Competitive Bastard

Workout date: 4/7/16

My biggest Crossfit regret from 2015 was not making it to Endurance more often.  It wasn't that I chose to skip it last year, but my schedule simply didn't allow me to get to the Upper Merion track by 5:30 most Thursdays.  With a more flexible schedule this year, I plan to attend Endurance much more frequently.  I need it.  The most glaring weakness in my fitness is my engine.  I get tired easily and once I get tired, my form goes to shit.  Building up my lungs would have a huge impact on my performance at the gym and Endurance is the class that can make that happen.

There has been a recent push by the current Athlete of the Month (congrats Jen S!) to get more people to come to Endurance, especially some of the coaches that almost never attend the class.  Her peer pressure worked like a charm as coaches Aimee, Gordy, and Jill A came to their first-ever Endurance class.  They had 11 companions on the track, meaning that the first Endurance outing of the year was a supersized group of fourteen runners.  Coach Tim went over how the classes would typically work, then had us run a warmup lap.  When we got back, we went through a series of stretches before Tim explained what the day's workout would be.  Usually an Endurance class would consist of a series of runs with limited rest in between.  The runs might vary in length (200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters) or it could be something like 6x400 meters with a small break between runs.  This workout was nothing like that.  Instead it had a very Crossfit-like feel to it.  Maybe it was an olive branch to the coaches for coming to class.  Here's what it looked like:

4 laps (400 meters each)
Every 100 meters, stop to perform an exercise
Station 1 - 25 air squats
Station 2 - 25 mountain climbers
Station 3 - 25 sit-ups
Station 4 - 1 minute plank
After each lap, 2 minutes rest.

I had come to Endurance to avoid this stuff.  What the hell, Tim?  (Kidding!)  I thought the track might give me a bit more of a level playing field with the coaches, but they were going to smoke me per usual with this setup.  All 14 of us took off for the first lap.  My goal was constant motion, even if my runs weren't super fast.  I was near the back of the pack after 100 meters, but I got back to mid-pack by churning through my 25 air squats fairly quickly.  The run around the turn was slow again, but I'm pretty fast with my mountain climbers, allowing me to pass a few more folks before heading to the sit-ups station.  Another slow-ish run (no one was running particularly fast) before belting out 25 sit-ups.  Then I got the silly idea that I was trotting in to the finish line, completely forgetting a minute-long plank awaited me.  That first plank wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.  While my two minute rest began, Tim let those of us who were done know that we were going to be Group 1 from here on out.  The members of Group 1: me, Mr. Intensity, Flounder, Aimee, Gordy, Jill A, Jen, and Alona.  Group 2 would consist of Ashley, Raj, Justin, Olan, Luke, and Borden.

Not sure whether Group 1's rest was based on when the first person completed their lap (Aimee) or when the last person completed their lap (me, because Flounder was very anti-planking), but Tim told us to get ready for lap #2.  Again, I stayed near the back of the pack, looking to stay in touch by pushing through the stations.  Except I forgot that competing against short girls in an air squat contest was a losing proposition.  Jen, Aimee, and Jill took off well before me with Gordy in their group as well.  I was with Mr. Intensity and Alona, with Flounder following us.  Those mini-groups held form for the rest of the lap, although Jill fell back a little and Mr. Intensity moved up a bit at the end of the lap.  The second plank was more challenging, but I still got through the full minute.

Lap #3 may have been my best lap, even if it ended with me getting called out.  I was not as far behind after the air squat station.  I made up time at the mountain climber station, passing Mr. Intensity, Jen, and Alona.  I knew that I had been moving faster through the sit-ups than Jill had, so I pushed through those in attempt to finish the lap before her.  She got up for her final run as I hit my 24th sit-up.  I popped up after one more rep and began to pump my arms to try and catch her on the final run.  Only I didn't realize I was the hunted, not the hunter.  As I came around the turn, a voice yelled out "I know what a competitive bastard you are Dave!"  They don't call him Mr. Intensity for nothing.  All of a sudden, he was sprinting by me and Jill.  It caught me totally off guard.  Instead of being the 3rd one done in the group, I ended up 5th.  Still, I was much closer to the front than I had been during laps one and two.

Lap four was a bit of a regression.  Aimee and Gordy were off on their own.  Mr. Intensity and Jill were the next group.  Me and Alona came in after them, with Jen next to finish up and Flounder rounding out Group 1.  That last plank was considerably harder than the first three, especially because Tim forgot when I finished and made me hold it for at least 15 seconds extra.  But I did hold it until he told me to stop.

With the gang back together and the hour getting late, Tim cut our three 150 meter sprints to three 75 meter sprints.  They actually weren't even 75 meter sprints.  It was a 50 meter running start (at 50% speed) followed by a 25 meter sprint.  Ashley and Raj took off so they could catch the 6:30 WOD at KOP, so Jill joined Group 2 for the sprints to even the numbers out a bit.  I clearly did not have a solid grasp of what 50% meant because I was behind everyone as we hit the point where Tim wanted us to sprint.  Tim blew his whistle and I kicked it into gear.  There were 6 other people in front of me and only 25 meters to catch them.  But after passing the first 2 people, it suddenly didn't seem impossible to catch the other four.  As we neared the finish line, only Alona and Mr. Intensity were still in front of me.  I split between them as Mr. Intensity yelled out, realizing I was getting a little bit of revenge from the third lap of the workout.  I barely edged him out to win the first sprint.

That small moment of happiness turned into concern once I looked back down the track.  I saw Gordy on the ground, grasping his hamstring.  I felt a little sick.  Gordy is currently ranked 16th in the world for men over 60 after the Crossfit Open.  He will be competing against the top 200 in his age group in a few weeks, with the top 20 qualifying for the Crossfit Games in July.  He barely missed punching his ticket last year and the entire community at KOP is pulling for him to get there this year.  To think that his dream might be ending on a 25 meter sprint seemed cruel.  We talked to him and he felt certain that he had pulled his hamstring.  He was going to go get it checked out the next day to find out how bad it was.  (Spoiler: Gordy got checked out and has been told that he had a muscle pull, but that his recovery should be quick.  Crisis averted!)

On sprints two and three, I had the same issue with the 50% run on the turn.  Every time the sprint began, I was in dead last.  For the second sprint, I went flying by everyone except for Mr. Intensity, who turned the tables and edged me out.  In the last sprint, I was further behind than I had been in the first two runs.  I had another very good sprint, but I was edged out by both Alona and Mr. Intensity.  When Group 2 had finished their third sprint, we all cooled down by doing a clockwise lap around the track.  It was a good start to the Endurance season, but I'm expecting a lot more pure running in the upcoming months.

Weekend preview: Friday is definitely a rest day.  And Sunday is Open Gym, where I'll be testing two of the WODs from the Festivus Games.  As for Saturday...could there be a return appearance at Competitors Class?  It's under consideration.