My work travels brought me back down to Plano, Texas. I am trying to think of a reason why that would be a good thing, but I'm drawing a blank. It means that I'm spending days in no man's land when I could be spending them with all of the great people at my gym that make me happy day after day. I expected the trip to be particularly terrible as it would involve many of the bigwigs in the actuarial hierarchy and extensive training via Powerpoint presentations in dark conference rooms. I was going to need my Crossfit fix, if only to relieve stress/annoyance.
When I came to Plano last year, I was staying in a different part of the city, not very close to my office. At that time, the hotel that is directly across the highway from my office was booked. I went to a box in West Plano which was ok, but not wonderful. It was in a strip mall and very dark on the inside. Plus two guys totally cheated during the workout, sending me into a mini-rage. Maybe KOP has a lot more integrity than other boxes or maybe the clientele at that location were more concerned with their "score". Whatever the case may be, I knew it would be a one-time visit.
This time around there was a vacancy at the hotel near my office, so I got a room there. I got on the Google-webs and searched out what boxes were a little closer in proximity. There was one that I remembered passing on the drive to the Plano office last year and sure enough, that was the box closest to my hotel. The name of the place? Crossfit BYOB. Hmmm...now don't get me wrong, I have never been shy about bringing a case or two to KOP, but they never directly advertised it like this. Maybe BYOB wasn't Bring Your Own Beer. Bacon? BBQ? Bull? Brisket? The only B that I could come up with that made sense in relation to Crossfit was Barbell. Having packed light for this trip, that would be a problem if it were true.
After calling from the office to make sure that drop-ins were okay, I made my way over to Crossfit BYOB for the 7:30 class on Monday night. I must admit, it was really nice having a one-minute, traffic-free ride to the box. It also meant I was early. (Do you believe in miracles?!?!) Speaking of miracles, this box was situated in a strip mall (maybe that's a Plano thing?) in a very precarious location:
Burgers from Christ? Who's passing that up?
(Not pictured: a bar two doors down)
I hear the burgers are heavenly. Sorry, I couldn't resist the temptation. Please forgive me. (Okay, I'm done now.)
As the picture shows, BYOB actually stands for Build Your Own Body, which makes way more sense that anything I came up with. You could have given me one thousand guesses and I would have managed a no-hitter on that one. I went inside, met the owner, and filled out the required "don't blame us if we kill you" paperwork. Then, almost immediately, two women came over and introduced themselves as Erica and Janelle. They welcomed me to the gym and let me know where the warmup would begin. After letting them know that I was best known for my ability to saturate the floor at my gym, they introduced me to Wade. Wade was a bit shorter than me, but evidently held the BYOB crown as the bald guy who sweats a lot. He seemed like a really good dude as well, although I'm partial to the bald, sweaty type.
I joined the three of them on a 400 meter run and then a series of drills. For the workout, there would be a strength component (3 rep sets of Shoulder Press) and then two short WODs which were going to be used as the baseline for a summertime contest they are doing at the gym. You could choose three levels for the two workouts. Level 1 was the easiest version. In the first WOD, there would be a 5 minute AMRAP of 5 box jump overs (17"/13") and 10 sit-ups. There would then be 3 minutes of rest before WOD #2, which was a 3 minute AMRAP of squat clean thrusters (45/35). Those choosing to do level 2 would use a 24"/20" box and hanging knee raises instead of sit-ups, with a weight of 95/65 for the squat clean thrusters. And for the fire breathers in level 3, the box would be 30"/24" with toes-to-bar instead of hanging knee raises, and weights of 155/105 for the squat clean thrusters. Got all that?
Before deciding on a level, we did the shoulder press first. The owner asked me if I had found my 1RM recently and I replied no, but that I had done a 3RM recently of 135. He told me to use 95% of that before applying the percentages that were listed for the WOD (when you read tomorrow's blog, you'll see why there may have been some miscommunication on this). For the 3 rep sets, we were to do 1X3 at 70%, 1x3 at 80%, and then as many reps as possible for 90%. I would up using 95, 105, and 115 as my weights. After a warmup set at 75, I found that 95 and 105 were not that difficult. At 115, my form slowly began to deteriorate, but not before knocking out 8 reps in my final set.
As much as I wanted to use the 30" box and do toes-to-bar, there was no way I was doing 3 minutes of squat clean thrusters with 155 pounds, so I opted for level 2. I could not remember the last time I did a hanging knee raise, but those things took their toll on me much more than I was expecting. As I did the first part of the WOD, the message running through my mind was "don't slow down!" If I could pull off 10 rounds in 5 minutes, that would be amazing, but there could be no breaks. I ended up not taking breaks, but those 5 minutes flew by quickly. After completing round 9, the owner yelled out 10 seconds, just enough time for me to get 5 last box jump overs in. 9+5 (140 reps) felt like a really good score for me on that workout.
180 seconds later, it was on to part two. As a thruster fan, you would think this would be right up my alley, but that first WOD was clearly meant to fatigue you. The first 40 seconds went smoothly, but then the pain set in. There were definitely breaks, although I tried my best to keep them small. As I struggled in the final minute, I wanted to make sure I got at least 20 reps in. When time was called, I had done one better with a score of 21.
I said goodbye to my workout buddies at BYOB and let them know that I would try to make it back the next night for another 7:30 class. And make it back I did. Part two of my Plano trip tomorrow!
I joined the three of them on a 400 meter run and then a series of drills. For the workout, there would be a strength component (3 rep sets of Shoulder Press) and then two short WODs which were going to be used as the baseline for a summertime contest they are doing at the gym. You could choose three levels for the two workouts. Level 1 was the easiest version. In the first WOD, there would be a 5 minute AMRAP of 5 box jump overs (17"/13") and 10 sit-ups. There would then be 3 minutes of rest before WOD #2, which was a 3 minute AMRAP of squat clean thrusters (45/35). Those choosing to do level 2 would use a 24"/20" box and hanging knee raises instead of sit-ups, with a weight of 95/65 for the squat clean thrusters. And for the fire breathers in level 3, the box would be 30"/24" with toes-to-bar instead of hanging knee raises, and weights of 155/105 for the squat clean thrusters. Got all that?
Before deciding on a level, we did the shoulder press first. The owner asked me if I had found my 1RM recently and I replied no, but that I had done a 3RM recently of 135. He told me to use 95% of that before applying the percentages that were listed for the WOD (when you read tomorrow's blog, you'll see why there may have been some miscommunication on this). For the 3 rep sets, we were to do 1X3 at 70%, 1x3 at 80%, and then as many reps as possible for 90%. I would up using 95, 105, and 115 as my weights. After a warmup set at 75, I found that 95 and 105 were not that difficult. At 115, my form slowly began to deteriorate, but not before knocking out 8 reps in my final set.
As much as I wanted to use the 30" box and do toes-to-bar, there was no way I was doing 3 minutes of squat clean thrusters with 155 pounds, so I opted for level 2. I could not remember the last time I did a hanging knee raise, but those things took their toll on me much more than I was expecting. As I did the first part of the WOD, the message running through my mind was "don't slow down!" If I could pull off 10 rounds in 5 minutes, that would be amazing, but there could be no breaks. I ended up not taking breaks, but those 5 minutes flew by quickly. After completing round 9, the owner yelled out 10 seconds, just enough time for me to get 5 last box jump overs in. 9+5 (140 reps) felt like a really good score for me on that workout.
180 seconds later, it was on to part two. As a thruster fan, you would think this would be right up my alley, but that first WOD was clearly meant to fatigue you. The first 40 seconds went smoothly, but then the pain set in. There were definitely breaks, although I tried my best to keep them small. As I struggled in the final minute, I wanted to make sure I got at least 20 reps in. When time was called, I had done one better with a score of 21.
I said goodbye to my workout buddies at BYOB and let them know that I would try to make it back the next night for another 7:30 class. And make it back I did. Part two of my Plano trip tomorrow!
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