to push or to stop

Tonight was probably the first time I came close to crying during a WOD. Not because it hurt or I was tired, which both were very much true, but because I was struggling with a physical and mental battle in finishing. My mind said I could do it, just do it. My body, not so much. Here's the thing, regardless what activity you do, it's good to push yourself. You are never going to excel or proceed to the next level of your training or sport if you don't push yourself. But knowing when to push and when to back off is key. My legs are strong, I can do lunges. My knees on the other hand have been a source of some pain lately. I've been given several theories of what is going on. I'm working on them. Sure my Quads were burning, that sort of pain I can muster through. The sort of pain I was feeling in my knees ran deeper. I struggled with how far to push myself before I backing off. We had to do 7 rounds tonight, I only completed 5 rounds. Not my proudest moment. But it's a matter of only doing 5 rounds and resting up, or doing 7 rounds and possibly injuring myself. Remember to always pay attention to your body, it will always tell you when to stop. Time to ice and rest...

and onward I go

I can not express how happy I am to be a functional person again. It still amazes me that a common cold can knock someone off their game in the degree that it does. It took me 2 weeks to completely recover, though I still have a very mild cough, it no longer inhibits me from doing things. Yay! But what does all of this mean? Ohhhh, what it means is that after not working out for almost 2 weeks, I am now experiencing muscle soreness like a newbie. Ok, maybe not that badly but my Quads were certainly feeling it. I attempted to return to CF Stumptown last Thursday and successfully finished the class but felt like crap afterwards. Decided to not go Friday as I had been wheezing all day, which was a bummer since the class did the "300" WOD! I returned this past Monday and got to experience the Rich Froning's "Sally Up" Challenge. Oh. My. Goodness. I think someone pissed Tony off enough that he felt that he had to torture us. What the challenge entails is a particular movement that you follow along to Moby's "Sally Up" song which runs almost 4 minutes long. At my box our challenge was doing the Push-up Challenge rest for 2 minutes then do the Back Squat Challenge. But that's not all. For every time we took an unscheduled rest (meaning not going down when told to or going up when not told to) you had to add 5 Burpee's at the end of our total challenge, with a maximum of 50. But so you can completely understand what the challenges are, I found a couple of video's of people doing what we had to do... please watch.

Push-up Challenge

Back Squat Challenge

Needless to say, after attempting these two challenges the majority of the classes had to then do 50 Burpee's. And if you know me at all, and have been following me regularly, you know I detest Burpee's. I, sadly, had to do 50 of them. Whimper.