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Wednesday, November 23, 2011

“Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed.” ~ Corita Kent

Spartan Shape-Up, Day 126:

Yesterday was a well-earned REST day, BlogLand. Crossfit had owned my back and shoulders on Monday, I was tired, and sometimes you just need to listen to your body and have a break. Plus, looking at my schedule for the rest of the week, I suddenly realized that I had not scheduled in a Rest. Hmm. Superhuman though I may be.... LOL!

Anyway, as I rolled out of bed at some ungodly hour this morning, I found myself suddenly met with Winter. In a big way. I went to bed, a flake or two in the air... I woke up, 8" of snow on the ground. WTF. I *wanted* to curl back up in my nice warm bed, but I reminded myself just how much I enjoy CrossFit (sick, I know.), and I got my ass in gear. Yes, I was outside at 6:25am in capri workout pants, with some sweater boots and a big sweatshirt, finding my car. Then "skiing" my car to the gym (snow tires aren't on yet... ugh.). Nonetheless, not to be deterred, I made it to class.

First, let me tell you about the Warm Up:
30 wall balls
30 burpees

OR 30 wall ball burpees. 

Yes, you read that right "wall ball burpees". I had never met this particular beast before... It involves completing a wall ball movement, then as you come down into the bottom of your wall ball squat, you put the ball on the floor, and (keeping your hands on the ball) drop into the burpee. Essentially, you increase the difficulty of the burpee like 4 trillion times (for me, anyway), because you then effectively have to do a push up (to get out of the burpee), with your hands close together, on an unstable ball.
Definitely not for the faint of heart.
However, after seeing our instructor demonstrate this in a deceptively graceful manner, and having never attempted this before, I decide to give it a go. After all, the warm up says I only have to complete 30 of that evil maneuver, rather than 30 of EACH maneuver if I perform them separately.

.....

EPIC FAIL. LOL. Let's just leave it at the fact that I absolutely do not have the upper body strength or coordination to master this move. Basically, I did my wall ball, dropped down into the burpee and got stuck. While I could push myself up, I couldn't push myself up enough with my arms (shut up people, I am created a little... ahem... top heavy?) to make clearance for my legs to jump in to finish the burpee. It was not pretty. And it definitely was not graceful. It was more Splat-tastic. However, I tried. 3 times. At which point I determined that I had to understand my temporary limitations and get the warm up done, rather than flopping about. 30 of each ensued. Nothing like Burpees to get you 'warmed up' on a frosty winter morning.

Then, after some instruction, we moved onto the WOD Part 1:
5 rounds x 90 seconds per round:
10 light deadlifts (35#)
Max Rep box dips (Total: 73)


I am mildly disgruntled with this particular section. This was supposed to be a "heavy" wod. Using like 80% of your max weight for deadlifts. Unfortunately, there were several new people in the class - specifically, a few women who had just started out and had never lifted weights and could barely manage the 20# bar, let alone weights. Not a snarky commentary - just a factual observation, promise (everyone needs to start somewhere, it just irks me when it effects my workout. Read on). The problem with this is that the instructor lumped me in with them. Made me do the CrossFit "Basic" scaled version of this part of the WOD... which involved a ridiculously light weight (deadlifting 35#.), so that you can concentrate on form. While I understand this instructor's caution, as he doesn't know me yet, even when I asked him if I could add some weight - after he had told me my form was perfect in the instructional period - he said no. Stay basic. 35#. It was like lifting nothing. I don't like being held back, when I am working toward something. I was really interested to see what I could do with a heavier deadlift (these are not skills I've been able to test at home, although I've been developing the pieces), but was not allowed to. GRR.
I decided to keep my mouth shut for now, as relatively new to this instructor (and he teaches often at the time I will go), and keep the peace... but it was frustrating to modify the wod to basic and have to do 10 lifts that were like nothing for me, while the regulars did 5 heavy lifts per round. GRR. Next time.
However, the second part of this part was technically Ring Dips. T-Rex arms strike again, and I really struggle with ring dips. Depending on the day, I modify them to assisted ring dips (using my legs straight out), or box dips. Today was box dips, as my shoulders were still screaming from Monday's push up marathon. Total number of dips for 5 rounds - 73. I'm feeling that in my shoulders, I promise.

Lastly, we moved onto the WOD, Part 2:
5 rounds of:
60 sec jump rope (ideally double-unders, but I'm still in singles)
30 sec rest
Lowest Reps in a round: 103

Felt pretty good about this section. Jump rope is a killer, and I'm really glad that I've been working on that. I'm able to jump a long time, at a steady pace, which is helpful. I'm working up to learning those double-unders, but I can't quite figure that out yet. Nonetheless, the result was that my least successful round (the one with the least jumps) was 103. Not bad for 60 seconds.

Today had been tricky with the eating though. Damn No Bread. I was hungry today. Nothing in my house sounded good. Plus, I have a lot of "not allowed" stuff in my house, due to the presence of roommates. It would be easier if it just wasn't here - things like tortilla chips, loaves of bread, or leftover Halloween candy. I wanted these things BADLY tonight. The hummus just wasn't cutting it. I'm still not happy. Grr. But, sometimes, you must just tell your body TOO BAD. We had plenty of nutrition for today, so, body/brain/whatever is making me WANT THAT BREAD, you just need to STFU. Although, all things considered, I haven't struggled too much with this eating style up to this point... but my stress level has cranked up a bit, which I'm guessing is contributing. Drank a tasty coffee, some more water, and I'm just going to go to bed. Tomorrow is a new day.

OH. I received my AWESOME Spartan Race hoodie in the mail today. I ordered the super rugged one... BOY they were not kidding. The thing weighs as much as I do, I suspect it's bulletproof, and I'm pretty sure I could survive sub-artic temperatures in it. It's an intense piece of clothing. PERFECT for what I wanted though - heading to the gym, in the cold mornings in the winter, and/or other sorts of generally extreme, badass activities. Aroo!

Speaking of which, I need to sleep. Tomorrow morning, I volunteered to accompany a friend to a free Zumba class (I used to go all the time, but needed a new challenge...), and then I need to get in my run at some point. And probably see some family.

Be thankful for your health, as you wake up tomorrow. Live each moment of your life and be thankful you have the opportunity to do so.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stay tuned for a Turkey Day recap tomorrow... Also known as, can Aja survive Thanksgiving with No Bread?!  

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