Jenn's birthday gift to me was an April getaway in Atlantic City. She had bought me tickets to see the Ben Folds concert on Friday night. And she found out that she could use her British Airways miles to get us a free suite at the Borgata for the weekend. She asked me what else I wanted to do for the weekend and you may be surprised to learn that I didn't immediately blurt out "GAMBLE!" I actually wanted to do the opposite for once. All of my recent trips to Vegas had left me feeling like I had been missing out on all the other things you can do in locales with casinos. So I started doing some research and I found a bunch of restaurants (most of them outside of the casinos) that I thought we could try out. We made our way to five restaurants that we had never been to before even though we've made many a trip to Atlantic City. Jenn hit it off with our waitress at dinner on Saturday night and our new friend was kind enough to give us a list of places that we should try the next time we visit AC. Does that mean we didn't gamble at all? Of course not. We made a couple late night visits to the blackjack tables. Jenn also wanted to make a nostalgic return to the Trop poker room. (Quick review: It ain't what it used to be. The poker room was poorly managed and everyone we played with seemed miserable. Might be our last visit there.) Overall it was a really fun trip and I even returned home with better health. I didn't feel congested at all when I woke up Sunday morning, something I hadn't experienced in nearly a month.
As much as I enjoyed my birthday gift, it was a tough weekend to be away. On Friday, Gordy began the Masters Online Qualifier in his attempt to get to the Crossfit Games in the 60+ division. I was hoping to root him on before I took off to AC as he was scheduled to do his first workout on Friday morning. He ended up changing the time that he would do his workout to the early afternoon, which meant I'd miss it. I did watch it on my phone though as Pam recorded his workout on Facebook Live. The waitress at Los Amigos that I was crazy as I yelled at Gordy through my phone. I may have gotten a little too excited during his muscle-up attempts at the end.
Then on Saturday, there were a bunch of my comrades taking part in the Festivus Games. I had participated in this event the last two years, but there was very little chance I was going to sign up a third time, even if I was free for the weekend. I definitely would have gone and cheered on Team KOP though. Here's a list of all those who participated:
Female Intermediate Division:
Ashley
Kris
Theresa
Female Novice Division:
The Prodigy
Male Novice Division:
Bryan
Kevin B
Mike C
Male Masters Division:
Cline
I had a vested interest in that last gentleman. When Cline was signing up for this event, he wasn't sure whether he should do Intermediate (as he had the last two years) or the Masters division (which he became eligible for this year). He decided to take on his elders and I let him know from the start that he was going to squash the competition. In the weeks leading up to this event, he kept saying that I was going to jinx him. He brought up the possibility that there could be some other guy lurking out there that could beat him, so I revised my prediction slightly. I told him he was guaranteed to make the podium and a favorite to win.
I kept glancing at my phone on Saturday waiting for updates on how everyone was doing. Cline was the first to send me a message. He had won the first event (a 1RM clean), but he felt like the accomplishment was somewhat diminished by the fact that there were only two other competitors in his division. I think the explanation of what happened is rather obvious: Cline scared away nearly all of the competition. They knew what the outcome was going to be, so they either signed up for one of the other divisions or they didn't sign up at all. Cline continued to send me updates throughout the day, but it was a foregone conclusion that this was how things would end:
He even scared away one guy from the podium
The best part of the proceedings might have been the medal that he received for his victory:
1st place is 1st place
Despite the inclement weather, it looked like Team KOP had a good time at the Festivus Games. As long as I don't have any plans at this time next year, I'll be there to cheer them on in person.
Monday would mark my return to the gym and it would be time for another benchmark workout. We'd be taking on Fran:
"Fran"
21-15-9
Thrusters (95/65)
Pull-ups
Coach Giulz had 10 people in her 6:30 class, a nice even number for this workout that would be run in two heats. We were told to partner up, with Alona and I forming one of the five pairings. Before we got to Fran, we had to wear out our arms with some strict pull-ups. As has been the case with a lot of the benchmark WODs, we aren't only duplicating the main aspect of the workout (in this case, Fran), we are also duplicating everything else we did in the workout the first time it appeared. So as was the case in January, we began by doing a 4 minute EMOM of 4 strict pull-ups. Giulz recommended that one partner start on the minute and that the other partner start at the mid-way point of each minute. I made a rare appearance as partner #1 during this EMOM. I wasn't sure I could string all 4 reps in each set, but I was pretty certain that I'd be able to complete all 4 pull-ups within the minute timeframe I was given for each set. It went better than I could have hoped as I strung 4 reps in each of the first three sets. On the fourth set, I could only manage three strict pull-ups in a row, but I had plenty of time to get that last one in before time was up.
It was nice that I did so well on that cash-in (I think that's what it is called), but my prospects with Fran would have been a lot better if I hadn't done 16 strict pull-ups in advance. I did get some extra time to recover when Alona agreed to go in the first heat. JP had asked me if he could use my barbell during heat one because his partner (Noel) was using a different weight on his barbell. Having Alona go first benefitted two teams as JP got to use my barbell and I got to rest for about 10 more minutes. (I'll take any help I can get!)
As we got ready for heat one, Giulz mentioned that she was going to look up our times from January. I yelled out to her that she didn't need to find mine, but she must not have heard me. As she read the times from January, she came to mine. She stopped for a second, looked at me, and then did her best impression of Ron Burgundy reading from the teleprompter. "Dave...9:18...PR?" I assured her that there was not some typo on the blog that day. Giulz didn't reply, but the slow nod of her head along with the look on her face conveyed a response of "seriously?" easily enough.
Heat 1 was ready to go and I counted along for Alona. She was definitely better at this workout than I was. She held on for all 21 thrusters to kick things off. She was consistent in taking small breaks between her sets of pull-ups. I believe she told me that her best time was around 7:30 before she started and when she got to the pull-up bar for the round of 15, it looked like she was going to smash it. She slowed down a little on the pull-ups for that round, but she showed a lot of heart during the round of 9. When her 45th pull-up of the workout was done, she was the proud owner of a new PR. Alona's final time: 7:08.
I wasn't worried about beating Alona's time when it was my turn to go. If I was within a minute of her time, that would be huge for me. Even breaking 9 minutes would be an accomplishment. My thoughts prior to the workout were the following:
- Be tougher on the thrusters: If the voice in my head wanted me to put the barbell down, then I probably still had a few more reps left in me.
- Hang on to the pull-up bar: I've done workouts where I've gotten larger sets of pull-ups not because I was feeling especially strong or because I was kipping well. It was because I was stubborn about dropping from the bar. I needed to do that in this workout.
- Keep pushing through singles: Eventually I was going to get tired and need to do pull-ups one by one. If I kept my breaks to a minimum, I could put up a decent time.
I watched Alona do all 21 thrusters in a row to begin her heat, but I thought it would be better for me to break them up. My original plan was to go 12 and 9, but as I started churning through my initial reps, I felt like I could do more in that first round. I made it to 15 reps before dropping the barbell. I took a small break, then completed the last 6 reps. I was off to a very good start. The only problem was that my lungs were already beginning to burn.
I came over to the pull-up bar and did a set of three reps. So much for "hang on to the pull-up bar". From there I started working through sets of 2, trying not to take too much time between sets. When I got to the point that I was concerned I was resting too much, I switched to singles. That round of 21 pull-ups was slower than I had hoped for, but I still had 8 minutes in my sights if I didn't fall apart during the last two rounds.
The last two rounds were not pretty. For the thrusters, I resorted to sets no bigger than 5 reps the rest of the way (5-5-5 in the round of 15, 5-4 in the round of 9). Alona kept telling me to get back on it when I was taking too much rest in between sets, but it had become really difficult to breathe. That problem was 10x worse over at the pull-up bar. I was exclusively doing singles now and nothing felt worse to me than jumping up to the high bar and trying to swing on it. There were a couple of times where I needed to rest in a squat for a breather. Alona would yell "look up at the bar" to me over and over again. It actually wasn't bad advice. Every time I forced myself to look up at it, my mind would reluctantly agree to do another pull-up. Then my lungs would retaliate by refusing to supply oxygen to the rest of my body. When I got to the round of 9, I wasn't sure how close I was to 9 minutes, but I figured it wasn't far off. I got 2 reps in before needing to squat again. It was a decent-sized break that I took, but I felt it was worth it when I made it through the last 7 singles without stopping. Final time: 8:37.
Alona mentioned something to me that I think might help me in future encounters with Fran. She noted that I wasn't keeping the barbell on my body during the thrusters, which forced me to hold all of the weight in my arms. In my attempt to move quickly, I was using bad form and wasting the energy in my arms. And I kinda needed that energy for the pull-ups. I should move slower and make sure that my body is absorbing the brunt of the barbell as I do my thrusters. Maybe that will be enough to get me under 8 minutes.
Many athletes complain of "Fran cough" after doing this workout. Your lungs burn and you have this nagging cough that won't go away. In some cases, the afflicted will need to sit on the floor for about 10 minutes wondering why the hell they just did that. (Okay, maybe that's just me.) When I finally did drag myself over to a bench to sit down, I began people watching. It was technically time for Open Strength, but two more KOP athletes were about to do Fran. First up was Maggie, who had the second best time in the gym. She was looking to grab the top spot from Aimee, whose best time was 3 minutes flat. If you can do Fran in under three minutes, then you leave little for someone to recap. Maggie strung all of her thrusters. She glided through a ton of butterfly pull-ups. She wasn't able to string all of them and she had to resort to kipping pull-ups for the last few reps of her workout, but that didn't keep her from cracking 3 minutes. 2:50 was the new #1 Fran time in the gym for the ladies courtesy of Maggie.
Actuary Mike was the other athlete taking this on at 7:30 and I suspected he would do very well in this workout because he can do large sets of pull-ups. He wasn't too shabby on the thrusters either. The best part of watching Mike do this workout was his integrity. Even though he had a strong time going, he knew that he didn't get high enough on one of his pull-ups, so he no-repped himself. If he hadn't, he probably would have finished in under 6 minutes, but instead he finished in 6:05, a time that I will never approach in my Crossfit career.
Even though I had gotten a PR on Fran, I didn't feel like I had been productive in class, so I decided to work on my snatch at Open Strength. I began with 115 pounds on my barbell. That seemed like a light enough weight to work on my form. In a way, it ended up being the right weight to work on my form, but I didn't think I'd have so much trouble with it. I attempted to squat snatch it 5 times and I missed on two of my attempts, with the barbell traveling too far behind my head to control. After 5 tries at 115, I thought it was time to move up to 135, but I figured more misses were on the way. Somehow things turned out better. The two lifts at 135 felt easy. I got the barbell directly overhead and bounced out of the bottom of the squat quickly. It's not often that I complete a lift thinking that my form was excellent, but I'm not sure I could have done anything better on those lifts. Maybe this lifting session wasn't going to be pointless after all.
I added 20 more pounds to the barbell and had two successful lifts at 155. They weren't as graceful as the two I had done at 135 (there was definitely a pause at the bottom before I stood each of them up), but they still felt pretty good. I'm not sure why I struggled so much at 115 and was now knocking it out of the park with more weight on the barbell, but I wasn't going to spend too much time questioning it. I was now thinking that there was an outside chance I could beat my best snatch of 175 pounds.
I didn't want to tie my best lift at 175 pounds, so I decided my next lift would be 170. If I got that, I could move up to 180 and have a PR try. I was going to give myself 3 attempts at 170, no more than that. Turned out that I would only need one. I thought for sure that I would need an attempt or two to get used to the added weight, that I would need to adjust to how fast I'd have to get under the barbell. Somehow I got it on my first try. I had to sit in the squat for a couple of seconds with the barbell overhead when I caught it, but I was confident that I could overhead squat that weight, so I was patient before standing up with it. The possibility that I could hit a new PR was suddenly becoming very real!
I put 180 pounds on my barbell and began working on my mental approach. Don't think about how much is on there. It's not too heavy. You can get under that. When you get under it, you will be able to stand it up. It was a lot more positivity than I'm used to, but I just had that feeling that 180 was going to happen on this night. I went up for my 1st attempt and was unable to get underneath the barbell. It was exactly what I thought was going to happen on my 1st attempt at 170. Despite missing on this attempt, I still had something positive to take away from it. The barbell didn't feel as heavy as I thought it would and I saw how high I had gotten it. I could definitely get underneath it. I just needed to get my speed and balance right. On my 2nd attempt, I came closer to getting underneath it, but I was a split second too slow.
The plan was still to give myself 3 attempts at a given weight before calling it a night, so I was very focused on what could be my final lift at 180 pounds. I knew I could lift the barbell high enough. I knew I was fast enough to get underneath it. I just had to put it all together. I walked up to the barbell still feeling oddly confident about my chances. My setup felt good and I made my attempt. Got the barbell high enough. And this time I was quick enough to get underneath it. For a moment, I thought I had reached that happy place I had visited on the lift at 170 pounds. If I was certain that I had the barbell balanced overhead, I could take my time and overhead squat it without too much concern. Except it wasn't balanced overhead. I felt my body start to tip forward and I went from "YES!" to "NO!" in a heartbeat. Before I could stand it up, the barbell got away from me and I bailed it in front of my body. So close. ARGH!
Faby, LC, and Michal were doing their own lifts, but they had stopped to watch that attempt and all of them (like me) thought I had it. Faby came over to help me out. He explained that the ideal barbell position overhead was just behind the head rather than directly above the head. If I got it to that position, I'd be much more stable and I'd be able to stand the weight up.
Having just missed and armed with some quality advice from Faby, I had to take another shot at 180. If I'm being completely honest, I signed myself up for two more attempts at that point because I was almost certain that I knew what was going to happen on attempt #4. Attempt #3 ended with me bailing the barbell forward and now I was going to adjust by trying to catch the barbell just behind my head. Chances of me doing that correctly? Near zero. Chances of me overcompensating and pulling the barbell too far back, causing me to bail the barbell behind me? Close to 100%. That's precisely what happened. For the second straight attempt, it looked like I might have a new PR. And for the second straight attempt, I began to tip just as I was getting ready to stand up with the barbell. I bailed it behind me and got ready for attempt #5, my final attempt no matter what.
Usually I'd be really frustrated having come so close to getting this lift over and over again, but I was still in a good mood. I had this. You couldn't convince me otherwise. I told Faby and the girls that if I got this next lift, I was getting ice cream as a reward on the way home. Faby gave me some additional advice before this last attempt, instructing me on where to look at the other end of the gym. Apparently I was casting my gaze too high as I did the lift. I approached the barbell one final time. I locked into my setup. I made sure I was looking directly at the target Faby gave me. I got the barbell high enough and, for the third straight time, I found myself underneath it. On the last two attempts, I was patient after catching the barbell, thinking I could get settled and then stand up with it. But instead of settling, I started tipping over. I wasn't taking that chance this time. As soon as I hit the bottom and felt the barbell overhead, I began to rise with it. It was not centered though. Like I had experienced on attempt #3, the barbell was out in front of me just a touch.
You'll often see lifters take a few steps forward as they stand up a snatch in an attempt to rein in a barbell that is out in front of them. I took it to another level on this lift. Because I was rushing to stand up, I inadvertently began to push the barbell even more forward. I couldn't walk after the barbell. I had to run after it. I was almost completely vertical as I sprinted forward with the barbell. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't control it. I dumped it out in front of me. The barbell must have ended up about 20 feet away from where it started. I was legitimately bummed, but as I put my plates and barbell away, I remained certain that I could get 180. It might not have happened on this night, but it was going to happen sometime in the not-so-distant future.
And even though I wasn't successful at 180 pounds, I let Faby, LC, and Michal know that I was getting ice cream anyways. Sometimes you have to reward the effort, not just the results.
Tuesday preview: Push press and a partner cash-out. Cline and I simply crush it.
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