Because my shoulders were not sore enough

Wall balls are a special kind of hell.  You squat down with a heavy medicine ball in front rack, then you hurl it in a controlled manner up the wall to hit an 8 foot mark, then you catch in perfect front rack form as it hurtles back towards the earth and you drop back into a squat.  Repeat.  Repeat.  Repeat.Of course if you are me your wall balls are filled with dropping the ball outright as you try to catch it, near-misses of your face, and swear words.  The good news is that I think my wall balls are actually improving somewhat.  I actually had some reps that made me feel like someone who knew what they were doing.

3/12/12 WOD #25:

• Warm up: 500 m row
                  50 double unders (ha.  I just did some jump rope until I started hitting myself in the head too much).
                  2x: 10 squats
                       10 walking lunges
                       10 push ups
                       10 grasshoppers
                       10 tuck jumps
• WOD: 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 reps for time:
             Wall Balls
             Overhead walking lunges (25# bumper plate held over the head)
             Sit ups
             Time: 24:44

I look forward to the day that I am fit enough that I don't stagger in last at every WOD.  Not that it is a race, I just think it would be refreshing to be the one clapping for a flagging team mate instead of being the one who still has three rounds to go while everyone else is finding their water bottles.  

In other news, I looked in the mirror this morning and actually saw muscle definition between my deltoids and my biceps.  I am not sure that they haven't been there all along and I only just noticed it, but it felt pretty sweet.  Also, my large thigh bruise from dropping weights on myself is coming along nicely.

A real scream

Sometimes when you are making a large effort, you make some kind of vaguely embarrassing noise as a part of that effort.  You hear it in tennis (and hear complaints too), and you will DEFINITELY hear it in a CrossFit box.  Especially when weight lifting is part of the WOD.  And today, I got to be that person who makes a noise somewhere between a grunt, a scream, and a roar.  Repeatedly.  Good thing we always play loud music- that way all our effort noises just become part of the ambient sound.

2/20/12 WOD #16:

• Warm up: 500 m row
                  2x: 10 burpees
                        10 push ups
                        10 pass throughs
                        10 OHS
                        10 jumping lunges
                  30 ft HS walk (I just practiced my HS walk a couple of times)
• WOD: 2*2*2*2*2 shoulder press (meaning you do two shoulder presses with increasing weights until you hit five tries or you hit failure, whichever comes first).  35*45*55 MAX (attempted 60 and failed)
             10 rounds for time: 5 push press (35#)
                                          10 walking lunges (35# bar across shoulders)
                                          Time: 16:48

I actually started at 45# but barely made it through my first set of lunges so I pulled my extra 5# weights off.  I would have been tempted to drop more weight, but I was at the lowest I could go and still drop the bar when I was done with a set (for those who don't know, we use giant rubber weights rather than the small metal ones so that we can safely drop our weights on the ground without breaking anything.  It also makes the weight look much more manly because even 10# weights are huge).  And in case you were wondering where the roaring took place, it was definitely during the walking lunges.  Usually on the second set of 5 steps when I went down and needed to add some primal rage in order to get back up.  I'm pretty sure it helps.