After a bad night of sleep and a blah day at work, I didn't have huge expectations for the workout tonight. I was looking forward to testing out my 1 rep max for push press because it has been quite a while since the last time I tested it. However, I tweaked my right wrist a little bit during the crazy workout we did on Saturday morning and that had me concerned about pressing out a heavy weight. Don't get me wrong - there was no part of me that was thinking "we're not going after a PR tonight". I was just mentally prepared in case it didn't happen.
Tonight's workout had two components, the first being the aforementioned testing of the 1RM for push press that needed to be completed in 15 minutes. The second part was a metcon with a rather strict time cap of 10 minutes, where we would be alternating between box jumps (24"/20") and push presses (115/75), starting with 11 reps of each and working our way down to 1 rep. The first portion actually ended up being trickier than I had thought it would be for a couple of reasons: 1) tonight I worked with Borden and Seshu, meaning the 3 of us had to all get our lifts in within those 15 minutes, so some efficient pit crew work needed to be taking place with regards to changing out the weights for one another, and 2) with 66 more reps on the horizon in the cash out, some thought had to be put into how many lifts you wanted to do in your quest to set a new 1 rep max.
For the most part, the three of us stayed in synch on our lifts. We started at 95, went to 115, then 135, and then to 155. All of us seemed pretty comfortable as we progressed through the lifts, but Seshu decided that he wanted his next lift to be 165, which he had said earlier was his goal for the day. I think the number may have been in his head a little bit (I do this all the time) as he didn't quite get 165 on the next try. I wanted to stick with the 20 pound jumps, so I went to 175 and was surprised that it went up as easily as it did. Borden also knocked out 175. Seshu got a little advice from Coach Keith and made 165 look like child's play on his next lift. Feeling good, I went up 20 more pounds and tried 195, which surprisingly again went up fluidly. Borden opted for 185, but ended up having his first unsuccessful lift. With about 90 seconds left on the clock, we all opted to go for 1 more lift. Seshu tried 175, but could not press it out. I decided that the 20 pound jumps were over for the night and went for 205 on my last lift. It certainly felt heavier, but I got it moving and pressed it out. Borden closed it out for our group with a successful lift at 185.
Getting 205 made me very confident about finishing the metcon under the time cap, as this was my very first Brett Mercer PR. What's a Brett Mercer PR, you ask? Well Brett (better known as Calves) used to be a member of KOP. We actually did our Fundamentals class together. Calves was definitely a better athlete than me, but he was always a good target to try and compete against in class. When Plentus decided to have a session of Barbulls, both Calves and I signed up. At the end of the program, I had a few 10 pound PRs that I was proud of, but they were nothing in comparison to the numbers Calves was throwing around. He had two 45 pound PRs at the end of Barbulls, along with various other PRs as well. It was sick.
Perhaps I am giving myself too much credit by claiming I had a Brett Mercer PR this evening, as 205 wasn't a 45 pound improvement. But jumping from a previous best of 175 up to 205, with the slight possibility that I could have done a little more had there been no 15 minute time restriction, made me feel like I had made a Calves-like leap.
Time to put that confidence to work! 10 minutes, 66 box jumps, 66 push presses, 3...2...1...go! I've discovered that I enjoy box jumps much more for height than for volume, even if it means some messed up shins. My knees definitely do not enjoy the pounding after a while. Still, the increments tonight seemed reasonable. I got through the first 11 box jumps at a reasonable pace, probably a rep behind the fastest folks in the class. The push press was where I would need to make up time. Keith came over before I even had gotten through my first 5 push presses and told me that he didn't want me to put the bar down the entire workout. And for the first time ever, that didn't register as "WTF is he smoking?" Instead it was "be mentally tough and you can string them all". I strung the first 11. Then the round of 10. Followed by the round of 9 and 8. Had a little misstep during the round of 7, but got my balance and strung the remainder. Honestly, the box jumps were giving me more trouble as I tripped twice during jumps and had to re-group. I was breathing heavily, but once I got to the round of 5, I knew I could push through. I thought I was making good time, but then a funny thing happened as I made my way to the round of 4...
...I looked over to see that Rachel was done. I had 4 (small) rounds left, but she was already done! That messed with my head for a couple of seconds, but I kept plugging along, determined to put up a good time. As I pressed out my last rep, I looked at the clock and saw 8:29. I was very happy with that time (although still puzzled about how I got my butt kicked so badly). After looking at the board again, I saw that Rachel's 6:58 was a whopping 42 seconds better than anyone else had all day, so there was no shame in my result. In fact, I had the 4th fastest time of the day.
A 30 pound PR and the 4th best time of the day? I will definitely sleep better tonight.
Congrats on the Brett Mercer PR! Or BM PR...errr...
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