There are certain movements at the gym which expose the fact that I am lopsided. Number one on that list might be anything that includes dumbbells. Place a heavy barbell in my hands and I'm usually okay. But replace my one-piece with a two-piece and things go awry quickly. When I have dumbbells in my hands, I start getting off kilter, swaying to one side or the other and just generally feeling unbalanced. The worst example of this is when I try to do DB thrusters. There weren't any DB thrusters programmed for Wednesday, but another DB movement left me feeling unsteady as I tried to speed through my reps.
There were only three of us in the late night 7:30 class on Wednesday evening: me, Julie Foucher, and Matt C. It was another warm one at KOP, although I have a feeling that I'm going to be saying that pretty much every day over the course of the next four months. The WOD was 12 minutes long and it required you to keep moving throughout:
1 min DB hang squat cleans (45/30)
1 min burpees
1 min toes-to-bar
2 min DB hang squat cleans
2 min burpees
2 min toes-to-bar
1 min DB hang squat cleans
1 min burpees
1 min toes-to-bar
A very warm gym plus 12 straight minutes of moving meant this was sure to be a sweatfest that would be testing my cardio. And since this was a very cardio-focused workout, I didn't have a strong urge to use the RX weight for my dumbbells. Coach Jenna wanted us to do some practice reps of the DB hang squat cleans using a weight that was 5-10 pounds lighter than what we intended on using for the workout, so I chose 30 pound DBs as I thought I should use 35 pound DBs for the WOD. These DBs weren't particularly heavy and I was able to cycle through some reps fairly quickly. Did that mean I was having second thoughts about going for the 45 pound DBs? Not really. My goal for this workout was to move somewhat quickly for 12 straight minutes and using a lighter DB was going to help me in that endeavor.
Jenna asked the three of us if we wanted to grab a small whiteboard in order to keep track of our reps. Julie and Matt went to get one, but I didn't budge. I told Jenna I was just gonna make up a score at the end of the workout anyway, so there was no point in getting a whiteboard. In fact, if she wanted a score right now, I'd give her one. I told her to put me down for 107. Then I let her know I was only kidding and that if I said my score was 107 at the end of the workout, it was definitely a fake number.
There wasn't anything else left to do but get started, so Jenna set the clock and we began doing DB squat cleans. As was the case with the 30 pound DBs, these weren't all that heavy, but they were very awkward for me, especially as I tried to accumulate reps quickly. Despite that, I still did pretty good in that first round, getting 15 reps. On to the burpees, where I was moving kinda slowly right off the bat. There were no breaks along the way, but there was definitely some crawling. I got 12 burpees before moving to my bar. As soon as I jumped up to the high bar, I knew that I was breathing too heavily to do the efficient kip. The result was only 7 toes-to-bar during that minute, ending round one with a score of 34.
The middle section had two minute rounds at each station and it was pure misery. I had only done 3 minutes of work so far, but there was already a small puddle of my sweat just in front of my feet. As I tried to keep up a solid pace on the DB hang squat cleans, I heard Michal begin yelling "come on Dave" from across the gym. When I got to the burpees, Michal came over next to me to push me along. This was not Michal's usual message of "just stay calm". Today her message was more along the lines of "get your ass back on the floor and do another burpee". I didn't have much energy to respond, so I thought I would try to fling sweat her way during one of the reps. Then I changed my mind and thought a super-sweaty hug was in order. After clapping at the top of one burpee, I reached my arms her way without looking towards her, as turning my head would have required too much effort. That scared her off, but suddenly Rachel was nearby as well, yelling that I needed to be doing more burpees instead of attempting to hug Michal. When that two minutes ended, I walked back to the high bar. Rachel and Michal had thought I was wrapping up my workout with the burpees which is why they were giving me so much grief about picking up the pace. Once they realized I had 5 more minutes to go, they went easier on me.
I don't remember the exact breakdown of reps in that middle section, but when I was done with the toes-to-bar, I was at 80 reps. There was some stagger to my walk as I got back to my DBs. I tried to hold on and do some big sets, but I could only manage a set of 5 and a set of 4 before it was burpee time again. I found a little bit of extra energy here, getting 10 reps in to bring my grand total to 99. As I had grown more and more tired over the course of this workout, I started worrying that I wouldn't make it to 100 reps, but surely I was going to be able to get 1 toes-to-bar in the final 60 seconds. Right? Well, it took some time before I could convince myself to jump up on to the high bar, but once I was there, I was able to do sets of 2 reps. I got in 3 sets before time was called. Final score: 105.
Jenna asked for our scores and when she got to me, I told her it was 107. She was about to write it down, but then she stopped and gave me the "wait a minute, I know that's BS" look. She remembered! The only problem is that when I gave my actual score of 105, it was so close to the fake score that she didn't really believe that number either. Guess I set myself up for that one. With a little prodding, I was able to convince her that I had truly done 105 reps during the WOD.
I don't think DB selection had a dramatic effect on my score. Had I gone with 45 pounds, I feel my score would have been close to 100. Had I used 25 pounds, my score likely wouldn't have been much more than 110. Having the ability to complete burpees and toes-to-bar while my body is under duress would have a much greater impact on my final score. So I felt alright with the weight I chose, even though I fell 2 reps short of achieving my made-up score. My cardio needs more work and I have to find some way of dealing with the heat better than I currently do. Who knows if that is even possible? I'm beginning to severely doubt that it is.
Thursday preview: The heat whoops me again as I mistakenly set out to do both the WOD and Endurance class.
Jenna asked the three of us if we wanted to grab a small whiteboard in order to keep track of our reps. Julie and Matt went to get one, but I didn't budge. I told Jenna I was just gonna make up a score at the end of the workout anyway, so there was no point in getting a whiteboard. In fact, if she wanted a score right now, I'd give her one. I told her to put me down for 107. Then I let her know I was only kidding and that if I said my score was 107 at the end of the workout, it was definitely a fake number.
There wasn't anything else left to do but get started, so Jenna set the clock and we began doing DB squat cleans. As was the case with the 30 pound DBs, these weren't all that heavy, but they were very awkward for me, especially as I tried to accumulate reps quickly. Despite that, I still did pretty good in that first round, getting 15 reps. On to the burpees, where I was moving kinda slowly right off the bat. There were no breaks along the way, but there was definitely some crawling. I got 12 burpees before moving to my bar. As soon as I jumped up to the high bar, I knew that I was breathing too heavily to do the efficient kip. The result was only 7 toes-to-bar during that minute, ending round one with a score of 34.
The middle section had two minute rounds at each station and it was pure misery. I had only done 3 minutes of work so far, but there was already a small puddle of my sweat just in front of my feet. As I tried to keep up a solid pace on the DB hang squat cleans, I heard Michal begin yelling "come on Dave" from across the gym. When I got to the burpees, Michal came over next to me to push me along. This was not Michal's usual message of "just stay calm". Today her message was more along the lines of "get your ass back on the floor and do another burpee". I didn't have much energy to respond, so I thought I would try to fling sweat her way during one of the reps. Then I changed my mind and thought a super-sweaty hug was in order. After clapping at the top of one burpee, I reached my arms her way without looking towards her, as turning my head would have required too much effort. That scared her off, but suddenly Rachel was nearby as well, yelling that I needed to be doing more burpees instead of attempting to hug Michal. When that two minutes ended, I walked back to the high bar. Rachel and Michal had thought I was wrapping up my workout with the burpees which is why they were giving me so much grief about picking up the pace. Once they realized I had 5 more minutes to go, they went easier on me.
I don't remember the exact breakdown of reps in that middle section, but when I was done with the toes-to-bar, I was at 80 reps. There was some stagger to my walk as I got back to my DBs. I tried to hold on and do some big sets, but I could only manage a set of 5 and a set of 4 before it was burpee time again. I found a little bit of extra energy here, getting 10 reps in to bring my grand total to 99. As I had grown more and more tired over the course of this workout, I started worrying that I wouldn't make it to 100 reps, but surely I was going to be able to get 1 toes-to-bar in the final 60 seconds. Right? Well, it took some time before I could convince myself to jump up on to the high bar, but once I was there, I was able to do sets of 2 reps. I got in 3 sets before time was called. Final score: 105.
Jenna asked for our scores and when she got to me, I told her it was 107. She was about to write it down, but then she stopped and gave me the "wait a minute, I know that's BS" look. She remembered! The only problem is that when I gave my actual score of 105, it was so close to the fake score that she didn't really believe that number either. Guess I set myself up for that one. With a little prodding, I was able to convince her that I had truly done 105 reps during the WOD.
I don't think DB selection had a dramatic effect on my score. Had I gone with 45 pounds, I feel my score would have been close to 100. Had I used 25 pounds, my score likely wouldn't have been much more than 110. Having the ability to complete burpees and toes-to-bar while my body is under duress would have a much greater impact on my final score. So I felt alright with the weight I chose, even though I fell 2 reps short of achieving my made-up score. My cardio needs more work and I have to find some way of dealing with the heat better than I currently do. Who knows if that is even possible? I'm beginning to severely doubt that it is.
Thursday preview: The heat whoops me again as I mistakenly set out to do both the WOD and Endurance class.
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