Hotshots 19

What an exhausting day. And a long day as well…

I took the red eye flight from San Francisco to Washington Dulles. There were fewer rude people on this flight, so I was able to sleep, although never soundly. And the seats are just too damned uncomfortable. There was a 90-minute layover in Washington and I was able to charge phone and grab a bite to eat. We boarded the plane for Raleigh at 7:55 for an 8:30 departure. And we finally departed after 10. Gah! There are few things worse than sitting on a plane at the gate.

I finally arrived home close to noon, I played with Luke and then Jeff and I went to lunch. I then took a very hard nap. Jeff had to awaken me at 4:15 so that I could be at the box by 5. I wanted to complete Hotshots 19, and I wanted to have time to get to the American Tobacco Trail for Endurance.

Hotshots 19 (Time)

6 Rounds for time of:
30 Squats
19 Power Cleans, 135# 
7 Strict Pull-ups
400m Run

The Hero WOD is in memory of 19 Firefighters who died while fighting a blaze in Arizona. Alessandra joined me for 2 rounds.

I was most concerned about the power cleans, having completed 45 hang power cleans at 125# just yesterday. So that I could scale if needed, I put a 25 and 2, 10# plates on the ends of the bar. I didn’t need to scale.

I completed the rounds of air squats in unbroken reps, pull-ups in reps of 2, 2, 2, & 1 (to ensure that pull-ups were strict and that my chin was above the bar). Running, while tiring, certainly wasn’t difficult.

The power cleans were difficult, but I approached them smartly and only had one failed attempt. I usually completed in reps of 5, 5, 5, & 4, although during the last round I was just trying to get through them. I found myself quite winded after completing the 19th rep, and this made pull-ups that much more taxing. I also tore the skin off of inside of my right thumb. Courtney was kind enough to get me some tape and tear it into long strips. Thanks, Courtney!

While I had looked at times and I knew that Jeff posted the fastest, I honestly couldn’t recall what his exact time was. He arrived at the box as I was finishing and offered to enter my score into Wodify. He then informed me that I had indeed beaten his time.

Time = 40:53

Uhm, yeah, so I question a few of the scores that some athletes posted. I wonder if are they intentionally cheating reps or do they honestly think that they were supposed to only complete 10 and not 19 power cleans? I’d like to think it’s the latter. I’m almost certain it’s the former. It’s gotten to the point where others are becoming disgusted with this behavior. We might need to have another week where athletes count each other’s reps. Yup, it’s once again gotten to that point.

I rested briefly and then Luke and I joined the Endurance athletes for an epic workout. We ran more than 50 minutes and probably more than 5 miles. It was a very fun workout — and original programming.