Recently, KOP hosted the fourth edition of the Girls On Girls competition. Ashley B and Jill A decided to team up and enter the fray at the last minute. In need of a team name, they found inspiration in KOP's owner, Aimee Lyons. And so team "Yes Coach Aimee" was born. The t-shirts they had made for the competition were such a hit that many other KOP members ordered one for themselves. Over the course of the day on Thursday, everyone owning a "Yes Coach Aimee" shirt was encouraged to wear it for the WOD. Awww...look at all those smiling faces:
Tim H is tall
Why was I smiling? Illiteracy. I saw the workout posted at 10pm the night before and thought "that sounds like a cool WOD". Then I showed up and learned that I had completely misread what the workout was. Here is what was posted on the KOP blog:
AMRAP in 15 Minutes:
5 Wall Climbs
10 Box Jumps (30"/24")
20 Wall Balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
What had I misread? For starters, I thought wall climbs were the movement where we ran full speed at an 8' wall, jumped towards it, and then pulled ourselves up and over. Apparently those are called wall ascents. (Not to nitpick, but climb and ascent seem way too close in meaning to be used as descriptors for two movements that are not even remotely alike. I digress.) What we were doing in this workout were wall climbs (née wall walks). Those involve laying on your stomach facing away from the wall with your feet near the wall. Then you rise into a high plank, move backwards on your hands as you walk your feet up the wall until you achieve a near-vertical position. At the top of the movement, you should have your chest and nose against the wall. To complete the movement, you should walk yourself back down the wall in a controlled manner to your original plank position, before touching your chest back down on the floor. Much less fun than wall ascents.
But that wasn't the only area where I was lacking reading comprehension. During warmups, Aimee had us practicing rebounding box jumps. Not so bad. I have been doing this pretty regularly recently, so it wasn't something that frightened me a whole lot. That was until Aimee told us to get our boxes for the workout, 30" for the guys, 24" for the girls. I got whiplash looking back to the main whiteboard. I thought we were doing regular sized box jumps. Rebounding off of a 24" box was tricky enough. We were going to attempt this with a 30" box? How much blood was I going to lose crashing into my box over and over again shin-first? This was not good at all.
At least I had read the part on wall balls correctly. We'd be using a typical 20 pound ball and throwing it to 10 feet. Au contraire, mon frère. Aimee wanted the guys to rotate a 30 pound medicine ball into the mix. I was going to have to use it. Matt Bohen was going to have to use it. Josh M was going to have to use it. And it promised to be awful. In order to keep the 30 pound ball in rotation during the workout, Josh was going to start with wall balls and use it in between where Matt and I were working. Then when he was done with his first round, he'd leave it down there for us. Great!
My previous experience with "wall climbs" was that I'd start out fine with them, only to tire out quickly while doing them. There was also one other concern, which would unsurprisingly play a role today as well, and that was the grotesque amount of sweat my body produces. Sweaty hands would cause stability issues on the wall climbs. It would also make it difficult to prevent the wall ball from slipping out of my hands. I would have to try my best to keep them dry by wiping them on my shirt frequently (assuming my shirt stayed semi-dry).
We got started and I was positioned next to Alex. She's very fast, especially when it comes to workouts that involve running. For the first round of wall climbs, I did my best to stay with her. For the most part I did, as I think I was on my way down from my last wall climb when she moved on to her box jumps. I had been concerned that I'd only make it through 3-4 wall climbs before needing a break, but I managed to keep moving through all 5 wall climbs. When I got to my box, I needed a brief internal pep talk that I would be able to rebound off the 30" box without killing myself. I managed 5 jumps before needing to stop, but then I did the final 5 jumps in a row. I felt good about things at this point in the workout. And then I walked over to the 30 pound wall ball.
It is fair to say that there is more to the 30 pound wall ball than just the expectation that it will be heavier. When doing wall balls, you get in a rhythm with regard to how hard you need to throw the ball to reach the target. You also work out at what angle you need to throw the ball in order to get an efficient rebound off the wall. Do enough wall balls and this becomes second nature. I had clearly not done enough wall balls with the 30 pound ball to know any of this. I needed a lot more oomph to get the 30 pound ball to the 10 foot mark. When the ball came off the wall, it didn't bounce back at the same angle it was thrown. Instead, it dropped like an anvil. If I was successful in catching the ball after it had hit the wall, my reward was being hit in the chest by a super-sized bowling ball. I had 20 reps to crank out, but I only managed two reps to begin with. I did three more in my next set, before getting five in a row to complete my first 10 reps. Breaking up the wall balls into such small sets had caused me to fall behind as I saw many people beginning their second set of wall climbs. I gathered myself, determined to get the best of the 30 pound ball. I threw it up to the 10' mark and got ready to not let it drop until I completed the final 10 reps. And that is exactly what I did.
Not that there weren't repercussions for my stubbornness. A wall climb was high on the list of things I had no desire to do after those 10 wall balls. Still, I knew I needed to keep moving. I did two climbs in a row, then took a short break. Then I pushed myself to keep going through the final three climbs. The sweat was pouring out of me as I made my way back over to my box. I began rebounding off the box, only to have the inevitable trip and fall over the left side of the box as I neared the completion of my 10 box jumps. I shook it off, did my final few reps and went back over to the wall.
Matt was supposed to use the 30 pound ball next, but he had "mistakenly" completed all of his 20 reps using the 20 pound ball. Aimee was yelling that no one was using the 30 pound ball, so you know what happened next. I stupidly picked up the 30 pound ball and did 5 reps. The first round was tough, but doing it a second time after fatiguing myself further was soul-crushing. I did 5 more reps with it, then kicked it to the side. I had done my fair share with the 30 pound ball. I grabbed the 20 pound ball I had set to the side and started my final 10 reps. My first rep with the lighter ball went above the 11 foot mark. Oops. I needed to recalibrate a little bit. I threw the ball to the 10 foot mark for the final 9 reps. Two rounds down. About 5 minutes left in the workout. I needed to get one more full round in.
The wall climbs/sweat combination became a problem in round three. In my starting/ending position for the wall climb, my hands would slip on the floor. Another issue was my sweaty legs. When I got upside down, my shorts would slide down. Because I was pressing my entire body against the wall at the top of the wall climb, I was dabbing the wall with sweat from my legs over and over again. Occasionally my feet would hit these wet patches on the wall, causing me to slip and lose my balance. I never fell off the wall during these slips, but it wasn't wonderful having to maintain my balance while having all my weight on my hands. This round of wall climbs was the slowest yet, but I kept telling myself I'd be able to finish the round because the lighter wall balls at the end would be quicker.
I had to break up my box jumps a little more in the third round, but at least I didn't go careening off to the left side after a failed attempt. Then it was on to the wall balls. I thought I could do 20 in a row, but I think I was more tired than I realized. I did 10. Then I did 8. That was a shock, not being able to hold on for the last 10, especially since I was racing the clock. I didn't pause long before doing the final two reps. I turned to peek at the clock and saw I had about 30 seconds left. I got back over to the wall and got in two final wall climbs before time was called. Final score: 3+2.
After recovering a little bit, I did some double under and butterfly pull-up practice, but nothing remarkable happened. I hit a few sets of 20+ double unders, but nothing that threatened my best of 62 in a row. For the butterflies, I tried to do some of the progressions that Giulz had taught us the other day, but I probably should have called it quits once the WOD was over. Some days you have extra energy to get some practice in and some days you need to simply head home and rest up.
Friday preview: My last pre-Vegas workout includes rowing, double unders, DB snatches, and rope climbs!
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