How did that happen?

Last week was week #2 in my return to CrossFit.  My plan was to go on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and to go at about 60% effort.

On Monday, because of a squat workout the previous Monday, my hamstrings were very tender.  I thought I was at risk of pulling a hamstring if I squatted, so I did bench presses instead.  Then, there were burpees in the main workout, and I'm not quite ready for them either.  So, I improvised and did 3 rounds of run 400 meters followed by 10 push-ups.  I have run very little since my surgery and it's still uncomfortable, but I need to just do it.  I bought some new compression shirts last week, and I'm hoping they will help with running, and make box jumps and burpees possible again.

I was going to skip Tuesday, but somehow, I ended up at the gym and decided to do the workout.  We started out with a 21 minute "every minute on the minute" snatch and overhead squat work.  We did three different complexes, each one 7 times.  I kept the weight light and got through it OK.  Then we did 10 minutes of air squats, knee-ups, and dumbells from the shoulder to overhead.

Wednesday, I was back again.  It was our wedding anniversary and we had a dinner reservation, so we went to the earlier class than normal, and it was hot.  We were working out in some of the worst heat of the day.

This workout, despite the fact that I scaled it quite a bit, was simply one of the toughest workouts I've ever done at CrossFit.  Every five minutes, I ran 200 meters, did 3 pull-ups, 6 push-ups, 9 air squats and 5 barbell push presses.  I then got to rest for the remainder of the 5 minutes.  In the first round, the work took me 3 minutes and I rested for 2.  But, I got slower each round and it took me 4 minutes to do the work in the last round.

But, we weren't done there.  At the 30 minute mark, we started an up ladder of kettlebell swings and box jumps (I did box step-ups).  It was 3 reps of each the first round, then 6, 9, etc.  I was so exhausted from the first 30 minutes that I simply could not go straight through.  I saw some really strong athletes resting during this part of the workout, so I didn't feel too bad.  But, it took a lot out of me.

On Thursday, thankfully, we took a rest day.

On Friday, we did clean and jerk complexes, similar to Tuesday, in an EMOTM style.  Then, 8 minutes of rope jumping and wall balls.  By the time we finished, the fatigue from the week was pretty intense.

On Saturday, my wife and I got to the farmer's market early.  We shopped there, hit the supermarket, and once we got home, I spent the entire day cooking a nice meal as a belated anniversary dinner.  We had gone out for dinner on our anniversary, but the meal was disappointing.  So, I wanted to make up for that.

I had some really nice wines planned for dinner, but the entire week kind of caught up with me by the time I was done cooking.  I had been trying to stay away from pain medicine, not wanting to mix pain meds and alcohol, but eventually, the effort of the day was too much, and I needed some pain meds.  I had a little bit of wine, and my wife enjoyed some, but we never got around to opening the bottle I really wanted to drink - an Hermitage La Chapelle from 1990.  So, we saved that one for another day.

I was much happier before this cancer stuff, when I took no pain meds and I could have a drink without having to worry about the two interacting.  I simply need to be more careful these days, and I need to accept that my body can't do right now what it could do 3 years ago.  If I'm lucky with my next few scans and I keep working hard in the gym, maybe I can reverse some of this.