190502 - Soapbox Thursday

Clock Watching - Michael Reynolds

We all do it, to varying degrees. A peek, a glance, an unbelieving stare. We are beholden to the clock.
A clock is like a heart-rate monitor or a fitbit. It’s a tool to help you understand what it means to work hard.
When you constantly look at the clock, you’re unable to put forth the effort necessary to beat it.
Playing the “I can take a 30 second rest here” game because you’re doing some “A Beautiful Mind” calculations is defeating the purpose of timing your effort.
Ideally, the clock wouldn’t exist except to give you a frame of reference for what working hard feels like for X:XX time.
Fran times vary wildly; we have sub 4 minutes all the way to 17 minutes.
The person getting sub 4 isn’t looking at the clock. Now that doesn’t mean that the 17 minute person is only looking at the clock and that’s why it’s taking longer. But I guarantee, they’re not focused on the task at hand.
I was reminiscing about the “good old days,” a whopping 10 years ago, that we never looked at the clock (we had to use stopwatches), we just yelled “TIME!” and the coach or your training partner would note the effort. I’m not saying we were better back then (I was) but we used the clock like some folks use their fitbits, as one data point amongst many and not the focus of the work.
Do your best to avoid clock watching and see where that takes you.

WARM UP - 3 Rounds
Switch off with partner
Partner #1: 100m Row
Partner #2: Plank Hold

MOBILIZE - Vertical Pole Lacrosse Ball Delt Smash
(Get lacrosse ball, place on pole of apparatus, lean in until your delt is holding the ball in place, rotate arm around to smash front of shoulder.)

STRENGTH - Bench Press
10EB, 5, 3, 1+
(Partner up with someone with similar numbers)

COACH PREP - 2 minutes of DU or Jump Rope Practice
6 Lateral Hops over the Rower
4 Burpees over the Rower

WOD - AMRAP 16: (w/ a partner - One partner works at a time then switches movements)
250 Meter Row
10 Lateral Burpees over the Rower (Scale to step overs)
30 Double Unders

COOL DOWN - 1 minute hold on each side of each movement
Seated Spinal Rotation Stretch (See photo below)
Thread the Needle
Pigeon Stretch