My First Hero WOD - The Seven

Before crossfit Monday, I decided to try to preload with a chocolate banana protein shake before class - protein, potassium, and all sorts of goodness would be pumping through my system before I even touched a weight.  Brilliant! 

 

Not so much ...  Of course class opened with a 400 meter run, during which my stomach was gurgling like crazy and I kind of wanted to throw up.  It probably didn't help that it was well above 90 degrees and there was a code red on the air.  Not a good day to be doing an outdoors fitness class ...

 

But I perservered and made it through class, and my first "hero" crossfit workout.  The crossfit WODs are all named, usually with girls' names.  But there are also hero WODs, which are named for people who lost their lives serving the U.S.  Here is the story behind Monday's WOD, "The Seven". 

 

After reading the story, the instructor told us that when we feel like giving up during the WOD, we should remember the seven and keep pushing.  To myself, I said that when I feel like giving up I should envy the seven because they're dead and don't have to do it!  (But maybe that joke's in poor taste?) 

 

Either way, The Seven was brutal.  The goal was supposed to be to complete seven rounds of seven reps of seven exercises in 35 minutes.  The seven exercises being: hand stand pushups, thrusters, knees to elbows, deadlifts, burpees, kettlebell swings, and pullups.  Needless to say, I did below "scaled" on almost everything.  I did regular pushups (and dropped to my knees by the fourth round), 45 pound thrusters, raised knees (not to elbows), 95 pound deadlifts (which then went down to 65 pounds), 15 kg kettlebell swings, and pullups with a green and blue band. 

 

And the biggest "scale" of all?  The instructor decided to cut us off at 20 minutes, rather than going for the full 35.  And that was probably a good thing.  I was drenched in sweat by the end, and I'd just started on my fourth round at that point.  I had slowed down considerably, and there was no way I'd be doing seven rounds in 35 minutes.  I think I would have been lucky to do five. 

 

I drank a ton of water at crossfit and then more when I got home.  I probably lost about five pounds in sweat over the course of the class (I was drenched in sweat just from the warmup before our WOD even began!).  I'm not normally a juice person, but because I was so thirsty I also took the opportunity when I got home to cut into Josh's juice supply with a glass of cherry lemonade.  It was tart and sweet, and really tasty. 

 

Next time maybe I'll remember to go with juice first and protein shake after class ...