Everyone Knows Enya

Workout date: 4/13/16

Tuesday night was the first time that I had attempted Karen because my schedule had never lined up with that WOD whenever it was programmed.  Truth be told, it didn't really line up with my schedule this week either.  I knew that I would be doing my 6x6 front squat session early on Wednesday morning.  The 6x6 session marks the point in the program where, to use a technical term, "shit gets real".  There is no other session in the program where you handle as much volume as you do here.  You've been using the same weight over and over again and the 6x6 session is essentially your final test at this base weight.  Pass and you can move on to smaller sets with heavier weight.

I wasn't sure if doing Karen on Tuesday night would compromise my chances of completing the 6x6 session successfully, but I didn't want to skip that WOD yet again.  So I rolled the dice and hoped that my legs wouldn't be screaming at me when I woke on Wednesday morning.  And thankfully they did not.  Perhaps this is an indictment of how poorly I did Karen, but my upper body seemed to be more tired than my lower body in the aftermath.  Still, waking up and walking around was one thing, while doing sets of 6 reps with 215 pounds on my body was something completely different.  Hopefully the warmup sets would provide more insight into how my body was really feeling.

I got to the gym at 6:40am without any concern that I was missing out on valuable lifting time.  I had seen the WOD on the blog and knew that the racks would be unavailable as it was going on.  I came inside and saw a bunch of people doing toes-to-bar.  Perfect.  I could chill for a little bit before taking on the front squats.  I actually had more time than I expected as Clay didn't enforce the 18 minute time cap for the WOD.  It wasn't until about 7:05 that I could go over to a rack and set up shop.

I went through my normal warmup routine, with a set of 5 reps at 135 and a set of 4 reps at 185.  Both sets felt fine to me, giving me confidence that Karen hadn't sabotaged this important day for me.  Now it was time for the first set of 6 at 215.  Last week, I had good speed, which helped me get through the sets without much of an issue.  Could I maintain that speed in this session?  Not exactly, but I had decent speed.  As I began the set, I did 3 fast reps before resetting my breathing.  In my head, I thought I might be able to do the other 3 reps the same way, but after doing rep #4, I realized that wasn't happening.  After another reset, I did the fifth rep, but as I stood up, I began to stumble forward.  No bueno.  The first set has always been my version of sending the canary into the coal mine and this stumble forward was a sign that my avian friend might have come down with a case of black lung.  I took an extra couple seconds before the last rep and was able to complete it without incident.  Not great, but one set was in the books.

Maybe I just needed some new tunes.  As I was waiting to take on set number two, the music in the gym noticeably changed.  Blake Shelton was serenading me about how my lips tasted like sangria, which was strange because I'm much more of a mimosa person when I drink in the morning.  "Sangria" would be the first in a series of songs with a distinctively twangy nature to them, but maybe I needed a little morning twang to focus.  Set #2 went much smoother than set #1.  The new plan was to try and do 2 reps at a time with resets in between those doubles, but it quickly became apparent that I was overthinking things.  (Can you imagine?)  The reps didn't need to be lightning quick and I didn't need to limit my number of resets.  What I needed to do was not hang out during the resets.  Once I came up from a rep, I needed to reset my breath (takes about a second) and then go right into that next rep.  And the reset was important because it was ensuring that I had proper form for each rep.  Here I was trying to avoid these resets when they were actually helping me.  Maybe with three more years of experience, I'll finally figure this Crossfit stuff out.

From the second set onward, I went 2-1-1-1-1 in each of my sets (the dash indicating where I did a quick reset).  I never felt like the weight was yanking me forward.  I never felt like I was going to get stuck in the bottom and any moments where I hit a sticking point were very brief.  After the third set, I could feel myself becoming more confident.  Sure, I was sweating like crazy, but there was no point where I thought to myself "how am I going to keep lifting this weight?"  It was a weight I could handle and I knew it.

After set #4, I began discussing the music selection with Clay and talked about what type of music might drive people nuts if they had to listen to it for an entire WOD.  Suddenly, the light bulb went on in Clay's head and he rushed over to the gym IPad.  The speakers began blaring a haunting melody that I hadn't heard in the gym since Coach Paul used to run Open Strength.  "You guys know Enya?", Clay inquired.  She wasn't on my greatest hits list, but I was certainly familiar with the song.  Laura A had been in the bathroom when Clay put the song on, but when she came back into the gym, she asked "this is Enya, right?"  I completed set #5 before Kevin B came out of the guys locker room.  First words out of his mouth were "are you listening to Enya?"  (Apparently everyone knows Enya.)  It was decidedly less twangy, yet decidedly more creepy to lift to.  But I took care of my final set of 6 reps as the Enya track was fading out on the sound system.  Bring on the heavier squats!

I came back at 7:30pm to try the WOD that I had watched the 6:00am class perform.  If there was one thing for certain after watching them, it was that I was going to be time capped.  No doubt about it.  Here's a look at the WOD:

30-20-10
Power snatches (95/65)
Toes-to-bar
Run 400 meters at the end of each round
Mandatory 2 minutes rest after the 400 meter run
18 minute time cap
Each rep not completed adds 1 second to your final time

So really, you had 14 minutes to do the workout (4 minutes of rest built in).  And somewhere between 6 and 8 minutes of that was going to be spent running.  That left 6 to 8 minutes for 60 light power snatches and 60 toes-to-bar.  Could that be done?  If you were very efficient with toes-to-bar, sure.  On the other hand, if you were the type who falls apart on toes-to-bar when you get tired (like yours truly), then making it to the round of 10 would be an accomplishment.

I was the only guy in class, joining Julie Foucher, Nicole, and Erika R.  Coach Jenna asked me to demo toes-to-bar (I am owed some demo back pay this week!) and it was clear that I didn't have the energy required to string together large sets.  That wasn't a surprise as I spent a good part of the afternoon wondering whether it was worth it to return to the gym for the WOD, but I was taking Thursday and Friday off, so I wanted to get one more workout in.  For the snatches, I could have handled 95 pounds, but with my energy low and needing as much extra time as possible to get to the final round of the workout, I decided to scale down to 75 pounds instead.  With a mandatory 2 minute rest period after each run, I needed to push really hard on the runs.  Two minutes should be enough time to recover for the next round.

We got started and I did my first 30 snatches in sets of 10-10-5-5.  As I headed to my bar, Erika walked over to begin her toes-to-bar.  Julie was not far behind us, with Nicole trailing behind her.  The toes-to-bar were a mess.  If I hung on to the bar, I could do a set of three or four, but it was with very poor form.  I just didn't have anything left in reserve to do the efficient version of toes-to-bar.  I tried to grind through the 30 reps doing these sets of three to four reps, but when I got to 24 reps, it was time to simply do quick singles.  Erika had gone for her run and as I worked through the singles, Julie went running as well.  After getting my 30th rep, I went running and Nicole was right on my tail.

Knowing that I would get a two minute rest after the 400 meters, I went out and did one of my better mid-WOD runs in recent history.  I wasn't going to catch Erika, but I knew if I pushed really hard, I might catch Julie.  I had my choo-choo train breathing going as I pumped my arms and tried to reel her in.  Right as we got to the annex on the return segment of the run, I passed her.  She must have thought I was crazy giving it everything I had as the WOD was only halfway over.  But when we got back inside, she realized there was a method to my madness.

After a two minute break, it was time to do 20 snatches.  I was pressed for time if I was going to make the round of 10.  I finished the 20 reps in two sets, 12 reps in the first set, 8 in the second.  If I could just get my act together on the toes-to-bar, I could get back from the run in under 16 minutes, allowing me to sprint through some snatches before the time cap.  I tried several times to do the efficient toes-to-bar method, but failed each time.  I had two no reps along the way.  And those sets of 3-4 with a dead hang became sets of 2.  Erika went on her second run.  Julie went on her second run.  Nicole went on her second run.  I was toast.  When I finally got my 20th toes-to-bar, I went running out the door, not in hopes of getting back in time for the round of 10, but in the hope that I could make it back before the time cap had set in.  I had about two minutes and 20 seconds to do so.

Erika was already on her way back into the gym as I began my run.  And Julie was too far ahead to catch this time around.  But it was still possible to catch Nicole.  I pretended that she was the time cap.  She was going to get back to the gym at the 18:00 mark, so if I was going to beat the time cap, I needed to beat her.  Once again, the arms were pumping and the unfortunate sound of me trying to breathe and run fast could be heard throughout greater Bridgeport.  When we hit the turnaround point, I was close enough to know that I could catch her if I kept this pace the whole way.  As we got near Frosty Falls, I passed Nicole and encouraged her to go with me so that we could both beat the time cap.  I kept chugging along past the annex, up the small incline in the parking lot, and into the gym. The clock read 17:41.  Made it with 19 seconds to spare!  I turned around and cheered Nicole on as she finished up the run.  Along with Julie, we were all going to get the same final time due to the mandatory two minute rest period.  Final time: 18:21.

Forget a mandatory two minute rest period.  What I really need is a mandatory two day rest period and that is what I will be taking on Thursday and Friday in preparation for the Festivus Games on Saturday.  So here is a supersized version of the daily preview, outlining my goals for each WOD at Saturday's competition:

WOD #1 ("25 To Life") - This is the WOD that I did on Sunday where I screwed up the hand-release push-ups, the double unders, and the KB swings.  Despite all of those mistakes, I got to the penultimate station before the time cap hit.  So the goal here is pretty simple: finish under the time cap.  I need to remember to breathe and keep my arms pinned to my sides during the push-ups.  I need to not get aggravated during the double unders.  And I need to finish the KB swings in no more than two sets.

WOD #2 ("Mad Max: Beyond Thrusterdome") - I haven't intentionally been training for this WOD, but it has suddenly seemed that way in the past week.  A thruster is one part front squat, one part push press.  I have been doing the front squat program for the last month, religiously using 215 pounds each session.  On Monday, I did the 3RM push press workout and got 3 reps at 195 and 2 reps at 205.  My initial goal with this WOD was to get 185 pounds, with a very good result being 190 pounds, possibly 195 pounds.  Now?  I think I'll be disappointed if I don't pull off 195 pounds at the competition.  So the new goal is to get 195 pounds and make at least one attempt at 200 pounds.

WOD #3 ("Happy Hour At The Bar") - This is really the most important event of the competition as you get two scores here, rather than one.  In my one attempt at this WOD, I did it right after doing the Floater WOD and struggled because my forearms were fried.  On Saturday, I will do my best to make sure I finish the Floater WOD well before this event so that my forearms are fresh.  My goal here: give it everything I have (meaning as little rest as possible) during the rounds of 12 and 9.  The rounds of 6 and 3 are sprint rounds and I should be able to get through them even if I've exhausted myself on the first two rounds.  Completing the barbell triplet quickly means a good first score for the event and opens up the possibility for a good second score even if I have to crawl through my burpees.

Floater WOD ("Benches Be Crazy") - I'll be using 75 pounds for the bench press as I did the first time I attempted this.  In that attempt, I messed up the transition from the rower to the bench and that may have cost me a few reps.  I had 57 reps that day.  The goal is 60 reps on Saturday.

More than anything, I'm looking forward to cheering on Cline, "Megs", Ashley M, Shawna, and Danielle while they kick butt on Saturday.  I should be back with a full Festivus Games recap sometime on Sunday.

At A Certain Point, You Just Stop Karen

Workout date: 4/12/16

Warning: This may be the most boring blog post I have ever written.  Bold statement, I know.  So many contenders for the prize.  Alas, the WOD I am going to write about is basically the Crossfit equivalent of this:

The evil banshee that emits that sound is named Karen and she will be making return appearances in both July and October because she simply won't die.  I mean, because she is one of this year's benchmark workouts.  I may or may not already be coming up with excuses for skipping those days at the gym.

What is Karen?  Karen is simple in design, painful to the body, and torturous to the soul.  It is 150 wall balls for time.  There are no other movements involved.  Just repeatedly throwing a medicine ball at a wall over and over again, even though your body has long since told you that it is not interested in doing this anymore.  It is physically demanding, but at its roots, it is a test of your mental strength.  And once again I was found lacking.

Two bits of good information before I try to recap doing 150 wall balls for time:

1. This was my first time doing Karen, so cross off one more workout I've never done RX from the list.
2. Our warmup involved basketball!  The only time I get to pretend I'm playing basketball in the gym is when we do side shuffles and I start galloping back and forth like a crazed hyena.  This warmup involved a ball and a basket.  (For basketball?  You don't say!)  And there were some pseudo-chest passes involved as well.

There was no Coach Rachel for Dudes After Dark, so Coach Steph stepped in for her.  And boy did Coach Rachel miss out because it was all dudes!  Mike R, Nate, Matt E, Cline, Chris D, and I made up the sextet in Tuesday's 7:30 class.  For the warmup, we lined up into two teams of three facing one another.  Mike, Nate, and Matt were the "other team", while Cline and Chris joined me on the team that matters.  We each had an adversary on the other team who we would be competing against.  Mike and Cline were the 1's, Nate and I were the 2's, Matt and Chris were the 3's.  Steph would call out an exercise for us to do, then at some point yell out a number.  So for round one, she yelled out "2!" and Nate and I ran to the front of the gym where we each had a medicine ball awaiting us.  Once we grabbed the ball, we had to run to our teammates and trade two chest passes with each of them (although this part of the game became more like volleyball after a while, as the teammates began hitting the ball back to the player more than passing it to him).  Once you had completed all of the chest passes, you had to take a shot from behind an abmat and into an upside-down 24" box.  First person to make it scores a point for their team.

Brag time: We each went three times and I scored 3 points for my team.  Cline and Chris also represented, scoring twice for us.  In the end, it was a 7-2 rout for our squad.  Who's got next?

Unfortunately Karen had next.  Steph put us through some warmups before having me demo good wall ball shots and bad wall ball shots.  Her one critique of my "good" wall balls?  That I was shooting it like a basketball.  (Hmmm...I wonder why that was.)  It was a valid criticism though and if I tried to do 150 wall balls that way, I wouldn't be able to use my right arm for the next week.  So I made sure I was doing more of a chest pass to the 10' mark.

The plan was to try and do sets of 30 reps for as long as possible and to adjust as I grew tired.  I had done 50 in a row before and on Sunday I did 25 consecutive wall balls at the beginning of the "25 To Life" WOD.  30 seemed like a number that would be tough but feasible, at least early on.

Boy was I wrong.  We got started and I tried to stay focused on what I was doing.  But soon you hear other people's wall balls dropping and you start thinking "hey, I'm doing well" or "I am doing too many on this initial set".  Whatever the case may be, I dropped the ball after 25 reps as pushing to 30 felt like unnecessary strain in a workout that was more of a grind than anything.  Unfortunately, my resolve turned to mush during the next set.  I was trying not to take a long break, but when I got going again, the reps felt awful.  I decided that it was best to do sets of 10 reps.  This was a terrible idea, but it provided lots of opportunities for breaks along the way.  I did seven sets of 10 to get to 95 reps before making the brave decision to do 11 reps for the next 5 sets, bringing me to a total of 150.  And was I able to do 11 in each set?  Yup.  Should I have been able to do 12-15 per set when I wimped out and decided to do only 10 at a time?  Yup.  I didn't push myself the way I should have on this workout.  As I got to my last few sets, Chris finished his 150 reps.  I couldn't see Cline, but he was cheering me on at the end, so I knew he was done.  I thought Matt was ahead of me, but as I went to pick up my ball for my last set, he grabbed his too.  He had at least one more set to go.  As I kept tossing the ball up to the 10' mark, Matt kept tossing his.  Maybe I was ahead of him?  Nope.  As I caught my 149th rep, Matt threw his ball at the wall one last time and let it drop as he sat down on the floor.  I was one rep and one second behind him.  Final time: 10:41.

None of us were eager to do anything else afterwards, but there was still 20 minutes left in class.  Steph suggested that we do a 10 minute tabata (with 1 minute intervals) where we alternated each minute between two movements that we wanted to work on.  I couldn't think of anything that I wanted to work on.  My shoulders were pretty smoked.  I didn't want to use my legs very much as I had just done 150 squats and I'd be doing my 6x6 front squat workout early the next morning.  As she ran through ideas for us, she mentioned planks.  Planks have never sounded so good to me.  They wouldn't be pleasant, but they'd put more emphasis on my core than anything else and that was the one area of my body that I was willing to work some more.  For my other movement, I decided on the Assault Bike, as I could be fairly lazy on it and the breeze generated from the wheel would cool me down.  (Yes, I totally wimped out on this tabata.)

As we went through these 10 minutes, I felt like I should switch up the plank portion a bit, so during my five rounds, I went high plank, low plank, hand-release push-ups (I did a little bit of work), high plank, and then low plank again.  On the Assault Bike, I pedaled pretty slowly early on, but towards the end of round three, I picked up the pace.  For the last two rounds, I put in considerable effort.  I did 38 calories in total on the bike, along with 13 hand-release push-ups when I wasn't planking.

Wednesday preview: Not sure how good of an idea it is to do 6x6 front squat day less than 12 hours after Karen, but there's only one way to find out!  Plus a WOD containing power snatches, toes-to-bar, running, rest, and a time cap.  Oh yeah, I'm getting myself a time cap.

They're Like First Graders

Workout date: 4/11/16

As I pulled into the KOP parking lot on Monday night, I had an "oh no!" moment.  I had completely forgotten that a new on-ramp program was beginning, but the packed parking lot was an instant reminder.  I knew I should be avoiding 6:30 classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for the next three weeks, but here I was making a rookie mistake and showing up on day one.  Perhaps they should have given me a name tag when I got into the lobby.

After some crafty driving around a barricade to squeeze into the back of the parking lot, I parked my car and went inside.  There were lots of new faces in the lobby, all of whom had name tags indicating who they were.  But as was the case with the most recent on-ramp class, there were quite a few familiar faces lurking in the group as well.  I went up to one of them, extended my hand, and said "Hi, you're...<squinting at her name tag, pausing for effect>...Anne?  Nice to meet you Anne.  I'm Dave."  I got a disapproving shake of the head, before getting a smile and a handshake from Anne (aka Matt B's mom).  Anne, Stasie, and Jen F were three members who I've shared many a class with, but were doing this on-ramp program to get back into the swing of things.

I said some hellos then went into the main gym where the 5:30 class was finishing up.  There were 16 of us in the 6:30 class, to go along with 11 people in the 5:30 class and at least a dozen in the lobby for the on-ramp program.  So it was a packed house.  As Coach Aimee went to introduce herself to the "newbies", Keithie brought us outside to do a warmup.  He instructed all of us to grab a PVC pipe and form a circle in the lot across the street.  The warmup was simple, but contained more volume than usual.  To get us ready for the push presses we would be doing, Keithie told us to do 50 shoulder presses, then run 200 meters.  That would be followed by 50 push presses and a 200 meter run, concluded by 50 push jerks and a 200 meter run.  Despite using a PVC pipe that weighs next to nothing, my shoulders were definitely warm by the time we were getting ready to head back inside.

Before we could head back inside though, Aimee came out and wanted us to line up from smallest to tallest.  It took a minute or two to get organized, but eventually we got it worked out.  I stood next to Matt B, who is apparently a millimeter shorter than me.  Then Aimee revealed why she had us line up this way.  We would be working in pairs and it was easiest to pair up on the racks if you worked with someone the same height as you.  She said she was going to go down the line and pair us off, but right as she was saying that, she had to stop to deal with some minor commotion.  "Look at these two!"  She was pointing at me and Matt.  "The two of them just moved closer to one another when I said you'd be working in pairs.  They're like first graders!"  She wasn't wrong.  Although I wasn't aware that either Matt or I had slid closer to each other in a subconscious attempt to sway Aimee into letting us work together, I did know that Matt and I love working together on strength days.  I told Matt that Aimee was definitely going to split us up after calling us out, but she ended up letting us work together.

Sixteen was the perfect number for our class as there were 8 racks and 2 people working on each rack.  We marched into the gym in our ascending-height lineup and grabbed a rack, with the shorter pairs at the front of the gym and the taller folks near the back.  Because "Megs" was on the shorter end of the spectrum, she was all of the way down at the rack nearest the front of the gym.  That meant she was too far away for me to watch her and yell at her.  Why would I do that?  Before the warmup, she told me that her back was hurting.  With Festivus five days away, doing strength with a bad back seemed like a poor idea.  I told her she should probably go home and rest, but she assured me that she was going super light for the push presses.  I told her that I know how this goes (mainly, because I've made this same dumb choice before).  She was gonna do the first set, claim that her back felt fine, then end up with a PR.  "No Dave, I'm going really light.  Won't even be close to a PR."  Okay, we'll see...

Matt and I got our barbell set up as Aimee walked us through some instructions on the push press.  Today we were going after a 3RM push press.  This was one of the strength benchmarks this year, so we had done this in January.  I thought Matt and I worked out together that day, but it turns out that was my imagination.  After going through the movement with us, Aimee asked us what we got back in January.  I told her 185 and she replied "you're gonna crush that".  Matt answered 185 and Aimee replied "you're gonna crush that".  (Spoiler: Aimee's reply to everyone who gave a number was "you're gonna crush that".)  As we went to get plates for the barbell, I gave Matt an incredulous stare. I asked him if he really got 185 as this was a movement he has beaten me on pretty handily in the past.  He shrugged his shoulders and said he didn't remember what he had gotten, so he just used my number.  Fair enough.  It was time for both of us to crush 185.

Things didn't start out so great.  Perhaps there was an adjustment period necessary for both of us, but neither Matt nor I felt wonderful about our initial set using only 95 pounds.  As we tried to figure out what we should use for our next set, I told Matt that I wasn't sure how long we had to find the 3RM, nor was I thrilled about doing a ton of sets to get to 185 and beyond.  So despite a first set that wasn't as easy as we expected, we jumped up to 135 pounds for set #2.  It was a good call.  Both of us felt better about the second set than we had the first, even though there was 40 more pounds on the barbell.  Doing 135 also set us up nicely for our next 3 sets, as we could jump 20 pounds each time, with the last set giving us a shot at hitting 195, "crushing" our January score of 185.

Neither of us had too much trouble at 155, but when we got to 175, I noticed that Matt wasn't dipping very much before trying to press out the weight.  In essence, he was using all arms.  Now Matt is much stronger than me when it comes to the upper body, but there is a point in these lifts where if you don't use your legs, you're going to hit the wall.  Matt made it through 175, but he needed much more dip if he was going to get 195 and ever-watchful Aimee came by and told him so.  As for me, I was doing well, trying to focus on not re-bending my knees as I extended the barbell over my head.  That would be a push jerk and not count for this WOD.  The key to not re-bending your knees is squeezing your butt.  Ashley was struggling with this during thruster practice on Sunday.  She's plenty strong for the thruster weight she was attempting, but she kept re-bending her knees.  We got to the point where the rest of us would yell "butt!" at her every time she came out of her squat.  And it worked.  She started locking out her knees and putting the weight over her head.  As I did my push presses, I would think "butt!" each time and not once did I re-bend my knees.  I was also getting a nice deep initial knee bend, having watched Matt struggle using only a shallow initial knee bend.  I took care of 175 and added 20 pounds to the barbell so we could each go after a PR.

Matt was first and I fully expected him to put the pressure on me by easily knocking out 3 reps, but he looked unsteady from the start.  He barely got the first rep (shallow knee bend again).  After resetting, he went for the second rep, but couldn't extend it overhead.  Crap.  I had been confident about getting 195 as I went through my sets, but watching Matt struggle that much made me worry that I had gotten ahead of myself.  I waited a minute or two, then went up to try and get 195.  My first rep was very good as I got a deep knee bend and I didn't struggle much pressing out the weight overhead.  Same thing with the second rep.  And honestly, not much different on the third rep.  I didn't really hit a sticking point where I had to struggle to press out the weight.  Each time I got the barbell moving, I was able to keep it moving until I completed the rep.  I was psyched.  Not only had I gotten a PR, it felt like there was a real chance that I could go a little bit higher.

Aimee had told us before our attempts at 195 that we had time for two more sets, so Matt was going to try 195 again and I was going to try 205.  When Matt did his first rep at 195, I would have bet money that he was going to complete the full set of three reps.  He finally got a deep knee bend in and the barbell just jumped off of his shoulders.  There was no struggle at all as he pressed out rep #1.  But rep #2 was similar to his earlier attempts.  No deep knee bend, a struggle as he tried to press out the rep, with the attempt ending with Matt begrudgingly dropping the barbell to the floor.  I felt bad because I know he can handle that weight (and then some), but he might be out of practice at the moment.  The two of us picked up the barbell, got it back on the rack, and added 10 pounds.  It was time to take on 205.  I got pumped up, began to approach the rack, and...stopped.

Why did I stop?  Right as I got ready to make my final attempt, Aimee called the entire class down to talk about the cash out.  As in the 14 other people formed a small circle right behind the rack I was using.  Matt looked over at me and began laughing.  There was nothing I could do.  Couldn't tell everyone to beat it so I could do one last set.  As Aimee described the cash out, I told Matt that I would sneak in the set once she was done talking.  Aimee told us that we'd be doing an amended version of the cash out.  The original version was a 5 minute AMRAP of 5 muscle-ups and 10 power cleans (135/95).  Because the vast majority of people in the gym don't have muscle-ups, you could substitute in ring dips (with a band, if necessary).  The amended version would have one partner doing ring dips while the other did the power cleans.  When the partner doing the power cleans finished, they would come over and trade places with their partner at the rings.  The total score for the cash out would be the number of dips we completed.

Aimee let us know we had a few minutes to get ready for the cash out and everyone dispersed.  Back to the push press!  I immediately got set to go, walked over to the rack, and removed the barbell.  Feeling rushed, I began to dread that I was going to fail right from the start.  But I went to do the first rep and pressed it out overhead with only a slight moment in the sticking point.  I brought the barbell back down and went for the second rep.  I was caught in the sticking point even longer this time, but I  kept pushing and locked out my arms.  One more to go!  Come on Dave, make this count.  I got a deep knee bend, popped the barbell off my shoulders, began to press it out and hit the sticking point a third time.  The barbell kept moving, but it was moving slowly.  I didn't realize it at the time, but I was told afterwards that only one side kept moving as the other side of my body was apparently ready to do the cash out instead.  I was so close to getting that third rep, but I ended up having to drop the barbell.  If I had another attempt at it, I think I could have gotten it, but there was no more time.  Still I got two PRs on the day: a 3RM of 195 and a 2RM of 205.  Not too shabby.

Guess who else got a PR?  "Megs"!  She explained to me that her back didn't feel bad during the first set, so she kept going and got a PR.  I know gym behavior so well at this point.

Neither Matt nor I had grand expectations for the cash out.  Neither of us are fond of dips, but we didn't want to use a band.  The power cleans weren't going to be terrible, but completing a set of 10 power cleans quickly only got you more time on the rings.  We joked around about only getting 2-3 dips per set, but we ended up doing better than that.  Each of us got 3 turns on the rings and did 3 sets of 10 power cleans.  I was first on the rings and did 7 dips.  Matt went next and got 6.  We alternated 6-4-6-4 after that and finished with a score of 33.

After a little rest, I did my 6x2 front squat workout using 215 pounds.  It wasn't my greatest series of lifts, but I got the work done.  Just two more days of work before I can take off Thursday and Friday in preparation for this Saturday's Festivus Games.

Tuesday preview: Dudes After Dark is all dudes!  Except for this chick named Karen who shows up and totally ruins the vibe.

Peking Duck, Lobster, And WODs For Four

Workout dates: 4/9/16 and 4/10/16

Friday was a painful day for me to take off because the WOD included rope climbs.  Eight of them!  I do love me some rope climbs.  However, my body was sending clear signals that I needed a day off, so I complied and stayed home from the gym.  The day of rest made me feel refreshed enough that I decided to make an appearance at Competitors Class on Saturday morning.  That wasn't the only reason I went.  Rachel and Michal were headed off to Mexico for their rendezboo the next morning and I feel like I almost never work out with them anymore.  So I sucked it up and went to Competitors.

The beginning of class was very strange.  Perhaps I should say things were strange even before class. I got up earlier than I typically have in the past for Competitors Class and ended up getting to the gym about 10 minutes early.  Michal was there sitting in her car and soon Pam would show up.  I got out, assuming that the gym was open, but it was not because no coach had arrived yet.  A few minutes later, Giulz arrived and opened up the gym for us.  It was weird being the early one.  Even stranger?  As more and more people arrived, I noticed that I was the most alert person in class.  At 7am!  I made a joke about not knowing that everyone partied it up last night, but the responses I got back indicated that people were tired, not hungover.

The warmup involved partners alternating between rowing and doing med ball cleans for 45 seconds at a time, with each person doing 3 rounds at each station.  Since there was an odd number of people present when we started the warmup (Gordy and Keithie would arrive later), I was the partner of Michal and Rachel, who acted as twins (they both did med ball cleans while I rowed and vice versa). Aimee and Giulz were a team, as were Jill A and Pam.  The warmup wasn't too awful, although I don't think anyone enjoys doing med ball cleans for more than 20 seconds.  It was on to the strength element of the class.

Strength consisted of finding a 1RM squat snatch, then later doing 6 sets of two reps of a squat clean and jerk, with a pause at the knee during the clean.  If that sounds overly complicated, I'm right there with you.  Let's just run with the easy part first: the 1RM squat snatch.  There was once a time when I loved to snatch, because during most attempts I dive underneath the part and squat under the weight, making the last piece of the lift the second half of an overhead squat.  And overhead squats are right up there with rope climbs for me.  The problem is that, like everything in the gym, if you don't practice it, it goes away fairly quickly.  At the end of the Olympic lifting program I took at KOP, I managed to snatch 175 pounds one time.  Haven't really been anywhere close to that since then.  I've gotten 165 a couple of times, but those lifts felt fluky to me.  Getting the chance to practice my snatch during Competitors was something I welcomed, even if my expectations were low.

I started off with easier lifts at 95 and 125 pounds.  From there, I moved up to 145 where I expected the lift to begin getting much tougher and it did.  It was at this point that I started focusing on the two glaring problems I have with my snatch.  The first is my speed.  I was watching everyone else do their lifts and was amazed at how quickly they pop that barbell up over their head.  I've been trying to mimic that speed, but I am nowhere close.  The second issue is that I'm not very good at the "third pull".  I am probably going to mess up the description of the three pulls, but hey, that's why I'm not a coach!  The first pull is from the ground to your knee.  The second pull goes from the knee to your hip crease.  And then the third pull is up over your head (while pulling yourself underneath the barbell).  Why do I struggle with this third pull so much?  Because it feels like the work has been done from the first two pulls (even if that isn't really true).  That first pull makes sense because you need to get the barbell off the ground.  The second pull makes sense because you are speeding up and using a hip thrust to send the barbell rocketing upward.  But the third pull?  It's easy to ignore that one because the barbell at that point is heading northbound while your body is headed southbound.  The work seems like it has been done (to me at least).  Of course, after every failed snatch attempt, I realize that the work was not done and I simply let the barbell float upwards rather than pulling it upwards.

145 felt like a weight where I could easily fail if I didn't address these issues.  My speed was okay and I did manage to keep pulling at the top.  The result: success at 145.  Hooray!  Except I was concerned.  I certainly wasn't going to gain speed with more weight added to the barbell, so my inability to move with speed on this lift was concerning.  My guess at this point was that I'd get 155 with a couple of tries and then fail when I got to 165.  I was pleasantly surprised when I got 155 on the first try.  My speed still left a lot to be desired, but I got under it and only stumbled forward slightly when I stood up with it.

I added 10 pounds to my barbell and became very anal about my entire setup for the next lift.  I needed to have the right amount of intensity as I walked to the barbell.  I needed my hands set up properly.  Shoulders needed to be pinned back.  Butt at the right level.  Breathing needed to be just right.  When everything was set, I needed to glide up to my knee then accelerate into my hip crease.  Big hip pop, keep pulling, keep pulling, keep pulling, then stand it up.  The whole process was clear in my head.  You would never have known that though if you watched my next lift.  The setup was good, but there was nothing speedy about the lift.  I highly doubt that my body made contact with the barbell anywhere in the vicinity of my hip crease.  And I didn't get under it.  So much for that.  It always amazes me when I watch a golf tournament on TV and the caddy tells the golfer to visualize the shot and then they go up and hit it like they visualized it.  I visualize so much when I'm in the gym and rarely does it turn out the way I saw it.  Maybe I should work on my golf game instead.

I took a couple minutes to gather myself, then went through this whole routine again.  Got into the setup, began the first pull, tried to gain speed, got through the second pull, dropped under the barbell, kept pulling upward...and then I was frozen.  I was in a full squat, the barbell was locked out over my head, and I was confused.  I sat there for a couple of seconds before Michal, who was working behind me, yelled "stand up!"  So I stood up.  I actually got 165 despite my first attempt being horrendous.  It was a complete surprise to me.  (Note: Don't make a habit of being stunned while holding a large amount of weight over your head.)  After that, I made three attempts at 175.  The second attempt was the best of the three, but my lack of speed killed me on those lifts.

The folks working on the platform had just started their clean and jerks when I missed my third snatch at 175, so I wasn't too far behind them.  Turned out it didn't matter because I was definitely done before them.  This segment of the workout was very confusing to me.  Let's walk through all the ways I screwed this up:

1. The clean and jerk had a stipulation that you had to pause at the knee.  So it's like a hang clean?  Apparently not.  Watching everyone else do this lift, it seemed like they were pausing slightly below the knee or with the barbell right in front of the knee rather than slightly above the knee (as you would for a hang clean).  I found this incredibly awkward each time I did it, but I tried my best to stick to what was programmed.
2. The snatch and the clean and jerk were written as "snatch" and "clean and jerk".  In Crossfit, it is generally understood that when these terms are written this way that a full squat is involved.  However, that's not always the case.  I did a workout recently where we could power clean the barbell even though the WOD was written as having "cleans".  I'm not sure why it's so hard to write "squat" when a full squat is required, but Crossfitters avoid it like a trip to Planet Fitness. Kinda annoying.  I messed up my first set at 145 pounds because I power cleaned after pausing at the knee.  For the next three sets, I did the squat cleans, but after doing the pause at the knee, it only added to the awkwardness.
3. Next three sets?  I thought the WOD called for six sets total?  Yeah, I only did 4.  I'll explain in the next point.
4. After the pause at the knee and the squat cleans, the barbell kept getting off kilter on my front rack.  I kept trying to adjust it, but it was a mess.  I couldn't focus on the jerk and ended up doing split jerks that looked nothing like real split jerks.  When I did my third set, Keithie called it a split push jerk.  For my fourth set, Gordy came over and asked why I was push pressing.  The answer?  Because there was no part of this strength segment that I was doing correctly.

With that in mind, I stopped after four sets.  I went 145-165-175-185, then got ready to do the metcon.

The metcon required a team of four that had two sets of teammates in it.  The first team of four was Jill A, Pam, Michal, and Rachel.  Keithie, Aimee, and Giulz drew the short straw and got me as their fourth.  There were four stations where we would perform a 3 minute AMRAP before rotating.  In each group of two, only one person could work at a time.  Here were the four stations:

1. High box jumps (30"/24")
2. Wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
3. Snatches (115/75) - Full squat not required even though it was written this way.  Just sayin'.
4. Heavy KB swings (70/53)

Giulz and I were starting at the box jumps, while Aimee and Keithie started at the wall balls.  It may surprise you to read this, but I don't remember our exact scores from the various stations in this metcon.  My focus was on not letting Giulz down.  I had a bad feeling that I wouldn't be able to keep up with her, but I had to try my best not to take breaks when it was my turn to go.  

I kept Giulz up to date with how many reps I did and as we moved to the next station, she would write down our number on a white board.  Aimee and Keithie's numbers were on the same white board though and at the end it was a jumbled mess.  But here's a recap of how things played out at the various stations:

• Box jumps - Giulz started and we traded 10 reps at a time to start.  On my third set, I had the mandatory "Dave collides with the box" moment.  Giulz was worried about whether I needed to stop, but I finished up my 10 reps.  With set #4, we went down to 5 reps at a time.  Giulz was going as the first 3 minutes was running out, so she told me to get ready on the wall balls.
• Wall balls - This was sets of 10 at a time for the first two rounds.  I did 10 reps on my third set before Giulz said she was doing 5.  I started going on my 4th set and I heard that time was running out.  I told Giulz to get ready on the snatches as I kept doing wall balls (I think 12?) before time was called.
• Snatches - Easily the slowest part of this workout.  Giulz and I traded 5 reps at a time.  Giulz was much more graceful on this movement.  There was a lot of yelling and grunting that came out of me in order to get through my sets of 5 reps each time.  Giulz was on the barbell as the three minute block counted down, so I was first at the KB.
• KB swings - I was very worried about this for two reasons: 1) I was tired and 2) I was sweaty.  I did not want to lose control of the KB and send it flying.  I typically struggle with the 70 pound KB and this experience was no different.  I did 5, Giulz did 7, I did 8, Giulz did 8, I did 5, Giulz did 6, and then I finished with 5 reps before time was called.  (Pretty sure we got 44 reps here, but I could be guessing.)

That was a nice full workout, right?  Oh, did I not mention there was a cash out at the end of this?  Freakin' Competitors Class!  The cash out was 50 GHD sit-ups for time.  I completed it in 4 sets (15-11-12-12) in a time of 3:06.

Later that night there was a rare KOP outing into the city to celebrate the birthday of five of the coaches over the past month.  Also rare was an appearance by Jenn Nichols at such an event.  At least now I know that all I need to do to get her to go in the future is tell her that Kelly Ann Garber is her date and that dinner will be in Chinatown.  Everyone was eventually meeting up at a bar/club called Time, but before that we needed food.  The coaches had their own dinner plans, so Cline organized an outing to the Sang Kee Peking Duck House.  In all, 13 of us ended up going.  Cline was trying to get enough people to take part in the Peking Duck and Lobster meal for 10, but had only 6 takers.  Jenn tried to use her negotiating skills to get them to do the meal for 6 people instead, but our waiter hit us up with a counter offer.  It was $26.80 per person to do the Peking Duck and Lobster meal for 10, but if we got both the Peking Duck dinner for four and the Lobster dinner for four, it would be $28 per person and essentially the same amount of food (if not more).  Sold!

After making our way through the pyramid of dishes that had been placed on our table, we grabbed some Ubers and headed to Time.  We were going to meet at 8:30, but they let us know when we got there that dancing wasn't an option until 9:30.  The group headed out the door, hung a left, and walked into a bar a few doors down called...Bar.  As the name might indicate, this was much more of a no-frills establishment than Time was.  But it was also a place where we could get drinks  A place where Cline could set up his Spotify playlist on the jukebox.  And a place where we could learn the surprisingly complicated nuances of a game called Fingercup.  (Yes, your finger counts!)  The coaches showed up a little later, as did several others who had not gone out to dinner.  Finally, the crew headed back in Time.  (See what I did there?  Sorry, couldn't help myself.)

Oh, let us go through all the reasons why places like Time are not meant for me.  When we went back over to Time, we had to wait in line get back in.  Then there was a cover charge of $5 to go dancing.  Always wonderful having to pay for something you don't enjoy doing.  And it was $3 more to check your coat.  Once you finally got upstairs, you had to lambada your way through the crowd to get over to the section where the bar and the bathrooms were.  And did I mention that there were green lasers shining everywhere?  The best part of being there was running into John McHugh (aka Mr. Intensity).  He seemed a little more at ease in that setting than I was.  A group of folks from KOP were near the front of the room, although I'm not sure there was truly enough space to dance up there.  After finishing one drink, a group of us decided to head back to Bar, where we had a couple more drinks before calling it a night.

The next day was Open Gym and several of us had planned to be there to make one more run through some of the WODs from the Festivus Games.  The first one we were doing was "25 To Life".  This was the only WOD that I had not tested out yet.  It tests five different movements, four of which are repeated.  And as the name may have given away, you do 25 reps of each movement.  I apologize if you're tired of numbered lists in this post, but you'll have to endure one more.  Here is the sequence for "25 To Life":

1. 25 wall balls (20#/14# to 10'/9')
2. 25 air squats
3. 25 hand-release push-ups
4. 25 double unders (or 50 single unders)
5. 25 KB swings (53/35)
6. 25 double unders (or 50 single unders)
7. 25 hand-release push-ups
8. 25 air squats
9. 25 wall balls

There is a 10 minute time cap for the workout.  Much like Thanksgiving dinner, I went into this thinking I could finish the whole thing.  Unfortunately, when 10 minutes was up, I needed a doggie bag.

It started out fine.  I strung all 25 wall balls.  I didn't stop during the air squats, although I didn't rocket through them because I thought that might be a bad idea.  It wasn't until the hand-release push-ups that things came to a crashing halt.  Maybe I didn't get enough rest from staying out late the previous evening.  Maybe I didn't take into account how much work my shoulders had done at Competitors Class the previous morning.  Whatever it was, my body had little interest in doing push-ups.  And for those of you not familiar with the hand-release version, it has nothing to do with a shady massage parlor.  Rather it simply means your hands must come off of the ground for at least a split-second between reps.  Or if you did them like I did them, many seconds between reps.  In our group of four people doing this WOD (EJ, Ashley, "Megs", and myself), I was the first one to get to the push-ups and the last one done with them.

When I did complete them, I dejectedly went to my jump rope and failed four times to do a single double under.  Part of me wondered what would happen at the Festivus Games if I had done this.  The rules state you can't switch from double unders to single unders, but since I hadn't completed one double under, I guess it's possible I could have started doing single unders.  Let's forget that mindset because I am doing double unders at the competition on Saturday.  When I finally got going, it took me several sets, but I completed the 25 double unders.  From there, I brought my trail of ineptitude to the KB, where I've done 25 consecutive KB swings with 53 pounds in the past.  Not this day.  Nope, I needed three sets to get through 25 this time around.  A peek at the clock let me know I wasn't going to finish.

I did make up some time on my second tour through the movements.  Normally I perform better with the jump rope when I am calm, but a pissed-off Dave went back to the rope and zipped through 25 consecutive double unders on the first try once the KB swings were complete.  At the hand-release push-ups, I struggled once again.  But as I neared the end of my set of 25 reps, I may have gained some clarity on why I was struggling so much.  I had some serious chicken wings (arms away from the body, elbows pointing out) going on during my reps.  I should have known better, but somewhere along the way I lost my focus and didn't fix my lousy form.  With less than 10 seconds before the time cap, I finished my last push-up.  I jumped up and did 7 air squats as fast as I could before the time cap.  Final score: 182.

I was definitely not in the right mindset to work out, so I skipped doing the second WOD that I had planned on doing.  Instead, I kept time for Danielle and Ashley as they did it.  Then I kept count of Danielle's burpees at the tail end of the WOD.  After that, I tried to give Ashley, Danielle, and "Megs" some tips on doing thrusters.  And then it was time to get out of the gym as Giulz was closing up shop.

Monday preview: Push presses with Matt B!  Plus a partner cash out of power cleans and ring dips before capping things off with a low volume front squat session.

Competitive Bastard

Workout date: 4/7/16

My biggest Crossfit regret from 2015 was not making it to Endurance more often.  It wasn't that I chose to skip it last year, but my schedule simply didn't allow me to get to the Upper Merion track by 5:30 most Thursdays.  With a more flexible schedule this year, I plan to attend Endurance much more frequently.  I need it.  The most glaring weakness in my fitness is my engine.  I get tired easily and once I get tired, my form goes to shit.  Building up my lungs would have a huge impact on my performance at the gym and Endurance is the class that can make that happen.

There has been a recent push by the current Athlete of the Month (congrats Jen S!) to get more people to come to Endurance, especially some of the coaches that almost never attend the class.  Her peer pressure worked like a charm as coaches Aimee, Gordy, and Jill A came to their first-ever Endurance class.  They had 11 companions on the track, meaning that the first Endurance outing of the year was a supersized group of fourteen runners.  Coach Tim went over how the classes would typically work, then had us run a warmup lap.  When we got back, we went through a series of stretches before Tim explained what the day's workout would be.  Usually an Endurance class would consist of a series of runs with limited rest in between.  The runs might vary in length (200 meters, 400 meters, 800 meters) or it could be something like 6x400 meters with a small break between runs.  This workout was nothing like that.  Instead it had a very Crossfit-like feel to it.  Maybe it was an olive branch to the coaches for coming to class.  Here's what it looked like:

4 laps (400 meters each)
Every 100 meters, stop to perform an exercise
Station 1 - 25 air squats
Station 2 - 25 mountain climbers
Station 3 - 25 sit-ups
Station 4 - 1 minute plank
After each lap, 2 minutes rest.

I had come to Endurance to avoid this stuff.  What the hell, Tim?  (Kidding!)  I thought the track might give me a bit more of a level playing field with the coaches, but they were going to smoke me per usual with this setup.  All 14 of us took off for the first lap.  My goal was constant motion, even if my runs weren't super fast.  I was near the back of the pack after 100 meters, but I got back to mid-pack by churning through my 25 air squats fairly quickly.  The run around the turn was slow again, but I'm pretty fast with my mountain climbers, allowing me to pass a few more folks before heading to the sit-ups station.  Another slow-ish run (no one was running particularly fast) before belting out 25 sit-ups.  Then I got the silly idea that I was trotting in to the finish line, completely forgetting a minute-long plank awaited me.  That first plank wasn't as bad as I expected it to be.  While my two minute rest began, Tim let those of us who were done know that we were going to be Group 1 from here on out.  The members of Group 1: me, Mr. Intensity, Flounder, Aimee, Gordy, Jill A, Jen, and Alona.  Group 2 would consist of Ashley, Raj, Justin, Olan, Luke, and Borden.

Not sure whether Group 1's rest was based on when the first person completed their lap (Aimee) or when the last person completed their lap (me, because Flounder was very anti-planking), but Tim told us to get ready for lap #2.  Again, I stayed near the back of the pack, looking to stay in touch by pushing through the stations.  Except I forgot that competing against short girls in an air squat contest was a losing proposition.  Jen, Aimee, and Jill took off well before me with Gordy in their group as well.  I was with Mr. Intensity and Alona, with Flounder following us.  Those mini-groups held form for the rest of the lap, although Jill fell back a little and Mr. Intensity moved up a bit at the end of the lap.  The second plank was more challenging, but I still got through the full minute.

Lap #3 may have been my best lap, even if it ended with me getting called out.  I was not as far behind after the air squat station.  I made up time at the mountain climber station, passing Mr. Intensity, Jen, and Alona.  I knew that I had been moving faster through the sit-ups than Jill had, so I pushed through those in attempt to finish the lap before her.  She got up for her final run as I hit my 24th sit-up.  I popped up after one more rep and began to pump my arms to try and catch her on the final run.  Only I didn't realize I was the hunted, not the hunter.  As I came around the turn, a voice yelled out "I know what a competitive bastard you are Dave!"  They don't call him Mr. Intensity for nothing.  All of a sudden, he was sprinting by me and Jill.  It caught me totally off guard.  Instead of being the 3rd one done in the group, I ended up 5th.  Still, I was much closer to the front than I had been during laps one and two.

Lap four was a bit of a regression.  Aimee and Gordy were off on their own.  Mr. Intensity and Jill were the next group.  Me and Alona came in after them, with Jen next to finish up and Flounder rounding out Group 1.  That last plank was considerably harder than the first three, especially because Tim forgot when I finished and made me hold it for at least 15 seconds extra.  But I did hold it until he told me to stop.

With the gang back together and the hour getting late, Tim cut our three 150 meter sprints to three 75 meter sprints.  They actually weren't even 75 meter sprints.  It was a 50 meter running start (at 50% speed) followed by a 25 meter sprint.  Ashley and Raj took off so they could catch the 6:30 WOD at KOP, so Jill joined Group 2 for the sprints to even the numbers out a bit.  I clearly did not have a solid grasp of what 50% meant because I was behind everyone as we hit the point where Tim wanted us to sprint.  Tim blew his whistle and I kicked it into gear.  There were 6 other people in front of me and only 25 meters to catch them.  But after passing the first 2 people, it suddenly didn't seem impossible to catch the other four.  As we neared the finish line, only Alona and Mr. Intensity were still in front of me.  I split between them as Mr. Intensity yelled out, realizing I was getting a little bit of revenge from the third lap of the workout.  I barely edged him out to win the first sprint.

That small moment of happiness turned into concern once I looked back down the track.  I saw Gordy on the ground, grasping his hamstring.  I felt a little sick.  Gordy is currently ranked 16th in the world for men over 60 after the Crossfit Open.  He will be competing against the top 200 in his age group in a few weeks, with the top 20 qualifying for the Crossfit Games in July.  He barely missed punching his ticket last year and the entire community at KOP is pulling for him to get there this year.  To think that his dream might be ending on a 25 meter sprint seemed cruel.  We talked to him and he felt certain that he had pulled his hamstring.  He was going to go get it checked out the next day to find out how bad it was.  (Spoiler: Gordy got checked out and has been told that he had a muscle pull, but that his recovery should be quick.  Crisis averted!)

On sprints two and three, I had the same issue with the 50% run on the turn.  Every time the sprint began, I was in dead last.  For the second sprint, I went flying by everyone except for Mr. Intensity, who turned the tables and edged me out.  In the last sprint, I was further behind than I had been in the first two runs.  I had another very good sprint, but I was edged out by both Alona and Mr. Intensity.  When Group 2 had finished their third sprint, we all cooled down by doing a clockwise lap around the track.  It was a good start to the Endurance season, but I'm expecting a lot more pure running in the upcoming months.

Weekend preview: Friday is definitely a rest day.  And Sunday is Open Gym, where I'll be testing two of the WODs from the Festivus Games.  As for Saturday...could there be a return appearance at Competitors Class?  It's under consideration.

Going For The Juggler

Workout date: 4/6/16

The Wednesday routine has become similar to what my Saturday routine used to be.  I get up earlier than my body would like, stand in the shower trying to wake up, then head over to the gym late for the class I signed up for.  This week I was later than I had been on my initial trip to early morning Open Strength, arriving close to 6:45.  It didn't matter though.  The scheduling of the 6:00am WOD makes it tricky to do strength work until that class is finished.  The Wednesday WOD involved using the pull-up rig, so I couldn't grab a rack to do front squats until the class was over.  I could have slept for 15 more minutes!  Rookie mistake on my part.

With the 6:00am class done, I set up my rack and got ready to do my 6x5 front squat set with 215 pounds.  We're getting close to the most serious part of the program as Jim C has told me previously that the toughest days are the 6x6 and 5x5 sessions.  6x6 will be next week and 5x5 the week after that.  6x5 day would be my last test to see how well I could handle this much volume.  It would also be my last chance to work on my technique before running through that gauntlet.  I am happy to report that it all went well.  215 pounds doesn't feel light, but I have reached the point where I feel comfortable front squatting that weight.  And since I felt comfortable with it, I decided to really test my speed during these sets.  For each of the 6 sets, I would do two very quick reps, then pause for a second to get a quick breath.  I'd do the same thing before reps four and five.  But there was no stopping and resting.  Coach Clay was watching and commented that I had really good speed during my sets.  Awesome!  Exactly what I was going for.  And even though I had incorporated speed into the sets, I wasn't sacrificing form as I stayed in my heels during the lifts.

Since I didn't start lifting until 7am and because I took appropriate rest between sets, I decided not to do anything else during Open Strength.  After all, I knew I'd be getting more work done later that evening when I did the WOD.  What I was not expecting was to see Clay again.  Clay was substituting for Jenna at the 7:30 class and he'd be coaching three actuaries (me, Luis, and Mike R) and Nicole.  The large percentage of actuaries in class would actually be helpful in having the WOD run smoothly due to the strange rule associated with it.  I give you "The Juggler":

"The Juggler"
75 overhead squats (115/75)
50 pass throughs (push-up on paralettes, pass feet through to the front of your body, dip on paralettes, pass feet back through behind your body)
25 knees-to-elbows
Rule: You must not complete the entirety of one exercise without completing a portion of the other two exercises.

Usually counting reps in WODs is fairly easy because you're simply counting until you finish the first part of the workout, then you begin counting for the second part, and so on.  With this WOD, you needed to keep track of where you were for three different movements.  That meant everyone was grabbing a white board and writing down reps as we went along.  I joked with Luis and Mike about having the actuaries keep track of everything in their heads, but they weren't on board.  Based on the way I was going to do this workout, I felt like I could do this workout without a white board, but I grabbed one anyway just to be safe.

It has been a while since I completely botched the planning of a workout, so maybe I was due with this one.  Here was my thought process before the workout began.  I suck at pass throughs and have done a workout where I got so exhausted that I could barely do one at a time.  So I needed to kill those off while I was fresh.  Knees-to-elbows was another movement that tended to be harder than it looked and could go away quickly, so that was priority number two.  And I love overhead squats, so I'd save the vast majority of those for the end.  As for scaling, I thought I could handle 115 for the overheads, but with the amount of fatigue I was expecting from the other two movements, I dialed it back to 95 pounds.  I also suspected that as I got tired, my feet would scrape the floor as I brought them backwards at the end of each pass through, so I placed 15 pound plates underneath the paralettes to boost me a couple inches higher.

Clay had told us that he wanted to see us string reps together, so my plan was to spend most of the workout doing sets of 5 pass throughs and then 3 knees-to-elbows.  When those were nearly complete, I'd start incorporating the overhead squats so I did not violate the rule associated with the WOD.  I would do a set of 5 pass throughs, a set of 3 knees-to-elbows, another set of 5 pass throughs, and another set of 3 knees-to-elbows before marking my reps on my white board.  The set of 5 pass throughs was more like a series where I went 2-2-1 as I needed to shake out my arms a couple of times mid-set.  I stuck with my pattern of alternating between pass throughs and knees-to-elbows until I reached 35 pass throughs and 21 knees-to-elbows.  Hadn't even looked at my barbell yet.  I planned on breaking up the last 4 knees-to-elbows into two sets of 2 so that I had no singles.  I did 5 more pass throughs (running total: 40) and 2 knees-to-elbows (running total: 23) before finally taking a bite out of the overhead squats.  I began with a set of 10 there, confident that I could chip away at the total of 75 reps in large chunks.

From there, I headed back to the pass throughs and did 4 reps.  I decided to end with 4-3-3 on the pass throughs so that I could get an extra break in for the overhead squats.  Having done some overhead squats, I could now finish off the knees-to-elbows, so I did the last two reps there.  One less thing to keep track of.  I held on for 12 reps of overhead squats before doing 3 more pass throughs.  The next set of overhead squats was 11 reps and then I happily finished off the last 3 pass throughs.  Just 42 overhead squats and I was done with this workout.

This is the point where I should mention that everyone else was done.  Some of them had been done for a while.  Luis finished at around the 15 minute mark.  Nicole was done in just under 19 minutes.  Mike wrapped up his workout at around 22 minutes.  The clock was still ticking for me.  And I was pretty certain that I had 4 sets to go.  I got through 12 reps in my next set, leaving me a nice even 30 reps from the finish line.  From there I could get 3 sets of 10.  But as is usually the case with me, I needed some rest between sets.  Part of it was getting my breathing under control.  Part of it was not realizing how sore my legs were going to be from front squatting in the morning and then doing a ton of overheads later that night.  But one by one, I did the three sets of 10 overhead squats.  Final time: 26:31.

I would have done this workout a lot differently in retrospect.  For starters, the knees-to-elbows were easier than I thought they would be.  It's not like I could have knocked out sets of 10, but sets of five were definitely possible.  And because they weren't as hard as I predicted, I could have thrown in sets of overhead squats earlier on so I wasn't stuck doing a ton of those at the end.  I think I handled the pass throughs the right way, but my mix of overhead squats and knees-to-elbows could have used some tweaking.  That would have trimmed a good bit off of my final time.  That being said, I won't be sad if I never have to do this workout again.

Thursday preview: Endurance is back!  Although it has a decidedly Crossfit-like feel to it.  Special appearances by Coach Aimee, Coach Gordy, and Coach Jill.

Spatial Disorientation

Workout date: 4/5/16

On Tuesday morning I was taking a shower and had Pandora playing from my cell phone.  I had clicked on the Linkin Park station, but was surprised by one of the songs that Pandora had chosen for me based on my interest in that band.  The song?  American Pie by Don McLean.  Not exactly a song that I would associate as being in the same genre as Linkin Park, but apparently Pandora's algorithm for choosing songs knows something that I don't.

After I got out of the shower and got dressed, I started doing some research online.  I have this tendency to watch TV shows or movies and, right in the middle, get the urge to look up more information about someone who appeared on screen.  Or perhaps an event was mentioned and suddenly I want to know more about it.  For example, I'll watch Black Sails and need to know whether a character was real or is fictitious.  And if they were real, I need to know how their real story compares to how they are portrayed in the show.  I know, I have issues.

Hearing American Pie had the same effect.  I knew the premise behind the song, that it was reminiscing about the day that Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper tragically died in a plane crash in the late 50s.  But I couldn't remember the circumstances behind the crash.  (It's been a long time since I watched La Bamba.)  The three pop stars had hired a private plane because the heater in the bus they were touring in kept breaking down and several members of the tour they were on had become sick.  The plane could carry three passengers.  Holly had arranged for the plane, so he got a seat.  The Big Bopper asked Waylon Jennings for his seat due to how sick he was.  Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for the last seat.  The pilot was a 21 year old who was only qualified to fly under visual flight rules, meaning he had to be able to see where he was going.  He wasn't qualified to fly using only instruments as he would need to do on that cloudy winter's evening.

Why am I writing about music history instead of Crossfit?  Patience, I'm almost there.  After an investigation of the tragedy, the cause of the crash was determined to be spatial disorientation.  It is a phenomenon where pilots lose the ability to determine whether they are ascending or descending once they lose visual cues.  (Note: Did reading this story scare the hell out of me?  Yes!  Especially when I later read that many private pilots today are not qualified to fly only using instruments.)  In this case, the pilot took off but quickly lost his bearings.  The plane traveled less than 6 miles before crashing.

On Tuesday evening, I came to the gym for Dudes After Dark.  We were doing the following WOD:

3 rounds:
50 calorie row
15 handstand push-ups
50 double unders

The part of the warmup where we spent the most time was on the handstand push-ups.  We went from  doing a kick up on to the wall to kicking up and coming down on to our heads.  And then we moved on to kicking up, coming down on to our heads, and attempting to kip back up to complete the handstand push-up.  I'm terrible with this movement.  I get upside down, drop my head to the abmat, and then get a series of directions that I mess up.  Let your butt down against the wall.  Bring your knees down towards your chest.  Shoot your legs straight up.  No matter how hard I try, I seem to mess it up.  And then the research I had done earlier in the day on something totally unrelated came rushing back to me.  Maybe this was my version of spatial disorientation.  I get upside down and suddenly I can't get my butt or my legs to go in the proper direction.  It was all making sense now!

(Note: It did make sense to me.  That doesn't mean it's not a terrible analogy, because it could be.  And spatial disorientation is probably not applicable to the fact that I suck at kipping handstand push-ups.  But it genuinely felt like a eureka moment.)

Spatial disorientation or not, I did have one thing going for me: I could do strict handstand push-ups with two abmats, so I didn't need the kip.  Did I have 45 of them?  That was a totally different question.  But I was going to try like hell to get all of them.  The alternative was doing seated push presses, which I kinda hate.  I grabbed 45 pound dumbbells (Matt E had suggested using these a while back) and placed them near the area where I'd be attempting my handstand push-ups.  I really did not want to resort to using those.

The class had five people in it with three dudes (Cline, Chris D, and myself) along with two dudettes (Erika R and Nicole).  Once again, there would be plenty of space at Dudes After Dark, one of the big reasons I love that class so much.  The workout looked like it would take about 20-25 minutes (unless you were a handstand push-up ninja).  My goal was to compress that range a bit and finish somewhere between 22 and 24 minutes.  To do that, I couldn't botch the double unders, something that was not a slam dunk.  Recent workouts with 100 or more double unders had seen me tire out badly and this workout was going to be hard enough without spending an absurd amount of time trying to jump rope.  If I could do sets of 10-15 reps at a time, I'd be pleased.

We got started and to no one's surprise, Cline was the first one done with the row.  Coach Rachel had tried to push the rest of us to try and stay with him on that first row, but I knew that was pointless.  My monitor showed that I was in the mid-thirties on my calories when Cline moved on to the seated push press.  I got off of my rower around the time that Chris did, with Erika and Nicole following soon after.  At the wall, I managed a set of 5 handstand push-ups before needing a break.  That worked for me.  If I could keep knocking out sets of 5 here, I might even be able to go lower than 22 minutes for the workout.  That seemed like a real possibility after I finished the round with two more sets of five reps.  I grabbed my rope and began doing double unders.  I had 4 legit sets (10-15 reps) and a small set (messed up after a couple reps) that got me to 50.  I finished round 1 in just over 6 minutes.

Now I knew that I wouldn't be able to keep up that pace for rounds two and three (especially my rowing pace), but even if I tailed off some, I felt like the 22-24 minute goal was still very feasible.  The second row was much worse than the first and took about a minute longer.  I got to the wall to try for 5 more reps, but had to come down after three.  That's okay, 5 sets of three reps should work.  I did two more sets of three reps before my arms really began to burn.  That wasn't good.  I still had 21 more handstand push-ups in this workout.  I was also starting to have issues planting my left hand as the area next to the wall was becoming soaked with my sweat.  Despite these problems, I got the final two sets of three reps and moved on to the double unders.  As I got there, I saw that Cline had moved on to his third round, Chris and Erika had a decent-sized head start on the jump rope, with only Nicole trailing me, although she was moving through her handstand push-ups faster than I was.  My second round of double unders did not start off as well as the first as I had some choppy sets on the way to 28 reps.  Then I magically remembered how to do double unders.  I strung the last 22 in a row, dropped my rope and headed back to the rower.  I forgot to check the clock, so I have no idea what the time was after round two.  Between 14 and 15 minutes is likely a safe guess.

As I began my final row, I closed my eyes and tried to get into a rhythm.  My arms were not providing me with a lot of power, but I was pulling as hard as I could.  When I finally opened my eyes, I saw a pathetic number on the monitor: 2.  Not sure how many pulls it took to get those 2 calories, but I'd be on the rower forever at this pace.  I got to 10 calories just before a minute.  5 minutes for this row?  That was awful.  The row eventually did improve.  I had 24 calories after two minutes and had 37 or 38 after three minutes.  I finished up my last 50 calories in under 4 minutes, but not by much.

Cline was done with his workout and Erika was finishing up.  Chris went to his wall and strung 15 handstand push-ups.  While that was going on, I managed to push through 4 reps to lead off my final round.  Not too shabby!  Except my arms were really starting to feel shot.  As I went to kick up on to the wall for my next set, I felt very unstable.  I did get three more reps in before coming down.  Nicole was now doing her handstand push-ups right beside me, slowly reeling me in.  I was wobbly again on my next set, with my left hand sliding in the sweat-soaked area next to my abmat.  I did find a way to get three more reps though.  Only 5 more to go.

On my next kick up, my left hand slid even more and I came back down immediately.  Cline, Erika, and Chris were all done at this point, so there was no reason not to move down to a dry area for my last 5 reps.  I set up shop in Erika's lane and kicked up without having my left hand slide.  Unfortunately, my arms were all but done.  I squeaked out two reps and then came down.  I repeated this for my next set, desperately scraping only the very top of the abmat with my dome before pressing out as quickly as I could to finish the rep.  With one rep left to go, I kicked up, but I couldn't support myself and had to come back down.  I was not doing one rep of the seated dumbbell push press.  I took some extra time, shook out my arms, and gave it another try.  This time it was a success.  Just 50 double unders remaining.

Nicole had passed me by now and was well into her double unders.  With my arms feeling weak, I began to worry how long these double unders were going to take me.  Was this going to be the point where I did 3 reps and then hit myself with the rope over and over again?  That seemed the most likely outcome.  But I began twirling the rope and somehow it didn't hit me for a while.  As in I got 27 reps done before it hit me.  Despite being exhausted, I had remembered to remain calm and double under success followed.  I needed a short break, but Cline was pushing me to finish as I didn't have that much left to go.  I tried to go right into the next set, but only got 2.  Another attempt gave me 5 reps.  I stopped for a break and shook out my arms.  I could do this, I simply needed to be calm.  I twirled the rope again and suddenly I was replicating the big set that began this final element of the workout.  After 16 straight reps, I was done.  Nicole had passed me and I missed my goal, but I still felt good about the workout.  Final time: 25:02.

The thing I was most proud of in this workout was getting through all of the handstand push-ups.  A lot of doubt crept into my mind during that third round, but I got through it and didn't have to rely on the seated dumbbell push press.  And obviously the double unders were a pleasant surprise at the end of the workout.

Wednesday preview: More early morning front squatting, along with a workout called "The Juggler" in the evening.  There is nothing that Crossfitters love more than a WOD with complicated counting rules.