Running Without Arms

Workout date: 3/28/16

It's been nice taking the last few weekends off from the gym.  It's not that I really have anything against working out on the weekend, but I probably haven't been getting as much as sleep as I need.  These old bones require more recovery than they used to, so sleeping in has likely helped me just as much as (if not more than) doing some long WOD on the weekend would.  I have my aches and pains, but nothing like I was experiencing a few weeks ago when I had to visit the doctor.

With another WOD-free weekend in the books, I returned on Monday to a workout that was a bit similar to the running/box jump/rope climb workout from the week before.  When I say similar, I don't mean that the movements were similar, as you can will see below:

AMRAP in 20 minutes:
200 meter farmers carry (70/53)
100 feet of walking lunges
50 feet of handstand walks

The reason this workout felt similar to me was because it was another long-ish workout where most athletes performing were going to end up right around 3 rounds.  As was the case with that WOD from last week, I set three rounds as my goal.

The difference in this workout for me was that it wasn't immediately apparent why everyone was ending up with a score of about three rounds.  In last week's workout, I could look at the 800 meter run and go "oh, that takes a lot of time, I get it".  Here it was less clear.  The farmers carry can be tough, especially on your grip, but there is also the possibility of getting through it quickly if you can hang on to the weight.  The walking lunges were just down the gym and back, so that shouldn't take long.  And since most of us didn't have handstand walks, the scale would be 5 wall walks.  That could take almost two minutes, I figured.  My estimates were leading me to believe that 4+ rounds were achievable.  I was overlooking something.

What was I overlooking?  How hard it is to run without using your arms!  You could walk (or speed walk) during the farmers carry, but if you really wanted to get through it quickly, you needed to run.  There wasn't going to be much running for me using 70 pounds, so I knew I needed to scale down.  I thought doing the women's RX would be a good challenge for me, but the 53 pounds alluded to in the workout description was referring to KBs.  With 13 people in the 6:30 class, those seemed to be accounted for already.  So I grabbed a pair of 55 pound dumbbells instead.  Before the workout began, we got to do a little dry run of the farmers carry and, while the dumbbells were heavy, I was able to move at a pretty quick clip with them.  This would be a short-lived phenomenon.

I didn't think the walking lunges would be too much of an issue (wrong again!) as I had done walking lunges successfully with 95 pounds overhead during 16.1.  These were the air squat equivalent of those, so how hard could they be?  (Spoiler: they were hard)  As for the wall walks, I had gotten better at those.  The key was not sweating all over the wall, that way my feet would not slip as I walked backwards up the wall during reps later on.  As was the case with my burpees during 16.5, the  important thing to remember was to just keep moving.  It was going to take a good two minutes to do the five wall walks.  If I didn't drag that out to three minutes by resisting the urge to lay on the floor between reps, I could end up with a good score.

We got started and most people proceeded with speed walking during the farmers carry, but I went with a mild run.  A couple of folks were out in front of me, but I was happy with my start as I put down the dumbbells for the first time at the turn around point.  On the way back to the gym, I needed to stop along the way, but I was the third person to get to the walking lunges.  When I noticed that these initial walking lunges were painful, I should have known I was in trouble.  If you can't swing your arms while you run, you basically start looking like Fred Flintstone driving to work.  And that leads to some pounding on your legs.  My hips were beginning to feel like I had started doing the St. Paddy's Day run all over again.  I tried to keep moving on the lunges, but the group of folks behind me on the farmers carry began to close in on me.

I made it over to my spot on the wall and I honestly believed I was moving at a good pace through my 5 wall walks.  But somehow I saw the stream of people who were catching up to me on the walking lunges go flying out the door as I worked on completing this part of the workout.  Perhaps I didn't take into account how slowly 210 pounds moves backwards up a wall.  I got a sense of deja vu as I had been a witness to this scene in a workout before, only it had usually involved me trying to do pull-ups.

Having fallen behind most of the group, I felt even more urgency as I ran outside and grabbed my dumbbells.  I weaved my way through some of the folks walking up ahead of me and passed a couple others who had stopped to take a break.  I made it about 70 meters before my body let me know that this running thing was coming to an end.  I put down my dumbbells as the people I had just passed went right on by me again.  Crap.  I picked up the dumbbells and made it to the turn around point before needing another break.  On the way back in, I stopped two more times before managing a strong power walk at the end to get me back into the gym.  My legs were sore as hell though.

Sounds like the perfect time to do some walking lunges!  It's funny, there are times when I look at a workout and think to myself "I don't get why that will be so difficult".  And then I go and do it, and as I am writhing in pain midway through it, the light bulb goes on.  That moment happened at the end of the second farmers carry.  I slowly lunged down to the end of the gym before moving a little bit faster on my return journey.  When I got to the wall walks, I did not move with nearly the same speed as I had in round one.  Part of it was fatigue.  Part of it was dreading the farmers carry that awaited me when I finished the 5 wall walks.  At the end of my second round, I was just under 13 minutes.  Still on pace for three rounds, but I needed to get through one more farmers carry.

My third farmers carry was not pleasant at all.  On that first burst from the gym doors, I made it just past the annex.  The next segment was the worst part of the workout, as I used all the grip strength I had left to hold on long enough to get to the turn around point.  That took so much effort that I needed extra rest before heading back in towards the gym.  On the way back, I stopped two more times like I had done in round two, with another push at the end that allowed me to drop the dumbbells for good.

Back inside, I knew that I needed to keep moving on the walking lunge as it was possible I might tire out and not get through the 5 remaining wall walks before time was up.  It wasn't the most fluid series of lunges that you've ever seen, but I made sure not to stop.  As I got to my spot on the wall, I saw there was two and a half minutes remaining.  30 seconds per wall walk?  I could handle that.  And there was no point trying to go super fast, as that would only leave me 30-45 seconds to do that god awful farmers carry.  I made sure my form was solid on the wall walks, taking a breather each time I came back down to the floor.  When I finished my last one, the clock read 19:50.  Nothing to do but chill for 10 seconds.  Final score: 3 rounds.

That WOD ended up being much worse than expected, but I got through 3 rounds like I had hoped, so there wasn't a lot to be disappointed about.  Afterwards, I did my front squat program again as it was the lighter volume 6 sets of 2 reps at 215 pounds.  My legs didn't feel great from the workout, but I was able to get my squat work completed without incident.

Tuesday preview: 20 minutes of running and pull-ups.  Hard to think of a worse workout for me, but I show up to do it anyway.