Deth

I’ve done it a few times this spring so far with the sandbag and with the bar once when it was sunny but in the 20s in February so we could do a WOD together. Let’s be real. A few minutes that day I was still pouring sweat.

This is about today though. It rained this morning and was cloudy and cool most of the day. Around 1:00 PM the sun was starting to peak through the clouds as they were thinning and breaking up and the temperature was beginning to spike upwards from the low 40s.

About 3:30 we went the the Country Store to see if they were packed and had anything since we wanted to pick up a few things. They weren’t bad at all. Maybe the whole hoarding madness is dying down now, or at least one could hope so. The sun was nice and strong and the temperature was pretty mild for the middle of March. I’d say upper fifties. That’s when I decided I was going to do Monday’s WOD outside.

When we got home I went and checked the ground outside. It was damp but not a soft mud pit like it would be during most springs. I credit that to the fact that we never really had the ground freeze that much last winter so the rain was able to seep through instead of saturating it. I grabbed my took my bar out and did a couple of warm up reps and it felt fine. Since the empty bar felt doable I grabbed some 45 pound plates to try things out with weight. The lifts with the 135 pound bar felt fast and explosive. The ground seemed solid enough that I wasn’t sinking and not so wet and slick that my feet were slipping. The lifts felt doable so I went and got Molly to be my time since I didn’t want to lug the speaker out and the phone isn’t quite loud enough.

The WOD was an EMOM of clean and jerks increasing reps each minute so 1 the first minute, 2 the second and so on. I made it through six using 135 pounds. I haven’t put 135 over head other than a few strict presses since last summer so I was being a little precautionary and decided to stop at six. The ground being a little slick from being a bit wet and a bit uneven just introduced variable s that I want time to adjust to again.

I learned today that I can still handle the 135 pounds easily. I haven’t done anything too heavy in the garage since I don’t want to drop from overhead on to the floor and the ceiling height is just cutting it a little to close to be one hundred percent comfortable with it. The plates can at times just touch the insulation in the ceiling and I always have it in the back of my mind that that could through off my concentration just enough to get injured. If anything though the 135 pound clean and jerks felt easier than ever and judging by the pictures I actually had a more stable and solid lockout than before. I’ve always struggled a bit with uneven shoulders.

The plates put dents in the ground and got a bit muddy but nothing that can’t be cleaned up. Maybe we’ll figure out a way to place a couple of mats on level grounds in the future. The mats are just recycled rubber so they ought to last indefinitely once they’re in place. I am thankful that we have a place to workout no matter what though to keep our sanity while so many other places are closed.

This summer I am going to have to give Grace a try to see where I stand with that WOD. It’s always been and always be one of my personal benchmarks since we did it so early on in Crossfit. I did it then with less than ideal technique but light weight. I was really trying to it correctly. I do have to admit I was still learning and it’s part of what got me where I am now.