After Thursday's debacle, I stayed away from the gym for three days as planned. I mean, I rarely come into the gym on the weekends anymore, so my absence on Saturday and Sunday was expected. Friday was simply the rest day that I should have taken on Thursday. You would think with three days away that I'd be raring to go come Monday, but I still wasn't feeling 100% physically. When I was in St. Lucia, we went on a boat tour that included a stop for snorkeling. I'm not good at snorkeling, nor am I a fan of snorkeling. (I'm happy to swim all day long though!) At one point during the snorkeling stop, I let my feet drop down under the water and received an unpleasant surprise. My right heel pressed down on to a sea urchin. When the boat tour ended and we were dropped off at our hotel, I discovered that there were 5 visible needles in my right heel. I made a visit to the nurse on site and she told me to keep applying alcohol to the wounded area. Eventually the needles would fall out on their own, she claimed. That didn't stop me from trying to pluck them out with tweezers, although those efforts would prove to be futile. When we got back to Philly, I picked up some vinegar from the store as that was mentioned to be a remedy for ridding yourself of sea urchin needles. That didn't work either. Two weeks had passed since I stepped on the sea urchin and the needles were still in my heel. I was also starting to notice some minor pain in my heel. It was time to hit up the Minute Clinic.
I stopped by a local CVS around lunchtime on Monday. I was concerned that there might be a long wait, but I lucked out and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes before getting in to see the two nurses staffed at this location. Unfortunately for those who showed up after me, their wait would be considerably longer. I felt bad that these two ladies would have to stare at my foot for close to an hour, but they seemed really entertained by their newest patient's predicament. They likened the needle removal to performing minor surgery. (I guess they don't typically get the opportunity to remove a lot of things from patient's bodies at the Minute Clinic.) Not only did they work together to remove the 5 needles I had seen in my heel, they also removed 3 other needles from the side of my foot that I didn't realize were there. I was very appreciative for the amount of time they spent on me. And when I left, I was apologetic to the group of people wondering what the hold up was. My foot was going to be tender for a few days, but at least my souvenirs from St. Lucia were finally gone.
I had dinner plans on Monday night, but I didn't want to miss a 4th consecutive day at the gym, so I came in earlier than I normally do. I dropped in to work out with the 4:30 crew. Coach Aimee had 10 people in her class all lined up to take on the following WOD:
Monday's WOD:
5 rounds:
30 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
5 squat snatches (155/105)
*Rest 2 minutes between rounds
Mandatory rest again? Yup, this was gonna be a bad one. I had two reactions to this WOD. Let's call the first reaction "Crazy Dave" and the second reaction "Sane Dave":
- Crazy Dave: You handled the 135 pound squat snatches in Open Workout 17.3 well, so why not give 155 pounds a shot? You're only doing 5 reps per round. Don't be a wimp! Go RX!
- Sane Dave: My crazy counterpart clearly glossed over that bit about doing 30 wall balls prior to those 5 squat snatches. Don't you think those are going to have an impact on how those squat snatches go? Stick with 135 pounds.
Sane Dave is such a buzzkill. However, he usually has a point. Those wall balls were probably going to be much worse than I imagined. 5 rounds of 30 equaled 150 wall balls total, which is the Crossfit WOD known as Karen. And Karen is the worst! If this had been written up as "Karen with 25 heavy squat snatches", I probably would have taken that 4th consecutive rest day. Toss in the fact that it was yet another massively humid day in the gym and Sane Dave's argument became a clearcut winner.
I spent the warmup in the bald guy section alongside of Mooney. We were next to each other over at the wall when we practiced wall balls. He was also lined up next to me with his barbell. Mooney is in much better shape than I am, so I knew he would destroy me on the wall balls in this workout. However, when I saw Mooney load up his barbell with 135 pounds for his squat snatches, I thought there was an opportunity for me to catch up to him in this workout. I tend to lift more than Mooney, mainly because I weigh about 50 pounds more than him. And the squat snatch is half-overhead squat, so it's a movement that I'm more comfortable with than most people at my gym. I suspected that he had chosen Crazy Mooney over Sane Mooney. Or he could just be better at squat snatches than I realized. (It was probably the latter.)
Aimee came around and made sure we could comfortably squat snatch the weights that we had chosen. I did two reps with 135 pounds on my barbell and didn't have much of a problem. For each rep, I caught the lift in the bottom of my squat and didn't rush before standing it up. Aimee seemed satisfied that I had picked the right weight for this workout. She then announced that we should try to average 4 minutes or less per round for this WOD, which worked out to 28 minutes (5 rounds at 4 minutes equaled 20 minutes. 4 mandatory rest periods at 2 minutes equaled 8 minutes. Combine them together and you get 28 minutes.) That sounded reasonable to me. Especially since I envisioned myself completing round 1 in under 3 minutes. I could buy myself some cushion for the later rounds when I'd be exhausted.
Working your way up to the proper squat snatch weight took some time, so by the time we got started, there was only a half-hour left in class. If you went beyond Aimee's suggested time domain, you were likely going to bleed into the 5:30 class's time (foreshadowing). In round 1, I could have opted to do all 30 wall balls in a row, but I felt like this was a workout where proper pacing could provide big benefits later on. After 20 reps, I let the ball drop to the floor. I took about 5 seconds, then picked it up and completed the last 10 reps. I wasn't very far behind Mooney getting to the barbell and overall I was still with the majority of the class. Now all I needed to do was take care of these 5 simple squat snatches and I could enjoy my two minutes of rest. Let's see how that 1st round of squat snatches went:
- 1st rep - missed
- 2nd rep - missed
- 3rd rep - missed
What. The. Hell. It was one thing to come over from the wall balls and miss an attempt. That wasn't totally unexpected. I likened it to doing a leg-focused movement and then missing your 1st box jump. Those things happen. You don't appreciate the effect that the previous movement had on you until you do that 1st rep. Missing my 2nd and 3rd attempts made no sense at all. It was like I completely forgot how to squat snatch. After the 3rd failure in a row, I didn't need rest. I needed my head examined. I briefly pondered switching the weight on my barbell, dropping down to 115 pounds. I wasn't certain that would solve my problem (if my form was crap, there was no guarantee I'd be able to handle 115 pounds), so I stuck with 135 and made a fourth attempt. At long last, I got one. I got a second and a third as well. I messed up one more time after that, but then I was able to complete my 4th and 5th squat snatches. So much for finishing round one in under 3 minutes! 1st round time: 4:06.
You won't be surprised to learn that I was the last person in class to get to their rest period. I was already behind Aimee's requested pace after round one. While I was aggravated, I did see plenty of room for improvement in the next round. If I didn't miss so many lifts, I would have been well under 4 minute pace. I just needed to clean that up and I would be fine. I also gave myself a reminder to chalk up before I tried to squat snatch. My hands were sweaty and I could feel them slide on those last two successful lifts. No reason to make this any harder than it already was. The chalk would keep my hands on the drier side which would stop them from sliding in on future attempts.
I didn't have a lot of faith that I could handle the next round of 30 wall balls in two sets, so I went 12-10-8 instead. Before approaching my barbell, I made a quick detour to the chalk bucket. I was going to be smarter this time around. I was setting myself up for success in round two. I chalked up my hands, grabbed the barbell, and...failed. Not just once, but twice. I guess I should have been happy that I didn't miss on three straight attempts like I did in round one. Attempt #3 would be my first successful squat snatch of round two. I hit back-to-back lifts before screwing up again. Worried that I was headed back down the trail of failure, I took a break after my 3rd miss of the round. It helped out. I was able to get each of my next three squat snatches. 2nd round time: 5:06.
This was brutal. I had no chance of completing this in 28 minutes. I started wondering how far behind the rest of the class I was going to end up. I was the only one resting at the moment as everyone else had moved on to round three. When my mandatory two minute rest period was over, I came back to the wall balls and completed them like I had in round two with sets of 12, 10, and 8. Know what else was just like round 2? My failures snatching! Attempt #1: Fail. Attempt #2 was a success, but I went right back to failing on my 3rd attempt. I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. Wall balls were turning out to be some strange version of snatch kryptonite. Maybe I didn't have the necessary power in my legs for the squat snatch after completing the wall balls. Maybe my weakened legs couldn't provide the balance I needed. It was a mystery I couldn't seem to solve. I completed a 2nd squat snatch. Followed that up with yet another miss. I was officially pissed off. I'm sure Aimee could see it on my face because she came over to help me out. I walked away from my barbell and over towards where she was standing to try and soak in all the advice she could give me. One of the things she was noticing was that my barbell was not staying close to my body as I slung it overhead. She told me to pull in a bit more. Keeping the barbell close to me was going to make it an easier lift. I chalked up my hands and tried to make my coach proud. Then I failed again. I definitely uttered a profanity at that point. Aimee told me to stick with it as she moved on to check on some of my classmates who weren't as hopeless.
There was only one avenue I hadn't gone down yet to try and change my luck. It was time to head down that lane. I was already enraged about how poorly I was doing in the workout. Why not put that into the lift? Yes, the snatch is a very technical lift, but clearly I wasn't grasping the finer points of it. I decided I should just grip it and rip it. It was angry barbell time! I stomped up to my barbell, took hold of it, and ripped it off the floor. I caught it in a squat and completed rep #3. I dropped it to the floor and then immediately stepped up for my next rep. In my rage, I think I forgot that I was doing a snatch rather than a clean and jerk. My hands were much closer than they should have been, but I proceeded with the lift anyway. It kind of felt like a clean and jerk as I did it, but I was able to drop under the barbell completely. That was a snatch. All I had to do was stand up with it. I did that. I was so pumped by this run I was on that I slammed the barbell down to the floor. Then I got right back over it and went for rep #5. Success! I wasn't sure if I could maintain this anger for two more rounds, but it seemed to be working. 3rd round time: 6:20.
As strange as it sounds, the last thing I needed at that point was a break. The mandatory two minute rest period put a halt to the adrenaline that was pumping through my body. If anything, it made me feel a bit more tired. As I was resting, I decided that I was going to try a new strategy with the wall balls: sets of 5 with shorter breaks in between. Sounded like a good plan in my mind. Wasn't so much in practice. The problem with this plan is that someone like me will take longer breaks than intended. After two sets of 5, I decided to change it up. I went 7-8-5 over three sets to finish off my last 20 wall balls of round four.
I spent my time at the chalk bucket trying to get amped up again. I thought about how I kept failing at the beginning of each of my sets at the barbell. I thought about how dumb I would feel if I missed my initial lift for the 4th round in a row. When it comes to self-deprecation, I have a lot of tools in my arsenal. Those tools worked. For the first time all day, I had a successful lift right after I was done with the wall balls. I tried to ride the momentum by going right into rep #2. I stood that one up as well. Nothing lasts forever though and eventually lousy form will overcome brute strength. I couldn't make three in a row happen. After my first miss of the round, I walked away from the barbell and took a break. Several of my classmates were done, while some others (like Mooney) were wrapping up their final round of squat snatches. I was in the process of being lapped or that process had already happened. As I took my break, Keithie came over to me. He had been in the 3:30 class and had hung around while the 4:30 class was in session. He saw that I was struggling and offered up some simple, but wise advice. He told me that I was rushing to stand up with my barbell. All I had to do was catch it in the squat, take my time, and stand up with it. "You can overhead squat 135 all day", he told me. That was true. In the warmup, I was treating this like a two-part movement: catch it in the squat, <pause>, stand up with it. I'm not sure why I had deviated from what was working, but it was clear that I had.
I went back to the barbell and focused only on getting underneath it and catching it in the squat. When I did that, the mission felt complete. I could sit there for a second or two, compose myself, and stand up with it. Keithie gave me a "there ya go" and suddenly I felt like I had remembered how to do this. I didn't rush back to the barbell for my next rep. I stopped worrying about the clock. I got into my setup when I was ready and repeated what I had just done two more times. For the third consecutive round, I finished up with three successful lifts. 4th round time: 5:27.
I have no idea during which round this picture was taken, but it looks
like the type of form I had at the end of round four.
Not only did I improve on my 3rd round time, I had also improved my mindset going into round five. I didn't need to find a way to get anger and adrenaline coursing through my veins. I needed the opposite. I had been searching for a substitute way to get through the squat snatches because I had forgotten the basics. Keithie reminded me what the basics were. I was ready for round five, assuming I would be allowed to do it.
(After the WOD was over, I heard that Aimee was thinking about time capping me, but was worried that I'd be mad if she did. I can completely understand that, since I spent a fair amount of this workout looking like a volatile individual who had been stuck at the DMV for three hours. I also tend to be very stubborn about finishing what I've started. Also, Aimee had told all of us to try and finish in 28 minutes. I wasn't beginning round 5 until the clock hit 28:59. So as I sat there and rested, I was somewhat expecting her to tell me that 4 rounds was enough. To be honest, this was the rare occasion where I would have been ok with it. I hadn't stuck to the time domain she gave us and I was kind of sick of this workout at that point. I would have understood if she pulled the plug on me. But since she didn't...)
I got ready to take on round five, hoping to make it my fastest round of the day. It was wishful thinking (I was fresh for round one, duh), but exhaustion may have led to some hallucinating. The wall balls were much more painful than they had been in prior rounds. I wanted to try and complete them in three sets, but after dropping the ball 10 reps in, I knew I'd need four sets. I also needed a decent breather between sets. I went 6-8-6 the rest of the way.
By the time I got to my barbell, I was the only one still working. The 5:30 class had actually gone for a 400 meter run and was back already. They joined the rest of the 4:30 crew in helping me get through those five squat snatches. I did each one just as I had done the final three in the previous round. And because I stuck to the basics, I went 5 for 5 in the last round. 5th round time: 5:11. Overall time: 34:10.
I wanted to just lay on the floor for a while once I was done, but there was that whole thing about the 5:30 class needing the gym. Sorry about that guys! I don't remember whether I put my wall ball and barbell away or if I ended up leaving it for Neil (he used the same weights as me in the 5:30 class). All I know is that I took up a spot on one of the benches and sat there for a solid 15 minutes recovering and rehydrating. I was there long enough that the 5:30 class began their workout while I was sitting there. And since I'm a better cheerleader than an athlete, I stuck around till they were done. It made things tight in terms of getting to dinner on time, but it was the least I could do since they cheered me on at the end of my workout.
Tuesday preview: It's the 4th of July! Patriotic gear! Teams flipping tires! Teammates arguing with one another! (Okay, that might have only been my team. Everything gets worked out at the brew pub afterwards.)
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