Deth

Grace is 30 clean and jerks for time

Grace is the benchmark WOD for me. it was the first named one I did Well Karen was the first but not being able to see the ball bounce oddly off the target then my face puts a damper on that one as a benchmark.

I did Grace for a fund raiser a few months after I started Crossfit. It was painfully slow and only at 95 pounds but I finished it then. At that time I had to stop and think about each movement individually. It was around 10 minutes with safe but pretty ugly form back then. Makes me laugh when I see it said online that if your final is above a certain time you need lighter weight. Even the 95 pounds then wasn’t heavy. I just had to break down the movement in my head to try to do it properly.

Years later grace is movements I don’t have to really think about. The clean and Jerks are just muscle memory. I do struggle a bit with time management not being able to glance up at the clock to see the time to pace myself how I want. Another thing is having to take time to get centered on the bar again after dropping it because I can’t necessarily look down and do it like most people can. I also refuse to let myself to half reps or bastardized form for “efficiency.” I’m only competing against myself here.

Today I ended up doing it in 5:37 at 135 which is the weight I’ve used ever since the first couple of times anyways. This was a 40 second PR after hitting a 5 pound clean PR. Had it not been so fucking humid today I’d have probably been well under 5 minutes but had to keep re-gripping the bar because of my sweaty hands. I was through the first 20 in under 3 minutes but by the time my hands and the bar were becoming like wet ice, even with chalk. Maybe I’m at a place now where I can think of it as a proper sprint. I love the simplicity of this WOD. Now thinking or keeping track of rounds required.