Revised Expectations

Workout date: 5/28/15

As I mentioned at the end of my last post, I knew that Thursday's workout was not going to be one that I would particularly enjoy.  Perhaps that took off some of the pressure going into it.  I didn't have much of a plan for the workout.  Giulz wanted us to finish in under 20 minutes and I wanted to abide by that standard, but honestly, I wasn't going to be heartbroken if I didn't.

The workout was as follows:
60 calories of rowing
50 KB swings (55/35)
40 chest-to-bar pull-ups
30 calories
20 KB swings
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups

If I had any focus in this workout, it was to be solid on the rower and my sets of KB swings.  And not to give away the ending, but in general, I was.

The class was packed at 6:30 as we stood 17 strong for the workout.  If it wasn't muggy enough in that gym, having a mob of people working out together was going to take it to another level.  Somehow I ended up with a sweet spot in the middle of the gym.  I had Roman on one side of me with Cline on the other.  We got started on the rower and I felt like I maintained a solid pace.   I had 21 calories after the first minute and was just shy of 40 calories at the end of minute two.  At that pace, I thought I might be one of the first people off the rower.  I was not.  Cline jumped off his rower somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:40, which completely threw me off.  I know he's very good on the rower, but that seemed really fast, yet he didn't look exhausted as he grabbed his KB.  As we approached 3 minutes, other folks started getting off their rowers.  Maybe I had misjudged this one.  At 3 minutes, I was at 56 calories.  A few big pulls later and I was done.

As I went to grab my KB, I did notice that Cline was struggling a little bit with his, giving me some concern about how this next portion was going to go.  I thought I could do the 50 swings in two sets, something like 35-15 or 30-20.  That was a little ambitious.  I managed 17 swings in my first set, followed by 13 (making the rookie move of stopping on a nice round number for no good reason), then 11 (making the smart move of not dividing the remaining reps evenly, as it is always best to leave a few less reps for that last set when you're tired), and then the final 9.  I was sweating and breathing pretty good, but I wasn't destroyed.  That being said, nearly everyone had made their way to the pull-up bar.

I knew I would not be doing chest-to-bar pull-ups and after failing at Helen (36 pull-ups) recently, there was no point in trying to kip 40 in this workout.  So I'd need a band.  I was hoping to set one up like I had for the mobility challenge where I could step on the band with both feet, but there wasn't enough time to set one up.  Hence, I was back to the good ol days of alternating between a box to rest on and a band tied to the bar that I could put one foot into.  Immediately there were no pull-ups to be had.  I tried to string some, but it wasn't happening.  So instead I methodically did sets of 2 fast singles, then shook my arms, then did another set.  Not exactly ideal for a set of 40, but it was getting me through the workout, slow but steady.  As I looked at the clock, I did some math and figured if I could complete this round of 40 by 14:30, I could keep the workout under 20 minutes.  I got off the bar around 14:20.

Back on the rower, I thought I could make up some time, but my shoulders and arms were spent.  I tried to maintain good form, good speed, and make strong pulls as much as I could.  The 30 calories went by slowly, but they got done.  Next it was 20 reps on the KB and I would really have liked to string the whole set.  Unfortunately, rep #12 was where I got wobbly, so I set the KB down and did a set of 8 to get back to the bar.

Another glance at the clock let me know that unless I truly fell apart, I would be under 20 minutes.  I churned through those last 10 reps one by one.  They were not pretty and they were not fast.  But when the tenth rep was complete, the clock only showed 19:39.  I didn't have much in the way of goals for the workout, but it was nice to stay under 20 minutes.

Class ended with some rolling out.  I didn't work on anything else in the gym, although I did talk with Steph V. about the spreadsheet she wants me to make for the Bridgeport Barbell Classic at the end of June.  And if you think I'm geeking out about the awesome spreadsheet I'm creating...well then you're 100% correct.

Next blog post: the return of a workout I really wanted to do, but missed.  They call it "the barbell mash up".