The streak of substitute coaches continued on Thursday night as Coach Jill was subbing in for Giulz at the 7:30 class. When Jill saw me, she told me that she was excited to be coaching her first Dudes After Dark. While I tend to reserve that name for the Tuesday 7:30 class, it seemed unfair to say that this didn't count as a Dudes class when Jill had shown so much enthusiasm about it. Plus, her class was 100% dude, even if it was only me and one other guy.
Noel and I were there to take on The Seven. Pretty ominous sounding name for a WOD, right? It wasn't meant to sound any more ominous than your typical hero WOD. The name of the workout is a tribute to seven CIA officers who were killed by a suicide bomber in Afghanistan in 2009. The workout is 7 rounds long and requires athletes to do 7 reps of 7 different movements each round. Here's a look at The Seven:
"The Seven"
7 rounds:
7 handstand push-ups
7 thrusters (135/95)
7 knees-to-elbows
7 deadlifts (245/165)
7 burpees
7 KB swings (70/53)
7 pull-ups
Jill asked if either of us had done this workout and I gave her a shaky affirmative response. I couldn't remember exactly when I had done it (my first year?). I couldn't remember what scaling options I had used (I imagine I scaled everything but the burpees. It's possible that I scaled those too.). All I could remember was the photo of the memorial that was posted on the blog. I had definitely seen that before and this was the type of crazy workout I'm sure I felt compelled to do had I seen it on the blog. It was odd that I couldn't remember anything about it though. Usually I can remember aspects of any workout that I've done before. Unless I blocked those memories out of my mind for some reason...
(Note: I looked back at the spreadsheet I kept from my first year at KOP and found the results from my original attempt at The Seven. I'll include it for comparison's sake below the recap of how things went this time around.)
Knowledge of how I did last time and what I used would have been helpful, even if that attempt took place over three and a half years ago. The next best source of information? Feedback from the 6:30 class. This was a long hero WOD, so members of the 6:30 class were either still finishing up the workout or they were lying on the floor trying to recover from it when the 7:30 class began. Both LC and Josh M were in the 6:30 class and they came up to me afterwards to warn me about how difficult The Seven truly was. LC told me that I should seriously consider going lighter if I wanted to complete 7 rounds as she had only done 5 rounds RX and that took just over 30 minutes. Josh had gone lighter and was able to complete all 7 rounds. He offered me the barbells he had used: 95 pounds for the thruster and 185 pounds for the deadlift. Since they are both much better athletes than I am, I heeded their advice. I'd go lighter and use Josh's barbells for the workout.
Jill walked Noel and I through each of the movements. For the handstand push-ups, Jill gave me the same instructions that LC had given me during Nate when we did that hero WOD at the end of December. I could use 2 abmats, but I was not allowed to do strict handstand push-ups. I needed to get better with my kip, so all of my reps had to be kipped, unless I got to the point that I was physically unable to do any more that way. I tried out the 95 pound thruster and that felt okay. 115 pounds was my original game plan, but I'm glad I was talked out of that. Knees-to-elbows would be fine. How many I could do in a row would come down to grip strength. I tested out the deadlift with 185 pounds and it felt very light. I had a feeling that I'd blow through this movement much faster than all of the rest if I kept 185 on the barbell, so I grabbed two 10 pound plates and added them on. 205 still didn't feel tremendously heavy, but it was at least more challenging than 185 had been. The burpees would suck, but I could do them. I had managed 8 KB swings with the 70 pound KB during Nate, so there was no reason to think I couldn't handle 7 reps per round here. Finally, I could manage 7 pull-ups each round, even though they were almost certainly going to be singles.
Right before we got started, I joked with Jill that all I wanted was to have a rock-star first round where I finished in about 3 minutes. Anything after that didn't matter. It's a good thing that was my mindset going into this because the first round was the only bright spot for me in this workout. I didn't string all 7 of my handstand push-ups, but I took care of them fairly quickly. I did all of my thrusters unbroken. I hung on to the bar for all seven reps of the knees-to-elbows. The deadlifts were going to be my "recovery" station. I got all seven reps there without using up a lot of energy. I didn't have to crawl at all during my first round of 7 burpees. I completed all 7 swings of the KB before putting it down. I had to stop on my way to the pull-up bar, as I noticed my right shoe was untied. Working out with an untied shoe for 30-40 minutes seemed like a bad idea, so I took a moment to tie it. I broke up the 7 singles at the pull-up bar into a set of 4 and a set of 3. That left me close to my goal, as I finished round one in just over three minutes.
I knew that the rounds were going to be much tougher from that point on, but I still had every intention of completing all seven rounds. Noel and I finished round one at virtually the same time and I was hoping that I could stay with him for the entirety of the workout. That prospect became less likely during round two. The handstand push-ups required more break in between reps. I split the thrusters up into a set of four and a set of three. Needed two sets for the knees-to-elbows as well, but I needed a "moment" before starting those because the thrusters had taken more out of me than expected. The deadlifts were once again my mid-round savior, as I got through all 7 quickly. Noel had gotten a lead on me, but the deadlifts had let me close the gap on him. The burpees opened that gap back up, as there was definitely some crawling required. The KB swings were unpleasant but I managed all 7 reps. The pull-ups were singles again, but like everything else in this round, they took longer than they did in round one. Approximate time for round two: six minutes. Double the amount of time round one took. That sounds pretty bad, but I would have gladly taken six minutes for the upcoming rounds. Things were gonna get worse.
I've written about squat cleans before and how they start to feel like punches to the gut after a while. There were no squat cleans in this workout (thrusters were as close as we'd get), but the feeling was the same. By the time round three started, my core was hurting. Kipping handstand push-ups? Core. Thrusters? Core. Knees-to-elbows? Core. Burpees? Core. Kipping pull-ups? Core. I'm sure the deadlifts and KB swings were working my core as well, but they were gentler than the other five movements. Once the core goes, it's hard to breathe. More importantly, it's hard to keep moving. You just want to take a break until the center of your body feels better again. Mine wouldn't feel better until long after I left the gym.
Rounds three and four were very similar. They were even slower than round two. I tried to just keep moving, but that was easier said than done. Noel kept extending his lead. As round four drew to a close, I looked at the clock and saw that it was closing in on 25 minutes. There was no chance I was going for 7 rounds or poor Jill would be here all night. Five rounds would be plenty. That helped me mentally because I could go all out with whatever energy I had left seeing as this would be my final round.
The last round didn't start off well. My kipping handstand push-up form had fallen apart. I didn't have the power to drive my feet upwards with enough force to finish reps. To get seven good reps, I must have made close to 15 attempts. I brought the frustration from that station over to the thruster. I've gotten better at taking out my anger on barbells. I growled through seven consecutive thrusters and made my way to the knees-to-elbows. Had to break the seven reps up into three sets, but they weren't nearly as bad as the handstand push-ups had been. Time to crush another barbell. I came over and whipped through 7 deadlifts. My body would have been so happy if I just stopped there. Unfortunately, there was more to do. I was so tired on the burpees that I had to stop in between a few reps. All you have to do for a tired burpee is fall to the floor and crawl up, but that was more than I could handle at this stage of the proceedings. I took a break after the 7th burpee, then grunted my way through 7 heavy KB swings. I staggered over to the pull-up rig and did a single rep before requiring another breather. Then I did two sets of 3 singles before dropping to the floor. Final time: 32:28.
How did that compare to my original attempt at The Seven? Here's what I did way back on May 15, 2013, two and a half months into my Crossfit career:
- 7 stinkbugs
- 7 thrusters (83 pounds) - I used a ladies bar with 25 pound plates for some reason
- 7 knees-to-elbows - Probably range of motion, although I didn't note scaling this movement
- 7 deadlifts (165 pounds)
- 7 burpees
- 7 KB swings (55 pounds)
- 7 pull-ups (band)
- 5 rounds completed in a time of 38:30
I imagine that whoever my coach was that day was very patient. If it took 38:30 to do five rounds, I must have been near a half hour when I finished my 4th round. They would have had every right to say "hey new guy, let's call it a day."
The Seven is one of our benchmark WODs this year, but I'm not sure how many people are going to be excited to take it on again, much less take it on three more times. The workout was brutal. I scaled three of the seven movements and only made it through five rounds. I will definitely need to be in much better shape if I'm ever going to consider finishing all seven rounds someday.
Friday preview: Wall balls and rowing at the nooner. Jill catches me practicing handstand push-ups a day after I struggled through 35 of them.
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