Noodle Armz No More

Workout date: 11/21/16

My weigh-in on Monday was an important one because it was coming right before Thanksgiving.  Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, mainly because it is socially acceptable to eat the amount of food that I would like to consume on a daily basis.  At the beginning of this "weight-loss program", I accounted for the fact that I was probably going to put 5 pounds back on during Thanksgiving, so it was important that I do well the week before I gorged myself.  The past weekend was also one of the rare ones where I didn't have plans, so I was able to avoid alcohol and eating poorly.  Let's see what the scale says:

Original weigh-in:  213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in:  209.2 pounds
This week's weigh-in:  207.4 pounds

Hey now!  That's what I was hoping to see.  Now I could go into the holiday comfortable that I would not be over my original weigh-in when I stepped on the scale next Monday.  (Okay, there was still a chance I'd tip the scales beyond 213.2 after my turkey, mashed potatoes, and pie indulgence, but it would require an all-star performance on my part.)

Monday's WOD was another benchmark finale, one that I used to be very fond of, but now don't get all that psyched about.  We were taking on Grace (30 clean and jerks for time).  Why had Grace lost its luster for me?  Mainly because I think I'm nearing my ceiling in terms of how fast I could possibly do the workout.  For the longest time, I was trying to eclipse 3 minutes.  Then I got my time down to 2:38.  Earlier this year, I trimmed that to 2:35.  Could I go lower than that?  I suppose.  But I have a hard time believing that I could trim more than 5-10 seconds off of that time.  And Grace is a workout where you're going all out from start to finish.  Afterwards you feel like someone beat you up.  It's difficult to get too excited about the prospect of feeling like crap just to improve your best time by a few seconds.  There are so many other workouts where I could trim minutes off of my time if I got better at Crossfit.  That seems much more appealing.

With all of that said, I did show up to the gym on Monday night excited about the workout.  Not because I'd be doing Grace.  No, I was excited because there was a good chance that I'd be present for Cline's first RX attempt at Grace.  Cline has a much saner approach to Crossfit workouts than I do.  He progresses on to higher weights once he masters a workout at a lesser weight.  When I look at a workout, I tend to think about what the highest weight is that I could use which would pose a stern challenge, but not leave me in a spot where I couldn't finish the workout.  If the coach gives me a time domain for the WOD, I incorporate that as well.  With a mindset like that, you can see why I end up in the middle of the pity circle more often than most.  I am trying to incorporate the Cline model a bit more into my workout approach, but it takes more discipline than I typically exhibit.

Coach Giulz told the 6:30 class to get lined up for the warmup and I began to worry that Cline was not coming in for Grace.  However, he arrived on Dave Standard Time and joined the other 12 of us as we began warming up.  We did some typical stretches going up and down the gym before Giulz told us to grab a partner.  I probably should have tried to get Cline as my partner right from the start, but Actuary Mike had asked him to be partners before I made my way over to him.  I ended up being partners with Anvesh for the trust exercise we'd be doing next.  One person would sit on the floor with their arms extended out to their sides as the other person hopped over their arms and legs.  Then once that was complete, the person on the floor would form an arch for their partner to crawl under.  It was a fun game, but probably more of a time killer than anything because the WOD was so short.

We were then told to get our barbells so that we could warm up on the clean and jerk.  We did this part individually before Giulz told us to get back with our partner for the two heats of Grace that we'd be doing.  I looked for Anvesh, but he was now working with Phani.  I'd been ditched!  I started looking around, trying to figure out who Phani's jilted partner.  Christine was not part of our class, but she was paying attention and pointed me towards Erik.  Erik (like me) seemed a bit confused about why he no longer had a partner, but he was cool partnering up with me.

Erik asked me if I wanted to go first.  Typically I'm not much of a "go first if I can go second" kinda guy, but my mood that evening was one where I just wanted to get the workout done.  I agreed and put 135 pounds on my barbell.  Giulz made sure heat #1 was ready and we were off.  My game plan was the same as it had been on my last few Grace attempts: do one big set, then switch to singles the rest of the way.  I held on through 7 reps, before switching over to singles.  After my 14th rep, I heard Giulz yell "one minute in".  That sounds like a good pace.  I was nearly halfway done and only 60 seconds had passed.  I could set a new PR, right?

Not really.  Even at that point, I knew 2:35 wasn't happening.  I was trying to keep moving through each rep, but I didn't feel as though I had a lot of energy.  There was no motivation to try and find a higher gear.  I really just wanted the workout to be over with.  I picked stuff up and put stuff down.  Kept doing that until I reached 30 reps.  I looked up at that point and saw my time on the clock.  Final time: 2:39.

That wasn't bad all things considered.  I thought I'd end up closer to 2:50 because I could feel my pace slowing down and I wasn't feeling motivated.  I think the difference is that I'm getting used to moving on to the next rep in a workout with less rest than I used to take.  I don't actually notice that I'm taking less rest while I'm in the midst of the workout, but that's the only explanation for the times I've ended up with on some of my recent workouts.

I was even more surprised by my time when I counted for Erik during his heat.  He was using 115 pounds for the WOD and moved fluidly from rep to rep, although he didn't do a large set at the beginning like I had done.  He didn't take much of a break anywhere from rep #1 to rep #30, finishing Grace in a time of 3:14.  It gave me a greater appreciation for how I had done, not in terms of my raw time, but in terms of recognizing that I must have kept my breaks between reps to an absolute minimum.

The bummer in all of this was that I did not get to witness Cline's RX attempt.  I did get to see him afterwards and he told me his time was 3:59.  We're always told before doing Grace that we should try and keep our times under 5 minutes.  Cline took it under 4 minutes on his very first attempt using 135 pounds.  (My first RX Grace attempt: 5:38.)  Back in January, Cline had started a Facebook group called "Noodle Armz", where he led a group of us eager to improve our upper body strength.  It seems pretty clear that Cline has been successful in that pursuit.  He might need to call his next group "Gun Show".

He wasn't the only one taking on Grace using RX weight for the first time, as Jenna did so as well.  She was in heat two, so I got to root her on after Erik finished.  She probably didn't care about that suggested time of 5 minutes, but she pushed through the last few reps and stayed under that threshold by 10 seconds.

With Grace complete, we all had 20 minutes to find a 1RM clean and jerk.  My goal here was simple. I had done a jerk of 235 pounds.  I had done a squat clean of 235 pounds at Brawl In The Fall.  I just needed to put those pieces of the puzzle together.  I had been sitting at a PR of 225 pounds for a while.  Maybe today would be the day I could move past that mark.  I wanted to have plenty of time between attempts, plus I figured I might need several attempts at 235, so I started at 165.  That wasn't very difficult as exhibited by the fact that I power cleaned my barbell to get it up to my shoulders.  After I completed the jerk, Giulz asked me if I was going to squat clean going forward and I let her know I would.  I should have done that from the start, but this was probably another sign that I wasn't 100% into the class.

I moved on to 195 and handled the squat clean and the jerk.  Next up was 215, a weight where I needed to do everything right if I was going to complete the lift.  I did not do everything right.  When I went to squat clean 215, I didn't swing my elbows through fast enough and I couldn't stand up with the weight.  There's no jerk if you can't clean it first!  I was kinda frustrated since my goal was still 235, but at least I knew what the problem was.  I took a few minutes to gather myself before I tried again.  Got my elbows through the second time, but I still had to work to stand the weight up.  Once I was standing, I felt confident that I could jerk the weight.  I took my time and executed the jerk properly.  I'd be moving on to 235 for my next lift.

I probably knew from the lift at 215 that 235 was pretty ambitious.  225 might have made more sense, but I didn't want to tie my PR.  230 would have been a better choice for me, but I was stubborn because I had gotten 235 for the clean and jerk separately.  I should have been able to put them together.  That wasn't happening on this night.  I tried to squat clean 235 four separate times.  Each time I got underneath the barbell and each time I wasn't fast enough to get my elbows through.  No clean = no jerk.  Final score: 215.

Both parts of the workout were somehow disappointing and encouraging at the same time.  I didn't do as well as I thought I could, but both results were decent considering the fact that early on I knew I didn't have my A game.  Maybe my focus was on the Thanksgiving turkey already.  Before I'd get to enjoy that feast, there were three more workouts I needed to complete.

Tuesday preview: A partner WOD at Dudes After Dark.  More than a half hour of pain awaits, but my partner carries me through most of it.