Back from vacation

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

Deadlift by threes

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.

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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. :)

WOD-ing with ThomASS

I'm visiting one of my best friends right now, in the town where we both did our undergrad degrees. He's graduating with his PhD this weekend, and I am so damn proud of him. :)

He did a quick vacation WOD with me yesterday.

10 rounds:
10 pushups
10 situps
10 squats

We didn't time ourselves, but we were sweaty and breathing hard, and he said he's feeling it in his arms a bit today. I definitely convinced him that simple workouts done for time can be pretty effective. :)

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Today I finally dragged myself off the couch around 7 (we had some drinks last night, so it was a *very* lazy day) and did a ramped-down version of this killer WOD.

5 rounds:
10 dumbbell hang squat cleans
10 dumbbell push presses
10 dumbbell front squats
10 man makers

Results: ~27 minutes

I used my 12# dumbbells, which was a lot easier than the 20 pounders I used last time I attempted the full version of this one. But still a good workout. Those man makers are a freaking arm-killer!

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Erin is certified! And I really need to finish the write-up of my cert...

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Why Can't You?


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And in a similar vein -- But what CAN I do?


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This is a great explanation of why I need to get started with a new list of goals. And a plan to achieve them...


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Top 10 intermediate mistakes

#10. Taking yourself too seriously. I get it, this Crossfit stuff is awesome and fun. However, in the end it is about working out. You aren’t good enough to get mad. Maintain some perspective on the whole thing. Your family, your religion, your country… these are things to take seriously.

If you don’t enjoy the journey, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.

Bonus: #11. Newsflash: You probably aren’t going to make it to Aromas. Neither am I. Here is the weird part- it doesn’t really matter. Honestly, it is a little anti-climactic. You have to love  training and working hard for its own sake, not for the sake of some competition you probably aren’t going to make.

I added the italics. Lately CrossFit hasn't been fun for me. And reading this reminded me that it should be. And if it's not, something needs to change. I'm working on it.

My arms are toast

I was already feeling sore from rope climbs, ring dips and pushups yesterday, and then I decided that during today's open gym I would make up the crazy WOD from Thursday, which was my 3-1 rest day.

Oh. My. God. The finish time speaks for itself. A WOD hasn't taken me that long since I did Eva just after Thanksgiving.

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WOD:

5 rounds, for time:
10 DB hang squat cleans (35#/20#)
10 DB push presses
10 DB front squats
10 DB man-makers
5 pullups

 Results:  57:47 - as Rx'd

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Even though this took me F-O-R-E-V-E-R, I'm proud to say that this was my first "as Rx'd" WOD with pullups in it. I said I would be off the band for pullups by the end of the month, and as of today, I have officially given them up. I may be doing pullups one at a time for some WODs in the next few weeks, but I will be doing them on my own.

The worst part of the round for me was the pushup within the man-makers. I was happy to have done all my pushups on my feet yesterday, but today they weren't there, and I was back on my knees by round 2. I think I just need to do WAY MORE pushups to get better at them. It's not as sexy as working on your pullups after the WOD, but I think at this point it's holding me back and I need to pick a minimum number to complete each day. Grease the groove to get better.

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I brought some SunButter,  along with apple slices, carrots and celery, to share after the Mud Run training was over. A few people got a chance to try it. And we had some good discussion about what foods aren't part of a Paleo diet, and what foods you do eat. I'm hoping that the information we share at the new Paleo Challenge blog will get people thinking, and help keep everybody motivated about making a switch to Paleo, even if it's just for the next 6 weeks.

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Almost forgot to share the most hilarious part of completing this WOD. Smashing my chin off the pullup bar during round 4. Note to self -- it's cool to kip with all you've got, but look at the bar when doing so. I think I escaped relatively unscathed, considering I probably could've cracked a tooth or something gnarly. Considering this a warming to anybody reading this!

Man makers

Was kind of a boring class this morning. My normal 8:30am workout buddy comes in the afternoon on Wednesdays, and I was the only one there. Blah. Oh well, at least I got my workout done for today. :)

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WOD

3 rounds for time:

• 400m run
• 10 DB man-makers (35lbs/25)
• 20 sit ups

Results: 27:14, as Rx'd

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See video demonstrating man-makers below. They are kind of a burpee variant. This week is really making me see that I need to make pushup work more of a priority -- that is really holding me back from good times on some workouts.

And OMG my 3rd run was soooooo sloooooow. Holy cow. This lady needs to do some major work on her cardiovascular fitness. It's really lame that I can power clean 125, but I'm slogging along so badly on the fast-paced workouts.