Some Friday Night Ramblings

So, I guess last night my subconscious was not feeling a 5:30 a.m. 5k because for some reason, I turned my alarm off (which I never do because it's set for the same time everyday). And so, I didn't wake up until 6:50 a.m. That was plenty of time to get to my 8 a.m. class, but not enough time to run a 5k, shower, eat, and get to class. Sooo, no gym for me today. Womp, womp.

Anywho, after my day of classes, I headed home and took the night off from studying. I watched Project Runway, talked to my boyfriend on the phone for a teeny tiny bit, and decided to get my grocery shopping and food organization done for the week. It's pretty time consuming to make my list, accumulate coupons, shop, and put everything away. So, it's a nice thing to do on a night where I'm not doing school work but still need to be somewhat productive.

The other nice thing about not doing school work is that I have time to blog - you know, give you a substantial update. Why? Because I love you that much, internet bestie. So, tonight's topics are CrossFit and Nasur. We'll get to those topics right after today's photos.

Breakfast in front of the computer

Groceries!

Bailey got a new toy tonight because of a coupon provided by his loving grandmother

He loves things with feathers. Also, shoes. He's probably gay.

Tonight's first topic of rambling: CrossFit

So, in June, I wrote about how I won a free membership for a CrossFit gym. When I got back from Africa, I did my training sessions (you have to do 3 to learn proper lifting form, get an idea of the workouts, etc.), and then I was set to do any class I wanted. They e-mailed me the schedule and my sign-in pin number and then I went to my first class. It's hard to explain the workouts because they're monstrously hard, but I wanted to tell you my thoughts about CrossFit.

So, CrossFit is basically a workout that combines crazy shit that you would never normally do with a healthy dose of shame. For example, does anyone ever actually ever need to do handstand push-ups? Like, I get that it's cool to be able to say you can do that, but how often do you find yourself in a situation where that is necessary? I mean, if someone's holding a gun to your head and says that they'll kill you unless you do a handstand push-up, I guess you're in luck, but really, I find that that happens only in very rare circumstances. Plus, the point of the workout is to get you to work point the past of exhaustion so that you push yourself both mentally and physically. As I'm someone who tends to get down on myself in my own head, I really don't need the mental push. Physically, yes. But mentally, no. 

Now where does the healthy dose of shame come in, you ask? Well, it comes in the group fitness atmosphere. The people who do CF are pretty much badass when it comes to fitness. For example, people at the CF I went to wore shirts that said "Your PB is my warm-up," with PB standing for personal best. How...welcoming. Most of the workouts are timed and they record your times on the board. It's kind of embarrassing when you come in last by several minutes. Or you know, when you only do 14 reps of something and someone else literally does twice what you can do and with 40 pounds of more weight. Yes, perhaps they've been working at it longer, but I felt as though I was too out of shape to be doing CF. I mean, I literally hadn't worked out since I left for Africa and I think I was jumping into things a little too fast.

I also didn't care for having to come to class at a set time. My schedule can get pretty weird so it was hard to just pick up and go to a class at 9 or a class at 6:30. I like to get my workouts done right away in the morning so I don't have to worry about finding the time to get it in. If it's done right away, I don't have the opportunity to talk my way out of it.

The other thing I didn't care for so much was the olympic lifting. Yes, it's cool to say that I can do a clean and jerk. Yes, it's nice to know what a sumo dead lift high pull is (and kinda be able to do one), but I'm not really that in to lifting because it's easy for me to cheat to the side that's stronger. I really like dumbbells so that I have to work both sides with the same weight. And on that note, I didn't like dangling from the high rings and literally getting blisters on every pad of my palm. 

And lastly, holy shit there is a lot of squatting involved. Now, for those of you who are first-time readers (and who haven't read the entire archive for some unknown reason), you'll know that I've got some arthritis in my knees. The first day I had a training session, I was popping ibuprofen like it was nobody's business and I had to ice them so they wouldn't hurt to the point where I couldn't sleep. Yeah. And then we did more squats. And then my knees blew up again. It was not my favorite.

The things I did like about my brief experience with CF was the encouragement I got from some of the other members. I also liked trying some new things and knowing that I could push myself to try something new that was outside of my comfort zone. But, alas, my trial is over and it is way, way, way too expensive to pursue on my own (it's $110/month for just the ladies classes). Plus, I'm happy with my $32/month YMCA membership.

Anywho, I'm off to bed so I can run the 5k that I missed today!