Having taken a rest day on Thursday, I felt like I should exercise one day on the weekend to make up for my unscheduled day off. I wasn't interested in either of the WODs that were programmed, so I decided that my exercise would come in the form of the Flight Simulator on Sunday afternoon. Rather than head to the gym, I would be jumping rope in my driveway. The conditions outside were not to my liking. I often talk in this blog about how much of an effect the heat has on me. I was escaping the humid gym this afternoon, but I wouldn't be getting much in the way of a reprieve. The sun showed me no mercy as I went through some practice sets with my jump rope. Sweat was dripping off of me before I had even started on my 25 minute double under journey. I was probably going to fatigue quicker than normal in this heat, so it was essential that I keep my mistakes to a minimum. Additional attempts at long sets were going to be much more penalizing on this day.
I set the timer on my phone to 25 minutes, laid it on the trunk of my car, clicked start and began the Flight Simulator. Early on, things went well as I got through the sets of 5, 10, 15, and 20 without tripping up. Then I messed up a few times during the set of 25 before completing it. Wasted energy! I was already working hard to calm my breathing between sets and I hadn't really gotten to the difficult part of this WOD. The breaks I took were longer than I would have liked, but I felt they were necessary. The strategy seemed to be paying off when I got the sets of 30, 35, and 40 on my initial attempts at them. If I could just get through the next three sets in a reasonable amount of time, I might be able to complete this workout once and for all.
That dream came crashing down on the set of 45. There's nothing worse than coming close to finishing a big set and then failing right towards the end. I did that three times during the set of 45. 34 in a row? No good. 36 in a row? Counts for nada. Another 34 in a row? I think we've covered this. That was 104 total double unders that did nothing but get my heart rate up. My chances of completing the Flight Simulator today were kaput.
I was eventually able to get through the set of 50 and the set of 45 on the downhill side of this workout, but time was running out on me. At least I think it was. As I took a break before starting the next set of 40, I saw that my iPhone was no longer showing the timer. Instead it was displaying a warning letting me know that the phone could not be used until it had cooled down. I guess leaving my iPhone sitting on the trunk of my car under the hot sun was not the best idea. I took it inside my garage and left it there to cool, hoping that it would be functional again before my 25 minutes were up.
I was now in no mans land, having to guess how much longer it would be until the 25 minute time cap was up. After completing the set of 40 and 35, I checked to see if the timer was functioning again. It was not. I should have just been focused on completing the next set, but there was part of me that worried I'd make it to the end of the entire Flight Simulator only to find that the timer had reset and that I had gone beyond the 25 minutes without knowing it.
Fatigue and lack of focus led to 2 misses on the set of 30. I checked my phone one more time and was supplied with both good and bad news. The good news was that the timer was working. The bad news is that it showed I had 15 seconds left. I had no chance of completing 30 double unders in that time frame, so I was done, six sets short of the finish line. The Flight Simulator had defeated me once again.
The next night, I arrived at KOP to take part in the 6:30 class led by coach Giulz. It was a madhouse. 16 people were in attendance and this was not a WOD that lent itself to a large class. Here's what was on tap:
Monday's WOD:
12 clean and jerks (135/95)
5 wall ascents (8'/6')
12 power snatches (135/95)
5 wall ascents
12 bar muscle-ups
5 wall ascents
5 rope climbs (20' or 15' on the short ropes)
If you're wondering what the short ropes are, those are the new additions to the middle of the gym. We've always had 4 ropes for climbing in the back of the gym. Then we added another one to the middle of the gym. More recently, Aimee has provided two short ropes like the ones used at Regionals and at the Crossfit Games. Because these ropes do not go all the way to the floor, athletes are forced to jump up and climb legless for a few pulls. At that point, they should be high enough that their feet can touch the rope. From there, you can climb the rope as you normally would. When this option was described in class, I think there was some confusion because Giulz said you needed to go legless on those ropes. That was true, but only at the beginning of the climb. There were some athletes that tried to climb the entire 15' only using their arms, which was a brutal task at the end of this long WOD.
Since this workout had many elements and would take considerable time to complete, Giulz quickly moved us from one station to the next to go over each of the movements. I'm sure it was difficult organizing 16 people in a hurry, but she kept us in line. As we went from station to station, I thought about what scales (if any) I should use. The clean and jerk weight was relatively light, so I wasn't expecting any problems there. The power snatches were another story. In the same way that the power clean had drifted from my memory, the power snatch was a lift that I hadn't done a lot of recently. I catch almost all of my snatches in a full squat, but that wasn't allowed today. I'd have to be mindful of that, especially since 135 pounds wasn't going to be an easy weight for me. I gave some consideration to dropping my weight here, but that would require some pit crew work mid-WOD. There was a solid chance that I'd be near the back of the pack during this workout and changing plates was likely to put me even further behind. Besides, it was only 12 power snatches. I could handle that...right? (Really working hard to convince myself that 135 was the proper weight for me.)
The bar muscle-ups were easier to figure out. The chances of me completing 12 bar muscle-ups after all of that other work were slim and none. So my game plan was going to be based on how I felt when I got to that stage of the WOD. If I felt good when I got there, I'd try to get 1 or 2 bar muscle-ups. If I was exhausted (approx. chance: 99%), then I'd do chest-to-bar pull-ups instead.
That left the two climbs: wall climbs and rope climbs. There didn't seem to be much of a choice when it came to either. The 8' wall climb would be difficult, but the 6' wall climb was way too easy. It was sort of like the RX vs. scaled option in the Open. One felt like it might be pushing my limits, while the other wasn't really testing my limits at all. In situations like that, I'm always going to choose the challenge. As for the rope climb, I had no faith that I could pull off a legless climb of any duration at the end of the WOD, so I was going up to the 20' mark.
Giulz split us up into two waves and I wound up in the first wave. Justin C was right behind me waiting to go as part of the second wave. We were packed in tight with our barbells, so I had to remember not to walk back away from my barbell if I was taking a break between reps. It wasn't going to be an issue during the first two minutes, but I didn't want to be in his way later on. Speaking of being in the way, I was definitely concerned about causing a bottleneck at the wall. 9 of the 16 members of class were guys and we all had our eyes on the 8' wall. (Steph M also came over and climbed the 8' wall at one point.) Only one person can climb that wall at a time and you need to wait for the person to both climb the wall and come out from behind the other side before the next person can go. There would be a wait even if we were all fresh. Once we got tired and both waves were going, who knows how long the wait could be? It was important to try and stay out of the way if someone else was ready to go.
There was no point in standing around in the humidity any longer. Giulz got the first wave rolling. The 12 clean and jerks wouldn't take very long to complete, but I didn't rush through them. This was a long WOD and racing through the first movement would be a mistake. After a dozen clean and jerks, I got over to the wall and joined the conga line. When it was my turn to go, I sprinted to the wall, planted my foot, catapulted myself upward, and desperately grabbed the top with my arms. My technique sucked. It was so bad that I couldn't hold my grip. I slid down the wrong side of the wall and came back to the line. There was a chalk bucket near the line of guys waiting, so I went over and whitened up my hands. No point in compounding my technique issues with sweaty hands.
I was able to get up and over the wall on my next 5 attempts. Keithie was blazing through the workout, so I let him skip me in line once or twice. I wasn't super eager to get back in line each time I came over the wall. It was a lot of work hanging on to the top of the wall and pulling myself over. I needed long breaks between reps. When I came down from my 5th wall ascent, I slowly made my way back to my barbell. I was happy that I didn't have to deal with the wall for a while, but the power snatches had me concerned because I felt like I had been hit by a truck already.
These next 12 reps were designed to be "quick singles", but there was nothing quick about my next set. I was tortoise-like in my setup between reps. I had about 7 or 8 completed when I got a bit lazy on one of my snatches. My partial squat came dangerously close to being a full squat, which would have made it a no rep. After dropping the barbell, I had to confirm with Giulz (who was watching me at the time) that it truly was a power snatch. She let me know that it was. That ended up being my wake up call for the remaining power snatches. I might have been tired, but I couldn't afford to lose focus during the workout. My last 3-4 power snatches were much cleaner.
It was back to the wall for more ascents. We were mid-workout now, so all the guys seemed to be in line for the 8' wall. People began to fail on their attempts. And Giulz thought we were a bunch of idiots. She let us know that she thought we were letting our egos get the best of us and that some of us should have been scaling instead of trying to get up the big wall 15 times. I wasn't in much of a mood to hear criticisms given that I was sweaty, exhausted, and beaten up, so I said to Giulz "if you wanted me to scale, you should have just told me." Her response? "Like you would have listened!"
Did she have a point? I'm not sure. I was having a hard time with the wall ascents, but I didn't fail on any of my climbs during my second appearance at that station. I needed a lot of rest between attempts (I let Keithie, Justin, and Conn skip me in line during this round), but I was still getting over the wall. Plus the 6' wall would have been a ridiculous scale for me to use. Call it ego if you like, but I think I made the right choice by sticking with the 8' wall.
With another 5 wall ascents done, it was time to move over to the pull-up rig. Surprisingly, I would do my best work of the day at this station. Three legitimately quick singles of chest-to-bar pull-ups, then a break. Did four sets like that and before long I was back at the wall for the final time. The line was much smaller during my last set there. Some guys were done. Some guys had given in and moved to the 6' wall. Pretty soon, it was just me and Bryan there. I was successful on my 1st attempt of this round, but I didn't chalk up before my 2nd attempt and paid for it. Back down the wrong side I slid. Bryan was going to let me attempt the climb again, but I told him I needed some time before I gave the wall another try. About a minute later, Bryan finished up at the 8' wall. There was no one left to wave in front of me in line. I was the last one working there, on the hook for two more trips over the wall. I took my time because failing on another climb would have made an already deflating situation unbearable. It was painful colliding into that wall and pulling myself over two more times, but I made it happen.
There were still athletes working on the rope climbs, so I immediately felt better once I was finished with the wall. And not for nothing, I'm better at rope climbs than wall climbs, so that helped brighten up my mood. I made sure my hands had plenty of chalk on them each time I was ready to go up the rope. With Keithie in attendance, I also wanted to make sure I didn't disappoint him by using lousy form on my climbs. I'm not sure if he was watching the end of my workout (it had been a while since he finished), but I think he would have approved of my form, especially given how tired I was. I made nice big pulls, drawing my knees fairly high every time I moved up the rope. My only concern was holding on to the rope. My triceps are pretty weak to begin with, but they felt especially non-responsive during these climbs. The chalk kept my hands dry when I started each climb, but every time I neared the 20' mark, my hands felt slimy again.
(Why were my triceps non-responsive? This picture I took the next morning might shed some light on that matter. The wall beat me up pretty good!)
It actually looked worse than this 24 hours later
When you are tired and you feel like your grip is going, getting up the rope becomes a mental test. After my third climb, I discovered that I was the only athlete still working. I detected a hint of pity circle in the air. (Despite being the last one working, it actually didn't feel like a pity circle when the rest of the class was encouraging me. Probably because I was in good spirits at the time.) While I rested between climbs, I kept looking at the rope, telling myself I could get to the top. My grip would hold. Just needed to start climbing and have faith in my technique. I tapped the metal near the ceiling to end my 4th climb and slid down the rope. Usually in this situation, I'll start thinking about all of the times I've fallen one rep or one second short in a WOD. Not this time. I kept the positive thoughts flowing. I counted down the pulls as I made my way up the rope a final time. Three more pulls. Two more pulls. One more and you can reach up and slap the metal. I hit it and slid down to the floor. Final time: 28:41.
My time was 4 minutes worse than the second slowest time in my class (although some of the people who went over 24 minutes on this WOD were in the second wave, so it seemed like I was only 2 minutes behind them). Perhaps I should have scaled some things that I didn't and stayed with the class. All I know is that when I came down from that final climb to the ceiling, I felt really proud of myself. It's not often that I overcome mental obstacles at the gym, but I certainly did on this day. There may be some who would say I did this workout wrong given how long it took me, but if I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't change a thing.
Tuesday preview: LC is proud of all of us, but some more than others. Luckily, ice cream makes everything better.
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