Dave Suddenly Has Way More Potential

Workout date: 7/18/16

Not only did the Brawl go much better for me than I had expected it to, the aftermath went much better as well.  I wasn't crazy enough to come back to the gym the next day, but when I woke up Sunday morning I not only didn't feel sore, I felt better than I had when I woke up 24 hours ago.  I had been very concerned about doing 4 WODs in the heat.  I had been worried about my achy knees not holding up.  Yet when I got out of bed on Sunday, I didn't feel dehydrated, nor were my knees bothering me.  Maybe my body just needed to get the crap kicked out of it to turn the corner.

My luck continued when I saw what was in store for us at the gym on Monday:

Monday's WOD
1,000 meter row
50 abmat sit-ups
400 meter run
6 rope climbs (15')

There's nothing more exciting than seeing a WOD that looks doable and this appeared to be eminently doable.  I could row.  I could do 50 sit-ups.  I could run 400 meters.  And I could definitely do 6 rope climbs.  This was definitely a "try and knock it out of the park" day.

I ran into a few people who had done the Brawl on Saturday and they asked me how sore I was.  Like the total jackass that I am, my responses ranged from "not sore at all" to "feeling better than ever".  Each response got me a stare like I was an alien, which was completely warranted.  I can't explain why my body works some days and doesn't work most other days.  I'm not sure how four workouts turned my body from sore to limber.  But it happened and I wasn't about to question a good thing.

Coach Aimee was leading the Monday 6:30 and started off the class by asking everyone if they had signed up for King and Queen.  Since I had not, I didn't raise my hand.  Standing next to me was John McHugh and he was not having it.  "Come on, Dave.  You gotta do it!"  Damn it all.  I couldn't claim to be too hurt to do it now that my body was feeling better.  I didn't even have a crummy Brawl experience to lean on in order to wiggle my way out of King and Queen.  Plus John was asking me to do it and when do I ever say no to John?  Fine, I'll sign up after class is over.

There were 12 of us attending the 6:30 and only five ropes (four if you exclude the slippery one no one ever wants to use), so I wondered if we'd end up doing a staggered start for this workout.  That was not part of Aimee's master plan.  We were all going to start together and then share ropes if need be.  My typical reaction to this plan would have been disappointment (who wants to wait for a rope to open up?), but with there being 6 rope climbs in this WOD and since they were showing up at the end of the workout, I imagined that the amount of time we'd spend waiting for a rope would probably be less than one might think.  Plus there wasn't much chance anyone was going to do all 6 in a row without stopping, so a break or two was going to be necessary anyway.

There wasn't much technical work to do during the warmup.  There is a technique to rowing, but I think everyone kinda does their own thing once the workout begins.  Sit-ups are self-explanatory, as is running.  Aimee went over the S-hook and J-hook for rope climbs, then showed some examples of scales that people could do if they didn't feel comfortable climbing the rope.  But that was it for the warmup.

The class got their rowers and abmats set up and then Aimee got us started.  Couldn't pace myself on this one. It was go, go, go!  I wasn't going insanely fast for the 1,000 meters as there were still three other parts to this workout, but I was rowing a little bit faster than I typically do.  To me, this was basically a sprint WOD and I couldn't start it off with a slow row.  As the clock hit three minutes, I had less than 200 meters to go.  A familiar voice yelled encouragement to me.  "Come on, Dave!  You got this!"  John was rowing at the opposite end of the gym, but he was still rooting me on even while he was finishing up his 1,000 meters.  If he was going to spend energy to help me out, then it was only right that I push even harder to complete to the row.  When I hit the thousand meter mark, I had set a new PR for myself of 3:36.8, a 3.4 second improvement on my prior best time.

That final push also meant I was the first one on to the sit-ups.  I wasn't expecting that to be the case and I figured it would not be long before I had company.  A few moments later, several other guys began unstrapping their feet from their rowers.  I was trying to whip through my sit-ups as fast as I could right from the start, but that fast row did have an effect on me.  I got through about 20 reps before my pace began to slow.  It wasn't like I came screeching to a halt, but I certainly didn't move as fluidly as I did during the first 20 reps.  Nate was beside me and even though he started 6 or 7 reps behind me, I could sense he was catching up to me.  I completed rep #50 before everyone else and headed out the door.  I had the lead, but for how much longer?

Answer: About a few more seconds.  I knew the run wasn't going to be the strongest area of the workout for me, but I didn't bank on being so much slower than everyone who was pursuing me.  Nate went flying by me just after we went by the barrier in the parking lot.  I knew there was no way I could keep up his pace, so I kept moving at my own glacial pace, treating the run as a bit of a breather before tackling the final 6 rope climbs.  As I hit the turnaround point, I discovered I was in a lot of trouble.  Greg and Chris D were not far behind me and there was no way I was going to hold them off for another 200 meters.  Borden wasn't far behind them.  If all three passed me before we got back to the gym, I was either going to have to use the slippery rope or wait on someone else to come off their rope.  I had to pick up the pace.  My last 200 meters wasn't fast enough to stay ahead of Greg and Chris, but I did get in the door right before Borden.

Oddly enough, the three guys who got back before me went to the far end of the gym and used the ropes there, leaving the rope in the middle of the gym free.  As I got ready to hop on to it, I saw Borden stop on the other side of the rope.  We were basically there at the same time, so I asked Borden if he wanted to go first.  I think he knew I really wanted to go, so he gave me the honors.  I sped up the rope as quickly as I could, then came back down and let him go.  He had a little trouble at first, doing a pull or two before coming back down.  Then on his second try, he got all the way up to the 15' mark.  I made sure to jump right back on the rope once he came down, getting my second climb in before passing the rope back to Borden.  His second climb went smoother than the first and it was my turn again.

Having these little breaks while sharing the rope kept me fresh, so my third climb was fast, just like the first two.  When I came down, I stepped away from the rope to indicate it was all Borden's, but he was still catching his breath.  So I took that as an opportunity to be greedy and get my fourth climb in.  When I descended from that climb, Borden was ready to go again.  His third climb was similar to the first as he looked like he was having trouble right after his first pull.  But he got it worked out and gradually got up to the 15' mark.  I eagerly jumped up to do my 5th climb.  I was getting tired, but I knew I only had two climbs left and I could handle them even if I wasn't 100%.  As I came down from the 5th climb, Borden had that look like he wanted me to just finish up, so I jumped up for my last climb.  This one was ugly.  I didn't get nice long pulls like I had during my first five climbs.  This was more of a scramble in an attempt to get up there as quickly as possible, form be damned.  I tapped the 15' mark and slid back down to the floor.  Final time: 11:17.

My final rope climb.  Not my prettiest.

The rope climbs were my friend as I finished before the three guys who passed me on the run despite having to share a rope.  (To be fair, they eventually had to share as well.)  I think if I wasn't sharing a rope, I could have finished this workout in around 10:30.  The workout had indeed proven to be very doable.  And thanks to John's encouragement, I even got a PR out of the deal.

As the class finished up, Aimee asked us for our times.  I told her 11:17 for me and she wrote my time next to the name Danielle.  Danielle was at the gym, but she wasn't in our class.  She was working on strength while the 6:30 was in session.  Also, <spoiler> Danielle and I look absolutely nothing alike.  (Lucky for her.)  I pointed out the mistake to Aimee and she laughed about it before changing it.  I told Aimee that if I was now Danielle and if she was now Dave, then Dave suddenly had way more potential at the gym (which is true).  Alas there has been no identity swap, so regular old Dave will need WODs with rope climbs or bear complexes (coming soon!) to shine at the gym.

Tuesday preview: More deadlift misery.  Plus an appearance by Anne at Dudes After Dark!

1200 Pounds Of Meat Right Here

Workout date: 7/16/16

A confession: I thought that the Festivus Games would be the last Crossfit competition I took part in. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say I was about 85% sure of it.  When Diane and Alison asked me about getting the Soukas back together for this year's Brawl In The Burbs, I flat out said no.  When other people in the gym asked me if I was doing Brawl or King and Queen, I tended to give a vague "I don't think so" even though deep down the answer was closer to "I'm not interested".  (Spoiler: And now I am signed up for the upcoming King and Queen competition.  Clearly I give in way too easily.)

Why was I planning on stopping after the Festivus Games?  I'm very competitive by nature, but I wasn't competitive at all during these competitions.  I've done King and Queen three times and haven't cracked the top 10, even though there are only about 20 male competitors each year.  I've done Festivus twice and hadn't cracked the top 10 of the Intermediate division.  I did the Masters Of The Universe competition and ended up near the bottom of the leaderboard.  I had been part of a successful Soukas team for two years in a row at the Brawl, but it felt like I was the weak link on both of those squads.  As Aimee told a member of one of the winning teams after this year's Brawl, "it's so much more fun when you win".  She's not wrong.  And I haven't been in the same zip code as the people who have won these events.

This year's Festivus Games unexpectedly gave me one more reason to say sayonara.  After completely messing up an event that I should have done well in (as I tend to do at least once in every competition I participate in), I actually had a great moment to end the day.  I got a PR of 200 pounds on my thruster, getting the barbell overhead with only seconds to spare.  When I signed up for competitions, I envisioned having moments like that.  Instead, most of the moments were like this:

Crumbling in the spotlight again at last year's Brawl

The thruster triumph was my first really good moment in a competition.  And that got me thinking.  Perhaps this was a sign that I should go out on a high note.  Better move that 85% up to 90%.

A couple Brawl teams in need of a guy asked me if I would like to join them, but I stuck to my guns and declined.  I was more than happy keeping score for the event.  I love working on spreadsheets.  I love trying to find new ways to make them easier for the person inputting the scores.  I love trying to find new ways to make them more appealing to the athletes trying to find out where they are in the standings.  It's more affirmation that I'm a geek, but hey, you enjoy what you enjoy.

A little over a month ago, I got a message from Cline.  He knew how I felt about participating, but Luke had hurt his back practicing one of the Brawl WODs and they were now unexpectedly down a man.  He wanted me to consider joining a team consisting of himself, Alison, and Shawna for the Brawl.  I tend to feel like an ass when I can help somebody out but decide not to, so I reluctantly agreed to be part of team Maybe Coach Aimee (But Probably Not).  I immediately began to think of all the ways I could screw things up during this competition.

What transpired over the next several weeks actually made me feel much more at ease about my new partnership.  Cline went to Portugal for several weeks.  Alison was also traveling (in the NE portion of the US).  And despite keeping a regular schedule at the gym, I didn't bump into Shawna at all until the week of the competition.  We didn't get together to practice the workouts.  We didn't send messages back and forth about what strategies we were going to use (at least not until a day or two before the Brawl).  The team seemed to be supremely laid back about what awaited us on Saturday.

Their laissez faire attitude made me feel less paranoid about how I was going to do at the Brawl.  My only real concern was the heat, since the gym was probably going to be even worse than it normally is with 160 athletes and an unknown number of spectators crammed in there.  I packed a ridiculous amount of water and Gatorade in my bag to replenish all of the water I expected my body to lose over the course of four events.

Our first event was called the Lyons Den.  It was a 20 minute workout where our team would be split into a female pair and a male pair.  Each pair had to complete 30 clean and jerks.  Every 5 reps, the partner who was working would switch out with the partner who was resting.  When that pair reached 30 reps, action moved over to the other pair who then would work through their 30 reps.  The ladies started with 55 pounds, adding 10 pounds to their barbell after completing a set of 30 reps.  Cline and I started with 75 pounds, adding 20 pounds to our barbell after each set.

Ladies first.  Alison and Shawna got things underway for us.  Alison was super-fast in the early rounds as this was very light weight for her.  Shawna didn't go quite as fast, but she didn't have any troubles either.  30 reps were done and it was time for me and Cline to get to work.  I started us off and strung 5 reps.  Cline ripped through his too.  When it was my turn again, I got a little too excited about cycling the barbell quickly and hit my head with it as I brought it back down to the floor.  Oops.  I started worrying that I was bleeding because Raj (a member of another KOP team competing) had hit the bridge of her nose with the barbell in the preceding heat and ended up with a bloody face.  There was definitely liquid coming off of my head.  I hoped that it was only sweat.  (Thankfully it was.)

The only hiccup for the guys the rest of the way was that I accidentally pulled the barbell off the floor so quickly for one rep that I basically snatched it and had to fake that it was a clean and jerk.  A little while later an announcement was made that all reps required a pause in the front rack.  Not sure if that was my doing, but I made sure not to slip up again during the workout.

Pretty damn excited about finishing round one!

The four of us might have gone a little bit slower in round two, but it wasn't by much as we didn't encounter any real problems during those 60 reps.  The barbell became more difficult to move in round three.  I think Shawna became concerned that she couldn't handle the weight so she slowed down her pace, but her form looked fantastic on all the reps she did.  When it got back over to the guys, I strung my 5 reps during each of my three sets while Cline let me know he might need to break his up at some point.  When he did, he went for a split jerk, but forgot to bring his feet back together before putting down the barbell.  He got no repped, but laughed about it and decided to skip the split jerk going forward.

In round four, Shawna kept a similar pace to round three, ensuring that each rep she did was a good one.  As me and Cline awaited our turn, I let Cline know that I might need to break up the reps in this round and he let me know that he might do the same.  I wasn't worried about the weight (now 135 pounds) as much as I was about maintaining my grip on the barbell, but I was able to hold on for all 5 reps during each of my three sets.  Cline finished his last set to give the girls one last chance on their barbell.  They completed 8 reps before time was called.  Lyons Den final score: 248 (16th out of 21 teams).

Our next workout would be outside as we would be flipping a huge tire in the parking lot.  Now I've never gotten a definitive answer on how much the tire actually weighs.  I've heard it weighs 1,300 pounds.  I've heard it weighs 1,100 pounds.  Most people are probably just guessing.  But if there is one person who might be an authority on the subject, it is likely Jen S.  (That takes nothing away from Alison, who is far and away the queen of tire flips.)  Jen is in charge of the tire flip event at the Brawl and she had her bullhorn at the ready to keep everyone informed and motivated.  While we awaited our turn, Jen started yelling at a team that was beginning their 5-minute bout with the tire.  And during Jen's rant, she let the group know how much she thought the tire weighed:

"Let's go!  1,200 pounds of meat right here!"

Sounded like me and my teammates were responsible for 300 pounds each.  As I mentioned, no one is better at the tire flip than Alison.  She calls out the cadence and her soldiers follow orders in lifting and pushing the tire when she says its time to go.  We made a group decision to have me and Alison in the middle on both sides of the tire.  It meant a little more running for me and Alison, but we were the two biggest members of the team, so it made sense to keep us in the center the whole time.  Cline wanted to shoot for 30 flips in 5 minutes, but I thought that was a little ambitious since we had gotten 31 last year and it was much hotter this year.  The team made sure to prove me wrong.  We got off to a fast start, but five minutes is a long time to be flipping that tire.

Team MCA knows what to do with 1,200 pounds of meat

Alison and I would talk after the event was over and we both encountered the same issue (although we might have been experiencing the problem on different sides).  For whatever reason, we were finding it easy to flip the tire one way, but having a very difficult time flipping it the other way, a strange problem given that the tire was on a fairly level surface.

Jen announced there was 30 seconds left and we were on 28 reps.  We had to get two more reps.  Flip #29 was on the easy side for me.  Perhaps fittingly, flip #30 was tough, but we got the tire up and over.  There was still 5 seconds left, but there was no chance we'd get the tire up in that small window of time.  Hitting Cline's goal exactly was good enough for us.  Also, I was out of juice.  Tire Flip final score: 30 (5th out of 21 teams).

Cline wondering why Alison continues to flip the tire by herself after time had expired

Two down, two to go.  Our third event (Hammertime) would require us to split into pairs again, although we had a choice in arranging our pairs this time around.  Each pair would spend 3 minutes at each of four stations.  Those four stations were:

• Box jumps (aka step-ups) - 24" for guys, 20" for ladies
• Wall balls - 14# to 10' for guys, 10# to 9' for ladies
• Snatches - 75 pounds for guys, 55 pounds for ladies
• KB swings - 53 pounds for guys, 35 pounds for ladies

One pair would start on the box jumps and end on the KB swings, while the other would start on the wall balls and end on the box jumps.  Alison and Cline would make up one pair, starting on the wall balls, while Shawna and I began on the box jumps.  I can't attest to how the other pair did during this event since we were working simultaneously, but I can give you a recap of how Shawna and I did.  We started with step-ups, doing 5 at a time.  It wasn't mandated that we do 5 at a time as was the case in our first event, but this felt like a good number to do before switching off to rest.  Shawna went first and never slowed down during our 3 minutes at this station.  As for me, I was next to Jill C (representing Crossfit Fairmount) and we always seemed to be doing step-ups at the same time.  I began trying to go faster than her, which naturally led to me tripping on my box and looking foolish.  Couldn't break my streak of being incredibly clumsy!  I tried not to let that deter me, but I probably was not as fast as Shawna on this segment of the event.

Shawna can't figure out why it is taking me so long to do step-ups

I tried to make it up at the next station: wall balls.  This was a weird experience for me because I usually use a 20 pound ball rather than a 14 pound ball.  You don't want to waste energy throwing the ball way above your target, as I was doing early on.  Shawna and I started by doing sets of 10 each, eventually trimming that number to 5 towards the end of the three minute segment.  I tried to be more efficient by shooting in more of a line drive fashion, but that ended up earning me a couple of no reps when I hit below the 10' target.  Oops.  Time to rotate again.  Let's snatch!

Shawna might have needed a little break before we got to our barbells because early on she was struggling.  We had planned on doing 5 reps each, but when I saw her having difficulty, I told her to do 3 at a time instead.  I kept going with 5 per set, although there was one round where I did 6 or 7 because Shawna was grabbing some chalk.  As this segment wore on, Shawna got her rhythm back, first doing sets of four before eventually returning to sets of 5.  I was definitely starting to get tired as the announcement came to rotate one last time.

At the KB, we once again planned on doing sets of 5, but this was much tougher for me than it was for Shawna.  I tended to drop into my resting squat while she did her reps, then hopped up when it was my turn to go.  KB swings just aren't my thing.  I did all of my sets without failing, but it was a lot more work than it should have been.  The clock struck 12 and we were finally done.  Shawna and I had carried our team on the step-ups and the wall balls, while Alison and Cline were stronger on the snatches and KB swings.  Teamwork baby!  Hammertime final score: 585 (13th out of 21 teams).

It was pretty clear at this point that we weren't going to make it to the Championship WOD, so we only had to worry about doing one more workout.  It was a two-part workout called Bottle Rocket.  In the first part, we had 6 minutes to complete 100 kipping (or jumping) pull-ups and 100 hand-release push-ups.  Once again, we had to work in pairs.  When one member of the pair was doing pull-ups, the other had to hold a dead hang from the pull-up bar.  When one member was doing hand-release push-ups, the other had to hold a plank.  In part two of the event, we had to do as many goblet squats as possible (with guys holding a 53 pound KB and ladies holding a 35 pound KB) in two minutes.  Alison and I worked together as a pair for the first time, as did Shawna and Cline.

Alison and I led off on the pull-up bar.  Our team had a bit of an advantage in this event as Giulz made an announcement that if you had the ability to do kipping pull-ups, you should not do jumping pull-ups.  So our inability to do kipping pull-ups morphed into a benefit.  Hooray?  Alison started our jumping pull-ups while I began in the dead hang.  I thought this would be much tougher than it actually was.  When Alison reached 25 reps, I wanted her to keep going, but we had decided to split the work equally.  I dropped off my bar, took my place on the box we were jumping off of, and did 25 reps while Alison hung from her bar.  Then we tagged in Shawna and Cline who did the same routine.

When they got us to 100 reps, they tagged me and Alison back in.  Alison led us off with 10 push-ups while I held a plank, then I did 10 as she held a plank.  We each did 5 more then tagged in Shawna and Cline.  Eventually they tagged us back in, we did 2 sets of 5 each and wrapped up our 25 reps.  Shawna and Cline finished off the 100 reps for our team and we were done.  Bottle Rocket part A time: 4:40 (7th out of 21 teams).

Compare this picture to the one at the top of this blog.  The lesson?  As my shirt says, "Keep Calm and Eat Ice Cream".

Not only did we score well in part A, we got 80 seconds of rest before part B.  Sweet!  For the goblet squats, a male and a female could work at the same time, so Alison and I led things off again.  I went until I did 15 goblet squats, then I tagged in Cline.  We kept doing this until he tagged me in with about 20 seconds remaining.  At that point I did as many goblet squats as I could before time expired.  Bottle Rocket part B score: 127 (13th out of 21 teams).

Overall result for Maybe Coach Aimee (But Probably Not): 10th out of 21 teams.

We were done for the day and I think we were all pretty happy about that.  (Note: The Championship WOD was a four-person relay version of the workout we had done on Wednesday that included the assault bike, thrusters, and the GHD.  No thank you.)  I had been reluctant to participate in the Brawl,  but I had three amazing teammates that totally made the experience worthwhile.  Thank you Alison, Shawna, and Cline!

Just because we weren't involved in the Championship WOD didn't mean that it wasn't worth watching.  Especially since I had something riding on it.  Pam owed me a drink from an earlier bet we made.  Having tremendous faith in her superteam (2 Bars 2 Snatches), I offered double or nothing, betting in favor of her team winning the Scaled division.  Pam didn't think it would happen (ye of little faith), so she took the bet.  Here is a photo taken right after the Championship WOD:

I like to call this photo "2 Bars 2 Snatches 2 Drinks 4 Dave"

That was a wrap for KOP as we didn't have any teams in the RX division.  KOP crowned a champion.  The heat didn't whoop me as much as it usually does and I didn't fall apart in the middle of any of the events.  And before I forget, this year's Brawl marked my first Megs-a-versary!  It was last year's Brawl when I first met Megs.  If it wasn't for my "tone", she wouldn't have remembered me.  Apparently friendships can develop even if you give sassy directions to someone you don't know.

Here's one last pic of many of the athletes that represented KOP at this year's Brawl:

Look at those smiling faces!

Monday preview: A medium-length WOD featuring a bunch of rope climbs at the finish.  You know who is happy about that.

Ain't My Chip Time

Workout date: 7/14/16

Each of the last two years, I have participated in one leg of the Midsummer Night 5K Series.  There is one run in June, one in July, and one in August.  The event takes place in Ardmore and features an approximately one-mile loop that everyone takes three tours around.  The course doesn't feature any large hills and the races go off at 7:30 in the evening, making the event very friendly to those recreational runners who don't want to face a soul-crushing uphill climb in the brutal summer heat.  I meant to go to the run in June, but I forgot the date of the race and ended up receiving an e-mail saying it was sold out.  So I made sure to mark my calendar for the July edition.

(Did I mention that it was also Flounder's birthday?  Happy Birthday Flounder!  Can't believe that guy is 44 years old.  I kid, I kid...)

Flounder was one of many KOPers taking part in the race.  Coach Tim was there like he always is.  Justin R and Borden were there as well.  And Laura A snuck up behind me just as I was walking up to the registration area.  Hadn't seen her in quite a while, but here she was, ready to kick my butt along with hundreds of other participants.

The plan was to get a nice, somewhat leisurely workout in, with a goal of finishing in the 27-28 minute range.  That wasn't a slow jog, but it also wasn't going hard for three miles either.  The biggest problem for me?  The same problem I've been having all summer long: the heat.  Despite it being 7:30 at night, this was the warmest outdoor setting I had worked out in this year.  It felt just as bad as the inside of the gym has felt.  Maybe I died earlier in the year and didn't realize I had already punched my ticket to hell.  Whatever the case may be, this was going to end up as yet another sweating-and-breathing strugglefest.

I headed to the starting line with Flounder as Justin and Laura lined up together within shouting distance of us.  Tim was likely closer to the front as he would probably be among the runners who I'd have to move out of the way of because they were finishing lap #3 while I was still working on lap #2.  I wasn't sure where Borden was.  I wouldn't bump into him until much later in the race.  We took off and I could see Laura start zig-zagging her way through the field in the first quarter mile.  Justin was not too far in front of me during that first portion of the run.  Flounder was out ahead of me too, although I wound up passing him as we went by the only water station on the run.  I wasn't pressing very hard, but I was doing my share of zig-zagging as well due to the presence of large groups of runners who seemed to be playing a mid-race game of Red Rover, preventing anyone behind them from passing.

I was about three-quarters of the way through the first loop when the heat started affecting me.  I could tell my stride was shortening.  My breathing was beginning to get heavier.  As we came down the small hill that leads the runners back to where we started, Flounder went on by me.  There was a little part of me that wanted to try and go with him, but the point of this run wasn't to go as hard as I could go.  It wouldn't have mattered anyway as I later discovered I wouldn't have been able to keep up with him even if I had gone all out.

We passed by the first mile and I saw the timer show 8:20.  That wasn't bad at all, but I knew that I wouldn't be keeping that pace for the remaining two miles.  As we made our way back towards the water station, Flounder pulled away from me until he became lost in the sea of people that had moved on ahead, maintaining the pace they had run during that first mile.  I was just trying to remain calm.  My hamstrings were beginning to get tighter and I was becoming drenched in sweat.  Doing this 5K now seemed like a terrible idea and stopping felt like the best solution available.  Instead, I kept jogging along as all sorts of people went by.  As I neared the 3/4 point of the loop, I had my first encounter with my least favorite type of runner: stop-and-sprint guy.  At first I was jealous of him because he was walking.  I wanted to be walking, although I suspected that once I stopped, it would be hard to start running again.  This guy wasn't having that problem.  Shortly after I passed him, he went running by me at a rate of speed that made me think I wouldn't see him the rest of the race.  But I did see him again.  And again.  And again.

I went by the two mile marker and the timer let me know that my second mile took about 10 minutes.  Super slow.  Didn't care.  Just had to keep trotting along for one more mile.  Two girls ran around me, then stopped directly in front of me as a friend yelled to them that she wanted to take their picture.  Annoying.  Since I had passed the finish line, I no longer had to worry about any of the leaders lapping me (plenty of them had already done so).  That meant I could move all the way to the inside of the course.  Why run any farther than I needed to?  I passed the water station a final time (I didn't stop for a drink, but I was later told they had run out of water even if I did require hydration).  I passed stop-and-sprint guy as he walked along.  At about the half-mile point in the loop, I was hurting pretty good.  Stop-and-sprint guy went by again.  Then I heard a friendly voice.  Borden was running with a couple of buddies.  I had no idea they were behind me all this time, but now they too were going on by.  I tried to lengthen my stride, but it wasn't meant to be.

Well, it wasn't meant to be just yet.  As we came down the small hill a final time, gravity helped me lengthen my stride.  I knew there was only about a 1/4 mile to go, so I tried to ride that momentum for as long as I could.  I went by stop-and-sprint guy.  I went by Borden and his friends.  It was just a couple more turns to the finish and I began swinging my arms in an effort to keep this push going all the way to the finish line.  Then I gave a thumbs up to the camera, as you can see in the first 10 seconds of the video below:

It's finally over!

My final time on-camera: just squeaked in under 30 minutes.  But as Flounder told me before the race, the time captured on camera ain't my chip time.  So my official final time for the 5K: 29:38.

I went over to the tubs filled with water, eager to quench my thirst with some ice-cold H2O.  To my dismay, there were two volunteers sitting at a table that was behind two large containers that had been filled with water bottles sitting in an ice bath.  Now those containers held melted ice and there were no water bottles floating in them.  Instead, the volunteers just sat there with cases of lukewarm water in front of them, not bothering to put them in the containers to get cold.  Way to do as little as possible!

After guzzling down some room temperature water, I sat down with Justin, Flounder, Borden, and his friends for a few minutes.  Borden and his buddies then took off to go see Guns N' Roses in concert.  Justin, Flounder, and I made our way over to Hykel's Bar and Grill for some post-race refreshments and to celebrate Flounder's birthday.  The beer was much colder (and refreshing) than the post-race water.

Saturday preview: Brawl In The Burbs!  I fill in for Luke as part of team Maybe Coach Aimee (But Probably Not).  We do clean and jerks.  We flip tires.  We scramble around in pairs through two chippers.  And thankfully, we do not have to do the Championship WOD.

Pokey Mon

Workout date: 7/13/16

The Wednesday WOD was going to be my last Crossfit workout before the Brawl In The Burbs team event on Saturday.  I had planned on skipping both the WOD and Endurance on Thursday in favor of doing a leisurely 5K through Ardmore.  (Spoiler: That run was anything but leisurely as you will read in the next blog post.)  With that schedule in mind, I felt like the workout on Wednesday was one where I could crank up the intensity and take on the RX requirements assuming they were not way out of my league.  I looked up the WOD on Tuesday night and saw a workout that had the appearance of one that I should be good at.  Appearances can be deceiving.  This would be much worse than I expected.  Here's what was on tap:

40 calories on the assault bike

40 thrusters (115/75)

40 GHD sit-ups

My thoughts on why this would be a good workout for me:

• The assault bike is one of those weird things at the gym that I like more than the average person.  It is painful without a doubt, but it is a movement that you grind through.  I'm not that great at sprint WODs.  I'm not that great at WODs requiring a ton of cardio.  But a WOD where you have to put your head down and push through it?  That's my style.  The bonus today was that the assault bike was at the beginning of the workout, so I didn't have to worry about being exhausted before hopping on to the bike.
• Chris and I had recently done a partner WOD where the heavy thrusters weighed in at 125 pounds.  It was painful, but I could get through them.  Now I was going to be using 10 pounds less.  40 was a lot of reps, but Coach Keithie told us it would be good if we managed 5 reps per set.  Going from 8 reps at 125 to 5 reps at 115?  Seemed reasonable enough to me.
• The GHD sit-ups were the flip side of the assault bike.  I knew I could do big sets of these while fresh, but today I was almost certainly going to be exhausted when I reached this part of the workout.  Could I manage four sets of 10 reps in that state?  I thought I could.

It all seems so easy when your heart isn't beating a million times a minute.  Once the workout begins, your mind instantly realizes the error of it's ways.  115 pounds for the thrusters?  Good call, moron!

There were 15 of us in the 6:30 class and with only 5 assault bikes at our disposal, we needed to form groups of three to do this workout.  Because we would be sharing an assault bike and a GHD, Keithie told us we should try and form groups based on height, that way we wouldn't need to adjust those machines in the middle of the workout.  I partnered up with Cline and Neil.  Keithie also mentioned that if members of a group were using the same thruster weight, they should just share a barbell as it wasn't ideal to have 15 different barbells laying around in the middle of the gym.  Cline made the wise decision to use 95 pounds, while Neil and I went after the RX weight of 115 pounds.  There would be a 4 minute stagger at the start between members of the group, so I suggested that Cline go second, that way if Neil or I struggled during the thrusters, we would have 8 minutes separating us from the person sharing our barbell rather than 4.  I ended up going first, Cline went second, and Neil went third.  You have probably read a bunch of times on this blog how I do not like going first, but I was (stupidly) feeling confident about how I would perform during this WOD.

The only other issue was sharing a GHD.  It seemed clear that we'd be spending most of our time doing thrusters, so initially I wasn't all that concerned about a hang up at the GHD, but I became a little worried at the last minute when I discovered that Cline likes his GHD three notches further out than I like mine.  (Apparently I never realized that Cline has much longer legs than me.  Who knew?)  That was going to be an awkward transition, but I told myself to remember to adjust the GHD for Cline when I got done.

The first wave got underway and I felt comfortable as I pushed along on the assault bike.  I had both my arms and my legs moving at a solid pace.  A glance up at the clock let me know I'd be well under 4 minutes for this first part of the workout, ensuring that I wouldn't be holding up the other members of my group (at least not yet).  I had just passed 30 calories when Keithie walked by my bike.  He encouraged me to push, telling me I was almost done, so I picked up the pace until I reached 40 calories.  I was the first one off the bike.  Having finished 40 calories in less than 3 minutes, I began to daydream about putting up a very strong time for this workout.

Those thoughts came screeching to a halt when I got to my barbell.  The barbell was directly in front of the fan in the back of the gym, which should have been a big benefit to me.  It goes without saying that it was ridiculously hot in the gym because it has been that way almost every day for the last few months.  As I did my first set of 5 thrusters, I realized two things:

1. The assault bike had done more of a number on my legs than I had realized
2. I needed at least three fans to help me deal with the heat

After taking a break, I got into my second set and was able to get 5 more reps.  But I knew then and there that I couldn't manage sets of five reps any longer.  It was sets of three and four (if I was lucky) the rest of the way.  I needed long breaks to catch my breath as I slowly moved through my smaller sets of thrusters.  I also wasted energy chasing my barbell as it had suddenly developed a fan allergy.    It kept bouncing away from the fan each time I dropped it.  I had to drag it back over in front of the fan over and over again.  Keithie saw me do this and didn't understand what I was doing until he looked up and saw where the fan was positioned.

As I reached the mid-twenties in my thruster count, I began to worry about the rest of my group.  My reps were slow, my breaks were long, and there was real reason to believe that Cline was going to catch me on the GHD.  In fact, there was reason to believe that Neil might catch me on the barbell, despite the fact that we had planned things out so that scenario wouldn't come to pass.  Neil came over just after 7 minutes had passed on the clock to check on my progress.  He decided it was best to wait another minute and start on the assault bike at 9 minutes rather than at 8 minutes because I was struggling so much with my thrusters.  That was probably a wise move because I didn't finish my thrusters until about the 11 minute mark.  I'm guessing Neil finished his 40 calories on the assault bike in about 3 minutes, so it would have been close if he had not built in an extra minute of cushion.

I was a sweaty, sweaty mess as I trudged over to the GHD.  I don't recall how I split up the 40 reps there, but I do know that my sets were smaller than I planned them to be.  It's possible I got 10 reps in that first set, but beyond that, all my sets contained single-digit reps.  As I took yet another break, Cline came up to me and asked me to sub out on the GHD.  I crawled off and let him have the GHD.  It was only fair.  I shouldn't have been holding up anyone in my group, but I had misjudged how tough this workout would be.  There was a free GHD up in front of me and I got 3 reps in before Cline told me I could have the original GHD back.  It was still set up for my body rather than his and I imagine he had a hard time completing reps that way.  I got on and pushed through my remaining 8 reps.  Final time: 15:15.

When I got off the GHD, I helped Cline adjust it so that he could get through his reps.  I wasn't happy that I had adversely affected his workout.  There was still a chance that Cline would be blocking Neil because of how slow I had gone.  (That didn't happen, but it could have.)  I was frustrated by how much the heat had kicked my ass again.  It was a problem that didn't seem to have a solution.  And with the Brawl on the horizon, I got the feeling that this workout was simply foreshadowing for how I'd mess up things for my teammates on Saturday.

Thursday preview: A workout that isn't Crossfit.  A workout that doesn't take place inside the confines of KOP.  A workout that begins at 7:30pm.  And somehow the heat is even more debilitating than it has been all-summer long.  Blech.

Kettlebell Mating Call

Workout date: 7/12/16

I had missed Dudes After Dark a week earlier after doing two very long WODs on Sunday and Monday of Independence Day weekend.  So when I showed up on Tuesday, it was my first visit back to Dudes After Dark since my solo appearance at the end of June.  Turns out this would be a solo workout as well in a certain respect.  It was a partner WOD and the only attendees for the 7:30 class were me and Cline.  We were going to be the only team running around doing the following:

AMRAP in 25 minutes:
15 toes-to-bar
15 overhead squats (135/95)
30 KB swings (70/53)
200 meter buddy carry (partners switch roles after 100 meters)

I immediately felt sorry that Cline was going to have to tote my big behind around while I got off easier by carrying the lighter guy.  Having 210 pounds on his back would not cramp Cline's style though, as he would end up completing each round of the "run" in his own unique fashion.  As for the rest of the workout, we planned on splitting up the toes-to-bar fairly evenly.  I was going to be responsible for more of the overhead squats while Cline would take care of more of the KB swings.  In terms of weight, Cline was using 105 pounds for the overhead squats.  I was happy sharing a barbell with him, but he thought I was going too light just for the sake of using one barbell.  The truth was that I didn't want to use much more weight than 105 because Coach Rachel had said we should be able to snatch the weight for our first rep.  135 pounds isn't a weight I can easily snatch mid-workout and 125 could have been tough for me late in the workout, so I ended up using 115 for my barbell.  We both grabbed our own 70 pound KB.  (Hey, why not?  Not like anyone else was there to use them!)

Rachel and her Yemenican shadow, Michal, got us warmed up.  Michal is shadowing classes at the moment and the time when I have to call her Coach Michal may not be too far down the road.  (Note: I would feel really weird if I ever had to call Cline by the name "Coach Cline".  Would I attend his class pretty much everyday?  Sure.  But "Coach Cline" would still sound strange to me.)  They walked us through proper technique while doing toes-to-bar.  We got in a few reps on both the overhead squat and the KB swing.  Didn't do any buddy carry practice, but I don't think either of us were eager to do more of that than the workout required.  It was another hot day and this WOD would have been draining if we were doing it on an April day in Edmonton.  (Never been, but I'm sure it's quite a bit cooler than a July evening in Bridgeport.)

No point in standing around any longer.  Time to get to work.  Cline led things off on the toes-to-bar with 5 reps.  I did 5 myself before Cline finished off our last 5 reps.  At the barbell, I took care of the first 10 overhead squats, then gave way to Cline as he wrapped up the final 5 reps.  On to the KB swings.  I didn't have a lot of faith in my ability to do big sets with the 70 pound KB.  As a result, I started off with a measly 5 reps.  Cline stepped up and did 7 reps in his set.  Feeling wimpy about only doing 5 swings (this was still round one...step it up a little Dave!), I managed to hang on for 8 swings in my next set, getting us to 20 reps.  Just as I did 3 reps more on my second set, Cline did the same, completing 10 reps this time around, getting us to 30.

There are plenty of things that we do at Crossfit that probably look crazy to the non-Crossfit world.  I'm not sure anything looks more strange than seeing one grown man speed-walking with another grown man draped over his shoulders.  You'll have to poll the folks at Frosty Falls who watched this spectacle on Tuesday evening.  I decided to use a fireman's carry for my first trip over to the 200 meter turnaround point.  With Cline along for the ride, I walked as quickly as possible to the exchange point.  When we got there, we took a small break before Cline used the fireman's carry on me.  We got about halfway back when Cline wanted to put me down.  He didn't feel comfortable with the fireman's carry and wanted me to go piggy back instead.  Once he was ready to go again, I jumped up on to his back.  Except right as went to jump up, he went lower than I expected him to go. As a result, I was really high on his back.  I didn't want to compound the problem by leaning over him, so I rode very upright, like a jockey riding a racehorse after losing his irons.  (A couple days later, Tia would let me know how ridiculous I looked being in this position.)  Not only was this awkward looking, it actually required a lot of exertion on my part to stay in this position.  So as we neared the end of Cline's carry, I resorted to the more natural position of hugging around his neck.

It didn't appear that Cline was taking a straight line to the gym doors, so I got worried that he might be fatiguing.  In fact, he did ask to put me down one more time before we got back to the gym.  It wasn't because he was tired though.  Cline has a tradition of jumping over the concrete barrier each time we go out for a run.  Just because he had a large idiot on his back didn't mean that he was changing his routine.  Cline asked me to hop off directly in front of the barrier.  Then I climbed back aboard.  Cline carefully hurdled one leg over the barrier, then the other.  A few steps later and we were finally done with round one.  Twenty five minutes of this stuff was going to suck.

The second round inside the gym was a bit of a blur.  I know we alternated sets of toes-to-bar, but the sets were smaller (maybe 3 at a time?).  I know I did most of the overheads and Cline did most of the KB swings.  I know we went much slower than we had in round 1.  Before I knew it, we were headed back out the door to do the buddy carry again.  I decided to try another round of the fireman's carry.  As I passed the annex, Cline asked if I could put him down.  That was strange.  Usually the person doing the work would request a stop.  As I let Cline down, he let me know that the bouncing I was doing as I walked along had knocked the breath out of him.  I was so focused on getting to the exchange point that I had forgotten what a bumbling animal I was and how that would affect my passenger.  In order to save Cline from that experience going forward, I told him that I would use a piggy back as well.  This wasn't as efficient as the fireman's carry, but you feel a little better about the fact that you're not going to drop your precious cargo.  As a result, I was able to jog the rest of my leg.  On the way back, Cline carried me via piggy back, stopping once at the mid-way point and once right before the barrier that he would hurdle over again.

I was exhausted when we came into the gym for round three.  I did a set of three toes-to-bar to get us going, but when I went to do my second set, I did one rep, then failed on a rep.  Cline saw I was hurting and told me to get ready for overheads as he would finish off the toes-to-bar.  Fair enough.  When Cline got through his 15th rep, I picked up my barbell and told myself that I needed to fight through a big set to make up for my toes-to-bar ineptitude.  I held on through 9 reps before needing to drop the barbell.  Cline came up and did 2 reps, leaving me with the final 4 reps.  Those didn't feel great, but I got through them.  Cline led us off on the KB swings and did 5 reps.  I did 5 reps during my set, but unfortunate grunting was required.  As Cline did another set of 5, I realized that trading sets of 5 reps back and forth would result in me being the last one on the KB, which would screw up how we worked out the buddy carries.  We were at about the 20 minute mark, so I knew this was probably our last set of KB swings.  When Cline got us to 15 reps, I picked up my KB and decided to make a push to get us to 25.  By the second rep of my set, there was very loud grunting.  It took all the strength I could muster to swing the 70 pound KB over my head and keep control of it.  Every rep I did was unpleasant, but I was able to keep it together for 10 consecutive reps.  Thank God I was done with that for the day.  I got a quick breather as Cline finished off the last of our 30 reps.  Then it was time for one last buddy carry.

I didn't mess around with the fireman's carry in round three.  I went straight for the piggy back.  I let Cline know early on that I would need to put him down once I got to the bottom of the hill by the annex.  I took a break, then carried Cline the rest of the way to the turnaround point.  Cline stuck to his guns, bringing me about halfway before needing to put me down, then dropping me off right before the barrier.  I knew we were closing in on the 25 minute cap as Cline carefully got over the barrier and brought his teammate back to the gym entrance.

There was just enough time to get the toes-to-bar done and possibly some overheads.  Well, if I hadn't fallen apart there would have been enough time for that.  Cline and I started trading singles on the toes-to-bar, until I was just too tired to keep up.  I had a bad no rep along the way and he ended up doing several in a row before I could contribute again.  I was able to help out with two reps at the end as we finished off the toes-to-bar just as time expired.  Final score: 3+15.

We didn't have a team name at that point in time, but Michal unintentionally provided it when she informed me that her favorite part of the workout was hearing the "kettlebell mating call" I was bellowing out during that final round of KB swings.  That might be the nicest way anyone has described my exhausted grunting, so I decided to run with it and use it as our team name.

Wednesday preview: Cline sorta ends up as my teammate again, even though we're doing an individual WOD.  Neil joins in the fun as well.

Bowling With Megs

Workout date: 7/11/16

Monday's workout would be the first major test I gave my achy knees since they first became a recurring problem for me.  And that's because Monday's WOD included a bunch of box jumps.  I don't think there's another movement in the gym that puts as much of a toll on your knees as box jumps.  These box jumps weren't of the super-high variety (30"), but doing taller box jumps might have actually been easier on my knees.  I can't rebound very much when using the 30" box, so I end up stepping down a lot, which is gentler on my joints.  With the 24" box we would be using for Christine, my only excuse for not rebounding was being tired.  Obviously that was going to happen at some point, but Christine was a workout where you were supposed to be moving fast, so I needed to rebound as much as possible.

How does Christine go again?  Glad you asked...

"Christine"
3 rounds:
500 meter row
12 deadlifts at body-weight
21 box jumps (24"/20")

This was our third attempt at Christine this year.  In January, I did it for the first time ever, completing it in 13:13 using 205 pounds for my deadlift weight.  I was probably a couple pounds north of 205 at the time, but as an old boss of mine used to say, it was close enough for government work.  In April, I missed the workout.  Now we're in July and I'm more than a few pounds north of 205.  I'm a little beyond 210 nowadays.  So I had to add 5 pounds to the barbell for this attempt at Christine.

Heat check: Extremely hot in the gym (surprise!)
Claustrophobia level: High, with 15 of us signed up for the 6:30 class

This is a workout that requires a good amount of space.  Everyone needs to fit a rower, a loaded barbell, and a box (along with space to jump on and off of it) in their "lane".  I would say our gym is big enough to accommodate 12 such lanes.  Except we needed 15 for this class.  So everyone got super comfy with one another.  My rower was sandwiched in between the one Megs was using and the one Borden was using.  At the barbell, there was no avoiding Borden's posterior as it was directly in my line of sight.  Poor Megs may have been blinded by what she had in front of her throughout this WOD.  Over at the boxes, there was very little space to the left and to the right of each individual's box.  Since I'm good for at least one botched jump where I go careening to the left, I apologized to Megs in advance and let her know I'd try my best not to go barreling into her box while she was jumping.

If you asked me prior to the workout what my goal was, I would have told you that I wanted to finish this workout in 12 minutes.  I thought I could improve on my time from January because that was only my first experience with this workout.  I had recently done that crazy deadlift workout where I did 20 consecutive reps at 225 pounds, so I wasn't anticipating any problems with 12 reps at 210.  And if my knees could handle the rebounding, I thought I'd get through at least one round of box jumps quickly.  If I could finish round one in 3:30, that meant I could go at a 4:15 pace for the final two rounds.  In theory, this all sounded reasonable.  In practice...

...not so much.  We got started on the first row and I went out with my general thought process: don't slack off, but don't exhaust yourself on the row.  Since Alan, Borden, myself, and Megs were towards one end of the gym, we were facing the opposite direction of the rest of the class, giving the feel that we were in our own little class of four.  That helped me not get caught up in how fast anyone else was rowing.  I thought I'd finish the first 500 meters in about 1:45, but it was probably closer to 1:50.  I hopped off my rower and went over towards my barbell just as Chris D was doing the same from the other side of the gym.  Because it was so hot in the gym, I decided to place some chalk near my barbell before the workout.  I went over and chalked up before going to work on the deadlift.  I had only completed 4 reps or so when it dawned on me that hanging on for 12 consecutive reps might not be as much of a certainty as I thought it was during the warmup.  I dropped after the 10th rep, but didn't take much of a break before grabbing the barbell and taking care of the last two reps.  Time to try my luck on the box jumps!

I got all of the suspense out of the way regarding whether I would trip on my box by messing up my very first box jump.  Real confidence booster there!  I didn't want to stand and sulk about this early mistake, but I wasn't sure my legs wanted to rebound off the box at all, so I began doing box jumps followed by step-downs.  Once I got my confidence back, I tried out some rebounding.  It ended up going pretty well.  I did about 10 in a row before needing a break, then I finished off the rest of my round with my next rebounding set.  I snuck a peek at the clock before going to my rower.  First round time: over 4 minutes.  Oh boy.  That wasn't good.  12 minutes certainly wasn't happening.

I returned to my rower and tried to keep my next row at a 2 minute pace, but I struggled to keep it below 2:15.  While I was hitting the tail end of the row, I saw Chris get up and head to his barbell for another round of deadlifts.  He was the only one ahead of me at this point, but the lead he had on me was growing quickly.  I was done with my second row and decided to chalk up again because my hands were sweaty.  But I needed more than chalk to make it through 12 consecutive deadlifts.  I began to strain early on in this set and could only make it through 8 reps before needing to drop the barbell.  The break I needed in this round was not a quick pause like the one I used in round one.  This was a legit "gotta wait until I know I can hang on for four more reps" break.  I was able to handle the four remaining reps and proceeded to my box.  I had a new strategy in round two.  I was going to rebound until I got tired, then do a few step-downs to recover before reverting back to the rebounding.  Somewhere in the middle of this round I botched another jump (naturally).  I grinded through 21 reps and headed back to the rower.   The clock was just shy of 9 minutes.  Round one let me know I wasn't beating 12 minutes.  Round two let me know I wasn't beating my time from January.

The row was not much different during round three, at least time-wise.  I had to exert a lot more effort to stay at that same pace as the hot weather was starting to claim victory against me yet again.  I chalked up one more time, then began my first set of deadlifts.  Perhaps I was just being stubborn, but I managed to hang on for 9 reps in round three.  As I took a break, I watched Ashley and Nate finish up their deadlifts and move on to the box jumps.  I completed my last three and joined them.

For my last round of box jumps, I decided to do sets of 5 rebounding reps.  To keep symmetry across the entirety of the workout, I failed on a rep (#2 out of 21).  I took a moment and then did 4 rebounding reps to complete that set of 5.  With breaks in between, I did two more sets of 5, leaving me with 6 to go.  The sets of 5 weren't all that graceful, but I needed to up the count to 6 to wrap up the workout.  Hold it together and keep bounding until you finish all six!  I was ready for my sprint to the finish.  I did the first jump, bounced off the floor and got back on the box for rep #2.  I dropped back down to the floor and...had to stop.

Did I lose my willpower that quickly?  Well no.  I mentioned earlier that I had warned Megs that I might go barreling into her box if I botched one of my jumps.  In hindsight, that might have been a reverse jinx.  Right as I was about to bounce back up for my third box jump in my final set, Megs lost her balance on a box jump.  As she fell to the right, she temporarily became a human bowling ball, picking up the spare that was my 24" box.  I managed to stop my momentum as I saw Megs tumble so that I didn't jump on her.  I made sure she was okay before resetting my box and completing my last four reps.  Final time: 13:52.

Not my best performance, but considering how much hotter it was and the fact that I added 5 pounds on to my deadlift, it ended up being fairly comparable to how I had done in January.  I'm looking forward to trying Christine one last time in October when the temperature will have cooled back down to normal levels.

Tuesday preview:  Two dudes.  One partner WOD.  Me and Cline are bringing piggy back.

Have A Drink On Me

Workout date: 7/7/16

Jenn's birthday was on Thursday and we had plans to go out to dinner, so that meant going to the nooner for an early workout.  Did I pick possibly the hottest day of the summer to work out mid-day?   You betcha!

The workout had a ton of cardio in it, so I knew I was in trouble.  Plus I was taking class with Queen Pam and both of the Pappi (Tim and Laura Pappas).  There was an 800 meter run in the middle of this workout and they were going to smoke me on that part of the WOD.  I'd have to do my best to not fall behind on the rest of the workout.  Here is what the entire workout looked like:

1,000 meter row
50 DB snatches (45/30) - alternating arms
800 meter run
35 DB snatches
30 calories on the assault bike
20 DB snatches

Looking at the weights for the DB snatches, I began having a flashback to the recent partner workout we had done with the sandbags.  In that workout, the sandbag weighed 45 pounds, which didn't sound like a lot.  Hadn't I done workouts with heavier sandbags?  (Answer: Probably not, but if I did, I certainly wasn't doing heavy thrusters, rope climbs, and tall box jumps in conjunction with the sandbag.)  I found out the hard way that day that 45 pounds might sound benign, but it could leave you in a world of hurt.  So I checked my spreadsheet to see what I used the last time there were DB snatches in a workout.  I knew precisely what workout it was, it was simply a matter of looking up when that WOD took place.  The workout in question was one that included 5 rounds of rowing, double unders, DB snatches, and rope climbs.  I had spent the entire WOD chasing Silver Fox, trying to get to the nearby rope before he got to it so I wouldn't have to run down the gym and use a different one.  According to my spreadsheet, I used a 65 pound DB for my five rounds of 10 snatches.  Okay, if I managed 50 DB snatches with 65 pounds, then doing 105 DB snatches with 45 pounds didn't seem crazy.  I was going RX on this workout.

Coach Aimee got the nine of us warmed up and walked us through some pointers for the workout.  For the DB snatches, she pointed out that it was more efficient to transfer the DB to your other hand as you brought it down from over your head rather than switching hands once you brought the DB back to the floor.  Sounded good to me.  I gave this technique a few tries during the warmup and, although it was a little awkward at first, it did seem to be faster than making the change from the floor.  The row and run were self-explanatory.  As far as the assault bikes were concerned, we only have 5 at KOP, but this was a workout where the class was going to begin to separate as the WOD progressed.  Because of that, there was no reason to run two heats or stagger the start.

I settled into my rower down near the door, snugly placed between Sarina and Tim P.  Something in the neighborhood of 3:45 for the 1,000 meter row would probably be a good pace for me to start the workout.  I usually do my first 500 meters in under two minutes before finishing the back half at close to a two minute pace.  My actual time wasn't of great concern to me.  The heat was.  This was going to be a fairly long test of cardio and the last thing I wanted to do was get off the rower huffing and puffing.  I ended up getting off the rower at about 3:55, but that was right around the time that both of the Tim's (Pappas and Hennessey) got off of their rowers.  And even though I didn't see her, I'm sure Pam was finishing up right at about the same time.

Before picking up the DB, I tried to calm myself as much as possible.  This next segment of the workout was going to be more mental than physical (at least that's what I thought).  The 45 pound DB wasn't going to be crushing.  I thought it would be a lot like doing wall balls.  Sure, after a while it sucks to do them, but they are never really too heavy to do.  Just gotta maintain your breathing and ignore the pain for as long as you can.

Unfortunately, I ran into an old adversary pretty early on in my first set of DB snatches.  That adversary?  Sweat.  I had done a solid job of keeping my breathing under control, but the floodgates in my pores had been overwhelmed by the combination of my body heat and the super muggy temperatures that afternoon.  My arms were covered in sweat and since I wasn't wearing wrist wraps (or wrist bands) for this workout, that meant the sweat was traveling to my hands.  I made it through 5 efficient transitions before I nearly had the DB slip out of my hand while switching hands after my 6th rep.  Aimee's technique was more efficient, but it wasn't going to work with my sweaty hands.  I went back to the original plan of bringing the DB to the floor and then switching hands there.  I did 20 or so reps before I needed a break.  That didn't seem so bad.  I got in another dozen or so before my next break.  Repeated that process one more time, leaving myself a handful of reps to finish off the first 50.  As I hit the end of that penultimate set, both Pam and Tim went running out the door.  I already knew I was going to finish way behind them in this workout.  I completed my remaining reps and jogged after the two frontrunners.

Dumbbells aren't meant to glisten like that.  Only happens when handled by a sweaty mess.

I hadn't gotten very far on my run before Laura went by me.  Laura is just a few months away from delivering her second child.  You might think that I was humbled by having a pregnant lady go blazing by me in a workout, but that was not the case.  I've been toting around my own little bundle of joy for about two decades.  If the guy with the belly bump could stay within shouting range of the lady with the belly bump, then I was considering it a victory.  At the turnaround point of the run, Laura's lead on me was about 100 meters.  Somehow I kept that gap from getting any larger on the run back into the gym.  I was happy about how I had done on the run, even though the heat was becoming a big issue for me.

I have a history of falling off of my original pace in the middle section of a workout and that is exactly what happened during the 35 DB snatches.  I needed a little breather before even picking up the DB.  Then I pushed through a set of 16 reps.  Not too bad, almost halfway there.  Except my breathing was now very rapid.  After a break, I got through 7 more reps.  Then 6 more.  Then the final 6 more.  Short breaks were needed in between each of those sets.  I should have been able to hold on for bigger sets than that, but I was falling apart quickly.

When I got to the assault bike, I was hoping I might be able to make up some time.  Pam and Tim P were done and Sarina had now caught up to me, hopping on another bike as I climbed aboard mine.  The assault bike isn't a fan favorite, but since I'm a weirdo, you shouldn't be surprised to learn that it is an item I kinda like.  Sure, it's painful, but I feel like I can get through the pain on the assault bike better than I can on a row or on a run.  The most important thing I learned about the assault bike was from watching Regionals online.  The commentators pointed out that athletes get caught up in trying to pedal as fast as possible when they can use their arms and drive the handlebars back and forth to accumulate calories.  As I got on my bike, I wanted to start off strong and keep my arms pumping.  I had a good initial spurt, but I was so fatigued that it seemed like I was stuck at 7-8 calories for a while.  When I was ready again, I made another push for several calories before dropping back into what I would describe as a "resting" pace.  I had just gone over 20 calories when Tim P came over and tried to encourage me to get the final 10 calories.  Eventually I got there, but I had come to the assault bike thinking I would spend about 2 minutes on it, only to end up on it for over 3 minutes.

At least the end was near.  The last set of DB snatches was all mental.  I had to hold on for all 20 reps.  Doing 12-14 of them and stopping was weak.  I began doing each of the DB snatches, reminding myself I wasn't allowed to stop each time I set the DB on the floor for the hand transition.  The temptation to stop and leave myself a set of 6-8 reps to end the workout was strong, but I had to fight it.  Once I got to 16 reps, I would have felt stupid stopping, so I kept pushing through until I finished all 20.  Final time: 20:29.

I didn't want to finish more than 4 minutes behind Pam and Tim P, but this workout was probably in their wheelhouse a little more than it was in mine.  I guess I should have just been happy that I finished this workout considering how disgustingly hot it was at the time.  As I guzzled down one bottle of water after another, Pam and I began talking about the toughest workouts that we've done at KOP.  For Pam, it was the championship WOD at last year's King and Queen.  That event was a body weight sled pull that Pam claimed was 700 meters long.  I told her it was only 600 meters.  She insisted it was 700 meters, so I asked her to make a bet on it.  Loser bought the winner a drink.  We asked Aimee if she remembered, but she couldn't recall the distance.  So Pam and I went and ran it as I tried to track it with the Runtastic app.  We got to the 400 meter mark before I realized that the Runtastic app sucks.  It had tracked everything but distance during our jog over.  Great!  Still, it was pretty easy for me to point out to Pam that there was no way their sled pull was 700 meters last year.  It was 600 meters without a doubt.  Pam conceded the bet and now owes me a drink.

(Follow-up: I spoke with Jill A about this a few days later and she remembered Aimee saying it was 700 meters as well.  It's possible that Aimee called it 700 meters when it was really only 600 meters.)

Monday preview: With family in town over the weekend, I passed on coming into the gym.  It was time to test a benchmark again on Monday, with Christine as the WOD being tested.

Pop And Lock (In Reverse)

Workout date: 7/6/16

My apologies for not writing in almost a week, but with Brawl In The Burbs coming up next weekend, I've been working on creating a very sexy spreadsheet for the competition.  My plan for the Brawl was to avoid double duty this year and that has come to fruition, only it has turned out to be a total 180 from how I thought things would play out.  Earlier in the year, I let my beloved Soukas know that I was not interested in doing this year's Brawl.  I was going to stick with my strengths (scorekeeping) rather than my weaknesses (competing).  Then a few weeks ago, I received a message from Cline saying that Luke had tweaked his back and they needed someone to take his spot for the Brawl.  Having a friend ask for a favor is kinda my kryptonite, so I reluctantly agreed to fill in.  The good news?  I tested most of the Brawl workouts in their RX versions during Competitors Classes earlier in the year, so hopefully this competition won't seem nearly as painful as it typically does.  As for the scoring, Giulz asked another member of our gym (Alan) if he would do the honors.  I still got to tinker around with Excel to create a scoring system that will be very user-friendly for Alan and will contain all of the information teams could possibly want during the competition.

You haven't missed out on a whole lot since I last wrote as I went to the gym for workouts on Wednesday and Thursday, then took a long weekend away from KOP.  That was probably wise, although I did have to fight my inner-Crossfit addict to keep from coming in once on the weekend.  You would think that the Mets training staff has been working on me with all of the nagging injuries I've been piling up.  My biggest problem?  My knees.  My right knee has been bothering me for a few weeks.  Then last week, my left knee got in on the act.  No problem.  After all, who needs knees to do Crossfit?  <Welp>

I guess it could be worse.  I'm not experiencing a lot of pain in my knees.  I think they just need some WD-40.  I go to extend my leg and my knee locks up, preventing me from getting full range of motion.  After a couple swings of my leg, I'll eventually hear a popping sound which lets me know that I can finally extend my leg completely.  I doubt either the lock or the pop is a good thing, so I've decided to gear down a little bit.  With Brawl coming up and a possible appearance at King and Queen at the end of the month, I can't afford to put too much wear and tear on my body during daily WODs.

The WOD on Wednesday looked like one I could handle without beating myself up further.  The first part of the class was spent finding a 3RM push press, one of the strength benchmarks at KOP this year.  That would be followed by a 5 minute cash out that would include muscle-ups (scale!) and power cleans.  I went in for the usual 7:30 class, bumping into Matt B and his mom Anne on the way in.  They were both soaked in sweat, a bit unusual for a workout that seemed low-key compared to most of the WODs we do at KOP.  They let me know that it was super hot inside the gym, but I held out hope that nightfall and fewer classmates would cool down the gym during my hour inside.  Matt pushed me to get 205 for my 3RM as he had come close to getting it in the 6:30 class before having to settle for 185.  I had gotten 185 in January and 195 in April, so 205 in July seemed like the logical progression.  Had I been feeling 100%, that would definitely have been my goal.  (Truth be told, it was still my goal, but I lowered my expectations on hitting it due to my knees.)

There was no Coach Jenna on this Wednesday evening as Giulz was filling in for her.  She'd be coaching three of us as Nicole and Julie Foucher were in class with me as well.  We started off with some shoulder mobility exercises before walking through the finer points of the push press.  We then tackled some of the elements of the cash out so that we could transition quickly from the first segment of the workout to the second segment later on.  I thought about pushing for jumping muscle-ups as my scale for the cash out, but it sounded like our main choices were dips (regular or banded) and ring rows.  Giulz spent some time working with me on kipping my dips.  The technique she showed me was much more controlled than what I've done in the past.  She explained that all I needed to do was press out of the dip right as I drew my knees up towards my chest.  Sounds simple enough, but my timing wasn't so great as I tried to do it.  Still I thought I could make it 5 minutes using a combination of strict dips and these new kipping ones, so I decided not to get a band ready for the cash out.  The power cleans were 135 pounds for RX.  That seemed very reasonable, so I went with that.

As we grabbed plates for our first set of push presses, Giulz looked up our results from April.  Having seen that I had gotten 195, she told me that she wanted to see me get 200 today.  Again, I was all for getting a PR, but internally I was prepared for the fact that today might not be my day.  I started off with 95 pounds and did all 3 reps without pausing.  Same deal at 135, although I could tell that it was probably in my best interest to start pausing between reps so that I didn't accidentally do a push jerk during my set.  Still smooth sailing at 155.  That set gave me confidence that I could make my way through 175, but I wasn't sure how much further I'd go beyond that.

At 175, I definitely had to work harder to get through my three reps, but I never hit a sticking point along the way where I thought I might fail.  I decided that if I was going to go after 200 that I should move up to 190 for my next set.  Giulz let us know we had about 7 minutes left to finish our sets, so I didn't waste too much time before trying 190.  I might need multiple attempts at 200.  I might need multiple attempts at 190!  Luckily that wasn't necessary.  I needed to get a strong dip-drive to move the weight, especially on the last two reps, but I was able to press out each rep overhead.

Getting 190 felt like a win to me.  Perhaps I mentally checked out at that point and didn't give 200 my best shot.  Or maybe 190 was simply the best I could do on this day.  On my first attempt at 200, I pressed the bar away from my body instead of directly upwards, giving me no shot at getting it overhead.  I took a couple of minutes before making one final attempt at 200.  On the first rep, I was locked in and did everything right, resulting in a good rep.  On the second rep, I didn't dip low enough, resulting in a weak pop off my shoulders as I tried to drive the barbell overhead.  It got high enough that it cleared my head, but I instantly knew it wasn't high enough to press out.  So I simply dropped it behind me.  Final score: 190.

It was time to move on to the cash out.  I changed shoes quickly because I didn't want to wear my lifters as I tried to kip the dips.  I stripped my barbell down to 135 pounds.  And then I was ready to go.  The format of the cash out was 5 muscle-ups (dips for me) and 10 power cleans each round.  Most people seemed to average about 3 rounds.  I was going to do my best to try and finish 4.  We got started and my first round was very fast.  I did 3 dips, came off the rings, then did my final 2.  I went to my barbell, did 5 power cleans, took a break for a few seconds, then did the remaining 5 reps.  I finished the first round in about a minute flat.  For round two, I went 2-2-1 on the ring dips, slowing down from round one.  My pace on the power cleans did not slow though, as I went 5-5 again.  The clock was close to 2:30 when I completed the second round, so four rounds was unlikely to happen.

Round three was where the dips became very difficult.  I did 2 reps to start again, then had to go 1-1-1.  Back at the barbell, it was 5-5 on the power cleans for the third straight round.  I had less than a minute to go.  I was hoping to finish the dips before time expired and if I could sneak in a power clean or two, all the better.  Neither of those things ended up happening.  I had to do the dips one at a time.  I lost control on my third dip as I began to swing back and forth.  I didn't think I extended fully at the top before coming off the rings, so I no-repped myself.  I got two more dips in before the clock hit 5 minutes.  Final score: 3+4*.

Why the asterisk?  When Giulz asked for our scores, I told her I got 3+4 and did dips instead of muscle-ups.  She stood at the whiteboard for a few moments looking unsure of what she should write.  Seemed pretty straightforward to me.  Unless she thought I didn't do the dips properly.  I'm guessing that was the case, so my score needs an ROM next to it.  (Note: ROM stands for "range of motion".  If an athlete attempts a movement but doesn't meet the standard fully, they have ROM written next to their score.  Examples include not getting low enough in a squat or not touching your chest to the floor in a push-up.)  I was fairly certain that my biceps were hitting the rings on the way down, but I may not have fully extended at the top of all my dips, which would explain why I would deserve the ROM.  I did no-rep myself on the one where I knew I didn't get full extension, but I didn't have a lot of control in the later rounds and may not have judged the rest correctly.

Thursday preview: The hottest day of the year so far and I choose to attend a noon class.  A whole lot of DB snatches mixed in with cardio.  Bring on the paper towels!

Tre Plus Three

Workout date: 7/4/16

Most Mondays I'll take the 6:30 class and then, if I have any energy remaining, I'll use Open Strength at 7:30 to work on some Crossfit stuff that needs practicing (translation: anything and everything).  But this Monday was a holiday, so there would only be one class for the day.  One very big class.  It was especially big because you didn't need to be a KOP member to take part in it.  This was a special Friends and Family WOD.  Come one, come all.  I'm not entirely sure why the gym places no restrictions on anyone attempting to pick up a 1,300-pound tire when you have to go through 3 weeks of fundamentals before being allowed to pick up a barbell, but that's how it works.  Make sure you have at least 3 friends to help you with that tire.

My three friends (John McHugh, Brian, and Tre)

For our Independence Day workout, we were splitting into teams of 4 (some teams had 5 people so no one was left out).  I didn't have anybody in mind for my team when I got there.  I was just going to wait until someone asked me to be on their team.  Or I'd get assigned to one.  John saw me over by the door and told me that he and Brian needed two more people if I wanted to join their team.  Count me in!  Tre was hanging out over by the three of us and he said he didn't have a team yet when we asked him if he wanted to join us.  The Quad Squad (as Brian dubbed us) was complete.

If yesterday's workout had beaten me up, I wasn't going to get much of a reprieve by doing this one.  Here's how we'd be spending our morning:

Team WOD (4 people)

30 minute AMRAP

400 meter run (all team members must run)

4 tire flips (all team members must flip)

40 burpees

60 air squats

80 KB swings

*For the burpees, air squats, and KB swings, two team members could work at a time

As part of our warmup, we ran 400 meters and I remarked to Danielle and Chris D how it seemed so much easier than the day before.  I wonder why that was!  (Note: Also during the warmup, Chris loudly said to me, "Dave, my inner thighs are really sore from yesterday".  That didn't sound weird at all.)  I guess gigantic tires were taking the place of sandbags today.  Looking at my team, I saw three runners, so I let them know I was going to be slowing us down on the runs.  I would do my best to make it up to them on the rest of the workout.  There were two "small" tires and two large tires for us to choose from on the flips and we chose the large tire.  We also went with 53 pound KBs for our swings.  Since the burpees, air squats, and KB swings could be done by two team members at a time, we split up into two groups with John and I working together, followed by Brian and Tre.  We were going to do 10 burpees and 15 air squats each.  For the KB swings, doing 20 in a row seemed like a bad plan, so we split it into two rounds of 10 swings each.

With 12 teams participating and only 4 tires available, Coach Aimee (along with her partial cruise directors Giulz and Rachel) split us into two heats.  The first heat would start two minutes before the second heat.  My inner procrastinator was happy to hear we were in heat two.  When it was our turn to go, we headed off on our initial 400 meter run.  I kept up with the gang on that run and being the second team back, we didn't have to wait on another team at the tire flip.  We weren't flipping it straight, but we got through our 4 flips quickly.  We all jogged inside and began doing burpees (see below), then air squats, then KB swings.  Round 1 was complete.  It felt like there had been very little rest, but I was going to need to kick it into high gear to stay with the guys on the second run.

The Founding Fathers would be so proud

I stayed within shouting range of my teammates on the second run.  I was a couple of seconds behind them as we got back to the tires, but there weren't any teams using the big tires when I rejoined my comrades.  We did four more flips and headed inside.  I wasn't excited about any of the movements that we were doing indoors.  I hate burpees.  My right knee wasn't thrilled about doing air squats.  And KB swings become very tough for me as I fatigue.  But I couldn't slow the team down both on the run and while we were indoors.  I stayed with John as best I could through all of the movements.  Because Brian and Tre were our anchor group, I got a little rest during their final KB round before I had to go run again.  Didn't help as much as I would have liked.  It still felt like we were going about as fast as I could imagine us going, yet there was at least one other team in our heat heading out the door right as we were.  On to round 3!

It was during the third run that I started to lose contact with my team.  They weren't incredibly far ahead of me, but they had to wait for me back at the tires.  I lucked out a little bit because both big tires were being used while I was finishing my run, so we were going to have to wait even if I had been right alongside my team.  A team from the first heat was wrapping up their tire flips as I completed my run.  I got in with the guys and totally forgot that I was leading the count on each flip.  They all looked at me for a second before I caught on and proceeded with the "1, 2, 3....LIFT!"

Back inside, I continued to push to keep up with John, especially on the burpees where I wasn't bouncing up from the floor as quickly as I had during the first round.  I could stay with him on the air squats and I grunted my way through the end of my KB swings to make sure Tre didn't have to wait on me.  I looked at the clock and saw we were past 18 minutes.  Brian had asked me prior to the workout how many rounds I thought we could get.  Having failed at this game badly the day before, I went for what I thought was a more conservative guess by saying 5 rounds.  Too high, yet again!  It was looking like 4 rounds and only part of a fifth.

On the 4th run, Tre ran alongside of me.  I'm not sure if it was a case of him being tired or him showing me some pity.  Maybe a little of both.  They couldn't do the tire flips until I got back anyways, so there was no reason for him to push it and stay with John and Brian.  It was definitely a slow fourth run, but when we got back to the tires, there was a big tire available to use.  I knew there was a chance that this could be our last set of flips, so I tried to put everything I had into moving that tire.  With that complete, we went back inside for burpees, air squats, and KB swings.  I had to grunt through almost all 20 of my swings, but I was determined to do all 10 of my reps each round without putting the KB down, despite how much I was hating the KB at that point.

When Brian finished up the last of his KB swings, I took a look at the clock and saw that we were only going to have enough time to do the run in round five.  We were actually going to need to run kinda fast if the entire team was going to finish before 30 minutes were up.  For John and Brian, this was not going to be a problem.  For me and Tre, it was definitely going to be a problem.  We jogged along as John and Brian left us in the dust.  As we got back to Frosty Falls, there was only 100 meters to go.  Tre looked over at me with a smile on his face and said "wanna sprint it in?"  For those of you who don't know, Tre is a young athlete (18 years old, I believe) who has been with the gym for several years.  He used to go to Endurance every now and then.  I remember getting an idea in my head that I could outsprint him during those classes, but he emphatically squashed that silly notion whenever we would go sprinting down the track.  I'm not sure if he remembered that, but I clearly did not, because the next words out of my mouth were "let's do it".  About 5 seconds later, I was screaming "it's not fair, he's so much younger than me!"  Tre dusted me again, but it was a fun way to end the workout.  Final score: 4 full rounds plus the 400 meter run.

There was no chance I was working out on Tuesday.  The list of body parts that were not sore at this point was considerably shorter than the list that needed ice and rest.  Back-to-back half-hour workouts were a little too much for this guy.  Need proof?  Samson claimed that the back of my shirt had dirty handprints all over it.  But I think if you look closely, you'll see that those marks are from the truck that ran me over twice in the last 48 hours.

Samson wouldn't take the photo unless I did a goofy flex.  So I present to you, the goofy flex.

Wednesday preview: Not too eager to do a lot this week, but a strength workout and a short cash out seem reasonable enough.  Looking for a 3RM push press, then a 5 minute cash out of a muscle-up scale (dips?) and power cleans.