...and by wings I mean your latissimus dorsi...just a little nerdiness for your morning <_<
Anywho. It's been a good week. My back/shoulders are wrecked, but feeling good. It's a sweet soreness. Today as I was absentmindedly stroking my muscles (no that doesn't make me a meathead), I could feel just how much muscle I've built in my back and shoulders. It's pretty astounding. My body is literally becoming a machine. I'mma be one hot chick once this fat goes away. But I'm digressing into my narcissistic self...
Been going to the gym all week. Today's my first day off because I'm working all day. I've been very good about my eating. I'd say I'm about 99% paleo - the other 1% coming from the mayonnaise that I occasionally put in my sandwich-y foods and the Pam I use to make over easy eggs. Other than that I've been a clean eating machine since Tuesday. I was awful over the weekend so it's been a relief. I even tried a new recipe! There's a well known motivational poster that says "Eat clean, train mean." I've revised that to say "Eat clean so you CAN train mean." I think it fits the situation better since training mean gets increasingly more difficult if you don't eat clean.
So onto the workouts!
Monday (Just Monkeying Around):
Skill:
Double-under challenge work
...then...
3 rounds
3-8 pull-ups
60s of handstand practice
MetCon:
12 min AMRAP of...
Run 200m
3 stone to shoulder (95#)
6 DB Snatch (50#, alternating)
Midline:
Turkish get-ups
Monday was kind of fun. I've been doing really well with the double unders. I got it so that I was getting consecutive sets of a double under with a couple singles in-between. Kind of makes you feel like a badass. The skill work was awesome. I noticed that I was getting my chin over the bar with relatively little effort on the green band, so I tried a couple strict pull-ups. I'm almost there! Got my eyes over the bar. So just for S's and G's, I tried a blue band and I got a pull up on my first try! Moving up in the world! With the handstands I worked on just getting on the wall and holding it for as long as possible. I have a lot more control now so getting myself on the wall isn't as much of a comedy act as it used to be. Just means my core is getting stronger.
The MetCon wasn't too bad. We hadn't run in awhile so I knew it was coming eventually. It still kills me, even when it's just 200m. I'll get there eventually though. I didn't go Rx'd for anything in that workout. I scaled the atlas stones down to 75 pounds, and the dumbbells 40 pounds. Maybe I was just being a wimp that day. Who knows. Got through three full rounds, plus the run in 12 minutes. Not too bad. I was about on track with the rest of the girls.
Monday I didn't do any crazy new foods. I wasn't very much in the mood for eating so I had brunch after I worked out (yep, I was bad and worked out on an empty stomach). Dinner was hot dogs and chips and ice cream.
Tuesday (Squat All the Things)
Skill:
Double under challenge
Strength:
1 x 20 front squat
MetCon:
5 min AMRAP
2 squat cleans (135#)
10 toes to bar
...2 min rest...
3 min AMRAP
2 squat cleans (115#)
5 toes to bar
...2 min rest...
1 min max effort squat cleans (95#)
Tuesday I sucked at double unders. I don't know what it was, but I just was not getting them. Didn't even get a single one. Pretty frustrating. Front squats went really well. I was at 88 pounds last week and felt pretty good so I decided to make the big jump this week to 103 pounds. It was hard, but I finished all 20 reps. I'll probably add on another 20 or 30 pounds before we start getting into 1 reps.
The MetCon was a LOT of fun. Remember that person back in January that said she hated squat cleans? Yeah, not anymore. Love squat cleans, love them. I'm hoping working on them will help a little with power cleans, but we'll see. I can tell my form is definitely getting a lot better and I'm starting to understand how everything kind of works together. Either way, the workout went really well. We had Chad pushing us on which made it even better. He told us that the point of this workout was to really push ourselves with the weight. Since we were only doing 2 reps at a time and the prescribed weights were decreasing as we moved through the workout, he wanted us focusing more on pushing our weight limits instead of trying to rip through everything as quickly as possible. He was telling us that a lot of people reached new PRs, and got low rep counts, but still worked their asses off. My previous 1 RM for squat cleans was 113 so I knew 135 was a teeny bit ambitious. I ended up going with 123 for the first set, 103 for the second, and 83 for the third. It was challenging, but not impossible. The first AMRAP I got 2 rounds + 5, the second AMRAP I got 2 rounds + 1, and I got 7 max efforts. For the weight I was using, I did really well.
For breakfast Tuesday I had a 4 egg omelette with cut up zucchini and turkey hot dogs and an orange on the side. Had a protein shake after my workout. Lunch was open-faced turkey burgers with apple buns. To save a little money I got Trader Joe's frozen turkey burgers, which ended up being delicious. Cooked them up in my cast iron pan with a little ground pepper. I layered them on top of a slice of apple, with a little mayonnaise spinach and a slice of tomato. Perfect lunch. All the food groups and very filling. Dinner I went out to Red Robin. I can honestly say for once I put in the effort to try and eat as clean as possible. I looked up the menu beforehand and looked at their gluten free options. They offer the option of wrapping their burgers in lettuce instead of a bun and they have a lot of substitutions for the steak fries. So for dinner I had a bruschetta chicken sandwich wrapped in lettuce with sweet potatoes on the side. I think I did pretty well for myself! Granted, I grabbed a couple onion rings and a fruity beverage, but I was happy that I found a way to eat clean at a restaurant.
Wednesday (Burpee Death)
Skill:
Double under challenge
...then..
3 rounds
6-10 dips
8-12 GHD hip extensions
MetCon:
2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16
Kettlebell Swings
Burpees
Wednesday was Day 2 of super sucking at double unders. Still don't know what it is. The dips went really well. I did them on the rings with an assistance band. I can finally get full range of motion, which is exciting. I tried them on the stable bars, but those feel 10x harder than using the rings. Don't ask me how that makes any kind of sense.
The MetCon was brutal. Fuck burpees. There were 72 of them total. I was using the 35 pound kettlebell so the kettlebell swings weren't too bad. I got to the set of 14 and I wasn't able to do them unbroken anymore so I split the 14 and 16 in their respective halfs. The burpees I did really well until I got to the set of 12. I was going unbroken up until that point, which to be fair, in my world is unheard of. I got to the set of 12 and had to break it up into smaller sets. The 14 and 16 sets I barely got through. Up until that point I was going strong though, so I can't complain. 72 burpees in one workout is a lot, so to get to about the halfway point before things started going wrong isn't bad at all.
Wednesdays food was a breakfast of 2 over easy eggs, sweet potato hash and an apple with sunflower butter. Lunch was another batch of open-face turkey burgers. Dinner I made zoodles!! I finally got myself a julienne peeler and I've been waiting to try it out. I used 3 medium/large zucchini to make the noodles. I peeled the zucchini a bit beforehand because I didn't want to end up with skin noodles. While I did that, I cooked up some italian sausage. Once the sausage was done, I added vodka sauce, garlic powder, pepper and some salt and let the sausage soak that up a bit. I added in the noodles and some parmesan cheese and let the noodles cook for a few minutes. Done! And it was delicious! I feel like I can make so many recipes now! Honestly they would probably make some good "mac" and cheese. Thank God it's summer and I have easy access to zucchini.
Thursday (Because Your Shoulders Aren't Sore Enough!)
Strength:
X-WOD Style
5x5 Pendlay Rows
Standing Box Jumps (high!) 2-1-2-1-2
MetCon:
5 rounds
10 pullups
20 wall balls
I was defeated by a jump rope for the third day in a row. Was not a happy camper. X-WOD is a style where you mix a strength exercise with an explosive one. Pendlay rows are essentially a bent over row with a barbell. I got up to 83 pounds on that. Not too shabby. The women were supposed to be jumping 30". I said nay nay and grabbed the 24" box. Challenging enough for me, thank you very much. I'm still psyching myself out. I don't do well with that whole getting my body off the ground thing.
The MetCon was fairly awful. My shoulders and back were incredibly sore. I got through the first 3 rounds very strongly. I stuck to the green band pullups simply because of the high volume, and this time was my first time doing a WOD with the 14 pound medball. The last two rounds were completely brutal. My shoulders were done. If they could have up and left my body I'm fairly sure they would have. But I finished in about 14 minutes. Could have pushed through a little better, but it's done.
Food yesterday was a breakfast of 4 scrambled eggs with turkey hot dogs and an orange. Snack was a protein shake. Lunch was chicken salad with a cut up apple and walnuts over a spinach salad with tomato and olives. Delicious. Dinner was shepherd's pie. Pretty simple day yesterday. Probably ate less than I should have, but it wasn't too bad.
Now that I'm on track with how much I need to eat, I need to start cutting down on the fruit. I've been averaging two servings a day when it should be 1. I haven't been limiting myself since I've just been trying to get back to clean eating on top of making sure I'm eating enough, but now it's time to start cutting it down. I'm glad I finally figured out how much I should be eating though. I'm still using the app as a guideline and for the most part everyday I'm under my allotted amount so theoretically the pounds should start coming off again. Very excited for that. Got a lotta muscle that's waiting to make an appearance :D
I suppose I should get back to work. Have a fun day everyone!
Friday, June 21, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Keep On Truckin
So since I'm still the worst blogger ever, I'm just going to go through a general list of things that I have been working on/still suck at from the past two weeks.
1). Double unders: This June we've started doing a Double-Under Challenge. We get daily challenge WODs emailed to us everyday, most comprising of either getting as many consecutive double unders as possible or going through drills that are made to help you with your double-unders. I've been working on double-unders for awhile. Not seriously, but every once in awhile I give it a shot. No dice. But somehow in the past two weeks I've finally gotten it so that I can do double-unders broken up with a few singles. The goal by the end of June is to be doing consecutive double-unders. Part of the battle was finding a jump rope that works for me, but now that I've got that down, everything is peachy.
2). Handstands: Another thing I've continued progressing fairly well with, I've even started trying handstand push-ups. Lately I've been really making the push to do push-ups without having to be on my knees so I figured while I was at it I should give handstand push-ups a try. I have to do it with a couple abmats under my head so I'm definitely not getting full range of motion, just getting used to it and getting a little bend in my elbows. Unfortunately when it comes to the actual handstands themselves, I get so enthusiastic about them that I put too much momentum into it and kick myself off the wall. Who'da thunk that would ever happen? It's good though. The world is kinda awesome from upside down. I can even hold it for 30 seconds now.
3). We're now doing 20 rep front squats and I'm up to about 88 pounds. Not too bad. I think this next week I'm definitely going to make a larger jump than I have been considering 88 was fairly easy.
4). Pull-ups are eh. Last week we were doing a lot of workouts with pull-ups and I finally got so burned out from them, but this past week we did pull-ups and I was getting my chest up to the bar instead of just my chin. I took it with a grain of salt considering it was entirely possible that I had just found a new band that hadn't gotten stretched out yet, but we'll see. I've definitely been getting kind of frustrated with them lately though.
5). Box jumps. I have been terrified of those things ever since I took that spill a couple weeks ago. Like everytime I go to jump I just feel that awful moment where your foot catches. But we had a WOD that involved up and over box jumps and I was determined to get my mojo back. So I worked at it. The coach that night looked terrified watching me so he gave me a few pointers and in no time I was jumping up and over like it was nothing. Also helps that this past week we had a very box jump heavy WOD again. The practice is helping me a lot with it. And I'm glad I got back into it when I did because they've started adding in more explosive movements to our WODs since they had an explosive seminar last Saturday. So one day this week I walked in and got told that we were going to be doing really high box jumps. Prescribed was 30" for girls, just to give you an idea. I went with 24" and I made it! I was scared out of my mind but I did it! Kind of excited to go back to the 20" box since I know it's going to feel a hell of a lot easier after that.
6). I've hit a wall with the running. It doesn't help that Melissa and I haven't been able to do it consistently (most likely my fault), but when I run during the WODs I just feel like I haven't progressed at all. Should I be impatient about it? Probably not considering I went from not running at all to running and doing squats/push-ups/pull-ups/whatever else is prescribed for the day in a really intense circuit. I just feel like my body should be able to push through it a little better than it is. As far as the Couch to 5k goes, we're in Week 5 now, which is 5 minute jog, 3 minute walk for 3 rounds. It doesn't sound bad, but those 5 minute jogs are getting a little killer. We haven't been able to reach half a mile yet in one round so that's kind of a goal I'm trying to push us towards. We decided we're going to repeat that specific workout until we feel ready to progress since the workouts after this one go up to 8 minute jogs. Totally not ready for that.
7). Kind of going along with the running - I am not feeding my body enough. I've been using the calorie counter and let me tell you, it is HARD giving my body the fuel it needs. One day I really tried to get as many calories as possible and it entailed eating almost double what I'm used to. And I'm somehow supposed to do that everyday. I am going to be so sick of food. The other problem too is that it's hard to explain to an iPhone app what exactly CrossFit is, so I've been winging it with adding in the exercise just to get an idea of how many calories I may be burning. I'm sure I'm burning more than the app is telling me, which only means I have to eat even more. One day when I did running and CrossFit it calculated that I burned 1,000 calories. That's a lot! And I somehow have to make up for that in food. Bah.
8). Going along with #7 - last week was my first week going to the gym 5 times in one week. I was very proud of myself...but then I got sick, which was what led me to understand that I'm not fueling my body enough. Honestly I hate having to put so much thought into things nowadays. It was so much easier when I was going three times a week without the running. Now I go 4-5 times a week and running and my body is like Woman da hell you up to?! So to supplement things on top of my daily fish oil, I now take a Whey Protein Isolate shake after every workout and I added in One a Day. The protein shakes definitely help with the recovery or else my body would be entirely shot. I'm definitely still tired by the end of my workout week but I don't feel like a truck hit me. The One a Day is definitely helping a little bit with my energy levels and immune system support. I still have a little tickle in my throat that I can't seem to get rid of, but I recovered quickly which is good. Guess it just means I have to start putting a lot more thought into getting enough fuel and getting enough of the right fuel.
9). Biggest Loser Challenge ended. Since the paleo challenge ended, I've actually gained 4 pounds. I'm sure 3 of those 4 pounds have to do with my awful eating habits, but at the same time I've been feeling a lot more toned so I'm sure part of the added weight has been muscle. I took my measurements a couple days ago. My hips are 45" and my waist is now 38.5" so there's definitely some progress being made! Everything else was stable which I'm not surprised about. Still though...there's my motivation right there.
That's essentially been the past two weeks for me. Hopefully this week I'll be able to try out and post some new recipes. The ones I've tried lately haven't been anything special so I didn't write much about them. I've been really good about the eating the past two weeks. It all got ruined this weekend when a couple friends came into town, but I'm ready to go back. No more plateau for me! Ready to lose some more inches!
1). Double unders: This June we've started doing a Double-Under Challenge. We get daily challenge WODs emailed to us everyday, most comprising of either getting as many consecutive double unders as possible or going through drills that are made to help you with your double-unders. I've been working on double-unders for awhile. Not seriously, but every once in awhile I give it a shot. No dice. But somehow in the past two weeks I've finally gotten it so that I can do double-unders broken up with a few singles. The goal by the end of June is to be doing consecutive double-unders. Part of the battle was finding a jump rope that works for me, but now that I've got that down, everything is peachy.
2). Handstands: Another thing I've continued progressing fairly well with, I've even started trying handstand push-ups. Lately I've been really making the push to do push-ups without having to be on my knees so I figured while I was at it I should give handstand push-ups a try. I have to do it with a couple abmats under my head so I'm definitely not getting full range of motion, just getting used to it and getting a little bend in my elbows. Unfortunately when it comes to the actual handstands themselves, I get so enthusiastic about them that I put too much momentum into it and kick myself off the wall. Who'da thunk that would ever happen? It's good though. The world is kinda awesome from upside down. I can even hold it for 30 seconds now.
3). We're now doing 20 rep front squats and I'm up to about 88 pounds. Not too bad. I think this next week I'm definitely going to make a larger jump than I have been considering 88 was fairly easy.
4). Pull-ups are eh. Last week we were doing a lot of workouts with pull-ups and I finally got so burned out from them, but this past week we did pull-ups and I was getting my chest up to the bar instead of just my chin. I took it with a grain of salt considering it was entirely possible that I had just found a new band that hadn't gotten stretched out yet, but we'll see. I've definitely been getting kind of frustrated with them lately though.
5). Box jumps. I have been terrified of those things ever since I took that spill a couple weeks ago. Like everytime I go to jump I just feel that awful moment where your foot catches. But we had a WOD that involved up and over box jumps and I was determined to get my mojo back. So I worked at it. The coach that night looked terrified watching me so he gave me a few pointers and in no time I was jumping up and over like it was nothing. Also helps that this past week we had a very box jump heavy WOD again. The practice is helping me a lot with it. And I'm glad I got back into it when I did because they've started adding in more explosive movements to our WODs since they had an explosive seminar last Saturday. So one day this week I walked in and got told that we were going to be doing really high box jumps. Prescribed was 30" for girls, just to give you an idea. I went with 24" and I made it! I was scared out of my mind but I did it! Kind of excited to go back to the 20" box since I know it's going to feel a hell of a lot easier after that.
6). I've hit a wall with the running. It doesn't help that Melissa and I haven't been able to do it consistently (most likely my fault), but when I run during the WODs I just feel like I haven't progressed at all. Should I be impatient about it? Probably not considering I went from not running at all to running and doing squats/push-ups/pull-ups/whatever else is prescribed for the day in a really intense circuit. I just feel like my body should be able to push through it a little better than it is. As far as the Couch to 5k goes, we're in Week 5 now, which is 5 minute jog, 3 minute walk for 3 rounds. It doesn't sound bad, but those 5 minute jogs are getting a little killer. We haven't been able to reach half a mile yet in one round so that's kind of a goal I'm trying to push us towards. We decided we're going to repeat that specific workout until we feel ready to progress since the workouts after this one go up to 8 minute jogs. Totally not ready for that.
7). Kind of going along with the running - I am not feeding my body enough. I've been using the calorie counter and let me tell you, it is HARD giving my body the fuel it needs. One day I really tried to get as many calories as possible and it entailed eating almost double what I'm used to. And I'm somehow supposed to do that everyday. I am going to be so sick of food. The other problem too is that it's hard to explain to an iPhone app what exactly CrossFit is, so I've been winging it with adding in the exercise just to get an idea of how many calories I may be burning. I'm sure I'm burning more than the app is telling me, which only means I have to eat even more. One day when I did running and CrossFit it calculated that I burned 1,000 calories. That's a lot! And I somehow have to make up for that in food. Bah.
8). Going along with #7 - last week was my first week going to the gym 5 times in one week. I was very proud of myself...but then I got sick, which was what led me to understand that I'm not fueling my body enough. Honestly I hate having to put so much thought into things nowadays. It was so much easier when I was going three times a week without the running. Now I go 4-5 times a week and running and my body is like Woman da hell you up to?! So to supplement things on top of my daily fish oil, I now take a Whey Protein Isolate shake after every workout and I added in One a Day. The protein shakes definitely help with the recovery or else my body would be entirely shot. I'm definitely still tired by the end of my workout week but I don't feel like a truck hit me. The One a Day is definitely helping a little bit with my energy levels and immune system support. I still have a little tickle in my throat that I can't seem to get rid of, but I recovered quickly which is good. Guess it just means I have to start putting a lot more thought into getting enough fuel and getting enough of the right fuel.
9). Biggest Loser Challenge ended. Since the paleo challenge ended, I've actually gained 4 pounds. I'm sure 3 of those 4 pounds have to do with my awful eating habits, but at the same time I've been feeling a lot more toned so I'm sure part of the added weight has been muscle. I took my measurements a couple days ago. My hips are 45" and my waist is now 38.5" so there's definitely some progress being made! Everything else was stable which I'm not surprised about. Still though...there's my motivation right there.
That's essentially been the past two weeks for me. Hopefully this week I'll be able to try out and post some new recipes. The ones I've tried lately haven't been anything special so I didn't write much about them. I've been really good about the eating the past two weeks. It all got ruined this weekend when a couple friends came into town, but I'm ready to go back. No more plateau for me! Ready to lose some more inches!
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Murph and Fun
Last week wasn't incredibly eventful. Just learned some new motions and worked on a few old ones.
Monday was Memorial Day. It was a day where CrossFit gyms across the country were prescribing "Murph," a workout that was created by Lieutenant Michael Murphy. He originally named it "Body Armor," but after he died in Afghanistan, it was decided the workout would be renamed Murph and would become a Hero WOD. Now you can Rx the WOD, which is doing everything with no assistance, or you can Rx+ which was to do the entire thing wearing a 20 pound weight vest.
The full workout is:
1 mile run
100 pullups
200 pushups
300 squats
1 mile run
So on Monday, the gym did a "Memorial Day Murph and BBQ." Anyone that wanted to show up could come do the workout in the beginning and then they'd start grilling. They put a pull-up rig outside that people could use and marked out a mile out on Ridge Rd. They also added a modified and a team version of the WOD. If you did modified, you split everything in half. If you did the team version, everyone in the team runs the full mile before and after, but the reps were split between team members. Because I have yet to run a mile, I went for the modified version.
A bunch of us volunteered to do it inside, so we got everything all set up then ran outside to meet up with the people that were ready to go. Since we were doing half a mile, they just had us run around the parking lot. We started off and I was off jogging 4 times around the parking lot. Since I knew it takes me about 5 minutes to do somewhere around 4/10 of a mile, I didn't know if I'd even be making it the full half. But I did! I don't know how long it took me but I got through it and I actually wasn't tired at the end of it. If I didn't have to get to work on my 50 pullups, I would have just kept going. But anywho. The nice thing about it was that we weren't required to get all the reps done consecutively. So I broke the workout up into 10 rounds of Cindy (5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats). I almost wish I'd made it so I was doing less rounds of more reps because I was dying by the 7th round. By the 8th round, I was numb. I literally could no longer feel anything. So I figured it was the best time to just keep going. I definitely didn't run the entire last half mile, got most of it, but I literally couldn't feel my legs or upper body. Finally finished with a time of 33:06, which put me in a pretty good place considering the people doing the full Murph were finishing between 50 minutes and an hour.
Tuesday I took the day off. My muscles were fairly sore and unhappy.
Wednesday I went back for more...eesh.
Skill:
8-12 GHD sit-ups
2-5 rope climbs
8-12 BB OH squats with a pause at the bottom
MetCon:
3 rounds
400 m run
30 kettlebell swings (35#)
I was not prepared to be trying rope climbs again. After doing them last week I decided that my goal was to just take it easy and go step by step. So I just got my rope climbs out of the way early. I paired up with a couple other girls and we got them done. My arms were really sore so pulling myself up was tough, but I got up one knot a couple times and called it good. I'm still not ready to go higher. I'm not afraid of physically trying to do it, I'm afraid of the fall that will ensue if I don't make it. Fear of falling 10 feet is fairly legitimate in my mind. With the sit-ups, I focused on form. Lately when I do GHD sit-ups, I feel them more in my hip than my abs. So I got some pointers from some people around me and learned how to do them right with the correct extension. The overhead squats were uneventful.
Good God the MetCon sucked. I was not up for running 3 rounds. Also doesn't help that I started out trying to keep up with everyone else and the only thing I achieved was getting winded. But I got through it. Dead last, but I finished. It was somewhere in the 11 minute range.
Thursday was actually really fun! I couldn't move afterwards...but it was fun!
Strength:
5x5 strict press
MetCon:
"E. Rist" - partner WOD
5 pullups
30 tire flips
5 pullups
30 stone to shoulder
5 pullups
30 sandbag walking lunges
*both partners do 5 pullups each, all other reps were alternating
The strict presses were kinda fun. I've never done a barbell strict press and I certainly haven't done any since I started CrossFit. I think I finally maxed out at about 73 pounds. Not too bad for a little weakling.
As awful as the MetCon looks, it was fun as hell. I'm glad they're prescribing more pullups lately because my pullup endurance just ain't there. I partnered up with someone I've never really worked with before. The name of the game is that each partner does 5 pullups then they alternate reps with the other stuff. For the tire flips and the stone to shoulder it adds up to each partner doing 15 reps. With the lunges, each person had to do the 30 reps because then it would be 15 each leg. I love tire flips. Really. I think they're the shit. Stone to shoulder are fun too, except for the part where they shred up your arms. Lunges have always been my enemy. To me, they will never get any easier. But this time I surprised myself. I think in previous times I've been overextending my leading leg leaving me with not much of a range of motion. This time I stepped forward just enough so I could touch the ground with my back leg. Who'da thunk I'd be stronger at lunges after doing that. I guess it goes to show that we are ALWAYS working on form. Even if you know something is supposed to feel uncomfortable, sometimes you're still making your life a little more difficult than it needs to be. The only thing that I hate about them prescribing pullups is that it makes it impossible for me to Rx the entire workout. Like this one for example. I Rx'd the tire flips, the lunges and the stone to shoulders, but I needed an assistance band with the pullups. Gah! One day I will no longer be defeated by pullups.
Friday I was practically gimping my way through life, but it was the last day of the workout week so I was determined to make it through.
Strength:
7 x 3 snatch balance, off the rack
MetCon:
20 burpees
then...
9-7-5
Deadlifts
Handstand pushups (or hand release pushups)
then...
20 burpees
The strength was a lot of fun. I enjoy snatch balances. So when you come off the rack, you're holding the barbell as if you're going to do a back squat. Then it ends up being kind of a push press/overhead squat combo. The leg portion of it is to dip and end up in a full squat. The arm portion is to push the bar overhead as you dip. You're supposed to do it all at once. I don't know, I guess I just like the fluidity of it. It starts to get hard as you get heavier, but I had fun. Maxed out at 83 pounds.
The MetCon was rough. They put a 12 minute cap on it, I think I finished at like 11:40 or something. Prescribed for the deadlifts was 205 pounds, I went with 185. My 1RM for deadlift is 225 so 205 would have been way too much. Burpees always have and always will suck. They're just so full-body intensive. I think if anything, those are what really slowed me down.
That was the end to my workout week. I spent Friday and Saturday at the pool just chilling out. Felt so good to be weightless. I came away from it super sun burnt though. Oh well.
The other excitement for the week was that I finally got to go to the Public Market. I was so psyched. I went early Saturday morning after work with a couple friends. I was amazed at how much I got for just $30. I got a lot of the fruits and veggies that I love but in more bulk than I usually do. I was going to check out Seven Bridges Farm but by the time I got there I was so laden down with bags that I wasn't in the mood for standing by a glass case for a long period of time. I'm not very well-versed in meat, like with the different cuts and stuff, and I wasn't about to figure it out then. Afterwards we chilled by the pool for a couple hours and then headed off to Trader Joes. I was expecting my grocery bill to be a little lower than it has been, but then I ended up getting a lot of supply type stuff that racked it up. The other issue I had was that by the end of a long day in the sun and feeling lazy, I didn't want to cook that night so I ended up buying myself some frozen fish sticks and sweet potato fries. And this is why we don't go shopping when we're hungry. Take notes, kids.
Another thing I did this week was downloaded an app to my phone called Lose It! It's basically an app that tracks calories based on your weight loss goals and your activity level. I know when you're on paleo, if you're doing it right, you shouldn't need a calorie counter. But I've been wondering lately why I'm so ravenous somedays. I know part of it is because I haven't truly detoxed my body yet. I'm consistently 80% paleo...until I go out for dinner. Methinks I need to go back to how life was in February when I had no social life and ate at home all the time. But regardless. I downloaded this app. The only problem I see with it is that there's no way to get an app to understand the intensity of CrossFit. So I just don't enter my exercise because it's entirely inaccurate. So the app says I should be having about 1800 calories per day, which seems about right. I've gotten myself up to about that level so I'm good on that front. The problem is that I'm exercising at least once, sometimes 2 times a day, so I should probably be adding on a couple hundred to that. I mean, ultimately, I'm not stressing about it because part of this is that I need to start eating 100% clean. I'm eating the same amount as I was during the paleo challenge and I didn't go into starvation mode back then. The only thing was I'm now upping the intensity by a lot. So I may just make sure I'm taking in enough food over the course of the day. I have all these motivating factors to keep me eating clean, yet I'm not exercising the willpower to do it. I'll get there.
I'm kind of stuck in a mental rut. I've been reading so many articles lately about making sure you're fueling yourself correctly and in adequate amounts, and eating at the right time. It's just so overwhelming. I'm trying to do it all right because ever since April I've been demanding a LOT from my body and I don't want to hurt it in the long run. Plus I feel like my mojo for the workouts has been declining a little. Granted the workouts are getting harder and I've been adding more weight, so it's expected that my performance will decline a little. Seriously I need to stop overthinking this so much.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Back in the Saddle Again
Once again, I'm sorry for being the worst blogger on the planet. Now where did I leave off...
So the last time I updated this I was reaching the end of my week vacation from CrossFit. I was feeling a little antsy, but my muscles were thanking me. I'd signed onto the waitlist for Monday's class but when I got the email telling me to show up it was too late and I couldn't have made it there. Very frustrating since it looked like a lot of masochistic fun (no I'm not being sarcastic). So I went for a run with Melissa instead.
The workout was Day 1 of Week 4, which was a 5 min. warm-up, 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 2.5 minute walk, 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 5 minute cool-down. This was the first time we were being asked to jog 5 minutes at a time. I was feeling really strong with the 3 minute jogs, but bumping it up to 5 was a little intimidating. We started off strong, the 3 minute jog went quickly. At the beginning of the 5 minute jog I took note of what distance we were at because I was curious about how far we'd get. Got through the 5 minute jog without too many issues. It was tough but doable without having to decrease my usual speed too much. Final verdict was that we had gone 0.41 miles in that time. Not too bad. I was hoping for a 1/2 mile. The next 3 minute jog came and I was really feeling it. Then there was the 5 minute jog and I died. Just everything got tired all at once. I actually had to stop for 30 seconds to catch my breath a little towards the middle of it. Our distance went up to 2.26 miles and our final pace ended up being 11:31 min/mile. Not too bad but definitely slower than we've been going lately.
Tuesday was a day off. And by day off, I mean I worked all day. Wasn't too horrible of a day though.
Wednesday I did a two-fer. Started off the morning at the gym. Was so good to be back.
Wednesday's Workout:
Skill
3 rounds
3-8 muscle ups/pull ups
8-12 pistol squats
2-5 rope climbs
MetCon:
3 rounds - 1 minute max effort reps, 30 second rest
Slam ball (20#)
Box jumps (20")
Burpees
Barbell back squat (45#)
I was really rusty that day. Don't know what it was but I was trying to get back into the groove of things while doing some of the hardest moves I've done in the past few months. The pull ups ended up being more of a warm-up set for me just because my shoulders were stiff from not having done pull ups in awhile. The pistol squats went ok. Rope climbs - zomg. I'm not usually afraid of heights, but something about climbing up a 15 foot rope gives me the shakes. I used one of the knotted ropes. The first time I did rope climbs, I couldn't even pull myself up to the next knot. This time I got myself up a knot before I couldn't do anymore. It wasn't much, but it's progress on the last time I did rope climbs. I'll take it for now.
The MetCon was god awful. Your total "score" was the total number of reps you got throughout the whole thing. Mine was 149, which was absolutely pitiful. Everyone else was in the 200 range. I did ok with the slam balls, generally averaged between 20 and 25. Burpees are burpees, I averaged around the 10 range. They will always suck. The back squats were actually a lot harder than I thought they would be. They were super light, but after box jumps and burpees, I was not feeling well with those. The box jumps, holy bejeezus. Now I've really made huge strides with those, and I've been really proud of it, but that day my body just did not want to jump. I jumped once and on the first try, almost fell flat on my face. Instead I kind of did a super ungraceful trip thing and landed with my shin on the corner of the box. After that I think I psyched myself out a little bit and I barely struggled through the rest of them. Usually I can get a bunch of jumps in within a minute but that day I was doing like 7-9.
Lesson learned. Sometimes taking a week off doesn't always do what you want it to do.
Wednesday evening I went for a run. After the day I had at the gym, I was not in the mood for it, but if I didn't get it done I was never going to get back to it. It was Week 4, Day 2 so same scheme as Day 1. My goal this time was to at least not stop running until the program told me to stop. Well we achieved that, but somehow our pace was even slower than before. I wasn't quite able to make much sense out of that one. I'm starting to think this program has some faults.
Thursday morning I went back to the gym for some more torture.
Thursday's Workout:
Strength:
15 min to establish 1 RM deadlift
MetCon:
21-15-9
Hang cleans (65#)
Toes to bar
The strength I was kind of excited for. I hadn't done a 1RM deadlift in a couple months so I was curious to see how I did. My previous 1RM was 185 pounds. My new one is 225. Huge jump! Got myself some invincible hamstrings up in here.
The MetCon wasn't too bad. I'm not a big hang clean person. I'm a much better power cleaner. Hang cleans are just annoying because you start like knee level and I always somehow end up tweaking one of my wrists. It's the same exact movement as a power clean, except not off the ground. Don't know why my body apparently finds that difficult. I Rx'd the hang clean weight but because I can't do a toes to bar yet, I was technically modified. I'm working on the toes to bar though. Right now I'm focusing on the range of motion and getting that down. I forget what my time was, but it was pretty much around the same time as everyone else.
Took the rest of Thursday off to recuperate before work. Had some delicious Sticky Lips for lunch. Nothin like some ribs for a nice recovery meal.
Friday's workout was kind of fun.
Strength:
7 x 1 1 power snatch + overhead squat
MetCon:
12 min AMRAP
3-6-9-12-15-18...
Front squat (65#)
Kettlebell swing (53#)
The barbell complex felt so weird. Snatches are a little difficult for me because they really focus on that explosive power you get from your hips. What I tend to do is pull too fast off the floor so I end up skipping right over my hips and I'm not allowing them to get that full extension. Just something I'll need to work on. I think my final weight was 83 pounds. It was on the higher side from what the other girls were doing, but I definitely will need to work a little more on those.
The MetCon I beasted through. I think Friday was the day that I finally shook off the residual stiffness that I was feeling. I RX'd the front squat, but since I still have yet to use a 53 pound kettlebell, I used the 44 and focused on getting it over my head every time. Let's just say I got so enthusiastic that at one point I went a little too far over my head and when combined with my sweaty hands the kettlebell may have ended up taking a little trip. I didn't launch it but it definitely left the trajectory it was supposed to follow. The idea behind this AMRAP was an ascending ladder. Everytime you got done with the two movements, you went back and tacked on 3 more reps and you kept doing that until the time was up. I finally ended at 18 reps, plus 10 front squats into the next set. Not bad in my book.
Well since my computer is about to die and we're hitting TLDR territory, I'm going to cut this one off at that. Do I regret taking a week off? No. I was slightly frustrated to find that I had to warm my body back up to CrossFit at the end of it, but I think it worked out for the best. I needed the week to get my nutrition in check. It wasn't perfect. I think I'm at about 85% paleo. I'd like it to be 95%, but it's better than the caveman-less rut I was stuck in a few weeks ago. We're slowly working on it. I'm also working on my recipe binder so it'll be easier for me to access my favorite recipes. I'm kind of worried with summer coming because I tend to eat lighter/colder meals. I've gotten so much practice with hot and heavy meals that I could use to get me through the winter that I now have to change my thinking around to the lighter ones I eat during the summer. Summer is also a killer for me with the ice cream and potato salad and all the other signature summer dishes. I'm just screwed in general. I need to like sequester myself in a place where no bad foods can reach me. Maybe a padded room with a kitchen. That would work swimmingly.
So the last time I updated this I was reaching the end of my week vacation from CrossFit. I was feeling a little antsy, but my muscles were thanking me. I'd signed onto the waitlist for Monday's class but when I got the email telling me to show up it was too late and I couldn't have made it there. Very frustrating since it looked like a lot of masochistic fun (no I'm not being sarcastic). So I went for a run with Melissa instead.
The workout was Day 1 of Week 4, which was a 5 min. warm-up, 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 2.5 minute walk, 3 minute jog, 1.5 minute walk, 5 minute jog, 5 minute cool-down. This was the first time we were being asked to jog 5 minutes at a time. I was feeling really strong with the 3 minute jogs, but bumping it up to 5 was a little intimidating. We started off strong, the 3 minute jog went quickly. At the beginning of the 5 minute jog I took note of what distance we were at because I was curious about how far we'd get. Got through the 5 minute jog without too many issues. It was tough but doable without having to decrease my usual speed too much. Final verdict was that we had gone 0.41 miles in that time. Not too bad. I was hoping for a 1/2 mile. The next 3 minute jog came and I was really feeling it. Then there was the 5 minute jog and I died. Just everything got tired all at once. I actually had to stop for 30 seconds to catch my breath a little towards the middle of it. Our distance went up to 2.26 miles and our final pace ended up being 11:31 min/mile. Not too bad but definitely slower than we've been going lately.
Tuesday was a day off. And by day off, I mean I worked all day. Wasn't too horrible of a day though.
Wednesday I did a two-fer. Started off the morning at the gym. Was so good to be back.
Wednesday's Workout:
Skill
3 rounds
3-8 muscle ups/pull ups
8-12 pistol squats
2-5 rope climbs
MetCon:
3 rounds - 1 minute max effort reps, 30 second rest
Slam ball (20#)
Box jumps (20")
Burpees
Barbell back squat (45#)
I was really rusty that day. Don't know what it was but I was trying to get back into the groove of things while doing some of the hardest moves I've done in the past few months. The pull ups ended up being more of a warm-up set for me just because my shoulders were stiff from not having done pull ups in awhile. The pistol squats went ok. Rope climbs - zomg. I'm not usually afraid of heights, but something about climbing up a 15 foot rope gives me the shakes. I used one of the knotted ropes. The first time I did rope climbs, I couldn't even pull myself up to the next knot. This time I got myself up a knot before I couldn't do anymore. It wasn't much, but it's progress on the last time I did rope climbs. I'll take it for now.
The MetCon was god awful. Your total "score" was the total number of reps you got throughout the whole thing. Mine was 149, which was absolutely pitiful. Everyone else was in the 200 range. I did ok with the slam balls, generally averaged between 20 and 25. Burpees are burpees, I averaged around the 10 range. They will always suck. The back squats were actually a lot harder than I thought they would be. They were super light, but after box jumps and burpees, I was not feeling well with those. The box jumps, holy bejeezus. Now I've really made huge strides with those, and I've been really proud of it, but that day my body just did not want to jump. I jumped once and on the first try, almost fell flat on my face. Instead I kind of did a super ungraceful trip thing and landed with my shin on the corner of the box. After that I think I psyched myself out a little bit and I barely struggled through the rest of them. Usually I can get a bunch of jumps in within a minute but that day I was doing like 7-9.
Lesson learned. Sometimes taking a week off doesn't always do what you want it to do.
Wednesday evening I went for a run. After the day I had at the gym, I was not in the mood for it, but if I didn't get it done I was never going to get back to it. It was Week 4, Day 2 so same scheme as Day 1. My goal this time was to at least not stop running until the program told me to stop. Well we achieved that, but somehow our pace was even slower than before. I wasn't quite able to make much sense out of that one. I'm starting to think this program has some faults.
Thursday morning I went back to the gym for some more torture.
Thursday's Workout:
Strength:
15 min to establish 1 RM deadlift
MetCon:
21-15-9
Hang cleans (65#)
Toes to bar
The strength I was kind of excited for. I hadn't done a 1RM deadlift in a couple months so I was curious to see how I did. My previous 1RM was 185 pounds. My new one is 225. Huge jump! Got myself some invincible hamstrings up in here.
The MetCon wasn't too bad. I'm not a big hang clean person. I'm a much better power cleaner. Hang cleans are just annoying because you start like knee level and I always somehow end up tweaking one of my wrists. It's the same exact movement as a power clean, except not off the ground. Don't know why my body apparently finds that difficult. I Rx'd the hang clean weight but because I can't do a toes to bar yet, I was technically modified. I'm working on the toes to bar though. Right now I'm focusing on the range of motion and getting that down. I forget what my time was, but it was pretty much around the same time as everyone else.
Took the rest of Thursday off to recuperate before work. Had some delicious Sticky Lips for lunch. Nothin like some ribs for a nice recovery meal.
Friday's workout was kind of fun.
Strength:
7 x 1 1 power snatch + overhead squat
MetCon:
12 min AMRAP
3-6-9-12-15-18...
Front squat (65#)
Kettlebell swing (53#)
The barbell complex felt so weird. Snatches are a little difficult for me because they really focus on that explosive power you get from your hips. What I tend to do is pull too fast off the floor so I end up skipping right over my hips and I'm not allowing them to get that full extension. Just something I'll need to work on. I think my final weight was 83 pounds. It was on the higher side from what the other girls were doing, but I definitely will need to work a little more on those.
The MetCon I beasted through. I think Friday was the day that I finally shook off the residual stiffness that I was feeling. I RX'd the front squat, but since I still have yet to use a 53 pound kettlebell, I used the 44 and focused on getting it over my head every time. Let's just say I got so enthusiastic that at one point I went a little too far over my head and when combined with my sweaty hands the kettlebell may have ended up taking a little trip. I didn't launch it but it definitely left the trajectory it was supposed to follow. The idea behind this AMRAP was an ascending ladder. Everytime you got done with the two movements, you went back and tacked on 3 more reps and you kept doing that until the time was up. I finally ended at 18 reps, plus 10 front squats into the next set. Not bad in my book.
Well since my computer is about to die and we're hitting TLDR territory, I'm going to cut this one off at that. Do I regret taking a week off? No. I was slightly frustrated to find that I had to warm my body back up to CrossFit at the end of it, but I think it worked out for the best. I needed the week to get my nutrition in check. It wasn't perfect. I think I'm at about 85% paleo. I'd like it to be 95%, but it's better than the caveman-less rut I was stuck in a few weeks ago. We're slowly working on it. I'm also working on my recipe binder so it'll be easier for me to access my favorite recipes. I'm kind of worried with summer coming because I tend to eat lighter/colder meals. I've gotten so much practice with hot and heavy meals that I could use to get me through the winter that I now have to change my thinking around to the lighter ones I eat during the summer. Summer is also a killer for me with the ice cream and potato salad and all the other signature summer dishes. I'm just screwed in general. I need to like sequester myself in a place where no bad foods can reach me. Maybe a padded room with a kitchen. That would work swimmingly.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Reflections of a CrossFitter
Well this has been a pretty good week!
Monday I took the day off from CrossFit, ran, and then worked the evening. Running was awful. I dragged through the entire thing. Not to mention it was SUPER windy so we ended up getting double the exercise than what we wanted. Didn't have the chance to head to the store for food so I ended up eating Boston Market for dinner. To be fair, I had a fairly good dinner. Not paleo, but it wasn't crap. Tuesday I kinda had the same crappy schedule. Woke up and was eating breakfast when I started realizing just how much I had to get done this week before a weekend of work was upon me. So in 3 and a half hours I went to the ATM, washed myself, washed the dog, and went grocery shopping. It was fairly skilled in itself let me tell ya. I had to be at work for another evening so I didn't get to food prep like I wanted to. I just ended up bringing leftovers for food. Wednesday I spent the entire day painting/cleaning Rothberg's new house. It was a day for some serious active rest. Got home well into the evening and got to work on food prepping.
I made some roasted eggplant, sweet potato and zucchini chips, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed cauliflower, and some boiled eggs. It was good to get a lot of the sides out of the way since I just end up baking a lot of my proteins. Was going to make Turkey Meatballs but I was exhausted by the end of all that, so I just prepped my food for Thursday and went to bed.
Yesterday I worked for 14 hours. Woke up at 530 so I didn't have time to eat at home. My breakfast was cottage cheese with cut up strawberries and two turkey hot dogs. I decided that while I was going to be paleo, cottage cheese makes for a good to-go meal so it's the one dairy I'm allowing. Cheese is also the only kind of dairy that I can tolerate. Go figure. My mid-morning "snack" was half of a berry muffin. I know it's not paleo, but thank goodness I had it. My partner and I decided to go do some errands and grab salads for lunch. I'd brought lunch but I wanted to get a little side salad. I got a spinach/romaine mix with artichokes, black olives, roasted red pepper, and egg, with balsamic vinagrette. Well...in the middle of all this we get a call. Yeah, "lunch" wasn't had until 430. I was about to eat my right hand. Plus I was dehydrated since I'd left my water bottle at base. Along with that I had my lunch of tuna fish wrapped in turkey bologna with a tomato on the side. It was delicious, albeit late. Dinner happened when I finally got home. I baked a pork chop and had some mashed sweet potatoes. I also took the time to prep some turkey meatballs, which are delicious. It's just ground turkey, artichokes, and onions baked together at 350 for like 20 minutes. I cheated a little and made them in a muffin tin. The recipe makes 12 decent-sized muffins.
Today I'm sitting at RIT for graduation all day...and tomorrow too. I brought turkey muffins, salad, sweet potato chips and celery to help keep me away from cheats. We'll see what happens. I've been a lot better this week than I thought I would be. I've at least been fairly consistent. 2 out of my 3 meals everyday have been paleo. Now just to get it to 3/3. I'm not complaining too much though. It's a step above where I was.
My body is not happy that I took the week off. Well, it was happy Monday and most of Tuesday, and it all went downhill from there. All my joint pains that I'd been keeping at bay came back. Not to mention I kept checking the WODs everyday and all I wanted to do was go. But all the classes were full so it's not like I could have done anything last minute. So back to the grind on Monday!
So as I'm going along, I realized I never told you guys about the reflection I did after I did my baseline and the PR board! I'mma fix that. We'll start with the reflection.
After every baseline we fill out a reflection on our accomplishments and what's holding us back from reaching our goals. Mind you, I wrote these things down at the beginning of April so there have already been some changes.
My accomplishments from January - April:
Lost 14 pounds (Paleo challenge)
Finally found a diet that works
Finished the paleo challenge
Worked out consistently and learned how to kick some ass
Learned how to take care of myself before others
Dedicated myself and learned how to push my limits
Started running again (and haven't died yet!)
What is stopping you/holding you back?
This question was hard, but I put myself. I've learned to tell the unsupportive people around me to shut their mouths. Now it's just all on me, and my inherent inability to be able to say no to the temptations of ice cream.
3 month vision, what you want to see/do in the next 3 months...
Catalyst Games!
Run a 5k
Lose 20 more pounds
Handstands
Double Unders
Keep kicking ass!
What are you going to do to attain your vision...
Workout 4x/week, run 2-3x/week
Get back on paleo
Don't settle for less in workouts
Work on movements after class
So obviously I've already accomplished some of my goals. I competed in the catalyst games and I now know how to do a handstand. I've also continued to kick ass all the time. The 5k is a work in progress. The losing a few pounds is a serious work in progress. Double unders...gah! We'll get there.
So the PR board. In April, I PR'd my back squat, my push press, and my baseline, so I got put on the gym PR board for the month which was awesome! What I didn't know was that I made it to the leader board. I'm in third place in the entire gym for my back squat and my push press. Back squat I need to add about 50 more pounds to be in the lead. For the push press I don't need to go up as much, but that movement gets harder with very small increment additions, versus back squat.
Ultimately, I didn't go into CrossFit to get on a leader board. I was loving being on the PR board though because that one truly showed my accomplishments. I'm not a huge competitive person. I compete against myself since I'm my own worst critic in the worst way possible. Other than that, I never anticipated that I'd be at the same level as some of my coaches someday. I've already decided that one day I want to be a CrossFit coach. Maybe in a couple years I may start looking into it, but it's definitely going to be a long term goal of mine. All the coaches I've met are so supportive in every way possible and they truly want you to succeed. I want to pass that on. I'm still going to be a PA, but from a fitness world point of view, I've definitely found my "calling" so to speak. It's a very cool thing.
Monday I took the day off from CrossFit, ran, and then worked the evening. Running was awful. I dragged through the entire thing. Not to mention it was SUPER windy so we ended up getting double the exercise than what we wanted. Didn't have the chance to head to the store for food so I ended up eating Boston Market for dinner. To be fair, I had a fairly good dinner. Not paleo, but it wasn't crap. Tuesday I kinda had the same crappy schedule. Woke up and was eating breakfast when I started realizing just how much I had to get done this week before a weekend of work was upon me. So in 3 and a half hours I went to the ATM, washed myself, washed the dog, and went grocery shopping. It was fairly skilled in itself let me tell ya. I had to be at work for another evening so I didn't get to food prep like I wanted to. I just ended up bringing leftovers for food. Wednesday I spent the entire day painting/cleaning Rothberg's new house. It was a day for some serious active rest. Got home well into the evening and got to work on food prepping.
I made some roasted eggplant, sweet potato and zucchini chips, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed cauliflower, and some boiled eggs. It was good to get a lot of the sides out of the way since I just end up baking a lot of my proteins. Was going to make Turkey Meatballs but I was exhausted by the end of all that, so I just prepped my food for Thursday and went to bed.
Yesterday I worked for 14 hours. Woke up at 530 so I didn't have time to eat at home. My breakfast was cottage cheese with cut up strawberries and two turkey hot dogs. I decided that while I was going to be paleo, cottage cheese makes for a good to-go meal so it's the one dairy I'm allowing. Cheese is also the only kind of dairy that I can tolerate. Go figure. My mid-morning "snack" was half of a berry muffin. I know it's not paleo, but thank goodness I had it. My partner and I decided to go do some errands and grab salads for lunch. I'd brought lunch but I wanted to get a little side salad. I got a spinach/romaine mix with artichokes, black olives, roasted red pepper, and egg, with balsamic vinagrette. Well...in the middle of all this we get a call. Yeah, "lunch" wasn't had until 430. I was about to eat my right hand. Plus I was dehydrated since I'd left my water bottle at base. Along with that I had my lunch of tuna fish wrapped in turkey bologna with a tomato on the side. It was delicious, albeit late. Dinner happened when I finally got home. I baked a pork chop and had some mashed sweet potatoes. I also took the time to prep some turkey meatballs, which are delicious. It's just ground turkey, artichokes, and onions baked together at 350 for like 20 minutes. I cheated a little and made them in a muffin tin. The recipe makes 12 decent-sized muffins.
Today I'm sitting at RIT for graduation all day...and tomorrow too. I brought turkey muffins, salad, sweet potato chips and celery to help keep me away from cheats. We'll see what happens. I've been a lot better this week than I thought I would be. I've at least been fairly consistent. 2 out of my 3 meals everyday have been paleo. Now just to get it to 3/3. I'm not complaining too much though. It's a step above where I was.
My body is not happy that I took the week off. Well, it was happy Monday and most of Tuesday, and it all went downhill from there. All my joint pains that I'd been keeping at bay came back. Not to mention I kept checking the WODs everyday and all I wanted to do was go. But all the classes were full so it's not like I could have done anything last minute. So back to the grind on Monday!
So as I'm going along, I realized I never told you guys about the reflection I did after I did my baseline and the PR board! I'mma fix that. We'll start with the reflection.
After every baseline we fill out a reflection on our accomplishments and what's holding us back from reaching our goals. Mind you, I wrote these things down at the beginning of April so there have already been some changes.
My accomplishments from January - April:
Lost 14 pounds (Paleo challenge)
Finally found a diet that works
Finished the paleo challenge
Worked out consistently and learned how to kick some ass
Learned how to take care of myself before others
Dedicated myself and learned how to push my limits
Started running again (and haven't died yet!)
What is stopping you/holding you back?
This question was hard, but I put myself. I've learned to tell the unsupportive people around me to shut their mouths. Now it's just all on me, and my inherent inability to be able to say no to the temptations of ice cream.
3 month vision, what you want to see/do in the next 3 months...
Catalyst Games!
Run a 5k
Lose 20 more pounds
Handstands
Double Unders
Keep kicking ass!
What are you going to do to attain your vision...
Workout 4x/week, run 2-3x/week
Get back on paleo
Don't settle for less in workouts
Work on movements after class
So obviously I've already accomplished some of my goals. I competed in the catalyst games and I now know how to do a handstand. I've also continued to kick ass all the time. The 5k is a work in progress. The losing a few pounds is a serious work in progress. Double unders...gah! We'll get there.
So the PR board. In April, I PR'd my back squat, my push press, and my baseline, so I got put on the gym PR board for the month which was awesome! What I didn't know was that I made it to the leader board. I'm in third place in the entire gym for my back squat and my push press. Back squat I need to add about 50 more pounds to be in the lead. For the push press I don't need to go up as much, but that movement gets harder with very small increment additions, versus back squat.
Ultimately, I didn't go into CrossFit to get on a leader board. I was loving being on the PR board though because that one truly showed my accomplishments. I'm not a huge competitive person. I compete against myself since I'm my own worst critic in the worst way possible. Other than that, I never anticipated that I'd be at the same level as some of my coaches someday. I've already decided that one day I want to be a CrossFit coach. Maybe in a couple years I may start looking into it, but it's definitely going to be a long term goal of mine. All the coaches I've met are so supportive in every way possible and they truly want you to succeed. I want to pass that on. I'm still going to be a PA, but from a fitness world point of view, I've definitely found my "calling" so to speak. It's a very cool thing.
Monday, May 13, 2013
The Fun Continues!
This past week I really turned the heat up with the workouts. I went to the gym Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday; ran on Tuesday and Thursday. They came up with a new plan at the gym because of the way some people were getting scheduled for classes. If you were a person that only gets to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays, you got a lot of the skill work while the Monday, Wednesday, Friday people got strength. So they changed it up so it's a little more balanced.
Monday's Workout:
Skill:
3 rounds
2 min handstand work
8-12 knees to elbow, working on unbroken
1 min double-under practice
MetCon:
3 rounds
10 DB clean and jerk
10 DB goblet squats
200m run
Midline:
100 abmat sit-ups
My handstand work got quite hysterical at some points. I spent a lot of time almost getting it and then falling in a heap on the floor at the last minute. It was very graceful work lemme tell ya. With the knees to elbow, I know I'm not getting a toes to bar anytime soon so I just worked on trying to get that range of motion with my hips. It's hard work so I couldn't necessarily get them unbroken. Double unders...those damn things are pissing me off. They just haven't clicked with me yet. Kind of frustrating since I almost had them that one time a few weeks ago but I had to stop since I was getting tired. Almost wish I'd just kept going.
They're really killing us with the running lately. Luckily this MetCon only had a 200m run. Prescribed for the dumbbells was 50 pounds. I think I ended up using 40. I wanted to go prescribed again, but the problem with dumbbells is that I really start to notice how uneven my arms still are. I'm strong with a barbell but when you isolate my left arm, I'm still fairly weak. I forget what my exact time was but it put me about in the middle of the pack. I was feeling a little sluggish that day. Having a case of the Mondays. I felt a little better after doing the sit-ups. I'm getting pretty good at those. Now if only I could get rid of the pudge that's covering the muscles I'm building. Grr.
After that workout I decided I wanted to work on handstands a little more. So I gave it a few more tries and finally got it! I could even hold it for a short amount of time! I made sure to do it a few more times just to solidify it. It's actually kind of funny. Doing a wall walk into a handstand hurts so much more than actually doing the handstand. I don't know why I just didn't start handstands sooner. Don't know how soon I'll be doing push-ups though.
Tuesday I went back to the gym for the early morning workout. I decided to start going Tuesdays instead of Thursdays since it got progressively harder and harder for me to leave RITA on Thursday morning and head to the gym.
Strength:
5 x 5 bench press -- every 2 min.
MetCon:
AMRAP 15 minutes
10 pull ups
15 box jumps
20 unbroken front squat -- 5 burpees for dropping the bar
The strength was interesting. I hadn't done a single bench press in god knows how long. I partnered up with Karen, who also is about the same strength level as me. I think I finally maxed out at 95 pounds? I forget/I didn't count very well.
The MetCon was kind of fun in a sick and twisted sort of way. I love Tuesdays since it means we get Chad yelling at us. To some it may be terrifying, to others it just spurs us on some more. I had my green band for the pull ups, but everything else I did as prescribed (20" box jumps and 65 pounds for the front squats). I was kind of worried about the box jumps since Chad caught me getting my running head start and he told me to try not to since I was more likely to fall on my face as I got tired. I thought it was solid logic. The front squats I knew were going to be tough. Front squats are not my strong point and doing 20 of them was going to be rough, but I was determined that I would not be doing any burpees. Nay nay I say! In 15 minutes, I did 3 complete rounds plus 5 pull ups. My goal was 3, so I surpassed it a little bit. I was taking big breaks between the box jumps and squats since I didn't want to do any burpees. I surprised myself with the box jumps though. I actually started doing them without any kind of head start. I just jumped on the box. I don't know if I'm just getting better with jumps, but they really didn't seem that bad at all. Once I got a rhythm I just kept going. And I didn't do a single burpee!
Melissa and I went running a few hours later. It was our first day of doing Week 3, which is 2 rounds of jog a minute and a half, walk a minute and a half, jog 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes. We went about the same distance and pace that we have been doing lately. The jogging for 3 minutes part was tough, but it's about the same amount of time that it takes me to run 400m at the gym so I wasn't like really pushing myself past my limit.
Wednesday's workout was rough. It was my third day in a row, plus my body hadn't really been feeling very well all week.
Skill:
3 rounds
30-40 sec L sit
10-15 KB walking lunges
8-12 ring rows
MetCon:
EMOM 10 minutes
5 push presses
10 sit ups
Midline:
3 x 8 GHD back extensions (very slow!)
I knew I was really sluggish when the skill work came and I just was dragging through it. I did a lot better at the L sits than I thought I would. I used the dip bar so my legs wouldn't be dragging on the ground. I modified it and instead of straightening my legs, I kept them bent. I was able to hold myself up a lot longer than I thought I could. The walking lunges were terrible. My legs were so tired. Same with the ring rows.
The MetCon really pushed me past my limit. What they did with this one was that if you fell behind, your score was the number of rounds you completed within the one minute. I got 7 out of 10, which wasn't very bad at all. I was a little disappointed with the push presses because I knew I was capable of lifting more. Prescribed was 115, which I should have been able to do, but I ended up going with 95. My left shoulder hurt so badly and I just dragged my way through it. I felt awful. Probably the worst I've felt during a workout in a long time.
Afterwards, I went and talked to a chiropractor that's a member and helps us all out whenever we've got issues. I could feel this huge knot in the front of my shoulder. So he checked it out and apparently the problem was that my pec muscles were so tight that they were rubbing against my bicep tendon and irritating it. So I got told to ice, and roll with a tennis ball, and mobilize better next time. It's since gone away but that pain was terrible.
Thursday I took a "day off." And by day off I mean I just took a day off from the gym, not being active. Since I had the day completely off from work and everything else I dedicated it to trying to tackle my to-do list. Later on in the afternoon, Melissa and I went running. It was day 2 of the two rounds of minute and a half jog, minute and a half walk, 3 minute jog, 3 minute walk. I definitely feel like running is starting to get a lot easier for me. I'm still jogging, but it's a little faster and I'm not dying towards the end. It's really cool! I missed being a runner. It's also kind of nice that they're making us run during our workouts in the gym since I get a true high intensity workout with that, which is starting to transfer into when I just run.
After that I went over to Rothberg's to have spaghetti and then we ended up going on a 6 mile walk (<_<). Definitely hadn't planned on that one. It was a nice scenic route with a lot of hills. I was done by the time I got back home. It felt like another day at the gym. Not to mention, I had some serious water baby and carb baby going on. It felt like I'd put back on every single one of the 30 pounds I'd lost over the past 6 months. Felt gross. I'd spent the entire week retaining water, and then I put spaghetti on top of it. Never again.
Friday I went back to the gym, and let me tell you, I dragged just as badly as Wednesday.
Strength:
5 x 5 - 1 power snatch + 1 overhead squat
MetCon:
5 KB snatches
100 singles
7 KB snatches
100 singles
9 KB snatches
100 singles
11 KB snatches
It was a little less painful than Wednesday, but my body was not happy with me. I struggled through the snatch/overhead squat complex, only used 53 pounds even though I'm more than capable of doing more than that. It was kind of ok because I really needed to work on form anyway, but it still sucked.
The MetCon wasn't too bad. It could have been worse. I'd never done KB snatches before. It's almost the same as when you're using a barbell except you're doing it one-handed. It was a little bit awkward, especially with my left arm, but it was pretty fun. Had to use the 26 pound kettlebell since my left arm is still so much weaker on its own. One day I'll get double unders, mostly because I'm tired of having to do double the amount of singles.
The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful. I definitely found my motivation to get back on track though. My body is literally rejecting anything I give it. I don't know what it is. I give it any kind of gluten and it gets mad. Some lactose is ok, but it depends on the source. Like I can have cheese, and that's about it. I've had migraines for the past 2 days and I just feel awful. So I guess my body decided to give me its own piece of motivation. I'm going food shopping tomorrow. I think I'm going to strategize a little better this time. Instead of making the big huge meals first and then trying to scrounge up some ideas of what to eat as a side the day of, I'm going to start with the sides first. Grill up some veggies, and make a big batch of roasted cauliflower/broccoli, along with some mashed sweet potatoes. I'm hoping just making everything all at once instead of piecemealing it will keep me from guessing. I should probably start portioning things out all at once too. I might stop at Walmart and grab some of those sectioned containers so that I can portion things out and call it a day. We'll see how ambitious I get with things.
Either way I've decided to take the week off from the gym. I'll still run with Melissa a couple times, but other than that I want to take this week and focus on my eating. It became clear to me last week that if I don't do something soon I'm going to crash and burn. Plus, I've been working myself hard for the past 2 months. I can't remember the last time I took an actual break from working out, but with me pushing myself past my limits every workout, on top of running, on top of emotional stress, my poor body needs some R&R, and decent nutrition. So this week nutrition is going to be my focus, and getting myself out of this toxic hangover I've put myself in.
I can officially say I'm all caught up! Phew. Time for a (healthy) snack.
Monday's Workout:
Skill:
3 rounds
2 min handstand work
8-12 knees to elbow, working on unbroken
1 min double-under practice
MetCon:
3 rounds
10 DB clean and jerk
10 DB goblet squats
200m run
Midline:
100 abmat sit-ups
My handstand work got quite hysterical at some points. I spent a lot of time almost getting it and then falling in a heap on the floor at the last minute. It was very graceful work lemme tell ya. With the knees to elbow, I know I'm not getting a toes to bar anytime soon so I just worked on trying to get that range of motion with my hips. It's hard work so I couldn't necessarily get them unbroken. Double unders...those damn things are pissing me off. They just haven't clicked with me yet. Kind of frustrating since I almost had them that one time a few weeks ago but I had to stop since I was getting tired. Almost wish I'd just kept going.
They're really killing us with the running lately. Luckily this MetCon only had a 200m run. Prescribed for the dumbbells was 50 pounds. I think I ended up using 40. I wanted to go prescribed again, but the problem with dumbbells is that I really start to notice how uneven my arms still are. I'm strong with a barbell but when you isolate my left arm, I'm still fairly weak. I forget what my exact time was but it put me about in the middle of the pack. I was feeling a little sluggish that day. Having a case of the Mondays. I felt a little better after doing the sit-ups. I'm getting pretty good at those. Now if only I could get rid of the pudge that's covering the muscles I'm building. Grr.
After that workout I decided I wanted to work on handstands a little more. So I gave it a few more tries and finally got it! I could even hold it for a short amount of time! I made sure to do it a few more times just to solidify it. It's actually kind of funny. Doing a wall walk into a handstand hurts so much more than actually doing the handstand. I don't know why I just didn't start handstands sooner. Don't know how soon I'll be doing push-ups though.
Tuesday I went back to the gym for the early morning workout. I decided to start going Tuesdays instead of Thursdays since it got progressively harder and harder for me to leave RITA on Thursday morning and head to the gym.
Strength:
5 x 5 bench press -- every 2 min.
MetCon:
AMRAP 15 minutes
10 pull ups
15 box jumps
20 unbroken front squat -- 5 burpees for dropping the bar
The strength was interesting. I hadn't done a single bench press in god knows how long. I partnered up with Karen, who also is about the same strength level as me. I think I finally maxed out at 95 pounds? I forget/I didn't count very well.
The MetCon was kind of fun in a sick and twisted sort of way. I love Tuesdays since it means we get Chad yelling at us. To some it may be terrifying, to others it just spurs us on some more. I had my green band for the pull ups, but everything else I did as prescribed (20" box jumps and 65 pounds for the front squats). I was kind of worried about the box jumps since Chad caught me getting my running head start and he told me to try not to since I was more likely to fall on my face as I got tired. I thought it was solid logic. The front squats I knew were going to be tough. Front squats are not my strong point and doing 20 of them was going to be rough, but I was determined that I would not be doing any burpees. Nay nay I say! In 15 minutes, I did 3 complete rounds plus 5 pull ups. My goal was 3, so I surpassed it a little bit. I was taking big breaks between the box jumps and squats since I didn't want to do any burpees. I surprised myself with the box jumps though. I actually started doing them without any kind of head start. I just jumped on the box. I don't know if I'm just getting better with jumps, but they really didn't seem that bad at all. Once I got a rhythm I just kept going. And I didn't do a single burpee!
Melissa and I went running a few hours later. It was our first day of doing Week 3, which is 2 rounds of jog a minute and a half, walk a minute and a half, jog 3 minutes, walk 3 minutes. We went about the same distance and pace that we have been doing lately. The jogging for 3 minutes part was tough, but it's about the same amount of time that it takes me to run 400m at the gym so I wasn't like really pushing myself past my limit.
Wednesday's workout was rough. It was my third day in a row, plus my body hadn't really been feeling very well all week.
Skill:
3 rounds
30-40 sec L sit
10-15 KB walking lunges
8-12 ring rows
MetCon:
EMOM 10 minutes
5 push presses
10 sit ups
Midline:
3 x 8 GHD back extensions (very slow!)
I knew I was really sluggish when the skill work came and I just was dragging through it. I did a lot better at the L sits than I thought I would. I used the dip bar so my legs wouldn't be dragging on the ground. I modified it and instead of straightening my legs, I kept them bent. I was able to hold myself up a lot longer than I thought I could. The walking lunges were terrible. My legs were so tired. Same with the ring rows.
The MetCon really pushed me past my limit. What they did with this one was that if you fell behind, your score was the number of rounds you completed within the one minute. I got 7 out of 10, which wasn't very bad at all. I was a little disappointed with the push presses because I knew I was capable of lifting more. Prescribed was 115, which I should have been able to do, but I ended up going with 95. My left shoulder hurt so badly and I just dragged my way through it. I felt awful. Probably the worst I've felt during a workout in a long time.
Afterwards, I went and talked to a chiropractor that's a member and helps us all out whenever we've got issues. I could feel this huge knot in the front of my shoulder. So he checked it out and apparently the problem was that my pec muscles were so tight that they were rubbing against my bicep tendon and irritating it. So I got told to ice, and roll with a tennis ball, and mobilize better next time. It's since gone away but that pain was terrible.
Thursday I took a "day off." And by day off I mean I just took a day off from the gym, not being active. Since I had the day completely off from work and everything else I dedicated it to trying to tackle my to-do list. Later on in the afternoon, Melissa and I went running. It was day 2 of the two rounds of minute and a half jog, minute and a half walk, 3 minute jog, 3 minute walk. I definitely feel like running is starting to get a lot easier for me. I'm still jogging, but it's a little faster and I'm not dying towards the end. It's really cool! I missed being a runner. It's also kind of nice that they're making us run during our workouts in the gym since I get a true high intensity workout with that, which is starting to transfer into when I just run.
After that I went over to Rothberg's to have spaghetti and then we ended up going on a 6 mile walk (<_<). Definitely hadn't planned on that one. It was a nice scenic route with a lot of hills. I was done by the time I got back home. It felt like another day at the gym. Not to mention, I had some serious water baby and carb baby going on. It felt like I'd put back on every single one of the 30 pounds I'd lost over the past 6 months. Felt gross. I'd spent the entire week retaining water, and then I put spaghetti on top of it. Never again.
Friday I went back to the gym, and let me tell you, I dragged just as badly as Wednesday.
Strength:
5 x 5 - 1 power snatch + 1 overhead squat
MetCon:
5 KB snatches
100 singles
7 KB snatches
100 singles
9 KB snatches
100 singles
11 KB snatches
It was a little less painful than Wednesday, but my body was not happy with me. I struggled through the snatch/overhead squat complex, only used 53 pounds even though I'm more than capable of doing more than that. It was kind of ok because I really needed to work on form anyway, but it still sucked.
The MetCon wasn't too bad. It could have been worse. I'd never done KB snatches before. It's almost the same as when you're using a barbell except you're doing it one-handed. It was a little bit awkward, especially with my left arm, but it was pretty fun. Had to use the 26 pound kettlebell since my left arm is still so much weaker on its own. One day I'll get double unders, mostly because I'm tired of having to do double the amount of singles.
The rest of the weekend was relatively uneventful. I definitely found my motivation to get back on track though. My body is literally rejecting anything I give it. I don't know what it is. I give it any kind of gluten and it gets mad. Some lactose is ok, but it depends on the source. Like I can have cheese, and that's about it. I've had migraines for the past 2 days and I just feel awful. So I guess my body decided to give me its own piece of motivation. I'm going food shopping tomorrow. I think I'm going to strategize a little better this time. Instead of making the big huge meals first and then trying to scrounge up some ideas of what to eat as a side the day of, I'm going to start with the sides first. Grill up some veggies, and make a big batch of roasted cauliflower/broccoli, along with some mashed sweet potatoes. I'm hoping just making everything all at once instead of piecemealing it will keep me from guessing. I should probably start portioning things out all at once too. I might stop at Walmart and grab some of those sectioned containers so that I can portion things out and call it a day. We'll see how ambitious I get with things.
Either way I've decided to take the week off from the gym. I'll still run with Melissa a couple times, but other than that I want to take this week and focus on my eating. It became clear to me last week that if I don't do something soon I'm going to crash and burn. Plus, I've been working myself hard for the past 2 months. I can't remember the last time I took an actual break from working out, but with me pushing myself past my limits every workout, on top of running, on top of emotional stress, my poor body needs some R&R, and decent nutrition. So this week nutrition is going to be my focus, and getting myself out of this toxic hangover I've put myself in.
I can officially say I'm all caught up! Phew. Time for a (healthy) snack.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Always Do What the CrossFit Gods Prescribe
Last Friday was a big day for me, aside from the fact that I essentially worked out twice again.
Workout:
Strength:
15 min to establish 1 RM power clean
MetCon:
3 rounds
Run 400m
10 Thrusters
Skill:
10-15 minutes handstand work
I think it was slight irony that caused us to be doing 1 RM power cleans less than a week after the Catalyst Games. I knew 120 pounds was my limit with an axle bar so I was interested to see what it would be with a regular barbell. Well, it ended up being 125 pounds so I wasn't very far off my mark. To be fair, I tried valiantly with 135 pounds, but lost. I kept catching the bar with my ribcage since I couldn't get it up far enough. I might have had a chance if we could have squat cleaned it.
The MetCon was rough...but guess what, I did it Rx'd! The last time I did a thruster I did them with 65 pounds and beasted right through it so this time I started out with 85. Ewa saw me trying 85 and told me to put on 95 because she wanted to see how I did. Well, I could do a couple reps so it was decided I was going Rx'd for this one. I had my terrified face on. We had a 15 minute time cap. Ewa told me if I got through 2 rounds she'd be ecstatic. So that was my goal. Started off running the entire 400m, wasn't too bad. Got through the first round of thrusters without too many issues. I cut the 10 reps into reps of 5 so I could get a quick little breather in. Did the same thing with the second round. Finished the second round in about 10 minutes, so I was going at a fairly good pace although I was behind everyone else. Got started with the running of the third round and couldn't make it the whole way through. I probably ended up walking about half of it. Got back to my barbell with like 45 seconds to go on the clock. Struggled my way through 3 or 4 reps before the time was up. Well, by then I had the entire gym looking at me and cheering me on. Everyone wanted me to keep going. So I kept plugging along, getting 1 or 2 reps at a time until the 10 were done. I finished with a time of 16:28. Let me tell you, it was hard. 95 pounds after running is no easy thing. I almost vagal'd myself multiple times I was straining so hard. But, couldn't have done it without everyone around me.
After that was done, I went home to rest for a little bit before running a couple hours later. I don't know what it was about it, but I ran even faster that day. I think going from running 400m to running a minute and a half was so much of a relief to my legs that they just decided to work a little harder. We went 2.12 miles. The program says I was running at a 6:35 min/mile pace. Now I find that hard to believe. If anything, I would say we were somewhere in the 9 minute range. But who knows.
Now the weekend was what really killed the whole nutrition thing. I'd gone food shopping a couple days before but just didn't have the chance to meal prep as much as I wanted to. I was scheduled to have a true EMS weekend. Training class for two days straight, with an evening shift in between. Well that schedule got entirely FUBAR'd. Went to the training class, ate crappy food, got out early, went to Imagine, ate more crappy snack food. Then signed off my evening shift so I could go to the bar and have crappy bar food. The next morning, had bagels and then crappy Chinese food for dinner. Literally, I spent an entire weekend just eating crap. I've realized that part of it has to do with me not being at the gym. I sat back and thought about it as I was stuffing my face and realized that I'm a much more healthy eater on days that I work out. I'm not perfect, but I'm a lot better than when I have these EMS marathons.
I've become a real Pinterest fanatic as of late. Mostly for the purpose of finding motivational things. I found this one picture that basically says that cheating on a diet sets your goals back by 1 week. I need to print that out and tack it everywhere I have free wall space. I don't know what's going on with myself but damn do I need to get back on that wagon. Why is this so difficult?! It's not like it's something I've never done before in my life! Ugh!
Anywho, I'm finally almost caught up with this thing! Hopefully I can get it back to where I'm posting once a day so I can post recipes and everything while I'm at it.
Workout:
Strength:
15 min to establish 1 RM power clean
MetCon:
3 rounds
Run 400m
10 Thrusters
Skill:
10-15 minutes handstand work
I think it was slight irony that caused us to be doing 1 RM power cleans less than a week after the Catalyst Games. I knew 120 pounds was my limit with an axle bar so I was interested to see what it would be with a regular barbell. Well, it ended up being 125 pounds so I wasn't very far off my mark. To be fair, I tried valiantly with 135 pounds, but lost. I kept catching the bar with my ribcage since I couldn't get it up far enough. I might have had a chance if we could have squat cleaned it.
The MetCon was rough...but guess what, I did it Rx'd! The last time I did a thruster I did them with 65 pounds and beasted right through it so this time I started out with 85. Ewa saw me trying 85 and told me to put on 95 because she wanted to see how I did. Well, I could do a couple reps so it was decided I was going Rx'd for this one. I had my terrified face on. We had a 15 minute time cap. Ewa told me if I got through 2 rounds she'd be ecstatic. So that was my goal. Started off running the entire 400m, wasn't too bad. Got through the first round of thrusters without too many issues. I cut the 10 reps into reps of 5 so I could get a quick little breather in. Did the same thing with the second round. Finished the second round in about 10 minutes, so I was going at a fairly good pace although I was behind everyone else. Got started with the running of the third round and couldn't make it the whole way through. I probably ended up walking about half of it. Got back to my barbell with like 45 seconds to go on the clock. Struggled my way through 3 or 4 reps before the time was up. Well, by then I had the entire gym looking at me and cheering me on. Everyone wanted me to keep going. So I kept plugging along, getting 1 or 2 reps at a time until the 10 were done. I finished with a time of 16:28. Let me tell you, it was hard. 95 pounds after running is no easy thing. I almost vagal'd myself multiple times I was straining so hard. But, couldn't have done it without everyone around me.
After that was done, I went home to rest for a little bit before running a couple hours later. I don't know what it was about it, but I ran even faster that day. I think going from running 400m to running a minute and a half was so much of a relief to my legs that they just decided to work a little harder. We went 2.12 miles. The program says I was running at a 6:35 min/mile pace. Now I find that hard to believe. If anything, I would say we were somewhere in the 9 minute range. But who knows.
Now the weekend was what really killed the whole nutrition thing. I'd gone food shopping a couple days before but just didn't have the chance to meal prep as much as I wanted to. I was scheduled to have a true EMS weekend. Training class for two days straight, with an evening shift in between. Well that schedule got entirely FUBAR'd. Went to the training class, ate crappy food, got out early, went to Imagine, ate more crappy snack food. Then signed off my evening shift so I could go to the bar and have crappy bar food. The next morning, had bagels and then crappy Chinese food for dinner. Literally, I spent an entire weekend just eating crap. I've realized that part of it has to do with me not being at the gym. I sat back and thought about it as I was stuffing my face and realized that I'm a much more healthy eater on days that I work out. I'm not perfect, but I'm a lot better than when I have these EMS marathons.
I've become a real Pinterest fanatic as of late. Mostly for the purpose of finding motivational things. I found this one picture that basically says that cheating on a diet sets your goals back by 1 week. I need to print that out and tack it everywhere I have free wall space. I don't know what's going on with myself but damn do I need to get back on that wagon. Why is this so difficult?! It's not like it's something I've never done before in my life! Ugh!
Anywho, I'm finally almost caught up with this thing! Hopefully I can get it back to where I'm posting once a day so I can post recipes and everything while I'm at it.
Someone Needs to Invent CrossFit Depends
The week after the Catalyst Games I pretty much continued shredding my poor muscles, but it ended up working out for the best!
I went to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then ran on Tuesday and Friday.
Monday's Workout:
Strength:
15 min to establish a 1 RM back squat
MetCon:
Run 400m
50 Hang Power Cleans -- 5 burpees for every drop
Run 400m
So two months ago my 1 RM for back squat was 135 pounds. That was before we did all those weeks of 20 rep back squats and it was essentially just at the beginning of the Paleo Challenge. So I was expecting obviously that number would go up. I partnered up with someone who was essentially brand new so we spent a lotta time building up from really light weights and getting in a couple reps at a time before we really started kicking it up a notch. Well she hit about 100 pounds and had enough. I wasn't even close to tired. I hit about 150 and said "Eventually I'll have to quit." I finally reached my limit at 213 pounds. I'll leave you to do the math but that's a HUGE jump from what my original PR was. HUGE!
The downside to tiring myself out doing the strength portion was that I now needed to get through the MetCon of running and hang power cleans. Hang power cleans are kind of a weaker subject for me just because I don't get that extra power from getting off the ground. Also means it puts more pressure on your quads. The prescribed weight for the cleans was 95 pounds. So they wanted us to go heavy AND do 50 reps. Lolz. The name of the game was to do the 50 reps without dropping the bar or else you had to do 5 burpees. I forget what weight I used, I think it was 65 because 50 cleans was just going to kill me. This was also the first week that we started doing a significant amount of running so I knew in the back of my head that was going to kill me as well. I ran the first 400m without stopping in about 3 minutes. Came back in and started getting through sets of 10 before I had to drop the bar. As I got tired I had to drop down to sets of 5. Either way, I did a good amount of burpees in the time it took me to get to 50 reps. Went back outside and ran another 400m. Tried to run the whole thing but I think I ended up walking for about 100m. I forget what my time was. It wasn't the greatest but I wasn't dead last so I couldn't complain too badly.
Went running on Tuesday. We were on Day 2 of Week 2, so it was minute and a half jog, 2 minute walk alternating. We went 2.05 miles at a pace of 10:11 min/mile. I was feeling alright afterwards. It hurt less than the first time, but it was definitely tiring.
Wednesday's Workout:
Strength:
15 minutes to establish a 1 RM stone to shoulder
MetCon:
EMOM - 12 minutes
10 ring rows
10 push ups
10 air squats
Midline:
8 GHD back extensions
25 abmat sit-ups
Apparently it was the week for 1 RM's and EMOM's. For the stone to shoulders we were supposed to be using the atlas stones which are essentially balls of concrete of varying weights. The problem that I have with them is that they don't gradually go up in weight. You'll use one stone, and the next one will be 40 pounds heavier. So it actually doesn't take very long to establish a 1 RM unless you're borderline and keep giving it a few tries. I partnered up with Robyn again since we're good about pushing each other and are at about the same strength level. We started off with a relatively light stone. The trick with the stone to shoulder is to do it in two steps. The first step, you essentially hug the stone while picking it up and nestling it into your hip so you end up in kind of a sitting position. The second step involves popping your hips forward as your arms guide the stone up to your shoulder. The important thing is to not try and bicep curl it. So we started off light, no big deal. It got harder very quickly though. We hit the 95 pound stone and our forearms were already getting shredded. The problem when you're a girl with short little arms is that as the stones get heavier and bigger, you rely on your forearms to stabilize it as you're lifting it. Well, these are stones of concrete so you literally rip up your forearms. Plus the damn things were getting so heavy that we ended up having to pee right in the middle of it. Stupid atlas and his damn stones.
The MetCon was just shy of freaking awful. It was essentially taking me the full minute to do all 30 reps so by the time I finished the full round it was time to go back for more. The thing about this one was that if it took you more than a minute to finish 30 reps, you had to continue on into the next minute and then rest until you were caught up with everyone. So I ended up doing 9 rounds instead of 12 since I got behind a couple of times. Still...that sucked. I gotta work on my ring rows, I'm not very strong with them.
Thursday was a day off since I was feeling a little fried. I think it was mostly because I had to work...I can't remember.
That week I started making even more of an effort to stay Paleo. I was doing fairly well. I wasn't strict, but at least 2 of my meals each day were Paleo. It's definitely a step above where I have been for the past month. It's still proving to be so hard for me to get back on it. I want to be back on it so badly I just don't know what's stopping me. I haven't necessarily fallen off the wagon but I definitely have one foot off of it. So frustrating. I was so strong a couple months ago and then I let it go. I'll get back on it at some point. Either that or my body will give out and I won't have a choice. Who knows.
I'm posting Friday separately since it was a pretty big day!
I went to the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and then ran on Tuesday and Friday.
Monday's Workout:
Strength:
15 min to establish a 1 RM back squat
MetCon:
Run 400m
50 Hang Power Cleans -- 5 burpees for every drop
Run 400m
So two months ago my 1 RM for back squat was 135 pounds. That was before we did all those weeks of 20 rep back squats and it was essentially just at the beginning of the Paleo Challenge. So I was expecting obviously that number would go up. I partnered up with someone who was essentially brand new so we spent a lotta time building up from really light weights and getting in a couple reps at a time before we really started kicking it up a notch. Well she hit about 100 pounds and had enough. I wasn't even close to tired. I hit about 150 and said "Eventually I'll have to quit." I finally reached my limit at 213 pounds. I'll leave you to do the math but that's a HUGE jump from what my original PR was. HUGE!
The downside to tiring myself out doing the strength portion was that I now needed to get through the MetCon of running and hang power cleans. Hang power cleans are kind of a weaker subject for me just because I don't get that extra power from getting off the ground. Also means it puts more pressure on your quads. The prescribed weight for the cleans was 95 pounds. So they wanted us to go heavy AND do 50 reps. Lolz. The name of the game was to do the 50 reps without dropping the bar or else you had to do 5 burpees. I forget what weight I used, I think it was 65 because 50 cleans was just going to kill me. This was also the first week that we started doing a significant amount of running so I knew in the back of my head that was going to kill me as well. I ran the first 400m without stopping in about 3 minutes. Came back in and started getting through sets of 10 before I had to drop the bar. As I got tired I had to drop down to sets of 5. Either way, I did a good amount of burpees in the time it took me to get to 50 reps. Went back outside and ran another 400m. Tried to run the whole thing but I think I ended up walking for about 100m. I forget what my time was. It wasn't the greatest but I wasn't dead last so I couldn't complain too badly.
Went running on Tuesday. We were on Day 2 of Week 2, so it was minute and a half jog, 2 minute walk alternating. We went 2.05 miles at a pace of 10:11 min/mile. I was feeling alright afterwards. It hurt less than the first time, but it was definitely tiring.
Wednesday's Workout:
Strength:
15 minutes to establish a 1 RM stone to shoulder
MetCon:
EMOM - 12 minutes
10 ring rows
10 push ups
10 air squats
Midline:
8 GHD back extensions
25 abmat sit-ups
Apparently it was the week for 1 RM's and EMOM's. For the stone to shoulders we were supposed to be using the atlas stones which are essentially balls of concrete of varying weights. The problem that I have with them is that they don't gradually go up in weight. You'll use one stone, and the next one will be 40 pounds heavier. So it actually doesn't take very long to establish a 1 RM unless you're borderline and keep giving it a few tries. I partnered up with Robyn again since we're good about pushing each other and are at about the same strength level. We started off with a relatively light stone. The trick with the stone to shoulder is to do it in two steps. The first step, you essentially hug the stone while picking it up and nestling it into your hip so you end up in kind of a sitting position. The second step involves popping your hips forward as your arms guide the stone up to your shoulder. The important thing is to not try and bicep curl it. So we started off light, no big deal. It got harder very quickly though. We hit the 95 pound stone and our forearms were already getting shredded. The problem when you're a girl with short little arms is that as the stones get heavier and bigger, you rely on your forearms to stabilize it as you're lifting it. Well, these are stones of concrete so you literally rip up your forearms. Plus the damn things were getting so heavy that we ended up having to pee right in the middle of it. Stupid atlas and his damn stones.
The MetCon was just shy of freaking awful. It was essentially taking me the full minute to do all 30 reps so by the time I finished the full round it was time to go back for more. The thing about this one was that if it took you more than a minute to finish 30 reps, you had to continue on into the next minute and then rest until you were caught up with everyone. So I ended up doing 9 rounds instead of 12 since I got behind a couple of times. Still...that sucked. I gotta work on my ring rows, I'm not very strong with them.
Thursday was a day off since I was feeling a little fried. I think it was mostly because I had to work...I can't remember.
That week I started making even more of an effort to stay Paleo. I was doing fairly well. I wasn't strict, but at least 2 of my meals each day were Paleo. It's definitely a step above where I have been for the past month. It's still proving to be so hard for me to get back on it. I want to be back on it so badly I just don't know what's stopping me. I haven't necessarily fallen off the wagon but I definitely have one foot off of it. So frustrating. I was so strong a couple months ago and then I let it go. I'll get back on it at some point. Either that or my body will give out and I won't have a choice. Who knows.
I'm posting Friday separately since it was a pretty big day!
Catalyst Games 2013 - Pick That $hit Up!
April 27th, 2013...the Catalyst Games...eek
So the Catalyst Games were created last year as a charity event in memory of Kade O'Brien and benefits the Kade Project that works with local youth and the men and women that are working overseas defending our country.
My playground for the day:
The layout of the competition had 4 divisions: Men's and Women's modified, and Men's and Women's Rx. Each division had about 60 athletes. I was in the modified division. We started off SUPER early in the morning. Athlete check-in was at 7:30, with the competition starting right at 9. I got there and noticed that the place was packed with people already. Teams literally came from everywhere. I think every Rochester box was represented as well as boxes from Syracuse and Buffalo. I signed in and they told me I would be in heat #5. I was handed a bag and a t-shirt and told to go warm up or entertain myself for an hour and a half. There weren't a lot of people from our gym competing but there was still a good amount, so we kind of hung out with each other and got nice and warmed up...and I say warmed up figuratively because it was about 40 degrees outside. The nice little weather man promised me that it would get up to 75 degrees sometime during the day.
In this competition, there were 2 WODs plus a final WOD. Everyone was supposed to do the first 2 and the top 10 from each division went on to the finals. I wasn't expecting myself to get into the finals by any means. I told myself that as long as I didn't come in dead last, I would be just as proud of myself.
The first WOD was our endurance WOD:
2 min max cal row
...rest 1 min...
2 min kettlebell swings
...rest 1 min...
2 min burpee up and over box jumps
...rest 1 min...
2 min DB ground to overhead, alternating arms
They started off with the Women's MOD division. For the row, they told us we could set the damper at whatever we wanted, the caveat being that the less resistance you use, the less calories you're going to get out of it. They used 35# kettlebells, 20 inch boxes, and 30# dumbbells. The weights were borderline "easy" for me since they were lower than the weights I'd been using recently, but the thing is, I'd be using them for two minutes (<_<). The box jumps I was a little nervous about but they told us we could step up onto the boxes so that calmed my heart rate a little more. The way they were going to get through the heats was that the first heat would go, and once they finished the rowing, the next heat would take their place until all the heats had gone through each station. I was in the 5th heat, so I got to sit and stew and worry. My judge was also a Boomtown member so we got to commiserate a little. She asked me if I'd be ok with her yelling encouraging things at me. My response? "Whatever keeps me from stopping, go right ahead."
My time came and let me tell you, going into a competition with a heart rate that's already at least 100 sucks. I got through the rowing pretty well. It usually takes me about 2 minutes to get 500m. I set my damper a little higher than I usually do so I could get some extra calories out of it, which ended up being 39. I did 40-something kettlebell swings, 12 burpee box jumps (not surprised), and 29 ground to overheads. For endurance work at my level, I really ripped through it...and promptly died afterwards.
After that I watched the other divisions go through. Obviously the stations increased in weight as the divisions went along. I watched some of the Women's Rx division and holy crap the weights they were using. Some of those women were hell'a fierce! I was honestly shocked to watch even the Rx divisions get steam rolled by the WOD. For them, the weights probably weren't anything different than what they were used to, but just the fact that people had to do it for 2 minutes at a time really got to all of us. It was kind of relieving to see I wasn't the only one that struggled with it. Whoever said 2 minutes isn't a long time clearly never did CrossFit.
We got a little downtime after the first WOD so they could get everything set up for the second one.
WOD #2:
Heavy Jump Rope & Axle Clean Ladder
1 min. to complete 20 jumps and clean the axle bar once, moving up in weights. If you fail to clean a weight, do deadlifts until the time is up for partial points
So I'd never used a heavy jump rope before. I'd say it weighs about 20 pounds. It's basically just a jumprope that's a little thicker and they use a heavier metal braid. The big thing with those is that you have to plan your jump just right or else you end up whacking yourself in the shins. It wasn't a speed contest to see how fast you could get 20 jumps, as long as you did it. The kind of "test" with this WOD was to keep yourself from tiring out doing the jump rope. With something that heavy, you really have to make sure that you're not using your entire arm to try and get the rope up and over your head. I found that if I gripped the handle close to the rope I didn't have to deal with as much shock absorption so I could swing it a little more evenly and not get tired. The axle cleans were what made the whole thing interesting. The part that made it a "ladder" was that you started off at one weight. Finish the jump roping and clean the bar once. Next you move on to the next station which is jump roping again, and cleaning a 10 pound heavier bar, and you just keep moving down the line. You had the choice of either squat cleaning or power cleaning, whatever worked best. If you fail to clean a bar, you were supposed to deadlift for the rest of the minute and then you were done.
They took Men's and Women's MOD division first. There were 8 total stations, women's weight started at 50# and ended at 120#. I knew in the back of my head that my 3 RM for power cleans was 103#, but that was with a regular barbell, not an axle. If you remember, axle barbells are wider and don't have any rotating parts so it's up to you to manipulate everything. So I started off going down the line. Jump roping was actually kind of fun with the heavier rope and the first 3 or 4 cleans were fairly easy. I think I had just finished the 80# clean when I looked ahead of me and all the girls that were ahead of me were gone, defeated by whatever weight they had gotten to. I had people behind me, but there were a ton of eyes on me at that point. I looked back at what I was doing and a bunch of our guys were just standing in the crowd yelling encouragement at me. Literally. Day made. So, I kept going. 90#...starting to get a little heavy. 100#...wondering if I can hold out. 110#...did it in one try but teetered a bit at the top. I had one left, so close. 120#...nope. Tried it twice, got it up to about my collar bone which was about the point where I was supposed to be able to get my body under it, but it was just too heavy for me to manipulate. I think I ended up getting in about 16 deadlifts before the minute was up. I was a little disappointed, but in the end, it was a lot further than I could have dreamed of getting.
This is me trying the 120# bar, just before I failed. Pretty epic nonetheless.
Honestly the best part of the day had to be getting cheered on by everyone. In the past 4 months, I've definitely gotten to know a lot of the people in our gym and we've all started becoming friends. It's probably been the best part of all of this. They definitely get props for being part of my motivation and pushing me to get through WODs or add on another 5 pounds or keep trying until I get something. Love them all to pieces.
We had some down time while the judges got our scores together. Looking at the preliminary scoreboard, I was in 37th place out of 52 after the first WOD. I couldn't complain. It was a lot better than I thought I'd do! After that, they only did enough scores to figure out who the top 10 were. I obviously didn't make it to the finals, but I was so excited to see that Jason, Erik, Holly, Christina, and Meg all had.
Final WOD:
7 min AMRAP
20 deadlifts
10 handstand push-ups (or hand release push-ups for modified)
While I'm good at deadlifts, I was so relieved I didn't have to do that one. They started with Women's MOD and it was brutal to even watch, but the women gave it their all! Actually, every division gave it their all. Everyone must have been exhausted from the earlier events, plus by that time it was hot out! But I was so proud of the people from our gym that made it. Most of us had gone through the Paleo Challenge together so there was kind of a sense of solidarity in getting to cheer everyone on.
A couple days later I found out my final standing...25th out of 52. I was just so amazed. I wasn't expecting miracles, or to be the top 10 or anything like that. Heck, I didn't even expect to be in the top 50%, but I made it! For my first competition, I was pretty damn proud of myself. Now that just makes me want to compete more!
Moving forward from the games, I've realized that I still could use some work on my endurance. It's decent now that I've worked at it for a few months, but it's still no match for my strength. I can do strength stuff all day no problem. Endurance kills me. I feel like once I balance those two out I will truly be able to beast through WODs...Rx'd!
So that was my day at the Catalyst Games. It was the hardest, most fulfilling, and emotional thing I've ever done. Everything I've done in the past 4 months...including crying, peeling the callouses off my hands, standing in the shower for 10 extra minutes just trying to soothe sore muscles, and trying to be a source of motivation to people who cheer me on when I need it, came down to a couple of hours and 2 WODs. I've got a ways to go, but I really needed it to show myself what this is all about.
Ok before I keep blubbering like an idiot, I'm going to leave you guys at that.
So the Catalyst Games were created last year as a charity event in memory of Kade O'Brien and benefits the Kade Project that works with local youth and the men and women that are working overseas defending our country.
My playground for the day:
The layout of the competition had 4 divisions: Men's and Women's modified, and Men's and Women's Rx. Each division had about 60 athletes. I was in the modified division. We started off SUPER early in the morning. Athlete check-in was at 7:30, with the competition starting right at 9. I got there and noticed that the place was packed with people already. Teams literally came from everywhere. I think every Rochester box was represented as well as boxes from Syracuse and Buffalo. I signed in and they told me I would be in heat #5. I was handed a bag and a t-shirt and told to go warm up or entertain myself for an hour and a half. There weren't a lot of people from our gym competing but there was still a good amount, so we kind of hung out with each other and got nice and warmed up...and I say warmed up figuratively because it was about 40 degrees outside. The nice little weather man promised me that it would get up to 75 degrees sometime during the day.
In this competition, there were 2 WODs plus a final WOD. Everyone was supposed to do the first 2 and the top 10 from each division went on to the finals. I wasn't expecting myself to get into the finals by any means. I told myself that as long as I didn't come in dead last, I would be just as proud of myself.
The first WOD was our endurance WOD:
2 min max cal row
...rest 1 min...
2 min kettlebell swings
...rest 1 min...
2 min burpee up and over box jumps
...rest 1 min...
2 min DB ground to overhead, alternating arms
They started off with the Women's MOD division. For the row, they told us we could set the damper at whatever we wanted, the caveat being that the less resistance you use, the less calories you're going to get out of it. They used 35# kettlebells, 20 inch boxes, and 30# dumbbells. The weights were borderline "easy" for me since they were lower than the weights I'd been using recently, but the thing is, I'd be using them for two minutes (<_<). The box jumps I was a little nervous about but they told us we could step up onto the boxes so that calmed my heart rate a little more. The way they were going to get through the heats was that the first heat would go, and once they finished the rowing, the next heat would take their place until all the heats had gone through each station. I was in the 5th heat, so I got to sit and stew and worry. My judge was also a Boomtown member so we got to commiserate a little. She asked me if I'd be ok with her yelling encouraging things at me. My response? "Whatever keeps me from stopping, go right ahead."
My time came and let me tell you, going into a competition with a heart rate that's already at least 100 sucks. I got through the rowing pretty well. It usually takes me about 2 minutes to get 500m. I set my damper a little higher than I usually do so I could get some extra calories out of it, which ended up being 39. I did 40-something kettlebell swings, 12 burpee box jumps (not surprised), and 29 ground to overheads. For endurance work at my level, I really ripped through it...and promptly died afterwards.
After that I watched the other divisions go through. Obviously the stations increased in weight as the divisions went along. I watched some of the Women's Rx division and holy crap the weights they were using. Some of those women were hell'a fierce! I was honestly shocked to watch even the Rx divisions get steam rolled by the WOD. For them, the weights probably weren't anything different than what they were used to, but just the fact that people had to do it for 2 minutes at a time really got to all of us. It was kind of relieving to see I wasn't the only one that struggled with it. Whoever said 2 minutes isn't a long time clearly never did CrossFit.
We got a little downtime after the first WOD so they could get everything set up for the second one.
WOD #2:
Heavy Jump Rope & Axle Clean Ladder
1 min. to complete 20 jumps and clean the axle bar once, moving up in weights. If you fail to clean a weight, do deadlifts until the time is up for partial points
So I'd never used a heavy jump rope before. I'd say it weighs about 20 pounds. It's basically just a jumprope that's a little thicker and they use a heavier metal braid. The big thing with those is that you have to plan your jump just right or else you end up whacking yourself in the shins. It wasn't a speed contest to see how fast you could get 20 jumps, as long as you did it. The kind of "test" with this WOD was to keep yourself from tiring out doing the jump rope. With something that heavy, you really have to make sure that you're not using your entire arm to try and get the rope up and over your head. I found that if I gripped the handle close to the rope I didn't have to deal with as much shock absorption so I could swing it a little more evenly and not get tired. The axle cleans were what made the whole thing interesting. The part that made it a "ladder" was that you started off at one weight. Finish the jump roping and clean the bar once. Next you move on to the next station which is jump roping again, and cleaning a 10 pound heavier bar, and you just keep moving down the line. You had the choice of either squat cleaning or power cleaning, whatever worked best. If you fail to clean a bar, you were supposed to deadlift for the rest of the minute and then you were done.
They took Men's and Women's MOD division first. There were 8 total stations, women's weight started at 50# and ended at 120#. I knew in the back of my head that my 3 RM for power cleans was 103#, but that was with a regular barbell, not an axle. If you remember, axle barbells are wider and don't have any rotating parts so it's up to you to manipulate everything. So I started off going down the line. Jump roping was actually kind of fun with the heavier rope and the first 3 or 4 cleans were fairly easy. I think I had just finished the 80# clean when I looked ahead of me and all the girls that were ahead of me were gone, defeated by whatever weight they had gotten to. I had people behind me, but there were a ton of eyes on me at that point. I looked back at what I was doing and a bunch of our guys were just standing in the crowd yelling encouragement at me. Literally. Day made. So, I kept going. 90#...starting to get a little heavy. 100#...wondering if I can hold out. 110#...did it in one try but teetered a bit at the top. I had one left, so close. 120#...nope. Tried it twice, got it up to about my collar bone which was about the point where I was supposed to be able to get my body under it, but it was just too heavy for me to manipulate. I think I ended up getting in about 16 deadlifts before the minute was up. I was a little disappointed, but in the end, it was a lot further than I could have dreamed of getting.
This is me trying the 120# bar, just before I failed. Pretty epic nonetheless.
Honestly the best part of the day had to be getting cheered on by everyone. In the past 4 months, I've definitely gotten to know a lot of the people in our gym and we've all started becoming friends. It's probably been the best part of all of this. They definitely get props for being part of my motivation and pushing me to get through WODs or add on another 5 pounds or keep trying until I get something. Love them all to pieces.
We had some down time while the judges got our scores together. Looking at the preliminary scoreboard, I was in 37th place out of 52 after the first WOD. I couldn't complain. It was a lot better than I thought I'd do! After that, they only did enough scores to figure out who the top 10 were. I obviously didn't make it to the finals, but I was so excited to see that Jason, Erik, Holly, Christina, and Meg all had.
Final WOD:
7 min AMRAP
20 deadlifts
10 handstand push-ups (or hand release push-ups for modified)
While I'm good at deadlifts, I was so relieved I didn't have to do that one. They started with Women's MOD and it was brutal to even watch, but the women gave it their all! Actually, every division gave it their all. Everyone must have been exhausted from the earlier events, plus by that time it was hot out! But I was so proud of the people from our gym that made it. Most of us had gone through the Paleo Challenge together so there was kind of a sense of solidarity in getting to cheer everyone on.
A couple days later I found out my final standing...25th out of 52. I was just so amazed. I wasn't expecting miracles, or to be the top 10 or anything like that. Heck, I didn't even expect to be in the top 50%, but I made it! For my first competition, I was pretty damn proud of myself. Now that just makes me want to compete more!
Moving forward from the games, I've realized that I still could use some work on my endurance. It's decent now that I've worked at it for a few months, but it's still no match for my strength. I can do strength stuff all day no problem. Endurance kills me. I feel like once I balance those two out I will truly be able to beast through WODs...Rx'd!
So that was my day at the Catalyst Games. It was the hardest, most fulfilling, and emotional thing I've ever done. Everything I've done in the past 4 months...including crying, peeling the callouses off my hands, standing in the shower for 10 extra minutes just trying to soothe sore muscles, and trying to be a source of motivation to people who cheer me on when I need it, came down to a couple of hours and 2 WODs. I've got a ways to go, but I really needed it to show myself what this is all about.
Ok before I keep blubbering like an idiot, I'm going to leave you guys at that.
Saturday, May 11, 2013
Catalyst Games Prep Week
The week leading up to the Catalyst Games I was a super wreck. They started posting movement standard videos on Monday: Double-unders, deadlifts, burpee box jumps, power cleans, dumbbell ground to overhead lifts, kettlebell swings, and a couple other ones. They told us that some variation of that list would be included in the Catalyst Games. Yeah...I was not feeling confident. Burpee box jumps and double unders...nay nay.
I tried to plan my week semi-wisely so that I'd be ready for the games. I worked out at the gym Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and I ran with Melissa on Tuesday and Wednesday. In retrospect, I didn't really take it easy on myself that week...
Monday's workout:
Strength:
1 x 20 back squat Max Effort
Tire flips
MetCon:
7 Min AMRAP
7 DB thrusters (30#)
14 pull-ups
The strength portion I definitely disappointed myself on. I used 105 pounds, but I definitely could have gone higher. I felt challenged but not challenged to the point where my body was considering failing. Oh well. The tire flipping was so much fun! You end up getting into a squat position practically hugging the tire, and then driving up with your legs until it flips over. I ended up using the 300 pound tire. It sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't that bad.
The MetCon was somewhat brutal. I ended up getting through 2 full rounds plus all the thrusters in the 3rd round. The pull-ups really slowed me down. Eventually I'll be able to do a higher volume of them.
Tuesday was running day. It was our last day of the first week...finally! It was alternating 1 min. jog and 1 min. walk. It still felt fairly easy for me since it wasn't a whole lot compared to what crossfit does to me. The GPS tracker said we did 2.04 miles at a 10:07 min/mile pace. Not too shabby. I don't know if the GPS is entirely accurate. It measures your pace the whole time and records your pace while you're jogging.
Wednesday's Workout:
Strength:
7 x 1 push press
MetCon:
6 min. AMRAP
6 KB swings
4 handstand push-ups (or wall walks)
2 pull-ups
Midline:
4 rounds
10 BB good mornings
50 abmat sit-ups
For the strength I paired up with another woman named Robyn. I'd seen her around but we hadn't talked much. We're both at about the same strength level so we figured we'd get it done together. My 1 RM for push press is now 125 pounds! Remember back when I said I had no arm strength? Yeah...right...about that.
The MetCon was terrible. Prescribed for the kettlebell swings was 53 pounds. I decided to go with the 44 pound, which was a first for me. They told us to go heavy so I did. The part that really sucked was the handstand part. I still can't do a handstand, let alone a push-up so they told us to do wall walks. Wall walks are much slower of a movement than a handstand push-up, so I feel like I kind of got the short end of the straw with that one. Pull-ups I used my standard green band. I ended up finishing 4 + 10 rounds, which all things considered wasn't too shabby!
The midline part sucked! 200 sit-ups...good god. I was thankful that they prescribed it though. I could use some core work.
So because I'm crazy, I ended up running on Wednesday as well...2 hours after the gym. No bueno. The workout was Week 2, Day 1, so it was alternating 1 1/2 minute jog, 2 minute walk. My legs were fried after this. My heart was still keeping up just fine and I didn't feel like I was losing speed or anything, I just hurt afterwards. We ended up doing 2.11 miles at a 10:10 min/mile pace. Little slower, but still not bad.
Thursday I went back for even more torture!
Thursday's workout:
Skill:
8-10 candlestick rolls
12-15 GHD sit-ups
10-15 empty BB OH squats, holding for 3 seconds at the bottom
MetCon:
EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) -- 15 minutes
1 Squat Clean each minute working to a max weight
...then...
10 min. endurance work
Candlestick rolls are kind of funky little buggers. The whole point of a candlestick roll is to not use your hands. So you start in a standing position, then sit backwards until you're sitting on the ground. Then you use a little momentum so put yourself into a laying position. Using that momentum you're supposed to roll back up to a standing position. I can't do them to save my life...still need my damn hands haha! GHD sit-ups are something I'm still getting used to. They're the next difficulty in progression after the abmat sit-ups. Now I'm at a stage where I can rip through 20-30 abmat sit-ups at one time so the next step for me would be to master GHD sit-ups. The thing to get used to with the GHD is that you're going to feel your hip flexors engaging. Now the part that really sucks about that is if you've spent a lot of time that week in a squatting position, because they will be sore and you won't even know it until you get on the GHD. The first 3-4 reps you're going to be like "Aren't these supposed to be helping my abs?"...don't worry, all will be answered in due time (AKA 10 reps). The overhead squats were a nice thing to do for a change. I'm stronger than I used to be in an overhead position, but it was nice to just take a little time to really be able to focus on it.
The MetCon didn't feel like your normal everyday MetCon...even though it was 15 minutes long. Now I'm sure you all know my feelings on squat cleans, but after doing this MetCon I am definitely much more confident with them. It was 15 minutes, 1 rep every minute, working up to a 1 RM. I'd never done a 1 RM for squat clean so I was a little apprehensive and excited at the same time. I started out at like 53 pounds, AKA super light for me. Went up in teeny increments for the first couple minutes, then stayed at the same weight for a couple rounds to work on form, then I just ripped through the last 4 rounds. My 1 RM for a squat clean is 113 pounds. Not too shabby at all. It's about comparable to what I'm able to power clean.
Friday I took the day off of working out to try and prepare for the Catalyst Games as much as possible. I had an awesome breakfast of Margie's paleo style...sweet potato homefries, steak, and 2 eggs over easy. Omg so much noms. I even took the night off of RIT so I could catch as many z's as possible, even though I still ended up going to bed at like midnight.
Yes, yes I know, I'm a horrible blogger since this is like weeks late at this point. I'm trying to get caught up I swear! Life literally has blown up in the past few weeks (also doesn't help that I have crappy internet). I have a to-do list about a mile long that I've been trying to chip away at for the past week and it's awful. I'm hoping things will calm down with the end of the school year but with all the RITA projects I gotta do over the summer, that seems highly unlikely.
Catalyst Games post coming right up!!
I tried to plan my week semi-wisely so that I'd be ready for the games. I worked out at the gym Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and I ran with Melissa on Tuesday and Wednesday. In retrospect, I didn't really take it easy on myself that week...
Monday's workout:
Strength:
1 x 20 back squat Max Effort
Tire flips
MetCon:
7 Min AMRAP
7 DB thrusters (30#)
14 pull-ups
The strength portion I definitely disappointed myself on. I used 105 pounds, but I definitely could have gone higher. I felt challenged but not challenged to the point where my body was considering failing. Oh well. The tire flipping was so much fun! You end up getting into a squat position practically hugging the tire, and then driving up with your legs until it flips over. I ended up using the 300 pound tire. It sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't that bad.
The MetCon was somewhat brutal. I ended up getting through 2 full rounds plus all the thrusters in the 3rd round. The pull-ups really slowed me down. Eventually I'll be able to do a higher volume of them.
Tuesday was running day. It was our last day of the first week...finally! It was alternating 1 min. jog and 1 min. walk. It still felt fairly easy for me since it wasn't a whole lot compared to what crossfit does to me. The GPS tracker said we did 2.04 miles at a 10:07 min/mile pace. Not too shabby. I don't know if the GPS is entirely accurate. It measures your pace the whole time and records your pace while you're jogging.
Wednesday's Workout:
Strength:
7 x 1 push press
MetCon:
6 min. AMRAP
6 KB swings
4 handstand push-ups (or wall walks)
2 pull-ups
Midline:
4 rounds
10 BB good mornings
50 abmat sit-ups
For the strength I paired up with another woman named Robyn. I'd seen her around but we hadn't talked much. We're both at about the same strength level so we figured we'd get it done together. My 1 RM for push press is now 125 pounds! Remember back when I said I had no arm strength? Yeah...right...about that.
The MetCon was terrible. Prescribed for the kettlebell swings was 53 pounds. I decided to go with the 44 pound, which was a first for me. They told us to go heavy so I did. The part that really sucked was the handstand part. I still can't do a handstand, let alone a push-up so they told us to do wall walks. Wall walks are much slower of a movement than a handstand push-up, so I feel like I kind of got the short end of the straw with that one. Pull-ups I used my standard green band. I ended up finishing 4 + 10 rounds, which all things considered wasn't too shabby!
The midline part sucked! 200 sit-ups...good god. I was thankful that they prescribed it though. I could use some core work.
So because I'm crazy, I ended up running on Wednesday as well...2 hours after the gym. No bueno. The workout was Week 2, Day 1, so it was alternating 1 1/2 minute jog, 2 minute walk. My legs were fried after this. My heart was still keeping up just fine and I didn't feel like I was losing speed or anything, I just hurt afterwards. We ended up doing 2.11 miles at a 10:10 min/mile pace. Little slower, but still not bad.
Thursday I went back for even more torture!
Thursday's workout:
Skill:
8-10 candlestick rolls
12-15 GHD sit-ups
10-15 empty BB OH squats, holding for 3 seconds at the bottom
MetCon:
EMOM (Every Minute on the Minute) -- 15 minutes
1 Squat Clean each minute working to a max weight
...then...
10 min. endurance work
Candlestick rolls are kind of funky little buggers. The whole point of a candlestick roll is to not use your hands. So you start in a standing position, then sit backwards until you're sitting on the ground. Then you use a little momentum so put yourself into a laying position. Using that momentum you're supposed to roll back up to a standing position. I can't do them to save my life...still need my damn hands haha! GHD sit-ups are something I'm still getting used to. They're the next difficulty in progression after the abmat sit-ups. Now I'm at a stage where I can rip through 20-30 abmat sit-ups at one time so the next step for me would be to master GHD sit-ups. The thing to get used to with the GHD is that you're going to feel your hip flexors engaging. Now the part that really sucks about that is if you've spent a lot of time that week in a squatting position, because they will be sore and you won't even know it until you get on the GHD. The first 3-4 reps you're going to be like "Aren't these supposed to be helping my abs?"...don't worry, all will be answered in due time (AKA 10 reps). The overhead squats were a nice thing to do for a change. I'm stronger than I used to be in an overhead position, but it was nice to just take a little time to really be able to focus on it.
The MetCon didn't feel like your normal everyday MetCon...even though it was 15 minutes long. Now I'm sure you all know my feelings on squat cleans, but after doing this MetCon I am definitely much more confident with them. It was 15 minutes, 1 rep every minute, working up to a 1 RM. I'd never done a 1 RM for squat clean so I was a little apprehensive and excited at the same time. I started out at like 53 pounds, AKA super light for me. Went up in teeny increments for the first couple minutes, then stayed at the same weight for a couple rounds to work on form, then I just ripped through the last 4 rounds. My 1 RM for a squat clean is 113 pounds. Not too shabby at all. It's about comparable to what I'm able to power clean.
Friday I took the day off of working out to try and prepare for the Catalyst Games as much as possible. I had an awesome breakfast of Margie's paleo style...sweet potato homefries, steak, and 2 eggs over easy. Omg so much noms. I even took the night off of RIT so I could catch as many z's as possible, even though I still ended up going to bed at like midnight.
Yes, yes I know, I'm a horrible blogger since this is like weeks late at this point. I'm trying to get caught up I swear! Life literally has blown up in the past few weeks (also doesn't help that I have crappy internet). I have a to-do list about a mile long that I've been trying to chip away at for the past week and it's awful. I'm hoping things will calm down with the end of the school year but with all the RITA projects I gotta do over the summer, that seems highly unlikely.
Catalyst Games post coming right up!!
Friday, April 26, 2013
Tabata on Crack
So I've fully come to realize that I'm a horrible blogger. It doesn't help that I've put all of my motivation into working out and legitimately forgot that I may have other responsibilities in life. Who'd have thought that would ever come out of my mouth. Honestly, being out of school is all kinds of messing me up. Being in school at least kept me on a semi-regular schedule of homework, class, work, and working out. Once I took the school factor out of the equation and added in a "grown-up" to do list, I just don't know what to do with myself. But I digress. I'll start with last week when I got back from being at home.
I was fortunate enough to get a direct flight that got me back in Rochester at about 10 AM. Win for me. My original plan was to get my butt right off to the gym at my regular noon time. Yeah that didn't go so well. I really just wasn't feeling it mentally. So I went to the vet's office, picked up the puppy and went back to campus to spend the day enjoying the sun. Ended up on an EMS call, go figure. The only bummer moment I had about missing the gym was that I was missing doing the 20 RM back squat for the week. I really wanted to use that day to get over 100 pounds, but I don't know if I actually would have brought myself to do it.
Tuesday I went running with Melissa. We were on Day 2 of the Couch to 5k program so we were still doing a 1 min. jog with a 1 min. walk for 20 minutes. Wasn't too bad. I figured out how to turn the GPS tracker on. We went a total of 2 miles with a 10:03 min/mile pace.
Wednesday I got back to the gym. It was definitely challenging yet somewhat invigorating. Last week we did quarterly baseline workouts so my "warm-up" was a baseline:
500m row
40 air squats
30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
10 pull-ups
In January when I last did this, I was using my knees for the push-ups and the highest assistance band that we have. I finished the entire thing in 7:13. This time round I still used my knees for the push-ups, a more difficult abmat and I used a lower assistance band for the pull-ups. I finished in 6:40. Definitely a major improvement. My goals for next time are going to be to at least get off my knees with the push-ups. I'd also like to bring my 500m row time down a little bit. Right now it's about 1:55. I want to get it down to the 1:40s. I'm still starting off strong but getting tired right around the halfway mark. Either way, it's not like I got a lot of room to complain. We also filled out reflection sheets but I'll get to that later.
Now on to the real work-out:
Strength:
5 x 5 push press, 1 set every 2 min.
MetCon:
"Elizabeth"
21-15-9
Clean
Ring Dips
I really surprised myself with the push press. My 1 RM back in January was 103 pounds, so I was kind of keeping that in mind when they told me I had to do 5. Well long story short, my 1 RM became my 5 RM in the span of 3 months. Ain't that some shit.
Elizabeth went well too! I forget what weight I used for the cleans. Prescribed for women was 95, but I doubt I was that ambitious when I had 21 of them to do. My ring dips are definitely getting better too in regards to the range of motion I can do now. I usually use an assistance band draped between the two rings, but even then I couldn't get very good range of motion. This time I was getting fairly decent range of motion. They gave us a 10 minute cap and I finished in 8:40. Not too shabby at all. Especially with all the work I did.
Thursday I went back for more torture. My arms and back were already in agony.
Skill:
3 rounds NTE:
10-15 supine ring rows
8-12 knees to elbow
8-10 pistol squats
MetCon:
3 min AMRAP:
7 wall balls
7 kettlebell swings
...rest 2 minutes...
3 min AMRAP:
7 push-ups (hand release)
7 broad jumps
Midline:
4 x 10 GHD sit-ups
The skill work was fairly difficult. I'm not quite at the stage of doing fully supine ring rows, so I just hung myself from the rings while keeping my feet on the floor. Knees to elbow are still very difficult because I have this squishy tummy that likes to get in the way. My flexibility is much better than it used to be but I won't be doing any toes to bar anytime soon. My pistol squats are improving. I can get just a bit lower than I used to without any assistance. I call it a win.
The MetCon was rough. For the wall balls I used the 14 pound ball, which was the one prescribed, and the 35 pound kettlebell. I think for this one I got through 3 full rounds and 10 reps into the next one. For the next AMRAP I did full body push-ups. I don't know how long my jump was, but if I had to guess it was somewhere in the 4-5 foot range. With that one I did 2 full rounds plus 13 reps. I was fairly pissed I couldn't get that last rep in and make it 3 rounds. Oh well.
Friday...you guessed it...I went back for even more! My poor legs up until then had been idly standing by waiting for their moment to shine.
Strength:
5 x 3 hang power snatch, 1 set every 2 min.
MetCon:
12 rounds - for total meters
20 sec max effort row
40 sec recovery row
The strength was a little awkward. My arms were already pretty tired so taking a barbell and lifting it from the ground to over my head in one step was a little bit like being on a teeter totter. I finally maxed out at 73 pounds. Wonder what I could have gotten if I wasn't exhausted.
The MetCon was interesting to say the least. I called it tabata on crack. Instead of doing 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, it was 20 seconds of all-out work and 40 seconds of active rest. My total meters were 2432. I thought it was a low number, but apparently in put me higher up in the class than I thought. I guess that means I'm a pretty decent rower? For my max efforts I kept the pace at about 1:45. For the active rest portions, I started around 2:45 and towards the end I was at about 3:20, which is partially why I don't understand how I got that many meters out of it. I didn't think I was pushing that hard in comparison to the rest of the class. Regardless, my legs got the workout they were asking for.
I was supposed to go Saturday but I was pretty much toast by the end of those 3 days. With my horrible diet lately, I still rocking the workouts but my recovery sucks. I still didn't have it in check last week. I was just so out of control. I would have one good meal and then go to the RITA base and go nuts. I was not feeling good about myself. Thursday was the only day I was good because I was at Henrietta all day and I apparently have a little better self-control there. Otherwise I was just horrible. I felt like crap and not feeling like I could get back on track was just making me feel crappier. I was giving it my all during workouts, but I would just feel awful about myself afterwards. I gained back a little bit of the weight I lost during the challenge. Not going to say how much, but I'm not impressed with myself right now. So, once again, the diet is proving to be an issue. I'm still a food addict.
The one thing I did realize last week was that shoes are everything in CrossFit. I got my first pair of Reebok Nano 2.0's and they're absolutely amazing. I'm getting a lot more power in my lifts, because they're very minimalist shoes so I can actually feel the ground instead of feeling through an overly rubbery sole. Honestly, they're all around a wonderful shoe. Not recommended for running, but for the gym and even walking, they're so much more comfortable than running sneakers. I never thought I'd say that shoes are everything.
Well I'm going to cut this short. My computer's dying and the Catalyst Games are tomorrow! I will be updating with my workouts for this past week, along with the detox I finally put myself through. There will also be my results from tomorrow on there! I'm so nervous, it's crazy. They posted the WODs and there are burpee box jumps. Eek.
Anywho, g'night all!
I was fortunate enough to get a direct flight that got me back in Rochester at about 10 AM. Win for me. My original plan was to get my butt right off to the gym at my regular noon time. Yeah that didn't go so well. I really just wasn't feeling it mentally. So I went to the vet's office, picked up the puppy and went back to campus to spend the day enjoying the sun. Ended up on an EMS call, go figure. The only bummer moment I had about missing the gym was that I was missing doing the 20 RM back squat for the week. I really wanted to use that day to get over 100 pounds, but I don't know if I actually would have brought myself to do it.
Tuesday I went running with Melissa. We were on Day 2 of the Couch to 5k program so we were still doing a 1 min. jog with a 1 min. walk for 20 minutes. Wasn't too bad. I figured out how to turn the GPS tracker on. We went a total of 2 miles with a 10:03 min/mile pace.
Wednesday I got back to the gym. It was definitely challenging yet somewhat invigorating. Last week we did quarterly baseline workouts so my "warm-up" was a baseline:
500m row
40 air squats
30 sit-ups
20 push-ups
10 pull-ups
In January when I last did this, I was using my knees for the push-ups and the highest assistance band that we have. I finished the entire thing in 7:13. This time round I still used my knees for the push-ups, a more difficult abmat and I used a lower assistance band for the pull-ups. I finished in 6:40. Definitely a major improvement. My goals for next time are going to be to at least get off my knees with the push-ups. I'd also like to bring my 500m row time down a little bit. Right now it's about 1:55. I want to get it down to the 1:40s. I'm still starting off strong but getting tired right around the halfway mark. Either way, it's not like I got a lot of room to complain. We also filled out reflection sheets but I'll get to that later.
Now on to the real work-out:
Strength:
5 x 5 push press, 1 set every 2 min.
MetCon:
"Elizabeth"
21-15-9
Clean
Ring Dips
I really surprised myself with the push press. My 1 RM back in January was 103 pounds, so I was kind of keeping that in mind when they told me I had to do 5. Well long story short, my 1 RM became my 5 RM in the span of 3 months. Ain't that some shit.
Elizabeth went well too! I forget what weight I used for the cleans. Prescribed for women was 95, but I doubt I was that ambitious when I had 21 of them to do. My ring dips are definitely getting better too in regards to the range of motion I can do now. I usually use an assistance band draped between the two rings, but even then I couldn't get very good range of motion. This time I was getting fairly decent range of motion. They gave us a 10 minute cap and I finished in 8:40. Not too shabby at all. Especially with all the work I did.
Thursday I went back for more torture. My arms and back were already in agony.
Skill:
3 rounds NTE:
10-15 supine ring rows
8-12 knees to elbow
8-10 pistol squats
MetCon:
3 min AMRAP:
7 wall balls
7 kettlebell swings
...rest 2 minutes...
3 min AMRAP:
7 push-ups (hand release)
7 broad jumps
Midline:
4 x 10 GHD sit-ups
The skill work was fairly difficult. I'm not quite at the stage of doing fully supine ring rows, so I just hung myself from the rings while keeping my feet on the floor. Knees to elbow are still very difficult because I have this squishy tummy that likes to get in the way. My flexibility is much better than it used to be but I won't be doing any toes to bar anytime soon. My pistol squats are improving. I can get just a bit lower than I used to without any assistance. I call it a win.
The MetCon was rough. For the wall balls I used the 14 pound ball, which was the one prescribed, and the 35 pound kettlebell. I think for this one I got through 3 full rounds and 10 reps into the next one. For the next AMRAP I did full body push-ups. I don't know how long my jump was, but if I had to guess it was somewhere in the 4-5 foot range. With that one I did 2 full rounds plus 13 reps. I was fairly pissed I couldn't get that last rep in and make it 3 rounds. Oh well.
Friday...you guessed it...I went back for even more! My poor legs up until then had been idly standing by waiting for their moment to shine.
Strength:
5 x 3 hang power snatch, 1 set every 2 min.
MetCon:
12 rounds - for total meters
20 sec max effort row
40 sec recovery row
The strength was a little awkward. My arms were already pretty tired so taking a barbell and lifting it from the ground to over my head in one step was a little bit like being on a teeter totter. I finally maxed out at 73 pounds. Wonder what I could have gotten if I wasn't exhausted.
The MetCon was interesting to say the least. I called it tabata on crack. Instead of doing 20 seconds of work, 10 seconds of rest, it was 20 seconds of all-out work and 40 seconds of active rest. My total meters were 2432. I thought it was a low number, but apparently in put me higher up in the class than I thought. I guess that means I'm a pretty decent rower? For my max efforts I kept the pace at about 1:45. For the active rest portions, I started around 2:45 and towards the end I was at about 3:20, which is partially why I don't understand how I got that many meters out of it. I didn't think I was pushing that hard in comparison to the rest of the class. Regardless, my legs got the workout they were asking for.
I was supposed to go Saturday but I was pretty much toast by the end of those 3 days. With my horrible diet lately, I still rocking the workouts but my recovery sucks. I still didn't have it in check last week. I was just so out of control. I would have one good meal and then go to the RITA base and go nuts. I was not feeling good about myself. Thursday was the only day I was good because I was at Henrietta all day and I apparently have a little better self-control there. Otherwise I was just horrible. I felt like crap and not feeling like I could get back on track was just making me feel crappier. I was giving it my all during workouts, but I would just feel awful about myself afterwards. I gained back a little bit of the weight I lost during the challenge. Not going to say how much, but I'm not impressed with myself right now. So, once again, the diet is proving to be an issue. I'm still a food addict.
The one thing I did realize last week was that shoes are everything in CrossFit. I got my first pair of Reebok Nano 2.0's and they're absolutely amazing. I'm getting a lot more power in my lifts, because they're very minimalist shoes so I can actually feel the ground instead of feeling through an overly rubbery sole. Honestly, they're all around a wonderful shoe. Not recommended for running, but for the gym and even walking, they're so much more comfortable than running sneakers. I never thought I'd say that shoes are everything.
Well I'm going to cut this short. My computer's dying and the Catalyst Games are tomorrow! I will be updating with my workouts for this past week, along with the detox I finally put myself through. There will also be my results from tomorrow on there! I'm so nervous, it's crazy. They posted the WODs and there are burpee box jumps. Eek.
Anywho, g'night all!
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Paleo Challenge Version 2
I know I said I wasn't going to post until I got back to Rochester, but long story short I've had a lot of time to think these past couple days. I fell off the wagon hardcore. I was starting to get good, and then I got bad news from home that my grandfather had passed away, so in a 24 hour time span I ate an entire salami, a bag of Wavy Lays, a container of mashed potatoes, and some mac n' cheese. Yeah...bad. But, life goes on at some point and wallowing ain't gonna get me ready for this competition.
So to help me get back on the wagon, I've designed my own kind of paleo challenge, based off the one that I just did with some modifications. The "core points" are the same. I get 9 points per day for not cheating essentially. I modified the bonus points a little bit though. I took out the ones that were dedicated towards going to paleo events and such and added in some of my own based off of things that I have difficulty with. So I still get bonus points for exercise and 8+ hours of sleep. On top of that, I get 1 bonus point for only having 1 serving of fruit, and I get a bonus point for having 3 good meals in a day. The fruit is a tough one for me because somedays I convince myself that I can use it as a substitute for my sugar cravings and be guilt free. The 3 meals a day is going to be a big one for me because with my falling off the bandwagon, I stopped sleeping as well. So I'm going to need to get back on the sleeping and eating breakfast schedule.
With this plan, I can get a maximum of 88 points. 63 points come from the "core points". A maximum of 7 points can come from sleeping 8+ hours per night as well as only having 1 serving of fruit and 3 meals. A maximum of 4 points can come from exercise.
My goal for this challenge is going to be to get over 78 points per week, which leaves me with enough leeway for those recipes that may call for cheese or something along those lines. Like I said before, I'm not going as crazy as I did with the real paleo challenge, but I'm just trying to establish guidelines for myself since I clearly still need them to some extent.
So how am I going to reward myself? For every week that I get 78+ points, I'm putting aside $20 to go towards some smaller clothes. There are 6 weeks between now and June. If I'm good, that's a lotta money. I figure doing something like this may teach me some frugality at the same time. And by frugality I mean making my own damn meals. I really don't spend that much money on myself. It's just all from when I go out to eat constantly. Heck, if I do well, I may even make it $40 per week, but $20 of it actually has to go in my savings account. We'll see how it all goes. I don't want to go too crazy right out of the starting gate and get discouraged.
As a form of accountability, I will be posting a picture of my point sheet on here every Sunday. Technically since I'll still be here tomorrow, I'll probably just take the hit and start right on Monday when I have a little more control over what I eat. Haven't exactly explained to my Italian mother that I can't have pasta...
So there's my thought process of today. I think this will work swimmingly. I really need to detox myself before this competition. Somehow I've still been rocking the workouts, but as I've found out in the past, it's not sustainable without a good diet behind it. Plus I still have my eyes set on that weight goal before the summer. I'm not planning any crazy vacations, but I'd still like to chill at the pool and feel comfortable in my own skin. I'd love a vacation, but I wouldn't even know where to go or how I can truly get myself away from life for a week. I sat in the airport yesterday and listened to them announce flights to Bermuda and Barbados and I thought to myself how easy it would be for me to just go. I could just get on the plane, buy myself a bathing suit and a towel once I got there and just hide from everyone for like a week. But alas, I didn't.
Alright, rant off. It's bedtime.
So to help me get back on the wagon, I've designed my own kind of paleo challenge, based off the one that I just did with some modifications. The "core points" are the same. I get 9 points per day for not cheating essentially. I modified the bonus points a little bit though. I took out the ones that were dedicated towards going to paleo events and such and added in some of my own based off of things that I have difficulty with. So I still get bonus points for exercise and 8+ hours of sleep. On top of that, I get 1 bonus point for only having 1 serving of fruit, and I get a bonus point for having 3 good meals in a day. The fruit is a tough one for me because somedays I convince myself that I can use it as a substitute for my sugar cravings and be guilt free. The 3 meals a day is going to be a big one for me because with my falling off the bandwagon, I stopped sleeping as well. So I'm going to need to get back on the sleeping and eating breakfast schedule.
With this plan, I can get a maximum of 88 points. 63 points come from the "core points". A maximum of 7 points can come from sleeping 8+ hours per night as well as only having 1 serving of fruit and 3 meals. A maximum of 4 points can come from exercise.
My goal for this challenge is going to be to get over 78 points per week, which leaves me with enough leeway for those recipes that may call for cheese or something along those lines. Like I said before, I'm not going as crazy as I did with the real paleo challenge, but I'm just trying to establish guidelines for myself since I clearly still need them to some extent.
So how am I going to reward myself? For every week that I get 78+ points, I'm putting aside $20 to go towards some smaller clothes. There are 6 weeks between now and June. If I'm good, that's a lotta money. I figure doing something like this may teach me some frugality at the same time. And by frugality I mean making my own damn meals. I really don't spend that much money on myself. It's just all from when I go out to eat constantly. Heck, if I do well, I may even make it $40 per week, but $20 of it actually has to go in my savings account. We'll see how it all goes. I don't want to go too crazy right out of the starting gate and get discouraged.
As a form of accountability, I will be posting a picture of my point sheet on here every Sunday. Technically since I'll still be here tomorrow, I'll probably just take the hit and start right on Monday when I have a little more control over what I eat. Haven't exactly explained to my Italian mother that I can't have pasta...
So there's my thought process of today. I think this will work swimmingly. I really need to detox myself before this competition. Somehow I've still been rocking the workouts, but as I've found out in the past, it's not sustainable without a good diet behind it. Plus I still have my eyes set on that weight goal before the summer. I'm not planning any crazy vacations, but I'd still like to chill at the pool and feel comfortable in my own skin. I'd love a vacation, but I wouldn't even know where to go or how I can truly get myself away from life for a week. I sat in the airport yesterday and listened to them announce flights to Bermuda and Barbados and I thought to myself how easy it would be for me to just go. I could just get on the plane, buy myself a bathing suit and a towel once I got there and just hide from everyone for like a week. But alas, I didn't.
Alright, rant off. It's bedtime.
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Coming to a MetCon Near You
So as of last post, I'd decided that while I had done a few higher box jumps and some pull-ups with less resistance, I realized that they weren't to the level of being used during a workout yet. I didn't feel ready to be doing a whole ton of them all at once. Well I didn't exactly get that option this week...
Monday's WOD:
Strength:
1 x 20 back squat
MetCon:
21-15-9
Deadlifts
Box Jumps
*Use the remaining time for any mobility/skill work
The back squats went well. I went up in weight again to 98 pounds. I maybe could have done 103, but the 98 was pretty hard in itself. After all this my 1 RM is going to shoot through the roof. Last time I did it, it was 135. Not anymore!
We got to the MetCon part and we were informed that the deadlifts should be heavy and the box jumps should be high. She told us to go up one interval from what we usually use. Well for me, that's a 20" box. I'd only gotten a couple jumps in last Friday, not 21. And I certainly wasn't going to have my little runway to get a walking head start. The deadlifts I just used the 98 pounds from the squats. I can go heavier in deadlifts, but I have this tendency once I tire out my quads, that I'll start using bad form when doing deadlifts so I didn't want to kill myself.
I ended up using the 20" box. It actually wasn't that bad. I got it so that all I needed was like a two-step headstart. I did use a little hop in one of the steps to get a little extra momentum but once I got the motions down, I ended up getting right through it. I finished in a time of 11:57, which put me about in the middle of the pack. I was happy.
After the workout was done there were a few minutes left so I decided to add in some midline work and do abmat sit-ups. I did 2 sets of 20 before I called it quits. I wasn't feeling it a whole lot then, but 24 hours later I sure was! So I decided to add in sit-ups at least twice a week.
Tuesday I started running again! I have this app on my phone called couch to 5k so Tuesday was Day 1 for a friend and I. It went really well. Crossfit has helped my cardiorespiratory fitness immensely. Only problem is no amount of box jumps and jump roping could prepare my calves for what pavement felt like. But at least all I gotta worry about is running through a little pain instead of having to worry about breathing at the same time. It actually felt good to run again, minus the fact that I was losing my pants. I've been having fitgirl problems lately...I bought these awesome workout pants and 2 weeks later they don't fit me. Damnitttt. I mean, they're still good for crossfitting, they just don't stay on very well while running.
Went back to the gym on Wednesday:
Strength:
5 x 5 push press, 1 set every 2 min.
MetCon:
5 min. AMRAP
- 20 kettlebell swings
- 10 pullups
...rest 2 min...
3 min. AMRAP
- 15 kettlebell swings
- 6 pullups
...rest 2 min...
3 min. AMRAP
- Max effort pullups
I amazed myself with the push presses. I didn't truly realize how built up my shoulders were getting until I hit 103 pounds with my last set of 5, and it wasn't even that hard! It was heavy, but not impossible. I checked my 1 RM after class since I had my binder there just to see how I compared. Well, my 1RM for push presses is now my 5 RM. Guess that means I'm going to need to re-test my 1 rep again sometime!
The MetCon was tough but I did really well! Remember how I said my green band pull-ups weren't quite ready to be showcased yet? Well I did it anyway. During the 5 minute AMRAP I got 2 + 17 rounds. During the 3 minute I got 1 + 17 rounds, and during the last one I got 10 pull-ups. My pull-ups are really coming along. I know what people say about kipping pull-ups (they're not cheating!) but by doing them I really got to activate my back muscles, which you're supposed to do even during strict pull-ups, but with those I've usually used my shoulders. My back was such an untapped source of power until I really got the hang of kipping. Like I really beasted through those pull-ups and really worked hard at getting that range of motion. Only problem is, I went so hard with the first two rounds, that by the last round I could barely get 2 pull-ups at a time. I don't really see how I can complain though considering I haven't touched a black band since last week. Let me tell you, I'm really feeling it today though. My biceps hurt, my back hurts, even my forearms hurt. I'mma be popping Aleve tomorrow.
I'm not going to be able to go to the gym anymore this week because I'm heading home tomorrow for a quick trip. I think I'm coming back Monday or Tuesday so I won't be missing too too much, but with a competition coming up, I'm worried about missing days. We were told a couple days ago that we would be getting updates soon on movement standards so I'm a little nervous to hear about that. Also have to get back to the running schedule next week too.
The real bummer is that I have this really cute dress and new shoes and nothing to wear them too. Honestly the proudest moment I had yesterday was walking around the store with heels on and all I could notice were my calf muscles. It's been awhile since I've seen those! Oh well, I'll find something to wear them to eventually.
Yesterday we celebrated my baby boy's 2nd birthday. He got a big rawhide bone, along with 2 new toys and a bullystick. So at least he got to be happy for a bit.
Heading to bed. Probably won't update until next week since there won't really be anything notable to update on.
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