The Dark Side

Hello, my name is Lacey and its been 30 days since I crossed over to the dark side.

That's right, I joined a CrossFit gym (ahem, box, excuse me).

Why, you may ask, would this self-described running addict give into the pressure and join the cult of crossfitters?  I am going to blame my foot.  A couple months ago I decided to try running in Newtons.   I loved them.  My knee pain was gone, I felt faster and lighter, I was converted.  As usual, I was also an idiot.  You see changing over to a totally forefoot strike should be done gradually.  I thought I did do it gradually.  As it turns out not nearly gradually enough.

After a couple of months I began to have pain across the front of my right foot every time I landed.  Because I'm a genius I decided to push through it.  Ya know, because the best thing to do when something hurts is to keep landing on it over and over and over again.  Not surprisingly it wasn't long before I couldn't run at all.  I was pretty sure I had a stress fracture and I was pretty sure I just totally screwed myself over.  I needed to find something besides running to keep in shape while I healed up.  And that is how this happened.

I walked myself into the Bubble (that is what the Crossfit gym here at Ft Leavenworth is called).  Everyone was so nice and so welcoming.  A coach walked me through the workout showing me how to scale it for my abilities and injury.  I really appreciated that.  I worked out and I was smoked.  I really liked that.

So I went again.  And I liked it again.  And my body was sore in places I didn't know it could be sore.  Sweet.

That first day I couldn't do one pull-up without a band to help me up.  Now just a month later I can do two pull-ups with no bands.  And a ton more with.  The other day our workout was something called Death by Burpees.  Its a ladder workout where you do a burpee which ends by jumping onto a 20 inch box.  I did 66.  That is 66 pushups followed immediately by 66 box jumps.  It was awesome.

Of course, I'm still a runner.  I only CF two days a week.  To fit it all in I'm having to do a couple miles before and after CF  (on the day's JD is at school) but its ok.  I'm running one day less a week and that's ok too.  I feel really strong and really healthy.

In closing I'd like to make this pledge. I will never wear knee socks and shorts.  And if I start to look like muscled fem-bot I will quit.  And if I don't see it for myself I give you permission to tell me.