Crossfit = crack

I have a feeling...that I'll be one of these people...

   

One of the people that does Crossfit and it's all they ever talk about.  But there really is something crackish about it.  After my first real WOD (work out of the day), I found myself having addict-like thoughts later in the day.  Most specifically, when the hell can I get more?  I just got done with a WOD an hour ago and I'm already thinking about the next time I go and the bat shit crazy stuff we're sure to do (hopefully this will be tomorrow...if I'm able to move), and I've only been doing this for a WEEK.  Thankfully, it's not real crack, so my new found addiction could be a lot worse.

There are so many different work outs you can do for Crossfit, but here's a brief overview of how it goes:

-Warm up doing something like a short run or row, then push ups, sit ups, light weight lifting, etc.

-What is called an MWOD: Mobility work out of the day...aka, stretching and loosening up the joints

-Skill work: Work on one move over the course of five-ish minutes, ie doing five reps on the minute for five minutes, reps start on the minute.  You finish before the minute is up, you rest.

-Then comes the WOD...usually short, sweet, and to the point...but so far has proven to make me feel like I've never been more out of shape.

Today's WOD was Fran (not quite sure who comes up with these workouts yet, but each "girl" is a different WOD).  Fran is a work out that has made many dedicated Crossfitters vomit.  It consists of doing thrusters and pull ups.  You do 21, 15, and nine of each and then it's over.  Shouldn't ever take more than 10 minutes.  This is a video of a girl doing a 2:38 Fran at the Crossfit games.  She makes it look eaaaasy.  Like anyone can do Fran.  But to put it in perspective, I did a much lighter weight (not sure how much hers is, but I know mine is lighter) and did modified jumping pull ups (stand on a box and jump up so your chin goes over the bar)...and my time was 7:07.  From the very first round, my lungs were burning.  Exactly the same feeling you get when you do a tough cardio work out for the first time in weeks or walk outside in 20 degree weather and try breathing.  It took...oh, I don't know...at least 15 minutes before my lungs were done scorching.  I wasn't sure if I trusted my arms to get my bar over my head by the second round.  Thankfully, I left free of concussions and fractures.

Anyone who knows me knows I usually work out pretty regularly, but this made me feel like I have never worked out in my life.  Not a single day.  And I. Loved.  It.  LOVED.  Mostly loved it when it was over, but there is such a huge sense of accomplishment when you finish one of the hardest workouts in the Crossfit world.  I truly didn't feel like I was going to be able to make it through the whole workout with the same weight on my bar, just "knew" I was going to have to drop it down.  But I didn't.  I finished the damn thing!  I haven't been pushed during a workout like that in a loong time.  So long I can't even remember.  I'm a glutton for ass-kicking workouts and I think I finally feel like I've found my perfect match.  Don't get me wrong, I still love and miss my Les Mills family, but it's so refreshing to do a hard core, non-choreographed workout.  Music blasting, people around you suffering right along with you.  It sometimes feels like people that go to workout classes aren't really there to work out-- they're there to say they worked out and to feel good about themselves.  It's great that they are at least going, but I've never been one of those people.  To me, working out is just that-- work.  I go to get work done and to get healthy and fit for myself, and I feel like the people I've met at Crossfit are there for the same reason.  No nonsense, just hard work.  Which brings me to another point...

It took me a long time to do Crossfit.  My dad told me about it last year but I brushed it off because I was set in my ways.  Plus, it's my dad, and sometimes it takes someone from the outside to tell me something before it actually clicks in my brain.  That person was my very first competitive softball coach from when I was 11 years old, who works out at the gym I was going to at home.  One day he told me he was watching the Crossfit games and he immediately thought of me-- that I would be perfect for it because of my natural strength and speed.  My first thought: well, wtf is it?  Maaaybe I'll look into this.  So I went home and started YouTubing.  At first it didn't quite make sense, but the more I watched, the more I was intrigued.  I watched Crossfit games and people's testimonies about how amaaaaazing Crossfit and their Crossfit familes are.  Yeaaah right.  I'm sure it's not intimidating at all going to Crossfit the first time.  So I let myself be intimidated for months.  I saw my softball coach again and he asked if I had tried it out yet, and he was disappointed when I said no.  Cue guilt trip.  Finally, I decided that with this new travel nursing adventure, it's also time for me to step out of my comfort zone physically...partly because there is no where up here for me to do Les Mills classes.  As it turns out, all those people from the videos were right.  Yeah, I felt a little out of place at first because I was the new kid and had no idea what was going on.  But the more I go, the more I realize that these people are a close-knit group.  They notice when you're gone and when you come back, they ask questions about family.  Incredibly different than any other gym that is full of meat heads with "shirts" that have the entire sides cut out of them, where no one introduces themselves to you so years after going to the same gym you still don't know the names of the people around you that you see regularly.  I've officially had more people introduce themselves to me at Crossfit than I have in almost five years at the gym I was going to at home. The coach knows me by name and gives me a hug at the end of a work out.  They push each other, they make each other do better, they don't look at you weird if you have to borderline yell to get that last. thruster. UP.  They're a family.  And I think it's safe to say I'm officially a Crossfitter.  Aaaand I'm sure this is how I feel if I ever meet someone named Fran.

Week One: Complete

It's official: I have been on the west side of the mountains for a full week.  Although it has been a week loaded with orientations and trips to Target for apartment furnishings (side note: I have never spent as much money at Target as I have this week, and it's only been on necessities, not the usual Target gems), I can already tell the decision to work as a traveling nurse is one of my best to date.  Don't get me wrong, I truly love and miss my family and am eternally grateful that I was able to live with them the last few years so I could get a solid financial foundation...but holy shit!  I had no idea what I was missing out on!  The one thing that was actually making me the most nervous about leaving home is the fact that I have never truly lived by myself and I wasn't even going to have a pet during my traveling adventures.  As it turns out, living solo is a breath of fresh air (figuratively and literally...my room at home was not so fresh with how much crap I had/have in there).  I didn't realize how...well, not independent, I felt living at home.  I'm finally able to spread my wings and figure life out on my own, for which I am beyond excited.  Hopefully after the next few nights of work I'll be able to explore and go on more adventures during my week off.  Speaking of work...

The hospital I'm at is quite different than what I'm used to.  Actually, entirely different.  I'm realizing now that I took the painted walls, huge rooms, color-coordinated bins in the clean room, and Epic completely for granted.  Yep, you heard me right, nursing friends: we take Epic for granted.  Remember waaay back before Epic when we had *gasp* PAPER charts?  Yeah, I didn't either, until I walked into my first day of orientation and saw doctors scribbling orders in charts, secretaries putting the orders in the computer, and faxing them to wherever they needed to go.  The next 12 weeks are going to be full of chart checks, illegible paper orders, and actually using the five rights of medication administration with paper MARs ("Can you please tell me your name and birthday?  Thank you."  Compare all meds to MAR, but first flip through eight pages to find that first of 30 meds...).  From here on out, every time I think about cursing Epic, I'm going to take myself back to this time, recall the drag that is paper charting, reconsider whatever colorful language I would use in reference to Epic, and put on a happy(ish) face.  In addition to old school charting, the hospital itself is very old school and I'm realizing how very spoiled we are at KMC.  That whole Planetree business actually makes a quite the difference- the art on the wall, the light fixtures, a nice paint job.  It's sad to me that there are still hospitals out there that don't have the funding for things like this and still feel like a stuffy hospital.   It's also sad that I feel like I'm going to have to actively try to not let this dampen my spirits-- just because it feels like a hospital, it doesn't mean I can't make a patient's stay more pleasant with decent attitude...hopefully.  Tomorrow night marks my first night on my own and the first of three in a row.  Curious to see how I feel after 36 hours of white walls and attempting to decipher what that doctor actually ordered....wait...whose signature is that?...