Honing In On 300

Workout date: 9/22/15

It would have been a pretty boring day if I did my 3x3 back squat routine and called it a day.  So of course I did a nearly 40 minute WOD afterwards!  What can I say?  I have issues.  You are all well aware of it by now.  But it was an exciting day for me on a bunch of fronts and how often do you read a blog post from me that sounds like that?  (Answer: not nearly enough)  Let's get to it then!

I signed up for Open Strength, continuing my trend of lifting prior to any Crossfit workouts that I may initially claim I'm skipping, but eventually give in and do because I have no self-control.  Hey, at least I'm doing these things in the proper order now.  Baby steps.  I am trying my best to not psyche myself out as I close in on the end of this back squat program.  I can see 300 pounds on the horizon at this point and the thought of failing at that weight after doing all of this work scares the shit out of me.  The pessimist in me kinda expects there to be a point where I can't stand the weight back up.  And since I'm near the end of the program, failure could be lurking in the next set.

The 4x4 session from last week helped me become more optimistic.  My 1 rep max wasn't much higher than 265 pounds for the longest time, but I was able to handle 4 sets of 4 reps at that weight.  And the session itself was easier than what I had experienced at 6x6 and 5x5.  Maybe there would be some gold at the end of this rainbow after all.

Today I went in to do 3 sets of 3 reps at 280 pounds.  Without a doubt, this would be a new 3RM for me if I could do one set.  So if you've never done one set at that weight, why not just go ahead and do three sets?  (That sounds like crazy Dave-thinking, but the way the program is set up, I was supposed to be able to handle that jump.  Apparently the people who come up with these programs are crazy bastards too.)  Sadly, Jim and Leslie were not in the annex today, but Shawna, Marci, and Taryn were there working out while Coach Steph kept an eye on us.  Shawna was working on Olympic lifts having done the Crossfit Total yesterday, while Marci and Taryn joined me in doing back squats.

I decided my progression today would be 135-185-225-255-280.  For the first two sets, I did not have the weight belt on.  I did 5 reps at 135, then 4 reps at 185.  After putting the weight belt on, I did 3 reps at 225, then 2 reps at 255.  Did I incorporate both of the lessons I learned last week?  Damn right I did.  One important thing that I noticed while warming up was how important the placement of the bar on my back was in terms of how heavy it felt.  I'm not sure where I had it when I did the set at 185, but it felt very heavy as I backed away from the rack.  I fixed this problem in the next set.  Neither 225 nor 255 felt particularly burdensome.

How would 280 pounds feel?  It was certainly heavy, but when I moved away from the rack with it, I didn't have a "dear lord, how am I going to squat all of this weight" moment.  I took my time and did the first rep.  That went well.  As I stood between reps, I got my breathing right again and did rep #2. I got a little stuck as I ascended from the bottom of the squat, but I managed to push through it.  One more for a new 3RM.  Got my breathing right again and made sure that I descended straight down, as I was paranoid that I'd roll up on my toes during the last rep.  No such issue.  The third rep was smoother than the second one and 280 pounds was my new 3RM back squat weight.

For the other two rounds, I ended up having one rep where I rocked forward on to my toes, but I kept my balance and finished that rep.  Everything else went about as well as I could have expected.  Shawna told me I had really good depth on my squats, going well below parallel.  My 3x3 session was a success and I was that much closer to taking on 300.  In fact, moving 280 as well as I did today gave me a lot of confidence that I could handle 20 more pounds.  Let's hope that is the end result in the next two weeks.

Feeling energized from that experience, I headed over to the main gym to take on Kelly.  I've done this workout at least once before, although the scores from that class were never posted and I couldn't find anything where I noted what my time was.  "Slow" is an extremely safe guess.  Here's what Kelly entails:

5 rounds:
400 meter run
30 box jumps (24"/20")
30 wall balls (20# to 10'/14# to 9')

Not exactly my cup of tea, especially since I've been struggling with running, struggling with jumping, and had done 52 wall balls at the end of Boot Camp yesterday.  Guess it was time to get some practice in on all of those things.

My class consisted of Michal, Alex, Sheila, and two guys who I had not worked out with before.  I wish I remembered their names (I think one's name was Rob), but I had hoped to steal it off the KOP blog tonight and the scores from my class weren't up yet.  Sorry guys!  I knew that Michal was going to kill me on this workout despite her protests that she would not.  This may have been the first time I've done a running WOD with Alex, but I learned how fast she was tonight as well.

Before getting started, #keithie wanted us to try to rebound off the floor after dropping off of the top of the box when doing box jumps as this would save us a significant amount of time.  I had thought about doing it, but I also knew that there was a real chance of suffering an Achilles injury.  Specifically, I knew the most likely victims of such a fate were guys in their 30s and 40s.  I was in the sweet spot of that demographic, so I made sure to speak up and ask Keith about this as he demonstrated the movement to us.  Keith explained how important it was for your heels to make contact with the floor every time we were rebounding up to the top of the box.  I still had some concern that I'd horrifically botch this as I grew tired in this workout (translation: round 2), but I tried it out.  It was definitely quicker and once I got the hang of it in the workout, I managed some larger sets.  If only I had the cardio to really take advantage of this technique.

We were sent on our way and because this workout generally takes 30 minutes or longer, no one was in much of a hurry to sprint that first 400 meters.  We came back in and I tested out this rebounding technique.  And honestly, I was butchering it pretty badly during that first round.  I was almost glad to do wall balls once I had made it through 30 box jumps.  At the wall, I broke up my sets into reps of 13, 11, and 6.  Michal, Alex, and the gentleman to my right were already out the door when I went for my second run.

I believe my second run wasn't super slow, but it was definitely a notch below the speed exhibited in the first run.  My box jump technique improved in round two, but fatigue was setting in already.  I tried to make sure I was on top of the box when I rested so that I could continue rebounding off the floor.  When I got back to the wall, I was happy with doing 13, 11, and 6 again.  Except when I dropped after 13 reps, Keith came over and told me he would buy me five pints of my favorite ice cream if I strung the rest of my reps for the rest of the workout.  I let him know I wasn't going to even string the rest of the wall balls in this set.  I stuck with 11 and 6 to finish off round two and headed back out the door.  I was shy of 13 minutes after two rounds.

While on my third run, I had someone from Coach Steph's class in the annex yell to me that I could definitely run faster.  I'm sure it was meant in a good way, but it's not exactly what you want to hear when you're trying to grind your way through a long workout.  I was definitely moving slower in this round as Alex, Michal, and anonymous gentleman were much further ahead of me.  Getting lapped was now a genuine concern.  I was maintaining an approximately 100 meter lead on Sheila.

For round three, I was able to start off my box jumps with a large, fast set, but after needing to stop, I couldn't re-create that magic.  It was little sets from there on out until I hit 30 reps.  At the wall, I was hoping to only need two sets.  A grunt-filled first set got me 17 reps, but I had to drop after 8 more reps, leaving a final 5 reps to finish round three.  The clock now read over 21 minutes.  Any dream of staying under 35 minutes (my pre-workout goal as told to Samson) was now gone.  I wasn't disheartened as I've been in some of my other recent workouts.  I planned on plugging away and not worrying too much about my time.

As I set out on my fourth run, I realized I was on my own.  Not a good sign.  That meant someone could be heading on out soon to lap me.  Sure enough, Alex went running by me before I even got to Frosty Falls.  After turning around and heading back to the gym, I saw Sheila running, about the same distance she was behind me before.  No sign of anyone else about to lap me.  That was a little bit of a relief.

Can't say there was a whole lot different between rounds three and four.  Each run was slow.  The box jumps started with a big set then a bunch of smaller sets requiring a few breaks along the way.  Keith had noticed that my box was not resting in a flat area, so he adjusted that for me.  (I almost stumbled off the top of the box a few times early in this round.)  And the 30 wall balls were taken care of in 3 sets.  As I headed out for the final round, Alex was done, with Michal and guy whose name I forgot closing in on being done.  The clock was beyond 29 minutes.  I thought I had once done this workout in 37 minutes and change, but I'd need to duplicate what I had done in rounds three and four to make that happen.  With my energy running low, that was going to be difficult.

The final run was less populated with half of the class already done or about to be.  I passed Sheila on the way back for the third straight time near that same mark I had passed her during rounds three and four.  No new story with the box jumps in round five.  I had 12 done before Sheila came back into the gym.  I tried to keep moving, worried she was going to catch me in this final round.  When I finished the last box jump, I walked over to my wall ball and picked it up immediately.  In previous rounds, I had composed myself before doing that first big set.  This time, I wanted to get moving.  Might not have been the best idea as I could not even manage 10 reps.  As I picked up my ball to do a second set, I saw Sheila heading over to the wall.  Uh oh, she's gaining!

I can't recall how many sets it took to get to 30 in that last round or how many reps I did during each set.  What I know is that Sheila blew through that final round of wall balls like she was fresh, while I labored through them.  Sheila's final time: 37:42.  My final time: 37:43.

That might have been a PR for me, but I'm really not sure.  No matter what, I was happy that I got through it.  I have more confidence that I can do quick sets of box jumps if necessary.  I have confidence that I can do a large set of wall balls if necessary.  My running could use a lot more consistency, but that will hopefully come with time.  And for the first time in quite a while, I was relatively pain free as I rolled out after the workout.  My back had tightened up a bit late in the workout, but it wasn't sore.

So my day ended with a PR, some new skills to work on, and a body that wasn't in pain.  I'll take that any day.

Wednesday preview: Squat cleans, burpees, and a snatch clinic.