A Cow's Name

Workout date: 10/25/16

When I got back from AC on Tuesday, I was feeling pretty lousy.  I was tired from being on the road all weekend long.  I had eaten like crap for the better part of three days.  I hadn't done any exercise since Friday.  And my friendly blackjack dealers (Negan and Lucille) had relieved me of the money I had brought with me to America's Favorite Playground.  I was hoping that a trip to Dudes After Dark would make me feel better, but I decided that I first needed to get in some double under practice before heading to the gym.  Tuesday's WOD was strength-based and I was in need of some cardio.

That cardio would come in the form of one set of double unders.  One set?  Really?  Well one set meant that things either went very well or very poorly.  I am happy to report that it was the former.  I stood outside with the hope of putting together at least one set of 50 in a row.  I tend not to get excited about how a set is going until I've reached about 20 consecutive reps and when I hit that mark in this set, I started to feel very confident about things.  My form was good, I was keeping my core tight (something I've never been good with when doing double unders), and my breathing was very calm.  I was only 40% of the way to 50 reps, yet I had a good feeling that I would reach that mark in this first set.  I kept rolling along from there, eventually surpassing 50 reps.  Once I got to that point, it was time to start thinking about getting to 75.  As I got to the 60-65 rep range, I could tell I was in trouble.  My rope speed was slowing down as my shoulders began to tire out.  My jump was more pronounced as I had little faith that my bunny hop was enough to keep clearing the rope.  Things were starting to fall apart, but I was so close to my PR (73 consecutive).  I told myself to keep fighting through the pain.

I hit 70 reps and I began to worry that I was going to blow it again, coming close to the number I needed and failing on the doorstep of victory.  I had done it multiple times on Friday, but blowing it at this point would feel even worse.  I became very pessimistic as the 72nd rep cleared beneath my feet.  Then I became very relieved when I got #73.  The reps were ugly at this point but I didn't care.  74 and 75 went by without the rope hitting me.  I had gotten 75 in a row!  Could I do 25 more ugly hops and get all the way to 100?  Of course not.  I was lucky to have reached 75 with how I was jumping at the end.  When the rope finally hit me after 78 consecutive reps, I was happy and exhausted.  I didn't need any more cardio before class.  78 was the new number to beat.

Now that I am constantly worried about traffic and closed off roads on my commute to the gym, I've started leaving my house much earlier to get to class on time.  And naturally, when I give myself a half-hour to get to the gym, it ends up only taking the typical 12-15 minutes.  Since I was early, I got to watch the end of the 6:30 class.  Matt B was taking part in it and he gave me some terrible news.  My old buddy Brett, the guy who I went through fundamentals with, was in town and had dropped in for the 5:30 class.  I asked Matt if he was still around, but he told me that Brett had left already.  Talk about some sucky news!  Brett is one of my all-time favorites and I had missed his visit.  Guess I'd have to catch him next time he was in town.

The Tuesday WOD featured a 2RM front squat along with an 8 minute partner cash out where one partner would hold a barbell in the front rack (135/95) while the other partner tried to accumulate calories on the assault bike.  This was the part of the 6:30 class that I got to witness and it did not look like a lot of fun.  Most teams chose to switch roles after every minute of work, so each partner got 4 sessions on the bike and 4 turns holding the barbell.  I knew the bike would be terrible, but the expressions on the faces of those tasked with hanging on to the barbell let me know that side of things would be no picnic either.  Matt and Ron took turns grimacing as they held 135 pounds in their front racks.  Tia and Maggie wouldn't even look at each other while doing the cash out.  Everyone seemed able to hold on to the weight (I didn't hear any barbells crash during the minute-long holds), but no one looked like they enjoyed it.

Dudes After Dark would begin with a warmup that was a variation on the cash out I just described.  Coach Rachel had us partner up as we did a tabata (20 seconds working, 10 seconds resting, 8 rounds) of the assault bike and slamballs.  Only problem was that we had an odd number of people in class.  I tried to get Tia to join us as the 8th member of our warmup, but she wanted nothing to do with the assault bike.  Her partner was more willing to even out our teams, so Maggie came over to do the 4 minute warmup with us.  Did we really need an 8th person?  I guess not, but it was fun to peer pressure them into some additional assault bike work.  The tabata wasn't that bad, but it's important to remember that the cash out would be a lot more difficult.  Each bike ride would be three times as long, there would be no breaks while transitioning exercises, and the barbell hold was going to be tougher than hurling a 30 pound slamball into the ground over and over again.

Rachel had us go through a few progressions on the front squat before sending us off to our own racks to get going.  While we were grabbing our barbells, Cline referred to Rachel as "LC", which I didn't immediately get.  After a few seconds of thought, the light bulb went on and I started cracking up.  Rachel has a habit of getting caught up in the lobby when Dudes After Dark is supposed to begin, so she'll yell to us what we need to do to warm up as she inputs data into the gym computer from the intro session that precedes our class.  That has earned her the nickname "Lobby Coach", or LC for short.  I think LC has some staying power and I'll be using it at future Tuesday night classes.

Once we got to our racks, we were supposed to do 8 working sets of 2 front squats.  What's a working set?  I didn't know the exact answer to that question.  I figured starting at about 50% of my 2RM and working up from there would be sufficient.  My 2RM was 265 and I was hoping to get 270 today, so I would begin with 135.  The progression in my head was 135-165-190-210-230-250-260-270.  That was all well and good until Rachel told us that working sets shouldn't be "like 50% of your max".  There goes that plan!  Oh well, maybe I could hit 270 and then try 275 or 280 after that.

I set up my barbell down at the far end of the gym alongside of Neil.  I've been guilty in the past of being chatty during strength workouts and falling behind the class in terms of getting all my sets done.  I legitimately did not think that was the case on this night.  Neil and I would knock out two reps, add weight to our barbells, then move on to the next set.  If anything, I was worried that I might not be taking enough rest between sets.  I did the "warmup" set at 135, then the sets at 165, 195, and 210.  To get to my next weight of 230, I needed another set of 45 pound plates, so I headed down to the front of the gym.  And that is when I passed Ryan A's rack.  Here's what it looked like:

Ryan front squats more than I deadlift....scary!

What in the world?  I did some quick math and asked if that was 395 on the barbell.  Ryan gave me a bit of a puzzled look and said it should be less than that.  I realized that the big plates weren't all 45 pounders.  There was one set of 35 pounders on there.  So it was only 375 pounds.  That was insane.  I asked Ryan what set he was on and he said "3rd or 4th".  Dear lord!  How high was he intending on going?  He may not have been planning on going too much higher as Rachel had given us the option of doing drop sets (sets with less weight) at the end and it was possible that Ryan might be doing some of those.  But even if he didn't go any higher from where he was, two reps at 375 pounds was an incredible achievement.

I returned to my end of the gym with extra plates in hand.  I put 230 pounds on my barbell (which looked pitiful after having walked by Ryan's barbell) and got through that set.  250 pounds was where it began to get tough, but I got through two reps at that weight.  All of a sudden, Rachel told us that we had time for 1 or 2 more sets.  I am really not good at moving fast enough through sets on strength days!  I put 260 on my barbell and had to work hard to complete both reps, but I got through it.  I would have time for one shot at a PR.  Seven working sets would have to do.

As I got prepared for my attempt at a new PR, I walked around the far end of the gym, telling myself to forget the number.  It's easy to get fixated on (or scared) by certain numbers as you're doing lifts.  If you can find a way to block that number from your mind, you'll have more success.  That is what I was trying to do.  When I felt like my mind was right, I marched over to the barbell.  I didn't want any hesitations at this point.  Any delays were just going to allow doubt to creep into my mind.  I took the barbell from the rack, got my feet and breathing set, and prepared for rep #1.  I hit the bottom, began to ascend, and simply did not have it.  I don't even think I fought it that long.  It was apparent that I wasn't going to be able to stand up with it, so I dropped it.  Final score: 260.

I might not have ended up with a PR, but the majority of the class hit new highs.  Noel had a PR of 165.  Actuary Mike (we have multiple Mike R's, so I'm going with this nickname from now on) had a PR of 180.  Cline had a PR of 210.  (Note: the KOP blog doesn't say this was a PR, but I think it was.)  Neil had a PR of 245.  And the star of the show was Ryan with a 2RM PR of 375 and a 1RM PR of 405, giving him the top spot on the gym leaderboard for the men's front squat.

It was on to the cash out where we no longer had Maggie to even out our numbers.  Ryan decided to do it on his own, alternating back and forth with an imaginary partner.  My teammate was Actuary Mike.  He didn't feel comfortable holding 135, so we used 115 instead.  I thought that wouldn't be so difficult to hold on to, but there were definitely some shaky moments during those 8 minutes where I grew concerned that I'd drop the barbell.  Both Mike and I did some strong work on the bike and we ended up with a solid score of 127 calories for the cash out.

Members of EJ's fire house were holding a fundraiser at the new brew pub across the street, so several of us decided to head there post-workout.  As we were getting ready to leave, I dropped a few LC's on Rachel, which she did not enjoy.  She said it sounded way too much like Elsie, which was a cow's name.  (Note: I've always been partial to Bessie as a cow's name, but to each their own.)  Rachel's reaction to her new nickname was reminiscent of how Keith first reacted to Keithie, so LC may be here to stay.

When we got to the brew pub, a surprise awaited me.  Brett may have left soon after the 5:30 class, but he hadn't wandered far.  There he was upstairs, hanging out with Shawna and Samson.  It was really good seeing him and getting to catch up a bit.  He even told me that he was staying at the casino near my house if I wanted to go over there after the brew pub, but my AC experience had dampened my enthusiasm for gambling.  I had a beer, some dinner, and then headed home to sleep in my own bed for the first time in four nights.  I'm not sure there's anything better than that.

Wednesday preview: A workout that goes really well.  Or did it?  Depends on your perspective.

Stuck On The Tarmac

Workout date: 10/21/16

Another weekend, another busy schedule.  I knew that I was going to be out of town from Saturday through Monday visiting friends and family, so Friday was going to be my last opportunity to get a workout in before a mini-break.  I thought I'd hit up the Friday nooner as more than a week had passed since my last workout with my friends at the Express.  That was the plan until I saw what the Friday WOD was: Karen.  Karen is 150 wall balls for time.  It is a very difficult workout and it is a very boring workout.  I had completed this for the first time in April and there wasn't much motivating me to take it on again.  However, there was a workout that I had been interested in trying again that I could substitute for Karen.  And I could do it from home!  I was officially calling in sick to KOP on Friday.

Anyone who reads this blog or has seen me at a workout in the last two months knows how obsessed I've become with double unders.  I can't say that I've reached the point where I actually like doing double unders.  If anything, double unders are akin to my diet: they feel like something I need to do to improve my overall performance at the gym.  It is a daily sacrifice that I am willing to make for the greater good.  There are many WODs throughout the year that include double unders, but there is only one WOD that I can think of that is solely about double unders.  That WOD is known as the Flight Simulator.

"Flight Simulator"
Unbroken sets of double unders
5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45-50-45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5
Time cap: 25 minutes

This workout has come up a few times since I've been at KOP.  I remember trying to do a scaled version where the first set began with 1 rep and each set increased by a single rep up to 10 before descending back down to 1.  I wasn't able to finish.  Another time I attempted to do the real thing at Open Gym.  I made it up to the round of 30 before deciding that was as high as I could go.  I did head back down the ladder from there and kept going until I finished the last 5 in a row, but it took me more than 25 minutes to complete that much of the flight simulator.

On Friday I was going for the whole kit and caboodle.  That's 500 reps total.  500 double unders in 25 minutes doesn't sound too intimidating until you remember that the reps only count if you can string together the required number in the set you are working on.  If you're on the round of 50 and only do 49 reps before the rope hits you, you get credit for nada.  That makes this workout very difficult to complete.  You could do almost a 1,000 reps and still not finish this thing.  So taking on the flight simulator would be a test of my form, my endurance, and my patience.

I headed out to my driveway, set the timer on my phone to 25 minutes, and got ready to go.  I clicked start and began my first set of 5.  I was probably nervous and maybe a bit too eager as I failed quickly on my first two attempts at the set of 5.  I didn't want to waste a lot of time or energy on the early sets as I knew the longer sets would be very demanding, but trying to rush at the start was not helping matters.  I took a moment to calm down before my third try at 5 reps.  That seemed to do the trick as I moved on past the first set.  I went on to complete the set of 10 and the set of 15 on my first attempt at each.  Now we were talking.  I was only a little over two minutes in and I had three sets done.

From this point forward, I started noting the largest set that I got which didn't meet the criteria for the round I was in.  So for the round of 20, I had a set of 14 that ended up being a time/energy waster, but I probably had a smaller set before that where I had failed.  I wasn't going to keep track of every failed set until I had plunged into complete self-pity.  I needed a few tries to get through the set of 20, but the set of 25 wasn't too bad at all.  I messed up early on my first try, then managed to hit 25 in a row on my first real set.  I was beginning to grasp how hard it would be to complete this workout, but I was still feeling good about being able to finish most of it.

Getting through the sets at 30 and 35 took some time and a lot of patience.  I had a few sets in the teens during both rounds, with a top failed score of 24 in the round of 30 and a "close, but no cigar" score of 30 in the round of 35.  I was taking regular breaks between attempts because there was no point in trying to string this many reps while I was somewhat tired.  I needed to regroup and feel ready to do 30-35 reps in a row.  By the time I successfully completed these two rounds, the timer was edging towards 14 minutes.  I was beyond the halfway point and now certain that I wouldn't reach the finish line before the time cap hit.  My revised goal: get to the round of 35 on the back half of the workout.

That was an ambitious goal to say the least.  The round of 40 would be my Waterloo.  As I began to fail over and over again, I decided to take a mental note of every double-digit round that I did which fell short of the 40 consecutive reps that I needed.  Here is how that wound up:

• 19 reps
• 35 reps
• 14 reps
• 26 reps
• 21 reps
• 39 reps
• 21 reps (yes, again)
• 39 reps (YES...AGAIN!)

Those rounds where I got 39 in a row only to fail on the final rep were particularly heartbreaking.  Counting only those sets that I listed there, I had done 214 double unders and none of them counted.  If I threw in the small sets where I didn't even hit 10 in a row, my total would probably be closer to 250 wasted double unders.  It was incredibly aggravating.

I looked at my phone after coming up one rep short again for a second time.  It let me know there was 1:15 left before the time cap.  Part of me wanted to stop right there, but I told myself to walk around a bit, get my head straight, and make one last attempt at the round of 40.  When I felt ready to go, I took one last peek at my phone and saw I was down to 35 seconds.  I began twirling the rope.  For some reason, I wasn't all that concerned about the time even though I should have been.  However, as I neared 20 reps in a row, I began to think about how mad I'd be if I got to, say, 38 reps and my alarm went off indicating the time cap had hit.  With that in mind, I started to twirl the rope faster.  Usually I'll hit myself with the rope immediately when I do this because changing speeds in the middle of a set tends not to work out so well.  It didn't hit me this time.  Perhaps the Crossfit gods were showing me a little mercy.  The 39th rep passed under my toes and I gritted my teeth at the prospect of blowing this round for a third time.  Thankfully I did not.  The 40th rep passed under my feet with 3 seconds remaining on my phone.  Final score: Completed round of 40 on ascending part of the Flight Simulator.

The rest of the weekend was spent on the roads of the Northeast.  On Saturday, I drove to my friend's house near Albany in anticipation of our road trip on Sunday.  A bunch of the guys rent a bus and go to a Jets game each year (fun fact: none of us are Jets fans) as an annual getaway from life.  There is lots of drinking on the bus and tailgating once we arrive at MetLife Stadium.  Then we all attempt to stay awake on the long bus ride home after the game (results vary).  On Monday, I drove from my friend's house to Atlantic City because my sister (who lives in Albany) had driven south on the exact same weekend I had driven north.  She asked if I'd meet up with her and her husband in AC, so I did on Monday.  Then on Tuesday, I drove home from AC.

Because I wanted to be loyal to the idea of weighing myself every Monday morning, I brought my scale with me on this road trip and I hopped on it before I began my drive down to AC.  How would a weekend of drinking, eating hot dogs and hamburgers, and not working out treat me?  About as you'd expect.

Original weigh-in:  213.2 pounds

Last week's weigh-in:  208.8 pounds

This week's weigh-in:  212.4 pounds

Well that's an unfortunate jump.  Part of me wasn't terribly concerned as I thought that weight might come back down again once I got back into my normal routine.  I didn't have to go anywhere the next two weekends, so perhaps I could right the ship once again.  Also, my non-scientific "grab the flab" checkup I perform on myself made me think that I might be losing a bit of my love handles.  I was going to reserve judgment until next week's weigh-in.

Tuesday preview: Ryan A is a strong, strong dude.  Pictures will be provided as evidence.

Max Max

Workout date: 10/20/16

There was once a period at the gym when I introduced myself to everyone as the new guy.  I'd say my name and quickly follow it up with "I'm new", as if I was trying to warn them in advance about how poorly I was going to do in the workout that we were about to begin.  Prior to one class, we were doing some ice breaker and when it was my turn, I trotted out the "Hi, I'm Dave, I'm new..." line before the coach interrupted me and said "Dave, you've been here for 6 months, you're not new."

It's funny how quickly time flew by from actually being new to being told I could no longer say I was new to the point now where I feel like one of the elder statesmen at the gym.  There are still a handful of people who have been at KOP much longer than I have.  Some of them have been with the gym since Aimee started it.  But the vast majority of people that I work out with have been there for less time than I have.  It's definitely a bummer that many of the folks that I used to work out with day in and day out have moved on from KOP.  And sadly, Thursday marked the departure of one more person who fell into that group.  

Fellow Barbull and NC State fan Luke was taking a new job in Maryland and so continuing to drive all the way to KOP made very little sense.  The fact that Luke had been doing it for this long was surprising since he lives in Delaware.  He's still going to stop by for special events at the gym, but Endurance class on Thursday was going to mark the conclusion of his time as a full-time member of KOP.  And he decided he was going out in style.

The Endurance workout was going to revolve around the final 400 meter time trial of the year.  It is probably the one distance that everyone is comfortable with.  The mile and the 800 meter run are on the longer side for some folks.  The 100 and 200 meter runs are pure sprints and some people worry about being left in the dust.  The 400 meter run is just long enough that you can't sprint the whole way, yet one lap around the track doesn't feel daunting in terms of distance.  Plus, almost everyone at the gym has to run 400 meters at the start of our warmup each day.  It's a familiar distance that everyone knows they can handle.

I showed up about 15 minutes early to class because I planned on doing my double under practice at the track.  Flounder was among the group that had arrived early and he immediately gave me crap about my double unders.  First, the whistling sound made during my double unders wasn't as fast as he was used to hearing, which meant I clearly wasn't whipping the rope quickly enough.  Then he got on my case about how I was going to wear out my legs before the Endurance workout.  That criticism sounded a bit more legitimate, so I stopped after doing several medium-sized sets (nothing more than 25 in a row).

We began with two laps of Indian Runs before going through a longer set of drills, stretches, and striders than we typically do at the beginning of a workout.  Class began at 5:30, but it was almost 6:00 by the time our official warmup concluded.  This was by design.  Coach Tim wanted us very warm before we took on the 400 meter run.  He described it as a max effort run.  We weren't going to build into it like we did on the 800 meter and 1,600 meter runs.  It was go hard and try to hold on for as long as you could.  Or for the slow starters among us, it was go fast, then go even faster at the end.

I fell into that latter group.  I've never been the fastest starter (oh how true that is in every aspect of my life!), but I eventually get up to speed.  In a race this short, starting slow meant I'd likely be near the back of the pack, requiring me to try and loop around people at the end.  The problem was that 13 people showed up to run the quarter-mile.  I was envisioning having to go very wide on the final turn, probably riding that momentum into a sprint down an outer lane in an attempt to reel in the competition in the final strides.  I expected people like Kevin, Joy, and John M to be out on the lead, with Mike R and Ashley just behind them.  I thought Luke, Maggie, and Borden would be running a similar style as me.  That's what I was envisioning.  Here's what actually happened...

Tim's max effort comment definitely made people start faster.  Mike R lined up to the outside at the starting line, but he had no plans to remain on the outside for long.  He shot out to the lead with Kevin and Luke up pressing him.  Behind that group were Joy, Maggie, and John.  Ashley was just ahead of me, putting me in 8th early on.  My initial impression was that the pace was too fast.  Mike R hadn't been to many Endurance workouts, so he might not have gauged the pace appropriately.  Luke and Maggie struck me as runners who tended to pour it on at the end because their kick was so good.  Seeing them up front made me think they got caught up in the fast pace, which might dull their kick at the end.  I was about where I thought I'd be.  During the first 200 meters, I didn't feel like I was going all out to keep up.  If I could unleash my kick on the back half of this lap, I should catch some of the people out in front of me.

That was a nice dream.  When we hit the 200 meter mark, I got up on my toes and began to sprint.  I did pass Ashley and I locked my eyes on John's back as my next potential target.  But as I went around the turn, any ground I was gaining on him was minimal.  That was bad.  What was worse was that I heard someone coming up on my outside as we turned into the final straightaway.  I thought it might be Ashley coming to reclaim 7th position, but it was Borden who had turned on the afterburners.  Usually when I get up on my toes to sprint at Endurance, I don't get passed often.  I was getting passed today.  I tried to fight Borden off, but he was too fast for me.  Back to 8th place I went.  That's where I'd finish with a time of 1:13.

Definitely not what I was hoping for in my last time trial of the year.  I desperately wanted to break 1:10 for the first time this year.  If you had asked me at the 200 meter mark if I was going to get there, I probably would have still had faith that I could make it happen.  But the acceleration that I thought would be there was nowhere to be found.  I wasn't able to reel in those who were in front of me.  Those who went out fast also finished fast, as the order up front changed very little.  Mike R held off Kevin and Luke, running a time of 1:04 that got him on the leaderboard in the gym.

The last time trial of the year was in the books, but that didn't mean the workout was over.  Tim wanted us to get some sprint work in to conclude the workout.  Compared to a lot of the sprint work we've done, this was on the tamer side.  It was still hard to figure out exactly how fast to run though.  We had to do three 150 meter runs where we would begin with a "tempo run" (what's that?) until we reached Tim.  He would be standing in a different spot for each of the three runs, shortening the final sprint as we progressed from one run to the next.  The reason the sprint was shortening up was because Tim expected us to run faster each time: 80% for the first run, 90% for the second run, 100% for the third run.  That last sprint had to be max effort (there's that phrase again!), which led to this exchange between me and Flounder:

Me: "100% isn't max effort.  Everyone knows max effort is 110%."
Flounder: "110% is known as 'Max Max'."
Me: "Really?"
Flounder: "Really."

He might have made that up, but he had me convinced.  I'd simply keep my effort to a singular max for run #3.

While I was disappointed in how the 400 meters turned out, I was happy with how I did on this short sprint section.  On the first run, all 13 of us lined up and went at the same time.  My tempo run was likely too slow as I really only have two speeds: way too slow and not as fast as I'd like to be.  When we got to Tim, I broke into a strider the rest of the way.  After all, Tim tends to use that 80% number when telling us how fast our striders should be during the warmup.  Kevin led the way, but he wasn't too far ahead of me.  I ran down the straightaway with John directly next to me on my right and with Flounder in his usual spot down in lane 1.  Tim told us that we went too slow on the first run, but based on where I finished relative to Kevin, it seemed alright to me.

Tim might have felt that first run wasn't up to snuff, but do you know what was?  My jog back to the starting line.  I've mentioned on this blog how much I struggle with recovery and how the toughest part of Endurance for me sometimes is jogging back to the starting line.  Not today.  I finished the first run, turned around, and started jogging back.  I didn't earn any style points on my jog though.  Joy got a laugh out of my patented "jog back with your hands on your hips" technique, but the important part was that I was moving.  Didn't need to walk like I usually do.

On run #2, I knew that not only did I need to go faster, I should expect the rest of the group to pour it on as well.  We were supposed to go 10% faster on the sprint, but based on Tim's critique of our first run, it would probably be faster than that.  I also changed up my tempo run.  Based on how Tim described it, I thought the tempo run was one consistent speed.  For this second run, I decided to use the tempo run as I build-up into the sprint.  I was slow at the start, then began to accelerate as we approached Tim, before kicking into gear once we reached Tim.  Kevin was out in front of me, but I didn't let him get too far away.  I ended up just behind him and just ahead of John.  I put my hands on my hips and began my jog back.

I suspected John was not going to let me off with anything less than my best sprint on the final run, so I got ready to put everything I had into this last 80 meters or so that Tim had marked off for run #3.  The tempo run was going to be just like it was for the start of the second 150 meters.  As we closed in on Tim, John was just ahead of me on my right, Kevin was just ahead of me on my left, and I saw a figure in lane 1 (that I assumed was Flounder) who was part of the top flight.  We passed Tim and the race was on.  I charged past John.  I moved past Kevin, although he came right back at me after I passed him.  We battled all the way down to the finish line, where I edged him out slightly.  But John, Kevin, and I were no match for the guy down in lane 1.  It wasn't Flounder taking up residence down on the inside.  It was Luke.  He had found a way to go Max Max.  In fact, I think he may have gone directly to plaid.

I've often seen Luke do some 100 meter sprints after Endurance, but I had never seen him move as fast as he did on his final run as a member of KOP.  It was impressive stuff.

Afterwards, a group of us took a field trip to Champps to raise a glass to Luke.  I'm glad that I had an opportunity to work out with him over the last three years or so and I look forward to seeing him at the bigger KOP events down the line.  Oh, and I'm happy that I won't have to chase him at Endurance any more because I am simply not that fast!  Best of luck to Luke on his new job and his upcoming nuptials!

Weekend preview: A workout from home that doesn't go exactly as I would have wanted.  A recap of my weekend away and an update on my weight.

96 Inch Box Jumps

Workout date: 10/19/16

When you reach the point in a workout where you have to cry uncle, it's usually a sign that you are in dire need of a day off.  As I sat at home on Tuesday night, taking Wednesday off from the gym was definitely under consideration.  I was even thinking about taking a rest day from double under practice.  Might as well give my shoulders/traps 100% rest if I wasn't making the trip over to KOP.  Instead of making the decision Tuesday night, I opted to do two things before I gave in to the idea of a mid-week rest day:

1. Get a good night's rest
2. Take an epsom salt bath in the morning

The good night's rest was essential.  Jenn had floated the idea that maybe I was sore on Tuesday because I was experiencing jet lag from the Vegas trip.  It made sense.  I had slept very little during that trip.  And the trip ended on Sunday, so experiencing problems on Tuesday fit in with my typical "48 hours before I suffer the consequences of my choices" timeline.  The epsom salt bath was an attempt on my part to eliminate the soreness I was still dealing with.  My mobility was still pretty inhibited and I wasn't going to feel comfortable doing a workout with a limited range of motion.  In fact, I could think of many workouts that I probably wouldn't even attempt if my range of motion didn't improve.

I got a good night's rest.  I took the epsom salt bath.  And my decision was made: I was heading to the gym Wednesday night.  While I'm sure my body greatly appreciated the amount of sleep I got on Tuesday night, the bath was really what turned things around for me.  I had been focused on how sore my shoulders/traps were, but that wasn't the real issue.  When I got out of the bath, I was still sore.  The issue was that my upper back region was as tight as can be when I got into the bath.  By the time I exited, it felt considerably looser.  I could reach above my head.  Arm circles weren't a problem.  I had my range of motion back.  That gave me the confidence that I could handle double under practice as well as what was in store for KOP's athletes on Wednesday night.

Wednesday's WOD:

3 min AMRAP at five stations (take 2 min rest between stations)

• Prowler push (140/90)
• Wall ascents (8'/6')
• Dumbbell thrusters (55/35)
• Burpees
• Air Squats

Prior to going to the gym, I got some double under practice in.  My old rope has been in pretty bad shape, so I ordered a new one.  After adjusting the length of the new rope, I tried it out at the gym, only to have the adjustable screw come flying off.  Couldn't find that thing no matter how hard I looked.  So until the replacement screws I ordered from Amazon came in, I was stuck with my old rope.  I stood in my driveway and began a set of double unders.  I had a decent set going, managing 23 reps in a row before I felt all of the tension in the rope give out on rep #24.  The right handle felt like it slipped out of my hand when the set ended, but when I went to pick the rope up from the ground, I noticed the handle was gone.  WTF?  I turned around and looked behind me trying to find the handle.  I found it in the grass next to my side door.  The handle hadn't come off of the rope, rather the rope had broken in the middle of the set.  The handle was still attached to the segment of the rope that had snapped off.  The old rope had met its demise.

The silver lining was that I could just take the adjustable screws off of the old rope and put them on the new rope.  (I suppose I could have done that anyway, but anyone who has seen the sneakers I wear knows that I make use of personal items until they are completely out of commission.)  Once the organ transfer had been made, I went back outside with my new rope.  My first two attempts didn't go so well.  The third time went much better.  I tried to remain calm as I approached 50 consecutive reps.  Keep breathing, try not to take huge jumps, don't change your rhythm at all.  After hitting 60 reps, my PR of 68 in a row was in sight.  When the 69th double under passed below my feet, I started to become giddy.  Almost to 75!  Keep it together!!!  70...71...72...73...damn!  I fell two reps short of my revised goal of 75 in a row.  The last 10-15 reps were not pretty, but I had reached the point where hitting my goal took priority of keeping my form.  Getting 75 in a row would have to wait for another day.

I went to the 6:30 class rather than the 7:30 because Cline had told me the night before that he was hitting up the earlier class.  I also wouldn't be ditching Coach Jenna since she teaches both of those classes.  There were 10 of us in class (5 girls, 5 boys), which turned out to be perfect for this workout.  We could work in pairs as we rotated from station to station.  Each pair could consist of one male and one female, something that would be very beneficial at the wall ascent (only one person can climb a given wall at a time and there is only one 6' wall and one 8' wall).  It also helped with the prowler push as one prowler could always have the men's weight on it and one could always have the ladies' weight on it.  Unofficially, the pairs were chosen Sadie Hawkins style, with the women choosing their male companions.  Alona wanted to race through burpees again, so she chose me as her partner.

I got to make the rest of the decisions associated with this workout.  The prowler push wasn't going to be much of a problem with 140 pounds on it, so I went RX there.  The wall ascents aren't programmed very often during the year, so I wasn't passing up an attempt to take on the 8' wall while channeling my inner American Gladiator/Ninja Warrior.  The toughest decision of the night was figuring out what weight I should choose for my dumbbells.  I had done dumbbell thrusters in a WOD two weeks earlier and I used 40 pound DBs there.  They were difficult, but I managed to get through sets of 9 reps with them.  I guessed that I might be able to do some sets of 5 reps with the RX weight of 55 pounds, and with a 3 minute time frame, I thought I would have some time to recover between sets and still post a decent score.  Jenna asked us to choose a weight that was 10 pounds less than what we'd use for the workout as our warmup weight.  Since Matt B and I are knuckleheads, we grabbed the 45 pound DBs.  To be fair to Matt and myself, we did a lot of warmup with those DBs.  We began to suspect that Jenna was trying to break us.  If that was the plan, it worked.  It became obvious that we were not going to be able to use 55 pounds in the workout.  We toyed with the idea of dropping all the way down to 40 pounds before settling on the 45 pound DBs we brought out for the warmup.

Chris D was not part of the 7:30 fun, but I did chat with him after he finished taking the 6:30 class.  The one bit of advice that he gave me: start with the burpees.  That was one of the two stations I was considering starting at (along with the wall ascents) because it seemed like you'd be in trouble if you weren't fresh when you got there.  (Spoiler: you will see how true that is when I cover how I did on the wall ascents!)  I passed this advice on to my partner and she was more than happy to start at the burpees.  We let Jenna know we had dibs on that station and let the other four groups figure out where they wanted to start.

Jenna got the clock started and the burpee race between me and Alona began.  I knew there was no chance I was going to keep up with her, but I did surprise myself, especially towards the late stages of this 3 minute block.  It didn't take long for me to fall behind and I definitely slowed after about a minute, but I did my best not to take any breaks.  I also kept the crawling to a minimum.  When three minutes had elapsed, Alona had completed 45 burpees, while I hung in there with a total of 41.

Since the breaks were fairly long at 3 minutes apiece, I made the wise decision of having my water bottle near the station I was working at.  There was time to grab a drink and recover before heading to your next station, but if you had left your water bottle in your bag and needed to go look for it, you were probably going to be scrambling (rather than recovering) during your rest period.

Alona and I didn't have to move for our second station.  The air squats could be done right where we had done the burpees.  The second 3 minute segment began and we moved rapidly through the air squats.  When we did the first Advent challenge at the gym last December, I did 58 air squats in a minute.  I had no intentions of trying to match that pace.  Today's pace would be fast but smooth.  If I needed to pause for a second, that was okay.  If I needed to shake out my legs real quick, that was cool too.  What I did not want to do was get to the final minute and have to stop for a long break.  I got through 40 reps in minute one.  I wasn't hurting at that point, but I suspected I wasn't going to hang on for 80 more reps in the next two minutes.  I was somewhere around 75 reps through two minutes and managed to finish up at 105 reps before it was time to rotate.

The prowler push was next and I walked outside long before Alona came out.  My prowler was sitting there with 140 pounds on it.  What I didn't realize was that the other prowler only had 50 pounds on it.  When Alona came out to the barriers where we were starting from, we had less than 30 seconds remaining on our break.  She freaked out a bit about the incorrect weight on the prowler, so we scrambled to remove the 25 pound plates and add on the 45 pound plates.  Crisis averted.  From there, I totally gamed station three.  There didn't seem to be much point in doing anything else.  Almost everyone had gotten either two full laps or three full laps with the prowler.  Partial laps got you nothing, plus you'd have to spend part of your rest period pushing the prowler back to the starting line if you didn't finish a lap.  That made things easy for me.  There wasn't much of a chance that I was getting 3 laps, so I settled on doing 2.  When I got back to the starting line after completing 2 laps, there was less than 20 seconds left, which I used to cheer Alona on as she finished her second lap.  Perhaps the extra mini-break I had given myself would help me on the wall ascents.

Or not.  I should have realized that the burpees, air squats, and prowler push had probably removed the spring from my legs, but it didn't become apparent until I got to station #4: the wall ascent.  The wall ascent is like a shorter, completely vertical version of the Warped Wall seen on American Ninja Warrior.  You run at it, try not to get intimidated as you close in on it, try not to stutter step, cave and start stutter stepping like crazy, plant one foot into the wall, grab the top of the wall like your life depends on it, then pull yourself up and over.  Piece of cake, right?  It is if you can either a) use the speed from your run to propel yourself high up on the wall (meaning you don't have to use arm strength to pull yourself up) or b) have the ability to pull up your body weight without much trouble.  The first three stations took away (a) and I've never been able to do (b).  So this was not going to go well.

I'm not sure how many times I've fallen off of the wall while trying to scale it, but I know that I've never failed as many times in one workout as I did during the 3 minutes at this station.  Things started out alright as I got two wall ascents completed in about 40 seconds.  Then came the first rejection.  I hit the wall and I got my forearms over the top of the wall, but my hands were slippery with sweat.  As I tried to transition into pulling up, my hands slid and my body came off the wall.  In many ways, it was like doing a failed box jump.  When I don't hit one of those correctly, the box sort of spits me out, hurtling me away from it.  The same thing was happening here, only this was a 96 inch box jump.

As is the case with a missed box jump, you need a few seconds to get yourself steady again before you're ready to confront your adversary once more.  I took some time before my next run towards the wall.  Things went better this time around.  From that point forward, I alternated between successful wall ascents and having the wall do its best Dikembe Mutombo impression.  I ended up with three rejections and 5 successful climbs during my three minutes at that station.  Not a great score for me, but it was all I could muster at that stage of the workout.

One station left and that was the dumbbell thrusters.  I wanted to complete at least 20 reps while I was there and I got off to a good start with 7 reps in my first set.  Got 6 more in my second set.  The biggest difficulty was locking out the reps at the top.  I could only manage 4 reps in the next set.  That number slipped down to 3 in the fourth set, but at least I had completed 20 reps in total.  I knew time was winding down as I did another set of 3, but I was facing away from the clock, so I didn't know exactly how close to the end I was.  I turned around and saw 8 seconds remaining, so I got back to my dumbbells and squeezed in one last rep before time was called.  I got a score of 24 on this station.  Total score for the workout: 41 + 105 + 2 + 5 + 24 = 177.

That was a decent score for me.  If I had chosen to go RX for everything and used the 55 pounds DBs, my score would likely have only been about 10 reps worse.  But I think I made the right decision going with the 45 pound DBs.  It would have been agony using the 55 pounders for the final station.  I was at least able to do two decent sized sets with the 45 pound weights.

Thursday preview: It's Luke's last class!  I say farewell to a fellow Barbull at Endurance, where we have our last 400 meter time trial of the year, followed by some sprints afterwards.

Tapped Traps

Workout date: 10/18/16

It typically takes 48 hours before my body experiences the fallout from a difficult WOD.  Apparently when I was perusing shipping options for my pain on Monday night, I splurged for next day delivery. My shoulders were very sore from the KB swings and the hang power clean and jerks I had done the night before.  My first reaction was that I might have slept wrong or something because I tend to be alright the day after a tough workout.  As the day went on, I realized that wasn't it.  This wasn't a short term problem that was going to go away with a little bit of stretching.  I had beaten myself up pretty good on Monday without noticing it.  What did that mean for Tuesday's WOD?  It meant I was in deep trouble, culminating with a performance at Dudes After Dark that would need to be cut short.

First sign that things weren't quite right?  My daily double under practice.  I haven't become as consistent as I would like in doing quality sets one after another, but on Tuesday, it was a struggle from the start.  I was hitting myself with the rope after just 1 or 2 reps.  Fine, I'll be honest and tell you there were times where I hit myself with the rope before I even got a single rep in.  Eventually I would get some larger sets, but none of it felt fluid.  My biggest set would be 42 reps, relatively low compared to what I've been getting for my top set of the day.

The only time I tend to see Jenn before going to the gym is when I go to a 7:30 class.  She came home at about 6:45 and was immediately confronted with a strange request.  In our house, I'm usually the one that gives back rubs and she tends to be the recipient.  So when I asked her to rub my upper back and shoulders before she had a chance to change out of her work clothes, she knew something was up with me.  I gave her advance warning: it was going to sound like I was in pain while she rubbed the afflicted areas (I'm a bit wimpy when it comes to pressure during massages), but I needed her to try and work out the pain I was feeling.  She had to stop several times as I couldn't internalize my discomfort, but she did her best to help me out before I ventured off to the gym.

Even if I had felt like a million bucks prior to my visit to the gym, I would have been nervous about Tuesday's WOD.  Here's what it looked like:

Tuesday's WOD:

Start with a 400 meter sandbag run (athlete chooses sandbag weight)

Then 3 rounds of:
15 overhead squats (95/65)
15 toes-to-bar
3 rope climbs (20')

Upon completing three rounds of that triplet, perform one last 400 meter sandbag run

Wasn't this a workout that I should be excited about?  After all, it had overhead squats and rope climbs, two of my favorite things at the gym.  If I had never done a workout with those two movements before, my answer would have been yes.  But last year we did a workout with nothing but overhead squats and rope climbs ("Rope Smuggler") and I came very close to throwing up in the middle of it.  I could just put that out of my mind though, right?  Not after Samson posted a photo of someone's regurgitated breakfast in the KOP parking lot post-workout.  My sore shoulders had become a secondary concern.  My anxiety about this WOD being the first one where I lost my lunch took over the top spot.

The butterflies in my stomach were working overtime when I showed up at the gym.  Can't remember the last time I felt that nervous before a WOD.  I've been that nervous before an Open workout.  Had those same feelings prior to an event at a competition.  But your run of the mill daily workout?  This was rare.  Guess I'm terrified of vomiting in front of everyone at the gym.  I would need to face that fear if I was going to participate in this WOD though.  There were 8 of us in attendance for Dudes After Dark and Coach Rachel sent us out on a 400 meter run to learn more about someone in class that we normally don't talk to.  That was going to be difficult for me because I talk with nearly everyone at the gym.  Within this class, the only person who fit the bill of someone I've never really chatted with was a drop-in named Colin and Neil had already engaged him in conversation.  So I took the efficient route of eavesdropping in on their conversation and supplied the cross-street that Colin lived on in Philly when Rachel asked us for something new that we learned on the run.

After the ice breaker, we did some practice with overhead squats using an empty barbell.  We worked on the progressions that lead to toes-to-bar.  Everyone attempted to do a pull or two on the rope, even if they weren't planning on climbing to 20' (or doing rope climbs at all).  That was where I could feel the shoulder soreness the most.  Holding a barbell overhead while doing squats required shoulder strength as did hanging from a bar while you tried to kick your toes up to it.  But the rope climb was where I noticed the most strain.  And describing it as a shoulder issue may not have been entirely accurate.  Right before class I was chatting with someone who had done the Monday WOD (blanking on who it was) and they told me their traps were sore.  Ah yes, my traps!  I guess traps have always sounded like a body part that strong people have and because I consider myself to be rather weak, I don't identify as someone with traps.  Ah-nold has traps.  I have sore shoulders.  But if we're going to be anatomically accurate, the pain I was feeling was more in my traps than my shoulders.

Rachel told us to choose a sandbag and get ready for our first run.  I was using a 45 pound sandbag because that is what I used in a partner WOD with Chris D not too long ago.  It was unpleasant trotting along with that thing, but I thought I could manage two rounds with it in this workout.  Plus I had no plans to run hard with the sandbag.  The meat of the workout was back inside the gym, so there was no point in killing myself on the run.  We headed out on the first run to kick off the WOD and by the time we came back into the gym, I think I was ahead of only one person.  The surprising thing was that I hadn't run all that slow.  2:50 for 400 meters is by no means fast, but considering I was toting a sandbag, I thought there was a good chance that the first run might take around 3:15-3:30.  So not a bad start.

Because I knew this was going to be a longer workout, my mind immediately began crafting ways of getting out of doing long sets.  Just break up everything.  Don't kill yourself early on.  Slow and steady something something something.  I know better than that.  Adding additional unnecessary breaks into your workout only leads to a much slower time.  When I picked up my barbell to do the overhead squats, I could have broken up the first 15 reps into two sets.  I know that's what I wanted to do.  Instead I told myself to hold on.  I could do all 15 if I stayed mentally strong.  And that's exactly what I did.  Now if there was some mental trick that could get me through toes-to-bar.

There's always a tradeoff in Crossfit.  Whenever I have dedicated myself to getting better at something, there has been another movement in the gym that I have gotten worse at.  It really just comes down to practice.  You get better at those things that you've devoted time to practicing.  By spending more time on your new obsession, you spend less time on something else, and slowly your aptitude with that movement begins to diminish.  For me, I've been obsessed with double unders recently.  And the movement that I have neglected is toes-to-bar.  I couldn't manage one big set the first time I jumped up to my bar.  That efficient snapping of my body up and down to create momentum for multiple reps?  Non-existent.  All I could do was hang on, do some swooping extra swings and get 3 reps.

The good news was that this was my first workout using the new JAW grips I had purchased.  The Athlete of the Month (Jill H) had mentioned them in her write-up, so I decided to give them a shot.  No complaints while using them in this workout.  Once I developed some faith in them, I hung on the bar longer (assuming I had the energy to do so).  I followed up my first set of three with another set of three before deciding that my grip was strong enough to attempt more than three.  I got five in my next set, making me believe I could close things out with a set of four.  Unfortunately I lost control of my swing after two more reps and had a failed rep that caused me to drop from the bar.  I tried not to rest too much before hopping up and completing the final two reps.  Time to go climb that rope!

Up to this point, things were okay.  It was definitely a tiring workout, but I didn't have doubts about getting up to the ceiling three times if I broke up the climbs appropriately.  And the bit of nausea I had prior to the start of the workout seemed to have gone away, so I had one less thing to worry about.  I walked over to an open rope, jumped on it, and climbed to the top.  Those 20' climbs are no joke, but I was able to make it through the first climb without much of a problem.  After a short break, I made my second ascent to the ceiling.  I needed a longer break before the third climb and that is when I began to get frustrated.

(Warning: This mini-rant is based on the fact that rope climbs are something I'm good at so I magically felt entitled to a rope.  Is that right?  No.  But the point of the blog is to tell you everything I was thinking during the workout and that includes when I'm behaving like a jerk.)

Our gym only has 5 ropes available for use and one of them never gets used because it is slippery and you can't maintain much of a grip on it.  So there are basically 4 ropes for everyone to use.  The gym rule is that a rope is yours until you give it up.  But unless I'm stringing multiple climbs to the 15' mark, I almost never take advantage of this rule.  I know how frustrating it is to have to wait for a rope, so more often than not, I'll alternate with someone if I see them waiting.  If I'm tired after a rope climb, I'll step away from it even if no one is right there waiting because someone might come over while I am recovering and I want them to know they can use that rope.  After my second climb, I stepped away from my rope.  It wasn't long before all three ropes (at the end where I was) were being used.  Except they weren't all being used for climbs.  I think only 1 of the 3 were being used for climbs.  The others were being used for rope pulls or short rope climb attempts.  The problem was that these attempts were being done slowly and with breaks in between.  I got to the point where I couldn't wait any longer.  I looked down the gym to the single rope that is closer to the front and saw it was open.  I didn't move fast enough though as another classmate grabbed a hold of it before I could get down there.  Son of a...  I came back down to the far end of the gym and Neil took a moment to chalk his hands.  That was when I hijacked his rope.  I don't know if he was taking a break or just needed a moment to chalk his hands, but I got impatient and jumped on his rope while his back was turned.  I tried to be quick with my climb so he didn't have to wait long, but I totally stole it on him.  Sorry Neil!

The clock was just past 9 minutes, so that first round took 6 minutes and change.  I came back to my barbell and knew that I would need to break up the overheads in this round.  I began with 9 reps in my first set, took a break, and then finished off the last 6.  There was some heavy breathing going on at this point.  Then I got frustrated again because Colin was working where I had done toes-to-bar in the first round, but he moved over for me once he saw me walk back to the rig.  (Maybe my traps affect how petty I am?)  I began with two sets of 2 reps.  The third set was the charm just like it was in round one as I was able to get through 4 reps and bring my total to 8.  That was probably too much as I needed a longer break before jumping up and getting 3 more.  As was the case in round one, I finished the round off with two sets of 2 reps.

The ropes were empty when I got to them for round two.  While I didn't have any problems with my first climb, it was very tiring.  I had only done 4 of these climbs to the ceiling and I still had 5 to go.  How was I going to make that magic happen?  Things got worse when I went to make the second climb.  Each pull up the rope had become noticeably more difficult.  I got past the 15' mark and started to slow.  The "glass half full" outlook on what happened next is that my form on the rope has improved.  About 1 pull from the ceiling, I had to stop.  This would have been a big problem for me in the past because I don't always lock my feet securely when I climb the rope.  And the last thing you want is to be 17' off the ground, tired, and not have a secure hold on the rope.  That wasn't the case this time around.  I stood there high above the floor, tired but not concerned about falling.  When I felt ready, I took one more big pull and slapped the 20' mark before shimmying down to the floor.

I was going to need some time before the third climb.  I wasn't sure how much energy remained in my shoulders and traps.  And even though I was able to comfortably stop along the way on climb #2, that wasn't a habit I wanted to form.  As I was recovering, a couple people finished their toes-to-bar and were headed to the ropes.  No one was going to have to wait for a rope, but I wasn't giving up my rope nonetheless.  I selfishly moved up and put my hand on my rope.  MINE!  Fatigue and patience do not go hand in hand.

I didn't spend a lot of time guarding my rope.  Apparently I have some sort of internal time limit on how long I can stand being a dick to other people, so I got to work on my third climb.  It didn't take long to realize I was in trouble, but this was the last climb of the round and I was determined to get to the top.  I had to stop when my body was at around the 15' mark, meaning I was two pulls away from the top.  My upper body had very little left to give, but I was able to get two more pulls out of it.  I hit the 20' mark one last time and slid back down to the floor.

The clock read 19 minutes, so I had gone from 6 minutes to complete round one to 10 minutes to complete round two.  That wasn't terribly surprising and I wasn't extremely concerned about my time.  Rachel had told us to try and complete the workout between 20 and 25 minutes, but most of the times for the day were in the 25-30 minute range, with a handful of folks over 30 minutes.  As far as I could tell, I wasn't way behind the rest of the class.  So there was no panic about that.  The bigger problem was my inability to raise my arms.  When I came back to my barbell, I had a hard time raising my arms above my head.  I spent a good 30 seconds trying to stretch them out.  I needed my arms over my head for everything that remained and it couldn't be a thing where I could only do it for a few seconds at a time.  I needed to keep them over my head for a prolonged period.  Wasn't happening.  At that point I knew my workout was done.  Or was it?

About another minute passed before I was able to get Rachel's attention and let her know I was tapping out after two rounds.  Then she let me know my workout wasn't done.  "You can still do the sandbag run, can't you?"  Completely slipped my mind.  I squatted down, picked up my sandbag, and slid it over the back of my shoulders.  I started to jog a little, but I was having a hard time holding my arms up to cling to the straps of the sandbag.  Time to readjust.  I put the sandbag down, then tossed it over one shoulder.  That helped in terms of being able to hold it, but I still couldn't jog much.  The bouncing during the jog was causing the sandbag to pound away at my sore shoulders.  This was going to be much more of a speed walk than a jog.  Every now and then I'd jog a little bit and I certainly gave it some extra effort at the very end.  I was very happy to dump that sandbag as I came back in the side door of the gym.  Final time: 25:21.

I wasn't as disappointed with my performance in this workout as much as I was disappointed with my attitude.  I think I did the right thing by stopping after the second round as there was a real chance that I could have injured myself doing round three.  Completing only two rounds ended up being my version of scaling and was likely a better option than super-light overhead squats, knee raises, or only climbing to 15' on the rope.  No real complaints, just wish I had the ability to do all three rounds.

Wednesday preview: I discover that the soreness in my shoulders and traps is not what held me back on Tuesday night.  One jump rope dies, another jump rope is born.  And like a White Walker, I am rejected by the wall.

Exchanging Dollars For Pounds

Workout date: 10/17/16

Vegas was a bummer.  I qualified for this tournament that I had never participated in before, but after doing some research, I realized it was a good one for me to play in.  The format is similar to the one used at the NHC.  It is three days long with 15 plays per day and a ton of races to choose from (5 race tracks on day one, 7 race tracks on days two and three).  The main difference is that this tournament is "win only" (your horse must finish first) whereas the NHC is "win and place" (you get points if your horse comes in first or second).  That means it is pretty heartbreaking if your horse loses a photo and comes in second place.  For the first two days, I didn't experience that heartbreak.  On Day 1, I liked a horse who was 15-1 on the morning line and drifted up to 29-1 come post time.  When he drew off late in the stretch, I was suddenly in contention.  On Day 2, there were tons and tons of favorites that won, so the room was mostly quiet and the standings didn't change tremendously.  The punch to the gut didn't come until Day 3.  While one of my tablemates said I should have won a prize for betting horses on both Day 1 and Day 2 that threw the jockey in the stretch (the horse on Day 1 was about to win too), I hadn't felt snakebitten through the first two days of play.  I was in contention, I was calm, and I believed I could still win.  Then I lost a photo with a 10-1 shot.  A little while later, my 18-1 shot was closing like a rocket, but he had started accelerating too late, losing by a head.  In the marquee race of Day 3, my horse was 10-1 and fought off the favorite the entire length of the stretch as another 10-1 shot came closing late.  There was a three-way photo at the finish.  My horse didn't lose by a nose.  She lost by two noses, winding up a very unlucky third.  You need to be fortunate to win tournaments like this one and between the two horses that dumped the jockey and the three losses in photo finishes, it was clear that it wasn't meant to be for me this weekend.

At least once it was over I could go enjoy myself.  Between the prep work, the analysis I did on the 171 races in the contest, and the time during the actual contest where I scanned the odds boards for solid horses that were unloved by the betting public, I spent well over 60 hours this week in tournament mode.  I rarely left my room the first three nights unless it was to get something to eat.  Sleep?  It would be more accurate to say I did a lot of napping.  In fact, once the tournament was over, I strongly considered going up to my room and catching some z's rather than going over to the Vegas strip.  But you have to try and go enjoy Vegas if you're there, so I held off on sleep until much later in the evening.  I ended up at the Beer Park watching the end of the Ohio St.-Wisconsin game along with the first game of the NLCS.  There were rowdy fans cheering on both games and even though I didn't have a rooting interest, it was a lot of fun to experience.

When the games were over, I wasn't sure what was left to do.  Being a married guy on your own in Vegas is a bit awkward.  If you're single, I'm sure you can just go out, chat up someone and have a new friend to hang out with.  When you're married, you go to a restaurant, ask for a table for one, then decide what your answer will be when they inevitably try to stick you at the bar.  After you've completed your meal, you...go gamble?  Perhaps that is my default answer no matter what, but I spent the last few hours of Saturday night at a blackjack table manned by a completely humorless dealer.  When she was finished relieving me of my stack of chips, I went for a walk before getting an Uber and heading back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep.  It was time to return to reality.

There was nothing more real for me then having to weight myself on Monday morning.  I had been in Vegas since Wednesday night.  During that time, I had eaten almost nothing healthy.  There was no time to work out early on in the trip and I didn't have the energy to exercise by the end of the trip.  I fully expected my Vegas experience to end with me lighter in the wallet and heavier on the scale.

Original weigh-in:  213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in:  209.8 pounds
This week's weigh-in:  208.8 pounds

I don't get nutrition or dieting at all.  But I certainly ain't complaining about dropping another pound. 19 more to go.

The Monday 6:30 WOD was jam-packed again, although it actually had less people in it than the 5:30 class did (19 vs. 23 athletes).  I left an extra 10 minutes early to get to the gym for some reason.  Maybe the universe was telling me I needed that 10 minutes.  Well the universe was wrong: I needed an extra 15 minutes.  I was hitting one red light after another, but I wasn't sweating being late because I had given myself some additional time.  And then I came upon the road closure.  Great.  Now I had to detour to another route that I knew was going to have more traffic.  Still looked like I was going to be a couple minutes early, but my streak of red lights continued.  The display in my car said 6:29 when I pulled into the KOP parking lot.  Barely made it.  Or so I thought.  Every parking spot was taken.  Even the area in the back that is just dirt and gravel rather than parking spots was filled with cars.  I pulled out of the parking lot and made my way over to park near the annex.  As I went by, I saw the 6:30 class coming out of the side door to do their warmup run.  I'd have to fill in behind them once I parked.  I looped around to the entrance that gives access to the annex parking and waited (and waved) as the class went by my car.  Not wanting to waste time, I grabbed my gym bag, locked my car, and headed off after them.  It was awkward running with my bag, but I could handle running 400 meters with it.

We did not run 400 meters.  As I came around Frosty Falls, I saw the lead runners pass the 400 meter turnaround point.  The warmup was an 800 meter run.  I was stuck.  I was running along with my gym bag, trying to find a way to hold it where it wasn't whacking against my body.  I had inadvertently turned this into an 800 meter sandbag run.  As the class came streaming by me after hitting the 800 meter turnaround point, I got some strange looks.  Not that they weren't warranted.  I really just wanted the run over with.  Luckily I was moving pretty well on the run, even managing to pass some of those who weren't toting gym bags during the half mile warmup.  However, I was sweating a lot once I got inside the gym.  I happily tossed my bag below one of the GHD machines.

I had seen the Monday WOD online when I got home from the airport on Sunday night and it didn't sound too awful.  I knew that I shouldn't expect a wonderful score on it because I had spent the last four nights eating fast food and not sleeping, but it sounded like one I could get through.  Here's what it looked like:

Monday WOD:
15 minute AMRAP
21 KB swings (55/35)
15 hang power clean and jerks (115)
9 burpee box jump overs

As Coach Giulz walked us through each element of the workout, I realized why I didn't think this workout sounded so bad.  And that is because I can't read.  I thought the last part said "box jump overs" not "burpee box jump overs".  Trust me when I say the word that I overlooked has a huge impact on the difficulty of this workout.  I had wondered why very few people earlier in the day had finished 4 rounds.  Now I knew.  I certainly wasn't finishing 4 rounds.  The goal was to get as many KB swings as I could after completing three rounds.

To provide enough room for everyone to swing a KB, work with a barbell, and do burpees and box jump overs, we needed to split up into three sections.  I was at the tail end of the group in the middle of the gym, meaning I really only had one neighbor (Nate) who I was worried about running into.  On my other side was Nick, but he had his equipment set up in a different order and it seemed unlikely that I'd bump into him along the way.

We began getting ready and Giulz encouraged us to jump completely over the box after doing our burpees rather than jumping on the box and coming down on the other side.  This is what I had wanted to do during a Dudes After Dark workout a few weeks ago, but we were told that we had to jump on to the box in the midst of the box jump over.  This sounded much cooler.  The chances of me injuring myself significantly increased, but so did the cool factor.  Who doesn't make that tradeoff?

As I grabbed plates for my barbell, I walked by Matt B and he asked me if I was using 115 pounds.  I told him that I thought the clean and jerks would be the easy part of this workout.  After all, when we do Grace, we use 135 pounds and manage to finish 30 reps in about three minutes.  This was only 15 reps at 115.  How bad could that be?  (You already know the answer to that one.)  Matt reluctantly put 115 on his barbell after hearing my faulty logic.

It was time to start the proceedings, so we lined up by our KBs.  Giulz started the clock and we were off.  I thought I could handle 21 KB swings in the first round and that prognostication turned out to be accurate.  I placed the KB down and went to my barbell.  That is where I realized how much I had underestimated this part of the WOD.  Because it was a hang power clean and jerk, I knew this segment would test my grip strength.  But that test never really came to pass.  I picked up the barbell and was only able to manage 3 reps, stumbling a bit on the last one.  Here I was thinking I'd start off with 10 or so and I got a measly 3.  Nice job Dave!  My next set was three before I took more of a break.  I needed to calm down to get through this.  The weight wasn't the problem.  The fact that I was rushing was not helping matters.  The KB swings had worked my core and trying to do clean and jerks while breathing heavily was leaving me soft in the middle.  I needed to calm down, tighten my core, and I'd be alright.  I got through 5 reps in my third set, then I took care of the remaining 4 reps so that I could move on to the box.

If my core was weakening during the clean and jerks, a bunch of burpees wasn't going to help matters.  Each burpee I did was very slow.  But if you think I wasn't gonna try and hop over the box during that first round, then you clearly don't appreciate my poor decision-making skills.  I had launched myself over the box twice already and was preparing to do it a third time when Nate made his first attempt at jumping over the box.  It did not go well.  His shin nailed the box and he fell over the top of it.  I stopped what I was doing to make sure he was alright.  He was, he just needed some time to regroup.  And I immediately began second guessing how wise it was for me to keep jumping over the box.  Don't get me wrong.  I didn't make some rash (translation: sane) decision to quit jumping over the box.  Instead I continued jumping over the box, but with a heightened sense of fear that completely validated my decision.  I made it through the nine burpee box jumps without injuring myself and walked back to my KB.  Approximate time for round one: 4 minutes.

Not so bad.  I could definitely finish three rounds at this pace and might even have time to get through all of the KB swings in round four.  It was all about pushing ahead even though I was tired.  I picked up the KB again.  I immediately knew 21 wasn't happening.  Then I realized I wasn't making it to 11.  If this was going to take three sets, I might as well stop after 7 reps and so I did.  I was kinda mad that I had to put it down so early, so once I picked it back up again, I was determined to do better.  I guess 8 reps is technically better, but I still had a bigger-than-I-would-have-liked set of 6 reps to complete before I could move on.  I took care of that and went back to my barbell.

The good news regarding my second set of clean and jerks was that I didn't have to start out with two sets of three again.  My first set was three reps but I think that was due to the fact that I tried to get right into it as soon as I got to my barbell.  The other three sets were four reps each.  The problem was that I was hurting badly by this point.  Long breaks were necessary between sets.  The clock was near 8:15 as I came back to my box.  I had spent more time on this round already than I had on round one and I hadn't even begun the slowest section yet.

I may be a dummy, but I'm no fool.  As tired as I was, there was no chance that I was going to attempt launching myself over the box anymore.  Even hitting the floor and rising back up was a challenge at this stage.  After each burpee, I was able to jump on to the box.  Then I slowly stepped off of it and cringed at the thought of the next burpee.  It took me close to two minutes to finish these 9 reps.  The clock had passed the 10 minute mark and I was behind schedule if I wanted to complete three rounds.

One of my worst qualities is that I can never shut my mind off.  If there was an off switch I could flip, I would be a much happier soul.  Alas, I don't seem to have come equipped with one.  I guess I wouldn't be able to write this blog if I was able to shut my mind off during a workout.  Each entry would just end up looking like this:

"Went to gym.  This was WOD.  <WOD description>.  Score 2 rounds, 33 reps.  Very tired, sweaty."

(Not sure why I think I'd talk like a caveman if I had an off switch.  Sometimes I just start writing without thinking these things all of the way through.)

The reason I bring this up is because my mind went adrift at the beginning of my third round.  I started swinging the KB and for whatever reason, the pain from doing so was not being processed by my body.  I was able to hang on for 12 reps.  It was proof that if I had an off switch, I would do much better, especially during the hardest parts of the workout.  I needed a break after that set because a) my body eventually did process how much that hurt and b) I had to be ready to do all 9 of the remaining reps in one set.  Which I did.

I was way too tired to contemplate finishing the third round, but I thought I'd get back to the burpee box jumps.  Wrong again.  I was hoping to do the 15 clean and jerks in four sets like I had done in rounds one and two, but my mid-section was not interested in staying tight any longer.  I got two clean and jerks in my first set before having to drop the barbell.  I was able to struggle through 3 more in my next set, but it took way more energy than it should have.  Next set?  Only 1.  That was the point where I knew I was in trouble.  I couldn't stabilize the weight and that meant I wasn't going to be able to string reps any longer.  All I could do was "fast" singles, except they were more like plodding singles.  I worked my way up to 12 reps before time was called.  Final score: 2+33.

Not my greatest workout ever.  I'm not sure how much of it was the Vegas trip and how much of it was simply me not being good at this WOD.  Wish I could have done a better job of continuing to work while I was tired.  That has been a focus of my double under training.  I suppose it is easier to get your mind to agree to jumping rope while tired rather than holding weight over your head, but it's a mental block I need to get beyond.

Speaking of double unders, I practiced before coming to the gym and had a best set of 57 in a row.  I also started playing around with a new rope that I ordered.  My old rope is beaten up and it was time for a new one.  I decided to try out a version with longer handles because I often feel like my hands are slipping off the one with smaller handles.  The long handles will take some getting used to as it felt weird initially.  Part of the problem is that the rope is probably too long and needs to be trimmed back some.  The good news is that I received compliments about my improved from while I was using it after the workout.  Maybe my persistence with the jump rope is slowly paying off.

Tuesday preview: More sandbag runs!  (This time with an actual sandbag)  Overhead squats, rope climbs, and testing out my new grips while doing toes-to-bar.

Board Coach Bullying

Workout date: 10/12/16

With a 4:15pm flight to Vegas on the horizon, I had to hit up Coach Gordy’s Wednesday nooner for the second week in a row.  I was really happy to see a lot of the noon regulars there (Tim H, Joe M, Pam, Becky, Mike Sim, and Rob C).  There was also one person there that I was not expecting to see: Rachel.  Now to be fair, she was just sitting in the lobby working on the computer when I got to the gym.  She had the day off because of some Jewish apple-picking holiday.  (Note: It is entirely possible that I mixed up two things she told about me her day off.)  With a little prodding though, I got her to join the seven of us in a strength-based WOD.

Today we would be attempting to find a 3RM on the push press as one more benchmark workout was making its final appearance of 2016.  Even the cash out had remained the same from quarter to quarter, as we would be wrapping the workout up with a 5 minute AMRAP of 5 muscle-ups (Or ring dips.  Or banded ring dips.) and 10 power cleans at 135 pounds for the gentlemen and 95 pounds for the ladies.  Gordy let us know in advance that we didn’t need our water bottles for the cash out as we were not allowed to stop for a drink during that sprint.

I must admit: I kinda like Gordy’s warmups.  They’re different from what I experience in most of my other classes.  Sure, we started out with a 400 meter run like we almost always do, but then we did a bunch of exercises that made it seem like we were in an aerobics class.  There were jumping jacks.  There were hybrid jumping jacks (I didn’t catch the name of this one) where our legs scissored back and forth while we clapped in front of our bodies.  We did lunges where we had to clap overhead as our knees touched the floor.  (I’m suddenly realizing that I might just enjoy clapping.)  When we went through the progressions for the push press, we worked on stringing three reps in a row multiple times.   Usually in a warmup, we work on the form of one rep before finishing off with a single set of multiple reps.  The whole thing I had a different feel to it and since I’m a sucker for variety, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Even though there were only 8 of us in class, Gordy suggested that we might want to work in groups as it would give us about the right amount of rest between sets.  As I turned towards the barbells, I saw that Mike was looking at me.  Uh oh.  He’s super strong.  Me?  Not so much.  I asked him if he wanted to work together and he said sure.  I was going to have to dial it up a notch if I was going to keep pace with him.

Mike asked if I wanted to start out with 95 and I was good with that.  Prior to class, my plan was to go 95-135-165-185-200.  200 would be a PR attempt as I had set a personal best at 195 earlier in the year.  Gordy mentioned doing some warmup sets to begin though and that left me a little stumped.  Should I count 95 and 135 as warmup sets and the last three sets as the real deal?  I guess it didn’t matter all that much, but the wheels were turning.  Had I planned out enough sets?

Once I got started with Mike, I realized I had not.  The progression we wound up taking was 95-115-135-155-175-185-200.  That made more sense in terms of doing some warmup sets and doing about 5 real sets (typical for strength WODs).  The only problem was that it was a lot of work in a short period of time.  Remember, this was the express, so this class had 15 minutes less to play with.  Gordy told us we needed to get ready for the cash out at 10 of 1, meaning we would have about 20 minutes to move through these seven sets.

Early on I was able to keep up with Mike.  I enjoy the push press and rattling through three quick reps was not a problem at 95, 115, and 135.  Mike didn’t even have a trickle of sweat on him.  In truth, this was shoulder press weight for him, but he went through the formality of bending his knees a bit before powering the barbell overhead.  Gordy had encouraged us not to pause in between reps, telling us that a true 3RM was done with each rep going directly into the next one.  I knew that was going to be tricky for me at higher weights.  In the past, I would do a rep, bring it down, reset (as I do with squats) and then do the next rep.  That was how I got 195.  I had my doubts as to whether I could have done it without the pauses.

It was at 155 that I started having trouble controlling the barbell.  I would come down from my first rep and try to move directly into the second rep, but inevitably, the barbell would come forward a bit, putting the weight on my arms more than my body.  I wasn’t completely using my arms though.  I was using enough of my body still that I could dip, pop up, and generate enough momentum to press the weight overhead.  Mike was not having any struggles.  I may have seen him yawn during one of these middle sets.

Because my form was starting to waver, I put on my weightlifting belt for the next set.  That didn’t help my form per se, but it protected my back from my lousy form.  Once again, the second rep got away from me a little bit, but I held on and got through all three reps.  Mike may have been whistling dixie during his set. 

I wasn’t sure what our next jump would be, but I didn’t want to make another 20 pound jump to 195 because tying your PR is lame.  Mike only added 10 pounds to the barbell and I was surprised.  He had shown no signs of distress up to now, so I had no idea why he was decreasing the increment that we were adding to the barbell.  Perhaps he was just looking out for me.  He had no problems with 185.  Gordy and I stood behind him and marveled at how easy he made it look.  I took my turn next and needed some big dips in order to generate the power to get the barbell overhead (there may have been some minor grunting), but I was able to squeeze out three reps.

I had brought over 5 pound plates and 2.5 pound plates as Mike got ready to do 185 because I wanted to attempt 200 if I was successful at that weight.  Mike realized that was my plan, so he slapped them on the barbell for the next set.  It was time to go after a PR.  200 would not be a PR for Mike.  Not even sure 300 would be with how easily he did his push presses.  That set the stage for me.  There were only a few minutes left before we had to get ready for the cash out.  I went up to the barbell and tried to psyche myself up.  Took it off the rack and it didn’t feel unbearably heavy.  I dipped, drove up, got the barbell a little over my head, and realized it wasn’t going any further.  I dumped it behind me.  Damn.  I knew it was going to be tough after the set at 185, but I thought I’d at least get a rep or two.  Oh well.  Final score: 185.

While Mike and I were going back and forth with our lifts, Rachel was next to us working on her own.  During our 400 meter run, she had told me that she wasn't sure she wanted to lift today as she had been dealing with an injury of a gluteal nature.  And while the push press might sound like an arm-focused exercise, you need power from your legs to have success with heavier weights.  I wasn't paying much attention to how Rachel was doing until Mike and I were nearing the end of our progression.  As Mike got ready for one of his lifts, I saw Rachel complete a set of push presses.  She turned around and squinted at the big white board up front.  Not the main one where everyone's scores are written.  I'm talking about the one that lists the top three male and female scores in the gym to date.  Rachel confessed that she might make an attempt at grabbing Alison's third place spot on the board for the push press.  A little while later, Mike was making mincemeat out of 215 pounds to finish his push presses for the day.  I turned around to see Rachel grind through a rep with her barbell.  As soon as it was locked out, she dropped it to the floor.  For some reason, it didn't strike me as the end of a 3 rep attempt.  I asked her if that was the lift to get her on the board and she said yes.

Once upon a time, my unofficial title at the gym was "Rachel's board coach".  I worked out with her almost every single day and I was well aware of what she was capable of.  I could look up at that board and easily see where she might catch the third person listed, so I encouraged her to go after those spots.  There were even times where she would skip getting third and just jump straight to the top of the board.  I hadn't suggested the push press for her, but she would later give me credit on Facebook for bullying her into the workout and board coaching her at the express.  Trust me, there is zero chance that I could ever bully Rachel.  (Ever hear of someone bullying a Viking?  Me neither.)  And all the credit for getting up on that board for the millionth time belongs to her alone.

It was time for the cash out and only 6 of us would be taking part as Becky had injured herself and Joe either needed to leave or was injured as well.  Mike was going to do ring muscle-ups, but the rest of us were doing dips.  And for those of us who struggle mightily with the dips (like the author of this blog), there was the option to use a band.  Even that was no sure thing for me as I had all sorts of problems with banded dips recently when we took part in Elizabeth.  I'd have to make the best of it because my goal was to complete four rounds and that meant constant work for 5 minutes.  Like Gordy had told us earlier, there would be no breaks.

I was working with the right group of people to accomplish that goal.  I didn't see Mike and Tim as I was running around during this cash out, but Pam was directly in front of me on the rings, and I was facing Rachel and Rob during the power cleans.  The three of them did not take breaks.  It was simply go, go, go.  Stringing five dips with a band was not a problem at the start for me and I hurried to my barbell once they were done.  I picked it up immediately and held on through 10 power cleans. One round done in under a minute.  I was the first one headed back to the rings, but Pam, Rachel, and Rob were only a second or two behind me.  I couldn't have done that round any faster, yet I had no margin for error the rest of the way if I was going to stay with this group.

I completed the dips quickly in round two, then got to my barbell and started my cleans.  I could tell quickly that I wasn't going to be able to string all 10 reps again, so I dropped the barbell after only 2 reps.  It wasn't to take a break.  It was an attempt to conserve energy.  I did 8 fast singles to finish off the round.  It was probably too conservative a strategy, but there was still almost three minutes to go. Three minutes to try and stay with Pam as we had moved a little bit ahead of Rob and Rachel.

I freaked out when I got back to my rings and had trouble getting up on to my band.  This was the death knell for me during Elizabeth and I had no time during this cash out to struggle on something as simple as getting on to my band.  After two missed jumps, I got on the band with my third jump.  The dips hadn't failed me yet as I got through all five again.  Pam got to her barbell first and I knew I needed to make up time.  I wasn't stopping after two again.  I strung five together before resorting to the fast singles to complete the round.  That got me back to even with Pam.  90 seconds left to finish one more round and reach my goal.

The dips were fading by round four.  I didn't have any problems getting into the band during this round, but I did have to jump on to it twice because I needed to split my reps into a set of three and a set of two.  This time Pam and I headed to our barbells together.  I knew I could finish the fourth round at this point.  Could I stay on pace with Pam during this last minute?  I got off to a good start by making it through 5 power cleans in a row.  We were too close to the finish to catch my breath, so I just kept picking the barbell up over and over again until I made it to 10 reps.  As I hustled over to my rings, Pam was completing her last rep.  I hopped on to my band and did two reps.  Pam started doing her dips.  As Gordy started the countdown of the final 5 seconds, I jumped up to try and get more dips.  I managed two more before time was called.  Final score: 4+4.  One more rep than Pam did.  (Note: To be fair, Pam did not use a band for her dips.  But considering she is a Crossfit cyborg, I was thrilled that I kept up with her for 5 minutes.)

I needed some time to recover from that sprint, but then I pulled out my jump rope.  Gotta keep working on double unders while I am tired.  I did three sets post-workout: one of 32 reps, the other two being 25 reps long.  I knew I didn't have enough energy to put together a huge set, but in a way, getting three fairly strong sets in a row while feeling fatigued was more of an accomplishment for me.  I called it a day, packed up my bag, and got ready for my trip to Vegas.

Monday preview: How does a trip to Vegas affect my weight loss aspirations?  And will four days off  slow me down during a 15 minute metcon?