Today I Learned to Climb a Rope

And I have the typing-pain to prove it.  Poor, raw Jenny O hands...

Warm-Up:

x2
20 Back Extensions
20 Mountain Climbers
15 Walking Lunges
10 Hollow Rocks

WOD:

2 min/station, x2
Rope Climb
Push Ups
Sit Ups (with medicine ball)
Box Jumps (I got my wish!  Yay?)

First of all, I've never climbed a rope in my life.  Nope, not even during middle school PE (maybe I was absent that day- I don't know).  So I was both excited and intimidated by the idea of climbing a rope.  Aubrey showed me two methods- one of which I could not seem to get.  What I did immediately understand, however, was that wearing shorts was going to make it extra interesting for me- at which point Aubrey literally gave me the pants off her backside.  Pretty awesome, right?  I mean sure, she was wearing shorts underneath, but still.  (Also she is about 6 inches shorter than me, so they made for some sexy high-water action.)  So I was set for that.  Then she had me try the box jumps, which (as I mentioned) I wasn't entirely certain I could do.  I decided to try it first on the medium box, and then if I did that without killing myself give the large box a whirl.  The medium box was a piece of cake, so I took a deep breath and shocked the hell out of myself by executing a perfectly respectable jump up onto the large box (which was about 2' high, I think).  Who knew?

So there I was, full of confidence, ready to start my WOD.

They DO say first time's the charm...

Aubrey said "Go!" and I flew right the hell up that rope- it was almost easy, and I allowed myself a moment of amazed smugness (yes, that is possible- I know because I experienced it) before lowering myself back down, hand-over-hand.  And then I grabbed the rope and prepared to ascend again... and didn't.  Nor did I, on any of my subsequent tries, manage to get past the halfway mark.  Damn it.  And because Aubrey's pants were so short on me, I did to get a bit of a rope burn, but at least it was just on the ankle and nowhere else (well, my hands, but that hardly counts).

As for the box-jumps, I actually did a lot better than I'd thought I'd be able to do.  I figured I might manage ten before having to switch to the smaller box- but I did more like 23, and kept it on the large box the whole time.  I had to really push to get over twenty on the last round, an effort which made me want to fall down and vomit when Aubrey yelled, "Time!", but I did neither, so hey- go me.