Too Soon

Workout date: 6/29/17

What would be the worst thing for me to see programmed in the Thursday WOD, the day after getting agonizingly close to making the 100 double unders board?  Answer: burpees and pull-ups.  Those two things are always the worst.  But double unders had emerged as a very close third choice on that list.  So when the Thursday WOD was released at 10pm Wednesday night, I was disheartened to see that it included a considerable amount of double unders.  I sent a two-word text message to Kris about how I felt about doing double unders on Thursday: "Too soon!"

As much as I didn't want to do double unders, they were only a small part of the difficult 19 minute WOD that awaited KOP's athletes.  The WOD had three segments with mandatory rest in between each of them.  And by now you should know that mandatory rest means trouble.  Here's a look at what was programmed for Thursday:

Thursday's WOD:
First 4 minutes
4 rounds:
Shuttle sprint of 5-10-15-20 feet
30 double unders
Rest 2 minutes
Next 5 minutes
3 rounds:
20/15 calories on the assault bike
20 hang power cleans (95/65)
Rest 2 minutes
Next 6 minutes
50 GHD sit-ups
750 meter row

That was a lot to process, so I thought about how I would handle each of the segments:

• Sprints and double unders: 4 minutes, 4 rounds, so I had to average 1 minute per round to get through the sprints and the double unders.  If I strung the 30 double unders, that would probably take about 20 seconds.  If I was off, more like 30-35 seconds.  I didn't think the sprint would take more than 30 seconds, so overall I felt good about completing this segment before my four minutes were up.
• Assault bike/hang power cleans: An extra minute for this round, but that didn't seem like nearly enough time to complete all of this work.  I could see the first round on the assault bike going okay, but 20 hang power cleans per round was a lot.  And once I tired myself out with the hang power cleans, the later rounds on the assault bike were going to be slower.  My goal here was to complete 2 of the 3 rounds and get a little bit of work done during round 3 on the assault bike.
• GHD/rowing: Another extra minute was provided, but this segment actually seemed feasible to finish.  The 750 meter row should take about 3 minutes (2:00 per 500 meters is a reasonable pace), leaving 3 minutes for the 50 GHD sit-ups.  My best time for 50 GHD sit-ups last year was 2:01.  If the assault bike and hang power clean segment didn't wreck me, I could complete the GHD sit-ups and rowing in less than 6 minutes.

I decided to go to the 7:30 class with Coach Giulz.  I mean that literally.  It was just me and Giulz.  No one else was around to go through this agony with me.  Some of the guys from the 6:30 class warned me that this workout was going to be horrible.  Their advice: turn around and go home.  In retrospect, I wish I listened to them.  My legs were a little sore from the 40 back squats and the set of "not quite 100" double unders that I had done the night before.  I thought I could overcome that though.  The way I was looking at it was if I could get through this workout, I'd recover by taking the next three days off from the gym.  That was good enough motivation to make me do this WOD on my own.

With only 1 student in her class, Giulz was able to run through the warmup very quickly.  She let me know that the first segment would take place outside.  Across the street from the gym, there were chalk lines designating a starting line as well as distances that were 5 feet, 10 feet, 15 feet, and 20 feet away.  Each round, I would have to get both feet past the line and touch the ground with one of my hands before coming back to the start.  Once I had completed the four sprints, it was on to the jump rope for 30 double unders.  Giulz had me do some single unders and some double unders before making sure I was comfortable with the amount of double unders I'd have to do in this first segment.  Given that I had done 99 consecutive reps last night, I wasn't going to be scared off by 120 double unders that could be broken up into smaller sets.  I probably wasn't gonna enjoy them, but I'd get through them.

There wasn't anything technical to go over in terms of the assault bike or the rower, so the rest of the warmup would cover the hang power cleans and the GHD sit-ups.  Giulz noted that the weight for the hang power cleans was light, so she was expecting me to cycle through reps quickly and hold on for big sets.  Hang power cleans are probably the most difficult test of grip strength in the gym (at least they are for me), so my concern was that I might not be able to hang on for really large sets.  If I had to put the barbell down, it would likely be because my grip gave way.  The weight of the barbell didn't concern me as much.  Giulz asked me to do a quick set of 10 and I complied.  I didn't think I could do much more than 10 in a row, so I was hoping to go 12-8 or something like that when I got to my barbell later on.  Over at the GHD, Giulz made sure that my machine was set to the proper length.  She also reminded me that I needed to snap my legs on each sit-up.  I would be doing 50 of these and I'd be in a world of hurt if I tried to use my back and abs only.  Good form = less pain.

I think less than 15 minutes of class had elapsed when Giulz and I headed outside to get things started.  We were going to be done much earlier than normal and both Giulz and I were happy about that development.  Giulz brought out an iPad with her to keep time for this first segment.  I put my jump rope down off to the right side of the starting line, then I came over to start the sprints.  Giulz gave me a countdown and I was on my way.  I'm not sure I would say I was sprinting as much as I was running at a controlled, yet fast pace.  I didn't want to fall down as I scampered back and forth.  I also didn't want to burn out early on in this segment.  4 minutes wasn't a lot of time for four rounds, but if I kept my composure, I figured it would be plenty of time to complete the segment.  On the first round, I made it through the sprints quickly, then got through over 20 double unders before messing up.  I immediately started to twirl the rope again, completing the remaining reps in my next set.  Giulz said I was ahead of schedule, indicating that I had completed that round in under a minute.

Things didn't go so well the next two rounds.  I'm sure my sprints were somewhat slower.  My double unders were the bigger problem.  Maybe my legs were more sore than I realized, but jumping over and over again was becoming unpleasant.  I hit myself with the rope repeatedly, with my sets tending to be in the 5-7 rep range.  As I was finishing up round three, Giulz told me I had less than a minute left.  Uh oh.

I tried to hurry on the next sprint, but it took me nearly 30 seconds to complete it.  Giulz told me I had 30 seconds left as I bent over to pick up my jump rope.  I told myself that I couldn't afford to mess up on this round if I wanted to stay under 4 minutes.  I jumped higher than I typically do, but I was extra motivated to keep the rope from hitting me.  After not getting a set of more than 10 in rounds two and three, I hung on for 30 in a row to close out round four.  Final time for the first segment: 3:47.

On the bright side, I had finally come through in a pressure situation.  Usually when time is running out like that and I need to be perfect, I find a way to mess up.  All of that double under practice seemed to be paying off.  If this was the end of the workout, I would have left the gym feeling wonderful.  Unfortunately, I was a long way from being done.  I was also pretty exhausted.  Giulz and I walked into the gym together as my two minutes of mandatory rest began.  My legs felt very heavy now, so I spent most of the break sitting on the floor.  No point wasting energy standing.  I wouldn't say those two minutes flew by, but as I stared at the clock that Giulz started as we came into the gym, I dreaded how close it was drawing to 2:00.  This next segment was going to be the worst part of the WOD and I was already feeling spent.

A few seconds before the clock hit 2:00, I climbed on to my assault bike.  The next segment began and I tried to peddle as hard as I could to get the number on my monitor rolling towards 20.  Usually if I can get some speed at the beginning, the momentum of the bike will buy me some easy calories.  That did not happen here.  I might have been working hard, but my legs were not supplying the power they normally do.  I'm not sure I was even at 10 calories when I was forced to slow down.  It was deflating to feel like I was pushing as hard as I could but not making much progress on the bike.  I slowed down to an even pace, which meant it took me much longer than usual to accumulate 20 calories.  As I got off the bike, I noticed that my legs were super tight.  Almost like they had cramped up, only there wasn't the sharp pain you would associate with cramping.  My knees were barely bending as I walked over to my barbell.

Not being able to use your legs is kind of a big problem when you're trying to do hang power cleans, even when the weight is light.  I did more of a muscle clean than a power clean to get through my reps.  After 5 reps, I had to drop the barbell.  That wasn't what Giulz had requested in the warmup, but it was all I could manage at this point.  I took a decent-sized break and tried to shake out my legs. I also needed to get some air back into my lungs because I was breathing pretty heavily.  When I got back to the barbell, I held on for 8 reps before requiring another break.  I completed the last 7 hang power cleans the next time I picked up the barbell, but I had used up a significant portion of my time in this segment already.  I wasn't sure I'd even get back to the hang power cleans a second time.

My first spin on the bike felt like wasted effort.  I was pushing with everything I had, but the monitor told a different story.  The calories weren't accumulating as fast as I had hoped.  It was like pumping gas into your car at a station where the handles are very sensitive.  You squeeze the handle hard hoping to fill your gas tank quickly, but instead the pump keeps starting and stopping and it ends up taking twice as long to fill the tank as you would have liked.  I didn't bother trying to sprint when I got on the bike the second time.  I kept churning my legs, trying to keep a steady pace, but it became clear that I wasn't going to reach 20 calories a second time.  I made it to 16 calories before mandatory rest #2 began.  Final time for the second segment: 6:04 (5:00 plus 1 second for the 24 calories and 40 hang power cleans I did not complete).

Despite feeling really tired, I still believed I could finish segment three.  In my mind, it was all about the GHD sit-ups.  If I pushed through those, there was going to enough time for me to get through the row.  I couldn't imagine a scenario where I wouldn't be able to complete 750 meters in 3:00-3:15.  (Don't worry, less than 5 minutes later, I didn't have to imagine it.  I got to experience it!)  So I convinced myself that the finish line was at the end of the 50 GHD sit-ups.  If I could stay focused on that, I could complete the 3rd segment and get a bit of redemption for how poorly I had done on the assault bike and hang power cleans.

The two minute rest helped me considerably and I was eager to rifle through some GHD sit-ups once the clock told me I could go.  I did a set of 20 reps to begin and I knew I was well ahead of the pace I needed to finish in 3 minutes.  The only problem was that my legs were now calling it a day.  I was unable to bend and extend my legs very much at all while I tried to complete the remaining 30 sit-ups.  So I did what I had to do to get to 50 reps.  I used mostly back and abs to reach back, tap the floor, then swing myself up to the top of the GHD.  It was lousy form and you shouldn't follow my example.  This was just a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures.  Since performing GHD sit-ups this way doesn't feel good, I had to do very small sets and stop over and over again.  I went from being well ahead of the pace I needed to behind the pace I needed as I crept towards 50 reps.  When I finally got off of the GHD machine, there was about 2:30 remaining in the last segment.

That was okay.  I still believed I could make it through 600-650 meters on the rower with that much time left.  That wouldn't be such an awful score.  Of course, that was assuming that I could extend my legs, which I soon discovered I could not.  I had to bend my legs to get my feet in the straps of the rower, but when I went to do my first full pull, I found that I couldn't go back all the way.  My legs refused to extend.  I tried once early on to get full extension and it was very painful.  I was not doing that for two and a half minutes straight.  So once again I improvised.  I basically stayed in the position I was in when I got into the rower.  My body was mostly upright and my knees were bent in front of me.  Instead of taking long, powerful strokes, I did a bunch of short strokes as quickly as I could.  It felt goofy.  I'm sure it looked goofy.  It was all I could do though.  As you might imagine, I did not reach 600-650 calories.  When Giulz called time, the monitor showed a mere 453 calories completed.  Final time for the third segment: 10:57 (6:00 plus 1 second for each of the 297 meters I did not complete).

I slid off the side of my rower and spent a good 5-10 minutes trying to get my legs to work properly again.  I had underestimated how sore they were after Wednesday night and I paid the price in this workout.  Thursday should have been a rest day, but I pushed my limits so that I could enjoy a three-day respite from the gym.  It was a poor decision.  I'm usually good about listening to my body, but I think I intentionally turned a deaf ear to it on this occasion.  This WOD was a stark reminder of why it is a bad idea to do that.

Monday preview: I lose some souvenirs that I brought home from St. Lucia.  I learn that squat snatches are really hard to do after a large set of wall balls.  Angry barbells make a return, but it is patience that helps me finish the WOD.