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.
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