Back And Forth

Workout date: 11/1/16

Even though 3 days had passed since doing Wolverine, I was still feeling a bit sore as I got ready to attend Dudes After Dark with LC on Tuesday night.  Making things worse was the fact that the WOD programmed for that evening was one that looked like a real struggle for me.

Tuesday WOD:
1,000 meter row
50 box jumps (24"/20")
50 KB swings (70/53)
750 meter row
35 box jumps
35 KB swings
500 meter row
25 box jumps
25 KB swings

Why was this a bad workout for me?  Let's count the ways:

1. I'm an average rower at best, but my form falls apart once I get tired.  2,250 meters of total rowing (with 1,250 of that after a lot of work) was not going to be fun.
2. It's no secret that I haven't shown wonderful coordination while doing box jumps.  I am typically good for at least one spill during a workout containing box jumps, although I have to admit that ever since Cline predicted that I'd get through that one WOD with the assault bike, box jumps, and snatches mistake-free, I've had very few mishaps.  Maybe he hypnotized me into doing box jumps properly.
3. KB swings have never been a favorite of mine.  I wasn't even considering doing 110 swings with the 70 pound KB.  I imagine that would take me forever.  There aren't a lot of movements at the gym where I get concerned about injuring myself or others, but large sets of KB swings with the 70 pounder is one of them.  The ladies RX weight of 53 pounds would be plenty for me.
4. Most of the times on the board from earlier classes exceeded 25 minutes, with 27-28 minutes appearing to be a particularly popular time for this workout.  The longer the workout, the farther I tended to fall behind.  Wolverine is an extreme example, but I was nearly 10 minutes behind the last person to finish before me in that workout.  I'd be very happy to complete this WOD in under 30 minutes.

Chris D was feeling the same way I was.  He's also not a big fan of KB swings, so 70 pounds wasn't a consideration for him either.  30 minutes was his goal for finishing this workout as well.  Would this be another workout where I'd be racing Chris, only to see him pull away at the end?  Would I be muttering "bastard" to myself as I watched him get on the rower for the final round while I was stuck in the middle of round two?  I had a sneaking suspicion that might be the case.  (Spoiler alert: Chris would beat me by 2 minutes in this workout, but he ended up using a 44 pound KB and did Russian swings.)

When we returned from our warmup run, LC instructed us to claim one of the rowers that had been left out after the 6:30 class.  Chris headed to the front of the gym for his rower because he didn't want to row next to Cline during the workout.  Cline is a beast on the rower.  If you get caught up trying to row as fast as him, you will tire yourself out.  If you go at your own pace, you feel like you're far behind when he inevitably gets up off of his rower first.  So I understood why Chris made his decision.  As for me, I was rowing right alongside of Cline.  My mindset was that I was going to ignore Cline's pace.  When he completed the first row, I wasn't going to let it affect my workout.  If that meant I fell way behind, so be it.

LC would have us practice rowing and KB swings, but she gave us a bit of new advice on the box jumps.  We received the usual instruction on how we could either step down after each box jump or we could rebound off the floor.  That method was more efficient, but more tiring.  In a workout this long, it would be difficult to keep that going from start to finish.  Plus, most people often took an extra step away from the box when they stepped down, a method which subtly provided some additional rest.  The new advice from LC came via Keithie, who leans forward when he comes down from a box jump.  If you're stepping down, leaning forward makes it awkward to walk backwards away from the box.  If you're rebounding, leaning forward points you in the right trajectory to get back on to the box.  I had done some rebounding during the warmup, so I was going to use that for a while and I'd try to incorporate Keithie's method into it along the way.

LC made sure we were ready to go as she reset the clock.  I would be working with Rob C on my left and Cline on my right.  Rob was starting out with a 70 pound KB, but he had a 53 pounder nearby in case he needed to switch along the way.  Cline joined in the fun by also using a 53 pound KB.  Chris was way down at the front of the gym by Neil and Ashley.  Because he wasn't near me, I tossed the idea of racing him.  I'd do my best to stay with Rob and Cline instead.

The first row began and my goal was to be calm, steady, and try to finish the 1,000 meters in about 4 minutes.  The competitive side of me wanted to look at Rob's and Cline's monitors to see how I was doing in comparison as we got later in the row, but I resisted that urge for a long time.  Right as I got to 900 meters, I couldn't resist any longer.  I peeked to my right to see where Cline was and got an immediate answer when he let go of his handle and began unstrapping his feet.  I was 100 meters behind him, which worked out to about a 20-25 second deficit.  I finished my row a couple seconds shy of 4 minutes.

I got over to my box at about the same time as Rob and I noticed several others to my right were also making their transitions at about the 4 minute mark.  My goal on this set of 50 box jumps was to keep rebounding for as long as I possibly could.  It would feel better to step down, but I wanted to push myself here.  I could break up my reps, but my rest needed to be on top of the box, not on the floor.  I did my first jump, then went to rebound while leaning forward as I had learned in the warmup.  I immediately hit my knees into the box and fell forward on to it.  Mistake #1 already!  Because I hit my knees on the box, I didn't jump very high, preventing me from flying off to the side.  It was a controlled landing.  I decided to hold off on the new technique and use my usual style.  I was able to do several large sets.  When I neared 30 reps, I began to think about when I wanted to start stepping down.  Rebounding 50 times (ok, 49 times technically) was a lot and this was only the first round of this workout.  I didn't want to wear myself out early on.

Why are you being such a wimp?  There's only 20 more reps to go.  Complete this round and worry about the rest of the workout later!

You may think I'm crazy for having these internal feuds during workouts and you may be right.  But I really do have to yell at myself at times in order to get through the hardest parts of the workout.  This was one of those times.  It would have been nice to get a breather here, especially with 50 KB swings awaiting me once I was done with the box jumps.  But I didn't really need a break as much as I wanted one.  I knew I was moving faster on the box jumps than Rob and Cline were, so this was my opportunity to make up time, not squander it.  I kept rebounding as fluidly as I could, and when I finished the 50th box jump, I headed to my KB.  I got there before Rob.  Even more surprisingly, I got there before Cline.  I had made up the time I had lost on the row.

That lead was short-lived.  That push I made on the box jumps required me to take a break before swinging my KB.  Cline was only 1-2 box jumps behind me and I'm pretty sure he picked up his KB before I did.  I finally picked up my KB and kept swinging it until I had 25 reps complete.  Cline seemed to be doing smaller sets, which was probably a better way of getting through this segment of the workout.  My next set would be my wimpy bridge set of 10 reps.  Then I got mad at myself as I took my break before pushing through 15 reps to complete the first round of KB swings.  My breaks were definitely longer than Cline's, which explains why he headed to his rower a few seconds before me.  I took a look at the clock and we were at about 10 minutes.  This would be the only time I'd look at the clock during the workout.

The back and forth with me and Cline continued at the rower.  Just as I was the first one to the KB but Cline was the first one to start swinging his, I started rowing before Cline even though he had gotten back to his rower first.  I think he was adjusting his foot straps or something while I just plopped on to my rower and started slowly pulling the handle.  As expected my pace was considerably slower than on the 1,000 meter row, going from about 2:00 per 500 meters to about 2:15 on this row.  Cline got up off of his rower while I had about 70 meters left, meaning I was about 15 seconds behind.

Cline has told me that he's surprised by how much I'm aware of what others in class are doing because he tends to have tunnel vision during a workout.  As you can tell, I did not have tunnel vision in this workout.  Or if I did, my sights were completely on Cline.  At the beginning of the workout, I thought there was little chance I could keep up with him on this WOD.  But when I was still with him at the end of round one, my perspective changed.  I could stay with him.  I needed to stay with him.  I knew I couldn't do it on the rower, but I now knew that I could make up that time on the box jumps if I kept rebounding.  It was going to suck immensely, but I knew that hanging with Cline all the way to the end would feel better than stepping down from box jumps ever could.

I did my first box jump and, for some reason, my mind reset back to round one.  As I went to rebound, I leaned forward into the Keithie position.  Once again, I rammed my knees into the box and fell forward.  The Keithie method would have to be practiced at a later time.  I stopped leaning forward and began chipping away at my 34 remaining reps.  Somewhere along the way, I shorted a rep, barely getting my toes up on the edge of the box before falling off.  That rep wasn't going to count either.  I didn't have any problems the rest of the way and once again I was ahead of Cline at the KB.

The plan at the KB was to go 15-10-10 for my 35 reps.  Cline was still only 1-2 reps behind me, but this time I picked up my KB as soon as I saw him walking towards his.  I was able to get 15 in the first set.  During the second set, I felt good as I approached my 10th rep, so I held on and did 12 instead.  That left 8 to go for my final set.  I picked up the KB before I wanted to, but I hung on for all 8 reps.  I had a little bit of a lead going into the final row.  I was going to need it.

The third round began as you would expect.  Despite getting to my rower first, Cline eventually passed me on the 500 meter row.  He was only ahead of me by a few seconds though.  If I didn't blow it on the box jumps, I thought I had him.  I did have another mishap in the third round where I shorted a jump and couldn't maintain my balance, but other than that, the 25 box jumps went about as good as I could have hoped.  I didn't take many breaks and I had somehow managed to rebound through all 110 box jumps.  Only one problem: Cline had his best round of box jumps yet.  The two of us hopped off of our boxes at the same time having completed the last of our jumps.  This would be a KB race to the finish.

While I was on the rower for the third and final time, I attempted to convince myself that I could hold on for all 25 KB swings if I really got mentally tough.  That was probably wishful thinking, but I wanted to believe it was true.  Turns out it wasn't even close to being true.  Cline and I started swinging our KBs and I could tell quickly that 25 in a row wasn't happening.  I barely got through 10 before needing to set my KB down.  I saw Cline do at least 1 more rep after I stopped before he put down his KB.  I assumed he did more reps than I had.  If I was going to beat him, I needed to pick my KB up and hang on for all 15 remaining reps.  I stepped up and began swinging again.  I held on for...9 reps.

That sucked.  I was exhausted and my arms didn't want any part of swinging that KB.  As I accepted that Cline was working on his last set and was about to beat me, I saw him put down his KB.  He didn't lay down on the floor immediately, which is what I would have done if I was finished with the workout.  Could he still have more to do?  GO, GO, GO!!!!!  I had one last chance to beat Cline, but I needed to move right now.  I leaned down, picked up the KB, and started swinging.  There were only 6 reps left.  I could definitely grunt my way through that many.  After the 6th swing went overhead, I tried to control it to the ground, before collapsing into a heap.  Final time: 24:58.

I'm not sure if Cline maintained his tunnel vision all the way until that last KB sprint or if he was racing me throughout the workout the same way I was racing him.  But once I had finished, he wasn't in as much of a hurry to get back to his KB.  He eventually picked it back up and did his last set, finishing 21 seconds after me.  I couldn't believe that I finished before him in a workout like this one. I couldn't believe I finished in under 25 minutes!  Cline and I laid on the floor for a solid minute or so before cheering on our classmates.  We had both pushed really hard through a tough workout and were spent.  It was a nice feeling though.  I felt like I had earned that collapse on the floor afterwards.  I had beaten my goal for the workout by 5 minutes and I wasn't way behind the rest of the class like I expected.  My ability to work when I haven't completely recovered has improved significantly.  If I could only manage to do it without arguing with myself...

Wednesday preview: Rope climbs are one of the benchmark skills being tested in November and there are plenty of them included in Wednesday's workout.  It's a sprint-y workout of power snatches and 15' rope climbs.