Deth

Last night, I wound up getting a great night’s sleep. I woke up feeling great this morning. Not only did I sleep deeply, but I slept long. I only woke up once to piss and take my thyroid pill. It surprised me that I slept so well after feeling a bit wound up with the Phillies walk-off wine yesterday, plus a late supper.

I drank my coffee this morning on this cool but clear morning. It had me in a good mood and eager to get out into the garage. I wanted to do a workout that is programmed for next week that I knew I wouldn’t make the goal on but I did want to give it a go. It was death by dumbell squats and kipping pull ups. I knew I’d get hung up on the pull-ups early. The bar is too low to really kip well and I was never good at that to begin with. When finsihing he round of six my hand was starting to feel torn up from the old tape on the bar. My girlfriend likes it, but I don’t. I was content with that result.

I relaxed for a few minutes but was feeling that I wanted to get another WOD in. I wanted to push myself with the weights. While glancing through my favorite workouts, I found one that was just push presses and, in my case, fake double unders. I used my fake jump rope, since they’re really just meant to be cardio.

The real goal of this particular WOD for me was to use the heavier dumbbells. I went with the fifty-pounders. This was a weight that I knew was going to be both a mental and physical challenge. I don’t remember the last time I used them for push presses, and I knew the larger sets in the beginning were going to be a tall order.

The first set was twenty reps. In hindsight, I should have gone with four sets of five with a quick breather instead of two sets of ten. That set me up to be too close to failure too early in the WOD. I got through the workout but missed their goal by a good bit. Once I went too hard in the first round, I just wasn’t able to get my breathing in sync, so I took more time between the sets of push presses. I was hell-bent on getting through the workout with the heavier weight, though, so I just plugged away at it.

For me, it turned out to be a great workout and a very rewarding one. I pushed myself way out of my comfort zone with the weights and got through it without my form breaking. If I hadn’t done the pull-ups a little beforehand, this WOD would probably have gone better, too. It certainly felt like death during the WOD, but it was manageable. Because the weights are much heavier than the thirty-five pound dumbbells that I normally grab, and the handles and head are also much bigger, I didn’t have the flow for speed like I normally do either. There was just a slight hesitation between reps as I made sure to feel that I was in a good position.

Music for the WOD was Einherjer