Red Flags

Workout date: 2/10/16

I ventured out on Wednesday night for the 6:30 class because I wanted to get home a little earlier than usual.  Did I know that the New Year, New You class would be at the same time?  Yes.  Do I continue to tempt fate by coming to these classes with the false belief that there will be plenty of room if the WOD doesn't involve too much equipment?  Yes.  Is it always crowded anyways?  3-for-3.

I simply couldn't pass up this workout because it sounded like a "Dave special".  For all the times I gripe about pull-ups being in a workout, I should be overjoyed when overhead squats show up instead.  And there were 80 of them awaiting me on Wednesday night.

4 rounds:
20 Overhead Squats (115/75)
20 Box Jumps (30"/24")

Perfect!  I could do this one RX since I'm comfortable with overheads at 115 pounds.  Plus I recently learned that I could rebound off of the 30" box.  I might put up a pretty solid time for this workout!

That enthusiasm began to wane when I realized that this might be a prime example of a Sucker WOD.  Looking at the early times in the day, I noticed that none of the morning superstars in the gym went RX (red flag).  Then I noticed that their times weren't nearly as fast as I had expected, even though they had scaled (red flag).  Eventually some folks started doing this workout RX over the course of the day, but only a couple of the ladies put up times that I would call fast.  As for the guys?  Well, one of the younger college guys didn't finish the workout and his partner in crime took over 21 minutes to finish (these flags simply couldn't be any redder).  Perhaps I needed to reconsider how tough this workout really was.

I was lucky enough to run into Samson prior to the workout.  He's another who loves overhead squats and box jumps.  He let me know that the WOD was much tougher than he expected.  He had used 95 pounds for the overhead squats (a popular choice) and the 30" box.  The writing on the wall seemed to indicate that I might be biting off more than I could chew if I tried doing this RX, so I used the same setup that Samson did.

Nine of us had signed up for class, a number that didn't sound too bad.  But with about half of the gym blocked off for New Year, New You and Olympic lifts taking place on the platform, we had to get cozy with our neighbors when setting up the nine lanes for this workout.  And you really don't want there to be a space issue with your barbell and your box, because you could very easily jump off the box and land on the end of your barbell, a sure recipe for injury.  We staggered the barbells so that we weren't all inches away from a classmate's butt each time we went to start overhead squats.  The boxes weren't staggered as much, but they were set up so that no one had to be concerned about landing on their barbell on the way down from their box jumps.  I was at the far end, up next to the cones that separated us from the New Year, New You class.  I was "up front", meaning I had my back to my eight classmates.  I don't love not being able to see anyone else, but I felt weird about being the only one facing the other direction.  Plus I'd get to sneak a peak at them during the box jumps.

Off we went on round one and things started out well.  I held on for all 20 overhead squats and turned my attention to the box jumps.  The scary part of these box jumps was not only that they were taller than usual, but that your legs had been sapped off energy from the overhead squats, making these jumps all that much harder.  So for my first rep, I jumped on the box and stopped.  I wanted my body to realize that I could make the jump even though my legs weren't at full strength.  From there, I did 4 rebounding jumps.  Then I did another 3 rebounding jumps.  Despite convincing my body that I could handle a regular jump up to the 30" box, I hadn't convinced it that I could rebound over and over again without the real risk of injury, either by slamming my shins into the box or by landing improperly.  After 8 reps in round one, I decided it would be wise to do step-downs for the rest of the workout.

I tried to keep a steady pace through the final 12 box jumps.  With round one complete, I took a look at the clock and saw that the round took about three minutes.  Scary.  I did that round fresh and about as quickly as I could do it, yet it still took three minutes to complete.  Prior to the workout, my goal was to finish in under 16 minutes, as four minutes per round seemed like more than enough time to me, especially since I had scaled down to 95 pounds for the overhead squats.  Now it was looking like 4 minutes per round might be a struggle going forward.

In round two, I wimped out immediately.  My mind decided that it would be great if I could split up the 20 overhead squats into more manageable helpings.  So I went 7-7-6 in my three sets of round two, taking two breaks when only one was probably necessary.  Back at the box jumps, I tried to stay at the same pace that I had used for the final 12 jumps of round one.  These jumps were definitely becoming tiring, but I kept at it, doing sets of 3-5 at a time before pausing to catch my breath.  With round two done, the clock showed that a little over 7 minutes had passed.  That round was 4 minutes long and it wasn't going to get any easier in the final two rounds.

Being a wimp suited me in round two, so I did it again in round three, only I lost my balance near the end of the second set, forcing me to go 7-6-7 this time around.  Back at the box jumps, I made it through 17 jumps before experiencing what I expected to be a common occurrence during this workout: I slammed my shin into the box and fell over the left side of it.  It really was a miracle that it took this long for this to happen.  As I had grown tired, I was jumping on to the box hoping like hell that I would make it and not fall.  I got through 57 jumps before the tired legs on my lopsided body failed me.  And it hurt like a mother.  I walked away from my box, muttered a few expletives, shook out my legs, and then came back to finish my last 3 jumps.  Time check: about 11 minutes and 45 seconds.  I needed to pull off this final round in 4 minutes or I wasn't cracking 16 minutes total.

I took a few extra seconds before starting my final round of overhead squats.  I knew I needed to finish these in two sets rather than three.  I didn't have time for an extra break.  I squat snatched the barbell and began moving through the reps.  My legs were sore, but I was not putting the barbell down until I had done at least 10 reps.  I made it through 12 before dropping.  Where was that fortitude in rounds two and three?  Wimp!  When I picked up the barbell again, I took care of the remaining 8 overhead squats.  Just 20 box jumps to go.  Let's not destroy our shins during this last segment!

Christine was yelling at me as I trudged my way through those final 20 box jumps.  The good news?  I didn't whack my shin against the box again, nor did I fall over the left side.  The bad news?  I was pooped.  I kept telling myself not to walk away from the box when I stepped down from it.  I tried to keep chipping away at what I had left, but it felt like it was taking me forever to get through these last 20 jumps.  At long last, I jumped on the 30" box a twentieth time, stood straight up, and looked at the clock.  Final time: 15:38.

Having no further need to be working my legs, I sat down on my box.  Christine thought I was taking a break and told me to stand up and keep going.  I had to signal to her that I was done.  Despite finishing in a time that I thought was pretty good, only 2 other people were still going when I finished.  Giulz had been done for a while, destroying the workout with a time of 13:09 while doing it RX.  Lauren was completing her final round of box jumps while I sat on my box.  She was showing much better consistency than I had in moving through the jumps to wrap up her workout.  Next to me was Rob, who I knew was struggling during the workout, but I didn't know why.  Turns out he was a bit dehydrated and tightened up mid-workout, so he finished his third round, then stopped at that point.

After putting my equipment away and drinking a bunch of water, I decided to practice double unders while the 7:30 class warmed up.  The part of your brain that tells you that you've done enough jumping for one day was clearly enjoying a siesta.  I tried over and over again to do some larger sets, but even my typical medium-sized sets were not happening, with most of my sets being in the 8-12 rep range.  Even when you have good intentions, there are some days when it is better to go home than to hang around and try to practice.  So I put the jump rope away and headed home for a much-needed epsom salt bath.

Thursday preview: Since I'll be away for at least part of the weekend, Thursday would mark my last workout before a small break.  A workout including chest-to-bar pull-ups, heavy hang power cleans, and double unders.  Once upon a time, this would have been an automatic rest day for me, but I decide to challenge myself instead.