Crossfit has created a set of standard workouts (“WODS”) named after women. Helen is one of them. Helen consists of 3x 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings, and 12 pullups. I was under the impression that the Rx for the kettlebell was 35lbs, but it turns out to be “1.5 pood” — 55lbs! So I haven’t been Rx-ing Helen after all. Just one more thing to get mad about I guess.
Anyway back to my main point. On January 2nd I did Helen in 13:48. It was tough. The better athletes have sub-10 minute times. But I told myself give it couple of months and I’ll try again. So I did. I put everything I had into it. At the end I could hardly stand up; laying down wasn’t much help either. I had to wait several minutes before I could drive.
The result?
A total time of 13:25. All that suffering for a 23 second improvement? I stopped only once, to tie my shoe. The kb swings were unbroken, I did the pullups in sets with two breaths between sets. I ran all out. I figured I’d be in the 12 minute range for sure. What happened?
Helen consists of 3x 400m runs, and 97 movements (61 kb swings, 36 pullups.) Assuming 3 seconds per movement, adjusted to 300 seconds, we get 5 minutes for the movements. If we figure 2 minutes per run for 6 minutes total run time, we’re up to 11 minutes total. I can run the 400m in 1:40, so 2 minutes is a fair estimation of the average — so 6 minutes is a good run time. If that is the case it took me 7:25 to do 97 movements, or 7.47 seconds per movement. What the heck happened to 3 seconds? I’m way off that mark.
What this tells me is I need stricter controls. I was working alone, and my timer was a small plastic alarm clock with a second hand. I set it on the hour when I started to simplify things, but that’s not enough. I need a stopwatch. More importantly, I need somebody to note each iteration of 400m, kb swing and pullup. I need t see where I’m losing time. I suppose I could break it apart and manage it in pieces by myself, but I think having someone to help me keep pace is going to work better in the long run. We’ll see.
Cheers.
