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. 

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!

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.

I got run over

Not really, but I feel like it. Last week, I was thinking that I was feeling pretty good after WODs and stuff. This week has been like WHAMMY! I feel like I got hit by a train or something. It was triggered by the squats, which I was happy to do. Then carried on by the following day's thrusters. Which were then capped off today with some push press. I wonder what's on the menu for tomorrow?

Side note: Today was the first time that I had to tape my wrist for a WOD. They have been hurting a bit from the front squats and thrusters. Honetly, last time we did thrusters, I felt like I could get more weight up, but was afraid that during the transition my wrist would give out. I learned a new way to hold the bar that helps A LOT (thanks Drew!), but I still taped today for a more stable feel.

Here's what we had.



At first glance, I was like ok... that doesn't sound to bad. We were encouraged to go "HEAVY" as was posted, especially with the rest time built into the WOD.

Hmmm... heavy. I usually use the 25# kb for metcons. Too bad there isn't one at 30#. All right, I went with the 35#. Then settled on the same weight as yesterday for the push press: 53#. I could have gone with 55#, but I wanted the bumpers on just in case I had to drop. (I didn't but there were definitely times when I wanted to.)

I got through my first few rounds quickly and without any problems. I didn't feel horrible or anything.

That was until I looked at the clock... only 2:15 had gone by! There were more than 20 mins left in this AMRAP! Holy sh*t is what I was thinking. I need to slow down a bit or I'll be down for the count by 15 mins.

Somewhere around 15 mins into the WOD, I got tired. The KBS weren't the problem. They were tiring but doable (never enjoyable), even at the 35# weight. The push press on the other hand. I taped my right wrist before starting and good thing, but both wrists were not happy about all this overhead stuff. I got through the 10 KBS in about 20 secs each round. Then prolly spent another 20 secs staring at the bar working up the courage to pick the damn thing up. Eventually, it was all over.

25 min AMRAP: 17 rounds.

I'm going to keep going with the tape for a bit for anything front squat or OH related. In the mean time, gonna get some wrist strength building going on.

Oh yeah, I was the only chick there today. Where was everyone at? Not that I'm intimidated at all... just saying.

I saw this during my lunch break yesterday and got a laugh.



Apparently, I have been doing my OH squat wrong this whole time. Along with every other person at my box and countless others across the country. Maybe we should bring in a Men's Fitness journalist who can teach us properly. (I guess the people that work at these magazines aren't actually into fitness or they would never have let this happen.) As seen in the April issue. Check it out and get a good laugh.

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.