In June, I earned my ticket to this year's National Handicapping Championship. The rules state that you can win two entries into the contest, but because I had gotten my seat early this year, I didn't put a lot of pressure on myself to play a bunch of contests in pursuit of that second entry. I had plenty of time. (Wrong!) Once fall came around, it dawned on me that time was running out to get my second entry. I had missed most of the live contests offered during the year because of other commitments. I thought a live tournament would offer me my best chance at victory as online tournaments tended to have much larger fields. If I wanted to participate in the remaining live tournaments, November would be my best opportunity. I marked November 12th and November 19th on my calendar as weekends where I could venture off to somewhat nearby locations to try and get my second seat for the NHC.
I must have used pencil when I marked off those dates on my calendar, because when Danielle asked me if I would be her partner for Brawl In The Fall on November 12th, I said yes. Later on, KOP would announce that they were holding a handstand push-up clinic on November 19th. I desperately needed help with my handstand push-ups. Fine, erasing the contest on the 19th as well. Guess I'd have to earn that second seat online. If anyone tells you I have a gambling problem, inform them that they're correct, but that my Crossfit addiction may be even worse.
At least I was semi-rewarded for putting off my gambling pursuits. I had no intention of hitting up the Saturday morning WOD prior to the handstand push-up clinic, but after I saw it posted, I couldn't resist. It was one of those "time extended" workouts that have been part of the Open the last few years. If you finished a round under the time limit, your time limit would be extended and you got to attempt another round. Each successive round would have more reps, so you'd have to fit more work into the same window of time while your body became more and more fatigued. That doesn't sound like a ton of fun when you're doing movements at the gym that you don't enjoy, but I'm kinda partial to rope climbs and front squats.
Saturday WOD:
- 2:00 time cap to complete 2 rope climbs (15') and 2 front squats (185/125)
- If you complete the round under the time cap, you get an additional two minutes, but must add 2 more front squats to the work required (so 4 front squats in round two, 6 in round three, etc.).
- You must wait until the two minutes have elapsed in the round you just completed before starting work in the next round.
With the handstand push-up clinic at 11am (and due to my general laziness on the weekend), it made sense to attend the 10am class. Many others had the same idea. Twelve of us were there for fun with Coach Keithie, and a class that size meant potential problems in terms of the rope climbs. As you may know from reading this blog, KOP only has 4 usable ropes for climbing, so setting up this workout for a dozen people would be tough. Luckily, not everyone was interested in climbing the rope (there are scaling options which involve smaller ropes tied to either the pull-up rig or the rig by the rings), so we ended up with a small enough number where we could stagger the start and be okay.
Keithie got us warmed up and explained the details of the workout. Based on my reading of the WOD on the KOP blog, I thought our score was how many minutes we successfully completed in the workout. That left me a little freaked out when I looked at the 9am scores and saw numbers like 26 and 30 listed. How the heck could someone do this workout for a half-hour? Keithie explained that our scores would reflect how many front squats we completed. So a score of 30 meant you completed five full rounds (2+4+6+8+10=30). That sounded much more reasonable. In fact, it even helped set up my goal for the day, which was to reach round six.
Keithie walked us through the movements and let us know that we could do our front squats from a rack or from the floor. I could clean 185 pounds, but that was going to get old quick. And in later rounds, I would almost certainly have to split up my reps, which meant multiple cleans in a round. There was no reason to be a hero with that much weight on the barbell, so I laid claim to a rack. The rack I got was near the front of the gym and my hope was that I could go back and forth between that and the solitary rope in the middle of the gym for this workout. That dream was snuffed out when Steph C, Alona, and a guy who was dropping in for class all said they were using that rope. (Alona would later use the ropes at the far end of the gym as I would have to do.) With my barbell at the front of the gym and the available ropes at the far end of the gym, I'd be getting some extra cardio in during this workout. I wasn't terribly concerned about the extra ground I'd be covering. As Keithie explained how long the initial rounds should take, he called me out and said he'd expect me to finish the first round in about 40 seconds. That meant I would have a minute and twenty seconds for my mid-round commute, at least in the early rounds.
As we got ready to go, we worked out a system where we would run two heats, with the second heat staggered to start one minute after the first heat. Mariana and I made up the second group of rope climbers at the far end of the gym, while Alona and Cline were part of the first group. There was the possibility that all three ropes could still be in use after a minute of a given round, but most athletes trimmed the rope climb segment from two climbs per round to one climb if they began to struggle. The first group got started while Mariana and I patiently awaited our turn to go. After a minute passed, we were able to begin as there was no traffic on the ropes. Everyone in the first heat was on their front squats by that point. I wasn't focused on climbing quickly as much as I was focused on climbing efficiently because I knew I didn't need to go fast in the early rounds. Two minutes seemed like plenty of time, but I knew I'd need some energy stored in reserve for the later rounds. When I came down from my second climb, I calmly walked across the gym to my barbell. I took my time getting it off the rack, did two quick front squats, placed the barbell back on the rack, and looked at the clock. 45 seconds had elapsed. Considering the extra distance I was covering, that seemed right on pace with Keithie's prognostication.
Because I got back to the ropes in less than a minute, I got to watch the first heat begin again. I wanted to see if there was a noticeable decline in their speed while climbing the rope in round two, but there didn't appear to be. That was good. Sometimes I underestimate how much the early rounds will take out of me. This was a little bit of confirmation that I should be alright for round two. When it was time for the second group to go, I made two fast ascents before walking to my barbell and completing 4 front squats. I got through the four reps okay, but I could tell it was beginning to get heavier than I thought it would this early. The clock showed that I completed round two in about 50 seconds.
Round three was where this WOD officially got spicy. The rope climbs still weren't too bad, but when I came back over to my rack for the front squats, I began to struggle. I got through 4 reps before needing to work really hard to hold on to the final two reps. Keithie came over to me and impressed upon me that I needed to keep my elbows up. A big reason I was struggling was due to the fact that my elbows were not as high as they should have been and, as a result, I was tipping forward during the squat. This round took about a minute, but suddenly I was feeling like my remaining rest time might not be enough. Worst of all, doubt had been introduced into my mind. Getting 6 front squats was so hard that I began to wonder whether I could manage 8, even if I broke them up.
During the first three rounds, I watched heat 1 while they did their rope climbs. Beginning in round four, I had no interest in how they were doing. My goal was to finish the next two rounds and I had to focus on recovering and staying positive. The clock hit 7 minutes, which meant Mariana and I could start round four. The rope climbs were definitely a bit slower, but I made sure that my form was solid during each ascent. I came down and speed-walked to my rack. The rope climbs were slower and my squats were certainly going to be slower, so I couldn't take my time traversing the gym. The plan was to go 4 and 4 on the front squats. I got through the first set of 4 and placed the barbell back on the rack. Now it was all about keeping my rest to a minimum. I looked at the clock and saw it had passed a minute. I couldn't spend too much time resting. I grabbed the barbell and pushed through 4 more reps. I'd only get about 35 seconds of rest this time around, but I only had one more round to complete to reach my goal.
I took my time walking back to the rope, trying to recover while knowing that I'd probably have to begin round five as soon as I got back to that end of the gym. I looked back towards the clock when I got to the rope and saw I had a few seconds before I had to climb again. Having gotten better about climbing the rope even when I'm exhausted, I was able to finish the two climbs in about the same amount of time as it took me in the prior round. When I got to my rack, I took some extra time before going into my first set. Those sets of 4 were not fun in the last round and now I was going to have to do two sets of 5 in about a minute if I was planning on extending my time in this workout. The front squats felt the same almost every round: the first two reps weren't too bad, the next two weren't too good, and anything beyond that was done with shaky "dear God, get this thing off of me" form. I was able to stand up my 5th rep and I dumped the barbell on the rack like it was scalding hot. I wanted no part of another 5 reps, but that's all I had left to reach my goal. I looked at the clock and saw I had 30 seconds left. I didn't want to start the next set until I had recovered more, but there was no time for that. I was down to 20 seconds and I had to go now to complete round five. I stepped back from my rack with the barbell and told myself to just keep moving. One, two...shaky number three, shaky number four...and a final rep with some loud grunting to get me through the pain. Goal achieved!
Two seconds later, round 6 began. I was at the wrong end of the gym. I was breathing very heavily. And there was no part of me that believed that finishing round 6 was remotely possible. With that in mind, I took my time getting back to my rope. After my first climb, I took a few seconds extra compared to what I had been taking before going up for the second climb. There was no urgency as I walked back down to my rack. Not a lot of urgency before I put the barbell back on my body. This set was going to be it as far as this workout went. I wanted to dump the barbell after 4 reps, but I made myself hold on for one more. With 5 reps done in round 6, I put the barbell on the rack and watched the clock as the last 10 seconds or so ticked away. Final score: 35 front squats (5 rounds plus 5 reps).
That was rough. I laid on the floor for a minute before cheering on several other people who had scaled the workout, but were putting me to shame by continuing on through the longer, later rounds. Mariana made it through a solid chunk of round 8. Brian S nearly finished round 10! That means he was still working 8 minutes after I had thrown in the towel.
Once the 10am class was complete, people began congregating for the handstand push-up clinic. There was a very large turnout for the clinic, but there were also 6 coaches on hand to help everyone out. We were lined up based on our ability (I found myself in the middle of the spectrum) and then we did some warmup, most of which involved rolling around on the floor in the hollow rock and Superman positions. (Poor Michal was stuck rolling through my sweat over and over again.) We were then divided into three groups:
- The beginner group: practicing kicking up on to the wall and doing handstand holds
- The intermediate group: practicing kipping handstand push-ups with and without abmats
- The advanced group: practicing handstand walks
Giulz and Jill A were in charge of the intermediate group, which consisted of myself, Cline, Actuary Mike, Mariana, and a handful of others. We split into two mini-groups, with Giulz monitoring one group and Jill keeping an eye on the second group. After a little while, the groups would switch coaches. Mariana and I were part of the original group being coached by Giulz. Giulz made sure that we could all kick up on to the wall, then broke down the various aspects of the upside-down kip we'd be practicing. This is where I struggle the most. In Crossfit, it can be difficult remembering all of the tiny details that lead to completing a movement properly. But when you're hanging upside-down and blood is rushing to your head, remembering what you need to do becomes that much harder. Giulz had us test out our kip with two abmats. I can manage a strict push-up with two abmats, so I didn't think I'd have too much difficulty with this depth. You're not covering that much distance to press out of the bottom. I think I messed up my initial attempt, but then I was able to easily do the next few attempts. Mariana wasn't having any problems either.
Giulz wanted us to ditch one of our two abmats for the next round of attempts. This was where I got nervous. One of my goals for 2016 was to get a strict handstand push-up with 1 abmat and I managed to get two of them earlier this year. But 1 abmat typically is where I fail. And since I don't practice the upside-down kip very often, I didn't expect my results to change. I attempted 1 abmat before Mariana did and Giulz talked me through the steps for getting my body in the correct position for the kip. Then I went for it. And somehow, I did everything right. I was both shocked and excited. Part of me also thought it might have been a fluke occurrence, so I was holding off on celebrating until I did it a second time. Mariana went next and she made it look easy. The conga line came back to us again and Giulz walked me through everything as she had done on my first attempt. The first success was no fluke as I kipped and fully pressed out for the second straight time. I was giddy once I was right-side up again. Giulz told me I was going to try it without an abmat on my next attempt. Mariana got her second in a row with 1 abmat on her next turn.
If I was stressed about using only 1 abmat, you can imagine how nervous I was trying to do the real deal. Perhaps my memory is shaky, but I thought I had done one real kipping handstand push-up during a personal training session with Aimee. Now I'm almost certain that I did that handstand push-up with some form of abmat assistance. Because my first attempt without the abmats was pretty terrible. Giulz got me set up the same way she had when I had the 1 abmat, but I didn't come close to pressing out completely. I came off of the wall and asked Giulz how long it took her to go from kipping with 1 abmat to kipping without any.
Giulz: "About nine months."
Crap. That euphoric feeling from a few minutes ago went away quickly. After going from 2 abmats to 1 abmat in less than 10 minutes, I was hoping for an answer like "a couple weeks" or "a month or so". A really hopeful part of me thought that I might accidentally get one during this clinic. But 9 months? I had no shot of getting one today.
Do you know who did? Mariana. I was unsuccessful in persuading her to switch from 1 abmat to no abmats when she went up for her next attempt, but after she made that look easy for a 3rd straight time, Giulz ordered her to go without the abmat for the rest of the clinic. I don't think she found success on her first attempt, but it wasn't long before Mariana managed to press out a legit handstand push-up. A little while later, she did a second one. Guess not everyone needs 9 months. (I probably will need 18 months to keep balance in the universe.)
We switched coaches and I spent most of my time with Jill trying to get my hand and head placement correct as I held my handstand. Jill noticed that my hands and head were too linear. They needed to form more of a triangle if I was going to find success without any abmats. Unfortunately, I think I reached the point of information overload as I couldn't get into this triangle position despite trying over and over again. And if I wasn't in the right setup, I had no chance at completing the handstand push-up. This was going to require lots and lots of practice. Yet another thing I'd have to add to my list.
Monday preview: The ladies of KOP show Grace absolutely no mercy. And at long last, Cline takes her on RX.
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