Time to get serious!

I missed Tuesday's workout because I went to the Cubs vs. Cards game with a bunch of friends. It was a TON of fun, sad they lost and a long night, but worth every bit of lack of sleep! So I decided to head to the Fort and coach the 6PM class and after that I did Tuesday's strength and WOD.
Strength: establish a Deadlift 5RM 85kg
I warmed up with a couple at 35 and a couple at 65, I didn't feel like wasting a lot of energy , so I just got after it and finished at 85kg. Felt pretty good, probably could've gone a little heavier. However, I wanted to make sure my form was solid for all 5 reps.

WOD: 3 rounds for time of: 10 Front Squats (45kg) 15 box jumps (20") 20 Pull-ups 3:00 rest 16:23

So this was nothing but awful. My front squats felt great the first round and were unbroken. Box jumps were off and I was doing them 1 or 2 at a time, maybe 5 once. Pull-ups are just not getting there still. I did 4-then 2's or 1 the rest of the way for every round. Those definitely ate up the majority of my time. And in the 3 round my hand tore 4 pullups in and it was a struggle to do the last 16. Overall I wasn't pleased with this wod, was really hoping to do better...oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Thursday May 12, 2011

Thursday's strength I was really looking forward to. However, I wish my hand wasn't torn so I could have had less concentration on it. Every time I grabbed the bar it tore a little more.

Strength: 2 position snatch on the 1:00 for 12:00 @ 85% of 1RM. 37kg

Every minute we were to do a snatch from the ground then a hang snatch. We were instructed to go as deep in the squat as we could, but if we caught it high, not to ride it down in an ohs. The first 2 rounds I was able to catch it pretty low, but the majority of the rest were power snatches. I really liked this and look forward to more of what Bill has in store for us.

WOD: 5 rounds for total reps of: 1:00 row for cal 1:00 push press (45/35) 1:00 rest 41/33/34/36/38 = 182

This is kind of the format of FBG, so I was gauging off those numbers. The first round of rowing I got 19 calories and every round after that was 16. My shoulders were pretty shot pretty fast during this wod. I definitely went all out on the first round and eased up after that because I was tired. But I was determined not to get below that 33 round. An improvement from yesterday, but my stomach was feeling awful going into this one. Which is annoying because I've been eating well since Sunday. LAME.

Running WOD: 10 x 200m with 1:5 work to rest for total time 43:50
This definitely took a lot longer than I expected it to. The rest really killed this time. Tara ran this with me, and thank goodness she did, because she gave me something to catch and work for. It's so much nicer running with others instead of on your own. All of our runs were between 46-50 seconds, so I was pretty happy with that. Can't wait to work more on my running and get back into the game!

Friday May 13, 2011

Strength: Front Squat 3-3-3-3-3 41kg-46kg-50.5kg-55.5kg-60.5kg

These felt heavy around the 3 round, but they felt good. I was still dropping my elbows a little bit like the week prior, but no where near as much. I'm happy with how my strength has improved with my squats and can't wait for more improvement!

WOD: 5 rounds for time of: 5 Pistols each leg (used ring) 10 body rows 20 sit-ups (anchored) 8:35

I'll be honest and say I haven't worked on my pistols. And it's definitely something I need to work on. My right leg I can get down and half way up, but can't make that little last bit. My left leg is a whole other story. I've had knee issues on that leg, so it's not as strong and I can't even get down on it. So another thing to add to the list of things to work on. Body rows were a tad bit slow, but sit-ups I flew through. Overall, I wasn't overly ecstatic about this wod, pretty indifferent really...

Cash out: 3 X (max -1) ring dips with :90 rest 7/7/6 with purple band


Saturday May 14th, 2011

Woke up bright and early for Oly class. I was up pretty late baking for the paleo breakfast, but was excited to get back to our regular Saturday routine of Oly class and Team Saturday

Oly Class: Snatch 25kg (4) - 30kg (3) - 35kg (2) - 40kg- a bunch of high pulls and hip drills - 45kg PR!!!

I've been stuck at 44kg for awhile and couldn't get over that hump. But after doing the high pulls and figuring out that I relax too much at the bottom, I think I'm going to be able to make it past 45kg. It was only a 1kg pr, but a pr is a pr! Next oly class I plan to attack the snatch balance so I can work on staying activated at the bottom...

Team Saturday:
In teams of 3:
400m run
150 Box Jumps 20"
75 Wall Balls (20/14)
75 Burpees
150 OH walking lunges (15kg/10kg)
400m run
*one person works at a time
* A 10kg plate must be held over someone's head at all times

I worked with Garth and Scott on this one and we finished in 18:23. We split up the BJ's in 10, the Wall balls in 10, the burpees in 5 or 10 ( i typically did 10) and the walking lunges were pretty random. Overall it was a great team workout and I was glad to be back!

Monday May 16th, 2011

Strength: Press 1-1-1-1-1 28kg-31kg-34kg-37kg-42kg PR

Press is a pretty weak lift for me, as we all know I have issues overhead. Last time we went for a 1rm on Press, I couldn't even make my old 1rm, so I was determined to get a pr. I was debating on my last rep between 41 and 42, but I was happy I went with 42kg and got a 2kg pr! Slowly but surely my overhead is getting stronger.

WOD: 15:00 AMRAP of:
5 HSPU (used box)
10 C2B Pullups (subbed body rows so I didn't tear my hands more)
30 Double Unders

7+9

I decided to go with body rows, because my left hand is pretty fresh from the tearing last week. I didn't want to make it worse before Regionals next weekend! HSPU I find much harder on the box than in the bands, I definitely prefer the bands. Double unders were really solid, but I wasn't going full out with this wod. Want to take it at about 85-90% this week so I don't wear myself out.

Cash out: 100 anchored sit-ups 2:54
Muscle up progressions. Decided to get after these progressions on the rings with a green band. Definitely an interesting movement and I'm glad I worked on it. Need to get after y upper body strength still!

Helen

Friday I decided to get in the second running WOD before class. I don’t know if that was a good or bad idea. The second running WOD was:

3 x 800m runs with 1:1 work to rest ratio

1/3:53

2/3:30

3/3:41

I can’t say that I enjoyed this at all. It was MUCH harder than running the 5K, in my opinion. After Wednesday’s WWW running class, I was trying to focus on my form and it just wasn’t pretty. I would get it for about the first 300m then slack off then the last 200m I would get it back. My legs were pretty tired from the week’s worth of work. Definitely have some room for improvement in the running department.

Friday’s Strength

Front Squat 5-5-5-5-5 36kg-41kg-46kg-50kg-56kg

I had to get these sets in pretty quick since I was helping Jer with some mobility on the bands since his hip has been bothering him. And my legs were already tired from the week and the running wod. By the fourth set of 5’s it really started to feel heavy. I tend to drop my elbows and my chest as the weight gets heavier so I was really trying to focus on keeping those up.

Friday’s WOD

100 Double Unders

21-15-9 Power Cleans(70/45) Box Jumps (24/20)

100 Double Unders

I decided to scale to option A after doing the running wod, but once it was over I wish I had gone RX’d. I’m going to have to do this one again and see how I do. Scaling for A was 80 DU’s 15-12-9 PC’s and BJ’s 80 DU’s. I finished in 11:39. My double unders were pretty solid the first round, maybe 2 trip ups, my cleans were kind of slow, but I was really focusing on my form and getting my elbows faster(my main problem with cleans), box jumps have been kind of slow again, but felt alright. Last set of double unders I tripped up more, but I was just super winded. Really want to try this one again and see how I would do RX’d.

Monday’s Strength

Press 3-3-3-3-3 25kg-28kg-31kg-34kg-37kg

Just like last week my right shoulder was super tight. Between sets I took some time to stretch it with the band and I think by the final set it finally felt loose. I need to start making sure I take some extra time on days we work overhead to stretch out my shoulders.

Monday’s WOD

“Helen” 3 rounds for time of:

400m run

21 KB swings (24/16)

12 Pull-ups

RX’d – 11:58 compare to 9/20/2010 on the blue band for pull-ups 12:02

So this was my third time doing the wod, but the first time RX’d. I’m glad my shoulders were finally starting to feel loose by the time the wod started. My runs felt downright awful. My form was off, the wind on the way back sucked, I felt sluggish, my stomach felt off, it was just bad. All rounds of KB swings were unbroken. Pull-ups of course were broken up more than I wanted. First set was 4-4-2-1-1, second was 4-2-2-1-1-2, third was 2-2-2-2-2-2. If only I could string these together my time would be much better. Next time we do this I hope my runs are better (need to buckle down the diet, I’ve been like 85-90ish%, need to focus) and my pull-ups are strung together better.

Cash out – 3X max handstand hold

I did 3 30 second holds. Arms were beat, but this is something I’ve been doing a few times a week at home, slowly inching closer to that handstand pushup.

Running home

I think it’s official that I can call the Fort my second home. I spend almost more waking hours there than I do at home. Bill recently added some running wods to the board for some extra credit work. And I know my running is pretty rusty right now after spending the winter inside. So the first one was a 5K, so I headed to the Fort to run during the 5PM class. Last time I ran a 5k was in October and I got 25:28 which had beaten my previous record by 3:00. This time I was shooting for around the same time, but I knew it was going to be challenging. The course wasn’t bad at all and I felt pretty strong for the majority of the run. I just hate straight long paths, because they’re so boring and feel like there’s never a finish, and this one probably 2 of the 3.1 miles is on a straight path. So that was kind of dreadful. Anyway, I made it back to the Fort door in 26:10. Which is just over 40 seconds longer than my previous PR. I originally thought I was like 2:00 off because I thought my old record was 24:something. So all in all it wasn’t THAT bad of a difference. I would still like to get my 5k time to 24:something. I also want to get my mile down to under 8:00. So hopefully we’ll see some improvement if I keep up with these running wods.

After my run, I stretched out and tried to get rid of the tightness in my hammies, quads and calves. 6PM rolled around and I was off to coach my first class! :-) I raised this thought of me coaching to Jennie back in January/February and I’ve been going through the coaching development program by helping with ramp-ups, then doing my own mini mock ramp-up, and now I’m assistant coaching some classes. I can honestly say I loved every bit of it! :-) I think it’s going to be a little hard for everyone to transition into having Steph and I coach some classes because we are all so used to Jennie, Bill and Zach coaching. But with baby Brady coming, they’re going to need the extra help. And I can only hope that everyone will bear with myself and Steph and help us transition as well. If you ever have any feedback for me, please feel free to email me or talk to me on the side or whatever. I’m always open to hearing your opinions.

After coaching the 6PM it was our May installment of Warrior Women Wednesday. Jennie taught us some drills to work on for our running technique. It was definitely an awkward feeling to run that way after running ‘my way’ for so many years. But I’m really going to try and focus on this form during the wods and running wods. My calves are pretty sore today from the 5k and running drills yesterday, but I’m hoping the new form will help with the pain I occasionally have in my knee. I <3 WWW every month, it’s great to hang out with the girls and let loose and bust a move to some of DJ Hannah’s mix! :)

Today’s Food:

Breakfast: 3 eggs with some cheese, 1 chicken sausage, and strawberries/blackberries/raspberries
Snack: 2oz almonds and cashews

Lunch: beef stew with carrots and sweet potatoes

Dinner: Cashew chicken and Beef from Green Pea Pod = AMAZING and a couple fork bites of rice

Dessert: 1.5oz dark chocolate

Today’s Strength:

Jerk 3-3-3-3-3 34kg-38.5kg-43kg-47kg-51kg

My right shoulder has felt pretty tight and sore lately, so this was a struggle for me today. I also had a hard time dropping under it again. And Jennie mentioned that I'm readjusting the bar overhead. So I have a bit of work to do on this one.

WOD: 40-30-20-20 KB swings (24/16) Situps (anchored) 6:45

I was looking forward to this wod when I saw it on the board. I was debating between the 20 and 16 kg bells, but decided to stay with the prescribed weight since it was so many reps. I'm glad I stayed with the 16kg kb because my forearms were feeling it for sure. Both kb swings and situps were all unbroken. Good 'easy' work out for the end of the week! :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! LOVE YOU!

End of the Open Wods

Well, it’s another new month. Does anybody else feel like 2011 is flying by?! Anyway, the month of April pretty much rocked, obviously because I was clearly too busy to write about it. So I’ll update you now. It all started when my Victoria’s Secret, secret reward card turned out to be worth $100, instead of the measly $10 they usually are. Yep, that’s how I knew it was going to be a fantastic month. Then every Saturday, I rocked the Open Wods with my fellow CrossForters, well most of them. I had some job interviews lined up, but then one Friday afternoon my boss called me to her office and I got offered a FULL TIME position, so I am no longer on contract and officially started Monday. Hello pay raise, I love you. Went to a Cubs game with some friends. Jessica visited. Went to visit Jason and Lydia in Charlottesville and Jason is now Dr. Glaw, so proud of you! I won the Better Body challenge at the Fort, which was $480 and a free month! Woot, hard work does pay off! And to finish it I ordered a Ford Fiesta, expect to see me in my new ride in like 6-8 weeks. BOOM! So THAT was the majority of my month of April Awesomeness!

So obviously with all that craziness going on I haven’t spent any time on this blog like I would like to. And I feel like that’s also part of the reason my dedication to paleo has trailed and my more often than not indulgences in sweets has taken over. If I write it here, I am more accountable for it and feel like I have to own up to my words and you guys will make sure I stick to it. So starting today…again, it’s back to the paleo, no sweets bandwagon. See that’s my thing, when I ‘cheat’ or indulge as I would like to call it, it’s never on pizza, or carbs or stuff like that, it’s always the sweets. Ugh, they just taste so good. But anyway, if I want to keep making gains in the gym and seeing my body composition improve I need to not be so lazy with my diet. Diet is 80% of it, and it’s definitely shown over the last few weeks that I’ve been slacking. If and when I do indulge, I need to make sure it’s only once, not some here and there over multiple /daysweeks. That’s my problem, I feel like everyone else can indulge and enjoy it and it doesn’t affect them, so it won’t affect me. Well not the case whatsoever. You think I would know that by now. Anyway, back on track today. Along with slipping on desserts I have not stuck to the 100 day challenge. I think I stopped around day 25, how pathetic. I want to attempt something like this again, but actually stick to it. I also need to actually write down my goals and post them at the Fort. I have them on a piece of paper in my book but not the purple shiny paper for the board. So I have all these plans and damn I need to get focused and going on them. I think I’m going to hold off on another ‘challenge’ and focus on doing some extra stuff after working out at the Fort, I really want to get a ring dip and random stuff like that so time to buckle down and get focused.

I decided not to update you all on every wod from the last…um I don’t know four weeks and just update you on the last 4 Open wods. And then I’m going to attempt to write more religiously like I was at the beginning from here on.

Saturday April 9, 2011

Games Open Wod 11.3

5:00 AMRAP of Clean (must squat below parallel) & Jerk @ 50kg

Each clean is a rep and each jerk is a rep, but must com

plete a clean and jerk before moving to the next clean. If you fail overhead you can power clean then get it overhead. Total = 13 reps

I think I totally beat myself up before this wod even started…my max jerk at the time was 55kg from a few months back, and I just screwed myself over before Saturday, probably by Wednesday I was convinced it just wasn’t going to be a good one…and the ‘practice’ wod (Be-Rad’s bday wod) on the Thursday before, convinced me even more that it was going to be bad. I probably spent 2:00+ trying to get that 7^th jerk. I had about 7 cleans in the process…if only those counted… I also caught one of the cleans funny and at the moment didn’t know what I did to my thumb but all I felt was a burning

pain sensation and I was already so frustrated it just was not going to happen. In the end I think I just jammed it, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared I tore something.

I immediately fell to the ground once the 5:00 was up, I was so frustrated and upset with my performance and just started crying. Between being upset and worried about my thumb/hand, I was a wreck. Thank you to all of the CrossForters that came up to me after and encouraged me that I did great and gave it all I had. It was hard to put up such an awful score, but I came away with a lot from that wod. I think it really helped me toughen up and opened my eyes to the big picture. I can’t really explain it, but even though that wod brought me down to nothing, I think it was a good kick in the ass to snap back to reality.

Saturday April 16, 2011

Games Open Wod 11.4

10:00 AMRAP of: 60 bar facing burpees 30 OHS (40kg) 10 Muscle ups total = 80 reps

My initial thoughts when I saw this wod posted the Tuesday night before was “MU’s!!! wtf?!” I definitely expected to see some v

ariation of pull ups on the bar before muscle ups ever showed up in the open. Then the more I thought about it, I realized that I may not even get to the muscle ups, I was just praying to finish the 90 reps of burpees and OHS. So…the 60 burpees were really easy for me, I kept a steady pace throughout and finished them in about 4:30-4:45. The rest of my time was dedicated to the OHS. After the burpees I was slightly dizzy and my shoulders/arms were just super tired. 40kg is pretty heavy for lots of reps, but I was reaaalllly hopi

ng to finish them. I tried snatching the bar overhead and going straight into the ohs, but then realized how weak my arms were and I got it in the rack position, then had to adjust my hands to pop it over to my back, then adjust my hands again to pop it over head. It was a long process, but I couldn’t snatch it up. I got the first 4-6 reps unbroken, then dropped it and decided to kick off my inov-8s and go in my socks. Then I picked the bar up again and got 2-3 reps. My arms were so shot it was hard to keep that bar up overhea

d. So after that it was 2-3 reps until time was over and I got 20 of the 30 ohs. I was a little bummed, but I knew there wasn’t more I could do, I knew I gave it my all and felt better about it. Like I said, the week prior taught me a lot! As long as I could leaving saying I gave it my all, that’s all I could do and I was happy with that!

Saturday April 23, 2011

Games Open Wod 11.5

20:00 AMRAP of: 5 power cleans (45kg) 10 Toes-to-Bar 15 Wall Ball Shots 14# to a 9’ target Total = 250

I had two thoughts going into this wod, 1) 20:00 is an eternity 2) I hate toes-to-bar. I have the endurance to last 20:00, I just thought that this workout is going to get super boring and by 8 minutes in I’m going to want it to be over. Toes-to-bar aren’t my strong suit because I can’t kip them and string them together well. On a good occasion I can string two together then do one then two more etc. but more often than not these were singles. That clearly ate up the majority of my time. It was a total grip killer. Given the fact that I knew T2B were going to suck, I had to make up for it by doing all the

wall balls unbroken as well as my cleans. My cleans were by no means fast and I didn’t rep through them as quickly as I would like. And must I say, I’ve never grunted so much during a wod before. But heck, it helped get those cleans up! :-) My Wall balls were all unbroken every round so I was very pleased with that. In the end I was happy with my performance even though the 20:00 seemed like forever.

Saturday April 30, 2011

Games Open Wod 11.6

7:00 AMRAP of 3 thrusters (30kg) 3 chest to bar pull ups 6 thrusters 6 c2b pullups 9 thrusters 9 c2b pullups etc. keep increasing by 3's total = 12

Going into this wod I have never gotten a c2b pullup so I was expecting to only get the first 3 thrusters. I spent nearly 5:30 minutes working to get those 3 c2b pullups but I gave it all I had and FINALLY got them, and then 6 more thrusters and a couple attempts at another c2b, but time had run out. Either way, I'm glad I didn't give up and just kept trying to get those pullups. Now I know I need to work on my dead hangs more as well as some c2b on the side.

I'm glad I went through the 6 weeks of the Open. I learned a lot from myself and from everyone else going through this with me. I couldn't have been happier to experience this with all the people I did. However, I'm glad it's over and we will be going back to our regular team Saturdays. And I can't wait to either be part of or watch our team compete at Regionals! :)