Suck It Up, Buttercup

Happy Month-o’-the-Turkey! I say this because I find myself eagerly awaiting Thanksgiving allllllllllllll month. First of all, I love to eat. Pretty self-explanatory. Secondly, we wrap up our work season on November 30, so today begins the FINAL COUNTDOWN TO FREEDOM! 

Unfortunately, the downside of my much-anticipated 3-month reprieve is that November is a bit hectic. We are trying to tie up all the professional loose ends so that there is minimal communication with clients and employees over the winter. This way, we all get a break from each other which I’ll assume makes everyone happy!

In past seasons, my workouts were always the first item to get kicked to the curb during this last month of hell. However, this year I think that I’ve found a pattern that I actually look forward to checking off my daily to-do list. I’ve settled into my weekly schedule of 3 Crossfit workouts and 3 runs, and thus far, I’m pretty happy about it. I’m not burned out or sick of either, and I seem to be improving on both. I think that describes success, right?

Denver peeps love Wash Park. I think it’s beautiful….but not that amazing. I’ll take legit trail running any day of the week!

Sometimes the good comes with the bad though, and that’s how this week is feeling for me. I did a beautiful 5-mile lunch run at Wash Park on Tuesday with Cindy. The sun was shining, temps were in the high 60s (yes, while everyone on the East coast suffered through Sandy), and the birds were literally chirping. My legs weren’t feeling any of these glorious Tuesday attributes, however. Instead, my legs felt like lead and I suffered through all five of those miles! I got it done, but man– it was brutal!

This changed yesterday morning when I stopped by Big Horn Crossfit for my mid-week WOD. Naturally, I was a little annoyed by my abysmal showing on Tuesday, so I wore one of my favorite outfits to the box in order to get the morning started right.

This shirt (complete with my accompanying mess of hair and premature crow’s feet):

Reebok Crossfit TriBlend Short Sleeve Top

And these shoes:

Reebok RealFlex Fusion TR

My legs were still putting the hurt on my mental game, but I eventually managed to talk myself down from the woe-is-me ledge. Once the workout got going, I didn’t have much time to wallow in self pity anyway!

The workout:

5 rounds for time:
10 pull-ups (assisted, with green band for me)
31 walking lunges
12 kettlebell swings (15 lbs)

Total time: 10:49

For the record, 155 walking lunges make me want to drop a few F-bombs…I just don’t because then I have to do more burpees!

If you’re smarter than me, it probably took you 2.01 seconds to realize that the “random” number sets actually were in celebration of Halloween (10/31/12). Unfortunately, I was having a day of mental idiocy and totally didn’t realize the correlation until our coach explained it. Duh. How did I make it through grad school again??

The workout was followed up by a “cash out” of 2×400 (yay, on my day off from running!) with a 1:30 rest in between. I managed to eek the 400s out at 1:44 and 1:42, respectively, so I was at least psyched for the mildly negative split. No one needed to know that I swear I almost puked up a kidney while finishing my second 1/4 mile lap …. right?

Moral to my long-winded story? Suck it up, buttercup. If I would have allowed myself to bail on Crossfit on Wednesday because of Tuesday’s traumatizing run, I would have missed out on a great pre-candy Halloween workout. And, I would actually be able to walk down the stairs because my butt wouldn’t be so sore….who wants that?!