While Thursday did not go the way I had hoped, there was still some gold to be found at the end of the rainbow. And by gold, I mean sleep. Sweet, glorious sleep. With Independence Day being observed on Friday for corporate purposes, I could rest my head on Thursday night knowing I didn't have to get up early. Ok, not super early. Rachel had asked me to go to the 9:30 class as she was trying to field a 4-person team for the WOD. So I didn't sleep until noon (which I could totally do!), but I did manage a nice 9 hours before showing up to the gym.
The 9:30 class had a solid turnout with 13 folks showing up in total. Due to the odd number of people in class, we split up into 2 teams of 4, 1 team of 3, and 1 team of 2. The team of 2? Me and Rachel. Which meant we would be doing this workout RX(ish) and I would have to put the pedal to the metal in order to not slow her up.
The workout was meant to be done by 2 guys and 2 girls, with the guys completing the work first and then the girls going through a similar gauntlet, but since there were only 2 of us (and really since I don't feel like writing this whole thing out twice), here is what the workout looked like:
40 pull-ups (partner must be holding a deadlift of 225/135 while pull-ups are being done)
60 wall balls (partner must be holding their chin over the pull-up bar while wall balls are being done)
1 100-ft partner carry while also carrying a 100/70 pound dumbbell
40 box jumps (24"/20") - alternating reps between partners
1 100-ft partner carry while also carrying a 100/70 pound dumbbell
2 muscle-ups
Aside from Rachel using the 24" box for box jumps and the both of us doing a jumping muscle-up at the end, we performed the workout RX.
There was a lot to be concerned about in this workout. Pull-ups were a given, but if I wasn't doing pull-ups, then I was holding that 225 pound deadlift, which didn't sound like a picnic either. The most daunting task seemed to be holding your chin over the bar while your partner did wall balls. I could see that breaking down very easily, meaning the wall balls could be going on for a long time. I wasn't concerned about carrying Rachel up and down the gym as I remember doing a partner WOD with Oleg back in the day where I was exhausted, but I was still able to tote him around pretty easily. But holding on to a 100 pound dumbbell on top of carrying my partner? That would be a challenge. I've been struggling on box jumps recently and I knew I'd be tired at that point in the proceedings, so those were probably going to suck. Oddly enough, the "muscle-ups" part of the workout gave me the least concern. Something about only having to do one of them lessened my anxiety.
Practicing all of these crazy combined movements set my mind at ease for the actual workout. Holding on to the deadlift was all about letting your mind drift somewhere else. I could handle a few pull-ups when needed. Holding my chin over the bar was awkward because the most comfortable technique I could manage involved cradling my knees up toward the bar. Despite being awkward, it was effective as I could hold on for 5 wall balls at a time (before practicing, I thought I could hold on for 3 reps max). Rachel agreed to hold on for 5 reps at a time as well.
I elected to use the fireman's carry with Rachel and we took the dumbbells from the top of the box so we wouldn't have to lean all of the way to the floor. As suspected, Rachel wasn't nearly as heavy as she advertised, but the surprise was being able to walk pretty briskly while holding on to that 100 pound dumbbell. The workout suddenly began to feel manageable. Rachel elected to have me go piggy-back for her part of the partner carry. I felt unsturdy as the passenger, but she probably felt the same way while I was playing human taxi.
We got started and initially I thought I would hold on for 6-8 pull-ups before dropping the deadlift. But as I zoned out and stared at the back wall of the gym, I realized I could hold on for a lot more. Rachel was knocking out pull-ups and then would drop, but I let her know she could keep going as I wasn't straining with the deadlift. In fact, I could have gone on for longer than the 18 reps that Rachel did, but her hands were getting tired from the pull-ups and she needed a break. My time on the pull-up bar was mildly successful. I managed to get 5 reps in before checking with Rachel to see if she was ready to go again. When she said she was, I got to go back to my happy place, holding 225 pounds on my waist. Rachel made it to 32 reps before we switched again. I got 4 more reps in, then she took care of the last 4. Part one complete.
Part two of the workout was the worst section of this workout, but we made our way through it. Holding your chin above that bar wears on your arms rather quickly, but I was able to keep my chin over the bar for all 5 reps each time it was my turn. When I felt myself descending, I would tilt my head back so that my chin stayed over the bar, as if I was doing a butterfly pull-up. We agreed to do 2 sets each then switch, so it was 10 reps before we got a real break. And make no mistake, the wall balls were the break during this segment of the workout. We tried to move swiftly, but there was definitely a need for pausing and shaking out your arms between sets of 5. I was concerned about how slow we may have been going as I saw other teams doing the partner carry already, but we finished up without taking any extended breaks.
From there, it was my turn to carry Rachel and the 100 pound dumbbell. Going from the front to the back of the gym was a breeze. The way back? Dicey at best. I knew I needed to just keep my legs moving, but my grip on the dumbbell was slowly unraveling. I squeezed my hand and kept taking steps as fast as I could. Finally we were back to the orange cone where we started and I could drop the dumbbell.
The box jumps were worse than imagined because I forgot one detail: partners had to alternate reps. So while it would have been nice to recover from the partner carry while Rachel knocked out 10 box jumps, that simply was not an option. Rachel was fast with her box jumps, while I was something less than fast. But as we neared 20 reps, I suddenly remembered an important detail. After the box jumps, I was essentially done. All I would have left is a piggy back ride and one jumping muscle-up. This was the finish! With the finish line going from out of view to directly in front of me, I pushed myself to jump on that box as soon as Rachel stepped down from it. 20 reps later and we were done.
My work may have been done for the most part, but I was still concerned that I might injure Rachel due to all of the gravity I was bringing to the party that would be her partner carry. I'm currently in the 205-210 range, while she would need to hold a 70 pound dumbbell on top of that. That 225 pound deadlift hold seemed pretty wimpy all of a sudden. Rachel took off down the gym and as we got to the far end, I thought she was going to stop as she slowed noticeably. Apparently she was only using caution as she turned. We were headed back down to where we started. The weight definitely got heavy towards the end of the carry as Rachel began to grit out each step, not wanting to have to pick the dumbbell back up again. And she was not happy that her pants were falling down. But she soldiered on and made it back to the orange cone.
Rachel carrying two heavy dumbbells
To make it official, we needed to run over to the rings and knock out 1 jumping muscle-up each. Since I had done nothing in the past minute or so except cause my partner lower back pain, I jumped up to do mine first. Then Rachel jumped up to do hers and stopped the clock at 13:24.
It was a hard workout, but not nearly as impossible as it first seemed. And I didn't hold my partner up too much during it.
Next blog: Chaos on the 4th of July!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.