Feels Like Too Much Rest

Workout date: 5/15/17

Another Monday night meant another packed house as we were 19 strong at the 6:30 class.  That's just the way it's gonna be on Monday nights in the near future.  Maybe once the fall rolls around it will settle down some, but I think gym attendance will stay on the high side with beach season on the horizon.  (Note: Being a pale guy who rarely goes to the beach, I don't really know when beach season begins.  I just gauge it by how badly I'm sweating at the gym.  We must be close because I'm starting to get gross.  I'll leave it at that.)

Luckily we were once again being treated to a WOD that didn't require a lot of space.  We didn't have to worry about running into classmates as we scrambled from one station to the next.  All we needed was room for a barbell and some space next to it to perform burpees.  Here's what Monday's WOD looked like:

Monday's WOD:
10 minute AMRAP
1 deadlift (115/75)
1 hang power clean (115/75)
1 front squat (115/75)
1 push press (115/75)
*Must hold on to the barbell for all four lifts for a round to count.  If you drop the barbell mid-round, you have to start with the deadlift when you return to the barbell.
**If you drop the barbell, you must perform 5 burpees before returning to the barbell.
***Score is total rounds completed

If there was ever an incentive to make me hold on to the barbell, being forced to do penalty burpees would be it.  I'd much rather strain through a barbell movement than have to do burpees.  My initial reaction after reading the details of this WOD was "I'm holding on to that barbell for the entirety of the 10 minutes."  That was definitely wishful thinking.

Coach Giulz told us to pair up before we even started going through the progressions for each lift.  You will never believe this, but I chose Matt B to be my partner on a barbell workout.  Startling, I know.  He had the same takeaway from reading this WOD that I did.  He wanted to avoid burpees as much as possible, so he was going to hold on to that barbell as long as he could.  Giulz had done this workout in the 5:30 class and had probably heard way too many people indicate that they had this same burpee-fearing strategy.  She strongly encouraged us to avoid holding on to the barbell until failure.  Burpees might suck, but we would complete more rounds by giving our grip a break and doing the 5 burpee penalty.  Giulz used Laura A from the 4:30 class as an example.  Laura had held on to the barbell for the entire 10 minutes, racking up a large score of 42 rounds completed.  Even though that was a strong score, Giulz contended that she could have gotten 50 or higher had she taken a couple of breaks and did burpees along the way.  (Note: After doing this workout, I can't express how impressed I am that Laura held the barbell for 10 minutes straight.  She must have an iron grip.)

After walking us through each of the four movements and making us do some warmup burpees, Giulz told the members of heat #1 to load their barbells, do some practice reps, and get ready to go.  I was "partner #1" for our group when we were doing the warmup, so I decided that I might as well be consistent and go in the first heat.  Both Matt and I felt comfortable with the RX weight of 115 pounds on the barbell.  I think I did two practice rounds before we began and I could tell instantly that the push press was going to be the most painful aspect of the complex we were doing.  (Matt would later shed some light on why I was having a hard time with the push press.)  Because the practice rounds weren't easy, I knew I wasn't going to be able to hold on for 10 minutes.  I'd be doing burpees during this WOD.  I had my fingers crossed that it wouldn't be too many.

I didn't have much of a plan other than "go until you're tired (but not until failure)" as heat one got underway.  I ended up completing 6 full rounds before I dropped the barbell and did my first set of burpees.  Less than 2 minutes had elapsed on the clock.  (Laura may be Wonder Woman.)  My burpees were slow, but technically this was the rest portion of the workout, so I wasn't all that concerned about my speed.  I was concerned about my breathing though.  It was warm in the gym, so I was already sweating pretty good.  Struggling to breathe and sweating profusely was not a recipe for holding on to the barbell for long periods of time.  My next turn at the barbell resulted in only 3 rounds before I needed to do burpees again.

Matt was not only counting for me, he was watching my form as I did the complex.  During that second round, he started telling me that I needed to use my legs more on the push press.  I think I was a little gun shy about using my legs too much because I didn't want to accidentally do any push jerks. The push press was the last part of each round and messing up that part would mean the entire round would not count.  I couldn't imagine being so tired that I needed to do a push jerk, then somehow finding the strength to hold on to the barbell and fixing my error by doing a push press.  Because I was playing it safe, my push presses were closer to the shoulder press end of the spectrum.  That was going to tire out my arms, meaning my grip would weaken, resulting in more penalty burpees.  That was not the outcome I wanted.  So when I finished up my second round of burpees, I made sure to bend my knees more on the push presses.

My form was better, but my results were not.  After a set of 3 more rounds, I was back on the floor again.  I had hoped to complete 30 rounds before 10 minutes was up, but I wasn't going to get there doing only 3 rounds at a time.  As I wrapped up my burpees, I made the decision to go faster with the barbell.  If I had a limited amount of grip strength when I picked up the barbell, then I might as well go as fast as I could and hope for the best.  It worked (sort of) as I made it through 4 rounds in my next set, bringing my total to 16.  After 5 more burpees, I completed 4 rounds again.  I had reached 20 rounds.  30 probably wasn't happening, but I at least had a shot at it if I could find some extra strength in the final minutes of the WOD.

I had completed 25 burpees more than I wanted to when I got to my barbell for the 6th time.  If I was quick, I might be able to do 2 more sets before time was up.  That meant I needed 5 rounds per set.  Unlikely, but not impossible.  I did 2 fast rounds, then started round 3 with a deadlift.  As I hinged forward for the hang power clean, the barbell began to slip out of my hands.  It was like one of those immunity challenges on Survivor where someone loses focus for a second and all of the sudden they stumble off the stump they were standing on.  Once the barbell hit the floor, I was mentally checked out of this workout.  I crawled through my burpees, knowing there was less than a minute left and that I had no chance of reaching 30 rounds.  I came back to my barbell with about 30 seconds remaining.  I did 3 quick rounds.  There was about 5 seconds left when I completed the third round.  That wasn't enough time to do another full round, so I dropped the barbell and finished a few seconds early.  Final score: 25 rounds.

Matt went in heat two and his approach was much saner than mine.  He had watched me and everyone else go in heat one and decided that he was doing 5 rounds at a time, then moving to burpees.  Didn't matter whether he could hold on longer.  That was his plan.  He looked a lot better than I did as he moved through his 10 minutes.  For the first half of the workout, he appeared to have no problems with doing 5 rounds at a time.  His burpees were on the slower side, but I think that was intentional.  Moving quickly through the burpees didn't allow you to recover for the barbell.  Matt's first 4 sets were all 5 rounds long.  On his 5th set, he completed four rounds and I yelled "just one more" to him as he finished his 4th push press.  He shook his head at me and let me know that was all he could do at this stage.  He didn't look thrilled about doing more burpees, but I let him know these would be the last 5 he would have to do.  He was going to have less than a minute left when he came back to his barbell and there was no point doing extra burpees once he dropped the barbell a final time.  Like me, Matt got through 3 rounds in his last set and finished up a little before the clock hit 10 minutes.  Matt's final score: 27 rounds.

The large class was busy rolling out after the WOD when Giulz came over and said she wanted to talk to the group.  Prior to our workout, she told us that she wanted us to be accountable and hold ourselves to the standards of the WOD.  If we didn't meet the standard, we shouldn't take credit for completing the round properly.  Specifically, there was going to be a tendency for people to do push jerks rather than push presses at the end of each round.  If she saw us do a push jerk, she was going to call us out on it.  I think hearing her tell us that at the beginning of the workout also contributed to me not using my legs a lot on the push press.  Giulz was upset that the class seemed to ignore the speech she had given.  She let the class know that if people continued to not meet the standards, she would call them out.  And if they didn't like that, they should sign up for classes she wasn't coaching.  She apologized for being a "bitch" about it, but she wasn't going to stand for it any more.

Giulz isn't known as "The Hammer" for pussyfooting around topics like this one, but I don't think there was anything wrong with her enforcing the standards of the workout.  I only got to watch heat two, but I did see a lot of push jerks being done at the end of each round.  I don't feel like it is my place to call people on it during the workout, except in the case of the person I'm judging.  (I let Matt know in the warmup that he wasn't hitting depth on his front squat and he made a concerted effort to do so once the workout began.)  I know I've taken pride in the fact that KOP goes above and beyond to meet the standards at competitions while members of other gyms can end up getting away with murder.  I'd hate to see us get lax on that, so I'm glad Giulz spoke up about this issue.

I tend to stick around for Open Strength on Monday nights, but I wasn't sure what else I wanted to do after that workout.  I wasn't jazzed up about doing anything with a barbell.  I could have done some gymnastics work, but that wasn't calling me either.  As I walked over to my bag, Danielle asked me if I wanted to do some "Endurance" work with her and Donna.  They were going to do a cash-out on the assault bike.  Danielle is a big fan of finding workouts online that top Crossfit Games athletes do and taking them on after the regular WOD is over.  Today's mission was to do 10 rounds on the assault bike, 15 seconds on and 45 seconds off.  It sounded painful, but some extra cardio would probably do me good.

I went all out on the first sprint because it was only 15 seconds long and I was getting 3x as much rest.  When I heard Danielle's clock beep to signify the rest period had begun, I had sweat dripping off of me and I was panting.  Danielle and Donna were smiling and having a pleasant conversation.  Then Danielle wondered aloud if the 45 second break "feels like too much rest".  Not to the guy gasping for air next to them!  Adding to my misery was a malfunctioning monitor.  I wanted to track how many calories I accumulated in this cash-out, but when I started my first sprint, my screen started blinking.  I didn't get it fixed until after the second sprint.

It was after that second sprint that Caitlyn joined us on the bikes.  The four of us went hard on every sprint and the perception that we were receiving too much rest slowly went away.  I had 67 calories on my bike at the conclusion of the 10th round, so I probably would have been in the 80-85 calorie range had my monitor worked from the start.  I did some slow pedaling during a couple of my recovery periods, so I should also probably subtract some calories from my total if I'm being fair.  Let's call it 80 calories in the end.  My body was sufficiently tired once the assault bike cash-out was done, so I decided to leave Open Strength on the early side this Monday night.

Tuesday preview: Heavy overheads!  You know I have to show up for that!  Plus the cash-out tests how well I perform some movements while fatigued.

With A Purr

Workout date: 5/12/17

After showing some better judgment and taking Thursday off, I showed up to the noon express on Friday feeling recovered and ready to go.  I was eager because Thursday was a day I hadn't planned on taking off.  I was eager because my performance in my most recent workout was lousy.  And I was eager because the WOD on Friday gave me the chance to take care of some unfinished business.

The first part of Friday's workout involved finding a 1RM snatch.  About two and a half weeks earlier, I had stayed for Open Strength and worked on my snatch.  My intention during that session was to work on my form, but once I started hitting one lift after another, it ended up being a quest for a new PR.  I took 5 shots at a new PR of 180 pounds.  Two of them were good not great.  I was very close to standing up with 180 pounds on each of the last three lifts, but I couldn't maintain control of the barbell.  I left that night knowing I could hit that weight.  It was just a matter of when I'd have time to try it again.

As background, my 1RM snatch has been at 175 pounds since 2014.  I took the 8 week Olympic lifting course with the Bridgeport Barbell Club and it did wonders for my clean and jerk and my snatch.  My focus wasn't on WODs at the time, rather it was on all the details that go into a successful Olympic lift.  After the program was over, there was a WOD programmed that was similar to what I was doing on Friday.  I couldn't tell you what the second part of it was, but the first part involved finding a 1RM snatch.  I remember being very happy when I stood up with 165 pounds that day.  That lift either tied or set a new PR for me.  There was a couple minutes left before we had to proceed to the second part of the WOD, so I threw on a pair of 5 pound plates and decided to give 175 a shot.  I only had time for one attempt.  I didn't truly believe I would get it, but I wanted a sense of how close I was to hitting a lift that heavy.  Before I knew it, I had it overhead as I sat down in the bottom of my squat.  It was difficult to stand up with, but somehow I held on to that barbell as I rose up out of the squat.  It was a very pleasant surprise.

Three years have passed and I'm still stuck at 175.  My deadlift 1RM has been stuck at 385 for a similar amount of time, but that feels like a much more desperate situation.  Heavy deadlifts are programmed frequently, yet I continue to spin my wheels in pursuit of a 400 pound deadlift.  The 1RM snatch doesn't come up all that often and I certainly don't practice it as religiously as I did back when I was enrolled in the Olympic lifting course.  I also have the impression that I was lucky to get 175 the day that I hit it.  I probably should have forgotten that it happened and acted like my 1RM was 165.  My progression since that time would make a lot more sense then.  I've had a couple good lifting sessions where I've managed to hit 170.  And since I've become pretty devoted to the "don't tie your PR" rule, I've been skipping over 175 when I probably should have taken a few cracks at it, if only to make myself believe I really could handle that weight.

There was no turning back to 175 now though.  All those close calls at 180 had me believing that I was going to surpass 175 the next time I tried to snatch.  That time was Friday afternoon.  Coach Aimee had 7 people in her class.  I was used to seeing Tim H, Justin D, Karen, and Jessie at the nooner, but this was the first time I had seen Holly and Jeremy there.  They usually take afternoon classes.  I assumed they were at the nooner because the KOP prom later that night was forcing the cancellation of some of the regularly scheduled classes.

Aimee got us warmed up on the snatch.  She told us that we were not obligated to squat snatch while finding our 1RM, although we would be required to go into a squat for the cash-out later on.  While the squat snatch was not mandatory for our 1RM, we would probably need it if we were truly going heavy.  I planned on squat snatching all of my lifts, partly because it's a become a habit of mine and partly because doing it at the lighter weights would help ensure that I was using good form as I approached my goal of 180.

During that Open Strength session a few weeks ago, I messed up 2 of my 5 lifts at 115 pounds.  I was going to start once again at that weight, but I was hoping not to take nearly that many attempts at 115.  If I was failing, then I would make some additional attempts until I felt like my form was good.  Ideally though, I'd just nail my initial tries and move on to 135.  That is exactly what happened.  I performed two squat snatches at 115 and each of them felt good.  I bounced right out of the bottom and stood up with them.

I didn't begin to think of that lifting session a couple weeks ago as a PR quest until I performed the lifts at 135.  All of that tinkering I did at 115 paid off when I moved up to 135.  I did two lifts at that weight and they felt like the best ones of the night.  On Friday, I went into the lifts at 135 feeling more confident than I had a fortnight ago.  They went just as well.  My focus at these lighter weights was to not hang out in the bottom of the squat.  I often do that just because I know I can gather myself and do an overhead squat to finish the lift, but I think part of the reason I kept failing at 180 previously was because I was hanging out in the bottom and wobbling when I should have gotten on with it and tried to stand up.  On the four lifts I did at 115 and 135, I hit the bottom and stood back up with some urgency, even though I wasn't really in any trouble.

135 would be the last weight that I did more than one rep on.  I wasn't sure how many attempts I would need at the heavier weights and I didn't want to rush those tries.  A couple of minutes between lifts would give me my best chance at a PR.  I added 20 pounds to my barbell and gathered myself for the lift at 155.  This was the first lift where I paused in the bottom, but I wasn't stuck down there too long.  There was no wobbling of any sort and I felt very under control as I stood up 155 pounds.

170 was where I thought I might need a couple of attempts.  Sometimes these lifts feel like they are going well enough and then out of the blue you encounter more trouble than you expected at a certain weight.  I was expecting plenty of trouble at 180, so 170 struck me as the weight where I might go through some growing pains before I got a chance at a PR attempt.  When I walked up to the barbell, I was hypersensitive about every aspect of my setup.  Why overlook something and have to do it three times?  If I did everything properly, I should be able to clear this weight on the first try.  Once I felt locked in, I made sure my shoulders were pinned back and that my gaze was at the level that Faby had told me to have it at when he was helping me out at Open Strength.  I made my 1st attempt at 170 and got it overhead.  I was sitting in the bottom of the squat, remaining calm, trying my best not to wobble forward or backwards.  Once it was clear that I wasn't wobbling, I began to rise.  There's a point not too far north from the bottom of the squat where I can tell I'm going to be able to stand up the barbell.  It speaks to how much faith I have in my overhead squat.  I got to that point and I knew I had it.  I was relieved that I didn't waste too much energy on 170.  That allowed me to give 180 my best shot.

I added 10 pounds to my barbell and then took some extra time to get ready for my PR attempt.  It's just another lift.  You know you can snatch this weight.  You had it 3 times already.  Be confident and stand it up.  I probably needed most of the time between my lifts at 170 and 180 to get my mind right more than I needed it for physical recovery.  I was finally ready to go.  I approached the barbell and began making sure my setup was perfect.  For some reason, my grip didn't feel right.  I was already crouching as I tried to get my grip the way I wanted it.  Then I pinned my shoulders back, but my knees were bulging forward when they should have been back.  I was about to fix that problem when I decided to let go of the barbell, walk away, and start over.  I was under no obligation to continue on with the lift just because I laid hands on the barbell.  It was better to start fresh.  When I came back to the barbell, things felt better.  My setup was the way I wanted it.  I began the lift and, a second later, I had the barbell overhead.  As I sat in the bottom of the squat, I told myself to stand.  Just one problem.  I had avoided wobbling when sitting in the squat on my earlier attempts.  I was definitely wobbly now.  Specifically, I could feel myself tilting backwards.  Someone could have yelled "timber!" watching me slowly tip.  I knew I had to bail the barbell behind me.  That was my 4th consecutive attempt at 180 where I felt like I had it, only to watch it slip away.

I thought I still had plenty of time for a few more attempts, but Aimee said we should be working towards our final attempt as I got ready for try #2.  I didn't rush because I felt like I could probably convince her to let me make a third attempt if my second miss was a near miss like the first one.  Aimee gave me a tip upon seeing me lose the barbell on my 1st attempt at 180.  She told me that I had to keep pressing up when I was sitting in the bottom of the squat.  I think I was so focused on staying tight and trying not to wobble that I let the barbell sit in my hands.  Once it began to roll, I lost control of it.  I wasn't letting that happen a second time.

There was no false start this time around as I felt comfortable when I set up.  The lift was a carbon copy of the first attempt.  For the fifth straight time, I had snatched 180 pounds over my head and caught it in the bottom of my squat.  As soon as I caught it overhead, I made sure I was continuing to press upward.  There was a moment where I sat there trying to figure out whether I was wobbling forward or wobbling backward.  Then I realized I wasn't wobbling at all.  Aimee and my classmates were yelling at me to stand up and I began to rise.  It wasn't official until I stood completely upright, but when I hit that point along the way where I knew I had it, I allowed myself a smile.  I knew I could get 180 and now I finally had it.  When Aimee asked us for our scores and I told her mine was 180, she asked me if that was "with a purr".  Yes it was, Aimee.  Please go ahead and write PR next to my score.

Could I have done more?  I think 185 is a real possibility for me, but I doubt I'm strong enough to go higher than that at the moment.  And I wasn't interested in rushing to make one more attempt.  180 was good enough for now.  Besides, the cash-out on tap was going to require plenty of energy.  Here's how we were wrapping up class:

5-4-3-2-1
Squat snatch (75% of your 1RM)
Bar muscle-ups

Being the math nerd that I am, I was extra pleased with hitting 180 because 75% of that was 135, meaning I could put two 45 pound plates on my barbell and be all set for the cash-out.  Easy peasy.  As for the bar muscle-ups, doing 15 was asking a lot, especially since it had only been 4 days since Bryan resuscitated my belief that I could do them.  The most I had done in any workout was 9, so there was a good chance I would need to scale these somehow.  I was going to see how the first round went and then go from there.

This cash-out was meant to be a sprint and pretty much all of the times from earlier in the day were under 10 minutes.  I was going to do my best to respect that without giving up on the bar muscle-ups immediately.  Whether I truly have bar muscle-ups or not, I can say for certain that I am not proficient with them yet.  I had to expect some failed reps at the beginning, but hopefully I could learn from those misses and slowly turn them into good reps.  It would help my cause if I moved quickly through the squat snatches and I did a solid job of that in round one.  135 pounds was a little too much for me to go touch and go, but I did five fairly quick singles with only one real breather necessary in the middle of the set.  Once those five were done, I jogged down to the end of the gym.  I wanted plenty of space for my bar muscle-up attempts and the most desolate portion of the gym was  at the far end of the pull-up rig.

I stutter-stepped back and forth as I got ready to make my 1st attempt at a bar muscle-up.  I tried to stay positive, telling myself that if I had done it earlier in the week, I could do it now.  Then I swung on the bar and made it happen.  I certainly wasn't expecting the first rep to be a successful one, but it was.  I immediately got a big head and started thinking that I'd be able to get 14 more of these.  After failing on my next 3-4 attempts, I started to become more realistic about how this cash-out was going to go.  Aimee had seen me get the first rep and she had seen a couple of my failed attempts as well.  She told me that I needed to be more aggressive as I swung during my kip.  To her, it looked like I was just floating along and hoping to magically end up on top of the bar.

The words she used struck home with me because she used to say something similar when describing how I would snatch.  The barbell would make contact with my body and I would stop pulling from that point on.  Aimee would say that I was hoping the barbell would magically float overhead, except that's not how the lift works.  She had actually spoken about this at the beginning of today's class and I took a little bit of pride in knowing that I no longer rely on magic.  I've made an adjustment and worked on continuing to pull after the barbell makes contact with my body.  If I had fixed that problem with my snatch, then I figured I could fix it on the bar muscle-up as well.  My next attempt was closer than my previous attempts, but still no good.  The extra aggression paid off on the following attempt as I finally got bar muscle-up #2.

I was already well behind the class at this point in the cash-out, so I made a decision on how I would proceed the rest of the way.  I wanted to get 1 more bar muscle-up in this round before heading back to my barbell.  Instead of going 5-4-3-2-1 on the bar muscle-ups, I would try for 3-2-2-1-1.  That was 9 in total, something I knew I was capable of completing.  The format of the cash-out would break up my bar muscle-up attempts.  That would probably help me in terms of finishing with a respectable time.

After a few more attempts, I got bar muscle-up #3 and I was able to head back to the part of the cash-out that I felt comfortable performing.  The four squat snatches didn't take all that long to complete and I headed back to the pull-up rig.  It didn't take me as many attempts to complete my second round of bar muscle-ups, but I took longer breaks between attempts.  Whether it ends up being a success or not, every bar muscle-up attempt I make leaves me feeling like I've had the wind knocked out of me.  I was also starting to notice that my arms were tiring out.  That would become much more apparent when I came back to the barbell for my round of 3 snatches.  I caught the first rep in a squat, but my arms started shaking and I couldn't hold on to it.  More rest was needed.  I couldn't take too long though because my classmates were starting to finish the cash-out one by one.  I was strong enough to stand up with each of my next 3 reps and my situation started seeming less bleak.  3 more snatches and 4 more bar muscle-ups and I was done.

My pace slowed even more on round 3 of the bar muscle-ups.  I got the 1st of the 2 reps out of the way pretty quickly, but I really struggled to get that second rep completed.  The more I failed, the more beaten up I felt.  I was the only one still working, but I didn't want to give in because I was so close to finishing off the 3-2-2-1-1 rep scheme I had set out to do.  At long last, I got my body mostly over the bar and I wriggled my way into a terrible looking (but successful) second bar muscle-up.

From there, I ran down to my barbell.  I did two quick squat snatches.  Instead of running all the way back down the gym, I used the part of the pull-up rig that was nearest to my barbell.  No one else was using it at that point.  Holly came over to try and give me some advice on the bar muscle-up, but it was too late for her advice to be useful.  I made another 3-4 attempts, but none of them were close.  It was time to throw in the towel.  I did two chest-to-bar pull-ups instead.  One squat snatch and one chest-to-bar pull-up later, I was finally done.  Cash-out time: 13:01.

That wasn't the way I wanted to finish things off, but I guess I should have been happy that I got 7 bar muscle-ups.  Holly stuck around to show me how she approaches bar muscle-ups.  Her technique was quite a bit different from mine.  When she goes into her swing, she has her feet out in front of the bar.  The reason they are out so far is because she wants to make sure she has a good hollow rock position before swinging into her kip.  I hadn't even really considered what my setup looks like as I jump on to the bar.  I'm more focused on my body position as I swing through and as I swing back.  It was interesting to watch.  Even more interesting was watching Jeremy show me how he approaches the bar muscle-up because his setup was very different from Holly's.  He is borderline vertical (Holly looks more like a C) when he jumps up to the bar, but he pops his hips so quickly that it elevates him up over the bar.  I'm not sure which of those techniques is better for me, but I'll probably play around with both of them to try and improve my efficiency when it comes to bar muscle-ups.

Monday preview: A WOD that is bear complex-like in nature (can't put the barbell down) reveals how weak my grip truly is.  I agree to do an assault bike cash-out with some of the girls.  No cash-out should involve the words "10 rounds".

The Snack Machine

Workout date: 5/10/17

I usually get one day of ignorant bliss after a workout before noticing the true toll it took on my body.  So when I woke up on Wednesday morning with barely functional shoulders, I should have realized that Tuesday night's WOD was much tougher than I originally had given it credit for.  It is possible that some of the pain I was feeling had come from all of the work I did on Monday night, but it sure felt like this was the aftermath of that push press/rope climb couplet.  I would like to think that I am good about listening to my body, especially at times when it is screaming at me like it was on Wednesday morning.  But sometimes I'm too stubborn for my own good.  Instead of taking a rest day on Wednesday, I decided to go in for a WOD that I knew would be a tough one for me even if I had been fresh.

Part of my stubbornness was due to the fact that Wednesday was a test day.  We were making our second attempt at one of this year's benchmark workouts.  The WOD in question?  Mary.

"Mary"
20 minute AMRAP
5 handstand push-ups
10 pistols
15 pull-ups

I guess my euphoria over not having to do tons of pull-ups at Dudes After Dark was a bit premature.  15 pull-ups per round in a workout that was 20 minutes in length meant I was going to be doing a lot of pull-ups.  When I did Mary in February, my score was 6+17, which works out to a total of 92 pull-ups.  I wouldn't have shown up for this class if I wasn't intending on beating that score, so I was signing up for approximately 100 pull-ups before the night was over.

Coach Jenna had 4 people in her class, although some of us were worried it could end up being five.  Julie Foucher was back for another workout, despite her due date being only two days away.  I've been amazed by all of the WODs that Julie has been able to complete throughout her pregnancy, but I have to say I was worried about her taking on a workout as strenuous as this one when the baby could come at any minute.  Julie assured the rest of us there (Jenna, myself, Bryan, and Therese) that it didn't work like that.  It wasn't as though she'd be three rounds into Mary and then suddenly give birth.  I told Julie that Therese might know that since she's had kids, but that Jenna, Bryan, and I were inexperienced on the topic.  I joked that we were looking at her like a snack machine: the snack you paid for might be stuck at the moment, but with some vigorous shaking, it might tumble out of the machine.  Julie shook her head and laughed at me, despite the fact that I had just compared her to a vending machine and referred to her unborn child as a snack.  (It is times like these when the world should be grateful that I have not fathered any children.)

I used 2 ab-mats for the handstand push-ups when I did this workout three months ago, so I wanted to see if I could handle using only one this time around.  My score could end up being lower than what it was in February, but if I was relatively close to it and used only 1 ab-mat for the entirety of the WOD, I would consider that progress.  After all, I want to eventually get to the point where I don't need any ab-mats for my handstand push-ups.  The final element of this workout was the only one that I wasn't sweating.  I am oddly proficient at pistols and 10 per round wasn't a whole lot.  The pistols were likely going to be a minor speed bump in between handstand push-ups and pull-ups.

We had begun our warmup with a 400 meter run and while we were out jogging, I chatted with Bryan about what his expectations were for this workout.  He was also going to use 1 ab-mat for the handstand push-ups, though he was being more conservative when it came to how many rounds he wanted to finish.  He was thinking in the 5-6 range while I was aiming for the 6-7 range.  Before the workout began, we each practiced handstand push-ups with 1 ab-mat and his reps looked a lot smoother than mine did.  You may be shocked to learn this, but things did not magically change once the workout got underway.  Our pre-WOD predictions weren't accurate for ourselves, but they would have been pretty on the mark had we exchanged them.

After practicing all of the movements, Jenna made sure we were ready to go and then started the clock.  I knew I was in trouble as soon as I got upside-down.  I only made it through 3 handstand push-ups before I came down from the wall and I had to work very hard on each of those reps.  That was not how they were supposed to feel at the beginning of the workout.  As I got ready to kick back up on to the wall again, I saw Bryan move on to the pistols.  He clearly had no issues with that first round of handstand push-ups.  I got upside-down again and managed to complete two more reps, but like the first three that I had done, they were a struggle.  I had brought over an extra ab-mat just in case I started failing over and over again with only 1 ab-mat.  I didn't want to resort to 2 ab-mats until I had to, but as I got ready to start my pistols, I was already sensing that I might be using that second ab-mat much sooner than anticipated.

The pistols were a nice transition from the handstand push-ups.  I didn't go super fast on my first round of 10, but I didn't need to pause along the way either.  As I turned to come back to the pull-up bar, my plan was to knock out sets of two and keep my breaks short in length.  I think I did a decent job of that, although I suspect my breaks were longer than I truly wanted them to be.  The clock was nearing 3:30 as I moved over the first bead on the abacus that I was using to track my completed rounds.

Things fell apart when I returned to the wall for handstand push-ups.  My 1st attempt of round two saw me get upside-down, but I was unable to press out of the push-up completely.  I came back down, shook out my arms, and tried to convince myself that I just rushed into that rep.  If I caught my breath and got settled, I could handle these handstand push-ups.  That was somewhat true.  I squeezed out two reps the next time I got upside-down, although it took everything I had to press each of them out.  On my next attempt, I barely got handstand push-up #3.  I had now reached the point where I was going to be happy if I just completed this round.  I couldn't even do that.  I made two more attempts, but each time I didn't have enough strength to press myself out of the bottom.  Yesterday's workout had destroyed my shoulders and I should have factored that into the equation when determining what scale would be proper for me to use in this WOD.  There was nothing left to figure out now.  I reluctantly grabbed the second ab-mat, set it on top of the other one, and finished off my remaining two handstand push-ups.

I'd like to say that the remainder of the workout went much better for me, but that would be a lie.  I didn't fail on any of my remaining handstand push-ups, but they continued to be much harder than I expected them to be, especially now that I was using two ab-mats.  The pistols were supposed to be my bread and butter, but I would end up with two no reps along the way.  There were also several times where I'd have to stop in the middle of a set just to get balanced.  I've had to do that when doing a large number of pistols (say 50), but it was unusual that I needed to do it with small sets like we had  in this workout.  At the pull-up bar, I only made it through two rounds of doing doubles before I switched to small groups of fast singles.  With time ticking down on me at the end of the WOD, I did manage to hold on for three consecutive reps to begin round #6, but after that it was just singles until time was called.  Final score: 5+24.

That was nearly a full round less than I had done in February.  And because I switched to 2 ab-mats along the way, I don't really get credit for the 8 handstand push-ups I did with only a single ab-mat.  I should have known better than to take on a tougher standard when I wasn't feeling 100%.  (Note: Bryan had no such problems with the tougher standard, crushing this workout with a final score of 7+12.)  If I was being honest with myself, I probably shouldn't have come into the gym at all.  Just because there is a benchmark WOD programmed, it doesn't mean you need to test yourself again to see where you're at.  If anything, there's more of a reason to skip it, since you know it will show up again in 3 months.  It's always better to listen to what your body is telling you.  And if it's saying to me, "hey dummy, take a rest day", then I should heed its advice in the future.

Friday preview: After wising up and taking a rest day on Thursday, I come back Friday to test my 1RM snatch.  Class concludes with an interesting cash-out of squat snatches and bar muscle-ups.  I receive tons of advice on how to improve my bar muscle-up form.

Caution: No Shoulders Ahead

Workout date: 5/9/17

Please no pull-ups...please no pull-ups...please no pull-ups...YESSSSSSSS!

That was basically what I was muttering to myself while clicking refresh on my phone at 10pm on Monday night.  I'm not sure whether Tuesdays have intentionally become the day when we do pull-up intensive workouts or whether it's simply a nasty coincidence, but I was ready for a Dudes After Dark where I wasn't staring up at the pull-up bar and hating life.  I got my wish on this Tuesday.  Not only were there no pull-ups to be found, they were being replaced by a movement that I'm very fond of.  Goodbye pull-ups, hello rope climbs!  Here's what we were doing in the Tuesday WOD:

Tuesday's WOD:
15 push presses
5 rope climbs (15')
12 push presses
4 rope climbs
9 push presses
3 rope climbs
6 push presses
2 rope climbs
3 push presses
1 rope climb
*The RX weight for push presses would be 3/4 body weight

The Dudes After Dark lineup was pretty standard.  LC had seven sassy students on her hands, with half a dozen dudes (Rob C, Noel, Neil, Cline, EJ, and myself) and one non-dude (Esra).  We all seemed to have the same question before the workout began: what weight should we use for the push presses?  Typically the RX standard for a barbell movement will include a specific weight that all the men will use and a specific weight that all the women will use.  Throwing body weight into the mix meant most of us would be shouldering different loads in this workout and we'd need to figure out whether that load was right for us.  (Note: We should probably be doing this in regular workouts, but there is a tendency for classmates to go "Oh you're using 135?  I'll use 135 too."  I'm as guilty of this as anyone else.)

Rob, Neil, and I started talking about whether we would go RX for this WOD.  I was considering it as that meant I'd be using 155.  That didn't sound like an overwhelming weight if I broke up my push presses into sets of three (or even five) early on.  My 3RM push press is 195.  The question was whether I'd be able to maintain that for the entire workout.  I had a feeling that I might not be able to.  I also didn't want to slow down dramatically at the end of this WOD because it felt like it was meant to be a longer sprint type of workout.  It was probably better for me to go lighter and move at a faster pace.  I decided to go with 135 instead.  This looked like a workout that I should excel at, so if I chose my barbell weight properly, then I expected my time to rival the best times of the day.  The majority of the top times fell in the 13-14 minute range, so 14 minutes became my goal for this workout.

Rob is lighter than me, so his RX weight was going to be 145.  He felt comfortable using that for this workout.  If 145 was the RX standard for me, I probably would have used it as well.  That left Neil.  I asked him if he was going RX and I got a resounding "hell no" from him.  I could never work in a carnival guessing people's weights because I thought that Neil weighed just a little bit more than me.  When he told me he weighed 30 pounds more than me, I was surprised.  I also completely understood why he had no desire to attempt the RX standard.

LC put us through a short progression to warm us up on the push press.  It's a fairly basic movement, so there's not a lot to go over.  The key aspect that LC wanted us to remember is that we could not re-bend our knees when pressing the barbell overhead.  If we did, that was a push jerk and the rep would not count.  LC then asked me if I would mind being the demo guy for the rope climb.  Sure, why not?  LC asked me to demonstrate the S-hook and I immediately realized why not.  I had forgotten how to do the S-hook.  I did my best to fake it, but LC took a look at me and then said to the class "not like that".  Oops.  The worst part is that the J-hook I use isn't textbook either, but I could fake the proper technique on that one better than my lame attempt at the S-hook.

With 5 ropes available and 7 of us in class, LC wanted to avoid any congestion issues, so she had us divide into two heats, with the second heat starting one minute after the first.  Being the procrastinator I am, you might think that I volunteered for heat two, but that wasn't the case.  LC just happened to place me there along with Cline and Neil.  I am really grateful that I ended up in the same heat as Cline because he pushed me through the majority of this workout.  I patiently waited for a minute as heat one got to work.  Then it was my turn to go.  For the first round, I was just going to feel out how many reps I wanted to do in my leadoff set.  Given that I had dropped my barbell weight down to 135 pounds, I was hoping to complete 15 push presses in two sets.  I made it through 9 reps before putting my barbell down.  I might have been able to do a couple more, but there was no point in burning myself out this early on.  I had completed a solid chunk and put myself in position to finish the round with only two sets.  That's just what I did as I moved through the last 6 push presses and got over to the ropes.

I didn't waste any time doing the first rope climb.  I would describe my rope climbing style as a scamper.  The textbook J-hook involves wrapping one foot up over your other foot to cinch the rope.  That gives you a very stable position and takes the pressure off of your arms during the climb.  I approach it a little differently.  The reason the J-hook is faster than the S-hook is because you are sacrificing some stability in order to transition from pull to pull quicker.  My scamper sacrifices even more stability for speed.  Is it the most efficient way to climb the rope?  No.  Is it faster?  I think so.  I should probably practice the proper J-hook for workouts where I need to be more efficient, but if I'm focused on speed in a rope climb workout, I like my scamper.

Before the workout began, I envisioned doing 2 or 3 rope climbs without a break to kick off the round of five, but it didn't play out that way for me.  I came down from that first climb and needed a break.  Not a long one, but my lungs were burning a little more than I expected.  I took 5-10 seconds and then made my next climb.  That would become my pattern for most of this workout.  Those breaks might have been longer if I didn't have Cline next to me.  He had good speed on his climbs and his breaks weren't very long either.  Each time he came down from a climb, I knew it was my cue to get moving on my next climb.

With my 5th climb completed, I came back to my barbell.  There were 3 less reps to do in this round, but I was pretty certain that I would need three sets rather than two.  Four reps of this heavy-ish push press was all I could do with solid form.  Cline's barbell was behind me, so I wasn't able to see how fast he was going.  If he was going to pass me here, there wasn't a lot that I could do about it.  My breaks between sets of the push press were longer than my breaks between rope climbs and I got worried that I was pacing this workout too much.  I was still thinking "this is a sprint" and I certainly wasn't sprinting.  I made it through two more sets of 4 push presses to complete this round and my mind was already on the next round.  I couldn't break that one up into three sets of three.  I had to push myself to go 5 and 4 when I returned to my barbell.

I kept a similar pace on the round of 4 rope climbs, but Cline did as well.  He wasn't that far behind me getting to the rope.  He was still quick getting up to that 15' mark and his breaks continued to be about the same duration as mine.  I completed my 4th rope climb and Cline was hot on my trail as we came back to the push presses.

The middle of a workout is usually where I fall apart, but I managed to hold on to my pace in this WOD and that's how I began to separate from Cline.  I'm not sure if Cline did three sets of 3 reps in this round, but I stuck to my plan of going 5 and 4 for my 9 reps.  When I got back to the rope, I stuck with my pattern of immediately going into the first climb.  I couldn't tell if I was keeping my breaks the same length, but I'm a big believer that I can climb to the 15' mark even if I'm struggling to breathe, so I was always starting the next climb before I was fully recovered.  My biggest concern was that my forearms were tiring out.  This was the type of workout where using the efficient rope climb technique would have helped me out.  My pulls up the rope began to weaken.  On my last climb of this round, I wound up a few inches short of the 15' mark and needed an extra mini-pull to complete the climb.

It was apparent that the third round of this workout was where the rope climbs became really difficult.  I noticed it because of that extra pull that I needed to do.  I also noticed it because everyone else in class seemed stuck at their ropes.  Cline, Rob, Noel, and Neil were all going much slower on their climbs.  They were also starting to fail on some of their climbs.  I had pulled ahead of the rest of the guys, but I told myself that they could still catch me.  I needed to have that push to the finish.

As I came back to my barbell for the round of 6 push presses, I looked at the clock.  I had glanced at it a couple of times earlier in the workout and I had gotten the impression that I was way behind the pace I was hoping for.  It wasn't until I hit this round that my brain started working again.  The reason I had thought I was going so slow in earlier rounds was because I hadn't subtracted a minute from the clock to account for starting in heat two.  80% of the workout was complete and now I was getting this nice bonus of taking a minute off of my time.  All of a sudden it looked like I had a shot at staying under 14 minutes.  That was another shot of adrenaline that helped me get through the arm and shoulder fatigue I was beginning to experience.  If I kept moving, I could reach my goal.

For the 6 push presses, I did two sets of 3 reps, trying to keep that lone break to the same length of my previous breaks.  When I got back to the rope, I had a very good first climb.  I caught my breath before embarking on my second climb, but I knew right from the start that this was going to be another one where I'd need an extra mini-pull at the end to get to the 15' mark.  Since I was already exhausted, it sucked having to do an extra pull, but I made it happen.  As I slid down the rope, all I could think about was going into a full sprint to complete the workout.  I'd been doing sets of 3 push presses, so I just needed to grab the barbell and do one more set just like that.  I'd been wasting no time going into my 1st rope climb after the push presses, so this was perfect since I only had 1 climb left.  I could belt out this last round in like 30 seconds.

That was the dream anyways.  I got to my barbell, picked it up, and barely got the first rep pressed out overhead.  On the 2nd rep, I did the most blatant push jerk ever.  It wasn't even close to a push press.  I no-repped myself and dropped the barbell.  As much as I wanted to gut out the last round and stop the clock, my arms were having other ideas.  I took a solid 15 seconds to shake out my arms.  Then I picked up the barbell and completed the final 2 push presses.  I ran over to my rope and began the last climb.  Once again I knew my pulls weren't as strong as they typically are and that I would need an extra one to get to the 15' mark.  But this was the end of the workout.  If I needed 3 extra pulls, I would have made it happen.  I slapped the 15' mark, slid down the rope, and wandered out of the way of my classmates before taking residence on the gym floor.  Final time: 13:16.

This was a weird one for me.  I kept thinking that I was taking too much rest between sets/climbs, but somehow I managed to stay under 14 minutes.  Maybe I have Cline to thank for pushing me most of the way.  Maybe I'm getting slightly better at realizing that I'm recovered enough (as opposed to fully recovered) to continue on with a workout.  LC came over to me after I was done and told me that she thought I had done an excellent job with my pacing in this WOD, making this the second Dudes After Dark in a month where she had said that to me.  If I'm starting to internalize what the right pace is for these workouts, that would help me tremendously going forward.

Cline, Noel, Rob, and Neil were still working as I tried to get the feeling back in my shoulders and forearms.  Cline and Noel were close to being done and I cheered them on as they finished up the end of their workouts.  They looked good early on with their rope climbs, but they both reached the point of failure late, causing them to have to scale their climbs at the very end.  They both were done around the 17 minute mark.  I thought Rob and Neil were on the same round as Cline and Noel, but they were actually further back.  They were still completing round three when I came over to cheer them on.  I'm not sure where they encountered trouble early on in the workout, but both of them powered through the last rounds with good form, finishing just under the 22 minute mark.

Neil had mentioned before the workout that he didn't love rope climbs, which seemed odd to me because he's very tall and tall guys have an advantage on the rope climb.  And just from watching his last three rounds, he looked solid to me on the rope.  It made me wonder whether it just took a while to click for him.  Giulz gave us a different explanation.  "Every single one of you climbed the rope wrong", she declared.  That seemed a bit ridiculous to me.  None of us may have used the 100% Crossfit-endorsed J-hook in this workout, but that didn't mean we had climbed the rope wrong.  I would never go up to someone using the S-hook and tell them they were climbing the rope wrong.  People are going to use different techniques on the rope and they will vary in speed and efficiency.  Would I lean towards more efficiency in a workout like this one that was so taxing on your shoulders?    Sure.  But I'd also say most of the rope climb workouts that we do at KOP don't include this much volume (15 climbs).  And when those are programmed, I'm perfectly happy with my scamper.

Wednesday preview: Listening to your body is an important way to stay healthy in Crossfit.  After showing up for Wednesday's WOD, I probably need to have my hearing aid checked.

Anonymous Annie

Workout date: 5/8/17

People love to work out on Mondays.  Maybe they feel refreshed after the weekend.  Maybe they feel guilty after the weekend.  All I know for certain is that the biggest classes are always on Monday.  We now have a Boot Camp class running every Monday afternoon and it hasn't seemed to trim down the regular class sizes any.  With that in mind, I was relieved to see that the WOD programmed for Monday was one that wouldn't require a lot of equipment or moving around.  We were starting with a benchmark test of strength before finishing up with an unnamed cash-out that seemed oddly familiar:

Monday's WOD:

Strength: Find your 2RM hang squat clean

Cash-out:
50-40-30-20-10
Double unders
Sit-ups
(Time cap: 7 minutes)

Hey, wait a minute!  You might not have on your mandated "hello, my name is" badge indicating who you are, Ms. Cash-out, but I'd recognize you anywhere.  That was our friend Annie, who happened to be one of the benchmark WODs from last year.  Going into 2016, I had never completed Annie in under 10 minutes, but I managed to whittle my time down to 9:04 by year-end.  That meant there was little chance I'd be completing this version of Annie under the very strict 7 minute time cap that was attached to her.

I could worry about Fast Annie at the end of the WOD.  Up first was the 2RM hang squat clean.  This wasn't technically a benchmark test from last year, but Elizabeth was and we tested our 2RM hang squat clean after every attempt at Elizabeth.  With 4 attempts at Elizabeth in 2016 and having been present for this test in February, Monday's workout would mark the 6th time in 14 months that I had gone after a 2RM hang squat clean.  Given that much frequency, you would think that I'd be certain of what my 2RM actually was for this lift.  I was not.  I knew I had done a hang squat clean using 225 pounds, but I couldn't remember whether I had done it for two reps or only one.  I couldn't recall doing a workout where we were finding a 1RM hang squat clean, so I assumed that 225 was my 2RM.  Unlike many of my other lifts, the 2RM hang squat clean has not been something I've tracked over time.  I was only able to determine the real answer as to what my 2RM was after I came home from this workout Monday night and that required a lot of searching through all the workouts I've done since the beginning of 2015.  (I'm very confident that my 2RM hang squat clean did not occur before 2015.)

There were 14 of us in class, but all we needed was a barbell for the first segment, so there was adequate room for everyone.  I was lined up behind Bryan and in front of Neil.  LC was substituting for Giulz and she had us in two lines facing the back of the gym as she walked us through the progressions for the hang squat clean.  We performed some reps with PVC pipe, then some with an empty barbell.  Then we were left to our own devices in terms of how we were going to reach our 2RM.  I didn't want to do a lot of sets, but I wasn't sure jumping right into a set at 135 pounds was a good idea.  As I put on my lifting shoes, I saw Neil load up his barbell with 135 pounds.  Whether he knew it or not, he had talked into me using that for my 1st set.  135 wasn't likely to be a problem.  My only concern was that a lighter set or two might have helped me ensure that my form was good.

It turned out that those lighter sets weren't necessary.  My form was solid on that initial set at 135.  Since I believed my 2RM to be 225, the plan was to go 135-165-185-205-220-230.  Even if I failed at 230, 220 would be five pounds more than I completed back in February, so that would be a decent consolation prize.  The toughest part of this lift would be maintaining my grip between reps.  It's no secret that I have poor grip strength and multiple reps of a lift from the hang position would expose that once again.  It's a big reason why I've failed on my heavier sets the last 5 times I've taken this test.  There's no partial credit, so getting 1 rep is no different than getting zero reps.  I've gotten the first rep plenty of times, only to lose my grip enough during the transition to rep #2 that I was unable to finish off the set.  If I could improve on the transition, I could PR today.

Neil and I started to alternate sets eventually.  I'm not sure what his progression was from 135 to 185, but I did see him complete 185 and it looked pretty easy.  I was fairly quick with my sets at 165 and 185.  I'm always worried that I'm going to get stuck on a rep at a lower weight and have it introduce doubt into my mind that I can't get rid of when I step up to the heavier barbells.  I didn't experience that here.  As Neil and I kept slapping on more weight, it felt like we were going head-to-head again like we had at the end of last Tuesday's WOD.  Neil stepped up and took care of 205 pounds.  It was my turn to match him.  This was the first real test of the workout.  The barbell certainly felt heavier as I deadlifted it and brought it to the hang position.  The first squat clean hurt a bit more than any of my previous ones, but I bounced out of it without getting stuck at all.  The transition was key.  It didn't feel like the barbell was slipping from my hands and I wasn't going to go slow enough to allow that to happen.  I kept my shoulders pinned back as I came back down into the hang.  When I performed the second rep, I didn't make as much contact with my body as I would have liked, but I caught the barbell in the bottom of my squat nonetheless.  I stood up with it, drawing me even with Neil yet again.

Our weights would diverge on the next set.  Neil made the natural progression to 225, while I went to 220.  I didn't want to tie my PR of 225 and I wasn't ready yet for 230.  225 would prove tricky for Neil.  I think he got the first rep on his initial attempt at that weight, but the transition was too much for him and he didn't get the second rep.  He tried 225 a few more times after that, but he began having trouble with the first rep and frustration got the best of him.  His final score would be 205.

I took my time before giving 220 a shot.  I went to do the first rep and I successfully caught it in the bottom of my squat.  One thing that has helped me in a lot of my lifts has been remembering that I can front squat/overhead squat some of these heavier weights that I am cleaning/snatching.  I don't have to panic when I'm in the bottom.  In fact, if I've caught the barbell in the bottom, I've gotten most of the dirty work out of the way.  I didn't immediately bounce out of that first hang squat clean at 220.  I took a second and then stood up with it.  My grip still felt solid, but I knew I couldn't waste any time going into that second rep.  The grip situation could change quickly.  So I went right into that second rep.  Once again, I caught it in the bottom, but I could feel that this was one where I needed to stand up immediately.  It felt much heavier than the first rep and there was a very good chance I'd get stuck down in the bottom if I didn't get on with it.  I had to struggle, but I stood up with it.  220 was complete.  Time for a shot at 230.

For someone who records just about every detail of his workout in this blog, you may find it hard to believe that I actively try to forget how much weight is on the barbell when I'm going after a PR attempt (or something relatively close to a PR).  There have been too many times in the past where I've psyched myself out before I've even attempted a lift.  I'll have it in my head that I've never lifted this much before.  Or I'll be thinking about the last time I failed at this weight and how heavy it felt.  Now I'll load my barbell and spend the rest period between lifts trying to occupy my mind with anything but how much weight is on the barbell.  And when I walk up to the barbell, I tell myself that this is simply my next lift.  It doesn't always work, but that's my approach.  As I walked up to 230, it wasn't striking me as overly daunting.  It was my next lift.  I deadlifted it, brought it to the hang, and performed the first squat clean.  As was the case at 220, I caught it at the bottom of my squat and paused for a second.  I knew I could front squat 230.  I had just rested for a couple of minutes.  I had this.  I slowly stood up with the weight.  One down, one to go.

I made the transition down to the hang.  My left hand grip felt fine.  The right hand grip?  Not so much.  The barbell nearly slid completely from my right hand.  I rose my right knee to hold up the barbell as I readjusted my grip.  It took several tries to get my grip solid enough to attempt the second squat clean.  I was pretty certain at that point that I had been holding on to the barbell too long, but if I could just catch the clean in my squat, I had a chance.  I went for the second rep, but my arms no longer had enough energy to get the barbell high enough for me to squat underneath it.  Final score: 220.

Bryan had watched me perform several of my sets and he gave me some good feedback afterwards.  He told me that I was going into my squat cleans from the high hang (barbell well above the knee) instead of the hang (barbell just above the knee).  If I lowered the barbell to the hang, I would be giving myself more of an opportunity to generate power.  I still need to improve my grip strength, but maybe those hang squat cleans at 220 and 230 will be a little easier next time this comes up if I focus on my barbell position.

I tried to return the favor to Bryan as I watched him make his last few attempts.  He told me that he was able to hang power clean 135 pounds, but he couldn't perform squat cleans with that weight.  Hogwash!  You should always be able to handle more weight using a squat than when you don't use a squat.  Plus I had watched Bryan do front squats in a recent class and he handled 135 easily.  He just needed some convincing that he could do it.  (He also had to deal with me staring at him from about a foot away.)  Sure enough, Bryan moved through two hang squat cleans on his next attempt at 135 like he could have done five if he needed to.  He made a couple attempts at a higher weight (140 or 145), but was unable to get under the first clean.

LC asked us for our scores once we were done.  She also wanted to know whether we had gotten a PR.  I told her I got 220 and that I wasn't sure if it was a PR.  That earned me a glare.  (To be fair, several others said they weren't sure either when they gave her their scores.)  I told LC not to put me down for a PR, but my research later that night informed me that I was mistaken.  I had hit a PR.  Actually, I had hit two PRs.  215 was my 2RM and 225 was my 1RM.  Now those marks could be updated to 220 for the 2RM and 230 for the 1RM.  I'll try to remember those in the future.

The class scrambled to put away their barbells and plates as it was now Fast Annie time.  I made a quick shoe change and grabbed my jump rope.  I think someone was nice enough to grab an ab-mat for me.  Matt B ended up directly to my right with Bryan a little further away to my left.  I didn't know what Matt's fastest time was on Annie, but I was pretty sure it was faster than my best time because he's more consistent with double unders.  If I could complete more reps of this cash-out than him, that would be an accomplishment.

I said "complete more reps" rather than "finish before him" because I couldn't see a way that I'd finish under the 7 minute cap.  That required shaving off more than 2 minutes from my best time.  Jenna was taking this class as well and she asked LC if we could finish Annie if we were close to being done at the 7 minute cap.  LC said that was alright, so as long as I wasn't way behind my previous best pace, I was going to see this through to the end.

Fast Annie couldn't have started out any better for me.  I was asked for 50 double unders and I did 50 double unders in a row.  Matt only hit himself once during that 1st set of double unders, but because he twirls the rope faster than I do, we were pretty much even when we began the 50 sit-ups.  My plan was to be consistently fast on the sit-ups.  I wasn't going to sprint as fast as I could because there were still 100 double unders and 100 sit-ups left after this portion of the workout was done, but with a 7 minute time cap in play, I couldn't take my time either.  I built a bit of a lead on Matt by the time I was done with the 50 sit-ups.

I hopped up and got right into the double unders again.  I got through 21 reps before hitting myself with the rope.  I didn't let that frustrate me.  I also didn't take a long break before starting again.  I've definitely become more efficient with my jumps while doing double unders and that paid off here.  I got right into the next set, managing to get all 19 remaining double unders without another stumble.  I wasn't able to keep up the same pace on the sit-ups as I had during the round of 50.  Losing a few pounds would help me big time on this aspect of the workout.  I never had to stop along the way, but my core was sore.  Just 60 reps of each movement remained, but I wasn't sure how fast I'd go with a hurting mid-section.

I was having a magical day when it came to the double unders.  I got all 30 reps in my next set, dropped my rope, and got back to the sit-ups.  These were on the slower side again and as I grinded my way to 30, the clock told me that I wasn't going to make it under the cap.  That was a bummer.  I finished up the 30 sit-ups and went back to my jump rope.  20 in a row without a problem.  This was my best double under day of all time!  I came back to the floor, sick of doing sit-ups.  Each rep was painful, but there were only 30 left in the workout.  I made it through 11 of the 20 sit-ups in this round before time was officially called.  Official cash-out time: 7:29 (7:00 time cap plus one second for every rep remaining).

Of course, I didn't stop at that point.  This was clearly the best I had ever done on this workout and there were only 29 reps left.  I was finishing.  I got through the last 9 sit-ups in the round of 20.  My dream double under day continued when I got all 10 reps for the final round.  I hurried back down to the floor and emptied the tank on the last 10 sit-ups.  Final Annie time: 7:57.

That was an awesome time for me!  A PR of 1:07.  Given that I only messed up once during the 150 double unders, I don't think I can do much more on that front to improve my Annie time.  If I want to beat the 7 minute time cap in the future, I'll need to drop 10-15 pounds and build a stronger core.

After rooting some of the others on who were completing Annie (time cap be damned!), I stuck around thinking about what I'd like to do at Open Strength.  I was talking with Bryan about how I had regressed back into thinking that I couldn't do bar muscle-ups anymore and he wasn't having it.  He pointed out how insistent I was that he could do two reps of the hang squat clean at 135 pounds.  He was going to be just as stubborn in making me believe that I could do bar muscle-ups.  I made a few close attempts before I was able to rekindle the magic and get back over the bar.  Bryan was right.  I was wrong.  I could still do them, although I was a little too tired out to do more than one.

I didn't do much more at Open Strength.  Bryan and I helped Maggie with a math problem from the actuarial study guide she had with her.  Always gotta help a potential actuary in need!  After that, I was stuck between deciding to go home and finding something else to do.  Then I thought about how good my double unders were during Fast Annie.  I told Bryan I was going to try and string 100 double unders.  After all, this was my magical double under evening.  Didn't matter that I was really tired.  I was in the zone!

Just for reference, even if you're in the zone, fatigue will always win out in the end.  I did a bunch of smaller sets, only breaking 20 in a row here and there.  Eventually I put together one big set of 57 consecutive reps, but when that ended, I could hardly muster the strength to stand.  It was definitely time to head home.

Tuesday preview: No pull-ups on a Tuesday night?  And tons of rope climbs?  Things are looking good for me in this workout.

I Prefer Your Feet To Most People's Butts

Workout date: 5/3/17

Bench press for the second time in 15 days?  How could that be?  Well, I did have advance notice that it would be showing up some time in May.  The 3RM bench press is on one of our benchmark workouts this year.  I missed it when it was programmed in February, but I knew it would show up again in May, August, and November.  I was a little surprised that it came up so early in May since we had a bench press WOD in mid-April, but I was definitely interested in seeing how much I could bench.  Unlike the workout in April where we were using a moderate weight with a lot of volume, we'd be benching heavy today.  That was the focal point of the workout.  Once that was complete, we'd have a cash-out of 50 GHD sit-ups and 25 calories on the ski erg.

Coach Jenna was back for the Wednesday 7:30 and she had a Brady Bunch-esque class of 3 girls and 3 boys.  (Spoiler: I believe that makes me Peter based on the results of this WOD.)  The female contingent consisted of Kristen, Christa, and Crystal.  (Fine, there was no Crystal.  Julie Foucher was the third member of that group.  I'm just an alliteration addict.)  The three guys were myself, Cline, and Javi.  Jenna originally wanted us to split into three pairs for the bench press, but we were going to have a lot of time for the strength portion of this workout and it made more sense to all of us to just use one bench for the ladies and one bench for the fellas.  Kristen and Christa ended up having their own bench anyways when Julie decided that it would be safer for her to use DBs on the incline bench.  The last thing anyone wanted was a barbell coming down on her baby bump.

Jenna asked me to demo the bench press as she showed us the proper way to spot your partner as they lifted.  She demonstrated how to give a proper assist off of the rack.  The barbell we were using was still empty at this stage, so I decided to have a little fun with Jenna.  She assisted me in taking the barbell off of the rack and kept her hands on it for a few seconds.  As soon as she let go of the barbell, I pretended that it weighed a thousand pounds and let it come crashing to my chest.  Her eyes got big when it happened, but then she realized that her demo volunteer was being a jerk.  After performing a couple of reps, I was done with my demo duties.  As Jenna was finishing up her speech on the bench press, she placed one of her feet where our head would rest during the workout.  And that led to this wonderful exchange:

Jenna: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to put my foot where your heads are going to be.
Cline: I'm sure people's butts have been there recently.  And I prefer your feet to most people's butts.

It was a fair point.  Those benches are used for sitting more than anything else.  Can't imagine 10 seconds of Jenna's sneaker on one required an apology.

Javi, Cline, and I began our journey to a 3RM with sets at 95 pounds.  Javi went first and I could tell he was going to be really good at the bench press.  He had a very intense setup before he performed the lift.  It was a giveaway that he had done a lot of bench press before.  (If you watched me prepare to squat, you would probably get the impression that I'm an experienced lifter simply based on the very specific way I set up.  And I have done my fair share of squatting the last 4 years.)  I wasn't sure how much he would end up lifting, but it was likely going to be more than me and Cline.  Cline told me before we began that his 1RM was 150, a number that seemed outdated to me.  Cline has definitely gotten a lot stronger over the last year or so and I felt confident that his 3RM by the end of the day would be 150 or higher, putting that old 1RM to shame. As for me, my 3RM was 175 pounds, so the goal was to get 180 pounds before I touched the ski erg and the GHD machine.

I'm often the pokey guy when it comes to strength WODs like this one, but Javi and Cline were good about keeping things moving.  In fact, we may have been moving too fast.  All three of us got through 95, 115, and 135 pounds.  Cline wanted to slow down after the set at 135, both in how fast we were adding weight to the barbell and how quickly we were racing through our sets.  He was thinking that 145 might be his last three-rep set and we still had 15 minutes left to lift.  So he took a break while Javi and I moved on to 155.  Neither of us had too much trouble at that weight, although I did a horrible job as Javi's spotter.  I thought both sides of the barbell were over the rack as he prepared to let go of the weight, but the right side was slightly in front of the rack.  I was guiding the barbell but not really holding on to it, so when Javi went to drop it into the rack, the right side missed.  I was there to grab it before fell on Javi, but it was a scare that could have been easily avoided if I had been doing my job as a spotter correctly.  (This is why Jenna gave all of those instructions at the beginning!)

Cline came back into the rotation to attempt 145 and he got all three reps.  I was off to the side as Javi spotted him.  It looked like Javi had assisted him on the last rep, but I couldn't tell for sure.  I thought Cline would definitely know, but he wasn't sure whether Javi helped him.  Jenna asked Javi straight up and Javi admitted to giving Cline some assistance at the end.  That meant Cline's set wouldn't count and he'd have to do it over again.

Javi was going to continue adding 20 pounds to the barbell for his next set, but I only added 15 because I didn't want to tie my PR.  Javi got through 175 with no problems and I made it through 170 without getting stuck.  I knew it had been awhile since I had tested out my 3RM, so it was possible that my score of 175 was outdated as much as Cline's figures were.  Speaking of Cline, he came back and did 145 over again and was successful without any help from Javi.  Three reps at 145?  There was no way that 150 was his 1RM.

The jump from 155 to 175 was the last 20 pound increase that Javi would make.  He only jumped 10 pounds for his next set at 185.  I kept a close eye on him and the barbell as the weight got heavier, but Javi was still looking strong as he completed three reps at 185.  I was up next for a PR attempt at 180.    I fully expected this to be the set where I'd get stuck (or at the very least, wobbly) on rep 2 or 3.  Instead I had another solid set.  The barbell was definitely getting heavy, but I hadn't hit my sticking point yet.

I had told Cline earlier on that 150 pounds might be his 3RM, but it certainly wasn't his 1RM.  I thought he was about to prove me right as he got ready for his set at 150.  He got the first rep, but then he got stuck on his second rep and needed Javi to help him put the barbell back on the rack.  So maybe 150 isn't his 3RM.  But I still contend that if we put 155 or 160 on the barbell, he would have completed one rep, so I'm sticking with my story that his 1RM is not 150.

Javi added 10 more pounds to the barbell for his next set.  His first two reps looked good, but then I thought I might have to relieve him of the third rep.  He had to really fight that one, but he managed to keep pushing it up as I got ready to take hold of the barbell.  As soon as he locked out his arms, I took the barbell from him.  It was a successful set at 195.  I wasn't going to be as daring as Javi.  I only added 5 pounds to what I used in my last set, making the total 185.  I had already managed a PR, so I wasn't expecting to go much higher from there.  Having only added 5 pounds, you would think that the barbell wouldn't feel much different from the last set, but it did.  Like Javi, I was strong on the first two reps.  Like Javi, I had to battle a bit for the last rep.  I got it though.  My new 3RM of 180 pounds lasted less than five minutes.  The new mark was 185 pounds.

I think both Javi and I thought our time was up and that we needed to move on to the cash-out, but Jenna told us we could do one more set if we wanted to.  For Javi, that was a no-brainer.  He had just gotten 195, but wouldn't 200 sound a hell of a lot sexier?  We loaded up 200 for him and he moved through three reps at that weight much better than he had during the set at 195.  He had a slight hiccup at 195, but Javi looked really strong throughout this workout.

I added another five pounds so that I could try my luck at 190.  Knowing that I was starting to get tired, I probably should have moved with a little more urgency during this set.  Instead, I slowly got the first rep.  On rep two, I had to fight very hard to get my arms extended at the top.  I tried to convince myself that I could handle one more rep, but after a tapped my chest a third time, the barbell went close to nowhere.  Javi had to pull the barbell off of me and up into the rack.  190 would be a new 2RM for me, but I'd fall a rep short on the 3RM.

With only 2 ski ergs in the gym, I thought that we would be staggering our starting times for the cash-out, but that turned out not to be the case.  Two people would start on the ski erg, while the other four would either be working on the GHD machine or doing ab-mat sit-ups.  Julie and Kristen led things off on the ski erg, Christa started with an ab-mat, and the three guys took up residence on the GHD machines.  I thought I would be able to break these up 20-15-15 and maintain decent form, but I have to admit my form was pretty awful during this cash out.  We had time to set up our respective GHD machines before we began, but each one I sat on wasn't exactly right and no matter how I adjusted the seat, it just felt off.  Early on my form was good, but soon I was flailing and not using my legs as much as I should.  Once I reached that stage, I just wanted to be done.  When I wrapped up my 50 sit-ups, I turned to see that Christa and Javi were on the ski ergs, meaning I would have to wait (Cline would also end up waiting).  Jenna had told us in advance that we could trim the wait time off of our final time, but it felt weird having a break in the middle of such a short cash-out.  Julie was holding a plank now that she was done with the ski erg, so I followed her lead and got into a low plank.  I held it for 42 seconds before Javi gave way on the ski erg.

I don't know exactly how fast I completed my 25 calories on the ski erg, but I think I went pretty fast.  Christa was on the erg while I was holding my plank and I finished up my 25 calories just before she did.  I got out of the way and let Cline take my erg so that he didn't have to hold his plank any longer. Final time for the cash-out: 4:52 (includes 42 seconds in a low plank).

That would mark the end of another abbreviated week at KOP for me.  I would be in New York City on Thursday and Friday.  When I returned home, the urge to workout on the weekend just wasn't there.  I'd have plenty to work on come Monday.

Monday preview: Another benchmark lifting WOD.  A suspiciously familiar cash-out.  And Bryan tries to convince me that bar muscle-ups are not a thing of my past.

Better With Esra

Workout date: 5/2/17

A quick trip back in time.  The year is 2013 and a slightly less athletic version of myself walks through the doors of KOP.  The vibe was different.  Aimee was about to give birth to her second child, so her coaching hours were limited.  Nearly every class I took was coached by the quartet of Paul, Vinny, Keithie, and Plentus.  There was definitely more of an emphasis on getting stronger via Open Strength (then called Barbell Club).  You were more likely to hear that you went too light in a workout than hear that you went too heavy.  I'll never forget finishing one WOD and having the coach pull me aside to tell me that he "better not ever fucking see [me] use a KB that light again".  With the testosterone flowing, there was one class that was different from the rest.  It was widely known by its nickname: the Dirty 9:30.  The class got its nickname because the regulars had no filter.  They were notoriously sassy and no topic of conversation was off limits.  The Dirty 9:30 was primarily female, but it wasn't exclusive to women.  It was actually very welcoming to the few guys who would drop by.  (I made a few visits myself.  I'm also a proud owner of a Dirty 9:30 t-shirt!)

Fast forward four years and the KOP landscape has changed.  Nearly every class I take now is coached by the quartet of Giulz, LC, Jenna, and Aimee.  I am more likely to be judged on the intensity of my workout as opposed to how much weight I used.  Open Strength in the main gym tends to only have a few people working on Olympic lifts, along with a couple others doing skill work.  (I believe most strength work takes place in the annex these days.)  With the transformation to a matriarchal KOP, it should come as no surprise that the most notorious class now has a primarily male constituency.  Like the Dirty 9:30, it is known for having incredibly sassy regulars.  And similar to its mid-morning counterpart from years ago, it has its own nickname: Dudes After Dark.

The reason I bring this up is because I would hate for you to think that a class dubbed Dudes After Dark is exclusive to guys.  I think it has a different vibe to it than other classes at KOP because it is mostly male, but LC is probably relieved when her class of knuckleheads is balanced out some by the fairer sex.  Dudes After Dark might even have some non-dude regulars at this point.  The Prodigy has been a great addition to Dudes and she told me that she really enjoys the Tuesday 7:30 class.  When Andrew comes in for Dudes After Dark, Keara usually joins him.  And this Tuesday we saw the return of the lady that I would consider to be the first non-dude regular at Dudes After Dark: Esra.  She had spent a couple of weeks across the pond and it was good to have her back at KOP.

When Dudes After Dark became a "thing", it was a bit of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that 3 or 4 guys would show up to the late class on Tuesday night.  There might be a girl in class every now and then, but Esra was the first one that I would see repeatedly on Tuesday nights.  The irony (I'm sure I'm using that word wrong) behind her regular appearances on Tuesday evenings was that she wasn't there for Dudes After Dark.  She was there for personal training with Aimee.  (Note: I now see Ms. January every Tuesday night, but she's not there for Dudes After Dark.  Maybe she'll become a regular as well.  If she does, I might stop blaming her for jinxing the class with loads of pull-ups every week.)  When Esra's sessions with Aimee ended, it was probably a natural transition for her to attend Dudes After Dark.

Esra, Keara, and The Prodigy were joining seven guys for one of the biggest editions of Dudes After Dark that we've had so far in 2017.  The workout programmed for Tuesday felt like one that might have been handed down from Crossfit HQ.  This year's Open had a heavy diet of DBs included in it.  (Spoiler: The workouts for Regionals have also followed this pattern.)  The DBs were returning for this WOD, although we were getting a bit of a break as these DBs were lighter than the ones we used in the Open workouts.  Toss in some pull-ups and box jumps and here's what you get:

Tuesday's WOD:
20 minute AMRAP
10 DB squat cleans (45/30)
15 pull-ups
20 box jumps (24"/20")

First impressions:

• I've come to like squat cleans and this was much less weight than I've been using in squat clean WODs (2 DBs = 90 pounds), so that seemed like something I'd be okay with.
• Pull-ups...sigh...
• Box jumps with the 24" box meant I should be able to rebound through most of the reps.  Sets of 20 would be pushing the limits of how many consecutive reps I could do while rebounding, but it was a small enough number that I wasn't likely to get discouraged doing them even if I got tired.

Tally that up and you get a final score of +1 (2 good movements offset by 1 bad movement).  I was feeling good about my chances of putting up a solid score on this workout.

I knew in advance that squat cleans with DBs would feel more awkward than the type we normally do with a barbell, but I've squat cleaned 235 pounds with a barbell before.  90 pounds with DBs shouldn't be that much of a problem, right?  Wrong.  The first indication that these would be a problem came when Matt B tried to offer us some helpful advice.  He was in the 6:30 class with Giulz and she had told him that it was easier to do the reps with the DBs positioned inside of your feet.  That meant your arms would hang inside of your knees as you grabbed the DBs.  When performing squat cleans with a barbell, you grip the barbell with your arms hanging outside of your knees, so this was going to feel very different.  Seeing how Giulz and Matt had just completed this workout, I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.  I would perform the squat cleans with the DBs positioned inside of my feet.  For the other two movements, there wasn't much to go over.  Pull-ups were going to suck (thanks again, Ms. January!).  The box jumps would be my opportunity to make up time as long as I kept rebounding and tried to take no more than one break per 20 reps.

LC had us run through all of the movements.  We practiced rebounding on and off of the box.  We went through our typical progressions on the pull-up bar.  Then we did some reps of the DB squat clean using DBs that were lighter than what we planned on using in the workout.  I grabbed a pair of 30 pound DBs expecting the movement to be very easy.  Instead I got an education on how awkward and difficult this movement truly was.  I had a tough time moving through these practice reps, which made me really concerned about moving up to the 45 pound DBs.  The more I thought about it, the more I attributed my struggles to being unfamiliar with DB squat cleans rather than the weight of the DBs, so I ended up sticking with my plan of going RX once LC told us to grab the DBs we needed for the WOD.

I was positioned at the far end of the gym between Noel and Neil, two athletes with names that are similarly spelled but who are polar opposites when it comes to their strengths at the gym.  Noel is very good at gymnastic movements while Neil is a powerhouse that prefers heavier weights.  This workout was going to be interesting because I expected Neil to be the best at the DB cleans and Noel to be the best at pull-ups.  I thought I would be the best at the box jumps, so the three of us could constantly be taking the lead from one another like one of those animated races they show on the Jumbotron between innings at a Phillies game.

LC got us started and we began working on our first set of 10 DB cleans.  Even though these sucked from the beginning, I decided that I was going to hang on for all 10 reps in round one.  It might hurt, but if I had to break these up right off the bat, I was likely going to be in big trouble later on.  Neil got the jump on us in getting to the pull-up bar, but Noel and I weren't far behind.  My plan at the pull-up bar was to try and do sets of three.  I've been trying to calmly perform sets of two in workouts that are pull-up heavy because jumping up and doing singles on the high bar saps a lot of energy out of me.  Sets of two would automatically cut the number of jumps I did in half.  Doing sets of three would...okay, I'll stop with the math.  Attempting sets of three would at the very least be good practice in terms of stringing pull-ups.  I just needed to make sure that I wasn't falling too far behind using this plan as I knew I'd need decent-sized breaks in between sets.  During this initial round of pull-ups, I made it through 3 sets of three before seeing that most people were moving to the box jumps or had already been working on them.  Change of plans.  I needed to pick up the pace.  Practicing sets of three would have to wait for another time.  I did 6 quick singles in a row and moved on to the box jumps.

I might not have correctly predicted how things would play out on the DB cleans or on the pull-up bar, but I did get the box jumps right.  I kept telling myself it was only 20 reps as I quickly rebounded from one jump to the next.  I was gaining on Noel and Neil.  I took but one break during those box jumps before coming back to the DBs.  One round was in the books.

I stupidly tried going right into the DB cleans once I was done with the box jumps, but that didn't work out very well.  I managed two reps before careening forward and needing to put the DBs down. Not only did the reps feel awkward, it felt strange simply getting into the setup for the DB cleans.  I probably should have practiced a few reps with the DBs outside of my feet just to see if that would have worked better for me.  It might have been more efficient for Matt and Giulz to have them positioned inside, but that didn't necessarily mean it was best for me.  Switching in the middle of the workout seemed like a bad idea, so I stuck with them positioned inside.  I finished this round with two sets of 4 reps.

At the pull-up bar, I transitioned to sets of 2 and that worked well for me.  In fact, I'd do two sets of 2, take a break (trying to keep it as brief as possible), then move on to my next double.  I went through that routine four times (with a nice little bonus of only having to do 1 rep at the end for 15) and then came back to my box.  I'm not sure if it was on this round or the next that I started losing track of Noel, but somewhere in the middle of this WOD, I began to focus only on where Neil was.  It probably happened because the two of us were plodding through the pull-ups together.  We were side-by-side on the second round of box jumps, but I was able to get a lead there by doing larger sets.

On the third round of DB cleans, I went 3-4-3.  That allowed Neil to catch back up with me as we got back to the pull-up bar.  I did two sets of 2 twice before fatigue started to set in.  I did 1 more set of two (getting me to 10) before resorting to all singles to complete the round.  I was able to push through those last 5 without a break and, for the first time in this workout, it seemed like I was opening a lead on Neil.  I had 9 box jumps done when he came over to his box.  The clock was closing in on 15 minutes, so we probably only had one more round left.  If I kept moving, it was going to be hard for Neil to catch me.

Unfortunately, the fourth round of DB squat cleans crushed me.  I went 3-3-4, but they were slow, difficult reps.  Plus I needed long breaks between them.  Neil had no such problems.  He was back to the pull-up bar for round four before I was.  So much for opening a lead on him.  I knew I could no longer string pull-ups, so I decided I would try to do sets of three quick singles and do my best to limit the length of my breaks.  I think Neil was stringing three pull-ups at a time, but taking longer breaks between sets, kinda like I was doing back in round one.  He was ahead of me with 6 pull-ups to go, so I decided that I needed to push and do my remaining six without a break in the middle.  It was unpleasant, but I got it done.  Just one problem: Neil didn't take much of a break between his last two sets, so as I walked over to my box, he walked right along with me.

There was about a minute left and I desperately wanted a short break before beginning the box jumps,  but I had to keep moving if I was going to beat Neil.  To his credit, Neil knew the same thing about me.  He had to start his box jumps right away because I wasn't going to take a break.  We began jumping together, but I knew I wasn't going to last long.  After my third rep, I stopped for a second.  When I hopped down and tried to rebound for my next rep, I clipped the box and fell on it.  I ended up hitting the box and stumbling two more times during that final round.  That hadn't happened once during rounds one through three.  It was confirmation that I was out of juice.  Neil kept plugging away, determined to complete round four.  He was able to, adding on 5 DB squat cleans in round five for good measure.  I would not see round five as I fell five box jumps short of 4 full rounds.  Final score: 3+40.

I would have been happy to throw on my second shirt and call it a night once the WOD was over, but LC informed us that we had time for an ab cash-out.  Oh joy!  The one good thing about the ab cash-out is that the majority of it would take place on the floor.  I could essentially crawl my way around the circle we would be rotating through.  This circle contained 4 stations.  Bryan and I made up one group while our 8 classmates divided themselves into three other groups.  Bryan and I would start at the Russian twist station, where we would move a light medicine ball back and forth across our body in a twisting motion while seated and holding our bent legs off of the ground.  Rotating counterclockwise, our next stop was the ab-mat sit-up station.  Then we would hit the evil wheels.  It's been a long time since I've done those and they hurt just as much as I remembered.  The evil wheel is a small wheel with two handles protruding from its sides.  You grab the handles and roll your body out as far as you can while kneeling.  You then need to pull your body back in to your starting position without allowing your core to loosen up.  It is very unpleasant.  The final station was empty as no props were needed to hold a low plank.  This was a tabata-style cash-out, so we did 20 seconds at each station with 10 seconds to rest/transition.  We went around the circle twice before the 10 of us were allowed to head home.

Wednesday preview: The bench press is back again!  We're going heavy in this WOD.  Plus the ski ergs get some additional use, as do the GHD machines.