Girls! Girls! Girls!

Workout date: 9/9/15

Crossfit has a variety of benchmark workouts that are well-known in the community.  These workouts are referred to as "the Girls".  They tend to be tough workouts, but not nearly as crazy as Hero WODs, which honor fallen soldiers by punishing you for 40-60 minutes.  There is a broad range for how long Girl WODs take, but for the most part, they wind up being 20 minutes or less.  So if you walk into the gym and see a WOD called Loretta or Savannah, you know you're in for a test, but that test will probably be short to medium length in terms of time.

(No, I will not tell you what Loretta or Savannah is.  You'll have to wait for it to be programmed.)

The Wednesday workout was called "Benchmark Mash-Up".  It included a round of Cindy, a round of Mary, a round of Nancy (super-sized), and a round of Kelly, with each of these rounds preceded by a 400 meter run.  Need a refresher on what each of these Girl WODs consist of?  Me too.  So here's the workout written in plain English:

"Benchmark Mash-Up"
400 meter run
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats
400 meter run
5 handstand push-ups
10 pistols
15 pull-ups
400 meter run
15 overhead squats (135/95) - usually 95/65 for Nancy
400 meter run
30 box jumps (24"/20")
30 wall balls (20# to 10'/14# to 9')

Areas of concern?  Less than a week earlier, my arms gave out on me and I could only complete 19 pull-ups.  By my count, there were 20 pull-ups in this workout, so I needed to turn things around unless I was going to rely on a band yet again.

Having had some time to think (translation: obsess) about why I had failed the week before on my pull-ups, I decided to change my technique.  Thomas Edison is attributed with saying "I have not failed...I have just found 10,000 ways that won't work."  When it comes to life in general, I am quickly honing in on being the next Malcolm Gladwell of futility.  A lot of those recent failures have taken place at the gym.  But my mind never shuts off and I thought a lot about the problem I was experiencing: that my right hand was sliding uncontrollably to the left as I fatigued.  When Aimee had seen me do this, she inquired as to whether I had ever suffered a right shoulder injury, but I never have.  So what else could it be?

My light bulb finally went on.  I have been using a wide grip on the bar because that shortens the range of motion needed to do a successful pull-up.  But maybe that was doing more harm than good.  Maybe I didn't have the shoulder strength to stay in that extended position for a long period of time.  Maybe this was also hindering my ability to string pull-ups since I was having difficulty pushing away at the top.  Only one way to find out.  During this workout, I would employ a closer grip.  I wasn't going to test out stringing pull-ups in the middle of this WOD, but if things went well, I could try that out another time.

Other decisions concerning this workout included using 115 pounds for the overhead squat (even though this was the part of the workout I should excel at, I imagined there was a strong likelihood I would be tired when I get to this stage of the WOD) and going with 2 abmats to do the handstand push-ups.  With everything set, we began warming up and I immediately encountered two problems:

1. 5 handstand push-ups with 2 abmats would usually be a breeze for me, but I was having difficulty doing any during the warmup.  Strange.
2. While testing out pistols, I noticed how sore my legs were from everything I had done on Tuesday.  Uh oh.  There was no getting around that.  I even told Borden I was in trouble before we started.  I'd just have to do my best.

The workout started and no one blazed through the first run.  Conscious of how my legs were feeling, I stayed near the back of the pack, but we were pretty bunched together.  First test of the day: 5 pull-ups.  And at least for 5 reps, the new technique worked.  I rattled off 10 push-ups and 15 air squats and headed back out the door for my second run.  I think everyone had it in their head that the run was essentially the break during this workout, so again my measured pace didn't drop me far behind.  When we came back in, it was time to test out the handstand push-ups.  I got upside down and attempted the first rep.  All good.  Whatever I was messing up earlier was not hindering me now, so I got through the 5 reps and prepared to do the 10 pistols.  Perhaps adrenaline had taken hold, but I was not noticing the soreness during these pistols as much as I had during the warmup.

With the pistols out of the way, I now needed to get through 15 pull-ups without taking a half hour.  I was able to manage 4 quick singles before a brief respite.  Then I got 4 more.  I was more than halfway done and this wasn't feeling like some Herculean task.  I wanted to do another set of 4, but only managed 3 before needing to shake out my arms again.  I divided up the last four reps into 2 sets of two and I was back out the door.  The best part?  I wasn't severely behind the rest of the class.

I was happy about how the first two rounds had gone, but during the third run, I began to get concerned about what lay ahead.  Overhead squats were my thing, but I knew they were going to be difficult today.  And the box jumps and wall balls were going to be very unpleasant.  Just keep plugging away, I told myself.  When I came back into the gym, I tried my best to do all 15 overhead squats without dropping the barbell, but I was in trouble around rep 7 or 8.  I did hold on through 12 reps, but at that point I had to let it go and take a break.  This would typically be the part of the workout where I would make up time, but on this day, I was simply trying to stay within shouting distance of the majority of the class.  When I picked the barbell up again, I finished my last 3 reps and gingerly ran out the door for my last 400 meter jog.

The overhead squats had done a number on my legs and I was moving very slowly as I passed Frosty Falls.  Part of me wanted to walk, but I kept my legs shuffling along.  When I got back to the gym, most folks were in the midst of doing wall balls, closing in on the finish of the workout.  I made it over to my box and did 4 box jumps before needing to stop.  Thirty reps was going to take a long time to get through.  I was petrified of tripping on the box as I jumped.  I could already envision how nicked up my shins would be and how much blood I'd need to clean up when this was all said and done.  There was some definite grunting as I used all my energy to jump on the box without tripping. The support group had already started forming as many people had finished and were making their way over to encourage me along.  Normally this would be the part of the workout where I'd be having a cardio issue, but that wasn't the case here.  Any spring I might typically have in my step was gone.  My legs were shot.  As I closed in on my 30th box jump, my mind began to wander.  How in the world was I going to do 30 wall balls after this?

Eventually I finished up the box jumps and moved over to my wall ball, but walking was a lot of work at this stage.  I grabbed the ball and tried to do 10 reps, but my angle was off and my throws were barely grazing the wall.  When the 6th rep practically came straight down the wall, I dropped the ball.  I thought I might be able to keep chipping away, but two more poor throws later and the ball was back on the ground as I leaned on a nearby pole for support.  I needed a longer break.  Not sure how long I took, but it was probably longer than I imagined it to be.  But I needed to reset everything.  The next time I picked up the ball, I was standing in a good position and I started tossing the ball at the wall at a much better angle.  Despite the burning in my legs, I got into a rhythm, hitting 13 reps before needing to rest again.  Having just done 13 reps, I knew I could get the last 9 reps in one set if I pulled myself together.  When I picked up the ball again, I made sure it wouldn't hit the floor until the workout was complete.  Final time: 24:25.

That was definitely not a strong time for that workout as the average time throughout the day had been around 17-18 minutes.  I was not psyched about being way behind the majority of the class I had participated in.  Still, there wasn't much I could have done differently based on how my body felt.  I tried to take away the positive aspect of the workout which was my performance on the pull-up sections.  Maybe with some work, stringing pull-ups was possible.

Thursday preview: Another Girl and her name is Grace!