Doesn't Even Count In Crossfit

Workout date: 10/20/17

After Wednesday's WOD, I was experiencing soreness in a variety of locations in my body.  That made Thursday the perfect time to take a rest day.  Coming in on Friday meant I could be present for a class with Coach Keithie, something I hadn't done in quite a while.  Keithie was listed as the coach for the 6:30 class when I signed up, but he must have had other plans because Giulz would be the coach when I arrived at KOP.

There are many times when I'll describe Dudes After Dark as "all dudes except Esra" or "all dudes except The Prodigy".  In this class, the tables were being turned on me.  Giulz had 7 athletes awaiting her instruction and I was the only dude in the bunch.  I'd be taking class with The Prodigy, Caitlyn, Sarah W, Tia, Esra, and Kris.  The seven of us had signed up for the following fun:

Friday's WOD:
10 minute EMOM
2RM power clean

Cash-out:
21 power cleans
50 double unders
15 power cleans
50 double unders
9 power cleans
50 double unders
*Barbell weight should be approximately 80% of the 2RM you found earlier

Seriously?  Another barbell EMOM?  When was this madness going to end?  I thought we had at least smartened up by changing these to ETMOMs so that athletes would get proper rest, but that was apparently a limited time offer.  The cash-out sounded interesting at least.  My goal for the 2RM power clean was 225 pounds, which meant I'd be doing 45 power cleans at 180 pounds along with 150 double unders in the cash-out.  That would definitely be spicy.  I'd probably have to roll that back to the 165 pound range if I was going to finish in a reasonable amount of time.

Giulz began the warmup by having us alternate back and forth between 30 second increments of single unders and a variety of stretches.  Once we had run the gamut of stretches, Giulz had us complete as many double unders as possible in 30 seconds.  I messed up right off the bat, hitting the rack behind me when the 30 seconds began.  I moved forward so that I wouldn't hit the rack again and then got 42 double unders in a row before the 30 seconds were up.

I tried to keep things extremely simple when it came time to come up with a strategy for this EMOM.  At some point I would need to put the big 45 pound plates on my barbell, so why not have them on for round one?  I could start at 135 and get to 225 over 10 rounds by bumping the weight on the barbell by 10 pounds during every transition.  Trying to sneak on the 45 pound plates in the middle of the EMOM was just asking for trouble.  So for better or worse, I was going with 135-145-155-165-175-185-195-205-215-225 for my progression.

The seven of us had all grabbed some space for our barbells and for all of the plates we'd need nearby for the transitions between sets.  I had 45 pound plates on my barbell, with a set of 25 pound plates, 15 pound plates, 10 pound plates, and 5 pound plates at the ready to help me make my way up to 225 pounds.

The sets are supposed to be easy early on and they were in this EMOM.  Giulz emphasized that we could not let go of the barbell during these sets.  They had to be touch and go.  I gladly did one power clean, tapped the floor, and went into my next rep during the first six sets.  The quicker I got them done, the better.  There was a limited amount of time for the lifts, for the transition, and for rest.  If you wanted a breather, you had to be fast and have your plates organized so that the transition would be as simple as possible.  When my transition involved nothing but adding a plate to my barbell, I got about 30 seconds of rest.  If my transition involved changing plates, I got about 15-20 seconds of rest.

It wasn't until I reached the set at 195 that I had to pump the brakes.  The first power clean of the set was no longer so easy.  Even when I got it up to my shoulders, I had to take my time and make sure that I had a strong grip on the barbell before moving forward with the second rep.  The two power cleans I did at 205 pounds were not all that different from the ones I had done at 195.  The set at 215 was a completely different story though.  After getting the initial power clean, I went through my mental checklist before attempting the second rep.  I tapped the floor with the barbell and pulled as hard as I could.  It was not my finest lift.  With my back arched pretty severely, I caught the barbell on the lower part of my ribcage while in a partial squat.  As I stood up, I shoved the barbell up my torso and up to my shoulders.  I saw that Giulz was watching me, so after I dumped the barbell, I gave the "that was iffy" wobbly hand signal.  Before my final set, she came over to talk to me.  I told her that I somehow had violated the extremely lenient "counts in Crossfit" standard, but she assured me that the rep was okay.

My barbell now weighed 225 pounds and there was just one set left to go.  The second rep from the set at 215 told me I had no chance here, but sometimes you can pull a rabbit out of the hat when the finish line is in sight.  The final minute had started, but I took some extra time to recover from the previous set before confronting 225.  I grabbed the barbell and pulled with everything I had to power clean it up to my shoulders.  Not only did I get it to my shoulders, my form on that lift was greatly improved from the second rep I had done at 215.  I had a real shot at this set, even though the second rep is always trickier because it is touch and go.  I held the barbell on my shoulders for a solid 5-10 seconds.  I re-established my grip.  I took a big breath.  I told myself that I could get this second power clean as it was my last lift of the EMOM.  And then I proceeded to miss very badly.  I completely rushed the entire movement and didn't come close to executing the power clean properly.  Oh well.  Final score: 215.

There was no way that I was using more than 165 pounds in the cash-out.  In fact, I wasn't entirely sure that weight was appropriate for me.  Giulz walked around to all of us and asked us what we planned on using.  When I said I was considering 165, she surprisingly told me that she felt that was a good weight for me.  I thought for sure she would tell me to scale more, but she had faith I could move well with 165.  I would need to keep things moving because Giulz gave us a time domain of 10 minutes for the cash-out.

Early on it appeared as though I was going to reward Giulz's faith.  My first set of power cleans was 6 reps long.  I knew I couldn't take long breaks, so I got right into the next set, but that one only lasted for 3 reps.  Okay, perhaps I could take a slightly longer break than the one I just took.  When I felt ready to go again, I did a set of 4.  Eight reps left in this round.  After my next break, I did two quick sets of 2 reps.  For my last set, I did 4 quick singles.

All those moderately heavy power cleans had knocked the wind out of me.  I staggered over to my jump rope, not really believing that I could get through 50 reps in a timely manner.  Muscle memory took over, however.  I got through a set of 19 double unders before coming to a stop.  The next set was 21 reps long.  I completed the last 10 on my third set.  I was exhausted, but the clock only read 4:30.  There was still a small chance I could keep this under 10 minutes.

My power clean sets in round two all consisted of quick singles.  I did three sets of four reps and one set of three.  My breaks between those sets were much longer than the breaks I had required in round one.  As I came back to the jump rope, I had given up hope of staying under 10 minutes.  Now I was playing for pride.  If I could complete everything in about 11 minutes, I wouldn't feel too bad about my performance.  Once again it took three sets to get through my 50 double unders, with the sets going 14-18-18 this time.

I dragged my body back to my barbell, but I wasn't ready to begin the power cleans.  I couldn't breathe.  I leaned over trying to draw some air into my lungs.  About half of my classmates were now done and they were trying to encourage me to push through this final round.  I did 3 quick singles before resorting to my old standby: the resting squat.  It was so much more comfortable being in that squat and I could breathe better down there.  My classmates were pleading with me to stand back up, but I didn't want to.  Of course, I wasn't going to bail on the WOD with the finish line within reach, so eventually I stood up and did 3 more power cleans.  One more resting squat was needed before I finished off the last of the power cleans.

I stood with my jump rope in my hands for a short time, unable to convince myself to begin the last 50 double unders.  My legs were telling me that they had no desire to jump.  They lied.  Two more resting squats would be thrown in along the way, but I was able to match what I had done in rounds one and two by completing 50 double unders in three sets.  I went 20-16-14 to finish things off.  Final time: 12:52.

That wasn't as close to the time domain as I would have hoped.  I would definitely go lighter on the power cleans if I had it to do over again.  Those destroyed me a whole lot more than I thought they would.  I still haven't recovered the confidence in my double unders that I lost at the Brawl.  I was tremendously tired when I got to the double unders each round, but I was able to complete 50 reps in three sets every time despite being out of juice.  That tells me I need to stop worrying about failing on them when I'm exhausted.  I just need to twirl the rope and believe I can do it.

Monday preview: All good things must come to an end.