Helen

So it’s been a while.


After going back to LA to attend a U2 concert with my cousin, I returned to Dallas and brought back with me some kind of ebola-type virus. I was not just “sick”, I was stuck in bed, unable to move for about 4 days.

By the time I was able to return back to CFDC, about 10 days had passed and I was feeling very weak and unmotivated.

But it’s amazing how a few good WODs can kickstart you back online again. It’s not just the rush you get from moving around a bit after a long break…it’s also all the people at the box that you start to miss when you are away too long. Last Friday was a particularly grueling workout to attempt after being sick for a while…400m runs + max rowing, completed in pairs for 5 rounds. My lungs were on fire after the first run, but Carrie paced me all the way through, long after I would have quit on my own. It felt really good to be back.

So with my confidence back and my motivation on high, I checked the blog on Monday morning to find out what the WOD would be: Helen.

I had done Helen once before, and it was no joke. 400m run, 21 kettlebell swings and 12 pullups, repeated for 3 rounds.

Throughout the day I had been following the CFDC blog as “scaling” had been a primary topic…being able to scale back a WOD just enough to get the job done is a skill to itself. Your instincts tell you that scaling back is weak and humiliating. But really, unless you are a champion athlete, scaling is usually necessary in order to complete most of these WODs within the predetermined time constraints.

Just after joining CFDC and some humiliating defeats (involving wall balls and pull ups), I quickly learned the value of scaling…but then I started to scale back too far. There have been several WODs that I’ve been able to breeze through thanks to some overly generous scaling back. It started to use scaling as a crutch that I could use to avoid the “humiliating defeats”, but this also resulted in cheating myself out of achieving that “sustained self destruction” zone that superior Crossfit athletes incorporate into their daily WODs.

So after a lot of inspiring commentary on the blog yesterday, and fully recovered from the ebola, I felt ready for Helen. After talking it through with Neal, and listening to Sam’s advice, I realized that scaling back a little on Helen was not only reasonable, it was required. I decided to use the “lighter” 35lbs kettlebell and set aside my pride and found the most narrow band I could find for the pull-ups (I had started out thinking that I could do the pull-ups without a band. Ha.).

From the first round, Helen started to play with my head. Going from the 400m run directly to the kettlebell swings was tough. But jumping onto the bar for the pull-ups was where I started to seriously fall apart. It’s amazing how difficult 12 pull-ups can become – I was very grateful to Neal at this point for recommending the band…

I finished last. Which actually was the only reason that I was able to finish at all. By the 3rd round I was so tired and oxygen deprived. But since everyone else in the box had already finished Helen, I had a huge cheering section to count down for me. When Noah, Dean, Chase and the 7PM crew surround you and say “don’t drop that kettlebell!”, it gets really hard to even think about dropping it, no matter how badly you may want to.

The last round of pull-ups was painful. The last few pull-ups were done one at a time. But I finished. 13:50.

Obviously, if I had not taken the scaling advice, I would not have finished this WOD under the 15 minute cutoff. I think that finding the right balance between scaling back and not scaling back “too far” requires a lot of overall self awareness as an athlete – knowing what your limits are. And it also requires some athletic maturity – being able to set aside your ego and establishing goals that are reasonable and achievable. It became very clear to me at the end of Helen that no one really cares if you are using a lighter kettlebell or a band for pull-ups. It’s all about the effort.