Impressively Slow

Workout date: 5/16/15

You know the Saturday morning drill by now: alarm goes off, sun isn't up, me hating life, extra-long shower to wake me out of my zombie-like state, drive to the gym arriving about 10 minutes late.  You should assume that takes place every Saturday that I work out.  It will not be happening next Saturday though as I got tickets for the Crossfit East Regional in Hartford, CT.  Very excited to go see it live.  If I didn't go, I'd just be watching it on my laptop anyway, so why not take a road trip and see it in person?  Life's too short to constantly pass up such opportunities.

Perhaps it was due to a lack of Viking rage, but our Competitor's Class on Saturday was low-key in comparison to most weeks.  Well, Giulz screaming "FIX IT!" at Michal was not low-key, but the rest of the class was.  Instead of tackling some monstrous 45-minute WOD, the class was much more focused on Olympic lifting, with a team cash-out at the end.  In keeping with the theme of mobility this month at the gym, we started off with 10 minutes of mobility work.  Then it was time for 60 minutes of Olympic lifting.  60 minutes?!?!  This was definitely going to cut into our dicking around time.

I initially thought that we would work on both the snatch and the clean and jerk given that much time, but everyone stuck to one lift.  Michal worked on her clean and jerk, while Keith, Marisa, Giulz, and I tried to become better snatchers.  As I slowly progressed higher in weight, I focused on two things: 1) being able to squat snatch the bar and not try to rush out of the hole and 2) getting a big pull as I went under the bar.  What I didn't realize was an old criticism of my technique would come back to haunt me as I lifted.

When I was doing the Olympic lifting program, I heard over and over again how slow I was during my lifts.  And it was true.  The coaches even tried to take a video of me once as I attempted a snatch, only the phone's battery ran out before I finished the lift.  It's that bad.  As the program went on, I worked on gaining more speed and eventually I did.  However, I was regularly practicing my speed back then.  Nowadays?  Not so much.  So it's not a surprise that my pokeyness has returned.

I started the hour-long lifting session with 95 pounds on the bar, but I was at 135 when the annex began to be filled with snarky remarks about how slow I was.  At 145, I had a successful lift, but was greeted with "wow, that was really slow".  Apparently I was not very good at hiding my displeasure with these remarks, as Giulz and Michal both quickly followed with "...but, umm, it's impressive that you can still complete the lift going that slow".  Ahh yes, I do love me some backhanded compliments!

I did a couple more lifts at 145, now completely focused on my speed.  I went up to 155 and had a successful lift, although I could tell I must have been slow on that lift as well.  Finally, I attempted 165, but failed as the combination of moving like a turtle and not pulling resulted in the bar levitating only to about my chin level.  Add "working on speed with my Olympic lifts" to the long laundry list of things I need to improve on.

Did I mention there was a Coach Plentus sighting?  With the Level 1 training going on in the main gym, Plentus was there to take part, but stopped over to the annex to say hi to everyone.  Always good to see him!

The cash-out was designed for 4 people, but we made it work for 5.  Instead of two teams of one male and one female, Michal and Giulz combined to form one super-female alongside their ordinary counterpart, yours truly.  Keith and Marisa joined forces on the other team.  The cash-out was 8 minutes long and consisted of 2 minutes of work at 4 different stations.  For the first two minutes, my team would be performing KB swings, while the other team did pistols.  During the next two minutes, my team would do pistols, while Keith and Marisa did double unders.  For minutes five and six, Keith and Marisa would take on more pistols, while my group did burpees.  Finally, it would be back to pistols for me, Michal, and Giulz, while Keith and Marisa did bar muscle-ups.  For each team, only one gender could be working at a time.

On my team, we decided to do 5 reps of the non-pistols exercises before switching.  It made more sense to do an even number of pistols before switching, so we did sets of 10 there.  Even though I was concerned about my ability to keep up throughout the entire 8 minutes, I felt remarkably fresh the whole time.  I have used the 70 pound KB more and more, so getting through 5 reps, having a brief break, then doing 5 more wasn't unbearable.  Pistols are one of those weird exercises that everyone hates except me, so I relished the opportunity to knock out sets of 10 for two minutes.  Burpees have been a struggle for me lately, but I could manage throwing my body at the ground and snapping back up 5 straight times given a little rest in between each set.  More pistols?  Sounds good to me.  Even without lifting shoes on, I moved through my sets pretty quickly, only losing my balance every now and then.

I have no idea what our scores were at the end, but frankly, I didn't care.  To be able to move through that workout without slowing down for eight minutes was a victory to me.