Well I did it....

I fell apart in my CrossFit class this morning....during stretching warmup of all things. I was tired and my knee hurt with everything that I was doing. A few times I almost tapped out, but kept pushing. Finally the rest of the class went in and I went to pieces. Cried for a little bit, washed my face and went back into the back of the class, hoping no one noticed. We started doing spiderman stretches and my knee hurt again, so I crumbled to tears again. Crap! Tristy was awesome, just asked if my back was bothering me (since it has also been bothering me since Sunday, stress settles there), but that wasn't it. It was my stupid knee and I was so frustrated. She just got an abmat for me to rest it on instead of the floor and I got right back in. It felt so much better being on that. (must remember!)

I was so afraid of the WOD, it looked like so much and since I got there 30 minutes to get Sarah to class I got to watch the 5:30 Level 2 do it. Wow, intense.

Level Two
Skill
Kip Pull-up Review

WOD
1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1:
Kip CTB Pull-ups (CTB is chest to bar)
Box Jump (30”, 24”)
Toes to Bar
200 M Run

The first numbers mean that you do that number of reps of all moves in that round, so there were 9 total rounds with 1-5 reps, and a 200m run (row for me) at the end of each round. OMG! So my sweet friends Jenny and Erica said, let's do this, and we decided where to scale and where to get busy and off we went.

I did kipping jumping chin to bar, step ups, and knees to chest or waist depending on how far I was into the rounds. I really thought I was not going to make it and tried to figure out how to make it. The secret is to just keep moving. The neatest thing about being last is that everyone comes to cheer you on. The last three rounds of the row, I just counted my pulls, 1-10 back down to 1 up to 10 and back down, that usually got me at least to the 200. This way I could close my eyes and go away, not worrying about how far I had to go, just counting. On the second to last round, I just kept hearing my grandmother say how proud she was of me, that almost did me in. I was on my own on my last round of 1 rep each, at each station someone different said, "You can do this, 1 left!" I just focused on each task, one thing at a time, then on to that rower, which at this point is no longer my friend. I closed my eyes and started pulling, I heard people gathering around me, encouraging me, loving me, helping me get it done, and then it was over. I was done. I completed my very first full WOD at Level 2. No less rounds than everyone else, just scaled for me. That encouragement is what CrossFit is all about. It did not push me to hurt myself, didn't make me go farther than my ability, it only made me find in myself the desire to finish, the only thing that was hurting were my lungs. My pride in myself was soaring, my love of CrossFit was lifting, my gratefulness of my CrossFit family was glowing. Soon I will know all of the names of my new friends in Level 2 6:30 class, but for now I will give a shout out to Jenny for all of your encouragement all the time, but especially today on the rower side by side, Erica, who can jump all over that box and lift beautifully, and Tristy, who gave me a warm hand on the back and an abmat to rest my knee on :) as well as all of her continuous encouragement. Others I know by sight and not name yet, but Thank You also. Today was tough but it did not beat this CrossFit girl, she is just getting started.