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!