Discomfort

Even though I’m not going to Crossfit every day, I still check my gym’s website now and then to get ideas for what I might do on my own. For example, I saw that there was a workout recently that started with 150 double unders. Now, depending on who is leading the class, that would mean anyway from 450 to 750 singles if you can’t do doubles.

I can’t do doubles.

So I went to the Rec center and checked out a jump rope to practice double unders. Okay, to practice trying double unders. I’m still not there yet. It’s something to work on…

When I checked it on a recent Sunday, I saw that there was actually “homework” for the endurance class. They were to go on a 50 minute run, on a trail or course. It’s been too long since I’ve been on a trail run, but it’s also been a long time since I followed the other requirement for the run:  “Run hard and get uncomfortable the whole 50 min.”

I’ve been afraid to run hard since my ITB issue started taking over my running life. And I’ve never been good at forcing myself to be uncomfortable…

I can run for a 50 minute stretch at this point, but slowly. I’m just not sure if I should be pushing myself to discomfort when I’m still trying to get my ITB to stop being stiff and painful. But maybe that’s just an excuse. Maybe being uncomfortable is just what I need to get my hip to stop feeling like it is pulling the ITB into a bad position every moment I’m not actually Chi-running.

If I can get over my fear of box jumps, if I can work on double unders even though I feel like every single person in the entire Rec center is staring at me while I fail at jumping rope, if I can run on an indoor track where eleven laps equals a mile for five miles at a time… then maybe I can make myself just uncomfortable enough to fix this lingering ITB issue once and for all.

Then I can start working on rope climbing!