Mini-WOD Monday (and Friday)

Ah!!! With all the excitement happening Friday (I got promoted!! Wooo!) I forgot to post the workout. And man it was a good one.

Did your heart just sink? Did you stomach turn to knots? Did an audible "ugh" just escape your lips? 

No? Huh... well you're sadistic then. All those things happened to me and everyone else who showed up Friday morning. I thought back to the Open and 12.1. I squeaked out 86 burpees in those 7 minutes, but it was hhhaaarrrddd. Like, crawling off the floor hard. Now, I have to do 100? I knew it wasn't going to be pretty. 

Our trainer Christa had done this workout before we showed up. How motivating is that?! Just so that we really didn't have any room to complain, she did the workout balls early in the morning to prove to us it could be done. Her time: 8:57. She said that she tried doing sets of 10 reps, but knew that would be too much. She broke it down farther to sets of 5 reps. 

I set out at the beginning with that mentality: 5 reps. While I was doing the first set though, I felt too good at 5 reps to stop, so I continued to 10 reps. It took me about 20-25 seconds to finish, then I would rest about 10-15 seconds before starting again. That worked for the first few rounds, but then I started to slow down. I kept good form, no peeling off the floor this time and I was certain to finish all 10 reps unbroken for each set. That helped me. The whole time I just kept thinking "don't stop." I made it to the end. And I beat Christa.

My time: 8:40

I was dead at the end. D.E.A.D. dead.

Now, on to today. It's the first Monday of the month which means... Mini-WOD Day!!!

Here's what we had.

When I walked into the box, I was hoping that I misread the 50 and it was actually 25 or something. Nope. 50 reps. 

With that confirmed, I um... *cough* may have instantly lost 15 lbs. Haha. I wanted to be able to get to 50 and as soon as I felt the 105 lbs I loaded up, I knew it wasn't going to happen at 120 lbs. Maybe, but I do have to get to work by a certain time. Can't stay there all morning doing individual squats. I experimented with both high bar and low bar back squats. I actually thought that I felt a little stronger with low bar, but I found it a little harder to balance. I probably did 60/40 high bar/low bar. That part of the WOD took about 17 minutes to get through.

Then I had to tackle the HSPU. I did it with one mat and sets of 10. A couple times I got off balance and accidentally pushed myself off the wall. Whoops. It was hard, but I made it. Sooner or later I'm gonna have to figure out kipping these. I've seen videos but can't seem to get myself to attempt it.

Lastly, the row was the row. I worked on form and keeping my stroke count low compared to the time. Okay... not my best time, but definitely better form rather than just hauling all out and wasting energy.

All in all, it took me about 35 minutes to finish the whole WOD, but that was with little rest between the different exercises. 

Hope that everyone has a great week!

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

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.

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

gettin' my squat on!

I was just thinking last night that I haven't done squats in a while.

Lo and behold, look what's on the board this morning.



SQUATS!!! Drew must be psychic or something.

After a very long, but worthwile dynamic stretching warm-up, I walked up the my racked bar and got started.

I'll admit, I am a wuss when it comes to starting off with weights, especially when it's something that I haven't worked in a bit and I'm not sure how much weight I can handle. Then I undoubtedly start over analyzing how much I think I can lift and without the watchful eye of a coach, shortchange myself.

My Rounds
1st round: 55#
2nd round: 65#
3rd round: 75#
4th round: 85#
5th round: 95#

By this time, I knew that I had only really worked on those last two rounds. I could hear Laura's voice in the back of my head,"that's too light for you!" so I decided to keep going until I had to push myself more.

6th round: 100#
7th round: 105#

I stopped there. The last set of back squats I pushed a lot and I knew at any heavier I wouldn't be able to get through the set unbroken. 105#, I'll take that.

Oddly enough, before starting this workout, I thought the limiting factor for me would be how much I could front squat. Instead, it was how much I could back squat. I felt much more stable on my front squat than my back squat. Definitely not what I thought would happen.

Over the past month I have also noticed that men seem to have a much harder time with the required shoulder and arm mobility required to do overhead and front squats. They have quite a difficult time keeping their elbows up during front squats and can't quite get the full rotation for overhead. Interesting. I'll have to look into that one.

Oh yeah and I had sweet potato hash for dinner again last night and leftovers again for lunch. I'm obsessed with the stuff.