I wish Monday's WOD was scheduled two weeks later than it was. It was a WOD that I would have been really eager to do. The workout is called Crossfit Total and it is simply this: find your 1 rep max for the back squat, your 1 rep max for the shoulder press, and your 1 rep max for the deadlift. Add those scores up and you have your Crossfit Total.
The only problem is that I am nearing the conclusion of my back squat program. And when it is over with, I will be finding my 1 rep max back squat, with the hope that I will finally be able to handle 300+ pounds. Was there a part of me that wanted to jump ahead and see if I could handle 305 yesterday afternoon? You know there was. But it seemed stupid to do all this work only to take a shortcut at the end of it. So I used my better judgment and decided against doing Crossfit Total. For now.
Instead I met up with Coach Doctor Sommelier VP Giulz and took Boot Camp again. The Monday Boot Camp was going to be a collection of batons, medicine balls, and mats. Although I'm still not sure what the mats were for. Oh well. There was a group of six attending, with Justin R, Samson, Alona, Jen S, and Marci there joining me for the festivities. We warmed up Sadie Hawkins style with the three boys in one line and the three girls in another line. Then it was on to the first relay. Giulz broke out some batons and it was time to have an old-fashioned relay race. Alona and Samson switched teams and we were off. Justin is the only one keeping up with Laura A at Endurance and it showed as he glided along in the same manner she had done at the track on Thursday. He handed the baton off to me with a bit of a lead while Jen passed her baton on to Samson.
I have been accused a few times of "stomping along" when I run, but that is usually when I'm running during a warmup. When I'm sprinting, I'm up on my toes for the most part. Samson, however, has managed to combine stomping along with sprinting. While we were racing along, I had a very good idea of how far behind me he was the entire time as his thunderous footsteps began closing in on me. I did manage to get back to Alona before he got to Marci. After Alona and Marci finished their run, each team member did one more sprint before we moved on to our next exercise.
The medicine balls came out for the next segment, which was a complex consisting of 5 deadlifts, 5 hang cleans, and 5 push presses. Each round was 1 complex. We were instructed to do the following:
5 complexes
Run to sign and back
4 complexes
Run to sign and back
3 complexes
Run to sign and back
2 complexes
Run to sign and back
1 complex
Run to sign and back
"Complex" was an apt term to use, because this whole thing confused the hell out of Samson. We got started and all three guys did the first complex at about the same speed. Except Samson dropped his ball after the first complex and took off running. We yelled at him to come back and explained that he had to do 5 complexes before running. I tried to keep up with Justin on the complexes, but he was a bit quicker than me. Samson finished just before me as well. I took off running after them trying not to fall too far behind.
When we got back, Justin was the first one working, but somehow Samson was done way before me and Justin. Again, I was the last to take off amongst the boys, but I wasn't too far behind. Round 3 was when things got crazy. Justin noticed that Samson had not only decreased how many complexes he was doing each round (which was correct), but that he was decreasing the reps as well (not so correct). So Samson had done 4 reps of each movement when he did 4 complexes. He was now doing 3 reps of each movement in round 3. When Justin explained what he was doing wrong, Samson caught on and then made up the work he had skipped. In the meantime, Justin had lost count of how many complexes he had done. I was at least a full complex behind him, but when I began my third complex in round three, he began another one as well. So I told him he was done and he took off on his run. About 10-15 seconds later, Samson and I took off after him.
The last two rounds went much smoother. Justin ended up being the first one done, with Samson going faster on his complexes and finishing up a few seconds before me. Alona was the first one done among the girls, followed by Marci and Jen. While we took a break before the last part of Boot Camp, Samson explained that math wasn't his strong suit. He told us that he had taken pre-algebra in his senior year of college, which got a chuckle out of the rest of the Boot Camp class.
The Boot Camp cash out was a test of how many wall balls we could string together when tossing them against a stucco wall. Giulz showed us a chart that she had written up. For every 10 wall balls you did, you had to do a certain amount of burpees. The more wall balls you strung together, the less burpees you had to do. Because each range was 10 reps, there was no point continuing on past the first rep in that range if you didn't think you could get 10 more reps. So everyone would eventually quit at 21, 31, 41, etc.
My personal best in terms of stringing wall balls is 34 reps, so I knew there was no point in going after 41 reps. If I hit 31 reps, that ball was being dropped. In the first round, I struggled with the lack of a bounce off the stucco wall, but I held on until I got to 31 reps. Dropping at that point meant I owed 20 burpees. Having done 60 burpees over the bar the day before, I wasn't eager to do more. I finished 7 of them before Giulz let us know we had 3 minutes until the next round. After grumbling about not having enough time to finish my burpees, Giulz extended our rest to 5 minutes. I crawled my way through the final 13 burpees and managed some rest before the second and final set.
Going into round two, my goal was 21 wall balls, since 31 was certainly not happening again. That meant 30 burpees after I was done, but I could slowly make my way through those. Stringing 28 wall balls and then dropping would have been horrendous. Doing 21 wasn't a picnic either, but I held on until I reached that number, then started in on the burpees. For some reason, the second round of burpees went smoother than the first round, despite having to do 10 more of them. Perhaps it was knowing the finish line was in sight. With my 30 burpees done, it was picture time:
A representation of where I tend to finish in workouts compared to the rest of the class
At last, I have finally caught up on the blog! I will now neglect the blog for another three weeks. (Kidding!)
Tuesday preview: 3x3 back squat day. Depending on how I feel, I may take on Kelly. Except that means 150 more wall balls. Ugh.
numbers are hard.
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