Kickin' it in the Kitchen

My kitchen is taking over my life.

But first today's wod.

Don't mind the numbers 1 and 2. We had to split things up a little different because it was a big class. So my rounds went push press - burpees - k2e. No biggie.

I did this at 65lbs. I thought that maybe I could get the first round unbroken. Nope. Had to take a breath at 15 presses. I tried, just couldn't. Burpees didn't happen either. On the k2e, I made 10, then 5, then the last 6. By the last round I was sucking some major wind. This wod was just killer on my shoulders. The hardest part of the burpees was lifting your chest off the ground. 

My time: 9:48

Squeezed it in under 10 minutes. I'll take that.

Now... about that kitchen stuff.

Since starting the Whole30, I've spent most of my hours off of work either at the grocery store or in the kitchen.

Not to say that I didn't prepare. I just didn't prepare enough. Then plans changed and things happen. Tonight I finally got a good handle on things. The key is prep early. Even if not cooking until a later time, at least cut the veggies, marinate the meat early. Then when it's time, you just have to throw it all in the pot.

Last night, I was so exhausted cooking. Tonight I felt efficient. I cut the butternut squash during lunch, then just had to throw it in the oven later. While the pork chops were marinating, I cut the veggies I needed for the quiche I was cooking also. Then after dinner, I browned the hamburger and finished the quiche. Only an extra half hour in the kitchen tonight.

Win!!!


My plate tonight: Mediterranean pork chops with garlic roasted butternut squash and cucumber.

Honey, I'm Home!

I never really left actually, just took a break. I am glad to say though, that I have a new outlook and I hope that the break leads to a change for the better. If you missed it, I added a page up at the top (wrote it a while back and never got always kinda chickened out about posting it) that details a little bit about me, in a roundabout kinda way. I like that. It's like a puzzle. Can you figure it out?

To catch you up real quick, since going on hiatus:

I traveled home to Hawaii and got in some good WODs at my sister's box, Crossfit Waipio.

I participated in the 31 Heroes WOD. That was a beast! I hit set new PRs in C&J (110) and Snatch (70).

 I finally bought a wetsuit and braved the cold California waters for some surf.

 Hoku graduated from Puppy Preschool with flying colors!

I can do unassisted kipping pullups for *all* the WODs (at least the ones we've done).

I totally fell off the paleo wagon in Hawaii and am trying to get back on it.

I complete Fran for the first time ever and did it Rx'd.

I started using Beyond the Whiteboard to track my results.

 My dad and I reconciled. He even came to visit me in SD.

You could say that I've been a busy body or you could say that I haven't. Either way, I felt busy! On to the WOD! Here's what we had today:

Fun yeah? I thought so.

My first reaction when I saw this was "huh... it's so short." That looks like a lot of stuff to do in 12 minutes. It sure felt like an eternity during it though.

It took me almost twice as long to do the step-ups as it took me to do everything else COMBINED! Those were killer. It didn't help that I couldn't really see over the kettlebell to know where the box edge was. I definitely almost fell a couple times. The first round I got through unbroken, but the rest I had to break into 10/5/5. It was hard getting up there for those last few reps. Everything else wasn't so bad. I used the swings to try and catch my breath and get ready for the next round of step-ups. That approach kind of worked... until I got more and more tired.

My result: 4 rounds + 10 (25 lbs)

My goal was 4 rounds. It took a lot to keep stepping onto that box in the final seconds. Even though my back was to the clock, I knew it was counting down. I just gritted my teeth and tried to keep moving and not drop the weight. My legs are going to be feeling this one later today. Thank goodness for some fish oil!

On a side note, here's some pics of what's been going on.

Reppin' Crossfit Waipio during the WOD today.

Tandem SUP at home with my sis.

The "after" picture from 31 Heroes.

My dad chowing down on some fresh uni at the Little Italy Mercato.

My little graduate!

She may love my dad, but she still hates the water!

Back in the Box

Didn't go into the box yesterday cause I was so sore. Then I got guilt tripped by Oscar. Sorry!!!

Woke up this morning, still sore, but decided to go in. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad? Ha! It wasn't a WOD that I would consider difficult... no running, just rowing, but yeah, it still hurt. At least I put some weight on the bar.

I pressed 65lbs, which normally is a moderate weight for me. Today, it felt like it was 100lbs. For reals, I had to take some deep breaths and after the first round I had to break the set into 10 and 5. The best part about this WOD was the box jumps. For some reason, I am starting to really like box jumps. Idunno, I'm weird like that or something. 

My time: 13:41

Sorry for the pretty blah post, I'm tired and sore still. The good news is that I've got a few more pictures from Murph. I'll post those soon!

Friday Fun (a little late)

Sorry for all the missed posts lately. It's been a crazy week around here. I didn't feel so well on Tuesday but was hoping that it was just allergies. After taking some zyrtec and realizing that didn't help at all and feeling pretty crappy later watching Totem, I resounded that I was indeed getting sick. Ugh, I hate being sick. I especially hate being sick while watching something as awesome as Cirque du Soleil. I stayed home sick on Wednesday and took Thursday off from CrossFit as well in order to kick this cold. Luckily, it worked and I was back at the box yesterday morning.

Here's what welcomed me back.

At the box, we just started something new, which I think is an awesome idea. In our Foundations classes, there are 3 WODs that we use at the end of each. Now, we've worked those WODs back into our programming and are using them as benchmarks. Sounds like a great idea to me. 

I decided to use this as training for when I eventually have to do Fran. After the warmups, I loaded up 65lb and got ready to start. 

For some reason, I always forget that thrusters are much harder than push press. It was doable, but I couldn't finish any of the sets unbroken. I had to go by fives in order to keep good form. The box jumps were actually my best part of this WOD. I had a good rhythm that I was able to keep up the whole time. The run portion was, well, a run. Like any other. Mostly I used it as an opportunity to catch my breath before getting back to thrusters. 

My time: 13:00 

That's actually 27 seconds slower than when I did this in Foundations, but considering that I did this in Foundations with just the 23lb bar... I'd say this is still an improvement. Looking forward to doing this again in the future and seeing how I fare.

On a side note, here's some shots from the week.

Push press on Tuesday.

The show was amazing! Can't wait to see another one.

This little pup keeps me pretty busy too. She likes getting into trouble. 

PFA time!

No CrossFit yesterday, I had to rest up.

It comes along twice a year and it is once again time... the Physical Fitness Assessment (PFA). One of those things you have to do when you're in the military. I don't know who decided that some pushups, sit-ups, and a 1.5 mile run accurately assess your fitness, but hey, I'm sure someone gets paid a lot of money to figure this crap out.

Lately, due to the whole problem of being on a ship and not really doing anything that helped my metabolic conditioning, my scores have tanked. Nothing super horrible, but definitely nothing to be proud of.

Enter CrossFit.

My approach this time was to treat it like a WOD. This is how it would look if it were a WOD.

2 min AMRAP: situps

2 min rest

2 min AMRAP: pushups

5 min rest

1.5 mile run for time

Not bad huh?

I did:

92 situps (101 is max score)

46 pushups (46 is max score)

13:00 run

Since starting CrossFit, I added 12 sit-ups and cut nearly a minute off my run time. I'd say this stuff works.

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.

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!

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.