Wednesday's Workout: Three-Quarters Nicole

A fun one today.

Strength Skill:

• Weighted Ring Dips (5-5-3-3-3)

The right side of my neck felt pinched this morning, but after grinding out a few ring dips, the tightness went away. I didn't go super-heavy today, but in my final set, I managed to eke out a few reps with a 44-pound kettlebell dangling from my weight belt. My goal is to get to 60 pounds by the end of this cycle.

Metcon:

AMRAP in 15 minutes of:

• Run 400 meters
• Max rep pull-ups

As soon as you drop off the bar, you have to run another 400 meters before coming back to do more pull-ups. To derive your score, add up the total number of pull-ups completed. In other words, this is a shorter (15-minute instead of 20-minute) version of "Nicole."

I love pull-ups, but running's not my strong suit, so I decided to employ a bit of strategy. When well-rested, I can usually string together close to three dozen pull-ups in a row, so my plan was to treat the running as active recovery, and to save my all-out effort for the pull-ups. It seemed to work; by conserving energy during the run, I was able to stay on the bar longer, and complete more reps in each set. Plus, I ended up running less, too -- I did the 400-meter run just 4 times.

Results:

• First round: 32 pull-ups
• Second round: 20 pull-ups
• Third round: 15 pull-ups
• Fourth round: 11 pull-ups

Total: 78 pull-ups as RXed.

Still, there's room for improvement. The Terminator beat me by two reps at the very end, when I dropped off the bar with just a few seconds to go in the workout. My cyborg friend was losing his grip, too, but managed to adjust his hold on the bar and rip out a few more pull-ups before time was called. I should've hung on, but didn't.

Next time...

Cranky

Last night, I followed my usual night-before-CrossFit-class routine: I laid out my clothes (Rogue shirt! Board shorts! Baseball cap! My lucky skullcap!), filled my water bottle, packed my gym bag, and hit the sheets. (All necessary prep has to take place the evening before my class; at 4:20 a.m., there's no way I can get my crap together.)

But less than two hours after falling asleep, a throbbing pain in my right ankle woke me up. At first, I figured my ankle sprain had just flared up again. But then, as the fog of sleep dissipated, I realized that this wasn't the ankle I sprained -- IT'S THE OTHER ONE. The healthy one. The one I can't remember injuring. The one on which I've been relying for the past month.

My (groggy) mind raced through the possibilities:

• I somehow twisted my ankle in my sleep. (Not likely.)
• I slept on it wrong. (Uh, no.)
• I can't tell my right leg from my left. (Not outside the realm of possibility.)
• Now that I'm in my late 30s, my body is falling apart. (I sure hope not.)
• My kids snuck into my room in the middle of the night and clubbed my leg with a baseball bat. (I wouldn't put it past them.)
• I've been relying heavily on (a.k.a. pounding the hell out of) my right leg ever since injuring my left, and my right ankle's finally signaling no mas. (A promising theory.)

Wednesday's Workout

Thanks to this morning's workout, my shoulders and lats are completely fried. Even my armpit hairs are sore.

Metcon:

As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

• 400-meter run
• Max rep pull-ups
• 400 meter run
• Max rep overhead kettlebell swings (70/53)

Scoring is based on the total number of pull-ups and kettlebell swings completed during the 20 minutes. In other words, this workout looks just like "Nicole" -- only with KB swings thrown into the mix.

I love pull-ups and kettlebell swings, so I was eager to dive into this workout. For a second, I was even tempted to go RXed by using the 70-pound kettlebell, but I quickly regained my senses and I grabbed the 62-pounder instead. (Still, my gut tells me that I might be able to start heaving the 70-pound KB around in a metcon soon.)

We all took our time with the initial 400-meter run, opting to keep ourselves fresh for the first round of pull-ups. It paid off: I managed to stay on the bar for 28 consecutive pull-ups -- though I probably should have saved something in the tank for subsequent rounds. Both the pull-ups and the kettlebell swings came quick, smooth and easy, but I think I would have posted more reps if I'd paced myself a little better, and a little slower.

This became obvious to me with one minute left in the WOD. My grip gave out, and as I came off the pull-up bar, I realized that I wouldn't have time to run another 400 meters and still crank out more kettlebell swings upon returning. So I sat down, wasting a full minute of the WOD. If I'd have been smarter, I would have rested a bit more before cranking out my final set of pull-ups, or taken a bit longer to catch my breath during the 400-meter runs.

In any event, after running a total of 2,000 meters, these were my results:

• Round 1 - 28 pull-ups, 25 swings (62 lb KB)
• Round 2 - 14 pull-ups, 16 swings (62 lb KB)
• Round 3 - 17 pull-ups

Total: 100 -- a nice, round number. And MUCH better than my performance last July, when we did a "Half-Nicole" ("half" because we ran only 200 meters each round) back at the flower shop.

My only regret is not trying this with the 70-pound kettlebell. But that's for next time. Tonight: I just need to hit the sheets.

Wednesday's Workout

Waking up at 4:20 a.m. is a drag, but I need a good half-hour to clear the fog out of my head before heading out for my morning workout. I tend to get a little nervous before arriving at the CrossFit gym; I have no idea what metcon hell's been planned for the day. But usually, the anticipation of the workout is much worse than the reality. It's a crazy challenge, to be sure, but it's manageable. (Barely.)

Today, for the skills portion of the session, we continued working on front squats. I've hit a bit of a ceiling at 175 pounds, which is about 1.3x my bodyweight. (I'm currently about 135 pounds.) Every time I try to go heavier, I end up gassing out and tossing the barbell away while still down in the "hole" position of the squat. I suck right now, but I'm determined to work on my front squats at home (I've set up a squat stand, Olympic bar and bumpers in our increasingly crowded home gym) and thereby suck a little less in the future.

As for the aforementioned metcon hell, this morning's wasn't too bad. We did a half-"Nicole" -- AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in ten minutes of:

• 200-meter run
• Max rep pull-ups

I managed 6 rounds, but my pull-up numbers left a lot to be desired:

14 / 8 / 6 / 8 / 7 / 9

I desperately need to learn how to properly kip.