I’m Not Crazy And I Like (Scaled) Muscle-Ups: A Story in Two Parts

Part One: I’m Not Crazy

I was seriously beginning to doubt my sanity.

OK, maybe that’s a little melodramatic, but I was Concerned, was wondering if I’d somehow lost my mental mojo, my trademark stubbornness, that internal core that helps me never cheat, never quit.

Since the beginning of the year, my energy level has been, for lack of a more technical term, “whack” – and my workouts have either been “great” through force of sheer will or a terrible struggle. Case in point: the 3-mile run I took on Sunday. My usual time for the lap around the lake is in the neighborhood of 29 minutes, give or take a few seconds based on the music served up by my iPod and whether or not I’m joined by my monsters that day.

This Sunday, I slogged around the lake, and it took a painful, miserable, oh-my-god-I’m-crying-while-running-again 36 minutes.

Clearly, things aren’t quite right.

My visit to the endocrinologist yesterday confirmed my suspicions. While my thyroid levels (TSH, T4, and T3, for you Frankenneck aficionados out there) are falling within the “normal” or “healthy” range, they’re far from optimal. Before my appointment, I feared the doctor would give me a pat on the head and some bland admonishment to get more rest or drink more water or (holy moly!) “eat better.”

What I got instead a listener! He let me tell my story about clean eating and my CrossFit workouts and my nightly 8-9 hours of sleep and my inability to lose weight or inches and how I have to sleep in socks because I’m always cold and how sometimes I feel like I’m in a fog and that I’ve been worried that I’m getting depressed…

He listened to it all, and then he told me that my Synthroid dose is too low for my symptoms, and that it’s not surprise my half-thyroid hasn’t been able to hold up and do its job properly. It’s a very tiny gland, after all, and the surgeon “insulted” it, as my new doc said, by slicing more than half of it away. (I like that! My thyroid is insulted. Surgery is SO rude!)

I’m on my updated prescription now and should start seeing some positive results in 6-8 weeks. Between now and then, I’m just going to try to roll with my varying energy levels and spare y’all the gory details, but I wanted to give you a brief update on what’s happening in the wonderful world of hormone management.

Part Two: I Like (Scaled) Muscle-Ups

Last night’s workout tweet prompted dreams all night of back squats and muscle-ups. I actually dreamt that I was doing muscle-ups in a big field – no idea what the rings might have been attached to out there – but instead of rings, there were big, squishy balls at the end of the ropes, and we had to do the muscle-ups while squeezing the balls!

Luckily, the actual workout did not involve ball squeezing (ahem).

CrossFit Women
5 rounds:
5 muscle-ups
10 back squats

Let’s be crystal clear: I’m nowhere near doing this:

But… the “kinda ring row into a scaled ring dip” that I get to do instead is fun and makes me feel strong. Given how I’ve been feeling lately, I’ll take that. Happily. I loved them! I even wanted to do more of them! Thanks to Coach Crystal for helping me with my false grip.

For the back squats, I used 105#. After my back squat dump last week, I was a little tentative about facing them down again. But Coach Jen gave me some excellent coaching cues, and they felt solid, especially when I took off my shoes and used the breathing trick she taught me: inhale in the standing position, contract the core and hold in the breath to the bottom, exhale on the way up.

Cashout:
15 pushups
10 ring rows
plank (for as long as it takes teammates to do the ring rows & pushups)

I love ring rows, too! And they make me want to try ring pushups. Which makes me think rings are good for me ’cause they inspire me to want to try new stuff. And while we’re on the subject of new stuff: I’m ready to try the 24″ box jump, too. And more handstands! Consider yourselves warned, handstands, I’m coming for you!

The end.