No Crying In CrossFit

Name & location change

2011-09-29T12:09:00.000-04:00

This will be my last post from this blog -- I'm moving everything to a new URL.

For a while now I've been wondering if I should've put the word "crossfit" in my blog URL. There have been some Facebook profiles deleted recently due to their use of the word "crossfit" and I've also heard of a company having to give away shirts that had the word "crossfit" on them.

Since I just created a website to basically be my online resume as a coach/trainer, it seems like a good time to switch to a new, non-crossfit-containing URL, just to be on the safe side. :)

Hope you will come and visit me in my new space: http://ceewiss.blogspot.com

And here's my "resume" site, still VERY much a work in progress: http://coachwiss.com

Squat cleans

2011-09-19T11:52:00.000-04:00

Got to practice squat cleans in a WOD this morning.

5 rounds:
5 squat cleans (185/135)
100m sprint
10 AbMat butterfly situps

Results: 11:03 @ 95

I had a hope of using 115 in this WOD, thinking that maybe my squat clean capacity would be higher since my power clean PR went up by 10#. However, I quickly realized that until I do a ton of heavy front squat training, I won't squat cleaning more than 95 or 100 in a WOD. Stripped weight from 115 to 95 after my first 2 reps, boo.

Also had my first experience with blocking my airway with the bar on a squat clean. Woo, that was crazy! I think it's because I was using a men's bar -- that little bit of extra thickness probably threw off that delicate balance of keeping the bar on my shoulders without chocking myself.

Many of the clean felt like the flew up off the ground, and then the trouble was standing up with the bar. Again, the answer to this is heavy front squats. They are in my post-marathon strength training plan for sure.

Sunday @ Audie Murphy

2011-09-18T17:20:00.000-04:00

Went to the CF gym on base with husband today to get a Sunday afternoon workout in.

I made up a WOD that I missed last week.

Deadlift
2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2
Rest 60 seconds between sets.

Results:
115-125-130-135-140-145-150-155-160-165

Not exactly earth-shattering numbers, but I think those loads were appropriate as I'm working on dialing in new form on this lift. The true test of how well I did will be what hurts tomorrow when I wake up. If my hamstrings and glutes are as sore as my back, victory, and I can continue to get heavier. If not, then I go back to lots of reps at a lower weight and take the load up slowly.

I had a couple minutes after finishing before the gym closed, so I did 5 cycles through the bear complex with 55#: power clean, front squat, push press, back squat, push press. Love that one. :)

Kitchen WOD

2011-09-17T18:20:00.000-04:00

Modified the good old standard at home WOD today.

50-40-30-20-10 lunges (total)
25-20-15-10-5 pushups
50-40-30-20-10 butterfly AbMat situps
25-20-15-10-5 PVC OHS

Took me roughly 30 minutes. Experimented with some "hollow" position stuff on all my movements. Had a bit of an interesting feeling in my triceps during round of 15 of pushups that I think was promising. Also trying something different with my squats, to hopefully feed into a stronger bottom position in my snatch and C&J. Due to my "special" alignment issues, I think I need to take the "butt thrust" completely out of my squat, and keep my pelvis pointed straight up during the entire movement. Obviously this won't be good with a low bar back squat, but I don't intent on doing any of those for quite some time. All high bar for me for the forseeable future, Greg Everett says so, and I believe him.

5th Element and Primal Challenge

2011-09-15T13:05:00.000-04:00

First off, yesterday I published my first solo blog post for my new blog, 5th Element Fitness. OMG it made me soooo nervous!

You'd think that after ~4 years of blogging, in one place or another, that one more post wouldn't be a big deal. But this is the first time I've blogged without a psuedonym and also declared the type of stuff I'll write about. I switched over to using my real name on this blog several months ago to help me get over the anonymity hurdle. But the stress of feeling like I need to have something truly interesting and well-written before hitting "publish" is still getting to me. I almost jumped out of my chair as I clicked "Publish Post".

Check it out if you are so inclined. :)

Curiosity.

--
Also, Kelsalynn and I are attempting the 30 Day Primal Challenge via Mark's Daily Apple over the next few weeks.

In the interest of full disclosure, my current nutrition status is best described as "free for all". There was a short-lived revival of my Paleo/primal habits from Dec 2010 to Jan 2011 in order to fit into my shorts for my vacation to St. Thomas. That petered out once I returned home from my trip.

And it goes a bit deeper than just eating poorly... This past spring I began seeing a counselor because my on-off issue with binge eating (since adolescence, really) had gone completely out of control. You know the saying -- once something starts affecting your ability to live your life, it's time to get help.

My counselor suggested that I read a book -- Intuitive Eating. The book outlines a step-by-step process to follow to help retrain your behavior from unhealthy restricting or bingeing, to an intuitive way of eating. One of the concepts in the book is that placing any concept of good/bad or restriction on food is detrimental to developing a healthier relationship with food.

This concept made a lot of sense to me, and it gave me a lot to think about as I tried to implement it for myself. But since I never really went on to the next steps of the program (counseling took a bit of a different angle at my request, not my counselor being lax!), I find that I'm stuck in this mindset of "eating junk is OK, if I restrict myself it will be bad".

But I'm left weighing a lot of things in my head...

I don't want to try to start some kind of strict challenge, because I KNOW that is very likely to trigger bingeing behavior, and I do not want to cause that to happen. Things are 100% better than when I started counseling, and I do not want to have a huge setback...

However, I also am not happy with the weight that I've put on while eating "freely", which makes it really hard for me to resist the temptation to start "forcing" myself to eat Paleo again. I know that it works, and that I'd definitely lose this extra bit of weight if I started eating that way again. But even if I get the 8-10 pounds off that I am carrying, will it really be worth it in the long run if things start getting out of control again? Again and again I keep telling myself "no, not worth it".

So, back to the challenge. For me this challenge is not necessarily going to be about eliminating anything from my diet, or stopping anything, or having a list of "bad" foods that I won't eat.

It's going to be about a commitment to learn more about the practicalities of eating the way that makes me feel, perform and look great.

Of course I feel overwhelmed when I start removing foods, because as an inexperienced cook I start to feel like there's nothing I can eat. And the only way to remove those feelings of "there's no food!!" panic (which lead to bingees) is to learn to procure and prepare food that I love eating and this is healthy.

I guess the good thing is that because I never learned to cook many dishes, it's not like I'm starting over. I'm just starting fresh. Except for lasagna, I make a freaking killer lasagna. :)

--
This week I've done a few things to support my goal of learning and practicing how to feed myself great tasting and healthy foods.
- I stocked up on a bunch of healthy fruits and veggies that I enjoy snacking on -- strawberries, carrots, cucumbers, cauliflower.
- I bought jicama from the grocery store; Mel always mentions these, so I felt I should try it, just for shits and giggles. I haven't attempted to do anything with it yet...
- I made a batch of meat sauce with grass-fed beef; sauce is a staple for me, especially since I use it to cook up my famous stuffed peppers (need to make those soon). I also got a big spaghetti squash which will be good for 2 or 3 meals.
- I took fish oil today for the first time. 2 capsules and no weird burps yet, so I think I'll up to 3 tomorrow and see what happens. :)

Still more to do, but this is a start. My next priority is to get some more MEAT into my house. Learning to cook tasty protein sources is probably the number 1 way I could help myself eat healthier.

PP KBS BJ

2011-09-13T12:25:00.000-04:00

AMRAP in 20 minutes:
10 push press (115/85)
10 kb swings (1.5/1 pood)
10 box jumps (24''/20'')

Results: 6 rounds + 6 PP, Rx

The verdict -- SLOW. A better total for me would have been 8 or 9 at the Rx weight. I'm wondering if I should've scaled that down, seeing how low my score is compared to others...

I got sick over the weekend - some kind of gross sinus thing - and even though this morning it was better than it had been yesterday, I could still tell I wasn't 100%. I had no "oomph" on my dip-drive on the push presses, and failed on a couple attempts. Just didn't feel "on". Plus the PP's hit me right where I'm still fatigued from the gymnastics seminar this weekend. I definitely used every muscle in my arm and shoulder this past weekend! I'll be posting a recap of that this week sometime, or maybe this weekend.

DT

2011-09-09T14:09:00.000-04:00

Have been wanting to do this one again (first time) for a while, I was bummed that it came up on a day where I had to play it safe and not get too sore. But I mentioned to another girl after class that we should get together and grind it out at Rx weight (115) so it may still be in my future. :)

"DT"
5 rounds
12 deadlift (155/115)
9 hang power clean (155/115)
6 jerk (155/115)

Results: 8:22, 65#

I put 75# on my bar, then changed my mind and took off 5's and added 10's to go to 85. Which I tried, and realized would mess me up. At which point I was pretty much out of time for messing with my weight, so I pulled off the 10's and went. Definitely too light, but it was still a good workout -- more like a barbell complex.

Jerks were messy. I power jerked (push jerk for you CrossFitters) and was pressing out on a bunch of them. I just get wonky when I don't split jerk. But that takes too long during a CF wod.

Audie Murphy gym

2011-09-07T14:03:00.000-04:00

They opened a new gym on base where we're at, and I wanted to share some pics with friends, and this seemed like as good a place to do that as any. :) Spare my Facebook friends more CrossFit overload. :-p

--
I really should've taken a picture right as I walked in the door, but I was immediately drawn to the right side of the gym to take a picture of the rowing machines. Sorinex pullup / rack rig and a couple lifting platforms in the background.

View of the same stuff from the opposite end of the room. You can see a tiny piece of a GHD on the right side. I think there are 3 or 4?

Sleds! Along the back wall. Crash mat for ropes in the background.

Badass ropes. I might actually jump from the top on purpose just to land on that awesome mat! Let's make rope climbs like deadlifts -- back to the ground under control strictly optional. :-p

Boxes along the left wall. Tons of other agility stuff too, and also a bunch of weighted vests. I need to check those out and see if you can unload them to something less than 20#.

Weightlifting area and power cages in adjacent room. Don't know if there's any free-standing squat racks, if not, I may not be able to do much front squat or overhead focus in this gym. There doesn't seem to be enough room to back out of the power cage without tripping over the platform.

However, there is something totally amazingly awesome about this weight room -- THERE ARE TONS OF 15kg BARS!!!!! I have died and gone to weightlifting heaven. Seriously, half the bar seems to be ladies bars. Hallelujah! My current CrossFit gym only has 45# and 15# bars, so I will definitely be doing some of my weightlifting practice at this gym. I can't hook on the 45's, and I can't stand NOT to hook now that I've been doing it for so long.

More rowers in another adjacent room. Holy shit! Too bad I won't be living here during the 100,000m Christmas challenge this year. (Just looked back through my archives, and I didn't post at all about doing the challenge last year. That's probably good because I wouldn't do it again with a written reminder of how much it sucked!! :-p)

Nooner

2011-09-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

Hit the noon WOD today for the first time. Nice crowd, but they headed out pretty fast after the WOD. I still like the 9:30am group the best cause they love to chat afterwards. :)

This workout was pullup and pushup heavy, but being mindful that I'm attending the gymnastics cert this weekend, I modified. No need to show up to that class with hands too tender to even hang from the bar or rings.

AMRAP in 20 min:
25 ~~pullups~~ ring rows
50 ~~pushups~~ AbMat situps
75 squats

Results: 3 rounds + 12 ring rows

Damn, ring rows are killer! I forgot how annoying and hard they are! If I could artificially attach my hands to the bar and remove the grip elements from pullups, ring rows would be WAAAY harder, since there's no way to use momentum to help yourself up.

I focused on pulling my shoulder blades back and opening my chest, but I still felt this more in my arms than my pecs. Booo. Still figuring out the best ways to try to get those muscles activating more.

Hotel gym quickie

2011-09-07T06:17:00.000-04:00

We went house hunting for our next move in November, and flying home we were delayed overnight due to the crazy storms and tornadoes in the south. Having planned on working out at home that night, we did a quick workout in the hotel gym.

They had dumbbells, so I decided to do a modified version of Angie's birthday WOD, since I still haven't done that one. After that, I don't know if I wanna do the real one! :)

3 rounds:
16 DB hang cleans
16 DB thrusters
16 pushups

Results: 16:46 -- I used 20# DBs

Even with just the 20#s, my arms were really getting tired! It is sooooo much easier on your shoulders to rack the barbell than dumbbells.

After I finished that, husband still wasn't done so I didn't want to just sit there, but I did not want to do another rounds of thrusters. :) So I did a couple easy rounds of:

15# DB bench press
20 bicycle cruches

Since starting yoga, I've become a believer in the bicycle crunch, those things are awesome!

Launch! 5th Element Fitness

2011-08-29T14:16:00.000-04:00

Those of you who have been reading this blog for a while have probably noticed that sometimes I like to "wax poetic" and reflect on the inner journey that CrossFit / yoga / running have taken me on.

Well, today is the launch date of a new blog I'm co-authoring with a few friends -- 5th Element Fitness.

I'm excited (yet terrified!) of this new venture, because it's going to allow me to take those random asides from my workout log, and polish them into something with a true purpose.

If you check out the site, and like the concept, I would LOVE for you to link to us on your blog, or mention us in a blog post. You can also "like" our Facebook page.

We are also open to guest posts, so if you have something to say about the part of fitness that's "beyond the physical", please contact me!

I will update here when my first "solo" post goes up, which should be in the next 2 or 3 weeks. :)

Monday morning intensity

2011-08-29T13:48:00.000-04:00

The WOD we did this AM is exactly the kind of stuff that I need. Manageable work periods with some short rests built in to keep intensity high while you're moving.

7 rounds, each for reps, of:

0:30 Deadlifts, 135/95 pounds

0:15 rest

0:30 Push ups

0:15 rest

0:30 KB Swings, 1.5/1 pood

Rest 1:00 between rounds. Post total reps per round to comments.

Results: 236 Rx

Having to use the fat men's bar really made it tough for me to rep out the deadlifts. Mentally I was comparing it to that CF Games Open Sectionals WOD that had ~100# deadlifts in it. There was no chance of using hook grip, and the bar was pretty much in my fingertips the last 5 reps of every round. Didn't even think about using a mixed grip until round 5 or 6 -- duh! Tried to stick with at least 12 reps on this movement.

Pushups... ugh! Managed to bang out 4 or 5 in a row to start, then some 2's in the early rounds, and only singles in the later rounds. Average number per round was around 8.

Love me some kb swings -- but they were tough being so out of breath. Tried to hold myself to a minimum of 10 each round, and managed to get closer to 15 a couple rounds.

C&J ladder, C&J PR, metcon

2011-08-28T10:39:00.000-04:00

While I was determined not to feel bad or embarrassed about scaling my first WOD at the new gym yesterday, I can't say that I was sad when the first part of Saturday's WOD gave me the perfect chance to demonstrate my strengths. :)

Men and women went through a clean & jerk ladder. Bars were setup at 10 pound increments, starting at 65# for women, and 95# for men. Though if I remember correctly, there wasn't an 85# bar?

Results:

\65#-115# -- went up easily with good technique
125# -- somewhat crappy wide-stance catch power clean; should've squat cleaned, I was being lazy, plus I'm out of practice
135# -- another iffy landing on the clean; on this jerk my right elbow broke and I had to press it back to lockout; for this WOD it counted, wouldn't have in a competition
145# -- made two attempts at the clean, but just didn't have it; I think I may have been able to do 140#

New clean & jerk PR baby! The most I've C&J in tandem was definitely way less than 135#. And my power clean 1RM was previously 125#. Having spent the last 6 months working on fixing my back alignment, posture and control of my pelvic alignment, I'd say I was right in thinking those areas of weakness were holding me back in the past. Since I've done so little strength training or lifting in the last few months, I wonder if yoga has helped me a lot too. I'm thinking yes since my workouts have mainly been running and yoga as of late.

Metcon:
4 rounds:
100m shuttle sprint (25m segments)
10 renegade rows (1 pushup, 1 row L, 1 row R)
20 situps

Results: 13:20 w/ 25# DB round 1, 15# DB rounds 2-4

Fresh start

2011-08-26T13:09:00.000-04:00

Today was my first day at the CrossFit gym in my new city -- see linky love in the sidebar.

I scaled the WOD and I am totally OK with that.

I'm sure it's been apparent due to my lack of posting that my CrossFit workouts have been minimal to nonexistent the last few months. I really lost my fire and my purpose for doing CrossFit -- I didn't really know why I did it anymore. After I reached the point where I was Rx-ing 90% of movements in WODs, I didn't really progress much farther, and I also lost that excitement of doing new things that I didn't think I could do.

I recaptured that feeling with my marathon training, and with a totally new activity I had never done before -- yoga.

Today I decided that the next 3 months I'm living here, I'm just doing CrossFit because it's fun and I like it. I'm rebooting, restarting, resetting myself. There are a lot of stories that I have in my head about myself as a CrossFitter. I'm throwing those away. I will be whatever I want to be, and achieve whatever I want to. And if I don't *want* to do something, I don't have to beat myself up over not trying.

These next 3 months are my time to start fresh, and rebuild from the ground up. Time to get this foundation solid.

--
"Bradley"

10 rounds for time of:
Sprint 100 meters
10 Pull-ups
Sprint 100 meters
10 Burpees
Rest 30 seconds

Results: Scaled to 5 rounds, 20:40-ish (bad memory)

My blood blister / giant callous from Nicole on Monday ripped open in round 2, so the right grip went on. The left hand ripped open in round 5. I think this was caused by a combination of two things: I haven't shaved down my callouses in a week or so, and I should have after pullups on Monday. And the pullups bars are pretty rough -- good for hanging onto, bad for poor hand care.

Weigh-Ins, for posterity

2011-08-24T07:31:00.000-04:00

I got tired of these weigh-ins being listed on my side bar, but wanted to save them for posterity. So, a post. :)

This was my weight loss while following a relatively "clean" or Paleo diet, and CrossFitting on pretty regular schedule of 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off. And if you care about that kind of stuff, I'm 5'6''.

Unlike others, I didn't have 20 pounds fall off the moment I started eating Paleo. I lost a couple pounds a month, gradually. After reaching 143 in January, I actually started to gain weight back from putting on muscle. Which is just fine with me, I wasn't trying to achieve a certain number on the scale -- I just wanted to look and feel better than I did when I started. Goal achieved. :)

161.8 -- 08/05/2009

159.2 -- 08/12/2009

157.0 -- 08/19/2009

158.0 -- 08/26/2009

157.8 -- 09/09/2009

158.6 -- 09/16/2009

156.4 -- 10/07/2009

153.4 -- 10/27/2009 -8.4

154.0 -- 11/11/2009 -7.8

152.8 -- 12/11/2009 -9
148.0 -- 01/10/2010 -13.8
146.8 -- 01/20/2010 -15
145.0 -- 01/27/2010 -16.8
143.2 -- 01/31/2010 -18.6

--
This isn't necessarily a case of a dramatic visual change. I went from looking pretty average to looking fit. And more importantly, I felt awesome, had tons of energy, and gained tons of confidence by physically achieving things I didn't think I could do. Go CrossFit. :)

July 2009

Spring 2010

Later w/ more muscle - October 2010

Nicole

2011-08-23T17:46:00.000-04:00

Early Monday morning I made my second attempt at this benchmark. First attempt was a little over a year ago.

"Nicole"

AMRAP in 20 minutes:
Run 400m
Max pullups

Score is total number of pullups.

Results: 40 pullups (6 runs, 10-7-5-7-5-6)

I was pretty focused on making my runs fast and efficient, but I think with the pullups I wasn't exactly exerting my most "max" effort. Husband and I got up early to fit a workout in, and had a full day afterwards -- finishing cleaning our apartment, move out inspection, pick up car trailer, drive to our new place about 6 hours away, and start unpacking. That made it kinda hard to pour all my energy into my workout, because I knew I would need lots of energy all day.

I am sad to say that today I feel like I got hit by a truck from the waist up. OMG. My abs are sore, my elbows have a bit of tendonitis going on and let's not even talk about my shoulders. It's so funny that no matter what else you do in your time off, when you stop doing CrossFit you get soooo sore from the most benign workouts!

Husband got 87 (7 runs), and his pullups were strict, no kipping. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. He is a freakin beast. Makes me so proud to be his wife. :)

Marine Corps Marathon

2011-08-16T15:10:00.000-04:00

So, if you've been reading my blog for a while, you've probably noticed my CrossFit workouts have been pretty light lately. No, I haven't given up working out. I'm just training for a marathon. :)

On October 30th I will be running the Marine Corps Marathon to raise money for the Semper Fi Fund.

The Semper Fi Fund is a nonprofit set up to provide immediate financial support for injured members of U.S. Armed Forces and their families. We direct urgently needed resources to Marines and Sailors, as well as members of the Army, Air Force or Coast Guard who serve in support of Marine forces. The basic ideal that drives our efforts is simple: as much as these American heroes have sacrificed, they deserve the best care and support available in their hour of need. Injuries are often severe, and the road to recovery or rehabilitation can be long and costly.

My fundraising goal is $2,500, and to get there I'm looking for 125 people to donate $20 each. Please consider making a donation, any amount no matter how small will help make a difference in the life of an injured service member.

To donate, visit my Active Giving page: Team Wissmann
To read more about my training, visit my blog: Team Wissmann

Wilmot

2011-08-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

Did this one in my garage on Saturday at 5pm, and it felt like it was 200 degrees in there! After round 3, I went inside and shut the door to do my squats so I could breathe.

My ring dips are back to being a bit crappy. Shouldn't have stopped practicing them!

"Wilmot"
6 rounds:
50 air squats
25 ring dips

Results: 33:33, two skinny bands to scale ring dips

Catch-up

2011-07-07T16:28:00.000-04:00

Today
Short beach loop
Distance: 4.61 miles
Time: 53:17
Pace: 11:33/mile

I took 3 fairly long walk breaks. The sun was too hot -- I should've done this run about an hour earlier. Also, this was my first long-ish run in quite a while. Due to wildfires conditions have been really smokey here off and on for the last month. I've really lost a lot of what I built up, but hopefully I can get it back quickly with runs a few times a week.

Wednesday 7/6
Did a WOD I got from Angie.

50-40-30-20-10
kb swings (16kg)
AbMat situps (butterfly)

Results: 13:10

Would like to try this one with Russian swings and the 24kg kettlebell sometime.

Tuesday 7/5
"Fran"
21-15-9
thrusters (65#)
pullups

Results: 10:28

Not my fastest (9:10 @ Level I Cert), and not my slowest either, but only barely. The issue this time was just conditioning. My heartrate was off the charts, and that's what slowed me down the most -- catching my breath. I probably could've benefitted from someone getting in my face too. :)

Sunday 7/3
I ran for ~37 minutes and I don't the distance of my route. It felt good to be up early and outside.

Friday 7/1
Yoga, good times as always. I realized that doing the 11am class really makes a difference in how hot it feels in the room. I think it must be the sun coming in or hitting the building. I never start to feel like it's too hot to breathe in the 5pm or 6pm classes that I've taken.

Thursday 6/30
~30 minute run in the morning.

WOD @ 5:30 (only had 1 student in class, so we did the WOD together :))
4 rounds
800m run
50 air squats
then
50 hands-off pushups

Results: 30:09

Monday 6/27
Squat 12-12-12-12 @ 105

That really hurt.

Metcon:
10-1
Pullups
AbMat situps

14:56

Went mental on the pullups, eeek.

Hit yoga that night as well.

Clogged sinuses, BS & press, yoga, K2E

2011-06-07T15:23:00.000-04:00

When I brought up my blog, I thought, "I must've done something between Murph and today??"

I looked back at the blog for our gym, and yes, I did. :)

--
Wednesday, June 1
First day of our strength cycle, which I'm co-programming with my boss. Has been interesting so far, we'll see what everybody thinks when we get to the end of 5 weeks. :)

Back squat
3-3-3-3-3, working up to 90% 1RM
125-135-145-145-150(f)

No reps on that last set, I just went down, stopped, and bailed the bar behind me. Ugh, my ability to back squat heavy weights SUCKS. I wish I was as good at that as I am at weightlifting movements. The slow lifts just don't seem to make as much sense to me, maybe I have too much time to overthink it?

Press
3-3-3-3-3, working up to 90% 1RM
65-75-80-80-82

Had to go for 82 just to have the highest female numbers on the board for that one. Come one, I need one thing I can brag about. :)

--
After that workout, I pretty much succumbed to a horrible sinus infection / cold. It's actually still hanging on, though I'm at the point where working out is something I need to do to drive the bad stuff out of my body.

--
Monday, June 6
Yesterday night I went to heated power yoga, and it was great, as usual. I'm going to miss this studio and the husband-wife team that owns it and teaches the classes I take. They are great. I almost talked myself out of going, and I'm glad I just did it. It was annoying to have my nose clogged up a lot of the time, but oh well. :)

I'd like to attend this Monday night class regularly, and also Friday afternoon. I think yoga twice a week would be a great addition to the work I'm doing with my chiropractor. Gotta get myself all fixed up before I have to move away from him, too.

--
Today's workout was pretty interesting. It was an AMRAP, and the time actually went by pretty quickly, which is always a good thing. I hate WODs where the time just seems to drag on and on.

WOD:

How high up the ladder can you climb in 20 mins:

200 m Run
1 Knees-to-elbows
200 m Run
2 Knees-to-elbows
200 m Run
3 Knees-to-elbows
...

Record highest set of knees to elbows completed.

Results: 7 + 6 K2Es of my 8th round

Wow, I was really running slow for this one. And I need to get faster at knees to elbows.

I kept having these little glimmers of insight into how to string them together, without an extra kipping swing in the middle, but then I would suddenly find myself wildly swinging on the pullup bar with no clue what I was doing. I'll have to search out some videos on that, though maybe I'm on the right track and just not executing properly. I'm trying to bring my knees down as I push forward to start a new swing, and then pop out of that swing into another K2E.

Any tips from anyone reading would be appreciated! :)

Murph

2011-05-29T07:51:00.000-04:00

Husband and I joined a few of my CrossFit athletes to do Murph on Saturday morning. It was quite the hellacious experience, just like last year.

"Murph" aka "Body Armor"
For time:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 air squats
1 mile run

Partition the pullup, pushups and squats as needed. Start and finish with a mile run. If you've got a twenty pound vest or body armor, wear it.

Results: ~80 minutes -- I was laying on the ground and didn't personally look at the stopwatch, and the only time I heard said out loud was "an hour and 20 minutes". I guess that's as exact as it needs to be in that time domain. :)

This was a 10 minute PR for me. Definitely came from improvement on pullups.

Like the last time I did this, I ran a separate stop watch which I started after returning from the first mile run. I partitioned the work into 20 rounds of 5 pullups, 10 pushups and 15 squats. Having that second watch helps me gauge how well I'm doing with moving through my sets without taking too much rest.

5 rounds competed -- 9:25
10 rounds completed -- 22:59 (9 rounds completed at 20 mins)
16 rounds completed -- 42:20
20 rounds completed -- 55:38
Avg/round: ~2:45

Pullups were absolutely spot-on -- all 20 sets I did 5 reps. And they were all GOOD, chin way over. Didn't use grips or any tape, except in the last 2 sets I wore my left hand grip because my left hand ring finger callous ripped a bit. This is a huge departure from last time, when I had tape grips on both hands, and ended up ripping open a bunch of spots on my hands and fingers.

Pushups were... UGH. Every time I came to these, it was a mental battle to get them done. I think that pushups defeat me mentally more than physically. With pullups in hand these need to become a main focus. It's not as "sexy and cool" to do tons of good pushups, but so necessary...

Squats were consistent, but not fast. I only broke 1 or 2 sets for rest, and that was in the last 5 rounds.

--
I guess LT. Michael Murphy should have been my mental inspiration, but what mentally drove me to persevere and complete this workout was thinking about the American Widow Project. I had seen a post on their Facebook page in the morning before we went to meet the group to do the WOD. And I made it my goal that when I felt horrible, I would think about how lucky I am to be doing this workout side-by-side with my husband, who has come back from war safely 3 times now. I'm sure those widows would go through any amount of painful experiences to be able to spend time with their husbands again. So I dedicated my workout to them. They are the unspoken heroes that I will remember this Memorial Day.

Nancy rematch

2011-05-26T09:30:00.001-04:00

Last July I did "Nancy" as prescribed for the first time, and finished it in 26:27.

Today I took 6 minutes off my time!

"Nancy"
5 rounds:
400m run
15 overhead squats (95/65)

Results: 20:32 Rx

I think I did really well with minimizing my transition time between the runs and OHS. I could still tighten it up a bit. I also tried to run fast, but could definitely improve there. But those two elements are still where I made the improvement from last year.

All sets of OHS were unbroken except round 4. I dropped the bar at the bottom of rep #10, dropped it again on my next attempted rep, took a few seconds, then snatched the bar and got the last 6 reps. I kept telling myself the weight was only 50% of my 1RM and I should be able to hold it up all day. Seemed to work to keep me from dropping the bar. :)

Can we switch "Fran" to OHS instead of thrusters? That would be much more fun. :)

Doubling up

2011-05-25T09:00:00.001-04:00

I like to rest on Tuesdays so that I have a good 48 hours between my chiropractic adjustment and my next WOD. Seems to let things "settle" and help me keep that great "just adjusted" feeling longer.

So Wednesday I decided to double-up, and do Tuesday's WOD and Wednesday's WOD.

First I rowed a 2k for time before coaching a class at 9am.

Result: 8:38

That's only 2 seconds slower than my current PR, which I'll gladly take since I was rowing alone. I almost always go faster when there's someone next to me to "race".

After class I completed Tuesday's metcon, and then Wednesday's strength and 2 short metcons.

For time, partition reps as desired:
50 GHD situps
100 Supermans
25 handstand pushups

Results: 13:43 -- used green+blue band harness for HSPU

Has definitely been too long since I practiced HSPU. Was nice to get in the groove with just 25 total reps. My back felt tired, but not painful, with the Supermans and GHDs. Woohoo!

Bench Press: 3-3-3-3-3-3 @ 85% of 1RM, 2 min rest between sets

Results: 70#, no spotter so just worked on maintaining perfect form on each rep

Now that my low back and hips are pretty much good to go, the next problem area I'm working on with my chiro is mid-back (thoracic spine) and shoulder position. My shoulders are *very* rolled forward, which makes my head and neck too far forward instead of sitting on top of the rest of my spine. At this point my posture has been bad for so long that my pecs have shortened and tightened. I can hardly engage them in movements, or stretch them. This is probably a contributing factor in why I simply suck at pushups, and possibly a clue to my struggles transitioning through a muscle up. Working on it, and I think yoga and some extra chest work and stretches I'm doing will help.

And then two short metcons to finish off Wednesday's WOD.

For time: 100 sledge hammer strikes on tire
Results: 4:04 w/ 16# sledge

For time: 100 AbMat situps
Results: 3:37

I was in the gym all damn morning! Enjoyed having my techno girly music turned up super loud. :-D

Busy weekend

2011-05-23T12:25:00.000-04:00

Fit today's WOD in this morning between coaching and chiropractor. My adjustment is always awesome when I work out just prior.

4 rounds:
3 DB power clean (45#/30#)
16 DB split clean (alternate lead foot)
3 DB power jerk
3 DB split jerk
30 double unders

Results: 18:20, Rx

I had to drop the DBs a lot more than I anticipated, but tried to keep things in consistent chunks to regulate my rest. I tend to rest too much when I have to break up sets.

Double unders were not going well until the last round when I finally got 15 in a row. That's probably the biggest factor in how long this took me to finish.

It was a gasser, I was breathing really hard and sweating a ton! Good way to kick off the week.

--
On Saturday I ran a 5K on the beach. Didn't go for time, just ran with a friend with the only goal being to not walk. We achieved that goal, and she did great. It was great to run on the beach, I haven't actually run on the sand in quite a while.

Results: 37:30 (pace ~12min/mile)

--
Sunday evening I went to heated power yoga. God is that a tough workout. I was really struggling to keep up and do all the poses as they were being called out, and at one point the instructor suggested I take child pose. I think we were doing a warrior and my legs were just shaking so bad I couldn't stay down in it.

At the beginning of class the instructors always talk about taking child's pose if you need it, so I knew I had that option. But it honestly didn't occur to me to do it in that moment of struggle. When I did, I just felt so much relief, it was palpable. In fact I felt some tears come to my eyes!

Taking child's pose in the middle of that tough "flow" was almost like the anti-CrossFit. Maybe...

Maybe it was "anti" to my idea of CrossFit?

If I think of my "CrossFit practice", there is a lot of struggle there, toughing it out, pushing yourself to do more reps than you think you can, pushing yourself to move a load that is heavy. Yes, we do scale workouts, but I don't know if that's really a good analog for taking child's pose during yoga practice...

It may not be a concept that necessarily works in CrossFit, but it's something for me to remember in yoga. I realize as I practice yoga that I'm not as good at listening to my body as I think I am. There are things going on in my body, my posture, my alignment, that I'm not consciously aware of. But once I focus my attention there, then I can see it. Shoulders super tight and drawn up ALOT. Hips also tight in ways that I don't notice in CrossFit, because they don't impede me there. That I know of!

It's been a while since I felt totally "in my body" during a CrossFit workout, but I easily experience that when I do yoga. There's no game plan, no reps to count, no clock to beat. It's a whole different universe, and something that I've decided I really need in my life. And I didn't even know it was missing!

CrossFit Total

2011-05-19T14:04:00.000-04:00

This was only the second time I've done this workout. The first time was way back in January 2010, so about a year and a half ago.

Jan 2010 results:
Squat - 155
Press - 80
Deadlift - 185
Total: 420

Those numbers were after 6 months of training the barbell lifts. Not too bad, when you look at it from that perspective. At that point I was Rx-ing or close to Rx-ing the majority of barbell movements in CrossFit WODs, except those with deadlifts. I was just able to do a few unassisted pullups, but still struggled with other gymnastics / body weight movements.

Fast forward to today. 18 more months of training, so a total of (approximately) 2 years of total barbell training.

May 2011 results:
Squat - 160
Press - 90
Deadlift - 190
Total: 440

--
At first glance when I made the comparison between 2010 and today, I was pretty disappointed. Only 20 pounds more after 18 months?

So I wanted to think about the path my training has taken, and reflect a little bit. Feel free to stop reading now, this is mostly for me. :)

Despite only gaining 10 pounds in the press, my upper body strength has absolutely exploded as a whole. On multiple occasions I've completed 100 pullups or more in a single workout. It may have taken me twice as long as others, but I still completed each one. Pushups have been up and down, but on the whole I'm much stronger. Same story with ring dips.

I've fixed my squat. The butt wink that I got called out on during my Level I cert in March 2010 is now gone. I still struggle a little with keeping hamstrings tight in the bottom, especially switching back and forth between low-bar and Olympic high-bar and front squats. But it's all good. Reading Rip's book "Starting Strength" is helping me even more in this area. Knowledge is power.

The back pain I began suffering from in September 2010 led me to perfect chiropractor for me, and has completely changed the alignment of my legs and hips for the better. My posture from the waist down is completely revamped, and now we're working hard on the mid-back and neck. I know these changes are going to allow me to get even stronger in the end, even though my injury prevented me from lifting anything heavier than ~125# between September 2010 and February 2011.

The time taken off due to my back set me back more mentally than anything - obviously since my squat and deadlift both went up by 5, but didn't go down. The experience of lifting a heavy weight isn't just physical, it's mental. My brain is currently used to moving very manageable loads, and I've lost some ground in dealing with the "holy shit this is crazy heavy" feeling when moving a barbell. But I know it's just a matter of time and commitment to getting back my mental focus so that I can finally start getting stronger. Now that my body is ready, I will make my mind ready, and then shit is gonna take off!

So, I guess what I really proving to myself with all of this is that I didn't "waste" 18 months because my CF Total only went up 20 pounds. I accomplished a lot in that time, and learned a lot of really valuable lessons. And I've been learning to become a better coach, which is a super-high priority goal for me.

I don't want to get sucked into that numbers trap, where my numbers absolutely define me. Or where I am only worthwhile as a person if I have amazing numbers. There's more too me than just simple metrics.

Long loop

2011-05-18T08:15:00.001-04:00

Ran my long loop out along the beach for the first time since March, and it felt great! I'm so happy to be living on an island where I can see the ocean from my running route. :)

Distance: ~5.5 miles
Time: 52:54
Pace: 9:37

Bodyweight WOD

2011-05-16T15:39:00.000-04:00

I thought the WOD today would be something I could quickly fit in between coaching and my chiropractor appointment. I took me nearly 5 minutes more than I would've liked. Too slow on pullups, and I just basically suck at pushups. Alot. This does not bode well for doing Murph in two weeks...

WOD:
1000m row
air squat x 80
sit up x 60
push up x 40
pull up x 20

Results: ~17:00

Randy on Friday

2011-05-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

Couldn't resist that joke.

Did this WOD by myself after coaching my kids classes. Nearly 3 hours of kids of all ages, and I'm beat, but I needed to work out some frustrations.

"Randy"
75 power snatch @ 55#

10:43

Sooooo slooooow.

Broke this up in 5 sets of 15, mentally. First set of 15 took 1 minute. Obviously the pace slowed dramatically from there...

My snatches felt absolutely crappy. With no one watching, I'm not sure how bad they actually were. Time to get back to weightlifting practice now that I've banished my crazy back pain. I need to regain all the technique I had built up before the back went crazy.

The great thing is, whatever my chiro did, it not only got rid of my "tweak", I also have a lot less low back pain after workouts now. Woot! :)

Wednesday is endurance day

2011-05-11T12:44:00.000-04:00

That's the new trend in our programming -- Wednesday's WOD is always a long endurance WOD.

Did this one solo after coaching the 9am class.

WOD:

3 rounds:
800m run
200m backwards run
30 1-arm kettlebell swings
10 chest to bar pullups

Results: 31:32, 16kg kb, "regular" pullups

I just didn't have C2B's in me today. In fact, my kipping skills were pretty much zero on the first round. Thankfully my brain kicked back in during round 2 and those 10 went a lot faster. Longest set was only 3 in a row, so not my best pullup day. Thank god there were only 30 total...

I like 1-arm swings -- I wouldn't mind if we did them more.

My hamstrings were singing on the run, from the squat workout yesterday. I'm glad this week's squat workout didn't cripple me like last week's. That sucked.

Back squat, push press

2011-05-10T22:25:00.000-04:00

Strength day today. Good way to get back in the groove after vacation.

And yes, Angie, I am going to do your birthday WOD soon! :)

WOD:

Squat: 5-5-3-3-2-2
Push Press: 5-5-3-3-2-2

Results:

Squat: 125-135-145-145-150
Push Press: 95-110-115-115-120(x1)

I didn't perform the second double on either movement, because somebody wrote the WOD on the whiteboard with only 1 "2" in the rep scheme. Oh well! I was pretty much beat on each of the doubles I did, so I didn't need more to make the WOD harder!

Here's a picture of my little section of whiteboard. In orange are the numbers that I looked up from a weightlifting chart, based on my 1RM max. I screwed up, and looked up numbers for 135 on push press, even though my 1RM is 130 -- hence the smaller numbers I wrote in.

100 back squats - aftermath

2011-05-08T22:56:00.000-04:00

My lack of WODs for the past week is directly due to that MF'er I did on Monday -- 100 back squats at 50% 1RM. Thank god I had subs for most of my classes last week, due to my husband being on leave, because I couldn't walk right, let alone demo any movements until nearly Friday. I was seriously crippled.

And I was pissed because I had planned to take my husband to a power yoga class Wednesday night, but I was too sore to go to it. :( BOOOOO!

Though I think this means 2 things.
1. I need to squat heavy more often
2. I need to seriously consider ice baths after WODs that I know are going to crush my legs

--
In an effort to relieve my pain, I did the WOD on Wednesday AM. Also, I only had 1 student come to class, and I thought some "side-by-side" coaching would work well for the WOD. Especially since I really wanted to make some detailed observations of her rowing and running, as those are areas where she struggles. And I'm glad to say we had a great session, and got some ideas for things for her to work on. :)

WOD:
3000m Row
1.5 mi run

Results: ~35:00, row was ~13:00, definitely didn't push very hard on the row or run

Valley Forge Park loop

2011-05-08T22:46:00.000-04:00

I'm visiting family up north, and went running with the husband on my favorite trail at Valley Forge National Park. I used to do it weekly when I lived in the area -- great scenery, and killer hills!

The loop is about 5.5 miles, and I ran it in 51:49.

That's a pace of 9:25 minutes / mile.

Woot! One long run per week is really making a difference. I'm hoping it will get my pace down below 9 minutes per mile.

I don't think I've mentioned it here before, but I'm running the Marine Corps Marathon in October. To help me train, I'm doing a Jeff Galloway training program this summer and fall -- one of my new CrossFit athletes is a Galloway coach, and swears by it. I think it's a great plan to go into the marathon feeling confident about finishing, and from what I've read, it's also good at preventing / reducing running injuries.

100 back squats

2011-05-02T13:53:00.001-04:00

Seriously, that was the first part of the WOD today.

WOD 1:
100 Back Squats @ 50% of 1RM
- Take breaks as needed
- Score is load and # of sets needed to complete 100 total squats

Results: 80#, 3 sets (50, 35, 15)

O. M. G. That set of 50 was horrific. Followed closely by the set of 35. But I really really really wanted to finish in 3 sets, so I pushed myself pretty hard.

My most recent back squat 1RM was 155 (which lines up with my 5x3 @ 140 recently). So while I "technically" used the right load, I think I could've gone heavier...

WOD 2:
Run 400m, then rest 2 minutes.
3 rounds.
Score is slowest 400.

Results:
1st: 1:45
2nd: 1:50
3rd: 1:43

Wow, was I really wobbly during the first run! I actually felt decent on the 2nd two runs, just had to push myself more on the breathing side of things, than the "my legs hurt" side of things. But that's pretty typical for me.

Good WOD to start the week. :)

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.6

2011-04-30T11:39:00.000-04:00

Thank god this is over! I think 6 weeks was too long (and especially 7 weeks was WAAAY too long). I think 4 weeks would be perfect.

WOD:
AMRAP in 7 minutes thruster / C2B pullups ladder
3 / 3 then add 3 each round.

My score was 51 -- I got finished with 12 thrusters and did 3 CTB pullups before time was up. Ripped a bit of skin off my palm on one of those last 3 pullups. Very happy my hands only succumbed on the last WOD. :)

My only "do over" moment was resting during the set of 12 thrusters. Should've done all 12 -- I rested after 9 and then did 3 more. I also didn't squat clean any of my first thrusters in that round.

Sunny morning run

2011-04-27T08:17:00.000-04:00

I seem to be making it a habit of running on Wednesday mornings. I like it. :)

Thought about doing CrossFit today, but with heavy deadlifts and burpees on the menu, I didn't think those were a recipe for success on this week's CF Games Open workout. My shoulders are still sore from Lynne on Monday, and the last thing I need is a sore low back before tackling the ladder Fran from hell...

According to MapMyRun, my route was 3.62 miles -- I did a slightly longer loop than last week. I finished in 35:33, which is a pace of 9:49/mile. Slightly faster than last week, so I'll take it. :)

Row, Run and Whip

2011-04-26T12:45:00.000-04:00

"Whip" is the word I always use to describe how to move the jump rope on double unders. :)

WOD:
10 rounds:
Row 250m
Run 200m
20 double unders

Results: 37:16

My DUs were back today -- there were only a couple rounds where I didn't get 20 at a time. Makes me even more pissed about how the week 1 workout went down!! Argh!

Note to self -- don't attempt to do DUs in your lifting shoes again. I think that factor highly contributed to my craptastic DUs in that WOD.

Lynne

2011-04-25T20:30:00.000-04:00

Never did this benchmark before, so it's good I got a baseline on it.

"Lynne"
5 Rounds for max reps of:
Bodyweight bench press
Pull ups

Score is total reps.

Results: 61 reps, 95# and kipping pullups

As you can see, my husband is a freaking beast. Craziness! And those are all deadhang pullups to boot.

Husband wanted me to do 105#, but when I tried it, I crapped out on rep 2. So I counted that attempt as a warm-up, and dropped down to 95#. Not quite ready to go heavy on bench press until I practice it a bit more...

I can't find it recorded anywhere in the blog, but I think I tested my bench press 1RM over the summer, and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of 120-130#. Just for future reference...

Dumbbells for CFFB

2011-04-23T15:38:00.000-04:00

My gym programmed a CFFB WOD for today, so I did that on my own this afternoon while husband did his thing. That's about as close as husband and I get to working out together. :)

Complete 4 rounds:

Each round consists of 6 cycles of the following:
DB Hang Power Clean
DB Front Squat
DB Push Press
DB Lunge RT
DB Lunge LT

*Do not set the weight down during the 6 times through the cycle.
*Rest as needed between rounds.
*Go up in weight each round to perform the heaviest round possible.

Results: 25#, 27.5#, 30#, 32.5#

Our CF gym is inside a "globogym", so that's why I had access to weird dumbbell weights.

I probably could've pushed the weight a bit more, but honestly it's Saturday and I just didn't feel like it. :-D

And we also ran the mile to and from the gym. :)

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.5

2011-04-22T08:30:00.000-04:00

AMRAP 20
5 power clean (100#)
10 toes to bar
15 wall ball (14# to 9' target)

Results: 5 rounds + 5 + 7

Had more important stuff to think/care about this morning than CrossFit. That kind of attitude never bodes well for a good performance... Not as much of a bomb as Week 1, but it felt worse...

Morning run

2011-04-20T11:43:00.001-04:00

Just felt like running when I woke up this morning. Fit a quick one in before I had to coach at 9am.

Finished the loop at 29:51, and according to MapMyRun.com, it was 2.89 miles.

Pace was 10:19 / mile.

Press Doubles

2011-04-18T15:51:00.000-04:00

Strength day - strict (shoulder) press.

Barbell warm-up:
8 x 45
8 x 55

WOD: 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

Results: 85-85-85-85-85-85-85-85(x1)-80-80

I picked 85 to start, since my strict press 1RM has been oscillating between 90-95 for over a year now. But I think I shot too low -- coach said that a "true" 2RM would be do-able for about 4 sets. Next time we work press, I need to remember to use the small increment kilo plates we have. That will allow me to figure out a more exact measure of my max than 5 pound increments. Some 1lb plates would be nice too...

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.4

2011-04-15T15:56:00.000-04:00

This WOD was one that I considered doing a second time, but when Sunday rolled around I just didn't have the motivation to try to do that many burpees faster, so I would have more time for OHS.

As many reps and rounds as possible in 10 minutes:
60 bar-facing burpees
30 OHS (120/90)
10 muscle-ups

Results: 60 + 13 OHS

Did OHS in sets of 6 + 6 + 1. *Very* ugly snatches to get the bar up, including some press-out. Yuck! The only thing that hurt on the OHS was my wrists.

Fight Gone Bad

2011-04-13T14:30:00.000-04:00

I'm so glad I broke out of my workout slump yesterday. My husband met me at the gym on his way home from work to do "Fight Gone Bad" -- I was already there after coaching at 5:30.

I ordered my exercises as show in the picture, just so I would be doing it like my athletes did. I've only ever done it as: box jump, SDPH, wall ball, row, push press. Yes, somehow I've only done FGB twice, and yesterday was the second time.

Result: 249, PR!

Previous score was 232.

I think for my next goal I'd like to get 260.

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.3

2011-04-12T16:03:00.000-04:00

5 min AMRAP of:
Squat clean (50kg)
Jerk

Results: 10 rounds + 1 squat clean

The week 3 WOD was the first one where the CrossFit "powers that be" really started excluding athletes. Which made me sad. It was absolutely joyous when one of my newer athletes deadlift 100 once for a new PR, and a score of 1 rep on the week 2 workout. Alas, a clean of 110 is definitely something that requires a decent amount of strength and skill to attempt, not for the average newbie...

What was funny to me was that I had the best score of all the females at our gym. And what I got wasn't even half of what the best ladies out there put up on the board! I got to witness some truly amazing performances at my CrossFit Kids Cert this weekend -- I'm talking 25 to 30+ rounds. I love being around STRONG women! So inspiring. :)

Not to mention my girl Steph got 24 rounds + 1 squat clean. How amazingly awesome is that! I am in awe. :)

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.2

2011-04-12T15:56:00.000-04:00

Ooops, never posted about this WOD. Consider this to be me "catching" up. I haven't really done much outside of the Games WODs in the past 2 weeks.

AMRAP in 15 minutes:
9 deadlifts
12 pushups
15 box jumps

7 rounds + 6 deads

The deads were a lot easier than I thought -- but then again, I have an unnatural fear of them after doing high reps at too high of a weight. This weight was easy, once you got past the first one starting off the next round. All unbroken.

Pushups sucked sucked sucked, as expected. Was down to 1, 2 and 3 at a time by round 3. This was where I took my "rest".

Box jumps -- tried not to pause at all. On the 7th round, my right shoe came untied, so I kicked it off, did 1 or 2 jumps with 1 shoe, then kicked the other one off too. My judge was like "WTF!?" hehehe I'm thinking I could've done all 9 deads without the shoe issue. On a redo I might've been up for 8 rounds. I wasn't willing to try. :-)

Murph-esque

2011-03-29T22:20:00.000-04:00

I didn't think I would workout today, but with only 2 athletes in the 530 class, I decided to do the WOD with them.

It was basically Murph, or at least the middle section of Murph.

WOD:
Run 800m
21 OHS (135#/95#)
2 rds "Cindy"
15 OHS
4 rds "Cindy"
9 OHS
6 rds "Cindy"
3 OHS
8 rds "Cindy"
Run 800m

Results: 66 minutes; 65# OHS; 1/2 knee pushups

While I didn't have it in me to do 200 Rx pushups tonight, I'm pretty happy with doing 100 unassisted pullups. No rips in my hands, either. Good stuff.

My back felt a little sore as I started, which freaked me out on the two long sets of OHS, but then the pain completely went away.

Mud Run

2011-03-28T13:19:00.000-04:00

Saturday I did a mud run that raised money for multiple sclerosis. Even though it was for a good cause, and by doing it I was helping out a friend, it still just sucked!

I had a lot of theories about why I had such a bad time at my first mud run, but this one clinched it -- I just hate them, no extra reasoning or logic required. The chick who tries everything has finally found something that's a major turn-off.

And it's not that I'm a super girly-girl, far from it. But purposefully submerging into muddy water several times, and then feeling nauseous when you finish because you probably swallowed some amoebas? Not for me.

Getting your feet wet on purpose and then running 6-7 miles? Not for me.

My attitude was not helped by the fact that I still felt like shit (a la Thursday's pitiful attempt at the sectionals WOD), and was the slowest person and only female on the team I was with.

Oh well, I'm just glad it's over, and honestly I don't even care what our time was!

--
I felt so beat down on Sunday that I skipped the sectionals WOD do-over, and my score is officially 2 rounds + 24 DUs. Oh well. Maybe I'll get the chance to redeem myself in the next 5 weeks. We'll see what CF HQ comes up with.

--
Still feeling like crap today, so I'm taking it easy again. I am going to take the dog out for a super-long walk this afternoon just to get my legs stretched out. I had an adjustment at the chiropractor this morning, and that helped some. Back to WODs tomorrow.

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.1

2011-03-25T21:46:00.000-04:00

I finally did this workout on Friday. The day after I swung the 24kg kettlebell 85 times, plus some other kb fun.

Probably not my best idea...

Results: 2 rounds + 26 DUs

In short, I blew it on the double unders. I did the snatches all 15 in a row both rounds, no problem at all. First round of DUs was pretty smooth -- and why not, they're easy when you're fresh. Starting the 2nd round, I spent minutes doing single DUs, and missing tons of DU attempts. It was as if I regressed back to a time when I couldn't do DUs at all. OMG!

If I can find another coach at my box to judge me, I will attempt a redo on Sunday. I have a mud run to do on Saturday, so hopefully I'm not in the same boat again -- trying to do the WOD while super-sore from the day prior...

Even if I don't get a new score for the "official" CF Games, I will do this again, and DO BETTER!

Heavy kettlebells are fun

2011-03-23T21:16:00.001-04:00

Took Tuesday as a rest day, cause I was pretty sore from my heavy squats and (somewhat) heavy power cleans.

Wednesday it was back to the fun times. I kinda sand-bagged the deadlift portion of the WOD -- still kinda antsy about reintroducing heavy deadlifts, but I went for it on the heavy kb swings, cause I love those. :)

Strength: deadlift 3x5 at 80-85% 1RM

Results: 95-105-125

I've been working on hip position on my return, and am feeling a lot more confident. My natural lordosis (forward hip inclination / "booty pop") has made it a long process for me to learn how to "flatten" my back, instead of hyperextending my lumbar spine. The "stick your butt out" cue is basically over-kill to someone like me -- it's out all the time already!! hehe

All I can say is, thank god for my wonderful coach Doug who is so patient with me, and gives me so much great advice and guidance. With him helping me, I finally have hope that someday I will make it to that 1.5 x bodyweight deadlift. :)

WOD

KB SWINGS 32/24 KG

30 REPS FIRST MINUTE- NEXT MINUTE OFF- FIVE TIMES

GOES DOWN LIKE THIS: YOU MUST DO 30 REPS THE FIRST MINUTE, REST THE SECOND MINUTE, 30 REPS THE THIRD MINUTE, REST THE FOURTH MINUTE, AND SO ON FOR FIVE WORK SETS TOTAL. KEEP TRACK OF ANY MISSED REPS AND PERFORM BURPEES AS A GROUP AT THE END OF THE WOD.

ANY MISSED REP EQUALS A PENALTY OF 3 BURPEES...

Results: using the 24kg kettlebell, and swinging it American-style, I completed 85 total swings: 20-20-15-15-15

So my penalty should've been 195 burpees. I did 40-ish. We ended up capping the burpee penalty for some, especially those who can gone outside their comfort zone with a truly heavy kb.

The hardest part of this WOD for me was just hanging onto the kettlebell at the bottom. Especially swinging overhead, holy crap did that thing pick up speed on it's way down.

After doing this WOD in the morning, I coached in the afternoon, and was messing around with my athletes. I swung the 32kg twice in a row to eye-level, and did about 5 1-armed swings of the 24kg on each arm, also eye-level. Now that was fun! I know, I know -- it is messed up to get some much enjoyment out of swinging giant cannonballs with handles. :-p

EMOM 10

2011-03-21T12:26:00.001-04:00

Slightly modified the posted WOD for today.

Each minute, on the minute, for 10 minutes:
Perform 2 power cleans
Perform 1 seated box jump

Power clean load should be 70-80% of 1RM.
Box jumps should start from a parallel seated position, with a jump to the highest box possible.

Instead of box jumps, I attempted to do 15 double unders. Since I still haven't done my week 1 sectionals WOD, I might as well do as much DU practice as possible before I do.

I got 15 in a row the first round, but things were up and down the rest of the time. A few rounds I only got 3-6 before the minute ended. By minute 5, I readjusted my goal to 10, but I didn't even get that for the whole WOD.

But it was still great practice. In the last 2 minutes I started messing around with the "flat footed forward pop" technique -- you know, where you pop up and don't bend your knees much? And to my surprise, I actually got some that way. I've tried it in the past with no luck. It definitely takes a lot less energy than my current style of "high knees in front", so I think I'll consider doing that style in the sectionals WOD. It's also easier to land lightly when you don't jump as high.

Power cleans were at 95#. Felt good to move heavy weight.

My legs are sore from cleans, and squats yesterday. Yay! My hips and back were a bit tight, but I had an amazing session with my chiro after working out, and those areas are feeling nice and loose now -- he's my hero!

Back squat 5x3

2011-03-20T15:18:00.000-04:00

For my warm-up I did a mini-WOD.

15-10-5
knees to elbows
pushups
pullups
AbMat situps

After a week off, I felt like my heart rate spiked up super-fast even with these simple movements, and resting between movements. I'm glad I decided to take advantage of the week-long extension and do my first Games WOD after I take a few days to get back in the groove.

WOD was back squat, 5x3, at 90% of 1RM.

With a 1RM of 155, that's 140. While looking up my 1RM I saw that I struggled on a WOD with 5 rounds and 3 back squats per round at 135, so I wasn't sure if I could use 140 or not...

Warm-up:
45x5
95x3

Working sets:
125x3
135x3
140x3
140x3
140x3

I was very happy to do 140x3 three times. My biggest challenge was the rack position -- I did low-bar squats today, and my arms felt weird and numb? But I didn't know if I could deal with that much weight in the high bar position -- I'll have to experiment to find out.

Yay heavy squats! :)

Sickies and links

2011-03-18T13:02:00.000-04:00

Well, my last workout was on Tuesday morning. I was all pumped up for attempting to PR on "Helen" on Wednesday morning, since I had just gotten 12 kipping pullups in a row. But alas, the sickies set in Tuesday afternoon. :(

I might've tried to push through it, but my husband came home from work SUPER sick, vomiting and chills and lots of nasty stuff. Seeing him I feared for what would develop if I didn't rest!

So I've been resting all week, though surprisingly I feel a bit worse this morning? But still just congested, tired and headache-y. Nothing horrible, so maybe I've dodged the bullet.

I will be as ready to do the first sectionals WOD tomorrow as I can be! Yesterday I did a couple 55# snatches after judging some of my athletes, and tonight I'm going to practice DUs and try out a speed rope before judging a few more.

--
Here's a backlog of links that I've been building. I haven't shared any in quite a while, so enjoy or ignore, whichever is your habit. :)

--
Stuck in the SUCK

"We all have stuck in the suck moments. Not the moments where life is difficult externally, but the moments where internally we feel like it’s difficult regardless of what’s really happening. Moments where we lose presence and our highest possible selves cannot be expressed. Those moments are just as much a part of life as the moments where we transcend and achieve."

--
Earning your body versus punishing your body

"Stop hating your body, it is not your bodies fault that it isn’t what you want it to be. Embrace what it is. Find out what it can DO. You may be the perfect built to be a weightlifter, you maybe you’d be a really good swimmer. You might be a natural dancer or martial artists. You might love to cycle. Go rockclimb, or do parkour. Run if you want to run. Do something that has a built in reward. Stop punishing your body because it doesn’t fit a mold you want it to."

--
I posted about Kallista before. She still rocks.

Two-Time Games Vet At 17: Kallista Pappas

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"Yoked"

"I got strong for my life. I discovered my life. I found my muscles and I found my voice. "

"I used to look at that girl and wish I was her. I used to look at that girl and think I could never do that, that it was ridiculous, that it was impossible. It was impossible for me. ... But not anymore. No more baggy t-shirts for me. No more being held in place. I went and got strong."

--
Go Easy on Yourself - practicing self-compassion will improve your life

“Self-compassion is really conducive to motivation,” Dr. Neff said. “The reason you don’t let your children eat five big tubs of ice cream is because you care about them. With self-compassion, if you care about yourself, you do what’s healthy for you rather than what’s harmful to you.”

H/T Stephanie
--
Why Running is Important, by Blair Morrison

"Last, psychologically, running teaches you how thin the walls are between optimal and sub-optimal performance. Lifting weights you often reach a point where you literally cannot do another rep, where your muscles have actually failed and there is nothing you can do about it. At this point, your mind gets a break. It’s off the hook... on vacation. This can’t happen in running. You can always take another step therefore your head never gets a rest (incredible ironman Youtube footage notwithstanding). To get better in this discipline you have to improve your toughness. Period. And that flows over into everything else you do."

By Land & By Sea

2011-03-15T11:55:00.000-04:00

Neat WOD title, huh? Reminds me of "The Viking" from CrossFit Camden. Which is appropriate since Doug programmed this WOD, and he is, in fact, a descendent of the vikings. Seriously! I prefer being Irish. :-p

Did this one on my own after coaching the AM classes. I was so glad I had my iPod armband in my bag from the race this weekend, that helped me keep my intensity up.

"By Land & By Sea"
Row 1000m
Run 800m
Row 750m
Run 600m
Row 500m
Run 400m
Row 250m
Run 200m

Results: 26:47

Not awesome, and not horrible - I'm fine with that.

Rolled out and used the band a ton after the WOD. Also tried this MWOD for calves, since mine get sore so often. Holy crap did it hurt -- more on the left side than the right. That is my "tight" side according to the chiro, so I'm not surprised.

--
After the WOD I set a new kipping pullup PR -- 12 in a row! Last week I did 10, and thought that was freaking awesome. And this week I've got 2 more! I'm still not as good with stringing them together during WODs, but I'm more hopefully about that getting better now that I'm able to get more in a row just in practice.

Woot!

I'm thinking an update to my "kipping pullup progress" video is in order. Maybe for that I can bust out 15. :-D

Kipping Pullup Progress - Nov 09 to Jan 10 from c wiss on Vimeo.

--
Anybody else doing the OPEN sectionals? I am doing my best to help our affiliate get a team spot at regionals, so hopefully nothing comes up in the workouts that will cause me to DNF. Fingers crossed...

My athlete profile

Gate River Run 15K

2011-03-14T18:00:00.000-04:00

No, that's not a typo in my blog title -- I ran a 15K on Saturday morning.

A 15K with a 2 mile hill. The top of the hill is also the mid-point of a very long, and tall, bridge.

Yes, I did lay down on the ground for a little while after I (finally) crossed the finish line.

Here's my stats:

5K 00:33:15

10K 01:06:43

Chip 01:42:54

Final 01:47:32

Pace 00:11:05

A far cry from my hoped-for pace of 10 minutes/mile -- but hey, what do you expect when you haven't been doing any high mileage training runs? I did do a 5.5 miler last weekend, and I'm glad I did because I think it really cut down on my post-race soreness.

To help combat soreness, I also spent about 30-45 minutes with my lacrosse balls, stretch bands and yoga mat in the parking lot after the race. I still felt pretty tight even after doing all that on race day, but today is 2 days after and I'm feeling pretty much fine. Yay for no DOMS!

WIdow Maker

2011-03-08T11:37:00.000-05:00

Pulled this WOD from CrossFit King of Prussia.

"Widow Maker"
AMRAP in 15 minutes
5 burpees
10 box jumps (20'')
15 double unders

Results: 8 rounds

Was very happy with my result. I was absolutely miserable pretty much the entire time, and had the lung burn too. Hopefully this is helping get my cardio conditioning back where it needs to be!

And this was another day where I was very happy I spent the time learning double unders, so I'd have them when I needed them. I think I only got 2 or maybe 3 rounds with unbroken DUs, though -- I was just so damn winded and my legs were tired!

Allie

2011-03-07T11:30:00.000-05:00

Pulled this WOD from CrossFit Camden. It's a great test of stamina and endurance.

"Allie"
400m run
20 pullups
400m run
15 wall ball shots (14#)
400m run
10 burpees
400m run
5 tire flips

Results: 11:50-ish

Felt the lung burn, so I know I pushed myself -- that was my main goal.

My previous time for this was around 14 minutes, but I think the 400m run at C2 is a bit short.

Run

2011-03-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

Today I simply ran.

We moved into a new place, and I'm finally able to run loops of several miles without any annoying turn-arounds. There's nothing I hate more than an "out and back".

Distance: ~5.5 miles
Time: 53 minutes

Back at the track

2011-03-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

Another Thursday morning at the track.

Didn't time this one.

4 rounds:
400m run
15 double unders
15 goblet squats (45# kb)
30 Abmat situps
10 pushups

Learn and play new sports: Highland Games edition

2011-02-28T11:00:00.001-05:00

Well, my dear blog readers, I am excited to report that I've added another new sport to my "repertoire", in addition to weightlifting.

THROWING HEAVY SHIT!

On February 19th I had my first exposure to the throwing events that make up the Highland Games.

The local community of throwers always organizes an athlete clinic the Saturday prior to the yearly games held in the area -- Northeast Florida Scottish Highland Games and Festival. It was a pretty good time, and I really learned a lot!

Then this past Saturday, the 26th, it was time for the real deal. I was excited, but nervous, because several events had not gone very well in practice. In particular, caber toss and sheaf toss.

In the end I was able to complete a successful attempt in each of the 7 events, which is awesome for my first games. Woohoo!

Here are some pictures. :)


Practice session -- Weight for height event

Stone - setup

Stone - release

Hammer - going...

Hammer - GONE!

Sheaf toss

Weight for height

Caber Toss

--
For my "memory" here's a score sheet I put together for myself.

As for the "approximations" of my scores, that's a lesson learned -- next time I will pay more attention to what the judges call out, now that I know you don't get a personal scoresheet at the end. :)

28# heavy weight for distance: ~21'
14# light weight for distance: ~23' (need lots of work here)
Stone throw for distance: ~21'
12# hammer throw: ~44'
28# weight over bar: made 8', 9' and 10' throws; hit bar twice at 11'
Sheaf toss: made 8', 10', missed big time on all 3 attempts at 12'
Caber toss: got one good pick and got a 15 degree toss/turn/not sure what the right word is. So excited about that because I didn't think I'd even be able to pick it up at all!

Filthy Fifty

2011-02-27T20:30:00.000-05:00

Hit this WOD on a whim Sunday night. Husband has a weird issue going on with his shin, so I took him over to the "satellite" gym to use the rower for his running substitute. He's addicted to running, so complete rest is not an option for him.

Filthy Fifty was on the board for Friday, and some other peeps had come in and done it on Sunday. So we modified it for him, and I did it "regular".

Filthy Fifty
50 box jumps (20'')
50 jumping pullups
50 kettlebell swings (1/2 pood - 16kg)
50 walking lunge steps
50 knees to elbows
50 push press (35#)
50 back extensions (did supermans, no GHD for me yet)
50 wall ball shots (14#)
50 burpees
50 double unders

Results: 45:29 (includes a potty break during DUs :-p)

This WOD and I just do not get along. Especially the part where I'm supposed to do 50 K2Es. I think I spent about 15 minutes doing K2Es, and 30 minutes doing everything else. Seriously.

Low points:
- K2Es were not only agonizingly slow with small sets of 2s, 3s and 4s, but there weren't even close to Rx with my knees touching triceps most of the time; I have a lot practice to get "Rx" on this WOD...
- Back extensions -- still afraid of getting on the GHD for fear of triggering renewed back/hip pain...

High points:
- 50 unbroken kb swings
- 25-15-10 wall balls; this is an epic improvement for me on those
- push press felt light, wish I had gone for unbroken
- double unders -- every minute of practice I did to get these is worth it when I breeze through them in a wod

First day out at the track

2011-02-24T10:00:00.020-05:00

I'm behind on posting, so I'm "back dating" this and a few others this morning. :)

--
Thursday mornings from here on out will be spent at the track on base getting FASTER. I'm so lucky to have two wonderful friends who are willing to meet up with me and keep me accountable.

Often I let myself get into the mindset that I'm strong and slow, and that I'm OK with that. But that's not true.
I know I have the genetic ability to be fast, because I trained my way to a sub-6 minute mile while running high school track. And my 800m was somewhere in the neighborhood of 2:40. Does that sound slow to you? Or sound like I'm an athlete that just doesn't have the genetic gift of enough fast twitch fiber? Yeah -- that would be a no.

And I know I'm not OK with being slow. It drives me crazy!

So it's time to buckle down, and get fast again.

--
WOD:
10 rounds
100m sprint
10 burpees

Results: ~17 minutes

I'm not sure that I managed to sprint on each run, but I did maintain good POSE form to try to foster some speed in my feet, and also continue to build up my calves.

100 burpees sucks. 100 burpees amidst sprints *really* sucks.

But we felt awesome once we got it done. :)

2k row, push press 1RM

2011-02-23T10:00:00.052-05:00

Very interesting combo for one day, huh? :)

I've been interested in testing my rowing skills ever since I completed the Holiday Rowing Challenge in December -- the challenge was to row 100,000 meters between Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. During that time I was taking a little hiatus from posting workouts here, but I was logging lots of rowing workouts in my Concept2 online logbook. Very neat concept, if you like rowing you should set one up -- it's fun to see how you rank among other rowers. CrossFitters usually stack up pretty well!

So, back to the WOD. I was coaching my 9am class, and there were 3 ladies there. We only have 2 ergs in our "satellite" location, and everyone knows you can't do a long distance sprint without someone next to you keeping you going. (Or is that just me? :-p) So I warmed up and rowed with D, after T and M did their rows.

Result: 8:36.5 (2:09.1 avg/500m)

I was ver happy with that time! Next goal -- 8:30 or below.

BTW, definitely got a "Fran cough" after that row. Holy crap burning lungs!

--
I didn't do push press until that evening. I arrived early for my 6pm class and banged out my 6 1RM attempts. I'm sure I got more that I would have if I did it right after the row, which is how the WOD was written. But I still felt the effects of doing that row!

Warm-up: 5x45# strict press; 2x65# push press

Working sets: 95-105-115-125-130-135m

After I got 125 up, I had to walk it around a bit before I could get it stabilized. That matched my old PR!

I wasn't sure 130 would go up, and was really happy when it did! I was more stable with it overhead than 125. Yay 5# PR!

I decided to just go for it, and loaded up 135 on the bar. I got it up high enough to push my head through, but then it just stopped. I had to drop it behind me - craziness!

--
Thoughts -- I need more reps with heavy weights on the bar. For this WOD, and our 1RM OHS WOD, my biggest obstacle to a great performance was a lack of confidence at the higher loads. The only thing that will build that confidence is more reps. Good thing we just got some new jerk blocks! :)

Weightlifting practice

2011-02-22T10:00:00.018-05:00

Attended my weekly weightlifting practice today. And saw the effects of not attending practice regularly for a few months...

1 snatch + 3 OHS
4 sets @ 60% (65#)

All solid here.

Clean & Jerk
4x3 @ 70% (95#, 1 set at 85#)

Form was awful on the cleans. My power position has completely disappeared, and my knees never popped back under the bar. I think I am afraid to get into certain positions, for fear my back will just tweak out again. Dropped weight to see if that helped, and I still did the same thing. Hoping this was just a bad day, and I'm not regressing back to old habits...

Snatch balance
3x3 with empty bar

Cake.

Knees to elbows
4x5

These need a lot of work, especially doing more reps before dropping off the bar.

Front squats, pushups, swings and situps

2011-02-17T11:25:00.000-05:00

Got together with my girls at the base gym this morning, and we all just wanted something simple. R had this one in her notebook from CrossFit Saratoga.

3 rounds:
15 front squats
25 pushups
35 kettlebell swings
45 situps

Results: untimed; did f.s. at 45, 65, 65 and 35# kb for all swings

I was super-slow on my pushups again today. They were all good form, but just 1s and 2s and 3s which took forever.

Note on my gymnastics skills... there seems to be quite a bit of practice required between just being able to do a skill correctly, and being able to do it correctly for many reps in a row. The same things has been the case with pullups in the past. Maybe it's a matter of developing a rhythm or technique for stringing them together? Who knows...

--
Speaking of pullups, I hit a new PR in those yesterday as well. Prior to coaching at 6pm, I did 10 kipping pullups in a row. Woot! The first 4 were chest-to-bar to boot. I'm back to doing those daily, even if it's just a few, and it's really paying off.

OHS 1RM

2011-02-16T08:02:00.000-05:00

Hit 6:30am CrossFit class with enthusiasm this morning -- it was OHS 1RM day, and I hadn't tested that lift in 6-9 months. It was a given I would be able to pass my old 1RM of 85, but I just wasn't sure how high I could go...

Well, it turns out I could go up to 115#. Woot!

WOD:
Overhead squat: 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1

Warm-up: 35x5, 55x3
Work sets: 85-95-105-115m-110-115-115 (I only did 7)

Decided to re-do 115 to end on a high note -- and it was a strong lift, no wobble, nice and deep. I think there was definitely a learning curve, as far as experiencing what heavy singles of OHS feel like. I never had that heavy of a load in a wide-grip overhead position before. I've only push pressed or jerked that much with a narrower grip.

So, that said, I think this is really going to do a lot for my snatch, now that I have more confidence with big-ass weights over my head.

Wittman

2011-02-14T19:36:00.000-05:00

"Wittman"
7 rounds:
15 kb swings (24kg/16kg)
15 power cleans (95/65)
15 box jumps (24''/20'')

Results: 26:26, 55#

The 55# thing? A result of my morning brain. I thought to myself that if I loaded the bar with 25kg it would be 63.5#. Well, 25kg is actually 55#. Whoops.

Leg killer

2011-02-11T10:43:00.000-05:00

I wrote this WOD, but in the hands of the other coaches I work with, it became evil.

10-20-30-20-10
walking lunges w/ dumbbells (20/30)
AbMat situps

Results: 12:04

This was a WOD I originally came up with for a workout at the base gym with my friends. It was decent without weight, so I thought the addition of dumbbells would suffice.

Well, the rep scheme for the lunges became "2 for 1" -- as in 10 lunges means 10 lunges each leg. Ow.

But in hindsight, it was a good change. This was really challenging for both my legs, and my grip. I only dropped the dumbbells twice within sets, which I though was good.

Hope I still have enough energy to keep up with my 3 kids classes today!

Cindy

2011-02-10T20:09:00.000-05:00

Had a rematch with Cindy this morning.She and I have a history.

May 2010 - A pitiful 7 rounds + 5 pullups
June 2010 - During first 20 minutes of a Murph attempt (after completing the starting mile), I did ~12 rounds
February 10, 2010 - 9 rounds + 3 pushups

Here's the secret to a good Cindy, at least for me -- spend time practicing both pushups and pullups prior to attempting. I have focused a lot on pullups lately, but haven't done many pushups in the last few months. Need to work those back into warmups as much as possible.

Move, weightlifting practice and CrossFit barbell triplet

2011-02-08T15:25:00.000-05:00

While it wasn't exactly a WOD, we moved over this past weekend, and it wore my ass out! Seriously, by the end of the day on Saturday, I was barely dragging myself along. Other than a short lunch break and afternoon nap, we were constantly on the move from 10am until 10pm.

Monday was my first weekday weightlifting practice in I don't know how long... It was good stuff.

Deadlift: 10-8-6-5-5-5-3-3
55-85-85-85-95-95-105-125

Loads were light, worked a lot on form. My low back issues are kinda complicated to describe -- but it's nice to finally know why I've always sucked at deadlifts, why my squat was broken for so long and why my clean loads plateaued for so long.

Press :5-5-5-3 (power clean bar from ground)
75-75-80-85(2)

Barely got my last two reps up for my set of 5 at 80. Rep 3 of my last set at 85 got stuck in front of my forehead for a few seconds before I gave up. This makes me want to re-test my press 1RM (which had dropped down to 90 in the fall), in light of all my pullup work. I think it's helping, and that's exciting!

Pullups: 3x10
Performed mostly unassisted deadhangs, and a few kipping pullups. I logged this as a day in my Get Strict program.

Abmat situps with medball: 4x15 (14# ball)

--
This morning I attended an 8:30am CrossFit class, which I'll start teaching next Tuesday, along with the 6:30am class. It was the last day for one of our coaches -- he's been splitting his time between the gym he co-owns and our gym, and will be focusing in on his own place from here on. He programmed a fun barbell triplet for us.

5 rounds:
5 squat clean thrusters
10 shoulder to overhead
15 front squat
load: 77#/55#

Results: 15:51

I certainly could've rested a lot less. And I didn't really string together the squat clean thrusters. But I did unbroken sets of ground to overhead and front squats on all 5 rounds. For shoulder to overhead, I did a combo of push presses and power jerks.

I'm happy to report that my back felt a little funky in my warmups, but I didn't feel a single twinge at all during the WOD. Yay!

Back at the base gym

2011-02-04T11:33:00.000-05:00

Did Thursday and Friday morning at the base gym with my buddies.

Thursday
5x5 back squats
95-105-115-120-125

4 rounds:
5 1-arm DB power snatch, right
5 1-arm DB OHS, right
5 1-arm DB power snatch, left
5 1-arm DB OHS, left
10 lateral jumps over dumbbell

Results: ~8 minutes, with a 25# dumbbell

If you've never tried a 1-arm DB overhead squat, try it. It is really weird, and definitely exposes weakness in your core.

Friday
Everybody was sleepy and sore, so we skipped the weight room and did two "tabata pairs".

First pair: squats (lowest count 14) and pushups (lowest count 6; games-style w/ hand release)

We alternated between squats and pushups for 16 total rounds of tabata. I like this better for pushups, because I felt like I did more pushups than when I do "straight" tabata pushups.

Second pair: DB push press (20# db's, lowest count 8) and AbMat situps (butterfly; lowest count 10)

I kinda sandbagged the situps -- I have gotten a score of 11 on regular tabata situps.

But the good thing is I got up and got to the gym! Definitely wasn't feeling it this morning...

Rankel

2011-02-02T13:36:00.000-05:00

Hit this one on my own after coaching this morning.

"Rankel"
AMRAP in 20 minutes:
6 deadlifts (225#/155#)
7 burpee pullups
10 kb swings (2 pood / 1.5 pood)

Results: 4 rounds + 3 pullups

Scaled deadlifts down to 125. Originally planned on 135, but it just felt off during the warm-up. 125 started feeling too light by round 4 -- I think I may just have needed more warm-up, or I just haven't deadlifted in so long my form was rusty. I have been avoiding them pretty much altogether since October-ish, so that makes sense.

This was my first attempt at burpee pullups -- as suggested, I jumped up to a bar ~6 inches above my head. I didn't have any failed reps, and I felt really strong on pullups today -- I think it's the work I've been doing on strict pullups. It's nice to see it pay off, because it is really annoying to complete those extra sessions.

Loved swinging the 24kg kettlebell -- need to do that more often. All sets were unbroken, except round 3 -- lost control of the kb on rep 8.

Back from vacation

2011-02-01T17:32:00.036-05:00

Well, I never told you guys, but I went on vacation last week! I went to St. Thomas with my husband's family. We had a great time, and we even got some good workouts in.

Monday we went to Magen's Bay, which was GORGEOUS. In the afternoon I talked husband into doing a little beach workout with me.

6 rounds:
Run to lifeguard chair and back (150m?)
10 burpees

We got a 1 week pass to the little gym at the resort near our condo, and used that for the first time Tuesday night. I did day B of my Get Strict program -- basically 20 minutes of 10 second negatives and holds at the top and middle of the pullup. "Middle" means arms at 90 degrees. I used a 5# dumbbell to weight the negatives. Eventually I'll do the whole workout with extra weight.

As for the rest of the days, I honestly can't remember which day of the week we did what! Kinda the point of vacation, though. :)

One morning I did a workout that my friends at home did at the base gym.

5 rounds:
5 dumbbell man-makers
30 DU's

Results: 17:08

Got many strange looks for the double unders, which I did outside. This gym was TINY. Hardly had enough floor space to do my manmakers, and the largest hex-ended dumbbells they had were 15#.

In the end, I liked that weight. Rather than using super-heavy DB's that slow me down because my arms wear out, it was interesting to do manmakers at a lighter weight so that it was my lack of conditioning that forced me to slow down. Exactly right for my current focus to improve my conditioning.

Other than that, it was just lots of messing around with freestanding handstands on the beach. I got a couple seconds a few times, which was exciting. I also wiped out on my hip and knee a few times, but it was all good. :-D

And of course swimming! And does shopping count? :)

Magen's Bay

Weightlifting practice

2011-01-23T10:08:00.001-05:00

Went to my first weightlifting practice in a billion years. And I arrived late, per usual -- I just can't be on time for Saturday morning at 10am. heh

With the status of my back*, my plan was just to work my speed and bar path at light weights. Coach approved.

2 front squat + 3 back squat + 1 jerk behind the neck4 sets at 70%

I worked up to 65#. The back definitely got a lil "twingey" when I was squatting. Also, I hate jerking b.t.n. at light weights -- love it at heavy weights, though.

Power snatch - 2 reps
4 sets at 80%

Did full snatch, and slowly lowered the barbell through each of the positions to set back up for the 2nd snatch. Worked at 65#.

Power clean - 2 reps
3 sets at 80%

Full clean. Worked at 85#.

--
Get Strict - A
Did 3 sets of 10 strict pullups with the skinny band. They were still broken up: 6-2-2, 7-3, 6-2-2. I was pumped the second set I got 7. Can't wait to get all 10.

I skipped my assistance exercises. Booo on me for that.

I do feel like with these long sets I'm learning the way to fire my muscles at each point in the movement. For me the issue has always been the bottom. I am doing my best to eliminate using any "shoulder pop", and start from a true dead hang. Husband says a tiny pop is OK by Marine Corps standards -- so my ultimate goal will be to do 10 strict with no bands and maybe an itsy bitsy shoulder pop to get out of the hole. :)

--
Here's the deal with my back... It's not that I am in pain in my trouble spot. It's just that I can feel when I'm moving that muscle, in a way that's not normal. For example, if you "felt" your bicep flexing as you sipped from a glass of water, that would be weird. Well, I "feel" my Q.L. "flexing" as I squat, or lean over or put on my socks and shoes.

So while I have had any big "tweaks" -- that is my word for super excruciating muscle spasm things that were happening before I took a ton of rest -- after a few good workouts, I can "feel" my trouble spot.

It's so hard to know how to respond when coach is asking me "how's the back feeling".

Friday AM AMRAP

2011-01-21T11:14:00.000-05:00

Saw this WOD last week sometime, and knew I wanted to put it into our morning rotation at the base gym.

We had to substitute hang squat cleans for squat cleans, due to lack of bumpers. We scaled down the weight of the cleans and push press. We did AbMat situps instead of toes to bar, because there just aren't enough appropriate pullup bars to do pullups and T2B with 4 people. And we each started at a different point in the rotation to help with crowd control.

"Christina"
AMRAP in 20 minutes:
9 pullups
9 hang squat cleans (65#)
9 kettlebell swings (35# / 16kg)
9 AbMat situps (I added a 12# med ball)
9 push press (65#)
9 burpees

Results: Started at KB swings; finished 3 full rounds plus KB swings and AbMats of round 4

The weight on the hang squat cleans felt heavy to me at first, but I think I was using too much arm. Once I got more tired and started "popping and dropping" things felt a lot better.

Got 5 pullups in a row on each of my 3 sets of kipping pullups. Booyeah! It's all mental for me, not physical -- I'm getting myself back on the "no less than 5 to start" train, and it feels good.

Again today it wasn't strength, but just cardio/endurance that really held me back.

--
Had originally planned on doing another "A" day for my pullup program today, but I'm hurting. I will get it in after weightlifting practice tomorrow morning.

Begrudging workout

2011-01-20T10:00:00.012-05:00

Did you ever just sit there for a good 20 minutes alternating between talking yourself into working out, and talking yourself out of it?

That was so me yesterday. I coached at an odd hour -- 11am -- and with the rest of the day to schedule as I wanted, I realized I should just do the WOD. Yeah, I was wearing pants not shorts, blah blah blah. I am always good at coming up with clothing-related excuses.

Anyway, I made myself do it. So that was good. :)

--
WOD:
"Karen" PLUS
150 wall ball shots
150 AbMat situps
Partition reps as desired.

Results: 16:24, 14# med ball -- 3 sets of 50 each

My original thought was that since I haven't ever done "Karen", I should do all 150 wall balls, then move on to situps. Obviously I abandoned that plan. :)

The biggest hurdle to overcome on this WOD -- and it's been a theme lately -- is just my lack of conditioning. I got to the point where I did 10 wall balls, and I was sucking wind like I just sprinted 400 meters. I had to actually slow down the pace of the wall balls so I could string more together. I was strong enough to do them super-fast, but my cardiovascular system couldn't keep up.

So, mission accomplished -- I've gotten A LOT stronger. But now I am having a "come to Jesus" moment about how I also need to stay on top of my conditioning.

TGU's are ruining my shoes

2011-01-19T10:00:00.013-05:00

Another nice relaxing WOD at the gym on base. I used to hate working out there, but I truly love my AM workouts with friends these last few weeks. Sucks that I'm moving 30 minutes away to be closer to the gym I coach for now.

3 rounds:
15 wall ball shots (used 12#)
10 Turkish get-ups, each side (20# kettlebell)
15 knees to elbows

No timer on this one.

My friend did 10 total the first round, and stuck with that. I did 10 each side, then 8 each side, then 5 each side. Went for 5 in a row each arm, but the left arm was too weak. I think I was doing 3's by the last round on the left.

The part where you "bridge" your hips up, and then sweep your leg through and put your knee down -- well I guess I scraped my shoe on the ground a lot, because I'm missing from rubber. The toe rubber of the Nike's I've been wearing do not hold up well from burpees, pushups or TGUs. Boo.

--
After the WOD I did the "B" day from my pullup program.

On the minute for 10 minutes:
6-10 second hold with chin above bar. Used pullup grip.

One the minute for 10 minutes:
6-10 second negative. Had to switch to a station with neutral grip for first 7 sets, then I did a wide-ish pullup grip for the last 3 sets.

Base gym FAIL

2011-01-17T18:24:00.001-05:00

I went to the base gym to do today's WOD, thinking they would have a 1.5 pood (55#/24kg) kettlebell. But the heaviest they had was 40#.

The kicker? I have a 45# kettlebell at home.

[facepalm]

Oh well, I tried. :)

--
10-8-6-4-2-4-6-8-10
double unders
AbMat situps w/ med ball (12#)
kettlebell swings (1.5 pood - used 40#)

Results: 10:13

Finished up with a 60 second handstand hold, 3 sets of 5 kipping pullups (actually got 5 in a row the last set), and 3 Turkish get-ups on each side with a 20# kettlebell. Then they kicked me out because it's a holiday and they were closing at 6pm.

Weightlifting, Get Strict

2011-01-16T17:28:00.001-05:00

Wanted to do some weightlifting practice today, but didn't want to drive the 25-45 minutes to one of the gyms with a platform. So I did what I could in the gym on base.

Front squat:
3-3-3-3-3
85-95-105-115-125

I paused at the bottom on all sets except the last. I really wanted to retest my current 3RM of 135, but didn't want to push things with my back, or with dropping weights in a gym where they're not supposed to be dropped. :)

Split jerk:
3-3-3-3-3
45-65-85-90-95

Not heavy, just getting back in the groove after a few weeks of not practicing. Didn't feel like I really got my speed until the last 2 sets. This weight felt kinda heavy for some reason!

After the weightlifting work, it was time to start a new pullup program that I came across online.
Get Strict, from CrossFit Virtuosity

Today was a volume day.
A. 3 sets of 10 strict pullups
used my skinny band; sets were broken -- 6-2-2, 7-2-1 and 6-2-2

B. 3 sets of 10 --superset of barbell row and pushups
45# barbell
pushup sets: 10, 6-2-2, 6-2-1-1

Going to failure

2011-01-13T14:22:00.000-05:00

Wanted to find a good upper body strength component for today's workout at the gym on base, so I Googled "press push press jerk".

This lovely popped up, and 4 of us tried it out this morning. 8 thumbs up!

3 rounds of shoulder press – push press – push jerk
With a weight you can shoulder press for 6-8 reps and without racking or dropping the bar do shoulder presses until failure, then push presses to failure, and then push jerks to failure.
Rest 2-3 minutes between sets.

Results:
Used the 45# barbell.
Round 1: 14 - 12 - 3
Round 2: 7 - 10 - 4
Round 3: 9 - 7 - 6

Tried to push (power) jerk, but it just feels so awkward to me now. By round 3 I just did a regular (split) jerk, and felt a lot better.

To finish up, we did a quick untimed metcon.

10-20-30-20-10
walking lunges
situps

We were all grunting on the lunges by the end, so I think it was good. :-D

Rinse, repeat

2011-01-12T12:22:00.001-05:00

Was pressed for time Wednesday morning, so we did a slight variation of what we did last Friday.

21-15-9
kettlebell swings
kettlebell goblet squats
pushups

I used a 40# kettlebell this time. It's time to enforce my rules of nothing smaller than 45# again. Swings get me out of breath, but strength-wise they are easy for me at 35# and 40#. Goblet squats were definitely more challenging with 5 more pounds.

Pushups need MAJOR attention -- i.e. regular practice.

Back squats and a quick metcon

2011-01-10T16:23:00.000-05:00

At the gym on base this morning.

Back squat: 5x5
95
105
115
120
125

Still holding back from anything really heavy, since the back issue hasn't been resolved. Oddly, today it only twinged when I was re-racking the barbell.

2 rounds:
20 OHS (45#)
15 pullups
500m row

Results: ~15mins

Swing, squat, push

2011-01-07T09:59:00.000-05:00

Met a friend for a quick morning workout at the gym on base. I knew she was pressed for time, so I came up with a quick full-body WOD.

20-15-10-5
kettlebell swings
kettlebell goblet squats
pushups

Not a clue what our time was, but it definitely got my heart racing. I should've done swings and gone right into squats, but I was too out of breath! It wasn't a strength issue, that's for sure. My pushups need more attention -- they really sucked this morning.

We hit the pullup bar for a few kips and a few deadhangs to finish things off.

Band Assisted Muscle Up

2011-01-03T15:56:00.000-05:00

For your viewing pleasure, in case you were wondering what the heck I meant when I said "band assisted muscle up" earlier. :)

Garage workout

2011-01-03T11:01:00.000-05:00

Warm-up

3 rounds:
3 pullups
6 pushups
9 squats

WOD

5 rounds:
10 KB deadlifts (40#)
10 DB front squat (12# dbs)
10 DB push press (12# dbs)
5 band-assisted muscle ups
20 Abmat situps

Results: 21:43

POSE-y

2011-01-01T22:00:00.004-05:00

30-35 minute POSE run with husband. He now has Vibram Five Fingers, and I think I'll be getting a pair as well.

When you can't feel your calves, that means you're doing it right, right? (They're still tight and sore 2 days later)

101 Push Press Challenge

2010-12-31T17:00:00.000-05:00

I saw the CrossFit Love 101 Push Press Challenge on Facebook, and for some reason thought it would be a good idea?

Husband and I did it together, both at Rx weight -- 65# for me and 95# for him.

I took a video, but am *not* going to post it. My time was over 20 minutes. Mentally, I just wasn't prepared to take this one. I stomped around and bitched after finishing the first 25 or so, then decided I would just do sets of 5 PPs and do the 3 burpee penalty for dropping the bar after each set.

On the plus side, I attempted the challenge, and I did do all 101 push presses -- and actually did 1 extra. I plan to retest this in a few months, and will definitely do a better job of warming up and getting prepared mentally.

12 Days of Christmas

2010-12-26T11:12:00.000-05:00

Hit this one up with my CF KoP peeps while visiting husband's family. (Check the link for a hilarious picture of me doing DB snatches)

12 Days of Christmas at CrossFit KoP
1 Deadlift (185/275)
2 Wall Ascents (6ft/8ft)
3 Ring Dips
4 Box Jumps (21"/25")
5 Med Ball Clean (14/20)
6 Clean and Jerk (75/115)
7 Toes to Bar
8 Burpees
9 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (55/75)
10 Wall Balls (14/20) to (9ft/10ft)
11 Thrusters (75/115)
12 DB Snatch 12L/12R 25/40

Results: 70:28

Deadlifts, clean and jerk, burpees and thrusters were all scaled due to my continuing (nagging) back injury. Everything else was Rx'd.

Weird about the burpees, right? Something about the part where you jump your feet back aggravates my QL muscle, so for many of them I stepped my feet back. Once I was nice and warm, in the middle and later days, I did jump my feet back on some of them.

I felt like I got hit by a truck after this. My core was wrecked, I think from the wall climbs and toes to bar -- don't do either of those with any regularity.

Best part of the WOD - watching a CF KoP superstar female athlete scaling the 8 foot wall. BAD. ASS. And her nickname is "Grans" -- love it.

Warmups

2010-10-25T09:33:00.000-04:00

Yes, I have once again abandoned the blog for 2 weeks. Yikes! A lot has been going on that I need to catch up on, so I will busy filling you in this week. :)
For right now, I am looking for your input. I'm programming some WODs for the new gym I'm coaching at, and for them I need to program a warmup as well as a WOD.

So, I'm just curious to hear how warmups go for all of you where you work out. If you're a member of an affiliate, tell me what goes on there. If you are in your garage or a globo gym on your own, tell me what you like to do.

Do you like to do the same warmup every day, or switch it up based on what movements are in your WOD?

Personally, I like to do the same thing every day. And I like to spend a LOOOOONG time warming up.

If you guys leave me comments, I promise to post pictures of me from Deadlifts and Dresses. :-D

Daily maxin' and back crackin'

2010-10-07T09:47:00.000-04:00

So, I drove south to train with Coach H yesterday morning (as has become my custom on Wednesdays), and to my delight he says we are doing a daily max. Yay!

I mean, really, what good CrossFitter doesn't love to find a 1 rep max? It is part of the cult people. :-p

My current max in Olympic lifting training was 45kg (99# - just multiply the value in kilos by 2.2). That includes practice, and my first competition.

In practice I was a mess, and I don't even think I could stand up with 45. In competition, it was easy and light. Not a struggle at all to stand up with it at all. So I knew my "true" max was higher, but I was sure how much higher.

So, off we go in our practice session. I took the weight off the rack, did one split jerk from behind the neck, then dropped the bar, then did a full squat clean from the floor. (Oly lifting training is full of these "combo moves" as I call them. Like 1 clean and 3 front squats, or 1 clean and 1 power jerk and 1 split jerk. I love it.)

My weights went something like this:
35-45-48-50-52.5-55

I really thought I was done at 52.5! It was sloooooow standing up. But Coach H had me load my bar with 55, and we were off. I pressed out the 55kg jerk, so that didn't go too well. But my 55kg clean went great! Again, it was slooooow off the floor, but I stood up with it! Woooooooo!

I know 55 kilos is only 112#, so not exactly the most amazing squat clean in the universe, but it was amazing to me. I haven't felt this excited about making progress on a skill in a very long time.

--
I'm still having that weird pain in my hip, so instead of full snatching, we did a horrible exercise where you start from the hang, and then lower yourself through the proper positions in the lift. So, it's like an eccentric version of the lift. I have to do this because my back is too weak and tight to get into the correct starting position for the snatch. And because I just plain need practice in how to make that transition from floor to knee to above the knee to power position to jump. (More on this later)

Because I can't do the start position correctly, right now I only snatch from mid-thigh, above the knee and just below the knee. Last practice with Coach H I snatched 42 or 43 kilos from above the knee -- which is incredible since my current PR is 45. So once I get my starting position fixed, I should really start making big progress. Wheeee! :-D

--
Well, yesterday was my very first adjustment at the chiropractor. My husband has been doing chiropractic care *forever*, but since I don't suffer from any chronic back pain, I never really considered it. At least not until I learned from my Oly coaches that my back was incredibly weak and also incredibly tight -- and that the tightness was affecting movement throughout my lower back and hips. Not cool!

So in addition to strengthening my back under their direction, I decided I would also hit up husband's chiropractor and see if she could help loosen things up and improve my flexibility as I got stronger.

After reviewing my xrays with her, turns out I have a curvy spine! How weird is that! hehe So if you look at my back, as my spine leaves my pelvis, it curves over to the left and back in. There's some little "mini" curves just below my shoulder blades. The tightness comes from the body trying to compensate and keep the spine in line -- by tightening the connecting muscles first on the inward side of the curve, and then on the outward side of the curve. It's like a tug-of-war that's locked in a stalemate.

I'll admit, I'm still a bit skeptical of the whole thing. I'll believe it's when I see a second set of xrays after a few weeks of care and less curve. :) Also, less tightness in my low back after some of my lifting exercises would make me a *true* believer. :-D

--
One more thought on going to the chiropractor. Maybe this is venturing into TMI territory, but after my first adjustment yesterday, I couldn't help but make the connection between how your first adjustment is like your first trip to the gynecologist.

Here's my point. When you go to the gynecologist, you know lots of people who have gone, and you kind of get the general idea of what they're going to do to you. But for some reason, NO ONE warns you about the really surprising parts!

For gynecology, nobody warned me before my first appointment that the doctor was going to do a breast exam. I knew she would be poking around "down there", but geez, someone could've warned me about the stuff that was going to happen up top!

At the chiropractor, I really would've liked some prior warning that she was going to try to twist my head off my fucking neck! Seriously! She kinda felt around my neck, turned my head, everything was fine, and then BAM! What the fuck! So much stuff cracked inside my neck it made my sick to my stomach. I am *not* one of those people who likes things to crack -- except maybe a nice low back stretch, with one or two small pops. That is it.

So yeah, I am not so much looking forward to going back, especially because of the neck thing, but I am committed to trying it because I really want to do everything I can to get my body in optimal shape for Oly lifting. I'm also going to try some therapeutic massage as well, even though my last experience with that kinda sucked. The lady was on my traps for-ev-er and they were sore for a week afterward. Not cool!

--
Sorry this ended up so long! I know some of you wanted to hear more about my Oly adventures. I will try to keep it shorter and sweeter next time, and stick more to exact details on what we do in the training sessions, and what I'm learning about the lifts. Knowledge is power! :-D

Workin' on my (front) rack

2010-10-05T11:06:00.000-04:00

Forgot my damn lifting shoes, which pissed me off! But still managed to do decent on the WOD in the flat Nike's. :)

5 rounds for time:
10 front squats* (135/85)
10 lateral burpees (jump over barbell)
*from the ground

Results: 13:48, Rx

Positive: All 5 sets of 10 front squats were unbroken. The 9th and 10th reps were kinda ugly near the end, but it's cool. I think I did well with maintaining a strong back, and pushing my knees out. Yay my Oly lifting stuff is working!

Negative: I still have that weird twinge over/in my right hip bone/oblique, so the burpees were very slow. As soon as I would lean down to start the first burpee after the front squats, I would get a *huge* twinge and nearly fall over. But if I kept moving slowly, it would ease up. So I was basically leaning over in a lunge type position, stepping both feet back one at a time, doing a strict pushup, and stepping the feet back in. No jumping out of the feet for me today. Jumping up and over the bar was no problem. Honestly I think moving so slowly on the burpees is what made me able to do all 10 front squats -- I have a real problem with squatting when I'm out of breath, because I can't hold my breath both down and up.

All in all, a nice little workout to keep me limbered up for my Oly session tomorrow with Coach H. :)

PS - After trying to PR on the 5k Saturday morning, and doing Jerry yesterday night, my ass hurts!! heh

Jerry

2010-10-04T19:42:00.000-04:00

Switching things up today, putting the WOD last. :)

--
In all the craziness of going to the Mud Run, I didn't get to introduce you all to a new bloggy friend, Sweet Assassin.

At some point I found her blog, saw she was, a) female and b) doing CrossFit, and so I added her to the "Badass CrossFit Ladies" list in my side bar.

And then she found me, and found herself in that list! (emphasis mine)

For a second, I thought, "there's another sweet assassin?" I hit the link and it lead me right HERE. I was dumbfounded and touched. In my journey discovering my physical capabilities, meeting goals, taking big strides, seeing the changes in my body and how I approach everyday challenges, never ever have I thought myself a bad ass crossfit lady. This moniker I save for the other women that I cheer on in my box, that I marvel at in the Games, and those I meet in our growing community... but not little old me. So to see myself placed in the group by a BAD ASS CROSSFIT LADY is humbling and inspiring to keep progressing in my crossfit journey.

Crossfit keeps getting better and better.

Well, Sweet Assassin, now you know where I stand -- to me ALL my CrossFit ladies are BADASS CROSSFIT LADIES. No matter if they are scaled or Rx. No matter what opinion they have about their body, their abilities or their worthiness for that title. THEY ARE BADASS. And you absolutely are too. :)

--
Even though I posted a bunch of stuff on Saturday, for some reason I forgot to talk about what I actually did on that day. Um, yeah, I am supah smart. heh

I got up early to run a 5k, while husband headed out on a half marathon.

Unfortunately I did not PR, even though I did try. Boooo! :( I would like to blame the extremely crowded start of the race, but really I just did not push myself hard enough. Fortunately for me, the race season picks up tremendously down here in the fall and winter, so there should be lots of opportunities for me to attempt to PR on the 5K distance in the near future.

Recap:

Bridge Run 5K, February 2010 -- 27:10
Freedom 5K, October 2010 -- 27:37

--
And finally, today's WOD.

"Jerry"
1 mile run
2k row
1 mile run

Results: 27:17

Used my watch to time my first mile -- I'm happy to say it was 8:03. Yay 8 minute mile! :-D

2K row, however, was pitiful -- 9:21. Total sandbag -- I set in at a 2:20 pace and just stayed there the entire time.

Second mile was 9 minutes "ish". Had some watch issues, but no biggie, I was mostly interested in the time of my first mile anyway.

Overall my goal was to finish in less than 30 minutes, which I did. And the weird tight/cramp thing I was having in my lower right back/hip area is now alleviated, so I'm very glad I worked out today.

Due to that pain, I'm going to my first chiropractor appointment tomorrow. Hopefully it helps and doesn't hurt, like my massage I got in February that made my traps sore for a week. That sucked. Keep your fingers crossed. :)

--
Time to shower and find some dinner. Nighty night. :)

"Regularly learn and play new sports"

2010-10-03T18:39:00.000-04:00

So, wanna guess what my new sport is?

OLYMPIC WEIGHTLIFTING!

Hells yeah bitches!!!

--
The back story. :)

I have been following the blog and Facebook page of a CrossFit gym in my area (35-45 minute drive from where I live) for a while now -- Sandbox Athletics. I noticed several announcements about their weightlifting club, and the results of competitions they attended. Then a few guys from my gym started going to their training sessions, and a few took part in some of the competitions.

I was still just thinking about checking it out, and then 2 important events happened in quick succession.

I had my mind-blowing private session with Aimee at CF KoP, and learned that my clean was stalled because it needed to be completely rebuilt. I knew then it was high time to find myself a local coach who could help me on a consistent basis.

A few days later, an announcement came through my feed reader about Sandbox Weightlifting club looking for new members.

The decision to join basically made itself -- I wanted to improve my lifts, get coaching on a consistent basis, and also learn more about coaching the lifts by working through the process of fixing my own problems.

One thing I didn't expect was to participate in my first competition just 2 weeks after my first practice! It was hectic, but in hindsight I'm glad the timing worked out that way for a few reasons. One, it got me through those "first time jitters". And I definitely suffered from some jitters. :) Two, I learned a lot about how weightlifting competitions are organized. They are very confusing -- hands on experience is a must to figure out how things work. Three, I now have a baseline from the true beginning of my training, which I can use to measure my progress. Yay! :)

My first competition was on September 11th. I know, I am sooo late filling you all in on this stuff!

If you have zero experience with Olympic weightlifting (like me 1 month ago), here's the basics:

Competitors are organized into weight classes. I lift in the 69kg weight class at the moment. There are hopes I could drop down to 64kg, we'll see. :)
Each competitor gets 3 attempts at each lift -- snatch and clean and jerk.
Weight classes are usually divided into sessions, and all the competitors in a session perform their 3 snatch attempts, then there's a break, then all competitors perform their 3 clean and jerk attempts.
There are 3 judges who watch each lift, and each judge can either activate a white light or a red light indicating if the lift was good or bad. As long as you get 2 of 3 white lights, the lift counts.

Here's how I did at the competition:
Snatch: 35kg, 37kg, 39kg
Clean: 37kg, 39kg, 45kg

All my lifts were judged as good, so I went 6 for 6! Also, I got all 3 white lights on each lift as well, so that made me super happy. :)

These were very light weights in comparison to my fellow competitors, but the goal for my first competition was just to get 6 good attempts and experience my first competition. Done and done. Now I'll be focused on competing with myself, and PR'ing at every competition. Sometime in the farther off future I'll be ready to compete and try to win something. :)

Hope you aren't disappointed by my "big news" -- it's big to me! I've been training at Sandbox Weightlifting, and also at another local gym with my coach's coach, at least twice a week, and I hope to bump that up to 4. Which explains my measly 2-3 CrossFit WODs per week.

I won't be doing WODs that involve the Olympic lifts anymore, mostly because I need to ensure perfect form every time I approach the barball, and secondarily because my "home" gym doesn't have any ladies bars. Didn't realize how important it was to have a bar that's the right size for your hands! Now I finally understand why I could never get my thumb locked when I "hooked" on a men's bar. :)

I could totally go on forever about this, so I'll stop myself here, and keep my updates on this short and sweet in the future. If you want to know more about the specifics of my training, just shoot me an email. I might start posting my Oly lifting workouts here in addition to my CrossFit WODs, but I haven't decided yet.

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Random internet goodness for you -- do any of you remember that game for NES where you could do clean & jerk and snatch, and also other weird sports, like cliff diving and log rolling?

Ok, well *I* remember that game randomly today, and wanted to look it up to see if I could play it online, or at least just see a screen grab. At first I thought it was part of "Track & Field", but thankfully Google helped me figure it out.

It was called "World Games", and put out by some random manufacturer. And I found a great page with tons of description, and best of all, pictures!

And I found video of the game play too! Luckily weightlifting is the first sport in the game, so it's right at the beginning. :)

I can remember trying to play this game, and failing miserably. Maybe now that I understand the point I would be able to play it better. :-D

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Also, I wanted to throw in a link with this post. Here's a cool blog from some chicks who lift -- I love the name: Pretty Strong Blog.

They're just getting started, but I have a feeling they'll be posting some good stuff!

Friday Hero - Jack

2010-10-01T14:16:00.018-04:00

“Jack”

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
115 pound/ 75 Push press, 10 reps (from the ground)
10 KB Swings, 24k/16
10 Box jumps, 24 inch box

Results: 6 rounds + 7 box jumps, Rx*

What I loved about this hero WOD was how it could be performed by a wide variety of athletes without much scaling. That's the beauty of an AMRAP, IMHO.

That said, yes I went a bit slow -- got beat by the other chicks in my group by 2ish rounds. But I had a bit of a concentration problem with the coach trying to interfere with my push press technique.

Note: Please do not try to "school" me in the middle of an AMRAP. It makes me want to toss my loaded barball at you.

That said, I also wished I had worn my Oly shoes. I didn't because they're heavier and I thought they would slow me down on the box jumps. But it was the push press where I was having the most trouble, and they definitely would've helped stabilize my dip there, as well as in cleaning the barball from the ground.

*One other item of interest -- I used the 45# kettlebell on my even rounds, since we had 5 chicks and only 3 16kg kettlebells. Allie went badass with me and used it on opposite rounds. :)

Deadlift by threes

2010-09-27T14:06:00.000-04:00

It was a strength plus metcon day, so you know I enjoyed it. :-D

Deadlift
3-3-3-3-3

Results: 165-170-175-175

Ran out of time, due to watching/helping others, so I only did 4. But that was plenty -- even though I escaped any low back pain that day, I'm still in a little bit of pain nearly a week later.

No more deadlifting for me in the foreseeable future.

--

Metcon:
AMRAP 10 min
5 man-makers (35lb DB/20)
10 box jumps 20"

Results: 5 rounds + 1 MM

Again, looking back these dumbbells should've been 25's to be 70% of men's Rx. But oh well. :)

My pushups were sloppy on this one, I think if I had better form (tigher core and posterior chain) I would've moved faster and possibly squeezed in one more round.

But I only came in 2 short of tying up with my girl Jess, who was a beast on this one, so I'm happy. :)

USMC Mud Run

2010-09-24T15:16:00.002-04:00

Geez, I am not doing well with posting after each of my WODs! It's been 2 weeks since my last post, and I've barely posted all about WODs, or filled you in on my big news. First, WODs. Then, big news. :)

And no, I'm not pregnant, and no, I didn't get a muscle up. How funny is it that both would be absolutely mind-blowing at this point in my life? Hilarious! hehe :-D

--
Unfortunately I did not get to do Fight Gone Bad again this year. I forget exactly what was going on last year, but I had a conflict. Then this year I was already signed up for a Mud Run on the same date when the FGB5 date was announced. Booooo!

I want to do the same Mud Run again next year -- USMC Mud Run in Columbia, SC -- but I have a bad feeling the dates will continue to conflict. If they do, my plan is to either do FGB the Friday night prior, or find a CrossFit in the Columbia area and do it before or after the run. Yes, I'm crazy like that. :)

--
The Mud Run went OK... There were some obstacles that I couldn't do on my own, and I lost my focus when I started getting frustrated about my husband having to help me.

And by "lost my focus", I mean close to a complete melt down. In some moments I look at how much progress I've made getting stronger over the past year, and then realize how far I still have to go to really be super strong, and capable of anything. It's the "pullup effect" -- I know it well, but I still can't seem to control those feelings when the well up from inside me. God bless our other 2 teammates for their patience, because I definitely had a few verbal blow-ups with my husband. And God bless my crazy husband for still tossing my ass over some giant logs even after I had flipped out on him. :)

By next year, I will be able to climb over the 5' logs on my own. FOR SURE. I am going to get some lessons and practice at the obstacle course on base.

And I'm also going to get a bar muscle up on a thick bar so I can conquer this f***ing thing. Lowest bar is 8' high. You get on top of the lower bar, then go over the top bar and then climb back down.

Long term goals will be to go through these 2 on my own:

Monkey bars from HELL; yes, they step up. 1-armed pullup, anyone?

The Weaver - over and under the logs without touching the ground.

Main site chipper

2010-09-23T13:54:00.001-04:00

We took on the crazy chipper from the main site at our box, and it was interesting to say the least!

25 Walking lunge steps
20 Pull-ups
50 Box jumps, 20 inch box
20 Double-unders
25 Ring dips
20 Knees to elbows
30 Kettlebell swings, 24k/16
30 Sit-ups
20 Hang squat cleans, 35/20 pound dumbells
25 Back extensions
30 Wall ball shots, 20/14 pound ball
3 Rope climb ascents

Results: 30:50

I completed the pullups without incident, definitely got 5 to kick things off. THANK GOD.

Banged out the box jumps at a good pace.

Thought my 20 DUs were in the bag, but missed #20 and had to do one single DU. Still pleased with that. :)

Skinny band for the ring dips -- need to rededicated myself to getting rid of that soon.

K2Es were fucking beautiful, not to brag. :-D

Swings, situps, hang cleans -- no problemo.

Back extensions -- this is where I wussed out big time. I've learned recently that my back is a very weak area in my body, comparatively. So I have a stronger back than some people, but overall I'm front-dominant to compensate for a weaker back. I knew these back extensions would lock me up, but did them anyway. And then got locked up. Probably wasted 2 minutes afterwards trying to un-fuck myself enough to do the wall balls. I had a Filthy Fifty flashback for sure.

Wall balls were badass, got 15 the first set, not sure if I broke the 2nd half or not. Soooooo glad these don't trip me up so much anymore.

ROPE CLIMBS. Went up with the rope wrapped around, came down with feet in the J-hook. Probably rested a little too long between attempts, but I'm still too freaked out to do these while I'm super-winded or feeling weak in the arms. Since we don't have a crash mat, I'm OK with this.

--
The only thing I'm pissed about is the WOD was posted with 24kg/16kg for the kettlebell swings, and Rx on the main site was 2 pood (32kg) -- which means ladies Rx was 24kg. Boooooo. I would've used my 45# kettlebell or maybe even the big one if I had known that.

Plus ladies Rx should really have been 25# dumbbells... Bummah.

But based on what was written on the whiteboard the day I did this, I am happy that I only scaled ring dips. Woot! I will take "nearly Rx" whenever I can get it. :-D

Finally Friday

2010-09-17T17:56:00.001-04:00

I can't remember the last time I did CrossFit for five days in a row -- fulfilling my promise to complete all of my WODs during my week of programming was tough! Most folks at our box get a rest day on Wednesday, as there's no evening class, but I think my bud Melissa joined me for the 5 day WOD fest. :-D

Would any bodyweight-focused week of programming be complete without some kind of tabata? I think not!

"Tabata Something Else"
Complete 32 intervals of 20 seconds of work followed by ten seconds of rest where the first 8 intervals are pull-ups, the second 8 are push-ups, the third 8 intervals are sit-ups, and finally, the last 8 intervals are squats. There is no rest between exercises.

Score is total reps from all 32 intervals.

Results: 270

Pullups - Started out with the goal of doing 5 per round. Did 5 on the first round, dropped down, and sadly waited until time ran out and didn't do anymore. I felt bad that I didn't jump up for another couple. So I did my 5 and then 1 or 2 the next round. :) I started crapping out after 4, then 3, then 2. My lowest score was 3 or 4 on the last round -- mostly because my right hand ripped open on round 7. I'm happy to report my kip was pretty good -- in terms of using hip power, and not just shoulder power. Yay! :) I think my total for pullups was in the high 30's.

Pushups -- Dropped down to 5 pretty quickly, but hung in there for the duration. I'm happy with that, because I know 95% of the pushups I did were full ROM.

Situps -- Stuck with 10 or 11 the whole way through, which is pretty standard for me on tabata ab mat butterfly situps. Like I said after my last crack at "Annie", I think I just need to find a way to do situps fasters. But that is pretty much at the very bottom of any CrossFit priority list I have. :-D hehe

Squats -- Holy shit were my legs beat down from the rest of the week! I was barely cranking out 10 or 11 by the last round. Crap! Usually I'm good to stick at 14 towards the end of tabata squats, but not on this day. My legs were cramping up and really hurting badly by the end, but I was trying to push through the pain as much as possible. I think I did manage to get over 100 on squats, though, so that was good. :)

--
Later Friday night I did a "make up" WOD with a friend who'd had to miss class on Wednesday and Friday. Here's what we made up for ourselves.

21-15-9
burpees
situps
double unders (x3 singles)

Finished up with a sprint down and back on her cul-de-sac. During which we were followed by her husband driving the neighborhood kids around on a golf cart. Good times. :-D

Double AMRAP

2010-09-16T16:04:00.018-04:00

Thursday's WOD I programmed as two short AMRAPs just because I love those types of WODs. :)

My intent was to practice some difficult upper body exercises in small doses, interspersed with some elements that would keep your heart going. And after trying it, I think the WOD definitely fulfilled it's intended purpose.

AMRAP in 6 min:
5 HSPU
10 jump squats

rest 5 minutes

AMRAP in 8 min:
5 ring dips
Broad jump, 25ft (length of mats)

Results: I think I got 5 and 6 rounds? Forgot to write this one down

HSPU I did to two AbMats. A few times I got "stuck" in the bottom instead of popping back out. It's like doing front squats or cleans -- if you stop in the bottom, many times you ain't getting back out. :-D

This was a good opportunity to practice -- I can't say I've really been practicing handstands or HSPU much lately. Need to do 10 after each WOD, just like with my pullups.

The second AMRAP didn't go as well as I had hoped. I still fatigue SOOOO quickly on ring dips, and with only 8 minutes, I wasn't going to take the time to recover enough to do them unassisted. So after 3 in a row at the start, I threw on the skinny band. By the time I reached my attempted 7th round, I was just failing on the ring dips. I wasn't getting any more without a nice long rest -- or maybe not even after that.

Broad jumps aren't something we do a lot at our box -- maybe we've never done them before? So it was fun to introduce something completely new to everybody.

The skill for this day was muscle ups. So we taught everybody about using the false grip, and had each of them practice the transition movement from their feet. Fun! We did have one guy do his first 3 muscle ups, which was even more fun. :-D

Worrying about size

2010-09-16T13:12:00.001-04:00

What I write about here is usually pretty cut-and-dried: I'm usually focused on recapping my workouts, mapping out my athletic goals, and occassionally sharing my thoughts on coaching.

I also tend to throw in a few links here and there. And many of them are concerned with topics that I don't write about much, but that I read and think about on a daily basis.

Body image, self love, self acceptance, self care, living in the present moment.

I study and think about these topics daily because I am committed to learning how to eliminate negative things from my life: obsession with weight loss, obsession with achieving a certain body shape/size/weight, emotional eating (using food to numb my feelings), binge eating, excessively comparing myself to others.

Right now I feel like the newest of "newbies" when it comes to learning to love myself just as I am, so I tend to link to those who I think "say" what I wish I could say in my own blog, instead of writing about it myself. Maybe one day I will feel like I am far enough along in my journey to share what I learned in overcoming my challenges -- right now I'm just writing about struggling through them, like in this post from February.

I most often look to my mentor Stephanie for guidance and inspiration. She has the ability to explain her experiences in a way that I feel that I can apply what she has done in my own life.

So when I read a message on Twitter today that just didn't sit right with me, I sent her a message. I asked her how she would respond, because I felt like I "knew" I didn't agree with the Twitter post, but I didn't know how to express that verbally.

The tweet:

@CrossFitChron Surgeon General says that we can be "fit and healthy without worrying about size." You're fired.

My question to Steph:

So I saw a tweet and I wanted to respond with "I disagree" but I feel like I can't articulate why properly... I want to explain how preoccupation with size/shape/appearance can derail our ability to make changes from the inside out that lead to healthy lifestyles... Do you have a post in your blog that you think specifically address that point, that I could reply with? Or you reply since I consider you the mentor and myself the mentee. :)

Steph's response (w/ a little editing from me for clarity :)):

I don't think i have a single blog post to address that. My response-

Fit and healthy does not always equal thin. There are a hell of a lot of thin folks walking around very unhealthy. There are those that eat healthy and exercise that would be categorized as overweight by the BMI index.

Furthermore worrying about your size in my opinion only leads to negative self-image. And when you dislike yourself and your body, taking care of it is near impossible. When you accept your size -- whether genetics or negative habits got you to it -- you can then begin to love yourself. That is when your best personal health and fitness becomes possible -- with joy and with ease.

The size issue in this county is a distraction from how fucked up EVERYONE'S health is, no matter if that has translated into excess weight. The processed crap we are eating, our attitudes about fitness (it's a chore), and our hatred for our bodies as they are are responsible for poor health...ALL AROUND...thin and obese.

So the point of writing this post?

Well, primarily, so I have a link to send in response to CrossFitChron. And let me stress here that usually we are on the same page! I love Web's enthusiasm for hard work, dedication to your goals, and perseverance. Plus the videos and pics of his daughter are so damn cute. :) But I had to take this opportunity to spread the message about these new things that I'm learning, and how we all need to change our attitudes to shift our focus to what will *really* get people in our country, and our world, healthy.

And second, as a way to let those of you who read this blog know that I will be trying to write more about this internal journey that I'm on, and share more of that with you.

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In closing, something I found on Facebook that I wanted to share with you guys.

Via RX STAR.

Swing, squat and pull

2010-09-15T14:01:00.000-04:00

Today I finally got to introduce my box to one of my all-time favorite WODs, which I first did at CrossFit KoP.

For time:
20 KB Swings, 20 Squats, 10 Pull-ups
18 KB Swings, 18 Squats, 9 Pull-ups
16 KB Swings, 16 Squats, 8 Pull-ups
14 KB Swings, 14 Squats, 7 Pull-ups
12 KB Swings, 12 Squats, 6 Pull-ups
10 KB Swings, 10 Squats, 5 Pull-ups
8 KB Swings, 8 Squats, 4 Pull-ups
6 KB Swings, 6 Squats, 3 Pull-ups
4 KB Swings, 4 Squats, 2 Pull-ups
2 KB Swings, 2 Squats, 1 Pull-up

Results: 20:38 -- 45# kb, kipping pullups

The clock was all jacked up, and stopped for an undetermined length of time at 19 minutes. So I'm not really sure how accurate my time was. But it couldn't have been more than a minute or two off, so I'm happy, since last time I used a 45# kettlebell and "mental floss" for my pullups, and finished in 23:35.

I did all sets of swings unbroken except 16. I don't know what the heck happened, I just lost focus and dropped it after like the 7th swing. Lame.

Started off with 5 pullups in a row, so that rocked. :) Started losing my kip a little bit, but I gave myself a little mental pep talk and brought it back at the end. Yes there were a few ugly, somewhat deadhang pullups, but I've accepted those as normal for me. Maybe one day I'll have that beautiful consistent kip that others have. But until then, I'll get my chin over the bar however I can. :-D

I didn't remember how challenging the squats felt! Or maybe they just felt challenging today due to all the other stuff we've been up to this week. Making the promise to do all my own workouts is going to kill me! I am sooooo ready for a rest day, thankfully tomorrow's WOD is only 14 minutes total of work. But then again I should know better than to think a short AMRAP would feel "easy". :-p