Giving Birth

Workout date: 5/21/15

My body told me I needed rest on Tuesday night, so I complied on Wednesday by not going to the gym.  When I heard what the workout was, I felt relieved as it didn't sound like something I would particularly enjoy.  Naturally, that changed as Wednesday wore on.  My Crossfit addiction kicked in.  I began checking out the scores posted on the website during the day.  I started convincing myself that the workout wasn't that bad and that I might actually enjoy it.  But I couldn't persuade my brain to believe that going to the gym for a 7th consecutive day was a good idea after two terrible workouts.  So I stayed home and eagerly awaited Thursday's workout.

The Thursday workout may have been even less appealing.  Back squats and deadlifts don't exactly fall under the same heading as pull-ups when it comes to things I struggle with at the gym, but they are movements that I have not excelled at.  When it comes to deadlifts, those struggles are amplified when the workout calls for a large number of reps.  So when I saw the WOD say we were doing deadlifts with a rep scheme of 1-10-1-20-1-30, I wasn't doing cartwheels.  But as is generally the case when a workout features one of my weaknesses, I tried to approach it as an opportunity for improvement.

The plan.  There's always a plan.  Except this was a tough one to plan.  I've been eager to try out 405 on my deadlift because I feel like I've probably gotten stronger since the last time I PR'd at 385.  Except I was pretty sure that I wasn't supposed to do 405 for my first rep and then go down from there.  This would be confirmed when I asked Giulz at the beginning of class.  That meant that if I wanted to get to 405, I would need to do it on the second 1 rep or (more likely) the third 1 rep.  That also meant I would either have done 11 reps or 32 reps already.  Neither option sounded wonderful, but I decided I would run with it and adjust as necessary.  If all went well, I would go 365-385-405 on the single reps, with 275-225-165 my goals for the 10 rep, 20 rep, and 30 rep sets.  I had recently done 10 reps with 255, so I thought 275 should be doable in this workout.  20 reps at 225 was pushing it, although I believe I've done 15 reps at that weight before.  For the last set, it was purely a guess, as I've never strung together 30 reps of deadlifts in any workout.  135 sounded too light.  155-165 seemed about right.  If I was dropping 50 pounds to go from 10 reps to 20 reps, dropping 60-70 reps to go from 20 to 30 reps should work.

I went through some warmup lifts as we had the entire class to finish our sets.  I did 5 reps at 135, 4 reps at 225, and 3 reps at 295.  Those last 3 reps felt heavier than I would have liked, so I was not feeling confident as I got ready to do my first rep at 365.  I was able to complete the lift (I recently did my 3RM at 365, so not getting 1 rep would have been a very big problem!), but again, it felt heavier than it should have.  Quickly beginning to think it would not be the day I get 405.  I took 90 pounds off the bar and got ready to do 10 reps at 275.  That round went better than expected, although I'm not sure I could have done a lot more than 10 reps at that weight.  Maybe I could get 405 today!  (Yes, I am a roller coaster of emotions/confidence during almost every workout.)

Speaking of roller coasters, it was time to hit the peak of the ride, followed by the terror-filled scream plummet to the bottom.  I know Coach Plentus always told us there was never any point in tying your PR, but 365-385-405 seemed like an appropriate progression, so my second single rep was going to be 385.  Technically it was a successful lift.  But there were no style points awarded.  Normally my deadlifts go well once I get them off the ground.  That first pull is always the hardest.  Not on Thursday.  I managed to get 385 off the ground, but then it didn't move very smoothly.  I started to curl over as I rolled the bar up my thigh.  With the bar stabilized, I straightened up and finished the lift.  Michal told me that it looked like I was giving birth.  Probably not a compliment.

Well at least I knew 405 wasn't happening.  And now I had doubts about how wise it was to try 225 for 20 reps, especially with a set of 30 reps still to go.  Trying to be somewhat sane, I scaled the 20 rep set down to 205.  Even that was a little awkward with the last 3 reps being kinda herky jerky, but I got the impression I could have done at least 215 for 20 reps, if not 225 like I originally planned.

What was I to do for my last single rep?  405 was not happening.  385 again made little sense.  And since I was "successful" with my last attempt, it made sense to try more.  So I loaded 395 on the bar.  My impressions of this lift: "oh god, it's not moving", then "hey, it's moving", then "I'm doing that hunching thing, but it's moving still", followed by "if I get it to my thigh, I can do that roll it up my body thing".  I did manage to get it to my thigh, but that was when Giulz came running over in front of me telling me to drop it.  Apparently Leslie had been yelling at me to drop it from across the gym, but I had zoned out everything until Giulz was a foot in front of me.  Could I have gotten it from there?  I think so.  Was it worth it?  No.  And I doubt Leslie and Giulz would have told me to drop a lift that would have given me a new PR if they weren't extremely concerned that I was about to injure myself.   So 385 remains my 1RM deadlift.  I stripped off 30 pounds and did 365 again, knowing it should be a manageable lift and it was.

For the final set, I decided I wanted redemption and opted for 165 over 155.  With that weight and the volume of reps I was doing, this would be more about grip strength more than anything else.  I made my way through the first 18 reps smoothly before pausing.  From there on, I did sets of 2 until I finished off the 30th rep.  It got slow at the end, but I held on to the bar and got it done.  My Thursday night was complete.  Well, at the gym it was.  From there, I went home, packed some stuff and took off for Hartford to watch the East Regionals.

Regionals was a good time and I would highly recommend it, although going in a group is preferable to flying solo.  Previous to attending this event, I had really only watched the individual competition, but I have to say that I probably enjoyed the team events more than the individual ones.  There is so much strategy involved.  One team will be way ahead, then a team that looked like they had no hope comes storming back to grab the lead.  Didn't see that much in the individual competition, although that was very fun to watch as well.  Maybe one day I'll have the opportunity to see the championship out in Carson, California.

While I was in Hartford, I also had the unfortunate experience of developing my first kidney stone.  That led to a Saturday night stay in the hospital and some hard-to-describe pain.  Still I'll try my best. The kidney stone felt like I was doing a core tabata, except that it went on for 3 hours, had no 10 second breaks during it, and forced me to throw up several times.  It was a lovely experience.  I've been told it is the closest thing to giving birth that a male can experience, so perhaps my ugly deadlift on Thursday night was simply foreshadowing for the pain I would go through on Saturday night.  And the worst part is that I can't workout until the stone passes.

(Update: the stone passed this morning!  Bummed to have missed Murph, but excited to hit the gym Tuesday night.)

Despite my body failing me once again, I was determined to watch the end of the Regionals on Sunday.  I didn't drive all the way to Hartford to leave early.  So I got to see the crazy end to the Team Competition.  I saw Matt Fraser show why he is the favorite to win in Carson.  I saw Michele Letendre finally get to stand on the top of a Regional podium.  I saw Austin Malleolo celebrate like crazy along every step of the way as he earned his way back to the Crossfit Games.  Like I said, if you get the chance, definitely go and experience it.  Just don't develop kidney stones while you're there!