Early Checkout

Workout date: 11/23/16

(Happy New Year!  Yes, I realize I fell far behind on my Crossfit chronicles.  Haven't even made it to Thanksgiving yet.  It's like someone putting up their Christmas lights before Halloween, only the exact opposite.  My bad.  I'm working on getting my shit together and getting this blog back up-to-date.  There will even be a 2016-in-review post, but it's probably a week away.)

It seemed pre-destined that my workout on Wednesday would not be one of my finest.  Each of the last two days, I had taken part in a workout where I got home with my lungs on fire.  I didn't sleep well due to the uncontrollable coughing that plagued my slumber.  And I wasn't giving myself much recovery time from a late Tuesday night WOD by showing up to the noon express class on Wednesday.  We were spending Thanksgiving at my brother's house, so I wanted to get on the road as early as possible with Wednesday commonly known as the worst travel day of the year.  (Note: Over the years, I've begun referring to my two best friends, Brendan and Shaymus, as my brothers.  They were both part of my Thanksgiving plans.  I was spending the holiday with Brendan and working out with Shaymus on Thanksgiving morning.)

Coach Gordy had a dozen of us in his class, but it wasn't the usual noon crew.  Tim H and Joe M weren't there, nor were Denise and Erika L.  Looking for Pam and Dana?  Or JP and Mike Sim?  Wouldn't find them at this nooner either.  Instead it seemed to be a mix of folks who didn't want to get up early for the 6am class and afternoon athletes like myself who might have been trying to get a head start on the day.  The twelve of us had shown up to take on the WOD described below:

Wednesday WOD:
3 rounds for time
30 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'9')
30 KB swings (53/35)
15 power snatches (75/55)
10 bar muscle-ups
*Time cap: 20 minutes
**Must rest 2 minutes between rounds

The wall balls, the KB swings, and the power snatches were all elements that I could handle, but the bar muscle-ups were going to stop me from doing this workout RX.  I'd need to scale the bar muscle-ups with the only question being what scale I would use.  In recent workouts, the coaches have had me do either bar muscle-up attempts (with or without a band) or chest-to-bar pull-ups.  My favorite scale is jumping bar muscle-ups using a box, but it's been so long since I'd done those that I wasn't even thinking about them as a scaling option until Gordy recommended them for our class.  No complaints here.  I decided that I wanted to challenge myself with the 13" box today, but I also brought over a 25 pound plate that I could add to the box if I needed a higher starting point to jump from.

We warmed up on each of the movements that we'd be doing in the WOD and I found myself next to Olan.  I don't get to work out with Olan very much as he tends to come to early afternoon classes (like the 4:30), but I've always gotten along with him and I was looking forward to trying to stay with him in this class.  Olan was one of the names I used to look for on the whiteboard each day as someone who would put up a time/score where I'd have to work really hard to match it.  I couldn't recall whether Olan was good at the movements programmed in this workout, but I'd find out soon enough.

Gordy told us that we were about to begin and my thought process from the start was that I needed to break up my sets in the first round while attempting to keep my breaks short.  If I did that, I'd be alright.  On a normal day, I can string 30 wall balls or 30 KB swings.  Probably could string 15 power snatches if I felt 100%.  But I wasn't feeling 100% and I knew before the clock started that I was going to have grind through this one and hope for the best.  We began with the wall balls and I did 20 reps before letting the ball drop.  Took a short break, then completed my remaining 10 reps.  Everyone around me did their 30 wall balls uninterrupted, but I was only a few seconds behind them in getting to the KB.

I was hoping that I could do a similar split of 20-10 with the KB swings, but I didn't make it.  I felt sluggish already and had to work pretty hard to get through my first set of 16 reps.  I wanted to get beyond 15 reps so that some part of me believed I could finish up the KB swings in two sets.  Despite taking a fairly long break, I couldn't hold on for 14 reps in set #2.  I got through 8 reps and placed the KB back on the floor.  One more break before taking care of the last 6 reps.  The struggle was real.  The rest of the class had moved on to their snatches, with some of the firebreathers churning out bar muscle-ups already.

My lungs weren't burning like they had been on Monday and Tuesday, but they were working overtime as I got to my first round of snatches.  75 pounds was light for me, yet I could only manage 3 reps before I dropped the barbell and gasped for air.  Having only managed 3 reps on my first set, I got it in my head that all my sets should be 3 reps.  So I did four more sets like that while keeping my breaks relatively short.

I trudged over to my pull-up bar and told myself that there was a two-minute break in my immediate future.  Just needed to manage 10 jumping bar muscle-ups.  Sadly, this would take a lot more time than I imagined.  I got my first rep before the bar rejected me on rep #2.  I barely got over the bar on my second try at rep #2, but it was good enough to leave me 8 reps from a break.  Rep #3 from the 13" box would never come to fruition.  I gave it three tries, but I didn't have enough spring left in my legs to get over the bar.  That was the point where I had to add the plate to the box.  It only added about 2 inches to my starting height, but that was the difference between success and failure.  The remaining 8 reps were difficult, but I didn't fail again.  Round 1 took me more than eight and a half minutes.

While I was getting two minutes of mandatory rest, I watched nearly everyone else continue on with their second round.  Olan hadn't started his second round yet, but his mandatory rest period was nearly over.  It felt strange sitting there, watching others work as the clock ticked away.  As much as I needed the rest, part of me wanted to get going again.  I'd have just over 9 minutes to complete my second round.  If I wanted even a sniff of round three, I needed to finish round #2 about 90 seconds faster than I completed round #1.

I should have spent that two-minute break relaxing, but I probably ended up wasting energy as I freaked out about the clock.  When it was time to work again, I did 16 reps with the wall ball (gotta pretend I'll finish off the last 14 in the next set!).  That plan didn't work with the first set of KB swings and it didn't work here either.  I only did 9 reps before the ball hit the floor.  One more short break and then I wrapped up reps 26-30.  I went directly to the KB and tried to get at least 10 reps, as I was certain I'd need three sets (hopefully not more) to complete 30 reps.  I grunted my way through 13 reps before putting the KB down.  As I rested, I noticed Olan wasn't back to his barbell for the power snatches.  I had made up some ground on him.  I had felt lousy from the very start of this WOD, but now I had something to push me to the end: I could still catch Olan!

My next set of KB swings was 10 reps long and it was during this set that Olan moved on to his barbell.  With my newfound motivation, I was able to start my 3rd set shortly after the 2nd set ended. Finished up the last seven reps and got to my barbell.  As soon as I got there, I did 3 reps, continuing my pattern from the first round.  But sets of 3 weren't going to pull me closer to Olan.  I had to find more.  The next time I placed my hands on the barbell, I did my best Mr. Intensity impression.  Grunts weren't going to be enough.  There was some full on yelling as I held on through 7 reps.  When I let go of the barbell, I looked over at Olan and saw that he was still at his barbell.  If I hurried, I could catch him now.  I got back to my barbell, determined to finish the last 5 in a row.  This time, things went as planned.  As I headed to the pull-up bar, I watched Olan complete his last power snatch.  I had caught all the way up!

I took a quick look at the clock and saw that I didn't have a lot of time if I was going to finish round 2 under 18 minutes.  If I couldn't do that, the workout would be over due to the mandatory two-minute rest between rounds and the 20 minute time cap.  I got on to my box and did 2 reps before I needed a break.  My gas tank was closing in on empty.  I desperately didn't want to fail on a rep at this point because I thought it would crush my spirit.  I had done a lot of good work in this round and I needed to complete it.  I tried to keep up a solid pace, but when I needed a breather, I stopped and took one.  With two reps left, I pushed with what I had left and finished the round.  A glance at the clock let me know I wasn't fast enough with my jumping bar muscle-ups.  It read 18:05.  The time cap was almost a full two minutes away, but I wasn't allowed to do any more work.  I was done earlier than everyone else in the class.  Final time: 21:25 (20 minute time cap plus one second for each of the 85 reps not completed).

My sprint through the power snatches got me on pace with Olan, but he pulled ahead of me again on the jumping bar muscle-ups.  He was able to finish about 20 seconds before me, which gave him close to 15 seconds to participate in round three, where he was able to complete 7 reps with the wall ball.  In the end, I couldn't keep up with him, but it was a minor miracle that I only ended up 7 reps behind him.  My second round was over a minute faster than the first, something that rarely happens in my workouts, especially those where I'm feeling sluggish.  That was the silver lining from a not-so-wonderful performance.  My reward?  Turkey and pie in NY.

Thanksgiving/Monday preview: A recap of my turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning, an update on whether I actually gained 5 pounds during Thanksgiving weekend, and my final opportunity this year to finish Jackie in under 10 minutes.