Some People Need To Be Pushed

Workout date: 9/29/16

It was a gray, rainy day at Endurance on Thursday.  I got to the track a few minutes before 5:30 and only Maggie was standing on the infield of the track getting soaked.  Eventually we would be joined by Coach Tim, John M, and Laura A.  After two straight weeks of workouts where we did sprints preceded by longer runs, we were skipping all of that longer stuff (for the most part) and focusing on speed work today.  We did an Indian Run for a lap to get warmed up.  Then we went through a few stretches, a series of drills, and a couple striders before Tim revealed what was in store for us.

Endurance workout:
For each run, build up speed along the way until you reach the sprint, where it was time to go all out.
Two 100 meter runs (with a 40 meter sprint) - slow jog back to the starting line
Six 150 meter runs (with an 80 meter sprint) - slow jog back to the starting line
Three 300 meter runs (with a 100 meter sprint) - 50 meter walk, then 250 meter slow jog back to the starting line

Having to do 11 sprints didn't sound great, but it was those slow jog recoveries that really had me concerned.  Maybe that is a recovery for some people, but it feels like work to me.  I didn't think it would be a problem with the two 100 meter runs, but I could see myself struggling during that 150 meter portion.

When Tim explained that we would be building up from a moderate speed at the beginning of each run to a full-on sprint at the end, it sounded like something that I would enjoy.  I'm a decent sprinter, but it takes me several strides before I get into high gear.  Having that built into the start of each run would probably help me out.  Early on, it did.  When we did the 100 meter runs, it seemed like all four of us were together when we got to the point where we had to start sprinting and then it was just a mad dash to the finish line.  I was convinced that in this scenario, I would finish first amongst our group.  Boy was I wrong.

Last week, I didn't go all out on the first 200 meter sprint we did and Maggie passed me right before the finish line.  I had no clue how far she started behind me on that sprint, but based on what happened in this workout, I'm guessing she could have been a solid 80 meters behind me and still caught me.  She is probably the fastest sprinter in our gym, male or female.  On that first 100 meter run, we got to Tim (he would always position himself where the sprint began) and I got up on my toes and started booking.  I was mostly worried about John on my right, but there was a small blur on my left that went whizzing by me.  Maggie 1, Dave 0.  (Let's stop keeping score now.)

The second 100 meter run was no different despite the fact that I went all out again.  There would be no break as we all began the slow jog to the 150 meter mark.  I tried to jog as slow as I could and worked on controlling my breathing.  Going through this 6 more times after longer sprints was probably not going to work out well for me.

That second 100 meter run would be the last time that John and I ran with the ladies for a while.  Both Maggie and Laura did a better job of accelerating on the turn and hitting the start of the sprint at top speed.  John and I were left to try and catch them on the sprint.  The photo below will show you how well that went.

Girls are fast

The 150 meter run quickly became a battle of the sexes.  Not a battle between the sexes.  Laura and Maggie would take off and sprint against one another, while John and I took part in the undercard.  After each sprint, we would have to jog back to the starting line.  I learned during those jogs that I was the same speed as Maggie on recovery runs (yay?).  Laura and John would always be the first two back to the starting line, while Maggie and I trailed behind.  After the 2nd run of this middle set, we all started walking back and Tim didn't say anything until we were two-thirds of the way to the starting line.  No one was more grateful for this 100 meter respite than me.

During the first four 150 meter runs, I believe Maggie edged out Laura and I edged out John.  It was at this point that I hit the wall.  I tried to keep it together for as long as I could, but I couldn't maintain the same intensity for that 5th run.  I finished several seconds behind John.  The slower "sprint" didn't help me recover much.  It seemed very unlikely that I'd be keeping up with the rest of the group for this final 150 meter run.  It was even more of a longshot that I'd keep up during the 300 meter runs.

This would be a good time for me to mention that John is the man.  There is no one at our gym who pushes me to work harder than John.  Every time I see him at the gym or at the track, he gives it everything he's got.  Not only that, he finds the energy to yell me at half the time too.  His devotion to working out definitely spurs me on to try harder.  When the last 150 meter run began, I didn't have too much of a problem staying with the group up to the beginning of the sprint.  The girls had edged ahead like they did every time, but John and I weren't too far behind them.  When the sprint began, I was going to try my hardest, but I didn't think I'd keep up with the other three.  John had other ideas.  We started sprinting and almost immediately he yelled out "come on Dave!"  How could I not try and find a little extra at that point?

There's a difference in how fast you sprint on your toes and how fast you sprint when you're not up on your toes.  When you aren't on your toes, you can still go fast, but you're probably only going 85-90% of how fast you can really go.  You need to be up on your toes to hit top speed.  As soon as I heard John bark at me, I knew I had to get up on my toes.  The two of us sprinted side by side for about 60 of the 80 meters before John slowed up a little.  I had found a little extra to edge John out again.

Was emptying the tank there worth it?  It didn't seem like it when we began the 300 meter runs.  To transition to the 300 meter run, we would walk 50 meters from the finish line and then slowly jog the remaining 250 meters to the starting line.  If it seems like I'm not a big fan of the 150 meter jog, you can imagine how warm and fuzzy I felt about the 250 meter jog.  I was hurting from that last sprint, but with a 200 meter buildup before the 100 meter sprint at the end, I thought I'd be able to start very slow on this longer run before trying to kick it into high gear.  That was not the case.  We hadn't yet completed 100 meters of the buildup and I was way behind the other three.  I tried to pick it up on the turn, but there was a huge gust of wind in our faces that prevented me from accelerating successfully.  Even when I came off the turn, I couldn't find the motivation to try and catch the three runners off in the distance.  I completed that run a good 7-8 seconds behind John and Maggie, who were several seconds behind Laura.

One of my worst habits is performing well at both the beginning of a workout and at the end of a workout, but falling apart in the middle.  Even though the first 300 meter run didn't go well, some part of me believed I'd pull it together for the third run.  I wanted to change that.  As I slowly jogged back to the starting line with Maggie, I decided I was treating this next 300 meters like it was the end of the workout.  Was it possible that my final run would be awful as a result of this decision?  Oh yes.  I'd say it was more probable than possible.  But this was something I needed to fix from a mental perspective when I work out.  I needed to improve the middle section and not think about how it might affect the end.

Tim gave us a small breather when we returned to the starting line, but soon his hand was back in the air.  I learned from the last run that I couldn't go really slow at the beginning, so I got ready to go faster during the initial 100 meters.  I might have been too eager as I jumped out to the lead for a short time, but order was soon restored as Laura passed me and John did as well.  Laura had these longer distances down and motored on ahead, but I pressed on the turn to stay just behind John as we came up to the 100 meter sprint.  When we hit the sprint, John and I were side by side.  I wasn't sure where Maggie was, but I was terrified she was going to come blazing past both of us.  About halfway through the sprint, I began to edge away from John.  After getting crushed on the first 300 meter run, I managed to finish second on this one.  That's how I need to push the middle sections of workouts.

Only one 300 meter run to go and it was everything I could do to control my breathing on my way back to the starting line.  I was certainly going to put whatever remaining energy I had left into this last run, but I was expecting it to play out like the first 300 meter run rather than the second 300 meter run.  There was another small breather before Tim sent us on our way.  My pacing on the first 100 meters was much better this time around.  Laura took off again and I was trailing behind John a little more than I had on the second run.  As we hit the turn, another gust of wind came, which seemed like an omen that this was going to turn out like the first run.  It was tough to accelerate, but I stayed right off of John's left shoulder, a stride or two behind him.  As we came off the turn, it was time for the final sprint.  I was going to be happy if I could stay this same distance behind John on the last straightaway, but once again, he went out of his way to push me.  We started to sprint and John took a moment to look back at me.  He wanted one last battle down the lane.  I got up on my toes and pumped my arms like crazy.  Wasn't sure how long I'd be able to stay up on my toes, but the answer turned out to be "as long as I needed to".  I moved alongside of John and then began to edge in front of him like I had done at the end of the last sprint.  That's when John found another gear.  All of a sudden he was right beside me.  We continued that way almost all of the way to the finish line.  I think John came down off of his toes about 20 meters before the finish line, allowing me to finish just ahead of him.  How did he take it?  The first words out of his mouth were "yeah Dave!"  (Part of me thinks he prefers to lose these sprints as long as he forces me to give everything I've got.  Like I said, John's the man.)

During the cool down lap, John and I were talking with Tim about how some people need to be pushed.  I wouldn't have been able to find that extra resolve during this workout if John hadn't pushed me over and over again.  I'm just not able to manufacture that on my own.  Guess that's what separates the better athletes from the not-so-good ones.  The better athletes can get to that place by themselves.  Add it to the list as one more thing that I need to work on.  In the meantime, I'm incredibly grateful to have someone like John helping me out.

Friday preview: It's the Beat the Streets annual fundraiser.  A partner WOD of front squats (not bad) and burpees (very bad).  Oh yeah, and the partner who isn't "working" must hold a plate over their head.  At least there is no penalty for putting it down.

Whole Lotta Dubs

Workout date: 9/28/16

Let's make this a short blog post.  I suck at dubs.  The end.

If I left it at that, you'd still know everything you needed to know about my performance during Wednesday's workout.  But I suppose you didn't click on this blog while sitting in a bathroom stall at work with the hope that today's blog would only be one line long.  You need something to pass the time!  Fine, fine...here is a longer recap of what went down at the Wednesday 7:30 class.

Wednesday's WOD:
20 minute AMRAP
100 double unders
100 ft of walking lunges

I'm always trying to squeeze in some extra time to practice my double unders.  How about 20 minutes worth of practice?  Okay, to be fair, this WOD would make you do some lunges as well.  But the lion's share of the workout would be spent twirling the jump rope.  This was a solid test of my form, my engine, my mental toughness, and my ability to withstand pain.  (Spoiler grades for those categories: D, C, C, and B-)

Coach Jenna had 8 people in her late Wednesday class: Matt and Andrew C (I didn't know they were brothers until after this workout), Matt E, Genesis, Julie Foucher, Ranjith, Ravi, and yours truly.  Our warmup started off with a 500 meter row and then transitioned to a jump rope tabata.  We did 20 seconds of single unders, then 10 seconds of air squats.  We did three rounds of that before moving on to two rounds where single unders were replaced with double unders.  And I have to tell you, I was feeling the burn already.  Did it help that we did a tough leg workout the day before?  No.  But I saw a lot of the same names on the whiteboard from the day before which meant they overcame sore legs to do this workout.  I couldn't blame my performance on that.

No, if I was going to blame my performance on anything, it is my inability to get a new set started again once I've completed a big set.  When I walk you through the 20 minutes, you'll see that I had some bigger sets along the way, something that should have resulted in a reasonable score for me on this workout.  And I was better than usual when it came to taking shorter breaks and resisting the urge to rest in a squat.  The problem was my consistency.  I couldn't rattle off consecutive large sets and my large sets weren't all that big to begin with in comparison to my classmates.  All of the feedback that I have gotten recently indicates that my jumping has become more efficient as I do double unders, but my results in WODs like this one where we do a bunch of dubs has gotten worse.  I have to find a way to turn that around.

After having us practice walking lunges (everyone could handle that), Jenna got us started on our 20 minute double under odyssey.  I was closest to the front of the gym with Coyle #1 (Andrew) next to me and Coyle #2 (Matt) alongside of his brother.  They were probably not the best people to stand next to during this workout as they are very good with the jump rope.  I'm not sure how many reps Andrew strung in his first set, but it must have been close to 100 because he started swearing at the end of a very long set.  I was happy with the 23 that I got.  And in the only instance of me putting decent sets back-to-back, I followed that up with 18 more reps.  41 reps in, less than 45 seconds off the clock, not too shabby.

From that point on in round one, I had to claw my way to 100 reps.  I was back to my usual standard of hitting sets in the 8-12 range.  More importantly, I was starting to feel tired, but I wouldn't let myself go into a squat or even take long breaks while I was standing up.  This was a long workout, but I needed to keep moving.  I tried to block out the Coyle brothers next to me as they had already begun lunging back and forth.  I saw Julie and Matt E lunging before me as well, but at that point, I was close to finishing my first 100 reps.  If I stuck with this pace, maybe I could catch back up to them later in the workout.

My approach to the lunges was the same for every round: just keep moving.  It was similar to doing tired burpees.  If you had to pause for a second, that was fine, but there was no reason to come to a prolonged stop.  I might lunge on the way down with my arms by my side and lunge back with my hands on my hips for more stability.  Didn't matter how I did them, I just needed to keep moving along so I could get back to the jump rope.  When I finished my first set of lunges, the clock read 4:05.  I was officially not completing 5 rounds of this workout.  And since I expected my pace to gradually get slower, 4 full rounds was no lock either.

The second round was emblematic of the struggles I have with double unders.  I had a decent first set (like 12-14 reps) and followed that with a bunch of attempts where I hit myself with the rope as I tried to get the set started or managed 1 rep and then failed.  Not only is this a waste of time and energy, it starts to weigh on me mentally.  My initial reaction is to be pissed off, so I have to take a few seconds and tell myself to remain calm.  About 1 minute after this round started, I had 22 reps.  Later, I had a set finish with me getting to 44 reps and a glance at the clock showed two minutes had passed since the start of this round.  I guess I was consistent with my mediocrity.  At that pace, I would have finished 100 double unders in about four and a half minutes, which might have been my actual pace for round 2.  When I finished off my lunges, the clock read 10:00 exactly.  Four rounds wasn't happening without a miracle.

I couldn't even begin round 3 with a decent set like I had done in the first two rounds.  It was a struggle, and after a minute of attempts, I had 10 reps, not 22.  For some reason, I wasn't worried about it taking 10 minutes to get through this round of double unders.  Even though it is rare that I have confidence during a Crossfit workout, I was pretty sure that 10 double unders per minute was not a realistic pace for me.  At some point I was bound to rip through 12 double unders in about 10 seconds.  And eventually I did during that round.  Because I was screwing up a lot, I thought my average was probably going to be 20 double unders per minute, even after that bad first minute.  I think that was about where I finished, estimating that the lunges took close to 90 seconds to complete.  I finished round 3 at close to 16:30.

There wasn't much hope of me completing 100 more double unders in the last three and a half minutes.  I was so angry with how round 3 went that I slammed my rope to the floor after rep #100.  After fighting the urge to rest in a squat during the first 10 minutes of the workout, it was round three when I finally gave in and took a couple of squat breaks to not only catch my breath, but also to cool down emotionally.  Double unders can be so damn frustrating.  One second you have them, the next second you don't.  Or at least that's the case with me.

I needed to average about 30 double unders per minute to finish my 4th round of dubs under the 20 minute time cap and for a brief moment, there was hope.  I did a set of 19 reps to kick off my final round.  A minute later, I was at 20 reps.  I needed a break after the first 19, but all of my momentum vanished during that break.  Several times I failed to get a single rep.  Mixed within those failed attempts was one special set where I got one double under.  Joy!  About two minutes remained and I had 80 reps to go.  That definitely wasn't happening.  I tried my best from there on out to maintain a normal pace, thinking back to Thursday when I tried to rush the end of the workout and prevented myself from getting a better score than I might have had if I stuck with what was working.  When Jenna called time, I had managed to get up to 62 reps.  Final score: 3+62.

Well that sucked.  Not surprisingly, I had one of the lowest scores of the day.  This workout was pure aggravation.  What really bugs me is that my form (in terms of how high I jump and how fast I twirl the rope) has gotten better.  Yet I still mess up getting sets started and I still get tired way quicker than I should.  I'm always told that when people tire out during double unders, it's their shoulders that are fatigued.  I don't think I've ever slowed down on my double unders because of shoulder fatigue.  It's my legs that go.  All those tiny bunny hops wear out my legs long before my shoulders get tired.  I'm not entirely sure how to fix that, but I'll keep working on it in hopes of stumbling across a solution.

Thursday preview: No two-fers this Thursday.  Purely an Endurance day lined up for me.

Getting My Crossfit Legs Back

Workout date: 9/27/16

Dudes After Dark became Giulz After Dark this Tuesday night as The Hammer was filling in for Coach Rachel.  She was overseeing six dudes (Cline, Ryan A, Neil, Ranjith, Ravi, and myself) as well as one lady (Genesis), who was breaking up the all-dude stranglehold on the Tuesday 7:30pm class.  The WOD was strength-based, but it was a very strange format.  To begin, each of us would work towards 75-90% of our 1RM.  That effectively served as an appetizer for the main course.

Tuesday WOD:
Do 50 back squats in 20 minutes
*Choose a challenging weight

I'm well aware that I tend to overthink workouts at the gym.  A bit too much planning/strategizing instead of clearing my mind and getting after it.  But for this workout, how could you not strategize?  Everyone knew what the WOD was before they showed up, but you could look around the room and see the wheels turning in everyone's heads as they warmed up.  What weight should I choose?  How should I split up the reps?  Do I attempt a huge set early?  Do I perform the same number of reps in each set, and if so, how many reps should I do per set?

I'm going to run through the three strategies that I know were used in my class because I was watching Cline and Ryan along the way.  (Note: There's a lot of down time in this type of workout.)

Strategy #1 - Cline
Weight used: 200 pounds
Plan of attack: 25 sets of 2 reps, meaning 1 set every 48 seconds

Cline was using 200 pounds because some asshole who writes a Crossfit blog talked him into it.  Okay, Giulz might have pressured him too.  Cline was originally going to use 195 and we felt he should go with the sexier sounding 200.  Take note: if Giulz and I are pressuring you to do something, just say no.

Strategy #2 - Ryan
Weight used: 315 pounds (you read that correctly)
Plan of attack: 10 sets of 5 reps, meaning 1 set every 2 minutes

Ryan also got some pressure from Giulz.  (To be fair, everyone received pressure from Giulz as she told us most people were finishing early and that we should go a little heavier than we might think.)  Keithie had put up the top score of the day using 305 pounds.  Giulz was challenging him to beat Keithie's score.  Ryan wasn't interested initially.  Eventually he caved and put 315 on his barbell.  Also worth noting: Ryan is really freaking strong!

Strategy #3 - Dave
Weight used: 245 pounds
Plan of attack: Do a big set to begin, but not a crushing set.  Use that set as a baseline for sets during the first 10 minutes.  Do smaller sets in the second 10 minutes.  I expected to do 8-9 sets, meaning 1 set every 2:15-2:30.

I didn't get any specific pressure from Giulz other than the message that she gave to our entire class.  When I showed up for the 7:30, I saw Matt B leaving the 6:30 class.  His face was red and he was very sweaty.  He told me that the back squat workout was very weird.  (He also told me that the cash out sucked.)  He said it was tough and he had used 225 pounds.  That made me lean towards using 225, but after hearing what Giulz told us, I decided to add 20 more pounds to my barbell.  What was the thought process behind my plan of attack?  Originally I was going to use Ryan's strategy, but I tend to get tired late in workouts and I didn't want to have things fall apart on my last few sets.  That would leave me scrambling to finish up before 20 minutes was up.  If I could bank some extra reps early on, then I could get away with some smaller sets toward the end.

Giulz started the clock and we all got working on our first set.  I was hoping that I could get through 7-8 reps in that first set, but that seemed like overkill once I began doing my back squats.  I've gotten so used to methodically doing my sets during back squat programs (where I do a max of 6 reps in a set) that I didn't realize how draining it was to slowly do reps and hold that barbell for a long time.  I almost stopped after 5 reps, but the concept of "banking" reps crept into my head.  I held on for a 6th rep before racking the barbell.  Six reps would be my baseline.

Only 30 seconds had elapsed on the clock.  I started to think about when I should do my next set.  Maybe somewhere around 1:30?  That seemed like enough recovery time.  It actually ended up being more time than I needed.  I started getting antsy at about 1:00 and decided that I'd begin my next set at 1:15.  The second set felt a bit easier than the first.  I hadn't done any larger sets in the warmup and I think that first set got my legs looser for later sets.  After 6 more reps, I placed the barbell back on the rack.  12 reps complete, so I was about a quarter of the way done.  Over 18 minutes remained. I could definitely finish this WOD!

My rest before the third set was pretty similar as I returned to my barbell at about 2:30.  Took care of six more reps and I was up to 18 already.  I began to wonder whether I should be spacing out these sets a little more.  I waited until about 4:45 to do my next set of 6.  Took a stroll outside, got some water, and (paper) toweled off before doing what I thought would be my last set of 6 at around 7:00.  That set would get me to 30.  From there I could do four sets of 5 (with 12 minutes left to do those sets) and I'd be done.  Piece of cake!  Sadly, things did not go as planned on that fifth set.  My third rep was very shaky.  I tried to keep going, but my next rep wasn't much better.  I had banked plenty of extra reps up to this point and time was not an issue.  The smart move was to put the barbell back on the rack.

That last set got the wheels turning again.  Was I only going to be able to do 4 reps (or less) in every set from here on out?  That would mean at least 6 more sets, so maybe I had less time to rest than I believed.  I made two decisions at this point:

1. I was going to take a longer rest before the next set.
2. I was going to attempt 6 reps again.  If it turned out the way the last set did, then I could start worrying.

It was at this point that I began paying more attention to what Cline and Ryan were doing.  Ryan would power through his five reps looking very smooth the whole way, but once the barbell was back on the rack, he wanted to be as far away from it as possible.  I guess the weight was more difficult than he was making it look, but I'd kill to have my back squat look that easy.  Cline was also moving well, but I wasn't paying attention to how many reps he was doing per set.  All I knew was he was getting back to his barbell quicker than I was.  That was no surprise because Cline rarely needs more recovery time than I do.  I figured there was a good chance he had completed more reps than me up to this point.

I wanted to finish this next set right around the 10 minute mark, so I got back under the barbell around 9:45 or so.  The reps didn't go smoothly and I had to push very hard out of the bottom a few times to make sure I didn't get trapped in my sticking point, but I made it through 6 reps.  10 minutes to go and only 16 reps to complete.  I was feeling confident again.  I watched Ryan do another set.  I watched Cline do another set.  At about 12:00, I returned to my barbell.  Three more sets.  This one should be 6 reps.  Last two will be 5 reps.  Plenty of time remaining.  As was the case with the previous set, I had to really work hard to make it through six reps, but I powered through them even though my legs were beginning to get tired.  10 reps left, 8 minutes to do them.  I felt very relaxed.  I had plenty of time to spare.

Ryan was still on his schedule, but soon after this set, Cline dropped his barbell.  Since I wasn't in a hurry at this point, I went over and helped him get it back on the rack.  About a minute later, Cline tried again with the same results.  We took 5 pounds off the barbell before placing it back on to his rack.  There was no part of me that thought helping Cline with his barbell would have any adverse effects on my remaining back squats.  I may have been mistaken.

I watched Ryan do one more set before heading over to do a set of my own.  My first rep was fine.  My second rep was shaky, but I stood it up.  I took a deep breath and got ready to continue.  As I tried to stand up my third rep, I noticed that my legs were very wobbly.  That wasn't good.  I pushed my hips forward and was able to complete the rep, but it was time to rack the barbell.  So much for two rounds of 5 reps.  Seven reps remained and doubts were creeping into my head as to whether I could do that in two sets.  Five minutes to go.

While I rested, Cline attempted a set with 195 and ended up bailing the barbell.  I was no longer just worrying about whether I would finish.  I wasn't sure how many reps Cline had left, but time was starting to dwindle down and he had dropped the barbell three times in short order.  I went over and helped him get his barbell on the rack a third time.  I watched one more set of Ryan's (he was doing sets with 315 pounds, how could you not stop and watch that?) before getting back to my barbell.  We were nearly 17 minutes in.  I was determined to get 4 reps on this set.  If I could do that, then I knew I could handle 3 in the final set.  If I got less than 4 here, then I was probably going to need two mini-sets on short rest to hit 50.  I'm sure these were some tired looking reps, but I took my time and made it through reps 44, 45, 46, and 47.  Just three to go and two and a half minutes to do them in.

Cline had one more drop as I rested before my final set.  He decided after that one that he was done.  The squats were bothering his back and he didn't want to mess with it any more.  Smart man.  If only he had ignored that moron who kept chirping about using 200 pounds before the workout.  Ryan had one set left, as did I.  I was going to wait until he went so I could watch his final reps and then take care of my three, but he wasn't heading to his rack before 19 minutes.  Even though I only had three left, I wanted some cushion in case I couldn't get all three in one set.  So I got up to my barbell with 90 seconds left and began my final set.  My legs had that jello feeling to them, but I was able to get through three final squats.  Final score: 245.

Ryan would head up after me to do his final five reps and I swear he was moving just as fast during that final set as he was in the preceding sets that I watched.  Faby was standing behind him as a spotter in case of emergency, but that was totally unnecessary.  After placing the barbell back on his rack, Ryan ripped off his lifting belt and laid on the floor.  His back was bothering him (come to think of it, so was mine) and he was done for the night.  No cash out for him.

The rest of us were doing a 5 minute AMRAP of KB snatches.  The RX weight was 55/35, but I knew I wasn't good at these, so I grabbed a 44 pounder instead.  Giulz described the KB snatch as a one-armed KB swing and that is the way they should be done.  However, we had all recently done DB snatches in a workout and I think that was still in our heads when we did this cash out.  Giulz even said to me at one point that I could use a little more swing because I was simply going up and down with the KB.

The biggest issue for me was (surprise!) how sweaty I was.  I fear that I'll lose my grip and launch my KB at someone when I have two hands on it.  Flinging it around with just one sweaty hand?  That increased the chances of me injuring someone big time.  So as I did this cash out, I did as many reps as I could before I became worried about my grip.  At that point, I'd put the KB down and switch hands.  Wasn't my best showing in a cash out as I would end up with the lowest score of the group.  Final score: 55 KB snatches.

As I was packing up my bag and getting ready to head home, Cline asked me if I was getting my Crossfit legs back.  I think I am in a way.  There's always going to be more work that needs to be done, but mentally and physically I think I'm getting close to where I was before I needed the break.

Wednesday preview: A simple, but painful looking workout.  20 minutes of double unders and lunges.

Goldilocks and The Three GHDs

Workout date: 9/26/16

Monday morning meant it was time to weigh in and I was much less enthused about stepping on the scale after the disappointment of last week.  I tried to stay true to eating better during the third week, but there was one afternoon where I hit up Chipotle for lunch.  There was a happy hour where I drank mostly red wine (healthy booze, right?), but had one beer.  And on Saturday, we were invited to a friend's house for dinner which included dessert (two spoonfuls of ice cream).  So I wasn't as strict as last week when the best I could do was lose less than one pound.  How would this week go?

Original weigh-in: 213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in: 213.0 pounds
This week's weigh-in: 213.2 pounds

Three weeks of cutting out almost all my favorite foods and my weight is exactly the same as it was when I ate all that stuff.  I got off the scale, took a shower, got dressed, and drove to Chick-Fil-A for a chicken biscuit.  Yes, I was mad.  No, I was not giving up on trying to lose weight.  I simply felt that I had earned a chicken biscuit after sacrificing the last three weeks.  If the scale says 227 pounds next week, at least you'll know where it all went wrong.

It was another BAC on Monday night.  (BAC is a Crossfit acronym for "big ass class")  15 of us showed up for all the fitness that Coach Aimee could provide.  The Monday WOD was a 3 round chipper, so with a class that big, there was going to be lots of mayhem as we ran around from one station to the next.  Here is what the 15 of us would be scrambling around doing:

Monday's WOD:
3 rounds:
500 meter row
10 sumo deadlift high pulls (115/75)
15 ring dips
20 GHD sit-ups

Aimee had a lot to walk us through before we began, including all of the scaling options that were available to us.  Everyone could row, so that wasn't going to be a problem.  The sumo deadlift high pulls were meant to be moderately heavy, but it was simple enough to scale down the weight on these if one felt uncomfortable with the movement.  At the rings, we could do kipping ring dips, we could do banded ring dips, or we could grab a pair of paralettes and perform dips with those.  Finally, we had the option of doing sit-ups on the GHD machine or by grabbing an abmat and doing them on the floor.

There were still some capacity issues that needed to be addressed.  There were only 8 sets of rings.  It was worse when it came to the GHD machines as we only had 5 of those.  Not all 15 of us would be using the rings and GHD machines, and even if we were, we weren't going to get there all at the same time.  Still, it sucks when you're in the middle of a workout and have to wait on someone else (someone like me).  Aimee suggested that we partner up with someone and flip-flop on the last two movements: one partner would do dips then the GHD, the other would use the GHD before heading to the rings.  This could also help in setting up the GHD machines.  If you got a partner that was about the same height as you and set up a machine to that height, then two people would feel comfortable each time they went to do their sit-ups.  Assuming that machine wasn't already being used by someone else.  (Spoiler: It was always in use!)

Chris D had been following me around during the warmup outside and continued his stalking ways by choosing the rower right next to me.  We had to be partners for the rings and GHD.  Except when I asked Chris right before we started if he wanted to do the rings or the GHD first, he told me he was using an abmat for the sit-ups instead.  Weak!  I was officially partnerless.  If we weren't going to be partners, then we were going to be rivals.  My goal for the workout was to beat Chris.

As far as my scaling options were concerned, I went with 95 pounds for the sumo deadlift high pulls and a band for the ring dips.  I've used 115 pounds for sets of sumo deadlift high pulls before, most notably at the Festivus Games earlier in the year.  I thought I could handle the three sets of 10 reps that this workout called for, but with 45 dips also awaiting me, I was concerned about how tired my arms might get.  (This was a very legitimate concern as you shall see.)  The band was a no-brainer because I can't do 45 kipping dips.  Still hate the whole "tie one side to a ring" setup, but that's the norm these days.

Aimee got the BAC ready to go and got us started on our first row.  Most times for this workout were in the 16-19 minute range, so I was in no hurry during the initial 500 meters.  If I could keep it under two minutes, that would be great.  Early in the row, my pace was closer to 1:45 but it gradually made its way towards two minutes.  I finished in around 1:55, which was a popular pace.  As I got off my rower, a handful of others did as well.

The sumo deadlift high pull is an awkward movement for me, but on this night, it somehow turned into my specialty.  I saw other guys break up their set of 10, but I was determined to string all 10 reps.  After the 10th rep, I dropped my barbell and headed over to the rings on a mission.  I was out in the lead and if I could keep it together on the rings, then there was a chance I could be the first one done with the entire round.

I didn't waste much time jumping up into the band and I managed 9 reps before needing a break.  When I got back in the band again, I held on through 6 more reps.  I marched over to the GHD machines.  Three of the five machines were being used by people who were doing the sit-ups before the dips, so I just got to work on one that was open.  It was set up for someone who was clearly shorter than me, but I made the best of it.  I did 12 reps, took a break, then did the remaining 8.  As I headed back to my rower, I noticed I was the second person done with the first round.  The first one done?  Chris, of course.  I called him a bastard and then sat down on my rower to begin round two.

My pace in round one was pretty quick as only five minutes had elapsed.  I didn't think 15 minutes was a realistic time, but if I could finish in about 17 minutes, I'd be pleased.  The second row was about 20 seconds slower than my first row.  Didn't matter to me.  I knew I needed to save my strength for the sumo deadlift high pulls.  As I did my set, I started to notice that some others were doing fast singles.  This was another chance to make up time.  I made it to rep 7 or 8 before it got painful, but I wasn't dropping at that point.  There was definitely some grunting needed to get through that set, but I got all 10 done before dropping the barbell.

Somehow I magically got good at sumo deadlift high pulls

I needed a breather before starting on the ring dips.  When I was ready to continue, I got into my band and didn't come out of it until I had completed 8 reps.  More than I was expecting to be honest.  Maybe I could wrap this up in 2 sets again.  Or 3 sets would be good.  My second set was very painful and I could only hold on for 4 reps.  That made me a little worried that I wouldn't get the three remaining reps in one set, but I had enough left to squeeze out three more dips.

As I walked towards the GHD machines, JP came up and started patting me on the back, encouraging me along since he was moving on to his second round of sit-ups as well.  He jumped on one machine and I climbed on to the one next to him.  In round one, the machine I chose was set up for someone smaller than me.  My second selection was set up for someone larger than me.  (Note: If given a choice between these options, you want the smaller setup.  The larger setup leaves you extending even further than normal to reach the floor.)  My pace was definitely slowing and it took me some time to get used to how far I needed to extend to reach the floor.  Four sets of 5 felt reasonable to me, even though I knew the extra sets (and extra breaks) were putting me further behind my classmates.  I got off the GHD and saw about 11 minutes on the clock.  17 minutes probably wasn't happening, but I could still make it under 18 minutes with a solid final round.

There were at least 5 or 6 people on the rower already when I started this round.  My third row would be 15 seconds slower than it had been in round two.  My focus was still on the sumo deadlift high pulls and the ring dips.  It looked like most of the class was resorting to fast singles in round three of the sumo deadlift high pulls.  I was going for all 10 again.  The grunting started around rep #4 and the stance became more and more uncomfortable, but I held on for the entire set for the third time in a row.  I had jumped ahead of several people who got to their barbell before me.  18 minutes could still happen as long as I didn't take long breaks on the ring dips or the GHD sit-ups.

That was a nice dream.  When I got to the rings, I told myself that all I needed was three sets of 5.  I could handle that.  I had just told myself that I could handle all of the sumo deadlift high pulls and that went as planned.  Why wouldn't that work here?  Unfortunately, there is only so much that you can will your body to do.  In the first set, I pushed through the pain and got 6 reps.  Excellent!  I could do 5 and 4 reps in the next two sets and get to the GHD machine.  But the end was much closer than I realized.  When I got on my band again, I did rep #7, rep #8, and half of rep #9.  My arms just gave out.  No sweat.  Little bump in the road.  Shake your arms out and do two reps at a time.  Only 7 reps left!  If only it was that easy.  I remained stuck at 8 reps for the better part of the next 2 minutes.  My arms were so dead that I couldn't get myself back into the band.  At one point I tried to jump into the band to no avail.  My classmates were finished or passing me on the rings.  Some of them began to cheer me on, but I felt helpless at that point.  After a bunch of tries, I managed to get back in the band, but failed on the ring dip.  I had officially redlined.  I needed to stop for a bit if there was any hope of completing the last 7 ring dips.  Eventually I would get a single rep and three sets of two, but by the time I was done with the dips, I was the only person in class still working.  That was a lousy feeling.

Not the lord of the rings

The good news from spending so much time on the rings was that I was remarkably fresh for my 20 GHD sit-ups.  I had once again chosen a GHD set up for a larger person than myself, but I didn't care at this point.  I angrily did 13 reps before needing a break.  Then I did the last 7 reps.  Final time: 21:43.  That really blew up at the end.  There wasn't much I could do at that point of the workout.  As I sat on a bench after the workout, I was amazed at how much my triceps were burning.

Chris and I were hanging out chatting, both threatening to do some extra work at Open Strength, but we hadn't moved from the area with the benches in nearly 30 minutes.  Finally he convinced me to bench press with him.  Chris was intent on doing 2 sets of 9 reps at 165 pounds.  I used the same weights as him as he was warming up, but my triceps let me know they weren't interested in bench pressing 165 pounds nine times.  The best I could manage was a couple rounds of 5 reps using 135 pounds.  Because he's a psycho, Chris wanted to do some shoulder press as well.  He didn't struggle at all, but I was limited to sets of 5 reps at 45 pounds, 75 pounds, and 95 pounds.  That was it.  Time to go home and lay on the couch like a rag doll.

Tuesday preview: An odd strength WOD where we need to do 50 back squats in 20 minutes with as heavy a weight as we think we can handle.  There is also a cash out that was not meant for sweaty people like myself.

Together At Last

Workout date: 9/22/16

Things that happen every four years:

• Leap year
• Summer Olympics
• US Presidential elections (don't get me started)
• Rope climbs and pistols get programmed in the same workout

Hold the phone!  What was that last one?  In nearly four years of working out at KOP, I had never seen two of my favorite movements appear in the same workout.  But when I looked at the blog just after 10pm on Wednesday night, I saw them listed one right after another, together at last.  All of a sudden I had a dilemma on my hands.  I had planned to skip Thursday's WOD to rest my sore shoulder.  I could just go to Endurance and get some badly needed cardio done.  That was the smart thing to do.  Except I'd be skipping rope climbs and pistols.  Rope climbs and pistols!  In the same freakin' workout!

Wait, wasn't there an elegantly simple solution?  I could do the WOD and go to Endurance!  Why didn't I think of that in the first place?  (Full disclosure: That was one of the first thoughts that ran through my head once I saw the WOD.  Then I began talking myself out of it because I'm not exactly in peak physical condition and doing two workouts in the same day was probably not a good idea.  Then I ignored the part of my brain that makes good decisions like I almost always do.)

There was more to the WOD then just rope climbs and pistols.  And it certainly was no sprint.  I was going to have to display some endurance away from the track.  Here are the details on Thursday's WOD:

20 minute AMRAP:

2 rope climbs (15')

20 pistols

40 double unders

Once I had committed to attending the noon class, I began doing the math in my head.  How many rounds of this would be a "good score"?  I figured that a round every 3 minutes was solid, so somewhere between 6 and 7 rounds was what I'd be shooting for.  It was an aggressive goal, but two-thirds of the workout included strengths of mine.  It made sense to shoot high on this one.

Prior to the noon class, I went back on the KOP blog and looked at scores from earlier in the day.  I was confused to say the least.  Aimee and Gordy had scores of 6+1 (6 rounds, 1 rope climb).  I quickly revised my goal for this workout downward as I didn't think there was any chance that I could match their scores.  However, during the 6am and 7am classes, Jonathan and Laura A put up huge scores of 8+1 and 7 full rounds, respectively.  They're both among the best athletes in the gym, but beating Aimee and Gordy by 1-2 full rounds was surprising.  It got me thinking that Aimee and Gordy might have struggled on this WOD more than I expected.  Quickly revising my goal back upwards again.

The truth is that the scores for this workout would end up all over the place.  You sometimes see this when workouts contain tons of pull-ups.  It's a skill that some people excel at and others (hi!) struggle with terribly.  If you get stuck at one point along the way, you might end up several rounds behind those folks who breezed through the movement and continued on.  Pistols were going to be that movement in this workout.  Could rope climbs and double unders prove tricky, especially as you fatigued?  Absolutely.  But the pistol is a movement that looks simple enough and then proceeds to drive you crazy as you fail on one rep after another.  You could put a lot of ground between yourself and others if you were pistol-proficient.

When I got to the noon express, I became a little concerned about how the workout would play out as there were 10 of us in class and only 4 decent ropes to use.  (We have a 5th rope that is very slick and nearly impossible to clasp your feet on.)  Aimee got us warmed up and then told us we'd be starting in a couple minutes.  I selfishly asked if we could do a stagger at the start.  (Desperate for a good score on this WOD much?)  Aimee was okay with that, splitting the group into two sets of five, making sure each group had at least one person who was scaling the rope climbs and therefore wouldn't be waiting for a rope to open up.  Here were the groups:

Group 1: Nicole R, JP, Dana, Mike Sim, and myself

Group 2: Tim H, Seba, Jill A, Matt C, and Sarah

*Group 2 would start 1 minute after Group 1

Forget all the scores I mentioned earlier.  I was going to have my work cut out trying to keep up with most of this class.  JP, Dana, and Mike Sim regularly beat me in workouts.  As much as I like pistols, Jill A is the pistol queen.  She asked me during the warmup if we were going head to head on pistols.  I said I'd try, but deep down I didn't think I had much chance of keeping up with her. And Matt C is a young guy who never seems to get tired.  Even if I went faster than him early on in the workout, he was bound to catch me as I ran out of steam.  At least I wouldn't be lacking people to push me through this WOD.

Dana, JP, and I went down to the far end of the gym where the bulk of the ropes are located, while Mike Sim got set up at the lone rope in the middle of the gym.  Aimee sent us on our 20 minute journey.  I scurried up the rope quickly, tapped the 15' mark, and came down again.  I jumped right back up and made my second climb.  When I got to the floor, I was slightly ahead of JP with Dana not too far behind him.  (Note: With Mike closer to the other end of the gym, it was hard to track where he was in the workout.)  I began bouncing back and forth through my pistols, pausing only once on my first set of 20.  I moved on to my jump rope, which I knew would be the element of the workout where I would struggle.  I couldn't put together any big sets, but I made my way through the 40 reps with a series of medium-sized sets.  Round 1 was done in under three minutes and I was the first one back to the rope climb to begin round 2.  Good start!

I was making my way down from my second climb of round #2 when Dana and JP came over to start their climbs.  That was a decent lead that I had built through one round, but there was over 16 minutes left on the clock as I walked over to start pistols again.  A long way to go and it was unlikely that Dana and JP's pace would slow all that much as the workout progressed.  I needed to keep using them as motivation.  If they started gaining on me, then I needed to push even harder.  I'd be really disappointed if I crapped out and let them catch me after building a lead.

As I began doing my pistols, I saw Jill head towards the ropes to begin her second round.  She wasn't in my group, but I suddenly remembered what she had said during the warmup.  I wanted to keep pace with her as well.  It would be tough to gauge where we were in relation to one another since we started a minute apart, but I figured if she started hitting the same part of the workout as me, that would be an indication that she was well in the lead.

I needed a couple of breaks during that second set of pistols, but I still got through them fairly quickly.  My biggest concern was how wobbly my legs were getting at the end of that round.  The pistols were the separator in this workout, so I couldn't have them fail me only two rounds in.

My pistols might not be pretty, but they count all the same

I moved on to the double unders and things didn't change much from round one.  My sets tended to be in the 8-12 rep range.  My breaks between sets may have been a little longer, but I could see that Dana and JP were still working on their pistols, so my lead on them wasn't shrinking.  I reached 40 reps, dropped my jump rope, and trudged over to the climbing ropes.  The clock was nearing 6:30 so 6 rounds was definitely out of the question as I was already breathing heavily.  5 rounds was the new goal.

The rope climbs were still going well in round three, but as I began the second climb, I saw Jill make her way to the ropes.  Uh oh.  I was definitely behind her.  If I were a betting man (and I am), I would say there was little chance of me catching her.  The best I could do is stay relatively close to her the rest of the way.  That meant keeping pace on the pistols, something that became really hard starting in round 3.  I had a couple of no reps from falling over.  There was a time or two where I had to stop before I even tried to do the pistol because I felt shaky.  I was only going to be able to do these 4-6 at a time and even that would require a break between sets.  This workout was taking a toll on me.  My double under sets remained in the 8-12 rep range, but longer breaks were necessary.  I had reached the middle of the workout, the time when my pace starts to fall off.  It's easy to go fast when you're fresh.  It's easy to find a second wind when you're near the finish line.  But it's tough to avoid that lull in the middle and I was definitely in the middle of that lull as I wrapped up round three.  About 11 minutes had passed as I made my way back to the rope climbs.

Stuck in the lull during a round of double unders

When I got to the rope climbs, all three ropes were spoken for at the far end of the gym.  Jill was on one of the ropes and had just descended from her first climb.  She went to grab some chalk between climbs and I decided to wait on her.  I knew that once I got on the rope, I was going to want to do both of my climbs.  It didn't seem fair to me to make her wait on me for two climbs just because she needed chalk.  As she headed up for her second climb, another rope opened up and I began my fourth round.  I didn't take much of a pause between climbs.  Before the workout, I thought I could push the pace on both the rope climbs and the pistols, but it turns out that the rope climb was really the only spot where I could consistently move quickly.

It was slow going through the pistols and the double unders as long breaks were sprinkled in among the sets I did, with the sets slowly becoming shorter in length.  While I took a break, I looked around and saw many of my classmates doing the same.  This was a rough one, but we were all trying to fight on until the clock hit 20 minutes.  At the end of round four, I had less than 4 minutes remaining before time would be called.  5 rounds wasn't happening.

Surprisingly, I still had a chance to catch Jill.  The rope climbs and double unders had fried out her forearms, so when I completed round four, she was still standing at the ropes getting ready to do her rope climbs.  Now to be fair, she still had another minute to work once I was done, but if I could get ahead of her again before my time elapsed, I'd feel pretty good about how hard I pushed through this workout.  When I was ready to climb, Jill was already on her way down from climb #1.  However, I was able to catch up to her on climb #2 and we headed to the pistols at the same time.

Jill was working down at the other end of the gym, but I could see her as we did the pistols.  Even the pistol queen gets tired after a while and I could see she was breaking up her pistols similarly to how I was spacing them out.  Less than a minute to go for me and I wanted to get as many double unders as I could.  There was a lot of wincing as I made my way to pistol #100, but I got there with about 30 seconds remaining.  I quickly grabbed my jump rope and started twirling.  I had a good set going when I heard that 10 seconds remained.  I had done 14 in a row, but that wasn't enough for me.  In a foolish attempt to pad my total, I tried to twirl the rope faster.  Naturally, I hit myself with the rope on the next rep.  I still had time to go again, but my attempt to hurry failed a second time.  If I kept the cadence I had, maybe I would have gotten to 20-22 double unders.  Instead I ended up with 14.  Final score: 4+36.

I sat on the floor exhausted and watched Jill as she continued on.  All of a sudden, she stopped working.  It turns out Jill and Matt started working 30 seconds after Group 1 began, so I wasn't as far behind her as I thought I was.  I came up 26 double unders short of 5 rounds, but Jill was able to finish her 5th round.  Matt, who had been alternating with Mike Sim on the middle rope, went one better, completing 5 rounds and 1 rope climb.  As for Dana and JP, they both completed 4 rounds, with Dana beginning her 5th round of pistols when time was called.

Fast forward four and a half hours and it was time for Endurance.  The group was a little smaller this week and the workout was a little longer.  Eight of us took part in a workout that was similar in format to the one we had done the week before.  Instead of moderate 400 meter runs and 200 meter sprints, we were doing moderate 800 meter runs and 200 meter sprints.  At the end of the 800 meter runs, we had to slowly jog 50 meters before doing a 200 meter sprint.  From there, we got a little more of a break than we had gotten last Thursday, as were allowed to walk 100 meters and then slowly jog 50 meters to get back to the starting line.  Unlike last week's workout where we split into groups and then stayed in those groups for both the longer run and the shorter sprint, in this workout we would start the longer run as a group, but each athlete would sprint as soon as they reached the 200 meter starting line.

Coach Tim explained the workout to us after our typical one lap warmup/drills/stretching routine.  Then we came around to our unusual starting line (at the midway point of the backstretch) for round one of the workout.  Tim had mentioned a target time of 4:00-4:30 for the 800 meters, so I was more than happy when I crossed the line at 4:06 to conclude my first half-mile run.  I was behind John McHugh, Joy, and Flounder.  Borden, Maggie, Mike San, and Jill Herman came in after me.  I had mentioned last week how the slow jog recovery was not kind to me and I slowed it to a crawl during the 50 meters before the 200 meter sprint.  The three in front of me were long gone by the time I started my sprint and Borden caught up to me.  Tim made it clear that the sprints were the key part of this workout, but I was not gunning it on the first one like I had done last week.  Borden went by me early and Maggie went by me late.  I would call my effort a very controlled sprint.

I was relieved that we could walk 100 meters as part of the recovery, but John, Joy, and Flounder were already waiting at the starting line as I strolled around the turn.  Borden had just begun his 50 meter jog to the line.  Maggie had stayed back to wait on Mike and Jill.  That left me on my own.  As I approached the point where I would have to jog again, Tim asked me if I wanted to be part of the second group.  It would make things even if I let Joy, John, Flounder, and Borden go off in one group while I stayed with Maggie, Mike, and Jill.  But asking me if I wanted to go with the second group rubbed me the same way that Tim's question about skipping a round did the week before.  I never want an out.  I go to these classes to push myself, even if I fail.  So the slow jog became a quick jog and I got my butt back to the starting line, letting Tim know that I wanted to run with the first group.

The 800 meter runs for the next three rounds played out the same way.  John and Joy were off in their own little world with Flounder next behind them.  Then it would be me with Borden not far off my pace.  During the second round, Flounder slowed up at the end of the first lap and I probably picked it up a little on the second lap (gotta show I belong with the first group), resulting in me finishing just before him with a time of 4:08.  Joy and John would sprint together, with John getting an early lead before Joy reeled him in as they turned into the straightaway of the sprint.  This would happen in all 4 sprints they did.  I went super slow on my 50 meter jog again, allowing Flounder to jump back ahead of me.  I tried harder on the second sprint, but I didn't have energy to catch Flounder.  Borden almost caught up to me, but I had just enough to get to the finish line ahead of him.

In round three, Joy, John, and Flounder went off on their own again.  I cut into the gap a little bit, but couldn't catch up to Flounder, finishing the third half-mile in 4:22.  Flounder was halfway done with the sprint when I started, so I ended up doing a controlled sprint like I did in round one.  Had to try and save a little something for the final round.  When we got back to the starting line, I wasn't close to recovered, but I was ready to go when Tim gave the word.  Borden decided to sit out a little longer and go with the second group when they came back around.  Tim told Joy and John to try and go for 3:45 on this last 800 meter run, but they put that time to shame.  I could tell they were smoking up front on the first lap and Flounder was doing a good job of staying within shouting range of them.  I was running on my own.  It was gonna take a lot of effort just to stay under 4:30.  There was no way I could move at the pace they were running.  Afterwards, I was told Joy and John ran about 3:22 while Flounder ran 3:51 or 3:53.  I was a long way back, but I stayed within the range I was supposed to, completing the 800 meters in 4:23.

I was by myself on the sprint yet again, but it was the last one and I was going all out.  It's always harder when you don't have a target to aim at, but I did my best to pretend there was someone ahead of me who I was closing in on as I neared the finish line.  Pretty sure the last sprint was my best one.

That was the end of a long day.  I was sore and tired and had no intentions of working out on Friday no matter what was programmed.  With classes in the annex over the weekend, I'd be taking three days off unless I worked out at home.  (Spoiler: I did not work out at home.)

Monday preview: Another aggravating weigh-in.  Plus, a promising workout goes bad near the end when I redline.

That Was A Nice Front Squat

Workout date: 9/21/16

Coach Jenna was not around for her normal 7:30 class a week ago, so when I saw her for this class, it was the first time I had seen her since the end of July.  That was a bummer because Jenna always seems like she's having a good time while coaching and I think it spreads to the rest of the class.  Without a doubt, she has the best warmups of any of KOP's coaches.  (Bias note: Jenna isn't afraid to throw some basketball into her warmups.  I deeply respect that.)

I'm not sure if basketball continued to be a staple of the warmups while I was gone or whether Jenna threw it in because she saw me for the first time in quite a while, but we did get some b-ball before the actual workout started.  With 6 of us in class, we were divided into 3 teams (Angelo and Mike R, Raj and Julie Foucher, and Ashley and myself).  Each team had to do a front squat with a light medicine ball, then shoot it into an upside-down box some distance away.  Both teammates would shoot 5 times.  Every time someone missed, the team would owe 3 box jumps.  If a team made 5 baskets before taking 10 shots, they could stop shooting.

I thought that me and Ashley would be the favorites in this hoops game, but we did not do very well at all.  Team Male made almost every single shot they took.  Team Female missed a couple of shots at the beginning before catching fire and scoring 5 times.  As for Team Coed, we only sank 2 of our 10 shots, meaning we owed a total of 24 box jumps.  We decided to set up a box and go back and forth as quick as we could rather than do 12 box jumps each on our own.  We were still a team, even though we sucked in the warmup.

Jenna had each of us set up a rack as tonight's workout would be focused on thrusters.  The main part of the WOD would have us find a 3RM thruster.  Then afterwards, we would form two-person teams again to do a 5 minute cash-out where partners switched back and forth between thrusters and toes-to-bar.  More details on that later.

I would set up shop at the far end of the gym, using the rack closest to the bathrooms.  Jenna walked us through some progressions for the thruster and then we began working our way to a 3RM.  The board stated that we were supposed to do 7 sets along the way, so I started very light.  I thought if things went well, I might be able to get 175, so the initial plan was 75-95-115-135-155-165-175.  I whipped through the sets at 75 and 95.  At 115, I went faster than I should have, resulting in some poor form towards the end of the set.  Instead of bringing the barbell from overhead down to my body where I could ride it to the bottom of the squat for the next rep, I held the barbell with just my arms.  This is much less efficient, but the weight was still light enough that I could get away with it and finish the set.  Raj was next to me and saw me shaking my head.  I told her I wouldn't be able to get away with that with more weight on the barbell.

I spent my rest time in between sets chatting with Raj and watching her do her sets.  She was making her thrusters look super easy.  It got to a point that I had to ask her what her 1RM front squat was because she was dropping into her squat without any signs of duress despite the fact that she kept adding more and more weight to her barbell.  It's a toss-up as to whether she makes bridges or thrusters look easier.

It was time to make life easier on myself by keeping the barbell on my body between reps.  I had moved up to 135 pounds and wanted to use better form than I had on my previous set.  I did manage to keep the barbell on my body and I got through the three reps, but the third rep felt more difficult than I expected.  With both Monday's and Tuesday's workouts doing a number on my shoulders, I felt like it would be wise to scale back from my initial progression by dropping 10 pounds off my remaining sets.

My next set was at 145 and even though I was successful in completing 3 reps, I did have to pause at the top of my second one to steady myself before finishing off the set.  I had been signaling to Raj that she needed to add more plates to her barbell after the quick sets she was knocking out and when I turned around after this set, she was making the same gesture to me.  I highly doubt my set looked as smooth as any of hers did, but I also felt like I might be able to get one more set.  When it was time to try 155, I had to push pretty hard to press out all three of the reps at the top, but I was able to lock them out.

I had been a bit slow in doing my sets and it was nearly time for the cash out, so I was happy to stop at 155.  Raj wasn't having it.  She gave me the sign that I needed to add more weight again, so I added 10 pounds to give 165 a try.  And that try was very brief.  I took the barbell from the rack, dropped into my first squat, then began to rise up quickly, trying to generate the momentum I would need to press the barbell up over my head.  As I got upright and began to press the barbell, I could tell that my left side was doing fine, but my right side was not.  My right shoulder felt like it locked up.  Immediately I dumped the barbell.  Someone in class told me "that was a nice front squat", which is probably the nicest thing you could say about that attempt.  Time to move on to the cash out.  Final score: 155.

We had slightly different teams for the cash out.  The guys stayed together, but Ashley was clearly disappointed in my dismal basketball performance earlier and snagged Raj to be my replacement.  That meant Julie Foucher and I were working together.  Here is how the cash out worked:

5 minute AMRAP:
Partner 1 does 10 thrusters (95/65)
Partner 2 does max toes-to-bar
*Partners switch once partner 1 has finished the thrusters

Julie had made a joke earlier about how she had to do workouts using RX standards, so I knew she was going to use 65 here.  And I didn't see a reason to not use 95 pounds if I was doing the cash out.  Did I consider not doing the cash out after my shoulder locked up?  Yes.  But I thought 95 pound thrusters wouldn't be too bad.  If I felt any further discomfort, I would simply stop.

Julie didn't seem eager to do the toes-to-bar, so I started there.  I tried to do fast singles on the low bar, but Julie was blazing through her thrusters.  I only had 5 done by the time we had to switch.  This would be a recurring pattern the rest of the way.  The thrusters were light, so the partner doing those was able to move through them fairly quickly.  Neither of us was very proficient on the toes-to-bar, so we weren't racking up much of a total before having to switch.  In the end, we each did 3 sets of thrusters, but we only managed 29 toes-to-bar as a team.

I was glad that Endurance was on Thursday because my shoulders needed a break.  Monday was a shoulder day.  Tuesday was a shoulder day.  And here on Wednesday, I was experiencing soreness in my right shoulder.  Unless I was doing something severely wrong, there was little chance that I would aggravate my shoulder further by running around a track.

Thursday preview: Time to call an audible!  The Thursday WOD is the first that I've seen in 4 years that includes rope climbs and pistols.  I decide to take the noon express class, then go to Endurance later that afternoon.  I'm a sicko.

Attempted Hips-To-Bar

Workout date: 9/20/16

Tuesdays are all about Dudes After Dark and there typically isn't anything to write about until I get to the gym at around 7:30pm.  This was a rare Tuesday where that was not the case.  In the middle of the afternoon, I received a text message.  It was from Danielle.  She had signed up for a co-ed competition that KOP is hosting in November.  Her boyfriend, EJ, was supposed to be her partner, but he was not going to be able to make it now.  She wanted to know if I would be willing to take EJ's place.

Now I'm not sure if the gym has me on speed dial as the guy to call if your team needs a last minute fill-in for your team, but I have been asked a couple times this year to join a team that has ended up one short.  And I'm really bad at saying no.  I'm sure I've written ad nauseum about how poorly I've done in competitions and how I don't have much interest in participating in them going forward.  At the same time, it's pretty rare that someone asks me for a favor (especially at the gym) and I decline.  So as much as I wanted to make up some excuse that November 12th was booked on my calendar, the truth was that it was empty.  Or it was until I told Danielle that I would be her partner for the Brawl In The Fall.

If I was going to take part in a competition in November, then there was no time like the present to start getting serious about my workouts.  Monday was the first time I've pushed the envelope in a WOD since I returned to the gym.  I couldn't have that be a one-time thing.  I needed to push it every day that I was at the gym.  Here is what I'd be attempting to plow through on Tuesday evening:

Tuesday's WOD:
3 rounds
10 DB snatches left arm (70/55)
3 bar muscle-ups
10 DB snatches right arm (70/55)
3 bar muscle-ups

The bar muscle-ups were definitely not happening, but I've been wanting to do an entire workout attempting jumping bar muscle-ups from the 13" box.  18 successful reps would be a lot, but it was a solid challenge for me.  I penciled that in as my scale for the bar muscle-ups.  The DB snatches were a little trickier to figure out.  I had done two workouts earlier this year that included DB snatches.  Here is what I used for the respective workouts:

• January 22nd: A five-round WOD that included 10 DB snatches per round, so 50 DB snatches total.  DB weight chosen - 65 pounds.
• July 7th: A three-round WOD that included 50 DB snatches in round one, 35 in round two, and 20 in round three, so 105 DB snatches total.  DB weight chosen - 45 pounds.

This was 60 DB snatches total, which made me lean towards the 65 pound end of the spectrum more than the 45 pound end.  And when I drove to the gym, I was pretty set on using either 60 or 65 pounds.  Then I got out of the car and walked to the entrance.  As I neared the door, Matt E was departing the gym.  He looked exhausted and when he saw me, he gave me a warning: "It's so much worse than it looks."  Now to be fair, Matt had used the RX weight of 70 pounds during the 6:30 class, something I wasn't even considering.  But no matter how difficult the workout is, it's rare that Matt says something along the lines of "don't go as heavy as I did".  So I knew it would be wise to heed this warning.  65 pounds was off the table.  I might still use 60 pounds, but I was beginning to lean towards 55 instead.

It's Dudes After Dark!  It's me, Cline, Chris D, and Neil!  There was also a guest appearance from Rob C, who is typically a regular at the noon express.  Coach Rachel had an all-male revue for her Tuesday 7:30 class yet again.  We had a warmup that consisted of a merry-go-round through a series of five movements that concluded with Cline telling us a funny story about his grandfather's funeral (you had to be there).  We then grabbed some light DBs to practice the snatch.  Most of us took a 25 pound DB and I have to admit, even a weight that light was tiring when you did as many practice reps as we did.  Bye-bye 60 pound DB, hello 55 pound DB.

With DB snatch practice over, we came over to the pull-up rig to practice bar muscle-ups.  To my dismay, Rachel informed us that jumping bar muscle-ups were not a scaling option for this evening.  If we couldn't handle bar muscle-ups, we could do chest-to-bar pull-ups (or regular pull-ups if we didn't have chest-to-bar pull-ups) as a replacement, with 6 chest-to-bar pull-ups required in lieu of 3 bar muscle-ups.  There was one other option that Rachel recommended for me: attempted bar muscle-ups with a band.  She was still convinced from last week's class that I could do bar muscle-ups with a band.  I was less convinced.  She had me set up a band and then told me that all she wanted me to focus on was trying to get my hips to the bar.  She was going to stand next to me and do something that was once known in the gym as a KAMU (short for Keith-assisted muscle-up).  This typically was done on the rings, but Keith would stand next to someone who was close to getting a muscle-up and give them a little shove from below in order to try and help them get high enough for the transition.  (Crossfit term: The transition is the point in a muscle-up where you go from looking at the ceiling and pulling yourself up to flipping over, looking at the floor, and pressing out of a dip.)

Rachel gave me a boost on several attempts and my hips hit the bar a few times.  I didn't attempt the transition at all, but I didn't have a whole lot of faith that I could make that miracle happen, even with assistance.  The key thing I did pick up on was that I needed to point my toes and squeeze my butt a lot more.  When I did those things, my hips naturally came closer to the bar.  I'm still a long way (in my head) from getting a bar muscle-up with the band, but this session gave me some new things to work on.

Rachel told me I only needed to do 3 bar muscle-up attempts as a replacement in the workout for actual bar muscle-ups, but I thought that seemed generous.  The guys who were doing pull-ups as a scale were required to double the number of reps.  If I wasn't even doing real reps, shouldn't I be held to the same standard?  Rachel looked at me like I was crazy, but told me I could do 6 per round if I really wanted to.  My logic: it's really easy for me to fail 3 times, so I'd be going much faster than the rest of the class on that part of the workout.  Thankfully, I realized how faulty this logic was before the workout began.  Rachel gave us a couple of minutes to go to the bathroom or otherwise get ready.  I spent that time making more attempts at the banded bar muscle-up.  I think I did 3 or 4 attempts.  And I was starting to get very sweaty.  The thought crossed my mind that I should probably prove I can do 18 of these in a workout before I volunteer to do 36.  I relayed that message on to the coach, who gave me a knowing "yeah, those aren't as easy as you thought they were" nod, complete with raised eyebrow.

I had my 55 pound DB sitting at my feet as Rachel gave us the 3, 2, 1 countdown.  We got started and I prayed that I chose the proper weight.  Once I started snatching the DB with my left arm, I knew I had.  I felt like the left arm was the real test because that was the arm that had begun to weaken during the final two rounds of yesterday's push jerk WOD.  But in that first round I had no such problems.  Did 10 snatches in a row without much hesitation and I was quickly over to my band for bar muscle-up attempts.  I had to pause between each attempt, otherwise each successive attempt would have been worse.  I made three attempts that were similar to the ones I had done during the warmup.  Back to my DB.

To show how mentally fragile I am, I present to the court "Exhibit A", my first round of DB snatches with my right arm.  I was trying to go fast, but I didn't want to tire out.  So I did 5 DB snatches and then put the DB down.  Did I need to do that?  Probably not.  But I had it in my head as soon as I left my band that the next set needed to be broken up.  Wimp!  After a short break, I did the remaining 5 snatches and returned to my band.  After 3 more attempts there, I was done with round 1.  The clock hadn't reached 3 minutes yet.  Most of the times on the board were in the 10-12 minute range, so I was setting a solid pace.  The key was whether I could hold on to it for 2 more rounds.

Because you went back and forth from the DB to the pull-up rig multiple times in a round, it became hard to tell where everyone was in the workout as it progressed, but I felt pretty certain that I was the first one in the group to begin round two.  I split up the DB snatches on my left arm, but this wasn't an unwarranted break that I randomly threw in the middle of the set.  My left arm is definitely weaker than my right one and the second round of snatches was more difficult.  I made it to 6 reps before putting the DB down.  Short break, then time to go again.  Finished off the last four and then I was off to visit my band.

My first bar muscle-up attempt to begin round two was pathetic.  It was a tired rep if there ever was one.  Since these attempts were counting like legitimate reps, I felt that they needed to be "best effort" reps rather than "hop in the band and swing like an idiot" reps.  I wanted to keep up my speed, but I didn't want to diminish the quality of my attempts.  So from here on out, I took more time between attempts and I did my best to swing my hips up to the bar.

It was during my next round of DB snatches that the magic happened.  I was still mad at myself for breaking up the first round I did with my right arm.  I knew my right arm was stronger than my left one and I had just done a set of 6 reps with that arm.  I should be able to do more with my right arm.  And if I could handle, say, 8 reps, then I could push through to 10.  I began my snatches and as was the case with my left arm, I could feel myself getting tired as I neared the halfway point of the round. I got to 7 and wanted to take a break, but that felt wimpy too.  As I yanked the 8th rep over my head and stood up with it, an old friend of mine made an appearance.  I'm speaking of the "female tennis player grunt" that usually comes out when I do KB swings.  It was completely involuntary when it escaped my lips, but as soon as it happened, I realized that it was the first time it had happened in 3 weeks.  Like an addict, I immediately took two more hits of the grunt to get me through the remainder of the round.  I was finally bringing some fight back into my workouts.

I was deliberate once again during my next 3 bar muscle-up attempts, making sure I swung my hips as high as they would go each time.  The clock was a few seconds under 6 minutes as I got to round three.  I looked over and saw Cline and Rob heading back to their DBs just as I was.  It felt like the Alona situation all over again.  I needed to get going.  I went 6 and 4 on my left arm snatches like I did during the second round.  Three bar muscle-up attempts later, I was back for one more round with the DB.  I was breathing heavily, but I knew I was close to being done.  And I was not going to be happy if I had to break up this last set on my right arm.  They didn't feel wonderful, but I got through all 10.  Part of me wanted to do 3 sloppy bar muscle-up attempts just to ensure I was the first one done, but I resisted the urge.  I had made solid attempts (for the most part) up to this point.  I was going to make 3 more solid attempts to wrap things up.  After I did, I looked at the clock.  Final time: 9:10.

I was really happy with that time.  As I sat on the floor, I saw that everyone else was still working, meaning I didn't have to sacrifice the integrity of my bar muscle-up attempts to finish first.  Cline finished soon after me, but Rob, Neil, and Chris still had another half-round to go.  When I realized that was the case, I definitely felt proud of my time.  

We wrapped up Dudes After Dark with an abs tabata that consisted of evil wheels, planks, and sit-ups.  Then we hung around and chatted for a bit.  A couple of the guys echoed Rachel's sentiment that I was getting really high on the banded bar muscle-up attempts (Chris said it looked like my knees were reaching the bar) and that I should be able to get a banded bar muscle-up soon.  Looks like I need to practice that some more and make it a reality.

Wednesday preview: Finding a 3RM thruster followed by a very unpleasant partner cash-out.

Diets Suck

Workout date: 9/19/16

I was excited for my third weigh-in when I woke up on Monday morning.  The first weigh-in was bound to be bad and the second weigh-in followed a very non-diety weekend which left me thinking that my weight would be close to what it was at the start.  But in week #2, I was very strict with my diet.  Tried to trim down my portion sizes.  No late night meals/snacks.  Ate more spinach than any sane human being should.  And I completely cut out all of the following:

• Chick-Fil-A
• Chipotle
• Five Guys
• Soda
• Beer
• Bread
• Ice cream

I had also put in five workouts since the last time I stood on the scale.  I might have seen my weight rise during week 1 of my diet, but I was expecting to see much better results this time around.

Original weigh-in: 213.2 pounds

Last week's weigh-in: 213.8 pounds

This week's weigh-in: 213.0 pounds

MOTHER@$^%#*!!!

Glad I went through all of that trouble for nothing.  Very frustrating indeed.  Not giving up after just two weeks, but this week's result leaves me scratching my head as far as what else I can do to drop weight.

Maybe the solution is to up the intensity of my workouts.  My first two weeks back have been all about getting my body used to doing Crossfit workouts again.  The first week was the shock to the system.  My body's reaction was something along the lines of "wait, we're doing this again?"  By last week, it knew what to expect, but I was still feeling out what I could do and what I couldn't do.  For both weeks, there were lower expectations.  There was no passion involved.  No drive to push myself past that point where the workout feels uncomfortable.  That would change in week 3.

I didn't show up to the Monday night workout thinking that I was going to find that competitive urge again.  It just kinda manifested itself as the workout progressed.  What I did know was that the WOD would be a quick one.  When you see the final time I got, you won't think it was a sprint, but it sure felt like one.  And from the looks on everyone's faces at the end, I bet my classmates would agree.  Monday's WOD was called Freddy's Revenge and here's what was involved:

"Freddy's Revenge"

5 rounds

5 push jerks (185/125)

10 burpees

Interesting workout.  I am definitely not a fan of burpees, but I do like WODs where I get to cycle a barbell.  If I could handle the push jerks quickly, then maybe I could buy myself some time on the burpees.  I assumed that we would be taking the barbell from the floor, but I was wrong.  After the 14 of us in class went for a 400 meter run, Coach Aimee explained that the newer athletes would be taking the barbell from the floor, but the more experienced folks would be working from the rack.  I would have guessed it would be the other way around.  Cline had the same reaction, because he made the same face as me when Aimee said it.  Cline was standing behind Aimee though, while I was directly in Aimee's line of vision.  Aimee wanted to know why I was making faces and I defaulted to 7-year-old mode by replying "he's making faces too" while pointing at Cline.  I'm so mature.

We got ourselves set up either on racks or in a space in the middle of the gym where there was enough room to do jerks and burpees.  I landed at the rack closest to the front of the gym, with Alona and Borden the two people nearest to me.  Aimee had us practice the push jerk with an empty barbell.  We began by doing single reps before practicing what it would be like to string 5 reps together.  Then it was time to decide on what weight we'd use for the workout.  185 seemed a little aggressive to me. In July, I was able to do 5 push jerks in a row using 200 pounds, so it wasn't like I couldn't make it through a set using 185.  But 5 sets with a bunch of burpees thrown in along the way to tire me out?  Probably a bit too much for me.

Aimee was walking around to help people decide what weight to use, so I used her as a resource to help me choose my weight.  I did 5 push jerks with 135 pounds on the barbell in front of her.  It wasn't light, but it wasn't a struggle either.  Aimee suggested that I go with 155-165 for the workout.  I gave the 50 burpees some respect and chose the lighter end of this range, figuring that I'd be sucking wind in the later rounds.

I didn't have much of a plan in advance of the workout.  I was hoping to string all 5 push jerks each round if possible.  I didn't want to crawl through my burpees, but I would resort to that if I got tired.  I guess I'm not quite back to that point where I hyper-analyze my workouts before I do them.  Aimee asked us if we were ready and then started us on our sprint.  I took my barbell off the rack, did 5 quick push jerks, then not so gently shoved the barbell from my collarbone to the general vicinity of the rack before starting on my burpees.  Still relatively fresh, I was able to do 10 solid burpees without any crawling.  My back was to the clock, but I imagine I finished round one in less than a minute.

I came back to the barbell and needed a second before picking it up.  I was already glad that I chose 155 rather than 165.  I could see how the burpees knocked the wind out of you and there aren't many things more disconcerting than trying to lift a heavy barbell over your head when you're struggling to breathe.  You can almost envision the barbell falling on your head before you even attempt it.  So I made sure that I got my breathing under control before starting round two.  Once again, I was able to do 5 push jerks in a row before crashing the barbell into the rack again.  I peeked to my right and saw Borden starting his second round of burpees while Alona was getting ready to finish her last 2 push jerks.  The competitive side of me was returning.

Time for more burpees.  This time, crawling would be necessary.  I did 2 or 3 burpees before slowing down into a crawl.  Part of it was fatigue.  Part of it was discovering what others in class figured out before I did: that the burpees were the "rest" in this workout.  There was no point going crazy on these and getting stuck on the push jerks because having to pick up and put down the barbell multiple times would be much more energy-consuming than simply slowing down on the burpees.  I tried to keep moving through the burpees as there were only 10 per round.  If I had to stop along the way, then I was in bigger trouble than I realized.

Borden wasn't much quicker than me on the burpees, while Alona was a lot quicker than me, so all three of us ended up back at the barbell around the same time.  Everyone needed a few seconds to recover from the burpees before feeling comfortable with the push jerks.  Borden started first and I tried not to take too long before I began round three.  I didn't see Borden do his push jerks, but I'm guessing he was stringing all of his reps by how quickly he'd return to his burpees.  I got through 5 in a row again, but the last few jerks began to feel very heavy.  Alona was doing 3 and 2 again, so I got to the burpees before her.  On the burpees, I crawled from start to finish, giving Alona the opportunity to catch back up with me.

Round four started the same way round three did, with Borden, Alona, and I feeling out when we were ready to do the push jerks.  Borden was ahead and started before us.  I picked up my barbell just before Alona did, but when I went to do my 3rd jerk, I struggled to keep my left arm locked out.  I wasn't going to fight it and attempt getting the last two reps when there was a very real chance that I'd have to drop the barbell to the floor.  I put my barbell on the rack and took a break.  Alona broke after three reps as well.  Borden said aloha and moved on to his burpees, putting some distance between himself and his two neighbors.  I knew Alona was going to move faster on the burpees, so I needed to get the last two push jerks done before her.  I picked up my barbell right before she did again and managed to get both of my remaining reps.  Returned the barbell to the rack and got going on my burpees.  It was still necessary to crawl and it wouldn't be long before Alona passed me.  I was going to need to play catch up in the final round.

I took some extra time before that last round of push jerks.  Mainly because I was tired.  But also because I thought the only way I could catch Alona would be to string all 5 push jerks.  I didn't pay much attention when she started her jerks because I knew she would be splitting her reps into a set of 3 and a set of 2.  When I took my barbell off the rack, I was determined to get all five reps.  Sometimes it doesn't matter how determined you are if your body can't comply with what you demand of it.  The third rep played out the same way as it had in the last round, as I struggled to keep my tired left arm locked out as I stood up the push jerk.  I needed to break this round up.  Alona was going to get to the burpees before me, which meant I wasn't catching her.

As Alona finished off her last push jerk, I grabbed my barbell off the rack.  I was able to string the last two reps.  As I placed the barbell back, I decided it was time to go for broke.  There was no reason to treat the burpees as "rest" anymore since this was the final part of the workout.  True rest was awaiting me on the other side of these 10 burpees, so I might as well empty the tank.  No crawling this round.  Probably no breathing this round.  Just drop to the floor, pop up, clap, and drop to the floor again until these last 10 reps were complete.

I didn't know how many burpees Alona had completed when I started that last round, but I didn't imagine I could catch her.  However, my pace was so frantic, that I suddenly noticed I was doing burpees faster than she was.  A few seconds later, I realized that Alona had picked up her pace.  We were officially racing one another to the finish line.  Every time I hit the floor, she jumped up and clapped.  Every time I jumped up and clapped, she hit the floor.  I kept waiting for her to stop after one of her claps, but as I got closer to my 10th rep, she was still going.  Finally, I dropped to the floor for my last burpee.  As I did, she jumped up, clapped, and was done.  Damn.  I actually made that close at the end.  I hopped up, clapped, and then took some time to recover before going over to congratulate her on a job well done.  When I got to her, she acknowledged that my pace on the final set caused her to kick it into another gear.  It was fun competing in class once again, even if I came up a few seconds short of winning.  Final time: 8:31.

I stuck around afterwards to practice some double unders.  While I want to get to the point that I can string a huge set together, my main focus right now is on wrist speed and keeping my jump as small as possible.  If I can improve those two things, I'll perform better in workouts that call for 100-200 double unders, even if I can't string 50 double unders in a set.  Practice went okay, but it's something I'll need to work on regularly before I start seeing real results.

Tuesday preview:  I can't say no.  It's a problem for me.  And for the first time in 3 weeks, I grunt during a workout.  If that doesn't make you want to read the next blog post, I don't know what to tell you.