Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 18 minutes of:
- 15 Box jumps, 24" box
- 115# Push press/jerk, 12 reps
- 9 Toes-to-bar
Nothing here that doesn't suck. (Wow, parse all THOSE negatives!) High(ish) box jumps. Heavy(ish) push presses/jerks. Toes to bar. Nothing good. Nothing fun. After watching the first heat go through the workout, I jumped into the second heat. Not by choice... I assumed all the judges from the first heat were going to go, but apparently not. So, I jumped in. I had warmed-up and stretched as well as I could. My only concern was that my abs were still kind of tight and sore from Thursday's sit-ups/double-unders couplet, but that didn't really become much of a factor during the workout.
My only goal was really this: go steady and slow. 18 minutes is way too long for me to sprint, or even quickly jog. If I didn't sprint out of the gate, I would probably be ok. Matt Chan did a video on box jump efficiency, and two things I tried to take from it were not look down at the box, since that puts you in more of a compressed position after landing on the box, requiring both more time and effort to stand; and to jump down from the box, bounce off the floor back onto the box, utilizing the stretch-shortening cycle inherent in that landing to do some of the work, and to rest on top of the box. Stepping down, my usual MO since all the issues with my knees back when, actually requires more effort overall than the bounce, so provided there are no active injuries involved, jumping down and bouncing back up is actually the easier option, as well as being faster.
As a result of Mr. Chan's advice, I was actually the fastest through the first set of box jumps, and in total, they weren't as awful as I thought. I think I managed to keep that first set unbroken, but I might be wrong. After that, it was on to the "shoulder to overhead anyhow" movement, with 115# on the bar. That's a pretty light weight, until you're doing it for 12 reps. I don't think I saw anyone who didn't struggle with it, even the big guys. Even if you were well within your strength capacity for getting that weight overhead, doing it while suffocating because that weight is also crushing down on your chest and lungs will make anyone stop and take notice. That took two sets to get through, I think. Possible it was unbroken, but that's kind of unlikely.
On to the toes-to-bar. I hate these. I just can't chain them together very well, and lack the upper body strength to muscle myself to the bar to make a close rep a good rep. T2Bs were the only movement I got no repped on (though I may have missed a landing on a box jump... I don't really remember). I did a pretty good job of getting through the first round, but the next two rounds, and specifically the T2Bs, would be my undoing.
Back to the boxes, then to the bar. Each was broken up into several mini-sets to keep chipping away at the totals. At this point, I was in total oxygen debt (or, it certainly felt it), so I was taking short breaks, 2-3 seconds, to blow out some CO2 and get some fresh air in. Funny to have people yelling support when you've only just paused, and you have a plan for restarting. The second set of T2B were... not fun. My judge, Sheri, did a great job of no repping me when I failed to make contact with the bar, which became much more common. I made sure to drop off the bar and recover for a second or two before attempting another rep after a failed one. No need to dig myself into a hole by trying repeatedly for something that I can only get while kind of fresh in the first place! Third round was just like the second, only more so, in all aspects.
Finally, with time running out, I made it back to the boxes for the 4th round. I tried to stay unbroken, but just could not breathe for the life of me. I only wanted to get through the push-presses, having no illusions about my ability to crank out more T2B at this point with the time running out. I got on the bar, and dammit, but I couldn't complete the initial clean, to get the bar onto my shoulders, without an annoyingly long recovery. I think the issue is that I'm still not rock solid on the clean, so it still scares me to try to do it completely gassed. After finally getting it up to my shoulders, I started trying to crank out push-jerks to make up for that slowness to start. There's no way I was unbroken, and honestly, I don't really remember. All I know is that I hit the tenth rep just as time ran out.
Completed rounds: 3 Extra reps: 25
Total Reps: 133
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