No "I" in "Team"

Of all WODs, there is no WOD that makes me want to bolt for the parking lot like a “Team WOD”.

Granted, it doesn’t take much to rattle my pre-WOD chain. Hell, I start to break a sweat when someone just randomly introduces herself as “Cindy” or “Barbara” these days.

But the “Team WOD” represents a special brand of hell for me. They seem to trigger all of my memories of PE and the unique torture that was “shirts vs skins” and being last to get picked for kick-ball and…the list could go on and on.

All of these nightmare flashbacks were placed on Fast Forward in my head last Thursday for this “Team WOD”:

In teams of four, two rounds for time of:

70 thrusters (155/105lbs.)

50 chest-to-bar pull-ups

100 meter buddy carry

I spent the whole day stressing about this bad boy. Seriously. It was the 7th grade all over again. Oh yeah, and I really hate thrusters.

So anyway, I show up at CFDC before the WOD, and park a little further away from the box than usual, just in case I need to make a low-profile exit. Victoria gets us through the warm-up and casually tells us to break into teams for the partner WOD. Like it’s no big deal.

Luke asks if I am on a team and I shrug my shoulders like a freshman who got caught walking across the Senior Patio. So now, suddenly I am on a team.

I notice Curt loading up a 95# bar for us to use. I had planned to use 65#...maybe 75# if Victoria shamed me into it. But WTF, 95#!

But it’s a Team WOD. And here is that special ingredient that makes a Team WOD an especially hellish experience: peer pressure. Am I gonna be the guy who says 95# thrusters will make my spine collapse like an accordion? Hellz no.

We broke up both rounds of 70 thrusters into rounds of 5 reps for each team member. Even though 95# was kinda heavy, I was able to do 5 reps. And once I got through the first round of 5 reps, I knew I could get through the WOD. (Although I had to use a sandbag for the buddy carry).

The peer-pressure element of the Team WOD is definitely effective. While I can somehow justify letting myself down in a WOD, letting down the team is a different story. And getting through the WOD together as a team was, dare-I-say-it…kind of fun.

“Get comfortable with feeling uncomfortable” is kind of like a Crossfit cliché. Well, there is nothing more uncomfortable for me than a “team dynamic”. I’m the lone wolf. The tumble weed. Whatever. But I can see the benefit of forcing yourself to step outside of your comfort zone every once in a while…or even on a regular basis. And with very few exceptions, CFDC provides a very encouraging environment. Who wouldn’t want to be on the team?