Oh man, Oh man

When I first started CF a few months back, I didn't think thrusters were that bad. I may have even enjoyed them. Now, I realize that is probably because I was doing them with very little weight and once you add on the weight, they are not so enjoyable.

On the other hand, I kind of enjoy box jumps now. Weird.

It wasn't really the time cap that got me (you had to do all the reps required within the minute), it was tiredness. I could clean the bar up fine and for all but the last round, I completed my reps within 35 seconds unbroken. Once I got through with 7 reps, I knew I was going to have problems. 

I was tired. 

I resolved to door the next round in sets of 4. That worked out but it took my almost the whole minute to get all the reps done. I knew I was done after that. By the time I could even pick the bar back up, the round was halfway over.

My score: 8 reps/min max @ 7:51

On a side note, a couple more shots from Murph.

Pre-Murph

Post-Murph

Where I live, you can surf 50ft from the shore.

Back in the Box

Didn't go into the box yesterday cause I was so sore. Then I got guilt tripped by Oscar. Sorry!!!

Woke up this morning, still sore, but decided to go in. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad? Ha! It wasn't a WOD that I would consider difficult... no running, just rowing, but yeah, it still hurt. At least I put some weight on the bar.

I pressed 65lbs, which normally is a moderate weight for me. Today, it felt like it was 100lbs. For reals, I had to take some deep breaths and after the first round I had to break the set into 10 and 5. The best part about this WOD was the box jumps. For some reason, I am starting to really like box jumps. Idunno, I'm weird like that or something. 

My time: 13:41

Sorry for the pretty blah post, I'm tired and sore still. The good news is that I've got a few more pictures from Murph. I'll post those soon!

Memorial Day Murph 2012

OMG! I have been so bad at writing lately. I'm sorry to those (if any) who read this. I'm working on being better.

I had a great long weekend. Saw Battleship on Friday. I thought it was hilarious, but that's probably because I made fun of all the Navy stuff the whole time. Mostly, I watched it to see Alex Skarsgaard (aka Eric Northman). I also got a bit homesick seeing Hawaii and Pearl Harbor. I was there when they were filming this. Seems like such a long time ago.

Anyways, I spent most of my weekend thinking about Monday. Why? Because I had Memorial Day Murph to prepare for. I remember the first time I ever saw the Murph WOD. I thought it was batsh*t crazy. Seriously, who does that to themselves? Mostly due to the fact that I hate running, I knew I would never do this WOD.

Well... there I was at 10:00am Monday morning, warming up to start. I knew it would suck, but I pushed those thoughts out of my mind and remembered why I was doing it: to honor those who have served and sacrificed for their our country.

I had settled on just doing my best to pace the miles as fast as I could without killing myself. Turned out okay. I don't know my exact time for the first mile, probably around 8:30ish. There was another girl, Christy, who I basically paced off of. She finished just ahead of me.

I broke down the pull-ups, pushups, and squats Cindy-style (5, 10, 15). That worked great for me. I felt like I kept my pace pretty good. I managed to stick with kipping using the red band, I was pretty proud of that. I'm glad I stuck with Cindy-style. The pull-ups def got hard by the end and I really needed to use the kip. At halfway through I had to break the pushups into 5-couple-of-breaths-5. The squats, I just tried to keep going.

I was out the door for the second mile right around 34:00.

And then I DIED. Like for reals, my legs just did not want to move. My knees were killing me from all the squats. I felt like I was towing a tractor trailer around the block with me. If you've never been to CFEV, there's a pretty good restaurant around the corner from the box called Mission. It being a holiday and all, there were a ton of people waiting outside to get seated. I just yelled "excuse me" every time and ran right through them. Oh well. Hopefully it reminded them that Memorial Day is about more than just food. I pushed through until the end.

I made it back in the door at 46:11. Yay me. It did suck, not gonna lie. It was hard, but I'm glad I did it. I'll definitely do it again next year.

Here's some shots from the morning.

The 9:30am heat doing their work.

Did I mention that I hate running?

Me and Hillary post-Murph

The "Two Brown Chicks," me and Laura.

Oscar and I from the 6:00am crew.

Irene and I cheering on the 11:00am heat.

Winded...

No weights today... boo! Just sprints waiting for us. Great. At least it would be a fast WOD and I could get in some supplemental work afterwards.

At least there was no thinking involved. All you had to do was run the distance. Our trainer, Laura, even told you when to go again. I like simple. I do not sprints as much. Brought back memories of doing sprints around the track for rugby. I used to dread 200m sprints. Dread. Today was no real exception.

I felt good for the first 100m felt good. Pretty much everything after that sucked. We did the whole down-and-back thing for the 200m. I'm not a fan of that because you have to slow down to turn around and then it just takes so much more for me to pick the pace back up again. The 300m sprints turned out to be me just trucking around the block as fast as I could. 

Needless to say, I was dead by the time this was over. That supplemental work I was talking about? Turned out to be just a few rounds of kipping pull-ups. That was all I could get out.

On a side note, I spotted this awesome stickered van on the way home today. Hawaiian Pride!!!

Mini-WOD Monday (again)

It was such a beautiful weekend here! I spent most of the weekend outside. Took Hoku to the park on Saturday, that was a lot of fun but she hates her collar and harness and just moped around most of the time at the park. Then on Sunday, got some good sun time in at the beach. It's just not the same as Hawaii though. I miss the non-kelpy beaches of home.

After all the gorgeousness, it was time to get back to work today...

At first glance, I thought it looked pretty fun. Burpee pull-ups though? What about the vertically challenged of us? Ok, fine. I'll grab a box.

The first WOD went without any major hitches. I loaded up 85# for the front squats. It was doable, but keeping them unbroken was a kick in the butt. By the last set, it took pretty much everything I had to get the last rep up. The burpee pull-ups I wasn't a fan of. I thought it was awkward to do a burpee then get on a box and do a pull-up. There was just no way that I could reach the bar from the floor. So sad, I know. Too bad there's no getting over the shortness, I'm pretty confident that I've stopped growing.

**I'm just going to add in here that while 4 minutes seems like a long rest, it goes by so FAST!** 

Before I knew it, I was having to start the next WOD. I choose the 25# kettlebell and the 15# bag. I felt like the 15# bag was a little light, but that's 75 bag slams when everything is over. I stuck with my choice. The kb push press were definitely a lot easier with my right arm than my left, I expected that. They actually turned into more push jerk by the end when I was getting tired. The OH lunges sucked as usual. The bag slams were blah. I still prefer the ball, my forearms were getting tired of gripping the bag each time that I had to pick it up. Not a favorite.

Rowing was ok. I averaged 26 seconds for each round. While I was aiming for the fastest time that I could get, I was also trying to ensure that I was using an efficient stroke. Wildly pulling at the rig is not going to help me any. I was pretty happy with my performance. It's kinda funny, the 30 seconds of rest is longer than it takes you to row 100m, I def enjoyed that rest.

My total time: 29:28

I'd say that was a good start to the week. Bring on the holiday weekend!!! Woo! 

Have you signed up for Murph yet? Get it done!

On a side note, some shots from my weekend.

Started things off with a paleo carnitas burrito. 

At the park.

Hoku practicing her tragic, moping face.

Perfect tanning weather. 

Friday Fun (a little late)

Sorry for all the missed posts lately. It's been a crazy week around here. I didn't feel so well on Tuesday but was hoping that it was just allergies. After taking some zyrtec and realizing that didn't help at all and feeling pretty crappy later watching Totem, I resounded that I was indeed getting sick. Ugh, I hate being sick. I especially hate being sick while watching something as awesome as Cirque du Soleil. I stayed home sick on Wednesday and took Thursday off from CrossFit as well in order to kick this cold. Luckily, it worked and I was back at the box yesterday morning.

Here's what welcomed me back.

At the box, we just started something new, which I think is an awesome idea. In our Foundations classes, there are 3 WODs that we use at the end of each. Now, we've worked those WODs back into our programming and are using them as benchmarks. Sounds like a great idea to me. 

I decided to use this as training for when I eventually have to do Fran. After the warmups, I loaded up 65lb and got ready to start. 

For some reason, I always forget that thrusters are much harder than push press. It was doable, but I couldn't finish any of the sets unbroken. I had to go by fives in order to keep good form. The box jumps were actually my best part of this WOD. I had a good rhythm that I was able to keep up the whole time. The run portion was, well, a run. Like any other. Mostly I used it as an opportunity to catch my breath before getting back to thrusters. 

My time: 13:00 

That's actually 27 seconds slower than when I did this in Foundations, but considering that I did this in Foundations with just the 23lb bar... I'd say this is still an improvement. Looking forward to doing this again in the future and seeing how I fare.

On a side note, here's some shots from the week.

Push press on Tuesday.

The show was amazing! Can't wait to see another one.

This little pup keeps me pretty busy too. She likes getting into trouble. 

Get Ready

After a beautiful weekend here in San Diego, I was not ready for the week to start. I wanted to keep lounging around and enjoying the sunshine with Hoku. Unfortunately, at 4:45am I was reminded of reality when my alarm sounded.

Back to the grind, here we go.

Today was my first time using the bag instead of the ball and I must say... I prefer the ball. That little bounce at the end makes a huge difference. My forearms were burning by the end of the WOD. It took a lot to keep the sets unbroken and still get a decent run. I ended up digging pretty deep in the end to push for that last run up the block. 

My time: 12:55 (15# kb/20# bag)

On a side note... some shots from my weekend.

I spent Friday afternoon cuddling up to this cutie.

Paleo cheat: char siu sammy from the Asian Persuasion food truck at the Asian Cultural Fest.

Sunday breakfast: Paleo sweet potato hash.

Dinner tonight: Paleo crockpot carnitas. Mmmmm.

And... I GOT MY FIRST STRICT PULLUP EVER TODAY!!!!!! Woo!

PFA time!

No CrossFit yesterday, I had to rest up.

It comes along twice a year and it is once again time... the Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA). One of those things you have to do when you're in the military. I don't know who decided that some pushups, sit-ups, and a 1.5 mile run accurately assess your fitness, but hey, I'm sure someone gets paid a lot of money to figure this crap out.

Lately, due to the whole problem of being on a ship and not really doing anything that helped my metabolic conditioning, my scores have tanked. Nothing super horrible, but definitely nothing to be proud of.

Enter CrossFit.

My approach this time was to treat it like a WOD. This is how it would look if it were a WOD.

2 min AMRAP: situps

2 min rest

2 min AMRAP: pushups

5 min rest

1.5 mile run for time

Not bad huh?

I did:

92 situps (101 is max score)

46 pushups (46 is max score)

13:00 run

Since starting CrossFit, I added 12 sit-ups and cut nearly a minute off my run time. I'd say this stuff works.

Just Breathe

Who doesn't want to start their day off with some burpees?! I bet you do! 120 of them to be exact.

Oh and while you do them, you have to keep count... not only of the burpees, but of your recovery breaths too!

I'm good at math, just not first thing in the morning and not when I'm more focused on pulling myself off the ground for who knows how long.

I was trying to breathe as slowly and deeply as possible to catch my breath and give myself some rest time. The problem with that though is that the lack of oxygen got my a little bit dizzy and that was still the beginning. 

Midway through I ended up losing count a bit. I may have done the "13" rounds twice, not quite sure. 

By the last rounds I was just trying to breathe as deeply as possible before starting again. It was tough. I was able to keep up decent form throughout though. I didn't end up resorting to the complete peel off the ground motion. 

I still can't believe some people did more than 120 burpees in 7 minutes during 12.1, that's insane. It took me almost 12 minutes with those breaks built in and I definitely wasn't "breathing" for 5 minutes.

But then again 7 minutes of burpees is insane and I don't plan on using that as a benchmark any time soon.

Have you signed up for Memorial Day Murph yet? I have. See you out there!

On a side note, grilled tonight. I love grill night. I have a new found love of zucchini because of grill night.

My plate. Steak, pork, and veggies. Can't get any better.

Raise 'em up!

What a way to start the week off... two things that don't really tickle my fancy: overhead squats and WODs where you're constantly in the same position.

This is what was waiting for us at the box today.

So basically, you're arms are going to be in the overhead position for 20 minutes straight. Yay!!!  not really. Who gets really excited about that? You must be a freak. (No harm intended).

I went light. As in the 15kg bar. Really. I'm a little embarrassed about that, but I needed to be able to use my arms the rest of the day. Hey, at least I stuck with the 25lb plate for the lunges!

I'm thankful for staying at that weight. 15 reps is a lot for OHS and then you don't even get to rest afterwards because your arms are again over your head trying to keep the plate from bouncing off your noggin. 

Thank goodness my Rogue Wrist Wraps came in this weekend. I put those babies to good use today.

I had to really focus towards the end of the AMRAP. As I got tired, I started to go more on the balls of my feet instead pushing through my heels. I'll take less numbers for better form. No sense getting lazy in here.

In the end: 8 rounds

And that was moving until the very last second too. 

On a side note... how awesome was Chris Spealler's performance this weekend at Regionals? Freaking amazing!!!! I'm so excited that he'll again be at the Games. I'm gonna get to see him in action. Can't wait! If you haven't yet, check out the Games site and watch the videos. There are so many inspirational athletes. 

And here's some shots from my weekend.

Picked this little cutie up on Friday. She's such a darling.

It's worth it to wake up early for this face.

Celebrated Cinco de Mayo with some paleo spaghetti (and a cheat burrito earlier in the day).

Then prepped food for the week. 

Pull and pull some more

Do you ever have those days when you just feel... bleh? Today was that day for me. At least in the morning. I got plenty of good sleep last night, about 7.5 hours, but for some reason I just wasn't feeling it this morning.

Thank goodness it was a lifting day.

Deadlifts are fine by me. They make me feel strong. They also scratch my legs and thighs, but I won't hold a grudge against that. 

Strict pull-ups though, they DO NOT make me feel strong. They make me feel like a wuss because I can strain and try with all my might and not get my chin over that bar. Well, at least I could get a few out with the red band. 

Here's how the rounds worked out for me:

1. 6 pull-ups; 125lb DL

2. 5 pull-ups; 135lb DL

3. 5 pull-ups; 145lb DL

4. 5 pull-ups; 155lb DL

5. 5 pull-ups; 165lb DL

Not bad weights. I was really trying to focus on form for this WOD. I was happy with it. Too bad it just didn't get me going for the day.

On a happier side note, this little ball of love comes home with me tomorrow!!

Too Light... ha!

I don't know what it is... maybe that we are getting closer to the summer? Maybe that more people are moving to East Village? It's been harder to find parking in the morning in front of the box. I used to always get this one spot across the street. Nobody parked there overnight. Now, it's always taken when I show up and I'm not showing up any later. Huh... might have to start making friends with the homeless people around the corner.

Anyways, this is what we had this morning.

I was pretty excited for this one. Even though it contained running... 200m, I could do that! (I think!) There were a lot of people around this morning too. A couple of drop ins added to the usual numbers. Once we all had our barbells set up, we took up the majority of the floor place and were packed the tightest I've ever seen it. 

Still comfortable though and we got straight to work.

I had set up 63lb for the push press. I wanted to go "heavy" but not so heavy that I couldn't finish unbroken. 

The first round, the weight felt heavy, but I think I just wasn't warmed up enough in that movement because it became easier in the later rounds. About halfway through, Christa looked at me and said, "Kana, you look too strong for that weight." To which I immediately was shaking my head while finishing a press. She chuckled. I was having to push quite hard to finish out those rounds.

The runs were... okay. Sucks that it's the slightly uphill area of the block for the first 100m. Definitely worse going up for the first half. 

15min AMRAP: 6 rounds + 15

On a side note... a coworker and I went to Urban Chicken for the first time today for some lunch. It was much better than I expected from the look of things outside. Don't be discouraged by the exterior! They only use locally grown produce and free range chickens, which is good for paleo menu options. I got a 1/4 chicken with two sides. I choose the salad and grilled veggies. The food was phenomenal. The chicken was nicely seasoned and moist. The veggies! I don't remember the last time I had zucchini, but I remember that I never liked it. Today... uh... it was delicious! So tender and perfectly charred. I'll definitely be going back. Probably for a cheat meal so that I can try a Chicken Turnover, cause those things looked amazing.

Burpees, Bells, and Balls

The first thing I do in the mornings after my alarm goes off, is take a peek at the wod on the CFEV website. This morning I was having particular difficulty... then when my eyes focused a tad bit more, I realized why. They changed the website last night!!! I wasn't even clicking in the right spot on my iPhone. Check out the new site... I think it's pretty badass.

When I finally focused enough to find the wod on the site, here's what I saw.

Didn't look so horrible, but I have a particular dislike for wods that increase in reps throughout. I find it mentally more taxing to keep thinking that I have more reps to go than I completed.

The burpees in this wod were killer. I was struggling by the middle of the second round. Silly me, I also went heavy (not like Laura was gonna let me go light anyway). The kb swings weren't horrible with the 35lb bell. The ball slams sucked with the 20lb ball though. I was barely going in sets of five by the last round and a couple times almost dropped the thing on my head. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

In the end...

My time: 12:20 (35lb kb, 20lb ball)

At least I didn't have to run around anywhere!

On a side note, here's my dinner and it was super delicious!!

Homemade paleo butter chicken with cauli-rice. Mmm.