Building Sprint Speed

Workout date: 12/16/15

There are definitely things I like to see programmed at the gym (overhead squats, rope climbs, pistols).  There are other things that I've slowly learned to enjoy (wall balls, rowing).  And there are things that simply drive me nuts (pull-ups, double unders).  Most other movements tend to fall into the "meh" category for me.  I go and do them with the hope that I will improve as I get more practice in, but they are much more palatable for me in a workout if you sprinkle in some of the other stuff I like.

I think that is why my initial reaction to Wednesday's WOD was so lifeless.  I clicked on the KOP blog at 10pm per usual and found this:

AMRAP in 8 minutes
5 strict handstand push-ups
10 box jumps (24"/20")

Would you like some flavorless dessert with that?  Might I interest you in a one mile run for the day's Advent challenge?  Mmmm...make sure to order some lukewarm tap water to wash all that down.

I decided to go to the noon class because I had something planned for later in the afternoon.  The first person I spoke to was a guy named Rag.  I had never met him before, but apparently he used to work out at KOP.  And he couldn't have been any friendlier.  He was so nice towards me that I legitimately got a little worried that I had met him before and had forgotten our previous encounters.  When Coach Jenna told us we needed a partner for our warmup, I made sure I got Rag.  Also working out in the Express class were Queen Pam, Denise, Karen, and Therese.

With the warmup complete, we went over the standards for the WOD.  Having no kip to speak of, there is no difference to me when strict handstand push-ups are programmed vs normal handstand push-ups.  In fact, as I started talking with Queen Pam about it, I realized that today's programming would help me.  I only do strict handstand push-ups so I would just do what I typically do, while others in the gym might need to scale as a result of not being allowed to kip.  Maybe this workout played to my strengths after all.

The only issue was that my ability to do strict handstand push-ups with two abmats was pretty fickle.  Some days I could knock them out easily and some days I could barely do any at all.  Perhaps the conversation about strict handstand push-ups being something I typically do resulted in some extra confidence, because I didn't even set up a fall back scaling option for myself for this WOD.  Somehow I convinced myself that I was going to be able to do them for 8 minutes.  It was only 2 weeks ago that I did Holleyman and could only make it to 18 reps before needing to scale (and even those 18 reps were shaky).  Can't give a good explanation as to why I was certain I could handle sets of 5 reps on Wednesday, but I was.

Queen Pam was in a similar situation to me.  She tended to do more strict handstand push-ups in workouts than those of the kipping variety, so the extra qualifier that reps could not be done with a kip wasn't a big deal to her.  She was starting out with 1 abmat, but felt she would need to switch to 2 eventually.  (Note: I don't know for certain when she made the switch.)  Right before we started, Queen Pam asked me if it was okay for her to work alongside of me.  She had been down towards the other end of the gym during warmups, but now her 2 abmats were sitting in the space next to me.  Oh no!  I've been down this road before.  She was giving me the Michal treatment!  I could already envision Queen Pam doing her last set of box jumps facing me, letting me know they didn't give her that crown for nothing.  I was going to need to find an extra gear today to keep up with her.  Earlier scores seemed to indicate that 7-8 rounds was a solid score, so my goal was to finish 8 rounds.  After all, I was pretty certain Queen Pam would get 8 rounds done.

If I had a sweet spot in terms of the time domain for a workout, 8 minutes would be pretty close to it. I've shown throughout the year that I tend to mess up workouts when I have to go super fast (see: recent rope climb Advent challenge).  I also tend to fall apart when a workout requires going beyond 15-20 minutes (my recent Kelly performance being an outlier).  The day after Holleyman, I did a 15 minute WOD where I kept it together for a solid 14 minutes.  That meant I should be able to keep moving at a brisk pace for this 8 minute workout.  And that is exactly what I did.

The most important aspect of this WOD for me was to be fearless about going upside down.  I waste a lot of time psyching myself up about going upside down when I need to just go for it.  It isn't the worst thing in the world if I hit the wall tilted to the side or I simply fall back off the wall.  I can do it over if need be.  But I couldn't afford to waste time talking myself into going upside down.  JFDI!

Jenna got us started and I got upside down immediately.  Time for the first litmus test: could I do 5 strict handstand push-ups?  Yes I could.  In fact, I did them pretty quickly.  I came off the wall and ran over to my box.  After doing a few reps using the rebound technique, I predictably tripped on the box during a rep.  I didn't let that hold me up too long though, finishing up round one at about the same time as Queen Pam.  From that point forward, things went smoothly.  I did trip on the box again later on, but that was bound to happen as you're trying to blaze through box jumps as fast as you can.  When I finished my fifth round, I took a quick peek at the clock and saw 3:57.  If I could keep this pace up, I could finish 10 rounds.

Naturally, I thought there was no way I could keep that pace for another 4 minutes, but any time I felt like I was slowing down, I told myself to keep going.  It was only a couple minutes more.  Move, move, move!  I was now a round ahead of Queen Pam as she ran into problems on the handstand push-ups a couple of times.  As I finished my 8th round, it occurred to me that I might be moving fast enough to move two rounds ahead of her.  This was a Kelly-esque miracle.  Soon I heard Jenna tell us there was one minute left.  I completed my box jumps and had 9 rounds in the books.

After getting upside down and stringing 5 strict handstand push-ups for the 10th consecutive time, I ran to my box.  The clock read 7:37, meaning I had 23 seconds to get these 10 box jumps in if I was going to get 10 full rounds.  Queen Pam was on her 8th round of box jumps, so I could still catch her as well.  With only 23 seconds remaining, I knew I couldn't afford to stop or mess up.  I needed 10 solid rebounding jumps.  I moved as fast as I could and finished the set.  Could I get one more handstand push-up in?  Jenna began the 3, 2, 1 countdown just as I got back to the wall.  There was no chance of me getting upside down and doing a rep in 3 seconds, so I stayed upright.  10 rounds was much better than I could have expected on this workout.  Maybe, just maybe, my cardio is improving.

Queen Pam got her revenge on the mile run as I knew I had no shot of keeping up with her.  I didn't stay as close to her as I had hoped, but I held on to a decent pace the whole way.  What was that pace?  No one knows.  Jenna thought she had started the clock when we began our mile journey, but it turns out that when she came back from the bathroom, she saw that the clock was still all zeroes.  Oops.  My "official" time was 7:42, because it certainly took me more than 7 minutes, and 42 is my favorite number.  (Seriously, this is how we came up with my time.)  It was tougher for Queen Pam because she ran very fast during the mile and didn't have an accurate time to show for it.  Laura A had done her mile in 6:26 and I have to believe Pam's time was very close to that, if not faster.  If I had to guess on my real time, it was likely in the 7:15-7:30 range.

Afterwards, I got to talk with the Queen as we shared stories about how neither of us have rhythm (explains our kipping woes) and how we're working on so many different things in the gym.  Despite an obvious difference in abilities (WOD scoreboard after Wednesday: Queen Pam - eleventy billion, Dave - 1), we did seem to have a lot in common as far as which movements in the gym remain a struggle for us.  I'm sure we will be practicing more of these things after class again the next time I hit up the Express.

Thursday preview: An 18 minute chipper!  Let's see how well I can keep it together during rowing, KB swings, push-ups, pull-ups, and deficit ring rows.