Crossfit

I had an early morning session at Everyday Athlete with Nicole, an amazing, supportive instructor who doesn't make a person (i.e. me) feel uncomfortable in this strange new world of Crossfit.

For a warm-up, she had me do the exercises I'd learned last week, but added a walk across the room with weights pressed overhead. I was a little sore starting out after my climbing class last night, but the warm-up felt good. I still need to work on a few things like getting my squats lower, but I could correct myself when I started doing something wrong. She then showed me four new exercises. There was a jump box, a push up (using a bench for my hands), a kettlebell swing (really fun) and, gulp, ring dips.

Using gymnastic rings.

My heart dropped to my tennis shoes when she wanted me to try the rings. Anything gymnastics related and I do not get along. It all goes back to my high school days. I might have lettered in tennis, but there was one sport I could not do. At all.

Gymnastics.

Sure I mastered the sommersault when I was a kid, but that was about the extent of my gymnastics ability. I never could (and still can't) do a cartwheel. But suddenly our PE teacher, whose name I've blocked from my memory because it was such a tramatic experience, told us we had to do the balance beam and the vault and...cartwheels. I ended up with a B in PE. My only consolation is that the B in PE did not keep me from getting into Stanford and Yale. I've always wondered, however, if it played into my rejection from Princeton. Darn cartwheels.

Anyway, I sucked up my fear and loathing for anything G-related and decided to give the rings a go. Nicole told me me to jump and try to hold my weight, emphasis on try, while she spotted. I did, okay tried, this a few times. For the workout, she told me to go up on my tiptoes and press down on the rings. This I could do, but my arms were still shaky.

All through the warmup, we talked about diet ( I've been starving lately) and the need for protein. Nicole gave me a rundown on what I should be eating which is a lot different than the Eat To Live diet I started this summer. On Sunday, my priest who does Crossfit said the Eat to Live diet (which he used) will not work with Crossfit because you will always be hungry in a starving-to-death kind of way. That's for sure. He's been eating Paleo. No idea what that is. Climbing Cutie had already mentioned The Zone diet to me.

By the time I'd completed the warm-up and learned these new things, I'd already felt like I'd done a complete work out. But nope, Nicole had planned a WOD (workout of the day) for me that was written on a white board. It said (minus what's in the parentheses):

3 rounds:
15 Box Jumps/Box Step Ups (7 jumps, 8 step ups)
10 Push Ups
15 KB Swings (15 lbs)
10 Jump to ring dips (ended up doing them on tiptoes)

I had to take a break after 5 of the push-ups on the first round. Those things are hard! I couldn't believe how I felt after the first round. I thought wow, what a workout, but it felt so good. I still couldn't believe I had to do it two more times. But I kept going and going and going. I took a bit of a break before the third round and I did the push-ups 4-4-2 that final time, but I managed to the workout.

My time: 9 minutes 40 seconds

No idea what this time means, but I can compare it to the next time I do this workout and see if I improve.

After the WOD, we still had a few minutes of our session left. Nicole asked if I wanted to work on a pull-up (she called it something else that I'm too tired to remember now.) I said no. So she brought out these tube things that sat low to the ground. She had me put my legs out in front of me. Using my arms (and keeping my core on), I held myself up. Then she pulled out the timer again. Except this time she wanted me to hold there for a certain amount of time. I was sure it was at least a minute. Maybe longer. Turned out to be 15 seconds.

Now I'm home. Tired. Sweaty. Swore. At least I'm not hungry. Hubby scrambled a couple of eggs for me and sliced half a grapefruit for me. Time for a shower. And maybe, a nap.

What do you have going on today? Chores, work, fun?