Wednesday, March 9, 2016

16.2 one hand giveth, the other taketh away.

I attempted this WOD 3 times....  I knew, or had a good feeling that I could make it to the second round of this one, if I could just get past the hanging... and the jumping.... the cleans I've got.  

Round 1.  Picked a skinny bar, with no tape.  My thought being that I'd hang all 400 some pounds by my fingertips, and do knee raises.   Really, that was my thought process.  Let. Me. Tell. You.  Sososososososoooooo wrong.  LOL.  Laughably so.  I think at one point, I literally fell right off as I was trying getting ready to do the raises.  I was actually up on a box behind the bar for two reasons.  One, it's an easy grab from there, two, the box being behind the bar, I know where my feet need to make contact to count as being behind (or breaking the plane of) the bar (a requirement).  Knowing that, me falling right off makes more sense.... it was basically stepping down from a box. 

Round 1 sucked.  I used the full meaty part of my hands, and that much weigh on a thinner bar (maybe 1, 1.5" diameter).  In the 4 minutes, I struggled.  I languished.  I fell off the bar.  I jumped off the bar.  My hands were decimated.  I got exactly 21 reps.  When I say decimated, there are several other adjectives... but they were beat red and uber tender to say the least.  I didn't want to touch anything for a bit.  Diana was judging, she was encouraging and patient... I thank her.  After we were done, she suggested me trying a different bar.  Just to test it, I went into the B side (or what I call the B side) of the box, and reached up, grabbed this thicker bar, and did two on the spot, roughed up hands and all.  SO much better.  I knew right then, where I was doing my second attempt.  The bar is thicker, and it's shorter, so no box needed.  Good combo. 

I didn't realize then, that I was going to try it again in 20 minutes.  I helped change weights for a round of RXers, and then asked Brandon Hearn if he had time to do it.  I talked to him about the failures the first time, and what my plans were to fix it (mainly the different bar)... he was game, so off we went. 

Round 2.  MY HANDS!!!!!    O lawd, they hurt so bad after  the fist set of 4 unbroken.  I came off the bar a bunch this round, but I got through all 25 reps.  Took something like 2 minutes.  That gave me 2 minutes for the cleans and jump roping. 

I had a solid jump rope session.  Didn't come close to being unbroken, but I have a few larger sets, and only a few breakdowns.  Took about a minute... not a good time, but all things considered, it was alright.

Got the bar with less than a minute to go.  Think I banged out 4.  I was tired, but happy I'd made it to the bar.  Time up.  I looked at my hand, and saw a nice little baby blister forming already.  Great... 

Thanked Brandon, went to talk to Diana who was in the middle of a workout, was like hey, check this, I improved by 58 reps.  Total of 79.  I'm pretty pumped.  Without skipping a beat, she was like good job, but not as good as I did.  Oh yeah?  Whats your score?  And then she said, "... you'll have to login and check the leaderboards". 

Game effing on.  That was a challenge, straight up, and I loved it. 

Didn't check it right away thought... LOL.  I went home though, and eventually I did check it.  She had me beat by one.  Good thing I still had Monday (my first two attempts were on Sunday).  I plotted and schemed.  Thought about doing things like numbing my hands with ice before I tried.  Even game planned a little before I came in.  I was ready, hungry, and rearing to go. 

I just knew I was going to hit round 2.  My hands had a night to rest up, heal, or otherwise stop hurting.  I'm ready. 

Round 3 was here.  Suddenly I don't feel so ready... shook it off.  Lets go.  I crushed my first split time off the bar.  Biggest change, I didn't care about the pain as much, and I focused on stringing together the knee raises.  Took just over 1 minute.  #winning  Then came the single unders.  This is also where the one hand giveth, the other taketh away comes in.  Pardon my french, but I shit the bed... I couldn't string enough together to get it done with any urgency.  Frustrated.  Two minutes to do 50 singles.  Took me right out of the second round.  With a minute to go, I put a lot more urgency in the cleans, but I was gassed and mentally defeated already... I ended up with 7 cleans.  Beat my old score by 3, beat Diana by 2.  Still not the score I wanted, but it was what was going in. 

As I sit here and write this, I want to go try it again, I know I can do it, and now it will be just for me, not for a score that counts against anyone....

On the off chance you're wondering, destroyed that blister... didn't even feel it till I was done... ick, and ouch. 

Updates from everything else.... diet is slowly but surely improving.  Getting more and more of the good, less and less of the bad.  Attendance isn't any better.  I'm doing a work in stall right now, waiting for a piece to finish as I type... I miss the road.