Doubling up

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

Last day at CFC before VACAY!

Was gonna leave for vacation yesterday, but had a ton of errands to do. So I hit the gym this AM, and I'm gonna leave right after a shower.

Complete for time:
1000m row
30 overhead lunge steps right hand (40lb DB/25)
20 GHD hip extentions
30 OH lunge steps left
20 GHD sit ups
20 OH lunge steps right
20 knees to elbows
20 OH lunge steps left
20 AB mat sit ups
10 OH lunge steps right
20 knees to elbows
10 OH lunge steps left

Results: 26:26 Rx

I used a 12kg kettlebell instead of a dumbbell -- that's about 26 pounds, so still Rx.

This took me about 5 minutes longer than everybody else, and it's cause I was dawdling. Guess I started my vacation early? :-p

My reaction to this workout on the board, and my experience with performing it, tells me that I still have a lot to learn about programming. Just like yesterday, it "sounded" a lot harder to me than it actually was to perform. I thought the load on the lunges would be super-heavy, but it was totally do-able. Always learning, learning, learning...

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Speaking of learning, I've got a private session scheduled with Aimee at CrossFit KoP next Monday, and I'm super excited! We're going to go over, snatch (+ snatch balance, muscle snatch, etc), clean (as in, why is my PR stuck at 125?), kettlebell snatch (haven't ever had instruction on these), and HSPU.

Woot woot!

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Also on tap for my trip up north, I'll be participating in Metro Dash Philadelphia! I am so pumped about spending the day with my CF KoP peeps, plus I even got my husband to sign up. Will definitely take the iPod -- maybe Steph and I will collaborate on some awesome video. :-D

Be back soon with some vacation WODs, which will include some hiking! :-D

Lots of links, Friday's WOD, Saturday preview

I'll start with the links today. :)

This "burpee tag" warmup looks so fun! If we didn't have so much equipment blocking the edges of our area of mats, I would totally do this for a warmup. Maybe if we go to the track one of these day for sprints, this would be a good warmup to do on the football field.




20 tips for improving your squat, shared by CrossFit East Sacramento, originally from the "Squat Clinic" article of the CrossFit Journal.

I finally gave in and signed up for Twitter -- I'm ceewiss, since cwiss was already taken. I only did it because one of my friends won't sign up for Facebook and we are having a heck of a time staying in touch. Guess she won that standoff. :-p

Yesterday I cooked up some yummy veggies and beef in my CrockPot -- I posted about it on the CrossFit Camden Paleo Challenge blog. :)

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Today's scheduled WOD was "JT" -- handstand pushups, ring dips, pushups. With my (still) tweaky shoulder, I knew that was not a good idea. So I made up the workout from the 17th, with some modifications.

WOD:
20 cal row
20 wall ball shots (20lbs/14)
20 clapping push ups hip extensions
20 knees to elbows GHD situps
20 double unders
20 star jumps
20 pull ups
20 lunge steps (each leg)
20 slam balls

Results:  13:27

The only shoulder exercises I left in were wall balls, pullups and slam balls. I did a test K2E during my warmup, and it did not feel good, so those were out. The pushups I took out just to be on the safe side. I want to rest this as much as possible so I can get back to improving my skills for the cert in March.

I was feeling a little bit scared and wussy on the pullups -- those took me probably close to 1/2 my time. The double unders I did in 2 sets -- 9 and 11. That felt awesome. :)

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Tomorrow is gonna be interesting -- I'm running a 5K that is completely on a bridge. With a 6% grade. ZOMG. It's the Sidney Lanier Bridge, which goes over the Brunswick River and essentially connects Jekyll Island to the rest of the Golden Isles / Brunswick, GA. This bridge is super-pretty, and I love driving across it. It should be painful fun to run across -- and then back again.

 

 

Heavy on the arms for my first day back, 1/2 marathon race recap

Need to get caught up since I haven't posted since last Wednesday.

Thursday - rest day (really should've done something, but I was scared about the race!)
Friday - rest day
Saturday - Critz Tybee Run 1/2 Marathon in the morning, then treated myself to some Chik-Fil-A, went to see Sherlock Holmes and had a lovely fancy dinner with my husband. :)

I'm happy to report that I not only survived the 1/2 marathon, but also met my goal of finishing under 2 hours and 30 minutes.

My official chip time was 2:20:00. So fun that it was a totally even number. :)

That works out to an average per mile pace of 10:41, but I definitely wasn't going that slow the entire race. I wasn't wearing a watch, but my guess is that I did most of the miles between 9 and 10 minutes per mile, and then the last 3 were suuuuuper slow, like 11 or even 12 minutes per mile.

A friend told me beforehand that the first 10 miles would be no problem, but the last three would be brutal. She was totally right. I think during mile 11 I realized I was slowing down, and I tried to kick it up a notch, and just didn't have anything left in my legs. By the start of mile 13 I was barely hanging on. It was only by sheer force of will that I kept running the last mile. When I finally stopped, my legs were numb and I almost fell over. Holy shit. What an experience.

The pain in my legs after the day of the race was pretty bad. My shins were aching just below and outside my knees - I guess that maybe that was tendonitis? My hamstrings were freaking *shot*, and calves were sore too. Walking was not pretty, and I had to hang onto my husband to go up and down the stairs.

Oddly, my quads didn't hurt one bit. WTF??

The strangest thing about the post-race experience was how my arms weren't tired at all. It was just freaky odd. There have only been a few times that I've experienced leg muscle fatigue approaching what I felt after finishing the 1/2 -- that was after each of my 2 sprint triathlons and after a few select CrossFit WODs (Eva comes to mind). Those two situations led to more of a full-body fatigue, instead of such a completely leg-isolated fatigue. It felt a lot more "normal" to be tired all over, instead of just having busted legs...

Sunday - Turned tourist and climbed the Tybee Island lighthouse and walked around Fort Pulaski. Treated myself to one last stromboli from our fav pizza joint before the Paleo Challenge starts.

I was very happy that only the hamstring pain was still there on Sunday, and not the knee/shin ache -- I don't like even a hint of knee issues. A bit of soreness developed in my inner thigh -- I was expecting that, since shorter runs usually leave me sore there. I was worried about making it up the steps of the lighthouse (there are 178, I think), but I made it just fine. :)

Monday

Today is the second day after the race, and I'm still hurting pretty bad in my hamstrings. Hence why I chose to makeup an arm-centric WOD my home box did last Friday.

21-15-9 for time of:
Handstand push ups
Ring dips
Knees to elbows GHD situps
Push ups
Pull ups

Results:  48:10

I'm still healing up a palm rip from last Tuesday, and I was feeling wussy to boot, so I substituted GHD situps for the K2Es. Used the skinny band on my ring dips. Used the harness for HSPUs - green + blue with a loop.

Holy cow was this WOD a grind fest...OMG... I could barely get my pullups. They took forever. The best I did was 3 in a row to start off the first set. After that I only strung two together a couple times, most were singles. Even the pushups were a struggle.

Some of the time was taken up by me putting gauze and tape over my palm just before doing my pushups on the first round, but my time still really sucked.

HSPUs felt very strong, though. My shoulders are getting so much stronger in different ranges of motion, I love it. I need to take the loop out of the blue band and/or downgrade to white soon. Need to keep working on static handstands as well.

I'm glad I did something today, but boy was it a mental struggle. I've been on the couch the rest of the day. Oh the joys of quasi-unemployment. :)

Are you being served?

We did "waiter's walk" as part of the WOD this morning, so I felt inspired to make up a fun title for this post. :)

WOD:

For time:

• 25 GHD sit ups
• 150m overhead waiters walk (45lb/25 plate)
• 25 wall ball shots (20lbs/14)
• 150m overhead waiters walk
• 25 box jumps (24")
• 150m overhead waiters walk
• 400m run

Results: 12:14

Totally could've smoked this one harder, though I did beat everybody else by at least 2 minutes. GHD situps are hard to do fast when all you've done to warm up is a 500 meter row. I really need to figure out my own warmup -- I think that's key for getting more out of the WODs, and getting faster times. I also took breaks in the wall balls where I could've pushed through. And I only jogged a little bit with the waiter's walks, though I could've done much more of that. This is one I could alter and then do at the base gym, though, so maybe I'll try it again with Husbeetle one of these days.

I was actually at the 6:30 class, and it was enjoyable. The gym owners' pastor comes in at that time, and an awesome outspoken running grandma too. They rock. There was a younger woman there this morning as well who I think has just started coming -- she seemed nice, though she did the iPod with headphones thing during the workout. Will have to get her name next time I see her. I overheard a conversation she had with the trainer about no kids, a husband and a dog, so it sounds like we have some things in common. :)