My workouts have been steadily decreasing for the past 3 months, but without any or at least much decrease in strength. So, that's odd, particulary for a metcon queen like myself. Take, for example, the CrossFit Games Open Sectionals WOD #2 (AMRAP in 15 minutes of 9 DL at 100#, 12 push-ups with hand release, and 15 Box Jumps). The box jumps were about darn near the hardest thing I have ever done. Contrast that to my last Fight Gone Bad, where I was able to get 25+ box jumps per round. I can think of several workouts I did last fall with Box Jumps where I was able to link them and go really, really fast. In the past I had strugged with them a bit, so I really noticed when they started to come together for me. But, all that has changed now
And I know we all have our ups and downs when it comes to CrossFit, and particular movements. But, this is just ridiculous. I know my body and my capabilities and what I should be able to hit in certain workouts. And I have been repeatedly off the mark. By a lot.
Another thing that clues me in to the fact that it's my adrenals is that, for the most part, my upper body movements are okay. It's the lower body stuff that kills me - box jumps, air squats. Oh god, don't even talk to me about air squats. I used to be able to easily knock out 100 air squats, in a row. Now, it feels like everything I can do to do 25 of them.
I think I can narrow this down to a single event that pushed me over the edge - the Montana Winter Challenge. For the 2 nights prior to the Montana Winter Challenge, my son (then 7 1/2 months old) decided not to sleep. And I don't mean like "ohh, he was a little hard to put down" or "he woke up every hour or two". No, I mean he was wide awake from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. like it was party time! The first night, I hadn't even gone to bed yet when he decided to party, so yes, that means I slept from 3 a.m. to...I forget, let's say 7. Not too bad, 4 hours of sleep.... (I have no sense of sarcasm, don't forget that).
Night 2, I went to bed at 8 p.m. because I was exhausted! It was lucky that I did that, because he was up again at 10 p.m., and didn't go back to sleep until 3 a.m., again. You can ask my husband - I was ready to pack up and go home at 1 a.m. The following day was our competition, and he had bailed on it at the last moment the year before, so he really didn't want to bail on it again. I decided that since I was there, I might as well do the competition, as well. We set the alarm for 6 a.m.
That competition was probably the dumbest thing I have ever done. I felt horrible. Worse than horrible. Just downright awful. The first workout started, and it had 24 inch box jumps, which I had been practicing a ton lately and actually gotten really good at! I could barely, BARELY jump onto the 24 inch box. It was everything I could do to finish that workout! I could go on and on about the workouts and how I felt, and what not, but that's not even important. Because since that day, my workouts have been taking a steady downhill slide.
So, I have a plan of action.
- No more coffee. I am officially off the sweet bean nectar. I should have probably done this months ago. For some great information on this topic, read what the Whole9Life has to say about coffee.
- Fewer workouts. I plan to workout 3x/week, and that's it. I am going to focus on strength/lifting and go easy on the metcons. I might lose some metcon fitness, but hey, that's okay with me. I just want to feel normal again.
- More sleep. I of course am always trying to get more sleep, but I am going to make an even more concerted effort . Hopefully Morgan will do his part ;) In all seriousness, this will be the easiest change, because it's actually not much of a change for me!
Hopefully this, combined with continued visits to Dr. Phil, should help turn around my performance! Hopefully it's in time to qualify for Regionals, but if not, I guess that's what's in the cards for me this year!
And just because I can't have a blog post without a photo, here's my adorable son:
