I’m typically not a goal setter. I never have been. I just go with the flow. As much as I would like to get better in EVERYTHING, I just don’t really follow through on attaining my wants. I think mostly because I turn into a lazy thing and let my “goals” slip away. And we all know I’m not some 20 something that can just learn and execute movements overnight. Oh how I wish I was 10 years younger and starting out. But I am not Now that the open is over, I am going to try and focus on GOALS! Things like a sub 10 minute Karen, Pull Ups, HSPU, etc. I know it’s all possible I just gotta put in the homework. Over time with Coach’s programming at CrossFit Boom I have made progress in many things. I’ve come a long way. But I don’t feel I’ve met my POTENTIAL. Wait, I know I haven’t! And I know I can’t just “get” by with only showing up and not working on my weaknesses when I get a chance. I’m not going to try and kill myself but I know a little more mobility work each day will be helpful. Hanging on the pull up bar a little everyday will be SUPER helpful. So many little things that I need to focus on. And that’s my FIRST GOAL for now. Do HOMEWORK and hopefully take it to the next level.
Today is just day 1 of new focus so I haven’t done much of anything yet. But hopefully this evening I can dedicate some time to all those little things. I have started to follow EAT TO PERFORM’s guideline to eating. I typically feel I eat enough. Eating Paleo for the most part kind of makes it all come together. But as laziness sets in, so does poor eating. Even if it’s Paleo, it can still be poor. You can still miss out on everything you need. You can get by, manage and still be healthy but after reading through ETP posts, I feel that trying out their guidelines and following them for a bit won’t hurt. I think my downfall is not getting enough fat in, not because I’m scared of fat though. It’s just I don’t eat enough of it. So I’m focusing on the FAT and getting a good dose of healthy animal fat and healthy plant fat. And of course managing my carbs and proteins as well. They outline a female that is close to my weight and they have her ideally eating 200g of carbs. HOLY SNIKES! That’s a lot! Sweet potatoes and carb heavy squashes here I come. I want to PERFORM and I thinking giving this a shot will be worth it. I will have to journal my food intake for a little bit until I get used to breaking it down. But hopefully that’s a short lived task and I’ll get the hang of it pretty quickly.
4/6/13 Community WOD
Free Community Workouts are back Jack! Woooo. I enjoy them because a lot of times they are Team WODs and alot of times we do fun stuff, but even when they are not it’s still a good time because you get to workout with people from different class times. This time around it was a doozy of a 20 minute AMRAP.
4/6/13 WOD
20 minutes of 20 KB Swings (1.5POOD/1POOD), 20 HR Push Ups and 20 GTOH with 45lb/35lb plate
We worked in teams of 2 and it was up to us how we would split up each round. My partner and I decided we would go 10 and 10 until we were too spent for that and figure it out from there. We started off strong and made it through several rounds of sets of 10, then fatigue set it and we started doing sets of 5 reps. We went straight through pretty solid and ended up just shy of 10 rounds! 5 reps AWAY! GRRR!
Ground to Overhead with Plate
4/8/13 WOD
I actually got some decent sleep last night and felt good about waking up. Too bad it was only my brain that was awake cause my body wasn’t feeling it!
Skill/Strength: 5, 5, 5+ Back Squat @ 65%, 75% and 85% of our 1 RM
Well my back and hips are pretty tight from all of those KB Swings and GTOH with the plate. And although 65% and 75% felt good, 85% got me. Last week I went 6 reps, today 2, womp womp! Hopefully next week will be better, especially if I’m owning that mobility goal homework.
MetCon: 4 Rounds, 1 min on 30 sec off of Diamond Push Ups and Power Cleans 135/95lb Max Reps
Doesn’t sound too bad till it’s time to go! Holy heckola Diamond Push Ups are no joke. And that 30 second break goes FAST! We alternated between the Push Up and Cleans. So 1 minute of Push Ups, 30 second rest, 1 minute of Cleans, 30 second rest X 4. I didn’t go with the 95lb RX weight because Coach wanted us to go quickly. And I probably could do 1 round at 95lbs quick-like but not sure about 4 rounds with Diamond Push Ups as well.
Diamond Push Ups
I can’t remember each round breakdown but I stayed fairly consistent something along the lines of 20, 24, 21 and 17 for the Push Ups and 14, 14, 10, 13 for the Cleans. It was for a total of 133 reps. I’m a slacker and forgot to take a picture of the board! Hopefully the next time higher rep Cleans are involved I will go for the RX weight. I was pretty spent. My hands, forearms, and shoulders are done!
It’s a new week with new focus. I’m hoping the BUSY of our lives doesn’t drag me down at least not as much as it has been doing. I gotta work around it and fight for the things I need to do for me! Happy Monday y’all and you know the drill … BE AWESOME!
The CrossFit Games Open is finally coming to an end. Although it can be a ton of fun I tend to make it really anxiety ridden. I also get to see for a fact how far down the totem pole I am. Which by the way last year I was just excited to not be last in the world. But this year I took the fun out of it for me and just focused on what I lack. To make matters even worse, there wasn’t much improvement for me when reflecting back to last year. Yes I’m stronger, but not at a point I would like to be. And I’m positive I’m not faster. The upside to this disappointing 5 week journey is that I want to be not just better by next year but MUCH better. With that said I’m not delusional enough to think I’d be regionals worthy but hopefully better in general and with more skill sets!
Don’t get me wrong, the COMMUNITY is still super awesome. I love watching everyone else KILL it and it was a blast being part of the BOOM BOX Fridays where we all get together to become one big CRAZY family cheering each other on! I just know I didn’t rise to this year’s OPEN like I though I would have.
So let’s get to it, although there’s not much to report! I slept in for yesterday’s workout. It’s that cold, rainy crap that had me sleep right through my alarm! Hehe right? Totally not my fault! And this morning was my turn to attack 13.5. Well boys and girls, 13.5 was an insane crazy person’s dream nightmare brought to reality!
Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 4 minutes of:
65 pound Thruster, 15 reps
15 Chest to bar Pull Ups
If 90 reps (3 rounds) are completed in under 4 minutes, time extends to 8 minutes.
If 180 reps (6 rounds) are completed in under 8 minutes, time extends to 12 minutes.
If 270 reps (9 rounds) are completed in under 12 minutes, time extends to 16 minutes.
Etc.
FUN RIGHT???!!??? So let me break it down. I don’t have PULL UPS so I surely don’t have CHEST TO BAR PULL UPS. My score will be 15. But for putting in work purposes we less elite athletes went for an 8 minute AMRAP using modified (banded) CTB Pull Ups. That’s doesn’t really help when you are no good no matter how many bands you use. 😀
I did my 15 thrusters UNBROKEN. Woooo! And then I had approx 7:30 minutes to keep working. Welp it took me way to long to do 15 Banded CTB and I got back to Thrusters for my second round and did them in sets of 5. I was tired by then. I was mentally wasted. Got back to CTB and had several NO REPS. Only got a score of 50. Those darn CTB!
4/5/13 WOD
That concludes my week for now. Of course I have tomorrow’s Community WOD that I plan on attending. But we also have baseball, so we’ll see what happens. I hope you all have a great weekend! It’s supposed to be beautiful weather here in Texas! Now I go back to my regularly scheduled wodding!
On a quick note before I tell y’all to be awesome and stuff. I’m currently looking into eattoperform.com. I’m thinking about giving their suggestions a go because right now I’m stuck in this half ass clean eating mode. And if I have a plan I’m more likely to stick with it. When I did Whole30 I did amp up my fat intake and ever since then I realize I’m probably not getting enough in. So we’ll see how it goes. Now that’s really all! Go out and make your weekend AWESOME!!
Hello Hello! No I’m not slacking again. I had jury duty yesterday and blogging fell off the to do list. But I did get my WOD in. Someone recently asked me HOW I DO IT? How do I get up every morning, check in at the BOOM Box, get the kids off to school and get to work. And I responded with “It’s not always easy and sometimes I do sleep in but 5 am is the only time I CAN go. There’s a fit kid in me somewhere telling the fat kid inside me to get up and move. I want to be strong for my boys so I get up and go. I want to put my all out there so they have no excuses for not trying or giving it their all.” That’s the best way I could explain it without going into full on novel mode. I want to be fit, healthy and THERE for my family. I don’t want to be hurt, broken and sickly. I want to be a better me for me, for my boys. I’m not always the most positive athlete in the box but hell I’m there. I show up. I put work in. Ahhh, there’s so much I could say but I would bore you and I’d just be a broken record. Just freakin do it! Go out there and work hard. Life life. Laugh. Cry. Smile. Relax. Love!
Right now my kids are in the heart of baseball season. We eat, breathe and live baseball 24/7. One of their coaches sent out a link to the team for the boys to listen to and I hadn’t really had the chance to hear it, but it’s loaded on their iPods and they listen regularly. The past couple of days we’ve been listening together in the car and it speaks to me probably more than the kids! So here it is. It’s a great motivator.
That’s right ladies and gents. Welcome to the GRIND! Man I love that video. It’s only my 3rd day listening/watching it but it will be a daily ritual. I love it!
On to my Boom Box reports. Taking a week off HURTS! I’ve already preached about not slowing down or taking time off and I did just that and it sucks. But it does motivate me to work harder (sometimes).
4/2/13 WOD Skill/Strength: Muscle Up or Ring Dips
Ya, there’s no Muscle Up in my near future but hopefully in my future in general. I’m getting better at getting my hips working the movement right when we break it down to work on but there’s so much more work to be done. Focusing on ring dips is the goal for the moment. I can get up there and hold myself up there but the dipping part is where I have a mental panic. I can’t just drop without completely failing. I can’t lower myself down to pop back up. With a band, I’m AWESOME but that’s not that cool. I’m working on it. But it’s a SLOW work in progress.
4/2/13 WOD
MetCon: 7 minute AMRAP of 30 Double Unders, 10 Handstand Push Ups
My wrists and shoulders haven been shredded. The idea of doing a handstand push up hurts me. I still can’t do them but I’m getting better. I opted for using the box for a modified version of HSPU. Double Unders come relatively easy for me. I’m not a MASTER and I can’t do 100 unbroken. But I can get them knocked out quickly. I’m pretty sure I did my first 2 sets of DUs unbroken. Most of my time was wasted climbing onto the box and setting up for HSPU. Plus it seriously sucks to be winded and being inverted. It’s so much harder to breathe! The rest of my DUs were sets of 10’s or 15’s. Fatigue set in my triceps halfway through, I didn’t even want to hold the rope. 7 minutes isn’t that long but I was feeling every second of it. Score: 6 rounds + 10 DUs.
4/3/13 WOD
It was RAINING this morning and it felt so good to be in bed. I was 90% sure I wasn’t getting out of bed. And the MetCon was SPRINTING. It’s raining. SLEEP! The legion did not win. I got up and put my feet on the ground and didn’t look back!
Skill/Strength: 15 minutes to find 1RM Push Press and 3 X 8 Jumping Good Mornings.
As typical for me I get stuck with my 1 rep max weights. Although I’ve Push Pressed 105lbs before, I can’t seem to get back there. And I’ve been stuck at 95lbs. I’m OK with it for now. Like I said my shoulders are toast. My whole upper body is smoked. I know I can do more weight, it’s just not happening today. More dip, more drive. MOVE FASTER. All those things in my head. Get the bar up and all momentum stops. Not sure where that brake is in my head but I want it gone!
4/3/13 WOD
MetCon: 4 x 400, Rest 1:1 (100% effort)
So it was still raining and pretty steady when we started so we opted for the rower. I’m no more of a rower than I am a sprinter. And we haven’t rowed in a while. I wasn’t sure where I would end up. ROWING is tough cookies man. I think being short doesn’t help. But of course that’s my excuse. If I was tall, I’d probably say that’s the reason. I’m too tall. I was taking turns with Leigh. I rested while she went and she rested while I went. I didn’t pay much attention to my times but I think I averaged 1:30 splits. Faster than my 400m sprint, that’s for sure. Woooo I was beat down. My forearms, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and quads were dead. I need to row more!
I’m tired today. Maybe the rain. Maybe the WODs. Just heavy eyes. This is a first week of 5 days in a row. Not sure if I can HANG! But I’m gonna try. You will all know how it turns out. Plus it’s 13.5 DAY! The last CrossFit Games OPEN WOD will be announced and we can all go back to our normal, anxiety free (ha) lives. I know I gotta step up my game. I gotta put more focus into my workouts and I HAVE TO GET BACK to at least a 90% if not 100% clean eating regimen. AGGGHHHH! So much to work on. My first year I started off GREAT. My 2nd year has been half ass. I need to end my 2nd year of CrossFit strong. NOT half ass! Anyhow, that’s where my I need my head to be, let’s see if I can actually get there.
In case you haven’t noticed, I was MIA for the past week. For those of you who did notice, my apologies! For you new followers, HI. I’m a hot mess and you probably want to unfollow, turn around and run! Hehe. Jokes. Well it’s true I’m a hot mess but I’m just your average 30 something trying to figure out how to live healthy, stay healthy and enjoy life. I’m up, I’m down. I’m BEAST and then I suck. It’s a roller coaster around here but I keep on keepin on. Hopefully those who have stuck with me “get” me and hopefully you new folks will as well!
So back to my M.I.A. I’m pretty sure my brain/body was telling me to shut it down last week and that my friends is what I did. I seriously could not wake up on time and I was extra sleepy all week. It doesn’t help that I was eating like crap either. So I’m pretty sure I just got a 1 -2 punch to my GUT (literally), my Head and my Soul.
In my funk, I did get much needed rest and hopefully sorted through some my insane mental maze. And it’s insane indeed. I was doubting CrossFit, Paleo and pretty much everything else. As I don’t get super personal outside of workouts and eating, I’ll keep it at that but overall I was just feeling blah. Everyday that I skipped out on my Boom Box check-ins, I thought I should try to make it to an evening class. Or maybe I should just run around the neighborhood. None of those “plans” ever panned out though. And as for food, my only CLEAN meals were lunch. I guess it’s better than ZERO clean meals but bad eating is something that I can feel mentally and physically and it sucks you in like quicksand! You know it’s bad, you know you aren’t feeling at your best but there you are eating the crap like it’s the best thing ever!
3/28/2013 SKILLS SESSION
Although I was still feeling bleh and wasn’t too keen on going to the Skills Class at the Boom Box on Thursday evening, I still showed up. The much anticipated CrossFit Games Open WOD 13.4 was announced on Wednesday and it had Toes to Bar. UGH. My enemy. I figured I need to absorb all I could so that I could become a TTB master. Once upon a time back in my “lighter” days and not so beat down days, I could string a few together. Lately I’ve barely been able to do 1 rep much less MULTIPLES. And I missed a whole week of WODs where TTB were integrated, Coach must see into the future. I didn’t leave the skills session with TTB as my superpower but I was feeling ok that I would survive 13.4 in the morning.
3/29/13 WOD
Complete as many reps as possible in 7 minutes following the rep scheme below:
95 pound Clean and jerk, 3 reps
3 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 6 reps
6 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 9 reps
9 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 12 reps
12 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 15 reps
15 Toes-to-bar
95 pound Clean and jerk, 18 reps
18 Toes-to-bar…
A week off, little practice on TTB and there I stood at 5 a.m. ready NOT ready to go. HOLY COW was I going to survive the 7 minutes? HELL NO is all I could think!
We warmed up and got to setting up our bars. 95lbs wasn’t feeling heavy for my Clean & Jerks and I got a couple of Toes to Bar even though my hands were HURTING so bad. I was starting to feel a little bit better and it was just about GO time.
3/29/13 WOD
3-2-1 GO. My brain stopped working. I had the 3 worst Clean and Jerks EVER. Even failed on my 2nd clean. I was pissed. I had just done several and felt good and now I am doing everything WRONG. I still made it through the first 3 and was ready to tackle TTB no matter how slow I went. And only ONE TTB ever showed up. Oh I’d get one foot to touch, but not my stupid left foot. I’d be an inch away from touching the bar but not ever get to the bar. Oh I was mad. I kept on trying till that dumb clock buzzed. I felt so defeated. So sad. That’s what you get, I scolded myself. That’s what you get for being lazy and eating junk. Way to GO with your 4 reps. Are you serious??!!?? UGH I was not happy. But there wasn’t much more I could do.
I stuck around and watched everyone kill it for the 6 a.m. class and boy was that fun. After all my self hate, it was nice to turn it around and cheer on everyone else. Still not happy with myself but I had to get over that. Later in the day, we went to watch the evening classes and witnessed more awesomeness come out of folks. And then the bug of wanting a do-over started creeping in my head. It was just a thought as it was for 13.3 and I left it at that.
3/30/13 WOD
I have missed a couple of Saturday WODs already and was determined to not miss another one. Plus I couldn’t just show up on Friday for one workout for the week. I was glad when I showed up and then I was convinced that Coach was trying to kill us when it came down to the MetCon.
Skill/Strength: Front Squats: 1X5 @ 80%, 2X3 @ 85%, 3X1 @ 90% – rest 1:00-2:00 between setsIt’s been a while since I have worked on Front Squats so I wasn’t feeling confident with my weights going in. Even though my front squat isn’t super heavy, I was feeling pretty weak (1RM 135lbs). My workload ended up being 110lbs, 115lbs and 120lbs. Turns out I felt pretty good after I knocked each set down.
3/30/13 WOD
MetCon: 100′ Over Head lunges 45/35#, 10 Strict Press @ 60%BW, 30 Burpees, 100′ Over Head lunges 45/35#, 8 Strict Press @ 60%BW, 20 Burpees, 100′ Over Head lunges 45/35#, 6 Strict Press @ 60%BW, 10 Burpees
I pretty much laughed when I read strict press at 60% of my bodyweight! I definitely need to lose weight because my 1RM is way less than that! And I need to get stronger! But weight loss would be a better goal for now, haha. So Coach determined that I would use my 1RM – 75lbs for my strict press and somehow that sounded alright.
Little did I know that the Overhead Lunges were going to kill me and strict press was going to be damn near impossible. Keeping a 35lb plate locked out over head for 100 ft is nuts, 100 ft isn’t even that far but it was HARD. The pizza I had for dinner the night before was bogging me down. I was struggling. I got to the bar for my strict press and it was a FAIL x 5. So I took off 10lbs and finally got the bar overhead. My shoulders were SMOKED! It took me a while but I knocked out those 10 reps. And what was waiting in the wings… BURPEES. My wrists are dead, my shoulders are fried and now burpees. 30 of them! And back to lunges I went. The distance was a measured 50 ft turn around and come back for the 100 ft. I made it about 25 ft and threw the plate down. I wanted to cry it sucked so bad. Got back to the bar eventually and picked up the bar. FAIL! Holy shit are you kidding me? Picked it back up and managed to get 4. Took a break. Then got 4 more! Wooooo. But I did the 20 burpees probably the slowest ever in the world. My muscles were quitting and I still had one more round to go! I was slow on the first 50 ft of the lunges but really powered through (which was probably still slow) the last 50 ft. Back on the BAR and FAIL again. This FAIL nonsense has got to stop! Finally got 2 reps, then 2 more, then 1 more. THEN FAIL! It took me 3 attempts to get the last rep in. By then everyone else had finished so I’m the one they are staring at/cheering on. Those last 10 burpees were probably my best set just cause everyone was in my face. It sucked. Time: 20:20.
3/30/13 Part 2 – the Afternoon
Ernie was half ass debating redoing 13.4 and I had the idea that maybe I would. 3pm rolls around and Ernie is OUT, he has decided he won’t do it but he wanted to go up to the Box to watch anyone who needs to get it in at 5pm. So we go up there. I half ass hang on the bar and work on TTB but I don’t have much. I kinda sorta want to redo it but not really. But while I’m there, I might as well work on the TTB. Eventually I get a whopping 2 in a row and Coach told me to get a bar and start warming up. Nah! I’m good. Get a bar! OK I guess. So I start warming up Clean and Jerks and feel good at least with that. I probably won’t do worse than 4. So I should be fine.
It’s only 7 minutes and who cares that my body is dying from the morning! It appears that little food and extra work are the key to me being more successful (jokes) because I ended up getting through a total of 9 TTB, hahaha. That’s not amazing by any means to an AWESOME athlete but it was amazing for my chunky butt self to get those toes up there. I struggled. They didn’t come easy and I did one at a time. I had a few NO REPS in there but I got the first 3 down and thought I’m good with that. At least I got one round in. Once I finished my 6 C&J, I thought “even better”. My score is a little higher. But those 6 TTB were a big struggle for me. But I had enough time for C&J. I got through the 9 Clean and Jerks and time was up. WHEW, that was NOT easy! I can no longer say I “CAN’T” do TTB. This was a REDO that I’m proud of. Score: 27 reps.
4/1/13
I’m still a little LOT sore from the weekend. I wasn’t even sure I would be able to roll out of bed. Slowly but surely I did even though I was feeling the pain in all of my body.
Coach tried to be a little April Fool’s sneaky on us and put SURPRISE WOD on the board and then try to tell us it was 60 minutes of Burpees. I half heartedly believed it. I was still sleeping! Thank goodness it was a joke.
Skill/Strength: Squat 5,5,5+ @65,75,85%. The + is for max reps over 5.
I don’t think I’ve worked on Back Squat since I PR’d so my percentages are a little different than I’m used to seeing. And it felt heavy! Even 65% felt heavy. I was reminded how missing a week can do that to you, sigh! I’m back. I’m back! No more missing days at a time! Worked up to the 85% and got 6 reps in. Went for the 7th but bottomed out. My legs are dead from Saturday. I felt ok with my 6 reps.
4/1/13 WOD
MetCon: 3 rounds – 20 kbs 1.5/1 (American), 15 C2B, 10 Thrusters 115/85
Doesn’t sound like much, but I know better. That’s a lot! Especially those Chest to Bar Pull Ups.
I started off with KB Swings and those weren’t to bad to get through 20. Since I don’t have a pull up yet, I clearly don’t have a Chest to Bar, I double banded up and got to work. Being able to kip and use bands was good for my first round. I still struggled but got through the 15 faster than I thought. It was the Thrusters that would get in my head. I didn’t do the RX weight of 85lbs because warming up I felt a twinge in my lats on my right side. I didn’t want to hurt myself doing a heavier weight. So I stuck with 65lbs. Weak I know but this was supposed to be a quick workout. I broke my first round up too much: 3, 3, 2, 2. Got back to the KB and did 12 unbroken. I had to put it down before finishing. My forearms were fading fast. Got back on the bar for C2B and I could only do 2 at a time, then 1 at a time. This took forever. I knew I had to step it up for Thrusters. I managed 5 and 5. And only managed 10 and 10 for the KB swings. By the 3rd round of C2B I could only do 1 at a time. My forearms were on FIRE! When I got through that 15, I wasn’t sure how I would survive the last set of Thrusters and something in me clicked. I did those UNBROKEN! Time: 16:42. I was spent. That workout was brutal….for me!
Well if you made it this far I applaud you. That’s a lot of recap and probably not all that exciting. But I had a lot to report on from the weekend! Hopefully I’m back and back with a vengeance, in the box and in my kitchen. Today I started off with showing up to the Boom Box, clean cooking and eating.
Got one foot in, now lets see if the other will follow and stay! It’s a mental battle I know. I just gotta suck it up and go forward. I hope all of y’all are making the steps to a healthier life. If you fallen off the radar, now’s a good time to find your way back! Have a Happy Monday! And you know the drill…BE AWESOME!!
It’s meeeee and I’m not happy to say I’m Baaacckkk. So I was on the down-low for the past three days resting up a SELF DIAGNOSED strained groin muscle. From what the interwebs told me it was my ADDUCTOR muscles and ya not sure which one specifically but it hurt like a MOFO! I briefly mentioned it on my Monday post and low and behold Tuesday it kind of sucked to walk. By Wednesday it was still tender and still hurt but getting better. By Thursday it was just a lil painful to touch but nothing crazy. This morning it seemed fine until we did this wall stretch – where you lay on the ground, scoot your butt up against a wall and place your feet in a squat position on the wall. Let the tightness begin. Boy that hurt.
13.3 CrossFit Games Open
13.3 has come and it’s a repeat workout from last year. The dreaded 12.4: 12 minute AMRAP of 150 Wall Balls, 90 Double Unders and 30 Muscle Ups. I really just want to say I SUCKED. I QUIT. I QUIT CROSSFIT. THE END. But you all should by now I’m not a quitter. I just excel at the suckfest.
Let me put this in perspective. IF YOU ARE A SUPER ELITE ATLHETE, you will get into a 2nd round. Even if you are a SUPER ELITE ATHLETE you may not get through one round. So here I am very NOT SO ELITE, just trying to survive!
As you the people should know I don’t do well at the Wall Balls. They are miserable evil things. And mentally I came into the box in a bad shape. It doesn’t help that I’ve had 3 days off and have stuffed my face repeatedly. The upside to having 3 days off is that my shoulders weren’t dead and my hips weren’t dead. The downside to having 3 days off and eating poorly is that I have no will/want to/drive, etc. To be honest I wasn’t even SMOKED at the end of the workout. I was tired and breathing heavy but nowhere near exhaustion. I was just pissed. I wasn’t getting in good sets. I wasn’t doing anything worth a damn.
3/22/13 WOD
To top it off I did worse than I did a month ago when it showed up on the whiteboard (133 reps). And to drive the knife in a little further I did worse than I did last year (120 reps). Total: 110 reps. YUP. BAD. OH SO BAD.
Now the question is to REDO or NOT to REDO. sigh. double sigh. It’s just for fun right? It’s not going to catapult me into some top place but for my own sanity and to prove that I really don’t suck that bad, I want a do-over. We’ll see how I feel as the day goes on.
On the UPSIDE. 6am class KILLED it! Way to go Ladies and Gents. Mostly the ladies who are signed up for the OPEN. They all got the 150 and some even got into the Double Unders! BRAVO! Y’all are an inspiration 🙂
It’s the weekend folks. Another baseball-fun-filled weekend ahead. And maybe a do-over on 13.3. Gotta get out of this funk. Send AWESOME thoughts my way cause I need them! Have a fabulous weekend and be so AWESOME that it hurts!
I sooo need to take Mondays off now that baseball is in full swing. We had a jam packed weekend and no time to do anything else including REST. It’s fun although it makes for an early wake up call when you’ve had about 4 hours of sleep! And I knew I couldn’t miss this morning’s BOOM Box because it was 1RM day for DEADLIFT!
Skill/Strength: 20 minutes for 1RM Deadlift
I need to move quicker in this 20 minutes. Next time I will try to be more efficient. Before I knew it I had like 3 minutes left. My previous PR was finally hitting 200lbs back in November which is FOREVER ago now. And in the weeks leading up to this I’ve been doing multiple reps at higher weights. I worked my up to over 200lbs with a whopping 205. This came off the ground fairly easy but if I push it too much I’ll have a big ol fail. So I moved up to 215lbs and that came off the ground with ease.. haha ok not ease but still pretty nicely. So I dropped all of my caution and tried jumping up 20lbs and I pulled it and hovered off the ground like an inch for a hot second and was done. Tried to amp myself up and try again but this time it didn’t even leave the ground. Happy I PR’d, WISHING it was more Deadlift I got you. I will get that 235lbs+ sooner than later. Hell, I think I would have got it today had I managed my time better!
3/18/13 WOD
MetCon: 3 rounds: 3 minutes of 400m sprint, Max DUs then 1 minute rest.
If that doesn’t make sense this will. We had 3 minutes to run 400m then bust out as many Double Unders as possible with remaining time. Then rest 1 minute before going on to round 2 and 3. Well, well, well. This girl sucks at running but I thought I can sprint this out right? So I took off! and that lasted 20 seconds if that. And I had to shift back down to a non sprint mode. Made it back in 2:00. That’s a whole minute for DUs but my legs were super tired and didn’t want to work properly. I think I got 40 DUs that first round. After the minute rest I figured I’ll start off like I did in round 1 but that turned out to hurt me. Something pulled in my inner thigh and I was not moving fast at all. It wasn’t the kind of pain that brings you crying to the ground but it’s uncomfortable and hurts with every step now. It however did not hurt when doing DUs. Needless to say I came back much slower with only 40 seconds to get some DUs in. I got somewhere into the 20s but nothing allstar. For the 3rd run, I could definitely feel this pulled whatever and took it slow from start to finish. I still came back with 30 seconds left on the clock and was able to string together more DUs than I did in round 2. I finished with a score of 96. Now lets hope this leg thing doesn’t hinder the rest of my week!
I’m tired and need a day off. I only had enough in me to recap this morning at the BOOM Box. I’ve been eating like crap and have decided to stop doing that officially again! hahahha. Officially AGAIN. Let’s see if I can stick to it. I had some clothing issues with shorts. And with the warm weather reappearing, let’s just say I’m surprised I didn’t hide in my closet all day crying! I must regroup and get handle on my situation.
So that’s all I have to report on. I hope your Monday is better than my Monday! No really! Cause mine is draggin! Go be AWESOME for me as well! Thanks!
Another CrossFit Games Open WOD in the books. And whaddya know? I can do this. RX and everything right? EASY. 5, 10, 15 rep scheme for 10 minutes! Let’s Do THIS!
CrossFit HQ makes a big dramatic announcement LIVE and everything. They pair up some of the super ELITE and super AWESOME athletes and let them go head to head. It’s fun for us that drink the koolaid. And this time around it was Iceland Annie Thorisdottir vs. Lindsey Valenzuela. Annie’s the best of the best for 2 years now but Lindsey is a beast so it could be anybody’s game. As I sat there and watched. I just though there’s no way I can move like them. They killed it – 365 reps Annie and 331 reps for Lindsey!
Post workout all of the PROs come out and give the people tips and tricks. They try to help us NORMAL folks on how to best strategize the movements, the transitions, etc. And there I sit watching, listening and hopefully learning. I love it all. It’s like crack. I want every morsel of knowledge that can be dropped on me. Does it make me AWESOME-ER? eh maybe an ounce, but it feels good thinking I MIGHT be getting better by absorbing their words of wisdom!
This one is lengthy but good stuff here:
Love these guys. Great podcasts too!
So now my time is coming. At the BOOM Box, Coach has slated Fridays to be our judgement day. With Saturdays for make up. Yesterday was my rest day, thank GOODNESS cause I was falling apart on Wednesday. But last night was a skills session, which I almost didn’t go to. I’m glad I did because it helped me learn some things about how I was going to attack 13.2. We did some warm ups to get our quads, hips, ankles, and calves primed and then we went to work on figuring out how we would be most efficient at box jumps. This year they weren’t holding the same standards and were allowing step downs and step ups. There is a lot of hate out there for high rep box jumps because so many people do get injured. Whether it’s a banged up shin or a blown achilles. So I was extra excited that they were leaving the option. I don’t have problems getting up on the 20″ box but I’m not bouncy so it’s hard for me to string them together really well. So we started off jumping on the box and stepping down. We tried different variations all which worked fine but I still wasn’t GREAT. So we started timing ourselves. Just doing a few at a time and then I realized I should at least try 10 and compare how much time elapsed. Turns out I was quicker at step ups than jumping up and stepping down. Quicker by a whole 3 seconds! That adds up! So my plan was to start with step ups from the get go.
3/15/13 – Crossfit Games Open 13.2
5 Shoulder to Overhead (75lbs)
10 Deadlift (75lbs)
15 Box Jumps (20″)
3 – 2 – 1 – GO! I had a hard time getting a rhythm for the STOH. I did a combination of Push Press and Push Jerk. My goal was to do all Push Jerk, but it didn’t time out right at the beginning. A couple of rounds in and I finally got a feel for the movement. I feel like I hesitated to much in the early rounds. I had a mantra in my head, DON’T DROP THE BAR, set on repeat. As soon as I was done with the STOH I went straight into deadlifts. BOY were these light! New mantra, HIPS TO BAR. And I flew through those. Then for the STEP UPS, new mantra, PLEASE LEGS DON’T STOP!
By the 3rd round I wanted to QUIT! I seriously wanted to just stop and walk away. I knew 10 minutes wasn’t long but it was already feeling like forever. The Step Ups felt like forever! I wasn’t facing the clock, which was probably a good thing and I wasn’t counting at all, leaving that up to Coach to keep my rep/round count. I felt like I was behind the whole time. I didn’t think I was keeping a good pace even though I wasn’t stopping. The BOX is what started slowing me down in the end. No matter how hard I tried to go faster I just couldn’t! I was surprised the Deadlifts didn’t get me down because even though it’s light weight, it’s a lot of reps. TIME! I didn’t even wait around for Coach to tell me what I got. I walked around, got my water, and found my spot to die on the concrete outside. It wasn’t until a few minutes later I found out I got a score of 232! Hell ya. Way better than my brain was allowing me to believe. It would have nice to finish that last round but it was all I could do for those 10 minutes and I’m happy with that JACK! Forgot to take a pic of the board. But Ernie took a good pic of me in my post WOD death state.
Everyone this morning did great. It’s a sneaky workout. It’s easy to underestimate it for sure. I hope everyone who still has to stare 13.2 in the face does a great job! Just don’t STOP! Let me know how you did 🙂
Have a PEACHY FRIDAY! Enjoy your weekend. Go outside and play if you can and SMILE! While you are at it… don’t forget to be AWESOME!
I gotta get to bed at a decent time! It’s been so hard to wake up this week. And to add to that, MY WHOLE BODY is sore. From head to toe. Monday and Tuesday have taken me out. Maybe it was the quick turnaround workout that got me. Whatever it is, I haven’t been this sore ALL over for a long time. I’m looking forward to my day off tomorrow. Right now I could just use a good nap! But here I am recapping my BOOM Box morning ツ
Skill/Strength: Handstand Push Ups
I had nothing in me today to do HSPUs. I feel like I’ve made some progress but today was just a bunch of crap. After we worked on technique AND warmed up our Overhead Squat for the MetCon we had to do a 2 minute AMRAP of these bad boys. I got 3. I just had no UMPH in me today. We got a 4 minute break and then it was onto the MetCon.
3/13/13 WOD
MetCon: 3 rounds of 10 Overhead Squats (65lbs), 200m run with plates.
In my defeated state of mind I REALLY REALLY didn’t want to do OHS and run! I really have no choice at this point so I must do it, I’m just not going to be happy about it. Which I guess is fine as long as it’s not everyday. 3-2-1 GO! I knocked out the 10 OHS in good time. Broke down the bar and went on my merry way for the 200m. There isn’t really a GOOD way to carry the plates. 15lbs in each hand. Hugging both plates. It all wore you out no matter which way you decided. My runs (walks) sucked really bad. Other than that I might have had a decent time. Finally for once I didn’t drop the bar when I rested. I held on to that sucker because I didn’t want to have to get it up again. Time: 11:55 and those RX’s keep on comin’.
Is it better to stay home when you really really are just tired? Or is it good to at least get some work done? On the days I don’t want to show up, it’s just me being lazy and I typically wake up, amp up or something. Today was different. I’m sure had I skipped out, I’d regret it later but I didn’t get the typical I’m glad I came after all feeling. I’m just tired. I’m hoping it’s just a sleep issue. NEED MORE SLEEP! And a good massage!
How’s that for short and not so sweet?!? Who’s excited for 13.2? NOT IT! Ok I really am, just curious as to what CrossFit HQ has up their sleeve and to see Annie Thorisdottir and Lindsey Valenzuela duke it out!
Have a great day ladies and gents. It’s WEDNESDAY and I’m working for the weekend! Dont’ forget to go out and be A-W-E-S-O-M-E!
Oh how I love Daylight Savings! I LOVE the sunshine hanging around past 7pm. But at the same time I am so sleepy for a week or so. It seems to get worse as the years go by. I just want to sleep in! And that’s what I did on Monday and I’m almost did it again this morning!
Waking up was not happening on Monday morning. I woke up, turned off alarm, set new one and went right back to sleep. Of course I have that remorse later on in the day, thinking why didn’t I just get up. I was tired and achy that’s why! But I did show up for the 6pm class. Thank goodness because I felt soooo much better 🙂
6/11/13 WOD Skill/Strength: KB Swings (Russian) – 3×25 AHAP Unbroken, rest 1 minute between sets.
I didn’t really have a choice in what weight I would start at as Coach just gave me 1 POOD. For the 2nd round I moved up to 1.5 POOD. Well that’s a little heavy! If we break on the 25 reps we have to start over so I KNOW I don’t want that to happen. I was having a hard time keeping my shoulders back but 25 still came pretty easy. I did however take a longer break between by 2nd and 3rd round. I didn’t move up to 2 POOD because A. I probably wouldn’t be able to do it UNBROKEN and B. I needed to work on form with keeping my shoulders back. That last round sucked but I finished strong. And I could definitely feel the difference in keeping my shoulders back!
3/11/13 WOD
MetCon: 5 rounds: 45 seconds on 15 seconds off.
Power cleans 115/75
Straight leg sit-ups
Thrusters 115/75
Well, well, well, I love Cleans but don’t have the same kind of love for the Thrusters. When I first started CF, I thought THRUSTERS were AWESOME. But that’s when all I had to use was the naked bar. They are a great whole body movement and they are evil at the same time. I’m good up to 55lbs at moving the bar fast then I just go womp womp on anything above that weight! The idea is to have the same weight for Cleans and Thrusters. UGH. I did 65lbs fine and Coach really wanted me to do 75lbs so I did. It was miserable but I did it.
This was a TABATA type of workout. We had to do the movement for 45 seconds, rest, repeat movement. We kept track of reps and whatever our lowest rep count was ended up being that score for that movement. Fifteen seconds is not a lot of rest. I felt I started out strong in my first 45 seconds of Cleans with a rep count of 14. It faded fast and I finished the rest of the rounds at an even 10 each round. Not to shabby, at least to me it wasn’t.That’s 54 Cleans in 5 minutes. We then had to move to straight legged situps. For some reason I got burned out quickly. I went from 20 reps to a consistent 16 reps. I was kind of disappointed in that movement as I typically can bust out situps. No AbMat I suppose so I was sliding all over the mat. Now for Thrusters. I’m dying right about now and I don’t even want to pick up the weight. By the time I did, I was like OH WOW, those sit ups did me in. My core is shot and I’m supposed to do Thrusters! How about 2? That’s more than 1. The life energy was sucked out of me and I was bad. I still kept on and got 3 for the 2nd round. Sure I could have just done 2 because that was going to be my score anyways but that’s not a cool way to look at things, so I did as much as a I could and that was 3! I did 2 more rounds at 4 and the last round at 2. Pretty lame for that finish. I was beat! Score: 10, 16, 2
6/12/13 WOD
So with the quick turnaround in workouts I wasn’t even sure I would wake up to make the BOOM Box this morning. I almost didn’t as I hit SNOOZE twice! Saw the workout and was really torn! SPRINTS was the Skill/Strength. Not my strength at all. And it’s cold outside! But I knew if I made a habit of skipping out on 5 am I would be doomed. The only reason I made last night’s 6pm class is that it’s Spring Break and the roads aren’t full of traffic. So 5am HERE I COME.
Skill/Strength: 10-100yd sprints, rest 1 minute from first person finishing.
Me and running are no bueno together. I am the worst runner ever. Forget about sprinting! The first 5 were OK but the last 5 were just slow. My hips were on fire! In the end, I know I NEED to do that kind of workout because it’s a weakness and I really do NEED to get better I just don’t wanna.
3/12/13 WOD
MetCon: Death by HR push ups Going up by 2. (ex: 1 min=2PU, 2 min=4PU, 3 min=6PU, etc)
Push Ups anyone? Push Ups? Death by anything is pretty painful and I as I sit here typing I can definitely feel it. I might not be able to move my upper body by tonight but that’s OK, right? Hahaha. I worked my tired ass self through 10 minutes and only got 16 reps into minute 11. I was dead. I don’t think any amount of bribery or death threats would have helped me get to 22 reps. I was pretty happy about my score though. That’s 126 PUSH UPs!
Food Front
I’m not way off course but still not on point. Still too many slip ups and it’s not good! Too many slip ups in my opinion anyways and well for the SCALE too. Still haven’t regressed to my bad weighing habits but I did weigh the other day and for me it’s just sad. I am definitely not at the same place I was a year ago and I think a lot of it just has to do with we weren’t as busy last year. So I had more time to focus on food and what I was putting in my mouth. Plus paleo was still new to me so it was still fun. Not that it’s boring now but I run out of time to be creative and enjoy it.
I made a point to eat more green foods this week and I think I’m doing good so far. We still have a lot left in the fridge still so I should be great for the rest of the week. If I could just fiend off temptations and bad dinners!
3/11/13 Lunch – Sirloin, Spinach and Asparagus! GREEN!
That’s all for this fine Tuesday. Sorry I left y’all hangin’ yesterday. I know you just couldn’t wait to see what I was up to! Hehe. Seriously I know you have better things to do but thanks for stopping by 🙂 Have a great day and BE AWESOME!
By now most of you know or have heard of the CrossFit Games. The sport of CrossFit has grown tremendously over the years, from being an “underground” type workout and small competitions to ESPN televised, Reebok sponsored, worldwide registration and all around insanity. The OPEN is seriously just that. Open to anyone and everyone who wants to throw their hat in the ring. Even with NO HOPE to make it to regionals, tens of thousands sign up. Don’t get me wrong there are some ELITE BADASS MOFO’s out there. Much respect and awe to them, but the rest of us are just having fun. Right? Fun is correct but let me tell you it’s still stressful. Knowing that you are registered, you will be documented and you will be put to the test is downright nerve-racking! It’s a test of where you stand among 100,000 folks. I know I don’t stand very high on the totem pole but it’s a blast trying. Boxes unite. People come out of their shells and COMMUNITY is in the air. It’s a lovely sight and a great feeling. I don’t have the words to really paint the picture I want to share with you all. Just trust me, it’s beautiful!
So 13.1 was announced Wednesday evening and there was much speculation going on as to what they would throw at us. Last year it was 7 minutes of burpees which was almost laughable. Well it was laughable. People everywhere were scratching their heads. Who knew it would be the talk for weeks, hell the whole year. And as we all wait to see, we had a sigh of relief that it wasn’t a repeat WOD per se, instead it was a combination of previous WODS!
17 minute AMRAP of:
40 burpees (with target)
30 Snatch (75lbs, 45lbs)
30 Burpees
30 Snatch (135lbs, 75lbs)
20 Burpees
30 Snatch (165lbs, 100lbs)
10 Burpees
Snatch (210lbs, 120lbs), as many reps as possible
Julie Foucher is one of my inspirations. Oh to be her, or just a fraction of her. Below is what 13.1 should look like. I can guarantee I was not that graceful.
There are many videos out there for help on technique and strategy. I love them all, but I really love:
Last night at our OPEN Skills slot at the BOOM Box we went over Burpee strategy and basic Snatch Technique. It was good to kind of mix and mingle with everyone and work on basics so we were better prepared today. But are we REALLY prepared?!? I know I was a Nervous Nelly this morning! I’m pretty sure I wasn’t the only one feeling it either.
My worst bar movement is SNATCH. I have FEAR, big time, scaredy cat type fear. I don’t like that I do, and I try to psych myself out of it but it’s there lingering. With this said fear I have had many troubles getting more than 65lbs up and over. I know the facts, I can Overhead Squat 90lbs, if not more. I can Deadlift at least 200lbs. This combination should make for an easy 75lb Snatch but not for me. I SCARED! And I hate it.
Coming into the BOOM Box at 5 am, I was already mentally prepared to have a score of 100 reps. And I would just work on trying to get 75lbs up when the time came. 3-2-1 GOOOOO! Burpees with target overhead. I got this right? The idea is to not bust through them but to not drag ass either. You don’t want to kill yourself because SNATCH is something you don’t want to joke around with. I was really mentally fatigued and I let that mess with my burpees. 20 reps in and I was ready to quit. Dumbest workout EVER. I was not happy. Kept dwelling on my less than stellar eating, house maintenance issues, etc…
My mind was processing everything BUT the workout. Finally, much longer than I had wanted, I finished 40 burpees. Onto Snatch. 45lbs is lightweight. I was seriously smoked from Burpees though. So I just went in sets of 5. I knew there wasn’t a rush. 75lbs was not reachable for me. And I have 17 minutes. Well by now I probably had 14 minutes but you know, I had a LOOONNNGG time! I stopped looking at the clock and went straight to burpees after the first set of Snatch. I felt I was out of my head now mostly because I was tired so I chipped away at the 30 Burpees. Then I took my time adding the weight for 75lbs. Drank some water. Took some deep breaths, and just relaxed. I had quite a bit of time on the clock and figured 75lbs wasn’t going overhead. My first attempt NO REP, and then I don’t really remember after that but I finally got 1 overhead! HOLLYYYY COW! I did it! PR! Get back on the bar and NO REP! Hahahhaha, shitfire. What’s a girl to do but keep trying. I did complete 5 reps at 75lbs. Probably could have had at least 10 if I would just DROP under the bar (cue Beastie’s Boys music here). MMMM DROP! Ah well. I have to be HAPPY with a PR and multiple reps at that! Do I regret dragging ass at Burpees now? A little! But that’s how CrossFit go. Will I do a REDO on Saturday? Probably not. I’m good knowing I did better than I had mentally forecasted! 13.1 done! Total reps: 105. Bring on 13.2!
3/8/13 – 13.1 CrossFit Games Open
I did stay and watch some inspiring folks at the 6am time slot. Three ladies who I adore were up and they did awesome. Andrea, Annette and Sherry …. Y’all were amazing. And that’s all I have to say about that! I’m looking forward to cheering on the 6pm class tonight!
And that’s it for today you beautiful readers. I won’t be hitting up the WOD in the morning because we are in BASEBALL season and my Saturdays for the next few months will probably be hit or miss. Also PRAY it doesn’t RAIN RAIN RAIN on us and that the fields are playable. I hope you all have a freakin’ badass weekend and don’t forget to be AWESOME! Bye!
Now that the open is over, I am going to try and focus on GOALS! Things like a sub 10 minute Karen, Pull Ups, HSPU, etc. I know it’s all possible I just gotta put in the homework. Over time with Coach’s programming at CrossFit Boom I have made progress in many things. I’ve come a long way. But I don’t feel I’ve met my POTENTIAL. Wait, I know I haven’t! And I know I can’t just “get” by with only showing up and not working on my weaknesses when I get a chance. I’m not going to try and kill myself but I know a little more mobility work each day will be helpful. Hanging on the pull up bar a little everyday will be SUPER helpful. So many little things that I need to focus on. And that’s my FIRST GOAL for now. Do HOMEWORK and hopefully take it to the next level.
idrankthecfkoolaid 