Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Wednesday's Workout: Rope-a-Dope

I don't know why I can't bring myself to hit the sheets. Last night, after putting the kids to bed and hanging out with M as she practiced her deadlifts in the garage, I spent a couple of hours fumbling around with Illustrator and Photoshop. Trial-and-error ain't the most time-efficient way to cobble together T-shirt designs for my enterprising wife's website -- but if all goes well, they'll look something like this and this.

Finally, at 11 p.m., my phone buzzed with a Twitter message from Tim: "Go to bed. Got a good one tomorrow."


Don't we always?

The 5 a.m. workout, after the jump.

Strength Skill:
I love Zerchers, but I wasn't feeling it today. My final set was sufficiently heavy/challenging to feel like a PR-worthy effort, but I was still 10 pounds off my 205-pound high-water mark (set back in December). Crap.

That's what I get for being fuzzy-headed and weak from lack of sleep. What a dope.

Metcon:

For time:
  • 50 double-unders
  • 4 burpees
  • 40 double-unders
  • 6 burpees
  • 30 double-unders
  • 8 burpees
  • 20 double-unders
  • 16 burpees
  • 10 double-unders
  • 20 burpees
Crazy.

Good thing I came prepared. I grabbed my lucky rope out of my gym bag. (Yes, it travels with me now.) The box's ropes are fine, but I like bringing my own -- it's sized appropriately, and it doesn't have any frayed metal fibers that might snag on my clothing. Plus, it's a slightly heavier rope, which -- for whatever reason -- just feels better. It may not be quite as fast, but I've found it easier to slip into the right tempo when I'm using my rope.

Or maybe I'm just superstitious. Hey -- whatever works, right?



Given that my double-under breakthrough came just a few weeks ago, I figured the jump-rope portion of today's workout would be the rate-limiting step. But I was pleasantly surprised: I got through all the double-unders with relative ease. Although I got tripped up a few times during the middle set (of 30 reps), the other sets flew by.

After getting gassed by the double-unders, though, the burpees were hell on earth. I don't think I managed to string together more than four burpees in a row without stopping for looooong pauses to knead my thighs and gasp for air. It felt like someone took a baseball bat to my legs.

But Tim was right. It was a good one. And the whole thing took less than ten minutes.

Result: 9:42 as RXed.