Kick Ass Day

A great WOD today at Crossfit Minneapolis that I totally knocked out:

For time: 2000m row followed by...
3-3-3-3-3 Back Squat

Today's lessons were in: 1) determination and 2) why posting or keeping a log is so important.


The first lesson in determination I got from the rowing. It kind of helped that there's only one functional rowing machine at the gym, so we all had to take turns and I happened to go last. I saw the times for the class before mine in addition to everyone in my class, and I could formulate a tangible number of a time I wanted to beat. Like I said in my previous post, I don't really like saying Crossfit is "competitive," but it is fun to see if you can beat a time, load, or score. Most other people I feel on par with fitness-wise completed the rowing in just over 9 minutes, so I was determined to get sub-9:00. Row, row, row I did!

With about 200m to go, I was at 8:30 and Tyler came over to see how I was doing. I somehow panted out that I wanted to get sub-9:00, to which Tyler (as a good coach) responded by giving me tips on how to maximize that last 30 seconds. But I'm silly and I stopped rowing to listen. I finished in 9:05 - still a good time, but not what I aimed for. But I learned that the determination I had to finish in under 9 minutes helped me get through the rowing and work harder and at a higher intensity than I've ever rowed before. I just about rolled off the machine afterward and Coach Quinn even commented that he'd never seen me so wiped before. I guess that's a good thing...

On to the back squats, which taught me the importance of posting on the website and/or keeping a WOD log. It's hard to keep up with all the numbers and loads of the lifts we do, and that's why I like to post my times and loads to the Crossfit Minneapolis website. That way when we do a WOD with the same movements (like back squats today), I can search for the term and find my previous time or load. About two months ago, we did Crossfit Total:

1 rep max - back squat, shoulder press, deadlift

My back squat that day was 120#. Naturally, I would have hoped to improve on that and improve I did! I started out with 85# on the back squats and worked my way up:

85 / 95 / 105 / 115 / 125 / 135

Yeah, I did an extra round. Three reps at 125# was just too easy! Just goes to show what Crossfit can help you accomplish, especially strength-wise.

In other news, I'm getting a fitness assessment at the U of M because I think it's about high time I start to measure my improvement in ways other than my sheer power to back squat a lot of weight. For a moderate fee, I'll find out my VO2 max and body composition now and then take the test again in a few months to see how I've improved.

Quote of the day (and possibly new motto on life?): "We fail at the margins of our experiences." That's a story for another day.