First Class, Murph and Hooked

So that Friday, after my 3 days of elements class, I was ready to start.  I knew that if I didn’t start on Friday, it’d be hard to go on Monday.  I showed up way early.  There was one person there, one of the trainers named Clay.  He was very nice and was there working and lifting an insane amount of weight. 

          There were about 6 people in the class.  Scott was the instructor.  I had never met him before.  I introduced myself and asked for a composition book.  If I was going to be there, this stuff was going to be documented, by darn.  It was hard because I didn’t know a soul, but I was determined.  It was a workout involving thrusters and kettle bell swings.  I wasn’t sure what weight to do on either, so Scott had me do a 15 pound bar and an 18 pound kettle bell.  A few months later we did the same workout and I did 65 pounds on thrusters and 35 pound kettle bell.  Cause I’m awesome like that, ha ha .

          I didn’t hurt myself during the workout and I really liked the feeling when I was done.  I met another person there who was a little bit older and also a teacher, so she helped me out a lot.  She would be my buddy for about the next month.  She showed me how to do things and the warmups etc.  I’m super sad she doesn’t come anymore.

          I will admit for the first month I cherry picked what days I was going to come workout.  I just couldn’t make myself go when I things on there like a ton of running/burpees, etc.   I went to the 6:30 pm class, because it was the smallest.  I was also still attending yoga a few times a week.

          On Memorial day, we did a workout called Murph.  I had already decided no way in hades was I going to get up and go do this crazy workout.  It consists of a mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups and 300 squats. Then you run another mile.  That’s it right?  But on the night before on the facebook page, they mentioned that you could do a half or a quarter.  I thought I could do that!  Just cut it in half, with ring rows instead of pullups( they werent’ even close to there, and it was driving me crazy!), and 800s instead of a mile.  I was so surprised when I showed up and there were people everywhere!  It was such a fun atmosphere.  I did half in 42+ minutes or something like that, but I felt awesome afterwards!  I think this was the moment I was officially hooked.  I couldn’t get crossfit off my mind after that.  It was now my happy place.  I spent a ton of time online looking at how to get better , watching Greg Amundson goal setting videos and even reading about that crazy paleo diet.  More about my summer later………

First Week

Elements Class

How to describe crossfit elements classes? Basically they are classes to familiarize yourself with the moves of crossfit. I think if you are starting crossfit for the first time, you are doing yourself a disservice by not taking the beginning classes.
​I remember my elements classes well. I think there were six of us, though I don’t really remember too many people’s names. Most of them have quit coming, I believe, which is sad.
​On day 1, we squatted. I think we did approximately 2000 different variations of squatting. (or it felt like it). I had walked a 5k the Saturday before, and felt like my hip flexors were going to snap in half. Courtney was so patient and not all in your face crazy, and that was great. I didn’t want to go to boot camp. She tried to show me how to do a pullup with your leg in the band. I decided that was the scariest place in the world for me and kind of freaked out, but I wasn’t too embarrassed. Courtney showed me a modification to help me. That was what I thought was great about everything we did. If you couldn’t do exercise A, you went to exercise B, C, and etc. Truth be told though, I think I was on a M. But everyone has to start somewhere, right? At the end, we did 3 rounds of an exercise called Cindy. It was 5 pull ups, (I did ring rows), 10 push ups and 15 squats. It was awesome. And horrible all at the same time. I felt so accomplished when I drug myself back to the car. I knew I would love crossfit, but I had so far to go.
​On days 2 and 3 I worked with Lance. He was also laid back. I liked that. Again, didn’t want a drill sergeant to make me feel bad about myself. We worked on Olympic lifts, like snatch (hee hee) and cleans with a med ball. We also squatted approximately 10,000 more times. I called in sick to work after workouts 1 and 2 because I screamed every time I had to sit down. My husband thought I was nuts. But I knew it was a good thing. I loved competing against myself. After day 3, Thursday, Lance gave us a nutrition talk. Seems crossfitters are really big into this diet called Paleo. I thought, you are a crazy loon. To quote Taylor Swift, I will never ever ever ever eat that way. Ha. Famous last words. At the end of the class, Lance released us to go to our first class. Most of the people were going to wait until the following Monday. Not I said the fly. I was ready to go. I’ll start my story back up there tomorrow J