12/19 - 'Randy' and Tabata

Third day in a row at the box and it’s been a good week so far.  The holiday excitement is in the air and is pushing me a little bit more these days.  Tim had mentioned that he’d be at the box before class to do some clean and jerk work and I decided I’d try to get in early as well with a plan to get ‘Randy’ (it is so not a dad joke Cam!).   Southern had programmed ‘Randy’ (75 power snatches) for the day and I knew Cam would be doing it – since he was also coming over for dinner I figured I’d definitely hear all about it from his so I figured I’d do it instead.  It worked well too considering I wanted to work on snatching rather than C&J’s (did a bunch of those last week).  So I told Tim that was my plan and then of course it was pretty much set in stone.  He was no doubt holding me accountable.  It was good as well as it’s been a really long time (pre-Primal Throwdown) since I’ve done multiple WODs in a day.

WOD #1

‘Randy’

75 power snatches (25/35kg)

6:35 Rx.5

This was much harder than I expected.   A while ago Coach Match had programmed a similar WOD at lighter weights (20.5/30kg) and it took me about five and a half minutes to finish it.   Since that was almost 3 months ago I figured that I could probably do the slightly heavier weight in about the same time.  I was wrong.

I did the first 10 reps unbroken and being able to put the bar directly back onto the ground (rather than catching on my thighs which I usually do when the weight is heavier – to save my shoulders from being ripped off my arms).  The rest were done in sets of 5.  I tried to rest as little as possible but it’s amazing how heavy 25kg starts to feel after that many reps.  Angie was a great cheer squad and had a great cue about half way through telling me to be quick through the middle which made getting the bar overhead much easier though towards the end my forearms/ grip started to go.  By the end when Tim told me to get the last 5 done unbroken I almost couldn’t hold the bar.  I’m pretty sure that rep 4 and 5 of that set I was just curling my fingers around the bar and hoping I wasn’t going to drop it.  Made it though.  A minute longer than last time at the lighter weight but still a good effort.

It was interesting to be solo in doing a WOD and trying to push the intensity on my own, or at least with only a few people cheering me on.  There was also no music which I really noticed early on, no distraction just me and that bar, repetitive motions.  Definitely as much a mental WOD as it was a physical one today.

WOD #2

“Tabata This”
Wall balls (6/9kg)
Row for calories
Shuttle runs
Knees to elbows

62/49/49/56 = 216

We worked in ‘teams’ on this one – basically we all did all the work we just rotated stations with our ‘team’ with teams all starting on different movements and rotating through in order.  Angie, Tim and I were a team and it was great.  I chose wall balls to start basically because I was standing beside them at the time, because they were first on the list and out of everything they were the ones I was least looking forward too – figured might as well get them out of the way first.  So glad we did because I couldn’t even have imagined doing them once we finished the knees to elbow.  They would have really hurt (more).  For the wall balls we could select the weight we used and the line we went to but had to stick with it.  I ended up using the 9kg med ball so I only went to the 8 foot line.  This was hard enough especially after ‘Randy’.

The row was fine.  The only down side was trying to get moving again after each 10 second rest.  Once you were going hard it was almost time to stop again.  I was hoping for 50 calories but came up about half a stroke short unfortunately.  Working on it.

The shuttle runs were awesome.  I kept pace with Angie and Tim on the first couple and then decided to try and keep pace with Tim for them all.  He got about a half length lead on me at times but I’d close in just before time ended so I was on pace until… until the last 20 seconds.  He shot straight out of the gate, full on and I went right with him.  Unfortunately he got one more rep in than me, though I was only half a length behind him he managed to just touch the wall when time ran out and I didn’t.  Boo.  Was definitely good tough and I was happy consistently getting 6 lengths per round until getting that bonus one on the last go.

The knees to elbows were truly horrible.  My hands were (are) killing.  Even though I had my hand grips on it was still really hard to hold onto the bar – between my lack of grip strength from ‘Randy’ and the (very) sore callouses on my hands from hanging off the bar so much this week it was a battle.  My abs also started to really feel it after the first few rounds as well.  I was quite happy when they were over and we were completely done for the day.

Cam came over for dinner and we did a good debrief on ‘Randy’ and more importantly feasted on bbq… steak and veggies, so happy.

My body is quite achy today from the last three days.  I’m back in tonight for what I hope is a chipper (was begging Coach Match for one as it’s been forever since I’ve done one) which should be fun.  Rest day tomorrow (Friday) and if the world doesn’t end then back at it again for Saturday’s Cooee Christmas WOD – ‘The 12 Days of Christmas’, one of my faves because of the excitement of drawing it out of a hat.  Then it will be a few days of rest and/or playing on my (new) SUP that is coming soon (hopefully it’s on a plane now).  Can’t wait as I saw a photo of it yesterday and it is AMAZING!

Also, huge, HUGE congrats to Angie who killed her goal of getting unassisted pull-ups by the end of the year – she not only did one, but she did two’s and three’s a few times and made it look easy at that.  Awesome work chick!  I knew you had it.  Next pull-up WOD… Rx!!

Angie rocking the kipping pull-ups! Source

The graphics on the new SUP