“Do You CrossFit?”

Not at all at a level that’s comparable to the best, BUT…….MY best is getting BETTER!

I’ve now been on the CrossFit “experiment” for a little over 3 months and within that time, I have seen steady progress in skills and capacity. Even my snatch, c&j, and leg strength have continued toward what it has been in the past(back up from the injury.) Though those barbell movements are still a ways away from pr’s, to be able to do things I’ve never done and to be able to see and feel improvement in all these other movements and benchmark WOD’s, has been great in so many ways for this guy who’s on the verge of being a “has been” in a single discipline and who has been fairly stagnant for so many years! Stagnation is inevitable for all movements at some point but there will ALWAYS be something that you can find to put work into and improve on. Remember this because I believe that the confidence, attitude, momentum, etc. that can be created from this process of branching out, can absolutely help break through the stagnation in other arenas! Just another gem of the diverse movements within the CrossFit method.

So, now for a few updates: I still really struggle(that’s the nice way to say it:)) with rowing and running but about 2 months in, a 500 meter test popped up. I wasn’t sure I was ready for what the results might be as I had done a good number of 90 second rowing AMRAPs since starting the experiment, and I continued to struggle to get anything over 400 meters? Well, this work must have paid off since I was able to do the 500 meters in 1:40. Not at all comparable to the best, but for me, it was progress!

Another test that I was SCARED to death of was THE MILE. I knew it was coming and I kept trying to justify a way out, “I have no business testing this right now,” and “this is dumb and unnecessary.” You see, I couldn’t remember EVER running a mile? Perhaps I did in high school 1 or 2 times but if so it had been at least 15 years. Also, I couldn’t help but dwell on how the recent 400′s we had been running were feeling. They were in combo with other movements but all I could reason with at that moment was the fact that it was taking me 2.5-3 minutes to complete each 400 meters and I feared I would quickly dwindle to that pace within the mile?

Since for some reason, my reaction has always been “FIGHT” within the “fight or flight” response, I was at the starting line when Coach Blaine shouted, “3-2-1-GO!” At that point though, I had accepted that I might struggle to get under 12 minutes and since I will ALWAYS have the lazy Oly lifter and big/energy consuming legs excuse, I had made my peace with that. I had to start somewhere though so I set my pace at 1 minute for every 200 meters. Each came and went and I was somehow able to maintain, and even push a little at the end for a time of 7:52. Again, not at all great compared to the best but for ME, it was nothing less than GREAT! It seems that those 400′s that we ran under such deficit, on more than a few occasions, within the programming leading up to that mile test had a purpose? Now with the running isolated, it absolutely became EASY in comparison; who woulda thought!

I recently had meetings with a few nice young ladies you all know as, “Fran,” and “Dianne.” Next time I’ll let you guys know how they have been treating me and how my body is beginning to react differently within these types of WOD’s!

Chad