Keeping up with the Clydesdale: February 10, 2010

First I’d like to thank everyone that trained Wednesday night for not tripping me on the run or slapping me in the junk after reading my previous notes, I’m sure some of you would have liked to.

Since I got such a good response from my last post-workout notes, I decided to do it again and add some other random thoughts. Ok the truth is, I cracked myself up from my last workout notes so I’m doing it for my own entertainment :-) What can I say, I like making myself laugh.

WOD: 800 meter run, 21-15-9 of Power Clean & Jerks, and Toes to Bar, 800 meter run. This is one of those WOD’s that doesn’t look easy on paper so you know you’re in for a fun beast of a workout, which it was.

For some reason with the run I thought I could cruise the run as my “rest” portion of the workout then really push the clean & jerks and toes to bar. So we take off on the run and haha I’m out in front, EAT IT!!!! Then something that sounded like a loud galloping Clydesdale is catching me and before I make the first turn Jon L. passes me. I actually keep up with him pretty good, I think I could have sprinted past him at the end of the first run but I would have collapsed and not been able to do anything for 10-20 minutes. So I decided to hold off since there was no value in it other than to pass him, laugh and flip him off as I fall to the ground too exhausted to move. So I was second in the gym but unfortunately I went out really hard in the first 800 (3:08 was my split with stairs) I’m resting at my bar too tired to pick it up and I see Jake, Bill, Micki, Brian and everyone coming in the door while I’m just standing there, so all these people start their first reps before I get my first one up. I need to stop taking such a long break in between exercises, the difference in taking a 2 second break and a 2 minute break is purely mental because I’m not refreshed or feel better with the longer break, I just prolong the pain.

My physical therapist would be pissed if she knew I was doing heavy clean and jerks in the wod but it’s time to start testing out my shoulder with the lifts and hanging from the bar doing toes to bar. So I started with 155 but after a couple of reps I need to drop to 135. So I start it up again and a couple reps in I crack myself in the chin with the bar. I literally knock myself dizzy for a second, I drop the bar and look around hoping nobody noticed what an idiot I am but of course here comes Steve checking in on me to make sure my shoulder is ok since he saw I quickly dropped the bar. I let him know I hit myself in the face with the bar and I think he had to turn away really quick so he didn’t laugh in my face, if that were Dan he would have laughed :-) which is ok if either of them did to me because it all comes with fun love and support here.

Loved the workout, I like the burn you get in your body and lungs with a weighted workout like this with running mixed in. A good mix that lets your body know you’re getting in shape. I’m disappointed with myself in the last 800 of the workout; I finished not out of breath. I could have and should have pushed it harder so I would be on the verge of collapsing when I finished. I want a do-over with my last 800.
So, new topic, I was looking at what I wanted to accomplish in crossfit this calendar year and I have a few goals.

I want to beat Jon L. and Matt in a heavy weighted WOD. I want to beat them in one of their stronger WOD’s, along with every other one, but especially a heavy WOD.
I want to beat Levi, Bill, Janice and Daniel in any WOD too :-) but especially ones requiring endurance, body weight exercises or percentage of body weight as main portion of the lift. There are more people to list, like Micki and Jacqueline they’ve destroyed me on runs in the past, but above are some obvious people I’m thinking of right now :-)

I want to get a crossfit total of over 1,050 pounds

I want to deadlift 500 pounds

When I do one of the above things you’ll see me fist pumping and air humping like I’m a jersey shore reject.

I don’t know where I’m at yet with accomplishing these things but I figure let my brain lead and hopefully my body will catch up soon.

I know some people aren’t competitive and they are there for the workout so I understand not everyone has the urge to compete against other people. Honestly that’s part of the fun and why I love crossfit, along with the camaraderie of people in the gym and the variety of challenging workouts. I stay interested in it because crossfit is a physical fitness game each day. You get a new game to workout in where you score the most points, go for the fastest times or biggest lifts. When I started crossfit I couldn’t do one single pull-up so my goal at the beginning was just to survive a workout, then my goal was to do full prescribed workout, then as I was surviving prescribed workouts my goal was to push it through the workout, then after that my goal was to not finish last in a workout, then after that each workout I’d find someone on the board I thought was challenging and shoot to be close to or beat them. Each week as I got stronger I was able to go up the list of people to shoot for competition and internally play against them. It keeps it fun for me and helps keep me active and involved in physical fitness long term. I know it’s tough at the beginning coming to a gym like this but find the game, people and challenges to keep it fun so you’re excited about crossfit and it will help keep you committed to physical fitness long term.

Have fun, work hard and I look forward to finishing ahead of you real soon :-) (I’m currently fist pumping and air humping as I finish writing this)