Pick It Up First

Workout date: 2/22/17

The Filthy Fifty caught my eye when I saw it listed amongst the 2017 benchmark workouts at KOP.  This was one of those crazy workouts that I seem to have an affinity for even though I've shown zero aptitude for performing it well.  I guess I'm just a sucker for variety.  This workout had 10 different stations in it.  It was sort of like having a mini obstacle course inside the gym.  Complete this station, get confronted by a new challenge at the next station, and so on.  Here's a look at the ten stations that comprise the Filthy Fifty:

"Filthy Fifty"
50 box jumps (24"/20")
50 jumping pull-ups
50 KB swings (53/35)
50 walking lunges
50 knees-to-elbows
50 push press (45/35)
50 back extensions
50 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
50 burpees
50 double unders

How long does it take to get through all of that?  It mostly depends on how fast you can do a set of 50 knees-to-elbows.  In my last two attempts at this workout, it has taken me 42:53 and 42:22.  (By comparison, Pam finished this workout at the nooner in 21:33.  Sick.)  I was determined to get my time under 40 minutes on this attempt, with a goal for the year of completing it in under 35 minutes.  This WOD was a mental test.  I mentioned in a previous post that I wished I had the ability to suffer like Cline does in some of his workouts.  If I was going to chop minutes off of my previous best in this workout, I needed to embrace the inevitable pain and keep working when I wanted to rest.

Even though it was a Wednesday 7:30 class, there was no Coach Jenna this evening.  Giulz was filling in for her.  She had four people ready to take on the Filthy Fifty.  Besides yours truly, the class consisted of Marissa, Neil, and Matt E.  The warmup would be a whirlwind.  We needed to get into the workout as soon as possible, but Giulz needed to make sure we knew how to do each of the 10 movements in the workout.  We also had to get a lot of equipment in place.  I was extremely grateful that there were only 4 of us in class because this workout is very difficult to get through when its a packed house in the gym.  Everyone got their box, their KB, their barbell, their wall ball, and their jump rope set up.  We did a mini tour through the 10 stations and then got ready to take this monster on.  Giulz suggested that we should do 30 reps at each station rather than 50 if we couldn't finish the full workout in 30 minutes or less.  Ugh, this was Helen all over again.  Except instead of a 100 second PR, I needed a PR of 12 minutes and 23 seconds!  I looked around and saw that none of my classmates had given in and agreed to scale down to 30 reps, so I wasn't going to either.  I figured if I was at least close to being done when 30 minutes elapsed that Giulz would let me finish up the workout.

I thought there was a real chance that I could trim some of the fat off of my 42 minute performances at the very first station.  Box jumps were something I'd gotten more comfortable doing quickly because I've gained confidence in my ability to rebound off and on to the box.  I did have a scare on the box jumps during the warmup though.  This was my second workout with my new sneakers and I wasn't sure how well the rebounding would go with my new footwear.  Sure enough, on my first box jump, the box tipped away from me when I landed on it, forcing me to steady myself before continuing on.  Were these new sneakers too heavy for box jumps?  It's possible that I'd be better off doing them with my old sneaks, but things didn't turn out too badly with the new pair after that initial incident happened.  Once the workout began for real, I made it through more than 20 box jumps in a row before needing a break.  I pecked away with sets of 5 or 6 from then on and ended up being the first of the four of us to move to station #2.

For the jumping pull-ups, you need to bring your box with you over to the pull-up bar so that you can jump off of it.  I dragged my box over and got ready for my next obstacle.  Jumping pull-ups aren't that difficult in and of themselves, but they do a nice job of wearing you out.  In this workout, you need to be smart about whether you let the jumping pull-ups wear out your upper body or lower body.  I was not smart about this.  Having just done 50 box jumps, my legs wanted to rest a bit here.  So I did small jumps and used my arms to pull myself up the small amount that I needed to get my chin over the bar.  Bad move.  My arms were going to get tested plenty later on in the workout, so it was silly wasting upper body strength at this station.  I should have sucked it up and used my leg strength for 50 reps.  I completed the work at the pull-up bar, moved my box out of my lane, and proceeded to my KB.  The clock had a little more than 4 minutes on it, so I was off to a fast start.  Things were about to slow down at station #3 though.

My problems with the KB swings were likely half physical, half mental.  I already had sweat dripping off of me when I got to my KB and my breathing had become more rapid.  I wasn't gasping for air or anything, but I definitely was feeling the effects from moving quickly through the first two stations.  I did a relatively big set of swings (17 or 18) when I got to my KB, but I was in desperate need of a breather when I put it down.  I completed the last 30 or so reps over the course of 3 sets, but those breaks in between sets began to draw on longer.  I would walk away from the KB and try to get my breath back, which I should know better than to do.  Walking away from equipment is just a time waster in Crossfit workouts.  It's not like I would have gained a ton of time by staying right next to my KB, but perhaps I wouldn't have been beyond 8 minutes when I finally got to the walking lunges.

I was definitely treating the walking lunges as a recovery station for multiple reasons.  The KB swings had kicked my butt and this movement would be friendlier on my body.  Most importantly though, the toughest movement of the workout (knees-to-elbows) was coming up next.  I wanted to be as fresh as possible when I got there.  Marissa had already passed me on the KB swings and she extended her lead on the walking lunges.  Matt and Neil started to catch up to me as well.  I didn't take any breaks during the lunges, but my pace was very deliberate.  After the 50th lunge, I got ready for the worst part of the Filthy Fifty.

Knees-to-elbows is the most controversial movement in this WOD.  Giulz said before class that people often write RX next to their name at the end of this workout even though many of them are hitting their knees to their triceps as they try to rip through reps quickly.  I can see how that might happen when you're doing these fast.  However, when you're doing them slowly, I don't think it is that difficult to have your knees hit your elbows.  And there might not be anyone who does these slower than me.  I was able to string reps early on, getting a couple sets of three followed by a few sets of two.  That wasn't so great because I thought I could start with some sets of five and slash a decent chunk of time off of the amount that I typically spend at this station.  Once I realized I was having trouble stringing reps, I made the smart decision to drop from the high bar to the low bar.  I could do sets of three quick singles before needing a break.  In the end, I spent about 10 minutes doing knees-to-elbows.  That sounds awful (it is), but it was actually an improvement on how long I've been stuck at this station in previous attempts of the Filthy Fifty.  Neil and Matt ended up doing knee raises (they may have started with knees-to-elbows then switched over), so my lead on them went bye-bye.  Neil was the first one to move on the push press, while Matt was just walking to his empty barbell when I completed my last rep of knees-to-elbows.

Technically, the workout was halfway over.  5 stations down, 5 stations to go.  I was about halfway to my previous time of 42 minutes as well.  But even though there were still some challenging movements to work through, there wasn't going to be another station that took as long as the knees-to-elbows did.  I knew I was going to have a new best time for this workout as long as I kept pushing.  Since Matt was about even with me, I was going to use him to keep me honest.  I also wanted to keep the same competitive mindset that I had at the end of Helen.  When I returned from the final run in that workout, I was slightly behind Cline, but I told myself that I needed to be the first one to pick up the KB.  When I saw that Matt was catching his breath before the push press, I decided that this was my opportunity to challenge myself.  Pick up that barbell first.  I walked right over to it and began my push presses.  This might be the easiest station in the rotation, so much so that I considered stringing all 50 reps.  Upon further reflection, I decided that a set of 30 and a set of 20 would be just fine.

With the 50 push presses done, I hit the floor and began flopping around like a fish.  Okay, it only looked like I was doing that.  Back extensions (or Supermans) are an odd movement where you start lying flat on the floor and then quickly pick your chest and thighs off the floor at the same time.  It looks goofy when you do them fresh.  It looks pathetic when you do them tired.  And I was plenty tired at this point.  I'm sure I wasn't moving all that fast through these, but I treated them like they were burpees.  Translation: I didn't have to do them fast, but I couldn't stop and take breaks along the way.  When I was done with these, I got up and walked towards my wall ball.  Matt was walking towards his at the same time.

Pick up the wall ball first.  It didn't matter how big that first set was.  I just wanted to begin the first set before Matt did.  Maybe that was the wrong strategy (I'm pretty sure Matt would end up doing larger sets than me), but I was trying to find ways to push myself.  I distinctly remember getting to the wall balls in previous attempts at this workout and needing massive amounts of rest to get through my 50 reps.  This was another station where I could make up time.  If that was going to happen though, I needed to work.  Matt and I got into a rhythm where it almost seemed like we were doing a partner WOD together.  He was working while I was resting and vice versa.  I did more sets than he did, but his sets must have been longer because he completed his 50 just as I was working through my last set.

Neil had gotten a head start on us when it came to the burpees (Marissa was already done).  Matt had a burpee or two done when I got started.  I was crawling through my burpees right off the bat.  I hate burpees and having to do 50 of them at this late stage of the workout seemed like the cruelest punishment I could have been given.  I didn't think I could make up ground on either of the guys here.  The only problem was that I knew Matt was better at double unders than me, so if I didn't catch him here, I wasn't catching him at all.  I would need to find some energy and pick up the pace here.

30 minutes had come and gone, but with all three guys at the second-to-last station, Giulz let us complete the workout.  I'm not sure when Neil finished his burpees, but he had a large enough lead on me and Matt that I gave up on trying to catch him.  I knew Neil wasn't doing double unders, so I figured he'd speed through a bunch of single unders or double under attempts and be done before I had a chance to do my double unders.  If I didn't want to be last, I had to catch Matt.  When I got to 30 burpees, I decided that I had to burst through my burpees like they were the last few reps of the workout.  Crawling was replaced with 6 legit burpees before I had to slow down again.  I did 4 more slow burpees before I did another burst of 3 good burpees.  Another 3 slow burpees brought me to 46 reps.  I convinced myself that I could find 4 more fast burpees and sure enough I was able to do them.  Only 50 double unders remained.  And those bursts had put me back in front of Matt.

I wobbled over to my jump rope knowing that I didn't have time to rest.  If Matt was a burpee or two behind me, he was going to catch me on the double unders.  Neil was still jumping rope, but I assumed he was right on the verge of being done.  I began twirling my rope and strung 15 double unders.  I took a peek to my right and saw Matt was still on his burpees.  I had to keep moving in case he was almost done.  When I began my next set, I wasn't sure how long it would last.  I was happy when I reached rep #30 without tripping.  Soon I was closing in on rep #40.  Maybe I could hold on to the finish!  I was exhausted, but my double under form wasn't suffering as a result.  I made it through the last 35 reps in a row and dropped my rope.  Final time: 35:54.

I looked over to the left and was shocked to see that Neil still had his jump rope in hand.  I had caught both him and Matt.  It was only 15 seconds later when Neil finished up.  Matt completed his burpees at about the same time.  He grabbed his rope, did an initial set of nearly 40 in a row, then did a small set to wrap up his workout.  I told you he was really good at double unders!

I didn't stay under 30 minutes like Giulz asked, but I'll take a PR of 6 minutes and 28 seconds any day of the week.  I joked around with Giulz that the key was that I didn't spend 17 minutes on the knees-to-elbows, to which she shook her head and replied "almost".  She suggested that I try and keep the workout within its proper time domain in the future.  So when this shows up again in May, I'll be doing the 30 rep version ("Thirty Thlowly"?) to see how fast I can do that one.  If I can finish that in under 18 minutes (60% of the 30 minute time domain for 60% of the reps in the Filthy Fifty), then maybe I'll return to the full workout in August.

Friday preview:  The Open has arrived.  Oh joy!  The first workout of this year's Open involves burpees because Dave Castro can't get enough of burpees.  There are plenty of noteworthy performances.  Mine is not one of them.