Deth

Last week, I did one of the week’s WODs that really looked fun to me. It was a death by. I always loved them, but who doesn’t? They start off easy but get real pretty quickly. I had done the rowing version inside with the rainy and wet weather, but the run/ barbell version intrigued me. I just had to wait for a dry and reasonably nice day to do it.

Today warmed up reasonably after the cold start. The afternoon temperature was in the low to mid-40s, but there was full sun and little if any wind. I went outside in the sun a bit and decided that it felt good enough outside to get that WOD in. It was a little chilly at first with my shorts on, but once I got a round or two in I was warmed up. I figured the WOD would be a great way to kill two birds with one stone. I wanted to work out, and I wanted to get out in the sun for a bit.

The workout was a death by. Every three minutes I would run a hundred meters then two hang squat cleans then run another hundred meters. The remainder of the three-minute period was rest. Each round, two more hang squat cleans were added. Of course, the first couple of rounds were mostly rest, even though I slowed down the runs a bit those rounds to not get too burnt out too fast. I was at least early on hopeful that I could possibly make it to the ten round cap like I did with the rowing and sandbag version earlier in the week. Things were going great, and I was cycling the barbell quickly.

Even the round of ten hang squat cleans went well, with me going unbroken. It was the round of twelve when things went a little awry. It wasn’t my mechanics of the cleans that was going wrong, but I kept having to break them up. I was doing them on the slightly uneven grass in the backyard like I always do, but I somehow kept managing to either get my foot on a stone. That was throwing my form off a bit with the squats, only because my foot was slipping a little. Another thing is I suspect by that time I was bringing up some water in the dirt, making it a little slick. Those resets ended up eating time and I didn’t have much rest before the next round.

It’s certainly not perfect, but I make lifting in the backyard work. It’s not perfect, but we’re very fortunate to have what we have and do what we can do without leaving the house. In some ways, it’s a little more primal and fun. I like the way the dirt deadens the thud of the bar dropping. Of course, doing that limits the weight I used and speed at times.

Almost to a fault, I care more about form on my lifts than speed. For that reason, I didn’t make a very competitive Crossfitter, but it also kept me injury free. It’s not a bad thing. I do this for health above all.

It was a great WOD that I got in. The earlier rounds were easy, but then in the later rounds really jacked up my heart rate. On a different day, I absolutely could have hit the ten rounds. I just got thrown off by that one, and it slowed me down. I went unbroken on the round of fourteen again, but I was just a little too far behind and cautious. Eventually, I want to redo this WOD at some point. One thing I think I would change is go with a heavier weight than the ninety-five pounds. It was too light.