January 9th - Benchmark Challenge

I woke up this morning and put on as many layers as possible, no joke. It was 20 degree weather and I was headed out to take on the first benchmark challenge of the EPOC Challenge. Since when do I like workingout in the cold...never! I picked up Melisa and headed north. We arrived and checked in then we were shoved into a line for pictures. I'm not talking head shot I'm talking strip down to your sports bra and smile, ouch. It was a good thing for me I was wearing my "muffin top" running pants because I didn't want the camera to miss my love handles, ugh. Don't worry I have already been in contact with the photographer about getting that pic so I can post it...i'm a brave woman to post these.

After recovering from that we bundled back up and headed out for the normal crossfit warm up:
10 Reps 2x:
squats
push ups
rotations

Dynamic Warm Up: cone to cone (10yds down and back):
high knees
butt kicks
punter kicks
lung with Rotation
400m run

Lucky for us Zach was leading warm up, we got to do 25 blurpees. Even though these are horrible they did warm us up. After the warm up we were briefed over the workout then instructed to set up our bar for hang cleans. The workout was as 3 rounds of the following:
400m run
15 pull ups
7 hang cleans

However we had a cut off at 12 mins...thank goodness. I put a box under the pull up bar as well as attached a red band as a back up. Then I loaded my bar...thanks to lisa and melisa pushing me I agreed to take on the level 3 using 95lbs as my hang clean weight. I stripped down to running tights, gloves, a tank, long sleep shirt and sweat shirt and a neck thingy and lined up to begin the first 400. We took off. I finished the run and began my kipping pull ups and OMG was that bar cold!!! WOW! I think holding on to that cold bar was harder than the actual exercise! I finished 15 kipping pull ups and quickly moved on to hangcleans. To my suprise 95lbs wasn't that heavy....then again I couldn't feel my fingers or my toes. Back out for the 2nd 400m, in for pull ups which I used the band on because I was unable to grip the bar tight enough to pull my body weight up. Finished through 7 more hang cleans...then back out for the last run. I was numb. I couldn't feel a DARN thing. 15 band pull ups, 7 hang cleans...then screamed TIME with everything I had...11:09, I'll take it!

I have NEVER felt pain in my fingers like that...never! I didn't know what to think or how to get them warm...in a way it was sort of scary! After gaining enough feeling to add my layers back on Melisa and I got in the car and headed back to her house where her mom was preparing us a wonderful paleo breakfast....fresh fruit, beef patties, eggs, and butternut squash and coffee (duh)! After breakfast, I headed home to spend time with my amazing puppy, Duke!