Crossfit Day 12

Today I went back to work, which means I have a choice. I can get up way early (5am), and go to a class before I go to work, or I can go to the latest class offered in the evening (6:30pm). Each has its advantages and disadvantages, but today I chose to do the late class.

Maybe I'm getting used to the insanity, but I just couldn't muster any anxiety about today's WOD:

AMRAP in 15 minutes:
- 5 Toes to Bar
- 10 Wallballs
- 15 KB Swings

Of course, this didn't list any minimum weights, which I found out just before we started were supposed to be 14 pound balls and 53 pound kettle bells for women and 20 and 70 for men.

But before that little revelation was the warm-up, which was a bit more extensive than usual. And for once, there were no warm-ups that made me feel short.

See, at a height of 5'3" some of the warm-ups naturally take me longer. Like the inch worm, which starts with hands touching toes, and then walking out to plank, then a push up, and then walk feet to hands. Or the broad jump, though I can't entirely blame my lack of distance on lack of height.

I really enjoyed trying handstands against the wall as a shoulder warm up. At first, I couldn't get up because I was hesitant to kick up. But once I let myself not worry about kicking the wall I was able to get up and stay up for a count of 25.

Then for skill there was some demonstration and practice of Turkish Get Ups, which is a kettle bell maneuver that involves laying flat, and then holding one arm (with kettle bell) straight up, and keeping it up as the body is brought to standing, and then back down to flat. It's supposed to be all about core strength, but my left arm had a hard time holding that weight up without shaking.

Then it was time for the AMRAP. I really wanted to go for the lightest kettle bell, but I let the trainer convince me to go for the 35 pounder. Of my own volition, I bumped up the wall ball from the lightest 8 pound ball to the second lightest 10 pounder. I'm working my way up. For the Toes to Bar, I did the progression of knees to armpits.

That was a really, really long 15 minutes. I'm improving on my wall balls. I actually was able to perform 1 full set of 10 without dropping the ball or breaking form (out of 8 sets). On the knees to armpits, I tried to get to the next progression a few times, by leaning my head back and trying to kick my toes up, but I don't think I got very high. The trainer told me that the kettle bell was too light for me, but it was plenty heavy to me.

I got some more words on keeping my knees out when standing up from a squat. I know that's something I have to work on, because it does feel better and stronger when I keep them out, but it's hard to make my body remember when I'm tired.

When the time was up, I wrote down that I had completed 7 reps of my 8th round, and I wrote that on the board, but that wasn't actually correct. I had completed 7 kettle bell swings, which means I completed 22 reps of my 8th round. That's how tired I was - I messed up simple addition, even after I had spent a minute collapsed and gasping for breath.

Tomorrow I'm going to try the 5:30am class. That's two classes in 12 hours. Wheee!