There I said it. Before you start planning my divorce party hear me out.
As my loyal readers know, I do CrossFit and part of the program is naming some benchmark workouts. One of those workouts is “Karen”, which is also the name of my wife. This workout, although simple, is incredibly difficult. I mean it is just throwing a weighted ball at a 10 foot target, how difficult could it be? Sure 10, 20 or even 50 wall balls are relatively simple. Try doing it 150 times! Oh, and you have to make sure you squat to full depth before each throw.
Strength in the classical sense of big muscles is not necessarily an advantage in this workout. The strength of your lungs and more importantly your heart (not the flesh organ, the metaphorical organ) determine how you will do on this workout. The ratio of heart needed compared to lung needed are inversely proportionate, meaning that the more lung you have the less heart you need…but if you’re like me you have less lung and need more heart to push yourself through it.
Karen is, of course, my least favorite benchmark wod. By far actually. I just hate it. In my almost 2 years of crossfitting I have not improved much on this workout. So you can imagine my dismay when Dave Castro announced that 13.3 would be a repeat of workout 12.4. Several curse words escaped my mouth. Last year I was able to get through both the wall balls and double unders with about 30 seconds left to look like a 5 year old on the rings.
My goal was to get to the rings even earlier than last year to attempt a few more muscle ups. I’m stronger than last year so this should not be a problem right? RIGHT!!?!?!?!
Wrong L
On Friday night I attempted 13.3 and failed to achieve my goal of 241. Sure before the workout I got my first ever straight arm muscle ups (my previous MU’s were bent false grip). I went into the workout hyped up that I would accomplish 241. Then I started doing wall balls and my heart just dis-appeared. I could only do sets of 5 after the initital 25. It took me more than 11 minutes to finish the wall balls, then only got 26 double unders. I then proceeded to vomit a little bit.
I was way down on myself. I just could not believe that I had done WORSE than last year. I mean, I knew that my lungs were not in the same kind of shape as last year, but was it really this bad? I HAD to try it again. As much as I hate this workout, I just had to do it again.
So then comes Sunday. I get warmed up, a lot considering walking down steps was an issue. I watched Digital Mustard go at it (and was proud of her for even doing it due to her sickness). Then it was my turn. I changed my strategy to do 6 reps each time instead of 5…a small change but a big one when you think about how many sets of 5 would be changed to 6. I finished the wall balls in 10:50 which is still a full minute slower than my PR in Karen (the workout ;0) and then I was able to do 47 double unders. Still a disappointment but I completed the workout none the less.
I said I would never do Karen again…but then what will happen if it pops up again next year? I think my next try at Karen will be with a 14lb ball to just get my lungs up. I have to start pushing myself a bit more.
Recent Workouts
4 rounds
10 Toes to bar
15 Front squat (80 lbs)
10 Chest to bar pull ups
15 Shoulder to overhead (80 lbs)
Time: 15:48 (went real light to recover from open wods)
cash out: 3 minutes shuttle runs (score: 59)
Open wod 13.3 (done twice)
150 Wall Balls (20# 10′ Target)
90 Double Unders
30 MU’s
Score: 176 and 197.
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