Testing the Waters

I finally went out and had a post Whole30 NON-COMPLIANT dinner at a local sushi buffet restaurant. And my biggest feat was steering clear of the créme brûlée! I had fresh strawberries instead. I managed to eat rolls that seemed more plain, not too many fancy sauces. And I ate less than a cup of white rice with some hibachi style chicken and steak. My concerns were what the ramen soup broth was made of and what makes squid salad so tasty. But nothing sent me into a spiraling madness. No headaches, no stomach aches. I woke up with a more than achy wrist, so something caused inflammation but since I didn’t reintroduce just ONE non compliant thing it will be hard to pinpoint. Other than that I don’t feel like I’ve opened any doors that can’t be closed. I even managed to get a cakeball order finished without licking a spoon, spatula or even my fingers! No sample tasting for me! WILL POWER folks!

Made a bunch and didn’t even taste one!

Quick FOOD recipe – Cabbage Hashbrowns
So I was scouring the internet to find a recipe for shredded cabbage and low and behold I did find one. I don’t have the site but I just briefly skimmed it and had the gist of it. It’s like the Veggie Latkes I’ve shared in the past but so much easier.

You need ghee or coconute oil, cabbage, leeks or green onions, salt, pepper and one egg (maybe two). Depends on how much cabbage you have.

2/5/14 Lunch with Cabbage Hasbrown!

I bought shredded cabbage, but you could just cut and shred a full cabbage. Heat up skillet and 1 TBS of cooking fat. Put shredded cabbage into a large bowl. Put a hand full of leeks/green onions in with the cabbage. I had a lot of cabbage so I made two separate bowls, thus needing two eggs. Add egg. Add salt/pepper and whatever else you think you might like to spice it up. Get your hands in there and mix it all up until everything is well coated with egg. Take a handful of the cabbage mixture and lay in skillet. Press it down a bit with a spatula into a circular shape and let cook 3-4 minutes. Flip and cook another 3-4 minutes. Plate it and serve. Great with ANYTHING in my opinion. Breakfast, lunch or dinner! Servings differ on how little or big you want your “hasbrowns” to be. I used an 8″ skillet, so my hasbrowns were large. It made 4 with what I had.

2/6/14 Boom Box
I was driving into work as it started snowing. We don’t do well in cold temps as it is, then add frozen crap falling from the sky and all hell breaks loose. I wasn’t even halfway to my j.o.b. and I was still sitting on the highway. For 30 minutes, going pretty much nowhere. When I finally reached an exit, I blasted off and headed back home! Then I realized I could possibly make the 9am class and I did! Whew! Get it over with!

Strength: DL 5,5,5,5 by feel
By feel! It felt heavy! The whole time. I worked up to 205 but could only bust out 3 before I lost all my grip. I’m convinced the bar is WAY heavier when temps are below 20°!

2/6/14 WOD

MetCon: 3 rounds of 9 Burpees, 12 Box Jumps (step down), 15 Thrusters 45/35
I wasn’t dreading this workout but I didn’t move very fast my first round. I think I did better for rounds 2 and 3. But in round 2, I missed the box. That scares a person. So I took some time, too much time, just staring into nothing. But I’d rather be safe than sorry. I need to be right in the head so I don’t mess up again and potentially hurt myself. Ah well. As for Thrusters, I wasn’t sure if I could do them but when I tried one there was no pain. Granted, it’s only the bar at 35lbs but it’s better than nothing. And 35lbs was RX. So yay! (maybe that’s another reason my wrist is a little achy though) Time: 8:08 RX

2/7/14 Boom Box Test Day

Mobility: Shoulders!
This was a long overdue session. I needed this.

Skill: MU
I was the only one and MU wasn’t happening, so I got to do some more warmup and mobility. Realized I wouldn’t be able to do OHS in the MetCon as well, so that was good. I don’t need more wrist issues. I strugged with just the bar. Maybe it’s cold. Maybe it’s the Japanese food that caused too much inflammation. I don’t know. But the bar was not comfortable overhead.

2/7/14 WOD

MetCon: Open WOD 11.4
WOMEN – Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 10 minutes of:
60 Bar-facing burpees
30 Overhead squats (90lbs / 40kg)
10 Muscle-ups

I don’t think I defrosted until half way into the workout. Damn it, it’s cold. I’m pathetic. I was hoping to complete the burpees in less than 5 minutes. Had I shown up at 6pm instead of 5am, then maybe it would have been possible. I was moving so slow. I finally finished right under 6 minutes. Then instead of OHS, I did Overhead Presses with the Multi-Grip bar. I did sets of 5 because my core is toasted from all the situps on Wednesday. I didn’t think I would make it to Pull Ups (mod for MUs) but I had like 20 seconds left. So by the time it took me to get a band on the bar, time was up. Final: 60 burpees, 30 Overhead Press

That’s a Wrap!
If you live in DFW and want to check us out for FREE, we have a 9am Community WOD and a 10am Yoga class. Crossfitboom.com! Come out already. You know you want too!

Other than that, have a GREAT weekend. Do something fun! Make someone smile. Eat Clean. Train Dirty!

It’s a La-di-da Kind of Day

It’s Day TWENTY FOUR of my Whole30 and although I’ve been going strong, yesterday wasn’t the best day. I didn’t fuel up before my grueling workout and I was too much of a bum to put real effort into dinner afterwards. And maybe due to eating dinner so late, I woke up feeling icky. My stomach was not happy so I wasn’t about to hit up the BOOM Box not knowing what my innards would be up to. Fortunately it was just a sour feeling and nothing more, but it’s been with me all morning.

And even in the midst of feeling not so great, I still feel good in all other areas. I still managed to get Eggs, Brussel Sprouts and an orange down for breakfast. I’ve been drinking water and hot tea. Just trying to push through. I attribute some of the ickiness to monthly perks of being a female, but gosh darn it, I’ve been on a winner’s high. I’ve been kicking old food habits in the bootay and getting back to my old healthy self. And then I feel bleh. Ah well. It’s not getting in my way! Even though “food dreams” are becoming a nightly thing. I don’t crave food when I’m awake. Just thinking about greasy, cheesy or sweet food makes my brain think “ick”. I know the ramifications. I know it will hurt or hinder me. And right now it would just be a set back to all my hard work. So keep your fingers crossed my mind stays in this mode!

1/28/14 Boom Box
Strength: 50 heavy Russian swings
For some reason these got me. NO FUEL in my body I suppose. But it took me a while to get these knocked out.

Skill: Box Jumps
Thank goodness we just went over being efficient. Nothing high or insane. I can handle 20″ and 24″ box jumps. Get into the 30″ range and I’m a scaredy cat.

MetCon: 50 thrusters 165/105 3 lat bar burpees every minute on the minute.
When I walked in to the BOOM Box, the 6pm class was finishing up. I should have left right then. It was brutal. It looked and sounded like a movie set in the gladiator days. I could have snuck out and I wouldn’t have had to endure the craziness!

But I didn’t did I?!? I stayed. And I realized although my wrist is getting better, I still can’t do Thrusters comfortably with the bar. I can do them but I can feel it all too well in the wrist. So I went with 25lb dumbbells. These were a beating, so I do not know how everyone did 75lbs+. Seriously, death! 3-2-1-Go and we started with 3 Lateral Bar Burpees. So we do a Burpee and jump over bar X 3. Then we can start our Thrusters. But as soon as a minute is up, it’s back to 3 Burpees. I really thought because I just had 25lb dumbbells that I would fly through the WOD. I was wrong. OH SO WRONG! I managed to do mostly sets of 4-6 reps, then a few sets with 4 or less. Time: 9:51

That’s a Wrap!
SIX full days to go! Can I get an AMEN?!? You may just be 6 days in, or you maybe 6 days from committing. Just commit. It’s worth it. It’s a work in progress. But overall it’s AWESOMENESS! Feel better, look better and build that confidence in yourself to be better. You got this! I BELIEVE IN YOU!

Love/Hate CrossFit

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve read articles bashing CrossFit and articles praising CrossFit. And everything in between.

I’m pretty sure a lot of the CrossFit haters have never even attended an event or walked into a box. And maybe the few that have ran with the wrong folks. But on the flipside a lot of the CrossFit die hards are badass mofo’s that are so elite, I can only wish to be like them. They are those beautiful bodied people. The kind of people that belong in magazines. They are never average joe’s such as myself – With lots of flaws and lots of weaknesses. A few months ago, I wrote a post on Why I (still) CrossFit. I wish I was more “popular” in the blog world because I think my experience and who I am caters more to the AVERAGE person who is just looking for an active and healthy lifestyle but may never grace the covers of magazines.

Truly, if you need/want a great EVERYTHING workout and you want a supportive community then CrossFit is something you should check out. There are lots of people out there with goals and a group is out there for every walk of life, but I really believe that the community I have found is one that is solid and that keeps growing. You can have so many different types of people connect on the same level even if you aren’t on the same physical level. Sure you’re gonna see silliness and sure you may see some instances of absolute ridiculousness, but as a competent human being you should be able to discern good coaching over poor coaching. Click here for what you should look for in a good box.

If the group thing isn’t your cup of tea, you can do CrossFit anywhere. But for me, I like sharing my success and failures with those who are learning and growing with me. Some folks have flown right by me, but are still there in support, cheering on to the last rep and some folks commiserate with me as we work towards our sometimes lofty goals.

Regardless of what our goals are, or where you are at on your health journey, I believe that you gotta do something that works for you. But if you’re gonna bash CrossFit, you better have participated. And if you’ve read someone’s love for CrossFit but are intimidated because they have beyond the 6 pack abs, just know it’s not all about outrageous workouts or insanely perfect people. There’s a lot of people similar to me. The girl next door. Or in my case the mom next door.

11/13 – 11/14 WODs
My body hates me, For real! Everything hurts. I told myself on Tuesday when I finally hit up the BOOM Box after a tiny hiatus that I would go Tu/Th and then baby step my way back into everything. I’m still a wounded birdy so I’m still limited. But by last night, I was so achy that I knew I had to WORK the soreness out. I was glad I did but I wasn’t sure if my bed would keep me hostage or if I would be able to walk this morning. I set my alarm anyways. Barely by the hair on my chiny chin chin did I make it in. Only to find out I’d be the lone ranger today.

It’s been cold in the mornings and it takes a while to get these old bones ready to go. My ankles, hips and shoulders are sooooo tight. And well everything else is sore.

11/13/13
Strength: Max distance sled pull in 30 seconds x3 3plates/2plates
Well it was still cold at 7pm but probably not near as cold as 5am! I have never like sled pushes, sled pulls, sled anything! And as refreshing as cool air can be, it can also burn your lungs. Whew it was bittersweet. In 30 seconds, my first and best run was for 220 yds. After that I got close but my butt was on fire! That pretty much felt like that was all the workout I needed. Time to go home.

11/13/13 WOD

MetCon: 3 min EMOM of 5 Box Jumps, 10 Push Ups, 15 Air Squats; 5 min EMOM 2 Power Cleans 225/135; 3 min EMOM 5 Box Jumps, 10 Push Ups, 15 Air Squats
But we had 11 whole minutes more of MetCon to complete. While 11 minutes doesn’t sound like a long time, why don’t you do the above work. I was barely finishing the reps in the minute. I’d get 5-10 seconds of rest and then bam, start again. No I can’t do Push Ups right now so I did Hollow Rocks. And to substitute for Power Cleans, I did Deadlifts. I completed all my rounds, but some of them were too close for comfort.

11/14/13
Lone ranger this morning! Boooooo! Who knows I may have had the best time. Ok really, I know I didn’t but one can hope.

Midline: 30 evil wheels
Not knowing what my wrist is capable of is scary. Just nerve-racking. I realized I could do 30 evil wheels, damn it! My abs will be dead in the morning.

Strength: Strict Press 5,5,5
This a no go so I did rows. I didn’t do too much weight. Started at 65lbs and ended at 80lbs. It did feel good to work my back vs. LEGS. Even though squatting is the best and deadlifting is nice… sometimes the lower body needs a break!

11/14/13 WOD

MetCon: 5 rounds of 10 Burpees, 20 Lunges and 25 Double Unders
Ya, not bad for 1 round. 5 rounds is a different story. Remember folks you want to kill this workout As Fast As Possible. To substitute for Burpees I did GHD situps. I thought the time it would take to get up and down from the GHD would hinder me, but who am I kidding, Burpees would hinder me just as much. The lunges were killer. Halfway through each round, my hips would just ignite and burn soooo bad. I just had to chip away and put that pain elsewhere. DUs weren’t too bad. I’d be so close to getting unbroken each time but would trip up close to 20. Doh! So frustrating. Time: 9:26

The End
That’s a little bit of everything don’t ya think? It’s almost the weekend y’all. Smile and be happy! Get active, eat clean, sleep and as always be AWESOME!

Being Consistent

Consistency does pay off. I know it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that but I think all of us will try to make excuses for everything if we let ourselves. Just because 2 weeks of trying to eat better and exercise isn’t showing any results doesn’t mean that the 3rd week, the week you may have quit, wasn’t going to be your “golden” week. It may even be the second month. But you will NEVER know if you QUIT!

I’m pretty sure most of us always want those INSTANT results. In a time of growing technology, the faster the better! Quick food, quick apps, quick everything. Quick weight loss and body results are just fantasy! The stuff we see in magazines. The mid day shows that promise and guarantee weight loss without putting in the WORK that it really takes to achieve those goals. We all want the easy route. Who doesn’t want that route? Only thing is, it’s not easy. EVEN if one of those gimmicky plans worked, it would only be for the short term. Why even bother? I want results and I want the results to stay. I was on track, being the most awesome I have ever been and then I derailed. Big time. Gained some LBs and woke up and said WHOA where did those come from? Well they came from stuffing my face and showing up to the Boom Box like once a week. My consistency went down the drain and I was a HOT MESS and it was ugly.

Now I’ve cleaned up MOST of my eating, not all but most. I promise, FOOD, it’s a bad addiction sometimes. But I’m cleaning it up and I’m CONSISTENTLY showing up to the BOOM Box and whaddyaknow…. my progress is showing up in WODs and in my strength. Again, this doesn’t take an expert to know that putting in work will make you better, stronger and faster (well faster is questionable in my case :D). But it’s something that I know we all just put to the side. We make excuses. We justify our poor eating habits and lack of exercise through busy lives and schedules.

With my dedicated 4-6 workouts a week and at least 80% clean eating, heavy weight is becoming easier light weight. PRs are here. And I’m feeling that confidence come back that comes with killing WODs. Although I’m still a MAJOR work in progress, it’s coming along. Much slower than I was planning but it’s coming along none the less!

8/6/13 WOD and my 2nd ever DNF (womp womp)
If you look closely at the pic next to my name there is NOTHING. No time recorded. It was a sad day for me mentally and physically. I had just flown through Power Cleans at 95lbs and was feeling great and was actually looking forward to the Kettle Bell Swings and Toes To Bar.

8/6/13 WOD

I’m not great at TTB but I’ve made some progress and I’m getting them knocked out even if it’s only 1 at a time. It wasn’t till my last round of TTB that I just lost all my energy, juice, mojo, etc. My toes weren’t touching that bar. I struggled a lot in the round of 15 but managed to finish. I thought 9 more wasn’t out of the question. But for this day, it was completely not going to happen. Not in the class time anyways. I probably had 50 ALMOST TTB but only managed about 5 for that last round. The next class was already starting and I wasn’t going to be able to knock out the last 4. I knew I didn’t have it in me. And I realized that it was going to be OKAY if I didn’t finish. I wasn’t going to get kicked out of the BOOM Box. No one was going to tell me I was a loser, except for me of course and the world was going to keep on spinning. It did take the wind out of my sails for a few hours but I realized I did 41 TTB in about 20 minutes which in the end was pretty GREAT for me who sucks at the TTB. I felt much better the next day and I know that I made progress.

8/7/13 WOD
I wasn’t sure how I would feel walking back into the BOOM Box after sucking so bad the day before but I was fine. The WOD wasn’t for time. There was just work to be done.

MetCon: 3 rounds of Row 250m and 8 Box Jumps 40in/30in THEN 3 x 8 @ 90% of 5RM Press and 1 x ME @ 70% 4 sec negatives

We worked on Box Jumps and well I’m scared of the box and I don’t know why but I am. I jumped a few times on the 20in, then a few on the 24in, then just stared at the 30in. Went back to 24in and put a 25lb plate on top. Made it. Put another 25lb plate on top. Made it. Ok I’m good right there.

8/7/13 WOD

That was till we rowed. It was only a 250m row As Fast As I Could Go. But it was enough to take some JUMP out of my legs. So I took one of the 25lb plates away and jumped on the one. That probably made it a 27in jump. I didn’t measure. But I finished!

We moved onto strict Press afterwards and 65lbs was my 5RM from the week before so I went off that. Each set started off great but it was always at the 6th rep where I felt it hit me. Still got through the last 2 reps but the weight felt so HEAVY. My shoulders were dying by the end and I wasn’t sure how long I’d last with those negatives. I started off feeling like this will be easy but I only managed about 12 reps. My triceps were on FIRE!

8/9/13 WOD
Strength: Front Squats 4 @75%, 3×4 @80%
That puts me at 110lbs and 115lbs. Surprisingly this was feeling pretty good. I didn’t struggle. Woohoo, getting stronger.

8/9/13 WOD

MetCon: 5 rounds of 9 Deadlift 85lbs, 6 Power Clean and 3 Power Snatches
I can DL 85lbs easy breezy. Power Clean 85lbs fairly well but it’s a NO WAY on the Power Snatch. Theoretically I should be able to do it. But that Brain of mine likes to get in the way. But I needed to settle on a weight I could do. So I warmed/worked my way up to 75lbs. My current best. And it felt good. So I stepped up to 80lbs. DONE! PR right there. I thought well hey I got this, so I added 5 more pounds and maybe just maybe I can do this RX. Got the weight to my eyeballs and failed. There was no dropping under that weight. Boldly I decided I would work with 80lbs. Good or bad idea. I wasn’t sure till the clock started. I failed on my first 2 attempts in the first round! I should drop weight is what I immediately told myself. But I gave it one more shot and although it was sloppy I got the weight up. Took some deep breaths and finished out the 3 reps. Still debated if I should drop in weight and talked myself into staying at the weight. It wasn’t a matter on if it was too heavy, it was just a matter of me doing it. Plus it was only 3 reps at a time. Again these weren’t the prettiest Snatches but I wasn’t HURTING or feeling like I was going to be hurt so I stuck with it. 5 rounds was not an easy task. That’s 45 Deadlifts, 30 Power Cleans and 15 Power Snatches, at a Personal BEST I might add! Time: 10:53

8/10/13 Community WOD
Finally a Community WOD that didn’t involve running! I was so excited! Of course until Coach explained what was going to go down. And then, and then and then. That’s all I heard. Teams of 4; 2 guys, 2 girls. 50 Thrusters each (my once favorite now least favorite movement). While the guys are going the girls will be holding Kettle Bells (35lb) overhead. Girls can’t drop the KB and if they do guys must stop doing Thrusters. Girls can transfer KB but only from overhead position. And no one can let the barbell touch the ground! DOH! That’s a lot of weight not being able to touch the ground. Who knows how long this will take. Our guys, Kyle and Micah, did great. Breaking up their sets nicely and not dropping the bar. Us ladies did fine managing how long we held onto the KB before switching. Once the guys were done we had to change the weight on the barbell before continuing. Almost moved too quickly removing weight but it all worked out fine. I went first on the Thrusters (55lbs). Annette and I decided to start of with sets of 10 and if we had to drop to sets of 5 then so be it. Just do the work. I was feeling great doing sets of 10 until I finished my 3rd set. I knew I wouldn’t survive that again. So I said I HAD to do sets of 5. This way I wouldn’t quit or be tempted to drop the bar. I moved as fast as I could. RUNNING wasn’t involved, I had no excuses! I think Annette and I had a good pace going and a good way of transferring the bar between us. I know our guys weredoing just fine holding the 53lb KB. Never let it down. Time: 12:05! FInally KILLED a Saturday WOD.

8/12/13 WOD SQUAT HEAVY DAY
Strength: Back Squats; 5 @70%, 5 @ 80%, 2 @85%, 3 @90% and 1 @100%
Everything was feeling AWESOME till I got to 2 @85%. IT felt so HEAVY. Manageable but HEAVY, so I wasn’t sure what 3 @90% would be. Guess what? It felt lighter than 85%. So weird but definitely good. So hitting the 1 rep at 165lbs was great! Really looking forward to a PR!

MetCon: 3 rounds of 400m run, 15 Ring Dips and 10 Burpee Handstand Get Ups
UGH! more running. If it weren’t for the running I would have beat this WOD up, no problem. But there was that run. Each round. And they were ugly slow runs. I went with the Green Band for the Ring Dips. My shoulders are sensitive creatures and I didn’t want to blow them out. My first round I did 10 and 5. My second round I did UNBROKEN! And my third round I went 8 and 7. As for Burpee Handstand Get Ups, they weren’t miserable but they weren’t fun. I’ve explained in the past I have a hard time breathing heavy and being UPSIDE DOWN. It’s just hard to breathe when you are out of breath. I knocked these out in sets of 5 each round. Just to regain some composure. I surely didn’t want to fall over out of dizziness or something worse. Time: 21:20. The runs did me in

8/12/13 WOD

How’s that a for a week of ups, downs and all arounds? I’m slowly getting back into everything and I’m struggling and succeeding. All part of it. Learning and growing. Being consistent! Hopefully I’ll get back to a more normal blogging schedule as well. This once a week posting is sad. So hopefully I’ll get back to more of daily thing. Who knows. Have a happy and joyful Tuesday. And until you see me again… next week?? hahah, Be AWESOME!

13.2 Sneaky Sneaky

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!

Get UP and Get it DONE

In all my boo-hooing, up and down roller coaster of a fitness journey, the fact of the matter is that 95% of the time, maybe more, I SHOW UP. I do the work. I strive for better. I’m proud of myself for doing just that. I’m not perfect and it’s hard to NOT want to be perfect when it seems like so many other people out there have it figured out. They probably don’t, but it appears that way to me and I’m so far off the mark and sometimes I let that get to me. I’m learning not to do that but it’s hard.

I’m just a small fleck in the fitness universe. A pixel in the blogosphere and just a mere mortal to all others. I have no superpowers or special skills. I’m a 35 year old woman. A mom who isn’t sure she always does the right things for her kids but does her best to make it work. A girl, yes, there is a uncertain little girl in me that wants the world but is scared. Scared of what, she’s not sure but the fear is there. But in the end, I’m a person who is just trying to live healthy. To be strong – physically and emotionally.

To be someone my kids can look up to. To be an inspiration to others who want the same things. And I hope that when it’s all said and done, all you folks that do follow along get that. That you all truly understand this is my small space in the world for me to cry, rant, rave, laugh, goof off, do whatever. I’m not the next CrossFit Games Athlete. I’m not your next fitness superstar. Just a girl!

Today this girl (slightly inspired by Biggest Loser) has decided to push through, to get the work done and just be the best I can in each moment that I can. Will I always be that? HELL NO. It’s hard as hell. It’s so much easier to be half ass. It’s easy to just not put the effort but I’m gonna try so much harder than I ever tried before.

I think that with that mindset it helped me get through the BOOM Box this morning. Cause guess what? It was the BOOM BOX’s FILTHY FIFTY and it was downright dirty. I’ve never participated in this and it’s been over a year since I started CrossFit-ing. Here we go!

50 Box Jumps
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 Kettlebell swings, 1 pood
Walking Lunge, 50 steps
50 Knees to elbows
50 Push press, 45/35#
50 Hip extensions with green band
50 Wall ball shots, 20/14#
50 Burpees
50 Double Unders

So I somehow hit snooze twice, ALMOST didn’t get up. But on the third time my alarm went off, had no idea! I see the clock and go OH SHIT. I’m LATE! It’s 4:47. Uh I need to be leaving at that time. Not just now brushing my teeth! UGH. I didn’t even know the WOD. Double UGH when I saw it. Go BACK TO BED STEPHANIE! Find your happy place. SLEEP! No, Get dressed and go. You’ll be late but go. And that I was, but only like 5 minutes late. I was GONE and in a hurry. I still had plenty of time to warm up and I was wide awake by then. We went over all the movements and set up our areas. It was go time and it was better attitude time and it was don’t worry about the work ahead just knock out the reps.

Box Jumps kind of hurt this morning. It was cold and all of a sudden I didn’t feel warmed up but it didn’t take long. I really struggled with the first 15 though. After that I just knocked them out in sets of 5. I really didn’t have negative self talk or poor expectations. Surprisingly I don’t think I’ve ever done Jumping Pull Ups either so i had nothing to reference. Those weren’t so bad. I busted out 10, then 5, then random numbers but always more than 5. Done! Kettlebell swings – overhead. I was a little tired and the KB was a little cold. I typically can do this unbroken but today not so much. I did 15, 10, 5, 5, 10. I wasn’t happy with that but it happened that way. Walking Lunges is where I thought I would fall apart. My hips were burning around 30 lunges in. And negative self talk started creeping in because I knew Wall Balls were coming up and coming soon! UGH.

Thankfully Knees to Elbows, which in my case was just get Knees UP took my focus off the Wall Balls. I was actually looking forward to the Push Press and knocked out 30 and then realized this is burning. I put the bar down, rested for like 10 seconds then did 10 more, rested again, then finished. We only have one GHD so we did hip extensions with a band. You step on the band, put head through band and up and down you go like a Good Morning without the bar. This was a great relief and a warm up for those Wall Balls! YIKES! I started off Wall Balls really slow. Someone asked about burpees and I was all “say what??? did I skip that, what burpees. I completely forgot about burpees but I didn’t skip them. They were just NEXT. I just thought I’ll end it all here with Wall Balls, I won’t finish! I wasn’t getting a good rhythm either but once I did, I just took them 5 at a time. I felt like much less cry baby once I got through them and even though I was slow I was still in a good place mentally. I’m almost done. Burpees up next. Burpees party of 50! They just have to get done. UP, down, UP, down and on and on and on. Will it ever end? YES YES the end is near. 50 DUs and it’s all over. I got 30 out of the way before my forearms and shoulders gave out. Then I got 9, then 11. TIME: 31:53 GOOD? BAD? NO CLUE. But after I regained my composure I felt good about the whole WOD in general. I kept thinking I could have done this better or faster but in the end that was a hell of a lotta reps so I’m good. If I was better at Knees to Elbows I might have had an RX by my name but that’s for another day I suppose.

Wooo, we made it to Wednesday! And it’s almost March. WOW! I’m just looking forward to that time change. I need my sunshine in the evenings! And I need warm weather. So let’s hurry up on that. As always have a beautiful day and BE SUPER AWESOME because I said so!

Wore out!

I am T-I-R-E-D! Exhausted! I think I’m just trying to cram too much in. Work is typically laid back but we are in tradeshow season so I’m extra busy and not sitting at my desk all day. Then at home, I’m trying to make a gazillion cakeballs and that’s a whole different kind of stress. It’s not bad stress but I’m staying up later and I carry all the tension in my upper back and shoulders. They are hurting. On top of the 5 am workouts, I am TIRED!

This morning was extra chilly at the BOOM Box. Where did my 50° mornings go? Seriously back in the 30s. I’m not a happy girl. I had no motivation to do work. I’m really surprised that I didn’t stay home. The workout for the day was 12.3 from last years open!

Before we started we worked on TTB and Box Jumps because that my friends makes up 2/3 of 12.3. I tried working on not reloading once I hit the ground from box jumps. But I still haven’t found those super springy legs yet. I’ll just have to fight through those pesky box jumps. And well I still haven’t found my TTB. Sigh, that’s one more thing I need to get back to working on. So close but they are hiding from me.

2/13/13 WOD

MetCon: 18 minute AMRAP of 15 Box Jumps, 12 Push Press and 9 Toes To Bar. 20″ for box jumps and 75lbs for push press. Coach T wanted us to do a weight for push press that we felt we could do unbroken. Well I didn’t think I could do 75lbs unbroken. So I went with 65lbs even tried to get away with 55lbs but that wasn’t happening. I couldn’t do 65lbs unbroken either! And it hurt. I should have warmed up more because a lot of the hurt went away with more reps so I know it’s not an injury, just tired ass muscles. My Toes to Bar didn’t magically come at 3-2-1 either. It was really a Debbie Downer kind of morning.

OUCHY!

Then I tried to break my shin on the box jumps, which I have never done before. I’ve missed and banged up right below my knee but today I went for all the marbles, drew blood and stained my NEW and AWESOME Reebok compression socks Ernie got for me for Valentine’s day. Womp, Womp.

At least they weren’t the white ones! 20″ isn’t even an issue for me when it comes to box jumps. I was not feeling it today though. Total reps: 166. When I saw Coach G after the workout he asked me how it went and I had nothing positive to report. It was bad. He asked how I did last year and I couldn’t remember. But I did look back in my posts and found this. A little more optimistic version of me who did freaking 75lb push press but only got a score of 96. Ugh. Still just made me more blah for the day! But it also reminded me after reading about Sherry, why I love CrossFit – COMMUNITY! I may be a big baby but I have a great box full of wonderful people that inspire me and challenge me even when I just want to throw a fit.

Can I get a do-over? Pretty Please? I promise I will be awesome the rest of the day! I will not think about my banged up shin anymore. I will knock out a gazallion cake balls tonight and I will eat clean! I will for sure enjoy my REST day tomorrow! Done son! Gotta regain awesome! You GO BE AWESOME as well! Happy WEDNESDAY!

Mobility Hurts SO Bad errr GOOD!

Wooo, this was supposed to get published yesterday. So I’m playing catch up now, my apologies for the delay!

Yesterday morning at the BOOM Box instead of skill or strength we worked on Shoulder mobility. And it hurt so good! I just wish it didn’t HURT that good! Holy geesh! If you’re familiar with Kelly Starrett over at Mobility WOD then you know he has a knack for wanting to ~~hurt~~ help you! And today we worked on some things I know came from his part of the world.

OUCHY MAMMA INDEED!

MetCon: Team WOD Team WOD (2 person) 200 DU, 120 STOH 75/45, 60 over the box jumps 20 inch
Alright, I can be competitive in this. Right? 3-2-1 Go… Double Unders coming up. My teammate hasn’t quite got DUs down so he had to do 3:1 singles. So I did 50 DUs and he did 150 singles. Got to Push Press/Jerk and started off quick doing 15 each. That got tough really fast so we took a step down to alternating every 10 reps. I was still feeling pretty good by the time we go to the Over the Box jumps and I NO REPPED right off the bat. DOH! I had this itty bitty fear of clearing the box and I messed up. And I took more of a step than a JUMP. I ended up jumping on the box then jumping off for each rep. Something about not making it over really makes my heart race. But we didn’t really slow down. Kept our pace up and finished strong! Time: 10:36

2/6/13 WOD

Other than really trying to push at the Box, I’m still eating relatively strong. Ernie is coming along with eating clean as well. It’s not his first go at it, but it’s been slow getting him back on track. But last night we did decided to go eat sushi because I didn’t feel like cooking. I had a little bit of everything including some rice rolls but also sashimi. I tried to avoid the soy sauce but I didn’t avoid it entirely. In the end, I didn’t feel stuffed or bloated, it is sushi after all! But I did come away with a slight headache. This however is something I can tolerate for a sushi treat 🙂 Slept like a champ still and even woke up before the alarm clock. It’s nice to just wake up and not have the alarm ruin everything.

I’ve been trying to think of something new and fresh to add to my blogging besides daily recaps. Is there anything you readers would like to see/know/etc.? All of your input is welcome. Again, I’m here for support if you need an online cheerleader or just a friend in your adventure called life. This journey of fitness had made me stronger, happier and healthier. I may not have the certified background/education in fitness or nutrition but I have the day to day life experience. I have real life that goes on everyday. I have obstacles, emotions, KIDS and time management issues. I feel I am like a good majority of the people out there and just want to encourage you that it’s possible to live an active and healthy lifestyle!

Well today is my rest day and hopefully I’ll spend some quality time doing mobility work at home. Enjoy your day. Make it great and make it AWESOME!

Trying NOT to SUCK

Woooo Monday again. Yippee Skippy! I hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. It was hot in our part of the world. And we spent it all outside on Saturday for some foosball.

Before the kid’s football games, I made sure to hit up the BOOM Box, I’m sad I’ve been missing the OLY class but my baby boys come first. At least I can squeeze in the Community WOD and boy oh boy was it fun! I can rest assured that if my vehicle breaks down on me that I am capable of pushing it out of the way!

We started off with a typical warm up, then tested our Kettle Bell Skills. We did max KB swings for 90 seconds. We did American style swings and for me at 1 POOD I managed to get 42 swings in.

Annie Sakamoto doing what looks like 2 POOD. I am not that beastly. I only did half that!

We then moved outside and Coach got in his truck and told us we would get in teams of 2 and have 30 seconds to push his truck as far as possible. I was up first with Omar and we were killing it till we ran out of room. So Coach decided to set his truck up going uphill towards the exit of the warehouse complex we are in. It was kind of amazing most everyone got the same distance. No team was drastically over the top. After we went in teams of two we split up into teams of 5. We got a little further but we also hit a steeper part of the hill and that took a lot out of me for sure. I think both teams hit about the same spot. After that Coach rolled his truck back and said it was time to go all on your lonesome if you wanted.

Coach showin us how it’s done … with Briggs and Leigh on the back!

My partner, Omar, decided to give it a go and made it pretty far, so I decided HECK I should just give it a try and well la de da de I could move that truck! I don’t remember how far I made it because I was sucking wind but it felt good to know I could do it! All the peeps who showed up and gave it a try did really well – BOOM!

After all the Super Hero truck pushing we still had a MetCon to do! We had a 5 minute AMRAP of 5 Push Ups and 10 Air Squats. I managed through 12 rounds + 5 Push Ups + 1 Air Squat. Wasn’t the greatest as I slowed down a lot on Push Ups. I was beat and ready to go home!

This morning I was not ready for the BOOM though. I was tired. I ate poorly and I was super sore, not sure if it was the truck pushin or the 121 air squats from Saturday but I definitely was walking funny!

Skill/Strength: 4 x 8 of Back Squat @ 70% of 1RM then 4 x 6 of press moving up in weight each set. I ended up warming up to 105lbs for my Squat and completing my 4 sets of 8 at that weight. It wasn’t super hard but it was definitely taxing on the ol’ lower body. I felt good throughout though which is a NICE feeling overall. Typically something starts giving me grief but today I felt I focused.

Moving onto Press was pretty nice as well. We were pressed for time and I felt the little bit of rush helped me at first. There was no time for thinking and I just did. The downside for limited time is that I don’t feel I rested enough for my last set. I failed at 65lbs which isn’t shocking because my max Press is 70lbs. So I dropped down to 60lbs and finished out.

9/24/12 WOD

MetCon: 12 minute AMRAP of 10 Box Jumps (20″) and 10 Regular Push Ups. This is where the SUCK came in and I tried not to SUCK but I couldn’t help it. Box Jumps! Argh. It’s been a while since we had the BOX Jump in our MetCon and it took a hold of me and beat me up. And then my Push Ups fell apart. It was so bad I had to drop to my knees to keep up any kind of form. Blah. I completed 9 rounds + 10 box jumps. Womp Womp! I still did work. I was spent. So it was a good work just a sad showing in my opinion.

There’s always tomorrow to redeem myself! Let’s just hope I do so!!! Until then! Be AWESOME!

WODDING at the Park, Fun Fun

Yesterday I said I may take a run or something on my rest day. Well that didn’t happen this morning because I SLEPT. I was tired. But what did happen is that two of my kids had football conditioning last night and me and my oldest kiddo decided to do some work. Go US!

Our First WOD was 3 rounds of 20 Box Jumps, Run 30yds, 10 Hand Release Push Ups, Run 30 yds back. We found a picnic table that we used for Box Jumps. The bench only came up to about my knee so our box jumps were probably around 18″. There was a tree that we are approximating was 30 yards from the table so we ran to that and did 10 HR Pushups, then run back to table. I was totally smoking Jonas for the first two rounds then hit a wall with my last round of box jumps. He freakin blazed through his last set and took off beating me by 13 seconds! Time 6:28

Our 2nd WOD was Invisible Fran. 21-15-9 Air Squats and Push Ups. We weren’t sure if they should be regular or hand release push ups but we went with hand release. My ~~little terd~~ WONDERFUL son definitely was in it to beat me again and that he did! I was blazing through squats but sucking at the pushups. And he was sucking through the squats but blazing through pushups. He fought hard and took me out by 8 seconds! ARGH! Gotta LOVE him for his fight though ツ Time: 2:37 (now if I could get my FRAN time to be that!!)

We were pretty much spent and big hot sweaty messes but we decided to tackle the Monkey Bars before we called it a day. If you’ve been reading you know me and bars in general don’t get along. I suck at pull ups, I suck at toes to bar and I was never the monkey bar queen growing up. Yesterday however I managed to get through them quite nicely. This was a plus in my book.

The bars we used for our race that I won!

Jonas was surprised at how much easier it was for me than him so he challenged me to a race! It was just who could go down and back in the best time. Let me be clear I didn’t not fly across with grace and ease I just did better than I thought I would. I managed to go down and back in 27 seconds. Poor Jonas struggled and it took him close to 40 seconds. FINALLY a WIN for MOM! He wanted to go more rounds but I didn’t want my hands to rip so we called it a day.

I think I definitely should add these body weight workouts to my evenings especially since we will be full on football starting in August. I am tired and I can feel the extra ache but nothing unbearable and maybe it’ll give me a boost. I don’t plan on doing them everynight but maybe 2-3 times a week. Only time will tell I suppose. I don’t think it will hurt.

Today is definitely a day of REST. I hope y’all have a WACKY WEDNESDAY. Let your inner child come out and play! Be AWESOME!

idrankthecfkoolaid

and it's good

box jumps

Testing the Waters

It’s a La-di-da Kind of Day

Love/Hate CrossFit

Being Consistent

13.2 Sneaky Sneaky

Get UP and Get it DONE

Wore out!

Mobility Hurts SO Bad errr GOOD!

Trying NOT to SUCK

WODDING at the Park, Fun Fun

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