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.