Mile a Minute

More like mile in 8 minutes and some change.

I'll get right to it. This is what I woke up to.

I don't even like running 600m, it's no secret that I don't like running nearly a mile even more. That's what was up for us this morning. 

At least there wasn't another run tacked on to the end of the wod like the last time.

Pretty straightforward today. I focused on my running form and breathing much more this time. I don't know if it was that or just that I'm getting back into better shape, but...

I made it back in the door in 8:19.

That's a full 1:40 faster than the last time I ran that distance. That was on March 24. Hmmmm... guess this CrossFit thing is working.

There was the row afterwards, however I have my PFA (physical fitness assessment) this week and my quads are still sore from Friday so I decided to take it easy. I rowed an easy 1000m.

Of course, once I get to work, I find that the test is rescheduled to the following week. Great.

On a side note... here's some shots from my weekend.

Finally summer weather! I busted out the shorts.

Yummy paleo breakfast of sweet potato hash, bacon, and eggs.

And a not quite so paleo dinner. Mussels and shmrip on a spicy red sauce. Homemade goodness.


This little angel is Hoku and she comes home on Friday. Can't contain my excitement.
Check out her blog Put a Corgi In It and follow her on twitter @HokuBear

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!

From Russia With Love... and a new PR!

Today was a bit of fun. We got to play with kettlebells for the entire class. Well, at least the part that came after the warmup.

I was actually pretty stoked about this workout, it sounded like fun. At the end, I thought it was fun... except one part. That was when I lost a bit of focus, banged the kb off my thigh on the way up and then almost whacked myself in the head with the thing. 

That would not have been enjoyable.

I am pretty happy with myself for being able to complete this using the 25# kb. A month ago, I was using the 25# kb in wods that required both hands. Now, one handed... yeah, I'm awesome. Not really. Still happy that I was successful today. 

Granted, I did have to stop a couple time and grab a small bit of chalk. 

Am I the only person that uses chalk for pretty much everything that involves lifting/swinging something?

Maybe it's just that my hands get sweaty when gripping the kb. I'm pretty sure that I'm the only one who used chalk today. Maybe I'm just becoming a chalk whore. Maybe it's because chalk just makes me feel stronger. Whatever, I lifted a decent weight with it today. 

My time: 9:20

After the wod, I still had some extra time and decided that I would do some deadlifting. The last time I pr'd I had already done over 35 reps. This time I worked my way up only doing 5 reps total. I had already gotten a pretty good warmup with all the kb work.

So with Laura watching and urging me on (and to make sure that I didn't have crappy form) I got up 195#!

 I really wanted to try another at 200# but Laura and I both new that while I most likely would have gotten the weight up, my form would have gone to crap and I would have lifted that too much with my back. 

I'll give it a couple weeks and see what happens. 

That it for now folks!

My Poor Knees

Most of the time when I run, my knees bother me. Today, I knew it was going to happen. Quite a bit of running and because I was tired, I did not have the best running form either... I was mostly trying to get the hell back in the door the quickest way possible. Needless to say, by the time lunch rolled around, just getting out of my desk chair sucked. Then I remembered that I hadn't taken my daily dose of fish oil yet.

A couple of swallows and two hours later... ahhhh. Much better.


Back to the real stuff, here's what started off my pain today.

Have I mentioned before that I hate running? I have and if you haven't been keeping up... I despise running. I have short legs, they don't go fast and they don't like when I try to get them to go faster.

Amazingly, since a couple months ago when I started all this, I can know keep up with the pack for the most part. Makes me feel a teeny bit better about myself. Yeah, I have self esteem issues.

Running aside, there were also those nasty 20 thrusters to deal with. In true form, once again I was over thinking.

"45# is too light, but 63# might be too heavy."

That's what was going through my head since I saw the board this morning. 45# seemed so light, but the reps did total out to 60, which is a lot. What do I do?

Set up the midget bar with 15s? Nope. I set up 63# and then brought over an empty 45# bar too, just in case.

That, in the end was what saved my butt. After running and trying to be somewhat quick about things, 63# was not gonna happen for all 20 reps each round. I knew it. 

Here's how it did turn out:

1st round: 63#x10; 45#x10

2nd round: 63#x5; 45#x15

3rd round: 63#x10; 45#x10

I don't know what happened during the second round. I think I tried to make up some time by dropping to the lower weight earlier. Not that it made a huge difference. By the time I got back from the last run, I'm pretty sure I just said fk it and did more of the heavy weight. 

This workout led me to one conclusion, when Fran eventually arrives (and she will someday), it's not going to be pretty. 

Total time: 20:20

On a side note... dinner tonight was some grilled deliciousness. Since the clouds decided to hold off on dumping the impending rain storm, I managed to squeeze this meal in before it gets nasty.

Meat!!! I think I'm in heaven.

And these tasty treats: grilled bacon jalapeño poppers.

All Over The Map

Some days, I'm just not moving as fast as I'd like in the morning. Today was one of those days. Went to bed at a reasonable time, but I was just so tired when I woke up.

Good thing Laura was around this morning. That meant some good DU practice before starting the WOD, which gave me time to get myself moving. I didn't do so bad. For some reason I would always trip up when I got to 9. Every time. Maybe I'll have better luck next time. 

On to the WOD.

It was a pretty long one. 
The HSPU were the worst, I think. I was able to do them with only one mat. By the end though I was only doing them for about 15 of the 20 seconds. 
I tried to work on my speed during the box jumps. It went... eh. Not super good, but better than before. I like 20 seconds of box jumps, they are doable before I get all exhausted. I will admit that I almost face planted into the box one time though. I survived it and recovered thank goodness. 
The L-sits were not a favorite either. I could only hold the "L" for about 5 seconds and spent the rest of the time in the tuck position. Watching the clock tick by while hanging on to the bar was the longest 20 seconds of the workout.
This WOD got me moving, but it wasn't a favorite. Hopefully, I'll have a better day tomorrow.
On a side note, here's my dinner plate tonight.

Paleo leftover meal. Garlic roasted pork, sauteed spinach with bacon, and asparagus. Mmm.

Mini-WOD Monday

I'm pretty sure that I dreamed about CrossFit this weekend, so I was ready to go this morning. When I saw the WOD, I even thought, "hey, this looks like fun."

Well, that was until I woke up enough and realized that those were overhead squats... my least favorite lift. Ever. I just don't like them. Weird, because I love snatch and snatch balance and everything snatch related, but I really hate OHS. Huh, gotta 'em sometime I guess. 

The class was pretty full this morning thanks to a couple Foundations graduates (yay! congrats!) and a couple of drop ins (welcome!). I ended up starting with the row/run to alleviate overcrowding with the OHS. I felt good for the first round, but the second run, my legs just didn't want to start moving. I finally got them moving on the last half of the lap (the downhill portion). I was on the floor when that part was over. 

Next up was the OHS. I feel like I shortchanged myself a bit, because I didn't go very heavy. Once again, psyching myself out. Started too light and ended up not reaching my full potential. Didn't want to keep going though because there were still kettlebell swings to get through. Huh, are the more reason to figure out my 1RM on OHS. Sucks though, because that means I'll actually have to do them. 

The pushups/kbs were last. You could break it up any way you wanted. At first, I figured I'd break it into sets of ten. By the time I started I figured I would get as many kbs as a could and go from there. That's how it went. Not bad. I was happy with my time too and the fact that I moved up weight for the kb (1 pood! yeah!). 

Here's my WOD: 

Run/Row: 4:54 

OHS: 33#x3; 53#x3; 63#x3x3; 68#x3 

KBS/Pushup: 3:32 

Not a bad start to the week. And on a side note, some shots from my weekend.

  Primal portobello mushroom pizza! You gotta have a little cheese every now and then.

Primal burger yumminess for dinner. Recipe from Health Bent

Breakfast this morning, I love me some hash!

My sis putting up a 55# snatch at CF Waipio. So proud of you!!!

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!

Tuesday Shoesday

Not really, cause I didn't buy any new shoes, but I did get to wear my Chucks to the box again this week! I love working out in my Chucks. Don't ask why... I don't know, I just do. Like it makes me feel cool or something. Which I, most assuredly, am not.

Anyways, deadlifts today so definitely a Chuck Taylor kind of day. One of these days I'll do my shoe post, but for know just know that I do all my heavy/OLY lifts in my Chucks. They feel the most stable. Wwwaaaayyyyy better than running/generic athletic shoes. If you still lift in your running shoes, better go barefoot. You don't know the power you're missing out on. Then go get you some flat shoes pronto!

On to today's WOD!



DEADLIFTS! I heart deadlifts. They make me feel strong. Maybe it's because I'm short and the weight doesn't have to travel as far, I don't know. I like them... almost as much as I like cleans.

This looks like a short workout, but I did a fair amount of "warm-up" sets of 5 reps before Laura (my personal training nazi) would let me move on to 4 reps, much less 3. Even when Laura isn't coaching, she's still the little voice in the back of my head telling me "that looks a bit light for you" or "that was too easy, add more weight." Heh. It helps, I lift more than I think I can with her urgance.

At the end, I topped out and hit my 1RM at 180#!!

I was super stoked. I thought it would have been somewhere around the 150# range. Considering that the heaviest I've gone in a metcon has been 95# and even that has sucked at times. Maybe I'm short changing myself? I'll have to find out the next time DL shows it's face in a metcon.

Here was the road to 180#:
5 reps: 95, 105, 110, 115
4 reps: 125, 135, 145
3 reps: 155
2 reps: 165
1 rep: 170, 175, 180

And then my hands were nice and tore up from the knurling. I used a mixed grip, but it still sucks. DLs tear my hands up more than pullups I think. So at lunch I went and replenished my supply of hand lotion to keep in my work drawer and cuticle cream (not so much for my torn hand, but my not-so-awesome cuticles).



Ahhhhh. Much better now.

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

Friday Fun

My theory is now confirmed. Every other Friday at the box is a partner WOD day. Not that I'm complaining... I like partner WODs.

Except when they include something that I consider a weakness. Which today of course, did. Rowing.

I'm not a super fast rower. I would like to be, but I'm not. I'm only 5'0 on a good day. I just don't have the pull that everyone else does. Not for lack of trying, I am constantly working on my form (I've watched all the videos from CF Journal and gotten tips from people at my box), but I'm not there yet. Granted, I am better than when I started. I row much more efficiently now, but I know there's more in me.

Here's what we had.



Row and run. Great. I hope that Hillary doesn't shoot me for taking so long ;)

I opted to row first because I know I'm the weaker one at it. I kept a decent pace... 2:11/500m @ ~28 spm. My fastest 500m is 2:09 so I was happy with this. Took a bit to push out that last 200m but got the work done. Hillary cheered me on as well, which helped.

The run wasn't anything horrible, at least no super stinky odors emanating from the homeless dude that camps out by the box entrance. One time I ran by and almost gagged it was so bad. I would hold my breath, but I can't afford not to breath during any sort of running activity.

Back inside for my turn at man makers and KTE. We opted for the 12# dumbells since essentially it was only 10 total man makers. Tough, but doable.

KTE? huh... not my favorite. These I did one at a time, but was able to get my knees up every time. I need to work on kipping this.

Beforehand, we decided that we would split up the plank into 30 sec intervals a person. If you've ever done plank, you know that 30 seconds can seem like forever! Hillary was still rowing so I started the plank and knocked out a min and a half (thank goodness we could change positions!).

Our time: 17:25

Now it's time for the weekend!

Back at the Box

Finally no early morning meetings! That meant that I could get back to the box this morning. I took yesterday, which I feel guilty about but the afternoon's timings just didn't leave room for a WOD. Oh well, I'm not going to let it bother me... back at the grind today!



I looked at this and thought that it wouldn't be that bad. After all, it's only 10 minutes. Oh boy was I wrong!!

Considering that your arms were in basically the same postion the whole time (while also trying to hang on to some weight), you get pretty tired quickly. I thought that I was gonna be able to knock out 10 rounds. Seemed pretty good and the first round went quickly.

Then it was like WHAM! I hit a huge wall. That 20# ball felt like 50# and I had to use a lot of energy just to lift up the 25# KB I was using for the step ups.

And it wasn't because I had to take a day off... everyone else was sucking wind too.

In the end: 6 rounds + 4 ball slams

That's not quite 10 rounds. Whatever. It's cool.

For today's side note: See those 3 warm-up rounds? Where there are DUs?

I managed to get the last round unbroken. Yeah! I'm happy about that. It's only the second time I've done that many consecutive DUs. Through practicing I have learned that I am much worse at them, when I'm tired, lazy, and not concentrating on form. When that happens, I don't jump as high, jump with poor form, and forget to use my wrists. Still making progress though... I'm happy.

Second side note: It's National Sibling Day (it's either today or yesterday, there are conflicting reports). Anyways, here's a tribute to me and my sister.

My WOD in Pictures

So today I had to be at work early... 0630. That meant I couldn't get my usual 0600 class. I hate that. I debated going for an evening class, then found out that I had been tasked to attend another meeting tomorrow morning. So again, no class. What's worse, I have no idea where the place for the meeting is. So now instead of an evening class, I had to go an scope out where this joint was. (I hate being late for things and I have a horrible sense of direction, scoping the place out was a must.)

After two days off (one of which was my first cheat day since sticking to paleo... it was an amazing aka the best brunch i've ever been to kinda cheat... I didn't feel bad), but I knew that I needed to do something.

So I came up with this to do at home:




150 of these


Followed by 150 of these


Finally, 150 of these


I don't own an abmat, so I improvised with a towel instead


How it turned out in the end...

Originally, I was going to do two rounds. Boy was that ambitious! I knew right away there weren't going to be two rounds. I almost visited pukie in the middle of the sit-ups!

Crossfit people are crazy... who else would think of a workout like that for themselves??

(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