I'm Scaling Away

Workout date: 12/3/15

"I heard what happened to you at your wedding.  That was so cold!  You must have felt like shit."
"No, it felt really good.  Thanks for bringing it up.  My parents died when I was 10...want to talk about that?"
"Why would we want to talk about that?"
"I don't know."

(Note: all readers are responsible for knowing the movie quotes in my blog.)

This exchange was basically what ran through my mind on Thursday night while listening to a member of the gym go on a rant about a workout where I had failed miserably.  And when had that workout taken place?  17 days earlier!  Two and a half weeks had gone by since my most infamous performance of the year and I was still getting grief.  Not only did I sit through this rant before my class began, I also had someone else make a comment during warmups.  What an awesome way to get ready for a WOD!

What was it about the Thursday workout that was jogging the memory of those who watched me fall apart more than a fortnight ago?  To be fair, it was an eerily similar workout.

18-15-12-9-6-3
Toes-to-bar
Sit-ups
Overhead walking lunges (45/25) - double the reps

There were no pesky double unders to be concerned with this time, but there also weren't any of my beloved overhead squats either.  Sit-ups were being substituted in place of those movements.  The number of toes-to-bar was more than double what I had experienced in the earlier workout, while the amount of overhead walking lunges was likely higher here (126 reps vs. 300 ft total) than it had been last time around.

Because of how draining toes-to-bar can be, the range of times throughout the day was pretty wide.  Those who were proficient at toes-to-bar were finishing in the low teens, while those who were not proficient in the movement tended to finish closer to twenty minutes.  My hope was to split the difference and end up around 15-16 minutes.  63 sit-ups was not going to take up a lot of time.  I was also using a 35 pound plate for the overhead walking lunges because if I used a 45 pound plate and struggled, I'd hear about it until Halley's Comet graced the skies again.  I expected to move quicker through the lunges with this lighter weight.  That left the 63 toes-to-bar as the big time consumer.  If I could keep the amount of time spent on that movement to a reasonable level, I figured I'd finish around that 15-16 minute mark.

It would help tremendously if I could get off to a good start on the first set of 18 toes-to-bar and that was essentially what happened.  I got 10 in a row using that efficient stomping movement between reps.  When I jumped up to the bar again, I got 5 more that way.  Then for my last set, I did 3 the old-fashioned/inefficient way, where I came to a dead hang after each rep and then kipped into the next rep.  On the end of the gym where I was working (we split into two groups, one group of 3-4 people on each half of the gym), I was the first one to my abmat for sit-ups and then the first to my plate for the lunges.  Already feeling a little dumb about using the 35 pound plate, I made sure that I did all 36 lunges without putting the plate down.  I didn't look at what my time was, but I felt like I moved through that first round quickly.

Unfortunately my toes-to-bar proficiency was limited to one round.  I may have strung a couple to start the round of 15, but pretty soon I was left with the dead hang technique, hoping to get three reps each time that way.  It was certainly slower, but it was the only possibility left at that point.  Later on, I would try to work the stomping technique in with the hopes of getting 4-5 quick reps, but each time I did it, I failed.  Gotta work on my core.  Gotta work on my grip strength.  I got through the toes-to-bar and the sit-ups, but my attempt to work quickly left me breathing heavily as I got to my lunges.  I felt like I needed a break, but I didn't want to put down the plate.  After I hit the turn around point on our end of the gym, I made the decision to take a small break on the way back.  With 16 lunges complete, I put down the plate, before finishing the remaining 14 lunges in the round.

The number of reps was dwindling, but I'm not sure the amount of time I was spending on toes-to-bar was dwindling in the same proportion.  In the round of 12, I began having some no-reps.  Those were frustrating, especially since I was tiring, but I kept at it, trying to get those sets of three reps each time.  The sit-ups were never a problem in this workout.  Once I had done 12 of those, I picked up my plate and made sure to get all 24 lunges before putting the plate down.  There would be no more breaks during the lunges if I wanted a decent time.

For the final three sets, I did my best to stay with Nate, who was working alongside of me during the toes-to-bar.  We seemed to have an alternating system working where one of us was on the bar and the other was catching his breath.  As soon as one guy came off the bar, the person who hadn't been on the bar jumped up and got to work.  It was almost like a partner WOD.  I'm not sure it was something we were intentionally doing, but it helped keep me going.  I blew through the small sets of sit-ups.  On the lunges, I stayed true to completing the remaining sets without putting the plate down again.  Six lunges completed things and I was able to look at the clock.  Final time: 17:55.

That was disappointing.  I didn't go nearly as fast on the toes-to-bar as I had hoped.  And I had stupidly scaled down the plate for the overhead lunges for no good reason.  My time would have been slower had I gone RX, but it wouldn't have been more than a couple minutes slower.  This was an example of a workout where I shouldn't have scaled.  Suffice it to say, the next time toes-to-bar and overhead walking lunges are programmed together at the gym, I'll just find something else to do instead.

Advent challenge #3 was 3 minutes of ground to shoulder atlas stones using whatever weight the athlete desired.  Knowing I didn't have the cardio to keep up with the younger guys at lower weights, I decided to try my luck using the 140 pound stone.  I got it up to my shoulder 11 times in three minutes.  It wasn't quite enough to get the top score of the day for that stone, but I wasn't disappointed in how I did.  Later on, I was once again able to get the 215 pound stone up into my lap, but for the second time this year, I couldn't make the transfer from my lap up on to my shoulder.  One of these days I'll conquer that stone!

Friday preview: A final attempt at Grace along with my first-ever attempt at a turkish get-up.  Much awkwardness ensues.