Intermission

Workout date: 8/1/16

For the past two years, we've had something called the gym benchmark series taking place at KOP.  A series of workouts, strength components, and skills are tested in January, February, and March.  Then those benchmarks are tested three more times over the rest of the year.  Athletes can see how much they've improved three months later, six months later, and nine months later.  When we did this last year, there wasn't a particular series that I was looking forward to throughout the year.  Nancy was part of the rotation in 2015, so I was excited to do that workout 4 times, but other than that, I can't say I was eager for the calendar to turn to a specific month.

That has changed in 2016.  Just look at the lineup for the testing taking place in February, May, August, and November!

• Annie - Quick WOD (double unders and sit-ups) that I'm slowly improving on
• Fight Gone Bad - One of those odd chipper WODs that I love doing even if I'm not particularly good at them
• Grace - Most reliable WOD (30 clean and jerks) that I can do
• Jackie - A WOD (rowing, light thrusters, moderate amount of pull-ups) that feels likes its just outside my abilities at the moment, but with some minor pull-up improvement could be in my wheelhouse
• 15RM overhead squat - No one in the gym gets as excited as me about this one
• Rope climb skill work - Ditto

Even skill work on handstand walks doesn't sound awful to me.  Skill work on ring muscle-ups?  Okay, there had to be one thing I didn't like in this rotation, but 7 out of 8 likes is pretty strong.

Monday marked the first day of August and we were getting right into high gear by taking on Fight Gone Bad just two days after the King and Queen competition.  There were 9 of us there for the 6:30 class.  As we went for our usual 400 meter run to begin the warmup, Borden began chatting with me. Because I get involved with a lot of competitions, he wanted to know how I typically feel 48 hours after something like King and Queen.  The truth was that it varied.  After Brawl, I felt really good afterwards.  After King and Queen, I was sore.  During the first two events, I experienced some back pain reminiscent of the type that made me quit the KB EMOM about a week and a half earlier.  That lingered on the next day, but it wasn't as much of a factor when I showed up for Fight Gone Bad.  My traps were the issue on Monday evening.  (Note: I'm not sure I can truly say that I even have traps, but it was in the region where my theoretical traps would be that I was experiencing soreness.)

When we returned to the gym, Aimee split us up into groups of two for FGB as is the usual custom.  Each pair would consist of one person working and one person counting/cheerleading.  There were three girls in class, so someone (Sarina possibly?) who was not in our class ended up helping out as an additional counter.  Cline and I paired up and since we know each other pretty well at this point, Cline volunteered to go first, allowing me to procrastinate and go second.  Cline mentioned that he hadn't done this WOD in a couple of years and that his previous best score was 210.  There was no doubt that he was going to obliterate that today.  He even let me know that his goal was to reach 250.

Need a quick recap of what's involved in Fight Gone Bad?  Here you go:

• 3 rounds
• 1 minute of work at each station
• 1 minute rest after completing a rotation through all 5 stations
• Stations include:
• Wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
• Sumo deadlift high pulls (75/55)
• Box jumps (20" - unisex style)
• Push press (75/55)
• Rowing for calories

Since it takes 17 minutes per partner to do this workout, there isn't a lot of time to warm up or goof around before heat #1 gets started.  I grabbed a small whiteboard, made a little chart to write down Cline's scores at each station and things got underway.

You tend to see the same pattern in this workout: athletes are better at certain movements so they try to score as many points as possible at that station.  The number of reps done at each station decreases from round 1 to round 2, but then stays fairly steady from round 2 to round 3.  So rather then give you 15 separate mini-recaps of how Cline did, I'll narrow it down to 4:

• Wall balls - This is always where the biggest fall off happens from round 1 to round 2.  In round one, you are completely fresh and can typically hold on to the ball for the entire minute.  In rounds 2 and 3, you get here after your rest period, but you are far from fresh.  Cline's score in round one was in the low-to-mid twenties before settling into the mid-teens in rounds two and three.
• Sumo deadlift high pulls and push press - I grouped these together because I think Cline's performance on the barbell movements was very similar.  He definitely had the pain face going, but he was very good about doing sets of 5 (or close to 5) before he dropped the barbell.  He was in the high teens for round one, in the mid-teens for rounds two and three.
• Box jumps - Cline was extremely consistent at this station.  He had this technique where he would jump on the box and look like he was going to lose control and fall off, but he held on just long enough to establish that he had control with his hips open before bounding off.  His score at this station remained in the high teens for all three rounds.
• Rowing - Cline's specialty.  Whenever I get to this station in Fight Gone Bad, I'm expecting a low score followed by a break.  Cline actually put up a higher score here than in the barbell movements in rounds two and three.  In all three rounds, Cline's number of calories rowed was in the mid-to-high teens.

After one round, Cline had a score of 97.  His second round score of 79 brought him to 176.  He needed 35 reps for a PR.  And he needed 74 reps to reach his goal of 250 for a total score.  I spent round three counting down (as in how many reps he needed to reach 250) rather than counting up (as in how many reps he had gotten in round three alone).  When Cline reached the rower, he needed 12 calories and it was a lock that he would reach 250.  He found enough in his tank to get 17 calories on that last row, giving him a total score of 255.  He had 79 reps in round three, matching his second round score exactly.

It was now my turn to go, but before I did, I needed to dry off.  Yes, I was already sweating profusely and all I had done was keep score for 17 minutes.  That didn't bode well for me.  This is a draining workout where you need to grit your teeth and grind through it (as Cline had done during the barbell movements).  I didn't need to be wasting energy worrying about sweaty hands or having sweat drip into my eyes as I moved from station to station.

I had done this WOD in January a few hours after getting off a plane from Vegas.  I was mildly hungover after spending a week out there for the NHC, but somehow I set a new PR by scoring 262.  I wasn't battling any alcohol-related ailments in May and put up an even better score of 270.  My long-term goal for this workout is to hit 300, but I know that is way down the road.  I was hoping to reach 275 with a solid performance today.  The key was holding on better after round one.  I think my scores back in May were somewhere along the lines of 110-80-80.  I probably couldn't improve upon my round 1 score, but if I could bump up rounds two and three to 83-82 (not impossible), I could reach 275.

Heat #2 was ready to begin and I got started on my wall balls.  I tend to do 1 rep every 2 seconds and I remember getting 29 reps at this initial station back in May.  I probably dropped off a little early to move to the next station, but I still got 28 reps before moving to the sumo deadlift high pull.  At that station, I tried to push beyond doing sets of 5.  I always feel more comfortable stopping after sets of 5 or 10, but that's all mental.  I did my best to get to 7 reps before dropping the barbell.  Not sure what my score was here, but it was around 20.

I moved on to the box jumps and began rebounding off this smaller box.  In most workouts, the guys have to use a 24" box, but we get a little reprieve in Fight Gone Bad.  I didn't rebound for as long as I hoped, but I kept things moving by stepping off and doing the next rep.  I couldn't afford to take a break in an attempt to start rebounding again.  It was just do what you can in that moment.  I got about 20 reps at this station as well.

The push press is my favorite part of Fight Gone Bad.  We did one version of this a few years ago where we got to pick which station we wanted to start at.  We also got to do the push press from the rack.  I chose that first (as did everyone else) and put up some ridiculous score in the 40's.  It would be nice if I could hold on long enough at this station to reach 30 reps and with better conditioning I probably could, but for now my typical score here is in the mid-twenties.

I mentioned that I am no Cline on the rower and that was proven once again as I hit the last station of round one.  I thought I was making nice strong pulls during my minute on the rower, but the monitor was letting me know those strokes were weak.  I could only get 12 calories to wrap up round one.  My total score for the round was 107.

That wasn't too bad.  275 was going to be difficult to hit, especially since it was so much warmer in the gym than it had been in May.  As I got ready to begin round two, I told myself that I needed to beat 80 reps, even if that meant a fall off in round three.  That was my new goal.  And to reach that goal, I needed a solid start on the wall balls.

I did not have a solid start on the wall balls.

When the buzzer sounded to begin round two, I picked up my ball and shot it towards the 10' mark.  It barely cleared the 9' mark.  Cline almost sheepishly said "no rep" after the ball hit the floor and he's not one to be shy about giving me shit.  I think he probably knew something was wrong.  I was coming off of a minute rest and my first shot was a full foot short of the mark.  Plus I didn't even bother to catch it.  I tried to regroup, but I had a sense of what the issue was.  I'm not sure why it suddenly happened, but I wasn't able to fully extend my arms.  I had gone completely T-rex.

The rest of my workout was slightly less impressive than this

For the remainder of the minute, I needed to jump in order to get the ball over the 10' line.  That is something I would typically do if I was at the tail end of stringing 40-50 reps or if I was trying to finish up Karen.  It is not something I would do for single reps after taking a minute break.  I was able to do a few sets of several reps in a row this way, but my score on the wall balls plummeted from 28 in round one to somewhere around 10 in round two.

If you think wall balls were tough with T-rex arms, you can imagine how well the sumo deadlift high pulls went.  I pulled as hard as I could to get two in a row before needing to drop the barbell.  I think I got two more after that.  I didn't control the barbell on the way down and it bounced to the side.  I wasn't really paying attention at that point, so I simply moved over to try and pick it up again.  Little did I know that one end of my barbell was actually under the flywheel of my rower.  I went to make a big pull and only the left side of the barbell rose with me.  The right side caught the rower and I went careening to the right as the barbell flew out of my hands.  It was a silly mistake on my part, just as it was silly to carry on.  I let Cline know I was done and walked out of the gym.  I didn't want to sit around as everyone else continued to work.  I took a walk to the 400 meter mark and back to kill some time.  When I got back, the other people in my heat were wrapping up round #3.  Cline came over and apologized for the incident with the rower, but that wasn't his fault at all.  When the heat was done, I congratulated everyone who completed the workout and then I took my leave.  I haven't been back since.

My body let me know that day that it was time for an intermission in my Crossfit career.  It wasn't just this one incident that got me to that realization.  Today my arms didn't fully extend.  A few weeks ago, I went to get a massage and there was a series of stretches at the end of it.  When the masseur lifted my right leg up, he told me to extend it fully.  Upon hearing that I believed I was extending it fully, his response was "wow".  I had back issues during the KB EMOM workout and during King and Queen.  And during this summer-long heat wave, no one has struggled as much in the gym as I have.  Add it all up and it simply isn't healthy for me to be participating at KOP right now.  Is that a bummer for me?  Absolutely.  Doing Crossfit at KOP has been a huge part of my life for the better part of four years.  But maybe this is happening at a good time for me.  I mentioned how busy I've been, how much traveling I've done and how much traveling I still need to do at the end of this summer.  It's not like I'll be home twiddling my thumbs during this break.  I'll be running around like crazy almost the entire time.

What is the cause of my body breaking down recently?  I'm not 100% sure.  It could be that my body isn't aging like a fine cabernet but rather like a bottle of Boone's Farm that has been left outside of the fridge for a few days after it had been opened.  But I suspect these recent issues have more to do with my weight.  If my King and Queen debacle taught me anything, it is that I need to slim down.  I need to shed at least 11-12 kilos (yes, I'm making you do the conversion).  A slimmer Dave would be putting less pressure on his joints, he'd have a better chance at success with body-weight movements, and maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't sweat so damn much.  It might not be a cure all, but it is almost certainly the first step in fixing my broken body.  Will it suck?  Without a doubt.  But it's gotta happen.

I don't have a specific date in mind for when I'll return to the gym.  Most likely it will happen when I get back from our anniversary trip, assuming that my body isn't still telling me that it's a bad idea to do so.  That means this will be the last Crossfit blog post for a while.  I may repeat what I did last year and write a recap of a handicapping tournament I played in (the one in Vegas would make for a good blog post).  Or if something else feels like an interesting blog topic, I'll try to write to make up for my Crossfit absence.

But in the meantime, I wish all my Crossfit friends well.  Keep killing it at the gym!  I am in awe of the work you all put in, day in and day out.  I'll see you soon.

Wham Bam, No Stopping Pam

Workout date: 7/30/16

When I recapped the King and Queen competition last year, I changed up the format that I typically use for these blog posts.  Rather than droning on and on about how many reps I did before I took a 45 second break that may or may not have included an internal pep talk or an argument with the other voices in my head, I simply took myself out of the equation.  My performance last year was miserable and I preferred to write about all of the outstanding performances that I witnessed instead.

Well, it happened again.  So I'm returning to that format.

The only redeeming thing I did at King and Queen was give up my spot in the final heat to someone who was much more deserving of it.  (Okay, that may not be 100% true.  Other redeeming things I did included making sure the scoring for the competition was updated quickly throughout the day and winning some cash in an online handicapping tournament that took place that afternoon.)  Not that I didn't appreciate the faith Jason had in me when he originally placed me there, but I was going to get whooped badly by everyone in that heat.  Dave H was mistakenly left off the initial heat list and he wanted to compete against Rich, so I let him have my spot.  (Note: 7 of the 8 people in the final heat made the podium.  The only one who didn't was Michal and she hasn't done Crossfit in a very long time.  Instead she has spent most of her time concentrating on Olympic lifts, which explains why she would end up winning her weight class at the Bridgeport Barbell Classic a week later.)

Where would I go?  Well there was a vacancy in heat three that I could fill instead.  That allowed me to compete with my bald rival, Chris D.  I guess I am using the word "compete" loosely because he went on to clobber me as well.  How bad was it?  Before the competition began, I learned that I was one of the elder statesmen in the crowd, tying Jackie and Alona for having participated in the most King and Queen's, this one being our fourth.  And yet somehow I managed to have my worst finish.  All five guys who were on the podium last year decided not to participate this year and I still could not do better than 14th.  Pretty terrible.

So let's get into all the good stuff.  Hell, let's just jump right in with the best part of the day:

Cline deserves a King and Queen Lifetime Achievement Award for this outfit

He didn't compete in that outfit because he would have died (have I mentioned that it is a touch warm in our gym?).  But he certainly raised the bar when it comes to making a fashion statement at King and Queen.

Event #1 was called Rampage and it goes a little something like this... (hit it!)

"Rampage"

50 deadlifts (135/95)

followed by

21-15-9 

Box jumps (24"/20")

Barbell-facing burpees

followed by

50 deadlifts

Time cap: 10 minutes

Do you know who crushed this workout in the early heats?  Chris, of course.  After telling me that he was definitely going to break up the deadlifts, he cruised through all 50 of them to kick off the workout, eventually getting through 26 more at the end before the time cap hit.  Only three guys and three gals would finish this workout under the time cap.  For the guys, Dave H let it be known right from the start that he was the Dave that belonged in the final heat, winning the event with a time of 8:40, leaving JP in second place, and Dave's rival Rich in third.  For the gals, Pam gave notice early on that she intended to keep her crown, winning the event with a time of 8:10.  Her bestie Becky came in second, while rookie Ashley came in third.

Chris is already on the freakin box jumps!

Event #2 was called Bring Out Your Dead.  Here's the explanation:

"Bring Out Your Dead"

• Move 1,000/700 pounds from one end of the gym to the other, one object at a time
• Your score is how much weight you can return to its original spot
• Time cap: 7 minutes

Well that was the original explanation on how this event would be run.  As the event was being explained after Rampage had concluded, a whole new set of rules was put into place.  So once again, I give you Bring Out Your Dead:

"Bring Out Your Dead" (v2)

• Move 1,000/700 pounds from one end of the gym to the other, carrying no more than two objects at a time
• Your score is how many objects you can return to their original spot, regardless of weight
• The tiebreaker is how quickly you moved all of the objects to the opposite end of the gym before bringing them back
• Time cap: 7 minutes

The stars of the show in this event were John McHugh and Ashley.  Neither of them won, but they definitely showed more passion in this event than anyone else.  John was blazing up and down the gym, but he didn't catch the rule changes that had been put in place before the event.  So after being one of the fastest to move all of the objects to one end of the gym, he started bringing back all of the heavy stuff first.  Had the original rules stayed in place, he would have been very close to a first place finish (he had 6 items left, but they were all of the lightest items).  Instead he got third behind Dave H and JP, who only left his 100 pound plate down at the wrong end of the gym.

Ashley was also moving at a torrid pace and while she didn't have any problems with the rule change, she did have some issues when it came to organization.  When I did this event, I probably took a little too much time dropping off my items in piles so that I knew where the light stuff was, allowing me to get those things back first (remember, weight no longer mattered).  Ashley was the polar opposite.  When she brought her objects down the gym the first time, she simply dumped them and ran back for more.  She had a very strong tiebreaker time when she dropped off the last of her objects at the opposite end of the gym, but she soon realized she had a problem on her hands.  Her area looked like a building after a mortar strike.  She began picking through the pile trying to figure out what would be quickest to carry back down the gym.  Not knowing what to grab cost her as she ended up getting 11th in this event after having the 4th fastest tiebreaker time.

Ashley before things got messy at the other end

The winner of event #2 for the ladies?  Pam.  The reigning Queen was not in a giving mood.  Someone was going to have to rip that crown off of her head.  And so far no one was up to the challenge.  Theresa grabbed the runner-up spot in this event, with Jen S taking third.

Since there were only three events before the final this year, it was time to take inventory of where everyone stood before Event #3:

King competition: JP and Dave H were tied for first, with Rich back in third.  Kevin had a slim hold on fourth, just two points ahead of Josh, Cline, and Chris, who were all tied for fifth.  Mike Sim. was lurking just behind that group.

Queen competition: Pam was in the lead, Theresa was in second, with Becky in third.  Jen was in fourth with Alona right behind her.  Ashley, Michal, and Danielle were still in striking range to get one of the five spots in the final WOD.

(I know I'm completely biased, but I was insanely proud of how well my Dudes After Dark buddies were doing.  Two of them tied for fifth?  Impressive stuff!)

Event #3 would decide who got to stand on the podium and who got to drink beer while those suckers on the podium had to do another workout.  It was called Ascension to the Throne.

"Ascension to the Throne"

AMRAP in 15 minutes

15 calories on the rower

20 push press (45/33)

25 KB swings (53/35)

(You can only imagine how excited I was to do this event after my recent KB EMOM debacle, but it actually went better than I expected it to.)

Before the finalists for this year's competition were decided, the Masters had an opportunity to get in on the fun.  Six of our Masters athletes led the way and showed us how this workout was done by participating in the first heat.  It was a great effort by all of them, but Jodilee would finish with the best score as Anne edged out Terry for the runner-up spot.

The Masters crew knocking out a round of push presses

It wasn't much later before my day mercifully came to an end.  I actually spent a good portion of the last event yelling at Chris, who was in the lane next to me.  I knew he needed a very high score in this event to make it to the finals and I wanted to do everything I could to help him get there.  Danielle kept her dreams of making the finals alive by winning our heat, putting up the top ladies score with 4 heats to go.  During the next heat, I cheered on Luis (my hydration buddy for the day).  I also cheered on Matt E and Kevin who put up very strong scores in this event.  But no one topped our summer intern in that heat.  Sarina held nothing back in her final event of the day.

That is how you get some KB swings done!

The third-to-last heat featured the two guys I'd choose for my team if we ever had a rowing competition at the gym: Josh and Cline.  Josh would establish the new top score for the guys, one that would hold up over the last two heats as well.  Cline fell short of Kevin's score, meaning that there would be no Dudes After Dark representatives in the finals.  But Jen could still be part of the final five as she only trailed Danielle with two heats remaining.

The second-to-last heat provided some shakeup on the ladies side as Ashley, Alison, and Alona set the new top three scores in the event, a result that was likely enough to eliminate Danielle from a spot in the final WOD.  There were no changes on the guys side, although Joe C's score was second best only to Josh with one heat remaining.

The final heat was the Queen Pam show once again.  Her spot in the final WOD was already safe unless she decided to go day drinking in lieu of participating in the third event.  Unfortunately for the other women competing, she wouldn't be drinking for another hour or so.  Pam took her third straight event, while Becky came in fourth, knocking Alona down one spot.  On the guys side, JP knocked Joe C down to 3rd in the event, a position he would share with Mike Sim., who came up with a big performance when he needed it.  Dave H would tie Kevin for fifth in the event.

What did all of that mean?  It meant there were some super close races for the last spot in the final WOD.  For the guys, Josh's win in Ascension to the Throne moved him up to 3rd place, just ahead of Rich as JP and Dave H would enter the final WOD as the only two mathematically alive to become this year's King.  The fifth spot would go to....Mike Sim., who edged out Kevin by a single point to make it to the finals.

On the ladies side, there was nothing left to figure out except the minor awards.  Pam's dominance in winning all three events up to this point meant she could not be overtaken in the final WOD, no matter what her four competitors did in that event.  Becky and Theresa were in a battle for second.  Ashley's performance in the last event jumped her up to 4th.  And in 5th place...we had a tie.  We often jokingly refer to Jen and Alona as Jelona because they are constantly together, making them seem like one entity sometimes.  That may have never been more true than on this day as they finished the first three events with the same exact score.  In Crossfit events, the tiebreaker goes to the athlete who had the highest placing in an event.  That meant Jen, with a 3rd place finish in Bring Out Your Dead, would be moving on to the final WOD.

Final WOD: The WOD That Has No Name

21 thrusters (95/65)

21 pull-ups

15 overhead squats (115/75)

15 chest-to-bar pull-ups

9 power cleans (135/95)

9 rope climbs (15')

Time cap: 12 minutes

Chris and I were in love with this final workout.  We would have gladly done this over any of the three WODs we had completed.  Chris probably liked it because of all of the pull-ups involved, whereas I was fond of it because I firmly believe that all workouts should end with 9 rope climbs.

The ladies went first and I'm not sure there is much point in recapping it.  You know who won.  It is one thing to defend your title.  It is an entirely different thing to go undefeated while doing so.  An amazing performance by Pam, winning all four events and showing that she truly is the Queen of our gym.  Theresa would finish second in this event, leapfrogging her over Becky for second place overall.  Prior to this WOD, Theresa had never done a chest-to-bar pull-up.  So she tried it in the middle of this intense workout and knocked out 15 of them.  Go figure.  Rounding out the podium spots were Ashley (4th in the final, 4th overall) and Jen (5th in the final, 5th overall).

For the guys, a very determined Josh got out to a lead and held on until the end, although the pack began to catch him in the final minute.  No athlete (male or female) came closer to finishing this workout than Josh did, as he completed 8 out of 9 rope climbs.  He made a couple of attempts at that 9th rope climb, but his gas tank had hit empty.  Rich steadily closed the gap on him, but he would finish second in this event, 2 rope climbs short of finishing.  JP was third, Mike was fourth, and Dave was 5th.  That meant JP would become the new King of the gym, edging out Josh who won the last two events to finish as the runner-up.  Dave would be third overall, Rich would be fourth, with Mike rounding out the podium.

The 2016 Court at KOP

That was it for this year's King and Queen.  Of the four years I have competed in this event, this was the largest turnout ever, yet it also might have run smoother than any of the other editions that I was a part of.  Aimee and Jason did a great job putting this together and the judges did a fantastic job throughout the day.

Congrats once again to this year's King and Queen: JP and Pam!

Monday preview: You can choose to not listen to your body, but make no mistake about it, your body will eventually force you to listen.

The Devil's Cash Out

Workout date: 7/27/16

There was a lot of shoulder work on tap on Wednesday which didn't bode so well for me.  Only 24 hours had passed since I had done a workout that included 55 handstand push-ups, so there was a strong chance I wouldn't be putting up any PRs during Wednesday night's strength-focused WOD.  The workout would test all three versions of the shoulder-to-overhead lift with varying reps for each of the lifts.  Here's what we signed up for:

Shoulder Press: 1-1-1-1-1
Push Press: 3-3-3-3-3
Push Jerk: 5-5-5-5-5

Now I believe that for most folks in the gym, the amount of weight used for each of these lifts may have been similar (1RM shoulder press = 3RM push press = 5RM push jerk).  I knew that would not be the case for me.  I am terrible at the shoulder press.  There isn't a nicer way to say it.  My PR for the shoulder press was accidentally set after polishing off a bottle of white wine during our team event at Festivus.  (Note: Festivus is the drunken party at our gym each year where we do a pseudo-workout before the real debauchery begins.  The Festivus Games is a legitimate Crossfit competition held for novice and intermediate athletes each spring.  The fact that my shoulder press PR occurred at the former and not the latter should provide a lot of insight into what kind of athlete I am.)  I thought there was 135 pounds on the barbell and I did a rep with it.  Turns out I added the plates wrong and there was 145 pounds on the barbell.  I have yet to duplicate that effort since.  Although to be fair, I haven't made a habit out of drinking wine while in the midst of a workout.  Perhaps I should.

While I might have some wimpy shoulders, I do have some strong legs, so I'd be looking forward to the second and third segments of this workout.  There is a world of difference in how much I can get overhead when I'm allowed even the slightest knee bend.  And if I'm allowed to get under the barbell, even better.  I knew my 3RM for the push press was 195, so I was expecting a large gap between my number for the first part of this workout and the number for the second part.  I had very little idea of what my 5RM push jerk was prior to this workout, but I suspected that would fall in line with the weight I used for the 3RM push press.

As was the case the week before, there were 5 of us in attendance at the Wednesday 7:30.  The male contingent was the same (me, Chris D, and Brian) while the female contingent was entirely different (Sharon and Julie Foucher).  Coach Jenna walked us through each of the movements we'd be working on then started the clock, telling us we had 30 minutes to get through all of our lifts.  That seemed like plenty of time, but I may have been chatting too much at the start.  Two minutes had gone by and I still didn't have a barbell on my rack.  Jenna let me know that I needed to get moving, so I got my barbell and a bunch of plates to begin the shoulder press.

Truth be told, I thought the 5 attempts at the shoulder press wouldn't take very long, but I did end up needing time between the later lifts, so I shouldn't have wasted the two minutes at the beginning.  I had an easy lift at 75 to start.  My next lift was at 105.  No struggle there, but it was heavy enough to let me know that 145 likely wasn't in the cards today.  I took my next shot at 125 and that was definitely tough.  I managed to press it overhead, but it was work.  I took a couple minutes before the next lift, in part so that I could figure out what I wanted on the barbell.  I decided to go with 140.  Why 140?  Well, I knew there was a very good chance I wouldn't get 140, but based on my lift at 125, I thought my max for the day was somewhere in the 135-140 range.  Going for 140 on the 4th lift gave me the opportunity to try it twice if I failed and felt I was close.  It gave me some wiggle room to go lower if I wasn't close to getting it.  And if by some miracle I got it, I'd have a chance at 145 again for my last lift.  (Get the wine ready!)

A corkscrew wasn't necessary as I could barely get 140 to the level of my forehead.  I needed to drop weight for the final lift.  It probably would have been wise to drop to 130 based on how the lift at 140 went, but I was stubborn and only dropped down to 135.  Luckily I had just enough in the tank to fully press that out.  Final shoulder press score: 135.

The clock was approaching 12 minutes, so I had needed 10 minutes to do my 5 lifts.  So much for making up time during the shoulder press.  I made a concerted effort to keep things moving on the push press.  I went right into my first set of three using the final weight I had on the barbell for the shoulder press (135).  I needed to make a trip down the gym to get some additional plates so I got a breather before my next set.  I believe it was around this time that Jenna checked in with all of us on our progress.  She really wanted us to be done in the 30 minute time domain she had given us because there was a "fun cash out" she wanted to do afterwards.  That sounded ominous.  Still I didn't want to mess up what she had planned, so I kept an eye on the clock the rest of the way.

My next set was at 155 and that was fine.  The third set at 175 was similar to my third set on the shoulder press.  It was a tad more difficult than I had anticipated, leading me to believe that I wasn't going to be able to add much more weight to the barbell and continue to find success.  So as I had done with the shoulder press, I went 5 pounds shy of my PR, loading 190 on for my next attempt.  Before that attempt though, I needed a break.  It was a steamy mess in the gym yet again and I was starting to sweat like crazy.  I took a few swigs from my water bottle before walking over to the paper towel rack to dry off.  The clock was just past 19 minutes when I took on 190.  Typically, if I get the first rep with any sort of decent form, I feel good about my chances of completing the entire set.  That was the case here.  Once I made it through rep #1, I knew I just had to stay focused on my form and I'd be fine.  I got through reps #2 and #3 and it was now time to think bigger.  I'd be taking a shot at a new PR in my last set with 200 pounds on the barbell.

This was the exact opposite scenario of what had happened with the shoulder press.  I went into my fourth set of each with a lot of doubt, but this time it had worked out for me.  Now I was adding more weight to the barbell and I was trying my best to overwhelm that doubt with the excitement I was feeling about possibly getting a new PR.  I went through the same routine I had gone through before attempting 190.  Get some water, dry off the sweat from my hands, arms, and head, then proceed with the lift.  And once again I got the first rep.  But this was that dreaded first rep that took almost everything I had to get it overhead.  When I brought the barbell back down to my front rack, I knew I was in trouble, but I only had two reps left.  Still it wasn't impossible to think I could make this happen.  Unfortunately I didn't have enough left in the tank to get the second rep overhead as I only completed a bit of the press out before needing to bail.  Three reps at 200 would need to happen another day.  Final push press score: 190.

I was nearing 22 minutes (damn it, those first two minutes are haunting me!) when I completed the push presses, so I wanted to try and make up some time on the push jerks by using the same exact progression I used for the push presses.  I began with 5 jerks at 135.  Those went smoothly enough, but I definitely had to take more time between reps than I am accustomed to.  All the earlier reps plus the sweltering heat were catching up to me.  I tried not to take a lot of time before the next set at 155, but when I completed that set, I knew there was no way I'd finish in the 30 minute time frame Jenna had set for us.  I wouldn't be the only one though as Chris and Julie were just getting ready to begin their push jerks when I finished off my set at 155.  That didn't make it any better that I had wasted time earlier on, but at least I had some company.

The third set of jerks was where it became painful, mainly because I had to "catch" the barbell with my chest after each rep and hitting your chest over and over again with 175 pounds is not much fun.  As for the lift itself, that wasn't too problematic.  I was getting under the barbell well each time and I didn't feel concerned that I wasn't going to be able to stand it up.  I needed a few minutes before going through the set at 190, but that set was virtually the same as the one at 175.  It sucked hitting my chest over and over again with that weight, but I didn't let that distract me from keeping proper form and getting through the set.

The clock had passed 30 minutes, but I had one more set to go.  I didn't have a set number in mind for my push jerk 5RM, but my failure at 200 pounds on the push press gave me a little more incentive to complete that weight on the push jerk.  Would it be a PR?  Not a clue.  But it kinda felt like a PR attempt and I didn't want to end the night failing for a third time.  I pumped myself up as much as I could and then took the barbell off the rack.  I completed rep #1.  Unlike with the 3RM, I wasn't feeling certain that a solid first rep meant I'd complete the rest of the set.  I needed an extra second or two to reset each time I brought the barbell back to my front rack.  As I got through reps two and three, it started becoming more important to me not to fail.  I got under rep #4 and stood up with it.  I am going to be so angry if you blow this now, Dave.  Do this last one like you did the first four.  One more deep breath, a dip down, and then a push of the barbell upward as I dropped below it.  I had it overhead.  And then I stood up with it.  5 for 5.  Final push jerk score: 200.

Mike Sim. was there for the Bridgeport Barbell Club class and he could tell I was excited about getting through that set, so he gave me a high five.  Mike can shoulder press that amount so it probably wasn't the most impressive feat he witnessed that day, but he was nice enough to congratulate me on getting through it.  I cheered on Chris and Julie as they finished off their push jerks and then we all began putting our weights away.

It was past 8:30 and class was over.  Or was it?  Jenna had told us how much she wanted to do a cash out at the end and her three delinquent students (Chris, Julie, and myself) decided that we would stick around to do it despite the fact that we had run beyond the end of class.  After all, the Barbell Club was going to be using the gym until 9:00, so it wasn't like the lights were about to be shut off.  I don't think Jenna believed us at first when we said we were going to do the cash out, but once we convinced her that we were for real, she was happy to join in the cash out with us.  And what was the cash out?

6 minute AMRAP
6 burpees
6 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')

We had no idea that Jenna worshipped the devil before this cash out, but now it seems obvious in retrospect.  (Kidding!)  I wasn't psyched about having to do a lot of burpees, but I could handle 6 more minutes of pain.  We had someone else start the clock for us and the four of us got to work.  To no one's surprise, I was the slowest on the burpees, but I didn't lose any time on the wall balls.  All three of my "cashmates" were ahead of me as we got to the halfway point.  Julie was ahead and I began to worry that she would lap me.  So that's what kept me going during the back half of this cash out: do not let Julie lap you!  I'd be 2 or 3 burpees in and she'd start her next round of burpees.  That made me move a little faster and get to the wall balls.  If she got to her wall balls as I was finishing mine up, I'd drop quickly into a burpee and get my next round going so I didn't get lapped.  As time started to run out, I began my 7th round.  I tried to finish all 6 of my burpees so that I could get a score of 6+6 (keep the theme alive!), but I fell one burpee short.  Final score: 6+5.

I planned on coming in for the WOD the next day, but I ended up being sick all day long, which is a bit of a rarity for me.  That meant no more workouts until Saturday, the day of our annual gym competition, better known as King and Queen of Prussia.

King and Queen preview: Some new faces end up on the podium, but there is one champion who will simply not be denied.

Kipping Is Appreciated But Not Necessary

Workout date: 7/26/16

My long weekend away from the gym began with a five-hour car ride.  That wasn't the ideal remedy for my newly developed back problems.  However, a few days free of trying to lift heavy objects was much appreciated by my body.  I came back to KOP on Tuesday evening not overly concerned about how my back would hold up during a hero WOD that I had never done before.  The name of that WOD was JJ and it was one that I had mixed feelings about.

JJ
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Squat Cleans (185/125)
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 Paralette Handstand Push-Ups (7" deficit for men/4" deficit for women)
Alternate between exercises (so 1 squat clean, then 10 handstand push-ups, then 2 squat cleans, and so on...)

Let's clear up the area that I did not have mixed feelings about: the paralette handstand push-ups with a deficit.  I can't even do a regular handstand push-up, never mind a handstand push-up using paralettes that would require a greater range of motion.  If things went well, I'd use 2 abmats and do strict handstand push-ups.

That was one of the things I had mixed feelings about.  My ability to do strict handstand push-ups with 2 abmats comes and goes.  I needed to do 55 of them in this workout, so there was good reason for me to doubt whether I could get through the entire WOD without needing to scale further.  If my handstand push-ups went away, I would need to do seated DB presses.  And if I'm being honest, I kinda hate those.  I get that they work similar muscles, but it feels way too different from handstand push-ups to count as a scale.  (Note: I feel the same way about ring rows as a scale for pull-ups.  I understand that they are a good scale, but it just feels like you're testing something totally different.)

Along with attempting to do strict handstand push-ups with 2 abmats, I needed to figure out how I would be scaling my squat cleans.  I can squat clean 185 pounds, but doing that 55 times was a tall order.  I gave some thought to trying 165 pounds, but going heavy on the squat cleans could have an adverse effect on my ability to get through the handstand push-ups.  I dropped a bit lower in weight, winding up at 155 pounds for my squat cleans.

Dudes After Dark was dude-lite as, for my second class in a row, I was the only guy in attendance.  Joining me at the 7:30 were Ashley and Nooshi.  We warmed up outside with Coach Rachel as the 6:30 class ran a little long.  Once we were back inside, we talked about handstand push-ups.  Rachel wanted us to practice kipping handstand push-ups, but I wasn't all that interested.  I knew I was doing strict handstand push-ups in this workout.  She wanted me to at least attempt one so she could see my form.  She may have reconsidered once she saw how bad my kip was.  Ashley was struggling with hers as well, but at least it looked like a kip.  Nooshi had never been upside down before and worked at doing that.  She wasn't able to get upside down on this night as she was hesitant to swing both of her legs toward the wall, but she was getting closer and closer on each attempt.  My guess is that it won't be too long before she gets upside down.

Rachel had some doubts about my ability to do 55 strict handstand push-ups (as did I!), but I told her I wanted to try and do them for as much of the workout as possible before I went and grabbed DBs.  That response was satisfactory and we moved on to the squat cleans, where Rachel had us go through some progressions with just the barbell and then had us show her a few reps with weight added on.  I did several reps at 125 and, while I wouldn't describe them as light, they gave me confidence that I could handle 155 for the workout.

The warmups were done, it was time to take on JJ.  Rachel started the clock and we did our first squat clean.  I wanted to make sure I was doing solid squat cleans each time rather than doing a power clean that I would end up riding down into a squat.  And right from the start, my form was very good on the squat cleans.  (Foreshadowing alert: I felt that my form was good on 54 of my 55 squat cleans. There was one in the 9th round where I lost my concentration and cleaned the barbell without squatting immediately.  My brain took a mini-siesta and I needed to ride the barbell down into a squat after catching it high.  That was the only time during the workout when that happened though.)

With the 1st squat clean done, it was time to test out how sturdy I'd be on the handstand push-ups.  A couple weeks earlier I had gotten my first ever strict handstand push-up with 1 abmat and I think that helped me in this workout.  Doing them with 2 abmats didn't seem as intimidating as it normally did. I got upside down and raced through 10 reps before coming back down on to the floor.  I flicked over the first bead on my abacus and I was quickly through round one.  After two more squat cleans, I returned to the wall.  I didn't want to try and attempt nine more in a row because I was worried I'd wear myself out and once the handstand push-ups go, it's hard to get them back again.  So I broke up my second round into two very controlled sets: one of 5 reps and then one of 4 reps.  I slid bead #2 on the abacus.  I had finished two rounds and barely two minutes had elapsed.  Maybe I could keep my total time on this workout in the neighborhood of 20 minutes.

It was at about this time that I noticed how much trouble Ashley was having.  She had started out using 2 abmats for her handstand push-ups, but she was struggling with her kip.  She was still in the midst of her first round of 10 handstand push-ups when I finished my second round.  Like me, she didn't seem to want to give in and do seated DB presses, so she ended up adding a 3rd abmat underneath her head.  This seemed to do the trick as she was able to finish her 10 handstand push-ups.  In fact, we kept close to the same pace the rest of the way as we kept crossing paths at both the barbell and the wall.  I would finish up my workout just as she wrapped up her 9th round.

But let's not skip ahead to the end.  Round three was where my pace began to slow even though I was doing my best to keep my body moving.  Squat cleans have a funny way of knocking the wind out of you, something I didn't need while doing a long workout in a humid gym.  After completing my 3 squat cleans, I came back to the wall and split up my handstand push-ups again: 5 in the first set, 3 in the second set.  I'm sure a took a breather or two during that round as I was beyond four and a half minutes when I slid across abacus bead #3.

Round four was the scare round of the workout for me.  I did two sets of two squat cleans.  Then I came over to the wall.  I had done 27 handstand push-ups and had 28 to go.  Halfway done with those (but only 20% done with the squat cleans...yikes!).  There was no way I was going to feel good about transitioning to seated DB presses at this point in the proceedings.  Yet when I kicked up on the wall to do a handstand push-up, my arms gave way and I fell upside down on to the abmat.  Crap.  Were they gone?  Was I really going to have to switch?  I decided to shake my arms out a little bit and take some time before trying again.  I wasn't worried about my time anymore.  I just wanted to finish what I started.  I flipped upside down again and was relieved when my arms worked properly this time.  I started doing reps with a plan of doing a set of four and a set of three.  But once I got going, I didn't want to stop.  I kept moving up and down and before I knew it, I had completed the entire set of seven.  The best part was that I knew each set from here on in would be less than the one I had just done and I had completed that one with a whole lotta doubt in my head.  I was going to get through all of the handstand push-ups.

It was nice gaining that confidence for the remaining handstand push-ups, but they were the easy part of what was left in this workout.  I still had 45 more squat cleans to get through.  It was time to break those up as best as I could.  I wasn't stringing reps at any point of this workout, so when I mention sets, I'm referring to fast singles.  For round five, it was a set of three, a walk away from the barbell, and a set of two when I returned.  Six consecutive handstand push-ups followed and I had reached the halfway point.  In the next round, I went three and three on the squat cleans before stringing together 5 more handstand push-ups.  The clock was nearing 14 minutes.  So much for keeping it close to 20 minutes!

Heading back to begin round seven, I noticed my other classmate, Nooshi.  She was sitting next to her barbell and I couldn't tell whether she might have hurt herself or whether she was simply taking a break.  Turns out it was neither.  I hadn't considered that she could be done, but she blazed through the hang power cleans and the seated DB presses she used in this workout, finishing in under 12 minutes.  She was going to spend considerably more time cheering on me and Ashley than she had getting through JJ.

I wanted to go 4 and 3 for my squat cleans in round seven, but I was definitely beginning to fatigue and I knew I couldn't do more than a set of three.  So 3-2-2 it was.  I needed more breaks to get through the squat clean portion of the later rounds, but I was so quick with the handstand push-ups that I ended up making up for my lack of speed on the cleans.  Round 8 went 3-3-2 on the cleans and round 9 went 3-3-3.  The small sets of handstand push-ups were my break from the squat cleans.  There wasn't much difference in the small walks I was taking away from the barbell between sets of fast singles and the one I needed to take to get over to the wall.  There was just one more round to go.

I may have been more tired than I realized when I got to the final round.  I thought I might be able to go 3-3-4 on the squat cleans if I went for broke at the end, but my first set wound up only being two reps.  I took some time to get my breath back, then got back into it.  From there I did two sets of three, before wrapping up the squat cleans with a last set of 2.  I jogged over to the wall, got upside down, and did 1 last handstand push-up.  Final time: 26:02.

As I knelt next to my barbell, I joined Nooshi in cheering on Ashley as she completed her final round.  It's pretty rare that I see Ashley look as exhausted as I typically do at the end of a workout, but she was working hard to complete this one.  There was an expression of pain on her face when she went to do her squat cleans, but she kept after them better than I did in the later rounds.  And when she had completed that final handstand push-up, I got the impression that she would be more than okay with not doing those again for quite a while.

Wednesday preview: Shoulder presses, push presses, push jerks, and Jenna's demonic cash out.

KB EMOM DNF

Workout date: 7/21/16

If Wednesday's WOD had me licking my lips before I showed up, then Thursday's WOD was leaving me with a serious case of indigestion.  It was my least favorite format (EMOM).  What were we forced to do every minute on the minute?  7 KB swings.  And I'm not particularly good at KB swings.  In fact, there was a workout earlier in the year where we had to do 7 KB swings every minute on the minute and I had to quit before I finished.  It was only the third time that I've voluntarily given up on a Crossfit workout, so taking on that WOD's cousin was not the most appealing proposition.

As if that wasn't enough, the workout also included a ton of hang power cleans.  I mentioned in my last post that grip strength isn't something I'm noted for and nothing tests grip strength like hang power cleans.  There were 90 of them in this workout and if I wanted to go RX, I needed to use 155 pounds.  Having gone through the experience of doing 45 hang power cleans with that weight in June while doing DT, I knew there was no chance in hell that I'd be attempting to double that total while in the midst of an EMOM.  135 pounds seemed like a much better alternative.  There were also 90 box jumps that needed to be completed, but I was comfortable enough with a 24" box that I knew I wouldn't need to scale that part of the workout.  Here's the entire description of the WOD:

3 rounds:
30 hang power cleans (155/105)
30 box jumps (24"/20")
With 7 KB swings (55/35) EMOM

I was attending the noon express class on Thursday because I had a road trip later that evening (there was some traveling at the end of July as well!).  Aimee was coaching the nine of us who showed up and I turned out to be the only male there.  I had wandered away from Dudes After Dark and found myself a part of the Ladies At Lunch class.  Among those in attendance were Pam and Giulz, who were definitely going to crush me in this workout assuming I could even finish it.  I had already begun contemplating using less weight on my barbell than the 135 pounds I had originally settled on. Then I found out that when Aimee had done this workout earlier in the morning, she had needed almost 20 minutes (translation: 140 KB swings) to get everything done.  Yeah, I was definitely scaling further.  I decided to move down to 125 pounds for my hang power cleans.

Another summer workout at the gym, another ungodly humid sweatfest to deal with.  One of the biggest problems I have as someone who sweats all the time is that I have a tough time holding on to things in the gym.  I have a tough time holding on to the bar when doing gymnastics movements.  I struggle to hold on to the barbell for long sets of cleans.  And I'm terrified that I'm going to lose my grip and end up launching a KB at someone as my hands slide mid-swing.  Two of those three concerns were going to be tested in this workout, so I made sure to have a small towel next to my box so that I could wipe off my hands any time I had doubts about my grip.

After a brief warmup (they don't call it "the express" for nothing), we got ready to tackle this beast.  Even though I knew this was going to be a long workout, I told myself that I needed to push hard early on and take a big chunk out of the hang power cleans.  The longer it took me to get through them, the more KB swings I would have to do, and the more energy I'd be wasting.  Aimee got us started and, after doing my required 7 KB swings, I got through 15 hang power cleans before the buzzer let me know I had to return to my KB.  Had I gone too light?

Ohhh Dave, you silly, silly man.  You are about to quickly learn the folly of your ways.  The day of reckoning draws near.  Make that 14 minutes of reckoning.

It took a couple of more minutes to finish off those hang power cleans and as I moved into the box jumps, I tried to get myself comfortable with the idea that this was going to be a very long workout and that I would be doing a shit-ton of KB swings.  I needed to keep pecking away.  The problem was that I kept losing time transitioning from the barbell or the box to the KB and vice versa.  So my minute may have really only been 50 seconds.  Now throw in time needed to catch my breath after transitioning to the KB, a few seconds to dry my hands, not to mention the slower swings I was doing as I got tired and you can see how the amount of time I had each minute to do the "actual work" in this WOD dwindled very quickly.  I finished off the first round of box jumps in the 8th minute.  Had I kept up my first round pace (which I clearly was not going to do), I'd be working for 24 minutes (translation: 168 KB swings).  Now you know why I began talking to myself early in this workout.  Well, that and mental health issues.

Showing off my belly while the Queen gets work done

In that previous KB EMOM workout where I had to call it a day early, there was one scaling option  I didn't consider that could have helped me finish the WOD.  Typically when I scale at the gym, I'm thinking about using less weight on the barbell or perhaps making a movement easier (like when I use abmats for handstand push-ups).  But another form of scaling is cutting down the number of reps that you're doing.  My downfall in that workout was that I couldn't keep doing 7 KB swings every minute on the minute, so eventually I had to stop.  I didn't realize until afterwards that I would have been better served trimming the EMOM.  Perhaps I could have finished the workout using that scale.  Don't ever let it be said that I don't learn from my failures because the game plan on this day was to drop from 7 KB swings to 5 KB swings if I began to falter.  Sure enough, in the 11th minute, I decided that if I was going to make it to the end of this workout, I needed to scale the EMOM.  And so I did.

It wasn't enough.  By that point, I was already feeling some back pain as I worked through my KB swings and my hang power cleans.  That discomfort grew worse over the next few minutes as I desperately tried to complete round two of my hang power cleans.  The buzzer went off letting me know minute 14 had begun and that it was time to swing the KB again.  I needed to catch my breath and then I did 5 painful swings.  I came back over to my barbell, having done 18 reps in my second round of hang power cleans.  I did rep #19.  I did rep #20.  When I went to do rep #21, I felt a lot of pain in my back.  The barbell did not rise much above my hip before it fell to the floor.  I had reached the point where it was not wise for me to continue.  For the second time this year, a KB EMOM workout was leaving me with a DNF.

I spent the next few minutes off to the side, stretching out my back.  I watched the rest of the class continue on with the workout and they had plenty more to do.  Giulz wouldn't finish until the 23rd minute (161 KB swings).  Pam wouldn't finish until the 27th minute (189 KB swings!).  Afterwards, they were both feeling the effects of this insane workout.  Giulz had pain in her neck and her back.  Pam had pain in her back and had to clean off all of her equipment because both of her thumbs were bleeding.  This WOD left mass casualties in its wake.

As my one contribution for the day, I texted Cline and let him know that he should scale more than he might think when it came to the hang power cleans, even though he's a KB swinging machine.  Clearly there was the real possibility that people could get hurt in this workout so I wanted to spread the word: go really light!  Even though Cline did that and even though (like me) he is not one who is fond of giving up on a workout before it is fully completed, he had to say "no mas" after taking 24 minutes to complete two rounds.

Let's hope this workout is never programmed again.

Tuesday preview: After a long weekend away, I get my first shot at a benchmark WOD that I missed the first two times it was programmed earlier this year.  JJ provides fun with squat cleans and handstand push-ups.

Bearing Down

Workout date: 7/20/16

It's been awhile since I've written a blog post.  I wish I had more time to write, but this summer has been incredibly busy for me.  At least towards the beginning of the summer I wasn't traveling.  That changed two weeks ago.  I was in Vegas for the better part of a week for a big handicapping tournament.  After flying home, I didn't have much time before I needed to meet up with some of my KOP friends at Rachel's birthday dinner.  The next day I was headed to Saratoga for another handicapping tournament.  That might sound like a lot of handicapping packed into a short time frame, but the Vegas tournament was actually my first live tournament of the year and I was making up for lost time.  I had to skip the live tournaments I wanted to attend earlier in the year due to weddings or other events that took precedence on my calendar.  Another four days passed before I came home again, a day in advance of another friend's birthday party.  How's my upcoming schedule look?  Later in the week, I have to return to upstate NY for a fantasy football draft.  Then two days later, I'll be off to Vietnam for my 10 year anniversary trip with Jenn, meaning I'll be out of town for almost another two weeks.  It's been a crazy month.

So there's a lot to cover on this blog.  There were a bunch of workouts that I haven't written about yet, but I think I remember the details from them fairly well (we shall see!).  The first of which was a workout that took place on a Wednesday night during the 7:30 class.  It was one that I was excited about because it was one of those rare things that I happen to be good at in the gym.  The WOD was based on the Bear Complex.  The typical Bear Complex requires you to do a power clean, a front squat, a push press, a back squat, and another push press.  Then once you're done with that, repeat that same process six more times before putting the barbell down.  It's a little surprising that I am good at the Bear Complex since it eventually becomes a test of your grip strength, but it also is a test of how well you cycle a barbell and I tend to do that well.

Here's how the Bear Complex was incorporated into the WOD:

5 Bear Complex* (115/75)
500 meter row
4 Bear Complex
400 meter row
3 Bear Complex
300 meter row
2 Bear Complex
200 meter row
1 Bear Complex
100 meter row

*Each Bear Complex in this workout would be 1 round of the typical complex rather than the full 7 round monstrosity.

If you add all that up, that comes to 15 rounds of the Bear Complex (or just over 2 cycles of the typical Bear Complex) and 1,500 meters of rowing.  That didn't sound too awful.  I was fairly certain that I had done the full Bear Complex with 135 pounds on the barbell, so 115 sounded moderate for this workout.  I fully anticipated some extremely fast times on the blog from folks who did the workout earlier in the day.

Except that really wasn't the case.  I thought some of the best times in the gym would be around 9 minutes, but only Keithie had broken 10 minutes with a time of 9:42.  (To be fair, some of the bigger guys in the gym used 135 to do the workout.)  Still, there were many more times in the 11-12 minute range than I expected.  Maybe this was another case of me overestimating how quickly I could do a workout that looked good to me.  I tend to do that a lot with WODs that include rowing as I don't take into account how much the row can take out of you.

There were only 5 of us in Coach Jenna's class, but the gym was full as the Bridgeport Barbell Club was training in anticipation for their meet that was only a few weeks away.  Among those in attendance were Mike Sim. and Pam.  As we were warming up, I got to chat with Mike and he told me to use 135 for the workout.  He had taken class earlier and been urged to do just that.  I was already starting to have thoughts that I was underestimating how tough 115 would be, so I declined the opportunity to try and match the weight Mike used.  Jenna went over the movements in the Bear Complex and highlighted that we could save time if we went from the first push press directly into the back squat without stopping.  With more weight on the barbell, I would probably need to pause after the push press, but since 115 seemed manageable to me, I planned on employing Jenna's advice.

Jenna gave the five of us (myself, Brian, Sue, Chris D, and Nooshi) a few minutes to get ready and as I went to throw on my lifting shoes, I had a conversation with Christine about what my time should be:

Christine: You gonna keep it under 12 minutes, Dave?
Me: I'm hoping to keep it under 10!

That really was my goal despite the times put up earlier in the day.  The way I figured it, 1,500 meters of rowing would take about 6 minutes.  Could I handle the 15 rounds of Bear Complex in 4 minutes? We were about to see...

Typically I'd be aware of how my classmates were doing during the workout and if someone was going faster than me, I'd try to use that as motivation for pushing even harder.  That wasn't gonna work for this WOD.  I needed to go as hard as I could early and just hope to have enough left in the tank to reach the finish line.  Jenna started the clock and I began ripping through the Bear Complexes.  The barbell felt pretty light so I moved through each segment of the complex quickly before tapping the ground and starting the process all over again.  How fast did I go in that first round of 5 complexes?  Pam later told me that I finished the first round in 31 seconds.  I told myself to go as fast as I could and it's hard to imagine I could go any faster than that.  I jumped on my rower and made sure I kept my 500 meter split under two minutes the entire way.  I had finished one-third of the work and the clock hadn't reached 2:30 yet.  10 minutes was definitely in play.

When I got back to the barbell, I discovered how the row would take its toll on me during this workout.  In other WODs, I've done the row and then felt the impact it had on my legs as I would struggle in other leg-intensive movements.  In this workout, the row impacted my arms more than my legs.  Part of that might have been bad technique on the row.  I might not have used my legs as much as I should have because I was trying to move fast.  But when I got back to the barbell, I noticed that the power clean was much tougher during the second set of complexes.  I thought the squats would become more difficult, but the power cleans were the element of the complex where I began to feel the most pain.  I knew that I wasn't quite as fast during this second round, but I never stopped at any point as I tried to get back to my rower ASAP.  As I finished off the fourth complex, Jenna came over to talk to me.

This was the most controversial part of the WOD (as you'll see later on).  Jenna told me that I needed to make sure that I wasn't doing a thruster at the beginning of each round of the complex.  The front squat and the push press needed to be two distinct movements with a pause in between.  At the time, I was more concerned about staying under 10 minutes, so I just heeded the warning I was given about making sure there was a pause in between those two movements the rest of the way.  In fact, I paused between the first push press and the back squat during the last three rounds because it didn't make sense to me that I could link those two movements.  Why would I be allowed to link the push press and the back squat if I couldn't link the push press and the front squat?  Better to be careful and pause at every point along the way from here on out.

As expected, the 400 meter row was worse than the initial row because I was much more tired and sweaty than I was when I did the initial row.  I could not keep the 500 meter pace under two minutes, so I was losing that 6 minute pace for 1,500 meters already.  I was pretty sure I'd need to make it up later on.

The middle round was definitely the gut check in this workout.  As mentioned, I paused at every point along the way of the complexes, so those were slower.  Each of the power cleans felt like they were done using 155 rather than 115.  I got through the three rounds and returned to the rower, but it was slow going there as well.  Once again, I couldn't keep the 500 meter pace under two minutes.  When I got off the rower, I snuck a peek at the clock and it was beyond 7 minutes.  80 percent of the way done, but my slower pace meant that I might fall short of my goal of staying under 10 minutes.

The next two complexes were probably at about the same speed I used during my previous round, but I was a little bit quicker on the 200 meter row.  I knew that the last complex in the final round would only take 10 seconds or so and the final 100 meters would be a sprint, so I had to keep a semi-decent pace on the 200 meter row.  As I finished that up, I looked at the clock again and saw 9:10.  I needed to move if I was going to stay under 10 minutes.  There couldn't be any delay in starting that final complex and there wasn't.  As soon as I was done with the final push press, I dropped the barbell and got into the rower.  The clock was at 9:30.  I began pulling as hard as I could and immediately reached back in towards the flywheel after every stroke.  I was struggling to breathe, but I told myself that I didn't need to breathe for 100 meters.  I could breathe after that.  One big pull followed another until I hit 100 meters.  Final time: 9:54.

This was one of those workouts where I just collapsed to the side of my rower when it was done.  I was very happy about my time.  I'm guessing that my good mood helped me recover quicker than normal because after about a minute of laying there, I told myself to get up and root on my classmates.  Chris didn't need any encouragement as he was done already.  Wasn't sure whether he beat me, but he was still laying by his rower when I began to walk over to the others.  One by one, Sue, Brian, and Nooshi completed the workout.

Jenna asked us for our scores and that's when my excitement went away a little bit.  She asked for my time.  I gave it to her and she wrote it down.  Then she asked "RX?" and I said yes.  She paused for a few seconds as if she didn't know what to write next to my time.  The same thing had happened not too long ago when Giulz asked about my time for a cash out we had done.  In both cases, I got the impression that the coach didn't think I had done the standards correctly and didn't want to write RX next to my name.  In this instance, I could even point out what the issue was as Jenna had made the comment to me mid-workout about not doing a thruster in the middle of the complex.  So should that have counted?  I don't know.  My preference would be that the coach simply write ROM if they don't think I did the RX standards properly.

A couple extra points about this thruster issue:

1. Chris said Jenna had come up to him about the same issue when he finished his round of 4 Bear Complexes, so he began pausing like I had the rest of the way
2. A few days later, another athlete told me that a different coach had encouraged them to do thrusters during the Bear Complex as a way of moving more efficiently (much the same way we were told to connect the push press and back squat)
3. When we do thrusters in a WOD, they are described as the combination of a front squat and a push press, so I'm not sure why they would not be acceptable in this workout

So why am I going on and on about this minor issue?  Because it was kind of a bummer to reach my goal and then feel like it was tainted afterwards.  I certainly wasn't trying to cheat the system, but if ROM should have been written next to my time instead of RX, then so be it.

Later on that night, Cline posted a comment to our KOP Facebook page noting how well Chris and I had done on this workout (Chris finished in 10:11) and that cheered me up again.  Whether I had met RX standards or not, I crushed this workout and that is something I do not get to say very often.

Thursday preview: The return of the dreaded KB EMOM.  Even the best athletes end up with injuries after this one.  So you know this doesn't go well for a barely mediocre specimen like myself.

I've Seen You Lift That

Workout date: 7/19/16

This week's edition of Dudes After Dark featured two things I can't do: deadlifts and bar muscle-ups. Okay, that might be a slight exaggeration.  I can deadlift, but the amount I can deadlift hasn't changed in nearly two years.  So now when I see deadlifts programmed for the WOD, my immediate reaction tends to include an eye roll.  The whole thing is my own fault though.  I never practice deadlifts.  If you don't practice something, you can't expect to magically get better at it one day.  There was a part of me that thought as I got stronger overall that my deadlift would improve incrementally, but that has not been the case.  385 pounds has been my ceiling and there are no signs that I'll be breaking through it any time soon.  Similar deal with bar muscle-ups.  I keep hitting the bottom of my rib cage on the bar when I make my attempts.  I'm supposed to make my hips meet the bar, but they seem reluctant to make that union happen.  So when this benchmark test day comes up every 3 months, the one where we find a 3RM deadlift before practicing bar muscle-ups, it ends up being a lot of "close, but no cigar".  And that's very frustrating.

Want another sure sign that you haven't been practicing something?  Your coach will come over and repeatedly tell you that you're doing things wrong.  Coach Rachel would point out something I was doing wrong, I'd make an adjustment, and then she'd point out something else I was doing wrong.  This was without any weight on the barbell.  The deadlift might be the simplest lift we do, yet somehow I've found 3-4 ways to screw it up.  (Again, if I practiced the deadlift at all, I might not have these issues.)

Wanna know who's not screwing up their deadlifts?  Everyone else in my class!  Mike Rothschild?  3RM PR.  Anne Bohen?  3RM PR.  Ashley and Tia?  Check the box next to 3RM PR.  Ryan A?  The man lifted so much that we had to put mats underneath his barbell so he didn't damage the floor.  Not only did he get a new 3RM PR, he bested his previous 1RM PR as he lifted a whopping 455 pounds three times.  The entire Dudes After Dark class was killing it this week!  Well, except for that little guy...

Dead on all morning!

Yes, my adventures in deadlifting were the equivalent of Thorny's errant neck-shot.  I started off at 225 because I knew we were going to be spending a decent amount of the class on the bar muscle-ups and I didn't want to run out of time if (miracle of miracles) I actually set a PR and had a shot at breaking 400 this day.  225 was fine, as was my next set at 275.  The next move was to 315 and I knew when doing that set that the chances of me writing PR next to my name at the end of class were pretty much zilch.  I got through it, but it felt heavier than it normally does.  Same was true of the set at 345.

My next set would be at 365.  If I could handle that, then there would be a PR try at 385.  If somehow that was a success, I would slap on 405 and try to get 1 rep.  How about just getting through that set at 365, Dave?  That would be much more problematic than anticipated.  On my first attempt, I went to pick up the barbell and couldn't complete one rep.  I handled this setback with grace, muttering just a few expletives and finding the restraint not to punch the wall.  As I went to make a second attempt at 365, I saw Luke walking towards me.  He was in the 6:30 class and had just come from the men's locker room after showering and changing.  I got into my setup, began to pull the barbell, and only managed to get it a few inches off of the floor before having to drop it.  It was definitely starting to look like 345 would be my score for the day.  Luke (who is significantly better at deadlifting than I am) stopped as he was walking by me to give me a brief but effective pep talk.  "What are you doing?  I've seen you lift that," he said to me.  

Luke's positivity helped me out in a moment when I thought I was finished.  Maybe I went into this workout with a negative mindset and sabotaged myself without knowing it.  That was not going to be the case during my third attempt at 365.  Luke's words rang in my head.  You've lifted that before, lift it again.  I walked up to the barbell and began to pull.  It felt extremely heavy, but I got the barbell up to my hips.  Now it was all about momentum.  I slowly brought the barbell down to the floor, but only to tap it before doing the second rep.  It wasn't easy, but I stood up with it a second time.  I had one more to go and I was determined not to fail after two successful reps.  I tapped the floor one last time and pulled with everything I had.  I slowly dragged the barbell up along my quads until I was standing upright.  It took three tries, but I got through 365.

With all the energy it took to get through 365, getting 385 was a total longshot.  I ended up taking three attempts at it and I guess you could say it went better than expected.  Each time I was able to get the barbell off of the floor, but I couldn't muster the strength to get it up to my waist.  I had thought about trying 380 (since 375 is my best), but I doubt it would have made that much of a difference.  I was the only person in class without the letters "PR" next to their name, but getting 365 made me feel like I had done respectably.

It was on to bar muscle-up practice.  Rachel had us try out the real deal to start and once again I hit the bottom of my rib cage on the bar repeatedly.  My hips just have no love for the bar.  No one in our class could do a bar muscle-up, so Rachel discussed the scaling options.  She had most of the class attempt to do bar muscle-ups with a band, but I chose not to go this route.  Whenever I try to use the band, it kills the momentum of my kip.  As a result, I don't come any closer to getting a bar muscle-up.  When I've watched other people use the band, I've seen a mix of results.  Some people can use the extra spring of the band to get up over the bar, while others run into the same exact problem that I have encountered.

Personally, I prefer doing jumping bar muscle-ups.  Am I guilty of gravitating towards those because I find them to be fun?  Yes.  But I honestly think I'm getting more out of doing jumping bar muscle-ups than I am from attempts with the band.  I still need to generate momentum to get over the bar.  I still need to dive forward as I'm going over the bar.  And I still need to press out once I've gotten my body over the bar.  The cash out was 5 minutes of bar muscle-ups (or scales).  I could either frustrate myself with the band and likely complete 0 reps.  Or I could get a solid 5 minutes of cardio in by doing a bunch of reps of jumping pull-ups.  Option B clearly seemed like the way to go.

I set up my 13" box with a 25 pound plate on it to give me a 15" starting height to jump from.  17" is too easy and 13" has proven difficult for me, so this 15" height has become the norm for me when doing jumping pull-ups.  Although that may have changed by the end of this cash out.  Rachel got us started on our final 5 minutes of work and I began knocking out reps of jumping bar muscle-ups.  I think I did about 5 or 6 before needing to take a break.  The movement itself will elevate your heart rate, but hitting your mid-section against the bar over and over again has a real effect on your breathing.  After that initial rush, I went on to do sets of 2-3 at a time.  There was one point where my hand slipped as I jumped up (even my grips couldn't hold off the deluge of sweat coming from my arms and hands).  That's a scary feeling because you don't want to go flying into the wall or into the pull-up rig.  Luckily I was able to control my fall and didn't injure myself.  I had one other failed rep along the way, but the rest of my attempts during those 5 minutes were successful.  Final score: 21.

Afterwards, I tried to convince Ashley and Anne to try the jumping version and I may have gotten a convert in Ashley.  As for me, I decided that it may be time to try the 13" box on its own again.  I managed two successful reps in a row with the 13" box before my moist hands betrayed me on my third attempt.  My right hand went sliding away and I almost fell from the bar again, but I was able to get some control before coming back down on to the box.  I think I'll try out the 13" box the next time we do this in a WOD.

Wednesday preview: Possibly my best performance in a Crossfit WOD since I've been at KOP.  If it counted.