My Milestone WOD

So here we are, just a couple of days away from the kick off of Round 1 12WBT for 2012.  It is a round that I am hoping will be my most successful ever.  I have set myself some pretty tough goals.  Technically for me the round has already started as I weighed in on Wednesday to give me my start weight. So from then on I need to be dropping weight.

It’s been really cool to have been getting support from people I train with at my Crossfit box.  I’ve told a few people what I am trying to achieve and they have been really encouraging & supportive.  So now when they see Sam absolutely killing me week in and week out they know the reasons why.

Which brings me to yesterday.  Thursday is the day I have my 1:1 session with Sam and somehow she always seems to know when I really need a hard session both mentally & physically.  Yesterday was one such day.

It was a hard day and by the time it came to go to training I just was not feeling it.  My heart nor head were in the space they needed to be. But simply because I have committed 100% effort to Sam, I got my gear and went.

I was lulled into a false sense of security by our warm up which was a bit of rowing and some hip and squat mobility stuff. Normally we do a strength/technical component and then a short intense WOD as a finisher.  Sam did tell me that the session would be pure hard work, not much skill but a hard effort.  These are the sort of workouts I need to do a lot of over the next 12 weeks of the program. And to be honest for the rest of my life if I am to get into the physical shape I want to.

The workout was:

3 Rounds for Time

10 x rope pulls
Lying flat on ground and pulling myself up to standing with a rope

20 lateral travelling burpees
Do first half of burpee, chest to ground then slide sideways under a rope and jump up and finish burpee. That’s one. Repeat(I haven’t been able to find an example of this exercise on you tube or anywhere as yet)

30m walking lunge holding 7.5kg of sandbag overhead

The workout was brutal and tested me physically and mentally. During the first round I was thinking that I would never get through 3 rounds and was waiting for Sam to shorten it. But she never would, she wanted me to finish it no matter how long it took or how hard it was.

It took me 30m16s to get it done.  So I was pretty consistent time wise for each round, which really surprised me as I felt so slow in the last 2 rounds.

Sam was right beside me all the way, telling me not to stop, to keep going, keep up the pace.  Marc was also yelling encouragement as well.  It’s funny how having someone encouraging you and wanting you to do well can help you to keep going.  I know full well I would never have completed that workout on my own. I would have stopped during the first set of burpees.

My shirt was black and drenched with sweat by the end of the workout.  I had skin off elbows and knees. My arms could barely steer the car on the way home. I was completely spent.

I’m learning though to keep pushing through even though I want to stop.  To do an extra rep or 2 before I take a breath or short break. To keep pushing through the hurt and proving to myself I am stronger and more determined than I think.  The workouts are just going to get harder and the expectations higher.  I need to be able to push further outside my limits.  If I want to achieve the goals I have set for myself then I need to do this daily.

We decided that this would be my 12WBT milestone workout.  We’ll tackle it again in week 4, 8 and finally 12 to measure my improvement.  That’s the great thing about Crossfit, you can use the workouts as a benchmark and see real improvement in even a short space of time.  By training hard for the next few weeks I expect I will see an improvement in my result for this workout.  Yes it’s still going to suck and it’s going to hurt like a bitch, because I will be pushing hard.  But the improvement will be tangible and real.

Today I head for my second measure and am getting a Dexa scan.  It will measure my body fat and lean muscles mass.  It will also tell me where it all sits on my body. I know today’s results will disappoint me when compared to the one I had last May.  But I also know this is my starting line. From here the results will only get better and they will never look like that again. 

The person who sits here and writes this blog will never be this person again at the end of 12 weeks.  There are a lot of changes I am working on not just physically but also mentally & emotionally.  I am working towards creating the person I always wanted to be. There will be lots of blood, sweat and tears along the way.  There already has been, but no change is without pain & hard work. I have to earn this gram by gram, thought by thought.  And I will do it.