Man, it was a good WOD. Legs are a bit wobbly. This whole push from your heels thing is starting to get old, but I said my goal for the month was better form, thats part of the package...so quit complaining. Right?
So the skill/strength part of today workout was a 3 part piece. Not quite an EMOM, but a go at you own pace, 60 seconds rest between activities type of day. Rear squats, ring rows, and these things called partner leg tosses. To warm up for the squats, we started at a lower weight and were building up to something approaching the 60%. 5 sets of 3. In between each set, do 3 negative moment pullups. Got to 105 for my 60%...no idea if this is accurate, but we're about to start going.
Take a second to say my knees feel good. I mean they're creaky, but good, nothing like they used to be. Warm up squats were good, stayed back on the heels for the most part. Form is getting better.
First set of squats, they're rough, I'm struggling now. What happened? Warmup was good, maybe I went to heavy? Idk. Linz is here. Thats Adrian's girl, she happens to work where I work, though until today, I'd never met her. These two are the consensus Oly lifters. Adrian is fantastic, and everyone tells me he's the best Olympic lifter/form guy of the coaches. They've also told me that as awesome as Adrian is, Linz is better. Maybe she'll coach someday? Either way, happy to have their feedback.
The rep scheme for this was 8 rear squats, 60 second rest, 6-8 ring rows, 60 sec rest, 15-20 partner leg tosses, rest 60 seconds. x3. I get 6 squats in and have to re-rack. Adrian suggest I go wider with my stance... no box to squat on, instead, lets make it wider. Ok, sure. I do an air squat. He and Linz nod. Say go a little wider. Another air squat. Adrian tells me "thats the best squat I've seen you do yet". Hmmm. Guess wider is better... I'm sure this will change as I get smaller, but for now, we're going wide. Finish the last 2 of the set, and both he and Linz are pleased, they apparently look much better.
I'm happy for this feedback. My quads are getting killed out here, but I really want this to be done right, safely, and...well right. LOL. Better squats=better everything. Might have unlocked a whole new WOD experience with this revelation. Time will tell.
Ring rows...I'm still the king, nothing to say here. These partner leg tosses though...I don't have the words tonight to explain it...if you don't know, watch this. These things...I think they're supposed to be ab intensive. I must have killer abs, because that wasn't my problem. My quads though...these roasted them. Around number 7, my legs are on fire. It takes everything I have to get to 10 without stopping. I get that 10th, it's over, I'm done with those. I lay flat on my back for about 10 seconds, just long enough for the pain to go away, then it's back to squats...which also abuse my quads...
This second round of squats was gnarly. I struggled, at one point I was at the bottom, and was starting to move forward... I fought back up to standing and re racked. No sense thinking about a near miss. Get back in and finish my 8. Adrian has clearly seen my struggles. By the time I'm ready for round 3, he's got my 25's instead of 35's on the end of my bar. Need to finish strong, and I did. Wow. My legs are nice and shredded. Whats that you say? There is more? Awesome.
METCON is 8 minutes long. 2 minutes row for max calorie count, 2 minutes box jump overs. Repeat. The first 2 minutes were terrible. I struggled to stay in a rhythm. My legs wanted me to stop. They told me on more than one occasion that they'd fall off if I didn't listen. I can tell you now that they are liars. They didn't fall off. pfft.
My box jump overs...rather than doing the step up and over I'd been doing, I wanted to get better about jumping, so I'm using two plates to jump on then over. Baby steps. More than a few times I had to just step up and over. I've got 4 more minutes of this stuff? Man!
The second bout of rowing didn't go so well, I gave it the good fight, but I was gassed, fighting for air. I didn't hit my initial rowing calorie count, taking the time to go from plates to the rower robbed me of some extra time. I also stopped a few times just to let the pain subside a wee bit. That last 20 though, I pulled like it was my life on the line, those calories started jumping up. Time!
The plates are now mountains to jump onto. I do a few steps, do a few jumps, then it happened. I tripped. I wasn't concentrating. I though this is it, I'm going to eat it. No. Didn't happen, those tired legs, combined with my cat like reflexes saved me from eating a curb of concrete...yeah, forgot to mention we did this part outdoors.... I ended up stumbling into the grass. Coach J is wodding with us. See's the whole thing. "You ok Dan?" Yeah, I'm fine, I give him the nod and Fonz-esque thumbs up.
From then on, I put everything in the jumps. Didn't want to risk face planting, and quite frankly I was behind now. Got close to the target I set...seems I can always do a little more. Need to get that mentality on all the time. Hope this is a lesson learned for box jumping. I don't really want to eat it when I make it to real boxes.
I finished...everyone finished. I wanted to sit down...heck, I wanted to lay down, but thats never been my thing. Couldn't put a finger on it, but it was never something I felt I needed to do. Box happened to put this out there today.
http://70sbig.com/blog/2014/06/stop-flopping-after-a-wod/
I don't know that it's worth sharing, but at the same time, it is. Take it or leave it, either way. I didn't even sit down after that torture. Put up my rower, weights, etc, and walked around a bit to cool down. Brutal and awesome at the same time. Shoulda worn the Olys. Maybe next time...
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