Monday, December 30, 2013

When You Can't Work Out...

CrossFit...That thing that you GO and DO. Do Work. Lift Heavy. Run Fast. Pull Hard. Go back home and brag about what you just did.

In the whole year-plus since starting CrossFit I have never missed more than one WOD. Never done less than two workouts in a week, even on vacation. As I sit here today writing this, I am on day 9 of not WODding. I even got dressed for it, took the kids to their class this morning, walked in the door and my friend looked at me and said, "No way...You're crazy." True. I started bark-coughing and and realized that she was right. ((sigh)) Benched.

I am unfortunately one of those people who tries to see the deeper meaning in just about everything. I have trouble taking things at face value and just letting them be what they are. Let's just say that from the moment I came down with a fever last Monday, then a cough / bronchitis all through Christmas, I have had to work hard to just let this be what it is--I am human. Humans sometimes fall victim to viruses and what-not. I had been pushing myself hard, stressing about things that were really rather silly. I probably wrecked my own immune system, all by myself. I have to remember that this is not punishment for some wrong-doing or something too overly-spiritual. I can say, though, that getting sick helped me put a whole list of things in their proper perspective, not the least of which was how important it is to have the house clean before Christmas (it's not, really) and how badly I'll fall behind in CrossFit for having to take more than a week off (I won't, probably). Truth be told I can't say I've minded having these days when I actually can say I refuse to do anything, I am going to sleep / take a bath / sit here / watch you cook... I've needed the break.

A friend of mine says, "There is no cure for the cold because the cold is the cure." True.

I'll be back on my feet soon. CrossFit will still be there. Housekeeping and school and laundry and cooking will still all be there. Meanwhile I'm going to enjoy this excuse to just rest and recuperate.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

CrossFit: The (Full-time) Job You Pay to Have

SOOOOO...Your friend has invited you to check out their box, try a WOD, come and see what the CF thing is all about. Great. Let me just say up front that I am not one of those people who says CF is for everyone--just for everyone who is upright, breathing, and may or may not have limbs and joints and cartilage. You are going to feel more fit and strong and good-looking than you have in ages. You will lose body fat and inches. It's practically a guarantee...But you might be wondering how much time it will take from your schedule. You've heard it's fast and intense? It really is. A WOD will only take about 10-30 minutes out of your daily schedule.

Here's where it gets tricky. I will do the math for you so that you can predict just how much time you will need to carve out of your schedule to do CrossFit.

Time to drive to the Box (assuming you live fairly close): 10 minutes
Time to warm up: 10 minutes
Time to complete a normal AMRAP style WOD: 10 minutes
Time to cool down and stretch: 10 minutes
Time to drive home: 10 minutes

You have just done the best exercise you have ever done in your life and have only used up 50 minutes of your day, 20 of which were spent in the car. But wait, there's more.

Time to come home and lie on the floor and analyze every sore muscle in your body: 15 minutes
Time to get off the floor and hobble to the telephone: 5 minutes
Time to call your BFF and tell them what kind of crazy you just did (even though she was there and did it with you): 30 minutes
Time to crawl up the stairs to the shower: 8 minutes
Time to shower: 30 minutes (you'll need to soak those sore spots in the hot water, and you'll stink so badly you'll think you need extra time.)
Time to prepare the paleo lunch with all organic ingredients so as to maximize your new, fit, metabolism: 45 minutes
Time to eat the paleo lunch: 1 minute (You're starving. You are now freakin' starving. Like you have never eaten before.)
Time to look at you-tube instructional videos on all the new moves you'll see in tomorrow's WOD: 1 hour
Time to take and post the "after" selfie: 5 minutes (you had to try several poses before you found the right one)
Time to post on facebook about how amazing you are now that you do CrossFit: 2 minutes (you've been doing it a whole week now!)
Time to read the box blog and see if tomorrow's WOD is up yet: 5 minutes
Time to call BFF and freak out about tomorrow's WOD: 30 minutes
Time to look up photos of Rich Froning and pin them to your pinterest board: 2 hours
Time spent shopping for new workout clothes online: 1 hour

Okay, so consider that you have just purchased your brand-new membership at your local box and you went all-out and did the unlimited membership. You goal is to work out 5 days a week. At nearly 7 hours a day (that is what all those things up there added up to) you have just taken on the equivalent of another 35-hour per week job. Technically that is not full-time, but with the new Obamacare regulations, no one will be hiring for many more hours than that anyway, so it might as well be. I'm assuming also that you will not be blogging about your CF experiences, but if you are, please add an additional hour to all of that. In that case, you have just taken on a new full time job. Oh, and you do realize that YOU pay the box, not the other way around? Just checking.

In the long run, I expect you will not mind that you are paying for that unlimited membership, and somehow the rest of your life will start to absorb all the hours spent doing CrossFit related stuff, but I just wanted to make sure you were forewarned. Your new defined muscles, awesome-fitting clothes, comments from friends, energy, improved health, and new friends who share in that miserable 10-minutes of hell will be payment enough.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Bling! Girl Goes Gold!

Today's WOD was an amazing chipper. It went like this:

50 double-unders / 150 singles
40 KB swings / 35#
30 burpees
20 KB sumo dead lift high pulls
10 bear complex / 75#

my time: 13:26

Today was my 4th WOD this week, and I plan to go tomorrow. I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling kind of smoked in my shoulders and core, but nothing that will prevent me from doing tomorrow's team WOD with good pals...See, this week I took a huge step and upgraded my membership from 3 days a week to unlimited classes, a.k.a. "Gold membership." It's a pretty good deal financially, but really, I just want to push myself a little bit more--see if I can't take this a little further. While I have been very consistent in going to the box, there were still 4 whole days of the week that I wasn't working out. I'm starting to feel like something is missing on those days. I have a new goal of showing up 4-5 days per week. Dan (the owner of CrossFit Woodbridge) drew up my papers for the new contract for me. As I was filling and signing he said, "So are you sure about this CrossFit thing? Maybe you should check out L.A. Fitness down the street" (shaking my head, here...Oh sure...Zumba for me.) I handed the clipboard to him and he smiled and said, "Welcome to the club." Weird. What a thought...I just stepped into the realm of "the club," the people who are either seriously committed or seriously need to be committed (if you know what I mean) because they are gonzo over CrossFit. I wouldn't call this an obsession, exactly. Just a serious hobby, and the funny thing is, I kind of stink at it. Even funnier, they accept me anyway.

The Accidental CrossFitter has been quiet the last couple of months. I have been trying to decide whether I should continue blogging my CF journey or not. I'm not a newbie anymore, and I'm not sure if I have anything super-inspiring to say about it, but in the last couple of weeks things have been turning over again in my mind, and in fact, I have some thoughts. I don't much need to blog my daily WODs. After a while it becomes kind of same-old. Do people really want to read my work out junk? Nah. But I have some thoughts about other stuff...so I'll carry this on a little bit longer.

See...today I met a girl at the box who just started on Monday. She's still in pain from her first WOD, and today she did this one. Her form was awesome, she was so strong...but she was nearly in tears. There was much more than just the pain of the WOD going on inside of her, and I could relate. We cheered her through her last reps and I remembered the agony of being last. I remembered the agony of feeling like I couldn't do it, like I would never measure up, that I was never, ever going to be the fit girl in cute jeans that I wanted to be. After the WOD we talked, and I told her the truth--that she was going to hurt in places that had nothing to do with muscles, and she nodded, knowing exactly what I meant. I also told her not to be afraid of it...Here I am over a year later. Gold. I'm not fast and I'm not fancy when I complete a WOD, but I am becoming the girl in jeans that I wanted to be.

...Did I mention that my best friend, my hero, my stud-muffin husband has also joined after a year of me wearing him down? Oh yeah, that happened last week. #happy