Crossfit week two: The day I changed my thinking

Today was brutal, to put it mildly. Have I whined that whine before? I'm sure I have but I'm so new that every workout seems tougher than the last. I can't even remember our warm up out of an act of self preservation because it was rough. I know it started with 100 jumping jacks with 5 push ups after every 25 and went downhill from there. The actual workout was 20 seconds of getting as many reps in as possible then 10 seconds of rest for 8 rounds and then you move to the next station. The stations were a ski machine (I'm not good with the crossfit jargon yet), barbell lifts, sled push, TRX mountain climbers, rowing and box jumps. In between each set of 8 we had to do things like run 200m or planks into walking planks or leg lifts. The last two rounds were a lot of running and I FINALLY felt like I was good at something. I guess it's easy to sprint at the beginning of class but when you have to do four laps of the parking lot (including going up stairs) I finally saw some endurance drop on people while I was feeling fine. Not that it's a competition....oh, who am I kidding, everything I do is a competition.

If you're keeping track of my random rug burn then today it was my arms that got hit from doing planks and walking planks. Part of the floor is this weird, stiff velcro type rug and it just destroys my sensitive redhaired girl skin. And it buuuuuurns! At one point I had both my arms again the metal pull up racks like a bear itching on a tree just to get the burning to stop.

I also got a splinter in my palm within 3 minutes of class starting and was bleeding everywhere so that was a good time.

Injuries aside, today is the day my mentality changed. Last week I had a total survival mentality, just get through it and I have nothing to prove. This week out of nowhere I started challenging myself. As in, "Ok, the last 20 second set you only did 8 box jumps, let's go for 9" or "the last 20 seconds of rowing you were at 2:21, let's try to keep it under 2". And I was dying, don't get me wrong, but it was cool to see myself already pushing. I can also finally see where this is going to help the mental aspect of my running because it's easy for me to tell myself, "eh, I'm just not feeling it today, I'm gonna walk a tenth of a mile". Those days are going to be done soon! I really like the coaches too, they push and encourage but not too hard. If I'm laying on the floor dying in the middle of sled pushes they just let me lay there and die but if I'm actually doing reps then they're really supportive.

A little of topic but one of my favorite movies ever is Bloodsport, my cousin Kurt and I used to watch it on repeat when we were little (no, I'm not sure what our parents were thinking either but it was a time I used to ride on my dad's lap in the car to the babysitter every day so what can ya do?). Anyway, in the middle of sled pushes I got really dizzy and kept trying to keep going but I was so disoriented. All I could think of for some reason was the final fight scene of Bloodsport, around 3:30. You're welcome for that visual.

I currently have two ongoing pains, one in my shoulder and one in my right sciatic nerve. Not sure how I injured either of them specifically but I am hoping they correct themselves soon. I'm looking forward to Wednesday though! I decided not to be superwoman and try to go for 5 days this week, maybe next week. I'm not throwing up anymore but I am still not able to eat a lot so I get fatigued fairly quickly (I can really notice it in my running). I'm hoping by Friday to try running to and from crossfit for the first time since it's only a mile away. I'm playing it by ear though.

Hope you all had a good weekend :)