Looks Naked In Here

Workout date: 1/6/17

Friday was likely going to be my last workout of the week.  (I tend to think of the "gym week" as starting on Monday and ending on Sunday.)  I had come to KOP each of the last four days, with 3 of the 4 WODs being on the tough end of the spectrum.  It isn't like I've been working out on the weekends much anyways, but this week in particular had me thinking that a couple days of rest would do my body good.  So why not make that rest period a little longer by hitting up an early class on Friday?  Sounds like I should stop by the noon express!

I got to the gym and found eight classmates there.  As I begun chatting with a few of them, I noticed that something seemed different about the gym.  It took me a second to figure out what it was.  Then my eyes widened.  It looked as though the entire back wall of the gym had been painted bright white. Only 15 hours had passed since I finished up about 70% of The Seven.  Did someone really come in and paint the entire back wall in the middle of the night?  I had to keep staring at it before it dawned on me what used to be there.  The back wall had been covered with shirts from other Crossfit gyms.  When they removed the shirts, the covered area appeared bright white because the shirts had blocked that section of the wall from the discoloration seen on the other walls in the gym.  The transformation was kind of startling.  Coach Aimee explained that the shirts had been removed because a new gym logo would soon be inhabiting the space on the back wall.  Aimee told us that it was gonna "look naked in here" until the new logo was added.

Once the talk about the wall died down, Aimee went over the very simple workout that we'd be doing this Friday afternoon:

Friday's WOD:

30 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')

2,000 meter row

30 wall balls

If this workout was done with no hiccups, it would take 10 minutes.  Each set of 30 consecutive wall balls would take a minute.  2,000 meters at a nice even pace would take about 8 minutes.  That was in a perfect world.  I felt confident I could do the initial set of 30 wall balls without interruption.  I wasn't so sure how the row would go after a big set of wall balls.  The biggest concern would be that final set of wall balls.  There was no doubt in my mind that my legs were going to be weakened from the first two parts of the WOD.  Could I string another set of 30 wall balls?  If not, could I stop myself from taking long breaks in the home stretch of the workout?

We didn't need too much time to warm up as this workout didn't have a lot of technical elements.  Aimee challenged us to maintain our pace over the course of the 2,000 meter row, something I was likely to struggle with.  If I rowed 2,000 meters in 8 minutes, my pace for each 500 meter segment would probably have the following pattern: 1:50, 2:00, 2:10, 2:00.  I decided to take a chance and go a bit slower on the first 500 meters in an attempt to maintain that 2:00 pace the whole way.  There was a chance it might backfire on me, resulting in a slower overall time, but at some point I need to learn to hold a steady pace on the rower for a long period of time.

The class was filled with people that I could chase.  Rich A, Pam, Mike Sim, and Rob C could all challenge that 10 minute mark in this workout.  That was a good thing.  The more people I had pushing me, the better.  Aimee made sure we were ready to go and then had us get started on the wall balls.  I strung all 30 of mine, but Pam was still the first one to the rower.  I was right behind her with Rich, Mike, and Rob right behind me.

I knew the 2,000 meters was going to feel like a long row, so I tried to settle in with slow, hard pulls.  I knew from the start that I had enough energy to row faster than I was going, but that pace wasn't going to hold up for the duration of this row.  A nice, steady row for me was 1,000 meters in 4 minutes, so my mini-goal was to complete each of the first two 500 meter segments in about 2 minutes each.  At the 500 meter mark, I was right on target.  At the 1,000 meter mark, I was still holding strong as 4:00 and 1,000 meters clicked almost simultaneously on the monitor.  The third quarter of any workout that I do tends to be the toughest for me, so I had to work harder to try and keep the 500 meter pace at 2:00.  Even the extra effort wasn't enough as the third 500 meter segment took about 2:05.  My final 500 meters likely would have been close to that split if I didn't put together a final sprint on the rower.  I stopped the timer at 8:05, so I was able to squeeze out one more segment at a 2 minute pace.

I was second to the rower.  I was second off of the rower.  Rich was ahead of me now, with Pam, Rob, and Mike completing their row.  I had been concerned about how weak my legs were going to be when I got off of the rower, but my legs turned out not to be the problem.  I used my arms a lot in that last 500 meters of the row and I discovered that I didn't want to hold them over my head for 30 straight wall balls.  After 6 reps, I let my ball drop.  I knew everyone on my tail was going to sail on by me if I took any sort of real break, so I shook out my arms and got back on the wall balls.  Five reps later, my ball was on the ground again.  I got mad at myself while I shook out my arms, then got back on it.  A bit better as I made it through 8 in a row this set.  I could see Rob next to me and he was still working on the wall balls.  He had definitely broken up his 30 reps too, so there was a chance that I could still finish ahead of him.  I grabbed my ball and did reps 20-25.  I did the same routine where I shook out my arms, but didn't really take a break.  I got through 3 reps of my last 5 when Rob finished.  Three seconds later, I was done too.  Final time: 11:05.

That wasn't horrible.  I wish I didn't break up the last round of wall balls into 5 sets.  I was happy that I didn't really take breaks between those sets as I have the tendency to do.  I just took a second to make my arms feel better then got right back on it.  Rich flirted with 10 minutes for his time.  Mike and Pam probably strung all 30 wall balls at the end.  If they broke it up, it couldn't have been more than two sets.  I had my chance to finish ahead of Rob, but I didn't hold on for those last 11 reps.  That's the type of situation where my mental strength needs to improve.

You would think the last thing I'd want to do after the workout was handstand push-ups.  After all, my arms were tired out and I had struggled through a bunch of them the night before.  But I already know that handstand push-ups are going to be my 2017 obsession, that one movement I'm so sick and tired of not being able to do that I keep practicing it until I become semi-competent at it.  I was talking with Pam for about 10 minutes before I decided to give in to the obsession.  I grabbed a large mat for the floor near the wall and 2 abmats for my head.  My intention wasn't to do a lot of reps.  It was to work on that powerful leg kick that you need to finish each rep.  I have two problems when I do the leg kick:

1. I don't bring my knees down as far as I should.  The people that make the most out of their handstand push-up kip draw their knees down close to their chest.  From the feedback I've gotten, it sounds like I only bring my knees about half as far down as I could.
2. I don't explode out of that bottom position.  Laying upside down on your head while in the fetal position simply feels weird.  It's going to take some time before I feel comfortable in it.  The idea of producing power from that position is gonna require some getting used to.  Gravity is definitely not my friend in this endeavor.

I set up my abmats and kicked up on to the wall.  I slowly lowered myself down and then drove my legs up as hard as I could.  Success!  Did another one, then came off of the wall.  Those didn't feel too tough, although to be fair, the two abmats greatly decrease the range of motion you need to cover with the kip.  I tossed one of the abmats to the side.  By increasing the range of motion, I'd need a more explosive leg kick and that was the whole point of this practice.  I lowered myself to the abmat, drew my knees down, then kicked up.  Got it!  I went for a second rep and did that one properly too.  If I could do two consecutive reps that well with 1 abmat, then why couldn't I do any without abmats?

I tossed the other abmat to the side.  I was now attempting legit handstand push-ups.  This was the stage where I failed during the handstand push-up clinic, leading me to wonder whether I had ever done one of these.  I kicked up on to the wall and gingerly dropped my head to the mat on the floor.  I imagine that this part of the process doesn't hurt as much for those athletes with hair, but as a bald guy I can tell you it is not pleasant hitting a barely cushioned floor with your head.  I made sure my hands were where I wanted them before drawing my knees down as far as I could before I began to feel unsteady.  I shot my legs upwards with as much energy as I could muster.  My body moved up to a point where I only had to press out a little bit with my arms.  I pressed out the rest of the rep.  As I hung there upside down, I had one of those "hey, did anyone see that?" moments.  That was either my first handstand push-up in years or (more likely) ever.

I was still upside down and stunned when I went for a second rep.  The leg explosion was not as strong and I couldn't press out the remainder of the rep.  I came down off of the wall.  Instead of celebrating, I felt like getting back to work.  You can do handstand push-ups.  Go do some more!  I took a few minutes before getting upside down again.  I was able to get another rep, only this time I successfully followed it with a second rep.  One of my goals that I carried over from 2016 into 2017 was doing five of these in a row.  Would this be one of those magical moments where an athlete figures out how to finally do something at the gym and then belts out a bunch of reps?  Sadly no.  I failed on my attempt to get three in a row.  On my next try, I got one rep and failed on the second one.  My arms were feeling tired again, so I called it a day.  I might not have gotten five in a row today, but that goal no longer seemed like a long-term one.  With enough practice, it might be the first one I cross off of my list in 2017.

Jill A had come in as I was wrapping up my handstand push-up practice.  She thought I was nuts for working on them a night after doing so many in the workout.  I don't think she noticed that I had gone from 2 abmats to no abmats (nor did I tell her), but I did let her know that I felt like I needed to work on them even if they were prominent in last night's WOD.  She'll probably see me working on them after many of my upcoming workouts.

Sunday preview: A second chance at a workout I needed to revisit.  I also help out at the start of this year's Nutrition Challenge.