I’ve been wanting to try CrossFit for sometime now. And it was mostly fear that was stopping me. On Wednesday, I gathered up a lot of Dutch courage and went in for an introductory class. I had emailed back and forth with the owner for a while, letting him know that I was nowhere close to doing even 10% of what regular crossfitters seem to do and he was very nice reassuring me that they were not going to kill me the very first day and would ease me into it.

When I walked it, I was met by a tall greek goddess who talked to me a bit about crossfit and the introductory workouts. She showed me out to their marked parking lot to warmup for 250m. Any workout that starts with a run cannot be bad, can it now?

After the short run, I shared a warmup routine with the regular class (minus wall balls). I knew these moves from before hand, so it wasn’t a big change for me. Although, the “warmup” usually is part of my regular routine –

• 10 Shoulder Stretch using PVC pipes (Seemed relatively easy and didn’t strain me any)
• 10 Ab Mats (Situps on the mat. I could feel it towards the end since I have zero ab/core strength)
• 10 Good Mornings (This was with the pipe and no weights, but still got me feeling it in the hamstring in a good way)
• 10 Air Squats (The instructor was very particular in watching my form. Again, felt it in my everywhere since I have no strength)

Then we got into the WOD (Workout of the Day). The regular crossfitters had a different routine from mine. Mine was relatively “simple” at AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible) in 10-12 min.

• 5 Burpees (Yes, the dreaded burpees. I lasted about 3 of them before I couldn’t push myself off the ground or have power enough to push my legs in and out)
• 7 Box Jumps (I chickened out and did step-ups on the box instead. And the box was only 6-8in tall)
• 9 Air Squats
• 11 Ab Mats
• 250m run

I did 2 rounds in about 11:xx min, closer to 12. Apparently the “normal” range for newbies is 2 rounds in 10min. And observing the regulars do their WODs, I am pretty certain that I’d take 2-3 times the “normal” time for the same workouts.

When I finished up and had the chance to get my heart rate down a bit, I asked if I could do the box jumps properly without step-ups. The first one took me a while to mentally take the jump (yes, like one of the biggest loser episodes where the contestent was starting to jump and then would walk away. Just like that.). The others were waiting to see me make the jump and when they did, I got a round of applause and a huge grin.

So, what did I think of it?

The intro class was very gentle on me. I felt a little soreness that I usually feel after my strength routines. The real WODs that crossfitters post – now that will kick me up!! I would like to give it a go for summer months, since I don’t have to worry too much about scheduling during school break. And I loved the high I got on being able to make that box jump.

But my main problem is – how do I fit it in with training for a Sprint Tri/Half Marathon and not overdo things?

Crossfitters who are runners/triathletes – How do you fit it all in?
How many days/week do you do your crossfit and how do you balance it with run, bike and swim? I have 2-3 days of swim, 2 days of bike and 4-5 days of run (2 hard, 1 long and 2 easy runs because I’m also focusing on a half marathon). Add in 2-3 days of CF and I start to panic!