Hit an earlier WOD today, which I like to do when possible. If I had my druthers I would hit all my WOD’s right around 3pm. That’s my sleepiest part of the day, where I get distracted, bogged down by details and just wanting to take a nap. The Mojo meter is at its all time lowest. This is one of the reasons why I generally do not eat lunch, or take an official standard ‘hour lunch’ because the routine of it and the idea of sitting down to eat a full lunch only makes me more tired. Too cliche. I’d much rather power through the job at hand and then take that lunch hour at the end of my day, so I can move on and focus on something else. Like CF for instance.

Either way, today was fortunate in being able to cut out early and hit the 3pm WOD. Dean was coaching.

Warm-Up:

Junkyard Dog Warm-Up and Shoulder Mobility

WOD:

I. Press

5 – 5 – 5

Completed:

The WOD started out basic enough, like any other WOD. Warm up, some strength building around the Press. No PR this time. Struggled just to keep it at 70lbs. With a strict Press @ 70lbs. seeming to be a sticking point. But, then again I once thought 55lbs. was my sticking point. There is hope after all.

And then we hit Jeremy.

II. “Jeremy”

For Time:

21 – 15 – 9

Overhead Squats (95/65)

Burpees

If someone came up to me and asked, ‘Mary, if you could put together a WOD of your absolute sucks, what would it be?’ I would say, ‘Well, I don’t have to put a WOD of Sucks together, because it already exists and it’s name is, Jeremy.’

Oh My Good Golly. For the first time in a very long time I had to put away the blue bar, and pull out a green. Green bars are the lightest bars. Some of them are even a little bit shorter, so when you’re squatting your reach is not as extended. This is a problem for someone so tall as me. Either way, having been RX on reps for some time now, I confidentially loaded my bar with what I was certain was a weight with which I could compete: 45lbs. total. Yeah, not so much.

When everyone was finishing their last round of 9 reps, I was still stuck somewhere in round one of 21’s. Barely able to pull out two squats in a row. Total fail. It was simply too heavy. And I thought, am I really not going to finish a WOD? Like, really not finish, not even close? How can this be? But I’ve worked so hard! I’ve put so much into this! I can’t fail now.

Eventually I resigned to the idea that I would not finish, somewhere around the 18th burpee still in the first round of 21’s with 3 minutes left on the clock.

Then Dean stopped by to check in, ‘Mary, which round are you in?’ I just shook my head ‘No.’ ‘How many more do you have to go?’ he asked. I said, ‘Too many to count.’ I gave him the look, Go on without me, save yourself. And dropped the bar to the ground.

My defeat was imminent.

He rolled my overloaded bar away from me and presented the orange bar, no bumpers. 25lbs. total. ‘Finish it,’ he said, ‘Girl I know you can do it.’ I looked at him like, really, what’s the point? But when a CF coach is staring at you and telling you to go, you go. I picked up the orange bar and finished my second round of squats. And then hit some burpees in the safety of a clock that was about to run out.

The buzzer rang. The WOD was through. I had made it through round one of 21’s barely at 45lbs., and then round two of 15’s at 25lbs. plus 7 burpees.

The girl behind me who had finished several minutes before said, ‘how many more burpees do you have to go?’ ‘Eight,’ I said, shoulders drooping in defeat. ‘Finish it!’ she said, ‘You have to.’ And then she started clapping. And down I went, 8… 9… 10…. I’ll just get to 15 and then I’ll go home. At least get that far. And I did… 15. Round two completed.

I started to put away my 45lbs. disaster when Dean rolled the orange bar back over to me. ‘Just do it, Mary, come on, finish it.’ I looked around the triple-wide, the 3pm class was done, the 4pm class was filing in. My time was up, the WOD was over, it was time to pack it in.

‘Seriously?’ I asked. ‘Yes,’ he said, ‘And I’m going to stay here with you until you do. It won’t take that long. I believe in you.’

And there it is. Those words, strung together like a lovely song of hope and courage and strength and everything you ever need to hear to just take another of those impossible steps. Where ever you are, what ever you might be doing that seems so hard and daunting and absolutely impossible. ‘I believe in you.‘ And suddenly you can. You believe in yourself too.

I took the bar, and completed 9 overhead squats unbroken. ‘Now get your burpees, and don’t stop till you’re through!’ Dean said.

And I did, right down to the last, 3, 2, 1.

Dean looked at the clock, ’11:52′, he said. ‘Not bad, not bad at all. I knew you could do it.’

Thanks, Dean. Thanks for the much needed hand up.