Literally And Metaphorically

Workout date: 9/11/17

KOP has a special Memorial WOD that we do every year on 9/11.  It is a partner WOD with a bunch of symbolic elements to it.  I'll let you read what each team does during the workout and then go into the symbolism afterwards:

"9/11 Memorial WOD"

Teams of 2, one athlete works at a time

Bear crawl 500 feet

100 step-ups (45/25 to 24"/20")

100 sumo deadlift high pulls (75/55)

100 step-ups

Bear crawl 500 feet

200 meter buddy carry

According to the KOP blog, here is the symbolism behind each of those movements (as well as my guesses as to what I thought they represented):

• The bear crawls remind us that we may not always be able to walk tall into any situation but that should not deter us from the end goal of helping someone in need.  (I would have guessed the bear crawls represented staying low when trying to escape a building that is on fire.  0 for 1 on knowing the symbolism.)
• The step-ups remind us of the endless flights of stairs that many brave souls endured in order to help others in need.  (Definitely knew this represented the stairs in the towers.  1 for 2.)
• The sumo deadlift high pulls remind us of the rubble that needed to be removed in order to save the life of a complete stranger.  (I've never been able to figure out how sumo deadlift high-pulls are a functional movement, so I had no clue what the symbolism would be here.  I like what they came up with though.  1 for 3.)
• The buddy carry reminds us that we are all in this together and that life is the greatest of gifts and it is the only thing worth dying for.  (This movement had the clearest connection to that tragic day.  Just as first responders carried victims to safety at their own peril, we'd be carrying our partners to the finish line.  Final symbolism score: 2 for 4.)

I had only done this workout once before and it was with Oleg, one of my favorite people from way back when I started at the gym.  Oleg was a very good all-around athlete, but I learned during this WOD that he was exceptional when it came to bear crawls.  As in the best I've ever seen at our gym (still true to this day).  We split up the bear crawls at the beginning of the workout, but it made more sense to have him do most of the crawls at the end because he was just so much faster than I was.  I tried to make up the difference by doing most of the buddy carry, the only part of this workout that fell into my wheelhouse.

There were 10 of us in Coach Giulz's 6:30 class, a nice even number for this workout.  Breaking it down even further, we had 4 women and 6 men in class, so there were no awkward moments at the beginning of class trying to figure out which team would be a partnership between a guy and a girl.  (I'm not sure why that's always awkward, but it is.)  Of all the guys there, the one that I partner up with the most was Cline, so it was natural for us to join forces on this WOD.  The other male duos were Mike C with Borden and Mike M with Erik.  The two female teams were Danielle with Tia and Caitlyn with Brittany.

This was a long workout and there was plenty to go over, so Giulz got right into the movements and even dabbled in some strategy talk as well.  First up was the bear crawl.  Each pass down the gym was 50 feet, so each team had to complete 10 lengths before moving on to the step-ups.  When I did this with Oleg, all of the teams had athlete #1 go down the gym and back before tagging in their partner.  There was nothing wrong with that strategy, but Giulz offered up a better one.  Each time one teammate got down to the other end of the gym, they should yell to their partner to go.  Then they would wait until athlete #2 joined them before returning back to the starting point.  Why bear crawl for 100 meters at a time when it was more efficient to do half that amount?  I liked this plan, especially because I sucked at the bear crawl.

Before grabbing equipment for the step-ups and the sumo deadlift high pulls, Giulz talked to us about the buddy carry.  There were two ways to perform the buddy carry.  You could go with the scarier-looking, but more efficient fireman's carry or you could simply have your partner hop on for a piggy-back ride.  I was all about the fireman's carry.  It took some getting used to, but it was much easier carrying someone that way than it was to have them on your back.  Like the J-hook on the rope climb, there was an element of faith involved, except in this instance two people needed to have faith.  If the fireman's carry was so much better, why entertain the idea of going with the piggy-back?  Because when you got tired, you had less faith that you were going to hold on to your partner.  The piggy-back was slower, but more secure (like the S-hook on the rope climb!).

While Giulz was explaining the buddy carry options, I told Cline that he would have to carry me in this workout both literally and metaphorically.  How often do you get to say something that holds true both literally and metaphorically at the same time?  (Maybe I'm just being a geek, but I'm pretty sure the answer is "almost never".)  I was no match for Giulz though.  Every phrase that came out of her mouth while demonstrating the fireman's carry sounded like it had a double meaning.  My personal favorite was "put your arm between your partner's legs, it is the best way to pick them up".  I mean, that seems a little direct to me, but I'm sure it works.  Giulz had each of us attempt the fireman's carry with our teammate.  Cline had no trouble carrying me and I was okay jogging down the gym and back with Cline on my shoulders.  Tia and Danielle were not finding it so easy though.  Your partner is supposed to be draped over your shoulders like a mink stole, but Tia had Danielle wrapped around her like the WWE championship belt.  The discount double check might work for Aaron Rodgers, but it wasn't panning out for these two.

We moved on to the step-ups next, where I had delusions of using 45 pound DBs.  I could have sworn that is what I used when I did this WOD with Oleg and I still stand by that.  However, after having some time to reflect back on that workout, I'm pretty sure we only used a 20" box.  We were using a 24" box here and that had a dramatic effect on my ability to step up with heavy DBs.  I struggled during the warmup, so there was no reason to be foolish and use the 45 pounders for 100 step-ups in the workout.  I exchanged them for the lighter 35 pound models.  I could move better with those, but they were still no picnic.

The last thing to practice was the sumo deadlift high pulls.  Both Cline and I had to do these with a 115 pound barbell during the Festivus Games last year, so 75 pounds was relatively mild.  I think both of us find this movement to be awkward, but we'd probably spend less time at this station than any of the others.

Cline was leading us off on the bear crawl.  He scampered down the gym really quickly.  When it was my turn to go, I tried not to be too slow.  I wasn't as fast as Cline, but I wasn't awful during the first round of bear crawls.  I'd save my incompetence for the bear crawls later on.  All five teams got over to the step-ups at about the same time.  Cline and I agreed to do these in sets of 10.  When you were doing your 10 reps, it felt like the set was dragging on forever.  When your partner was doing their set, it felt like their 10 reps went by lightning fast.  Neither Cline nor I felt like we were getting enough rest between sets, but when your partner tagged you in, you had to get moving again.

Pain can't slow down Cline as I try to recover in my resting squat

I was happy to do anything other than step-ups, even if that meant awkward sumo deadlift high pulls. We continued doing sets of 10 reps.  For the first time in this WOD, I had found a spot where I wasn't slowing our team down.  I moved through my sets of 10 as quick as I could.  I knew I was going to struggle again on the step-ups and the bear crawl, so I wanted to make up time here if possible.

With 100 sumo deadlift high pulls in the books, it was back to the step-ups.  We each did a set of 10 before Cline suggested that we do smaller sets of five.  Sign me up!  We each did 4 sets of five reps, but I was having a hard time going right into my sets.  Cline would finish his five reps and then lay the DBs on the box, but I'd always take a few seconds before picking them up and doing my set.  Cline volunteered to do more of the step-ups to help me out and I didn't hesitate to take him up on the offer.  He would do four sets of 6 and I would do four sets of 4.

If I never do another step-up again, I'd be okay with that

I was definitely exhausted when we came back to the bear crawls.  Cline wasn't moving as nimbly as he had been in round one, but he was still much faster than I was.  My back had begun to feel sore towards the end of the step-ups, so I was trying to arch my back a variety of ways during the bear crawls to stretch it out.  When I got to the 4th bear crawl, I actually had to stop along the way because my back was bothering me so much.  I stopped not once, but twice.  I started to wonder if I was even going to be able to do the buddy carry once the bear crawls were done.  The buddy carry was my favorite part of the workout.  It would be really depressing if I couldn't manage that.

After completing my 5th and final bear crawl (this time without stopping), all we had left was the buddy carry.  Cline was going to carry me to the turnaround point near Frosty Falls.  I would carry him back.  Cline and I had done another partner WOD that included a buddy carry and I remembered that he wanted to step over the barrier in the parking lot even though he was toting over 210 pounds of dead weight on his shoulders.  Cline had a tradition of hurdling the barrier on every run we did at KOP and he wasn't going to break that tradition just because he was responsible for another person's safety.  To his credit, he didn't trip or drop me as he went over the barrier in that WOD.  As we got ready for this buddy carry, I asked him (rhetorically) if he was going over the barrier, to which he responded "of course!"

Over the barrier we went.  When we got down near the annex, Cline slowed down.  I asked if he needed a break and he said yes.  I climbed down off of him so he could catch his breath.  After a short break, I was on his shoulders again.  We were probably about 15 meters from the turnaround point when Cline put me down a second time.  This break was longer.  I tried to encourage him by telling him that he was almost done, but he didn't seem to be buying it.  Then I found out why.  He thought we had to each carry our partner for 200 meters, so in his head, he still had a long way to go.  When he realized that he had less than 10 seconds of work left, he told me to hop on board and jogged me to the turnaround point.

Getting to be a passenger for a while gave me all the recovery that I needed for the buddy carry.  I immediately got Cline on my shoulders and began jogging back to the gym.  Tia and Danielle were well ahead of us, but Tia was struggling again in her attempt to carry Danielle.  I was closing the gap quickly before Tia and Danielle decided to switch places.  Danielle knew I was about to pass them, so she hustled with her teammate to get back before us.  We were in a mini-sprint to the finish.  As we got close to the gym doors, I slowed down.  I'm not sure if I would have caught the girls if I had kept up my speed, but I decided that tradition trumped victory.  I wasn't going to sprint towards the gap that led to the gym doors.  I veered to my left towards the barrier.

Danielle and Tia speed off to the gym as I bring Cline to the barrier

Giulz had been yelling at both teams to hurry and beat the other, so she was confused when I put on the brakes.  It made even less sense when I yelled back that she had to move out of the way.  She thought I was nuts as I approached the barrier with Cline draped over me.  But there was only one appropriate way for this workout to end.

"Carrying" on a tradition

Once I had gotten over the barrier, I sprinted across the road and put Cline down inside the gym.  Final time: 30:00 (8 seconds behind Danielle and Tia).

Cline definitely carried the team through the majority of this workout, but it was nice that I could make a race out of it at the end by pitching in with a strong buddy carry.

Tuesday preview: Danielle makes an appearance at Dudes After Dark.  People have unique ideas with regards to what should be on their calendars.  I get to wander outside between rounds of a workout.

May The 4's BMU

Workout date: 9/7/17

It was a relief to come back to the gym on Wednesday night and have a good experience on my first day back.  The Brawl had definitely left a sour taste in my mouth, but Crossfit Total would be my Listerine.  On Thursday, I'd get eased back into the metcons.  Coach Giulz would tell her 6:30 class to try and keep the following WOD in the 10-12 minute range:

Thursday's WOD:
30 overhead squats (135/95)
7 muscle-ups (choice of ring or bar)
20 overhead squats
5 muscle-ups

This was oddly similar to a workout we had done a month ago.  In that one, we had to do 50 overhead squats (same here) and 25 ring muscle-ups (13 less here).  The overhead squats were lighter in that WOD and we were allowed to do the work in any order we pleased.  Here we had to do it in the order it was written.  I could use the same weight in this workout that we had used that day (115 pounds), but I felt like I should challenge myself more this time around since there were less muscle-ups.  I tried to take a cue from what I learned the night before: Don't make a big jump in weight when a smaller one makes more sense.

In most instances, if I felt 115 pounds was too light, I'd just move up to 135 pounds instead.  There is some rationale for making a jump like that.  115 pounds is a barbell with 35 pound plates on it.  135 pounds is a barbell with 45 pound plates on it.  There aren't any 40 pound plates in the gym, so it's easy to skip the idea of using 125 pounds and just go with the next biggest plates available.  (Note: It's not as if you can't use multiple plates, like a 25 pound plate and a 15 pound plate, to get to 125.  I think most of us are too lazy to grab multiple plates.  Or maybe it's just me.)  I wasn't going to fall into that trap here though.  125 was likely the most appropriate weight for me to use in this workout.  If that meant I had more plates to carry back at the end of the workout, so be it.

There were 10 of us in class and Giulz had us start things off by practicing the overhead squat with an empty barbell.  I happen to love the overhead squat.  Most other people do not.  Performing them with an empty barbell is wonderful for me because I feel like I can do them all day long without getting tired.  With most movements at the gym, I hate having to do a lot of reps during the warmup, but the overhead squat is a rare exception to that rule.  I'm sure the rest of the class would tell you that viewpoint is nuts.

We laid our barbells on the gym floor and moved over to the pull-up rig.  There wasn't a soul in class who had the ability to do ring muscle-ups and jumping ring muscle-ups were not an option today (another change from last month's workout).  Bar muscle-ups (BMU's) were an acceptable option for this WOD, with scales ranging from jumping bar muscle-ups using a box to a combo of pull-ups and push-ups.  I was planning on going with the jumping bar muscle-up option with the assistance of a 13" box, but Giulz had other plans for me.  She looked at our class and asked who had bar muscle-ups.  Her gaze honed in on me and Mike C.  Technically, we both had bar muscle-ups.  The reality was that Mike was very capable of doing 12 of them and I was not.  (Spoiler: Mike would get all 12 during the WOD.  I did not.)  Giulz wanted me to at least try and do them, allowing me to use a scale of bar muscle-up attempts should I not go on the biggest bar muscle-up heater the gym had ever seen.

When everyone felt comfortable with the muscle-up scale they had chosen, we went back to our barbells.  We proceeded to load them up little by little, taking practice reps until we felt we had reached the proper weight for the WOD.  Once that was established, Giulz gave us a minute to get ready before starting the clock.  In last month's overhead squat/muscle-up WOD, I did 13 overheads in my first set with 115 pounds.  Today's barbell was 10 pounds heavier, but I was fresh going into this set.  (I started last month's WOD with a set of jumping ring muscle-ups.)  My goal was to get 12 reps in this first foray into the overheads, but I was able to surpass that mark, hanging on for 14 reps before releasing the barbell.  After a bit of a break, I was able to do a set of 8, leaving me 8 more before I could move over to the pull-up rig.  Those last 8 reps were much less fun than the 8 that preceded them, but I completed them all in one set.

My attempts at a bar muscle-up in the warmup weren't horrible, but I wasn't extremely close either.  I never got to that point where half of my body was hanging over the bar and all I needed to do was rotate over.  Giulz watched some of these attempts and reminded me that patience was my friend.  I was pulling too early, which caused me to do more of a chest-to-bar pull-up than a bar muscle-up.  When I got over to the pull-up rig, I reminded myself to be patient.  I also took some extra time before starting my attempts because I knew I wouldn't be able to remain patient if my heart was beating a mile a minute.  Once I felt somewhat calm, I made my first attempt.  Not so good.  The worst part was that my right hand slipped at the very end.  It didn't seem to be a sweat-related issue for once.  I shook out my arms and tried again.  This time my right hand slipped even more.  What was up with that?

The answer popped into my head rather quickly.  I've been doing pull-ups with a monkey grip (hand over the bar) rather than using a regular grip (hand around the bar).  I was using the monkey grip here, but it wasn't providing enough stability.  If my hands weren't slipping because of sweat, then this change in grip would probably help me out.  Sure enough, attempt #3 would be my best one yet.  I got most of my body up over the bar, but I wasn't able to rotate over from there.  Giulz said I needed just a little more patience and I would have it.

I was taking close to 30 seconds in between attempts.  That wasn't ideal, but it was necessary.  One of the unfortunate side effects of coming close but not completing a bar muscle-up is that you smack part of your torso against the bar, knocking the wind out of you temporarily.  I needed my wind back before I could make my next attempt.  Several of my classmates had already headed back to their barbells, but I had 4 BMU attempts remaining.  I jumped up to the bar with a regular grip, swung forward, stayed patient as long as I could, then threw my body forward.  I was mostly over the bar again, but this time I had some momentum.  I looked towards the floor and tilted the rest of my body over the bar.  Extending out of the dip was the easy part.  I had done it!  My score would reflect at least one successful bar muscle-up.  I looked towards Giulz, but she had her back towards me as she chatted with one of the lifters there for Open Strength.  I finally employed her advice properly and she wasn't able to see it.

I couldn't stay up there all day hoping she'd turn around, so I moved on to the next rep.  Because I got my belly over the bar on that last rep, I didn't need as much rest before the next attempt.  Maybe I should have taken it anyway.  The fifth attempt wasn't very good.  Attempts 6 and 7 would end up like the 3rd one.  Got my body mostly over the bar but didn't have enough strength to rotate the rest of it over.

As I came back to my barbell, it appeared that everyone was well ahead of me.  A couple of my classmates were behind me, so it was possible they were going at my pace, but I figured I was last like I typically am.  The overhead squat was my opportunity to make up some ground, so I got right into my 1st set.  Rushed it again.  Rest was my friend, so why was I neglecting him?  I hurried into the overhead squats and was off-balance from the get-go.  I wobbled my way through 4 reps before I needed to put the barbell down.  Lot of good rushing did me!  I caught my breath and then did two legitimate sets of 8, completing the second round the same way I had finished the first.

The clock was approaching 11 minutes, so I was going to have to pick up the pace to keep this workout under 12 minutes.  If I rushed my attempts though, I was going to fare even worse than I did at the beginning of my second round of overhead squats.  My time didn't matter as much to me as executing bar muscle-ups properly did, so I took my time when I came back to the pull-up rig.  About 30 seconds of rest before each attempt.  Based on the cheering from the rest of the class, I could tell I was one of two people still working.  In my first three attempts, I came close twice to rotating over the bar, but I just couldn't make it happen.  I guess there was something magical about the number 4 for me though.  As was the case in round one, my 4th attempt was my best.  I didn't feel stuck as I tried to rotate over the bar.  My body kept sliding forward and I knew I had it.  Bonus: This time Giulz witnessed my successful bar muscle-up.

I came back down hoping that I might get two in a row to wrap up this WOD, but I think the excitement of the previous attempt got me amped up and I pulled too early again.  I wasn't disappointed though.  One bar muscle-up in this workout would have made me happy.  Two was gravy.  Final time: 13:20.

When I came down from that failed attempt, I turned around to see who was still working behind me. It was my Brawl teammate, Kris.  She was taking care of the last of her jumping bar muscle-ups.  There was a look of uncertainty on her face, but if she could see what I was seeing, it would have disappeared quickly.  She was jumping so high over the bar that she barely had to do any press out at the end of each rep.  There was no reason to be concerned.  She probably could have made it with a smaller box.  Kris completed a couple more reps and her workout was done.

As we began putting our equipment away, Danielle asked me if I wanted to participate in an assault bike cash-out with her, Kris, and Caitlyn.  I agreed to join the peloton, but first I had a bone to pick with her.  She had done jumping bar muscle-ups, but she had yet to put her box away.  That is how I knew she used a 24" box for the workout, which was way too much assistance for her.  I jogged down to the end of the gym, grabbed a 20" box, and peer pressured her into doing some attempts with the smaller box.  She claimed that she couldn't get high enough with that box, but her attempts were not persuasive.  Instead of throwing her body over the bar, she kept tapping her chest against it.  She was jumping plenty high, she was just not doing the right movement.  Try as I might, I couldn't get her to throw her body over the bar.  I'm sure she'll be using the smaller box once she gets the hang of the movement.

The cash-out that the four of us would be doing was an elongated tabata.  Instead of the typical eight rounds, we'd be doing ten rounds with 20 seconds of work and 10 seconds of rest.  It really wasn't all that bad.  When the 10th round was complete, I looked down at my monitor to see I had gotten 59 calories in my 200 seconds of work on the assault bike.

It was a short week for me at the gym because I had another wedding on tap for the weekend.  I'd be back at it on Monday.

Monday preview: The 9/11 Memorial WOD.  Cline carries me for most of the workout.  I carry him at the very end.  I decide that tradition is more important than victory.

Straight Up, Now Tell Me

Workout date: 9/6/17

The morning after the Brawl, I had to get on the road and drive to Albany for a fantasy football draft with my friends from home.  I wasn't looking forward to the early morning drive there or the late night drive back, but it was totally worth it.  I laughed so hard that I was brought to tears on more than one occasion, something I hadn't done in a long time.  I would gladly drive 9 hours for an afternoon with those guys.

I was pretty exhausted on Monday and probably wouldn't have come into the gym even if I had a positive experience at the Brawl.  Given that the competition didn't go well, I wasn't eager to get right back into Crossfit.  So the question was whether I wanted to pop in for a workout on Tuesday or Wednesday.  I was headed out of town again on Thursday and wouldn't be back until the day after Labor Day.  Should I get in a couple of WODs while I could or would it be better to just take a long mental break from the gym?  I opted for the latter.

My trip on Thursday was to North Carolina.  I was reuniting with one of my closest friends from high school, Vic.  We ran cross country together back in the day.

Once upon a time, I was a runner.  And had goofy hair.  That's Vic in front of me.

When I was in college, Vic would come visit me along with my other buddy, Dan.  (We both wish we knew where Dan was these days!).  Those trips would consist of getting drunk, playing bocce ball in the dorm hallways, and watching Adam Sandler movies.  Ah, the good ol days.  Vic was ROTC in college and after we graduated, he became an Army Ranger.  I remember getting a call from him not long after 9/11 in which he told me he was being deployed to the Middle East.  I was worried that I would never see him again, terrified that he'd be killed while on a mission.  As the years passed, I would hear every so often that he had returned home.  Those returns were extremely brief.  Vic seemed to love being a soldier and it didn't take long for him to get deployed back to the Middle East again.

It wasn't until last year that I got word he was back in the US for good.  We talked on Facebook and he let me know that he was getting married in September.  Over the summer, I received an invite.  Jenn had a college roomies trip already planned for Labor Day weekend, so I made the trip to North Carolina on my own.  Vic and I did a lot of catching up over that weekend, but as is often the case with longtime friends, some things were just like old times, even though I hadn't seen him in over 15 years.  It was like we hadn't missed a beat.

After wishing Vic, his new bride, and his daughter the best, I flew home to Philadelphia.  When I got to the airport, I hopped in my car and drove to Saratoga.  Labor Day was closing day at the track and my only visit there this year had been on Opening weekend.  As was the case with the fantasy football draft, it was a long, tiring trip that I'm glad I made.  Saratoga is a special place for me (note my t-shirt in that pic above) whether I'm winning or losing at the track.  It's only open for 6 weeks per year, so if I have an opportunity to get there, I'm going.

Driving back on Monday night was asking a bit too much, so I drove home on Tuesday morning.  I picked up Griffin from the kennel and came home for a nap.  Even after getting some sleep in my own bed, I was still feeling road weary from all of the recent travel, so I decided to pass on Dudes After Dark.  My first class back would be on Wednesday night.

I definitely lucked out when I saw that the Wednesday WOD wasn't some 20 minute AMRAP.  If I had to run around for any period of time after that extended trip, I would end up sucking wind quickly.  What I got instead was the quintessential Crossfit strength workout.  It is called Crossfit Total:

"Crossfit Total"

1RM back squat

1RM shoulder press

1RM deadlift

*You may only make 3 attempts at each lift

**You can take as many practice attempts as you want, but you must be clear when you're making a scoring attempt

***Your score is the total of your three 1RMs

Coach Jenna had 5 people in her 7:30 class.  Joining me were Joe M, Lucille, Neil, and Brian S.  There wasn't a whole lot that Jenna had to go over with us.  The shoulder press and the deadlift are the two most basic movements that we do.  I'm not sure what #3 would be, but it could very well be the back squat.  These were all simple movements that we were very familiar with.  It was just a matter of how much weight we could handle when doing them.

Having not done any form of exercise in 11 days, I wasn't expecting to hit PR's on this evening.  That didn't mean I wasn't going to formulate a strategy that would put me into position for a PR if things went well.  Below are my personal bests for each lift, followed by the three scoring attempts I was hoping to make, assuming that the practice lifts went without incident:

• Back squat: 335 pounds, attempts of 315-330-345
• Shoulder press: 145 pounds, attempts of 135-145-150
• Deadlift: 385 pounds, attempts of 375-395-405

With the back squat, I wanted to get as close to my best as I possibly could and then give myself one shot at a PR.  With the shoulder press, it's really difficult to make big jumps and I've only gotten 145 once that I could remember.  So jumping from 140 to 150 seemed like a stretch.  I'd rather try to tie my PR, even if it took two attempts.  If I somehow did get 145, adding 5 pounds was as much as I could feasibly attempt.  With the deadlift, I've been trying to get 405 for three years.  I had always felt that was the logical next step from 385, partly because I had a fascination with being able to say that I could deadlift 400.  Tonight I was going to give myself a shot at 395.  I had only tried 395 pounds one time that I could remember and I was actually pretty close.  I almost got it locked out when a couple people ran over and told me to drop the barbell because my back had been so rounded.  I reluctantly complied.  Instead of having tunnel vision with 405, tonight I would be focused on 395.  If I got that, then I would have earned another shot at 405.

All five of us grabbed a rack for the first two segments of this workout.  We were starting with the back squat and I began with 185 pounds on the barbell.  I did a set of three reps to get loose and followed that with a set of two reps using 225 pounds.  Single reps started at 255 pounds.  From there I went to 275 and 295 pounds.  All of those lifts felt fine to me, so I wasn't too worried about my initial scoring attempt at 315 pounds.  I had gotten 3 reps at that weight back at the end of May.  Getting one rep shouldn't be that tough.

I couldn't recall ever missing on the 1st attempt of any of my lifts while doing Crossfit Total, but leave it to me to find a new way to fail.  I took the barbell off the rack, went into my squat, started to rise, then hit unexpected turbulence.  Instead of moving vertically, I began heading in a horizontal direction.  I was closing in on my rack and I could tell I was going to hit it before I stood upright with the barbell.  I had to abort.  I dumped the barbell off of my back and tried to figure out what the heck I did wrong.

The best thing about being under the watchful eye of your coach is that they'll usually tell you what went wrong immediately, saving you from wasting time trying to figure it out on your own.  Jenna had been watching all of my lifts even though I didn't know it.  She told me that she regretted not saying something to me sooner.  Had I been doing something wrong the whole time?  Apparently the answer was yes.  Jenna noticed that each time I came up from one of my back squats, I was leaning forward slightly.  It hadn't affected me during any of the prior lifts, so she let me be, but now she wished she had spoken up.  She told me to make sure I came straight up from the bottom of the squat on my next two attempts.

That info helped me out tremendously.  My second attempt at 315 was much better.  Didn't stagger forward the slightest.  Now I had to figure out what to go for on my 3rd attempt.  The planned jump to 330 seemed weak as I've squatted more than that before.  340 would give me a new PR, but a 25 pound jump seemed aggressive.  I settled on 335.  I usually avoid lifts that will tie an old PR, but this felt like the right progression from what I had just done.  Did I guess correctly?  My honest answer would be no.  I focused on staying straight up as I rose from the bottom and once again I bounced out of the squat and stood up without much of a problem.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that I felt like I could have done more, but I was out of attempts.  Final back squat score: 335 (tied PR).

I moved on to the shoulder press next.  This was my least favorite lift of the three because my upper body strength is not what it should be for a guy my size.  I started off with 95 pounds on the barbell and did a set of three reps.  As was the case with my first back squat weight, I did multiple reps just to wake up the muscles I would be using.  From there, I did single reps at 115 and 125.  That was it for my warmup attempts.  The next three were the real deal.

I had set a new 3RM in July of 140 on the shoulder press, so it seemed logical that I could get one rep at 135 pretty easily.  Of course, I was thinking the same way when I did that first scoring attempt on the back squat and we know how that turned out.  Thankfully history didn't repeat itself on the shoulder press.  135 was definitely heavy for me, but I was able to press it out once.  Next up was 145.  Ugh...I was breaking the "never tie your PR" rule twice in one night.  That is, if I could even get 145, which was far from automatic for me.  With the shoulder press, it's all about getting the barbell moving.  When I did 3 reps at 140, I got the barbell moving and kept it going after completing the difficult 1st rep.  It was very possible that I wouldn't have enough strength to get it moving at 145.  I tried not to think about it that way though.  If I felt it come off of my shoulders, I was going to get it over my head.

After adding 10 pounds from the attempt at 135, I walked up and took the barbell off the rack for my shot at 145.  I felt it come off of my shoulders.  I'm gonna get this!  Suddenly I realized that my right arm stopped moving.  I'm not gonna get this!  My left arm was still slowly extending even though its counterpart was taking a coffee break.  The barbell was rising, albeit diagonally.  Before this attempt, my arms must have had some sort of disagreement and decided that they were not going to work together because my right arm wouldn't budge until my left arm was locked out.  Once my left arm could extend no further, my right arm kicked into gear.  I'm gonna get this!  Sure enough, I managed to lock out my right arm.  It was ugly, but it counted.  I'd get a PR attempt at 150.

I'm guessing there are very few Crossfitters who have done this WOD that wanted to stop after two attempts at one of these lifts, but I've never witnessed it at our gym.  I didn't do it here, but I certainly gave it some thought.  145 was a miracle, so I already knew that I had no chance at 150.  Why even bother with the 3rd attempt?  For formality's sake, I added 5 pounds to my barbell and tried to press it out, but it went absolutely nowhere.  It took the last of my shoulder strength to get through that lift at 145.  Final shoulder press score: 145 (tied PR).

In boxing, if two of the three judges score a match a draw, it goes down as a majority draw, even if the third judge scored the match in one boxer's favor.  I still had the deadlift to go, but my Crossfit Total was officially a majority draw already.  I had tied two PR's and, based on my planned progression for the deadlifts, the third judge was either scoring this match in my favor (new PR) or scoring it against me (less than my PR).  385 was not going to appear on my barbell during this final set of lifts.

I loaded the barbell to 225 pounds for my first warmup attempt.  Usually I'd start with lifts at 135 and 185, but that felt like a waste of time and energy to me.  Let's get to the heavy lifts and see whether I was getting a thumbs up or a thumbs down!  I cruised through single reps at 225, 275, 315, and 345.  I've done so many deadlifting sessions where I've moved on from 345 to 365-385-405, with that lift at 365 being the one where shit gets real.  I wasn't stopping along the way for that one tonight.  Straight to 375 and then on to PR attempts hopefully.

The deadlift at 375 was everything I could have hoped for, oddly enough.  It was a successful lift, first and foremost.  It was also a flawed lift.  As I slowly raised the barbell from my knee towards my waist, I felt my fingers start to lose their grip.  I managed to hang on until it reached my waist, but I learned that I was going to have to really focus more on my grip during the setup if I wanted to be successful at 395. 

I took a few minutes before making my PR attempt.  I really thought I had a good chance at 395 as long as I didn't forget anything on my checklist.  Ensure you have a strong grip.  Push the ground away hard with your legs.  Don't give up on it early.  I walked up and gripped that sucker as hard as I could.  My form felt right and I pushed against the ground as hard as I could.  The barbell came off of the ground.  This is the part where I'm supposed to tell you it was really slow and I had to fight inch by inch for it.  Except that wasn't the case.  It was incredibly heavy, but it moved from the floor to my waist at a constant speed.  After three years of being stuck at 385, I finally had a new PR.  (Why was I so stubborn about going after 405 all the time?)

The deadlift at 395 went so well that I began thinking that maybe I've had a mental block when it came to the lift at 405.  Perhaps that lift at 395 was just what I needed to eliminate that mental block. Of the dozens of attempts I've made at 405, there were only a few times where I can truly say I felt confident about my chances.  Most of the time I was just hoping I finally got it.  As I prepared for my last attempt, I was as confident as I've ever been.  This was going to be the moment where I scratched "400 pound deadlift" from my list of goals.

I went through the same routine as I had when I got ready for the lift at 395.  When I felt locked in, I began to pull.  It came off of the ground, but I had done that at least a handful of times when trying to get 405.  I had only gotten it to my knees once and it didn't get much beyond that point.  I slowly got it up to my knees here before my form began to waver.  If I wanted to get this barbell to my waist, I was going to have to forget about style points.  This was going to be ugly.  The barbell nearly came to a stop as it reached mid-thigh, but I was too close to give up now.  I started to tug it little by little the rest of the way.  I got it to my waist.  I made sure my shoulders were pinned back.  And as I held it there, I asked Jenna if that counted.  She gave me the white paddle (figuratively) and I dropped the barbell.  I had finally conquered 405!  Four of my 2017 goals were now complete.  Six more to go.

This workout ended up being much more successful than I would have imagined after an 11 day hiatus.  The deadlift plateau had been one of the bigger monkeys on my back at the gym, but now I could put it out of my mind.  Bye bye monkey!  Glad that I could now focus on some of the other goals remaining on my list.

Thursday preview: 11 days of rest seemed to improve my deadlift.  Could it have the same effect on my bar muscle-ups?

Rope...A Dope

Workout date: 8/26/17

There were a lot of things to be nervous about when I got to the gym for the Brawl In The Burbs competition early on Saturday morning.  There was my baseline level of anxiety about screwing up in the middle of a competition like I always do.  Another layer of stress was added when I heard that we would be in the very first heat of the competition.  Then there was the realization that the events would be in a different order than how they were announced.  I had been under the impression that we'd be getting the toughest workout out of the way right off the bat, but the pull-up workout would get shuffled to mid-day.  I'd have to wait around dreading that event, hoping that the first two events didn't take too much out of me.

As the guy who almost always chooses to go second when we run two heats in a workout, I wasn't enamored with being in the first heat.  Making it worse was the fact that the other two KOP scaled teams were in that heat with us.  I wasn't psyched about my chances of performing well at the Brawl, but I was at least looking forward to rooting on the people I take class with all the time.  Finding out that was off the table was a real bummer.  Here's a peek at the three scaled KOP teams:

"Mike and Kev Need WODing Dates"

(Team name provided by yours truly)

Mike C, Kevin B, Ashley, and Danielle

"3 Ways To Get It Up"

(Team name provided by LC, unintentionally)

Bryan, Neil, Theresa, and The Prodigy

"Run The Giulz"

(Team name provided by Cline)

Cline, Kris, me, and Raj

All three of those teams would be getting the competition underway with "Mall Walker":

"Mall Walker"
1RM Snatch - 1 Male/1 Female
1RM Clean and Jerk - 1 Male/1 Female
Time cap: 12 minutes
*Athletes may not switch lifts once they begin attempts

When we practiced "Mall Walker" in the annex, we followed it with "#2chainz" (aka, the pull-up event) and I distinctly remember telling Cline that I was relieved we'd be doing "Mall Walker" as the last event at the Brawl.  I was the male snatcher in "Mall Walker" and doing heavy snatches in this workout threw me off when I did the light snatches in "#2chainz".  It was much more natural to start with light snatches and work your way up to heavier snatches.  I was going to do that anyways during these 12 minutes, but transitioning back to a lighter weight later on that I would be tempted to move quickly messed with my mind.  I'd need to remind myself to slow down when I got to that event.

As we had discussed leading up to the Brawl, it made more sense to have Raj join me and Cline on the men's barbell to decrease the number of plate changes we'd have to make in this event.  Raj and Cline were fairly even on their clean and jerks and their numbers corresponded to what I could do on the snatch.  Kris would have her own barbell for at least half of this event (we would of course help her change plates), allowing her to get to her max well ahead of the 12 minute time cap.

Raj, Cline, and I set up our rotation as the event got underway.  We started with 115 pounds on the barbell and all three of us had a successful lift.  From there we went to 135 and we went without a miss again.  We bumped it up to 155 and went 3 for 3.  That would be the last weight that all three of us would use together.  Raj moved back over to the barbell with Kris and did the remainder of her lifts there.  Kris would hit a snatch of 115 pounds, while Raj would hit a PR on her clean and jerk with a lift of 185 pounds.

Cline and I moved up in 10 pound increments after the lifts at 155.  Each of us got 165.  We kept our perfect game going at 175.  I had to be mindful of staying in our lane because my usual routine is to start far from the barbell and then march up to it to begin my setup.  I found myself doing that before the snatch at 175, only to realize that I was standing very close to Bryan and Neil's barbell in the lane behind me.  I would have felt like an ass if I had messed up one of their lifts, so I made sure to keep track of where our lane ended and their lane began on my last few attempts.

Cline was on fire, hitting his next clean and jerk at 185.  I typically avoid trying to tie a PR, but in a setting like this, your score is more important than your normal WOD preferences.  So I did my next snatch at 185 as well.  It wasn't an awful attempt, but I was definitely up on my toes as I caught it.  I tried my best to rock back into a balanced position without losing the barbell, but I couldn't make it happen.  Me and Cline had this awesome system going and I had blown it.  Crap.

Cline with the clean at 185 pounds...

...followed by the jerk

Time was starting to become an issue and we had reached the stage where we were no longer going to make big leaps in weight, so we had to make every little bit count.  Cline's best clean and jerk coming into the Brawl was 185 pounds, so he made a smaller jump to his next lift, a PR attempt at 190 pounds.  He would not be denied.  Like Raj, he was able to PR his clean and jerk under pressure.

Because I had missed on my last snatch, we had to quickly strip off the 2.5 pound plates so that I could give 185 another shot.  As is my custom, I failed to wow the crowd with the speed in which I snatched the barbell.  I was fast enough though.  I caught this attempt in the bottom of my squat with my feet completely balanced.  I heard some people yelling for me to stand up, but there was no need for panic.  When I reach this position, I know I have it.  It took me a couple of seconds to get comfortable, but soon I stood up with the 185 pound barbell.

I was relieved to have gotten that lift, but there wasn't any time to revel in that accomplishment.  There were only 60 seconds remaining to increase our score.  I added 5 pound plates to the barbell so that Cline could set another PR.  Unfortunately, 195 would be his first miss of the day.  I scrambled to find the 2.5 pound plates (we were only given two of them) so that I could substitute them for the 5 pound plates and give myself a PR shot at 190.  Where did they go?  It turned out that they were on Kris and Raj's barbell and there was no time to take them off and bring them over to my barbell.  If I was going to make one more attempt, it would have to be at 195 pounds.  That was ambitious, to say the least.  I gave myself a very quick pep talk.  You don't have to get it that high.  If you catch it in the bottom, you will be able to stand it up.  Great pep talk, poor execution.  I got the barbell higher than I thought I could, but I wasn't quick enough to fully get under it.  I thought about trying one more time, but it really was Cline's turn to go and there was a much better chance of him hitting his lift than there was of me hitting mine.  So I let him have the last attempt of event #1.  The ticking clock probably made him rush as he did what I like to call "the really high deadlift".  He got a big pull on the barbell, but it never looked like he committed to the clean.

So to recap:

• Cline (190) and Raj (185) both hit PR's for a total score of 375 on the clean and jerk, good enough for 6th place in the event.
• Kris (115) and I (185) came close to our PR's for a total score of 300 on the snatch, good enough for 7th place in the event.

About a half hour after that event ended, we would take part in the floater WOD.  The floater WOD at the Brawl is the same every year:

Floater WOD:
5 minutes of tire flips

Over the last 3 years, I've had Alison as one of my teammates and she is the undisputed tire flip queen.  I've never met anyone who gets as psyched about the tire flip as she does.  (And that includes Jen and Alona, who are the enthusiastic proprietors, if you will, of our giant tire.)  When you have a team of four on the tire, the two people in the middle direct things.  You can choose to have the same people in the middle on each side of the tire or you can rotate the folks in the center based on which side you are on.  It is quicker to rotate inside and outside than have the same people in the middle all the time because if you keep the same people on the inside, that inner duo has to run a lot more (they have to run around your outer people constantly).  When Alison was on our team, she was on the inside always.  She told us when to lift.  She told us to pick up the pace if she sensed we were slowing down.  She was in charge and we tried our best not to let her down.  Alison's leadership resulted in our team showing up near the top of the leaderboard for the floater WOD every year.

Alison wasn't on our team this year, so we didn't have a specific leader for this event.  Instead we had four teammates of equal strength, all of whom felt comfortable enough with the tire that there was no doubt that we'd be rotating the middle members on each side of the tire.  Cline and Raj would be in the middle on one side, with me and Kris in the middle on the other.  We didn't have a clear plan of who was going to call out the countdown so we kinda worked out that along the way.  The best score we had ever gotten with an Alison-led team was 31 flips in 5 minutes, so our goal was 32.

On previous teams, we had gotten off to blazing starts and then held on for dear life towards the end of the 5 minutes.  I would say we paced things better this year.  The fade of years past may have been the result of all the extra running around that wasn't necessary with team Run The Giulz.  I didn't have a good sense of whether we were on pace to beat 31 flips until we got to the last minute.  That's when I realized we were close.  The four of us refused to slow down before time was up, jogging as quick as we could to the other side once the tire began to flip over.  There were 15 seconds left when we tied the score from last year with 31 flips.  That was just enough time to let us sneak in flip #32 before the wire.  Final score: 32 flips (6th place).

We had more than an hour before our next event.  The tire flip is always tough, but with that much recovery time, I wasn't expecting it to have a tremendous effect on our performance in our third event of the day.  I knew that when we practiced "Mall Walker" before "#2chainz", my shoulders were sore during the latter event.  They didn't feel all that sore as our 11:00 start time was drawing near.  Turns out that it wouldn't be my shoulders that I'd need to be concerned with when we took on event #3:

"#2chainz"
6 minute AMRAP:
5 pull-ups
10 hang clean and jerks (75/55)
6 minute AMRAP:
5 squat snatches (75/55)
10 KB swings (53/35)
*Male athletes will start on one AMRAP, female athletes will start on the other
**One athlete completes a full round before tagging in their partner
***At the end of 6 minutes, athletes will immediately switch AMRAPs

There were a few elements about this event that would be different from how we did it in practice.  When this workout was announced, it specifically said that the men would start on the pull-up AMRAP and the women would start on the squat snatch AMRAP.  That distinction went away a few minutes before our heat began.  Cline and I asked Kris and Raj if they had a preference for which AMRAP they wanted to start with, but they said it didn't matter, so we stuck with our original setup.  We were also advised to drag our barbells from one zone to the other when the first AMRAP ended.  Each duo only had one barbell and you wanted to keep your barbell close to either the pull-up rig or the KB, depending on which AMRAP you were working on.  We all agreed that it was smart to move the barbell at the end of the first 6 minutes.  Cline and I also decided that if one of us was in the middle of a round when 6 minutes was up, we would tag our partner in to begin the other AMRAP.  Speaking of tagging in and out, there was a zone that the resting partner had to stand in.  That was probably going to lower the score we got in practice when we didn't have a specific tag-in/tag-out station.

I was leading us off on the pull-up AMRAP.  I had gone 3 and 2 for the first two rounds of pull-ups in practice and was hoping to repeat that here.  I actually did better than that.  I went 3 and 2 for three rounds, although my form got sloppy on the third round.  In the fourth round, I went 2-2-1, but I didn't take any breaks when I came down from the high bar.  I jumped right back up for the next set.  At the hang clean and jerks, I used the technique I had done in practice, popping the barbell back up from the high hang because it was relatively light.  How light was it?  I accidentally snatched the barbell during one rep before realizing that wasn't allowed.  I dropped it back to my shoulders quickly and then jerked it.

Cline was moving right along on his rounds as well, although I think he got a little tired right near the 6 minute mark.  I thought we were going to finish 8 full rounds, but we would fall 1 rep short.  Meanwhile, Kris and Raj completed 8 rounds and 5 reps over on the squat snatch/KB swing AMRAP.

Raj crushing the KB swings

The announcement came that we had to switch and confusion set in.  Cline came over to tag me in for the second AMRAP, but he had left the barbell over by the pull-up rig.  I told him that he needed to go back and bring the barbell over, but I probably should have just run over and grabbed it myself.  After a minor snafu, we were ready to go on the second of our chainz.  I remembered to go slower on the squat snatches and it helped tremendously.  I didn't have any balance issues and I don't think I lost much time by slowing down.  Over at the KB is where I discovered how the tire flip would affect us.  My shoulders were fine.  My forearms not so much.  I only needed to do 10 swings, but I struggled to hold on to the KB for the entire set.

While I would have a hard time with the KB, Cline was struggling with the squat snatch.  It wasn't that the barbell was too heavy for him.  He was just having difficulty hitting depth on his squats.  We were allowed to do a power snatch and then do an overhead squat, but Cline was missing on some reps even when he broke it into two parts.  At this stage, he was definitely looking tired and frustrated, so I kept telling him to take his time.  Rushing wasn't going to help anything.

Cline tagged me back in for my third round on this AMRAP with less than a minute to go.  I had to hustle if I was going to finish this round.  I picked up the pace a little bit on the snatches before grabbing the KB, desperate to get 10 swings in before the clock reached 12 minutes.

Cline is shocked that I'm still hanging on to the KB

I wrapped up my third round with about 10 seconds to go, which allowed Cline to get one final squat snatch in.  Kris and Raj completed 5 rounds and 12 reps on the pull-up AMRAP.  Final score: 407 reps (16th place).

We had more than 2 hours to rest before the final event.  Our 16th place finish in "#2chainz" knocked us out of contention for the championship WOD, but we weren't expecting to finish in the top 5 anyways.  Personally, this competition was all about coming through on the double unders during "Polpetta".  I had never been as good at double unders as I was now.  I had gotten on the 100 consecutive double unders board.  I had completed the Flight Simulator.  All that was left was to do it in competition, to prove that I didn't need to be in some sparsely-filled gym with no pressure on me in order to reach my goals.  If I could complete 250 double unders in 6 minutes or less, I'd be celebrating.  If it took me about 7 minutes, I'd be a little disappointed, but I'd get over it.  Anything 8 minutes and over would be further confirmation that I sucked in competition.

As we gathered to get ready for "Polpetta", I talked with Raj about our strategy.  She could stick with Kris on the chipper and let me do all of the double unders or she could switch out with me if I was struggling, sending me over to the chipper.  She said she was indifferent as to what we did, but she kept mentioning that she felt good with the knee raises, the same ones she had struggled with during practice.  Even though she hadn't said as much, I felt like she wanted to prove herself on the knee raises just as I wanted to prove myself on the double unders.  So we made a deal.  She would check on me at the end of the wall balls to see if I wanted to switch out.  If I did, she'd take over the double unders.  If I was okay, she'd handle the knee raises with Kris.

"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.

If I didn't have enough anxiety about the double unders before the event started, I had plenty once I saw how the lanes were set up.  The area for the double unders was very small.  I had the tape blocking the athletes from the crowd behind me.  To my right was Cline on our team's rower.  To my left was Theresa on the rower for "3 Ways To Get It Up".  In front of me was the plate that we would do burpees on later.  I tried out some practice reps in this confined space and made it work, but I wasn't sure how it would play out for 250 reps.

The event began and I screwed up immediately.  My plan was to do sets of 30 at a time, but I only got 1 before my rope hit the tape behind me.  I tried to do two more sets, but I must have been hopping slightly backwards because each of those sets ended with my rope hitting the tape.  I was frustrated already and I had only completed 9 reps.  I put down the jump rope, grabbed the plate in front of me, and moved it behind me so that I could move up in our lane.  That provided some short-term benefit.  I began doing some bigger sets.  My next set was 31 reps to get us to 40.  Then two sets of 30 got us to an even 100.  I took a bit of an extended break when I got to 100.  (Maybe I was rewarding myself?)  After needing two sets to get through the next 30 reps, I was at 130 and feeling good about things.  It was right at this point that Kris and Raj finished the wall balls.  On cue, Raj looked over to me and asked if I was alright.  And naturally, I gave the wrong response.

Just past the halfway mark to 250 after 3 minutes and change, I was on target for finishing up right when the girls would be getting to the burpees.  I knew I was probably going to slow down on the next 120 reps, but it still looked like I'd be done in less than 7 minutes.  I waved Raj off and let her know I was fine.  Except I was about to find out that I wasn't fine.  My next set was less than 10 reps. Still no alarm bells ringing.  Even if I was at the point where I could only do about 10 at a time, I'd likely only need 4 more minutes to finish.  Not great, but not horrible.  I managed a couple of sets 10-12 reps in length, but also I had some in the 3-5 range.  I couldn't figure out why my form had deteriorated so quickly, but there seemed to be no reversing it.  As I approached 200 reps, I looked at LC (who was my judge), hoping that she was going to tell me I had completed more reps than I had counted.  Nope.  She had the same count as I did.

It was around this time that Raj walked over towards me.  Remember how I moved the burpee plate at the beginning of this event?  Well Raj and Kris needed that plate because they were done with the knee raises.  While I was in between sets, I moved out of the way, clearing a path so that she could grab the plate.  Not only was I negligent in my responsibility of getting the double unders done in a timely fashion, I was now also impeding them from doing burpees.  Once Raj had the plate, I moved back to my original spot to finish the remainder of the double unders.

Raj and Kris had already completed half of the chipper by themselves and I'm sure they were hoping for some assistance at this point, but they were stuck doing a lot of the burpees on their own.  I was slowly scraping my way to 250, but it was only a few reps at a time.  I had less than 20 left when Cline got off of the rower and provided the burpee assistance that my teammates thought they'd be getting from me.  It wasn't much longer until I was done, but it had taken me about 5 and a half minutes to get through those last 120 double unders.  I had completely screwed up in a competition for the umpteenth time.

Raj was going to be our powerhouse on the shoulder-to-overheads, so we wanted to rotate her out of the burpees as soon as possible.  Once Cline and I were at the burpees, we only let her do one more set of 5.  Our strategy was to do the burpees 5 at a time, but Cline was feeling good enough to do 10.  Knowing he could do that, we had Kris do one last set of 5 (she was going to go second on the shoulder-to-overheads) before leaving the remainder of the burpees to me and Cline.

All hail the queen of the chipper!

I didn't think I would be very good at the burpees.  I tend to hate them under normal circumstances and my double under performance indicated that I was more tired than I perceived.  But there was something about being really mad at myself that drove me through these burpees.  I would join Cline in doing a set of 10 before he wrapped up our burpees.

Nothing says self-loathing like volunteering for extra burpees

You saw a picture earlier of Raj swinging the KB like it weighed nothing.  She was even more impressive with the barbell at the end of "Polpetta".  She held on for a set of 20 to get us started.  She tagged in Kris, who also did a large set.

Kris finishes her day with 15 shoulder-to-overheads

Kris tagged me in so that I could attempt a large set.  I wanted to get 20 reps like Raj, but I'm just not as strong as she is.  My rage helped me cycle through 15 quick reps, which got us to the halfway point at our final station.  There was 115 pounds on our barbell and Cline wasn't sure how successful he would be on the shoulder-to-overheads, so I tagged Raj back in.  She was able to do 15 more.  Kris wasn't sure if she could do more and I was recovering from the set I had just completed, so Raj tagged in Cline.  He was able to do 5 reps before dropping the barbell.  That was just enough of a breather to get me ready to go again.  I ran over to the barbell and did 10 reps as fast as I could.  I assumed that we would need two more people to go for the last 20 reps, so I shook out my arms after tagging in Raj.  Kris and Cline were all done, meaning I was the only one left for Raj to tag in.  Raj didn't need any help though.  She kept pumping that barbell overhead like a machine.  I looked over to the lane next to us where the "3 Ways To Get It Up" team was located and thought for a minute that we might catch them.  My shitty double unders had let them get a big lead on us, but Raj was sprinting to the finish line.  Right as she was finishing her 19th consecutive rep, team "3 Ways" started celebrating.  Officially we were one second behind them, but it was more like 2-3 seconds in reality.  Still, it was amazing watching Raj carry us home.  Final time: 14:54 (15th place).

The four of us were happy that we came in under the time cap, something we weren't close to doing in practice.  And we were relieved that our day was officially done.  (We'd have to wait for three more heats to run before finding out that we had finished in 11th place overall.)  But try as I might, I couldn't bring myself to be happy about what had just happened.  I came into the day thinking that I had one task and I wound up failing miserably at it.  This competition was like all of the others and it was confirmation that I shouldn't be participating in them.  I've had some great teammates in the four years that I've done the Brawl, but they would need to look for a new guy to take my place in the future.  This was definitely my last competition.

I had a busy schedule coming up and I wasn't in the mood to hurry back to the gym in the days after the Brawl, so I decided to take a break of about a week and a half from KOP.  I wouldn't be back in until after Labor Day.

Post-Brawl preview: After traveling quite a bit during my time off from KOP, I return for a class with Coach Jenna.  I forget to do something very basic when it comes to the back squat.  CF Total ends in a majority draw.

Going Light

Workout date: 8/23/17

If I was going to sign up for Coach Jenna's class on Wednesday night, the WOD had to meet two criteria:

1. It could not be a workout with any shoulder-focused movements.
2. It could not be a long metcon.

Aimee might have shown some mercy on all of us when she programmed Wednesday's WOD.  I'm not sure anyone who came in on Tuesday would have been able to do anything that required a lot of shoulder strength.  Instead we got a workout that would focus on our legs.  The first segment would have us find our 5RM back squat.  We would follow that up with this short cash-out:

Cash-out

7 minute AMRAP

20 medball cleans (20/14)

20 ab-mat sit-ups

There weren't any burgers or fries in the gym, but the 7:30 class featured five guys.  It was me, John McHugh, Actuary Mike, Neil, and a guy named Calvin who was dropping in.  Calvin was the strong, silent type.  When we went out for our opening 400 meter run, we tried some small talk with him, but he didn't say much.  During the back squats and the cash-out, he didn't say much.  The only time I got a reaction out of him came when I made an off-color joke at Neil's expense that I forgot Calvin had no context for.  (Note: There's an ongoing joke about Neil watching the 14 and 15 year old girls competition from the recently completed Crossfit Games.  It's a harmless joke.  But be honest: When you read the phrase "Neil watching the 14 and 15 year old girls competition", your reaction was probably "gross!"  Welcome to Calvin's world.)

My best 5RM on the back squat came in April, when I got five reps at 290 pounds.  This is one of our benchmark workouts for January/April/July/October, so I had attempted this on multiple occasions earlier in the year.  I'm not sure why it was programmed again in August.  I guess this WOD didn't count as a benchmark workout for some reason.  I had gotten greedy in July after completing a set at 285 pounds and ended up failing while going for glory at 300 pounds.  Tonight I was going to try for 295 pounds, but I wasn't going to beat myself up too much if I fell short of that mark.  I was getting some work in this evening, but not at the expense of wearing myself out (or...gasp...injuring myself) a few days away from the Brawl.

Neil's plan was a bit different.  With the Brawl on the horizon, he was "going light" this evening.  What did that mean?  He had seen that Remer had gotten up to 275 pounds for his 5RM in an earlier class, so he was going to match that and then stop there.  I had planned on using 275 for my second-to-last set, so if I didn't hit a PR this evening, my best set would match what Neil calls "going light".  (To be fair to Neil, he did 5 reps at 315 back in July, so 275 wasn't much of a challenge for him.  Guy simply doesn't know how strong he really is.)

I wasn't in the mood to do a lot of sets, so I skipped past my usual warmup set at 135 pounds and went right to 185 pounds.  That is a weight that I can move fluidly with, so I wasn't concerned about getting stuck there having jumped past 135 pounds.  I had to pause once or twice during the set at 225, but I didn't get stuck at all.  I was simply being cautious and taking my time with a weight that I knew I could handle.  The third set was at 255 and I slowed down even more.  Didn't run into any trouble, just wanted to make sure I didn't rush it and do something foolish like get up on my toes.

It wasn't until I got to Neil's light weight that I experienced any adversity.  The early reps of the set were strong, but I could tell late in the set that my form was getting a bit shaky.  On rep #5, I got stuck for a split-second as I came out of the bottom of my squat, but I pushed through and completed the set.

Having been a math guy since I was a wee lad, I tend to subconsciously calculate things based on my experiences.  If I struggled to get that 5th rep at 275, then I was probably going to struggle on the 3rd or 4th rep at 295.  That was in my head before I even added the 20 pounds to my barbell.  I wasn't necessarily preparing to fail, it was just tough to envision a scenario where I got through the next 5 reps without having to fight through my sticking point multiple times.

After taking a few minutes to clear my head, I stepped up for my attempt at 295.  It felt heavy as expected, but the first rep was strong.  The second rep?  Not so much.  I thought I'd get a little further along before encountering trouble, but here I was on rep #2 having to fight hard to get out of the sticking point.  When I finally stood the barbell up, I took a few extra moments to change my point of view on the remaining three reps.  I convinced myself that I could stand there with 295 pounds on my shoulders all day if I needed to.  I was going to take my time and attack each of the remaining three reps as though I was doing a 1RM.  If I stood the next rep back up, I was going to repeat the process. I wasn't going to worry about tiring out from holding the heavy barbell for a long time.

Somehow that near failure on the second rep sent a jolt through me.  Maybe it was the more confident mindset I had as I was getting ready for rep #3.  Or maybe I was mad that part of me had accepted failure in the midst of a set that could still be a success.  Whatever it was, things turned around for me.  The third rep was just as solid as my first rep was.  Same deal for the 4th rep.  I may have gotten stuck on the fifth rep at 275, but it didn't happen on the last rep at 295.  I bounced right up out of the bottom and racked my barbell.  I had hit a PR at 295 pounds.

I had time to go and do another set if I wanted to, but there was no reason for me to push the envelope.  I would be satisfied completing the cash-out and then heading home to rest up for the Brawl.  The five of us got a medball and an ab-mat and prepared for a 7 minute sprint.  Mike was to my left and Calvin was on my right.  The three of us would be neck and neck for most of the cash-out, with Calvin being the fastest on the medball cleans and Mike being the fastest on the sit-ups.  Within our trio, I was second best at both movements, so each round Calvin would get a short lead on me and a bigger lead on Mike.  Then when we got to the sit-ups, I'd close in a bit on Calvin while Mike made up a lot of time.  The three of us would get up from our ab-mats nearly dead even at the end of each round.

The medball cleans can wear you out quicker than you might believe, so I fully intended to break them up right from the start.  I went 10-10 in round one and 8-7-5 in rounds two and three.  I didn't need to stop at all during the rounds of 20 ab-mat sit-ups, but I wasn't rocking back and forth as quickly as Mike was.  There was less than a minute to go when we all began round 4.  Mike had completed his third round with a slim lead on us, but Calvin was able to catch him before time was called.  I got a little worn down towards the end, only managing sets of 7, 4, and 4 in the fourth round before the cash-out ended.  Final score: 3+15.  (Calvin's score: 3+19.  Mike's score: 3+18.)

That was the conclusion to a short week at the gym.  There would be no working out on Thursday or Friday with a competition looming on Saturday.

Saturday preview: The Brawl is here.  All three scaled KOP teams wind up in the same heat, making it impossible to show off my cheerleading skills.  Cline and I rock man tanks.  How will Run The Giulz fare on the tire flip event without Alison, the tire flip queen?  And can I really do 250 double unders in competition without screwing up?

Why Are You Here?

Workout date: 8/22/17

"What's up?
"Good to see you!"
"Hey, how've you been?"

These are all examples of greetings that you would expect to receive from someone that you are close to.  Someone who is happy to see you.  What you wouldn't expect to hear from someone who fits that bill is the following:

"Why are you here?!?!"

I showed up for Dudes After Dark on the early side because I wanted to test out my double unders again.  I had made a lot of strides with my double unders and I wasn't going to let yesterday's failure crush me.  When I got to the gym, one of the first people I saw was Bryan.  He gave me one of the three greetings that you see at the top of this post.  We were chit-chatting for a bit when LC showed up.  She saw me and Bryan hanging out and came over to us with a mild look of concern on her face.

"Why are you here?!?!"

It was a little strange that she said that to me.  It was incredibly odd that she said it to her husband.  Neither of us knew why she was so perturbed by our presence.  She felt strongly that we shouldn't be taking part in Dudes After Dark with the Brawl coming up.  But the Brawl was still four days away.  Why did she think it was important that we get four days of rest prior to the competition?  It turns out that she wasn't concerned about how much rest we were going to get as much as she was worried about how wrecked our shoulders would be if we participated in the Tuesday WOD.  That warning didn't compute when she said it to us, but it made a lot more sense once we had finished the workout.  Here's what was planned for this edition of Dudes After Dark:

Tuesday's WOD:
21 strict pull-ups
21 strict handstand push-ups
18 strict pull-ups
18 strict handstand push-ups
15 strict pull-ups
15 strict handstand push-ups
12 strict pull-ups
12 strict handstand push-ups
9 strict pull-ups
9 strict handstand push-ups
6 strict pull-ups
6 strict handstand push-ups
3 strict pull-ups
3 strict handstand push-ups
*Time cap: 20 minutes

For those scoring at home, that was 84 strict pull-ups and 84 strict handstand push-ups.  There's usually a big emphasis on kipping in Crossfit workouts, but that wasn't allowed here.  Either you had the shoulder strength to do these movements or you did not.

Before we got into all that though, I wanted to see if the third time was truly the charm.  I had reached Plan C when it came to strategy for the Polpetta event at the Brawl.  Plan C was like Plan B, only I wouldn't take 10 minutes to complete 250 double unders.  I really felt that my downfall on Monday night was leading with a set of 50.  So all I was going to do on Tuesday before class was see how I felt after doing two sets of 25.  I was also going to note how long it took me to complete.  When I completed my two sets in 51 seconds, I felt like the experiment had been a success.  If I could maintain that pace on Saturday, I'd probably be done in about 5 minutes.  It would take Kris and Raj about 6 minutes before they'd reach the burpees, so even if I was a minute slower than the pace I tested out, I'd meet them at the burpees and be well ahead of Cline on the rower.  Yay, Plan C!

Speaking of Cline, he was not at Dudes After Dark, so I had to fill in as the excellent question asker for the evening.  (Note: This is a bit of an inside joke.  Cline always has a question for LC at Dudes After Dark and LC always begins her reply with "That is an excellent question...".)  My question was on the topic of scaling.  I honestly wasn't sure whether it was better to scale the reps in this workout and do strict pull-ups or if LC would recommend that I use a band and try to do 84 reps.  Because this workout was focused on making athletes do strict movements, my guess was that LC would tell me to scale the reps and do strict pull-ups.  But as is often the case, I was wrong.  She suggested I grab a band for my pull-ups and try to finish all 84 reps.  They were still strict pull-ups that I was doing, but I'd be getting considerable assistance to help me do them.

There were seven of us ready to take on this shoulder-destroying WOD.  It was six dudes (me, Adam, Neil, Bryan, Actuary Mike, and Noel) and one lady (The Prodigy).  I was situated between The Prodigy and Actuary Mike near the center of the gym.  I didn't feel comfortable using the low bar with a band, so I grabbed a box and put it near the pull-up rig so that I could step into the band hanging from the high bar.  LC started the clock and I got to work on 21 strict banded pull-ups.

Right away, I figured out that I was in deep trouble in this workout.  I got through 6 pull-ups and then took a break.  My next three sets would be 3 reps in length, but that would be the end of my triples in this WOD.  Just 15 reps into the first round and I couldn't manage more than 2 banded pull-ups at a time.  I kept pausing and shaking out my arms, but I simply didn't have the raw strength to do well in this workout.

When I did finally complete 21 pull-ups, I got to move on to the part of the WOD that I was likely to do better on.  I've always preferred strict handstand push-ups because I have the tendency to fall off of the wall when I try to kip.  My range of motion is limited when I can't kip, but I'm much more efficient when I go strict.  If I have 2 ab-mats below my head, there is no reason for me to kip as I can handle a large set of strict handstand push-ups with that much cushion below me.  I proved that was the case when I got to the wall for my round of 21 handstand push-ups.  I got upside down, did 12 push-ups, and then came off of the wall.  When I returned to the upside down, I was able to finish the 9 remaining reps.  I wish I could have stayed here and worked my way through the other 63 strict handstand push-ups required in this workout, but alas, I had to go back to the dreaded pull-up bar.

If I had enough shoulder strength to do doubles throughout the round of 18, I would have only needed 8 breaks to get through that round.  Yes, I said only 8 breaks.  In one round.  Sadly I couldn't even manage that.  There were times when I could only manage 1 pull-up.  I'd take a smaller break when I did that, just pausing long enough to step on to my box and shake my arms briefly.  It seemed like everyone else was faring better than I was, but I was holding on to the hope that I'd be able to make up ground on the handstand push-ups.  You know, if I ever got back there.

Okay, the situation wasn't quite that bad.  The clock wasn't anywhere near 20 minutes when I finished up the round of 18 strict banded pull-ups, but I'm sure it was beyond 10 minutes.  My shoulders felt so fatigued that I began to worry that my strict handstand push-ups might go away.  I was relieved to discover that was not the case.  Just like I had done in the round of 21, I completed this round of handstand push-ups in two sets.  I was able to complete 11 in the first set and 7 in the second.  My reward for being competent at strict handstand push-ups was a speedy return to the pull-ups.

The round of 15 pull-ups must have taken as long as the round of 18 did, if not longer.  It was during this round that I got the sense that my classmates were feeling the same way about this workout as I was.  There was a lot more standing around.  People were shaking out their arms.  They were shaking their heads, looking back at the clock to see how much time was left in this WOD.  The volume of strict movements in this workout was just way too high, which explains why LC was trying to shoo me and Bryan away before the class had even begun.  I could only manage one pull-up at a time during this round and there were only a couple of minutes left when I completed it.

I knew the round of 15 would be my last one over at the wall, so I wanted to end things there on a positive note.  The strict handstand push-ups were going to require two sets again, but I was proud that I held on long enough to complete 10 in my first set.  Getting the remaining 5 in the second set wasn't too much trouble.  I had about a minute remaining as I trudged back on to my box to do the last of my pull-ups.

Even if I wanted to put in a final surge on the pull-up bar, I couldn't have.  It wasn't about how much resolve I could muster at the end of this workout.  The pull-ups came down to whether I could lift the giant sack of potatoes known as my body up high enough that my chin would pass over the bar.  In order to do that, I needed to shake out my arms after every rep.  It would have been great to do more than 4 reps in that last minute, but that is all my body could give me.  Final time: 20:56 (20 minute time cap plus one second for the 26 pull-ups and 30 handstand push-ups not completed.)

LC's warning before class seemed silly at the time, but now I was re-evaluating whether I wanted to work out again at all for the remainder of the week.  Maybe it would be best to take the next three days off and be fresh for the Brawl.  I decided to make my decision at 10pm that night when Wednesday's WOD would be posted on the KOP blog.  If it wasn't too spicy, I'd come in for one last pre-Brawl class.  If it was anything like what I had just done for the last 20 minutes, I'd stay home.

Wednesday preview: A strength session and a short cash-out are mild enough to bring me back to the gym one last time before the Brawl.  Neil's definition of "light" is different than mine.