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.

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!!

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!

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.

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.

How Time Flies...

Didn't I tell you I'd forget something?! Sorry it's been a week without a post. Between having crappy internet and 5 thousand other things to do, I kind of slacked off a bit.

But anywho...

After finishing this paleo thing, I decided to come up with a "bucket list" of Crossfit movements that I want to master in the near future:
1). 20" box jumps
2). Double-unders
3). Pull-ups with a green assistance band
4). Handstands

I feel like I spent the entire challenge adding to this bucket list but these are the 4 that really stick out to me.

Worked out Monday morning. They definitely got us good. Woke up and checked the WOD and nearly had a heart attack. I can officially say that I got April Fools'd.

April Fools WOD:
1 mile run
100 chin to bar pull-ups
200 handstand push-ups
300 pistol squats
1 mile run
...rest 5 min...
Establish 20 rep max back squat

Oh yeah, they got me good. Nawt cool. It took me until the 300 pistol squats to realize I'd been had. So the REAL WOD for Monday was:

Strength:
20 rep max back squat

MetCon:
EMOM (Every Minute On the Minute) for 20 minutes
   - odd minutes: 3 deadlifts
   - even minutes: max effort burpees

I used 93 pounds for the back squats, and 133 pounds for the deadlifts. The MetCon definitely sucked a lot. The most burpees I got in one round was 12, and that was the first round. For the first 6-ish rounds I was averaging about 8 burpees, my final total being 66. Wasn't very impressed but I took it.

The rest of the week was uneventful. Only got to the gym one other time because I got sick again and was working. Well...the jury's still out on whether I was sick or got allergies, because both are fairly likely. What I DID spend my week doing was fatty-ing myself up again on all the foods I've been missing (damn). There was Chinese food, garbage plates, and various other non-paleo items. It was a bad idea, I felt like crap. Part of the problem was not having food in the house that I was interested in eating. Getting back to paleo = work in progress.

Friday was Open WOD 13.5...the last one. They nicknamed it Fran-RAP.

4 Minute AMRAP
15 Thrusters (65 pounds)
15 Chest to Bar pull-ups

*If you complete 3 full rounds within 4 minutes, you get 4 more minutes added to the clock

This was killer but I beasted through it. Well...beasted in my terms which usually means not stopping and just going at it full force. 65 pound thrusters weren't nearly as bad as I thought they'd be. The last time I did thrusters, I used 73 pounds so it was a little lighter this time. I used my usual resistance band for the pull-ups. The tough part about these pull-ups were that they were chest to bar, not chin to bar so you had to pull yourself up even higher than we usually do. I ended up kipping a bit. My final score was 48, which means I got through the full sequence twice and got 3 thrusters done. That's freaking amazing for me.

Since that was the only thing we were doing that day we got a lot of free time at the end of class, so I decided to try some of my "bucket list" movements: 20" box jump, green band pull-ups, and I threw double-unders in there just because everyone else was doing it.

I started with the pull-ups since our coach was going over kipping pull-ups with a lot of people. I tried a couple strict pull-ups with the green band and just barely got my eyes over the bar, so I went with kipping. Kipping with an assistance band must look so comical to the people standing on the ground watching you do it because you feel like a whale that's tied up in elastics. But regardless, I did it. I started with one pull-up, then kept progressing until I could get 5 in a row. I didn't want to go too crazy since I was already kind of tired, so I was happy with the 5 in a row.

After that came the box jumps. I warmed up with the 16" box a little bit, then pulled out the 20" box. I started with some step-ups just to get a feel for the height. A couple of the other guys were hanging around watching me and asked me what I was doing. I told them I just wanted to jump on the damn thing once. After doing a couple step-ups, I stood next to it and did a couple vertical jumps. They told me I was clearing the box with a decent couple of inches so I decided to just go for it. I stepped back from it a few paces so I could get a walking headstart. There were a couple failed attempts but I finally did it! I definitely did a little dance on top of that thing. After that I kept trying it. I still needed a walking head start before I could even contemplate jumping on that thing because it was definitely still fairly intimidating! I knew I was starting to get tired when I was getting more failed attempts than actual jumps so I put that one away for the time being.

Last but not least, double-unders. I honestly don't know what hurts more - whipping yourself with a jumprope or burpees because they're fairly neck and neck with that one. I didn't quite get one because my arms and legs were fairly exhausted by the time I got to trying it out, but I at least left with some good pointers on how to do them.

So after being so productive, I made workout goals for myself. On days that aren't leg intensive, I told myself I'd stay after a little longer to work on the box jumps. On days that aren't arm intensive, I decided I'd work on pull-ups and double-unders. It seemed like a really good plan at the time.

After all that, I was actually kind of feeling better, so I decided to go banquet shopping. I'd cleaned out my closet of a whole ton of things that don't fit any longer and I really wanted to get myself a nice cheap dress that I could feel good in, but also feel good getting rid of at the beginning of the summer when I've lost more weight. Let me tell you, it was SO amazing to be in a dressing room and feeling torn between dresses because you have several that look good on you. I'm still not the size I wanted to be, but it was still a pretty amazing feeling. Now if only I could get myself back on the damn paleo!

In between all of this, I'm still going on long walks about 2 or 3 times per week, Sunday being the longest one at 5 miles. The weekend was beautiful. Sun was shining both days. Sunday was a little warmer though. I spent all day Saturday outside doing a cones course so I was walking around everywhere and even managed to get a sunburn! Sunday we had meetings, and I got to just spend a little time sitting at the picnic table before our walk. Sometimes even the most non-intensive exercise still feels good.

This post is going to end on the weekend because the next one is going to segway into how my plan has worked out for me so far this week.

It's Really Only the Beginning

So Saturday was final measurement day. If I try to tell anyone I wasn't nervous, just smack me, I was losing my goddamn mind. But let's back up here. Hope you've got some coffee because this is going to be a long one!

I ended up going to the gym Thursday evening. I was kind of disappointed because he wanted us doing a box jump height that would allow us to do box jumps unbroken. So it didn't end up being a good day to try a 20" box. What I DID try was jumping on the box without walking up to it or using a lot of momentum before I actually jumped. I just worked on standing in front of the box, and jumping on it. It ended up working pretty well. It's starting to show that I'm getting confident enough with the 16" that I don't need to get practically a running headstart. It may not have been a 20" box, but it's something. The MetCon (4 rounds of 5 axle thrusters and 10 burpees) wasn't that bad at all. It actually really helped with getting me ready for yesterday's baseline WOD. An axle bar is different from a regular barbell. It's lighter and thicker and doesn't have any rotating parts so you really have to make sure that you're getting the rotation from your arms, not the momentum of the actual lift. I did those with 60 pounds. Maybe I could have gone heavier but my muscles were just about ready to give up.

Came home from the gym, made a really simple dinner and was in bed by 11. Slept until 1030 the next morning. I think I was a little tired. I ended up cancelling my reservation for the Friday class because I just really wanted to rest. Instead I ended up gathering a few friends and checking out a walking trail in Rush, which was absolutely beautiful. We probably did between 2.5 and 3 miles.

I did a lot of meal prepping Friday afternoon. I made Sweet Potato Pancakes, Zucchini Pancakes, Sweet Potato Chips, Crockpot Beef Stew, and Meat Candy. I totally reminded myself of my grandmother. I was sitting at the kitchen table peeling sweet potatoes and shredding them while I was watching Glee. I did end up slicing my finger with the mandoline slicer. Nothing too major but I can now saw I shed blood for the sake of paleo.

Sweet Potato Pancakes:
2 medium sweet potatoes
Bacon fat
2 eggs
Salt/pepper

Peel and shred the sweet potatoes, and add to a bowl with the eggs and the salt/pepper. Mix until the eggs get well-distributed. Heat up a skillet with the bacon fat. I used a little 1/4 cup measuring cup to ladle the batter into the pan. Cook the pancake on both sides until browned. 

Sweet Potato Chips:
2 sweet potatoes
Olive oil
Salt/pepper or other seasonings

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Slice the sweet potatoes into thin rounds. I placed the slices on a cookie sheet and misted with olive oil, but you can also add the slices to a bowl, drizzle a little olive oil and mix it by hand. Add the desired seasonings. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Crockpot Beef Stew:
1 lb. stew beef
1 bag frozen pearl onions
3 tbsp. almond meal
Salt/pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning, cinnamon
3 large carrots cut into small rounds
3/4 tbsp. red wine vinegar (you can also use red wine)
1 1/2 cups beef broth
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces

Mix the stew beef and almond meal together in the crockpot until the beef is well-coated. Add in the seasonings and mix. Add in carrots, onion, red wine vinegar and beef broth. Set the crockpot to low (for a 7 hour cooking time) or high (for a 5 hour cooking time). In the last 45 minutes, add the sweet potatoes and cook until tender. 

Meat Candy:
Dates
Bacon (cut into 1/3's) 
Toothpicks

I didn't put an exact amount of dates and bacon with this one since it all depends how many you want to make. If the dates aren't pitted, pit them. Wrap a piece of bacon around a date and secure with a toothpick. If you want your meat candy to be very meaty, use longer pieces of bacon. Place dates on a cookie sheet and back at 350 for 15 minutes. 

I'm up in the air on how I feel about the beef stew. The recipe usually calls for gnocchi which end up soaking up the last little bit of liquid and making it a nice thick stew. Apparently just putting sweet potatoes in there doesn't do the same so it's still somewhat liquid-like. I'm on the fence about how I feel about it.

The sweet potato pancakes are a little weird. They just have a strange taste to them, I don't know if I should have added more seasonings or what.

Saturday morning came and I was super nervous, on top of being tired from not sleeping a whole lot the night before. Took Mack to the vet really quick and had a quick breakfast of a boiled egg and a couple pieces of bacon with about half a water bottle's worth of water. I didn't feel like being weighed down.

Got to the gym and the first task was to get weighed and measured. Here are my final measurements compared with my beginning measurements that they took:

February 16th:
Shoulders: 20"
Chest: 42 3/4"
Waist: 43"
Hips: 50"
R Arm: 14"
R Thigh: 26 1/2"
R Calf: 17"
% Body Fat: 34.5

March 30th:
Shoulders: 20"
Chest: 43"
Waist: 39"
Hips: 45"
R Arm: 14"
R Thigh: 26"
R Calf: 17"
% Body Fat: 32.7

So, contrary to my belief, I actually lost all of the inches in my waist and hips. I'd like to see more weight come off of those areas as well as my thighs, but for 6 weeks I'd say that's pretty damn good. It added up to 10 inches total lost, 1.8% body fat, and 14 pounds. Not bad at all I'd say.

The numbers are great and all, but wait until you see this baseline WOD. The idea was to use the exact same weights and modifications as the original baseline. If you only did kettlebell swings up to your chin, that's what you did this time around.

Baseline WOD:
Max effort pull-ups (using a black resistance band and strict pull-ups)
12 minute MetCon:
12 - 9 - 6
Kettlebell Swings (26# - modified swing to chin)
Clusters (Squat Clean + Thruster -- 53#)
Burpee Box Jumps (16")

February 16th Results:
10 pull-ups
2 rounds + 7 reps in 12 minutes

March 30th Results:
12 pull-ups
MetCon finished in 11:32

Seriously, if anyone needed any proof that paleo and a little determination works, here's your proof. Yes I did all that eating bacon, steak, and sweet potatoes. My body literally turned itself into a machine. That box is definitely still intimidating when you're exhausted and pairing it with burpees. Nothing is fun when paired with burpees. Either way, I'm still entirely amazed. I still have a lot of work to do. I want to lose 23 more pounds before the summer. Now I could sit here and agonize over what my results would have looked like if I didn't cheat, but if there's anything I've learned, a little cheat here and there wasn't what killed me. My body just wasn't made to lose a lot of weight in a short amount of time.  So we're going to see what the next two months have in store for me. I'm still just living on the high that I've had since Saturday.

Yesterday I spent the day cleaning out my closets. I knew there were plenty of clothes that still weren't going to fit me, mostly because I got them back in freshman year, still 20 pounds ago. So I didn't agonize over those. My goal was to find the things that didn't fit because they were too big. I started with the dutyshirts. I found out that I'm no longer a large (men-sized) shirt. I had a couple mediums laying around so the larges definitely came out of the closet. As far as dress sizes go, I'm definitely a 14 now. Both of the dresses I bought for graduation no longer fit.

There is definitely some stuff that I'm in limbo with. My bikini looks a little better on me, while my bathing suit from last summer essentially still fits perfectly. With stuff like denim skirts, I'm kind of in limbo between a 14 and a 16, so I think I'm going to hold off on skirts/jean shopping until I'm at least one or the other, hopefully the smaller one. I find it weird how you can drop a couple sizes in one kind of clothing, but either stay the same or still not fit in another kind of clothing. Regardless, I now have a mini skirt from a couple summers ago hanging on my wall as motivation.

I did end up taking a couple pictures yesterday. I won't put up the bikini pictures just because it's still kind of scary. But I did get these...

That's me in October wearing a pair of new EMT pants that I never got to wear. They're Size 18, which in the real world equates to about a Size 14. Between October and January, my size didn't change that much. Those pants still didn't fit me at the beginning of the challenge.

That's me yesterday wearing those same pants with a medium dutyshirt. Actually I've been wearing those pants for about 2 weeks now, just never got a picture with them until now. I may not be able to detect the little changes while I'm wearing a bikini, but this is where you can really see them.

My current end goal for the beginning of June is to be another 20 pounds down, and hopefully comfortably fitting into Size 14 jeans, if not smaller. As far as performance goals go, I want to be getting on a 20" box as well as going down one resistance band in pull-ups (as in, black to green). I have two months to accomplish those. I get the feeling it'll take me a bit less time, but I figure I shouldn't go too crazy. Also got the Catalyst Games coming up in 26 days!

So what would a diet challenge be without a few post-challenge cheat meals. Yesterday I attacked the chocolate. A couple friends also came over and we made Matzah ball soup for "lunch". For dinner I had chinese food with some hard cider. Tonight I had Salsarita's, and a garbage plate. I can now officially say my bucket list has been fulfilled and I'm ready to hit it again tomorrow! I officially signed up for the Biggest Loser challenge at work so we'll see how far I can go with that! Like I said, I'm going to stay about 90% paleo. If I happen to use butter or maple syrup, or even real milk here and there, I'm not going to curl up in a corner and cry, but I wouldn't use those things for anything other than cooking. I don't plan on drinking glasses of milk per day. This lifestyle has definitely worked for me, but at the same time, I'd go stir crazy if I remained paleo to the extent that I did for the past 6 weeks.

Alright I think I've made this post long enough. I'm sure I'll remember something I forgot, but that's what tomorrow's post is for!

G'night all!