Spartan Shape-Up, Day 511:
Getting back into workouts in the early morning (AT the gym for 6:15am) is the bane of my existance. I'm not a morning person. It just doesn't go well for me.
Thankfully, I have an excellent gym buddy (rule #1 of sustained training!) who drives to my house and picks me up - I don't even have to be awake enough to drive... just clad in my sneakers and spandex and stumbling out of the house. .... which, is pretty much all I'm capable of at that time of day. It's not even light out when I leave my house, these days; that's something that's really difficult for me, as I am a S.A.D sufferer (lack of light issue).
Nonetheless, Tuesday morning found Stacey beeping in my driveway, and I tumbled out the door (banana in hand!) and grunted an intelligble "good morning."
Crossfit consisted of not one, but TWO WODs...
First WOD:
EMOTM (Every minute on the minute) for 10 minutes:
7 Kettlebell swings
7 box jumps
max pull ups
Yeahh..... That was an ugly time. I tried the first two minutes as prescribed, but while I'm fast and competent on the KB swings (using the RX weight for women), the box jumps were slowing me down something fierce. Once I got through 7 of them, I didn't have time to get in my pull ups. Basically, I'm paranoid about the box jumps, because I do start feeling them in my shin a little bit. It's totally fine, but I'm leery of aggravating it again, so I'm being extra cautious - resulting in me stepping down, rather than a more time efficient jump down.
Nonetheless, I was doing work, so it was time to figure out how to scale it. What I ended up doing for the remainder of rounds was:
7 KB Swings (I was killing those bad boys!)
3-4 box jumps (depending on the time I had)
2-3 pull ups (with a heavy duty band)
This was pretty cardio heavy (KB swings and box jumps), and I am feeling the extra weight that I have put back on and the lack of training during my injury times. I got through it and I pushed the whole time, but I was aware that I really need to get back to it.
The Second WOD:
This one was an ugly AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) for 10 minutes.
21 Wall balls
15 push ups
4 laps bear crawing
...... yeah. Again, I TRIED the first round. I did the 21 wall balls, I was good there. But the bear crawls were killing me. My arms and shoulders just don't have the oomph to do push ups and then support me for all that time doing bear crawls.
Again, I had to swallow my pride at not being able to do WOD as written, and modify it down.
15 Wall balls (14#)
9 push ups (on my knees)
2 laps of bear crawls
and BOY my ass was handed to me. Bear crawls have officially begun to rival burpees as my least favorite exerices.
Having said that, I reminded myself that I'm just getting back into Crossfit. I have to have a little patience with myself. Also, I have to think about the way I approach these things... we were doing these WOD's AFTER doing a warm up that included Ski/Row sprints, 30 burpees and situps. My WARMUP really was (as the saying goes) more difficult that most people's typical workouts.
That said, the victory was that I was THERE, in the gym, at the crack of dawn, taking another step in the right direction. The battles that lead toward ultimate victory are won in these small moments... not big giant leaps.
So, today, I'm sitting here, with the worlds stiffest quads (it is not great to sit at an office job, after doing a lot of KB swings! lol), stretching and anticipating my next WOD. I think this weekend will be some climbing, some stretching yoga and an easy paced run.
While it's a battle and I've lost a little ground, one must always remember - it's a lifestyle change, not an event you train for or a finish line you cross. You're not done. You're never done. But are you happy with the direction you're moving in?
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