The Girls

Today's workout was a doozy. The wod was 'Nancy'--she's one of 'The Girls' in CrossFit. Greg Glassman, CrossFit's founder, jokes that he gave these killer workouts girls' names because "any workout that leaves you flat on your back, staring up at the sky, wondering what the hell happened, deserves a girl’s name.”

And that is pretty much what these workouts do. 'Nancy' is 5 rounds of a 400 meter run and 15 overhead squats (Rx 95 lbs for men/65 lbs for women) for time, with a 22 minute cap. It looks very simple on paper as do most of the CrossFit wods, but it totally wears you down in practice. Since the overhead squat:

is my weakest lift, and since the wod called for 60 overhead squats, I decided to only lift 25 pounds.

I was also kind of wishing that I had some CrossFit shoes--I think they would help my lifting--My running shoes push me forwards somewhat and throw off my balance--especially on overhead lifts. I've had my eye on these:

                                                             


They are very nice looking and a couple of the women at my box have them and love them. Only problem is the price! I'm hoping it will go down in a few months--especially if they come out with a Metcon 3. If I do get them, I'll definitely let you know if I like them, and if they make a difference in my workouts.

The wod started with the run--I was the oldest in the group by at least 20 years, and was thinking that I would definitely be pulling up the rear on this workout, while hoping that I wasn't minutes behind the last person to finish, and also hoping that I could beat the cap. That's why I generally don't like the 'for time' wods. It's the absolute worst when everyone's finished and I'm still grinding. That used to always happen at my old box and it stunk--even though everyone was always super encouraging and would cheer me on until I finished, it was still somewhat humiliating. --As expected, most of my box mates took off on the run, although there was one guy who held back with me--I am always strategizing these workouts and knowing that I had five rounds of this, I didn't want to wear myself out on the very first 400.

I came in last from the first run and was a little winded, steeling myself to the fact that I was destined to bring up the rear in this wod especially since the only other female, a 20 something, was using the training bar without any plates (15 lbs) for the overhead squat since she has ankle mobility issues. I picked up my bar, snatched it overhead, and started in on my squats. The 25lbs didn't feel too heavy and I was able to string together all 15 squats pretty easily. I have good hip and ankle mobility, but bad shoulder mobility so the overhead squat is a bit of a conundrum for me. I am so afraid of hurting my shoulders that I don't want to strain them by lifting heavier weight, even though I am sure I could. My one rep max is 35 lbs, but that's because I haven't tried to lift heavier. My shoulders are always a little dinged up after doing the wide grip overhead work and increasing my weight is just not worth it to me. A couple of the guys were Rx'ing the workout and they had to split up their overhead squats since they were so heavy, so I was able to catch up from being last on the run and finished my squats around the same time as most everyone else and started in on the second run.

I came in for my second round of squats winded, but picked up my bar and started grinding. I was able to string all 15 together again--my bar was definitely too light, but in retrospect, considering how my shoulders feel now, using 25 lbs was the right call. Everyone else was starting to slow down, even the young woman who was only using the training bar, and on some rounds, the PVC pipe--she must have been having a hard time with her squats. So I finished the second round before everyone and started on my round 3 run. The middle rounds are always the hardest--I do a lot of talking to myself, especially on the runs--telling myself to just keep moving--a lot of the mental toughness I've written about has to kick in on these rounds. I was happy to not be the last one, lol, but also wishing I had someone else running near me for motivation.

The last few rounds went the same way--I was able to do all 15 squats unbroken and finished the wod first--lol--I was surprised, but the overhead squats were the separator and the guys lifting heavy were really slowed down by their weights. One of the guys couldn't finish--he had gone too heavy, I think, and was just fried. My final time was 15:46. Not too shabby for an old lady--however, in the class before, the women killed it--lifting heavier than me, and finishing minutes before me. But at least I was able to keep moving and finished in a respectable time.

I had never done 'Nancy' before and was happy to get a time for her under my belt. I look forward to tackling the rest of the girls in the future--although maybe not the very near future!