WOD

Day of Blah!

It’s just one of those days where you just rather crawl back into bed, call in sick and sleep or watch mindless tv. Too bad that I can’t just do that. I probably COULD but it wouldn’t be a wise decision in general. I also made the mistake of weighing myself and that does no good for anybody if you know it’s probably going to be bad.

I’ve been feeling thick, heavy, squishy, etc. And as good as I have been not worrying about the “number” on the scale I just couldn’t help myself. Backslider I am! I know why I did it…I’m having a hard time cleaning up dinners and also probably not eating enough in the day. And I totally splurged at my kids fundraiser last night at CiCi’s pizza. Over a year I haven’t been in a place like that and what do I do? Chow down like it’s a show down! And it’s not even GOOD! Wasn’t even worth it. So in my guilt I figured I’d weigh. WHY? Cause misery loves company. Even after the BOOM Box I still sit here feeling bleh.

Skill/Strength: Muscle Up Practice
I’m nowhere near a Muscle Up but coach made a good point that the progression work we do applies to a lot of different movements. It’s not like I don’t know that but sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that when all you read is MU practice. I can do one thing at a time but when it comes to piecing it all together my brain goes wonky!

11/7/12 WOD

MetCon: HELEN – 3 rounds of 400m run, 21 KB Swings, 12 Pullups
This is my second time to do Helen. It was over a year ago and believe it or not I documented it. I used a black (THICK) band for pullups and a tiny Kettlebell. This time around I used 1POOD for the KB and did ring rows instead of pullups. If it weren’t for sucking at the runs I probably would have fared better. One day I won’t be writing about being horrible at running, I just have no will to want to be better at it at the moment. It obviously doesn’t help I was a piglet last night. Last year’s results: 14:17 This years results: 12:00 I seriously thought I would have fared better. I couldn’t remember my time from last year so it was a good thing I at least beat it! But after looking back I wish I had done A LOT BETTER instead of just better. Helen we shall meet again and hopefully it will be RX’d! and FASTER!

Foods: So I shared my major fail and I still can’t manage to clean everything up in general. I’m much better and getting closer to what my once disciplined self was but still not there yet. And in my whole struggle my oldest kiddo declared last night he knows he needs to straighten up the foods he eats and wants to do strict paleo starting Friday! I was like REALLY? STRICT? He says yes and well he’s 13 so that could change but just that little bit of enthusiasm helps me want to get back to being disciplined. I don’t know why mentally I just want to rebel but I do and I guess I’m finally getting over it. I had the scale to help me along. I guess it’s just a phase and it’s not the end of the world and I know it’s not hard to do the right things and I still manage to eat clean a good majority of the time. I’m just hard on myself which is part of it. I’m responsible for me and I have to own it. I need to tighten up the dinners and weekends and I’m good.

Now I just need a nap. In addition to eating poorly I slept poorly. I decided staying up late and watching American Horrow Story and Nashville were better options than SLEEP and now I am paying for it. Let’s all hold hands and pray that I get some sleep and stop eating crappy dinners! Hahah, THANKS! It’s almost FRIDAY folks! Let’s BE AWESOME!

Happy Wednesday

Ya and Halloween too. I dress up for work or any party that I may go too but not a real big celebrator of the day. And I did make the effort to get up on my REST day and go to the BOOM Box dressed up and WOMP WOMP, no one else dressed up! Ah well. C’est la vie!

Skill/Strength: Pull Up Work
Definitely a NEED in my world but so hard for me to WANT to do it and I never put the practice in :/ So we worked on some dead hangs and kipping. I suck at Dead Hangs. Kipping has come for me pretty easily, I just need the PULL UP part. I for sure need to make myself do Pull Up homework.

10/31/12 WOD

MetCon: TABATA of Situps, Mountain Climbers and Strict Press
Situps I don’t mind. Mountain Climbers I despise! and Strict Press to finish it was brutal. We weren’t even halfway through the Mountain Climbers and my right shoulder was fading fast. By the time our rounds for Press were about to start I was toast. RX was 65lbs, my 1RM is 70lbs so I chose to do 55lbs. Should be challenging but not horrible. Uh did I mention BRUTAL already?!? I don’t remember how my rounds broke down, I know for certain I didn’t even get the bar up on one round and I only got 2 reps on another round. We scored this Tabata for total reps and I finished with 26. I really expected more but there just wasn’t MORE!

Food NON-Update: Still a slacker on what to make with pumpkin. Hopefully tonight I’ll get motivated.

It’s a short post today. I know some of y’all are thinkin “WHEW!” hahaha. I’m just happy the bees are gone… we hope. Got a little bit of honey but not a lot considering we could have probably shared with all of DFW. Bee guy takes it all :/ But now hopefully our neighbors won’t hate us. Have a great day. And of course you know the drill – BE AWESOME!

Can’t get over the whole bee thing!

 

BOOM BOOM BOOMIN’

Where to start, where to start! It was a long day on Saturday full of football, chilly weather and then BARBELLS FOR BOOBS! I was running way late due to football running long. As Ernie would say “She’ll be late to her own funeral!” But I was booking it the best I could!

It was a great turnout for the B4B event! Everyone was killing it and having a blast. My oldest kiddo Jonas had already done Grace by the time I got there but he finished in 3:06 doing 85lbs! So proud of him and how far he’s come strength wise. And so JEALOUS! All the ladies had already gone by the time I was warmed up except for Mel. I knew Mel would kill it as she is SUPERWOMAN. I was just hoping to finish! I did the RX weight of 85lbs and knocked out 10 so fast, I was excited and then I hit a wall. A wall of suck! Time 6:06 (I think, something close) Two things plagued me – 1. not pacing myself better and 2. Not eating pretty much all day. I had 2 sausage rolls, and a bag of Cheddar Sour Cream chips with Nacho cheese sauce on them… besides being super unhealthy and gross sounding, they ended up being really tasty and definitely a FIRST for me as far as eating cheesed up chips out of the bag. I must have looked so sad and pathetic. Thank you all again who donated to Barbells For Boobs! Our team earned a little over $700 which is great! You can still donate if you wish, right here!

After B4B we chowed down on some protein and veggies. And boy oh boy was it good! I had marinated some fajita meat and some chicken breasts and thanks to our GrillMaster Josh, everything came out great. The chicken was the big hit so for those of you who tasted it and wanted to know what I used to season it here it is:
Please note, I have a heavy hand with spices and I don’t measure! I used: chili powder, himalayan salt, pepper, cumin, garlic powder, lemon pepper. I mixed it in a small bowl then I rubbed it onto chicken thoroughly. I really put some love into that chicken, haha. I then put some olive oil, red wine vinegar and chicken broth in a gallon zip lock bag. If I were to guess, I’d say it was about 2tbs or less of olive oil, a few shakes of the vinegar and maybe a 1/4 cup of chicken broth. Plopped the chicken in bag, sealed it up and gave it a good shake. Left in fridge till it was time to go. It probably marinated a good 8 hours. It was cooked perfectly and tasted FANTASTIC!

#OccupyBoom
After we stuffed our faces a few of us were still hanging around so we challenged each other to on the spot WODs. Sherry and I were teammates and not sure how we would fare against all the BOYS! Of course Jonas was ready to challenge his mama and that he did. We had a list of movements on the whiteboard. His team picked two Movements, Coach came up with the workout and then we negotiated from there. Well we had Deadlifts and Cleans. The weight was 75lbs for us ladies and 115lbs for the guys. It was going to be a 7 minute AMRAP of 10 DLs and 5 Cleans. There were 3 people on Jonas’ team and only two of us which I was thinking was UNFAIR, HAHAH! So with the help of Travis we threw out a 50 Double Under buy in. They accepted and 3-2-1 GO. I did DUs faster than I have ever done them before. I knew I had to because with us only having 2 people vs their 3 I knew we’d have to get in a lead. We managed 10 rounds 4 reps and led by 1 round the whole time until the END, they somehow caught us and beat us by 5 reps 😦 womp womp! It was fine though, I was still beat from GRACE and then we just did more cleans and a bunch of DLs. After that we watched the boys challenge each other. It was a good time. I hope we do more nights like that!

Today’s WOD
Holy Shitakes it was COLD this morning. Probably not cold for you folks in the North but cold for me! 36°, brrrrr. A good wake up call is taking a 400m run and breathing in all that cold air! But after eating BREADS on Sunday all the cold air in the world wasn’t going to clear my brain.

Skill/Strength: 3 x 3 Back Squat at 90% of 1 RM. Now if I did my math right, and by that I mean use my 1RM for Back Squat, I should have worked up to 130lbs and started my sets there. But with my BAGEL brain, I calculated off my 1RM DEADLIFT!

Who does that? This girl does! So I’m STILL WARMING up and was thinking 125lbs was a lil heavy but suck it up. Moved up to 135lbs, A LIL HEAVIER and then jumped to 155lbs and managed 1 REP. I’m thinking I still have to get up to at least 165lbs and that is NOT gonna happen. Well DODO brain me realizes at the same time Coach is looking at our MAX whiteboard that I’m doing the wrong weights and I just PR’d my BACK SQUAT! WOWOW DON’T EAT BREAD/JUNK, IT F**** YOUR BRAIN UP! I did however put in some extra work into those Back Squats!

MetCon: 12 minute AMRAP of 5 Chest to Bar Pull Ups, 10 Clapping Push Ups and 15 Jumping Air Squats. Well shitfire, are you kidding me? I got some bands on the bar for my Pull Ups and attempted some Clapping Push Ups and figured I just had to go the best I could. My first round of banded CTB Pull Ups weren’t too bad and the first round of Push Ups were awkward but I made it through, Kudos to all of you that can do them, THEY SUCK! Jumping Air Squats were fine at first but I was so winded by the end everything just hurt. By my third round of CTB Pull Ups I was struggling so Coach modified me to 8 Pull Ups vs. 5 CTB ones. That helped a little but not much. I was also given the option to not have to CLAP on the push ups but I didn’t take that option so I kept on with the Clapping Push Ups. Final: 4 rounds + 8 Pull Ups + 10 Clapping Push Ups. I WAS BEAT!

Needless to say I’m sore, tired, cold, and in a brain fog. I hope you all are faring much better than I. Looking forward to a healthier WEEK and just getting back to AWESOME. Have an amazing Monday folks!

Better Than Yesterday

Progress no matter how slow or how minute is PROGRESS. Don’t forget that and don’t let up if you stray off course. If anyone has been the prime example of stumbling off the path it’s been me lately! So hone in on your goal the best you can. Choose your battles wisely and don’t let others influence your situation.

And know you can’t out train a bad diet! Believe me I try! What you put in your body is FUEL and if the fuel is JUNK then you’re not going to perform well. Maybe you say that’s not important to you but IT IS! You have to maintenance your vehicle regularly to keep it in tip top shape. If you’re putting in crap fuel, crap oil then your bound to have problems a lot sooner than if you use quality materials. Your BODY is so much more important than your vehicle! It carries you around FOR LIFE! And the maintenance fees are way more expensive the older you get. So if yesterday wasn’t pretty try and be better today!

BOOM Box Fun
Just recently Coach added a “pre warm-up” warm up to our mornings which is fine except that I roll in right at 5am. I finally got out of the door with enough time to do this pre warm up and feel so much better about myself. I felt pretty slackerish on Tuesday so I HAD to get out of bed just a little bit earlier. Just one more thing to add to my day but it’s worth it and if I want to get better then I know that’s what I have to do. Just tell my bed to let me go in the mornings, PLEASE! Heheh, it’s hard to get up so early all of the time. But it’s my only choice so that’s what I do.

10/25/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: Clean & Jerk work
After all our warming up, it was time to get some PVC time and practice our Clean & Jerk skills. Using the PVC bar is always so awkward but at the same time so helpful. It is so light weight and everything we do is over exaggerated. But going through those movements really helps translate to the bar. I never thought I would even use PVC to help me out in weightlifting. Hell I never thought I would say I’m doing WEIGHTLIFTING! But here I am and I’m loving it! I highly suggest picking up a barbell and lifting heavy shit.

MetCon: 10-1 of Burpees and Jumping Air Squats, Buy Out 30 KB Swings (1POOD)
That means you do 10 Burpees, 10 Jumping Air Squats, 9 Burpees, 9 Air Squats, 8 Burpees, and so forth. Doesn’t sound like a lot of work but I know it is and I promise you it is. I was torn on what I thought my time would be. Burpees take a lot out of me as much as I try to be efficient I end up sucking wind pretty bad. I do believe it was the Jumping Air Squats that did me in today. I say this because I don’t think I’ve ever done Jumping Air Squats in a CrossFit environment. Strange I know but I really can’t remember. Prior to CrossFit a squat was maybe getting to a 90° angle, knees and hips level. And when you got tired it was a half ass attempt. Well in CrossFit an Air Squat is breaking parallel.

You learn to get low. So going low and then JUMPING up from that is a butt whoopin! My hips were spent! At one point I wasn’t sure my legs were there to hold me up, fortunately they were! I almost forgot I had to do KB swings. I knocked out 15 and was ready to stop but I knew I had to do these unbroken. I really didn’t want to. I wanted to PUKE. But I wasn’t going to let that happen either. So I finished and laid down, rolled around on the floor a bit like a dying creature as well. Not pretty but I finished STRONG. Time: 7:17. Definitely feels good till I see the whiteboard later then I’ll regret every pause I took during the Air Squats :/ Hehehe. I know I’m hard on myself. It’s how I function.

Barbells For Boobs and #OccupyBoom
Two more days until our CrossFit Boom event for Barbells For Boobs! I know October is the “it” month for Breast Cancer Awareness but always remember that Cancer is around every month no matter where it hits and it hits all ages, races, genders, etc. If you are able to support me and my fundraising efforts I sure would appreciate it! I’m halfway to my goal of $100. I figure if I can get 25 people to donate $2, then I reach my goal! That’s less than your Starbucks coffee! That’s if you get Starbucks coffee. Or less than your Egg McMuffin this morning, ahahha. I hope you weren’t scarfing down one of those but it’s only $2. I welcome $1 from 50 people if that needs to be the case. B4B is a great cause and all donations go straight to them and in turn go straight to Mammograms in Action. You will be helping out uninsured and/or low income folks to get the screenings they need. Save a Pair, Save a Life. Donate HERE.

So at CrossFit Boom we are hosting the workout GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). This is for fun and to raise awareness. If you’re not sure about CrossFit or want to know more, come on out and watch us. If you want to jump in and participate then you can participate. Everything can be scaled to your abilities. I’ve watched kids as young as 9 and people well into their 70s. It’s COMMUNITY coming together to throw around some weight and raise money for people in need! Oct 27th, 6pm, CrossFit Boom!

#OccupyBoom
After B4B we will be grillin some meats, so BYOB, bring your own BEEF, hehe, or chicken, or pork or whatever and we’ll have some folks cookin it up! After we fuel up we’ll have some friendly team competitions. Nothing INSANE I don’t think but I know there will lots of FUN! Come play with us!

It’s supposed to be a beautiful day in North Texas until the cold front comes in that is! So enjoy it cause tomorrow is supposed to be icky! And BE AWESOME while you are at it!

Competing Everyday

That’s been on my brain as of late, mostly because a couple of months ago I received a COMPETE EVERYDAY wristband that I stare at everyday and just recently I was gifted a nifty COMPETE EVERYDAY shirt. “Compete Everday, BECAUSE I HAVEN’T REACHED MY LIMITS”. It’s perfect.

I’m sure the word “compete” is a turn off to a lot of people. It sounds like work. It sounds hard. Why do I want to compete everyday? Competing everyday doesn’t have to be tedious, it should be fun, it should be YOU vs. YOU, not you vs. that magazine ad, or the scale or you vs. anything but YOU! I look at my wristband and although I don’t always hit the mark in making myself better in my eyes, I do really have to reflect and tell myself that YES you are making yourself better. Yes you push your limits.

Some days my limits are set lower but some days they are set high and I push them. I have to remind myself that I get up 4 out of 7 mornings before the sun comes up to go kill a workout and stay busy the other 3 days. I strive for clean eating. I strive to be a good parent. I strive to better at life always. And I do. And I also tend to get lost in it all and whine and complain and whatever else but at the end of the day I do COMPETE. And certain days it’s truly an aggressive action but it’s not always aggressive; it is however wanting more, it’s wanting to be better for me, which in turn helps me to better for a lot of other people. It feels good, self-empowerment. I hear a lot of people say, “oh I’m not competitive” or “i’m passive, i don’t compete” But I’m not talking about team sports. I’m talking about life. Most people have desires and wants, and unless you come from the land of the rich, most things don’t just fall in your lap. It takes work. It’s takes want to. It takes competition. Sure I like to compete in general, it’s how I’m wired but I know not everyone is wired that way. I compete always, in my head! And sure I know how to relax and enjoy the simple things in life. It’s called balance. Find your balance but also find your drive. Find COMPETITION.

The BOOM Box was full of my weaknesses this morning and I was really having a hard time finding my want to. It’s true and that’s what inspired my ramblings. I showed up to work but was I there to PUSH? I was but I didn’t want to at the time.

Skill/Strength: 3 x 10 Ring Pullups. MODIFIED to Ring Rows. The movement is not HARD for me but I don’t have a lot of reps in a row. By the 3rd set I had to bend my knees to get solid reps in. My problem this morning was “hanging” for too long. Instead of just fighting through, I’d hang and lose power. And in that 3rd set I forced myself to push through all 10 reps. Granted they were even more modified but I think I won that battle by not stopping.

10/23/12 WOD

MetCon: 30 Pull Ups, 20 Wall Balls (14lbs), 10 Shoulder to Overhead (85lbs), 20 Wall Balls, 30 Pull Ups. All upper body. All weaknesses in my book! So coach didn’t want us using bands today for Pull Ups so MORE Ring Rows it is… at least I had a warm up session! Before we started we warmed up our STOH with Push Presses, Push Jerks and Split Jerks. The RX weight was 105 but that’s really pushing past limits and I wanted to finish the WOD! So I worked up to 85lbs which isn’t light for me but I cleaned the bar fine and felt I could at least do 10 reps right? Even after Pull Ups and Wall Balls! LOL, Yes I was convincing myself it’s doable.

I knocked out 10 Ring Rows, then 5, then 6 and then I don’t know what till I got to 30. I suck at Wall Balls and really dragged ass on those. Got to the STOH and pushed out 5 but lost momentum and dropped the bar. I sure as hell didn’t want to Clean it again but I did and decided I would SPLIT JERK the remaining 5 reps. Well I was doing great and did my 5th rep, dropped the bar and moved to Wall Balls. Coach NO REPPED me!!! ARGH. I didn’t step together and show I had control on the last rep! It was a mindless act, I didn’t do it on purpose :/ But I had to Clean the bar again and do that last REP! ARGH! NOW onto Wall Balls, I threw that damn ball up there, hit the mark but was unable to catch it on the way down. I was done! I struggled through the 19 reps left! Hahah, I ended up knocking them out in sets of 5 but it was a sad sight. 30 Ring Rows left and I could only bust out a handful at a time. Time: 11:14. Those damn WALL BALLS, I let them get in my head and take up too much time. One day I will own Wall Balls!

Food Front
In regards to FOODs, back to Paleo and Clean Eating for sure, but not entirely back on Sugar Detox. In truth most foods I have been eating are without sugar. It’s only been 2 days but I’m already feeling that much better. I know it’s a mental state as well but my body is definitely loving me more! Nothing exciting. But everything is tasting so much better!

Barbells For Boobs/#Occupy Boom
This Saturday Oct 27th @ 6pm! The workout is GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). If you been keeping up with me, then you know you’re invited. I want you to come out and experience all of this FUN I write about day in and day out. If you would like to be a part of this event please visit the link on the right and donate at least $30 to mammograms in action. Even if you don’t want to participate, donations are welcome to support my efforts in raising money for Barbells For Boobs ツ! I’m still at $40 of my $100 goal. IF you can help, click here. Any amount is welcome. Thank you for your support.

Barbells for Boobs is a non-profit breast cancer organization whose mission is to provide funding through the Mammograms in Action @ Grant Program for qualified low income and uninsured women and men who need screening and/or diagnostic procedures in the prevention of breast cancer.

#OccupyBoom will follow B4B. Not sure what’s in store but I know it will be team workouts and loads of fun. Come see us be crazy!

Have a beautiful day peeps. Remember to be AWESOME. Today I challenge you to Paint something. I say this only because we got to paint pumpkins last night for the kids and it truly is fun. I suck at painting and in the end we did a lot of gluing but it’s a good time anyways. So go be creative and have some fun.

Back To It – TAKE 22

Roll Film! Hahaha, well lets hope we get it right this time around. Ernie seems to be back on the Clean Eating Road which in turn helps me to be on the right path. Although teamwork does help out tremendously, it’s true it can sabotage you just as fast. When Ernie took a moment to hang up his hat, I just followed suit and hung mine up right next to his. And it’s also true I’ve been strong and stood on my own, all alone trying to eat clean and be better. I just found that it was much harder this time around. All in all let’s just pray that I/WE can be a little better. I know I can’t go 100% totally strict or I would die! But I like to get pretty close to that mark. I started off well yesterday by making a roast. I have dinner planned for tonight so let’s keep this ball rolling and make the whole week a week of good clean food!

Starting off at the BOOM Box this morning, even though I was tired, I was ready to put in some work to make up for my craptastic weekend. With that said I also knew I was in for it due to my craptastic eating!

Skill/Strength: 3 x 3 Deadlift @ 90% of 1 RM
This ends up at 166.5lbs for me. I worked up to 165 and did one set of 3 at that weight. Since I didn’t pass out or struggle too much I moved up to 170lbs and finished out at that. Although it wasn’t easy, it wasn’t super hard either. I’ve been stuck at a 1RM of 185lbs for quite some time now. I’m really looking forward to blowing the doors off that in the near future. Crossing fingers and toes!

10/22/12 WOD

MetCon: 5 rounds of 30 Walking Lunges followed by Sprint
Thank goodness it wasn’t weighted lunges or else I may still be lying in the driveway at the BOOM Box. Once we completed our lunges it was an all out sprint for an unknown designated distance. It was far enough and it was uphill 3 out of the 5 sprints! I really did try and push myself in those sprints and afterwards my legs were nothing but J-E-L-L-O! I was sucking wind big time but I knew that’s what I was in store for. I didn’t quit though. On my last sprint I could see the shadow of someone coming fast on me and I tried with all my might to not let him catch up I just couldn’t do it. Time: 7:43

Barbells For Boobs at the CrossFit Boom and #OccupyBoom
It’s almost here – the B4B event at the BOOM Box. This Saturday Oct 27th @ 6pm! The workout is GRACE (30 Clean & Jerks for time). Come one, come all! Watch, Participate, Eat! It will be all sorts of fun and you can come see what this kool-aid is all about. All ages, fitness levels, etc are welcome. Come support Barbells For Boobs and Mammograms in action. You don’t have to be a CrossFit junky in order to participate. You don’t even HAVE to participate. Heck I was only 2 months in when I signed up last year. I had no idea what to expect but I got to learn about this rock n roll foundation as well as watch and cheer on kids, survivors, newly diagnosed women, even a gentleman who had a prosthetic leg. It was AMAZEBALLS! Seriously come check it out and see what COMMUNITY is all about. So come out if you can and if you can’t but would like to donate then please click here. I’ve raised $40 of my $100 goal. It’d be great to even surpass teh $100 mark. Thank you in advance for your support and a Special Thank you Shelley and Rose for your recent contributions ツ

Post B4B will be #OccupyBoom where we will continue the fun and have teams go up against each in friendly competitions. More fun to be had and I’m sure a lot of hardcore insanity mixed with extreme silliness! Good people, Good food = AWESOMENESS. Let me know if you want to come and hang out!

That’s it for now folks. I had to rewrite this as somehow I manage to lose my original draft. Ah well. That’s MONDAY for ya. Let’s be AWESOME this week!

REPOST: Friday I’ve Missed You


NOTE: THERE SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN SOME TECHNICAL ERRORS FROM LAST WEEK. THIS POST NEVER FULLY PUBLISHED. I WILL RESUME TO MY REGULAR BLOGGING HABITS TOMORROW 🙂

Has this been an extra long week for everyone else as it has been for me? I think I’m in some time warp and although it appears I’m in real time along with everyone else, my minutes and days just drag on. But alas it’s Friday. And surely I’ll enter into real time and my weekend will fly on by!

As for the BOOM Box I was not doing any sort of flying especially when it comes to our MetCon. 2 runs that are approx 1200m with a 5 minute rest in between. They were supposed to be Sprints but as I’ve mentioned before my sprint runs out after about 50 yds. So it turns into a messy sight. I’m not a pretty runner at all. I managed to run my first “sprint” in 7:01. We then get a 5 min rest from that time and go again. Final time was 19:49, so my 2nd “sprint” was 7:48. Not bad for being a sucky runner. One day I’ll proudly claim I’m a runner but that day is not near.

Skill/Strength: Floor Press 4 x 5, 3x Max Ring Dips
So prior to the MetCon we did Skill/Strength. I worked my way up to 65lbs for the Floor Press. Each round I added 5lbs. On my last set of 5 I was at 80lbs. I had to have some assistance on the last round. I can’t recall if I got through 3 or 2 Presses before needing help. I was fighting for it, but the bar was not moving.

10/12/12 WOD

For ring dips I used the bench for assistance again. I managed to get 5, 4, 7 or something like that. I think on my last round I finally just told myself to not suck at this movement. It’s so awkward and not natural for me to do. I bottom out and stay stuck and it’s not a fun feeling. I feel really helpless but on the last set I felt that I did better.

The 21-Day Sugar Detox Sugar Reduction- Days 11 and 12
As I mentioned yesterday, I can’t honestly say I’m off the sugars completely. I’m consuming something on a daily basis out of time contraint, weakness and many other sad reasons excuses but not to the extent I was a few weeks ago. So I’m weaning myself if you will vs. going cold turkey. I’m ok with it… for now. There will be a point I know I will say to myself ENOUGH is ENOUGH but until then I will tread lightly with foods that contain sugar for now.

My half eaten, sugar free lunch: Roasted Chicken, Mashed Cauliflower, Spinach Salad with Hardboiled Egg, Bacon, Tomatoes and Olive Oil.

Barbells For Boobs
Just a small reminder I’m raising money for this great cause Barbells For Boobs. (link on the right hand sidebar) The BOOM Box is hosting their own B4B event @ 6pm, OCT. 27th The workout will be Grace. 30 Clean and jerks for time. If you would like to be a part of this event please visit the link on the right and donate at least $30 to mammograms in action. Even if you don’t want to participate, donations are welcome ツ

Barbells For Boobs Event 2011
Belton, TX

The B4B event is for anyone that would like to donate a few bucks and some muscle soreness. You do not have to be a member of this CrossFit box or any other in order to participate. All are welcome, bring your friends and family!

Barbells for Boobs is a non-profit breast cancer organization whose mission is to provide funding through the Mammograms in Action @ Grant Program for qualified low income and uninsured women and men who need screening and/or diagnostic procedures in the prevention of breast cancer. Please help me and my team CrossFit Boom in our fundraising efforts by clicking the link and setting up your donation.

Have a pleasant weekend! I hope the weather is beautiful wherever you are and that you are able to take advantage and play outside. I personally really want to hibernate but that’s a choice this weekend. Soon I hope, soon! See y’all on Monday. Until then, STAY AWESOME.

My sunshine is fading

As this month carries on, the sun stays with us a little less. I seriously get into a funk when the days begin to get shorter. I know I’m not whiny enough as it is, right? 😛 But soon enough it will be pitch black by 5:30pm and I’ll feel like I need to hibernate. It’s part of it, this happens every year and every year I look forward to those spring days when time springs forward. But for now I have to watch the sunshine fade away a little bit sooner each day. I feel less productive when the sun is not out till 9pm. That feeling has already crept in. Am I the only one that thinks this way? The upside is that I really want to go to bed earlier. Hopefully I’ll get some extra sleep!

This morning wasn’t hard to get up but my left eye was throbbing. Not sure from what but I considered staying home, unsure if the ache in my eyeball would disappear. Thank goodness it did by the time I got to the BOOM Box.

Skill/Strength: 5 x 3 Deadlift @ 85% of 1 RM = 155lbs actually 157.25 so we rounded down to 155. Warming up to this weight was smooth and easy. I jumped from 125lbs to 155lbs and I went from oh this is good to OH that was more than I anticipated. But it was only that first set that I felt that. The rest of the sets felt good. Coached chimed in saying I probably should have gone up to 160lbs then. I mean it wasn’t EASY but at the same time I didn’t realize that I probably should have pushed myself a little more and jumped up in weight. That’s where I don’t think forward enough. I should if I want to get better but I’m not wired that way to say, hhmm, maybe I should jump up that extra 5 pounds. Maybe because it’s 5am and my brain isn’t fully functioning. Hell my body surely isn’t fully functioning but I still feel good. I’m still moving some weight.

10/9/12 WOD

MetCon: 2 rounds of 2 minutes for 400m run 2 minutes KB swings, 1 minute rest
I seriously was thinking I will not make that 400m run in 2 minutes or less. IMPOSSIBLE. I suck at running, I suck at running more so in the cooler weather. But my first run I managed to complete in 1:45 (I THINK). It took me a minute to gain my composure and time was already ticking into my KB Swing timeframe. I knew I would have to hold on to that kettle bell the whole time and I I was doing good, 20 seconds to go and I had to let it go or drop it on my foot so I stopped for a couple of seconds but got back going to get an extra few reps. 62 reps for that first 2 minutes. The 1 minute rest was SHORT then it was back to the run. I kept telling myself you gotta make 2 minutes, you gotta make 2 minutes. I have no relevance of time when running, it always feels like forever but I managed to make it back in 1:55! But that didn’t give me much time to catch my breath. I didn’t start KB swings right away, maybe 20 seconds into my 2 minutes. This time I stopped a few times. Only getting 62. In the picture above my flash got in the way. And I was too unobservant at the time to notice. So total was 114, not 11 😀

The 21-Day Sugar Detox Days 8 & 9
Let’s just say I’m surviving. Moods are fine despite it being that time of the month… TMI? Eh who cares! But it explains the blah attitude. Better than angry attitude. I think overall I’m dealing well. Maybe all that weekend binging helped! Who knows. I keep neglecting to add that extra fat that I know I need in my meals, so I did add some avocado to my eggs and bacon this morning and wow I’m full. It wasn’t even a lot. Keep on keepin on… one day at a time.

That’s all for my Tuesday report. Also don’t forget I’m raising money for Barbells For Boobs. Please support this great cause. The link is in the sidebar to the right if you would like to donate. Thanks y’all and dont forget to BE AWESOME!

Just Breathe!

Crazy busy, hectic, non stop, rangers lose, sleepy, falling off the wagon, jumping back on the wagon, broken bones, cold weekend, cookies, BREATHE!

The WEEKEND WOD & Oly Class
The cold air blew in Friday and with that the Rangers were out of the playoffs. I dried my eye, went to bed and woke up to our first CHILLY morning in a long time. And it was COMMUNITY WOD day at the BOOM Box! Of course I was running late and in a rush, and of course I happened to freakin hit a car as I pulled in. NO MAJOR damage thank GOODNESS but damage none the less! (Sorry Jenn :/) And then it was time for a partner WOD. Not knowing what lied ahead I asked Russell to partner up with me. Boy oh Boy was I the wrong partner for this WOD. We first had a banded together 400m run. Did I mention Russell is about 8ft tall! Jokes, but seriously 6’4″ or something like that. And I’m a towering 5’2″! How’s that for a running buddy you’re literally stuck to?? FUN FUN! I just had to embrace the suck and deal with it.

We then had to do 21, 15, 9 of Step Ups and KB Thrusters with a RUN between the sets. So I warmed up with a 1/2 POOD KB (17lbs or so) and I could manage that. Those got taken up quicklike by other teams so I gave 1 POOD a go. Well I could complete the movement with my right arm and the left arm was weak! But that’s what we stuck with. After many FAILS I was downgraded to a 20lb dumbbell. RELIEF! It was now only the running that was miserable. When we came back for the sets of 15 I saw I now had a 25lb dumbbell…. sneaky sneaky Coach! That was still better than the 35lb KB! Poor Russell, I apologized about 7978798 times for being slow at the runs and for sucking in GENERAL. We came in last, I didn’t even look at the time. It was sad.

After the MetCon, we moved outside to work on buddy carries. I didn’t think my legs would hold up anyone so I didn’t try carrying anyone. Probably for the best. And I wasn’t feeling particularly light in weight so I didn’t offer for anyone to carry me either. I was pretty much OUT on any sort of carrying. Well Coach wasn’t having any of that and carried, ran, skipped and spun me in circles for about 50m! Good thing I don’t get sickly easily. It could have been disastrous.

OLY Class
Right after the Community WOD we had an OLY Class. Due to the boys’ football schedules, I’ve missed some classes. It was good to be back. I need to work on technique in a bad way. And that is all we did – Work on Snatch technique. With PVC and a 35lb bar I’m pretty confident. But once I start putting weight on, I let the FEAR creep in. The self doubt. The weakness. It’s mental. So we worked on that. Mentally letting go and landing in that squat position. Learning we could fall down and it’s not the end of the world. Learning that dropping the bar is not the end of the world. Just doing it over and over and over. I’m not anywhere near being GREAT at snatch but I felt I came a long way in just an hour this past Saturday. I understand where I was coming up short this time around. Coach had me do “close-grip” snatches with the PVC and later with the bar which is really funky and not normal feeling at all, but it definitely showed me where I lose stability. A lot of times I don’t feel it or understand where I go wrong. But I can feel it now. I can feel where I put the brakes on too soon. And at least with that knowledge it’s easier for me to work on this movement. It’s truly all technique and confidence. I’m getting there. I really AM!

The 21-Day Sugar Detox –  Day 5-7 And the wheels came off!
I did so well Friday and all day Saturday. I stayed true. I obeyed. I was strong. On Friday my cousins were eating all sorts of badness at the Ranger game but I was eating pistachios, carrots and drinking lots of water. Then Saturday rolled around and I fueled myself up properly after my 2 hour workout session. Headed to football games stayed strong despite it was perfect Caramel Macchiato or Hot Chocolate weather. But by the end of the day at late o’clock, I was still hungry and cold. I caved in for some Chic-fil-A. And not any healthy choice either. I did stray from the sweet tea but I still indulged in some sandwich yumminess. Did I hop back on the GOOD KID train on Sunday? Hell NO.

Went to our favorite butcher where I typically get a frankfurter with no bun but YES I did have a bun. And then I just went further down the rabbit hole as Ernie convinced me to make the Otis Spunkmeyer cookies that had come in from our football fundraiser. Yup ate a few of those too! All in all I had about a 24 hour relapse. It’s all good now. I shopped well for the week. And hopefully my little splurge is out of my system. It’s not that I craved the sugar, I just went off the grid for a moment. For those of you who think it’s ok, it’s not. It did do a number on my stomach. But y’all don’t want those details!

So you could call it starting over or you could call it moving on. I’ll restart my 21 days but still consider myself on day 8. I’ll just finish on the 28th instead of the 21st.

Back on Track KICK OFF MEAL!

10/8/12 WOD
And we’re finally to today’s WOD. It was so nice and cozy in my warm bed, it was really hard to get up and at em. Looked at my phone and it said 40° outside and I really wanted even more to stay in bed. When I arrived at the BOOM Box it looked like I wasn’t the only one that thought of staying in bed but I was one of the few who actually didn’t stay in bed and showed up… cough* slackersscarredofalittlecold* cough… where was everyone? Ah well. You can’t get better if you’re not showing up to do work.

Skill/Strength: 5 x 5 Back Squat at 82.5%, for me that was 120lbs. I did a few warm ups and then worked my way up slowly to the 120lbs mark. My first set of 5 weren’t too shabby. I felt good. Since it was extra cool in the box, Coach suggested I work on stretching my hip between sets. My second set wasn’t so pretty but I finished. I ended my sets strong and really fought for the last rep in each set. I felt good. It doesn’t sound like a lot but that’s some weight I’m not used to moving around and it got my heart going. It was good work.

10/8/12 WOD

MetCon: 3 min AMRAP of 5 Air Squats and 5 Push Ups, 1 min rest, 3 min AMRAP of 3 Pistols and 3 Handstand Push Ups
I left my OLY shoes on for the MetCon because I figured it would help me in my squats and pistols. I tried to fly through the 3 minutes without pause. I wasn’t 100% successful but I managed to get by with few pauses. I got 11 rounds. The next round wasn’t that pretty. I am pretty confident on my right leg with the Pistols. It’s the left leg I don’t trust. That IT band drags across my knee which is painful but it’s not the pain that gets me, it’s the idea that I feel my knee is weak and it’s hard for me to feel confident. I did work on getting full depth by being on a box but I really struggled on my left leg. With that struggle and transitioning to HSPU modified on the box, that sucked up a lot of time. I completed 4 rounds. That second 3 min AMRAP weighed me down bad. Total of 15 rounds.

I do hope everyone had a pleasant weekend. I hope you have an even better week! If you’re on the fence about The 21-day Sugar Detox, paleo, working out or whatever it is, just know holding out isn’t getting you anywhere. Waiting till tomorrow is doing NOTHING for you.

Waiting for next Monday or Nov 1 is giving you more reasons and excuses to wait till after Christmas. Just start NOW. You might fall down like I have just done but guess what? You get back up. Even if you fall down everyday. You can’t reach your goals if you aren’t even trying. Hell if you don’t have goals how are you going to get anywhere. Set some goals. TODAY and ACT TODAY. and BE AWESOME!!!

Trying NOT to SUCK

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

9/24/12 WOD

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

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