When I got home after Grace on Monday night, I noticed how much my lungs were burning. Then I spent a good portion of the evening coughing. In Crossfit, there is a phenomenon known as "Fran Cough". For those with the ability to do pull-ups and thrusters efficiently, Fran becomes a sprint workout much like Grace is. Upon completion, most people experience the symptoms that I just described: burning lungs and a hard-to-control cough. As someone who often gets things mixed up at the gym, it only seemed appropriate that I developed Fran Cough after doing Grace.
The cough had gone away by the time Dudes After Dark rolled around the next night. LC had four people in her class: myself, Neil, Rob C, and Mariana. It's always nice when you have an even number of people for a partner WOD and that was exactly what was in store for us. Here's the layout for Tuesday night's WOD:
Tuesday WOD:
Partner WOD (no condition that partners must share the work equally)
80 thrusters (115/75)
80 pull-ups
80 squat cleans (115/75)
80 burpee box jump overs
80 calories on the assault bike
I first want to point out that my reading comprehension skills have taken a nose dive. Or maybe I've developed some sort of visual allergy to the word "burpee". Because when I read this workout on Monday night, I was actually excited about the box jump overs. It wasn't until LC walked us through each element of the workout that I realized a burpee was involved. That movement was now dead to me. I'm not sure anything else in the workout was all that alluring either. The thruster weight was moderate, but 40 reps at that weight (assuming we split the work equally) was a lot. There is no need to go over my sucktitude when it comes to pull-ups. (Note: Yes, sometimes I make up my own words, especially when the English language has failed to adequately describe my shortcomings.) The squat cleans were now my new favorite element of the workout (foreshadowing: not for long!). If I got through 55 squat cleans at 155 during JJ, I should be able to handle 40 squat cleans at 115, right? I've already discussed how the burpees stained the box jump over segment. Finally, there was the assault bike. I tend to like the assault bike more than most, but at the end of a very long workout like this one, there was little chance that this bike ride would be pleasant.
With only four of us in class, you wouldn't think it would be difficult to form teams, but we didn't split up into pairs until right before the workout began. The three guys all wanted to do the workout RX, so we all had reason to want to pair up with another guy. That being said, I was more than happy to work out with Mariana as well. I'm not entirely sure she wanted to work out with me though, especially once she found out that I wasn't good at pull-ups. She claimed that she wasn't so good at pull-ups either and it might be better if she was paired up with someone who could do them more proficiently. My counter-argument was that having a partner who sucked at pull-ups would give her more time to rest as I was almost certainly going to be doing singles for the majority of that segment. I doubt that was the most convincing of arguments, but Mariana and I did end up as partners while Neil and Rob formed the other team.
Because this was a longer workout, we didn't spend a lot of time on the warmup. We got right into this beast. Mariana and I decided to do 5 thrusters at a time. She led things off for our team. When it was my turn, I got through the first set of 5 without much struggle. Three sets later, that was no longer the case. I didn't have to break up the sets, but the last two reps of each set felt much harder than the first three. I began hoping that Mariana would take more time during her sets so I'd get a break, but she kept on blitzing through her 5 reps before dropping her barbell and giving me the "your turn" look. I did my best to keep up with her, but my pace definitely slowed down. I was able to get through the final 4 sets without having to break up the reps, but those were some painful thrusters towards the end.
Now that I was nice and exhausted, it was time to do a ton of pull-ups. This should go well! Mariana held up her end of our partnership by doing 5 pull-ups. I wasn't going to be able to manage that, at least not at first. I did 3 singles, then asked Mariana to continue on. She was reliable in doing 4-5 reps at a time. I gradually increased my reps per set. Don't ask me why I remember this, but I completed a set that got us to 46 reps and I realized that I had done 22 reps at that point while Mariana had done 24. That wasn't so bad. When we reached 80 reps, the split was probably more along the lines of 45-35, but I didn't totally drop the ball when we got to the pull-up bar, despite the fact that I was hurting when I got there.
My primary focus now was to not screw over Mariana with a massive amount of extra reps. However, when we got to the squat cleans, I did look over and take notice of where Neil and Rob were. They had finished up at the pull-up bar right around the same time we did. Though I wasn't interested in racing them, I did suddenly have the urge to keep up with them. I felt like I was fading already and we weren't halfway through the workout. If they pulled away from us, I'd feel like it was my fault. Little did I know that my lack of endurance would be the reason we'd pull away from them rather than fall behind them.
I completed the last couple pull-ups for our team, so Mariana got us started on the squat cleans. She had her 5 reps done before I was even set up at my barbell. No break for the tired guy! I slowly did 5 squat cleans. I thought this might be the point where I'd catch my second wind. Instead, each rep made me feel worse than before. I was able to hang in there through 3 sets, but when it was my turn for the 4th set, I wasn't ready to go. I desperately needed a longer break. Mariana looked over and casually asked me if I'd like her to do another set. Yes please! Since she had just witnessed that her partner was in bad shape, I figured Mariana would take her time, but the squat cleans were not posing much of a challenge to her. Five more reps were in the books and it was my turn to go. I couldn't skip my turn again, so I started doing some squat cleans. I did 3 before begging for mercy again. By the time we got to 80 reps, Mariana had probably done close to 50 for our team. I had done less of my share here than I had done on the pull-up bar, but Mariana's fast work with the barbell led to us establishing a decent-sized lead on our all-male counterparts.
I expected my downfall to continue at the burpee box jumps, but somehow things got better there. Mariana did a set of 5, then I did a set of 5. She did a set of 6, I did a set of 6. There was a set of 8. I think there was even a set of 10 along the way. Whatever Mariana completed, I was determined to match. She had already carried enough of the load for our team. Even if I wasn't moving all that fast, the least I could do was provide Mariana some additional rest after doing all those extra pull-ups and squat cleans. We got to 68 reps after a set that I had done and I let Mariana know she only needed to do 6 more reps. She did her 6, I did my 6, and only the assault bike remained.
We didn't discuss how long we'd each stay on the assault bike. I stood behind the bike as Mariana pedaled away. When her pace began to slow, I told her that I'd jump on the bike. She had completed about 10 calories. I pedaled hard as soon as I got on the bike knowing that when I was tired, Mariana was there to take over. In an individual workout, I'd worry about going this hard and running out of gas before I hit the number of calories required. With a teammate, I had no such concerns. I did about 12 calories before switching places. Once I was off of the bike, I knelt on the floor. I was just to the left of the bike as Mariana started pedaling. Within seconds, I realized this was the place to be. The front wheel acted like a fan and it was cooling me off as I tried to recover. When Mariana was done, I insisted that she spend her break near the front wheel. When Neil and Rob got to their bike, I shared the same advice. Why not let your teammate accumulate calories and cool you off at the same time?
Mariana got off of the bike after her final sprint and I got on the bike to find that we needed 8 calories. Maybe the fan was just what I needed. Maybe the finish line was so near that my second wind finally kicked in. I'm not sure what it was, but I did those last 8 calories faster than any 8 calories I've ever done on the assault bike. Final time: 35:10.
That might not sound like a very good time, but it was in line with many of the other times that teams put up earlier in the day when they took on this workout. Neil and Rob weren't too far behind us and we cheered them on as they finished up work on their assault bike. And when we all had recovered, the four of us (and LC) convened to take a selfie. After seeing the final product, Mariana would say that Neil and I looked like serial killers. She may have a point.
Neil and I need to work on our selfie game
As was the case the day before, the WOD ended with me having a burning sensation in my lungs and I spent the night coughing my brains out. Not sure if that is how fitness is supposed to work, but when I finally drifted off to dreamland, I rested with the knowledge that I gave it everything I had during this workout.
Wednesday preview: Before heading north for Thanksgiving, I make my way to the noon express class for a workout where I get done early. That sounds more positive than it actually was.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.