I have to admit, I have not had much experience with legit chipper workouts. Other than filthy 50, I can’t think of another good chipper workout that I have done recently. So the announcement of 16.4 as a chipper workout, and one that has some of my least favorite exercises, was a bit of a shock to the system.
Initially my goal was 1 HSPU but then the US service members did not even make it to the wall for the HSPU, and each of the men had bettered me in the first 3 workouts. What was the holdup? They looked like the wall balls just about killed them. This was concerning since wall balls are a nemesis of mine as are heavy-ish deadlifts. I was taking the same “do it twice” strategy for this one as I did in the previous 3 workouts, the first time I go in with a hastily thought out plan, then refine the plan the second time around on Monday evening. My initial goal…4 minutes each on DL, WB and Row leaving a full minute for the HSPU. Easy right?
I first watch Karen go at this workout and she just demolished it. She really did an amazing job of pushing through the deadlifts, then wall balls and willed her way through the row. She could not get the HSPU but dang it if she didn’t get 3 great efforts at it. It was really inspirational to see her give it everything she had and come out feeling proud. Also…my wife wearing booty shorts is a great thing.
Now it was my turn.3…2…1…GO! My plan for the deadlifts was to do as many as I could each time I touched the bar. It went 12-8-5-5-1-1-1-1-1-1… not the most efficient use of time at all. But I finished at 4:05 so I was only 5 seconds behind my plan. Great! On to the Wall Balls. My plan was to go sets of 10. First 2 tries..no reps. Great start idiot, you can’t even hit a frickin’ wall. THEN! something happened in my mouth cause it went bone dry, I could not produce saliva and then could not breathe. So I had to take a 25-second break to get some water. It took me about 4.5 minutes and roughly 5-10 no reps to get through the wall balls. Not my best effort. Now to the row…ew. This was a “just keep swimming” movement if there was ever one. So simple yet so exhausting! But I got through it in about 3 minutes 30 seconds. My tie-break time was 12:12 leaving only about 45 seconds to rest and then get 1 HSPU. I rested for about 15 seconds, then flipped up on the wall and banged out 7 HSPU in 30 seconds. I was proud but knew that I could do better, especially on the wall balls.
12 hours after doing this exhausting workout, I ran my 10k in miserable conditions but finished it. Had a great night out with some coworkers and then realized that my cold was getting worse. Much worse. Oh no, what do I do? Should I try to redo it with a cough and frequent flem production (sorry TMI?)? My breathing was nowhere near 100% but otherwise I felt ok. Monday rolled around and I just told myself that if I get to the row and if the clock passed 8 minutes 30 seconds, just throw in the towel, not my day.
3…2…1.. GO! With digital mustard supporting me and a great tip from coach Andy I started the deadlifts with a new strategy. I would go in descending sets from 10 down to 1. Mentally this was huge, I had a number I had to hit in mind and the number constantly decreased. Brilliant!! Instead of getting all the way to one, I did 2 sets of 3 at the end to hurry it along. Total Time Saved: 30 seconds.
On to the wall balls! We had recently installed a wall ball target on the rigs at Hydraulic, another mental thing with me is that hitting a target is easier than hitting a wall. I know, it is strange. But just having the target there helped me out a lot. I did not go in with a good strategy here but I still made it through in under 4 minutes. Another 30 seconds or so saved.
I’m a minute ahead now, and the row and HSPU’s were ahead of me. Row was just as bad as last time but I feel like I did better on it. Sean was keeping me grounded and reminding me that powerful strokes are better than fast strokes. Really kept me in the right state of mind and helped me get through the terrible row. Tie break time: 11:00, a full 1:12 ahead of Friday’s pace.
I hopped up on the wall, banged out 8 HSPU’s then came down. I was ahead of my previous attempt but still had about 45 seconds left. I was so winded and at this point, as normal, my arms were starting to fatigue. I was able to get another 5 reps in before the buzzer went off. I was so relieved that I improved. I celebrated with a ridiculous coughing fit to remind me that I’m a stupid male and I should not have done that to myself while sick.
All in all, it was a huge success and, relative to the rest of the Rx’d field, my best workout of the open. I was roughly the 61st percentile in this one. Also, the fact that I did not break my back was a huge relief, it ended up being a little tight but nothing too unexpected.
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