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.