Day 1 - Survival

Our first crossfit experience was on October 7th, 2013 at 5:30 with our awesome trainers Bill and Tom. On our way to crossfit, I felt a little sick, nervous, and overwhelmed by what I was about to experience. The night before, I was looking up videos and pictures and knew I was in for something that I had never done before. When we walked in, it was a little weird at first...There were about 10 people just scattered around the box, doing random workouts. We were then introduced to Tom (another trainer), followed by Bill (the owner). Right away he asked us to just stretch and hang out while we were waiting for the previous class to end. I said "What do you mean stretch? Like regular stretching?" Bill laughed and said "No, like a quick warm-up." My mom and I looked at each other and we were like "What?"

Bill then said, "Do you wanna go for a quick run?" We said "Yeah!" (Being that running is one thing we know were good at). Little did we know that Bill would basically sprint out the door while we maintained our slow jog. Bill kept with our pace and we did a quick loop (200 meters) around the building. The run was a little uphill and we tried to pick up the pace due to Bill's pace; therefore, this winded us a bit. When we got back, it was time to be introduced to some workouts. Bill had us use the row machine and do 500 meters right off the bat. DIfficult but a good workout. Next, we did some air squats (about 25, holding every 4th squat for 5 seconds when we were down). We were pretty good with squats since we did the squat challenge a little while back. Air squats are a little different then regular squats because you go all the way to the floor (These are what crossfit is all about). Sit-ups were next and these were very easy (we did about 25). They put a small rounded mat behind your back. With legs bent in a butterfly position, the key is to go down and stretch your arms all the way behind your head and come out reaching out past your feet. We then were shown the proper way to do push-ups (with elbows and arms back). Of course, we had to do the easy push-ups which is to go down to the floor and then come half up into the snake position and then fully extend up (these were still very difficult and our arms felt like jello). Pull-ups were next and it MUST be known that these are IMPOSSIBLE without the assistance of a rubber band. I started with the medium band and my mom started with the easiest band. We each did about 5 just to get the hang of them. The last workout we were introduced to was the deadlift. We started with a 15 pound bar with 10 pounds on each side (35 pounds total-nothing right?). These weren't too bad; however, the motion is a difficult thing to get use to. You have to squat down, pick up the bar, then roll the bar up past your shins and thighs, and then straighten your back out. Once you have the bar picked up, you then start to bring it back down to the floor...Once it is past your knees, you then slightly bend them and drop the bar to the floor (It is going to take some getting use too). We did about 10 deadliest, practicing our motion more than anything. 

After we finished all of this, Bill then looks at us and says "Okay, so are you guys ready for your workout of the day (WOD)?" We said "WHAT?" He laughed and said "That was just me showing you how to do everything and making you comfortable with the movements." My mom and I looked at each other and said let's just do it. Bill then goes up to his white bored and grabs his blue expo marker. He jots down everything we just did and it looked just like this...

WOD:

250m Rows

30 air squats

25 sit-ups

20 push-ups

15 pull-ups 10 dead lifts

Then Bill writes the dreaded words above this list... "2 rounds"

He tells us that we are to do this workout as fast as we can, not once, but TWICE...

I looked at my mom and said "This is going to be hard!" She agreed, and then off we went. 

After almost passing out several times, sweating buckets of water, and almost throwing up, we finished both rounds. My mom kicked my butt in both! I finished round 1 in 8 minutes and 30 seconds and round 2 in 9 minutes and 10 seconds. My mom finished both rounds a little under my time. I blame it on the easy pull-up band she had (but we both know she has better endurance for this stuff because she use to do circuit training). 

During the WOD, I found myself out of breath the entire time. I was doing everything I could to catch my breath, but it just wasn't happening. I think the key to the rounds is to just focus on getting done each individual workout rather than the entire WOD. Then, after each workout, taking about 10 full breaths while moving into the next workout. Like I said, it was not easy!!!

When we were finished, we were sucking in our breaths like we just completed an iron man marathon. I was sucking down water and breathing in oxygen like I had never had it before! We were wiped out.. physically and mentally. Bill had us sit down after and told us he wanted us to come back the next day for another beginners class. My mom and I just stared at each other and chuckled a little (This was no beginner class by ANY and ALL means).

On our car ride home, we just talked about how difficult it was. I told my mom I felt nauseous and she told me she had to prevent herself from throwing up several times throughout the workout. I told her that I was going to puke when we got out of the car. We were, to say the least, BEAT!

When we got home, sure enough, I started gagging and puking in the parking lot of my complex. Nothing actually came out of me except water. My mom had to keep walking because seeing me do that made her have to. We got inside, sat on the couch, and just moaned and shrewed. It was over...

Day 1 ... and we survived.