Brawl-petta

Workout date: 7/9/17

Prior to Thursday, power cleans had been absent from my workout routine for a long time.  The only absence that might have superseded that one would be how long I've stayed out of the annex on weekends.  I guess this was just the week where I ended some of these random streaks.  My Brawl teammates were interested in testing out one of the workouts from next month's competition and the only place we'd be able to practice it was in the annex since there was a seminar being held in the main gym over the weekend.  The problem with the annex is you're never sure you'll have enough room to work out, even when you're doing something on your own.  The event we would be practicing was designed for 4 people and involved 6 different stations.  Not exactly the ideal workout to be doing in the annex.  The WOD was named "Polpetta", in honor of Giulz's dog.  Here's what we had 15 minutes to complete:

"Polpetta"
2,000 meter row
250 double unders
Four station chipper consisting of:
100 wall balls (14#/10# to 10'/9')
100 knee raises
100 burpees to a plate (25#)
100 shoulder-to-overheads (115/75)
*Time cap: 15 minutes
**Only one person can work on the chipper at a time.  While the chipper is being completed, one teammate can be rowing, while another can be completing the double unders.

Of the four events we would be taking on at the Brawl, this one far and away required the most strategy.  And you know how much I love to overthink workouts!  Our team had a group text on Facebook messenger and we discussed how we wanted to attack this WOD.  You won't be surprised to learn that I had a strong opinion on how it should be done.  Nor will you be shocked to learn that my initial strategy turned out to be a resounding failure.

Here's how I originally looked at this workout:

• The row wouldn't take 15 minutes.  The double unders wouldn't take 15 minutes.  So the time cap really only came into the play with the chipper.
• There was a lot of work that needed to be done in that chipper, so you wanted to have as many bodies working on it as possible.  The work would get split up more and you'd be providing your teammates with additional rest.
• The fastest way to get everyone to the chipper was to have two people rip through the double unders.  Then you could have two people push through the row, with two people working on the chipper (one active, one resting).
• Once the row was done, all four athletes could plow through the remaining elements of the chipper.
• Using this strategy, I expected us to be behind other teams in terms of the chipper, but ahead of them in completing the double unders and the row.  We'd be the first team to have all 4 athletes working on the chipper, allowing us to make up the ground we lost early on.  And because we'd be getting more rest, we would be able to pass those other teams in the latter stages of the chipper.

When I laid out this strategy to my teammates, it was well received.  That was a good feeling.  I had put a decent amount of thought into this, but there was still a chance that they would have completely gone against the vision I had for this workout.  (Turns out such a revolt would have been justified!)  It was nice knowing that my teammates had faith in my strategy.

Kris and Raj showed up on Sunday, but Cline was battling the flu, so we ended up being one teammate short.  LC was supervising Open Strength and because we were the only ones in the annex (aside from Bryan, who was hanging out after taking the 10am class), she agreed to fill in for Cline in this workout.  I was a little worried about Raj because she had also done the WOD at 10am and the workout she and Bryan had done looked spectacularly awful.  She insisted that she was good to go though.  We got our stations set up and laid out who was doing what.  I would be starting on the chipper, Kris would start on the rower, while Raj and LC would try to complete the double unders as fast as possible.  The plan with the double unders was to have each teammate complete 50 reps before switching.  Since Raj would be doing the last 50 double unders, LC could relieve Kris at the rower at the end of her 2nd round of 50 dubs.  We wanted things set up this way because Cline is a strong rower and LC was acting in his stead today.  Kris would come over to relieve me on the chipper.  I would rotate over to the rower with LC (Cline) and Raj would relieve Kris on the chipper once she completed the double unders.  Got all that?

How did that play out?  Not so well.  The ladies working on the double unders did fine.  I'm not sure if they strung their sets of 50, but it looked like they were moving through them pretty quickly.  LC went over to take Kris's spot on the rower.  Kris had completed about 800 meters of the row, I believe.  Kris came over and took my spot doing wall balls.  I had 70 reps done when she stepped in for me, going 35-15-10-10 over four sets.  I tried to keep my breaks very small.  I came over to the rower and told LC that we should switch when she got to 1,000 meters.  From there, we were both going to do a couple of 250 meter sprints to complete the row.

Does it sound like we were doing a lot of transitioning?  Yeah, a bit too much it turns out.  LC was fast on the rower and I was no slouch either, but the time we gained by sprinting every 250 meters was probably canceled out by the time it took to get in and out of the foot straps on the rower.  So we weren't improving our overall time, but we were exhausting ourselves more because we were sprinting instead of rowing at a steady pace.  Not a recipe for success!

I wasn't focused on Kris and Raj as they did knee raises, so I couldn't tell whether they were struggling or not.  All I knew was they got to the burpees at about the same time that we completed the row.  The four of us were finally together!  This is where we were going to put it into overdrive, right?  Not so much.  I don't know why we decided to do 10 burpees at a time (I'm assuming it was another strategic blunder on my part), but that was tougher than we bargained for.  Mooney was at the 10am class and had told me that his team did the burpees 5 at a time before tagging in a teammate.  That seemed like the magic number once I got to witness (and participate in) this segment of the workout.  All of us could get through 5-7 burpees in speedy fashion, but we all moved noticeably slower on the last few burpees.

We made sure Raj didn't do burpees at the very end of our 100 reps because we wanted her to go first on the shoulder-to-overheads.  We were confident that she was going to make short work of the 75 pound barbell and she did.  The only problem was that we didn't leave ourselves very much time.  There were only 45 seconds left before the time cap when we completed our 100 burpees.  Raj rattled out 20 shoulder-to-overheads and Kris did 15 more before time was called.  35 reps in 45 seconds was fast.  Imagine what we could have done with 2-3 minutes!  Final score: 16:05 (15 minute time cap plus one second for each of the 65 shoulder-to-overheads we did not complete).

The best thing about practicing a workout like this one is that you learn what works and what doesn't work very quickly.  Here's what we figured out:

• There was almost nothing to be gained from switching on the rower.  We should just have one person complete the entire 2,000 meters.  It didn't need to be done at breakneck speed.  Because Cline is the best rower on our team, he should probably take care of this aspect of the workout.
• Kris definitely did not enjoy rowing, but she is the queen of wall balls and knee raises.  She did the last 30 wall balls unbroken after tagging in for me.  And while the rest of us seem to struggle keeping ourselves from swinging during knee raises, she is able to calmly perform large sets.  She should be on the chipper from start to finish.
• Raj is strong with double unders and shoulder-to-overheads.  She also would have had little problem with the wall balls.  So she should start at either the double unders or as Kris's partner on the chipper.  We also needed to make sure to get her out of the burpee rotation earlier so that she would be as fresh as possible for the shoulder-to-overheads.
• That leaves me.  My wall balls were ok.  I'm decent at knee raises.  I think I could handle the shoulder-to-overheads if given the chance.  But I've been working devotedly on double unders and feel that I could contribute most at that station.  Like Raj, I would be best utilized starting with a jump rope in my hands or as Kris's partner on the chipper.
• Burpees suck.  Doing sets of 5 burpees sucks slightly less than doing sets of 10 burpees.
• The burpees are going to take about 5 minutes to finish.  If we have 3 minutes left when we get to the shoulder-to-overheads, we should complete this event under the time cap.  So that means we need to have the knee raises completed by the 7 minute mark.  With two people working on the wall balls, that should be done in three and a half minutes, giving us three and a half minutes for the knee raises themselves.  We should be able to make that happen.

My plan turned out to be a huge failure, but I think our team will be in good shape for this event when we take it on in the Brawl at the end of August.

LC was sticking around to do some snatch work and some squats, so I lingered around as well.  The first thing I wanted to work on was double unders.  There was a good chance that I might be doing double unders to start off Polpetta, so I needed to get some extra practice in.  Maybe the fire drill I had just participated in took more out of me than I realized, but I completely sucked at double unders on this day.  Couldn't put any truly big sets together.  Wasn't even hitting sets of 20 consistently.  Sometimes it just doesn't feel like your day, so I moved on to something else.

My recent nightmare of an experience with Fran made me realize that I needed more practice on my pull-ups, so I decided to challenge myself to doing small sets with really good form.  I wanted to do five sets of 3, but the set didn't count if my form was lousy.  I know I can easily do two reps in a row with good form, but that third rep seems to be where I lose my rhythm.  I think knowing that I could drop off of the bar after three reps helped me as I got through all five sets without a blemish.  I'd be increasing the number in each set to four the next time I practiced pull-ups.

The accessory work I was doing was all well and good, but the one thing I really wanted to take on was the clean and jerk.  I had convinced myself that if I could power clean more than 225 pounds that I'd be able to jerk that weight as well.  (My jerk has always been better than my clean.)  According to my Crossfit spreadsheets, my top clean and jerk had been stuck at 225 pounds since October 6, 2015. The worst part was that I had cleaned 235 pounds and jerked 240 pounds, so it wasn't as if I didn't have the ability to go heavier than 225.  I simply hadn't put the two lifts together, usually because I was too tired from the heavy squat clean to jerk the weight properly.  A successful heavy power clean would save me some energy and give me a better shot at finally going beyond 225 pounds.

LC was finishing up her snatches when I started going through my progression.  It was the same progression that I used on Thursday because my intention was to power clean everything.  The only difference was that I couldn't drop the barbell right after the power clean.  Today I had to follow up each power clean with a jerk.  My lifts at 135 and 165 didn't feel heavy, but it seemed like my form wasn't wonderful.  It was the same feeling I had during the double under practice.  I didn't feel like I was operating at 100% capacity.  About 45 minutes had passed since we wrapped up Polpetta, but I suspected I hadn't fully recovered yet.

That suspicion didn't go away when the power clean at 185 felt heavier than it had on Thursday.  The jerk wasn't wonderful either.  I couldn't help but think that today wasn't the day to go after a clean and jerk PR.  I wouldn't be surprised if I wasn't able to get 220 today despite power cleaning 230 just three days earlier.  I had a lot of negative thoughts in my head when I walked up to my next lift at 205 pounds.

They say in golf that if you hit just one good shot during your round, you'll come back and play again.  The lift at 205 was my one solid golf shot.  I can't explain why it worked out that way, but I did my best power clean of the day and then followed it up with a very strong jerk.  The clean and jerk at 205 might have been better than the ones I did at 135 and 165.  Suddenly I was feeling good about my chances again.  The power clean at 220 was difficult, but that was the way it was supposed to be.  As long as it didn't feel heavier than it usually did, I was okay.  I got the jerk overhead and it was on to a PR attempt at 230.

I tend to give myself three tries at a weight.  If I'm really close, I might give myself a 4th try.  I have to have a really compelling reason to go beyond a 4th try because at a certain point you just get tired out, dejected, or both.  Or maybe you're just sick and tired of not being able to PR for the better part of two years.  On my first two attempts at 230 pounds, I failed on the power clean.  LC had moved over to the squat rack near me and was watching each of my attempts.  She pointed out that I wasn't getting low enough to meet the barbell.  With the power clean, you are allowed to squat, you just can't break parallel.  If you break parallel, you're now performing a squat clean.  I was desperately trying to avoid squat cleans here, so I stood pretty upright during these two failed attempts.  On attempt #3, I did a partial squat and caught the barbell properly.  I stood it up and immediately got excited.  This is it!  You power cleaned 230.  You know you can jerk this weight.  PR city!!!

Only that's not what happened.  I'm not sure whether my dip was too shallow or if I lost my concentration as I went to do the jerk.  All I know was that it was a pathetic excuse for a jerk, one that barely cleared my head.  I dumped it to the floor.  What the hell was that?  You did the tough part and then botched the easy part?  Come on!  My conscience was right.  I had things just where I wanted them.  I just failed to execute.  I was taking a 4th shot at my PR.

On attempt #4, I was able to power clean 230 again.  I had that part figured out now.  All I needed to do was jerk 230 pounds.  I had jerked 240 pounds before, so this shouldn't have been a problem.  Only it was.  This attempt was much better than the prior one and I nearly got my arms fully extended.  For some reason, I wasn't able to lock it out though.  The barbell crashed to the floor as I tried my best not to be frustrated.  LC was watching and told me that I wasn't jerking the barbell straight up.  In a jerk, the barbell starts under your chin and then goes overhead.  If you do it efficiently, you'll go straight overhead, tipping your head back during the jerk so that your chin gets out of the way.  I wasn't moving my chin and because I didn't want to crash 230 pounds directly into my jaw, I was driving the barbell through a roundabout before taking the first exit.  If I moved my chin and went straight up, I'd get the jerk.

I was convinced that I could clean and jerk 230 pounds.  My execution had sucked on my first 4 attempts, but I could fix that.  I was giving myself a fifth and final try before putting the barbell away.  LC took a break from her squats and cheered me on.  For the third straight time, I did a partial squat and caught the power clean where I was supposed to.  After standing up, I got myself composed.  I reminded myself to push the barbell straight up.  I took in a breath and went for it.  The first sense of relief I had came when the barbell didn't hit my chin.  Then I realized I had the barbell overhead.  I brought my feet back together and took a quick glance over at LC.  She gave me a "yes!" and I knew that I had finally done it.  It took 21 months, but at long last, I had a new clean and jerk PR.

I thanked LC for all of her help during this session, then I headed home feeling good about life.  I still had a long way to go to reach my goal of a 245 pound clean and jerk, but at least progress had finally been made.

Monday preview: If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'!