I concluded my post on Thursday by saying that I didn't know what my next goals were now that I had gotten beyond the 300 pound threshold on my back squat. Given some time to think about it, I came up with some new goals that I would like to accomplish before the year is up. Some are very basic, while others are specific in regards to workouts I would like to complete. So without further ado, here are my goals for the last quarter of 2015.
The basic ones:
- Stay In My Heels - Stay in your heels? What kind of goal is that? A harder one for me than you might imagine. Let me explain. I grew up playing basketball. And when you play basketball, you are nearly always on your toes, especially when you're playing defense. I wasn't much of an offensive threat when I played basketball (I was more of a passer than a shooter), but I was very good on the defensive side of the ball. I could defend smalls, bigs, jump shooters, slashers, post-up guys. A big part of that was sliding your feet properly and not resting in your heels much. Unfortunately, I think that carried through into everything else that I do. When I need to rest at the gym, I squat down and rest perched on my toes. I walk up stairs on my toes. Take a look at this picture:
Can't even stay in my heels while filling in a spreadsheet
(Damn indent won't work on Blogger. Ignore the bad formatting.) Anyways, it's no surprise that I struggle to stay in my heels during lifts. So I am now actively trying to stay in my heels whenever I do something as simple as walk up stairs or rest. I can really feel my calves and hamstrings working more when I force myself to stay in my heels. Might explain why these have been my problem areas lately (and why I can't do more than 8 burpees without sore calves). I still need to stay on my toes for movements like double unders, but if you see me up on my toes when I shouldn't be, call me out.
- Remaining Calm - This one has been drilled into my head by my new pull-up coach and the current Athlete of the Month, Michal. I get all amped up in a workout and things fall apart. It is simple enough to say "just remain calm", but the truth of the matter is that you're always trying to work fast to complete a workout in the shortest amount of time. Maintaining a certain level of intensity while remaining calm is a tricky balance, especially for someone like me who needs nearly everything to go right in a workout to be successful. One little thing can be off and it's not too long until the rest comes tumbling down. As a result, I am now taking an extra second or two to tell myself to stay calm, especially when it comes to skills where I am a work in progress (think pull-ups and double unders). When I keep it together, I'm decent with those movements. Not where I would like to be with them, but getting there.
- Jumping Like A Normal Human Being - Speaking of double unders...it is time that I stop focusing on how many I can string in a row and begin focusing on doing them efficiently. Should I be shocked that I tire out after doing a big set when I look like I'm trying to jump over an oncoming car each time the rope passes beneath me? Probably not. So I'm going to work on spinning the rope faster and not jumping like a crazy person. If I can make that feel normal, the big unbroken sets will come. And hopefully I'll be able to handle WODs with large amounts of double unders without needing to rest 17 times.
WOD-specific goals:
- Fran - Probably the most notorious Crossfit workout there is. (Fran is 21-15-9 reps of thrusters [95/65] and pull-ups) I have avoided it like the plague because of the pull-ups. I did it once with a band and it was a total embarrassment. But I've reached the point where I need to face this test. Can I do 45 pull-ups in a workout? It's pushing things, but I feel like I should be able to do that. Can I remain calm during a workout that is supposed to be fast? That is probably the bigger challenge for me. If I could RX Fran in under 12 minutes, I'd be pretty happy.
- Wolverine - If I'm not sure I can handle 45 pull-ups, what in the world would make me think that I could knock out 120? Hmmm...that's a good question. Feeling pretty stupid now that I'm reading it on the screen. Ah, the hell with it, let's just run through my goofy thought process. Wolverine is an annual Halloween tradition at KOP. It is a special workout that only a couple dozen members have completed. Those that manage to finish the workout can write their name on a board in the gym. The workout is 6 rounds of: 10 clean and jerks (135/95), 20 pull-ups, 100 sit-ups (ouch), and a 600 meter run. Again, why would I ever think I could handle this workout? Because there's no time cap! Some of the times on the board exceed 90 minutes. So there would be no pressure in terms of being slow in this workout. (Although I could very well end up going slow enough that a time cap is put into place for future participants.)
So that is what I'll be primarily focused on during the last three months of the year. That doesn't mean I can't knock off two other goals that have been lingering around all year long: a 400 pound deadlift and a 225 pound clean and jerk. My approach to these goals has been different than my approach to the back squat. For the back squat, I actively went after it, working through a program where the end result was supposed to be that I could handle 300 pounds. For the deadlift and clean and jerk, I was going to wait until they came up in a WOD again and take my chances. I've never been a big fan of deadlifting, so there isn't that drive to work on that over and over again. For the clean and jerk, I've felt like I was capable of doing 225, but I just hadn't put it all together yet.
Could I put it together Tuesday night? I'd get a shot at it as we were testing our 1RM clean and jerk. Before we get to that, we had a buy-in to take care of. The buy-in was 3 sets of 8 strict pull-ups. I've done one set of 5 strict pull-ups before in my life and that was a bit of a miracle. So 3 sets of 8 wasn't happening. I asked Coach Married Lady if I should try 3 sets of 4 strict pull-ups or 3 sets of 8 pull-ups with a band. She advocated going without the band. I made it through the first set of 4, but that fourth rep was very difficult. For the second set, the fourth rep fell apart as I desperately tried to get my chin up to the bar. Knowing I wouldn't get 4 reps in the third set, I adjusted from a pull-up grip to a chin-up grip. That was still difficult, but I was able to get the 4 reps I was shooting for.
On to the clean and jerk! There were two phases to today's clean and jerk programming, each 15 minutes long with a 2 minute break in between. The first part was 15 minutes to find our 1RM. Once that was over, we had to put 80% of that weight on the bar and do 1 clean and jerk every minute on the minute (EMOM) for 15 minutes. I had intended on attending the 6:30 class, but an accident near the KOP mall left me stuck in traffic. I decided to watch the tail end of the 6:30 class and take the 7:30 instead. I must admit that I was surprised watching the 6:30 class do the EMOM portion of this workout. I thought that part would be difficult, but no one in that class looked like they were struggling at any point of the final 15 minutes. Good to know.
I went with the same progression I always do when trying to get 225 on my clean and jerk: 135-165-185-205-225. 15 minutes would be plenty of time for 5 lifts. I figured it would be enough time for 7 lifts, giving me three attempts at 225 pounds. 135 and 165 were essentially warmup lifts and I had no trouble there. At 185, I should have done a squat clean. Matt B (who did 225 at the 6:30 class) and I are always getting stuck at around the same point because we power clean everything until we can't power clean anymore. Then we try to switch to a squat clean at a heavy weight with no practice and unsurprisingly it doesn't turn out well. So squat cleaning at 185 and 205 should have been my focus, giving me a better chance at a successful squat clean at 225. Did I do that? Of course not.
The power clean at 185 was fine, but the jerk wasn't all that smooth. I've always been able to jerk more than I can clean, but recently I've noticed that I need to spend more time warming up on the jerk, especially the split jerk. Like the squat clean, it wasn't something that you could simply turn to when you had no other alternatives and expect it to work immediately. I got this part of things right at least as I used the split jerk from the very beginning of my progression. The split jerk at 185 may have felt a little awkward, but better to get that out of the way now rather than later.
At 205, I really needed to squat clean. And I did not. Brain is definitely not communicating with body. It was not a very pretty power clean either. At least the jerk went a little better. Fayth was working out next to me and complimented me on the lift. I thanked her, but told her the next lift wasn't going to go so well if I replicated what I had just done.
It was now time for 225 and I had about 5 minutes left on the clock. Time for a quiz! For my first attempt at 225, would I:
- A) Unsuccessfully squat clean 225 pounds?
- B) Successfully squat clean 225 pounds?
- C) Foolishly forget to squat clean?
Did you say C? You win! I'm not sure why my body refused to squat during my cleans at 185, 205, or 225, but it simply didn't happen. Despite my stupidity, something strange happened. I pulled hard enough that the clean reached my chest. Not my shoulders, where it needed to be. Only up to my chest. But I've discovered recently that my rack is becoming as sturdy as the metal ones in the gym. Anything north of my nipples is stable, so as I stood up from the slight bend I took during the clean, the barbell easily slid up to my shoulders. I had never power cleaned 225 pounds before. Didn't really consider it possible. That squat program was paying dividends.
I tried to settle myself as I had only cleaned 225 pounds once before. In that instance, I got way too excited about getting the clean and messed up the jerk. I steadied myself and got my breathing right. I didn't want to take too long though, because I knew that my jerk would be weaker the longer I stood there. Finally I was ready to go and...boom, it was over my head. I brought my legs back together from the split jerk and, at last, I had clean and jerked 225 pounds!
It wasn't as much of a celebration as I had on Thursday. If anything, it was more of an internal "good job man!" With a few minutes left on the clock, I decided to add 10 pounds and try 235. But honestly, there was no chance of me getting that. I've come to realize there are two types of checking out in a workout. The first type is the one that most people are used to. You get frustrated, you don't want to be doing the workout any more, and you struggle the rest of the way. The second type is a better version, but leads to the same result: failure. After doing the 330 pound back squat on Thursday, I was so excited that I couldn't focus the way I needed to if I was going to get 340. I attempted it, but there was no way I was getting it on that night. Same thing happened with the clean and jerk at 235. I was so damn pleased with myself that I wasn't going to do the lift properly. I didn't even make a good attempt at the clean in my first try. I took about 30 seconds to gather myself for a second and final attempt. I did the clean correctly this time, even going into a squat for the first time all night. But I didn't meet the bar properly and that was that. I had met my goal and that was good enough for me.
For the EMOM, the 180 pounds I used felt lighter than expected. Perhaps watching the 6:30 class put me in the right place mentally as I was never very concerned about getting through the 15 lifts. The lifts weren't easy, but we were basically getting 50 seconds rest between each lift. There were times when the break felt too long and I wanted to just go again without waiting for the minute to expire. It even got me thinking about how long it would take to do Grace with 180 pounds. (Note: About 3.5 months after starting Crossfit, the WOD was Heavy Grace, which was 30 clean and jerks at 205/135. Not surprisingly, I did not do this workout RX. Trying to be a good sport, I used 145 pounds because it was slightly heavier than normal Grace. Final time: 14:08. Almost exactly how long it took to do this EMOM with significant rest.)
And that was it, in terms of my work as an athlete. I stuck around a few more minutes to cheer on Rachel as she attempted to break her best time on the 500M row. Her previous best had been 1:42, but she slowed down at the end when she realized she wasn't going fast enough to make it on the gym white board. This time around, I took a post-it note and covered the display except for the part that showed how many meters were remaining. The result? 1:40.8. She probably went a little too fast at the beginning, but if she paces the start a little better, I wouldn't be surprised to see her row something in the neighborhood of 1:37.
Wednesday preview: More back squats, some shoulder press, running and push-ups.
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