#crossfitshoreside

i will preface this post by telling you, i'm heavily medicated. 

it started as a mundane friday.  woke up late, made a veggie and bacon filled breakfast, geared up to go to the gym. etc. 

when i hear people talking about how their lack of mobility is a hindrance to their crossfit progress i'm always quick to point out that being hyper mobile is no walk in the park either.

as i've detailed here, i have hip issues. 

my SI joint is my arch nemesis when it comes to progress. 

i am one of the millions who has benefited from the affordable care act. however, because i am intensely busy i have failed at getting a primary care physician which means, even though i know my hip is still wonky, i don't have an orthopedist. 

yesterday, we were doing deadlifts at the gym. truthfully, it's never been my favorite lift. but, we were doing light sets at high reps. which, i didn't even think it would be injuring seeing as i only had 125 pounds on the bar which is less than half of my one rep max. 

rep one, rep two, rep three, rep four, rep five, rep six, rep seven...oh, shit. my hip just moved. stand up...oh, shit...you need to lay down. 

at this point people at the gym started to realize something was wrong. now, a few things: i have a pretty high threshold to pain and i am stubborn when it comes to my body. sometimes, i think that's why i stuck with crossfit initially.  

but, i will tell you, everyone was asking if i was okay. now, was i uncomfortable? do i naturally shirk off that much attention? absolutely. BUT, guys, it was like the first time in my life that i didn't think, 'oh, god i.m  like a zoo animal'. no one in that room thought i injured myself because i'm fat. which, let me tell you, has been a palpably real thing in my life. 

everyone rallied to get me up off the floor, get me to a hospital, and take care of me. that includes people driving me and my vehicle to the hospital, holding me up and walking with me...rolling me in and out of cars. you know, typical i can't hinge at my waist savior faire.  

crossfit really is all about community.

luckily there was a trade off and some of my friends came to sit with me/take me home post the ER. 

my SI joint is askew. they classified it as an acute recurring joint displacement which while it probably will need surgery, it did not need an emergency procedure. so, now i am left to find a primary care physician to get a referral to an orthopedist to deal with the problem i already know exists. don't you just love the stupidity of red tape? 

the other thing i will say is not one of the doctor's was like, 'oh you do crossfit?' or spoke ill of it...they looked at my x-rays and just said, 'you have weird hips'. 

this injury wasn't caused by crossfit.  this injury could have happened doing something as benign as an elliptical machine given the nature of my joints. frankly, i am glad it happened at a place where people automatically rallied to help me. 

michelle larson, you and will have created a pretty magical place to call a workout home. 

an hour in.

five hours in

on my way home. crutchie.

i went to bed last night resolved that my rest week would end today.

i woke up feeling like this:

sleeping...

i needed to work off the week of rest...which, essentially turned into a week of ice cream.

so, i told myself to get up and go.

i got to the gym, read the wod and felt pretty good about it. 

tall, hang, and power cleans. 

then moved on to the wod; sit ups and squat cleans. i actually found myself smiling. 

rest week is over.

this week i went to two crossfit cardio classes. 

a-i really enjoyed them...it's the masochist in me.  b-it was the closest i've come to puking in a long time (in a good way).  c-i was shocked at how well i did at them.

i mean, endurance isn't always my thing. i like short, fast, sprints. but, it was just a reminder of how my body is evolving and progressing. 

trista.

architect. coach. mom. trista was one of the first people who really engaged in conversation with me when i started at crossfit shoreside. that's not to imply that people were unkind or unwelcoming it was just that trista made it a point to ask me about myself, introduce me to her daughters, and make me feel a part of the community. 

trista is quiet and in some respects unassuming (until  you see her workout...she is beastly when it comes to wodding). she embodies the idea of still waters run deep. 

recently we were discussing what led her to begin crossfit and her response was really stuck with me. so much so that it was the inspiration for this post. 

she told me that the reason she began crossfit was to ensure that she would see her youngest into her forties. trista is in her mid forties and her youngest is eight.

selfish self preservation, y'all.

one of the things i appreciate most about trista is that she comes to class and does the work. not only does she do the work, she demolishes the work. trista is one of the top performing athletes at our gym. in fact, she's qualified for regionals. 

trista has been following a training program that crossfit provides for people who qualified for regionals to help them prepare. something in the past few weeks has happened where all of the other top performers in the gym have changed their schedules to come in and support her in her training. they willingly give up their lunch hours and do the workouts with her. she inspires and motivates the people around her. it is perhaps one of the finest examples of crossfit camaraderie i've seen,

often in crossfit we hear tales of communities gathering together over tragedy: cancer, loss of life, acts of nature. the rallying of peoples to overcome bad is one of my favorite parts of crossfit.

but, it is truly lovely to see people rally around a person. a person who is kind and devoted.

i like days that include brute force...they tend to be my strong days. 

final prowler run was at 330 pounds. i could have done 350 undoubtedly, probably more...sadly we ran out of time. jessie, smash. 

i did find it comical that a girl at the beginning of the wod tried to tell me the proper way to push a prowler. she kept telling me to extend my arms. i smiled and nodded and thought, 'just you wait (proverbial) henry higgins, just you wait'. crossfit my fair lady references...deal with it.

this is how you pack post tennis....white wine spritzer. the drink of the prematurely elderly. reppin' crossfit shoreside while volleying next to preteens.