Pushing Past Discomfort v.s Being Just Plain Stupid

On Saturday , September 11th, 2010, like many other Saturdays... I trained.

Not only did I train, but I almost trained stupid.

This was the workout (I am quoting the Women's Rx weights):

The Seven
7 rounds for time of

7 Handstand Push Ups
7 Thrusters @ 95 lbs
7 Knees to Elbows
7 Dead lifts @ 170 lbs
7 Burpees
7 KB Swings @ 24 Kg
7 Pull Ups

At the beginning I was smart... I thought Hmmmmm 95 lbs thrusters are very heavy for me, I can do one , maybe two, then I need rest...I will me smart and drop 20 lbs and do 75lbs thrusters, which is still pretty challenging for me.
I looked at the other elements: KB swings? No prob. Burpees, pullups, knees to elbows? Sure no problem, I can deal.
The dead lift. I totally underestimated the dead lifts. I figured 170lbs is a good 35 lbs below my one rep max...Should be fine, right?

Oh sooooo wrong!

I did three rounds at 170lbs and felt a "Ping!" in my back.

Ok ok ok... don't panic...just a twinge, I can still do this! I will do this!
I looked at the clock ( 34 mins in...sigh this is harder/longer than I expected) took a moment to think: I'm not even half way through and i feel like my back will crack in two. Drop some weight?

I did drop the dead lift weight to 155lbs, and struggled through 2 more rounds with painfully slow handstand push ups, and increasingly heavy thrusters. I wasn't exactly hammering anything out.
After the fifth round, I had to drop more weight on the dead lift: My back was screaming, I had 2 rounds to go, class was over, I was alone I had been going at it for 45 minutes and was still not done.

This is the point where one of two things can happen:
1- You can be Stupid and push through , going from an Rx workout to B, to C, to D... pain pulsing though your body, and hoping nothing goes wrong, or hoping you don't make a mistake that you pay for in the form of an injury, which ultimately takes you out of the game completely for days (or weeks!).

2- Or you play it somewhat safe , swallow your pride, a couple of Advils, and write those dreaded three letters in your workout journal: "DNF" .

I chose the latter.
I kept thinking back at my first CrossFit coach Roch telling me to be smart: sure push hard and do your best always, but don't be dumb and injure yourself, because then you can't train!

I sat and thought about the workout and made a list of positive things as well as things I need to improve on:

- I did 5 rounds! Still nothing to sneeze at...a year ago I would not have been able to do any!
- although i used an Ab-Mat as a buffer for the handstand push ups, that was the lowest I had ever gone! An improvement!
- Knees to elbows, KB swings, burpees, and butterfly kip pull-ups : got 'em! Another good point.
- I still need to gain strength on the dead lifts and thrusters continue to be my "Waterloo", but unlike Napoleon, I will vanquish those thrusters, one day.

I rested all of Sunday, and today checked out "The Grizzly":

200 single skips
2 chest to bar pull ups
10 power cleans @ 95 lbs
2 chest to bar pull-ups
8 ground to overhead @ 115lbs
2 chest to bar pull ups
6 back squats @ 135lbs
2 chest to bar pull ups
4 dead lifts @180lbs
2 muscle ups

DONE! 13 min 50 sec

So the time was not stellar, but hey...I was smart about it, and knew I would be able to complete it, pushhing myself beyond my capacity (within reason), staying injury free, and ready to rumble tomorrow!