Proof I'm Lopsided

Workout date: 12/7/15

I often write on this blog about movements that I need to work on at the gym, but that list usually only includes things that pop up frequently in WODs.  It's easy to forget there are plenty of other movements I could use some improvement on that don't show up in workouts all that often.  Dumbbell movements definitely fall in this category.  You would think that dumbbells would appear in a lot of workouts at a gym, but that really isn't the case at KOP.  When strength is incorporated into a WOD, we tend to use barbells to build that strength.  With dumbbells, you have to go lighter because of the stability required.  Having no lifting background before starting Crossfit, I mistakenly thought that if I could handle a 90 pound barbell in a workout, then I could handle two 45 pound dumbbells in a similar workout.  Not quite.

Monday's WOD proved that once again as we were faced with something called the "Dumbbell Destroyer":

"Dumbbell Destroyer"

3 rounds

10 DB snatches - left arm

10 DB overhead squats - left arm

10 pull-ups

10 DB snatches - right arm

10 DB overhead squats - right arm

10 pull-ups

*RX weights for DB (55/35)

Hmmm...this had the potential to be a Sucker WOD except I'm terrible at pull-ups and I knew the DB movements were going to wear out my shoulders, making my least favorite movement that much tougher.  So using a 55 pound DB went out the window quickly, despite having done a DB snatch of 90 pounds with each arm and despite my eternal love of overhead squats.  45 pounds seemed like a reasonable goal, although I began having second thoughts about that after our warmups.  Samson was shadowing Aimee's class and let me know that the overhead squats were tougher than I might think.  (Samson shares my love of overhead squats, so I took this warning very seriously.)  I decided to warmup with a 25 pound DB to get a feel for the movements.  The snatch was very easy with this weight, but the overhead squat was tricky, even only using 25 pounds.  I'm not sure whether it would have been easier if I had a DB in each hand to balance things out, but I would have gladly taken a 95 pound barbell over the 25 pound DB I had raised over my head.

Part of the problem was that this was a completely foreign movement to me.  With the barbell, two hands are required for the overhead squat.  DB snatches are a one-handed movement, so there was no awkwardness there.  But the one-handed DB overhead squat was going to require some practice.  By the end of the warmup, I felt comfortable enough to try out some reps with the 35 pound DB.  Again, the snatches were easy and the overheads were all about staying balanced.  The weight wouldn't be a problem if I could just stay steady.  In many ways, this was a replay of my trial run at turkish get-ups, as there was a genuine fear of dropping the DB on my face.

I decided that I could handle the 45 pound DB and got ready for the WOD.  Aimee counted us down and we all got to work with some left-handed DB snatches.  Because the end of the 10th snatch would leave me with the DB overhead and ready to go for the overhead squats, I decided to treat this workout like DT.  In that workout, you want to put the weight down with 1 rep left (if you're going to put the weight down), so that when you do the final rep, you can go right into the next movement.  I did 9 snatches and placed the DB on the floor.  Shook out my arms, snatched the DB over my head, then took care of the 10 overhead squats.  I did them a bit slower than I would have if I was using a barbell, but I kept my balance throughout and there was nothing more important than that.

On to my first of 6 sets of 10 pull-ups.  60 pull-ups...ugh.  I jumped up to the high bar and did my first rep.  Then I immediately dropped from the bar.  I wasn't doing quick singles yet (although I would be soon enough).  I was legitimately concerned that I had injured myself.  For some reason, I experienced a sharp pain in my left shoulder when I did that first pull-up.  I took some time to shake out my arms and to windmill my arms a bit to see if the pain persisted.  I had experienced something similar in the shower a couple of weeks ago when I reached for the shampoo on the shelf (save the bald jokes!).  It was a sharp pain that came out of nowhere, but almost as quickly as it had happened, it was okay again.  I decided I would try another pull-up and see if there was still pain.  If there was, I would need to shut things down.

I grabbed the high bar again and hoped for the best.  Luckily, the pain did not return when I did the second rep.  After that, I got a set of three in a row.  I did a set of two and then the rest were singles.  One round with my weak arm done.  Let's see what I could do with my strong arm.  The answer: a whole heck of a lot more.  I did 9 snatches like I had done with the left arm.  Then I did the last snatch and got to work on the overhead squats.  Whatever caution I had shown with the left arm was non-existent with my right arm, as I bounced through the 10 reps like I was doing air squats.  Maybe I could face the other way during my left arm rounds and use my right arm the whole time!  No one would catch on to that, right?  Fine, fine...I'll alternate between arms like I am supposed to.

At the pull-up bar, I accidentally made a discovery while doing singles.  Usually when I'm on the way down from a single, I land a couple steps away from the bar.  I think part of it is that I'm still doing that push away technique I need when stringing reps.  But when I'm not stringing reps, that isn't necessary.  I'm sure I stumbled on to this out of pure laziness, but after one of my reps, I landed almost directly underneath the bar.  And when you're already under the bar, you feel kinda dumb just standing there.  It was like my mind was peer-pressuring me into the next rep.  So from there on out, I tried to land underneath the bar so that I would move quicker into the next rep.

Rounds two and three are going to sound exactly like round one, so I'll condense the recap on those rounds.  I didn't struggle so much on my left arm in the final two rounds (I used my left arm, I swear).  While doing my second round of overhead squats with my right arm, Samson called me out for not standing all the way up as I tried to speed through my reps.  So naturally, I overcompensated by doing that weird thing where I am hopping off the ground at the top of each rep to prove I was completing the full range of motion.  For all of the pull-ups, I did quick singles, but I did sets of 4-3-3 every time.  I tried my best to keep rest to a minimum as I went from one movement to the next.  Final time: 16:57.

I've spoken a little bit in recent posts about when I felt it was right to scale and when I felt it wasn't, as this seems to have become a hot topic at the gym.  This workout was one that I should have scaled, but didn't need to scale.  Let me explain.  It would have been idiotic using the 55 pound DB, especially given the initial awkwardness with the overhead squats during the warmups.  But after the workout was done, I realized I could have handled that weight.  So it was right to scale the workout this time around, but should this workout be programmed again, I should move up to the heavier DB.

The Advent challenge was one that I was definitely interested in: max length broad jump.  Does that mean it was one where I could win raffle tickets?  Of course not.  After an iffy first attempt, I managed a much better second attempt of 8 feet, 8 inches.  That left me 9 inches short of the winner, but it was a distance that I was happy with.  The chances of me winning Advent raffle tickets is right up there with the chances of me making it on the gym white board: miniscule.  But it's still a fun thing to participate in at the end of the day.

Tuesday preview: Brace yourselves for some freakin' positivity!  My best workout of the year takes place during a WOD that I don't particularly like.

Man Cinco Escalates

Workout date: 12/6/15

It was nice to take a Saturday off from the gym, but it was back to work on Sunday.  There was a WOD scheduled, but Cline had prepared something extra special for the December Open Gym.  He had proposed not only taking on CF Total, but following that up with either Helen or Fran.  Then, because I was constantly babbling on to both Sir Cline and the Queen about their ability to get on the gym white board for running events, we were going to head to the track to test out 400 meter/800 meter runs.  Having a solid grasp of how slow I am, I would be playing the role of timer for that phase of the Open Gym Triathlon.

Plans didn't go exactly as they had been drawn up, but Sunday proved to be a fun and fulfilling day nonetheless.  Joining Cline and I for CF Total was Luke.  With only the three of us taking part in the workout, this was officially a Masters competition, depending on the jurisdiction.  I think it had been a while since any of us had done CF Total, so there was some confusion early on about the parameters of the workout.  The parts we agreed on: once all athletes were done with warmups, they got 3 attempts to find a max back squat, a max shoulder press, and a max deadlift.  The part that was being debated was whether there was a time cap on the workout.  Giulz was coaching Open Gym and insisted there was a 20 minute time cap.  I wasn't sure whether or not that was true, but I was certain that I had never done CF Total at KOP with any time cap previously.  Cline, Luke, and I agreed on a compromise: no 20 minute time cap, but we would keep moving through our lifts, not taking long breaks in between to give ourselves a better shot at hitting higher numbers.  (Note: It was later determined that there is not a 20 minute time cap associated with CF Total and that Giulz was wrong.  This brought Cline much joy.)

Now when I had done this in the past, I had worked with other people, but I thought we warmed up and then tested each lift, one after another.  We went a different way with this on Sunday.  The three of us started by doing warmup lifts for all 3 lifts: the back squat, the shoulder press, and the deadlift.  When all of us were satisfied with our warmups for all three lifts, we got started on the back squat.  I mentioned in a recent post that I've lowered my expectations on heavy lifts because I've decreased the amount of strength training I was doing.  As a result, I didn't think I could surpass 330 pounds on my back squat.  If my first two attempts were successful, then I'd go after a PR on my third, but I didn't want to push things too much with the first couple of lifts in case I was weaker than I thought.  My plan was to go 295-315-335 for my three back squat attempts.

Luke led things off for us on the back squat.  He mentioned that his last warmup lift at 225 wasn't as easy as he expected, so he wasn't sure how far he'd be able to go beyond his initial attempt at 255.  Except his initial attempt at 255 looked much better than the warmup lift at 225.  Go figure.  Cline went next and used 205 pounds.  That lift was so easy that Luke asked Cline if that was his thruster weight.  I went next and tried 295 pounds.  I heard someone say "depth" as I started to come back up with the weight.  I was worried that I hadn't gone low enough, but the guys were actually commenting on how low I got on the lift.  Attempt #1 was a success all around.

For the second attempts, Luke had another easy looking lift at 280.  We peer pressured Cline into putting 230 on the bar, which was 10 pounds higher than his PR.  Or should I say, what used to be his PR?  Cline took care of that 230 pounds and got his first PR of the day.  My lift at 315 was understandably tougher than my initial attempt at 295, but I was able to stand it up.  For Luke's third attempt, he was looking to hit 300 for the first time.  I'm not sure what went wrong on that last warmup attempt at 225, but he did nothing wrong after that, standing up 300 pounds for a new PR.  Cline moved up to 240 for his final attempt, but he was unable to add on to his new back squat record.  Finally, I took on 335.  It didn't feel as awful as I expected it to be when I took it off the rack, but after getting to the bottom of my squat, I got stuck and had to bail.  Still, I was pleased with my first score as it was 50 pounds more than I had gotten during my previous best CF Total attempt.  (Note: I went 265-145-365 for a CF Total of 775 pounds when I set my PR on this workout.)

Next up was the shoulder press.  This was the trickiest one for me to figure out because I know my shoulder press is less than it was when I completed Barbulls.  Back then, I got 145 and almost had 150 the one time I tried to go higher.  I knew it would be wise to plan on getting less this time around.  Having used 135 in recent WODs testing the shoulder press, I decided that my goal should be to try and get 140.  That would be the weight I would use on my second attempt.  If I was successful, I could try 145 or 150.  Figuring out what to use for the first attempt was the tough part.  I could try 125, meaning it would only be a 15 pound jump between the first and second attempt.  But part of me was concerned that I might fail with 125 and that would seriously mess me up.  So I settled for 120, despite the fact that a 20 pound jump in the shoulder press wasn't the best idea in the world.

Luke led us off with his first attempt at 115 and he got it.  Then Cline took no prisoners, opening with an attempt at 110 pounds that would be a new PR for him.  He didn't waste any time getting PR #2, successfully pressing that weight over his head.  My first attempt at 120 wasn't much of a struggle (should have used 125!) and we were on to our second attempts.  Luke stayed perfect for the day by raising 125 over his head.  Cline moved up to 120 and struggled for a bit, eventually putting the barbell back on the rack after an unsuccessful attempt.  Then it was my turn with 140.  If I'm being honest, I think my successful lifts back in the day with 145 were probably more of the "lean back and sort of bench press the weight" variety rather than a strict shoulder press.  I didn't want to do that here.  The result?  A very strange lift where I shimmied side to side, slowly raising the bar over my head.  It wasn't pretty, but it was a successful lift.  Luke moved up 10 more pounds to 135 for his final shoulder press, but he was unable to get it.  Cline moved down to 115 and had a lift that mirrored his initial attempt at 110.  Another 10 pound PR for Cline.  Finally, I tried to be a good sport and added 5 pounds for my third attempt, despite the fact that it was evident from my second attempt that 140 pounds and a feather was going to be too much for me.  I was able to get about halfway through the lift, but there was no getting it completely over my head.  After two lifts, I was still on pace to beat my previous best CF Total by 45 pounds.

With only the deadlift remaining, Cline still had a shot at a total of 700 pounds, while I was feeling good about eclipsing 800 pounds for the first time.  As for Luke, this was his lift.  He mentioned having a top deadlift in excess of 400 pounds.  For the sake of making the loading process easier, he went last during the deadlift.  Cline started us off with a successful lift at 305.  I went next using 345 and was able to bring that weight up to my waist.  With a good lift at 345, I had reached a total of 800 with two attempts to go.  Luke started with a whopping 375 pounds, but he was successful with that lift.  Cline told me I could start off the second round of attempts, so I stepped up to the 375 pound bar that Luke had deadlifted and duplicated his effort.  Cline stepped up to 335 and had a good lift yet again.  He was 20 pounds away from 700.  Luke moved up to 395 and made our group 6 for 6 on the deadlift portion as he got ready to move beyond 400 pounds.

For my final lift, I was once again going to try and repeat what Luke had just done by attempting 395 pounds.  385 pounds is my top deadlift and I've come close with 395 once before.  I've also stupidly attempted 400 pounds because it sounded cool and was unable to move the bar very much at all.  It felt like I had a chance with 395 pounds.  At least until I went to pick it up.  I didn't think it moved at all, but Cline assured me that one could have slid 5 sheets of paper underneath the weight during my attempt.  There would be no PRs for me on any of my individual lifts, but my score of 830 pounds was a 55 pound PR for CF Total.  Up next was Cline.  Luke and I did our best to peer pressure him into putting 355 on the bar, the amount he needed for a total of 700.  But Cline was concerned about injuring his back.  Once we heard that, we laid off of him.  Well, at least until Cline picked up 345 like it was nothing.  Then we gave him shit again.  Despite falling just short of 700 pounds, Cline had a 20 pound PR on his deadlift (PR #3) and his total of 690 pounds was a PR for CF Total (PR #4).  For Luke's final attempt, he went after 405 pounds.  I would have bet a decent chunk of change that he was going to get that lift after watching him handle 395, but he couldn't quite get enough momentum to bring the bar up to his waist.  Luke finished with a CF Total of 820 pounds.

After lifting all that weight, who wouldn't want to take on another WOD?  We were running short on time, but we began getting set up for the second part of the workout that was taking place at the gym. Cline and Luke wanted to do Helen, but I had recently done Helen and there wasn't much chance of me improving a whole lot on the time I got that day.  One of the final things on my wish list for 2015 was completing Fran RX, so I was going to do that workout while the guys got to enjoy some running and KB swings.  (Note: I should mention in advance that Fran is expected to be done much quicker than Helen, so keep that in mind during this part of the recap.)

What are Fran and Helen?  A quick reminder:

"Fran"
21-15-9 reps of
Thrusters (95)
Pull-ups

"Helen"
3 rounds
400 meter run
21 KB swings (53)
12 Pull-ups

So all of us were going to get some pull-up work done, while I got to squat some more with my 45 thrusters.  Giulz was getting ready to leave as Miranda had shown up to coach the kids' class, but she got the three of us started before taking off.  I had done Fran one time previously, using a thick band to get me through the pull-ups.  I managed to hang on for all 21 thrusters in the first round before (surprise!) falling apart on the pull-ups.  My time was 11:24.  My hope was to finish the RX version in around the same time.  I immediately began to question whether I could really make that happen when I was unable to string all 21 thrusters in the first round.  I put the barbell down after 12 reps.  With some quick breaks in between, I finished the first round with sets of 5 reps and 4 reps.  Cline and Luke were back from their run and working on their KB swings.  When I got on the pull-up bar, I got a set of 3 and a couple sets of 2, but I knew a steady diet of quick singles awaited me.  With 12 reps left on the pull-up bar, Cline came over to start his set of 12 reps.  And that meant he was definitely finishing his first round before me.  He headed out the door while I had 3 reps remaining, which I diligently finished off.  I took a peek at the clock and saw I was a few seconds under 4 minutes.  Was that good?  Was it bad?  At that point, I really had no idea since I couldn't gauge how much I might fall off in the final two rounds.

For the round of 15, I did 3 sets of 5 thrusters.  I got back to my pull-up bar and got to work as Cline came back from his second run, followed by Luke.  My goal was to do 3 quick singles before taking a break to breathe, but there was at least 1 set where I kept it together to get 4 of them.  I was tiring out, but I reminded myself that the last round was the easiest round.  I finished up the pull-ups and walked back to my barbell.  The clock was now showing a little over 8 minutes.  My mindset was now "work your butt off and finish under 10 minutes!"

As Cline and Luke finished off their second set of pull-ups, I got ready for my final 9 thrusters.  The sets of 5 were working out well for me, so I did a set of 5 and then a set of 4.  The guys were out on their last 400 meter run when I got to the pull-up bar.  Once again, I was able to keep going through 4 quick reps before needing a break.  Then I did reps 5-7.  With only two more reps to go, I didn't want to take a break, but I was desperately in need of some air.  I wasn't off the bar long, but I needed a couple seconds.  I jumped up for rep #8, then immediately returned for the 9th pull-up.  Final time: 9:51.

While I was gasping for air and trying to stay on my feet (collapsing on the floor after WODs has become a bad habit of mine), Cline returned to do his last set of KB swings.  About a minute and a half later, Luke returned from his run.  They both got through those, as well as the final 12 pull-ups, with Cline stopping the clock under 14 minutes (more than a minute better than his best, meaning PR #5 for those scoring at home), while Luke finished at around 15 minutes if I am remembering correctly.

Having beaten ourselves up pretty good, we finally employed some good decision-making.  Time trials at the track would have to wait for another day.  Instead, we celebrated our hard work by heading over to Taphouse 23 for lunch and beers.

Monday preview: It's called the "Dumbbell Destroyer", but we all know nothing destroys me more than pull-ups.  And there's 60 of them in this workout.

Don't Drop The Dumbbell On Your Face: A Guide To The Turkish Get-Up

Workout date: 12/4/15

Friday marked my 5th day in a row of working out at the gym.  I could tell that I was starting to run a little low on energy, but my plan was to enjoy a rest day on Saturday, so as long as the Friday WOD wasn't too awful, I'd get one last workout in to cap off the week.  It would be even better if the WOD was something I was interested in doing.  Maybe a workout like...

"Grace"
30 clean and jerks (135/95)

Ahhh Grace...a workout that is beautiful in its simplicity.  Pick the barbell up from the ground, get it to your shoulders, then put it over your head.  Repeat 29 more times.  Definitely a one-song workout, although I would choose a song with an instrumental break in it just to be safe.  I had completed Grace in under 3 and a half minutes three times already, with my best time being 3:10.  Would today be the day I broke 3 minutes?

Before we got to that, we did some shoot through work.  This was my first class with one of our newest coaches, Clayton.  He had us do a tabata that included shoot throughs and rowing.  For those who don't remember shoot throughs, they require a set of paralettes (think white U-shaped piping).  You start in a push-up position with your hands on the paralettes, do a push-up, then shoot your legs through the paralettes so that you are in a dip position.  Do the dip, then shoot your legs back through the paralettes to the push-up position you began in.  Oh, and don't let your feet hit the floor.  The first sign that this might not be my day came during this tabata.  Usually I'm good for a few legit shoot throughs, but I'm pretty sure my grand total of legit shoot throughs this day was zippo.  My feet scraped the floor on the way back in the early rounds and then I wasn't even close on the later rounds.  Perhaps two rest days was the way to go.

No biggie.  Grace was up next and this was my last shot this year at breaking three minutes.  Did a few warmups, thought a little bit about strategy, but more than anything I just wanted to get going.  I tend to overthink workouts much more complex than this one.  Let's just start the clock and see how well I do.  A few minutes later, I got my wish.  I started off by stringing the first six reps.  Quick break, then three more reps.  Another break, then three more reps before dropping the barbell.  12 reps down, 1 minute in, on pace to crack three minutes.

The second minute didn't go so well.  Once I got to 12 reps, I knew I couldn't string reps the rest of the way.  Like always, I was trying my best to control my breathing, but these sprints are tough for me.  As my breathing became more rapid, I was losing the ability to keep my core tight during each clean and jerk.  The result was some shaky jerks.  I wasn't having a lot of trouble cleaning the bar, but getting the bar overhead was becoming much more difficult.  Tired guy + loss of extra energy = more rest needed.  When the clock hit 2 minutes, I had only completed 19 reps.  Breaking three minutes wasn't happening today.

If I could have gotten through 21-22 reps by the two minute mark, then maybe I could have held it together to finish in less than three minutes, but there was no chance I was getting 11 reps in 59 seconds.  I kept churning through reps, hoping that I could at least finish near my personal best of 3:10.  I got a little bit of a second wind as I got to my last three reps, but it wasn't enough to set a new PR.  Final time: 3:21.

That's still a solid time and I wasn't disappointed with it, especially given that I had a hunch early on that I might not be operating at 100% this day.  But getting under that three minute threshold will be one of my goals for 2016.

Advent challenge #4 was finding a max weight for your turkish get-up.  What's a turkish get-up?  Having never done one before, I was probably the wrong person to ask.  However, I had seen Jim and Jess Calciano do approximately 10,000 of these, so I had a general idea of what a turkish get-up was. Here is my very amateurish description of this movement.  While laying on the ground, you hold a heavy object over your head (usually a dumbbell or a KB).  You then contort your body a few times until you can stand with the object over your head.  Then you basically throw it into reverse and contort your way back down to a lying position.  The key to the movement seems to be not dropping the barbell on your face.  I believe in Crossfit parlance that is a "no rep".

I watched Clayton show us how to do the turkish get-up, but the whole thing seemed very unnatural to me.  I was in class with Kevin and Chris and watched them as well, hoping to memorize the steps in the right order so that I could do this smoothly.  It took a while, but eventually I got the gist of it.  I began this human version of Twister mixed with Jenga by using a 35 pound KB.  I went ridiculously slow and needed help along the way as I kept forgetting what to do next, but I kept the KB over my head.  Using the KB felt awkward though, so I switched to a dumbbell from there on out.  I managed to get up with 45 pounds, then 55 pounds, before calling it a day after completing a turkish get-up with 65 pounds.  Did the movement still feel awkward at the end?  Did I have real concerns that I would drop a heavy dumbbell on my face?  Yes and yes.  I'll see you when you come up in class again next year, turkish get-up!

Sunday preview: After a rest day on Saturday, the mature gentlemen of KOP get together to lift heavy weights, tackle girl WODs, and drink beer.

I'm Scaling Away

Workout date: 12/3/15

"I heard what happened to you at your wedding.  That was so cold!  You must have felt like shit."
"No, it felt really good.  Thanks for bringing it up.  My parents died when I was 10...want to talk about that?"
"Why would we want to talk about that?"
"I don't know."

(Note: all readers are responsible for knowing the movie quotes in my blog.)

This exchange was basically what ran through my mind on Thursday night while listening to a member of the gym go on a rant about a workout where I had failed miserably.  And when had that workout taken place?  17 days earlier!  Two and a half weeks had gone by since my most infamous performance of the year and I was still getting grief.  Not only did I sit through this rant before my class began, I also had someone else make a comment during warmups.  What an awesome way to get ready for a WOD!

What was it about the Thursday workout that was jogging the memory of those who watched me fall apart more than a fortnight ago?  To be fair, it was an eerily similar workout.

18-15-12-9-6-3
Toes-to-bar
Sit-ups
Overhead walking lunges (45/25) - double the reps

There were no pesky double unders to be concerned with this time, but there also weren't any of my beloved overhead squats either.  Sit-ups were being substituted in place of those movements.  The number of toes-to-bar was more than double what I had experienced in the earlier workout, while the amount of overhead walking lunges was likely higher here (126 reps vs. 300 ft total) than it had been last time around.

Because of how draining toes-to-bar can be, the range of times throughout the day was pretty wide.  Those who were proficient at toes-to-bar were finishing in the low teens, while those who were not proficient in the movement tended to finish closer to twenty minutes.  My hope was to split the difference and end up around 15-16 minutes.  63 sit-ups was not going to take up a lot of time.  I was also using a 35 pound plate for the overhead walking lunges because if I used a 45 pound plate and struggled, I'd hear about it until Halley's Comet graced the skies again.  I expected to move quicker through the lunges with this lighter weight.  That left the 63 toes-to-bar as the big time consumer.  If I could keep the amount of time spent on that movement to a reasonable level, I figured I'd finish around that 15-16 minute mark.

It would help tremendously if I could get off to a good start on the first set of 18 toes-to-bar and that was essentially what happened.  I got 10 in a row using that efficient stomping movement between reps.  When I jumped up to the bar again, I got 5 more that way.  Then for my last set, I did 3 the old-fashioned/inefficient way, where I came to a dead hang after each rep and then kipped into the next rep.  On the end of the gym where I was working (we split into two groups, one group of 3-4 people on each half of the gym), I was the first one to my abmat for sit-ups and then the first to my plate for the lunges.  Already feeling a little dumb about using the 35 pound plate, I made sure that I did all 36 lunges without putting the plate down.  I didn't look at what my time was, but I felt like I moved through that first round quickly.

Unfortunately my toes-to-bar proficiency was limited to one round.  I may have strung a couple to start the round of 15, but pretty soon I was left with the dead hang technique, hoping to get three reps each time that way.  It was certainly slower, but it was the only possibility left at that point.  Later on, I would try to work the stomping technique in with the hopes of getting 4-5 quick reps, but each time I did it, I failed.  Gotta work on my core.  Gotta work on my grip strength.  I got through the toes-to-bar and the sit-ups, but my attempt to work quickly left me breathing heavily as I got to my lunges.  I felt like I needed a break, but I didn't want to put down the plate.  After I hit the turn around point on our end of the gym, I made the decision to take a small break on the way back.  With 16 lunges complete, I put down the plate, before finishing the remaining 14 lunges in the round.

The number of reps was dwindling, but I'm not sure the amount of time I was spending on toes-to-bar was dwindling in the same proportion.  In the round of 12, I began having some no-reps.  Those were frustrating, especially since I was tiring, but I kept at it, trying to get those sets of three reps each time.  The sit-ups were never a problem in this workout.  Once I had done 12 of those, I picked up my plate and made sure to get all 24 lunges before putting the plate down.  There would be no more breaks during the lunges if I wanted a decent time.

For the final three sets, I did my best to stay with Nate, who was working alongside of me during the toes-to-bar.  We seemed to have an alternating system working where one of us was on the bar and the other was catching his breath.  As soon as one guy came off the bar, the person who hadn't been on the bar jumped up and got to work.  It was almost like a partner WOD.  I'm not sure it was something we were intentionally doing, but it helped keep me going.  I blew through the small sets of sit-ups.  On the lunges, I stayed true to completing the remaining sets without putting the plate down again.  Six lunges completed things and I was able to look at the clock.  Final time: 17:55.

That was disappointing.  I didn't go nearly as fast on the toes-to-bar as I had hoped.  And I had stupidly scaled down the plate for the overhead lunges for no good reason.  My time would have been slower had I gone RX, but it wouldn't have been more than a couple minutes slower.  This was an example of a workout where I shouldn't have scaled.  Suffice it to say, the next time toes-to-bar and overhead walking lunges are programmed together at the gym, I'll just find something else to do instead.

Advent challenge #3 was 3 minutes of ground to shoulder atlas stones using whatever weight the athlete desired.  Knowing I didn't have the cardio to keep up with the younger guys at lower weights, I decided to try my luck using the 140 pound stone.  I got it up to my shoulder 11 times in three minutes.  It wasn't quite enough to get the top score of the day for that stone, but I wasn't disappointed in how I did.  Later on, I was once again able to get the 215 pound stone up into my lap, but for the second time this year, I couldn't make the transfer from my lap up on to my shoulder.  One of these days I'll conquer that stone!

Friday preview: A final attempt at Grace along with my first-ever attempt at a turkish get-up.  Much awkwardness ensues.

The 500 Meter Express

Workout date: 12/2/15

On Wednesday, I hit up the Express WOD, a special 45 minute class that is held at 12:15 on weekdays for those folks who want to squeeze in a workout during their lunch break.  It also accommodates people like myself, who simply wouldn't be able to make an afternoon class because I had dinner plans with a friend in the city.  There was a good crew at the Express on Wednesday and I really enjoyed working out with them.  It was a mix of three guys and three ladies.  The male component of the class was an Amazing Race reunion of myself, Scott, and Mr. Intensity.  We were joined by Pam, Denise, and Erika L.  The six of us would be finding a 3RM front squat before taking part in the second Advent challenge: a 500 meter row.

My strength work at the gym has fallen off the map in recent weeks.  I was devotedly sticking to my back squat program when I began struggling with the back half of my second one.  The timing of that failure coincided with my major WOD struggles and I had to hit the reset button.  It occurred to me that I may have been indulging in too much strength work and not enough cardio work.  As a result, I haven't done a whole lot of strength work since that failure in my back squat program.  I've put the back squat program on hold indefinitely.  I haven't doubled up my workouts with strength followed by a WOD since that point.  It was probably a bit too much for me.  I developed nagging injuries and was constantly worried about whether my next lift would result in a more serious injury.  Just as you can't be scared money when you gamble, I don't think you can be a scared athlete when trying to lift weights.  So I've shuffled my priorities around a bit.

With that in mind, I wasn't expecting a PR on my front squat.  I remember in the weeks after Barbulls finished, a lot of us in the program noticed that we couldn't hit the same numbers that we did at the very end of the program.  When you lose your devotion to the cause and stop practicing as much, you're not going to see the same results.  I set my PR for my 3RM front squat at the end of September, right before I finished my first back squat program, which might have been when I was at my strongest this year.  I got 255 that day for 3 reps.  I also attempted 265, but only managed the first rep before bailing.  I was still going after those marks, but with lower expectations for success.

I went through my sets the same way I normally do when it comes to squatting: start off with 135, move up to 185 if that feels light, and if 185 isn't too tough, move on to 225.  Is there a laziness factor involved in not wanting to move a bunch of different plates on and off of the barbell?  There sure is!  But I feel like I have a good sense of what I can handle on my squats and 225 generally feels reasonable for both my front squat and back squat.

While going through these preliminary reps, I got to talk to Erika a bit, as she was working to the right of me and I had never met her before.  Not only did she come across as yet another Crossfitter that I wish I got to have class with more often, she also ended up hitting a PR!  On the other side of her, Scott and Mr. Intensity were pushing their boundaries as well.  Both were making it look easy, with Scott more of the strong, silent type while Mr. Intensity is more of the strong, not-so-silent type. Silent or not, Mr. Intensity wrapped up his work with a PR as well, with Scott just shy of a PR.  Finally, down at the far end, Denise and Pam were working together.  Two more PRs?  You guessed it.

Perhaps it was all of this positive energy emanating from my 5 classmates that gave me a shot at a PR myself.  While I expected 225 to go somewhat smoothly, I figured that I'd struggle through the set at 245.  That really was not the case.  The first two reps were very quick, and even though I had a slight pause on the way up from the third rep, I never became concerned that I was going to have to bail the weight.  So I was in good spirits when I took another shot at 265.  The first rep was difficult, but once again I was only stuck briefly before standing upright.  I settled my breathing and got ready for the second rep.  I hit the bottom, got stuck again, but this time couldn't convince my body to stand back up with the weight.  As I had done in September, I could only manage 1 rep at 265.  I get the impression I could probably set a new 1RM at 270 or 275 if I tried it out, but that will have to wait for another time.

Denise and Erika decided to skip the 500 meter row, so it was the Queen vs. the boys to finish the Express. I had set a new PR for my 500 meter row the week before at 1:34.8.  Unlike with the front squat, I was expecting to set a new PR with the row.  Last week's row took place after completing Annie and my core was a bit wrecked when I attempted it.  This time, my legs weren't exactly 100% but my core was fine.  I set up my rower at the far end of our group, alongside Mr. Intensity.  With everyone having set up their rower to count down from 500 meters, we could start whenever we wanted, but we basically all waited to go at the same time.  Coach Jenna gave us the green light and we were off.  Because this is a mad sprint, it is hard to tell how you are doing compared to everyone else.  Instead of worrying too much about keeping up with the others, I focused instead on not falling apart at the end of the row like I had the week before.  Mission not accomplished.

The good news was that I had managed a faster pace during the first half of the row then I had ever done before.  The monitor showed a consistent 1:26 pace as I hit 250 meters.  Unfortunately, that was where I hit the wall.  I'm not sure there is more of a helpless feeling than pulling on that rower with everything you got, only to see your split time go higher and higher.  It kept creeping on up and I felt certain I wasn't beating 1:34.8.  I also thought there was no chance of beating Scott and Mr. Intensity. With 100 meters to go, my buddy must have seen me struggling.  Because out of nowhere, Mr. Intensity started screaming "COME ON DAVE!" over and over again.  Now mind you, he was still completing his row.  I was gasping for breath while he had the energy to scream at me to finish.  I didn't want to waste the encouragement he was giving me, so I pulled like crazy until the monitor showed 0 meters to go.  Final time: 1:33.6.

Scott finished a couple seconds before me and Mr. Intensity finished a couple seconds after me.  That final push was greatly appreciated.  He may have beaten me if he hadn't used so much effort helping me to the end of my row.  When the Queen stopped the clock at 1:50, Advent challenge #2 was complete and the Wednesday Express was in the books.

Thursday preview: Who doesn't enjoy being reminded of their failures?  Ummm...me?

Adventage: Dave

Workout date: 12/1/15

As the year has progressed along, my goals have changed.  There were periods where I wanted to get stronger and I went on a big back squat program binge.  More recently, my performances in WODs left a lot to be desired, so I began focusing on trying to improve my cardio.  On Tuesday, I came across a workout that I probably could have done RX, but I decided to scale down the weight instead.  I believe that it was the right decision for me in this workout, but when I catch up with my recaps of workouts later on in the week, I'll point out a WOD where I made a similar decision and gave up doing the workout RX for no good reason at all.  (Okay, the reason was so I would stop getting shit from people.  That's almost never a good reason to change up your routine.)

Tuesday's WOD was a workout that looked like it would fall in my wheelhouse, but if I've learned anything this year, it is that workout appearances can be deceiving.  I've tempered my excitement whenever I see workouts like this because it seems like I'm setting myself up for failure more often than not.  In fact, now I start picking out the inevitable stumbling blocks awaiting me.  So let's take a peek at the Tuesday WOD:

15 minute time cap:

Begin with 750 meter row

AMRAP of remaining time:
3 hang power snatches (115/75)
6 overhead squats (115/75)
12 box jump overs (24"/20")

If you had asked me at the beginning of the year what I thought the stumbling block for me could be in this workout, I would have guessed the hang power snatches.  I'm a decent rower (plus this wasn't a long row) and overhead squats are my favorite.  While box jump overs are something that we don't do very often in workouts, I've actually fared quite well with them when they have appeared in a WOD.

If you asked me right before the workout on Tuesday what I thought the stumbling block for me would be, "hopefully wiser" me would have responded completely differently.  The stumbling block is almost certainly the row.  I've done enough of these tame-looking workouts that begin with a row to know that the innocuous row takes the starch out of your legs more than you realize.  And what's being worked for the rest of the 15 minutes?  Legs, legs, legs.  So there was no chance that I was going to push it on the row in this workout.  If anything, I might go slow.  The KOP blog suggested something in the range of 3 minutes for the row, which seemed like a feasible goal without burning myself out.  But really, I was going to row at a pace that felt comfortable to me and not worry about the clock or how fast anyone else was going.  Specifically Cline, because he's a demon on the rower.

As I mentioned at the beginning, I think I could have handled 115 for this workout, but I went with 95 for a couple of reasons.  Looking at the white board, I noticed that there were very few RXs listed from earlier in the day.  That is always a red flag that the workout shouldn't be taken lightly.  The other reason I went lighter is because I wanted this workout to be more about cardio than how many snatches and overhead squats I could do at a heavier weight.  If I moved through those quickly at a lighter weight, I'd get more box jump overs done during the workout.  There was no doubt that the box jump overs would be the movement that tested my cardio the most, so I wanted to push myself through as many of those as possible.

The 7:30 class was made up of seven people: myself, Cline, Matt E, Chris, and Danielle, as well as two new members from the Holiday Head Start program: Heng and Michael.  Coach Rachel got us set up on our rowers and asked "who's gonna be the first one off the rower?"  Except we all knew Cline would be the first one done with the row.  (Add this to the ever-growing list of things I wish I could bet on.)  I had set up my rower so that it counted down the meters from 750 to 0.  I had around 100 meters to go when Cline hopped off his rower and headed to his barbell.  I couldn't help but laugh.  That dude can row.  As for me, I had stayed at a pace just under 2:00 per 500 meters, meaning I'd be finishing a few seconds under the 3 minute suggestion listed on the blog.  I wasn't breathing heavily and my legs weren't burning at all.  If Michal was there, she would have told me I had done an excellent job at remaining calm during this portion of the workout.  As I completed my row, Chris, Matt E, and Michael also got up to move on to their barbells.

My first round of the AMRAP left me a little bit concerned.  I totally messed up the hang power snatches, missing my body every time I went to throw the barbell overhead.  Could have been me overthinking things (shocking, right?) or it could have been me rushing things.  Whatever it was, I made a mental note that I couldn't keep doing that for the rest of the workout or I'd run out of arm strength.  When I got to my overhead squats, I did the 6 reps rather slowly, trying to ensure that my balance was good and that I didn't stumble forward during the set.  From there it was time for the box jump overs.  I've been able to do these very quickly when utilizing a lateral jump.  Knowing this workout was going to fatigue my legs, my plan was to get one full round this way then adjust in the rounds after that.  Didn't quite make it.  Did 8 quick reps this way, then had to pause briefly.  Finished the round by doing 2 more quick reps, a slight pause, then the final 2 reps.  Everything in round one was just a little bit slower than I had expected.  Even though I had tried to give this workout its due before I started it, perhaps I hadn't given it enough respect.

Or maybe I just had a bad round one.  Because rounds two and three went much smoother.  I did the hang power snatches correctly, using my body to pop the bar up over my head.  I did 6 very fast overhead squats each round.  For the box jump overs, I had to give up on the lateral jumps, but I tried to keep a good pace as I went over the box and back, not taking rest between the 12 jumps.  After three rounds, I had moved ahead of Matt E and Chris, who were working on either side of me.  My legs weren't exhausted yet, which gave me faith I could handle the box jumps awaiting me in later rounds.  I was struggling with my breathing, but it took a couple seconds to go from the box over to the barbell and I used that time to try and calm my breathing to a semi-normal level.

Most scores for the day were in the 5-6 round range, but the top scores were in the 7-8 round range.  I had 3 rounds complete when Rachel announced to the class that we were just beyond the halfway point of the 15 minute time period.  If I could keep moving, finishing 7 rounds was a real possibility and that would be a tremendous score for me.  As I began to tire, I would remind myself that I could get 7 rounds but only if I kept pushing.  That meant not taking extra rest during the walk between the box and the barbell.  That meant pushing through all 6 overhead squats even though I was noticing that my body really wanted to stop after 4 reps.  Most importantly, that meant not stopping on the box jump overs.  I began noticing that I was jumping away from the box on the jump overs, allowing myself to get a few extra seconds to walk back to the box for the next rep.  That was wasted time.  I needed to land much closer to the box so I could simply turn around and do the next rep.  With two minutes left, I had six rounds complete.

There was one issue that had not occurred to me when overanalyzing the crap out of this workout and that issue was dizziness.  Jumping over the box and then twirling around to quickly jump back over it had a dizzy-bat effect on you as the WOD wore on.  It was one thing to push myself while gasping for air, but adding on dizziness while trying not to crash into the box I was attempting to jump on made things very difficult in the later rounds.  After finishing the snatches and overhead squats for round seven, I started my box jump overs.  I wanted to complete all 12 without stopping, but I definitely reached a point where I felt it wasn't safe to continue without a break.  There was less than a minute left on the clock and I was only 6 box jump overs from completing my 7th round, but I needed to stop and take 5 seconds to get my bearings.  Attempting box overs while woozy was bound to end badly.  Once I felt right again, I moved as fast as I could through the final 6 box jump overs.  With less than 20 seconds left, I was moving on to round eight.

I didn't care about breathing at that point.  I had moved through the snatches and overhead squats very quickly throughout the workout, so I thought I might be able to get all 9 reps with the barbell if I hurried.  I'm not that fast though.  I managed to get 3 snatches and 3 overhead squats before time was called.  Final score: 7+6.

This was one of my best workouts of the year.  It would have been nice if I could have made it 15 minutes rather than 14 minutes before needing a break, but going full throttle for 14 minutes is so much better than anything I've done so far this year.

Our cash out was taking part in the first day of the Advent challenge at KOP.  For the first 24 days of December, a new challenge will take place at the gym where the winners get raffle tickets for prizes that will be given away later in the month.  The first challenge was max air squats in one minute.  While my legs may not have been burning after three rounds of the WOD, they were pretty fried after nearly 7.5 rounds.  I had little desire to do this, but eventually I gave in and tried it.  Samson had told me he got 56 reps but that his legs gave out on him a bit towards the end of the minute.  So my plan was to try and go fast but not go so crazy that I couldn't make it the entire minute.  At 30 seconds, I had 28 reps, right on pace to tie Samson, except I knew I had enough energy to make it the rest of the way.  I tried to go faster and managed 30 reps in the last half-minute for a total of 58 reps, not quite enough to match Heng who knocked out 64 reps alongside of me and ended up with the top male athlete score of the day.  It was still a nice finish to a very satisfying day at the gym.

Wednesday preview: Squats!  I used to do those!  Testing the 3RM for front squats along with a 500 meter sprint on the rower.

Ain't No Holley(back)man

Workout date: 11/30/15

Holleyman is a hero WOD that we've been doing every three months as part of the benchmarking program taking place at KOP this year.  I did it once back in May and it was not a pleasant experience.  It is the type of workout that takes a toll on you mentally as much as it does physically.  To refresh your memory, here is what Holleyman looks like:

"Holleyman"
30 rounds
5 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
3 handstand push-ups
1 power clean (225/155)

5 wall balls is pretty easy.  3 handstand push-ups is more difficult, but there are scaling options for that.  And while you're expected to do a heavy power clean, only doing 1 per round isn't the toughest task in the world.  Wait, what is that line at that beginning?  30 rounds???  Are you nuts?  Yeah, that 30 rounds piece is a bit of a soul crusher.  I'm not sure there is another workout that we do which replicates the experience of Chinese Water Torture quite the way this one does.  Just 9 reps per round, but you have to do it over and over and over...

When I did this back in May, I did stinkbugs in place of handstand push-ups.  Think of stinkbugs as push-ups that begin in the downward-dog yoga position.  For each rep, you touch your forehead down ahead of where your hands are.  I went with stinkbugs because I didn't have any version of handstand push-ups that day.  (Some days you have it, some days you don't.)  On Monday, I was attempting to do handstand push-ups with 2 abmats.  Now I hadn't done handstand push-ups for at least a month, so trying to do 90 in this workout was ambitious.  But I had it in my head that I would begin scaling once I felt them go away.  Except stinkbugs were not a scaling option this time.  Coach Aimee directed us to do seated push presses if we had to scale the handstand push-ups.  During warmups, we tested these out and the largest set of dumbbells anyone was using was 25 pounds.  So before the workout, I grabbed a pair of 25 pound dumbbells and placed them off to the side in case I needed them.

Once everyone was set, Aimee sent our huge class off on its 30 round journey.  How big of a class was it?  Here's a glimpse:

Look at that wall ball form!  Yeah, this is round one.

In order to keep track of my rounds, I'd move one bead over on my abacus after every three rounds that I completed.  That was also a good time to take a glimpse at the clock.  I completed the first three rounds in just under 2 minutes, which was a solid opening pace for me.  I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that pace the whole way, but averaging one minute per round would have been excellent for me. My time back in May was 33:45 and I wanted to go a little faster than that this time around.  During my second set of three rounds, I began to struggle on the handstand push-ups.  Michal was working next to me and she reminded me to stay calm as I began coming off the wall early.  It helps me every time I hear that, but on this day, my biggest issue was a lack of practice with my handstand push-ups. I made it through 6 rounds before deciding to scale down to the seated push press in round 7.

Most of what happened from that point forward was pretty repetitive.  I tried my best to keep moving even as fatigue set in.  After 15 rounds, I was slightly under 15 minutes, so 30 minutes was still in play, although I figured it was unlikely that I could maintain the same pace for the last 15 rounds that I had for the first 15 rounds.  I grabbed a quick drink of water at the halfway point and told myself to keep pushing through the hard rounds ahead.

As I got later into this workout, the power cleans became difficult.  I didn't remember having this much difficulty with them back in May (I used 185 pounds in that workout and in this one), but I was definitely exhibiting some ugly form as I approached the final 10 rounds.  Aimee was reminding me to get my elbows through, but I was becoming too tired to generate the speed necessary to do that correctly.  The one thing I was doing well though was talking myself out of resting.  My biggest roadblock at the gym is hitting a point where I can no longer breathe.  And when I can't breathe, I rest.  Having gotten used to doing big sets of wall balls, I convinced myself that I could handle 5 reps even if I was struggling to breathe.  Not only was I able to get through 5 reps, I was actually able to get my breathing back under control while doing the reps, since I have started focusing so much on breathing while I do that movement.

As I worked through the final few rounds, I knew I wasn't going to make it under the 30 minute mark, but I was going to be quite a bit closer than I had been back in May.  When I got to round 30, it was an all-out sprint.  Five quick wall balls.  Dropped to the floor to do 3 reps of the seated push press.  Hopped up, ran to my barbell, and did one last (ugly) power clean.  Final time: 31:18.  I'll take that.

About half of the class was still working, so it was time to cheer on the rest of the class as they finished.  Luis had been working right next to me the whole time and had only a few rounds left when I completed the workout.  He did handstand push-ups for all 30 rounds and basically muscle cleaned his barbell every time he was capping off a round (he's strong).  When he was done, I turned around and encouraged Nicole, a recent graduate from the Holiday Head Start program.  She was positioned right in front of me for the power cleans.  I felt bad at one point because I was just dumping my barbell after each clean and slowly creeping up into her workout area.  When I noticed her waiting for me to do my clean at the end of one round, it finally dawned on me how much I had moved up towards her barbell during the workout.  Oops.  I rolled mine back to where it should have been.  

The last two working were Rachel and Jon P.  Like Luis, both had done handstand push-ups for all 30 rounds.  And both were struggling to get through the handstand push-ups in the last few rounds.  More than 40 minutes had elapsed and these two had not given up.  Even if they failed, they would keep kicking back up on to the wall, determined to finish the workout without scaling any further.  It was great to watch.  My favorite moments at KOP aren't watching someone scale down a workout so that they can finish quickly.  My favorite moments are those when someone runs into adversity and doesn't quit.  42 minutes in and Rachel got her 90th handstand push-up before doing one last power clean to end her workout.  2 minutes later, Jon did the same thing.  Could they have chosen to do some seated push presses to finish quicker?  Sure.  But they decided to take on the tougher challenge instead.  Good for them!

Tuesday preview: Time to test my cardio yet again, but with overhead squats and box jump overs on the menu, I may have found a new contender for favorite WOD of the year.