Last week was a tough one for me at KOP. There was that horrendous deadlift workout to begin the week. That was followed by Elizabeth. Later in the week, I was rejected by the bar whenever I tried to do a muscle-up. And I wrapped up the week by participating in that crazy partner WOD at Competitors Class. At least I beat Flounder on that first sprint during Endless Relays!
The Crossfit gods were a bit kinder to me at the start of this week. The Monday WOD was a 20 minute AMRAP where you began each round with a 500 meter row, then followed it up with three rope climbs to the 15' mark. Seemed simple enough. Go hard on the three rope climbs each round and then use the row to settle back down again. I could handle that. A glimpse at the scores from earlier in the day indicated that most people were finishing with a score of 4-5 rounds. Completing 5 rounds was a very good score and since this felt like a workout that played to my strengths, finishing five full rounds became my goal for the WOD.
Keithie! It's been months since I've been in a class where Keithie was the coach. I had seen him on Saturday and told him as much. I wasn't expecting him to be coaching the Monday 6:30, but Aimee wasn't back from her trip to Napa yet. I used to have Keithie as a coach 3-4 times a week, so it has definitely been a bummer not seeing him leading the classes I attend. Maybe running into him twice in three days is a sign that he'll be back to coaching more soon.
The 6:30 class had 10 people in it, which was actually less than I was expecting. I wasn't sure how the situation with the ropes was going to work out as there are only 5 ropes and one of those ropes is almost never used because it tends to be slippery. Keithie let us know that we'd be dividing into two heats with heat one getting a two-minute head start, so that was a relief. Throw in the fact that not everyone was going to do rope climbs and there seemed to be little reason to worry about congestion at the ropes.
I arrived at KOP right at 6:30, so as everyone began to grab one of the rowers that had been left out from the 5:30 class, I ended up with the one at the far end of the gym. This wasn't the worst thing in the world because it left me down near 4 of the 5 ropes we have. More importantly, it left me right next to one of the fans. It had been raining for most of the day, but not enough to get rid of all of the humidity in the air. The gym was muggier than it usually is and that meant I'd be sweating plenty. Getting a little relief from a nearby fan would be a tremendous help. Except my monopoly on that fan turned out to be short-lived. JP was in the bathroom as we began our warmup on the rower. When he came out, he set up his rower in the only location remaining: the space between me and the fan.
After doing some warmup on the rower, Keithie showed us the various ways one could climb the rope, as well as some scaling options that we could do should we get tired during this 20 minute WOD. Then he split us up into two heats. We had 5 volunteers for heat one, so I ran off to use the bathroom real quick. When I returned from the lobby, my 9 classmates were sitting on their rowers waiting for me. Oops. I thought I had time to pee since my heat was kicking off two minutes after heat one, but apparently Keithie didn't want to start the clock until everyone was present. My bad.
JP was among those in heat one and I planned on using him to push me in this workout. JP tends to beat me in most WODs, but this was one where I thought I should be able to stay with him. I was going to see where I was in relation to him at the end of my first round and try to stay that same distance behind him for the remainder of the 20 minutes. Two minutes tends to be a decent benchmark for the 500 meter row, so he would likely be starting his rope climbs as I began my first row. What I wasn't sure of was how far along I would be on my row before he finished his rope climbs.
As expected, JP was on his first rope climb when I began rowing. The first row was all about staying calm, but making sure I kept the pace around 2 minutes. That wasn't much of an issue as I kept my pace close to 1:45 per 500 meters early on. JP returned to his rower when I was nearing 350 meters, so that would be my benchmark for where I needed to be in later rounds. About 35 seconds later, I was off my rower and hopped immediately on to the rope. I did a fast climb, came down, and then got right into my second climb. When I came back down from the second climb, I took a few seconds to recover, then did my third climb. As I made my way back to the rower, I took a peek at the clock and saw it was just reaching three minutes. I wasn't going to be able to keep up that pace the rest of the way, but 5 rounds meant a pace of one round every four minutes. Earning an extra 60 seconds of cushion was a nice start to the workout.
JP finished his second round and got back to the rower as I hit 320 meters on my second row. He was a little slower than me on the rope climbs, but he definitely rowed faster than I did. Once he got strapped in, he always started with a very strong pull whereas I treated the beginning of my row as a way to recover from going fast on the rope climbs. The way I viewed the workout was that you were never going to fail on the row, but it was certainly possible to fail on the rope climb, a mistake that could cost you a lot of time. So I was okay with going a bit slower on the row. But as JP would slowly extend his lead on me each round, I began to re-consider whether that was the right strategy.
On my second round of rope climbs, I took a breather at the bottom of each climb, although the breathers weren't very long. The difficulty of the climbs had amped up from round one and I definitely needed an extra pull or two on my last climb. Push on the climbs, recover on the rower. I kept repeating that to myself whenever I came down from a climb. I got back to my rower and slowly began round three. The two minute pace was no longer under consideration as I was now in the 2:15-2:20 range. JP came back to his rower when I was at about 300 meters this time. Oh, and I almost forgot about the worst part of JP returning to his rower. He's a pretty big guy, so he was always blocking the fan whenever he was rowing at the same time as me. And as the WOD wore on, I needed that fan more and more.
For my third trip to the rope, I finally grabbed some chalk. I had seen JP chalking his hands prior to beginning his rope climbs. Then I saw him start using chalk in between climbs as well. Part of the reason I needed extra pulls on my last climb of round two was because my hands were starting to get sweaty and my grip was loosening. Even though I wanted to be quick with the rope climbs, I needed to ensure I had a solid grip. (Foreshadowing alert: Remember this for later!) I put a bunch of chalk on my hands before starting the round, but didn't go for the chalk in between climbs. Rather, I used the time to get some oxygen as the heat was beginning to get the best of me. I made it through three climbs and walked over to my rower again. The clock was under 12 minutes, so I was still on pace for 5 rounds, but my cushion was evaporating.
My speed on the rower didn't change for round 4 and JP's pace must have remained the same as well because I was near 300 meters again when he came back for his 5th row. I took care of the final 200 meters and just tried to breathe normally as I chalked up my hands again. The climbs were getting tougher, but my first climb of each round was generally pretty fast. The second climb would be worse. And the third climb would be me inchworming my way up the rope as best as I could. I chalked my hands before every climb, adding time to each of my breaks. As I got back to my rower, I was now beyond 16 minutes. I was no longer on pace for 5 rounds.
There was no point in looking at JP anymore. He was going to finish 5 rounds. If I wanted to do the same, I needed to either pick up the pace on the row or shorten my breaks between rope climbs. I hadn't let go of the idea that the rope climbs were more important, so my pace on the 5th row did not change for the most part. Towards the end of the row, I sped up a bit knowing that this was either the end of my rowing or that I'd only have a little sprint after completing the rope climbs. I had about 90 seconds remaining when I headed over to the rope to complete round five.
As I chalked up my hands, I told myself that I couldn't afford long breaks between climbs this time. I went for my first climb and got up the rope quickly. As I came back down the rope, I made what I thought would be a good decision. If I was going to finish this round, I needed to go right back up the rope. No break this time. It was another inchworm special as I wasn't getting much distance on each pull up the rope. But I got to the point where I needed just one more big pull and I could tap the 15' mark. That's when my hands began to slip.
They were only slipping a little at first and I tried not to panic. I had my feet clamped on the rope, so I could keep myself relatively stable. The problem was at some point I needed to unclamp my feet and pull myself towards the 15' mark. That is when I needed my grip strength to come through for me. After remaining stationary for a few moments, I tried again to reach higher. As I reached up with my top hand, it began to slip. I lunged up with my other hand, but that started sliding as well. It was a helpless feeling knowing that I was so close to hitting that mark, yet there was no way I could hold myself up. I made the poor decision of reaching one more time before having my Wile E Coyote moment...
Meep, meep
With one unsteady hand holding the rope and the other off of it temporarily, I began to fall. I didn't fall away from the rope, but I dropped so quickly that there wasn't time to really grab it and stop my plummet. All I could think about in that moment was that I might be about to mess up my foot or ankle pretty badly. My left foot hit the pad below first and then I stumbled back a little as I grabbed at the rope to keep my balance. Ashley M was at the bottom of the rope next to me and I think she braced my fall, although it might not have been intentional (sorry Ashley!). I squatted next to the rope for a few seconds, partially in shock and partially pissed off that I wasn't going to complete the fifth round.
My first thought was to be done with the workout right then and there. There was less than a minute left and I still had a good score all things considered. But I knew what my mistake was and it was easily fixable. I needed to chalk my hands between climbs. I stood up, chalked my hands, and began talking myself into one more climb. Keithie yelled out that there was 30 seconds left and I walked over to my rope. I was still shaken from what had just happened, so I didn't immediately jump on the rope. When Keithie yelled 15 seconds though, I knew I had to go or I wouldn't make it up in time. I began climbing and my hands felt much more secure. I wasn't moving as fast as I did on the first climb, but I was steadily advancing up the rope. Just as I smacked the 15' mark, Keithie yelled time. Final score: 4 full rounds, plus a 500 meter row and 2 rope climbs.
I was one rope climb short of my goal, but I learned that if I'm ever uncertain about how dry my hands are, I should take the extra time to chalk up. Later that night, my left Achilles was bothering me and I became very concerned about whether I could keep working out the rest of the week. If Tuesday's WOD included box jumps, I was definitely not doing it. Otherwise, I would just see how it felt while I warmed up.
Tuesday preview: No box jumps (hooray!). 3RM hang power cleans all by myself. One dude. Before it gets dark.
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