Threesome For The Kids

Workout date: 9/30/16

As I get closer to the end of the week, there ends up being a greater likelihood that I will wake up sore.  Because I've stopped going to Competitor's Class (and the gym in general on weekends), I've settled into a routine where I work out Monday-Friday and rest up on Saturday and Sunday.  Most Crossfit coaches would likely tell you that it would be better to set up your schedule so that you work out for 3 days, take a rest day, exercise 2 more days, and have your week capped off by 1 last rest day.  That would be great if my schedule worked out that way, but typically it does not.  So I do the best I can and get 5 workouts in whenever time permits.

Oddly enough, I didn't wake up Friday morning feeling sore.  I felt good despite having put in four tough workouts in a row.  The workouts at the gym had a heavy focus on the legs this week, but I wasn't achy as I got ready to head to KOP for the Friday nooner.  If anything, there was this excited energy coursing through my body, which was weird because I knew I'd be doing burpees imminently. I'd also be doing some front squats and holding a plate over my head.  Here's the format of the Friday WOD.  It was a fundraiser workout for Steve's Club, a fitness program for at-risk youth.

Beat The Streets WOD:
Partner WOD
15 minute AMRAP
12 front squats (135/95)
12 burpees
*While one partner is working, the other must hold a plate (45/25) over their head
**Partners must divide the work equally

There were 7 of us at the Friday nooner, an unfortunate number for a partner workout.  Coach Aimee asked us if we had picked out our partners ahead of time.  No one had, but there were some very obvious pairings if you looked around.  Denise and Erika were going to work out together.  Tim H and Joe were bound to be a team.  And you knew that I was going to choose John M to push me through another workout.  That left Meredith without a partner...for the moment.  Tim realized Meredith was going to be on her own, so he kindly offered a solution.  He asked Aimee if it was alright if they had a threesome.  After some snickering, Aimee's response was along the lines of "if you guys want to have a threesome, be my guest".  There was more snickering, but I felt that Tim's intentions needed to be seen in the proper light.  Because this was a charity WOD, I assured Aimee that the threesome was "for the kids".  And hence, Tim, Meredith, and Joe's team name was born.  Or conceived.  (There are going to be a lot of threesome jokes in this blog.)

Hell, let's just get all of the best threesome moments out of the way right now:

• Aimee explained that Tim and Joe would be working as siamese twins (going through their reps at the same time) and that Meredith would be the "other partner" in the threesome.  Me: "Oh Meredith, you never want to be the 'other partner' in the threesome."
• Tim and Joe set up their barbells so that Meredith was in between them.  They began having difficulty communicating with one another, so I suggested that they stand next to each other rather than have Meredith in the middle.  Joe: "We can't do that.  We might accidentally touch one another.  And we can't cross swords."
• Meredith: "I feel like I'm on a teeter totter.  One is going up while the other is going down.  It's a weird sensation."
• Tim (post workout): "It was tough.  I'd be going fast and he'd be going slow.  Or I'd be going slow and he'd be going fast.  We never finished at the same time."

There were probably even more gems like that during the WOD, but there was a workout that needed to be completed and I had to focus my attention (most of it anyways) on that.

John and I had to decide what weights we wanted to use for the front squat and the plate hold.  John had pushed me through Endurance the day before and I was returning the favor today by telling him to push less.  Seem backwards?  Well, you need to know two things about John that I know from working out with him frequently:

1. John is as stubborn as I am about pushing the envelope and using as heavy a weight as possible for workouts.
2. John is in the process of recovering from a shoulder injury.

The plate hold seemed like something that could easily aggravate John's shoulder.  Before he even suggested a weight, I asked him if he wanted to go with 25 pounds.  John admitted that he was thinking about using the full RX weight of 45 pounds, but he was okay with using 25 pounds instead. I thought that was a nice concession, but Aimee would come over and tell John that he might want to use a 10 pound plate.  So prior to the start of the workout, we grabbed a 10 pound plate to have as a standby in case the 25 pound plate became too painful to hold.

As for the front squat, I wasn't sure whether John would have difficulty holding a barbell in the front rack position over and over again, so I asked him whether he was okay with 115 pounds.  Perhaps this was a situation where I was being overly cautious, but this was a workout where you just had to go a little faster if you chose a weight that was too light.  Not a bad problem for me as I need cardio more than I need strength right now.  John had no problems with using 115 pounds, so we were all set to go.

Since we had to split up the work equally, we decided that we would each do 6 reps before switching with our partners.  John wanted to go first, so he would lead with 6 front squats before I did 6.  Same situation with the burpees.  We were both going to hold the 25 pound plate for the overhead hold.  The morning scores tended to fall in the 7-9 round range.  I thought that we might be able to flirt with 10 rounds if our chosen weights were a little light and if we kept moving.  However, I knew 15 minutes was a long time for this type of workout and that a late fade was possible.

I told John after the WOD that this could be the shortest blog ever because it would be tough to describe the workout without being insanely repetitive.  "He did 6, then I did 6.  Then he did 6 before I did 6.  Etc."  With that in mind, here is a quick recap of how John and I did:

• Early on, we were holding to that 10 round pace.  We completed the first round in just under 90 seconds.  Because I was expecting some fade, I revised my goal for us from 10 rounds down to 9, but I was pleasantly surprised when we held this pace through 4 rounds.
• My first weak mental moment came towards the end of round three.  I wasn't tired, but I was breathing heavily already and I knew we were only a third of the way through the workout, assuming we would complete 9 rounds.  It was at this point that I told myself to dig deep like I had done during the Endurance workout.
• Neither John nor I struggled with the front squats.  Typically we'd get through 4 quick reps and then maybe go a little slower on the last two reps, but we never had to drop the barbell.
• I'm sure the speed with which we did the burpees slowed down over time, but at no point did I have to crawl through burpees.  It was 6 per round and I was determined to keep us on that 9-10 full round pace.
• Our pace likely went from a little under 90 seconds to a little over 90 seconds in rounds one through four, but once we got to round five, our pace got closer to two minutes per round.
• After a slow round five, I suggested to John that he switch to the 10 pound plate to hold overhead.  He looked like he was struggling with the plate hold.  It wasn't just him.  Without a doubt, the plate hold was the most painful aspect of this WOD and I'm glad I used 25 pounds rather than attempting 45 pounds.
• There was less than a minute left when we finished round 8, so we emptied the tank to try and complete round 9.  We each got through the front squats and John got through 3 burpees before the clock struck 15.  Final score: 8+15.

Aimee pointed out that the two sweatiest guys had teamed up for this workout and a quick glance at the section of the gym we used during the WOD would confirm this statement.  There was so much sweat in the area where I had done my burpees that I ended up moving to a different area for the last few rounds to keep my hands from sliding when I hit the ground.  John had worked out in the same vicinity as me, but he wasn't worried about my perspiration.  As he put it: "You're married, you're a nice guy, I'm sure you don't have any diseases I need to worry about."  Yup, that's my kind of compliment.

Monday preview: Weigh-in #4.  And the biggest class that I've been a part of (not counting special events).