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.