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.
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