Clogged sinuses, BS & press, yoga, K2E

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. :)

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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. :)

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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.

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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.

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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! :)

CrossFit Total

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

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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.

Press Doubles

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...

Move, weightlifting practice and CrossFit barbell triplet

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!

Going to failure

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

It feels good to "win"

My back was tight from deadlifts, but I knew the best remedy would be a workout. Today's WOD wasn't going to be hard on my back at all, so it was perfect for getting a good sweat and loosening everything up.

Strength: press
7-6-5-4-3-2-1

Results: 55-60-65-70-75-85-95

 I *really* wanted that 95 at the end, but it got stuck at my forehead. I was basically staring at it, willing it to go up, for about 3 or 4 seconds before I gave up. With 95 being my current 1RM, I'm not surprised at the result. Would've been nice to match that 1RM, but I'm still happy with the work I did today.

metcon:
50 abmat situps
40 double unders
30 box jumps (20'')
20 wall ball shots (20#/14)
10 knees to elbows

Results: 6:26

When I saw today's metcon on the website last night, I thought to myself, "I can smack that bitch down." And when I was starting out the class with some strict press sets, I starting thinking again: "I can WIN."

Every once in a while when I know I'm good at everything in the WOD, my competitive spirit breaks out and I become absolutely determined to finish first.

There were only 4 people in my class this morning, and I finished first by a minute, and I was damn proud!

Best moment of the morning -- I did 23 double unders!!!! It was fucking amazing! I just keep doing them, and doing them, and doing them -- what a great feeling! And then I finished out the rest of the 40 unbroken, so that's 17 unbroken.

Those are basically my #1 and #2 longest sets of double unders I've ever done. Just goes to show what happens when I put on my game face. I need to go to that place more often!

Situps I did unbroken.

Box jumps I took a slow and steady approach. Started not paying close attention and missed one attempt, but focused back in after that and kept the knees high.

Wall balls were also amazing, considering my history with sucking at those- banged them out in 2 solid sets of 10. I used a 14# ball and threw it to the 10 foot line.

Side note on wall balls: I can't accept that women should scale both weight and height on wall balls. Height of the throw should be scaled based on the person's height, not their gender. Like, if you're 5'4'' or shorter, use the 8 foot line. Taller, use the 10 foot line. And those giant people over 6 feet should have an even higher line!

OK, end wall ball rant and ramblings about the metcon. Suffice it to say it was a fun day in the gym, and I enjoyed my little moment of victory. :) (Though I'm thinking somebody probably beat my time in the evening classes)

Later gators. :)

Trying to get back in the saddle

Ah, an unplanned hiatus... Those are never good.

I've gained back about 5-7 pounds, and based on pullups yesterday, I am back to sucking at those (i.e. lots of singles with 3/4 kip and 1/4 dead hang to finish).

Gah.

This past week was just about getting my ass into the gym; not about performance or skills or anything. Just showing up. Back to the basics, because I am struggling with my headspace right now.

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Saturday, April 24

Went out of town with husband last weekend, and we hit up a little WOD I wrote up in the hotel gym. They had a cable crossover machine with pullup "handles" attached and a tile removed from the ceiling for head clearance -- that was a nice surprise. After a week off, and two weeks of eating total crap, I felt pukey the entire time. But it was very good for me to get my body moving, I'm glad that my husband has such wonderful abilities to motivate me to want to exercise. :)

5 rounds for time:
5 pullups
10 squats
10 situps
10 pushups
10 lunges (each leg)
handstand hold (20 seconds)

Results: ~22 minutes

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Tuesday, April 27

In a word, horrible. I had a bad attitude, and I was sluggish and sucked at ring dips. I hate having to use the freaking band, even the tiny one. Gotta get these ring dips conquered so I can move the fuck on.

21-15-9 for time of:
DB thrusters (35lbs/25)
ring dips
double unders

Results: ~20 minutes

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Wednesday, April 28

I used two abmats for my handstand pushups. After the total debacle the day before, where I finished about 5-10 minutes after everyone else, I decided to scale the HSPU to 10ish per round during the first round. When I got to 11, I just kept failing attempts. So I freaking moved on, and got the freaking WOD done. Not my usual style, but this week was seriously ONLY about showing up and moving.

3 rounds for time of:
15 med ball cleans (20lbs/14)
15 handstand push ups
400m run

Results: ~20 minutes

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Thursday, April 29

I coached this one in the morning, and then came back to WOD with the group that night. I'm glad I did, because the press turned out better than I expected. Plus I shared a bar with 2 dudes, and went heavier than one of them -- it's the little things that make my inner feminist happy. :-D

Press
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
75-85-90-95-95m-85-75

My first 95 went up s-l-o-w-l-y and it was ugly, but I got that bitch locked the fuck out. Booyeah! PR by 10 pounds, hollah! My second attempt at 95 unfortunately did not go anywhere -- guess I only had one in me. But I'm happy because my old PR of 85, and also 90, both went up nicely, very solid. I am convinced doing unscaled pullups is what is making all the difference in my overhead strength. There's some kind of synergy there, where gains in each area helps move the other along.

Then it was metcon time.

Complete the following for time:
1000m row
40 kettlebell swings (24k/16)
25 pull ups
20 kettlebell swings
15 pull ups

Results: 19:45 total time; 4:14 row

That is a sad 1k row time, geesh. But oh well, at least I have a bench mark now -- I didn't have a 1k time written down anywhere.

My pullups in this WOD were so damn ugly, like I said at the beginning of this post. I tore the shit out of my hands with going on and off the bar so damn much doing singles. ARGH! I wanted to punch a hole in the wall I was so angry and frustrated. This was supposed to be a metcon, not some kind of grind-it-out-WOD. Good lord... I just have to keep telling myself that this is what happens when you eat shit, gain weight and take a week off and do nothing.

Not to mention that what I ate on Thursday before the WOD was ridiculous and totally uncalled for... But bad food choices are a topic for another post another day...

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Friday, April 30

Coached at 0630, then a fellow trainer who was hanging around offered for me to do the WOD at 0830 while he coached. No problemo, I needed a kick in the ass to get my workout in today.

5 rounds for time of:
7 front squats* (155lbs/95)
150m run
*wt will come from the ground

Results:  10:04

I could've done this one faster, but overall I was OK with how I did. Did all sets of squats unbroken, though I did take time to rest between the runs and squats to make sure I had enough juice to pump out all the sqauts.

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And that brings us to today, how nice. Time to go through and put a shit ton of labels on this post and publish it...

Pressing and cleaning and swinging from the rings

Today I physically felt BLAH. Instead of working out between coaching 0630 and 0830 like I usually do, instead I read a book and took a nap.

Then I proceeded to take 2 more naps over the course of the day. Geez.

Thank goodness I forced my butt out of the house for the 5pm class at CFC.

Strength:

Press  3 - 10 - 2 - 10 - 1 - 10
Results: 85 - 65 - 85(1) 75 - 60 - 80 - 60

While I'm not sure I picked the right loads for the last 4 sets, I know I was perfect on my 3 rep attempt and my first 10 rep attempt. My old 1RM for press was 85, so I'm totally pumped about putting 85 up 3 times in a row tonight. Though I think I should've attempted 85 isntead of 80 on the 1 rep set.

Metcon:

As many reps at possible in 6 minutes of body weight power clean.
Results: 26 reps at 115#

I'm glad I tested my power clean 1RM the other day (sadly, still @ 125#), because that gave me the confidence to choose the load for this WOD. I toyed with the idea of doing 125, but decided to stick with 115. There were some pretty ugly catches in terms of foot positions and low elbows on the reps past 20, so I think I made the right decision. Only failed 2 or 3 times -- basically aborted after the first pull when I didn't feel right. I think I maybe could've gotten 2 more, but really was operating right at the edge of my capacity.

Doing this WOD made me anxious to try Grace at 95# soon.

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After all that, it was on to the rings to work my muscle up. I am making progress with my false grip, and just improving my overall comfort level with playing on the rings. I almost got myself through the transition at one point, but then I just didn't have enough juice left in the tank to re-try.

Some of the things I talked to Paul and Dave about, just for my own future reference:
 - Practice short ROM pullups on the rings holding false grip, from elbows at 90 degrees up to chest to the rings
 - Practice "bottomed out" dips -- dip down, hold for a count of 1-2-3, then push back up (being able to do this is gonna take me a little while, I'm barely able to do 1 unassisted ring dip)
 - Practice kipping on the pullup bar with hands facing in; this will help develop the "feeling" of a different hand placement when kipping (I already tried this, and I think it will be a big help)

Dave suggested that I not get my hips so far out in front when I'm trying to kip up into transition. I was trying to emulate some videos I had watched from BeastSkills (Flickr), and I just got the wrong idea. I was trying to push my whole trunk into something approaching a horizontal position. But that puts the hips too far forward. After hearing Dave's feedback at the gym, I came home and watched the BeastSkills videos again, and now I can see that the hips stay in line below the rings, and it's the legs only that come up to horizontal. Looks like L-sits also go on my skills/goals list for next quarter. :)

I'll try to take some video next time I play around with MU's so I can watch myself and see what I'm doing.

I had one really good kip where I almost made it through transition, I just wasn't aggressive enough with pushing my head/shoulders through. Probably due to hips being too far forward. The good news is that my elbows/arms were in a good place, so I'm solid there.

Enough rambling, time to clean up and have dinner. :)

PTP Days 5 & 6

I highly recommend starting the PTP program on the 1st day of the month. It makes it easy when the date and the day of the program are synched up. :-D

No time to blog yesterday, I was running all over the place.


I was working with a milspouse friend at the base gym on CrossFit basics, so I did my deadlift and press there. I actually had a conversation with the on-base firemen about kipping pullups, which I was doing during my warm up on one of the squat racks. They are kind of attention grabbing in a "regular" gym. Of course I took a moment to try to sell CrossFit, we'll see what comes of it. :) I also had a fun conversation with a 65-year-old guy who competes in bench press competitions -- it's some variant of powerlifting where you can compete in a single event. He was cool, and I might swing back to the base gym next week to get some pointers from him and his lifting partner.

At our box we sign up for 5Ks and running events, but to keep it inclusive, I think we need to branch out and see if we can participate in things like powerlifting meets or Olympic weightlifting meets. One of my best friends at the box Allie is still working on her body comp, so her running is still really slow. But she out-lifts the rest of the ladies in the box by 30, 40, 50 pounds. A big part of me just wants to put her in the spotlight and let her beat us all soundly. :) She totally deserves it because she works her ass off, and never gets upset or frustrated, just keeps on plugging away.

Hopefully I will be posting more about that idea soon!

Anyway, back to the PTP stuff.

PTP Day 5:

• Deadlift: 115, 105
• Press: 55, 50

I really did intend to hit the track after that, but the posted WOD for the box was Fight Gone Bad, and I felt bad about skipping a chance to perform a benchmark WOD that I've never done.

So I went to the box and did Fight Gone Bad. I'll make up those sprints soon, though.

Here's the breakdown for my FGB, though I know no one cares about the rep breakdown other than me. :)

Wall ball: 11, 12, 12
Box jump: 28, 23, 19
Push press: 18, 14, 11
SDHP: 20, 16, 16
Row: 11, 11, 10

Total reps: 232

At first I felt good about those numbers, but after we all finished, I realized that I was in 3rd place, and had only been beaten by 4 and 7 reps. WTF???? Makes me think to myself I could've pushed out a few more reps here and there if I had know I could've pumped out the highest female score at my box.

So, as far as I'm concerned, Fight Gone Bad and I have a rematch sometime SOON.

--
This morning I coached the 0930 class, and we did "Team Cindy". In pairs, only one partner works at a time, and whole rounds must be completed before switching off.

There was some debate before we started about how much "waiting around" would have to be done, but I enjoyed doing the WOD that way. I think it is a perfect way to prep to do Cindy, which I would like to do sometime soon (afterall, it is in my 1st quarter goals). By having a break while your partner works, you can not only cheer them on, you can also move a lot faster each time it's your turn.

I starting losing my pushups on about the 5th of 6th round that I completed... That sucked. But I'm happy to say that I only had 1 really awful round for pullups. I pretty much was able to complete 5 in a row on 6 or 7 of the 9 total rounds that I did. Being able to do pullups is freaking wonderful. Now to get those dead hangs...

Squats were cake, makes me happy I've been working on them a lot. :-D

--
In two weeks I will be at my cert -- yikes! I need to re-read the study guide. I wish they provided some practice questions or something, I just feel like I don't know what to concentrate on since there are about 90 pages of material!

I also need to visit a copy shop and have them print and bind it for me, with extra pages added for notes. They provide some notes areas in the PDF file, but not enough for me.

PTP - Day 3

Wow, I have a feeling my blog post titles are going to be really boring for the next few weeks. :-p

I decided that I don't want to completely "tune out" from the programming at my "home" box while I'm working on PTP, so I will incorporate metcons where I can. Like today I did the daily WOD for my cash out, instead of 5-5-5-3-3-3 back squat as prescribed by PTP.

PTP Day 3:

• Deadlift: 5 reps @ 120, 110
• Press: 5 reps @ 60, 50

CF Camden WOD:

5 rounds for time

• 20 box jumps, 20"
• 20 situps
• 150m sprint

Results:  13:3? -- something like that :)

I also participated in two team WODs after our trainer development meeting tonight. Sprinting 150m with a sledgehammer, and then completing 100 reps of DUs, squats, K2E's and pushups as a team. And oh yeah, one team member had to hold a handstand while 2 others were working. Mandy is a slave driver! :-p

Let me just say that I have really earned my rest day tomorrow after all that. They only thing I want to do is tabata squats -- maybe. We shall see. :)

PTP - dia dos

I did *not* feel like working out today... But, I did...

PTP Day 2:

• Deadlift: 5 reps @ 115# and 105#
• Press: 5 reps @ 55# and 50#
• Cash out: 16:02 

Cash out:

5 rounds
10 DB snatch, 5R/5L (30#)
10 1-arm KB swing, 5R/5L (16kg)
10 burpees

Wow, I was freaking sluggish on the cash out.  I seriously considered doing only 3 rounds, but forced myself to do all 5. My left shoulder still feels weird with some movements, and the left arm snatches did not feel very good for some of the reps. My elbows feel a bit "crunchy" too, today.

Tomorrow will be my 4th day on... this should be interesting...

Restarting PTP

Today I restarted the Whole9 / CF 603 PTP program.

For reference:

• post comments on doing PTP here, thread will be monitored
• view entire program here 

Yep, I tried this back in January, and didn't carry through with it. I probably should have tried to get a partner to do it with me, so there was extra motivation to continue with it... Though I do have some virtual partner motivation, since 21st Century Amazon is also doing PTP right now.

Day 1:

• Deadlift: 5 reps at 110 and 105 (was supposed to be 100, but I screwed up my plates)
• Press: 5 reps at 50 and 45 (yay starting from new 1RM of 85 on press)
• Cash-out: 3rds, 30 DUs, 15 K2Es -- 11:45

Some thoughts, as usual.

Keeping my shoulders relaxed at the start of a K2E, when I'm just hanging from the bar, helps A LOT. I am kipping / swinging a bit to start the motion, but to make up for that I am making sure to engage my shoulders and really get up into a good final position before coming back down. I need to take some more video to make sure my back is getting close to parallel to the ground.

I would've done the cash out faster if I didn't have to pee in the middle of my 2nd set of DU's.

Press felt soooooo easy. Deadlift too. I think sticking to this program will be an exercise in patience, and will also teach me a lot about working with future clients who want to get stronger. Since one of my interests is training the older crowd, I think first-hand experience in a gradual strength-building progression will be invaluable. For someone who is older and worried about losing strength, strength gains seem like they would trump metcon / aerobic conditioning in importance.

Press & metcon, redemption, Be More

We did strength + metcon today. And MaryAnn from the pool / Rec Center came, which is awesome. She is my first recruit to the box! I'll be working with her on my lifeguard training prep class as well as the "real" class. I might also do Water Safety Instructor with her, just to round it all out. Gotta work on finally learning the butterfly for that, though. Anway, back to CrossFit!

strength
press
5-4-3-2-1-1

Results: 65-70-75-80-85-90m


I'm not surprised that I missed on 90, and I'm very happy that I matched my current PR of 85. If we had some 1 or 2 pound weights to add, I'd like to try to find a middle spot between 85 and 90...

metcon
2 rounds for time of:
400m run
30 sit ups
30 push ups

Results:  10:48

Um, yeah... I was happy with my runs, OK with my situps, and freaking annoyed with my pushups. To get them *good*, they are S-L-O-W. Bummer. I was ahead of everyone after the 2nd run, and then got beat by a good 2 minutes. With knee pushups I would've smoked everybody, but that's not going to help me in the long run. I just get tired of having such slow times sometimes... On a day like Monday where we did rope climbs and stuff, it doesn't bother me. But for the simple stuff, like pushups and pullups and ring dips, I just get angry that I'm not stronger and faster...

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I was talking to my friend and her husband about CrossFit this weekend, and said that women tend to lack confidence when they start CrossFit because they've spent their lives viewing their body as an adversary, and not as a tool that they can use for their benefit. I really liked that idea as soon as I'd said it. It sums up how we hate our bodies despite all the things they make possible for us -- it is just so wrong, on every level...

Then today I read a post by Cindy where she's talking about redemtion, and I loved this paragraph:

I look at CrossFit as a redemptive act as I am slowly undoing all the years of fear, poor habits and self-loathing every time I complete a WOD.

Fear, poor habits and self-loathing. That just completely sums up my body image experience in my life so far... When I think of my 16-year-old self doing 2.5 hours of track practice every day after school, barely eating 500-600 calories for breakfast and lunch, and willing my body to get smaller, smaller, smaller when it was already absolutely tiny at 130 pounds...

Wow. I am so grateful that I've come so far, and have learned so much. I hope as part of my redemption that I can get involved with teenage girls who are in a similar situation, and teach them about nutrition, about athletic bodies, about disordered eating and how to recognize it in yourself and fix it. Think about the kind of athletic success I could've had with some nutritional counseling and someone to talk me through my horrible ideas about how I should fuel my body and how I viewed my body...

I will continue to redeem myself so that maybe I will have the ability to help others in the future.

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I had to throw in a link to this post/article, though it is awesome enough to merit its own post.

We do not do enough to honor ourselves

We bend over backwards for approval and pats on the head from our bosses, spouses, siblings, parents, coaches, friends, and teachers. We strive with hideous effort to say “look at me look at me! I’m here! I exist and that’s a good thing!”

Often, we have no sense of identity beyond what we are worth to another person. That is not the mindset of a confident, healthy  individual. That is the mindset of a weaker person expecting to be dominated by another. Perhaps even thinking that that is what they deserve.

PTP Day 2

With sore legs from my run yesterday (I was running somewhere between an 8:30 and 8:50 per mile pace, fast for me), I took it easy today.

CF Whole9 PTP - Day 2

I did my own warmup, minus the row, and skipped the prescribed Buy-In. Though I did add 10 GHD situps to my final 3 round triplet.

Deadlift:

• Set 1: 115 x 5
  
• Set 2: 105 x 5
  

I felt like my form was better on these on Monday, though I'm not sure in exactly what way? Maybe it was just muscle soreness making me feel off.

Press:

• Set 1: 50 x 5
  
• Set 2: 45 x 5
  

Considering how heavy 50 felt, I'm surprised that I actually managed to get up 80 during CFT a few weeks ago.

No cash out or cool down, just stretching and then doing some of the warmup with the 8:30 class. Only 2 ladies this AM.

Monday mish-mash

I was helping out at the box this morning, so I used the gap between 6:30 and 8:30 classes to start the 603/Whole9 PTP program.

First I did my own warm-up (see below), so I was really sweating by the time I finished the buy-in.

Buy-in

3 rds (only did 2 + 1 handstand)

• 20 sec handstand (used HSPU harness)
• 15 kb swings (16k) -- these felt heavy for some reason!
  
• 10 box jumps (20'')
  

Deadlift

• 1RM = 185
• Set 1: 60% = 110; 5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of set 1 = 100; 5 reps

Press

• 1RM = 80
• Set 1: 60% = 45; 5 reps
• Set 2: 90% of set 1 = 40; 5 reps

Cash out

3 rounds (only time for 2) -- 12:25 (took a video, so that took up some time)

• 30 double-unders
• 15 KTEs

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Am I the only one wondering how my KTE's look? Yes? Well, here's a video anyway. heh :)



I'm thinking I'm starting to do them closer to corect, because my shoulders were getting tired and sore after round 2 of 15 reps. So I must be engaging them...

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In addition, I started putting together a personalized warm up, which is one of my goals. I used a CrossFit Journal article and my experiences with warming up at Ultimate CF and CF KoP to create this baseline routine.

W/U:

• Run, at least 400m
• Row, at least 500m - focus on maintaining low stroke count and 2:10 pace (H/T Ultimate blog)
• 3 rounds with PVC:
  - 10 shoulder dislocates
  - 10 good mornings
  - 10 OHS
• 3 rounds:
  - 5 ring dips (floss)
  - 10 pushups (consecutive, on toes)
  - 3 dead hang pullups (floss/skinny band)
  (will work on increasing these reps as I get stronger)
  

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Talked to Joe a bit about my cooldown, and to help with maintaining lumbar curve during deadlifts, I'm definitely going to incorporate hip extensions there. Not sure what else I'll include, maybe a rope climb? Got some instruction on that on Saturday from the husband, plus watched a few videos last week.

CrossFit Total @ Ultimate CrossFit

My first CrossFit Total!

When I saw the WOD on the Ultimate CrossFit blog, I was so stoked! Now that I've had a few months to work on my back squat, press and deadlift, I was ready to see how I could perform in this benchmark.

"CrossFit Total"
Squat - 1, 1, 1
Press - 1, 1, 1
Deadlift - 1, 1, 1

There is no time limit for each lift. You can warm up all you like, but you must choose a rep to be your first attempt. You only get three attempts at each lift, so if you fail at any attempt it still counts as one of your reps. Scoring: Take your top completed reps from each category and add them together for your total.

Results:

• Back squat - 155, 160m, 155
• Press - 70, 75, 80
• Deadlift - 175, 180, 185
• Total: 420

According to the CFT ranking charts in the mainsite FAQ, I'm "Intermediate" for my bodyweight. I think that's good considering I just started using barbells in mid-August.

For back squat, I'm happy because my goal was to add 10 pounds to my last PR (145) to make my PR the same as my body weight. Hopefully when I do my weigh-in once I get home from vacation I've lost some more weight, and then I will happily announce I can back squat more than my body weight. :-D

For press, I think I should've started at 75, which was my 3RM at CrossFit KoP the other day. But when I warmed up with 75, I couldn't get it up, and that's why I dropped back to 70. I dunno. But will be aiming for 85-90 next time I go for a 1RM on press. Utilized some great advice from Swine -- keep elbows wide to keep your shoulders engaged in the upward movement; my elbows want to drift forward, which makes it harder to apply force upward on the barbell.

For deadlift, I'm satisfied. My goal was to surpass my current PR of 175, if I could do it while maintaining good form. I accomplished that by 10#, and Brian was kind enough to watch my form, which he said looked good. Hollah! This makes me feel very confident about my 1Q10 goal of a 200# deadlift -- I think it's absolutely achievable.

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The noon class at Ultimate CrossFit is such a fun group of people, and it fits perfectly into my schedule when I'm helping out my sister. AM classes don't work because of getting the kids on the bus, and PM classes don't work because the kids are already home from school. I really wanted to try to visit CrossFit Charlotte this week, but I don't think it's gonna fit since they don't have a noon class... Bummer...

I'm glad I brought my giant bag of stuff with me, because there was a need for an iPod and I had my new one with me. I chose to play them my "cheri's getting sh** done" playlist, which seemed to please the crowd. I should put it on for my CF Camden peeps soon. :)

Also, I finally got a picture of my favorite CF wall art that I've seen so far:


Yes, that is Kool-Aid man busting through the wall while swinging a kettle bell over his head. LOVE IT. Cheesy, yet motivating. The same description I hope I have as a coach. :-p

There's also another cool piece of art on the other side of the box:


I'll probably be back over there 3-4 times this week. I might do 5 days on (Mon-Fri) since I took a day off yesterday after only 2 (pretty easy) days on.

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Random note: I rowed my warm-up 500 in less than 2 minutes. Booyeah! :) Also, I love the skinny pull-up bars a UCF. Did 3 kips in a row without dropping off the bar. I think I need to bump that goal up to 10.