(Note: My mother emailed me about the above sentence, and I proved the last part right: no, I don't think. Given I used a double negative.)
Here's to you, Mom: But, then, I didn't go to bed early enough last night, I think.
Is that better? Heehee.
If you're family and you're reading this, then you know I've started CrossFitting, as they say. I've spent the last year getting healthy again after being under the weather, apparently due to a clunker of a gall bladder. So far, it's been a year, and I've come down about 26.6 pounds (a caloric deficit of 93,100!) and I was shocked last Monday to discover a summer skirt I could comfortably wear last October was too big. I left early for Fred Meyer (those of you who aren't local, it's like Target-meets-Safeway, as there's a big grocery area, but also clothing, electronics, gardening and so on) and found I'd lost four sizes over the winter!
Not that the weather's been all that cooperative. It's cloudy, cold and about 50 degrees outside right now. But who am I kidding? It is only May 28. Way to early to expect some warm weather....It seems someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it's not November anymore.
Anyway.
My grandmother kindly fronted me the money to pay for my first 20 CrossFit classes, and now that I have a doctor's letter saying that it's his opinion I need a gym membership for my general well-being, I can charge them to my medical flex card. But I'll need to leapfrog -- my own pocket, then the card, my own pocket -- and so on. I use the card for prescriptions, too. Then, next spring, when I re-up on the card, I can put more on. I opted for a lesser amount this year as I struggled to use up everything I'd budgeted to it (for those of you who don't know what a medical flex card is, it's this card where you can up to $3000 on it, and then you pay back the company over the course of the year, with money that comes out of your paycheck pre-tax).
Before I'd used it all up as I was going to acupuncture and the doctor more often because I was so under the weather (didn't know it was the gall bladder), and I just didn't use it all up this past year as I was healthier. I ended up buying four pairs of glasses and four pairs of really nice sunglasses (can I just say that Oakleys are the best ever?) So this year, I got less money put on the card, thinking I'd have the same trouble. I wasn't thinking in terms of CrossFitting yet.
But next year will be different. Besides -- I can take 2-3 classes a week, then just use their WOD (workout of the day, for you non-CFers) as a guideline for what I can do at the gym. Yesterday was my first official class, and I did lots better than I expected as it was easier than I anticipated (always nice to find out you're in better shape than you think), but I could also feel myself getting pushed when it came to the run and the row. An image of trying to move through Silly Puddy comes to mind.
I need it, though. I'd hit one hell of a plateau with my normal workouts, and I feel like I'm starting over in some ways. Or am brand new. I was a former "gym rat" until I kept getting sick all the time and wound up putting about 40 lbs back on over three years of the 60 I lost initially back in 2000-2001.
I'm definitely going to have to scale down what I can do (obviously), and there's some things I have to really learn how to do (handstand pushups for one; I have enough trouble with my balance on my own two feet sometimes :-) ). I also have a tendency towards fatigue. I always have. It just seems to be me; nutrition I'm told is fine, my sleeping habits are good...I just go through phases where I get really tired. Sometimes, in the early times of PMS it can be debilitating.
However, with the exercise I've been doing in recent months, it seems to be improving. I just also have a tendency to get all gung-ho and over-confident. I can confuse pushing myself to keep improving and over-pushing myself beyond what I can really do. It's not quite burnout...it just leads to fatigue.
The workouts:
My first workout was a week ago yesterday (May 20) where they put me through a "new athlete WOD", and I was pleased by how well I did, given I was exhausted due to a long, long week that was enormously busy (the busiest week in two years). The exhaustion was mental, emotional and physical (I'd also worked out harder a couple of days that week), and it was nice to see what I could do on a low day.
Yesterday was my first class.
I ran a mile in 9:02 out doors with hills (my running is usually done indoors on a treadmill), so that was pleasing.
I did 30 Clean and Jerk with 30 lbs total; I struggled a little towards the end, but I seriously felt like I could do more, especially since I upped the total number to 35 in my head so I didn't start cheating around 28-29.
2000m row in 10:44 (I had to rest for a minute or two at 1000m).
I got laughed at towards the end when I said, "Is that it?"
A classmate grinned and said, "You want more?"
I was both expecting a little more, but I was also making sure that I wasn't skedaddling out of there before it was done.
But better to be easier, rather than ending up like this the following day:
So today I'm going to attempt a scaled-back WOD from the Beaverton CrossFit site:
Theirs:
1600m Run
44 Burpees
1600m Run
44 Pull-ups
44 weighted lunges w/44 lb kettlebell
44 wall balls
Mine (planned)
1000m run (on a treadmill, using the hill program)
22 Burpees (squat-jump thingy, not gardening with Burpee seeds)
1000m run
22 assisted-weight pull-ups
22 weighted lunges with a 25lb disk weight (or a scrounged kettlebell, if I can)
22 thrusts, since I don't have wall balls there, either
I wish Bally had kettlebells I could use; maybe if I buy a few they'd let me store them there. They have some, but not for the general public's use...but maybe since I've been a longtime member there (10 years), I could borrow theirs.
I can tell, nutritionally, I'm breaking through a plateau as I feel hungrier again...I've also been doing Weight Watchers, and I think I may need to pull a bit more from my 49 freebie points than I have been. But it's also an adjustment, forcing my body to start using up its own stores.
I have to say I'm really excited about all of this! I'll post my results later. Right now, I'm going to go play some Borderlands.
-- H
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