The good people at KOP get together for a charity outing at least once per year. I haven't been able to make it out for these events in the past, but when Cline alerted us that KOP would be helping the Philadelphia chapter of Rebuilding Together on Saturday, June 3rd, I made sure to clear my calendar so that I could take part. Rebuilding Together is an organization that relies on volunteers to give some of their time to help improve homes in low-income communities. You don't have to be super-handy to participate, which is good because had there been any skill threshold that I needed to surpass, they would have sent me home immediately. Team KOP was represented by 8 people: group organizer Cline, Shawna, Tia, Mariana, Kris, Kris's husband Joshua, Ms. January and myself. We were divided into 4 pairs and given an assortment of tasks to complete. Ms. January was my partner and she did all of the real work. She led the way in installing the smoke and radon detectors. We painted the living room ceiling together. Then she got out the power drill and installed a new shower head upstairs. Rather than mess up some stranger's house, I tried to contribute mostly by running back and forth to the supply truck one block over throughout the day. I may not have done an actual WOD, but I certainly got plenty of exercise on Saturday morning. Here are some pics of Team KOP:
Everyone smiles when it's lunch time!
A group shot with our team leader, Harold. Poor guy had to put up with us all day long.
Just in case I wasn't sure how painful that event was, I would get to experience it firsthand on Monday evening. Our scheduled WOD was as similar in structure to that event as our coaches could make it. Here's what they came up with:
Monday's WOD:
40 calories on the assault bike
30 box jump overs (30"/24")
20 sandbag (or atlas stone) cleans from the ground to over your shoulder
This was a bit of a unique WOD in that there was no real RX standard. It was dealer's choice when it came to the sandbag or atlas stone that we'd be heaving over our shoulder at the end of the workout. We were simply told to choose a weight that was challenging for us. We could scale down the suggested box height if we wanted to, but we were getting to use our hands to help us over the box, so that made the taller box less intimidating. Assault bikes weren't mandatory, but if you wanted to feel the burn that those Regionals athletes felt at the beginning of their final event, you didn't want to use the easier Airdyne.
There were an awful lot of people that wanted that Regionals experience because 17 people were in attendance for the 6:30 class with Coach Giulz. You need a lot of space when doing box jump overs and you definitely don't want to be in close quarters if you're tossing heavy objects over your shoulder, so it was going to be tricky accommodating such a large group. Giulz had us line up behind the bikes that were set up near the middle of the gym and told us that these would be the ones we'd use in the workout. Matt B and I were a little slow during this game of musical bikes, so we ended up stuck with an Airdyne rather than an assault bike. That was no fun. Later on we would remedy this situation.
Giulz covered the box jump overs with us. I think I speak for everyone when I say that getting over the box with the assistance of one's hands was a new experience. It certainly made the box jump much easier. The biggest difficulty was getting your feet and hands on the box at the same time. The tops of our boxes don't have as much surface area as those nice foam ones that the Regionals athletes used, so you had to be careful not to step on your own fingers as you did the box jump overs.
Rob C perfecting the new box jump over technique
I'm not sure if we were allowed to keep our hands on the box between reps, but if you did that, you could jump over the box and back very quickly. I thought that was a little bit too much of an advantage, so I basically did a hand-release box jump over for my reps. The biggest break we were getting in this workout was that we weren't doing burpees in conjunction with the box jumps. That truly would have tested our leg strength. Instead, this piece of the workout became the bridge between the two hardest movements.
The last segment of the WOD was the part that I was most excited about. We were allowed to use atlas stones for the ground to over the shoulder movement and that meant I got to once again pretend that I was on an old episode of World's Strongest Man. Choosing the atlas stones was a no brainer for me. I loved using them and I hated doing sandbag cleans. I didn't realize until the workout began that we weren't doing typical sandbag cleans for the final segment, but I don't think that would have affected my choice of equipment. (Note: When sandbag cleans usually come up in WODs, you have to grab the sandbag by its handles and swing it up to your shoulders. In this workout, the sandbag would be stacked vertically. You would grab it like a bag of groceries, hoist it up, and then toss it over your shoulder.)
Kris and her 75 pound bag of groceries
Five of us decided to go with the atlas stones. Dana used one of the 70 pound atlas stones, while Chris S, Neil, Matt, and I gathered up every 110 pound atlas stone available in the gym. We tried out the 140 pound atlas stone, but it seemed too heavy to all of us. I did two reps with the 140 pound stone in the warmup and I couldn't imagine how long it would take me to get through 20 reps at that weight. This was still supposed to be a sprint and I didn't want to hold up the class trying to be macho with the 140 pound stone. Neil, on the other hand, probably could have handled 140 pounds. Giulz called him out for going too light after he tossed around the 110 pound stone like a nerf ball at the end of his workout. Guy just doesn't know how strong he is.
With 5 assault bikes and several Airdynes available, the line of athletes behind each of the bikes ran 2-3 athletes deep. We were sharing equipment at all of the stations, so we were staggering the start by a good 3-4 minutes between waves. We actually didn't have a formal start time for each of the waves. It was up to the next athlete to use their discretion as to how far they wanted to let the person in front of them get ahead before they started on their bike ride. Matt and I were lined up behind an Airdyne originally, but then we noticed that a couple of the assault bikes only had two people in line for them. If we split up, we could each be the 3rd person on those assault bikes. Some of the other bikes already had people lined up three deep, so we'd be in the 3rd wave with them. We got into different lines and awaited our turn.
By the time the 3rd wave of athletes got started, the 1st wave was almost finished, so we had the opportunity to see how everyone was handling the box jump overs and the sandbag cleans. At first it seemed like no one was using their hands for the box jump overs. Maybe it was still too new to everyone, so they were sticking with regular box jump overs. Then 1 or 2 people started using their hands and everyone else eventually followed suit. The sandbag cleans looked brutal. I could have been underestimating how much energy the bike and the box jump overs took out of you, but it looked like everyone was struggling to get through the sandbag cleans.
Danielle going all out on the sandbag clean
Matt and I were the only two people in the final wave using atlas stones. That worked out well because there weren't all that many mats set up underneath the pull-up rig for the folks tossing atlas stones over their shoulders. (Mats weren't needed for the sandbags, but they were necessary to soften the blow of the atlas stones dropping to the gym floor.) Chris, Neil, and Dana were already working with their stones while Matt and I were still on the assault bikes.
Dana proving that the atlas stones were no picnic either
To me, that initial 40 calorie bike ride wasn't too bad. I kept a fairly even pace and was able to complete that segment in under 3 minutes. Most importantly, my legs weren't completely sapped at that point. If I had gone all out on the bike, I wouldn't be able to pick up my stone later on. It took me some time to develop a rhythm over at the box jump overs. I want to say that I was slow on the first 10 or so reps because I didn't have confidence that I could move fast and not step on my fingers. Once I had some faith that I wouldn't injure myself, I was able to move quicker.
I thought I was on my way to putting up a very fast time when I got to my atlas stone. I did 4 reps in my first set before needing to catch my breath. That felt like the right amount to do before stopping for a break, so I was determined to do 4 more sets like that to finish off this workout. I thought I was keeping my breaks relatively short, but when I saw my final time, it became clear that I took longer than I thought. Each set of 4 was the same. The first 2 reps felt good. The third rep required more energy. The 4th rep was simply give it everything you had.
I'm hoping this picture was taken during the 4th rep of one of my sets
Because I was part of the last wave, nearly everyone in class was already done as I worked through my ground to over the shoulder reps. Perhaps it's just perspective, but the encouragement I was hearing from them didn't carry that same "pity circle" tone that I know all too well. The group definitely helped me keep my last break short. I didn't waste a lot of time before digging into that final set. When the atlas stone went rolling over my right shoulder for the 20th time, I was relieved to be done. Final time: 9:15.
I didn't keep a close eye on the clock once I got off the bike, but I thought my final time was going to be closer to 8 minutes. 9:15 was a little disappointing. It wasn't way off of the times of the rest of the class, but I was under the impression that I was moving pretty fast. 9:15 was a little bit of a letdown if I'm being honest. Guess I need to get better at cutting down those rest periods.
I stuck around for Open Strength as I do on most Mondays. Not loving my time of 9:15 on the WOD, I turned my sights towards hitting a PR on my clean and jerk. I brought out a barbell, threw on some 45 pound plates, and began with a lift at 135 pounds. Usually this is a fairly easy weight for me to squat clean, but when I attempted it here, it felt heavier than expected. Uh oh. I stood up with it and was able to complete the jerk, but unless I caught a second wind, I knew I wasn't hitting a clean and jerk of 230 pounds by the end of the night. I proceeded to do clean and jerks at 165 and 185, but they also felt very heavy. I wasn't surprised when I missed the next clean at 205.
I thought about stopping then, but falling 45 pounds short of my goal was going to leave a bad taste in my mouth. On my next attempt, I was able to squat clean 205, but then I did a pathetic jerk where my arms didn't come close to extending fully. One more try. I was able to get the clean again. Then I used my anger to complete the jerk. How do I know it was the anger? Because my form was atrocious. Instead of doing a split jerk like you should when the weight feels heavy, I did some weird jerk where my right foot ended up about an inch in front of my left one. I looked like a ballerina about to perform a pirouette. The good news was that I didn't have to move my feet very much to bring them together and complete the lift. Michal laughed at how disgusted I looked as I dropped the barbell to the floor. It was a "successful" lift, but it was probably the worst one I've done in a long time.
I took one shot at 220 pounds, but my squat clean was a mess. I knew I was done. I probably should have stopped at 185. I still felt like I needed to accomplish something more before I headed home, so I got out my jump rope. I wanted one big set before I left the gym. My first set of 27 reps didn't qualify. My second set of 65 in a row did. It was the positive note I needed to cap off my night.
Tuesday preview: Last Friday's WOD reminded me of Fight Gone Bad. Tuesday's WOD is a complete rip-off of FGB.
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