Today's Crossfit menu once again included some delectable rope climbs. Mmmm...that sounds good...I'll have that. It also included some heavy KB swings (not my favorite) and some moderately heavy clean and jerks (not bad). More than anything, though, it was a chance at redemption. Last night's workout was such a letdown, especially at a time when I am hoping to be peaking rather than falling apart. Will rope climbs be part of the Open? Probably not. But in horse racing, sometimes a trainer takes a horse who keeps getting beat in stakes competition and runs him in an easier race so that the horse remembers how to win. In essence, it's a confidence booster. Pull-ups and toes-to-bar were stakes competition. My hope was that rope climbs would be my version of a confidence booster.
The details of the workout were as follows: it was a 15 minute AMRAP of 15 KB Swings (70/55), 10 Clean and Jerks (135/95) and 2 rope climbs (15'). After scanning through the times from earlier in the day, I decided that anything less than 3 full rounds would be a failure. The toughest part, without a doubt, would be KB swings. For some reason, I do this simple movement very poorly. I never feel in control of the KB. Jason coached a class where he asked me to demo the movement and then dubbed my style as "lazy sex", as I wasn't being vigorous enough with my hip thrust. When I do...ummm..."give it my all", the KB sometimes swings too far over my head, at which point I have to drop it. This is not a crowd pleaser with the coaches. Even when I do have the proper amount of force on the swings, there are other issues like the trajectory of my swing on the way down, sweaty hands, even keeping all of my fingers inside the KB handle. You really shouldn't have to think this much to swing a KB, yet I do.
The plan would be to hold on to the KB as long as possible. 15 swings at 70 pounds would be pushing it, but I couldn't afford to take breaks in this workout. Same thing for the rope climb. Now that I have some faith in my initial jump and my stability on the rope, I should be able to climb despite being winded, something I have not been able to convince myself to do in the past. As for the clean and jerks, I would feel that out along the way, but I'm pretty sure that would become fast singles very early on in the workout.
(I honestly wrote everything up to this point during my lunch break today. I love it when a plan comes together.)
I was a bit concerned about the workout when the warmup had me sweating like crazy and that was using a 35 pound KB. The KB in the workout would be twice as heavy. Still, I felt that if I could get through the first round pretty quickly, I'd be able to finish 3 rounds in time. Round 1 started and I managed all 15 swings unbroken. Went to the barbell, did 3 clean and jerks, short break, 2 clean and jerks, short break, 2 more clean and jerks, short break, followed by 3 singles. That got me over to the rope at about the same time as the rest of the class. I was breathing heavy, but not uncontrollably, so I jumped on the rope and completed the first climb. I came down, made sure no one else needed the rope, then jumped up for the second climb. Round 1 was complete and the clock showed a little over 3 minutes. We're in business!
I went 6-6-3 on the 15 KB swings in round 2, but breathing was becoming an issue. I knew that was going to be the case, so I focused on blowing out the air and calming my breathing. I began to squat during breaks and Coach Keith came over and told me to stand up. He had made a good point yesterday about squatting and he made another good one today. Yesterday he told me that I take longer breaks when I squat (true) and today he told me that I would only learn to get my breath back without squatting by forcing myself to stand up while trying to catch my breath (true). The tough part is that it really feels so much better being in that squat trying to recover. For the rest of this workout, whenever I needed some air, I walked to the nearest bar and held on to it to keep me upright while trying to breathe.
Back to the barbell and the plan became two quick singles, then a break, repeat 5 times. That actually worked really well for me. It's possible that I could have thrown up a 3rd single in there, but I imagine it would have been one of those "shaky form" clean and jerks. After 10 clean and jerks, I was back over to the rope, where I took a deep breath and jumped up for climb #1. That climb went smoothly enough, but climb #2 was a nightmare. As I made my way up the rope, my feet lost contact with the rope. Definitely a scary feeling, but I held on, flailed my feet around to grab the rope, and finished my second round.
The clock now read a few seconds past 8 minutes. 3 minutes for round 1, 5 minutes for round 2...7 minutes for round 3? That looked like the pattern, which meant I needed to push if I was going to finish round 3. I went 6-5-4 for the KB swings and then that same pattern of 2 quick singles and a break on the clean and jerks. When I headed over to the rope to finish round 3, the clock was closing in on 12:30. Yet even though there was two and a half minutes remaining, I got concerned again. I was drained. But I remembered the plan: just get on the rope, even if you're tired. My jump wasn't what it was in round 1, but it got me started. The pulls were smaller, but I got up to that 15 ft mark fairly quickly. When I hit the ground, I was finally confident that I would complete 3 rounds. A short breather and then I got back on the rope, inching my way up to the 15 ft mark. I slapped it with my hand, made my way back down, and felt mildly pleased with life.
(The key to my rope climbing success tonight: awesome socks. Note the rope stripe on the bottom sock.)
I was only mildly pleased because there was still a minute and 15 seconds left on the clock. Gotta try and finish the KB swings. Keith wanted me to string all 15, but I was a hot mess as soon as I started swinging the 70 pounder. I got to 5 and had to put it down. Keith wanted the last 10 strung now. What's he smoking? Didn't he just see me put it down after 5? With 45 seconds left on the clock, I picked it back up. My hands were slimy, my grip was shaky, but I was going to give it everything I had left to do the last 10 unbroken. I got through 4 swings before it got painful. It was at that point that I channeled Mr. Intensity as best as I could. I'm not much of a screamer, but there was definitely some screaming on those last 6 reps. Otherwise I wouldn't have done the final 10 unbroken. Exhausted, I put the KB down, but there was still 15 seconds to go. Sonofa... I walked over to the barbell, did a weak clean, but a decent jerk, and dropped the bar. With 5 seconds left, I may have been able to squeeze one more rep in, but it would have been incredibly ugly had I gone for it. Not sure I would have even cleaned it successfully. 3 rounds plus 16 reps was a victory for me and I celebrated by collapsing on the floor.
Tomorrow is a date with Annie. Definitely could use another test of my double unders.
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