Switching Lanes

Workout date: 6/14/15

Two days off from working out was kind of a bummer, but I got back into the gym Sunday morning for a WOD I had not attempted before.  Most WODs tend to be variations of one another: do this many front squats, that many KB swings, use this much weight, do it for this many rounds or this many minutes.  This workout included two movements that we rarely see in WODs: shoot throughs and wall walks.

Several of us were confused on the shoot throughs, because this movement can be done two different ways.  There is the simpler version, where you get a set of parallettes, hold your body over them in a plank form, then shoot your legs through to the front of the parallettes without letting your feet hit the ground.  Then you shoot them back.  Shoot through...makes sense.  There's also the more difficult version where you do a push-up while in the plank position, then after shooting your legs through, you do a dip when your legs are in front of you.  Take a wild guess which one we would be doing.

For a wall walk, you lay on the ground with your feet touching the bottom of the wall.  Then you come up into a plank before walking your feet up the wall as you walk your hands in underneath you.  When you've completed the movement, your body should be almost fully in contact with the wall while your hands are directly below you.  Essentially you are doing a handstand pressed against the wall.  However, that may be the easier end of the deal.  Having gotten into this position, you are required to get out of this position under control.  That means walking your hands out, while walking your feet down the wall.  And since you just expended a lot of energy getting up the wall, the natural reaction is to want to let gravity do the work and plop back down to the floor.  Coming back down under control is unpleasant to say the least.

So here is what we were facing in the workout:

3 rounds for time:
24 calories rowing
12 shoot throughs
6 wall walks

Having thought we were doing the easier version of wall walks, I originally thought this would be a workout where the first two movements would go by fairly quickly with the real work done on the wall.  Instead, the row would be the only "recovery" area along the way.

With my highlighter yellow outfit blinding the other participants, we got started on our first row.  Shane is a younger guy in our class who is a bit of a rowing savant, so it was no surprise that he was the first off the rower.  I followed him off and started the shoot throughs.  I think I made it through five before needing a break.  From then on, it was a lot of work to get through 2 or 3 at a time.  I had brought over paper towels in advance because I knew I would be sweaty and the parallettes become slippery fast.  There was at least one wipedown by the end of the set.  As I headed to the wall, Jill A. and Lindsey had passed me as well.

It is one thing to see how much I sweat when I am fully upright.  But having me work out and then tipping me upside-down for an extended period of time?  That's like not tightening the cap on a bottle all the way and then knocking it over.  Just a complete mess.  The wall walks were tough as is, but they became slippery after a while as there was moisture everywhere in my lane.  Even the wall was becoming wet due to either leg sweat or my mostly soaked clothes pressing up against it at the top of the walk.  As I completed my 5th walk, Coach Intern Rachel told me I should probably use another lane for my next round.  It was that bad.  I took care of my 6th walk and got back to the rower.

At this point, it was clear that I was going to have a slow time, so I didn't have much urgency on the rower.  Plus it was my only chance to get my breath back and not drown the class in my perspiration. Those 24 calories took a while to complete, but with a lot of work out still left to do, I wasn't going to go crazy on the row.  The shoot throughs were sets of 2 and 3 again, with breaks for shaking my arms out and wiping down the parallettes.  Then I headed back to the wall.  I grabbed my paper towels from my original lane and moved down to the last lane in the gym.  Six slippery wall walks later, that lane was soaked as well.  In the meantime, Erika and Sarah had passed me as well.

Third round was not much different.  I went a little faster on the row.  I had a set of 4 shoot throughs at one point as I tried to get to the finish line.  My original lane had dried out since the first round, so I went back to that for the final round of wall walks.  Ellie and I were hating life as the last two trying to finish the walks, but we got through them eventually.  My final time for the workout: 25:34.

Afterwards, Coach Intern Rachel PR'd her jerk with a successful lift at 185 pounds, vaulting her up to second place in the gym.  Congrats!

Monday: a pseudo-Endurance workout.  I could definitely use the cardio work!