18.5 is a repeat workout but instead of Dave Castro telling us what workout it was going to be, the community was able to vote. Three workouts were available 11.6, 13.5 and 14.2. I haven't done these workouts before so this will be a first for me. Choosing our workouts for 18.5 was like a choose your own adventure or in this case, suffering. Each workout repeat had chest-to-bar pull ups and thrusters or overhead squats. I wanted to do 14.2 but in the end 11.6 won the vote.

18.5 -  AMREP 7 Minutes, CrossFit Games Open Workout 11.6/12.5

3 Thrusters
3 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
6 Thrusters
6 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups

Game Plan

This is going to be a grind. Thrusters are 5 lb. heavier than what were used to and the chest-to-bars are going to get tiring really quick. I'm going to start with a steady pace and not go hard right out of the gate. Thrusters were going to be tough and will have to keep the chest-to-bars at a small reps per set. I might do singles at higher reps. It's the last workout for the open so I'm going to try and have fun. 

The Workout

I did not follow the game plan. After thinking about the workout, I might have went too hard in the first few rounds. The first round of three was easy, I did everything unbroken. The second round was broken up into sets of three for the chest-to-bar and unbroken on the thrusters. The round of tweleve was where things went crazy. I completed the thrusters in sets of two, seven and five. I did the chest-to-bars in fast singles however, I had to take breaks in between a few reps. On the last two reps, my lats started to cramp up and I barely finished. When I got to the bar, I only had a minute left. I pushed my hardest and was only able to complete ten reps by time cap. My total reps for the workout was 70.

Final Thoughts

I know their are a lot of areas I can improve on and if I redid this workout, I could probably get a better score. My breathing was horrible as well as my pacing. I should have broken up the reps better and slowed the pace. The thrusters were not too bad but going unbroken was not the best idea. I wanted to do well since it was the last workout and I pushed myself too quickly. I didn't do a lot of reps but my body was shot. I couldn't move for a few minutes after. I had to concentrate to lower my heart rate and my breathing eventually returned to normal. This was my toughest workout yet.

Lift Heavy and Level Up!