11/5 - 'Cindy' Rx!

So it seems ‘birthday week’ kick-ass wods continues.  I walked in to the box and saw ‘Cindy’ on the board and as captivated by her charms – or at least her benchmark-ness.  Going in the plan was to limit any use of my shoulder (still recovering from ‘Grace’) but I just couldn’t resist going all out in ‘Cindy’.  It’s been a very long time since we’ve done ‘Cindy’, since January actually and I wasn’t Rx-ing it back then (15/18 with orange band and knee push-ups).  We did ‘Half Cindy’ in early April and I scored 6/1 Rx and then again in August we did ‘Cindy’ with a twist – 4 rounds of 5 minute AMRAP ‘Cindy’ with 2 minutes of tabata plank holds in between each round.  I scored 13/19 then Rx. 

Spoiler Alert… I went Rx and beat all those scores.  I am also paying the price for it now.  I know better but we’ll get to that part. 

WOD Benchmark “Cindy” 
20 min AMRAP
5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 squats 
16/2 Rx 

Honestly, with how my (left) shoulder felt going in I really shouldn’t have done it – both pull-ups and push-ups only aggravate my chronic bicep tendonitis but I couldn’t help myself.  I really wanted to see where I was at and so I did.  I figured I’d maybe get 5 rounds in and have to back off in some form but figured that even 5 rounds would be a PR.

From the start the pull-ups felt solid.  I made myself some grips from tape before we’d started which were a major reason why I didn’t rip my hands and/or slow down enough to not rip my hands.  I just went for it – with enough chalk too that would have Angie proud.  Probably the first 10 rounds or thereabouts I stayed on the bar for all 5 reps.  They really did feel good.  Thereafter as I was starting to get tired I stuck with my plan of doing 3-2 each round and not dropping down to singles at any point.  I wanted to force myself to bang out the extra reps when I would have rather come off the bar as it’s going to help me get more going forward.  There were times where I’d lose my momentum for the third rep but I was strong enough to reset my kip or just muscle it up a bit more and sneak by.

These saved me...

The push-ups truly are the hardest part of this WOD.  The first few rounds I did them unbroken then quickly was down to two sets of 5.  The back half I was doing 5-3-2 and not letting myself do anything else – I was determined to get those first 5 and then take a quick shake out of my arms before pushing onwards.  I think that they did feel a little easier at times (especially early on) because I have been doing a lot more handstand push-ups lately (and as Coach Match pointed out – a lot of presses which are a similar movement – thanks ‘Grace’).  Although they slowed me down a bit I didn’t stop too much which was good.  Before I knew it I was back onto the squats.

I couldn’t figure out this morning why my legs were so sore as I always equate ‘Cindy’ to an upper body workout but then I thought about it and I actually did 240 squats so it only makes sense my legs are also tired.  I did every round unbroken.  Apparently at times I need to get a tiny bit lower to achieve full depth (though no one mentioned this until the WOD was over).  Something to work on – though on the plus side I was using my glutes and my knees were staying out – so many things to think about but it was good.

I was happy with this one and it’s a good warm-up for ‘Murph’ that we’re doing in a few weeks for Cooee’s second birthday.  I’m excited to (finally) Rx this one.  Hopefully I can finish it somewhere around the 45 minute mark which would also beat my previous time of 53:57 (with red band and knee push-ups).

I didn’t mobilize or stretch after ‘Cindy’ which was a big mistake.  I’m sore all over today, especially my shoulder.  I have recurring bicep tendonitis in my left shoulder from years of paddling (dragonboat especially) that has damaged me.  When I overuse my shoulder then tendon gets inflamed and because there is so much built up scar tissue the problem only propagates without proper rest (to let the inflammation go down).  There are no magic stretches or strengthening I can do to help I just need to rest (and get needled and massaged and heat it).  Rest.  It’s a killer word for a crossfitter but I need to heed my own advice here and listen to my body even if there’s another sexy girl staring me down later this week.  Don’t let me do it.

I know people often post in advance about work-outs they are going to do so the interwebs can hold them accountable well this is my plea to hold me accountable to NOT using my shoulder this week.  No pull-ups or push-ups or burpees, no cleans or presses or snatching.  I’ll limit my lifting to squats and deadlifts and any body weight movement will not require my arms.  I need to rest.