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.
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