With in-laws heading into town for the holidays, I didn't have high hopes of getting in workouts and blogging about them. Well, one out of two isn't so bad, I suppose. I did find time to get into the gym, but once I was back at home, there wasn't much in the way of quiet time to write recaps. So I may be about 5 recaps behind. There will be plenty to read by the end of the week, I promise.
The day after Thanksgiving featured a partner WOD at the gym called The Beach Assault. Here's what that looked like:
"The Beach Assault"
1,000 meter row
5 rope climbs (15')
100 burpees
100 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
50 sumo deadlift high pulls (70/53 KB)
200 meter farmers carry (45/35 dumbbells)
5 rope climbs
1,000 meter row
(1 athlete works at a time while their partner rests)
I'm a sucker for workouts with at least an attempt at symmetry, so I was in for this WOD. With 100 burpees thrown in there, I got ready to apologize profusely to whomever my teammate would be. Glancing at this workout made me think it would be one of those where I'd get tired out quicker than I expected, so even though the burpees were positioned closer to the beginning of the workout, I could foresee a situation where I was crawling through my burpees as we neared the end of that movement. I tried to guess how long all of this would take to complete and my best estimate was around 35 minutes.
When I made it to the noon express class, I found a group of 10 others waiting to take this workout on. Having 11 people in class meant one team of three. At first I thought it would be the three guys in the class, but Keithie and Shoshonna were the first team to pair up. That made it easy for me and Joe P to pair up. Liz and Barbara typically take the Masters class together at that time, so they paired up. Finally Erika and Julie paired together, leaving Tara, Steph, and Jessie as the team of three in our class.
I spoke with Joe, almost immediately apologizing for how bad my burpees were going to be. As Coach Aimee walked us through the warmups, we formulated a plan on how to handle everything. We were pretty much splitting everything up evenly, alternating after every 5 reps on the burpees and the sumo deadlift high pulls, and alternating after every 10 reps on the wall balls. I was going to lead things off for us by rowing 500 meters and we'd figure out any contingency plans along the way.
During my opening 500 meters, I wasn't in any hurry. I wanted to keep at least a 2:00 pace, but I wasn't going all out this early on. Part of me was concerned about my previous time estimate as I had seen that Dana and Pam had finished this workout in 24 minutes and change, while Gordy and Silver Fox were done just shy of 27 minutes. 35 minutes suddenly seemed like a slow time for this workout, but I wasn't entirely sure where I had overestimated how long this workout would take. When Joe finished our 1,000 meter row, I figured out part of where I had made a miscalculation. My struggles with 20' rope climbs had made me forget how quickly I could do 15' rope climbs, especially when I was given a breather. I scurried up the rope, slapped the 15' mark, and came back down in less than 15 seconds. Joe did our next climb and when he came down, I was faced with a decision. The only open rope was that new slippery rope that no one uses. It is really hard getting a grip on that rope with your feet, so it saps your arm strength. But I figured I might only need to do 1 climb on that rope, so I tried it out. Locking in initially was tough, but I was able to pinch the rope with my feet the rest of the way up the climb. When I came back down, it was Joe's turn to go on a broken-in rope, while Keithie attempted the slippery rope. He had so much trouble locking in his feet that he just did the rope climb legless. Must be nice to be strong.
When Joe returned to the ground, I had the luxury of using one of the broken-in ropes to finish out our set. On to the burpees! We did 5 at a time and I thought I could manage that for a while, but not necessarily for ten sets. I expected somewhere along the way that something (you choose: my calves, my hamstrings, my lungs, my general interest in doing burpees) would give way and I'd begin crawling through my burpees to finish. Except it didn't happen. Maybe I was getting just enough rest during Joe's sets to help me finish my burpees properly. With 100 burpees finished, we moved to the wall balls.
Like me, Joe wasn't terribly fond of doing 50 burpees each, so we were both breathing pretty heavily when we started our wall balls. Joe had told me that he might not be able to do sets of 10 wall balls, so I told him just to do what he could. We were doing much better than I expected a team of myself and anyone would be doing at this point, so I wasn't going to be upset if we slowed down here. Joe led off with a set of 10, then I did a set of 10. Wall balls have become an area of improvement for me, as I've gotten beyond some of the mental barriers involved with the movement. It is one of those movements that gets boring and tedious quickly, so it isn't long before you talk yourself into letting the ball drop. Nowadays, I kinda make a game out of doing bigger and bigger sets. So I was a little more engaged during the wall balls section than I had been during the burpees.
Joe was only able to do 5 wall balls in his next set, but I continued on with another set of 10. After that, we made two adjustments: 1) Joe would do a set of 5, let the ball drop for a quick break, then do a second set of 5 and 2) I would sit on the rower while this was going on. Yes, this was a bit like my bad habit of resting in a squat, but why not take advantage of having something to sit on during my mandatory rest? Joe and I alternated until his set brought us to a total of 85 reps. At that point, I challenged myself to do the final 15 wall balls. It wasn't that bad doing an additional 5 reps, plus it was good mental practice for me. So on we went to the sumo deadlift high pulls.
I always struggle with sumo deadlift high pulls for a multitude of reasons. I find it awkward standing in a sumo stance. I'd rather use a wider grip than a narrower grip. And I'm pretty sure I'm lopsided. Even my smile is crooked. When I get going on sumo deadlift high pulls, the combination of light weight, speed, and lopsidedness leads to me clanking down one side of the barbell before the other and things get out of whack. For this workout, we were using a KB instead and that was much easier to keep under control. The grip felt normal because there's only one way to get all 10 of your fingers in a KB. Plus having the weight centralized cancelled out my lopsided physique. Excellent!
A rare "sorta look like I know what I'm doing" action shot. Also, all the sweating.
Joe led things off for us and when he didn't stop at 5 reps, I got greedy. If we were doing sets of 10 each, then Joe would do 30 reps and I'd get away with only doing 20 reps, and I wasn't going to argue with a little extra rest at this point. Joe went to 7 reps before pausing slightly then doing 3 more reps. I knocked out 10 reps to get us to 20, but from there we alternated 5 reps each until we got to 50.
Next was the farmers carry. The original plan was to do 100 meters each. During our warmup, I walked with the dumbbells, but I let Joe know I would run during the workout because I would need to move fast to hold on to them. Joe made it about 60 meters before putting down the dumbbells. Both of our tanks were quickly approaching empty, but we were also so close to finishing up this workout. I grabbed the dumbbells and ran to the turn around point, then ran back to where Joe was. I put the dumbbells down and Joe took another turn. He almost made it all the way back, but couldn't quite get there. When he stopped, I picked them back up and made one more short run to the gym entrance.
With the teams fairly spread out now, there was no concern about having to use the slippery rope for the final rope climbs. I hopped on a good rope and did a quick climb. I was still moving very fast on these climbs despite not having a lot of energy left. Joe and I alternated for the final four climbs, with my last climb being fast enough that I was back on the ground before Joe had even strapped into the rower.
Only 500 meters of rowing left for each of us! I sat next to Joe as he rowed, trying to play cheerleader while also trying to catch my breath. The Shoshonna/Keithie team was on their rower as well and I knew I was going to have to try and hold off Keithie on the final row. We were also up against the clock as Joe was going to finish his row right around 28 minutes, leaving me two minutes for my final 500 meters if we were going to finish in under a half-hour. When I got on the rower for those last 500 meters, all I thought about was nice big pulls with a solid methodical pace. That happened for my first 250 meters. And that was about where my tank officially hit empty. I didn't need to stop or anything, but it was clear that I had nothing left. Keithie had started his leg about 100 meters behind me, but he was pulling like a madman and I wasn't sure if I'd be done before him. It seemed like I was going to finish under 30 minutes, but with my pace dwindling, even that was no sure thing. Big pull, breathe. Big pull, breathe. With less than 100 meters to go, it was officially time to row fast and hope for the best, even if I wasn't generating much power on my pulls. And then we were done. Final time: 29:45. Keithie's team stopped the clock at 30 minutes even.
I was exhausted at the end of the workout, but it was one of the better feelings I've had after a workout all year. Usually I have to apologize at the end of a partner WOD because my partner had to pick up my slack or because I slowed our team down so much. That wasn't the case here. Joe and I made a good team, staying at a similar pace. There were even times where I was able to do a little extra for our team. And we managed to complete the workout RX, finishing with a time that was 5 minutes faster than I expected. Win-win-win.
Saturday preview: Sneaking out for a workout while the in-laws are in town means going to Competitors Class. Could I go two days in a row without disappointing my partners in a WOD? Is "yes-ish" a word?
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