Disclaimer: I just had pizza. Non-paleo pizza. And it was GREAT.
I took the morning off today. Slept in a bit more, as I got to sleep later than expected last night, and I knew that I would already be behind on sleep, but I needed as much as I could get in preparation for today's workout at lunch.
I'm really not sure what I was thinking today when I programmed this garbage. Awhile back I found an awesome spreadsheet with all kinds of great workouts on it. The last couple ones are called (Endurance Workouts) and are vicious. Workouts that I cringe to look at, and I usually get excited about crazy stuff like this. Workouts like "Triple Murph", or "October Breeze," a workout designed to literally take 8 hours. One of these endurance workouts was called "The 1500." As Rx'ed, it is:
10 rounds of:
100 jump ropes (singles)
10 burpees
10 situps
10 pushups
10 squats
10 pullups
Probably one of the more manageable looking of the endurance workouts. I have a friend at work who lifts with a 48 year old guy named Todd (who SHOULD compete in the Masters) who does Ironmans and triathlons. Todd heard about this workout from my friend Hilton, and has since tried it a couple of times, with 35min and 27min as final results. We were talking about it yesterday and he said that he enjoyed it, it was tough, but he was looking for something a little spicier. So I did a little tweaking last night, and came up with "Todd's WOD"
10 rounds of:
100 jump ropes (singles)
10 burpees
10 situps
10 pushups
10 jump squats
10 pullups
10 kb swings (40lb DB)
10 box jumps
1500 jumped up to 1700 and the squats got worse. I debated hands-release, burpee variations, C2B PUs, etc. But this seemed the most harmless of the monsters that I created last night, so we went with it.
The result? His best time, 27, more than DOUBLED. He finished in 45, I finished in 51, and Hilton (poor Hilton) made it through 7 rounds before we had to get back to work. I had Todd through the first 4 rounds but I came out of the gate too fast, and I was unable to keep my pace up. However, I don't feel too bad because he would have "no-repped" into oblivion. Oh well, he's still a monster. The reps were done one way or another, and so were we. I'm not sure I have ever felt so utterly spent. I spent most of the afternoon staring glaze-eyed at my computer, trying to remember what it was that I was doing before I got demolished.
So what does a Crossfitter do after work when they tanked themselves at lunch, you ask? Lift heavy afterwards, of course! I went and got some pressing in because my shoulders still had some juice left.
5x5 @ 95 (press)
3x8 @ 85 (press)
3x8 @ 45 (weighted dips)
Quick, relatively painless in comparison to the day's earlier destructor, and I REALLY need to work on my overhead strength.
When I got home, and my mother asked me why I looked like I had been put through the meat grinder, I explained to her (in layman's terms) that "I had done a really hard workout during lunch and then did a heavy workout after work." She asked why, and I was a bit confused at first. I sometimes forget that most people really don't have the same drive, the same motivations, about fitness, that I and other dedicated Crossfitters have.
We strive for the impossible. We strive for physical perfection in its rawest, most primal form. We push ourselves to our pre-conceived limits, discover that we have a whole lot of juice left, and we make new ones. We sweat (a lot), bleed (fairly often), throw up (probably too often), cry, yell, jump up and down, scream, get frustrated, and get ecstatic about things that the vast majority of people we come into contact with every day would either look at us like we were fools, superheros, or a combination of both. Its something they will never understand until they attempt it themselves. Until they attempt to break whatever it is that has been holding them down by the strength and sweat of their own work, they will always consider us freaks. The koolaid drinkers. Cult followers. Lunatics.
Think about how your life would be without this pursuit of physical excellence. I honestly struggle to do so. Its such a part of my life now that losing it would be like losing as arm. And it goes beyond "wanting to be ___ (big, strong, lean, toned, attractive to the opposite sex)". Sure, it kinda starts there. Some of it is the desire to be healthy, some of it is vain. But I've realized, through the months of soreness and sweat, that other motivations have bubbled up to the surface.
Through the chaos: the gasping, the bleeding, the heavy metal; comes a sense of well-being, a sense of peace and of purpose, and of value. Is it us telling ourselves "damn I look good with the pump going" or is it a subconscious realization that we are forging a commitment to something greater than ourselves?
I am more than the weight I lift, or the times that I run. I am an athlete, but these are all just small parts of who I am. Subtract the squats. Banish the bicep curls (we should do that anyway). Ditch the deadlifts. What you have is raw drive. And being better tomorrow than I am today....
thats everything.
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