MetroDash Philly

This was so freaking fun! If you have one in your city, definitely consider signing up!

MetroDash website

The only thing that I didn't like about this event was the language they chose for the website and email communications with the competitors. Honestly, I thought they really exaggerated the difficulty and intensity of the event. I understand wanting to bill this as an "ultimate test of athleticism" -- and if you did the course for time, that's probably what it would be. But how about leaving the door open for just finishing? That was mentioned, but not highlighted. Which is contradictory, because the website made it clear there would be no "winner", just finishers. So why not focus more on just finishing the challenge?

OK, end rant, back to the fun stuff!

My biggest source of excitement for this event was just seeing more of my CrossFit KoP friends, and spending time with them. Especially Steph and Cindy. As a bonus my husband also signed up, as well as a friend I used to work with and haven't seen in forever, plus I got to meet a bunch more of the CF KoP group. Yay!

Running with Steph through the city was an absolute blast. The way my husband feels about the mountains, that's how I feel about the city. It's just so different that is amazingly energizing. And only in the city would you almost collide with a parked Vespa while dodging slow pedestrians! Love it! :-D

The challenge points include tabata squats, tabata pushups, tabata situps, tabata star jumps, bear crawls, walking lunges and as part of "The Gauntlet", tire flips, rope whipping (what the heck is that called??), sled drags, box jumps, slam balls, kettlebell swings (we made fun of the 15 and 20 pound bells :-p) and an 8 foot wall to climb over.

My only regret from this event was not attempting the 8' wall unassisted. I stood on husband's knee, from which I could just grab the top of the wall, and used my own strength to pull up and over from there. But I wish I had tried to run and jump, or stand and jump, at least once... I wanted to attempt a do-over once we had finished, but the wall had been disassembled by then. Boo! :( Looks like I'll be signing up again next year -- they better still have the wall in the course!

Just because I love when other people include pictures, here's a couple. If you want to pick me out, I'm wearing the pink tank. None of husbeetle's face, though -- he doesn't like that on the good old blog, and I gotta respect that. But you can see the back of his head in the pic of Steph flipping the tire. :)

At the start

Steph flips the tire, husbeetle to her right

Sled drag

Sled drag

Box jump

Finish line!

PS - I toyed with the idea of adding labels for all the exercises we did at the challenges, but eh, I think I'll pass and just label it "vacation WOD". :-D

Primal exercise in the Poconos

We originally planned to hit up some fun outdoors activities in the State College / Penn State area for our vacation, but I made the mistake of not checking the academic calendar. Since we had inadvertently overlapped ourselves with move-in week (for a school with 40,000 students, this is a major problem), we decided on a change of plans, and headed due north instead, to the Poconos.
Since it was August, we had a nice warm day on the first day of vacation, so we drove to our hotel and then immediately headed for a nearby waterpark -- Camelbeach Waterpark. This is an ingenious use of a ski area -- Camelback Mountain. Some of the slides are disassembled and reassembled each fall and spring. And apparently they fill the lazy river with barrels, then cover it all with plywood, and push snow right over top! The ski lodge and lazy river are at the bottom of the picture below.

We are lovers of water, so this was a great way to start our vacation. I spent a lot of the afternoon thinking about how I wished I was wearing some Vibrams, and realizing how much I heel strike when walking. It's funny how primal living starts to push it's way into every facet of your life once you start studying it and becoming aware of it. :)

The next day, Wednesday, we headed to Bushkill Falls, billed as "the Niagara of Pennsylvania".

I personally would not make that comparison, but it was still beautiful, and a very neat type of trail. There is a whole series of wooden walkways and stairs attached to the gully that the falls drop into -- without that, it would be a lot harder for most people to be able to see it. You can see a railing at the very top of the picture above. There were also a couple miles worth of "normal" trails -- though as usually for Pennsylvania, they were still pretty rocky.

I got one of the "Trail Map Adventure" kits -- which I think is a program intended for children -- and it totally made my day! For a few dollars you got a more detailed topographical map (to scale w/ elevations and other stuff not included in the free one) as well as a little card with 20 points listed, and 20 squares to mark each off. When you reached each of the 20 points along the trail, there was a little hole punch thing hanging from a post. Each punch made a certain pattern of tiny holes on the little card. So of course we had to hike to all 20 points, which meant covering every bit of the trail, and a few parts twice when I missed a punch. :) A perfect day in the mountains -- only having our dog along would've made it better. Though I'm not sure what her thoughts would have been on all the stairs and bridges. :)

Oh yeah, and how could I forget to mention my joy at only sweating a little in the "normal" places - a little on the face, neck, armpits and feet. It was amazing to exert myself without having my arms and legs beaded all over with sweat like when I do anything down here in the Georgia swamp. As a native of the north, I still just find that much sweating weird!

Thursday was our last day, and it rocked!

First up on our plan -- a high ropes course! We saw this when we bought our tickets for the waterpark, and knew we *had* to try it. And it was just as amazing as we had hoped! The only thing that would make it better would be to not have to wait so much for other people ahead of you. So I definitely want to go back another day and go out in the first group at 9:30am and climb into those trees first!

Here's a picture I got from the website of one of the awesome obstacles -- those log things swing and twist, it's so much fun! If you follow the link above, you can actually look through the "games" on each of the 5 courses. As the finale, you get to do one final, long zip line, which was awesome. :-D

If I had tried to do this course 1 year ago, before I started getting back into CrossFit, I don't think it would've been as fun of an experience. Doing it now, when I know I'm strong and can support my own weight, I was excited to fool around and see what I could do. I think last year I would've been out of breath, glad for all the rests we had waiting for the slower people ahead of us, and sore and exhausted the next day. As it was, I felt awesome, not sore at all. Such a great example of why CrossFit isn't just about being good at CrossFit -- it's about being good at life.

Sadly I did not take my iPod or camera with me, so I don't have any videos of us on the course. :( But that's just another reason to go back again, right? :-D

After our ropes course, we wanted to spend a little more time on the trails, so we headed over to Big Pocono State Park. We hikes a few miles around the Indian Trail, which takes you out to the scenic overlook of the valley below. There is just nothing like being in the mountains, taking a walk through the forest...

This trip made so glad to have grown up where I did, in such a beautiful environment. My husband loves and is energized by a trip to the mountains because it's exotic to him, it's new and different. But for me, it's a homecoming, it's a feeling of peace and a sense of belonging. I hope one day we will move to a big mountain home with a 3 mile driveway. :)

So, that's our trip -- no WODs, persay, but plenty of great primal exercise, don't you think? I thought it was just perfect. :)

Loving all these comments!

Wow, I am really loving all of these comments on the last 2 posts. It would be awesome to have more discussion here, so keep it coming ladies!

I was giggling so much reading Andrea's comment about wanting "scary arms". I have been flexing as a party trick since I was in high school -- I love blowing people's minds with my bi's and tri's. :-p And I am with you on the big legs. When my "side quad" first started popping out from squats, I was sooooo excited!

Angie got her stats up in her sidebar already, and OMG -- her 1RM on OHS is 110! That must be getting close to body weight, am I right? That kicks so much ass. :-D

Can't wait to see your stats too Kelsalynn!

Oh, and KD and Sara, you ladies need to join in the fun as well, since you were my original CrossFit mentors. :)

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I'm still freaking sick. What a pain. Especially since I'll be in and out of the pool tomorrow for my Water Safety Instructor class, plus I'll be teaching 4 10 minute swim lessons. KILL ME NOW. At least I might have a tiny bit of a voice by then -- I'm actually able to force out some real sounds and not just whispers today.

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When I hit the urgent care clinic on Monday I wore this shirt to help myself feel super tough. Bad ass, eh? :-D

If you watch the Games live web cast, watch out for Kate!

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And finally, my real reason for today's post.

Last night I was hacking up a lung, so I gave up on trying to lay in bed and got up and watched some TV and also looked at some stuff on the computer. Since it was late, that meant lots of new WODs had been posted that I could look at! Yay! Yes, I am such a CrossFit geek that I am subscribed to the blogs of several affiliates so I can check out lots of different WODs. :)

Anyway, CF KoP included a link within today's WOD post. And it got me so freaking excited, because it is *exactly* what I need right now.

Among all of my WOD "catchup" posts, I posted about a very bad day that I had with a WOD that involved muscle ups. At the end I said I'd like to do strict muscle up progressions moving forward -- the only problem with that plan was my not actually knowing how to go about doing that. All the MU progressions I knew about involve assisting a kipping-based transition.

This is the same spot I've been in before with gymnastics (body weight) movements. I want to practice, I'm dying to improve -- but everything I try to practice, I can't actually do yet. It is a totally frustrating place to be in, and in all honesty I don't handle it well. AT ALL.


I can remember when I couldn't do a dead hang pullup with the green band. Not being able to get my chin over that bar made me feel like an utter failure. Lately when I've failed at attempts to do pullups on the rings while maintaining a false grip, I feel that same way. Or when I've had to resort back to a band on ring dips when my strength gives out. It's like I bottom out.

What I have to remind myself is that I didn't get better at pullups until I started working on them every time I was in the gym. If a WOD didn't include pullups, then I was on the bar doing some afterwards. Even if it was just 5 or 10.

But also, there was an incremental nature to my pullups, once I did manage to get going on the green band. There's a next step -- blue. Then white. Then mental floss. Then you're ready to kip and deadhang unassisted. That ability to progress incrementally is what's lacking in my muscle up practice.

So, back to what I watched last night. An incredible video with several options for progressions that work toward a strict muscle up. Hallelujah! And they are brilliant progressions in that you can easily measure your success and incrementally increase difficulty in each one -- foot placement, bands, used, etc. (If you don't subscribe to the CF Journal, do it now, it's worth $25/year)

This is where gymnastics is so frustrating, and so rewarding. You get in these "sticking points" where you can't do the movement yet, and you're not even sure how to go about getting there. But once you get on the path of the proper progressions and start practicing, next thing you know you've amazed yourself!

It's in these "sticking points" that you realize how little you know. I feel fortunate that I'm experiencing these moments as an athlete, because I think it's making me a much better coach. If I had the brute strength and "balls to wall" attitude to just fling myself up into a muscle up, I would not be looking at progressions like this. And I would less educated and less prepared to help others who need a much more incremental approach to practice.


And this highlights something fundamental that makes CrossFit special to me. With all the skills that are incorporated, CrossFit puts me into these incredibly uncomfortable positions, where I'm consumed with "I can'ts" and my outlook gets to bleak. But when I persevere, next thing I know, I'm doing things I never thought would be possible.

Last year at this time I was 20 pounds heavier, and hiding inside all day because I hated the heat and hated living in Georgia and hated myself. I had just purchased summer clothes in bigger sizes because I didn't think I was going to take the weight off. It would be another month of misery before I even considered getting back to the gym.

11 month later, and I've just completed Murph as Rx. Yeah, it took me 90 minutes, but who cares? I got that shit done! Freaking amazing.

And can I just take a moment to be snarky? There's no way in hell these changes would've happened via elliptical machines, Zumba classes and Jillian videos. :-D

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One final thought on muscle ups. If you're a chick, and you have a kipping pullup and you can do a couple rings dips, have you considered adding this skill to your goals? Has your coach encouraged you in that direction?

As a coach, I think I want to bring this skill down from "holy grail" category and help my athletes perceive it as just another skill that is scalable and achievable for them, with time and practice.

And by "scalable" I sure as hell don't mean doing gazillions of pullups and dips on any day where MU's are programmed. I personally think that's total fucking crap. Let's start subbing movements with progressions of that movement people. (This is a pet peeve of mine, along with substitutions for rope climbs)

I'm making it my mission to make sure the ladies at my gym are setting their sights on going for a muscle up from the very moment after they get their kipping  or deadhang pullups.

I think when you're just exiting the process of achieving unassisted pullups, you're used to being in that "sticky" zone, you're used to being uncomfortable. And the key is to keep one step ahead, and introduce a new "sticky" skill, so the athlete never has the chance to adjust back to being very comfortable. It's hard to get yourself back into the uncomfortable place once you're feeling a little cocky that you can do pullups Rx. At least that's how things have played out for me. It has been hell trying to push myself back to that place, but I'm working on it.

Also, more chicks on the rings for dips, please. Off the bars and onto the rings!

PS - I'm gonna be making some more videos of my work on gymnastics stuff. Be prepared to laugh because I'm sure to make an ass of myself doing HSPUs. :-D

Interviewee, and other thoughts

Just wanted to add a little blurb over here about an interview that I did with Steph (from CF KoP) on her blog, Radical Hateloss. If you want to hear more about how I'm a psycho-b**** when there are K2E's in a WOD, you'll want to click over there. :-p

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Also, Lisbeth Darsh totally makes my day every time she posts something. Her writing has the perfect hardass, sarcastic edge. This post is amazing.

She makes me want to be a badass female gym owner really, really badly. :)

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Why do I discover there's another benchmark WOD that's not in the CF main site FAQ just 2 days after completing my whiteboard project?

I was reading the Athletic Skill Levels from CrossFit Seattle to get ideas for movements to include on my next "arts & crafts" project -- an individual PR whiteboard -- when I see "Christine" in the last row of Level 1 stuff. Dayum!

Sounds like a good one, too. (CF Fire agrees) I consider anything that doesn't require pullups or massively weighted bench press to be good, because then it seems accessible -- i.e., I might have a chance of completing it unscaled. :)

"Christine"
3 rounds for time
500m row
12 deadlift (bodyweight)
21 box jumps (24'')

I think I'll be ready to take on this lady at the end of my PTP deadlift press program... And I might add her to my board too. :)

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How did I miss finding this link to the entire PTP program? I was just following the "next post" links from each day to move ahead. Yay, now I can just print out the whole thing! Go me. :)

No crying

No crying in CrossFit when you are just pissed off at yourself for not being able to do something. That's just fucking defeatist crap, get over it, don't do it.

This is the pep talk I have to give myself every few weeks.

It's almost always related to a workout where I lack strength, when I simply cannot perform the movement properly because I don't have the power to do it.

Don't yet have the power to do it.

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CrossFit is more than just challenging yourself physically, building muscle, getting in good shape, getting skinny, losing your cellulite.

CrossFit is meant to challenge your mind and heart.

It kind of sounds like bullshit when you are looking at the main site, reading the quotes, reading the comments. But when you find yourself laying on the floor after you dumped an overhead squat, or leaning over with that ominous feeling in your mouth like "something's coming up!!!", then you understand the need for that focus on mental challenge, and change.

Looking at a task that is hugely difficult, and attacking it as if it is something that can be achieved is such a warrior ethos. It's what my husband has, that I don't have, and that he tries to instill in me.

But his words can't instill that optimistic belief of "I CAN FUCKING DO THIS!" in the face of anything. My mind still just registers that an impossible task has been presented, and it will be impossible.

Until I shut off the voice of reason and logic, the warrior voice is locked out.

There's only room for optimism in CrossFit, only room for believing in yourself and cheering for yourself.

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I think sometimes women are hesitant to start CrossFit because they see it as something outside their comfort zone entirely.

But once they start, I think they become adherents to the program because it unlocks their warrior side. The woman warrior side -- or as we say in my family, "don't mess with the mama bear".

Women have their own deep wells of mental strength, but those energies are most often deployed to help others. Many of us are raised to placate others, to be polite and perfect, to please, to not make others uncomfortable. We can turn our "mama bear" spirit towards the defense and care of others, like our children and husbands and families, but it's harder to turn our energies towards ourselves, to power our own defense and growth.

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Cultivate your woman warrior spirit -- turn those "mama bear" energies toward yourself. Believe in the power of YOU.

No crying in CrossFit until the workout is done.