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.