Some Payoff

Lately at CrossFit, I've been feeling like I'm backsliding. Like I'm not doing as well as I have in the past and rather than making progress, I'm regressing. But then days like last Thursday come around and I realize that I am still working on my foundation, and that although it is a slow build, it is growing. I am improving, overall, even if I have off days.

Last Thursday we did max unbroken double unders and the benchmark workout Ghost. We had already done some double unders earlier in the week, sets of 20 and 30, and I was feeling really good and smooth with those, even within the workout when I was getting tired. And on Wednesday night, I forgot to check what the workout was going to be, so I wasn't thinking about it overnight. I just woke up, checked the workout, got dressed and went and did it.

I checked my recorded max double unders before going to class, so I had a number that I wanted to beat (56). My first unbroken set attempt got me 62 reps, and I was worried that it might have been a fluke or a counting mistake until I tried again and got to 67. It might be realistic to aim for 100 soon. Maybe.

Ghost is a workout I've done three times before, twice as prescribed (Rx). On the one hand, I don't like it because it's really hard. On the other hand, I like it because it's one of the few benchmark workouts that I don't have to scale since the movements are rowing, burpees and double unders. The format is 6 rounds of 1 minute rowing for calories, 1 minute burpees, 1 minute double unders, 1 minute rest. And then we score the total calories, total burpees and total dubs and get the total reps.

Looking back, I didn't do as many calories on the rower as the first time I did the workout in May 2017 (73), but I did more calories than in May 2019 (59) for a total this time of 66 calories. Same with burpees (63, 54 and 56 this time). But it's the double unders that blows both of those out of the water. In 2017, I only managed 122. That went up to 240 in 2019. And on Thursday I got 303 for a total rep score of 425, 72 reps more than the last time I did the workout.

So I got a PR in both my max unbroken double unders and Ghost, and I felt good. This is part of the payoff of the discipline of going to CrossFit on schedule, 5 days a week. And yes, I did ring the PR bell, because I earned it.