On Thursday night, Dave Castro would announce the final workout of the 2017 Open. We all knew thrusters would be involved somehow, but personally I was rooting for DB thrusters. DBs had been prominent in this year's Open and it only seemed fitting that they would be in use during the last workout of the season. I was going to struggle if DB thrusters were part of 17.5, but I knew many others were dreading DB thrusters more than I was. If I had trudged through four lousy workouts to get to this point, the least Dave Castro could do was come up with a workout that favored me a little bit. Hit me with the good news, Dave!
Open Workout 17.5
10 rounds:
9 thrusters (95/65)
35 double unders
*Time cap: 40 minutes
You'll notice that "DB" is missing before the word thrusters and that is because these thrusters would be performed with a barbell. Bastard! There had been speculation as to whether double unders or ring muscle-ups would accompany the thrusters and it turned out that ring muscle-ups would be saved for the superstar regional athletes. The one thing I really appreciated about this workout was the simplicity of it. Castro didn't need a chalkboard to poorly explain how this WOD would work. There were thrusters. There were double unders. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I almost always come up with a goal for the workout I am about to embark on, but I found coming up with a goal for this WOD to be extremely tricky. There were 350 double unders in the workout and I'm very inconsistent when it comes to those. Some days I have them, some days I don't. 9 thrusters per round didn't sound awful, but that worked out to 90 thrusters for the entire workout. The last workout of 2014 was repeated to conclude the 2016 Open and that WOD only had 84 thrusters in it. And believe me, that workout was no picnic. (At least there were no burpees in this WOD!) When coming up with my initial guess for a solid time in this workout, I landed on 15 minutes. During the announcement for 17.5, two of the best female athletes in the world completed this workout in less than 7 minutes. I figured doubling their time was a good start in forming a goal. Tack on an extra minute or so and you get to my initial goal. That was what I came up with on Thursday night. I was fully prepared to adjust this goal once I saw the early times on Friday.
That goal would be getting a severe upwards adjustment by mid-day on Friday. The top athletes in the gym were putting up times in the 12-14 minute range, which meant there was no chance I'd finish in 15 minutes. A goal of 20 minutes seemed much more reasonable for me based on their performances. Further adjustments might be necessary when I saw the early afternoon times. I knew I wasn't going to make it to the gym until 5pm at the earliest, so I'd have plenty of extra data to look at once I showed up for the workout.
I didn't actually make it to the gym until about 5:30, which was later than I had been arriving for Friday Night Lights. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal though. I might not get to go until about 6:15 or 6:30, but having 45-60 minutes to "warm up" wasn't the worst thing in the world. I require a solid 30 minutes of procrastinating time and it takes all of 20 seconds for me to get warm in the gym, so that was more than enough time for me. Just one problem. When I got to the gym, all of the heats were filled up except for the last one and that heat was scheduled for 7:30. Oof. That was an awful lot of time to kill.
I began my two-hour wait by scanning all of the times that had been put up over the last two hours. The times listed on the board left me confused. There were people who I expected to beat in this workout who had gone sub-20 minutes. There were people who I thought would kill me on this workout that had needed more than 25 minutes on 17.5. I no longer had any grasp of what a solid time would be for me. I decided to stick with 20 minutes for now, but I wouldn't be surprised if 25 minutes was necessary.
I received one request to act as a judge while I waited and that request came from Alicia-Marie. She was going in the 6:30 heat, so there would still be plenty of time once I finished judging to get ready for my heat. I asked Alicia-Marie if there was anything special she needed me to do for her during her upcoming ordeal. All that she required of me was to keep her laughing during the workout. I would do my best. In return, I asked her not to mess up after 34 double unders in each round because I would feel like an ass telling her that she had to do just one more. With our terms met, Alicia-Marie and the rest of the 6:30 heat got under way.
For the most part, Alicia-Marie broke her thrusters up into three sets of three. She took care of all nine unbroken in that first set. She also pulled off that feat in her final set as well. I would say her performance in each round tended to improve from the second round up to the tenth round. She definitely got stronger with the thrusters. And she was much more consistent with her double unders. Speaking of double under consistency, Alicia-Marie kept to her word of not breaking after 34 reps. However, she seemed to trip up after 32 reps almost every single round. She didn't seem to believe me after a while when I kept saying "three to go". The funniest moment of her workout came somewhere around the eighth or ninth round. As I would soon find out, your mind wandered as this workout dragged on. Alicia-Marie was just beginning her double unders and got 7 reps. When I said "seven", she turned to me and asked me if she only had seven left. I delivered the heartbreaking news that she, in fact, had 28 more reps left in this round. Ouch. Alicia-Marie powered through the final few rounds and stopped the clock at 30:20.
As I got ready to go in the final heat, I watched Cline and Matt B take part in the penultimate heat. I wasn't keeping track of what round they were in, but they both looked to be in considerable pain as they did the workout. They also looked like they were taking quite a few breaks, something I was sure I would need to do as well. I saw that Matt finished ahead of Cline, but I had no idea what their times were.
While those two were finishing up the 2017 Open, I did some thrusters and some double unders to warm up. The thrusters felt heavier than I would have liked and I began dreading having to do 90 of them. The double unders were a different story. I did two sets of 15 reps in a row without a problem. Doing more than that in the warmup seemed like a waste of energy to me. It felt like this was a day where I had double unders. Not sure if I had 350 of them, but it didn't seem like a day where I'd be unable to do more than 5 at a time once the workout began.
At last, it was time for the 7:30 heat. I positioned myself up towards the front for two reasons:
- I have a bad habit of hopping backwards while I jump rope and if I was near the racks on the pull-up rigs, I was bound to hit them with my rope.
- LC and Michal were in the back row. They were going to destroy me on this workout. LC is the queen of thrusters. Michal is the queen of double unders. This workout consisted solely of thrusters and double unders. Better to position myself away from them so it wasn't so obvious how badly I sucked in comparison.
Becky volunteered to be my judge and I was all set to go. I was still aiming for 20 minutes for my time. 20 minutes of pain and I wouldn't have to hear about the Open for another 11 months. Seemed like a fair deal. The clock was started and I dug into the appetizer of this 10-course feast of Crossfit gluttony.
That first round couldn't have gone any better for me. I strung all 9 thrusters. I calmly walked to my jump rope and began twirling. 5...10...15...20...25...30...35. Completed all 35 in a row on my first try. Round one was in the books and less than a minute had elapsed on the clock. For one round, I had kept pace with LC and Michal. You will not be surprised to learn that our paths diverged in rounds two through ten.
Even I wasn't crazy enough to believe that I could string all of my reps for ten rounds, so I began to chop up the thrusters to save my legs a bit. I began doing a set of five and then a set of four. I would love to tell you I chopped up the double unders on purpose, but the truth is that as my heart began racing more and more, my ability to remain calm started to waver. I was still managing smaller sets and that kept me on a decent pace. When round four ended, the clock showed just over 6 minutes. That meant I was just beyond a 15 minute pace if I could keep it together for the next 6 rounds.
I did not keep it together for the next 6 rounds. I would say that I barely kept it together for 2 more rounds. My thrusters were now being done in three sets of three. During the double unders, someone told me to pick a spot in my line of sight and just keep focusing on that. It worked for rounds five and six, although I was definitely having more moments where I was hitting myself with the rope without accumulating a single rep. At the end of round six, the clock was closing in on 12:30. My average time for those 2 rounds was about 3:10. If I kept that pace for the next four rounds, I'd be close to 25 minutes. So much for that 20 minute pipe dream!
As I began round seven, I was extremely wobbly. I slowly made my way through the thrusters, but the double unders were now a big problem. My legs were so tired that I failed over and over again in my attempt to jump high enough to clear the rope. I started to wonder what the heck I would do if I couldn't jump over the rope any more. It was at this point where I started to take extended breaks. I knew that if I could get the first double under in a set, I could knock out a bunch of them. I just needed to be calm enough to get that first rep. So after a longer break, I got back into it and made my way through 35 reps (not consecutive). Same thing in round 8.
I was no longer paying any attention to the clock. My legs were like jello and I was simply hoping to finish. I had started each of my sets on the thrusters with a squat clean. I've done a 235 pound squat clean at the gym. This barbell weighed 95 pounds. Yet when I began round 9 with a squat clean, that weight was too much for me. I caught it and my legs failed to support me as I tumbled backwards. Crap. It was bad enough when the double unders started to go away, but now I was worried that I no longer had the energy to do the thrusters. I took another long-ish break and then started in on my sets of three again. I got through those and then slowly worked through my 35 double unders. Only one more round to go.
I tried to be a hero and go right into the thrusters once I had dropped my rope to end round nine. The result: one whole thruster before I needed to drop the barbell. My next set was an amazing two thrusters. I finally managed three thrusters on my third try. I held on for three more after that and the thrusters were done. Just had to get through 35 double unders.
I picked up my rope hoping that I could find the energy to do the last 35 double unders in a row the same way I had done it way back in round one. Instead I hit myself with the rope. Then I did it again. And again. And again. Actuary Mike was trying to encourage me by standing next to me, yelling about the pizza that awaited me in the lobby. Michal was trying to encourage me to stay calm. I was trying to focus on that one section of the gym leaderboard that I had been entranced by since round five. There was yelling and cheering, but it was all a big blur. I took a long break again, determined to get that first rep and then turn it into a big set. On my 5th try at getting my first double under of round 10, the rope passed safely under my feet. I was desperate to get all 35 in a row because that first rep of each set was causing me so much trouble. I made it to 10, then 20. I twirled the rope faster and faster because my legs were screaming at me to stop jumping already. I got to 25, then 30. This is the part where I'm supposed to triumphantly tell you that I got all 35 to conclude my 2017 Open. Except I fell 4 reps short. Still, 31 in a row was a miracle at that point. And I was done a few seconds later when I managed to immediately get the last 4 in a row. Final time: 27:47.
This photo may have been taken 10 minutes after I finished
I was definitely not happy with my time. I was disappointed that my body seemed to fall apart on me again. But maybe 27:47 was simply the best I could do on that workout. (That's what I told myself over the weekend when the part of my brain that hides all the crazy began floating the idea of doing this workout a second time. F that.) There was no reason for me to get caught up in the Open hysteria. I didn't have anything to prove to anyone. I didn't need to try and improve my standing in the gym competition. A better time from me wasn't going to vault my Black team over Tequila Sunrise in the team competition. And even if I cut my time in half, I wasn't going to crack the top 60,000 men in the world. The book on the 2017 Open was closed. Time to go enjoy pizza and beer.
If I had to give an MVP for Week 5, I would give it to Andrew. I didn't witness his workout, but he put up the fastest time in the gym, finishing 17.5 in 11:09. Almost 17 minutes faster than my time. He might be in better shape than me. Not only did Andrew post the best time for this workout, he also took top honors in the individual competition in the gym. We haven't had anyone seriously challenge Aimee for the top spot since I've been doing the Open, but Andrew actually found a way to beat her. That is a pretty amazing accomplishment.
That wraps up the 2017 Open. Goodbye competition, hello training.
Monday preview: Despite not feeling well, I come in for one last workout before my trip to Vegas. I probably should have stayed home.
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