Helen

Felt very rested and excited to take this one on. Helen was scheduled earlier in the week, but I couldn't make it because of my track meet. Lucky for me Charlie had missed too and wanted to make it up.

WOD
"Helen"
3 rounds FT:
 400m Run
 21 KB swings (53#) (all UB)
 12 Pull Ups (UB/UB/6-3-3)
= 9:35 (:52 PR)
- First run I hid behind Charlie the whole way out. I literally was almost giving him flat tires the entire way. Why...I was drafting and trying to push his pace a little bit harder than he wanted to go (we had a 20 burpee side bet going on). The wind was rough going out, but felt great pushing against your back on the way back in. Charlie and I got to KBs about the same time and started swinging. My technique is a little different on the KB, but I like it because it's slightly faster. Sometimes it backfires on me and sometimes it doesn't. The first round of pull ups were just weird. I haven't done a whole lot of pull ups lately so my kip was very awkward. Got back out to the run before Charlie and felt pretty good. Focused the whole run on trying to control my breathing. Second round was smoother than the first and all UB. The third round my legs started to die a bit on the run. I was trying to push it, but my lungs just weren't having it. Charlie gained a little ground on me during the round, but I was still 75m ahead or so. Forearms started to burn up on the swings. I got to the bar for pull ups with 9:18 on the clock. My goal was 9:24 so I could beat a buddy of mine over at Freedom. I knew it was a long shot and I would have to go UB, but I just couldn't pull it off. My grip was blown out after 6 reps. I dropped and jump back and got 3 more. Dropped again and took a breather...hit 2 and I was holding on by my fingertips for a long kip on my last rep.

Initially, I was bummed I couldn't go all UB and I didn't beat my buddy. I got over it quickly though. I still knocked almost a minute off my time since August and I was in pretty good shape in August. Good WOD!