Another week, another Crossfit Games Open workout down!
When 15.4 was announced, the first thing that came out of my mouth (despite not being very strong at HSPU and despite my max power clean being less than the prescribed weight):
It was a pretty bold move in the world of the Open, a HSPU have never been programmed, nor has an Open judging standard been set. After a bit of complex guidelines on how to set up a line for where your feet need to cross for a valid rep, more people thought it took more time to set up than it did to actually do the workout!
I think the reason my initial reaction to this WOD was so favorable was because a) I was physically capable of doing both movements, and b) for me it was more about muscular endurance than metcon. PHEW!
Most people who did the workout realized that the HSPU was going to be the limiting factor due to shoulder fatigue, but my concern was doing my first WOD with real HSPU without an ab mat; couple that with this being a ridiculously heavy clean weight, I knew this was going to be challenging but not a panic-attack inducing chipper! 😉
As I’ve done with all of the Open WODs thus far, I did the workout on Friday night, leaving an opportunity to repeat it on Monday night.
We grabbed the tape measure, toes and hands to the wall, drew the line, set myself up, and was ready to go!
I had just PRed my squat clean from the hang earlier in the week, so even though this weight was heavy, I knew I was physically capable of squat cleaning all those reps.
I completed the first 3 HSPU unbroken, and then took a good amount of time to rest before I did the cleans, full knowing it was going to take a lot out of me. I squat cleaned; some fellow teammates cheered me on, and bam, one done. Don’t ask me what is going on with any part of my body in this picture..
After I squat-cleaned a second, my training partner asked me why I was squatting them – I said because I had never power cleaned that weight! She suggested I try.. and I did..
Oh! I guess I CAN power clean 125#! 🙂
I ended up finishing with a score of a proud 27, since everything died a little on the last set of HSPU. To anyone who did this workout – surely you can relate! You get to a point where you physically cannot push any more. So frustrating!
I loved this workout because it was not a gasser, but almost purely strength-based. Knowing that I wasted time doing squat cleans and worrying so much about a weight that I was now confident that I could do, and knowing I can crank out HSPU, I opted to do the workout second time.
I was so excited to do this again!! I set a goal of 30. Only three more little reps, but the time I would save power cleaning instead of squat cleaning those first few reps easily left room for more HSPU. Easy.
I did my first 3 HSPU unbroken, 6/6 unbroken, 6/9 unbroken, and singles for the remaining three.
My split time was about 30s ahead of my first attempt, so knew I was going to surpass my score!
I had just about two minutes to complete 3 HSPU to meet my goal.
Kick up to the wall.. and…. fail.
After fail.
After fail.
I needed one HSPU to beat my score. I can easily do 5 reps unbroken, and have done 21 unbroken with one ab mat. I needed to do one.
I could not kip. I couldn’t push. I laughed, amused how I was just done even though I still had time left!
I humbly took my matching score, and shook my head..
Despite not meeting my goal, I felt great about my performance in this workout and knew I physically gave it all that I had (where often I am limited by my gas tank and endurance, this one was just limited by strength!).
Your turn..
Was this your favorite Open workout like it was mine?
Did you PR your clean on this workout or get your first HSPU?
If you scaled, how terrible was doing that many reps?
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