With my core destroyed from GHD sit-ups and Fran, I went home Wednesday night committed to taking Thursday off. I didn't commit to avoiding the blog though, and when I saw that Thursday's workout included 100 overhead squats, I knew that I'd have to postpone that rest day until Friday. Here's the entire Thursday WOD:
Thursday WOD:
15 minute AMRAP
50 calorie row
100 overhead squats (45/35)
50 box jumps (24"/20")
I had to show up for this workout! It was gonna be one that I'd like and one that nearly everyone else would hate. Gotta take advantage of a rare opportunity like this one!
I decided that I would hit up the noon express because I typically go on Friday and that was now going to be a rest day for me. There were only 7 other people in attendance, but it was mostly the regular noon crowd: JP, Queen Pam, Tim H, Erika L, Jessie, Ina, and Nicole M. Coach Aimee led us through our warmup. Once that was complete, she asked us to set up our rower, our barbell, and our box. We might have needed more direction that that because we soon discovered that about half the class had set up their stations in a north-south direction, while the rest opted for an east-west setup. It looked very disorganized, but with only 8 people in class, there was enough space to make it work. The crazy setup led to this interaction between me and Aimee:
Aimee: We should just call this the "do whatever you want" class.
Me: Or we could call it "express yourself".
Aimee: You are so good at...<long pause>...that.
I'm not sure if Meatloaf took over Aimee's body mid-response, but I'm at a point in my life where I'm trying not to deflect away compliments anymore, so I'll gladly accept being good at "that".
Aimee walked us through proper form on the rower. Then she had us work on our overhead squat technique. Because we were doing 100 of them, we were using a very light weight (an empty barbell). This part of the workout wasn't going to be about struggling with the load. It was going to be about how much pain you could endure before needing to put the barbell down. Finally there were the box jumps. Aimee encouraged us to get comfortable rebounding on and off of the box. During the warmup, she had us practice rebounding on boxes of increasing height, from 13" to 24" (for the guys). If we were going to rest during the box jumps, Aimee wanted us to rest on top of the box, not on the floor. (Remember this!)
I looked at the scores from earlier in the morning and saw that only Kevin B had made it back for a second round of overhead squats (more than 250 reps). That became my goal. I thought I would be decent on the row, strong on the overhead squats, and then I'd do my best to chip away at the box jumps. If I left myself about three and a half minutes for the second row, I should be able to sneak in a few overhead squats at the end.
I thought my initial row would take just under three minutes. As is my custom, I had no plans of racing through the row at the beginning of the workout. About 17-18 calories per minute seemed like a reasonable pace. It went even better than that. I had 21 calories at the end of the first minute. I was at 40 by the end of minute two. I was done with my row at about the 2:30 mark. That wasn't the only surprise for me. I was done with the row before JP, something I never would have bet on.
I moved over to my barbell and got to work on the overhead squats. I didn't know how long I could hold on for, but I knew that first set needed to be very large. During Nancy, I was able to do sets of 15 reps using 95 pounds. This was only 45 pounds, so I was thinking that I could probably do 30-40 in a row. It was early in that first set that I realized I had neglected to account for the effect of that 50 calorie row on my legs. After about 20 reps, I wanted to put the barbell down, but I managed to make it to 30 reps before my first break.
Even with an empty barbell, I could tell getting to 100 reps was going to be much more brutal than I imagined. My core was still wrecked from the GHD sit-ups on Monday and from Fran the night before. My legs were a bit tingly from the row and the first 30 overhead squats. I gave myself one piece of advice: just go fast during the overhead squats. I didn't have a number in mind as far as how many reps I would do in my remaining sets. The goal was to go fast and put the barbell down when it hurt too much to keep going. Keep my breaks short and go fast again.
I think I did at least 10 reps in every set the rest of the way. I know some people told me afterwards that their approach was to do 10 sets of 10 reps and that may have been the saner way to go about this. I had gotten 30 reps completed to start things off, but I may have tired myself out more than I needed to. After each remaining set, I'd place the barbell on the floor (no dropping empty barbells!) and walk around a little bit to shake out the soreness in my legs. Erika was working directly in front of me and every time she saw me walking around, she'd encourage me to get back to my barbell. I'd use that as my cue to begin my next set. I was taking a break before my final set when I saw JP move on to his box jumps. With 2 or 3 reps left, I saw Pam move on to her box jumps. I wasn't terribly far behind either of them, but I thought the overhead squats would be the segment where I gained time on them. Instead, they had gained time on me.
I was relieved to be done with the overhead squats, but I had some genuine concerns about the upcoming box jumps. My legs didn't seem like they had a lot of spring in them and I was on the hook for 50 jumps. Add in that I was supposed to be rebounding on and off the box and suddenly I could envision myself crashing into the box a bunch of times due to fatigue. Luckily it only happened once. My sets were on the smaller side though. My first set was only 3 reps long. It is hard to talk yourself into doing more when you feel like you are about to fail. Eventually my sets became 4 reps long, then 5 reps. I think I even had one set of 6 in a row. In between sets, I looked like this:
Thursday WOD:
15 minute AMRAP
50 calorie row
100 overhead squats (45/35)
50 box jumps (24"/20")
I had to show up for this workout! It was gonna be one that I'd like and one that nearly everyone else would hate. Gotta take advantage of a rare opportunity like this one!
I decided that I would hit up the noon express because I typically go on Friday and that was now going to be a rest day for me. There were only 7 other people in attendance, but it was mostly the regular noon crowd: JP, Queen Pam, Tim H, Erika L, Jessie, Ina, and Nicole M. Coach Aimee led us through our warmup. Once that was complete, she asked us to set up our rower, our barbell, and our box. We might have needed more direction that that because we soon discovered that about half the class had set up their stations in a north-south direction, while the rest opted for an east-west setup. It looked very disorganized, but with only 8 people in class, there was enough space to make it work. The crazy setup led to this interaction between me and Aimee:
Aimee: We should just call this the "do whatever you want" class.
Me: Or we could call it "express yourself".
Aimee: You are so good at...<long pause>...that.
I'm not sure if Meatloaf took over Aimee's body mid-response, but I'm at a point in my life where I'm trying not to deflect away compliments anymore, so I'll gladly accept being good at "that".
Aimee walked us through proper form on the rower. Then she had us work on our overhead squat technique. Because we were doing 100 of them, we were using a very light weight (an empty barbell). This part of the workout wasn't going to be about struggling with the load. It was going to be about how much pain you could endure before needing to put the barbell down. Finally there were the box jumps. Aimee encouraged us to get comfortable rebounding on and off of the box. During the warmup, she had us practice rebounding on boxes of increasing height, from 13" to 24" (for the guys). If we were going to rest during the box jumps, Aimee wanted us to rest on top of the box, not on the floor. (Remember this!)
I looked at the scores from earlier in the morning and saw that only Kevin B had made it back for a second round of overhead squats (more than 250 reps). That became my goal. I thought I would be decent on the row, strong on the overhead squats, and then I'd do my best to chip away at the box jumps. If I left myself about three and a half minutes for the second row, I should be able to sneak in a few overhead squats at the end.
I thought my initial row would take just under three minutes. As is my custom, I had no plans of racing through the row at the beginning of the workout. About 17-18 calories per minute seemed like a reasonable pace. It went even better than that. I had 21 calories at the end of the first minute. I was at 40 by the end of minute two. I was done with my row at about the 2:30 mark. That wasn't the only surprise for me. I was done with the row before JP, something I never would have bet on.
I moved over to my barbell and got to work on the overhead squats. I didn't know how long I could hold on for, but I knew that first set needed to be very large. During Nancy, I was able to do sets of 15 reps using 95 pounds. This was only 45 pounds, so I was thinking that I could probably do 30-40 in a row. It was early in that first set that I realized I had neglected to account for the effect of that 50 calorie row on my legs. After about 20 reps, I wanted to put the barbell down, but I managed to make it to 30 reps before my first break.
Even with an empty barbell, I could tell getting to 100 reps was going to be much more brutal than I imagined. My core was still wrecked from the GHD sit-ups on Monday and from Fran the night before. My legs were a bit tingly from the row and the first 30 overhead squats. I gave myself one piece of advice: just go fast during the overhead squats. I didn't have a number in mind as far as how many reps I would do in my remaining sets. The goal was to go fast and put the barbell down when it hurt too much to keep going. Keep my breaks short and go fast again.
I think I did at least 10 reps in every set the rest of the way. I know some people told me afterwards that their approach was to do 10 sets of 10 reps and that may have been the saner way to go about this. I had gotten 30 reps completed to start things off, but I may have tired myself out more than I needed to. After each remaining set, I'd place the barbell on the floor (no dropping empty barbells!) and walk around a little bit to shake out the soreness in my legs. Erika was working directly in front of me and every time she saw me walking around, she'd encourage me to get back to my barbell. I'd use that as my cue to begin my next set. I was taking a break before my final set when I saw JP move on to his box jumps. With 2 or 3 reps left, I saw Pam move on to her box jumps. I wasn't terribly far behind either of them, but I thought the overhead squats would be the segment where I gained time on them. Instead, they had gained time on me.
I was relieved to be done with the overhead squats, but I had some genuine concerns about the upcoming box jumps. My legs didn't seem like they had a lot of spring in them and I was on the hook for 50 jumps. Add in that I was supposed to be rebounding on and off the box and suddenly I could envision myself crashing into the box a bunch of times due to fatigue. Luckily it only happened once. My sets were on the smaller side though. My first set was only 3 reps long. It is hard to talk yourself into doing more when you feel like you are about to fail. Eventually my sets became 4 reps long, then 5 reps. I think I even had one set of 6 in a row. In between sets, I looked like this:
Aimee did say take your rest on top of the box
I knew I was using up a lot of time with these little sets, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do unless I convinced myself to keep rebounding until I tripped and fell. JP and Pam were back on their rowers. I had taken a few glances at the clock and it wasn't looking good for me as far as completing the second row was concerned. When I did finish my 50th box jump, I had slightly less than two minutes to go.
It may not have been a banner day for me with the overhead squats or the box jumps, but I was stronger than expected on both rows that I did. Seeing as my legs were tired and I had less than two minutes before time was called, I thought 30 calories seemed like a good target to shoot for. Was I probably going to fall short of that mark? I believed that would be the outcome. But that turned out not to be the case. I got into a solid rhythm. As the clock ticked towards 15 minutes, I realized that 30 calories was within reach. I pulled as hard as I could in the waning seconds and actually made it to 32 calories in round two. Final score: 232.
Another exhausting workout in the books, but I headed into my rest day with a much more positive feeling than I would have if I went into it after doing Fran.
Saturday preview: A rare Saturday appearance means fun with Coach Keithie. There are rope climbs, handstand push-ups, and one of the worst 500 meter sprints I've ever done on a rower.
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