Monster Swim WOD with Gabe and Kirstie

Workout of the Day

PRE WOD
Pigeon to Pigeon transitions, 10 minutes practice

SKILL WOD
EMOTM for 10 minutes -
:10 one arm handstand hold (wall assist)
3 squat snatches @ 135#

STRENGTH
Deadlift 7 x 3 with bands
Back Squat 5RM
3 rounds for completion:
10 bent row
15 reverse hyper
10 glute ham raise

CONDITIONING
For time:
1000 m swim
300 m farmers walk (53# kbs)
100 m handstand walk

Definitely didn't have the same kinda juice I had yesterday, but I was treated to the company of Gabe Subry and Kirstie Arnaz.  So at least I had that to lift my spirits.  Don't get to see these guys enough so it's always special when they come to town.

I actually handled the skill workout alright, making every round unbroken, but I will say that holding yourself on one hand is A LOT harder than on two.  Just the residual taxation in my shoulders was much worse than I anticipated.  I guess I expected to be able to lock out and kind of chill for the 10 seconds... not the case at all.  This required a lot of concentration and effort to keep from tipping over or crashing down.

I did my lifting down at Super Training with the usual suspects, plus Gabe and Kirstie.  It was their first time down to train with Mark, so I'm hoping they're hooked and will come more.  Again, I didn't feel as great as I have, but still managed to get 385# for 4 hard reps on the back squat.  Pretty happy with that. The accessory stuff I was wasted on, only getting 5-6 reps on the glute ham raises each time through.  My posterior chain pretty much had it.

Good news was that there wasn't much posterior chain needed for the conditioning WOD later that evening.  The three of us grabbed some KBs and headed out to the lake for some true endurance training.  We targeted the farthest buoy (500 meters according to the lifeguard) and set out into the open water.  This felt amazing.  I'm not sure I've ever felt more relaxed in the water, and I'm sure a lot of this had to do with the temperature.  The water couldn't have been colder than 75 degrees, making things a lot more comfortable than usual lake swims.  I made it around the buoy and back to shore in around 18 minutes and immediately started up the hill with the kbs.  Gabe and Kirstie were just a few minutes behind me.

All went well until I tried to kick up into a handstand.  Nothing.  I tried again.  Shorted it.  My arms were toast and my midline was gone... I knew then it was going to be a looong 100 meters.  Luckily things started to get better in the middle, but it still took me quite awhile to make it to the end, with my finishing time stopping at 28:40.  We managed to snag a few short video clips from one of our coaches.  Check them out below.