Crossfit can be an incredibly frustrating experience. Most people find it very exciting when they start Crossfit and see huge gains in their lifts or learn a movement that they had never been able to do before. Inevitably every athlete begins to plateau a bit. Your PRs begin to taper off and it takes a hell of a lot more work to eek out a tiny bit of improvement. Those "aha!" moments are fewer and farther between. So when one of those moments do actually happen, you become very eager to push the envelope. A week earlier, I had done a version of Annie that included a 7 minute time cap. I didn't make the time cap, but I finished the workout anyway. Annie requires athletes to complete sets of double unders and sit-ups of decreasing lengths (50, 40, 30, 20, and 10). They don't have to be consecutive, but if you want to shoot for a time as fast as 7 minutes, it's better if you don't have to break along the way. I broke only once during the double unders in that workout, about midway through the set of 40. For someone who has struggled with double under consistency, that performance resonated as an "aha!" moment for me.
To truly test how far I had come with my double under consistency, I had to take on the workout that just missed the cut in terms of appearing on my "top 10 goals for 2017" list. That workout is known as the Flight Simulator. Unlike Annie, you are required to complete unbroken sets of double unders in the Flight Simulator. Inconsistency results in a lot of wasted effort. If you flawlessly complete all of the sets in the Flight Simulator unbroken, you only have to do 500 double unders. Mess up along the way and that figure could grow quickly. Here are the details on the Flight Simulator:
"Flight Simulator"
5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45-50-45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5
Unbroken sets of double unders
Time cap: 25 minutes
That middle section from 30 up to 50 and back down to 30 again is where you truly get tested in this workout. I've blazed through the first four or five sets when I've done this in the past, but I've lost my way once the middle section began. There's nothing worse than getting through 99% of those larger sets and then hitting yourself with the rope. You get no credit for any of that work, but you feel all of the repercussions both physically (fatigue) and mentally (frustration). The best I've done is get through the first round of 45 in this workout. Even though I know there's a lot of work on the other side of that 50 rep set, I've always felt that if I could get over that hump, I'd have a really good shot at completing the entire workout. I just couldn't waste so much time and energy on incomplete sets.
I gave the Flight Simulator another shot on Sunday afternoon. I had taken two days (Friday and Saturday) off from the gym and felt pretty fresh. Part of me wanted to work out because I felt bad about missing the Filthy Fifty WOD on Friday. I was glad that I had the discipline to take that day off when my body was in need of some rest, but it always sucks missing a workout that you've been waiting to see show up in the programming. My penance was 25 minutes in my driveway with my jump rope.
The one change I was making with this attempt was with regards to my breaks in between sets. I've been trying my best to decrease the length of the breaks I take during workouts at the gym. On Sunday, I was reversing course. Incomplete sets during the Flight Simulator were a killer. It was better to rest more and feel relatively certain that I could get the next set before I started twirling the rope again.
I didn't have any hiccups early on. I had the sets of 5, 10, and 15 done in under a minute. I began implementing my rest strategy at that point. I was pretty sure that I could have moved right into the set of 20, but why not give myself an extra 15 seconds or so to rest and increase my chances of getting 20 in a row? It worked as I got all 20 in my next set. I took a longer break before getting the set of 25. As the sets got longer, so did my breaks, but I remained perfect through the sets of 30 and 35.
I was only two large sets away from tying my best score on this workout and I had 20 minutes to work with. To say things were going well was an understatement. It looked like I was about to complete my 8th straight unbroken set in a row, but then I caught myself with the rope 32 reps into the round of 40. That was an obnoxiously large set that I was getting no credit for. I rested again and told myself not to let it bother me. On my next attempt, I made it through 40 consecutive double unders. Then I got 45 in a row on my first try. I had already tied my best score on this workout and I had 15 minutes remaining. Today was the day I was going to finish the Flight Simulator.
I did some quick math while I rested. It took me 10 minutes to do the sets from 5 to 45. I'd have to do that again on the back side of this workout. If I maintained that pace, it gave me 5 minutes to complete the round of 50. That sounded reasonable to me, despite the fact that I had never completed that many in this workout. I knew I had done it for Annie as well as some other WODs at the gym, so it wasn't like I was incapable of putting together 50 in a row. I just needed to remain patient. That patience was tested when I began failing on the set of 50. I didn't have any crushing failures (like getting 49 before missing on 50), but messing up several times in a row did plant the seed of doubt in my mind. On the fourth try, doubt turned into excitement. I made it through 50 reps. I was now on the downhill portion of the workout with 11 minutes to go.
11 minutes would be plenty of time for me if I had smooth sailing from 45 to 5 like I did on the way up from 5 to 45, but the waters were much choppier downstream. I'm not sure how many tries it took me to get through the second round of 45, but it was a lot. I even had a set where I made it to 40 and then failed, which really hurt late in the workout. 40 may have been my lucky number though. Once I completed the set of 45, I came back and got 40 in a row during my next set. Time was starting to become a factor, but in my head, I was thinking I only had four real sets to go. I could get the sets of 15, 10, and 5 in quick succession at the end. I just needed to get the four medium-sized sets that preceded them.
The time pressure increased when I began messing up on my attempts for the second round of 35. While failed sets of 30 or more reps would be deflating, it was just as hard to deal with sets that never began. I started to hit myself with the rope before registering a single rep, a clear sign that I was tiring out. There was less than five minutes to go according to my phone and my prospects for completing this workout were getting dimmer by the moment.
Eventually I got through the round of 35. I knew I had to shorten my breaks if I wanted to finish, so it wasn't long before I got into the round of 30. I completed that on the first try. I glanced at my phone and saw that there was 2:40 remaining before the time cap. If I could get the round of 25 and 20 in the next 1:40, I believed I could finish. I tried to rush into the set of 25, but it just resulted in me hitting myself with the rope twice before getting a rep. I took a couple seconds to compose myself, then tried again. It was looking good. 21...22...23...24...<thump>
I had mentally moved on to the next round, but I forgot to finish the last rep of the one I was working on. When I realized that set was all for nothing, it broke me. There was no chance I was completing the Flight Simulator now. I didn't know how much time was remaining, but it didn't matter. I needed a break. There was a little over a minute left when I tried again. I did two sets that fell short of 15 reps. I was ready to give up when I saw there was about 30 seconds remaining. That was enough time for one last try. I had a good rhythm going, but after 20 reps, another set fell apart. That would be it for me. The time cap struck while I was on the second set of 25 double unders. Kinda disappointing after such a hot start, but at least I know I'm on the verge of completing this workout.
On Monday, I was one of a dozen athletes taking part in Coach Giulz's 6:30 class. There were two parts to the class:
Monday's WOD:
Strength: Find your 5RM deadlift (5 working sets)
Cash-out:
9-15-21
2-fer wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
Deadlifts (50% of your 5RM)
If you don't remember what 2-fer wall balls are, you can think of them as a psychotic version of the regular wall ball. With the regular wall ball, you break parallel with your squat, drive upwards, and shoot a medicine ball up to a designated mark on the wall. When the ball comes down from the wall, you catch it and repeat the process. With the 2-fer wall ball, you have to perform an additional squat while the ball is in the air, so you are doing 2 squats for every wall ball shot. You know, because plain old wall balls simply aren't hard enough. Giulz had me demo the 2-fer wall balls for the class, secretly hoping that I would take a ball to the face. The joke was on her. I was saving that for the cash-out.
Giulz had us all grab our own barbells as we went through the deadlift progressions. Once those were done, she mentioned that we could partner up if we wanted to. Matt B was in class, so I figured we might as well consolidate and share a barbell. Except we all needed our own barbell for the cash-out. Matt told me to just throw mine off to the side for now and we could share his barbell. I was a little concerned that this was gonna screw Matt over because he is better at the deadlift than I am, but he thought we'd end up doing about the same for the 5RM. We would end up using the same weights for all of the sets. Only one of us would complete the 5th working set. (Take a wild guess who!)
We started off nice and light with sets of 5 using 135 pounds and 185 pounds. 225 was our first working set and that was no problem for the both of us. I wouldn't describe the set at 275 pounds as extremely difficult, but it was the set that let me know things were about to become less pleasant. I strained to get through 315, while Matt breezed through it. The second to last set was 335 and I barely maintained my grip long enough to get through 5 reps. Matt continued to look like he was doing warmup sets. Before the final set at 355, I told Matt that I was going to get a maximum of 3 reps. Call it a self-fulfilling prophecy if you like, but after my 3rd rep, my grip failed. Final score for me: 335.
As for Matt, he made it through four reps before finally showing that he was human. He winced as he pulled the barbell off the floor for rep #5, but he got it. I think he probably should have gone heavier than me as we made our way through the sets because he could have ended up with a final score more along the lines of 375 rather than 355 if he had done so. But he was trying to be accommodating to me and I greatly appreciated the gesture.
For the cash-out, Giulz encouraged us to keep our time under 8 minutes as best as we could. I had considered going lighter on the wall ball to give myself a better chance of making that happen, but then Matt and Neil grabbed 20 pound wall balls. I couldn't be tossing around a 16 pound wall ball if they were using 20 pounds. I reluctantly traded in my lighter wall ball for the RX variety. For my deadlift, I used 170 pounds for my deadlift (rounding up after taking 50% of 335). The rep scheme for the cash-out was the always unpleasant increasing kind, going 9-15-21 rather than the typical 21-15-9. Should the order make a difference? No. But mentally it does. The 21-15-9 setup feels better as you go along, while the 9-15-21 setup feels worse as you go along.
Giulz got the 12 of us lined up and ready to begin. My thoughts as we got ready to go? Remember to breathe. Remember to do that second squat. Take short breaks. Don't let the ball hit you in the face! For the first round, I split up the 2-fers five and four with a short break in between. Then I strung all 9 of my deadlifts. Yet somehow I was the last one in class to begin the round of 15. Was everyone in my class amazing at 2-fers? It seemed odd to me that no one was remotely struggling. Maybe I'd catch up on the next round.
Or perhaps I'd fall further behind. My biggest issue in the round of 15 was how slimy my ball was getting. It was a very humid evening and the sweat was pouring off of me and on to my ball. I wasn't picking it up in the same place every time, meaning that I was allocating sweat to every region of the ball. That would have made it tough to catch even if I wasn't rushing to get a second squat in as it came hurtling towards me. Adding in that extra squat made it nearly impossible. It was like trying to grab a greased pig. I had the ball slip through my hands and hit me in the face once. After that, I made sure my hands were out in front of me so that if the ball slipped through, it would hit the floor rather than my mug. Soon the only way I could do consecutive reps was by catching the ball with my arms rather than my hands. I would then roll it to my hands and continue on. That process was very slow. Making matters worse was the pace of the rest of the class. It still seemed like no one else was taking breaks! Maybe I was mistaken, but it felt like the breaks I was taking were short, just as I was hoping for. Yet there was the rest of the class deadlifting as I finished up my 15 2-fers.
I knew it was unlikely that I'd be able to do 15 deadlifts in a row when I got to my barbell, so I tried to do three quick sets of 5. Seemed like a good plan, but it still didn't help me catch up to the class. I looked at the clock and I could tell I was going to have a difficult time meeting Giulz's 8 minute deadline. It wasn't a hard time cap or anything like that, but falling short of it indicated that I had chosen my weights poorly for this cash-out. After three sets of 5 deadlifts, I headed back to the wall.
It was impossible for me to do more than 2 consecutive reps with how slippery the ball had become, so I grinded away at my 21 reps two at a time. It was definitely slow, but it was the best I could manage at that point. By the time I got to my barbell, more than 8 minutes had elapsed on the clock. Oh, and I was the only one still working. The plan for the deadlifts was no different from round two. I was attempting to do three quick sets, only this time I had to hold on for seven reps in each set. I was able to do so. With the rest of the class encouraging me on, I didn't spend a lot of time catching my breath between sets. My 2-fers may have been slow, but I was pretty fast getting through those 21 deadlifts. Final time: 9:10.
I stuck around for Open Strength because...well, because I pretty much always do that on Monday nights. A successful try at Annie had made me eager to work on double unders on Sunday afternoon. A recent streak of solid attempts at heavy snatches made me want to work on my snatch Monday night. I had come close to hitting 180 pounds six straight times before finally standing it up on my 7th crack at it. If I was that consistent at 180 pounds, why wouldn't I think that more was possible?
I began my march to 185 the same way I had begun my march to 180. I started with 2 squat snatches at 115 and 135. All four of those attempts went very smoothly. My next lift was at 155 and I didn't have much issue standing that weight up either. Then I moved on to 175 pounds. It's been a long time since I've attempted 175 pounds because that had been my PR forever and I never like tying my PR. Based on my recent tries at 180 pounds, I didn't think 175 would pose a huge problem for me. Then I made my 1st attempt at 175. It wasn't even close. I had gotten used to seeing the barbell with 180 pounds on it fly high as I snatched it overhead. It never occurred to me that I'd come up short with 175 pounds. And I was way short, bailing it in front of my body immediately.
That was a nice little dose of humility I received. As I rested before giving it another try, I started to wonder whether the WOD had sapped too much of my energy. Maybe now wasn't the time to try and go heavy on the snatch. I would give myself two more tries at 175 and if it didn't work out, I could move on to something else or head home for the night. My second attempt wasn't successful, but it was a confidence booster. I'm not sure if I was just lazy on that first attempt, but I pulled the barbell much higher this time. In fact, I pulled so hard that I ended up having to dump the barbell behind me.
One last try at 175. Over by the rings, I saw Kris. I think she was doing some mobility work after completing her strength session. She was now watching me as I made my snatch attempts. I stepped up to the barbell feeling better about my chances with 175. I told myself to pull as hard as I did on that second attempt. If I got it high enough, I would do a better job of controlling it this time around. A second later, I was sitting in the bottom of my squat with the barbell overhead. It was another one of those awkward moments where I was briefly in shock that I got the lift and completely forgot to stand up. Kris didn't forget. She yelled over to me to stand up and eventually I did. 175 wasn't pretty, but I got it. Kris was upset that she didn't take a video of it on her phone, but I told her it wasn't a big deal since that lift wasn't a PR. I'd need to hit my next lift for that.
I made the same deal with myself for the lift at 185 pounds. I'd get three shots and if none of them panned out, I was done for the night. On my first try, I got the barbell high enough, but it was out in front of me. It was a miss, but it gave me the impression that I could handle 185 pounds. Then this happened (and Kris was filming this time):
It was super fluky, but it counted! When I caught the barbell in my squat, I felt like I was leaning forward. As I went to correct my position, I somehow bounced upwards. I didn't sit in the bottom of the squat like I normally do. Before I knew it, I was standing up with the barbell. I have no idea how that happened. This is confirmed by the drunken stagger you see in the video after the lift. My mind is trying to figure out what just happened while at the same time thinking "you forgot to celebrate, dummy!" Everyone else is way more excited than me because I'm a dunce.
It took three tries to get 175. It took only two to get 185. Why not try 190? Yes, I was getting extremely greedy now, but I thought I'd give it a shot. After loading five more pounds to my barbell, I made an attempt at yet another PR. It did not go well. I barely got the barbell over my head before my arms started to give away. The barbell came down, tapped me on my forehead and fell forward as I pushed it away a little too late. I ended up with a red mark on my dome for my troubles. It was a clear sign that I had reached my snatch limit for the night.
I finished off the evening with some additional double under practice, but most of my sets weren't very good. I was definitely running low on energy at this point. I somehow got through a set of 45 in a row before putting my jump rope away. I couldn't imagine putting together a bigger set than that.
Tuesday preview: I sorta discover a better way to do pull-ups in the middle of a hero benchmark WOD. Yay efficiency!
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