My health finally took a noticeable turn for the better on Friday morning. After coughing, sneezing, and feeling very congested for the last two weeks, I woke up feeling only mildly under the weather on Friday. Was it all of the medicine I had been taking since I got home from Vegas? Or was it because I went to bed with good thoughts in my head having seen what the Friday WOD was at 10pm on Thursday night? I'm no doctor, but I'm pretty sure it was the latter.
What was this miracle cure-all of a WOD? The main portion of it was strength-based and it involved my favorite lift: the overhead squat. Last year, one of our benchmarks was finding a 15RM overhead squat. That was okay, but it was a long, draining task where you were advised not to do more than two sets during the class. We rarely do sets that big when testing back squats and front squats, and those two lifts are considered less difficult than the overhead squat. I was looking forward to trimming down the volume and loading on the weight as I did overhead squats. That was exactly what I got to do on Friday when we were tasked with finding a 1RM overhead squat.
Since it was Friday, I decided to visit my friends at the nooner. This is usually Coach Aimee's class, but Coach Steph was filling in for her this week. She had 9 people in her class. Eight of them were either not pleased about having to do overhead squats or were simply okay with what was programmed. One of them looked like this:
JOY!
After walking us through the finer points of the overhead squat, we were sent off to find our 1RM. A few of the guys decided to share a rack, so the rest of us had our own individual racks for our lifts. I set up shop down near the front of the gym. While I got ready to go, I started thinking through how I wanted to attack this. We were supposed to do at least 7 lifts (not counting warmup lifts). I was going to do some reps with 95 pounds as my warmup, then move on to 115-135-155-175-195-215-230 for my lifts. That seemed like a nice progression for me, and if all went well, I'd have a chance to top my current PR of 225 pounds during that final lift.
Oddly, my biggest moment of doubt during this class came as I warmed up with 95 pounds. Having done an overhead squat with 225 pounds before, knocking out some reps with only 95 pounds shouldn't have been much of a problem. Maybe I just wasn't fully warmed up yet, but 95 pounds felt heavier than I expected. It wasn't a struggle, but it also didn't feel like an easy warmup either. It's possible that I got a little unsteady while trying to zip through multiple reps. Whatever the case may be, I began my "real" lifts with some hesitation.
That hesitation would melt away pretty quickly. I guess I got rid of my butterflies during those 95 pound overheads because I had no trouble with 115 pounds. The rep I did using 135 pounds was also smooth as could be. Rich was walking by me to grab some more plates as I did it and as he walked back past me, he said to me "looking strong, Big Daddy D!"
A couple thoughts:
- I would have wagered a considerable amount of money on "never in my lifetime will I be referred to as Big Daddy D" if it were a prop bet in Vegas.
- The fact that this happened within a gym as I was lifting weights boggles my mind.
- The fact that the person who said this to me is affectionately known as "Pastor Rich" made the interaction that much more surreal.
The "Big Daddy D" comment got me laughing for sure, but it also might have amped up my confidence as I continued to add weight to my barbell. The lift at 155 pounds felt easy. I had no problems with 175 either. It was after that lift that Steph came over and told me something interesting. She pointed out that I was going almost too slow in my descent to the bottom of the squat. That was a fascinating observation. One of my biggest failures while doing heavy squats used to be that I would crash to the bottom too fast. Once I had removed the barbell from the rack, I was in a rush to go down and up as fast as I could because I had no faith that I could hold the weight for more than a few seconds. In essence, I was the "Mista Mista" lady:
When talking about the 5RM back squat workout we did earlier in the week, I mentioned how I wasn't afraid to take my time and reset between reps. That was one indication that I felt more comfortable holding on to heavy weights for longer periods of time. Slowly descending into my overhead squats was another indication. For the second time in about 10 minutes, I had received a compliment that had boosted my confidence. I was 55 pounds away still, but I was already feeling like that lift at 230 pounds was going to be a success.
As I moved up to 195 pounds, my biggest concern became jerking the barbell over my head. Each of these reps were being taken from the rack. You took the barbell off of the rack just as you would if you were performing a back squat. The only difference is that you wanted your hands to be wider so that after you jerked the barbell, you'd be in perfect position for the overhead squat. Because we don't do it that often, jerking the barbell from behind my head still feels a bit weird to me. The good news is that you can usually jerk more weight from this position. Steph explained to us that because you don't have to move your head out of the way (like you would do when performing a clean and jerk), most people are able to jerk heavier from the back rack position. That seemed true. It might have felt weird to perform the jerk this way, but the barbell did seem to go overhead easier than it did when I tried it from the front rack position.
The jerk at 195 went fine and the overhead squat that followed was very much under control. As I loaded 215 on to the barbell, I really started to get excited (and nervous). I tend not to get confident about anything because that's when things usually turn sour on me. But I was doing really well on these overheads. I'm not talking about the fact that I was successfully completing each lift. I was handling every detail properly. Getting my feet right, getting my breathing right, completing the split jerk, resetting, controlling my pace to the bottom of the squat, staying in my heels, keeping my knees out...I was completing the mental checklist without actually thinking about it. That didn't change when I hoisted 215 over my head and then took my time performing a squat with it.
It is worth noting that this was the noon express, so as nice as it was for me to methodically go through these lifts, there were some time constraints in place. There was still a cash-out to do after we were done with the overhead squats and about half of the class was putting their plates away to get ready for that. Down at the far end of the gym, Rich, Panos, and Mike Sim were still lifting, so I didn't feel like I was behind everyone. The four of us caught a break when Steph let us know that she was okay running two heats of the cash-out, allowing us to keep lifting while heat one was underway.
With the time pressure gone, I walked up to my 230 pound barbell feeling positive rather than worried. That nagging thought that usually runs through my mind on a PR attempt ("you've never lifted this much before") was absent as I got ready to remove the barbell from the rack. As I walked a few steps back from the rack with the barbell on my shoulders, I noticed how manageable it felt. This wasn't some unbearable weight. I could do this. If I could jerk this weight overhead, I could handle the rest. I performed the split jerk, brought my legs back together, and for a split second I was kinda impressed with myself for calmly standing there with 230 pounds overhead. I told myself to do the squat just like I had done all my earlier attempts. I did exactly that and the results were the same. When I stood back up with 230 pounds still overhead, I had a new PR.
I didn't want to hold up the other guys, but I have to admit that the first thought I had after completing that lift was "I can do more than that". Steph walked over, saw the look on my face, and said "you want to do one more, don't you?" It was obvious. The guys were cool with waiting on me a few minutes more as I added 10 pounds to my barbell. Adding 10 pounds after hitting a PR was probably a bit aggressive, but I felt like I was in the zone. I was going to get 240. After taking a couple of minutes to recover from the lift at 230, I walked back up to my barbell again. When I got it on my back, I had that same "it's not as heavy as I thought it would be" feeling. My best jerk was 235 pounds...until I jerked this barbell overhead. In my head, I was freaking out about jerking 240 pounds, but I was also trying to remain calm for the overhead squat. Once everything felt right, I descended into the squat. After I hit the bottom, I pressed up. For the first time all day, my body did not comply. I tried twice to push out of the sticking point, but it wasn't happening. I reluctantly dropped the barbell. Steph pointed out that I had gone really slowly into the squat again, probably too slowly. That was a good problem to have. And even though I didn't complete the overhead at 240, I finished this part of the workout confident that I could get it next time around.
I scrambled to put my plates and my barbell away, then sprinted over to switch from my lifters to my sneakers. Rich, Panos, and Mike had been very patient waiting for me and I didn't want to hold up heat two of the cash-out any longer. This cash-out was one of the events from last year's Masters Qualifier. Here's what it looked like:
Master's Qualifier 16.1
21-15-9
Calories rowed
Thrusters (95/65)
There was no doubt that Rich and Mike were going to destroy this cash-out and I suspected that Panos would have little problem with it as well. I thought I could keep up with them on the row, but they were probably going to leave me in the dust on the thrusters. Mike felt bad that I hadn't gotten a break after my last overhead attempt, but once I was on the rower and my sneakers were tied, I let Steph know we could begin. For the first minute, I stayed with the other three. I was only a second or two behind them when I got off of my rower. But I was no match for them on the thrusters. I think all three of them did 21 reps unbroken. I did 8 before dropping my barbell. Not wanting to fall behind, I only took a break for a second before trying to get back into the thrusters. I managed 3 more before realizing I needed a real break. Bye guys! I'll see you at the finish!
I went 8-3-7-3 on that first set of 21 thrusters. How far behind was I? While I was working through the round of 15 calories on the rower, Rich hopped on to begin his round of 9 calories. Once again, I was getting lapped in a three-round workout. Back at the barbell, I did 3 sets of 5 thrusters. By the time I was done with that, the other three guys were all finished. They came over to help me get through the end of this cash-out. Pushing through 9 calories wasn't too bad. The part I was not looking forward to was the last 9 thrusters. I knew they weren't going to let me put the barbell down. So I screamed and grunted my way through those final 9 reps. Final time: 7:37. (Rich's time: 4:34. Mike's time: 4:52. Panos's time: 5:15.)
I felt pretty lousy about my performance on that cash-out as I laid on the floor recovering. It wasn't until later that evening that I realized my time wasn't so bad. In comparison to those three guys, it was abysmal, but Rich, Mike, and Panos put up some of the fastest times of the day. There was no way I was ever keeping up with them in that cash-out. Then again, they couldn't keep up with me on the overhead squat. That was a nice feather in my cap as I got ready for a Crossfit-free weekend.
Tuesday preview: A visit from my parents causes me to miss a workout that I really wanted to do on Monday. I finally pace a workout properly. Summer isn't here, but I'm already sweating through my shirt before the workout begins.
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