Now back to your regularly scheduled WODs

The past two weeks have been kind of "off" weeks for me at Crossfit. One week I went home to Texas, so I missed the whole second half of workouts (Thursday-Saturday); and then this past week was Thanksgiving, so the gym was closed...until TODAY!!! HOORAY, back on!!!!


Here is what I've learned about myself, my motivation, and the benefits of the Crossfit atmosphere from these past two weeks. Tyler posted some holiday workouts for us to do that didn't require any equipment above and beyond our own bodies. Great idea. The two WODs were posted on Wednesday, which gave me a whole lot of time to do them before we came back to the box on Monday. I kept telling myself I would do them in my spare time, but it just became so easy to shrug it off and say, "Eh, maybe I'll hit that burpee workout tomorrow." The tomorrows added up until Sunday, when I finally managed to motivate myself to do the workout:

For time: 4 rounds {25 squats, 200m sprint, 25 push-ups, 200m sprint}

And I didn't even do it as prescribed. It was "too cold for me to do everything outside" (lame excuse on my part), so I did about an 800m loop run and then came back inside to do 4 rounds of 25 squats and push-ups. Even making it easier on myself by not doing the sprints did not help. I got through two rounds before I decided that "the barking dog was nipping at my ankles too much for me to complete the workout in peace" (another lame excuse).

Now today, back at the gym, we did an incredibly difficult workout:

For time: 3 rounds {400m run, 21 65-lb SDLHP, 21 pull-ups, 21 sit-ups}

I worked my butt off and completed the WOD with 53-lb SDLHPs and blue-band pull-ups (still working on my kips)! A completely different response than my lackadaisical approach over the holiday weekend.

What Crossfit offers is the accountability and atmosphere that make challenging workouts a reality. I can't wuss out after just two rounds because everybody else is still going and pushing me to pull through. Being around other people also pushes me to go faster - I want to be the first person to finish the WOD or I want to at least run faster than a guy who may be a whole round ahead of me. Some people may describe Crossfit as "competitive," which I don't think is the right word because I don't exactly feel like I'm in competition with my fellow gym buddies. But there's something about when that timer starts and the momentum of everybody working hard that just really gets me stoked about finishing a workout. And finishing it FAST.

It's good to be back.