The WODs are posted on the kivnon website, but I try not to look ahead. I don't want a chance to psyche myself out, or even worse find an excuse not to go. Yesterday I wanted to look something up, though, and saw what this morning's WOD was going to be. I spent some time worrying about it, then decided I would just scale it and let it go.

Last night when I got home from work I had no husband and no clean scrubs or gym clothes, but I did have chicken in the crockpot. So hey, at least one step was assured. I set the rice cooker and started a load of laundry, and while those were cooking I made breakfast for this morning. Breakfast cooling before I packed it away, I realized I had nothing in the fridge to pack for lunch.

Just at that moment my husband texted to say he had a late night, so I should go ahead and eat and clean up and he'd find something on his way home. Not to be too self serving but...score! I fixed my dinner and packed away the leftovers as my lunch for today at the same time. Transferred the wash to the dryer, and all was humming along nicely. I'm working really hard to set good habits in place while I'm riding the honeymoon wave of motivation. Breakfast packed, lunch packed, laundry drying--everything was set.

When the alarm went off at 4:50 this morning I rolled right out of bed and into my gym clothes and got out the door before 5:00. I feel happy when I get to the box, like this is a place great things happen. Ryan greeted me and others were arriving. I had a quick conference with Ryan about how I had thought to scale the WOD, and he agreed.

We were doing:

400 meter run
10 box jumps
10 burpees
10 HSPUs (hand stand push ups)

...for time, with 1,000 meter row for time as extra credit. Every single thing was beyond me (except the rowing). So MY workout was:

240 meter fence run
10 plate jumps (onto 2 stacked 45# plates)
10 modified burpees off the edge of a bench
10 overhead presses--2 rounds with 10# added, 2 rounds with just the 33# bar

This was a "lung burner", lots of gasping for breath. Alright, I'm in. My first round, I'm good. Second round, holy hell did this bar get heavier? Third round, I can't jump can't jumpcan'tjump just step up... Fourth round, you can jump! Press it up! Get to it!

Time: 21:36. Proudly, I ran the first half of all 4 fence runs. On the third I had a voice in my head telling me loosen up, lift your knees, arms swing, easy does it, faster turnover! Something tiny clicked. It is still not easy by any stretch. But I felt something loosen, something relaxed in my shoulders and my hips. I sped up, infinitesimally. And it was easier. I felt more fluid.  Learning to Breathe Fire talks about building neural connections for graceful movement, and I was gratified. In tiny, tiny ways, things might be changing.

I did a couple walks to the fence to bring my heart rate down. When I came in from the last one Ryan looked at me and said, "You wanna do the row?" I snorted and said, "NO." He wheedled, "C'mon, just 500? You can do 500."

I begrudgingly walked over to a free rower and strapped my feet in. We had warmed up with a 500 meter row (among other things) and I knew it would take me about 3 minutes. Fine. Of course, that was before the WOD and this was after. My hips protested. My lungs protested. I got to 400 and Ryan appeared again. "Wanna do 1,000?" I barked and said, "No!! You're a bad man, go away!" He laughed at me and said, "If you've got enough breath to yell at me you can do it." I decided to do it. Loooooooooord that second 500 was a lot further than the first 500. But I finished. Rich, by my shoulder, called, "5:55!" while I folded forward and panted.

Why do I love this? Some things are inexplicable.