Age and Experience vs Youth and Exuberance

Today’s WOD was a killer.

100 meter sprint
10 burpees
10 Chin ups

10 Rounds!!!!

I checked the times of the other class I saw that all but 4 people scaled the WOD. Scaling this WOD meant jumping off a box into each chin up. The 4 guys that didn’t scale the WOD put up times in the low 20s. The coach told us our goal should be under 30 min. I knew under 20 was not in the cards, but I thought I could shoot for something in the mid 20 min range. Then I thought, “wait a min, only 4 guys did it without scaling and they put up incredible times so that means they were in incredible shape, maybe I should scale it too? Nah, F it! let’s see if I can do it without scaling.”

So there were 5 people in the class, me, a young skinny ripped guy, a girl, a new guy and another guy around my age. The ripped guy and I were the only ones planning on doing the WOD without scaling. Everyone else set up their boxes for the jump chin-ups right from the start.

Round 1
Right out of the gate Team Ripped Guy took off like a bat out of hell into the sprint, Team Hot Chick also started strong but not a full on sprint, Team Other Guy and Team New Guy held the middle of the pack and Team Old Guy (me) slowly took up the rear. I was the last one to finish the sprint and the last to finish the burpees.

Round 3
Team Ripped guy was still going strong, Team Hot Chick was starting to struggle with the chin-ups, Team Other Guy was holding his own but falling back, Team New Guy was doing his best and Team Old Guy was trudging along at an even pace but already starting to suck some wind.

Round 5
Team Ripped Guy is starting to rest between exercises and showing signs of struggle with the chin-ups, Team Hot Chick is mentally forcing herself through each chin-up one at a time, Team Other Guy has slowed his pace dramatically but was still going, Team New guy was still doing his best and Team Old Guy was getting the feeling of wanting to throw-up. Time was somewhere in the 13 min range.

Round 7
Team Ripped Guy was no longer able to do the chin-ups without scaling them. When I saw him scaling it gave me a huge boost of energy and the motivation to keep going.

Round 8
Team Old Guy pulls neck and neck with Team Ripped Guy who is still scaling the chin-ups.

Round 10
Team Ripped Guy finished in 22:50 but scaled rounds 7-10. Team Old Guy finished with a time of 24:03 (technically still in the low 20s) and was the only person in the class that didn’t scale the WOD!

Score one for Team Old Guy! Now rest and recover before BJJ tonight.