Totalled

A case I'd been working settled part way through trial last week.  Trial prep and trial itself involved a lot of late nights, very little sleep (two hours or so a night in the last week) and even less exercise.  It was exciting, but not conducive to training for the Newport half marathon that's coming up this Sunday.  Since the settlement last Wednesday, I've been trying to cram in a few weeks' worth of training.   I'm not going to break any records, and it probably won't be pretty, but I'm pretty sure I'll get through the half.  I managed a slow 12 miles yesterday morning.

I knew that once I'd done my 12 mile run, I'd have to taper and probably shouldn't do anything that might make me sore for Sunday's race.  So, last night, I squeezed in one last* CrossFit workout: the Total.

The Total is an awesome workout.  It involves two of my favorite lifts, the backsquat and the deadlift, and one of my least favorites, the shoulder press.  For each lift, you have three attempts to lift the most weight you can for a single rep.  Your score is the sum of your highest weight for each lift.

It started off pretty well.  Going into the workout, I mistakenly thought that my one rep max for backsquats was 85 lbs.  It turns out that when I did the Total back in February, I did 94 lbs.  In any event, I felt like I could handle a little more than 85 because on Sunday I'd been messing around and had done 75 lbs with no problem.  I did 85 lbs for my first attempt, to be safe.  I was about to set up for 95 lbs for the second attempt when one of the women I was lifting with stopped me.  "You can totally do more than that," she said.  So we put on 105 lbs - and I did it.  It was not pretty.  I got down into the squat and wasn't sure I was going to make it back up.  But I did!  I decided to stick with 105 lbs again for my third attempt and failed at the bottom. 

The shoulder press was, predictably, anticlimactic.  The standard men's bar that we work with weighs 45 lbs, and most women can't press all that much more than that.  (At least, not the women I know.)  I went straight for 55 lbs, which I'm fairly certain is my max.  I did that.  I tried 60 lbs for my next two attempts and failed both times.

I was psyched for the deadlift.  Going into the workout, my one rep max was 145 lbs.  I felt certain that I could match that number, or possibly add on a few pounds.  I was hoping to hit 150.  For whatever reason, though, I could not complete a rep at 145 lbs.  The bar just kept slipping out of my grip.  My deadlift score was a big fat zero.  Looking back, I wonder if I should've tried with a different bar.  In the past, I've used the training bars for deadlifts.  They're a little thinner and could be easier to grip than the men's bar.

My total was lame because of the deadlift, but it was a fun workout and I'm pretty psyched about my backsquat.  So far, I'm not super sore, which is also good.  I took today as my rest day.  I haven't yet figured out what to do with myself tomorrow...

I'll keep you posted.

-Gym Belle-

*probably