40-40 Club

Workout date: 9/28/17

When you have a workout like the one I did on Wednesday night where everything seems to go wrong, you want to come back the next night and just crush whatever is programmed.  Insufficient scaling was my downfall on Wednesday, so if that meant I had to overscale in order to ensure a solid time on Thursday's WOD, then I was going to do that.  There weren't too many elements within Thursday's WOD, so I wasn't left with a lot of decisions to make.  In fact, there was really only one that I had to wrestle with.

Thursday's WOD:
40 back squats (135/95)
20 burpee box jump overs (24"/20")
3 minutes of rest
20 burpee box jump overs
40 back squats
*Barbell is taken from the floor

I could choose to use a smaller box for the burpee box jump overs, but was that truly going to help me in this workout?  The worst part of the burpee box jump over wasn't the box jump over, it was the burpee.  That meant the only decision I had to make was how much weight to use for the back squats.  My gut told me to use 115 pounds.  Back in 2015, we did a workout that included 45 back squats and we were told that we should try and choose a weight that we could do 45 consecutive reps with.  It wasn't pleasant and it wasn't fast, but I did all 45 back squats without putting the barbell down.  In this WOD, I could drop the barbell after only 40 reps.  After thinking about it that way, I started toying with the idea of using more weight.  Maybe I should go RX!

That notion was fleeting.  Common sense kicked in rather quickly.  I wasn't doing one set of 40 back squats in this workout.  I was on the hook for two massive sets.  Oh, and there were two sets of 20 burpee box jump overs in between.  Those were going to do a number on my legs, even if a three minute break was sandwiched in there.  I came back down to earth and stuck with 115 pounds as my proper weight.

I didn't want to risk being stuck in the middle of a huge class like I was two weeks ago, so I came in for the 7:30 class rather than the 6:30.  There was a chance that I'd be in class all by myself, but I ended up with two classmates.  The Prodigy and Matt T were there to do some back squats and burpee box jump overs with me.  I've taken class with The Prodigy many times, but I had never met Matt before.  Apparently he usually takes noon classes (I miss the express!) and this was his first visit to an evening session.  Besides The Prodigy and Matt, there were two other people in the gym.  Barbell buddies Faby and Tom C (The Prodigy's hubby) were deadlifting big weight on the platform during Open Strength.

Giulz had The Prodigy, Matt, and I warm up on the back squats.  She wanted to make sure that we chose a weight that we could move through big sets.  As I got ready, she came up to me and asked me what I thought about using 115 pounds.  She read my mind!  I told her I was on board with that weight.  Once she had worked with The Prodigy and Matt on what weights they were going to use, we moved over to our boxes.  There wasn't much to go over as far as technique when it came to the burpee box jump over.  We all knew how to do a burpee.  We all knew how to jump on and off of a box.

As we got ready to start, Giulz laid out her expectations for the workout the same way she had done it for the cash-out that Bryan and I participated in 24 hours earlier.  For the back squats, she wanted us to do no more than 3 sets in round one and no more than 4 sets in round two.  That struck me as strange because my intention was to try and string all 40 back squats in both rounds.  I began to wonder again whether my barbell should be heavier than it currently was.  As I debated that in my mind, I had a flashback to last night.  I hadn't scaled enough.  It was better to err on the side of scaling too much tonight.  115 was staying on the barbell.

Giulz made sure we were ready to go and then set the clock in motion.  I cleaned the barbell, then popped it over my head and on to my back rack.  It would be there for a while.  Early on, the reps were easy to move through.  As I made it past 20 reps, they didn't feel so wonderful.  The weight wasn't heavy, but my legs would have appreciated a break.  They weren't getting one.  Not until I completed 40 reps.  This was a mental test, not a physical one.  I wanted to put the barbell down, but I didn't need to put it down.  I kept staring straight ahead, continuing to do reps.  If I needed to stop for a second to shake out my legs, that was fine.  But putting the barbell down was not an option.

The Prodigy and Matt broke up their sets like Giulz had suggested, but I plugged away until all 40 of my back squats were done.  As a result, I was the first one to the burpee box jump overs.  I had no idea how much of a lead I had on my classmates.  I just kept moving, assuming that they would be joining me on the burpee box jump overs very soon.  I was in the midst of completing my 5th burpee box jump over when The Prodigy came over to her box, which was directly next to mine.  She is much better at burpees than I am and she gained ground on me quickly.  I began to think that she might reach the 3 minute break before me.  That would have been deflating given that I hung on for all 40 of those back squats.  Knowing that I was about to get some rest, I picked up the pace on my last few reps.  That helped me get to the break about 25 seconds before The Prodigy.

The three-minute break was probably too long for someone who overthinks things as much as I do.  I spent the recovery period thinking about nothing but strategy.  Should I go all out on the last 20 burpee box jump overs and risk being too tired to complete the last 40 back squats in a row?  Should I pace the burpee box jump overs so that I'd have enough left in the tank for the back squats?  Was there any chance I'd be able to hold off The Prodigy on the next set of burpee box jump overs?

My three minutes were up and I began the second half of the workout.  I wanted to move quickly on the burpee box jump overs, but it wasn't long before my pace slowed.  Nothing I could do about it.  As was the case in the first round, I was on my 5th rep when The Prodigy started her burpee box jump overs.  Unlike the first round, I couldn't hold her off.  She was like a bunny, hopping back and forth over that box with ease.  I was crawling through my burpees, hating life.  I had two reps left to go when The Prodigy headed back to her barbell.

There was no doubt what I needed to do the rest of the way.  If I wanted to catch her, I needed to hold on for all 40 back squats again.  And this set was going to be much tougher.  I was fresh before that first set.  Now my legs had done 40 back squats and 40 burpee box jump overs.  They were going to send me the signal that I should put the barbell down and take breaks.  I would have to stay focused and ignore those signals.

I didn't waste any time when I got to my barbell.  I got it up into my back rack and began churning through reps.  These are air squats.  You can't even feel the weight.  Do 40 air squats.  I blocked out everything around me and stared at the wall straight ahead.  If The Prodigy was done before me, so be it.  I couldn't focus on that.  I was going to zone out and get through these 40 reps.

I'm sure I had a pain face that rivaled the classic one that Cline typically displays as I made my way through those back squats.  I got up to 20.  Then 25.  Air squats.  They are only air squats.  When I got to 30, I knew I had it.  I could grunt my way through 10 more "air squats".  I completed the last 10 and happily tossed the barbell off of my back.  Final time: 13:06.

For someone who has had many issues with being mentally tough in workouts, I was very pleased with my resolve during this WOD.  There were many times when I wanted to drop the barbell and get a proper break, but I hung on and fought that urge.  As a result, I finished about a minute ahead of The Prodigy and nearly two minutes ahead of Matt.  I didn't scale properly on Wednesday, but I chose the right weight for me on Thursday.

That was the end of class for the three of us, but the fun wasn't over yet.  Faby and Tom were in the middle of a very impressive deadlifting display.  They were taking turns lifting obscene amounts of weight while the three of us watched from the side.  Tom would end up with the heaviest lift of the night, easily pulling 527 pounds from the ground up to his waist.  That was good enough for 3rd on the gym leaderboard.  I suspect it won't be long before he moves higher on that board.

Monday preview: My doctor is not pleased with my weight.  An Open workout is re-tested.  My post-WOD run takes longer than I realized.

Neither Of You Scaled Appropriately

Workout date: 9/27/17

Jenn and I decided that we would celebrate two decades of being together by taking two long weekend trips.  The first trip was more her speed.  We headed out to wine country a week after our actual anniversary.  Hey, the girl loves her red wine!  (The second trip, taking place in October, was designed more for me.)  We flew into San Francisco and had a nice dinner the night of our arrival.  We had some excellent dim sum the next morning before heading to Sonoma Valley.  Our first day in wine country would involve hitting up several vineyards there, including our favorite (Imagery) from the trip we took to Sonoma five years ago.  The rest of the trip was in Napa.  Each day we visited 2-3 vineyards.  Along the way, we stopped at Jenn's new favorite vineyard (Quintessa).  I learned a lot about wine during these tours, even discovering that I had a new favorite varietal (Cab Franc).  I also found a varietal that I could identify based on smell alone (Petit Verdot).  It was cool becoming more educated on wines, but by the end of the trip on Tuesday, I knew I had my fill of vino.  I could go weeks before needing another glass.

When I returned to KOP on Wednesday night, I found that the 7:30 class was pretty much the same.  Sure, Giulz was filling in for Jenna and Bryan was there instead of Neil, but once again the big gym felt empty as it was only hosting one coach and two athletes.  The workout was completely different from last Wednesday's though.  Instead of 75 light snatches, we were doing 30 bar muscle-ups with a 10 minute time cap.  After that was done, we had this cash-out awaiting us:

Cash-out:

50 KB swings (53/35)

40 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')

30 box jumps (24"/20")

20 push-ups

*Time cap: 8 minutes

Before we get to the cash-out, let's go back to the 30 bar muscle-ups.  This was one of our 2017 benchmark workouts and I had a chance to do it back in March.  Bryan was in that class with me and I was pretty sure that he was going to destroy me during that WOD.  Early on, things played out that way as he had 8 bar muscle-ups to my 1 with 5 minutes to go.  He hit the wall from there and somehow I found a rhythm with my bar muscle-ups.  Nearly every attempt I made during the last 5 minutes of that WOD was a successful one.  Final score: Dave 9, Bryan 8.

I was not delusional enough to believe that a result like that one would play out again in the future.  9 bar muscle-ups was probably my ceiling, while 8 was likely Bryan's floor.  The stars aligned for me on that night, but it was unreasonable to think it could happen again.  That view was reinforced by Bryan's performance on this workout in June.  I missed that class, but Bryan was a superstar that day, completing all 30 bar muscle-ups in 9:36.  There was no question who would be top dog in our September clash.

I had three things going against me in this workout:

1. I am wildly inconsistent when it comes to bar muscle-ups.
2. I had been away for a week and this isn't the type of WOD you want to do rusty.
3. It was muggy as hell inside the gym.

Given all of that, I was hoping to end up with a score of 3 or 4 when my 10 minutes were up.  Bryan had a much more optimistic view of how I would fare.  He thought I'd put up a score of 20.  There was a better chance of me winning the slam dunk competition at next year's NBA All-Star Game than there was of me doing 20 bar muscle-ups in 10 minutes.  6 felt like "minor miracle" territory for me on this night.

Giulz had Bryan and I do a bunch of drills on the agility ladder while she cleaned up some areas of the gym.  At one point she was over by the pull-up rig, taking down a small bar that was attached where the squat racks would typically be.  Bryan asked her what she was taking down and Giulz explained how this lower bar could be used as a scale by those who were incapable of doing a bar muscle-up.  I immediately requested that Giulz leave the small bar where it was as there was a strong chance that I would be unable to do a bar muscle-up tonight.  She denied my request.  Not only was Giulz stopping me from using that scale, she wasn't allowing me any other scale in this WOD.  She had much more faith than I did (perhaps not Bryan-level faith, but still more than me) that I could complete a decent number of bar muscle-ups in this workout.

Bryan and I had the opportunity to do some warmup attempts and Bryan easily did 2 bar muscle-ups. I had one really bad attempt and then did a second one which needed some work, but was in the realm of what a bar muscle-up should look like.  Giulz asked me if I wanted to do more practice reps, but I really didn't.  Part of me thought I might wear myself out early by doing a bunch of practice reps.  I also thought back to when I did this in March.  I wasn't hitting anything early on, but eventually I figured it out.  Just start the 10 minute clock now and I'll solve the bar muscle-up rubik's cube along the way.

Bryan didn't need to find his way.  As soon as the clock started, he glided through one bar muscle-up after another.  I was not doing so well.  I made one attempt every 30 seconds or so, but most of my attempts looked like the second one I had done during the warmup.  I'd get nearly high enough to rotate over the bar, but my chest kept smacking into the bar instead of my spare tire.  If my rolls weren't enveloping the bar, I had no shot of completing the muscle-up.

While my odometer was frozen at zero, I got to witness Bryan cruise through bar muscle-ups like he was bored.  I had no idea what number he was on, but I thought he might finish before I even got on the scoreboard.  Around the 6 minute mark, my bar muscle-up attempts began to improve.  My chicken wing was getting all the way over the bar.  It was simply a matter of rotating my body the rest of the way.  Maybe I shouldn't use the word "simply" because I had a really hard time fully rotating.  After a few failed tries that were very close, I told myself that I needed to fully commit to rotating by staring at the floor when I got up there.  It still didn't help.  I remained at zero reps.

Bryan was still going a few bars down from me, but he couldn't have been more than a couple reps away from finishing based on what I saw during the first 5 minutes.  As I took a breather from yet another failed attempt, I saw Bryan fail for the first time.  Every attempt I took looked like a struggle, so it made sense that I would fail.  Bryan was still gracefully rising up to the bar, but he looked like he might be out of juice.  His form looked great, but that last little pull at the top was missing.  I watched him miss 3 or 4 attempts in a row and suddenly it wasn't a matter of when he would finish.  It was now a question of if he would finish.

I was on the other end of the spectrum.  The question with me was whether I'd achieve one bar muscle-up before 10 minutes was up.  I still held out hope that I might get 2 in until I got to the final minute.  Then I scaled down my expectations to 1.  I gave it four tries during those last 60 seconds.  A couple more close calls, but no breakthroughs.  Final score: 0.  (Bryan's final score: 24.)

The fact that Bryan fell 6 bar muscle-ups short of the 30 he got back in June should tell you how much the heat had an effect on us.  It would be even more apparent during the cash-out.  My game plan for completing it in 8 minutes went like this:

• Do the 50 KB swings in two sets, 30 and 20 most likely.  That might be on the aggressive side, but this cash-out was a bit of a sprint.
• Break the 40 wall balls up into 4 sets of 10 if possible.  I was going to be tired after the KB swings and the wall balls were probably going to be the toughest part of this cash-out, so I had to push through this station as best as I could.
• If I had 2 minutes remaining when I got to the box jumps, I thought I could finish.  30 box jumps should take somewhere in the 60-90 second range, leaving me 30-60 seconds for 20 push-ups.  That would be cutting it close, but not impossible.

Giulz explained to me and Bryan what her expectations were for this cash-out.  The KB swings should be done in no more than 2 sets.  (Guess my plan wasn't overly aggressive!)  The wall balls should be completed in no more than 3 sets.  (Yikes - that wasn't happening after all those KB swings.)  She didn't give any specific directions on the box jumps or the push-ups.

I thought I could complete 50 swings with a 53 pound KB in two sets, so I didn't scale the weight here.  Once the cash-out began, I did everything I could to hold on to that KB for as long as possible. I made it through 27 swings.  Not bad.  I wish I had less than 23 reps left for the second set, but that's what I'd be facing when I picked the KB back up.  Because this was a sprint, I couldn't take a long break, so I sucked it up and grabbed the KB again.  I was too tired to do 23 in a row.  I didn't even come close to that number, putting the KB back down after 8 reps.  I had broken the "two set" rule.  No point in trying to do the remaining 15 swings all in one set now.  I did a set of 8 and a set of 7 before heading over to the wall.

40 wall balls in three sets was never really under consideration, but it didn't take long to discover that four sets was out the window too.  I did 5 wall balls and then let it hit the floor.  My shoulders were smoked from the KB swings.  While I couldn't do big sets of wall balls, I did manage to keep my breaks brief between sets.  That was good because I took a lot of breaks.  Six, to be exact.  After the initial set of 5, I went 6-6-6-6-7-4 on the remaining wall balls.

I didn't follow Giulz's rule on the KB swings.  Didn't follow her rule on the wall balls.  I must have been completely screwed, right?  Not really, it turned out.  I peeked at the clock as I came to the box jumps and saw that it read 6:15.  I was a little behind schedule, but not by as much as I thought.  I probably wouldn't finish, but I had a chance to be close.  The only way that wouldn't be true is if I couldn't keep up a fast pace on the box jumps.

I did not keep up a fast pace on the box jumps.  I totally underestimated how much the wall balls would factor into my ability to rebound on and off of the box.  After 4 quick reps, I had to stop.  I tried to shake out my legs and get some life back into them, but my next set was also 4 reps.  And now I needed a longer break before I felt confident enough to try rebounding again.  My third set was no different in length from the first two sets.  As I desperately tried to get my legs working again, I saw that there was less than 30 seconds left.  I decided that I was going to push through one more large set, no matter how painful it was, no matter how much it felt like I was going to trip and fall on my face.  I got moving again and was able to get 7 jumps in before time was called.  Final time: 8:31 (8:00 time cap plus 1 second for the 11 box jumps and 20 push-ups that I did not complete.)

I didn't come very close to finishing, but Bryan was even further behind me.  He had to rush to finish off the last of his wall balls before the time cap hit.  He didn't get any of the box jumps or push-ups done.  While the two of us commiserated about how hard that cash-out turned out to be, Giulz came over to scold us.  "Neither of you scaled appropriately", she declared.  I guess she was right, although I'm not sure whether I should have scaled the KB or the wall ball.  All I knew is that with a score of zero on the WOD and a failure to stay under the time cap in the cash-out, I didn't scale anything appropriately on this evening.

Thursday preview: It's too soon for burpee box jump overs again.  I race The Prodigy in the middle of  the WOD, while my mental strength is tested at the start and the finish.

Twelve To Three

Workout date: 9/20/17

People always assume that I'm really good at math.  I'm not saying that I'm bad at math, but there's a way to make it appear like you're better at it than you really are.  You just need to know some tricks.  Back when Paul was one of the coaches at KOP, I got to teach him some of those tricks.  He would always shake his head at me when I was able to calculate the number of reps in a workout on the fly.  He'd always say how ridiculous it was that I could add numbers that quickly.  The truth was that I was using a trick I had learned.  I told him that he could do it just as well as I did once he knew the trick.

For example, a common rep scheme in Crossfit is 21-15-9.  How many reps is that?  45.  How do you figure that out quickly?  If the numbers are evenly spaced from one another (these are all 6 apart), then you multiply the middle number (15) by how many numbers there are in the series (3).  15 x 3 = 45.  Once Paul knew that, I could give him a rep scheme like the following:

17-15-13-11-9-7-5

And he would know the total reps in less than 10 seconds.  (This works best with an odd set of numbers.  If you have an even set, you have to average the middle two numbers to get the "middle number".)  I didn't include the answer in case you want to figure it out on your own.  I bet you got it faster than you thought you might.

Another math trick involves answering the question "what is the total of the numbers going from 1 to x?"  Let's say x was 8.  If someone asked you what that added up to, the answer would be 36.  Adding 8 numbers wouldn't be so bad, but what if someone asked for the total of the numbers from 1 to 20?  You probably wouldn't want to add all those up.  So you'd want to use the trick instead.  To calculate that sum, you multiply "x" times "x+1" and divide by 2.  What is the total of the numbers from 1 to 20?  (20 x 21)/2 = 210.

If you haven't fallen asleep already, I'll explain why I'm geeking out on math tricks.  During the Open this year, we had a repeat workout.  The workout started with 55 deadlifts.  One of the hosts of the studio show mentioned that you might attack this part of the workout by doing sets of 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 as that added up to 55 reps.  And he was right.  (10 x 11)/2 = 55.  I thought about doing the workout this way, but I stubbornly stuck to my own strategy.  That was a mistake.

On Wednesday night, we were doing a benchmark WOD that required strategy.  The WOD is Randy and here's how it goes:

"Randy"

75 snatches (75/55)

I've only done Randy once before exactly as it is written.  One year at King and Queen, the first event was a version of Randy that included two minutes of burpees over a barbell in the middle of the WOD.  As for the time that I did it sans burpees, my time was 7:22.  I thought I would go much quicker than that, but I tired out about 50 reps in.  I probably went for too much, too soon and paid the price.  I needed a better strategy this time around.  If only there was some simple way to get through this workout...

...wait!  What if I just manipulated the strategy I had learned in the Open?  Was there a way to easily change it so that it added up to 75 reps instead of 55 reps?  The answer was yes:

• 10 + 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 = 55
• To add 20 reps, I could add 10 reps to each of the last two sets
• Instead of 2 and 1, they become 12 and 11 (they also hop to the start of the line and become the first two sets of the workout)
• 12 + 11 + 10 + 9 + 8 + 7 + 6 + 5 + 4 + 3 = 75

If I did 10 sets that decreased in size from twelve to three, I'd reach 75 reps.  If you ever encounter a workout that has 95 reps in it, you'll know how to manipulate this formula to your advantage.  (Answer: Go from fourteen to five.)

The only other person in Coach Jenna's 7:30 class was Neil.  When Jenna asked us if we had done Randy before, both Neil and I replied that we had done it once.  At first, Neil thought he did this workout in the same class as me.  Then he changed his mind.  It was that "bald, skinny guy" who used to come to Dudes After Dark all the time.  It was up to the "bald, non-skinny guy" to figure out who he was referring to.  It took me a few minutes, but then it came to me.  He was referring to Chris D, my buddy who used to love Jenna's basketball-themed warmups on Wednesday nights.  Neil wasn't sure what his previous time was, but he felt pretty certain that it was over 7 minutes.  (Turned out it was 7:20.)

Jenna had us warm up by practicing the snatch with an empty barbell.  Once she was satisfied with our form, she told us we could start loading up our barbells and work our way up to the weight we'd be using in the WOD.  Me and Neil looked at each other confused.  The empty barbell weighed 45 pounds.  The WOD weight was 75 pounds.  Did we really need to work our way up from 45 to 75 pounds?  Jenna told us that she wanted to give us the option to work up to 75 pounds because we were old.  Good save, Jenna.  Cold blooded, but a good save.

Neil was concerned about counting all the way up to 75, so he needed some way of keeping track.  There were only two of us in class, so he was free to use all of the abacuses available, but he needed 8 of them and there weren't 8 in the gym.  I decided to come up with an alternative approach.  I grabbed 15 ab-mats from the back of the gym and stacked them up in three piles of five.  I told Neil that every time he completed 5 snatches, he could toss one of the ab-mats to the back of the gym.  When they were all gone, he was done with the WOD.  Neil seemed more enamored with the idea of kicking the piles of ab-mats over every time he got 25 done.  I had to admit that his idea was a much more entertaining way of keeping track of your reps.

Neil was ready to count to 75 and I was ready to snatch, so without further delay, we began work on Randy.  I was very controlled as I moved through my first 12 reps.  I heard Neil's barbell hit the floor much earlier.  I would later find out that Neil's plan was to do sets of 5 throughout.  (15 sets, 15 ab-mats...I'm just sayin!)  I took a short break before going into my set of 11.  Then I did the set of 10.  I felt under control the whole time.  I was nearly halfway done and I felt good about my strategy.

The set of 9 was the first one that was painful, but it wasn't all that bad.  I made it to 7 reps and had to grit my teeth to make it through the final two reps.  I took a longer break after that set.  The set of 8 was pretty similar.  Five big sets down, five smaller sets to go.  I looked at the clock and knew that I was going to be under 7 minutes this time around.  The question was whether I could make it under 6 minutes.  If I ditched the plan at this point and tried to stick with larger sets, I thought I'd have a better shot at staying under 6 minutes.  But this was a math experiment.  I bought into going from twelve to three at the start and I was sticking with that until I was done.

The sets of 7 and 6 weren't about strength as much as they were about breathing.  I was trying to keep my breaks small, but at a certain point, this workout takes a toll on your lungs.  I came back to my barbell with 12 reps left and began my set of 5.  As I was doing that set, Neil finished up.  I really thought I was going to beat him based on how he broke up his reps, but he clearly took very small breaks between his sets.  With my set of 5 done, I had 7 reps left.  I could do that in one set, but I refused to change the plan.  I did a set of 4, took a break to shake out my arms, then did the last 3.  Final time: 6:24.  (Neil finished in 5:43.)

I'm glad that I stuck with my initial strategy, especially on a workout that comes up frequently.  It's fun to play around with different ways to do the WOD.  Not all methods work for everyone.  To me, experimenting is the only way you figure out the best method for you.  Was the "twelve to three" scheme the fastest way for me to get through Randy?  No.  I think I could condense some of those smaller sets into bigger ones.  I could probably be a bit more aggressive early on in the workout as well.  I tried to remain calm between the first couple of sets knowing that there was a long way to go, but I think I could have attacked the workout more there and still hung on at the end.  Lesson learned.

Wednesday preview: I'm away from the gym for a full week as Jenn and I hit up wine country.  The 7:30 class is once again a coach and two students, with Giulz playing the role of Jenna and Bryan playing the role of Neil.

When's It Gonna Be Cold Again?

Workout dates: 9/18/17 and 9/19/17

Friday was my 20th anniversary with Jenn (11 years married).  Saturday was my friend's 40th birthday party.  Sunday was the recovery day necessary after two nights of celebrating.  Missing weekend workouts was nothing new for me, but skipping class on Monday night was.  I was all set to resume training at KOP on Monday, but the WOD involved heavy deadlifts and bar muscle-ups.  That was completely unappealing to me, so I decided to follow the lead of KOP's Athlete of the Month.  Alan was our AOTM for September and he always posts on Facebook about "Cardio Monday".  Instead of participating in the WOD, he does work on the rower or the assault bike (or both).  That inspired me to re-do the workout that I wrote about in my very first post on this blog.  I would be rowing 10,000 meters at home.

I ran 1.5 miles after class on Thursday night to get some extra cardio work in.  That took me roughly 15 minutes to complete.  Rowing 10,000 meters was going to take almost three times as long.  When I did this on 1/1/15, I needed 45 minutes and 32 seconds to complete this very long row.  How long would it take me on this night?  My goal was an odd-sounding 43:20.  How did I land on that strangely specific time?  Well, when you're on the rower, you tend to focus on the 500 meter pace showing on the monitor.  If I could maintain a pace of 2:10 for every 500 meters, that would work out to a total time of 43:20.

I made sure I had an ice cold bottle of water next to me because I was desperately going to need that when this marathon was over.  I got Pandora set up on my phone because 45 minutes of rowing was going to bore me to death without some tunes to rock out to.  I started off with a 500 meter warmup just to get loose.  Then I set the monitor to 10,000 meters and got ready for what was likely going to be an unpleasant journey.  Here are the highlights:

• I discovered that I had made a huge mistake early on in the row.  You can set the monitor to show various metrics.  I definitely wanted "overall pace per 500 meters" on there and that was showing.  The other thing I wanted to see was "elapsed time".  That was not visible.  It was showing me "current pace per 500 meters", which was a bit of "pace per 500 meters" overkill.  It would have been easier for me to do math mid-row if elapsed time was visible, but I'd have to stop and start over again if I wanted to see that.  I decided to row my 10K without it.
• My "overall pace per 500 meters" was under 2 minutes during the first 1,000 meters, but then it tailed off after that.  I hadn't even gotten to 2,000 meters when I began questioning my sanity for doing this.  That was not a good sign with more than a half hour of work left to go.
• Shortly after I passed 2,000 meters, the "current pace per 500 meters" began to close in on 2:10.  I couldn't let it go higher than 2:10.  If I did, then my overall pace would eventually head north of that mark.  I felt like I was rowing with a consistent rhythm, but every now and then I would have to surge a little to prevent the current pace from exceeding 2:10.
• I knew my hands were going to get sore while rowing this much, so I had to re-grip over and over again as I pulled the handle.  There were a bunch of times where I wanted to take one hand off of the handle for a second just to keep it from being under constant duress, but I was certain that I'd lose the rhythm I had going.  (Spoiler: At the end of the row, I discovered that I had ripped the skin on one of my hands.  See, I don't need a pull-up bar to mess up my hands!)
• My current pace kept flickering back and forth between 2:07 and 2:10 for most of the middle portion of the row.  The really strange thing was that the overall pace didn't move for a very long time.  It was stuck at 2:07.7 for so long that I began to worry that part of the monitor had short-circuited.
• As I closed in on 8,000 meters, the overall pace finally started to move north.  After being frozen for more than 20 minutes, it suddenly started ticking up one tenth at a time.  I was beginning to fade.  It seemed unlikely that I would slow down enough that my overall pace would reach 2:10 or worse, but I was definitely not pleased that I had come this far only to fall apart late.
• I tried to maintain a current pace under 2:10 from the 8,000 meter to 9,000 meter mark.  With 1,000 meters left, I picked up the pace.  I steadily got faster until there was about 350 meters left.  That was the point when I kicked into high gear.  It wasn't exactly a sprint, but every pull had some aggression behind it.  The sprint began with 100 meters left.  It seemed like I was getting about 10 meters per stroke, so I began counting down how many strokes were left as I sprinted.
• When I hit 10,000 meters, the elapsed time was finally shown.  Final time: 42:31.4.

I immediately reached over for my water bottle once I was done.  After chugging most of the bottle, I reached for the paper towels next.  The air conditioning was on in my house, but there was no chance of me working out for over 42 minutes without sending sweat flying everywhere.

Rows of sweat alongside my rower

It was a painful workout, but I was happy to beat my previous time by 3 full minutes.  I'm not sure what button I hit on the monitor, but I pressed something that showed me my splits along the way.  It revealed that I had done this workout in a way that I could never replicate even if you gave me 100 attempts at it.

My weirdly symmetrical splits during the 10,000 meter row

If you look closely at that photo, you will see that each of my three middle 2,000 meter segments were within 0.3 seconds of one another.  The first and last 2,000 meters?  Also within 0.3 seconds of one another.  That is the most symmetrical endurance row that you will ever see!

It was back to the gym on Tuesday night for Dudes After Dark.  We would be doing a partner WOD with a 30 minute time cap attached to it.  30 minutes?  Weak!  That was like a 7,000 meter row.  Why even bother?  Turns out that this WOD would be a bit more stressful than sitting on a rower for nearly 45 minutes.  Here's what we'd be doing:

Tuesday's WOD:
Partner workout
100 double unders
80 med ball cleans (20/14)
60 burpee box jump overs (24"/20")
40 pull-ups
20 deficit handstand push-ups (45# + 25# plates/45# plate)
40 pull-ups
60 burpee box jump overs
80 med ball cleans
100 double unders
*Time cap: 30 minutes

There were seven of us in class, which wasn't ideal for a partner WOD.  Giulz was filling in for LC and she gave us the choice of having a team with 3 people (thus requiring siamese twins) or letting one person do half the reps on their own.  There were 4 guys (me, Noel, Neil, and Adam) and 3 ladies  (Caitlyn, Marissa, and Tia) in class, so it was really up to the girls to decide how they wanted to handle it.  Mixed gender teams form much less frequently than they used to at the gym.  I'd guess they only come about now if there are both an odd number of men and women in class.  Sure enough, Noel and Adam formed a team and I partnered up with Neil.  Marissa was comfortable doing this one solo, so Caitlyn and Tia joined forced on team #3.

My partner was not thrilled about this workout.  Neil told me that he had just come from work, but he had hoped that the call he was on ran longer than it did so that he would miss class.  That is some serious dedication towards avoiding a workout that you hate.  At first, I couldn't figure out why Neil was throwing this WOD so much shade.  Then I remembered how much he hated double unders.  The outer layer of this workout was all double unders and he was probably going to be responsible for more of them than he cared to do.  I saw this as an opportunity to barter.  Maybe Neil would do more pull-ups or burpee box jump overs if I was willing to take on extra double unders.  We could make this work!

Giulz walked us through all of the stations of this WOD.  The only part of this workout that me and Neil would need to scale was the deficit handstand push-ups.  Even if these were just your garden variety handstand push-ups, we would have needed to scale.  Each of us felt comfortable doing handstand push-ups with two ab-mats.  We were both on the hook for 10 reps, which didn't sound too traumatizing.  The last thing we went over was the double unders.  Neil looked miserable as he practiced, only getting 1-2 at a time.  I asked him if we should figure out a plan for the workout, but he said that we should just split everything evenly.  Then I asked him if he was cool with doing 25 double unders at a time.  He said sure.  I was pretty impressed that he felt confident enough to do sets of 25 double unders even though he was struggling during the warmup and just tended to hate double unders in general.  We were ready to take this monster on.

Giulz started the clock and I did 25 consecutive double unders.  I stopped and looked over to Neil, telling him I did 25.  His response was priceless: "You want me to do 25?"  That impressive confidence Neil had displayed was really just him ignoring what I was saying but agreeing with whatever came out of my mouth.  He had a really hard time with the double unders.  He started alternating singles and doubles to put together sets of 3 double unders, but that was the most he could get.  He was hitting himself with the rope a lot, so I told him to let me go again when he reached 10 reps.  When it was my turn, I did 25 in a row again.  Neil did not want it to be his turn again.  He made a few more attempts, but only got 1 double under.  He was clearly frustrated, so I said I would do the rest.  I thought it would take at least two sets, but I was able to do 39 in a row.  My falling out with double unders was officially over.

The med ball cleans were much more to Neil's liking.  He fired off 25 reps before it was my turn to go.  As I started to do my med ball cleans, I could tell that 25 was pushing it for me, so I stopped after 15.  We each did a set of 15 after that, bringing us to 70.  Neil took care of the last 10 reps and it was on to the burpee box jump overs.

I knew this was going to be the most time-consuming aspect of this workout.  We agreed to do 5 burpee box jump overs at a time to keep things moving.  During the first two sets, I stayed at the same pace as Neil.  However, I was definitely slower than him on the last four sets we did.  We hadn't hit the halfway point in terms of time or work and I was already hurting.  There was little chance that pull-ups and handstand push-ups would give me a second wind.

I was leading things off for us at the pull-up rig.  We were sticking with 5 reps at a time over here as well.  During the first couple of sets, I was able to string some reps at the beginning, but soon I was resorting to quick singles.  Neil was able to string all five of his reps whenever he did a set.  It was very clear which member of our team was fresher.

While Neil was finishing off the last of our 40 pull-ups, I was across the way over by the rings.  I almost always do handstand push-ups against the wall by the pull-up rig, but Neil asked that we do them over against the wall we use for wall ascents.  Why?  Neil is a tall dude.  The wall by the pull-up rig had a lip on it that doesn't interfere with most people's handstand push-ups, but Neil told me that his feet hit the lip when he did them.  There was no lip on the other wall, so he preferred to do them over there.

Neil dropped from the pull-up bar after completing rep #40 and I immediately kicked upside-down on  to the wall.  For a nanosecond.  You won't believe this, but I was really, really sweaty at this stage of the workout.  When I planted my hands on the floor, my right one slid away from my body and I came crashing down on my head.  I was never so thankful to need ab-mats as I was at that moment.  I stood up, walked away, dried off my hands, and told myself two things:

1. I needed to be careful about keeping my hands from sliding the next time I got upside-down.
2. I needed to stay up on the wall as long as possible.  I didn't want to have to kick up several times and risk repeating what I had just done.

My right hand slid a tiny bit the second time I kicked up, but I was able to stay under control.  My handstand push-ups were ugly, but I was locking out at the top of each rep, even if I didn't stay in that position very long.  I kept dropping back on to my head right after each lock out.  If I wasn't concerned about my sweaty hands and the slick floor I was placing them on, I would have dropped off of the wall between reps and started over.  That was not an option for me in this situation.  I was determined to stay upside down until all 10 reps were complete.  And I made it happen.

When I came off of the wall, the first thing I did was replace the sweat-drenched top ab-mat with the dry ab-mat that had been underneath it.  It would have been really lousy of me if I made Neil drop his head on to that gross ab-mat.  The second thing I did was let Neil know I had done all 10 of my reps.  We had been doing 5 reps at a time, but I wanted to get all 10 of mine done while I was upside-down and feeling relatively steady.

As Neil got ready for his handstand push-ups, I walked back to the pull-up rig.  I wanted to be ready to go when he was done with the handstand push-ups.  If I could do 10 in a row, there was no doubt in my mind that Neil could duplicate that feat.  I was wrong though.  Neil did five reps before coming down.  Then he started to experience the same issues with the floor that I had.  His hands were sliding as he was trying to balance against the floor.  He had one attempt where he had to return right side up without a rep.  On his next successful attempt, he got 3 reps before coming down.  Then he missed a few more times.  I called over to him to see if he wanted me to do the last 2 handstand push-ups, but he said he had them.  He took care of those remaining reps in his next set, but when he came back down, he looked tired like me.

I did 5 quick singles as Neil tried to recover, but he wasn't ready to go yet when I finished my first set.  So I told him that I would do 5 more.  After that second set of 5, Neil was ready to jump back in.  The two of us alternated sets of 5 pull-ups the rest of the way.

Neil led things off for us on the burpee box jump overs.  I was dreading having to do more of these, but it was possible that I'd be doing less than 30 of them.  That's because the clock was closing in on the time cap.  I was trying to do some math in my head while Neil did burpees to figure out whether we'd get back to the med ball cleans, but I didn't have a lot of confidence in my estimates.  It was time to just put my head down, give it all I had, and hope that we completed the burpee box jump overs before 30 minutes was up.  Each time Neil jumped on the box during his 5th rep, I stood ready to go.  As soon as his feet hit the floor on the other side, my chest hit the deck.  I had to make up for the delay I caused on our first pass through of the burpee box jump overs.  During that visit, Neil was the faster teammate on the burpee box jump overs.  This time around, I was the speedier member of our duo.  Because I was the second to go at this station, I would be wrapping up our 60 reps.  As I looked at the clock, I could tell we were going to make it.

I was excited that we made it back to the med ball cleans, but neither of us had much left to give when we got there.  Neil strung together 5 reps.  It was now my turn and I was going to hang on to that med ball for as long as I could.  And that turned out to be 1 rep.  My legs were shot and I couldn't make the transition from the top of the med ball clean back down to the floor.  I had to drop the ball between reps.  I made it through 5 reps before giving it back to Neil.  He hurried through 4 more reps before time was called.  Final time: 32:46 (30:00 time cap plus one second for the 66 med ball cleans and 100 double unders that were not completed).

It is a given that I will need to wipe up whatever lake of sweat I've left behind at the end of a workout, but Giulz informed all of us that we needed to wipe down the areas that we worked in.  It was so warm that everyone had reached Dave levels of perspiration.  As we wiped down the floor, our ab-mats, and our med ball, I asked Neil, "when's it gonna be cold again?"  I was tired of working out in muggy conditions.  If Frosty Falls was instituting fall hours when it came to selling ice cream, then I didn't think it was too much to ask for a nice breeze during a WOD.

Wednesday preview: Could a math trick I learned during the Crossfit Open help me lower my Randy time?

You Look So Comfortable Down There

Workout date: 9/14/17

Crossfit bills itself as being constantly varied, but recent programming seemed to indicate that it was not.  Notice any patterns here?

• June 20th: 1RM snatch
• July 26th: 1RM snatch
• August 9th: 1RM snatch
• September 14th: 1RM snatch

In less than 3 months, we were testing our 1RM snatch for the fourth time!  The KOP record was skipping and no one had bothered to pick up the needle.  I was tempted to fly to Vegas and see if any of the future books would take action on the 1RM snatch appearing in the KOP programming the week of October 12th.  I was particularly sensitive to seeing this as the WOD because this would actually be my 7th time in 3 months trying to find my 1RM snatch.  In addition to the four WODs mentioned above, I had these 3 encounters with the snatch:

• July 30th: Bridgeport Barbell Classic
• August 13th: Practice for Mall Walker event at Brawl In The Burbs
• August 26th: Actual Mall Walker event at Brawl In The Burbs

I thought about going to the 7:30 class on Thursday night, but sometimes no one else shows up to that class.  I wasn't interested in taking class by myself, so I decided to come in an hour earlier.  If I didn't know better, I would have thought it was Monday, not Thursday.  The 6:30 class was jam packed.  There were 15 people there for the WOD, along with at least 5 others who were there for Open Strength.  (There was a nutrition seminar going on in the annex, so the main gym had to hold both the 6:30 class and the Open Strength session.)  We even had someone doing a videotaped workout in the middle of the gym.  It was mayhem.

Giulz tried to get us all organized for the snatch.  Several of us were going to have to go to the magic platform to lift and there was the typical non-interest by most of the class to move over there.  Kris trains on the platform regularly when she comes in for Open Strength, so she had no qualms about heading over there.  I picked up my empty barbell and joined her.  Kris was barely on the back edge of the platform, while I squeezed in between her and Ms. January (who was there for Open Strength).  We were definitely going to have to coordinate our lifts in these tight quarters.

Giulz walked us through the key details of the snatch.  I had no fear that Kris or I was going to lose control of an empty barbell during the warmup, but I still felt very claustrophobic on the platform.  We could take turns during the WOD, but if one of us lost our barbell in the wrong direction, it was going to bounce off of someone else's.  That was just asking for trouble.  I continued to participate in the warmup, but my eyes were scanning the room for someplace else to lift.  There was only one possibility, but it wasn't a great one.  

In the far back of the gym, there was some space.  The problem is the floor isn't level back there.  (I believe both Giulz and I referred to the area as "the gully" later on.)  In order to make sure I was lifting on a level area, I would need to confine myself to a small space if I moved back there.  So that was no different than my current situation on the platform.  However, I would no longer have to worry about barbells bouncing off of one another (and neither would Kris).  That was good enough for me.  Once Giulz told us to start loading up our barbells, I moved from the platform to my new home in the gully.

I was much happier in my new home.  I could stand in the lower level of the gully and drop my barbell forward at the end of each lift.  It would bounce or roll against the hump that formed the perimeter of the gully and then gently roll back to me.  The only thing that I had to keep in mind was that I couldn't walk forward with any of my attempts.  If I did that, I could stumble on the hump or I could lose the barbell over the top of the hump.  If that happened, my barbell would roll into the guy in front of me who was there for Open Strength.

We've done the 1RM snatch so many times recently that you, the reader, could probably recite the progression I used here.  I started with two snatches at 115, then two more at 135.  From there it was on to 155-170-180 and if all those were successful, a PR try at 190.  The opening lifts at 115 and 135 were not a problem.  The lift at 155 felt fine, although I was very methodical about coming up out of the bottom of the squat.  I probably didn't need to sit down there forever on a lift that is 30 pounds less than my best, but I was being a bit more cautious with everything given the fact that I couldn't move around much during this WOD.  The next lift was at 170.  Once again, I caught it in my squat, took my time sitting there to ensure that I had my balance, then calmly stood up with the barbell.

That would be the last lift that I did in the gully.  Giulz came down to tell me that a space in the middle of the gym had opened up.  Justin C had been occupying that spot up until now.  Justin might be the best athlete in our gym who regularly attends classes.  He nearly beat Andrew C at King and Queen.  Andrew is the only athlete in five years that I've seen beat Aimee in the Open, so it should tell you something that Justin gave Andrew a run for his money.  Justin was looking to qualify for a major competition, so he had to videotape his performance on a specific WOD.  That WOD was 7 minutes of squat clean and jerks using 165 pounds.  Everyone in the gym was cheering him on as he did one squat clean and jerk after another.  As he approached the 6 minute mark, he performed a squat clean, but was unable to jerk it overhead.  Damn.  That workout must have hurt a whole hell of a lot more than I could have imagined.  The seconds ticked down and we yelled at him to get one last rep in.  He fought through a painful looking squat clean.  Then he propelled the barbell overhead.  Justin showed what a tough dude he is by getting that last rep in.

Now that Justin was done and didn't need prime real estate for videography, there was a better place for me to do my snatches.  Giulz told me to move to Justin's old spot.  I didn't even need to move my barbell.  My next lift was 180 pounds, so I only needed some small plates to add to Justin's barbell, which already had 165 pounds on it.  An extra bonus: Justin was nice enough to put away the barbell and plates that I had left down in the gully.  As I made my way to my new digs, Keithie stopped me to tell me that he really liked how patient I was on that snatch at 170.  He was the one who helped me through a squat snatch workout during the summer when I was struggling.  He had told me to take my time once I caught the barbell in the squat because I could overhead squat the weight all day.  I was using 135 pounds in that workout, but the advice was just as useful with 170 pounds on the barbell.  I might not be able to overhead squat 170 pounds all day, but I can certainly do it at least once.

After adding 15 pounds to Justin's barbell, I got ready for my first attempt at 180.  I missed it.  My thoughts weren't about my form or my speed.  Instead my immediate reaction was "I shouldn't have left the gully!"  That was just silly.  Having that thought pop in my head probably helped relax me before my second attempt.  That lift was very similar to the one I had at 170 pounds.  I caught it in the squat, remained patient, and slowly rose from the floor with the barbell overhead.  Samson was walking around taking photos and though he didn't catch that moment on film, he did supply me with a compliment: "You look so comfortable down there."  It was true.  There are many things we do in the gym where a little bit of fear can keep you from pulling off a movement properly.  But I'm never concerned about having the barbell overhead.  And I'm never concerned that I won't be able to stand up a barbell as long as I have my balance.

With 180 out of the way, I could set my sights on a new PR.  I had to attempt 195 pounds on my last lift at the Brawl and I wasn't incredibly far off on it.  That, along with hitting 185 pounds three times, gave me the belief that 190 was a real possibility.  I didn't have a lot of time left before the cash-out, so I was likely only getting two shots at this.  Attempt #1: not so wonderful.  I had a couple people say the word that I hate hearing when I try to snatch: "slow".  If I was going to get this weight overhead, I needed to move with urgency and hope that my form held up.  So for attempt #2, I moved as fast as I could.  Thanks to Samson, I got one of the cooler photos I've ever had taken of me in the gym:

Speed + hops = high barbell flight

Whether it's due to my slow speed or the fact that I sometimes don't continue pulling at the top of the lift, I rarely get the barbell that high, even when I have less weight on the barbell.  The fact that I was able to get 190 pounds as high as I did in that photo was impressive even to me.  (And there is little that I do which I'm impressed by.)  Unfortunately, I might have gotten too amped up.  When I dropped below the barbell to catch it, it was a bit behind me.  I tried to pull it back forward, but it was too late.  I had to drop the barbell behind me.

Reluctantly dumping the barbell

That was a tough one to accept.  Most of my PR attempts ended with me having to dump the barbell forward because I didn't get it high enough.  When you have to dump it behind you, it is proof that you had more than enough power to snatch it.  I had it!  I couldn't end things on that note, so I got up and didn't take much time before making one last attempt.  I focused on speed once again.  This attempt didn't end up behind me, probably because I rushed it and didn't get as much power on the lift.  However, I did catch it.  Sort of.  It was slightly in front of me, but it felt like I could salvage the lift.  Rather than try and recover in the squat, I tried to stand up quickly with it so that I didn't lose it.  I began to walk forward.  There were no other lifters in front of me.  No hump to worry about.  I had some room to work with.  As I rose to my feet, I took a step, then another and another.  And another.  I was basically chasing the barbell.  Except there was no catching up to it.  I hurled it forward, knowing I couldn't hold on to it.  Those last two attempts told me I had the ability to snatch 190 pounds.  I just had to keep after it.

We were running the cash-out in three heats.  Raj and I were the last two making snatch attempts, so we were in the final heat along with Esra and Steph C.  There was a two minute gap between heats, but the first heat was underway when we did our final lifts, so we didn't have a lot of time to switch out of our lifting shoes and throw on our sneakers.  Raj and I had to double-time it out the door so that we weren't late getting to the barrier.  As you might have guessed, there was some running to begin the cash-out.  Here's everything we were doing:

Cash-out:

400 meter run

20 burpees to a plate

10/7 calories on assault bike

50 double unders

*Time cap: 10 minutes

Normally I wouldn't be happy about any form of burpees, but I had done alright on the burpees to a plate at the Brawl.  If I could develop some anger on the run, maybe I could channel it into a bunch of quick burpees like I had done at the competition.  The assault bike portion of this cash-out was brief, so even if I was hurting when I got there, it probably wasn't going to take very long.  The cash-out concluded with double unders.  I had no idea how that would play out.  My confidence with the jump rope had definitely been shaken by my experience in the final event of the Brawl.

Raj and I had a running start to begin this workout.  Giulz yelled for heat three to go and we were still a few strides away from the barrier, but soon we went by our two heat-mates.  I didn't think I was running all that fast, but when I got to the turnaround point, I saw that I had a decent sized lead on Raj, Esra, and Steph.  I was the first one back to the gym and I headed right to my plate.  It was occupied.  I'm not sure if Erik got confused about which plate was his, but he was definitely doing burpees on to my plate.  The next closest plate to mine was Esra's.  I figured I might as well use hers and let her find another one to use since mine had been apprehended.  Right as I was about to do my first burpee, I saw Esra come through the door.  I couldn't do it.  I yelled over to her to confirm the plate I was about to use was hers and she signaled that it was.  I looked around for another plate to use.  Sure enough there was one open over where Erik had been snatching earlier.

Having to run around to find an open plate was annoying, but it didn't make me angry like failing on the double unders did in the last event of the Brawl, so I didn't really have any rage to use on the burpees.  I got through the initial 10 pretty quickly, then slowed down on the last 10.  I jogged over to an open assault bike and had trouble getting it moving.  Once I did, the 10 calories weren't so bad.  That left the double unders.  For the second time in this cash-out, I had to scramble.  No one was using my jump rope, but there was very little free space to do my double unders.  I nearly hit someone else's rope when I did my first set.  I moved over to another area, but I wasn't confident I wouldn't tangle ropes there either.  I saw a free spot up towards the platform (Open Strength was over) and finished the cash-out there.  I had some moderately long sets, but completely blew it once I got to 47 reps.  I was in a rush to get the last 3 reps done and kept hitting myself with the rope.  After three or four tries, I finally got the last of the double unders out of the way.  Final time: 6:23.

That didn't rival some of the faster times in the gym, but I was pretty happy to be that far under the time cap.  Part of me wondered whether I had done the entire cash-out or if I had accidentally skipped something.  Nope, I did the whole thing.  I still had some energy left when I was done though.  So while the 7:30 class got ready to find their 1RM snatches, I decided to hold my own personal Endurance class.  Coach Tim was nowhere to be found and no one in the neighborhood charged me $10 for running in the dark.  I felt like I had neglected doing cardio this summer and this was an opportune time to make up for that, at least somewhat.  I ran the 400 meter loop six times for a mile and a half in total.  Didn't time it or anything.  Just wanted to get that extra work in.

Monday/Tuesday preview: After a weekend filled with anniversary and 40th birthday celebrations, I decide to stay home and row on Monday night.  Then on Tuesday, I do an insane partner WOD with Neil.

Fall Hours

Workout date: 9/13/17

Did Steph talk to Jenna between the time Dudes After Dark ended and Wednesday afternoon?  Let's examine the evidence.  Steph had asked us for the theme of our create-it-yourself calendars and I indicated that mine would include 12 different flavors of ice cream.  Because that treat should be celebrated all year long!  (Take note, Frosty Falls!)  On Wednesday afternoon, I got a text from Jenna asking if I was coming to her 7:30 class.  Before I could respond, she added that we could go get ice cream from Frosty Falls afterwards if I came to that class.  I had already planned on going to her 7:30 class, but an invitation to post-WOD ice cream sealed the deal.  There was nothing that would keep me away from that 7:30 class.  Not Fran.  Not even a messed-up version of Fran.

I got to the gym about 5 minutes before class and the first person I saw was Neil.  Still giddy about the fact that I was getting ice cream later on, I happily asked Neil if he was interested in joining me and Jenna at Frosty Falls post-workout.  His initial reaction was confusion.  Then he explained to me why he looked so puzzled.  The last time he went by Frosty Falls, he saw a sign that said "Fall Hours".  Apparently the owners of the ice cream shop that we run by everyday had declared that summer was over.

Quick rant: First of all, the autumnal equinox was not until September 22nd, so they were being premature in announcing that fall had begun.  Secondly, it was still 75 degrees outside.  That ain't fall weather.  And last but not least (and I can't stress this strongly enough)...ice cream is not seasonal!  If you can't handle getting an ice cream cone when the leaves start dropping from the trees, then you shouldn't be allowed to have it ever.

Clearly I take ice cream very seriously, something Neil probably saw in my eyes when he told me about "Fall Hours" at Frosty Falls.  He wasn't sure they would be open after class.  His doubts were justified.  Coach Jenna had us run 400 meters to start class and I got to see with my own eyes that Frosty Falls was not open.  I had come to class for no reason.  I mean, I guess you could say that I came for fitness, but that's a terrible reason when compared to ice cream.

How could this night get any worse?  If you included Fran in your answer, then you were correct.  Fran is a 21-15-9 rep scheme of thrusters and pull-ups.  Tonight's WOD?  A 21-15-9 rep scheme of thrusters and pull-ups.  Except these were not your garden variety thrusters.  These were worse.  I told Neil that they should officially call this workout "Shitty Fran".

"Shitty Fran"
21-15-9
DB squat clean thrusters (50/35)
Pull-ups

Back in May we had done a workout with DB squat cleans and pull-ups.  It was terrible.  The DBs are much lower to the ground, so you have to really get yourself into an awkward stance to make the DB squat clean happen.  In this WOD, you didn't just have to squat clean the DBs, you had to do a thruster with them.  And unlike regular Fran, you couldn't string the thrusters by keeping the weight on your body.  With the DB squat clean thrusters, you would have to tap the DBs against the floor at the end of each rep.  Add in that DBs are much less stable than a barbell is and that this workout used more weight than regular Fran (2 x 50 = 100, regular Fran uses a 95 pound barbell) and it's not hard to see why this deserves to be called "Shitty Fran".

In that May workout, I used 45 pound DBs.  I knew I had struggled with them, but I wanted to at least try them out during the warmup to see if 45 squat clean thrusters were feasible with them.  After trying out a few reps, I knew that I needed to go lighter.  I dropped down to 35 pound DBs.  Brian S would go with the same weight, while Erik used 30 pound DBs.  Neil was the only one in our class that didn't need to scale.

The WOD got underway and I discovered that the DB squat clean thrusters weren't as bad as I expected them to be.  Probably a sign that I chose the proper weight for this workout.  I went 9-7-5 in the round of 21 and then headed to the pull-up rig.  When I got to my bar, I started with a set of 3.  Then I switched to back-to-back sets of doubles.  I would do 2 reps, drop to the floor, then jump right back up for another set of 2.  I did that three times, bringing me up to 15 reps.  From there, I completed the round with 6 quick singles.

For the round of 15, I went with three equal sets of 5 reps on the DB squat clean thrusters.  I might have been able to do more if the movement wasn't so darn awkward.  I'd get through 3-4 reps before my form started to waver.  I refused to stop until I completed 5 reps, even if the last rep or two was on the ugly side.  Over at the pull-up rig, I did sets of quick singles with large breaks in between.  The number of singles I did in each set went 4-4-4-3.

Brian was finishing off his workout when I came back to the DBs for the final round, but Neil and Erik were still working.  I knew I couldn't hang on for 9 consecutive squat clean thrusters, so I would have to split those reps into two sets.  I had gotten into a rhythm of making it through 5 reps in a set, so I went 5-4 in the last round.  I got to the pull-up rig ahead of Erik but behind Neil.  I wanted to try and get 9 singles without a break in the hopes of catching Neil, but I was out of breath after 6 pull-ups.  As I jumped up to do my 7th rep, I saw Neil finish.  Probably would have caught him if I didn't take that break.  Oh well.  I took care of the last 3 pull-ups and laid on the floor to recover.  Final time: 13:31.

There were still 10 minutes left in class, so Jenna recommended that we do a cash-out.  It would be a partner cash-out featuring the ski erg.  Each team needed to accumulate 50 calories on the erg.  While one partner skied, the other partner held a plank.  Brian and Neil were one team with Erik and I making up the second squad.  Erik agreed with me that doing 25 calories at a time was a bit aggressive, so we both decided that we would do two rounds on the erg.  The first would be 15 calories in length and the second would be a mere 10.  Erik went first, so I got comfortable in my plank.  Eventually he tagged me in for 15 calories, then he did his last 10.  I began sprinting through my final 10 calories with Neil still working next to me.  I didn't catch him in the WOD, but here...here, I also did not catch him.  Damn you, Neil!  I had 3 pull-ups left in the workout when he finished and I had 3 calories left in the cash-out when he was done on the erg.  I'm pretty sure that if we had wrapped up the evening with an ice cream eating contest at Frosty Falls, I would have finished 3 scoops behind Neil.  Looks like I was saved by "Fall Hours"!

Jenna felt bad about not delivering on her ice cream promise, so she offered to go for beers at the Bridgeport Brew Pub as a substitute.  Beer sounded nice, but the more pressing issue was that I was starving.  As long as we were getting food, I was in.  Jenna said that worked for her, so we went across the street where I gobbled down an order of steak frites (so fancy!) while Jenna told me about her upcoming trip to Mexico to celebrate her anniversary.

Thursday preview: We're testing our 1RM snatch for the 237th time this summer.  I do a cash-out and manage to stay under the time cap.  I begin my own personal Endurance class.

Naked Cowboys Eating Ice Cream

Workout date: 9/12/17

Dudes After Dark featured some new faces on Tuesday night.  I see Danielle in a lot of classes, but this was the first time that she would be making an appearance at Dudes After Dark.  We would also have a different coach for this class.  LC was nowhere to be found, so Coach Steph would be filling in for her.  Steph is fond of starting off her classes with an ice breaker and tonight would be no different.   She had covered the 6:30 class and gotten some amusing answers to the question she had posed to them, so she was using the same ice breaker with our group.  The question: If you could design your own calendar, what would be the theme?

Jill A had taken part in this survey earlier and she was still hanging around the gym, so she gave us her answer to help get the wheels turning in our heads.  What would Jill's calendar feature?  "Shirtless cowboys" was the response.  That was certainly a very specific answer.  I'm not sure anyone in our class had anything like that lined up when Steph initially asked the question.  But now that it was out there, we couldn't get it out of our minds.  As Steph went around the circle asking each of us about the theme of our calendars, everyone began their reply with "besides naked cowboys?"  (Shirtless cowboys morphed into naked cowboys very quickly.  Welcome to Dudes After Dark.)  Esra was the only one who went in a different direction, simply answering "black".  When it was my turn to respond, I decided to go with a hybrid of Jill's answer and my real answer.  So if anyone spots a calendar with naked cowboys eating ice cream during their holiday shopping, you know who to pick one up for.

With the 7 of us having disclosed the creative direction of our future calendars, we could now move on to today's WOD.  Here's what we'd be doing:

Tuesday's WOD:
4 rounds:
4 minute AMRAP
21/15 calorie row
21 KB swings (53/35)
21 ab-mat sit-ups
*Rest 4 minutes between rounds

All that rest between rounds sounded dangerous to me, but it wasn't put in there because the AMRAPs were ridiculously difficult.  They were included to encourage us to go all out on every round of this workout.  There were no complex movements in this WOD.  It was simply a case of pushing through simple movements as hard as you could.

We stayed in a circle for this workout, so I'll be able to tell you how everyone lined up.  I was in the front left of the gym near the assault bikes.  Going clockwise around the circle from me were Noel, Neil, Cline, The Prodigy, Esra, and Danielle.  My goal in this workout was to try and keep up with Neil and Cline, even though they were better rowers than me.  We'd be rowing more than anything else, so I was at a disadvantage, but if I could do some snappy sit-ups every round, I might be able to hang with them.

There wasn't much for Steph to go over in terms of form and this was a 28 minute WOD (16 minutes on, 12 minutes off), so we didn't waste much time before getting into round one.  It was a little tricky figuring out how well I was doing in comparison to my female classmates because they had less calories to row each round.  I thought I had a strong first row, but Esra popped up off of her rower before everyone.  Yup, even Neil and Cline were behind her.  I'm sure the idea behind this rep scheme is that there is supposed to be equivalence in the time it takes a male to row 21 calories and how long it takes a female to row 15 calories, but there are females at KOP who can beat me on the rower straight up.  (Spoiler: One of them was in this class and she throughly enjoyed this workout.)

With my row complete, I got up and grabbed my KB.  I didn't put it down until I had completed 21 swings.  My ab-mat wasn't too far away, so I got right into my sit-ups.  There were probably about 90 seconds left in this round when I got back to my rower.  I think I was slightly ahead of Neil and Cline at this point, but I couldn't maintain that lead through the second row.  I was able to complete the second row before time was up in the round, leaving me just enough time to do 5 KB swings.  First round score: 89 reps.

Stop me if you've heard this before, but it was a sauna inside the gym.  That wasn't due to extreme temperatures outside.  It was actually quite pleasant once you stepped outside the gym doors.  4 minutes was an awfully long time to sit on your rower and wait for the next round, so I took a stroll outside.  I wasn't out there long before I became paranoid that I'd be late for round 2, but when I came back in, there was over 2 minutes left in our rest period.  I casually walked over to my bag, took out a bottle of water, and got a drink.  Four minutes was beginning to feel like too much rest.  With about 20 seconds left, I sat back on my rower and strapped my feet in.  That was about as long as I wanted to hang out on the rower.

The row to begin round two was slower than my first row of the workout, but faster than the one I did at the end of round one.  I was able to do 21 consecutive KB swings again and I kept up a solid pace on the sit-ups.  I had just over a minute left to row, so I wasn't sure if I'd get back to my KB like I had done in the first round.  I pulled as hard as I could, but I couldn't quite make it to 21 calories a second time.  I'd fall two calories short.  Second round score: 82 reps.

I didn't worry about being late for round 3 when I went outside by myself for my second rest period.  I felt pretty confident someone would yell to me if I was cutting things close, but the break seemed so long that I could have snuck in a power nap before I was needed back on the rower.  I had about a minute left when I came back in.  One swig of water later, I was strapping in for round three.

When I was about to begin my second row in round two, I looked across the circle to see if I was behind Neil and Cline.  (I was.)  They weren't the only ones ahead of me.  Danielle was well into her second row as well.  She appeared to get more reps in round two than round one.  That trend looked like it continued in round three.  She would be the first one to get back for a second row.  Meanwhile, I was having sweat issues.  After completing the first row, I moved over to the KB.  As I swung it, I noticed it was sliding in my sweaty hands.  I got to 11 reps before needing to put it down and wipe it off.  I held on to it for the remaining 10 reps, but I had definitely fallen off of the pace of Danielle, Neil, and Cline.  My sit-ups were still strong, but I had less than a minute on the clock when I got to my second row.  I only finished 12 calories before round three ended.  Third round score: 75.

I was starting to hit the wall.  Danielle was not.  I went through my routine of going outside and then coming back in with a minute or so left in the break, but this time the rest period did not feel long enough to me.  Truth be told, I had no desire to do another round.  Danielle, on the other hand, couldn't wait for the next round to start.  She let the rest of us know how much she was enjoying this workout, grinning from ear to ear as the last few seconds of the break ticked off the clock.  She could probably have done 6 rounds of this WOD if there was enough time for it.

The last round was underway and I was desperate to stop my score from sliding any further.  It had dropped 7 reps from round one to two and from round two to three.  I did the best I could on the row, then went to the KB with the intention of breaking it up into 2 sets again.  If my hands couldn't maintain a strong grip on the KB for 21 reps in round three, then it wasn't gonna happen in round four either.  I did 12 reps before putting down the KB.  I tried not to take much rest, telling myself that this was the end of the KB swings.  I picked it back up and did my remaining 9 reps.  From there, I went into my sit-ups.  For the first time, I experienced some difficulty getting through all 21 quickly.  I didn't need to stop, but I could tell I wasn't moving as fast as I had in the previous 3 rounds.  When I got back for my final row, I had less time remaining than I had back in round three.  It was looking like my score would drop yet again.

I wasn't sure how many calories I could sneak in before time was up, but I was going to try like hell to at least get 12.  I pulled and pulled like a maniac, making all sorts of unfortunate grunting noises  as time wound down.  On my last pull before time was called, my monitor reached 12 calories.  Fourth round score: 75 reps.  Total score: 321 reps.

That wasn't as much as Cline.  It wasn't as much as Neil.  And it wasn't as much as Danielle.  She genuinely seemed disappointed that the workout was over.  Danielle is known for always wanting to do another workout after the WOD is over, so seeing her with energy to spare once class was complete was nothing new to me.  But I don't think I've ever seen her look this happy about a WOD she had just done.  I let her know that this was completely unacceptable behavior.  Dudes After Dark is all about being sassy, not perky.  She would have to adjust her attitude if she was going to come back to our 7:30 class on Tuesday nights.

(I'm totally kidding.  She's obviously welcome any time.  I just wish I could keep up with her.)

Wednesday preview: I'm lured to the gym with promises of ice cream (no naked cowboys included).  I didn't know Fran could be worse than it normally is, but somehow a lousier version gets programmed.  Frosty Falls declares that summer has ended.