Had I been paying attention to the calendar and to the spreadsheet I keep, I wouldn't have had to guess what Wednesday's WOD would be. It was the last day of May and there was one benchmark workout for the month that hadn't been completed yet. It was a sure thing that we'd be taking on Helen. I wasn't sure whether the cash-out would be the same as it was when we performed Helen back in February. Turns but it was. I was very pleased about that at least. Here's a complete look at what was scheduled for Wednesday:
"Helen"
3 rounds:
400 meter run
21 KB swings (53/35)
12 pull-ups
Cash-out:
60 pistols
Coach Jenna only had two people in her 7:30 class. I'm not sure if everyone else decided to come in earlier or if they preferred not to do Helen, but Joe M was the only person besides me to sign up for the last class of the day. (I refuse to believe that the 60 pistols scared anyone away. How can you not love pistols?) Joe typically worked out earlier in the day. When I was doing a better job of appearing at the Friday nooner, I would see Joe from time to time. He is jokingly known as Tim H's twin in that class. (There's a slight disparity in size between the two of them.) I also used to see Joe at Endurance last year. Those track sessions with Joe let me know he was fast. I didn't realize how much stamina he had until I learned that he helped Pam train for the marathon she ran last year. Speed + stamina = someone I didn't want to do a running WOD with by myself. (That's a bit of a lie. Joe's a really nice guy with a good sense of humor, so it was nice taking class with him. I just didn't want to get smoked!)
When you've been doing Crossfit for over 4 years, you start to think you know everything. You might not be able to execute what the coach is telling you to do, but you are aware of how to fix the problem. It becomes genuinely shocking when you realize that you've been doing something wrong for a very long time, especially when it is something as simple as swinging a kettlebell. It's not that the coaches haven't been giving you the proper directions. Sometimes it just takes hearing a certain cue before a movement clicks in your head. That would happen twice for me during this warmup. Jenna watched me as I swung my kettlebell and could tell I wasn't moving it efficiently. I've never been particularly good at utilizing my hips in a variety of Crossfit movements, but I thought I had gotten them much more involved in my KB swings. Turns out that was true, except it was causing me to swing the KB in a larger arc, which was inefficient. I needed to get my hips involved in a way that would shoot my KB upwards more than outwards.
If I was left to figure out the solution to that problem on my own, I probably would have just switched to something along the lines of a KB snatch. I tend to perform KB snatches when I get tired during KB swings because I have faith that I'm strong enough to muscle the KB straight up without the aid of my hips. It's a short-term solution, but it works as long as I don't have like 30 more reps to perform. Jenna would give me the long-term solution.
The cues that tend to work best for me are those that relate two things together: the item I am struggling with along with an item that I am comfortable with. Jenna didn't want me to focus on my hips so much as she wanted me to focus on my knees. She told me to think about how I did a push press. In that movement, I bend my knees, dip down, and then use that momentum to pop a barbell upwards. If I combined that movement with my hip thrust when doing KB swings, my KB would head north without any unnecessary circumnavigation. I made the change and was really pleased to find that I could get my KB overhead much easier now.
Jenna wasn't done blowing my mind. She had unlocked the secrets of the KB swing for me. Now she was going to help me get better at pull-ups. My plan for this workout was to trust in my quick single reps with the abbreviated kip. They got me through Holbrook. They got me through Murph. This workout only had 36 pull-ups, so relying on them once again seemed like the way to go. (And eventually I would have to rely on them.) But Jenna wanted us to string pull-ups in the warmup. My form left a lot to be desired. I could get 2 or 3 in a row, but the last rep was always this ugly act of desperation to get my chin over the bar. Jenna's advice on the KB swings was to focus less on my hips. On the pull-up bar, she wanted me to focus more on my hips. In fact, she wanted me to duplicate that hip thrust that caused the inefficient arc on my KB swings. So within 10 minutes, I learned that the movement that was messing up my KB swings could help me kip pull-ups. I never would have guessed that was the case. I started to secretly hope that Jenna could pinpoint something in my pull-up form that would make me a better runner, but there was only so much help she could give me on Helen.
Armed with all of this new wisdom from Jenna, I got ready to take on Helen. Joe and I headed out on our first 400 meter run and I was able to stay with him the whole time. It wasn't a punishing pace, but it was relatively fast. I began swinging my KB and it was apparent very early on that I was going to get through all 21 reps without putting it down. When I had done this workout in February, I was able to do that for rounds 1 and 2, but I couldn't hang on for all 21 reps in round 3. It was still early, but I sensed that I wouldn't be breaking up my KB swings on this day.
I came over to the pull-up bar needing a short break, but then I attempted to string reps. Jenna's advice helped, but I couldn't do more than 2 reps at a time. Part of it was fatigue and part of it was that I needed more practice with this technique. It wasn't as natural of a change for me as the new KB swing was. I did 4 sets of 2 before deciding to go back to singles. After the last 4 reps were done, I headed out the door for my next run. I started that run ahead of Joe, but he would catch me along the way. He passed me with about 50 meters to go on the run. It seemed like this was the stage of the workout where Joe was going to pull away from me.
Joe started his second round of KB swings before me, but he ended up having to break up his 21 reps. Once I got my KB going, I held on until I had completed all 21 of my reps. I had the lead back as I returned to the pull-up bar. If I wanted to keep that lead, I decided I should stick with what I knew best. So I went back to quick singles. I would do 4 in a row, then take a break. After three sets like that, I headed out to begin my final round.
I thought I pushed pretty well on that last run. I had built up a decent lead by moving through the pull-ups faster than Joe. The downside to getting that lead was that I didn't have him to push me on that last 400 meters. The fear of seeing him go cruising by me again was enough to help me maintain a solid pace. I was also operating under the idea that if I got back to my KB first, I'd hold off Joe the rest of the way. Joe had to break up his 21 swings in round two, so if I could get to my KB first and go unbroken again, it was likely that I'd get finished before him. I took a couple of seconds to catch my breath when I got back inside the gym and then I started on my KB swings. I was a lot more tired than I was during the first two rounds, but there was no part of me that seriously considered putting down the KB. I was holding on for all 21.
My back was to the clock as I did my pull-ups, so I didn't have a good sense of how close I was to the time I put up in February. On that attempt, I finished in 13:09, which was a big PR for me. I honestly thought I was crushing that time as I got to my last round of pull-ups. If that wasn't the case when I got to my final dozen pull-ups, I thought it was certainly the case by the time they were completed. I started with a set of 4 quick singles like I had done in round two. Then I decided to empty the tank and did a final set of 8 to end the workout. Final time: 12:35.
It was a 34 second PR, yet I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed when I was done. I wasn't super slow on my 400 meter runs. I strung all of my KB swings. And I did about as well as could be expected on the pull-up bar given that I did mostly singles. As I rooted on Joe during his last few pull-ups, all I could think about was the fact that my time on this workout was probably not going to improve very much unless I put in some serious practice to string pull-ups. That wasn't an appealing prospect to me.
A more appealing prospect was doing 60 pistols for time. With Helen out of the way, we had plenty of time remaining in class to take on this cash-out. We had the opportunity to get some rest, grab some water, and change our shoes if we were taking this cash-out way too seriously. (Guilty as charged!) Once I had my lifters on, we were ready to go. My legs weren't tremendously sore from the WOD, so I thought I had a good shot at putting up a very fast time. 2:00 was the goal.
I didn't start off very speedy, but sometimes it takes 6 or so pistols before you develop a rhythm. Once I felt like I was in rhythm, I started bouncing from one leg to the other as quick as I could. Sometimes I got going too fast. That would inevitably result in me coming up out of the pistol with little control. If I didn't have control and I put my foot down early to maintain my balance, I no-repped myself. It happened a good 4-5 times during this sprint. And any time this happened, I needed to pause for a second or two to make sure I was balanced before starting again. That prevented me from beating my goal, although my time was slightly faster than when I had done this cash-out in February. Final cash-out time: 2:21.
Joe complimented me on how fast I got through the 60 pistols. I told him I was a little bummed that I messed up so much and he seemed a little surprised that I had no-repped myself as many times as I did. I told Joe that I take pride in my pistols (funky looking though they may be), so I couldn't count crappy reps. There aren't a lot of things at the gym that I claim to be good at, so if I'm putting pistols on that short list, I need to hold myself to a high standard when I do them.
Friday preview: After a much needed rest day, I tackle a 5 round workout that includes a mandatory break of 3 minutes between rounds. Sounds like this one's gonna hurt.
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