Hi. It's Your Body. Yeah, You're Old.

Workout date: 3/7/16

It hasn't been one of my better weeks in terms of my health.  I had my middle of the night issues on Saturday where my ab region didn't feel wonderful.  My second attempt at 16.2 left me as a lifeless heap on the floor.  After leaving the gym, I spent the rest of the day coughing and wheezing.  Could it really get worse than that on Monday?  Never underestimate my body's ability to betray me.

It is hard for me to describe how I felt as I got ready to go to the gym Monday night other than to say that I felt off.  That was probably a good indication that I needed another day off, but I feel like I've taken a lot of days off recently and it hasn't done me a world of good.  Plus, the Open workouts were almost certainly going to be tougher than the two we had already done, so I should probably get some practice in on the movements that would likely be tested in the weeks to come.

I went to the 6:30 class for several reasons.  Taking the 6:30 class meant I could linger around afterwards at Open Strength and get in some of the practice I mentioned.  It would also allow me to cheer on some of the folks who were either doing 16.2 for the first time or were trying to improve on their score from Friday.  The WOD for Monday night was a 3RM deadlift followed by a sprint cash-out involving KB swings and burpees.  Since you need to take breaks between the sets of deadlifts, there would be ample time to root on the folks doing 16.2.

Aimee was coaching the 6:30 class, so that meant lots and lots of warm-up.  As we swung KBs and went over deadlift progressions, I noticed that my ribs were bothering me.  Did I play in a football game in the past 24 hours and not remember it?  It's been a long time since I recall having tenderness in my ribs, but it was definitely there.  Luckily we weren't doing cleans or front squats on this night.  We were doing burpees though and crashing my chest against the floor wasn't making me feel better.  I'd have to feel things out when we got to the cash-out later.

As we got ready to do the deadlift, I set up near the end where the 16.2 attempts were taking place.  I started doing my 3 rep sets and got to root on Alex, Ashley M, Stasie, and "Megs" when I was in between sets.  I did a set at 135 and 225.  Then I did a set at 275 and noticed a problem.  There was soreness in my lower back.  It wasn't like 275 was a weight where I'd lose my form and use my back to lift the weight.  My 3RM deadlift was 375.  I thought I was a couple sets away from a weight that would pose difficulty for 3 reps, but clearly I was mistaken.  After a few minutes, I put on my weight belt and did a set at 315 that was not pleasant at all.  "Megs" was giving me the thumbs up off to the side, but my response was a shake of my head in disgust.  The goal for today was to attempt a new 3RM PR at 385, but there was no way I was making it to that weight.  If I had more common sense, I would have stopped at 315.

Instead, I got through a set at 345 that felt no better than the set at 315.  Aimee told us we should be getting started on our final sets, so I stupidly put 365 on the barbell.  There was part of me that still wanted a "respectable" number for the workout and that number needed to be in the ballpark of 375.  I went to lift 365 pounds and it barely came off the ground.  Yup, that was dumb.  That final lift was only going to make me feel worse, yet I went ahead and tried it anyway.  At least I didn't become super-dopey and make a second attempt at it.  I began stripping the barbell and got ready to do the cash-out.

The cash-out was a 21-15-9 sprint of KB swings and burpees.  When I originally read this on the KOP blog, I thought the RX weights for the KB were 53/35.  I probably only read the first number.  Looking at the whiteboard in the gym, I realized it said 53/70 (Aimee always writes the weights as female/male).  I've had my share of struggles with the 53 pound KB, so the 70 pound KB would really be pushing it.  Throw in my tingly lower back and 70 pounds was no longer a consideration.  Even 53 pounds might have been pushing it, but I didn't want to go lower than that.  As I grabbed the 53 pound KB, Aimee remarked that I was going light today.  Do I go after the RX weight too much?  Hmmm...I may have developed a reputation.  I responded to Aimee's comment the most honest way I could: "I feel like crap today Aimee".  Even that might have been understating it.

The cash-out went better than expected.  The 53 pound KB was not nearly as bad as I thought it would be.  It made me wish there was a KB between 53 pounds and 70 pounds that I could use, because that would likely be the proper weight for me to use in a sprint like this.  I zipped through the KB swings, then made it through about 16 burpees before slowing my pace in round one.  I got through 15 more KB swings, trying to keep up with Brian who was to my right.  I was faster than him on the KB swings, but he was faster on the burpees.  We got to the second round of burpees at the same time, which meant I would be behind going to the last round.  My burpees in round two were slower, but I tried to surge at the end of the round knowing there weren't that many reps in the last round.  I was two burpees behind Brian as I finished my second round.  I whipped through the final 9 KB swings, then tried to go all out on the final 9 burpees, but there was no catching Brian, who finished 8 seconds before me.  Despite not being able to hang with him, I was pleased with how I did.  Final time: 5:26.

I spent a while rolling out my lower back which was becoming increasingly sore.  I still wanted to get some work in at Open Strength, but the only parts of my body that felt undamaged at the moment were my arms, so I did 3 rounds of 10 reps of shoulder press using 95 pounds (wearing my weight belt for back support), then I did some push-up practice.  That was it.  I didn't press my luck with any other movements.

I am taking Tuesday off in hopes of getting my back to feel better.  If I'm being honest, it will probably require multiple days off, which will drive me nuts.  But I can't have a bad back with three Open workouts remaining.  I'd rather miss some regular WODs than miss those workouts.  So I'll need to dial it back this week.

Speaking of the Open, I ended up 30th in the gym for 16.2, leaving me in 26th place after two workouts.  And on Monday night, I got to experience more of what I enjoy most at the Open.  I didn't get to see Samson take on 16.2 for the second time, but I was glad to hear he overcame falling one rep short of round two on Friday to make it well into round two on Monday night, increasing his score by a whopping 66 reps.  The only thing that tops a performance like that is seeing people break through on a movement for the first time.  Ashley M got her first toes-to-bar on Sunday morning at Open Gym.  After destroying the scaled version of the workout on Friday night, she attempted it RX on Monday, getting 6 reps.  Then, just when it seemed like we had wrapped up 16.2 for good, Danielle started playing around with trying to get her first toes-to-bar at around 7:30 (scores must be submitted by 8:00).  Out of nowhere she got one.  Then another one.  I told her she needed to spend 4 minutes attempting 16.2 RX.  Over the next 4 minutes, she got 5 more toes-to-bar and the first rips on her hands (she was way too excited about this part).  Those 5 toes-to-bar propelled her approximately 33,000 places higher on the Crossfit Games leaderboard for 16.2.  There is nothing better in the Open than seeing an athlete accomplish something for the very first time.  Congrats to Ashley and Danielle!

Preview: Lots of rest and heating pads.  Hopefully I'll be able to get back to it before Friday, but I'm not sure at the moment when that will be.