Gettin’ It Done

After some consistency in my clean eating, getting a little more sleep and still gettin work done at the box I feel like my downward spiral of loserness is spiraling back up to awesomness. It’s not raining butterflies and glitter yet but I’m getting there.

With that said I almost didn’t get up for the BOOM Box this morning! Hahahah… I was so happy sleeping away. I still made it sure enough. 1 RM of Press was our Skill/Strength. I KNEW in my head I had a PR coming. And my head was an absolute LIAR. My brain sits on a throne of lies and my body fails me regularly! I still have the same Press and I was sad. My push press is 100lbs! I know I get to use my legs but still I was hoping for at least a 5lb baby PR! Just have to put more work in!

8/2/12 WOD

MetCon: 11.1 OPEN WOD – 10 min AMRAP of 30 Double Unders and 15 Ground To Overhead (45lbs)

Wooweee I was nervous for this workout. Starting out with Double Unders isn’t so bad. I can string em up pretty good, but I knew when my shoulders wore out it would be hard to keep it up. As for the 15 GTOH, I did Snatches. Some were muscled up and some were power snatches and I was slow my first round. I just wasn’t mentally in the right place. As time went on my DUs sucked, out of breath, losing focus, etc. But my Snatch got a little better because all I could think was GO H.A.M.! I don’t think I really went as hard as I probably should have but I was trying and I felt like I was moving fast and then I’d feel like I was in slow motion. My last set of DUs before time ran out were my best. Somehow my rope got a knot in it and I did my 30 DUs unbroken! Doing that on the last set was pretty amazeballs considering I was smoked. Maybe I just had that laser focus because time was running out. Score: 5 rounds + 30 + 7

Football conditioning for the kiddos disappeared the past 2 weeks but we are now into official practices. Like I’ve mentioned previously I’m going to add some workouts in during this time. I’m there for 2 1/2 hours so I might as well make it productive right?!? Not sure what I’ll do tonight but work will get done.

That’s all I got for ya today. Have a crazy fun day. Be awesome!!

Mondays Suck but the OLYMPICS make it better!

First of all, I think we all should get paid vacation so we can focus on the OLYMPICS… it’s not like it’s every year. We should support our country as a whole ツ I don’t care about doing work, I care more about watching the USA compete even in sports that I know nothing about! I get goosebumps every time I hear some wonderful back story or see the pride on an athlete’s face whether they are on the podium or had a good performance clearing the path for a medal finish. The work, the blood, the tears…. EVERYTHING they put into making the Olympics their time to shine. It’s FANFREAKINGTASTIC!!!!

I was never much into weightlifting but since starting CrossFit and the fact that Olympic Lifts are part of it, I made a point to watch weightlifting. So far I’ve only watched the 48 kilo class and those tiny women are STRONG and make it look easy! It blows my mind. I’m really new to it all and I’m sure that’s the norm if you’ve been training your whole life for such things but it still blows my mind!!

I know, enough already, you’re not a sports writer or anything of the sort. I’m just a blogger, half ass one at that so I’ll move on to what I do regularly bore you with my daily crap! So the eating got a little better over the weekend and this week is going to be 100% back on track. I have 3 weeks till Europa and I need to be at my best. Europa is a Fitness Expo and they are hosting a CrossFit Competition that me and several other Boom Boxers signed up for as an intermediate team. Why oh why would we do such a thing? Mostly for fun! Secondly because this is where I first saw CrossFit in person a year ago. I totally wanted to be these people. I wanted to compete. I wanted to participate. Little did I know HOW HARD THIS SHIT REALLY IS and how hard it STILL is! But we signed up anyways. Win, Lose, FAIL… it will be fun. I just hope we are more on the winning end! So ya, this is why I need to clean up what I eat ASAP! And that process has begun.

GREEN SMOOTHIES
This is a work in progress that I admittedly did not want to be involved in. Ernie was determined to make a Kale Smoothie yesterday and although the flavor wasn’t bad, the thickness and chewability factor was horrid. He ~~drank~~ ate his smoothie and didn’t go for round 2.

This morning we failed at defrosting pork belly, SIGH, what will I have to eat now? Well a wild hair of an idea popped up and I said I’ll make me a green smoothie now! Why not? We have the stuff so I googled Paleo Smoothies and clicked around till I found one that sounded good to try. This smoothie called for a half frozen banana, spinach, cocoa powder, coconut oil, almond butter, cinnamon, almond milk and some ice. I started blending it all up, looked like a green/brown cup of nasty and tasted it… WHOAAAA too much cocoa powder, it’s unsweetened so it’s a really strong taste! Something was off – I FORGOT THE BANANA! DOH! So I threw half of a frozen banana into the food processor, added my green/brown concoction back in and gave it a whirl. This was much better in flavor but still too much cocoa. I know better next time and hopefully will have a better flavor profile. (YES ERNIE I DRANK IT ALL!)

WOD
I seriously considered sleeping in this morning. I just wasn’t feeling but I knew I had to shake my funk off and get to the BOOM BOX. I wasn’t the only sleeping in! I was the ONLY one there for the first 10 minutes. One other person showed up and that was it to our 5 am class. Not sure if folks are on vacation or just being slackers. But I definitely felt better about myself for just showing up!

Skill/Strength: 10 – 40yd sprints. I don’t really consider this skill or strength but only cause I’m a big baby and don’t like running. Although I’d rather sprint than run a damn mile. It is what it is. We didn’t really time anything out, just worked on form and form. I wish I was a better runner but I really don’t enjoy practicing the actual act of running. I’m screwed!

7/30/12 WOD

MetCon: Death by Front Squats – 65lbs. I know I’ve explained the whole Death By more than once but I gotta be fair to any new readers. When you do Death By anything it means you perform the movement you are assigned or the movement you choose on the minute, adding one rep for each minute. Soooooo you start clock, do 1 rep then rest till the start of the next minute. When that minute arrives you do 2 reps. Rest till the start of the next minute then do 3 reps. You keep doing this until you can not complete the amount of reps in the minute. With that said, I completed 11 rounds. I went for the 12th minute but I felt a tightening pain in my back/lat/somewhere in that region and it just hurt. I didn’t want to continue. It didn’t hurt when I “cleaned” the bar just when I would go from standing to squatting. Even if it didn’t hurt I probably wouldn’t have made it past 12. Regardless, including the 5 I completed in the 12th round, I did 71 Front Squats at 65lbs in less than 12 minutes. I was a hot sweaty mess. It was good work! I did some mobility afterwards and the back/shoulder/whatever is much better.

I hope tomorrow doesn’t involve running!!!! It’s only Monday. I’ve put my big girl panties on. Let’s do this! Commit to something good for YOU this week. It doesn’t have to be major but it surely can be ツ Make a goal this week. Eat clean, work out, walk, lay off the booze, meditate, read a book. Just commit to better mind and health. And let me know if you need MOTIVATION! I just wanna help! I want to help YOU, whoever YOU may be… crazy stalker, an old friend, complete stranger, etc. I know I sound CRAZY but I’m not really….uhhhhh depending I suppose on your definition of crazy, hehehe. Ah well. Ask for help if you need it… ENJOY your day! See you all tomorrow! Be AWESOME!

Slow rollin’

Still in depression mode. Eating better but not 100% yet. I can feel it holding me down. I’m getting there but it’s a SLOW process right now.

I made some sweet potato noodles last night and low and behold they were different types of sweet potatoes! Made for a nice plate (of which I didn’t not take a picture of) but I recommend mixing it if even by accident. The different textures of a white fleshed sweet potato and a regular ol’ orangey one made the slightest difference and it was all for the good. Pretty – Check; Interesting – Check; Tasty – Check! As far as food and cooking go I’m back on track. It’s the snacking on stuff like chips (leftover from vacation) that is ruining me. Plus the fact that I’m still recovering from food overload last week. It takes a while to clean your system and if you’re not completely eating clean it’s not going to happen any faster I’m trying. It’s hard. I just want to sleep and eat junk.

This vicious cycle is ruining my WODs at the BOOM BOX or at least that’s what I’m telling myself!!!! I mean I did PR twice last week but that was before it all the badness could build up and shut me down.

7/26/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: BAR WORK! ARGH! DOUBLE ARGH! I chose to work on Toes To Bar because I can do them but I need to do them better. I think I got absolutely NOWHERE in the whole doing them better department.

MetCon: 4 rounds – Complete at least 10 Thrusters in 30 seconds AS HEAVY AS POSSIBLE, 1 minute Plank, 1 minute REST (add weight time). So the goal was to start off at a lighter weight and work your way up to as heavy as possible with the Thrusters. I know I can do 65lb Thrusters but can I do 10 in 30 seconds?

Annie Sakamoto showing how Thrusters get done!

I struggle with this movement and to think once upon a time in a land far far away I thought Thrusters were my favorite movement. In reality THEY SUCK! But in my opinion they are probably the best OVERALL barbell movement for your body, bang for your buck movement. They STILL SUCK. I started with 55lbs and I struggled. I did 5 real quick then slowed waaayyyy down for the other 5. My knee, my shoulder, everything – ALL HURT, ACHED, ETC. Went to plank position when the 30 seconds was up and felt okay. Quads started burning halfway through plank but I was fine for the most part.

Good solid PLANK! NOTE: back is straight. Some people hinge at hips and their butt is way up in air and some people let their hips sag – Both will help you get nowhere!

So I moved up to 60lbs during our REST period and was ready to go kinda sorta. Got the 10 knocked out with 2 seconds to spare – whew that was too close! The next plank was horrible. I couldn’t control my breathing, I was hurting and my shoulders were spent. 1 minute turned into FOREVER! On the 3rd round I decided to stay with 60lbs. I don’t think Coach was over the moon with that decision but I was feeling WEAK! I still got my 10 reps and I was a little better with the PLANK. On the 4th round I stepped it up to 65lbs. Just like the first round I did 5 reps with the quickness and then BAM slowed down, I finished right on the button. The 4th plank was the worst. I dropped to a knee for about 5 seconds I think and was trying to go from elbow to elbow to relieve my shoulders. It was horrible. Our score was our heaviest round completed. I know I won’t be sitting at the top of the board today but I am learning to deal with my weaknesses and not let them get to my head. One day they will be my strengths! That’s what I keep telling myself at least! Hahaha.

I’m super sleepy and it’s all because the past two evenings I can’t get to sleep. I typically don’t have a problem with sleep. My head hits the pillow and I’m OUT but the past two nights I’ve been tired but my brain won’t shut off. Again I’m attributing this to poor eating. Hopefully that’s all it is and hopefully I’ll get back to good sleep. One more official workout for the week. If I’m feeling spunky I may try to do something over the weekend but right now lazy lazy lazy is all that is in my brain.

I’m trying to be awesome but having a hard time. So please be EXTRA AWESOME to make up for what I am lacking! Have a better than mediocre Thursday!!!

I’m here. Not willingly but I am here.

It’s true I have PVD: POST VACATION DEPRESSION. I have no will to do much of anything other than go through the boring routine known as my life! How’s that for dramatic?!? Hahahah. I seriously just wish I could have stayed on Maui. But reality is I can not. Now I just gotta get out of my funk and move on. Over a week and no blogging it’s kind of bittersweet. I have a lot of workouts to report on, not one good bit of clean eating and I could recap vacation but don’t want to bore y’all with too much. As always I write off the cuff, no planning or outlines so who knows what you’ll get today!

Maui Recap
I did manage to get an ALOHA in on two Sundays ago and pretty much we were non stop the whole time. Ernie and I were good little workers and hit up Lahaina CrossFit a total of 5 times! It was 1 Rep Max week for them and out of 4 different movements on our last day I PR’d on Push Press! 100lb PUSH PRESS!!! So stoked to hit triple digits.

Doing some CASH OUT Tire Flips at Lahaina CrossFit!

As for the rest of the time, we went ocean rafting with Ocean Riders. We took a ride around the island of Lanai which is about 8 miles from Maui. Total distance around Lanai is about 68 miles. It took up the whole day and we hit up 3 snorkel spots. This was cool for us because we hit up snorkel spots we had never seen before. I only managed to see a sea turtle, some eels and of course lots of fish. One family saw a 3-4ft gray reef shark; Ernie and Jonas saw a lobster; Jonas saw sting rays and we all saw a variety of eels as well. If you’ve never rafted on the ocean it’s something you should do. It’s fun, crazy, and gets your heart pumping.

Family Pic during a peaceful part of the trip on Ocean Riders!

We also did a zipline tour at Piiholo Zipline. I really thought I’d be more “scared” of dangling over hundreds of feet but I wasn’t. It was beautiful and really fun. I had imagined a more adrenaline pumped adventure but instead of it was just very cool and laid back.

Jakob flying high!

We also hit up a few beaches with some good surf where the kids did body surfing and boogy board surfing as well. I attempted to body surf and after getting beat up those 2 times that I “caught” a wave I was out! This mama does not find getting beat up very fun! The kids though had a blast. I opted to hang out past the break and enjoyed the show! The water was beautiful at all our spots. Chilly at first but perfect once you acclimated.

Boys having fun at Makena State Park – Big Beach.

If you’ve been to Maui then you know about the Road to Hana. We weren’t going to go because it’s a long, sometimes terrifying but beautiful drive but the kids remembered the natural pools and wanted to go swimming in them again. It was rainy the whole trip and we get to the pools only to find out that they are closed to swimming! WTH?!? Guess we should have done our homework. It’s a fabulous scenic drive none the less but we did have some scary moments and were rather disappointed that the pools were closed!

The beautiful pools that we COULD NOT swim in this year 😦

One of our only “chill” moments was the Luau we attended. I had not been to a luau since I was a kid so it was fun to see the excitement in everyone else’s faces. I forgot that luau’s can be fun and the fire dancing at the end was phenomenal!

Everyone’s favorite part of the Luau….well 2nd to the Fire Dancing!

Enough about my trip, I kept it short because I really could write a novel I think and I’m hoping highlights are better than dragging it out.

COMMUNITY BOOM WOD
We got home at 5 am this past Saturday and the crazy person that I am went to the BOOM BOX Community WOD and OLY class that follows. Yup I’m a little off my rocker. Boy did we do some work at the 9am WOD. It was guys vs. girls (teams of 5) and we did sled pulls and indian runs, wall ball leap frog something else I can’t recall and 500 KB swings! It ended up that it was tied 2-2 so the KB swings was the challenge to win. Turns out us ladies won! Go US!!

OLY Class
Right after Community WOD I have an OLY Class where we worked on Snatch Push Press and Overhead Squats (OHS). I suck at both but really put some effort out there and improved overall. Bonus is that I PR’d my OHS by 15lbs! I went from 75lb OHS to 90lb OHS! After my Push Press PR and my OHS PR I was feeling pretty good. I haven’t had much luck in that dept so it felt good knowing I’m improving.

7/23/12 WOD

7/23/12 WOD

After the workouts on Saturday I did nothing but sleep and eat poorly. This added to the week worth of vacation POOR eating, I knew I was in for it Monday Morning! And I was really in for it because it was 6 week test of CINDY! Six weeks ago I posted about weaksauce Cindy and that was after one weekend of bad eating, what will 9 days of bad eating get me?!?

Well I started off with the green band and completed 3 rounds of Pull Ups, by the fourth round Coach gave me a blue band to add to my green band. Pull Ups were much easier but I was still dragging ass! I completed 11 rounds + 5 pull ups (green band then green with blue). 6 weeks ago I completed 6 rounds +4 pullups (green band only). Although I managed more rounds I felt shorted because I ended up using more bands but ah well.

7/24/12 WOD

7/24/12 WOD

See I didn’t gibber jabber on too much. I was short and sweet and now about to be caught up for the week! This morning was one of those mornings that I knew I didn’t want to show up for at all. One mile run was part of the WOD and I didn’t want to do it. Sleep sounded so much better! Like a good little (well not so little) girl I unwillingly drug my butt up to the box. We worked on Back Squats adding 5lbs to our previous weight we worked on last. I’m up to 115lbs. 3 sets of 5 and although I could do the weight I always struggled on the last rep of each set! My IT band/knee bursae is/are so inflammed from eating poorly it’s sickening. It hurts so bad but I gotta push through. Been eating better for most of yesterday and all of today. It just takes time I know and I’m not going to beat myself up mentally over it. My body feels the effects just fine and it sucks!

MetCon: One Mile Run, then 3 minute AMRAP of Dead Lifts at 75lbs. So ya running, bleh! Slowest mile I’ve run in a very long time. 10:07! WTH. The guys are way faster and I was just left to my own devices of going SLOW! I didn’t even realize how slow my pace was until I got back inside. I had no time to cry about just do Dead Lifts. 75lbs isn’t so heavy so I knew I could get a good chunk in. I did 22 unbroken then broke down to sets of 10. All this poor eating has left me winded. I can’t breath. And I want to cry! In the end I completed 63 Dead Lifts. Here’s hoping that the rest of the whiteboard doesn’t blow me away. Well I know the run sucked but hopefully I made up for it in DLs!

So there ya have it. 9 day recap. Hopefully I told enough without you begging for more and in turn hopefully I didn’t bore the hell out of you. It’s Tuesday! SMILE! Maybe? Nah… I just want the ocean around me again and nice temps. Be awesome!

UUMMMMMMM……….

It’s not that I have writer’s block this time around, but it’s been a busy weekend and I don’t even know where to start. Do I start with today and go backwards or start with Saturday and move forwards? These are the silly little chores that burden me in regards to blogging! What’s my title going to be? Witty? Dull? Straightforward. ARRGGHHH! I’m not a great writer as it is and then to add the other things, it can make one go bonkers. But at the same time it gives me peace. A creative outlet of sorts to get my thoughts straightened out and something for me to reference in my CrossFit/Paleo/whatever you want to call it journey. Also hopefully I provide some sort of “FIT”spiration to you the readers; that if someone as plain and simple as myself can muster up the energy and discipline to work hard consistently and eat clean that you can too. You just have to want it bad enough. I know I do want it!

Which leads to me to today’s WOD. I’ll summarize the weekend afterwards ツ I was dragging more than normal this morning because we were at the Ranger game till later than expected and we left before the game got exciting! They went 13 innings. Thank goodness we left though because I was spent. So spent I almost didn’t get up in time for the BOOM BOX!

7/9/12 WOD

Skill/Strength: 3 x 5 Back Squat +5lbs from previous week. Well I didn’t do Back Squat last week so I added from the week before. Today was 3 sets of 5 at 110lbs. After working up to that weight I was already done! So I struggled on my last reps. I always feel so weak when I struggle so much at a lighter weight. I shouldn’t think that way. My max is 145 and that’s 1 REP…so ya I know but geez I still feel like a weakling!

MetCon: 21, 15, 9 of Overhead Squats (OHS) and Shoulder to Overhead (Push Press for me). The prescribed weight is 65lbs but with my weak ass OHS I went with 55lbs. And it’s weak I promise. My wrists are not made for the OHS at all. And my shoulder flexibility is worthless. I was not looking forward to this at all. And I can tell you that for me it was probably one of the worst MetCons that I have endured. We broke this down into two groups, thank goodness, so we could have a counter. Thank you Martha for counting. I wouldn’t have made it otherwise.

Not me of course, but a good example of OHS.

I don’t even remember how I broke up my OHS for the first round. I think I started off strong with a good number like 10 but then fell apart and knocked them out in 2’s. My wrists were fried and I still had PUSH PRESS to go. I struggled with the first 21 BAD! By the 15’s of the OHS I tried going in 5’s but that didn’t work out so well. I definitely felt better this round and Coach was there in my face so I had a little more to prove and push through. I did the 15 PUSH PRESS UNBROKEN!!!!

Again not me but I figure not everyone knows what all these movements are and pictures always help!

I felt like super woman because my wrists were just losing life and I just blazed through those 15. Only 9 of each to go and I just didn’t know if I could get those OHS completed. I wanted to cry. I knocked out 5, then 4 and saw I was at 9:40 on the time. I tried to get the bar up and move to make it under 10 minutes but I was 5 seconds too slow. Time: 10:05 I then laid (rolled around like a loonball) outside for a good 5 minutes, chugging water, hoping not to die. Although I struggled I felt accomplished. It was tough but it was a tough I needed. I always feel a little more badass when we do MetCons like this.

Weekend Wrap Up
Started off my Saturday morning at the BOOM BOX. Besides work this place gets a lot of my time! It was paint Kettle Bells day. The last time we did this was right before Easter and they were all cute and pastel but that got old fast! So this time we were doing Patriotic KBs, for the 4th and maybe even for the Olympics. I showed up mid painting, so I just stood around, watched and took pics.

Our Patriotic KBs ツ

Triston getting his paint on!

Josh showed up with some Spray Paint skills!

Travis and Kristen trying to find some other letters that we could could “make” look like b’s and o’s for BOOM!

Grant AKA Coach preppin the KBs.

Sherry getting the letters on before the painting begins.

Once everyone else started arriving we got to warming up. We had no idea what was in store for us but it ended up being a WOD I liked. 10 min AMRAP of Power Cleans (my fave)! For this AMRAP we partnered up and were told that we would do 5 cleans each and alternate for the 10 minutes. And then we were told that 5 cleans equaled 1 REP. I was partnered with another Stephanie AKA Briggs and we were set up to do 65lb Power Cleans. I said I love POWER CLEANS but I wasn’t sure if I’d love this AMRAP. My form got sloppy every now and then but for the most part I felt good. I have some bruises on my collar bone, chin and upper thighs. I look like I’ve been brawling. Thank goodness it’s only with a barbell! Briggs and I killed it with 33 reps which in turn ended up being 165 power cleans! And I still had the OLY class afterwards!!!!

OLY Class
We worked on Clean & Jerk and Front Squats after some much needed warm up on the PVC. For the Clean & Jerks we worked at 75% of our MAX. So I worked at 70lbs. We had to do 3 x 1 and take our time. Coach took some video of my first attempt and showed me where I could improve on form. I was already spent from the week’s work and from the power cleans but I took note and corrected. It helps to watch yourself and have someone show you EXACTLY where you went wrong. Most of the time I know something is off but I can’t pinpoint it.

After our Clean & Jerks we worked on getting a Heavy Front Squat. From there we would do 80% of the weight and do 3 x 3. I ended up at 125lbs for my heavy and did my sets of 3 at 100lbs. I was so glad when that last set was done. I was starving and ready to vegge out FOREVER!!! All in all good work put in and I feel stronger and better!

In other news:
We went and saw Savages which I thought was a good movie. I hate to say GREAT because then everyone will tell me how great it wasn’t. I liked it. I like those kinds of movies though. I was entertained! Got my pre-vacay pedicure and then I was out. I was passed out before 8pm! And I slept till 8am! That was a much needed sleep!

Not gonna lie, my eating wasn’t great the past two days. I’m on vacation brain. And it’s still not just crazy out of control but I know myself and I know I’m not sticking to what I know best lately. And that’s clean eating! Two Mondays in a row now that I’ve sabotaged my weekend!!!!! I know I will try to eat clean most of the time I’m out but I also know there are some things I won’t be able to pass up. We stay pretty active on vacation so besides maybe having some post eating ickiness I should be fine in the weight department, it’s just a horrible feeling that here I am trying to be the good example and I’m failing all of us

Also if you don’t watch baseball or keep up on sports you should check out the reaction to a GINORMOUS THUNDER/LIGHTNING crash that hit at the Rangers Ballpark last night. We were there and it was insane!

So that’s all folks. It was a busy weekend and I’m hoping this week flies by! Have a reMarkable Monday!

OMG it’s MONDAY again? Forever, Every 7 days? Seriously?

Yup as always Monday is here for your regularly scheduled programming.
I have no food reports for y’all just a bunch of BOOM BOX fun!

This past Saturday was probably by far the most random and fun Community WOD we’ve had. After a proper warm up we had some TIRE fun. There have been two tires propped up near the door of the BOOM BOX for a few months and we have yet to use them, until Saturday. They finally got broke in and so did we! We had some relays of flipping and rolling the nasty ass tires and boy did we get DIRTY!!! It was fun though. After our relay races we did a partner WOD. One person held a handstand (wall assisted) while the other person ran sprints. I’m not sure of yardage but it was close to 100 yds. So we had to run a total of 8 100yd sprints. Once the teammate holding handstand could no longer hold, runner had to stop and wait for handstand teammate to take their position in running. The runner then had to get into a handstand before the new runner could start! I figured I could hold a handstand forever but my teammate looked like was ready to stop running so I told her we could switch. I wish I hadn’t! Running sucked! It was already getting warm for the day and wow sprinting/running/jogging was no bueno! My partner had a hard time catching her breath in a handstand hold so she had me stop. I thought to myself is it really that bad? Answer: YES it’s really that bad trying to catch your breath upside down!!! WE ended up finish 2nd or 3rd out of about 7 teams. Not too bad! Way to go Andrea!!!

And we weren’t done yet! It was time for some good ol’ RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT action but with LUNGES forward and backward. We only went 50 yds but it felt like forever! Keeping in line with elementary school playground games we moved on to SIMON SAYS. Our first SIMON was a little ridiculous with the movements and probably had NEVER played the game so he got over-ruled. We started off doing air squats, pushups, burpees, sprinting and that drew the line. So Coach took over. We moved onto more simple things like jumping jacks, coordination tests, etc. I didn’t last long cause I’m a bad student! It may not sound like we’ve done a lot but all those little movements really started adding up.

We finished off the Community WOD with some ULTIMATE MED BALL! I’ve played this once before and it was a BLAST! This second time around was still fun but stupid HOT. If you haven’t guessed ULTIMATE MED BALL is like ULTIMATE FRISBEE but with a 10lb medicine ball. Our team lost but we I still had lots of fun. I hope everyone else did too. We were a HOT GRIMEY MESS to top it off 🙂 Fun times.

Post Community WOD I had an OLY class to attend, still at the BOOM BOX just back inside. If you have the opportunity to sign up for an OLY class then do so. It really helps just to continuously going over proper mechanics, doing warm ups just for the OLY lifts, etc. Although 65lbs isn’t a HEAVY SNATCH. For me it was a PR cause I have this ~~teeny tiny~~ HUGE MONSTROUS fear of dropping under the weight. I know I can lift more but I freak out mentally.

Snatch

So a 10lb PR was good for me not only just for the PR but for the confidence BOOST! We also worked Clean & Jerk some and I managed a 5lb PR which was another boost. I was hoping for more but it all comes down to the DROPPING under the weight. It’s easier though to drop for a clean than it is for the SNATCH. Baby Steps indeed!

After Saturday’s fun, we vegged for the next two days which is fine. It’s super hot out, vacation is right around the corner and money needs to be saved!!! Which in fact I don’t know how to do very well… but I’m trying!

This morning was a short and mean WOD. I had already looked it up last night and knew it would/should be quick but how quick was the question. First off was MAX REP PUSH UPS in a minute times 3! We partnered up so we could have a counter which is great because even though it’s not ending up being a lot of reps it’s one less thing to think about. My first round I busted out 31 push ups. These are full blown chest touch the ground at the bottom and arms lock out at the top push ups. Not your knees on the ground, half ass drop halfway and try to pump out baby push ups. We got a rest as our partner had to do their round but it wasn’t enough rest! Sure enough my second round was 22 push ups. And my 3rd round was 19, maybe 20, I didn’t confirm and I lost count. My triceps died on me. It sucked!

But the suck wasn’t over, we had 3 rounds of 15 air squats, 12 burpees and 9 pullups for the MetCon. We all know this will be short and BRUTAL but again how short would it be. I was really disappointed in my time of 7:13 but not being able to do pull ups doesn’t help. It takes time to get your feet in the bands and by the time you’ve done that you want to rest before you even get your first pull up in. I did my first 9 in a good time (I think) but my 2nd and 3rd rounds of pull ups were horrid. We’ve already killed our upper body with approximately 70 pushups for time and now we’re killing ourselves with burpees and pull ups! It was good though. You never realize how hard those simple movements can be when you are doing them as fast as POSSIBLE!!!

All in all it was a good weekend, good day at the box this morning and I got in a good 20 minutes of post WOD mobility! You can never have too much mobility work! Check out http://www.mobilitywod.com/ for a plethora of videos in regards to mobility.

Have a less than Manic Monday. Enjoy your day. Hip Hip Hooray for a 4 day week even though my holiday falls on WEDNESDAY! SHEESH! Thanks 4th of July for falling on a Wednesday 🙂

Be AWESOME.

MED BALLS can SUCK IT!

I knoowwww, when will she ever shut up about medicine balls… well probably NEVER! I learned today that it’s not just wall balls that suck big ol’ donkey balls, but doing PUSH UPs on these miserable balls of NOT MEDICINE suck as well. Or should I say I SUCK at them! You could seriously play a drinking game for every time you read the word suck on this post! I will complain more I’m sure but I need to get to the full agenda of this morning.

So here’s the dirty WHITEBOARD for the day. Gymnastics for the skill/strength. I chose to work on Handstand Pushups for a couple of reasons. 1. We’ve had too many pull up workouts in a week so if that’s not practice I don’t know what is. 2. My IT band was EXTRA painful so no PISTOL work for me. 3. Dare I say Muscle Ups without giggling…well I’m no where close to that. AND 4. I’m closest to actually getting a HSPU so that makes most sense.

6/14/12 WOD

Besides still having a plate under the mat, I am having a hard time tapping my head to the mat and busting right back up. I have to get the timing down. I can do 5 pretty ok but then I fatigue and I struggle waiting for contact with the mat and then rest instantly once my head touches. I know it takes work and that’s all I can do for the moment. I do feel stronger with this movement in general.

MetCon – Ah yes by big ol suckfest MedBallalooza. 10 minute AMRAP of 5 Wall Balls (14lbs), 8 Ball Push Ups. My thought process going into this is I HATE WALL BALLS, BUT 5 is doable. I can do 5 Wall Balls! What I underestimated was doing 8 Push Ups on the sucky gray and red med ball. You have no idea how bad I wanted to let my knees hit the ground to make it easier. But I didn’t I held tough though and stuck through it. This was not easy for me at all. Final: 7 rounds + 5 wall balls + 1 pushup

These Med Balls + Form in next image is what my Push Ups looked like.

Ok maybe I wasn’t a SOLID BOARD but I tried!

In other news:
I’m still doing good at limiting my sugar. I won’t lie I’ve had some dark chocolate and some extra fruit intake but I’ve kept it limited. It’s not daily and I still stick to the 21-Day Sugar Detox ideals. I feel pretty good and when I do eat a little fruit or the yummy chocolate I have no apparent issues mostly because I’m not inhaling it by the pound. No sugar comas, upset stomach or headaches. I did eat a burrito the other day which equaled INSTANT HEADACHE. I don’t know why I do dumb things like that STILL but I do and one day hopefully I won’t! Processed foods are no bueno for you.

Eating Clean is the best thing you can do for yourself. I know it’s hard to wrap your brain around it if you days are filled with kids, busy lives, fast food, boxed foods, or tons of grains. But when you do the research, make the time and test it out for 30 days AT LEAST, you will notice a difference.

I found this on Facebook yesterday. I don’t have research statistics to back it… it is Facebook people. But at the end of the day a lot of these ailments that are treated with unnecessary medications are reduced with fat loss. True Story.

In one month I’ll be on a beach relaxing (and CrossFitting).

Maui

Also, I’ll have a certified TEENAGER. In two months I’ll be in my first ever TEAM WOD Competition at Europa in Dallas and I’ll be the big THREE FIVE. So much to look forward to this summer.

Start Moving if you haven’t, Keep Moving if you already started…. be AWESOME.

It’s a CHIPPER Tuesday!

NO REALLY… We had a funtastic chipper for our WOD today.

6/12/12 WOD

Yes you read that correctly: 200 Double Unders, 50 Dead Lifts and 30 Push Press. RX weight was 85lbs, but I’m thinking my max is 90lbs so 85 is pushing it. I loaded up 65lbs but Coach was like why don’t you make that 75lbs, so dragging my feet I loaded up 10 more pounds. I was ready to go I suppose.

Anytime there’s a CLOCK and DU’s involved I suddenly suck at DUs. I can string at least 30-40 on any given day, moment or whatever but put a clock on me and I’m toast! I was thinking I’d have 200 done in 3 minutes or so, I’m not really sure about the time that I did finish the DUs, I just know it was more than 3 minutes. Moving on to Dead Lifts was what I was looking forward to and you just don’t imagine DUs smokin your ass so quick. I was doing the DL’s so slow at first and caught myself wondering why I was moving so slow, this is relatively light weight. I did the first 25 pretty slow and then picked up the pace for the last 25. Push Press is what really got me. I would do 2, then 3, then rest, the 5, then 2 more. I was a mess. I didn’t want to drop it because I didn’t want to clean it every time but I just couldn’t hold on to it. I struggled a lot but I pushed past limits which is always the goal right? Time: 14:55

I felt much better after this workout than I did with CINDY from yesterday. Big ol REST day tomorrow which I am thankful. I need rest although tomorrow I will be ants in my pants wanting to workout. Yes I’m sick in the head like that. I love getting a good workout in! But I also know without proper recovery I’ll be screwed.

I know this is short post without much depth but I don’t have anything going on in my noggin right now. Eat clean, work hard, pick up heavy stuff and put it over your head, and do it all the time. It’s a good thing Charlie Brown. I promise. You’ll feel like a badass, you’ll look like a badass and best of all you’ll KNOW you’re a badass!

KICK MY BUTT HOPE and WEAK SAUCE CINDY

CrossFit for HOPE BOOM BOX Crew! Hot, sweaty and GOOFY!

Wowowow. This weekend went by way too quickly. Saturday at the BOOM Box was CrossFit for Hope. As I had mentioned on Friday this was a fundraiser workout to support St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. And here is the workout:

“HOPE”
3 Rounds – 1 minute at each station plus a 1 minute rest station.

Burpees
75 pound Power snatch
Box jump, 24″ box
75 pound Thruster
Chest to bar Pull-ups

We had a good turnout and put in a lot of work. I had no idea how bad thrusters would be after doing the box jumps. I did everything at 45lbs and used bands for chest to bar. I had a final of 176 reps. It was super hot and I was super spent but I pushed through. So proud of my kiddo though, he managed to get 194 for his total! Also you can still donate if you wish and support the BOOM BOX’s efforts: http://hope.crossfit.com/widget/athlete?id=2312

If you only thought that was crazy we had an Oly class afterwards. Fortunately it was a lot of going over technique and not a lot of picking up weight but dang we were struggling even with PVC! It was a good class though and I look forward to learning more. It’s definitely worth doing. I will learn to be efficient in my lifts and I will be AWESOME!

WOD 6/11/12

Then comes Monday. The day we all despise and wish it didn’t exist and well it’s just Monday. Today’s whiteboard had Cindy on the agenda. I got my new kicks, Nano 2.0s, and I was actually looking forward to this. Sadly I was overestimating myself.

Skill/Strength – We worked back squat and press. We worked our way up to 3 sets of 5 at 65% of our 1RM and that wasn’t too shabby. After that we did 1 set of 5 on press at 75% of our 1RM.

MetCon- CINDY
20 min amrap

5 pull-ups
10 push-ups
15 air-squats

I used the green band and only the green band. My max on the green band is 6 reps (barely). I had enough in me to complete 3 rounds fairly quickly then I lost it all in the pull ups. I struggled, BAD! I only got 6 rounds and 4 pullups in and it took me a long time to get those 4 pullups completed. I had a shit ton of NO REPS because I’d be so close but no chin over the bar. I was pissed, hot, sweaty and more pissed. Ah well. I busted out the pushups and air squats the best I could. I definitely brought the WEAK SAUCE this morning. Hopefully tomorrow is a better showing 😦

Random things
So I mentioned I got a pair of Reebok CrossFit Nano 2.0s. They are cute and comfortable and although they didn’t give me magical pull up powers they felt good. If you’re looking into buying a new shoe then I highly recommend them. Granted I’ve only worn them for 1 workout but they really felt good. I still love my inov-8s but I do love these shoes as well.

Also, we ordered some Cinnamon Paleo Krunch (http://stevesoriginal.com/store).

This was a perfect fix for any random cereal cravings. I did take in some milk (grassfed, non homogenized, low pasteurized) and it was good, no ill tummy effects. Very yummy! Go buy some now and send it my way… THANKS!

One more thing, Ernie ordered me some Rogue Gymnastics Grips and I got to test those out this morning. Hand savers and everyone should go get some if you are a wuss bag such as myself. Better than tape, and less painful on the hands when sucking at pull ups.

I hope everyone has a better Monday than me! Make it great. Talk at y’all tomorrow 🙂

Turkish TORTURE!

Happy Friday Everyone!

This morning at the BOOM BOX was a downright beating! We started off with Push Press 3 RM. What that means is that we find our MAX weight doing 3 reps. If you only get 2 reps at a certain weight then it’s a FAIL. I made it through 90lbs. Went to lift 95lbs and just lost confidence. I didn’t try again because time was out for making attempts. Last time I did this was back in February. I jumped from 85lbs to 95lbs and failed. I didn’t remember this at the time but I was much smarter and made the smaller step to 90lbs and finished there.

6/8/12 WOD

Metcon: TURKISH GET UPS (aka TURKISH TORTURE) – 40 reps for time. Below is a picture to demonstrate. Up and down is one rep. Goal was to do 20 reps on each arm. I practiced with a 10lb dumbbell and moved up to 12KG (approx 24lbs) Kettle Bell for the workout. I did 5 on each side up to 25, then went back and forth in 2’s. This didn’t end up evenly and I was smoked. This was a no joke kind of MetCon. Long and grueling. Time 20:21

I didn’t have much else to report on. Ernie saved a turtle on the road and we released him at a park pond last night. Kids named him Tubby the Turtle.

This morning I gave this banana pancake a go that I found on the 21-Day Sugar Detox Facebook page. I can’t recall if they posted it or just someone who was doing the detox and came up with it. It wasn’t bad in taste but the consistency was more of a mush if you will. All 3 of my kids liked it but maybe if I use almond flour instead of coconut flour, or less coconut milk or something! Hahah I will have to play around with it. No pics cause it was ugly. And no recipe cause it’s on a post it note at home. Once I perfect it I’ll share 🙂

Also had the good fortune for a photogenic dragonfly who wanted it’s picture taken. He/she was cute. I LOVE dragonflies.

I hope everyone has a GREAT WEEKEND! If you’re local it’s another Community WOD at the BOOM BOX. CrossFit for Hope will benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The goal is to raise 1.7MM – one day’s operating cost for St. Jude – to combat childhood cancer and other deadly diseases. Come on out if you can or find a local box near you, there’s a good chance they will be participating.