FYDU

Workout date: 4/19/16

If Monday's WOD brought back most of the trauma from Festivus, Tuesday's WOD would take care of the remainder.  My achilles heel on Saturday was that I forgot how to do double unders in the middle of an event.  It was a helpless feeling, knowing that somewhere in my mind, the part of my brain that contained the secrets to stringing double unders had taken a long boozy lunch right when I needed that information the most.  The result was a horrendous performance, where I only beat two other competitors in my division.

You can only imagine how excited I was to see a workout with a plethora of double unders in it.  How many double unders exactly?  How about 270 of them?  Yeah, that's a lot.  At least there were some barbell movements thrown in there to break them up a bit.  Here was the format for Tuesday's WOD:

3 rounds:
30 double unders
4 shoulder presses (115/75)

Two minute rest

3 rounds:
30 double unders
8 push presses (135/95)

Two minute rest

3 rounds:
30 double unders
12 push jerks (155/105)

Usually I'll plan out my workouts before I arrive at the gym, but for this one, I figured I would need to feel things out.  Seeing as it took me about an hour and a half to do my two sets of 25 reps on Saturday, I didn't have high hopes that I would be able to complete nine sets of 30 reps in this workout.  So I figured I'd do the first three rounds of 30 reps, then scale that number down in later rounds if I had fallen well behind the class.  As for the shoulder-to-overhead movements, I was torn as to whether I should go RX.  Most people had scaled down the weight at least a little bit, but one of the guys I tend to compete with (Matt E) had used the RX weights.  I remembered that he was more than reliable than me on double unders, so I ended up using the same mindset that I did on Monday: scale the movements that I was more confident in so that I would have extra time to go RX on the movements that I had less confidence with.  I knocked 20 pounds off of each of the RX weights, meaning I would be using 95-115-135 as I progressed through the shoulder-to-overhead movements.

Dudes After Dark started outside in the sun as Coach Rachel put us through a game of Simon Sez to warm up.  I completely forgot the rules to the game and messed up almost immediately, but it only took one misstep for me to remember that I needed to hear Rachel say "Simon Sez" before changing up exercises.  I didn't make any more mistakes after that.  The class was made up of four dudes (me, Cline, EJ, and Chris D) and one non-dude (Nicole, or Natalie, as Rachel seemed fond of calling her). Towards the end of the game, "Simon" said we had to do two 200 meter sprints.  I approached each of them as real sprints, although I wasn't going all out like I would at Endurance.  Let's just say I was going at about 90%.  The second one ended our warmup outside.  As I came back into the gym, the king of backhanded compliments added another notch to his belt as someone told me "don't take this the wrong way, but you run much faster than you look like you would run".  The person who said this to me really did mean it in a nice way, but you know what you're getting when someone starts a line with "don't take this the wrong way".

The warmup concluded with a walk through the various shoulder-to-overhead movements using a PVC pipe, followed by some double under practice.  Rachel wanted us to do a set of 10 double unders if we were planning on doing double unders in the workout and just as I had done during my pre-WOD test on Saturday, I sailed through 10 in a row no problem.  At that point, I was certain that I was going to fall apart once the timer was ticking and we were doing double unders for real.

We were all set to go and Rachel got us started on our first set of 30 double unders.  I didn't start off as badly as I had on Saturday, but it wasn't a great start by any means.  I think I got about 5 reps.  From there until the round was done, I was able to string between 3-7 reps at a time.  The only person in class I could see from the direction I was facing was Nicole and she got to her barbell well before me.  I assumed Cline was done as well.  I tried not to get frustrated, knowing that I could make up time on the barbell.  When I finally hit 30 reps, I walked over to my barbell, did a quick clean and then followed it up with 4 strict presses.  It was less than 10 seconds of break between the rounds of double unders, but having a little distraction helped.

For round two, I started with a set of 10 (oddly enough, I would start the middle round of each section with 10 reps).  I had a smaller set after that and then finished the round with my first set of double-digit reps.  I got back to my barbell, repeated what I had done in round one and came back to my jump rope.  The third round was similar to the second round, although I think I started off with a set of double-digit reps this time.  When I wanted to take a break, I reminded myself that I would be getting two minutes of rest soon.  Gotta keep pushing for right now.  After 30 reps, I did 4 more strict presses and was rewarded with two minutes of rest.  Time for first section: 3:32.

That time wasn't so bad.  Most of the times for this workout hovered between the low and mid-twenties, just like yesterday's WOD.  I was theoretically about a third of the way through this workout and I was nowhere near the 28+ minute pace that I had the day before.  Nicole was a little bit ahead of me, but if I could stay close to her pace the rest of the way, I'd be happy as she appeared to be more proficient at double unders than I was.  The surprise was that I was ahead of Cline, who I believe had to change his barbell weight during that first section, causing him to fall behind.  That didn't mean he couldn't catch me in later rounds though, especially since he's much more consistent on double unders than I am, so it was essential that I maintained the pace I was on.  After adding 20 pounds to my barbell and getting some water, I was ready for the second section of the workout.

My first round of double unders in the second section of the workout brought out some frustration.  Not in the way you might think though.  I began the round and as I got to 10 reps, I still felt comfortable.  I told myself to stay focused and try to get all 30 reps.  20 reps later, I threw down my rope in disgust having strung all 30 in a row.  Why couldn't I have done that on Saturday?  Even doing that in one of the two rounds on Saturday would have been enough to let me finish that workout.  It really is all mental.  I went to my barbell, took a small break, then strung my 8 push presses.  Round 2 of double unders began with 10 reps.  I did 5 more after that, then hit a wall.  I tried at least 3 times to get going again, but kept hitting myself with the rope.  I was exactly at the midpoint of the workout in terms of double unders and the mental block was back.  I took a few extra seconds to calm down, then tried again.  And once I got the first rep, I regained my rhythm from earlier.

My intent was to string all of the push presses in each round, but I zoned out a little bit during my second round.  I completed 3 push presses and then my mind drifted.  As I went to do the 4th rep, I decided that this would be a heck of a lot easier if I just re-bent my knees after driving the barbell up. Except that is a push jerk, not a push press.  I actually think Rachel was watching when I did this and said something to me, but my mind was a bit foggy at that moment.  What I did felt wrong, but it took a second for my brain to comprehend why it was wrong.  I decided to drop the barbell and re-group.  That last rep would not count and I still had 5 more reps to go.  As was the case with Simon Sez, I only needed to make this mistake once in order to remember it the rest of the way.  I completed the last 5 reps and headed back to my rope.  It took a couple of sets to get to 13 reps, but then I strung my final 17 in a row.  I got to my barbell and held on for 8 straight reps, knowing that there was rest awaiting me once I was done.  Time for second section: 5:00.  Time on clock after round two: 10:32.

I was definitely excited at this point in the proceedings.  I had made it through 180 double unders.  I had put together some bigger sets, including all 30 in a row for one of the rounds.  There were only 90 double unders and 36 push jerks left in this workout and I would be starting those at about 12 and a half minutes.  This was a WOD where I expected to finish last again.  It was one where I started it hoping that I didn't fall ridiculously far behind the rest of the class.  Yet here I was, getting ready to take on the last section and somehow I was ahead of my four classmates.  After adding 20 more pounds to my barbell, I took another big swig of water and saw that there was less than 30 seconds before I had to begin again.  I gave myself a goal that I never would have considered possible before the workout began: keep your time under 20 minutes.

That would end up being a lot trickier than expected.  In fact, I felt almost certain that I'd be under 20 minutes when I began the third section of the workout the same way I began the second section, with 30 consecutive double unders.  It is very rare for me to feel confident about anything, but twice in one week I had developed mid-WOD confidence.  The first time was during the thruster event at Festivus.  And now I was feeling it in this workout when it came to my double unders.  The only problem with completing a big set like that is that it takes the wind out of your sails a little bit when you get to the barbell.  I wasn't expecting to string all 12 push jerks, but two sets of 6 seemed reasonable.  However, my shoulders were fatiguing and I had to break up the 12 reps into three sets of four.  Back at my jump rope, I started with 10 reps, then 7 reps, and then needed a few smaller sets to get to 30.  Because the double unders were broken up a little more this round, I might have had more energy for the push jerks, as I was able to get back to my original plan of doing two sets of six reps.

I had reached the final round, only 30 more double unders to go.  I fully expected to be trimming my double unders down to 20 reps for the second section, then maybe something like 15 reps for the third section.  But somehow I had remembered how to do a movement that I seemed lost on only 72 hours earlier.  I was very tired as I picked up my rope, but I was still under 18 minutes on the clock.  I needed one more push to make it under 20 minutes for the workout.  When I began twirling the rope, I thought I might get to 15 reps if I had a strong first set.  And then I got greedy.  Before I even hit 10 reps, I challenged myself to end this workout by getting all 30 double unders in the final round.  If I wasn't so tired, I might have been able to.  Instead, I got through 23 reps before needing a break.  I polished off the last 7 and I was 12 push jerks from being done.

Time to do six and six again.  Or not.  I got the barbell up to my front rack, but my shoulders were more fried than I realized.  I was only able to get three reps before dropping the barbell.  I wasn't sure I could break 20 minutes if I had to do three more sets, so I wanted to get 5 reps in the next set.  I was only able to get 4.  Come on, don't blow this!  A peek at the clock let me know that I had less than 30 seconds to get these remaining 5 push jerks if I wanted to be done in under 20 minutes.  I let the thoughts of me failing again get me angry.  And once I got the barbell up on my front rack, I used that anger to ensure that I wouldn't put the barbell down until all 5 reps were complete.  With the 12th push jerk finished, I whirled around to check out the clock.  Final time: 19:53.  (Time for third section: 7:21).

If I had to rank the most surprising performances I've ever had in my 3+ years doing Crossfit, this would be in the top 2, along with my Kelly performance last year where I had a PR of nearly six and a half minutes.  There was no way I could have seen this coming, especially after the debacle on Saturday.  What does this performance tell me?  That I should probably practice my double unders a lot more so that I develop something that remotely approaches consistency.  It was also another workout where I was able to push at points, even though I was tired.  If I could become consistent at that as well, then maybe I wouldn't be the last one working in class so often.

Wednesday preview: Time to bump up the weight.  No more 215 pound front squats, as I move up to 230 for 5x5 day.  Plus deadlifts and (attempted) bar muscle-ups in the evening.