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?