Flexing my power

When energy demand is high, our power company will create "Flex Your Power Days," during which we cut back or change the way we use electricity.    

Right now, my body is doing that.  Today is one of those days.  For some reason, I guess I need to conserve.

I was really excited when I saw the WOD online this morning.  Cleans and jerks.  My favorite.  For eight minutes.  For me, that's the perfect amount of time for me.

When I got to Crossfit, I realized I was having one of those days.  I used to call them "I Can't Days."  Typically it would follow some kind of injury  (too common at my age), and would go something like, "Coach, today I can't do __________ because my ___________ is _____________.  I'll need to do _________ instead."  I HATE this because I don't want to be one of those people who always has an excuse.  But since starting Crossfit, I've had quite a few--when you push yourself to the limit, you can cross the line sometimes.  And sometimes life gets in the way.  And that's where I am now.

I had planned to do the WOD at 65#.  (I realize after seeing what others did, this would have been a bad plan anyway.)  But for some reason the empty bar felt heavy.   Really heavy.  When I'm like this, which is not every day, I get short of breath really easily.  Today, that happened when we were warming up with an empty bar.  I wanted  to cry. I traded 35# for a 15# bar.  I was instantly exhausted.  "I can't."

A friend encouraged me.  Maybe that's just what I needed.  Instead of the WOD, I just did 65# cleans and jerks.  Quite a few.  I realized that 65# right now feels like 95# used to.  95# used to be my favorite "working weight."  I could clean and jerk it pretty easily, but I felt like I could still get a good workout if I got in enough lifts.  I began to feel pretty happy with that 65# today.  These were the first post-surgical jerks and, although they gave me a somewhat sore belly, I felt pretty good about them.

Then, just for chuckles, I thought I would  find out what my one rep max was for my strict press.  This is the only lift that you can get away with using less abdominal stuff.  I figured I could go for it safely.  My prediction was that I would be about 30% off of where I was.  My max was only five pounds less than it was in October.  I'll take it.