SOME DAYS ARE HARDER THAN OTHERS

You know what I am talking about. That day, when you procrastinate your workout, sometimes even for valid reasons. In the back of your head, gnawing at you, is the thought of you not sticking to your commitment.

When I am in that funk, I find it best to (begrudgingly) force myself to get it done. I drag my feet, sigh a lot, and even get cranky. Okay, I get totally unpleasant.
More often than not however, within 30 min of beginning to move, I feel much better and, oh miracle, I end up enjoying my workout.

But there are those other times... Where I can't lift as heavy than usual, I feel more out of breath, I feel tired and cannot wait for this thing to finish so I can go lay down. The whole process continues to suck.

The difficult thing here is that sometimes it's a mental thing that is going on. One that comes with profuse amounts of inner complaining and whining. I am being negative about exercising that day and the bad attitude gets in the way of the enjoyment.
But sometimes, my body is actually tired and needs the rest. I can usually tell because instead of toddler like negative self talk, there is a strong feeling of: this is being very challenging where it usually is not. I feel depleted.

I want to suggest that when we feel like this, we might want to stop said workout and go do something more restorative. Maybe this is the day for that Belly Dancing class that is on the list of things to try, maybe it's time to hop into a restorative yoga class or to take a nice walk outside. Maybe more Zumba® Fitness... ;)

It is difficult to take those cues from ourselves at times, we need to pay attention. Sometimes our egos get in the way... But a workout can always be moved around, switched, done the next day etc...
I tend to have a very rigorous and locked in workout schedule (surprise!!) with specific goals (look at the snatch test, and weep for me), so I too am working on being more in tune to my body's needs.


I would love to hear your thoughts about this, and listen to how you allow for some flexibility in your workout schedule, while sticking to your goals.

CROSSFIT OPEN WEEK 1

I just did my first CrossFit Open workout. This week, the workout is composed of 30 double unders and 15 Power snatches at 55 lbs for women. You go for 10 minutes, as many times as possible. Check out this video if everything I just said means nothing to you.
Yesterday, after teaching my morning Zumba class, I went to Crossfit NRG and, with major jitters, did my workout with a judge. I was vastly disappointed in my performance. I had set my expectation to being able to do 4 rounds. I must have underestimated the difficulty of snatching my 55 lbs when my lungs are busted from the double unders. I pushed myself really hard and still did not achieve what I thought I could. I did 3 rounds, 30 double unders and 3 snatches. Thank you to James, Anne and Jag for the encouragement and the helpful pointers. I was wasting a lot of my energy bringing my barbell down, and trust me, it makes a huge difference... in a bad way...

I really felt like I could do better. I was rather disgruntled with that score and decided that I would do the workout one more time. Worse case scenario would be a worse score.

Today, no Zumba class till later so I went to NRG between 2 group workouts and our beautiful and strong trainer Aubrey agreed to be my judge.
I had my mind set on finishing that 4th round. Call it determination, obsession, maybe a little of both. I was going to push myself harder. This time I barely took take time to catch my breath before moving from double unders to snatches. I did *my* best. And for a moment, it seemed I was going to achieve my goal. I was in my 4th round, doing my snatches as fast as I could, looking at the last 10 seconds of my time dropping by. I realized, 3 seconds before the end that I would not be able to finish my 4th round entirely. I had 2 snatches left. In a sheer moment of anger I dropped my barbell and walked away, just about ready to cry.

SO CLOSE!!!


Working out CrossFit style is flirting with your physical limitations, pushing past what you think is your best. It's accepting that you are only as good as your weakest link. It can get emotional.

Check out how I am doing at my first CrossFit Games participation. I need all the cheers I can use.