Searching for that dark place.

Man o man o man.  This morning was nasty.  Never thought I'd have a workout where the burpees weren't the worst part of it. 

Backing up, recap from yesterday.  Keto//OS is going good, feeling good, all that is on track.  The abundant energy did run out though... my body said it's time for night night at 8pm.  I mean I was in bed, under the covers at 8:09.  Wiped out.  Not saying Keto fuel should have kept me up or anything, just being tongue and cheek.  Lack of sleep with some good workouts can do that to ya.  Probably have a similar experience tonight. 

Woke up a few times from this 8pm slumber.  No bueno.  And it figures that the best sleep I got was in the two hours before the alarm was set to go off.  Up and attem again at 0500.  I think the class was about the same size today... apparently there is a 0430 class, cause there were 6 people or so going HAM on this workout when I got there. 

Started with the now familiar shoulder work, did some banded stretches off the rig... nice change of pace from all the wall work we've been doing.  Strength part was a 10 minute EMOM of 6 hang power snatches.  I'm happy I only put 15's on the bar for a comfy 75.  Snatching is still my weakest movement, and 6 hang snatches every minute for 10 minutes is a lot of MF snatches.  Like most things, my early rounds looked better than my later rounds.... and like most times, I discover a little bit more about myself, and the fundamentals of the movements near the end.  I strung together some nice looking/feeling one in the very last set, while being tired as heck. 

Alright... this METCON was brutal for me.  I saw it around 0100 this morning during a period of being awake, and was like yeah, I'm going to have to go to that dark place to get through this.  I'm still looking for my own dark place... I've found it a few times, but I don't know the way there yet... it's just kind of happened.  Here, let me take a step back.  My man Reggie, who's in Poland right now chasing his dreams (check the hashtag #‎ChroniclesOfADreamChaser‬ ) recently linked these two articles (here and here) about this very subject.  When I find the way, you can bet I'll have a separate blog post about it. 

40 air squats, 30 ring rows, 20 'merican KB swings, and 10 burpees.  4 rounds for time, 20 minute cap.  I knew going into this that I'd have to find the dark place in order to finish.... and not only did I not find the dark place, I stopped so many times, it was irritating.  I mean like "why the !@#$ are you stopping" level of tomfoolery.  The airsquats were absolutely brutal today.  I tried rolling out before hand, and working on some other bits, but my left quad refused to loosen up.  Felt like it was going to explode.  Early depth issues aside, the pain in my left quad was my main opponent today.  Made for some lengthy time on the air squats.

The ring rows were bad for everyone.  Keeping active shoulders seemed to put a lot of people into a level of discomfort they haven't had in a while.  I did ok.... broke them up into a lot of sets... feel like I've lost a little bit of capacity on these as my sets were merely 3's.  Not sure why I can't do sets of 5 consistently anymore...  maybe I need that #darkplacementality on these as well. 

KB swings were light and easy.  Highlight of the workout... though, the reason they were easy is that I was using a 35 and not a 55....I built this break in for the sake of knowing I'd likely need a small break.  Maybe it wasn't the best idea?  Either way, I appreciated the break.  The burpees were burpees.  Nothing great or bad about it it, just is what it is.  I did my best to jump up every time.  Think I only stepped up on 2 or maybe 3 burpees, not bad.  All in all, I got through 3 rounds... not the full 4.  Not awful I supposed, but not what I wanted to get done today.  Good workout though. 

Stretched, rolled, and used one of those stick things on my quads... still sore.  Probably be taking tomorrow off, or at least doing something else instead of squatting... then again, might squat and be just fine.  Struggling a bit this week, and I feel a majority of it is my sleep cycles, or lack there of.  Going to hopefully sleep fitfully tonight, and get back on track.