Bridgin' Ain't Easy

Workout date: 9/14/16

After running into a bunch of longer workouts in my first week back to the gym, my second week had started out with some WODs that didn't test my cardio quite as much.  That would change on Wednesday as I'd be taking on the following at the 7:30 class:

Wednesday WOD:
100 double unders
25 toes-to-bar
25 deadlifts (225/155)
50 box jump-overs (24"/20")

Which aspect of that WOD was I most concerned about?  Hard to say really.  Despite bringing my jump rope with me on my trip to Vietnam, it never emerged from my suitcase.  That meant I hadn't jumped rope in nearly a month and a half.  How long would it take me to get through 100 double unders?  Probably longer than I expected.  25 toes-to-bar didn't sound too bad in isolation, but knowing that the double unders were going to tire me out at least a little bit left me wondering whether I should be budgeting for more time on that aspect of the workout.  Same idea with the deadlifts.  25 of those with 225 pounds on the barbell shouldn't take long in theory, but it would really depend on how exhausted I was when I got to the penultimate stage of the WOD.  Last but not least, there were the 50 box jump-overs.  I would be treating these like I treat burpees when I'm tired.  They didn't have to be pretty, but I did want to keep moving through them without taking a break, even if they were slow.

(Note: A part of me wanted to do one rep where I jumped over the box completely without landing on it.  It was some combination of me thinking that would be cool and me being a jackass.  Anyways, the powers that be must have sensed that dummies like myself might do this and changed the movement to "box jump up-and-overs" on the main whiteboard at the gym.  As you'll see, this was probably a saving grace as I likely would have injured myself attempting that at the end of the workout.)

Even though it was a Wednesday, the 7:30 class had a distinct Dudes After Dark feel to it.  This is usually Jenna's class to coach, but Rachel was filling in for her.  Cline and Chris D were there, as was Mike R, who has started to become part of the regular late night crowd at the gym.  Rounding out our quintet was Raj, who ensured that Rachel wouldn't have to deal with an all-male class for the second night in a row.

Remember how I said I brought my jump rope to Vietnam, where it got no use?  It would have been nice if I had brought my jump rope to the gym, where it would have gotten plenty of use.  I stupidly forgot to put it back in my gym bag, so when it was time to get out our ropes for the warmup, I had nothing.  That meant I needed to grab one of the random ropes hanging over by the rings.  There was little chance of me finding a speed rope like the one I typically use, and even if I did, the chances of it being the right length for me were slim.  I was fortunate enough to find one speed rope during my search and went with it even though it was probably a little shorter than the one I had left at home.  I practiced with it and wasn't having much success before I finally managed to string 10 double unders in a row.  I quickly lowered my expectations with regards to how fast I might complete 100 double unders.

We went through the other movements in the warmup as well and they all seemed fine given that I was completely fresh.  To me, the elements of this workout got easier as you progressed, but the tricky part was that you were more and more exhausted as you got to them, making all 4 almost equally sucky from start to finish.  The more I thought about it, the more I began to dread the box jump-overs.  50 was a large number to end the workout.  Plus, I have a penchant for tripping over the box and the deadlifts were meant to take the spring out of your legs.  I could tell myself to just keep going, but when you hit the box on a box jump and fall off, you almost have to walk away and find your composure before you start again.  I might be in store for a lot of starting and stopping at the tail end of this workout.

I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to how the other members of the class were taking on this workout in terms of scaling, but I didn't see a reason to scale.  100 double unders was a moderate amount of double unders.  I might be rusty with them, but I felt like I could chip away and get to 100 without taking up an extraordinary amount of time.  Toes-to-bar could be tricky if I was more tired than I figured I would be, but again, 25 was a moderate amount.  Same thing with the deadlifts.  And if I made it all the way to the final phase of the WOD, then I felt it would be weird to trim the box jump-overs.  I mean, wouldn't it be strange to do 30 box jump-overs and then call it quits?  If I got to that point, I wouldn't have 20 more in me?  The only pause I had in choosing to go RX was the time domain.  Rachel told us to try and keep our time around the 10-12 minute range for the workout.  I thought there was a chance I might exceed that, but I was hoping it would not be by much.

We all got ready to go on the double unders.  Chris seemed particularly unhappy about doing them and once we got going, I could see him continuing to be frustrated.  Somehow I got off to a great start, stringing 27 reps in a row before hitting myself with the rope.  Then I was able to get another 18 in a row.  I was at 45 reps and only 50 seconds had elapsed on the clock.  Just one problem.  I could tell I was tiring out on the double unders already.  I tried to keep it together through some smaller sets (like 8-12 reps), but there were some bumps along the way.  And each time a set came to a close, I needed a breather.  I thought I was doing alright until I saw Chris turn and start his toes-to-bar.  My initial impression was that I was ahead of him on the double unders, but clearly I was mistaken.  (He actually switched to single unders after 50 reps because he has more common sense than I do.)  I finished up my double unders in about three minutes, but I was the last one to the rig for toes-to-bar.

My hope for the toes-to-bar was to get sets of three at a time and try not to spend too much time during my breaks between sets.  That did not go so well.  The breaks I took were definitely lengthy.  I might have been better served just doing quick singles on the low bar, but I stayed on the high bar in an attempt to string reps.  My hands were sweaty, so as I slowly moved through my 25 reps, I would just move to the next bar over rather than attempt to dry off my bar.  Pretty soon I was the only one working on the toes-to-bar, so I could have gone up and down the gym using every bar if I wanted to.  I had a couple of no reps along the way which were wasted effort.  By the time I finished off my 25th toes-to-bar, several of my classmates had already moved on to the box jump-overs.  I was way behind.

I hadn't faced a true cardio test in almost a week and it was evident as I moved on to the deadlifts.  I was worried that I might have to break these up into very tiny sets like I had done on the toes-to-bar, but the deadlifts weren't that bad.  I should have done 5 sets of 5, but instead I did sets of 5-6-4-5-5.  (Translation: normal set, "tough guy" set, "payback for trying to be a tough guy" set, normal set, normal set)  The breaks between sets were still longer than I would have liked, but I couldn't help it.

When I got to the box jump-overs, I was the only guy in class still working and Raj wasn't going to be on the box jump-overs much longer herself.  I tried to stick with the plan of slow and steady, but each jump was tough.  It seemed like I was wearing snow boots instead of sneakers, as my feet felt very heavy at this stage of the proceedings.  I would get through sets of 6 or 8 jump-overs before needing to stop and catch my breath.  The rest of the class was trying to encourage me (cue the pity circle), but it felt like a very slow slog to 50 reps.  After 27 successful reps, I jumped 22" instead of 24", tripping and falling like I do every time I take on box jumps.  I did a quick stroll away from the box, kept my profanities to a minimum and continued on.  From there I did 9 more before needing a break.  Then I found one last surge and pushed through the last 14 reps, picking up speed at the end.  Final time: 16:08.

So much for staying in that 10-12 minute window.  My classmates followed those directions, but I did not.  And this leads to one of my biggest struggles at the gym: whether or not I should be scaling reps when I don't think it's appropriate to scale the weight or the movement I'm performing.  If I had done 80 double unders, 15 toes-to-bar, 20 deadlifts, and 30 box jump-overs, I'm sure I would have kept my time under 12 minutes.  But is that good for me?  If I start making decisions like that, will I arbitrarily start trimming the reps on things I'm not good at?  This workout requires 40 pull-ups.  I hate pull-ups and I'm not very good at them.  I'll just do 20 instead.  I understand the logic behind keeping up intensity, but at some point, don't you have to push your body so that it gets used to doing the number of reps asked for?  Don't you need more practice on the things you're not as good at?  If this workout was written with 300 double unders at the beginning and someone said to me that it might be a good idea to just do 150 reps instead, I could go along with that.  Scaling down 25 toes-to-bar to 10 or 15?  Just feels weird to me still.

Afterwards, we rolled out our achy bodies.  Mike, Raj, and I started chatting as we used our foam rollers on our legs and shoulders.  Then Raj ditched the foam roller and inverted herself into a bridge pose like it was no big deal.  Mike attempted to duplicate this position with his body with much less success.  I didn't even attempt it as I was pretty certain that if I somehow contorted my body into that pose, medical personnel would be necessary to get me out of it.  I think Mike and I will stick to the foam roller.

Thursday preview: My first time back to Endurance in quite a while.  Somehow we go faster than Coach Tim wants us to (a first!) and I fall apart very, very quickly.  All that matters is that you try though.  Right?  Right???