Was dreading going to CrossFit today. The week before I left for Thailand, I had only gone to two sessions. Then the only exercise I did while at The Spa Chiang Mai was to swim for an hour in the pool every day (- we were there for five days, including the day we checked out). And since I’ve been back, I’ve been feeling a bit low on energy.

So when I couldn’t get a taxi this morning, I thought that maybe I should just rest and try again later this afternoon. But, just as I was about to give up, an empty cab turned up. Doh!

As luck would have it, Matt, our trainer for today, was late so I got to warm up. I did the following:

• 20 squats
• 20 push-ups
• 20 jumping jacks
• 500 m. row – But I took my time as I didn’t want to be exhausted by the time the actual workout started.

I had started doing sit-ups when Matt finally arrived. He lost no time in going through the WOD. This week is “Make Your Own WOD Week” so these workouts are designed by our peers. Today’s WOD was by some guy called Paolo. He called it Arachnophobia.

25 minutes, AMRAPs (as many reps as possible)

• 5 inverted burpees
• 10 pull-ups
• 10 spiderman push-ups
• 10 box jumps
• 10 spiderman holds (1 second each hold)

Of course, I can’t do a handstand push-up so I did the super scaled-down version of the inverted burpee which goes into a jump instead of a handstand. Because this is much easier, we (another girl and I) had to do 20 reps instead of just five. (The guys did the Rx.)

The pull-ups I did with the assistance of a band, of course.

And I finally went with the Rx on the box jumps, which was the 18-inch box for women (24-inch box for men). Matt put the 12-inch box beside me in case I got too tired but I stuck it out. Of course, I wasn’t jumping up and down like a rabbit like the rest of them. I’d jump up, then step down. Like a proper lady. Who is about to go into respiratory failure.

We all completed five rounds of Arachnophobia but I finished second after one of the guys, with one minute left on the clock. Not too shabby, if I might say so myself. 🙂

FYI, I finally stopped smoking and I didn’t cough a single time during the workout. Of course, all those toxins are now coming out of my skin, but that could also be because it’s that time of the month… Ssssshhhh! (Haha! Yes, I was also PMSing while I was detoxing! Thank the gods of the universe that my relationship survived all that!)

Of course, while I was writing this I had this blind spot going on. I’m not sure if this is normal after an intense workout, but my vision is starting to clear now so I’m not too worried about it.