Wait For It

Workout date: 12/5/16

When you start drinking at noon and keep things rolling along until 11pm, you likely have screwed over any weight loss ambitions you might have had.  The Disappearance was on Friday and had been on my calendar before I made the pledge back in September to eat better and drop some pounds.  There was no chance that I was backing out of this annual tradition.  The day following the Disappearance, I tried to piece together why my hangover was so unforgiving.  In a brief moment of clarity, I remembered having three tasty bourbon drinks just before dinner, a bad choice about six hours into a day-long bender.  Yup, that was my downfall.  At least based on what I remember from the night before.

I didn't work out on Saturday or Sunday either as Jenn and I were entertaining a friend from across the pond.  I wasn't expecting good things when I stepped on the scale Monday morning.  The verdict?

Original weigh-in:  213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in:  207.0 pounds
This week's weigh-in:  207.8 pounds

Not too bad.  I thought my liver had gained at least a pound all by itself, so it was a pleasant surprise to see that I was still hanging in area code 207 for another week.

The Monday night WOD was one that I've never been particularly fond of because it's a test of pull-up ability and grip strength.  This was one of the infamous "girl" WODs and this lady's name was Nicole.

"Nicole"
20 minute AMRAP
400 meter run
Max pull-ups when returning from the run
*Each time you come off the pull-up bar, you must go on another 400 meter run

I had done this workout in March and came oh so close to getting 40 pull-ups, ultimately falling one rep short.  Then in June, I regressed, only able to complete 35 pull-ups before time was called.  I didn't feel like my pull-up ability had necessarily improved since March, but failing on the final rep nine months ago still bugged me.  The goal was 40 pull-ups and I was not going to be a happy camper if I fell short again.

I might not have been Nicole's biggest fan, but apparently she was very popular with others as Coach Giulz would be coaching a very bulky 6:30 class of 15 people.  Immediately I knew this would be a problem.  It would be difficult keeping people from swinging into one another on the pull-up rig even if we organized everyone by which bar (high or low) they'd be using.  There was no point in going through that exercise as it would be wasted effort.  There's so much confusion during the workout with people running in and out of the gym that we'd never be able to keep things organized.  So we'd have to do our best to not interfere with any of our classmates.  I'd say I batted .500 in that pursuit.

As we went through different progressions to warm up our shoulders for all of the pull-ups we'd be doing, we started to sort ourselves out on the pull-up rig.  I was in a section with Borden and Matt B. Off to our right were Raj and Esra on the low bar and Cline on the high bar.  It seemed like there was no way to prevent Borden and I from clashing on the pull-up rig if we got there at the same time, so I asked him what his best score was on this workout.  I think he said 43 (it was definitely 40-something) so I decided that I was going to back off if Borden and I both needed the pull-up rig.  This was not a strong workout for me and I didn't want to mess up the workout for someone who was better at it.  (Note: This is why I get greedy during WODs with rope climbs.  When the workout is in my wheelhouse, I'm hoping others will help me out if space is at a premium.)

Giulz sent us outside to the barrier to get us started on the first run.  In each of my attempts earlier this year, I had done six rounds.  When I came off of my pull-up bar the sixth time, there was no time for a 7th run.  I didn't think a seventh round was the key to getting a score of 40 in this workout.  I needed to squeeze out an extra rep or two during the early rounds and hope my grip strength didn't fail in the later rounds.

I was happy with my pace during the first run.  While I had no intention of getting 7 rounds in, there were others in class (Cline and Nate) whose strategy involved completing 7 rounds because they were so darn good on the run.  As I came back in from that first run, Cline was already working on his first set of pull-ups.  Borden came in right behind me and I honored my word of giving him the first shot at the pull-up area we'd be sharing.  I knew I needed to hang on for a big set in that first round and I didn't want to bang into him and have that set cut short.  So I stood and caught my breath as Borden, Matt, and Cline all worked on their first set.  I'm not sure how long I was standing there, but soon I was itching to get started.  Cline came off of his bar and went for his second run.  Rather than wait for Borden to be done, I decided to hijack Cline's spot, since I'd be done before he completed his second 400 meters.

As is always the case with this workout, my plan was to do a rep and then come to a dead hang before moving to the next rep.  I didn't have the technique down where I could fluidly move from one rep to the next.  If I started swinging wildly, I'd have to drop from the bar and go for a run.  It was better to stay in control, even if my form looked ugly.  My longest set of pull-ups without coming off of the bar was 10 reps, which was my first set back when I did this in March.  I was hoping for 11 this time around.  One by one, I did my pull-ups.  As my grip weakened, I'd stop in the dead hang and adjust my grip, one hand at a time.  I was using a lot of energy, but this was the only way I could do this workout.  I made it through the 10th rep and began yelling at myself internally that I needed rep #11 if I was serious about finishing with a score of 40.  I swung as hard as I could and shot my legs downward.  My chin went up over the bar and I had a new best set of pull-ups strung together.  I was even able to get one more before failing on the 13th rep.  12 was a solid score for round #1.

(Note: In most workouts, I'll take a break rather than fail on a rep because it has such a negative effect on me both physically and mentally.  In this workout, there was a severe penalty for giving up before you reached failure, so I kept attempting reps each set until I failed.  I had plenty of time to recover while I did the quarter-mile run.)

Remember how I said my percentage for not interfering with my classmates was .500?  I did stay out of Borden's way, but when I came off the bar for that first round, I saw Esra patiently waiting on me.  I didn't realize that she and Cline had the same dilemma that Borden and I had.  So when I hijacked Cline's spot to do my pull-ups, I was blocking Esra from doing hers.  Oops.  I apologized to her and made a mental note that I shouldn't use Cline's bar for the rest of the workout.

I continued to run at a decent pace during my second and third rounds.  It seemed like I wasn't losing ground to anyone and I may have been edging up on a few people.  In past attempts at Nicole, I definitely used the runs as recovery time.  Because of that, running fast wasn't a priority.  I wouldn't say I was running "fast" during these two rounds either, but I was moving at a quicker pace than I had in the past.  Not only was I spending less time on the run, I was following up those runs with stronger sets on the pull-up bar.  I failed on my 10th rep during round two and failed on the 8th rep of round three, so 16 reps were added to my score for those two rounds.  I had a score of 28 before the clock had hit 10 minutes.  If I wasn't able to complete 12 more pull-ups during the back half of this workout, Aimee would have been justified in revoking my membership.

As I hit the turnaround point for the 400 meters on my fourth run, I saw that Michal was catching up to me.  She came up right behind me, but she didn't go by.  I yelled at her to keep pushing and to go by, but she would not.  So I decided that I was going to make her pick up the pace by going faster myself.  Except she didn't go with me.  This burst was meant to help Michal, but it would end up helping me the rest of the way.  I came back into the gym and once again failed on rep #8.  7 more pull-ups brought my score up to 35.  40 was a sure thing now.  Was 50 a possibility?

I had some pep in my step as I went out for the 5th run.  On the way back into the gym, I saw that I had increased my lead on Michal.  I began toying with the idea that I might be able to get a 7th round in.  I might need it if I wanted to reach that score of 50.  My 5th round of pull-ups was like the previous two and I added 7 to my score, bringing me up to 42.  I took note of the time on the clock and realized my chances of getting to that 7th round of pull-ups was slim.  I was going to run hard again, but my best chance at 50 was hanging on for 8 reps in the next round.  I had failed on that 8th rep three times in a row, but maybe if I told myself that the 8th rep was my finish line, I might be able to muster the strength to get my chin over the bar one last time.

When I got back from the 6th run, the clock had just ticked past 18 minutes.  I immediately got to my bar and jumped on it.  Borden was out on a run, so I knew I wouldn't be holding him up.  Just 8 pull-ups away from 50.  One at a time, I churned out reps, but I could tell that my arms were running out of strength.  I got through 5 reps, but had nothing left when I attempted rep #6.  50 wasn't going to happen unless I strapped on a jet pack for the 7th run.  I headed out the door anyway, but there was less than 90 seconds left until the time cap would hit.

I knew I wasn't going to make it back in time for a 7th round of pull-ups, but I wanted to pretend that I could sneak one more rep in if I went all out on that 7th run.  I got a bit lucky in that Ashley was trying to accomplish the same thing.  We began pushing each other really hard with about 150 meters left to go.  It was like we were back in Endurance class again.  I sprinted with everything I had left just so I could sneak in the door a step or two before her.  The time cap had already hit, so that last sprint didn't matter, but I felt really good about how I had run during this workout.  Oh, and I had crushed my goal of 40 with a final score of 47 pull-ups!

If you had told me at that point that the best was yet to come, I would have told you to put the crack pipe down.  That last sprint had drained my legs and the Advent challenge required us to find a max height box jump.  I jokingly jumped on top of a 20" box just so I could get a score.  That's how bad my legs were hurting.  I needed about 5 minutes of rest before I could take the challenge semi-seriously.  Some of the guys were doing jumps in the 38"-42" range, but I wasn't ready for that yet.  We had two boxes set up side-by-side to jump on, with athletes adding plates to the top of the boxes to increase the height.

The max height box jump competition results in some very cool looking photos and Samson was on hand to capture images of this challenge throughout the day.  (Note: Almost any cool photo that appears on this blog comes from the lens of Ryan Samson.  The man does excellent work.)  Matt C had the biggest jump of the day, ending up a quarter-inch short of tying Keithie for the highest jump in the gym.  Here is what jumping to a height of 55.75 inches looks like:

I'd be afraid to jump down from there

I'm not sure who was operating the camera when this next shot was taken, but the gym's resident photographer has the smoothest looking box jumps in the gym.  Here's a shot of Samson from an earlier class:

The man behind the camera...in front of the camera

The guys weren't the only ones putting up big numbers.  Maggie was in the 5:30 class and took over the top spot on the women's leaderboard with a jump of 43".  She and Giulz got in some additional jumps as they joined the 6:30 class for their unofficial cash out.  The girls seemed to be using the box to the right while the guys were all lined up to take on the left box.  I got in line, hoping like everyone else that I would not injure myself trying to be a hero.  My best box jump ever was 46", but that came two years ago and I wasn't aiming that high after sprinting against Ashley.  (I actually thought my best jump was 47", but when I went home to check my Barbulls records, I saw it was 46".)  My first jump at 30" (only the box) was fine, as was my jump at 34" (one 45 lb plate), but then I tripped and came off the box when I tried 38".  I tried 38" again with better results before the box on the left was abandoned.

I'm not sure how I got wrapped up in another battle with a female on this night (first it was Michal, then Ashley), but somehow I ended up going toe-to-toe with Maggie on the box on the right.  That box now had three big plates on it (42").  Maggie cleared it with ease.  I guess I still wanted to make sure I could manage that height, so I tried it and was able to land on it.  From there, Maggie and I took turns jumping on the box after adding a thin plate (1") to it.  Maggie got 43", I got 43".  Maggie got 44" (new record), I got 44".  I felt like I had to match her on every jump she did.  Another plate was added and Maggie went for 45".

Maggie putting the pressure on me, getting 45" on her first try

Maggie was very no nonsense about her jumps.  She lined herself up with the box and then immediately leapt up to the top.  I, on the other hand, was very deliberate in my approach.  I had seen so many people go to jump in a non-committal way.  They would jump with their hands ready to grab the box/plates in case they missed the jump.  For the higher jumps, you just had to go for it.  If you were leaning forward to brace for a miss, you were going to miss.  All the hesitating I would do before my jumps was due to the fact that I wasn't 100% committed to the jump.  I only leapt when I was 100% locked in.

With Maggie making 45" look easy, I was even more nervous about that jump, but I was able to get it on my first try like she had.  46" would be the breaking point.  Maggie tried three times to move her record yet another inch higher, but she couldn't quite stick it.  I failed on my first attempt.  On my second attempt, I was close but my right foot slipped off of the side of the plate.  That jump made me think 46" was definitely possible.  After Maggie missed for the third time, I gave it one last try.  The video is below:

A new addition to the intro for Ballers, season 3

Yes, you had to wait through a 30 second video for something that should have taken 5 seconds to complete.  There's a slight chance that I overthink the shit out of everything.

(Many thanks to Kris for taking that video and editing it so that it looked cool.  I've gotten more compliments about that jump than I've gotten for...ummm...well, let's put it this way: the last thing I can recall getting that much praise for was my ability to recite the alphabet backwards when I was 3 years old.  It's possible there has been something else in that 35 year window, but I'm drawing a blank.)

One more thing about that video.  At the end, you can see both my "super excited" celebration and Faby's "unimpressed" celebration.  They may be one and the same.

Wednesday preview: After missing Dudes After Dark, I have a date with Esra at the 7:30 class on Wednesday.  Don't worry, it was time capped.  As any date with me should be.