Bryan Spring Land

Workout date: 9/8/16

I knew on Monday night that I was going to have to take Wednesday off.  I had already begun feeling sore from the Monday morning hero WOD and usually there's a bit of a time delay before my body experiences soreness.  On Tuesday morning I was hurting a little more, but not so badly that I was going to skip Dudes After Dark.  Then I let Elizabeth punish me, which resulted in a very painful start to my Wednesday morning.  I couldn't walk down stairs normally, so instead I did this gimpy side-shuffle technique where I'd bring my left foot down to a step before bringing my right foot to the same step.  Only when both feet were on the same stair could I then proceed with my very slow journey.  (I believe the technical term for this is hobbling.)

I spent some time on both Wednesday and Thursday trying to roll out my legs in hopes that the soreness would go away and gradually it did.  That didn't mean I was pain-free though when I arrived for Thursday's partner WOD at the gym.  Despite some lingering soreness, I couldn't pass up a workout involving one of my favorite movements:

Partner WOD:
10 rounds:
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
20 pistols
30 box jumps (24"/20")
*Time cap: 30 minutes

Pistols!  Those were not going to feel so great with sore legs, but it was one of the rare movements I excel at in the gym.  And if I'm being honest, I needed a little bit of a mental pick me up.  My first two days back at KOP consisted of one ass-whooping followed by another.  There were no promises that this WOD wouldn't be my third trip to the woodshed, but I felt like I had a better chance with pistols in the mix.

(Odd Crossfit confession: I also have a bit of a love/hate relationship with chest-to-bar pull-ups.  Weird, I know, since I've professed a lot of hatred towards regular pull-ups.  The chest-to-bar version is considered more advanced, but I'm able to do them at about the same rate that I do normal pull-ups.  Most athletes do garden variety pull-ups much faster than chest-to-bar pull-ups, so when chest-to-bar pull-ups are required in a WOD, I don't fall as far behind as I typically do.  Thus I get a bit more excited when chest-to-bar pull-ups are programmed.  The bad news: chest-to-bar pull-ups remind me I have boobs.)

The workouts on Monday and Tuesday had proven that I had less lungs than I typically do (scary thought), so I was concerned about hanging on through 10 rounds or 30 minutes, whichever came first.  Split evenly, each partner would do 50 chest-to-bar pull-ups (didn't sound so bad), 100 pistols (that's my jam), and 150 box jumps (main reason for concern).  I knew that my box jumps would become very dicey as I got tired, meaning I'd probably have to slow down, holding up my partner.  Or if things got really bad, my partner would have to help me out by doing some of my reps.  I was still feeling guilty about all of the extra work Cline and Ben had to do on Monday, so I was hoping that I wouldn't have to resort to burdening a teammate yet again.

Coach Giulz got us warmed up before telling us that we needed to decide on partners and I ended up with "Mr. Rachel" (as Giulz called him) as my teammate.  Rachel had convinced her hubby Bryan to start coming to Crossfit and I had seen him in class from time to time (mostly in pics on Facebook or the KOP blog since I've been away from the gym for a while).  I had yet to work out with him though, so this would be my first voyage to Bryan Spring Land.  I knew that Bryan was a good athlete, so 10 rounds was unlikely to be an issue for him.  He claimed that he had never done a chest-to-bar pull-up or a pistol before, but Bryan has the looks of a bodyweight ninja in the making and I wasn't going to be surprised if he attempted either movement and discovered that he was highly proficient at them.  For this workout, however, he decided he would scale those two elements, going with regular pull-ups and pistols to a medicine ball with a plate.  We discussed how we wanted to split up the work.  We agreed on the pull-ups (do 5 then switch) and the pistols (do 10 then switch), but had very different views on the box jumps.  I thought we should go back and forth doing sets of 5 until we got to 30 each round.  Bryan thought one person should do all 30 reps in a round, with the other person responsible for all 30 reps in the following round.  We compromised by having one person do 15 reps before switching.

I was starting us off and as is always the case with my chest-to-bar pull-ups, I tried to rattle off single reps as fast as I could.  Because I have to wildly kip to get my chest to the bar, I expend more energy than most others on this movement.  After the workout, Ms. January would describe my technique as "ass-backwards" since I tend to go nearly horizontal before hitting my chest against the underside of the bar.  That's certainly not how they teach it, but it's what I need to do to meet the standard.  I took care of my 5 reps and let Bryan do his 5.  Then we each did 10 pistols before completing the first round with 15 box jumps each.

During the first five rounds of the workout, we continued on in this manner.  I would get slower and slower with my 15 box jumps, but I completed them all.  At the end of round 3, both Bryan and I took a peek at the clock and saw that it had passed 9 minutes, signifying that we were already behind the pace we needed to avoid the time cap.  The most surprising aspect of the workout to me was how difficult the pistols became.  I don't remember in which round I started suffering from wobbly leg syndrome, but instead of blitzing through 10 pistols like they were nothing more than a formality, I started having to pause once or twice during each set to keep my balance.  And if I had wobbly legs during the pistols, you can imagine how concerned I became about my ability to repeatedly land on top of a 24" box.

I made it through 5 rounds before I hit the wall.  Was that good?  Compared to what I had done on Monday and Tuesday, the answer was yes.  And when I say I hit the wall, I don't mean that I just took a seat on the floor once round 5 was complete.  Nor did I go off on some nomadic quest for a fan to cool down.  It was simply the round that I could no longer keep pace with Bryan.  I got through the chest-to-bar pull-ups and the pistols, but when I got to the box jumps, I could only manage 4 reps before I hit the box and careened off to the left, a surefire indication that I needed a break.  Bryan, still fresh as a daisy, took over and did 16 reps before tagging me back in.  I completed the final 10 reps.  I had only passed off one box jump, but it was a sign of things to come.

In the seventh round, Bryan led us off on the pull-ups.  He completed his five reps so fast that I wasn't ready to go on my set, but I jumped up and tried to get them done anyway.  I got through three before needing another break.  Since Bryan was now in the groove on the pull-up bar, he jumped up and took care of my final two reps.  That gave me some time to prepare for the pistols and I was able to handle my 10 reps there.  Bryan did his 10 and it was back to the box jumps.  I did a little better this time around, making it through 6 reps before I needed to tag Bryan in.  He handled the next 15 in a row, before I did the remaining 9 to end our seventh round.

There was about 4 minutes to go before the time cap, so if I didn't move with at least some urgency in the next round, we weren't going to complete it.  Bryan did his 5 pull-ups, then I did 3, but I let him know that I could get the last two, I just needed a mini-break.  When those were done, he did his 10 pistols.  I wasn't completely ready to go again, but I took a deep breath and told myself to just keep moving through the pistols.  After all, this was likely my last set of them.  I got through eight before needing to pause, then I did the remaining two.  It was on to the last of the box jumps and Bryan led off with 15.  It hadn't seemed like his pace had slowed at all in the last 30 minutes.  If anything, his pace on the pull-ups had gotten faster.  I tried to push through 15 myself, but had to pause after 7 jumps.  Knowing that time was winding down, Bryan decided to take over and handle the last 8 box jumps.  I walked over to the pull-up bar so that I could start those as soon as he was done.

There was less than 45 seconds to go, so it was unlikely I'd get back to the pistols, but I tried to do 5 very fast chest-to-bar pull-ups once Bryan finished round 8 of the box jumps.  It was definitely the best set I had done since round 5, but it only provided a few seconds for Bryan to get on the bar.  He completed 2 pull-ups before the clock hit the time cap.  Final score: 8+7.

I was very tired when the time cap struck, but I wasn't so fatigued that I needed to lay on the floor for 10 minutes.  It was one of those situations where I laid on the floor for about a minute, then told myself to get up and get moving.  Then I went around and congratulated everyone else in class, all of whom moved faster than me during those 30 minutes.  Giulz asked for scores and I jokingly told her that she should write "Dave, time cap 15 minutes, Bryan, time cap 30 minutes".  It wasn't far from the truth as I had fallen off at about the halfway point of the workout while Bryan never fell off his pace. She then asked if I had done the workout RX.  Technically I had, but I don't think anyone who has to pass off reps to their partner should have RX written next to their name, so I told her "sorta, but not really", followed by an explanation of why I was hesitant to describe my workout that way.

Even though it might not sound like I did stellar, I was happy after this workout.  It felt like progress from the first two.  Plus my legs felt less sore post-workout than they had pre-workout.  It gave me the sense that my body was adjusting back to Crossfit life.  It was still going to take time, but this felt like a positive first step.

Friday preview: Test day with DT and it is sauna time at the nooner.