Dropping 110lb weighted bar on my head wasn’t near the worst or most painful thing that happened to me yesterday.

Some days my stress level is so high, losing myself in an hour of CrossFit is the only RX to bring me back to normal again. Better than normal. My need for sweat and total emotional annihilation via completing a kick ass WOD is beyond obsession. The word ‘addiction’ has too many negative connotations attached to. Some days I just simply need it, hence the complete bitch behavior the following day when I was forced to miss my workout due to childcare switch off issues.

Pushing myself so hard physically is rewarding because of how great I feel after completing what I wasn’t sure I could do in the first place.

The board looked like this upon walking into DCCF…

Tuesday 9/27/11
September 26, 2011
WODPush Jerk – 3, 3, 3, 1, 1, 1+Max Rep Pullups x 4+15min AMRAP6 Shoulder to Overhead12 Turkish Situp12 One Leg Squat
I needed that workout.

My day had already consisted of rising at 5:00am, not to workout (which is how I would prefer my day to begin if I am up that early) but to take my daughter in for outpatient surgery on her ears. It’s been a long 6 weeks for Carly & I, battling an ear infection that wouldn’t go away no matter how aggressive our treatment. Thank you, MRSA. Look that shit up on the internet and you’ll feel like funeral planning is in your future.

A staph infection resistant to antibiotics is scary stuff, especially when the infection has decided to take up residence in your 2 year old’s ear. No fun for anyone involved. I just wanted my daughter back to her normal self, a full night’s sleep for both of us, for her to be better and 100% infection free. Hence the surgical removal of her ear tubes. Apparently the nasty MRSA likes to set up shop around foreign objects in the body, such as the plastic the tubes are made out of. Sigh.

Time to sweat out my fears and frustrations.

I like the push jerk. Ever since nailing the overhead squat over the weekend (just days before I couldn’t even get the BAR, and there I was Saturday adding weight and banging them out in good form!) I was itching to throw some heavy iron over my head. My confidence was up. I knew I was capable of more than I had given myself credit for and I was ready to raise the bar. Literally and figuratively.

I progressed each set by adding more and more weight each time. By my last set I was up to 50lbs + a 32lb women’s bar. 82lbs I was dip-drive-dipping over my head.

Awesome. It felt great.

So as I’m racking my weights, I notice the lady in front of me is adding two more 10’s.

“I’m going to try that when you’re finished,” I tell her.

I’ve seen her around the 3:45 class before and I remember a Death by Row day where I tried to keep her pace even though she’s way taller and has longer arms than me. I always try to pick someone out of each class to keep up with. Even if I don’t ‘beat’ them, it gives me and extra motivation to keep a kick ass pace. And if I do beat their time or weight, well hot damn, I feel like a real bad ass that day!

“You know this is a man bar, right?” She replies, smirking with doubt.

This means the weight has jumped over 30lbs compared to the weight on my final rep and that last one didn’t go up easily.

“I only gotta do it once!” Is my reply.

She attempts her final rep and doesn’t make it up. I am a little nervous at this point, but what the hell? I’ve already verbally committed myself, I wasn’t going to back down from the challenge not.

It’s only once, right?

I step up to the bar and can tell a difference, but at this point I still think I can do it.

I dip, drive…..

BAM!

Before I even know what happened, there is a pain in my head and I realize the bar didn’t make it over my head, but actually ended up on my head! I didn’t drop the bar but recovered enough to rack 'em.

I was more embarrassed than anything. At least Coach Ryan didn’t laugh out loud as I’ve seen him do before. He mainly just looked a little concerned. I’ve seen the very same thing, and worse, happen to other people, but I never knew how quickly or easily accidents in the gym could happen.

All I could think about was my son’s three Frankenstein stitches to the forehead. He fell out of bed last week resulting with a gash on his beautiful face, all in the middle of dealing with Carly hospital drama and trips to the infectious disease doctor. Nobody wants to make a trip to that doctor’s office, trust me. Scary place.

We went on with the WOD and halfway through I changed position because the glare of the sun off the front glass was making me dizzy. I finished and lay on the floor, almost complaining that the WOD made me dizzy, before I remembered the 100+ pounds to the dome was probably the culprit.

Lessons learned: There is a difference between confidence and cockiness. Also, get the hell out of the way when you attempt and fail a heavy lift!!!