Having experienced what traffic was like on the way to the 5:30 class on Wednesday, I decided to give myself an extra 10 minutes on Thursday when I found myself needing to hit up the 5:30 class again. Did that get me to the gym on time? Of course not. Somehow traffic was even worse on Thursday than it had been on Wednesday. Because I gave myself some extra time, I was only about a minute late when I hustled into the gym. The 5:30 class was seated in a circle around Coach Aimee, who let me know there was still some space available for me to sneak in. Aimee had us do an icebreaker where we told everyone our name and our favorite brand of toothpaste. Then she let us know that we needed to have a partner (ideally of the opposite sex) for this workout. It wasn't essential that all of the pairs were male-female, but for organizational purposes, Aimee was going to have the "male" partner start first while the "female" partner would start two minutes later.
It was a packed house not only because we had 14 athletes there for the WOD, we also had helpers galore. I'm not sure if Jeremy was officially shadowing Aimee's class, but he was her right hand man in terms of helping her keep an eye on all of the athletes. We also had two former interns in attendance: Sarina and Jenna.
The interns mean business!
They were walking around the perimeter of the class, keeping an eye out in case anyone needed help. But in a WOD where we were using a rower, an assault bike, and a barbell, it was unlikely anyone would need help. It wasn't like someone was going to destroy equipment in the middle of the workout. That's just crazy talk!
I had been sitting next to Donna while we did the icebreaker, so I asked her if she wanted to be partners. She was amenable, even though there was a strong chance that she'd be hopping on to a sweat-covered assault bike midway through this WOD. There were already a bunch of rowers and assault bikes out from the previous class, so Aimee told us to grab our barbells and lay claim to one of the seven bikes that were on the floor. I was hoping to get an assault bike and not one of the airdynes (those are easier), so when I saw one with nobody on it, I placed my empty barbell next to it and took a seat. My claim was invalidated about 5 seconds later when Jill A came over and asked me what I was doing sitting on her bike. I couldn't tell which of the remaining 6 bikes hadn't been spoken for yet as there were now empty barbells everywhere, but after talking with a few other groups, we discovered that there was an assault bike with our names on it.
The only decision that had to be made for this workout was the barbell weight. Of course, it would probably help if I told you the details of the WOD so that you knew what the barbell was for. Here's what the 14 of us were taking on in this class:
Thursday's WOD:
12 minute AMRAP
40 calorie row
30 calories on the assault bike
20 power cleans (185/125)
Because I have been so focused on doing squat cleans at the gym, I haven't given myself a lot of opportunities to practice power cleans. When I was actively avoiding squat cleans, I could power clean a lot of weight. It was my only option and I practiced it all the time. Now that I'm basically avoiding power cleans, I've become skeptical of my ability with heavier weights. About a month ago, there was a workout that included 4 clean and jerks per round over 5 rounds and I was essentially forced to power clean the barbell. I used 185 pounds and most of the power cleans I did weren't very pretty. If I went RX in this workout, I'd be doing 20 power cleans again with 185 pounds on the barbell and I suspected they would be a lot harder after getting off of the rower and the assault bike. So my initial reaction to this WOD was that I should scale down to 165 pounds.
With 14 barbells all in one line next to the pull-up rig, there wasn't going to be a lot of space to move around. Everyone was going to (hopefully) be very mindful of where their barbell would land when they let go of their power cleans. If you let it bounce too much or roll away, it was bound to take out the legs of the person in front of you. If that person was facing you, they might be able to jump out of the way, but if they were not...well, that could be big trouble for them. That was another consideration for what weight I would use. I didn't want to choose something so heavy that I might dump it uncontrollably and have it affect someone else's workout.
Aimee went down the line and watched us each do a rep or two with the weight we were thinking about doing. Before she got to me, I performed a couple of power cleans on my own with 165 pounds. They weren't easy, but they weren't a struggle either. It felt like I should add some weight to my barbell. Just to be sure, I did two more reps in front of Aimee and she encouraged me to add weight as well. Using 175 seemed like a wimpy scale to me, so I sucked it up and put the full 185 on my barbell. A practice rep let me know it was going to be heavy, but not impossible to move through 20 reps.
In terms of my goal for this workout, I was hoping to make it through two rounds on the rower (130 reps). The scores were a lot more varied than they normally are, so I couldn't just look at the whiteboard and go "oh, the fire breathers in the gym scored 160, so 130 is reasonable for me". Some of the people that typically kick my butt did have scores that high, but some of them were under 120 as well. I just figured that two rounds of rowing and a round on the assault bike would take me about 8 minutes, leaving me 4 minutes for the 20 power cleans. 5 power cleans per minute with a heavy weight seemed like a good test for me. If I could manage that, I'd probably reach 130 reps.
As I mentioned earlier, the setup was to have the male in each group start for their respective teams. I'd get a two minute cushion before Donna would begin trying to track me down. We each had our own rower, but we were sharing an assault bike, so if I wasn't off the assault bike by the time Donna finished her row, I'd be holding her up. I didn't want that. That didn't mean I would be going at some crazy pace until I got to my barbell, but I did keep it in mind any time I felt like slowing down on the row or the bike.
I was nearing 40 calories on my rower when Donna began her row. I had no idea how fast she rowed, but I thought I'd have about two and a half to three minutes on the bike unless she had a very strong row. I transitioned from the rower to the bike and pedaled at a solid clip. After two minutes, I was closing in on 30 calories. That was when Jeremy came by and said to me (and everyone biking alongside of me) that we needed to get off the bikes as soon as we could because our partners were almost done with the row. I couldn't see behind me, but I began picturing Donna standing there, arms folded, wondering why her partner was holding up her workout. I picked up the pace at the end of the ride. When I hit 30 calories, I hopped off and walked over to my barbell. I looked over and Donna was taking a seat on the assault bike. I cringed as I thought about how long she had to wait on me.
Finally, he's done with our bike!
(Note: After the workout, I asked Donna how long I held her up and she said not at all. She said that I got off the bike right as she was loosening up her foot straps at the end of her row. Donna is very nice, so I'm not sure whether she was just being kind to me or not, but it made me feel less guilty about the situation.)
The row and the bike had the effect I was expecting as I moved on to the power cleans. My legs had a little give to them and my heart rate was up. I decided that the best way to split up my 20 power cleans was to do 2 quick singles, then take a break. If I was good about limiting how long my breaks were, I should be able to manage 10 sets of two in 4 minutes. The first two breaks I took were not well-managed. Because I had come directly from the bike and started the power cleans, I hadn't given myself a nice long breather. I needed that breather after the first two power cleans. I needed another one after the second set as well. While taking that second breather, I started to get worried I was taking too long. I didn't have to worry about being in Donna's way for the remainder of the workout, but everywhere I looked, it seemed like someone was picking up their barbell as I rested. (Note: This was completely an illusion due to the size of the class. My classmates were alternating between power cleans and taking rest, but if you're constantly seeing 3 or 4 people in front of you picking up their barbell, you start getting paranoid that you're the only one resting.)
I picked up the pace and shortened my breaks as I went through my next 5 sets of two reps. While it was good that I was moving through the workout while needing less rest, I'm pretty sure that my form started to deteriorate. Here's how I looked early on during the power cleans:
Keeping the barbell as close to my body as I could
(Spoiler: Are those cracks I see on the inside plate?)
By the time I reached my 14th rep, I had captured the attention of Aimee. She came down and told me that I needed to start doing a partial squat as I performed my power cleans. I was starting to hyperextend my back in an effort to yank the barbell up to my shoulders. That was not good form. I could save myself from some unpleasant back pain if I adjusted from no squat to a partial squat. Sounded reasonable enough to me. Plus, listening to Aimee's coaching gave me the first extended rest I'd had since I completed my second set of power cleans. I set up for my next rep, pinned my shoulders back, and began to extend upwards. As I went for the big pull that would drive the barbell upwards towards my shoulders, I started to squat a little bit. Then I went sideways. The right side of my barbell suddenly felt lighter and it had risen much more rapidly than the left side had. My first thought was that someone had played a prank on me by grabbing the right side of the barbell and assisted me in the power clean. That wasn't cool at all. As I dropped my barbell, I turned to my right to see what had happened. I couldn't believe what I saw.
Aimee was wide-eyed and asked if I was okay. Next to her feet was half of the 45 pound plate (the inside plate from the photo above) that had been on the right side of my barbell. Over next to the wall was the other half of the plate. The plate had broken in two as I went for that big pull. I hadn't noticed the cracks in the plate that are clearly visible in that photo. And if you asked me to come up with a scenario where a plate would crack in two, I would have guessed it would happen after being dropped to the floor, not when it was being pulled from the floor. As I started to comprehend what happened, I turned and walked away from my barbell in frustration. I was aggravated that this happened to me in the middle of my workout. There was less than 4 minutes left, so I didn't think there was much point in continuing on. Donna and I were closer to the far end of the gym, so I was going to have to run up to the front, get a new 45 pound plate, take off the 25 pound plate, and add both plates back on before completing the workout. That was probably going to take up a good chunk of my remaining time to do and I'd be wasting a lot of energy in the process. I was ready to sit off to the side and spend the rest of my time cheering on Donna.
Aimee and Jeremy had different ideas. Jeremy ran to the front and grabbed a new 45 pound plate for me as Aimee stripped off the 25 pound plate. They reassembled my 185 pound barbell so that I could complete the workout. I lost about 45-60 seconds as they did this, but there was no way I could refuse to go on after they had gone out of their way to help me out. Since I had gotten so much extra rest, I decided that I would try to do as many singles in a row as I could. The frustration probably helped out too. One by one, I went through those power cleans, employing the partial squat that Aimee asked of me. I made it through six in a row, finishing the 20 required to complete the round. Still mildly pissed, I marched back to my rower.
I had just under 2 minutes left when I strapped my feet into the rower. I wasn't going to reach 130 total reps, but I could make it fairly close to that mark. I rowed at a fairly even pace during the first of those two minutes before emptying the tank in that last minute. I managed to complete 80% of the row (32 out of 40 calories) by the time the clock struck twelve (minutes). Final score: 122.
I didn't have to move at all in order to cheer my partner on during the next two minutes. Her rower was right next to mine, so I was able to sit on my rower, recover, and yell semi-encouraging things to Donna as she wrapped up her workout.
With Donna and the rest of heat two finished, the topic of conversation became what the heck happened to me during my workout. I heard a bunch of jokes about how strong I was and that helped lighten up my mood. By the time I was getting ready to leave, I had begun to take pride in destroying gym equipment. Even got my picture taken with the poor 45 pound plate who met his end at my hands:
You can always laugh about it after it's over
That plate had been shattered into pieces, but it was my body that felt destroyed by Thursday night. Friday would have to be a rest day for me, so it was the start of a three-day gym weekend for me.
Sunday/Monday preview: After a successful run during Annie about a week ago, I decide to take another shot at the Flight Simulator on Sunday afternoon. Then it is back to the gym on Monday for a strength WOD, a sweaty cash-out, and some snatch work to end the evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.