Box Jump Nancy

Workout date: 7/11/17

Tuesday night are all about Dudes After Dark and usually our fearless leader on those nights is LC.  But just as I certainly don't make it to Dudes After Dark every week, neither does LC.  I've been there when Steph has filled in to coach.  I've been there when Giulz has filled in.  I'm pretty sure that Jenna has presided over at least one Dudes session.  There was a different face greeting us at this Tuesday's edition though.  Jill A (one-time coach, now Crossfitter extraordinaire) was there to cover for LC this week.  Was she ready for the always sassy group that awaited her?  Probably not, but there were only 4 of us in attendance this week and we kept our sassiness to a reasonable level.  At least by our standards anyways.

The quartet that was taking part in Tuesday night's fun included Jessie (who typically turns up at the noon express), Bryan, Neil, and myself.  We would be doing a workout that was much more pleasing to me than the shoulder press/chest-to-bar pull-up combo had been on Monday night.  Here's a look at Tuesday night's WOD:

Tuesday's WOD:
400 meter run
21 overhead squats (95/65)
21 box jumps (24"/20")
400 meter run
15 overhead squats
15 box jumps
400 meter run
9 overhead squats
9 box jumps

If you asked me which of the named Crossfit workouts is my favorite, I would tell you Nancy.  Nancy includes a lot of running (five 400 meter runs to be exact), but it also includes 75 overhead squats.  That is a whole lot of my favorite lift crammed into one workout.  The problem I have with Nancy is that the overhead squats take a toll on my legs and hinder my running ability after a couple of rounds.  Those last three 400 meter runs tend to be much slower than the first two.  If only there was a workout with a lot of overheads and not so much running...

Voila!  Tuesday's WOD was basically a three-round version of Nancy with box jumps added in.  The overhead squats were going to make your legs feel unsteady for the box jumps and the combination of the overheads and box jumps were going to make those quarter-mile trots a little more painful than you would like, but at least there weren't five rounds to deal with.  That made this workout seem much more palatable than Nancy is.  The only fly in the ointment was that it was very humid on Tuesday night.  And if it's humid outside the gym, it's borderline unbearable inside the gym.

After completing a 400 meter warmup run, Jill walked us through the finer points of the overhead squat.  Barbell should be positioned over your head like a bagel cutter.  Wide grip on the barbell.  External rotation of the shoulders.  Weight in your heels.  Knees out as you descend into the squat.  Keep your core tight.  She also had us practice rebounding through box jumps.  It looked like all of us were comfortable with that technique.

It is pretty rare that I think of myself as the runner in any group, but there was a solid chance that I was going to be leading the pack in this class.  I had run with Bryan before and he tended to track me Jill Cardamone-style rather than break off on his own like Cline might.  Neil hates to run.  It was possible that Jessie might smoke all of her male counterparts, but I didn't recall her loving running WODs and the warmup run didn't give me the impression that she was eager to run three-quarters of a mile in this workout.  That left me as the likely pacesetter, at least on the first run.  I was also expecting to excel on the overhead squats.  If I could handle the box jumps, then I'd be the first one done in our class.  At least that's how I had it worked out in my head.

I was right about the first 400 meter run.  I was out on the lead with Bryan close behind me.  Neil and Jessie weren't far off of my pace.  I wanted a strong initial run to kick off this workout, but didn't want to go so hard that I'd get stuck on the overhead squats or the box jumps.  When I came back into the gym at the end of the run, it felt like I had accomplished what I had set out to do.  I was the first one back and I wasn't hyperventilating as a result of my efforts.

The surprise came when I got to my barbell.  I am well aware of the toll the humidity takes on me, but I didn't expect it to hit me so hard on the overhead squats.  I thought I could grind my way through those and then try to deal with whatever adversity awaited me at the box jumps.  I didn't plan on putting the barbell down during the round of 21 overhead squats, but as I neared the 10th rep of the set, I realized that it was going to take an all-out effort to complete all 21 in a row.  I decided it made more sense to break up the set.  I stopped after 14 reps, caught my breath, shook out my legs and then completed the remaining 7 reps.

I was stationed furthest from the side door that we pass in and out of to go running and because we had set up to face the back of the gym, I couldn't see how my classmates were doing while I did my overhead squats.  Upon completing my 21st rep, I turned around to go to my box.  I thought I would be the first one to the box jumps, but I was surprised to see I had lost the lead.  Neil had no problem with the overhead squats and completed all 21 reps without a break.  He had completed a couple of box jumps already when I got to the third leg of our triplet.  I tried to ignore the burning in my legs, rebounding on and off of the box for as long as I could.  I had to stop and recover on top of the box a couple of times, but I had gotten back to even with Neil as we headed out on our second run.

Even though the overhead squats and box jumps had the effect on my legs that I was expecting, I still thought I might put some distance on Neil during the run.  Neil isn't shy about expressing how much he dislikes running and he had to be experiencing some of that same burning feeling that I had in my legs.  If I could push things at the beginning of this next run, then maybe I could buy myself some time on the next round of overheads and box jumps.  Neil had other plans though.  I think I'm probably more guilty of keeping an eye on Neil and trying to stay with him than vice versa, but this was clearly one of those days where he was focused on staying with me.  He was stubborn on that second run and when he came back through the side door, he wasn't very far behind me.

The 75 overhead squats in Nancy are broken up into 5 rounds of 15 reps.  If I have a strong performance in that WOD, I'll hold on and string all 15 reps in every round, even if I'm dragging on the runs.  So I should have been able to hold on for 15 overheads in a row in this WOD.  It didn't play out that way.  I wasn't able to make it to 15 reps in round one of this workout and I wouldn't make it there in round two either.  I completed 10 reps and had to put the barbell down.  I didn't need to turn around to know that Neil was going to do all 15 of his overheads.  While I caught my breath, I heard his barbell come crashing to the floor.  When I went to pick my barbell back up, I heard his feet land on top of his box.  He was extending his lead on me.

I finished my last 5 overheads and got right into my box jumps.  I thought I was moving at a decent pace, but I saw Neil run out the door when I was at about the 9 or 10 mark.  It seemed like there was little chance that I could catch him at this point.  If I was going to catch him, I'd have to run very fast during the last 400 meters because he had shown he was the better athlete on the overhead squats and box jumps.

It was a bit disheartening to see how far ahead he was when I exited the side doors.  It was hard making myself believe that I could catch him when he was almost at Frosty Falls already.  I told myself not to think that way.  I put my head down and started pumping my arms.  No one was going to confuse me with Usain Bolt on that last run, but I steadily built up my pace as I moved along.  Neil went by me as I headed to the turn around point of the 400 meters.  His lead was dwindling and I tried to use that to fuel my belief that I could catch him.  When I got to the final 100 meters, I ran at the fastest non-sprint speed I could muster.  As badly as I wanted to catch him on this run, it was pointless if I emptied the tank and couldn't finish the last round of overhead squats and box jumps.  Neil made it back inside the gym before me, but I was only a couple of seconds behind him.

When Neil got into the gym, I saw him walk over to his barbell.  I kept jogging through the door until I got to my barbell.  I couldn't see him once I got there, but I'm sure he noticed the urgency with which I was moving.  I got my barbell overhead, determined to complete all 9 squats without a break.  As I was coming up out of my 8th squat, I heard Neil's barbell hit the floor.  Damn he was fast on those!  I did my final overhead squat and hurried over to my box.

I think Neil was taking a few seconds to remove his wrist wraps, but when he saw me marching over to my box, he scrapped that plan and got moving on his box jumps.  Back and forth we went.  I heard his feet hit the box, then my feet hit my box.  I was rebounding as quick as I could, but he wasn't slowing down either.  I assumed he was ahead of me, but I couldn't be sure, so I told myself I couldn't stop until all 9 were done.  I came down off of my 8th jump and saw Neil was still jumping.  But it was his last one.  He jumped on his box and I jumped on mine a second later.  For the second straight day, I had completed the workout one tick behind one of my classmates.  Final time: 13:11.

It was fun racing against Neil to the wire, but it gets old being the bridesmaid.  On Monday, I was one second behind Matt B.  On Tuesday, I was one second behind Neil.  Two weeks earlier, I was one double under short of writing my name on the 100 consecutive double unders board.  There was this seemingly never-ending pattern where I kept falling just short of the mark.  It's not a great feeling.  I've had way too many of those moments and not enough small victories to counterbalance them.  That was true both inside and outside of the gym.  I left KOP on Tuesday night feeling like I had given it my all, yet once again my all wasn't good enough.

Wednesday preview: Idle hands are not the devil's handiwork.  Shoot throughs are.