Friday's Workout: Slow Burn

M and I woke up late this morning. By the time we arrived at Kauai CrossFit after a long drive down the Kuhio Highway, it was a couple of minutes after 6, and Jerome had already begun leading the group through some light stretching.

Thankfully, we didn't miss any of the scheduled warm-up:

Jump rope for 3 minutes, and then three rounds of:

• 30 seconds of handstand hold
• 30 seconds of chin-over-bar (basically, a static hold at the top of a pull-up)
• 30 seconds of L-sit
• 30 seconds of mountain climbers

Yes, the warm-up was just 9 minutes long, but by the end, I'd already worked up a nice sweat. (Which, by the way, isn't hard to do while exercising outside in the warm, muggy air.)

Next: the main event.

Metcon:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:

• 5 handstand push-ups
• 10 dumbbell ground-to-overheads (35lbs / 25lbs)
• 15 toes-to-bar
• 20 bent-over dumbbell rows (35lbs /25lbs)

I knew I could do all these movements using the RXed weights (i.e., a pair of 35-pound dumbbells), and I wasn't concerned about the toes-to-bar -- but I also recognized from past experience that the HSPUs would take me forever to finish. (And possibly cause facial hemorrhages to boot.) All of this was expected.

What I didn't expect was that the dumbbell moves would take me as long as they did. I especially struggled with the bent-over rows; although I have a vague recollection of doing similar exercises in P90X, I'm rusty. My form was ugly, and I stopped for more breaks than I'd like to admit.

During one of my breathers, Jerome walked over and shared with me that the original workout as listed on the Main Site was "an 8-minute AMRAP" incorporating similar movements -- not a 20-minute one. "But there's no way the other gym members would go for that," he continued. "So we threw this one together last night."

On the one hand, I REALLY wish Jerome hadn't told me that he'd extended the length of the WOD by 250 percent. But on the other hand, I felt like a badass (albeit a slow one) every time I flipped upside down against the wall to eke out another HSPU or five.

Result: 3 rounds plus 39 reps as RXed. I was the only person in our class to do this workout RXed -- but I was also the slowest. Ugh. I'm determined to do better next time, but I guess "next time" will have to wait -- we're flying back home tomorrow.

Nonetheless, mark my words: You'll definitely see both of us back at Kauai CrossFit again.