My second date with Cindy.

Oh maaan, was I in for a surprise today.  Let me start at the beginning... I stayed up too late.  LOL.  Simple enough.  I got 6 hours, but after that 8+ the night before, my body was hooongry for that sleep.  I know this because my alarm didn't wake me up right away.  I felt like I had to fight my way out of a deep sleep to wake up.  I can't explain it better than that... I felt like I was 20ft underwater, wearing jeans and a t-shirt, trying to get to the surface.  Take away the lack of air, just the trying to break the surface to wake up... it was weird.  Pretty sure the alarm was going for a few minutes by the time I finally came to. 

Work was ok... towards the end of the day, I was on a caffeine high.  Had some Monster... it was the tea one, had that over lunch, and around 4, I wasn't feeling it, so I popped another 5 hour.  About 15 minutes later, it's like they both kicked in at once.  I was GOOD to go.  Not that twitchy stuff, but I was fully awake and processing data at a higher rate than normal.  Good thing too, because something clicked, and I had to fix a lot of stuff, left the office about 40 minutes later than I wanted to.  It's now 540 something, and I class is at 6.  I'm going to be late for my second date with Cindy.

I got in and out of the hotel room in 3 minutes, and I was back on the road at 553... made it to Unlocked by 615... figured they'd still be doing warmups, or some sort of strength piece.  They were, so I hustled in, got my shoes on, and started stretching as quickly as I could.  I'm still a little jacked up on caffeine at this point.  I'm a little nervous now... the talk is over, it's time to see if I really am stronger.  My first date with Cindy saw me get to 9 rounds.  Not a terrible number for being 482 lbs and only being in my second week of CrossFit (I think...). 

Well this time is different.  Round one had me doing jumping pullups, knee pushups, and then air squats... This time I'm doing some ring-rows (made harder by doing them steeper than I've done in the past), same pushups, and this time squatting to a med ball (didn't do that last time).  I don't know what kind of squats I may or may not have done the first go round, but squatting to a med ball is probably a bit deeper than those fist time.  So happy I've got a better squat now...

Round one kicks off.  These steeper ring rows are going to be a problem, I can feel it.  I get through the first round pretty quick, maybe sub minute time, I didn't look.  I didn't want to know.  Did everything unbroken.  Same for the second round, but it's slower.  Third round had me gassed, got finished when the call went out for 5 minutes.  Dang, be lucky to get 12.  I thought I was going to crush this....  Guy working out next to me, his lead is starting to increase, and now I've started breaking things up, he's only getting further ahead... I stop paying attention to him. 

10 minutes.  Crap, what am I on now... 5?  Oh boy.  Breath is coming in raggedy, I'm breaking up the ring rows in to 4-1, or 3-2's at this point.  Pushups, at round 5 still were plank tastic, but it was 5, 2, 2, 1.   Squats were 5-5-5.  I'm moving so slowly.  6 is done, 7, slower still... Set 8, ring rows are 3-2 every time, and I'm arching, straining to get up there... feel like I'm kipping ring rows here... Push ups... plank is pretty well toast, I'm bending at the hips... not pretty, I'm not proud of it, but I'm struggling.  It's going 5-1-1-1-1-1 with a small break...like a child's pose in yoga (I think) then back to the pushup.  I've started talking to myself.  Oh yeah buddy, you're almost done with 9, keep it up, we're getting a big PR today... through the pushups, and then the squats, I'm trying to convince my conscience that I'm on 9, not 8.  I'm clearly not convicted or convincing about it, because now the voice in my head is pleading... he see's its of no use.  3 minutes left.  Ok, I can bang out one more and hit 9 surely. 

Right about now, Coach Dave starts barking out motivating things.  "Don't quit", "Every rep counts", "Keep moving".  There aren't a lot of athletes here tonight... so both 'class coach' Brian and unofficial class co-coach Dave (I'm just making up titles now) can easily watch everyone.  Dave, God bless him, is both irritating, and motivating the heck out of me.  I'm moving slow, but I'm pushing with everything I've got, I got through the set 9's ring rows unbroken.  "Keep moving, even if it's slow".  I'm trying man.  "Get down Dan, lets go!"  Oh man.... his eye is on me now...  I get these pushups done.  "One minute, lets go!"  I bang out 8 beautiful squats, take two breaths, 7 more.  "Every rep counts, you guys are doing great, keep going".  These ring rows are killer, 3-2 it again.  I'm coming off the rings.  "20 seconds, get down there Dan".  I move faster... trying to rise to this.  Pushups.... I pushed, and pushed and pushed.  10 seconds, another pushup, then another, then ano... "3 seconds, 2, 1"  I just laid there at 9 pushups, sucking air in like I'd been underwater for 3 minutes holding my breath.  This date is over Cindy... maybe we should just be friends. 

Thank you Dave.  I may not have hit the +14 without that encouragement.  It took probably 3 minutes before I could hold any normal conversation without gulping down air.  Got my PR, even after upping the difficulty.  I think had I done jump pullups, I'd have hit close to 11, but I got a little closer to Rx by doing it this way, so thank you coach Brian for the harder ring rows.  Speaking of Brian, he's going to the Granite Games this weekend, his first event/heat starts at 12, 11 Central.  Check it out, they're broadcasting on their website.  Look for the guy who looks a bit like Stephen Lang, but with brown hair.... Look for the guy from Avatar... like this, thought Brian De Leon is probably stronger than Stephen Lang....

LOLOL.  But really, it's who he reminds me of.  Take it as a compliment Brian, you're famous, and please don't WOD me to death when I come back in two weeks.  Good luck too, by the way. 

Something else of note this week... I wish you cold actually target areas for fat removal.  After Mondays WOD, I hopped out of the shower at the hotel...and like most hotels, there is this giant mirror... and I'm noticing these pockets where fat is now missing... which is cool, but it's not an even distribution...or subtraction.  I just hope things do get too crazy, I'd like it to come off everywhere at the same rate... might be talking about this again soon if it gets nuts...

Thats all I've got, the PRs keep coming, my knee thing is still around, have to get that looked at sooner than later... probably start my squat cycle on Friday...  unless I get word not too.  Sigh.  Ack well, we'll see soon enough either way.  Cheers!