Ice Cream + Alcohol = Gainz

Workout date: 7/27/15

I took almost an entire week off from the gym.  And just to make sure that I would be in the worst possible shape on my first day back, I filled my belly with lots of ice cream and alcohol during my time away.  If you're mentally trying to detach yourself from your workout routine, why go halfway?  Eating healthy would have reminded me that I was actively working towards getting in better shape.  This was a full blown mini-vacation.  No concern for my body whatsoever.

At least until I got home on Monday.  Knowing that I was headed to the gym during one of the hottest weeks of the year made me reconsider how much I had neglected my body over the last week.  A little moderation probably would have gone a long way.  That being said, it wasn't like I was getting back into things with a Hero WOD or anything crazy like that.  Monday's WOD looked like this:

20 minutes to find a 1RM thruster
Cash out: 3 rounds of 10 DB thrusters (55/35) and a 150 meter sprint
Peg board practice

Why peg board practice?  Because it was the most talked about aspect of the recently completed Crossfit Games.  And because our gym has one and yours doesn't.  Nah nah, na nah nah!

Despite getting my butt kicked in thruster workout recently, I was happy to see that thrusters were prominent in my first workout back.  Whether or not I am actually good at thrusters, I have convinced myself that I enjoy them, so my mind was in a good place when I walked in the gym.  My 1RM was 185, which I managed during a workout that included squat clean thrusters.  Today, the squat clean was not a requirement.  In fact, you could clean the bar, get your bearings, and then perform the thruster.  That gave me hope that I could go beyond 185.

Did I mention it was hot?  Because it was super hot in the gym.  And even though this wasn't a metcon we were doing, you don't really want sweat dripping in your eyes when you're trying to lift a lot of weight either.  After noticing there were no paper towels available, I ran into the lobby to get two fresh rolls to bring into the gym, placed right beside where I was working out.  Paper towels are going to be essential equipment for me if I'm going to get through the rest of the summer.

I started off at 95 pounds, then moved to 135.  I probably jerked the weight at 135 more than I did a thruster with it, but it still didn't feel like a weight I should be concerned with, so I moved on rather than re-doing the weight.  Next stop was 165, where I made sure I did the thruster correctly.  It was definitely starting to get heavy and I began to question whether I could top 185 on my first day back.  Perhaps trying to PR after a week off was being a little too aggressive.  Perhaps that thought didn't actually enter my mind as I threw 20 more pounds on to test out 185.

The lift at 185 went surprisingly well given that the lift at 165 had given me at least a little bit of pause.  It was difficult getting the proper momentum from the bottom of the front squat to push the bar up over my head, but the press out went smoothly and I started to think about how much further I might be capable of going.  Was adding 20 more pounds to the bar too aggressive?  Of course not!

Adding 20 more pounds to the bar was too aggressive.  I knew I could clean 205 and I really thought that if I composed myself and did a really strong front squat that I could pop the bar over my head.  But I made two attempts at 205 that were mirror images of one another.  Each time, I cleaned the bar successfully, did my front squat, but couldn't come out of the hole with nearly enough momentum to pop the bar off of my shoulders.  The result was trying to shoulder press 205 pounds, which would have been a 55 pound PR.  So that didn't happen.  But I didn't want to stop there.  I figured giving 195 a try would be worthwhile.

Unfortunately, two attempts at 195 resulted in the same outcome as the two attempts at 205.  After the first attempt, Keith told me that I was driving the bar outward when I went to press it instead of driving it straight up.  This has become a big problem for me.  I'm not keeping my deadlifts close to my body, I'm not keeping my cleans close to my body, and now I'm not keeping my thrusters close to my body.  Need to fix that pronto!  On my second attempt, I did a better job of going straight up, but the momemtum from the front squat was lacking and I couldn't press the weight out completely.  Even though Keith had told me I could make a 3rd attempt before the cash out, I was calling it a day at 185.  Until I changed my mind about 60 seconds later.

Why did I change my mind?  For starters, on my first attempt at 195, I could tell that the weight was manageable.  At 205, it wasn't happening.  But 195 felt like something I could do.  The other reason I changed my mind was because I could tell Keith wanted me to try it one more time.  This was confirmed when I said I'd make one attempt and he responded with "ALRIGHT!"  I got into my setup and was getting ready to make my third attempt.  Jim and Leslie were watching nearby and Tom was yelling encouragement as I prepared to lift.  But something didn't feel right.  Rather than try the lift anyway, I stood up, shook out my arms, got my mind right and went through the setup all over again.  This time around it felt better and I cleaned the bar.  I got the bar into my front rack and prepared for the front squat.  Once my breathing was right, I went into the front squat and drove up.  It honestly didn't feel like I had driven out of the hole with any more force than I had previously, but the bar popped off my shoulders and I pressed up.  It went up quickly and I held the bar over my head.  I was confused with how easily the bar got over my head, so I asked Jim and Leslie if I had jerked it accidentally, but they confirmed that I push pressed it.  And with that, I had a new thruster PR of 195.

I was feeling tired, but the rush from getting the lift at 195 gave me some energy to do the cash out.  Dumbbell thrusters are much more awkward than barbell thrusters, so I had some concerns about how well this was going to go.  But I also saw that most people had finished in 3-5 minutes and I'd be really ashamed of myself if I couldn't suck it up to get through 3-5 minutes of pain.  I chose 45 pound dumbbells because many of the other guys in the gym had used that weight.  After some persuasion, Michal went with 30 pound dumbbells even though she didn't think she could handle that weight.  We got going and I managed the first 10 thrusters without putting down the dumbbells.  Michal was out ahead of me though for the run.  And I had that "boy my legs are sore" gimpy run going for me instead of a sprint.  Round two was similar although it took a lot of willpower to hang on for all 10 reps.  Michal had opened a larger lead, while newcomer Jamie passed me on my "run".  In the last round, I could only manage 6 reps before having to put the dumbbells down for the first time.  When I picked them back up, I did the last 4 reps.  With the finish line in sight, I was able to run a bit faster and stopped the clock at 4:19, 32 seconds behind Michal.

Last but not least, it was time for fun with the peg board.  I've tried the peg board once before and it did not go well.  It is no secret that I am bad with body weight movements and that I don't have much grip strength, so you can readily see why this is not something I would excel at.  Michal is good at body weight movements and scurried 3/4 of the way up the board before dropping.  Without the pegs.  SHAME!  Keith managed to retrieve the pegs for us.  Amanda, Ashlea, and Jamie all attempted the peg board before I finally went.  And it did not go well.  Couldn't even move up one peg.

Afterwards I stayed for strength.  I'm starting up a back squat program.  First day required 6 sets of 2 reps at 235 pounds.  I worked up to it by doing a set of 5 at 135 and a set of 4 at 185.  Still tired from the WOD, I was very wobbly getting the sets at 235, but I slowly got through them.  After that, Joe asked me if I wanted to do wind sprints with him wearing a weight vest.  We did 5 sprints of about 50 meters.  It wasn't bad at all as the distance was short enough that I didn't get tired out from the weight vest.  I think a distance of 100-200 meters would be another story.  Back inside, I tried the peg board one more time.  Keith had told me that I needed to be more stable when moving the peg.  On my first attempt, I realized that part of my problem was that I was removing the peg too quickly to move it to the next hole.  By doing it fast, I was jerking my body backwards and losing my stability.  I tried to move the peg slowly and still couldn't do it, but I'm pretty sure that's the only way I'll ever manage to get up the peg board.  Finally, I did some pull-up practice.  Managed to kip my way to a few sets of 3, but my kipping remains atrocious and I don't feel in control at all when I'm doing it.

Tuesday preview: a long chipper with a time cap that involves many pull-ups.  Let's just put me down for the time cap right now, ok?