Learning To Fly

Workout date: 3/8/15

YES!  YES!!!!!!

That was my reaction upon seeing the WOD listed for Sunday.  After being thwarted by Dave Castro two years in a row, I would now get the chance to do some heavy overhead squats.  The WOD was 4 rounds for time of a 500M row and 10 overhead squats (155/105).  I wasn't exactly sure if going RX was wise (it is probably never wise for me, but when has that stopped me?), but it seemed on the cusp of my abilities.  If it felt too heavy when I warmed up, I could go with 135, a weight I know I could manage.

NO!  NO!!!!!!

That was my reaction when I woke up Sunday morning, my shoulders on fire from the partner WOD Saturday morning.  It was to the point that I wasn't sure I could raise my arms over my head.  And that's kinda the whole idea behind overhead squats.  Ok, technically that is half of the idea behind them.  Not only would it be dumb to try and RX the workout, it was going to be dumb to do the workout at all.  So with much sadness, I decided against doing this WOD and went to Open Gym to practice some things instead.  (Even writing this made me sad.  I'll wait for your return, heavy overhead squats!)

When I got to the gym, I immediately began working on my shoulder mobility.  If I was getting anything done today, it needed to include double under practice and kipping practice.  The latter was more important due to time constraints (Open scores must be in by 8pm Monday), but I am a procrastinator by trade.  There is a new shoulder mobility contraption set up by the rings that I got an intro to the other night, so I went over and spent some time on it to at least get some range of motion.  I did a bunch of arm circles and things like that to loosen up my shoulders.  After a while, I was ready to hit the double unders.

Today's goal for double unders was to expand on the mini Flight Simulator I did recently.  Instead of 5-10-15-20-25-20-15-10-5, I was going for 5-10-15-20-25-30-25-20-15-10-5.  I had just gotten started when Michal joined me and then Rachel jumped in once she was done with her shadowing duties for the day.  Since Michal is a rock star with double unders, she decided she was doing the entire Flight Simulator (where 50 is the midpoint).  I didn't have too much trouble until I got to the first round of 25.  I had a set of 19, which felt like a total waste of energy.  There's a point where this process becomes really tiring as a big set where you don't hit your number is not productive.  I mean, it's productive as far as improving your double unders goes, but not with completing the actual workout.

Rachel and I were both on 25 and Michal had made her way up to 40.  Rachel had a set of 23 and a set of 22, and I completely sympathized with her frustration of doing all that work and having to start over again.  I got a big set going and tried to remain calm.  I passed the 20 mark and when I got to 23,  I decided that I was taking absurdly big jumps to ensure I got to 25.  Two crazy jumps later and I was done with the round of 25.  Oddly enough, on my next set, I got all 30 with little problem (no absurd jumps necessary).  It was a relief to be on the way down.

Michal had gotten a little stuck at 45 and Rachel was still working on her first set of 25.  I got through my 25 a few rounds later, but ended up getting stuck at 20 as I had really begun fatiguing.  Michal had done 50 instead of 45, hoping to skip a round, but I told her she still had to do 50 again.  And she did that pretty quickly.  Rachel got past her first round of 25 and was now at 30.  With my energy running low and my sweat flying everywhere, I got through the round of 20.  The rounds of 15, 10, and 5 were fairly simple at that point and I was done.  Michal had started to make her way down, while Rachel was still at 30, quickly losing interest in completing this workout.

So I sat next to her and stared while she did the next set.  Of course, she got all 30.  Same thing on the next set as she got 25.  And on and on until she finished.  Apparently she just needed an audience.  The same was true for Michal, because once we went over to watch her, she zipped through her remaining rounds as well.

Once the double under extravaganza had ended, I worked with Rachel on rope climbs.  As soon as she gets confidence in her initial jump and learns how to J-hook, she will be zipping up that rope.  In return for working with her on that, she agreed to work with me on my kipping.  Soon that led to Keith helping me with my kipping as well.  And Jill A. came over to help out because she just glides back and forth during pull-ups, which is pretty much the polar opposite of what I'm doing up there.  The group was very helpful in showing me what I need to do to kip, I just need to get it in my thick skull and not forget it.  Plus a boatload of practice would help.

Finally, I want to give a shoutout to my birthday souka, Diane.  She does not give herself enough credit.  I knew she could do pull-ups if she tried.  Last night, she semi-secretly tried (she was by herself, but she videotaped it).  Not surprisingly, she kipped up and made it look like the easiest thing in the world.  Hopefully some of that souka magic will work for me Monday night when I give 15.2 one more chance.

The 45 Minute Partner Carry

Workout date: 3/7/15

I remember a time when Saturday mornings involved sleeping in until 10:30am, followed by slowly getting ready for a late breakfast, after which I'd return home and take a nap.  Wait, why am I not doing this any more?  That sounds fantastic!  Instead, I've been getting up and going to Competitors Class at 7am.  Well, more like 7:15.  There is only so much you can expect from me that early on a weekend.

Luckily, being 15 minutes late to that class is not nearly as stigmatizing as arriving 2 minutes late to a weekday class.  When I rolled in at 7:15, almost everyone still had a coat on (it takes a while for the heaters to get going) which indicated that I hadn't missed out on anything.  Giulia had told me the night before that we would be doing a team WOD as part of the workout, but I wasn't sure how many people would be on each team.  With 8 of us in the class, it would have worked out whether we went with teams of 4 or teams of 2, but the workout ended up being for teams of 2.

Before that though, we warmed up with a 50 calorie row (simple enough), then continued on to a snatch complex where every minute on the minute for 7 minutes, we would do a squat snatch, a power snatch, a hang snatch, and an overhead squat at 80% of our max.  My max snatch is 175, but that was not at 8 in the morning.  (To be fair, when we did Brawl in the Burbs last summer, the snatch was part of the first event that took place early in the morning and I did 165)  Because my body was still hitting the internal snooze button, I didn't warm up very much with my weight of 135 (a little less than 80%).  And when we started round 1, I was in for a shock.  My squat snatch was a failure.  My power snatch was fine.  The hang snatch was not close.  With the clock running, I decided I needed to hustle and change weights.  I dropped down to 115 and did the rest of that part of the workout with that weight, but even that was a bit of a struggle.

After that, it was on to the main event.  I asked Giulia to be my partner and we took on this behemoth:

(I would have put a "Spoiler" about the results, but you already read the subject line, didn't ya?)

My initial impressions: I suck at KB swings, so 200 of them doesn't sound good.  Should be able to chip through the wall balls, should be able to chip through the handstand push-ups using 2 abmats, and I always enjoy rope climbs.

Could not have been more wrong about this workout...

The row ended up being fine, although we moved at a decent enough pace that our lungs were working pretty good when we finished the 2,000 meters.  Next were the KB swings and I started off with a set of 20.  That wasn't too shabby for me.  Soon we were doing sets of 15 and then sets of 10.  We fell a little bit behind here, but not too far behind as I was still, ya know, doing something at this point.

That would change on the wall balls.  The toll of getting through all of those KB swings was that my shoulders were now sore.  And they wanted no part of tossing a 20 pound medicine ball 10 feet up a wall.  Our game plan was simple: each of us do 10 at a time.  But a few rounds in and I was smoked already.  Giulia kept pumping out rounds of 10 reps, while I had rounds of 9, 8, 7 and even a round of 5.  Even in those smaller rounds, I was jumping to get the ball to the 10 foot mark, something I rarely do.  Towards the end, I did manage a set of 11 and a set of 12, but Giulia carried us through that section.  And my exhaustion had put us further behind.

The handstand push-ups couldn't be worse, right?  I mean, we only had to do 100 of those and we were using 2 abmats.  Once again, Giulia cranked out sets of reps, while I tried to get my arms to work.  She had to do the first 15 before I managed to contribute at all, and that was only after Marisa added a 3rd abmat, meaning that I was doing a push-up of about 2 inches.  With that range of motion, I was able to crank out some larger sets, but poor Giulia was stuck carrying the load once again.

I was relieved when we finally got to the rope climbs, as I've learned how to get up the rope with my legs more than with my arms.  I did 6 of the 10 climbs, and we stopped the clock nine seconds shy of 46 minutes.  If Giulia hadn't done as much work as she did, we might have cracked an hour for our time.

Another Saturday morning workout was wrapped up and I was exhausted.  But I did get to enjoy a bit of my old tradition.  We celebrated Giulia's birthday with breakfast afterwards.  And then I went home and thoroughly enjoyed a nap.

Kipping Impaired

Workout date: 3/6/15

15.2 was indeed a repeat of 14.2.  It was the same exact workout, and I had the same exact reaction to it, both before and after doing it.  Last year, the chest-to-bar pull-up was not even close to being part of my arsenal, but some quick tips before the workout helped me get 8 when my goal was to simply get 1.  And was I happy afterwards?  Of course not.  Once you realize that you can do something, your goals change on the fly.  I was 2 lousy chest-to-bar pull-ups away from getting back to the barbell for some easy overhead squats.  How could I fall short when I was that close?

As I mentioned in my last blog post, my goal this year was 30.  Did I make it to 30?  Sure did.  Was I happy with the result?  Not really.  As you will soon see, a lot of the other folks in the gym made drastic improvements in this workout, which left me feeling like I wasn't even deserving of my "adequate" label anymore.  What it really comes down to is that fact that I am the gym's worst kipper, and until that changes, I will continue to lag behind a lot of people in the gym.

What is kipping?  Not only can I not do it, I may not even be able to explain it properly.  But I'll give it a shot.  Kipping is generating momentum with your body so that it makes body-weight movements easier to do.  Think of a child on a swing set.  They need that initial push to get going.  But once they get going, they can use their legs and shift their body forward and backward to swing higher and higher.  Same principle here.  Except in this example, I am the awkward kid who needs a push every 5 seconds.

Because of work running long and 15.2 being a workout that can end quickly, I ended up missing most of the heats at the gym Friday afternoon.  I got to see the scores though.  Justin had improved from 38 last year to 62 this year.  Flounder had gone from 36 last year to 59 this year.  As I set my bag down, only one person was still going in the heat and that was Aimee.  She had made it to the round of 16, which meant she had 144 reps already.  When her last three minutes expired, she had jumped from 134 all the way up to 193.  30 wasn't sounding so hot now.

I signed up for the final heat and got to switch roles with Rachel from the first workout.  Last week, she got to see me go in the heat before her.  This time I would get to see how she did.  And naturally, she destroyed it.  I beat her in this workout 18-10 last year.  Guess who got really good at chest-to-bar pull-ups in the meantime?  (Spoiler: that person is not the author of this blog)  When her six minutes ended, she had octupled her score, meaning this week's workout was over before it began for me.  Even if I reached my goal, I was 50 reps behind.

It didn't matter.  I was there to support Team Orange, donning my orange headband to go along with my spray painted orange goatee, my orange shorts, and my orange underwear.  (Hey, there were orange underwear pictures taken last week.  I made sure I was prepared this week.)  Making things better, I had Derreck as my judge, so the bald vibes were strong before the workout even began.  When things kicked off, I snatched my 95 pound bar and proceeded to fly through 10 overhead squats.  Only 20 seconds had elapsed when I got to the bar.  Time to get 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups.

There are a variety of reasons why I fail in the gym.  Overthinking things ranks near the top.  Before my heat, I practiced with fellow Orange team members Dana and Giulia (both of whom are great at kipping) so that I could get these dreaded 10 reps done.  They showed me good technique.  I did not replicate it at all.  I had a few successful reps, trying to swing my legs further back to make my kip more powerful.  But I never completed the most important part of the kip, the part that generates the power and sends your hips skyward.  As a result, I was doing a lot of awkward, nearly strict pull-ups. Sometimes my chest hit the bar, sometimes it did not.  And when it did not, I panicked.  I started trying to think of new ways to get successful reps.  At one point, I swung up, did not get my chest high enough, moved my right hand over while hanging there, and then pulled my chest to the bar.  Maybe the worst technique ever.  But I got a rep!  (Yay?)

As time ticked away, I was getting very concerned that I wouldn't get beyond 8 again.  Successful rep #9 was a mental relief.  And when I got 10, I scrambled over to my bar, shoving Derreck out of the way so I could get to my beloved overhead squats.  I had about 30 seconds left, but I was pumped.  Slightly angry, but pumped.  Here's proof:

I was so amped up that I actually jumped during two of my overhead squats.  Did I mention that I was pissed that this will be the only opportunity to do overhead squats in the Open?  Such a waste...

As I finished the 10th overhead, I saw that I had about 5 seconds left.  I ran over to try and awkwardly do one last chest-to-bar, but we had crossed the line of decent form long ago.  My last attempt was unsuccessful and I ended up with exactly 30 reps.

I should mention some other scores as well.  Cate (Team Orange!) put up 131 reps as she continues her quest to finish in the top 200 worldwide in her Masters division for the second straight year.  Michal scrambled like crazy at the end of the first round to get her last few chest-to-bar reps in, but she made it by a few seconds, earning her three more minutes on her way to a score of 59.  Jill C. had 1 chest-to-bar prior to the workout, then cranked out 5 during the workout.  And Shawna got her first ever chest-to-bar during 15.2.  I love that stuff.  It's the reason why the Open is my favorite event of the year.

Should I be satisfied with my score of 30?  Maybe.  I'm never satisfied.  I always think I should be doing better.  I don't know if I can fix my kipping issues before 8pm on Monday, but if I could get them straightened out, there is a real chance I could make round 2.  And if I made round 2 and could manage 12 chest-to-bars during those 3 minutes, I'd have a real shot at a score of 76.  So I will be working on my kip at Open Gym in the hopes that I can score even higher.  Because let's face it, 76 sounds a hell of a lot better than 30.

I Won't Be Nervous Unless...

As soon as I began writing that text, I should have known what to expect.  I've been working hard at improving my double unders.  I've been trying my best to become mentally tougher during longer workouts.  There are even a few movements that I am kinda decent with.  There was only one thing that I did not want to see for Open Workout 15.2:

Why did I even watch the workout announcement tonight?  I should have flown to Vegas and put all of my life savings on "15.2 will include chest-to-bar pull-ups".  Or even a little side action on "they're bringing push-ups back into the Open".  (Note: Watching the Crossfit staff do push-ups made me feel better about my own form.  And my form leaves a lot to be desired.)  As a gambler, one learns quickly that you never taunt the gambling gods.  Clearly the Crossfit gods play by the same rules.  Say that you are trying to avoid a certain movement and you can expect it to be on the menu tomorrow.

What is 15.2?  In 3 minutes, you must do 2 rounds of 10 overhead squats (95/65) and 10 chest-to-bar pull-ups.  Every time you are successful, you get 3 additional minutes, but each round contains 2 more reps of both movements.  It is the artist formerly known as 14.2.  And like last year, it is a workout that screws me royally.  Overhead squats are one of my best movements, but once again, I'll be doing 10 reps of a light overhead squat and then will almost certainly not see the movement for the rest of the Open.  That blows.  If Dave Castro doesn't give me some 135 pound thrusters over the next three weeks, I am going to be a very unhappy camper.

I'm not sure how this will play out for the bet.  I don't think either Rachel or I are particularly psyched about chest-to-bar pull-ups, so it may come down to a rep here or there.  Or she might magically rip off 10 in a row and leave me in the dust.  The goal for me is simple yet again: 30 reps.  Last year, I had never done chest-to-bar pull-ups before this workout.  With some help from Jason, I managed to knock out 8 of them.  Those last 2 reps really cost me 12 reps, since the 10 overheads would have taken very little time.  Since I no longer believe in magic at the gym, I have no aspirations of making it to the second 3 minutes in this workout.  It will be 3 minutes and grab a beer.

Tomorrow will be disappointing because my biggest weakness will be highlighted.  But a little progress might be enough to give me belief that I can get through the first 3 minutes with a little practice between tomorrow and whenever I attempt this workout again.  Good luck to everyone attempting 15.2, especially my teammates in Orange!

Glimmer of Hope

Workout date: 3/3/15

Rachel has been telling me that 14.5 will be rearing its ugly head once again this Open season.  And since she has passed her Level 1 training course and knows the secret handshake, I am inclined to believe her.  What was 14.5?  To date, it is the only Open workout ever for time.  A couplet of thrusters (95/65) and burpees over the barbell with a rep scheme of 21-18-15-12-9-6-3.  No clock to save your exhausted butt.  Keep going until you've finished all 84 reps of each movement.

I remember doing this workout last year and thinking that it might be a good one for me.  I like thrusters.  Burpees I suck at, but maybe I could save some time with the thrusters.  It wasn't long before the burpee segment had me sucking wind, crippling me to the point that I was crawling around in my puddles of sweat as I slowly (and I mean slowly) finished one burpee after another.  After 23 minutes and 26 seconds of agony, I hopped over the bar one last time and finished my 2014 Open performance.

If 15.2 is indeed going to be a repeat of 14.5, tonight's workout was a sneak preview into how it might go.  The WOD was 4 rounds long of 3 minute AMRAPs consisting of 10 calories on the rower, 10 thrusters (95/65) and 10 burpees.  Between each round was the dreaded 2 minute rest period.  My initial reaction was that the top scores in the gym might be over 200 reps, but the monsters that frequent the morning classes posted scores in the mid-180's.  That led me to believe that a score of 150-160 would be a pretty good one for me.

After yet another lousy workday, I made it over to the gym for the 7:30 class.  It was just me and Matt E. this evening.  We did a little bit of a warmup and then it was time to go.  As usual, I looked at the whiteboard to see some of the day's scores, but in particular, I wanted to see how Rachel did on this workout.  169 reps.  F me.

The goal for round 1 was to get to the burpees a second time.  I needed to average more than 42 reps per round and my performance in workouts that included rest tended to follow a pattern of one big round, then a steep drop off, another drop off, and then a final push where my last round beats the second-to-last round.  So a first round of 50-55 reps seemed essential to me.  The row was fast and I got done with my 10 calories just before Matt.  The thrusters is where I would excel.  Coach Keith had told us that we should choose our weight such that we would never break up the set of 10.  It might not be pleasant, but I could definitely grit my way through 10 thrusters at 95 pounds every round.

The kick in the teeth was the burpees.  I knew I could row and I knew I could do thrusters, so my focus was to push hard through the burpees.  But my body wanted no part of it.  I got through the 10 burpees, but it wasn't particularly fast.  A quick glance at the clock showed 1:41.  I got back on the rower and tried to pull hard, but this second row was not going to be nearly as fast as the first.  It was about 2:25 when I finished the row and started to make my way back over for more thrusters.  These were definitely painful.  Keith yelled at me to hold on, and I did, but I only got 8 reps in before the first intermission started.

48 reps was not the start I had hoped for.  During the 2 minute rest, I figured out that I would need to have at least one more round where I got back for a second set of thrusters and I was not confident about that prospect.  Round 2 started and Matt was off the rower before I was.  Dammit, here comes the drop off.  I went to squat clean the bar and didn't notice it was too close to the rower.  As I pulled the bar, the left side hit the rower and fell back to the floor.  Awesome.  Now I was wasting time and energy that I didn't have.  I moved the bar over and quickly went through the 10 thrusters.  Burpees were worse than before and the crawling had begun.  With less than a minute left, I got back to the rower.  I finished the row and then heard "3, 2, 1".  That was the end of round two.  The mistake with the bar might have cost me a rep, but no more than that.

I tried to rest, to breathe, and to focus on round three.  This has always been my worst round.  I've tried to pretend that it is the last round.  I've tried to go balls to the wall.  But knowing there is one more round left is an incredibly tough mental barrier to get beyond.  There was no choice tonight though.  I needed 82 reps in these final two rounds, so I couldn't have any more drop offs.  In fact, I needed to improve on round two.

Round three began and I was once again behind Matt on the row.  Having put the bar in a good place this time, I went through the thrusters quickly.  I crawled through a good portion of the burpees, but I kept moving.  And when I got back to the rower, there was about a minute left.  I could get back to the bar, but I needed to pull hard on this row.  I hit 10 calories with 10 seconds left in the round.  I got to the bar as quick as I could and managed 2 thrusters before time was called.

My mindset changed remarkably after that round.  I had improved during what has usually been my worst round.  And I knew that if I could complete that second row like I had done the first three rounds, I would hit 170.  I was tired, but I was pumped.  I could do this.  Plus, my last round was when I found that extra reserve.  As the final break winded down, I had a lot of positive energy flowing through me.  Fast row, fast thrusters, keep moving on the burpees, then give it all you got on the row.  Let's go!

It sort of went to plan.  Matt beat me on the row yet again, but I still managed a fairly fast row.  The thrusters were fast like the previous rounds.  I didn't look at the clock, but I knew I was ahead of the pace I needed.  Then the burpees happened.  I knew there were only 10 left.  I really tried willing my body into doing them.  But my legs were fried.  There were brief pauses.  There was crawling.  And there was suddenly a genuine fear that I was blowing this.  I was in the middle of my 9th burpee when I heard that I only had a minute left.  Come on legs, move!

I finished up, got my feet in the rower and pulled.  I wanted big pulls, but fast pulls would do.  Just 10 calories to go.  I was right about to hit 8 calories when I heard "15 seconds" and that was when I knew I would make it.  A few pulls later and I had finished the row.  With 5 seconds left, I scrambled towards the bar.  I managed a squat clean, but heard "Time" before I could thrust it in the air.  It would have been nice to cap off the workout with one last thruster, but my 170 reps let me know that even though my odds are incredibly slim, if I can catch the right workout, my bet with Rachel might not be over quite yet.

Will 15.2 suck if it is a repeat of 14.5?  Absolutely.  But I may need that pain to draw back within 2-1.

Puddle Jumper

Workout date: 3/2/15

I should just admit up front that I did not get a lot done at Open Strength this evening.  When you're a nerd like myself, pursuits of the mind often take precedence over getting buff.  (You are free to smack me for saying 'buff', but a couple of people at the gym this week did say "looking buff Dave", so I have it stuck in my head like a popular, yet terrible song.)  After the Nutrition Challenge, I was asked if I would help out with the scoring for the Team Competition within the gym during the Open.  That sure sounded like an invitation to create an overly complicated spreadsheet to me!

And so it has come to pass.  Due to the amazing turnout from the KOP community, there are 76 athletes representing our gym divided into 4 teams.  I am on the Orange team, under the direction of Captain Giulia.  I have definitely lucked out and fallen on to the right team.  We want to win, we're going to bust our butts trying to win, but if we lose, we're still going to take pictures of our orange underwear and drink orange margaritas afterwards.  At least that's what happened after Week 1.

So with tonight being the last night that you could attempt 15.1 and 15.1a, there was another wave of attempts that needed to be captured for my spreadsheet.  There were also some late entries that needed to be put on teams.  My scoring scales had to be re-calibrated.  It was all very exciting to me and probably to no one else.  Open Strength began at 7:30, but due to the attention my spreadsheet needed, I didn't leave the lobby and go into the gym until about 8:00.

Inside the gym, I saw that Michal was finishing up double under practice.  I told her I would practice with her, but I had taken too long.  A little bit of peer pressure never hurts though, and she agreed to do double unders until I failed.  Yes, that's right.  She's so good at double unders that she could just churn them out one after another until I clumsily hit myself with the rope.  I did make her work during my first set though.  Trying to prove that yesterday's super fluky set of 44 was only mildly fluky, I set my rope in motion.  Once again I settled into a nice cadence and it wasn't until I had finished 34 reps that I messed up.  Michal probably could have done 80, but she stopped when I did.

Naturally, this is the moment where I think "yes, I've figured it out!"  And that means I got smacked by reality soon after.  My next set?  3.  Followed by a very impressive set of 2.  How could that magic disappear so quickly?  Come on, you can't go from 34 down to 2 just like that!  But I did.  I started to overthink everything and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't put together a double-digit set of double unders.

Maybe the most amazing thing about watching Michal do double unders is her hair.  She has this big pony tail that is bouncing around as she jumps rope and not once did it get snagged by the rope.  I can't even tell you how many times the rope has hit the back of my head!  Probably an indication that there is something drastically wrong with my form.

While I attempted to overthink every aspect of simply jumping rope, Michal spoke with Faby.  He suggested that I do the Flight Simulator.  The Flight Simulator is used as a form of torture in certain countries.  Crossfit athletes do it as a way to work on getting large sets of double unders.  The Flight Simulator works as follows: you do a total of 19 sets of unbroken double unders escalating 5-10-15-20-25-30-35-40-45-50 and then once you've peaked at 50, you come back down doing 45-40-35-30-25-20-15-10-5.  All sets must be unbroken and you must pause between sets.

With the knowledge that this could take me several days to complete, I decided to take a smaller flight.  Having gotten 44 unbroken yesterday and 34 today, I thought going 5-10-15-20-25-20-15-10-5 would be a solid challenge for me.  And indeed it was.  I've learned how dangerous it is in Crossfit to have a number in your mind (you can imagine how badly this works out for someone like me).  If you think lifting 150 pounds is hard, then when you get to 150, that weight will feel like 400 pounds. And if you tell yourself you're doing 10 reps and then taking a break, you either cheat yourself because you probably could have done 15 in a row.  Or you start to freak out as each rep draws you closer to 10.  So much of Crossfit is overcoming the mental.

It is no surprise that as I would get a set going and I closed in on a number, I would botch things.  5 and 10 were fine the first time, but 15, 20, and 25 took some doing.  When I got back to 20 on the other side, I strung 17 reps than failed.  Dammit.  The next set was going great until I tripped on the 20th rep.  Why didn't I just jump as high as I possibly could?  Back to the drawing board.  Finally, I got 20 again, with 15 following soon after that.  Having done several hundred double unders at this point, getting 10 and 5 were not tremendously difficult, but they weren't done on the first try either.

With that completed, I used half of a roll of paper towels to dry off.  Then I headed to the pull up bar. I wanted to get some strict pull-ups in before I called it a night.  The first round I got 3.  The second round I got 4.  And the third round ended with 4 reps again.  I am oh so close to getting 5 strict pull-ups, but I'm not quite there yet.

Before wrapping up, I have to say that the highlight of the night was Michal and Giulia's mean spirited ribbing of one another.  The highlights?  "Why exactly can't you string 15 wall balls?" and "If she gets a muscle up, I'm quitting Crossfit."  Good times!

The Department of Redundancy Department

Workout date: 3/1/15

Acceptable.

That was my body fat rating when I began the Nutrition Challenge last month.  And after 5 weeks of going without my favorite foods, 5 weeks of trying to eat better, 5 weeks of eating 19 blocks whether I was hungry, full, or otherwise, I had my body fat percentage calculated again.

Acceptable.

I guess it beats being rated as obese.  I used to do the Wii Fit program at home and each morning I would step on the balance board and it would tell me my BMI.  As the program finished its calculations, the machine gave an audible sigh, followed by a "womp, womp" sound, and then a flashing graphic saying I was obese.  I've never been much of a morning person, but starting your day that way certainly doesn't want to make you get out of bed.

As a gambler, my two loves have been horse racing and poker.  And like any poker player, I was captivated by the movie Rounders when it came out.  There is a great monologue at the beginning of the movie when Matt Damon's character, Mike McDermott, explains how he lives life as a grinder.  A grinder is a solid player who wins a little at a time.  Don't make mistakes, play smart.  Nothing flashy.  But every grinder comes to the same realization: "if you're too careful, your whole life can become a fuckin' grind".

I'm a grinder.  And most aspects of my life have been a grind.  Don't get me wrong, I've been blessed along the way to have met lots of great people and I'm incredibly grateful for it.  But for the most part, it's taken a lot of effort for each small advancement I've made.  Nothing has come easy for me except math.  And now we have computers to do math, so it's a bit of an antiquated (big word for me!) skill.  When most things are a grind for you, you thirst for new challenges.  If I'm going to be pouring all that effort into something, I might as well be accomplishing something new.

That's how I arrived at KOP two years ago.  I saw these crazy events on TV and thought to myself "screw it, let me go try that".  Part of me thought I would be good at Crossfit, part of me thought I was going to get laughed out of the gym.  But it seemed like the next natural challenge in my life.  I set high goals for myself, but I expected that I would finish last.  A lot.  And accepting that was the only way I would get better.  I have never been happy about finishing last in a workout.  I'm as competitive as the next guy, if not more.  I may internalize my ego, but it exists.

Two years later, I have improved a lot at the gym.  And it has been a grind.  I mentioned the Brett Mercer PR in a previous post and I wish I had more breakthroughs like that.  But for the most part, progress has been slow and steady.  A disturbing amount of sweat has been poured in that gym.  An unfortunate amount of blood has been shed in that gym.  Little by little, I've gone from the last one finished at 70% of RX to the last one finished at 80%, then 90%, and now every so often, the last one finished at RX.  Eventually I'll stop finishing last so much, but I wouldn't trade faster finishes for the progress that I've made.

The bet with Rachel has been all about finding that new challenge.  The delusional part of me thought there was a small chance of beating her.  And who knows, maybe I'll miraculously pull off these last 4 Open workouts.  I certainly won't be giving up, even if we get to the last workout with her having destroyed me in every workout to that point.  But the first workout (first two workouts?) shed some real light on how high that hill will be to climb.  I am helping out with the scorekeeping for this year's Open and currently she sits 4th overall in the gym.  Out of 74 people.  And yes, there are coaches in this competition.  So...I'm kinda screwed.  But hey, if you don't want your life to turn into a fuckin' grind, you gotta reach for that brass ring every now and then.

That was the mindset behind my second attempt at 15.1 this morning.  I truly believed that I could have scored higher on Friday if I had not just given in to doing singles once I started my second round of toes-to-bar.  Maybe, just maybe, I could get to Rachel's score of 129.  Turns out that I was wrong.  I simply don't have the technique, the ability, or maybe the athleticism to continue stringing toes-to-bar for a long period of time.  After being unsatisfied with my 98 reps on Friday, I was relatively satisfied with my 97 reps today.  I needed to know whether I was capable of finishing that 4th round and I got my answer.

When I got to the clean and jerk, I knew I needed 225 to consider changing my score.  Like Friday, I did 165 easily, had some struggle on 195, and then went to 215.  Unlike Friday, I did not have to "waterbed" 215 up to my shoulders.  Instead, I executed what might have been the best heavy squat clean I've ever attempted.  I felt like I met the bar almost exactly where I was supposed to and then I front squatted it up to get ready for the jerk.  My split could use some more practice, but in my 3 recent tries at 215, I've been able to handle the weight despite some shaky form.  With more time remaining than I had on Friday, I prepared for 225.  Still, it felt a bit rushed.  I gave myself about 15-20 seconds to mentally prepare for the lift, leaving myself 25 seconds for the actual lift.  When I went to pull the bar, I got very little height on it, and had no chance of diving under it for the squat.

98 reps and 215 pounds on Friday.  97 reps and 215 pounds on Sunday.  Still acceptable, still grinding.

What keeps me grinding?  For starters, I just don't know any other way.  But part of me believes the notion that if you grind long enough, the universe throws you a bone every now and then.  And after watching Cline string together 49 double unders, I decided to try and better my own double under PR of 23 reps.

44 reps later, I had my second Brett Mercer PR of the year.

Looking forward to starting the grind again tomorrow...