Thursday 26 July 2012

Cindy

Well, I finally broke my Cindy hoodoo.

Cindy - amrap 20:
5 kipping pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air squats
Score = 16 rounds + 3 pull-ups

Last weekend, after discussing workout strategies with Paul, I searched for a new approach to Cindy, as my scores had dropped drastically the past couple of times I did this routine. I found an article from 2010 called "To Game or not to Game", which describes a kind of "Death by Cindy" approach. I started off by completing a round, then resting for the remainder of that minute, before starting the next round. Unfortunately, this wasn't effective for too long. Each of the first five rounds were under a minute, but as soon as I started to get out of breath, the whole strategy fell apart. I got to a point where I took a couple of pretty long breaks - around 30 seconds each - just so I could take much shorter rests during each round. The pull-ups were unbroken until the last three rounds, while the push-ups tended to be 4-3-3, with really short breaks, just to take a couple of breaths. The squats were almost all unbroken, but much slower than usual because of a distracting, niggling pain in my right knee. (Perhaps this is because of all the box back squats I did yesterday. I usually race through the air squat portion of Cindy, but not today.) 

I'd been looking forward to tackling Cindy since last weekend when I read the aforementioned article. However, from the moment I woke up this morning, I felt some apprehension in case my score dropped even lower. I went from feeling really positive earlier in the week, to almost talking myself into failing. That being said, today's score was a reasonable improvement, if not spectacular. My last PR of 15 rounds plus 5 push-ups and two push-ups was set way back in November 2011. I definitely gave it everything today, and I was completely exhausted at the end. I've felt more worn out at the end of other workouts, but not this bad after Cindy. I had to rest about seven minutes before finishing off today with a couple of pretty easy routines.

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Barbell curls @ 45lb; max reps - 10, 8, 7, 5

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Tricep push-downs @ 30lb - 12, 10, 9

3 comments:

Paul French said...

I'm not surprised you did better with that approach, in the past you have been guilty of trying to 'sprint' workouts that are longer ones, therefore not pacing properly. This improvement is good for your pr as it's almost a full round, but better considering the last time you did this you got 12 rounds and some change....nice work!!

Common Sense Design said...

Thanks! Knowing how and when to pace myself is something I need to get used to. It's finding the balance between working my ass off and using my head more. I'm glad I've got a new target to beat, rather than having to keep my two previous failures at the back of my mind.

Today's early(ish) morning workout was partially fueled by a great meal at Jake and Humphreys yesterday evening. Best. Steak. Ever!

Paul French said...

They definately have a great selection of food I haven't been there in a bit, a steak sounds nice maybe I'll pop by there this weekend.

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