Not A Grown Ass Man

Workout date: 6/10/15

I'm a bit of a people pleaser.  I have my limits, but if I get peer pressured into something that I probably was interested in doing anyway, I'll generally bend.  Wednesday was supposed to be my rest day.  Blogged about it.  Was very vocal about it with the folks at the gym.  I planned on doing some mobility just to remain somewhat active, but there would be no working out for me.

And so when I woke up at 7:30 on Wednesday morning, I grabbed my phone to shut off the alarm and saw that I had a bunch of text messages from Giulz, Rachel, and Michal.  "Awesome WOD!"  "It's a partner WOD!"  "We need a 4th!"  Ouch, that last one was definitely directed at the guy who had not had his morning coffee yet.  I looked at the WOD and saw the following:

Teams of 2:

AMRAP in 8 minutes

10 calorie row

20 double unders

AMRAP in 6 minutes

10 burpee box jumps (24"/20")

20 sit-ups

AMRAP in 4 minutes

10 handstand push-ups

20 KB swings (55/35)

18 minutes without a break, except when your partner was working.  And no overhead squats.  Hmmm...didn't sound so awesome to me.  But I love being at the gym and I love working out.  So it didn't take long for me to cave and say I would be their 4th.

Turns out I would be their 6th.  Giulz ended up doing the workout with Megs.  Rachel ended up doing the workout with Keith.  That left me as Michal's partner.  While it may have been a sucky consolation prize for her, I was excited to have Michal as my partner because I knew she would love to do all the skill work (double unders and handstand push-ups) while I did all of the unskilled manual labor (rowing and KB swings).  It was a good match for this WOD.  I convinced her that we should stick to one movement each for the first and third AMRAP, while we could share the movements in the second AMRAP.

As we got warmed up, I saw Leslie, who is always concerned about my overtraining.  I explained that I had let everyone know that I was taking a rest day, but I still got roped into the workout.  Which led to this exchange:

Leslie: "Dave, you're a grown ass man.  You can say no to them."

Me: "Can I say no to you?"

Leslie: "That would be highly inadvisable."

Fair enough.  Keith laid out the workout for us and he pointed out how inadvisable it would be to have one person on the rower for 8 minutes, especially if their teammate was very good at double unders.  Michal had the same concern.  However, I think I made the stronger point when saying that if you thought my double unders were bad normally, imagine how slow they would be if I was too tired to row.  Advantage: Dave.  Plus I had a plan and my plans never fail.  (Oh boy...)

This plan actually worked for once.  I was going to pace myself on the row.  Certainly not slow, but not breakneck speed just to get 10 calories done.  If I could be consistent, then I felt I could make it through 10 rounds or possibly more.  When we got going, I could see Cline in front of me waiting for Ben to complete his row.  And Cline started doing double unders before I finished my first round, meaning Ben had rowed faster than me.  I didn't let it affect me.  In fact, Ben was done before me the next two rounds as well.  Didn't matter.  Was sticking to my pace.  When he hit the halfway point of 4 minutes, I was on my 6th round of rowing, but I wasn't tired out.  In fact, I picked it up on the second half of the AMRAP.  Knowing that Michal could blow through double under reps super quickly, I pulled as hard as I could in round 12, trying to finish before the clock hit 8 minutes.  With less than 10 seconds left, I hit 10 calories, allowing Michal to get 8 fast double unders in before it was time to move on.

Michal had already told me she would do the first 10 burpee box jumps because she was concerned about how tired I would be coming off the row.  And this was greatly appreciated in the first round of the second AMRAP because I really had gone all out to finish that 12th round of rowing.  I got a bit of a breather as she carried the load, then launched into the 20 sit-ups when she was done.  At that point, I thought we would go back into our plan of each doing 5 burpee box jumps and 10 sit-ups, but I must have still looked tired as Michal did 10 more burpee box jumps.  I did 10 sit-ups before she joined the sit-up party with 10 of her own.  Then I got ready to take on the burpee box jumps.  Surprisingly, they weren't that bad, mainly because we were allowed to pogo off the box today instead of having to establish control at the top of the box.  I'm all about momentum in the gym and I was bouncing from the top of the box to the floor quickly.  We got through four rounds before Michal and I had a minor fight at the beginning of round 5.  She hadn't realized that we could pogo, so she was yelling at me to establish control, while I was yelling back that we didn't need to.  If she had known that, we would have gotten a lot more reps during this AMRAP, but we still managed a solid score.

Finally, we hit the last AMRAP.  I have nothing in the way of a handstand push-up, so that was all Michal.  I was just hoping that I could hold on to the KB when it was my turn.  She finished her set of 10, then I began to swing the KB.  I must admit that swinging the 80 lb KB is showing some returns as the 55 lb KB felt relatively light, despite having done 14 minutes of work already.  I remained mentally focused the whole time and held on for all 20 swings.  Michal worked her way through another 10 handstand push-ups as I dreaded my next round.  When it was my turn again, I swung the KB and kept telling myself to hold on.  When I got to 12 reps, it was painful.  When I got to 15, I yelled.  Not my typical female tennis player grunt, but something to try and pump me up as I desperately held on.  The last 5 reps were likely ugly, but I held on.  Originally I wasn't sure I could hold on for one set of 20.  Making it through two made me very happy.

That being said, I was not excited about the prospects of doing a third round.  I waited for Michal to yell "10!" indicating she was done with her round, but she started to struggle during her last couple reps, specifically the last one.  As time wound down, she managed to get that 10th rep right before the buzzer. 

Thanks to Michal being able to do all the tough stuff, we managed to complete the workout RX.  And I was really proud of our score.  Could we have done better?  Probably.  I could have rowed faster, but I was scared that I wouldn't have anything left for the last two AMRAPs.  It didn't matter though.  For all the times I am upset at the conclusion of a workout, I have to also be willing to give myself some credit when it goes well.  And yesterday went well.

The day ended with some shoulder flossing and dinner and beer at Wegman's.  It also included some great phrases, with my favorite three below:

1. "The Magical Unicorn" - You can believe that it exists, but it doesn't.
2. "The Man V" - I still have a hard time believing this is a positive description, but for those unfamiliar with the term, it is the V-shaped muscular region near the waistline that guys who are in shape display when they take off their shirt. It is essentially a neon sign saying "if you like what you see up here, wait till you see my penis!" I currently have a "Man U", along with a lower case "Man W" in my chestal region. Not all of us get the good parts of the alphabet.
3. "If I'm there, I'm participating" - Not nearly as dirty as it sounds. Then again, it wasn't all that innocent either. Without a doubt, a phrase I will be throwing around just to make people feel uncomfortable.

Once again, I was exhausted when I got home.  But the rest day won't come until Friday.  Thursday marks the end of the mobility challenge.  That means revisiting the baseline test, the ultimate love-hate workout: overhead squats and pull-ups.