CrossFit Open 14.4

Week 4.  14.4

Complete as many rounds and repetitions as possible in 14 minutes of:

60-calorie row
50 toes-to-bars
40 wall-ball shots, 20 lb. to 10-foot target
30 cleans, 135 lb.
20 muscle-ups

This is what they call a "chipper", because you're just chipping away at the reps until you finish (or time runs out).  This one is all about finding and keeping a below-redline pace.  My stretch goal for this workout was to finish the cleans, and I achieved it with 4 seconds to spare (video: part 1 and part 2).

To prepare, I again watched BarbellShrugged's and Jami's prep videos as well as Carl Paoli's.  Nothing earth-shattering to learn from these, but I did get a few tips that I used.

• Wear lifting shoes.  It should help on the rower, wall-balls, and cleans and has little or no negative impact on toes-to-bar or muscle-ups.
• Don't go to failure on anything, especially the toes-to-bar.  Always leave a rep or two in the tank.
• Use a reverse grip on the toes-to-bar.  This was fantastic for my shoulders.
• Keep eyes down to avoid overuse of arms on the toes-to-bar.

Rowing was no big deal.  I kept a pace around 1100-1200 cals/hr.  I think I could have gone faster, but I don't think it would have helped me much.

The toes-to-bar was the hardest part of this workout by far.  I knew this going in.  My plan was was to start with sets of 5 and taper off as needed to avoid going to failure (which I still did a couple times).  I used gloves and didn't have any issues with loosing my grip strength like I thought I would.

Wall-balls are nothing.  Sets of 10.  Rest long enough to keep breathing easy.

I made up time on the cleans.  I was "behind" by the time I finished the rower, toes-to-bar, and wall-balls.  I only had about 3 minutes left when I started the cleans.  I did singles the whole time and never rested very long between sets.  I think my pacing throughout the workout let me stay steady during the cleans and "catch up".  I also have a reasonably efficient clean.  I had to rush to finish the last few reps before time ran out, but I met my goal.

F muscle-ups.

Again, I'm really happy with how well I did.  I don't have a good sense of how the other guys did, but I'm less concerned with that at this point.

I've got one more week of this thing.  I'm happy that it's almost over so that I can focus on getting my shoulder pain free (I'm seeing an ART guy this week) and increase my range of motion.