Workout date: 4/28/15
I do a lot of whining on here about my inability to do pull-ups. But my burpee form is nothing to write home about either. I had always heard in class that burpees were the one movement where you never had to stop. You could slowly crawl your way through the process of laying your chest to the floor and then rising to your feet no matter how exhausted you were. As a result, I probably have not been giving enough respect to the burpee section of my workouts. Better to go hard on the other sections since I can slither my way through burpee after burpee with no energy. I'm starting to get the feeling this is the wrong way to go.
Tonight's workout was 4 rounds for time of 40 double unders, 30 KB swings (55/35), and 20 burpees. Ok, double unders will become taxing after a while, but try to get big chunks. Try to get all 30 KB swings in round one, no more than 3 sets for a given round. And keep moving on the burpees. That should work, right? Not if I was trying to keep up with the rest of the class. Tonight's 7:30 class marked the return of 2-time King of Prussia winner Dan Faby to normal WOD work, although he has been doing many out-of-state Crossfit competitions, including some with the stipulation "two men enter, one man leaves". Also in class were my perpetual workout buddies Michal and Rachel, as well as Lizzie and Matt E.
Here's the quick recap:
Round 1: Holy crap! I just rattled off 35 double unders in a row to start this off. I'm only 28 seconds in! Fastest time of the day baby! Took care of the last 5 and moved on to the KB. Did 20 KB swings, paused, and did the last 10. I'm killing this workout! Wait, why are so many people already doing burpees? Time to slog my way through these. At the end of my final burpee, the clock shows over 4 minutes (those were some slow burpees) and I am the last one to start round 2. What the hell?!?!
Round 2: Double unders not going as smoothly, although after some early mess ups, I manage to rattle off 19 in a row at one point. Sweating profusely. Trying to control my breathing. Finally get to the KB swings. Did sets of 11, 10, and 9. Is that a wet fish flopping around on the mat at the end of the gym? Oh no, that's just Dave doing burpees. Approximate time for round: 6 minutes.
Round 3: Double unders have become cumbersome to the point where even if I have a good set going, I need to stop because my arms burn so much. Spending a lot more time with the rope in my hands. When I get to the KB, I push really hard on the first set ending up with 12. Last two sets are 10 and 8. Michal has finished her workout. Time for some more pathetic burpees, but at least I'm not stopping. That's good, right? As I near the end of the round, Faby and Rachel finish the workout. Approximate time for round: 6:30
Round 4: Lizzie finishes her workout. Matt has a jump rope in his hands, so we're at about the same point. I manage the occasional set of 7 or 8, but getting to 40 feels like it is taking forever. Did I mention my arms are burning? I finish rep #40 and head to the KB. With a lot of questionable-sounding grunting, I make it through 13 reps in the first set. Then 10. Then 7. Lizzie offers to do the 20 burpees with me. She's much faster than me. When I fall behind at rep 5, Rachel tells me to keep up with her. I grumble at Rachel that I can't breathe. I'm trying to stay with Lizzie the best I can. She has a much better attitude about this than I do. With 10 reps left, I realize that liquid is pouring off my head and out of my nose. Attractive! As the reps wind down, I start doing a better job staying with Lizzie. Approximate time for round: 7:00. Final time: 23:24.
Like yesterday, I'm completely confused about whether I should be happy or disappointed in the workout. It felt like I did a good job. I did almost everything on my mental checklist. Yet I finished well behind most of the class. Finishing 9 minutes after the first person done is a lot! There's simply no other way to put it.
So some work needs to get done over the next few weeks. First, I need to start doing burpees daily. Something in the range of 25-30 of them as fast as I can do them. Not only does my cardio need improvement, but I need to get that muscle memory back from doing burpees correctly. I've fallen into the routine of just slogging through them and I'm not improving at all. In fact, it's dragging my times down. So that has to go. Second, I need to start going balls to the wall early on in some of these workouts and see how it goes. Maybe I'll end up with faster times. Maybe I'll run out of juice and end up with slower times. Maybe I'll vomit. It's all in play. I used to do WODs this way and it tended to end poorly for me, but I think I'm in better shape mentally and physically than I was back then, so perhaps there will be different results.
The bottom line: time to change things up and see what happens.
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Monday, April 27, 2015
The Badger and the Wolverine
Workout date: 4/27/15
Tonight was a re-test of a hero WOD that we did back in January (see the blog post "Typical Dave Workout" for all of the grisly details). The WOD is called Badger and consists of 3 rounds of 30 squat cleans (95/65), 30 pull-ups, and an 800 meter run. How badly did things go when I did this in January? My final time was 49:09 and that required the use of bands for the pull-ups. My hope for the rematch was that I would be able to do all 90 pull-ups without the use of the band. Why? Because there is another workout that I want to do that requires 120 pull-ups and I would like to complete it RX. That workout? Wolverine.
Wolverine is the WOD done at Halloween at our box. I haven't attempted it yet because the dates for the Breeders Cup have conflicted with it (sadly, that will be the case again this year if I go to the Breeders Cup). Everyone who completes Wolverine RX gets their name on the wall (seriously, I'm not obsessed with that at all) and I believe once upon a time they got a t-shirt. The workout takes forever to complete though. It is 6 rounds of 10 clean and jerks (135/95), 20 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and a 600 meter run. Now from what I've heard, the 600 sit-ups either destroy your core or get so boring that you want to quit. But for me, the pull-ups would definitely be the challenge. Badger would provide me with some indication of how much progress I have made towards being able to do Wolverine.
And that progress would be zilch. (We'll get there, don't worry)
I remember everyone hating Badger when we did this 3 months ago. Personally, I remember my calves in pain as I did the squat cleans, the embarrassment of not being able to do pull-ups, the next class waiting for me to get the hell out of the way, Marisa staring at me like I had kicked Polpetta as I was dangling from the pull-up bar with 17 bands hooked to my feet. It was one of those workouts where you wonder why the hell you're even doing this stuff. When I got to the gym tonight, I saw some other people that looked like they were wondering the same thing. Samson was on the pull-up bar without a shirt on, the very definition of his happy place. Yet he was shaking his head side to side when I looked over at him during his final round. Jill C. was getting to run a mile and a half during this workout, but her face was redder than I had ever seen it. Neither of them would give up though, and they both finished the RX version of Badger.
In our class, I knew Rachel would do the workout RX, but Michal took some convincing. She put 65 pounds on her bar, but she was very hesitant about taking this monster on using that weight. Turns out she had nothing to worry about at all (I said we'll get there, relax!). I believe Conn, Borden, and Cline were also using RX weight on the squat cleans and there was nary a band to be seen hanging from the pull-up bars. I had a bad feeling that I was going to be not only slow, but one of the few needing to scale this thing. Not a great combination.
We got started and I immediately noticed that the squat cleans were not as bad as last time. Perhaps they only got bad in rounds 2 and 3? I'd find out soon enough. I opened with 10 reps, then did 4 sets of 5, taking a little break between sets. My mindset was to be calm and methodical as I have been trying to be for most of my workouts recently. I wasn't the first one done with my squat cleans, but I was only a few seconds behind the group that was making their way to the pull-up bar. And my nemesis destroyed me again. I started trying to kip some pull-ups, but there was no rhythm and I couldn't string them. Then I tried to jump up and do fast singles. That was getting taxing quickly. Knowing that I would need to 90 of these (and that there was a soft time cap of 40 minutes on this workout), I reluctantly grabbed the box and band that I placed near my bar and set up for scaled pull-ups. Maybe I should stick with the Breeders Cup.
The sad thing was that even with the band, I still wasn't making much progress. Everyone else in the class made their way out the door for their first run, but I was still working through my last 10-12 pull-ups. There were absolutely no positives in this experience, only frustration. When I finally finished my last pull-up, I ran out the door with a scowl on my face. I had approached a workout I didn't like with a very positive attitude and I was getting my butt kicked anyway. Fantastic. The run didn't go so bad, perhaps fueled by my anger. I remember struggling on the runs from January, so I was improving on 2/3 of the workout at least. Meanwhile, Conn and Michal were smoking it, with Rachel not too far behind.
When I got back for round two, I was still angry. 13 and a half minutes had already elapsed and I was fairly certain my rounds were not going to stay at the stellar pace I had put together for round one. I grabbed the bar and did some very pissed off squat cleans. After each clean, I would bring the bar back towards the floor, pound it off the mat, and go into my next rep. I did 6 to start, then did some sets of 3 or 4. Still, it was no use. Almost everyone had moved on to pull-ups, so even though I was making good progress with my squat cleans, the entire experience was deflating. Especially since I knew I was about to lose even more time when I got to the pull-up bar. After wrapping up the squat cleans, I made a slight detour to grab a second band to assist me on the pull-ups. This helped some, but it didn't give me the muscles I needed to do pull-ups properly. Everyone disappeared yet again, while I slowly knocked out one rep at a time. Conn was even back from his second run by the time I got to my final few reps. Finished my pull-ups, engaged in another anger run.
When I got back, the clock was closing in on 29 minutes. I had to get moving. I channeled my anger into 7 consecutive squat cleans. Then I did 4 more. From there on, I pecked away at the squat cleans, eventually taking care of them by doing fast singles. At least there were still a couple people around as I began my last set of pull-ups, although that would not be the case for long. Rage wasn't working on the pull-up bar, so I went back to calm again, and this helped me get through 16 reps quicker than I had done the first 16 reps in either of the first two rounds. From there, it was get 1 rep at a time as my tired arms had let me know how disinterested they were in doing any more pull-ups. When I finished rep #30, almost everyone from the class was back in the gym, having completed the workout.
But I didn't get a chance to go on a third anger run. Instead, Michal and Rachel volunteered to go run another half-mile with me, even though they had run a mile and a half already. It was very kind and very helpful. During the run to the boathouse, they each started trying to bribe me into running faster, offering me free dinner at Chipotle if I sprinted the last 400 meters. I was fairly certain I could not sprint 400 meters at that point, but I did want to make a good push to the finish. The run back from the boathouse starts with a long decline, so I leaned forward and tried to kick for home. Now at this stage, I would have bet a lot of money that the girls were setting me up. They were no longer next to me, but they were yelling "keep pushing" to me as I ran. I suspected at some point, they would kick it in and try to sprint by me, if only to force me to go hard all the way to the finish. I was dreading that. So when I heard "we're catching up to you!", I dug for more. Getting around the turn at Frosty Falls, it was a straight sprint to the gym door. It wasn't much of a sprint, but I pushed hard, hoping to stay ahead of the girls. As I came through the door, I was told my final time was 43:46. It turns out that the girls were not that close to me, as my paranoia gave me wings.
So what to take from this workout? Well, I was not pleased to be so far behind everyone, but I did improve my time by 5:23. I'll call that a push. Pull-ups continue to be a problem and it seems like I won't get them unless I quit my job and devote my life to learning how to kip. Seems a bit extreme, even for me. So I'm stuck in a rut there. I was happy with everything else in the workout though.
Tomorrow's workout will include double unders, KB swings, and burpees. Could I do worse in that workout than tonight's? It's a possibility...
Tonight was a re-test of a hero WOD that we did back in January (see the blog post "Typical Dave Workout" for all of the grisly details). The WOD is called Badger and consists of 3 rounds of 30 squat cleans (95/65), 30 pull-ups, and an 800 meter run. How badly did things go when I did this in January? My final time was 49:09 and that required the use of bands for the pull-ups. My hope for the rematch was that I would be able to do all 90 pull-ups without the use of the band. Why? Because there is another workout that I want to do that requires 120 pull-ups and I would like to complete it RX. That workout? Wolverine.
Wolverine is the WOD done at Halloween at our box. I haven't attempted it yet because the dates for the Breeders Cup have conflicted with it (sadly, that will be the case again this year if I go to the Breeders Cup). Everyone who completes Wolverine RX gets their name on the wall (seriously, I'm not obsessed with that at all) and I believe once upon a time they got a t-shirt. The workout takes forever to complete though. It is 6 rounds of 10 clean and jerks (135/95), 20 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups, and a 600 meter run. Now from what I've heard, the 600 sit-ups either destroy your core or get so boring that you want to quit. But for me, the pull-ups would definitely be the challenge. Badger would provide me with some indication of how much progress I have made towards being able to do Wolverine.
And that progress would be zilch. (We'll get there, don't worry)
I remember everyone hating Badger when we did this 3 months ago. Personally, I remember my calves in pain as I did the squat cleans, the embarrassment of not being able to do pull-ups, the next class waiting for me to get the hell out of the way, Marisa staring at me like I had kicked Polpetta as I was dangling from the pull-up bar with 17 bands hooked to my feet. It was one of those workouts where you wonder why the hell you're even doing this stuff. When I got to the gym tonight, I saw some other people that looked like they were wondering the same thing. Samson was on the pull-up bar without a shirt on, the very definition of his happy place. Yet he was shaking his head side to side when I looked over at him during his final round. Jill C. was getting to run a mile and a half during this workout, but her face was redder than I had ever seen it. Neither of them would give up though, and they both finished the RX version of Badger.
In our class, I knew Rachel would do the workout RX, but Michal took some convincing. She put 65 pounds on her bar, but she was very hesitant about taking this monster on using that weight. Turns out she had nothing to worry about at all (I said we'll get there, relax!). I believe Conn, Borden, and Cline were also using RX weight on the squat cleans and there was nary a band to be seen hanging from the pull-up bars. I had a bad feeling that I was going to be not only slow, but one of the few needing to scale this thing. Not a great combination.
We got started and I immediately noticed that the squat cleans were not as bad as last time. Perhaps they only got bad in rounds 2 and 3? I'd find out soon enough. I opened with 10 reps, then did 4 sets of 5, taking a little break between sets. My mindset was to be calm and methodical as I have been trying to be for most of my workouts recently. I wasn't the first one done with my squat cleans, but I was only a few seconds behind the group that was making their way to the pull-up bar. And my nemesis destroyed me again. I started trying to kip some pull-ups, but there was no rhythm and I couldn't string them. Then I tried to jump up and do fast singles. That was getting taxing quickly. Knowing that I would need to 90 of these (and that there was a soft time cap of 40 minutes on this workout), I reluctantly grabbed the box and band that I placed near my bar and set up for scaled pull-ups. Maybe I should stick with the Breeders Cup.
The sad thing was that even with the band, I still wasn't making much progress. Everyone else in the class made their way out the door for their first run, but I was still working through my last 10-12 pull-ups. There were absolutely no positives in this experience, only frustration. When I finally finished my last pull-up, I ran out the door with a scowl on my face. I had approached a workout I didn't like with a very positive attitude and I was getting my butt kicked anyway. Fantastic. The run didn't go so bad, perhaps fueled by my anger. I remember struggling on the runs from January, so I was improving on 2/3 of the workout at least. Meanwhile, Conn and Michal were smoking it, with Rachel not too far behind.
When I got back for round two, I was still angry. 13 and a half minutes had already elapsed and I was fairly certain my rounds were not going to stay at the stellar pace I had put together for round one. I grabbed the bar and did some very pissed off squat cleans. After each clean, I would bring the bar back towards the floor, pound it off the mat, and go into my next rep. I did 6 to start, then did some sets of 3 or 4. Still, it was no use. Almost everyone had moved on to pull-ups, so even though I was making good progress with my squat cleans, the entire experience was deflating. Especially since I knew I was about to lose even more time when I got to the pull-up bar. After wrapping up the squat cleans, I made a slight detour to grab a second band to assist me on the pull-ups. This helped some, but it didn't give me the muscles I needed to do pull-ups properly. Everyone disappeared yet again, while I slowly knocked out one rep at a time. Conn was even back from his second run by the time I got to my final few reps. Finished my pull-ups, engaged in another anger run.
When I got back, the clock was closing in on 29 minutes. I had to get moving. I channeled my anger into 7 consecutive squat cleans. Then I did 4 more. From there on, I pecked away at the squat cleans, eventually taking care of them by doing fast singles. At least there were still a couple people around as I began my last set of pull-ups, although that would not be the case for long. Rage wasn't working on the pull-up bar, so I went back to calm again, and this helped me get through 16 reps quicker than I had done the first 16 reps in either of the first two rounds. From there, it was get 1 rep at a time as my tired arms had let me know how disinterested they were in doing any more pull-ups. When I finished rep #30, almost everyone from the class was back in the gym, having completed the workout.
But I didn't get a chance to go on a third anger run. Instead, Michal and Rachel volunteered to go run another half-mile with me, even though they had run a mile and a half already. It was very kind and very helpful. During the run to the boathouse, they each started trying to bribe me into running faster, offering me free dinner at Chipotle if I sprinted the last 400 meters. I was fairly certain I could not sprint 400 meters at that point, but I did want to make a good push to the finish. The run back from the boathouse starts with a long decline, so I leaned forward and tried to kick for home. Now at this stage, I would have bet a lot of money that the girls were setting me up. They were no longer next to me, but they were yelling "keep pushing" to me as I ran. I suspected at some point, they would kick it in and try to sprint by me, if only to force me to go hard all the way to the finish. I was dreading that. So when I heard "we're catching up to you!", I dug for more. Getting around the turn at Frosty Falls, it was a straight sprint to the gym door. It wasn't much of a sprint, but I pushed hard, hoping to stay ahead of the girls. As I came through the door, I was told my final time was 43:46. It turns out that the girls were not that close to me, as my paranoia gave me wings.
So what to take from this workout? Well, I was not pleased to be so far behind everyone, but I did improve my time by 5:23. I'll call that a push. Pull-ups continue to be a problem and it seems like I won't get them unless I quit my job and devote my life to learning how to kip. Seems a bit extreme, even for me. So I'm stuck in a rut there. I was happy with everything else in the workout though.
Tomorrow's workout will include double unders, KB swings, and burpees. Could I do worse in that workout than tonight's? It's a possibility...
You Smell...Clean?
Workout date: 4/25/15
My last blog post referenced the workout I did on Wednesday night. Let's just say that some more important events took place on Thursday night and Friday night that kept me from the gym. (Oddly enough, I ended up in karaoke bars on both nights, although on Thursday night, I was merely an awkward backup singer/dancer for a group rendition of Ludacris's "Roll Out". Let's move on...)
Having mixed little sleep with plenty of alcohol during those 48 hours, I was not excited about Competitors Class at 7am on Saturday. Although to be fair, I'm never excited about that class. I've come to think of it as a necessary evil more than anything else. The alarm went off at 6:15, I peeled myself out of my oh-so-comfortable bed, got in the shower, threw some gym clothes on and drove to the box. Despite being less late than usual, I found that the warmup had already begun. If this class is now going to start on time, I am really going to hate my Saturday mornings. I grabbed a rower and joined in with the group. Aimee and Keithie were there, along with the dynamic duo of Rachel and Michal. The surprise member of the class was Ryan A. He had a golf outing that morning and decided to come in and do the 7am class before hitting the links.
After a mild amount of ribbing during the 1,000 meter warmup row about my previous two evenings, Rachel and Michal decided to kick things up a notch by making fun of the fact that I reeked of alcohol. Only I did not reek of alcohol. Each of them came over to do their very own sniff test, followed by the stunned declaration that I smelled clean. Later they would claim that this was a compliment, but it was most certainly of the back-handed variety. Now to be fair, I was told that I was very sassy (insult? back-handed compliment? commentary on the inner diva that resides in me early on Saturday mornings?) throughout the remainder of the 7am class, so perhaps I got my revenge.
There was not a lot scheduled for a 2 hour class and that may have partly been due to the fact that Rachel, Michal, and I had all stated that we were going to hang around for the very special torture that awaited us as part of the 9am class. The strength portion of Competitors Class would be a series of clean and jerks. It was a 12 minute EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) of clean and jerks with increasing weight. Now I probably should have been more concerned with the increasing weight, but instead I was worried about being able to change the weight on my bar quick enough so that I was ready for the next lift. That distraction clearly affected my decision to do the following weights: 95, 115, 135, 145, 155, 165, 175, 185, 195, 205. Why was this decision problematic? Because it only covered 10 minutes rather than 12. I didn't realize this until we were a few minutes into the workout, so at a certain point, I ran over and grabbed some 2.5 pound weights so that I could add lifts at 190 and 200.
My concern about how fast I could switch the weights did turn out to be validated though, as I would get my clips on after a weight change only to see that I had about 5 seconds to rest before going again. Racing to change weights was almost a metcon in itself. As for the lifts, they went fine early on. I think I was around 165 when I started trying to actively quarter-squat on my cleans, but I still don't meet the bar very well. I also noticed during the progression up the weights that my legs were lacking power. This was a real problem because I have grown accustomed to using my legs to get the higher weights up, especially in the jerk.
The lifts at 175 and 185 weren't great, but I completed them successfully. 190 and 195 were even shakier, but I managed. Then we got to 200 and things started to go wrong. The clean was fine, although it was much more of a "get it on your chest and roll it up to your shoulders" kind of clean. With my legs lacking energy, I had no faith that I could do a full squat clean. Then I went to jerk the bar and as I put it up over my head, it started to move backwards. I contorted my back a bit to save it (I know I shouldn't do that, but when you're in the moment, you just want to do what you can to save the lift) and made the lift at 200. But I felt a tweak in my back that served as a reminder that I should have bailed the bar. And when my jerk at 205 didn't go smoothly, I immediately bailed it.
Having gotten through that part of the workout, we moved on to our metcon, which was being held outside for a change. In teams of 3, we would rotate between stations for 12 minutes. One person would be doing double unders, one person would be pushing the prowler (200/100) and one person would be doing push presses (115/75). To keep it simple, we divided the teams into a boys team and a girls team. There isn't too much to say about this part of the workout other than it was very fatiguing. I was fine with the prowler, especially early on. I think doing double unders right after doing the prowler caused some of us to not do as well on double unders as we might normally do (I was certainly guilty of this). And the push press was not much fun, but you just knocked out as many as you could before it was time to push the prowler again. The most notable thing during this workout was that Aimee whipped herself so hard with her rope during double unders that she had to stop for a brief time due to how much pain she was in. Since it is such a rare occurrence to see Aimee stop during a workout, we all checked on her, but she quickly got back into it.
Finishing up around 8:30 gave us some time to recover before the 9:00 class, which was a relief. The special 9:00am class was a workout called "Fight Gone Strongman". It is a play on "Fight Gone Bad", which is a workout that involves 5 basic Crossfit movements. You do each movement for a minute before rotating to the next station. After you finish all five stations, you get a minute of rest. There are three rounds and you generally feel like you want to plop in the corner and die at the end of it. In "Fight Gone Strongman", each of the five movements is something that might turn up at a strongman competition. So, if like me, you've seen "World's Strongest Man" episodes on ESPN2 at 3am (note: this is how I discovered Crossfit, as ESPN2 shows all of this crazy shit at 3am), you know it involves lifting all sorts of strange heavy objects rather than loading up a barbell. For "Fight Gone Strongman", the 5 stations were: 1) GHD bench press - bench press reps with an empty barbell while lying rigid within a GHD holding your body parallel to the floor, 2) Keg/log lifts - going shoulder to overhead with either a 60 pound log or a keg of various weights, 3) Yoke - carrying a heavy yoke (300/200) from one set of cones to another, 4) Farmers carry - carrying a heavy load (155/105) in each hand while walking from one set of cones to another, and 5) Atlas stones - picking up and dropping atlas stones of various weights over a barbell. An opportunity to do a highly abnormal workout? You know I was in.
Like it's counterpart "Fight Gone Bad", this workout left me questioning my decision-making skills in life at the end of it. The GHD bench press was awkward and painful to hold, but it was obvious that this is where the bulk of your score would come from. I averaged about 20-25 reps per round on this station. The 75 pound keg I was using was tremendously awkward to lift, especially since the proper way of doing it left you holding it cockeyed over your head. Only got a few reps per round here. The yoke was tough to get off the ground, but like a deadlift, once you got it moving, it wasn't too bad. But you only got 1 rep for carrying the 300 pound yoke about 60% of the way down the gym. Compare that to pressing out an empty barbell while on the GHD. As a result, I only got a few reps per round here as well. The farmers carry was a grip tester and I have a very weak grip. That meant when I picked up the 155 pounds in each hand, I practically had to sprint (think Olympic walking) to the other end to make it for 1 rep. Like the yoke, only a few reps could be gained here each round. Finally, the atlas stone was a bit of a reprieve. I used the 90 pound stone and was able to get about 5-7 reps per round before I would get to rest.
In total, my score was 111 (37 in round 1, 38 in round 2, 36 in round 3). It seemed in line with what most others had done in the class. If I wanted a higher score, I needed to knock out more bench press, because there wasn't a lot to be gained at the other stations. I was happy with my ability to handle the yoke and the farmers carry as I sensed I would fail later in the workout, but I did manage to go end to end throughout all three rounds.
Now would I do this workout again? Probably not. I hate to use the word awkward over and over again, but there is really no other way to describe what it was like at each of these stations. It was cool to try it once, but I think I'm ready to go back to barbells again. Not to mention there is plenty of normal stuff in the gym that I need practice on. Did you say pull-ups and squat cleans? Well those would get tested on Monday night when we took on Badger once again.
My last blog post referenced the workout I did on Wednesday night. Let's just say that some more important events took place on Thursday night and Friday night that kept me from the gym. (Oddly enough, I ended up in karaoke bars on both nights, although on Thursday night, I was merely an awkward backup singer/dancer for a group rendition of Ludacris's "Roll Out". Let's move on...)
Having mixed little sleep with plenty of alcohol during those 48 hours, I was not excited about Competitors Class at 7am on Saturday. Although to be fair, I'm never excited about that class. I've come to think of it as a necessary evil more than anything else. The alarm went off at 6:15, I peeled myself out of my oh-so-comfortable bed, got in the shower, threw some gym clothes on and drove to the box. Despite being less late than usual, I found that the warmup had already begun. If this class is now going to start on time, I am really going to hate my Saturday mornings. I grabbed a rower and joined in with the group. Aimee and Keithie were there, along with the dynamic duo of Rachel and Michal. The surprise member of the class was Ryan A. He had a golf outing that morning and decided to come in and do the 7am class before hitting the links.
After a mild amount of ribbing during the 1,000 meter warmup row about my previous two evenings, Rachel and Michal decided to kick things up a notch by making fun of the fact that I reeked of alcohol. Only I did not reek of alcohol. Each of them came over to do their very own sniff test, followed by the stunned declaration that I smelled clean. Later they would claim that this was a compliment, but it was most certainly of the back-handed variety. Now to be fair, I was told that I was very sassy (insult? back-handed compliment? commentary on the inner diva that resides in me early on Saturday mornings?) throughout the remainder of the 7am class, so perhaps I got my revenge.
There was not a lot scheduled for a 2 hour class and that may have partly been due to the fact that Rachel, Michal, and I had all stated that we were going to hang around for the very special torture that awaited us as part of the 9am class. The strength portion of Competitors Class would be a series of clean and jerks. It was a 12 minute EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) of clean and jerks with increasing weight. Now I probably should have been more concerned with the increasing weight, but instead I was worried about being able to change the weight on my bar quick enough so that I was ready for the next lift. That distraction clearly affected my decision to do the following weights: 95, 115, 135, 145, 155, 165, 175, 185, 195, 205. Why was this decision problematic? Because it only covered 10 minutes rather than 12. I didn't realize this until we were a few minutes into the workout, so at a certain point, I ran over and grabbed some 2.5 pound weights so that I could add lifts at 190 and 200.
My concern about how fast I could switch the weights did turn out to be validated though, as I would get my clips on after a weight change only to see that I had about 5 seconds to rest before going again. Racing to change weights was almost a metcon in itself. As for the lifts, they went fine early on. I think I was around 165 when I started trying to actively quarter-squat on my cleans, but I still don't meet the bar very well. I also noticed during the progression up the weights that my legs were lacking power. This was a real problem because I have grown accustomed to using my legs to get the higher weights up, especially in the jerk.
The lifts at 175 and 185 weren't great, but I completed them successfully. 190 and 195 were even shakier, but I managed. Then we got to 200 and things started to go wrong. The clean was fine, although it was much more of a "get it on your chest and roll it up to your shoulders" kind of clean. With my legs lacking energy, I had no faith that I could do a full squat clean. Then I went to jerk the bar and as I put it up over my head, it started to move backwards. I contorted my back a bit to save it (I know I shouldn't do that, but when you're in the moment, you just want to do what you can to save the lift) and made the lift at 200. But I felt a tweak in my back that served as a reminder that I should have bailed the bar. And when my jerk at 205 didn't go smoothly, I immediately bailed it.
Having gotten through that part of the workout, we moved on to our metcon, which was being held outside for a change. In teams of 3, we would rotate between stations for 12 minutes. One person would be doing double unders, one person would be pushing the prowler (200/100) and one person would be doing push presses (115/75). To keep it simple, we divided the teams into a boys team and a girls team. There isn't too much to say about this part of the workout other than it was very fatiguing. I was fine with the prowler, especially early on. I think doing double unders right after doing the prowler caused some of us to not do as well on double unders as we might normally do (I was certainly guilty of this). And the push press was not much fun, but you just knocked out as many as you could before it was time to push the prowler again. The most notable thing during this workout was that Aimee whipped herself so hard with her rope during double unders that she had to stop for a brief time due to how much pain she was in. Since it is such a rare occurrence to see Aimee stop during a workout, we all checked on her, but she quickly got back into it.
Finishing up around 8:30 gave us some time to recover before the 9:00 class, which was a relief. The special 9:00am class was a workout called "Fight Gone Strongman". It is a play on "Fight Gone Bad", which is a workout that involves 5 basic Crossfit movements. You do each movement for a minute before rotating to the next station. After you finish all five stations, you get a minute of rest. There are three rounds and you generally feel like you want to plop in the corner and die at the end of it. In "Fight Gone Strongman", each of the five movements is something that might turn up at a strongman competition. So, if like me, you've seen "World's Strongest Man" episodes on ESPN2 at 3am (note: this is how I discovered Crossfit, as ESPN2 shows all of this crazy shit at 3am), you know it involves lifting all sorts of strange heavy objects rather than loading up a barbell. For "Fight Gone Strongman", the 5 stations were: 1) GHD bench press - bench press reps with an empty barbell while lying rigid within a GHD holding your body parallel to the floor, 2) Keg/log lifts - going shoulder to overhead with either a 60 pound log or a keg of various weights, 3) Yoke - carrying a heavy yoke (300/200) from one set of cones to another, 4) Farmers carry - carrying a heavy load (155/105) in each hand while walking from one set of cones to another, and 5) Atlas stones - picking up and dropping atlas stones of various weights over a barbell. An opportunity to do a highly abnormal workout? You know I was in.
Like it's counterpart "Fight Gone Bad", this workout left me questioning my decision-making skills in life at the end of it. The GHD bench press was awkward and painful to hold, but it was obvious that this is where the bulk of your score would come from. I averaged about 20-25 reps per round on this station. The 75 pound keg I was using was tremendously awkward to lift, especially since the proper way of doing it left you holding it cockeyed over your head. Only got a few reps per round here. The yoke was tough to get off the ground, but like a deadlift, once you got it moving, it wasn't too bad. But you only got 1 rep for carrying the 300 pound yoke about 60% of the way down the gym. Compare that to pressing out an empty barbell while on the GHD. As a result, I only got a few reps per round here as well. The farmers carry was a grip tester and I have a very weak grip. That meant when I picked up the 155 pounds in each hand, I practically had to sprint (think Olympic walking) to the other end to make it for 1 rep. Like the yoke, only a few reps could be gained here each round. Finally, the atlas stone was a bit of a reprieve. I used the 90 pound stone and was able to get about 5-7 reps per round before I would get to rest.
In total, my score was 111 (37 in round 1, 38 in round 2, 36 in round 3). It seemed in line with what most others had done in the class. If I wanted a higher score, I needed to knock out more bench press, because there wasn't a lot to be gained at the other stations. I was happy with my ability to handle the yoke and the farmers carry as I sensed I would fail later in the workout, but I did manage to go end to end throughout all three rounds.
Now would I do this workout again? Probably not. I hate to use the word awkward over and over again, but there is really no other way to describe what it was like at each of these stations. It was cool to try it once, but I think I'm ready to go back to barbells again. Not to mention there is plenty of normal stuff in the gym that I need practice on. Did you say pull-ups and squat cleans? Well those would get tested on Monday night when we took on Badger once again.
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Hitting The Wall (15 Times)
Workout date: 4/22/15
Wall ascents! The Wednesday workout would be chock full of wall ascents. After watching season 4 of Game of Thrones, I would once again get the chance to pretend I was a wildling attacking Castle Black. Of course, the wildlings never had to do heavy KB swings and burpees during their attack. And I don't recall seeing too many bald wildlings on the show. But other than that, this would be exactly the same!
The WOD would be a 15 minute AMRAP of 1 wall ascent, 10 KB swings (70/55), another wall ascent, then 10 burpees. My goal was to finish 6 rounds, although I had some mini-goals thrown in along the way. There wasn't much I could plan out as far as the wall ascents went, except for "try not to kill your self". For the KB swings, we were going very heavy, so to knock out all 10 reps at 70 pounds without putting the KB down would be huge, especially later in the workout when I would be tired and sweaty. As for the burpees, I've gotten into a bad habit of crawling through my burpees as I'm tired. It's good that I keep moving, but I really wanted to push myself to do actual burpees for as much of this workout as possible.
Before Brian, Linda, and I got started, Keithie went over the wall ascent with us. I had been over the 8 ft wall several times before, but Brian had not ever been over it. However, it was clear that would be changing this night when he easily jumped high enough to pull himself over during the warmup progressions. It was also during these progressions that Keithie tried to fix my stutter-step problem. Nearly every time I run towards the wall, I end up panicking right before my jump, which leads to me doing approximately 22 stutter-steps before pathetically jumping at the wall and holding on to the top for dear life. Keithie had me measure it out as if I was doing a long jump, figuring out where I would start if I was going to take 5 real strides before jumping at the wall. This worked out well, although I correctly predicted that I would be back to the stutter-step technique in later rounds as I tired out. I ended up doing 4 wall ascents during warmups.
We got started and surprisingly, the first round did not go smoothly. Oops, bad sign. Since Linda was using the 6 ft wall, she would be starting the run to her wall underneath the left side of the back of the 8 ft wall. That meant Brian and I would scale the right side, but have to go one at a time. Brian let me go first and I got over without a problem, then did my 10 KB swings. When I came back for the second wall ascent though, one of my hands slipped at the top, causing me to fall back to the floor. I waved on Brian to go, tried to get my confidence back, and went after he cleared the wall. At the burpees, I did most if not all of them legitimately and one round was done in a little under two and a half minutes.
From that point forward, I did not have any more slip-ups at the wall until the very end. The stutter-steps came back eventually and I did have to crawl my way through a considerable amount of burpees, but I held strong on the KB, doing every set unbroken. Each round was in the 2:30-3:00 range, and as I got through round 5, I realized finishing 6 rounds would not happen. With 1:15 left, I climbed over the wall, then got my 10 KB swings in. That left me about 10 seconds, so I ran at the wall with the little energy I had left, grabbed the top for a brief second, and felt my hand slip yet again. With only a few seconds left, there was no time to get over the wall, so my final score was 5 rounds and 11 reps.
The toughest part about any wall ascent workout is the inevitable bruising. Because I throw my right arm up on the wall to hoist the rest of my body up, I always end up with a bruised right forearm. After doing 15 wall ascents (4 practice, 11 in the workout), I was able to not only bruise up my forearm fairly good, but the entire underside of my right arm. So that will not be pretty for a while.
This was a difficult workout to gauge as a success or a failure. I wish my conditioning was better than it currently is, but I was happy to get over the wall as many times as I did and I was happy to hold on to the 70 pound KB the whole time, as that has definitely been a struggle for me. Burpees still need work, but there are tons of workouts that get scheduled with burpees in them, so I doubt I will be lacking practice there.
Wall ascents! The Wednesday workout would be chock full of wall ascents. After watching season 4 of Game of Thrones, I would once again get the chance to pretend I was a wildling attacking Castle Black. Of course, the wildlings never had to do heavy KB swings and burpees during their attack. And I don't recall seeing too many bald wildlings on the show. But other than that, this would be exactly the same!
The WOD would be a 15 minute AMRAP of 1 wall ascent, 10 KB swings (70/55), another wall ascent, then 10 burpees. My goal was to finish 6 rounds, although I had some mini-goals thrown in along the way. There wasn't much I could plan out as far as the wall ascents went, except for "try not to kill your self". For the KB swings, we were going very heavy, so to knock out all 10 reps at 70 pounds without putting the KB down would be huge, especially later in the workout when I would be tired and sweaty. As for the burpees, I've gotten into a bad habit of crawling through my burpees as I'm tired. It's good that I keep moving, but I really wanted to push myself to do actual burpees for as much of this workout as possible.
Before Brian, Linda, and I got started, Keithie went over the wall ascent with us. I had been over the 8 ft wall several times before, but Brian had not ever been over it. However, it was clear that would be changing this night when he easily jumped high enough to pull himself over during the warmup progressions. It was also during these progressions that Keithie tried to fix my stutter-step problem. Nearly every time I run towards the wall, I end up panicking right before my jump, which leads to me doing approximately 22 stutter-steps before pathetically jumping at the wall and holding on to the top for dear life. Keithie had me measure it out as if I was doing a long jump, figuring out where I would start if I was going to take 5 real strides before jumping at the wall. This worked out well, although I correctly predicted that I would be back to the stutter-step technique in later rounds as I tired out. I ended up doing 4 wall ascents during warmups.
We got started and surprisingly, the first round did not go smoothly. Oops, bad sign. Since Linda was using the 6 ft wall, she would be starting the run to her wall underneath the left side of the back of the 8 ft wall. That meant Brian and I would scale the right side, but have to go one at a time. Brian let me go first and I got over without a problem, then did my 10 KB swings. When I came back for the second wall ascent though, one of my hands slipped at the top, causing me to fall back to the floor. I waved on Brian to go, tried to get my confidence back, and went after he cleared the wall. At the burpees, I did most if not all of them legitimately and one round was done in a little under two and a half minutes.
From that point forward, I did not have any more slip-ups at the wall until the very end. The stutter-steps came back eventually and I did have to crawl my way through a considerable amount of burpees, but I held strong on the KB, doing every set unbroken. Each round was in the 2:30-3:00 range, and as I got through round 5, I realized finishing 6 rounds would not happen. With 1:15 left, I climbed over the wall, then got my 10 KB swings in. That left me about 10 seconds, so I ran at the wall with the little energy I had left, grabbed the top for a brief second, and felt my hand slip yet again. With only a few seconds left, there was no time to get over the wall, so my final score was 5 rounds and 11 reps.
The toughest part about any wall ascent workout is the inevitable bruising. Because I throw my right arm up on the wall to hoist the rest of my body up, I always end up with a bruised right forearm. After doing 15 wall ascents (4 practice, 11 in the workout), I was able to not only bruise up my forearm fairly good, but the entire underside of my right arm. So that will not be pretty for a while.
This was a difficult workout to gauge as a success or a failure. I wish my conditioning was better than it currently is, but I was happy to get over the wall as many times as I did and I was happy to hold on to the 70 pound KB the whole time, as that has definitely been a struggle for me. Burpees still need work, but there are tons of workouts that get scheduled with burpees in them, so I doubt I will be lacking practice there.
Friday, April 24, 2015
Barbull Reunion!
Workout date: 4/21/15
I gushed about all of the remarkable ladies from KOP in my last post, but it has been a little bit of a bummer that I no longer work out with many of the guys I started doing Crossfit with. At the end of my first year of Crossfit (2013), I signed up for Barbulls, a strength program for guys only that was coached by Plentus. Plentus had run this program several times already under the name Barbelles, as it was originally an all-female program. On the first night of Barbulls, we did a cash out in the parking lot consisting of very heavy KB swings and sprints. Across the board, we all thought it was the toughest workout we did. Even 8 weeks later when we had finished the entire program, we all felt the same about that workout. Barbulls was no joke.
The great thing about programs like that one is that it creates bonds among a group of people that you may not have even known up to that point. I had never met Mike S. before Barbulls, but every time I see him at the gym now, I say hi and chat with him for a bit. Mike is a bit more of a morning person than I am though, so I rarely see him. The rest of the group has kinda disbanded as well. Brett, Johnny, Tim, Chip and Plentus no longer go to KOP. Mr. Intensity has done back-to-back performance programs, so he hasn't been in regular class very often. It's pretty rare that I run into Shawn T. at the gym. So that trims the group down to Luke and Matt B. Being teammates on Team Orange during the Open, I got to work out with Luke quite a bit. (And more importantly, I got to drink with a fellow Wolfpack fan!) But I hadn't gotten to work out with Matt in a long time as he has been nursing a shoulder injury. And Matt was someone I worked out with frequently even before Barbulls. So when Matt showed up for the 6:30 class on Tuesday, I was psyched!
The Tuesday WOD was mainly a strength session, with a skill piece mixed in at the end. We were doing back squats, specifically 5 sets of 5 reps. Because I have no self control, I started going through my mental rolodex of what my PRs are in hopes that I might set a new mark today. Except when it comes to remembering what my PRs are for multiple reps, I tend to have a foggy memory. Is my 5RM for back squat 225 lbs? 235? 245? I had no clue. So my thought was to get at least 225, with 235-245 a possibility depending on how good I was feeling. But before we got started, Keithie pointed out that there was a handy dandy board off to the side that tells you what your 5RM should be based on your 1RM. That's helpful! Having a 275 lb 1RM for back squat, the chart told me I should be able to do 240 lbs for 5 reps. Yikes - that was a little higher than I was expecting!
Matt and I were working together and did a warmup set at 135. Now Matt was nice enough to just go along with whatever I put on the bar, in part because he is not back to 100% yet. But when he is, he's much stronger than I am. After the warm up at 135, we got started on real sets at 165. That felt easy enough. The plan from there was to make 20 pound jumps in order to end with a successful set at 245 (fingers crossed). Things were fine at 185, then at 205, I started to wobble on my 4th rep along with coming up on my toes, which is something I've worked really hard on eliminating from my squats. Gotta stay in those heels! When we made our way to 225, I came up on my toes three times (very aggravating!) and did my 4th rep wobble again. After putting the bar back on the rack, Keithie called me over.
Me: "I know, I know, I came up on my toes three times. I'm working on it."
Keithie: "I don't give a shit about you coming up on your toes. Stop being a bitch and put some real weight on that bar."
Okay then! 225 wasn't crushing me, but I didn't have a lot of faith that I could add on a lot more weight and be successful. Clearly, adding 20 pounds was not going to suffice, so I grabbed 30 pounds and went to 255. I mean, how much higher could I really go having only done 1 rep of 275 in my life? As I got ready to approach the bar, Matt and Keithie tried to get me pumped up for the lift. And as I placed my hands on the bar, I muttered under my breath over and over again "you can do this". If I wasn't confident about this lift, then I had no chance. Plus, when someone calls you a bitch, the last thing you want to do is go and immediately validate their evaluation of you. So 255 had to go up and down 5 times.
When the first rep went smoothly, I was relieved. If it had been shaky, who knows how the rest of that lift would have went. But as I have tried to do with many other things in the gym lately, I remained calm and methodically worked through each of those 5 reps. It is one of the better moments I have had in the gym recently. In fact, I was on such a high that I grabbed 10 more pounds so I could knock out a sixth set of 5 reps at 265 lbs. You know, because I magically just became awesome at back squatting. Life has a funny way of eliminating any ego I develop pretty quickly and that was proven once again when I had to bail the first rep at 265.
Life: "Don't get greedy Dave."
Me: "Message received. Loud and clear."
Keithie: "I receive messages."
The remaining time in class was spent practicing bar muscle-ups. Or, more precisely, jumping bar muscle-ups, for those of us who are not close to doing actual bar muscle-ups. As I've mentioned in the past, this is a movement that I find to be fun. The first time I did this in a class, I was able to do them jumping off of a 20" box. Eventually I got down to a 17" box. However, my repeated attempts at doing them off of a 13" box had been unsuccessful. And it was frustrating because I was definitely right on the verge of getting them. So once again, I grabbed the 13" box and went to work. Just missed. Just missed. Just missed. Dammit!!!
Keithie informed me that I was not pulling myself forward and over the bar enough (I was preoccupied with getting high enough with my jump), so on my next attempt, I really made sure I was pulling myself forward. Missed again. But it was so close! I got on the box again, started my swing, jumped, pulled forward and...hey, I'm over the bar! I pressed out and I had finally done a successful jumping bar musle-up off of the 13" box. I kept at it over the next 5 minutes, getting two in a row before failing while attempting to string #3. What's left? Well now I have to figure out how to do the real thing and I imagine it will be a while before that happens.
So overall a very good day. Much higher number on the back squat than expected. Got the jumping bar muscle up with the 13" box. And I'm starting to get the feeling that I'll be breaking through some big numbers soon, with 400 on the deadlift and 300 on the back squat now appearing on the horizon.
I gushed about all of the remarkable ladies from KOP in my last post, but it has been a little bit of a bummer that I no longer work out with many of the guys I started doing Crossfit with. At the end of my first year of Crossfit (2013), I signed up for Barbulls, a strength program for guys only that was coached by Plentus. Plentus had run this program several times already under the name Barbelles, as it was originally an all-female program. On the first night of Barbulls, we did a cash out in the parking lot consisting of very heavy KB swings and sprints. Across the board, we all thought it was the toughest workout we did. Even 8 weeks later when we had finished the entire program, we all felt the same about that workout. Barbulls was no joke.
The great thing about programs like that one is that it creates bonds among a group of people that you may not have even known up to that point. I had never met Mike S. before Barbulls, but every time I see him at the gym now, I say hi and chat with him for a bit. Mike is a bit more of a morning person than I am though, so I rarely see him. The rest of the group has kinda disbanded as well. Brett, Johnny, Tim, Chip and Plentus no longer go to KOP. Mr. Intensity has done back-to-back performance programs, so he hasn't been in regular class very often. It's pretty rare that I run into Shawn T. at the gym. So that trims the group down to Luke and Matt B. Being teammates on Team Orange during the Open, I got to work out with Luke quite a bit. (And more importantly, I got to drink with a fellow Wolfpack fan!) But I hadn't gotten to work out with Matt in a long time as he has been nursing a shoulder injury. And Matt was someone I worked out with frequently even before Barbulls. So when Matt showed up for the 6:30 class on Tuesday, I was psyched!
The Tuesday WOD was mainly a strength session, with a skill piece mixed in at the end. We were doing back squats, specifically 5 sets of 5 reps. Because I have no self control, I started going through my mental rolodex of what my PRs are in hopes that I might set a new mark today. Except when it comes to remembering what my PRs are for multiple reps, I tend to have a foggy memory. Is my 5RM for back squat 225 lbs? 235? 245? I had no clue. So my thought was to get at least 225, with 235-245 a possibility depending on how good I was feeling. But before we got started, Keithie pointed out that there was a handy dandy board off to the side that tells you what your 5RM should be based on your 1RM. That's helpful! Having a 275 lb 1RM for back squat, the chart told me I should be able to do 240 lbs for 5 reps. Yikes - that was a little higher than I was expecting!
Matt and I were working together and did a warmup set at 135. Now Matt was nice enough to just go along with whatever I put on the bar, in part because he is not back to 100% yet. But when he is, he's much stronger than I am. After the warm up at 135, we got started on real sets at 165. That felt easy enough. The plan from there was to make 20 pound jumps in order to end with a successful set at 245 (fingers crossed). Things were fine at 185, then at 205, I started to wobble on my 4th rep along with coming up on my toes, which is something I've worked really hard on eliminating from my squats. Gotta stay in those heels! When we made our way to 225, I came up on my toes three times (very aggravating!) and did my 4th rep wobble again. After putting the bar back on the rack, Keithie called me over.
Me: "I know, I know, I came up on my toes three times. I'm working on it."
Keithie: "I don't give a shit about you coming up on your toes. Stop being a bitch and put some real weight on that bar."
Okay then! 225 wasn't crushing me, but I didn't have a lot of faith that I could add on a lot more weight and be successful. Clearly, adding 20 pounds was not going to suffice, so I grabbed 30 pounds and went to 255. I mean, how much higher could I really go having only done 1 rep of 275 in my life? As I got ready to approach the bar, Matt and Keithie tried to get me pumped up for the lift. And as I placed my hands on the bar, I muttered under my breath over and over again "you can do this". If I wasn't confident about this lift, then I had no chance. Plus, when someone calls you a bitch, the last thing you want to do is go and immediately validate their evaluation of you. So 255 had to go up and down 5 times.
When the first rep went smoothly, I was relieved. If it had been shaky, who knows how the rest of that lift would have went. But as I have tried to do with many other things in the gym lately, I remained calm and methodically worked through each of those 5 reps. It is one of the better moments I have had in the gym recently. In fact, I was on such a high that I grabbed 10 more pounds so I could knock out a sixth set of 5 reps at 265 lbs. You know, because I magically just became awesome at back squatting. Life has a funny way of eliminating any ego I develop pretty quickly and that was proven once again when I had to bail the first rep at 265.
Life: "Don't get greedy Dave."
Me: "Message received. Loud and clear."
Keithie: "I receive messages."
The remaining time in class was spent practicing bar muscle-ups. Or, more precisely, jumping bar muscle-ups, for those of us who are not close to doing actual bar muscle-ups. As I've mentioned in the past, this is a movement that I find to be fun. The first time I did this in a class, I was able to do them jumping off of a 20" box. Eventually I got down to a 17" box. However, my repeated attempts at doing them off of a 13" box had been unsuccessful. And it was frustrating because I was definitely right on the verge of getting them. So once again, I grabbed the 13" box and went to work. Just missed. Just missed. Just missed. Dammit!!!
Keithie informed me that I was not pulling myself forward and over the bar enough (I was preoccupied with getting high enough with my jump), so on my next attempt, I really made sure I was pulling myself forward. Missed again. But it was so close! I got on the box again, started my swing, jumped, pulled forward and...hey, I'm over the bar! I pressed out and I had finally done a successful jumping bar musle-up off of the 13" box. I kept at it over the next 5 minutes, getting two in a row before failing while attempting to string #3. What's left? Well now I have to figure out how to do the real thing and I imagine it will be a while before that happens.
So overall a very good day. Much higher number on the back squat than expected. Got the jumping bar muscle up with the 13" box. And I'm starting to get the feeling that I'll be breaking through some big numbers soon, with 400 on the deadlift and 300 on the back squat now appearing on the horizon.
Thursday, April 23, 2015
"I do Festivus"
Workout date: 4/18/15
(If you would like to read a much more entertaining recap of the Festivus Games, might I recommend clicking here ---> https://shiteatinggrin.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/2015-festivus-games-i-came-here-to-chew-gum-and-do-some-crossfit-and-yes-i-do-have-some-extra-gum-would-you-like-a-piece/)
The big event on the calendar this past weekend was the Festivus Games. This is an event that is designed for people more of my skill level. No "firebreathers" allowed. Only a novice (pronounced no-viss) and intermediate division. The WODs were announced months in advance, so we were able to practice them at the gym, although due to some scheduling issues, I was only able to practice WOD #1. No worries. I mean, how hard could WODs #2 and #3 be? <gulp>
Having gone 5 days without doing any sort of metcon-like workout, I headed to the gym on Thursday to take on one of the stranger workouts that I have seen programmed. The workout was for time: 800 meter run, 50 back squats (135/95), 50 bench press (135/95), 400 meter run, 25 back squats, 25 bench press, 1 muscle up. Just a very weird setup all around. First, it is rare that a large number of bench press reps are programmed without someone spotting you. Second, the "reverse Castro", finishing the workout with a single muscle-up. It was all so unique. As a result, I was captivated and felt the need to get in on this workout.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of saying this to Rachel and Michal prior to the workout, which resulted in some threatening texts in return. Both claimed that it was too close to the competition to be doing a workout like this and that I would end up exhausting myself for Saturday. Little did they know that I would be exhausted either way on Saturday! Who got the last laugh now? (Probably not me. Hmmm...I may not have thought that one all the way through.)
Anyway, Michal was there to play enforcer and made sure that I did not do the workout. Instead, I practiced various parts of WODs #2 and #3 using lighter weight. Instead of the 135 pounds I would be using on Saturday, I used 95 pounds. And boy could I blow through front squats and power cleans using that weight. Even got a compliment on how fast I could motor through burpees after doing the power cleans! I brought out a 20" box and pogo'd up and down off the box 15 reps at a time. They should have mailed me the Intermediate trophy on Thursday night. Or not.
Despite the strict admonition not to exert myself too much, Michal came up with a cashout of wall balls and KB swings that she wanted to do. I suggested a 21-15-9 format. We used the typical weight for the wall balls (20 lbs for me, 14 lbs for Michal, even though she would be using only 10 lbs on Saturday as a NO-VISS) and a lighter than standard weight for the KBs (35 lbs for me, 26 lbs for Michal). My goal was simple: go unbroken. I knew on Saturday that I would need to do big sets of the wall balls for WOD #1 and this would actually be decent practice for that. We started with the KB swings and I got through those fine, and even that first set of 21 wall balls wasn't too bad. On the set of 15, I began feeling it in my shoulders on both the KB swings and wall balls, but got through it. And at that point, there was no way I was letting myself fail on the set of 9. I even finished my last round of wall balls before Michal finished her set of 15! (Only brag of today's post) Michal then showed me up a few minutes later by stringing 110 double unders in a row. Damn, my brag seems weak in comparison now.
On Friday, I came back to practice double unders. Earlier in the week, my jump rope had gone missing, causing me a mild amount of panic, since I'm not that great at double unders using a speed rope tailored to my height. Using some other rope at the last minute did not seem like a recipe for success. However, I found my rope on Friday morning and all was well again. I wanted to make sure that I still had the rhythm down for double unders, as I would only be doing them for 1 minute at the competition. I couldn't afford to be standing there fumbling with my rope. After doing a set of 34, a set of 36, and a set of 20, I felt like I could manage sixty seconds of decent double unders. I followed jump rope practice with some mobility, went home, took an epsom salt bath, and caught some shut-eye before the big day.
My best Festivus training may have revolved around the fact that I had routinely been showing up at the gym at 7am on Saturdays, so arriving to the parking lot for our carpool into the city was a bit of a breeze. I got there at 7:02, PRing with a 9 minute drive from my house. Keithie (it's a thing now, just go with it) was there along with Dana and Shawna, who were riding together. As we waited for Cline, Michal, and Rachel, Dana offered us a ride in her large, spacious vehicle. Lacking coffee or just lacking the general ability to think clearly this early in the morning, I politely declined. Cline showed up right as they were leaving, with Michal and Rachel arriving about 10 minutes later (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). Rachel's ride was a bit smaller than Dana's and now we were packing in 5 people along with tents (our gym bags and the cooler graciously agreed to ride in the trunk). Come back Dana, come back!!!
By the time we had left the local Wawa, it was already past 7:30, with check-in beginning at 8:00. We had a smooth ride down 76, before encountering the dreaded parking dilemma associated with being in South Philly. We finally found a "spot" in the lot of a nearby grocery store, grabbed our tents, cooler, and gear, and trekked several blocks to Fearless Athletics, home of this year's Games. After establishing our territory, we got in line to check-in as 8:30 drew near.
(If you would like to read a much more entertaining recap of the Festivus Games, might I recommend clicking here ---> https://shiteatinggrin.wordpress.com/2015/04/21/2015-festivus-games-i-came-here-to-chew-gum-and-do-some-crossfit-and-yes-i-do-have-some-extra-gum-would-you-like-a-piece/)
The big event on the calendar this past weekend was the Festivus Games. This is an event that is designed for people more of my skill level. No "firebreathers" allowed. Only a novice (pronounced no-viss) and intermediate division. The WODs were announced months in advance, so we were able to practice them at the gym, although due to some scheduling issues, I was only able to practice WOD #1. No worries. I mean, how hard could WODs #2 and #3 be? <gulp>
Having gone 5 days without doing any sort of metcon-like workout, I headed to the gym on Thursday to take on one of the stranger workouts that I have seen programmed. The workout was for time: 800 meter run, 50 back squats (135/95), 50 bench press (135/95), 400 meter run, 25 back squats, 25 bench press, 1 muscle up. Just a very weird setup all around. First, it is rare that a large number of bench press reps are programmed without someone spotting you. Second, the "reverse Castro", finishing the workout with a single muscle-up. It was all so unique. As a result, I was captivated and felt the need to get in on this workout.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of saying this to Rachel and Michal prior to the workout, which resulted in some threatening texts in return. Both claimed that it was too close to the competition to be doing a workout like this and that I would end up exhausting myself for Saturday. Little did they know that I would be exhausted either way on Saturday! Who got the last laugh now? (Probably not me. Hmmm...I may not have thought that one all the way through.)
Anyway, Michal was there to play enforcer and made sure that I did not do the workout. Instead, I practiced various parts of WODs #2 and #3 using lighter weight. Instead of the 135 pounds I would be using on Saturday, I used 95 pounds. And boy could I blow through front squats and power cleans using that weight. Even got a compliment on how fast I could motor through burpees after doing the power cleans! I brought out a 20" box and pogo'd up and down off the box 15 reps at a time. They should have mailed me the Intermediate trophy on Thursday night. Or not.
Despite the strict admonition not to exert myself too much, Michal came up with a cashout of wall balls and KB swings that she wanted to do. I suggested a 21-15-9 format. We used the typical weight for the wall balls (20 lbs for me, 14 lbs for Michal, even though she would be using only 10 lbs on Saturday as a NO-VISS) and a lighter than standard weight for the KBs (35 lbs for me, 26 lbs for Michal). My goal was simple: go unbroken. I knew on Saturday that I would need to do big sets of the wall balls for WOD #1 and this would actually be decent practice for that. We started with the KB swings and I got through those fine, and even that first set of 21 wall balls wasn't too bad. On the set of 15, I began feeling it in my shoulders on both the KB swings and wall balls, but got through it. And at that point, there was no way I was letting myself fail on the set of 9. I even finished my last round of wall balls before Michal finished her set of 15! (Only brag of today's post) Michal then showed me up a few minutes later by stringing 110 double unders in a row. Damn, my brag seems weak in comparison now.
On Friday, I came back to practice double unders. Earlier in the week, my jump rope had gone missing, causing me a mild amount of panic, since I'm not that great at double unders using a speed rope tailored to my height. Using some other rope at the last minute did not seem like a recipe for success. However, I found my rope on Friday morning and all was well again. I wanted to make sure that I still had the rhythm down for double unders, as I would only be doing them for 1 minute at the competition. I couldn't afford to be standing there fumbling with my rope. After doing a set of 34, a set of 36, and a set of 20, I felt like I could manage sixty seconds of decent double unders. I followed jump rope practice with some mobility, went home, took an epsom salt bath, and caught some shut-eye before the big day.
My best Festivus training may have revolved around the fact that I had routinely been showing up at the gym at 7am on Saturdays, so arriving to the parking lot for our carpool into the city was a bit of a breeze. I got there at 7:02, PRing with a 9 minute drive from my house. Keithie (it's a thing now, just go with it) was there along with Dana and Shawna, who were riding together. As we waited for Cline, Michal, and Rachel, Dana offered us a ride in her large, spacious vehicle. Lacking coffee or just lacking the general ability to think clearly this early in the morning, I politely declined. Cline showed up right as they were leaving, with Michal and Rachel arriving about 10 minutes later (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). Rachel's ride was a bit smaller than Dana's and now we were packing in 5 people along with tents (our gym bags and the cooler graciously agreed to ride in the trunk). Come back Dana, come back!!!
By the time we had left the local Wawa, it was already past 7:30, with check-in beginning at 8:00. We had a smooth ride down 76, before encountering the dreaded parking dilemma associated with being in South Philly. We finally found a "spot" in the lot of a nearby grocery store, grabbed our tents, cooler, and gear, and trekked several blocks to Fearless Athletics, home of this year's Games. After establishing our territory, we got in line to check-in as 8:30 drew near.
Camp KOP: Before the carnage
The event organizers tried to rush us through the line as 8:30 was supposed to be when we were to go over standards, with 9:00 the designated starting time for the event. I'd like to say that except for some not-so-hot spreadsheet work, the organizers at Fearless Athletics did a great job running this event. They got everyone checked in prior to the standards briefing (and some of us got a second t-shirt...score!) and things were rolling at precisely 9:00am. To keep things moving smoothly, they had WOD #1 set up on the left side of the gym with WOD #2 set up on the right side. Some of us were scheduled to do WOD #2 first (that would be me) while others would start with WOD #1. Over the course of the first 3 hours, you would eventually make your way to the other side of the gym. I was scheduled for WOD #2 at 9:39, with WOD #1 taking place at 11:10.
As someone who is a much better cheerleader than competitor, I wanted to try and root on all of our athletes, but rolling in 13 strong (Guys: me, Cline, and soon-to-be-dad Tim H. Girls: Jill A., Jill C., Jen, Alona, Dana, Shawna, Rachel, Michal, Kate, and Regi) made it difficult to support everyone during their workouts. In some heats, 2-3 KOP athletes were competing, sometimes on opposite sides of the gym. Plus you need some time to mentally and physically prepare for your own heats.
Cline was not mentally prepared this early in the morning for the unlimited positive energy of Jill C.
With the early heats spaced 13 minutes apart (10 minutes for the WOD, 3 minute intermission between heats), I got to see the 9:00 and 9:13 heats, as well as a little bit of the 9:26 before I went to get ready for WOD #2. A quick recap of what these WODs actually were:
WOD #1: 1,000 meter row followed by 50 wall balls (10 minute time cap)
WOD #2: 2 minute AMRAP of front squats (135), followed by 2 minutes of rest, then a 6 minute AMRAP of 6 power cleans (135) and burpees over the bar
WOD #3: 5 minute AMRAP of 5 push press (115) and 15 box jumps (20"), followed by 1 minute of rest, then 1 minute of double unders.
The plan for WOD #2 was to hold on to the bar for the entire two minutes of the first segment, then to keep moving for part two. I wanted to get at least 30, possibly 40 reps, on part one, while something in the 60-72 rep range would be the target for part two. The one thing I did not account for was how muggy it would be in the gym. Not that I would have been on the podium at the end of the day if this had been held in November, but the heat certainly had an effect on the sweatiest guy in the competition. We got going on the front squats and I started with a squat clean to get a quick rep, followed by controlled rep after rep. When I hit 20 reps, I peeked at the clock and saw 45 seconds. Wow, I was doing well! Or so I thought. Soon, the weight began to get heavy and I needed to breathe to keep it under control. Except breathing meant sucking in hot air, which my body was not receptive to. So I tried to hold my breath. When I needed to breath again, I dropped the bar. I ended up dropping the bar twice, recovering with a squat clean to get quick reps. By the end of two minutes, I was gasping with only 34 reps to my name.
After two minutes rest, I got ready for the power cleans and burpees. I knocked out the first set of 6 power cleans without letting go of the bar, but it was clear that the burpees were going to be a big problem as those required lots of breathing. I slowly made my way through a set of 6 and got back to the bar. I had already gotten to the point that fast singles were now necessary and the whole thing felt like a slog. I would do the power cleans as quick as I could, then trudged my way through some ugly burpees. I didn't know how much time was left. I found out afterwards that my form was lousy during the cleans. It was just a mess. But I tried to keep moving. With 4 rounds down (48 reps), I heard "1 minute remaining!". I got to the bar and held on for 3 reps while making some unfortunate grunting sounds. Grabbed the bar for 2 more, then finally the last rep. I got down on the floor and started with the burpees. Needed to finish this round to get 60 reps. As the time ticked down, I finished off all 6 burpees, then had a few seconds remaining to get in one last power clean. 61 reps would be my score as I desperately searched for oxygen.
I spent the next hour either outside recovering or back inside rooting on the rest of team KOP. Oh, and dreading the next event. Having done WOD #1 twice at the gym, I knew the most difficult part was maintaining my breath while trying to string as many wall balls as possible. How the hell was I supposed to do that in this sauna? Plus Keithie had already given me and Rachel an ultimatum on what would happen if we dropped the ball (he would no longer be our coach) and Rachel had already successfully done all 50 without dropping it (she found a loophole: she caught the ball and held on to it while resting). That seemed completely unappealing to me. I would do my best to string as many as I could, but if the ball needed to be dropped (like the barbell during the front squats), I was dropping it. I also made the bonehead decision to go slower during the row in order to maintain my breath. After hearing later on how fast others went, this was probably not my wisest choice. It really all came down to being able to breathe though (poor Dana had to hear about this from me all day long and may have began drinking mid-day because of it). There was no part of me interested in passing out during this event. If I needed air, I was stopping.
3...2...1...go! I started rowing and maintained a steady 4:00 pace for 1,000 meters. I got off the rower and got to work on the wall balls. They were painful, but I was determined to keep going and then push some more before stopping. In practice, my first sets were 15 and 17, respectively, during my two attempts. On Saturday, I hit 21 before getting no repped and losing the will to keep going. After that, it was pretty bad. I was spent after the first set of 21. I got no repped 2-3 more times while trying to finish the last 29 good reps. The ball would hit the wall and come almost straight down every time I threw it, causing me to move in really close to the wall. Keithie yelled at me to not drop the ball or "we would no longer be friends". I boldly called his bluff by dropping the ball approximately 5 more times. I resorted to a basketball-style shot, because that was the only way I could consistently get the ball over the 10 ft mark. When it was all said and done, I had PL'd (personal low) the workout with a slow time of 7 minutes flat. That falling sound you just heard was me plummeting down the standings.
It would now be over 3 hours until my next event. Somehow I ended up near the end of the WOD #3 heats after being closer to the front end of the heats for WODs #1 and #2. This took forever! It was bad enough that I was not even remotely in contention, now I would be one of the last to drink beers upon completing my final WOD. There was an hour lunch break to set up WOD #3, but at 1:00pm, KOPers started finishing up their day and cracking open cold ones. I was stuck waiting until 2:20pm. To be fair, having a beer may have been hazardous to my health as Cline let me know that the beers were "almost too cold".
At long last, it was my turn to go. Pretty much everyone in the competition had resorted to step-ups instead of box jumps for WOD #3, so even though I knew I could pogo at least 1 round, I decided not to buck the trend. I would step up and down from that box as fast as possible. As for the push presses, I felt confident I could handle 5 quick reps at 115 pounds. I wasn't entirely sure what a good score for the workout would be, but my goal was 6 full rounds. For the next 300 seconds, I thought I was going as fast as humanly possible. In fact, I was worried I might be going too fast on the step-ups and get no repped. Thankfully that didn't happen. Apparently I wasn't moving fast enough for Cline as I heard yells of "go faster motherfucker!" during the workout. Towards the end I started to tire a little on the step-ups, but I made up for that by using my arm to push off my knee to get leverage and propel myself up on the box. With time winding down, I completed round 6 and made it back to the bar. I grabbed the bar, knocked out 5 reps and that was all for me. I finished with 125 reps and a smile on my face.
Wait, there's more? Oh yeah, the one minute of double unders. Smile gone. Perhaps I shouldn't have used up all my energy during those last 5 minutes. I rested for about 30 seconds, then grabbed my rope. The goal here was simple: don't embarrass yourself. I had no score in mind. I just didn't want to be the guy who kept hitting himself over and over again with the rope. The minute started and by some miracle I hit one double under after another. Finally, 19 reps in, fatigue got to me and I stopped. From there, I could never regain that same rhythm, but with about 10 seconds to go, I started doing really high jumps in order to get a few extra reps in. I was also bounding forward, causing my judge to develop a look of terror, as the sweaty wildebeest in front of her was getting closer and closer. Mercifully, the minute ended and I had a score of 38 reps. I requested a beer and Cline hooked me up with an "almost too cold" beverage.
There's oxygen in this can, right?
But the stars of the show were the KOP ladies. They came out in force on Saturday. Among the 10 participants, some were taking on a competition like this for the first time. Some would have been candidates for the podium had the WODs been a little bit different. But across the board they killed it. And the camaraderie among them makes them a very cool group to hang out with.
The badass ladies of KOP. Taking a break from crushing the competition. (Along with some quality Souka photobombs from Alison.)
Which brings us to the two monsters that kick my ass on almost a daily basis. Of course they made it to the championship WOD. Heading into the final event, Rachel had a huge lead on the Intermediate competition, while Michal was tied for second in the NO-VISS division. Michal was up first in the championship WOD and simply crushed it. The leader going into the event kept trying to catch up as the WOD progressed, but then Michal would simply pick up her speed again, repelling the leader's attempt at stealing this workout from her. Her victory cinched second place overall in the competition. Meanwhile, Rachel was so far ahead that she could have sent me in to do the championship WOD and still won her division. And let's be clear, the Intermediate girls would have smoked me had I substituted in that event. Rachel ended up finishing third in the championship WOD, but the overall winner was never in doubt as team KOP started chanting her name before the final result was announced.
The Champs! They finally decided to kick other people's asses for a change.
Cline broke out the champagne and some Sex Bomb to end the day. It was an incredibly fun experience, even though I could only manage 13th in my division. But sometimes the company you hang out with is more important than results.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
I Should Never Be Upside Down
Workout date: 4/15/15
After my Jamaica trip, there was a bit of memory lapse with my next workout. Sure, I may have spent the weekend of my first Crossfit wedding getting inebriated at the pool bar, but at least I didn't do karaoke and rupture the eardrums of the wedding guests, right? Unfortunately, too much rum may have made me forget a fairly recent workout, so I was a bit lost in my return to the gym.
Returning home from Kelly Ann Garber's wedding, I came back to the 4/15 workout to find that we were determining our 3 rep max for deadlifts and then spending the rest of the time practicing our handstand walks. I didn't particularly dislike this workout, but let's just say that I am not great at deadlifts. As far as handstand walks go, I'm not sure the English language properly describes how bad I am at those. Still, I was eager to get back into the swing of things at the gym. I knew that I had done a 3RM deadlift with Rich A. somewhat recently, but I couldn't remember what my max was. My vague recollection was that it was 335 or 345, but I was not completely sure. And being the control freak that I am, that upset me. I decided that my goal should be 355-365, depending on how I was feeling.
I started at 135, then 225, then 275. Those lifts didn't feel too strenuous, at least not for 3 reps, but I figured it was probably a good idea to slow down on how fast I was going through the workout. There was no point in quickly finding my 3RM, since it was unlikely that I would need a lot of time to walk around on my hands. I took a few minutes rest, then did 315. Now it was starting to get heavy, but not unbearable. I had a decision to make for my next set on whether I should add 10 pound plates and do 335 or 15 pound plates and do 345. From there, I could add 10 pound plates to reach today's goal. Feeling pretty good in general (and since I stupidly choose the higher weight 9.5 times out of 10), I threw on the 15 pound plates.
The lift at 345 was much tougher than the lift at 315, however I made my way through 3 reps. The worst part was that despite chalking up before the lift, the heavy weight did a number on my grip. If I had gotten through this lift without really sore hands, I may have tried two more sets after this one. But after barely holding on through rep #3, I knew that I only had one more set left in me. The good part of this set? Fayth remarking that I looked strong because the bar appeared like it was bending due to all of the weight on it. And I'm a sucker for compliments that I can't quickly shoot down with a self-depricating comeback.
After loading the bar to 365 pounds, re-chalking my hands, and taking a few minutes rest, I was ready for my final set. My 1 rep max is 385 pounds and I know from experience that the toughest part of the lift is simply to get the bar an inch off the ground. Once it is moving, you can keep it moving. But there have been many times when I struggled in vain to deadlift something heavy and the barbell had rooted itself into the floor. I took an extra few seconds to make sure my setup was exactly as I wanted it and then I attempted to stand with the weight. There was brief resistance at first, but then the weight was off the floor. I got rep #1, made it through rep #2, and tried to hold on for rep #3. Grip was definitely an issue for that third rep, but you don't have to go very far on a deadlift, and I made it back up again with rep #3.
I was very pleased with 365 pounds (less pleased later on when I looked up that workout with Rich A. and discovered I had done 355 pounds previously). I might have been able to do a little more than that, but that test will have to wait for another day. I also considered trying to lift 405 pounds once since I was feeling good overall (and lifting 400 pounds sounds cool in my head), but again, that probably shouldn't have been attempted at that point either.
It was time for handstand walks, something I can't do at all and usually leads to some really awkward falls. 10 minutes to injure myself...let's do this!
Where to begin? Well, let's start with false confidence. I secretly think I could eventually do handstand walks. It is one of those strange things at the gym where I sort of do it right and then go "hey, I can do this!", even though I can't. When I go up on my hands, I generally have a brief moment where everything feels stabilized. I'm not sure how I'm making this happen, but it happens. And that has always struck me as what should be the toughest part of doing a handstand walk. Unfortunately, the actual walking has proven tough for me. And once the walking goes bad, it is time for my "dismount", which the Russian judge kindly gave me a score of 2.5 on. It is basically just me tipping over, out of control, landing with a thud.
Samson had the smart idea of grabbing the padded mats, which would gently ease the thuds to come. I made a few attempts to get up, but once I attempted to walk, I fell. Keith, king of the Crossfit tips, told me something that I never would have come up with on my own. He told me that I needed to look down at my hands, not through my arms. Now when we do handstand push-ups against the wall (my only other experience being upside-down in the gym), we are told to look through our arms, so I was confused. Why would this be different? I'm upside-down for both, right? The key is that looking through your arms causes your body to arc, and when we're doing handstand push-ups, we want the body to arc so that our feet are against the wall. We don't want that arc when there is no wall to stabilize us. Ahhhhh! (Light bulb goes on)
I felt even more stable when I got upside-down the next few attempts. Finally, I got upside-down, stabilized myself, then proceeded to start walking. It's happening! It's happening! The world is...spinning? Ok, so I didn't get very far, but I did manage to walk enough that when I came tumbling down, my ass didn't land on the padded mat. Instead it landed on the gym floor, producing a thud that drew gasps. It was a very awkward moment, but it didn't hurt too bad. Plus it allowed me to claim that I walked one mat when we put our WOD scores on the whiteboard.
Next blog post: Festivus prep, Festivus road trips, links to other Festivus blogs, and KOP Festivus champions! (Spoiler: it's not me. Not even close.)
After my Jamaica trip, there was a bit of memory lapse with my next workout. Sure, I may have spent the weekend of my first Crossfit wedding getting inebriated at the pool bar, but at least I didn't do karaoke and rupture the eardrums of the wedding guests, right? Unfortunately, too much rum may have made me forget a fairly recent workout, so I was a bit lost in my return to the gym.
Returning home from Kelly Ann Garber's wedding, I came back to the 4/15 workout to find that we were determining our 3 rep max for deadlifts and then spending the rest of the time practicing our handstand walks. I didn't particularly dislike this workout, but let's just say that I am not great at deadlifts. As far as handstand walks go, I'm not sure the English language properly describes how bad I am at those. Still, I was eager to get back into the swing of things at the gym. I knew that I had done a 3RM deadlift with Rich A. somewhat recently, but I couldn't remember what my max was. My vague recollection was that it was 335 or 345, but I was not completely sure. And being the control freak that I am, that upset me. I decided that my goal should be 355-365, depending on how I was feeling.
I started at 135, then 225, then 275. Those lifts didn't feel too strenuous, at least not for 3 reps, but I figured it was probably a good idea to slow down on how fast I was going through the workout. There was no point in quickly finding my 3RM, since it was unlikely that I would need a lot of time to walk around on my hands. I took a few minutes rest, then did 315. Now it was starting to get heavy, but not unbearable. I had a decision to make for my next set on whether I should add 10 pound plates and do 335 or 15 pound plates and do 345. From there, I could add 10 pound plates to reach today's goal. Feeling pretty good in general (and since I stupidly choose the higher weight 9.5 times out of 10), I threw on the 15 pound plates.
The lift at 345 was much tougher than the lift at 315, however I made my way through 3 reps. The worst part was that despite chalking up before the lift, the heavy weight did a number on my grip. If I had gotten through this lift without really sore hands, I may have tried two more sets after this one. But after barely holding on through rep #3, I knew that I only had one more set left in me. The good part of this set? Fayth remarking that I looked strong because the bar appeared like it was bending due to all of the weight on it. And I'm a sucker for compliments that I can't quickly shoot down with a self-depricating comeback.
After loading the bar to 365 pounds, re-chalking my hands, and taking a few minutes rest, I was ready for my final set. My 1 rep max is 385 pounds and I know from experience that the toughest part of the lift is simply to get the bar an inch off the ground. Once it is moving, you can keep it moving. But there have been many times when I struggled in vain to deadlift something heavy and the barbell had rooted itself into the floor. I took an extra few seconds to make sure my setup was exactly as I wanted it and then I attempted to stand with the weight. There was brief resistance at first, but then the weight was off the floor. I got rep #1, made it through rep #2, and tried to hold on for rep #3. Grip was definitely an issue for that third rep, but you don't have to go very far on a deadlift, and I made it back up again with rep #3.
I was very pleased with 365 pounds (less pleased later on when I looked up that workout with Rich A. and discovered I had done 355 pounds previously). I might have been able to do a little more than that, but that test will have to wait for another day. I also considered trying to lift 405 pounds once since I was feeling good overall (and lifting 400 pounds sounds cool in my head), but again, that probably shouldn't have been attempted at that point either.
It was time for handstand walks, something I can't do at all and usually leads to some really awkward falls. 10 minutes to injure myself...let's do this!
Where to begin? Well, let's start with false confidence. I secretly think I could eventually do handstand walks. It is one of those strange things at the gym where I sort of do it right and then go "hey, I can do this!", even though I can't. When I go up on my hands, I generally have a brief moment where everything feels stabilized. I'm not sure how I'm making this happen, but it happens. And that has always struck me as what should be the toughest part of doing a handstand walk. Unfortunately, the actual walking has proven tough for me. And once the walking goes bad, it is time for my "dismount", which the Russian judge kindly gave me a score of 2.5 on. It is basically just me tipping over, out of control, landing with a thud.
Samson had the smart idea of grabbing the padded mats, which would gently ease the thuds to come. I made a few attempts to get up, but once I attempted to walk, I fell. Keith, king of the Crossfit tips, told me something that I never would have come up with on my own. He told me that I needed to look down at my hands, not through my arms. Now when we do handstand push-ups against the wall (my only other experience being upside-down in the gym), we are told to look through our arms, so I was confused. Why would this be different? I'm upside-down for both, right? The key is that looking through your arms causes your body to arc, and when we're doing handstand push-ups, we want the body to arc so that our feet are against the wall. We don't want that arc when there is no wall to stabilize us. Ahhhhh! (Light bulb goes on)
I felt even more stable when I got upside-down the next few attempts. Finally, I got upside-down, stabilized myself, then proceeded to start walking. It's happening! It's happening! The world is...spinning? Ok, so I didn't get very far, but I did manage to walk enough that when I came tumbling down, my ass didn't land on the padded mat. Instead it landed on the gym floor, producing a thud that drew gasps. It was a very awkward moment, but it didn't hurt too bad. Plus it allowed me to claim that I walked one mat when we put our WOD scores on the whiteboard.
Next blog post: Festivus prep, Festivus road trips, links to other Festivus blogs, and KOP Festivus champions! (Spoiler: it's not me. Not even close.)
Friday, April 17, 2015
Ya Mon
Workout date: 4/10/15
It is always exciting taking on something you haven't done at the gym. Due to random scheduling conflicts, I had never attempted to figure out what my 1RM overhead squat was. Which is strange, since it is my favorite lift in the gym. There have been times where I thought about doing it during an Open Gym or during a strength session, but I ended up working on something else instead. If someone asked me what my 1RM overhead squat was, I would always say 175, because that was my 1RM squat snatch and you have to do a overhead squat to complete that lift. From what I had been told, taking the weight from the rack should do wonders for my 1RM overhead squat number. Time to see if that would be the case.
Now earlier in the day, Regi took the top spot on the gym board for the ladies with an overhead squat of 180. Since I am about double her size, it made me realize that 175 was not a very impressive number. My goal would be to get 215, since that is my 1RM for the jerk (haven't tested that from the rack in a while either) and if you can't jerk the bar over your head, you really can't overhead squat it. We were supposed to make 7 attempts, so I planned on doing 115-135-155-175-195-205-215. It was a little strange for me to make my current PR only the 4th attempt out of 7, but I had to have a little faith that I was going to jump up in weight going from the rack.
There were two more important things to consider. The first was that we would be taking the bar off the racks and then holding them on our back before jerking them. I had little experience jerking the bar from off of my back and zero experience doing a split jerk that way. When I took the olympic lifting course, we would do push jerks this way, but it was always light weight and set of 8-10 reps. This was going to be a heavy weight for only 1 rep. The second important item was something Keith mentioned to us before we started, and that was to start practicing the split jerk with light weight in earlier reps, because if you wait too long, you won't be ready to split jerk the heavier weights. He was speaking to the entire class, but waiting too long and then trying to split jerk a very heavy weight is definitely something I would have done.
I got started with successful reps at 115 and 135 without much trouble. At 155, I tested the split jerk since there was still the very real chance I would need it at 175. I don't know that my split jerk is all that pretty at the moment, but it felt relatively easy during the course of this workout. Moving to 175, I did another split jerk, regained my overhead squat position, and finished the rep. I was feeling confident, which is dangerous for me, because it usually means failure is imminent. Sure enough, after getting 195 over my head, I lost my balance on the squat down and had to bail on the rep. No PR quite yet. The frustrating thing about that lift was that the weight didn't feel super heavy, I just started to lean forward a bit and couldn't save it.
After getting the bar back on the rack, I tried 195 again. I focused on staying tight and balanced once the bar was over my head. From there, I was able to successfully overhead squat the weight. New PR! Yaaaay! But I could do more. I added 10 more pounds and experienced my 195 lifts all over again. On the first attempt, I started leaning forward on the way down and couldn't save it. On the second attempt, I took more time (which probably isn't ideal when you're holding 205 pounds over your head), but managed to squat with it.
I had made 8 attempts already and our time on this part of the workout was running out, but I needed to give 215 a try. After loading up the bar and holding it on my back, I managed to split jerk the weight, tying my PR. As I got in position for the overhead squat, I kept telling myself to stay balanced. And as I made my way down to the bottom of the squat, I did not lean forward at all. It was perfect. Except for the fact that I could not stand up. I mean, I was pushing up, but my body wasn't going anywhere. I struggled for a few more seconds, then bailed the weight. Kind of a bummer since I had fixed my balance problem, but it left me encouraged that I could do this weight (and possibly a bit more) the next time this is programmed.
For our cash out, we were doing WOD #1 from the upcoming Festivus Games. Pretty simple workout: 1,000 meter row followed by 50 wall balls. I had done this once before with Jill C. in mid-February, completing it in 6:51. I still feel that a quality time will be around 6:15, so there was some time I needed to shave off. What did I learn from that first attempt? I learned that there wasn't much to be gained from going slow on the rower. I finished the 1,000M in 4:02 last time, but after a decent-sized set of wall balls to begin, I could only manage smaller sets (less than 10) after that. So for attempt #2, I would row a little faster.
Next to me on the rower was Ryan A., who is a very strong dude. I knew he was going to blow me away on the row, but I thought I might be able to catch up on wall balls. We got started on the row and sure enough, Ryan was pulling much harder than I was. To my credit, I executed my plan perfectly. In fact, I stayed at nearly the exact same pace the entire 1,000M. Ryan, on the other hand, would blow through big sections of the row, then stop, then go again. But being as strong as he is, he could take breaks and still beat me off the rower by a few seconds. I finished my row at around 3:40 this time.
Over at the wall, I made it through 17 shots in my first set (only 15 last time), but after that, it was time for more little sets. The final 5 sets went 8, 7, 6, 6, 6 and I finished with a time of 6:38. The plan of catching Ryan on the wall balls did not work out as he finished before I did. I am still 23 seconds from where I need to be, but I think I can still slash some additional time off. I just need to be mentally stronger. If I went 9, 8, 8, 8 over 4 sets, I'd be done without one last break and another small set, which is probably a good 10-15 seconds of savings. So that target time is attainable, I simply need to find a little more resolve.
My apologies for not blogging for a week, but wifi in Jamaica is close to non-existent and I have been playing catch up on a lot of fronts since I got home. But two more blog posts will be coming soon, along with a very big post on the Festivus Games this Saturday, involving 13 members of KOP!
It is always exciting taking on something you haven't done at the gym. Due to random scheduling conflicts, I had never attempted to figure out what my 1RM overhead squat was. Which is strange, since it is my favorite lift in the gym. There have been times where I thought about doing it during an Open Gym or during a strength session, but I ended up working on something else instead. If someone asked me what my 1RM overhead squat was, I would always say 175, because that was my 1RM squat snatch and you have to do a overhead squat to complete that lift. From what I had been told, taking the weight from the rack should do wonders for my 1RM overhead squat number. Time to see if that would be the case.
Now earlier in the day, Regi took the top spot on the gym board for the ladies with an overhead squat of 180. Since I am about double her size, it made me realize that 175 was not a very impressive number. My goal would be to get 215, since that is my 1RM for the jerk (haven't tested that from the rack in a while either) and if you can't jerk the bar over your head, you really can't overhead squat it. We were supposed to make 7 attempts, so I planned on doing 115-135-155-175-195-205-215. It was a little strange for me to make my current PR only the 4th attempt out of 7, but I had to have a little faith that I was going to jump up in weight going from the rack.
There were two more important things to consider. The first was that we would be taking the bar off the racks and then holding them on our back before jerking them. I had little experience jerking the bar from off of my back and zero experience doing a split jerk that way. When I took the olympic lifting course, we would do push jerks this way, but it was always light weight and set of 8-10 reps. This was going to be a heavy weight for only 1 rep. The second important item was something Keith mentioned to us before we started, and that was to start practicing the split jerk with light weight in earlier reps, because if you wait too long, you won't be ready to split jerk the heavier weights. He was speaking to the entire class, but waiting too long and then trying to split jerk a very heavy weight is definitely something I would have done.
I got started with successful reps at 115 and 135 without much trouble. At 155, I tested the split jerk since there was still the very real chance I would need it at 175. I don't know that my split jerk is all that pretty at the moment, but it felt relatively easy during the course of this workout. Moving to 175, I did another split jerk, regained my overhead squat position, and finished the rep. I was feeling confident, which is dangerous for me, because it usually means failure is imminent. Sure enough, after getting 195 over my head, I lost my balance on the squat down and had to bail on the rep. No PR quite yet. The frustrating thing about that lift was that the weight didn't feel super heavy, I just started to lean forward a bit and couldn't save it.
After getting the bar back on the rack, I tried 195 again. I focused on staying tight and balanced once the bar was over my head. From there, I was able to successfully overhead squat the weight. New PR! Yaaaay! But I could do more. I added 10 more pounds and experienced my 195 lifts all over again. On the first attempt, I started leaning forward on the way down and couldn't save it. On the second attempt, I took more time (which probably isn't ideal when you're holding 205 pounds over your head), but managed to squat with it.
I had made 8 attempts already and our time on this part of the workout was running out, but I needed to give 215 a try. After loading up the bar and holding it on my back, I managed to split jerk the weight, tying my PR. As I got in position for the overhead squat, I kept telling myself to stay balanced. And as I made my way down to the bottom of the squat, I did not lean forward at all. It was perfect. Except for the fact that I could not stand up. I mean, I was pushing up, but my body wasn't going anywhere. I struggled for a few more seconds, then bailed the weight. Kind of a bummer since I had fixed my balance problem, but it left me encouraged that I could do this weight (and possibly a bit more) the next time this is programmed.
For our cash out, we were doing WOD #1 from the upcoming Festivus Games. Pretty simple workout: 1,000 meter row followed by 50 wall balls. I had done this once before with Jill C. in mid-February, completing it in 6:51. I still feel that a quality time will be around 6:15, so there was some time I needed to shave off. What did I learn from that first attempt? I learned that there wasn't much to be gained from going slow on the rower. I finished the 1,000M in 4:02 last time, but after a decent-sized set of wall balls to begin, I could only manage smaller sets (less than 10) after that. So for attempt #2, I would row a little faster.
Next to me on the rower was Ryan A., who is a very strong dude. I knew he was going to blow me away on the row, but I thought I might be able to catch up on wall balls. We got started on the row and sure enough, Ryan was pulling much harder than I was. To my credit, I executed my plan perfectly. In fact, I stayed at nearly the exact same pace the entire 1,000M. Ryan, on the other hand, would blow through big sections of the row, then stop, then go again. But being as strong as he is, he could take breaks and still beat me off the rower by a few seconds. I finished my row at around 3:40 this time.
Over at the wall, I made it through 17 shots in my first set (only 15 last time), but after that, it was time for more little sets. The final 5 sets went 8, 7, 6, 6, 6 and I finished with a time of 6:38. The plan of catching Ryan on the wall balls did not work out as he finished before I did. I am still 23 seconds from where I need to be, but I think I can still slash some additional time off. I just need to be mentally stronger. If I went 9, 8, 8, 8 over 4 sets, I'd be done without one last break and another small set, which is probably a good 10-15 seconds of savings. So that target time is attainable, I simply need to find a little more resolve.
My apologies for not blogging for a week, but wifi in Jamaica is close to non-existent and I have been playing catch up on a lot of fronts since I got home. But two more blog posts will be coming soon, along with a very big post on the Festivus Games this Saturday, involving 13 members of KOP!
Wednesday, April 8, 2015
Slippy Chippy
Workout date: 4/8/15
Oooh! A chipper! Even though I have yet to show the ability to excel at these workouts, I am still drawn to them, like a mosquito with no upper body strength to the zapper. Tonight's fun included the following: 60 calories on the rower, 50 KB swings (55/35), 40 burpees, 30 power snatches (95/65), 20 pistols (10L/10R), and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups. Totally on board with the first 200 reps. Not so much with the last 10 reps. 10 chest-to-bars after all that? That might take forever. But I wasn't going to worry about that. Get through everything else and cross that bridge when I get there.
Rowing for calories was part of 15.5 and I thought I handled that part of the workout well. Big pulls, slow pace. And since this workout was going to push 20 minutes (or more), I didn't see a reason to go nuts on the row. Unfortunately, I was being a little too nonchalant during the row. Keith noticed I was sitting there with the handle on my chest after each pull, instead of letting the handle head back to the flywheel. Perhaps I got too caught up in my own strategy. (Me? Never!)
I started moving a little faster, but I still liked my pace in general. And this was my first experiment with the damper on 9 (seemed manageable). Matt E. was the first one off the rower, but that was not totally unexpected. Rachel got off the rower when I hit 58 calories, which was a little disappointing as I probably should have finished the row before her, but I wasn't going to be distraught about being behind by 2 calories.
KB swings are tricky for me in that I never feel like I am doing them 100% properly. And when my hands get sweaty, all bets are off, as I begin to really fear that I'll lose my grip on the KB and send it flying somewhere. There's also the not so small issue of me sounding like a professional female tennis player when I swing a heavy KB. I'd like to not do that, but it really becomes necessary as I start to tire. The plan for the KB swings was simple: big sets, no more than 4 sets being ideal. I got going and knocked out 15 before setting the KB down. I got my breath back, shook out my arms, and made my way up to 26 reps. Well that wasn't great. I took more of a break, telling myself that I had to do at least 12 reps on this next set. As I neared 38 reps, I told myself to get more. After finishing rep #40, I set the KB down again. Another break, 10 last reps, and it was burpee time.
I was still behind Rachel, but Michal was starting to catch up to me as well, and I knew she was going to do burpees faster than me. So there was one thought running through my mind as I set off to do 40 burpees: keep moving. Even at the start, I was crawling to the floor, then popping up and clapping my hands. Along the way, I would have spurts where I could do a few solid burpees in a row (meaning burpees not requiring crawling), but even when I would tire again, I kept moving. Meanwhile, Michal was next to me, doing burpees like she was completely fresh. And then something strange happened: she stopped.
Rachel and Michal have become the two people in the gym that I work out with the most. Because we are constantly doing these workouts together, we've developed the type of relationship where we're encouraging each other along the way. But we also have developed the type of relationship where we feel comfortable yelling at each other as well. I guess it was because I had committed to not stopping during my burpees that I became a little ticked off that she was taking a break, even though she must have completed 10 in the time I did 4. Tired and with sweat pouring off me, I told Michal "don't stop". Didn't even turn towards her. Probably just grunted it. But the great thing was that she started doing burpees again.
(Yes, I'm aware that I'm in store for a lot of yelling coming my way in future workouts by telling this story. But this stuff needs to be in the blog. Also, my brain doesn't work well after long workouts.)
I finished my 40 burpees slightly before Michal and moved on to the 30 power snatches. I didn't think these would be too bad, but I was winded. I started with sets of 3 until I got to 15 reps. In between sets, I tried my best not to squat down near the floor to get my breath back. After one set, I walked over to a pole and leaned on that to keep myself upright. Pretty sure it helped, as I made it to 23 reps on my next set. One more lean on the pole while drinking in sweet, sweet oxygen, and then I finished off the last 7 reps.
It was time for my favorite part of the workout: pistols! 10 on the left side, 10 on the right side. I was going to destroy this! Or...my core could be fried and I could twinge every time I did a pistol. Yeah, that was more what happened. As I was slowly getting through the pistols, Rachel had completed the workout. Schooled again. But I was still ahead of Michal going to the final movement of the chipper.
Chest-to-bar pull-ups. Ugh! The cause of my 15.2 demise. The cause of my 15.2 re-do temper tantrum. And here I was, 20 minutes of work in, still needing to do the 10 I struggled with a month ago. Tonight I was attempting them on the high bar. I felt that part of my problem during the Open was that kipping on the low bar feels awkward due to the fact that I'm concerned my feet will hit the floor. Kipping feels more natural on the high bar, so that was my best bet.
I didn't start out too bad, as I got 3 fairly quickly. But then it fell apart as expected. My biggest flaw is that my right hand starts slipping over as I get tired. And that kept happening again tonight. Even as I tried to will it stay where it started. It would slip over again and again and again. Luckily I was still getting some successful reps despite my terrible form. I got up to 7 before I realized Michal was finished and noticed that everyone was trying to provide moral support to the guy who sucks at chest-to-bar pull-ups. Great! I had a few dry close reps where my chest just missed the bar and that was extremely frustrating. But eventually I got number 8. Then number 9. And at long last, number 10. Final time, a very slow 24:43.
Tomorrow will pretty much be a rest day, although I may try to sneak over to the gym to get some back squats in. Then a workout on Friday followed by my first Crossfit wedding this weekend!
Oooh! A chipper! Even though I have yet to show the ability to excel at these workouts, I am still drawn to them, like a mosquito with no upper body strength to the zapper. Tonight's fun included the following: 60 calories on the rower, 50 KB swings (55/35), 40 burpees, 30 power snatches (95/65), 20 pistols (10L/10R), and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups. Totally on board with the first 200 reps. Not so much with the last 10 reps. 10 chest-to-bars after all that? That might take forever. But I wasn't going to worry about that. Get through everything else and cross that bridge when I get there.
Rowing for calories was part of 15.5 and I thought I handled that part of the workout well. Big pulls, slow pace. And since this workout was going to push 20 minutes (or more), I didn't see a reason to go nuts on the row. Unfortunately, I was being a little too nonchalant during the row. Keith noticed I was sitting there with the handle on my chest after each pull, instead of letting the handle head back to the flywheel. Perhaps I got too caught up in my own strategy. (Me? Never!)
I started moving a little faster, but I still liked my pace in general. And this was my first experiment with the damper on 9 (seemed manageable). Matt E. was the first one off the rower, but that was not totally unexpected. Rachel got off the rower when I hit 58 calories, which was a little disappointing as I probably should have finished the row before her, but I wasn't going to be distraught about being behind by 2 calories.
KB swings are tricky for me in that I never feel like I am doing them 100% properly. And when my hands get sweaty, all bets are off, as I begin to really fear that I'll lose my grip on the KB and send it flying somewhere. There's also the not so small issue of me sounding like a professional female tennis player when I swing a heavy KB. I'd like to not do that, but it really becomes necessary as I start to tire. The plan for the KB swings was simple: big sets, no more than 4 sets being ideal. I got going and knocked out 15 before setting the KB down. I got my breath back, shook out my arms, and made my way up to 26 reps. Well that wasn't great. I took more of a break, telling myself that I had to do at least 12 reps on this next set. As I neared 38 reps, I told myself to get more. After finishing rep #40, I set the KB down again. Another break, 10 last reps, and it was burpee time.
I was still behind Rachel, but Michal was starting to catch up to me as well, and I knew she was going to do burpees faster than me. So there was one thought running through my mind as I set off to do 40 burpees: keep moving. Even at the start, I was crawling to the floor, then popping up and clapping my hands. Along the way, I would have spurts where I could do a few solid burpees in a row (meaning burpees not requiring crawling), but even when I would tire again, I kept moving. Meanwhile, Michal was next to me, doing burpees like she was completely fresh. And then something strange happened: she stopped.
Rachel and Michal have become the two people in the gym that I work out with the most. Because we are constantly doing these workouts together, we've developed the type of relationship where we're encouraging each other along the way. But we also have developed the type of relationship where we feel comfortable yelling at each other as well. I guess it was because I had committed to not stopping during my burpees that I became a little ticked off that she was taking a break, even though she must have completed 10 in the time I did 4. Tired and with sweat pouring off me, I told Michal "don't stop". Didn't even turn towards her. Probably just grunted it. But the great thing was that she started doing burpees again.
(Yes, I'm aware that I'm in store for a lot of yelling coming my way in future workouts by telling this story. But this stuff needs to be in the blog. Also, my brain doesn't work well after long workouts.)
I finished my 40 burpees slightly before Michal and moved on to the 30 power snatches. I didn't think these would be too bad, but I was winded. I started with sets of 3 until I got to 15 reps. In between sets, I tried my best not to squat down near the floor to get my breath back. After one set, I walked over to a pole and leaned on that to keep myself upright. Pretty sure it helped, as I made it to 23 reps on my next set. One more lean on the pole while drinking in sweet, sweet oxygen, and then I finished off the last 7 reps.
It was time for my favorite part of the workout: pistols! 10 on the left side, 10 on the right side. I was going to destroy this! Or...my core could be fried and I could twinge every time I did a pistol. Yeah, that was more what happened. As I was slowly getting through the pistols, Rachel had completed the workout. Schooled again. But I was still ahead of Michal going to the final movement of the chipper.
Chest-to-bar pull-ups. Ugh! The cause of my 15.2 demise. The cause of my 15.2 re-do temper tantrum. And here I was, 20 minutes of work in, still needing to do the 10 I struggled with a month ago. Tonight I was attempting them on the high bar. I felt that part of my problem during the Open was that kipping on the low bar feels awkward due to the fact that I'm concerned my feet will hit the floor. Kipping feels more natural on the high bar, so that was my best bet.
I didn't start out too bad, as I got 3 fairly quickly. But then it fell apart as expected. My biggest flaw is that my right hand starts slipping over as I get tired. And that kept happening again tonight. Even as I tried to will it stay where it started. It would slip over again and again and again. Luckily I was still getting some successful reps despite my terrible form. I got up to 7 before I realized Michal was finished and noticed that everyone was trying to provide moral support to the guy who sucks at chest-to-bar pull-ups. Great! I had a few dry close reps where my chest just missed the bar and that was extremely frustrating. But eventually I got number 8. Then number 9. And at long last, number 10. Final time, a very slow 24:43.
Tomorrow will pretty much be a rest day, although I may try to sneak over to the gym to get some back squats in. Then a workout on Friday followed by my first Crossfit wedding this weekend!
Tuesday, April 7, 2015
Timid Hips
Workout date: 4/7/15
First, a shenanigans update. After a putrid workout this evening (details coming), I went to get a six-pack from Wegman's. As I made my way to the cashier, I mentioned my last visit, assuring the gentleman that my license was brand new and that it would verify my age. The guy takes my license, types some numbers into the cash register (birth date I'm assuming) and hands me back my license. No swipe! Seriously? I went through all that grief last month and that lady could have typed in my info? Shenanigans!
Tonight's workout was Diane, a couplet of deadlifts (225/155) and handstand push-ups using a rep scheme of 21-15-9. I've done this workout at least once before and I remember it not going well. Before we got started, we had 15 minutes to practice handstand push-ups. My comfort zone is doing them with 2 abmats. I can't kip (surprise!), but I can do strict handstand push-ups with 2 abmats and that was my plan for the workout. While we were practicing, I tried to do some with only 1 abmat. And then I tried to kip, which I was doing completely wrong. Finally I got my setup right, but still did not successfully execute the handstand push-up. Why?
Keith: "You have timid hips."
Michal: "That's what his wife says!"
Thanks Michal! (To be fair, Michal got her first legit handstand push-up tonight. Then she did about 50 more. So she earned that one.)
Despite my physical failings, I got ready for the other part of the workout. Determining my deadlift weight was still something I hadn't figured out. I think I may have attempted this workout with 225 pounds and pretty soon I was doing singles. Keith mentioned that we needed to pick a weight that we could move with quickly, so my thoughts turned to using 185 pounds. Then the stubborn part of me got to thinking that was too light. And perusing the board, I saw some guys that I use for comparison purposes had used 205. Maybe 205 was the way to go. I went back and forth on it, but decided on 185 because I didn't want to be the idiot who went slow using too much weight.
Keith counted us down and we were off doing 21 deadlifts. And I was moving fast! Probably too fast. I did all 21 deadlifts unbroken and was headed to the wall after 53 seconds. The lesson: I should have used 205 pounds. At least I have this blog to remind me of that if I do this workout again. (Blog reminder: never do this workout again!) Feeling all proud of myself, I got upside down and started on the handstand push-ups. One, two, three, erg...four...errrrrggggg...five. And down. Okay, a set of five wasn't awful. What was awful was failing on attempt #6. And then realizing I couldn't do any more strict handstand push-ups. It was time to employ my timid hips and some lousy kips!
A quick note: over the course of the next 6-7 minutes, I did pull off a couple of kipping handstand push-ups. But for the most part, it was me landing on my head and then looking like an upside-down frog being electrocuted. It was incredibly frustrating. I had resolved to doing range of motion at this point and eventually finished "rep" 21.
Royally pissed off, I went back to my barbell and did the 15 angriest deadlifts you've ever seen. They may have even been no-reps as I was slamming the barbell into the ground pretty good. At a certain point, I determined I wasn't angry enough, thought about the horrible day I had prior to coming to the gym, and rammed the barbell into the ground even harder. Mature! I strung all 15, further proof that 205 was the correct weight for this workout.
I got back to the wall and tried to flail through some more range of motion reps, which included one accidental rep where I actually kipped up. But by the time I got to 11 reps, my shoulders were shot. It was time for stinkbugs, as much as I didn't want to do them. Stinkbugs are a cross between the downward-facing dog yoga pose and push-ups. There is a very special reason I hate doing them though: the red mark. This is a unique problem for follically-challenged guys like myself. When you press your forehead to the mat enough times, you develop a red mark on your forehead, which does not make people give you weird looks at all. However, at this stage, there was no avoiding it. I wasn't even pulling off the range of motion handstand push-ups anymore.
I did 4 stinkbugs, came back to my barbell, did 9 deadlifts, then went 2-2-2-3 to finish off my 9 stinkbugs. Final time? A horrific 13:57. I asked Keith to put me down for "Form" instead of my actual time, but I couldn't get him to do it.
So that whole thing sucked. But tomorrow there is an incredible chipper scheduled for the workout. That should make for an exciting, way too long, blog post. Till then, good night!
First, a shenanigans update. After a putrid workout this evening (details coming), I went to get a six-pack from Wegman's. As I made my way to the cashier, I mentioned my last visit, assuring the gentleman that my license was brand new and that it would verify my age. The guy takes my license, types some numbers into the cash register (birth date I'm assuming) and hands me back my license. No swipe! Seriously? I went through all that grief last month and that lady could have typed in my info? Shenanigans!
Tonight's workout was Diane, a couplet of deadlifts (225/155) and handstand push-ups using a rep scheme of 21-15-9. I've done this workout at least once before and I remember it not going well. Before we got started, we had 15 minutes to practice handstand push-ups. My comfort zone is doing them with 2 abmats. I can't kip (surprise!), but I can do strict handstand push-ups with 2 abmats and that was my plan for the workout. While we were practicing, I tried to do some with only 1 abmat. And then I tried to kip, which I was doing completely wrong. Finally I got my setup right, but still did not successfully execute the handstand push-up. Why?
Keith: "You have timid hips."
Michal: "That's what his wife says!"
Thanks Michal! (To be fair, Michal got her first legit handstand push-up tonight. Then she did about 50 more. So she earned that one.)
Despite my physical failings, I got ready for the other part of the workout. Determining my deadlift weight was still something I hadn't figured out. I think I may have attempted this workout with 225 pounds and pretty soon I was doing singles. Keith mentioned that we needed to pick a weight that we could move with quickly, so my thoughts turned to using 185 pounds. Then the stubborn part of me got to thinking that was too light. And perusing the board, I saw some guys that I use for comparison purposes had used 205. Maybe 205 was the way to go. I went back and forth on it, but decided on 185 because I didn't want to be the idiot who went slow using too much weight.
Keith counted us down and we were off doing 21 deadlifts. And I was moving fast! Probably too fast. I did all 21 deadlifts unbroken and was headed to the wall after 53 seconds. The lesson: I should have used 205 pounds. At least I have this blog to remind me of that if I do this workout again. (Blog reminder: never do this workout again!) Feeling all proud of myself, I got upside down and started on the handstand push-ups. One, two, three, erg...four...errrrrggggg...five. And down. Okay, a set of five wasn't awful. What was awful was failing on attempt #6. And then realizing I couldn't do any more strict handstand push-ups. It was time to employ my timid hips and some lousy kips!
A quick note: over the course of the next 6-7 minutes, I did pull off a couple of kipping handstand push-ups. But for the most part, it was me landing on my head and then looking like an upside-down frog being electrocuted. It was incredibly frustrating. I had resolved to doing range of motion at this point and eventually finished "rep" 21.
Royally pissed off, I went back to my barbell and did the 15 angriest deadlifts you've ever seen. They may have even been no-reps as I was slamming the barbell into the ground pretty good. At a certain point, I determined I wasn't angry enough, thought about the horrible day I had prior to coming to the gym, and rammed the barbell into the ground even harder. Mature! I strung all 15, further proof that 205 was the correct weight for this workout.
I got back to the wall and tried to flail through some more range of motion reps, which included one accidental rep where I actually kipped up. But by the time I got to 11 reps, my shoulders were shot. It was time for stinkbugs, as much as I didn't want to do them. Stinkbugs are a cross between the downward-facing dog yoga pose and push-ups. There is a very special reason I hate doing them though: the red mark. This is a unique problem for follically-challenged guys like myself. When you press your forehead to the mat enough times, you develop a red mark on your forehead, which does not make people give you weird looks at all. However, at this stage, there was no avoiding it. I wasn't even pulling off the range of motion handstand push-ups anymore.
I did 4 stinkbugs, came back to my barbell, did 9 deadlifts, then went 2-2-2-3 to finish off my 9 stinkbugs. Final time? A horrific 13:57. I asked Keith to put me down for "Form" instead of my actual time, but I couldn't get him to do it.
So that whole thing sucked. But tomorrow there is an incredible chipper scheduled for the workout. That should make for an exciting, way too long, blog post. Till then, good night!
I Kicked Ass Tonight
Workout date: 4/6/15
(I probably would never have used that subject line on my own, but two people whose opinions I regard highly encouraged me to roll with it.)
My gym schedule is still not back to normal. And with a trip to Jamaica on the horizon next weekend, it probably won't be normal again until later this month. But I went to the gym planning on doing the WOD and following that up with a return to Open Strength. I've made improvements in several workouts recently, but I haven't felt strong. When I'm lifting big weight, I have felt shaky, even on successful lifts. So I think it's time to start up another squat program. Last summer I did front squats (which I prefer). This time around I'll be doing back squats (which I am terrible at for unknown reasons).
Before that though, it was time for the WOD, which consisted of a strength portion (2 rep max push press), a metcon (6 minute AMRAP of 15 GHD sit-ups and 10 overhead squats using 95/65 pounds), and a skill portion (muscle-up practice). Based on what I said earlier, you can imagine how optimistic I was about the push press this evening. We were supposed to do 7 sets, so I planned on starting at 75 pounds and increasing the weight 20 pounds every time. My 1 rep max was 185 (and that may or may not have been a slight push jerk). I didn't know what my 2 rep max was, but I thought 175 was a safe bet. So the plan was to go 75-95-115-135-155-175-195 if all went well. I like my second to last set to be pushing the envelope a bit, so that if I fail, I can drop a bit on the last set. If I succeed, then I can go for a PR. More than likely, if I hit 175, I'd end up trying 185 or 190, unless I felt really good about my 175 attempt.
Since class was a bit on the crowded side (hello warm weather), we paired up, or in some cases, worked in groups of three. With the weights being taken from the rack, it is more important to pair up with people who are about the same height as you rather than people who lift about the same amount as you. Luke and I partnered up, but then Rachel didn't really have another girl to work out with who was her height, so she joined us. Luke has been having some shoulder issues, so he did the first 3 sets before working on form. I had been pushing Rachel to get to 155 as that would get her name on the board for the 857th time, but she wasn't feeling it at 135 and ended up dropping down to 125 for a bit before attempting 135 again later on. When I did 115, Coach Keith noticed that I was coming up on my toes after doing my dip-drive, which could lead to me re-bending my knees (making it a push jerk). He advised me to really stay in my heels and I focused on that as I progressed in weight.
I got another cue from Keith after I completed my lift at 155. I was dropping my elbows on my second rep, causing me to lose my front rack and really having to exert to get that second rep above my head. If I could keep a solid front rack for the second rep, it would go smoother. Point taken. I got ready for 175 with mixed feelings. On one hand, the weight was feeling heavy. But on the other hand, I was getting good power from my dip-drive, and the front rack tip was likely to help considerably. I did the first rep cleanly, then as I brought the bar back down to my shoulders, I made sure my front rack was solid. I drove through my heels and got the second rep over my head. It was probably the best second rep I had done yet.
Feeling good about myself, I decided to throw caution to the wind and added 20 more pounds for 195. If you've never done something once, why not try it twice? I was mildly concerned, but it was my last set, so if I failed, no big deal. After a few deep breaths, I grabbed the bar off the rack. In the back of my mind, I was expecting one of these dip-drives to result in the bar going nowhere, but for the first rep, I got a big push from my legs and the bar moved over my head quickly. Again, I made sure to have a solid front rack when I returned the bar to my shoulders. Having gotten the first rep, I was determined to get the second one. This dip-drive was not nearly as successful, but it got most of the job done. I was able to press out the rest of the way while staying in my heels and 195 was my new 2 rep max.
But wait, there's more! Being the greedy bastard that I am, I decided to try an 8th set using 205, because breaking 200 sounded really cool to me. Now if I'm being completely honest, that second rep at 195 was pretty dicey and awfully heavy. So doing 205 twice was going to be a miracle. Turns out doing it once was going to require some magic as well. I got a solid dip-drive again, but I could not press it out the rest of the way. I think I probably could do it if I was a little fresher, but that will have to wait for another day.
Luke and I partnered up again for the cash-out, with the two of us alternating between the GHD and the overheads. My love of overheads has been covered frequently on this blog, and I'm not too shabby on the GHD machine, so I thought this was my type of cash-out. It was Luke's type of cash-out. Poor Luke had to keep waiting on me to finish up so we could switch. I thought I was moving pretty fast, but Luke was always done first. I need to choose slower partners! I was worn down at the end of round 3 and tried my best to finish round 4, but 3 rounds and 17 reps was all I could handle in 6 minutes.
Muscle up practice? Since class had run a bit long, I conveniently skipped out on that. Oops!
For strength, I started my 6 week squat program with a 6x2 (6 rounds of 2 reps) back squat at 220 pounds (80% of my 1RM of 275). Initially, I will alternate between 6 rounds of 2 reps and 6 rounds of an increasing number of reps using the same weight of 220 pounds. This goes on until I reach 6x6. Then it drops to 5x5, 4x4, etc., but the weight increases by 5%, until I reach 2x2 at my current 1RM, with the expectation that I will hit 105% of my current 1RM (288.5) at the end of the program. There are 18 sessions altogether, meaning I need to squat 3 times per week.
At first, the weight felt heavy, because I don't do a lot of back squats, and because I suck at them. But by round 4, the weight didn't feel too bad. And the 6x2 goes by pretty quickly. After that, I worked on strict pull-ups. Failed at a strict chest-to-bar, although I did a strict chest-to-bar chin-up. Then I went outside and pushed the prowler with the guys. I did 3 rounds out and back with 270 pounds on the prowler.
Tomorrow is Diane, which means deadlifts and handstand push-ups. Should be uggggh-leeee.
(I probably would never have used that subject line on my own, but two people whose opinions I regard highly encouraged me to roll with it.)
My gym schedule is still not back to normal. And with a trip to Jamaica on the horizon next weekend, it probably won't be normal again until later this month. But I went to the gym planning on doing the WOD and following that up with a return to Open Strength. I've made improvements in several workouts recently, but I haven't felt strong. When I'm lifting big weight, I have felt shaky, even on successful lifts. So I think it's time to start up another squat program. Last summer I did front squats (which I prefer). This time around I'll be doing back squats (which I am terrible at for unknown reasons).
Before that though, it was time for the WOD, which consisted of a strength portion (2 rep max push press), a metcon (6 minute AMRAP of 15 GHD sit-ups and 10 overhead squats using 95/65 pounds), and a skill portion (muscle-up practice). Based on what I said earlier, you can imagine how optimistic I was about the push press this evening. We were supposed to do 7 sets, so I planned on starting at 75 pounds and increasing the weight 20 pounds every time. My 1 rep max was 185 (and that may or may not have been a slight push jerk). I didn't know what my 2 rep max was, but I thought 175 was a safe bet. So the plan was to go 75-95-115-135-155-175-195 if all went well. I like my second to last set to be pushing the envelope a bit, so that if I fail, I can drop a bit on the last set. If I succeed, then I can go for a PR. More than likely, if I hit 175, I'd end up trying 185 or 190, unless I felt really good about my 175 attempt.
Since class was a bit on the crowded side (hello warm weather), we paired up, or in some cases, worked in groups of three. With the weights being taken from the rack, it is more important to pair up with people who are about the same height as you rather than people who lift about the same amount as you. Luke and I partnered up, but then Rachel didn't really have another girl to work out with who was her height, so she joined us. Luke has been having some shoulder issues, so he did the first 3 sets before working on form. I had been pushing Rachel to get to 155 as that would get her name on the board for the 857th time, but she wasn't feeling it at 135 and ended up dropping down to 125 for a bit before attempting 135 again later on. When I did 115, Coach Keith noticed that I was coming up on my toes after doing my dip-drive, which could lead to me re-bending my knees (making it a push jerk). He advised me to really stay in my heels and I focused on that as I progressed in weight.
I got another cue from Keith after I completed my lift at 155. I was dropping my elbows on my second rep, causing me to lose my front rack and really having to exert to get that second rep above my head. If I could keep a solid front rack for the second rep, it would go smoother. Point taken. I got ready for 175 with mixed feelings. On one hand, the weight was feeling heavy. But on the other hand, I was getting good power from my dip-drive, and the front rack tip was likely to help considerably. I did the first rep cleanly, then as I brought the bar back down to my shoulders, I made sure my front rack was solid. I drove through my heels and got the second rep over my head. It was probably the best second rep I had done yet.
Feeling good about myself, I decided to throw caution to the wind and added 20 more pounds for 195. If you've never done something once, why not try it twice? I was mildly concerned, but it was my last set, so if I failed, no big deal. After a few deep breaths, I grabbed the bar off the rack. In the back of my mind, I was expecting one of these dip-drives to result in the bar going nowhere, but for the first rep, I got a big push from my legs and the bar moved over my head quickly. Again, I made sure to have a solid front rack when I returned the bar to my shoulders. Having gotten the first rep, I was determined to get the second one. This dip-drive was not nearly as successful, but it got most of the job done. I was able to press out the rest of the way while staying in my heels and 195 was my new 2 rep max.
But wait, there's more! Being the greedy bastard that I am, I decided to try an 8th set using 205, because breaking 200 sounded really cool to me. Now if I'm being completely honest, that second rep at 195 was pretty dicey and awfully heavy. So doing 205 twice was going to be a miracle. Turns out doing it once was going to require some magic as well. I got a solid dip-drive again, but I could not press it out the rest of the way. I think I probably could do it if I was a little fresher, but that will have to wait for another day.
Luke and I partnered up again for the cash-out, with the two of us alternating between the GHD and the overheads. My love of overheads has been covered frequently on this blog, and I'm not too shabby on the GHD machine, so I thought this was my type of cash-out. It was Luke's type of cash-out. Poor Luke had to keep waiting on me to finish up so we could switch. I thought I was moving pretty fast, but Luke was always done first. I need to choose slower partners! I was worn down at the end of round 3 and tried my best to finish round 4, but 3 rounds and 17 reps was all I could handle in 6 minutes.
Muscle up practice? Since class had run a bit long, I conveniently skipped out on that. Oops!
For strength, I started my 6 week squat program with a 6x2 (6 rounds of 2 reps) back squat at 220 pounds (80% of my 1RM of 275). Initially, I will alternate between 6 rounds of 2 reps and 6 rounds of an increasing number of reps using the same weight of 220 pounds. This goes on until I reach 6x6. Then it drops to 5x5, 4x4, etc., but the weight increases by 5%, until I reach 2x2 at my current 1RM, with the expectation that I will hit 105% of my current 1RM (288.5) at the end of the program. There are 18 sessions altogether, meaning I need to squat 3 times per week.
At first, the weight felt heavy, because I don't do a lot of back squats, and because I suck at them. But by round 4, the weight didn't feel too bad. And the 6x2 goes by pretty quickly. After that, I worked on strict pull-ups. Failed at a strict chest-to-bar, although I did a strict chest-to-bar chin-up. Then I went outside and pushed the prowler with the guys. I did 3 rounds out and back with 270 pounds on the prowler.
Tomorrow is Diane, which means deadlifts and handstand push-ups. Should be uggggh-leeee.
Sunday, April 5, 2015
Beast Or Bitch
Workout date: 4/4/15
I'm starting to think Saturday is my least favorite day of the week. When that alarm goes off at 6:15 and it's still dark outside? Ugh. So, so bad. And somehow I have no way of getting out of these classes unless I am in a different zip code. (Spoiler: that will be the case next week!) But if I try to use the fact that I'm exhausted or not feeling great when I wake up, I get a barrage of threatening texts on my phone. I gotta fix that somehow.
Anyway, I did my usual routine of slowly getting up, walking to the bathroom, and standing in the shower for an unknown, but very long, amount of time. For me, 7am is when I end up leaving the house, not when I get to the gym. It doesn't matter all that much though, because even arriving at 7:15, class hasn't started. And most of the time I'm not even the last to arrive. Today's class would consist of Aimee, Giulz, Marisa, Keith, Rachel, and Michal. The warm-up was 3 rounds of 5 toes-to-bar followed by 10 wall balls. Simple enough. I even did the toes-to-bar without hand protection. Not great, but I got through it. After that, it was time for snatch practice. We were all kind of milling around doing our own thing, but eventually Aimee put 15 minutes on the clock to let us know how much time we had before the main event. I went light for my snatches, but I was very focused on my pulls and also hanging out in the bottom of my squat. Those are the elements that I tend to forget when I snatch, and if I want to snatch heavy, I will need to improve on those aspects. I worked up from 75 to 125 before the clock hit 15 minutes.
The real workout was the WOD that had been posted for all classes on Saturday and it looked pretty horrendous. It was essentially 3 WODs in 1. Here it is:
Start workout:
3 rounds:
12 Thrusters (135/95)
6 Ring Muscle-Ups
After 15:00
3 rounds:
12 Burpee Box Jumps (24"/20")
6 Squat Cleans (205/145)
After 30:00
3 rounds:
12 Overhead Squats (155/105)
6 Bar Muscle-Ups
So there was 45 minutes of work in store for me. This was becoming a theme during these Saturday workouts, although in the past, the 45 minute workouts had been partner workouts. This would be 45 minutes on my own. Some parts of this were easy to figure out. I have no variety of muscle-up, so both the ring muscle-ups and the bar muscle-ups would be jumping muscle-ups. I would use a 17" box for the bar muscle-ups. The rest was a little trickier. I had an idea of what weights I would like to use, but since this was a 45 minute behemoth, it probably made sense to fight my urges to attempt everything RX and scale back a bit. I'd start off with 135 for the thrusters, then only go to 165 for the squat cleans, then try 155 for the overheads. Figuring in shoe changes was also tricky. The idea was that each section should be completed in 10-12 minutes. With 3 minutes of rest, I could go lifting shoes in section 1, regular shoes in section 2, then lifting shoes for section 3. As long as I had that much rest...
We got started with the first section and I realized quickly that 135 pounds was a bad choice for the thrusters. 36 heavy thrusters and 18 jumping muscle ups didn't seem like it would take 12 minutes. And that was true. It actually took 13 minutes and 26 seconds. During my first round, I tried to put together some bigger sets of thrusters, but 3 was the big set. Then some sets of 2. And I was sweating like crazy. I knew then and there that round 2 and 3 would involve "fast" singles when it came to the thrusters. As for the jumping muscle ups, they weren't pretty, but I did them in round 1. In round 2, I got a couple, but the others were merely attempts. Round 3 was completely attempts as I was too tired to even come close to doing a real jumping muscle-up.
Instead of 3-5 minutes of rest and time to change my shoes, I had 94 seconds. Also, my shirt was completely saturated already. Not good. I put 30 more pounds on my bar (that was depressing!) and then attempted to change shoes as quickly as possible. When the countdown for the start of the second section hit one, I still didn't have my right sneaker on. About 15 seconds later, I trudged over to my box to begin the second section, sapped of energy, not eager to do burpees at all. I worked through the burpee box jumps, hoping that the squat cleans would not be too unpleasant. My single thrusters were all squat cleans that I strained to get above my head. These cleans would be heavier, but there were half as many to do.
It turns out that 165 was a very good choice for the squat cleans. Can I squat clean more than that? Sure. But 165 was probably that perfect weight to be both challenging yet doable given how tired I was. In my first round, I started with a couple slow reps, but then I did 2 sets of 2 fast squat cleans, meaning that I went right back to the bar after dropping the first rep. There wasn't much change in my burpee box jump speed, but I was catching up to Rachel and Michal on the squat cleans. For round 2, I did 3 sets of 2. And in round 3, I did a set of 3, then a set of 2, and then the final rep. I finished in 12:58 (including the 15 seconds at the beginning where I was putting on my right sneaker), 3 seconds behind Michal, 3 seconds ahead of Rachel. At least I would have 2 minutes to rest before the final section.
Given my limited rest period yet again, I kept my regular sneakers on. And I decided to drop from 155 to 135 for the overheads. Not my greatest decision as I should have went lower than that. I was even more tired than I realized. I knew better than to try and attempt to snatch the barbell. I was definitely not going to try and squat snatch it and get an easy overhead rep. That would have ended very poorly! Instead, I cleaned the bar to my shoulders, took a slightly wider grip, then did a bad jerk where I basically threw my head back and semi-bench pressed the bar over my head. Desperate times...
Despite my love of overheads, I could only manage 3-5 reps each time I picked up the bar. Sometimes the weight got to be too much. Sometimes I was dead tired. But it was a lot of work to get through 12 reps. The jumping bar muscle-ups sounded awful in my head, even though they are one of the rare movements in the gym that I find to be fun. I tried to do a few in a row, but it was slow going. Still, I was at the point in the workout where I had to find a way to finish. I got back to the bar for round 2 and managed 5 reps on my first set. There we go. After some rest to get my breath back, I knocked out...three reps. Not what I was hoping for. Getting the last 4 strung together was not going to be an easy task. I finally got the bar back up, did rep 1, rep 2, and barely got rep 3 before dropping. Dammit. Now I needed to clean and jerk this just for one last rep. I managed to finish that off and headed back over for more jumping bar muscle-ups.
I don't remember exactly how I did the second round of 6 jumping bar muscle-ups, but I did manage to string some together. After the last one, I got back over to my barbell with the finish line now in sight. With my renewed enthusiasm and some adrenaline pumping, I was ready to do a big set. So I picked up the bar and got...3 reps. And then I gasped for air. There wasn't much more to do, but my body was desperately pleading that I stop. It was at this point that Marisa (who of course was finished by now) yelled over to me to pick up the bar again. As I tried to convince myself to do just that, she said "do you want to be a beast or a bitch?" With my hands on the bar, I turned to Marisa and smiled.
Ya see, no one has ever confused me for a beast. And my bitch cred is through the roof. So there was only one answer to her question. But it was the last piece of motivation I needed to get through the workout. When I got the bar over my head again, I managed to get through 5 more reps. Another rest and then one last set of 4 reps left me with only 6 jumping bar muscle-ups to go. The timer was closing in on 15 minutes, so I tried to hurry to get through the 6 reps, not letting go of the bar for the final round. I didn't quite make it, but I wasn't too upset with my final round time of 15:24.
A little while after the workout was done, we got together for a photo. I swear I am not lying when I say that I could not have moved from the spot I was sitting if I tried. I was completely tapped out. But I'm glad I finished the whole thing.
With Easter Sunday closing the gym, tomorrow will be a rest day before I get back to it on Monday.
I'm starting to think Saturday is my least favorite day of the week. When that alarm goes off at 6:15 and it's still dark outside? Ugh. So, so bad. And somehow I have no way of getting out of these classes unless I am in a different zip code. (Spoiler: that will be the case next week!) But if I try to use the fact that I'm exhausted or not feeling great when I wake up, I get a barrage of threatening texts on my phone. I gotta fix that somehow.
Anyway, I did my usual routine of slowly getting up, walking to the bathroom, and standing in the shower for an unknown, but very long, amount of time. For me, 7am is when I end up leaving the house, not when I get to the gym. It doesn't matter all that much though, because even arriving at 7:15, class hasn't started. And most of the time I'm not even the last to arrive. Today's class would consist of Aimee, Giulz, Marisa, Keith, Rachel, and Michal. The warm-up was 3 rounds of 5 toes-to-bar followed by 10 wall balls. Simple enough. I even did the toes-to-bar without hand protection. Not great, but I got through it. After that, it was time for snatch practice. We were all kind of milling around doing our own thing, but eventually Aimee put 15 minutes on the clock to let us know how much time we had before the main event. I went light for my snatches, but I was very focused on my pulls and also hanging out in the bottom of my squat. Those are the elements that I tend to forget when I snatch, and if I want to snatch heavy, I will need to improve on those aspects. I worked up from 75 to 125 before the clock hit 15 minutes.
The real workout was the WOD that had been posted for all classes on Saturday and it looked pretty horrendous. It was essentially 3 WODs in 1. Here it is:
Start workout:
3 rounds:
12 Thrusters (135/95)
6 Ring Muscle-Ups
After 15:00
3 rounds:
12 Burpee Box Jumps (24"/20")
6 Squat Cleans (205/145)
After 30:00
3 rounds:
12 Overhead Squats (155/105)
6 Bar Muscle-Ups
So there was 45 minutes of work in store for me. This was becoming a theme during these Saturday workouts, although in the past, the 45 minute workouts had been partner workouts. This would be 45 minutes on my own. Some parts of this were easy to figure out. I have no variety of muscle-up, so both the ring muscle-ups and the bar muscle-ups would be jumping muscle-ups. I would use a 17" box for the bar muscle-ups. The rest was a little trickier. I had an idea of what weights I would like to use, but since this was a 45 minute behemoth, it probably made sense to fight my urges to attempt everything RX and scale back a bit. I'd start off with 135 for the thrusters, then only go to 165 for the squat cleans, then try 155 for the overheads. Figuring in shoe changes was also tricky. The idea was that each section should be completed in 10-12 minutes. With 3 minutes of rest, I could go lifting shoes in section 1, regular shoes in section 2, then lifting shoes for section 3. As long as I had that much rest...
We got started with the first section and I realized quickly that 135 pounds was a bad choice for the thrusters. 36 heavy thrusters and 18 jumping muscle ups didn't seem like it would take 12 minutes. And that was true. It actually took 13 minutes and 26 seconds. During my first round, I tried to put together some bigger sets of thrusters, but 3 was the big set. Then some sets of 2. And I was sweating like crazy. I knew then and there that round 2 and 3 would involve "fast" singles when it came to the thrusters. As for the jumping muscle ups, they weren't pretty, but I did them in round 1. In round 2, I got a couple, but the others were merely attempts. Round 3 was completely attempts as I was too tired to even come close to doing a real jumping muscle-up.
Instead of 3-5 minutes of rest and time to change my shoes, I had 94 seconds. Also, my shirt was completely saturated already. Not good. I put 30 more pounds on my bar (that was depressing!) and then attempted to change shoes as quickly as possible. When the countdown for the start of the second section hit one, I still didn't have my right sneaker on. About 15 seconds later, I trudged over to my box to begin the second section, sapped of energy, not eager to do burpees at all. I worked through the burpee box jumps, hoping that the squat cleans would not be too unpleasant. My single thrusters were all squat cleans that I strained to get above my head. These cleans would be heavier, but there were half as many to do.
It turns out that 165 was a very good choice for the squat cleans. Can I squat clean more than that? Sure. But 165 was probably that perfect weight to be both challenging yet doable given how tired I was. In my first round, I started with a couple slow reps, but then I did 2 sets of 2 fast squat cleans, meaning that I went right back to the bar after dropping the first rep. There wasn't much change in my burpee box jump speed, but I was catching up to Rachel and Michal on the squat cleans. For round 2, I did 3 sets of 2. And in round 3, I did a set of 3, then a set of 2, and then the final rep. I finished in 12:58 (including the 15 seconds at the beginning where I was putting on my right sneaker), 3 seconds behind Michal, 3 seconds ahead of Rachel. At least I would have 2 minutes to rest before the final section.
Given my limited rest period yet again, I kept my regular sneakers on. And I decided to drop from 155 to 135 for the overheads. Not my greatest decision as I should have went lower than that. I was even more tired than I realized. I knew better than to try and attempt to snatch the barbell. I was definitely not going to try and squat snatch it and get an easy overhead rep. That would have ended very poorly! Instead, I cleaned the bar to my shoulders, took a slightly wider grip, then did a bad jerk where I basically threw my head back and semi-bench pressed the bar over my head. Desperate times...
Despite my love of overheads, I could only manage 3-5 reps each time I picked up the bar. Sometimes the weight got to be too much. Sometimes I was dead tired. But it was a lot of work to get through 12 reps. The jumping bar muscle-ups sounded awful in my head, even though they are one of the rare movements in the gym that I find to be fun. I tried to do a few in a row, but it was slow going. Still, I was at the point in the workout where I had to find a way to finish. I got back to the bar for round 2 and managed 5 reps on my first set. There we go. After some rest to get my breath back, I knocked out...three reps. Not what I was hoping for. Getting the last 4 strung together was not going to be an easy task. I finally got the bar back up, did rep 1, rep 2, and barely got rep 3 before dropping. Dammit. Now I needed to clean and jerk this just for one last rep. I managed to finish that off and headed back over for more jumping bar muscle-ups.
I don't remember exactly how I did the second round of 6 jumping bar muscle-ups, but I did manage to string some together. After the last one, I got back over to my barbell with the finish line now in sight. With my renewed enthusiasm and some adrenaline pumping, I was ready to do a big set. So I picked up the bar and got...3 reps. And then I gasped for air. There wasn't much more to do, but my body was desperately pleading that I stop. It was at this point that Marisa (who of course was finished by now) yelled over to me to pick up the bar again. As I tried to convince myself to do just that, she said "do you want to be a beast or a bitch?" With my hands on the bar, I turned to Marisa and smiled.
Ya see, no one has ever confused me for a beast. And my bitch cred is through the roof. So there was only one answer to her question. But it was the last piece of motivation I needed to get through the workout. When I got the bar over my head again, I managed to get through 5 more reps. Another rest and then one last set of 4 reps left me with only 6 jumping bar muscle-ups to go. The timer was closing in on 15 minutes, so I tried to hurry to get through the 6 reps, not letting go of the bar for the final round. I didn't quite make it, but I wasn't too upset with my final round time of 15:24.
A little while after the workout was done, we got together for a photo. I swear I am not lying when I say that I could not have moved from the spot I was sitting if I tried. I was completely tapped out. But I'm glad I finished the whole thing.
With Easter Sunday closing the gym, tomorrow will be a rest day before I get back to it on Monday.
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