Workout date: 6/22/15
Sadly, I did not return home from my weekend in NYC with a giant cardboard check. Didn't even win this online contest I played on Sunday where I simply killed it, only to see some random 30-1 shot come in late in the day to knock me out of the top spot. Those are the breaks, I guess. My consolation prize was to come back to the gym on Monday night. Due to my trip, I had three days off from the gym. With that much rest, surely I would be setting all sorts of PRs, right?
Well no. But I wasn't all that broken up about my performance either. Since it was a Monday, I decided I would do the WOD and then work on some stuff during open strength. I didn't get a lot done practice-wise there, but I did have a good cash-out at the end of it. Let's start with the WOD though and it's one that has been programmed quite a few times already this year: the 3RM deadlift. The first time I did it, I got 355. Last time, I got 365. Of course that meant it was time to try for 375. I had my doubts about it as my 1RM is still 385, so either that was too low or 375 was going to be too high for my 3RM. We would soon find out.
It was a bro sesh in the annex on a very hot Monday night. Seems like no matter where you go, be it the main gym or the annex, it ends up being super humid, meaning lots of sweating. Since the deadlift is so grip intensive, I knew I would be going through chalk like crazy. I also didn't want to mess around with a ton of practice lifts since you never want to do a ton of deadlifts anyway, but the added incentive of getting it done before my hands looked like they were covered in Elmer's glue was powerful as well. We warmed up with 135 on the bar just to get the form down and then I went right into my sets. We were supposed to do 5 of them in total, so I went and grabbed some 100 pound plates (tough guy!) to do my first set at 245. That wasn't a problem and neither was my next set at 295.
From there, the goal was to go 325-355-375. 325 was where it started to feel tougher, but I did a good job of keeping the bar close to my body as exhibited by the blood stain on my sock (my shins haven't fully recovered from my botched box jump last week). That left me feeling a little wary about 355 and 375, but this wasn't supposed to be easy. When it was time for 355, I got very focused on that first rep and began to lift the bar. It was very heavy, but it was moving, and the first rep is always the hardest. I moved much more slowly than I had in the other rounds. And I also overextended at the top as I tried to make sure I locked out the rep completely. Still it was a successful set.
I took some extra time before my final set as I was not brimming with confidence. If I did get three reps at 375, then I was going to take a crack at 1 rep of 405. I was going to take success at 375 as a sign that this was the day I finally lifted 400+. Before I even attempted it, Matt B. was going to try 375. And by try, I mean he picked it up and put it down like I did with my warm-up set. It was impressive. It gave me new hope that I might be able to do it. I stepped up to my bar, got set up, firmly gripped the bar, and...went nowhere. I mean, the bar came off the ground a little bit, but not much. I decided to take another few minutes and then give it another shot. My second attempt went better. I got the bar moving and completed the first rep. Maybe this could happen! After tapping the floor, I went into the second rep, but somehow I got off-kilter. The right side of my body was lifting more than the left side. Since there were no clips on the weight, I could see the weight on the left side sliding. It was not a good situation. It is possible that I could have tried to adjust my body to even things out, but I remembered Giulz running over and yelling at me to drop the bar the last time I did deadlifts in a "goofy" fashion. I thought better of making an adjustment and dropped the bar. 355 would have to be my score for the day.
The cash-out (first of two for me) was a 400 meter body weight sled pull. I love sled pulls! I was hoping that I would still love sled pulls when this was over. After all, I had just exerted a lot of energy on heavy deadlifts, it was ridiculously hot, and I had done this once before and remembered that it wasn't extremely pleasant. However, the mule (aka the jackass) is my spirit animal, so I had faith I could keep plugging along and do well with this. We got going and there was a bit of a bottleneck with the barriers near the parking lot. I let Prithvi go in front of me, thinking it would not be a big deal, but it turned out that I had unknowingly set myself up for some mental anguish. Over the course of the 400 meters, any time I was about to pass him, he would speed up and it was kind of driving me nuts. It reminded of me trying to pass someone on the highway, only they adjust their speed to never let you pass. Meanwhile, Conn was destroying the cash-out, leaving us all in the dust. We got to the halfway point and made our way up the hill for the worst section of the cash-out. All of us would have to stop during this section. It was simply a matter of how many times you stopped and how long you stopped for. I tried to keep my stops very brief, but every time I got going again, I would start staggering a bit. With about 100 meters left, Prithvi stopped again as I trudged along and, for the first time, he didn't push faster as I crept alongside. I kept moving for another 15-20 meters and then stopped. Sure enough, he went past me again.
In the last 100 meters, there is a tiny hill you have to go up and I thought I could catch up again there. Both Prithvi and I stopped at the top of it, but I only stopped for about a second, before pushing forward again. And once I had some flat ground and could see the finish line ahead of me, it was time to give it everything I had left. I wouldn't call it a sprint, but it was a fast-paced choppy jog as I motored in to the gym door. Final time of 7:32. A minute later, Jimmy and Matt were next to each other at the top of that tiny hill and Jimmy kicked it into high gear with what was much closer to a sprint to finish his sled pull.
Time for open strength. Or more accurately, time to recover for 10-15 minutes, then do open strength. My focus was on the jumping bar muscle up withe the 13" box. This had frustrated me last week, especially since it was something I knew I had done in the past. Maybe I was just fresh on the day that I did them, because once again I struggled. I was very close, but not quite getting there. After a bunch of failed attempts, I was ready to put my box away when I remembered that I should try these with a thin plate on top of the box. I grabbed a 10 lb plate and put it on the 13" box. I'd say the 10 lb plate added about 2" to the box. I got ready, did my swing, and finally made it over the bar before locking out at the top. That was a relief. I continued trying these, getting 3 or 4 good reps before failing on a couple and calling it a day with this movement. So to recap: 17" is easy, 15" is doable, 13" is a memory. But we'll get back there eventually with some practice.
Rachel and Michal wanted to end the day with a cash-out (number two!) so I agreed to join in. Hey, I took three days off. I'm allowed to go a little nuts with my workout when I get back. We were going to do the following chipper:
500 meter row
25 wall balls
20 weighted step-ups (45/25)
15 GHD sit-ups
10 ring dips
I knew the step-ups would be the worst part. This was part of an event at King and Queen two years ago and it destroyed everyone. At least we would only be doing one round of 20 reps here. The probably was that the girls were going to use a 20" box (it was 17" for ladies at King and Queen), so that made me feel obligated to use a 24" box (it was 20" for guys at King and Queen). We'll come back to how bad of a decision this was.
We got going and I went pretty hard during the first 250 meters of the row. To me, this cash-out was a sprint, but I also knew I didn't want to gas myself before getting to the step-ups. I settled in at a little slower pace for the second 250 meters, but I was still going to be done in under 2 minutes. Right as I was finishing up, Rachel completed her row and we headed to our wall balls at the same time. I thought about attempting to string 25 in a row, but again, that seemed a little silly given that the hardest part of the workout was in front of me. If watching Regionals taught me anything, it was that you need to keep moving but that you should never empty the tank prior to the meat of the workout. I did 15 reps, then dropped my ball. I picked up the ball to finish my last 10, but Jess C. no-repped me (correctly) along the way. No matter, I did an extra rep and headed to my box, now ahead of the girls (to be fair, Rachel was using a 20 lb wall ball like me).
I got to my box and had trouble right from the start. It was very awkward holding the dumbbells near your legs, then trying to make the extension up to the 24" box. It was probably too high for this workout. I awkwardly got through four reps, then had to rest the dumbbells on the box. This was not good. Rachel was now at her box and not encountering any problems. I grabbed the dumbbells, telling myself to keep moving. But it was still hard to get any kind of rhythm doing this. Four more reps and the dumbbells were down again as Michal had gotten to her box. I needed to figure out how to do this quicker.
During that event at King and Queen, a lot of people put their box at an angle so that their foot would have more room to rise and not trip over the lip at the top of the box. I wasn't going to move my box at this point, but this strategy did help me the rest of the way. Instead off directly stepping up on to the box, I raised my leg to the side of the box and then swept it over to the top. This was much better. I managed to keep it together for six reps, leaving six reps to go for my last set. Despite my troubles, I was still side by side with the girls. As I got going on the last six reps, Rachel finished up and headed to the GHD. With one rep left, Michal was done and headed to the other end of the gym as well. Finally, I was off to do some sit-ups myself.
I knew I could do 15 GHD sit-ups in a row, but the last part of the cash-out (10 ring dips) I was unsure about. I can do ring dips, but once they go, they're gone for good. I thought I could manage 10, but I knew I would need to be controlled while doing them to make it happen. So when I got to the GHD, I didn't rush. I got into a nice rhythm and methodically went through the 15 reps. (Note: methodically may be my new favorite word. It is certainly my favorite word running through my head during workouts.) Rachel finished as I got to about 8 reps. Michal was flying through her GHDs, finishing when I hit 12 reps. I kept my pace, finished up, and jogged down to the rings.
Rachel had told me prior to the cash-out that she didn't know if she could do 10 ring dips and I had no idea whether Michal could, so I still thought I had time to catch them. I needed a big first set though. I took an extra second or two calming my breath before jumping on to the rings. What followed was what I would consider a big set: 6 reps. I might have been able to get to 7 or 8, but it wasn't worth it. Once they're gone, they're gone for good. I dropped down and shook my arms. When I jumped up again, I got 2 more, then decided to drop again. I could get 2 more in the last set. Another shake of the arms, then I jumped up, did 2 more and finished with a time of 8:23. And I had finished before the girls. Some of these workout plans are actually coming to fruition!
It might not have been the most impressive day of working out and it didn't result in any PR's, but I felt like I put in a really solid day overall and went home feeling good about things.
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