Grit

I always get excited to head into the box. Even though there is definitely less excitement for wods with running and rowing... and burpee pullups. Today was one of those days that I literally couldn't wait to wake up and get started.

Here's what we had:

I was a little worried about the Rx weight. It was right on the edge of my comfort zone for that many reps. I debated going down a little bit to something I was more confident in, but 155 felt good during warmups, so I stuck with it. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get through all the reps unbroken, but I was okay with that. At least the kb swings I could push through.

I managed to get through the first 10 deadlifts unbroken, but had to halve the reps until I got down to reps of 4 and 2. Most importantly, I kept good form the whole time. I know what it's like to have a sore back from deadlifts and I didn't want that to happen again.

The kb swings went fine and I did manage all those unbroken. It's all in the hips. If it were just arms, those would have been singles. With hips, they were doable.

My time: 4:49 Rx

I'm glad that there was a prescribed weight for this wod. It made me push myself farther than I would have done without it. With no weight listed, I probably would have stuck with something in the bodyweight range. By going out of my comfort zone, I found that I can do more than I think. I was really proud after that.

Tuesday Time

Went into the box this morning thinking I was going to be doing some squats... turns out that I was going to be doing some deadlifts instead. Good thing that I opted to still were pants. Today was even the first wod for my coworker Alexis. Yay for new people!!

Part one: The Deadlift Complex

Warm up set: 10 reps @ 115

5x3: 145-160-170-180-185

I felt good throughout the whole progression, even at the top. I almost opted to do 180 twice, but then I thought just a little more, so I went with 185. That's a new 3 rep max for me. My last was 180. Breaking barriers, that's crossfit for you. 

Part two: The Metcon

I was pretty excited to do this. Box jumps and pullups, some of my favorite moves besides the OLY lifts. I even had another breakthrough during this. For the longest time, I have been trying to speed up my box jumps. They were ok, I just couldn't bounce from the bottom. I always had to jump up and step down in order to jump again. Today, unexpectedly and without even thinking about it, I was doing it. I realized in the middle of the first 21 reps. It was such a cool feeling.

Not gonna lie though, air squats after box jumps were not the easiest to complete. The first round I had to do them in sets of 5. The only round that I was able to complete all the way through unbroken was the round of 9. Even though I had to keep repeating in my head "don't let go of the bar" over and over again to get through it.

My time: 5:53!

Yeah!! Two awesome days in a row. I wonder what tomorrow has to offer?

Back Again

Sorry for the absence. My sister visited for a week and things were just busy. Like getting home exhausted every night busy. I think I need a vacation from her vacation here.

Anyways, on to today's workout.

Here's what was on the menu. I was actually a bit excited to do this.

Mind you, that does only say 1 round. Not 7, that's just the way some people write. Going into it, I figured about 15 minutes to finish this. My goal was to get through every thing unbroken, but I had a feeling that 25 bag slams was just not gonna happen after the KBS. I was right. I went unbroken until 15 bag slams, then I had to take a break get some blood back in my arms. Managed the pushups in sets of 5, hand release of course.

Then... BURPEES!!!

Holy cow. Those hurt. It's only 15 right? Wrong! It felt like 100. I just kept thinking "don't stop" the whole time. They were very slow at the end.

Now to finish with TGU. Those are tough because you want to go quickly, but at the same time you can't because you could hurt yourself easily. I don't know about you, but a face full of kettlebell in the morning is not something I want.

Stayed strong and guess what? Blew my hypothetical time out of the water!

My time: 9:47!

I was pretty proud of this. At the end, I could see the clock and I was concentrating on not stopping. I was stoked at that time. Especially after the mini-wod warm up that we did. That was tough!

Back at it again tomorrow. We'll see how many people show up. It was packed this morning. I counted 22 as we went out for the warmup jog. Never though I'd see that in the morning. It's awesome!

Here's some shots of my past couple weeks.

Enjoying the company of my sister.

Of course we hit up Disneyland.

Crossfit right of passage: my first hand rips.

Played with some rays at SeaWorld.

Hoku got tired and had to take a nap.

Bryan's last wod at CFEV. Gonna miss you!!

Oh (cr)happy day!

**Sorry this post is late. I went home, cooked dinner, and passed out til this morning. At least I feel a bit better.**

Today is not one of my best days. Woke up tired... I think because someone else was hogging the bed, plus I had to get up twice(!) to pee. Apparently, staying hydrated will do that to ya. Plus, I was just achy enough from yesterday's ring pullups to feel it.

Nevertheless, made it to the box for this:

But that's not it. Due to the fact that it's a relativel short wod, Casey added in some strength before we started. Not that I would mind. I live for strength. Unfortunately, a heavy strenth session before this wod has left my entire body aching for the remainder of the day. I also forgot my fish oil this morning... everything is just against me.

The unseen strength portion included 3x3 of heavy deadlifts and push press. I started with the deadlifts. My three "heavy" sets were at 165, 175, 185. 165 isn't too bad for me. Don't ask me to bust out more then 10 of those though. I was happy with getting the 185 with good form and rhythm for all the reps. A couple months ago, my 1RM was 180. Constant improvements even if you're not working that specific skill. It's what I love about CrossFit.

I didn't go so heavy with the push press due to my shoulders being achy. After warmups, I did 75, 85, and 95. I wanted to get to 100, but really I was just too lazy to add the extra plates when we were already close to the actual wod starting. Maybe next time.

Tabata is tabata. I don't think anyone actually cheers for doing tabata. After the first round it sucks the rest of the time. Here's the breakdown of my sets:

Pullups: 12-6-5-4-4-4-5-5

Burpees: 5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5

Situps: 11-10-10-10-10-10-10-10

Hey, at least I was consistent in my pacing of the burpees and the situps. 4 seconds to do a single burpee. Does that sound slow to anyone? I don't think I ever timed myself on them before, but I feel like they should go slightly faster than that. On the pullups, I felt great the first round and then immediately ran out of gas. Looking back, I think that needed better pacing. It was a battle for each pullups after the first round. My arms and hands just did not want to be hanging from the bar.

A good day at the box. I really liked the strenth and the metcon portioning. My body definitely feels it too, even though I wish it didn't feel it quite as much. Tomorrow is going to be another challenge to get through. I'll just hope for less shoulder involving exercises. Ha!

Here was dinner. I managed to get down a burger without too much trouble. It was tasty.

Barbells and Rings

I'm woke up this morning hoping for a good metcon... I got this instead:

No biggie. I like squats. Ring pushups? Not so much, but gotta get them done. Plus, we haven't done them in a while so they need work.

Due to the large number of people that showed up this morning (odd because normally everyone is in recovery mode from the weekend) we were broken into two groups. I was in the second and would be doing the ring pushups first.

My strategy was to do sets of 10. Um, yeah. That worked for the first 10. After that, it was just as many as I could do at once. Usually, I got out 8 or 9. By the time that I made it to 40 though, I had to break it up into 5 and 5. My chest was burning and my forearms were becoming raw. Nothing like the rings to start off the week.

Next, it was on to the squat work. I grabbed a bar and did some warm-up squats. We had already done some during the group warm-up. Then a loaded up a mid-weight and a few more warm-up reps. I was hoping to do the 20 reps at body weight but... when I went to see how 10 reps felt at 115, I knew there was no stopping.

The first 5 felt good. The second 5 were a bit tougher. The last 10, went 1 by 1. Every one I had to get set and focus again. I know that 115 isn't that heavy, but c'mon... I ain't that big either. I got through all 20 without setting the bar down.

On a side note... did you see that last play in GBvsSEA??? Craziness!

It was so misty in IB this afternoon, you couldn't see the end of the pier.

Isn't my girl the prettiest?

Friday (not-so-much) Fun

I woke up this morning, stumbled into the bathroom and squinted to read the wod. After I read it, I wanted to go back to bed.

Here's what I saw.

How is that supposed to be any fun? Get-ups suck... and 76 of them sucks even more. I, however, don't pick and choose the wods that I want to do. I do what is programmed. So I got dressed and trudged into the box.

I expected this to be hard. Believe me, it was. Not helping was the fact that I've still got bruises on the back of my forearm from the kb c&j earlier this week.

I started off by aiming for 5 reps before switching hands. That worked for about the first half of the get-ups. Not so much for the other half. Those had to be done in 2s and 3s. Finally after about 25 minutes, I made it all the way through. I was way more taxed than I thought I would be. I just laid there for another few minutes before moving. Talk about a whole body workout... that's whole body!!

Hope that everyone has a great weekend!

On a side note, it must be fall now, because after the haze, some fog rolled into IB this afternoon.

Forgetful me...

So I forgot to post yesterday's workout. Bummer too, because I really enjoyed it (or as much as you can enjoy a wod while it's going on). I felt that it was right up my alley.

Here's what was on the menu:

Yay for me! Short rowing distance, followed by strength skills. I live for these. They are not always kind to me though.

My goal was to be under 15:00 minutes. I figured that was reasonable considering it was five rounds, I definitely expected to be slowing down on the C&J and pushups by the last rounds.

The rows felt good. It was a good distance because I could keep good form and still feel like I was rowing with the pack. Usually for me to even kinda sorta keep up with everyone else and not feel like a total loser, I pretty much have to go buck wild on the thing. Not my style. Each of my row splits was about 1:01. Couldn't break the 1 min barrier but I tried.

The C&J went flying by, especially in the first round. I did 5 straight with one arm and then switched so I could avoid putting the kettlebell down unnesassarily. It worked out. I did slow a bit by round 3, but not too significantly.

The pushups went fine in the early stages and sucked a lot by the end. In the last round, I couldn't even do 5 unbroken. My arms would just not lock out at the top. Boo. Still...

My time: 11:00! Woo. Smoked my goal.

Now, fast forward to this morning and this moderately confusing thing.

Once explained it was simple enough. Do all the front squats each round, then do all the push press for that round. The goal is to not put the barbell down until you've completed all five rounds. Seemed not bad. For the first three rounds it wasn't. Then the fourth round started and it was like I hit a wall. After the front squats I had to drop the bar. I just couldn't seem to inch it forward enough to grip it for the push press. Down it went. I finished the 4 push press and the last round with another try.

Active rest was to jog a lap around the block and then get ready to start again when you were ready. Here we go... same result. I felt great through the third round, then just couldn't keep the bar up anymore. I mean, sure I could have stood there in the front rack position for a while, but that wasn't going to help my arms let the bar roll forward to press it any easier.

In the end, it turned out to be a much tougher wod than I anticipated. I guess that's my fault for underestimating those two lifts.

On a side note: Whole30 day 18 is almost over. Things are winding down, only a week left. I'll be ending after 25 days, instead of 30. My sister will be in town to visit and I would hate for her to miss out on some of the truly great San Diego and SoCal offerings because of me. This is only her second trip to SoCal ever in her life, so might as well get some In-n-Out and mexican in there. Oh and another trip to Disney, where this time, I will be indulging a bit.

Dinner last night. A new fave. Green chile chipotle taco meatballs. 

And a new PR!! I cleared the 30in box today!! Woo. Big things happenin'.

Oh the troubles...

No wod today. So sad. Unfortunately, my car spent the weekend at the shop so I couldn't make it to the box this morning. It will be there until tomorrow afternoon, so no wod tomorrow either. I feel so lost and unproductive without my workout!! Can't wait until Wednesday, when I can get back there. I hope nothing happens tomorrow that interferes with that. 

In good news, I made it through a record heat weekend at Disneyland and stayed Whole30 compliant!!! Granted, I may have a bit more than the recommended servings of fruit and nuts, but stayed away from all the other fatty, bad for you goodness while I was there. 

Trust me, it took every once of willpower that I had. Being as hot as it was (100+ deg) and watching everyone else walking around with ice cream cones and frozen lemonade... it was like torture! I did make it through though. Albeit with some weird looks from servers when I asked for a plain burger with extra veggies but no ketchup or mustard. 

I even learned something! That when it's really hot and I'm spending time outside, I crave coke. The real Coca-cola, not the drug! For some reason I just want a huge gulp of the sweet, fizzy goodness. Ugh. That was the worst craving I've had to manage these two weeks so far. 

As much as I hate to admit it either, I know that I was better off spending so much time walking and standing in the heat for not indulging in those sugar cravings. I even saw a teenager who passed out waiting in line from the heat. What did she have in her cup? Coke! I, instead, was guzzling water from my Camelbak all day. And I do mean, ALL DAY. 

There'll be another opportunity for Disney when my sister visits at the end of the month. You can bet that there will be some indulgences during that trip. Hopefully the weather cools off a bit by then!

During the 2-hour wait for Radiator Springs Racers. Worth it for the new ride.

Busy Wednesday

In case one workout wasn't enough... I decided to do two today.

Here's how I started the day off:

Well... almost. I decided to sub GHD sit-ups for the goblet squats. Still undecided whether that was a good idea or not.

The kettlebell swings were fine enough (I used 35lbs). The first round I managed unbroken. The second and third rounds I did 15/15.

The GHD sit-ups on the other hand... The most that I could do at one time was 5! Mostly because I got soooo dizzy going up and down. I tried closing my eyes, looking at only one spot, every time I still got dizzy. By the end, I was doing 1 or 2 at a time. Anyone got some tips?

Pushups were pushups. After killing my chest and shoulders on those though, the pull-ups were not just pull-ups. The most I ended up getting unbroken today was 7. That's not usually like me. Huh...

My time: 16:26 (my goal was under 15:00)

On to the next event.

I ran the POW/MIA 5K with a couple other girls in my office. It was a good time. A LOT of people showed up, almost 2000. However, that made for a slightly crowded run, an entertaining one though. Never once did I wonder how far we had to go, we just kept going.

I wish I could say that I felt great during the whole thing, but sadly no. After about mile 2, I was dragging a bit. Didn't help that due to the amount of people, you were always dodging people and the beginning was egregiously slow, even for me.

We crossed in 31 something. There was a clock but so many people that I couldn't see it. Oh well. The point of the race, was to honor the POWs and MIAs. And that, we did.

My shirt from the run that I made. Commemorating my grandfather who spent over 3 years as a POW in Korea. My hero.

Friday Fun and Cravings!!!

For the third (count it THIRD) time this week I woke up to see overhead squats. I guess someone knows how much we all dread these and yet how badly we need to work on them.

Here's what we had:

Shoulder killer.

Like yesterday, I decided to do this wod at 65lbs. Even though most of the guys were using 75lbs. Can't get stronger if you don't push yourself right? I figure if I could do Fran at 65lbs, then I should be able to do this. My goal was 15 minutes.

I didn't expect do finish any of the sets unbroken. I didn't. The most OHS I did unbroken were 10. After that it was all mostly by 5 and 6. A couple times I didn't make the lift and had to ditch. Once a got a rhythm going I could usually get to at least 5. Hint... OHS is much easier if you go down all the way. Don't short change yourself and just go part way, you're not benefitting from the lift and it will be harder.

After holding that bar up for all those reps, HSPU were not the easiest. I can usually do about 10 at a time. Ha! Today, I was averaging 5 and even that was tough. 

Unfortunately, I didn't make my goal of 15 minutes... sad face.

My time: 16:23

Oh well. Good effort.

In a Whole30 update, I am having the worst cravings today!! Every time that I pass some fast food joint, kitchen, farmers market I get a whiff of all the smells and it's driving me nuts!! Nothing specific, but just everything smells good all over the place. It's going to be a long rest of the month. 

Anyways, here's some of my food for the day.

Post-wod fuel of chicken and butternut squash.

Breakfast was a mexican quiche that I cooked last night.

Lunch from Urban Chicken. Free range roasted chicken with organic grilled veggies and salad.

Dinner was chicken stir fry that I made up off the top of my head. Tasty!

p.s. I got my bushwoman brows taken care of today by Brenda of Browtastik. If anyone is the SD area needs a recommendation let me know. She is awesome!!

Kickin' it in the Kitchen

My kitchen is taking over my life.

But first today's wod.

Don't mind the numbers 1 and 2. We had to split things up a little different because it was a big class. So my rounds went push press - burpees - k2e. No biggie.

I did this at 65lbs. I thought that maybe I could get the first round unbroken. Nope. Had to take a breath at 15 presses. I tried, just couldn't. Burpees didn't happen either. On the k2e, I made 10, then 5, then the last 6. By the last round I was sucking some major wind. This wod was just killer on my shoulders. The hardest part of the burpees was lifting your chest off the ground. 

My time: 9:48

Squeezed it in under 10 minutes. I'll take that.

Now... about that kitchen stuff.

Since starting the Whole30, I've spent most of my hours off of work either at the grocery store or in the kitchen.

Not to say that I didn't prepare. I just didn't prepare enough. Then plans changed and things happen. Tonight I finally got a good handle on things. The key is prep early. Even if not cooking until a later time, at least cut the veggies, marinate the meat early. Then when it's time, you just have to throw it all in the pot.

Last night, I was so exhausted cooking. Tonight I felt efficient. I cut the butternut squash during lunch, then just had to throw it in the oven later. While the pork chops were marinating, I cut the veggies I needed for the quiche I was cooking also. Then after dinner, I browned the hamburger and finished the quiche. Only an extra half hour in the kitchen tonight.

Win!!!


My plate tonight: Mediterranean pork chops with garlic roasted butternut squash and cucumber.

Whole30

So my friend Lea has me acting as a sort of guinea pig in doing the Whole30 program. She wants to see what the results are and possibly do this as the next challenge for her box. Yay me. 

Here are the basics on the program. I won't go into too much detail. You can read for yourself or ask me questions.

The big tenets are:

1. No sugar. That includes honey, agave, the sugar that's in store bought bacon (bet you didn't know that!)

2. No alcohol. Not even for cooking.

3. No grains whatsoever.

4. No legumes.

5. No dairy. The exception is clarified butter or ghee (which is damn near impossible to find unless you order online and pay an arm and a leg for shipping.)

6. No MSG.

7. No white potatoes.

And no paleo-fying desserts or junk food choices. So long chocolate zucchini bread. 

Right now, I'm just about to finish the second day. It hasn't been too bad. The things that I miss the most are my post-wod protein shake, which has now been replaced by a post-wod meal of salmon/chicken with sweet potato. Also, my coconut milk creamer. Today, I drank my coffee black, not horrible. Tomorrow, I'm going to try it with some refrigerated pure coconut milk and see how that goes.

Only 28 more days to go!

Some shots from the weekend.

This was our crazy Labor Day wod. Yeah...

My team (missing Carlos)

I bought a 8'0 fun board from Carissa Moore. If you don't know who she is then we can't be friends.

So jealous my dad got to meet her to pick it up.

Whole30 lunch. Ultimate tuna salad.

Someone wishes she was just a little taller.

The pit of black coffee.

Just a quick note...

This is how I spent my morning...

It was necessary after the wods this week. I feel much better now.

And on Monday (yes, the holiday) I'm going to be starting the Whole30 challenge. My friend Lea suggested it. Mostly, I'm going to be a guinea pig along with her and her bf. We're going to see if this will be a good option for her box's next nutrition challenge. It's gonna be a long month!

Happy Saturday!

Friday Fun!

Got up early to wod this morning with the 6 am crew (and I didn't even have to go to work today!). What can I say? I love those guys!

Although, I did cringe a little when I saw this:

That's a lot of running and rowing... even for two people. 

The game plan that Oscar and I made up was to start with the running. That's our weakest element, then the pull-ups to rest our legs a bit before the row. We would do the sit-ups and goblet squats last. The run we would do relay style in single lap (one lap around the block is 300m) increments. The pull-ups in sets of 5, rowing in 500m splits, sit-ups in sets of 25 and goblet squats in sets of 10. 

Naturally, that's not how it really worked out, but I think what we did ended up suiting us better. 

The run we did as planned, which went really well because you were rested after each lap and could go all out every time. Because I started the running, while I waited for Oscar to finish his last lap, I got set up for the pull-ups. When he finished, I was able to immediately start and knocked out 15, then Oscar picked it up and did what he could. I ended up doing more but I'm stronger at them then he is so it worked out. While I finished the pull-ups, he got ready for the rowing. Since he's stronger at that he pulled more of the weight for rowing. Sad face, but I'm just not a great rower. I felt kinda bad. Oh well. While he finished that, I moved over to the sit-ups and got ready, so that while Oscar was resting from the rowing, I just busted out the as many sit-ups as I could then we switched. It worked the same way for the goblet squats too.

Our end result: 36:04

We were even the first to finish! And we're not the fast people by any means. I was extremely proud of our performance. And it shows how far we both have come since starting Crossfit. It was awesome.

On a side note, check out some of the awesome surf in IB from yesterday.

Late night and Soreness

Another late writing session. What a way to end the week. Got out late from work and still had to do errands. Didn't get home until late and still needed to take Hoku for her walk and play/training time. Thank goodness that she is a little ball of joy and actually did really good walking today. At least I am now good and ready for my 4-day weekend! Too bad I don't have big plans... oh and I'm still gonna wake up at 0530 tomorrow morning to wod with the 6 am class. That's dedication. Or obsession. Not sure.

Rewind to the beginning of the day and it was less stressful. I woke up sore this morning. Hmmm... maybe it was the 50 thrusters? Maybe it was the weighted butterfly stretching? I don't know for sure, but I do know that I was sore.

Then this happened:

Not gonna lie, I was hoping for the option of hang power cleans just so I wouldn't have to do a full squat. I was not that lucky. I strapped on my OLY shoes and got ready to work.

This didn't last that long though. 

6 rounds @ 85 lbs

That's about what I expected. My form turned to crap during that last round and that's how I knew that I had to stop. I was landing on my toes instead of my heels. Not good.

On a better note, I'm more and more getting the hang of butterfly pull-ups. I'm able to get up there, now I have to overcome the sense of fear I get when I realize that while doing these, my face is repeatedly swinging toward the bar. Once I get used to that, maybe I'll string more than a few together at once.

Super fun!

It's bedtime already... but I really enjoyed the wod this morning, so I need to make sure I record it.

Here's what got me excited last night when I saw it:

Isn't that just awesome looking?

I thought so! Even though I have said many times before that I hate rowing. I do hate it, but if it's less than 2000 meters, then I feel like it's doable at a decent pace for me. My only gripe from this was that male and female Rx weight was 45lbs. I mean, come on guys... if I can have to get 45lbs up 50 times, you should do at least 65lbs! <end rant> I still love my fellow dudes anyways.

The row was a little weird for me today. The first 200m felt like nothing, but the last 300m of both 500m splits felt like it took FOREVER. I was able to keep about a 2:05/500m pace for the whole distance while keeping my stroke count around 24 s/m. I was happy with that, still the last girl off the rower though. Grr!! What else can I do? Any tips? Seriously! I'm like the world's worst rower!

Moving on, I had made the decision beforehand to split the 50 thrusters into sets of 10. That seemed doable. I had a tiny inkling in the beginning to just keep going and push it out. I'm glad I thought better than that. I would have died doing that. 45lbs isn't a lot of weight, but those last 10 reps felt like 100lbs!

By the time I got to the pullups, both my arms and legs felt like jello. And like I said a couple days ago, I'm not using bands for pull-ups anymore. With my arms already like jello, I really wish that I had a band. I had to really concentrate on my kipping form to keep the rhythm and get all the way over the bar each time. JLaw is like a hawk watching and she WILL no rep you if you don't get over. I broke those into sets of 5.

My goal before this was finishing in under 12 minutes. How'd I do?

11:40 Rx

Just squeaked it in there!

On a side note, a couple weeks ago I finally caved and got a pair of the Reebok OLY Lifters. Then this week they come out with the ones you can design yourself. I have the worst timing ever. Whatever, I like my charged green ones.

Dead(tired)

I felt like I slept really well last night, but I was so tired when I woke up this morning. Regardless, I always get pumped for going to the box. I get even more pumped when I know I get to lift heavy things.

Here's what was on the board today.

That's my break down next to it. Instead of doing 5x3, I only did 3 reps in the last round so that I could go for a 1RM. It's been awhile since the last time I found my deadlift max. So long in fact that the last time I found it, my max was 180. Today, I did 185 for 3 reps, so I knew that PR was long gone. 
I kept loading up the weights to see what I could manage. For me, it's all about getting the weight off the ground. The first inch is the hardest. Once it starts moving though, I can almost always get the weight up. 
By the time I got to attempt 205, everyone in class was done and put away and watching me. It was a little nerve racking. Maybe it helped though, because I got the weight up. I was stoked at breaking the 200 barrier. We'll see where I get next.
On a side note, have you seen the Moist Chocolate Zucchini Bread from PaleOMG?? It's divine. I made it last night and ate half the loaf by myself today. Seriously, go to the store, get the stuff, and make it. You won't regret it.

Honey, I'm Home!

I never really left actually, just took a break. I am glad to say though, that I have a new outlook and I hope that the break leads to a change for the better. If you missed it, I added a page up at the top (wrote it a while back and never got always kinda chickened out about posting it) that details a little bit about me, in a roundabout kinda way. I like that. It's like a puzzle. Can you figure it out?

To catch you up real quick, since going on hiatus:

I traveled home to Hawaii and got in some good WODs at my sister's box, Crossfit Waipio.

I participated in the 31 Heroes WOD. That was a beast! I hit set new PRs in C&J (110) and Snatch (70).

 I finally bought a wetsuit and braved the cold California waters for some surf.

 Hoku graduated from Puppy Preschool with flying colors!

I can do unassisted kipping pullups for *all* the WODs (at least the ones we've done).

I totally fell off the paleo wagon in Hawaii and am trying to get back on it.

I complete Fran for the first time ever and did it Rx'd.

I started using Beyond the Whiteboard to track my results.

 My dad and I reconciled. He even came to visit me in SD.

You could say that I've been a busy body or you could say that I haven't. Either way, I felt busy! On to the WOD! Here's what we had today:

Fun yeah? I thought so.

My first reaction when I saw this was "huh... it's so short." That looks like a lot of stuff to do in 12 minutes. It sure felt like an eternity during it though.

It took me almost twice as long to do the step-ups as it took me to do everything else COMBINED! Those were killer. It didn't help that I couldn't really see over the kettlebell to know where the box edge was. I definitely almost fell a couple times. The first round I got through unbroken, but the rest I had to break into 10/5/5. It was hard getting up there for those last few reps. Everything else wasn't so bad. I used the swings to try and catch my breath and get ready for the next round of step-ups. That approach kind of worked... until I got more and more tired.

My result: 4 rounds + 10 (25 lbs)

My goal was 4 rounds. It took a lot to keep stepping onto that box in the final seconds. Even though my back was to the clock, I knew it was counting down. I just gritted my teeth and tried to keep moving and not drop the weight. My legs are going to be feeling this one later today. Thank goodness for some fish oil!

On a side note, here's some pics of what's been going on.

Reppin' Crossfit Waipio during the WOD today.

Tandem SUP at home with my sis.

The "after" picture from 31 Heroes.

My dad chowing down on some fresh uni at the Little Italy Mercato.

My little graduate!

She may love my dad, but she still hates the water!

Happy Monday!

Hey there.

I'll keep it short and sweet today. Here's what we had.

I was happy to see cleans. We hadn't done them in a while... and I was happy to see power cleans. I didn't feel like squatting all that way. We had a good warm-up session and I finally settled on loading the bar with 70lbs. 

I felt good throughout the first few rounds. By halfway, I felt a bit tired but still strong. I was taking slightly longer breaks between the rounds. My first few cleans were good, but I had to really concentrate on the last two. Those were the hardest to get out. 

In the end: 9 rounds

I wanted 10, but it didn't happen. I was happy enough to be doing cleans. 

On a side note, some shots from my weekend.

Took Hoku to the Loews Surf Dog Competition down the road from my house!

World record for most dogs (and human) surfing at one time.

This nice lash was from double unders on Friday.

Sunday breakfast... "Black Forest Pancakes" non-paleo choc chip pancakes with paleo cherry jam. 

Mmmm good.