No longer a CrossFit orphan!

You may have guessed from my lack of posts since November that my consistency with my training had pretty much gone down the toilet. If you did, you were correct.

I really underestimated how hard it would be to stay motivated as a "loner" CrossFitter. I tried a few things to get my motivation back, but nothing really stuck.

This morning I did my first WOD at my new CrossFit home, and I am SO glad that I found them. The idea of struggling through this alone for the long term was really getting me down.

But now I have the wonderful people at CrossFit Rifles to sweat, struggle, learn and laugh with. It feels amazing to have a local CrossFit community to be a part of again -- of course I will always have my CF KoP peeps who have me as a satellite member. :)

We did a pretty simple team WOD, and I am physically wrecked. It will be a frustrating process to get back to where I was in terms of conditioning, strength and mental toughness, but it will be worth it.

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Team WOD
500m row
9 front squat*
9 push press*
9 front squat
9 push press
400m run
9 SDHP**
9 ring dips
9 SDHP
9 ring dips

Results: 13:38 -- and that was all me and my slow ring dips
*65#
**24kg kb
On ring dips, I self-assisted with one foot, but tried to do the negative unassisted

Friday & Saturday

Short and sweet WOD on Friday morning, between coaching 0630 and 0830.

6 rounds for time:
5 handstand pushups
10 burpees
15 abmat situps
150m sprint

Results:  17:39

Biggest news here -- I finally kicked up into a handstand against the wall! I started out with my head on top of 3 abmats, and did a frogstand to a headstand, and then pressed up. A little bit of messing around with that, and I decided it was time to kick up. I took some video with the iPod, but that corner of the gym has a lightbulb out, so it turned out really dark. In any case, I did the WOD by kicking up into a handstand and lowering to 2 abmats. Not the most stellar attempt at HSPU, but still an improvement for me, so I'm happy.

Next I need to find out what's better -- continuing to practice full ROM with the harness, or doing negatives while in the wall-supported handstand.

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Saturday I coached the 0930 WOD -- we did the same group WOD I went through on the 2nd day of my certification seminar.

Here's the writeup we put on the website:

In 12 minutes your team of 5 will perform as many reps as possible of SDHPs, pushups and box jumps. The time it takes to complete one 50m waiter's walk will determine the rotation intervals for your team. There's a rest station, so go hard!

5 stations

1. Rest
2. Kettlebell Sumo deadlift high pull (24kg/16)
3. Pushups
4. Box jumps (20'')
5. 50m waiter's walk (45#/25 plate)

Final team score is total # of reps completed.

Basically the team members rotate from station to station. During the hand off, the person who was just performing the movement tells the person who is arriving to "relieve" them what the current rep count is for that movement. At the end you add them up for the total. The faster you do the waiter's walk (it was a sandbag carry at my cert) the faster your team members rotate through.

We only had 3 ladies come in this morning, so I did the WOD with them. We took out the SDHPs since we still didn't have 5. I had fun, and I think they did too. :)

Afterwards I took them through the core stabilization work that I did with Jenn at CrossFit Pittsburgh. With the 3 following exercises: round 1, 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off; round 2, 45 seconds on, 45 seconds off; round 3, 30 secs on and off.

• handstand holds
• plank
• wall sit

I was glad the group was small at this point, because none of my 3 chicas had ever done handstand holds before. I showed them how to "walk up the wall" while facing away from it to get into handstand position. They all did great! I just watched the handstands, but joined them on the other 2 movements.

All in all, a fun morning. :)

My sister just left yesterday, and my parents are arriving this afternoon for a visit, so I'm off to clean and put lots of bedding and towels through the wash. :)