Don't Take it for Granite

The instant I crashed to the pavement on my inline skates last August and the pain in my leg told me that I would not be competing in the Granite Games CrossFit competition in September, I started looking ahead to this year's Granite Games.  Everyone assured me that my hamstring should be fully recovered within nine to twelve months of the injury and surgery, so I felt confident that I would be recovered enough to compete in September of 2015. And since qualifying had not been difficult last year, as I worked my way through rehab and recovery these past months I was honestly focused more on the actual competition than on the qualifying

Oops.

Last year there were 18 competitors in my age class and I ended up qualifying for one of the 12 spots in the competition--I was in a three-way tie for eighth at the end of the qualifier WODs.  And although my hamstring is nowhere near fully recovered (that's another topic for another post), I'm back to lifting pre-injury weights in most lifts and have added a couple more skills to my (somewhat limited) repertoire, most notably kipping pullups and Toes 2 Bar.  So I figured what the heck, I'll most likely qualify and can then focus all summer on training for the actual competition.

Which leads me to the bad pun in this post's title.  Turns out that taking qualifying for granted was very premature.

This year, the Granite Games folks have upped their advertising campaign and the end result is that there are now 81 competitors in my age class, from as far away as Tasmania (that's in Australia, apparently).  And these old chicks are good.  Right now we've done three of the four qualifier workouts, and based on the scores so far I expect to end up somewhere between fortieth and fiftieth.  Which is a problem, since only the top fifteen athletes in each Masters age group qualify for the competition.  So my Granite Games experience this year will be ending with the end of the qualifier.

Dismal results aside, though, I've been having fun doing the qualifer WODs.  And I'm learning things.  Things like "get someone to count reps for you,"

Stopping to write down your reps mid-WOD 

is not conducive to maximum speed

 and "my Burpees are really slow"

This is how slow old ladies do Burpees

and "yeah, I still suck at dubs."

No photo of the dubs, but trust me--I still suck at them.

I have one more qualifier WOD to do next week--and I might re-do this week's WOD on Monday--and then the Granite Games stuff will be over for me (unless I wander up to St. Cloud to watch the event in September, which I probably will).  I've got a couple more fun competitions lined up this summer, though, and I'm having a blast working out, getting stronger, and improving my skills, so even though I'm disappointed that I won't be going to the Granite Games, it's still a fun summer so far, CrossFit-wise.

As for skating, well, that--like my leg--is another story for another post...

MDM Excelsior: Ass Moves Mass

Before I launch into what will (hopefully) be a lighthearted and amusing post, let me get serious.  Today's workout, Memorial Day Murph, is in honor of and to benefit the men and women who sacrifice their lives and their health for our country.  This year MDM Excelsior benefited Pain Free Patriots, an organization that provides funding for wounded veterans to get treatment for chronic pain.  I have a bit more empathy for chronic pain patients now; while my hamstring pain is nothing compared to what some of these people deal with, after dealing with hamstring and leg pain for nine months now I do now know how frustrating and depressing it can be to have pain on a daily basis just from simple everyday activities like sitting, driving, and walking.  So I was very happy to be able to have a small part in helping raise money for this organization, and to do something in honor of our servicemen and women.

Now, on with the show...

People who lift weights have a saying: "Ass moves mass."  And it's true; as your glutes get stronger your butt gets bigger and a bigger butt can, therefore, lift more weight. When the "mass" to be moved is the ass in question, though, things get complicated--and bigger is no longer necessarily better.

This is the situation I found myself in today, doing the Memorial Day Murph workout in Excelsior for the second year.

Last year CrossFit SISU put on a really cool event, MDM Excelsior.  The event is a benefit workout to raise money for veterans (last year a scholarship fund, this year Pain Free Patriots).  The workout, Murph,  looks like this:

Last year I did the event with a partner, had a blast, and vowed to try to do it solo this year.  My hamstring is still a bit cranky with running but air squats aren't a problem and I've been working on my pushups and pullups, so it seemed doable.  I even did half the event in a WOD at SISU one day, and then did 3/4 of the workout on my own another day.  It all went well, and I was looking forward to being able to complete all the reps "as prescribed;" that is, without modifying.

That is, until menopause began kicking--and widening--my ass.

OK, this may be TMI, but what the heck.  I'm technically through menopause but apparently the fun hormonal changes continue on for, oh, the rest of one's life, and so the past few weeks I've been dealing with (among other things) PMS-level food cravings.  And by "dealing with" I mean "eating everything in sight."  Not surprisingly, this has resulted in weight gain--at least five pounds in the past couple weeks.

Now, five pounds may not sound like much, but when you have to pull that weight up with your arms until your chin is over a pullup bar--and do it 100 times--trust me, it's a lot. And since I haven't done many pullups since I've, um, expanded, I haven't had a chance to train my muscles to get used to the extra weight.  When the "Elite" competitors put on a weight vest (20 pounds for the men, 13 for the women) to complete the workout, we call them awesome.  When I grow my own weight vest before the event, I believe "stupid" is a better adjective.

But I didn't seem to be able to stop eating and I was already signed up for the event, so there was nothing to do but do it.  So this morning at 11:40 am I found myself standing with the other women in the "Rx" wave, waiting to be sent off on our run.

Rx women.  I'm in the gray tank top to the left

of the woman with pink on her shirt.

And here we are, swearing to Coach Jason that our

chins will rise above the bar, our butts will drop below our knees, 

and our pushups will be plank-like and perfect.  According to 

Hubby Jim, who spectated the event, there must have been

a lot of fingers crossed during the oath...

So  we set off on the run.  I knew from previous runs at CrossFit that trying to run fast would do nothing but aggravate my leg, so I started at the back of the pack and pretty much stayed there.  And then when I got back to the rig I had to dig through my bag of hand protectors to find the ones I wanted and set up a crate that Jim had brought so that I could reach the too-high pullup bar and then I scrounged up some chalk and took a drink and, well, by the time I got started on my pullups and pushups and squats, everyone else had probably done at least two rounds of each.

There's got to be a good caption for this,

but for the life of me

I can't come up with it

I started by breaking the workout into sets of 5 pullups, 5 pushups, 8 squats, 5 pushups, and 7 squats.  Completing one round of this would allow me to check off 5 pullups, 10 pushups, and 15 squats from the 20 sets listed on the score sheet.  After just the first round, though, I knew I was in trouble.  The pushups and squats felt fine, but the pullups...well, there were problems already.  The bar was slippery, it was hard to get set up properly when I grabbed onto the bar while standing on the box, and when I actually did the pullups--they felt hard.  Very hard.

In the past few weeks I've finally learned to kip a bit, and when I did the 3/4 Murph at SISU a few weeks ago I was able to do 75 pullups in unbroken sets of 5.  Today, though, for all but a couple sets my kip left me and I was back to floundering and flailing and completing only one or two pullups at a time.

Look familiar? I think we've seen that

technique before...

So I slogged along, struggling on the pullups and more or less resting on the pushups and squats. By the time I got to my 70th pullup I was having to make two or more attempts for each successful pullup.  (By this time pretty much all of the other women were done and the rig was filled with men from the Rx wave. Or actually, the first two of three Rx waves.  I was there for a long time.)  I could tell that I was close to simply being unable to complete any more pullups, so I rested completely for five minutes or so to see if I could get my arms working again.  But the rest was only moderately successful, and after five more (sort of) pullups, I knew I couldn't do any more and I'd have to modify the remaining 25.  So I did the last 25 jumping up from a box, finished my last pushups and squats, and set off on the final mile run.  And one hour and 27 minutes after I started, I finally approached the finish line.

I don't look like I'm having fun, do I?

My assessment of my performance; some good,

some bad.

In the end, I'm glad I did the event.  I'm proud that I got as far as I did, disappointed that I had to modify the final pullups, and grateful that, nine months to the day since my crash and injury, I'm able to do fun stuff like this again.  I'm happy that I could help support a worthy cause, hugely appreciative of Jim for coming out and supporting me, and also appreciative of all the SISU coaches and volunteers who made this event possible. And I'm already planning to do the event next year...I'm just hoping that next year there will be a little less of me doing it.

The Mayhem Continues

Part 2 of Mayhem in Mankato 2015...Part 1 is, of course, directly below this post.

As I walked into Myers Fieldhouse Sunday morning for Day 2 of Mayhem in Mankato, I was mildly surprised and very pleased to be feeling no major pain--a bit of muscle soreness in my low back from all the deadlifts but nothing major and nothing that suggested "um, you might have injured something here."  At age 51 on day 2 of a competition, that's a win...and somewhat unexpected in a sport that routinely provides free chiropractic or physical therapy services to athletes throughout the competition.  So when I walked past the free PT tables  I wasn't surprised to see a long line of athletes waiting to be Rock Taped or massaged or manipulated back into a somewhat pain-free state--I was just pleased not to be in it.

Sunday had two workouts: a complex of clean-front squat-jerk, in which we'd have eight minutes to find our one-rep max of the three lifts (without putting the bar down); and then a two-minute transition before the next event, sets of 24 situps followed by running a lap around the competition floor as many times as possible in eight minutes. It sounded like a fun set of workouts.

And it was.  My clean PR is 115 pounds, and my jerk PR is 105.  I first achieved the 105 at the
New Ulm Summer Showdown last August shortly before I got hurt; it looked like this...

Not exactly textbook form...

I was hoping to improve on that 105 pound jerk today.  I started at 95 pounds, then moved up to 100 and 105.  So far, so good.  110, too, went up successfully...well, the second time.  The first time I forgot the front squat and went straight into the jerk, so I had to re-do the lift.  110 was a PR, though--cool!  I still had time, though, and felt like I could do more, so I loaded 115 on the bar.  As I was putting the plates on I could see one of my competitors attempt and complete 150 pounds--there are some tough old chicks out there!  My first attempt to clean 115 pounds ended up barely making it above my knees; pulling the bar off the ground is somewhat hammy-aggravating and so I often find myself wimping out and not completing the lift.  So I backed away from the bar and reminded myself to get the bar off the ground and to the "hang" position (above the knees) slowly and then do the clean more quickly from there.  I went through the motions once without the bar, then attempted the lift again.

This time I cleaned it...

No, I'm not actually sure this series of pics is from

my PR.  But it's the ones that I have, so

just pretend, OK?

Front squatted it...

And jerked it.  Success!

Looks much better than last year's PR

huh?

And then the eight minutes was up and it was time to change shoes from my "lifters" to my running shoes.  3, 2, 1, go, and the next eight minutes were filled with this...

If you're a runner, you might not want

to look at this picture too long.  That's 

some um, interesting technique I've got going

...and this...

Abs, don't fail me now...

Again, probably less than thrilling from a spectator standpoint, but again one of my better events; I ended up second by one situp, 168 to 167.

And then, since there were only six of us in the Women's Masters Class and the top ten in each class made it to the finals, we all got to do the final event.  Most of the other SISU athletes also made it to the finals (and they all actually had enough competitors in their classes that it was challenging to get to the finals), so it was cool to watch them take their turns at the final.  The final turned out to be single-under rope jumps and 55 pound thrusters for the masters class, and it turned out to be one of the worst events for me.  I made it through the 100-80-60-40-20 rope jumps without missing any--mainly because I did them insanely slowly.  I had to break up the 25-20-15-10-5 thrusters into sets of five or less, even though I was also doing those insanely slowly...in fact, I did the whole WOD so slowly that I hit the time cap of 10 minutes before I could complete the final set of rope jumps and thrusters, and I ended up fifth in this workout, which put me in fourth for the whole event.  Probably best that there are no photos of this one!

In the end, the whole weekend turned out to be a blast.  Hard work, PR's, camaraderie, cheering, sore muscles, finding your limits and maybe pushing past them...all the stuff I love about CrossFit.  My post-rowing-WOD photo says it all...

A big thumbs-up for the weekend!

Mayhem in 2015

Let the Mayhem begin

OK, first I should probably bring you up to speed since it's been, oh, six weeks since I've posted.  So here it is: my leg still hurts, I'm still doing CrossFit, and I've inline skated a few times, both on trails and on the oval.  

See?

Note the massive amount of protective gear.

I'm still trying to figure out the leg pain, but in the meantime, since the medical professionals seem to think there's no harm in using the hammy I figured I'd go do a two-day CrossFit competition this weekend: Mayhem in Mankato, version 2015.

Last year, Mayhem in Mankato was my first-ever CrossFit competition.  I competed in the "Rec" class (translation: the class for really bad rookies), had a ton of fun, and actually won my division.  So I figured that Mayhem might be a fun way to get back into competition post-injury--even though it was now a two-day event and no longer had a Rec class.  Fortunately they'd added a Masters class this year (40 and up), though, so I figured what the heck.

After a painful drive to Mankato Friday night--even sitting on a pillow, my hammy only tolerates about 20 minutes of driving at a time before it enters cranky mode, and Mankato is 90 minutes from home--and a hot-flash-infested tossing-and-turning night in the motel, I arrived at the field house Saturday morning ready to do battle with the other old ladies. I started the day with a nice warmup WOD of "Gear Bag Farmer Carry and Bathroom Dash."  I usually have one large gear bag for my CrossFit stuff, but a two day event required two bags, a purse, and a foam roller...and I even brought my butt pillow in to pad the hard bleacher (much to my fellow SISU competitors' amusement.)

No secret which gear pile is mine...

I was excited about the first WOD of the day, a rowing interval workout of six rounds of 40 seconds on/20 seconds rest.  Rowing, I have been told, is my jam, or, as one of the younger SISUites once said, "the Bomb Diggity." (Um, yeah, I ran that one by Urban Dictionary).  Even discovering that one of my five Masters class competitors had been a collegiate rower didn't dampen my enthusiasm.

So the first WOD was six minutes of this...

...and this...

I apologize for the crappy pics; "still captures" from video, compressed

to save data when emailing from iPad to desktop, produces some

mighty lovely images.  

And in the end, although the spectators may have been bored to tears, I was pleased to win both aspects of the WOD--total calories rowed, and most calories in an interval.

The Bomb Diggity, indeed.

After the first WOD I spent a lengthy amount of time wandering around while trying figure out whether it was better to sit and aggravate my hammy or stand and aggravate my heels, which are now rebelling against all the standing I've been doing in the past months.  In between pondering sitting and standing I pondered eating too little and getting faint from hunger versus eating too much and puking during the next WOD.  Although I never did resolve the sitting-versus-standing dilemma, I'm happy to report that I ended up successfully managing the between-WOD food intake.

Eventually it was time for WOD two: 21-15-9 wallballs and Burpees.  I had been worried about this one because, despite the Masters class using the Scaled class (easier) weights and movement standards, we had been told we'd be using the Rx (heavier) weight ball for the wallballs, 14 pounds, and shooting at a target 10 feet up on the rig instead of the usual line on a wall at the women's height of nine feet.  I'd tried 14 pounds and 10 feet in the last few wallball WOD's at SISU and it hadn't gone well.  I'm not sure how it's possible to miss a wall when standing two feet from it, but I did, quite a few times--and I figured heaving a very heavy ball at a little target high up on the rig meant I'd be playing fetch with myself an embarrassing number of times.

As it turned out, though, the GameDay Competition organizers (who, by the way, put on awesome CrossFit events) were merciful and told us we'd be using a 10 pound ball instead of the 14.  With the lighter weight ball  I actually managed to complete all the wallballs unbroken (that is, without stopping to rest), and never missed the target.  

Not quite a bullseye, but good enough.

Oh, and note the fact that I'm now dressing like 

a 4-year-old when I CrossFit...everything is pink. 

I have no explanation for this.

Unfortunately, although my wallballs were unbroken and on target they were also slow.  Very slow. As were my Burpees.  I ended up fourth in this event.

The final event for Saturday was the one I was most concerned about: a "Chipper" (that is, a long event with a lot of reps that you just "chip away" at) consisting of box jumps, deadlifts, and something called Toes to Pole, which sounds like it should involve G Strings and people named Bambi but which is actually a kind of reverse situp.  I was concerned because of the number of box jumps--60--although we'd be allowed to step up rather than being required to jump; and also because of the number of deadlifts--also 60--and the weight, 125 pounds.  My hamstring, although it's functioning pretty well in deadlifts now, still gets sore and cranky from them.  Sixty was sounding like a lot.

As it turned out, the deadlifts were indeed a problem--just not the only problem.  For the box step ups we had to go over the box rather than just up onto it and back down and it turned out that I hadn't practiced my technique quite enough; I ended up stepping up with the wrong foot, turning in the same direction too many times and getting dizzy, and in general just moving too slowly and wasting a lot of time.  The deadlifts, as I had guessed, were painful, but the Toes to Pole turned out to be the worst part of the WOD.  We had to lie on our backs, holding onto the rig pole, then bring our feet up to touch the pole and then lower them again.  We were allowed to bend our legs in the maneuver and it actually wasn't difficult, but it turned out that it stretched my hamstring in a very painful way, and by the end of 40 of them I found myself limping back down my lane to finish my second set of deadlifts.  I was very glad to see the end of WOD three, even though I finished fifth out of six. 

In between my various WOD's I had a blast watching the other classes compete, including the eight or so other athletes from CrossFit SISU.  I haven't been been to a competition that big before (other than watching a day of the Granite Games from my knee scooter), and it was fun to see the different athletes tackle the WOD's and to just generally enjoy the atmosphere of the event.  CrossFit competitions, with their loud music, swaggering extroverts, and enthusiastic cheering, are very different from long track skating meets--where it's not unusual to see two high school age boys playing a game of chess in the warming house between their races.  Different worlds, but both fun in their own way. 

And now I see that I need to turn this into a two-part post, since my hamstring is getting sore from sitting while I type, and also it's bedtime.  Back soon with the thrilling conclusion of Mayhem '15!

Open 15.5...In Which My Obsessive Compliance Serves Me Well

(The more astute among you may be wondering what happened to Open 15.4.  Well, I did it--scaled, since I can't do handstand pushups--and it was somewhat uninspiring.  Then life got in the way of blogging about it and, well, here we are at Open WOD 15.5...)

Open WOD 15.5 looked like this:

27-21-15-9 reps for time of:
Row (calories)
Thrusters

Men use 95 lb.
Women use 65 lb.

CrossFit SISU suggested we might want to consider this:

But before I considered the "tortoise or the hare" approach to what was universally acknowledged to be a "lung burner" and just an all-around-frightening WOD, I had to consider the "Rx or Scaled" dilemma.

The rowing I wasn't concerned about.  I like rowing, and even if I sucked at it, rowing is infinitely scalable--you can go as slow as you darn well need to.

No, it was the thrusters I was worried about.  I've done 65-pound thrusters, but they've always felt like they're in that "edge of my ability" zone.  72 of them was looking daunting. And this workout had no time cap, so it was do or die--no nice comfortable AMRAP where you have a set amount of time to accumulate "As Many Reps As Possible," even if that turns out to be just one (or, as in the case of my Toes To Bar 15.1 debacle, four.)  No, in this WOD it was "do them all or DNF trying."

But still, I figured what the hell...I'll try Rx, and if I get to the point where I simply can't get the bar overhead one more time, I'll quit and try again--scaled--on Sunday or Monday.

So I tried a few 65-pound thrusters (in which you squat with the bar and then stand up and immediately thrust the bar overhead) in warmup, and they felt OK.  Then I chatted briefly with some of the young studettes in my heat, and the depth of their surprise at my decision to go Rx was a little worrying.  What was I getting myself in for?  But I stuck with my decision, finished my warmup, rounded up a judge (thanks Greg!), and prepared to do battle.

Here's the SISU box, looking all calm and innocent pre-WOD with the rowers and bars waiting for their victims:

Really, how bad could it be?

Everyone had been heavily emphasizing the "don't go out too hard" advice, and between my usual compliance with any and all rules/advice/suggestions and my fear of the 65-pound thrusters, I took this advice very seriously.  The more competent CrossFitters were planning to break the thrusters into sets of 10, or 9, or something along those lines.

I figured that sets of five, with a ten second break in between, sounded about right.

I was a little worried when the coach set the clock to 20 minutes (not a time cap, just a time they figured athletes would be finished by), but he just shook his head when I suggested that perhaps a longer time period might be necessary in my heat.

Specifically, a time period measured by a calendar.

And then it was go time.  3, 2, 1, Row.  Despite my judge's enthusiastic exhortations to use "big strong pulls," I motored along at a nice conservative pace.  I figured I needed to count on the rowing as part of my rest time.

Then the row was done and it was on to the bar.  1, 2, 3, 4, 5...that wasn't too bad.  Stare at the clock for 10 seconds, pick up the bar, rinse, repeat.

In the end, there were 16 minutes and 58 seconds of this...

...and this...

...and this.

I had one no rep, and ended up breaking the later sets of thrusters into groups of four and then three and I finished last in my heat by several minutes--but I finished, and well under 20 minutes.

I was thrilled.

And later, as I wandered around SISU in a happy daze, sipping a Diet Dew (hey, I was celebrating) and babbling to anyone who would hold still long enough about how much fun the WOD had been, I was reminded of my first (and to this day, only) speedskating 10K, in which I paced myself somewhat, um, conservatively and thus enjoyed the hell out of the whole experience, while my friend Mel pushed herself to the limit and ended up in a huddle on the edge of the track post-race, unable to remain standing.  Strangely enough, nobody I talked to had enjoyed the WOD as I had. There was talk of "Fran Lung" and suffering and agony and "there's no way in hell I'm re-doing this one.  Not for the Open...not ever again."

So in 15.5, as in my 10K, although I was delighted with my results and had exceeded what I thought possible, I was still left with the nagging thought that "I'm pretty sure I didn't do this right."  Oh, well...there's always next time to push myself to the point of tipping over or throwing up.  In the meantime, it was fun to have one of those "wow, I can't believe I did that" WODs.  

And with that, the 2015 Open comes to a close.  I've got no deep philosophical musings about the Open...just appreciation for the SISU coaches for putting on the Friday Night Lights, appreciation for the judges and spectators for the cheering and support, and a feeling of satisfaction for having been able to complete the Open 6 months after my hamstring surgery.

And I can't wait to do it again next year.

My CrossFit Open 15.3...A Yawnfest

Open WOD 15.3 apparently sparked quite a bit of controversy in the CrossFit community.  For the first time in the Open, a WOD began with Muscle Ups--a move which involves getting from hanging below a set of gymnastics rings to being above the rings with arms straight, and a move which, more than any other in CrossFit, serves to separate the Badasses from the Bad At It. (Of course, gymnasts simply refer to Muscle Ups as "getting on the rings so I can then proceed to do the real routine," but I digress). Because most of us average (OK, below average) CrossFitters can't do Muscle Ups, a great many people who did the first two Open WOD's Rx were now forced to do 15.3 at the Scaled level.  Naturally, this made a lot of Non-Muscle-Uppers cranky.

It just made me bored.

At my level of CrossFit--which I would place at "Just Above Suck"--many if not most competition WODs I've done have had at least one move that I'm not sure I can complete.  Toes to Bar, pistol squats, heavy overhead stuff, handstand pushups...the list goes on.  So I've become accustomed, in competitions like the Granite Games Qualifier and Masters Sectionals, as well as the first two Open WOD's, to there being an element of suspense in my effort.  Will I do it, or will I spend the entire WOD futilely attempting to clean something or jerk something or get some body part above the bar?  Sure, there are letdowns, like my "spend nine minutes to get four T2B" Open WOD 15.1 debacle...but there have been many more times when I've surprised myself and done something I hadn't thought possible--and while I realize that for most people competitions are more about "how fast can I do this?" than "can I do this at all?" still, I've become accustomed to that thrill of surprising myself in competitions.

And up until the WOD was announced on Thursday night, I was pretty  sure that 15.3 would not disappoint, and would contain one of those "can I do it?" moves.  Rumor had it that 15.3  would consist of double unders and pistol squats--pistol squats being one-legged squats that I had managed to achieve on my left leg for the first time in one of the Granite Games Masters Sectionals WOD's.  I hadn't tried one since I avulsed my hammy six months ago, and I was pretty sure I would be unable to do them--my right leg, which had previously been the one I had no trouble doing pistols on, is now, of course, my injured leg; and my left leg, the one that had barely been able to do pistols before,  has been taking an extended break from speedskating and heavy squats and other quad-enhancing moves in the months since its mate became injured.  To my surprise, though, when we practiced pistols in class Thursday morning, I was actually able to achieve three on my right leg, and was extremely close on my left leg.  So, I had the perfect setup for one of my thrilling (to me) "will I be able to do it?" WOD's--if I could just get a tiny bit lower, I'd have that left leg pistol...

As it turned out, though, in my 15.3 there were no surprises and no thrills.  For those of us who can't do Muscle Ups, the WOD was simply to complete as many rounds of 50 wallballs and 200 single rope jumps (as opposed to double unders) as possible in 14 minutes.

Yawn.

So I did my  wallballs and single unders, breaking the wallballs into sets of 5 and the singles into sets of "until I trip on the rope, suddenly lose all coordination, or run out of breath."  In the end, I did 541 unexciting reps.

What was exciting, though, was watching the athletes who did the WOD Rx.  Their 15.3 consisted of as many rounds of 7 Muscle Ups, 50 wallballs, and 100 dubs as possible in 14 minutes.  CrossFit SISU, as usual, was hosting a Friday Night Lights event to provide a time for athletes to complete 15.3 in a fun, community-building atmosphere.  It was really cool to watch the Rx athletes tackle the Muscle Ups.  Some were ecstatic to achieve their first Muscle Up ever during the WOD, while others nonchalantly knocked off three in a row before dropping to the ground.  There's often a moment--or many moments--of mid-muscle-up-struggle in which the outcome is by no means certain, and these moments are perfect times for the crowd to go wild and show their support for the athlete's skill and Sisu.  So even though I bored myself with my own effort in the WOD, it was still a really fun night.

But I'm still hoping to see something that I can barely do show up in 15.4

15.2--Short and Sweet

After 15.1's "nine minutes to achieve four toes-to-bar" debacle, 15.2 was looking mercifully short. 

 In fact, I was pretty sure it would take me just three minutes.

15.2 looked like this:

For as long as possible:

From 0:00-3:00
  2 rounds of:
  10 overhead squats (95 / 65 lb.)
  10 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 3:00-6:00
  2 rounds of:
  12 overhead squats (95 / 65 lb.)
  12 chest-to-bar pull-ups

From 6:00-9:00
  2 rounds of:
  14 overhead squats (95 / 65 lb.)
  14 chest-to-bar pull-ups

Etc., following same pattern

We had actually done this WOD at SISU two weeks ago.  I was in the middle of my "lower body workout restriction" phase, so I had substitued 55 pound hang cleans for the overhead squats--and had still only achieved 25 of the 40 reps needed to advance past the first three minutes.  Still, I was fairly happy to see this WOD turn up for 15.2.  I can do chest-to-bars--slowly and with a lot of effort, but I can do them--and I was sure I could do the overhead squats at the Rx weight.

Well, pretty sure anyway.  A quick peek at "Wodify" had revealed that my one-rep max for this lift was only 70 pounds, and that was pre-injury, so success was nowhere near assured.

So when I started my warmup yesterday, the first thing I wanted to try was a 65 pound overhead squat.    I haven't done a ton of squats with weight in general since my injury, and no overhead squats with weight at all, as far as I can remember--but when I tried the lift at 65 pounds, I was able to successfully snatch it overhead and then squat it.  Of course, I couldn't do a second squat without putting the bar down, but I figured that the adrenaline of the competition would enable me to maybe complete my 10 reps in three or four sets of 2-4.  Then with any luck I'd still have time to do my 10 chest-to-bars.  I was thinking that I'd be pretty happy with a score of 20...and since my shoulder and hands were still sore from 15.1, I wasn't too bummed that my 15.2 would likely be over in 180 seconds.

Since I had (as usual) arrived at SISU insanely early, I was done with my warmup before very many other of the "Friday Night Lights" participants had even shown up.  So when Coach JJ asked if I wanted to do my workout right then, before the heats officially started, I figured what the heck.  Better to go now than to wait and have to warm up again.  

3, 2, 1, go.  I snatched up the bar, squatted it...and then, to my surprise, proceeded to squat nine more times without having to set the bar down to rest.  Yup, I managed to do the ten overhead squats unbroken.  (Insert small cheer here for "life's little victories.")  Then I went to the rig for the ten chest-to-bars.  I can't link them together so I didn't do them unbroken, but I did manage to do what I consider my version of unbroken: 10 singles in a row without a no-rep (except I did have to let go once before I attempted a pullup and then jump up again, when my initial grip felt weird).  I realized, in the middle of my pullups, that I had made a tactical error--I had chosen one of my favorite (as in, "more grippy") bars on the rig for my pullups, but it was facing away from the clock so I couldn't see how much time I had left.  But when I got back to the bar for the next overhead squats and could look at the clock, it didn't matter how much time I had left anyway...I was so out of breath that I simply had to stop for 10 seconds or so and breathe.  Man, I miss having my "skating cardio fitness!"

When I eventually picked up the bar again, I had to do the squats in sets of two or three.  A couple of the squats were iffy, and I had to do a lot of waltzing around with  the bar overhead before I was finally able to lock out and get the rep counted.  I had a couple of no reps when I couldn't get down without dropping the bar in front of me...and then the three minutes were up.

I had finished with a score of 28--and a big smile.  Three minutes for 28 reps is way better than nine minutes for four reps!

15.1, Take 2--Just a Swingin'

Yesterday morning, after a nice (painful) therapeutic massage on my recalcitrant hammy, I headed to CrossFit SISU to make a second attempt at Open WOD 15.1.  Normally I wouldn't try to re-do a WOD--if I couldn't do it the first time I figure it's highly unlikely that I'll magically be able to do it a second time.  This time, though, there was that glorious pre-WOD warmup, in which I had hit almost every T2B I attempted.  If I could just recapture that...

So when the Saturday morning Butt Camp crew had completed their workout, I started warming up for 15.1, Take 2. After some shoulder mobility stuff and a few light cleans and snatches, I tried some T2B's, and after about five attempts  I managed to achieve one.  Not a stunning success rate, but better than nothing.  And then Coach JJ came over and started helping me work on my T2B's.

First, he tried to get me to kip.  Nope, couldn't figure that out.  So then he tried to get me to monkey swing.  Nope, not happening either.  He then tried about five different ways of conveying to me exactly what I needed to do to achieve a T2B, but still all my attempts ended in inefficient flailing.  Finally, I saw him assume an expression I remembered well from when Coach TieGuy was trying in vain, for the twentieth time, to convey some simple aspect of speedskating to me.  The expression that says "OK, I'm officially out of ideas...and by the way, how can you be that clumsy and not fall down more?"  Clearly, it was time to stop practicing.

So Coach JJ gave me one more task.  "Here's your test-out," he said.  "If you can hit three T2B's in a row you can re-do the WOD."

So I jumped up and, miracle of miracles, hit the first one.  And the second.  The third was a bit sketchy--I think my right foot missed by a half inch or so--but he counted it and so I prepared to start 15.1 for the second time.

As it turned out, I might as well have saved my energy--and my hands.  After 9 minutes I had one less T2B than my first attempt, as well as (despite taping my hands and wearing my palm guards) a surprisingly large and gross amount of blood on my hands, on the bar, and on a chunk of chalk that I unthinkingly grabbed and dragged across my bloody palm mid-WOD.

After cleaning up my biohazard bar and washing the gore off my hands, I wandered into the lobby where the last of the ButtCampers were preparing to leave.

"Well, how did it go?" asked one.

"Not as well as last night.  I only got three."

"Three rounds?" he asked sympathetically; three rounds, or 90 reps, would have been on the lower end of scores achieved by the SISU athletes the night before.

"Uh, no...three reps," I clarified.

He looked at me, opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, and busied himself tying an already-tied shoe.

So yes, 15.1, Take 2, was quite unimpressive.  Not to mention quite frustrating; how can I be so bad at some of these moves?  So, in my usual "use the brain to try to compensate for the less-than-stellar body" fashion, I started thinking.  Swinging.  Kipping is a swing; monkey swinging is a swing; Coach JJ had mentioned something about swinging on a swingset.  If I could just figure out what I'm doing wrong in the swing...

Which is how I found myself today, at 2:00 on a frigid March Sunday afternoon, on the swingset in the park across the road from our house, diligently swinging back and forth as I tried to figure out the physics involved in getting my body to move in the right direction.

I may not ever master the T2B, but you can't say I haven't tried!

Open 15.1

Not much to report in the hammy department; I have an appointment with my surgeon for Monday, so hopefully I'll get some answers then.  In the meantime, at my last PT visit on Wednesday I whined extensively spoke persuasively enough that my PT agreed that I could resume lower body workouts until I see the surgeon.  Which meant that I was now able to do...

The CrossFit Open Workout 15.1!

For those not familiar with CrossFit, the Open is an annual online competition that is the first step in qualifying to compete in  CrossFit's "Super Bowl," the Reebok CrossFit Games.  The Open is really cool in that it's truly "open;" while the eventual competitors in the Games will use it as the first step in their road to the Games, hundreds of thousands of "regular CrossFitters" around the world will also complete the same workouts and will be ranked against all Open competitors in their bracket.  Starting at the end of February, every Thursday night for five weeks a new WOD is announced, and competitors have until the following Monday to complete the workout and submit a score.  CrossFit SISU, as usual, has a great plan for making the Open workouts a community event: every Friday they're hosting a three-hour "Friday Night Lights" where SISU athletes can complete the WOD, as well as act as official judges and unofficial cheering sections for each other.

Yesterday was the first of these "Friday Night Lights."  I was excited to compete.  Last year I didn't sign up for the Open, but ended up doing a couple of the workouts because they were programmed as the regular Friday class workouts during the Open.  I hadn't been able to do most of the movements in those workouts, but I figured that, even with the hammy issue, I've improved enough in the past year that I should be able to complete most movements that would show up in an Open workout.  Of course, I was hoping not to see any of my current Kryptonite moves--double unders, handstand pushups, pistol squats, and toes to bar--show up in the Open WOD.  So at 7:00 Thursday night, as I was preparing to leave school after my final Parent-Teacher conference, I checked my phone for the 15.1 WOD.

9 minute AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible) of:
15 toes to bar
10 deadlifts
5 snatches.

Whee.

Oh, and then there was a 15.1a...6 minutes to complete a max clean and jerk.

Well.  This posed a dilemma.  This year, for the first time, the Open offers both "Rx" ("as prescribed," or normal difficulty), and "Scaled" (easier) options for each workout.  Athletes can choose either option each week; all Scaled competitors are then ranked below the lowest Rx competitor in the standings for a given workout.

I knew I could do the Rx weights--75 pounds for both deadlifts and snatches--although the snatch weight was only 5 pounds lower than my current PR and thus would be challenging.  No, it wasn't the weight that was the problem...it was the T2B's.  At the time the WOD was announced, my lifetime total of T2B's stood at a stunning 5.

Still, I know myself.  I'd rather try Rx and get a few reps of something I didn't think I could do (which happened in pretty much every Granite Games Master's Sectional workout last summer) than do an easier scaled version.  Besides, even one T2B completed would put me ahead of every 50-54 year old woman who chose the scaled option.

Not that I was paying attention to that, of course.

So I decided that I'd get to SISU early and try to few T2B's.  If I could hit one or two, then I'd go Rx.  If I failed completely, I'd choose the scaled option, which substituted "knee lifts" for T2B's and had a lower deadlift/snatch weight.

My first T2B attempt, as expected, ended in failure.  So did the second.  Then I thought for a moment.  I'd been trying to "kip"--a mostly upperbody swing that adds momentum to aid in getting your feet to the bar, but which I'm utterly abysmally horrible at executing (this goes for kipping in pullups as well).  But then I remembered hearing people talk about using a "monkey swing"-- more of a whole body, little-kid-on-the-playground-monkeybars sort of thing.  Having nothing to lose, I swung my entire body as violently as possible...and actually touched the bar with both feet.

Lifetime T2B's now stood at 6.

So I practiced my "monkey swing" a bit more, and was able to complete 6 or 7 more T2B's.  I was unable to link them; my feet descended so violently from the bar that my swing at the end of one T2B was completely uncontrolled and there was no way I could channel it into a second T2B without dropping to the ground and starting over.  This is how my kipping pullups go, to, though, so it didn't bother me; I was just thrilled to be able to consistently execute single T2B's.

So Rx it was.

So I conscripted a judge from the ranks of spectators, set up my bar, put on my handgrips (to hopefully avoid ripping my hands again), and prepared to do battle.

3, 2, 1, Go!

I jumped up, grabbed the bar, swung, and kicked the bar with both feet.

One.

Attempts Two and Three proceeded as planned as well: monkey swing, kick the bar, jump down, jump up and do it again.  Hmmm, maybe I'll actually get through all 15.  Maybe I'll even get more than one round...

And then attempt four.  Clumsy swing, feet nowhere near the bar.

No rep!

Attempt five.

No rep!

And attempts six and seven and eight and nine and...well, you get the idea.  All "No rep!"

Somewhere between reps three and four, I had completely lost the ability to do T2B's.

I was still swinging...

Nice monkey swing, eh?

...and sometimes my feet were even coming close to the bar...

I think this was one of the many attempts where a "no rep"

resulted from me kicking my hands instead of the bar

...but in the remaining 8 of the original 9 minutes, I only achieved one more T2B.

By attempt # 63 or so, the spectators were clearly unimpressed...

...while my poor judge, who managed to remain incredibly 

positive and helpful throughout the debacle, pondered

new ways to say "come on, you can get this!"

So I ended 15.1 with a score of 4.  15.1a, fortunately, went a bit better.  I've only done cleans and jerks once or twice since my injury, and I'm a little hesitant to hit a heavy squat clean or a hard fast split jerk (I jerk with my right foot in front, which stresses the bad hammy), but despite this I was happy to hit 105, equaling my pre-injury PR.

After the WOD (and after thanking my patient judge profusely) I peeled off my handgrips to reveal a bloody left palm.  Oh, so that's where that blood on the pullup bar came from!  

I spent the rest of the night cheering on my fellow competitors.  There are some true badasses at SISU, and it was fun to watch them.  I also talked to a fellow competitor who said he was planning to re-do the WOD during the weekend.  

Hmm...if anyone should re-do the WOD, it's me!

So I approached Coach JJ and asked if there was a time I could make another attempt at the WOD.

"What was your score?" he asked.

"Four."

"Four reps?" he asked, his eyes widening in horror.  "Yeah, you need to re-do it."

And we shall recap the re-do tomorrow.

Walk Around in Circles

Remember the late-1990's song "Circles" by Soul Coughing?  "I don't need to walk around in circles, walk around in circles, walk around in circles..."

Well, as it turns out, I do need to walk around in circles.  Or, more accurately, rectangles, in the Plymouth Fieldhouse.  Because that's all the lower body exercise I'm allowed to do right now.

Yup, when I saw my PT on Wednesday he instituted Timeout/Setback/Restrictions Number, oh, I don't know...Three?  Oh, well...I had a good run the past couple weeks, anyway.  As I mentioned in my last post, CrossFit was going well, and skating was, well, improving...slowly, but still improving.
Unfortunately, what wasn't improving was my pain level.  No, it's stayed pretty much the same for the past 3 months or so--anywhere from 1-4 on the ol' pain scale, depending on what I'm doing.  Running, skating and driving are most likely to evoke a 4, while CrossFit and walking and sitting and general life are mostly in the 2-3 range.  The recliner rates a 0-1. My PT has done dry needling the last three times I've seen him; I did have one day after the second session when I was able, for the first time since the injury, to walk without pain--but it only lasted a day.  Other than that, nothing has really had an effect on the pain level.

Understandably, this has led to a lot of frustration.  I'm frustrated that I'm in pain so much of the time (relatively minor though I guess it is, in the grand scheme of pain); my PT is frustrated that we can't figure out what's causing the pain and thus how to make it go away; my CrossFit coaches are frustrated that one day I'm PR'ing my squat clean and the next I'm refusing to do any of the lower body exercises that I've been doing sucessfully--if somewhat painfully--for the past month or two.

For the record, I know that this injury takes a long time to recover from--9 to 12 months until return to full sport performance level.  Right now I'm skating one lap at a time at 55 seconds; I know it will be a long time before I work my way back to multiple laps in the low 40's, just as it will take a long time to work my way from my current back squat of 85 pounds to my previous PR of 150.  And I'm OK with that, because I see progress in the right direction.  I don't, however, see any progress--except for some progress in sitting somewhat comfortably--in the pain level, at least not since I made the jump to walking without a limp, which was about three and a half months ago.  And from what I read on the "Hamstring Avulsion" forum (500 pages of riveting tales of people's injuries and recoveries), this is not normal.  If you remember, back in December my surgeon said to expect my leg to hurt for "a long time" (wish I would have pinned him down on exactly what he meant by that).  Maybe I need to talk to him again, because I guess I didn't expect this to mean absolutely no change in pain level in the two months since I talked to him.

The PT said he wants me to take a week completely off of any lower body stuff to see if that makes a difference--no running, rowing, lifting, skating...basically nothing fun.  I don't expect to see any results from this inactivity; I didn't from the earlier restrictions he imposed, nor did I from my self-imposed five-day timeout a couple weeks ago...but we've got to start somewhere.  Plus, other than skating and running, it's not like exercising seems to aggravate the pain; it's pretty much just always there, so I have a hard time believing that it's the exercise that's causing the pain to stick around.  Maybe I've "done too much" (as all my non-exercising friends and, um, spouse continually warn me against), but I really feel like I've re-introduced athletic activities slowly and gradually, and I've followed what my PT has said. And besides, back in December my surgeon said there was no need to limit my activity.  But, as I say, we've got to start somewhere, and it's only a week...

So I'm frustrated.  And, of course, when I'm frustrated and can't work out, I want to eat.  I'm still trying to lose the poundage I gained when I first hit the recliner, but I know myself well enough to know that I'm going to need to allow for an indulgence or two if I want to maintain my sanity...and I figure Monster, Diet Dew, and grain free Monster Cookies (with three types of chips in them, I can hardly call them Paleo) are better than eating an entire pizza.  Not that I've done that before or anything...

My salvation...

So today, after several days of "upper body only" CrossFit, which is certainly better than nothing but which is not nearly enough exercise to keep me happy,  I found myself, as I did twice yesterday (I was desperate) strapping on the vintage iPod and marching 'round and 'round the Plymouth Fieldhouse.  And when, on my last lap, the iPod's "shuffle all" mode produced Soul Coughing's "Circles,"  I couldn't help laughing.

At least I still have my sense of humor.

Seriously, does anyone have any tales of their own injury that might be helpful?  Any major muscle tears, muscle surgery, etc?  How long did the pain last?  How quickly did it change/improve?  Does my story sound unusual (I'm 5.5 months post surgery right now), or am I just a whiner and I need to suck it up and shut up?  All suggestions are appreciated!

Like a Real CrossFitter (but not quite a real skater yet)

This week, I actually felt like a "real CrossFitter."  I didn't have to avoid any movements in any of the WOD's, which meant that for the first time since the injury I did: kettlebells; squat cleans; front squats with more than 50 pounds or so; deadlifts with actually lowering the bar instead of dropping it to spare my hammy; and Rx-weight thrusters.  Which may, of course, account for why my leg is so sore now.

But it's a good sore, right?

The week started out really well, hammy-wise (wasn't he a character in Lord of the Rings?  No, wait, that was someone else...).  Anyway, I had some more (quite painful) dry needling on my bad leg on Monday, which led to actually feeling almost no pain at all when walking on Tuesday.  Believe me, that's a novel sensation...and it felt so great that I immediately went to CrossFit and did the above-mentioned kettlebell swings.  Which of course meant that by Wednesday it hurt to walk again.  Oh, well.  There are still definite signs of progress; despite the returning leg pain on Wednesday, I was able to wear "regular pants" all week at work, without having to change into sweats to accommodate leg pain and swelling. (Which did not go un-noticed.  As I left school the other day, one of my co-workers asked how my leg was feeling.  When I said "good," she replied "Yeah, it must be feeling better; you kept your pants on all day.")

Thursday's WOD, in particular, put a smile on my face.  It started with squat cleans; we were to work up to our heaviest squat clean which would be followed immediately by two front squats.  My previous clean PR was, I think. 110.  On Thursday, despite it being my first day doing full squat cleans since the injury (I had been limited to hang power cleans before), I did 105--and it felt pretty easy (except for the hammy when I hit the bottom of the squat).  And then there was the metcon.  I had been looking forward to it since the minute I saw it posted the night before: a 5 minute AMRAP of 65 pound thrusters and chest-to-bar pullups (in the format of 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, etc.) followed by a 2 minute rest and then a 5 minute AMRAP of thrusters and toes-to-bar.

Well, I thought the thrusters sounded heavy but I planned to try them at the Rx weight.  I was looking forward to the chest to bars; I hadn't tried them since the Granite Games Masters Sectional when I tried them for the first time and barely managed to complete 7 in about 6 minutes, but I know my regular pullups have improved dramatically since then (in the Sectionals I did 16 pullups in about 12 minutes; now I've done 100 in a WOD) so I was curious to see how my chest to bars had improved.  The toes to bar, though, were the real focus of the WOD for me.  T2B are my current Kryptonite.  I've done exactly one of them in my entire life, and haven't come close the times I've gotten some coaching on them recently.  But I figured I'd do my first thruster, and then either get a T2B or spend the next 4 minutes and 50 seconds trying.

As I had hoped, the thruster/C2B combo went well.  Not fast, but well.  I ended up getting through the round of 5--which meant 15 C2B pullups--and then 6 more thrusters.  The thruster weight felt surprisingly good, and I think I only no-repped myself on one C2B. So that was fun.

On to the T2B.  There were, as I anticipated, many "no reps,"--usually when my right foot didn't quite make it to the party--but in the end I completed 4 actual T2B's, thus quadrupling my lifetime accomplishment.

You can bet I was smiling after that!

As for the skating, I went out twice this week, both times immediately after a CrossFit workout.  The first time, I was able to skate two laps in a row once and three other sets of one lap, before my leg said "stop."  The second time, I couldn't complete a full lap.  So while there's definite progress in skating, there's also definitely a long way to go.  But that's OK; as long as I'm moving forward I'm happy.

It's so much fun to feel like I'm really starting to get back to doing at least one of my sports at close to a "normal" level!

Laps

After all the whining that's been going on here the past couple weeks, I'm thrilled to say that I've got a happy post for a change.  I went skating today for the first time in two weeks...and I managed to do five sets of one complete lap of "speedskating!"  The laps were slow--so slow that I had to throw a few straightaway strokes into my "into the wind" corners--and still quite painful; but I was surprised and very pleased that I even felt like attempting full laps, and even more surprised at how well they went.

Prior to this, I've done mostly single straightaways in "speedskating" position; every time I've tried crossing over in corners I've regretted it, so I've stuck with "skate the straights and coast the corners."  But today, although the pain was still there, my mobility and strength felt up to the task of trying corners, and when I did try, my crossovers felt more like real crossovers than the lurching-and-wobbling attempts I'd previously made.  So I tried a continuous lap...and I could do it!  And I even was breathing a little hard after the lap--so there's hope for getting a good cardio workout sometime soon.  So then I did four more laps, with one lap of rest between each--and then my hamstring felt pretty tired and it seemed like a good time to stop, so I just did upright "rest laps" for the rest of the ice session.  With a huge smile on my face.

Maybe the improvement in skating ability was due to having run a mile (a blazing 10:20, but a significant improvement over my previous 11:40 mile) immediately before hitting the ice and thus being completely warmed up before I tried skating; maybe it was due to just general improvements in strength and flexibility; maybe the dry needling or the ARP wave or the massage had an effect; or maybe I was just better at ignoring the pain and getting on with it this time.  Whatever the reason, I'm delighted, and I'm already planning this week's skating workouts.  Let's see, maybe I could skate Tuesday and Thursday after CrossFit (yes, I'll be well warmed up to skate!)...maybe try a short "pyramid" workout on Tuesday of 1-2-3-2-1 "real skating" laps, with one lap of rest between each set of real laps.  And then maybe on Thursday I could time a lap...

It's so much fun to finally be able to start thinking about real speedskating workouts!