Last night, I went for a slow 2 mile run. I could feel that my hip was stiff, but I also felt it loosening as I ran, so I’m glad I did it. But even going slow, I felt drained, especially after I did my post-run walking lunges (10 pound plate overhead, 30 forward, 30 backward). It’s not that I didn’t enjoy spending some well-earned time in the hot tub once the run was done, but when I left the gym I turned into a zombie until after I ate dinner. I was even talking with a flat affect, which is not at all like me (and actually really bugs me when other people do it).
I don’t know how people make it through real boot camps – I’m only working out once or twice a day, and I’m beat. And I get to have caffeine!
I woke up 8 minutes before the alarm this morning, and I considered staying up for all of 2 seconds before I went back to sleep until the beeping began. It felt like a slow morning, but I made myself get up and get dressed and check the WOD online. It seemed… too easy to be true:
EMOM for 10 minutes:
– 1 Rope Climb
– Max Shoulder 2 Overhead
Of course, this followed the skill section which involved practicing the rope climb, pistols and double unders. But still – every other minute on the minute for 10 minutes, I thought, was not that hard. And my interpretation of max shoulder to overhead was loading up on weights and doing a rep.
I was so wrong.
That’s not EOMOM, it’s EMOM. Every Minute On the Minute. And the max part? That means do as many reps as you possibly can before the next minute starts. And that number is what you put on the board.
But first, I got to practice my rope progressions. You do 3 progressions to equal 1 rope climb. I’m still having to use bent knees rather than straight legs as I use my upper body to pull myself from laying down to upright along the rope. My upper body strength is not there yet for doing real rope climbs, but I really, really want to. I actually kind of tried, but I had a hard time even holding myself on the rope, let alone locking my feet around it and getting off the ground.
Then there were the pistols, also known as one-legged squats. These I’ve been trying to do for years now without much success. The progression for them is to use the rig as a pole of sorts and walk yourself down to the squat with your arms helping out. Then walk yourself back up. Easy, right? Actually, it was pretty easy for my right leg, even though it was really sore. I felt like I could almost do it without the assist. Almost. My left leg is significantly weaker. It did not want to stand up once it was down. Oddly though, it got easier to do as I progressed in the rounds, until at the last round I felt like the left leg was making progress.
The double unders are still difficult for me. I didn’t manage to do any today, though I did work on them. I was instructed to not bend my knees, to get a big bounce off my toes, to use my wrists and not my arms to swing the rope and I still couldn’t get it. I’m going to blame the rope for being just a little too long for my short self, but I know that it’s also a timing and mental thing. Once I get it, I think I’ll make good progress.
Then it was time to set up for the overhead presses. Strict presses were not recommended for this exercise, since we were supposed to do as many as possible, and the best press for that was the push press. Quick, but not too straining to do repeatedly. I tried doing 45 pounds and ended up deciding on 35 pounds for this particular exercise. It was a good choice.
I thought yesterday’s workout was weird, but this was crazy. 3 rope climb progressions, then dash to the barbell and do overhead presses until the minute came, then back to the rope. Repeat. And again. Etc…
I think I could have done better. I feel like I was scared of the press and the pain in my shoulders from the repeated rope pulling, and I didn’t do as many reps as I could have. Maybe. But I know I worked hard. My hands are torn up from the rope, and, like I said to another person at the end of class, “It’s low fives today, because we can’t lift our arms for high fives.”
This workout killed my arms, even though I was only doing 35 pounds and I only got in 95 reps. (I was so close to 100 – I think what kept me from that was that I did a set of progressions leading with my left hand instead of my right. I was trying to balance myself, but the left is weaker and slower so I lost time.)
By the time I walked home, I was euphoric with the afterglow of the workout.
By the time I went to work an hour later, I was exhausted and whiny.
If I’m going to misunderstand the WOD like I did today again, then it might be better not to check it before I go. I’m not sure why I check it really. It isn’t like I decide to go or not based on the WOD. I’m going, no matter how scary it seems, no matter how worried I am that I might not be able to do it, or that I might mess up. I have “messed up.” I’ve dropped weights, been the last to finish, finished embarrassingly fast with low weights and progressions and it hasn’t mattered.
Finishing matters. Trying matters. Pushing matters. Which is why I’m getting up at 5am again tomorrow.