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.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.