The Cline Effect

Workout date: 6/9/16

Chances are that you are reading this because of Chris Cline.  I have a fairly loyal base of readers that check in regularly to read about my latest triumphs/failures at KOP, but typically the number of page views I get on a given day falls in the 30-50 range.  Cline promoted my blog on Saturday and I had a whopping 236 page views.  So while he may not give a shit about my PRs, he certainly seems to give a shit about my blog.  Thank you Sir Cline for the endorsement.  Our presidential candidates would kill to get an endorsement that bumped up their numbers as much as your endorsement spiked my readership.

Thursday was Endurance day and I was genuinely excited about this class after having seen on Wednesday how much cooler temps could improve my performance in a cardio-based WOD.  Unfortunately, I may have sabotaged my chances before I even showed up to the track.  At lunchtime I had a smoothie.  Didn't notice much of a problem when I drank it.  Noticed much more of a problem as I drove to Endurance.  Seems that my healthy lunch didn't go down as smoothie as I thought.  And during the workout, I had serious concerns about it coming back up not so smoothie.  I never reached that point, but I did feel uncomfortable for most of this workout.  Plus I discovered that my Wednesday night performance might have been a little fluky, because my cardio on Thursday left a lot to be desired.

I got to the track a few minutes late as no one seems to know how to drive on the roads in the vicinity of Upper Merion high school.  The class had started the first of two warmup laps, so I dropped off my water in the infield and started jogging alongside Jill Herman (so many Jills come to our gym).  I got to catch up with her a little bit as we finished off the next lap and change.  As we completed our warmup, we caught up to the rest of the class.  Coach Tim let us know we'd be moving through the workout pretty quickly as he was going to take off at around 6:20 to get to the first Midsummer Night race this summer.  This is a series of three 5K races in Ardmore that KOP athletes regularly take part in.  If I had my act together, I probably would have signed up for the first one, but I forgot when it was.  Borden, Flounder, Joy, Mike San., and Justin R. were all more organized than me and took part in the first installment.  As for the folks at the track, we would be doing two rounds of a track triplet (400 meters, 250 meters, 150 meters).  Then we'd wrap things up with four 40-meter sprints.

Usually Tim splits us into a Group 1 and Group 2, but this week we had those two groups as well as another smaller group that was doing a scaled version of the workout. The groups weren't created until we finished off our first 400 meter run.  Honestly, Group 1 was more like a combination of Group 1a and Group 1b.  Group 1a consisted of Laura A, Alex R, and Matt C.  Group 1b was made up of Ashley M, Sarina, and myself.  We were told to run the first 400 meters at about a 70% pace and I was almost exactly on that number when I finished up in 1:44.  (Nerd alert: As I began to write this paragraph, I did the math of what 70% of my 400 meter time trial pace would be and got 1:45.7.  I had no idea what that number was when I did this workout, nor did I think I was on pace when I hit the finish line and was mildly panting.)  There was a gap between Group 1a and Group 1b, but it wasn't huge, so we were lumped together for the next run.

We walked about half of the way to the 250 meter starting line and then jogged the rest of the distance.  When we got there, none of us were exactly sure how fast we were supposed to run during this segment.  The 400 meters was 70% and the 150 meters was supposed to be 100% sprint.  Guessing the 250 was supposed to be done at 80-90%?  Tim's hand was up in the air before we had it figured out, so we got ready and planned to feel it out along the way.  Our sextet took off together and it was a fairly tight pack with a set of three only a stride ahead of the remaining three.  I was in the trailing group towards the outside, trying to remain calm as we accelerated into the turn.  Our guess on the pace turned out to be wrong as Tim yelled to us that we needed to pick it up.  At that point, I looped up on the outside and began sprinting as we hit the head of the straightaway.  For a few moments, I thought I might get to the finish line first, but Matt went by me in the last 30 meters or so.  Still second wasn't too bad for me.  The only problem?  I was spent.

As everyone else from our group and the next group came in, I remained sitting on the ground trying to get my breath back.  We were meant to walk back to the 150 meter starting line as soon as we had completed the 250 meters, but I needed a little extra time.  Kinda nauseous and out of breath, I wanted a break, but Endurance is all about working hard before you're fully recovered.  Sarina came over and helped me get moving on the walk to the 150 meter line.  Sarina is the new intern at the gym and I had just met her for the first time on Saturday after Competitors Class.  Apparently I didn't frighten her too much as she was willing to help out a struggling old guy.  (Note: This would be a recurring theme at the end of the week...young female athlete has more faith in old male athlete's ability than old male athlete does.  I will be playing the role of old male athlete in all performances.)  Once I got walking, I began feeling better about what remained.  It was a sprint that would take less than 30 seconds.  Shouldn't be that bad.

Oh but it was.  I hadn't mentioned it yet, but there was a strong headwind gusting on that straightaway.  Didn't matter on the 400 meters because the wind helps you on one side and hurts you on the other.  But for the 250, we only had the tailwind briefly before dealing with the wind in our faces on the last 100 meters.  For the 150, the run was almost exclusively into the wind.  Tim sent us off on the final run of the first round and I was moving pretty well for the first two-thirds of the sprint.  Then a stronger gust of wind came through.  The gust stood me up as I was charging towards the finish line and suddenly I was done.  All of my momentum came to a halt and whoever was behind me at that point went sprinting on by.  It was a lousy end to the first series of runs.  I was looking forward to catching my breath before round 2 began, but Tim said we only had two and a half minutes.  This was only gonna get uglier.

For the second 400 meter run, the gap between Group 1a and Group 1b was much larger.  I was straggling behind Ashley and Sarina, beginning to wonder whether someone from Group 2 was going to charge on by.  My time of 1:51 wasn't horrendous, but it felt so much slower than the first lap we had done.  On the next 250 meter run, I didn't have the same acceleration on the turn and ended up 4th or 5th in our group.  Same thing on the 150 meter run, as I braced myself the entire way for another huge gust of wind.  I wasn't doing anything particularly well today.  Maybe I could at least put together a couple of solid short sprints.

That was the finale for class.  I thought Tim had said 50 meter sprints, but I guess they turned out to be 40 meter sprints.  For the first three sprints, we would jog about 30 meters to the head of the straightaway before going all out for the next 40 meters.  Simple enough.  The last sprint would be from a standing start at the head of the straightaway.  As Group 1 got ready to go, I planted myself on the far outside.  I couldn't hang out behind a wall of people for a distance that short.  And I wasn't losing that much ground being on the far outside because the initial jog on the turn was so small.  Ashley was directly to my left and she was not messing around on the sprints.  Each time we hit the head of the straightaway, she would burst ahead and I'd try to reel her in as quickly as I could.  Towards the inside, Matt and Laura were staging their own battle against one another.  Pretty much all four of the sprints were run in this manner, with Matt claiming victory in the final 40 meter sprint from a standing start.

That was it for Thursday.  Tired and not feeling 100%, I decided not to make the trek over to the gym for some extra work.  Besides, I had an early workout planned for Friday.

Friday preview: An afternoon wedding forces me to take the noon class, where I learn a new movement after 3.5 years of doing Crossfit.