Day 30: First day I had a BLAST at Crossfit – !!!

Just came back from Crossfit and HAD to post. I think the main reason I HAD to post is that I had a BLAST today (whilst – ahem – H lifted too heavy and has tweaked his lower back, so I can’t be excited in his presence).

Today was a warmup of 400 m run, then 3x 5 pullups (I did them off a box on the middle bar – a little too high, but I practiced really extending my arms straight like I’m supposed to) + 10 pushups (on the parallel bar for me) + 15 squats (holding vertical bar – man these exhaust me)…then I think it was leg swings and shoulder rolls.

The WOD was:

 

6 RFT
400M Run
12 OHS 45/30k
12 SDHP 45/30k

I did 500m row on 10 (hardest), because I have the long run tomorrow for the Nike Marathon – our last long run before taper. (How did THAT happen! Dang the marathon is in like 2 weeks!); then 12 overhead squats, but I used the red “power band’ instead of a bar, because even the 10 lb bar was too heavy for me to do it, then SDHP is “Sumo Dead Lift High Pull” – I did that first with the 10 pound bar, then that was a little too easy so after 2 rounds I asked Bo to swap it out for the orange bar (not sure how much more that is, but it’s more ;-) )

I did it all in something like 24:44 or 25:44, now I can’t remember.

The idea of using the red “power band” held like a “bar” and pulling it tight is that this works on the mobility/stability of my shoulder. It’s still really hard for me to squat  to any depth at all “unaided.” I got down as far as I could, but it’s not that far. The idea of the overhead squat is you have (ultimately) a barbell in sort of the “crease” of your pelvis, if you’re standing up (as in, lean forward, and it’s between your navel and your pubic bone). You want to have your arms straight the whole time, so you hold the bar as wide as you can but still be able to get it over your head with your arms straight. You go from holding it at that “crease” spot, then up and squat down, so your arms are straight up over your hips, but that puts your hands behind your head (if your hands were in front, gravity would pull the weight down). I’ve done this before but just with PVC pipe – the coolest part is that when you look at someone doing it, it looks like their shoulders should rip off backwards (pleasant…), but that “behind the head, arms straight, palms facing forward” position is VERY stable and fairly comfortable.

The “Sumo Dead Lift High Pull” means that you have your hands close together in the middle of the bar and your feet pretty wide apart. You squat down, keeping your back straight and chest forward (like a Sumo wrestler) and grab the bar with your palms backwards. You lift it up to your chin (so that’s the “high pull” part) and then back all the way down. You’re “helping” with your legs and hips of course. So the idea being that you get it up with the right “tempo” so that you are doing it with your legs mostly.

Because I didn’t have any weight on my bar I didn’t go all the way down to the ground, because everyone else did it with a bar with weight plates in it – meaning they could “grab the bar” about a foot off the ground (if that makes sense – whereas my bar was just flat on the ground). I still had to go down to that “a foot off the ground” level tho – I couldn’t just stop in a high-ish squat – I had to “go Sumo.”

I was really proud of myself asking Bo to get me a heavier bar. I asked him to leave the lighter one there for one round “just in case,” but when I did the round with the heavier one I knew I could finish with it, so I asked him to take it away. That felt good. It’s also important to me that Bo knows I’m not “sandbagging” – especially as so much of this I have to do with something like a PVC pipe or like 5 pounds when everyone else is doing 40 or 50. You never know when you first meet someone if they’re “just trying to get by” or are really going for it. I want it to be clear that, even though I’m lifting a PVC pipe, I’m “going for it.”

All the ‘regulars’ (but Margo – but she was doing the Rx!) finished before me, then I finished before Herbert and the 2 new guys I don’t really know their names yet. The best part was that when Margo was doing her OHS and I was finishing my SDHP, Jimmy and Michael were yelling for us – GO MARGO! and GO SANDY! I loooooooooove that. I loved in the beginning that no one bothered me – and you there are folks that work out there that aren’t part of the “bantering” etc. They come in, do the WOD, and leave, and it’s all good. But once you start playing with the dogs outside, or joking a little with folks, or handing people chalk, or whatever, they realize you “want to” be part of the “gang” and they make you part of the gang. I really like that about this box, because at first I wanted to be invisible (smile), then a few WODs later, I wasn’t in Panic Attack Mode about the whole thing, so I played with the dogs (first dogs…then people LOL) – and now we’re where we are. H doesn’t really talk to anyone, and so they don’t really talk to him – same place I was in in the beginning. Well – not quite true – he talks to the couple guys who are newer than he is. I think that’s a fairly standard “pecking order” thing – I did the same, I didn’t talk to the “super duper fit amazing” athletes there at first, I just stayed out of their way, and talked more with folks finishing or running somewhat close to my time. (Of course they were going Rx and I was scaling, but let’s not quibble over details!)

One gal – the super skinny blonde – said to me today “This is just a new box for you, right? You did Crossfit before?” And I said, no, I’d started whenever I had – couple weeks ago. She said I was a Natural. That made me feel WONDERFUL (I mean, of course it would, right?)

I’ve been using a lacrosse ball to work on the back of my calves as per the “Supple Leopard” book, which is paaaaainful but Bo has been making a point that my ankles and calves (and of course the dang shoulders/knees) are super duper tight and I have to work them EVERY time.

So that’s my check-in.

P.S.: As you can see, Raja fixed the blog so I can insert media – yay! And it is SO MUCH EASIER than it’s ever been. He’s the BEST WordPress guy EVER!

P.P.S.: TAR starts in 2 days!

P.P.P.S.: HERE is a super blog post from a blogger that I read about banishing negative self-talk. I really quite like this one. Take a read.