If there was another metcon scheduled for Wednesday night, there is a good chance I would have taken the day off. The Valentine's Day Massacre had left me with my fair share of aches and pains. I suspected the gym might be nice to us and give us a pure strength WOD to let us recover from that experience and that is just what they did. Here's what was programmed for Wednesday:
Wednesday WOD:
Strength:
2RM Hang Squat Clean
Cash-out:
50-40-30-20-10
Double Unders
Air Squats
Time cap: 8 minutes
That seemed rather mild compared to what we had to do the night before, so I got my butt over to the gym. After all, my birthday and a holiday weekend were coming up, so it was possible that this would be my last visit to the gym over the next 4-5 days. Better get something in before I let myself fall apart.
I arrived early enough for the 7:30 class to see the 6:30 group finishing off the cash-out that I mentioned above. It didn't sound like something that would be painful at all, but as I looked around the gym, I saw people wincing and slowly moving through air squats. That was odd. I had done a ton of work the night before and capped it off with 100 air squats. Those air squats were the best part of the workout even though I was exhausted. Doing 150 here didn't seem like it would pose a problem. As for the double unders, those could be maddening if it was a day when they just weren't clicking for you, but 150 of those didn't sound awful either. Was this another one of those benign looking combos that was much worse than it looked on paper? (Spoiler: Yes. Yes it was.)
There were 5 of us in Coach Jenna's 7:30 class: me, Andrew, Keara, Marissa, and Neil. We also had some people just watching off to the side like Michal, who was waiting to go lift in the annex. Jenna had us warm up our double unders first because we weren't going to have time to practice them between the strength part of the workout and the cash-out. Neil is still getting used to double unders, but he wasn't doing himself any favors with the rope he was using. I had him try out my rope, but he was certain that the rope wasn't the problem. He just needed more practice. (Pro tip: Always blame the equipment, Neil!) I thought my double unders went alright, but Michal gave me a lukewarm review on how they looked. She wouldn't be impressed by my squat clean form either.
After we spent some time on double unders, Jenna had us get an empty barbell to use for the hang squat clean progressions we'd be working on. Probably the nicest thing about doing a lift from the hang is that we never have to do reps from "mid-shin" with the empty barbell. The "mid-shin" position is meant to replicate where the barbell starts when you have plates on it. Except when you have plates on the barbell, you don't have extra tension on your back and hamstrings as you hold it off the ground. It simply rests on the ground until you go to pick it up. With no plates, you have to hold the barbell off the ground while hunched over in an awkward position. No me gusta.
A major part of the hang squat clean would be the shrug. We needed to generate power by pressing the ground away with our heels, extend off of the floor, and shrug as hard as we could to elevate the barbell. Samson captured a picture of Andrew and I working on this in the warmup. I was impressed with how we looked. Michal? Not so much.
Airborne, big shrugs, and...Michal sticking out her tongue
When we had completed all of our progressions, we were told to grab the plates we would need for our hang squat clean doubles. I wasn't eager to do a lot of sets, so the plan was to go 135-165-195-215. If I got 215, I'd try for a PR at 230 (PR=225 going into this workout). But honestly, I wasn't expecting success at 215. The Valentine's Day Massacre had taken a lot out of me. I was excited to watch Andrew and Neil though. Andrew is scary good at Olympic lifts, while Neil has quietly been lifting heavier and heavier in workouts. I think a year from now, Neil will be one of those people at our gym who crushes me in WODs and I'll be left scratching my head as to how I ever beat him in a workout. (If I had to choose a female who fits this description, it would probably be Raj. There are others who fit into this category, but Neil and Raj were the first two that popped into my head.)
I got started with 135 pounds on my barbell and had no problems with two hang squat cleans. The set at 165 wasn't too bad either. Things started to get real at 195 pounds. I still had decent form as I caught each of my two cleans, but the weight was now heavy enough that devoting anything less than my full attention to the lift was going to result in a miss. I also had to be mindful of the transition into the second rep, as that can often be the most difficult aspect of the 2RM hang squat clean. I tried to be quick about the transition as it is tough to keep your grip if you hold the barbell at your waist for a prolonged period of time. After catching the second clean, I had to take a step forward as I stood up with it, but I kept it under control.
Because I wasn't doing a lot of sets, I was taking my time between lifts. I think Neil started out with less weight on his barbell for his first set, but by the time I was doing the cleans at 195, he had more weight on his barbell than I had on mine. His form looked a lot better than mine too, as he showed no signs of panic as he moved through his heavier doubles. What was heavy for Neil and I was light for Andrew. He was doing more sets than I had planned on doing as exhibited by the growing number of 10 pound plates that were on the ends of his barbell. He would move smoothly through two hang squat cleans and then add another 20 pounds for his next set. He was well beyond my PR before I even completed my set at 195 pounds.
The set at 215 pounds was going to be my big test for the day. I knew I had the ability to do it. It was simply a matter of whether I could make it happen when I was sore from last night's workout. I stepped up to the barbell and brought it to my waist. I lowered into the hang and went for the first clean. It was very heavy, but I caught it. I had to take a couple of steps forward (bad sign) in order to stand it up. I had rep #1 done though. My classmates yelled encouragement my way as I tried to remain calm, getting my breathing and my feet the way I wanted them before I made the transition into the second rep. My grip was tested as I moved back down into the hang and I knew the second rep was going to be ugly. I made the decision to trust in my front squat abilities. All I needed to do was drop very low and catch the barbell. I could reset there and front squat 215 pounds. I drove up with a big shrug and ended up in the predicament below:
Caught it. Wish I remembered what was next. Oh yeah, stand up!
I took three cracks at 230, but there was no part of me that truly believed I could get it after all of the effort it took to do 215. I did get to watch Neil complete a set at 220. Andrew did a ridiculous set at 275. And maybe the best fight of the night went to Marissa as she failed on her second rep at 123 a couple of times before finally standing up both reps in a set.
We moved on to the mysterious cash-out that had posed more problems for earlier classes than I thought it would. Air squats typically weren't a problem for me. The rep scheme for the cash-out was the same as it is for Annie (double unders and sit-ups). In that workout, I've had more issues with the sit-ups, so I wasn't worried about the double unders in here. 8 minutes seemed like a generous time cap to complete this work. What was I missing? I heard Andrew ask Jenna about the cash-out and her response was "it was horrible for me, but it will be fine for you". That didn't sound good. In my head, I heard Jenna say "horrible for me, fine for Andrew, horrible for you too Dave!"
I had spoken to Matt B after the 6:30 class and he told me that he nearly got all 50 of the double unders to start off the cash-out, but he still didn't finish before the time cap. That told me that I couldn't mess up my double unders and expect to finish. We started the cash-out and I was happy to get 34 in a row before hitting myself with the rope. I took care of the last 16 in my next set and moved on to the air squats. I didn't move as fast as I typically would on the air squats because I suspected that everyone was getting tired out by doing that. I wasn't moving slowly, but it was a very controlled pace that I was moving at. Along the way to 50, I did have to pause twice, but each time I stopped it was very brief. When those 50 air squats were complete, I was one-third of the way done. The clock showed just over 2 minutes had gone by. Well under the pace I needed to avoid the time cap.
The round of 40 was tricky as I suspected it would be, but I didn't need a ton of sets to finish off my 40 double unders. There were more pauses during the air squats, including one longer pause to shake out my legs, but there really wasn't a point other than that where I needed to stop and rest. I kept things moving. A little over 4 minutes had elapsed when I reached the end of the round of 40. 60% done, only halfway to the time cap. Still not sweating things.
I went 21 and 9 on my double unders in the round of 30. The air squats definitely began to hurt during this round, but I only stopped for very brief pauses along the way. 80% of the workout was done and there was exactly 2 minutes left before the time cap. I guess I should have been a bit concerned about the time cap at this stage, but I wasn't. It was a very strange feeling. In the round of 20, I strung all of my double unders and had just one brief pause during the air squats. Jenna gave us the one minute warning as I completed the air squats. I strung all 10 double unders, then went as fast as I could on the last 10 air squats. Final time: 7:30.
Considering I strung all of my double unders the last two rounds and only finished 30 seconds under the time cap, I didn't have much room for error towards the end of that cash-out. Yet there was never a moment when I got nervous about being time capped. That was very abnormal for a chronic worrier like myself. Maybe I have more faith than I realize in my double unders. Or perhaps I knew deep down that I could crank up the speed on my air squats if I really had to. Not sure what it was, but maintaining that level of calm in situations like this one would be very beneficial for me in future workouts.
Friday preview: I make it into the gym the day after my birthday in the hopes of seeing Queen Pam get her first muscle-up. Then I race Cline and the Prodigy in a benchmark workout.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.