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.