Friday, July 1, 2011

Friday's Workout: Overreaching

After practicing strict and kipping pull-ups in class this morning, we were treated to "Air Force WOD":
  • 20 Thrusters (95lbs / 65lbs)
  • 20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95lbs / 65lbs)
  • 20 Push Jerks (95lbs / 65lbs)
  • 20 Overhead Squats (95lbs / 65lbs)
  • 20 Front Squats (95lbs / 65lbs)
  • Plus: Start with 4 burpees -- and every minute thereafter, on the minute, drop whatever you're doing and bust out 4 burpees.

When we did this back in November, I'd used a 95-pound weight for all the movements EXCEPT the overhead squats. It was the first time we'd encountered overhead squats in a workout, so when we got to them, we stripped the weights off and squatted with the bar. Afterwards, we loaded the plates back on to finish up our front squats. It took a whopping 15:27 for me to finish.

But that was eight months ago. After eyeing the whiteboard for awhile, I decided to try to go RXed. Ninety-five pounds is just Fran weight for the thrusters, right? And I can easily sumo deadlift high pull, push-jerk and front squat 95 pounds. Yeah, the overhead squats'll be challenging, but I got this, I told myself. I got this.

I REALLY need to stop listening to myself.

More after the jump...

I'd forgotten about the damned burpees. And I'd underestimated how bad I am at overhead squats. Even on a good day, when I'm not exhausted from performing a few dozen lifts and burpees, my overhead squats are ugly as sin. There is nothing in my CrossFitting experience that suggests I could get through this workout as RXed within a reasonable amount of time.

Not surprisingly, it took me a billion-trillion years to finish this workout. With burpees interrupting every minute, I was drained by the time I finished the sumo deadlift high pulls. Still, I was maintaining a decent pace, so I stubbornly idiotically passed up the chance to strip the plates off the bar before starting the overhead squats. The result? IT TOOK ME FIVE-AND-A-HALF MINUTES TO DO 20 OVERHEAD SQUATS. That's right: I averaged 3.6 reps per minute. Not awesome.

Why did it take me so long? Reasons include (but are not limited to) the following:
  • I'm a weakling;
  • I'm overconfident;
  • I failed to successfully snatch the weight up for the overhead squats, so
  • I had to clean and jerk the bar up, place it behind my head, jerk it up again, and readjust my grip before squatting.
Plus, after my first four reps (which I somehow managed to do consecutively), I never again managed to string together more than three in a row.

Result: 15:56. I did it RXed, but my time was a half-minute SLOWER than before. And although I rocketed through the final 20 front squats, Tim later told me that my range of motion was terrible -- I didn't get down low enough -- and that he would have yelled at me except for the fact that I was already 15 minutes into the workout.

Worst of all, I took a fast, explosive WOD that's supposed to take less than ten minutes to complete, and unnecessarily tortured myself with a too-heavy weight. Going RXed does me no good if it's gonna take me all day to grind out a WOD.


I enjoy pushing myself, and it's good to have goals, but they have to be SMART. Overreaching isn't going to get me anywhere.