WOD-ing with ThomASS

I'm visiting one of my best friends right now, in the town where we both did our undergrad degrees. He's graduating with his PhD this weekend, and I am so damn proud of him. :)

He did a quick vacation WOD with me yesterday.

10 rounds:
10 pushups
10 situps
10 squats

We didn't time ourselves, but we were sweaty and breathing hard, and he said he's feeling it in his arms a bit today. I definitely convinced him that simple workouts done for time can be pretty effective. :)

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Today I finally dragged myself off the couch around 7 (we had some drinks last night, so it was a *very* lazy day) and did a ramped-down version of this killer WOD.

5 rounds:
10 dumbbell hang squat cleans
10 dumbbell push presses
10 dumbbell front squats
10 man makers

Results: ~27 minutes

I used my 12# dumbbells, which was a lot easier than the 20 pounders I used last time I attempted the full version of this one. But still a good workout. Those man makers are a freaking arm-killer!

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Erin is certified! And I really need to finish the write-up of my cert...

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Why Can't You?


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And in a similar vein -- But what CAN I do?


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This is a great explanation of why I need to get started with a new list of goals. And a plan to achieve them...


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Top 10 intermediate mistakes

#10. Taking yourself too seriously. I get it, this Crossfit stuff is awesome and fun. However, in the end it is about working out. You aren’t good enough to get mad. Maintain some perspective on the whole thing. Your family, your religion, your country… these are things to take seriously.

If you don’t enjoy the journey, you’re in it for the wrong reasons.

Bonus: #11. Newsflash: You probably aren’t going to make it to Aromas. Neither am I. Here is the weird part- it doesn’t really matter. Honestly, it is a little anti-climactic. You have to love  training and working hard for its own sake, not for the sake of some competition you probably aren’t going to make.

I added the italics. Lately CrossFit hasn't been fun for me. And reading this reminded me that it should be. And if it's not, something needs to change. I'm working on it.

Words from Stephanie, WOD by Christine

A reminder:

"Even though I have set these goals, they are not why I Crossfit. I Crossfit because I love my body. I Crossfit because it helps me to experience the present moment (my meditation). I have goals, but in every workout I am committed to loving and accepting my body's current abilities. I believe with every part of me, that the only way to truly attain "what we want" is by accepting and taking joy in what we already have."
- Stephanie

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Something that I've read about 3 times, but don't have a coherent response to yet. But very thought-provoking...

What's Eating You?

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Yesterday we did a WOD that was created by one of our members. She has been CrossFitting for several months, and back in March participated in our Paleo challenge. She saw *amazing* results from changing her diet -- she's lost over 20 pounds and 2 clothing sizes, and her performance in the gym is absolutely taking off. Way to go Christine! The thought of the smile on her face as she told me about her new summer sundresses is what pushed me through this WOD. She worked hard and she so deserves her success, health and happiness. :)

"Our Christine"
For time:
1000m row
then
10 rounds:
10 pullups
10 situps
10 pushups

Results: ~38 minutes; only finished 8 rounds

4:14 again on the 1k row. I'm satisfied with that.

I've had some pesky palm issues with my hands, so I decided to hang from my fingers for the pullups. Well, that worked until round 7 when I started tearing the skin off the middle of my fingers. So I switched to palm grip, and by the end of the 10 pullups in round 8 I had ripped off a huge chunk of my right hand, and reopened two other hot spots. So, I was done.

I love you Christine, and I wanted to finish your WOD! My arms had 20 more pullups left in them, but my hands did not.

The good news is that I was kipping up to and over the bar just about every time. There were a few ugly pullups, but they were absolutely in the minority. That was my main goal for the WOD and I'm glad I achieved it.

In relaying the events of my workout to my husband, I realized that my pushups have really been getting awesome. I know I have been down on myself about pullups, and I think that's because they are so symbolic to me. If I can do pullups, I am *absolutely* strong and I can conquer anything. Losing them made me feel vulnerable, I think? Anyway, pushups are badass too, so I embrace them as my new strength until I get fully back on my feet with the pullups. :)

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Leaving in a few minutes to take a trip north and spend some time with my family. MUCH NEEDED time with my family. I also get to see one of my best friends graduate from Penn State with his doctorate. I am so freakin' proud of him. :)

Cindy and Diane

I meant to blog yesterday, but just didn't get around to it.

On Thursday we did Cindy.

"Cindy"
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:
5 pullups
10 pushups
15 squats

Results: 7 rounds + 5 pullups

I think I did one set of 2 pullups. The rest were singles. And despite my practice session on Tuesday where I kipped over the bar, probably only 20% of the pullups I did for Cindy were "one pull". The rest were those really slow, tortured, double-pull trainwrecks.

Back in early March I did a partner version of Cindy, and did 5 or 6 rounds where I did all 5 pullups in a row. Depressing.

Though I guess I should remind myself that I had to first progress in order to regress... And maybe I'm learning something that will help me coach others through this kind of thing...

If anyone puts 7 rounds up on our PR board, I'm going to erase it. It's fucking embarrassing...

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Today's WOD was Diane.

"Diane"
21-15-9
Deadlift (225/145)
Handstand pushups

Results: 20:22





Did HSPU with 2 AbMats. That feels a little shallow, even though I go to failure so quickly. It will be time to drop down to 1 mat soon.

I am really proud of how far I've come with handstands. I can kick up into one with no problem now, and it definitely used to be a skill where I was a total disaster. I'd like to learn how to kip, because I think I would need that in order to get my head to the ground, or to do them on plates or paralettes like in competition.

I considered doing 155 deadlifts, but could barely do 145, so I left it alone. My back tightened up a tiny bit on these -- my form wasn't as good as it could have been. And my deadlift return is still a total trainwreck. At least the setup seems to be solid now, and the pull.

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Video from CrossFit Portland. I feel like I've put this one in a post before, but it's all good, cause it's worth watching again.


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

Some thoughts, and Grace

To my peeps -- thank you for your encouraging and ass-kicking comments.

The reason I keep bringing up gaining weight is because those 5-7 pounds are the difference between easy pullups and hard pullups. Obviously, easy is the preferred variety. :)

What you all reminded me is that I have the strength, I'm just not using it properly. What I need to focus on is improving my kipping skills so that I'm more effectively moving whatever my body weight is up and over the bar. That skill improvement will serve  me for a lot longer than just telling myself that pullups will get better once I get my food choices dialed in and I lose that 5-7 pounds of body fat.

THANK YOU.

(Side note: I just cannot go back to the using the band. Not happening. I know this problem is skill-based / MENTAL, so I will not coddle my bad attitude with a crutch like that. Not happening. And it's not ego, either -- if I truly thought I gained that much weight, or lost that much strength, I would go back to the band. But I haven't. I have just lost my confidence in myself, and the only way back to a good place with confidence is for me to do what scares me.)

Feeling like total ass is also teaching me a lesson about food choices.

I think this is probably the way I felt when I first started CrossFit -- no wonder I wanted to just quit and felt so defeated! This crap food is dragging me down, it's making my body store fat, it's making me depressed and tired, and it's absolutely killing my performance in the gym.

So, really, does the "enjoyment" of eating something like ice cream really balance out all those negatives?

We all know the answer to that question. It's NO.

Yet again Paleo wins because of how it makes us feel and perform -- those two benefits go so much deeper than a number on the scale or how our bodies look. It's not me depriving myself or playing head games with myself -- it's just a conscious decision to fuel my body in a way that improves how I feel doing the things I love.

But it's a familiar cycle... I feel bad emotionally, so I eat crap (or in the past smoked cigarettes or drank alcohol) so I will feel bad physically. The food binges that have taken place during April have been off the fucking charts people. Just incredibly bad.

But starting today I can look ahead and begin anew with treating my body the way it deserves to be treated. Treating myself the way I deserve to be treated.

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Today's benchmark WOD was "Grace". It's been bugging me that I only had a time for this WOD at 85#, so I was very happy to try it again at 95#. Most published times for female athletes are at 95, so now I'll know for sure how I stack up. (I know, I should compete against myself, etc etc etc, but I can't help it :-p)

"Grace"
30 clean & jerk (135/95) for time.

Results: 4:51

I am annoyed to report that I was not totally ecstatic after finishing this WOD. I felt like I could've gone faster. And I didn't beat my old time, even though I did do 10 pounds more today -- 85# took 4:45.

I used my iPod to video myself, and I am bummed to report that upon review I jacked up the count, and only did 29 reps. ARGH! I can't fucking count when I'm doing these WODs... I knew I was starting to screw up the count, so I handed off to a spectator, but it was already too late. I told her I was just finished with 12, when I had really only done 11. Ack.

The video also showed me that my knees were caving in on some of my cleans (ew!) and that I had totally crappy push jerks near the end. I was basically busting out a push press instead of locking out while dropping under so I could just stand the weight up.

But honestly, today was a good day in the gym. After Grace was over, I worked on my kipping swing and I was able to kip up to the bar. Whatever was going on yesterday, the best way to get over it is to just get back to practicing my pullups daily, like I used to.

Time to shower up and get out of the house. I'm going to wear my black or brown dress to run errands cause it's too damn hot for clothes (high 90's) and my sweat won't show as much. :-D

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...

Trying to get back in the saddle

Ah, an unplanned hiatus... Those are never good.

I've gained back about 5-7 pounds, and based on pullups yesterday, I am back to sucking at those (i.e. lots of singles with 3/4 kip and 1/4 dead hang to finish).

Gah.

This past week was just about getting my ass into the gym; not about performance or skills or anything. Just showing up. Back to the basics, because I am struggling with my headspace right now.

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Saturday, April 24

Went out of town with husband last weekend, and we hit up a little WOD I wrote up in the hotel gym. They had a cable crossover machine with pullup "handles" attached and a tile removed from the ceiling for head clearance -- that was a nice surprise. After a week off, and two weeks of eating total crap, I felt pukey the entire time. But it was very good for me to get my body moving, I'm glad that my husband has such wonderful abilities to motivate me to want to exercise. :)

5 rounds for time:
5 pullups
10 squats
10 situps
10 pushups
10 lunges (each leg)
handstand hold (20 seconds)

Results: ~22 minutes

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Tuesday, April 27

In a word, horrible. I had a bad attitude, and I was sluggish and sucked at ring dips. I hate having to use the freaking band, even the tiny one. Gotta get these ring dips conquered so I can move the fuck on.

21-15-9 for time of:
DB thrusters (35lbs/25)
ring dips
double unders

Results: ~20 minutes

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Wednesday, April 28

I used two abmats for my handstand pushups. After the total debacle the day before, where I finished about 5-10 minutes after everyone else, I decided to scale the HSPU to 10ish per round during the first round. When I got to 11, I just kept failing attempts. So I freaking moved on, and got the freaking WOD done. Not my usual style, but this week was seriously ONLY about showing up and moving.

3 rounds for time of:
15 med ball cleans (20lbs/14)
15 handstand push ups
400m run

Results: ~20 minutes

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Thursday, April 29

I coached this one in the morning, and then came back to WOD with the group that night. I'm glad I did, because the press turned out better than I expected. Plus I shared a bar with 2 dudes, and went heavier than one of them -- it's the little things that make my inner feminist happy. :-D

Press
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
75-85-90-95-95m-85-75

My first 95 went up s-l-o-w-l-y and it was ugly, but I got that bitch locked the fuck out. Booyeah! PR by 10 pounds, hollah! My second attempt at 95 unfortunately did not go anywhere -- guess I only had one in me. But I'm happy because my old PR of 85, and also 90, both went up nicely, very solid. I am convinced doing unscaled pullups is what is making all the difference in my overhead strength. There's some kind of synergy there, where gains in each area helps move the other along.

Then it was metcon time.

Complete the following for time:
1000m row
40 kettlebell swings (24k/16)
25 pull ups
20 kettlebell swings
15 pull ups

Results: 19:45 total time; 4:14 row

That is a sad 1k row time, geesh. But oh well, at least I have a bench mark now -- I didn't have a 1k time written down anywhere.

My pullups in this WOD were so damn ugly, like I said at the beginning of this post. I tore the shit out of my hands with going on and off the bar so damn much doing singles. ARGH! I wanted to punch a hole in the wall I was so angry and frustrated. This was supposed to be a metcon, not some kind of grind-it-out-WOD. Good lord... I just have to keep telling myself that this is what happens when you eat shit, gain weight and take a week off and do nothing.

Not to mention that what I ate on Thursday before the WOD was ridiculous and totally uncalled for... But bad food choices are a topic for another post another day...

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Friday, April 30

Coached at 0630, then a fellow trainer who was hanging around offered for me to do the WOD at 0830 while he coached. No problemo, I needed a kick in the ass to get my workout in today.

5 rounds for time of:
7 front squats* (155lbs/95)
150m run
*wt will come from the ground

Results:  10:04

I could've done this one faster, but overall I was OK with how I did. Did all sets of squats unbroken, though I did take time to rest between the runs and squats to make sure I had enough juice to pump out all the sqauts.

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And that brings us to today, how nice. Time to go through and put a shit ton of labels on this post and publish it...

Partnering-up on Saturday morning

We did a little partner workout this morning, and it was just what I needed. My butt and hamstrings are seriously blasted from all those deadlifts and waiter walks on Thursday, plus scrubbing all the floors in my house on Friday. Husband's sister and her boyfriend arrived last night, so the rest of today will be a beach day - yay!

WOD:
One partner works at a time. Both run the 400 together.
200 air squats
80 push press (95/65)
400m run
100 box jumps (24/20)
50 burpees

Results: Allie and I finished in about 22 minutes

Didn't even do any pullups afterwards -- not even 1. LAME. I really need to get a solid goal list written, and a game plan for post-WOD skill work. TBD...