A Workout of Things That I Hate

This blog post could also have been called “These are a few of my least favorite things.”

Our CrossFit Women workout this morning:

10 – 15 – 20 – 15- 10 reps, 20-minute max:

  • thrusters, 50-lbs.
  • pullups
  • situps

Let’s take them one at a time, shall we?

Thrusters
I’ve documented my disdain and disgust for thrusters here and here and at every workout ever in the history of my CrossFit experience ever that included thrusters. I hate ’em. I pretend to love-hate ’em, but honestly, I just hate them. Hate. Them.

Today was my first time ever doing them with a barbell. The elite weight was 65, but I wasn’t sure I could do 80 reps at that weight and 80 pullups , so I went 50 pounds. Fifty pounds was plenty challenging. Plenty.

I still hate them.

Pullups
Oh, pullups. I dislike you too much to even grant you the honor of a place on my arch nemesis list.

So… the good news that I’ve been keeping to myself because for some reason I feel shy and protective about it: last week I did a deadhang chin-up. And I’ve done sets of 3 and 4 every other day since. I can only make it over the bar if my tippy-tippy-toes are on the ground or a box, and I can only do it with my hands in chin-up position (palms facing in), but I pulled like a motherf’er, and got my chin over the bar… like, a total of a dozen times now.

The bad news: I have no kip. None. I need to keep practicing that swing ’til I get it. But until then, every workout that includes lots of pullups is an exercise in frustration. I started on the blue band this morning (approximate width: 1 inch) and eventually had to make the switch to the green (1.5 inches). F*ck.

I ripped the callouses off my palms – no bleeding or raw skin – and now have blisters in their place. Sexy!

Situps
This may be TMI, but I’m among friends, right? Anytime I do more than, say, 50 situps in a row, I rub my butt raw. My tailbone grinds against the ground, the mat, the floor, whatever surface on which I’ve parked my fanny, and the top layer of skin scrapes off.

I know! Gross, right?

The funny/not funny thing is that this didn’t always happen. I was the weird girl that didn’t like to use a mat for situps. “Just the floor for me, thanks. It’s more comfortable this way.” Now I simply cannot find enough padding back there.

I like to pretend it’s ’cause I’ve lost body fat. That’s it, right? I’m too damn skinny now. [excuse me for a sec…OK! Back from laughing so hard I cried. I can now continue to tell my story.]

20:00 max
When Crystal called time, I was just starting my final set of 10 situps, so I brought it home. My time? Something like 20:15.

In the car after class, I dug into my bananas+Sunbutter, and it. was. Good.

I met Dave at 7:00 a.m. (just getting light out then) and went to the hike & bike trail for our CrossFit Endurance workout: 1/4-mile warmup run, followed by as many :20 on/:10 recovery intervals as it took to get to the 1-mile mark.

Sixteen.

It took us 16 intervals to cover the distance. That’s a double tabata. It was… interesting. Really hard, but kinda fun. Over fast, yet endless. Earlier in the morning, Carla joked that I would have lots of opportunities to make up stories during each run. “This time I’m being chased my a lion… this time I’m chasing after a spy… this time I’m being run down by an ogre.”

I thought of nothing during those intervals. I was completely incapable of making up stories ’cause I was trying so hard to keep breathing. Running fast is Hard.

Yay, sprints! Yay, thrusters! Yay, pullups! Yay, stupid butt!

Hell, yeah and hallelujah for water, Sunbutter, and superheros like Carla and Dave and Crystal and Bonita and Amy and all of you out there for making it impossible for me to quit. Some days it’s a celebration, and some days, misery needs a little company to make it happy-misery.

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Comments

  • Jen says:

    WOOHOO for teh deadhang!!!!

  • Team CS says:

    Mel!!! Congratulations on your Dead Hang Chin-up!!! Hello?? Did everyone read that part?!?! That's insanely hard to do. 🙂 It's such a measure of pure and true strength, and you have it my dear friend. You absolutely do.

    I'm so proud of you this morning. You accepted the challenge and finished. Remember when we were at the pullup bars and we looked at each other and shook our heads? Hah. It was quite the acknowledgement that pull-ups are exhausting and hard. But after that quick glance, we were off again in our own worlds, knowing that the important thing was to "never quit" as you say…and to walk away knowing that you gave it what you could.

    See you tomorrow!

    -Carla

  • anniebug says:

    Woohoo for half way Kips and raw palms! I'm right there with you sista! Speaking TMI, click on the link to see me doing the HARDEST PULL UP OF MY 26 YRS OF LIVING. Besides looking constipated, I am thinking to myself "Pretty sure this bar moved up 2 inches when I started to creep closer to it."

    http://crossfitwomen.blogspot.com/2009/08/goal-setting-workshop.html

  • Barbara says:

    Ahhhh I'm the SAME way with the sore tailbone. I always find out in the shower…hot water on a skin burn = me screaming.

    I do feel your pain but, I saw your kipping pull-ups. I know you are kicking ass and soon those pull-ups will be all yours!

  • Jen says:

    Yeah!!!!! I'm so impressed! A deadhang pull up is WAY harder than a kipping one anyway!

    I did one kipping before I blew my shoulder out in April. I had to start with the big bands again, and I finally am down to the littlest one (unless it's a WoD with alot, then I'll do blue. So Monday I decided that I'd try to kip before every set of p/u in the warm up, see what happens, and then go to the band. So that day I did 2, then 1, then 2. 5! The next day I did 6! Then we had to do a gazillion pullups to sub for the muscle ups, so Wed I did none. But it's still good! So we'll work on our p/u's together. Sortof. since you're WAY over there…and I'm WAY over here! : -)

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