Cardio, Calm, And Cupcakes

Workout date: 11/29/16

The week started off with a triplet and Tuesday's WOD would follow the same format.  Instead of rowing, thrusters, and pull-ups, we'd be taking on burpees, rope climbs, and double unders for 20 minutes.  More precisely, the workout looked like this:

Tuesday's WOD:
20 minute AMRAP
5 burpees
1 rope climb (15')
30 double unders

It was also Michal's birthday.  What does that have to do with the workout?  Well, we used to have this tradition at the gym that if someone showed up on their birthday, the entire gym had to do one burpee for every year of existence that the person of honor was celebrating.  My worst experience with this tradition came in my first year at the gym.  Steve Z showed up to my class on his 67th birthday.  The class did 33 burpees before the WOD and 34 more after it was over.  That may have been the day where I learned to hate burpees.

When I got to the gym, I saw that Michal was there and I instantly became concerned that I'd be doing a bunch of burpees on top of the large amount I'd be forced to do during the workout.  After all, it was Dudes After Dark night and LC was coaching.  There was no chance that she didn't know it was her boo's birthday.  I walked up to Michal and wished her a happy birthday.  Then I asked her if she was taking the 7:30 class.  She let me know that she was only there to lift.  (Potential crisis averted!)  She also let me know that there were cupcakes in the lobby, which is a much better way to celebrate a birthday than burpees will ever be.

As was the case at the last Dudes After Dark, there were only four of us in attendance.  Joining me in class were Ryan A, Christine, and Noel.  No extra burpees and no sharing of ropes for rope climbs?  It was beginning to feel like my birthday.  LC showed us how to do the S-hook and the J-hook on the rope if we were climbing.  She also showed us same scaling options if we were not.  We then went from one type of rope to another, as LC discussed the scaling options for the double unders if we didn't feel like we could move through 30 reps per round.  We could do 15 per round, we could do double under attempts, or we could do 60 single unders.  There was no scaling option for the burpee as all athletes were required to suffer through them equally.

I picked out a spot near the rings to do the workout.  Ryan was going to use the rope near the front of the gym, so I wanted to be as close to the ropes in the back as possible.  I left my jump rope over in that area and meandered over to the main whiteboard.  It seemed like the best scores for the day were in the 11-14 round range.  5 burpees seemed like a reasonable amount to get through each round and I knew I'd be fast on the rope climb.  My score was going to come down to how well I did on the double unders.  This would be a stamina test for me, rather than a test of putting together big sets.  Sure, I might be able to string 30 reps in a row, but that wasn't as important as being able to keep my form in later rounds.  I came up with a goal of 12 rounds for this workout, so that meant I'd need to do 360 double unders while gradually becoming more and more fatigued.  Forget unbroken sets of 30.  I needed to find a way to stay calm and repeatedly get through medium-sized sets as this workout wore on.

Early on in this workout, things went pretty well.  I had my back to the clock as I did the burpees and the double unders, so I had no clue how much time was passing by as I completed each round.  All I knew was that I was breathing heavily, but trying to stay in constant motion.  The double under sets tended to be in the 12-15 rep range (unless I messed up very early on).  On the burpees, I did 5 good reps in the first couple of rounds before only managing 2-3 and then crawling through the last 2-3 in later rounds.  The rope climb was not a problem.  At times, I needed to catch my breath after the last burpee, so I didn't go right into the rope climb, but once I was on the rope, I got up and down it very efficiently.

At the end of my fourth round, curiosity got the best of me.  As I slid over a bead on my mini-abacus, I glanced up at the clock.  I was 7 minutes in.  It felt like 12 minutes to me, which is why I couldn't help but look.  The double unders were starting to become problematic and I thought I had fallen well behind the pace I needed for 12 rounds.  Turns out I was close to the pace I needed for 12 full rounds.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that I had no chance of keeping up this pace for 13 more minutes.  I hit the deck and began doing my fifth round of burpees.

I was just beginning my sixth round of double unders when LC let us know that 10 minutes had passed.  12 rounds wasn't going to happen, but 11 full rounds was still in play.  I just had to keep pecking away.  I made sure I did at least 2 fast burpees each round before resorting to crawling.  The rope climbs were still going smoothly.  The double unders were not.  I was getting tired enough that I was voluntarily stopping sets to take a break.  I think I had just finished my 7th round of burpees when Michal came over to visit me with a cupcake in her hand.  I needed a breather before climbing the rope.  We had the following exchange:

Birthday girl: Would you like a cupcake?
Me: <glaring>
Birthday girl: Okay, but they're good <takes a bite from the cupcake>
Me: <glaring>

I was being tortured with dessert while I was struggling to finish.  It was cruel.  I was already struggling plenty without thoughts of how good a cupcake would taste in my head.

As I hit the last five minutes of the workout, it became apparent that I was not finishing 11 full rounds.  I began to worry about completing 10.  My double unders were falling apart round by round as I struggled to remain calm.  The burpees and the rope climb were causing me to breathe heavily and then I somehow had to calm everything down as I jumped rope.  It wasn't an easy transition.  In these last few rounds, I struggled to get my 30 double unders started.  Once I did get them started, I did okay, needing two sets for most rounds.  I just wasted a lot of time getting into rhythm.

I had over a minute remaining when I got to the double unders for the tenth time.  I felt certain that I'd finish 10 rounds at this point.  It wasn't going to take me well over a minute to get 30 reps.  Or so I believed.  I tried several times to get that first double under of the round, but I kept hitting myself with the rope.  I took a break, tried to calm down, then went after it again.  Still no luck.  LC told us there was one minute left and I started to panic a bit.  Blowing it at the end and not finishing 10 rounds was going to royally piss me off.  I took my time setting up and started again.  This time I got a big chunk of the 30 reps.  One more decent set was all that was keeping me from finishing 10 rounds.  I took a few seconds to compose myself, then started again.  Success!  I dropped my rope as LC told us we had 20 seconds to go.  I had time to get 5 more burpees done if I hurried.  I dropped down and popped up for each rep knowing the end was near.  As I popped up from my 5th burpee, Rachel began the 3-2-1 countdown.  Final score: 10+5.

This was the type of workout that I need more of at the gym.  It was heavy on the cardio.  It tested some movements that I need to improve on, while also throwing me a bone by including one movement that I'm good at.  And after a job well done, I was rewarded with dessert.  Can't beat that.

Thursday preview: After a rare sick day away from the gym, I kick off the last month of the year by hitting up the Thursday 7:30 class to test my 1RM snatch.  The cash out features tire sled drags, which are much worse than you would imagine.