E.F.D.

Workout date: 1/4/17

As much as I enjoy attending the noon express, there is usually a reason for my early workout.  Sometimes it's a happy hour in the city.  Sometimes it's a visit from my parents.  My trip to the nooner on Wednesday was not because I'd be taking part in 2-for-1 drink specials later in the evening.  My folks were on their way back from Florida, where they had been scouting out warmer places to enjoy their winters.  They would be dropping by later on in the day, so I made plans to work out before they arrived in town.

I was surprised to see Coach Steph for the second day in a row.  After filling in for LC at Dudes After Dark, she was subbing in for Gordy on Wednesday.  There were nine smiling faces at the gym to greet her.  I was relieved to see that we had a sprint WOD on tap because my legs were still sore from all the back squats we had done the night before.  The bad news was that even though this workout would be short, it would also be very leg-focused.  Here's the WOD:

Wednesday's WOD:
20 calories on the assault bike
10 clean and jerks (165/115)
20 calories on the assault bike

First trip on the assault bike?  Probably not going to be all that bad.  But I had a suspicion that the second round was not going to be fun after doing those heavier than normal clean and jerks.  I've been naive in the past when it came to workouts like this one where everything seemed manageable.  Based on how short I knew this WOD would be, I was convinced that the brevity of the workout would get balanced out by some considerable pain.

There was some confusion about the middle portion of this sprint, as someone had written "squat cleans" on the whiteboard.  Apparently Gordy had made the 9:30 class perform squat cleans to make the clean and jerks that much spicier, while the very early classes (5:15, 6:00, and 7:00 am) were allowed to do power cleans.  I had no intention of doing squat cleans because I knew I could power clean 165 pounds and be fine.  Power cleans were going to hurt less and be faster to perform.  As Steph texted Aimee to find out what the real standard for this workout was meant to be, I (along with everyone else) began to hope that the reply would be something along the lines of "of course you don't have to do squat cleans!"

A funny thing happened as we warmed up with our barbells awaiting Aimee's reply.  Perhaps it was the "toasters" (Tim H's term for the heaters in the gym) frying my brain, but I started to talk myself into wanting to do the squat cleans.  I've been trying to do them more and more whenever we are progressing towards a 1RM clean and jerk, so why not get 10 reps in at a medium weight here?  Probably because it's gonna destroy your legs for that second ride on the assault bike, dummy!  Aimee wrote back to Steph and told her that we didn't need to squat clean in the WOD, but if anyone wanted to, the extra fitness wouldn't kill them.  And by the time she replied, I had already signed myself up for extra fitness.

We weren't formally divided up into two heats, but we knew that it was going to be necessary since there weren't enough assault bikes for everyone.  Pam, Rich, and John McHugh decided to be the second heat, so I grabbed a bike and got ready to push through this workout.  To give you an idea of what a fast time would be, Mike Sim had done this workout with power cleans in 3:21.  That sounded about right to me, as I could envision completing the first 20 calories in about a minute, the 10 clean and jerks (with power cleans) in about a minute, and then would plan on a good minute and a half for the last 20 calories due to fatigued legs.  Adding on the squat cleans left me guessing as to what a fast time would be, with my best guess being closer to 5 minutes.

I've learned with the assault bike that if you can build up some speed, the calories accumulate very fast.  It's not like the rower where you can pace yourself.  Explosiveness is rewarded on the bike.  That being said, I didn't want to empty the tank on that first ride, so I rode at about 80-90% of my top speed (another guess).  That was enough power to get me off of the bike in about a minute.  Tim was off of his bike before me, but I was perfectly happy with my pace.

There were no plans in terms of how I'd handle the clean and jerks.  It was pretty much go as fast as my body would let me.  The first rep felt heavy, but I completed it, and after dropping the barbell, I felt good enough to quickly do a second rep.  Suddenly, a plan had been formed.  I was going to do 5 sets just like that.  Only problem was that I needed a decent amount of rest between sets.  I refused to look up at the clock, but it seemed like everyone in my heat was picking up a barbell or dropping one as I tried to get my energy back.  I did another set of two.  On the first rep of my third set, I struggled to stand up out of the squat clean.  I was so relieved to rise with it that I almost forgot to do the jerk.  That would have been an incredibly dumb mistake.  During my break after the third and fourth sets, I heard John yelling, trying to encourage me to keep moving.  I did my best to limit the breaks, but those squat cleans were not much fun.  I finally took care of the 10th clean and jerk.  My reward would be a second turn on the assault bike.

Even though my legs were hurting, I thought I could generate some power as soon as I got back on the bike and make life easier on myself as I tried to accumulate the last 20 calories.  However, I couldn't trick the monitor into believing that my legs were moving quickly.  I was working hard, yet the calories were slowly trickling by one at a time.  Things continued on that way until I got to 11 calories and that was when I decided I was going for broke.  I think I had it in my head that I booked through the last 8 calories in that partner WOD I did with Mariana, so I ought to be able to handle 9.  I made it through 5 before I wanted to slow down, but I dug deep and kept sprinting until I had completed the entire 9 calories.  Final time: 5:51.

That WOD definitely burned.  I crawled over to the side and joined Seba as she tried to recover as well.  It wasn't long before heat two got underway and I shared with Seba what I had learned about assault bikes: that they also serve as fans when other people are on them.  I told Seba she should sit in front of Rich's bike as he pedaled away towards his first 20 calories.  Rich's barbell was directly in front of his bike, so he was concerned Seba would be in the way once he was done with the bike, but I assured him that she would just move over to the front of Pam's bike once he was finished.

I spent most of heat two rooting John on.  He was using 150 pounds for the clean and jerk, which appeared to be right on the borderline as far as how much weight he could handle for this workout.  John has been battling a shoulder issue and I was worried that these heavier clean and jerks could make it worse.  John's a warrior though.  He could have had a broken arm and would have kept going.    He had a couple of shaky jerks before finally failing on one.  The issue wasn't that he couldn't jerk the weight.  The problem seemed to be that he was rushing from the clean into the jerk.  When he took his time after the clean to set up his jerk, his form looked great.  So as he worked through the second half of the clean and jerks, I encouraged him to take his time.  Failed reps are aggravating, so might as well avoid them at all costs.  When John got through his 10th clean and jerk, he headed back to the bike.  Rich was done and Pam was close to finishing up as John began his second trek through 20 calories.  There were several times when he decided to rest by taking his hands off of the handlebars, but I kept reminding him that using his arms was going to help him get to 20 calories quicker.  When he reached the halfway point, I told him that he had to go all out with 5 calories left.  He didn't look like he was enjoying himself on those last 5 calories, but sprint through them he did.

As we gave our scores to Steph, I noticed that she had written John's name as "Mr I" for Mr. Intensity, although it was all upper case, so it looked more like MRI.  That made me snicker given John's shoulder issues and his drive to keep working out with it.  (I have a dark sense of humor.)  He wouldn't be the only one in our class with a nickname written next to their time.  Since I heeded Aimee's advice, I was being listed as EFD (for Extra Fitness Dave).  I doubt that nickname will stick, but I was glad that I chose to push through the squat cleans for this workout, even if it meant a slower time.

Thursday preview: A grueling hero WOD called "The Seven".  It's a workout that I thought I had participated in a long time ago, but couldn't remember the details.  Once the workout begins, I remember why I blocked it out of my memory.