Hip extensions galore

Another great WOD at CrossFit KoP.

5 Rounds for time of:

• 500M Row
• Barbell Thrusters, 15 reps (95#/65#)

Results: 23:58 Rx

Had some great motivation from the coaches, and from Steph, whose blog I've been reading for a few months now. She's just as awesome in person as she sounds in her writing. :) Now that I've sent her the link to this blog, I hope that motivates me to write more about the emotional / mental side to CrossFit.

I'm still hitting my wall where I can't bring myself to do oly lifts while I'm extremely out of breath... KB swings, situps, running and some other simple movement I'm cool with just pushing pushing pushing, but with the more complex movements with the barbell I need a bunch of time to breath, prep, think, stall. This is crap, though, because how can I get my intensity up if I don't just push through it? Something to keep thinking about and working on...

One thing that I love about CFKoP is how people call you on standing over the bar -- which I do a lot. When they see you leaning over and just holding the bar, breathing heavy, they get in your face and tell you to grab that thing and MOVE IT. Steph did a "3-2-1-UP!" countdown, and I've had another coach there do that same thing. Definitely something to add to my coaching arsenal once I complete the Level I cert in March.

I'm pumped that Husbeetle got some coaching on his squats. He needed to go wider in his stance, and point his feet out more to get his hips and knees in line. He did the thrusters Rx'd with 95#, and only needed a few corrections. His time was 24:57, and he did a 10 thruster set on his first round. As usual, I'm super proud. :-D

Hoping to be back in KoP at 9am tomorrow. :)

And she smokes their asses!

I'm in a freaking awesome mood because I totally blew away all the times on the whiteboard at the gym tonight. And I think I really motivated the 3 other ladies in there, because they did awesome too.

Great night!

WOD:

7 rounds for time.

• 12 kettle swings (24k/16)
• 9 box jumps 24"
• 100m overhead waiters walk (45lb plate/25)

Results:  23 or 24 minutes-ish. Best time on the board prior was 27-28 range, with most in the mid-30's. Woot!

This WOD definitely played up to my strengths. I love box jumps (I have since I did plyometrics for high school track) and I love kettlebell swings. And my secret time-saving weapon on the waiters walk is to jog a little bit. It makes everybody else crazy when I do that, heh. :)

Loooooong time

Um, I think I kinda forgot the "for time" portion while doing today's workout? Maybe because I was the only one in the gym for the 8:30 class? When I got done my time just freaking cracked me up, because both times from the 6:30am class were in the 20's.

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3 rounds for time of:

• 400m run
• 45 deadlifts (135lbs/85)
• 25 ring dips

Results: 42:10 -- 85lb deadlifts, ring dips with smallest assist band

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I took a lot of rest in my first and third set of deadlifts -- I think that killed my time more than having to do a lot of the ring dips in sets of 1.

As I was finishing up my first set of deadlifts, my back was killing me. The second set felt awesome, I got in the zone. Then the third I just felt like my form was all over the place, though my back wasn't as tight as the first set, so I think my form had improved.

But at least I got my wish from yesterday to work on my legs!

This is my second time doing ring dips with the bands (1st time), and I'm definitely getting better.

Glad I banged this thing out in the morning, lots of errands to do today.

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One more thought. I rowed 750m today in my warmup, and kept my pace right around 2:10, which was awesome. I can't wait to see how I can do on the 1000m row on Jackie. I'm also anxious to do another 2k row and improve my time on that benchmark.

Man makers

Was kind of a boring class this morning. My normal 8:30am workout buddy comes in the afternoon on Wednesdays, and I was the only one there. Blah. Oh well, at least I got my workout done for today. :)

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WOD

3 rounds for time:

• 400m run
• 10 DB man-makers (35lbs/25)
• 20 sit ups

Results: 27:14, as Rx'd

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See video demonstrating man-makers below. They are kind of a burpee variant. This week is really making me see that I need to make pushup work more of a priority -- that is really holding me back from good times on some workouts.

And OMG my 3rd run was soooooo sloooooow. Holy cow. This lady needs to do some major work on her cardiovascular fitness. It's really lame that I can power clean 125, but I'm slogging along so badly on the fast-paced workouts.

Steamy Friday afternoon

Ick, it got hot today!

I worked out at 4pm because this AM I was attending Jane Wayne Day on base. I got a little warm-up there -- we did a modified version of the CFT. That stands for "combat fitness test". We did the "movement under fire" portion of the test. Scroll to the bottom of this article for a graphic. Husband wasn't there, he was in charge of a different station, so I drug and fireman carried a Marine who was about the same weight as him, 170lbs. Damn that 20 yard drag was freaking hard! Fireman carry was much easier in comparison. I was surprised at how well I could do that, my legs are definitely getting strong. :)

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WOD:

4 rounds for time:

• 21 sumo deadlift high pull (95lbs/65)
• 15 hang cleans (95lbs/65)
• 9 cal row

Results: 21:03 RX weights

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I'm not a big fan of rowing for calories. It's just weird. Maybe if the calories were shown in decimal increments, but they just go 1-2-3... Kind of annoying to see 8 and be waiting for it to suddenly flip to 9. I felt like it distracted me from just rowing well.

I probably could've done bigger sets, but after the first round, I pretty much stuck with sets of 5 for the hang cleans and the SDHPs. I was really dreading doing 65lb SDHPs before the workout started, but it wasn't that bad. Maybe it wasn't that bad because I only did 5 at a time? I dunno. :)

I do have to say that I hate that no matter what, after almost every workout, I'm still left feeling a little disappointed in myself. But my time was really good for RX weight, I did great. I need to start focusing on feeling satisfied with my performance. Being a perfectionist has some good results, but mostly it just makes you feel guilty or not good enough.

Blackjack

I got back in time to attend my Camp Swampy gym at 5pm, so I did their WOD.

WOD:

For time.

Start with 20 push ups and 1 sit up. Each round reduce 1 push up and add 1 sit up until you reach 1 push up and 20 sit ups.

Results: 26:?? (I have a bad memory for my times even though I check them as I walk out the gym door)

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Even though I had a really slow time compared to others, I felt that I was really getting in the full range of motion on my pushups and situps, so I was OK with it.

I will push the envelope a little more on the pushups next time. My issue today was that when I would try to go for 2 or 3 in a row, I would crap out at the bottom, and then "waste" the downward movement effort. So I was doing them 1 at a time, and then pushing back into a child's pose kind of position to take the pressure off my arms.

This will be a good workout to use as a benchmark as I improve my pushups. I wonder if one day I will be able to do the whole thing with "real" pushups, instead of on my knees. That would kick so much ass. :)

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For cool down, it was "work on something you suck at". So I did some pullups on the small band, overhead squats (worked up to 55lbs, woot!) and I worked on my headstand with my knees on my elbows. I have no idea what that's called, but it's the starting point I'm going from for handstand pushups. From that position, I'm working on raising my legs into the air and holding them straight up with no support. Then I'll move on to working on handstands against the wall, and then actually doing the "push up" part. :)

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Video that I really liked from CrossFit Portland.

A tribute to women of CrossFit Portland from CrossFit Portland on Vimeo.

Vacation WOD in NC

Fell back asleep this AM when I was supposed to work out, so I had to fit in a quickie before getting my niece and nephew off the bus this afternoon. Tried to incorporate a warm-up into the workout by starting with low reps.

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WOD:

For time. Each round increase reps by 5: 5-10-15-20-25

Squats

Push Ups

Alternating reverse lunges

Sit Ups

DB Push Presses (12lb dbs)

Results: 17:32, and sweaty :)

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Heading home from my journey tomorrow AM. I think I'll do a run when I get back.

Crossfit cripple

Oh yes, that is me today.

I skipped yesterday because I was super sore. But then today I told myself, "Self, if you go and do the workout it will loosen you up, and you'll feel better."

Um, yeah, so not true.

My armpits hurt. I had no idea I had so many muscles in my armpit area. And my chest muscles hurt. Not to mention my scabbed over hands are now cracking open. Tuesday is still wreaking havoc on my body. Ack.

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WOD:

3 rounds for time

• 500m row
• 25 kettle bell swings (24k/16)
• 25 double unders (substitute 125 regular jump ropes)

Result: 20:48 (did regular jump ropes)

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Obviously this workout shows that I need to learn to do double-unders. Need to find some videos on learning that.

I felt like total ass swinging the kettlebell, and usually I really enjoy that movement. Maybe it was just a lot heavier than I've done in a while? Most likely. It felt like it was 50 pounds, and I thought it was just going to fly out of my hands. My form sucked, I couldn't get my hips to snap because my grip just felt so tenuous. Stopped to rest a lot. Definitely a workout to try again in a few weeks and see how I've improved.

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Tomorrow I'm running a 5k, and Husbeetle is running a half-marathon. He's such a sexy beast, and I love him for it. We'll do a 1/2 together sometime soon. :)

Kelly "Lite"

WOD: Kelly "Lite"

3 rounds ("regular" Kelly is 5 rounds)

• 400m run
• 30 box jumps 24"
• 30 wall ball shots (20lbs/14)

Results: 29:36 as RX'd

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I pushed myself by using the 24'' box, and the 14lb med ball -- lots of the chicks at the gym today scaled down to 10lb ball, blah to that (but hell no to the 20lb'er). I also tried to use the 8' line on the wall, instead of the lower line for women. I honestly think the lower line is kind of a cop-out when the weight is already scaled down.

But at the same time, I think I could've pushed myself harder on the runs, and also on the wall balls. I wasn't keeping up any kind of rhythm with them, just doing random sets of 2, 3, 4, 5. I'd like to blame yesterday's total shoulder annihilation, but I just wasn't focusing and pushing myself. I'll do better on those next time.

My box jumps kicked total fucking ass. I was feeling good about being the only chick at 5pm or 6pm jumping the 24'' box. I think at least 2 of those ladies were selling themselves short, and could've done awesome on 24'', but did 20''.

Skin removal in 60 minutes or less!

Today's WOD

800m run

21-18-15-12-9-6-3 of

* body weight bench press

* pullups

800m run

My results:

• 55:23
• Bench - 65lbs for 21 and half of 18, then 55lbs
• Pullups - used white band for assist up to set of 9, then switched to blue; skin ripped during set of 9

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I just finished using my nail trimmer to remove two skin flaps that used to be attached to my palm. Lovely! Here's the result:

No to scare anyone off, you are certainly welcome to wear gloves or wrap your hands. It didn't happen until I had already done 66 pullups, which is a pretty high number for one workout. I did 96 total for the whole workout.

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Thank God I have been getting better and better at the kipping motion for pullups. WOD's with high reps of pullups were usually occasions where I would almost start crying out of frustration in the past. Not even having bands to help was enough to get my chin up over the bar when I was just doing a dead-hang motion. Ugh.

PS - No, I don't wear my wedding ring while working out. That would really create some nasty side effects in terms of calluses and skin flaps. And the white stuff is chalk. :)

Performance anxiety?

So, right after announcing I will be tracking my workouts here, I took an entire week off. Whaaaaa?

It was pretty much caused by the husbeetle going to another base to shoot for the week, and my schedule/attitude being shot to hell due to being home alone. But still, kind of interesting timing in terms of starting up the new blog.

In any case, I did a quick run on Saturday night (3.3 miles, 32 minutes) to get my body moving, and then was back in the gym at 8:30 this morning.

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WOD:

Complete the following for time:

4 clean & jerks (155lbs/95)

4 power snatch (135lbs/85)

20 GHD sit ups

3 clean & jerks

3 power snatch

15 GHD sit ups

2 clean & jerks

2 power snatch

10 GHD sit ups

1 clean & jerk

1 power snatch

5 GHD sit ups

Results: 13:36 (95 C&J, 65 power snatch)

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My biggest weakness right now is how out of breath I get. I have to rest and slow my breathing to be able to get the weight up. If I try a lift while I'm still huffing and puffing, I end up doing half the motion and then dumping the bar.

The power snatches were annoying. But that is the nature of the snatch. I much prefer one armed dumbbell snatches, I kick ass at those. The wide grip on the bar from the ground is just so damned awkward.

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For cool down, we were supposed to work on something we suck at. I stuck with my usual routine of doing pull-ups. I'm kipping with the beige band right now. I've attempted to do an unassisted kipping pull-up, but no success yet. Maybe another month more.

Something I'd like to work on next, once I get pullups down, is band-assisted hand-stand pushups. This video takes a while to get to the band-assisted demo, but overall it has a ton of great info. I'm really weak on exercises that utilize the shoulder (overhead press, heavy push presses, overhead squats) and I think I would really benefit from working on the hand-stand pushups since they use those same muscles.