Monday, August 13, 2012

Crossfit Fundamentals Day 2

Due to my schedule it took me some time to get to my second Crossfit intro class. As I was making the turn onto the street I saw 5 women doing the 400 meter run and I felt some pain for them as I had a flashback to my first class, of course I felt even more pain for them for because it was about 100 degrees yesterday.

There was only one other person in the secondary class so that was nice. I was all smiles until he told us to go do the 400 meter run. Under normal circumstance I would love doing a short run but it was 100 out and I had already run. Thankfully my partner decided a nice slow jog would work for him.We followed the run up with a review of the moves we had learned  last time around and were introduced to a few new ones. Up until this point we had been using pvc pipes filled with sand but once we reviewed the overhead press (I don't even know if that's what it's called) we were given a real bar with no weights. I don't how much that bar weights but it was heavy and my wrists hurt just holding it in position. I managed to get it over my head three times, although it was not pretty. I was thankful when we moved back to the pvc pipe to practice the dead lift. While we were practicing he added weight to the bar, you have to be kidding. I could barely get the bar alone over my head and now we've added weight to it. Somewhere in the back of my mind I know that dead lifting is easier than getting the bar over my head, but lets also keep in mind that I already ran a 5k in the morning and my brain and ability to process is starting to slowly creep away. Much to my surprise I easily lifted the 65 pounds. Keep in mind that weight lifting is really not my thing and I don't have a lot of interest in it but even I was impressed with myself.

After we were done with all of the how-to's which included a ball and some move that I just really could not get (read total exhaustion and loss of brain function) we moved on to the days workout. We were to repeat the circuit of 5 pull-ups (modified since I can't do one), 10 push-ups and 15 squats over and over again for 10 minutes. This time around I paced myself. Remembering that last time around I hit the wall at the push-ups I tried to just take my time and not go all out. After two rounds it was evident that I needed to move to modified push-ups. Never in my life have I ever done a modified push-up but I had to do what I had to do to  keep going. At one point my partner asked how much longer and the answer he received is "you don't want to know, you'll be really bummed if I tell you how much time you have left." I took that to mean we had about 6 minutes left. The modified push-ups were helping and while I was still exhausted and hurting I wasn't at that pale white I'm going to puke moment (because I really just don't see the need to revisit that). I ended up getting through almost 7 rounds, I was a few squats shy.

Today I am sore. Today I had to ride the bike for an hour. I was worried about being able to get my leg up and over the bike but that was not my issue. My issue was holding onto the handle bars. It did not occur to me that not being able to lift my arms above my head would translate to not being able to hold onto the bars. I rode the trainer today and had the i-pad all set up with a movie and headphones. Sitting up on the bike and not holding the handle bars brought me relief, sadly my headphones are a little short for this and in an effort to not break the i-pad (which my children would probably never speak to me again if I did) I sucked it up and just held on. The first 20 minutes were brutal, thankfully after that my arms and shoulders agreed to play and I managed the full hour.

While I'd love to be kicking back in my bed reading or watching the last day of the Olympics I am forced to be in other parts of the house as my husband has some awful, I'm sure highly contagious illness going on. He's been in bed for two days and anyone who knows my husband knows that he must be really ill for that to take place. Needless to say I'm trying to stay as far clear of the germs as possible.

The jury is still out on Crossfit. I do like the circuits of squats and push-ups and sit-ups, but I can totally do that at home, right? I guess I have to schedule it on my Training Peaks calendar if I really want it to happen though. The next step for me would be the Foundations class where they do the regular WOD (workout of the day) but with less weight and more guidance. It was mentioned that I might enjoy the Endurance class that they offer 3 days week which is geared towards folks training for endurance events. I was told to look it up online, which I did and now I'm scared because it said in a nutshell that it's really, really hard. I know, everything is hard, but at least give me the illusion that I can do it when I show up.

The biggest challenge for me is timing. The Foundations class is only offered twice a week at 6pm. My husband doesn't get home until 6:45ish. The Endurance class is offered 2x a week at 6:30pm and one session on the weekend. Basically, my ability to make any of these is going to involve juggling and perhaps hiring a babysitter which is not really what I want to do.

I will continue onward and continue to share my experiences and thoughts. For the time being I'm pleased that there was no more talk of Paleo or pooping.


2 comments:

  1. LOL on the last sentence!!!

    As tough as it is, that kind of strength work is really good for you and will pay off when it comes to your other goals this year. Not that you have to do it all the time but doing a similar workout every so often would definitely give you some good muscle for multi-sporting :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is my thought as well. I'm thinking maybe 2x a week.

      Delete