Step Away From the Cake

Today was one of those days. I walked into Crossfit and saw the WOD on the board. The strength portion was max power snatch or power clean. Last week I did a lot of cleans, so many that my collar bones were a little sore. Those were out. That left snatchs. Back in April, I hurt my shoulder on a snatch. It's kind of been my nemesis ever since. I've done them, but I've always gone into it with fear and apprehension. Today I said, no way. I am going to own those snatches. I did not go crazy though. I started with the 30# bar. I did a few with those, then add 2-5# plates. I did a few with those and it was all good. Then I added two more 5# plates. I got a few of those even though it was beginning to get heavy. Next I added two 2.5# plates. I could not do the first one. I walked it off and tried again. I got the second one. I rested and tried again and screwed the lift up. Walked it off, tried again. This time I felt a little tweak in my shoulder. I walked it off and trie

After two fabulous WODs, I hit Wednesday. The WOD itself wasn't so bad but there were pushups. Even that by itself was not so bad, but my coach made me do them the strict military way. No part of your body touches the floor except your chest. That's all fine and good except that I have a super weak upper body and always, always, always do my pushups with my whole body hitting the floor. But not Wednesday. I did about 90 pushups that way and it freaking hurt. It hurt bad. I started to get angry with myself because I was struggling so much with them. After I was done and headed home I had to talk myself down. I had to remind myself how far I have come. Just a few short months ago, I would not have been able to do pushups like that. Now I did the entire workout that way. They were hard but not impossible. I need to keep my vision focused on the positive. I am steadily making progress. My shoulder is not bothering me at all. My knee is soooo much better than just a few weeks ago.

It has been a rough year in Crossfit for me. I injured my shoulder back in April and that has taken forever to get better. It is still weak but at least I can move it now. Then my knee acted up. It was swelling and hurting and not much fun to have. There have also been a number of little aches and pains along the way, my elbow, my back, etc. Things got so bad at times I thought about quitting. But I always managed to talk myself into staying on and keep trying. I struggled with what I could do also. Before my injuries, I was making great progress. Lifting heavier and heavier, doing more and more. It was truly amazing. Then my injuries and I had to back way down. That upset me mentally. It was hard to have been so strong and now to be so weak. But I did and spent most WODs angry with myself. Then, the other day, I decided to just give it up. I accepted that I was older than most. Heavier than most. Slower than most. I just needed to accept where I was and do the best I could from th

There is a fine, very fine, line between listening to your body and giving up. I'm not sure which side of that line I ended up on today. After working on my school assignment, getting it posted, and eating a good breakfast, I headed out to Crossfit. I was a little apprehensive about the WOD considering the last 4 days, plus the fact that it was the coach's birthday and birthday WODs are usually brutal. But I was looking for a butt kicking so I went. The WOD was as follows: 5 rounds for time: 12 bar over burpees 8 handstand push up 13 kb swings 82 double unders (2x singles) ---then--- 31 clean & jerks I got through the first round and thought I was going to die. During the second round I was positive I was going to die. During the third round I think I did die. By then everything hurt. All the jumping was getting to my knee. My shoulder was acting up. I was a mess. I got through the burpees, push-ups, and kettlebell swings for round 4, but I just could not

This is kind of how I feel today. Bloated. Huge. Unbelievably fat. I spent the last 4 days at a residency for my Ph.D. It was on the Big Island and it was good, but my eating and working out went to crap. Let's see what happened. Wednesday I was up at 3am to make a 5am flight. I had some coffee but that was all. Met my friends in Kona (that is a whole other story) and we headed out. Stopped at Starbucks around 7:30am for breakfast and got to the hotel where it was being held around 8:30ish. Spent the morning sitting in seminars and then they fed us lunch. As you might have guessed it was mostly carbs. Plus the desserts. Lots of desserts. The afternoon was spent sitting in more seminars and around 5-5:30 we were free to go. As you might imagine I was exhausted and settled for fast food for dinner. Thursday was very similar except that I met a friend for dinner that night. That was super fun and I'm glad I got a chance to see her. Friday was more of the same again