Beers For Tears

Workout date: 7/4/17

There aren't a lot of categories where I would rank amongst the upper tier in the gym, but when it comes to decking out in festive gear, I hold my own.  My Halloween outfits have been pretty strong.  We used to have a neon WOD once a year at the gym and I happen to own some outfits that would blind most people.  I've had my fair share of colorful outfits and accessories ready for the Open, where each of the teams has their own color.  The only time of the year where I've struggled to come up with a themed outfit has been on Independence Day.  I don't have a lot of patriotic-looking gear.  In fact, the only two red, white, and blue items I own are two gaudy tank tops that I bought in years past for the 4th of July WOD at KOP.  Those were my two choices on Tuesday WOD: go with the USA Drinking Team tank or the 'Merica tank.  I thought I had worn the 'Merica tank more recently, so I went with the always classy USA Drinking Team alternative.

The 4th of July WOD is always a team affair involving groups of 4 or more.  The reason that the teams are so large is because this is one of the rare workouts that we do where tire flips are involved.  There were plenty of other obstacles for the teams to conquer.  Here's how we were all celebrating the nation's birthday:

4th of July WOD:
Teams of 4 (or more)
30 minute AMRAP
400 meter run
4 tire flips (small or large tire)
30 burpees
40 box jumps (24"/20")
50 air squats
60 KB swings (53/35)
*All teammates must complete the 400 meter run
**Two athletes may work at a time on the burpees, box jumps, air squats, and KB swings

I can't remember the last time I showed up to a holiday workout that called for partners or teams and had pre-established plans of who I was going to work out with.  I walked into a packed gym on Tuesday morning with little clue of who I'd be sweating with for a half-hour.  Based on how folks were huddled up, it seemed like a lot of teams had already been formed.  Neil was there along with his girlfriend, Kim, and they didn't appear to have teammates yet, so I asked them if they'd take on a straggler.  Even though Neil wasn't a fan of my garb, he was okay with being teammates.  We needed one more person and that slot would get filled when Sarmad joined our group.

Coach Aimee had a ton of assistants on hand to help organize the large group of athletes taking part in this WOD.  Apparently an impromptu Competitors Class was held before we all arrived, so the members of that class stuck around to play coach.  There were so many coaches that the members of the demo team were able to substitute in and out as they showed us the different movements we'd be performing in this workout.  We even had a set of indoor coaches and a set of outdoor coaches.

The outdoor crew keeping an eye on the teams as they flipped tires

Everyone went on a large group run to ensure that all participants were familiar with the location of the turnaround point for the 400 meter run.  Then we came back inside to go over the four traditional Crossfit movements in the workout.  Aimee asked each team to get 2 boxes and 2 KBs and to stake out some space for the WOD.  My team ended up on the magic platform, near the whiteboard in the front of class.  The four of us began to discuss how we were going to split up the box jumps, but it became clear that Kim wanted no part of them.  We had brought over a 24" box for the guys and a 20" box for her, but the prospect of having to jump to that height was causing her a lot of distress.  We told her that we'd get her a smaller box, but that didn't seem to calm her nerves.  Giulz had a talk with Kim to try and put her at ease.  She set up a plate for her to jump on, but Kim had no interest in jumping on an object of any height.  It really wasn't a big deal though, because there wasn't some requirement that she had to do box jumps.  The three guys agreed that we would handle all 40 of the box jumps each round.

We then went over the KB swings.  We had the 53 pound version for the guys.  Kim stated there was no way that she was swinging a 35 pound KB.  We brought out a 26 pounder and an 18 pounder, but it was still no dice with Kim.  She really didn't want to participate in this workout at all.  She let Neil know that she wanted to leave, but he talked her into staying.  As was the case with the box jumps, we assured Kim that she didn't have to do any of the work.  60 KB swings was 20 apiece for the guys and we felt comfortable handling that amount.  There wasn't anything to fear with the burpees and the air squats, so maybe Kim could help us with those.

Because there were only four tires (two big, two small) available for flipping, Aimee designated different starting points for the teams.  If we all went on the 400 meter run together, there would be a logjam at the tires when we got back.  So some teams started on the run, some started at the tires, and the rest started with the work inside the gym.  Our team was selected to begin with the run.  Among the teams who started on the run, I think we were the 3rd team back to the tires.  I led our team over to one of the small tires.  Neil and I were two of the bigger athletes taking part in this workout, so it wasn't like we couldn't handle the big tire.  My main concern now was how Kim would react.  She seemed traumatized by the box jumps and the KB swings, so I wasn't going to make the situation worse by forcing her to flip the big tire.  The four of us lined up behind one of the small tires.  Immediately we were yelled at by the coaching crew that we were at the wrong tire.  To be honest, it felt like we were.  So we checked with Kim to make sure she was cool with flipping the big tire.  She said that she was.  We moved over to a big tire and began flipping it.  That first round was all about getting the feel for picking the tire up off of the ground as a team.  We didn't struggle too much, but things went a lot smoother in later rounds.

The USA Drinking Team practicing for "Giant Flip Cup"

Our first task once we were inside the gym was to belt out 30 burpees.  Two of us could work at a time, so me and Neil began a set of 5 burpees each.  Once we had finished 10 burpees combined, we tagged in our teammates.  Sarmad began to do burpees, but Kim did not.  We knew she wasn't doing box jumps or KB swings, but she apparently had second thoughts about doing burpees.  It didn't make sense to have only one of us working at a time, so I dropped to the floor and knocked out some additional burpees.  When I got tired, Neil came in for me and then I jumped in when Sarmad was tired.  This continued on during the box jumps.  We had to adjust to it on the fly, but the three of us worked out a system to try and make sure we were getting adequate rest while also completing the work as efficiently as possible.  Neil and Sarmad were finishing off the last few box jumps, so I went over to ask Kim if she was okay doing the air squats with me.  She was in tears at the time (she really did not want to do this workout!), but she agreed to do the air squats.  I synchronized my movement with hers and we completed 10 air squats each before Neil and Sarmad took our spots.  They both did 10 more and then Kim and I finished 5 each to bring the team's total to 50.  The last element of the round was the KB swings.  We still had a 53 pound KB and a 35 pound KB in our area, so the three of us not only rotated through work and rest, we also rotated through the heavier and lighter KBs.

That first round took about 8 minutes to complete, so it seemed pretty clear that we'd only be doing 3 rounds of this workout.  I wasn't sure how far we'd get into round four, but I thought it would be nice if we could make it back from the run at least.  The next two rounds were similar to the 1st round.  The run was probably a bit slower, but we were less hesitant about flipping the tire and might have made up the time there that we lost on the run.  Kim still had no desire to do the box jumps or the KB swings, but she did eventually join us on the burpees and I'm always grateful when someone helps me do less burpees.  There was less than 3 minutes to go when we completed the third round, so it seemed safe that we would complete the 4th run.  (Yay, we ran a mile!)  As we got back to the tires, we heard that there was 15 seconds remaining.  We lined up and quickly flipped the tire.  I just wanted to get one flip in before time was called, but we did that first flip so fast that we had time to sneak in a second one as well.  Final score: 3 full rounds, a 400 meter run, and 2 tire flips.

We all deserved a treat after a tough 30 minute workout.  Plus, it was a holiday, so it was appropriate to celebrate.  After cleaning up our equipment and changing into drier shirts, a bunch of us headed over to the Bridgeport Brew Pub.  Kim was much happier in that environment.  The anxieties that had bothered her earlier in the day were replaced by a smile at lunch.  Box jumps and KB swings might not bring people together, but burgers and beers certainly do.

Wednesday preview: Just when I thought I had a handle on Fran, I am reminded in no uncertain terms that I do not.

Urchin Care

Workout date: 7/3/17

After Thursday's debacle, I stayed away from the gym for three days as planned.  I mean, I rarely come into the gym on the weekends anymore, so my absence on Saturday and Sunday was expected. Friday was simply the rest day that I should have taken on Thursday.  You would think with three days away that I'd be raring to go come Monday, but I still wasn't feeling 100% physically.  When I was in St. Lucia, we went on a boat tour that included a stop for snorkeling.  I'm not good at snorkeling, nor am I a fan of snorkeling.  (I'm happy to swim all day long though!)  At one point during the snorkeling stop, I let my feet drop down under the water and received an unpleasant surprise.  My right heel pressed down on to a sea urchin.  When the boat tour ended and we were dropped off at our hotel, I discovered that there were 5 visible needles in my right heel.  I made a visit to the nurse on site and she told me to keep applying alcohol to the wounded area.  Eventually the needles would fall out on their own, she claimed.  That didn't stop me from trying to pluck them out with tweezers, although those efforts would prove to be futile.  When we got back to Philly, I picked up some vinegar from the store as that was mentioned to be a remedy for ridding yourself of sea urchin needles.  That didn't work either.  Two weeks had passed since I stepped on the sea urchin and the needles were still in my heel.  I was also starting to notice some minor pain in my heel.  It was time to hit up the Minute Clinic.

I stopped by a local CVS around lunchtime on Monday.  I was concerned that there might be a long wait, but I lucked out and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes before getting in to see the two nurses staffed at this location.  Unfortunately for those who showed up after me, their wait would be considerably longer.  I felt bad that these two ladies would have to stare at my foot for close to an hour, but they seemed really entertained by their newest patient's predicament.  They likened the needle removal to performing minor surgery.  (I guess they don't typically get the opportunity to remove a lot of things from patient's bodies at the Minute Clinic.)  Not only did they work together to remove the 5 needles I had seen in my heel, they also removed 3 other needles from the side of my foot that I didn't realize were there.  I was very appreciative for the amount of time they spent on me.  And when I left, I was apologetic to the group of people wondering what the hold up was.  My foot was going to be tender for a few days, but at least my souvenirs from St. Lucia were finally gone.

I had dinner plans on Monday night, but I didn't want to miss a 4th consecutive day at the gym, so I came in earlier than I normally do.  I dropped in to work out with the 4:30 crew.  Coach Aimee had 10 people in her class all lined up to take on the following WOD:

Monday's WOD:
5 rounds:
30 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
5 squat snatches (155/105)
*Rest 2 minutes between rounds

Mandatory rest again?  Yup, this was gonna be a bad one.  I had two reactions to this WOD.  Let's call the first reaction "Crazy Dave" and the second reaction "Sane Dave":

• Crazy Dave: You handled the 135 pound squat snatches in Open Workout 17.3 well, so why not give 155 pounds a shot?  You're only doing 5 reps per round.  Don't be a wimp!  Go RX!
• Sane Dave: My crazy counterpart clearly glossed over that bit about doing 30 wall balls prior to those 5 squat snatches.  Don't you think those are going to have an impact on how those squat snatches go?  Stick with 135 pounds.

Sane Dave is such a buzzkill.  However, he usually has a point.  Those wall balls were probably going to be much worse than I imagined.  5 rounds of 30 equaled 150 wall balls total, which is the Crossfit WOD known as Karen.  And Karen is the worst!  If this had been written up as "Karen with 25 heavy squat snatches", I probably would have taken that 4th consecutive rest day.  Toss in the fact that it was yet another massively humid day in the gym and Sane Dave's argument became a clearcut winner.

I spent the warmup in the bald guy section alongside of Mooney.  We were next to each other over at the wall when we practiced wall balls.  He was also lined up next to me with his barbell.  Mooney is in much better shape than I am, so I knew he would destroy me on the wall balls in this workout.  However, when I saw Mooney load up his barbell with 135 pounds for his squat snatches, I thought there was an opportunity for me to catch up to him in this workout.  I tend to lift more than Mooney, mainly because I weigh about 50 pounds more than him.  And the squat snatch is half-overhead squat, so it's a movement that I'm more comfortable with than most people at my gym.  I suspected that he had chosen Crazy Mooney over Sane Mooney.  Or he could just be better at squat snatches than I realized.  (It was probably the latter.)

Aimee came around and made sure we could comfortably squat snatch the weights that we had chosen.  I did two reps with 135 pounds on my barbell and didn't have much of a problem.  For each rep, I caught the lift in the bottom of my squat and didn't rush before standing it up.  Aimee seemed satisfied that I had picked the right weight for this workout.  She then announced that we should try to average 4 minutes or less per round for this WOD, which worked out to 28 minutes (5 rounds at 4 minutes equaled 20 minutes.  4 mandatory rest periods at 2 minutes equaled 8 minutes.  Combine them together and you get 28 minutes.)  That sounded reasonable to me.  Especially since I envisioned myself completing round 1 in under 3 minutes.  I could buy myself some cushion for the later rounds when I'd be exhausted.

Working your way up to the proper squat snatch weight took some time, so by the time we got started, there was only a half-hour left in class.  If you went beyond Aimee's suggested time domain, you were likely going to bleed into the 5:30 class's time (foreshadowing).  In round 1, I could have opted to do all 30 wall balls in a row, but I felt like this was a workout where proper pacing could provide big benefits later on.  After 20 reps, I let the ball drop to the floor.  I took about 5 seconds, then picked it up and completed the last 10 reps.  I wasn't very far behind Mooney getting to the barbell and overall I was still with the majority of the class.  Now all I needed to do was take care of these 5 simple squat snatches and I could enjoy my two minutes of rest.  Let's see how that 1st round of squat snatches went:

• 1st rep - missed
• 2nd rep - missed
• 3rd rep - missed

What.  The.  Hell.  It was one thing to come over from the wall balls and miss an attempt.  That wasn't totally unexpected.  I likened it to doing a leg-focused movement and then missing your 1st box jump.  Those things happen.  You don't appreciate the effect that the previous movement had on you until you do that 1st rep.  Missing my 2nd and 3rd attempts made no sense at all.  It was like I completely forgot how to squat snatch.  After the 3rd failure in a row, I didn't need rest.  I needed my head examined.  I briefly pondered switching the weight on my barbell, dropping down to 115 pounds.  I wasn't certain that would solve my problem (if my form was crap, there was no guarantee I'd be able to handle 115 pounds), so I stuck with 135 and made a fourth attempt.  At long last, I got one.  I got a second and a third as well.  I messed up one more time after that, but then I was able to complete my 4th and 5th squat snatches.  So much for finishing round one in under 3 minutes!  1st round time: 4:06.

You won't be surprised to learn that I was the last person in class to get to their rest period.  I was already behind Aimee's requested pace after round one.  While I was aggravated, I did see plenty of room for improvement in the next round.  If I didn't miss so many lifts, I would have been well under 4 minute pace.  I just needed to clean that up and I would be fine.  I also gave myself a reminder to chalk up before I tried to squat snatch.  My hands were sweaty and I could feel them slide on those last two successful lifts.  No reason to make this any harder than it already was.  The chalk would keep my hands on the drier side which would stop them from sliding in on future attempts.

I didn't have a lot of faith that I could handle the next round of 30 wall balls in two sets, so I went 12-10-8 instead.  Before approaching my barbell, I made a quick detour to the chalk bucket.  I was going to be smarter this time around.  I was setting myself up for success in round two.  I chalked up my hands, grabbed the barbell, and...failed.  Not just once, but twice.  I guess I should have been happy that I didn't miss on three straight attempts like I did in round one.  Attempt #3 would be my first successful squat snatch of round two.  I hit back-to-back lifts before screwing up again.  Worried that I was headed back down the trail of failure, I took a break after my 3rd miss of the round.  It helped out.  I was able to get each of my next three squat snatches.  2nd round time: 5:06.

This was brutal.  I had no chance of completing this in 28 minutes.  I started wondering how far behind the rest of the class I was going to end up.  I was the only one resting at the moment as everyone else had moved on to round three.  When my mandatory two minute rest period was over, I came back to the wall balls and completed them like I had in round two with sets of 12, 10, and 8.  Know what else was just like round 2?  My failures snatching!  Attempt #1: Fail.  Attempt #2 was a success, but I went right back to failing on my 3rd attempt.  I couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.  Wall balls were turning out to be some strange version of snatch kryptonite.  Maybe I didn't have the necessary power in my legs for the squat snatch after completing the wall balls.  Maybe my weakened legs couldn't provide the balance I needed.  It was a mystery I couldn't seem to solve.  I completed a 2nd squat snatch.  Followed that up with yet another miss.  I was officially pissed off.  I'm sure Aimee could see it on my face because she came over to help me out.  I walked away from my barbell and over towards where she was standing to try and soak in all the advice she could give me.  One of the things she was noticing was that my barbell was not staying close to my body as I slung it overhead.  She told me to pull in a bit more.  Keeping the barbell close to me was going to make it an easier lift.  I chalked up my hands and tried to make my coach proud.  Then I failed again. I definitely uttered a profanity at that point.  Aimee told me to stick with it as she moved on to check on some of my classmates who weren't as hopeless.

There was only one avenue I hadn't gone down yet to try and change my luck.  It was time to head down that lane.  I was already enraged about how poorly I was doing in the workout.  Why not put that into the lift?  Yes, the snatch is a very technical lift, but clearly I wasn't grasping the finer points of it.  I decided I should just grip it and rip it.  It was angry barbell time!  I stomped up to my barbell, took hold of it, and ripped it off the floor.  I caught it in a squat and completed rep #3.  I dropped it to the floor and then immediately stepped up for my next rep.  In my rage, I think I forgot that I was doing a snatch rather than a clean and jerk.  My hands were much closer than they should have been, but I proceeded with the lift anyway.  It kind of felt like a clean and jerk as I did it, but I was able to drop under the barbell completely.  That was a snatch.  All I had to do was stand up with it.  I did that.  I was so pumped by this run I was on that I slammed the barbell down to the floor.  Then I got right back over it and went for rep #5.  Success!  I wasn't sure if I could maintain this anger for two more rounds, but it seemed to be working.  3rd round time: 6:20.

As strange as it sounds, the last thing I needed at that point was a break.  The mandatory two minute rest period put a halt to the adrenaline that was pumping through my body.  If anything, it made me feel a bit more tired.  As I was resting, I decided that I was going to try a new strategy with the wall balls: sets of 5 with shorter breaks in between.  Sounded like a good plan in my mind.  Wasn't so much in practice.  The problem with this plan is that someone like me will take longer breaks than intended.  After two sets of 5, I decided to change it up.  I went 7-8-5 over three sets to finish off my last 20 wall balls of round four.

I spent my time at the chalk bucket trying to get amped up again.  I thought about how I kept failing at the beginning of each of my sets at the barbell.  I thought about how dumb I would feel if I missed my initial lift for the 4th round in a row.  When it comes to self-deprecation, I have a lot of tools in my arsenal.  Those tools worked.  For the first time all day, I had a successful lift right after I was done with the wall balls.  I tried to ride the momentum by going right into rep #2.  I stood that one up as well.  Nothing lasts forever though and eventually lousy form will overcome brute strength.  I couldn't make three in a row happen.  After my first miss of the round, I walked away from the barbell and took a break.  Several of my classmates were done, while some others (like Mooney) were wrapping up their final round of squat snatches.  I was in the process of being lapped or that process had already happened.  As I took my break, Keithie came over to me.  He had been in the 3:30 class and had hung around while the 4:30 class was in session.  He saw that I was struggling and offered up some simple, but wise advice.  He told me that I was rushing to stand up with my barbell.  All I had to do was catch it in the squat, take my time, and stand up with it.  "You can overhead squat 135 all day", he told me.  That was true.  In the warmup, I was treating this like a two-part movement: catch it in the squat, <pause>, stand up with it.  I'm not sure why I had deviated from what was working, but it was clear that I had.

I went back to the barbell and focused only on getting underneath it and catching it in the squat.  When I did that, the mission felt complete.  I could sit there for a second or two, compose myself, and stand up with it.  Keithie gave me a "there ya go" and suddenly I felt like I had remembered how to do this.  I didn't rush back to the barbell for my next rep.  I stopped worrying about the clock.  I got into my setup when I was ready and repeated what I had just done two more times.  For the third consecutive round, I finished up with three successful lifts.  4th round time: 5:27.

I have no idea during which round this picture was taken, but it looks 

like the type of form I had at the end of round four.

Not only did I improve on my 3rd round time, I had also improved my mindset going into round five. I didn't need to find a way to get anger and adrenaline coursing through my veins.  I needed the opposite.  I had been searching for a substitute way to get through the squat snatches because I had forgotten the basics.  Keithie reminded me what the basics were.  I was ready for round five, assuming I would be allowed to do it.

(After the WOD was over, I heard that Aimee was thinking about time capping me, but was worried that I'd be mad if she did.  I can completely understand that, since I spent a fair amount of this workout looking like a volatile individual who had been stuck at the DMV for three hours.  I also tend to be very stubborn about finishing what I've started.  Also, Aimee had told all of us to try and finish in 28 minutes.  I wasn't beginning round 5 until the clock hit 28:59.  So as I sat there and rested, I was somewhat expecting her to tell me that 4 rounds was enough.  To be honest, this was the rare occasion where I would have been ok with it.  I hadn't stuck to the time domain she gave us and I was kind of sick of this workout at that point.  I would have understood if she pulled the plug on me.  But since she didn't...)

I got ready to take on round five, hoping to make it my fastest round of the day.  It was wishful thinking (I was fresh for round one, duh), but exhaustion may have led to some hallucinating.  The wall balls were much more painful than they had been in prior rounds.  I wanted to try and complete them in three sets, but after dropping the ball 10 reps in, I knew I'd need four sets.  I also needed a decent breather between sets.  I went 6-8-6 the rest of the way.

By the time I got to my barbell, I was the only one still working.  The 5:30 class had actually gone for a 400 meter run and was back already.  They joined the rest of the 4:30 crew in helping me get through those five squat snatches.  I did each one just as I had done the final three in the previous round.  And because I stuck to the basics, I went 5 for 5 in the last round.  5th round time: 5:11.  Overall time: 34:10.

I wanted to just lay on the floor for a while once I was done, but there was that whole thing about the 5:30 class needing the gym.  Sorry about that guys!  I don't remember whether I put my wall ball and barbell away or if I ended up leaving it for Neil (he used the same weights as me in the 5:30 class).  All I know is that I took up a spot on one of the benches and sat there for a solid 15 minutes recovering and rehydrating.  I was there long enough that the 5:30 class began their workout while I was sitting there.  And since I'm a better cheerleader than an athlete, I stuck around till they were done.  It made things tight in terms of getting to dinner on time, but it was the least I could do since they cheered me on at the end of my workout.

Tuesday preview: It's the 4th of July!  Patriotic gear!  Teams flipping tires!  Teammates arguing with one another!  (Okay, that might have only been my team.  Everything gets worked out at the brew pub afterwards.)

Too Soon

Workout date: 6/29/17

What would be the worst thing for me to see programmed in the Thursday WOD, the day after getting agonizingly close to making the 100 double unders board?  Answer: burpees and pull-ups.  Those two things are always the worst.  But double unders had emerged as a very close third choice on that list.  So when the Thursday WOD was released at 10pm Wednesday night, I was disheartened to see that it included a considerable amount of double unders.  I sent a two-word text message to Kris about how I felt about doing double unders on Thursday: "Too soon!"

As much as I didn't want to do double unders, they were only a small part of the difficult 19 minute WOD that awaited KOP's athletes.  The WOD had three segments with mandatory rest in between each of them.  And by now you should know that mandatory rest means trouble.  Here's a look at what was programmed for Thursday:

Thursday's WOD:
First 4 minutes
4 rounds:
Shuttle sprint of 5-10-15-20 feet
30 double unders
Rest 2 minutes
Next 5 minutes
3 rounds:
20/15 calories on the assault bike
20 hang power cleans (95/65)
Rest 2 minutes
Next 6 minutes
50 GHD sit-ups
750 meter row

That was a lot to process, so I thought about how I would handle each of the segments:

• Sprints and double unders: 4 minutes, 4 rounds, so I had to average 1 minute per round to get through the sprints and the double unders.  If I strung the 30 double unders, that would probably take about 20 seconds.  If I was off, more like 30-35 seconds.  I didn't think the sprint would take more than 30 seconds, so overall I felt good about completing this segment before my four minutes were up.
• Assault bike/hang power cleans: An extra minute for this round, but that didn't seem like nearly enough time to complete all of this work.  I could see the first round on the assault bike going okay, but 20 hang power cleans per round was a lot.  And once I tired myself out with the hang power cleans, the later rounds on the assault bike were going to be slower.  My goal here was to complete 2 of the 3 rounds and get a little bit of work done during round 3 on the assault bike.
• GHD/rowing: Another extra minute was provided, but this segment actually seemed feasible to finish.  The 750 meter row should take about 3 minutes (2:00 per 500 meters is a reasonable pace), leaving 3 minutes for the 50 GHD sit-ups.  My best time for 50 GHD sit-ups last year was 2:01.  If the assault bike and hang power clean segment didn't wreck me, I could complete the GHD sit-ups and rowing in less than 6 minutes.

I decided to go to the 7:30 class with Coach Giulz.  I mean that literally.  It was just me and Giulz.  No one else was around to go through this agony with me.  Some of the guys from the 6:30 class warned me that this workout was going to be horrible.  Their advice: turn around and go home.  In retrospect, I wish I listened to them.  My legs were a little sore from the 40 back squats and the set of "not quite 100" double unders that I had done the night before.  I thought I could overcome that though.  The way I was looking at it was if I could get through this workout, I'd recover by taking the next three days off from the gym.  That was good enough motivation to make me do this WOD on my own.

With only 1 student in her class, Giulz was able to run through the warmup very quickly.  She let me know that the first segment would take place outside.  Across the street from the gym, there were chalk lines designating a starting line as well as distances that were 5 feet, 10 feet, 15 feet, and 20 feet away.  Each round, I would have to get both feet past the line and touch the ground with one of my hands before coming back to the start.  Once I had completed the four sprints, it was on to the jump rope for 30 double unders.  Giulz had me do some single unders and some double unders before making sure I was comfortable with the amount of double unders I'd have to do in this first segment.  Given that I had done 99 consecutive reps last night, I wasn't going to be scared off by 120 double unders that could be broken up into smaller sets.  I probably wasn't gonna enjoy them, but I'd get through them.

There wasn't anything technical to go over in terms of the assault bike or the rower, so the rest of the warmup would cover the hang power cleans and the GHD sit-ups.  Giulz noted that the weight for the hang power cleans was light, so she was expecting me to cycle through reps quickly and hold on for big sets.  Hang power cleans are probably the most difficult test of grip strength in the gym (at least they are for me), so my concern was that I might not be able to hang on for really large sets.  If I had to put the barbell down, it would likely be because my grip gave way.  The weight of the barbell didn't concern me as much.  Giulz asked me to do a quick set of 10 and I complied.  I didn't think I could do much more than 10 in a row, so I was hoping to go 12-8 or something like that when I got to my barbell later on.  Over at the GHD, Giulz made sure that my machine was set to the proper length.  She also reminded me that I needed to snap my legs on each sit-up.  I would be doing 50 of these and I'd be in a world of hurt if I tried to use my back and abs only.  Good form = less pain.

I think less than 15 minutes of class had elapsed when Giulz and I headed outside to get things started.  We were going to be done much earlier than normal and both Giulz and I were happy about that development.  Giulz brought out an iPad with her to keep time for this first segment.  I put my jump rope down off to the right side of the starting line, then I came over to start the sprints.  Giulz gave me a countdown and I was on my way.  I'm not sure I would say I was sprinting as much as I was running at a controlled, yet fast pace.  I didn't want to fall down as I scampered back and forth.  I also didn't want to burn out early on in this segment.  4 minutes wasn't a lot of time for four rounds, but if I kept my composure, I figured it would be plenty of time to complete the segment.  On the first round, I made it through the sprints quickly, then got through over 20 double unders before messing up.  I immediately started to twirl the rope again, completing the remaining reps in my next set.  Giulz said I was ahead of schedule, indicating that I had completed that round in under a minute.

Things didn't go so well the next two rounds.  I'm sure my sprints were somewhat slower.  My double unders were the bigger problem.  Maybe my legs were more sore than I realized, but jumping over and over again was becoming unpleasant.  I hit myself with the rope repeatedly, with my sets tending to be in the 5-7 rep range.  As I was finishing up round three, Giulz told me I had less than a minute left.  Uh oh.

I tried to hurry on the next sprint, but it took me nearly 30 seconds to complete it.  Giulz told me I had 30 seconds left as I bent over to pick up my jump rope.  I told myself that I couldn't afford to mess up on this round if I wanted to stay under 4 minutes.  I jumped higher than I typically do, but I was extra motivated to keep the rope from hitting me.  After not getting a set of more than 10 in rounds two and three, I hung on for 30 in a row to close out round four.  Final time for the first segment: 3:47.

On the bright side, I had finally come through in a pressure situation.  Usually when time is running out like that and I need to be perfect, I find a way to mess up.  All of that double under practice seemed to be paying off.  If this was the end of the workout, I would have left the gym feeling wonderful.  Unfortunately, I was a long way from being done.  I was also pretty exhausted.  Giulz and I walked into the gym together as my two minutes of mandatory rest began.  My legs felt very heavy now, so I spent most of the break sitting on the floor.  No point wasting energy standing.  I wouldn't say those two minutes flew by, but as I stared at the clock that Giulz started as we came into the gym, I dreaded how close it was drawing to 2:00.  This next segment was going to be the worst part of the WOD and I was already feeling spent.

A few seconds before the clock hit 2:00, I climbed on to my assault bike.  The next segment began and I tried to peddle as hard as I could to get the number on my monitor rolling towards 20.  Usually if I can get some speed at the beginning, the momentum of the bike will buy me some easy calories.  That did not happen here.  I might have been working hard, but my legs were not supplying the power they normally do.  I'm not sure I was even at 10 calories when I was forced to slow down.  It was deflating to feel like I was pushing as hard as I could but not making much progress on the bike.  I slowed down to an even pace, which meant it took me much longer than usual to accumulate 20 calories.  As I got off the bike, I noticed that my legs were super tight.  Almost like they had cramped up, only there wasn't the sharp pain you would associate with cramping.  My knees were barely bending as I walked over to my barbell.

Not being able to use your legs is kind of a big problem when you're trying to do hang power cleans, even when the weight is light.  I did more of a muscle clean than a power clean to get through my reps.  After 5 reps, I had to drop the barbell.  That wasn't what Giulz had requested in the warmup, but it was all I could manage at this point.  I took a decent-sized break and tried to shake out my legs. I also needed to get some air back into my lungs because I was breathing pretty heavily.  When I got back to the barbell, I held on for 8 reps before requiring another break.  I completed the last 7 hang power cleans the next time I picked up the barbell, but I had used up a significant portion of my time in this segment already.  I wasn't sure I'd even get back to the hang power cleans a second time.

My first spin on the bike felt like wasted effort.  I was pushing with everything I had, but the monitor told a different story.  The calories weren't accumulating as fast as I had hoped.  It was like pumping gas into your car at a station where the handles are very sensitive.  You squeeze the handle hard hoping to fill your gas tank quickly, but instead the pump keeps starting and stopping and it ends up taking twice as long to fill the tank as you would have liked.  I didn't bother trying to sprint when I got on the bike the second time.  I kept churning my legs, trying to keep a steady pace, but it became clear that I wasn't going to reach 20 calories a second time.  I made it to 16 calories before mandatory rest #2 began.  Final time for the second segment: 6:04 (5:00 plus 1 second for the 24 calories and 40 hang power cleans I did not complete).

Despite feeling really tired, I still believed I could finish segment three.  In my mind, it was all about the GHD sit-ups.  If I pushed through those, there was going to enough time for me to get through the row.  I couldn't imagine a scenario where I wouldn't be able to complete 750 meters in 3:00-3:15.  (Don't worry, less than 5 minutes later, I didn't have to imagine it.  I got to experience it!)  So I convinced myself that the finish line was at the end of the 50 GHD sit-ups.  If I could stay focused on that, I could complete the 3rd segment and get a bit of redemption for how poorly I had done on the assault bike and hang power cleans.

The two minute rest helped me considerably and I was eager to rifle through some GHD sit-ups once the clock told me I could go.  I did a set of 20 reps to begin and I knew I was well ahead of the pace I needed to finish in 3 minutes.  The only problem was that my legs were now calling it a day.  I was unable to bend and extend my legs very much at all while I tried to complete the remaining 30 sit-ups.  So I did what I had to do to get to 50 reps.  I used mostly back and abs to reach back, tap the floor, then swing myself up to the top of the GHD.  It was lousy form and you shouldn't follow my example.  This was just a case of desperate times calling for desperate measures.  Since performing GHD sit-ups this way doesn't feel good, I had to do very small sets and stop over and over again.  I went from being well ahead of the pace I needed to behind the pace I needed as I crept towards 50 reps.  When I finally got off of the GHD machine, there was about 2:30 remaining in the last segment.

That was okay.  I still believed I could make it through 600-650 meters on the rower with that much time left.  That wouldn't be such an awful score.  Of course, that was assuming that I could extend my legs, which I soon discovered I could not.  I had to bend my legs to get my feet in the straps of the rower, but when I went to do my first full pull, I found that I couldn't go back all the way.  My legs refused to extend.  I tried once early on to get full extension and it was very painful.  I was not doing that for two and a half minutes straight.  So once again I improvised.  I basically stayed in the position I was in when I got into the rower.  My body was mostly upright and my knees were bent in front of me.  Instead of taking long, powerful strokes, I did a bunch of short strokes as quickly as I could.  It felt goofy.  I'm sure it looked goofy.  It was all I could do though.  As you might imagine, I did not reach 600-650 calories.  When Giulz called time, the monitor showed a mere 453 calories completed.  Final time for the third segment: 10:57 (6:00 plus 1 second for each of the 297 meters I did not complete).

I slid off the side of my rower and spent a good 5-10 minutes trying to get my legs to work properly again.  I had underestimated how sore they were after Wednesday night and I paid the price in this workout.  Thursday should have been a rest day, but I pushed my limits so that I could enjoy a three-day respite from the gym.  It was a poor decision.  I'm usually good about listening to my body, but I think I intentionally turned a deaf ear to it on this occasion.  This WOD was a stark reminder of why it is a bad idea to do that.

Monday preview: I lose some souvenirs that I brought home from St. Lucia.  I learn that squat snatches are really hard to do after a large set of wall balls.  Angry barbells make a return, but it is patience that helps me finish the WOD.

Hole In One...Short

Workout date: 6/28/17

I started off the year thinking that handstand push-ups would be my obsession.  Somehow that changed before springtime came around.  I think it may have been because one of my goals was to get 5 consecutive handstand push-ups without any ab-mats and I was able to pull that off in early February.  The combination of reaching my handstand push-up goal early in the year along with the fact that handstand push-ups aren't programmed frequently led to me slowly losing interest in them.  Double unders took their place.  There is almost no chance that I'll ever get on the main whiteboard in the gym, but off to the side there is a smaller whiteboard which lists all of the people in the gym who have managed to string together 100 double unders in a row.  That seemed realistic to me.  I also had visions of one day finishing the Flight Simulator workout.  To reach both of those goals, I needed to keep practicing my double unders.  It wasn't long ago that I was excited about reliably doing sets of 12-15 dubs.  Now I can reliably do sets of 25 reps.  I've gotten used to staying calm as I work through larger sets.  I don't jump as high as I used to during double unders, which saves me energy and allows me to complete bigger sets.  Everything was heading in the right direction, so it felt like only a matter of time before I had a breakthrough.  Would it finally happen for me on Wednesday night?

I would get my chance as the cash-out for Wednesday evening called for each athlete to make 3 attempts at as many consecutive double unders as they could do.  But before we took that on, we had a 20 minute EMOM to go through first.  Ugh!  I hate EMOMs so much.  And 20 minutes was quite long for an EMOM.  At least this one didn't require burpees or KB swings.  Here's what Wednesday's EMOM looked like:

Wednesday's EMOM:
20 minutes long
Odd minutes: 4 back squats (about 70-80% of max)
Even minutes: 4 DB shoulder press (as heavy as possible)

Just as had been the case in my last two visits to Coach Jenna's Wednesday 7:30 class, me and Bryan were the only partakers.  I did run into some of the guys from the 6:30 class (Neil and Matt B) and their advice to me was to use 50 pound DBs for the shoulder press.  As I scanned the board to see what the guys in the 6:30 class used, I saw almost all of them went with 45 pound DBs.  When I brought this up, they assured me I could handle 50 pounds.  I had a hard time believing that one.  If this was a push press (where I get to use my legs), then maybe.  But this was a shoulder press, so I could only use my upper body.  Guys like Neil and Matt had much more upper body strength than me.  I'd try out the 50 pound DBs in the warmup, but I didn't think there was much chance I'd be using them in the actual workout.

Before we warmed up on the DB shoulder press, we were going to grab a rack and do some warmup sets of back squats.  My 1RM on the back squat is 330 pounds, so my range for this workout was going to be 231-264 pounds.  I pared that down to a choice between 245 pounds and 255 pounds.  Initially I was leaning towards 255 pounds, so I went through a progression of 135-185-225 on my barbell before testing out how 4 reps at 255 felt.  I made it through those 4 reps okay, but I didn't get the impression I could do 10 sets like that.  Maybe 5 or 6.  I didn't want to have to bail the barbell during this workout since you only had a limited amount of time, so I played it safe and went back to 245 pounds instead.

When it came to the DB shoulder press, I did my practice reps with 35 pounds as I didn't see any point in wearing out my arms with the weight I would be using in the workout.  I did want to see how the 50 pound DBs felt though before I committed to doing 10 sets with them.  So right before we were about to begin, I brought over the 50's and did a set of four reps.  It was definitely difficult.  More difficult than those back squats at 255 pounds.  I brought the 50 pound DBs back and replaced them with with a set of 45's.  I wasn't 100% sure that I could do 10 sets with these either, but the workout description did say "as heavy as possible" and this seemed to be the heaviest I had a shot with for all 10 rounds.

I typically give a detailed explanation of how my workouts go round by round, but there was really not much difference in any of the rounds we did over the course of this 20 minute EMOM.  On every odd minute, Bryan and I would take our barbells from the rack, do 4 back squats, and put the barbell back on the rack with a solid 40 seconds to spare.  We got even more rest than that after the DB shoulder presses.  I would say we were done with all four reps of that about 12-15 seconds into every even minute.  There were no shaky moments that I noted along the way.  About halfway through the back squats, I began regretting not going with 255 pounds.  That practice set was tough, but I started moving more fluidly through my sets at 245 as I got further into the EMOM.  I probably wasn't completely loose when I tried 255.  If I had it to do over again, I would have gone with the extra 10 pounds.  As for the DB shoulder press, I think I chose the proper weight there.  I had this weird habit of bringing my arms out and then back in as I did the first press of each set.  From there on out, I'd keep my arms pretty close to my ears.  My shaky form at the beginning of each set probably indicated how hard it was for me to get that 1st rep going, so going up to 50 pound DBs might not have worked out for me.

With the grunt work out of the way, it was time to put my double unders to the test.  The most consecutive double unders I had ever done was 81.  That might sound like it is close to 100, but the truth is that I started wearing out at around 60 reps and I fought as hard as I could to hold on through 81 reps.  If I was going to reach 100, I felt like I needed to get through 75 reps before fatigue set in.  If I got that far, I might be able to hold on for 25 more at the end.  More than anything, I wanted to make sure I got at least a score of 50 in this cash-out.  I was a little nervous about only having 3 tries at this.  I was going to be really disappointed if I couldn't put together at least 50 in a row during one of those attempts.

The barbell club was taking up most of the front part of the gym with their Olympic lifting class, so Bryan and I headed back towards the rings area to do the cash-out.  I did a couple of warmup sets of 10 without a problem, so I wasted little time in declaring that I was about to make my 1st attempt.  It ended quickly.  I only got 5 reps before the rope clipped my foot.  That was a waste.  I took a couple of minutes to put that out of my mind before making it known I was officially starting attempt #2.  Not much better.  I doubled my first attempt, but 10 was a sorry score for me.  I had wasted two attempts.  I had one chance left to put up a decent score.

Bryan looked like he was still practicing, so I took my time before going into my final attempt.  I dropped my rope on the floor and just walked around.  I was trying my best not to think about how much pressure I had inadvertently put on myself when I screwed up the first two sets.  It was all about staying calm.  You can get to 50.  Just get in a rhythm and block everything else out.  After a few more minutes, I was ready to go.  I let Jenna know this was attempt #3.

I began twirling the rope and was relieved that it didn't hit me during the first 10 reps.  By the time I reached 20 reps, I was feeling less tense.  There was no reason the rope couldn't have hit me on rep #21, but I had this confident feeling I was getting to 50.  I got past thirty, then forty reps.  I was still going strong when I made it to 50 reps.  I'd say the pressure came off when I was 20 reps into this set, but it had completely vanished once I got to 50.

It was time to be greedy.  50 was in the rear view mirror and 100 in a row was in my sights.  Whenever I make it to 50 reps, I give myself the same pep talk.  You've reached the downhill portion. You've done the hard work.  Remain calm and you can get there.  Fatigue hadn't set in yet, so that was good.  It seemed like there was a real chance that I might to get to 75 reps before tiring out like I thought I needed to in order to make it to 100.

Perhaps that was wishful thinking in the afterglow of making it to 50 reps on my last set.  Less than 10 seconds later, I had passed 60 reps, but a tidal wave of fatigue was washing over me.  I was trying to stay calm, but I kinda knew the end was near.  My goal was to try and hold on until I passed my best score of 81 in a row.  It started to get ugly when I got to the 70's.  I definitely clipped my foot on one of my reps, but the rope made it under my feet somehow.  I was almost there.  I'm not sure how I did it, but eventually rep #82 passed below my feet.

I had been in the "hold on as long as you can phase" for a while now, but the rope had still not come to a stop.  I was starting to jump in every direction: side to side, frontwards and backwards.  My rope speed had slowed significantly, so I was forcing myself to jump much higher to ensure that the rope would travel under my feet twice before they came back down to the floor.  I had another instance where the rope hit my foot, but the set continued on.  I'm not sure why I remember this precisely, but when I got to 91 reps, I remember thinking "I'm getting to 100!"  It seemed like I was destined to at this point.

My form had gotten spectacularly ugly.  My rope speed was slow.  I looked like I was doing a max height box jump rather than double unders.  I was hopping all over the place.  Towards the end, I was doubled over rather than upright.  I hit my shoe for at least the third time during this super-long set.  Yet the rope kept moving.  95...96...97...98...99.  I was about to do it.  Just one more rep.  It was definitely going to go under my feet.  The last 25-30 reps had no chance of making it, yet they did.  Rep #100 wasn't going to be any different.

Except it was.

I was on the verge of one of my biggest accomplishments in the gym.  My name was finally going up on that 100 double under board.  And then the rope stopped.  I had dodged bullets for the last 30 seconds, but when it came to the rep that mattered most, I was unable to get out of my own way.  The rope hit the top of my feet, finishing me off after 99 in a row.  I collapsed forward on to the floor.  I desperately needed some cooler air, so I crawled over to the open garage door.  While I knelt next to the railing, I felt like puking.  I managed not to.  Jenna, Bryan, and Kris were all watching but had no idea what my score was.  Jenna came over to check on me and jokingly said "tell me that wasn't 99 you got".  That nauseous feeling returned.  When I told her it was exactly 99, she let out an "oh no!" before making sure I felt okay.  I let her know I'd be fine, but I was a mix of emotions at that point.  I was tired.  I was happy.  I was disappointed.  I kinda didn't want to do double unders ever again.

After I laid by the open door for a bit, I got up and retrieved my jump rope.  I fought the urge to throw it in the trash can I passed on the way to my bag.  I was so close to getting my name on that board and now it felt so far away.  Technically I was only one rep away, but the set I had just done felt very fluky and I had little faith that I could surpass it (never mind replicate it) any time soon.  Those last 25-30 reps were miracles.  And from January to early June, my best set had only gone up from 78 to 81.  This set of 99 was definitely an outlier.  The whole thing felt like a missed opportunity.  I had once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.

Kris tried to cheer me up by putting a post-it note with "Dave N - 99" on the bottom of the double unders board, but I knew that it would be taken off of there by the next day.  There was really only one way I was going to feel better about this situation: ice cream.  Jenna couldn't go to Frosty Falls that night and ice cream doesn't agree with Bryan, so I headed over with Kris and Jim C.  I tried to put a positive spin on what I had just done by equating the 99 double unders to a hole in one in golf.  It is customary for a person who has gotten a hole in one to buy drinks in the clubhouse, so I was ponying up for ice cream this evening.  As disappointed as I was in falling 1 rep short, I needed to recognize that set of 99 as an accomplishment, not as a failure.

Thursday preview: I end up in class by myself.  A very difficult WOD includes double unders (oh no, not again!), the assault bike, and the GHD machine among other things.  By the end, I row like I've never rowed before.

Never Kip Your Bench Press

Workout date: 6/27/17

I always find myself surprised at how little things can completely turn my mood around.  I was miserable in the latter stages of Bull.  Then me and Rob worked together for the last 400 meters of the run and I left the gym feeling good.  As I headed back to the gym on Tuesday night for Dudes After Dark, I was hopeful that more opportunities like that would present themselves during the WOD.  Look, I'm not headed to Regionals ever.  I haven't even been able to crack the top 10 at our annual King and Queen competition.  So losing a few seconds or reps during a workout to help someone else out is not going to be detrimental to me.  That was my approach on Monday and it would play out that way once again the following night.

There were seven of us attending Dudes After Dark with LC and we were looking at a WOD that was broken up into two distinct 15 minute segments.  During the first 15 minute segment, we would be trying to find a 1RM on the bench press.  The second 15 minute segment was more metcon than cash-out.  We would be performing a 5 minute AMRAP three times with a 5 minute break in between each AMRAP.  Here's a look at what we'd be doing during those AMRAPs:

Tuesday's metcon segment:

Three rounds:

AMRAP in 5 minutes

15 power cleans (155/105)

25/20 calorie row

15 bench press (135/95)

*5 minutes rest between AMRAPs

My initial reaction to seeing the weights for the metcon was that they were heavy, but within my abilities, especially since we'd be getting a long 5 minute break between rounds.  I was hoping to make it deep into a second round of power cleans during each of the AMRAPs.

Before we got to that though, we all had to see how much we could bench.  This seemed like a very fitting activity at a class dubbed Dudes After Dark.  (Although to be fair, we were only 5/7 dude this evening with Esra and The Prodigy joining Bryan, Actuary Mike, John McHugh, Ryan A, and myself.)  LC told us that we should partner up during the bench press portion of the workout and keep those same pairings for the metcon later on.  With the AMRAPs and the rest both 5 minutes in length, the partners could alternate between working and resting/counting for their buddy.  Esra and The Prodigy partnered up, as did Bryan and Actuary Mike.  That left me, John, and Ryan to work as a trio through the WOD.  We set up two benches: one for me and John, one for Ryan.  John was likely going to bench less than me, but neither of us were going to be in the same zip code as Ryan.  My best bench press was likely to be a warmup weight for him.  I would take turns spotting each of them.  It really wasn't that different from having three people use the same bench.  However, with all of the loading and unloading we would have to do to accommodate Ryan's attempts, it made more sense to use two benches given that we only had 15 minutes to complete this part of the workout.

John has been dealing with shoulder issues for quite some time, so I try not to amp him up too much when we're working with barbells.  The last thing I want is for him to re-aggravate his injury.  That being said, I kind of scoffed when he said his 1RM for the bench press was 155.  I've done a lot of workouts with John and he usually hangs pretty close to me when it comes to barbell weight.  My top bench press was 210, so 155 seemed lighter than I would have guessed for him.  I let him know right away that I thought a PR was likely for him before our 15 minutes was up.

I thought John would want to start at a lighter weight than what I was beginning with, but he said he was a-okay with 115 to kick things off.  We each did three reps at that weight.  John didn't struggle at all, making me feel more confident in my prediction that he would soon have a new PR.  I stood near Ryan's barbell as he did some warmup reps at 135, but he definitely didn't need a spot with that weight.

John and I moved up to 135 for our next attempt and we both did two reps at that weight.  We were just 20 pounds shy of his 1RM, but John was still doing multiple reps.  I was originally thinking he'd finish with something in the 160-165 range, but now I was revising that to 165-170.  How easy was 135 for Ryan?  He threw on to more 45 pound plates and made his next easy-looking attempt at 225.  It didn't take long for him to go beyond anything me and John could do.

From that point forward, it was nothing but singles for all of us.  I did 155 and so did John.  He definitely moved slower with 155 than he had at 135, but I figured he simply had his PR number in his head and was overthinking a bit.  I don't remember what Ryan's progression was from here (probably 245), but he still had no need for a spotter.  John and I would part ways from here.  I continued to go with my 20 pound jumps, going to 175 for my next lift.  This would be the last lift I'd do on the day that felt comfortable.  If I had to do multiple reps with 175, it might not have gone so well.  When I was done, I got John set up for his PR attempt at 165.  That's right.  He wasn't going to try and eek by with a 5 pound PR at 160.  He was jumping right up to 165.  I have to admit, there was little doubt in my mind that he was going to come through at 165.  His lift at 155 was slower than the sets he had done at 115 and 135, but he didn't look like he was really in trouble at any point.  I helped take the barbell off the rack with John and he brought 165 down to his chest.  He began to press it up, but then he got stuck.  I let him fight it for a couple of seconds before I intervened and helped him bring it back up to the rack.  He might not have gotten it on his first try, but there was still plenty of time on the clock for him to get it on a later attempt.

I fully expected my next attempt at 195 to be heavy as we were starting to get close to my 1RM of 210 pounds.  It was considerably more difficult pushing it up off of my chest, but John told me that the rep looked easy like my previous attempts.  I guess the best parallel I could draw is that it was similar to John's lift at 155: looked easy, but the speed of the lift decreased and it felt much tougher than it looked.  John decided to give 165 another try, but his first attempt might have placed some doubts in his mind.  When he made this attempt, he nearly came to a stop as he tried to tap his chest with the barbell.  He had no momentum to push the barbell back up and he was barely able to get it off of his chest.  165 wasn't happening today for him, but I thought if he regrouped, he could still get 160.

Another 20 pound increase seemed unwise for me, so I only added 10 pounds for my next lift at 205. I hadn't benched 210 pounds since back when I did Barbulls in early 2014, so it was entirely possible that 205 could be too much for me on this night.  After all, 210 came on the heels of completing a strength program.  I haven't done any sort of strength program in a while, so just assuming that I would PR now (or come close to doing so) might have been wishful thinking.  (Full disclosure: I go into the gym every night hoping to PR. Most nights it doesn't happen, but I tend to have the mindset that it could happen, no matter how improbable the circumstances.)  John helped me take 205 pounds off of the rack and I did my lift.  I wouldn't say that I got stuck on the way back up, but it was a very slow and strenuous push getting the barbell from my chest back to the rack.  I had made it through 205, earning me a PR attempt at 215 for my next lift.

John moved back down to 160, which was still a PR attempt for him.  If he had tried 160 right after his first attempt at 165, I would have felt very good about his chances at this lift.  That second attempt at 165 made me less optimistic.  I have all of the faith in the world in John though.  He somehow summons all of the energy in his body and puts it into the lift he's doing.  Right when you think he's crazy for attempting something at the gym, he shows that he can handle it.  So despite the ugly 2nd attempt at 165, I was still expecting to hear John roar "YES SIR" while pressing 160 up from his chest.  His speed was better on this attempt and he did get it about halfway back up to the rack, but then he stalled out.  I let him try to keep going for a second or two, but once I saw the barbell start to go down towards his chest, I grabbed the barbell from him.  I would have lost a lot of money betting that John was getting a PR today.  He would make one more attempt at 160, but much like his 2nd try at 165, he didn't seem to have the same fire behind it as he did on the 1st try at that weight.

I continued to walk over to spot Ryan between lifts, but he wouldn't need me until his last attempt.  Towards the end of his attempts, I did help him take the barbell off the rack, but that was the extent of my help on bench #2.  He continued to make benching big weight look easy, so much so that I didn't even realize he had gotten a PR when he pressed out 285 pounds.  I think his last attempt was at 305 and I was genuinely shocked when his barbell stopped rising towards the rack.  I grabbed a hold of it and we put it back on the rack together (there was no chance I could manage that by myself!).

There was about 2 minutes left on the clock when I took my shot at 215.  I remembered that when I got 210, I had to dig really deep to get the barbell back to the rack.  It seemed like I was stuck, but I kept inching it upwards, desperately hoping my spotter didn't grab the barbell to help me out.  My attempt at 205 didn't feel nearly that bad, so there was still hope that I might get 215.  John helped me take the barbell from the rack and then it was all on me to get a new PR.  I tapped the barbell against my chest and pushed up as hard as I could.  Unfortunately, I committed a cardinal sin while pushing up.  You never want to lift your feet off the ground when you bench press.  They should be pressing into the floor while you push the barbell upwards.  I got caught up in giving everything that I had to get the barbell back to the rack that I accidentally lifted both feet off the floor.  I knew immediately that I had messed up, so I tried to shoot my feet back down, almost like what I do when I'm trying to kip a gymnastics movement.  Kipping doesn't work with the bench press.  While I was kipping my feet back to the floor, the barbell came to a halt.  I was in a world of trouble.  John gave me the courtesy of a second or two to fight through it before helping me out once I said I was done.  I could have snuck in another attempt, but I felt a twinge in my back from that failed kipping attempt.  205 would have to be good enough this night.

I probably could have injured myself seriously doing what I had done, so I considered myself lucky to get off with some light back pain.  Then I made the decision to scale down my weights for the cash-out.  I knew I could power clean 155 and bench press 135, but my back was tingly from that messed-up PR attempt.  I dropped 20 pounds from each of those movements, trying to maintain a balance between using a challenging weight and not aggravating a minor injury into something worse.

I was still pulling double duty as LC asked if I could make sure that the monitors on the rowers for John and Ryan were both turned on right as they neared the end of their power cleans.  That was simple enough because they were side-by-side at the front of the gym.  The tricky part was getting my own equipment set up.  I wasn't using the same weight as John or Ryan on the power cleans, so I needed my own barbell with 135 pounds on it.  And I needed someplace to put it.  The other 6 people in class were all next to one another, so I took the next closest spot available, back towards where the rings are.  I'd get some extra cardio running from there to the rower I'd be sharing with John.  Then I'd run back to where my bench was set up.  I thought John and Ryan were both using a different weight than me, so I set up a bench down near the barbell where I'd be doing power cleans.  (It turns out that John ended up using the same bench press weight as me.  Wish I realized that before the cash-out began!)  My score was going to be a few reps lower than it could have been if I was sharing equipment, but I was more than happy to sacrifice a couple reps to help out my classmates.

John and Ryan went first while I waited for their rest period to start the cash-out.  I was responsible for counting for John, although I kept an eye on Ryan's progress so that I could turn on his rower right before he completed the power cleans.  Once they both got to their rower, I got a break.  Ryan was the first to the bench press, so I followed him over while continuing to cheer John on.  Ryan didn't really need me to spot him on the bench though, as 135 pounds was light for him.  John soon came over to the bench and I did keep an eye on him as he did a few sets to get to 15 reps.  John made it back to the power cleans before his first 5 minutes were up.  I had to ask him to count his own reps at this point because I was going to have run over to my barbell when the clock hit 5 minutes.  I also needed to turn the monitor on Ryan's rower on again as he was going to get to his rower a second time.  With 3 seconds left, I ran over to my barbell for the power cleans.

It was my turn to go!  I plowed my way through 15 single reps of power cleans, then jogged to the front of the gym to get on my rower.  The 25 calorie row wasn't too bad.  I was more concerned about how the bench press was going to feel with my back not 100%.  Turns out that 115 pounds was a good choice for me.  I did a set of 10 and a set of 5 before heading back to the power cleans.  I was able to finish off a second set of 15 power cleans just before my 5 minutes was up.  Sprinted down the gym to my rower and managed to get 2 calories before it was time to rest/count/spot again.  First round score: 72.

The second round wasn't all that different from the first except for the fact that everyone was moving slower.  The power cleans were slower, the row was slower, and the bench press was slower.  It wasn't like we were taking a minute longer on each of these elements, but it was just enough to ensure that none of us were getting back to the rower a second time.  As I had done during round 1, I took off a few seconds early on John to get back down to my barbell.  When I got there, I had a surprise waiting for me.  LC smartly recognized that my life would be easier if another rower was set up at the far end of the gym for me.  Less cardio is always beneficial to me.  So for rounds two and three, I didn't need to run up and down the gym like I had done in round one.  I did 15 singles on the power cleans, rowed 25 calories, then went 9 and 6 on the bench press.  I completed the bench press about 4 minutes into the AMRAP.  LC got a little confused on the clock and began the countdown for the two heats to switch, but I brusquely muttered "no, we have another minute" as I walked by her to get back to my barbell for the power cleans.  I'm not sure if the people in my heat were happy about having to work another minute, but I'm sure the people resting appreciated the extra 60 seconds.  I made it through 10 more power cleans before time was called.  Second round score: 65.

The third round was definitely slower and heavier.  Ryan may have gotten back to the power cleans for a second time in this round, but John did not.  Because he was still on the bench press when it was time for me to start my third round, I yelled over to LC and asked if she could spot him for his last few reps.  When it was my turn to go, I did my 15 power cleans, rowed 25 calories, then began to struggle on the bench press.  I started off with a set of 9 again, but I was too tired to get the remaining 6 in my next set.  I did 4, took a break, then got the last 2 reps.  Time was ticking down, so I just kept ripping the barbell off the floor for power cleans as quickly as I could.  I got 6 of them before time was called.  Third round score: 61.  Total score: 198.

You would think after all of that work that I would have called it an evening at that point, but foolishly I did not.  All of us spent some time rolling out afterwards and then I got talking to Jim C as I was packing up my bag.  We started talking about the new short ropes that were hanging from the ceiling.  I told him that I wanted to try it out at some point and Jim's response was along the lines of "why not now?"  The correct answer should have been "because I'm tired and I tweaked my back during the WOD", but instead I said I'd try it out.  I jumped up and began to pull myself up the rope with a legless climb, but I discovered that these new ropes were on the slippery side due to lack of use.  I couldn't get high enough to clamp my legs on, so I let go of the rope and dropped to the floor.  The new rope was going to take some practice.  That practice would have to take place on another evening as one failed climb was plenty for me to cap off the evening.

Wednesday preview: I hate EMOMs!  (Though this one isn't so bad.)  The cash-out gives me an opportunity to land on the 100 double unders board.  Will I finally get there?

Rocky And Bull (Hold The Winkle)

Workout date: 6/26/17

When Aimee released the benchmark workouts for 2017, I saw several WODs on the list that I had never heard of before.  The Google searching began.  What the heck is Gwen?  What is involved in Holbrook?  As I did my due diligence on the new workouts we'd be taking on this year, I found one that really tickled my fancy.  It was called Bull.  I was fairly certain that I would be one of the few people in the gym looking forward to this workout.  Here's why:

"Bull"
2 rounds:
200 double unders
50 overhead squats (135/95)
50 pull-ups
1 mile run

That seemed like an insane amount of work to do within an hour timeframe.  A little more research let me know that even top athletes (translation: not me) needed over an hour in most instances to complete this monster.  The longest hero WODs that we do in class tend not to go beyond 40-45 minutes, so I was a bit confused as to how we were supposed to finish this workout, assuming scaling wasn't mandatory.  (Note: There are workouts that we do which usually take over an hour, such as Murph and Wolverine.  However, those aren't done within the confines of a normal one-hour class.  They generally take place on a holiday in an open class setting where athletes can work for 90-120 minutes.)

Why was I looking forward to doing this workout?  Because this seemed like a workout where stubbornness might triumph over athleticism.  I was getting better at double unders and felt like I could peck away at the large number required with medium-sized sets.  Overhead squats are one of my favorite things to do at the gym.  Pull-ups certainly are not, but I had recently had some mild improvement with those.  I'm definitely not one of the top runners in the gym (especially having skipped Endurance this year), but I rarely ever stop running in a workout.  Plus I had already done two miles during Murph, so this wouldn't be a new experience for me.  This workout was piecing together four items that people tend to complain about frequently at the gym.  I felt like I could grind through all of them.

I missed out on Bull when it was scheduled in March, so Monday night marked my first encounter with this WOD.  Maybe if I had tried it back then, I might have had loftier goals.  Perhaps the class I took it in would have been smaller and the gym might have been much less humid.  (It would be impossible for it to be more humid than it was on this night.  Or any other night during the summer.)  All I knew walking into the gym on Monday evening was that I wasn't taking on Bull in its full form. It was oppressively warm inside KOP.  Just a thick air that was unpleasant to breathe while you were sitting down, never mind doing an intense workout like this one.  There were also 15 people attending the 6:30 class.  That meant crowded conditions while jumping rope and performing overhead squats.  As for the pull-up rig, you'd simply have to keep your fingers crossed and hope there was space available when you got to that part of the workout.  At least there would be plenty of room during the run.

I decided to make two adjustments based on the conditions in the gym when I showed up:

1. I would do half Bull: 2 rounds of 100 double unders, 25 overhead squats, 25 pull-ups, and an 800 meter run.
2. I would scale the overhead squat weight to 115 pounds.  I could probably handle 135 pounds, but I wanted to make sure I wasn't dead when I got to the pull-ups in this workout.

Coach Giulz made life better for all of us when she let us know that we'd be running this workout in two heats, with the second heat starting two minutes after the first wave began.  I was designated to be a member of the second heat which made my inner procrastinator very happy.  Giulz had us get our equipment out (jump rope, barbell) and we all stalked out space for the WOD.  The plan was to have athletes perform their double unders in the space between the barbells.  If you're good enough to stay in place while doing a lot of double unders, you'd be fine.  If you were the type that hops around in various directions as your set of double unders progresses, then you were in danger of clipping a barbell while you had a good set going.  Take a wild guess which type I am.  Giulz had us do some single unders and double unders as part of the warmup and I felt like I was destined to hit one of the barbells at some point in this workout.  There was a small uninhabited strip in the middle of the gym that looked usable, so I made plans to sneak in there once the second wave got started.

Because I was part of the second group, I didn't have a lot of concern that I'd clash with someone doing double unders as I did my overhead squats.  If that happened, then I was really far behind the class.  (There was no chance that I was going to start two minutes after the first group and somehow complete 100 double unders before them.)  I felt confident about my choice of 115 pounds for this workout.  I envisioned completing the 25 overheads in 3 sets.  Over at the pull-up rig, I had some concerns about congestion.  If I did my double unders efficiently and moved through the overhead squats as quickly as I thought I could, there was a real chance I could arrive at the pull-up rig at the same time the first wave was finishing up their pull-ups.  That would mean a likely wait.  I tried to avoid this traffic by coordinating with Adam, a drop-in who was warming up on the bar next to me.  (We got some extra fitness to begin class when Giulz had us all do 15 burpees for not learning the drop-in guy's name during the 400 meter run.  With 15 people out on the run, I honestly had no idea that there was a new face in the crowd.)  The bar on my right wasn't really a pull-up bar.  It was a thicker bar that basically connects the usable parts of the rig.  Adam told me he was fine with using that one though.  Problem solved!  Should be no wait on the pull-up rig.

Heat one began and I used my two minute wait as an opportunity to run to the restroom.  The coaches always tell us how important it is to hydrate before class, but the combination of a long warmup and a full bladder usually mean I have to run and pee before every workout during the summer.  I got back in plenty of time to join my comrades in heat #2.  I took up residence in the center of the barbells and I got ready to begin my double unders.  The clock hit two minutes and I twirled my rope.  No rep.  My rope hit something along the way.  I stayed calm, got ready to go, and for the second straight time, it felt like my rope snagged as I twirled it.  I was confused for a second, but then I looked up and realized why this area was empty.  While I had been in St. Lucia, the gym added two ropes for climbing in the middle of the gym.  These ropes didn't hang all the way to the floor like the others.  Instead they were similar to the ones that have been used at Regionals the last couple of years.  They force the athlete to climb legless for a few pulls.  If you get high enough, you can then use your legs the rest of the way.  I had seen them at the beginning of the day and was interested in trying them out, but now they were a major thorn in my side.  My jump rope was hitting one of these new ropes as I stood in the area that everyone else was bright enough to avoid.  I was forced to move back between the barbells.

My goal for the 100 double unders was to do four sets of 25 reps.  While I wasn't able to do 25 reps exactly in each set, I was able to do a couple bigger sets to make up for the smaller sets, allowing me to complete the first hundred dubs in 4 sets.  I dropped my jump rope in the center of the gym (I knew it wouldn't be in the way there) and headed to my barbell.  After a short break, I started my overheads.  I completed 9 reps in my first set.  Now I just had to do two sets of 8 and I would have met my goal here of 3 sets.  I'm not sure whether I rushed into the second set or whether I underestimated the effect that those 100 double unders would have on my legs, but my next set ended earlier than planned.  I made it through 4 reps before dropping the barbell.  I took a longer break, wanting to make sure that I could get at least 6 reps in the next set.  I had 12 reps left and having to break this first round of overhead squats into 5 sets would have been deflating.  I managed 8 reps in my next set, leaving only 4 for my final set.  I finished those and headed to the pull-up rig.

I had been efficient on the double unders.  I had been relatively quick on the overhead squats.  And naturally I ran into the problem that I tried to avoid via negotiation earlier.  Adam was in the first group and got to the pull-up rig before me.  Seeing that my bar was free, he got to work using that one rather than the thick bar that I didn't think anyone really wanted to use.  I could either use the thick bar or wait on him to be done (or keep my eye out for another open spot somewhere on the rig).  I had no idea how close he was to being done, so I did a few singles on the thick bar.  As I took a break from doing singles, I saw Adam head out the door.  I could move back to my bar.  Once I was on the regular bar, I tried to do sets of 3-4 quick singles before stopping to catch my breath.  Those breaks would end up being longer than I would have liked, but the combination of stifling humidity and a killer workout were breaking me down.  And this was only round 1 of "half Bull"!

Eventually I completed my 25 pull-ups and headed out on my first run.  I definitely wasn't moving fast.  It was the speed that I run when I hit rounds 3-5 of Nancy.  Plod along and just get through it.  Cline and Rob P headed out on the run at the same time as me, with Cline getting back to the gym before me and Rob getting back after me.  The first round took me slightly under 15 minutes to complete.  Giulz had wanted us to finish our workout in about 30 minutes and the deliriously optimistic side of me thought I could still make that happen.  Repeat what you just did.  That's all.  Riiiiight.

When I got back to my jump rope, I noticed that there was an area in the front of the gym near the GHD machines where some heat 1 athletes had been jumping rope and doing overhead squats.  Those folks had already moved on to round two of their pull-ups, so that area was free.  Not detecting any ropes hanging from the ceiling over that area, it felt safe to do my double unders over there.  It took me four sets again to reach 100 reps, although the breaks between sets were significantly longer this time around.

As soon as I began my first set of overhead squats in round two, I knew I wasn't going to be able to complete 25 of them over three sets.  I was wobbly after rep #3.  I hung on for two more reps before letting the barbell fall to the floor.  I had officially become aggravated with this WOD.  Soaked in sweat, struggling to breathe, I was now having a hard time with the part of the workout that was supposed to be my strength.  I had even scaled down the weight, but here I was unable to do large sets like I thought I would.  I took some extended breaks before the next two sets and that helped me hang on for 7 and 8 reps, respectively.  Only 5 more to go.  I decided to shorten my break and try to plow through my final set.  I attempted to squat snatch the barbell, but as I dropped into my squat, my body rocked backwards as the barbell tipped forward.  Both athlete and barbell hit the floor a second later.  I was not pleased.  I started to think back to the workouts prior to my St. Lucia trip.  They had frustrated me to the point that I wondered why I was still coming to the gym 4-5 times per week.  This WOD was raising that question in my mind again.

I took some time to calm down and that helped me get through my final set of 5 overhead squats.  I moved over to the pull-up rig, which was desolate now.  I slowly made my way through the 25 pull-ups, but it had become a real struggle to breathe.  I did a lot of leaning against the rig between sets, trying to resist the desire to sit in my resting squat.  Most of the first heat was now finished and they tried to encourage me on, but I didn't have any reserves left to tap into.  As I got closer to the end of the pull-ups, I looked down the gym to see if I was the only one working.  Cline and Rob were still on the pull-up rig with me.  While I was taking my last break, I saw both of them head out the door.  Why in the world did I think I would like this workout?

With my pull-ups complete, I jogged out the door for my final half-mile run.  Way up ahead, I could see Cline and Rob.  There was no chance of me catching up to Cline on a run, but Rob looked like he was hurting.  I put my head down and tried to run faster than my body wanted to.  If I pushed, I might be able to catch Rob.  As I made the bend around Frosty Falls, I saw that Rob was walking past the 200 meter mark.  I could definitely catch him if he was walking.  I continued to close the gap as we headed out towards the turnaround point.

Rob was just beyond the 300 meter mark when he stopped and turned around.  I wasn't sure if he had decided that he had enough or if he forgot where the turnaround point was.  When I got to him, I yelled over that the turnaround point was further up ahead.  He realized his mistake, turned back around, and jogged after me.  I knew I was going to finish ahead of Rob now.

There was something about seeing a dazed, struggling classmate that struck a chord with me.  A couple weeks earlier, I saw a fellow runner having a hard time at the end of a 5K and I helped him push through to the end.  My time for that race wasn't wonderful, but I felt good about the fact that I was able to get that guy running again when he thought he needed to walk.  This was like deja vu.  I didn't care about my time anymore.  I didn't care about finishing ahead of Rob.  And best of all, I no longer felt angry or frustrated about the WOD.  I might not have been immensely productive during the last 35 minutes, but I was about to be for the next minute or so.

As Rob and I headed back on the final quarter-mile run to the gym, I slowed down and started running sideways.  I kept telling Rob he was done walking.  I told him that he couldn't let the old, pudgy guy beat him on the final run.  I kept chatting away as we came back down the hill to the 200 meter mark and then up the incline to the final turn at Frosty Falls.  When we cleared that turn, we could see the gym again.  Everyone from class was standing outside to cheer us on.  They even had some theme music for us.  The Rocky theme was audible from over 100 meters away.  I told Rob that we had to pick it up for this final stretch.  Our jog morphed into a sprint that would end with the two of us collapsing on the gym floor.  Final time: 35:06.

No, I did not keep my workout under 30 minutes.  I didn't have my finest day with overhead squats and no one should take that long completing 25 pull-ups.  But I think I figured out what makes it worthwhile to go the gym 4-5 times per week.  I've always said I was a better cheerleader than an athlete.  Maybe I need to embrace that a little more.  Completing this WOD in 35:06 and helping Rob finish strong was way more rewarding than it would have been to complete it in 34:30 and leave Rob behind.  I might just be happier dialing back the competitiveness at the gym and seizing the opportunity to help out my classmates when I can.

Tuesday preview: I get to help out two of my classmates during the WOD!  I also nearly injure myself by stupidly doing something I know I shouldn't.  Don't be like me: keep your feet on the floor when you bench press.

He Knows It's 15 Calories, Right?

Workout date: 6/23/17

I came home from St. Lucia with one day of down time before my buddy's wedding on Saturday afternoon.  I'm not even going to pretend that I did any exercise while I was on vacation.  I went through my normal routine of bringing my jump rope with me because it's easy enough to pack and surely I'd find the time to work on double unders while I was in paradise.  Or not.  My jump rope never left the large ziploc bag that I carry it around in.  Instead I ate and drank a lot, went on a couple of fun tours, and had my second successful run playing charity poker in the last 6 weeks.

We got home at 3am on Friday morning because every trip through the Miami airport is a nightmare and the disorganized spectacle that greeted us in Philly wasn't much better.  Our Uber driver home decided to have a horror movie playing in the back of the car for his customers.  I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it because I was ready to fall asleep.  After a good night's rest, I drove to NE Philly to get my tux for Saturday's festivities and then came home feeling like I really needed to get a workout in.  So I signed up for Coach Keithie's 6:30 class that evening.

I had only been in St. Lucia for a week, but rumor had it that I was on vacation the last two weeks.  I was getting my fair share of ribbing during the warmup because I had supposedly been away this long.  I laughed and remarked how stories at KOP can balloon out of control, but in retrospect, I can understand why it might have seemed like I was away longer than I was even when I had been in class a week earlier.  The trip to St. Lucia made me forget that I hadn't been in class all that much the week before I hit the beach.  When someone who goes to the gym 4-5 times per week only shows up twice in 2 weeks, it probably gives the impression that they have been away longer than they were.  In fact, you might be under the impression that I was in St. Lucia for a month based on how far behind I am on this blog.

In most 6:30 classes, I would have been able to avoid this ribbing by fading into the background of a very large class, but there were only four of us in attendance for the Thursday WOD.  It was me, Conn, Alicia-Marie, and Neil.  Here's the workout this quartet would be doing:

Thursday's WOD:
3 rounds:
15 calories on the assault bike
12 lateral burpees over the barbell
9 unbroken clean and jerks (135/95)

That last piece was the most interesting part of this workout.  It was very Flight Simulator-esque.  You didn't want to choose a barbell weight that was too heavy and have to go through a bunch of extra clean and jerks.  You also didn't want to move right into the clean and jerks after doing those burpees because you would almost certainly be too tired to complete 9 unbroken reps.  This was definitely a "know your body/limits" kind of workout.  I was at a bit of a disadvantage because I had missed a benchmark workout (Gwen) that was programmed earlier in the year which would have given me some guidance on how tough it would be to string together 9 clean and jerks at 135 pounds.  Gwen is a workout completely focused on big sets of unbroken clean and jerks.  You choose a weight and then you have to perform a set of 15 unbroken clean and jerks.  Your next set is 12 reps long, with the final set a merciful 9 reps.  You get to take as much rest as you want between sets, as long as you don't run beyond the 60 minutes scheduled for class.  I missed my chance at Gwen in both January and April.  Had I been there for either of those classes, I'd have a much better sense of whether 135 was feasible for this WOD.

But what if there was an easier way to figure it out?  There really is no substitute for good ol' peer pressure.  As we got warmed up, Neil came over to me and said "you're using 135, right?"  Ummm...of course I am!  I vaguely remembered doing a cash-out with Matt B where we had to do 15 clean and jerks at 135 pounds as fast as we could and we both strung all of the reps.  So even if I was a bit tired when I got to the clean and jerks, I figured I'd still be able to fight my way through 9 reps.  Let's go with 135!  (Note: "Vaguely remember" = "Misremembered".  We strung 10 clean and jerks in that cash-out, not 15.  So my margin for error was much less than I believed it to be.)

During the warmup, Keithie explained the importance of efficiently moving directly from the clean into the jerk.  This was a technique he had drilled into my head some time ago, so I was used to doing it.  It wasn't that we couldn't do the clean, pause, and then do the jerk, but the likelihood of holding on through 9 reps would start to dwindle the more often we deliberately separated the two movements.  There wasn't a whole lot to go over in terms of warmup on the assault bike and the burpees.  My plan was to try and go hard initially on the assault bike because momentum on the bike can buy you some extra calories when you start to slow down.  Pacing on the bike was not the way to go.  I was going to intentionally move slowly on the burpees, using it somewhat as recovery before having to do the clean and jerks.  I tend to be insanely slow on burpees anyways, so it really wasn't going to be much different than normal for me.

The four of us hopped on our bikes and Keithie started the clock.  I pumped my arms and legs, watching the calories accumulate on my monitor.  I didn't feel like I was going all out, but the number on my monitor was zipping towards 15 very quickly.  As soon as it hit 15, I hopped off my bike and walked over to my barbell.  I tried to calm myself down as I did my first burpee.  Then I did a second.  And a third and a fourth.  I was the only one doing burpees still.  It seemed weird to me that Neil and Conn weren't done yet.  Later on, I'd found out that they thought it was weird that I was done so quickly.  Neil told me he saw me get to the burpees and thought "he knows it's 15 calories, right?"  As I moved through my burpees, I started to have my doubts as to whether I really had completed 15 calories on the bike.

I was on my 5th burpee when the rest of the gang started to filter over to begin their burpees.  Because I was so slow on this section of the workout, they began to catch up to me.  After hopping over my barbell for the 12th time, I took a break to catch my breath.  I needed to feel certain I could get all 9 clean and jerks on the first try.  By the time I was ready to go, Conn and Neil were moving towards their barbell to start their clean and jerks.  The first round went well for me.  I made it through 8 reps before I started to feel the burn, but I had enough left to get through the last rep.  Conn and Neil made it through their first set unblemished, so the three of us walked over to our bikes in unison.

The first thing that I did when I got back to my bike was check to make sure I really did 15 calories in round one.  It was better than that.  I was still moving at a decent speed right before I hopped off my bike, so momentum brought the total up to 17 calories.  I was relieved to know that I hadn't blacked out during that initial round and gotten off the bike early.  Unfortunately, I couldn't come close to replicating that performance in round two.  I was trying to get the handlebars and the pedals moving rapidly, but I wasn't racking up the calories at the rate I was about 4 minutes ago.  And once I realized that my assault odometer wasn't ticking upwards very quickly, I stopped pushing as hard and settled into a steady pace instead.  (Yes, it took one round for me to revert to tactics that I knew did not work.)  I wouldn't have a head start on the burpees this time around.  The three guys got off their bikes at about the same  time.

Just because I went slower on the bike didn't mean I was going to pick up the pace on my burpees.  If anything, I might have gone even slower during round two.  This workout was already taking its toll on my legs and my lungs.  I knew the burpees were simply busy work, so there was no point in speeding up there.  The real road block in this workout was the unbroken clean and jerk section, so I had to do my best to get through the burpees in a timely fashion without using up the energy I needed for the barbell.  Conn was the first one done with the burpees and he didn't need a long break before he completed his clean and jerks.  I was a little bit behind Neil and that gap grew when I took a slightly longer break than him.  He did all 9 of his clean and jerks unbroken.  I made it through 6 before I started to grow worried that I might not complete the entire set, but I held on through the last 3 reps.

There wasn't a lot of difference between rounds two and three for me.  I could only manage a slow steady pace on the bike.  I crawled through my 12 burpees, managing a tiny hop over the barbell after each completed rep.  Then I took a decent-sized break before going after the clean and jerks.  Conn was done already.  While I tried to get my breath back, I watched Neil finish his last 9 clean and jerks.    I still didn't feel completely ready for my final set, but then I heard Faby yell "come on, you can finish under 14 minutes".  I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to the clock, but there was something about hearing that I could beat a certain time that drove me back to my barbell.  I took one last deep breath and got to work.  As was the case in round #2, I got through 6 reps before my arms started to quiver during the jerk.  It was time to turn to my best friend when it comes to barbell movements.  That would be anger.  I started to think about how mad I would be if I put the barbell down before I completed the 3 remaining reps.  A little extra rage helped straighten out my arms during those last 3 jerks.  Final time: 14:05.

Apparently rage supplies power, but not speed.  I didn't sneak under the 14 minute threshold like I wanted to, but it would have been so much worse had I fallen short of 9 reps on that last set and had to start all over again.  I imagine I would have needed about 2 minutes of rest before I could start again.  Even then, there would be no guarantees I could get through all 9 had a failed on the prior set. So thank you, anger.  Once again, you helped me in my time of need.

Monday preview: My first shot at a really psychotic benchmark workout programmed for the first time this year.  I develop a really healthy appreciation for how difficult Bull is based on how long it takes me to complete the mini-version.