Friday was a planned day off and I didn't feel like going in to work out on Saturday. I thought Sunday was going to be Open Gym for April, but it turns out that had been delayed by a week. There was a Level 1 seminar taking place in the main gym, meaning all classes were being held in the annex. I wanted to test out the only WOD from the Festivus Games that I hadn't tried yet, an unpleasant little number dubbed "25 to life". But that isn't the type of WOD you want to do in the annex where you never know how much space you will have. So I decided to do a rowing workout at home. The Concept 2 website has an option where they can send you three rowing WODs daily, one shorter WOD, one medium-length WOD, and one long WOD. I decided to take on the medium-length WOD on Sunday.
4/3/16 - Medium Rowing WOD
Three 10 minute pieces with 4 minutes of light rowing in between
It wasn't that I was intentionally relaxing as the row went on. I was trying to maintain my original pace, but my body was letting me know that wasn't my 10 minute pace. Eventually, the split reached the 2:10-2:15 range and I became angry. That was too slow. So I began pulling with more urgency as the first 10 minute piece came to a close. The monitor showed my pace as 2:07 and change at the end of 10 minutes. During the four minute "rest" period, I kept rowing but it was extremely slow rowing so that I could get my breathing calmed before the next 10 minute piece.
The initial 10 minutes provided quite the education for me. When the second 10 minute piece began, I knew what range I wanted for the second segment: 2:05-2:10. It was under 2:05 briefly early on in the row. When it crept over 2:10, I started pulling harder. During this second piece, I started experiencing some soreness in my back and in my hands. As I let the handle return to the flywheel, I would slowly regrip to ease the tension in my hands. At the end of two 10 minute segments, my pace was 2:08 and change.
The focus during the second rest period was stretching my back and shaking out my hands (I'd pull with one hand while shaking out the other). I wasn't looking forward to doing the last 10 minute piece, but I knew all I needed to do was suck it up and I could get through it. And there wasn't much difference between the second and third pieces. When I finished, my overall pace read as 2:08.6 per 500 meters. For 30 minutes, that translated to 6,998 meters (let's just call it 7,000). I might not have done wall balls and KB swings, but I definitely felt like I had gotten a workout in.
On Monday, I came in for the 6:30 class like usual. It was the usual mob scene, with 18 of us there for fitness. Once again there was a sense of deja vu. The strength aspect of the WOD was the second part of the workout and we were finding a 2RM hang squat clean. We had done this back on March 1st, although the first half of that workout was Elizabeth, a demanding Girl WOD that I completely sucked at. The 2RM hang squat clean gave me some redemption though, as I successfully handled 215 pounds. The first part of this workout was a little shorter, but would still have an impact on part two. It was a rare "buy-in" to the workout, although we jumped into it so quickly that it felt like the warmup.
Buy-In:
3 rounds
15 med ball cleans (20#/14#)
200 meter run
Med ball cleans tend to be a mind over matter movement, meaning that it is essentially an air squat using a light weight, but it is a movement that gets old quickly. It should be a movement where you can string together 15 reps, but it feels so much nicer when you can break them up. I was going to do my best to not drop the med ball at all during this buy-in.
When we started, I didn't have it in my head that I could win the warmup. (Note: Pretty sure I have never "won the warmup" in three plus years at KOP.) But I got into a rhythm during the first set of med ball cleans and was one of the first two people out the door for the run. During the run, Cline went running by and I returned to the gym as the third person to start round two. My determination to hang on to the med ball paid off as I was the only one in the first group of folks who re-entered the gym to string all 15 reps in round two. I was out the door first. (Hooray!) I fully expected to be passed on the run, but I got back for round three before everyone else. If I could hold on for 15 more reps, I could sorta win my first warmup!
Just one problem. Aimee was coaching our class and she's a stickler for form (that's a good thing). When I came back for round three by myself, she didn't have to divert her attention among 18 people. Her eyes were directly on me. And as I started doing my med ball cleans, she determined I wasn't shrugging back far enough when I did my reps. She put her hand behind my back and forced me to hit it on each rep. I needed to slow down to ensure I hit her hand and as a result, I dropped the med ball after 5 reps. There went that. I did 5 more slow reps, dropped again, and then did 5 more slow reps. Those reps undoubtedly had better form than any of the ones I did in rounds one and two, but they were not nearly as fast. I turned to go run and saw everyone else was still working. I still had a chance to win the warmup!
As I crossed the street and ran past the barriers, I heard someone behind me. I turned my head and saw Cline. And then I immediately yelled "shit!" There was zero chance I was going to stay ahead of him on this last run. He didn't even make it dramatic, cruising on by me before we even got to the annex. I guess I could have done some silly all-out sprint, but that seemed like overkill before the main part of the workout. I settled for finishing 4 seconds behind Cline. Final time: 5:56.
After everyone got back, Aimee walked us through some progressions for the hang squat clean. I was still working on calming down from the buy-in when Samson let us know that from his experience, it took nearly 4 sets of the hang squat clean before he felt normal again. That didn't sound good. When Aimee was done with her instruction, she gathered us in and told us we should walk around and find someone who smells like us and then work with them. I had a good idea of who I smelled like, but I didn't want to burden him with sharing a barbell if he didn't want to. Lucky for me, he came over and did the honors. "I smell like you...right?" Yes, Matt B, you do. In fact, I let him know that he smelt stronger than me. (Get it? Because he's really strong. The best jokes are the ones you have to explain.)
We were supposed to do 8 sets. I asked Matt if he was cool starting at 95 pounds, then adding 20 pounds each set until we felt only adding 10 pounds was a better idea. He was good with that and we got started. Aimee came over and watched our first set at 95 pounds. She told me that she wanted me to be more aggressive with my lifts as I was kinda just going through the motions since the weight was still light. That was true, but it was also true that I was trying to get some recovery from the buy-in as well. Knowing that there was no escape from Aimee's ever-watchful eye, I picked things up from that point on. Over the next four sets, I moved quickly and with purpose through the two hang squat cleans. Matt did the same, moving through the sets at 115, 135, 155, and 175.
The sixth set was at 195 and I was still feeling good about things and I thought Matt did as well. He began his set with a good rep, then caught the second clean in good position while deep in a squat. But as he tried to stand up, he began to hunch over. And then suddenly he had to drop it. That was unexpected. I told him he could go again as we had plenty of time and it looked like he just lost his concentration for a second. He went for a second try, but he couldn't make it out of his squat on the first rep. He needed a break. I went up and attempted 195. I think I was locked in at this point and once again I moved quickly through the two reps before dropping the barbell.
With some extra rest, Matt was ready to give 195 another try. Whatever happened during that second rep of his first try at the weight definitely had an effect on him. He missed again on his first rep and was done. I asked him if he wanted to try 185 instead, but he had no interest in doing any more hang squat cleans. It was my turn again and I moved up to 215. I was feeling confident, but I also knew that when I got 215 at the end of the workout in March, it was a big time struggle getting two reps at this weight. The first rep this time around was very solid, but I could feel my grip starting to waver as I tried to get back to the hang. I couldn't spend too much time in that position, so when I got there, I went right into the second rep. I was slower out of the hole than I was with my first rep, but it was a much better effort than I had shown when I got the second rep at 215 a month earlier. I stood up with the weight and began thinking about going for a PR at 225.
My greatest fear about 225 wasn't so much how heavy the weight would be, but how well my grip would hold up. It was the biggest issue with my set at 215 and adding 10 pounds wasn't going to help matters. After a few minutes of rest, I got psyched up and stood over the 225 pound barbell. I deadlifted it to my waist, got into the hang, then went for the squat clean. It was hard to stand it up, but stand it up I did. That matched my 1RM. The only problem was that I knew my grip was super shaky. When I was set to go for the second rep, I was going to need to move quickly from my front rack to the hang to the squat clean and hope it all went smoothly. It did not. I rushed going from the front rack to the hang and messed up the clean. It wasn't close at all. My 2RM would remain at 215, but 225 definitely feels possible in the near future.
I had gotten plenty of practice being in a front squat with heavy weights, so doing my 6x2 set of front squats at 215 after class felt natural. I took care of that at Open Strength. Then I wrapped up my day by doing a set of 25 hand-release push-ups as I will need to do those as part of the "25 to life" WOD at Festivus. And I can tell you that they were more difficult than I expected. Not looking forward to doing that WOD next Sunday.
Tuesday preview: Lots of rowing, handstand push-ups, and double unders. Which movement would I do best on? The answer might surprise you.
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