Catch-up

Today
Short beach loop
Distance: 4.61 miles
Time: 53:17
Pace: 11:33/mile

I took 3 fairly long walk breaks. The sun was too hot -- I should've done this run about an hour earlier. Also, this was my first long-ish run in quite a while. Due to wildfires conditions have been really smokey here off and on for the last month. I've really lost a lot of what I built up, but hopefully I can get it back quickly with runs a few times a week.

Wednesday 7/6
Did a WOD I got from Angie.

50-40-30-20-10
kb swings (16kg)
AbMat situps (butterfly)

Results: 13:10

Would like to try this one with Russian swings and the 24kg kettlebell sometime.

Tuesday 7/5
"Fran"
21-15-9
thrusters (65#)
pullups

Results: 10:28

Not my fastest (9:10 @ Level I Cert), and not my slowest either, but only barely. The issue this time was just conditioning. My heartrate was off the charts, and that's what slowed me down the most -- catching my breath. I probably could've benefitted from someone getting in my face too. :)

Sunday 7/3
I ran for ~37 minutes and I don't the distance of my route. It felt good to be up early and outside.

Friday 7/1
Yoga, good times as always. I realized that doing the 11am class really makes a difference in how hot it feels in the room. I think it must be the sun coming in or hitting the building. I never start to feel like it's too hot to breathe in the 5pm or 6pm classes that I've taken.


Thursday 6/30
~30 minute run in the morning.

WOD @ 5:30 (only had 1 student in class, so we did the WOD together :))
4 rounds
800m run
50 air squats
then
50 hands-off pushups

Results: 30:09

Monday 6/27
Squat 12-12-12-12 @ 105

That really hurt.

Metcon:
10-1
Pullups
AbMat situps

14:56

Went mental on the pullups, eeek.

Hit yoga that night as well.

CrossFit Games Open Sectionals 11.6

Thank god this is over! I think 6 weeks was too long (and especially 7 weeks was WAAAY too long). I think 4 weeks would be perfect.

WOD:
AMRAP in 7 minutes thruster / C2B pullups ladder
3 / 3 then add 3 each round.

My score was 51 -- I got finished with 12 thrusters and did 3 CTB pullups before time was up. Ripped a bit of skin off my palm on one of those last 3 pullups. Very happy my hands only succumbed on the last WOD. :)

My only "do over" moment was resting during the set of 12 thrusters. Should've done all 12 -- I rested after 9 and then did 3 more. I also didn't squat clean any of my first thrusters in that round.

12 Days of Christmas

Hit this one up with my CF KoP peeps while visiting husband's family. (Check the link for a hilarious picture of me doing DB snatches)

12 Days of Christmas at CrossFit KoP
1 Deadlift (185/275)
2 Wall Ascents (6ft/8ft)
3 Ring Dips
4 Box Jumps (21"/25")
5 Med Ball Clean (14/20)
6 Clean and Jerk (75/115)
7 Toes to Bar
8 Burpees
9 Sumo Deadlift High Pull (55/75)
10 Wall Balls (14/20) to (9ft/10ft)
11 Thrusters (75/115)
12 DB Snatch 12L/12R 25/40

Results: 70:28

Deadlifts, clean and jerk, burpees and thrusters were all scaled due to my continuing (nagging) back injury. Everything else was Rx'd.

Weird about the burpees, right? Something about the part where you jump your feet back aggravates my QL muscle, so for many of them I stepped my feet back. Once I was nice and warm, in the middle and later days, I did jump my feet back on some of them.

I felt like I got hit by a truck after this. My core was wrecked, I think from the wall climbs and toes to bar -- don't do either of those with any regularity.

Best part of the WOD - watching a CF KoP superstar female athlete scaling the 8 foot wall. BAD. ASS. And her nickname is "Grans" -- love it.

Interesting chipper, lots of questions

I envisioned this WOD taking *forever*, but it really wasn't that bad. I could improve my time on this one, but I was pretty happy with the work I did.

WOD:
4 rope climbs
50 thrusters (45/25)
400m run
50 thrusters
1 mile run

Results: 22:39 Rx; time for 1 mile: 9:32

The 4 climbs went well! I used the "standard" rope around the leg technique to go up, and then experimented with different feet placements to come back down again.


Rope Climbs from c wiss on Vimeo.

For some explanation about the different stuff I was trying, check out this video on rope climbing tips from Beastskills.com.

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Our gym is talking about having another Paleo challenge... And I'm not sure how I feel about it. At the start of our last challenge I had been eating Paleo on my own for several months, had seen excellent results in losing fat and improving performance, and was super gung-ho about getting others on board.

Then the challenge started, and all hell broke loose. Some kind of latent adolescent rebellion kicked in, and suddenly didn't want to eat Paleo because now I "had to".

And honestly, my Paleo mojo has been majorly fucked up ever since. To the point where I'm reading "The Primal Blueprint" and eating a bowl of ice cream.

Recently I read a blog post -- Is Competition Always Good? -- that was good food for thought.

[O]verall, I think this kind of competition is counterproductive. I’m not saying “don’t run a 5K” or don’t challenge yourself in a way that feels right to you. I am saying that the challenge or competition mentality, when it comes to our bodies and our health, is probably more of a distraction than a help. I think it pushes us into a more narrow definition of what’s acceptable for ourselves.

I can't find the link, but I also read a blog post once about a woman who started a challenge, and had it derail her from a good routine because she wasn't able to be a perfect competitor. So, if I can summarize, she had a good thing going, hitting the gym regularly, doing her thing, good results. Then the gym started a challenge -- you know the drill, start with a benchmark WOD, 6 weeks, repeat benchmark WOD. She had this grandiose plan about how she would "pump up" her current routine so that she would blow her old time away at the end of the challenge. But the pressure to be a perfect competitor completely stalled her ability to even continue what she had been doing. She stopped going to the gym completely because she wasn't able to do it perfectly, as the perfect competitor.

Hope that made sense to you guys -- I'm bummed I can't remember what blog that story came from.

Today I read a post on PaleoChix, which is the first in a series of posts about members of CrossFit Scotsdale who have participated in a Paleo Challenge. This post had a very positive outcome for the athlete.

I'm left wondering if they'll include a story that turned out badly for the athlete, like what happened with me. Where a person that had made a relaxed and gradual switch to Paleo found themself derailed by the challenge, because it created pressure to adhere to a perfect standard.

Thoughts from you all? Have you done a Paleo challenge?  If you have, did you like or dislike it? Did it help or hurt your overall efforts?

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For 2 weeks earlier this month I had the opportunity to assist with teaching swimming lessons at our pool on base, since I had just completed (and thankfully passed!) my Red Cross Water Safety Instructor course.

And you know what? I'm pretty good at helping little kids learn how to swim. Except the making them submerge when they don't want to part, I am not good at that yet. But other stuff, I'm pretty good at.

It was so fun to see the students in the 2 classes I helped with progress! They worked so hard, and learned a ton, and never gave up, and had so much fun and were so excited.

And so now I'm seriously thinking about signing up for the CrossFit Kids certification, especially because one is being held in Atlanta soon, and that's actually within driving distance for me...

Some additional inspiration came from:
 - Melli: CrossFitting Kids
 - Raw CrossFit: Imagine if you CrossFit as a kid
 - Miss Jovina

Those of you who CrossFit and have kids -- let me know your thoughts on CF Kids. Are your children already too busy with other sports to participate? Or is it something they would enjoy making time for? Would you like your kids to have class at the same time as you? Or at a different time so you can watch them and maybe participate a little bit in their class?

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CrossFit Is A Gateway Drug

I think metabolic conditioning is our “bait” – it’s the bright shiny object we use to reel them in.

 Did CrossFit draw you in with the "great sweat" workouts, and then you found yourself becoming obsessed with barbell lifts or gymnastics? This was true for me, so I'm just curious if it was true for you guys too?

Ooops, I did it again

Couldn't resist the Britney lyrics for a blog title, since yet again I have slacked on posting my WODs the day I do them. :-p

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Tuesday's WOD was honestly just sad. I thought my head was in the game starting out, but then my focus just kind of whithered away, and I ended up performing really poorly. Well, you win some, you lose some. At least I had two very fast people to chase on the runs, reminding me I really need to work on my SPEED.

In 7 min: Run 800m then AMRAP deadlifts (315lbs/205)
Rest 1 min.
In 4 min: Run 400m then AMRAP thrusters (45lbs/25)
Rest 1 min.
In 2 min: Run 150m then AMRAP toes to bar

Results: 18 deadlifts (@ 135#), 23 thrusters, 6 toes to bar

See? Sad.

Deadlifts I pushed it -- probably should've made it to 20, but I am a form nazi on those and take my time on getting set up. Thrusters I just went into la-la land. I came in from the 400m run, and just dicked around instead of jumping on the bar. Booo to that. That's just a symptom that my head is not in the game. For toes to bar, I only did 3 before coming off the bar. My grip is stronger than that, I need to do at least 5 (minimum) before coming off.

All in all, I came to the box, did some running, got a good sweat, and left determined to do better the next day.

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The best part of Tuesday is what happened after the WOD. One of our newer members, Kamie, said she'd like to try the Rx weight of 205 at least once, just to see if she could do it. So I was like, hell yes, let's do it!

There ended up being 4 of us who stuck around for about 20 minutes taking turns on the bar. We started at 155 and worked our way up from there. I was able to share some of my knowledge about deadlift form -- including my absolute favorite setup technique from Rippetoe. Helped Jess with her "shoot up butt", Kamie with pulling the bar along her shins, and Melissa with her form on return (I feel her pain on that one, I still struggle on my return).

In the end Kamie was able to pull 195, and after she did, she did an awesome happy dance and took a little victory lap around the box. She is my kind of chick, I love her energy. :-D

Typing up this story, it sounds so mundane. Four chicks in a gym just screwing around with deadlifts. But what made me so excited about it was that there were 4 of us bad ass CrossFit ladies hanging out, getting our strong on.

So many days I've seen the guys hang around to play with the barbells after the WOD. When the ladies stick around, they are usually chatting or maybe working on their kipping swing. Both of which are great -- I love days when people hang out to talk, and I love seeing everybody working towards getting their pullups.

Those 20 minutes yesterday morning were special because the universe was telling me, yes, you DO have a tribe here. Yes, there are other chicks who get excited about testing the limits of their strength and learning how to get even stronger. It's something I've experienced in other places, but it hadn't really happened here. I can't wait to see what happens next. :)

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This morning I dialed in my focus and pushed myself, so I was happy about that.

2 rounds:
Row 500m
21 burpees

Results:  9:20-ish

 My girl Melissa rolled in at just over 7 minutes, she freakin' rocks my socks!

My first row was 2:01, the second row was approaching 2:20 -- I was too gassed to even look at the final time, but my pace on the rower display was up in the 2:20's for more pulls than I was happy with.

The burpees were just S-L-O-W. Holy cow. I was crawling up and down for some of them. But I didn't take any extended breaks, just slowed down the pace here and there to quasi-rest, so I'm happy with my effort overall.

After class I got a few of the ladies (all chicks today, woot!) to try the single-band muscle up progression setup. It really helped them to be able to focus on the skill of the transition -- both up and down -- by eliminating some of the weight in the movement. Even using a band to assist, the muscle up is still a really challenging movement, especially in terms of learning to support yourself up on the rings, and keeping the rings close to the body. Good stuff! Next time we'll set up the squat rack progression and see how people like that.

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Time to get back to an attempt to be productive on my day off. I am super sleepy so I'm not sure how that's going to turn out. :)

Quick metcon before work

I made the mistake of trying to do this metcon at the gym on base around 11:00 before I had to work at the pool at 11:30. It's a hassle to try to use a barbell in this gym *at all*, so overlapping with the lunch rush was just a total clusterfuck. Won't make the mistake again.

My time on this one was definitely impacted by having my bar location messed with while I was doing knees to elbows on the pullup bar around the corner. Who knew somebody was going to use that weird looking machine to do some kind of shoulder exercise. Or that there would be a mad rush for all the incline bench stations.

Not to mention I couldn't even do full ROM on the knees to elbows because the pullup bars are all mounted too close to the wall. Grabbing the bar facing away from the wall, when you flex your shoulders as you get your knees high, your upper back / shoulders scrape against the wall. BRILLIANT. This is what happens when you do real workouts at a gym on a Navy base where everybody is, A) on shore duty or B) works on a submarine. The Marines here have their own gym and pullup bars near their offices and barracks. Very smart of them. :)

Also, I had to squeeze myself between two machine-thingys to swing my kettlebell. Though at least they actually *have* those -- that is a plus.

Anyway, enough bitching. Here's the WOD.

3 rounds:
12 thrusters (75lbs/55)
12 kettle swings (24k/16)
12 knees to elbows

Results: 11:23, Rx

Yeah, pitiful. But hey, got my WOD in that day, so I was happy. :)

Jackie

"Jackie"
1000m row
50 thrusters (45/25)
30 pullups

Results:  18:10

HORRIBLE doesn't even begin to describe the trainwreck of this WOD for me. Previous times for this WOD were 14 minutes and 10 minutes, using a blue band for pullups.

I know if I had done this WOD in March or April it would've been more like 12 minutes. Regressing, instead of progressing, is such a fucking bummer.

It's mainly a crappy kip (which for me comes from a crappy attitude) that killed my pullups today. I was 3/4 kipping, 1/4 deadhanging. Not effective at all.

We're supposed to be doing lots of "girls' this month at the box. Should be a mother fucking train wreck...

Fran

"Fran"
21-15-9
thrusters (95/65)
pullups

The build-up to this workout was crazy -- I laid in bed last night obsessing about the last time I could remember doing thrusters, which was at CF KoP over Christmas vacation. I distinctly remembered that I could only do 5 at a time, which I verified by checking out the blog post for that WOD just now.

When I was warming up, the 65# bar felt soooooo heavy... I was totally psyching myself out... But then I pumped out 11 thrusters in a row on my first set. Hollah!! I think I'm more impressed by how much better my thrusters are than by the fact that I can do unassisted pullups now. Seriously, those things are a *bitch*, and I really expected to only be able to do 5 at a time.

I feel like my Oly lifts haven't been "there" the last couple weeks, so I'm happy to see very direct evidence that I'm still getting stronger.

Pullups... well, they were kind of what I expected. I did 5 in a row during the first round of 21, and that was the max I could string together. I think I did a set of 3 later on in the WOD, but I'm not sure which round. I got most of them as singles, and a lot of them were "ugly kips" -- my name for kips where I don't get up to the bar, and I have to muscle up the last few inches. Getting more pullups in a row is going to be the key to getting a faster time on this WOD.

And now, the moment you've been waiting for -- my score!

10:59

My goal was 10 minutes or under, but I'm still happy with my time. Now that I've done Fran once, I won't be so intimidated by it next time I attempt it. I will kick her ass and get a time under 10!

--
Side note -- why did I *not* have Fran in the list as one of the benchmark WODs in my 1Q2010 goals? I included most of the WODs that have pullups in them, but skipped over Fran for some reason. Weird. Maybe I was just that intimidated by it... In any case, I am officially adding that WOD to the list, and crossing it off! Woot!

Fran and Helen had a lovechild

I was so close to Rx on this, I could taste it... Damn pullups...

"Playing with Fran and Helen"
3 rounds
Run 400m
15 Pull ups
20 Thrusters(95/65)
25 KB Swings(1.5/1.0 pood)

Results: 30:27

Biggest reason for that finish time was my first set of pullups. I tried my damnedest to get all 15 without any assistance. I made it to 13, failed 2 or 3 times, then got on the "mental floss" for the last 2. 2nd round I made it to 7 or 8 before I had to use the skinny band, and pretty much the same thing for the 3rd round. But I was pretty much just getting one at a time, so it took FOREVER. Better to learn how to do pullups than to finish first, but I was just really freakin' tired when I got down to the last set of thrusters and kb swings.

In keeping with my experience at CF KoP the other day, I could only do sets of 5 for the 65lb thrusters. But I'm cool with that. I'll work my way up to longer unbroken sets.

I disappointed myself a bit on the kb swings. The 1pood bell felt almost light and airy after the 45lb bell I used recently, but yet I didn't do all 25 in one set. 2nd and 3rd rounds I did do a set of 15 to start, so I kind of vindicated myself there.

Run was pitiful. Me and the track and a stopwatch need to become better friends. Running slow just depresses me because I know how fast I've been in the past. After I work on my distance for the 1/2 marathon, then it's time to work on some speed drills.

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. :)

Jackie - 2nd round

WOD:

For time:

• 1000m row
• 50 thrusters (45/25)
• 30 pullups

Results: 10:19

Previous results: 14:14 according to the spreadsheet in the gym, 14:21 according to what I wrote down

It looks like I brought my time down quite a bit, but a big part of my first time was switching from one band to the other in the middle of everything. I thought I could use the white band, but couldn't get any pullups with it, so I had to switch to the blue. I had the blue set up and ready to go this time.

That said, I know my row was faster. Also, I was able to do big sets of thrusters: 25-10-15. I was pretty freaking proud of those, let me tell you.

Gross moment of the day: I spit into the front of my sports bra 3 times. I just had to spit! And I had nowhere else to do it! This is why I have to go to a CrossFit gym where no one cares instead of a "nice" gym. :-D

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I worked on my headstands after the WOD. Right now I start off in "tripod" position, with hands and forehead on the mat, and knees balanced on my elbows. Then I work on slowly raising my legs and keeping balanced. I got up into a full headstand today, with my legs straight, which rocked. I'm doing a ton better with these. I did a few self-spotted handstand pushups after that. And finally I did 3 kipping pullup attempts, and on my last one I just about got chin up to the bar in one fluid motion! Woot! I need to start attempting dead hangs as well -- I'm good on the 2nd half of the motion, but not sure I can get started from a hang with just my arms and shoulders.

Crappy 5k, Jackie

Well, Saturday we did our run, and I can't believe how much I sucked. I am so bummed, and kind of embarrassed, but I will post my results just so I can have the satisfaction of improving...

Chip time: 30:46

Gun time: 32:12

Pace: 10:22 min/mile

My Nike+ has been telling me that I'm running a nearly 9 min/mile pace, but apparently it has been lying to me. I didn't think calibration was really necessary, but now I'm seeing the error of my ways. I will hit the track on base today or tomorrow and run exactly a mile so I can get the calibration set and know exactly how slow I still am.

I just wasn't focusing during the race. My stride was short and I felt choppy. Blah. Husbeetle rocked it with an overall pace of 8:10, and he finished under 2 hours. He makes me proud. :)

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WOD was "Jackie".

For time.

• 1000m row
• 50 thrusters (45/25)
• 30 pullups

Results: 14:21 (blue band on pullups)

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Can I just say that I feel like I totally missed the boat on this workout?

The row went well, I did the first 250m pretty fast, and then settled in at about a 2:20 pace, which is normal for me.

Maybe I didn't row fast enough, because it wasn't my legs that were wobbly during the thrusters, it was my arms. I did 20-10-10-10. The last 10 were a bitch. I'm glad I chose to do 25 pounds, or I would've had to slow down a lot on those, and I was going for a fast, intense workout.

Pullups... I intended to use the white/beige band, but when I got up on the bar, I couldn't even get up for one pullup. I got down, rested, tried again, same result. So I had to waste the time of putting the blue band in place. I should've had it set up as a backup, lesson learned.

By the time I finished all my dicking around getting the pullups done, the intensity was totally gone.

I really thought I should've felt this one all over, but my legs still feel almost fresh. My arms are brutalized, though. My hand made it through OK, just a little ripping of the scabs from last week, I was really happy about that.

I'm looking forward to repeating this WOD in a month, and seeing improvement. I think if I can get my rowing down around 2:10 pace, that would rock. And of course longer sets of the thrusters, maybe two sets of 25 if I can gut it out. 10-5-5-5-5 on pullups would be awesome. We shall see.