Wednesday's Workout: Keep Going, And Going, And Going

Another good one today.

Strength Skill:

• Front Squats (2 sets of 3, 3 sets of 1)

I tried to add another ten pounds to my PR from last week, but had to dump the weight. As it stands, my personal best remains 205 pounds. I managed to reach my goal for the cycle, but wish I'd been able to go even heavier. Next time.

Metcon:

5 rounds for time:

• 5 push-presses (135lbs / 95lbs)
• 15 deadlifts (135lbs / 95lbs)
• 25 lateral bar jumps

The rate-limiting step for me: Push-presses. The deadlifts didn't pose a problem, but I wasn't even going to try to go RXed with this one. Hoisting overhead a barbell loaded with the equivalent of my bodyweight TWENTY-FIVE times? Not gonna happen. (Not until I become less of a weakling, anyway.) I dropped down to 115 pounds instead. It was the right decision; even at 20 pounds less than the RXed weight, the push-presses were plenty challenging.

Surprisingly, though, it was the lateral bar jumps that gave me the most trouble. Hopping from side to side was an unfamiliar movement, and my legs were burning from the lifts; as a result, my jumps were sluggish and slow. (Plus, I'm horribly uncoordinated.) After a while, I broke 'em up into twos: I'd jump across the bar and bounce back to my starting position, pause, and repeat.

From my spot at the back of the room, I could see everyone hopping around like mad: Jay, J-Ho, Colleen, Rachel, Jake. I spotted XFitMama gamely hopping over the bar. Despite being super-pregnant, she was definitely jumping faster than me. Next to me, Kyle was a blur, bouncing up and over the bar nonstop like a rabbit on speed. And across the room, Bob was hopping back and forth even faster. He ended up finishing the workout in something like five-and-a-half minutes. I'm surprised he didn't vibrate out of this plane of existence and back to his own dimension.

My result? 8:47. And although XFitMama beat me, I'm proud to say that I was thisclose to catching up with a woman who's due to give birth in a matter of days.