Everyone Knows Enya

Workout date: 4/13/16

Tuesday night was the first time that I had attempted Karen because my schedule had never lined up with that WOD whenever it was programmed.  Truth be told, it didn't really line up with my schedule this week either.  I knew that I would be doing my 6x6 front squat session early on Wednesday morning.  The 6x6 session marks the point in the program where, to use a technical term, "shit gets real".  There is no other session in the program where you handle as much volume as you do here.  You've been using the same weight over and over again and the 6x6 session is essentially your final test at this base weight.  Pass and you can move on to smaller sets with heavier weight.

I wasn't sure if doing Karen on Tuesday night would compromise my chances of completing the 6x6 session successfully, but I didn't want to skip that WOD yet again.  So I rolled the dice and hoped that my legs wouldn't be screaming at me when I woke on Wednesday morning.  And thankfully they did not.  Perhaps this is an indictment of how poorly I did Karen, but my upper body seemed to be more tired than my lower body in the aftermath.  Still, waking up and walking around was one thing, while doing sets of 6 reps with 215 pounds on my body was something completely different.  Hopefully the warmup sets would provide more insight into how my body was really feeling.

I got to the gym at 6:40am without any concern that I was missing out on valuable lifting time.  I had seen the WOD on the blog and knew that the racks would be unavailable as it was going on.  I came inside and saw a bunch of people doing toes-to-bar.  Perfect.  I could chill for a little bit before taking on the front squats.  I actually had more time than I expected as Clay didn't enforce the 18 minute time cap for the WOD.  It wasn't until about 7:05 that I could go over to a rack and set up shop.

I went through my normal warmup routine, with a set of 5 reps at 135 and a set of 4 reps at 185.  Both sets felt fine to me, giving me confidence that Karen hadn't sabotaged this important day for me.  Now it was time for the first set of 6 at 215.  Last week, I had good speed, which helped me get through the sets without much of an issue.  Could I maintain that speed in this session?  Not exactly, but I had decent speed.  As I began the set, I did 3 fast reps before resetting my breathing.  In my head, I thought I might be able to do the other 3 reps the same way, but after doing rep #4, I realized that wasn't happening.  After another reset, I did the fifth rep, but as I stood up, I began to stumble forward.  No bueno.  The first set has always been my version of sending the canary into the coal mine and this stumble forward was a sign that my avian friend might have come down with a case of black lung.  I took an extra couple seconds before the last rep and was able to complete it without incident.  Not great, but one set was in the books.

Maybe I just needed some new tunes.  As I was waiting to take on set number two, the music in the gym noticeably changed.  Blake Shelton was serenading me about how my lips tasted like sangria, which was strange because I'm much more of a mimosa person when I drink in the morning.  "Sangria" would be the first in a series of songs with a distinctively twangy nature to them, but maybe I needed a little morning twang to focus.  Set #2 went much smoother than set #1.  The new plan was to try and do 2 reps at a time with resets in between those doubles, but it quickly became apparent that I was overthinking things.  (Can you imagine?)  The reps didn't need to be lightning quick and I didn't need to limit my number of resets.  What I needed to do was not hang out during the resets.  Once I came up from a rep, I needed to reset my breath (takes about a second) and then go right into that next rep.  And the reset was important because it was ensuring that I had proper form for each rep.  Here I was trying to avoid these resets when they were actually helping me.  Maybe with three more years of experience, I'll finally figure this Crossfit stuff out.

From the second set onward, I went 2-1-1-1-1 in each of my sets (the dash indicating where I did a quick reset).  I never felt like the weight was yanking me forward.  I never felt like I was going to get stuck in the bottom and any moments where I hit a sticking point were very brief.  After the third set, I could feel myself becoming more confident.  Sure, I was sweating like crazy, but there was no point where I thought to myself "how am I going to keep lifting this weight?"  It was a weight I could handle and I knew it.

After set #4, I began discussing the music selection with Clay and talked about what type of music might drive people nuts if they had to listen to it for an entire WOD.  Suddenly, the light bulb went on in Clay's head and he rushed over to the gym IPad.  The speakers began blaring a haunting melody that I hadn't heard in the gym since Coach Paul used to run Open Strength.  "You guys know Enya?", Clay inquired.  She wasn't on my greatest hits list, but I was certainly familiar with the song.  Laura A had been in the bathroom when Clay put the song on, but when she came back into the gym, she asked "this is Enya, right?"  I completed set #5 before Kevin B came out of the guys locker room.  First words out of his mouth were "are you listening to Enya?"  (Apparently everyone knows Enya.)  It was decidedly less twangy, yet decidedly more creepy to lift to.  But I took care of my final set of 6 reps as the Enya track was fading out on the sound system.  Bring on the heavier squats!

I came back at 7:30pm to try the WOD that I had watched the 6:00am class perform.  If there was one thing for certain after watching them, it was that I was going to be time capped.  No doubt about it.  Here's a look at the WOD:

30-20-10
Power snatches (95/65)
Toes-to-bar
Run 400 meters at the end of each round
Mandatory 2 minutes rest after the 400 meter run
18 minute time cap
Each rep not completed adds 1 second to your final time

So really, you had 14 minutes to do the workout (4 minutes of rest built in).  And somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes of that was going to be spent running.  That left 6 to 8 minutes for 60 light power snatches and 60 toes-to-bar.  Could that be done?  If you were very efficient with toes-to-bar, sure.  On the other hand, if you were the type who falls apart on toes-to-bar when you get tired (like yours truly), then making it to the round of 10 would be an accomplishment.

I was the only guy in class, joining Julie Foucher, Nicole, and Erika R.  Coach Jenna asked me to demo toes-to-bar (I am owed some demo back pay this week!) and it was clear that I didn't have the energy required to string together large sets.  That wasn't a surprise as I spent a good part of the afternoon wondering whether it was worth it to return to the gym for the WOD, but I was taking Thursday and Friday off, so I wanted to get one more workout in.  For the snatches, I could have handled 95 pounds, but with my energy low and needing as much extra time as possible to get to the final round of the workout, I decided to scale down to 75 pounds instead.  With a mandatory 2 minute rest period after each run, I needed to push really hard on the runs.  Two minutes should be enough time to recover for the next round.

We got started and I did my first 30 snatches in sets of 10-10-5-5.  As I headed to my bar, Erika walked over to begin her toes-to-bar.  Julie was not far behind us, with Nicole trailing behind her.  The toes-to-bar were a mess.  If I hung on to the bar, I could do a set of three or four, but it was with very poor form.  I just didn't have anything left in reserve to do the efficient version of toes-to-bar.  I tried to grind through the 30 reps doing these sets of three to four reps, but when I got to 24 reps, it was time to simply do quick singles.  Erika had gone for her run and as I worked through the singles, Julie went running as well.  After getting my 30th rep, I went running and Nicole was right on my tail.

Knowing that I would get a two minute rest after the 400 meters, I went out and did one of my better mid-WOD runs in recent history.  I wasn't going to catch Erika, but I knew if I pushed really hard, I might catch Julie.  I had my choo-choo train breathing going as I pumped my arms and tried to reel her in.  Right as we got to the annex on the return segment of the run, I passed her.  She must have thought I was crazy giving it everything I had as the WOD was only halfway over.  But when we got back inside, she realized there was a method to my madness.

After a two minute break, it was time to do 20 snatches.  I was pressed for time if I was going to make the round of 10.  I finished the 20 reps in two sets, 12 reps in the first set, 8 in the second.  If I could just get my act together on the toes-to-bar, I could get back from the run in under 16 minutes, allowing me to sprint through some snatches before the time cap.  I tried several times to do the efficient toes-to-bar method, but failed each time.  I had two no reps along the way.  And those sets of 3-4 with a dead hang became sets of 2.  Erika went on her second run.  Julie went on her second run.  Nicole went on her second run.  I was toast.  When I finally got my 20th toes-to-bar, I went running out the door, not in hopes of getting back in time for the round of 10, but in the hope that I could make it back before the time cap had set in.  I had about two minutes and 20 seconds to do so.

Erika was already on her way back into the gym as I began my run.  And Julie was too far ahead to catch this time around.  But it was still possible to catch Nicole.  I pretended that she was the time cap.  She was going to get back to the gym at the 18:00 mark, so if I was going to beat the time cap, I needed to beat her.  Once again, the arms were pumping and the unfortunate sound of me trying to breathe and run fast could be heard throughout greater Bridgeport.  When we hit the turnaround point, I was close enough to know that I could catch her if I kept this pace the whole way.  As we got near Frosty Falls, I passed Nicole and encouraged her to go with me so that we could both beat the time cap.  I kept chugging along past the annex, up the small incline in the parking lot, and into the gym. The clock read 17:41.  Made it with 19 seconds to spare!  I turned around and cheered Nicole on as she finished up the run.  Along with Julie, we were all going to get the same final time due to the mandatory two minute rest period.  Final time: 18:21.

Forget a mandatory two minute rest period.  What I really need is a mandatory two day rest period and that is what I will be taking on Thursday and Friday in preparation for the Festivus Games on Saturday.  So here is a supersized version of the daily preview, outlining my goals for each WOD at Saturday's competition:

WOD #1 ("25 To Life") - This is the WOD that I did on Sunday where I screwed up the hand-release push-ups, the double unders, and the KB swings.  Despite all of those mistakes, I got to the penultimate station before the time cap hit.  So the goal here is pretty simple: finish under the time cap.  I need to remember to breathe and keep my arms pinned to my sides during the push-ups.  I need to not get aggravated during the double unders.  And I need to finish the KB swings in no more than two sets.

WOD #2 ("Mad Max: Beyond Thrusterdome") - I haven't intentionally been training for this WOD, but it has suddenly seemed that way in the past week.  A thruster is one part front squat, one part push press.  I have been doing the front squat program for the last month, religiously using 215 pounds each session.  On Monday, I did the 3RM push press workout and got 3 reps at 195 and 2 reps at 205.  My initial goal with this WOD was to get 185 pounds, with a very good result being 190 pounds, possibly 195 pounds.  Now?  I think I'll be disappointed if I don't pull off 195 pounds at the competition.  So the new goal is to get 195 pounds and make at least one attempt at 200 pounds.

WOD #3 ("Happy Hour At The Bar") - This is really the most important event of the competition as you get two scores here, rather than one.  In my one attempt at this WOD, I did it right after doing the Floater WOD and struggled because my forearms were fried.  On Saturday, I will do my best to make sure I finish the Floater WOD well before this event so that my forearms are fresh.  My goal here: give it everything I have (meaning as little rest as possible) during the rounds of 12 and 9.  The rounds of 6 and 3 are sprint rounds and I should be able to get through them even if I've exhausted myself on the first two rounds.  Completing the barbell triplet quickly means a good first score for the event and opens up the possibility for a good second score even if I have to crawl through my burpees.

Floater WOD ("Benches Be Crazy") - I'll be using 75 pounds for the bench press as I did the first time I attempted this.  In that attempt, I messed up the transition from the rower to the bench and that may have cost me a few reps.  I had 57 reps that day.  The goal is 60 reps on Saturday.

More than anything, I'm looking forward to cheering on Cline, "Megs", Ashley M, Shawna, and Danielle while they kick butt on Saturday.  I should be back with a full Festivus Games recap sometime on Sunday.