Unbroken

Workout date: 6/4/15

It's been a long week of tough workouts at the gym and several people (ahem, Giulz and Leslie) were on my case about taking a rest day.  They weren't wrong.  It was probably in my best interest to shut it down for 24 hours.  But then Thursday's WOD showed up on the KOP website.  And it was Nancy, aka the only workout that Dave has a remote chance of getting on the whiteboard for.  So there would be no rest day.  That would have to wait until Friday.  (I swear I'm taking a rest day on Friday.  Even if they run Nancy on back-to-back days.)

A recap of Nancy:
5 rounds
400 meter run
15 overhead squats (95/65)

Last time I did this workout, it was a tug of war between Michal and I that ended with me face down in the mud pit and Michal triumphantly holding the rope.  I wanted revenge this evening, but I also wanted to lower my time quite a bit, as my previous time of 16:17 was nearly two minutes slower than what I needed to get on the whiteboard (14:30).  The key was maintaining a solid pace during the runs.  The second round would especially be key for me.  I wanted to have two rounds done in 5:30.  That would give me 9 minutes to finish the last 3 rounds, which felt doable in my mind.  But having done this workout twice before, I knew that the overhead squats take a toll on your legs right from round one, so I would need to push.

There were 12 people in total in the class, including Rachel and Derreck.  Normally I don't care where I work out, even if it means extra distance or extra time gets added to my score.  But not today.  I set up shop down near the door so I could get in and out quickly.  Michal meant business too.  Last time, she turned around and did the last set of overheads facing me during her five-second victory.  Today was not going to be any different as she put her bar right in front of mine.  I was definitely going to have to earn it today.  We headed out to the barriers that mark the start for Nancy and were sent on our way.

In March, we did this as part of a smaller class and I got out to a lead during the first run and held the lead after every round of overheads (except the last obviously).  That was not the case today.  Olan jumped out to a pretty sizable lead in the first run, while Michal ran just ahead of me.  I wasn't too concerned about the run at this point as I expected to make up time during the overheads.  Except I was not be the first one back out the door.  Michal strung her 15 overheads and took off.  I wasn't too far behind, but Rachel wasn't far behind me either.

The good news about Michal having the lead was that there was a solid runner in front of me that I needed to keep up with during that second run I knew I needed to be faster on.  I would get to practice my Jill Cardamone impression today.  And I'm sure I did go faster on that run as I didn't want her pulling away.  But her advantage had grown when we came back into the gym for the second round of overheads.  While she had completed about 4 reps by the time I had squat snatched my barbell, I did start to catch up.  And at a certain point, she had to drop her barbell.  I went unbroken, leaving me 1 rep behind as she headed out on the third run.

The third run must have been slower based on the time on the clock during the third set of overheads, but it took a lot of effort to get through.  And my overheads were not as smooth as they were on that day back in March, so I was concerned about having to drop the barbell.  But to get a solid time, I needed to hold on to it the entire workout.  I was a few reps behind yet again, but I started plugging away at my overheads.  Soon Michal dropped.  Then she dropped again a little while later.  I didn't have a good sense of how many reps she had completed, but for the first time, I was confident that I'd be heading out the door first.

My elation with being in the lead was tempered by the fact that my legs were weakening.  When I headed out on my run, the clock read 8:45, meaning that I wasn't going to make the board today, but I still could make 15 minutes, which would be huge.  I leaned forward and tried to run hard, but I was not moving nearly as fast as I was earlier.  On the turn back to the gym, I saw that Rachel was still the same distance behind me, but Michal was now further back.  Round four of overheads was basically sets of three reps and the occasional two reps with pauses in between, but I refused to drop the barbell.  The clock was around 12:20 as I headed out for my final run.  15:00 was off the table.  Maybe 15:30?

The last run was not pleasant at all, but I dug as much as I could.  I knew that even if I was out of breath when I got back, I could probably hang on to that bar and get those last 15 overheads.  Rachel was still the same distance behind, but I had no clue how much she had left in the tank.  For all I knew, she could have one more sprint in her and I'd be racing through overheads to try to hold her off.  Turns out that was a race I might have lost.  I got back in the gym and had at least 5 overheads complete when Rachel made it back.  The clock was nearing 16 minutes and I wanted to at least break that mark.  I kept stringing together two reps at a time and then a pause.  Unfortunately, the last rep came at 16:04.  It was a 13 second improvement, but still a bit of a disappointing finish.  At least I had managed to go unbroken on all of my overheads again.

Rachel finished about 20 seconds later, while Michal came in two minutes afterwards.  She had mentioned that the weight had felt heavy in the warmup and I think it just wasn't her day.  Derreck finished a few minutes after her.  As much as I love overhead squats, Derreck hates them with the same fervor.

With that, it's time for a rest day.  About 36 hours of recovery time before Competitors Class on Saturday morning.