So! That happened! Unintentional hiatus for the win!
We put everything we owned in storage the weekend before Thanksgiving. We moved into our new house February 2nd. So that was a good few months of homelessness, which I combined with an unhealthy string of work travel, just to keep things interesting and my little wheely bag rolling (at one point, I was 15 days on the road. Oh, hotel gyms, you slay me.)
I arrived in Colorado tired, out of shape, and slightly off the deep end. I don’t think perpetual homelessness is good for ones soul, nor do I think surviving on one suitcase of clothes for that amount of time is good for ones sanity. But! I got here, and within a few days of arrival I treked to my new crossfit gym.
(The owner of the gym had emailed me a few weeks before – we had stopped in to check out the space when we were house hunting [... what? That's normal, right?] and she was checking in to see if we were settled, if we still wanted to come back and work out with them, and – get this – to ask if we needed any ad hoc babysitting or food while we were dealing with movers and getting settled.
You guys – nicest Crossfit gym owner ever.)
(Or, I should say: she’s nice when she’s not yelling me at me to Wall ball faster. Ahem)
I emailed her back when I was ready to come in, asking about class schedules and whatnot, and she no-shit emails back: “Come to the 7pm class – given today’s workout, you’re probably better off with the begginer class”
Is that not the scariest email ever? Being told that the nature of the workout is so hard that you need to start back at the beginning? I didn’t even have time to get my ego in a huff, because when the coach at Crossfit tells you to be afraid: dude, be afraid.
And, sure enough, it was HORRIBLE. Out of shapeness + altitude+ …crossfit = OW. I cannot fully express to you how the altitude has been limiting, but trust me when I say: It’s limiting. Walking up a flight of stairs was winding me when I first got here; forget doing box jumps!
It’s in own way, however, it’s been a blessing, because it’s forcing me to slow down, and you know, I’ve stuck with that beginner’s class. I like the extra time to work on technique. I like the extra attention from the coaches on doing things right. In many, many ways, it’s been great for me to step down, step back, and start again.
Crossfit has always been an ego killer – there is always someone faster, stronger, fitter. Maybe spending enough time getting my ego smacked around has gotten me to a point where I can finally get better — I’ve never been awesome at Crossfit, so what do I care if I’m in a beginner’s class or not? I want to be in the class that gets me through the workout, and gets me better overall.
So this is me, back at the beginning. And I’ve never felt better.
