I woke up well before my 4am alarm, and I’m glad that I did. I had a very bad nosebleed, and had to spend a good 15 minutes with a cold compress on my forehead and tissues packed up my nose. I will finally give in and see my ENT doctor upon my return to NC.
The drive to Berkley Heights was miserable, as it rained heavily and drivers didn’t give a shit. I was tempted to open the rear door of the Traverse and let folks drive right through.
Pat led the 6am session at CF908 this, and I always enjoy interactions with Pat. During one of my visits earlier this year, Pat observed me complete a muscle-up. He said, and I quote, “That’s the ugliest muscle-up I’ve ever seen.” Little did he know how much that comment stuck with me, and how I’ve been working on improving my muscle-ups – if for no other reason than to please him. (That’s not at all the reason, but we’ll let Pat think that.)
After warming up with yoga, Pat reviewed today’s WOD and had each of us practice a few dumbbell thrusters. (Uhm, why all of the dumbbells, Tim? Why? Why?) Men’s Rx was 30 or 35, so I settled on 30. And that was plenty heavy enough.
5 rounds for time:
Row for calories
Max reps dumbbell thrusters
Max reps burpees
Rest 1 minute
I had originally planned on recording calories or reps after each activity, but Pat encouraged us to keep track of calories/reps per round. This made much more sense. Pat is smart. As he’s no likely to hear this very often, I’ve recorded it for posterity.
My goals were peculiar, even for me. For rowing, my goal was to keep strokes per minute at 24 or below, and to stroke a calorie each stroke. I modified this goal slightly during the WOD in that I attempted to row the same number of calories per round. For thrusters, my goal was to, well, just struggle through. This wasn’t a very good goal, and I allowed myself to put down the dumbbells. Uhm, not a good idea. As I love burpees, my goal was to just complete them unbroken.
I was most pleased with rowing, as I rowed 19 calories all but the 4th round, when I rowed 18. So close. Thrusters were a big hot mess, and I honestly can’t tell you how many I completed each round.
Burpees were, as they always are, just plain damn fun. I paused a moment at the beginning of the very last round of burpees so that I could catch my breath as well as have enough energy left to complete the round unbroken. As I was standing there ever so briefly, Pat said, “Come on, Paul. Get started.” That is all of the motivation that I needed. I did indeed complete all rounds of burpees unbroken.
My totals per rounds were 55, 53, 48, 46, & 46. The decrease in quantity was due to my suckage at thrusters. My Grand Total was 248.
I sweated more than anyone there. Winning.
As I was getting ready to depart, I pointed to my head and said, “Pat, your comment about my muscle-ups being ugly has stuck right here.” He replied, “Those were ugly muscle-ups.” “I’ve gotten better, Pat,” I said. “Show me” he replied. I went to grab a box to stand on and Pat said, “No, don’t use a box. Just jump on the rings, show me one swing, and then do a muscle-up. Don’t even use chalk.” Well, okay then. I walked to the rings, jumped up, changed grip to false, swung my hips forward just once, and did a muscle-up. Pat said, “Now that’s a pretty muscle-up.” I asked, “May I quote you, Pat?” “Yes,” he said, “you may say ‘Pat said my muscle-ups are pretty.’”
Pat said my muscle-ups are pretty.
