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!