Friday's Workout

I woke up at 3:15 a.m. and couldn't fall back asleep. But because I'd turned in early last night, I still managed to get 6 hours of sleep. Granted, 6 hours ain't sufficient for optimal health, but at least I was rested enough to keep from dropping a barbell on my head or chucking a kettlebell through some drywall.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Pull-Ups (3 sets of 3, 2 sets of 1)

I fared better than last week, but I'm still not matching some of my previous efforts. I wish I could chalk it up to still being sick, but I suspect that the real culprit is my lack of practice.

Metcon:

For time:

• 500-meter row
• 30 burpees
• 10 shoulder-to-overheads

Yes, more rowing -- but it went surprisingly well (or, at the very least, not altogether shitty) today. I kept up a decent speed while maintaining a low stroke rate, and finished relatively quickly. I usually view the erg as a medieval torture device, but not today.

The burpees were a different matter. Normally, I'm not a burpee-basher -- in fact, there's a part of me (a very, very small part) that gets a sadistic kick out of 'em. But the rowing had injected enough lactic acid into my thighs to make the burpees extra-painful. Instead of reeling off 20 -- or even 10 -- in a row, I had to stop after every few reps just to shake out my legs. (It didn't help, by the way.)

By the time I hobbled over to the barbell, my quads, glutes and hammies were fried. Sadly, my legs weren't yet off the hook: I needed 'em to help jerk the loaded bar overhead. Even with a 115-pound weight (instead of the RXed 165 pounds), I still had to set the bar down twice before completing the set of 10 reps. (Nonetheless, I'm going heavier next time -- even if only to make myself feel like less of a wimp.)

Result: 5:52. This workout may not look like much, but my legs are still feeling it.