Workout date: 10/18/16
It typically takes 48 hours before my body experiences the fallout from a difficult WOD. Apparently when I was perusing shipping options for my pain on Monday night, I splurged for next day delivery. My shoulders were very sore from the KB swings and the hang power clean and jerks I had done the night before. My first reaction was that I might have slept wrong or something because I tend to be alright the day after a tough workout. As the day went on, I realized that wasn't it. This wasn't a short term problem that was going to go away with a little bit of stretching. I had beaten myself up pretty good on Monday without noticing it. What did that mean for Tuesday's WOD? It meant I was in deep trouble, culminating with a performance at Dudes After Dark that would need to be cut short.
First sign that things weren't quite right? My daily double under practice. I haven't become as consistent as I would like in doing quality sets one after another, but on Tuesday, it was a struggle from the start. I was hitting myself with the rope after just 1 or 2 reps. Fine, I'll be honest and tell you there were times where I hit myself with the rope before I even got a single rep in. Eventually I would get some larger sets, but none of it felt fluid. My biggest set would be 42 reps, relatively low compared to what I've been getting for my top set of the day.
The only time I tend to see Jenn before going to the gym is when I go to a 7:30 class. She came home at about 6:45 and was immediately confronted with a strange request. In our house, I'm usually the one that gives back rubs and she tends to be the recipient. So when I asked her to rub my upper back and shoulders before she had a chance to change out of her work clothes, she knew something was up with me. I gave her advance warning: it was going to sound like I was in pain while she rubbed the afflicted areas (I'm a bit wimpy when it comes to pressure during massages), but I needed her to try and work out the pain I was feeling. She had to stop several times as I couldn't internalize my discomfort, but she did her best to help me out before I ventured off to the gym.
Even if I had felt like a million bucks prior to my visit to the gym, I would have been nervous about Tuesday's WOD. Here's what it looked like:
Tuesday's WOD:
Start with a 400 meter sandbag run (athlete chooses sandbag weight)
Then 3 rounds of:
15 overhead squats (95/65)
15 toes-to-bar
3 rope climbs (20')
Upon completing three rounds of that triplet, perform one last 400 meter sandbag run
Wasn't this a workout that I should be excited about? After all, it had overhead squats and rope climbs, two of my favorite things at the gym. If I had never done a workout with those two movements before, my answer would have been yes. But last year we did a workout with nothing but overhead squats and rope climbs ("Rope Smuggler") and I came very close to throwing up in the middle of it. I could just put that out of my mind though, right? Not after Samson posted a photo of someone's regurgitated breakfast in the KOP parking lot post-workout. My sore shoulders had become a secondary concern. My anxiety about this WOD being the first one where I lost my lunch took over the top spot.
The butterflies in my stomach were working overtime when I showed up at the gym. Can't remember the last time I felt that nervous before a WOD. I've been that nervous before an Open workout. Had those same feelings prior to an event at a competition. But your run of the mill daily workout? This was rare. Guess I'm terrified of vomiting in front of everyone at the gym. I would need to face that fear if I was going to participate in this WOD though. There were 8 of us in attendance for Dudes After Dark and Coach Rachel sent us out on a 400 meter run to learn more about someone in class that we normally don't talk to. That was going to be difficult for me because I talk with nearly everyone at the gym. Within this class, the only person who fit the bill of someone I've never really chatted with was a drop-in named Colin and Neil had already engaged him in conversation. So I took the efficient route of eavesdropping in on their conversation and supplied the cross-street that Colin lived on in Philly when Rachel asked us for something new that we learned on the run.
After the ice breaker, we did some practice with overhead squats using an empty barbell. We worked on the progressions that lead to toes-to-bar. Everyone attempted to do a pull or two on the rope, even if they weren't planning on climbing to 20' (or doing rope climbs at all). That was where I could feel the shoulder soreness the most. Holding a barbell overhead while doing squats required shoulder strength as did hanging from a bar while you tried to kick your toes up to it. But the rope climb was where I noticed the most strain. And describing it as a shoulder issue may not have been entirely accurate. Right before class I was chatting with someone who had done the Monday WOD (blanking on who it was) and they told me their traps were sore. Ah yes, my traps! I guess traps have always sounded like a body part that strong people have and because I consider myself to be rather weak, I don't identify as someone with traps. Ah-nold has traps. I have sore shoulders. But if we're going to be anatomically accurate, the pain I was feeling was more in my traps than my shoulders.
Rachel told us to choose a sandbag and get ready for our first run. I was using a 45 pound sandbag because that is what I used in a partner WOD with Chris D not too long ago. It was unpleasant trotting along with that thing, but I thought I could manage two rounds with it in this workout. Plus I had no plans to run hard with the sandbag. The meat of the workout was back inside the gym, so there was no point in killing myself on the run. We headed out on the first run to kick off the WOD and by the time we came back into the gym, I think I was ahead of only one person. The surprising thing was that I hadn't run all that slow. 2:50 for 400 meters is by no means fast, but considering I was toting a sandbag, I thought there was a good chance that the first run might take around 3:15-3:30. So not a bad start.
Because I knew this was going to be a longer workout, my mind immediately began crafting ways of getting out of doing long sets. Just break up everything. Don't kill yourself early on. Slow and steady something something something. I know better than that. Adding additional unnecessary breaks into your workout only leads to a much slower time. When I picked up my barbell to do the overhead squats, I could have broken up the first 15 reps into two sets. I know that's what I wanted to do. Instead I told myself to hold on. I could do all 15 if I stayed mentally strong. And that's exactly what I did. Now if there was some mental trick that could get me through toes-to-bar.
There's always a tradeoff in Crossfit. Whenever I have dedicated myself to getting better at something, there has been another movement in the gym that I have gotten worse at. It really just comes down to practice. You get better at those things that you've devoted time to practicing. By spending more time on your new obsession, you spend less time on something else, and slowly your aptitude with that movement begins to diminish. For me, I've been obsessed with double unders recently. And the movement that I have neglected is toes-to-bar. I couldn't manage one big set the first time I jumped up to my bar. That efficient snapping of my body up and down to create momentum for multiple reps? Non-existent. All I could do was hang on, do some swooping extra swings and get 3 reps.
The good news was that this was my first workout using the new JAW grips I had purchased. The Athlete of the Month (Jill H) had mentioned them in her write-up, so I decided to give them a shot. No complaints while using them in this workout. Once I developed some faith in them, I hung on the bar longer (assuming I had the energy to do so). I followed up my first set of three with another set of three before deciding that my grip was strong enough to attempt more than three. I got five in my next set, making me believe I could close things out with a set of four. Unfortunately I lost control of my swing after two more reps and had a failed rep that caused me to drop from the bar. I tried not to rest too much before hopping up and completing the final two reps. Time to go climb that rope!
Up to this point, things were okay. It was definitely a tiring workout, but I didn't have doubts about getting up to the ceiling three times if I broke up the climbs appropriately. And the bit of nausea I had prior to the start of the workout seemed to have gone away, so I had one less thing to worry about. I walked over to an open rope, jumped on it, and climbed to the top. Those 20' climbs are no joke, but I was able to make it through the first climb without much of a problem. After a short break, I made my second ascent to the ceiling. I needed a longer break before the third climb and that is when I began to get frustrated.
(Warning: This mini-rant is based on the fact that rope climbs are something I'm good at so I magically felt entitled to a rope. Is that right? No. But the point of the blog is to tell you everything I was thinking during the workout and that includes when I'm behaving like a jerk.)
Our gym only has 5 ropes available for use and one of them never gets used because it is slippery and you can't maintain much of a grip on it. So there are basically 4 ropes for everyone to use. The gym rule is that a rope is yours until you give it up. But unless I'm stringing multiple climbs to the 15' mark, I almost never take advantage of this rule. I know how frustrating it is to have to wait for a rope, so more often than not, I'll alternate with someone if I see them waiting. If I'm tired after a rope climb, I'll step away from it even if no one is right there waiting because someone might come over while I am recovering and I want them to know they can use that rope. After my second climb, I stepped away from my rope. It wasn't long before all three ropes (at the end where I was) were being used. Except they weren't all being used for climbs. I think only 1 of the 3 were being used for climbs. The others were being used for rope pulls or short rope climb attempts. The problem was that these attempts were being done slowly and with breaks in between. I got to the point where I couldn't wait any longer. I looked down the gym to the single rope that is closer to the front and saw it was open. I didn't move fast enough though as another classmate grabbed a hold of it before I could get down there. Son of a... I came back down to the far end of the gym and Neil took a moment to chalk his hands. That was when I hijacked his rope. I don't know if he was taking a break or just needed a moment to chalk his hands, but I got impatient and jumped on his rope while his back was turned. I tried to be quick with my climb so he didn't have to wait long, but I totally stole it on him. Sorry Neil!
The clock was just past 9 minutes, so that first round took 6 minutes and change. I came back to my barbell and knew that I would need to break up the overheads in this round. I began with 9 reps in my first set, took a break, and then finished off the last 6. There was some heavy breathing going on at this point. Then I got frustrated again because Colin was working where I had done toes-to-bar in the first round, but he moved over for me once he saw me walk back to the rig. (Maybe my traps affect how petty I am?) I began with two sets of 2 reps. The third set was the charm just like it was in round one as I was able to get through 4 reps and bring my total to 8. That was probably too much as I needed a longer break before jumping up and getting 3 more. As was the case in round one, I finished the round off with two sets of 2 reps.
The ropes were empty when I got to them for round two. While I didn't have any problems with my first climb, it was very tiring. I had only done 4 of these climbs to the ceiling and I still had 5 to go. How was I going to make that magic happen? Things got worse when I went to make the second climb. Each pull up the rope had become noticeably more difficult. I got past the 15' mark and started to slow. The "glass half full" outlook on what happened next is that my form on the rope has improved. About 1 pull from the ceiling, I had to stop. This would have been a big problem for me in the past because I don't always lock my feet securely when I climb the rope. And the last thing you want is to be 17' off the ground, tired, and not have a secure hold on the rope. That wasn't the case this time around. I stood there high above the floor, tired but not concerned about falling. When I felt ready, I took one more big pull and slapped the 20' mark before shimmying down to the floor.
I was going to need some time before the third climb. I wasn't sure how much energy remained in my shoulders and traps. And even though I was able to comfortably stop along the way on climb #2, that wasn't a habit I wanted to form. As I was recovering, a couple people finished their toes-to-bar and were headed to the ropes. No one was going to have to wait for a rope, but I wasn't giving up my rope nonetheless. I selfishly moved up and put my hand on my rope. MINE! Fatigue and patience do not go hand in hand.
I didn't spend a lot of time guarding my rope. Apparently I have some sort of internal time limit on how long I can stand being a dick to other people, so I got to work on my third climb. It didn't take long to realize I was in trouble, but this was the last climb of the round and I was determined to get to the top. I had to stop when my body was at around the 15' mark, meaning I was two pulls away from the top. My upper body had very little left to give, but I was able to get two more pulls out of it. I hit the 20' mark one last time and slid back down to the floor.
The clock read 19 minutes, so I had gone from 6 minutes to complete round one to 10 minutes to complete round two. That wasn't terribly surprising and I wasn't extremely concerned about my time. Rachel had told us to try and complete the workout between 20 and 25 minutes, but most of the times for the day were in the 25-30 minute range, with a handful of folks over 30 minutes. As far as I could tell, I wasn't way behind the rest of the class. So there was no panic about that. The bigger problem was my inability to raise my arms. When I came back to my barbell, I had a hard time raising my arms above my head. I spent a good 30 seconds trying to stretch them out. I needed my arms over my head for everything that remained and it couldn't be a thing where I could only do it for a few seconds at a time. I needed to keep them over my head for a prolonged period. Wasn't happening. At that point I knew my workout was done. Or was it?
About another minute passed before I was able to get Rachel's attention and let her know I was tapping out after two rounds. Then she let me know my workout wasn't done. "You can still do the sandbag run, can't you?" Completely slipped my mind. I squatted down, picked up my sandbag, and slid it over the back of my shoulders. I started to jog a little, but I was having a hard time holding my arms up to cling to the straps of the sandbag. Time to readjust. I put the sandbag down, then tossed it over one shoulder. That helped in terms of being able to hold it, but I still couldn't jog much. The bouncing during the jog was causing the sandbag to pound away at my sore shoulders. This was going to be much more of a speed walk than a jog. Every now and then I'd jog a little bit and I certainly gave it some extra effort at the very end. I was very happy to dump that sandbag as I came back in the side door of the gym. Final time: 25:21.
I wasn't as disappointed with my performance in this workout as much as I was disappointed with my attitude. I think I did the right thing by stopping after the second round as there was a real chance that I could have injured myself doing round three. Completing only two rounds ended up being my version of scaling and was likely a better option than super-light overhead squats, knee raises, or only climbing to 15' on the rope. No real complaints, just wish I had the ability to do all three rounds.
Wednesday preview: I discover that the soreness in my shoulders and traps is not what held me back on Tuesday night. One jump rope dies, another jump rope is born. And like a White Walker, I am rejected by the wall.
Friday, October 21, 2016
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Exchanging Dollars For Pounds
Workout date: 10/17/16
Vegas was a bummer. I qualified for this tournament that I had never participated in before, but after doing some research, I realized it was a good one for me to play in. The format is similar to the one used at the NHC. It is three days long with 15 plays per day and a ton of races to choose from (5 race tracks on day one, 7 race tracks on days two and three). The main difference is that this tournament is "win only" (your horse must finish first) whereas the NHC is "win and place" (you get points if your horse comes in first or second). That means it is pretty heartbreaking if your horse loses a photo and comes in second place. For the first two days, I didn't experience that heartbreak. On Day 1, I liked a horse who was 15-1 on the morning line and drifted up to 29-1 come post time. When he drew off late in the stretch, I was suddenly in contention. On Day 2, there were tons and tons of favorites that won, so the room was mostly quiet and the standings didn't change tremendously. The punch to the gut didn't come until Day 3. While one of my tablemates said I should have won a prize for betting horses on both Day 1 and Day 2 that threw the jockey in the stretch (the horse on Day 1 was about to win too), I hadn't felt snakebitten through the first two days of play. I was in contention, I was calm, and I believed I could still win. Then I lost a photo with a 10-1 shot. A little while later, my 18-1 shot was closing like a rocket, but he had started accelerating too late, losing by a head. In the marquee race of Day 3, my horse was 10-1 and fought off the favorite the entire length of the stretch as another 10-1 shot came closing late. There was a three-way photo at the finish. My horse didn't lose by a nose. She lost by two noses, winding up a very unlucky third. You need to be fortunate to win tournaments like this one and between the two horses that dumped the jockey and the three losses in photo finishes, it was clear that it wasn't meant to be for me this weekend.
At least once it was over I could go enjoy myself. Between the prep work, the analysis I did on the 171 races in the contest, and the time during the actual contest where I scanned the odds boards for solid horses that were unloved by the betting public, I spent well over 60 hours this week in tournament mode. I rarely left my room the first three nights unless it was to get something to eat. Sleep? It would be more accurate to say I did a lot of napping. In fact, once the tournament was over, I strongly considered going up to my room and catching some z's rather than going over to the Vegas strip. But you have to try and go enjoy Vegas if you're there, so I held off on sleep until much later in the evening. I ended up at the Beer Park watching the end of the Ohio St.-Wisconsin game along with the first game of the NLCS. There were rowdy fans cheering on both games and even though I didn't have a rooting interest, it was a lot of fun to experience.
When the games were over, I wasn't sure what was left to do. Being a married guy on your own in Vegas is a bit awkward. If you're single, I'm sure you can just go out, chat up someone and have a new friend to hang out with. When you're married, you go to a restaurant, ask for a table for one, then decide what your answer will be when they inevitably try to stick you at the bar. After you've completed your meal, you...go gamble? Perhaps that is my default answer no matter what, but I spent the last few hours of Saturday night at a blackjack table manned by a completely humorless dealer. When she was finished relieving me of my stack of chips, I went for a walk before getting an Uber and heading back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep. It was time to return to reality.
There was nothing more real for me then having to weight myself on Monday morning. I had been in Vegas since Wednesday night. During that time, I had eaten almost nothing healthy. There was no time to work out early on in the trip and I didn't have the energy to exercise by the end of the trip. I fully expected my Vegas experience to end with me lighter in the wallet and heavier on the scale.
Original weigh-in: 213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in: 209.8 pounds
This week's weigh-in: 208.8 pounds
I don't get nutrition or dieting at all. But I certainly ain't complaining about dropping another pound. 19 more to go.
The Monday 6:30 WOD was jam-packed again, although it actually had less people in it than the 5:30 class did (19 vs. 23 athletes). I left an extra 10 minutes early to get to the gym for some reason. Maybe the universe was telling me I needed that 10 minutes. Well the universe was wrong: I needed an extra 15 minutes. I was hitting one red light after another, but I wasn't sweating being late because I had given myself some additional time. And then I came upon the road closure. Great. Now I had to detour to another route that I knew was going to have more traffic. Still looked like I was going to be a couple minutes early, but my streak of red lights continued. The display in my car said 6:29 when I pulled into the KOP parking lot. Barely made it. Or so I thought. Every parking spot was taken. Even the area in the back that is just dirt and gravel rather than parking spots was filled with cars. I pulled out of the parking lot and made my way over to park near the annex. As I went by, I saw the 6:30 class coming out of the side door to do their warmup run. I'd have to fill in behind them once I parked. I looped around to the entrance that gives access to the annex parking and waited (and waved) as the class went by my car. Not wanting to waste time, I grabbed my gym bag, locked my car, and headed off after them. It was awkward running with my bag, but I could handle running 400 meters with it.
We did not run 400 meters. As I came around Frosty Falls, I saw the lead runners pass the 400 meter turnaround point. The warmup was an 800 meter run. I was stuck. I was running along with my gym bag, trying to find a way to hold it where it wasn't whacking against my body. I had inadvertently turned this into an 800 meter sandbag run. As the class came streaming by me after hitting the 800 meter turnaround point, I got some strange looks. Not that they weren't warranted. I really just wanted the run over with. Luckily I was moving pretty well on the run, even managing to pass some of those who weren't toting gym bags during the half mile warmup. However, I was sweating a lot once I got inside the gym. I happily tossed my bag below one of the GHD machines.
I had seen the Monday WOD online when I got home from the airport on Sunday night and it didn't sound too awful. I knew that I shouldn't expect a wonderful score on it because I had spent the last four nights eating fast food and not sleeping, but it sounded like one I could get through. Here's what it looked like:
Monday WOD:
15 minute AMRAP
21 KB swings (55/35)
15 hang power clean and jerks (115)
9 burpee box jump overs
As Coach Giulz walked us through each element of the workout, I realized why I didn't think this workout sounded so bad. And that is because I can't read. I thought the last part said "box jump overs" not "burpee box jump overs". Trust me when I say the word that I overlooked has a huge impact on the difficulty of this workout. I had wondered why very few people earlier in the day had finished 4 rounds. Now I knew. I certainly wasn't finishing 4 rounds. The goal was to get as many KB swings as I could after completing three rounds.
To provide enough room for everyone to swing a KB, work with a barbell, and do burpees and box jump overs, we needed to split up into three sections. I was at the tail end of the group in the middle of the gym, meaning I really only had one neighbor (Nate) who I was worried about running into. On my other side was Nick, but he had his equipment set up in a different order and it seemed unlikely that I'd bump into him along the way.
We began getting ready and Giulz encouraged us to jump completely over the box after doing our burpees rather than jumping on the box and coming down on the other side. This is what I had wanted to do during a Dudes After Dark workout a few weeks ago, but we were told that we had to jump on to the box in the midst of the box jump over. This sounded much cooler. The chances of me injuring myself significantly increased, but so did the cool factor. Who doesn't make that tradeoff?
As I grabbed plates for my barbell, I walked by Matt B and he asked me if I was using 115 pounds. I told him that I thought the clean and jerks would be the easy part of this workout. After all, when we do Grace, we use 135 pounds and manage to finish 30 reps in about three minutes. This was only 15 reps at 115. How bad could that be? (You already know the answer to that one.) Matt reluctantly put 115 on his barbell after hearing my faulty logic.
It was time to start the proceedings, so we lined up by our KBs. Giulz started the clock and we were off. I thought I could handle 21 KB swings in the first round and that prognostication turned out to be accurate. I placed the KB down and went to my barbell. That is where I realized how much I had underestimated this part of the WOD. Because it was a hang power clean and jerk, I knew this segment would test my grip strength. But that test never really came to pass. I picked up the barbell and was only able to manage 3 reps, stumbling a bit on the last one. Here I was thinking I'd start off with 10 or so and I got a measly 3. Nice job Dave! My next set was three before I took more of a break. I needed to calm down to get through this. The weight wasn't the problem. The fact that I was rushing was not helping matters. The KB swings had worked my core and trying to do clean and jerks while breathing heavily was leaving me soft in the middle. I needed to calm down, tighten my core, and I'd be alright. I got through 5 reps in my third set, then I took care of the remaining 4 reps so that I could move on to the box.
If my core was weakening during the clean and jerks, a bunch of burpees wasn't going to help matters. Each burpee I did was very slow. But if you think I wasn't gonna try and hop over the box during that first round, then you clearly don't appreciate my poor decision-making skills. I had launched myself over the box twice already and was preparing to do it a third time when Nate made his first attempt at jumping over the box. It did not go well. His shin nailed the box and he fell over the top of it. I stopped what I was doing to make sure he was alright. He was, he just needed some time to regroup. And I immediately began second guessing how wise it was for me to keep jumping over the box. Don't get me wrong. I didn't make some rash (translation: sane) decision to quit jumping over the box. Instead I continued jumping over the box, but with a heightened sense of fear that completely validated my decision. I made it through the nine burpee box jumps without injuring myself and walked back to my KB. Approximate time for round one: 4 minutes.
Not so bad. I could definitely finish three rounds at this pace and might even have time to get through all of the KB swings in round four. It was all about pushing ahead even though I was tired. I picked up the KB again. I immediately knew 21 wasn't happening. Then I realized I wasn't making it to 11. If this was going to take three sets, I might as well stop after 7 reps and so I did. I was kinda mad that I had to put it down so early, so once I picked it back up again, I was determined to do better. I guess 8 reps is technically better, but I still had a bigger-than-I-would-have-liked set of 6 reps to complete before I could move on. I took care of that and went back to my barbell.
The good news regarding my second set of clean and jerks was that I didn't have to start out with two sets of three again. My first set was three reps but I think that was due to the fact that I tried to get right into it as soon as I got to my barbell. The other three sets were four reps each. The problem was that I was hurting badly by this point. Long breaks were necessary between sets. The clock was near 8:15 as I came back to my box. I had spent more time on this round already than I had on round one and I hadn't even begun the slowest section yet.
I may be a dummy, but I'm no fool. As tired as I was, there was no chance that I was going to attempt launching myself over the box anymore. Even hitting the floor and rising back up was a challenge at this stage. After each burpee, I was able to jump on to the box. Then I slowly stepped off of it and cringed at the thought of the next burpee. It took me close to two minutes to finish these 9 reps. The clock had passed the 10 minute mark and I was behind schedule if I wanted to complete three rounds.
One of my worst qualities is that I can never shut my mind off. If there was an off switch I could flip, I would be a much happier soul. Alas, I don't seem to have come equipped with one. I guess I wouldn't be able to write this blog if I was able to shut my mind off during a workout. Each entry would just end up looking like this:
"Went to gym. This was WOD. <WOD description>. Score 2 rounds, 33 reps. Very tired, sweaty."
(Not sure why I think I'd talk like a caveman if I had an off switch. Sometimes I just start writing without thinking these things all of the way through.)
The reason I bring this up is because my mind went adrift at the beginning of my third round. I started swinging the KB and for whatever reason, the pain from doing so was not being processed by my body. I was able to hang on for 12 reps. It was proof that if I had an off switch, I would do much better, especially during the hardest parts of the workout. I needed a break after that set because a) my body eventually did process how much that hurt and b) I had to be ready to do all 9 of the remaining reps in one set. Which I did.
I was way too tired to contemplate finishing the third round, but I thought I'd get back to the burpee box jumps. Wrong again. I was hoping to do the 15 clean and jerks in four sets like I had done in rounds one and two, but my mid-section was not interested in staying tight any longer. I got two clean and jerks in my first set before having to drop the barbell. I was able to struggle through 3 more in my next set, but it took way more energy than it should have. Next set? Only 1. That was the point where I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't stabilize the weight and that meant I wasn't going to be able to string reps any longer. All I could do was "fast" singles, except they were more like plodding singles. I worked my way up to 12 reps before time was called. Final score: 2+33.
Not my greatest workout ever. I'm not sure how much of it was the Vegas trip and how much of it was simply me not being good at this WOD. Wish I could have done a better job of continuing to work while I was tired. That has been a focus of my double under training. I suppose it is easier to get your mind to agree to jumping rope while tired rather than holding weight over your head, but it's a mental block I need to get beyond.
Speaking of double unders, I practiced before coming to the gym and had a best set of 57 in a row. I also started playing around with a new rope that I ordered. My old rope is beaten up and it was time for a new one. I decided to try out a version with longer handles because I often feel like my hands are slipping off the one with smaller handles. The long handles will take some getting used to as it felt weird initially. Part of the problem is that the rope is probably too long and needs to be trimmed back some. The good news is that I received compliments about my improved from while I was using it after the workout. Maybe my persistence with the jump rope is slowly paying off.
Tuesday preview: More sandbag runs! (This time with an actual sandbag) Overhead squats, rope climbs, and testing out my new grips while doing toes-to-bar.
Vegas was a bummer. I qualified for this tournament that I had never participated in before, but after doing some research, I realized it was a good one for me to play in. The format is similar to the one used at the NHC. It is three days long with 15 plays per day and a ton of races to choose from (5 race tracks on day one, 7 race tracks on days two and three). The main difference is that this tournament is "win only" (your horse must finish first) whereas the NHC is "win and place" (you get points if your horse comes in first or second). That means it is pretty heartbreaking if your horse loses a photo and comes in second place. For the first two days, I didn't experience that heartbreak. On Day 1, I liked a horse who was 15-1 on the morning line and drifted up to 29-1 come post time. When he drew off late in the stretch, I was suddenly in contention. On Day 2, there were tons and tons of favorites that won, so the room was mostly quiet and the standings didn't change tremendously. The punch to the gut didn't come until Day 3. While one of my tablemates said I should have won a prize for betting horses on both Day 1 and Day 2 that threw the jockey in the stretch (the horse on Day 1 was about to win too), I hadn't felt snakebitten through the first two days of play. I was in contention, I was calm, and I believed I could still win. Then I lost a photo with a 10-1 shot. A little while later, my 18-1 shot was closing like a rocket, but he had started accelerating too late, losing by a head. In the marquee race of Day 3, my horse was 10-1 and fought off the favorite the entire length of the stretch as another 10-1 shot came closing late. There was a three-way photo at the finish. My horse didn't lose by a nose. She lost by two noses, winding up a very unlucky third. You need to be fortunate to win tournaments like this one and between the two horses that dumped the jockey and the three losses in photo finishes, it was clear that it wasn't meant to be for me this weekend.
At least once it was over I could go enjoy myself. Between the prep work, the analysis I did on the 171 races in the contest, and the time during the actual contest where I scanned the odds boards for solid horses that were unloved by the betting public, I spent well over 60 hours this week in tournament mode. I rarely left my room the first three nights unless it was to get something to eat. Sleep? It would be more accurate to say I did a lot of napping. In fact, once the tournament was over, I strongly considered going up to my room and catching some z's rather than going over to the Vegas strip. But you have to try and go enjoy Vegas if you're there, so I held off on sleep until much later in the evening. I ended up at the Beer Park watching the end of the Ohio St.-Wisconsin game along with the first game of the NLCS. There were rowdy fans cheering on both games and even though I didn't have a rooting interest, it was a lot of fun to experience.
When the games were over, I wasn't sure what was left to do. Being a married guy on your own in Vegas is a bit awkward. If you're single, I'm sure you can just go out, chat up someone and have a new friend to hang out with. When you're married, you go to a restaurant, ask for a table for one, then decide what your answer will be when they inevitably try to stick you at the bar. After you've completed your meal, you...go gamble? Perhaps that is my default answer no matter what, but I spent the last few hours of Saturday night at a blackjack table manned by a completely humorless dealer. When she was finished relieving me of my stack of chips, I went for a walk before getting an Uber and heading back to the hotel to catch up on some sleep. It was time to return to reality.
There was nothing more real for me then having to weight myself on Monday morning. I had been in Vegas since Wednesday night. During that time, I had eaten almost nothing healthy. There was no time to work out early on in the trip and I didn't have the energy to exercise by the end of the trip. I fully expected my Vegas experience to end with me lighter in the wallet and heavier on the scale.
Original weigh-in: 213.2 pounds
Last week's weigh-in: 209.8 pounds
This week's weigh-in: 208.8 pounds
I don't get nutrition or dieting at all. But I certainly ain't complaining about dropping another pound. 19 more to go.
The Monday 6:30 WOD was jam-packed again, although it actually had less people in it than the 5:30 class did (19 vs. 23 athletes). I left an extra 10 minutes early to get to the gym for some reason. Maybe the universe was telling me I needed that 10 minutes. Well the universe was wrong: I needed an extra 15 minutes. I was hitting one red light after another, but I wasn't sweating being late because I had given myself some additional time. And then I came upon the road closure. Great. Now I had to detour to another route that I knew was going to have more traffic. Still looked like I was going to be a couple minutes early, but my streak of red lights continued. The display in my car said 6:29 when I pulled into the KOP parking lot. Barely made it. Or so I thought. Every parking spot was taken. Even the area in the back that is just dirt and gravel rather than parking spots was filled with cars. I pulled out of the parking lot and made my way over to park near the annex. As I went by, I saw the 6:30 class coming out of the side door to do their warmup run. I'd have to fill in behind them once I parked. I looped around to the entrance that gives access to the annex parking and waited (and waved) as the class went by my car. Not wanting to waste time, I grabbed my gym bag, locked my car, and headed off after them. It was awkward running with my bag, but I could handle running 400 meters with it.
We did not run 400 meters. As I came around Frosty Falls, I saw the lead runners pass the 400 meter turnaround point. The warmup was an 800 meter run. I was stuck. I was running along with my gym bag, trying to find a way to hold it where it wasn't whacking against my body. I had inadvertently turned this into an 800 meter sandbag run. As the class came streaming by me after hitting the 800 meter turnaround point, I got some strange looks. Not that they weren't warranted. I really just wanted the run over with. Luckily I was moving pretty well on the run, even managing to pass some of those who weren't toting gym bags during the half mile warmup. However, I was sweating a lot once I got inside the gym. I happily tossed my bag below one of the GHD machines.
I had seen the Monday WOD online when I got home from the airport on Sunday night and it didn't sound too awful. I knew that I shouldn't expect a wonderful score on it because I had spent the last four nights eating fast food and not sleeping, but it sounded like one I could get through. Here's what it looked like:
Monday WOD:
15 minute AMRAP
21 KB swings (55/35)
15 hang power clean and jerks (115)
9 burpee box jump overs
As Coach Giulz walked us through each element of the workout, I realized why I didn't think this workout sounded so bad. And that is because I can't read. I thought the last part said "box jump overs" not "burpee box jump overs". Trust me when I say the word that I overlooked has a huge impact on the difficulty of this workout. I had wondered why very few people earlier in the day had finished 4 rounds. Now I knew. I certainly wasn't finishing 4 rounds. The goal was to get as many KB swings as I could after completing three rounds.
To provide enough room for everyone to swing a KB, work with a barbell, and do burpees and box jump overs, we needed to split up into three sections. I was at the tail end of the group in the middle of the gym, meaning I really only had one neighbor (Nate) who I was worried about running into. On my other side was Nick, but he had his equipment set up in a different order and it seemed unlikely that I'd bump into him along the way.
We began getting ready and Giulz encouraged us to jump completely over the box after doing our burpees rather than jumping on the box and coming down on the other side. This is what I had wanted to do during a Dudes After Dark workout a few weeks ago, but we were told that we had to jump on to the box in the midst of the box jump over. This sounded much cooler. The chances of me injuring myself significantly increased, but so did the cool factor. Who doesn't make that tradeoff?
As I grabbed plates for my barbell, I walked by Matt B and he asked me if I was using 115 pounds. I told him that I thought the clean and jerks would be the easy part of this workout. After all, when we do Grace, we use 135 pounds and manage to finish 30 reps in about three minutes. This was only 15 reps at 115. How bad could that be? (You already know the answer to that one.) Matt reluctantly put 115 on his barbell after hearing my faulty logic.
It was time to start the proceedings, so we lined up by our KBs. Giulz started the clock and we were off. I thought I could handle 21 KB swings in the first round and that prognostication turned out to be accurate. I placed the KB down and went to my barbell. That is where I realized how much I had underestimated this part of the WOD. Because it was a hang power clean and jerk, I knew this segment would test my grip strength. But that test never really came to pass. I picked up the barbell and was only able to manage 3 reps, stumbling a bit on the last one. Here I was thinking I'd start off with 10 or so and I got a measly 3. Nice job Dave! My next set was three before I took more of a break. I needed to calm down to get through this. The weight wasn't the problem. The fact that I was rushing was not helping matters. The KB swings had worked my core and trying to do clean and jerks while breathing heavily was leaving me soft in the middle. I needed to calm down, tighten my core, and I'd be alright. I got through 5 reps in my third set, then I took care of the remaining 4 reps so that I could move on to the box.
If my core was weakening during the clean and jerks, a bunch of burpees wasn't going to help matters. Each burpee I did was very slow. But if you think I wasn't gonna try and hop over the box during that first round, then you clearly don't appreciate my poor decision-making skills. I had launched myself over the box twice already and was preparing to do it a third time when Nate made his first attempt at jumping over the box. It did not go well. His shin nailed the box and he fell over the top of it. I stopped what I was doing to make sure he was alright. He was, he just needed some time to regroup. And I immediately began second guessing how wise it was for me to keep jumping over the box. Don't get me wrong. I didn't make some rash (translation: sane) decision to quit jumping over the box. Instead I continued jumping over the box, but with a heightened sense of fear that completely validated my decision. I made it through the nine burpee box jumps without injuring myself and walked back to my KB. Approximate time for round one: 4 minutes.
Not so bad. I could definitely finish three rounds at this pace and might even have time to get through all of the KB swings in round four. It was all about pushing ahead even though I was tired. I picked up the KB again. I immediately knew 21 wasn't happening. Then I realized I wasn't making it to 11. If this was going to take three sets, I might as well stop after 7 reps and so I did. I was kinda mad that I had to put it down so early, so once I picked it back up again, I was determined to do better. I guess 8 reps is technically better, but I still had a bigger-than-I-would-have-liked set of 6 reps to complete before I could move on. I took care of that and went back to my barbell.
The good news regarding my second set of clean and jerks was that I didn't have to start out with two sets of three again. My first set was three reps but I think that was due to the fact that I tried to get right into it as soon as I got to my barbell. The other three sets were four reps each. The problem was that I was hurting badly by this point. Long breaks were necessary between sets. The clock was near 8:15 as I came back to my box. I had spent more time on this round already than I had on round one and I hadn't even begun the slowest section yet.
I may be a dummy, but I'm no fool. As tired as I was, there was no chance that I was going to attempt launching myself over the box anymore. Even hitting the floor and rising back up was a challenge at this stage. After each burpee, I was able to jump on to the box. Then I slowly stepped off of it and cringed at the thought of the next burpee. It took me close to two minutes to finish these 9 reps. The clock had passed the 10 minute mark and I was behind schedule if I wanted to complete three rounds.
One of my worst qualities is that I can never shut my mind off. If there was an off switch I could flip, I would be a much happier soul. Alas, I don't seem to have come equipped with one. I guess I wouldn't be able to write this blog if I was able to shut my mind off during a workout. Each entry would just end up looking like this:
"Went to gym. This was WOD. <WOD description>. Score 2 rounds, 33 reps. Very tired, sweaty."
(Not sure why I think I'd talk like a caveman if I had an off switch. Sometimes I just start writing without thinking these things all of the way through.)
The reason I bring this up is because my mind went adrift at the beginning of my third round. I started swinging the KB and for whatever reason, the pain from doing so was not being processed by my body. I was able to hang on for 12 reps. It was proof that if I had an off switch, I would do much better, especially during the hardest parts of the workout. I needed a break after that set because a) my body eventually did process how much that hurt and b) I had to be ready to do all 9 of the remaining reps in one set. Which I did.
I was way too tired to contemplate finishing the third round, but I thought I'd get back to the burpee box jumps. Wrong again. I was hoping to do the 15 clean and jerks in four sets like I had done in rounds one and two, but my mid-section was not interested in staying tight any longer. I got two clean and jerks in my first set before having to drop the barbell. I was able to struggle through 3 more in my next set, but it took way more energy than it should have. Next set? Only 1. That was the point where I knew I was in trouble. I couldn't stabilize the weight and that meant I wasn't going to be able to string reps any longer. All I could do was "fast" singles, except they were more like plodding singles. I worked my way up to 12 reps before time was called. Final score: 2+33.
Not my greatest workout ever. I'm not sure how much of it was the Vegas trip and how much of it was simply me not being good at this WOD. Wish I could have done a better job of continuing to work while I was tired. That has been a focus of my double under training. I suppose it is easier to get your mind to agree to jumping rope while tired rather than holding weight over your head, but it's a mental block I need to get beyond.
Speaking of double unders, I practiced before coming to the gym and had a best set of 57 in a row. I also started playing around with a new rope that I ordered. My old rope is beaten up and it was time for a new one. I decided to try out a version with longer handles because I often feel like my hands are slipping off the one with smaller handles. The long handles will take some getting used to as it felt weird initially. Part of the problem is that the rope is probably too long and needs to be trimmed back some. The good news is that I received compliments about my improved from while I was using it after the workout. Maybe my persistence with the jump rope is slowly paying off.
Tuesday preview: More sandbag runs! (This time with an actual sandbag) Overhead squats, rope climbs, and testing out my new grips while doing toes-to-bar.
Monday, October 17, 2016
Board Coach Bullying
Workout date: 10/12/16
With a 4:15pm flight to Vegas on the horizon, I had to hit up Coach Gordy’s Wednesday nooner for the second week in a row. I was really happy to see a lot of the noon regulars there (Tim H, Joe M, Pam, Becky, Mike Sim, and Rob C). There was also one person there that I was not expecting to see: Rachel. Now to be fair, she was just sitting in the lobby working on the computer when I got to the gym. She had the day off because of some Jewish apple-picking holiday. (Note: It is entirely possible that I mixed up two things she told about me her day off.) With a little prodding though, I got her to join the seven of us in a strength-based WOD.
With a 4:15pm flight to Vegas on the horizon, I had to hit up Coach Gordy’s Wednesday nooner for the second week in a row. I was really happy to see a lot of the noon regulars there (Tim H, Joe M, Pam, Becky, Mike Sim, and Rob C). There was also one person there that I was not expecting to see: Rachel. Now to be fair, she was just sitting in the lobby working on the computer when I got to the gym. She had the day off because of some Jewish apple-picking holiday. (Note: It is entirely possible that I mixed up two things she told about me her day off.) With a little prodding though, I got her to join the seven of us in a strength-based WOD.
Today we would be attempting to find a 3RM on the push press
as one more benchmark workout was making its final appearance of 2016. Even the cash out had remained the same from
quarter to quarter, as we would be wrapping the workout up with a 5 minute
AMRAP of 5 muscle-ups (Or ring dips. Or banded ring dips.) and 10 power
cleans at 135 pounds for the gentlemen and 95 pounds for the ladies. Gordy let us know in advance that we didn’t
need our water bottles for the cash out as we were not allowed to stop for a
drink during that sprint.
I must admit: I kinda like Gordy’s warmups. They’re different from what I experience in
most of my other classes. Sure, we
started out with a 400 meter run like we almost always do, but then we did a
bunch of exercises that made it seem like we were in an aerobics class. There were jumping jacks. There were hybrid jumping jacks (I didn’t
catch the name of this one) where our legs scissored back and forth while we
clapped in front of our bodies. We did
lunges where we had to clap overhead as our knees touched the floor. (I’m suddenly realizing that I might just
enjoy clapping.) When we went through
the progressions for the push press, we worked on stringing three reps in a row
multiple times. Usually in a warmup, we
work on the form of one rep before finishing off with a single set of multiple
reps. The whole thing I had a different
feel to it and since I’m a sucker for variety, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Even though there were only 8 of us in class, Gordy
suggested that we might want to work in groups as it would give us about the
right amount of rest between sets. As I
turned towards the barbells, I saw that Mike was looking at me. Uh oh.
He’s super strong. Me? Not so much.
I asked him if he wanted to work together and he said sure. I was going to have to dial it up a notch if
I was going to keep pace with him.
Mike asked if I wanted to start out with 95 and I was good
with that. Prior to class, my plan was
to go 95-135-165-185-200. 200 would be a
PR attempt as I had set a personal best at 195 earlier in the year. Gordy mentioned doing some warmup sets to
begin though and that left me a little stumped.
Should I count 95 and 135 as warmup sets and the last three sets as the
real deal? I guess it didn’t matter all
that much, but the wheels were turning.
Had I planned out enough sets?
Once I got started with Mike, I realized I had not. The progression we wound up taking was
95-115-135-155-175-185-200. That made
more sense in terms of doing some warmup sets and doing about 5 real sets
(typical for strength WODs). The only
problem was that it was a lot of work in a short period of time. Remember, this was the express, so this class
had 15 minutes less to play with. Gordy
told us we needed to get ready for the cash out at 10 of 1, meaning we would
have about 20 minutes to move through these seven sets.
Early on I was able to keep up with Mike. I enjoy the push press and rattling through
three quick reps was not a problem at 95, 115, and 135. Mike didn’t even have a trickle of sweat on
him. In truth, this was shoulder press
weight for him, but he went through the formality of bending his knees a bit
before powering the barbell overhead.
Gordy had encouraged us not to pause in between reps, telling us that a
true 3RM was done with each rep going directly into the next one. I knew that was going to be tricky for me at
higher weights. In the past, I would do
a rep, bring it down, reset (as I do with squats) and then do the next
rep. That was how I got 195. I had my doubts as to whether I could have
done it without the pauses.
It was at 155 that I started having trouble controlling the
barbell. I would come down from my first
rep and try to move directly into the second rep, but inevitably, the barbell
would come forward a bit, putting the weight on my arms more than my body. I wasn’t completely using my arms
though. I was using enough of my body
still that I could dip, pop up, and generate enough momentum to press the weight
overhead. Mike was not having any
struggles. I may have seen him yawn
during one of these middle sets.
Because my form was starting to waver, I put on my
weightlifting belt for the next set.
That didn’t help my form per se, but it protected my back from my lousy
form. Once again, the second rep got
away from me a little bit, but I held on and got through all three reps. Mike may have been whistling dixie during his
set.
I wasn’t sure what our next jump would be, but I didn’t want
to make another 20 pound jump to 195 because tying your PR is lame. Mike only added 10 pounds to the barbell and
I was surprised. He had shown no signs
of distress up to now, so I had no idea why he was decreasing the increment
that we were adding to the barbell. Perhaps
he was just looking out for me. He had
no problems with 185. Gordy and I stood
behind him and marveled at how easy he made it look. I took my turn next and needed some big dips
in order to generate the power to get the barbell overhead (there may have been
some minor grunting), but I was able to squeeze out three reps.
I had brought over 5 pound plates and 2.5 pound plates as
Mike got ready to do 185 because I wanted to attempt 200 if I was successful at
that weight. Mike realized that was my plan,
so he slapped them on the barbell for the next set. It was time to go after a PR. 200 would not be a PR for Mike. Not even sure 300 would be with how easily he did
his push presses. That set the stage for
me. There were only a few minutes left before
we had to get ready for the cash out. I
went up to the barbell and tried to psyche myself up. Took it off the rack and it didn’t feel
unbearably heavy. I dipped, drove up,
got the barbell a little over my head, and realized it wasn’t going any
further. I dumped it behind me. Damn.
I knew it was going to be tough after the set at 185, but I thought I’d
at least get a rep or two. Oh well. Final score: 185.
While Mike and I were going back and forth with our lifts, Rachel was next to us working on her own. During our 400 meter run, she had told me that she wasn't sure she wanted to lift today as she had been dealing with an injury of a gluteal nature. And while the push press might sound like an arm-focused exercise, you need power from your legs to have success with heavier weights. I wasn't paying much attention to how Rachel was doing until Mike and I were nearing the end of our progression. As Mike got ready for one of his lifts, I saw Rachel complete a set of push presses. She turned around and squinted at the big white board up front. Not the main one where everyone's scores are written. I'm talking about the one that lists the top three male and female scores in the gym to date. Rachel confessed that she might make an attempt at grabbing Alison's third place spot on the board for the push press. A little while later, Mike was making mincemeat out of 215 pounds to finish his push presses for the day. I turned around to see Rachel grind through a rep with her barbell. As soon as it was locked out, she dropped it to the floor. For some reason, it didn't strike me as the end of a 3 rep attempt. I asked her if that was the lift to get her on the board and she said yes.
Once upon a time, my unofficial title at the gym was "Rachel's board coach". I worked out with her almost every single day and I was well aware of what she was capable of. I could look up at that board and easily see where she might catch the third person listed, so I encouraged her to go after those spots. There were even times where she would skip getting third and just jump straight to the top of the board. I hadn't suggested the push press for her, but she would later give me credit on Facebook for bullying her into the workout and board coaching her at the express. Trust me, there is zero chance that I could ever bully Rachel. (Ever hear of someone bullying a Viking? Me neither.) And all the credit for getting up on that board for the millionth time belongs to her alone.
It was time for the cash out and only 6 of us would be taking part as Becky had injured herself and Joe either needed to leave or was injured as well. Mike was going to do ring muscle-ups, but the rest of us were doing dips. And for those of us who struggle mightily with the dips (like the author of this blog), there was the option to use a band. Even that was no sure thing for me as I had all sorts of problems with banded dips recently when we took part in Elizabeth. I'd have to make the best of it because my goal was to complete four rounds and that meant constant work for 5 minutes. Like Gordy had told us earlier, there would be no breaks.
I was working with the right group of people to accomplish that goal. I didn't see Mike and Tim as I was running around during this cash out, but Pam was directly in front of me on the rings, and I was facing Rachel and Rob during the power cleans. The three of them did not take breaks. It was simply go, go, go. Stringing five dips with a band was not a problem at the start for me and I hurried to my barbell once they were done. I picked it up immediately and held on through 10 power cleans. One round done in under a minute. I was the first one headed back to the rings, but Pam, Rachel, and Rob were only a second or two behind me. I couldn't have done that round any faster, yet I had no margin for error the rest of the way if I was going to stay with this group.
I completed the dips quickly in round two, then got to my barbell and started my cleans. I could tell quickly that I wasn't going to be able to string all 10 reps again, so I dropped the barbell after only 2 reps. It wasn't to take a break. It was an attempt to conserve energy. I did 8 fast singles to finish off the round. It was probably too conservative a strategy, but there was still almost three minutes to go. Three minutes to try and stay with Pam as we had moved a little bit ahead of Rob and Rachel.
I freaked out when I got back to my rings and had trouble getting up on to my band. This was the death knell for me during Elizabeth and I had no time during this cash out to struggle on something as simple as getting on to my band. After two missed jumps, I got on the band with my third jump. The dips hadn't failed me yet as I got through all five again. Pam got to her barbell first and I knew I needed to make up time. I wasn't stopping after two again. I strung five together before resorting to the fast singles to complete the round. That got me back to even with Pam. 90 seconds left to finish one more round and reach my goal.
The dips were fading by round four. I didn't have any problems getting into the band during this round, but I did have to jump on to it twice because I needed to split my reps into a set of three and a set of two. This time Pam and I headed to our barbells together. I knew I could finish the fourth round at this point. Could I stay on pace with Pam during this last minute? I got off to a good start by making it through 5 power cleans in a row. We were too close to the finish to catch my breath, so I just kept picking the barbell up over and over again until I made it to 10 reps. As I hustled over to my rings, Pam was completing her last rep. I hopped on to my band and did two reps. Pam started doing her dips. As Gordy started the countdown of the final 5 seconds, I jumped up to try and get more dips. I managed two more before time was called. Final score: 4+4. One more rep than Pam did. (Note: To be fair, Pam did not use a band for her dips. But considering she is a Crossfit cyborg, I was thrilled that I kept up with her for 5 minutes.)
I needed some time to recover from that sprint, but then I pulled out my jump rope. Gotta keep working on double unders while I am tired. I did three sets post-workout: one of 32 reps, the other two being 25 reps long. I knew I didn't have enough energy to put together a huge set, but in a way, getting three fairly strong sets in a row while feeling fatigued was more of an accomplishment for me. I called it a day, packed up my bag, and got ready for my trip to Vegas.
Monday preview: How does a trip to Vegas affect my weight loss aspirations? And will four days off slow me down during a 15 minute metcon?
Once upon a time, my unofficial title at the gym was "Rachel's board coach". I worked out with her almost every single day and I was well aware of what she was capable of. I could look up at that board and easily see where she might catch the third person listed, so I encouraged her to go after those spots. There were even times where she would skip getting third and just jump straight to the top of the board. I hadn't suggested the push press for her, but she would later give me credit on Facebook for bullying her into the workout and board coaching her at the express. Trust me, there is zero chance that I could ever bully Rachel. (Ever hear of someone bullying a Viking? Me neither.) And all the credit for getting up on that board for the millionth time belongs to her alone.
It was time for the cash out and only 6 of us would be taking part as Becky had injured herself and Joe either needed to leave or was injured as well. Mike was going to do ring muscle-ups, but the rest of us were doing dips. And for those of us who struggle mightily with the dips (like the author of this blog), there was the option to use a band. Even that was no sure thing for me as I had all sorts of problems with banded dips recently when we took part in Elizabeth. I'd have to make the best of it because my goal was to complete four rounds and that meant constant work for 5 minutes. Like Gordy had told us earlier, there would be no breaks.
I was working with the right group of people to accomplish that goal. I didn't see Mike and Tim as I was running around during this cash out, but Pam was directly in front of me on the rings, and I was facing Rachel and Rob during the power cleans. The three of them did not take breaks. It was simply go, go, go. Stringing five dips with a band was not a problem at the start for me and I hurried to my barbell once they were done. I picked it up immediately and held on through 10 power cleans. One round done in under a minute. I was the first one headed back to the rings, but Pam, Rachel, and Rob were only a second or two behind me. I couldn't have done that round any faster, yet I had no margin for error the rest of the way if I was going to stay with this group.
I completed the dips quickly in round two, then got to my barbell and started my cleans. I could tell quickly that I wasn't going to be able to string all 10 reps again, so I dropped the barbell after only 2 reps. It wasn't to take a break. It was an attempt to conserve energy. I did 8 fast singles to finish off the round. It was probably too conservative a strategy, but there was still almost three minutes to go. Three minutes to try and stay with Pam as we had moved a little bit ahead of Rob and Rachel.
I freaked out when I got back to my rings and had trouble getting up on to my band. This was the death knell for me during Elizabeth and I had no time during this cash out to struggle on something as simple as getting on to my band. After two missed jumps, I got on the band with my third jump. The dips hadn't failed me yet as I got through all five again. Pam got to her barbell first and I knew I needed to make up time. I wasn't stopping after two again. I strung five together before resorting to the fast singles to complete the round. That got me back to even with Pam. 90 seconds left to finish one more round and reach my goal.
The dips were fading by round four. I didn't have any problems getting into the band during this round, but I did have to jump on to it twice because I needed to split my reps into a set of three and a set of two. This time Pam and I headed to our barbells together. I knew I could finish the fourth round at this point. Could I stay on pace with Pam during this last minute? I got off to a good start by making it through 5 power cleans in a row. We were too close to the finish to catch my breath, so I just kept picking the barbell up over and over again until I made it to 10 reps. As I hustled over to my rings, Pam was completing her last rep. I hopped on to my band and did two reps. Pam started doing her dips. As Gordy started the countdown of the final 5 seconds, I jumped up to try and get more dips. I managed two more before time was called. Final score: 4+4. One more rep than Pam did. (Note: To be fair, Pam did not use a band for her dips. But considering she is a Crossfit cyborg, I was thrilled that I kept up with her for 5 minutes.)
I needed some time to recover from that sprint, but then I pulled out my jump rope. Gotta keep working on double unders while I am tired. I did three sets post-workout: one of 32 reps, the other two being 25 reps long. I knew I didn't have enough energy to put together a huge set, but in a way, getting three fairly strong sets in a row while feeling fatigued was more of an accomplishment for me. I called it a day, packed up my bag, and got ready for my trip to Vegas.
Monday preview: How does a trip to Vegas affect my weight loss aspirations? And will four days off slow me down during a 15 minute metcon?
Thursday, October 13, 2016
Then You Gotta Breathe
Workout date: 10/11/16
This Monday’s blog ran a little long due to the weight loss update, coverage of two heats of Christine, and the latest on my progress with double unders. I completely forgot to include a well-deserved shout-out. About a month ago, we did a workout that included 50 box jump-overs at the end. During the warmup for that WOD, Steph C did her best impression of yours truly when she tripped over her box and hit the floor. Unfortunately, an attempt to break her fall instead resulted in her breaking her hand. For as many times as I have tripped over my box, I consider myself very lucky to have never experienced such an injury. And I’m sure I would be avoiding box jumps for quite a while if I ever did break my hand in that fashion. Not Steph. With a cast protecting her hand, she came in on Monday night and would not be deterred by the 63 box jumps that were part of the workout. Ballsy stuff and definitely worthy of a shout-out.
This Monday’s blog ran a little long due to the weight loss update, coverage of two heats of Christine, and the latest on my progress with double unders. I completely forgot to include a well-deserved shout-out. About a month ago, we did a workout that included 50 box jump-overs at the end. During the warmup for that WOD, Steph C did her best impression of yours truly when she tripped over her box and hit the floor. Unfortunately, an attempt to break her fall instead resulted in her breaking her hand. For as many times as I have tripped over my box, I consider myself very lucky to have never experienced such an injury. And I’m sure I would be avoiding box jumps for quite a while if I ever did break my hand in that fashion. Not Steph. With a cast protecting her hand, she came in on Monday night and would not be deterred by the 63 box jumps that were part of the workout. Ballsy stuff and definitely worthy of a shout-out.
Prior to arriving at Dudes After Dark on Tuesday night, I
once again spent 10 minutes or so practicing double unders. It did not go as well as I hoped. I’ve set a goal for myself to get at least
one set of 50 consecutive double unders when I practice, but I couldn’t even
get to 30 this time around. Best I got
was 27 in a row. That was definitely
frustrating. I’m trying to build some
consistency and I didn’t come close to my daily goal.
Sometimes when you show up to the gym feeling frustrated, it
can be a good thing, especially when it’s a strength day. Use some of that rage to crush some heavy
weights. The Tuesday WOD was not one
where rage was going to help.
Tuesday WOD:
25 minute AMRAP
25 thrusters (45)
25 burpees
25 sumo deadlift high pulls (45)
A 25 minute workout that prominently featured burpees. Oh boy!
After looking at the WOD, I began thinking about what a solid score
would be. My best guesstimate was that 5
rounds would give you one of the better scores for the day. That ended up being fairly accurate. While watching the end of the 6:30 class, I
had the chance to talk to Samson, who had done the 5:30 class. He was able to complete 5 rounds and some of
the thrusters to begin round 6, which was one of the best scores of the day. His advice: just keep moving. He told me I shouldn’t worry about doing the
burpees fast because I’d just get tired over the course of 25 minutes. If I kept moving, even if I was crawling, I’d be fine. Fair enough.
I wasn’t as worried about the other two movements. The thruster weight was the same that we use
for Jackie, a workout where I've been able to string 25 thrusters in a row. In that workout, I’ll use an
empty barbell. For this workout, I opted for a 15 pound barbell
with 15 pound plates on it instead. Why
the switch? Because this workout
included sumo deadlift high pulls. The
bottom of each rep involves tapping the weight against the floor. I was not going to do that with an empty
barbell. I wouldn't need to go all the way to the floor, I would only need to mimic the motion by bringing it down to
mid-shin. That might sound less painful, but in reality it's worse than using the barbell with plates. We go to mid-shin with PVC pipe when we are warming up and holding it just a few inches
above the floor takes a toll on your hamstrings. When you have plates on the barbell and can tap
the floor, you get a split-second of relief.
Since this was a 25 minute workout, those moments of relief were going
to add up and I planned on taking advantage of every one of them.
There was a lady sighting at Dudes After Dark as Christa
joined the mostly-male contingent who arrived for the 7:30 class. Coach Rachel was busy wrapping up an intro
session that started at 6:30, so Steph got us warmed up. By the time we were almost done with our
warmup, Rachel had become free, so she walked us through the finer points of
the thruster and the sumo deadlift high pull.
Since this was a longer WOD, we couldn’t spend a ton of time on the
warmup, but this was also a workout where we didn’t need to. The barbell movements were very light and we
had all experienced burpees before.
Rachel warned us that this would be a burner and I don’t think any of
the seven attendees doubted her. She had
that “let’s get started” look on her face and we gave her that “let’s get this
over with” look in response. It was time
to go. 25 minutes of cardio awaited.
When I do Jackie, I’ve learned that I might as well go
through the thrusters quickly. Pacing
them hasn’t done me any favors and it’s a light enough weight that I can move
rapidly without much concern. I talked
myself out of doing that before this workout began. Jackie is more of a sprint and does not
include burpees. This WOD was a marathon
and if I wanted to complete 5 rounds, that meant 125 burpees. Nice and steady was the way to go.
We began with a set of thrusters. I had Angelo behind me (he had crushed
Christine on Monday with a time under 11 minutes) and Ranjith in front of
me. Actually, Ranjith was facing
me. I was a little worried that we’d
have some sort of “rep for rep” thing going on, but I think he accidentally
started with the sumo deadlift high pulls and from that point on, we were never
really in sync. I stuck to my plan of
not moving quickly through the thrusters.
As the set went on, I began to toy with the idea of doing all 25 without
putting the barbell down. Might as well
try and save some time in round one that I’ll need when I’m exhausted in round
five. (Spoiler: Or round two…)
I was able to hold on for all 25 thrusters and turned 90 degrees, going from
facing the barbell to parallel with the barbell so I could begin my
burpees. I noticed that Angelo was still
doing thrusters and a thought blossomed in my mind: you need to stay in front
of Angelo for the next 24 minutes. To be
fair, I don’t know Angelo and it’s possible that this workout was one that may
have not been his specialty. However, it’s
really hard to finish Christine in under 11 minutes unless you have an engine. This was my chance to test my engine against
his.
Round one of the burpees was a quick lesson on how awful
burpees were going to be in this workout.
I didn’t have to resort to crawling during that first set, but I could
feel the effect the thrusters had on my body.
My heart rate was definitely up and my legs were already starting to
feel the burn. I was about 5 burpees
ahead of Angelo, but this was definitely the part of the workout where he was
going to cut into my lead. Just keep moving. Up, down, up, down. The first round of 25 burpees was complete.
I didn’t want to waste a lot of time transitioning between
movements, but I definitely took a couple seconds to calm down after finishing
the burpees. I wasn’t sure how bad the
sumo deadlift high pulls would feel after the thrusters and burpees. The answer: not bad at all. It was a light enough weight that I didn’t
have to pop my hips wildly to get it up to my collarbone again and again. I thought about taking a break after 15 reps,
but this movement wasn’t killing me. I
held on to the barbell and completed all 25 reps. Round 1 was in the books. A peek at the clock showed me it took
4:05. Not awful, but there was almost no
chance of me finishing 5 rounds. I was
going to get slower as the rounds wore on and I had only banked 55 seconds from
the 5 minute pace I would need per round.
Oh well, try and stay ahead of
Angelo. Solid idea, inner
monologue. Goal revised.
As I began round two, I knew I wouldn’t be stringing 25 reps
of anything. If I toughened up, I might
have been able to do it with the sumo deadlift high pulls, but I thought it was
best to break those up as well. For the
thrusters, I went 10-10-5. For the
burpees, there was some crawling involved, but I tried my best to keep moving,
even if that meant dropping to a knee and flopping to the floor from
there. It should be no surprise that I
spent the bulk of my time each round on the burpees. When those were done, I came back to my
barbell and went 15-10 on the sumo deadlift high pulls. Time after round two: about 10 minutes. Doing this for 15 more minutes was going to
suck. But at least I was still ahead of
Angelo.
Technically I was still on pace for 5 rounds and that was
completely due to the fact that I was zoned into my breathing. Every time a thruster went overhead, I
exhaled. Each time I was about to drop
into a front squat, I inhaled. Bottom of
a burpee? Time to exhale. Clapping overhead? Inhale.
Breathe out on the high pull, breathe in when you tap the floor. The only time I can remember being this
focused on my breathing is during wall balls and that does not go on for 25
minutes straight. Perhaps my body went
into survival mode and did it on its own (we’ve covered how often I forget to
breathe during workouts), but whatever the case may be, breathing properly got
me through this workout.
Round 3 was a mirror image of round two. 10-10-5 on the thrusters. Crawling (but moving) through the
burpees. I was now about 7 burpees ahead
of Angelo. 15-10 again on the sumo
deadlift high pulls. It was almost like
I had come up with a solid plan for getting through each round. Only my energy and time remaining were
starting to dwindle. At the end of round
three, I was beyond 16 minutes and finding it hard to maintain my pace.
Round 4 of the thrusters was meant to go 10-10-5 again, but
I couldn’t make it through the second round of 10. I was able to reach 8 though and as a result,
I went 10-8-7. More slow burpees
followed, but there was no one doing fast burpees at this stage. Correction: there was no one consistently
doing fast burpees at this stage. Rob C.
told me later on that he was doing sets of 3 fast burpees and then taking a small break to nibble away at
each round of 25. I think Angelo was
doing something similar because he looked like he was doing his burpees much
quicker than I was. Yet I was always the
first one back for the sumo deadlift high pulls. How tired was I at this stage? I only did 5 sumo deadlift high pulls in my
first set of round four. I took a longer
break after this happened and that helped me finish the round with two sets of
10.
I had reached round 5!
Except there was only about two minutes remaining. I needed to push and complete what I
could. I knew the thrusters were going
to be painful, but I told myself that the first set had to be as many as I
could possibly hold on for. I got up to
15 before needing to drop the barbell.
You might think I then did the final 10 in one set. You would be wrong. The gas tank was closing in on E and I could
only get 5 reps before dropping again.
The good news is that I kept the next break very short before taking
care of the last 5 reps.
Only about 35 seconds to go.
I tried my best to pretend that Alona was next to me and that I was
racing her through our last round of burpees.
My legs were smoked. My breathing
was heavy. But I got through 8 burpees
in round 5 before time was called. Final
score: 4+33.
That wasn’t bad. I
finished 12 reps behind Rob, but I was 17 reps ahead of Neil and 16 reps ahead
of Angelo. This was typically the type
of workout where I would fall apart along the way, but I think my pace ended up
being consistent from the beginning of round two onward. I focused on my breathing, kept moving, and
everything turned out alright in the end.
Except for completing 5 rounds.
Maybe next time.
As Rachel was cleaning up the gym, I decided to get out my
jump rope. Tim is always preaching at
Endurance about how we need to get used to working when we haven’t fully
recovered yet. I definitely wasn’t fully
recovered from this, so might as well train a little bit. My first set was 4 reps. My second rep was also 4 reps. Rachel had finished wiping down the
whiteboard and was headed to the locker rooms to turn off the lights. I began my third set and made it past 4
reps. Made it past 40 reps. It got ugly at that stage, but I wanted my 50
in a row. As soon as I got the 50th
rep, I stopped. Maybe I could have
gotten a couple more, but I wasn’t beating 68.
Besides, I was tapped out. I had
reached my daily goal and that’s all I needed on this night.
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