This week my dad emailed me a photo from the archives of me with the weight of the world on my shoulders. I’m guessing this was me about age 6, just coming to terms with my destiny as a future superhero. I took a few decades off from my training but now I’m truly back at it.
…And just in time too, because Nicole and I were informed on the weekend that we’re parachuting straight into the regular CrossFit class. Here I thought we’d have a month worth of the On Ramp program to get us up to gear but apparently Pete couldn’t keep his mouth shut about how much progress we were making. So now low and behold we’ll be joining in with the people I’ve been staring at in awe. I did lose some sleep over this… the sort of sleep one loses when they were the kid that only passed gym class because of getting an A for effort.
I’ve always been a little bit uncoordinated apart from my fine motor skills and so the idea of teaming up with a bunch of people who look like elite athletes is daunting to say the least. When the time came I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised.
Number one, all those elite looking athletes were incredibly friendly and encouraging. Which meant that even when I was finishing the workout last they were all standing by to cheer me on… embarrassing? YES… but somehow it made it easier and quitting was definitely out of the question.
Number two, the workouts were actually easier (NOT EASY) than what Nicole and I had been doing in our personal training sessions. There were fewer reps, the workouts were shorter in total and while you were supervised it wasn’t quite the same as having someone whose only focus is you and notices any inadvertent slacking off.
Number three, it was interesting. We were trying new things that we hadn’t gotten to in our PT sessions. Welcome to the world of chin ups, burpees and double unders… I have yet to master any of them.
So ultimately while I still prefer the personal training I could tell this had other elements that would keep me heading toward my goals and it felt like something I could stick with. Which is good because this super hero in training stuff is hard work… isn’t there a spider that can just bite me or something?
See www.crossfitathletic.com.au for more.
Watch video: Woman’s Day’s Karen Birkemoe takes on the CrossFit challenge.
