Intro to Crossfit

I did fairly well in the Spartan Sprint, only failing to complete four obstacles.  I loved it, too!  Okay, so some of the obstacles were downright awful.  But, while cliche, the feeling upon reaching the finish line was worth it and I knew there would be more obstacle racing in my future.  I also knew I wanted to take on harder races.

I'd been meaning to check out crossfit (which is often recommended on the adventure racing circuit) and heard about a gym offering free classes this month.  I decided to try it out.  Today's free class was an intro class...and it was hard!

The trainer spent almost fifty minutes of the hour long class coaching our form on each of the exercises.  I was tired just trying to get the form down!  Then we did a ten minute circuit of rowing, thrusters and box jump burpees (as if burpees alone weren't fun enough).  The trainer had to make me a custom "box" because this girl can't jump!

Although most of my training the last several months has been running, yoga and aerial silks (which is a pretty well-rounded combination), I used to do circuits several times a week at the gym.  I completed three and a third sets.

The husband, however, was clearly not used to this type of training.  He lasted seven minutes (in the circuit, people) before laying out on the floor.  We're in pretty good shape and this was just the intro class!  This shit is tough!

I'll be back for more ass-kicking, although I'll have to figure out how to fit it into my already crammed workout schedule.  I can see this is something that can really help me improve my performance in adventure racing, as well as my other active hobbies.  It'll hurt, but, like most races, the payoff is at the finish line.

Army crawling through the mud under barbed wire - the worst obstacle in the race! (Photo by Nuvision Action Image)