Scaling Back

When I decided to do the muscle up class, I chose not to reduce the number of regular CrossFit classes that I attended. This, in retrospect, was a mistake. I typically go to CrossFit at 5 am, and the muscle up class was at 6:30, and went past 7:30 each time. Although I took my regular Wednesdays off, that still left me going to a 5 am class on Friday after staying up too late on Thursday for the class.

In short, I've been really tired lately.

That influenced my decision not to do the handstand push up class that started this week. Even though I really want to get a strict handstand push up and be able to do kipping again, now is not the time for me to be staying up late for extra workouts. I need to let my body recover a bit, which means going a little lighter during the 5 am classes. And - to an extent - taking it easy.

So, when we did deadlifts last week, I chose not to push the weight too high. Instead, I decided to focus on my lats while I lifted, to try and make my form better. It was pretty easy to do, because the muscle up course had been challenging my lats significantly. They were oh-so-sore. I didn't end up hitting a 5 rep PR, but I felt good about the lifting. We were doing sets of 5, and my last one, I just did one rep and then called it.

I'm still learning how to listen to my body. I know that I can push myself harder physically than I ever believed, but I don't want to push so hard that I injure myself. Ambrose and I are headed to the coast again this summer, and I need to be ready for hard pushes followed by tide-locked rests. That might mean being tired if we have to hike late into the night and then get up early the next morning. So, this is good.

But it also sucks.