Burnt Lung

I made it out to crossfit yesterday for the first time on a Wed. It seems the current weekly routine is strength and conditioning on Mon with the emphasis on strength, strength and conditioning on Wed with the emphasis on conditioning and strength on Fridays with little emphasis on conditioning.

Yesterday’s workout was called the “Burnt Lung” and as soon as a saw the name of the workout I knew I was in trouble.

Usual warm-up

WOD
20 wallballs
5 Burpees
400 meter run

10 ROUNDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*Wall balls – Explode out of a deep squat position with a 20 lb medicine ball and throw the ball up in the air to a line on a wall that is about 15 – 20 feet high.

Every WOD has one exercise that I think of as the “make or break” exercise of the WOD. That exercise has the biggest impact on the overall time to complete the WOD. In this WOD there was no doubt about what the make or break exercise was going to be, obviously managing the run was going to be the key. The person with the fastest time would be the person how could get through each round without walking. Run to fast and you’ll burn out forcing yourself to walk so you can catch your breath, run too slow and you might as well be walking. My strategy for this WOD was managing the run at a slow pace that allowed my legs to actively recover during the run.

So we start the WOD and right out of the gate everyone else takes off into the wallballs, rips through the burpees and sprints out the door into the run. I was the last to finish the wallballs, last to finish the burpees , walked from my burpee station to the door for the run and began my long slow jog solidly bringing up the rear in 10th. I kept up my pace and by round 3 I was in 3rd. During the run of round 4 I noticed the guy ahead of me slowing down a little so I lengthened my stride ever so slightly to close the distance. About mid way through the run on round 5 I pasted the guy ahead of me and took command of 2nd place. Now the only guy ahead of me was a little guy who was clearly a very strong running. He had a tougher time with the wall balls then me but he tore around the track. At the end of round 7 he was about 50 paces ahead of me on the run. When we finished the run on round 8 he stopped for a quick sip of water. I closed the distance by NOT walking from the door of the gym to my wallball station but instead I ran that short distance while he was taking his drink. This short extra bit of energy was enough to bring us neck and neck. I could tell he was not looking forward to the wall balls on round 9 so I gave him a little shout of encouragement that kicked him back into gear. Not the best strategy for winning the crossfit Olympics but who gives a shit. We got through the wallballs at about the same time but he ripped through the burpees then took off for the run at a sprinting pace. I could not keep up, going into the run on round 10 he was about half a lap ahead of me but I was still really really happy to come in 2nd out of 10 in our class. I finished the workout in 39 min which put me fairly high on the leader board for the day but nowhere near the top. Someone in the morning class finished the WOD in 29:45. I can’t even imagine getting through that WOD at that pace.

After I class I was desperately in need to massive amounts of calories so I skipped the tuna lunch I had planned and decided to eat fried chicken allow with a box of fries. Lately I have been doing research on the benefits of eating fast food after a super intense workout. It turns out the benefit is the feel of wanting to throw up for the rest of the afternoon…..perhaps not my best meal choice.

Fast forward to Thr morning. My entire body is sore, I am hobbling around like a 98 year old man that got run over by a truck. How will I get through BJJ and Judo tonight? I suspect I will be playing a lot of fetal position guard.