Hi

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!!

Rest (too much), Eat (too much), Suck (a lot)

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!

15LB PR

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!

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!

My brain is sleepy

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!

Time Change…. It’s Complicated

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!

CrossFit Games Open 13.1 – and Breathe!

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:

http://gymnasticswod.com/content/crossfit-games-breakdown-131

http://www.mobilitywod.com/2013/03/crossfit-open-13-1-prep-the-dream-team-edition-carl-paoli-diane-fu-brian-mackenzie-kstar.html

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!

Thankful and Blessed

Hey everybody… I just wanted to thank all of you again for checking out my posts regularly. This is my part of the little world to vent, rant, rave, be silly etc. Even if I had zero readers I’d probably still blog away. I just want to re-iterate that I share my days, my ups and downs, my silly world with you so you know LIFE is a journey. Life can be hard, but it can be SUPER and rewarding as well. In the end, this blog is for fun, entertainment (sometimes), and a creative outlet. So thanks for putting up with me willingly 🙂

Yesterday we had a little bit of crazy enter our world. One of my kids lost complete feeling in his legs for a few hours and had all of us, including Dr.’s scratching our heads. All is well now as far as we can tell but it’s those moments in life where you sit back and evaluate. We should be thankful and appreciative daily but on a day to day basis sometimes it’s hard to see the forest through the trees. (Cliche I know, but you get me right?) And of course when I’m rambling here it’s mostly towards a specific love/hate relationship I have with CrossFit and clean eating. Like I’ve said, idrankthecfkoolaid.com is meant to share my experiences on my fitness journey. You get tidbits of the rest of my life but only tidbits. After some reflection and prayer, I know and have always known that I am truly THANKFUL and BLESSED. My life is GREAT. I don’t think I say that enough. It’s not perfect by any means, HELLOOO, I have 3 boys (13, 11 and 10). It can be a little insane. We have a lot of irons in the fire but we are good. God has truly blessed me.

I just wanted to share that and put that out into the open but I still gotta recap my BOOM BOX morning where I forget all of those happy warm feelings! Especially when it’s 30° outside! And this morning I felt OLD. Not old like on my death bed old but worn out and heavy feeling. My bones felt heavy. I wasn’t feeling bushy tailed and wide eyed at all. I’m sure it was the mental stress of yesterday, the cold of this morning and the fact that I just might make all 5 days this week instead of sleeping in, feeling crappy or whatever. Ernie actually encouraged me to go this morning. So I had to roll out of bed and go.

Skill/Strength: 5 RM Deadlift

SOOOOOO being all sleepy and old feeling I forgot we had a 3RM day last week, so I was just going until I could go no more or until time ran out! After some good warm ups I was ready to jump up in weight and like I’ve been saying over and over, DEADLIFTS finally feel good to me. I used to dread them but now it’s like wow, I can lift this. My hamstrings aren’t wound up tighter than a (fill in the blank because I’m at a loss for something funny). I worked up to 185 and knocked those out. Coach said was that HARD. I was like NO but it’s not EASY either. So he goes it was easy. Do one more set and add weight. So I went up to 195lbs and besides losing grip, I felt good at this weight. Again not HARD but not easy. Just somewhere in the middle. I don’t do the math to find out what my 1 RM should be but it should be something amazing! Yay for Deadlifts!

3/6/13 WOD

MetCon: 3 rounds of a 3 minute AMRAP of 5 Shoulder to Overhead (155lbs/95lbs), 10 Burpees, 15 Toes to Bar, rest 1 minute.
Hhhmmmmm. Did I tell you all I felt heavy and old? Ya, 95lbs, hhmmm. I can get 95 overhead. My max right now is 105lbs. And then someone asks if we are cleaning the weight each round and the answer is YES. Duh, why would I hope for anything else. So my max clean is 105lbs too. Hmmm. I warm up thinking I’ll just go to 85lbs. Seriously I was ready to take a step back. Then I remembered how I fought through those damn Kettle Bell Thrusters on Saturday and told myself to do the 95lbs. Just suck it up and do it. You are already going to not do TTB as prescribed, you might as well do the weight RX! 3-2-1 GO. I cleaned the bar fine. I felt good. But HOLY SHEESH this is heavy going over head! I went slow. I dropped the bar after the 4th rep. HELLO you only have to do 5. Then I struggled cleaning the bar again. I got mental really quickly. Finally got it overhead and moved to Burpees. These are never any fun but got through them and I didn’t even try to do TTB, just went straight to Knees to Elbows. I didn’t even complete one round in the 3 minutes. How defeating. After our minute rest it was time for the second round of 3 minutes. I got a little more amped and aggressive with the bar and knocked out the STOH like it was easy or something. See what MENTAL does to you? Got to burpees. A little slower than last time. 95lbs is still heavy for me. I was tired. And then fought for those 15 KTE! Made it through one round. Yay! I pretty much went through the 3rd round the same as the 2nd. I finished even faster but wasn’t able to clean the bar fast enough to get it overhead before time was up. Score: 86 reps. Not super or outstanding but I put in the work and I was beat!

13.1 is released today for the CrossFit Open and foodwise I’m not ready. Way to go Steph. Way to screw up Whole30 when it counts the most. It is what it is and I just gotta focus on eating clean over the next 5 weeks and just pray and hope to see improvement. I’m sharing a link about being a sugar addict. I typically share all 21-Day Sugar Detox and Whole30 type information. But found this to be another source/voice to add to my arsenal of information. This might be the words that you needed to read to kick the sugar, grains and dairy habit. http://www.beingprimal.com/could-you-actually-be-addicted-to-foods. Check it out. (Disclaimer, the only thing I don’t agree with is the beans in the detox salad) Kick that crap to the curb and carry on! Or just pretend you are doing all the right things and your health is in tip top shape. I know it’s gibberish to hear that GRAINS, something that is the basis of the FOOD PYRAMID and that has been bashed in our heads FOREVER are bad for you! But they are. It’s hard to believe that SUGAR is that bad for you. Even worse those NO CALORIE CHEMICAL SUGARS are gasp… BAD for you!

Come on now. You know deep down all that processed food going in your body is not good for you. Or wait maybe you don’t. It’s becoming clearer everyday, from news shows, to reality tv shows that the GENERAL PUBLIC has no idea how BAD processed food can be for you. If it comes in a box don’t eat it. If it comes out of a window don’t eat it. If it has more than ingredients you can not pronounce or clearly define DO NOT EAT IT. I can’t force you to eat real food or make you believe me. You have to do your own research. You have to do your own self experimentation. I’m telling you that I physically have seen and felt the difference and I know others that have as well. Giving it a try isn’t going to kill you. At least I don’t think it will! Just try to eat better folks! Please!

Alright enough for today. It’s HUMP day! Take that one step for a better, healthier life – It will make you more AWESOME!

I want a MAKEOVER!

Yes I watched the Biggest Loser last night and I was wishing someone would come and scoop me up and take me out for a fresh look! Sure I could make a day for myself but how much more fun would it be for me to just show up and BAM! I’m made over! I wish I could get a mental makeover too. Something that would help me Quit SUGAR completely because right now the “little” cheats are sabotaging me! I was good on the Whole30, as a matter of fact I was GREAT! But now I sit here in guilt and bloatedness! Someone just slap me. Ok, just kidding don’t slap me for real. Just become my personal chef so all of my meals are cooked daily. Thanks!

Skill/Strength: Pistols (AKA one legged squat OR really frustrating dumb movement)
Damn you LEFT IT BAND. It pains me to even do modified pistols on my left leg and puts a little fear in me that my leg isn’t going to support me at all. This morning I worked on that a little bit by starting out at the bottom of the pistol resting on a medicine ball and working on the UP part. That in itself is hard for me on my left leg. Right leg not a problem as far as technical goes just need to build up the balance, strength, skill to execute a Pistol properly. Not my favorite movement!

3/5/13 WOD

MetCon: 10 minute AMRAP of 30 Double Unders, 15 Jumping Back Squats
Jumping Back say WHAAAT?!? Haven’t done this one before. Thankfully it was with the bar only!

This was hard for me to gauge in regards to how many rounds I would finish. Watching the guy above do 51 in 60 seconds after I was smoked just doing 15 makes me realize I need to reevaluate this movement! I wonder how I would have performed if I had watched the video before the workout! I also tend to shut down on DUs when a clock starts! Who knows what I’m in for! But this morning I busted DUs out quickly and was onto the Back Squats really fast. I finished those pretty quick as well and thought I got this. One round complete in less than a minute! Hahaha, it’s true, but that second round of DUs SUCKED! By the end of round 2 my hips were on fire! Then came the “I think I might pee my pants doing DU’s” part.

Thankfully I did not but I sure was worried for a minute. I was super fatigued in round 5 and probably rested too much during the Squats but I got to round 6 and finally did another set of UNBROKEN DUs. Then dragged ass on those Squats again. With 11 seconds left I whipped out 14 DUs going into round 7. Then ran to the bathroom! Score: 6 rounds, 14 DUs

Another day down. Still trying to keep up that positive attitude at the box but it is hard. One little negative thought can ruin it all. If I catch myself, I try to reword the thoughts in my head for something better. If I say something bad outloud then I try and turn it around to be more optimistic. As long as I keep showing up and trying, right?

That’s it for my Tuesday report. I’m thinking I may slow the posts down to a couple a week and try to be more “content” aware instead of rambling along daily. Let me know your thoughts faithful readers. And with that take your AWESOME to new places today!

Beat Up and it’s only Monday!

I feel like I got hit by a truck when in reality I was just beat up by some kettle bells on Saturday. My whole body is in a world of hurt and I still showed up this morning to the BOOM box. Although had KBs been on the agenda, I would have slept in for sure!

Saturday 3/2/13 WOD

3/2/13 WOD

Skill/Strength: Front Squats 1 x 5 @ 70%, 1 x 5 @ 75%, 1 x 3 @ 80%, 1 x3 @85% and 3 x 2 @ 90% of 1RM with 1-2 minutes rest between sets.
For me that was going to be 95lbs, 100lbs, 110lbs, 115lbs and 120lbs. Overall besides not keeping my chest up on a few reps I felt good at this weight. Hoping for a PR in the near future. It’s been a while since we tested so I HOPE I can get a little more weight on the bar.

MetCon: 9 Kettle bell Thrusters (24/16kg), 9 Knees to Elbow, 400m run, 18 KB Thrusters, 18 KTE, 400 m run, 9 KB Thrusters, 9 KTEWe warmed up with light weight but 1 POOD Kettle Bells in each hand? for RX??!!?? Uh holy wow, that’s gonna suck. I tried cleaning on KB then reaching down to clean the other KB and that was a repeated fail. Coach went over how we should clean both KBs up in one go and low and behold that helped a bit. Having 35lb kettle bells in each hand pretty much sucked. And now we were supposed to do thrusters with them. OOOOEEEEEEE. I struggled with the first 9, so I knew 18 was going to suck. I made it through the first 9 KB Thrusters and KTE alright. But when it came to the 18 I was slooooooowwwwwwww. It took me forever to finish those 18. I’m pretty sure some of the guys completed the whole WOD before I finished my 18. Those KBs were heavy and defeating. Besides some wall balls getting in my head last year this was the first time in a long time that I seriously did NOT want to finish the workout. On my last set of 9 TEARS welled up in my eyes. I was done. I didn’t want to clean the KBs cause it freaking hurt. I was just standing there staring into space. My forearms were swelling up and the whole side of my arms (deltoids??) were turning red. So not only was I just physically beat up, I was mentally beat up. And the baby tear I had got on Thursday turned into a full blown rip. I finally did finish. Literally 1 rep, rest, 1 rep, rest until I finished. Time: 22:48

OUCHY

Monday 3/4/13 WOD
I was still feeling the aftershock of Saturday’s workout. I did zero physical activity the rest of the weekend. So even though I’m still sore, I wasn’t feeling too bad. It would have been nice to sleep in but it’s the first week of the CrossFit Games Open and I can’t be slacking now!

Skill/Strength: Overhead Squats 3 x 3 @ 90% of 3RM
I was still sleeping this morning even after warm up and mobility work because I tried to jump up 30lbs from a lightweight warmup. Thankfully I realized I was putting on too much weight for my next warm up set before I tried moving that bar! All I was thinking was to get my 3RM which 2 weeks ago was 85lbs. I should have worked up to 75lbs and do 3 sets of 3. But did sleepy head do that? No she did 3 x 3 at 85lbs. Ooops, But I did it!

3/4/13 WOD

MetCon: 3 rounds of 20 Pull Ups, 30 HR Push Ups, 40 Sit Ups, 50 Air Squats. Time cap of 20 minutes.
Instead of doing strict Pull Ups with the green and blue bands, I did Kipping Pull Ups with the green band only. Although Pull Ups slowed me down, I got through the first round in less than 6 minutes. Three rounds is feasible. But the second round of Pull Ups got me. I was struggling. I knew I had to bust through the other movements to even come close to finishing in the 20 minute cap. Once I got to round 3, I knew it would next to impossible to finish and boy was I right. I only got through 13 Pull Ups before time was up. My forearms were smoked. My hand was hurting. And I was pissed I couldn’t push through. Score: 2 rounds 13 Pull Ups.

Although it doesn’t sound like I’ve had a good time, I was really glad I FINISHED the WOD on Saturday at the RX weight. I didn’t take a step down and I didn’t quit. And I may have wanted to complete the workout this morning but I did use only the green band vs. doubling up on bands. So if I have to take a few steps back to take a huge leap later on down the road then it’s worth it right?

I hope everyone is having a better Monday than me! It’s going to be in the 80s toady! It should be beautiful! Enjoy your day wherever you are and as always BE AWESOME!

Don’t forget to like my new blog Facebook and share me with your friends. Also know that I have AWESOME socks for sale. Let me know if you would like a pair. $13 a pair.

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