debianlinux
Well-Known Member
You set a goal and achieved it. Congrats. You definitely rocked it. There is no way I would have done my first attempt weighted (although, having a shit talking partner go weighted might push me over that cliff).Oh, naive, innocent me of yesterday. I look at the last line of my post..."That seems manageable"....and want to pat that version of me on the head and say, "Well, isn't that precious".
Okay, so I finished The Murph. And I did it in less than 60-minutes (57:48); but it was rough. I feel good that I was able to do it sub-60, weighted, and having never done it before (and not participating in CrossFit in general); I don't feel good in so much that it destroyed me (not really, but it was tough).
I thought I was going to get closer to 45-minutes when I started. I felt good out of the gate because I did my starting mile run in just about 8-minutes. I was aiming for no more than 10 for the miles so I felt strong there. @debianlinux your thoughts on the squats were accurate - I was definitely front-loading those. I did the break down of 5/10/15 pull/push/squat but I ended up doing multiple sets of squats (and even push-ups) in a row. The pull-ups were the roughest and were my last thing to finish before the second mile run. In fact, I finished both the push ups and squats and still had 40 pull-ups left to do so I just started pumping away at them.
There is only one weighted vest in my work's apartment's gym so I gave it to the person who invited me. For me, I took a small hiking backpack and put a 20lb kettle bell in it. That wasn't too bad except it stopped me from kipping on the pull-ups because if I tried to the kettle bell would knock around on my lower back and I didn't like that. So all my pull-ups were straight hangs and that made them much more difficult, especially as I got fatigued (TBH, my last handful of pull-ups were shitty-form, barely hanging on for life in execution).
I mentioned that I thought I was on track for a 45- (maybe 50) minute completion time. Here is where I hit a bump: about 30 minutes in I thought that I was going to vomit. I was prepared to put my head out of a sliding glass door and just yurl in our courtyard. I've never vomited from working out, but I think I messed up because I had coffee and ate a PB&J about 20 minutes before we started. So, that's on me. I actually stopped at one point (and this is what killed my time), stripped off the pack, and laid on the ground.
If I was not with a partner I would've stopped. But luckily the person I was with is a shit-talker (in a motivating way). She does CrossFit intermittently with powerlifting as one of her focuses. She had done The Murph a couple of times but never with a vest and was nervous going into it. I was surely the more confident one. Like I said, if I were by myself I would've probably just stopped. But, man, she was talking some shit and told me I wasn't leaving until I finished. Fine, but I didn't want to stay until I finished if it took me 2 hours. I figured if I was gonna finish it was gonna be by getting my ass into gear and getting that sub-60.
I'm not sure how long I laid there. It was probably around 2 minutes but before that my pace had definitely slowed down. However, that pause was a good reset and calmed my stomach down nicely. So I rallied and pushed through. I finished what I had left and the second run took me about 13-minutes.
Like I said, I finished with a time of 57:48. My partner did it in 49:50. I'd like to think if my stomach had held together that I would've been closer to 50-minutes; but I won't know until I try again (which I don't really have a plan to do).
In the end, it was a humbling workout. I'm glad I was able to reach my goal. I'm a little disappointed that I had to slow down, but I still think I rocked it. But, like I said, definitely a humbling workout and one that holds up limits right in front of your face.
Stomach stuff is no joke. I am fairly adamant about not eating a minimum of 2 hours before workouts. I prefer 3 hours prior to deadlifts. Too many times have I been fighting back teeth sweats and resetting position due to my stomach complaining at me. It’s a huge distraction and demotivator. Also, even if it’s not bugging the hell out of me it robs one of some energy since digestion is a fairly energy intensive process. I am guessing that if you hadn’t been dealing with your stomach you’d have shaved 8-10 minutes off your time (Edit, I see you wagered about the same).