Getting Strong Hurts

It's funny how many times I delude myself into thinking the CrossFit workout might be easy. 

Five days a week I wake up, hit snooze, wake up again, brush my teeth, pull on my workout clothes (which almost always have mismatched socks), grab some Catalyst, and drive to the CF gym. Throughout my whole morning routine, there is a voice in the back of my brain that says, "The workout might be easy today."

The lies we tell ourselves, right? 

I've never left a CF workout thinking it was easy. Short, maybe. I've finished some workouts in about five minutes. And sure, there are days that aren't as sweat inducing as others. Those are usually max weight days, but I definitely wouldn't call those "easy". Between you and me, if I did call them easy, word might get out and I would be in big fat trouble on the next max lift day.

This morning I woke up a little bit sore and a little bit tired from yesterday's workout. The lying voice in my head said, "You ran yesterday, there probably won't be running today." 

"You're probably right, voice! Good call!" I responded.

So merrily (sleepily) I drove on autopilot to the gym. As I was signing in, JDP said to me, "Did you see today's workout? It's really easy."

The alarms went off in my head, my innate human lie detector spiked and I knew I was in trouble. "I don't believe you," I said. 

Here is what JDP said was "easy":

• 400m run, 21 KB swings (RX for women: 24 kg or almost 53 lbs (!) (I googled it), 21 sit-ups
  
• 400m run, 18 KB swings, 18 sit-ups
• 400m run, 15 KB swings, 15 sit-ups
• 400m run, 12 KB swings, 12 sit-ups
• 400m run, 9 KB swings, 9 sit-ups
• 400m run, 6 KB swings, 6 sit-ups
• 400m run, 3 KB swings, 3 sit-ups

I ask you, in what world, what realm, what Universe is that easy?

Then Lance says that we would all start on different things (I missed the reason, I was too busy wondering how I was going to swing 53 lbs over my head when it felt like I was dragging an anchor over to my spot). I thought, "OK, start with the run, finish with the sit-ups, no problem."

Except, I somehow managed to be standing in the position that was assigned to start on the sit-ups and finish on the run. Were the coaches trying to crush every ounce of my spirit?

So off we went. The 21 sit-ups didn't seem too bad. And that's where the "easy" part ended. 

Do you know how many times I had to swing 53 pounds over my head?!?! 84! Eighty-four times! That doesn't even count the warm-up swings or the half swings I had to do to get enough momentum going. 

And, in case you haven't been able to add the mileage up yet, I have, so I'll tell you. It was 1.75 miles - I think that may be the most running I've ever done in a single CF workout!

By the time I finished the second round, all I could think was that I had five more rounds to go. Still, I managed to push through and finished in just over twenty-four minutes. As I was gasping for breath and willing my legs to become less like cooked noodles and more like....legs I said to JDP, "you have a funny idea about what's easy."

"You made it look easy," he said, "you should use that kettle bell weight all the time!" 

JDP is lucky that my death stare doesn't actually render it's recipient dead. 

I should have known better. I've been coming to CrossFit for almost six months now, and 0% of the workouts have been easy. That's a pretty low percentage and yet, I still cling to hope every morning. 

Silly girl, Shannon, silly girl.