Who Has A Story?

Workout date: 8/1/17

The last 48 hours at the gym were pretty extraordinary for me.  For the first time in forever, I came through in a big spot when I hit 105kg during my last lift at the BBC meet.  Then I completed a goal that I had been working towards for a very long time when I strung together 102 double unders in a row.  Just to put that into context, when I started this blog, my longest streak of consecutive double unders was 6.  And I had been doing Crossfit for 2 years.  So I've definitely made some big strides on that front.

What could I possibly pull off on Tuesday that would compare to what I had done on Sunday and Monday?  Well...nothing.  The WOD was a couplet of moderately heavy deadlifts and GHD sit-ups.  Dudes After Dark isn't like the 6:30 class on Monday night where you can stick around for another 90 minutes and work on some things.  On Tuesday night, we complete the workout and then head home.  (Or to Chipotle.)  There was nothing taking place during this WOD that was particularly noteworthy and nothing was taking place after the WOD.  I would just be doing a workout and trying my best.

LC was back from Miami having secured a spot in the American Open in December (although she didn't know it quite yet).  She had a half-dozen athletes in her class prepared to take on the following workout:

Tuesday's WOD:
15 deadlifts (225/155)
30 GHD sit-ups
12 deadlifts
24 GHD sit-ups
9 deadlifts
18 GHD sit-ups
6 deadlifts
12 GHD sit-ups
3 deadlifts
6 GHD sit-ups

While Kris, Esra, Neil, Actuary Mike, Bryan, and I were warming up with some dynamic stretches, LC took the opportunity to poke some fun at me.  She had heard about my PR lift at the BBC meet on Sunday and wanted to make me blush, so she asked the class if anyone had a story from this weekend that they would care to share with the class.  "Who has a story?", she inquired while staring directly at me.  Damn.  She had put me in a tight spot.  But if there's one thing Patrick Swayze has taught us, it is this:

I played along and raised my hand.  Then we had the following exchange:

• LC: "Dave, you have a story?"
• Me: "Yes I do."
• LC: "Go ahead."
• Me: "On Sunday, after the BBC meet was over, we watched the American Open qualifier on a TV we brought into the gym.  This one girl kept putting 1kg more on her barbell than I had used during all of my lifts.  It was really aggravating.  Every single lift she did it!"

LC admonished me for telling the wrong story, but the story I chose to tell wasn't fiction.  When we watched LC on Sunday, her lifts just happened to be 1kg more than all of mine.  She failed on her second clean and jerk, yet still added 7kg for her final lift because she thought she needed to lift that much to qualify for the American Open.  She missed on that lift, but it turned out that she didn't need it anyway.  She would end up qualifying based on her placing, not on her total.

It was probably wrong of me to turn that around on LC like that, so I made it up to her by giving her two stories about me.  I told the tale that she already knew about, the one where I made the clean and jerk at 105kg.  Then I surprised her by following it up with the story of how I had done 102 consecutive double unders last night.  The bonus information put me back on her good side again.

There wasn't a lot to go over in preparation for this WOD.  The deadlift is the most basic lift (other than maybe the shoulder press) that we do in the gym.  There isn't a lot of skill in performing a GHD sit-up.  The biggest concern there is making sure that you don't hurt yourself.  LC watched us all do some practice reps, making sure that the seat was adjusted properly for all of us.  We didn't need to touch the floor on every rep if that range of motion was too much for us.  She also let us know that we should scale the reps if we had never done anything in the neighborhood of 90 GHD sit-ups before.

With 6 athletes in class and only 5 GHD machines available, we staggered the start by a minute to try and avoid gridlock when it came to the sit-ups.  I was in heat two, as were Kris and Neil.  LC got Mike, Esra, and Bryan started while I patiently waited for my turn to begin.  A minute later, I got to work on the deadlifts.  I was using the RX weight of 225 pounds, something I was very familiar with from Open Workout 17.4 (which was a repeat of 16.4).  In that workout, you have to do 55 deadlifts at that weight.  Tonight we would only be doing 45 reps.  For the first round, I broke my 15 deadlifts up into a set of 10 and a set of 5.  I hustled over to a GHD machine for 30 sit-ups.  I broke those up into sets of 16, 7, and 7.

Back at the barbell, I decided to go 4-4-4 on the 12 deadlifts, trying to keep my breaks small.  I stuck with equal-sized sets on the GHD sit-ups as well.  The GHD reps were double the deadlift reps, so I went 8-8-8 over there.  As I speed-walked back to my barbell, I saw Neil heading back towards his.  For these first two rounds, we were dead even.  This was already feeling like one of those workouts where we'd be going neck and neck until the end.  His barbell was up in front of mine, so I could see how fast he was moving.  Everyone else was behind me, so I really had no idea where they were in terms of time.  Even if I had seen them, I'm not sure I would have been able to figure out where I was in comparison to the trio that started a minute ahead of us.

All of that became a little more confusing during round 3.  The folks in the first wave began finishing their workout, which made me wonder whether those of us in the second wave were going way too slow.  What I didn't know at the time is that everyone in heat one did 1/2 of the GHD sit-ups each round, whereas everyone in heat two went RX, both in terms of the GHD sit-ups and the weight used for the deadlifts.

The good part about Mike, Bryan, and Esra finishing up early was that there would no longer be any concerns about anyone having to wait on a GHD machine.  I went 6 and 3 for my set of 9 deadlifts, then got over to a GHD as quick as I could.  I only needed two sets (10 and 8) to complete my sit-ups.  I looked over to the GHD that Neil was on and saw he was still working.  There weren't a lot of reps in the last two rounds, so I thought if I really pushed the pace now, Neil wouldn't be able to catch me.

I came back to my barbell and hung on for all 6 reps.  Then I jogged to my GHD machine.  I might have been a little too aggressive with my pace because I needed to stop after just 4 sit-ups.  I took some time to catch my breath, then I completed the remaining 8 sit-ups.  I was still ahead of Neil.  The time for walking between stations had passed.  It was all jogging the rest of the way.  There was no pause when I got to my barbell.  I picked it up, did 3 fast deadlifts, and dropped it.  One more jog to the GHD machine.  I got my feet locked in and snapped my body through the last 6 sit-ups.  Final time: 12:15.

It is becoming increasingly rare that I beat Neil in a workout, so maybe this result does count as yet another extraordinary accomplishment in a banner week for me.  (Or maybe Neil just hates GHD sit-ups.)  More than anything, I think I just capitalized on some events/workouts where being a sweaty guy wouldn't adversely effect me as much as it typically does.  That streak was bound to come to an end soon.  All it was going to take was a visit to the pull-up rig.

Wednesday preview: I'm the third wheel on a "filthy" date with the Springs.