The 500 Meter Express

Workout date: 12/2/15

On Wednesday, I hit up the Express WOD, a special 45 minute class that is held at 12:15 on weekdays for those folks who want to squeeze in a workout during their lunch break.  It also accommodates people like myself, who simply wouldn't be able to make an afternoon class because I had dinner plans with a friend in the city.  There was a good crew at the Express on Wednesday and I really enjoyed working out with them.  It was a mix of three guys and three ladies.  The male component of the class was an Amazing Race reunion of myself, Scott, and Mr. Intensity.  We were joined by Pam, Denise, and Erika L.  The six of us would be finding a 3RM front squat before taking part in the second Advent challenge: a 500 meter row.

My strength work at the gym has fallen off the map in recent weeks.  I was devotedly sticking to my back squat program when I began struggling with the back half of my second one.  The timing of that failure coincided with my major WOD struggles and I had to hit the reset button.  It occurred to me that I may have been indulging in too much strength work and not enough cardio work.  As a result, I haven't done a whole lot of strength work since that failure in my back squat program.  I've put the back squat program on hold indefinitely.  I haven't doubled up my workouts with strength followed by a WOD since that point.  It was probably a bit too much for me.  I developed nagging injuries and was constantly worried about whether my next lift would result in a more serious injury.  Just as you can't be scared money when you gamble, I don't think you can be a scared athlete when trying to lift weights.  So I've shuffled my priorities around a bit.

With that in mind, I wasn't expecting a PR on my front squat.  I remember in the weeks after Barbulls finished, a lot of us in the program noticed that we couldn't hit the same numbers that we did at the very end of the program.  When you lose your devotion to the cause and stop practicing as much, you're not going to see the same results.  I set my PR for my 3RM front squat at the end of September, right before I finished my first back squat program, which might have been when I was at my strongest this year.  I got 255 that day for 3 reps.  I also attempted 265, but only managed the first rep before bailing.  I was still going after those marks, but with lower expectations for success.

I went through my sets the same way I normally do when it comes to squatting: start off with 135, move up to 185 if that feels light, and if 185 isn't too tough, move on to 225.  Is there a laziness factor involved in not wanting to move a bunch of different plates on and off of the barbell?  There sure is!  But I feel like I have a good sense of what I can handle on my squats and 225 generally feels reasonable for both my front squat and back squat.

While going through these preliminary reps, I got to talk to Erika a bit, as she was working to the right of me and I had never met her before.  Not only did she come across as yet another Crossfitter that I wish I got to have class with more often, she also ended up hitting a PR!  On the other side of her, Scott and Mr. Intensity were pushing their boundaries as well.  Both were making it look easy, with Scott more of the strong, silent type while Mr. Intensity is more of the strong, not-so-silent type. Silent or not, Mr. Intensity wrapped up his work with a PR as well, with Scott just shy of a PR.  Finally, down at the far end, Denise and Pam were working together.  Two more PRs?  You guessed it.

Perhaps it was all of this positive energy emanating from my 5 classmates that gave me a shot at a PR myself.  While I expected 225 to go somewhat smoothly, I figured that I'd struggle through the set at 245.  That really was not the case.  The first two reps were very quick, and even though I had a slight pause on the way up from the third rep, I never became concerned that I was going to have to bail the weight.  So I was in good spirits when I took another shot at 265.  The first rep was difficult, but once again I was only stuck briefly before standing upright.  I settled my breathing and got ready for the second rep.  I hit the bottom, got stuck again, but this time couldn't convince my body to stand back up with the weight.  As I had done in September, I could only manage 1 rep at 265.  I get the impression I could probably set a new 1RM at 270 or 275 if I tried it out, but that will have to wait for another time.

Denise and Erika decided to skip the 500 meter row, so it was the Queen vs. the boys to finish the Express. I had set a new PR for my 500 meter row the week before at 1:34.8.  Unlike with the front squat, I was expecting to set a new PR with the row.  Last week's row took place after completing Annie and my core was a bit wrecked when I attempted it.  This time, my legs weren't exactly 100% but my core was fine.  I set up my rower at the far end of our group, alongside Mr. Intensity.  With everyone having set up their rower to count down from 500 meters, we could start whenever we wanted, but we basically all waited to go at the same time.  Coach Jenna gave us the green light and we were off.  Because this is a mad sprint, it is hard to tell how you are doing compared to everyone else.  Instead of worrying too much about keeping up with the others, I focused instead on not falling apart at the end of the row like I had the week before.  Mission not accomplished.

The good news was that I had managed a faster pace during the first half of the row then I had ever done before.  The monitor showed a consistent 1:26 pace as I hit 250 meters.  Unfortunately, that was where I hit the wall.  I'm not sure there is more of a helpless feeling than pulling on that rower with everything you got, only to see your split time go higher and higher.  It kept creeping on up and I felt certain I wasn't beating 1:34.8.  I also thought there was no chance of beating Scott and Mr. Intensity. With 100 meters to go, my buddy must have seen me struggling.  Because out of nowhere, Mr. Intensity started screaming "COME ON DAVE!" over and over again.  Now mind you, he was still completing his row.  I was gasping for breath while he had the energy to scream at me to finish.  I didn't want to waste the encouragement he was giving me, so I pulled like crazy until the monitor showed 0 meters to go.  Final time: 1:33.6.

Scott finished a couple seconds before me and Mr. Intensity finished a couple seconds after me.  That final push was greatly appreciated.  He may have beaten me if he hadn't used so much effort helping me to the end of my row.  When the Queen stopped the clock at 1:50, Advent challenge #2 was complete and the Wednesday Express was in the books.

Thursday preview: Who doesn't enjoy being reminded of their failures?  Ummm...me?