The Incredible Shrinking Krista

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

I'm not a quitter, or a failure? What else have I been lying to myself about?

In the last 37 years I have continually set limits for myself, and as time progresses, I am beginning to realize that in doing so, I have repeatedly set myself up to fail.  The perfect example is this week.  I was walking through my back yard on Sunday, and sure enough, found a hole, stepped in it, twisted and badly sprained my left ankle.  I've talked before about an ankle injury, of course, this is the other ankle, not the one I've had trouble with since I was a kid.  My immediate reaction was, "Well, that's just great.  I've just started working out consistently, and now I can't work out because of my ankle."  Thankfully, the folks at my CrossFit box are AMAZING and took the time to message me and say that they'd scale and modify the workout to something that I could do and not hurt my ankle further.  Tonight, I decided to take them up on that offer, and go to work out, wondering if I would even feel like I worked out....

So, tonight's 1st warm-up was one of stretching with a foam roller.  I've heard people mention foam rollers before and sing their praises, now I know why....they are AMAZING, in a slightly uncomfortable way.  That is the best massage/stretch I've gotten without paying someone.

2nd warm-up was to work on "hanging squats" or at least I think that's what they were called.  We paired up and traded off doing these for 12 minutes.

Now, to the WODs, there were 2, and within our pairs, we still traded off:

WOD #1, for me was this 8 minute AMRAP:
8 abmat sit-ups
10 push press with 20# bar
10 barbell rows

I completed 5 full rounds, and all but 6 rows in the 6th set (I finished the set because to me, not finishing those last 6 would be like ending a song on a V chord, rather than resolving it....)

WOD #2, also an 8 minute AMRAP:
10 seated over-head press w/a 14# medicine ball
20 ab/leg cycles (I don't remember what they actually called them)
10 kettle bell swings (I used a 15# Kettle Bell)

I completed 4 full rounds, and the overhead presses for the 5th rep.

My ankle doesn't feel any worse than it did when I started.
There was no reason for me to miss a work-out.
There was no reason to tell myself I had to.
The coach that was working with us kept telling me I had good form

I am left with this:
I need to stop depending on my own mind to tell me what my limits are, the fact of the matter is this, I don't really know what my limits are.  Prior to this situation, I would say I didn't make excuses, but clearly I did.  I would never have gone to work out 2 days after spraining my ankle any time before this (trust me, I've sprained my ankle a lot of times, and never worked out 2 days later).  I need to start pushing my body to the absolute limits to find what they are, because my brain wants to convince me that I am far more limited than I actually am.  maybe it's a defense mechanism, I don't know.  I don't want to believe that I've been letting myself down in the past, but if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's usually a duck.

Next work-out, Thursday morning at 6 am....I swear it, I'm going to make it to the box by 5:50 to warm up before the WOD.....


2 comments:

  1. way to go!!!! nice job, Krista! Keep it up!

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  2. congratulations. this is an amazing realization- isn't it?

    ReplyDelete