Angry Gymnastics

Workout date: 1/14/17

The day off on Friday was definitely necessary.  Part of me thought that I should ride that into a 3-day weekend of rest.  Another part of me thought that I should work out on either Saturday or Sunday to make up for the Friday class that I missed.  I typically do 5 workouts per week unless there are things keeping me from the gym.  Since I had a free weekend, there was no excuse for me not to pop in for a workout unless I was being lazy or cherry-picking my workouts.  At 10pm on Friday, I took a look at the blog and saw this scheduled for the next day:

Saturday's WOD:
7 rounds:
10 handstand push-ups
2 rope climbs (15')

A WOD containing my newest obsession (handstand push-ups) and one of my favorite movements in the gym (rope climbs)?  Yes please.  I was dragging my butt in for a rare Saturday workout.

How long has it been since I've come in for a Saturday workout?  Let's put it this way: I had completely forgotten that this was Coach Keithie's regular gig nowadays.  I used to attend a lot of Keithie's classes because he taught throughout the week.  Now he only coaches a couple of classes during the week, but he handles both classes scheduled on Saturday morning.  So it was a pleasant surprise to come in and see that he would be coaching.

There were 9 of us ready to face our fears of being upside-down and 15' above the gym (not at the same time of course).  There was no way that I was going to attempt 70 handstand push-ups without the help of some ab-mats.  This would be another instance where I'd go with 2 ab-mats and do my best to kip every single rep.  Practicing the kip has transformed this movement from a shoulder test to a core test.  If I hadn't taken a rest day, I feel certain that my core wouldn't have been able to handle this much work.  With the day off on Friday, at least I had a chance of completing this WOD.

Keithie talked with us about handstand push-ups as well as the seated DB press that we could do as a scale should this large amount of handstand push-ups be too much for us.  I did not want to give in and do the DB presses.  I didn't even want to grab a pair of DBs to have on standby because I was concerned that I'd give in and switch to them if I ran into some major adversity on the wall.  The plan was to keep chipping away at the 70 handstand push-ups even if it left me behind the rest of the class.  As much as I try to avoid the pity circle, I was going to accept its embrace on this day if necessary.

(Update on the "pity circle": Cline has pointed out to me on several occasions that he is not a fan of this term.  After reflecting upon whether or not I should continue to use it, I realized that I have to be more judicious in my use of this phrase.  Back when I coined the phrase, it felt appropriate to use.  I would be working long after the class was done and there is photographic evidence that everyone was bored out of their minds waiting on me to complete my workout.  That has changed more recently, as my classmates have been very enthusiastic about helping me reach the finish line when I fall behind.  So the term "pity circle" is probably not appropriate in those situations.  I'll work on a new phrase...)

Even though there were 9 of us in class and only 5 ropes available for climbing, this was one of the rare instances where I wasn't concerned about being held up on the rope climb portion of this WOD.  I knew that the handstand push-ups were likely to spread us out fairly early on, so the chances of 6 of us hitting the ropes at the same time were slim.  I also didn't plan on spending a lot of time on the ropes, so if one was free, I was going to do two quick climbs and then get out of the way.

Aimee had done this workout in under 10 minutes during the 9am class, but the other two times on the board were in the 17-19 minute range.  That was about 2:30 per round, which seemed like a reasonable pace.  I expected the 2 rope climbs would take about 30-45 seconds to complete (depending on which round I was in), so I'd have 1:45-2:00 to do 10 handstand push-ups.  That sounded like a lot of time to complete 10 handstand push-ups, so I began to daydream about going lower than 17 minutes.  My goal for this workout would be to complete it with a time in the 16-17 minute range.

Early on, it looked like I might have done a really solid job of figuring out what a good time would be for me on this workout.  I moved through all 10 handstand push-ups in one set during round one, then completed two quick rope climbs.  I had to split up the 10 handstand push-ups in round two, but it only required two sets.  After shaking out my arms, I got over to the rope and briskly climbed it twice.  A peek at the clock let me know that I was under 4 minutes with 5 rounds to go.  Even if I reverted to that pace of 2:30 per round, I'd be smack dab in the middle of the range that I had set for myself prior to the workout.

Round three was where I found out that I was in trouble.  I made it through 5 handstand push-ups, but then I really began to struggle with stringing together more than 2 reps at a time.  I think I had my first failed rep at the mid-way point of this round.  I tried to remain calm as I always tell myself that getting upset never helps you with skill movements.  (Note: It does seem to work with barbells though, so let that rage erupt when you need to pick up heavy stuff.)  I made it through the final 5 reps and did my two rope climbs, but another glance at the clock showed that nearly 3 minutes had elapsed during that round.  If I held that pace, I was looking at a final time of 19 minutes.  Things had changed quickly and they weren't about to get any better.

During rounds 4, 5, and 6, I tried to get two reps in every time I got upside-down.  That was easier said than done.  Sometimes I only got 1 rep.  Other times, I tried to shoot my legs up, but I couldn't muster enough power to press out a single rep.  It was slow going, getting through 10 reps each round.  Keithie came over and gave me a pep talk that was similar to the ones LC has been giving me recently when I've failed on my handstand push-ups.  He let me know that I wasn't firing my legs upward with the required amount of energy to complete the rep.  It felt like I was giving it everything I had whenever I was hanging there upside-down.  I wasn't sure how I could produce more power, especially since I was tiring out as the workout progressed.

My solution?  Try to use that barbell rage in a gymnastics movement.  It was the only remaining solution I could come up with.  I began drawing my knees down to my chest, then letting out a yell as I fired my legs towards the ceiling.  I actively started concentrating on how mad I would be if I had to resort to the DBs to finish off the later rounds.  Getting angry didn't help me string together additional reps, but it did help me avoid failed reps.  I was able to balance out my emotions on the rope climb ("my jam", as Keithie called it), where I could relax and feel confident for a short time before heading back to the wall.

My arms and my core were smoked as I chipped away at the final round of handstand push-ups.  I was still managing sets of two here and there and knowing that it was my last round helped me take shorter breaks between those sets.  I knew most of the class was done because I kept hearing additional voices cheering me on, but I had one classmate near me who was still working, so we hadn't reached full-blown pity circle status yet.  I was relieved when I pressed out that 70th handstand push-up.  I jogged over to my rope and did a quick climb.  Then I stupidly tried to jump right back on again and messed up gripping the rope.  I was well beyond the time range I had set for myself so I'm not sure why I was in such a hurry for that second climb.  Guess I just wanted to be done.  I regrouped, jumped up on the rope again, and had no problems getting to the 15' mark.  Final time: 20:59.

I still don't feel comfortable in the kip position for handstand push-ups and I haven't figured out how to reliably produce enough power for consistent reps.  I don't think it's the smartest idea to practice handstand push-ups without ab-mats until I get the hang of the kip, so it will probably be a while before I go after my goal of 5 consecutive handstand push-ups without ab-mats.  As was the case with pull-ups and double unders, I need to break the movement down and work on morsels of it before I take on the entire thing.  I have faith that I will still complete my handstand push-up goal before the year is through.

The cash-out was a 500 meter sprint on the rower.  I've had more and more confidence on the rower lately, so I was looking forward to this cash-out prior to the WOD.  After wearing out my arms with 70 handstand push-ups, I was less eager to take this on.  My best previous time was 1:33.6 and I recalled going at a pace of about 1:26 for the first half of that row.  I needed a solid 10 minutes to recover from the WOD before I grabbed a rower and set the monitor for a 500 meter sprint.  During the first 250 meters, I kept a fast pace, but it was hanging steady at around 1:28.  If I couldn't get it to 1:26 early, I knew I wasn't setting a new PR today.  Just past the halfway point, my arms told the rest of my body that they were done for the day.  I kept driving hard with my legs, but my pulls became weaker and weaker.  This was not even going to be close to 1:33.  Final time: 1:40.6.

That was not some of my finer work on the rower.  I told myself that I'd have to test out my 500 meter time again when I wasn't so crushed from handstand push-ups.

Monday preview: My second-to-last weigh-in and a partner WOD with Cline for a good cause.