A Love Letter to GWOD

Since last fall, I've spent an hour every Wednesday and Friday evening with some of the best people I know. If you would have asked me a few years ago if I would have been doing anything like this, I would have rolled my eyes and had another drink. But now it seems my favorite part of the week is Gymnastics WOD.

GWOD

Gymnasty

Or whatever. It's just fun. It is coached by my most favorite coach (I said it) and attended by some of my most favorite people (you know who you are). The intent of GWOD is to work on skills and form. Yes, we do plenty of this (it's good form that matters, not the time, right?). We also do workouts that I never really believe I'll finish (one-armed kettlebell overhead squats - really?). But above all else, and what I appreciate most about it, is that it is FUN.

We do handstands. We do wall climbs. We play on the rings. We do pull-ups. We do A LOT of hollow rocks. We jump and run and climb. We try different things. We realize that we may have many strengths ... but sometimes when we come across something that is not a strength, we can work on it and sometimes ...sometimes we have to laugh. 


If you've ever heard me laugh - really laugh - you know that it is loud and it is natural and it is true. I cannot fake that laugh. My sisters have that laugh. My grandma had that laugh. My niece has that laugh. My friends in GWOD have heard it on numerous occasions.

I remember this mainsite WOD from a few months ago. The main site got so many nasty comments about posting this WOD, which was comprised of a few gymnastics movements. The strong guys hate that stuff. So we did it. 20 minute AMRAP that included wall climbs. Oh, those wall climbs. Sometimes the time just flies. Sometimes, it does not. I looked at the clock at one pointed and shouted, "Only 15 more minutes" and my coach did the honorable thing and turned the clock around so I couldn't see it. "Only a few more minutes," he shouted after that. Oh those wall climbs can be so discouraging.

Something about the class brings out the awesomeness in people. I've seen athletes get their first hanstand push-up (unfortunately not me yet). I've seen a husband help his pregnant wife with pistols (one of the sweetest things I've seen in a long time). And I've surprised myself. I will remember one night in particular for a long time - the rope climbs.


I've done rope climbs before once or twice but never perfected the technique. We worked on it, then started a WOD. It had been a long week. I hardly had anything in me. By the second round, I walked over to the rope and looked at it for a long time. My coach came over and I said I had nothing left. He said I couldn't use my arms - I had to use my legs. I finally made it up there. And for the next round, the clock ran out and I still had a rope climb to do. He looks at me and (nonverbally) said, "Are you going to finish that?" And it took all that I had in me, but I did.


I'll remember that for a long time.


So thanks GWOD, for being my favorite part of the week. I'm sure it's made me a better Crossfitter and a better person, but sometimes, most of the time, it's just fun. Where else can I tell the coach, "I'm injured and can't really do anything right now," and he says, "Show up anyway."And besides, where else could a girl like me hang out with 22 year old guys (who accept me completely for who I am) and listen to dubstep? 

Why Are We Here?

A few weeks ago, a friend gave me this magnet:

.

I was reminded of this while browsing through some pictures of me from a workout last week. And while there were some awesome and mostly terrible shots because SOMEONE looooves to take terrible pictures of me during my workouts, this one stood out to me as a moment captured in time.

This was during the Dirty Thirty. I'm standing there, scratching my head, thinking about how I don't want to do anymore wall balls. I didn't include all of the pictures of the ball actually at the line, or me in a squat position. I finished them, of course. I always do.


I feel like I don't have as many of these moments as I used to. Those moments where you look around during a workout and wonder, "Why am I here?" I've been having those before the workout. It's the holidays. It's the end of the school term. I'm tired. And I've been in kind of a nasty mood. BUT I still go. 


Tuesday I was in a foul mood. And I was tired. And I had rowing and push-ups ahead of me. But I showed up, did my strength work. Then we did the workout. And I did amazing. Who knew? My friend talks about the rush of endorphins we get sometimes after a hard workout. I felt that on Tuesday. I can do so many push-ups! I was so happy. Somebody take my phone away before I start telling people how I feel! 


And I wouldn't have felt that way had I not shown up.


This is a tough time of year. Winter here is grey and it is not good for me. And this is just the beginning. I won't feel awesome every day I show up. But even feeling it once in a while is better than nothing.


Are wall balls a metaphor for my life? It depends on the day. They hit me in the face sometimes. I often don't make it up to the line. I get reps taken away. But I also have to remind myself that I've gotten better over the past couple years and I'll continue to get better. There has got to be a better metaphor out there...


Edited to add that it is clear we need a CrossFit metaphor contest. Post your best to comments.

Inspired

I came back from Regionals pretty inspired. I saw some seriously amazing athletic performances and attitude last weekend. So I decided to hit it hard this week and try to get in top shape so I can make it on the team next year.

Here's what I didn't do this week:

• I didn't eat the cake sitting out all week at work. On Monday, it was a huge sheet cake. Then it sat in the fridge, decreasing as the week progressed. I did not have any cake.
• I didn't have any chocolate-covered espresso bean/almonds/whatever they were at a theatre meeting on Tuesday. I was working out right after, and although they looked delicious, I did not snack on them.
• I did not eat the $3 lunch I asked about at the espresso stand near work. She said that she'd have biscuits & gravy and baked potatoes. Even though it was cold out and it sounded warm and comforting and cheap, I did not buy the $3 lunch.
• I did not work out 5 days in a row, even though I wanted to.
• I did not take an ice bath after that awful lunge workout, although I probably should have.
• I did not go to the new frozen yogurt place over by Crossfit .... because it's not open yet.

Here's what I did do this week:

• I tried my hardest on Monday. Not many women can get ring dips, but I'm close. I also really worked at getting all the toes to bar.
• I started the 100 day GHD sit-up challenge and push-up challenge. I'm pretty confident about the push-up challenge. I don't know how far I'll make it with the GHDs. I don't really want to mess around with those. I'll be lucky if I make it to day 30.
• But I did do 81 AbMat sit-ups in 2 minutes.
• I rounded my back on my 185lb. and 195lb. deadlifts. I know I need to work on these.
• I kicked butt on this short AMRAP with a sprint and increasing squats and double unders.
• I did 4 hard days of working out (I'm including tomorrow's because I always show up). It hurts to sit and stand today and I think tomorrow will be really, really difficult.
• I bought a sandwich for lunch today. I'm sorry. I like bread sometimes. I'm not perfect!

All around not bad, but not Games athlete material. I'm working on it.

Goals:

• Work on lifting form. I'm strong enough to lift more weight. I'm just scared.
• Keep an eating log for a week. I don't like being that honest when it comes to food. I eat a lot - and it's not all good. I'd like to weigh in the 120s and I'm close. Real close. I need to be more mindful of my eating.
• Recovery - take it seriously! This hurts!

Moves to work on (and consistently work on them a couple times a week):

Ring dips

Handstand push-ups

24" box jumps

GHD sit-ups

Yep, the Rocky theme is playing in my head right now. Too bad it hurts to move.

2

Last month we started a new Spring Leaning Challenge at the box. I don't win these challenges, but I play along and try my best. This year the challenge was much shorter, and in a lot of ways, much more difficult. 

So on February 15 we did a workout called Angie, which I had done a few times before. It consists of:

100 pull-ups

100 push-ups

100 sit-ups

100 squats

And this has  to be done consecutively, so you do 100 pull-ups, then you do 100 push-ups... It's brutal. The push-ups are especially difficult after the pull-ups. Last month when I did it, I finished in 24:26 using a red band for pull-ups and 50 real/50 knee push-ups. It wasn't awesome, but that workout rarely is.


Today I did the workout again, and along with losing 2 pounds, I took 2 minutes off my time. Not bad for a month.


But the workout was completely different today. When I did it in February, I worked out with a bunch of my Crossfit buddies. It was a decent-sized class that day and we cheered each other on. Today, I couldn't make it into the night classes (work seems to get in the way of Crossfit sometimes), but I still wanted to do the workout. I could have come in at 7:30 am, but didn't we just have a time change and isn't that awfully early to be working out? I could have come to the 8:30am class, but that class is kind of intimidating and really, really good. So what do I do? I arrange to come in and do it alone. Just me and the clock and the Lady Gaga Pandora station. I didn't even have a coach to cheer me on (he was doing an intro). I knew what time I needed to beat, and I did it.


Many of us are creatures of habit. We like schedules and consistency. I don't think I'm that way (especially for work. 9-5=torture). But I do tend to show up for Crossfit at the same time on generally the same days. I could go to other classes, but I never do. Why? I like my workout buddies. I like seeing a lot of the same people every time. Some I've become close to; some I don't know anything about besides how awesome they are at pull-ups. But I like seeing them. I could try to change it up and go to earlier or later classes, but for now, I'm good. And I'm still improving. That's good enough for now.

Murph

Most Crossfit workouts take 10-25 minutes. You work really, really hard for a short amount of time and then you're done. What gets me through most workouts is knowing that it will be over soon. So why is my favorite Crossfit workout the one that can take almost an hour?

Murph is a hero workout named after "Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it "Body Armor". From here on it will be referred to as "Murph" in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is." (Crossfit.com)

Murph:

Run 1 mile

100 pull-ups

200 push-ups

300 squats

Run 1 mile

You can do the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats in any order you want, but you have to do the mile run first and last. To truly RX it, you should wear a 20 pound weight vest.

We did this WOD back in April. It looks pretty impossible when you read it, but you can do it. It's a workout where you have a lot of time to think. You're out there running on your own, then you get back in the box and you have to think about how you can best get all these reps done, and while you do that you think about how much your quads burn and the push-ups hurt, and then you have to go run again. In April, I did the workout with a blue band for pull-ups and knee push-ups. I finished in 50 minutes. That's a long time to be working hard, but I finished. 

I knew this was coming up again this week.I got really excited because it's such a challenge. I was hoping I could do it with real push-ups this time, but I'm just not there yet. 200 is a lot of push-ups to do. I also wanted to use a red band for pull-ups. My pull-ups are getting better and I'm so close to RXing them during a WOD. But not this one. I had a tan band on hand just in case I couldn't handle the red, but I really, really wanted to stick with the red. I was also thinking of trying 10 rounds of 10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups, and 30 squats. This changed at the last minute. 

Wednesday was a very cold night. I was in a 5:30pm class with 6 other women. We were all at different levels. We had to bundle up for the first run, since we weren't quite warm yet. When I got back inside, I decided to do 20 sets of 5-10-15. Although it would take more time to get in and out of the pull-up band, I wasn't too confident with my push-ups. For Murph, you just keep on going. I ran the first mile in 9 minutes and left for my last mile around 34 minutes. That's 25 minutes of pull-ups, push-ups, and squats. That's a lot of time to think about those moves and why you're doing them. But I kept marking my rounds and they kept piling up. After round 13, I decided to try a longer round. That worked that time, but it wasn't going to work the rest of the time. I must work on my push-ups. Also, I didn't stretch out enough beforehand and my quads started burning after a few squats. But I kept on going.

That last run was one of the hardest runs of my life. It had gotten colder and I had been working hard for 35 minutes. My lungs felt like they couldn't handle the work. I was short of breath, but I had to keep going. My body wanted to walk,  but my mind wanted to finish. As I rounded the corner after 800 meters, I looked at the clock and saw that I was still under 40 minutes. I could do this. I could make my goal of 45 minutes. I wanted to walk so badly, my breathing was so strained, but I kept running. It helped to run past the other women who were finishing, knowing that we were all trying to get this thing done and finish. I came in at 44:31. I beat my previous time by 6 minutes using a lighter band. I could hardly breathe at first, but I finished.

Murph is a marathon WOD. You have to battle with yourself to finish. This is what I love about Crossfit. In our regular lives, we make decisions every day and choose our battles. In Crossfit, someone else chooses our battles, but we have to decide how to get them done. It's physical and mental. Finishing is all that matters.

Movement

This week is benchmark week at Eugene Crossfit. That means we get to do really hard workouts all week. Yay! Monday was the hardest one on the list - Angie. 100 pull-ups, followed by 100 push-ups, followed by 100 sit-ups, followed by 100 squats. It's a bitch! I had done Angie twice before. Scaling back means a lot of things with Angie. You can use bands and do push-ups on your knees, and you can do fewer reps. The first time I did Angie, in October, I did 50 pull-ups and push-ups and 70 sit-ups and squats. After I finished, I knew I could have done more of the last two. The next time we did Angie, I did 75 of everything. Even then I knew I could have done 100 of the last two. This time, I did 100 for everything. I used the blue band for pull-ups. They were awful, but not as bad as I thought they would be. I used bands to assist me with push-ups - blue and tan - and then I started doing them on my knees after about 20 because my arms were burning. Push-ups are one of my biggest goats. They hold me back so much. But I finished the workout and felt pretty good about life.


Then Karen, my buddy, was still doing sit-ups and said something about quitting. There's no quitting in Crossfit! So I got down on the mat and finished the last 25 sit ups with her. So did the rest of the women there. It was awesome! Then we took turns doing squats with her. Those squats can burn after a while, so doing 10 at a time was fine with us. Here's me and Karen taking care of business.

Hell yeah. She finished under 30 minutes! That's a tough workout!


What does this have to do with movement? Yeah, I'm having a tough time moving my arms today. Straightening them doesn't feel too good. Lifting anything overhead seems impossible. Still, I managed to do Grace today, which is 30 clean and jerks. I definitely could have done more weight on any other day, but just showing up was an accomplishment for me, so I was happy with just doing it. Later this week we have wall balls and thrusters and pull-ups, oh my! I'm pretty sure doing anything on Saturday is out of the question.


Oh, and my friends and I had an impromptu Lady Gaga dance party the other night. I haven't danced in a while. I used to all the time. I need to incorporate dancing into my workouts. We all do.

Resolve

My fitness and nutrition have been lackluster through the holidays. I ate a lot of cookies. I can't even remember all I had for Christmas dinner but I know I felt sick afterwards. I'm not used to eating certain foods anymore and I'm not used to eating so much food. I know what I need to do to feel good; I just need to do it.

I did have a lovely holiday too. I spent it with my family. I showed off my muscles to my nephews. My 6 year old nephew and I did as many push-ups as we could in a row. As for workouts, I did one. Yeah, one. It was 10 double unders, 10 push-ups, and 10 squats -as many as possible in 10 minutes. I did it alone in my sisters garage. I tried doing real push-ups. They didn't look great, but I did them.

So in this new year, I have a few goals. We're going gluten free as much as possible. I already try to do that, but I'm going to try harder. I'll do 4 workouts a week, which I usually do. I need to get better at both push-ups and pull-ups. I need to do a handstand. And in May, I'm going to run the Eugene half-marathon. This I know I can do.

And I'm also getting married in the next couple years. This is new. I already have my dress picked out. It'll look awesome. I'm not worried about that.

Distracted

The good news is that I've lost10 pounds since July. It doesn't seem like much when I say it, but it's made a noticeable difference. My thighs are a lot thinner and my waist is much, much smaller. I'd still like to lose another 5 to get to the weight I think I should be. I'd even venture that another 7 pounds would be fine. I know how to lose it and I might make a concerted effort in January. I don't want to gorge myself on holiday treats the next 6 weeks, but I don't want to deny myself anything either. It's all good in moderation. The bad news is that I have a potentially scary health problem that's become more complicated this week. I'm not sure what the problem is right now, I just know what it's causing, so I don't want to say anything before I know for sure. I should know within the next couple weeks and hopefully I will have nothing to report. Because of this and a number of other things, I have been distracted this week. I only made it into the box 3 times this week. It's funny because I usually want something to take my mind off of everything else, and crossfit is perfect for that, but because much of the distraction had to do with my health, I chose to stay away. Monday was a workout that included something I'm good at - double unders! The workout was 50-40-30-20-10 double unders and sit ups. I had a respectable time, but not good enough for the top 5 women in the gym. Hmm. The sit ups slowed me down a bit and my time would have been better had I not slowed them down. It was still a good time, but it could have been better. On Tuesday we did a whole hell of a lot of squats, push-ups, pull-ups, and sit-ups. Yuck. The push-ups slowed me down again. I thought I would hurt more afterwards, but I felt OK. The original workout had us doing 25-50-75 of each and there was no way I was doing 75 push-ups. I did the 25-35-50 workout. It was respectable. I did what I needed to do. I made it in for the Saturday workout, which included a Baby Murph. Again, the push-ups slowed me down. But it was a hell of a lot of work for 10 minutes. I probably shouldn't be running right now, and I really shouldn't be doing double unders. I need to give my shins time to heal and they just aren't. I'm going to skip the Turkey Stuffer 5K this year, although I want to run a sub-30 minute 5K so bad and I know I can do it, I just shouldn't do it right now. So frustrating. Thanksgiving is this week and I intend on making it into the gym at least 4 times. I don't have anymore excuses. I don't teach this week. I'm not in charge of making a big dinner. I just have to show up and take care of myself, that's all.