Free food should never be tough to give away. Taking it a step further, free Chipotle should never be tough to give away at KOP. I had gotten some coupons for free Chipotle in the mail that I thought I could use with my fellow athletes since no restaurant gets more mentions at our gym than Chipotle. The coupons were only good in February. Early on in the month, the Nutrition Challenge was going on, so no one seemed eager for burritos. Not a problem, I'll just hold on to the coupons until the Open starts up. People will definitely be more interested in going out then. I brought the coupons with me when I went to the gym for the 17.1 announcement. Ghost town. I asked Josh M about going, but he had plans later on. He said he'd take me up on it if we left immediately and skipped the Open announcement. I didn't want to do that, so I still had coupons with no takers. The plan after 17.1 was to go to the brew pub across the street. No Chipotle that night. It wasn't until I talked with LC after Open Strength on the 27th that a plan was put together. Dudes After Dark would be going for Chipotle post-workout on the 28th. Just in the nick of time.
LC doesn't play when it comes to Chipotle, so she was running a tight ship during this particular edition of Dudes After Dark. The workout was a strength couplet: find a 5RM back squat, then find a 5RM deadlift. LC told us exactly how much time we would have for the back squat, how much time we would have for the deadlift, and what time she wanted clean up to begin so that we could go eat. The seven of us in attendance would need to abide by that timeline or risk being locked in the gym for the night. (Note: That may be something that only happens to me. The scars haven't fully healed yet.)
In keeping with LC's commands to move through this workout rather briskly, I am going to zip through this recap in the same fashion. The truth is that there aren't a lot of scintillating things you can write about five-rep sets of the back squat and the deadlift. I also wasn't paying a lot of attention to the weights that my classmates were lifting. So this recap is going to be on the brief side.
My 5RM for the back squat coming into the evening was 285 pounds, with my 5RM deadlift a bit higher at 345 pounds. We were supposed to do 5 working sets (non-warmup sets) for each lift, so I went with my usual plan where if things go well during the first 4 sets, I'll have an attempt at a PR during my final set. Here's an optimistic look at what I'd be doing for the evening:
- Back squat: 185-225-255-275-295
- Deadlift: 225-275-315-335-355
On the back squat, I started out with a warmup set at 135. Then I moved on to the working sets. 185 and 225 went smoothly. I knew the set at 255 would tell me whether I had a real shot at a PR. The answer seemed to be no. Something just felt off as I did that set at 255. There wasn't a point where I thought I was going to fail. It was more like I was doing something wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on what it was.
That didn't give me a lot of confidence going into the set at 275. The first rep was fine, but I got wobbly on the second rep. There was definitely something wrong with how my feet were set up. After standing up that second rep, I took some time and reset my feet, bringing them closer together. That felt like an improvement. It wasn't enough of an improvement though. I dropped down into my third rep and felt wobbly once again as I tried to stand up. I didn't fight for too long before dumping the barbell. No PR today.
LC had mentioned at the start that we could do drop sets if we maxed out on, say, set #3. I don't often do drop sets, but technically I was still on the hook for one more set. I decided to drop back down to 255 for another set at that weight. Before I got into that set, I took some time to think about my setup. Bringing my feet in felt like the right move even though it preceded a failed rep. The more I thought about having a wide setup vs a narrow setup, the more it dawned on me that my feet weren't the only part of my body I had positioned incorrectly. I had been doing sets with my hands in close and my feet wide when I typically have my hands wider and my feet closer. As I did that second set at 255, I could tell that I had made the right adjustments. The first four reps were no trouble at all. I had to fight a little bit on the fifth rep, but it must not have looked too bad as Cline yelled for me to do a 6th rep and Tia told me to put more weight on my barbell. I guess 265 might have been a better choice for that last set, but the uncertainty that I had with my setup made me choose a more conservative weight.
It was on to the deadlift where I was not expecting to PR. My biggest concern here was not injuring my back. I was still suspicious about how well my body recovered after 17.1. The condition of everyone's backs continued to be a major topic of conversation at the gym, yet I was only dealing with a minor amount of soreness. Maybe my back injury was a thing of the past. Perhaps my back was stronger than I realized. All I knew was that deadlift sets would reawaken the injury if it still existed. I wasn't concerned about doing all 5 working sets if I felt like something was off. I'd shut things down immediately and be okay with whatever my score was.
I started off the deadlift portion of this workout with two warmup sets, one at 135 and one at 185. Nothing amiss as I did five reps at each of those weights. Then I moved on to my first working set at 225. It took more effort to get through those five reps, but I still wasn't experiencing any issues. I moved up to 275. There was no pain during this set, but it felt heavier than I thought it would. I was pretty certain an attempt at 355 wasn't happening and I began having doubts as to whether 335 would happen. The set at 315 would tell me whether going after 335 would be a wise decision.
It turns out that my body gave me a clear message as to whether I should attempt a set at 335. 315 felt very heavy as I picked it up off of the floor, but I got through two tough reps. As I leaned down to tap the floor with my barbell in preparation for rep #3, I felt a bit of pain in my lower back and suddenly I got woozy. That wasn't normal. Some very bad thoughts raced through my brain. I've had the unfortunate experience of witnessing someone get a sharp pain and then go into a seizure. Nothing that dramatic was going on with me, but the thought of having a seizure while trying to lift 315 pounds was frightening. I dropped the barbell and decided I wouldn't be doing any additional sets. I didn't experience any lingering pain the rest of the evening, so it's possible that I made too big a deal out of this. But I think I'm always going to be overly cautious when it comes to protecting my back.
It was time for some grub! Because I had misread my coupons, I forced everyone to make the arduous trek to the Gateway Shopping Center for dinner. Turns out you can use the coupons anywhere even though the address of your nearest Chipotle is printed on it. (The more you know!) I gave my coupon for free chips and salsa to Cline, but the staff informed us that they were out of chips when we got there. They also let me know there was no lettuce as I was ordering my burrito, as if that had any bearing on my order. The staff seemed like they had checked out for the night even though it was only 8:45. Poor showing, Gateway Chipotle! Cline got them to guarantee the chips and salsa coupon for a later visit. Then he remedied the "lack of a side" situation by walking down to Five Guys, ordering fries, and bringing them back to Chipotle.
It was fun getting a group to go out after the WOD. We used to go to Chipotle after gym workouts quite a bit, but this was the first time that we've done it in a while. Maybe this tradition will pick up again after this outing.
Wednesday preview: My eyes light up when I see a workout that seems tailor-made for me, but things turn sour when I forget how to do one of the movements.
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