Partner WOD –OMG!!!
To start the holidays right, I was off to Crossfit on the morning of Dec. 24th. Oh My God!
“Last 3 workouts before Christmas”
Partner WOD A
As many reps as possible in 5 mins of:
Double Under
Partner WOD B
As many reps in 20 mins as you can of:
10 Thrusters, 40/25 kg
15 Toes-to-bars
20 Medicine Ball Twists, 10/6 kg
Partner WOD C
As many reps as possible in 5 mins of:
Burpee Box Jump
I was a little freaked. So freaked in fact that I completely missed the “Partner WOD” headings. “M.,” I said to our trainer, “this is nothing short of diabolical…” To which he replied “But it’s a Partner WOD…it’ll be fun.” Which only caused me to freak out even more. M. has a very broad definition of “fun” and this is part of what makes him a great coach but I wasn’t feeling it at the moment.
Dear readers, I was the sad, goofy individual who was always picked last for softball, kickball, and basketball in gym class. Even though 38 years have passed since that first junior-high gym class, the utter humiliation is still fresh. Frankly I sucked at all those sports and wasn’t interested in trying to get better at them, but being picked last still hurt my feelings.
Flash forward to 2015 and a situation where we have to partner up to do a workout, something weird happens. Suddenly I’m 12 years old all over again. I suck at a lot of Crossfit elements, many of them were included in this WOD: double unders, toes-to-bars, box jumps and burpees. I requested to do the workout on my own. “Nope,” says M, “we’re here with 6 of us, partner up.” Why would I want to make anyone suffer with me as a partner? I like my Crossfit friends, and am painfully aware of my skill level (which is improving, but still not great) and I didn’t want to be an inconvenience…
Long story short, H. who is a gentleman of the first order as well as a bad-ass Crossfitter , felt my misery and offered himself as a partner. He can do double unders, I hit a null on that one, but redeemed myself with chalking up the first 10 Thrusters on my slate (booyah) and I even managed to do some of my share of (modified) toes-to-bars. Still working on the burpees but we more or less split the difference on that one and God only knows when I’ll get the nerve to try a box jump. It was step up step down for me. We finished a respectable second. WE FINISHED. Is that cool or what?
On the drive home I reflected on gym classes gone by. Although I was always picked last for basketball, softball, and kickball, there were more times when I was picked in the middle and some times, when we were playing flag-football, soccer or volleyball for example, I was captain or first pick. Why does the hurt of being last one chosen linger longer than the glory of being chosen first?
My Dog Has a Goat Too!
Last week found me in San Francisco on a mini-break. Although it was a week off from WODs, I managed to get in quite a bit of cardio because there was a tech problem with the cable cars and I didn’t always have the patience to wait for a bus or trolley. I’m looking forward to getting to the Box tonight.
The nights are long here at this time of year, so it is a bit of a stretch. I’m an early bird by nature; I like morning WODs. When it gets dark outside (which happens at 4 pm. this time of year), I want to hang out by the fire with a nice glass of wine, but needs must.
I’m not the only one at our house with “goats to train”. Mighty Mack is learning to fetch. Most dogs like to fetch. Many of them have a natural ability. Mack’s a bullmastiff and they aren’t known for their fetching skills. They can take down a poacher or a full grown man and pin him to the ground, but the art of fetch, not so much. When I throw a ball for him, he looks at me as though I’m crazy to think he might go after it and settles down for a snooze. Apparently, like double-unders, it is a skill which can be learned. To this end, we’re training at the dog training center every morning and I’ve shifted my Crossfit workouts to the evening sessions for this week.
Mack wasn’t keen at first and started looking for the door immediately. He wanted to bolt. God! Do I know that feeling. I was torn between chucking the whole deal in empathy with my dawg and wanting to nail this skill. Kim B., the dog trainer assured me that Mack could do this and I assured Mack that he could do it, and by the time the session was over, Mack was holding a mini (wooden) barbell in his big old maw for 10 seconds and releasing it only when I told him to. Tomorrow morning we go onto the next phase.
Nuckin' Futz 
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