15 Climbs to 15 Feet

Workout date: 10/20/15

I may not have done the best job of letting my body recover during the three days I was away from the gym.  I drove to Albany on Saturday, getting stuck in all sorts of traffic.  I was up early on Sunday before a day of drinking with some buddies as we rode a bus to and from NYC for the Jets game.  On Monday, it was a long drive from Albany to Washington DC.  Then on Tuesday I drove through more traffic coming back home from DC, before going and grabbing my dog from the vet to cap my long road trip.  I barely had time to change and pack my bag before heading over to the gym.  Even then, I was running late.

When I got to the gym around 5:45, I was more eager for Advil than back squats.  Sitting through that much traffic is bound to give you a headache.  I wasn't able to find any Advil, so I proceeded to the annex without it.  Need further proof I wasn't in the right frame of mind?  After doing my warmup sets (5 reps at 135, 4 reps at 185, 3 reps at 225), Coach Steph told me I should start doing box squats because I'm always up on my toes and not using my hamstrings enough.  That is when I looked down and realized that I didn't have my lifting shoes on.  Those would probably help.

It was 6x5 day as I was closing in on the midpoint of my latest back squat program.  My last session went well and I was hoping to duplicate my performance from "light day" here on "heavy day".  Sadly, it was not pretty right from the start.  In my first set of 5, I had one ugly "walk forward with the barbell" rep and then needed to struggle out of the bottom on my last rep.  My balance was still off.  The same thing happened during my second set.  I got through the reps, but my form left a lot to be desired.  Christine and Bekah were providing encouragement in between their own sets, but more than anything I was hoping that they weren't picking up any bad habits from watching me lift.  That should really go without saying for anyone who watches me lift: do not duplicate what you see in front of you.

Then something changed before the third set.  My headache was going away.  Perhaps endorphins are better than Advil.  Even though I was struggling with my lifts, I wanted to get back after it as my body was starting to feel better.  During the third, fourth, and fifth sets, I continued to have 1-2 reps where I needed to find more to get out of the bottom of the squat.  But every time I was able to stand up with the weight.  I don't tend to think about this much while I am doing my back squats, but it is remarkable how much better I have gotten at not getting stuck in that area about one-quarter of the way up from the bottom of the squat.  This used to be my sticking point and whenever I got there, I would turn into a car spinning its tires in the mud.  It was rare that I'd ever get out of that position.  Now I get out of it more often than not.  Although not always...

When it was time for the sixth and final set, I felt the need to psyche myself up one more time.  Those first five sets were a lot of work, probably more work than they should have been.  But I was only five reps from being done.  I went through my routine, got comfortable with the barbell on my shoulders, and took it from the rack.  The first rep was fine.  The second rep wasn't horrible either.  The third rep...not so good.  As I attempted to come up from the bottom of the squat, I let the barbell roll up on to my neck.  Then I corrected this by rolling it back to where it was.  Mind you, I'm doing all of this while near the bottom of a squat with 265 pounds on me.  This isn't the spot where you want to chill and make adjustments.  You want to get out of the bottom quickly!  I should have bailed the bar by now, but since I hadn't, I continued to try to get out of the bottom of the lift.  It was spinning tires time.  Finally, common sense trumped stubbornness and I bailed the bar.  I was not pleased.

This marked the first time in months that I had to give up in the middle of a set of back squats.  And as I mentioned in my post on Badger, there's nothing more infuriating to me than making it all the way to the end of something only to fail.  Yet here I was again, getting to the last set and failing.  After unloading the barbell to get it back on the rack, I re-loaded it and took a few minutes to get my mind right.  When I felt ready, I attempted the last set again.  It was difficult, but there were no mishaps this time around.  This failure gives me doubts about how 6x6 day will go next week, as well as how the heavier sets will go in weeks to come.  Perhaps a solid showing on 6x6 day will erase some of the longer term doubts.

I had toyed with the idea of rushing through the back squats to make the 6:30 WOD, but when Michal stopped by the annex and let me know that Rachel had a special warmup that she was excited about for the 7:30 class she was coaching, I took my time and signed up for that class instead.  The warmup?  Two rounds of "Never Have I Ever" (KOP coaches sure love that game) involving goblet squats (goblet squats = air squats while holding a KB to your chest).  Luckily, this version did not involve my sexual and criminal past and therefore my participation did not bore everyone to tears.  However, I still managed to get some crap during this game.  In Rachel's version, we went around the class and each person gave their own "Never Have I Ever", as opposed to Coach Steph's version where she called out all of the scenarios.  I was second to go and wasn't ready with something to say. Since we seemed to be keeping it to Crossfit-related things, I said "Never Have I Ever done a 20 foot rope climb".  Apparently I was supposed to come up with something that I have never done because if this was the drinking version of the game, I'd want to avoid having to drink.  (Note: When I play drinking games, it is for the sole purpose of drinking.  Guess I'm a big weirdo like that!)  I learned my lesson the second time around as I have never practiced the final scene in Dirty Dancing.

Ok, enough warmup talk, time for the WOD!

50-40-30-20-10 air squats
5-4-3-2-1 rope climbs to 15'
Alternate between air squats and rope climbs

This was right up my alley.  It has been a while since I've done rope climbs, but I've gotten quite good at them, especially the shorter 15' climbs.  Air squats are sorta like rowing: you can get tired while doing them, but you never really need extensive rest with them.  The only problem with this workout was that we had 7 people in class and only 3 good ropes.  The fourth rope is newer and slicker.  I managed to do 1 rope climb on it before we started just to test it out, but due to the slickness of the rope, it required much more energy.  Best to avoid that rope if possible.  Everyone else in class felt the same way as we congregated around the 3 good ropes.

To make the traffic jam at the ropes as minimal as possible, we had a staggered start.  In the first wave were Sir Cline, Sheila, Kenton, and Ryan A.  Starting two minutes later would be Michal, Laura A, and myself.  Knowing I was going with two super speedy ladies, I decided that I needed to ignore how fast they would do their air squats.  There was no chance I'd stay with them on the air squats, so let them go nuts doing them.  I'd have my chance at catching up on the rope climbs.

The first group started and Kenton was very fast among that quartet.  Ryan was doing rope pulls near the pull-up bars, but the other three were on the 3 good ropes.  The time differential was perfect as Kenton came off of his rope while Michal, Laura, and I were in the midst of our first 50 rope climbs.  By the time we were done with the air squats, all three ropes were free.  Michal whipped through her 50 air squats by the time I had 36 done, with Laura not too far behind her.  I stayed at my own pace.  When I got to my rope, the focus was on securing the rope with my feet and controlling my breathing during the climbs.  The first climb was quick and I went right back up for the second ascent.  As I came down from the second climb, I told myself I needed to go right back up for #3.  My breathing was becoming more rapid, but I couldn't let myself rest during this part of the workout.  Certainly not this early on anyway.

When I came down from the third climb, I needed a second or two to calm my breathing before heading up for the fourth climb.  I repeated this pattern when I came down from climb #4 as I started to get a little excited about the fact that I was going to make it through five rope climbs without a real break.  I slid down the rope and headed to the area where I was doing my air squats.  I had passed Michal and Laura.

I was nearing 10 air squats in my round of 40 when Michal came over to do her air squats.  Yikes, this was going to be like Nancy.  I could already envision Michal coming over to do the final 10 air squats directly in front of me, knocking them out while I helplessly tried to keep up with her.  I needed to stay fast on the rope climbs.  We both finished our 40 air squats around the same time.  Back over at the rope, I managed two rope climbs before giving up my rope.  There was now enough traffic at the rope that it was only fair to share.  I think Sheila was doing mostly pulls at this point, but Kenton, Cline, Laura, Michal, and I were all in need of ropes to climb and none of us wanted the slick rope.  I stood next to it, considering whether it was worth it, but then I decided against it.  If I exerted a lot of effort trying to climb it and then failed, it would ruin the workout.  And honestly, everyone was good about switching on and off of the ropes, so no one was falling behind due to the congestion.  I got done with my fourth climb and headed back for more air squats.  Michal was close behind.

The 30 air squat portion of the workout was the most difficult for me.  I would knock out a set, then pause for a second, then knock out another chunk.  My legs were starting to burn and my cardio was being tested by the rope climbs.  Michal was back to her rope before me.  During this round, the two of us alternated on the same rope for the most part.  That meant I was one full rope climb behind her. Except suddenly I wasn't.  Michal miscounted and jumped on a rope to do a fourth climb as I went to do my 20 air squats.  She was now one full rope climb behind me, but in my head, that meant I needed to finish before she got to her last rope climb.

I pushed to get through the 20 air squats as fast as I could with only the briefest of pauses when I was breaking up sets.  When I got back to the rope, I was staying on the rope for both climbs.  My forearms were starting to fatigue, but my grip wasn't failing as badly as it had in prior workouts where we did a lot of rope climbs.  The only difference was becoming the number of pulls it would take to reach the 15' mark on the rope.  Early on, I was jumping on to the rope, then making three pulls before reaching up to tap the colored band indicating 15' on the rope.  As I got near the end of this workout, that third pull was leaving me about a foot short of reaching the mark, so I needed a fourth pull.  And every extra pull was difficult as I closed in on the finish line.

When I came down from the first climb in the round of two, I shook out my arms, took a step back to get ready for a big jump, then got back on the rope.  The climb was probably a little slow, but I got up there.  I slid down to the floor, worried that Michal was going to catch me.  Instead of running all the way to my air squat spot, I just got out of the rope climb/pulls area and started my last 10 air squats.  Unfortunately, that was where Laura had been and she came down from her last rope climb in the round of three as I hurried to finish my air squats.  Sorry Laura!  I completed the 10th air squat and ran over to my rope, got a decent jump, and used what I had left in my forearms to pull myself up to the 15' mark.  Then I looked at the clock for the first time.  Final time: 11:24.

I was amazed.  That workout felt like it took much longer than 11 minutes and change.  It was an extremely good time for me.  In fact, I was having a hard time remembering when I had done that well in relation to how the rest of the gym had performed that day.  Michal finished at 12:08.  Not sure if I would have beaten her if she hadn't done the extra rope climb.  Sounds like we'll need a rematch on that one.  Please program this workout again, Aimee!

Wednesday preview: Isabel test day.  Last time it took me 9 minutes.  Could I do this workout RX and avoid the pity circle?  (Come on, that is terrible foreshadowing.  You know I can't avoid the pity circle.)