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.