19.9.10

The Real Crossfit

This month, Eugene Crossfit is doing the WODs from the main Crossfit site. Usually our coach will do the programming for the workouts, and he does a good job, but with anything in life, sometimes change is good. The main site WODs can get pretty intense. Of course, everything is scaled to your ability, but it's still a killer workout. This is what we did:


Monday - Heavy thrusters and weighted pull-ups 15-12-9. This is also known as heavy Fran. We had done Fran the Thursday before and I was still sore. But I knew what I was getting into and I did the work. The greatest part of this workout was that I did 3 real pull-ups in the first set. I had only done one pull-up at a time before, and never during a workout, so this was big for me. After more pull-ups with a band and more heavy thrusters, I couldn't do anymore real pull-ups. But those three were a huge victory for me. I'm totally getting somewhere.


Tuesday - 5 rounds of 7 inverted ring hangs and 15 ring push-ups. This was a different kind of Crossfit workout. The inverted ring work was supposed to be done really slow. Basically, you grab a hold of some rings that are just about your height. You bend your knees so your arms are straight, and you swing yourself up, tucking your legs in, until you're upside down. Then you straighten your legs so you're completely upside down and slowly lower your legs to the ground. This is intense. Despite my lack of gymnastic ability, I'm actually able to get myself up on those rings. It was quite difficult to slowly go down, so the scaled back version involved lying on the ground, swinging your legs up and over, and slowly lowering them. This was hard enough. The ring push-ups were difficult, so I did them on my knees. The WOD wasn't timed and I was actually able to sing along to Lady Gaga during the WOD. My abs hurt afterwards. My work was done.


Wednesday - Kelly. Seriously? I have issues with Kelly. We did this in June during Benchmark week. I nearly had a breakdown. Kelly is
5 rounds for time:
400m run
30 box jumps
30 wall balls
It doesn't seem bad just by looking at it, but this WOD is brutal. And when I came in on Wednesday, I knew how hard it was. I let it get to me. When I did this in June, I only completed 4 rounds and I think the last 3 were only 20 reps. I stopped after 25 minutes and felt awful. Throughout the WOD on Wednesday, I knew I wouldn't finish it. We had a 35 minute cap. I was moving slow. There was no way. By the end of the 4th round, I knew I had time for at least the run and maybe some box jumps. There was still time. So I picked up the wall ball, which I didn't want to do. Emilee was next to me, feeling the pain, and to my surprise, I finished the WOD in just over 36 minutes. Sure, I could have stopped at 35 minutes and not finished the last 15 wall balls. 


So those were my three days of solid Crossfit WODs. We're going to keep doing them, which is awesome. They're really challenging and very rewarding.


How can I do better? My eating has been .... I can't even say. I've been eating so much sugar lately. There's no excuse except stress. I've made some major changes in my life. Once it starts settling down, I want to commit. I should say that I will commit now. I know I'll do better. If I can do these main site WODs, I can cut out the sugar. It will certainly make the workouts more tolerable. Except wall balls. Wall balls are never tolerable.

11.9.10

My Butt

I stole this picture from another great blog - RX Girls Miami. We see ladies of all shapes and sizes at Crossfit, and they all work their asses off (ha!). A lot of women come into Crossfit expecting to lose weight and that's it. They soon realize it's so much more than that. They can run faster. They can lift more weight. They can do things they didn't think they can do. And they keep coming back. It's pretty great.

5.9.10

My Hips Don't Lie

This is me finishing the Eugene Women's Half Marathon this morning:
You can't see the finish line, but I crossed it about 20 seconds later. And I was running. I can't say that I was running for much of the last half of the race. I actually felt good up until mile 6. Then it went downhill fast. These are the lessons I've learned:


*Listen to your body. My knee has been bothering me all summer. Stupid knee. It didn't hurt, but it felt uncomfortable and other people could tell that I was favoring my other leg when I was running. If there's something wrong with your knee, there's going to be something wrong with your whole leg in general. I really should have taken care of my knee when it started feeling weird, not just when it was close to go-time. I tend to think things will be fine, even when they're not, but as I've said before, I avoided running for the first 29 years of my life. Then I gave it up for a while again. It really wasn't until this year that I decided to get better. I'm learning.


OK, that was really the only lesson learned. Around mile 6, I started to feel like my hips were completely displaced from my body. It's not a great feeling (and I feel so dumb saying this, as I've never given birth). But I knew I had to finish the race. At mile 7, I started walking a little. Then I realized that running felt better than walking. But when I started running again, I don't know, it just didn't feel right. No matter how many times I played Ke$ha on repeat, I couldn't talk myself into running more. It was really frustrating - and lonely. In those first 8 miles, there were people all over the place cheering us on. Then - no one. I was just watching people pass me. I'd run a little, then walk more. I finished running. I wanted to run the entire last mile, but it just wasn't in me. Every time I ran, everything felt more and more disjointed. Maybe I just need to get used to feeling more uncomfortable. Anyway, I looked at my Garmin and I knew the end was near. I ran the last quarter mile. It was pretty cool finishing, but it was tough. I wanted to quit a million times during that race. But I didn't. I kept going and I finished.


I'm not a runner. I don't even like running. But a year ago, this half marathon would have been out of the question. Now I know that if I get an idea that seems near-impossible, I can do it. It might be uncomfortable. It might hurt. It might not turn out the way I want it to. But I will have supportive people cheering me on and I will finish. Sometimes that's enough.


But I can tell you for sure that 26.2 miles isn't anywhere in my near future.