CrossFit Open 20.5

I watched the 20.5 announcement at home, and I just had a feeling that something was up when the first movement announced was 40 ring muscle ups. I was right; This workout of 40 ring muscle ups, 80 calories on the rower and 120 wall balls was different from any other Open workout that has come before it. Because in this workout, every athlete was free to choose their own rep scheme.

So for those of us who don't have ring muscle ups, or maybe only have a few, we are free to complete the calories and wall balls and not worry about the muscle ups. The scaled version was the same for the calories, had a lighter wall ball and substituted chin over the bar pull-ups for the ring muscle ups. I figured it would be just as painful either way, so I went Rx, with the 14 pound wall ball. 

I really dislike wall balls, and I was not looking forward to 120 of them. At the Friday night workout, we talked about strategy and how to divvy things up. For those who were close to getting a first ring muscle up, it was advised to try and get one in the first five minutes, and then, if one was got, hurrying up to get through the row and wall balls - it wouldn't make a difference for your score if you got 180 reps and one of them was a ring muscle up; someone who did 200 reps and got no ring muscle ups would be ranked higher.

Several of us tried practicing muscle ups, but no one who hadn't already done one got one. I can do a ring pull-up, but I don't have the strength to get through the transition, and I also, technically, don't have a ring dip, so I probably wouldn't be able to push myself to the finishing position if I did get through the transition. I know I can't do one now, but I am determined that I will do one someday.

For the workout, I decided that I'd take 8 rounds of 15 wall balls and 10 calories. 15 wall balls is a doable set for me, and I prefer 8 rounds to 10. I wasn't feeling very well (again) that night, so I decided to do a trial run but not actually complete the workout. I got through 3 of the 8 rounds in a little over 5 minutes, so I believed that I would be able to finish the workout when I did it on Sunday. Afterwards, we all chatted and hung out, and I am going to miss that class. I hope they do it again next year.

On Sunday, we were back to having two heats, so my friend and I got to judge each other. She did the scaled version and came pretty close to finishing. She was doing 10 rounds of 4 pull-ups, 12 wall balls and 8 calories. Oh - one of the annoying things about the workout was that the rower was supposed to be reset after each set, so you couldn't have any rollover calories. At least the judges were allowed to reset the rowers so the athlete working didn't have to worry about it.

When it was my turn, I executed my plan. I intentionally started with wall balls so that I would be fresher on the first set and so that I would finish those first. I went unbroken on the first 5 sets - 1 set more than I had hoped for. On the 6th set I broke at number 11, which was irritating. So on the 7th, I decided to break intentionally at 10, and then do another set of 10. That way, on round 8, I got to just do a set of 10. It was kind of nice to be able to re-figure my plan mid-workout.

On the row, I just pushed as hard as I could. I can sprint the rower for very short periods of time, but for this workout I didn't want to burn myself out on the rower. So I didn't go as fast as I possibly could; I just tried to keep a decent pace. Well, until the last round when I didn't have any more wall balls to do. Then I let it rip, finished up, and collapsed.

I felt pretty good about the workout, and the Open overall. Even though I couldn't replicate my handstand push-ups from 2018, I am stronger and more skilled than I used to be. The journey isn't in a straight line, and that's okay.

Judging time! Not that there's a whole lot to judge on the rower.

On wall balls, I need to look for proper depth in the squat and the ball getting high enough. 

There goes my ball; It's right on the 9. 

Row, row, row your Concept2....

I'm imagining that I'm going gently down a stream. 

CrossFit Open 20.4

I wasn't looking forward to 20.4 after 20.3. I wasn't feeling great about the fact that I didn't do better on the repeat of 18.4. But then I watched the announcement, and I started to feel better. Not because I thought I could complete the thing, but because I had nothing to compare it to. 

Well, I panicked at first, because it was box jumps, and I'm pretty slow on those. But then I looked at the movement standards and found that step ups were allowed. Step ups, I can do! The workout time was capped at 20 minutes, and in that 20 minutes, there was a lot to do. 30 box jumps, 15 clean and jerks at 65 pounds, 30 box jumps, 15 clean and jerks at 85 pounds, 30 box jumps, 10 clean and jerks at 115 pounds, 30 one legged (pistol) squats, 10 clean and jerks at 145 pounds, 30 pistols, 5 clean and jerks at 175 pounds, 30 pistols, 5 clean and jerks at 205 pounds (women's Rx weights and movements). 

I knew that the chances of me doing a single 145 pound clean and jerk were small, but I also was pretty sure I wasn't going to be doing very many (if any) pistols, so I was aiming to complete the first half of the workout as fast as I could. I had a goal for this workout, and it was attainable. 

The Friday night class was a revelation. As one woman put it to the instructor, most of us were going to be able to do pistols, but we didn't think that we could. And she was quite right. I actually had her especially to thank, because she demonstrated a method of doing pistols that I could do! 

See, I thought I couldn't do pistols, because I couldn't hold one leg out straight and do the squat on the other leg. But what I could do was bend my free leg and hold onto my foot in a kind of pretzel shape. And it wasn't super difficult on my right leg, but my left leg was a bit weaker. 

I decided to go ahead and do the workout that night to gauge where I was with the heavier (for me) weights and the pistols. Usually, I don't go first, but this time my partner didn't want to go first because he wasn't sure he was going to go at all. So I went first. The 30 step ups were about what I'd imagined. Tough but doable. Then came the 65 pound clean and jerks. I started with a set of 5 and then did singles because I was a lot more tired than I thought I'd be. 30 more step ups was almost a rest, and then came the 85 pounds. I took those a lot slower, but I got through them and went on to my next 30 step ups - last 30! 

It was at this point that I was unsure. I completed that last set of step ups in good time, a little over nine minutes in. 115 pounds was my one rep max for a clean and jerk - admittedly an old PR, but still I had to do 10 of them here. I failed on my first rep, because I was trying to do a technique that one of the coaches had told me to try, not letting the bar get lower than my shoulders. But for whatever reason, I can't lift heavier with that technique yet. Probably lack of practice. So I went back to the technique that works for me, which does involve letting the bar drop a bit down below my shoulders so that I have a better angle at punching it up and over my head. 

And with that technique, I got through the ten reps with time to spare for trying pistols. 

Over the course of about 5 minutes, I got through 9 pistols. More than I'd ever done before in my life. I was stoked. This felt like a win, even though I was nowhere near completing the workout. 

My partner did end up trying the workout and he also got some pistols, so we were both happy with that. Actually, everyone who did the workout was pretty happy. 

I decided to go again on Sunday. I've got a friend who I usually partner up with for the Open workouts so we can take turns judging each other. But the coach decided that there would only be one heat so we couldn't do that this time. I was left scrambling to figure out who I could get to judge me who wasn't already judging someone else.

And then a couple came in who were going to go at 10 am, and I rushed over and asked if one of them would please, please, pretty please judge me. And that's how I ended up with a very good judge for my workout. She asked me what my goals were. I wanted to beat my split time for completing the 3rd set of step ups, and to get at least one more pistol than last time. 

She did a really good job of coaching me to those goals. I beat my split time by nearly a minute, didn't miss any of the reps at 115, and I ended up with a total of 11 pistols, when I had despaired at getting back to 9 with 6 completed and about 2 minutes left in the workout. She buoyed me through it and helped me beat my score. 

20.4 was such a high note that I almost wished it were the end of the Open. But there was one more workout to go... 

An 85 pound clean and jerk.

Pushing it on the step ups.

The 115 pounds comes from the floor...

...gets to the shoulders...

...and then overhead!

CrossFit Open 20.3

Most years in the Open, there is a repeat workout. And this Open was no exception. Although Dave Castro did mix things up in that this repeat was not happening on the same week as it did originally. 20.3 was 18.4, which was a workout that I had done in the past, and hoped to improve upon. 

There was just one small problem. I have been avoiding doing kipping handstand pushups in the last year or so because I am convinced that it would be better and safer if I trained myself up to the point where I could do one strict before I worked seriously on kipping. Back in 2018, I was able to do kipping handstand pushups. I got 12 of them at my second attempt of 18.4. 

But I've gained weight since then, and I haven't been working the movement. I was dreading the attempts, because I remembered on that second attempt that I completely lost the ability to do them and had to be coached through technique until my body remembered what to do. 

At the Friday night strategy class, I decided to try something a little different and brought out a yoga mat for the handstand pushups. I figured the thick mats were a bit too squishy and I don't particularly like putting my hands on the plates (in order to put an ab mat under the head, the hands must be raised with weight plates so that the head goes down to the level of the hands). 

In practice, I managed to get a few reps off. I can, in fact, do handstand pushups. 

But when it came time to get them done after 21 reps of 155 pound deadlifts... I just couldn't do it. I could go through the motions, but my arms didn't have enough oomph to finish the press up the wall. I tried and tried and tried, but I couldn't get lock out with my arms. 

I tried to hold my head high after that, but I felt deeply disappointed in myself. I was supposed to be improving. I'd been doing CrossFit 20 or more times a month for over 2 years and I regress on handstand pushups? 

That emotion was likely my downfall. It led me to going in on Saturday during the open hour and working on handstand pushups. I was convinced that I just wasn't getting the motion right, and that I needed to relearn how my body can do them. In retrospect, I think I was exhausting myself to no good end, since I didn't end up getting a single rep on Saturday or on Sunday when I redid the workout. 

One good thing did come of me going in on Saturday though. My friend was there, and I convinced her that she should do the workout Rx instead of scaled, because she can do handstand pushups. The deadlift weight is heavy for her, but she can also do that. So on Sunday, I got the joy of judging her through her first Rx Open workout, and seeing her get a good number of handstand pushups. 

When it was my turn to go, I was determined to at least do the 21 deadlifts at 155 pounds faster than I'd ever done them before. On Friday, I'd started doing an 8 - 7 - 6 rep scheme, but gave it up after the set of 8. I ended up at 1:23 for the deadlifts, and I figured if I didn't give that scheme up, I could probably get under a minute. 

I pushed through, and while I couldn't get near one of my other friend's incredible time of 23 seconds, I did beat a minute with a time of 56 seconds. 

And then I attacked the handstand pushups. And I gave it my all for the remaining 8 minutes of the workout. And all I got for my effort was a really sore head from falling down after each of my attempts. I got close a couple times, but I couldn't get it. Based on how sore my shoulders were for days afterwards, I probably would have been better off not practicing at all on Saturday and giving myself a chance to recover before Sunday... 

I had to really work at not being disappointed with myself. It helps to put that emotion into the drive to get stronger. If I want to be able to do handstand pushups, then I need to get strong enough to do them strict so I can practice kipping and continue to become more skilled. I know what it took to get a pull up, and I know that it wasn't impossible, though it seemed so before I started CrossFit. 

My friend can deadlift 155 pounds, yes she can! 

I did try. I tried very hard.

I can also deadlift 155 pounds. Pretty fast, too. 

Gosh, this picture makes it look like I did a rep... but I'm just hanging out at the top. 

Another angle on the lifting. 

Up it goes. 

CrossFit Open 20.2

I really liked that 20.2 had weights and movements that I could do. I have no illusions about putting up a competitive score, but I like being able to strive at the Rx version of the workout rather than perhaps excelling at the scaled version. I'm pretty slow, so I'd rather have my score depend on weights and skill than speed.

20.2 was as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of 4 dumbbell thrusters, 6 toes to bar, and 24 double unders. When a workout has a lot of toes to bar, I usually scale to hanging knee raises, since I can't string toes to bar together very efficiently. But 6 is not that many to do at a time. And I'm finally at a point with my double unders that 24 isn't scary. I'd say, I'd probably be comfortable with sets of 30, even. Maybe 35. 50 still gets me nervous though.

The dumbbell thrusters were the only questionable part. It's only 4 reps, but women's Rx weight was two 35 pound dumbbells. I know that I have gotten that much weight overhead before, in a prior open, but a thruster is different from a jerk.

At the strategy class, I got a chance to try out the dumbbells and they were heavy. But I could lift them. Up above my head. So I was going to do my best at Rx and get a really good workout. One thing that they recommended for speed on the thrusters was to take the dumbbells to the shoulders with a kettlebell swing type movement, nice and smooth. Several of us taped the bars to protect our hands and help our grip during the toes to bar.

We were joined by a visitor here to do the open workout. I ended up pairing with her to take turns judging. She went first, scaled. She did run into a snag because none of the jump ropes were quite the right length for her (a fellow height-challenged person). But other than that, she rocked it, moving smoothly through the hanging knee raises (a real ab burner) and the thrusters (two 20 pound dumbbells was the scaled weight for women).

She also did a bang up job judging me, if I do say so myself. The hard part for me, as anticipated, was the thrusters. Those dumbbells got so heavy, and it was hard for me even to lift them onto my shoulders. I didn't want to pick them up because I knew how hard it would be. At one point, when they were overhead, my left wrist wobbled and collapsed a bit. But my toes to bar were steady singles and I managed to get through 8 sets of 24 unbroken double unders, so that's cool. My total for that attempt was 8 rounds and 24 reps (4 thrusters, 6 toes to bar, 14 double unders).

This workout was hard, but not so hard that I didn't want to try it again. I felt like I could get more rounds, 10 to be exact. That's an average of two minutes per round. Surely I could stick to that pace for a mere twenty minutes.

On Sunday, I first judged my friend, who also did scaled. She blasted through an amazing 23+ rounds, and I was in awe. I told her my goal for the workout and she agreed to nag me through it.

The major change that I made to my workout on Sunday versus Friday was in how I addressed the dumbbells. I am just not strong enough to swing those dumbbells right up to my shoulders. In the interest of keeping moving and not messing up my lower back, I switched to a two step technique. First, I deadlifted the dumbbells, then I did a hang clean to get them to my shoulders. Slower, but safer and more efficient for me. I also invested in some wrist wraps, because my left wrist was really sore from that bobble and I didn't want to lift those dumbbells overhead without some support.

And those changes made the difference. Or the fact that I'd done the workout once already and I almost always do better on a repeat. I got my 10 rounds with about 10 seconds to spare.

I'm so judgmental ;)

Such heavy dumbbells!

It's nice not to work out alone. 

We are twins, you can't even tell who is who. 

Toes, prepare to meet bar. 

My form could use some work - it would be better if my body were straighter. But for now, this gets the reps done.