Good Morning!

March 21, 2012

Mornings like this make me very happy and motivate me to start the day off with a smile. I had a great nights sleep last night, woke up and was geared up and ready to tackle whatever it was that was going to be on the board at CFW. To my surprise I was greeted with deadlifts (yay!), rowing and KB swings!! This was going to be a good one!! It was also a great morning to have a run in the warmup and as always there was a great 5:30am crew, JM, L, G, and T!! 

My goal… to use all the motivation that I have learned in the last few weeks to really kill this WOD. I enjoy deadlifting (so that helps), and I have been working on my speed a lot… yesterday even. We have also been focused a lot lately on proper form while rowing, making sure to have long pulls and straight backs, which is also a huge benefit for this WOD.  I started adjusting my foot straps to the highest setting as well upon recommendation of one of our CF Family members who was a crew member in college. Its amazing the change that that made in my rowing. Finally stamina… believing in myself and pushing myself beyond where I think I cant handle. This was my ultimate goal.

Rowing was perfect. I was able to keep my pace on all 5 rounds. I wanted to be sure not to let this slack too much, but not kill myself so that I couldn’t catch my breath before the deadlifts. I kept the pace around 1:45-1:55 for all 5 which is pretty good for me. This allowed me to walk right up to the bar, take two breaths and get in there to bang out the deadlifts. The first three rounds I did unbroken, on the third I realized my grip was slipping so I asked M to bring the chalk bucket over to my bar when I was on the rower. I chalked up before the fourth round, but lost my grip again after 5… I think I was fatiguing from hanging onto the kettle bell. In the final round I also did 2 sets of 5, but both of those rounds were just a quick grip adjustment than back in for the rest. The kettle bell felt like it weighed 100lbs… but I was determined to do all 20 unbroken. This is where you head comes into play… push… if you want it, get it. I did break up the last two rounds slightly but I just couldn’t let myself rest. I would put it down realize I didn’t need it as bad as I thought and pick it right back up. Next step is not letting myself put it down!

WOD’s like these with the rest built in are great. They allow me to push myself as hard as I can knowing I am allowed a minute to recover before the next round. It forces me to think to myself that I don’t get to rest since I have to rest… if that makes any sense. One minute is plenty of time to walk from the KB to the rower, take a few breaths, compose yourself than get ready for the next round.  Just don’t do what I did and miss your start by 10 seconds one of the rounds!! Oops, I was fighting to make up that time in the last round! 

Today was a prime example of using the things that I am good at to practice the things that I suck at… I know that I love to deadlift, which means that I need to push myself even harder to get out of my comfort zone. I have to learn from the pain I feel during WODs that make me uncomfortable to make myself grow. If I can achieve that same “pain” from something I love than that means I am working hard enough for myself to get better. I have impressed myself with my rowing lately so I am going to continue to have the confidence that I need to keep my pace up and control my breathing. All of these things are linked together. You depend on one motion/exercise to get you to the next. 

It’s a beautiful day… the sun is shining… I am wearing sandals in March… Life is pretty good!!

WARMUP:



3 Rounds
- 200m Run
- 10 Spiderman
- 10 Pushups
- 10 Abmat Situps
2 X Burgerner

WOD: "Pre Game"
5 Rounds for Time (1 min rest between sets)
- 250m Row
- 10 Deadlifts (135lbs)
- 20 KB Swings (1pd)
( my Time 16:47 Rx)

SKILL/STRENGTH:
Mobility

.