifics shouldn't have been that hard given that there were only 5 pull-ups per round.  But here's what I can piece together.  In round 2, I slipped as I went to start my round, but then I was able to do a set of 2. followed by a set of 3 where I kind of hung in mid-air on the last one and pulled with everything I had to get my chin a sliver above the bar.  So not too bad there.  Round 3 was when it broke down into singles.  It was also where my coordination began to fall apart and my hands began to get sweaty.    I slowed noticeably that round.  Round 4 was pretty similar to round 3.  And round 5 was where it all fell apart.  My kip was weak, my timing was off, and I was doing everything but getting my chin over the bar.  I even got an appreciation for Mr. Intensity's "FUCK! SORRY!" moment.  I had only gotten 1 rep in round 5, when I did that hang in mid-air thing again, but I no longer had the energy to muscle my chin over the bar.  I wanted to kick the wall, but instead I yelled out an F-bomb and tried to figure out how in the world I was going to get 4 more reps.  One by one I got them, but I was way behind everyone else in the class now.

I ran over, blew through my GHD sit-ups, blew through my air squats, and got to the rower.  I totally misjudged how much those GHD sit-ups would affect your rowing stroke, because I did not want that handle hitting my sore belly at all.  With my heavy breathing and abbreviated motion, the first 250M went by in about 1:10.  I had to get moving faster than that.  I ignored the ab pain and started making full pulls and did the next 250M somewhere in the 1:00-1:05 range.  Having already embarrassed myself with my earlier yelling, I went ahead and yelled at myself some more in order to push through the last 500M.  The third 250M went by in about 1:00, and with the help of everyone else in tonight's 7:30 class, I pushed as hard as I could to the end.  The last 250M was in the neighborhood of 55 seconds, with the 500M split showing 1:46 when I finished.  I was exhausted.  I'm not sure if it's a good thing that more and more workouts are ending with me collapsing on the floor, but it's becoming a habit.

So was it a good workout?  A bad workout?  I have mixed feelings.  On the one hand, it was the first workout with pull-ups that I have ever completed without a band.  Very proud of that.  On the other hand, I easily had the worst time of the day.  The other members of the 7:30 class had time to grab water, put their rower away, roll out, change clothes, and watch the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special before coming back to root me on during my last 250 meters.  Not exactly what I was hoping for.

Unless tomorrow's workout is extremely compelling, I will be taking a rest day.  Just 2 more days of the Nutrition Challenge before measurements and the baseline workout on Saturday morning.  I think it would be wise to get a rest day in before then, if only to let my hands heal.

The Open Bet and the Outfit of Shame

Workout date: 2/17/15

I swear that my birthday is over.  Come and gone.  There is no reason to be scared of birthday burpees.  Clearly that fear is still lingering as I arrived at tonight's 7:30 class and discovered that I would be working out with...myself.  That's awkward.  At least I wasn't running around doing some crazy metcon by myself.  Tonight's workout was purely strength and skill.  First up would be a 3 rep max of back squats, followed by some chest-to-bar pull-up practice.  And by chest-to-bar pull-up practice, I mean learning the basics behind kipping standard pull-ups.  So far behind on that learning curve...

I didn't know exactly what my 3RM for the back squat should be given that my 1RM is 275, but I thought somewhere in the neighborhood of 245-255 was about right.  Luckily there is a handy chart on the wall that tells you these things.  255 it is.  I got started with a warmup set of 135, while Personal Trainer Keith told me that the 5 actual sets should be about 75% and higher.  135 was very light, so for my next set I got up to the 75% mark and did 205.  I took my time and got through that set easily.  From there I went to 225 and that wasn't bad either, although I did feel another twinge in my calves on the last rep.

I took Keith's advice to stretch my calves out before moving on to my next set, which I did at 245.  Set #4 was at 255.  Whenever I read that the workout calls for a certain amount of sets, I try to hit my goal on the second to last set, with the last set being either a) a pleasant surprise as I go higher than I thought I could, b) the set where I fail, indicating that I measured things out just right, or c) my scale back set, because I had the unpleasant surprise of failing on the second-to-last set.  The reps were definitely slower at 255 and I was up on my toes for rep #3, but I had at least met my goal of 255.  My original plan was to do the last set at 260, but Keith uttered the magical words ("that set looked easy"), so I went with 265 for the final set.  I took some time before attempting 265, after all, it wasn't like I was holding anybody up in the empty gym.  When I grabbed the bar, I did a terrible first rep where I didn't keep my core tight, then did a very solid second rep, finishing up with a slow, but successful third rep.  The chart says that if I can do 3 reps at 265, I should be able to do 1 at 285.  I'll have to test that out another day.

Before even making an attempt at a chest-to-bar pull-up, I had a discussion with Keith about where I am when it comes to pull-ups.  Can manage a few strict ones, but can't kip for the life of me.  So tonight we spent the time working on my kip.  What I discovered is that I have two big problems: 1) I think too much in everything that I do.  This explains why I set PRs at Festivus, as the alcohol shuts off my brain for a bit.  2) I am not an aggressive person.  My attempts at mimicking Keith's aggressive kick left a lot to be desired.  But at least it's in my head now and I can think about it.  (That's progress...right?)  Eventually, I did get some good kips in, but stringing the pull-ups is going to take practice (like everything else).  And at some point I am simply going to have man up and deal with the hand pain that comes along with doing a lot of reps on the bar.

While it was a quiet night at the gym, the moment I have been waiting for happened earlier in the afternoon.  Rachel finally signed up for the Open, meaning that our Open bet was officially on.  Why am I making a bet against a girl who tied for second at last year's King and Queen and has only gotten better since?  (Wow, when you read it typed out like that, it really makes no sense)  Well even if my prospects are bleak, I love a good challenge.  I find myself competing against Rachel a lot in class, so why not face that test over the course of five tough workouts?

The bet?  First person to win three Open workouts gets bragging rights.  One re-do is allowed per workout if either participant desires.  And did I mention the Outfit of Shame?  That's right, the winner will pick out a wardrobe for the loser to wear to class one day, which includes the winner's alma mater as part of it.  I have heard whispers that I will be wearing a Penn State bra in the near future.

Am I a big underdog?  Yup.  But once upon a time, this happened:

Time to re-create that magic.  Game on Rachel!

One Step Closer to Masters

Workout date: 2/16/15

Today was my 37th birthday.  And there's no better war to embrace turning 37 than to complete a workout like you physically aged a full year in the last 24 hours.  Hey, at least they'll scale it for me when I'm doing this workout three years from now.

Another "are you prepared for the Open" WOD tonight (spoiler: I'm not) in the form of 14.4, the crazy chipper that ended up being the final AMRAP from last year's Open.  14 minutes to do 60 calories on the rower, 50 toes-to-bar, 40 wall balls, 30 power cleans (135/95), and 20 muscle-ups.  Still got some time to kill after knocking out 20 muscle ups, Superman?  Then you can get right back on the rower and start plugging through the whole thing again.

When 14.4 came up last year, I ended up attempting it twice.  I was embarrassed by my first attempt.  I guess I should be a little more clear about that.  This workout exposes whether you can handle a boatload of toes-to-bar or not.  Everyone gets off the rower.  Not everyone gets to the wall balls.  And depending on when you get to the wall balls, you might not get to the power cleans.  Attempt #1 last year saw me go bonkers on the row, which was a terrible strategy.  I got off the rower well under 3 minutes, only to spend the next 10 minutes or so flailing away on the bar trying to do my 50 toes-to-bar.  When that agony ended, I trudged over to my wall ball and did what I could.  I believe my score ended up being 137 (27 wall balls).

In attempt #2, I was less insane on my row, finishing a few ticks past 3 minutes.  The toes-to-bar went slightly better, and I was able to use the ticking clock to push me through the wall balls.  I ran over to my barbell and did 3 cleans before the clock stopped.  New score: 153.

Tonight, my hope was to come close to finishing the cleans.  But once again, I learned that if you are not routinely practicing a movement, you will not be able to depend on that skill when you need it most.  We needed to do 40 toes-to-bar in the Open test and I struggled there.  Did I practice my technique since then?  Of course not.  Did I magically re-gain my form from last month?  Of course not.  Dumb, dumb, dumb.

We got started on the rower and I thought I was going at a good pace.  I wasn't getting winded, and I was pulling at about 20 calories per minute, which would have me done at 3 minutes, similar to what I did in my second attempt last year.  Mark and Conn were in the class and I suspected they would be off the rower before me.  Seshu was right next to me and I was familiar with how good he and Leslie had gotten at rowing, so I thought if I got off at the same time as him or sooner, I'd be in good shape.  Mark was off the rower first and my monitor read 46 calories.  Uh oh.  Conn followed and then Seshu got done when I was at 56 calories.  My pace had slowed a little, as I finished somewhere between 3:15 and 3:20.

The toes-to-bar dilemma actually became tougher than I had originally planned as Conn and Seshu had moved one bar closer to me than they were in warmups.  Since the low bars and high bars are perpendicular to each other, Seshu and I could be bumping into each other during this segment of the workout.  I tried my best not to bump into him, but it was a bit late to move.  I wanted to use the efficient kip and knock out sets of 3-5, while taking small breaks in between, always trying to get my hands back on the bar.  That didn't happen at all.  For whatever reason, my kip was a mess, and my first 4 sets went 3-3-2-2.  10 down, 40 to go.  Those last 40 would end up being "fast singles", and the quotes are definitely necessary.  One by one, everyone in the class started doing wall balls, while I plugged away at my toes-to-bar.  My hands hurt, but I wasn't exhausted.  If anything, I was just annoyed.  When I finished, there was two and a half minutes left, so I spent about 8 minutes here.

Partly due to anger and partly due to not being tired, I grabbed my wall ball and threw it to the 11 foot mark.  I did it again and again, before finally throwing my 4th rep to the proper level.  I was on an adrenaline rush and trying to plow through the wall balls as fast as I could.  Seshu was way ahead of me at this point, but even he noticed how quickly I was going.  My first set was of 15.  Quick breath, picked it up and did 2 sets of 6.  Coach Keith asked me how many I had left and I knew that any answer under 5,000 was going to get the same response: one set, do not drop that ball.  Once again, it was not pleasant, but I finished the last 13 in a row.

With about 25 seconds to go, I got over to the cleans.  I tried to snap through them like I did the wall balls, but now I was fatigued.  I got 3 reps in before I heard "5 seconds".  I'm not much for moral victories, but I could at least get a higher score than I did last year.  Clean #4 went up and I finished with a score of 154.

There were so many bad things about this workout.  The row was controlled, but unnecessarily tapered off at the end.  My inability to kip the toes-to-bar at all was a disaster.  Having absurdly wimpy hands continues to kill me on body weight movements.  Even the wall balls aggravated me.  I shouldn't need Keith staring at me to string together that final large set.  Those two mini-sets of 6 cost me time, time that could have gotten me another 2 cleans or so.  I should have gone 15-12-13 on the wall balls.  Aggravating!!!

All I can do is keep practicing.  Just 10 days until the first Open workout announcement and a ton to work on.

The Islets of Langerhans

Workout date: 2/15/15

My scheduled first attempt at the Valentine's Day Massacre partner WOD on Saturday was cancelled after an impromptu partner WOD with Jack Daniels on Friday night.  We crushed it, but a recovery day would be required.  These things happen.

Today I was back to a very quiet, mostly empty gym.  I went to the 10am class, somewhat excited about the workout.  The skill component for today was a three-part complex revolving around the snatch at different points of the hang: the high hang, the mid hang, and the low hang.  The high hang was from the hip crease with a slight bend in the knees.  The mid hang was from an adjustment down to mid-thigh by pushing your butt back.  Finally, the low hand was an adjustment down to right below the knee by keeping the same angle but lowering yourself in the stance.  The second half of the workout was a team cash-out where we would be scrambling to complete as many rope climbs as possible in 6 minutes.  Sadly, my Ronald McDonald socks were in the washer, so I had to go back to the plain white socks today.

I don't remember ever snatching from the high hang, but it is something I should start practicing.  Coach Paul made two important points about this position.  First, he noted that this is where we should be right before we begin to pull the bar overhead for the lift.  Second, he accurately noted that most of us never get to this position.  I know most of the time I don't!  Still, trying to snatch with only the slightest amount of dip drive seemed difficult and I guessed that I would not be able to throw much weight on the bar for this session.  The other two positions felt more natural as we practiced, so I got the impression that if I completed the first lift in the complex, I'd get all three.  Of course, I was wrong.

I started out with 75 and that was fine and even 95 wasn't too bad. 115 was where it got tricky and I didn't do myself any favors by leaving my lifting shoes in my bag.  During the lift from the mid hang, I got up on my toes and had to run forward a few steps to complete the lift.  Successful lift?  Yes.  Good form?  Absolutely not.  I did manage to get the third lift at 115, but it was time to put the lifting shoes on.  I was anchored to the ground for my next lift at 125, but holding on to the bar for all three lifts had become an issue.  As I got ready for the third lift of the complex, I let go of the tension in my upper back, meaning I got almost no pull.  I did drop into my squat very quickly and almost saved it, but it was no use.

Paul came over and explained where I had failed, but also gave me some good advice in general regarding the snatch.  As with most things, I tend to overthink the crap out of this lift, but Paul told me that despite the complexity of the lift, I needed to be focused on only one thing when I was ready to lift the bar.  It could be speed, it could be the pull, it could be dropping under the bar...but it had to be only one thing.  Thinking too much was going to lead to an unsuccessful lift.

Because I am a slow learner, I narrowed that list down to two for my last attempt at 125.  Paul had noted my loose upper back, but also that I was slow going through the complex.  So my "one thing" was keeping my upper back engaged while being fast.  I did the first two portions of the complex and they were both improved from my initial attempt at 125.  Before I could overthink the last lift, I muttered "fast, fast" and went right into the third lift.  What unfolded was a very quick, strong pull that did not even come close to hitting that contact point at my hip crease, but the bar did swoop over my head and I was "successful" at 125.  Needs some work!

Next was the rope climb dash and we split into 2 teams of three, where each team could have two members working at the same time.  My team included Cline and Lauren.  With 6 minutes on the clock, we got after it, with Cline and I the first on the ropes.  I hit my mark and scrambled down to let Lauren go, but when Cline came back down, he said he was going again.  Damn, putting me to shame  right off the bat!  Over the course of the next few minutes, I jumped on whichever rope opened up, trying to maintain my quickness in getting up to that 15 foot mark.  After about 5 climbs, I was starting to feel it, but my goal was to keep up my intensity throughout the 6 minutes.  I'm pretty sure it was the 8th climb when I noticed my pulls were becoming much shorter.  It was also the point where Paul said we had one minute left.  As I was coming down from that climb, I began to get really eager about completing 10 climbs.  I waited for a rope to open up and then scurried up to 15 feet.  Taking a cue from Cline, I was not giving up my rope at this point.  As I touched the mat, Paul yelled "20 seconds!"  Gotta get back up there.

Instead of my usual running jump on to the rope (rope climbs are so much easier when your top hand is almost at 9 feet when you start), I jumped from where I had touched down from the 9th climb.  It wasn't much of a start.  I made two pulls and heard Paul say "10 seconds".  Uh oh, not so sure I'm finishing 10 now.  I made a couple more pulls when I heard "3" and knew I was out of time to climb.  I looked up, saw the mark was a stretch away, and reached up to smack it.  It was like a bad action sequence in a TV show where somebody has to stop the bomb from blowing up and they somehow always manage to clip the right wire with one second to spare.  As Paul's countdown hit 1, my hand slapped that barely-visible-to-me-as-I-may-be-colorblind pink mark on the rope, and I had my 10th climb.  Now it was a good day.

Jill C. had driven all the way from my old hood (upstate NY) this morning to come work out and she was the only one there for 11am strength, so I decided to stick around to chat and do one of the WODs from the upcoming Festivus Games in April with her.  I did some very poor double under practice and a few strict pull-ups as she was getting ready to squat clean, the one thing she wanted to do before the WOD.  She told me that she had a mental block about squat cleaning more than 95 pounds, which made no sense to me, as I had seen her squat clean during the 1RM clean and jerk workout in early January.  We were pushing beyond that today.

Jill did some warmup sets as she made her way to 95, and then she did 95.  Easy as pie.  So I grabbed some 2.5 pound plates and made her do 100.  Silky smooth again.  The wheels started turning in my head about how much she could really do as she did rep after rep at 100.  Next she did 105, then at 110 she started to slow down in the bottom, but this was clearly more of a mental thing as her form was pretty flawless.  Jill is very good at meeting the bar.  Compare this to me: I yank the bar as high as I can, drop below it as fast as I can, leading to the bar crashing down on me, at which point I rely on the hope that I can front squat the weight I am using.

I asked Jill what her PR for squat cleans was and she said 115.  That was totally going down.  She did 115 in the same way she did 110.  I asked her to do one more lift and she agreed to do 120.  And naturally it was a successful lift.  From watching her progress through the weights, my guess is that she can do 130.  But I wasn't going to press her on that today.  It was time to WOD (again!).

WOD #1 for the Festivus Games is a 1,000 meter row followed by 50 wall balls with a 10 minute cap.  With the Open right around the corner, I haven't thought much about this competition in April, but I will admit that it did pop in my head last week causing me to daydream about doing well in it.  This was the only workout that I remembered from the website and, per usual, I had come up with a (likely flawed) plan for the best way to tackle it.  My thought process was that exerting extra energy on the row would get you very little bang for your buck, whereas stringing as many wall balls together as possible could save you a lot of time.  Even stringing all 50 seemed like a possibility to me (although a longshot one at best).  So today's plan was to row the 1,000 meters in about 4:00, then clobber the wall balls in big sets.  My thinking was that 6 minutes would be a strong time for the workout, with the 6:15-6:30 range probably better than average.

One out of two ain't bad.  We got going on the row and I felt very controlled during it, trying to keep my breathing under control.  My pace was slightly under a 2:00 split for 500M at the start and a little over 2:00 towards the end.  I got off the rower at 4:02.  The wall balls were a different story.  I got to about rep #12 and realized that I was a little more spent than I had expected.  I dropped the ball after 15 reps, but knowing this was a sprint, did not take much time before resuming.  After that, though, it was small sets to the end.  I did a set of 7, 5, 6, 9, and 8 to finish off my 50, stopping the clock at 6:51.  Not terrible, but the wall balls could have been better.  I'd like to chop at least 30 seconds off of that time by the time the Festivus Games come around.

So what's up with the title of today's blog post?  After the WOD, Jill and I had a discussion of the Zone diet we are doing for the Nutrition Challenge with Keith.  Keith was explaining how the diet is really all about normalizing the amount of insulin that is produced in your body during the day and how it comes from the pancreas.  At which point Jill said "from the Islets of Langerhans", which generated an excited "oh yeah!" from me, as I had a nerdy flashback to when I knew stuff like that.  I'm kind of a dork.

Speaking of flashbacks, tomorrow we will be revisiting 14.4 at the gym.  Should be fun!

The Need for Speed

Workout date: 2/13/15

I have a confession to make: I am addicted to trying to RX workouts.  When I first started Crossfit, it seemed like there was no way that I could ever do a workout RX.  I looked at the piddly weights I was using and I couldn't even get through a workout using those without my form falling apart.  Then one day, a workout that I had heard about was programmed, and when I read through the requirements, I was overjoyed to see that finally I could get my first RX.  The workout was called Fight Gone Bad, and although it sounded grueling, I could handle a 75 pound barbell, I could handle a 20 pound wall ball, and I could handle a 20" box.  The dream would become a reality.

Generally, Fight Gone Bad is run in two heats at our gym, with one person counting for their partner as they do the workout.  I got through the first of three rounds with a decent score, but I was exhausted.  One minute of rest wasn't going to be nearly enough to help the cause, but my partner encouraged me to get ready for round two.  My score plummeted in round two and I desperately wanted an oxygen tank and a bucket of gatorade before round three began.  Instead, I got 60 seconds.  As I trudged through round three, I eventually got to the box jumps.  I would do a jump, come back down, try to breathe, then jump again.  This was a very slow process and not the point of the workout.  I was supposed to be continuously working during my minute at each station, not hunched over wishing that the workout would end.  My partner took this opportunity to say "Just keep moving Dave.  Do step ups and keep moving!"  Yes!  Step-ups, I could manage those.  Putting one foot in front of the other, I managed 6 step-ups, before moving on to the next station.

When I completed the row to end my workout, I had nothing left, but I was excited that I had completed my first RX workout.  The coach asked all of the partners for the scores and one by one people said "(Guy), 244, RX" or "(Girl), 273, RX".  When it was my partner's turn, she said "Dave, 206, Step-Ups".  That may have been the most depressing moment I've had at the gym.  In my attempt to keep moving, I had mindlessly given up my first RX for six measly step-ups.  My score would have been an even 200 RX if I had simply stood still instead.  That sucked!

Or did it?  Well I'd be lying if I said that it didn't suck at that very moment.  And even though I am still consumed with doing as many workouts RX as possible, I do understand now that there is a benefit when I do not RX and instead "keep moving".  There have been a couple of workouts recently where I've pushed my limits to do the workout RX and it has taken me an extrenely long amount of time to finish.  That will likely not be an option with the Open, as I will have a set amount of time to get the work done that they program.  So today I wanted to train with the Open in mind.  As a result, I took today's workout as an opportunity to improve my speed rather than chase an RX.

The workout today was 3 rounds for time of 15 back squats (205/135) and 15 deadlifts (275/185).  Can I do 45 reps of those lifts at those weights?  Probably.  Would it take me forever to do?  Probably, especially after seeing some of the morning monsters at the gym take more than 12 minutes to complete the workout.  I decided that I would do either 165 for back squat and 225 for deadlift, or slightly higher at 185/245.  I thought 165 might be a little too light for the back squat while 245 could be a little too heavy for deadlift, but I thought those combos were the right proportions for the workout.  My goal for the workout would be 8 minutes.

When I got to the gym, I revised my thinking.  I saw some additional times from the afternoon classes and knew that 185/245 was not realistic.  Even 165/225 might not be the best idea.  As we warmed up for the workout, I asked Coach Paul whether people were having trouble with the back squats or the deadlifts.  When he answered deadlifts, my decision was made.  I would use 165 for the back squat and 205 for the deadlift.

My biggest fear was that my deadlifts would fall apart because a) I suck at high volume deadlifts and b) this WOD seemed like it was meant to crush your legs, leaving you helpless in round 3.  That was pretty much what happened.  In round 1, I strung all 15 back squats, then did 3 sets of 5 deadlifts with minimal rest in between.  I caught a glimpse of the clock as I was in between sets of 5 deadlifts and it was at 1:42, so I imagine I finished the first round in just over 2 minutes.

Round two was where it got spicy.  I had dreams of stringing all 15 squats again, but by rep 5, I knew that wasn't happening.  I made sure I got to 8 before setting the bar down.  I caught my breath, grabbed the bar, and did the final 7 reps.  I was moving fast, but my legs were starting to struggle.  Once again, I did 3 sets of 5 deadlifts with more rest in between sets than in the first round.  No idea where I was after the second round, but I would guess close to 5:00.

Round three was awful.  Now I was doing 3 sets of 5 for the squats and I was breathing heavily in addition to feeling my legs turn to jello.  I got through that and tried to muster my way through the deadlifts, but I could only manage 3 sets of 2 before heading to singles.  And those singles were not particularly fast.  When I finished my final rep, I looked at the clock and was very disappointed to see it say 9:41.  Not what I had hoped for.  Paul was happy though as he had seen one too many 35 minute slogs out of me recently.  Lighter but faster was definitely the right call tonight, just wish I went faster than I did.

On a side note, there is definitely still something wrong with my calves.  They haven't felt right since the pistol workout.  Nothing awful, but that nagging "not 100%" feeling in them.

Time to go drink with my birthday buddies!  No better way to prepare for the Valentine's Day Massacre tomorrow morning.

The Worst Push-Up of All Time

Workout date: 2/11/15

With my company holding a blood drive on Thursday, I wanted to make sure I got in workouts Monday through Wednesday as Thursday would have to be a rest day.  Unfortunately, I knew I would struggle with tonight's workout, at least the metcon portion.  At least I would get to do a movement I enjoy before the metcon.

Whereas last night's workout began with a skill, tonight we were starting with strength, specifically a 5 rep max for front squats.  I think most people tend to prefer back squats to front squats, but front squats have always felt like a more natural movement to me.   Or I might just suck at back squats.  One of the two.  I don't have a record of what my highest 5RM for the front squat is, but I do know that I did 210 as part of the Russian squat program I did last summer.  225 was the number I was after tonight, because what's cooler than getting to throw a second 45 pound plate on the bar when you're doing front squats?  (Probably a lot of things, but I need these mini-victories in my life)

Tim H. had set up a rack at the level that I normally use, so I asked if I could partner up with him.  It was actually an ideal pairing as we used the same weights as we progressed through the 15 minutes.  We started at 95, then went to 125, on to 155, with the fourth round at 185.  That was where things started to get real.  I had been focused on keeping my elbows up because I have a bad habit of dropping them as the weight gets heavy, which causes the weight to slide down my boobs, and then I need to awkwardly save it.  (Spoiler: more awkward saves to come in this blog)  Tim noticed that my old bad habit of buckling my knees had returned, so I thanked him and kept that in mind for my next set.  My set at 205 was better than the set at 185, although I did start to drop my elbows towards the end.  Apparently I can only focus on one problem at a time.

Finally it was time to attempt 225.  There were no thoughts of speed with this set.  I wanted to maintain good form on each and every rep.  If anything felt off, I would take a second at the top, reset, and make sure I was completely ready for the next rep.  The first 3 reps were good, but the 4th was definitely heavy.  I was only 1 more squat from being done though, so I took my pause, went into the final rep and got it up with minimal grunting (at least I hope there was minimal grunting).

Now it was time for the suck.  On December 20, 2013, I did a workout at KOP that involved doing 150 push-ups.  When you reached a point that you could no longer do any more push-ups, you had to row 500 meters.  I ended up rowing 4,500 meters!  And I didn't even do legit push-ups.  Tonight's workout was a cousin to that one.  Still needed to complete 150 push-ups, but each break required a 200 meter run.  I would be getting a lot of cardio this evening.

I thought back to that first WOD with the push-ups and remembered that we tried to do as many push-ups as we could in that first round.  I think I did about 26 or 27, but then my arms were toast after that.  So my grand plan for tonight was to go a little easier at the beginning so that I could maintain medium-sized sets for a longer period.  Didn't take long to see that plan go to crap.  The first round I knocked out 20 reps, stopped, and went for a 200 meter run, shaking my arms the whole way.  Plan seems okay.  Got back inside, dropped down, and I could only manage 15 reps.  Plan seems shaky at best all of a sudden.  Especially when I heard Patrick say he did 35 reps his first round.

Over the next 15 minutes, I had no clue whether I was doing well or doing poorly, although I suspected it was the latter.  I went from 20 to 35 to 47 to 58.  Coach Giulia had enough of my descending rep count, so she got next to me during my next round and pushed me to do more.  I was more than happy to stop after 10 reps, but she told me she wanted 3 more.  One at a time, I painfully eked out the last 3 reps, then went for another limp-armed jog.  When I got back, it was back to work on doing 10 reps per round.  From 71 to 81 and then another run.  Next round: 81 to 90, which is only nine.  What happened there?  During one rep, my arm buckled on the way down, so I had to stop for a  second and gave up on a rep.  Sure hope that doesn't happen again...

The 10 rep plan worked for the next few sets as I got from 90 to 100 to 110 to 120.  The problem was that I was now in pain just setting up for the push-ups.  I desperately wanted to bang out the last 30 in  3 sets, but I was not optimistic.  And did I mention that everyone else was done and that the next class had begun?  Yeah, another one of those workouts.  Anyways....next set got me to 129 (slowly failing), and some agony got me up to 137 a set later.  Giulia was seeing this through to the end with me, and Patrick and Shawna were nice enough to stick around to help me finish.  I tried a narrower stance for the next set in order to use "muscles I hadn't used yet", only to find that those were "muscles I do not have".  Got one rep, shimmied my way back to my normal stance, then got to 143.  Gotta get 7 in that last set.  Can't run another 200 meters.  And then it happened.

I took my time before the last set, just to ensure I could do all 7.  The setup still hurt and each and every rep was work, but as I did rep 149, I thought "don't pause, knock this out and finish".  So I came up from rep 149, went down for rep 150, and came up sideways for rep 150.  Somehow my left arm thought I had completed all 150 reps and was in no mood to participate in this "extra" rep I was doing.  My right arm extended properly, but my left arm buckled and started doing the Miley Cyrus twerk that Giulia and Keith demonstrated prior to the start of the metcon.  I am not sure why my arm decided to quit on me, but I was not going back out to run another 200 meters.  It felt like I was battling it forever (and based on my final time, that is a real possibility), but eventually my left arm cooperated, the worst push-up of all time was complete, and the clock stopped at 35:42.  Simply brutal.

A big thank you to everyone who pushed me through until the end, even if it wasn't pretty.  I am not going to lift my arms for the next two days.

Anna Kendrick and the Open

Workout date: 2/10/15

Probably the biggest improvement that I've made over the last few weeks has been becoming mentally stronger.  I'd guess at least 80% of my classes this year have been with Keith and he's definitely driven home that I can hold on a lot longer than I've been giving myself credit for (aka stop being such a softie).  Tonight's workout seemed to be yet another mental challenge.  First up, bar muscle up practice for 10 minutes.  That would be followed by what was basically a super-sized wall ball and rowing tabata from hell.  Ummm...yay?

Before we got into all of that though, things got chatty at the 7:30.  Coach Keith was trying to persuade the 5 ladies in class to sign up for the Open.  (The 6th participant in class, prominently featured in a boa in a recent Facebook posting, had already signed up.)  Despite giving his best pitch, he was met with limited enthusiasm, especially when the topic of the $20 fee came up.  There really wasn't any way of getting around that one, even with the promise of Friday night beers.  Somehow this discussion segued into one about Pitch Perfect 2, and this was met with much more enthusiasm from the class.  Except for the 6th class member, who has not seen the original Pitch Perfect.  There was discussion of Anna Kendrick and whoever else is in that movie, which led to Fayth breaking out into an impromptu rendition of Cups (it was impressive!).  What did any of this have to do with the workout?  I have no idea, but I recap everything on here.

But here's my compromise for those not planning on doing the Open: I will go see Pitch Perfect 2 if you sign up.  I will likely need to be intoxicated beforehand, but if it brings people out on Friday nights over the next month, it's well worth it.

So was there an actual workout tonight?  Oh yeah...that.  We started with bar muscle up practice.  I kinda enjoy doing bar muscle ups off of a box.  I have been able to do it off the 17" box, so I wanted to try and get my first with a 13" box tonight.  That did not go so well.  It wasn't that I didn't come close.  Rather, I discovered the hard way that when you get most of the way over the bar but not quite all the way, momentum and the bar suddenly slingshot you in the other direction pretty quickly.  I got to experience this at least 4 times tonight.  Not such a great feeling.  But I am close, and I imagine the 13" box is the last scale to doing a real bar muscle up.  At least that is what I am telling myself.

The metcon was a special type of torture: 4 rounds of 30 wall balls followed by 20 calories on the rower.  At the end of each round, you got 3 minutes of rest.  REST?!?!  That is a big time red flag.  And 3 minutes of it?  This is going to be awful.  The idea was that each round was supposed to be a sprint.  That worked out in round 1.  I was able to string all 30 wall balls, made decent time on the rower, and finished in 2:06.  I was breathing heavy, but controlled.  I spent the 3 minute intermission preparing myself mentally for round 2.  As the last few seconds ticked away, I tried to become calm in an attempt to steadily get through the next 30 wall balls unbroken.  Almost got there, but after 22, I let the ball drop, took a 2-3 second break, picked it back up, and finished the last 8.  The row was definitely harder and I completed round 2 in 2:37.

A 31 second drop off in time between rounds 1 and 2 was not what I was hoping for, especially since I expected the final two rounds to be even worse.  Controlling my breath during the next 3 minutes was work.  I knew round 3 would be the toughest for me.  Keith knew it too and reminded me that I would have to push hard in this next round.  I grabbed the ball at the end of three minutes and tried to string as many wall balls as I could.  This time I got to 17.  I tried to keep the break small, but my next set would be small too as I only got up to 22 before dropping.  My shoulders were becoming taxed, but I felt I had enough in me to get through those last 8 reps and get back to the rower.  Rowing was a slog even more than it was in round 2.  When I hit 20 calories, my time read 3:02.

I was not happy about going over three minutes and there was no way I could conceive of getting back under it for round 4, as I was spent after round 3.  I knew that I would not be fully recovered when the last round began and I had no idea how I was going to get through it in a timely manner other than by repeating in my head "almost done, almost done".  The last break flew by and it was time for more wall balls.  I tried my best to keep a good rhythm, but my shoulders were on fire, and I dropped after 15 reps.  I knew that was my last big set.  The plan was to chip away, but take little to no break.  So I did 4 reps, let the ball drop, and then picked it right back up again.  Next set was 3 (I sure like letting that ball drop at 22 reps!), leaving 8 to go.  "Come on, 4 and 4, then you're done."  The next set of 4 sucked, but I got it done.  The last set of 4 was abysmal.  There was no fluidity whatsoever.  For the last 2, I caught the ball, paused, squatted, then jumped and threw with all my energy because my shoulders were contributing nada.  But at least it was done.  I got on the rower and pulled as hard as I could trying to get this thing over.  Despite the lousy wall ball performance, I must have made up some time on that last row, as my final round came in at 3:01.

Not sure how happy I am with tonight's performance.  On the one hand, I gave it everything I had.  On the other hand, there was no consistency from round to round, and there were a lot of athletes who seemed to be able to keep their times in line from start to finish.  Guess there's more stamina work to be done.

One last reminder for all those reading the blog: the "242 years of birthdays" celebration is taking place at the Deuces Wild Saloon this Friday night at 8pm.  Come ride the mechanical bull!  There will be a live band called Split Decision playing.  (Their YouTube video shows them performing, but a Rage song is playing as the audio instead of their own music.  Probably not a good sign.  Best to have a few drinks before they begin.)  There is also another bar there with karaoke if you feel that you sing better than Split Decision.  And of course, there is the casino, for those of us "with a gambling problem".  

Should be a good time, plus you won't want to miss the cake Diane has made for the occasion!