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. 

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!

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. 

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.

Life Goal... Accomplished!!

I have to start off this post with the most exciting news... maybe, like ever.

I did my first pullup!! And I mean, I kipped it straight up to the bar. Awesomeness. Too bad there isn't a video or anything. I'm rather low tech when actually working out.

Hells yeah! I never, ever, ever thought I would be able to do one and now... two months into CrossFit, it happened. Amazingness. And did I mention this was after this morning AMRAP? More awesomeness.

Ok. Ok. Now on to the actual workout.



For some reason, maybe tiredness... the first time I read this in the morning I thought it said only 3 kb arm presses, which I thought was weird. Why so little? Ah, because I'm an idiot and misread the board. Got it.

The AMRAP was a usual AMRAP, which means that it sucked. Three minutes into it, I couldn't believe I had to keep this up for seven more. And naysayers complain that you can't get a good workout in ten minutes. Ha! Kb presses were not the most comfortable thing for my wrists though. It just sucked to have the bottom of the kb hitting my arm the whole time. I think I have a slight bruise now :( oh well.

10 min AMRAP: 18 rnds + 10 +4

I just couldn't squeeze in those last few presses.

There weren't enough rowers for the whole class so I opted to wait and worked on some double unders and pullups. That's when I got those three glorious kips.

Double unders. They were a different story. I've already proved to myself that I can do them. The problem is once I get a little tired, my form sucks and I lose concentration... two things I need if I don't want to continually whip my toes or the back of my thigh. So what do I do? Blame the rope (which I do think is just a tad too long, made for people 5'0-5'6 and I'm maybe 5'0 on a super good day). I'm working on getting one custom fit. Just gotta make the (not too far) drive to El Cajon and pay a visit to Rx Jump Ropes.

That's it for now!


My dinner plate: spicy garlic long beans and asparagus (my recipe) and Chinese five spice slow cooker pork (from The Clothes Make The Girl). Yum!

Walking funny today... go figure

As yesterday progressed, I really started to feel those squats. I definitely felt them when I woke up this morning. And then guess what?

BAM! This showed up.



I knew my legs would not appreciate this WOD, basically one long (relatively) torture session of the same motion. Great.

Last week, I had a 2RM of 90# thrusters. So to do them in a metcon, I figured out 65% of that, which equals 58.5. Ok, sounds doable... so I grab a midget bar (23#) and throw a pair of 15# bumpers on. I wussed out and didn't add the last 5# to make it an even 58#. Thank god!

I got through the first 20 thrusters okay. They were hard, but I managed to pump out all 20 unbroken. I knew, though, that would not be happening in the next sets.

The wall balls were a different story. More along the lines of do some. Do some more. Do some more. Almost there. Finished.

Then back to thrusters. I was so tired at the end of the first round that I didn't even rack the bar. So now I had to clean it off the floor. Not horrible just... blah. I did the second and third round of these in sets of five.

And let me tell you... the last set of thrusters was HARD. For reals.

My time: 8:39

I was one of the last few people to finish. Which I think sucks, except for that I was one of the only girls to use any sort of weight that pushed my limits. I'm glad I did. It's helping me grow and realize that I am stronger than I think.

Needless to say, I am now walking funny because my quads, hamstrings, and hip flexors are all sore. Oh well, at least I can say that I did something today. I lifted heavy weights. How bout you?

Since CF and Paleo are pretty much taking over my life... I don't really post a lot on my personal blog. Eh. I like this one much better. I thought I would start sharing some photos of my day with whoever (if anyone) reads this thing.

*All pics are mine and usually taken with my phone using instagram... you can tell the ones that I take with my dslr, they're much nicer looking*


Today's lunch: sweet potato hash and chicken sausage from Costco.


Sausage cooking last night in some leftover bacon fat


Last night's dinner: seafood stew from Everyday Paleo. Mmm


Also with dinner, the recipe of the week from CFEV. Bacon wrapped, almond-stuffed dates.