CrossFit is a combination of physical and mental fitness. Sometimes it’s hard to know what the failure point actually is. Yesterday I set my workout for: a twelve minute time limit of 75 wall balls at 20# with a 7-8 ft target, 50 double unders, and as many pull-ups as possible with the remaining time. The idea was 10 wallballs every minute on the minute, and 5 extra, then rope then pull-ups.
I didn’t feel right going in. I decided to do a 500m row to warm up; time was not bad (1:53) but not as good as I hoped, and I was really tired afterwards. But I thought what the heck let’s get going and I’ll pick up steam as I go.
Well, no fire, and no steam. I got through 3 sets of 10 wall balls. I was resting 40 seconds between sets, and it still wasn’t enough. After the 3rd set I was out of energy and disappointed. So I put everything back and went home. That’s the first time I’ve ever quite a workout except for injuries. I promised myself I would be back the next day.
So today I went back and did the workout — with one difference. I used a 16# ball. I don’t doubt I can do the 20# because I’ve done it before, but scaling down was the right thing to do in this situation. And no warm up — just do the WOD and see what happens.
I hit the target 10 times EMOTM like clockwork, form was correct, and lots of time to spare (it takes me about 20 seconds to do 10 throws.) Double-unders were complete at the 10 minute mark. I took the remaining time to complete 15 pull-ups. Total time: 12 minutes.
I gave myself quite a bit of rest time as part of the WOD, but also because I want to work up to 150 wall balls for this workout. I think it’s within reach — but even if I use a 16# wall ball for 150 throws it would be a good workout.
So, what to do when the wheels fall off? Scale back and figure out where the problem is. For me, it was probably a blood-sugar problem, or dehydration, or just simply being too tired. But in any case, onward.
