We've Done Stupider Things

Workout date: 5/23/16

I was relieved when I woke up Monday morning and was able to get out of bed.  I expected major gimpiness from the tabata workout I had done on Sunday, but there was only some mild soreness.  Of course, my body usually experiences the worst of it 48 hours later rather than the next day, so I knew my good fortune might only be temporary.  Luck was on my side based on the day's programming, since it seemed to be much more arms-focused than legs-focused.  It was a partner WOD where both partners had to work at the same time.  Here's what it looked like:

60 handstand push-ups

Partner holds a deadlift (225/135) during handstand push-ups

60 front squats (135/95)

Partner dead hangs from the pull-up bar during front squats

60 burpee box jumps (24"/20")

Partner holds barbell (135/95) overhead during burpee box jumps

Having immersed myself in the Crossfit Regionals coverage from around the world, I was psyched to do this workout.  Most of the partner WODs that we do involve one person working and the other person resting.  But in the team workouts at Regionals, athletes almost never get a break.  Even if it is something as simple as hanging from a pull-up bar, you are forced to do something while your teammates are working.  Same idea here.  You had to complete 180 reps of work, but your reps only counted if your partner was doing the "minor work" at the same time.

I showed up to the 6:30 class and found 17 other folks waiting to do the workout with me.  It was not difficult for me to figure out who my partner would be though.  I ran into Matt B in the lobby and felt pretty certain we'd be working together.  In fact, there were quite a few teams that were obvious before Aimee called us over to figure out who was working with who.  Alicia and Josh?  Yup.  Fayth and Steph C?  Yup.  Megs and Neil?  Yup.  Esra and Kris?  Yup.  That left 8 remaining athletes and at that point, it was easy to see how those last 4 teams would stack up.  Danielle and Raj were the only two ladies remaining.  Cline and Chris D are buddies from Dudes After Dark.  Jon P and Keith were likely to do this workout RX, which left Mike C and Rehman as partners.

An Aimee warmup is typically very long and we had a lot of movements to go over for this workout, so I was expecting to be a sweaty mess even before we began a WOD where I thought I'd be working for a solid 20 minutes.  What I didn't expect was that we'd spend most of the warmup doing something that had almost nothing to do with the workout we were about to take part in.  We briefly went over the barbell movements using 65 pounds on the barbell.  We got in a few reps of handstand push-ups and box jumps.  We hung from the pull-up bar for about 5-10 seconds at a time.  But when we went to practice burpees (and seriously, why do we need to practice those?), it turned into a painful game that required a lot of shoulder strength.  The 18 of us lined up in a high plank.  From there we tried to do "the wave" with one person dropping and then doing a hand-release push-up as the next person down the line dropped and so on and so on.  When that didn't go so smoothly, a new plan was hatched.  With the 18 of us holding a high plank, the person at the end of the line would crawl under the other 17 bodies before holding a high plank at the other end of the line.  Once all 18 people were through, we could relax.  I was the 16th person in line and it was agony waiting for everyone to crawl through as there were some very slow crawlers in the group.  Since there wasn't much room at the end I was on, the line had to curve around in front of the bathroom and, eventually, in front of the rings.  This picture was snapped when it was finally my turn to crawl:

Which immediately made me think of this...

Why didn't somebody tell me?

Crawling under everyone wasn't so bad.  It was certainly an upgrade from holding that damn plank.  I only had to hold it on the other end for two people to crawl under me before we were finally done.  No biggie, I didn't need my shoulders for the workout anyway.

We didn't have a lot of time to warm up with the weights we were planning on using for the workout. I asked Matt if we were using the RX weights.  He just shrugged and said "I guess".  I figured that was the plan as I didn't think those weights sounded unbearable for either of us.  Among the barbell movements, I was most concerned about holding on to the 225 pound deadlift, but thought I could manage it for a solid 10-15 seconds at a time.  135 pound front squats didn't sound bad to me having just finished a front squat program where I used 215 on my "light" days.  Holding 135 pounds overhead could be difficult, but I thought if I pretended I was doing overhead squats, I could trick my mind into enjoying that aspect of the workout.  The only other element of the workout that we needed to discuss were the handstand push-ups.  I told Matt I'd try to do them with 2 abmats for as long as I could, while Matt was going to do regular push-ups as a scale.

Aimee began walking around to ask the teams if they were ready.  When she got to me and Matt, we had just finished loading 225 on to the barbell, so it's not like we had gotten any reps in with it.  Aimee asked us if we were going to be okay using the RX weights.  My reply?  "We've done stupider things."  Probably not what Aimee wanted to hear, but it was hard to argue with such an accurate statement.  After checking on the other teams, Aimee set the clock and got us started.

Matt started out on the deadlift and I began on the wall.  We had agreed to try and do at least 5 reps at a time, but we would do more if we still felt good.  During my first set of handstand push-ups, I felt good.  I got 10 in a row before coming off the wall and Matt didn't look overly strained having to hold on to the deadlift longer than expected.  As Matt went over to the push-up area, I picked up the barbell and was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn't feel as heavy as I thought it might.  Matt did 10 push-ups and we were one-third of the way through the first section of the workout already.

Sadly, I might have bitten off more than I could chew with that first set of handstand push-ups.  I only managed 5 reps on my second turn at the wall and the last rep or two was a struggle.  Matt did 10 more regular push-ups before my slide continued with only 3 reps.  Matt reduced his set down to 5 reps and I tried one last time to do handstand push-ups.  I got 1 rep, then fell off of the wall as I tried for a second one.  Matt saw me off of the wall and dropped the barbell.  That led to this exchange:

Matt: Did you get 3?

Me: Only got 1.

Matt: 1!?!?

Me: <"Sorry, dude" face>

(This would not be the only time in this workout this interaction would take place)

Now at 44 reps, Matt got through 6 push-ups to get us to 50.  He told me to do 5 and he'd do 5 to wrap it up, but I felt like I needed to redeem myself a little bit.  Scaling down to regular push-ups, I began knocking out reps quickly until I got through all 10 that we had remaining.  Section one complete.

Matt started us off on the front squats while I hung from the pull-up bar.  I used a mixed grip because there was an event during Regionals where two athletes had to hang from a pull-up bar while a third teammate did overhead squats.  The announcers had made note of how the smarter teams were using a mixed grip as that would not diminish their grip strength as quickly as those who were using a conventional grip.  That's all I needed to hear.  Matt did 5 front squats and then switched places with me.  When I got to the barbell, I knew I could do more than 5 front squats if I stayed composed.  The tabata workout from the day before was going to make this harder than it would have been otherwise, but I still held on for 8 reps.  We repeated this pattern on our second trip through this station, with Matt doing 5 while I did 8 reps.  I could see that Matt was not enjoying the front squats, so I wanted to get as many as I could while he was on the pull-up bar.  In round three I needed a little break though, so we each did 5.  Up to 36 reps.

I looked at the clock and it was just beyond 7:30.  I thought this workout would take about 20 minutes, so to see we were more than halfway through it in about 7:30 got me psyched.  We were killing this thing!  Or so it seemed...

On our next time through the front squats, I managed to do 8 again after Matt completed his 5.  My grip on the pull-up bar began to loosen as Matt did his final 5 front squats, but I held on just long enough before dropping.  Then I went to the barbell and took care of the remaining 6 front squats.  Headed on to the final section of the workout.

I mentioned that the deadlift was the one barbell movement that I was most concerned about in this workout, but nothing scared me as much as the burpee box jumps.  The 135 pound front squats were a little tricky due to my tired legs, but burpee box jumps were a body-weight exercise, meaning I was using nearly 215 pounds for that movement.  I could tell I was in trouble immediately.  Matt held the barbell over his head as I slowly made my way through 4 reps.  Matt had held it long enough that I should have been able to do about 7 reps, but when I finished my fourth, I told him we should switch.  Remember that conversation earlier where Matt asked if I got 3 reps and I told him I only got 1?  Substitute 5 reps for Matt's question and 4 reps for my answer.  The rest of that interaction was the same.

From there, we both started getting through 5 burpee box jumps each set, although it was very clear that I was enjoying the holding the barbell portion of this section more than Matt was.  At one point, Aimee came over and encouraged me to get working as I sat in a squat next to the box.  I motioned over to where Matt was, chalking up his hands.  Even if I wanted to keep going, I couldn't until Matt had the barbell over his head.  For once, the extended break I was taking in a workout was acceptable.

I don't remember the exact number of reps each of us did from there on out, but I did hold the barbell over my head for one extended set as Matt did 8 burpee box jumps.  Matt began to drop the barbell earlier in my burpee box jump sets, so I would only get 3-4.  As our transitions became slower, the rest of the class began finishing their work.  Soon it was only Megs and Neil working alongside of us as the pity circle began to form.  And then they were done.  The pity circle turned their gaze towards the two dummies who were working hard to wrap up their workout.

They didn't have to encourage us long.  Matt dropped the barbell with 9 reps left and I tried my best to hold it over my head the rest of the way as Matt did 9 burpee box jumps.  I thought I could make it to the end, but my wrists were starting to give way like they had done during my 15RM overhead squat set last week.  I wish I had worn my wrist wraps, but there was nothing I could do about that now.

Trying to hold on through the final 9 reps

After 6 reps, I had to drop.  That wasn't too bad as I knew Matt could hold on for 3 reps while I tried to move through the burpee box jumps as quickly as possible.  With my third hop on to the box, we were finally done. Final time: 22:33.

So much for "hey, we're killing this workout!"  The burpee box jump portion of this WOD was very humbling as it took longer to do that than it had taken us to get through the first two sections of the workout.  I don't think our choice of weights for the barbell was inappropriate.  I think we simply got tired after a while.  Typically at the end of a WOD, I'll go over and give a fist bump to my classmates.  At the end of this one, I went over and gave Matt a hug.  We might have been slow, but we worked our asses off in this one and got through it.

Tuesday preview: John McHugh makes a Dudes After Dark appearance!  It's a double under WOD with some overhead squats and muscle-ups thrown in for good measure.