19 Blocks on the 19th

Workout date: 1/19/15

After a fun evening on Saturday that included my first experience with Cards Against Humanity (a game clearly designed with me in mind), I woke up to a very dreary Sunday morning.  My plan was to go and do the 10am WOD, but the bed seemed like a much better alternative.  I looked at my phone and saw that I had a bunch of texts about icy road conditions, with major delays due to huge pileups on the highways.  Seemed like an omen to me.  Put the phone back on the charger and went back to sleep.  Thought about getting on the rower later, but got absorbed in some housework and it never came to fruition.  So Sunday ended up being a rest day.

Today was a work-free Monday which meant my first Dirty 9:30 in a while!  Ok, maybe it wasn't too dirty.  The workout today was in honor of Steve's Club, a program which benefits at risk youth.  As this was a workout for charity, friends and family were welcome.  With so many little ones in attendance, profanities were kept to a minimum.  The workout was a 12 minute AMRAP consisting of 20 thrusters (115/75), 30 pull-ups, and 40 burpees.  It was also a partner workout, so I had the opportunity to work with Steve, who I had not met before.  The Steve's Club annual workout, a partner named Steve...clearly we were going to crush this workout!

Steve let me know that he planned on using dumbbells for the thrusters.  I thought it might be awkward using a barbell while he used dumbbells, plus it was a packed house, so I went with dumbbells as well.  Steve grabbed 15 pounders, while I tried the 35 pounders.  I had done thrusters with 35 pound dumbbells a few months into my Crossfit career and that was a really bad choice at the time.  For today's workout, I felt they were appropriate, although I had some apprehension thinking back to my previous failure.  We agreed that we would alternate back and forth 5 reps at a time.  Thrusters went by smoothly for round one, but the pull-ups (we both agreed to use a medium-sized band) got a little shaky towards the end.  Still we seemed to be moving well.  For some strange reason, I felt energized to blow through burpees today, and when I jumped and clapped for our team's 40th rep, we were on to round two.

The second round did not go as smoothly.  The thrusters were still fine, but definitely slower.  The pull-ups were definitely worse (surprise!).  Steve ended up doing 16, while I did 14, as we did alternating sets of 4.  The clock was past 10 minutes at that point and we rushed into doing burpees, hoping to complete a second full round.  We were pushing through as best we could, but when Steve finished burpee #35 with only 10 seconds left, things looked bleak.  For some reason, I still thought I could get the last 5 and began furiously throwing myself at the floor and popping back up.  These were easily the fastest burpees I can remember doing.  I got 4 done, hit the floor for the last rep and heard "TIME!".  That was a bummer.  I laid on the floor dejectedly for a few seconds when Steve said "you gotta finish that last rep."  He had a point.  I hopped up and clapped, but sadly, we ended up being the only team not to finish two full rounds.  1+89 for Team Steve.

Today also marked the official start of the Nutritional Challenge.  This is really not going to go well for me.  I confess, there are not a whole lot of things on the menu in Chef Dave's kitchen.  And being inexperienced with cooking makes the Zone diet we are doing really painful.  2 cups of celery?  How many celery stalks make up 2 cups of celery?  Is it based on how finely I cut up the celery?  Answering simple questions like that is probably second nature to a lot of people doing the challenge, but not to me.

The worst part is that I really enjoy my food.  There aren't a lot of things that beat an excellent meal.  Comfort food isn't just a catchy name, it is there to make you feel better after a lousy day.  That is what makes this so tough.  Reading through charts and measuring everything I am eating feels like work and it is taking the fun out of eating.  Plus everything needs to be balanced.  And I need to eat 19 blocks, which I have discovered is nearly impossible to do if you skipped breakfast like I did this morning.

Then again, it is only the first day and maybe things will turn around.  It will definitely be tough to stay on track when I head to Vegas on Wednesday for a week, but if I can get a feel for what 5 ounces of chicken looks like, I might be able to buffet my way to some healthy eating during my trip.