12/15 - Tabata's...

WOD #1
400m KB farmers carry – 5 KB push-up penalty every time you put it down
16kg (didn't put them down at all)

This one became a purely mental test of strength by the end - there was a 5 pushup penalty to be done immediately upon putting the KB's down...  I didn't want to do this as I was sure I wouldn't pick them up again.  At the start I would alternate between a regular grip and just having them hang from my hooked fingers to rest my forearms but towards the end I couldn't do this anymore - once I got to 100m left I was thinking about how angry Match would be if I dropped the KB's on the concrete so I just decided I wasn't going to and tried to shift them around to relax my forearms as much as possible.

Managed to rip one of my calluses doing this though after all the pull-ups the day before it wasn't surprising... sadly though it still really hurt.

I'm not sure where I went to during this WOD but it was some other place mentally - just believing I could do it - ignoring the pain and moving forward, not stopping.  It was different and awesome and really helped set me up for the next WOD...

WOD #2
Tabata hollow-body
Tabata squats
Tabata superman
Tabata push-ups
Tabata double/single-unders
141 squats/ 85 pushups/ 167 DU's

No rest between each Tabata.

I was beside Tim for this WOD and it really pushed me.  I managed to keep my legs up for all 8 of the hollow-bodies which is a first for me - I did bend them on the last four or so but still kept them elevated and went to another place mentally - just breathing through it (yoga) and focusing on the engaged muscles and using more of my core (not just specific muscles) to spread the work - when I focused on them I could engage different groups which was quite cool.

On the squats I was matching Tim (and he went fast!) - I was motivated to just keep up - and I did even when he pushed even faster on the 5th set.  It was fun - I snuck in one more rep than him when he had a brief pause in the last round and he wasn't happy about it... the battle was one from there on out (all in good fun!).

Superman's were fine, again focusing on the engaged muscle groups and relaxing my shoulders down and back rather than having them creep up to my ears which is wasted tension.  Again, breathing through these sets really helped keep me focused to get through the 20 seconds.

Pushups... horrible - especially after the supermans.  I did them from my knees and tried to keep a solid pace - 20 in the first round then 15 and from then on I was just hoping to get 10ish per round which I did mostly until the end.

Double Unders... Tim knew this was where he would catch me though I did try and put up a good fight - haha!  He told me after he was worried a bit after the first two rounds where I went unbroken right along with him but in the third round I struggled - I kept stumbling and then just gave up to give myself a bit of an extra breather before going hard again.  I managed in total 167 which kicked my previous PR of 115...  I was only behind Jack by 6 (which makes me wish I'd not struggled so much in round 3)... came 3rd overall for the day on this one which I'm super happy about given the amount of work I've been putting into consistency.  It was hard though - my shoulders were screaming after the pushups but got through it.

I really enjoyed today's WOD... took me to a different place mentally and really allowed me to focus on the muscles being used and breathing which was a good change of pace.

Also... weighed myself for the first time in two months (hadn't seen much change on the scale previously even though close were getting looser)... turns out I'm down 8 lbs (3.6kg)... and I'm feeling a lot stronger... I'll take them both!