Just Don't Have It Today

Workout date: 6/15/16

They say the hardest part of working out is showing up to the gym.  I'm not sure who "they" are.  "They" probably haven't done Kalsu before.  That workout is way harder than my drive to the gym, even on those days when the idiots in front of me don't realize that a red light with a green arrow means they can go ahead and make that right turn.  Don't need to sit there all day, people!

I get the sentiment behind the saying though.  If you don't enjoy going to the gym, making yourself go becomes the equivalent of having to visit the dentist for a checkup.  You don't really want to go, but you feel like you need to go.  Before I found KOP, that was my usual reaction to going to the gym.  Now I look forward to going.  I like the idea of being tested in different ways almost every time I show up.  I like the atmosphere of the gym.  I like that this gym somehow blunts my typical social awkwardness.  All good things.  But there are still some days when I'm not eager to go and Wednesday was a good example.

After two days of getting beaten up by very difficult workouts, I woke up on Wednesday morning feeling pretty sore.  This wasn't a case of needing to stretch out my arms or rolling out my legs.  Just about all areas of my body were hurting from Nicole and the Filthy Fifty.  Was this a good time for a rest day?  Probably.  Except I'm too stubborn to take one this early in the week unless I'm in truly bad shape.  And the workout seemed friendly compared to what we faced to begin the week.  It was a little bit of strength mixed with a small cash out.

Strength:
3RM Front Squat

Cash out:
5 Minute AMRAP
5 Handstand Push-ups
10 Wall Balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')

See?  Not so bad.  I could get through that.  Plus there would be ice cream at the end.  Did I not mention that?  Oh...ummm, there was an ice cream social being held at Frosty Falls.  I don't want to say that tipped the scales in favor of going to the gym, but it didn't hurt the cause.

Because Coach Jenna said the 7:30 class was going on a field trip to Frosty Falls, I showed up a little earlier than normal and came in for the 6:30 class.  I was expecting a much bigger crowd at that class, but I ended up only having 2 classmates: Brian and Erik.  The three of us started out by going over the movements in the cash out.  We had the option of either doing handstand push-ups (with or without abmats) or doing sitting DB presses.  I was determined to do handstand push-ups with 2 abmats even though my push-ups would need to be strict.  Jenna wanted to see me attempt a kipping handstand push-up.  After witnessing this attempt, she appeared to be at a loss for words and just let me do strict handstand push-ups instead.  Yeah, that kip needs some work.  Erik was going to do the DB presses for the cash out, while Brian was going to do a combination of the two scales.

Next we went over the wall balls, which provided an opportunity to get some front squat practice in as the first half of the movement is a front squat.  Doing 10 of these per round in the cash out didn't seem so bad.  That's an amount I can fight through even if I get a little bit tired.  After we had front squat practice with a medicine ball, we had some additional practice with an empty barbell before Jenna let us go to work on our 3 rep sets.

The workout didn't state that we needed to do a certain number of sets in our pursuit of a 3RM, but I had 5 sets in mind when I began this WOD.  During my front squat program, I had gotten a PR of 265 for 3 reps, so if I wanted to get a new PR today, I'd be gunning for 270 or 275.  (Note: Typically I go for weights that end in 5 for ease of loading the barbell, but if I'm close on a lift, I might scale down 5 pounds to try and get it.)  The plan was to go 135-185-225-255 and then attempt a PR lift if I got through 255 unscathed.  Based on how I was feeling, 255 could be pushing it, but I was thinking about it in the same way that I thought about Grace a couple weeks ago.  In that workout, I wasn't feeling it, but settling for a performance that would have been good for me 6 months ago didn't feel right.  I had worked hard to reach a goal in that workout and I needed to continue to expect that type of performance even if I wasn't feeling 100%.  Same thing here.  It took a long time to get beyond 255 for 3 reps.  If I didn't start treating that as a weight that I knew I could do, then I was bound to regress back to where it would be a struggle each time I tried it.

I ended up attempting 5 sets and there weren't too many surprises.  The sets at 135 and 185 were pretty easy, although 185 felt a little heavier than it typically does.  After noticing that, I thought 225 could be a struggle, but that set actually felt good.  I did 2 quick reps before resetting and then getting the last rep.  255 was about what I expected it to be.  The first rep was good.  The second rep was tough, but I stood it up and felt ready to get the third rep.  The last rep was ugly as my elbows began to drop some and I ended up on my toes, but I did find a way to stand up with it.  Because the set at 255 deteriorated fairly quickly, I decided that my PR attempt would be at 270 rather than 275.  The first rep at 270 was similar to my second rep at 255, although I wasn't as optimistic about getting additional reps like I was at the lighter weight.  That doubt probably crept into the second rep, because as soon as I tried to come out of the bottom, I went nowhere.  I dumped the barbell and had no interest in making another attempt.  I told Jenna that "I just don't have it today" and was taking 255 for my 3RM score.  Not a minute later, Erik dropped the barbell on his final attempt before turning to Jenna and repeating those exact same words: "I just don't have it today".  I know the feeling, Erik!

If you don't have your A game, you probably don't want the cash out to last longer than 5 minutes, so having a short sprint to end the workout was a blessing.  I wasn't worried about the wall balls, but I did have some concerns about the handstand push-ups as my arms and my lats were still feeling sore. Most of the scores were in the 3-5 round range which meant 15-25 handstand push-ups over the course of 5 minutes.  That seemed like an amount I could handle, so I didn't even bother grabbing DBs as a backup.

I got off to an awkward start in the cash out.  As I went to kick up on to the wall, one of my hands slipped to the side.  That doesn't sound good at all, but it ended up having some positive consequences.  I felt more overextended than I typically do, but it was easier to do the push-ups because the wider set-up meant I had a shorter range of motion.  It's not like this is something I didn't understand already.  After all, I used to employ a wide grip on my pull-ups in order to take advantage of the shorter range of motion.  But for handstand push-ups, I hadn't tried this because I wasn't sure I could kick up on to the wall this way, nor was I certain I could support myself with this wider hand position.  Now that I knew I could, I got excited about the idea that I might have accidentally found a way to get better at handstand push-ups.  I did 5 quick reps, hopped off the wall, did 10 wall balls and was through round 1.  I flew through rounds 2 and 3 as well, finishing the third round at about the halfway point of the cash out.  Could I get 6 rounds done?  Well no.  In round 4, my arms began to tire.  I did 3 handstand push-ups before needing to come off the wall for a break.  I got the next two, but slowly.  After completing the wall balls for round 4, I had about a minute left.  I tried to kick up on the wall, but failed.  Then I kicked up on the wall but failed when I attempted to do a push-up.  With about 10 seconds remaining, I managed to kick up on the wall and get one push-up in, but that was all I could do.  Final score: 4+1.

At least it was time for some ice cream!  Or not.  My rival from last week's rowing and burpee workout, Julie Foucher, had signed up for the class at 7:30.  That meant Jenna couldn't go grab ice cream with me.  Boooooo!  I wasn't in any hurry though, so I stuck around and watched both Julie's 7:30 workout and the first class of the Bridgeport Barbell Club's 8-week program.  Once Julie had finished off her cash out and had put her equipment away, I could finally cap off my Wednesday evening properly.

Julie, Jenna, and all the ice cream

Thursday preview: 1 mile time trial at Endurance followed by some tinkering with my hand position while doing handstand push-ups.  Could I have had an accidental breakthrough?