You Got This, Kid

Workout date: 12/28/16

I showed up to the 6:30 class on Wednesday night expecting to see Coach Jenna, but Coach Giulz was filling in for her.  That wasn't the only surprise coach appearance as Keithie was there as well (not in a coaching capacity).  He was joining the medium-sized group that had shown up for a WOD that was a bit of a variety pack:

Wednesday WOD:
1,000 meter row
10 clean and jerks (135/95)
20 pull-ups
750 meter row
10 clean and jerks (155/105)
20 pull-ups
500 meter row
10 clean and jerks (205/135)
20 pull-ups

There was some rowing, some lifting and some body-weight gymnastics (my way of making pull-ups sound way more technical than they are) all thrown into this workout.  The most interesting aspect of the workout to me was how much of a jump there was in the barbell weight going from round two to round three.  The jump was only 20 pounds from round one to round two, but it was a substantial 50 pound increase when transitioning to round three.  That was going to be tough to deal with late in the workout.

To be honest, I wasn't sure how long it would take me to do 10 clean and jerks with 205 pounds.  If It would take me a long time to do it fresh, then it was going to take me forever after doing all of that other work.  So it probably wasn't a good idea to use 205 for the last 10 clean and jerks.  On the other hand...it would be heartbreaking to scale just that piece of the workout.  I had no concerns about the clean and jerks at 135 and 155.  The pull-ups would be slow, but I could get through 60 of them.  Rowing never needs to be scaled.  It was that pesky last set of clean and jerks that were giving me pause.  Why couldn't it be 185 pounds?  I could handle that.  195 seemed borderline.  205 was asking for trouble.

There was a work-around though.  The barbell would start with 45 pound plates on it (135).  Then I'd need to add 10 pound plates (155).  Finally I'd have to put on 25 pound plates to reach 205.  I could start out with 205 on the barbell for the last round and if it was more than I could handle, I could strip off the 10 pound plates and finish up with 185, a weight I'd feel comfortable using.  (Confession: I didn't think about any of this until I started to get the plates for the workout.  Then the light bulb went on.  I felt so much better about using 205 after that.)

I set up my rower and barbell towards the rear of the gym where Chris S and Cline were working out as well.  I scanned the main whiteboard and saw that most of the times from earlier in the day were in the 20-25 minute range.  I guessed that the first round would probably take about 7 minutes.  With the decreasing distance on the rower, the amount of time spent there should be about a minute less each round.  The time spent on the clean and jerks would increase a little bit each round (okay, a lot in the last round) and the time I would need on the pull-ups would definitely increase each round.  Based on some rough estimates, I came up with a goal of 24-26 minutes for the workout.

We got started on the 1,000 meter row and I knew that in about 3 minutes and 30 seconds, Cline would be getting off of his rower and starting work on his first set of clean and jerks.  Just as he has his routine, I have mine.  At close to four minutes on the nose, I was letting go of the handle on my rower and moving on to the clean and jerks.  The initial barbell weight was 135, the weight that we have to clean and jerk quickly when we do Grace.  When I start that workout, I try to string a bunch of the reps together.  In this workout, I was sticking to singles.  I'd need my grip strength for the pull-ups.  I thought I could move pretty fast through the 10 clean and jerks, but they were tougher than expected.  That damn row at the beginning had caught me off-guard again!

I was one of the last people to the pull-up bar.  Not surprisingly, I was the last one off of the pull-up bar.  I didn't struggle during that first set of pull-ups.  I was just worse at pull-ups than everyone else in class.  When I returned to my rower, my thoughts weren't on round two.  They were already on round three.  The first round wasn't supposed to take as much out of me as it did.  If the easiest round had worn me down, how I was going to get past the hardest round?  Maybe it would be wiser to focus on the task at hand, which was round two.

The second row might have been three-quarters of the length of the first one, but it seemed longer.  I took easy strokes on the initial row and kept a decent pace.  This time around, I was working harder, yet the monitor was telling me that my pace was slower.  I was able to recover a bit during the row and then got another breather while I added the 10 pound plates to my barbell.  Once my barbell was loaded, I got to work on my next 10 clean and jerks.  I'm sure I was slower during those 10 lifts, but it felt very similar to the first round.  I didn't attempt to string reps.  Every now and then I stopped to get some air, but there were no long breaks.  I was back in contact with some of the class.  They were gonna get away from me on the pull-ups again, but I was happy that I hadn't fallen too far behind.  Before starting my pull-ups, I made the decision to load my barbell for round three ahead of time.  I needed a break and that felt like a productive way to get one.  With my barbell loaded to 205, I moved over to the pull-up bar.  I did sets of 4 singles at a time with breaks in between.  I was at the back of the pack again, but there were still people rowing when I began round three.

The 500 meter row was not about speed.  It was all about recovery.  I wasn't dogging it, but I also didn't want to be tired when I got to the clean and jerks.  The barbell was already loaded, so when the row was over, I was going directly into my first rep at 205.  Prior to the workout, I asked Giulz how long it took her to do the 10 clean and jerks in the last round.  Her response was 5-6 minutes.  That was a lot of time, but it certainly made sense.  These last 10 clean and jerks needed to be spaced out.  Keithie was the only one who might have been able to do them touch and go.  As for me, I was going to consider every rep I got at 205 a victory, no matter how long it took.

The first order of business was figuring out whether I could power clean 205 or whether I needed to squat clean it.  My strong preference was for the power clean, but there was a real chance that the squat clean would be necessary.  I attempted the first rep and managed to get the barbell to my shoulders via the power clean.  I was confident that I could jerk the weight.  I popped it overhead and one rep at 205 was done.  (Hooray!)  I didn't rush into my next rep.  If I tried this weight without feeling mostly recovered from the previous rep, I was going to start failing.  Got the second rep.  Got the third rep.  As I stood next to my barbell trying to avoid going into a squat (my favorite recovery position), Keithie came over to cheer me on.  "You got this, kid!", he yelled to me.  It was oddly endearing because I can't remember the last time someone called me a kid.  (Spoiler: I'm old.)  I pushed through reps 4, 5, and 6.

With four clean and jerks to go, I started noticing more voices.  Oh no.  It had been awhile since I had seen my old friend, but I'd recognize him anywhere.  His name was the pity circle and he was forming quickly.  I tried to shorten the breaks between reps, but those cleans were becoming dicey.  I was using a lot of back hyperextension to power clean.  That was a no-no, but desperate times call for shitty form.  One by one, I got through the four remaining clean and jerks.  Mentally it felt like I had finished the workout.  Except I still had 20 pull-ups to complete.

I had reached the stage where my mindset was do what you can for as long as you can.  I tried to keep doing single pull-ups one after another, but those 205 pound clean and jerks had taken their toll.  I needed a break after every 2-3 reps.  I was about 5 reps in when someone said "you can still get 27 minutes!"  Have you seen me do pull-ups?  Have you seen tired me do pull-ups???  I was probably close to 10 when I heard "you can still get 28 minutes", followed soon after by "you can beat Giulz if you hurry!"  Neither of those things were happening.  It wasn't about beating the clock or beating a coach's time.  This was about completing the workout without throwing up.  It was slow going, but at least there was no vomiting.  Final time: 28:48.

I wasn't upset by my time.  More than anything, I was happy I completed the 10 clean and jerks at 205.  I needed to sit down for 10-15 minutes before I felt safe driving home, but all in all, this WOD was a good experience.

Friday preview: Thursday is an off day due to a friend's 40th birthday and a visit from my brother.  My second-to-last workout of the year is a new annual tradition: Crossfit Total with Cline.