First, a quick shout out to Coach Intern Rachel, who officially became Coach Rachel this evening. Not only does she kick butt in most workouts, she has been very devoted to becoming a coach and tonight she had her first solo gigs with the 6:30 and 7:30 classes. Congrats!
Tonight's WOD was:
21-15-9
Hang Power Cleans (95/65)
Front Squats (95/65)
Handstand Push-ups
Initial thoughts:
- It was going to be 500 degrees in the gym. Despite the fact an apocalyptic storm had moved through the area about an hour prior to my class, I knew that the drop in humidity outside would not be mirrored inside the gym. All that mugginess was going to be an issue for me.
- Hang power cleans mean grip workout. The weight being used (95 pounds) was on the lighter side, but 45 reps would take their toll on my grip over time.
- Front squats should be okay as long as I kept my momentum going. This was a very light weight for that movement.
- I was going to use my band set-up for the handstand push-ups, but then I thought it might be worthwhile to see if I could once again do strict handstand push-ups with 2 abmats. After all, the training with the band set-up was so that I would feel comfortable once again getting that range of motion.
I thought I might be flying solo for another 7:30 class when a guy showed up that I did not know. Turns out he was a coach from Crossfit Main Line named Chris. Yikes. I immediately had flashbacks to my initial intro class at KOP when I did the baseline test with some guy who listed triathlons among his hobbies. This was going to be no bueno. Rachel sent us out to run 800 meters as part of the warm-up and the pace of that run increased steadily as we went along. Chris meant business.
We came back in the gym and went through the movements that we would be doing for the workout. Chris decided he was doing RX+ weight (115) for the workout. 95 was plenty for me. The one thing I needed to try out though was the handstand push-ups with the 2 abmats. The last two workouts where I tried these, I failed. And I would need to do 45 of them for this workout, so it wasn't like I could squeak out one during the warm-up and say "yeah, let's do this!" I needed to feel comfortable doing these. I did my little stutter step into a kick up thing that I do to get upside down and tested it out. And it went well. I did 4 in a row pretty quickly and dropped down before I wasted them all. I could have done more if I wanted to. The practice with the band set-up had worked. Could I do 45 of these in this workout? That might be pushing it, but I thought it was worth a shot at least.
We got set to go as Chris set his sights on beating the times that were done with RX+ weight and I focused on...well, myself. There was no point in trying to compete with him, so I pretended he wasn't even there. Okay, that's not completely true. There is still a part of me that doesn't want to be the first one to drop the barbell. When we worked our way through the first set of power cleans, I knew I wasn't going as fast as him, but maybe that would mean he'd need a break sooner. I made my way through my set intending to do this kinda like I do DT: only dropping with 1 rep left, as I can do that final rep as part of my transition into the next movement. And hopefully Chris will have dropped his barbell by the time I get to my 20th hang power clean.
That did not happen as he dropped shortly after I dropped my bar after 20 reps (perhaps he was playing the same game as me). I got my last hang power clean and went into the front squats. These were unexpectedly difficult, although it is completely possible that I was thinking too much while doing them. I broke them up into a set of 11 and a set of 10 before getting to join Chris over at the wall.
Coach Paul once told me I would have no problem getting upside down if I just pretended I was 8 years old again. An 8 year old would have no fear of throwing themselves into a wall upside down. After all, they're indestructible. Me? I'm very destructible. Still finding new ways to destroy myself, almost daily. But as I lined up in my stutter step stance, I thought "be an 8 year old". And then I got upside down. For my first set, I managed 7 reps. My next set would be 9 reps followed by a set of 5 reps to finish off the round of 21.
So far so good, although I was sweating like crazy and already feeling the burn. I'm not documenting the length of all of the breaks in here to catch my breath, but know that they were longer than what I've been giving myself recently. There's working without being fully recovered and then there's the inability to breathe. When I've reached the latter stage, it's time to take appropriate length breaks. I'm sure there was a longer break before I picked up the barbell again because there is no way I could have done 14 hang power cleans without some rejuvenation. I dropped with one rep to go again so that I could do this rep and move right into my front squats. This break must have been shorter because when I got to the front squats, I only managed 5. Needed another short break. As I squat cleaned into my next rep, Michal was yelling at me not to drop the bar until I was done with the round. Message received, loud and clear. I finished the last 10 reps and went back to the wall.
I desperately wanted to get these 15 handstand push-ups in two sets. In my first set, I got 7 reps before needing to come down. Not so bad, I should be able to get the last 8 in the next set. As I went through the second set, I started to fatigue when I hit 5 reps. But I pushed through rep #6. Then rep #7. And then I fell off the wall. That sucked. Not wanting to waste time on a pity party, I got upside down again almost immediately and did that lone rep to finish off the round of 15.
As I headed back to my bar, Chris was finishing up his front squats for the final round. I grabbed the barbell and did my 8 reps, leaving the final rep to be part of the front squat transition. I knew I wouldn't get away with breaking up the front squats this time, so I made sure to push through that set of 9 reps. Only thing between me and the finish line were the 9 remaining handstand push-ups. The problem was that my shoulders were smoked. Come on shoulders, pull it together for 9 lousy reps!
I went to kick up on the wall and it was a mess. As I slid, I tried to get my body set up on the wall, but I kept tilting. So I came down off the wall. That was a waste of energy. I tried to get my head right before kicking up again. The second time was much better. I managed to knock out 5 reps, hoping that I could do 4 more in the next set. Instead, it was reminiscent of the end of my cash-out the night before. I did 2 reps after I kicked up on the wall, but then I needed to come back down again. Just need two more reps. The main difference between last night and tonight was that I was confident I could get 2 more ring dips. I was pretty exhausted from tonight's workout and it's not like I had recent success with handstand push-ups that I could bank on. Determined to finish, I kicked up again, pressed through one rep and then managed to do it one last time, stopping the clock at 11:36. Certainly not blazing speed, but I was happy to get all 45 reps using the 2 abmats tonight. That was an accomplishment for me, getting back to a place where I can reliably do those again.
Afterwards, Chris, Michal, and I did a tire flipping cash-out of undetermined length (ended up being 4 minutes) and undetermined score (45-ish?).
Tomorrow: a Dave WOD! Running, clean and jerks, and rope climbs. Based on my excitement level, you can almost certainly expect something to go wrong!
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