So today after I punished myself with double unders and pushups for 17 minutes I poured a cool glass of water and sat on the patio and looked at the trees. I noticed a hummingbird flitting around the grapefruit tree. There are new blossoms for spring that promise new fruit. The hummingbird amazed me with the fast twitch muscle fibers that make those wings move so fast that you can't see them. I thought to myself "what an athlete." At about that moment when I was admiring the endurance and speed of the hummingbird he did something totally unexpected. He stopped and rested.
This amazing animal that can move so fast our eyes can't see his body parts (I know it was a he from the brilliant red head and blue-green body) had to stop and rest. This week I have been sore and feel beat up. I haven't slept well and my body seems to take forever to get warmed up. Epiphany. We all need rest. Even a hummingbird needs to take a break. I watched him go back to work eating sweet nectar from the blossoms on the tree and after a few more minutes he went up to a higher branch on the old dead tree and rested again. Work smarter not just harder.
On that note, take today and the next few days to rest. If you have been resting too much lately then go ahead and make up some WODs. I will do something tomorrow. It will be harder than it should be. I am not right in the head however. Saturday I will rest. Well. Completely. Sunday I will take the girls for a hike. And rest some more. By Monday I will feel rejuvenated and we will kill another 5 day stretch of WODs. Even the hummingbird has to rest.
Oh yeah, the hummingbird also has to eat sweet nectar in the spring. In keeping with the spirit of the hummingbird I am enjoying "Dig" from New Belgium Brewing. It is their spring seasonal. Spring has sprung. At least in San Diego it has.
GARY! What's up with the prose? Very nice metaphor, brother.
ReplyDeleteStephanie and I beat you to rest. We needed it and we took it!
We are excited for the 100 inverted burpees tomorrow! We are going to approach it like this:
-Inverted burpees until fail
-Burpess until fail
-Done
We'll see how far we can get!
I love you.
I think 100 inverted burpees took me 23 minutes the one time I did the WOD. I will get to it again soon.
ReplyDelete33:24! 100 inverted burpees! At 90, I thought it would be a good idea to try to use my non-dominant leg . . . and subsequently fell on my head. Maybe I'll try again when I'm not so tired!
ReplyDelete1. I am loving the recent posts. The slow-down-and-work-hard note from yesterday really hit home. Grrrrr. Pushing myself physically = something I don't do well.
ReplyDelete2. I went to the doc. Diagnosis unknown. (I figured!) Doing physical therapy and crossfit to fix it, assuming I don't have a broken hip. (Insert old lady joke here.)
3. I did the 400m-25 pushups-30 lunges x 3 workout. I put on my watch but forgot to time it. 20-ish minutes. (Am I supposed to be timing each round or the workout in total?)
4. I am figuring out how to make this work. The schedule part. Not my piss-poor fitness. :)
Total time for the WOD. I sometimes glance at my watch after each round so that I can track how much I am dropping off towards the end, but unless the WOD dictates timing each round separately then it is total time. I am wanting to mix it up this next "batch" of WODs so we will have some As Many Rounds as Possible (AMRAP) in a fixed time. I also want to do some ladder type WODs so that the number of reps per round is varied.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement on the recent posts. The key for me is to find a muse. When I slow down my life enough I am able to "see something" extraordinary in the ordinary. I like when that happens as the day seems more meaningful.
Jenn, If you are "an old lady" then I am fat. I think that you and I have similar obsessions of self-paranoia. You aren't old, it is just a matter of getting your body feeling a way that makes you say "I am young." Similarly for me I am not fat, but I KNOW I can lose some weight from where I am so I feel fat.
ReplyDeleteI think the key is to take action every day. You will get there slowly but surely by moving. I just need to be smarter about what I put in my face. I have pledged to myself to be smart between now and the Superbowl and then have "a party" for the Superbowl and then start a "Paleo Challenge" on February 6th.
One more thing. . . if time is an issue you can always start with "X" days per week and build up. Ideally you should look to go either 3 days on then one day off or 5 days on then 2 days off. I prefer 5-2 because it jives nicely with the weekend. The downside is that sometimes I find myself doing a WOD on the weekend too.
ReplyDeleteI will look for some "mobility" WODs to help hips. I know that I have successfully loosened and strengthened mine over the past year plus, but I will look for some "action as medicine" type stuff for you.