Gone...

Gone is the thought that this 100lbs is going to be easy to lose. 

Gone is the notion that 200 WODs in a year will be an easy goal.

Gone is my somewhat regular squat form. 

Gone is the phrase "that doesn't look too bad" when referring to a posted WOD online.

Man alive...  yesterdays WOD left me in disbelief.  So much so, I didn't even type this up then.  It looked easy.  It looked needed.  It looked like I was going to have a good time...

Well, I did have a good time, but the rest of that was boo boo.  The posted WOD at On Track had several parts.  The parts that excited me were the words mobility and recovery.  All day Thursday I'd been sore, particularly my (outside) shoulders.  I could use some mobility and recovery in my life, so I head in.

I'll admit, I'm still a little bit intimidated by On Track.  Not because of the people, but because of the people...  It's complicated and stupid.  I'm not really the shy type, but sometimes I am... and thats whats coming to the front here.  I'm in this weird place, between belonging, and proving I belong.  I know that shouldn't be necessary, but it's still there.  I need more time in KC to get the feeling gone I think.  That should be coming up in February with the birth of #2.  I'm getting off topic. 

So 530 comes around and I start the warmup.  500m row, 30KB swings and this barbell complex.  I don't know if it's got a name, but it's unlike anything I've done to date.  6 upright rows, 6 behind the neck thrusters, 6 muscle (or power) snatches, 6 overhead squats, 6 bent over rows.  WHAT?  Man, ok, if you say so.  I banged out two of the three sets, and called it good enough for a warmup.  I was only using a barbell, the OH squats have been out of my repertoire for so long... it was just bad, we'll leave it at that. 

Alright, time for the mobility piece.  We did a good 10 minutes of work on the lower extremities.  Groin muscle, hip flexors, and all sorts of things I don't know the name of.  Felt great.  The shoulder stuff was after that, and frankly, by comparison for the stuff we just did, I found it lacking.  That could also be because I needed more work. 

Alright, no what?  Oh yeah, that barbell complex I described above, we're doing that for 4 rounds, ascending weight as you go.  I've got visions of grandeur here.  I'm thinking to myself I'm going to go up by 20 each round.... I mean it's only 10lbs each side of the bar, it can't be that bad right?  I should have known better...hold on a sec

Gone is the belief that 20lbs isn't that much weight to add on...

Ok, better.  So I started with the the bar again.  No problem right?  I go grab two 10's.  I've noticed that others are grabbing 5lb pieces.  I'm struggling to figure out why these guys are starting to light.... figured it out soon enough.  I made it through this second round, but it was tough.  I forgot to mention, the goal was to do every set unbroken, and not put the bar down until the complex was over.  A couple times during the second round I wanted to put the bar down, but didn't.  Brian had a few words for me about my squatting... and it's really gotten in my head.  I think I just need to take a week and do some extra squats (can't believe I'm typing this...).  I want to get my muscle memory back for that, so it just happens and I don't have to think about my knees or hips. 

3rd round, I made it to the OHS, got 3 slow ones done, and then put the bar down.  I mean I could have held on to it, but I didn't think I'd be able to get it up again to do an OHS.  I took the plates off, and did my 4th round fairly well enough, little to no stopping, but the OHS were still pretty weak.  Either way I'm done now.  That sucked.  At least I had my lifters, no 1/2 Karen quads tonight. 

Next up, partner ab work.  In a word, fuqq.  There are 5 of us, and I REALLY don't want to start out bad with folks.  First up is 3 rounds of 2 minute of a situp, med ball exchange.  So both people do a situp, but one person had a med ball behind their head (arms extended) and then comes up at the same time as the other person, and they exchange, both go back down, rinse, repeat.  This was a long 2 minutes.  A few times, I was getting used to it, stayed up when I should have fallen back for a situp.  I think I was over thinking things.  I have no idea how many we did, felt like a lot.  Knowing that 75-80 is about my max per sitting... I'm thinking this is going to be bad. 

I was right. 

After the 3rd exchange on the second round, it became very apparent that I needed the med ball to generate enough momentum to get back up.  I was struggling to do it with no ball.  About half way through, I was only doing the exchange where I had the ball, otherwise I sat up and waited for the return.  This is not the way I want to start working out with folks, but I'm struggling mightily with situps with no medball... I'd rather finish with half the reps than not finish at all.  3rd round was all just doing one the medball situp.  This was awful.  I can tell I'm being watched...or at least I felt like I had some extra eyes on me.  That didn't bug me, not being able to do this with a partner... it just sucked, I didn't like that part.... and it gets better. 

After the 3 sets are done, we're doing partner planking.  One is up, the other rests, someone has to be up the whole time.  Seven minutes.  Go. 

I have no idea what the breakdown was, but my partner held plank for probably 5 of the minutes.  Not straight, I just suspect that is close to what the division of labor ended up being.  I felt bad for him.  I felt bad for me.  My abs just felt bad.  That was it for the main workout.  There was an extra bit at the end, as a class we had to get through 100KB swings.  Encouraged to go heavy since we'd be sharing the load.  Picked 55lb KB.  Since there were 5 of us left, it was 10 each, twice.  Easy enough, 55 was heavy, but it wasn't going to kill me.  Got that done and that was it.  I said my bye's, thanked Brian for the workout, and went home.  I think I just sat... like when you're so tired you just stay put.  I think I had that sort of sit down experience a few times that night.  So much for being an easy night.
Few quick notes.  Registered a domain.  thecrossfitnomad.com will be the home for the blog...as soon as I figure out how to set it up and link this to that.  Might mean this whole thing looks different in the future, we'll see.

Ok, so it was one quick note.  I'm off here for the night, catch you guys/gals later.