35#? I don't think so!

Woke up to the lovely sight of this posted on facebook:



Hmmm... the reps increase in this WOD... must mean that Mark is opening up shop this morning.

Made my way in and standing there in front of the kettlebells I was weighing my options, literally. Ideally, I'd like to be able to do this with the 35# but who was I kidding. That was not going to happen. Maybe, MAYBE if it was only the one round of 15, not this whole workout. For time? I could def get an awesome time if I used the 15#, but that's only cheating myself. I resigned to choosing the 25#. I knew that the first round wouldn't be a problem and boost my confidenct, at least until I got around to the last round. That round I knew would suck. And it did.

The first round went smoothly, no problems. Second round, not so bad... I busted out the pushups again, but had to break up the squats into 15 then the remaining 10. Kb swings... managed to power through that.

gasping for air at this point

Third round. Pushups got broken into 10, 10, and 5. Same for the squats. Followed by more gasps for air... My mind is trying to tell my body to keep going, while my lungs vehemently protest. Kb swings... 10 done, rest, 10 more, rest... the last 15.

My time: 8:18

Thank goodness, I stuck with the 25#! There's always room for improvement.

I stuck around for a bit afterwards to work on my kipping pullups and ring ddips. Some of the guys stuck around and did another mini-WOD consisting of rounds of box jumps.

Crazy people





I apologize for the less-than-stellar photos... I took these with my phone.

My First Drop In!! CrossFit 757

Last week I was on travel to Virginia for a couple days. It was the first time that I was going to be away from my local box since being bitten by the CrossFit bug. I knew that I wanted to do a drop in and figured that my schedule would allow it.

You must understand that the thought of doing a drop in terrified me. First, I have a horrid sense of direction and I hate driving very far in new places, so I had to find someplace close (within a half hour drive). Second, I have an innate fear of going to new gyms and boxes. I'm always intimidated by everyone else and even though I consider myself moderately fit, I've only been CFing for about a month and haven't quite got everything down yet.

I emailed a friend who CrossFits out in the area and she suggested a take a look at CrossFit 757 in Norfolk. I stalked their website, facebook, yelp accounts for everything I could find out and they seemed like a good box to try out. I emailed the owner about my intention to stop by for a WOD and to my surprise he emailed back. He was very encouraging and even knew a trainer at my box in SD! That was a relief. I drove out there and only managed to get minimally lost. The entrance was actually around the block from where the directions took me, but I figured it out and got ready. Once again, everyone was super friendly. Charlie got me all set up and even introduced me and another drop in from Colorado to the class before we got started.

This box was huge. I'd say about double the size of CFEV and it's all wide open. They have a lot of equipment and a small lounge area that a lot of people took advantage of. They even do CF Kids, it was really awesome to see kids around and having fun getting into fitness.

We got started with our WOD.

10 min AMRAP:
10 sumo deadlift high pull (53#)
10 pullups

rest 2 min

5 min AMRAP:
Box jumps (ugh... I despise box jumps)

I was on the floor after it was all over. The best part was that because I took the 6 pm class, there were people from the class before and the class after that were cheering us on the whole time. I know at least for me, I work a lot harder when people are encouraging and watching.

Overall, it was a great experience and I'm so glad that I went. I met a lot of great people and I can't wait until my next visit!



Charlie and the guys with me after the WOD


CrossFit 757


License anyone?

the travel dilemma

I'm traveling for few days for work and while being away from my box is scary enough... how am I supposed to follow a primal lifestyle without kitchen access or spending tons on eating out? Luckily, it's only for a couple days. I packed what I thought would be helpful. Here's what went
into my bag:

Shaker bottle and four servings of protein powder
Lara bars (yes, it's processed but I figure better than grabbing a Snickers bar)
Small ziploc of almonds mixed with pistachios

Once I checked into my room and found that I had a fridge and a microwave, I stopped by the store and picked up some other things. And I know it's still not strict paleo or even primal, it's still better for my body and my wallet. You can't be perfect all the time, but doing what you can is better than doing nothing at all.

My travel paleo dinner:




Tomorrow it's another body weight WOD. Gotta keep it up!

You know you're crazy when...

...the trainer opening the box is late and you decide that you are going to make up your own workout to do on the sidewalk. Complete with 100m lunges, uphill.

Who does that to themselves? Well, a bunch of us did this morning. We decided that, "hey, we're already here... might as well do something." So we took a lap around the block and commenced lunges. Good thing that our trainer made it after only one length of lunges. I was already dying and my legs shook to whole jog back down the street.

At least we were already warmed up and ready to go for today's WOD!


**We subbed 250m row for the run because they started powerwashing the sidewalk outside. I don't know about you, but I don't want any of that sidewalk nastiness being sprayed on me. I hope the homeless guy got a good shower in though.**

AMRAP: 7 rnds + 10 step ups + 10 rings dips + 50m row

After all those lunges, I opted for the 15# kb for the step ups. Glad that I did because the last couple rounds were tough. I was desperately trying to get 8 full rounds done, but as much as I hurried and tried to keep the pace up I couldn't make it. I'm happy with my effort though.

And today was a normal class size again. I don't know what happened yesterday, but A LOT of people decided Tuesday was the day to WOD in the morning or something. There were almost 20 of us! On any normal day the average is maybe about 7. Makes for a pretty good dynamic. We all expect to see each other and get along well. It helps motivate me to get out of bed at 5 am everyday.

2 in 1

Happy Tuesday!

I forgot to post yesterday's WOD, so this will be for yestserday and today. I made the decision over the weekend that since my body has (seemingly) gotten used to the beatings a bit, I felt that I could start going to classes everyday. I may regret this decision later, especially because now I'll be getting up everyday at 5am and I don't know how I feel about that yet.

Anyways, here we go. What a way to start the week:



Mind you, the date does say 04MAR but I think it's because our brains weren't working properly yet.

I got through it deadlifting 95#. It was a bit heavy, by the last round I was only getting about two lifts unbroken. It's cool, this was supposed to be a heavy WOD. The pullups though! Those are the bane of my existence. All my life I've never been able to do an unassisted pullup. It's not happening yet, but one day. In the meantime, I'll stick with using the bands. By the end, I was so tired that I had to rig the green band. I was only getting about halfway up with the blue. Did I mention that I hate pullups? Thought so.

Not a super horrible time of 10:52... but there's always room for improvement.

Then there was today. It's a little surprising that we haven't been doing as much running around the block lately. Not that I'm complaining! I hate running, almost as much as I hate pullups. When I walked in and saw Mark, I was a little frightened. Last time Mark opened in the morning, I swear he tried to kill us. Not today though, phew! Today was shoulder day:



Me and Hilary started at 35# then worked our way up to 65#. I needed help at the end. It was tough getting that up. More so, because you naturally want to to a push press and use your legs to help get the weight started moving, but you can't. Big no no for shoulder press. This WOD I will definitely be feeling later.

I'm sure tomorrow will be the biggest struggle to get out of bed. Looking forward to it.

TGIF

My first partner WOD. I was nervous thinking that eventually I would have to do one... still being new to CrossFit, I wouldn't want to be the person slowing someone else down. Brooke immediately asked me if I wanted to join her. Such a relief! Not so many options though because we were almost the only girls there today. We are also the closest in size.

Here's today's WOD:



First time for get ups and manmakers. I think I might actually enjoy manmakers. Get ups... not so much.

In the end, we finished first (even with our momentary lapses to figure out if we counted right).

Our time: 15:58 with 10#db/15#kb

Not bad for my first partner WOD. I'm gonna be ready for the next one!

Fuel

The day that I signed up for my foundations class, I noticed a sign next to the counter that was "advertising" Paleo snack kits. Intrigued, I googled it when I got home. The hunter-gatherer diet seemed very interesting, but at first glance it also seemed very limited. No beans, wheat, sugar, processed or dairy? What was I supposed to eat? Constant salads would surely drive me completely bonkers. So then I googled some Paleo before/after photos of people to see if this really made a difference (apparently so) and I found a couple of real people blogs about eating and living Paleo. I say real people because there are some bloggers forget about the budgets and schedules of people with jobs and families. I'm talking to you PurseBlog... how do you afford all those designer bags and nail manicures? Do you just walk around all day eating and taking pictures of your purses?

Enough ranting, sorry. Back to Paleo. My trainer friend, Lea, also suggested some blogs and that I also look in Zone. I did and at first was really excited about it. The restricted food list isn't as large. It's more of a balanced-everything-in-moderation type diet focused on macronutrition. Then I was faced with the daunting task of figuring out how to zone my meals including measuring and weighing the foods. In the end I think I just got a little too freaked out about the "if I eat an apple, I have to find some fat and protein to go with it" mentality.

So, I gave Paleo a shot. I got some great recipes from Everyday Paleo and also Pinterest.

side note: I LOVE Pinterest... I just searched "Paleo." Not a whole lot, but some good ideas.

My first Paleo meal was a warm bacon and spinach salad with avocado. I baked some porkchops too. The salad was amazing! Hmm... maybe this wasn't going to be so bad afterall. The next day I made some garlic and cinnamon sweet potato to go with the rest of the porkchops. Also very very tasty. During this time, I didn't eat any wheat (shocker for someone from Hawaii) and stopped snacking on chocolate and freezer pops. I could immediately feel a difference in my body. I didn't feel bloated all the time and I wasn't immediately exhausted after getting home from work.

I've been taking things slowly. I couldn't do the no wheat at all thing for long, I was craving it, but I did make the transition to whole wheat when I do crave it. I don't eat much of it and slowly it'll make more of a permanent exit.

For now, I'm going to keep exploring all things Paleo.