Ponytail Girl - 63 days left

After my kickboxing class last night, I wasn't sure how my body was going to react today to the mere thought of attending crossfit.  However, after a wonderful night's rest, I was up and ready this morning without a problem.  Of course, there was some soreness in my muscles.  Yet I have just concluded that discomfort and the old adage "no pain, no gain" is the way of life for the time being.

When I arrive at each workout class, I never know who my company will be for that day.  However, on the days that Ponytail Girl is there with me, I look at what she does as a goal to achieve in the future and then cut that number of reps or time in half as a goal for me to achieve today.  After all, she is always one of the top performers and keeps a good attitude no matter how daunting the task.

To begin our workout today, we were all to lift our max weight in a squat to push press.  I decided that I would do my best to be within 10 lbs of Ponytail Girl's max weight.  We actually began working together.  When I was at my max, she then went to another bar and was able to lift 15 lbs more than what I was doing.  I considered trying to add more weight to my bar.  Yet on the second lift of max weight for me, I maneuvered myself in such a deformed way to even lift the bar, I decided that would not be a wise choice.  Fortunately, on the remaining lifts, I was able to keep my form good and not have to decrease the amount of weight I was using.

Then came time for our circuit for the day.  Sounds easy, but it was about the farthest point from easy there could be.  Ten burpees followed by ten situps was the name of the game decreasing each round by one until I reached zero (ie. 10 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps, etc.).  After all rounds were complete, the instructor would mark each individual time.

As some of you may remember, when I first started working out about seven weeks ago, getting up and down off the floor was an exercise in itself.  Still today, I cannot do a real pushup and have to revert to "girl"/knee push ups to get the job done.  I am also unable to do a full situp at this juncture and have to modify to crunches when situps are listed.  Therefore, burpees and situps are probably THE hardest combination of exercises I could be asked to do.  And even though I really wanted to ask for a modification today, I decided to just get over it and do the rounds as best I could.  The end time result was: 8:16 for Ponytail Girl and 13:57 for me.

After we were done, Ponytail Girl and I were talking and she said - "Several years ago my dad and uncle planned to run a marathon together.  My dad had trained hard to complete the marathon.  However, my uncle had very little preparation.  On the day of the marathon, my dad finished in a little over three hours.  My uncle finished in about five and a half hours.  My uncle told my dad that anyone can run for three hours, but it takes someone great to keep going for five and a half hours to get the job done."  Ponytail Girl told me that is what she thought about today as I was working so very hard to finish after everyone else was done.  Anyone could be like the men, she said, and do burpees and situps for five minutes or like her and do them for eight minutes, but it took so much more work for me to finish in almost fourteen minutes and not give up.  And she thought that was really great.

I almost cried after she told me that.  What a great compliment!!  The girl whose ponytail I wanted to yank just a few weeks ago due to being so very peppy about running and feeling like she had not clue whatsoever what it was like for me to exercise, was aware of the great challenges I face each day.  Who knew Ponytail Girl would end up being one of my best cheerleaders?

James 1:19 (New American Standard Bible) - This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;