That time I didn’t cry during Crossfit “Karen”

Everyone has a nemesis lift or movement, their “goat,” something that fills up a good chunk of their suck-bucket.

For me, it has historically been wall balls. I don’t know why I struggle so much with these, partially physically, but surely mostly mentally. After I had a positive experience with Nancy the night before, when I was scheduled to do “Karen” I tried to go in with the same attitude – just do it the best that I can and whatever happens, happens.

Let’s reflect on my history with “Karen”..

March 22, 2013: Open WOD 13.3– First Time

I first met the concept of Karen during the Crossfit Open last year. The WOD was 12:00 to do 150 wall balls (which could count towards an official Karen time), plus a number of other things, but my focus was just working on the wall balls. In fact, I set a super conservative goal of during that 12:00 to do 60 wall balls total. There is a now comical video on my blog post recap of the experience, where I recount my whole 12:00, attempting wall ball after wall ball, failing rep after rep, throwing the ball up 132 times, but only 89 of those reps actually counting.

DNF

March 2, 2013: Open WOD 13.3– Let’s Try Again

After I had a significant amount of no-reps, I wanted to prove to myself that I could get reps in without failing so many, so the next day I tried to do the workout again, boosting my official Open WOD score to 132 reps, but still not quite getting Karen done in the allotted timecap.

DNF

February 3, 2014: Open WOD 13.3– Must Get a Karen Score

Almost a year after my failed attempts to log an official Karen time, we had another opportunity to repeat the Open workout; the same workout with the 12:00 time cap, the one that starts with 150 wall balls.

I had come a long way since my early Crossfit days and despite my complete and utter hatred for wall balls, I needed to finish the workout in 12:00 to finally have an RX time for this workout. I didn’t blog about this accomplishment and didn’t write anything in my log to document my feelings, but I do remember which wall I was using in the box, and do remember my legs screaming and mentally I was checking out. There no way I was going to be able to all of the wall balls in 12:00 and it was pretty much a waste of my time trying. And of course, I must be a sucky Crossfitter because everyone was already beyond the wall balls and onto the next movement while I was still trying to do mine. And yep, tears.

I remember having 10 wall balls or so left when we got a time cap warning, so despite wanting to quit and give up and cry in my corner by myself, I did finish the workout.

11:57 RX

October 1, 2014: Karen – There’s no crying in Outlaw

I think I am officially over crying in Crossfit. Seriously, it has been 51 days since my last WOD-cry. I know it sounds silly, but really, this is kinda a big deal. It’s not like I would cry all of the time or anything in workouts, but I would cry when faced with extremely difficult WODs that cause me to get super anxious and then I freak out, can’t breathe, have mid-WOD panic attacks.

But you can check out my recap of things I have done so far with the program, hard things; workouts that the old me would have definitely cried. I’m a new person now. A stronger girl, inside and out. A more determined, focused, me. I put much less pressure on myself, and know what? It’s made me better.

So, back to Karen.. I had to get her done this week, and she wasn’t going to do herself.

I thought about her all week, and a good chunk of my work day prior was researching strategies and coming up with my own personal plan. My goal was 10:00, or 15 wall balls a minute. If I stuck to this strategy, it would leave built-in rest time each minute to breathe, refocus. I went a little off-plan but fell back onto it towards the end, my teammates pushing me, calming me down (to help me focus on breathing; there was no crying). I finished.

9:26 RX

I smiled. SMILED. I wanted to hug that freaking wall ball so hard. I wanted to wipe the sweat off of it and own that ball. I settled for a photo opp.

I won’t say that I won’t ever get frustrated and upset during lifts or during a workout, because honestly, it’s quite possible. But I will say I have a newfound confidence and mentality going into each workout since starting The Outlaw Way, just doing my personal best each and every time.

Your turn..
What movement, lift, or WOD is your nemesis?
Do you despise wall balls as much as I do?
When did you last PR a WOD?