i made it to the white board

Monday, August 27, 2012.

I made it to the white board! I finished (or rather, survived) my first official WOD!

I walked into Urban Warfit with a belly full of butterflies. I said a silent prayer and vowed to just be myself, give it all that I had and try not to feel intimidated.

The first people I see were Skip Divelbiss and Sarina Brown (both who coach at the box). I introduced myself and noted that this was my first official day. Skip walked me into the gym, pointed out a few things and made some nice small talk, I think more to just get me calm and comfortable. He introduced me to Jacob (Jake) Martinez who was to be my coach for the 3pm class. Cool.

Me being like my father, I arrived 20+ minutes early, and Skip suggested I start stretching and warming up. I began to do so, but then had an additional question. I ran up front and began speaking with Sarina. What a sweetie woman! She was warm and listened to my still nervous rambling and was just overall encouraging. She suggested I come back on Wednesday at 2:30pm so that we could take my weight and measurements and every month we could take them again to see my progress (girls tend to be more into this kind of thing, lol). Great! My confidence was rising already.

I walked back into the gym and saw a few girls my age (okay, they weren't exactly my age... they were more like college) and to my amazement I walked right up to them and began asking questions about the workout. Soon enough introductions were made, and I was beginning to feel the nerves slip away.

Coach yells for everyone to grab a lacrosse ball and a foam roller for 20 minutes of mobility. Okay, cool. A little ball rub on the back, and a little leg roll on the foam roller, get everything massaged... sounds good to me. Except when I actually began to do the mobility exercises, it was Painful! Ouch! Talk about deep tissue. I imagined it alot like yoga, just breathe through the tough parts (there was alot of breathing through, lol).

After that, we gather to the white board and the WOD (Workout Of the Day) is explained to us. Here it is:

Jump Rope Intervals
4 Rounds- Score is lowest round
2 min. Work
1 min. Rest (4th round of jump rope leads directly into row.)
Row Intervals
4 Rounds x – Score is total meters rowed.
500m.
1 min. Rest

Once again, we are to keep our own score. (This is not something that I am used to). Ugh. So... we take our places, and as the 10 second countdown on the clock begins I'm all nerves again. In the back of my head I'm thinking, c'mon... it's jump rope. So what, you haven't skipped rope since you were a kid. You get to start at level 1, single jumps instead of double unders. No big deal...

I get through 26 jumps unbroken and unexpectedly my chest is on fire. I quick start again and get another 20+ in. "30 seconds" yells coach Jake. 30 Seconds! That's it! I'm gonna die! I have a minute and a half left of Round ONE! Eeeek! Okay, get control of yourself. Deep breath. Don't freak, don't give up. Pace yourself, pace yourself... I end up Round 1 with 107. Okay, I was shooting for 150 but that's okay, I'll get it next round. And sure enough, Round 2 I get 156. Sweet! Round 3 I get 166 and the final Round 4 where I was sure that my lungs were going to explode I get 167. Yay Me!

Now onto Rowing. Cool, I liked this part during my Baseline on Friday. 500 meters as fast as you can. Ready, GO! I'm giving it my all, and that last 100 meters I truly thought that there was no way I was going to make it 4 whole rounds. 2:32 it took me. Shit! Paul said to keep it as close to 2 minutes as possible. Okay, breathe. Take a minute. Actually, get up and get your water bottle on the other side of the gym. Quickly, you only have one minute... pretty sure I had a serious equilibrium check there. In fact, the guy in the rower next to me may have even put his hands up as to block me from falling directly on top of him. Water, yes, water is what I need. I jog over, wet my whistle and I'm back in business. Bring it on Round 2. I start strong, but midway my body is protesting and won't let me go as fast as I need to. My pace is slowing, and although this round my time was 2:24 I know that I have to really dig deep to get the next two rounds done. I resolve in my head that it's just two more rounds... just two. You can do this Jen. Count the rows, keep your eyes off the distance until you think you're close. Okay... I can do this... Round 3 I start and before I realize it, I'm grunting and groaning and I am vaguely aware of my coach giving me some positive feedback "Doin' Great Jen" "Keep It Up". And I look down to see I'm at 400 meters, a few more pulls and I'm there. I cross off Round 3 and to be completely and utterly honest, I don't have any idea what my time is. I know I finished at :54 to the minute, so I wait for the next :54 to start my last and final round. I can feel the ache in my body and the fire in my mind to get this last round Done! I motor through, as quickly as I can. Pulling and growling and searching for distance and time and I will not give up! I pull through at 2:16 and I want to throw up, but instead I take in some oxygen, sip some water and start cheering the girl next to me. She's got 100 meters left and I know what that's like so I'm cheering her on and she picks up speed and before you know it she's pulled her last row and we are both gasping and just so happy to have it Done!! We did it! We finished it! Amen! lol

We report our scores to the coach who writes them on the whiteboard, and I leave feeling tired and accomplished and so incredibly proud of myself! What a glorious feeling.

I can't wait until tomorrow's class. I'm still quite a bit intimidated and shy, and nervous. Tomorrow is weights day. Oh please dear baby Jesus let me at least be able to lift the sissy bar! lol

I'll keep ya posted! ;-)