Little Spider Monkey

Workout date: 11/2/16

Over the summer, the most recurring problem with my body was that my right knee tended to lock up.  If I swung my leg a few times, I would eventually hear a popping sound (probably not good) and my leg would go back to having a decent range of motion.  I still deal with that issue every now and then, but in recent weeks, my most troubling ailment has resided much further north.  My shoulders and traps have become very tight after difficult shoulder-intensive workouts.  Since Tuesday's WOD was one that included 110 KB swings, it was no surprise that I woke up Wednesday morning feeling like I was constantly mid-shrug.  I've never been one to hold tension in my shoulders, so this is kind of a new experience for me.  And other than resorting to the epsom salt bath, I'm not entirely sure how to release that tension.  Rolling out doesn't do a whole lot for me.  Perhaps I needed to schedule a massage.  I called up Massage Envy and booked an appointment for Friday.  Sweet relief was only two days away!

That Friday massage wasn't going to help me out during my double under practice on Wednesday.  I didn't feel like my form was off, but I wasn't twirling the rope nearly as fast as I normally do.  Guess loose shoulders would have helped out.  I ended up doing 5 sets, all of which consisted of 15-25 reps.  Solid on the consistency front, not so wonderful on the "put together a big set" front.

While I might not have had one of my best double under sessions, I had higher hopes for the Wednesday WOD.  It was chock full of rope climbs.  That might have elicited groans from most of the athletes at KOP, but it put a huge smile on my face.  The rope climbs were thrown in as a break from all of the power snatches that we would have to do.  Here's the format of the workout:

Wednesday WOD:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1
Power Snatches (115/75)
*Complete 1 rope climb (15') in between rounds of power snatches.  The workout ends with the final power snatch.

How psychotic am I when it comes to rope climbs?  When Coach Jenna told us that there wasn't a 10th rope climb to finish the workout, I began to pout.  Psychotic and immature...yup, that's me.

As with any rope climb workout, I was concerned about how many people would be in class.  This WOD was essentially a sprint and you didn't want to find yourself waiting on a rope to climb.  The waiting time was bound to add up in this workout as there was going to constantly be overlap as athletes moved back and forth between their barbell and the rope.  In other workouts with rope climbs, you can stagger the start so that it will be less likely that people will have to wait for a rope, but that wasn't a possibility with the format of this workout.  Luckily, there were only 4 people at the 7:30 class.  With only 4 ropes in rotation, we had the perfect amount of people.  Joining me were Raj, Phani, and Noel.

Coach Jenna had us practice power snatches with an empty barbell before bringing us over to the rope to demonstrate the two different rope climb techniques.  She started off with the safer method, called the S hook.  It's safer because you wrap most of your body around the rope as you're securing your foothold.  What you gain in safety, you sacrifice in speed.  In order to move up the rope using the S hook, you must shake the rope off of your leg as you shimmy upwards before securing your foothold once again.  This was the only way I could get up the rope originally, but once I learned how to J hook, there was no going back.  Jenna introduced the J hook by explaining to the class that "if you are a little spider monkey like Dave" and you want to get up the rope quicker, you should use the J hook.  With this method, you're securing the rope with your feet and pulling yourself up with your hands.  That's about it.  You gotta have faith in your rope climbing abilities to use the J hook, but it is a significantly faster way to get to that 15' mark.

While I may have felt comfortable with the rope climbs, I was less certain about my ability to complete 55 power snatches using the RX weight of 115 pounds.  I had spoken with Cline and Borden at the end of the 6:30 class and they told me that they had both used 95 pounds.  I figured I could handle 105 pounds for this workout.  Could I go 10 pounds heavier and still complete this WOD in a reasonable amount of time?  Most times were in the 12-15 minute range.  If the 9 rope climbs were going to take about 4 minutes (pure guesstimate), then I had 8-11 minutes for the 55 power snatches.  That didn't sound completely unreasonable to me, so I loaded 115 pounds on to my barbell.

The four of us got lined up to go with the only thing left to decide being who was going to get to use the rope in the middle of the gym.  Using that rope was going to save time in this workout.  The other three athletes were going to have run down to the far end for their rope climbs.  I didn't call dibs or anything, but I selfishly wanted that rope.  I was the only one in our class who was doing full rope climbs in the workout.  (Note: Noel got his first rope climb during this WOD.  Phani looked like he could be solid at rope climbing with some practice.  Raj looked like she wanted no part of the rope, but after watching her perform power snatches during the warmup, I became convinced that she was strong enough to do legless rope climbs.)  Did that mean I should get the closer rope?  No.  But I've learned that sometimes you have to be a little selfish in workouts where you think you can put up a very good time or score.  This felt like one of those workouts for me, so I set up my barbell very close to where the rope was.

Jenna got us started and I intended on knocking out a large set to begin the round of 10.  That set would be 3 reps.  I knew in advance that I might have trouble stringing together a lot of snatches, but I thought I could make it happen in round one.  Not so much.  I shook out my arms before doing another three.  Then I finished off the round by doing two sets of two snatches.  As I completed my 10th power snatch, Noel and Raj were finishing up as well.  Neither of them made a move for the nearby rope, so I claimed it.  Might have been a jerk move, but I was okay with being a jerk for one night.  I scaled the rope quickly, slid back down, and got ready for 9 more power snatches.

From this point forward, I did quick singles.  If I was already down to sets of two during the first round, there was no point wasting energy trying to string reps the rest of the way.  Between reps, I told myself not to stray far from my barbell.  I did my best to keep breaks to a minimum.  With 9 more power snatches in the books, I headed back up the rope.  For me, the rope was like "active rest".  The power snatches were the difficult part of the workout.  And because I was climbing the rope quickly, I was only giving myself 15-20 seconds of rest before coming back to my barbell.  That was bound to catch up to me.

The round of 8 and the round of 7 were slow.  I had it in my head that I needed to be getting through the snatches in less than a minute, with less reps and more fatigue hopefully canceling each other out as the rounds drew on.  When I completed the round of 7 snatches, I looked at the clock and saw it was beyond 5 minutes.  I began to freak out a little.  It felt like there was still a ton of work to do (even though I had completed over 60% of the snatches) and I hadn't moved very fast during the part of the workout where I was fresher.  How slow would I be moving as I tired out?

After my 4th rope climb, I came back and began the round of 6 power snatches.  As I was between reps, Raj came back from the rope climb and asked what round I was on.  This was a workout where it was easy to lose track of where you were because you were trying to go so fast.  I let her know we were on the round of 6.  (I knew we were on the same round because she was faster on the barbell while I was faster on the rope.)  I got through that round, took a breath before climbing the rope, did my rope climb and told myself that I was in the home stretch of the workout.  Just 15 snatches remaining.  Only 4 rope climbs.  It was time to push.

I should mention that my form wasn't very pretty while doing the power snatches.  Jenna would later tell me that she was worried about my back because I was hyperextending so much to get the barbell overhead.  And while the optics might not have been great, the audio was almost certainly worse.  It was the KB swing grunt on steroids.  I couldn't help it.  If I was going to keep moving through this workout, I needed to do whatever it took to get that barbell from the ground to the sky.  With the round of five complete, I did another quick rope climb.  10 snatches left, 3 rope climbs to go.

The round of 4 was the last one that I did where I needed a mini-break during it.  I did two quick snatches, paused for a breather, than took care of the remaining two reps.  I reminded myself how overrated breathing was during a rope climb.  I focused on getting a big jump to begin, clasping my feet together to ensure a solid foundation for the climb, and extending my reach as far as I could before going for my next pull.  On the early climbs, I easily did the jump, two big pulls, and a reach to slap the 15' mark.  Towards the end of this workout, I became worried that I wouldn't be high enough to reach up after two pulls and hit the mark.  It wasn't as much of a slam dunk in the later rounds as it was during my initial few climbs, but I was able to hit the 15' mark every time without needing a third pull.

Six power snatches and two rope climbs remaining.  It was officially time to sprint.  Grab that barbell, throw it overhead, drop it, control it, do the next rep.  Make sure you get a big jump for the rope climb and go from there.  I was gasping for air, but I was close to the finish line.  After my round of 2 snatches, I hustled to the rope, climbed up, slapped the 15' mark, slid down, ran over to my barbell, and threw it overhead.  Final time: 12:43.

If you asked me what my final time would be when I completed the round of 7 snatches, my guess would have been over 15 minutes.  I was really happy with how quickly I was able to do the latter part of the workout, especially since I was struggling to breathe at that point.  After a much-needed breather while laying flat on the floor, I got up and cheered on my classmates.  Raj was not far behind me in finishing, while Phani and Noel took longer only because they were troopers about doing as many of the rope climbs as they could even as fatigue set in.

Thursday preview: A trip to the nooner, coached by one extremely perky Aimee Lyons.  I unexpectedly get to practice one of the events for the upcoming Brawl in the Fall.  And my double under progress is put to a stern test during the cash out.