First Handstand and inverted Burpees! and Angie

WOD#156 Inverted Burpees 37 33:43@137/155 I conviniently used the inverted burpees as a sub for burpee challenge. Technically, it is harder so its not a bad sub. I had NEVER done a handstand (not to be confused with headstand) by myself ever in my life. In fact, I think, I have done handstand with someone's help exactly twice before, including once few minutes before this wod. The one I did with assistance of my buddy was absolutely TERRIFYING. It is so strange to be upside down with blood rushing to the head and all of body weight balanced on delicate shoulders and wrists. I stayed on handstand for fraction of a second before violently reverting back. Then and there I knew this wod will be a lot of fun. Learning the skill on the fly made this wod unique. Its like trying to learn swimming. I always had this theory that learning swim with floating device messes up the learning process and makes it harder. Same with bike with support wheels. Easy to say for someone who has already leart swimming and biking. Right? So here, I had a situation to test the theory with basically my neck on the line...quite literally. After spending solid 15minutes nervously devicing a gameplan, I started attempting my first inverted burpee/handstand. I spent a lot of time jumping up on hands but could not reach the balance state, partly because I would delibrately break the core regidity halfway and drop down. It was obvious, there is no magic solution to this but practice. So I decided to count an attempt a full inverted burpee if I touch the wall with each of my foot once. After about 10-15 of such scary attempts, I gathered enough courage to "go for it". When I did get a proper handstand, it was perfect, like all jigsaw parts falling in place simultaneously. I didnt necessarily get every inverted burpee after that with full headstand but I must have done 10-15 out of 37 with full headstand. In particular, the last 37th handstand was picture perfect. In fact, I decided to hold the handstand position for about 15sec which was very rewarding end to one of the most frustrating wods so far. Yey! Now I can do handstand now by myself against a wall.

WOD#157 Angie-90PU 15:36@156/180 Compare with WOD#20 Angie 50 pullups, 100 pushups/situps/squats 54:34min HR (131/158). My favorite Angie had to compromise today and skip on PUs due to my injured ring finger. I snuck in 10 continuous PUs in the end but the finger was screaming by the end I knew thats the end of PUs for the day and also for near future. I did do the 100 Pushups, situps and Squats but I "borrowed" 38 pushups and squats from Angie for the Burpee challenge and started the wod with heart pumping 38burpees@3:04min with peak HR at 178. I am sure this did NOT make the wod any easier. Pushups were getting very hard to come by the last 2-3 subsets of 10s (38-12-10-10-10-10-10). I read my comment from last angie attempt that 100 pushups in one go is insane and smiled. It was harder than I thought but I guess the daily burpees have given me no time for Pushup specific recovery. Situps were fun in the set of 40-20-20-20. Squats were also easy with 38-12-10-10-30 I rediscovered the dark power of "counting" to round numbers and how the 97th, 98th, 99th and 100th rep were SO hard. Makes no sense because its all in the head!

WOD#156 Inverted Burpees 37 33:43@137/155

WOD#157 Angie-90PU 15:36@156/180