"It's Called 'The Bear' For a Reason!'

I did no formal working out with weekend. In lieu of CrossFitting, I packed. And packed. And took a break to hang out with friends. And packed some more. I'm not done, mostly because I ran out of boxes.

My legs think we worked out. Lost of lifting and bending and walking back and forth makes for tired legs.

In between packing boxes, I've gotten a chance to reflect on some of the actual workouts I've done thus far in CrossFit. Do you guys remember high school superlatives? "Most Likely to ________" or "Best _________," those sort of things. Well, in the spirit of that, I present to you my CrossFit Superlatives.

Longest WOD in the History of WODs: The Random Hodge-Podge Workout I Did On Friday 

Last Friday, Sarah and I went to CrossFit. Last time I went, I scanned the whiteboard and saw that it was going to be a partner workout, one that involved planks. I was excited and ready. But, when we got to class that morning, that's not what we ended up doing. The class was uncharacteristically large. And, the teachers we not the usual teachers. (The usual morning teachers were prepping for the CrossFit Regionals). So, they modified the workout. It was good. But so long. So very long.

First, they split us into 5 groups, one for each exercise (burpee pull-ups, wall balls, kettle-ball swings, lift-hand pull-ups, box jumps). Then, you alternate from station to station, spending a minute at each one. THEN, you do that 3 times. AND, they expected us to keep count (186 reps total). It was long. And brutal. But mostly long.

So, after that, I thought we were done. I had my water in hand, ready to go shower. BUT, then the teachers said, "Wait! You guys all need to cash-out!" New term for Jonna.

Our cash-out was squats and sit-ups. I did 115 and 78, respectively. I was sad and pitiful by the time I got to those sit-ups.

Most Fun Workout: CrossFit Baseball 

When I saw this on the board, I was pumped about it. I was going to be at that class. Well, we started with an extremely intense warm-up. It went a little something like this:

- 800m run
- 15 jump squats
- 400m run
- 15 jump squats
- 200m run
- 15 jump squats

Yeah. That's the WARM-UP. It took me 8:39. Not great, but I was lucky I finished. Running is not my forte.

Then, CrossFit Baseball finally began. The class split into two groups and we "ran bases."


- 1st Base - 20 lift-hand push-ups
- 2nd Base - 20 kettle-ball swings
- 3rd Base - 15 slam balls
- Home - 200m run

My team ... WON!! I contributed three "runs."

This workout wins the most fun award because it was actually a pretty good time. It was challenging, sure, but the competitiveness of it all made it more lighthearted and not so intense and scary. It helps that my team won.

Most Likely To Make Me Tear Up: The Bear 

Whe I first read this WOD on the board, I thought, "that doesn't sound so bad." I was wrong. I was so wrong. Sooo wrong.

Here's what you do:

You start in a deadlift. Then, you do a power clean. Then front squat, and push up to a push press. Then, put the bar on your shoulders and do a back squat. And finally, you do one final push press.

Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. You have to do this circuit seven times to equal one round. Oh, and you're supposed to do five rounds. AND, if you can't make it through a round, you are supposed to start over. Death. After I finally finished, I turned to Kale and Sarah and said "It's called the [expletive] bear for a reason!!"

I teared up. I welled. I held it together but it was definitely touch-and-go.

Most Likely To Make Me Push Myself: The Chipper 

Kale and I did this WOD together. It's a partner WOD. My first partner WOD. Here's what you do.

One partner does an overhead carry in the parking lot. I don't know exactly how far we had to hold the overhead carry, but it was three parking stalls. It was far. And it was hard.

Well, while one partner is doing the overhead carry, the other is inside "chipping away" at these:

- 100 air squats
- 80 sit-ups
- 60 kettle-ball swings
- 40 toe-to-bars
- 20 goblet squats
- 10 handstand push-ups

Well, that's hard enough as it is. But, if you can no longer hold the carry, you have to drop the bar, run in, get your partner, and do 10 burpees.

This wins my favorite CrossFit superlative because I really felt like I couldn't keep going. But I felt like I had to, for my own edification and because I did't want to let my partner down. My arms felt like jello by the end and I didn't' think I could make it but we did. We did a lot of burpees, but we made it. And that's all that matters.

This CrossFit thing is getting easier. So says the girl that hasn't been to CrossFit in two days but is drinking a glass of wine.

"I Just Hate Moving."

When I started this post, here was my thought process: 

- "Man, I never blog anymore. I kinda suck." 

- "Well, it's okay. You can't blog at work anymore because you're actually having to work. That sucks." 

- "Well, even with my free time, I've been spending a lot of my time setting up my moving arrangements."

- "Maybe I'll blog about how much moving sucks." 

Then, I started writing about how much moving sucks. And how it's expensive. And how I suck at packing. And how I still don't have any boxes. And how I'm afraid my movers won't ever show and my cable won't get installed and the entire moving process will be awful. 

But, all that blog would do is stress me out and bore the living daylights out of all of you. 

Delete. 

Instead, I decided to find the silver lining in moving. 

Sure, moving is like a fresh start for your material possessions. You can place your things juuuuuust so. 

You can make sure that mirror is at your eye level. You can find a good place for your potholders. And, you can rearrange your DVDs by genre this time, and not alphabetically. Now, as much as I hate unpacking, I thoroughly love that moment when you are finally unpacked. When everything is in its place and you can finally just be in your home. It's awesome. You can breathe again. 

Moving is also an opportunity for a psychological new start. I've moved a lot over the past few years. And, I feel like every time I move to a new place, it's like moving into a new phase of life. When I first moved to San Antonio a year ago, I felt like it marked the end of my quarter-life crisis. I had a hunch that I was going to get all my shit together when I moved. I knew it was going to be good. 

And, it was. 

I can't wait for my new apartment and I can't wait for what's next. I'll keep you posted. 

"CrossFit is So Hardcore."

For a long time, I’ve been against CrossFit.

It was nothing against my friends that participate in it and enjoy it, I just didn’t think it was for me. It always seemed so … hardcore. Now I know, that’s not the best adjective in the world, but when I think CrossFit, I think “hardcore.” Here’s why:

1. It involves weights. And not cute, small, pink weights. HUGE, heavy barbells. Those things are scary for someone with puny arms, like myself.
2. People that are CrossFitters are pretty intense about their fitness. And, in being intense, they tend to work out a bunch, eat better and drink less. These are people that do the Paleo Diet. Now, I don’t eat all that much, but I don’t eat good-for-you-food and my drinking will never be described as “occassional.”

And, I tried to hold on to this anti-CrossFit-ism for a while. But, after some not-so-gentle urging, I arrived not-so-bright-eyed to a Friday 6:30AM CrossFit class.

Honestly, I don’t remember what all we did that day. There were medicine balls involved (so heavy), running involved (which I’m not good at), and some squatting and jumping thrown in, just to spice it up. I was exhausted after that hour. And, given my sweaty appearance, I looked like I just got out of a Bikram class. And, I distinctly remember being sore the entire weekend.

(This class preceded wedding dress / bridesmaids dress shopping weekend in Houston for Kale’s nuptials. And, I was halfway serious when I told Kale, “I can’t get out of bed, go on without me!” when we woke up Saturday morning.)

I’ve gone to like 5 classes (8, if you count my Elements** classes) over the past couple weeks and in doing so, I’ve developed a short list of pros and cons.

PRO: It’s an all-around workout. I’ve always thought that CrossFit was more strength-based than cardio-based. I had it in my head that CrossFit, if I got really into it, would make me really masculine and muscular. Now, that I’ve actually done the workouts, I don’t think that will be the case. , Most of the workouts thus far have had cardio components. For example, today’s workout involved running, jumping rope, and pull-ups. It was a pretty good balance. (It was also surprisingly hard.)

CON: It’s got a competitive slant. At the end of every workout, you yell out how you did. You have to say how many reps you completed or what your time was. In front of everyone. Not a fan of that part of it. One big advantage to solo exercise or something like yoga is that it is just about you, and your body, and how you did or feel that day. In CrossFit, I feel this uncomfortable urge to “win” which isn’t like me.

PRO: It’s new. Every day is different. I know that is partly because it’s new to me, but it helps. It helps me approach things with more tenacity and less apprehension because I have no idea what’s coming. I have no idea how good (or bad) I’ll be.

CON: I’m sore. All the time. Everywhere. Even as I type, my shoulders are screaming at me. And my left butt cheek. Not the right, just the left. Not sure what that’s all about.

PRO: I see ever-so-subtle changes in my body and my performance. Not huge. I’m not walking around with a six-pack right now – not by a longshot, and I’m not lapping all the other people in the class. But, I do see me holding my own and pushing myself more.

CON: Things like this happen.

This is a picture of me. Looking exhausting. Looking like I hate life. Attempting to fix my dead lift posture. You’ll also notice that my bar is empty. No added weight. In this particular picture, I was sucking it up during class. It was rough times, let me tell you. (In my defense, I did have weight on the bar. But, the coach looked at me struggling and said, “maybe that’s a little too heavy for you.” So, I took them off and tried to fend off the defeated Jonna in my head.)

You see that look on my face? That’s what I look like for about 55 minutes of the hour class. CrossFit is something else. It’s hard, and it's complex. There’s so many different exercises and components, and you need a degree of coordination, which isn't exactly my strong suit. It’s a lot to keep track of at one time, especially that early in the morning.

This stuff pushes me far out of my comfort zone. But, I’m hanging on to the hope that it will get easier.

Or at least that I’ll get good abs and better arms out of the deal.

**“Elements” is just a fancy way of saying CrossFit pre-requisite classes. In them, you learn the ropes of using the barbells, doing pull-ups, etc. It’s basically so you won’t kill yourself / look like a complete idiot when you take an actual class.