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!!

Friday Fun (and pictures)

It's partner wod day! Got up ready to go today (and also ready for the weekend)!

Came into the box this morning and found this.

Okay... it didn't look that bad. I mean, when you thought about it, it was only 40 reps of each exercise per person. 

For some reason, Curtis P's sounded familiar. I don't know why. When I read the description, I knew that I had definitely not done those ever before. They didn't sound like much fun, power clean into lunge into push press. That's a lot, but then...

Christa said, "They aren't that bad. I did 75 of these the other day. They're fun!"

I have to admit, I pushed the believe button wholeheartedly. 

And then we were off. First 600m run went fine. Then Hillary and I moved on to the CP's.

We started off using 53#. Mostly because it was the lightest weight that we could use bumpers on in case we had to drop the weight. Seemed ok in the beginning. We were doing 10 reps each then switching. By our 15th rep each, we had majorly slowed down. It wasn't the clean that was hard or the push press. 

It was those damn lunges!!

Somewhere in the middle of that we decidedly that we would switch to only 5 reps before switching. Before you knew it, we were down to just a 45# bar. Let me tell you, it's amazing what I difference 8# can make.

It took us the better part of 20 mins just to finish the CP's before finally moving on to the burpees. I don't think I was ever so happy to do burpees. We were able to stick with 10 reps each before switching and had a pretty good system of yelling out when we were on the 9th rep so the other person could prep and smoothly transition. 

Next was the part that I looked forward to... pull-ups. I love training pull-ups and was excited to tackle this. Same deal here, 10 a piece, then switch. Worked good for a bit, but somewhere in the middle we both switched to 5 reps each, then I went back to 10 reps. Hillary tore her hand last week on the 100 pull-ups so I didn't mind pushing out a few more reps. 

Finally we were running out the door for the last 600m run. The first 300m went fine, but the last. As soon as we came around the corner for the uphill portion my calves were in serious protest mode. They did not want to move. I felt like the harder I pushed, the slower I went. Finally we got to the top and I did my best to stride out the downhill portion. I was able to turn on the burners and sprint the last block in the door. (Then made a dash for the trash can. Don't judge, I worked hard).

Our time: 31:44

On a side note, during my turns to "rest" I snapped some pics with my phone. Here you go! Have a great weekend!

Hillary prepping for the clean portion of Curtis P.


Dreaded lunges.


Into the push press.


The guys pushing out their sets.


Don't slow down!


Hillary's burpee face plant.

Still going.

After what seemed like forever, we finally got to the pull-ups.


David clearly enjoying the stretching after the wod.


Bryan and Christa chatting afterwards.

Keep up the good work!

Friday Fun

Coming off a high from yesterday's kipping success (and some sore traps from cleans), I can say I was a little less than enthused about today's workout. Oh boy, 100 pull-ups. I do love some pull-ups, but not necessarily 100 of them. I taped up a couple fingers that give me problems with sore callouses and got ready. My goal was the first 10 pull-ups I would do unassisted, even if it hurt my time and I had to do burpees. That was a success. I managed to knock out 5 and 5. Christa was a bit disappointed that I had to do burgees after only a few pull-ups, but after realizing I did them unassisted, understood. I mean, come on, I just got those yesterday. The rest of the pull-ups I did in sets of ten. Once, I got around 60 my arms started to get really tired and finishing the 10 reps took some fortitude. I had to use a huge kip to get my chin over the bar on the last one, but I got it over. My time: 12:29; 22 burpees Afterwards, I ended up doing a mini-WOD with another guy, Tony. Crazy right? I still had some time and figured what the heck, might as well. For time: 5 rounds 10 goblet squats (25#) 10 pushups My time: 3:55 Yeah, I think I earned the weekend. Just gotta get through work today. At least I didn't tear! Counting that as a miracle!

Over/Under

That would be to get the ball over my head and my entire body under the bar soon after.

Here we go.



I love OLY lifts. Seriously, love them. Cleans are probably my most favorite... just not squat cleans the day after almost 200 air squats and 3000 meters of rowing.

I wanted to save most of my strength for the cleans so I opted to go lighter for the ball slams (12#). I prefer the ball to the bag because the ball, even if ever so slightly, bounces back up and saves me the tiniest bit of energy from picking the bag up off the ground. This worked except for the one time I missed the ball and had to resort to picking it up. I also took a few breaths in that break as well.

The cleans, however. I stuck with 63#, which equats to almost 80% of my 1RM. I knew I would be sacrificing time by going heavier, but I was fine with that.

I may have slightly misunderstood how tired my legs were from yesterday's workout though, because halfway through the first ten, my legs were on fire. I had felt fine through warm ups. Now, I was kinda kicking myself in the butt.

My get-it-done mentality kicked into gear and even though I could only push them out in sts of four and then two, I got every rep in with good form. Strong shrug at the top, quick drop underneatch, and a solid catch position. Granted, I had to push pretty hard at the end to make it up, I sitll got there every time. All without sacrificing form or switching to power clean (which, admittedly, I would have preferred today).

After recovering from all of that, I hope over to the bars and amazingly had enough strength left to bust out a couple rounds of 3 reps and one round of 5 reps of kipping pullups. A little more training and it might be time to try these out in a WOD.

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!

Happy Monday!

Someone in the office this morning decided that it was a good idea to not get fat all by himself, so he dropped off a large donut tray in the "conference room," which happens to be my office. Since beginning this paleo journey, I don't think I've ever seen anything that looked so delectably good and horribly disgusting at the same time. I should have taken a picture. Not that I don't indulge in sweets every now and then, it's just I make those myself and I know exactly what goes into them. Who knows that went into those sugar babies. I got weird looks when offered one and I passed. The look of, "Really? Who passes on sugar-coated donuts on a Monday?" Um... I do. Then the looks of realization came over everyone's faces. Oh yeah, she's the crazy paleo girl. Awesome.

How about today's workout.. shall we?



That was kind of a surprise to wake up to. We usually do a longer metcon on Monday's to get out of the weekend lull. Hmmm... maybe someone feels bad for the crazy metcons from last week?

The usual Monday crowd showed up and Hillary and I decided to partner up in order to save space so we didn't have the clean up the weight before starting the squat, especially because we would be a little higher in weight.

This was more of a "pick your challenge" kind of day. It wasn't specifically for time or certain weight. We decided that we would increase the weight each round for a challenge. Some guys went heavy and did it for time. Good for them.

Here's how our rounds turned out:
1st: 75#
2nd: 80#
3rd: 85#

Each round we did 10 ring pushups. It was supposed to be "max" but 10 was where our form started to get a bit wobbly and sloppy so we cut it there. I was happy with that. The weight was challenging enough, but we were able to get all 3 rounds of 10 reps unbroken. Considering that last time I checked my 1RM for front squat was 105#, to be able to knock out 10 at 85# is fine by me.

Worked on some pullups again after the wod using my new red band. I'm getting better. The red is actually a little easier to keep the kipping rhythm with than then blue band IMO. I dared to try a couple without the band. I was able to do 3 "1.5 kip" pullups. I call them that because I have to use an extra kick about halfway up to get my chin over the bar... but, hey! it gets there!

On a side note: Friday and Saturday's weather suuuucked, but Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. Here's some shots from my weekend.


Started Saturday off with this breakfast scramble


Then ended the night with a yummy fruit and coconut cream mix


Did I mention it was beautiful Sunday?


I could have stayed outside all day

(Good) Friday Fun

I don't know what it was about yesterday, but I was wiped out by 8 o'clock at night. I struggled to keep my eyes open during Missing and Grey's Anatomy (two of the few tv shows I actually try to keep up with). Afterwards, I immediately dove into my bed and knocked out.

Woke up this morning not looking forward to my long day of duty (means I have to stay late at work), but still looking forward to the WOD. At this point I was also crossing my fingers that there wouldn't be overhead anything today... my shoulders didn't feel up to the challenge again.

Luckily, my wish came true and we arrived to this.



I was hoping for a semi-fast time on this (less than 10 minutes) and still a little tired from the heavy lifting earlier in the week so I opted to go a little lighter on the DL weight.

I grabbed a 45# bar and slapped 15#s on each side... eh, it was a little too light. I added another 10# to take the weight up to 85#. Christa was suggesting 95# to 115# or something in the bodyweight range. Hahahaha. Right. I'll stick with my 85#. Right now, I could prolly 1RM my bodyweight, not 20 of them.

Turns out that sticking with 85# was the right choice. It was just heavy enough that I had to push myself, but I made it through the first two rounds unbroken with the last round in sets of 10.

I also made it through all the sets of pullups unbroken, kipping with the blue band of course. I'm pretty proud of that. Practicing the kipping technique has really been paying off. I'm hopeful of meeting my June goal of kipping with no bands.

Now if only my short, little legs would run a bit faster. I was the second person out the door in the first round and ended up coming back in the door at sixth. I know I'm not the fastest runner and I need to work on that. It just seems that everyone else has a much easier time going faster. I find it a little disheartening hearing someone trudge up behind you and pass you. Ugh. Did I mention that I hate running?

My time: 8:39

Not too shabby... but as always, could be better.

BUT

I did get a new PR today!!!!!!! After the WOD, I decided to do 5 rounds of "let-me-see-how-many-I-can-get" double unders. I've been working these for a couple weeks now. Up until now, I've only been able to get 3 before failing.

Today though... I GOT 11! My average today was also 7.

I'll take a PR when I can get it and progress is an amazing thing. Hard work pays off!



My veggies from dinner last night: spinach salad and roasted asparagus

60 BURPEES! ahhhhh!

Woke up this morning and checked online, going down the list of exercises in the WOD wasn't too bad... until I saw 60 burpees. Finish that off with a 700m row. It was good until that point and likewise during the WOD, I was good until that point.

Here's what we had.



I actually like HSPU, except that I feel like I'm ruining the back of my shoes from scraping up and down the wall. Everything else was going good. I'm still kipping well using the blue band. I even managed to get through all 40 KBS unbroken. The last 10 took a slight bit of mental fortitude though. Situps are definitely one of my least favorite exercises, always have been and my college experience with them didn't help at all. The whole time I was just dreading those burpees though. And I mean dreading.

The last time I did any where near as many burpees, I was doing 12.1 from the Open. I did 84 in 7 minutes and I was dragging myself off the ground. Now, I was supposed to do 2/3 of that workout and hopefully do it faster... this all after running around before hand.

Ugh.

Double ugh.

I usually don't mind burpees. I'm not the tallest person, so I seemingly have an advantage when doing them. Today, I hate every last one of them. By 30, I was exhausted. I was lucky to be getting 5 burpees every 30 secs. I started them right at about 7 minutes in and didn't get done until sometime after 12 minutes. FML.

The row was slow going afterwards as well. I was huffing and puffing and just doing my damndest to keep below 30 s/m with a pace better than 2:30/500m. What I would give to have some leg extensions for rowing.

All in all it was over in less than 20 minutes. Thank goodness.

My time: 16:16

**On a very important side note** to me at least. This past weekend I got my first EVER pullup!!!!! Can you see the ginormous grin on my face?! Seriously, this is HUGE.

Granted it took me a kip and and extra kick about 3/4 of the way up, but my chin got over that bar and that's what counts.

HOORAY!!! Check that one off the life goal list. It really was a life goal... I have always sucked at pullups. Since forever.

Now, to work on better kipping rythm and eventually a strict pullup.

The Shoulder Killer (and some goals)

Well, at least there was no egregious amount of pounding pavement today. On the other hand, my shoulders are done.

Yay for Mondays!



I checked my log for the last metcon that we did push press in and I used 55#. Didn't seem that bad, so I grabbed the bar and did some 45# warmups then added on two 5# plates. 15 reps of these? The last time I did this the metcon was 2 rounds, totalling 20 PP. Multiple rounds of 15 reps @ 55# was not going to happen, especially if I wanted to get through more than 2 rounds. I was already dreading the knees to elbows. Back down to just the 45# bar I went.

That turned out to be a good decision, because knees to elbows sucked the life out of my shoulders. It's one thing to get your knees up there (and no, I haven't mastered toes to bar yet so this was not the easiest task), it's another thing to hang on while doing a semi-kip to help get your knees up there. I'd say my knees made to my elbows about 30% of the time. The other 70% of the time, they got pretty close. It's a horrible feeling seeing your knees so close and yet still so far away. At my best I was getting five reps in at a time. Then after all that to get down and do pushups! Holy freakin' canolli! The only time to catch my breath was the situps. The only non-shoulder intensive exercise of the entire WOD. Thank goodness I stayed with the 45# bar, I might have died otherwise. Not really, but I would have had horrible form and that's never a good thing.

15 min AMRAP: 4 rounds + 11 PP (45#)

I'll take that.

And now for the other part... a couple of weeks ago, I decided on some goals to set for myself. Long term, I'd like to participate in next year's open. Short term, I have to master the skill sets first. Which leads to my first couple skills to tackle: kipping pullups and unassisted ring dips.

Goal date: June 9th (my birthday!)

That gives me a little over two months to get these down. And while it may not be a strict pullup, I'm fine with kipping. I've never been able to do any sort of pullup in my life. It's been a goal of mine for a long time and I've done work before to get me to a pullup but I've always been discouraged and given up. Not this time, it's gonna happen and hopefully by June. I've been practicing after almost every WOD (couldn't today because my shoulders were shot) and I've gotten to the point where I'm off the green band and able to kip with the blue. I'm working up in the reps, right now I can consistently do 5-8 kipping with the blue band. Next is to transition to the red band. Hopefully, that will happen by the middle of April.

Unassisted ring dips is going hand in hand with that. Right now, I'm using the blue band to do these in wods. Which, I'll admit, is a little easy when I start... but after about 20 or so reps... not so easy. I've been doing negative ring dips (jump up and slow lowering to the bottom) to build my lat strength up. I've done these before on parallel bars, so I know that I can do this, but the rings add a whole other dimension of unstability. Still, it's gonna happen one day.

Until then, I'm gonna keep practicing.

Hump Day Blues

I despise running. There was a reason that I played sports like softball and volleyball growing up. No long distance running. At one point during a summer, some coaches tried to recruit me to the high school team as a goalie (really? who wants a 5 foot nothing goalie?). I asked them how much they ran during practice... 1 mile warmup then everything else. No thanks! My short legs just don't like to go fast and I hate when people yell "stride it out!" How far to you think these things go? 5 foot nothing remember? They don't stride far at all!

I had some hump day blues this morning. I didn't want to wake up. Add to it the fact that I checked my phone and saw 600m runs in there, now I really didn't want to get up. Still, some sort of workout guilt/CF addiction pulled me up and into the car. When I got there, everyone else was feeling the hump day blues too. At least I wasn't alone.

Here's what we had:



I went a little light on the deadlifts: 75#. I wanted to be able to get through them unbroken. That weight was just right. I was tired at the end and really had to push through, but my sets were unbroken.

Then two laps around the block. This part I hate. It's uphill on the first leg. Not a ginormous hill, but enough that you can feel it. I felt like I was dragging a$$. I pushed myself, but the laps still seemed to take forever. I wanted to get in four complete rounds. I knew after the first run that wasn't going to happen. Ok, at least three and some then.

I didn't wuss out to the green band on pullups. I decided that I needed to put my kipping practice into play and would try to kip with the blue band. Success! The first round I managed to string 5 kips together and the second round 8 kips! That's a record for me. I haven't quite got the rythm down yet and I usually look like I'm doing some awkward flailing motion. The third round I got two sets of 5 kips in. Yeah, I'm still using the band but this is the best it's been for me ever. Ever. In my life. I'm pretty sure I was smiling when it happened.

Final tally for 20 min AMRAP: 3 rounds + 10 dealifts + 300m

Almost the four rounds I wanted.

On a side note... I love spaghetti. It's one of my go-to-favorite-comfort-food type meals. I was very distraught when I learned that Paleo/Primal eating doesn't support wheat. There goes spaghetti. A sad, sad day. My body feels so much better since I've begun I mostly Paleo diet that I'm not giving up on it. Then I discovered a solution: Spagetti Squash! You bake it and string it and voila! spaghetti noodles. I admit, they are a little crunchier and sweeter than pasta noodles, but they were good. I love it! Spaghetti is back in rotation!


You can't even tell those aren't pasta noodles!