That Time I Did the Murph Challenge

#CrossFit

So. I've been going to CrossFit with Carlos. In addition to everything else I do. My FitBit doesn't know what to think of me these days...

If you look closely, you'll see both Carlos and me in this pic.
(Carlos is on the far left, and I'm behind him in the tights that fade to white)
Photo from our box's website.

Carlos has been participating in CrossFit consistently since October of last year. This particular box came heavily recommended by friends and friends of friends, and they offered a free trial week. This particular sport had always fascinated me because you hear about how amazing and life-altering it can be...but it had also kind of terrified me because you hear about how much can go wrong if done incorrectly. The thought was that if all went well, this would be a great workout environment for social butterfly Carlos where he could both lift and get his cardio in with supervision + a group of other people doing it with him. One of the big draws of CrossFit is, as most people that participate in it know, the positive, encouraging atmosphere.

I did the trial week with Carlos to check them out...and found myself bummed that I could only make it in four days instead of all seven. I was really impressed with the coaches, the way they explained and supervised the different exercises, and the fact that there was no pressure to do anything you didn't feel you couldn't do. It was okay to have physical limitations, it was okay to not know how/be able to do things double unders or strict pull-ups or handstand walks from the get-go. It was awesome to see that there were scaled versions of the more difficult exercises that you could do in order to develop the strength/skill/muscles required for the more advanced movements. And so classes legit included members of all ages, all body shapes and sizes, all walks of life, who are in this together to have fun. It was exactly what you hear it's supposed to be.

That said, thanks to Trainer's conditioning, I discovered that I could do things that would have seemed impossible to me at another time (ex: wall walks) straight off the bat. And so what was supposed to be Carlos's foray into CrossFit became our foray into CrossFit because we initially both signed up! Everyone was so awesomely welcoming, both the coaches and the other members.

I then dropped out at the end of November when Trainer and I started my powerlifting training block: I was under strict orders to Not Cardio.

I had loved the box environment though and missed it. I would grill Carlos for the details of his workouts when he came home, in part to live vicariously through him but also because I was excited about the progress he was making.

And then I got cleared by Trainer for whatever cardio I wanted after the March show. There were specific days for HIIT and steady state, but I could get it done however I chose.

I started running again. And some Spinning, until the weather warmed up and I was like, "Eff indoor cardio blegh" and took 100% of my cardio workouts outdoors, still in the form of running.

After awhile you get bored of the same thing, no matter how much you love it.

Enter CrossFit.

It started out with dropping in the box a couple of times with Carlos. The coaches were so happy to see me back. So then I was kind of dropping in three days a week. And then I was telling Carlos that I officially wanted to sign up because it was more affordable to do that than just keep dropping in. And then I told him we should totally have the Unlimited membership because it was only $15 more a month.

I might have A Problem. :D

Anyway.

Some of you might remember my story about The 100 that I did last fall with Trainer's group.

It was 100 reps of each of those 10 exercises. And we had to finish the 100 reps of one exercise before we could move on into the next one...for a total of 1,000 reps for the entire workout. If that doesn't make your head spin, I don't know what does, because it certainly did mine when I first heard about it.

If you'll also remember, to my own astonishment not only did I complete the entire damn thing, I completed it first in the group and set a new record for it...while still feeling like I could have done more.

Which brings us to The Murph.

The Murph Challenge is a Hero WOD (Workout Of the Day) named after LT. Michael P Murphy, a Navy SEAL that died in Afghanistan in 2005 in a battle against the Taliban. CrossFit boxes across the US have held The Murph Challenge every Memorial Day since 2014, so it's kind of a big deal.

The Murph was LT. Murphy's favorite workout. What is it?

1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
Another 1 mile run

The rules are that you start and finish with the run, but you can mix and match the pull-ups, push-ups and squats any way you want in order to complete all prescribed reps.

Our box was, of course, hosting it along with a potluck after.

Carlos had asked me about it when he saw it written on the box board one afternoon. I didn't know what The Murph was, specifically, but I was aware that it was a Hero WOD and Hero WODs are known for being intense. So I had not bothered looking it up, assuming that it was way beyond my skill level...until we received e-mails from the box about it.

You know there's something officially wrong with me when I read the description of The Murph and said to Carlos, "Holy shit! I can do this. I can totally do this." Especially because you could mix and match the exercises while getting them done. As long as scaled versions of the pull-ups and push-ups were allowed, I was fairly certain I could do the full workout. (I'm starting to get close to getting there, but I'm not in the strict (unassisted) pull-up zone yet.)

But the 300 squats? Easy. #squatqueen And the 1-mile runs? I got this!

There were shorter versions of The Murph called The Half Murph and The 1/4 Murph, which included shorter runs and less reps for each of the exercises. I figured if push-ups and pull-ups had to be strict, I would do the Half Murph. The end goal of the event at our box was to include all fitness levels and bring all members together to both work out and hang out on a holiday, which was really cool.

I was pretty excited about the idea of being able to do a real CrossFit challenge. In fact, I was so excited that I didn't sleep much the night before! I had the excuse of staying up late after work throwing together two different dishes for the potluck. I knew a lot of people in the box do paleo, so I looked up appropriate recipes. My regular diet is close enough to paleo that I was able to make two dishes with stuff I already had at home. These are the recipes I found and whether you follow a paleo diet or not, they are pretty freaking amazing, so I'm sharing the links with you because I'm always for showing that good for you can taste incredible too! :D

Paleo almond butter cookies - they taste just like molasses cookies and really are done in 15 minutes. The main ingredients are almond butter and coconut sugar. I made two batches of them and was thrilled to see only 3 cookies left at the end of the potluck! (Which Carlos and I then fought over...lol)

Not my photo but they really did come out looking like this.

Broccoli slaw with cranberries and celery - Carlos is not particularly a veggie fan, which is why I've kind of become master at both hiding them in food and making them appealing in every way possible. He had two servings of this and asked for the leftovers. :D I followed the recipe as is, but also added a chopped Envy apple (red, crisp and sweet) and a Granny Smith apple (green, so it blended in color-wise, but added both sweetness and tartness).

Not my photo, but this is what the slaw looks like.

We arrived at the box with enough time to get settled and warm up. As it would turn out, there were several options for scaling the pull-ups and push-ups in order to complete whichever variant of The Murph we wanted to do. That's when I told Carlos, "Ok: I really am doing the full thing."

I had worn my running shoes and shorts in anticipation of the one-mile runs, and had my headphones so I could listen to music while running. I joke that I am not a real runner because without music I absolutely can't run: I've been known to cut a run short and head home because the battery on my wireless headphones died. Once home, I'll grab Carlos's headphones then head back to the park to finish my run. Yes, it's that bad!

Not many of us were doing the full mile, so we stuck together as we did the loop. I don't know if it was the fact that I was running in company (I always run alone) or if it was a mental thing: "It's only one mile, vs the four that I usually run," but I was shocked when we were making the final turn of the loop to run back into the gym. I was tracking the distance on Endomondo and did a double take when it clocked me in at 8:47 for the mile.

My average is 10 minutes for the mile. It did NOT feel like I was going that fast!

SO COOL.

On to the rest of the Murph...

I split it into circuits: 25 pull-ups, 50 push-ups, 75 squats, x 4. I did ring rows for the scaled version of the pull-ups, and modified push-ups  (on knees instead of toes).

Obviously not me. But this is what a ring row looks like.

Squats were just air squats (no weight) so no alterations there.

I ultimately had to split the push-ups and squats because doing 50 consecutive push-ups, even modified, is not what I would call a piece of cake by any means, especially when you're recruiting some of those same muscles for whatever version of pull-ups you chose to do. It was thanks to this that I was able to hit the pavement again for the second mile run with still-functional legs. The run would have been brutal if done immediately following a huge block of squats.

I slogged through that second mile though. There was only one person in front of me this time and I just paced with her enough to keep her within sight.

Once I made the turn where I could see the gym, I started accelerating, going faster and faster and faster with each stride until I was flying through the gym doors.

I was shocked to realize that even tired on leaden legs, my second mile had still been under 10 minutes:

And so I finished The Murph with a final time of 45 minutes and 6 seconds. 

This is a pretty accurate photo of how I felt!

This girl used to be chosen last for sports!

Carlos had done the Half Murph in 36 minutes and 40 seconds. The Half Murph was 800 meters, 50 pull-ups, 100 push-ups, 200 squats and another 800 meter run. Six months ago, he wouldn't have been able to complete even half of that, so that was a huge achievement for him, especially given his short history with fitness and his former exercise-induced asthma. He's worked through it all and made it this far!

So proud of him!!!

And then: FOOD!!!

When you have a large group of people that are interested in being as healthy as possible, the potluck options brought in by said people can be pretty amazeballs: there was every kind of fruit, vegetable, salad, and roasted meat that you could imagine. Along with a few boxes of Krispy Kreme and cupcakes. Lol I wish I had thought to take pics of the spread.

I piled my plate high with the healthier choices and scarfed. And also took a bite out of the Krispy Kreme donut that Carlos snagged, because why not. :D

We sat down to re-hash the event while eating, and it wasn't long before we were joined by some of the Latinos in the group. Two of them are also Puerto Rican, which makes me all sorts of inexplicably happy. We alternately spoke in English and Spanish. Some of the other members came over to talk as well, at which point we all switched to just English.

It was an awesome day.

I felt like I had come home.

Carlos took this one. He called it "The CrossFit Drum Circle."