16.4 Feels + DC Trip

The 16.4 Feels
I watched the announcement late again this past Thursday for 16.4.  I'm not sure what I had going on that I didn't watch it at the time it was announced, o yeah I went to see a local play called, "Downrange, Tales from the Homefront."  It was amazing by the way and really hits home living in a military town.  Unfortunately, I had to leave early because I still had some packing to do before heading out on the weekend trip to DC.
So I watched the announcement as I packed.  The announcement took place in Colorado Springs, Colorado at an Air Force Base.  It was really neat that they included the military in this one and they had 3 Airmen compete alongside the two games athletes as well.  The announcement was made of the workout..

13min AMRAP

55 dL 225/155

55 wall balls 20/14#

55cal row

55 hspu (hand stand push ups)

I was actually excited about this workout, the only one so far of this past open.  I felt good about the dL at 155# because my max is 235#, so they should have be a piece of cake.  The wall balls I was feeling okay about and just okay because they are my least favorite movement but I was feeling thankful for the rowing and hspu.  When I heard the rowing and HSPU were back to back I was actually pretty excited and thankful for The Outlaw Way for programming and row/hspu workout earlier in the week so I was really feeling good about that.  My confidence was up for this workout.  I was determined to make it through hspu and get back to the dL.  I was also excited that I was going to be doing the workout in DC.
I went to my regular gym while up in DC, CrossFit South Arlington.  I emailed them ahead of time to let them know that I would be in town and needed to do the open workout.  They have always been very welcoming about me dropping in, so if you're ever in DC hit them up.  Turns out that I misread the email of when they were holding their open workout.  I read the 19th, the email said the 20th which I reread after getting there and they coach told me they did it on Sunday's.  Turns out because of that my workout partner decided he would be my judge and not workout with  me, which when it comes to my motivation, I need someone to chase.  Having someone to chase during a workout makes me want it that much more and push myself that much harder.  So I was flying solo on this one, mental game already building a crack. 
 

Photo of me rowing that my slacking gym partner
 took

 My first mistake was knocking out 20 dL all at once, but I was impressed that I did 20 straight through.  I mean that's almost the first set of "Dianne!"  After that set of 20 my body was too fatigued to do anything above 5reps.  I checked the clock after finished dL and it was 3:33 in, next was wall balls.  I did my first set and did 13 and from there is was just more frustration building as I sometimes lost the ball in my hands, it didn't hit the target which a 9' target should be easy for me since I normally practice at the 10' target.  My slacking workout partner was encouraging me getting me back on my reps and giving me a goal of reps to hit but after getting frustrated I just got more annoyed.  Then came the rower, where I was hoping to make up a little time.  He, slacking workout partner, had giving me some tips on rowing for calories v. meters before I got started out in the lobby but it never has made sense to me to try and change something right before a person tries to go as hard as they can in a workout.  Those tips just seem to fly out the window, but now that the workout is over it's something that I will try and work on.  I started out great on the row and was feeling good, then the pain set in and I got more into my head.  A lot of workouts are 10x more mental than the actual physical task of it.  I finished at 50cal when my 13min ran out. 
I'm not going to lie, I'm still upset about my performance because I KNOW!! I can do better than that.  I could have gotten to hspu.  I see pictures of people from my old gym getting to hspu and I get a little upset because I know I could have been right there with them kicking ass.  I want to redo this workout because I know I'm better than my performance but it would be me doing it all over again by myself.  So I think I'm going to chalk this workout up to another one and done and do it again another time to prove to myself that yes I can get to where I wanted to in the workout, back to dL or at least close to them.

DC

So this weekend started the Cherry Blossom Festival, although there wasn't much going on that weekend with the Cherry Blossom festival to see them already bloomed on the trees was very pretty.  But what the heck happened to the weather!?  It went from 80 degree weather to 40-50s and raining!  Like I wrote previously, I did the workout on Saturday morning and then we headed back to the hotel and showered and found lunch.  Now my slacking workout partner is a huge fan of wings so we ended up at Fuel Pizza for lunch.  They have a couple of them in Charlotte, but no where I live so we went there, just right across the street.  Now I wasn't happy it was a chain restaurant but it was close and we hadn't eaten since about 730/8am and needed food.  Next time, I'm eating at all local restaurants.  From lunch we headed toward the Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Now I've been there before, but he never had.  My first experience was very short because after doing to the top floor you have to read a lot of information.  It's very overwhelming to take it.  Four floor worth of information to learn about the Holocaust and just a lot mentally and emotionally to take it.  You wonder how someone could be so cruel to people who were different from him.  And you realize how bad the extent to which Hilter's genocide was.  It included more people than you could have imagined than just Jews, which is what is mostly focused on.  It included gypsies, professors, scholars, politicians, handicapped, basically anyone who was consider inferior to Hilter's standards or a superior race.  If you ever get a chance to visit the museum, 1) get your tickets in advance, that place sells out fast and 2) go through it in a couple trips.  Not only are those 4 floors a lot to take in but there is more to the museum than just that part of it.
After hitting the museum we headed back to the hotel and relaxed for a little bit and his friend was nice enough to make reservations at a Jazz restaurant called JoJo's Restaurant and Bar.  I actually got dressed up in a dress and heels ya'll!  It's nice to get to dress up for something and being taken on a dressed up date. It's a two story restaurant in townhome type house, very narrow like I picture out in LA.  I kind of wanted to sit downstairs to be close to the band but then again I didn't want to have to yell to have a conversation.  So we sat upstairs.  Reservations were originally made for us to have a window seat and I love having a window seat at a restaurant.  But somehow between him and his friend changing the reservations from 5 people to 2 people it got cancelled.  So we sat a cute booth right at the top of the stairs.  We order and appetizer of calamari that came with a creole sauce for dipping.  The calamri was lightly fried, I'm so used to it coming out dark but it was very good.  He ordered the herb salmon and I ordered the bourbon salmon and both came out really good.  The risotto wasn't as creamy as I would have liked for it to be and I also had brocollini.  His came with sautéed spinach and mashed potatoes.  And we even had room for dessert, apple tart with gelato.  I've personally never had gelato and you can tell the taste is lighting and it's texture is smoother than ice cream.  It had it's fair share of cinnamon, and I felt as if the taste was missing something but overall the meal was good, and I would go back to experience it again. 
After dinner we headed back to the hotel and had a couple drinks at the hotel bar.  He found a new favorite drink, Jameson and gingerbeer, and I had one as well, a Tom Collins and the second was just vodka and lemonade.  Both tasted very similar and it didn't have any trouble drinking them down.  Now when I say this I mean that I don't like tasting my alcohol in my drinks.  A little hint of a taste of alcohol is okay, but if it's strong I can't drink it.  I mean I can't even drink wine because I can only taste the alcohol and not the flavors in it.  This was my first official drink of the year.  Some of you might know I'm not big on drinking, and it's not because I'm against drinking I've just never gotten into it and it doesn't help that I can usually taste the alcohol.  It was a fun weekend but it was done with a lot on my mind and a bit of a heavy heart. 

(As I type this with tears rolling down my face). Just know that it hurts thinking that someone doesn't think your worth the risk of taking a chance on even with all the things that they have going on in their life.  So no I'm not crying over being broken up with but by constantly not feeling like I'm worth anything to the guys I meant.  And it's just not from this past one.  And the reason why he ended it is not a reason at all, but I feel more of an excuse from past experiences and his future.  I am worth that risk of starting a relationship with when you know you have a lot of training coming up and just having to move in general.  I'm not your past so don't compare what we might have to what has happened to you with other people.  With dating someone in the military they will always have my support with what they decide to do with their life and where they decide to go or end up going.  Because let's face it they don't really get to choose all that often where they end up living and not living.  I know with getting into that relationship it will come with a lot of absences, long distance, and going with that person wherever they may have to move to.  I would never ask someone to make sacrifices in their career or personal life for me and vice versa.  There is a passion there and that's not something I would ever want to hold someone back from.  I'm ready and mentally prepared to have to make that sacrifice.  That comes with this territory and one day someone will realize that I'm worth that.  Granted the relationship was short but no matter what it still hurts when someone treats you really well and then out of the blue things are completely different.  It doesn't make sense to me and it probably never will.  I guess I'm just hoping one day he'll realize what he decided to give up on so quickly.  I hate that I have to deal with the fears of someones past and the fears of their future but that's the way it goes I guess.

Sorry I don't have any pictures for you from DC!

~God Bless

"Training strength and endurance mentally, physically, and spiritually."