So, last night’s WOD played tricks with my head a little.
3 minutes of 3 different activities (wall balls, handstand pushups and rowing) each followed by 6 minutes of rest. My first reaction was “that’s a lot of rest”. My second reaction was “those are going to be very long 3-minute sets”.
First off, I hate wall balls. I hate them almost as much as I hate burpees. They involve a compound movement of squats and overhead throws with a medicine ball. Wall balls are tedious and mind numbing. They suck oxygen out of your lungs and make you lose your mind after about 10 of them.
The wall balls came first…so I started out slow, thinking that I would need to pace myself. But after about a minute of pacing myself cautiously, I was too winded to start picking up the pace or doing anything much more than prop myself up against the wall. In hindsight, I probably should have just gone-for- it until I died instead of trying to “play it safe”.
The handstand pushups were my moment (or 3 minutes) of glory. The alternative option for the HSPU’s was dumbbell presses. I had set up my dumbbells and was ready to go, but at the last minute decided to get crazy and try the HSPU’s. I got up into the handstand with my legs against the wall, and lowered myself with my arms…there were two abmats between my head and the concrete floor, so I didn’t lower myself all the way, but I was pretty happy that I could do it at all – I was able to crank out 10 hspu’s before the room started to rotate. By the end of the 3 minutes, I completed 18.
The final rotation was on the rowing machine. As soon as I get on this machine, I automatically get that mind-numbing-wall-ball feeling. I didn’t break any records here, but the energy in the room helped get through this final 3 minutes of the WOD.
So I guess you could say I was overly-cautious in the first set of wall balls, overcame my fears during the HSPUs, and cruised through the rowing. In the future, I need to find a way to maintain the same intensity I had during the HSPUs throughout the entire workout.
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2 comments:
Haha, your description of wall ball shots is so accurate it hurts, Howard! How many did you manage to do? Awesome job on the HSPUs!!! One day I'll be able to do them, although I doubt I'd be able to do 16 in three minutes. Pacing yourself during the wall ball shots was logical, but Spence told us not to do that because then you won't have the steam for the remaining two minutes. It appears he was right. :/ But you will know next time! Nice job!
I think I got just over 30 wall balls...in 3 minutes. I know, I know. I gotta start working on my endurance, for realz.
It's very seldom that I ever here anyone say "pace yourself" at Crossfit. Now I know why! As you said, lesson learned.
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