My original plan for Wednesday was to do my 4x4 front squat session in the morning and then come back later on at 7:30pm to do the WOD. This has been my routine for the last several weeks. However, when I saw that the WOD was Chelsea (an excruciating 30 minutes of pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats), I had second thoughts. I mentioned in a recent blog post that I've had soreness in my right hand and Chelsea seemed like the worst possible workout that I could do with a bad hand. (Note: Chelsea seems like the worst possible workout I could do while completely healthy as well.) So I ended up only doing the front squat session in the morning, taking an unexpected semi-rest day.
How did the front squats go? Well, I may be jinxing myself by writing this, but I viewed this session as the last major hurdle in the program. This was my second 15 pound jump in weight (the jump in weight for the next two heavy days will only be 10 pounds). This was also my last venture into unknown territory (not counting the final test day). My 3x3 session will be with 255 pounds, which happens to be my 3RM. My 2x2 session will be with 265 pounds, which happens to be my 2RM. Could I handle 4 reps at 245? I figured I could, but you never know until you try it.
My warmup was the same as last time: 5 reps at 135, 4 reps at 185, and 2 reps at 215. I wasn't too concerned about making a 30 pound jump from the final warmup set. I might change my mind after the first set at 245, but this progression in weight made more sense to me than doing an additional warmup set would have. How was that first set? Slow, but solid. We've reached the weight where banging out multiple reps without resetting at the top is a bad idea. I stayed in my heels on each rep. I made brief visits to the sticking point on two of the reps, but I pushed through each time. The set was difficult, but they are supposed to be at this stage of the program.
Having only 4 sets to do, I took my time between sets. Definitely no need to rush. I tried to do my best impression of a lifter and went and sat on the kilo plates when I wasn't front squatting. Getting a chair at 7 in the morning seemed like overkill. My second set was similar in nature to the first. I probably began to assume that the third set would be no different as well, but it's funny what happens when you lose your focus. I did the first two reps, then inexplicably came way up on to my toes as I tried to stand up with the third rep. I stumbled forward before regaining control and completing the rep. I stood there for a few seconds, really mad at myself, before doing the fourth rep and placing the barbell back on the rack. It didn't seem like I had lost any focus when I began the set, but clearly I became complacent and almost messed everything up.
After that incident, there was no way that I was going to be anything but locked in as I completed set #4. I probably still had some anger in me as I was adamant about having good form for each of my final reps. When the set was done, I placed the barbell back on the rack, ripped off my weight belt, and felt a sense of relief. There are still about two weeks left to go in the program, but the finish line is in sight. And for me, that final day of testing is the fun part. Unless I can't do more than 265 that day. In that case, I might kick the wall and feel like this was all for nothing. But I'm feeling positive that there is a front squat PR in the near future for me.
With only four working sets to complete, I had some time left over in class to try some other things. I decided that I'd like to work on my toes to bar, specifically making sure that I look down as I swing through in front of the bar and look up as I swing back behind the bar. I also wanted to work on efficient reps, using that stomping method which helps rebound your feet back up towards the bar. I tried out a set and did six reps before dropping from the bar. As the set had progressed, I began to lose control of the kip and ended up getting to the point where my body was too far in front of the bar for me to continue. That's when Clay came over and offered some help. And the tips he gave me were very beneficial.
Clay broke down the toes-to-bar for me by talking about the two power sources I could use: the shoulders and the hips. Then he showed me what toes-to-bar look like when you use almost all shoulders and no hips, followed by a demonstration using almost all hips and barely any shoulders. It was clear which version I was guilty of using: option #2. Clay pointed out that by not using my shoulders, the movement had become very midline-centric. That made total sense to me. Whenever I use that efficient kip, my midline becomes exhausted and I need to take longer breaks. The problem wasn't the kip itself, it was that I was only using my hips as a source of power in the kip. This was also what had led me to losing control of my swing as I progressed through reps. We worked on some progressions where I only used my shoulders (no hips), just so I could get the feel of what the movement was like using my shoulders as my power source. And when my shoulders are the only power source, my toes do not come very close to the bar. So I need to work on using both my shoulders and hips in conjunction with one another. Perhaps then I can handle some of the longer WODs that include 30+ toes-to-bar in them.
A light day on Wednesday was followed by another light day on Thursday. I mentioned in my last blog post about Endurance class that it was going to be difficult coming up with enough material to write an entire post on those workouts. It would have been pretty much impossible this week. Weather was a major factor on Thursday. It wasn't raining hard, but there was a consistent shower throughout the afternoon. Add in a little wind and that it was pretty cold outside and you can understand why the turnout for Endurance was lighter than it had been in previous weeks. Hell, even Coach Tim didn't show up! (He was at the Penn Relays. His wife and fellow coach, Laura P, was there to coach us, along with their son, Miles.)
There were still eight of us there to brave the elements: Laura A, Alona, John McHugh, Matt E, Borden, Kris, Jill H, and myself. We began by doing two laps of jogging, followed by some drills and stretching. Then we did two striders of 150 meters, where you go about 80% of your top speed during the middle portion of the run, bookended by a jog at about 50% for the first and last portions of the run. We huddled under a dry spot to learn what the workout for the day would be and Laura explained that it would include a 400 meter time trial. And here I was thinking that we'd get out of doing any time trails due to the weather. No such luck. Afterwards, we would be doing something called "endless relays" (in honor of the Penn relays), where we would divide into two teams of four and sprint 100 meters each before passing a baton to a teammate.
Before the time trial, we did two more striders with Coach Laura telling us to pick up the pace in the middle to about 90%. Once those were done, we met her at the starting line for the 400 meters. I wasn't sure how fast Matt and Borden could run a 400, but I expected them to be close to me, along with Alona. And I expected Laura A and John McHugh to be out in front of me. Me and John have a bit of a rivalry on these runs, but I can only beat him at shorter distances (100 meters or less). Last year, he beat me by about 4 seconds during a 400 meter time trial and I had no reason to believe the outcome would be any different this day. Matt asked me what my goal was before we began and I told him 1:15. I thought my time a year ago was 1:13, but that was in good weather and didn't take place early in the Endurance season. Staying close to that would be a victory for me.
We took off and I decided to duck in behind Laura and John on the first turn. My only chance of beating them would be outsprinting them in the final 100 meters. I knew they were going to be faster at the start, so there was no point in trying to go with them by gunning it out in lane 3. As we headed down the backstretch, I kept in close contact with them. At this point, I was trying to gauge how much I would have left for the last 200 meters. I had to push it to stay with them, but I figured they were going to pick it up even more on the back half of the run. As we rounded the final turn, John began to accelerate and went past Laura on the outside of her. But I was still hanging with them. In fact, as we came into the final stretch, I began to think I might be able to pass both of them.
Drafting the leaders on the first turn
Then, like an indecisive jockey on a horse that I would bet on, I became boxed in behind the two of them. As we hit the final 100 meters, Laura picked it up again and seemed to be surging past John. I thought I could follow her, pass John, and then maybe catch her. But John was very stubborn and wouldn't let her get away. As we neared the last 50 meters, I had no choice but to duck out to lane 3 and try to run them down from the outside. Laura was edging away from John slightly and I began to gain on him, but I ran out of time. Laura and John finished in 1:13, while I came in a second behind them at 1:14. Not bad for my first 400 meters of the year on the track. I got the sense that breaking 1:10 might be possible by the end of the summer.
After some recovery time, we did the "endless relays", with each team having a person stationed at each of the 100 meter marks around the track. I asked Coach Laura if we needed five people to make this work (not that we had 5 people for each team), but she originally thought it would work with 4 people. Turned out we did need 5 people as there was no one to pass the baton to at the end of the first lap. It was still a fun change from the norm though. We ended up doing 3 laps of relays, with the last person jogging 100 meters after completing their sprint to get the baton to the teammate kicking off the next lap.
Since Wednesday and Thursday were kinda light, I decided to head over to the gym for Open Strength. With my right hand hurting, I'm at the point where I'd like to be done with the front squat program sooner rather than later. So I took this opportunity to go in and take care of my light day (6x2 at 215). Afterwards, I got on the GHD machine and did 3 reps of 20 hip extensions. This is always an exercise that works my hamstrings and I should be doing it more often. Again, just an opportunity to get some extra work done with Wednesday and Thursday not being as exhausting as they typically are. Besides, what were the chances of the GHD showing up in Friday's WOD?
Friday preview: 1RM snatch day. And 50 GHD sit-ups for time. Of course.
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