The Oracle of Apollo Snippets from the life of Apollo Lee

CrossFit Day 26

Today’s workout is called “Lynne.” Since I lacked a barbell, I got to come up with two extra exercises to compensate for the lightness of the weight portion of the workout. Here’s the assigned work for today:

Five rounds for max reps of:

1. Bodyweight bench presses
2. Pullups

So, after dinner, I took my thirty pound dumbbells over to the park with the low pullup bar and the benches together and went after the following subsitution:

Five rounds for max reps of:

1. 60# (2×30#) dumbbell bench presses
2. Pushups
3. Assisted Pullups
4. Bench dips

At first, I was going to attempt tapering sets of 21, 18, 15, 12, and 9 reps. 60 pounds of dumbbells directly over my face proved a little much, so I went for 50 reps total. Pushups were very difficult toward the end and I almost dropped dumbbells on my face twice (and on my balls once). The pullup bar was low enough that the assisted pullups were not so difficult, and the bench dips were extra tricep work. I was wobbly lots of the time. Maybe this weekend on a rest day, I’ll go for this one again with the 75 reps of the tapering sets. Lynne spanked me pretty hard and still has me rubbing my arms an hour later. Whew.

My results: 22:46, 6:28 zone (hard); HR: 137 avg, 164 max; 245 cal (45%)
50 of each exercise (dumbbell bench press, pushup, assisted pullup, dips) completed.

[…] After about 20 minutes, I was finished with the four new sets. As I got more and more tired, it was a real challenge to avoid dropping dumbbells on my crotch or my face. But, eventually, I persevered, although I can’t say that I won. Even though I did more reps than last time, I did the workout lighter this time. The dumbbells I used for the benches were lighter and my bodyweight is 13.5 pounds lower. I should have had better numbers. Ah, well. I’ll do better next time. […]