There have been two very pull-up-centric workouts added as gym benchmark WODs this year and I have not been fond of either. In January and April, we had Chelsea, which is 30 minutes of pull-ups, push-ups, and air squats. (Yes, pull-ups only make up 1/6th of the reps in that workout, but doing pull-ups for 30 minutes makes it pull-up-centric to me.) The other workout made its debut in March, meaning it would be making another appearance in June. Specifically, June 13th. Monday's workout was Nicole and she and I are not friends.
"Nicole" (or as Rachel calls it, "Natalie")
400 meter run
Max pull-ups
Athlete must go for another 400 meter run once they come off the pull-up bar
Score is number of pull-ups completed in 20 minutes
This may be the toughest workout I've had to do at the gym in terms of pure ability. There are plenty of other workouts that have been tougher in terms of how heavy the weights are, how long the workout may be, or how fast you need to sprint through it. There have been workouts which are much more difficult mentally. But to get a good score in this workout, you need to have grip strength and the ability to do pull-ups. There isn't much else that will help you (unless you decide to run very fast and buy yourself an extra round on the pull-up bar). When I did this in March, I knew I would struggle. And when it showed up again for Monday's WOD, I didn't think the outcome would be all that different. Which is why the next story I tell you will seem very strange.
On Sunday night, I received a message from Cline. We made plans to go to brunch this upcoming Saturday and nothing tastes better than a free meal. Cline suggested that we place a wager on our Nicole results. Loser pays for brunch. My immediate reaction: hell no. Of all the workouts I could bet on, this would have to be close to the bottom of that list. But then I talked myself into it for a variety of reasons:
- I'm not the type of guy who is only willing to bet when he thinks he has much the best of it. If you are that person, you will find that people will bet with you less and less. Sure, in general, you want to bet when you think you have an edge, but that's different than being the person who will only bet when they feel nearly certain that they will win.
- Gamblers have a saying: "to get action, you have to give action". Not enough gambling takes place at the gym. If taking one on the chin from Nicole helps promote more wagers in the future, then I was cool with losing this one.
- Gambling is supposed to be fun! My style of gambling is decidedly non-sexy. I don't show up to the roulette table and place a large stack of chips on black. I don't take the money we need to pay the bills and wager it on the ponies. I employ a lot of money management while gambling. It's not as cool as what you see in the movies, but I enjoy it. It is more fun when you win, but it should still be fun even if you lose. Betting on brunch was going to be fun even if my money was paying for the mimosa that Cline would be drinking to wash down his french toast.
- I love challenges. Even though I know Cline is better at pull-ups and running, he only got 1 more rep than me (40 to 39) when we did this in March. Chances were good that I wasn't going to beat him, but perhaps the incentive of free brunch would propel me to victory.
Cline let me know that we wouldn't be going head-to-head in class because he was taking the 7am. I'd actually have the advantage of knowing what his score was when I did the workout. Well, theoretically it was an advantage, assuming that he didn't put up a big score that was well out of my reach. A score like 48. After finishing his workout, Cline informed me that his score had improved twenty percent from what it was in March. Jerk. The chances of me getting a gratis English muffin were looking slim.
There were 14 of us at the 6:30 class waiting to take on Nicole and one of the first people I saw as I walked in the door was Matt B. I knew he was going to hate this workout, because I hate this workout and we tend to enjoy/hate the same types of workouts at the gym. I also got to see EJ for the first time in a while. He had injured his back at Open Gym last month and I don't think I've run into him at a WOD since then. Aimee told us to find a partner during our warmup 200 meter run and I went with EJ to catch up a bit. When we came back, the warmup continued with a tag team relay where 1 person would row 5 calories, bear crawl across the gym, do 5 shoulder activations on the pull-up bar, then bear crawl back. Each partner had to do this three times. From there, we did some pull-up progressions before getting ready to go.
Aimee sent us out to the barrier and counted us down for the start of our first run. We took off and I tried to go at the fastest pace I could without breathing heavily. Nate was out in front immediately (and he'd remain there for the entirety of this workout) as I settled in about third or fourth. When I came back into the gym, it was all about calming myself and trying to get a big set in round one. I jumped up to the high bar and tried to do sets of two before dropping into a dead hang. If I attempted larger sets than that, I was going to begin swinging wildly and eventually drop off the bar. I couldn't afford that on this workout. It was better to go slow and hang on. My all-time best for consecutive pull-ups is 10 and I was hoping to beat that right off the bat. I got to 10, but when I went for number 11, I couldn't get high enough. Time to go for a run.
I knew a few things as I headed out for run number two. A glance at the clock let me know that I had completed the first round in just under three minutes. That meant I'd be doing six rounds. To tie Cline's score, I would need to average 8 pull-ups on each of those six rounds. And to do that, I needed a huge second round (and possibly a big third round as well). I also knew that I needed to keep up a decent speed on my runs without tiring myself out. I started trying out a new breathing technique that Pam had taught me on Friday. She had told me that when I'm running, I should be inhaling through my nose and exhaling through my mouth. While I'm sure that is technically correct, when you're gasping for air like I am in most workouts, you take in oxygen anyway you can get it. You could hand a bottle of water to a guy dying of thirst and tell him that it would be best to drink it through a straw, but my guess is that he's just gonna rip off the cap and begin frantically pouring it in the general direction of his mouth. Today, I practiced using the straw.
Focusing on my breathing did keep me relatively calm as I finished up my second run. Nate, Borden, and Mike C were all ahead of me, while Megs and Danielle were right behind me. I took some time before jumping up on the bar, with the mindset that I needed to hang on for another 10 reps. During that first round, I had to re-grip quite a few times to make it through 10 reps. I started to re-grip frequently during round #2, but it wasn't helping out as much. I made it through 6 reps and tried to adjust my grip, but ended up feeling it slip. I dropped off the bar and headed out for another run. Not much changed in the next round. Nate kept extending his lead, but the gap from Borden and Mike to me hadn't changed much, nor had the gap from me to Megs and Danielle. And despite trying to hang on longer in round three, I could only get 6 more reps again. I had fallen under the pace of 8 pull-ups per round that I needed to tie Cline. The workout was only halfway done, but I knew I had lost the bet.
On run #4 I decided to try and have some fun. I began high-fiving every single person that ran by me in the opposite direction. Steph C and Kris were running together, so I ran in between them to try and execute the double high-five. I think Kris is a little stronger than she gives herself credit for because she almost yanked my arm off when we smacked hands. I came back into the gym hoping to continue my pattern of 6 reps. If I could do that three more times, I'd reach 40 reps, which was my goal when I did this back in March. Perhaps all the high-fiving loosened up my arms, because I felt better on that fourth set than I did during sets two and three. I didn't feel like I had to struggle to get that 6th rep. In fact, I began to think I might get 7 or 8 in this round. But as I went for rep #7, I came up just shy of the bar again and had to drop.
On my next run, I saw that Danielle had picked up her pace. There was now a gap between her and Megs and she was starting to close in on me. Part of me wanted to try and run faster, but there didn't seem to be much to gain from doing that. I'd have to pump my arms and that was energy that would be better spent on the pull-up bar. I stayed in front of her on that 5th run, but I had fallen much further behind Nate, Borden, and Mike. When I got back to my bar, I was feeling good about things. I knew I only had to do this two more times. I had gotten 6 reps each of my last three rounds, so I knew I could do it in rounds five and six. And the fourth round had been my best since the initial round, so maybe my technique was improving as the workout progressed.
Or maybe I was about to unravel. Each rep was very difficult in round five, but I was determined to get my six reps. I made it through five, then got stuck on the 6th rep. I tried to save it by essentially doing a strict pull-up, but for the third time in this workout, I didn't have the strength to get my chin above the bar. I may have yelled out an expletive or two as I dropped to the floor and headed out on my final run.
Nothing good happened on the final run either. Danielle went running by me. As I made the turn around, I saw that Nate was closing in on me and I wasn't psyched about being lapped. I did manage to make it back to the gym before he passed me, but the final minute of the WOD has already begun ticking away. I took 10-15 seconds to compose myself before jumping up to my bar. There was still an outside chance I could hang on for 7 reps and get a score of 40. You know, like if I had anything resembling grip strength. Since I do not, the end came quickly. I did a rep, then needed to re-grip. I did a second rep and then (say it with me) needed to re-grip. That second re-grip didn't take and I felt myself slipping a bit. I tried to get set again and go for my third rep, but my hands were not interested in helping me out. I came down from the bar and watched the last 10-15 seconds tick away. Final score: 35.
Not a great score and it's hard to get psyched about scoring lower than you did three months ago, but this is a workout that I kinda hate. It didn't bother me all that much that I lost the bet or that my performance had declined. I was just glad to be done with it.
Afterwards, I hung out with Danielle, Megs, Kris, and Raj as Danielle explained to all of us how she could not get pull-ups. I'm not sure the rest of us buy that story and I was pretty vocal about not believing it. My struggles with pull-ups are well-documented, yet I'm able to get some. Danielle is a better athlete than I am, so the idea that she can't do pull-ups doesn't compute for me. I watched as she made a couple attempts and I think what it boils down to for her is becoming more aggressive. And this is something I can completely empathize with. I struggled for a long time with becoming more aggressive when performing Crossfit movements. It's just not a natural thing for me. There's a reason phrases like "timid hips" and "impressively slow" have been associated with me. But I have worked on it and I think that once Danielle works on being more aggressive, she'll be fine as well. The biggest thing I noticed is that she doesn't use her legs and hips much in her kip. I got better by learning to stomp down with my legs as I kip, so I tried to show her what I meant by that. Much laughter ensued.
I asked Danielle if she ever watched America Ninja Warrior and she said yes. So I explained the stomping down motion is basically what those athletes use to get up the Salmon Ladder. They draw their knees up, stomp down, and the momentum makes them weightless just long enough that they can pop up to the next rung of the ladder. In order to demonstrate this, I hung from the high pull-up bar and then started to draw my knees in and stomp down repeatedly, slowly raising myself higher into a pull-up. Was this a good demo for learning pull-ups? Probably not. But what I was trying to do was show how that stomping technique could help you in your kip as you try to do pull-ups. I'm sure it looked super goofy (Megs said she wished she had videotaped it), but I'm okay with a few laughs if it helps out someone in the long run.
Tuesday preview: The return of the Filthy Fifty! This workout took me nearly 43 minutes last time. I'll need to shave that time down some if I want to avoid a cameo appearance from the pity circle.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.