L.E.D.

Workout date: 10/5/16

Last week's workouts were heavily focused on the legs.  That theme didn't seem to have changed much when this week rolled around.  There was lots of squatting on Monday, then there was the painful combo of the assault bike and box jumps on Tuesday.  When I looked on Tuesday night at what the WOD would be for Wednesday, I saw the following:

Wednesday's WOD:
21-15-9-6-3
Dumbbell (DB) thrusters (55/35)
*Complete a 400 meter run after every round of dumbbell thrusters

Making matters worse was the fact that I had a meeting on Wednesday night, so I'd have to attend the nooner.  That wasn't much of a rest period for my legs.  They weren't in pain or anything when I made my way to the gym for this workout, but I could tell they weren't fully recovered from the assault bike.  With that in mind, I knew Wednesday would end up becoming an LED.

What's an LED?  For starters, it's an acronym that I just made up.  It stands for Low Expectation Day.  The Wednesday WOD was one of those run-heavy workouts where you perform some movement that destroys your legs before you head out the door for a quarter-mile jog.  Sometimes you can make it through the first run or two at a decent speed, but eventually your stride shortens and your pace slows considerably (unless you're a really good runner to begin with).  With the assault bike/box jump combo having already performed the function of leaving my legs at less than 100%, I knew I'd be shuffling along slowly after each set of DB thrusters.  And since the majority of this workout takes place on the run, I had very low expectations about the time I would put up.

There were 7 of us at the noon express.  The group consisted of 5 ladies (Pam, Seba, Miranda, Mariana, and Nicole M) and two guys making the quick turnaround from Dudes After Dark (Rob C and myself).  Our coach was Gordy and I'm pretty certain this was the first time that I've gotten to attend one of his classes.  I've partnered with Gordy at Competitor's Class (where he's had to carry our team multiple times), but I've never seen him coach.  He put us through a series of drills to get us stretched out before asking us to grab some DBs to practice thrusters.  He had us do sets of 3 thrusters, with the guys using 25 pound DBs and the ladies using 15 pound DBs.  He then told us to grab the DBs we were going to use for the workout.  This is typically the point where a coach would tell us to try out some reps on our own and get ready for the WOD to begin.  Gordy did things a little differently.  The group warmup would continue.  To give us a taste of what awaited us in the workout, he had us do a set of 3 thrusters, then had us jog a lap around the gym.  We did 3 rounds of that.  It was interesting that we didn't have any time to do some warmup on our own, but if I'm being honest, that's probably time I spend chatting more than warming up.  Forcing me to keep warming up with the group might be good for me (no self-discipline!).

There was no chance that I would be using 55 pounds for my DB thrusters.  Personally, I find DB thrusters to be much more difficult than thrusters with a barbell.  When using a barbell, you can lay it on your collarbone as you perform the front squat, then use the force of coming out of the squat to propel the barbell off of your body before pressing it out.  That is much harder to accomplish with DBs.  You have two pieces of equipment instead of one and the DBs don't rest on your frame as easily as the barbell does.  The result is that you tend not to pop the DBs off of your body with the same force and you have to use your arms more to get the weight overhead.  I remembered struggling through a cash out with 35 pound DBs a while back, but I thought I could go a little heavier here.  Hence, I picked up a pair of 40 pound DBs.

During the small sets of three that made up the last segment of our warmup, I was able to move through the thrusters quickly.  That didn't give me much insight on how I'd do on longer sets.  I could see my arms wearing out as I tried to do more reps and I didn't want to get to a point where I was doing super small sets later in the workout.  So my mindset was similar to what it was when I did the 50 back squat workout last week: I'd go for a bigger set to begin (but not one that would completely wipe me out) and then plan out my strategy from there.

Gordy started the clock and we all began our first set of dumbbell thrusters.  I was quick at the beginning, but it didn't take long before the reps started to feel unpleasant.  That didn't mean it was too tough to keep going.  Rather it was one of those deals where I was going to have to suck it up and hold on through a few more reps than my body wanted to.  After my 9th rep, I placed my DBs on the floor.  At the time, that felt like the right place to break things up.  In retrospect, maybe I could have gotten 11 and finished the first round in two sets.  As it was, I went with three sets instead, deciding that a nice progression of 9-7-5 for round one wouldn't be too bad.  I didn't take too much of a break in between these sets, but based on the procession of people who headed out the door before me, I'm guessing I was one of the few who broke up the first round this much.

Out on the run, Miranda was leading the way, although she was doing 200 meter runs and would end up finishing well ahead of the class.  Pam was next.  She's currently training for the NYC marathon, so some DB thrusters weren't going to be enough to affect her running.  She was striding along without any look of distress on her face.  I was following Mariana and Nicole, but I wasn't making up much ground on them.  Seba and Rob would round out our group.

Back inside the gym, I picked up my DBs and started round two.  The goal here was simple: complete 9 reps.  That would leave me only 6 to complete the round.  It would also give me the mental strength to complete all 9 reps in the third round.  Again, these didn't feel so great after 5-6 reps, but I was able to push through until I hit 9.  After a small break, I picked up the DBs and completed my last 6.  Our order on the run didn't change.  Pam was pulling further ahead of the group running 400 meters each round.  Mariana was pulling away from me and Nicole.  Nicole was ahead of me, but stopped a few times to walk.  When I caught up to her on the way back in, I did my best to encourage her to keep running and make it back to the gym.  She got back inside before I did.

Once we got to round three, I knew there would be no more breaks.  I picked up my DBs and pushed through 9 more thrusters.  That round didn't feel quite as painful as the sets of nine that I did in the first two rounds.  Maybe my body was getting used to doing 9 reps in a row.  From here on out, this workout was all about the running.  I made it out the door before Nicole this time, but didn't put much distance on her during the run.  It was still a slow plod for me.  Pam was way ahead and Mariana was leaving me in the dust.

There was a quick pit stop into the gym to do 6 more thrusters, then it was off to run again.  Pam was on her final run and would eventually lap me in her quest to stay under 15 minutes for the workout (she did).  On my way back, I saw Mariana as she began her last run.  The distance from me to Nicole was about the same as it had been last round.  As I came into the gym, I jogged over to my DBs, picked them up immediately, did 3 quick thrusters, then headed right back out again.  It was time to pump my arms, put my head down, and milk whatever energy was left in my legs.  I did pick up the pace on that last run, especially the last 150 meters or so.  Didn't get up on my toes like I do when sprinting at Endurance, but I was pretty tuckered out when I came flying through the door at the end.  Final time: 18:19.

After I recovered, Pam told me that the cash out was 30 strict pull-ups.  Certain that this was some sort of cruel joke, I let her know that I'd be done in a month.  It wasn't until Gordy announced that this was an informal cash out that I realized that Pam had been serious.  30 strict pull-ups sounded like it would take forever, especially since we had just finished a fairly long workout.  But Gordy pointed out correctly that we had been doing a push motion in the WOD and that this was a pull motion instead.  Our arms should be relatively fresh for this cash out.  Being an informal cash out, there was no time cap and no one abused that more than me.  The plan was to do 15 sets of 2 reps with a break in between each set to shake out my arms.  I got through 11 sets before failing on the second rep of set #12.  So the last 8 reps were just singles.  It took quite a while, but I managed to get through it.

Later at home, I tried once again to get a huge set of double unders.  After a few attempts, I was able to put together a set of 53 in a row.  I'm still tiring out too quickly, but it's encouraging that I'm finding the ability to put together large sets once again.

Thursday preview: The last mile time trial of the year at Endurance.