16 December 2009

It's always a series of little bad decisions that gets me in trouble - never one big glaring moment of stupidity - and this morning was no exception. I rolled up to the gym this morning on about 6 hours of sleep (bad call number one) in balmy 37 degree weather, and by end of our warm-up I felt chilled and my toes were in "pins and needles" mode. My heart rate was up from an extended run followed by burpees, but I didn't feel warm and wasn't particularly keen on doing anything else the Mikes may of had in store warm-up wise, so I said yes when Big Mike asked if we were feeling warmed-up (bad call part duex). It was at this moment where those two bad calls ganged up on me... In the time it took the Mike's to demo and explain the movements involved in cleaning and jerking a barbell from the ground to overhead, my heart rate dropped and - you guessed it - I stayed cold. I spent that 3 to 5 minutes bouncing around, windmilling my shoulders, running in place, but all I managed to accomplish was not get colder. Then I set up a barbell with 135lbs (incidentally, bad call numero tres) without considering scaling or that pesky over-a-month-off lower-back injury thing... and then, it was game time.

WOD: at CrossFit Central
"Grace"
30 clean and jerk (ground to overhead) for time @ 135lbs

I finished in 9:22 rx'd. That is over two minutes slower than my previous "Grace" time. That is - and felt like - an enternity. I did not feel warm until sometime during the last 10 reps. My mind was not focused (see bad calls 1-3) until "go." At which point it was already too late. Despite my stupidity, and two missed reps on the power-clean, my technique felt pretty solid. My back actually felt fine at the end of "Grace" today, so in that respect I managed to not pay too much for my stupidity. Oh if I had only stopped there...

There was "bonus work" today.
200 meter run
21 deadlifts (with your "Grace" barbell)
200 meter run
15 deadlifts
200 meter run
9 deadlifts

I was still huffing and puffing from Grace, when the Mikes lined everybody up for the bonus work. I was starting to get cold again and as that happened I could feel my back start to tighten up, but when they said "go" I jumped up and took off on the run (chimata numero stupida quattro). After a painfully slow 21 round and the second 200 meter run, I just had to stop. My back was letting me know in no uncertain terms that I was a dumbass.



Seriously though folks, there's a time to listen to your body and a time to push it, and while I can't say I've learned to recognize the difference between the two, I'm working on it. Please don't follow my example on this...

I'm going to rest tomorrow, triggerpoint 2-3 times a day, and be at the gym on Friday. And yes, I will be scaling the WOD.