The 7's
September 15, 2012
Ahhhh, Saturdays. I love Saturday mornings at the gym. I usually get a little more sleep than normal, I get to have a little coffee and "awake" time before heading over and since I dont have a time constraint (most of the time) so its a totally different feeling than 5:30am. On Thursday night M had posted a "challenge" on the board. He, K and another CFWer had completed it and when I was looking at it on the board he posed the challenge to me as well. Told him that I would go for it on Saturday... so today was the day!
I woke up thinking about "The 7's" and I knew that I was not going to back away from this challenge. For some reason, I was nervous about this one. I think I was just letting it get the best of me. I knew after talking to K and M that it was pretty deceiving the way it is written on the board. I mean you look at it and think, well, that cant be THAT bad. Than you quickly remember that when a CrossFit workout doesnt look "that bad" that means its usually pretty brutal!
After a good warmup and some stretching I was about to face a pretty crazy workout. I was ready and excited to complete it. I was shoting for a time under 40 minutes, but in reality I was shooting to just get er done. It didnt really matter what my time was. I didnt think about that at all while I was going through the WOD, I was just thinking about plugging away at each set of 7 reps of 7 exercises in 7 rounds.
I decided to scale the HSPU's as I knew if there was going to be one spot that I would struggle it would be there. I know I can do these prescribed now, but in a workout of this magnitude I needed to scale it to get the most of it. Sometimes that is what you have to do. I would have been stuck at the wall too long and it would have thrown off the rest of my attention. I used Rx weights and standards for everything else and pushed through as tough as it was at every station. My mindset was just to get through it and work hard. This is one of those workouts that is certainly a marathon, not a sprint. There is no where to really make up time or sprint through it, you have to keep a steady pace through the whole workout, with minimal rest and lots of concentration. I took my time transitioning from exercise to exercise to regain concentration and I did my best to keep those that I could unbroken.
K was right, the "easiest" part of this workout were the burpees and knees to elbows... and you know when you look forward to the burpees that the rest of the WOD is going to be killer! I found the thrusters (with 95lbs) to be the most challenging and it really felt like every time I turned around I was back at that bar for another round of them. The first round was pretty steady, I had a good pace going and wanted to keep right where I was through the whole WOD. By the 3rd round I was still keeping pace and remember thinking "good god there are 7 rounds not 5." At the end of the 5th round I was pretty happy, in my head I was thinking "only two more rounds of thrusters," even though there were 7 other exercises, that was the one that was most exciting to have completed!!
At the end of the 7th round after pushing out the last of the 7 pullups I felt this instant sense of accomplishment. I knew this was a tough one, I knew that I gave it everything and no matter what the time was or anything else, I was proud of myself. I laid there on the ground and while trying to catch my breath and gain feeling back in all my limbs... and smiled. Man, I love these kind of workouts!
WARMUP:
3 Rounds
- 10 Step Ups
- 10 Around the Worlds
- 10 Spiderman
- 10 Inchworms
- 10 Abmat Situps
2 Minute Pigeon Stretch
WOD: "The 7's"
7 Rounds for Time
- 7 Handstand Pushups (2 abmats)
- 7 Thrusters (95lbs)
- 7 Knees to Elbows
- 7 Deadlifts (165lbs)
- 7 Burpees
- 7 KB Swings (50lbs/1.5pd)
- 7 Pullups
(34:09)
SKILL/STRENGTH
50 Hollow Rocks (day 6)
.
Ahhhh, Saturdays. I love Saturday mornings at the gym. I usually get a little more sleep than normal, I get to have a little coffee and "awake" time before heading over and since I dont have a time constraint (most of the time) so its a totally different feeling than 5:30am. On Thursday night M had posted a "challenge" on the board. He, K and another CFWer had completed it and when I was looking at it on the board he posed the challenge to me as well. Told him that I would go for it on Saturday... so today was the day!
I woke up thinking about "The 7's" and I knew that I was not going to back away from this challenge. For some reason, I was nervous about this one. I think I was just letting it get the best of me. I knew after talking to K and M that it was pretty deceiving the way it is written on the board. I mean you look at it and think, well, that cant be THAT bad. Than you quickly remember that when a CrossFit workout doesnt look "that bad" that means its usually pretty brutal!
After a good warmup and some stretching I was about to face a pretty crazy workout. I was ready and excited to complete it. I was shoting for a time under 40 minutes, but in reality I was shooting to just get er done. It didnt really matter what my time was. I didnt think about that at all while I was going through the WOD, I was just thinking about plugging away at each set of 7 reps of 7 exercises in 7 rounds.
I decided to scale the HSPU's as I knew if there was going to be one spot that I would struggle it would be there. I know I can do these prescribed now, but in a workout of this magnitude I needed to scale it to get the most of it. Sometimes that is what you have to do. I would have been stuck at the wall too long and it would have thrown off the rest of my attention. I used Rx weights and standards for everything else and pushed through as tough as it was at every station. My mindset was just to get through it and work hard. This is one of those workouts that is certainly a marathon, not a sprint. There is no where to really make up time or sprint through it, you have to keep a steady pace through the whole workout, with minimal rest and lots of concentration. I took my time transitioning from exercise to exercise to regain concentration and I did my best to keep those that I could unbroken.
K was right, the "easiest" part of this workout were the burpees and knees to elbows... and you know when you look forward to the burpees that the rest of the WOD is going to be killer! I found the thrusters (with 95lbs) to be the most challenging and it really felt like every time I turned around I was back at that bar for another round of them. The first round was pretty steady, I had a good pace going and wanted to keep right where I was through the whole WOD. By the 3rd round I was still keeping pace and remember thinking "good god there are 7 rounds not 5." At the end of the 5th round I was pretty happy, in my head I was thinking "only two more rounds of thrusters," even though there were 7 other exercises, that was the one that was most exciting to have completed!!
At the end of the 7th round after pushing out the last of the 7 pullups I felt this instant sense of accomplishment. I knew this was a tough one, I knew that I gave it everything and no matter what the time was or anything else, I was proud of myself. I laid there on the ground and while trying to catch my breath and gain feeling back in all my limbs... and smiled. Man, I love these kind of workouts!
WARMUP:
3 Rounds
- 10 Step Ups
- 10 Around the Worlds
- 10 Spiderman
- 10 Inchworms
- 10 Abmat Situps
2 Minute Pigeon Stretch
WOD: "The 7's"
7 Rounds for Time
- 7 Handstand Pushups (2 abmats)
- 7 Thrusters (95lbs)
- 7 Knees to Elbows
- 7 Deadlifts (165lbs)
- 7 Burpees
- 7 KB Swings (50lbs/1.5pd)
- 7 Pullups
(34:09)
SKILL/STRENGTH
50 Hollow Rocks (day 6)
.
You were amazing my friend. You ARE amazing. :)
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