"Ageing is not lost youth but a new stage of opportunity and strength" - Betty Friedan

What with being closer to forty than thirty, I'll gather any cold comfort I can get. What I can safely say is that the opportunities presented to me by crossfit over the past two years has resulted in me being, at the ripe old age of 36. most complete athlete I have ever been, that being said there is still a long way to go, as there are numerous skills, fitness components and energy pathways that are still unacceptably weak. Todays WOD was a classic case in point, and the dichotomy of emotions I experienced at the end sort of summed up one of the frustrations of being a fledgling crossfitter who feels there just isn't sufficient time to get all bases covered. "Patience young Skywalker" I must constantly remind myself!

WOD:

85kg Shoulder to overhead x 5

20 Double unders

120m 25kg sandbag carry

5 rounds

Time 12min 2secs

Before the WOD started, I was dreading the shoulder to OH portion, as my previous experience with "Freddy's Revenge", really made a mess of me and left me questioning the wisdom of attempting to put my bodyweight overhead consistently with a heart rate of 170+. I anticipated having to jerk the weight, and possibly having to partition the reps. Surprisingly each set was completed unbroken with all reps being push presses. The strength bias again appears to be really paying dividends, as I felt strong and controlled with each rep. Thats where "good times" and me parted company.

The double unders were just vile and this portion of the WOD turned into a real gut check. Double unders has always been a real weakness, but my focus on strength of late has resulted in me taking my eye of the ball as far as more skill based aspects of fitness are concerned. Today felt as if the principle of reversibility was giving me a lesson in "how dare you neglect your skipping you feckless fool". I have regressed from what Helzy at Crossfit Northern Ireland described as "the moshpit" back to the "temper tantrum" and by the end I was having a f****** tantrum. When fatigued it is really difficult to summon the appropriate concentration needed to co-ordinate to many different joints and muscle groups smoothly and efficiently. The fact that I still have to take a bounce between each rep also means I am having to perform significantly more work than needed and therefore gassing more quickly. Ironically I did get slightly better as the WOD progressed with round 5 being broken down into 12 and 8 reps - that was the best f the day, enough said. If I want to get anywhere near what Helzy describes as "floating", I have a lot of practice to get done!

The sandbag carry was OK, but Holy DOMS Batman from yesterdays WOD meant that by the end it was more of a drunken stumble than a run. But all in all a good workout with all three metabolic pathways getting a good seeing to. Just off for an ice-bath and 20 mins of myofascial release work on my foam roller for recovery (in my dreams, there's a dirty nappy with my name on it somewhere.)