Well, fitness wise, my mouth wrote more checks than I was willing to cash while I was out of town. My intention was to hit the local Crossfit daily and keep up with my training and even do the 12.4 Crossfit Open WoD while there.
Everyday started out with good intentions, but not once did my shadow cross a gym threshold, mostly because I wanted to spend my limited time with the people and projects I came for.
Friday I woke up and realized that I was going to be screwed for the 12.4 CF WoD if I didn’t take some action; fortunately the local CF gym runs an “open gym” on Fridays, so I figured they’d probably be willing to verify my results. I contacted the gym and they were happy to have me come in. Unfortunately I wandered too far a field that day and was not going to be able to make it back in time for the gyms last workout time. I contacted them again to apologize and let them know I wouldn’t be in after all.
Fortunately, I remembered that one of the coaches from my home gym was going to run the 12.4 WoD the same day I was coming back to town. If nothing went wrong during my trip home then I would be able to pull off a last minute CF Open verification.
With only 4 hours of sleep, I started out my Saturday with a whirlwind drive to and tour of Charleston and the Isle of Palms -starting at 7:00 am and not home till 11:30 pm. Then, last minute rounds to all the relatives that wanted to say goodbye, which lasted till 2:30 am, then back home to pack. Both my cousin and I knew we were in danger of over sleeping and missing my flight and decide that after I packed and showered we would stay up and talk those last few hours before she dropped me off at 6:00 am Sunday morning.
On my flight home I thought about how I was going to handle this WoD, between daylight savings, jet lag, and too little sleep all week long I was beat. My knee had been in a lot of pain the entire week, making most squatting motions pretty painful. But I figured if everything went well with my flights I’d be home in enough time for a nap.
Everything went perfectly, my flight was in and I was off the plane and waiting for my ride by 10:00 am and the WoD was at 2:00 pm; there was time for a nap, so I figured I could probably pull off 115-120 Wall Balls. 12.4 was gonna happen.
But as I was riding back to my folks place to pick up my car, my dad pulls into a Village Inn to surprise me with breakfast, which was nearly a two hour event. YIKES! There goes my nap, I knew if I went home I’d fall on my face asleep and miss it totally! So I decide to go into the gym and and wait there. If I fell asleep someone would surely wake me up. It wasn’t long, by the time I got there I only had 15 minutes to wait till people started to arrive.
No real warm up for me, I didn’t have that much energy to waste: I did about 5 wall balls to feel the weight and how my knee was tracking, a couple double unders (who knows, maybe by some miracle I’d make it through the wall balls) I didn’t have huge expectations, honestly, I felt a little drunk and on the edge of passing out, I thought I’d be lucky to get 50 wall balls in.
My counter asked me if I liked cheerleading or quiet. I told her to scream and cuss at me. My counter is the kind of gal that just naturally has sunshine and champagne giggles in her voice. She was so adorable and clearly uncomfortable trying to scream and be tough with me, so when she did I tried harder just to reward her for caring enough to try it. I know how weird it feels to see someone working as hard as they can and yell at them to work harder. She was getting pretty darn pushy towards the end, which was perfect, I would have died three times if it wasn’t for her. She was trying so hard to push me and If I died in the process she would have felt bad, and I didn’t want that, so I continued living and picking up the ball.
CrossFit Open Workout 12.4
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 12 minutes of:
150 Wall balls
90 Double-unders
30 Muscle-ups
I did 94 wall balls.
Crossfit has hijacked my life some what. It is very consuming, it’s very challenging to only give it just one little corner of your life. You really can’t help but to be changed by it, even if you’re only giving it maybe 80% of your effort.
Two years ago there is no way I would have gone in to do this 12.4 WoD in my condition. I would have felt justified skipping it and no one would’ve faulted me.
But not anymore, it had to get done, even if I fell over dead doing it. I would have been annoyed at myself for not showing up to do my very best. Mostly because I live and hang with people who really don’t understand the word “Can’t” and that there are no limits to what can be achieved, only excuses for not working towards it.
You don’t have to be perfect or on your game every day, you just have to show up. I was talking to my powerlifting partner at a recent meet, and we were both agreeing about how much a really good life is made up of just showing up with an open mind and a willingness to do your best. I really didn’t want to do the CF Open this year. But I wasn’t crazy enough to say “I can’t” I knew better. I did say; “I don’t feel like it.” then gave my stream of good “reasons” for many days. But inside I knew that there were going to be plenty of people with far better reasons for not doing it, and they would be there working there hearts out, and that made my “reasons” unacceptable.
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