I had no intention of going to CrossFit today. I sent Nickey a message that I was going to be out partying Wednesday night and had appointments all of Thursday afternoon so that it was highly unlikely that I would make it to any of the morning sessions. She told me not to stress about it, since the head-to-head with the other Paleo Challenge teams was only worth two points – if we even won, that is.
Stumbling in at five in the morning, after having danced for four hours straight in four-inch heels, I didn’t even bother to set the alarm clock.
Except that I woke up at ten o’clock anyway. With a pillow over my head, I reached for my phone and checked my messages. There was one from Nickey informing me of the WOD today, how she fared and she signed off by wishing me luck.
What the –?! Didn’t we agree…?
I had flashbacks of the previous evening. It involved beer, rum and cigarettes. Eek! That would be minus two billion Paleo Challenge points. For crying out loud. I had to at least try not to let Nickey down any more than I already had. Plus the WOD sounded fairly easy. (There were no burpees involved.) I canceled my one o’clock and willed myself to join the land of the living.
I made it to the 12:30 session. I saw Karen and said hello. Upon hearing my raspy voice, she asked if I was okay. I confessed that I had been smoking. (And left out the part about the dancing, drinking and the lack of sleep.)
Today was strength day. Thankgod. We were doing cleans.
I started with the 35-lb. bar, seeing as the 25-lb. bars have disappeared from the box, and cleaned it three times. Then I moved on to the 45-lb. bar and cleaned that three times. Then I added 10-lb. plates to the 35-lb. bar and cleaned that three times. At 65 lbs., I faltered.
Karen had me go back to the 55-lb. barbell and finish the last two rounds of three with it. She told me that she thought the 55-lb. barbell was too light for me but that I had to get used to the motion of cleaning before I could lift the 65-lb. barbell. She was right. After I finished the last two sets with the 55-lb. barbell, I tried cleaning the 65-lb. one again and was successful with the first two tries but got stage fright as soon as Karen started watching me and coudn’t do it anymore.
The “cash out” (I have no idea why they call it “cash out” but it’s the mini-WOD that follows the strength workout) was 6 minutes AMRAPs of:
Yeah, try doing box jumps after a night of brain cell carnage. I nearly missed the box entirely at one point. I managed to finish four rounds and the box jumps of the fifth round.
After the WOD, I did 50 sit-ups on my own. I think I’ll start doing extra work after the WODs from now on. It might be what I need to get better at this.