As I work on dropping some pounds over the next 4 months, I'm going to be weighing in each Monday morning and sharing my progress with you. Or lack thereof. I wasn't expecting the scale to be friendly to me when I stepped on it this Monday. I had been good for most of the week, but with a happy hour last Friday and a barbecue last Saturday, there was a good chance that I wouldn't see much change in the number that popped up on the display.
Initial weigh-in: 213.2 pounds
This week's weigh-in: 213.8 pounds
So not the best start. I certainly didn't want to see that number go up, but like I said, I had a suspicion that it would end up being close to what it had been seven days earlier. Still more than 4 months to go on this journey. Not going to let a bumpy start get me down.
The weekend off was good for me as that first week was a little brutal. The best thing I did was go into it with very few expectations. And those non-expectations were met for the most part. Got my butt kicked Monday. Got my butt kicked Tuesday. Ran out of steam halfway through the workout on Thursday. Got my butt kicked Friday. The good news? While I may have been beaten up four times, I didn't experience any of the soreness that I was waking up with daily before I took August off. An argument could be made that I didn't move fast enough to be sore, but let's just chalk it up instead to some well-timed R&R.
I headed to KOP on Monday night to kick off my second week since the break and my expectations were still very low. This would be my first strength night since I returned, a welcome relief from all of the longer metcons I had gone through the week before. Here's what was on tap:
Main entree: 3RM front squat
Amuse-bouche: 1 min AMRAP of front squats using 70% of your 3RM (don't put the barbell down!)
Dessert: 5 min AMRAP of 5 handstand push-ups (2 abmats please!) and 10 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
Tasty. The 3RM front squat was part of our benchmark series for the year, so it was no surprise to see that pop up again. And the cash outs didn't look too ominous (sucker!). This had the makings of a WOD where I might not get crushed as badly as I did last week.
Coach Aimee got us warmed up and then asked us to find a partner for the front squat. There were 13 of us in class, but only 8 racks available, so we were advised to once again find someone who "smelled like us". A quick scan of the room seemed to leave 3 possibilities: Ben, Josh, and Cline. Once Ben and Josh told me that they were working together, there was no doubt left as to who I'd be sharing a rack with.
Cline and I began setting up our rack. Aimee advised everyone to "keep your nuts on the inside" when adjusting the rack height, one of many things she uttered during the evening that would have us all exchanging "did she hear what she just said" looks to one another. It made for an amusing night.
Ben and Josh: Making partner front squats sexy again
My goal for the evening was to get 245 pounds. My 3RM is 265, but as was the case last week, I was preparing myself for the fact that it was extremely unlikely that I'd be able to hit the numbers that I was hitting earlier in the year. The WOD didn't call for a specific number of sets, so my thought process was that I should do five in the following sequence: 135-165-195-225-245. Cline was also willing to start with 135, but he was doing six sets in total, the first two being warmup sets where he would do 5 reps instead of 3. His sequence would be: 135-155-175-195-215-225.
Cline did 135, I did 135, Cline did 155, I did 165. Perhaps I should have counted those as warmup sets like he did. It wasn't hard doing 3 reps at either weight and Cline breezed through 5 reps at his two starting weights. Cline's first official set was at 175 and he moved easily through that as well. I went up to 195, where I never felt like I was in trouble, but Aimee came over after I was done to tell me I was up on my toes during the final two reps. That wasn't good. If I was losing my form at 195, my chances of handling 245 successfully were probably slim.
Set #4 was where things got more serious for the two of us. Cline took on the same 195 pounds that I had just used and (from my perspective) he looked strong while completing 3 reps. He may have gone a little slower than he had on his earlier sets, but that was to be expected as the weight ramped up. Cline had written out the weights that he wanted to use on a small whiteboard and after the set, he erased the "215" he had scrawled down for his next set and replaced it with "205". Apparently that set was tougher than it looked. As for me, I added on 30 pounds and really tried to focus on my form. Rep #1 was fine, as was rep #2. Hadn't come forward on my toes at all up to this point, but I still wanted to reset before doing rep #3. Once I felt comfortable with my form and my breathing, I took care of rep #3.
It was Cline's turn again and he definitely struggled more on his next set. The second rep required some extra effort and he had to reset before going after the final rep. There was a bit more of a struggle on that last rep, but he stood it up, tying his 3RM of 205 pounds. We changed the plates so that there was now 245 on the barbell for me and I began to psyche myself up. No need to move fast. Take one rep at a time. Stay off your toes. Focus on your breathing and keeping your core tight. I still didn't have that killer instinct (for lack of a better term) where I was going to get all pumped up with the willingness to scream and grunt my way through an extremely tough rep. This was more the zen version of an internal pep talk. I took the barbell off the rack and got through the first rep without a problem. I paused, then went into the second rep. A little slower coming out of the bottom, but I stood up with it. One more pause to reset again, then I took on rep #3. Like rep #2, I was not fast out of the bottom of the squat and I did start leaning forward, but I stood up with the barbell and put it back on the rack. Mission accomplished.
I got some positive feedback after the lift was over and I was told that I should definitely do one more set. I still didn't believe that I could handle 265 yet, but I thought 260 was worth a shot. The plan was to take it on after Cline's final set, but Cline let me know that he was done after that last set he finished at 205. So I loaded 260 on to the barbell, took a minute or two to shake out my arms and legs, and got ready to take on this set the same way I had gotten through 245. I removed the barbell from the rack and did the first rep. It didn't seem insanely heavy and usually the first rep is a strong indication of whether success or failure is imminent. I only had a slight lean forward as I came up, but I wasn't on my toes. Maybe I could get 260! Or maybe not. I dropped into a squat for rep #2 and the only way I could force it up was to push my hips forward. With my body's momentum moving forward, I began to rise on to my toes and the barbell began to slide down my chest a bit. I didn't lose it, but it took a lot of work to stand it up. Two reps down, one to go, and zero faith that I was going to get rep #3. Cline and I have talked to each other before about this situation, where the last rep took so much work that you mentally check out before the next rep, giving up belief that it can be done. Maybe it can be done, but once you believe you're going to fail on that next rep, the probability of that barbell hitting the floor rises to about 99%. And so, I lowered to the bottom of the squat, then bailed the barbell without much fight to get vertical. Final score: 245.
My second rep at 260
I really wasn't that upset when I failed on the third rep at 260, yet another sign that my competitive fires aren't as stoked as they used to be. I pretty much just laughed it off and was happy that I hit my goal of getting 245. There was no anger about getting two out of three reps. I got ready to count for Cline as I did some math in my head to figure out what I was using for the first of the two cash outs.
Cash out #1 was a minute to do as many front squats as you could with 70% of the weight you used for your 3RM. We were going one at a time, so I counted for Cline as he went. Aimee had spoken during the warmup about having positive thoughts in your head as you did a workout, but I totally didn't catch on as she slowly told everyone "you're going to get at least 15 reps, you're not going to drop the barbell" in her best creepy serial killer voice. It wasn't until she repeated these exact same phrases before the second wave went that I remembered why she was saying those things. Cline and the first group all looked pretty similar during their minute of pain. The first 30 seconds seemed to be okay, then it was hold on and squeeze out a few last reps before the minute elapsed. Cline followed Aimee's orders, getting 16 reps and never dropping the barbell. I put 175 pounds on my barbell and got ready for my minute of agony. The clock was directly above me, so I began sneaking peeks at it, hoping it was closer to 60 seconds than it ever actually was. I needed to pause after 9 reps and the clock showed that only 26 seconds had gone by. I got to 15 reps before panicking that I was going to drop the barbell before my minute was up. Rep #16 was slow and the barbell started sliding off of me as I stood up. Same thing happened for rep #17. The clock was at 53 seconds, so I figured I had time for one more. I went down, tried to stand up, felt the barbell sliding, but kept it under control enough to finish rep #18. Time. Final score for cash out #1: 18 reps at 175 pounds.
I didn't realize that we would all be doing the second cash out together. Didn't realize I'd have less rest. Didn't realize how much those 60 seconds of front squats would affect my performance on cash out #2. I hurried over to change my shoes, grabbed two abmats and a wall ball, and staked out a spot to finish the workout. Prior to the workout, I thought I'd complete about 4 or 5 rounds in this five minute time frame. I was sorely mistaken. Holding that barbell during the first cash out was taxing on the shoulders, a big problem when you're about to flip upside down and do push-ups. Those same shoulders were needed for the wall balls. Plus I'd be doing 10 more squats per round while doing the wall balls. So everything I needed to use for the second cash out was already pretty tired. It showed as I had trouble getting upside down and doing any handstand push-ups right from the start. Eventually I got them, but they didn't come quickly. And even though 10 wall balls didn't sound like a lot, they felt awful during this cash out. I was very grateful when the buzzer sounded and I could just lay on the floor. Final score for cash out #2: 3 full rounds.
This was the first WOD I had done since returning to the gym where I felt like I was keeping up with my classmates. Maybe I was slowly creeping back to average status again! Time would tell.
Tuesday preview: After missing it over and over again, I'm finally able to make it to the gym when Randy is programmed. It's a sprint through a lot of light snatches. Followed by some shaky bar muscle-up practice.
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