Why I Dislike Wall-Ball, 15.3 and What I Plan to Do About It

This entry is a bit delayed because I have been more than slightly disappointed in my performances in the last 2 weeks of the open so I have not wanted to write about it. Life however does go on and therefore it is time to explain what happened in 15.2 and 15.3. And why I dislike wall-ball. 

 First of all, 15.2 is the workout with the pull-ups. The long and short of it is, I did not get a pull up. I am close. But just not there. I spent 30 seconds of the allotted 3 minutes doing my overhead squats at 45lbs and then moved on to spend 2:30 attempting a pull up. I tried the entire time. But nothing. Coach Meg says I am about 1 month away. I feel like I am 1 year away at times. So my score for 15.2 was 6. I chalked it up and moved on. Although I am not over it. 

 This past week's workout (15.3) was as follows:

 Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 14 minutes of:

RX
7 Muscle-ups
50 wall-ball shots (men 20lbs at 10ft target and women 14 lbs at 9ft target)
100 double-unders
Scaled
50 wall-ball shots (men 20lbs and women 10lbs both at 9ft)
200 singles

I thought this would be fine. I was good enough at wall-ball and I can bust through singles 50 at a time no problem. I also knew I sometimes struggle with hitting the target but I was confident I would do okay at this.

Happy Birthday baby!
The day of the workout came. It was my husband's birthday that day and we had the busiest day happening with multiple obligations. We went for the workout. I started off poorly. I get in my own head a lot and in this case, it was bad. I can squat low enough. I can throw the ball high enough. But I could not hit the target. And when I could, I couldn't get more than 2 in a row. It took me nearly 7 minutes to get through the first set of wall balls. Pathetic. I moved on to the jump rope and easily checked off 200 singles. Back to the wall ball where I couldn't even finish the second round of 50 before the clock ran out. My end score? 281. Literally horrible. I left feeling defeated and sad at my effort. I thought I might do it again the next day when I was in a better head space. The rest of the day came and went just fine.

By the time Monday rolled around I refused to enter in my score of 281 because it was so awful. I was asked to judge Monday afternoon. After I judged, my fellow CrossFitters convinced me to give it another go. I tried 15.3 again.

It was better, but still not good. I focused on getting 2 at a time with the wall-ball but still struggled with the target. I got through the first round but not easily and made it to my singles then back to the 50 wall-ball. I was able to finish 2 sets of wall-ball this time and ended trying to finish the 200 singles. Final score: 344. Better. But not good.

I have learned that the open exposes your weaknesses more than anything. It shows you what you need to work on and where your skills lie. I clearly know my skills are in lifting. They are NOT in wall-ball, pull ups or anything relating to gymnastics.

Now that I know the areas that I need to work on, I plan to work harder than ever once the open is over. Not that I haven't been 100% committed before but I need to be closer to 110% or more.

Clearly I have made significant improvements during my 6 months engaging in CrossFit however, for me, it's not enough. I need more.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Progress is Everchanging

Image
It's been a minute since I have been able to sit down and write a blog (clearly, since my last one was nearly a year ago) but I feel like an update is needed.  After my last post a year ago, I hit very close to my goal weight, a lower weight than pre-pregnancy. Summer hit after that and summer has always been my downfall. Top that off with some major events in the fall/winter of 2021 with my little family, I just didn't have it in me to maintain the plan I wanted.  I did, however, complete a marathon before 40. One of my bucket list things. That happened right before the holidays. It was not my ideal situation; with my personal life getting in the way and needing to put my family first, the training just wasn't there. But I did it and I finished. I did something the majority of the world won't even come close to doing in their lifetime so there's that! I had plans for 2022. Mostly to be consistent, which is a constant struggle of mine. But I started out and put my w...
Read more

The challenges of fitting it all in

I started this off originally with a different topic in mind. I actually wrote nearly the entire post about Fat Tuesday and Lent. Then I thought, "OMG this has nothing to do with my concept of my blog." Therefore, back to the drawing board and onto this post! So this week has been trying for me. And yes, I do recognize it's ONLY Wednesday. It's not trying because I am stressed out or because there is a lot going on. It is trying because my regular job, the one I do 7am - 3pm before I immerse myself in Crossfit, has required extra time at night on my part. Time I normally spend at the box. I have to say though, my food is 100% on point this week. I spent hours Sunday prepping my food for the week, making sure I had variety in all the different areas (protein, veggies, and fruit) and planning my week. This is probably the BEST food prep I have done since I began the Whole30 and Paleo eating so for that I am proud. Now the planning for workouts: my normal routine c...
Read more

The Struggle Continues

My last post was a few months ago and talked about my back injury and the debilitating pain I was in. After a series of unsuccessful emails and suggestions from the doctor that did not help, I vowed to just go back to working out once the Orange Theory Fitness near my house. Mid-December the studio opened and I began going, scheduling 3 times a week so that I didn't over commit or injure myself. By the beginning of January I saw that the amount of calories I was burning in a 3x a week schedule was NOT going to help me loose the weight I needed to so I upped my workouts to 5-6 days a week and joined the weight loss challenge which began January 16. I was going late afternoon, about 5:30pm which worked for me. My new job is further and I spend about 2+ hours each day commuting in regular traffic. I planned to work my normal hours of early morning to late afternoon rather than 8am-5pm however, circumstances did not allow for that and I was forced to move my schedule to 8am-5pm. Th...
Read more