Feeling Less Fluky

Workout date: 3/21/17

Getting my first bar muscle-up was an awesome feeling.  It also left me beaten up.  I had bruises all over the right side of my chest from throwing my body into that bar over and over again.  You would think that I'd want to keep trying to get more and more bar muscle-ups once I got that first one, but I kinda had the opposite reaction to this breakthrough.  It wasn't that I wanted to avoid bar muscle-ups. I simply didn't have a strong desire to do them.  I think part of the reason I felt that way was because I didn't believe that I "had bar muscle-ups".  I had done one, but it seemed like a fluke to me.  If I was forced to do them again, I might discover that I didn't truly have bar muscle-ups.

15 days passed before the litmus test arrived.  Tuesday night's WOD included bar muscle-ups.  Actually, the entire thing was bar muscle-ups.  One of this year's benchmark workouts is 30 bar muscle-ups for time with a 10 minute time cap.  There was no chance that I'd be getting anywhere near that amount, but I did set a goal for myself.  If that bar muscle-up two weeks ago wasn't a fluke, then I should be able to get two more during this 10 minute workout.  That seemed like a reasonable standard for proving that I indeed had bar muscle-ups.

I had been texting Bryan throughout the afternoon as he had discovered that some of the Open scores listed in my spreadsheet were wrong.  Having been absent from Friday Night Lights when 17.4 went down, I relied on the KOP blog for results and there were some mistakes sprinkled in there.  Bryan also mentioned that he would be at Dudes After Dark, which meant that I'd get to do bar muscle-ups with the guy who got his first bar muscle-up the same day I did.  The only difference was that Bryan did a second one a few minutes after that first one and both of his bar muscle-ups looked natural and easy.  Bryan told me that his goal for this workout was to get 15 reps.  He had a smidge more faith in his bar muscle-up abilities than I did.  I actually thought he was not giving himself enough credit.  I let him know that I thought he could get 20.

LC was in charge at Dudes After Dark like she typically is.  She had 8 people in her class and after we went through the initial warmup, she split us up based on our ability to do bar muscle-ups.  At least that's what I was told.  I wasn't paying attention when she said this, so when I saw the groups split up, I just went with the group that had less people.  4 people went towards the far end of the gym, so I stayed towards the front with Noel and Bryan.  Little did I know that I was volunteering myself as someone who could do bar muscle-ups.  I made Tia proclaim the same thing by telling her she had to join our group as well.  (As always, I'm a sucker for symmetry and I wanted both groups to have 4 people.)

All of us were on the low bars, which typically isn't a problem when there are only 8 people in class.  However, I kip pretty wildly when I'm attempting a bar muscle-up.  And that wasn't a trait that was only common to me.  Bryan and I had a lot of space between our bars, but after a couple practice attempts, it was clear that going at the same time might result in him kicking me repeatedly.  Bryan did have the wise idea of having me turn around and face him.  That was going to facilitate our ability to alternate attempts considerably.

LC had us practice what we'd be doing in the WOD (bar muscle-ups, banded bar muscle-ups, or chest-to-bar pull-ups) and then abandoned us to take care of a new guy in the lobby.  She didn't get her nickname for nothing.  She was out there for quite a while, so much so that she had a revolt on her hands inside the gym.  We were ready to do this workout and there was no coach on hand to get us started.  Cline went over to get the clock remote while I poked my head out the door and gave LC crap about never being in the gym when she's coaching.  Just as we were about to start without her, LC said goodbye to the new guy and ran into to operate the clock for us.  Our 10 minutes were underway.

I told Bryan to go first (and to keep going if he was in a rhythm) because I didn't want to mess up his attempt to get 15 bar muscle-ups.  I wasn't planning on getting very many and I was pretty sure I would need more rest between attempts than he would.  I would simply make my attempts when Bryan needed a break.  Bryan swung on the bar, leaned back, pressed down, and glided above the bar like it was no big deal.  There aren't style points for bar muscle-ups, but he would get them if there were.  Now it was my turn.  I was feeling a bit nervous because LC had told me right before we began that if I missed on 3 or 4 attempts in a row, I should switch to a band.  I hadn't hit any of my attempts in the warmup, so my pursuit of 2 bar muscle-ups in this workout could come to an end quickly if I didn't remember how to do them right off the bat.  I got ready for my first attempt, got a good swing, squeezed my butt as I pressed down on the bar, and before I knew it, the right side of my body was hanging over the bar.  I used Jill A's tip of leaning forward and letting my body slide over completely before trying to press up.  I pressed out when I was ready and I had done it.  One down, one to go!

The only problem with that rep is that LC didn't see it.  She didn't see the first one I got a couple weeks ago.  She didn't see either of the two that Bryan had done that same day.  Now she was missing the ones we were doing tonight.  As Bryan accumulated more reps to his score, I began failing on my attempts.  And naturally, LC witnessed all of those.  Each time I sensed that she was going to tell me to switch to a band, I blurted out "I got one on my first attempt!"  That didn't seem to be winning her over.  The timeline for my second bar muscle-up had been moved up from 10 minutes to within the next minute or so.

With about 3 minutes gone, Bryan was closing in on his 8th bar muscle-up.  My prediction of 20 was looking like a better bet than Bryan's goal of 15.  I kept getting closer and closer with my attempts, trying to chicken wing the right side of my body over the bar each time, but the bar kept rejecting me.  At one point, Tia and I backed into each other (we were facing opposite directions) as we got ready to make an attempt.  Tia joked that the butt rub we shared was going to bring us luck.  She might have been right.  As the clock was closing in on 4 minutes, I got the right side of my body over the bar once again.  After leaning forward and pressing out, I turned to my left for acknowledgment from LC.  She wasn't looking.  Again.  She was up at the whiteboard writing on it.  I was not having a second bar muscle-up go unacknowledged.  RACHEL!  <no response>  RAAAACHELLLL!!!!!!!!  She finally turned around.  She smiled upon seeing me above the bar and for the first time in this workout, I felt like I was safe from having to use the band.

I needed a good 30 seconds between attempts from there on out.  I had my bottle of water next to me, more so that I could drink from it at the end of the workout, but each of these attempts were taking a lot out of me and the bottle ended up empty before the 10 minutes were up.  Maybe taking that much of a break worked out for me.  I went from 2 to 3 to 4.  I got excited about the idea of completing 5 bar muscle-ups in a workout and before I knew it, I had my 5th one.  Meanwhile, Bryan was struggling.  I hadn't seen him get over the bar in a while and last I heard, he was still at 8 reps.

I got my 6th bar muscle-up with less than 2 minutes to go.  Maybe Bryan had gotten some more reps when I wasn't paying attention, but I was going to pretend that he was still at 8 reps and try my best to tie that mark.  With just over a minute left, I got #7.  This had become like a mini-Open workout for me.  Time was winding down and I needed just one more rep.  Could I pull it off or would I fail in the clutch again?  With about 45 seconds to go, I took my first shot at rep #8.  The right side of my body went up and over.  I took great caution to not let my legs swing into the wall or else the rep wouldn't have counted.  I pressed out and had reached 8 reps.

I waited about 20 seconds before going for #9.  Somehow my body was remembering how to do everything correctly.  I was up over the bar again for my 9th rep.  With only about 10 seconds left, I hurried into one last attempt, trying to register a double-digit score.  If there was any doubt about how much that steady rest had helped me, it was evident in that final attempt.  I didn't come close at all.  Oh well.  I was deliriously happy about how that workout went.  Final score: 9.

The most shocking part of that workout was that I ended up beating Bryan.  He had stalled out after getting 8 reps in the first 3 minutes.  It was very tortoise and the hare.  Would I ever wager any money on this ever happening again?  Hell no.  This workout will come up three more times this year and I still believe that Bryan might be able to finish all 30 at some point.  As for me, maybe I'll be able to get to that 15-20 rep range by year-end.

How good was I feeling after the bar muscle-up WOD?  Well the cash-out was skill work and we had the option of doing 50 push-ups, 50 handstand push-ups, or a 100 ft handstand walk.  Guess which one Mr. Newly Confident chose?  Yeah, I knew I wasn't going to get 100 ft, but I don't practice walking on my hands much and one of my goals for the year is to handstand walk 20 ft, so I thought I'd try it out.  It didn't go well.  Edwin captured my initial attempt in the video below:

SPLAT!

Maybe getting 9 bar muscle-ups and trying to handstand walk in the same hour was a bit ambitious.  I didn't have any successful attempts getting up on to my hands and I called it quits about 5 minutes before my time was up.  That "landing" evened out the bruising on both sides of my body.

Wednesday preview: A workout with pistols and rope climbs falls right in my wheelhouse, but my limited gas tank leaves me struggling with the KB.

Never When I Need It

Workout dates: 3/17/17 and 3/20/17

Three point seventeen point seventeen is...a repeat.

Three point seventeen point seventeen is...three point seventeen point sixteen.

10 miles for time.  7 stops for pints.  Make sure your judge marks down how many shots you had along the way as this will be used for tie-breaking purposes.

On Thursday night, Dave Castro announced the workout that most of the folks at KOP would be doing on Friday.  He didn't announce what workout Cline and I would be doing, but if he had, it would have been something along the lines of what you read above.  Last year, I participated in this run with Cline and Alison, but Alison's knees have been bothering her recently, preventing her from making a repeat appearance this year.  My rookie attempt at this run was a lot tougher than I bargained for.  I threw back way too many shots early on in the run and paid for it later on.  My hips became so sore from all of the running that I had to gimp my way along for the last few legs.  Alison and I stopped for a cheesesteak during the last leg to give me a break from hobbling.  The pain didn't cease when I reached the final location.  I spent the next couple of days trying to walk normally.  It wasn't until 4 days later that I ended up doing workout 16.4.

This year's run went a lot better.  I didn't get off to the best start though.  The plan was for the run to begin at the Art Museum steps at 10:45.  Looking at the SEPTA schedule, there was a train that would get me to 30th Street Station at 10:10.  I opted for that train because the weather forecast said it would be chilly and I didn't want to spend an hour on the steps of the Art Museum.  For some reason, I forgot that SEPTA is never on time.  It began with a notice that the train was running 2 minutes late.  It was closer to 10 minutes late when it arrived at Strafford Station to pick me up.  It was over 20 minutes late when it got to 30th St.  Now I needed to hustle to get to the start on time.  As I weaved my way through the train station, I saw another guy dressed as though he was headed out for a run.  He was also speeding his way towards the exit.  After we both risked our lives getting down the icy stairs to the Schuylkill River Trail, we introduced ourselves to one another.  My new friend's name was Bundy.  Bundy and I would get some extra exercise in today as we had to run the full mile to the Art Museum.  When we got there, the group was preparing to take a picture on the steps.  Bundy and I ran over and checked ourselves in before sneaking into the back row of the picture.  Made it just in the nick of time.

The first leg was the only leg that I recalled doing pain-free last year.  It was a fun trek to City Tap House and we had this glorious sight awaiting us upon our arrival:

The never-ending line of Guinness

After a pint there, we headed to Franklin Field to do a lap around the track.  Last year it took a lot of "persistence" to get on to the track, but eventually we found our way in.  This year we didn't have the same luck.  One of the best detours from last year's run would get skipped.  It was alright as balance would be maintained in the universe later on in the run when I got to experience a detour I missed last year.

The next stop was Slainte.  This second leg has more uphill portions on it than any other leg of the 10 mile loop.  I was among the last people to reach this bar last year, although it was fun having a frisbee thrown my way as I made my way towards the second pit stop.  This year I kept up with the group.  My pace definitely slowed on the third leg as we headed to Fado, but I still maintained contact with the back half of the group.  Fado was the sprint round of the pub run, as we had to make a detour to Jose Pistola's.  Remember those shots I mentioned earlier?  I had those at the "unofficial" stop of the pub run last year and this year's "unofficial" stop was at Jose Pistola's.  With no Guinness available, I had a stout and a shot of Jamieson.  The next stop would be at Paddy Whack's on South St.  Last year we took an Uber to that location.  This year...

...we took an Uber again.  Didn't regret it one bit.  It might have been the best part of the day for three reasons.  The most obvious of those reasons was that it meant I didn't have to run.  The second reason was because it led to the best exchange of the day.  On the ride to South St., Cline noticed a gentleman walking along the sidewalk with a small dog zipped up in his jacket.  And then this happened:

Cline: Your dog is awesome.

Guy with dog: Thank you!

Cline: You're very average.  But the dog...the dog is awesome.

Guy with dog: <gives Cline a confused look, then turns and keeps walking>

The third reason why I didn't regret the Uber ride was because it was took us to the stop I had missed last year.  Apparently on the run to Paddy Whack's, it is tradition to stop and grab an oversized slice of pizza at this place a few blocks away.  I had no idea about this last year, but this year it was mentioned while we were at Jose Pistola's.  I had definitely worked up an appetite, so I was ready for some pizza.  When we were dropped off, there were a bunch of people from the run either in line or already enjoying their slice of pizza.  I got a slice and a water, fueling myself for the second half of the run.

Our next stop was Paddy Whack's and it sucked.  They ran out of beers for our group, the service was terrible, and all of their taps seemed to be dispensing nothing but foam.  From there we made our way to the Irish Memorial to pay our respects.  I only stopped once along the way to the Irish Memorial after having to walk much of the way there last year.  We then hit up Plough and the Stars, the busiest location during the pub run.  After a couple pints there, we headed north to Bourbon & Branch.  This was the leg where things really fell apart for me last year, but I was only experiencing a little bit of pain as I jogged there this year.  With another Guinness in my liver, I left with the group as the last leg of the run began.  This year's finish line was St. Stephen's Green.  I didn't have to walk most of the way.  No need for a cheesesteak (probably because I had pizza).  I even encouraged a lady during the last half-mile who looked like she was going through the same sort of pain I had gone through in 2016.  We got to St. Stephen's Green together, where I sat with Bundy and had one last pint before grabbing an Uber home.

I was only mildly hungover on Saturday and while I was sore, it wasn't going to take the entire weekend to recover.  I probably could have done 17.4 on Sunday, but I figured there was no harm in giving my body an extra day of rest and doing it on Monday night.  There was also the bonus of doing the workout with Jenna, the captain of Team Black.  The Ninjas would take down this beast together!

Ninja powers...activate!  (Maggie says hi)

What was 17.4?  Well the St. Paddy's Day Pub Run wasn't the only repeat of the weekend.  17.4 was a repeat of 16.4.

Open Workout 17.4

AMRAP in 13 minutes

55 deadlifts (225/155)

55 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')

55 calories on the rower

55 handstand push-ups

I didn't enjoy this workout last year.  I didn't enjoy it when I tried it again in early January.  Both of those attempts ended with me on the rower, although it probably didn't matter whether I got off the rower or not because I had nothing in the way of handstand push-ups.  Things were different this time around.  I could do handstand push-ups and if I could simply manage one after completing the row, I would vault myself over thousands of people in the worldwide standings.  The same thing had been true in 17.2 where a single bar muscle-up would have done the same thing.  I failed to capitalize on that opportunity.  Could I make amends on 17.4?

Before I could think about handstand push-ups, I had to find a way to complete the first three segments of this workout in under 13 minutes, a feat I had failed to accomplish twice already.  The deadlifts were the biggest obstacle for me.  I've never fared well when having to do large volumes of deadlifts in a workout.  55 deadlifts qualified as "large volume" and that was without addressing the fact that 225 pounds was not light weight.  I did feel like I learned something watching the Open announcement on Thursday night though.  Brooke Wells was one of the two athletes competing and during the second event of last year's Crossfit Games, she deadlifted 415 pounds.  For this workout, she had a mere 155 pounds on her barbell.  I was thinking that she might be able to do all 55 reps unbroken.  Maybe she would go 30 and 25 if she needed a break.  What she actually did surprised me.  She did 11 sets of 5 reps at a time.  The light bulb went on.  In my two attempts at this workout, I had led off with a big set of deadlifts to begin.  Maybe if I did smaller sets right from the start, I wouldn't get crippled by the deadlifts.

Maggie was judging for Jenna and Jill A was judging for me.  The clock was set and we got started on 17.4.  I picked up my barbell and did 5 reps.  Jenna kept on going, but I was sticking to my new strategy.  5 reps, rest.  5 reps, rest.  The hope was to get through my 11 sets in under 3:30.  I had five sets done at about 1:30.  Perfect.  Just needed to keep this up for six more sets.

I made it through two more sets.  As I began my eighth set, I made it through two reps and then had to drop the barbell.  Jill encouraged me to just do singles and that's what I did until I reached 40 reps. I took a break before the stubborn side of me attempted to do another set of five.  I held on for three reps.  With 43 reps down, it was going to be singles the rest of the way.  Jenna moved on to the wall balls when I had 3 reps to go.  I took a peek at the clock and saw that it was at 3:40.  Might have dropped an F-bomb after seeing I was behind schedule.  I did 3 more singles and got to my wall ball.

The plan for the wall balls was to go 15-13-11-9-7.  Perfectly sensible rep scheme for someone who wasn't tired.  I was tired though.  My plan for the deadlifts was better than what I had gone with in the past, but it still drained me.  Instead of leading off with a set of 15 wall balls, I got through 6.  I needed to do better than that.  I also needed to try and keep my breaks short if I was going to take a bunch of them on the way to 55 reps.  I think I did a decent job of that.  After that set of 6, I went 7-8-6-6-8-7-7 to get to 55 reps.  I headed to my rower before Jenna, although she would join me shortly.

As I walked to my rower, I glanced at the clock again.  It was reaching 8:20 as I sat down to begin my row.  The good news was that I was about a minute and a half ahead of my pace from my last two attempts.  The bad news was that I couldn't muster much energy on the rower.  Jill kept reminding me to use my legs since I wouldn't need them for the handstand push-ups, but my legs didn't have much left to give.  I thought the 55 calorie row would take about 3:30 to complete, but my monitor showed me that I had been rowing for slightly more than two minutes when I got to 28 calories.  I started to become concerned that I wasn't going to finish the row before time was called.  Part of me wanted to look back and peek at the clock, but the more sensible side of me said that I needed to just focus on the remaining row.  I had less than 5 calories left when I heard that there was one minute remaining.  I was definitely going to get off of the rower.  My tiebreaker time was going to suck, but that wouldn't matter if I got one handstand push-up.

Officially I had 46 seconds left when I finished the row.  By the time I kicked up on to the wall, there was probably about 35 seconds left.  I took my time getting my hands comfortable.  I slowly lowered on to my head.  I wasn't going to hurry.  Even if I only got 1 handstand push-up, it would be huge.  Better to focus on that one rep.  I drew my knees down and told myself to explode up with everything I had.  I drove my feet upward and...went nowhere.  I barely rose off of the mat.  I moved so little that I didn't bother coming off of the wall to set up again.  I was basically still in my setup.  I refocused and drove upwards.  This time I came off of the mat, but as I tried to press out, my body slid to the left.  I couldn't control it.  I slid off the wall and looked at the clock.  12 seconds left.  I tried to rush and get upside-down for one last attempt, but my arms buckled and I landed on my head.  It was 17.2 all over again.  I had put myself into position to jump up the leaderboard, both worldwide and in the KOP competition.  But when I need to pull off a tough movement in the clutch, I never seem able to do it.  Final score: 165.

After time was called, I angrily punched the wall that I couldn't do a handstand push-up on.  I went and sat by myself for a bit.  Then I noticed that Jenna was still on her rower not looking very happy.  I went to check on her, trying to see whether she was feeling sick or mad.  It was the latter.  Her goal was to finish the row, but she ended up 5 calories short, just as she had a year ago.  We both seemed convinced that we were angrier than the other, but it probably was a tie.

Two angry ninjas trying to figure out how it all went wrong

It was nearly 7:30 and scores had to be submitted online by 8pm, but there was still one person who hadn't done the workout.  That was Kris.  She asked me if I would judge for her.  After saying yes, she handed me the paper towel that would serve as her official scoresheet.  She had made sections for the deadlifts, the wall balls, and the row.  I asked her what we would do if she finished the row, but she didn't seem concerned about attempting handstand push-ups.

With no time to waste, Kris got started on 17.4.  She wasn't using my conservative strategy.  Kris held on for 20 straight deadlifts to begin her workout.  After the first 20, she switched to sets of 5.  Towards the end of the deadlifts, she switched to singles.  It was a light weight for her as demonstrated by how quickly she motored through those single reps.  When she got to 53, she did a deadlift and then held on for #55 as well.

55 deadlifts?  That's it?  I can do these all day.

Kris did a set of 10 wall balls at the beginning and at the end of her round of 55, with a bunch of sets of 5 reps in between.  She had about 4 and a half minutes remaining as she headed to the rower.  I tried to calculate how many calories per minute she was doing and it looked like she was getting about 13 calories per minute early on.  With 2 minutes to go, she had 26 calories left.  With 1 minute to go, she had 13 calories left.  She had been very consistent through the first 42 calories, but she needed to pick up the pace if she wanted to be certain of completing the row before time was up.  Kris didn't disappoint.  As Esra, Raj, Jenna and I yelled at her to keep pulling as hard as she could, Kris ramped up her intensity.  Her monitor clicked to 55 calories with only 10 seconds remaining in the workout.  That exciting final surge makes her the week 4 MVP in my book.  Kris's final score: 165.

We made sure that Kris was feeling okay afterwards, as her face was as purple as the team that she represents.  Once she seemed alright, I went back to dwelling on my failure at the end of 17.4.  It was still bugging me that I couldn't get one handstand push-up when I needed it.  I went back down to where the mats were and tried again.  I did three in a row.  I'm not sure if that helped me deal with my earlier failure or not.  All I know is that the next phase of my Crossfit evolution will be learning how to do these difficult movements when I'm exhausted.

Tuesday preview: I haven't even attempted a bar muscle-up since I failed to do one at the end of my 17.2 re-do.  Tuesday's workout calls for 30 of them.  That seems like overkill.

Forever Unclean

Workout date: 3/16/17

I have been using Thursdays as rest days in anticipation of doing the Open workout each Friday, but I wouldn't be doing 17.4 this Friday.  Friday was St. Paddy's Day and I would once again be running around Philadelphia drinking heavily and proving that my cross-country days were long behind me.  If I wasn't resting up for 17.4, then there wasn't any reason to skip the workout on Thursday.  I could have gone to an evening class, but it had been 5 weeks since I had visited the noon express.  That was too long.  I had to go visit my friends at the nooner.

There were 8 of us in Coach Aimee's noon class, a nice even number for the partner WOD that had been scheduled for the day.  Here's what the partner WOD looked like:

Thursday's partner WOD:
10 rounds
12/10 calories on the assault bike
15 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')

So we each had 5 turns on the assault bike followed by a moderate amount of wall balls.  Then we got a break as our partner worked through their round.  That didn't sound so bad.  Being the jaded Crossfitter I am, I immediately became suspicious of this workout.  Moderate amounts of work with generous breaks?  This was likely to hurt a lot more than it appeared it would at first glance.

Aimee had us do some light warmup before instructing us to team up.  Tim H was the only other guy in class and I was the only one who was close enough to him in height to comfortably share an assault bike with him.  I looked over at him and nodded, assuming we'd be partners.  He shook his head side-to-side, indicating that would not be the case.  Then he pointed off to his right.  I didn't realize that Tim's wife, Anna, was in class today.  Anna is much shorter than Tim, but because we had 4 teams and 5 assault bikes, Tim and Anna were able to each use their own assault bike for this workout.  Who would I partner up with?  4 of the other 5 ladies in class seemed to be in conversation, deciding how they would pair up.  That left Erika L standing by herself over at one of the assault bikes.  I asked her if she would mind pairing up with me.  She resisted the urge to say "if I must" and simply replied with a "sure" instead.

We each got a turn doing some wall balls and we each accumulated a few calories on the assault bike in preparation for the workout.  Erika was concerned about the height of our assault bike seat since we had a little bit of a size disparity on our team, but I assured her that I'd end up hunched over while riding the assault bike anyways, so I was fine with keeping the seat at a level that worked best for her.  Aimee explained that we would alternate between rounds and that once one member of the team had completed their wall balls, they should come over and tag their partner.  Or give them a chest bump.  Given those two choices, was there any question what option Erika and I would use in this workout?

The only remaining question was what order we would go in.  Erika seemed interested in going first, which was fine with me since I tend to prefer going last.  Aimee got us started and Erika began pedaling away.  She seemed to pedal faster when she was angry, so I provided motivation by saying things like "you've gotta be at 10 calories by now", even though I was looking directly at the monitor and could see that she only had 7 calories at that point.  When she did get to 10 calories, she moved over to the wall where she was throwing her ball to the 8 foot mark.  15 wall balls later, it was my turn to go.

I knew that I could go crazy on the assault bike and reach 12 calories very quickly, so I did just that, even though I knew I had 4 more rounds after this.  I wanted to see how well I could recover after going that fast.  I reached 12 calories so fast that Erika looked at me and simply said "JESUS!" when I hopped off the bike.  I was able to do all 15 wall balls in a row and suddenly it was Erika's turn to go again.  (I'm such a nice guy, providing her with as little rest as possible!)  While Erika began her second ride on the bike, I sat on the floor next to her.  I was going to rest and take advantage of the breeze she'd be providing while riding the assault bike.

As I sat on the floor, it became clear to me that I wasn't going to be able to do all 5 rounds like I had done the first one.  There was already a burn in my legs from my crazy first round sprint.  I decided that it would be wise to try and keep a strong pace on the bike, but break up the wall balls into smaller sets.  After Erika chest bumped me to end her second round, I got on the bike and tried to build up to a fast pace.  It wasn't nearly as fast as my first round, but it was still pretty good.  I got off the bike, went to the wall and did 5 wall balls.  That might sound wimpy (it kinda is), but my plan was to do 3 sets of five reps with very short breaks.  And I was true to my word on taking short breaks.  I gave myself a "3...2...1...pick it back up" countdown in between the sets of five.  I hit Erika with a chest bump and we were on to round three.

Continuing in the vein of being the world's worst teammate, I told Erika to take her time during this round.  I had moved fast during those two rounds, but a longer break would be greatly appreciated.  Erika didn't really slow down all that much (pretty sure my pace slowed down more over the last three rounds).  Sooner than I would have liked, I received a chest bump and had to get back on the assault bike.  My pace on the bike was definitely slower during round three as I went for a steadier ride rather than a quick initial burst like I typically do.  That gave me some fresher legs on the wall balls.  I only needed two sets this time, beginning with a set of 10 and completing the round with a set of 5.  I chest bumped Erika into her fourth round.

As Erika had been pedaling during her third round, I looked at the clock and tried to figure out what our final time might be.  I was estimating around 15-16 minutes at that stage.  While Erika took her fourth turn on the bike, I adjusted that estimate to over 16 minutes.  My third round was slower than I had accounted for when coming up with that initial estimate and I was feeling fairly confident that my pace wasn't going to improve in rounds four and five.  Erika hit me with a chest bump and I set out on my fourth ride on the assault bike.  My pace was similar to what it was during the third ride.  Very steady with no real bursts like I had during the first two rounds.  I got off the bike and did two sets at the wall, with 8 shots in the first set and 7 shots in the second set.

We had reached the final round!  I was legitimately a good teammate during Erika's final round, pushing her along and reminding her that she was almost done.  I got my final chest bump and hopped on the bike.  No steady pace for the final round.  I was going to do my best to duplicate the frantic ride I had completed in the first round.  I made it to 9 calories before I ran out of steam.  Those last 3 calories were an unpleasant grind, but I finished them up.  Erika told me not to drop the ball when I got over to the wall and I was going to do my best to comply with my teammate's request.  Being the better teammate, she also reminded me to breathe as I pushed through that final round of wall balls.  I was able to hang on through all 15 reps.  Our final time: 18:10.

We might have slowed down in those later rounds, but we didn't care.  Once we were done, we were focused on one thing: seeing if Aimee had taken a photo of us "tagging" each other between rounds.  Here's what she had:

Totally not staged post-workout because Aimee took no pictures of us during the WOD

Erika got a kick out of our hands in that photo, saying that it looked like we were doing our best Ruxin impression, screaming "forever unclean!"   That sounded like a pretty solid team name to me, so I insisted that Aimee include that on the KOP blog when recording our time.

Friday/Monday preview: A recap of the St. Paddy's Day Pub Run with Cline.  After a weekend of recovery, I take on 17.4 on Monday night.  It's the return of a workout that I'm not especially fond of.

Lifters Ain't The Problem

Workout date: 3/15/17

Winter Storm Stella hit the northeast on Tuesday morning.  She didn't bring as much snow as we were warned about, but she did bring cold temps and high winds.  I shoveled most of my driveway but I didn't move fast enough to get the bottom section cleared before it froze over.  I imagined that driving conditions weren't very good because if there is anything that I've learned from Key and Peele, it's that white snow isn't nearly as dangerous as black ice:

Black ice perseveres!

KOP was closed most of Tuesday, but it was reopened from 4:30-6:30pm for an impromptu Open Gym session.  I decided that driving to Bridgeport wasn't worth it, so Tuesday became a rest day.

Wednesday would be a strength day as the main part of the workout was finding a 1RM clean and jerk.  It would be followed by a 5 minute cash-out where we'd be doing rounds of 50 double unders and 10 toes-to-bar.  The 7:30 class was typically run by Coach Jenna, but Coach Giulz was filling in for her this week.  And while Dudes After Dark tends to bring in at least a medium-sized crowd, the Wednesday 7:30 class is usually sparsely populated.  That was the case again as it was only me, Rob C, and Therese in attendance for the last class of the night.  Maggie and Faby were also there getting in some extra strength work.

Was I going to squat clean every single one of my attempts?  You betcha!  17.3 taught me that forcing myself to squat as I did my lifts paid dividends.  Matt B was a believer as well.  I ran into him as he was leaving the 6:30 class and had asked him if he had gotten something in the 235-245 range for his clean and jerk.  The last time the clean and jerk came up in a WOD, we worked together and he got 230 pounds for a new PR.  It looked pretty easy when he did it too.  I figured he was going to tell me that he got 235 today, but his response surprised me.  "Not even close", he told me before going on to explain that he decided to squat clean all of his lifts during the WOD.  Because he was used to only doing power cleans, he couldn't lift as much with the squat clean.  As a result, his best lift for the day was 205 pounds.  If he makes a routine out of doing squat cleans, there is little doubt in my mind that he'll be getting 245 in the very near future.

My sights were set on 230 pounds.  I've been stuck at a PR of 225 pounds for a while.  I know I have the ability to squat clean 235 pounds.  I know I have the ability to jerk 235 pounds.  Putting it together has been the problem.  There have been times when I've gone after 230 or 235 in class (depending on how I'm feeling), but I've yet to complete a clean and jerk at either of those weights.  Giulz explained to us that we were supposed to do 7 clean and jerks during this WOD, not counting warmups.  The real lifts should be about 70% and higher, which meant that I could start at 155 and go from there.  Giulz also explained that it was fine if we topped out on the 4th or 5th lift, but that we should still complete at least 7 lifts (think drop sets).  My plan was to warm up at 135 pounds, then go 155-175-195-215-230.  I'd figure out what I'd do for my other two lifts along the way.

Rob, Therese, and I were lined up facing the entrance of the gym, with Rob in the back, me in the middle, and Therese closest to the front.  I loaded up my barbell with 135 pounds, a weight that I felt very comfortable beginning with as neither the squat clean nor the jerk would be that strenuous.  A lot of times when I'm doing a WOD like this, I'll feel like I'm running short on time, so I make 1 attempt at a weight and then move higher.  It seemed like we were getting a lot of time to lift in this class, so I decided to do 2 lifts at 135 pounds.  I didn't have any problems with either lift, but something was bugging me.  Often in Crossfit, the focus with barbell movements is speed.  Form can quickly go out the window because the clock is ticking.  That wasn't a problem for me.  My form sucked even when I wasn't in a hurry.  Take the clean, for example.  I knew that my body was supposed to make contact with the barbell when it was just below my hip crease.  However, when I did my cleans, the barbell was barely over my knee when I made contact.  I wasn't being patient enough and because of that I wasn't getting as much power as I should.  I needed to fix that.

My next attempt was at 155 pounds and I decided I would do two lifts at this weight as well.  On my first attempt, I had a successful clean and jerk, but I rushed the clean again.  I looked over and saw that Faby was watching me.  It appeared that he wanted to say something to me (give me tips, silent one!), but he looked reluctant to do so.  There's no one who works on Olympic lifting at our gym more than Faby, so I'd be a fool not to use him as a resource.  So I walked over and started asking him questions.  He confirmed that I needed to be more patient on the clean.  I asked whether I needed to drag the barbell along my legs like we do with a deadlift, but he clarified for me that it just had to remain very close to my legs.  He advocated keeping my arms straight for longer, though he said it was ok to cheat by bending your arms a bit as you pulled so that it is higher as it makes contact with your body. It was a lot of information to digest as I got ready to try 155 again.

155 wasn't as much of a cinch as 135 pounds was in terms of completing the clean and jerk with sub-par form, but it was light enough that I felt comfortable using it while experimenting with my technique.  On the next lift, when I had the urge to bend my arms and drive my body into the barbell, I resisted.  I kept pulling instead.  When it felt unnaturally high, I finally gave in and made contact with my body.  The point of contact was fairly high on my thigh.  I was able to catch the squat clean before finishing things off with a split jerk.  After dropping the barbell, Faby confirmed that my form looked better.  Yay progress!

I wouldn't be me if I didn't immediately follow up success with failure.  175 pounds was enough that I was now in that territory where I couldn't mess up my form too much and expect to have a successful lift.  Sure enough, I botched my next lift.  I was so focused on being patient on that pull that I forgot everything else.  Like staying in my heels.  After my body made contact with the barbell, I dropped into a squat, except I landed on my tippy toes.  It is really hard to stand up with 175 pounds while squatting on your tippy toes.  I knew I had messed up immediately and dumped the barbell.  Giulz came over to tell me to stay in my heels, but I was already well aware of how I had goofed up that lift.  My lack of attention to staying in my heels ended up focusing attention on my footwear.  Normally I wear my lifting shoes when I do clean and jerks, but today I was wearing my new Crossfit sneakers.  They've been solid when I've had to lift moderate weights during metcons so I wanted to see how they held up when I took on heavy lifts.  Giulz saw what I was wearing and we had this exchange:

Giulz: Why aren't you wearing your lifters?

Me: I wanted to try these out and see how I did.

Giulz: So you have your lifters, you're just not wearing them?

Me: Trust me, Giulz.  The lifters ain't the problem.

I really did believe that.  The lifters are great because they keep my feet anchored to the ground, but these new sneakers did a fairly good job of that as well.  That last lift was unsuccessful due to user error, not because of what was on the user's feet.  I simply hadn't paid attention to what I was doing and that's why I ended up on my toes.  When I tried 175 pounds a second time, I was patient with my pull and I stayed in my heels.  My split jerk was solid and I was ready to add another 20 pounds to my barbell.

My lift at 195 was very similar to the lift at 175 pounds.  The next lift at 215 pounds was going to be a test for me.  I had just enough power to squat clean that weight with my typical abbreviated pull.  Now I was going to be trying to incorporate the more patient pull into my clean.  I was in the same boat that Matt was in earlier.  I had reached a weight that I had gotten in the past, but at the same time this was a weight that I might not be able to get with a new technique.  My instincts were going to tell me to pull early because the barbell was so heavy, but I had to trust that waiting would work out for me.  And it did.  Sort of.  My body made contact with the barbell where it was supposed to, but once again I was so focused on this that I didn't devote enough attention to my feet.  I wasn't in my heels, but I wan't up on my tippy toes either.  Let's call my landing position "leaning on my toes".  I got a solid bounce as I caught the barbell and I wasted no time trying to stand up.  As I rose, I came back on to my heels and everything was right with the world again.  My jerk was good and I began getting the vibe that today was going to be the day that 225 pounds stopped being my 1RM.

How confident was I?  Instead of loading 230 pounds on to my barbell, I went straight to 235 pounds.  The patient pull was starting to feel more natural.  I knew I could get under the barbell for my squat.  I just had to put everything together.  Easier said than done.  First of all, I succumbed to the age-old trap of psyching myself out because I knew how much was on the barbell.  235 pounds?  I've never done that before.  That's gonna be super heavy!  My first two attempts at 235 were failures before I even laid my hands on the barbell.  I knew I was overthinking it, so I stepped away and gave myself some time.  Faby came over and mentioned that my knees were over the barbell in my setup and that I was pulling the barbell around my knees as I began my clean.  He showed me a technique for setting up where your shins are vertical, your butt is in the air, and then you pull the barbell into your shins before beginning your clean.  I had seen lifters do this before but had never tried it myself.  I went up to the barbell, got my shins vertical, raised my butt up, and then pulled the barbell towards me before going into the clean.  I may have lifted the barbell about an inch off of the ground before dropping it.  I turned around and apologized to Faby, but this was one new thing too many for me to experiment with on this day.  I'd have to get the squat clean using my normal setup.

Tries #4 and #5 failed for the same reason: I didn't whip my elbows around fast enough.  Truth be told, that was a big reason why I failed on my first two attempts as well.  My patience was good and I was getting under the barbell, but I wasn't doing a good enough job of being fast with my elbows.  I was ready to call it quits after the 5th failure as I thought we were about to get ready for the cash-out. Then I saw that Rob was going to do another lift.  Might as well try one more time if he was still lifting.  It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that if I failed on my first five attempts that the 6th time was not the charm.  Pretty sure I was simply tired at that point.  225 would have to remain my 1RM a little while longer.

I put away my barbell and the plates I was using.  I grabbed my grips and my jump rope.  I also changed my shoes.  Giulz couldn't believe that I was changing my shoes for the cash-out when I was unwilling to put on my lifters earlier, but I wanted my lighter sneakers for the double unders and the toes-to-bar.  Once we all had our jump ropes out, Giulz wanted us to do 30 seconds of single unders and 30 seconds of double unders.  Due to my shoe change, I was behind Rob and Therese, so I transitioned directly from the single unders to the double unders once the first 30 seconds was up.  (Fancy!)  I didn't have much luck with the double unders though.  When the three of us were done, Giulz asked each of us how many double unders we got.  She wanted an answer in the 30-40 range.  My answer was 19.

Because the cash-out was meant to be a 5 minute sprint, Giulz didn't want us spending a lot of time doing frustrated double under attempts.  If 50 double unders was going to take 2 minutes to complete, then she wanted us doing shorter rounds.  After giving her my total of 19 from the 30 second warmup, Giulz asked me if I ought to consider doing 25 double unders per round rather than 50.  My response?  "Nah, I'm good with 50".  Way to put additional pressure on yourself, Dave!

If I had continued to struggle with double unders during the cash-out, my stubborn decision to stick with 50 reps per round would have made me look stupid.  Thankfully I redeemed myself by getting 50 in a row to start the cash-out.  I was pumped!  I came over to the pull-up rig ready to kip through 10 toes-to-bar in a row.  Except I didn't realize how much 50 consecutive double unders would affect my core.  I went to use the lighter kip that I had practiced on Monday night and immediately struggled.  Oops.  Eventually I was able to use that kip for a couple sets of 3, but the toes-to-bar were much slower than I thought they would be.

I couldn't pull off 50 in a row in the second round, instead needing a bunch of smaller sets to get to 50.  My toes-to-bar were about what they were in round #1.  I had about a minute left when I returned to my jump rope for the third time.  I was pretty tired, but I was also determined to get through another set of 50 before time was up.  I came close, but I didn't quite make it.  Final score: 2+44.

The biggest takeaway from this workout for me was learning to be patient with that clean pull.  I know 235 didn't happen for me today, but it felt like I made progress with my form.  If I can become consistent in using proper form, then 235 will happen soon enough.

Thursday preview: With no Open workout in the cards for me on Friday, I decide to hit up the nooner on Thursday, where a partner WOD is on tap.  There is only one proper way to tag in your teammate: the chest bump.

The Split Clean

Workout date: 3/13/17

"You're only competing against yourself."

As much as I have enjoyed doing Crossfit over the years, they definitely throw in some whoppers along the way.  The idea that you're only competing against yourself might be at the top of the list.  Whether people openly admit it or not, every Crossfitter has their eye on at least one other person as they do the workout or when they scan the results from earlier in the day.  When the Open comes around, the competitive fires are ratcheted up even further.  HQ's biggest selling point for the Open seems to be the worldwide leaderboard, where you can finally learn how well you stack up against that 42 year old guy from Bulgaria that you will never meet.  Who wouldn't pay $20 for that info?

Then you have the intra-gym competitions during the Open.  At KOP, we split up into four or five teams and the same team wins all the time.  Hard to get too excited about that.  I take care of the spreadsheet that tracks the scoring for the team competition and in there is a tab that shows how everyone ranks individually.  With 114 people signed up from KOP this year, you can look at this tab and compare yourself against practically everyone in the gym.  Now there is a gold mine for the overly competitive amongst us.  (Guilty!)  And you don't have to pay a dime for that information.

Monday marks the last day that you can do the Open workout and I tend to get a stream of last-minute scores from Giulz.  These scores might be for people who couldn't do the workout until Monday or they might be for people who did the workout a second time in an attempt to improve their score.  On this Monday, most of the scores were of the re-do variety.  For 17.1 and 17.2, a couple of people were successful in improving their scores the second time they did the workout.  For 17.3, there were considerably more people who improved their scores during their encore performance.  There were people who were 10-15 reps under my score originally, but had crept within a few reps of me on their second attempt.  There were also some folks who had beaten me by a couple of reps on Friday, but they had found the strength on Monday to complete six rounds under 8 minutes, earning them a shot at the third barbell in the workout.  As I got more of these updated scores, the competitor in me went from "satisfied with Friday's score" to "determined to finish 6 rounds under the 8 minute time cap".  I talked myself into doing 17.3 again.

This is my 4th year of doing the Open and I should be wise enough at this point to know that there are really only two reasons to re-do an Open workout:

1. I completely screwed up a movement that I shouldn't have screwed up.  If I re-did the workout and showed even the smallest level of competence, my score would improve leaps and bounds.
2. I came tantalizingly close to extending the amount of time I'd get in the workout.  This is another instance where a small improvement would result in a much higher score.

Criterion #2 was true when I did 16.2 last year.  I should have gotten through the first round and earned 4 more minutes of time to work with, but I fell a couple of squat cleans short on my first attempt.  Those squat cleans were on the lighter side, so I knew it wasn't going to take much improvement to reach the second round.  On my next attempt at 16.2, I completed the first round and added 17 reps to my score.

I talked myself into believing that the same circumstances applied for 17.3, but the truth was that they didn't.  I was 7 reps from getting 4 extra minutes, but that included 5 fairly heavy squat snatches.  If I had kept going on Friday, I probably would have needed about 9 minutes and 15 seconds to get through round six.  Could I trim 75 seconds off of my Friday performance?  Seeing as that was one of my best Crossfit performances ever, the answer seemed to be no.  Yet there I was on Monday night, trying to convince myself that it was possible as long as I went much faster in the three rounds with the 95 pound barbell.

If I got through those first three rounds in about 2:30 (40 seconds faster than Friday) and didn't mess up on any of my squat snatches at 135 pounds, then maybe I could beat the time cap.  That math was still on the fuzzy side, but I made myself believe that it was possible.  The key was stringing all of the 95 pound squat snatches.  If I could do six in a row for each of the first three rounds, then 2:30 was a legit possibility.  (You've probably noticed a lot of if's by now and that's because this whole thing worked hypothetically.  In practice, it was a totally different story.)

Raj was nice enough to judge for me even though I was making her late for the 6:30 class.  I felt even worse about making her late as my second attempt at 17.3 played out.  The first round went perfectly. I did 6 quick singles of chest-to-bar pull-ups.  They were under control and about as efficient as I could do them.  Then I moved to the barbell and strung 6 squat snatches at 95 pounds.  Super!  Do that two more times and I would be in position to beat the time cap.  I moved through 6 more quick singles on the pull-up bar, but when I returned to my barbell, I knew I was screwed.  I had sprinted through the first 18 reps, leaving me unable to string the next set of 6 squat snatches.  I tried to remain calm, telling myself that three quick sets of two might leave me in good position still.  I did the first set of two, paused for a couple seconds, then went to do the next set.  Remember that part about not messing up any of my squat snatches at 135 pounds?  I should have just said that I couldn't afford to mess up any of my squat snatches period.  I botched the next rep at 95 pounds and less than 2 minutes into my re-do, I knew I wasn't going to finish 6 rounds.

I probably let that miss get to me as I remained frustrated the rest of the way.  There were several times where I wanted to stop as I knew I wasn't matching my score of 65 from Friday, but I felt like that would have been disrespectful to Raj who had taken the time to judge me.  The least I could do was keep pushing through the entire 8 minutes.  I had two misses on the squat snatches at 135.  I even had two no-reps while doing chest-to-bar pull-ups.  I was able to end things on a good note though.  With time left for one last lift, I got under 135 pounds and stood it up.  Final score: 56.  Stop re-doing Open workouts, Dave!

I hung around for a while to watch the 6:30 class.  Then I got some extra skill work in.  I spent most of that time doing handstand push-ups with Josh M.  Josh was helping me with my speed as he is very fast when he's moving through his handstand push-ups.  I began by doing sets of 5 fast reps using 2 ab-mats.  I would do a set, then Josh would do a set of real handstand push-ups.  Eventually I dropped down to 1 ab-mat, where I did quick sets of 3.  Josh transitioned to strict handstand push-ups while I worked with 1 ab-mat.  Finally I got rid of the last ab-mat and tried to do real handstand push-ups with speed.  I was able to do 2 in a row quickly, but couldn't make a third rep happen.  I did two sets like that before calling it a night on working upside-down.

As I was wrapping up my handstand push-up practice, I saw Danielle working on clean and jerks.  Danielle, Ashley, and Raj had stuck around to work on some WODs for the upcoming Girls On Girls competition.  Danielle was resisting the urge to squat clean by starfishing her power clean.  For those unfamiliar with the starfish, it is when you spread your feet apart about as far as you can in an effort to avoid squatting.  I can still remember doing a lifting WOD where I kept trying to power clean everything.  Jim C came over and told me to "stop with the starfish crap" since I knew how to squat clean.  He was right.  It would have been better to go with the squat clean, but I was still at a stage where I was resistant to it.  I think that's the stage Danielle is at right now.  She kept starfishing and missing her cleans, even though she was getting the barbell plenty high enough.  I told her that she needed to do a squat clean.  Her response was "I know, I know" before promising me that she would squat clean her next attempt.  Danielle walked up to the barbell for her next attempt and did something I had never seen before.  Rather than performing the promised squat clean, she did what I jokingly called a split clean.  (Note: Apparently split cleans are a real thing.  I was just too ignorant to know that before this happened.)  Her legs split even further apart than they had on her prior attempts and her feet were pointing in random directions instead of pointing straight ahead.  Somehow she worked her feet back inwards and was able to hold on to the barbell.  The whole thing looked painful and I certainly would not have the flexibility to pull it off.  She made it work though.  Unfortunately, she was laughing so much (I was too!) that she couldn't complete the jerk.

I moved on to the pull-up rig where I wanted to work on toes-to-bar.  I needed to get used to kipping properly again.  In the past, I've always had to violently stomp down in order to get that kip working. It was never long before my core got tired and I'd have to revert to single reps.  When I've watched the Open announcements or Regionals, I've seen the top athletes kip toes-to-bar without that violent stomp.  There had to be some trick to it.  (Or maybe they had abs and I didn't.)  As I was playing around with doing sets, I managed to get into a fairly steady kip without the stomping motion.  The trick was that your body had to stay engaged in the movement even if you weren't stomping.  I think there is a natural tendency to be engaged as you bring your toes up to the bar, but when you are dropping your feet back below you, you can't just let gravity do the work.  I got 9 reps in a row without stomping.  Felt like a mini-breakthrough for me.  I definitely need a lot of practice with it though.

The last thing I worked on was double unders.  It seemed likely that they were going to make an appearance in one of the final two Open workouts, so it made sense to start preparing.  After a few sets that were less than 15 reps in length, I managed a long set where I got 55 in a row.  My form began to deteriorate around the 40-45 rep mark, indicating that my stamina is not quite what it was when I was practicing these all the time.  Guess I should be grateful that my double under ability hasn't gone away completely now that I rarely spend time practicing them.

Wednesday preview: After a snow day on Tuesday, I return to the gym on Wednesday for clean and jerks and a cash out of double unders and toes-to-bar.  Good thing I practiced those Monday night!

Squatty Party

Workout date: 3/10/17

On Thursday night, I was at Benihana.  If you sign up for their e-mails, they will send you a $30 gift certificate for your birthday.  Not bad, right?  The certificate is good for about a month, but you can only use it Monday through Thursday.  This would be the last night I could use mine because Jenn was headed to Asia the following morning, so I talked her into going out for hibachi.  We were done with dinner right around 8pm, so as we waited on the check, I pulled out my phone and tried to hear what 17.3 would be.  There were squat snatches.  There were chest-to-bar pull-ups.  And then Dave Castro was trying to match them up on a chalkboard.  It was like the math event during the academic decathlon in Billy Madison, only Castro didn't eventually give up and write "Eric drinks his own pee" once it was clear that he had no idea what he was doing.  Luckily, Crossfit HQ always airs a video explaining the format of the workout.  That's how I learned that 17.3 worked as follows:

Open Workout 17.3

In 8 minutes complete:
3 rounds of
6 chest-to-bar pull-ups
6 squat snatches (95/65)
Then 3 rounds of
7 chest-to-bar pull-ups
5 squat snatches (135/95)

If all work has been completed in under 8 minutes, you earn 4 extra minutes to complete:
3 rounds of
8 chest-to-bar pull-ups
4 squat snatches (185/135)

If all work has been completed in under 12 minutes, you earn 4 extra minutes to complete:
3 rounds of
9 chest-to-bar pull-ups
3 squat snatches (225/155)

If all work has been completed in under 16 minutes, you earn 4 extra minutes to complete:
3 rounds of
10 chest-to-bar pull-ups
2 squat snatches (245/175)

If all work has been completed in under 20 minutes, you earn 4 extra minutes to complete:
3 rounds of
11 chest-to-bar pull-ups
1 squat snatch (265/185)

*Should you not complete all work under a given time cap, your workout comes to an end.
**These snatches had to be legit squat snatches.  You could not do a power snatch followed by an overhead squat.

That second footnote would turn out to be a very important one.  A lot of athletes will avoid using a squat when they clean or snatch a barbell because they are strong enough to lift it without one.  Why go through the extra effort of the squat version when you know you're able to do the power version?  I guess the answer is because something like 17.3 might get programmed.  I knew some of the bigger guys in the gym might not be thrilled with having to squat snatch.  As for me, I didn't mind having to squat.  I've been trying to squat clean and squat snatch even at lighter weights when cleans or snatches are called for in workouts.  What worried me were the chest-to-bar pull-ups.  The lady who does the "tips for this week's workout" video claimed that this wasn't a pull-up workout, but a snatch workout.  That might have been true for most people, but it certainly wasn't true for me.  This picture should help you understand my concerns:

My chest-to-bar pull-up technique might not be textbook

Perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised that an overhead movement would be combined with chest-to-bar pull-ups as that seems to be Dave Castro's m.o. in Open workouts.  Need proof?

• 14.2 was overhead squats and chest-to-bar pull-ups
• 15.2 was a repeat of 14.2
• 16.1 was overhead walking lunges and chest-to-bar pull-ups (along with burpees over the barbell)

For the squat snatch, you caught the barbell overhead while descending into a squat before doing an overhead squat to complete the movement.  The rules stated that you had to be descending into the squat (below parallel) as you performed the snatch.  If you performed the snatch and then descended after catching the barbell, you were supposed to be no-repped.  (Note: Were these standards enforced?  Depends on your judge.  During the Ro vs. Boz competition at the live announcement, they allowed a San Antonio firefighter to workout alongside of the Crossfit HQ personalities.  When he got to the 135 pound barbell, he clearly did the forbidden power snatch/overhead squat combo, yet all his reps were counted.  Moral of the story: there were going to be a lot of "bro reps" in this workout.)

I wasn't going to be able to make it to the gym until about 5pm, but I did keep an eye on the scores that were posted before Friday Night Lights began.  I was shocked.  Only one person had posted a score higher than 55 and that was Mike Sim with a score of 80.  80 was my goal for this workout, even though I knew it was a stretch.  A score of 80 meant that you completed the initial 6 rounds under the 8 minute time cap (72 reps) and then proceeded to get through the 8 chest-to-bar pull-ups in round seven.  My snatch PR was 175, so there was close to no chance that I was pulling off 185 nine minutes deep into a workout.  I'd take a few cracks at it and if by some miracle I got it, then I'd have my "Open moment".  I wasn't getting my hopes up though.

The fact that almost no one was getting close to 72 reps made me wonder how goofy I had gotten in coming up with a goal of 80 for this workout.  I thought I could finish the first three rounds in under 3:00, giving me 5:00 for the second three rounds.  If I kept moving at a decent pace, all of that seemed reasonable.  I had to be missing something.  I felt a bit better when I got to the gym and saw the results of some of the afternoon heats.  Aimee, Andrew, and Anne Marie had all surpassed 90 reps in the workout.  Yes, they are all considerably better athletes than I am, but if they had only ended up with 80 reps, then I would have known that beating the initial 8 minute time cap was a pipe dream.

Aimee may be small in stature, but that doesn't stop her from generating tons of power

Andrew getting way above the high bar during his chest-to-bar pull-ups

Anne Marie holds the top spot in the gym for the snatch

A few more heats were run before mine and more scores were produced that gave me hope in this workout.  Mooney got a 69, Giulz got a 67, Regi and Justin R got matching scores of 59, and Jill A got a 57.  80 probably wasn't in the cards for me, but a score of 60 (5 full rounds) would put me among the top scores in the gym.  That didn't seem impossible.

Samson asked me if I would judge for him when he took on 17.3 and I agreed to help out.  One of the things I respect most about Samson (aside from his amazing photography skills) is that he is a stickler for the rules.  He made it clear that he expected me to no-rep him if he didn't meet the standards of the workout.  He wasn't interested in any bro-reps.  If he didn't hit depth on his squat snatches, he didn't want it to count.  Not a problem.  You know where I didn't have to worry about no-repping Samson?  At the pull-up bar.  Being a bodyweight ninja, he was going to glide through the chest-to-bar pull-ups.

Samson making quick work of the chest-to-bar pull-ups.

His judge expressing his views on the Open.

When I say that Samson is a bodyweight ninja, I'm talking about the fact that he crushes movements (push-ups, pull-ups, rope climbs, etc.) where his own body is the weight that needs to be moved.  In this workout, he was going to have to squat snatch a barbell that was awfully close to his body weight.  After encountering little trouble with the 95 pound barbell while completing the first 3 rounds, Samson had his work cut out for him on the 135 pound barbell.  He had a lot of very close attempts where the barbell was just out in front of him as he tried to catch it in the squat.  He also did something that many others failed to do when they got to the second barbell: he got 1 successful rep.  78 was a very popular score last week and 43 would appear on many people's scorecards this week, but that 1 squat snatch at 135 pounds brought Samson's score to 44, almost assuredly leaping him ahead of thousands of people on the worldwide leaderboard.

This week's MVP would take part in the next heat.  You might think that choosing Keithie as the MVP might sound strange given that he excels at chest-to-bar pull-ups and squat snatches.  He didn't have some fear that he needed to overcome in this workout.  However, the way he regrouped at the end of this WOD was really impressive.  Keithie was flying through the early stages of this workout, completing his final round at 135 pounds nearly 2 minutes before the time cap.  That meant he'd have 6 minutes to work through 3 rounds of 8 chest-to-bar pull-ups and 4 squat snatches at 185 pounds.  Since I still had the pipe dream in my head of completing 1 rep at this weight if I had the workout of my life, I felt there was a good chance that Keithie would clear this level, earning himself 4 extra minutes of work and a shot at the 225 pound barbell.  Then I saw him struggle with 185 and that put to rest any notion I might have had of snatching it once.

Keithie did make it through the first round of 4 squat snatches at 185, but he really encountered some tough sledding when he came back to that barbell a second time.  He was able to stand up 185 once in that round before he had a series of misses.  Samson was still recovering from his workout, so Edwin was snapping photos in front of Keithie's barbell as he failed on one attempt after another.  That's when Keithie blew a gasket.  Out came a bunch of F-bombs as he let Edwin know that he wanted him out of his sight line for the remainder of his workout.  As you'll see below, that didn't mean Edwin stopped snapping pictures.  He just needed to move off to the side.

There was less than a minute left and Keithie still needed 3 more snatches to wrap up round #8.  I might be good at moving a barbell when I'm angry, but Keithie takes it to a whole new level.  He got his second snatch of the round with about 30 seconds left.  He caught his breath and set up for another crack at 185.  He stood up his second in a row with about 10 seconds remaining.  Everyone started screaming for him to sneak the last snatch of the round in before the buzzer.  Keithie got right into it, caught the barbell in a squat, and stood it up just as the buzzer sounded.  Clutch!  Having the resolve to get three quick squat snatches right as time was elapsing after so many missed lifts makes Keithie the week 3 MVP.

There ya go...that's the stuff...I like the intensity...Eye of the Tiger

While Keithie's struggles at 185 may have lowered my expectations a tad, seeing him finish the way he did was certainly inspirational.  I got ready to go in the next heat.  I had tested out the 95 pound barbell and found that I could string two squat snatches together if I needed to.  I also tested out the 135 pound barbell.  I was able to get under it, but I was slow standing it up.  That made me a bit worried since I was fresh when I was testing it out.  I would be much more tired when I got to that barbell in this workout.

John McHugh volunteered to be my judge, something I was grateful for as John always pushes me.  The heat began and I rattled off 6 quick single reps of chest-to-bar pull-ups.  I was trying not to use the ridiculous kip you saw in the photo at the beginning of this post, the one that sends me horizontal.  That kip is good for bringing my body up to the bar, but it also requires a lot of energy.  If I wanted to finish 6 rounds in 8 minutes, I'd have to be fast, but also efficient.  My first two squat snatches felt good enough that I threw a third into my set before dropping my barbell.  I completed another set of three in a row and had my first round completed.

I came back to the pull-up bar and maintained a solid pace as I did my singles.  I felt like I was doing my chest-to-bar pull-ups about as efficiently as I've ever done them.  My chest was only slightly grazing the bar as I came down from my kip, instead of ramming into the bar as would typically be my style.  If I had the ability to butterfly my pull-ups, I imagine that I'd be using a similar technique.

Not fantastic form, but better than what it has been in the past

I got back to the barbell thinking that I might be able to handle two sets of three again.  I got through the first set of three, but my breathing had really accelerated at this point and I thought I might be pushing things too much with a second set of three.  I did three quick singles to complete round two and came back to the pull-up bar.  I hadn't looked at a clock yet, but it felt like I was moving as fast as I could.  If I could finish up these initial three rounds in about 2:30, maybe I had a better shot than I thought of getting through the rounds at 135.

If I didn't finish the rounds at 135, my tiebreak time would be whatever was showing on the clock when I finished the rounds at 95 pounds, so I couldn't let up in round three.  Six more quick singles on the pull-up bar before I switched things up and went to sets of two on the snatches.  I got three sets like that and my tiebreak time was established.  I went straight to my pull-up bar without looking at the clock.  John told me that I had gone faster in those first three rounds than anyone he'd seen all day.  And then he told me my time...3:10.

There were only two ways I could have gone faster in those beginning three rounds:

1. String my chest-to-bar pull-ups (sorry, don't have that ability)
2. String all 6 squat snatches in each round (might have that ability, but played it safe by breaking up my rounds)

It felt like I had been sprinting, yet I was 10 seconds beyond my goal for the rounds at 95 pounds.  I'm sure I was shaking my head as I began my first round of 7 chest-to-bar pull-ups.  It's possible that I was a bit deflated after hearing my time, but this was where I needed my first breather.  I did 2 singles, then 3 singles, and then 2 singles, catching two small breathers along the way.  I got to the barbell with no intentions of trying to string reps.  These would all have to be singles as well.  I knew that every missed rep would be a killer in terms of beating the 8 minute time cap, so I was methodical in my setup.  I went for the 1st rep and stood up with it.  The next 4 reps went the same way.  5-for-5 on my first round at 135 pounds.  There was still hope.

Practicing my squat during cleans and snatches paid off for me in 17.3

At the pull-up bar, I split my chest-to-bar pull-ups into a set of 3 singles and a set of 4 singles.  Until I missed on a rep, I was sticking to my belief that I could beat the 8 minute time cap.  I moved over to my barbell and got my 6th straight squat snatch at 135.  I set up for lucky #7 and pulled really hard to get it overhead.  Turns out I pulled too hard.  The barbell was overhead, but it was behind me.  I briefly tried to save it before letting it drop to the floor.  I smiled over at Matt B, who had been rooting me on.  It was a good run, but I knew with that miss that I wasn't beating the time cap.  A glance at the clock confirmed my suspicion.  I had less than 2 minutes to go.

The good news was that with the pressure of beating the time cap now gone, I didn't stress about missing on my lifts.  I was quicker in my setup and I got through the next 4 lifts faster than I did during my first round at 135 pounds.  The downside was that I was kinda spent when I came back to the pull-up bar to begin round six.  There was about 35 seconds left in my workout and I tried to jump right back into each chest-to-bar after I came down from completing the previous rep.  I managed 5 chest-to-bar pull-ups before time was called.  Final score: 65.

When it was all over, I experienced a feeling that I've never had in four years of doing the Open: satisfaction.  That workout went about as well as I could have imagined.  My form on the chest-to-bar pull-ups was good.  I only missed one squat snatch.  I limited the number of breaks I took, even though I desperately wanted to take more.  I didn't beat the 8 minute time cap, but I wasn't sure that was even possible based on this performance.  I would need to string all of the 95 pound squat snatches and not miss on any of the 135 pound attempts to give myself the slightest chance of making it.  How well did 17.3 go for me?  Prior to 17.3, I had never finished in the top 20 in the gym for an Open workout.  I wound up 15th overall in this one.

I recovered while the next heat took place before agreeing to judge Mark Stipa for the second week in a row.  In terms of weight, Mark falls about midway between me and Samson, but he definitely falls more on the bodyweight ninja side of the spectrum when it comes to the movements that he specializes in.  As was the case with Samson, he had no problems with the chest-to-bar pull-ups and the 95 pound squat snatches.  Sticking the 135 pound squat snatches was where things got difficult.  He was able to get 3 successful reps in at this weight for a score of 46.

For the last heat of the night, I was judging for Esra.  Esra didn't have chest-to-bar pull-ups yet, so she was going to be taking on the scaled version of 17.3.  That meant jumping pull-ups and snatches with a squat.  (Note: "snatches with a squat" means you could do a power snatch and then do an overhead squat, something that was not permitted in the RX version of the workout.)  I was really impressed with Esra's pace during the workout.  I knew from personal experience how quickly you had to move to even have a chance at getting under the 8 minute time cap and Esra nearly made it.  I could tell she was a bit uneasy performing the overhead squats, but she hit depth on every single rep that she did.  She was only 4 reps short of finishing her sixth round, ending up with a score of 68.

Esra showing off some hang time in the final heat

That was all for 17.3.  I spent some time after the last heat loading scores on to my laptop so that I didn't have to steal people's scoresheets all weekend long.  Then we headed out to the Taphouse to celebrate being 60% done with this year's Open.

Monday preview: Surely someone who is satisfied with their score would never re-do an Open workout, right?  Right???  My competitive side gets the best of me and I have to re-learn a lesson.