Hangin’ In There

It’s been a busy couple of days in my little world. But we are making it work and I’m still showing up for evenings at the BOOM Box. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to 5 a.m.! I know I need to just for the sake of having evenings free for doing all the things the boys schedules require. But it sure is nice to be awake during my workouts!

And in regards to a busy life, YES I have fallen prey to excuses and pure laziness. In my eating habits, I have become increasingly better but I can definitely still feel in my joints from all the poor eating whether I partake in it once or day or ALL day. It takes a toll on the body. Everything is inflamed. I once lived in a day to day world of dirty eating. You get used to the aches, pains, sleepiness, headaches, etc… You write them off as getting older, not enough sleep, and numerous other excuses. I can honestly attest to the fact that those aches and pains go away when you eat clean and move your body.

The SORENESS from working out doesn’t ever go away but that’s not a PAIN that plagues you. That’s a sign of getting stronger. And you keep moving and eating clean and the soreness does fade away AND the joints get better, your mood gets better, sleep gets better. Do I need to get back to that HAPPY place? YES HELL YES! Should you give it a whirl for 30 days, 3 months, a year… DEFINITELY! Will you fall down? Probably but who really knows but you. Your mind and body will fail you but it’s up to you to get back up and back on it. I’m sitting here in the corner like a sulking kid knowing that I’m hurting myself and it sucks. So I’m trying to get back there – back to feeling good, to performing well and to eating clean. It’s like starting all over except for the fact that I know the reward at the end. For those of you who haven’t made the decision to change, it’s hard to imagine what 30 days can do for you. Get up and get moving. Cut out bread one week. Cut out artificial sweeteners the next week. Or just jump in the deep end and go strict. It’s up to you. You know YOU. Make a better version of YOU!

Below are some links that I found interesting this week. I’m going to try and share more of what I read more often. I tend to read a lot of info and then just digest it for me. Sharing is Caring!

http://www.naturalnews.com/040325_Splenda_diabetes_artificial_sweeteners.html

http://eattoperform.com/2013/03/15/the-gradually-awesome-approach-april-simmons-blackford/

http://breakingmuscle.com/strength-conditioning/is-the-juice-worth-the-squeeze-how-to-get-more-with-less-in-your-workouts

As far as recaps. I’ll be short and sweet. I have 4 days to go over and I’m sure you don’t want to die of boredom reading them! So here goes it. By the way, all of the following WODS, I have sucked at! Which in the end should mean I will be getting better but this past week has been weakness after weakness for me. It’s defeating but I keep showing up.

5/9/13
Skill/Strength: SKIN the CAT and DU PracticeI can not skin the cat. I am horrible at this and my shoulders are dead. I felt super loserish because I was the only one who couldn’t do it at the 6pm time slot

I can however do Double Unders like a champ and worked on Triple Unders. Other than the one time I got ONE a few weeks ago, I can not manage to get another!

5/9/13 WOD

MetCon: Run 3 x 800m, rest 3 minutes in between run, 25 burpee penalty if over 21 minutesShould be an easy goal. Just run all 3 800m in less than 4 minutes. That didn’t quite happen. Poor attitude towards running = POOR RUNNING! I was horrible and not getting better. 25 burpees went really slow after all that running.

5/11/13 Community WOD
If I had known about the workout ahead of time I wouldn’t have shown up! More running! My poor partner, Eric, had to deal with my slow running!

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Max Effort Sit Ups and Push Ups

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Bar Hold and Push Up Hold (negative points if you fall from bar or drop to knees)

5 min EMOM, run 400m, then with whatever time was left alternate minutes with Max Effort of KB Swing and Jumping Air Squats

With my sub-par running I wasn’t able to get many reps. And I dropped from the Bar Hang which is -5 points. All in all we didn’t do too shabby I guess finishing with 243 reps.

5/11/13 WOD

5/13/13
Skill/Strength: Back Squat 3, 3, 3+ at 70%, 80%, 90% 2 min rest between set
Today it all felt heavy. But I ended with 5 reps at 90%. I literally forgot how to breathe today and was holding my breath way too much. Once I would breathe, the lifts were much easier! Duh!

5/13/13 WOD

MetCon: 21-15-9 of Toes to Bar and Ring Dips (modified Straight Let Sit Ups and HR Push Ups)
I’ve established that I can do TTB even if it’s one at a time but Ring Dips are a no go. So I busted out TTB one at a time like a beast with only a few NO REPS. And I rested too much on push ups! On my last round of TTB I ripped and it hurted! Bad! So bad that I didn’t show up for Tuesdays WOD. Time: 9:39

5/15/13Skill/Strength: 5 x 3 Pendlay Rows, 5 x 3 Floor Press, 3 x 5 band weighted pull ups
Pendlay Rows are awkard for me and it’s been a while but I worked up to 95lbs so that felt good. It feels like it’s been FOREVER since we did Floor Press so I wasn’t sure what I could handle. Again we worked up to 95lbs. By the 5th set I was struggling to get all 3 reps but again I knocked them out and was feeling strong after being weary. Instead of weighted pull ups and cause of my wounded hand I opted for Ring Rows. So we would start up with chest to rings and slowly lower ourselves down over a 10count pace before lifting back up. These were easier than negative hang pull ups but still sucked!

5/15/13 WOD

MetCon: 2 rounds of Max Reps of Push Ups 90 seconds, Pull Ups 90 seconds, Rest 30 secondsAbout 30 seconds in on Push Ups my left shoulder was in pain. I sucked it up as best I could but only managed 39 reps. INFLAMMATION from crappy foods. As far as pull ups. I knew I wasn’t going to get many so I went ahead and used the green band and did the best I could. 9 reps. My hand held up pretty well the first round. Towards the end my forearms were dying. For the second round I busted out 10 push ups really nicely and fell apart from there. I completed 31 reps. Moved to Pull Ups and may hand was just hurting. Only completed 6. Total: 70 Push Ups, 15 Pull Ups

It’s almost Friday! WOOOOOO! If you are in the DFW metroplex… CrossFit Boom is having a party tomorrow night. Come out and have some food, fun and more fun! Go out and move! And you know the drill… BE AWESOME TOO!

Showing Up

is half the battle. Finishing Strong is the other half. As I proclaimed, I have reduced the act of stuffing my face with useless foods and am getting closer to that Clean Eating train I was on for so long. It’s still not perfect (note the keyword REDUCED) but tons better. I already feel the everyday bloat diminishing. Cause you know if you’ve ever taken on clean eating for a while then stop, that gradually, if not instantly, you build that bloated, heavy feeling.

Although I didn’t shout it out, I also have tried to reduce my negativity towards myself in the box. I think mostly because I’m mad at myself for returning to a chunky state, that I know I have to come in with a better mind set and get work done. I’m not going to let the extra pounds bring me down. Although they do slow me down. So I must fight through a little harder and I can not do that if I’m Negative Nelly!

5/7/13 WOD
My legs were in some crazy soreness after Mondays insanity. Oh Jumping Air Squats how you hurt me. And to greet my sore jello-y legs were Sled Pulls! These are right under Wall Balls in my dislike column.

Skill/Strength: Sled Pull 5 x 50ft 90lbs/45lbs
The sled I was pulling had 60lbs on it, plus the weight of the sled = not a shit ton of weight but you know it’s still the sled. I can say that the parking lot is a lot nicer at the new box than the old box and I can say it was definitely easier to pull. I still don’t like them!

5/7/13 WOD

MetCon: 8 minute AMRAP 8 Ring Dips, 12 Burpees
The 8 minutes went super fast for this one. I WANTED to use the Green Band but opted for the Blue Band after some nudging. I know I NEED to use the Blue one but it’s hard to get multiple reps. I started off round 1 strong and fell apart after that. For the second round it was hard to get consecutive ring dips. By the time I did knock them out I was so beat down I didn’t even want to do burpees. My added chunkiness does not make burpees fun at all. Not that they were fun before but a couple of months ago I could fly through them! I was trying to just get 4 rounds completed but missed it by 4 reps. Final: 3 rounds 8 dips, 8 burpees.

5/8/13
Still sore from Monday, are you kidding me? But it’s Deadlift Day and I like Deadlifts. Once upon a time I dreaded them. I was stuck at 185lbs forever. My hamstrings didn’t like me very much and I was a mess. Now I enjoy them, everything but my hands. Cause they sure do still hurt a lot after that last set.

Skill/Strength: Deadlift 5, 5, Max Effort @ 65%, 75% and 85% of 1RM
I normally struggle with the math early at 5 a.m. but when I have all day to calculate my percentages it’s not so bad. But I am supposed to remember them properly. In my head I had 120, 140, 160. In reality I was supposed to be doing 140, 160, 180! doh! I realized that halfway through. So I got some extra warm up! I was thinking 120 was feeling pretty light 😀 Worked my way up to 180 and busted out 10 reps. Wooo! I felt good with that since it’s been a while since I Deadlifted!

5/8/13 WOD

MetCon: 4 rounds of 15DU/1TU, 15 C2B Pull Ups, 15 DU/1TU, 15 PushPress @ 115lbs/75lbs, 15 DU/1TU, Rest 2 minutes … 25 minute cap
All day I thought I won’t make it but I gotta try. Then I talked myself into knowing I will survive and it will be alright. I have only ever completed one Triple Under and after a few minutes of working on it, Coach said just do Double Unders. Fair enough. I can do 15 quicker than attempting one TU. As for the Chest To Bar Pull Ups, I used a Green Band just hoping for 15 Pull Ups. I started off strong getting my Chest to the Bar but as the rounds went along, they turned into pull ups. As far as the Push Press went, the decision was made to go at 65lbs instead of 75lbs. Good call cause I think that extra 10lbs would have really smoked me and not in a good way. I was doing big sets but not UNBROKEN, until round 4. I had to finish strong and I did. Every bit of me wanted to drop the bar but I didn’t. It was nice to finish STRONG! Time: 22:29!

Food Front: So like I said I’m slowing getting back into the Clean Eating. I have definitely tightened it up but still working on it. Back to eating breakfast and the FAST FOOD has been eliminated. Healthier foods are in place. Kudos to Ernie even for cooking me up some yummy Drumsticks last night. Paired with a spinach salad and I was set for dinner.

Tonight is running and I really don’t want to go. But running is my weakness so I probably should show up! Send positive vibes my way so I don’t punk out! Other than that… have a great Thursday. It’s my Friday! Wooooo. Go out and be AWESOME!

Everyday I’m STRUGGLIN!

At least lately. I know, I know. When is this girl going to have a good inspirational post. Something AWESOME and badass? No clue. I’m in this loop of chaos that I can’t get out of it. I have more off days than good days lately. And it’s like once I’m sleeping in or eating poorly I don’t want to get back to the program. It doesn’t help that I am doing absolutely nothing to keep on track during tournaments or unplanned events. I’m just going to blame it on the inconsistent weather we are having here in Texas. It’s driving me bonkers. Rainy, COLD, warm, cool, windy, COLD, hot, drizzly, COLD! It’s almost MAY and there is still COLD weather lingering. My brain can’t wrap around it! Or I can really just blame myself for getting stuck in this spiral of laziness.

The bulletproof coffee did give me that satiated feeling and energy boost but after I tried it at the full recommended dose it wasn’t so good. I’m struggling getting back to it. And after our whirlwind weekend I’m still trying to regroup. Then it’s off to another whirlwind weekend of more baseball! Don’t get me wrong. Baseball and my kids is my happy place. I love it and wouldn’t change it for the world. But for the purposes of health, fitness and this blog it’s really cramping my style! And the waistline is ever expanding. And I’m not a happy camper about it. If you’ve stuck around long enough you know I can be disciplined but I think my brain is broken.

As for missing the BOOM Box on Friday and Monday AND Tuesday – well my hands were broken for Friday and Monday. After those rips I got on Thursday I was done. There was no way I was going to comfortably do a workout and get work done. By Tuesday my hands were healing up fine. And it was a Power Clean day. But it was also a Pull Up day. I was still planning on going, just doing something other than Pull Ups but I had a kiddo wake me up not feeling so hot and I actually struggled going back to bed. Must be all the bad foods I’ve been eating. So when the time came to get up and get movin, there was just an alarm reset and back to snoozeville I went. I didn’t even hit SNOOZE. Just reset the alarm. So sad!

So I pick the coldest morning in April to actually get up and make an appearance at the box. 37° is not my idea of fun. But I’ve already missed 5 days in a row. So I’m itching for a good workout.

Skill/Strength: Push Press 5, 3, 1+ at 75%, 85% and 95% of 1RM.That’s 70lbs, 80lbs and 90lbs for me. The one good thing about 5 days rest is well it’s FIVE days rest and my shoulders were feeling good. Got warmed up and started my rep scheme. Woo I was feeling strong. Maybe I should be a slacker more often?!? Hehe. Got to 95% and did 4 reps. I knew I had at least 1 or 2 more, but my concentration broke and I was done. That’s the worst! One little extra thought comes through and I’m done. But 4 reps at 95% ain’t too shabby.

4/24/13 WOD

MetCon: Helllooooo Annie! Activating Superpowers. Cause shit that’s all I got. For those of you who don’t know Annie, it’s 50, 40, 30, 20 and 10 reps of Double Unders and Butterfly Sit Ups. Those are about the only STRENGTHS that I have when it comes to CrossFit. Seriously my ONLY strengths. So frustrating but at least I do have that. 3,2,1 GO … I really was going for UNBROKEN in the first 50 DUs. I can do that many unbroken but not very often. I got to about 37 and had some trip ups in the last 10. Then chipped away at the Sit Ups. I can’t recall if it was during the 50 or the 40 of Sit Ups that I took my hoody off and that’s where I took too much time not working. But I was hot and flustered and well I should have taken care of that before the clock started! But after that, I just kept moving. I took a few short pauses during the Sit Ups but no LONG rests. Top time recorded for the BOX was in the 7:30 range so I was trying to at least come close. The last time I recorded myself doing Annie last summer was 8:40. I knew it was under 9 but over 8. I just wasn’t sure my exact time this morning though. My time today was 7:58! Dang it. If I had just sucked it up with my HOODY on I could have had a better time. At least I wasn’t worse from 9 months ago!

Happy Hump Day ladies and gents. Make it a great day. Well you know you should actually make it an AWESOME day. See you tomorrow, uh, I hope! Fingers crossed!

Move, Move, Movin’ Along

It’s only day 3 of my magnified view of my eating habits as a result of coming across EAT TO PERFORM. So far so good for the most part. I did realize this morning that I was calculating my pork belly all wrong therefore I didn’t hit the recommended fat intake I needed for the past two days. Granted I was probably closer to those levels than I have been in the past. So it’s not a wash or a screw up. I did see my error, fixed it and now moving on. I now know for today that I need to get about 30-40 more grams of FAT in me. Woooo! It’s not hard but it’s not easy either. I do, however, feel confident I will plan this out just fine.

After 2 full days of clean eating and being dialed into this new macronutrient perspective I really have zero cravings for snacks. I’ve been here done that before but it still shocks me how simple it is! No cravings. No bloated feelings. Etc.! It’s crazy that I’m insane enough to stop eating clean. Yet I fall off the grid frequently! Now if I can just stick with it. My true test will be this weekend when we will be gone for a good part of the weekend for baseball. I’m gonna have to step up my own game plan!

Also on a small side note, I’ve been using this site www.nutridiary.com to log my macronutrients. I really haven’t delved into the site as a whole but it shows you a daily analysis of your Carbs, Fats, and Proteins after you’ve entered your foods. If the food you eat is not in their system, there is an option to save your own foods. It’s not the most eye appealing but it’s FREE and so far helps me keep track without having to carry around a notebook. So just that little aspect of the site is helping me out ALOT. I’m sure it offers more but I seriously don’t have time to figure that shit out!

One more note: FRESH HOT OUT OVEN EGGPLANT = AWESOMENESS
but NEXT DAY MICROWAVED is just okay

BOOM BOX
This feel good feeling from eating better even helps move me along to show up for the Boom Box even when I REALLY REALLY don’t want to show up! For instance, this morning = cold and running. My idea of sleeping in sounds so much better.

Skill/Strength: 10 minute Double Under / TRIPLE UNDER work, 3 x 5 Pendlay Rows As Heavy As Possible
If you have DUs down, it’s time to work on Triple Unders. I haven’t checked the CrossFit Main Site but I have read amongst the social media networks that TU’s have shown up so it’s only natural it’s something we should learn. And guess what??!!?? I got ONE! Woooo. I was oh so close 789797 times but I finally busted one out. Now how I get more than one or even string them together is another task.

Pendlay Rows are getting easier as we do them more often. They truly were awkward when they were introduced to us a few months ago but now I feel I’m getting better. 3 x 5 AHAP was 85lbs for me. Not bad and I think next time I will go up in weight.

MetCon: 15 minutes of – 2 minutes MAX Double Unders, 1 mile run, MAX DU’s with left over time.
Well it’s cold outside and drizzly/rainy and miserable. And I don’t like running. AND I’m a horrible runner with NO aspirations to be a better runner. But that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part is a tiny little muscle in the sides of my upper arm fatigued super fast and I was struggling stringing together DUs. UGH. I got 95 in 2 minutes before I headed out the door for the 1 mile run. For a lot of you out there 1 mile is easy. Once upon a time it was much easier for me but not currently with my chunky butt recovering food addict self.

With cold wind and rain blowing in your face, one would think I would run faster to hurry up and get inside but there isn’t a FAST button on me. So there I went … slow and slower. More of a trot actually. It took me well over TOO LONG to finish the run. Got back with less than a minute to get DUs in. I was only able to get 32 in for a total rep count of 127. Sigh. But I did get a TRIPLE UNDER so who cares about running!

It’s HUMP DAY, hope y’all have a good one! Go on now …. BE AWESOME!

Welcome to the GRIND!

Hello Hello! No I’m not slacking again. I had jury duty yesterday and blogging fell off the to do list. But I did get my WOD in. Someone recently asked me HOW I DO IT? How do I get up every morning, check in at the BOOM Box, get the kids off to school and get to work. And I responded with “It’s not always easy and sometimes I do sleep in but 5 am is the only time I CAN go. There’s a fit kid in me somewhere telling the fat kid inside me to get up and move. I want to be strong for my boys so I get up and go. I want to put my all out there so they have no excuses for not trying or giving it their all.” That’s the best way I could explain it without going into full on novel mode. I want to be fit, healthy and THERE for my family. I don’t want to be hurt, broken and sickly. I want to be a better me for me, for my boys. I’m not always the most positive athlete in the box but hell I’m there. I show up. I put work in. Ahhh, there’s so much I could say but I would bore you and I’d just be a broken record. Just freakin do it! Go out there and work hard. Life life. Laugh. Cry. Smile. Relax. Love!

Right now my kids are in the heart of baseball season. We eat, breathe and live baseball 24/7. One of their coaches sent out a link to the team for the boys to listen to and I hadn’t really had the chance to hear it, but it’s loaded on their iPods and they listen regularly. The past couple of days we’ve been listening together in the car and it speaks to me probably more than the kids! So here it is. It’s a great motivator.

That’s right ladies and gents. Welcome to the GRIND! Man I love that video. It’s only my 3rd day listening/watching it but it will be a daily ritual. I love it!

On to my Boom Box reports. Taking a week off HURTS! I’ve already preached about not slowing down or taking time off and I did just that and it sucks. But it does motivate me to work harder (sometimes).

4/2/13 WOD
Skill/Strength: Muscle Up or Ring Dips
Ya, there’s no Muscle Up in my near future but hopefully in my future in general. I’m getting better at getting my hips working the movement right when we break it down to work on but there’s so much more work to be done. Focusing on ring dips is the goal for the moment. I can get up there and hold myself up there but the dipping part is where I have a mental panic. I can’t just drop without completely failing. I can’t lower myself down to pop back up. With a band, I’m AWESOME but that’s not that cool. I’m working on it. But it’s a SLOW work in progress.

4/2/13 WOD

MetCon: 7 minute AMRAP of 30 Double Unders, 10 Handstand Push Ups
My wrists and shoulders haven been shredded. The idea of doing a handstand push up hurts me. I still can’t do them but I’m getting better. I opted for using the box for a modified version of HSPU. Double Unders come relatively easy for me. I’m not a MASTER and I can’t do 100 unbroken. But I can get them knocked out quickly. I’m pretty sure I did my first 2 sets of DUs unbroken. Most of my time was wasted climbing onto the box and setting up for HSPU. Plus it seriously sucks to be winded and being inverted. It’s so much harder to breathe! The rest of my DUs were sets of 10’s or 15’s. Fatigue set in my triceps halfway through, I didn’t even want to hold the rope. 7 minutes isn’t that long but I was feeling every second of it. Score: 6 rounds + 10 DUs.

4/3/13 WOD
It was RAINING this morning and it felt so good to be in bed. I was 90% sure I wasn’t getting out of bed. And the MetCon was SPRINTING. It’s raining. SLEEP! The legion did not win. I got up and put my feet on the ground and didn’t look back!

Skill/Strength: 15 minutes to find 1RM Push Press and 3 X 8 Jumping Good Mornings.
As typical for me I get stuck with my 1 rep max weights. Although I’ve Push Pressed 105lbs before, I can’t seem to get back there. And I’ve been stuck at 95lbs. I’m OK with it for now. Like I said my shoulders are toast. My whole upper body is smoked. I know I can do more weight, it’s just not happening today. More dip, more drive. MOVE FASTER. All those things in my head. Get the bar up and all momentum stops. Not sure where that brake is in my head but I want it gone!

4/3/13 WOD

MetCon: 4 x 400, Rest 1:1 (100% effort)
So it was still raining and pretty steady when we started so we opted for the rower. I’m no more of a rower than I am a sprinter. And we haven’t rowed in a while. I wasn’t sure where I would end up. ROWING is tough cookies man. I think being short doesn’t help. But of course that’s my excuse. If I was tall, I’d probably say that’s the reason. I’m too tall. I was taking turns with Leigh. I rested while she went and she rested while I went. I didn’t pay much attention to my times but I think I averaged 1:30 splits. Faster than my 400m sprint, that’s for sure. Woooo I was beat down. My forearms, shoulders, biceps, triceps, and quads were dead. I need to row more!

I’m tired today. Maybe the rain. Maybe the WODs. Just heavy eyes. This is a first week of 5 days in a row. Not sure if I can HANG! But I’m gonna try. You will all know how it turns out. Plus it’s 13.5 DAY! The last CrossFit Games OPEN WOD will be announced and we can all go back to our normal, anxiety free (ha) lives. I know I gotta step up my game. I gotta put more focus into my workouts and I HAVE TO GET BACK to at least a 90% if not 100% clean eating regimen. AGGGHHHH! So much to work on. My first year I started off GREAT. My 2nd year has been half ass. I need to end my 2nd year of CrossFit strong. NOT half ass! Anyhow, that’s where my I need my head to be, let’s see if I can actually get there.

Happy HUMP Day! Make it 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!

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!

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!

Finding Motivation

Yes, I am the worst sometimes at finding the bright side of things. I find myself losing the motivation and inspiration in ME more often than not. My heart and happiness goes out to everyone else who is working hard, making changes and showing progress; yet I can be my own worst enemy. We all can and I think for the most part we know that but sometimes we let ourselves get carried away. Or should I say, I LET Myself get carried away.

Clearly I am able to stay focused but I’m having a hard time staying focused CONSISTENTLY! Am I the only one on this roller coaster? What do y’all do to just focus on the good, the awesome?

Don’t get me wrong, I still show up to do work everyday, I still TRY to eat clean regularly. I consider myself a success in many things but there are days, where I just struggle. And I feel I struggle too much over many things. I don’t know how to let it go. For example, I know I could probably Snatch more weight than I actually can, but I SCARED! And with the fear comes no results. Same with the internal motivation. I’m still gonna show up but pushing myself sometimes falls flat. How do I clear all the junk in my head??!!?? If you got suggestions, solutions, etc… I’m listening!

2/22/13 BOOM BOX Morning!
I am SORE! My legs are still fried from Wednesdays Wall Balls! But that’s not the point is it? What was in store for us today?

Skill/Strength: 3RM Deadlift
Yup, gotta work hard to manage a PR in the future. I felt pretty confident I could have PR’d my 1RM in today’s work but we were running out of time and we had a MetCon that looked like we needed some extra time. Deadlifts still feeling good. Thank goodness, my hamstrings aren’t dead. Just my quads and inner thighs. Worked my way up to 195lbs and did 3 reps just fine and dandy. My grip strength was not super great but I held on. Now I’m really looking forward to a PR!

2/22/13 WOD

MetCon: 50 DU, 30 GTOH (65lbs), 40 DU, 20 GTOH, 30 DU, 10 GTOH, 20 DU
How’s that for insanity? I didn’t even warm up any DUs and didn’t realize that until it was time to go. I was more concerned in trying to AMP myself up and warm up for all those Ground to Overheads! I know 65lbs is something I can do without completely dying but 60 reps! EEEK I don’t know! I was doing alright and then my should started hurting on the way down. A pinching feeling that was not feeling good at all. If I dropped the bar I seemed to be OK, but that really slowed me down. I actually was stringing together DUs pretty well. My second round I almost did UnBroken! But I got too excited thinking I got these and screwed up! Time: 11:10

Whew! Another week down!! Spring is on the way, I love it! Time Change is on the way, even better! Baseball is here! Woohooo! Have a great weekend y’all! Be Awesome!

idrankthecfkoolaid

and it's good

Double Unders

Hangin’ In There

Showing Up

Everyday I’m STRUGGLIN!

Move, Move, Movin’ Along

Welcome to the GRIND!

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

15LB PR

I want a MAKEOVER!

Get UP and Get it DONE

Finding Motivation

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