Repost: Just another manic Monday

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

I'm sitting at my dining room table, still in my sweaty gym clothes, catching up on blog reading before I start my crazy day.

At the gym this AM we did a warrior WOD - Badger.

"Badger"
3 Rounds for time of:
95/65lb Squat Clean, 30 reps
30 Pull Ups
Run 800 meters

I did my squat cleans with 35lbs (should've done 40 or 45, in hindsight) and for pullups I tried to do the first 10 with the band assist, and then finished the set with 20 jumping pullups. My hands are *hurting*. I did not sub ring rows, because I detest ring rows. Hate them with a passion.

As I was pounding the pavement on my last run, I started thinking about how my legs felt a lot like they do during the run at the end of a triathlon. If you switched and did the pullups first, then the workout would be a lot like a sprint tri -- swim-bike-run. Well, at least it would be if you swim like I do, all arms and shoulders, and hardly any legs.

Yesterday LT motivated me to do a run, so I did 30 minutes around our neighborhood. I felt decent, and wasn't completely washed out afterward. It helped that the weather has been so temperate here lately, and especially yesterday. We did some situps and pushups afterward.

The reason I haven't been posting that much? Ruby stole my glasses:

"Oh haiiii mom! I haz ur glasses!"

Actually, that's not really the reason I've been quiet. (I know! Shocking!) I went into a "holy crap, my life is in shambles" tailspin last week as I suddenly realized I am unemployed for the first time in about 8 years, and not only that, holy crap I'm fucking married! Yes, the wedding really should've clued me in to that whole thing, but I just had a moment where I realized how much my life has changed, and that threw me for a loop.

Luckily my husband was here to tease me and tickle me until I smiled, and then he proceeded to hug me a lot until I snapped out of it, gritted my teeth, and vowed to figure out this new life and not let the changes scare me into inaction.

And I continued to go to CrossFit, so at least I stayed on track with that.

Repost: Overcoming CrossFit "block"

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

I'm happy to report that I got over my block on Monday morning, and headed to the local CrossFit gym for their 9:30AM workout. I had been feeling that old intimidation that I felt before I started going to CrossFit Philly; that feeling that "oh my god, I don't know how to do those movements, I can't do those movements, blah blah blah blah".

Simple explanation: fear of failure, fear of the unknown, and a lack of self-confidence.

So what if my old gym never taught me any of the Olympics lifts with the bar? THAT IS WHY I HAVE TO KEEP LEARNING.

It was a really freakin' sucktastic block... I didn't want to be uncomfortable, I didn't want to not know what I was doing, I didn't want to be the brand new member of the gym again. It was really stressing me out, and I just let the hype build up too much in my head... Thank God I deflated that balloon before it got any bigger...

I hope that encourages those of you reading who might want to believe that kd, Sara, Vypergirl and I live in an altered state of mind to be able to do CrossFit. Nope, we are just regular old people with mental hurdles to face just like every one else. One thing that I think does set us apart a little is that we are all lucky to have husbands who support and encourage us in athletic pursuits and healthy living.

But other than that, only Vypergirl is crazy, doing Crossfit with a baby practically ready to pop! :-p Sorry had to throw that in there, it is just blowing my mind that she is still working out at this stage in the game - she's past her freakin' due date people! Now that is motivating! (If you live with a Marine, you are now laughing. :-p)

kd might also be crazy with her Crossfit spreadsheet, and "catch up" workouts. Whaaaaa????

OK, nevermind, we're all a little crazy, but it's the crazy you need in your life to get shit done, to fearlessly try new things, to keep life exciting. :-D

Heck, it's the crazy you need to have a third kid when you already have two! Seriously, motherhood impresses me waaaaaaaaaay more than push jerks or hang cleans or rope climbs or kipping pullups. Really, props to all the mommies out there. I say "I don't know how you do it" about your mothering the same way some of you do about my workouts. If you give me advice when I have kids, I will do my best to share whatever workout knowledge I am possess in exchange. :)

Damn, my hyper-ness got me off track. I was going to write more about the stuff I learned in my *fantastic* one-on-one intro training sessions yesterday and today, but I think I will make that a separate post. For now I have to find something to eat for lunch, and get my ass in gear on a to-do list I made for myself. Time to start re-learning those time management skills since time is abundantly available to me these days, and needs to be put to better use. :)

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! :)

Repost: Crossfittin' at home

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

I had a terrible conversation with myself when my alarm went off this morning at 0500.

Morning Person Self: "Time to get up and go to CrossFit!"

Sleepy Self: "Uhhhhhh???"

MPS: "Up and at 'em! You paid for the whole month already, and you haven't gone yet this week!"

SS: "Can we make a deal? I'll wake up early and work out at home. Promise! Really, I promise I will reset the alarm for 0600."

MPS: "Well... OK."

SS: Zzzzzzzz

Needless to say I fell back asleep before resetting the alarm, and woke up at 7. Doh. But all was not lost! Because over the weekend I picked up this baby for Husband as a promotion present (yep, he made captain!):

Add one kitchen chair to assist with pullups, and I had the makings for a nice, quick, in-home Crossfit workout.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
5 Pull-ups
10 Push-ups
15 Squats

Outcome: 7 rounds, plus 5 pullups.

I'm still perfecting using the chair to assist myself on the pullups, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. I'm definitely doing a little mini-kip swing at the bottom to give myself some upward momentum. Since I was grunting and gasping and felt kind of nauseous at the end, I think it turned out to be a good workout. :-D

One more thing about the Iron Gym -- the advertising is definitely exaggerating when it says you can use it to hold your feet for situps. We tried that, and it does not work. But other than that, it's great! Husband even switched from one type of grip to another mid-air, and other than a very loud thump, the bar seemed to be just fine. Oh, and one other thing, if you're taller than 5'10' or so, your knees may touch the ground when you hang from the bar, which is not very helpful for trying to do pullups. Unless you have a very tall door, or freakishly short arms for your height. :-p

Repost: Embarassingly light weights

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

The reason I am posting is to admit something very sad. I used a 15 pound kettlebell for 1-armed swings, goblet squats and high pulls today, and 10 pound dumbbells for see-saw presses.

So sad.

But I know my body, and if I push too hard on a first day back to Crossfit after a break, I just get all fucked up and have to take a couple days off to recover. (I re-re-re-learned that lesson after going all out on a Saturday in mid-December, after which I couldn't walk right and had very bad tendinitis in my elbow for a week) So, I swallowed my pride, and went wimpy this morning. But check back with me at the end of the month, and I'm sure I'll be close to throwing around my favorite gray 30 pound kettlebell on some standard swings. Woot!

I don't even want to know how shitty I am with my pushups now... Ugh. Or running. My lungs were freakin' burning this AM!

But I was rewarded for my early wakeup by the presence of my favorite former-Marine trainer. That always makes me smile during a 6am workout. :) Plus he complimented me on my form for goblet squats! I just smiled in appreciation, and did not mention that I was only using a 15 pound bell. He'll never know!

Repost: Vacation WODs

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

Husbeetle and I had fun doing some independent Crossfitting while we were away on vacation. He just feels better if he works out. I need to workout to keep my brain working properly. If I don't, I start to stress out and flip out about stuff. Not good.

The trainers at CrossFit Philly(CFP) started things off right by posting two potential workouts for members of our gym to do on vacation. I'm not sure why, but the blog post was later taken down, so I'll copy and paste the workouts from my feed reader.

Option A
50 Squats
50 Push Ups
50 Walking Lunges
50 Sit Ups
50 Pledge Push Ups

Option B
3 Rounds
Run 400m
20 Leg Lifts
20 Push Ups
20 Jump Squats

I didn't like Option A because Husbeetle would be able to finish so much faster than me - I'm slow with pushups. Improving, but still slow. I refuse to do any on my knees, so I have to take breaks a lot. I can do them all, it just takes a while... And I was feeling the same way about Option B.

So on Sunday morning I decided to look back through the CFP blog to find workouts that didn't require equipment. Then I Googled "vacation CrossFit workout", and I found a great discussion topic in the CrossFit forums with a list of workouts that mostly don't require any equipment.

With all of those inputs, here's what we ended up with.

Sunday 8/31 - based on this, w/out kettlebells
4 rounds; 1 minute of each exercise; 2 minutes rest between rounds
- Pushups
- Burpees
- Squats
- Pledge pushups
- Plank

Monday 9/1
Option A from CFP.
C - 20:00 (approx) (damn pushups slowing me down!)
H - 9:20

Tuesday 9/2 - based on this
4 rounds; 1 minute of each exercise; 2 minutes rest between rounds
- Deep In&Outs
- Pledge pushups
- Alternating reverse lunges
- T-stabilization pushups
- Plank

Wednesday 9/3
I needed a day of vacation, so I walked on the beach and swam in the ocean. :) Husbeetle went running for about 40 minutes.

Thurday 9/4 - OBX WOD
- Hike the dunes at Jockey's Ridge State Park
- Climb the hill up to the Wright Brothers National Memorial
- 2 hour kayak tour in Currituck Sound

Saturday 9/6 - Hannah WOD
4 rounds, for time, in the rain:
- 400 meter run (around the block)
- 20 burpees (in my driveway)

C - 24:30
H - 18:30

Saturday 8/30 and Friday 9/5 were traveling days, so no workouts.

Husbeetle is already on me about what workout we're going to do today. He's not letting me skip due to wet shoes from our Hannah WOD in yesterday's rain. Damn! Gotta figure something out. I'm thinking Option B at the track near my house. We also need to catch up on our tabata bottom-to-bottom squats, which we do on the first day of the month at CFP.

Repost: Girlpower update

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

On the CrossFit front, I have been going to 0600 class (0800 on Saturdays) consistently, and I've been loving it. Last week I attended Wednesday-Saturday, and the week before I attended Monday-Thusday. And I did the Saturday before that. I'm already so much stronger. My pushups feel so much more confident, I'm using 20# dumbbells about 90% of the time, and I've just graduated to using the 30# kettlebell.

That's not to say I didn't feel some pain over the last couple weeks. I actually had a post in my head for a while that was titled "CrossFit cripple", because that's what I was referring to myself as at work. For those of you that work out, I'm sure you've been in that place where the muscles in your legs are so sore it's a bit painful to get up and walk around. My butt was *so* damn sore for many days. And my calves got so tight too. I love the challenge of jumping pullups, but I hope my calves get used to them so I can walk the day after next time we do them. :)

There are a few frustrations I've dealt with the last few weeks.

One, some days I was so timid, and I didn't push myself as far as I could. When I first began going to CrossFit back in May, I knew I had to go a little easy or I would just pull muscles and strain tendons and have to take several days off to rest. But I let that go on too long. I started to notice that I was resting and drinking water and pacing around and wiping my face with my towel way too much during workouts, rather than staying focused on completing the workout as quickly as possible.

Just about every CrossFit workout involves rounds (or circuits) - do these 5 exercises for 5 rounds, or something like that. One class back at the end of June I didn't actually finish all the rounds that were prescribed. The thought of doing that now makes me feel pissed at myself. I went from wussing out, to mentally wussing out. When I heard the number of rounds at the beginning of class, I would think to myself how hard and impossible that would be. Each round that I completed I would still be thinking those negative thoughts. Until I realized that every day I was feeling negative, but that feeling was not supported by the fact that I was successfully completing all the rounds. And I think that's what finally broke me out of my negative thought process.

I'm starting to rediscover a positive, can-do mindset, and that feels SO FUCKING GOOD. That kind of attitude is what made me so successful through high school, college and my early career. But in the mess of depression and a failed relationship and then the stresses of deployments, I've lost that spark. Getting back into a good groove with exercise has made me realize that I crave sports and athletics because they help me remember that I can do whatever I put my mind to. That even if I don't start out perfect at something, that I can work at it, and improve. Husbeetle has helped me so much with remembering how to feel that positive spark, but I also see now that I can get it back on my own, too. This makes me even more excited for him to come to CrossFit with me during block leave after the deployment ends. Adding his support to the fitness program that's already helping me will probably give me an even bigger boost.

Two... I'm trying to remember what I had in mind as my second frustration with CrossFit... I may have already talked about everything... OK, I'll just leave that one there.

(Quick aside, at the OBGYN my blood pressure was 120/70 - perfect! I told the nurse it was because I had worked out that morning. :-D Talking about stress made my think about my blood pressure. :-p)

In other girlpower news, I've officially proved to myself that: a) CrossFit really works and b) CrossFit really kicks your ass.

Test case was doing the Philadelphia Women's Triathlon on Sunday. Long story short, I did it in 2006, signed up in 2007 but didn't train at all and skipped it, signed up for 2008 but hadn't planned on participating. My college friend was also signed up, and stayed with me over race weekend since she lives in the DC area. At Saturday morning CrossFit I was totally pumped because we were doing a workout with a bunch of 600 meter runs. I was loving it - my legs felt so good, it was awesome to stretch them out and get them moving again. I think that's a big part of the reason why when I got home and started getting ready to go to the pre-race meeting and packet pickup with my friend that I suddenly decided I wanted to do the race. A quick ride around the block to make sure my bike was working and a pair of borrowed goggles later and my mind was totally made up.

Husbeetle was absolutely thrilled that I was doing it. He knew I had signed up, but had given up on trying to train for it. It made me feel so good to talk to him Saturday night and tell him I was doing the race. I love it when he's proud of me.

The day of the race I felt a little sore in the legs from CrossFit, but nothing even remotely in the realm of "CrossFit cripple". I hadn't been in a pool for about a year, so the swim made me a bit nervous - but I felt strong the whole time, my arms never even started to tire out in the 18-ish minutes I was in the water. Score one for CrossFit working the chest and shoulders!

I hadn't been on my bike in at least a year, if not way longer, but that went fine too. I certainly wasn't putting out the smoothest cadence, and I slowed down to 9mph at one point, which was kind of embarrassing on a nearly flat course, but I rolled in at just over an hour, which isn't too shabby for 17 miles on a mountain bike with slick tires. Score another one for CrossFit - I attribute that one to squats, bike riding is allllll about the butt.

And then of course you finish off with the run. Running is one of my "things". I've loved it ever since I started doing it. My legs were definitely feeling woozy, but I just picked a smooth pace and kept on moving. Short walks to drink some kind of Gatorade stuff at miles 1 and 2, but other than that I kept up a steady running pace. Ended up with a pace of 10:32 minutes / mile, which is pretty crappy for me, but I think it was awesome that even though I hadn't gone for a run in recent memory, I could run continuously for 3.1 miles after a 17-mile bike ride. Score a third point for CrossFit.

The fourth and final point registered Monday. I skipped 0600 CrossFit since I was overdue for a rest day. The workout included pullups and a run that day, so I was kinda bummed, but I felt like I shouldn't push my luck. Well it turned out that I wasn't sore at all, and I ended up bouncing off the walls at work with all the extra energy I had after skipping the morning workout. No soreness from swimming, biking or running, except the part of your butt that hurts after you sit on a bike seat for an hour. Nothing prevents that from happening other than sitting in the saddle and developing some callouses.

Yes people, I am now a believer in the concept that CrossFit is an appropriate training program for just about any physical activity. It is a really great program, and I'm so glad I got over my fear of the unknown and went to try it out. And I'm glad to have met some fellow female CrossFitters via blogging to help inspire me. Yay! :)

And so that concludes my monster update post. If you made it to the end of that novel, congratulations! :-p

Repost: CrossFit - June 5

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

Went to Elements class again tonight. This was an upper body centric day. We covered form for one-arm push presses, strict over head presses (one arm), and some kind of a rowing movement that involved a squat, can't remember the name. Oh yeah, and wall ball.

Once that painfulness was over, we got down to business and did a circuit. I think it was 30 seconds on for each exercise, and the one-armed strict overhead presses were 15 seconds for each arm.
- jumping pullups
- strict overhead one arm press
- reverse pullups on the rings
- pushups

The arms were hurting pretty bad afterward, so I didn't even attempt to mow the lawn. It's going to take me forever to do it tomorrow - the grass is so high, I'll have to mow in tiny little strips or the lawn mower will just cut out from being clogged with grass. I've been mowing just about every Friday night lately. Very exciting.

Repost: Ramblings

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

Tonight is Crossfit - I'm freakin' excited. I think I'm starting to be hooked - now I just need to figure out how to do it on my own since I can't afford to drive my Escape the whole way over to the gym more than twice a week...

Repost: CrossFit - May 29

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

Quick recap as I'm on my way to bed.

I left the house at 5:20, and I was still 10 minutes late to class, which started at 6. I really like doing the elements class, but the "regular" class is an hour later, and that will cut the drive time in half. Or I need to try out the 0600 class on Wednesday mornings -- not a strong possibility, as I've been awful about waking up on time lately.

Tonight the second trainer led the session, and I was not a fan of his style. He seemed very unfocused on the actual session, and very distracted. He didn't seem to register that I had only attended a few classes, and needed him to explain and/or demonstrate some of the exercises in the circuit. He gave almost all negative feedback while we were working out, and barely any positive feedback.

(Doing some kind of training on the side is something I've been interested in for a while, so I'm going to comment here about what I like and dislike about the CrossFit trainers, to help me see what makes a good trainer.)

We did a circuit - each exercise for 30 seconds, about 2 minutes of rest (didn't catch the exact time), 5 times through. I only got through 4 since I was late - damn traffic. This was a modified version of the WOD.

Circuit:
- reverse lunges
- pushups
- bear hug squats
- band rows
- jumping pull ups (did these with a rope hanging over a pullup bar - grabbed one side in each hand)
- wall ball
- body weight squats
- box jumps (on the next to smallest box)
- kettlebell swings
- double push presses (these were fun, and harder than I thought they would be!)

All in all, not as satisfying as the workout on Tuesday, but I was still feeling the burn.

Repost: CrossFit - May 27

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

I attended Elements class at CrossFit Philly for the second time yesterday, and I'm happy to say I don't seem to have any tendinitis in my elbow this week. Thank God! I couldn't pick up my water bottle in meetings until Friday last week. The use of my elbows is kind of important to me, in general. :-p

Another positive - I actually got there on time this week. That was good.

There were 3 other women there. One I had met last week, and two I hadn't met before. One of them was very tall, and very whiny. I hate when people whine about working out. What do they expect to be doing? Just taking it easy? I don't understand people. If you're willing to pay $160/month to do crappy workouts, let me know and I'll be your personal trainer. Bring on the 2 pound dumbbells and "toning" exercise. Ugh.

Anyway, despite annoying whining girl, I really enjoyed my hour at the gym. It just felt awesome to get good and sweaty.

Here's what we actually did:
1. Warmup - circles around the gym jogging, skipping, shuffle to the front, shuffle to the back; walking lunges; 15 pushups
2. Medicine ball cleans - this was the learning portion of the class; this was an interesting movement to learn, I might have to go over to the gym in my office building to try it out again today - can't wait to get it right 100% of the time
3. Wall ball - this one was fun; it got even more fun when we put a medicine ball behind us to make sure we were doing our squats deep enough; I thought for sure adding all that other catching and throwing stuff to the squat would make me lose form on the squats and hurts my knees, but that doesn't seem to be the case
4. Circuit - 30 seconds each of kettlebell swings, pushups, kettlebell high pulls (elbows out, lift up to chin), plank (elbows and toes); 2 rounds

This was a great workout. I was sweating, but I didn't feel like I was going to die. The last round of the circuit made me feel like I got my ass kicked a little bit, but that's a good thing. And I like that it's something I could totally do on my own, if I felt like it.

The Elements class is continuing to be a great experience for a beginner - I am learning to love me some CrossFit.

Repost: Not in as much pain as I thought I would be

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

So, I went to the CrossFit Philly gym last night, but I didn't actually do a "real" CrossFit workout. The gym has something they call the "elements class". You still do a circuit-style workout with CrossFit exercises, but you can go at your own pace, and there's a big focus on form and executing the movements properly, rather than speed or load. Also the class sessions incorporate learning new moves, so that after a month or so, you're fully prepared to jump right into "real" Crossfit.

I think it's a great system. And honestly, it probably does a lot to help "convert" people to the method. I was so intimidated by all of the information online about CrossFit. But the idea of starting small and learning and building up to that seems much more feasible to me. I'm more motivated to try now, because it doesn't sound so impossible.

My workout yesterday was just to get a baseline, and see "how I move", according to the instructor. First she had me do 20 body weight squats. She wanted me to get pretty low, so I was a bit off balance until my muscles "remembered" how to do deep squats. Then she wanted to see me do pushups - we started with 15.

At that moment I was SOOOOOO glad that I had put the time in about two years ago to focus on doing "regular" boy pushups. It was always embarrassing to me that I couldn't do pushups, and then when I started dating Husbeetle, it became more important to me to overcome that challenge. So I incorporated them into my post-run stretching, and eventually I was doing them with my feet up on my front step! I never did get up to 30 in a row, but I did get over 25.

Anyway, I did 15 "real" pushups (which was pretty much my max for one set, I was pretty wobbly on the last 2) and that was good. Then the instructor had me do a reverse pushup - I think it had a real name but I can't remember it... She lowered a pair or rings to about armpit height, and I grabbed them and leaned back, balancing on my heels, with my body totally straight and my arms straight out. Then I pulled myself upward in a pushup motion. Did that one 10 times, which was another max.

She asked me how those 3 movements felt, I said good, and so she set me off to do 4 more sets of 20 bodyweight squats, 10 pushups and 10 reverse pushups. I had to put my knees down on the third set for pushups, and only made it to 8 on the fifth set. And I don't even know if all 8 were really that good.

It was good!

After that she taught me the basics of swinging a kettlebell. I've read about kettlebells and seen some videos of them being used, but never tried it. I liked it! It was cool that it wasn't an arm exercise at all. It was all about the legs and trunk, and translating their power into moving the weight. Very cool. I only did a few of those, but I did graduate to a heavier one before we quit, so I think I was doing well. :-D

We finished up with planks. There were 2 other people there for the elements class, and they had started at the beginning of the month, so they were doing a modified version of the "real" workout of the day (WOD). They finished up as I finished with kettlebell stuff, so all 3 of us did planks together. It felt awesome. I was totally quivering because my muscles were so f-ed up from all the other exercises. It rocked. But I didn't put my knees down at all, maybe just let my butt stick up a tiny bit near the end of the second one. :-p

I called my sister on the way home, and could barely hold my phone up to my ear because my shoulder muscles were taking a break from being able to contract. Good workout!

Because I'm insane, after I got home I was inspired to do some gardening since it had been raining the last 2 days. So I got out the shovel and moved around some small bushes in preparation for putting in some new annuals that I bought.

I talked to my sister because she's stopping by my house on her way home from a trip up north. Visitors motivate me to make my house pretty, so after coming inside from playing in the dirt, I washed 2 weeks worth of dishes and did a few loads of laundry.

I think that last bit explains why my right arm is a *lot* more painful today than my left arm. But it's not the worst I've felt after my first day of a workout. My legs feel fine, I will need to incorporate some running or something after the Crossfit stuff if they don't work the legs more. Three words for you - September beach vacation. Gotta look good from behind as I go running down the beach. :-p

This morning I must've been feeling *really* motivated by that workout, because I weighed myself for the first time in about a year. 145.4. Pretty much what I thought. I'm going to use SparkPeople to track my weight, but not calorie stuff, which I've used it for in the past.

I felt so good this morning... I wish I could feel that way every day. I'm going to try my best to make that happen.

Repost: The beginning of the first try

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

I am going to take the dog around the block so she can poop (TMI!!!) and then - dun dun duuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnn - I'm going to CROSSFIT.

I feel like I'm gonna throw up. Just like I did everyday before track practice when I was in high school. When you're really good at lots of stuff naturally, the things that come only with hard work tend to be very frustrating and intimidating. It's a weird catch 22, I think. Your self confidence goes too high, or something.

Random aside. I read an article about raising your kids by praising their effort, not their ability, and how that led to your kid being more self-confident and successful, because they believed in their ability to learn and improve, and didn't think that there was some inherent reason why they could or couldn't do something. I should try to Google around and find a link to that...

So yeah, Crossfit...

--
This is the article.

Repost: Thinking about starting

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

So, I emailed the Crossfit Philly peeps to learn about their "Elements Class", and see if it's a beginning of the month start only, or if you can come in at any time.

Since leaving organized sports in high school, I've been mostly off-and-on with working out... And even though I've had a membership to a gym almost constantly for the 5 years since I left college, I hate working out in the gym, and hardly ever go.

My only committed period, where I was on a good schedule, and got great results, was founded in doing videos at home and running. Very solitary and private.

The idea of going somewhere to work out with a group kind of scares me.

I'm also convinced that I'll get all started up and planned for doing this, and then just never go. And waste the money anyway.

Can't you just do CrossFit kind of stuff at home, in private? I have been Googling to try to find something, but all of these messages board and blog posts just sound like Greek to me. There's nowhere that someone says, "Hey, this is how I got started." Or what to do when the WOD says 100 pullups, and you can't do one?? I guess part of me just doesn't get how this whole thing will work. I hate attempting anything I can't do. And I hate trying to do something I can't in front of other people...

For now I gotta get my ass off the computer and go do something. It's Saturday at noon and by Sunday night I want to feel like I accomplished something with my weekend...

Repost: First thoughts on CrossFit

Originally posted on another blog I write anonymously, but re-posted here because I want this blog to represent my entire journey since starting CrossFit.

I've been thinking about how I really want to be able to do pullups, and just have the motivation to exercise again. Those thoughts are always floating around, but reading Vypergirl and Wheninrome have inspired me a little more than usual. And ironically, they both do CrossFit. I've read about that before, and considered trying it...

I think maybe it's time to take the plunge. I need something new. And I think it would definitely be something that Husbeetle and I could do together. The way the workout scales based on your ability is perfect for us. Because he is obviously in way better shape than me.

But he is not that kind of guy. Not for one second would he ever think to tell me that I need to be in better shape because he is in such good shape. He gives the most inspiring pep talks I have ever heard. And they never feel critical. Even if the root of the pep talk is "you need to get out and exercise", it never feels that way when you hear it. It just sounds like "you are so awesome and I love you and exercising is fun and don't you want to do some because it would make you feel better?".

Maybe he just hypnotizes me with his 8-pack abs? I don't know. :-p