Adventage: Dave

Workout date: 12/1/15

As the year has progressed along, my goals have changed.  There were periods where I wanted to get stronger and I went on a big back squat program binge.  More recently, my performances in WODs left a lot to be desired, so I began focusing on trying to improve my cardio.  On Tuesday, I came across a workout that I probably could have done RX, but I decided to scale down the weight instead.  I believe that it was the right decision for me in this workout, but when I catch up with my recaps of workouts later on in the week, I'll point out a WOD where I made a similar decision and gave up doing the workout RX for no good reason at all.  (Okay, the reason was so I would stop getting shit from people.  That's almost never a good reason to change up your routine.)

Tuesday's WOD was a workout that looked like it would fall in my wheelhouse, but if I've learned anything this year, it is that workout appearances can be deceiving.  I've tempered my excitement whenever I see workouts like this because it seems like I'm setting myself up for failure more often than not.  In fact, now I start picking out the inevitable stumbling blocks awaiting me.  So let's take a peek at the Tuesday WOD:

15 minute time cap:

Begin with 750 meter row

AMRAP of remaining time:
3 hang power snatches (115/75)
6 overhead squats (115/75)
12 box jump overs (24"/20")

If you had asked me at the beginning of the year what I thought the stumbling block for me could be in this workout, I would have guessed the hang power snatches.  I'm a decent rower (plus this wasn't a long row) and overhead squats are my favorite.  While box jump overs are something that we don't do very often in workouts, I've actually fared quite well with them when they have appeared in a WOD.

If you asked me right before the workout on Tuesday what I thought the stumbling block for me would be, "hopefully wiser" me would have responded completely differently.  The stumbling block is almost certainly the row.  I've done enough of these tame-looking workouts that begin with a row to know that the innocuous row takes the starch out of your legs more than you realize.  And what's being worked for the rest of the 15 minutes?  Legs, legs, legs.  So there was no chance that I was going to push it on the row in this workout.  If anything, I might go slow.  The KOP blog suggested something in the range of 3 minutes for the row, which seemed like a feasible goal without burning myself out.  But really, I was going to row at a pace that felt comfortable to me and not worry about the clock or how fast anyone else was going.  Specifically Cline, because he's a demon on the rower.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think I could have handled 115 for this workout, but I went with 95 for a couple of reasons.  Looking at the white board, I noticed that there were very few RXs listed from earlier in the day.  That is always a red flag that the workout shouldn't be taken lightly.  The other reason I went lighter is because I wanted this workout to be more about cardio than how many snatches and overhead squats I could do at a heavier weight.  If I moved through those quickly at a lighter weight, I'd get more box jump overs done during the workout.  There was no doubt that the box jump overs would be the movement that tested my cardio the most, so I wanted to push myself through as many of those as possible.

The 7:30 class was made up of seven people: myself, Cline, Matt E, Chris, and Danielle, as well as two new members from the Holiday Head Start program: Heng and Michael.  Coach Rachel got us set up on our rowers and asked "who's gonna be the first one off the rower?"  Except we all knew Cline would be the first one done with the row.  (Add this to the ever-growing list of things I wish I could bet on.)  I had set up my rower so that it counted down the meters from 750 to 0.  I had around 100 meters to go when Cline hopped off his rower and headed to his barbell.  I couldn't help but laugh.  That dude can row.  As for me, I had stayed at a pace just under 2:00 per 500 meters, meaning I'd be finishing a few seconds under the 3 minute suggestion listed on the blog.  I wasn't breathing heavily and my legs weren't burning at all.  If Michal was there, she would have told me I had done an excellent job at remaining calm during this portion of the workout.  As I completed my row, Chris, Matt E, and Michael also got up to move on to their barbells.

My first round of the AMRAP left me a little bit concerned.  I totally messed up the hang power snatches, missing my body every time I went to throw the barbell overhead.  Could have been me overthinking things (shocking, right?) or it could have been me rushing things.  Whatever it was, I made a mental note that I couldn't keep doing that for the rest of the workout or I'd run out of arm strength.  When I got to my overhead squats, I did the 6 reps rather slowly, trying to ensure that my balance was good and that I didn't stumble forward during the set.  From there it was time for the box jump overs.  I've been able to do these very quickly when utilizing a lateral jump.  Knowing this workout was going to fatigue my legs, my plan was to get one full round this way then adjust in the rounds after that.  Didn't quite make it.  Did 8 quick reps this way, then had to pause briefly.  Finished the round by doing 2 more quick reps, a slight pause, then the final 2 reps.  Everything in round one was just a little bit slower than I had expected.  Even though I had tried to give this workout its due before I started it, perhaps I hadn't given it enough respect.

Or maybe I just had a bad round one.  Because rounds two and three went much smoother.  I did the hang power snatches correctly, using my body to pop the bar up over my head.  I did 6 very fast overhead squats each round.  For the box jump overs, I had to give up on the lateral jumps, but I tried to keep a good pace as I went over the box and back, not taking rest between the 12 jumps.  After three rounds, I had moved ahead of Matt E and Chris, who were working on either side of me.  My legs weren't exhausted yet, which gave me faith I could handle the box jumps awaiting me in later rounds.  I was struggling with my breathing, but it took a couple seconds to go from the box over to the barbell and I used that time to try and calm my breathing to a semi-normal level.

Most scores for the day were in the 5-6 round range, but the top scores were in the 7-8 round range.  I had 3 rounds complete when Rachel announced to the class that we were just beyond the halfway point of the 15 minute time period.  If I could keep moving, finishing 7 rounds was a real possibility and that would be a tremendous score for me.  As I began to tire, I would remind myself that I could get 7 rounds but only if I kept pushing.  That meant not taking extra rest during the walk between the box and the barbell.  That meant pushing through all 6 overhead squats even though I was noticing that my body really wanted to stop after 4 reps.  Most importantly, that meant not stopping on the box jump overs.  I began noticing that I was jumping away from the box on the jump overs, allowing myself to get a few extra seconds to walk back to the box for the next rep.  That was wasted time.  I needed to land much closer to the box so I could simply turn around and do the next rep.  With two minutes left, I had six rounds complete.

There was one issue that had not occurred to me when overanalyzing the crap out of this workout and that issue was dizziness.  Jumping over the box and then twirling around to quickly jump back over it had a dizzy-bat effect on you as the WOD wore on.  It was one thing to push myself while gasping for air, but adding on dizziness while trying not to crash into the box I was attempting to jump on made things very difficult in the later rounds.  After finishing the snatches and overhead squats for round seven, I started my box jump overs.  I wanted to complete all 12 without stopping, but I definitely reached a point where I felt it wasn't safe to continue without a break.  There was less than a minute left on the clock and I was only 6 box jump overs from completing my 7th round, but I needed to stop and take 5 seconds to get my bearings.  Attempting box overs while woozy was bound to end badly.  Once I felt right again, I moved as fast as I could through the final 6 box jump overs.  With less than 20 seconds left, I was moving on to round eight.

I didn't care about breathing at that point.  I had moved through the snatches and overhead squats very quickly throughout the workout, so I thought I might be able to get all 9 reps with the barbell if I hurried.  I'm not that fast though.  I managed to get 3 snatches and 3 overhead squats before time was called.  Final score: 7+6.

This was one of my best workouts of the year.  It would have been nice if I could have made it 15 minutes rather than 14 minutes before needing a break, but going full throttle for 14 minutes is so much better than anything I've done so far this year.

Our cash out was taking part in the first day of the Advent challenge at KOP.  For the first 24 days of December, a new challenge will take place at the gym where the winners get raffle tickets for prizes that will be given away later in the month.  The first challenge was max air squats in one minute.  While my legs may not have been burning after three rounds of the WOD, they were pretty fried after nearly 7.5 rounds.  I had little desire to do this, but eventually I gave in and tried it.  Samson had told me he got 56 reps but that his legs gave out on him a bit towards the end of the minute.  So my plan was to try and go fast but not go so crazy that I couldn't make it the entire minute.  At 30 seconds, I had 28 reps, right on pace to tie Samson, except I knew I had enough energy to make it the rest of the way.  I tried to go faster and managed 30 reps in the last half-minute for a total of 58 reps, not quite enough to match Heng who knocked out 64 reps alongside of me and ended up with the top male athlete score of the day.  It was still a nice finish to a very satisfying day at the gym.

Wednesday preview: Squats!  I used to do those!  Testing the 3RM for front squats along with a 500 meter sprint on the rower.