Thursday 101230

Strength

Press

3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3

Establish your new 3 rep max

WOD

For time:

100 overhead squats, 95#/65#

 
Kendra USED TO SAY she was no good at TKUs – not now!

The other day I was on duty and instead of a WOD I was going to do some much-needed strength work. Before I started I found out that a day earlier Gino and Tyson had done the hero WOD from the mainpage  called "The Bull". I had seen it, and thought damn that is a brutal WOD, then I must have blocked it out because I hadn't considered doing it this day. That is until I found out my brothers had done it. I re-evaluated my plan for the day and it was on.

We've said it plenty of times: if the thought of a WOD doesn't make you nervous, then you may not be doing them right. Well "The Bull" made me down right nauseous. For those that didn't see it, here it is:

2 rounds for time of:

200 double unders

50 overhead squats, 135#

50 pull-ups

1 mile run

1 round of this thing would be enough, 2 rounds is just plain mean. But as JB says – "It's a hero WOD. They went all out for us, so we go all out for them." Sh*t! As I'm getting warmed up, I come to terms with the double unders and the pull-ups. I look at the mile run and am thankful for it because I'm cool with running. But I just couldn't get my head around those overhead squats. 135# is moderately heavy. But 50 of them? Twice? I built it up in my head. My back is sore. My shoulder has been aching for a month. Is that hamstring tight?

As I start the WOD things are going great. I break my PR for consecutive double unders. It was 3 in a row. Just kidding, but you all know by now that I suck at them so I was pretty happy at this point. Then I hit the squats. I did OK with them, broke them up kind of like I planned, but you know how plans go. I was content with that round of them, but instead of looking towards the pull-ups, my thought was that these squats will kill me during the next round. Self fulfilling prophecy.

I get through the rest of the round and into the double unders of Round 2. Remember, I suck at DUs, so as I finish them, I'm 30+ minutes in, and I'm now wrecked. The DU's felt like they took forever. Everytime the tones in the station go off I'm hoping it's for us, not because I want to go on a call but because I want to quit this WOD. I get to round 2 of the overhead squats and it takes all I have to snatch the bar that first time. I work through each rep, but I'm only getting a handful at a time, and I'm resting way too long between attempts. I step to the bar around rep 28, snatch it overhead, think to myself "do I feel dizzy?" and immediately drop the bar without a single squat. WTF is happening? This is bullsh*t! What are you doing?! I have a nice, pleasent conversation with myself at this point. It was out loud, so luckily nobody was around. Had some choice words – motivation, self depreciation, whatever you want to call it. Used all the inspiring four-letter words I could muster, and wished one of the fellow coaches was there to call me out. Then I picked up the bar and finished.

The rest of the WOD was punishing, make no mistake, but was downhill after those f'in overhead squats. Several hours of recovery and self reflection revealed something. We've all heard that the greatest adaptation to CrossFit is between the ears. This WOD was another perfect example for me. Why? Because the last attempts of overhead squats during Round 2, which took 2 sets of work, were equal to the number of sets and reps of overhead squats at the beginning of Round 1. Yes, I still had plenty in the tank. Problem was I built it up so much in my head that I had no chance. It was all a mind game, and I was loosing for a good portion of that fight. At the end, after my personal motivational speech, I finished as strong as I had started.

I share this experience for 2 reasons. First, some of you may look at today's WOD and think "no way." Get your positive self-talk on and crush it. Don't go where I went because you've got so much more than you might think. Second, everyone who CrossFits has their tough times. You guys, your coaches, the folks you see doing the WODs on the main page. Everyone. But we fight through it, and we get stronger, and when we finish we say "hell yeah!" So go get some today!