One Of These Zipfs Is Not Like The Others

Workout date: 12/31/16

There was only one class being held at KOP on New Year's Eve.  It was a friends and family WOD taking place at 10am.  I had no excuse for skipping a workout on the last day of 2016, so I headed to the gym, expecting to see many of the faces that I work out with on a (nearly) daily basis.  I'd need to team up with three of my pals as the blog let me know there was a team WOD planned that required four athletes per team.  Here are the details:

New Year's Eve WOD:
Team WOD (2 pairs of 2 athletes)

First station:
10 minute AMRAP
10 calories on the assault bike
15 sit-ups

Second station:
10 minute AMRAP
10 box jumps (24"/20")
10 wall balls (20#/14" to 10'/9')

*Pairs switch stations after 10 minutes
**There is a 2 minute break between AMRAPs

When I got to the gym, I saw lots of faces, but very few of them were familiar.  I thought about half of the attendees would fall into the "friends and family" category.  Instead, the percentage was closer to 90%.  Coach Aimee led everyone through a warmup and I scanned the room trying to figure out who I'd work out with.  Mooney and Aileen were warming up next to me and I sorta knew them.  Maybe I'd ask them if they needed a teammate.  Across the room were a few other candidates, but it seemed weird trotting all the way down the gym after the warmup had concluded to ask them.  By the time I got down there, they would probably have filled their team already.  Mooney and Aileen were my best bet.  If that didn't work out, I'd look around and see if any teams only had three members.

The end of the warmup involved being on our stomachs (I think there was stretching involved).  Aimee told us to stand up and form teams if we hadn't already.  As I stood up, I looked over at Mooney and Aileen.  They were waving someone (or multiple someones) over to them.  That team was probably full.  I turned to my left and saw Steve Z standing with two members of his family that I hadn't met.  We kinda simultaneously inquired about joining forces.  Steve's family would be growing by one as the Zips adopted me for this workout.

I met Steve's daughter, Ali, and his son-in-law, Jordan.  The two of them were going to form one pair, while Steve and I worked together as the other pair.  Steve is the elder member of our gym, but at 70 years young, he still shows up to all the major events.  I've had the pleasure of cheering him on at the Open the last three years.  I've had the misfortune of being in his class during his 67th birthday, which resulted in 67 burpees getting tacked on to the WOD.  Even though that sucked (because burpees suck, not because of Steve), I've always enjoyed seeing Steve at the gym.  I don't think I'll be around to see 70, but if I do, I hope I have as much energy as Steve does.

Steve and I were going to start at the assault bike/sit-ups station while Ali and Jordan began with box jumps and wall balls.  Because this was a big class and a lot of equipment was being used, I decided to go with whatever the Zipfs wanted to use.  You couldn't really scale the assault bike or the sit-ups, but we did use scales for the box jumps and wall balls.  We had one 20" box and one 17" box.  We also had one 14 pound ball and one 10 pound ball.  When we switched stations, I was going to use the bigger box and the heavier wall ball for our pairing.

I asked Steve how he wanted to split up the work.  He made it clear that he was okay on the assault bike, but he would struggle with sit-ups.  A lot of people at KOP despise the assault bike.  Yet here was a 70 year-old guy saying he'd be fine on it.  I told Steve he could stay on the assault bike as long as he'd like and I'd do sit-ups until he wanted to switch.  Aimee made sure everyone was ready and then got us started on the first of the two AMRAPs.

Steve was more than okay on the assault bike.  As I sat on the floor waiting to do sit-ups, I watched as Steve pedaled away.  It wasn't long before he said "go!"  I was totally caught off-guard by how fast he completed 10 calories.  Maybe it was a one-round thing.  I did 15 sit-ups as quickly as I could and told Steve he could go.  10 more quick calories.  Damn, Steve was really good on the assault bike!  15 more fast sit-ups and then I threw it back to Steve.  It wasn't until round three that his pace finally began to slow.  When I completed the third round of sit-ups, Steve signaled to me that he wanted to switch.

I hopped up off the floor and started my first round on the assault bike.  10 calories could go by fast if you really got the bike moving right from the start.  So I immediately pedaled hard and then leaned forward while pumping my arms back and forth to register 10 calories on the monitor.

Fun fact: the breeze from the wheel cools you off as you lean forward on the assault bike

I quickly got through 10 calories and passed things off to Steve.  He did not look like he was enjoying himself as he did the sit-ups, but he moved through them at a decent pace nonetheless.  I completed round five on the bike and Steve did round five of the sit-ups.  I could see that he was getting tired, so I told him that I was going to give him a break.  I did round six on the bike, hopped off, got on the floor, and did round six of the sit-ups.  That was going to give Steve about a minute of rest.  It also made it easy for him to transition back to the assault bike.

It was taking a little over a minute to complete each round, so we weren't going to finish 10 rounds unless we somehow found another gear.  Steve did rounds seven and eight on the bike while I did the sit-ups.  He volunteered to switch for round nine.  I got 10 calories in on the bike and he completed 15 sit-ups.  There was less than 45 seconds left for round 10.  Knowing this was my last ride on the bike, I went all out and zipped through 10 calories.  That gave Steve enough time to do 8 sit-ups before the buzzer went off.  First station score: 9+18.  (Our partners got a score of 9+4 on the second station.)

We had two minutes to recover which turned out to be plenty of time.  This workout was kinda like a lighter version of Fight Gone Bad.  It challenged you to keep moving, but it didn't crush you as much as that workout does.  And we were getting double the rest period.  As the second minute of the break ticked away, I felt ready to take on station #2.  I'd be leading things off for our pairing.

The buzzer sounded and it was time to get back to work again.  Steve and I had agreed that it was best for each person to do a full round and then switch out.  The 20" box was easy to bound on and off of, something I had learned during my last go-round with Fight Gone Bad.  I did 10 speedy box jumps and moved over to the wall balls.  If a 16% reduction in the box jump height had made life better for me, you can imagine how relieved I was to get a 30% reduction (14 pounds instead of 20 pounds) in the weight for my wall balls.  I still had to throw the ball to 10 feet, but those 10 shots were rapid fire.  I tossed the last shot up well above the 10 foot mark and told Steve to go.  Steve's rounds would be a little slower than mine, but he still finished them in an average time of about a minute.

Back and forth we traded rounds and I could tell based on the clock that we were going to finish with at least 10 rounds.  With a few minutes remaining, it looked like we might even have a chance at completing 12 rounds in 10 minutes.  I picked up the pace as much as I could on the box jumps.  I'm not sure it would have been possible to go any faster on the wall balls.  I was blazing through those.  I completed round 11 with about 35 seconds left.  We weren't going to make it through 12 rounds, but I rooted Steve on, trying to encourage him to get back to the wall balls one last time.  He did, managing two reps there before our workout was over.  Second station score: 11+12.  (Our partners got a score of 6+4 on the first station.)

My time as a Zipf had come to an end, but they were good people to close out 2016 with.  It was time to ring in a new year.  Time to consider what my goals for 2017 would be.  Time to write a recap of all that took place in 2016.

2016 year-end preview: The highs and lows of 2016.  I'll share some things I learned.  Share some things I think I learned.  You'll get to see the way-too-detailed spreadsheet I kept for the year.  And I'll share what I'm looking forward to (and not looking forward to) in 2017.

Head Almost Popped Off

Workout date: 12/30/16

Last year, Cline had a goal of completing 200 WODs.  He made it with plenty of time to spare.  With 199 in the bag, he decided that WOD #200 would be Crossfit Total and that he would do it at December's Open Gym (first Sunday of the month).  Luke and I joined him for the workout and it was a really good time.  Cline set five PRs over the course of the day.  I didn't do quite that well, but I did manage the heaviest back squat I had done since I stopped doing back squat programs at Open Strength (315 pounds).

Fast forward a year and Cline had become more ambitious.  His goal was 210 WODs for 2016.  In the last month or so, I had asked him whether he was going to reach 210 and he seemed to have his doubts.  He must have kicked it into high gear as the year came to a close because he made an announcement that he was once again doing Crossfit Total as the workout that would see him reach his goal.  Open Gym had already taken place earlier in the month, but there was a special mid-day Open Strength session being held on the 30th.  That was just as good as Open Gym (after all, this was a completely strength-based workout).  I told Cline I was interested and we agreed to take on Crossfit Total together.  Just as a reminder, here's how Crossfit Total works:

"Crossfit Total"
Total score from:
1RM back squat
1RM shoulder press
1RM deadlift
*You may only make 3 attempts at each lift.  Unlimited practice is allowed.  Very much an honor system type of workout.

While Cline got warmed up at the far end of the gym, I set up a rack for us to use near the front of the gym.  I got to KOP about 20 minutes before he did and I think I was antsy to get going.  I picked out a barbell and began to bring over some plates.  Cline joined me at the front of the gym, as did a third person.  Brian S was using the rack next to the one I had picked out and he looked like he might be working on back squats too.  I'm not sure Brian had concrete plans for Open Strength, so when we asked him if he was interested in getting in on the Crossfit Total fun, it didn't take long for him to say yes.  Perfect.  We had a trio working together just as we did last year.

Normally I feel confident that I've remembered all of the numbers from a workout correctly, but I can't say that with this WOD.  All of the warmup weights and all of the attempts that the three of us used are listed here to the best of my memory, but it's possible they are a little off.  I know that we started our back squat warmup with 135 pounds on the barbell and I believe we moved on to 185 from there.  After warming up with 185, we needed to discuss what our three attempts would be.  Cline told me that his PR was 245 on the back squat, but I wasn't certain what his exact plans were for the three lifts.  They might have changed after he did his first real attempt.  My plan was based directly off of what I had done last year during this workout.  I went 295-315-335 then and I was going 295-315-335 now.  Why?  It was mainly a test to see if I could handle 315 again.  If I could, I'd take on 335 to see if I could increase my PR by 5 pounds.  If there was a 20 pound difference between my 2nd and 3rd lifts, might as well have the same jump from the 1st lift to the 2nd lift, so 295 would be my first true attempt.  What was Brian using?  Ummm...he might have needed a refresher on the rules of Crossfit Total.  (I'll explain after the Cline back squat recap.)

I think Cline used 205 for his last warmup before going with 225 as his first true attempt.  To my eye, it didn't look like he had any difficulty with it, but Cline seemed to feel differently.  I thought his plan was to start with 225 and 245 for his first two lifts, with a PR attempt on the third lift.  Instead, Cline was going with 235 for his second lift and 245 on his third lift.  The second attempt looked easy again.  His third attempt had a little hitch in the bottom, but he wasn't stuck for long.  Cline's back squat score would be 245, matching what he did last year.  I'm convinced he could have handled 255-260.  Later on in the day, Cline was upset about his back squat performance and we had this exchange:

Cline: I didn't PR my back squat.
Me: You didn't attempt to PR your back squat.
Cline: Fair enough.

(He totally could have PR'd his back squat.)

After 185, I went to 225 for my next warmup weight.  Then I went to 255 and 275.  Brian kept stepping up to the barbell after me, successfully squatting the same weight.  I got so caught up in these warmup lifts that I didn't remember that my next lift at 295 counted until I was walking up to the barbell.  Time to get serious!  I really did not want to mess up that first attempt because that would have screwed up my plans.  So it was a relief when I handled 295 without getting stuck along the way.  Brian went up and did 295 as well.  I added 20 pounds to the barbell and spent a few minutes relaxing before the next lift.  Cline was done with his three attempts, so I got curious about Brian's plans for his lifts.  I probably should have asked earlier, but I was being chatty with Cline.  When I asked Brian what his three lifts would be, his response was "what do you mean?"  Uh oh.  He didn't know that he only got three attempts towards his score.  Not to worry, Brian's best back squat was more than mine, so he could use 315 as his first attempt and go from there.

I was nervous about the lift at 315, but the lift at 295 had given me some extra confidence.  It would be a shame if my back squat had gotten worse in the last year and failure at this weight would seem to indicate that was the case.  I needed to get 315 on one of the next two attempts, preferably the first one.  I took the barbell from the rack, got my feet set, took in a deep breath, and went for it.  When I bounced out of the bottom, I didn't immediately stall out, which was a good sign.  It was a slow rise to the top, but I would say that for the second straight lift I avoided hitting a sticking point.  I was excited!  335 probably wasn't going to happen, but the pressure was off now that I had found success at 315.  My shadow, Brian, moved in after me and got 315 as well.

It would be a good 3-5 minutes before I'd be ready for that attempt at 335, so I struck up a conversation with Jill A while I rested.  She was there snatching and asked what we were up to.  When I told her it was Crossfit Total, she half-jokingly asked about the number of attempts we were taking.  Coach Jill knew we weren't supposed to take more than three.  I let her know that I had done a lot of practice sets to warm up.  Honestly, I didn't feel guilty at all about taking a bunch of practice reps because I had announced from the start what my three attempts would be.  If I completed 295 and then said "yeah, that was my first rep", that would be shady.  It would be pretty sad if I felt the need to cheat at Crossfit Total during a sparsely-attended Open Strength.

It was time to step up and take on 335.  I got up to the barbell, ready to bring as much intensity as I could to the lift.  Then I felt the barbell roll up some of the skin on my upper back as I stepped away from the rack.  Taking on 335 while feeling uncomfortable wasn't the best plan, so I immediately returned the barbell to the rack.  I didn't consider that an attempt and neither did anyone else.  Still didn't seem like a good omen.  I laughed it off and started my whole routine over.  Got psyched up, brought intensity to the lift as soon as I removed the barbell from the rack, and this time there was no skin pinching.  Feet were set.  Breathing was set.  I dropped into the bottom of the squat.  As I made my way up, it felt like I had gotten past my usual sticking point.  And then things came to a grinding halt.  I mean, it still felt like I was moving upwards ever so slightly, but this was basically a new sticking point for me.  I kept fighting to save the lift.  My body was shaking and my head felt like it was about to pop off.  As the seconds ticked by, I feared that one of the coaches would tell me to bail the barbell.  No, keep fighting, you're almost there!  The fight was worth it.  I got beyond the sticking point and stood up with 335.  I had a new PR!  Not only that, I got a tremendous compliment from Coach Steph, who was impressed at how I stayed in my heels for the entire lift, even during the struggle.  She remarked that I had come a long way from my old back squat form.

My three attempts were over, but Brian still had two to go.  Up to this point, he had duplicated all of my efforts.  That would change at 335 pounds.  He failed on his first attempt at 335 (second true attempt).  He was allowed one more try at 335, but that didn't work out either.  Brian might not have gotten the back squat that he wanted, but he was about to show off for us on the shoulder press.

Cline's goal for the shoulder press was 120 or 125.  If the stars were aligned for me, I'd be taking on 150 for my third attempt.  Brian said he could handle 185.  Not that he was hoping for 185.  He could handle 185!  He would definitely be going last again.  We did some warmup with just the barbell (45 pounds) before moving up to 75 pounds.  We all did 95 pounds, but that would be Cline's last warmup rep.  His first attempt at 105 was successful.  Brian and I did another warmup at 115.  Cline used that same weight for his second attempt.  He started to press it out, but then he got stuck and had to put it back on the rack.  115 had been my last warmup, so 125 would be my first real attempt.  I always have difficulty getting the barbell moving in the shoulder press, but once I got this one moving, I knew I could press it out.  Brian took another warmup at 125.  We removed 10 pounds so that Cline could have a final shot at 115, but the result would be the same.  He'd end up with 105 for the shoulder press.  245 on the back squat and 105 on the shoulder press matched his exact scores from a year ago.

My second attempt would be at 140 and it was the ugliest successful attempt you'll ever see.  Getting the barbell moving was a struggle again.  I somehow got it moving with the left side of my body, so I pressed it out almost completely with my left arm while my right arm trailed behind.  Once the left arm was done working, the right arm kicked in and I got the barbell pressed out overhead.  Counts in Crossfit, I guess.  Brian was up next and decided he didn't want the same 140 pounds I used.  He told me to put 175 pounds on instead.  Wow.  That was a huge jump.  His confidence was rewarded when he pressed that 175 over his head.

I was hoping for a miracle like I had gotten on the back squat.  My third shoulder press at 150 was very unlikely.  Then again, so was that back squat at 335 pounds.  Lightning didn't strike twice though as that final barbell barely moved off of my shoulders.  I had matched my shoulder press of 140 pounds from last year, so I was still 20 pounds ahead of my 2015 pace.  I was done with the shoulder press thankfully.  And as a bonus, I got to see what kind of sick weight Brian was going to throw around.  His next attempt was 185 and I fully expected him to get it.  Something went wrong though and he wasn't able to press it out.  He took a break for a minute or so, then gave 185 another try.  Just when it looked like he might get stuck again, he fought the barbell and pressed it out.  It was time to move on to the deadlift.

We moved through our deadlifts at a much faster pace than we did the back squats or the shoulder presses.  One after another, we stepped up to the barbell lying on the floor and did a practice rep.  Our max weight range for the deadlift was much more compact than was the case for the other two lifts, so we didn't have to change out the weights as often.  We each did 225.  We each did 275.  We each did 315.  I think Cline used 345 for his first attempt and he had no problems with it.  Brian and I used 345 for our final warmup.  With George Michael blaring in the background, Cline got 365 on his second attempt.  Brian and I both got it on our first attempt.  Cline would go for a PR of 375 on his final attempt.  His last deadlift reminded me of his last back squat in that I'd bet money he could have handled about 10 pounds more.  375 pounds was 20 more than he used for the deadlift last year, meaning he had gotten a 20 pound PR for Crossfit Total with a score of 725.

I was focused on my next lift at 385.  Some days I could lift 385, many days I could not.  The only certainty was that I couldn't seem to lift more than 385.  I'd been stuck at that number for my deadlift for more than 2 years.  Things seemed to be going my way though, so I was oddly optimistic as I walked up to the barbell.  It was incredibly heavy, but I brought it up to my waist.  This really was my day!  Brian went after me, but he wasn't able to lift 385.  We each had one attempt left and it didn't make sense to load weight on and then take it off again, so I waited for Brian to try 385 again before I did my last lift.  He got it on the second try, ending the day with a Crossfit Total of 885.

So many things had gone right for me today that it made me wonder whether this would be the day that I finally deadlifted 405.  On the second-to-last day of the year, could I cross off one more item from my list of 2016 goals?  I tried to bring as much energy as I could to my last attempt.  The barbell came off the ground.  John McHugh would later tell me that I got the barbell up my shin.  All I had to do was keep it moving.  Sadly I could not.  The fight worked on the back squat, but it didn't work here on the deadlift.  It was still a 30 pound PR for my Crossfit Total, finishing with a score of 860.

Even though I had used up all of my attempts for Crossfit Total, I wasn't willing to give up on deadlifting 405 just yet.  I could still hit my goal outside of the workout.  So I gave 405 two more attempts.  Neither of them were as good as the first attempt, although I did have the barbell moving on the second attempt.  I'd have to remain in deadlift purgatory until 2017.

Last year, I did Fran after we had completed Crossfit Total and that was the plan again this year.  We hadn't done Fran at all in 2016 and I wanted to see if I could improve on my time of 9:51.  A couple days before Open Strength, Aimee released the benchmark workouts for 2017 and Fran was listed among them.  In fact, it was scheduled for some time in January.  No point in doing Fran now when it could show up next week.  I decided to substitute in the KOP Baseline workout instead.  It had been over a year since I had done that one as well.  Here's what's included in that workout:

"Baseline"
500 meter row
40 air squats
30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
10 pull-ups

My best time on this?  6:55.  My original time on this was 8:49, but I needed to do jumping pull-ups from a box at the end.  I didn't know what a good time would be for me now, but if I did my pull-ups semi-competently, I thought it could be significantly lower than 6:55.  Only one way to find out!

When I had fully recovered from Crossfit Total, I got a rower out and prepared to run through this short WOD.  I set the monitor so that it would count down from 500 meters and began to row.  This wasn't like the rows that began other workouts.  I wasn't trying to calmly get through it.  I needed to move fast.  I finished up somewhere in the 1:45-1:50 range and moved on to the air squats.  I didn't move through those as fast as I've done in the past, but I kept a nice steady pace through all 40 reps.  I dropped to the floor and began the sit-ups.  This was the one part of the workout where I felt like I moved faster than I had in the past.  I knew I'd need to break up the push-ups to keep my arms fresh enough for the pull-ups.  Did a set of 8, then two sets of 6.  I got off the floor and headed to the pull-up bar.  If I wanted a fast time, I couldn't fall apart here.  I didn't.  It wasn't like I strung 10 butterfly pull-ups to stop the clock, but I did do 10 quick singles without a break.  Final time: 5:25.

Back on my first day at KOP, I did the baseline workout with a guy named John.  John mentioned that he did triathlons as a hobby.  He smoked me that night, finishing in a time of 6:02.  Nearly four years later, I had finally beaten John.  There was still a friends and family WOD scheduled for New Year's Eve, but the back squat and baseline PR's made this feel like the rewarding end to a difficult year.

New Year's Eve preview: I get adopted!

You Got This, Kid

Workout date: 12/28/16

I showed up to the 6:30 class on Wednesday night expecting to see Coach Jenna, but Coach Giulz was filling in for her.  That wasn't the only surprise coach appearance as Keithie was there as well (not in a coaching capacity).  He was joining the medium-sized group that had shown up for a WOD that was a bit of a variety pack:

Wednesday WOD:
1,000 meter row
10 clean and jerks (135/95)
20 pull-ups
750 meter row
10 clean and jerks (155/105)
20 pull-ups
500 meter row
10 clean and jerks (205/135)
20 pull-ups

There was some rowing, some lifting and some body-weight gymnastics (my way of making pull-ups sound way more technical than they are) all thrown into this workout.  The most interesting aspect of the workout to me was how much of a jump there was in the barbell weight going from round two to round three.  The jump was only 20 pounds from round one to round two, but it was a substantial 50 pound increase when transitioning to round three.  That was going to be tough to deal with late in the workout.

To be honest, I wasn't sure how long it would take me to do 10 clean and jerks with 205 pounds.  If It would take me a long time to do it fresh, then it was going to take me forever after doing all of that other work.  So it probably wasn't a good idea to use 205 for the last 10 clean and jerks.  On the other hand...it would be heartbreaking to scale just that piece of the workout.  I had no concerns about the clean and jerks at 135 and 155.  The pull-ups would be slow, but I could get through 60 of them.  Rowing never needs to be scaled.  It was that pesky last set of clean and jerks that were giving me pause.  Why couldn't it be 185 pounds?  I could handle that.  195 seemed borderline.  205 was asking for trouble.

There was a work-around though.  The barbell would start with 45 pound plates on it (135).  Then I'd need to add 10 pound plates (155).  Finally I'd have to put on 25 pound plates to reach 205.  I could start out with 205 on the barbell for the last round and if it was more than I could handle, I could strip off the 10 pound plates and finish up with 185, a weight I'd feel comfortable using.  (Confession: I didn't think about any of this until I started to get the plates for the workout.  Then the light bulb went on.  I felt so much better about using 205 after that.)

I set up my rower and barbell towards the rear of the gym where Chris S and Cline were working out as well.  I scanned the main whiteboard and saw that most of the times from earlier in the day were in the 20-25 minute range.  I guessed that the first round would probably take about 7 minutes.  With the decreasing distance on the rower, the amount of time spent there should be about a minute less each round.  The time spent on the clean and jerks would increase a little bit each round (okay, a lot in the last round) and the time I would need on the pull-ups would definitely increase each round.  Based on some rough estimates, I came up with a goal of 24-26 minutes for the workout.

We got started on the 1,000 meter row and I knew that in about 3 minutes and 30 seconds, Cline would be getting off of his rower and starting work on his first set of clean and jerks.  Just as he has his routine, I have mine.  At close to four minutes on the nose, I was letting go of the handle on my rower and moving on to the clean and jerks.  The initial barbell weight was 135, the weight that we have to clean and jerk quickly when we do Grace.  When I start that workout, I try to string a bunch of the reps together.  In this workout, I was sticking to singles.  I'd need my grip strength for the pull-ups.  I thought I could move pretty fast through the 10 clean and jerks, but they were tougher than expected.  That damn row at the beginning had caught me off-guard again!

I was one of the last people to the pull-up bar.  Not surprisingly, I was the last one off of the pull-up bar.  I didn't struggle during that first set of pull-ups.  I was just worse at pull-ups than everyone else in class.  When I returned to my rower, my thoughts weren't on round two.  They were already on round three.  The first round wasn't supposed to take as much out of me as it did.  If the easiest round had worn me down, how I was going to get past the hardest round?  Maybe it would be wiser to focus on the task at hand, which was round two.

The second row might have been three-quarters of the length of the first one, but it seemed longer.  I took easy strokes on the initial row and kept a decent pace.  This time around, I was working harder, yet the monitor was telling me that my pace was slower.  I was able to recover a bit during the row and then got another breather while I added the 10 pound plates to my barbell.  Once my barbell was loaded, I got to work on my next 10 clean and jerks.  I'm sure I was slower during those 10 lifts, but it felt very similar to the first round.  I didn't attempt to string reps.  Every now and then I stopped to get some air, but there were no long breaks.  I was back in contact with some of the class.  They were gonna get away from me on the pull-ups again, but I was happy that I hadn't fallen too far behind.  Before starting my pull-ups, I made the decision to load my barbell for round three ahead of time.  I needed a break and that felt like a productive way to get one.  With my barbell loaded to 205, I moved over to the pull-up bar.  I did sets of 4 singles at a time with breaks in between.  I was at the back of the pack again, but there were still people rowing when I began round three.

The 500 meter row was not about speed.  It was all about recovery.  I wasn't dogging it, but I also didn't want to be tired when I got to the clean and jerks.  The barbell was already loaded, so when the row was over, I was going directly into my first rep at 205.  Prior to the workout, I asked Giulz how long it took her to do the 10 clean and jerks in the last round.  Her response was 5-6 minutes.  That was a lot of time, but it certainly made sense.  These last 10 clean and jerks needed to be spaced out.  Keithie was the only one who might have been able to do them touch and go.  As for me, I was going to consider every rep I got at 205 a victory, no matter how long it took.

The first order of business was figuring out whether I could power clean 205 or whether I needed to squat clean it.  My strong preference was for the power clean, but there was a real chance that the squat clean would be necessary.  I attempted the first rep and managed to get the barbell to my shoulders via the power clean.  I was confident that I could jerk the weight.  I popped it overhead and one rep at 205 was done.  (Hooray!)  I didn't rush into my next rep.  If I tried this weight without feeling mostly recovered from the previous rep, I was going to start failing.  Got the second rep.  Got the third rep.  As I stood next to my barbell trying to avoid going into a squat (my favorite recovery position), Keithie came over to cheer me on.  "You got this, kid!", he yelled to me.  It was oddly endearing because I can't remember the last time someone called me a kid.  (Spoiler: I'm old.)  I pushed through reps 4, 5, and 6.

With four clean and jerks to go, I started noticing more voices.  Oh no.  It had been awhile since I had seen my old friend, but I'd recognize him anywhere.  His name was the pity circle and he was forming quickly.  I tried to shorten the breaks between reps, but those cleans were becoming dicey.  I was using a lot of back hyperextension to power clean.  That was a no-no, but desperate times call for shitty form.  One by one, I got through the four remaining clean and jerks.  Mentally it felt like I had finished the workout.  Except I still had 20 pull-ups to complete.

I had reached the stage where my mindset was do what you can for as long as you can.  I tried to keep doing single pull-ups one after another, but those 205 pound clean and jerks had taken their toll.  I needed a break after every 2-3 reps.  I was about 5 reps in when someone said "you can still get 27 minutes!"  Have you seen me do pull-ups?  Have you seen tired me do pull-ups???  I was probably close to 10 when I heard "you can still get 28 minutes", followed soon after by "you can beat Giulz if you hurry!"  Neither of those things were happening.  It wasn't about beating the clock or beating a coach's time.  This was about completing the workout without throwing up.  It was slow going, but at least there was no vomiting.  Final time: 28:48.

I wasn't upset by my time.  More than anything, I was happy I completed the 10 clean and jerks at 205.  I needed to sit down for 10-15 minutes before I felt safe driving home, but all in all, this WOD was a good experience.

Friday preview: Thursday is an off day due to a friend's 40th birthday and a visit from my brother.  My second-to-last workout of the year is a new annual tradition: Crossfit Total with Cline.

Head Splotch

Workout date: 12/27/16

As part of my weight-loss fantasy (let's call it what it is), I was weighing myself on Monday morning every week.  Used the same scale.  Tried to do it about the same time each week.  I wasn't able to do that while I was in Mexico and Alabama, so I missed two consecutive Monday morning weigh-ins.  We arrived back home late on a Monday afternoon (the 26th), so I didn't feel right about weighing myself that day.  I'd just wait until Tuesday morning and see how things had changed over the last 15 days.  Boy, did they change...

Original weigh-in:  213.2 pounds
Last pre-holiday trip weigh-in:  208.8 pounds
This week's weigh-in:  211.8 pounds

In May-hee-co, I believe that is known as "El Gordo".  Four pounds gained over the course of my last two weigh-ins.  Certainly not the direction I wanted to be heading in.  It's frustrating to think that I cut out so many of my favorite delicacies from what I consumed over the last three months, only to gain back most of the weight I had lost while on vacation.  Definitely doesn't make the effort seem worthwhile.

I came back to KOP just in time for the final benchmark workout of the year.  Only it wouldn't truly be a benchmark workout for me because I either a) missed this workout earlier in the year or b) specifically avoided it when it was programmed.  (Spoiler: It's more b than a.)  The WOD's name is Nate and it is a hero WOD that involves three difficult movements:

"Nate"
20 minute AMRAP
2 muscle-ups
4 handstand push-ups
8 KB swings (70/53)

Don't have muscle-ups.  Don't have handstand push-ups.  Barely have 70 pound KB swings.  You can see why I might not have been so eager to show up the three times this workout was posted on the blog earlier in the year.  And if I hadn't been away from KOP for two weeks, there's a good chance I might have come up with a reason for skipping it a fourth time.  Alas, this was the first workout that I could attend once I got home and there was no chance I was missing it.

At least I'd get to do it at Dudes After Dark!  The class was small, but 100% dude.  I'd be taking class with Actuary Mike and Chris S, who I was meeting for the very first time.  LC had us go through a progression of KB swings with a lighter KB before asking us to choose the KB that was appropriate for the workout.  (Because it was only 8 swings per round, I went with the 70 pound KB.)  Then we covered the scales that we were all going to need if we were going to take on Nate.  We started over at the wall where we talked about kicking up on to the wall and potentially doing handstand push-ups with abmats.  Chris wasn't going to be able to perform that scale, so he picked out some DBs to use for the seated press instead.  Mike had started to become more comfortable kicking up on to the wall, so he was going to use 3 abmats for his handstand push-ups.  I wasn't sure what I was doing.  I typically go with 2 abmats and do strict handstand push-ups, but there were two problems with that scale:

1. It had gotten too easy.  It had been a while since my shoulders had grown so tired that I couldn't complete the workout using this scale.  I was also finishing the handstand push-up segment of workouts much faster than others in class which gave me the impression that I wasn't really getting the stimulus that I was supposed to be getting from the movement.
2. I wasn't getting any closer to doing a handstand push-up with no abmats.  I could try and do a workout with strict handstand push-ups and 1 abmat, but since I'd only ever gotten 2 that way in my life, there was a strong chance that I wouldn't finish the workout.

So what was I going to do in this workout that addressed both of those issues?  LC told me to continue using 2 abmats, but she also said I had to kip all of my reps.  I needed to learn to kip properly if I was ever going to get to the point where I could do handstand push-ups with no abmats.  Keeping 2 abmats under my head was going to shorten the range of motion so that I (hopefully) wouldn't get stuck being unable to do reps.  It sounded like a reasonable compromise to me.

With our handstand push-up scales figured out, we moved over to the rings.  None of us were even close to a muscle-up, so we needed to know what we should be doing instead.  Jumping muscle-ups? Transitions?  For this workout, LC recommended that we do a 2-for-1 substitution of ring dips and pull-ups for each muscle-up.  With only 4 ring dips per round, I toyed with the idea of trying to do those without a band, but it seemed likely that my arms were going to be fatigued from the heavy KB swings and the kipping handstand push-ups.  All three of us went for the pull-up and banded dip combo.  We were officially ready for Nate.

The first couple of rounds weren't awful.  I flew through the banded dips.  I did two sets of two pull-ups each time I came over to complete my muscle-up scale.  The handstand push-ups were tough because I wasn't used to kipping.  Having enough strength to do them strict, I probably used my arms to compensate for my iffy form.  Eight swings was about as many as I wanted to do with the 70 pound KB, so I gladly placed it on the floor after my 8th rep was complete.  Approximate time for the first two rounds: three minutes.

The banded dips still weren't a problem in round three.  I switched to singles for the pull-ups, but they still didn't take all that long.  The kipping handstand push-up was where I ran into trouble.  I got upside-down, brought my knees into my chest, and kicked my feet towards the sky, but I was getting no oomph into it.  I'm sure I looked like a chubby pogo stick as I kept moving slightly up before bouncing back down on my head.  LC came over and told me that I really need to fire my feet upward for the kip.  Apparently I was not firing my feet up.  It was more of a gentle flailing.  As a result, I was getting no momentum.  While I was off of the wall trying to figure out why I sucked at these so badly, LC let me know that my abmats were too close to the wall.  "Your head splotch should be here, not there", she informed me, pointing to the circle of sweat on the top abmat.  I moved the abmats a bit away from the wall, ensuring that my head splotch would wind up in the proper location from now on.

That third round took just over two minutes.  I continued to struggle with the kipping handstand push-ups, resulting in a fourth round of nearly three minutes.  The lack of force when throwing my feet upwards was not my only issue.  When doing strict handstand push-ups, you don't have to worry about your core so much.  When you kip them, you're using a whole lotta core.  All of that scrunching up of your knees into your chest and then shooting them away as hard as you can...it was taking a toll on my mid-section.  I began to fail on more attempts.  Other than a breather here and there, I was moving through the rest of the workout (even the pull-ups!) pretty quickly.  But I kept spending a lot of time at the wall.  Both the fifth and sixth rounds took about four minutes each.

With less than four minutes remaining, I knew I needed to pick up the pace if I wanted to complete the seventh round.  And by pick up the pace, I mean I slowed down at the wall.  When I got upside down, I wasn't worried about trying to do more than one rep.  I just wanted to make sure that I didn't waste energy failing on a rep.  So I'd complete a good rep, come off the wall, and take my time before going back.  I still didn't have a totally clean round of handstand push-ups, but I must have taken less time because I got through the 8 KB swings to end round seven before the clock hit 20 minutes.  I even ran over and did 4 banded dips and 4 quick singles right before time was called.  Final score: 7+2 (4 banded dips + 4 pull-ups = 2 muscle-ups).

I'm not sure if my exhaustion stemmed from being away from KOP for 2 weeks or if it was because I had never done kipping handstand push-ups throughout a 20 minute workout.  Either way, it was clear that my kipping handstand push-ups needed a lot of practice.  It would be best to take care of that outside of a WOD.

Wednesday preview: A workout with a unique structure makes me wonder whether I should chase the RX.  The pity circle makes its return.

Melting In Mexico

Workout dates: 12/18/16-12/25/16

Mexico was beautiful.  It's a damn shame that I was sick almost the entire time I was there.  I'm sure none of the guests at the resort I was at enjoyed hearing me coughing and sneezing while they soaked up the sun.  My cold had been lingering for a couple of weeks, but it hadn't been too problematic prior to our trip.  That changed as soon as I got on the plane.  Maybe my coughing and sneezing fit was triggered by altitude.  Maybe it was Festivus withdrawal.  Missing KOP's holiday party was the ultimate bummer.  The best KOP event of the year has always taken place on the first Thursday night in December, but this year it ended up being scheduled two weeks later.  That was one day too late for me.

The waiters at our resort were also licensed medical professionals.  They informed me that if I kept drinking "Mexican water", my ailments would eventually go away.  As any real Crossfitter would, I followed their directions as prescribed.  Little did they know that my body was weak and wouldn't respond to the treatment.  After three days of laying by the pool and not feeling any better, I decided to get up the morning of the 18th and jump rope.  There weren't a lot of places where I could jump rope without looking out of place, so I trekked over to the tennis courts.  The goals today: get to the second half of the Flight Simulator and hopefully sweat out my sickness.

As someone who used to watch anything that ESPN aired (how do you think I ended up doing Crossfit?), I am very familiar with the affect that heat has on tennis courts.  I've watched plenty of Australian Open and US Open matches.  I've seen tennis players retire from matches due to extreme heat and the announcers always explain how much hotter it is on the court than it is off the court.  I got to experience that phenomenon when I went to take on the Flight Simulator.  The temperature in  Playa Del Carmen had been in the mid-80's since we arrived.  It wasn't humid, so it felt very comfortable to me.  Then I stood on the tennis court.  I was only there for a few minutes before I noticed the sweat already trickling down my face.

I did a few sets of 10 reps to warm up.  Those sets didn't feel too bad, so I set the timer on my phone to 25 minutes and got ready to start.  The last time I attempted the Flight Simulator, it took me nearly a minute to get the first set of 5 out of the way because I kept hitting myself with the rope.  Not sure whether that was nervousness or incompetence, but it was certainly aggravating.  I didn't repeat that mistake this time around.  Got the set of 5 immediately.  Did 10 in a row after that.  Took care of 15 in a row on the first try.  Finished all 20 reps in the fourth set.  It was time for a short break and as I caught a breather, I looked at the timer and saw that only 1:30 had elapsed.  This was going much better than last time.

I failed on a few sets as I tried to complete 25 in a row, but it wasn't too long before that round was polished off.  The round of 30 posed no problem as I completed it on the first try.  The set of 35 was where I ran into difficulty.  There were a handful of unsuccessful attempts before I finally held it together for 35 straight.  It was on to the round of 40, the round that took me forever when I did this in my driveway.  I took some extra time before my initial attempt at this round.  It started off well and when I got to 20 reps, my mind drifted back to the troubles I had when I did this in October.  Specifically, I thought about how I got to 39 reps twice and then failed, forcing me to do the entire set again.  Hold it together, Dave.  Don't go through all this effort and then screw it up.  I made it to 30, then 35.  As I closed in on 40, I'm sure I began jumping higher, worried that the rope was going to clip one of my feet.  38...39...40!  I breathed a sigh of relief as the round that had given me so much trouble last time was now in my rear-view mirror.  I needed a longer break after that set, which gave me another opportunity to check out the timer.  Just over 7 minutes had gone by.  With 18 minutes left and only one set between me and the midway point, I felt certain that I was going to reach the back half of this workout for the first time.  Could I actually complete it?

I would soon learn how deceiving the setup of this workout is.  I wasn't truly close to being halfway done. I had made it to the teeth of the workout and it was ready to chew me up and spit me out.  Those long, exhausting, close-but-no-cigar sets that I tried to avoid during the round of 40 showed up in the round of 45.  I had some smaller failures early on that weren't too tiring, but they put doubt in my mind about whether I could string 45 reps together.  Then I got 19 reps and failed.  The sweat was pouring off me now and I knew I needed to be 100% ready if I was going to finish this round, so I took a break before proceeding.  The next set was promising, but after 34 reps, the rope hit me.  A big expenditure of energy, but at least my confidence came back.  I still had some big sets left in me.  I'd prove that in my next attempt as I managed 41 in a row before coming up 4 reps short.

That attempt was not only tiring, it pissed me off.  I was on the doorstep of the round of 50 and I blew it.  My shirt was soaked, I was breathing heavily, and all that effort was for naught.  It was time for a longer break.  I knew the timer was ticking away, but I had to regroup.  I dropped my rope and walked a lap around one side of the tennis court.  The walk cost me time, but it was the right call because I had calmed down when I got back to my rope.  My first set after the walk was only 10 reps, but it was basically a warmup set.  I was tantalizingly close on the next set, but failed after 38 reps.  After another break, I went after 45 reps again.  Finally, I hung on for 45 in a row.  It was a huge relief, but there was a good chance that was the end for me.  I was exhausted.  I looked at the timer and saw that I had spent 15 minutes getting that set of 45.  There was only 3 minutes left to try and get the set of 50.

If I made that miracle happen, it would be the first time that I reached the back half of the Flight Simulator.  I gave the set of 50 three tries, but I don't think there was any part of me that believed I could do it.  I did sets of 13, 24, and 22 before the timer went off.  It was an improvement from October, but I didn't get to the back half like I wanted to.  I certainly did my best to sweat out my cold as I was drenched when I walked off the tennis court.  Unfortunately, that pesky cold would linger on beyond this workout.

That was it as far as working out during my week in Mexico.  Other than a lot of swimming, I didn't get any more exercise in until I got to Alabama.  I dropped into Crossfit Huntsville during my trip to Alabama.  The place was difficult to find.  I plugged it into my GPS and the GPS brought me to a tennis and racquet club.  I asked a group of guys if they knew where it was and got two replies.  One gentleman said it was behind the dance studio up the road.  Another guy told me it was right before the Midas.  Not knowing the area, I assumed those directions lead to the same place.  They did not.  I came upon the dance studio, but there was no Midas around.  I drove to the back and saw a big Crossfit Huntsville logo.  That was good.  The empty parking lot was not.  I parked, walked to the door, and read the note on the door which informed me that Crossfit Huntsville had moved to a new address.  I put the new address into the GPS, which told me I needed to continue further down the road.  As I drew closer to the new address, I saw the Midas up ahead.  I turned into the parking lot and didn't see signs for the gym until I drove around back.  I finally found the place with a few minutes to spare.

I think it's natural to compare the box you're visiting to the one you call home, so here's a quick tale of the tape from my perspective:

• Coaches: The coaches were extremely welcoming to me and made me feel like a regular member of their community.  Very KOP-like.
• Athletes: They weren't unfriendly, but no one introduced themselves to me.  I said hello to several people and had a brief conversation with the lady working in front of me who enjoyed my "everything hurts and I'm dying" t-shirt.  Maybe everyone was focused on their own workout.  Or maybe the new guy creeped them out.  I get it.
• Warmup: There was an extensive warmup that was Gordy-esque (lots of aerobics and stretching).  The biggest difference from KOP that I noticed was that the coach did not spend time addressing the form of the athletes individually.  At KOP, the coach will walk around and make sure that every athlete has proper form before we complete the warmup.  To be fair, Crossfit Huntsville's facility is much bigger and accommodates larger class sizes (we had 24 people in class and we had plenty of room during a workout which required moving around to multiple stations).  It would be difficult and extremely time-consuming to address every athlete's form.  That being said, I'm not sure anyone's form was corrected until the workout began (when the coach could roam around and take a closer look at everyone).  That could end badly, especially with newer athletes.
• Workout: Both parts of the workout were unique.  I'll cover them below.

The workout began with a strength element: the squat clean.  We were building up in weight, starting with multiple reps and building to a single rep.  If this was programmed at KOP, it would tend to show up in a 5-5-3-3-1-1-1 format or something similar.  The coach would probably tell us we had 20 minutes to complete that sequence.  The format here was an EMOM, or as they wrote it, an "E2:30MOM".  The sequence would be 3-2-1-1-1 and we had 2:30 to complete each segment of it.  Definitely unique, but I kinda liked it.  Kept me moving along through my progression of lifts and it gave me the proper amount of rest (at least it felt that way).

Choosing my weight for the first set was a little tricky.  I didn't have my lifting shoes, my wrist wraps, or my weight belt with me, so I thought I'd probably need to go lighter than I might if I had all my gear.  135 sounded about right to me.  About a minute before the "E2:30MOM" began, I tested out a squat clean with 135 and it felt easy.  I jogged over and grabbed two 10 pound plates to add to my barbell.  As I was sliding the second plate on, the timer buzzed and the strength portion of the workout began.  The first rep with 155 let me know that I had chosen a more appropriate weight.  It wasn't too heavy for me, but it was challenging.  After completing those three reps, I had over a minute and a half before the next set.  I took off the 10 pound plates and dropped them off as I retrieved 25 pound replacements.

The buzzer went off letting us know the second 2:30 window had begun.  This time I had my barbell ready.  It felt like I chose the correct weight again as two reps at 185 pounds wasn't easy, but I got through it.  Maybe I didn't need my gear after all.  I planned on going 215-225-235 for my singles.  With almost two minutes until my next "set", I went over and picked up some 15 pound plates and added them to my barbell.  I had some time to relax before the next lift.  The buzzer let me know when it was time to lift again.  Based on how well the sets at 155 and 185 went, I didn't think 215 would be awful, but it was.  I caught it properly, but it took all the strength I had to stand it up.  Scratch 235 from my future attempts.  In fact, I dialed back my next attempt too, deciding that it would be 220 rather than 225.

After adding 5 pounds to my barbell, I spent the rest of my break convincing myself that the difficulty that I had with 215 was a fluke.  I could get 220 on the next lift and 225 on my final lift.  Then I stepped up to my barbell and proved that was all a lie.  I caught my first attempt in the bottom, but try as I might, I could not stand up with it.  It felt like I was on my toes, so I lectured myself to stay in my heels on my next attempt.  With a 2:30 window for 1 rep, there was plenty of time for multiple attempts with breaks in between.  When I felt ready again, I took another shot at 220.  Caught it in the bottom, couldn't stand up with it.  This time I noticed that my knees were crashing inwards as I tried to rise.  I knew what my mistakes were on the first two attempts.  Could I fix them on the third attempt?  Nope.  For the third straight time, I caught the barbell like I should in the bottom of my squat, but I couldn't muster the strength to stand up with it.

About 20 seconds later, the buzzer sounded.  I had officially failed on round 4 of the "E2:30MOM".  I removed the 5 pounds I had added for the previous set and set my mind to doing a second squat clean at 215.  I waited until a minute had passed on the clock before I approached the barbell.  You would have thought 220 was still on the barbell as I caught it and failed to get upright for the fourth straight time.  I was less than pleased.  I decided I would wait for a full minute again and then give 215 one last go.  My stubbornness paid off when I grunted my way through a successful final attempt at 215.  

I'm not sure the wrist wraps or the weight belt would have made much of a difference for me, but I definitely noticed how important my lifting shoes are.  I've always thought they were important because they helped keep my heels down during lifts.  However, I now think the more important service they provide is stopping my knees from buckling inward.  That is a problem I haven't had to deal with for a long time, but as soon as I tried to go heavy without my lifters, the problem resurfaced.  I doubt that I'll start traveling with lifting shoes, but I might decide to go lighter on my lifts should I not have them with me.

There was still an 18 minute AMRAP remaining in the workout and it included something I had never seen before.  There was an RX+ option, something that I had at least seen a variation of at another box.  There was also a Masters RX, which I wasn't sure whether I qualified for or not.  What I had never seen before was an RX workout written in a way where you could choose one of two movements and either one would be considered RX.  And I needed that second option!  Here are the particulars:

Christmas Eve WOD:

18 minute AMRAP (RX in bold)

3 squat cleans at 165/115 (RX+: 205/135, Masters RX: 135/85)

36 double unders (RX+: 12 triple unders)

6 burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups (RX+: burpee bar muscle-ups, Masters RX: burpee pull-ups)

12 handstand push-ups or 3 wall walks (RX+: 30 ft handstand walk, Masters RX: 12 handstand push-ups using a 2"/4" rise or 2 wall walks)

Got all that?  Trust me, I had to revisit it a few times myself before I figured out how it all worked.  Even when it was all said and done, I had to check with the coach to make sure I completed the workout RX.  The squat cleans would be tough, but I didn't need to string them, so they were certainly manageable.  You know how much double under practice I've done this year.  The burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups worked for me because I couldn't string chest-to-bar pull-ups and in this format, no one would be allowed to.  The funky part of this movement was that after doing the burpee, we had to start in a dead hang for the chest-to-bar pull-up.  You couldn't run up to the bar and generate your swing that way.  Tough, but doable.  Finally, there was the option.  I couldn't do handstand push-ups, so having the option of doing wall walks instead allowed me to remain RX.  Wall walks were no fun, but I could push through three of them.

I had to move my barbell to the left side of the gym so that the right side could be used by the folks who were doing handstand walks.  I could do my squat cleans, my double unders, and my wall walks over on that side, but none of the higher pull-up bars were available.  I'd need to sneak back over to the right side of the gym to take care of that segment of the workout.  Despite all of the moving around I'd need to do in this WOD, I wasn't overly concerned about being in anyone's way.  (Crazy, given that 24 of us were doing this at the same time!)

Our coach got us started and I moved through my squat cleans one at a time.  No point in stringing these.  They felt heavy, which was not a great sign given that I had just started the WOD.  After the squat cleans, I moved to my jump rope.  The first round here was a downer as well.  Hit myself with the rope before getting a rep a few times.  The sets I did manage ended up being in the 5-10 rep range.  Didn't take me forever, but it took longer than I would have liked.  I dropped my rope and walked over to the other side of the pull-up rig.  There I began my burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups.  The burpees sucked as they always do, but I kept moving the whole time.  The chest-to-bar pull-ups were surprisingly not so bad.  The dead hang stipulation didn't affect me as much as I thought it might.  I finished up there and walked back across the gym to the wall and began the wall walks.  These are simply tedious energy-sappers.  I finished my third wall walk and looked at the clock.  Right about 4 minutes.

I knew my pace was likely to slow down, so my goal became 4 full rounds.  One more round in 4 minutes, the last two in 5 minutes each...that plan made sense to me.  At least it did before I began round two.  Those squat cleans?  They were brutal on my second trip through the rotation.  I almost failed on the second rep, which caused me to stop and take a break.  I knew I had spent much more time on the cleans in this round than I had my first time through.  My double unders improved though, as I had a set of 24 to begin.  I took a good 10 seconds before my next set and got the remaining 12 reps.  The burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups were probably slower, although that station and the next just felt like a slog that I had to push through.  It was hard to tell how fast I was moving.  I came over to the wall walks and needed a break between each rep to catch my breath.  I was hurting and starting to worry about how fast I could do two more rounds.  Perhaps I should have been worried about how fast I did this round.  At the end of round two, the clock showed that more than 9 minutes had elapsed.  I was behind the pace I needed for four rounds.

Crap.  So much for four rounds.  My only shot was if I somehow pulled it together in round three, but past experience has told me that my third round is usually my slowest.  I might have brought some anger from my second round performance over to the barbell.  I took care of the three squat cleans with little pause in between reps.  Then I went to my jump rope, got 25 reps in a row, and followed that with a set of 11.  Suddenly I was in the midst of my best third round ever.  The burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups were painful and my pace slowed there.  The wall walks were not great, but the key for me was trying to limit the length of my breaks between walks.  As I came down from the last wall walk, I peeked at the clock.  Time after three rounds: 13:40.

Glass half full: I did my third round in about 4:30, more than 30 seconds faster than round two.  Glass half empty: I needed to go faster than that to complete round four before time was up.  At least I knew it was possible.  I attacked the squat cleans, confident that I could move through them like I had in round three.  I picked up my jump rope and told myself to remain calm.  Then I pulled off 36 in a row.  YES!!!  Four rounds might really happen.  The burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups destroyed me, but I kept reminding myself that I only had to do six of them.  I speed-walked over to the wall with about a minute remaining.  I came down from the first walk and wanted a breather.  "45 seconds!", yelled the coach.  Don't fall short.  You worked too hard to fall short of four rounds.  I walked backwards up the wall and came back down.  "30 seconds!"  Gotta go!  I slowly trudged backwards on my hands as my feet ascended the wall.  I touched my nose to the wall and then walked myself back down as I heard "15 seconds!"  I had made it through four rounds, but I felt like the cherry on top would be getting one rep into the fifth round.  I hurried over to my barbell, did a squat clean, and stood up with it as the last few seconds ticked away.  Final score: 4+1.

It may not have been pretty, but I was really happy with how I turned things around in the final two rounds.  I laid on the floor for a while, gave my score to the coach, and then put my equipment away.  Before taking off, I purchased a t-shirt and snapped some photos of this huge facility.  Would definitely go back if I needed a place to work out in northern Alabama.

Left side of the gym (where I did my squat cleans, double unders, and wall walks)

Right side of the gym (where I did the E2:30MOM and the burpee chest-to-bar pull-ups)

Pull-up and ring rigs in the middle of the gym

What the KOP leaderboard would look like on steroids

My double under obsession continued on Christmas morning as I went out on my mother-in-law's back patio and tried once again to string 100 in a row.  The weather was perfect.  In the South, they would consider it freezing, but the slightly chilly temperature was right up my alley.  With less than a week until the year ended, I was hoping to complete one more of my 2016 goals, but the best I could do was 73 in a row.  This tiny bit of exercise made me feel slightly less guilty about the huge amounts of food I would consume later in the day.

Tuesday preview: I'm back at KOP!  A Tuesday weigh-in tells me that a mix of tequila and Southern cooking is not the recipe for losing weight.  I attempt the hero WOD Nate for the very first time.

Making It Look Light Over There

Workout date: 12/14/16

Wednesday would be my last class before a nearly two-week absence from KOP.  Jenn and I were spending Christmas with her mom and sister in Alabama.  Jenn also had a business trip in Miami from the 12th to the 14th and recommended that we bridge the two southern trips with a week in Mexico.  The wintry cold of Philly was never going to win out against the opportunity to swim everyday in Playa Del Carmen, so we booked the trip.  Not long after we made our plans, it was announced that Festivus would be on December 15th, the day of our flight to Mexico.  I'd be missing my favorite KOP event of the year.  Sigh.  The least KOP could do to make up for this scheduling fiasco was give me a final Advent challenge that I would really enjoy.  And they did.

Coach Jenna started off her 6:30 class with the Advent challenge, something I appreciated because there was lots of heavy lifting on tap in this class and I would need all of my strength for the challenge.  The Advent challenge involved atlas stones and I'd be taking on what I would unofficially call goal #11 for 2016.  At the beginning of the year, I came up with 10 goals for myself.  Had I remembered my battles with the 215 pound atlas stone, I almost certainly would have included getting that stone to my shoulder in my top 10 list.  However, the stones aren't brought out very often, so it slipped my mind and didn't make it on my list.  Conquering the 215 pound stone remained a high priority for me though and when I saw that it would be Wednesday's Advent challenge, I got a little giddy.

Jenna had the stones in two different locations.  The three largest stones were on a mat near the front of the gym, while the rest of the stones were laid out on a mat in the rear of the gym.  All of us started at that location.  The various stones weighed 35 pounds, 50 pounds, 70 pounds, 90 pounds, and 110 pounds.  Everyone tends to be shy about the atlas stones at first, going lighter than they need to because they don't have the technique down.  Once they figure out the technique and see how easily they can get the stone up to their shoulder, they're willing to take on bigger stones.  Our class of 8 people seemed to be milling around the three lighter stones.  I decided to go over and begin the line at the 90 pound stone.  I brought it into my lap, then popped it to my shoulder with ease.  Josh and Rob made their way over and duplicated my effort.  It wasn't an all-guys club though.  Raj, Ashley, and Danielle got the 90 pound stone up to their shoulders as well.  We each tried the 110 pound stone next.  I don't think Danielle got that one up to her shoulder, but the rest of us were able to.

I tried to convince Raj to join me and the other guys in attempting the 140 pound stone at the front of the gym, but she was reluctant.  (Spoiler: She can totally get that 140 pound stone, even if she doesn't know it yet.)  The three guys took on the 140 pound stone and we all got it to our shoulders.  Only two stones left.  The 175 pound stone is where you have to be really deliberate if you are going to move it up to your shoulder.  Josh and Rob tried, but couldn't make it happen.  I wrapped my arms around the stone and drew it up into my lap.  I sat there patiently until I was ready to drive up and roll it up to my shoulder.  The hip pop got the stone most of the way there and I used my momentum to roll it the last part of the way to my shoulder.  One stone left.

Because the atlas stones qualify as an oddball item at the gym, it shouldn't be too surprising that I show some ability with them.  Other characteristics involved in lifting atlas stones that benefit me:

• It's a very deliberate movement that you can split into parts
• You can rest in a squat
• There is no time component

Throw in that I've been obsessed with them ever since I watched just about every World's Strongest Man competition end with atlas stones and you had a recipe for success.  I wouldn't truly feel like I had conquered them though until I held the largest stone in the gym on my shoulder.  The most imposing stone we have at the gym weighs 215 pounds.  It is so large in circumference that I am unable to fully wrap my arms around it.  When I attempt to lift it, I squat real low and give it a big bear hug, hoping that my grip doesn't slip during the lift.  Twice in the past I've been able to get that stone up into my lap, but I've never gotten it up to my shoulder.

As I got ready to take on my old foe once again, I saw Samson hanging out over by the wall.  I could have asked him to take a photo of my attempt, but it seemed presumptuous to think that I was gonna get this stone up to my shoulder just because I had a camera lens trained on me.  (Mistake!)  I gave the stone a bear hug, but when I went to lift it into my lap, it slipped out of my arms.  The stone rotated when it came out of my arms and the way it landed was almost a sign from the Crossfit gods that they were going to allow me to lift the final stone today.  There was a small circular indent in the stone and it was now positioned exactly where the tips of my fingers reached as I hugged the stone.  By getting the tips of my fingers into this area of the stone, I was able to improve my grip substantially.  I went to lift the stone into my lap and was able to do it without much of a problem.  The real challenge was going from sitting in a squat with a 215 pound stone in my lap to standing with it on my shoulder.  I sat there for probably 10-15 seconds, unconcerned that I was tiring out.  I knew I could sit like that for a long time if I needed to.  I psyched myself up, knowing I needed to explode out of that position if I was going to get enough momentum to roll the stone up to my shoulder.  Finally, I went for it.  My pop out of the bottom was strong and the stone was nearly at my shoulder as I stood up.  I needed to roll it a bit, but I got it to my shoulder.  I'm not sure of the last time at the gym when I was as excited as I was in this moment.  And because I didn't ask Samson to take a photo of my attempt, I don't have a pic of my accomplishment.  (Moron!)  Samson did take a photo of Ryan A lifting the 215 pound stone earlier in the day, so at least you can take a peek at that and get an idea of what the accomplishment looked like.

Ryan A showing how it's done!

(Note: You could also choose a lighter stone and do as many reps as possible in one minute for the Advent challenge.  I decided to take my chances on lifting the 215 pound stone once instead.)

There was still more strength to come today as the WOD was heavily (see what I did there) focused on clean and jerks.  Actually, the main part of the workout involved doing a clean and a double jerk.  That wasn't a movement I was used to doing.  I think I've seen Faby do it at Open Strength a bunch of times, but that's about it.  This workout would come down to how much you were willing to bruise your upper chest because when you were transitioning from the first jerk to the second one, you were going to have to catch that heavy barbell with your body.  Luckily for me, I have almost no regard for my body.

With a clean and jerk PR of 225, I was shooting to get 205 for this part of the workout with the expectation that I'd likely fail at 215 if I got there.  I began with 115 pounds for my first lift.  Wasn't too bad, so I jumped up 30 pounds to 145 for my next attempt.  That went up without a hitch as well.  The barbell was still light enough that I could control it without crashing it on to my body between jerks.  I moved on to 165 from there and that was the first time I had to let my chest take a beating as I brought the barbell down from my first jerk.  There would be a lot more of that to come.  I took care of the second jerk and moved on to 185.

I had drifted off to my own little world as I progressed through the lifts.  The people working closest to me were Josh and Alexis and I had never worked out with them before.  They were having their own conversation, so I just kept to myself.  It wasn't until I got through the lift at 185 that I overheard Josh say something.  "He's making it look light over there" was the line that I heard and my natural instinct was to look around to see who he was talking about.  It didn't seem like anyone else had just finished a lift.  Then the light bulb went on.  I looked over at him and he confirmed he was talking about me.  That was one of the cooler things I've heard someone say to me at the gym.

I had been doing a squat clean for all of my attempts so far even though I didn't really need to.  The downside of always doing a squat clean is that it requires more energy.  The upside is that you're getting a lot of practice at a movement that is necessary when you're going after PRs.  My next lift at 205 was the first one where I really needed to squat clean.  I have the ability to do a power clean of 205 pounds, but I'd likely end up in an awkward stance from doing so and that wasn't going to do me any favors when I proceeded to jerk that weight twice.  I grabbed the barbell and performed the squat clean.  I caught it the way I would have liked, but it was tough to stand up.  The earlier squat cleans may have caught up with me.  I eventually stood up with the barbell and got ready for the jerks.  The first jerk was fine and I braced myself for the 205 pounds that was about to hit my chest.  It didn't feel wonderful, but I kept the barbell in the proper position for the second jerk.  I launched the barbell back overhead and passed my test at 205.

Based on the difficulty I had with 205, I didn't think I stood much of a chance with 215.  Weightlifting can be strange sometimes though.  You can struggle at a lower weight, then feel like a million bucks at a higher weight.  When I tried 215, the squat clean went much smoother.  The first jerk felt better than it had at 205.  It still sucked when I caught the barbell with my chest in between jerks, but my second jerk was an upgrade from how the second one I did at 205.  Suddenly I went from "I'll give 215 a try just for the hell of it" to "I might be able to get 225!".  As is often the case in situations like this, reality set back in.  I tried twice to squat clean 225, but couldn't make it happen.  No worries, I was more than satisfied with 215.

I had gotten so excited about getting 215 that I fell behind the rest of the class.  Jenna let me give 225 a couple of tries while the rest of the class began the cash out.  There weren't enough assault bikes for everyone anyways, so the unofficial staggered start worked out for the best.  Here's the cash out we took part in:

Wednesday's cash out:

10 clean and jerks (135/95)

30/20 calories on the assault bike

10 clean and jerks

It was gonna be quick and it was gonna make your legs hurt.  That's all I knew as I stripped my barbell down to 135 pounds.  My plan was to go fast (not all-out) on the first 10 clean and jerks, saving my legs a bit for the bike.  Same idea with regards to pacing on the assault bike.  Didn't want to get back to my barbell with no legs left.  I'd empty the tank on the last 10 clean and jerks.  

For the first set of clean and jerks, I decided to string reps, doing 4 sets (3-2-3-2) along the way.  Less than a minute had elapsed as I got on the assault bike.  Probably should have went harder on the bike than I did, but my pace was still fast.  Then I did quick singles for the last 10 clean and jerks.  Final time: 4:07.

It was time to say adios to KOP for a couple weeks.  I'd be missing Festivus and the 12 days of Christmas workout, but I'd be back for a few WODs before 2016 came to a close.

Holiday preview: Another attempt at the flight simulator, this time south of the border.  A visit to Crossfit Huntsville in Alabama.  That constitutes all of my holiday exercise, unless you include daily intoxicated swimming.

Ten Lizzy

Workout date: 12/13/16

I'm not sure if it was planned this way, but we had one benchmark workout this year that was programmed on the same day of the week each of the four times it showed up on the schedule in 2016.  I guess they wanted confirmation of how well I do Elizabeth at 7:30pm on Tuesdays.  As a reminder, here's what's involved in Elizabeth:

"Elizabeth"
21-15-9
Squat cleans (135/95)
Ring dips

Aside from the 3RM push press, Elizabeth was the only 2016 benchmark workout that I would be attempting four times.  I hadn't fared very well in my first three attempts:

• Attempt #1: Using 115 pounds for the squat cleans and a band to help me get through the dips, I finish in a less than inspiring time of 15:02.
• Attempt #2: A bit of an improvement on my March try.  Using the same standards, I trim 85 seconds off of my time to finish in 13:37.  Still pretty slow relative to most of the times in the gym.
• Attempt #3: This was always gonna be bad.  In my second workout since taking 5 weeks off from the gym, I struggle from start to finish, stopping the clock in a very pedestrian 19:31.  In the handicapping world, we would describe this performance as one you would "draw a line through".

The average time for most athletes on this workout seemed to fall in the 10-12 minute range and I was more than 90 seconds away from the high end of that range.  115 pounds didn't seem like too much weight for the squat cleans.  For JJ, I performed 55 squat cleans using a weight of 155 pounds.  This was 45 squat cleans using a weight of 115 pounds.  It didn't make sense that I could handle more reps at a heavier weight in a different workout.  I wasn't deviating from 115 pounds on this attempt.  As for the dips, it doesn't get any easier than doing them with a band, so that standard wasn't changing this time around either.

Dudes After Dark was 80% dude this week as Esra joined four fellas for this workout.  The other guys taking part in class were Neil, Cline, and Andrew.  Those three were not messing around with the barbell as they all loaded up more weight than I'd be using in this workout.  Cline and Neil were taking on Elizabeth using 125 pounds, while Andrew would be going RX (135 pounds, no band for the dips).  After some sassy banter and warmup with our fearless leader, LC, we got ready to take this on.  There was a second part to the workout that we would need time for and you never knew when someone was going to take nearly 20 minutes (ahem) to finish Elizabeth, so we had to keep things moving.  LC started the clock and we all got to work on our first round of squat cleans.

I had the same experience with the squat cleans on each of my first three attempts at Elizabeth.  It wasn't long before each squat clean felt like a punch to the stomach.  When I've done a very heavy squat clean for only one rep, I've felt pain in my legs.  There was something about the repetition of the squat clean that relocated pain central to your core.  No one likes being punched in the stomach over and over again, so my natural tendency was to cut my sets short once that sensation started.  It also made me walk away from the barbell and contemplate how badly I wanted to finish this workout.  

As I worked through the first set of my final attempt at Elizabeth, I noticed that I was not having this experience for a fourth time.  That was a relief.  I was only a few reps into the workout and I knew already that my previous best time of 13:37 was in trouble.  The absence of pain allowed me to start off with a much larger set than I had done in any of my previous attempts.  I got through 9 squat cleans before releasing the barbell.  This was definitely still a cardio test, but for the first time all year, it felt like a manageable one.  With 12 reps remaining, I made the decision to do sets of 3 the rest of the way, making a gentleman's agreement with myself that I wouldn't take long breaks in between sets.  Andrew was blazing through this workout and had already moved on to the dips as I took on my final two sets of three.  I got through those and headed to my own set of rings.

The rings are set up with four sets in the front and four sets in the back.  I staked my claim to a pair in the back row.  It was easy enough to walk around to the back from where I was doing my squat cleans.  I couldn't see the clock from there, but I didn't need to focus on that until the very end.  I got up on to my band without incident.  That really shouldn't be an accomplishment, but I've had all sorts of issues with getting on to my band in the past.  I made it through 9 dips before coming down and shaking out my arms.  I got 8 reps in my next set, then did one last set of 4 dips.  It felt like I was moving quickly through this WOD, but I hadn't seen the clock yet.  I came around the corner and saw 4 minutes and change.

With 21 of the 45 reps done on each movement, I was nearly 50% done with the workout.  I probably wasn't going to maintain my pace from the first round, but with over 5 and a half minutes remaining before the clock struck 10 minutes, I had honed in on a goal for this WOD.  If I could keep my time under 10 minutes, it would be an improvement of around 10 minutes on my disastrous attempt back in September.  How often do I have a chance at a 10 minute improvement?  Can you say never?

I took a deep breath when I got back to my barbell and set my mind to doing three sets of five.  The sets of three that I did to complete round one didn't feel awful.  Sets of five probably would, but I had to push if I was going to reach my new goal.  I made it through five reps and took a break.  I was okay with longer breaks in this round, but they couldn't be obscenely long.  And I couldn't do less than five reps per set if I was allowing myself longer breaks.  I stuck to that agreement, getting five reps in each of the next two sets.  I headed back to the rings.

The plan for this round of dips was to finish the 15 reps in two sets.  When I had to strain to get through 8 dips in the first set, I knew I might need a third set.  The fear with dips is that once they go away, you can't get them back.  My triceps were starting to burn and I began to get worried in advance about the final round of dips.  As I started the second set of this round, I thought I might get all 7 remaining reps, but I couldn't press out dip #6.  I came down from the rings, shook out my arms, then got back on the band and took care of my last two reps.

I may have looked at the clock on the way to my barbell, but I don't remember what time was showing.  I was zoned in on moving through these 9 squat cleans as fast as I could.  The squat cleans may not have been painful in round one, but they were no picnic in round three.  I did one set of three.  Then a second set of three.  Ignored the pain of the last set of three.  Nine banded dips and I was done.  That shouldn't take more than two sets.  I looked at the clock before I went around to the back of the rings.  It read 9:10.  I didn't need to rush, but I couldn't dilly-dally either.

How nice would it have been if I got on my band and fired off 9 consecutive dips to end the workout?  Pretty sweet, right?  Yeah...that didn't happen.  Nothing ever seems to be easy.  I did a set of 5, which was fine.  That didn't take more than 10 seconds.  Shook out my arms and got back on the band for the last 4 reps.  Did two and got wobbly, so I came back down.  Still ok, just shake out your arms and do two quick reps.  I got on the band, did 1 rep, then couldn't press out the last rep.  Seriously?  What is wrong with you?  Four sets to do 9 reps?  Goodbye 10 minutes!  I got panicky as it seemed like I had reached that point where my ability to do dips had evaporated into thin air.  I just needed one more though.  I hopped on to the band for a fourth time, dipped down, then pressed out using way more exertion than I should have needed to complete a single dip.  I came off the band and ran forward a couple of steps to see the clock.  Final time: 9:59.

Upon completing Elizabeth, we had 2 minutes to rest before getting 10 minutes to find a 2RM hang squat clean.  I spent the entirety of those two minutes with a smile on my face.  I was exhausted, but I finally felt like I conquered a workout that had slapped me around all year long.  I would follow Neil and Cline's lead and move up to 125 pounds the next time I took it on.

Andrew had finished in under 7 minutes, so he was already working on his hang squat cleans.  Neil finished near the end of my break.  I spent my rest period next to my barbell before doing two hang squat cleans with the 115 pounds I used in the workout.  Might as well make sure I get a score.  I went and grabbed some 25 pound plates for my next set at 165.  As I added them to my barbell, Esra finished up.  Cline had his pain face on as he was grinding through his round of nine.  I did two hang squat cleans with 165.  My progression the rest of the way was going to be 185-205-225, so on my next trip over to the plates, I loaded up on 10 pound plates.  Cline finished before I took on 185.  That set was more of a struggle than I would have liked.  I began mentally preparing for the inevitable failure at 225, if not 205.

Andrew's time had run out by the time I got around to attempting 205, so he stood by and cheered me on.  The set at 185: little struggle.  The set at 205: big struggle.  Sometimes the first rep will be okay and then you have to work really hard to hold on and do the second rep properly.  That was not what happened here.  I caught the first squat clean and remained stuck in the bottom for a few seconds before I managed to stand it up.  At that point, it didn't seem likely that I'd get the second rep.  I guess I just knew that I'd be able to stand up with 205 if I got under it again.  The second rep was exactly like the first.  Once I started moving upward, I knew I had it.

I'm not sure why I even bothered with 225 after that experience.  There might have been a part of me that thought I could pull off the same magic front squatting the weight from the bottom if I got under it.  I waited until I had about a minute left before attempting 225.  I sorta got under it, but not with great form.  I fought the barbell for a few seconds before I finally relented and dumped it to the floor. I had no interest in making a second attempt.  Tonight was about my Elizabeth time, not my 2RM hang squat clean weight.  Final score: 205.

I joined Andrew as part of the cheerleading squad and encouraged Neil, Esra, and Cline as they performed their last few sets.  Then it was on to the peg board as that was the Advent challenge of the day.  Only one of us could really climb the peg board and that was Andrew.  He went all the way up the peg board and came all the way back down twice.  Then he made a third ascent just for good measure.  I tied my previous best by advancing up two holes of the peg board.  It might not be my specialty.

Wednesday preview: My last class before my holiday trip.  All the heavy things are lifted.  The Advent challenge lets me take on an adversary that I haven't seen in over a year.