Wine Country CrossFit

Last week, I participated in the Sprint Distance of the Golden Gate Triathlon. I swam the Bay, biked the Presidio, and ran across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was one of the most beautiful days I’ve ever experienced, and one of the most enjoyable races in which I’ve participated – and it did not turn out like I expected at all!

First of all, many of you know me, and probably then also know that I work hard, play hard, and very rarely sit still. I am also extremely task oriented, and those two personality traits I believe are part of why I love CrossFit so much! However, the part of me that doesn’t like to sit still also often doesn’t like to give my body adequate time to recover from all of the activity I put it through. And the task master running my brain? She rarely lets me half-finish a project or job. She doesn’t care if I’m enjoying what I do or not!

Well, this month it all caught up to me – CrossFit trained or not, sometimes I’m just no match for myself! Over Memorial Day weekend, Cian and I decided to disassemble our entire flagstone patio, stone by stone, and then re-lay each stone in concrete. The back-breaking work took three days, and by the end of the third day, I was in agony, and could not get comfortable. A quick run up to the Chiropractor, and, sure enough, I’d done it. Complete lower back muscle spasms, and nothing to do but go into “forced recovery,” which I did for the next week – even spending an ENTIRE DAY IN BED! Not fun.

Fortunately, that time in bed and out of commission (and out of CrossFIt classes and the other activities I love to do) gave me a lot of time to think.  I really got down into the nitty gritty of WHY I do the things that I do. That is, am I doing this for the results I’m expecting? Or am I doing something purely for the love of doing it? Well, I knew the answer right away, and decided to try an experiment.

I had already been training for the Golden Gate Triathlon (had even done another triathlon in May), but now I went at it from another perspective. I wanted to continue to train, yes, but I made a commitment to respect my body and its limitations, and work within those limitations to get stronger, faster and better. I pledged to go to the race, and just ENJOY myself. That was my goal – start to finish.

Well, it couldn’t have worked out better! Here’s the thing. Picture it. It’s 7 am on Sunday morning (I woke up at 4:00 am to get down to the City on time!), and 300 wet-suit clad individuals have made their way out to the beach and are now in the water. They quickly swim out to Bouy #1 and turn right to continue the swim. And they swim. And swim. And swim. Twenty minutes later, and they’re still in the same spot – the current had turned early! In fact, some of the athletes had to actually be rescued! Needless to say, the Race Directors cancelled the swim.

Now, if I had been training like a banshee for weeks on end, I probably would have been upset about this change to the protocol. In fact, there were quite a few people who got pretty nasty about it – really?? However, since I was just there to have a good time, I took it all in stride! The bike ride and the run were still going to be timed, so I stripped off my wetsuit, slipped on my cycling shoes, and headed out for one of the most enjoyable bike rides I’ve ever experienced! Up and down the hills of the Presidio, past the old Officers’ Quarters, with the streets clear of traffic and open only to us!

After the bike ride, I couldn’t wait to go for the run! I switched into my running togs, and off I went! Yeah, my legs were a bit wobbly (there was 1400 feet of climbing on the bike, after all!), but I slowed down to accommodate the wobble, and soon was hitting my stride on the Golden Gate Bridge while gazing out over the whole of San Francisco Bay. And it hit me – I wasn’t doing this because I wanted to win – I was doing it for the pure sense of joy and contentment I was feeling!  Now, don’t get me wrong, when I saw the finish line up ahead, I did engage warp drive and sprinted it out, but that was just hamming it up for the camera!

And afterwards? I felt amazing! I was tired, yes, and hungry for bacon, surely (oh, did I mention that I ran the race on an empty stomach? Yay for a fat-adapted metabolism!). But I was able to walk, and talk, and thoroughly enjoy the rest of the day feeling energized and pumped! And all this week I’ve given myself time to recover – working on my mobility and spending time on low-intensity walks, bike rides and swims. And I feel wonderful! Where did I place, you ask? Well, I was pretty happy with 4^th in my age group and 12^th overall – especially having had enjoyed the experience as much as I did!

Is there a moral to the story? You tell me. All I know is that in the future, I will endeavor to get as much enjoyment that I can out of everything I do (CrossFit, races, bike rides, bacon eating, whatever), along with respecting my limits as a human in order to keep myself happy and safe. I challenge all of you to try it out for yourself. Let me know how it goes!

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Thursday’s WOD:

Complete the heaviest set possible:

This is a combination lift of four movements that make up one rep:

1. Deadlift from floor to knee height, return bar to floor.
2. Deadlift from floor to hip height, return bar to the knee height.
3. High Pull from knee height to full extension, return bar to the floor.
4. Power Clean

Perform 3 reps per set.

*Work up to the heaviest set of 3 reps possible.

WOD:
For time:
50 Pull Ups
50 Push Ups