Tia Needs A New Blog Post!

Workout date: 6/16/16

Over the last week, I've had a lot of new readers come up to me at the gym and tell me that they've enjoyed reading the blog (thanks again Cline!).  It's been a while since that's happened as I think there was a shift in who continues to read this blog.  There are a few folks at the gym who let me know they still read it, but most of the feedback that I've gotten has been from people who don't go to my gym at all.  (I haven't received any feedback from my loyal fan bases in France and Portugal, but I appreciate that you guys keep reading!)

Of my new readers, no one has been as vocal as Tia.  Tia is not a new Crossfitter, but she is new to the KOP family.  I think I have seen her every day this week and every time I've bumped into her, she's talked with me about the blog.  I didn't have an opportunity to update my blog on Wednesday evening or any time yesterday, so she wasn't too pleased with me when she saw me last night.  "I had nothing to read today", she told me.  Now the blog editor tells me this is post #315 and I'm sure that she hasn't read all of them in the past week or so, but Tia isn't interested in purchasing day-old donuts.  She's waiting for the "Hot Now" sign to light up and let her know that the fresh ones are ready.  Well Tia...

Thursday was the return of the timed mile at Endurance, although it was the first time in about two years that I'd be testing out this distance.  I missed the first timed mile of the year and since I only caught the tail end of Endurance classes last year, I wasn't there for any of the mile time trials in 2015.  I'm pretty sure that the last timed mile I did was at King and Queen in 2014, where I ran something in the neighborhood of 6:48.  I thought that would be a tough time to duplicate, but my goal was to try and keep it under 7 minutes.

There were 14 of us there to take part in the mile time trial.  We did a two lap warmup, some stretching, and a couple of striders before Coach Tim talked with us about how we should approach the mile.  He told us we shouldn't go out blazing on the first lap and then let things fall apart on the final three laps.  Conversely, we shouldn't be dogging it on the first three laps then finish with a flourish.  Tim wanted us to try and maintain a good, solid pace the entire four laps.  I would do my best, but in my experience, my mile time trials have typically gone like this:

• Lap 1: That was a fast lap.  Seems unlikely I can hold that pace for four laps.
• Lap 2: Strong half mile.  There is no chance I'll be able to hold this pace for the second half mile.
• Lap 3: It all falls apart.  Super slow lap.  At least there is only one lap left.
• Lap 4: A valiant effort at the end, but this lap is slower than it feels.

Whenever I run the mile, I try to keep it together a little better on the 3rd lap than I normally do, but that's always a function of how fast the first two laps go.

As we got ready to go, I heard Flounder mention that a bad time for him would be 7:15, which totally freaked me out.  If 7:00 was a good time for me and 7:15 was a bad time for him, then he'd be breathing down my neck on that last lap.  John McHugh thought I'd be breathing down his neck on the final lap of this time trial, but I told him there was very little chance of that happening.  The two wildcards for me: Joy and Borden.  I've only taken class with Joy once (that infamous "air squat mile" workout), but I got the impression she would be someone I could run with, at least for the first half-mile.  Borden has been ahead of me in a lot of the workouts at the gym recently, including Nicole on Monday where I saw a lot of his back during the 400 meter runs.  I wasn't sure what his mile pace would be like, but I wouldn't be surprised if he was right there with Joy.

Here's how things actually turned out:

• Lap 1: I never like to be up front and on the inside when we start these runs because I'm not a particularly fast starter.  I lined up on the outside behind the first row of runners and then made my way to the inside when space was available.  I almost fell when Alona darted to the inside right in front of me, but I hopped out of the way.  As the lap went on, I moved past a few people and got to the group of 5 (Alex R, Justin R, Joy, Matt C, and John) who were setting the pace.  Even though I knew Alex and Justin had fast mile times, it didn't feel like a fast pace, which Tim confirmed as I ran by the line the first time in 1:35.
• Lap 2: I immediately became concerned that the pace was going to pick up and it felt like that might be happening as we went around the first turn.  The pack of 5 started to become a little more single file with Alex and Justin leading the way.  Matt and John passed Joy and I wasn't sure whether that was them speeding up or her slowing down.  I felt like I needed to go with them, so I eventually passed Joy.  As we approached the line for the end of the second lap, Joy went back ahead of me.  Tim called out a time of 3:28 (second lap of 1:53), which was very slow for me.  By contrast, I ran 3:04 during our 800 meter time trial.
• Lap 3: Alex and Justin really began to separate from the group as we became more strung out.  Matt began to take up the chase after them.  As we hit 600 meters remaining, John looked over his shoulder back towards me and Joy, giving me the impression that he might be slowing down.  I was doing my best not to fall too far behind Joy, thinking that she was much better at keeping it together during lap #3 than I typically am.  As we hit the finish line again, there was one lap to go.  Tim yelled at me to keep staring at Joy's back to stick with her.  Time through 1,200 meters: 5:22 (third lap of 1:54).
• Lap 4: This was where I got confirmation that everyone had paced things out very slowly during the first three laps.  I began pushing hard to try and reel in Joy over the first 200 meters of the final lap, but despite my efforts, she was getting further away from me.  John was getting further away from her.  The top three were long gone.  5:22 through 1,200 meters meant a 7:09 mile pace, so I began to worry that Flounder and possibly Borden might come running by me at the end.  I never got up on my toes for a full sprint at the end, but I did make a nice charge down the last straightaway to the finish line.  Final time: 7:06.5.

Not too bad, but not quite the 7 minutes I was hoping for.  I think everyone's final time ended up being a little slower than they had hoped for due to the pace we went for the first two laps.  Flounder came in at 7:29 and was not pleased.  Alona, Borden, and Jen S came in behind him with Kris, Jill, and Katie further back (Emma did an 800 meter run instead of the mile).

As is always the case with Tim, he wanted us to get some speed work in.  He let us have a break and then told us we'd be doing four 200 meter sprints.  This is where I thought Flounder would get his revenge.  Flounder usually runs one of these sprints very fast, just so he can smoke the rest of the group (me, in particular).  You never know which one it will be though.  I let Joy know that she would get to turn the tables on Flounder.  He calls her "sandbagger", but she was probably going to see some sandbagging on three of the four upcoming sprints.  It actually didn't turn out that way though as nearly everyone managed to be consistent on the four sprints.  Personally, I ran about 37-38 seconds on all four (we didn't get a time for the first sprint, but I can't imagine it was slower than the next three).  I was behind Alex and John on all four sprints.  On two of the sprints, I was ahead of Matt and Joy.  On the other two, I was behind them.  The freakiest moment happened on the final sprint.  Alex, John, Matt, and Joy turned it on for the final 200 meters.  I couldn't keep up with them as well as I had on the first three sprints.  As I rounded the turn, I heard footsteps coming up on my outside.  I typically don't look over my shoulder when I run, but I had to see if it was Flounder.  Nope.  Instead, it was Tim and he couldn't have been closer to me if we were siamese twins.  His head was practically on my right shoulder.  He started yelling "come on, come on, come on" and I sprinted as hard as I could, partially to comply and partially out of fear.

There was a one lap cool down and then some stretching when we were done.  After that, it was time for the triplets to part ways for the day.

Red and gray is the height of Endurance fashion

I didn't head home though.  The wheels had been turning in my head since yesterday's cash out.  If I could get upside down on the wall with that wider grip placement and cut down on my range of motion, maybe I could finally do a strict handstand push-up with 1 abmat.  I've been pursuing that goal for quite a while and it's been driving me nuts.  Abmats weren't that big.  How was it that I could crank out a set of 10 handstand push-ups with 2 abmats, but had never been able to get a single rep with only 1 abmat?  I had tried getting stronger through the shoulder press and through push-ups, but it still felt like I wasn't that close to succeeding with 1 abmat.  I think part of my frustration had come from the feeling that I was running out of solutions.  For the first time ever, my sweaty hands had provided me with one.

I made my way over to the ring area as people sometimes practice handstand push-ups in there.  There was a 6:30 WOD going on along with Open Strength, so I wanted to stay out of everyone's way.  I started off by playing around with getting upside down with the wider hand position.  Two things came from this: 1) I should take some time recovering from Endurance before getting upside down as I became woozy during my first attempt and 2) that I should just attempt the handstand push-ups rather than break it down into smaller pieces.  I was initially putting my hands where I wanted them and then attempting to kick up, but it was a waste of time.  I needed to test out getting my hands there while in the process of kicking up.

So from there, I started doing handstand push-ups.  I set up my 2 abmats like I normally do and tried kicking up with my hands wider than I typically have them.  I was able to get upside down and then I started to do some reps.  That went well.  As was the case yesterday, it felt easier to reach those abmats than had been the case with my typical setup.  For my next set, I wanted to try and pretend I was getting low enough for 1 abmat even though I still had two below me.  On each rep, I didn't want to simply touch my head to the top abmat, I wanted to press my head down deep into it.  After doing that a few times, I felt ready to take on the 1 abmat challenge again.

As I got ready to attempt this for the millionth time, I tried to be positive.  Didn't matter that I hadn't really come close to getting this in all of my previous attempts.  This was something new.  I hadn't failed at it using this method yet.  I could do this.  I got upside down and slowly pressed downward, hoping that my head was going to touch the abmat.  Eventually my arms gave way and I came off the wall.  That wasn't a confident try.  I needed to move with some speed.

I shook out my arms and prepared to make a better attempt at it.  I got upside down with my hands set wide.  I pressed down and, for a split second, it felt like my head grazed the abmat.  I immediately pressed myself back up.  Was that legit?  I wasn't sure.  The fact that I pressed up so easily made me doubt whether I actually touched the abmat.  Still upside down, I decided to go for it again.  This time there was no doubt.  I pressed down quickly and felt a large section of my dome press against the abmat.  I began to press up and slowly I extended up from the bottom.  Whether I had done it once or done it twice, I had finally gotten a strict handstand push-up with 1 abmat!

I had set 10 goals for myself for 2016 and a strict handstand push-up with 1 abmat was the fourth one that I've gotten to cross off my list.  Here's that list with an update on which ones I have accomplished.  They are numbered 1-10 in the order that I thought I would accomplish them.  (Damn you, deadlift plateau!)

1. Finish Grace in under 3 minutes - Completed Grace in 2:38 on 2/19/16
2. Successful deadlift of 400 lbs - Not Completed
3. 1 Strict Handstand Push-Up with 1 Abmat - Completed 1 (or 2?) on 6/16/16
4. Finish Nancy in under 15 minutes - Not Completed
5. Successful clean and jerk at 245 lbs - Not Completed
6. Finish Annie in under 10 minutes - Completed Annie in 9:31 on 2/28/16
7. 5 consecutive kipping handstand push-ups - Not Completed
8. Successful front squat of 300 lbs - Completed on Test Day at end of front squat program (5/9/16)
9. 100 consecutive double unders - Not Completed
10. 1 bar muscle-up - Not Completed

To continue my tradition of dorky celebrations, I speed-walked over to Kris and high-fived her while she was waiting for the Barbell Club class.  Then I gave a big thumbs up and a grin to Erik who had been watching me doing handstand push-ups as he did the 6:30 WOD.  The celebration needs some work, but hopefully I'll have 6 more opportunities to practice this year.

With that done, I finished my day by doing 2 sets of 50 sit-ups.  Was going to use the GHD (less reps obviously), but I didn't want to push the woozy envelope any more than I already had for the day.

Weekend preview: Unknown!  The Friday WOD of running and rowing wasn't very compelling, so I'll probably drop in on Saturday or Sunday instead.