Thursday

It was Friends and Family day at the gym.  That means you could bring someone with you for free so they could try it out.  I brought one of my coworkers who likes to hear what we are doing in the gym.  I was a little worried.  He’s out of shape now but he has worked out a lot in the past.  At the end of the warm up he looked at me and said, “I have to stop smoking.”

He did the weight lifting with me so it wasn’t too hard for him.  Then we got to the workout.  It was 20 minutes of as many rounds as possible of:

  • 5 pull ups
  • 10 push ups
  • 15 squats

I did 14 rounds.  He did 5.  I thought he was going to die.  He did more resting than working.  He was staring at me open mouthed at times when I kept moving. I yelled at him a few times to keep going but it didn’t help.  It is times like this that make me realize how in shape I’ve gotten.  Compared to the other people in my class, I’m pretty out of shape but compared to regular folk I must be doing pretty well.

Later I saw him and asked how he was feeling. He said that he got home and couldn’t wash his face. He literally couldn’t raise his arm high enough to reach his face. He’s been funny all week as the different aspects of soreness hit him. He did say that he had “never had as much fun getting my ass kicked before.”  I told him if he quit smoking he could afford to join.  He said that if he could save up 2 months of membership fees then he could join.  After that 2 months either he would have quit smoking or have been killed by CrossFit workouts so it would work out.

In typical guy fashion he decided that I could win a cage fight against other people who work out in our office.  He also decided that he’s on my team in the zombie apocalypse.  I told him that may I didn’t want him on my team since he didn’t listen to me when I told him to keep moving.  He said he will sit in one place and shoot.

Saturday

We went for a family trail walk since it was so nice out. It was only 1.2 miles but there are exercise stations along the way. It was muddy and Z was horrified at having to walk through the mud because it may have gotten on her boots. Had to explain that boots are made to get dirty. Then her socks were bothering her. She is so far removed from any participation in nature that it is awkward to try to introduce her. At one point the husband was fake-banging his head on a tree and muttering, “We are the descendants of a proud line of Mohawks. My grandmother was a medicine woman. My great-grandfather collected venom from copperheads…” while Z was wailing, “My Socks!! They’re wrinkled!!!” I finally convinced her to take her socks off and then she was fine even though she looked at me like I was asking her to cavort naked through the wilderness.

Tuesday

I was met at the door of the gym by a person cheerily saying, “Oh, Heather, it is awful!!! Come on, I have to see your face when you see it for the first time.” After a 500 m row warmup and some hang cleans and push presses, the workout was:

  • 150 wall balls – squat while holding a medicine ball (I used 12 lbs) and then stand up and throw it 8-10 feet up the wall.  The idea is to use the momentum from standing up to get the ball moving so you don’t have to use so much arm strength to get it up.
  • After the wall balls (with no rest), maximum effort for 2 minutes on the rowing machine.

It wasn’t too bad to actually do but I am whupped.  Comments on Facebook have been funny.  One person thought she was going to puke on the walk to the rowers.  One swears he blacked out for a minute on the rower.  I can’t really feel my arms.  I had a breakfast meeting and only ate half my food because it was just too much effort.