Janna's Crossfit Challenge - The Crossfittening, Part 5

So here we are – the end of my Crossfit training classes, and the beginning of my proper Crossfit journey. I’ve got to say, I am pleased that I have made it this far, but I’m still really nervous about starting the WODs (Workout Of the Day). I plan to do my first WOD tonight, provided the weather allows us to get home in time to change & get to the gym in time. Tonight’s coach is Mitch, who did 4 of my 5 Foundations classes. Not sure how I feel about that – I am kind of looking forward to the anonymity of being in a class with other people, but then again, I know Mitch will push me, which is actually a good thing. I’ve taken a look at the WOD, and it’s mostly weightlifting moves, which I’ve done, so I should be able to do it. Let’s see.

Anyway, on to my last Foundations class. I had originally agreed to meet with Mitch at 5pm on Wednesday, which suited me because I like to get my workouts over & done with so I can enjoy the rest of my evening, but then he emailed me on Tuesday & asked if we could do the class at 8pm instead. In the spirit of just finishing my last class already, I agreed to the time switch. There weren’t any WODs on at that time, so Andrew decided to come along & join my class (it’s always good to get a refresher on your technique). The last class worked on the snatch, which is a variation of the clean, which we worked on in Monday’s class. The warm up was 500m of rowing (with a clean “dismount”, again, hooray me!), then practicing the snatch technique. As a special treat, Mitch used his smartphone to video a bunch of my lifts, to show me what it looked like when I was doing it wrong, vs when I was doing it right. As with the other lifts, I get the technique, but my co-ordination is still lacking. Practice makes perfect, I guess. Once again I was using the 20lbs bar. That night’s workout was 250m rowing, 15 power snatch lifts, 25 burpees, 15 power snatch lifts and 250m rowing. It turns out burpees are the devil’s work (for those of you not familiar with the terms a burpee is sort of like a push up where you start from a standing position, into a pushup position, touching your chest completely to the floor, then stand up, jump in the air & clap your hands – if that doesn’t make any sense, look it up on YouTube). Let’s just say my burpees are decidedly slower & more visually awkward than the average burpee. By my tenth burpee my hands were KILLING ME, OMG, so I negotiated the 25 burpees down to 15 burpees (thank doG, that was the worst part of the workout!), but otherwise I finished my workout. Hooray!

From what Andrew tells me, the gym peeps are looking forward to me starting the WODs. I’m pretty stoked that they are all rooting for me, but at the same time, I’m really nervous about letting everyone down. I’ve never been an active, athletic person, and I’m nervous about making a fool of myself, and, truth be told, ashamed of how I look (though I never feel like that when I’m actually working out, for some reason). Everyone there seems really nice, and they even threw a joint birthday party/euchre night last weekend to celebrate a bunch of birthdays (Andrew’s included). I didn’t go (I was feeling too shy, until it was too late to get tickets, then I wanted to go – story of my life) but Andrew did. If I can encourage myself to keep going at least 2-3 times a week, hopefully the gym will become an important part of my life, as it is for Andrew. I just don’t know, though. We shall see.