4/6 Kentauros (X): 00:29:10
100 squats: *00:05:23
100 burpees: *00:14:59
100 squats : *00:04:29 (PB!)
After training two days in a row, I rested on Tuesday. Wednesday came along and with it, my third training day of week 11. I was determined to face and beat down the mental challenge this week has put me trough, and what better way to do it than with my good old friend Kentauros. I was scared when I saw the programming (Kentauros, strength version + 2x 100 Squats + 2x 100 Burpees), but having learned from the experience of the previous days, I didn't let that get into my head. I decided ahead of time I would, at the very least, do one set of Squats and one set of Burpees after the WOD, and I'd see how to go from there.
Even if it's just 4/6, it's the strength version of Kentauros I'm dealing with. I suffered miserably with the standard version until not too long ago, so I was both excited and scared to see the challenge rise, and to test myself once again. The modifications from standard to strength are subtle but meaningful; Burpee Frogs become Burpee DEEP Frogs (BDFs) and Jumps become HIGH Jumps (HJ). These seemingly little changes mean putting in tons of extra energy to be able to jump from a low squat position, landing accordingly (in case of the Burpee Deep Frogs) and higher, raising the knees to touch the shoulders and not only to hip level (in case of the High Jumps). As you can see from the picture, I was pouring buckets of sweat by the end of it. I think this is THE training session I have sweated the most, ever. I had never before seen drops of sweat run down my hair and fall in my shouders, back, neck, floor...
Overall I felt absolutely great. Pumped, motivated, happy to see my mind and body perform at unison. I think it helps tremendously to know the workout well. I know how and when to pace myself, when to speed up, when it's wise to rest a bit, when I can push harder. I'm extremely happy that I finished below the 30 minute mark, and I'm looking forward to repeating this WOD in the near future. I feel I have it in me to drop that time down a bit!. Just waiting for the Coach to give me that chance again. I feel much stronger; the BDFs were not that big of a challenge as I thought they would be. I actually struggled a lot more with raising the knees high enough during the High Jumps! *edition: while writing this, I realized I actually did Jumps and not High Jumps (so I removed the star I had first awarded me) because I started the workout with the confusion of how high the knees had to go in HJ. To be fair, I think if I had "known" (I did know but I was confused) I had to touch my shoulders with my knees, I probably would not have been able to do it in all reps or if I did, my time would have been significantly higher. So there it is. I was all happy about the time with a star, but hey, next time there will be no confusions and I'll hit that workout hard.
I took another break (around 5 minutes) walking around, stretching my quads a bit and drinking some water. Without thinking too much about things, I dropped to the floor to start doing the 100 burpees. If I let myself meditate long enough on what's coming ahead, that's when my mind tricks me into thinking I cannot do it. I didn't give my mind enough time, and it was a good decision. I have calculated before that my current burpee rate is 10 per minute, so I thought It would take me 10 minutes to do the 100 burpees. That calculus did not take into consideration having done 4/6 strength Kentauros and 100 squats before, so of course it took me 50% longer than anticipated to finish! The truth is, I was still thrilled. I had beaten my mind. I had done all 100 burpees, for the first time (just like with the squats, I had never done more than 50 in a row before), even when I was exhausted and pouring and pouring buckets of sweat. I WON. And it was an amazing feeling.
Just when I was doing my last 20 burpees or so, my GF arrived home from her CrossFit class. She saw me struggling a bit and cheered me on. Then, when I finished, she asked if that was my last round and I told her I was supposed to do 100 more squats and 100 more burpees, but that I thought I didn't have it in me to complete that. She said to me "I know you can do it, at least you can do the squats, so come on, I'll squat with you". Getting that support and encouragement from her was the biggest achievement of that training session. I cannot begin to describe how happy it makes me to see these changes in her, wanting to exercise, to get fitter, healthier, to the point where she'll do 100 squats after having done CrossFit, just to accompany me. She pushed me because I needed to be pushed, and it payed off. I got below the 5 minutes, as I had wanted to do in the first attempt. I set a new PB, when I thought I couldn't squat anymore.
The only thing missing, to have had an absolutely mind blowing successful day, was the last 100 burpees. After the liters and liters of sweat, I really didn't think I could handle another 15 to 20 minutes doing burpees. In total I was already training for around 1 h, and it felt like if I kept pushing that hard, it might have been detrimental. So I made that decision, I don't know if it was 100% honest or if some mental weakness was there too but that was it. My first really real Hell Day, almost done 100%, with great achievements and even a PB. What an amazing day!
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