Best energy drink out there IMO. Tastes like a seltzer water.

One of the most difficult decisions to make is whether or not to workout when you feel like you maybe, just might be, getting sick. I planned on doing 15.3 this past Saturday. I could feel on Thursday and Friday that I wasn't 100%. I was like 96%. Such a small degradation from my usual self that it was almost unnoticeable but I could tell something was off. I was trying to decide what to do. Should I push myself through this event on Saturday as planned? Would I be capable of turning out a good performance? I could always rest until Monday and do it then. As of 11:00 am Saturday I still hadn't come to a firm decision but my heat was set to go at 12:40. I didn't feel vibrant or strong-willed. My mind wasn't in it. "You felt this way going into 15.2 last week and THAT turned out ok", I told myself. I was coaching a client half-way through their workout when I made up my mind. I crossed the point of no return once I opened a can of Hi-Ball energy water, my pre-workout stimulant of choice. I started sipping it and honing in on my game plan.

Two night's before I was at the gym coaching the final class of the evening when 15.3 was announced. We all knew there would be double unders. After all, the announcement was sponsored by a company known for their jump ropes. There had been some pistol speculation and a lot of movements whose appearances were still considered inevitable at some point. Muscle-ups, Burpees, Thrusters, Box Jumps, Wallballs. These are considered guarantees. And we got two of them.

15.3 was:

AMRAP 14 mins

7 Muscle Ups

50 Wallballs (20 lb)

100 Double Unders

I liked everything about it except the wallballs. Muscle Ups and Double Unders are two skills that really thin the herd. They're also skills that I feel pretty competent with. So my pacing strategy was:

7 Muscle Ups- 30 seconds

50 Wallballs- 2 min 30 seconds

100 Double Unders- 1 minute 30 seconds

The airdyne, being modeled by a man displaying an incorrect emotion for being on the airdyne. — The airdyne, being modeled by a man displaying an incorrect emotion for being on the airdyne.

If I could stick to that pace I would complete 3 rounds and 7 muscle ups. 478 reps. But I knew this pace was conservative. So, my plan was to hold this until the final 2-3 mins. At that point I'd ramp up as much as possible to make a run at 500+. The only x-factor was the wallballs. I'd think 10 reps every 30 seconds is doable but I hadn't done a single wallball since early December. But I knew this, wallballs are all about endurance in the quads and I've been SMOKING my quads with Airdyne intervals on a weekly basis.

When my heat kicked off, I grabbed the rings and got to work on muscle ups. 7 reps unbroken. Onto the WB's. I broke my first round 20-15-10-5. I liked the idea that each set got smaller and smaller. I was taking brief but adequate rest but I couldn't see the clock from where I was. I needed to finish round 1 by 4:30 to be on pace. I grabbed my rope and got to work on the double unders. I think I did 3 big sets, something like 40-30-30 (Barry Sears would be proud*). No actual rest, just failed reps with immediate restarts. At the end of round 1 I checked the clock to see if I'd earned some rest time, although I wasn't desperate for it. I was feeling pretty good. The clock read 3:30. I was a minute ahead of pace! I got back on the rings and broke the muscle ups this time. Wallballs became 5 x 10 for rounds 2 and 3. I had about 1:15 remaining at the end of round 3. Now was time to make that run at 500+. I broke the muscle ups 3/4 and went straight to the wallball. I wasn't even counting reps I was just focused on not setting down that fucking med ball. I asked my body a simple yes or no question. In this space and time, regardless of what came before or what comes next, can you do unbroken wallballs for 30 seconds? The answer was yes. The time ran out, I collapsed to the floor and my judge reported my final score to me. 503. I completed 25 wallballs into the 4th round, making this BY FAR my best event of this year's open. I placed 40th in the northeast region in this event. Compare that with my next best score, the Clean and Jerk from week 1, where I placed 250th and my worst score (Week 1's 9 min AMRAP) was 887th in my region. So to break the top 50 on this was a real underdog victory for me.

(*If you got that joke, congratulations. You're way old school CF)

But this success came with a price. When I woke up Sunday, my head was foggier and my nose runnier. Over the course of Sunday and Monday I got progressively sicker and I was laid out with a brutal cold all day Tuesday. It was during that day that I wrote my 15.2 recap which is why it was such an uninspired, just-the-facts piece of writing. Sorry about that. The cold is lingering today but I am at least functional again and capable of making dumb zone diet jokes. So, we'll see what happens this week. I haven't worked out since 15.3 but I plan on getting in an easy session tomorrow in hopes of being in fighting shape come Saturday.