The heat index inside the gym on Monday night was high enough to make several athletes feel nauseous. Things did not cool off much over the next 24 hours. We were nearing mid-October and it was at least 75 degrees outside, which meant it was north of 85 degrees inside KOP. I love the huge space that we have to work out in, but it can be brutally hot sometimes. There is simply no circulation within the gym. It is badly in need of some air conditioning. Last year, the heat was too much for me in August and I left for 5 weeks, hoping that the end of summer would bring cooler temps. This year, we were long past Labor Day and still dealing with this issue. It would play a big role in my performance at Dudes After Dark.
LC's class was made up of 6 dudes (me, Cline, Bryan, Erik, Actuary Mike, and Brian S) and Esra. Caitlyn had been in the 6:30 class and I saw the three participants from last evening's "Flight Night With Mike" all chatting when I walked in the door. Mike was laughing about something. When he saw me, he came over to tell me that Esra and Caitlyn were experiencing some sore calves as a result of all the double under work they put in after the WOD. (I'm sure there was probably some cramping due to dehydration as well.) Mike felt fine. After all, he only did 18 minutes of work while both of the ladies went the full 25 minutes. I think he was laughing partly because he knew how they felt having done the Flight Simulator so many times before last night's successful run.
Esra would have to get those calves loosened up in a hurry because she would be leading us out on the warmup run. LC wanted us to do a 400 meter Indian run with a med ball. Back during the summer, there would still be daylight available as we did this warmup, so we would toss the med ball up in the air without a care, confident that the person behind us would catch it. Now that it was dark at 7:30, that seemed a little more dangerous. The med ball is mostly black to begin with. Tossing it towards the night sky would camouflage it even more and could result in someone taking a med ball to the face. LC was aware that this could happen so she gave us clear instructions for the warmup. "Don't toss it like an asshole", she said to the immature group of students standing by the door. She demonstrated how we should pass along the ball to one another, twisting to the side and handing it to the mythical person behind her. She asked if we all understood and each one of us said yes.
Esra had our med ball and we followed her outside. As we walked past the barrier on the other side of the street, Esra began jogging and we all followed suit. And then she tossed the ball up in the air like an asshole. I couldn't have been prouder of her. None of us wanted to do that lame "turn to the side" alternative. Every time we've done this warmup, we've thrown the ball in the air and we weren't going to let a little thing like darkness stop us from our routine. Plus, LC should have known that she was surrounded by assholes.
A glimpse at Dudes After Dark in the future
When we returned from the run, LC had another game awaiting us. We would stand in a circle with a PVC pipe in front of us. LC would yell "left" or "right" and we'd have to run in that direction and grab the pipe that was abandoned by the person who had been standing there. At first the circle was pretty tight and you didn't have to run far to get to the next pipe. As long as the person who was there didn't intentionally tip it on you, you had a good shot at catching it before it hit the ground. One by one, players were eliminated and the circle got wider. In the end, it would come down to me and Bryan. I made a couple of desperate saves when it was down to heads up, but Bryan would wind up winning when it was all said and done.
Now that we were warmed up (translation: sweaty), it was time to turn our attention to the WOD. Here's a look at it:
Tuesday's WOD:
20 minute AMRAP
40 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
30 toes-to-bar
20 power cleans (135/95)
10 bar muscle-ups
A glimpse at the scores from earlier in the day told me that completing 2 rounds would be close to impossible, so I wasn't going to put too much pressure on myself in terms of moving from station to station quickly. This was probably going to be slow and painful, so I was going to focus on keeping my breaks short rather than focusing on speed.
LC warmed us up at each of the stations beginning with the power cleans (empty barbell) and then the wall balls. After that, we moved over to the pull-up rig for the toes-to-bar and bar muscle-ups. My barbell was near the middle of the gym, so I headed over to a bar towards the middle of the pull-up rig. I was going to use the high bar for the toes-to-bar, so there was plenty of space to do those, but once we went on to the progressions for the bar muscle-up (where I'd be on the low bar), I knew there wasn't going to be enough space for me. So once we were done with the progressions, I moved down to the far end of the gym by myself. It probably looked a little weird that I had separated myself from everyone else, but they would be happy to know a sweaty gorilla wasn't going to kick them in the back while they were on the pull-up rig.
The only aspect of this workout that I decided to scale was the bar muscle-ups because I'd never done 10 in a WOD before and I wasn't particularly confident that I could even do one. LC mentioned chest-to-bar pull-ups as a scale and I knew I could complete 10 of those in a reasonable amount of time. The toes-to-bar were going to be the most difficult part of the WOD, but I always had the option of coming down from the high bar and doing singles on the low bar if I got too tired to string reps.
After LC watched us do some practice power cleans with the weight we'd be using in the WOD, we were ready to begin. Well, I was almost ready. I needed to grab some paper towels and wipe off my head, my arms, and my hands. My shirt was already completely soaked through. I hadn't done the workout yet, but it sure looked like I had. Once I was somewhat dry, I walked down to the far end of the gym and got ready for the wall balls.
If there was one part of this workout that I had some confidence in, it would be the wall balls. I wouldn't say I had a breakthrough with these, but I felt like I discovered a way to improve my technique during one of last week's cash-outs. Because this WOD was likely going to be a long, painful slog, my plan was to break up the wall balls into two sets. We got underway and I made it through 25 reps before letting the ball hit the ground. So far, so good. I tried to keep my rest short. I picked up the ball and began my second set. I was only a few reps in when sweat began pouring down my head and into my eyes. As I tossed the ball up to the wall, I tried to quickly use my shoulder to get the sweat out of my eyes, but it didn't do much good. If catching a ball falling from the sky outside in the dark was dangerous, then I can't imagine it would be any more safe trying to do it with your vision impaired. After 8 reps, I got frustrated and let my ball drop again. I used my shirt to dry off my entire head. I picked up the ball and completed my remaining 7 reps.
I told myself that my attitude would get better if I could get through the 30 toes-to-bar with some fairly large sets. Early on, that seemed like a real possibility. I did two sets of five to kick things off. Four more sets like that and I was on to the power cleans! On my next set, my grip began to slip on the 3rd rep, but I re-gripped and got a 4th rep in before coming down from the bar. I chalked up my hands hoping that it would keep my hands dry, but I felt my hands sliding when I got to rep #3 of the next set. It didn't matter whether I used chalk or dried my hands on one of the small sections of my t-shirt that weren't saturated with sweat. These solutions were very temporary. Everyone else had moved on to the power cleans while I struggled to hold on to the bar. My remaining sets would go 3-3-2-2-1-1-1. There was a lot of time remaining in the WOD, but I had checked out mentally already.
I came over to the power cleans thinking that I might be able to use some of my anger to cycle the barbell quickly. But you have to have some real interest in what you're doing to make that happen. My mind wasn't thinking "hey, put together some big sets here and catch up with your classmates". It was thinking "great, how is the fact that water pours out of me like a broken fire hydrant going to screw me on this movement?" I did a set of two power cleans and dropped the barbell. It wasn't too heavy for me. I just didn't feel like picking it up. When I talked myself into going back to the barbell, I only managed two more. Slowly I began to let go of some of my frustration. My next three sets would be 3 reps each. You can do more than 3 reps at a time. Stop messing around and get back into it. I took a deep breath and tried to remember what it felt like to want to do this. I did one power clean, tapped the floor, and went right into the next. For the first time since I got to the barbell, I developed a rhythm. I refused to let go of that barbell until I completed all 7 power cleans that I had remaining.
That was the first (spoiler: and only) bright spot of this workout for me. I came over to a low bar at the far end of the gym ready to do sets of quick chest-to-bar singles. I had done sets of 6 in other workouts, so I felt like I should be able to do this in two sets. Not today! I didn't feel safe on any of my reps. As I did my kip, I felt my hands slide every time. I tried to ignore it, but I couldn't help it. My inability to control how much I sweat was crushing me on this WOD. I went 2-3-3-2 and moved on to the wall balls.
Somehow things got worse when I got there. If you told me that I hadn't reached my low point yet, I would never have believed you, but it was still to come. I began my set of wall balls thinking that I could finish them in 4 sets, maybe 3 if got my head straight. I tossed the ball up to the wall and when I caught it, I felt it slide in my hand. It felt like it might come out of my hands, so I had to really throw it hard to get it up to the 10' mark. It made it there, but just barely. That wasn't the point though. I had been doing this workout for over 15 minutes now and it was nothing but one reminder after another about how sweaty I was and how it impaired my performance. After catching the second rep, I used all of my energy to throw the wall ball as high as I could. I had no intentions of catching it. The ball hit the wall up near the flags (between 11' and 12') before crashing back down to the floor. I walked away from the wall, taking some time to consider whether I wanted to stop now or keep going.
I took my longest break of the WOD. I didn't need to catch my breath or shake out my arms or anything. I just needed to make a decision on whether I was going to continue. If I was going to blow up again during the remaining few minutes, then there was no point. But if I could convince myself to keep it together for a couple more minutes, then it would be worthwhile. I dried off my hands and returned to the wall. I did a set of 12 reps. On my next set, I did 15. That left 10 for the final set that I did.
I didn't bother trying to string big sets of toes-to-bar on the high bar as that only had the potential of making me frustrated. I went to the low bar and did sets of quick singles. My first set was 5 reps. Then I got two sets of four completed before time was called. Final score: 1+53.
Usually at the end of a workout, I'll think about strategy. I'll think about whether I should have scaled something. I'll think about whether I need to spend more time practicing a movement. At the end of this WOD, all I could think about was whether Crossfit was right for me. Maybe I should be doing something else. If I took up running again, I wouldn't have to worry about sweating tarnishing my time. If I joined a swim club, I wouldn't have to worry about perspiration affecting my workout. There were plenty of other things I could do in terms of exercise where I wouldn't be so harshly penalized as I seem to always be when doing Crossfit.
Then again, maybe it wasn't Crossfit itself that was the problem. Maybe I just needed to move on from KOP. I had visited other boxes when traveling. It's not like there weren't any Crossfit gyms with air conditioning. They existed. Maybe I wouldn't end up as frustrated with Crossfit if I found a place where I could do it without sweating so damn much.
I had a lot to think about as I drove home that night. My gut reaction was to wait it out. It was bound to cool off at some point, right? Perhaps I'd re-embrace Crossfit once actual fall weather descended on our region. That seemed like my best option for now. I couldn't imagine leaving KOP and doing Crossfit somewhere else, even if they had air conditioning. I was all-in with the KOP crew. If I wasn't doing Crossfit there, I wasn't doing it anywhere.
Thursday preview: After a day off to get over Tuesday night's frustration, I come back for an earlier than normal class on Thursday and everyone seems to notice. For once, it feels like fall. I make a mid-WOD adjustment in order to stay within the coach's time domain.
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