Giving Thanks

Workout dates: 11/25/15 and 11/26/15

It took a while to get to working out on Wednesday as there are always "a few more things" that need to be purchased last-minute for Thanksgiving.  But the holiday scrambling allowed me to experience an outdoor nighttime WOD, a rare occurrence indeed.  I thought I might be able to attempt Annie in my garage, but the rope kept hitting the ceiling during warmups.  That meant turning on the light to the patio in my yard and taking on Annie in the cool November night.

Before putting myself through more double under hell, I felt like I had to figure out what the deal was with my rope.  It was definitely feeling loose as I whipped it around and I didn't recall that being the case previously.  You know, back when I was semi-competent with double unders.  That made me re-consider the length of my new rope.  I went online seeking more answers on how long the rope should be and quickly discovered that the answer varies depending on which website you click on.  Not extremely helpful, but the one common theme was that you used a shorter rope as you got more advanced with the movement.  (I'm also now paranoid that my nipples and my armpits are supposed to be aligned.  I find a new body defect nearly every single day.)

So my rope got a massive trim.  Did I trim it too much?  It's possible.  The newly shorn rope felt much smaller when I began practicing with it.  And not to give away the ending, but I certainly had my struggles with it during Annie.  However, as you'll see, that may have been due to lack of practice and other breakdowns in my form rather than the rope being too short.

With everything set up on the patio, I was ready to attempt Annie.  My two previous attempts at doing this RX resulted in times of 11:28 (February) and 11:51 (May).  After last week's double under debacle, I wasn't expecting anything wonderful, but I didn't want to be way off of those times either.  I kicked off the round of 50 double unders and...it did not go well.  Couldn't string more than 5 reps together, with many sets of 1-3 reps.  I didn't take any breaks, other than the occasional stoppage to remind myself to remain calm.  I was not going to look at the clock until I was finished, but I felt like I was way behind already.  When the set of 50 double unders was done, I got into the 50 sit-ups.  That went much more smoothly, even though I've been doing a lot of sit-ups recently.  Whenever I felt myself slowing, I did a spurt of a few quick reps to get my speed back up.  Got through that set fairly quickly and resolved to do better on the next set of double unders.

I did not do better on the next set of double unders.  Still no sets of more than 5 reps.  At one point, I whipped myself in the head, dropped a massive F bomb, then realized I was not in the gym, but instead a stone's throw away from my neighbor's house, where 3 young kids probably heard me.  Oops.  I kept noticing that I was doing something wrong when I got ready to attempt my next set.  Maybe my hands weren't low.  Maybe they were spread out wide from my body.  Maybe my chest wasn't up.  Double unders weren't supposed to be rocket science, but if I didn't remember to do all of these things, there was a good chance that my next set was going to end just as abruptly as the last one had.  After finishing the round of 40 double unders, I got back into sit-ups, already miserable about how bad my time was going to be.  This round of sit-ups was tougher, as I wanted a break when I got to the low twenties.  Instead, I pushed faster and was able to finish the 40 reps without stopping.

Lather, rinse, repeat.  The set of 30 double unders resulted in more misery as the mystery of the big set continued to elude me.  I was envisioning a final time of 15-16 minutes at this point.  Thankfully, I was keeping it together on the sit-ups.  Again I wanted to stop midway through the set and again I pushed harder at the toughest point to make it through the entire set.  I was expecting more misery when I picked up my jump rope, but finally, things clicked.  I got all 20 double unders in a row!  I dropped to my mat and grunted through 20 sit-ups.  Figuring the set of 20 was a fluke, I apprehensively picked up my rope hoping that this last set wouldn't be a total disaster.  Instead, I got the last 10 in a row.  Where was this at the beginning of the workout?!?!  I dropped down, did 10 fast sit-ups, then checked my time.  Final time: 11:19.  A new PR by 9 seconds.  That workout felt like it took forever, but somehow it was right in line with my previous attempts.  (Yes, that might mean my other attempts took forever, but I'm trying my best to be positive here!)

Among the most important takeaways I had were to not take any breaks.  Even when I wasn't getting very many reps, I was quick about moving on and making my next attempt.  It was also important to keep in mind that my failures may have been due to something simple that I was just glossing over.  Hand placement and keeping my chest upright tend not to be things I focus on while doing double unders, but they definitely have an effect on how successful I am during sets.

With Annie complete, I wanted to get a little work in on the rower.  I had warmed up on the rower prior to doing Annie, with the plan being that I would do some longer work on it afterwards.  That plan didn't seem so appealing post-Annie.  Instead, I thought it would be worth a shot to test my best 500 meter time.  As was the case with the jump rope, I've been thinking about things that might be affecting my time on the rower.  My first thought has generally been that I probably have the damper setting wrong.  Then this week it dawned on me that I might not have my foot straps set up optimally.  When I did the WOD on Tuesday, Rachel made a point of getting me to keep my heels on the ground and generating power that way while doing my snatches.  The row is essentially a horizontal version of that movement, so it got me thinking that I wasn't doing a good job of keeping my heels in the foot straps.  Best way to solve that problem?  Adjust the foot straps to a setting where your heel is basically forced to stay in the strap.  I may need to tinker around with this a little more, but I think I have the strap where it needs to be now.

My best time for 500 meters was a little north of 1:36.  For the first 350 meters of this row, I thought I was going to destroy that mark.  Despite some sore abs, I was moving at a strong pace and getting stronger, more efficient pulls thanks to the fact that I was driving through my heels more.  With about 150 meters to go, the monitor showed that my expected finish time was around 1:31.  I had kept my 500 meter split time under 1:30 for most of the first 250 meters.  Unfortunately, it was around this 150 meters to go mark that I couldn't find enough in me to maintain that pace.  I was pulling and breathing like crazy, but I simply wasn't generating the same power as I watched my split time become slower and slower.  Final time: 1:34.8.  I was very happy to beat my previous best, but it might have been wiser to test this fresh rather than after completing Annie.

On Thursday, we had the Amazing Race at the gym, our traditional friends and family Thanksgiving workout at the gym.  My original intention was to use most of this blog post to write about that workout, but after doing it, I realized that recapping that experience was probably not going to be all that interesting.  ("We went to this intersection, then that intersection, and we did tuck jumps there...")  See what I mean?  So instead, I'll keep the recap brief and provide you with some pictures of how I spent my Thanksgiving morning.  My team was made up of the older guys who had come out for the event: myself, Scott, Sir Cline, Jonathan, and Mr. Intensity.  After a brief obstacle course in the gym, we were given a clue to where our list for the scavenger hunt could be found.  The clue was a phone number, which turned out to be for Transaxle (KOP used to call this building home).  That meant a long uphill trek that no one seemed all that psyched about, but at least it would be almost all downhill as we made our way around terrorizing the citizens of Bridgeport.

At Transaxle, we were given a choice: carry heavy sandbags up a hill or eat a donut and...honestly, I'm not even sure what the rest of the second option was because I had half a donut down my gullet before the coaches were finished explaining.

You thought I was joking?  I do NOT joke about donuts.

With our list in hand, we went to various intersections and landmarks throughout Bridgeport, completing whatever exercise was mandatory in order to score points.

Sir Cline jumping over me, along with evidence that we were at the correct intersection.

An impromptu rendition of YMCA in front of a beauty salon.

Selfies are hard when sun glare is involved.  But we got Butch in there.

"Does anyone have money? How are we going to buy food at Wawa?"

"I have the Wawa app."

<head nods>

When our team sprinted through the door at 9:16, bellies full of donuts, munchkins, and fritters, we had completed our Thanksgiving journey, albeit one minute late.  Our final score of 38 left us approximately 146 points out of first place.  I think there was a 100 point bonus if you found Santa or something.

It is only appropriate to end today's blog post by saying thanks.  The day before the Amazing Race WOD, a video was posted on the KOP blog that showed what the box looked like in its first and second incarnations.  It put into perspective how far the gym has come and how grateful all of the members should be for everything we have at the gym's current location.  A big thank you to Aimee and Jason Lyons (and to Aimee's dad!) for creating the wonderful place that so many of us enjoy on a daily basis.

Friday preview: A partner WOD where some unfortunate soul will likely have to do a lot of burpees.  Because I suck at burpees.

The Flyin Hawaiian

Workout date: 11/24/15

It was back to the box on Tuesday night for my first WOD in a while.  I signed up for Coach Rachel's 7:30 class, not knowing how full it would be.  You can always look on the sign-up page to see how many people signed up for a given class, but that's not the most accurate barometer in determining how many people will actually be there.  When I had looked about an hour before class, it said that only 2 people were signed up.  That led me to believe that about 5 people would be there when class began.  Surprisingly, that was not the case.  The 7:30 class was indeed only 2 athletes strong: myself and Sir Cline.

Sir Cline had recently gotten back from a trip to Hawaii where it appeared he had a lot of fun.  (I would never be able to come up with the right choice of words to do the pictures justice.)  And how did a week of island debauchery agree with him?  Well, he came in on Monday night and knocked 1:41 off of his best Annie time.  Perhaps I need to add more poke to my diet.  I was expecting him to kick my butt in tonight's WOD, which looked like this:

4 rounds:

500 meter row

14 power snatches (115/75)

7 chest-to-bar pull-ups

Why did I expect him to kick my butt?  For starters, I know he's faster than me on the rower, which I only have to blame myself for since I've used the rower I have at home as a coat rack for the better part of 10 months.  Neither one of us was busting out any chest-to-bar pull-ups for this workout, so we'd each be doing regular pull-ups: advantage Cline.  The only aspect of this workout where I thought I might make up some time was on the power snatches.  I wasn't sure whether I would use 75 pounds or 95 pounds for the workout, but then I thought I saw Cline put 95 pounds on his bar.  Not wanting to feel like a schmuck, I went with 95 as well.  (Spoiler: Cline used 85 and I totally miscounted the weight.  Duh.)

Rachel put us through our warm-ups and then we got ready to go.  The workout was supposed to take "about 20 minutes", which didn't sound that ominous before we started.  By the end of the first round, I had changed my opinion on how feasible 20 minutes was for this workout.  As expected, Cline blazed through the row, but I wasn't extremely far behind when I got to my barbell.  Maybe I went a little too fast for my own good as I had to break up the 14 reps into sets of 5-4-3-2 instead of knocking out a huge set to start things off like I planned.  In fact, Cline got over to his pull-up bar before I did.  So much for making up time!  I certainly wasn't going to catch up to him on the pull-ups.  I did a set of 3, then a set of 2, and finished off the first round with two quick singles.  I was probably 20-30 seconds behind Cline, completing round 1 somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:30.

Round two would not go much better as I lost more time on the row.  I think Cline was probably pretty consistent on his row splits, but my row time was noticeably longer going from round one to round two.  Rounds two through four were not that different, but I'm sure I was losing a good 20 seconds to Cline on each row.  He was still working on his snatches when I got to my barbell and I decided to go for broke.  Maybe I could trick my body into doing 14 snatches without the services of oxygen.  Turns out it could manage eight in that state.  I had told Rachel before the workout that I wasn't allowed to squat, but if there was ever a time that I needed to catch my breath, it was after that set of 8 reps.  I did not squat though, nor would I for the entirety of the workout.  Cline was back to pull-ups, while I tried to get air in my lungs.  Eventually I'd do two sets of 3 reps to finish off my snatches.  Cline was already on his third row when I got to my pull-up bar, so I decided to do quick singles in an attempt to make up some time.  Towards the end of the set, I started to weaken.  My hands were very sweaty and I lost my grip on the bar for the 7th rep.  I moved over to the bar to the left of where I had been working and tried to get my 7th rep there.  In an attempt to hurry and finish the set, I accidentally used a wide grip, which resuscitated my old friend "the hand slide" as I couldn't kip with that grip.  My right hand slid over quickly and I essentially did a strict pull-up to finish the round.

Having fallen way behind, I decided at that point that I would have to skip the rest of the pull-ups.  I focused on getting my breath back while maintaining a decent pace on the row.  At the snatches, I went 6-4-4 for round three.  And after they were done, I walked over to the rings and did 7 ring rows.  Hey, at least I made up some time!  (Not much, but a little.)  In round four, I attempted to channel what I had done in round two.  The row was moderate, but I tried to get my energy back for a big set of snatches.  When I got to my barbell, Cline was finished with the workout.  I managed seven reps before needing a break.  Then I wrapped things up with a set of four and a set of three.  Rachel had told me that I needed to put my feet out further for the ring rows and I made the adjustment, even though I knew it was going to make the ring rows tougher.  In fact, I was almost certain that I couldn't string seven reps in this harder setup.  That was true.  I got four reps before a short break where Rachel encouraged me to finish before the clock hit 20 minutes.  I set back up again and did the last 3 reps.  Final time: 19:49.  Sir Cline crushed it in 17:48.

Wednesday's WOD involves a max height box jump and several two minute drills.  I think I'll take that as an opportunity to work out at home.  Perhaps I can attempt Annie and see how that plays out.  There will definitely be some rowing involved as well.

Thursday preview: A small recap of my home workout on Wednesday along with my first Amazing Race experience at KOP!

Home Field Advantage

Workout dates: 11/18/15, 11/20/15, and 11/22/15

It's been a week since I wrote a blog post because...well mainly because there hasn't been much to blog about.  I haven't been back to KOP since the workout I did last Monday, so you haven't missed out on any WOD recaps.  There are several reasons why I decided to stay home for the past week.  My neck injury continues to bother me.  It is a nagging pain more than anything and I've tried all sorts of things to get rid of it, but it continues to linger on.  When I woke up this morning, it was the best I have felt in a week and I suspect it is because injuries appreciate it when you tap the brakes every now and then.  Another reason for not going to the gym was due to the fact that I wanted to have more of a cardio focus in my workouts.  That is without a doubt my most glaring weakness at the moment and it is not being fixed by doing 5 random WODs at the gym each week.  Finally, my workout on Monday generated reactions that I would describe as disappointing at best.  Those things happen.  There is nothing wrong with people having differing opinions.  You disagree and you move forward.  The one positive takeaway from this experience has been that it re-affirmed the need to do more workouts from home, which I think will improve my cardio in the long run.

What can I do at home?  Quite a bit actually.  It's not like I have a 20 ft rope to climb or a pull-up rig to work out on, but I have a decent amount of equipment for a one-person gym.  I have a 24" box.  I have a 55 lb KB.  I have lots of dumbbells.  I have a jump rope.  I have an abmat.  And most importantly, I have a rower that has been under-utilized throughout the year.  I am going to be doing lots and lots of rowing!  Especially since going outside and running is going to seem like a bad idea very, very soon.

While I did not work out a whole lot over the past week (don't say I wasn't looking out for you, neck), here are some of the things I did from home:

• Burpee EMOM - When doing Barbulls, Coach Plentus gave us a bunch of cash-out like WODs that we could do at the end of the week.  These were typically things that we could do outside of the gym as many of us were trying to do the program while traveling for work at the same time.  One of the workouts I hated was a 6 minute burpee-fest of 12 burpees every minute on the minute.  Not having a whole lot of faith that I could do this with my cardio in the state that it currently is in, I went for 5 minutes when I did this.  After all, 60 burpees is still a lot for me. I managed to get through the whole thing without failing.  I'll try the full 6 minutes in my next attempt.  One big thing that I tried to incorporate in here was not allowing myself to do my usual squat rest.  I could be bent over or leaning on something when I was waiting for the next minute to start, but I need to get out of the habit of resting in a squat when I'm struggling to breathe.
• Double Under Volume - Another thing I attempted was 5 rounds of 50 double unders with a minute rest between each round.  I wanted each round to be an amount that I couldn't string.  One of my struggles with double unders is doing a big set and then falling apart after that big set comes to an end.  So by choosing an amount that would require multiple large sets (in all likelihood), I was working on fixing that problem.  And by only giving myself a minute of rest in between rounds (again, no squatting allowed!), I was working on doing double unders while tired (my nemesis from last Monday).  I didn't keep track of my time while doing this, as my focus was simply getting the reps in.  I discovered that I need to be much more aggressive with how fast I am spinning the rope, so I put that in my memory bank.  I'm not sure how to fix the issue I am having with the one side of the rope getting loose regularly, but I'll watch some folks at the gym the next time double unders are scheduled and see if I can pick up on what I'm doing wrong.
• Ringing of the Bells - This was event #2 from this summer's King and Queen competition.  It was the event that crushed my soul.  Sounds like something I could use some practice on.  The workout had a rep scheme of 50-40-30-20-10 alternating between KB swings (55 lbs) and anchored sit-ups.  There was also a 15 minute time cap.  During King and Queen, I had more than 40 reps remaining when the time cap hit.  This time around, I had just over 10 reps remaining at 15 minutes.  These things are so much more pleasant when I'm not sweating like crazy.
• Sailing Simulator - The Flight Simulator is a tool for practicing double unders where you gradually increase the number of stringed reps up to a point, then come back down that scale to finish.  I have started doing a similar program on the rower.  The program goes 1-2-3-4-3-2-1 (in minutes) with equal parts work and rest.  So to begin, you row a minute, then rest a minute, before rowing for 2 minutes and then resting for 2 minutes.  The idea is to keep your strokes per minute consistent during the time you are working.  When I did this the first time, I did it with the damper on 3 as suggested online.  That felt too light though and my 500 meter split times were not as fast as I hoped despite keeping a pretty steady pace of 30 strokes per minute. As a result, I moved the damper up to 4 when I did this workout a second time and felt like it was a better workout.  I kept a pace of 30 strokes per minute along with a 500 meter split of about 2:00.  I also got to channel my inner Samson/Silver Fox/Josh M/Shane by rowing shirtless.  Just one more benefit of the occasional home workout.
• Running - Not sure how much longer I'll be doing this as the weather turns colder, but I always feel like I get more out of a run than I do out of a row.  I've had the opportunity to run in Valley Forge Park as well as around my neighborhood.  I totally blew it by not getting to Endurance more often this year!

That's about it.  I'll be doing a mix of home workouts, WODs, and Open Strength going forward and we'll see how that works out for me.  My apologies in advance if the home workouts are a little more boring, but I'll do my best to keep track of times and stuff like that.

Tuesday preview: My first WOD at KOP in a week.  Rowing, snatches, and pull-ups.

Cardio-emascular

Workout date: 11/16/15

I hate writing posts like this one.  I mean, I guess what I hate even more is having workouts like the one I had last night.  Workouts that expose my glaring weaknesses.  And me being me, I have to make sure that it's a packed house when I fail most spectacularly.  If there is anything that I have gotten better at, it is not writing posts right when I get home from the gym after these debacles.  This post will still probably suck, but at least it won't suck as much as I did during last night's WOD.

Here's the workout that kicked my butt:

3 rounds:
10 toes-to-bar
20 overhead squats (95/65)
40 double unders
100 ft overhead walking lunge (45/25)

At first glance, that didn't seem so bad.  I was hoping to get through the first round of toes-to-bar quickly, then be mildly competent in rounds 2 and 3.  If you've read this blog, you already know how much I love overhead squats.  The back half of each round would be tougher, as my double unders are shaky when I'm fresh and can be a disaster when I'm tired (wait for it...).  The overhead walking lunge was the wildcard in the workout.  The 45 pound plate we would need to hold overhead during the lunge didn't seem that imposing.  I figured that it would be a cardio test more than anything.

Coach Aimee had a talk with us before the workout began and the talk focused on results.  She spoke about looking good naked (that ship has sailed).  She spoke about focusing on speed during this workout (that ship was about to sink, Titanic-style).  More than anything, she wanted us to push ourselves and keep moving during the WOD.  I couldn't even manage that.

Usually when I disintegrate during a workout, it ties back to a bad choice I made before the workout even began.  I may have chosen a weight that was too heavy for me.  I might not have scaled properly in some other way.  That was not the issue last night.  I can do toes-to-bar and 30 isn't some extremely high amount to do.  When I do Nancy, I do 5 sets of 15 overhead squats at 95 pounds unbroken.  So 3 sets of 20?  Not unreasonable.  My largest set of unbroken double unders?  49 in a row.  I've been able to put together multiple sets of 20 at times, but tend to do sets of 12-15 reps when I don't lose my cool.  So was 3 rounds of 40 reps too much for me to handle?  Wouldn't think so.  Finally, there was the overhead walking lunge.  Due to space constraints, we would do 4 trips of 25 ft.  In the warmup, I was able to handle 2 trips without much discomfort.  Don't see why I wouldn't be able to handle 3 rounds of 4 trips.

Why wouldn't I be able to do all of this?  Because I'm slow and my cardio sucks.  Somehow I forgot those details when I was doing my pre-workout analysis.  The successes I have had at the gym recently have all been in workouts where I could go heavy or where it was some long slog without a time cap.  And to my credit, I managed to turn last night's speed workout into a long slog without a time cap.  Go with your strengths, I guess.  Let's get into what I remember (rage does not work well with memory) about the workout.

There were 11 of us in class taking up a bit more than half of the gym, while about 20 folks in the Holiday Head Start program were crammed in down at the other end.  This workout required a lot of open space and there was little real estate to go around.  In fact, we would need a staggered start just so the 11 of us in class could operate without running into one another.  Matt B and I would share a barbell and I would lead things off for us.  The first heat had 6 people in it and I was hoping to get off to a very good start.  And I did, sort of.  I wanted to string all 10 toes-to-bar with an efficient kip.  I was able to do that.  I wanted to squat snatch into my first overhead squat before stringing the next 19 reps as well.  I was able to do that.  I thought I was off to a fast start.

Except when I grabbed my rope and got ready to start my double unders, I noticed that 3 of the other 5 people in my heat were already jumping rope.  I had gone as fast as I could possibly go and yet I was still behind the majority of the people in my heat.  It is often said at the gym that you are competing against no one but yourself, but that's not true at all.  I'm not sure I know anyone at the gym who only competes against themselves.  Most people have someone they are trying to hang with or even beat in workouts.  I was hoping to hang with anyone and it was already clear that such a scenario was unlikely to play out.  If I was behind while performing at my best, what was going to happen when my performance started to decline?

Didn't have to wait long for that answer!  After getting 16 double unders to begin my round, my form on the jump rope began to fade.  I had one more set of around 10 reps, but I had several attempts where I only got a couple of reps.  Heat two had begun and nearly everyone else in my heat was on to the overhead walking lunge.  It felt like everyone was moving fast while I was moving in slow motion.  (Contrast this to later on when I actually was moving in slow motion.)  It was awkward holding the plate overhead and pivoting into the next 25 ft walk, so I put the plate down each time I finished a leg of the walk.  Finally I was done with 4 trips, but I was breathing heavily already and there were still two full rounds to go.

Back at the toes-to-bar, I strung together 5 efficient reps.  When I hopped back up to the bar again, I did 2 efficient reps, before holding on for 3 reps of the "come to a dead hang, then swing your feet up to the bar" variety.  Not efficient, but it was the best way for me to keep moving.  My performance in the next set of overheads probably signaled that I was all done in this workout.  Rather than flirt with 20 more overheads in a row, I got 7.  Then 6 more.  And then the last 7.  If I was breaking up the movement I was good at, how could I expect to fare very well at the movements I struggled with?  As I headed back to my jump rope, I crossed the chaotic workout area.  With both heats going now, people were criss-crossing everywhere, working on all movements.  I tried to find an area where I was not going to be in the way as I attempted double unders.  As was the case with most of this workout, I was not very successful.  Medium-sized sets were now hard to come by.  Meanwhile, no one else in class seemed to be slowing down.  I gazed around and saw no signs of frustration, only progress.  I began to worry that Matt was going to catch up to me, which would have been bad because we were sharing a barbell.  At that point, I decided to go outside.  I was making little progress with my double unders and things were feeling claustrophobic in our workout area.  It was also nice to get some fresh air.  While I was out there, I managed two sets of more than 10 reps.  I was headed back to the overhead walking lunge.

Unfortunately, walking back inside reminded me how far behind I was.  Several people were finishing the workout as I tried to complete my second round.  I'm the king of getting lapped in three round workouts.  I did the 4 trips the same way I did it in the first round, stopping at each turnaround point to put the plate down.  Breathing had become very difficult and I was not enjoying the lunges.  With Matt close behind me, I knew I needed to get moving so that I did not hold him up at the barbell.  I finally made it back to my bar and did 3 efficient toes-to-bar.  I don't recall how I got to 10 from that point, but I imagine I got back to the dead hang reps just to try and finish them off.  Matt had stripped the barbell down to 75 pounds, so I needed to add weight back on to the barbell before doing my overhead squats.  Rachel helped me out with that.  Then she helped set up another barbell for Matt with 75 pounds as he was in the midst of his toes-to-bar already and he would be ready for his overhead squats before I finished mine.  I did my best to hang on during the overhead squats, getting 10 reps in my first set.  Could only manage 6 in my second set, before taking care of the last 4 reps.  Plenty of rest was required between sets.

If I hadn't embarrassed myself up to this point, then my implosion during the final round of double unders sealed the deal.  For the most part, I could not string more than 3 reps, with 1-2 reps typically the norm.  The rope kept swinging loosely as the right handle would slide down the rope.  Each failure resulted in more and more frustration.  I kept telling myself to remain calm.  This was a skill movement and being angry was only going to make things worse.  But there was no way to remain calm through this.  I simply could not string reps.  Each time the rope hit me, I wanted to scream.  After a while, I did scream, usually something of the four-letter variety.  Meanwhile, Matt had gotten to his rope and put together a set of what must have been 20 reps or so.  The fact that I was the only one struggling made things worse.  The fact that the Holiday Head Start class was being held hostage at the other end of the gym because they were waiting on me to finish made me feel incredibly stupid.  At one point, I was so mad with my rope that I turned around and whipped either the GHD or the Reverse Hyper machine with it.  I felt helpless and completely incompetent.

To use the term "pity circle" would be incorrect.  It was a full-blown intervention at this point.  I heard many different voices trying to encourage me on and they were greatly appreciated.  I wish I could have used that encouragement to finish quicker.  At long last, 40 reps were done and I got to my overhead walking lunge.  I made an attempt to use my rage productively, trying to lunge as fast as I could.  At the end of the first trip, I pivoted and held on to my plate, only to get about halfway back before needing to drop the plate to the floor.  From there, I finished trip #2.  Another break before trip #3.  Then a final break before trying to speed-rage my way to the 100 ft mark.  Final time: 29:01.

Lots of folks helped me finish this workout, especially "Megs", seen here 

pushing me through the final round of lunges

So that was the positive spin on the evening.  Trust me, you wouldn't have wanted to read this if I had written it last night.  I took so long during this workout that everyone else had time to put their weights away while I was still working.  They put my barbell away as well (hey, look who can't clean up after himself again!).  I was so <fill in your favorite negative emotion here> that I took off pretty much immediately after I was done.

What can I take away from this workout?  It took me a long time to come up with a semi-positive answer to this question.  Not "completing this WOD" long, but close enough.  I guess I need to remind myself to not combine my issues outside the gym with my issues inside the gym.  I never want to act out the way I did in front of 30+ people last night, but everything boiled over at a certain point.  The idea that my best performance isn't all that great and that my worst performance is abysmal is something that resonates with me all too often outside of the gym.  Last night's workout felt like deja vu in that sense and it pissed me off.  But I can't be adding fuel to the fire.  I extended my workout considerably last night mainly because I could not handle my frustrations.  That was my biggest failure during the workout.

No preview as I'm not sure what I'll be doing next.  My cardio needs a lot of work.  As gratifying as it has been to improve on my pull-ups and my back squat, those achievements have been counterbalanced by how much worse I have gotten from a cardio perspective.  So that (and double unders) need to become my focus for a while.  Since I don't know what will show up in WODs in advance, I don't have a good sense of when I will be back in for my next WOD.  But when I do, you'll find a new post waiting here.

If It's Not Scottish, It's Crap!

Workout date: 11/14/15

My cardio might be a little better than it is currently if I ran regularly.  As it is, I tend to only do two 5K's per year: one during the summer, with the other in the fall for my friend Carmen.  Carmen was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma over a decade ago and has been battling cancer ever since.  Ten years ago, she began running in the MMRF 5K in Philadelphia, along with a small group of friends and family.  Eventually that group expanded to include friends from her job.  This larger group would start a tradition of completing the race and then heading over to the IHOP on City Ave.  Team Pancake was born.

There have been changes over the years.  The date of the run has gotten later and later over the years, with this year's run taking place in mid-November.  IHOP is no more, having given way to Flap Jack's, which then became the Perkins that we visited after this year's race.  The biggest transformation for me has been my change in attire.  Jenn's company, Aberdeen Asset Management, does a ton of charity work.  Every year, I join 19 other folks from Aberdeen in doing the Plane Pull competition down at the Philadelphia airport.  The Plane Pull is to raise money for Ronald McDonald House and no one has raised more money the last two years than the generous folks at Aberdeen.  A few years ago, I asked Jenn if she could pass an e-mail along to her co-workers about the MMRF run and the response was both immediate and overwhelming.  Feeling the need to honor them, I began wearing my Aberdeen soccer jersey (I used to be the goalie for the company's team) and a sport kilt as my outfit for the MMRF run, no matter the weather.  You can probably see why the later start date each year has become a concern of mine!

While the fundraising aspect of this event has gone well for me over the years, my performance in the actual race has left a lot to be desired.  You can't run 3 miles every 6 months and expect to finish with a fast time.  I have gotten to the point now where I don't care about a fast time, per se, but rather my goal is to make it the entire 3+ miles without falling apart.  Since I've been suffering injuries more regularly than Derrick Rose recently, not to mention struggling with my cardio, I did not have high hopes for this year's edition.

Carmen and the majority of Team Pancake tend to walk most of the 5K, although they will jog parts of it, including the last stretch into the finish line.  There are only 3 members of Team Pancake that run the race regularly:

• Tommy, a solid runner in his early 40's
• Jimbo, a solid runner in his early 50's
• Me, a guy in a kilt routinely beat by participants in their 60's

Me, Jimbo, and Tommy after the race

Tommy and Jimbo battle it out most years to see who can run faster, with Jimbo collecting several medals due to the age group he is in.  I haven't come close to beating either of them over the years, although I do remember trying to stay with them the first year I participated.  Now I don't even line up with them at the start.  Those two had made their way up near the front of the starting pack, while I was back chatting with Carmen and some of the other members of Team Pancake, back where the walkers were supposed to gather.  It doesn't really matter these days since everything is chip timed, but starting back that far does require a lot of weaving around people, especially in the first mile.

There is always some confusion at the beginning of this race since there is no horn or gun to indicate the race has started.  The folks in the back see the herd begin funneling through the starting gate and that's how you know it's time to run.  This isn't a huge race (about 500 participants, runners and walkers combined), but it can take a while to get to the starting line, especially when a lot of walkers line up near the front.  After the race, I found out it took me 1:08 to get to the starting line from the official start of the race.  Once again, let's be thankful for chip timing.

After weaving through a lot of walkers and huggers (people were actually standing in front of the starting line hugging one another as the racers tried to get by), I was finally able to get running.  Tommy and Jimbo were nowhere in sight.  I tried to stay to the outside as I continued to go by lots of walkers or walkers/joggers during the first half mile.  I wasn't wearing a watch this year, so I didn't have a way of determining whether I was going too fast or too slow other than what my body was telling me.  I felt like I was going fast, but that may have been because I was passing so many people early on.  I closed in on the mile marker, except I never saw it along the course.  Tommy later told me it was there, but I hadn't seen it as I was still bunched up among a lot of people.

Though I hadn't seen the one mile marker, it was at about that point that I settled into the run.  The runners were more spread out and I was starting to pick out which runners were running about the same pace as me.  I had seen a taller guy who started out back where I had and had followed a similar zig-zag pattern through the field during the first mile.  He was about 50 meters ahead of me and seemed like a good candidate in terms of who I should try and run with over the last two miles or so.  Just as I began zeroing in on him, I heard footsteps.  After staying to the left for over a mile in order to pass slower runners on the right, I was now being passed on my left.  The perpetrator was a woman about a foot shorter than me who had a nice gliding stride as she went past.  She didn't appear to be laboring at all as she went by.  I got the impression that she was going to keep that same pace from the moment she passed me all the way until she reached the finish line.  This was who I needed to go with.

I knew that was easier said than done.  Cline is always telling me to open up my stride when I begin slowing up during WODs, yet I struggle to do it.  At the same time, I hadn't done a bunch of wall balls, box jumps, or squat cleans prior to this run, so maybe my legs would be a little more accommodating this morning.  I focused on lengthening my stride and staying within range of my new target.  And it worked.  I wasn't feeling any resistance from my legs due to the longer stride I was now employing.  The main concern would be my cardio.  Could I keep my breathing steady for nearly two miles?

As the lady in front of me passed runners on the left one by one, I followed suit.  Soon we were approaching the two mile marker and this time I could see the sign.  But there was something else near that sign up ahead: Jimbo.  At first I wasn't sure it was him because I didn't remember him wearing earbuds prior to the race, but as I got closer and closer to him, I became certain of who it was.  Part of me was dreading the idea that he might pick it up and race me over the last mile if he saw that I caught up to him.  I was very happy with how things had gone over the first two miles.  I had no idea what my time was, but I had picked things up a bit during the second mile and I wasn't gasping for air or running on sore legs.  I felt like I could make it the rest of the way at the pace I was going.  As I came up to the left of Jimbo, I didn't say anything and stayed at the same exact pace I had been going.  It didn't seem like he was picking up his pace to go with me.  That was a relief.

With a little over a half mile to go, you run around a loop before coming to the last stretch into the finish.  You can actually see the finish as you go into the loop, so it provides some extra motivation to the runners as you know you're almost done.  I'm not sure whether I was starting to slow or whether the lady I had been tracking was inspired by the sight of the finish, but I noticed she was beginning to widen her lead on me.  Open up that stride some more, Dave!  My legs cooperated yet again.  I picked up my speed and closed the gap to what it had been since early on in the second mile.  My breathing was not extremely rapid and I had been able to pick up the pace twice during this run, giving me hope that I could find one more burst of energy during the final straightaway.

I used to sprint at the end of events like this, but I don't do that anymore.  Will I pick up my pace?  Sure.  But not too long ago, I had a dude with a stroller stick his kid in front of me as he sprinted to the finish in a local 5K.  He risked injuring me and his small child to finish one spot higher and it wasn't like they were giving away prizes to the people finishing as far back as we were.  From that point on, I decided I wasn't being "that guy", the one who was desperate to pass people in the final strides of the race.  So if I was going to pass the lady I had been stalking for two miles, I would need to do it well before the finish.  It was clear that she wasn't going to make it easy, picking it up as we closed in on the final tenth of a mile.  But I had enough left in my lungs to complement the energy still remaining in my legs.  After we both passed 3-4 people on the straightaway, I finally got past her.  I caught one more person before crossing under the finish line.  The timer showed nearly 28 minutes, but my chip time would be 26:48.  That was a 55 second improvement on my time from the 5K I ran with Jill C, and I felt much better at the end of this run than I had when I completed that event.  Maybe my cardio wasn't nearly as bad as I thought.

Tommy had finished about a minute and a half in front of me, while I had beaten Jimbo by a little over two minutes.  More importantly, Team Pancake had raised $3,260 for MMRF and for Carmen.  If you'd like to learn a little more about Carmen's successful fight against Multiple Myeloma, you can watch a short video she made here.

After everyone had finished, we wrapped things up with breakfast at Perkins.  Another 5K in a kilt was in the books.  I was going to rest up my neck and shoulders with another day off on Sunday before trying to get back into things at the gym on Monday night.

Monday preview: A nice mix of a bunch of different movements.  Hopefully I can make it through the workout pain-free!

Impressing The Master

Workout date: 11/13/15

I generally hit the gym for evening classes.  I've never been much of a morning person, as I have made evident just about each and every time I've shown up for Competitors Class on Saturday mornings.  Unless I need to be somewhere on a given evening, the 6:30 class works best for me.  Depending on my schedule, I'll switch it up with a 5:30 class or a 7:30 class, but for the most part, you'll find me at the 6:30.  Going to class at the same time nearly everyday means I tend to work out with the same people over and over again.  The other side of that coin is that I unfortunately miss out on working out with some people that I really enjoy working out with.  And no one gets me more fired up than Mr. Intensity!  I didn't get to work out with him on Friday, but he did stick around for my workout.  That meant I needed to put together a good performance.  I would have felt like a bum if he stuck around for an extra hour only to see me fail miserably.

After taking yet another day off on Thursday (I'm so broken these days), I came back on Friday for a barbell-heavy WOD where the number 7 seemed to be the theme.  Here is the workout:

2 rounds:
7 deadlifts
7 hang power cleans
7 front squats
7 shoulder-to-overheads
7 front squats
7 hang power cleans
7 deadlifts

RX weight of 185/125
Mandatory 4 minute rest between rounds
14 minute time cap

So 7 reps of each movement, 7 movements each round, with 14 minutes to complete the two rounds, meaning an average of 7 minutes per round.  Clearly Friday's workout was brought to you by the number seven.

Also...total Sucker WOD!!!  When this was posted at 10pm on Thursday, I had two thoughts: 1) "How heavy am I going to go?" and 2) "How much am I going to beat that time cap by?"  About 10 seconds after those thoughts went through my head, alarm bells started sounding.  The reason this didn't seem so daunting to me was because I looked at it and thought "this is DT with front squats".  DT is a workout where you do 5 rounds of 12 deadlifts, 9 hang power cleans, and 6 push jerks.  I had done this as part of Team DT with Rachel using 155 pounds.  I wasn't super fast or anything, but I got through 5 rounds in a reasonable amount of time.  Were the front squats going to alter the workout that much?  I decided to wait and see how this played out the next morning before I started getting all confident.

How did it play out?  Not well for the beasts in the early morning classes.  Not that they did poorly, but they weren't going nearly as heavy as I thought they would and the time cap was definitely in play.  In fact, Balmer and a drop-in from another gym were the only ones to attempt this workout RX and both were time-capped.  I wasn't seriously considering using 185 pounds, but 165 had seemed possible when I initially thought about what I would use.  Perhaps I needed to reconsider.

I got to see Mr. Intensity because this was one of those days where I was busy in the evening and needed to come in for a 5:30 class.  Mr. Intensity had just finished the 4:30 class with Justin R and Samson among others.  I asked them how it went and immediately got confirmation that this workout was going to be terrible.  The three college kids in class had attempted this RX and all got capped.  Justin had used 155 pounds and got capped.  Mr. Intensity had used 135 pounds and got capped.  Samson had used 125 pounds and finished with 7 seconds to spare.  I asked Justin what the worst part was and he said the front squats.  Stupidly, I still was not rattled, as I felt confident in my ability to get through the front squats.  But having seen the carnage over the course of the day, I decided that 165 was probably not a wise decision.  I'd go with the 155 that Justin used and do my best to finish before the time cap.

My class consisted of Doctor Coach Sommelier VP Giulz, Jen, Alona, and Rob.  We went through some drills and then began to warm up to the weight we would be using.  I feel like there is never enough time to truly go through a progression of weights on the barbell.   Before you know it, the coach yells "we're starting in a minute" and you have to scramble to get the proper weight on the barbell.  So I put 135 on my barbell and tested out each of the movements.  Felt reasonable.  The weight shouldn't have been light enough that you would zip through the 49 reps in each round and 135 seemed like it was borderline.  Deadlifts were going to be very light and 7 front squats didn't seem daunting at the weights I was considering.  The toughest parts of this workout were going to be the hang power cleans (grip killers) and the shoulder-to-overheads (stringing reps to limit how many cleans you would need to do).  But I had done DT with 155, so I believed I could handle those movements with the weight I had already chosen in my head.  Coach Miranda told us to get ready to start in a couple of minutes, so I added two 10 pound plates to the barbell to go from 135 to 155.  A few quick reps to test the new weight and I was ready to go.

I heard "come on Dave" a couple of times from Mr. Intensity as we got our countdown to start.  When the workout started, I treated it just as I had DT.  I used a reverse grip on the deadlift to save my grip strength.  Did 6 quick reps, dropped the barbell, then picked it up with a regular grip for my 7th rep.  Then I went through the 7 hang power cleans.  They were difficult as I expected, but I hung on for all seven reps.  That movement definitely tested out my cardio, but when I brought the last clean up to my shoulders, I realized I had enough in me to go right into the front squats.  I knocked out seven of those and then dropped the barbell for a breather.  One of the keys in this workout was trying to hold on to the barbell as much as possible, especially during the middle of each round.  Every time you dropped it, you were going to need to do another clean and that was going to use up precious energy.  I found this out the hard way when I cleaned the barbell to take care of the 7 shoulder-to-overheads, only to struggle on rep #1 before getting two additional reps and dropping with 4 more to go.  Uh oh. I needed to get all four on the next set as I wasn't certain I could transition smoothly from the shoulder-to-overheads into the front squats.  After another clean, I struggled through the first push jerk of the set again.  However, I steadied the ship after that, getting the other three reps before dropping the barbell.

On to more front squats.  Another clean was needed, but I pushed through 7 consecutive front squats again before dropping the barbell.  No more cleans needed this round.  To get to the hang power cleans, all you needed to do was deadlift the barbell and this was a light deadlift.  I did 4 hang power cleans before needing a break as the second set of hang power cleans was much tougher than the initial set.  I got the final three hang power cleans in my next set before dropping and changing back to the reverse grip for 7 quick deadlifts.  Round 1 was over in 4:16.  Time for a 4 minute break which I would need all of as the first round took a lot more out of me than I expected.

I laid on the floor for the first 2 minutes of my break.  Mr. Intensity was still encouraging me on, yelling over "you got this!"  Samson had hung around as well.  He came over and told me that I had a shot at 12 minutes, but I disagreed almost immediately.  Another round in 4:16 meant a time of 12:32 and there was no chance of me finishing the second round as quickly as I did the first round.  In fact, I began to worry during the break whether I had gone too slow in round 1.  Giulz had finished well before me, while Jen and Alona were done about 10-15 seconds before me.  What if I needed a solid 6 minutes for round two and I had only given myself 5:44?  I mean, I did have a history of failing right at the end of workouts.  I put myself through some mental anguish as my final minute of rest ticked away.

Time for round two.  The strategy was exactly the same, it was only a matter of whether I could execute it.  Six quick deadlifts with a reverse grip?  Check.  Last deadlift into 7 consecutive hang power cleans?  Check.  Right into 7 consecutive front squats?  No check.  Honestly, it took a lot to hang on through those 7 hang power cleans.  When I finished the last one, I had the barbell up on my front rack for the front squats, but I was struggling to breathe.  Doing one and then dropping seemed like it might damage my confidence in doing front squats, so I took a break before even beginning the set.  I looked at the clock and saw I had slightly less than 5 minutes to get through the final 5 movements.  Seemed very doable.

In fact, after I cleaned the barbell and proceeded to hang on through seven consecutive front squats, I was really feeling good about finishing the workout before the time cap.  I needed a break to breathe again, but another clean led to four shoulder-to-overheads.  I was happy to start off with four this time, leaving only three on the back end, but my lack of cardio was now becoming a major issue.  After taking some time to catch my breath, I cleaned the barbell and finished my last three shoulder-to-overheads.  A look at the clock showed less than 3 minutes to go before the time cap.  Not panicking yet because those deadlifts at the end would be fast.  Just need to find a way to get to them.

Having completed my first 3 sets of front squats by doing seven consecutive reps, the plan was to make it a clean sweep by getting all seven in the final round.  Not so much.  This was actually the one time during this workout where I began to panic a bit about the time cap.  Cleaning the barbell was becoming tough.  Each of the front squats was slow and required a lot more energy than they had earlier.  After four reps, I handed the barbell to gravity and took a break.  I was in my low squat trying to breathe.  "Come on Dave!"  "Almost there Dave!"  Mr. Intensity was trying his best to keep me thinking positive thoughts.  I needed to channel the drive he always has when he finishes off his workouts.  I needed one last clean to get through these three front squats.  The clean was ugly and each of the front squats required grunting, but I got them done.  About 90 seconds until the time cap.

Oddly enough, I was less panicked at this stage.  The hang power cleans were going to be awful, but I didn't think I was going to have to resort to singles.  If I could get two sets of 2 and a set of 3 while leaving at least 15 seconds for the deadlifts, I could make it.  I deadlifted the barbell and did 2 hang power cleans.  Shook out my arms as I heard I had less than a minute left.  I began the next set and got two reps pretty quickly, making me briefly think that I could manage the last five reps in that set.  But when my third rep barely got up to my shoulders, I needed one last break.  Just two more hang power cleans to go.  "Thirty seconds!"  For someone who is rarely confident, thirty seconds sounded like plenty of time to get the final 9 reps in.  I lifted the barbell, did 2 hang power cleans, dropped it only so I could quickly change my grip, then did 7 deadlifts faster than I can ever remember doing them.  Final time: 13:47.

I want to mention two disturbing trends before I end this post on a high note:

1. As you might expect, I collapsed in a heap after I finished.  I think Mr. Intensity and Samson thought I was puking (luckily I was not).  I've been struggling with my cardio during workouts, leaving me a sweaty, useless mess after the WOD.  As a result, people have been generously putting my stuff away for me afterwards.  I appreciate it, but I would hate to think that I've gotten so lazy that I can't put my own equipment away after the workout.  So if you see me laying on the floor after the WOD, kick me instead of putting my weights away.
2. I've been having all sorts of small nagging injuries recently and my neck felt awful after this workout.  I spoke with a couple of specialists this weekend, Dr. Michal and Dr. Rachel, who suggested I may have done something to my shoulders in this workout rather than my neck.  The barbell was never on my back/neck area during this workout so I wasn't sure why it was in so much pain, but it was.  In fact, the pain lasted throughout the weekend.  Perhaps it is just me being old.

As promised, I will end this on a high note.  I was definitely glad to finish under the time cap since Mr. Intensity had stuck around for a full hour expecting to see that.  And I was very happy that I managed to summon a decent amount of the intensity that the master brings to his workouts, although I blew it by not yelling "yes sir!" when I did the last rep.  Then again, that is why he's the master and I am not.

Saturday preview: My second 5K of the year, but my first wearing a kilt.  If you're not willing to embarrass yourself for a good cause, then I don't know what to tell you.

Squadoosh

Workout date: 11/11/15

Most people are familiar with one, and only one, poker tournament: the Main Event of the World Series of Poker.  (Horse racing is no different: most people might be able to tell you who won this year's Kentucky Derby, but not much more than that.  Embrace the world of gambling, people!)  This year's final table wrapped up on Tuesday night with a Philly local taking down nearly $8 million and the title of World Champion.  Coverage of the Main Event features two announcers: Lon McEachern and Norman Chad.  McEachern provides the play-by-play during each hand, while Chad provides the comic relief.  Chad has all sorts of made-up words that he uses to describe the action going on and one of them seemed particularly appropriate tonight.  That word?  Squadoosh!

Squadoosh is a way of saying that a player has absolutely no hand and is usually brought up in the context of someone bluffing at a pot.  So for example, Chad might say "he's betting half a million with squadoosh!"  Well I showed up to my 4x4 back squat session Wednesday night and ended up with squadoosh.  I'm not even sure if what I did in the annex even qualifies as squadoosh.  It was that bad.  But perhaps it will provide an opportunity to think through my current training and see if there's a way to get better.

When I got to the annex, all of the squat racks had already been taken.  I planned on waiting until one became free, but then Christine pointed out that there were two additional portable racks in the back.  Tom C was using one of them, but the other one was unclaimed at the moment, so I set it up to do my back squats.  I started with my typical warmup sets of 5 reps at 135 and 4 reps at 185.  From there I did 2 reps at 225 and 2 reps at 265 before loading my barbell with 300 pounds.  I chose a warmup set at 265 pounds not only because it was a convenient midway point to 300 pounds from 225, but also so I could get a barometer of how I was feeling.  My 6x2 sessions have been at 265, so I could compare this set of 2 to those and gauge where I was at.  Since you already know how this ends, you might guess that I struggled with my set at 265, but the opposite was true.  I did those 2 reps fairly quickly and felt pretty good about things when I placed the barbell back on the rack.  Four sets of four reps at 300 pounds still seemed daunting to me, but the final warmup set put me in a good frame of mind prior to taking it on.

When I grabbed the barbell for my first set at 300, I noticed how heavy it was, but I kept the thought in my head that if I maintained proper form and didn't rush, I could be successful.  The first rep went well, but then I crashed to the bottom on my second rep.  The silver lining in crashing is that you do get some bounce out of the bottom and that helped me save the rep.  I reset my breathing before rep #3, another tough rep, but one that was more like the first rep, where I had proper speed on the way down.  Then came the final rep of the set.  Perhaps the first three reps took more out of me than I realized, but as I tried to come out of the bottom, I became stuck.  And then I did something that I had never successfully done before.  As I tried to stand the weight back up, I had a moment of hesitation. That caused me to drop instead of rise.  It wasn't a big drop, but it was enough of one that I could bounce again in an attempt to gather momentum upwards.  I have done this in the past, but it has only gotten me to the point where I was originally stuck and no further.  Somehow I got enough momentum this time to drive past the sticking point, as I slowly stood up and finished the fourth rep.  It was a lot of effort, but set #1 was in the books.

I knew I was in trouble needing that much energy to finish the first set, but I decided that I would take a nice-sized break before doing set #2.  There were still three more sets to go, but I would focus on nothing but finishing the next set.  If that set was a success, I could then think about the following set.  I was not going to sit there with a mindset of "oh no, how can I possibly do three more sets of this?"  This was going to be a difficult test, but I could pass it.  Or so I thought.

Old habits die hard.  When I went to do set #2, my body did exactly what it had done in set #1, only this time it had less energy.  The first rep was tough, but solid.  And then I crashed again on rep #2.  Not sure why I did that.  Not sure how I built this pattern of doing it on the second rep.  But it happened.  And this time I could not save it.  After a little bit of fight from a low spot in my squat, I needed to bail the bar.  My internal pep talk was going to need be ridiculously good if I was going to get through the final three sets now.

Apparently that speech was not exactly "win one for the gipper" quality.  Or maybe my body got confused and thought I was starting over at rep #2.  There wasn't a crash this time, but I got stuck very low once again and had to bail.  That was it.  I clearly was not going to finish any more sets of four.  Can't even say that I was going to finish any more reps at that weight.  It was time to chalk one up in the loss column and call it a night in the annex.

What went wrong?  I suspect that I have been pushing myself a little too hard recently.  I did take a rest day on Tuesday, but that was due to another WOD I wasn't fond of.  (1RM jerk again?  And tabata wall balls?  Pass.)  I've mentioned on this blog that the 6x2 back squat days haven't been particularly easy and that may have been my body's way of saying "hey dum dum, you need more rest".  Six weeks ago, I set a 35 pound PR on my back squat and went directly into another iteration of the same program.  That likely wasn't the wisest decision.  Over the last month, I've done WODs like Badger and Wolverine, along with some other exhausting workouts like the recent rope climb extravaganza.  Outside of the gym, I've been traveling out of town a lot with several trips to the Albany area and to NYC, with a drive down to Washington DC thrown in there as well.  On Sunday, I took part in a football game which included a play where I was laid out on a blindside block (things can get chippy in a close game, even when it's supposed to be flag football).  Add all of that together and I'm probably guilty of not taking proper care of my body.  So I'm going to lay off the back squat program for a week.  I'll try the 4x4 at 300 pounds again next week and see how it goes.  If it goes just as poorly, I'll have to figure out a different way to proceed through the end of the program.

Having felt like I didn't do much work in the annex, I headed over to the main gym to do the WOD.  Since it was Veterans Day, we were honoring a fallen vet with a Hero WOD named Michael.  The workout was named in honor of Navy Lt. Michael McGreevy, who died in combat in Afghanistan.  Here are the details on Michael:

Michael
3 rounds
800 meter run
50 back extensions
50 sit-ups

Not an overly complicated WOD, but a tough one nonetheless.  The back extensions are particularly tough on your hamstrings, so I was already envisioning the awesome gimpy run I would be doing during rounds 2 and 3.  There were 7 of us at the 6:30 class and with only 5 GHD machines in the gym, I ended up sharing a machine with Matt E, who is around my size (fine, fine...he's a bit bigger than me).  We worked out a deal to do 25 back extensions on the GHD and 25 supermans on the floor, with the first person in the door from the run getting dibs on the GHD.  Little did I know that the two of us would be putting on a "flinging sweat for distance" competition on the GHD, but these things happen.  Sadly I did not take a picture of this after the workout.

If I have one regret from this workout, it would be that I didn't push hard enough on the first run.  I didn't dog it, but I definitely paced that first 800 meters, when I should have realized that the second and third runs would not be fast and this would be my only opportunity to make up time on the run.  Guess I had squadoosh between the ears Wednesday night.  I came back in alongside of Matt, but told him I'd start with the supermans.  Those things suck.  First off, I feel like a dying fish flopping around on the mat.  Secondly, it is hard to keep moving through an exercise that starts with you lying on your belly.  That is exactly where I want to be!  Why would I move from this position?  At least on the GHD, you're in a position that hurts, so you want to keep moving.  The 25 supermans took longer than the 25 back extensions and that would be the case in all 3 rounds.

As for the sit-ups...well, let's just say that I feel bad for the folks in the Holiday Head Start class who had to witness me doing these.  I was trying to maintain a solid pace throughout the 50 sit-ups, but there was a point along the way where these became painful.  In order for me to keep going, I had to resort to some high-caliber, female tennis player grunting like I used to do back in the day with my KB swings.  Some of the Head Start coaches told me afterwards that the new athletes noticed "the grunting guy".  (In their defense, how could they not?)  I was just trying to get the workout done.  Leave it to me to find new ways to embarrass myself.

Not a whole lot changed over the three rounds.  Nate was the fastest male runner (the females decided to run 200 meters four times rather than 400 meters twice due to another shady character hanging out over by Frosty Falls) and stayed the same distance in front nearly every round.  Behind him was TJ.  I was third in the conga line, with Matt following behind me.  For rounds 2 and 3, I started on the GHD while Matt started with the supermans.  And in round 3, I did 25 back extensions in a row, rather than splitting them up 15 and 10 as I did in the first two rounds.  Final time: 27:33.

Friday preview: After a rest day on Thursday (I'm trying my best to be good!), we take on lucky sevens in a barbell-focused WOD.

Breathe When You're Done

Workout date: 11/9/15

When I attempted Helen back in May, it was one of the most miserable experiences I had in the gym all year.  I had talked myself into believing that I could finish the workout RX, only to fall apart on the pull-ups.  In round one, I fell way behind.  In round two, I simply failed.  Ended up doing ring rows in order to finish in a semi-respectable time.  Then in August, I was finally able to do all 36 pull-ups that are required as part of Helen.  My time was incredibly slow, but I got through the workout.  On Monday, I'd have my last opportunity this year to take on Helen.  It's kind of amazing how much my perspective on this workout has changed over the course of six months.

Helen
3 rounds
400 meter run
21 KB swings (55/35)
12 pull-ups

As I got ready to do this on Monday, I no longer wondered whether I could get through 36 pull-ups.  Having done 90 pull-ups as part of Badger and 120 as part of Wolverine, I had erased any doubts I previously had regarding my ability to do that many pull-ups in a workout.  My pull-up form could still use a lot of improvement, but it is significantly better than it was six months ago.  Now my focus was on speed.  The next step for me was to complete this workout in a decent time.  Back in August, it took me 18:36 to finish when most of the other athletes in the gym were in the 11-13 minute range. Could I get my time down that low?  I knew it would require two things:

1. Never putting the KB down.  I would need to string all 21 reps in each of the three rounds.
2. Stringing together sets of pull-ups.  I've been able to do this when I remain calm, but could I do it when I was trying to rush?

For some reason I have had trouble with the KB as the year has progressed, but I got the chance to swing it 90 times at the tail end of one of last week's WODs and it didn't feel as bad as expected.  I think part of my issue with the KB is that it doesn't feel comfortable to me.  I don't need to put it down, but it would be a whole lot nicer if I could.  So if I reached that point during this workout, I was going to remind myself that I did not need to put the KB down, that I really just wanted to put the KB down.  (And also, that I was almost done with the round.  Because if this was happening prior to 15 swings, I had some serious issues.  And if I couldn't hold on for 6 more swings, then I was a total wimp.)

As for the pull-ups, I wanted to do sets of three or four, at least in round one.  If I needed to do sets of two later on, then so be it.  Quick singles would be a last resort and I would need to stay on them if I was going to stay at the pace that I was expecting the rest of the class to be moving at.

The 6:30 class on Monday was well-attended, but things felt more claustrophobic than usual because the Holiday Head Start program was beginning, putting an extra 20 or so people in the main gym alongside of us.  That wasn't a problem for the running or the KBs, but it was an issue for the pull-ups.  We had heard that the pull-up rigs down at the end of the gym where that program was taking place would be available once we began the workout, but it still seemed pretty crowded down there.  With 10 people in our class, including several folks needing to set up boxes and bands under the rig, there was almost nowhere to go on our end of the gym if you wanted to use a high bar.  And, as has become my custom, I wanted to do the whole workout on the high bar.

We crossed the street to the barrier and waited on #keithie's signal to take off to begin the workout.  I wanted to go a little faster than normal on these 400 meter runs, but I also knew I needed to keep my breathing somewhat calm for both the KB swings and the pull-ups.  I came into the gym a few seconds behind the leading pack and made my way over to my KB.  The first 21 swings weren't all that bad, although I did have some issues balancing my weight in my feet (apparently it is not only a back squat issue for me).  I placed the KB down and searched for a spot to do pull-ups.  There was one high bar on the Holiday Head Start side of the gym with no one underneath it, so I decided that I was using that until someone told me I couldn't.  I began with a set of 3 and then a set of 2.  Not ideal.  The speed of the workout was testing my cardio and the result was less efficient pull-ups.  I did two more sets of 2 before knocking out three quick singles to finish the round.  Quick singles already?  Ugh.  At least I had a solid first round, heading back out the door in under 4 minutes.

For the second run, I was behind nearly everyone, but Ashley and "Megs" weren't too far ahead of me.  I decided that I needed to push and attempt to catch up with them.  Despite being a workout that generally takes more than 10 minutes to complete, it has a sprint-like feel to it.  It was clear that I wasn't going to move as fast through the pull-ups as I would have hoped, so I would need to be faster on the runs and on the KB swings.  As we approached the gym at the end of the second run, I was able to reel in both of them.  The KB swings required more effort than the first round, but I held on for all 21 reps.  Back to the pull-up bar.

When I got there, I only managed two reps.  I believe I got two more reps right as #keithie came over.  He noticed that I was struggling with my grip and encouraged me to chalk up my hands.  It was good advice, only I wasn't particularly close to an available chalk bucket.  I ended up walking through some of the Holiday Head Start people to get to a chalk bucket on that end.  With my grip improved, I  decided to go with quick singles the rest of the way.  I got up to 9 reps before needing a breather.  Only me and Raj were left working on round two as the other 8 folks in class were out on their final run.  That was a little frustrating.  I felt like I was doing well on this workout and I was still getting smoked.  I did three more pull-ups and Raj and I headed out for our final run.

I won't lie: the last run was definitely slower.  Maybe it was fatigue.  Maybe it was frustration at falling behind.  Maybe it was confusion due to everyone yelling "run two 200's instead" as I headed out on my run (apparently there were some shady characters hanging out near the 400 meter mark).  Maybe I was afraid that if I pushed too hard, I wouldn't be able to hang on for all 21 KB swings or that I wouldn't finish my last 12 pull-ups.  Whatever it was, I did not go as fast as I should have during that last 400 meter run.  When I returned to the gym, Rachel and Michal were done, with Steph C not far behind.  I picked up my KB, determined to hold on for all 21 swings.  There may have been some grunting at the end, but I held on to it.  With most of the class now done with the workout, space had opened up on the pull-up bars on our end of the gym.  I headed towards one of those, making a quick detour to a nearby chalk bucket first.

Twelve quick singles to go!  Just two problems: 1) I had begun feeling a little nauseous and 2) I was gasping for air.  Getting air while standing up never seems to work so well for me, so my natural instinct was to go into my resting squat.  I think I did 3 or 4 reps before needing that squat.  This was totally unacceptable behavior to Rachel and Michal.  There was no talk of remaining calm like usual. Instead it was "get back on that bar, you're almost done!"  When I could breathe again, I began working through more quick singles.  As I closed in on the end of the workout, I told myself not to squat again.  But when I finished the 10th rep, I simply could not breathe.  After hearing several no's, I was then informed that I could breathe when I was done.  Oh ok, piece of cake.  I gathered myself and jumped up to the bar.  Rep #11 done.  Drop, take a step back, jump back on the bar, rep #12 done.  Final time: 14:39.

My initial reaction was what you might expect from me: disappointment.  I had fallen behind the class again and my pull-ups fell apart way too early.  A couple of minutes later, when oxygen began returning to my brain, I had a different perspective.  14:39 was not the greatest time in the world for Helen, but it was nearly 4 minutes faster than what I had done three months ago.  If I wasn't going to be happy with 4 minute PR's, then I was never going to be happy with anything I did in this gym.  So I laid on the floor and took a few minutes to internally congratulate myself.  The work was paying off.  It might not always pay off and I would need to come to grips with that.  But when it did, it was okay to give myself a pat on the back.

After I recovered, I did my 6x2 back squat session.  Not much has changed there.  The weight still does not feel any lighter and I have concerns about not moving with enough speed out of the bottom. I might be able to save these lifts when there is 265 pounds on the bar, but will I be able to do it with 300+?  We'll find out starting on Wednesday when I do my 4x4 day using 300 pounds.

Wednesday preview: 4x4 back squats, followed by running, back extensions, and sit-ups to honor a fallen vet.

Internet Connection

Workout date: 11/7/15

I used Friday as a recovery day, but I probably needed more than one day.  The squat clean/deadlift/rope climb workout did a number on my arms.  Add on my recent devotion/obsession with getting better at pull-ups and I have likely gotten to the point where it would be wise to let my upper body chill for a bit.  I have woken up with sore shoulders more regularly than I'm accustomed to and that was once again the case when I woke up pre-sunrise to get ready for Competitors Class on Saturday morning.

One of my biggest struggles when I first started Crossfit was waiting until 10pm for what the next day's workout would be.  Just tell us already!  Why do I have to stay up (ok, that's a lie, I'm a night owl) to find out what we're doing tomorrow?  With Competitors Class, you don't even have that luxury.  You show up at 7ish and whoever is coaching the class takes 10 minutes to write down all of the horrendous things you'll be doing.  What was on the docket for this Saturday?

Olympic lifting: 1RM Jerk
12 min AMRAP (individual): 3 snatches (135/105), 6 clean and jerks (135/105), 9 chest-to-bar, 54 double unders
10 min AMRAP (6 person team): 60 wall balls (20# to 10'/14# to 9'), 60 pull-ups, 60 burpees, 60 toes-to-bar, with 1 athlete rowing for max meters

Things got off to a bad start when...well, when I got in the shower.  I generally have decent mobility in terms of touching my hands behind my back (think of this as using one hand to soap up your upper back, one to soap up your lower back, and then have them high-five somewhere in the middle).  On this morning, I couldn't get them anywhere close to each other.  Fast forward to the warmup where I was trying to limber up using a PVC pipe and experiencing all sorts of soreness.  Not a good sign.

It was time to work on the jerk.  It had been written down originally as though we were doing 8 lifts.  Then it became seven.  Then a clock ran for a little bit, then stopped, then was reset and set in motion a second time.  It doesn't take much to confuse me this early in the morning on a weekend, but I honestly had no idea what we were doing.  My plan was to keep doing lifts until they told us we were moving on to the next section of class.  I set up a rack and put 135 pounds on the bar.  Seemed like a reasonable starting point as my 1RM Jerk is 230 pounds.  I took it off the rack and went to jerk it.  I got the bar over my head, but it didn't feel comfortable at all.  I tried to remain optimistic.  Perhaps I would loosen up as I went along.  Maybe my body was still waking up.  I added 20 pounds to the bar for my second lift.

Sure sign that you don't have your A game: failing on a lift that is 75 pounds lighter than your personal best.  I went to jerk 155 and my body did not cooperate.  I started considering whether or not it was a good idea to continue with the class.  I decided to take some extra time before lifting again, spending some time with a band trying to stretch out my shoulders.  When I felt ready, I came back to the rack and jerked 155 without too much problem.  Added 20 more pounds.  The jerk at 175 did not feel great, but it was a successful lift.  Let's add 20 more pounds!  195 pounds was still not very close to my personal best, but it felt like a ton that morning.  The lift was identical to my earlier failed attempt at 155.  I knew at that point that no amount of stretching was going to help me out.  Better to call it a day in terms of heavy jerks.

With that finished, we moved on to the individual AMRAP.  Everyone split into groups of two and we went in two heats so that each person had a judge to count their reps (and sadistically no rep them when they did not do a legit rep).  Why was that necessary?  Some of the attendees in Competitors Class were shockingly there to compete.  This was the final workout for the Crossfit Liftoff competition.  As a result, some strict judging was required.  The rest of us not competing simply went along with the same format.  My partner for this workout was Jenna, aka Intern, aka Internet.

I tend to go second whenever I partner up with somebody as I'm never terribly eager to lead things off, but I got the impression that Jenna wasn't keen on going first either.  So I went first.  I wasn't expecting much out of this workout.  With my shoulder mobility lacking, snatches, clean and jerks, and chest-to-bar could all be problematic.  Mix in the fact that I have been doing sparse double under practice and it all added up to a very low score.  It ended up going better than expected though.  I made two good scaling decisions in using 115 for the barbell weight and doing regular pull-ups rather than attempting chest-to-bar.  And I think I finally loosened up as I moved through this 12 minute AMRAP.

Jill A was working out directly in front of me during this heat and I expected her to crush me, but I managed to stay with her for quite a while.  We were fairly synchronized through the snatches and clean and jerks in round 1.  The pull-up bar was where I expected her to leave me in the dust, but I wasn't too far behind her in getting to my jump rope.  Despite only managing smaller sets of double unders, I didn't lose a lot more ground to her before returning to my barbell.

When I got to the barbell, I made up the gap.  While I had moved at a very controlled pace through the barbell movements during the first round, I picked up my speed a little bit in round two.  I guess my jerk failure had left me thinking that 115 would still be dicey for 9 reps, but it wasn't all that bad.  I didn't string any of the snatches or clean and jerks, but I didn't take any sort of break between all of the singles.  Jill and I moved over to the pull-up bar in unison again.  The bad news for me is that Jill can butterfly pull-ups like crazy, whereas I had reached the "do 1 rep, drop off the bar, tell yourself to get right back on the bar, do another rep" stage of the proceedings.  As one might expect, I fell behind yet again.

My second double under round was not much different from the first in terms of how big my sets were.  I had a little more difficulty getting started, only managing 1 rep several times in a row before hitting myself with the rope.  Eventually I settled in and completed some sets of about 12-15 reps.  With 2 rounds down, the clock was nearing 9 minutes.  Finishing three full rounds was not looking realistic.

Knowing that I might be able to add some cheap reps to my final score if I could get to my jump rope a third time, I attacked the barbell movements.  Still did quick singles, but I was all over the barbell each time I dropped it to the ground.  Drop and go, drop and go, drop and go.  I was knocking out my 5th clean and jerk when Jill headed back to the pull-up bar.  Only a single rep behind her.  Not too shabby.  Of course, I knew my maniac pace on the barbell was going to leave me winded on the pull-ups, but that was a secondary concern at this point.

Nine more pull-ups.  I could handle that.  At least that was the line of BS that I was feeding myself as I stood there panting underneath the bar.  My pull-up form has actually been pretty good when it comes to doing singles.  I'm usually getting my chin well over the bar each time, so even when I'm tired I tend not to no rep.  Stringing pull-ups when I'm tired has not worked out so well and is something I need to continue to work on.  As time updates were being shouted out ("one minute!", "45 seconds!"), I kept telling myself to raise my arms and jump back on the bar.  With under 30 seconds remaining, I finished my last pull-up.

With time ticking down, I wasn't concerned about my double under form or needing a break.  I had to keep twirling that rope until time was called.  For once, I didn't mess up early on in my first set.  I was taking huge, inefficient jumps, but I didn't want the rope to hit me before the clock hit 12:00.  At around 15 reps, I wanted to stop as my legs were tired, but I knew there was only about 10 more seconds to go.  I kept jumping and jumping before someone mercifully yelled time.  It was my best set of the day as I finished off the workout with 26 consecutive reps.  Final score: 188.

It was now my turn to judge and score for Jenna and before we even started she revealed a couple of things that I was completely unaware of: that she struggled with pull-ups and double unders.  Because Jenna is a coach at the gym, I assumed that she could do these in her sleep.  That was not the case.  As was the case for me, these were still very much a work in progress for Jenna, so much so that she did not think she could complete 1 full round in 12 minutes.  That seemed extreme to me.  I know Jenna is a good athlete.  After a little more discussion, I found out that she was able to do some strict pull-ups and that, while she didn't string double unders, she could often alternate between single unders and double unders.  I let Jenna know that she was definitely finishing a full round.

Heat two started and Jenna had little trouble with the snatches or the clean and jerks.  When she got to the pull-up bar and attempted her first rep, I saw myself.  Jenna had told me that she struggled with kipping (sounds like someone I know).  When she went to do her first rep, she swung underneath the bar, then tucked up almost into a fetal position as she attempted to get her chin over the bar.  She was unable to, and not only that, came off the bar with a hurt shoulder for her troubles.  Jenna seemed uncertain that she was going to get 1 rep before the 12 minutes was up, never mind 9.  This all seemed way too familiar to me.

I asked Jenna if she could set up as though she was about to attempt a kipping pull-up.  I watched where she placed her hands and noticed they were very wide.  This used to be the way I set my hands on the bar.  The idea was that the wider you made your arms, the less range of motion.  In my mind, less range of motion was optimal because I sucked at pull-ups.  If I only needed to do half of the range of motion of a normal grip pull-up with this technique, then I was all for it.  The problem was that I'd get tired and my right arm would wildly swing in to the left.  It was impossible to kip like that, although I could still manage a strict pull-up or two when in that position.  Eventually I figured out that my body was telling me to narrow my grip as I had the strength to handle a greater range of motion, as evidenced by my ability to do strict pull-ups.

I relayed this information to Jenna.  I asked her to try the narrower grip.  I also told her that I often did the fetal position thing too and that she should shoot her feet towards the floor violently when ever she came to the stopping point in her kip.  I let her know I'd yell "shoot!" each time she got to that point.  With these adjustments in mind, she was ready to try again.  She swung underneath the bar, came into the fetal position, and began to pull her chin to the bar.  I yelled "shoot!" and she shot her legs towards the floor.  The extra momentum allowed her to pull her chin well over the bar.  She attempted to swing back down and do another rep, but couldn't manage a second one.  After a short break, she repeated this process a second time.  The first rep would be great, but the second rep was not working out.  I told her that it might be best to concentrate on fast singles, as she was wasting energy trying to string her reps.

From that point on, Jenna was a machine.  She made seven more attempts and put together seven successful reps.  She was now just 54 double unders away from finishing round one with plenty of time to go.  She grabbed her jump rope and started putting together smallish sets like the ones I had been doing.  My only concern for her was that she likes to jump backwards as she does her reps and I worried that her rope was going to catch a bench or a GHD.  With about 5 minutes left in the workout, Jenna had done what she said she couldn't do: finished a full round.  I may have been more psyched than she was.  I let her know she was finishing a second round of pull-ups.

The snatches and clean and jerks were once again not much of a problem for Jenna and we were back at the pull-up bar.  I knew it would be tight getting in all 9 reps before the clock hit 12 minutes, but she could do it.  One by one, she was knocking out pull-ups, but with the breaks in between, I wasn't sure she was going to finish.  With 30 seconds left, she still had two reps to go.  She got on the bar, swung through, shot down her legs, and completed rep #8.  Jenna had been composing herself between reps, but with under 15 seconds left, she knew she had to go right after that final rep.  She rushed it a bit and couldn't quite get it, ending an impressive streak of 17 successful pull-ups in a row.  Time ran out.  But I wanted her to get two full rounds.  It didn't matter that the clock had struck 12.  She needed to know that next time she had pull-ups in a workout that she could look back on this and remember that she completed two full rounds of pull-ups.  Jenna took her time, got back on the bar, and knocked out one last solid pull-up.  It was my favorite part of the class.

After reading all of that, you would think that we were done for the day, right?  Not exactly.  Aimee, Cate, Giulz, Keith, and Possum are competing in the Winter Warmer event next weekend and wanted to practice one of the workouts.  They asked me to join in, mainly to be the rower, while they cycled through a series of wall balls, pull-ups, burpees, and toes-to-bar.  I was more than happy to stay on the rower.  I spoke with Possum and we worked out a system of alternating on the rower.  Keith was going to sub in as well, but I told him that he should probably stick with the skill components of this workout, mainly because that would keep me away from the skill components.  (Did I mention that I was by far the least skilled and least athletic member of this team?  Because I was.)  My contribution would be to row for as long as I could at a fast pace.  Originally we thought that would be 500 meters, but switching rowers takes up precious time and I wanted to keep the switching to a minimum.  So I rowed for 700 meters (or 750 if you count the runout as we switched).  While Possum did the next 750 meters, I helped out with 10 burpees to break things up for Aimee, Cate, Giulz, and Keith.  When I got back on the rower, I went for another 700 meters, with Possum rowing the remainder of the 10 minutes.  We ended up with 2,603 meters total.  Not sure how many skill reps were completed.

Monday preview: No Sunday workout as I went out of town for my annual football game with my buddies.  But Monday brings the final attempt at a workout I only managed to do RX for the first time 3 months ago.  Her name is Helen.