Roxanne, By The Band Queen

Workout date: 1/12/16

Tuesday nights mean 7:30 classes.  And 7:30 classes mean Dave, crickets, and tumbleweed.  (The part of "crickets" would be played by Sir Chris Cline, while "tumbleweed" would be portrayed by Matt E.)  After a Monday night where every building on the KOP campus was filled to capacity, there was just a smidge more room to maneuver on Tuesday night.  The three of us were taking on a workout that was more complicated to explain than actually do:

150 double unders
21 hang power cleans and push jerks (115/75)
42 box jumps (24"/20")
15 hang power cleans and push jerks (115/75)
30 box jumps (24"/20")
9 hang power cleans and push jerks (115/75)
18 box jumps (24"/20")

The 150 double unders were essentially a buy-in to the workout.  Once those were done, it was on to a couplet of clean and jerks with box jumps.  Except the cleans were to be done from the hang rather than from the floor.  And the jerks needed to be push jerks, not split jerks.  And the capital of Djibouti is Djibouti.  Got all that?  Good.

Before we got going with this daunting workout, Coach Rachel had a fun warmup in store for the three of us.  It was based on a song with repeating lyrics.  When someone sang Pee Wee's secret word of the day, you had to stop running and do a burpee.  The song being referenced (according to our coach): Roxanne, by the band Queen.  Cline and I then needed to be revived with smelling salts.  That wasn't all though.  As much as we might like Roxanne (by the band Queen) and running, that combo could not hold a candle to an obstacle course and the song Shots (by the band LMFAO).  The warmup included bunny hops through a ladder lying on the floor, high knee skipping, med ball cleans, bear crawls, and burpees whenever someone said "shots" in the song.  For those not familiar with the song, it happens frequently.

I wasn't terribly excited about transitioning from a bunch of burpees to a test of my double under skills, but it was time to get ready for the workout.  Rachel asked about our double under abilities.  She had a decent idea of where Cline and I stood, but not as much clarity when it came to Matt.  I told her that he was better at double unders than I was, which he backed up by doing 20 consecutive double unders in the warmup.  (Cline and I also got 20 in a row during the warmup.  There is magic in the air at the 7:30!)

My goal in this workout was simple.  I've written many posts about my gas tank hitting empty while doing double unders.  And while I've been hoping that my practice with smaller jumps will bring me ever closer to 100 consecutive double unders, the main reason I've been trying to get more efficient is so that I can get through WODs like this one.  150 double unders is still a lot for me.  I expected they would tire me out, but there were still 45 clean and jerks and 90 box jumps to be done once the double unders were completed.  So I couldn't take forever doing the 150 double unders and I couldn't wildly jump around during them, depleting the energy I would need for the back half of this workout. My goal: finish the 150 double unders in less than 5 minutes.

Apparently that goal was not ambitious enough for me.  Rachel let us know that there would be a time cap within the WOD (my first experience with such a setup).  At the end of 4 minutes, we would move on from double unders whether we had completed 150 reps or not.  Revised goal: finish the 150 double unders in less than 4 minutes.  Gulp.  That was roughly 40 double unders per minute.  I didn't have time to mess up and I didn't have time to rest.  Efficiency was no longer an option, it was mandatory.

We did some warmups on the clean and jerks and the box jumps, but then it was time for the moment of truth.  Rachel started the clock and we were off.  My first attempt at a set of double unders: zero reps.  My second attempt at a set of double unders: zero reps.  Not such a good start.  My third attempt at a set of double unders: 32 reps.  That's more like it.  I needed a breather after that set, but not a long one, and my calves weren't throbbing.  I was able to get a couple of sets in the 15-25 rep range without wearing myself out and I was at 89 reps after two minutes of jumping rope.  Ahead of the pace I needed, but 61 reps was still a long way to go.  I couldn't depend on keeping up the same pace.  After all, sometimes double unders just go away.  I needed to put together a few more large sets.  At the 3 minute mark, I was beyond 120 reps, still ahead of the pace I needed.  At about 3:15-3:20, Cline dropped his rope and headed to his barbell.  I was at 134 reps.  40-45 seconds should have been plenty of time, but what if I hit a skid and couldn't get more than one at a time.  I needed one more big set.  The rope didn't hit me as I did my first rep and I focused on using the same controlled jump that I had utilized for the last three minutes.  After 6 reps, I had 10 to go.  Gotta hold on and get all 10 in this set.  I was petrified of messing up as I did reps 146, 147, and 148.  For some reason though, once I got to 148, I felt confident that I wouldn't mess up the last two.  I completed double under #150 with 3:36 elapsed on the clock.  I really could not have cared less about the rest of the workout.  I was extremely happy about not getting time capped.  And the best part was that my legs didn't feel shot.  At least not yet.

I joined Cline over at the barbells and got to work on the clean and jerks.  I did a very wimpy set of three to begin.  Perhaps I was more tired than I realized.  Or maybe I was still celebrating the double unders and not focusing on the new task at hand.  After that first set, I did two sets of 5 and two sets of 4 before heading over to the box jumps.  I was the first one there, although Cline and Matt weren't far behind me.  I began by trying to rebound off the floor and back on to the box, but that method did not feel very safe as my legs began to tire.  Maybe with a break I would have felt better about it, but instead I decided that I would simply step down after each of my box jumps for the rest of the workout.  I tried to keep things balanced in terms of which leg I came down on by doing a set of 4-5 where I came down on my right leg followed by a similar set where I came down on my left lag.  42 box jumps in a row is tiring and at a certain point feels never-ending.  But towards the end of the round, I picked things up again.  With 30 jumps completed, I did 2 fast sets of 6 before walking back to my barbell.

I tried to be a little less wimpy in the second round, taking care of my 15 clean and jerks with 3 sets of 5 reps.  More rest was required between these sets, but I tried not to crouch alongside of my barbell for too long.  I came back to my box and tried to grind through as many reps as possible, but this workout was draining.  Somewhere near the end of my 30 jumps, I managed to hit my foot on the box and tumble over the left hand side of it.  My legs were starting to feel heavy, so I focused on swinging my arms during my jumps to give me more boost.

I had made it to the last round and I was going to push with whatever I had left so that I could be done with this workout and lay on the ground in peace.  Cline and Matt were still working on their second round of box jumps and I wanted to get back to my third round of jumps as quickly as possible.  I only did 3 clean and jerks each set, but I shortened my breaks between sets.  I got back to my box as Matt was completing his second round of box jumps, with Cline not far behind him.  I told myself that 18 box jumps wasn't a lot, but my legs weren't agreeing.  I kept a decent pace until I took a second header with about 5 jumps to go.  I shook off the latest mistake and hoped that I'd have no more mishaps jumping on the box.  One by one, I did clean jumps on to the box.  I did my 18th jump for the final round, turned around, and looked at the clock.  Final time: 17:21.

Matt and Cline completed their 9 clean and jerks before working through the final 18 box jumps.  When they were finished, they both seemed to have the same look on their face that I had: relief that the workout was over.  This workout was definitely a grind to get through.  But in the end, I didn't really care about my final time all that much.  I was psyched about getting through the 150 double unders.  And it was a huge boost to my confidence to know that I could do that many double unders and not completely exhaust myself in the process.  Maybe there is hope for me yet.

Wednesday preview: Some atrocious-looking workout named Chelsea that I have never done before.  Part of the gym benchmark series.  A 30-minute workout featuring pull-ups and push-ups.  I think we all know how this is gonna go.

Wonderfully Awkward

Workout date: 1/11/16

I hadn't taken a full day off in a week (let's call what I did on Friday "active recovery"), so I didn't even consider taking class on Sunday, especially with it being in the annex.  I was more than happy to let my old bones recover in anticipation for the next WOD on Monday.  When the KOP blog displayed what we would be doing, I was pleasantly surprised.  The class was one part strength and one part metcon cash out:

Strength:
1RM Snatch

Cash out:
AMRAP in 8 minutes
20 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
200 meter run

Why wasn't this workout causing me to cower in fear?  Two reasons:

1. I had practiced the snatch on Friday night and even though it didn't go particularly well, I shook off the rust a bit.  After failing with 135 pounds (my PR is 175 pounds), I remembered you could always squat underneath the lift (duh!).  That helped a little bit, but my timing was still off.  I got 135, took a few tries to get 145, then gave up after failing at 155 on a couple of attempts.  I felt like I had a real shot at getting 155 on Monday after practicing on Friday.
2. Sets of 20 wall balls with a "sprint" afterwards would be a good test of my cardio and my willpower.  My improvements with wall balls had come about in large part once I learned how to control my breathing doing them.  Could I still control my breathing after darting out to the 200 meter turnaround point and back?  How many rounds could I do while stringing all 20 reps?  8 minutes was right in my preferred range in terms of workout time, so this was a really good setup for me.

I got to the gym for the 5:30 class and...oh yeah, you're probably wondering why I decided to go to an earlier class than normal.  Well, KOP was starting their "New Year, New You" program on Monday night.  It takes place on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 6:30.  A few months ago, KOP hosted the "Holiday Head Start" program at 6:30 on those nights and I was silly enough to sign up for WODs at that time.  It can get fairly crowded in the gym during a typical 6:30 class, but it becomes extremely claustrophobic when half the gym is cordoned off for an intro program.  Having learned my lesson, I was avoiding the 6:30 class at all costs.

Anyways, we were still 15 strong at the 5:30 class.  And Aimee surprised us by letting us know the cash out was more of a cash in since we'd be doing the wall balls and running metcon as a way of warming up.  On one hand, that didn't sound so bad because it would definitely warm us up and I wouldn't have to think about what awaited us after we were done with the snatch.  On the other hand, I did have some concerns that this might tire out my arms, causing me to struggle when snatching afterwards.  I didn't think about it for too long though.  The order we were doing this in had been decided and that was that.  We all grabbed a spot next to the wall and I ended up right next to Laura A.  There was a really good chance she was going to crush this workout, but I was going to try my best to keep up with her.

Aimee sent us on our way and I would have been very embarrassed if I didn't get the first set of 20 wall balls unbroken.  Laura was a little faster than me, heading off on her run while I still had one rep to go.  As I turned to go out the door, Josh M and another guy who I haven't met were just in front of me.  Those two went about the same speed as Laura on the run, but I was not interested in going that fast.  To me, wall balls were all out about breathing.  If I was panting from sprinting on that first run, I'd end up dropping the ball well short of 20 reps during my second round of wall balls.

I came back into the gym, jogged over to my ball, picked it up and got going.  My breathing had accelerated from the run, but I calmed it down a little bit during the first few wall balls.  From that point on, I didn't have much doubt I'd be able to complete all 20 reps.  Back out the door I went again, with the same triumvirate out in front of me.  When I got back to my station, Laura had increased her lead on me to several reps.  I was totally focused on my own reps, but it was during this round that I kept hearing balls hit the ground.  Was it Laura, Josh, or the other guy?  I had no idea.  I'd find out when I finished my 20 reps.

I made it to about 12 reps in the third round before wanting to drop the ball, but I was determined not to drop.  Really Dave, you can't make it 8 more reps?  I told myself to hold on until the end of the round.  I was breathing pretty heavily, but I made it through 20 more reps in a row.  As I went out the door, I saw Laura up ahead, but not Josh or the other guy.  Turns out Josh was right behind me and he passed me soon enough.  But if I had caught him on that round of wall balls, he must have dropped the ball.  I might be able to get ahead of him if I could hang on through round 4.

As I began round 4, it was clear there was no catching Laura.  I thought if I went unbroken through the wall balls, I might finish a fourth round before time was up.  I hadn't snuck a peek at the clock, but I estimated 20 wall balls plus a mediocre 200 meter jog would take me close to 2 minutes per round.  I tried to control my breathing, telling myself that this was the last round of wall balls.  Just 20 more reps that I needed to hold on for.  As I proceeded through the round, the issue of my breathing took a back seat.  I had been holding my arms over my head to throw and catch this 20 pound ball repeatedly and now my shoulders were becoming noticeably sore.  You know, the shoulders that would be integral to the snatches I would be doing imminently.  My mind began trying to reconcile whether it was worth it to hold on for 20 consecutive wall balls when it might cause me to drop 155 pounds on my head later on.  I decided I'd worry about that later.  I completed rep #20 and headed out the door.  A look at the clock let me know I had about 50 seconds to run the next 200 meters.

Knowing there wasn't much chance I'd get back in time to do anything else, I tried to pick up the pace on my run.  And then I heard Josh behind me.  "Pick it up Nichols!  Get back before time is up!"  Josh is always good about pushing me, although I'm not nearly as good at taking that encouragement and finding a second wind.  I did during this run though.  On the way back to the gym, he was starting to catch me, but I lengthened my stride and made it back through the doors before him.  Only one problem.  Everyone who was in the gym was laying on the floor.  I looked at the clock only to see it read 8:15.  I didn't pick up the pace enough and the last 200 meters meant nothing.  Final score: 3+20.

Well now that I'm out of breath and my shoulders are sapped, let's do some snatches!  I was less than thrilled about wasting so much energy on that final sprint, but I'd have some time to recover as Aimee walked us through the finer points of the snatch.  My plan was to go 95-115-125-135-145-155-165 for my seven lifts.  All I really wanted was to get 155, but I threw in 165 at the end in case things went better than planned.  And it wasn't like 165 was some pipe dream.  I had gotten 175 once upon a time.  It was just a really long time ago.

Snatch warmups.  Pretty sure my hip crease is below my knees.  #weirdo

While we were going through our warmups and our initial lifts, Samson was snapping pictures like the one you see above.  I think I did my lifts at 95 and 115 before I turned and saw his camera lens pointing in my direction.  Trying to create a slightly more entertaining picture than the typical "struggling Dave staring at the ceiling" pose everyone is used to, I hammed it up a bit.  Samson took the photo, looked at it, and then declared that I was "wonderfully awkward".  I've been called worse.

Even with those lighter lifts at 95 and 115, I tried to recall what I learned on Friday, going into a full squat and pausing at the bottom before rising up with the barbell.  It wouldn't be good to pause at the bottom with heavier weights, per se, but sometimes you get stuck in the bottom with those heavier weights and you need to have patience in standing up with it.  If I could teach myself to remember that while not being in trouble with these lighter weights, I'd have a better chance at succeeding later on.

The lifts at 125, 135, and 145 all went smoothly in my first attempt at each.  That was certainly an upgrade from Friday night when 135 and 145 were extremely difficult for me to handle.  It wasn't until I got to 155 that I had problems, but that was expected.  What wasn't expected was having success at 155 in my second attempt.  I got under the barbell fine, but then I didn't stand straight up out of the bottom, causing me to have to chase forward after the barbell.  Luckily I didn't have to run too far (tight quarters!) before getting it under control.

I had made it to 165, but I didn't have high hopes because that lift at 155 was a bit suspect.  Attempt #1: I got under the barbell but couldn't control it, requiring me to dump it behind me immediately.  Attempt #2: See attempt #1.  Attempt #3: Perhaps I was trying to do my best to keep the barbell in front of me, but I let the barbell arc out in front of my body and I was unable to get underneath it.

While contemplating whether it was worth one last attempt (it was almost 6:30), I looked over and watched Giulz attempt her last lift.  I had no idea how much was on her barbell or whether it was an important lift to her.  And then this happened:

That is what a PR looks like.

Damn Giulz!  Now I feel like I have to get this lift.  As I got ready to go, I got some encouragement from Alejandra.  Then Matt B came over, confused about why I hadn't lifted 165 yet.  (I believe his comment was "you should be able to lift 225...easy.")  I tried not to overthink things.  I got a grip on the barbell, lifted my chest up, and went for it.  A second later, I was deep in the bottom of a squat holding 165 pounds over my head.  Now I just needed to stand up with it.  I was a little shaky as I rose with the weight, but I did manage to stand it up.  I definitely need to practice my snatch more, but getting 165 at the end of the class made me believe for the first time in a long time that I could get 175 once again.

After class, I decided to play crossing guard for the 6:30 class as they did their cash out.  You have to cross a street while doing the 200 meter run and no one enjoys getting hit by a truck in the middle of their cash out.  Once that was over, I packed up and headed to the annex to do my second installment of shoulder press as part of the Wendler program I am using.  The main gym wasn't the only packed house, as all the racks on the pull-up rig were taken when I got down to the annex.  There was still a portable rig available though, so I moved that against a wall and grabbed a barbell.  Michal was in the annex as well and she was looking very serious while doing her back squats.  Except she wasn't doing sets.  She was only doing one rep.  Wait, I know what this is!  I motioned over to Faby and asked if this was her test day and it was.  Michal was going after 200 pounds on her back squat, with her previous PR being 185 pounds.  As I tried to whisper to Faby, he tried to whisper back to me.  What was with all the whispering?  Michal didn't know how much weight was on her barbell.

That might sound strange, but it usually works out very well.  When Michal completed a squat, Faby would tell her which weights to put on the barbell for her next lift.  If he had told her "that's 195 pounds on the barbell", then she might have begun thinking about the fact that she had never squatted that much and failed.  But by keeping her in the dark, she could simply go up and give her best shot every time not knowing whether it was a weight she had been successful on in the past.  When me and Faby had this initial exchange, it was right before Michal attempted 190 pounds.  Looked easy.  She had a new PR.  And I couldn't congratulate her.  In fact, I began treating her like a pitcher who has a no-hitter going.  She'd complete her lift and then I'd say nothing to her as she walked back to where she was sitting between lifts.  I'd just go over and do my shoulder press sets.  (For the record, I did 3 reps at 105 and 115, then knocked out 6 reps at 120.)  After a new PR at 190, Faby had Michal add 10 pounds and move to 200 (little did she know).  She went through her setup and then did another strong squat.  She got 200!  Still can't celebrate or even smile.

Faby had her add 5 more pounds before her next lift.  And when she began rising from the bottom of her squat, it looked like Michal had 205.  But then her legs began shaking and she had to bail the weight.  Faby asked her if she wanted to know how much she had gotten and then told Michal after she replied yes.  Except now she knew 205 was on the barbell.  Did that play a part in her next two attempts where she had to bail almost immediately?  Maybe.  But at least I could smile now and congratulate her on a huge milestone!

At 7:30, most of the folks in the annex moved back up to the main gym to continue Open Strength.  While I was there, I ran into Kelly, one of the first people I got to know at KOP.  She was doing the "New Year, New You" program along with JNa and Sharon, two other alumni that I used to work out with.  After catching up with Kelly, I practiced some pull-ups.  Got 10 in a row kipping, although I did have to come to a dead hang a few times along the way.  I practiced my double unders, tying my PR for consecutive reps with 53 in a row during one set.  And then I practiced push-ups, with my focus on keeping my elbows in close to my body.  That concluded a long day at the gym, but it was a very productive one.

Tuesday preview: I've been practicing efficient double unders for the last few weeks.  Would the work pay off?  A WOD that begins with 150 double unders (and a time cap!) awaits.

EMILFs

Workout date: 1/9/16

EMOMs I'd Like to Finish.  What did you think it stood for?  Perv.

Competitors Class on Saturday morning was once again in the annex, which meant there would be little operating space for the eight of us who showed up at 7(ish).  The annex is even tougher to deal with in the winter because it goes from igloo to sauna over the course of a workout.  It takes a while for the heater to get going, but then once it does, the sweat starts flying.  By the end of class, the floor was dotted with a collection of sweat puddles, with at least one or two not belonging to me.

As is usually the case with Competitors Class, there were two parts to class.  The first typically involves an Olympic lifting movement.  This part of the class is done individually.  Then the second part of class tends to be a partner/team WOD of hero-length proportions.  So here is everything that we did on Saturday morning:

Strength:
10 min EMOM
2 clean and jerks at 80% of 1RM

Partner WOD:
10 min AMRAP
Cleans (155/105) with 12 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9') EMOM

(5 min rest)

8 min AMRAP
15 burpees
10 hang power snatches (115/75)
5 overhead squats (115/75)

(7 min rest)

For time:
120 double unders
60 deadlifts (205/135)
30 front squats (155/105)

(Note: originally that second rest period was programmed as 5 minutes, but with limited resources in the annex, it took a little longer than expected to change the weights on everyone's barbells.)

We decided on our teams before we began with the strength portion of class.  At first I thought I would be partners with Gordy again as he was the only other male in class.  But then we did a random drawing of names out of a cup and I selected Giulz as my partner.  The other teams were Gordy and Jill A, Pam and Laura A, and Rachel and Jenna.

I wasn't too concerned about the strength aspect of class.  At least not until I realized I was illiterate.  I thought the EMOM said 1 clean and jerk.  I had done a 15 minute EMOM using 1 clean and jerk at 80% of my 1RM before and it wasn't too bad.  But two?  I began to worry that 180 pounds would be too much for me.  We don't tend to cycle through heavy clean and jerks all that often.  I had tried to move quickly through my 175 pound clean and jerks the other night with mixed results.  I could already envision myself finishing the first two reps, looking at the clock and seeing I had about 15 seconds until the next round began.  There was a lot of doubt running through my head as we got ready to go, but I decided that I would just run with it and see how it went.

How did it go?  Better than expected.  I'm always more concerned with my cleans than my jerks, but I was able to power clean 180 pounds over and over again without much issue due to some good technique (translation: my fast elbows were legitimately fast).  I didn't want to push jerk this weight over and over again, but doing a split jerk seemed like something that could be time-consuming, so I did a bit of a hybrid jerk.  It was a split, but it wasn't the full on, get real low split that I would use if I was in the 215-225 range.  I moved with good speed, going right into the setup for the second lift as soon as I had dropped the bar from the first lift.  And more often than not, I was done with each round in under 30 seconds, giving me a nice cushion before the next round began.

One scary workout down, one to go.  Giulz and I had a little pow wow before embarking on our nearly 40 minute journey.  I offered to do more of the wall balls because I know she's not a big fan, but she felt that it was better to just split them every minute, 6 and 6.  From there we would just feel out the cleans as we went.  We would address the other segments of the workout during our rest periods.

I led things off for us on the wall balls in minute one before Giulz took care of the final 6.  When she was done, I strung together 3 cleans before letting Giulz go.  Giulz did 2 reps before handing off to me again.  From there we alternated single reps, as I completed the round.  Since I did the last clean, Giulz led us off on wall balls.  Over the next two minutes, Giulz would go first on wall balls, then we would go 1-3-1-1 on our cleans, as I always tried to get three cleans the first time I touched the barbell.  In minute four, we snuck in an extra rep, going 1-3-1-1-1, which meant Giulz went last and I became the first one on the wall balls.  I would lead off the wall balls for the final 6 minutes and our pattern on the cleans became 3-1-1-1, with the only exception happening in the final minute when I got one last clean in before time was called.  Final score: 64.

I was happy with how well I was able to hold on during that first part of the partner WOD.  There was hardly ever a break during those 10 minutes, but I kept my breathing under control.  I was very appreciative of the 5 minute break, but I wasn't lying on the floor or clutching the pull-up rig during it.  Instead I changed out the weights on my barbell, got some water, and prepared myself for the next part of the workout.

Pow wow #2: Giulz thought she could handle 10 burpees before switching off, so we went with a plan of person 1 does 10 burpees, person 2 does 5 burpees, person 1 does 6-7 hang power snatches, person 2 does 3-4 hang power snatches and then all 5 overhead squats.  Seemed like a nice distribution of work.  Naturally, that went out the window immediately in round 1.  The burpees went to plan, but Giulz only got 4 hang power snatches.  Feeling all confident, I figured I could do the remaining 6 hang power snatches and the 5 overhead squats.  Except I could only hold on for 4 hang power snatches too.  Giulz did the last two snatches and then finished the 5 overhead squats.  The new plan: person 1 would do a lot of work each round, but person 1 would alternate.  In round 2, I did 10 burpees, Giulz did 5 burpees, I did 4 hang power snatches, Giulz did 5 hang power snatches, then I finished the round with the final hang power snatch and 5 overhead squats.  In round three, we followed the pattern of the second round, only Giulz became person 1.  In round four, I was person 1 again.  With only a few seconds remaining after completing round four, Giulz did 3 burpees before time was called.  Final score: 123.

Now I needed some rest.  Burpees have never been my thing, but I had my struggles during the hang power snatches and the overhead squats as well.  My breathing was no longer under control (although the 7 minute rest remedied that) and my back was feeling sore.  I didn't know how long the third segment of this WOD would take, but I figured it would be the quickest.  And naturally, I was wrong.

Pow wow #3: I was concerned about double unders, but Giulz said she had that.  She was concerned with front squats, but I said I had that.  Giulz offered to do more deadlifts, but I wasn't as worried about that part of the workout.  Let's finish this thing!

Giulz led us off on the double unders and did two big sets before stopping with 38 reps.  I then proceeded to hit myself with the rope.  I hit myself with the rope a second time.  And then I magically did 22 reps in a row.  When I told Giulz to go, we were at the halfway point.  Giulz put together another 30, having faith in my ability to get the last 30 double unders.  She was mistaken.  I hit myself with the rope.  Twice I got 1 rep then hit myself with the rope.  For the grand finale, I did 2 reps before failing again.  I yelled over to Giulz that she should go and she obliged by taking care of the last 26 reps.

I tried to redeem myself by doing the first 10 deadlifts for our team.  Giulz could only manage 4 in her first set, while I was down to 5 reps in my next set.  Giulz did 6 reps in her next set to get us to 25 reps and from there we alternated sets of 5 reps until we got to 60 reps.  We had made it to the last part of the workout.  Each of us stripped weight off of our barbells to get to the proper front squat weight we were using.  Giulz led us off with a set of 5 reps.  I held on for a set of 8 reps before dropping, as my back was beginning to cause issues.  Giulz came back for 7 more reps and we were only 10 reps from the finish line.  Surely I could hold on for these final 10 reps, right?

Nope.  Got through 5, then had to bail the barbell.  My back was bothering me each time I squatted.  Not in an "I'm severely injured" way, more in an "I had crappy form during the hang power snatches then compounded the problem by doing heavy deadlifts" way.  I was going to take a second then do the final 5 reps, but Giulz said she had it.  The girl who was concerned about the front squats ended up doing 17 of our 30 reps, completing the last five to stop the clock for us.  Final time: 9:31.

I tailed off a bit towards the end, but I took a lot more positives out of this 40 minute workout (along with the initial 10 minute EMOM) than I did from the one I had done a week earlier when Gordy had to carry me around like a backpack the whole time.  My cardio is slowly improving, while my ability to stay mentally strong during tough segments of workouts is definitely improving.  And for a head case like me, that's probably the more important of the two.

Monday preview: Wall balls, sprints, and snatches.  And someone who regularly appears in the blog reaches a major milestone.

Demo Guy

Workout dates: 1/7/16 and 1/8/16

Who was the most excited person in the gym when pistols were listed among the skills we'll be practicing every 3 months as part of the 2016 benchmark series at KOP?  Yup, the guy who likes all the weird stuff.  On Thursday, we had some skill work with pistols followed by a cash out that featured tons of pistols.  Assuming you could do strict handstand push-ups.  And it turns out that my ability to do strict handstand push-ups varies greatly from day to day.

Before all that though, we had some strength work to complete.  The first part of the WOD required us to find a 3RM push press.  Last year, a 2RM push press was scheduled a few times, so I never really tested out whether or not I could get that third rep.  I managed 195 pounds for two reps, but that was a minor miracle.  It was tough enough getting two reps at 185.  I'm not exactly sure what my best 3RM for push press was prior to Thursday, but I knew for certain that I had never done 3 reps at 185 before.  So if I could get 3 reps at 185, it would be a new PR for me.  Am I giving away too much too soon?  Don't worry, I'll draw out the story.

With 13 people in attendance for the 6:30 class, we needed to partner up due to the limited rack space.  Generally the most important consideration in choosing a partner for a strength workout like this is choosing someone who is about the same height as you (so you don't have to move the rack height) and Erik fit the bill.  Having not worked out with Erik a lot, I wasn't sure how much weight he was going to want on the barbell.  I talked about warming up at 95 pounds and then going to 135 to begin the real lifts, but Erik seemed to hesitate when responding about how he felt using 135.  That surprised me as he looked like he could handle quite a bit more than 135.  I'm not sure if he had some initial jitters or if I simply misinterpreted his response, but he ended up following the same pattern as me, warming up with 95 and then completing the first set with 135.

After that, we diverged.  I felt good about going up to 155, while Erik took a smaller jump to 145 instead.  We were both successful there, so we each made similar-sized jumps to our next weight, with Erik advancing 10 pounds to 155, while I advanced 20 pounds to 175.  155 would be the first bump in the road for Erik, although he was successful with the weight during his second attempt.  175 was considerably tougher for me than 155, especially that first rep when I was just trying to get going.  But as is the case with me when I do deadlifts, once I have the barbell in motion, things go alright from there.  Made it through 175 on my first attempt.

Erik and I made one more 10 pound increase to our barbells.  My first attempt at 185 was a complete disaster.  Not sure whether I forgot to move my head or what the deal was, but I started to arc the barbell out away from me before trying to press it over my head.  That may be the worst possible way to push press.  Didn't even get one rep.  Erik had a similar issue with his first attempt at 165 as he barely got started on his first rep before needing to drop the barbell.  I took a second shot at my goal weight, keeping in mind that I shouldn't duplicate any part of my first attempt at 185.  Got the first rep, got the second rep, and...got about half of the third rep.  My arms buckled as I tried to press out the final rep and the barbell came crashing down.  That sucked.

With time winding down for the strength portion of the WOD, Erik decided that he would try 165 one more time.  And he made it look pretty easy.  Once that first rep was out of the way, he methodically took care of the other two before putting the barbell back on the rack.  I was torn about going again after my arms went to jello on the third rep of my previous attempt, but watching Erik confidently destroy 165 pounds made me want to give it one more try.  Plus, Erik had told me that I was almost strict pressing during try #2.  (Translation: take a bigger dip and use those legs more, dummy!)  That is exactly what I did.  I took the barbell off the rack, took a bigger dip, and drove upwards like I was trying to throw the barbell at the ceiling.  The third rep was still a little shaky, but I had driven the barbell high enough that it didn't require a huge press out.  185 was a success and I had a new 3RM push press PR.

Screw all that stuff, let's do some pistols!  As we circled around getting ready to practice pistols, Doctor Coach Sommelier VP Giulz asked me if I could do strict handstand push-ups.  I replied "with two abmats", which was enough to get her seal of approval.  She told me I would be the demo guy for the cash out.  Being the demo guy for pistols was a piece of cake.  Slow pistols, fast pistols, hunched over pistols...I was more than happy to demonstrate how those were done.  I was a little more tentative about flipping upside down and showing off my handstand push-ups.  I was able to do a few for the class, but those things always come and go.  In fact, I'd experience how quickly they come and go in just a few minutes.

Everyone set up an area to do their cash out.  Many people grabbed boxes so that they could do a pistol scale where you sit on the box for just a moment to mimic the pistol movement.  Others grabbed dumbbells as the scale for strict handstand push-ups was seated DB presses.  The cash out looked like so:

AMRAP in 7 minutes
10 pistols (5R/5L)
5 strict handstand push-ups

Now I had recently done a cash-out at the noon Express class where we were doing 10 box jumps and 5 strict handstand push-ups.  I got through 10 rounds of that, meaning I completed 50 strict handstand push-ups.  If I could duplicate that here, I could have a huge score, since I expected I would be completing the pistols quickly.  And that still looked like that might be the case when I finished my second round and looked at the clock to see 1:05.  Could I get 10 rounds again?  Or maybe more?

In a word: nay.  I knew from the start that my handstand push-ups were not as fluid as they had been in that earlier cash out.  After completing my third round of pistols, I discovered that they were not only no longer fluid, they simply no longer existed.  I tried 4 times to do the handstand push-ups, but my T-Rex like arms failed me.  Knowing that I was going to be stuck at this point unless I changed things up, I ran down to the other end of the gym and grabbed a pair of 35# dumbbells.  From that point forward, I did seated DB presses.  I may have been rattled by this failure, as I began to struggle on some of my pistols as well.  That third round had absorbed more than two minutes of the cash out and now I was trying to play catch up.  Instead I was going too fast and messing things up.  With 30 seconds left, I finished my 6th round.  I immediately tried to bang out a bunch of fast pistols, but I had to pause after 6 reps.  After a quick shake of the legs, I completed the final 4 reps, a few seconds before time was up.  Final score: 6+10.

Not exactly what I was hoping for, but this once again proves how important it is that I develop something that could be confused for arm muscles.  Speaking of things that need development, I saved my double under practice for after the WOD.  Cline was working on his as well, but he's pretty solid in that department.  Whereas I might get a big set every so often, Cline is much more consistent in churning out meaningful sets.  He was working on doing 5 sets of 50 double unders with 1 minute rest in between and I believe he did the first 50 unbroken.  Meanwhile, I was next to him, slowly getting frustrated as most of my sets were ending in the 5-15 rep range.  Eventually I did a set that crept into the 30s.  I took a seat for a couple of minutes to rest, but then got back up to try again.  I needed another big set.  After a couple of botched attempts where I didn't get more than 1 rep, I finally got into a rhythm.  10, 20, 30...40!  As I hit 40 reps, I noticed I was jumping higher, a telltale sign of fatigue.  But I couldn't mess up now.  Only 10 more and I would hit 50 for the first time.  There was some ugly clomping around, but soon I had completed the 50th rep.  Followed by three more.  53 was my new PR on double unders.  As I collapsed to the floor, I wondered how in the world I was ever going to string 100 in a row, given that I was so tired after 53.  Practice, practice.

Friday preview: No Friday preview!  I went to the gym for Open Strength on Friday, but ended up spending most of my time working with Fayth and Steph C as they prepared for the Girls on Girls competition.  Steph is now a double under machine!  I did practice snatches (foreshadowing: something that would be very helpful on Monday), double unders, toes-to-bar, and push-ups.  But I didn't get in enough work to write a blog post about it.  So it ends up as a blurb at the end of the Thursday post.

Saturday preview: A very tough Competitors Class, but I hang in there.  For the most part.

Power Walking

Workout date: 1/6/16

The week of awkward workouts continued on Wednesday.  At least this was one I could actually do.  It was very simple in nature:

1,000 meter row
3 rounds of 10 hip extensions and 10 GHD sit-ups
1,000 meter row

There was even a nice little cash out afterwards where we did a 5 minute EMOM of 3 back squats at 80% of our 1RM.  All very simple.  Yet still awkward.

Before we get to that, I have to start off with an update on my double unders.  As I had done the day before, I got to the gym about 20 minutes early so that I could practice double unders with a smaller jump.  Keeping that small jump isn't too much of a problem early on in sets, but as I get tired, I do tend to resort to leaping as I lose all of my self-control.  This session was similar to Tuesday's.  Several medium-sized sets.  Didn't feel the need for extensive rest after those sets.  My best set for the day was 36 reps.  Planning on making double under practice a part of my normal routine.

Okay, now we can get back into the WOD.  The 7:30 class has really blown up as there was a record-shattering 4 people in attendance!  Clearly the word has gotten out: the 7:30 class is where it's at!  I kid, I kid.  The small class size is beneficial for workouts like this one because there is a limited amount of certain equipment at the gym (GHD machines, ropes for climbing, etc.).  It was inevitable that people were going to end up on the GHD machines at the same time in this workout and there were only 5 machines available to use, so we got lucky in the 7:30 class that we didn't need to share equipment or stagger the workout.

Why am I describing this workout as awkward?  The best way for me to explain is to recap the workout itself.  The class was made up of Olan, Julie, and Mykel.  Olan has been doing Crossfit at KOP for a while, but I rarely see him.  In fact, I'm not sure if I've seen him since last year's Open.  I believe Julie is a newer member.  I think I have worked out with her once before.  And Mykel was a drop in from another box.  So this was a new group for me to be working out with.  I didn't have a good sense of who might be going faster or slower like I normally do in class.  (Spoiler:  The rest of the class is usually going faster.  I am usually going slower.)

We began with the first 1,000 meter row and, due to the smaller class, I didn't feel the typical pressure to row faster that I tend to experience in larger classes.  I had a nice controlled pace going that would have me off the rower in a little under 4 minutes.  I completed the first 500 meters in around 1:50 and I felt comfortable doing it.  That pace slowed a little bit on the second 500 meters, but my main focus was on remaining composed.  I had about 50 meters to row when Mykel hopped off of his rower and headed to his GHD.  I was the next one off with Olan and Julie following soon after.

The next part of the workout was the aspect I would describe as awkward.  My GHD was alongside of Mykel's and I hoped that I could make up some time on him during the GHD movements.  After all, he had already proven he was a faster rower, so if I was going to catch him, it would need to be here.  Except there was no catching up on the GHD.  10 reps was a reasonable number of reps for each exercise such that you could string all of them, which is precisely what Mykel and I both did.  Mykel was about 2-3 hip extensions ahead of me when I began working on my GHD.  When he finished his set, I had 2-3 hip extensions left.  Then I was 2-3 GHD sit-ups behind him.  You get the idea.

The best analogy I can give for how things went on the GHD is power walking.  Have you ever seen the walking event at the Olympics?  The athletes are trying their best to go as fast as they can, except they are limited because...well, because they are walking.  They're pumping their arms and they're wiggling their butts, but in the end, they're still walking.  My experience on the GHD was kinda like that.  Mykel and I were moving as fast as we could through our reps, but we were also trying to maintain good form.  There is only so fast you can properly do a hip extension or a GHD sit-up.  The only real opportunity for making up time was by flipping your body over on the machine quickly as you transitioned from the hip extensions to the sit-ups, or vice versa.  I was on my 8th GHD sit-up in my final round when Mykel headed back to his rower.  We spent about 3 minutes on the GHD machine, yet Mykel and I had moved in sync nearly the entire time.  I'm not sure I can think of another time that I've been at the gym where something like that has happened.

With Mykel back on his rower first, I knew I'd never catch him.  The GHD movements had made my legs a little sore, so it was more likely that he'd put more distance between the two of us.  And that is exactly what happened.  My final row wasn't horrible, as I completed it in about 4 minutes, but Mykel went from 2-3 reps ahead of me to finishing 17 seconds before me.  My final time: 11:23.

The GHD movements had taken some of the starch out of my legs, but that final row left my legs feeling a little wobbly.  We were given about 10 minutes to recover from the WOD before we did the cash out and I needed it.  I shook out my legs for a few minutes.  Then I did some back squats at 135 just to loosen up.  80% of my 1RM would be 265 pounds, but that seemed ambitious for the cash out.  255 sounded more reasonable.  Except when I did another warmup set at 225, I struggled more than I would have liked.  Maybe 255 was ambitious.  I decided to trim back even further to 245 for the cash out.  (Note: Mykel decided to use 255 pounds for the cash out and had the rack next to me.  If you don't think this gnawed away at the competitive side of me for the next 5 minutes, then you know nothing Jon Snow.)

The cash out was going to be a one-song affair or at least so we thought (apparently Baby Got Back is only about 3:55 in length).  It would be quick, but not entirely painless.  In fact, I really got worried when my first set of 3 back squats at 245 didn't go smoothly.  However, it turned out that my legs just needed to stretch back out after the WOD.  The first rep of round two was a bit shaky, but the other two reps were fine.  And then the third through fifth rounds were borderline easy.  Why didn't I use 255???  Wimp!  It was probably the right call to go with 245 based on how I felt at the beginning of the cash out, but I think I would have handled 255 just fine had I been stubborn and stuck with it.

Thursday preview: Pistol work!  Sounds perfect for me!  Unless they're gonna make me do handstand push-ups as well.  And they will.

Sloppy Transitions

Workout date: 1/5/16

Muscle-ups were on the menu Tuesday night and that meant finding something else to do since muscle-ups are not currently in my repertoire.  Nor will they be any time in the near future.  The WOD itself was very Amanda-like, with clean and jerks taking the place of squat snatches.

9-7-5
Muscle-ups
Clean and jerks (205/135)

I decided to show up about 20 minutes early for class so that I could get some double under practice in.  The focus continues to be efficiency via smaller jumps.  I'm starting to see some small gains there as I've been able to do a set of 15-20 reps and not need a lot of time before continuing on to a new set.  When double unders are programmed in a WOD, they tend to show up in large quantities.  Since I don't have the ability to do a huge amount of these in one set (at least not reliably), I need to get used to finishing a medium-sized set and moving on to the next set.  The drawback?  Jumping differently takes some time to get used to.  My typical set has been smaller than it once was, but I have faith that I'll get back to doing medium-sized sets reliably with more practice.  And if I can occasionally knock out that big set where I forget to hit myself with the rope?  Even better.  During this practice session, I managed a couple sets in the 20's, with my best set being 31 reps.

As I watched the end of the 6:30 class, I saw Matt B hating the workout.  I got to talk with him when he was done and the biggest issue he had with the WOD was that he was told he couldn't do jumping muscle-ups as a scale.  Instead, he was doing banded transitions.  This was a bummer for me as well, as I had used jumping muscle-ups as my scale in previous workouts with muscle-ups.  If I had to guess, it was probably over a year since I last practiced the banded transition.  I would need a crash course in transitions if I was going to do them in this workout.

The 7:30 class was sparsely attended again, but instead of another two-man workout, we had a special third guest.  Faby has committed to doing one WOD per week and he decided that this would be his selection for the week.  Maybe he saw the clean and jerks and missed the whole "muscle-up" thing.  He was taking on this workout RX, while Cline and I searched for scaling options.  I would be using 175 for my clean and jerks in addition to doing the banded transitions.  Cline went with the 2:1 scale of banded dips and pull-ups along with 135 pounds for his clean and jerks.

As we warmed up, Coach Rachel tried to help me get the hang of transitions, but I was a woefully unprepared student.  Nothing about it felt natural to me.  I didn't have that moment of clarity where I suddenly said "hey, I remember how to do these now!"  More than anything, I was just awkwardly flopping around on the band underneath the rings.  I relayed my concerns to Rachel that I might not be able to do a single transition properly and that it might be best for me to do the dips and pull-ups scale instead.  However, Rachel impressed upon me that if I was ever going to get muscle-ups, I needed to work on transitions.  Begrudgingly, I agreed to attempt transitions for the workout.

We got started and things were a mess right from the start.  In some of my attempts, my feet would hit the floor, at which point I would end up using them to jump up into the top of the dip.  Not only was this the jumping muscle-up that I was not supposed to be doing, it was the cheater version of it.  In a normal jumping muscle-up, you jump through the transition point, then come out of a dip to finish the rep.  I was jumping all the way to the finish of the movement, not working any of the muscles that were supposed to be used in this workout.  I did have enough common sense not to count any of those reps, but as I wiggled around trying to do a transition correctly, I realized that I was still at 0 and more than a minute had elapsed on the clock.  Not good.

Finally one light bulb went on in my head.  I knew I shouldn't be jumping, but the bigger issue was skipping the dip completely.  And why was I ending up at the finish of the movement so quickly?  Because I was focused on moving vertically rather than horizontally.  When doing the transition properly, you are supposed to basically throw yourself forward (not upwards).  If you've done that correctly, you will then need to dip out to complete the movement.  Because I had been focused on going up, I was tilting my body into a vertical position, causing my feet to hit the floor and resulting in a jump that I wasn't supposed to be doing.

I was still on 0 reps, but I instantly felt better because I had figured out a big part of what I was doing wrong.  I began pulling my body forward and ended up in the proper position, finishing those reps with a dip out.  I had some no-reps where I got into the proper position and could not dip out.  But at least there was progress.  Cline was already on his clean and jerks, but I was slowly getting through my first round of transitions.  As I neared the end of the first round, Faby finished up his 9 muscle-ups.  Eventually, I joined the two of them over at the barbells.

I wasn't sure how heavy I wanted to go on the clean and jerks.  Initially I thought 185 might be worth a try, but then I watched how tired the crew was in the 6:30 class when they got to their clean and jerks.  They seemed to be struggling more with the barbell then they were with their muscle-up scales.  Perhaps I needed to rein it in a little bit.  165 seemed reasonable enough, but Rachel told me it looked easy when I did it.  So we agreed on 175.  And that was probably the correct weight to use.  When I began doing my clean and jerks, I moved fairly quickly, but I could also tell that my arms were a little drained from the transitions.  My clean form has never been the greatest, but I was having more difficulty with them than I had bargained for.  A big part of the clean is having fast elbows, so that the barbell ends up in a solid front rack position.  My elbows were not coming through very well, leaving me in an awkward position before I jerked the weight.  (I am the king of getting myself into awkward positions.)  As a result, my jerks were shaky.  I got through the 9 reps, but I became concerned about the 12 that were still remaining.

Being the idiot that I am, I immediately fell back into bad habits again as I returned to the rings.  Feet hitting the floor, jumping up into the reps.  It was like my memory had been erased while doing the clean and jerks.  After no-repping myself a bunch of times, I finally got back into doing the transitions semi-properly.  And let me be clear, even the "good" transitions I did probably fell under the "range of motion" category than real transitions.  But they were much better than the crap I had been doing early on in this workout.  It took a while, but I got through the second round of transitions, heading over to do clean and jerks with Faby, while Cline was in the midst of his final round of dips and pull-ups.

I had the same issues with my cleans during the round of 7 reps.  Plus I was beginning to fatigue.  That meant more rest between reps.  The last thing I wanted to do was start to get that bar above my head and then have my arms give out on me.  I made sure I felt comfortable doing the lift before I attempted each rep.  With 7 clean and jerks completed, I headed back over to the rings.  This time I didn't forget what I was supposed to do, completing a couple of my best transitions right off the bat in the final round.  I did have some struggles dipping out of a few reps, leading to no-reps that felt like a waste of energy.  After each of these, I would take my time, shake out my arms, and try again.  With my last transition complete, I jogged over to my barbell.

The clock was showing about 14:15 and Rachel had told us to try and keep the workout under 15 minutes.  I didn't think I could do 5 clean and jerks at 175 in 45 seconds, but I was going to give it my best shot.  I completed a rep, let the barbell drop from the top, took a second to get my setup right, then went into the next rep.  Did five in a row like that, hoping that I was moving fast enough to beat the clock.  I did not.  Final time: 15:04.

I cheered on Faby as he finished his muscle-ups.  While watching him, another (possibly more important) light bulb went on in my head.  Rachel had been stressing to me how hard I had to pull with my arms to do the transition properly, but it was a struggle for me no matter how hard I pulled.  I was chalking that up to my lack of arm strength (which is legit), but then I noticed what else I was doing wrong.  When Faby did the transition in his muscle-up, he had a big pop of the hips to assist him.  When I was doing my transitions, I was laying on the band like a corpse in a morgue.  No wonder all of that pulling wasn't working.  I was only using half of my body!  Moron.

Did I do this workout properly?  Not by a longshot.  I'm not sure how many of my "good" reps should have counted, but I can tell you that I no-repped myself more in this workout than any other one I've done in my 3 years of Crossfitting.  I'd like to think I learned some things as I failed over and over again, but I am a long way from doing a muscle-up.  And to be honest, it is something I put no time into practicing.  So in the end, I wasn't upset by this workout, but I also don't know how much I gained from it.

Wednesday preview: Another strange WOD, this one a combination of rowing and GHD movements.  Plus, some back squat work on shaky legs.

Chris Cline: Inspiring More Than Interracial Bathtub Pics

Workout date: 1/4/16

The gym was closed on New Year's Day (Friday).  I was off pursuing my dream of winning the National Handicapping Championship by playing in a qualifying tournament at Monmouth Park on Saturday.  And then on Sunday I was just plain lazy.  So it wasn't until Monday that I returned to the gym.  The good news?  My legs felt normal once again.  That first workout back from vacation had left me sore for days and it was nice to walk into the gym without worrying about whether I could do a box jump.  Or sixty three.

The gym benchmark series spurred the idea of this blog one year ago and just before the calendar turned to 2016, Aimee posted on the KOP blog that a new benchmark series would be taking place in the new year.  The WOD on Monday was the first of these benchmark tests and it happened to be yet another girl I had never done before.  (Hit it, Julio and Willie!)  This girl was named Christine:

"Christine"
3 rounds:
500 meter row
12 deadlifts at your body weight
21 box jumps (24"/20")

Deadlifts are now a body weight movement?  What the hell?  I just can't win.  Guess I'd be loading up the bar with more than 200 pounds.  I was already envisioning myself crashing into the box over and over again having used up my hamstrings on the deadlifts.

But before we got to the actual workout (or even the warmup), our class of 15 athletes gathered in a circle for a very special ice-breaker.  Aimee wanted to commemorate how inspirational Cline had been to the gym in 2015.  Specifically, she pointed out that Cline surpassed his goal of doing 200 WODs for the year and how this had inspired several people in the gym (including hubby Jason) to go after that number in 2016.  Cline's impact on the gym was much more extensive than that, so Aimee asked us to go around the circle and name one way that Cline was inspiring each of us in 2016.  Because I was standing next to Cline, I had to go first and I wasted my turn with some lame joke about doing 201 WODs since it was a leap year.  (Note: That wasn't my real answer, but Aimee moved on to the next person before I could give an honest response.)  Most people responded that they would come to the gym more often with some folks noting that they would attempt to reach the 200 WOD threshold Cline had gotten to.  Michal offered 10 sweaty hugs (that number seems kinda low, just sayin), while Fayth felt inspired enough to say that she will re-create the bathtub pic of Diane and her husband Troy which Cline brings to all of his workouts (Cline insisted that Fayth find her own version of Troy for her pic).

Once everyone had stated their New Year's Cline-olutions, we began going through our warmups.  With 15 people in class, it was going to be close quarters once again, especially since we all needed space for a rower, a barbell, and a box.  We got all of the rowers lined up.  Then we set up the barbells.  The girls seemed to be deciding whether it was worth it to reveal how much they weighed.  In the end, they all scaled (savvy move!) except for Michal, who weighs precisely <REDACTED> pounds.  Aimee had us stagger which side of the barbell area we were on so that we weren't all providing free colonoscopies to one another.  That left a tiny area of space for us to have our box along with a jumping/landing zone.  This was not the day to mess up your box jumps.  The possibility of taking a header into your rower or falling back on to your barbell was very real.

We got started on our initial row and almost immediately I needed to zone out.  The whooshing sound of 15 people rowing frantically was getting the adrenaline going when I didn't need it to.  What I needed was to get back to that rhythm I had last week when Rich and I were the only two in class.  Fighting my natural urge to move at the same speed as those around me, I began slowing down my cadence a little bit.  This workout was one of those medium-length sprints and I couldn't afford to be out of juice at the end of round one.  As expected, Cline was the first one off his rower, but I wasn't more than 5-10 seconds behind him.

I suspected that attempting to string all 12 deadlifts at 205 pounds was a bad idea, so my goal was to do 8 reps, then the remaining 4.  Putting the barbell down for a short break wasn't going to hurt me too much in the long run, as I suspected the row and the box jumps were going to be the movements that caused separation in the group.  As I started on the first set of 8 reps, Aimee came over and snapped the picture below.  Because I was stubborn and didn't put clips on the barbell, it became the latest piece of photographic evidence that I am lopsided:

Clearly something was inspiring Cline in this photo

I held on for 8 reps as I had hoped, then grabbed the barbell and completed the final 4 reps of the round.  I moved over to the box hoping to put together a large set of rebounding jumps.  Instead, I nearly fell on my first jump.  Oh boy!  Thankfully it was only a case of my legs needing to get their bearings as I strung together 8 reps after the averted catastrophe.  From there, I did sets of 4 jumps to finish off round one.

I took a quick peek after completing the last box jump and saw that I was the first one to begin round two.  Go, go, go!!!!  It was kinda exciting being the first one back to the rower.  I certainly wasn't expecting that.  Now I had to keep this pace going and try to finish the workout first.  I wasn't rowing very long before I had 3-4 companions rowing with me, so I focused on keeping my 500 meter split to about 2:00.  It floated up from that mark a little bit, but I completed the second row in about 2:05.  Back at the barbell, I repeated what I had done in round one, with a set of 8 deadlifts followed by a set of four.  Perhaps I wasn't giving myself enough credit on the deadlifts as I seemed to move through that part of the workout quicker than most.  Back over to the box jumps where I did 7 reps to begin, then did some sets of 4-5 reps to finish off the round.  I needed longer breaks between those sets than I had in the first round, but as had been the case at the end of round one, I was the first one back to the rower again.  Gotta hold on for one more round.

The third row was slow.  No other way to describe it.  It was one of those rows where I felt like I was pulling strongly during each stroke, but the monitor would show my progress as "womp, womp".  I knew I was doing well on the deadlifts and thought I could churn through the box jumps, so I tried my best to row with everything I had left.  I finished the last row in about 2:15-2:20.  When I got to my barbell, I felt like I needed to make up time, but once again I sputtered.  I could only hold on for 6 reps.  I decided to split the remaining 6 reps into two sets of 3.  While I needed longer breaks in between sets of box jumps, my breaks during the deadlift were pretty small.  I began my final set of box jumps before anyone else had gotten off the rower.

My mission on the final round of box jumps was to do sets of 5, tacking on a 6th rep to one of those sets if I felt good enough.  I got through 5 jumps in my first set, then decided to go for 6 in the second set.  Except my legs were only on board with doing 5 still.  I went to do the 6th rep and landed on the box only with my tippie toes, before getting my balance and standing on the center of the box.  It was ugly, but it counted.  I finished off the plan by doing two more sets of 5 jumps.  Final time: 13:13.

Having been in so many classes where I was the last one done, it sure felt nice to be the first one done for a change.  To be able to do it using a heavier barbell than the rest of the class was an added bonus.  I was tired, but very happy with how things went.

So what was my real Cline-spiration for 2016?  Inside the gym, he has inspired me to get rid of my noodle arms (copyright Chris Cline).  Cline is embarking on a strict press program and after the workout was over on Monday, I began my own.  I did 5 reps at 100 pounds, 5 reps at 105 pounds, and then 6 reps at 115 pounds.  It was based on the Wendler program and in the last set you're supposed to do as many reps as you can, hence the weird looking rep scheme.  I also practiced toes-to-bar with my new grips on.  Grips weren't so good, but I did complete 10 efficient reps in a row.  Then I got to work on double unders.  I've neglected practicing these for a while, but they are going to be a big focus early on in 2016.  After a bunch of attempts that resulted in 3 or less consecutive reps, I finally put together a larger set of 22 reps.  Before the night was over, I got a set of 37 reps and a set of 42 reps.  I'll be focusing on taking smaller jumps and conserving my energy.  With enough practice, I won't jump around like someone stung by a bee after 20 reps.

Fixing my noodle arms isn't my only Cline-spiration though.  It might be the only one inside the gym, but anyone who has met Cline can probably tell you that his greatest impact isn't based on how many WODs he has completed.  Simply put, Cline does life well.  He wears whatever the hell he wants, he cracks inappropriate jokes, and he always seems to be enjoying himself.  Well, except when Aimee schedules partner WODs.  Or when the scoring system for the Amazing Race isn't adequately explained.  Other than that, he looks pretty damn happy.  It's a quality that I need to work on and hope to get better at in the upcoming year.

Tuesday preview: Ummm...lots of flailing about?  Muscle-up transitions gone wrong.  Quite possibly the toughest blog post I will ever have to write, because I'm not sure I can describe what I was doing. Other than flailing about.

Old Lang Syne

Workout date: 12/31/15

In my year-end recap, I mentioned that I was going to suck it up and try to attend Competitors Class a little more regularly despite being a bit low on the depth chart when considering the roster that attends that class.  Competitors is generally scheduled at the wonderful hour of 7am on Saturday mornings, but with New Years Day falling on a weekday, a last minute Competitors Class was set up for 8am on Thursday morning.  (An hour more sleep?  Yes please!)  I agreed to go to the class, even though my legs were still feeling a bit beaten up from the Tuesday workout.

The workout was a partner WOD.  In fact, there was really no difference between the WOD we did and the WOD that was scheduled for the normal classes.  It was a beast though:

"Remember 2015" - Partner WOD
AMRAP in 40 Minutes:
800 meter run (both partners can run 400 meters at the same time)
50 double unders
50 box jumps (24"/20")
50 pull-ups
50 push-ups
50 sit-ups (GHD or Abmat)

40 minutes of primarily body-weight movements?  At least I knew this was going to be horrible right off the bat.  What movements do I generally struggle with?  Let's see...

• Pull-ups?  Check.  
• Double unders?  Check.  
• Push-ups after doing other arm-focused movements?  Check.  
• Running when I'm winded?  Check.  

My partner was going to be in trouble.  Poor Gordy.

Gordy is one of the newer coaches at our gym.  He is in his early sixties, but he is in incredibly good shape.  As in much better shape than some 37 year olds who may spend their spare time writing blogs.  This year he won the Golfer of the Year award at Merion Golf Club and he has his eyes set on qualifying for the Masters competition at the Crossfit Games.  Not some local Masters competition.  THE Crossfit Games.  Dude is no joke.  His partner on this day?  His performance merited a few laughs.

The two oldest people in class formed one team, with the other teams consisting of Shane and Jill A, Aimee and Keith, Rachel and Michal, and Giulz and Ashley.  Jason Lyons decided to take this on all by himself.  (Note: There is usually a mandatory breathalyzer test administered when someone makes a decision this poor, but somehow Jason got around this formality.)  Gordy and I didn't really strategize before the workout began.  I was going to defer to Gordy and when he told me it was my turn to go, I was going to try and match the reps that he did.  Let's call that the "Round 1 strategy".  Because after that, it was all "The Gordy Show".

We took off on our initial run and Shane broke away from everyone, including his partner.  Gordy and I kept a decent pace mid-pack and returned to the gym at the same time.  (Spoiler: this would be the only time that happened over the next 40 minutes.)  Gordy picked up his jump rope and fluidly made his way through 25 double unders.  I tried to remain calm and knock out a big set myself, but for the most part, it was sets of 5 or so reps.  As a result, we were the last team to begin box jumps.  Excellent start!

The box jumps went better as I had confidence in my ability to rebound.  We alternated through sets of 5 reps each fairly quickly and made up some time before heading to the pull-up bar.  At the pull-up bar, I let Gordy know that I was going to suck big time.  He proceeded to knock out 10 butterfly pull-ups before turning things over to me.  He only wanted me to do 5 reps, and I didn't do too badly in my first go round with a set of 3 and a set of 2.  We alternated 10 and 5 one more time, before Gordy dropped down to 5 with me.  So I did manage 20 pull-ups in round one, even though they were slow and ugly.  On to the push-ups, where Gordy started with a set of 10 and I matched that when it was my turn.  From there, we went to sets of 5 each, still maintaining a solid pace.  And by solid pace, I mean I wasn't getting nearly as much rest as I was hoping for.  Gordy took care of 20 sit-ups, then I tried to be a team player by taking care of the last 30 reps.  See, I can be of value!  (In round one, at least.)  As we headed out the door, the clock showed that about 9 minutes had elapsed.  Somehow we were ahead of Rachel and Michal, but we were behind everyone else.

The second run wasn't that pleasant.  My legs were sore to begin with and the rebounding box jumps made things worse.  I tried to keep up with Gordy, plugging along so that he wouldn't have to wait more than a few seconds for me once we got back to the gym.  The double under story in round two was pretty similar to the first round.  Things took a turn for the worse during the box jumps, as I bailed on rebounding fairly early in round two.  I tried to step down and jump back up quickly, but it was apparent that I was struggling.  At one point, Gordy put up his hand as he finished his set of 5, indicating that he was continuing on to do a set of 10.  I appreciated the extra rest.

If my box jump form was bad in round two, I'm not sure what level of suck would describe how poor my pull-ups were.  We alternated sets again, with me slowly doing 5 "quick" singles and Gordy doing 10 butterflies about twice as fast as I did my 5 reps.  I was definitely dragging us down.  When we got to the push-ups, Gordy led off with a set of 10 before we alternated sets of 5 reps the rest of the way.  Even my sit-up ability failed me, as I only did 15 before tagging out.  Gordy did his 25, then I wrapped up the last 10.  We headed out the door for another run with the clock showing 21 minutes and change.  I was exhausted and we were only halfway through the workout.  Plus Gordy looked like he had barely broken a sweat.  I was in deep shit.

The third run was worse than the second, as my slow jog made Gordy look like Shane during the initial run.  Rachel and Michal ran on by me as I tried to lengthen my stride to no avail.  When I got back to the gym, Gordy was there waiting to begin the double unders.  I think he had a little more trouble in this round or I tricked myself into believing that I got some extra rest.  And then somehow I did a set of 6 reps, followed by a set of 19 reps.  The reward for some semi-proficient double unders?  More box jumps.  Gordy decided early on to knock out a set of 10.  He thought he was going to have to do more after watching me not-so-gracefully ram my shin into the side of the box.  I was able to brace my fall, leaving some super sweaty handprints on the top of the box.  After Gordy completed our 40th rep, I decided that I needed to pick up the slack here, because the pull-ups were going to be a disaster.  I did my version of the Gordy wave-off, letting him know I would do the last 10 reps and that he should get ready to do pull-ups.

The unbreakable Gordy calmly swung his body through the air, completing 10 butterfly pull-ups before letting me know that he would save me on the pull-up bar.  His idea was to have me do 3 reps, while he would finish each set of 10 with seven more butterflies.  Worked for me.  And trust me, his 7 reps were still being completed faster than my 3 reps were.  Eventually we were done with the pull-ups and crawled to the floor to begin push-ups.  For the first 40 reps, we went back and forth doing 5 reps each.  Then we each did 3.  Then we each did 2.  It was unraveling quickly.  I did 25 sit-ups, then Gordy did his 25 sit-ups.  Time for another run.  The clock was at about 34 and a half minutes.

I got out the door first, but Gordy soon went by me.  And then he stopped to tie his sneakers.  I jogged on by, only to have Gordy blow by me again later in the run.  It was like the tortoise and the hare, except the hare was a sixty-something Crossfitting Terminator sent back from the future to carry the tortoise to the finish line.  I fully expected Gordy's eyes to glow red at some point while extending his hand towards me and uttering the words "come with me if you want to live".

There was less than 3 minutes left in the workout when I came back into the gym.  Gordy got through his 25 double unders, then I bumbled my way through mine.  Time was ticking down as we got to work on the box jumps.  At least I knew I wouldn't have to do any more pull-ups!  We alternated sets of 5 reps again until we got to 30 reps.  While I was going, I heard someone yell "10 seconds" and I knew I'd be finishing things off for us.  I got 6 box jumps in before time was called.  Final score: 3+86.

There isn't too much to say beyond what I've already written.  Gordy is amazing.  If you had someone watch us do that workout, they would likely guess that I was the one in my sixties.  I was exhausted, beaten up by a WOD that was not designed with me in mind.  I was ready for some breakfast and a nap.  Then it was off to a friend's wedding before ringing in 2016.

2016 preview: Okay, okay, it's not a full year preview.  Just a preview of my first workout in the new year.  A new benchmark workout where everyone lies about how much they weigh.

Keeping My Promise To Isabel

Workout date: 12/30/15

Hate feeling cramped for space while doing your workout?  Then come to the 7:30 classes at KOP!  Plenty of room for everyone.  Hell, you can probably set up shop to do the 12 days of Christmas WOD and still have enough real estate available to collapse in a sweaty heap!  The downside: these classes are held only on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  The rest of the week you'll have to share with the masses.

For the second straight day I showed up to the 7:30 class to find but one solitary soul willing to do the workout with me.  Perhaps I no longer smell...clean?  I'm not sure what the deal is, but on Wednesday night it was me and Rich A taking on the following WOD:

3 rounds:
500 meter row
10 power snatches (135/95)
15 deadlifts (135/95)

Did I mention that my legs were as sore as they have ever been after Tuesday night's workout?  That seems like an important detail for this workout, as the row, the power snatches, and the deadlifts were all screaming "LEGS!" at me as I pondered how this would play out.  The other thing that caught my eye was that we were doing 3 rounds of 10 power snatches at 135/95 for RX.  30 snatches at 135/95 for RX?  Why that was my dear friend Isabel!

I had done Isabel at RX weight for the first time in January.  It did not go well.  The idea of the workout is to finish in about 5 minutes or less, but I needed 9 full minutes to complete the task.  I told myself that the next time I attempted Isabel, I would use 125 pounds instead of 135 pounds.  Did I do that?  Of course not!  I am such a competitive a-hole.  I missed the workout in April and June, but when I came in for it in October, I was tempted into trying 135 pounds yet again.  The result was much better (6:13), but still a sign that I should be using 125 pounds until I get stronger.

The temptation to go RX was strong yet again.  I knew that Rich would be doing this workout RX.  In fact, as we were warming up, he said to me "you're going to do this RX with me, right Dave?"  I let him know that I would love to, but that I was better off going with 125 pounds.  I even told him how I had gotten peer pressured into going RX the night before and that I suspected he would not push me as much on going with the higher weight.  And that was the case as Rich didn't bring the topic up after that exchange.  I would finally stick to my word and use 125 pounds.

As we warmed up on the rower, I realized how lucky I was to be in a class with only Rich.  The reason?  When there is a full class and we have to row, I have a tough time not getting caught up in how fast everyone is rowing.  They may not be rowing efficiently, but it doesn't matter.  It sure seems like I'm not going fast enough and I end up picking up the pace for no reason.  Rich, on the other hand, is an extremely slow yet efficient rower.  It was almost like he was hanging out for a moment at the end of each big pull he made.  This was exactly the type of row I wanted to do when pacing myself through a workout like this one.  I didn't necessarily want to stop at the tail end of my pull, but I didn't want to be wildly going back and forth for some unexplainable reason either.

We were all warmed up and got ready to start on our first row.  I don't work out with Rich very often because he typically attends morning classes, but I've seen his times and scores and knew that I'd have to push really hard to stay with him on this WOD.  Having seen his deliberate stroke on the rower, I thought that I might be able to get off the rower a little before him each round.  Rich would likely move through the snatches faster than me, but I figured I wouldn't lose much time on the deadlifts as I've gotten faster with them and 125 pounds was super light for that movement.  The goal: finish within a minute of Rich.

As we embarked on our initial row, the two of us must have looked like we were training for a new Olympic event called synchronized rowing.  It probably appeared that we were moving slowly, but each of us was being very methodical about making each pull count.  My cadence began to be a little quicker than Rich's, but there was little doubt in my mind that he was getting more out of his pulls.  The synchronicity continued all of the way to the 500 meter mark, as we got off the rower at exactly the same time.  I had my back to Rich during the barbell movements, so I had no idea how he was doing during the snatches and deadlifts.  I began by stringing a couple of power snatches together, but it wasn't long before I realized that doing single reps with short breaks was the way to go.  When I completed the 10th snatch, I changed to a reverse grip and went to work on the deadlifts.  With this weight, I knew I should be able to hang on for all 15 reps and that was what I did to complete round one.  As I headed back to my rower, I saw that Rich was completing his deadlifts.

I was a little bit giddy that I had finished the first round before Rich, but I also knew there was a very strong chance that he could catch me during the next two rounds.  This was a workout that would exceed 10 minutes, but it felt like a sprint, and my performance in sprint WODs has been nothing to write home about.  I tried to maintain the pace from my first row during round two, but instead I was 10-15 seconds slower.  Somehow I was still the first one off of the rower.  I went over to my snatches and attempted to go 3-4-3 in terms of sets of fast singles.  I was able to do that, but I was reaching that point in the workout where breathing was becoming difficult.  My grip strength was beginning to fail as well.  I began to worry that I wouldn't hold on for all 15 deadlifts, but I didn't let it go.  In need of a rest, I sat back on the rower for my final round, hoping that I could recover during the first part of the row.

I did recover somewhat on that final row, but my time suffered as well.  My 500 meter split increased by another 10-15 seconds and I knew the final 10 snatches were not going to be fun.  I also didn't have the luxury of squat snatching in this workout, something that would have helped me tremendously.  No, these had to be power snatches.  There was no plan to do sets of fast singles at this point.  It was now time to grab the barbell and do a rep whenever I could.  There were some breaks thrown in there as I desperately tried to breathe.  But I kept telling myself that Rich was going to catch me if I didn't keep moving.

My grip was becoming an issue, so I started alternating my grip between reps in an attempt to complete the final round.  At last, I had 1 snatch left.  I set my body up, went to pull the weight, and my grip completely failed.  The barbell dropped to the floor and doubt crept into my mind.  Why does this always seem to happen on the last rep?  So annoying.  I shook out my hands and arms, told myself I could get 1 more snatch, and then I did it.  It was time for the final sprint.  With my grip weakening, I thought about splitting the final 15 deadlifts into two sets, but these were light deadlifts. I needed to suck it up and hold on.  As I sped through those 15 reps, I tried not to even think about letting the barbell go.  Pretty soon, I had completed the last rep and I was done.  Final time: 13:33.

After cheering on Rich as he finished up, I rolled out and took some pleasure in knowing that I had finally chosen the proper weight for a workout including 30 snatches.  And the next time Isabel is programmed, I'll probably go back to being a jackass and attempt 135 pounds again.  What?  Would you expect anything else from me?

Thursday preview: The last WOD of 2015 takes place in an informal Competitors Class.  A 40 minute partner WOD where (shocker) my partner has to carry the load.

The Peer Pressure RX

Workout date: 12/29/15

My final three workouts of 2015 were a little more productive than I expected.  Fine...only two of them were.  The third one may have been pushing it, but I was trying to get back into the swing of things back at the gym after a week and a half of day-drinking and crushing quesadillas.  The first of these workouts took place last Tuesday.  Part of me had hoped that I could sneak into the gym on Monday night after getting back from Mexico late Monday afternoon, but American Airlines decided to lose my luggage for the second time in 12 months.  After spending an extra hour and a half in baggage claim, I knew I'd have to wait until Tuesday to satisfy my workout fix.

The Tuesday WOD was a triplet of movements that were agreeable to me:

10-8-6-4-2 Hang Power Cleans (165/115) alternating with
50-40-30-20-10 Wall Balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
Complete each round with 2 rope climbs (15')

Part of the learning curve for me during my time at Crossfit has been identifying the pitfalls of a workout.  For example, I know that hang power cleans are always a grip killer, which was going to make those rope climbs at the end of each round all that more difficult.  What I did not recognize (but will store in my memory bank for future knowledge) was how crushing the combination of wall balls and rope climbs would be.  We had done a WOD last year called "Rope Smuggler" that involved overhead squats and rope climbs that should have served as a warning for me.  Before that workout, I had thought to myself "I like overheads.  I like rope climbs."  (Yes, my inner monologue is narrated by Keithie.)  What I didn't put together was that the overheads crushed your core, making you want no part of the rope climbs.  We were substituting wall balls for overheads in this WOD, but the same effect was about to happen.

Having been away for 10 days doing nothing more athletic than swimming side to side in a pool while awaiting my next Dirty Monkey (so yummy!), I had made the decision to be a bit more cautious in my first workout back.  There was no reason to use 165 pounds for the hang power cleans.  For starters, that would typically be heavy for me anyways.  There was also that grip issue for me to be worried about on the rope.  Knowing this workout was going to be on the longer side, I didn't want to make a choice where I was compounding normal fatigue with my recent lack of conditioning, resulting in a situation where I'd be standing at the bottom of the rope 30 minutes in, tired and frustrated about the fact that I hadn't even finished my fourth round yet.  I could always save that magic for another day.

After watching the 6:30 class finish up, I got a taste of how brutal this workout was going to be.  Red faces, labored breathing, and people sprawled out on the floor at the end was enough of a visual to let me know that going lighter was the smart play.  I had thought about using 145, but now I was convinced that 135 made more sense.  As that class cleaned up, I hung out with Christine, who was sticking around to watch me and Cline take on this WOD at 7:30.  I got some advance word that Christine was soon to be our next Athlete of the Month and made sure to give her some shit about it as has become our custom.  She would be returning it in kind very soon.  She shared her opinion with me that I should be doing this workout RX, but I told her that I wasn't doing that on my first day back.  Something in the 135-145 range would be just fine for me, thank you very much.

Coach Rachel put me and Cline through the paces of the warmup, although the only thing we really needed to test was the hang power cleans.  I started with 95 pounds on my barbell and Christine was already chirping at me about the weight on my bar.  Okay, okay...maybe 145 pounds would be worth trying.  I slid two 25 pound plates on to my barbell and got ready to knock out a couple consecutive reps.  Rachel was standing right next to me as I did those reps.  When I dropped the barbell, she did her best Jim C impression, not saying a word, while her pensive face was conveying that something was wrong.  "Too much?", I asked.  "Ummm...I was thinking not enough" was the reply I received.  Convinced that Rachel and Christine were now conspiring in my imminent downfall, I protested against putting more weight on the bar.  Christine asked how much worse 20 extra pounds was really going to be and I pointed out that I'd be tossing a 20 pound wall ball 150 times in this workout.  I didn't need to throw that extra weight on for 30 hang power cleans as well.  Rachel reiterated how easy the reps at 145 looked, so I decided to negotiate.  I'd start the workout with 165 pounds, but I wanted Rachel to strip the 10 pound plates off if I began struggling.  She gave me a half-hearted yes to my request and I knew I'd have to do the whole workout RX now, but I got ready to go nonetheless.

The plan was to break up the hang power cleans into two sets during the first three rounds and that's how I kicked things off in this WOD.  A set of 5, drop the barbell, then do the other 5 reps.  Not pleasant, but doable.  Then I made my way over to the wall balls.  I had asked Rachel prior to the workout how she broke up her first round of wall balls, as we had recently done 50 in a row together, but that seemed like a recipe for disaster here.  She told me that she started with 25 in a row.  That seemed reasonable.  Well, at least it did until I dropped after 14 reps.  I was already beginning to breathe heavy, which was not a good sign so early in the workout.  You really couldn't go for one jog on the beach during your vacation, you lazy bastard?  I was paying for it now.

Cline and I worked through the 50 reps in much the same fashion: no huge sets, but we were doing a solid job of keeping rest to a minimum between sets.  I got to the end of my 50 reps and moved to the rope with Cline right on my heels.  I did my first climb and set the standard for every climb to follow: big jump to start, three pulls, reach high and tap the 15' mark with my fingers.  To keep each climb to three pulls, I needed to be patient.  I would need to pull my knees very high towards my chest.  Then once I had established my foothold, I would not begin the next pull until my body was completely extended vertically.  Two rope climbs done and it was back to the barbell.  About 5 minutes had passed on the clock.

Only one of 5 rounds was complete, but Cline and I were about 1/3 of the way through the total reps in the workout.  I tried to cheer myself up with that information because I was struggling to breathe as I began my second round of hang power cleans.  I got through 4 reps in my first set as I had planned, but my breathing had become extremely rapid.  I could only manage another 2 in my second set, needing a third set of 2 before moving back over to the wall balls.  Four sets of 10 sounded good to me at this point, but I couldn't even manage that.  I can't explain why, but my first set of wall balls from the second round on ended up being very short each time.  After that first set, I could string together some larger sets, but the first set was always less than 10.

The round of 40 was grueling, but I got through it and trudged over towards the rope again.  I jumped up to do the first climb and suddenly the lessons of "Rope Smuggler" were coming back to me.  It was both psychological and physical.  I knew I only needed three pulls to get up the rope, but I also knew how painful that bunching up and extending of my core was going to feel each time.  From a physical perspective, I also knew that this movement was creating a sensation of nausea in me as it had during "Rope Smuggler".  And no one wants to start vomiting 15 feet above the ground.  So I began taking more time before each climb.  When round two was finished, I was beyond 10 minutes.

I was about 1 rope climb ahead of Cline as I came back to my barbell.  The plan was to do two sets of 3 here, but I wanted to push the first set as I could only get 2 reps in my second set last time around.  I had just done sets of 4 and 2, so there was no reason I couldn't do it again.  You know, except for the extreme fatigue and inability to breathe.  Despite my weakened condition, I got through the sets of 4 and 2, with Rachel letting me know that my form was better in this round than it had been during the round of 8.  I headed back over to the wall balls and started off slowly again, only managing 6 reps.  I was able to follow that with a set of 10, then two sets of 7 before the slow walk back to my rope.  The break was spent partly catching my breath and partly convincing myself that the next rope climb would be quick and not cause me to hurl.  The rope climbs themselves were quick, but the breaks needed before each climb grew larger.  With round three done, I was at nearly 16 minutes.

Having done a set of 4 hang power cleans to begin rounds two and three, there was no way I was letting myself get away with anything less than all 4 reps to start round four.  With those complete, I walked over to my wall ball, needing yet another break to control my breathing.  Despite the break, I could only get 7 reps.  I went 8 and 5 for my last two sets and made my way back to the rope.  More internal pep talks were needed to get on the rope, but nothing had changed in my routine once I got on the rope.  Big jump, 3 pulls, tap the mark, slide back down.

For the final round, I tried to speed things up.  I went right to the barbell and did two supremely ugly hang power cleans.  I already knew that I wasn't getting all 10 wall balls, so I did 5, caught my breath, then did the last 5.  One more break before getting on the rope for my second-to-last climb.  After reaching the top, I slid down and told myself to jump right back up.  If only I had this much resolve earlier in the workout!  Three pulls later, I tapped the 15' mark and was done.  Final time: 24:09.

I collapsed into a heap on the floor, but I wanted to cheer Cline on as he finished his workout.  I'm not sure how motivating it is to have some out-of-breath guy cheering you on from the floor, but that was really all I could muster as Cline wrapped up round four.  I tried to give him a fist bump as he went to do his final round, but he waved off the tired guy on the floor.  After doing the 2 hang power cleans and the 10 wall balls, Cline excused himself as that wave of nausea I described had hit him.  I thought he was done at that point, but he returned from the bathroom like a champ and did his final two rope climbs.

Was it a wise idea for me to do this workout RX?  I don't know.  Guessing whether I should attempt a workout RX has become one of the bigger dilemmas for me at the gym.  When I do choose to attempt a workout RX, it is because I legitimately believe I can handle it in the time domain that the coach has requested us to finish in.  Sometimes that works out, sometimes it doesn't.  Just let it be known that my initial inclination was to not do this WOD RX.  And let it be known that I wilt to peer pressure very easily.

Wednesday preview: Another 7:30 class, another head-to-head workout, this time with Rich A.  And more RX peer pressure!  What happened to this gym when I went away?