Well, Blogland... What's NEXT?!
The CrossFit Open is over, Spring is (almost...) upon us and it's exciting to think of what's coming up!
First, in less than 48 hours, I'll be competing in my first Powerlifting meet! I'm only doing two events - back squat and deadlift - instead of a full set, because I wasn't feeling totally confident in my bench press (Goal for the next meet: Do all three!). In retrospect, I should've just done it and it would've been fine, but eh, playing it safe for the first one is fine. My biggest goal was to just get there, deal with the fact I'd have to wear a singlet in person, and compete.
I'm feeling pretty good about it, overall - I've got a plan for my lifts (BS: 285, 305, 310 or 315... Deadlift: 320, 340, 350!), and I'm confident that I can do what I need to do. I have no expectations on the outcome of this meet, as the goal is just to go and DO IT. My opening lifts are "safe" for me, so I know I'll have a score (and a decent one!) even if I only get that first lift. So... it's all gravy after that!
The biggest challenge will be rocking out with my spandex singlet.... whooa boy. For a fat kid, strutting around in a form fitting, not so flattering unitard outfit, while being judged.... yikes. Just YIKES.
BUT, I am reminding myself that I have done way harder things, and I have a lot to be proud of. Yeah, I'm wearing a spare tire around my middle, yes, I've got a little more jiggle everywhere than I'd like.... But! BUT! I have some #thickthighs that can squat 300#, which is what is on display this weekend - not my midsection! Plus, I have to say, while there are a lot of very trim and fit people in the powerlifting community, there are many of us more "thick" individuals who have found their strength in picking up heavy shit. I won't be alone with my jiggly middle!
That said, I've got big plans for the horizon, to continue on the journey back to a more comfortable weight. I feel like I've turned a new leaf (thank you, Spring!), because I'm actually just excited to do new things, not just looking at it as something I "need" to do to get weightloss.
For example, after my powerlifting comp, I'll be (re) starting the Couch to 5K program and get back in my running groove (I actually really miss it). I have to thank my BFF Holly for this one. She's been on her own journey, but expressed interest in trying to learn to run.... and she wanted me to do it with her. How can you say no to that? If she's willing to go out on a limb and try something she's never tried that's going to be hard, how can I not do it with her? So, I'm excited. On Monday, we do our first Week 1, Day 1. My wonderful man, Hans, is also going to join in on the fun (although he'll be doing it all over the east coast, while he travels for work). Last, but certainly not least, we've even got my long-time Battle Buddy, Stacey to get going again with us. Sounds like a party to me! One accounta-buddy is good... 3 Accounta-buddies are better!
I admit, I'm a little afraid of re-starting C25K. The first time I learned to run, I was about 40-50 pounds lighter than I am now (Wow. that hurts to write down.).... but at the same time, I wasn't as "fit" as I am now (Yes, it's possible to be super heavy and still have a decent amount of fitness). In the light of full disclosure, I'm terrified that I'm going to fail because I'm so heavy. I'm afraid that I won't be able to even do Day 1. I'm afraid that it's going to hurt, because my knees are shitty, etc..... BUT... I have at least learned over the last 4 years or so that you just can't let the fear stop you. You can't wait until a "better" time. There's never a better time, you're never going to be less afraid until you jump in. That's why I did the CrossFit Open this year. That's why I'm headed to Powerlifting. Yes, I'm bigger, but so effing what. I'm doing these things - are you?
AND... (more fun things!) my awesome gym just announced that it's Rowing month! Oddly, I actually kind of like rowing. So, I'm definitely looking forward to the little extra focus and motivation and team spirit to log a few extra meters every time I'm at the gym. I wonder how much I can row in a month??
I think it will complement lifting days and boot camp days just great!
#burnallthecalories
Maybe it's just the spring weather, or the increased light, but I'm definitely feeling more optimistic about moving forward, than I was over the winter (it was a tough winter this winter).
YAY!
Showing posts with label WODerbury. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WODerbury. Show all posts
Friday, April 1, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our true potential." -Winston Churchill
Blogland, I'm happy to report that I finished the 2016 CrossFit Open this weekend, by surviving the last workout - 16.5.
16.5 was announced on Thursday night, and I was glued to the live announcement. I felt really good coming off of 16.4 (ALL THE DEADLIFTS!) and was hoping for another WOD that I would be able to do as prescribed (Rx). What I got.... was not exactly what I wished for.
16.5 was announced as:
(reps) 21-18-15-12-9-6-3
Thrusters
Burpees
at 95# (m)/ 65# (f)
My immediate reaction was, "NOoooooooooooooooOOOOOoooo!!!" due to the extreme dislike I have of burpees. I do, in fact, recognize their training value, but literally, there is no single exercise that makes me want to die more, or faster, than burpees. I had a brief moment of triumph when I realized I could do it Rx (got my wish!) because I know I can do 65# thrusters... and realistically, why wouldn't you go RX, if there's no "scale" for the burpee? You're going to die either way, might as well get more "points" for going RX?
Then, I watched the pro athletes tackle it.... 8 minutes and change was the fastest time... which meant mine was going to be a grueling workout of 25 minutes, I guessed. Oh. Shit.
The feeling in my house after that was not one of calm readiness.... my track record with burpees sucks pretty bad, and I just envisioned myself flopping around on the floor through like 84 of them. I was not beaming with positivity. Further, my Inner Fat Kid had a freak out about how that was going to work on competition day.... I knew I'd take SOOOOOO much longer than everyone else, I just saw the scene in my head.... everyone else done, and waiting on stupid slow Aja to drag herself out of another burpee... Needless to say, I was not looking forward to it.
I had a little strategy talk with Robyn and a pep talk from my long-time GT... and tried to get my head in the right space. What that turned into was approximately 36 hours of me arguing with myself in my head. Well, emotional side would freak out, rational side would try and outline the plan... and back and forth and back and forth.
Friday afternoon arrived, and I was in a better headspace... or maybe just a "determined" one? Or a resigned one? Like, I'm going to do my best... and whatever happens, happens.
Off to the gym I went.
I got to judge and watch a couple of rounds of people tackling this ugly wod, and it was good (for my mental state) to see that EVERYONE was struggling hard with it. To varying levels of miserableness, but everyone seemed to be hugging the floor, starfishing or sitting like they had just died, after the workout. The end of the workout burpees for everyone were universally not pretty either. I knew mine were going to be.... rough.... but it was comforting to see even the fittest people dragging through those last sets.
Then suddenly, it was my turn.
3....2.....1.... GO.
The initial round of Thrusters (and really, all subsequent rounds of thrusters...) were no problem. I broke it in half, just for good pacing, and I think I broke the 18, 15 and 12 up in half or sets of 5, too, just to pace.
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| Thrusters! |
The burpees were another story. I tried so hard to keep an even pace.... but that looked like 1 burpee... 2 burpee... (maybe) 3 burpee... stand and huff and puff. Repeat. It was not good. Although, realistically people, I'm peeling 300# off the floor with every burpee. I bet if you put that kind of weight on a fit person, they'd look pretty rough doing them, too.
 |
| Burpees... |
It was a relief every time I got back to the Thrusters - they were my break, where I could kind of catch my breath (...said no one ever... except for me?). 65# thruster was more than manageable for me, so I was able to pace these nicely and breath -which was a pleasant change from BurpeeLand.
Somehow, those thrusters seemed to go by SO quickly though. It felt like all I was doing in this damn WOD was burpees. More burpees. Burpees again.
Every time I'd hit the floor for a burpee, a refreshing cold breeze from the door would wash over my face and it was so incredibly tempting just to stay there, face down on the floor. But I had to keep getting up. Uuugh burpees.
 |
| Over the bar! |
By some miracle, I hit the single digits. 9 reps. 9 burpees sounds less bad too. Just keep going.
At this point, the entire rest of my heat had finished. I had some staunch supporters around me, screaming encouragement.
Denise (the queen of enthusiasm) at one point reminded me what my bracelet said - "Unbreakable."
Just what I needed to hear in the moment. My unbreakable bracelet is a Spartan Race bracelet that always reminds me I've done harder things.... like, 160 burpees, in sets of 30, admist 30 obstacles while hiking 14+ miles for the VT Spartan Beast a few years ago. If I can do that... I can surely keep moving until I finish these damn burpees.
On and on I went. All fears realized, I was the last one, everyone was waiting on. And yet... my CFW community was not exuding judgement, but just a lot of cheers, encouragement and support, that really helped me get through those last burpees. I wanted to stop and just lay there, SO badly... but how can you stop, when you have the support of all those people pouring in at you?
 |
| "The Starfish" |
I finished, with a whopping 30 min, 16 sec. Definitely not what I was hoping for, but I got it done, regardless. I didn't cry, I didn't die..... I DID starfish for like 5 minutes after, like a champ....
And with that... the 2016 CrossFit Open was over.
What a ride. To recap:
16.1: Where we lunged, burpee'd and did some variety of pullups.
16.2: Toes to Bar, jump rope (uughh!) and Squat cleans
16.3: 7 minutes of power snatches and me throwing myself at the bar to get a Chest to Bar pull up.
16.4: All the deadlifts!! (and some wall balls, rowing, and HSPU)
16.5: Thrusters and Burpees.
So, I sweated (a lot.), I cried (a little), and I learned an immense amount. It was really cool to do the open with CFW and meet a lot of the members that I otherwise might not, as well as suffer together on things that we wondered if we could even survive.
I also got to see that I did have some "value" as a crossfitter, even if it wasn't in burpees. LOL. Just because I can't burpee to save my life, I'm proud to say that I crushed every movement that came up with a barbell. 16.4 was a GREAT WOD for me.... where many other people struggled really hard.
The lesson? The Open is there to test you. I learned quite a bit about what I was good at, what I definitely still needed to work on, and was able to put it in a much bigger perspective. I also learned quite a bit about my headspace coming into some of these events, and what I need to work on there.... Yeah, I cried in 16.3, for example.... but out of frustration because I couldn't. quite. get there. BUT... now I have a goal for next year - fix the Upper bod and get some "ups".
The biggest lesson? In my head, I'm the failing fat kid who struggles every. single. time. with the workout, looking totally stupid in comparison to all the fit and fancy people who frequent my crossfit gym.
The reality? Everyone struggles at CrossFit, in their own ways, to become better and stronger. We're all fighting the inner demons, and we all hate burpees. LOL. On a serious note though, despite being the biggest person at my gym and competing in the open, I never ONCE felt like I didn't belong - which was one of my fears... that I'd feel out of place. Apparently, my sacrifices of sweat to the gym mat god, were just as valuable as everyone else's.
If you're wondering if you should do the open next year, you should. Even if you're last on the leaderboard (I'm NOT LAST!!! YESS!!! #Goalachieved), you're still ahead of everyone who was too afraid to try.
Besides, I did it... what's your excuse?
(And with that, tomorrow I'm testing out my maxes in squat and deadlift with Robyn, so we can get ready for my powerlifting meet on Saturday! YES! )
UPDATE: Here's the leaderboard for CrossFit Waterbury... I'm not LAST!!!
UPDATE: Here's the leaderboard for CrossFit Waterbury... I'm not LAST!!!
Saturday, March 19, 2016
"The Question isn't 'can you?' It's 'will you?'"
Blogland, I admit... I (tried to) bend down to put pants on this morning, groaned like crazy and then seriously considered whether I *needed* pants today.
Since my house is a one-level ranch with a glass door that basically allows you to see the whole house if you come to the door, I did what a responsible adult would do in my situation - I quested for the Ibuprofen, then spent 30 min on the foam roller (in the privacy of my office), before revisiting the option of bending down to put on pants.
"What's the big deal about pants, today, Aja?" you say? Well... I did the CrossFit Open WOD 16.4 yesterday. Let me explain.
The prescribed (RX) WOD 16.4 was:
13-min. AMRAP:
55 deadlifts
55 wall-ball shots
55-calorie row
55 handstand push-ups
55 deadlifts
55 wall-ball shots
55-calorie row
55 handstand push-ups
M 225 lb. / 20-lb. ball
F 155 lb. / 14-lb. ball
F 155 lb. / 14-lb. ball
Scaled version was basically the same with a much lighter weight and hand-release push ups instead of HSPUs.
So, when I read the workout for this week, I did a little happy dance. Last week's WOD was... less than fun for me, so I was REALLY really really (Really!) hoping for something I could do a little better at. Boom! This was it! Deadlifts are my jam, yo.
I watched the Elite athletes do the demo to get a sense of how long this workout was "supposed" to take. In the demo I watched, neither athlete finished the 55 HSPUs. So, I figured, it was unlikely I'd GET to the HSPUs in 13 min.... in which case.... I might be able to do it prescribed!!
I watched the Elite athletes do the demo to get a sense of how long this workout was "supposed" to take. In the demo I watched, neither athlete finished the 55 HSPUs. So, I figured, it was unlikely I'd GET to the HSPUs in 13 min.... in which case.... I might be able to do it prescribed!!
I took a moment to ponder that, realistically. I admit, that was a bit of a scary thought. When you're the fat kid in class, you sort of get used to the fact that you're always going to need to take the "regular" workout down a notch, or there's going to be something you couldn't do, etc. In this case, the deadlifts would be like 45% of my 1 rep max (which is relatively light), wall balls were at the weight I typically use in workouts and rowing is rowing, and something I'm not bad at. So... dare I do it? DARE I GO RX?!?!! EEEEEE!!! The HSPU's never really factored in to my decision making, because I was relatively sure I'd never even get to that point. Even if I did, there would be plenty of people that would get there, throw themselves at the wall for a while, and never get one anyway - I'd be in good company. Let's. Do. This.
With a renewed positive attitude, a little bit of nerves (RX, really?!), and a whole lot of excitement (who doesn't like picking things up and putting them down again!?), I hit the gym. I was feeling ready to rumble. Granted... 55 reps did seem like an awful lot of everything, but if I just kept moving, I should be good..... (famous last words?).
 |
| (This is my pre-WOD, "I like Deadlifts!" face) |
I made sure to stretch and do a decent warm up, as it was going to be a long fight of a workout. Certainly not one I wanted to go into "cold", as cold muscles and that many deadlifts would not be a great plan. In my "old age" I have finally learned that I am, in fact, not invincible, that injuries suck and that preventative measures are always the right answer. In retrospect, I wish I would've taken it one step further and worn my supportive knee sleeves for this many reps (deadlifts, plus wall balls, plus rowing.. that's a lot of knee action!), as they're feeling a bit tired today.
So, bar loaded up to the RX weight of 155#, I chalked up my hands a bit, shook out my nerves and went to my happy place in my head. I could do this, I knew that, just had to keep my head in the game. About 30 seconds before I was about to start, one of my fellow CFW athletes came over to me and told me that he "love watching me deadlift" just because it always seemed featherweight to me. What a compliment! From there, my brain had funny images of Ronnie Coleman stepping up to his weights with his iconic "Yeahhhh buddy! LIGHTWEIGHT!" (If you're not familiar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esLWUbe2Lig). Nothing like a good laugh to get you into the right frame of mind for some lifting!
3...2....1.... GO!
 |
| I pick things Up..... |
And so the grind began. Pick things up, put them down. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
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| ...and I put them down... |
I opened with a set of 10, as the deadlift was a comfortable weight for me, but decided to be smart (for the sake of my grip) and do sets of 5 after that. 5 reps, drop. 3 breaths. 5 reps, drop. 3 breaths. I got into a pretty good rhythm and was able to sustain it relatively easily for the whole 55 lifts. I say "relatively" as 55 deadlifts just isn't "easy" for anyone - it's absolutely a mental game. Somewhere around 30, your brain is like... uhmmmm.... done now. But you have to override that and just keep moving.
55 deadlifts down, and I was one of the first of my heat over to the wall balls - that means I'd made good time on the lifts, despite doing the heavier RX weight. Yes! I was off to a good start.
My first 5-10 wall balls were REAL rough. You know what your legs do not want to do after doing a shit ton of deadlifts? They definitely do not want to squat down with any sort of precision. They also do not want to stand up "explosively" to launch a ball to a 9ft target. Nonetheless, after 10 or so really ugly, wobbly ones, my legs seem have recovered a bit and were ready to get in the game.
However, my lungs decided that they were then on protest. Cardio is always a weakness for me, but god damn those wall balls really jack up your heart rate fast. Although, like with the deadlifts, I decided that a consistent rep scheme would help keep me on track. 5 was the plan. Throw 5, take a breather, throw 5, and just keep going until I was done.
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| Wall Balls on Wobbly Legs... |
25-30 wall balls in, I felt my self start to sink a bit. My "couple of breaths" between sets was starting to get a little too long. Thankfully, not only did I have Awesome Jane as my judge, I had Coach Robyn cheering me on as well - and doling out some tough love along the way. She apparently noticed the "Wall balls Suck and I can't breathe" face happening, and me slowing down, so she started counting down my "breathers".... 5 reps, then she would count down my 5 seconds of breath, then PICK UP THE BALL. This helped, big time. I don't know about you, BlogLand, but I go near braindead during hard workouts, so if someone is yelling basic instructions to me, it's a lot easier to follow them than to think of anything else. So, down and up and pick up the ball and throw it, and repeat.
Clawed my way to 40 lung-busting wall balls and was REALLY wanting to be done. Judge Jane announces I've got 10 left. In my WOD-haze, I think to myself, I really want to be done, and 10 wall balls is not going to kill me, or explode my lungs. Let's be done with this.
Just like that, I finished out my wall balls in one solid set of 10, digging deep into my legs and lungs for the energy to push through them.
There was no more satisfying moment than when that 14# ball hit the ground that last time. Ahh... DONE.
Well... done-ish. Now - still doing pretty good on time, despite being a little slower on WB's - onto the rower.
It almost felt good to sit on the rower after all that, right up until I had to start working. I got a few good pulls in, and my body was like fuuuuuuckkkkk this (pardon my language). I was trying to keep it at a solid 900-1000 cal/hour pace, but there was a moment (I believe many would call this, Hitting the Wall..), where I had like nothing... dropped to like an 750-800cal/hour pace and wondered how I was going to finish this.
Then, something kind of awesome happened. Judge Jane yelled at me that it was "just a MENTAL GAME". I'm not sure why, but that kind of clicked for me. I'd never died in a workout yet, even though I've felt like it. I've also gotten through a lot of crappier, longer things (Vermont Spartan Beast, I'm looking at you...). I just had to keep moving.
Digging some energy out of my pinky toes, or wherever that last thread of it was stored, I got back into the rhythm of the row. I needed big powerful leg strokes to get the most calories out of it, but my legs felt particularly done. Thankfully, fellow awesome-CFW'er, Celia appeared over my shoulder and reminded me - LEGS!!! LEGSS!!! PUSH THROUGH YOUR HEELS!!! Again, waaaay easier to follow directions than think for yourself at a time like this.
Just something like 90 seconds to go, and I was back in a steady rhythm. Celia kept setting goals for me - Now let's get to 30 calories, GREAT! Let's get to 38! - and kept pushing me further. I was soooooo close to finishing that 55 calories.
The 30 second mark was called and I wasn't there yet. I didn't want to finish, thinking I could've done more, so I rallied with everything, and rowed as hard as I could for 20 more seconds.
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| "The Starfish" |
Time was called, and I'd officially clocked 39 calories... and then watched that damn rower flip over to 40, immediately after. D'oh!
After my little sprint to finish, I was allll done after this wod. I sort of stood-tumbled off the rower and into a great star-fish position, as I was 100% sure my legs were no good for standing up at that moment.
But - I'm happy. There's always those moments you think of that, "If I'd just..." or "If I had not breathed so long there..." where you think you might've gone a little farther, but I'm totally happy with how this went.
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| Proof, I did it RX!! |
Not only did I go RX - which was an important milestone for me - it looks like I've ended up in the bottom of the Middle of the pack (45th-ish percentile) - of other people that went RX. That is a really great accomplishment for me. People that do RX are fit! and can do things like HSPU!... so, being the bottom of the middle of that pack is a great achievement.
Also, I know I could not have done this workout a year ago. I am 100% certain of that. The deadlifts would've gotten done, but painfully slow, the wall balls would've killed me, and I may not have even made it to the rower. So, despite the fact I'm no where near where I want and need to be, I'm making some progress forward.
It's a good day, BlogLand.
... despite the fact that I can't bend over, squat down or really move in any way, today. :-)
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
"If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you... "
Well, BlogLand, it has been a few days since The Incident, so it was time to get back into the gym and back to work.
Yesterday was a personal training session with Robyn - oddly, one of my favorite points of the week, despite the customized torture she puts me through. Torture is one thing, but CUSTOM torture, geared toward your weaknesses, to make it extra awesome, is a whole new ball game. This was one of those days....
In the wake of the 16.3 hell of just not having enough pull in my back/arms or enough jump in my legs to nail those Chest to Bar jumping pull ups, Robyn decided we have a new project.
Our training session, (after a warm up, of course!) opened with 4x10 ascending weight barbell rows. Lats, you can hide no longer.
I worked up to a 103# barbell row for 10 reps, which was definitely working my back in ways it was not used to. It's funny to reflect that 103# barbell wouldn't even be a warm-up for my legs, but it was most certainly causing me to break a sweat in this movement!
After that, Robyn decided to hone in on another pain point of mine - CARDIO.
Cardio is hard when you're heavier than you should be. End of story. It can get better, but it's never going to be "good". Needless to say, I do not particularly enjoy it, but I recognize the benefits of getting better at it... so, on we go!
16 Min, as many rounds as possible:
:40 of Rowing (for calories)
50 Single under Jump ropes
:30 of Assault Bike (for calories)
1 Min Rest.
So basically, you have 20 seconds of rest after rowing to complete that minute, you have whatever time on the minute you have when you finished jump rope, and 30 seconds after assault bike (which actually blends to be a total of 90 sec, with the minute of rest directly after).
The idea is to be consistent from round to round with the calories you're getting on the rower and the bike.
Doesn't seem TOO bad, right?
Well, I survived and mostly in one piece, but that Assault bike really sucks it out of you. Apparently, it gets harder, the harder you go - so it's not just in my head, when it feels like that!
Rowing is a strong area for me (go Legs!) so that was a good way to start... jump rope is decidedly not my favorite, but it's better than the bike.... BUT, if I could survive the bike, I could get a whole minute's rest (which was the shortest minute ever).
All things considered, I was a sweaty, starfish-ing mess after that, but got it done without too much issue (outside of a little whining about jump rope..).
For a little extra fun, we did tabata situps into planks...
So, 20 seconds of situps, DIRECTLY into 20 seconds of plank, with 20 seconds rest.
Like a MILLION times (I'm sure of it.)... or like, 4 minutes. Whatever.
There was much groaning, but again, I lived to tell the tale.
Today, my back was not really excited about me brushing my hair (do you know you use your lats for that?!), although, rolling out of bed was way better than expected (Yay, Abs!).
Given the amount of squatting and such I've been doing (works your core), plus the additional core-specific stuff, I've decided I must have an amazing set of Abs under that spare tire, somewhere!! We shall unveil them, someday...
Today was supposed to be Squat day, but I have this bad feeling like I'm coming down with the stomach bug my Mom had. uuuughh... pleeeaaassse no. Or if it's going to happen, let's get it out of the way quickly.
I'm supposed to go to Zumba tonight, for a little extra cardio in my life, but I'm leaving that one with a question mark as well.... stomach is TBD. Blehhh. Cue the crackers.
On that note, I'll leave you with this little gem, that I feel really encapsulates my thoughts:
Yesterday was a personal training session with Robyn - oddly, one of my favorite points of the week, despite the customized torture she puts me through. Torture is one thing, but CUSTOM torture, geared toward your weaknesses, to make it extra awesome, is a whole new ball game. This was one of those days....
In the wake of the 16.3 hell of just not having enough pull in my back/arms or enough jump in my legs to nail those Chest to Bar jumping pull ups, Robyn decided we have a new project.
Our training session, (after a warm up, of course!) opened with 4x10 ascending weight barbell rows. Lats, you can hide no longer.
I worked up to a 103# barbell row for 10 reps, which was definitely working my back in ways it was not used to. It's funny to reflect that 103# barbell wouldn't even be a warm-up for my legs, but it was most certainly causing me to break a sweat in this movement!
After that, Robyn decided to hone in on another pain point of mine - CARDIO.
Cardio is hard when you're heavier than you should be. End of story. It can get better, but it's never going to be "good". Needless to say, I do not particularly enjoy it, but I recognize the benefits of getting better at it... so, on we go!
16 Min, as many rounds as possible:
:40 of Rowing (for calories)
50 Single under Jump ropes
:30 of Assault Bike (for calories)
1 Min Rest.
So basically, you have 20 seconds of rest after rowing to complete that minute, you have whatever time on the minute you have when you finished jump rope, and 30 seconds after assault bike (which actually blends to be a total of 90 sec, with the minute of rest directly after).
The idea is to be consistent from round to round with the calories you're getting on the rower and the bike.
Doesn't seem TOO bad, right?
Well, I survived and mostly in one piece, but that Assault bike really sucks it out of you. Apparently, it gets harder, the harder you go - so it's not just in my head, when it feels like that!
Rowing is a strong area for me (go Legs!) so that was a good way to start... jump rope is decidedly not my favorite, but it's better than the bike.... BUT, if I could survive the bike, I could get a whole minute's rest (which was the shortest minute ever).
All things considered, I was a sweaty, starfish-ing mess after that, but got it done without too much issue (outside of a little whining about jump rope..).
For a little extra fun, we did tabata situps into planks...
So, 20 seconds of situps, DIRECTLY into 20 seconds of plank, with 20 seconds rest.
Like a MILLION times (I'm sure of it.)... or like, 4 minutes. Whatever.
There was much groaning, but again, I lived to tell the tale.
Today, my back was not really excited about me brushing my hair (do you know you use your lats for that?!), although, rolling out of bed was way better than expected (Yay, Abs!).
Given the amount of squatting and such I've been doing (works your core), plus the additional core-specific stuff, I've decided I must have an amazing set of Abs under that spare tire, somewhere!! We shall unveil them, someday...
Today was supposed to be Squat day, but I have this bad feeling like I'm coming down with the stomach bug my Mom had. uuuughh... pleeeaaassse no. Or if it's going to happen, let's get it out of the way quickly.
I'm supposed to go to Zumba tonight, for a little extra cardio in my life, but I'm leaving that one with a question mark as well.... stomach is TBD. Blehhh. Cue the crackers.
On that note, I'll leave you with this little gem, that I feel really encapsulates my thoughts:
Monday, March 14, 2016
“What is the difference between an obstacle and an opportunity? Our attitude toward it. Every opportunity has a difficulty, and every difficulty has an opportunity.” ―J. Sidlow Baxter
Oh BlogLand, what a week.
This was definitely a tough one, for me. I've been feeling relatively positive about my performance in the first two Open workouts so far, generally feeling good about my decision to participate. It's been a great time with the CrossFit Waterbury community getting to know people, hanging out and going through the same struggles and commiserating over our inability to walk straight after 16.1.
That said, 16.3 was everything I feared would happen when I signed up to participate, and I had a difficult time keeping everything in a positive light.
The 16.3 WOD was pretty simple, yet devious.
For those super-human people that have arms that aren't decorative, it went like this:
As many rounds as possible in 7 min of,
10 Power Snatches (75/55)
3 bar muscle ups.
For those of us mere mortals, it was scaled to this:
7 min AMRAP of,
10 power snatches (45/35)
5 jumping chest to bar pull ups
So, from a strategic perspective, those snatches (floor to overhead movement with a barbell) are incredibly light, so the design is that you will keep plowing through rounds - spending the majority of time on your Jumping C2B pull ups or - if you are extra awesome - your bar muscle ups.
As I watched the announcement of this workout, I wasn't too terrified. That was snatches with an empty bar (piece of cake!) and then I'd just need to concentrate on my jumping C2B pull ups. T-Rex hates pull ups, but I've done a fair amount of jumping pull ups in my day and know I can bang those out with some leg power. That said, I had a little bit of a question mark on jumping CHEST to bar pull ups, as that would mean you have to jump even higher, instead of just getting your chin over the bar. The new standard would be that you'd have to touch the bar below your collar bone. HMM.
All things considered, though, despite being a little leery, I showed up to the workout ready to work. There was a great energetic buzz in the room and I was ready to take on this beast.
During warm up and set up, trainer Robyn had me test out of a few, standing on a right-height box - as this is not typically a skill we practice. It went okay and I got through a couple with relative ease. Wasn't going to be a "fun" workout, but I was anticipating it would be doable.
I watched the first round of crazy athletes take on 16.3, with several people getting their very first muscle up. Several people did some solid C2B jumping pull ups, and overall, it seemed to be the workout that I was expecting.
Then it was my turn.
I had to shuffle boxes to stand on, as my original platform had been commandeered, but a box, with the addition of a 25# plate on top seemed to get me to the regulation height under the bar.
3...2....1.... We're off.
It was only going to be 7 minutes, I told myself - unlike that 20 min killer we started out with a few weeks ago. I can do anything for 7 minutes.
I picked up my empty barbell and ripped through my 10 power snatches in approximately 25 seconds (kid you not!), which was fast enough for me to be the first one in my heat to hit the pull up station. WOO. Off to a good start, I thought to myself.
.... Then it began...
With Amazing Jane as my friendly and supportive judge, I started my quest for a solid C2B jumping pull up. After a few attempts, I got one, and felt encouraged. It might take a while, but I could do this. Then, it seemed to slide faster downhill. I kept getting "no rep" as my chest missed touching the bar (to count as a complete rep), by - LITERALLY - a centimeter. Only, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't seem to get any more ups from my legs, or pulls from my arms that would close that gap.
Continue repeatedly throwing myself at the bar from different angles, trying to get my damn chest to the damn bar. It is the only time in my life I briefly wished for bigger boobs, so maybe they'd stick out one more centimeter....
At some point in this flailing, Robyn joined my side, helping Amazing Jane count my attempts and try and interject a voice of calm reason, with my increasingly frustrated attempts. I can't thank those ladies enough for keeping the positivity flowing, as without them this could've been EVEN WORSE.
Magically, something happened on rep 4... I got it. Solidly.
I managed to do the exact same thing again, and hit another solid count for rep 5. YES.
After 4:45 seconds of the workout (which was 4:20 seconds of me throwing myself at the bar, just trying to get 5 reps of C2B), I ran back to the barbell to bang out another set of snatches. Maybe my ugly streak was over, a brief glimmer of hope said in the back of my mind....
Boom! 10 snatches knocked out in another 25 seconds or so. Somewhere around the 5:15 mark, I was back at the pull up station, for another crusade for reps.
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Somewhere in that last 2 minutes, I managed to eek out 1 more good C2B, amidst a sea of "no rep" jumps.
Internally, it felt like I got 1 good rep, for every 5000 jumps up to the bar I did. I could see - all 5000 times - that I was missing by a fraction... yet, I just couldn't put all the pieces together to make it successful. But, during that 7 minutes, I was there to work.... and work I did. Attempt after attempt, I jumped up, trying to find the magic combination again (seriously, what did I do on the two really good reps, that was different?!!), to no avail. I was majorly frustrated, but aside from the occasional sputterings between breaths, I kept it under control and focused at the task at hand.
The clock hit 7 minutes and I dropped my hands off the pull up bar.
I had completed one full round (10 snatches, 5 C2B) and 11 reps (10 snatches, and one more C2B).
The anger and annoyance of being -thisclose- on the other 5 million reps, the confusion because I had eeked out a few during warm up, but couldn't do them in the WOD, the embarrassment of being the fat kid just jumping at the bar unsuccessfully for like 6.5 out of the 7 minutes, finally came to a head.
Cue the tears.
Seriously, not kidding. Big hot tears hit my cheeks as I stepped off my jumping box. Which, as I'm sure anyone who's been there can attest, decidedly doesn't help the feelings of frustration and embarrassment that generated them in the first place!
I took some deep breaths and wiped them back as best as I could, while the Day's MVP's - Robyn and Jane - wrapped me in positive thoughts, and a different perspective on the frustration I was feeling.
Robyn reminded me that Jumping C2B's were legitimately hard and not something we practice regularly, so not something I was going to be immediately good at. She reminded me that it wasn't just me - there were plenty of people who didn't get ANY good reps during their workouts. Further, she gave me the rational perspective I was lacking at that moment - this was the CrossFit Open. It was meant to test you to the limits of your skills to expose your strengths and weaknesses. Clearly, we'd found one of mine, and that was simply a direction for us to practice it more to be ready for next year. Not a failure, not a statement on my fitness, not anything except a fact that this was a movement I struggled with and should practice, end of story.
With a few more deep breaths and a cold towel to the face, after escaping to the bathroom to regroup, I was starting to come back to sanity.
Awesome Jane hung with me for a bit, while we watched the next wave of people tackle the event, radiating an incredibly positive vibe, reminding me that I gave it all I had - and THAT was the important part.
So, this was a first for me, BlogLand. I have never had a workout move me to tears before... but it was a good lesson learned. It was just so frustrating to be so close to the goal, but just not quite get it.. over... and over and over and over and over. It felt a whole lot like virtually banging my head against a wall, repeatedly, for 7 min.
On the positive side, although they were not legitimate jumping C2Bar pull ups, I did a metric shit ton of jumping pull ups, for 7 minutes.
It was a tough day in WODerbury, but I was really thankful for the gym-family I get to have. Despite my frustrating performance, I got high fives and congratulatory words from a bunch of people. In the midst of my little outburst, my friend and trainer had my back and took the time to talk to me, instead of just moving on to the next order of business. Other people commiserated how they had struggled with X, Y, or Z, and how sucky these WODS could be sometimes.
It was a little bit like getting a big sweaty hug from my gym community. LOL.
With a couple days to process and get over it all, I'm back at it tomorrow for a personal training session. Somehow, I have the distinct fear that Robyn is going to make it her new mission to whip my arms into shape. I already can't brush my hair, thinking about it.
The Lesson Learned here, BlogLand is simply that you're not going to be good at everything, and that's okay. You're going to come frustratingly close - and that's actually a GOOD thing. Being -thisclose- is a lot better than not really being able to do it at all (which might've been me a year ago) and missing by 6 inches, instead of a centimeter.
At the end of the day, I submitted my scores for the workout and I'm okay. Yes, it was not my most shining moment, but I'm convinced that if I sacrifice enough sweat (and I guess a few tears!) to the great Dave Castro, he will hear me and program at least ONE WOD that is a bunch of heavy barbells.
T-Rex LOVES heavy barbells. :-)
This was definitely a tough one, for me. I've been feeling relatively positive about my performance in the first two Open workouts so far, generally feeling good about my decision to participate. It's been a great time with the CrossFit Waterbury community getting to know people, hanging out and going through the same struggles and commiserating over our inability to walk straight after 16.1.
That said, 16.3 was everything I feared would happen when I signed up to participate, and I had a difficult time keeping everything in a positive light.
The 16.3 WOD was pretty simple, yet devious.
For those super-human people that have arms that aren't decorative, it went like this:
As many rounds as possible in 7 min of,
10 Power Snatches (75/55)
3 bar muscle ups.
For those of us mere mortals, it was scaled to this:
7 min AMRAP of,
10 power snatches (45/35)
5 jumping chest to bar pull ups
So, from a strategic perspective, those snatches (floor to overhead movement with a barbell) are incredibly light, so the design is that you will keep plowing through rounds - spending the majority of time on your Jumping C2B pull ups or - if you are extra awesome - your bar muscle ups.
As I watched the announcement of this workout, I wasn't too terrified. That was snatches with an empty bar (piece of cake!) and then I'd just need to concentrate on my jumping C2B pull ups. T-Rex hates pull ups, but I've done a fair amount of jumping pull ups in my day and know I can bang those out with some leg power. That said, I had a little bit of a question mark on jumping CHEST to bar pull ups, as that would mean you have to jump even higher, instead of just getting your chin over the bar. The new standard would be that you'd have to touch the bar below your collar bone. HMM.
All things considered, though, despite being a little leery, I showed up to the workout ready to work. There was a great energetic buzz in the room and I was ready to take on this beast.
During warm up and set up, trainer Robyn had me test out of a few, standing on a right-height box - as this is not typically a skill we practice. It went okay and I got through a couple with relative ease. Wasn't going to be a "fun" workout, but I was anticipating it would be doable.
I watched the first round of crazy athletes take on 16.3, with several people getting their very first muscle up. Several people did some solid C2B jumping pull ups, and overall, it seemed to be the workout that I was expecting.
Then it was my turn.
I had to shuffle boxes to stand on, as my original platform had been commandeered, but a box, with the addition of a 25# plate on top seemed to get me to the regulation height under the bar.
3...2....1.... We're off.
It was only going to be 7 minutes, I told myself - unlike that 20 min killer we started out with a few weeks ago. I can do anything for 7 minutes.
I picked up my empty barbell and ripped through my 10 power snatches in approximately 25 seconds (kid you not!), which was fast enough for me to be the first one in my heat to hit the pull up station. WOO. Off to a good start, I thought to myself.
.... Then it began...
With Amazing Jane as my friendly and supportive judge, I started my quest for a solid C2B jumping pull up. After a few attempts, I got one, and felt encouraged. It might take a while, but I could do this. Then, it seemed to slide faster downhill. I kept getting "no rep" as my chest missed touching the bar (to count as a complete rep), by - LITERALLY - a centimeter. Only, no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't seem to get any more ups from my legs, or pulls from my arms that would close that gap.
Continue repeatedly throwing myself at the bar from different angles, trying to get my damn chest to the damn bar. It is the only time in my life I briefly wished for bigger boobs, so maybe they'd stick out one more centimeter....
At some point in this flailing, Robyn joined my side, helping Amazing Jane count my attempts and try and interject a voice of calm reason, with my increasingly frustrated attempts. I can't thank those ladies enough for keeping the positivity flowing, as without them this could've been EVEN WORSE.
Magically, something happened on rep 4... I got it. Solidly.
I managed to do the exact same thing again, and hit another solid count for rep 5. YES.
After 4:45 seconds of the workout (which was 4:20 seconds of me throwing myself at the bar, just trying to get 5 reps of C2B), I ran back to the barbell to bang out another set of snatches. Maybe my ugly streak was over, a brief glimmer of hope said in the back of my mind....
Boom! 10 snatches knocked out in another 25 seconds or so. Somewhere around the 5:15 mark, I was back at the pull up station, for another crusade for reps.
Nothing. Nothing at all.
Somewhere in that last 2 minutes, I managed to eek out 1 more good C2B, amidst a sea of "no rep" jumps.
Internally, it felt like I got 1 good rep, for every 5000 jumps up to the bar I did. I could see - all 5000 times - that I was missing by a fraction... yet, I just couldn't put all the pieces together to make it successful. But, during that 7 minutes, I was there to work.... and work I did. Attempt after attempt, I jumped up, trying to find the magic combination again (seriously, what did I do on the two really good reps, that was different?!!), to no avail. I was majorly frustrated, but aside from the occasional sputterings between breaths, I kept it under control and focused at the task at hand.
The clock hit 7 minutes and I dropped my hands off the pull up bar.
I had completed one full round (10 snatches, 5 C2B) and 11 reps (10 snatches, and one more C2B).
The anger and annoyance of being -thisclose- on the other 5 million reps, the confusion because I had eeked out a few during warm up, but couldn't do them in the WOD, the embarrassment of being the fat kid just jumping at the bar unsuccessfully for like 6.5 out of the 7 minutes, finally came to a head.
Cue the tears.
Seriously, not kidding. Big hot tears hit my cheeks as I stepped off my jumping box. Which, as I'm sure anyone who's been there can attest, decidedly doesn't help the feelings of frustration and embarrassment that generated them in the first place!
I took some deep breaths and wiped them back as best as I could, while the Day's MVP's - Robyn and Jane - wrapped me in positive thoughts, and a different perspective on the frustration I was feeling.
Robyn reminded me that Jumping C2B's were legitimately hard and not something we practice regularly, so not something I was going to be immediately good at. She reminded me that it wasn't just me - there were plenty of people who didn't get ANY good reps during their workouts. Further, she gave me the rational perspective I was lacking at that moment - this was the CrossFit Open. It was meant to test you to the limits of your skills to expose your strengths and weaknesses. Clearly, we'd found one of mine, and that was simply a direction for us to practice it more to be ready for next year. Not a failure, not a statement on my fitness, not anything except a fact that this was a movement I struggled with and should practice, end of story.
With a few more deep breaths and a cold towel to the face, after escaping to the bathroom to regroup, I was starting to come back to sanity.
Awesome Jane hung with me for a bit, while we watched the next wave of people tackle the event, radiating an incredibly positive vibe, reminding me that I gave it all I had - and THAT was the important part.
So, this was a first for me, BlogLand. I have never had a workout move me to tears before... but it was a good lesson learned. It was just so frustrating to be so close to the goal, but just not quite get it.. over... and over and over and over and over. It felt a whole lot like virtually banging my head against a wall, repeatedly, for 7 min.
On the positive side, although they were not legitimate jumping C2Bar pull ups, I did a metric shit ton of jumping pull ups, for 7 minutes.
It was a tough day in WODerbury, but I was really thankful for the gym-family I get to have. Despite my frustrating performance, I got high fives and congratulatory words from a bunch of people. In the midst of my little outburst, my friend and trainer had my back and took the time to talk to me, instead of just moving on to the next order of business. Other people commiserated how they had struggled with X, Y, or Z, and how sucky these WODS could be sometimes.
It was a little bit like getting a big sweaty hug from my gym community. LOL.
With a couple days to process and get over it all, I'm back at it tomorrow for a personal training session. Somehow, I have the distinct fear that Robyn is going to make it her new mission to whip my arms into shape. I already can't brush my hair, thinking about it.
The Lesson Learned here, BlogLand is simply that you're not going to be good at everything, and that's okay. You're going to come frustratingly close - and that's actually a GOOD thing. Being -thisclose- is a lot better than not really being able to do it at all (which might've been me a year ago) and missing by 6 inches, instead of a centimeter.
At the end of the day, I submitted my scores for the workout and I'm okay. Yes, it was not my most shining moment, but I'm convinced that if I sacrifice enough sweat (and I guess a few tears!) to the great Dave Castro, he will hear me and program at least ONE WOD that is a bunch of heavy barbells.
T-Rex LOVES heavy barbells. :-)
Friday, March 4, 2016
"Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan." - Tom Landry
So, Blogland.... The Open 16.2 WOD was announced last night.
Yes... I watched it live with equal parts fear and anticipation. After last week's long and grueling WOD, I was sooooooo hoping for something short and heavy - which would play a little more to my strengths.
What happened? Well, I got my wish about barbells.... but, you have to EARN your way to a barbell. Here's what 16.2 looks like (RX):
Yes... I watched it live with equal parts fear and anticipation. After last week's long and grueling WOD, I was sooooooo hoping for something short and heavy - which would play a little more to my strengths.
What happened? Well, I got my wish about barbells.... but, you have to EARN your way to a barbell. Here's what 16.2 looks like (RX):
Beginning on a 4-minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
15 squat cleans, 135 / 85 lb.
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
15 squat cleans, 135 / 85 lb.
If completed before 4 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
13 squat cleans, 185 / 115 lb.
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
13 squat cleans, 185 / 115 lb.
If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
11 squat cleans, 225 / 145 lb.
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
11 squat cleans, 225 / 145 lb.
If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
9 squat cleans, 275 / 175 lb.
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
9 squat cleans, 275 / 175 lb.
If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
7 squat cleans, 315 / 205 lb.
25 toes-to-bars
50 double-unders
7 squat cleans, 315 / 205 lb.
Stop at 20 minutes.
---------------------------------------------
Well.... T2B and DU's are not in my range right now, so here's the scaled version, that I'll be attempting:
Beginning on a 4-minute clock, complete as many reps as possible of:
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
15 squat cleans, 95 / 55 lb.
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
15 squat cleans, 95 / 55 lb.
If completed before 4 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
13 squat cleans, 115 / 75 lb.
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
13 squat cleans, 115 / 75 lb.
If completed before 8 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
11 squat cleans, 135 / 95 lb.
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
11 squat cleans, 135 / 95 lb.
If completed before 12 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
9 squat cleans, 155 / 115 lb.
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
9 squat cleans, 155 / 115 lb.
If completed before 16 minutes, add 4 minutes to the clock and proceed to:
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
7 squat cleans, 185 / 135 lb.
25 hanging knee raises
50 single-unders
7 squat cleans, 185 / 135 lb.
Stop at 20 minutes.
---------------------------------------------------
Basically the same, I'll just be replacing T2B with hanging knee raises and double unders with single unders. I probably could've handled a few rounds of the prescribed squat cleans, but lucky for me, since I'm going scaled, I get some MUCH lighter weights.
Time to devise a plan, as I always feel better going into situations like this if I have a game plan. If your brain knows what to do before hand - so you don't have to strategize on the fly, mid WOD - I find I get a better performance.
So first, time to identify my strength here - obviously going to be the squat cleans (which can be done as a power clean + a front squat). I know I can clean the scaled weight for all of these rounds, and I know I can front squat much more than that... so, the squat cleans are definitely going to be my excel area.
THAT said... I've got to do some steady to fast work before I can get to the barbell, which is going to be the tricky part.
Hanging knee raises are EXHAUSTING for me. Not as much on the actual knee raise part (not saying that's "easy" though...!!), but more that my grip just fails completely. There's a lot of me to hang from a bar, and my grip just doesn't have the strength to hang there through 25 of these things. SO... how do I work around it? Well, in all the CrossFit tips videos, even for the RX athletes, they recommend saving your grip by breaking up the time hanging from the bar. So, my strategy will be to do 5 sets of 5, with a couple seconds of rest (shake out those hands!) in between. Realistically, I'm going to guess that the clock may catch me after 2 rounds (I'm hoping not!), so I think that sets of 5 is something I can sustain for a couple of rounds.
Moving on to jump rope...... ugh. (WHY, Dave Castro, WHY?!?!!!).
Jump rope and I have a really tumultuous relationship. I can actually jump rope, I swear. I can even do it for sets of 50 at a time - I know this, because I have done this. HOWEVER, as soon as my legs get a little tired, it all falls apart; I don't jump as high, I trip on the rope and otherwise generally look like a hot mess flinging a rope around.
But... in terms of this workout, I think I might be okay. First round, I'll get to jump rope relatively fresh, so I should be able to get through them in one consistent set of 50 (that's the goal). BUT, if I need to stop and regroup, it's going to be 2 sets of 25 (we'll have to decide that one on the fly). The cleans are really light for me, and not a huge amounts, so I should still have a good set of legs (that will get a break while I struggle through knee raises) going into round two. Round two, I'm anticipating two sets of 25 for jump rope. Purposely breaking it up into two sets will allow me to stay focused and composed, rather than flustered and floppy if I start getting tired.
Let's talk about goals... I feel like this looks deceptively "manageable". Like, I'm going to need to bank all the time I can during power cleans, if I'd like to keep making it through rounds. I'm relatively certain I can make it through Round 1 and into Round 2. I'm also feeling pretty confident that I can make it through Round 2 and into Round 3. My guess is Round 3 will be where my grip starts to fail and I get tired (roughly 8-10 min in), and the jump ropes start to get sloppy/trippy.
Can I make it to round 4? Possibly I could finish all 5?! Possible - Yes. Not sure if that's going to happen, but I'm going to give it a solid go. Just need to focus on banking the "extra" time early on, so I can rest a little more as the rounds progress.
BlogLand, send your good vibes this way - I'd like to make a little better score at this WOD than with 16.1 (uuughhh!!!!).
The good/fun news is that I'll have an unexpected visitor for this WOD! My long lost Spahten friend and battle buddy needs to do an away-WOD while she's up in my area, away from her home box. YAY! I couldn't have asked for a better cheering section, while I beat this WOD into submission. :-)
Thursday, March 3, 2016
"The Myth that women shouldn't lift heavy is only perpetuated by women who fear hard work and men who fear strong women."
It was a big day today, Blogland!
The last few days have been pretty good - been getting in workouts, going for walks and trying to keep plugging along. I've been struggling a little bit with my nutrition and feeling frustrated.... BUT, today was definitely the pick me up that I needed!
After completing our full 12 week Hatch (the Squat program), it was time for a re-test.
My new Rehband knee sleeves came in yesterday, so I got to try those today. THAT was a new kind of awesome. To be clear, I don't *need* knee sleeves, but part of me thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a little extra protection given the heavy weights I've been hitting. I'm thinking of it more as injury prevention. However, they definitely were a pleasant surprise! I have achy knees in the winter, particularly when I'm carrying this much weight, due to some old compressed cartilage when I was younger. These sleeves kept my knees really warm during my lifting session, which made them feel SO much better. I may start wearing these on an off for recovery, as I've heard this can be helpful, too. Overall, they were an expensive purchase to get the ones I did, but I'm really happy with them. Who doesn't want a warm, supportive, hug for their knees when they're lifting??
Anyway, geared up and ready to go, Robyn and I started warming up and ramping up the weights. When testing for a one rep max, it's always a fine line between not being warmed up enough, and wearing out your legs doing too many reps.... I'll spare you the details, but I'm SUPER EXCITED to report that I successfully stood up (back squat) a new personal record of....
303 POUNDS!! EEE!! (... and I think maybe I could've gotten 313, had I known I would go that far..)
(video proof!)
AND.... rounded that out with another personal record of a 263# front squat.
Both of those were up 50 pounds from when I had tested each one of them, 12 weeks ago. WOO!
I think the lesson I've learned here is that when you just follow the plan and do the work, you get the results. Imagine that?
Although I haven't been super happy with what my body is doing lately (WHY will you not lose weiiighhttt?!!!?), I can say I'm pretty proud of these lifts. I've been doing them consistently and I'm making progress there.
In addition, I'm feeling pretty honored - I won the "Spirit Award" for my gym this week... basically, our gym is having it's own mini team comp of the people competing in The Open. Our teams earn points for wearing the team colors, for showing up at the scheduled times - and for having a great attitude. Apparently, after having a really fun week meeting other gym members (for judging!) and just throwing myself at the WOD, despite it being decidedly not in my wheelhouse - I won the Spirit Award (and 3 pts for my team!). I'm pretty excited. Not to bad for the Fat Kid in the box, just doing the work!
Now, after a really good week, I'm sitting at my comp, anxiously awaiting the live announcement of the 16.2 WOD...... Please Dave Castro.... Short and Heavy???
The last few days have been pretty good - been getting in workouts, going for walks and trying to keep plugging along. I've been struggling a little bit with my nutrition and feeling frustrated.... BUT, today was definitely the pick me up that I needed!
After completing our full 12 week Hatch (the Squat program), it was time for a re-test.
My new Rehband knee sleeves came in yesterday, so I got to try those today. THAT was a new kind of awesome. To be clear, I don't *need* knee sleeves, but part of me thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a little extra protection given the heavy weights I've been hitting. I'm thinking of it more as injury prevention. However, they definitely were a pleasant surprise! I have achy knees in the winter, particularly when I'm carrying this much weight, due to some old compressed cartilage when I was younger. These sleeves kept my knees really warm during my lifting session, which made them feel SO much better. I may start wearing these on an off for recovery, as I've heard this can be helpful, too. Overall, they were an expensive purchase to get the ones I did, but I'm really happy with them. Who doesn't want a warm, supportive, hug for their knees when they're lifting??
Anyway, geared up and ready to go, Robyn and I started warming up and ramping up the weights. When testing for a one rep max, it's always a fine line between not being warmed up enough, and wearing out your legs doing too many reps.... I'll spare you the details, but I'm SUPER EXCITED to report that I successfully stood up (back squat) a new personal record of....
303 POUNDS!! EEE!! (... and I think maybe I could've gotten 313, had I known I would go that far..)
(video proof!)
AND.... rounded that out with another personal record of a 263# front squat.
Both of those were up 50 pounds from when I had tested each one of them, 12 weeks ago. WOO!
I think the lesson I've learned here is that when you just follow the plan and do the work, you get the results. Imagine that?
Although I haven't been super happy with what my body is doing lately (WHY will you not lose weiiighhttt?!!!?), I can say I'm pretty proud of these lifts. I've been doing them consistently and I'm making progress there.
In addition, I'm feeling pretty honored - I won the "Spirit Award" for my gym this week... basically, our gym is having it's own mini team comp of the people competing in The Open. Our teams earn points for wearing the team colors, for showing up at the scheduled times - and for having a great attitude. Apparently, after having a really fun week meeting other gym members (for judging!) and just throwing myself at the WOD, despite it being decidedly not in my wheelhouse - I won the Spirit Award (and 3 pts for my team!). I'm pretty excited. Not to bad for the Fat Kid in the box, just doing the work!
Now, after a really good week, I'm sitting at my comp, anxiously awaiting the live announcement of the 16.2 WOD...... Please Dave Castro.... Short and Heavy???
Saturday, February 27, 2016
“I’d rather be the guy doing and failing than the guy doing nothing more than telling others they’ve failed.” -Greg Everett
The Open: 16.1
(Codename: ALLTHELUNGES+Burpees.)
So, on the urging of my coaches and general curiosity, I decided to participate in the CrossFit Open this year. The CFW community was representing strong, so I thought - what the hell, right? There's a scaled division, which should be "doable". Plus, I heard a couple people's thoughts on it that it was less a competitive thing, but more just a snapshot in time. This is feedback on your fitness as it is right now, and feedback to show you where your weaknesses are. Knowing that I was not going to be qualifying for The Games anytime soon, I thought this seemed like a reasonable way to think of things. Kind of like taking a midterm test in school - to give you a barometer of how you're doing.
16.1 (Workout 1, 2016) was announced on Thursday evening. I admit, in true CrossFit groupie fashion, I watched the announcement live online, in a combination of excitement and fear.
16.1 was announced as:
25' Overhead Lunge (95#/65#)
8 bar-facing burpees
25' OH Lunge
8 Chest to bar pull ups
FOR TWENTY MINUTES
Scaled Version (what I did):
25' front rack Lunge (45#/35#)
8 bar-facing burpees
25' front rack Lunge
8 Jumping (chin over bar) pull ups
... for TWENTY minutes...
As I took a minute to let this sink in, I initially didn't think this would be so bad, as the lunges were super light, they weren't over head (in the scaled version), and jumping pull ups would be no issue. There were a bunch of burpees, which would certainly add up.... but they were only 8 at a time. Maybe I could do this? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.... Twenty minutes did seem like a long time, on initial impression, though...
I watched the rest of the live announcement, where they have to pro CF athletes go head to head and demo the workout. This year, they also had to "regular" people doing it as well. There was a girl doing the scaled version on TV that seemed to hate burpees ALMOST as much as I do... so, I was feeling a little more optimistic. The girl on TV did 6 rounds and change, so I decided my goal would be to complete 6 full rounds - that seemed reasonable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On to yesterday (Friday), which was going to be workout day. I admit, the latter half of the day was less productive than usual, as my mind was going back and forth on strategy, goals, what it was going to be like, etc. I'm not really great at waiting, or sitting with anticipation... and I'd gotten to stew on this topic since the night before.
Finally, I turned up to CFW to do this thing! equipment was moved out of the way, lanes set up and markings laid out - luckily our little gym JUST accommodated the 25' regulation length for lunges.
The atmosphere in the gym seemed to mirror my own, as our trainers walked us through the standards and expectations - everyone was trying to psyche themselves up, or calm themselves down, to be ready to get to work. We'd be doing this WOD in heats of 4 people, so waiting one's turn became an exercise in managing your crazy self-talk during that time.
Thankfully, I got tapped in to help judge the first heat, so there was no standing around thinking. My judgee was awesome - she wasn't sure if she wanted to go scaled or not, but elected to try for RX to push herself. Her and the other 3 athletes competing at the time really started us off strong, showing some amazing grit and determination - as their shoulders burned, knees hurt and lunges exploded - getting through that 20 min loooooong WOD.
Finally, it was my turn. I set up my boxes for height on my jumping pull ups. I rolled my bar into it's starting position, and I stood behind my line, waiting for the countdown.
I felt pretty good. Calm and steady... and ready to just keep working for 20 minutes. Ultimately, that was my goal - just keep moving, as I knew this was going to be a long one. Didn't have to be fast... just KEEP MOVING.
3,2,1.. GO.
Racked my 35# bar and lunged away down the stretch. Legs felt strong, lunges were solid, all was well with the world. Maybe this wouldn't be SO bad, I thought optimistically.
I dropped down into my first burpee, got up, hopped the bar and down into my second. I moved pretty efficiently through that first set of 8, as I was fresh out of the gate. Back to lunges, still feeling good, breathing more heavily now and beginning to sweat....
Another solid set of lunges, and onto jumping pull ups.
Blogland, arm stuff is my nemesis, but thankfully, jumping pull ups allow you to use your legs more.... however, at that moment it occurred to me - you know what you're not going to have as much of, after doing lots of lunges? Legs....
That said, the first set came out pretty well, and I settled into a rhythm of 3, 3, 2 for most of my subsequent rounds.
However, on finishing that first round, I looked down the metaphorical barrel at my enemy for the day - it was going to be my rising heart rate and inability to breathe. In strategizing this, I thought the lunge breaks would give me time to catch my breath.... but 25' isn't as long as you might think - it's only maybe 7-12 lunge steps. You aren't really catching your breath there. Then you burpee... and for me, burpees jack up my heart rate so much (in all fairness, I'm moving a lot of mass...), that using 10 lunges as "recovery" wasn't really happening.
My lunges were EXPLODING.
I kept moving. I lunged, I burpeed, I lunged some more, I jumped up to my chin over bars... I just kept going forward.
..... And, somewhere in the middle of the endless time vacuum that was this long-ass WOD, I got a side cramp.
Not only did I get a side cramp, but I got a side cramp that didn't want to be relieved by some big slow breaths, or stretching an arm out overhead. Awesome.
As I rose from a burpee, sucking major air, and grinding my fist into my side to try and get that cramp to break up, I assessed my options..... quit, or suck it up.
Quitting wasn't going to be an option, so Suck it Up seemed to be the way to go.
Side-cramp be damned, I pushed through more burpees and on to more lunges.
... and on and on it went. Seriously, it was a really effing long 20 minutes.
Thankfully, as the minutes ticked down, and the energy of all the athletes on the floor was reduced to a determined tired march, the CFW community really rallied around. My judge, who also happens to be my regular coach, gave me encouraging countdowns, and pertinent directions (Pick up that bar!) that my tired brain could just follow. People who'd already done the WOD, or were waiting their turn, gathered around our burpee stations to cheer us through each piece of it. We were all in this together - no matter how slow you were going. This WOD was definitely not the kind you wanted to do in a quiet room by yourself... the energy from the crowd really propelled you forward when you gas tank was more than empty.
I heard the call for 5 min left - it had felt like an eternity to this point, but with only 5 minutes left, I could push through. I tried to pick up my pace a bit... more lunges, more jumps, more burpees...
Somewhere in the haze, someone called 90 seconds left.
SECONDS. I can do this for 90 seconds, I told my body.
I lunged toward my last set of burpees. I am happy to report that the last set of lunges was as solid as the first (Yay, LEGS!).
The burpees were another story... I sucked a few big breaths of air as I put my bar down, and tried to rally to get in as many burpees as I could in my expiring clock. There was no time for breaks, or to feel my lunges explode, or to indulge myself in "breathing"... Down, up, jump the bar, down, up...
I rushed to sprint through that last burpee and landed the jump just as the buzzer signaled the end of our work.
Blogland, I have never been SO HAPPY to get to stop. While this maybe wasn't the single most physically grueling WOD I've ever done, it was certainly highly difficult. As I paced around trying to catch my breath, I felt my quads begin to remind me what they had just done.... something like 100+ lunges. I looked down at my knees and my right knee was definitely showing a bloody spot in the knee of my pants.
My lungs had not exploded, I had kept moving, and I'd put in the work.
But... as it turns out, I didn't quite make my goal. I'd had a goal of 6 full rounds going into it... and finished just short of that - finishing 5 full rounds, a length of lunges and 3 more burpees. (Honestly, I think I'm most proud of those last 3 burpees... I could've dogged the lunges and not had to do any burpees, but I squeezed them in, even though I didn't want to!).
I was a bit disappointed. Somehow, I felt I was moving faster, or the time was longer, or... I dunno. 5 full rounds and change just didn't seem like very much, for the way my body felt.
As I drove home, my quad quivered in protest every time I had to press down the clutch (driving a stick isn't awesome after leg wods!). It was clear I'd worked hard.... but I wasn't satisfied with it. Thoughts of re-doing the WOD for a better score started rattling around my brain.
I seriously considered repeating 16.1 on Monday to see if I could get 6 full rounds. I think I could. However, the thought of doing that 20 miserable minutes again, was decidedly not appealing. Particularly as my quads began to stiffen over the course of the evening, despite my best efforts of foam rolling.
I looked at the leaderboard online, on Friday night - which didn't have a lot of scores yet, as it was really the first full day people could do the WOD - but I was solidly in the last page or two for people that'd done the scaled WOD. Bottom percentile, for sure.
My inner competitor didn't - and doesn't - like that. However, I had a long talk with myself, after reading a good article online. The article suggested that there was no benefit to re-doing one of these WODs for a slightly better score, unless you were on the cusp of placing in a competitive situation. If you had a major mishap during the WOD, sure, redo it... but people in my case - where you gave it a solid go and you're just not happy with what you got.... let it stand. You're not going to learn anything from obsessing over getting a few more reps.
After looking at the situation with a critical eye, my competitive side wanted another go at things, to hit my 6 round goal. However, the reality of the situation was that this was a LONG, endurance wod, with a lot of burpees (relatively) that was not a strong point of mine, and wasn't going to suddenly become a strong point of mine in a couple extra days. I'm a heavy person, still struggling with cardio, that gets thrashed by burpees, no matter the quantity. Yes, I could redo it and get a few more reps and probably cross my personal goal of 6 rounds, but really, what would I benefit from that?
Instead, I took a deep breath and submitted my score - 138 reps - online today.
AND... I'm okay. I have warned myself that I'm going to be in the bottom of the leader board after this wod - and THAT is okay too. I'm not doing this to compete with the world, but to compete with myself and have the experience of participating in the Open, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, understanding where my weaknesses are and moving forward.
That said.... Dear Dave Castro (the guy that masterminds the Open Wods), if we could move on to some heavy barbells now, that'd be great...... k thx.
With that, I'll leave you BlogLand with a quote sent to me by my GT. YOU can - whatever it is, compete in the Open next year, kill that long run, sign up for that race, whatever it may be. You Can. You just need to choose to let yourself:
(Codename: ALLTHELUNGES+Burpees.)
So, on the urging of my coaches and general curiosity, I decided to participate in the CrossFit Open this year. The CFW community was representing strong, so I thought - what the hell, right? There's a scaled division, which should be "doable". Plus, I heard a couple people's thoughts on it that it was less a competitive thing, but more just a snapshot in time. This is feedback on your fitness as it is right now, and feedback to show you where your weaknesses are. Knowing that I was not going to be qualifying for The Games anytime soon, I thought this seemed like a reasonable way to think of things. Kind of like taking a midterm test in school - to give you a barometer of how you're doing.
16.1 (Workout 1, 2016) was announced on Thursday evening. I admit, in true CrossFit groupie fashion, I watched the announcement live online, in a combination of excitement and fear.
16.1 was announced as:
25' Overhead Lunge (95#/65#)
8 bar-facing burpees
25' OH Lunge
8 Chest to bar pull ups
FOR TWENTY MINUTES
Scaled Version (what I did):
25' front rack Lunge (45#/35#)
8 bar-facing burpees
25' front rack Lunge
8 Jumping (chin over bar) pull ups
... for TWENTY minutes...
As I took a minute to let this sink in, I initially didn't think this would be so bad, as the lunges were super light, they weren't over head (in the scaled version), and jumping pull ups would be no issue. There were a bunch of burpees, which would certainly add up.... but they were only 8 at a time. Maybe I could do this? Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.... Twenty minutes did seem like a long time, on initial impression, though...
I watched the rest of the live announcement, where they have to pro CF athletes go head to head and demo the workout. This year, they also had to "regular" people doing it as well. There was a girl doing the scaled version on TV that seemed to hate burpees ALMOST as much as I do... so, I was feeling a little more optimistic. The girl on TV did 6 rounds and change, so I decided my goal would be to complete 6 full rounds - that seemed reasonable.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On to yesterday (Friday), which was going to be workout day. I admit, the latter half of the day was less productive than usual, as my mind was going back and forth on strategy, goals, what it was going to be like, etc. I'm not really great at waiting, or sitting with anticipation... and I'd gotten to stew on this topic since the night before.
Finally, I turned up to CFW to do this thing! equipment was moved out of the way, lanes set up and markings laid out - luckily our little gym JUST accommodated the 25' regulation length for lunges.
The atmosphere in the gym seemed to mirror my own, as our trainers walked us through the standards and expectations - everyone was trying to psyche themselves up, or calm themselves down, to be ready to get to work. We'd be doing this WOD in heats of 4 people, so waiting one's turn became an exercise in managing your crazy self-talk during that time.
Thankfully, I got tapped in to help judge the first heat, so there was no standing around thinking. My judgee was awesome - she wasn't sure if she wanted to go scaled or not, but elected to try for RX to push herself. Her and the other 3 athletes competing at the time really started us off strong, showing some amazing grit and determination - as their shoulders burned, knees hurt and lunges exploded - getting through that 20 min loooooong WOD.
Finally, it was my turn. I set up my boxes for height on my jumping pull ups. I rolled my bar into it's starting position, and I stood behind my line, waiting for the countdown.
I felt pretty good. Calm and steady... and ready to just keep working for 20 minutes. Ultimately, that was my goal - just keep moving, as I knew this was going to be a long one. Didn't have to be fast... just KEEP MOVING.
3,2,1.. GO.
Racked my 35# bar and lunged away down the stretch. Legs felt strong, lunges were solid, all was well with the world. Maybe this wouldn't be SO bad, I thought optimistically.
I dropped down into my first burpee, got up, hopped the bar and down into my second. I moved pretty efficiently through that first set of 8, as I was fresh out of the gate. Back to lunges, still feeling good, breathing more heavily now and beginning to sweat....
Another solid set of lunges, and onto jumping pull ups.
Blogland, arm stuff is my nemesis, but thankfully, jumping pull ups allow you to use your legs more.... however, at that moment it occurred to me - you know what you're not going to have as much of, after doing lots of lunges? Legs....
That said, the first set came out pretty well, and I settled into a rhythm of 3, 3, 2 for most of my subsequent rounds.
However, on finishing that first round, I looked down the metaphorical barrel at my enemy for the day - it was going to be my rising heart rate and inability to breathe. In strategizing this, I thought the lunge breaks would give me time to catch my breath.... but 25' isn't as long as you might think - it's only maybe 7-12 lunge steps. You aren't really catching your breath there. Then you burpee... and for me, burpees jack up my heart rate so much (in all fairness, I'm moving a lot of mass...), that using 10 lunges as "recovery" wasn't really happening.
My lunges were EXPLODING.
I kept moving. I lunged, I burpeed, I lunged some more, I jumped up to my chin over bars... I just kept going forward.
..... And, somewhere in the middle of the endless time vacuum that was this long-ass WOD, I got a side cramp.
Not only did I get a side cramp, but I got a side cramp that didn't want to be relieved by some big slow breaths, or stretching an arm out overhead. Awesome.
As I rose from a burpee, sucking major air, and grinding my fist into my side to try and get that cramp to break up, I assessed my options..... quit, or suck it up.
Quitting wasn't going to be an option, so Suck it Up seemed to be the way to go.
Side-cramp be damned, I pushed through more burpees and on to more lunges.
... and on and on it went. Seriously, it was a really effing long 20 minutes.
Thankfully, as the minutes ticked down, and the energy of all the athletes on the floor was reduced to a determined tired march, the CFW community really rallied around. My judge, who also happens to be my regular coach, gave me encouraging countdowns, and pertinent directions (Pick up that bar!) that my tired brain could just follow. People who'd already done the WOD, or were waiting their turn, gathered around our burpee stations to cheer us through each piece of it. We were all in this together - no matter how slow you were going. This WOD was definitely not the kind you wanted to do in a quiet room by yourself... the energy from the crowd really propelled you forward when you gas tank was more than empty.
I heard the call for 5 min left - it had felt like an eternity to this point, but with only 5 minutes left, I could push through. I tried to pick up my pace a bit... more lunges, more jumps, more burpees...
Somewhere in the haze, someone called 90 seconds left.
SECONDS. I can do this for 90 seconds, I told my body.
I lunged toward my last set of burpees. I am happy to report that the last set of lunges was as solid as the first (Yay, LEGS!).
The burpees were another story... I sucked a few big breaths of air as I put my bar down, and tried to rally to get in as many burpees as I could in my expiring clock. There was no time for breaks, or to feel my lunges explode, or to indulge myself in "breathing"... Down, up, jump the bar, down, up...
I rushed to sprint through that last burpee and landed the jump just as the buzzer signaled the end of our work.
Blogland, I have never been SO HAPPY to get to stop. While this maybe wasn't the single most physically grueling WOD I've ever done, it was certainly highly difficult. As I paced around trying to catch my breath, I felt my quads begin to remind me what they had just done.... something like 100+ lunges. I looked down at my knees and my right knee was definitely showing a bloody spot in the knee of my pants.
My lungs had not exploded, I had kept moving, and I'd put in the work.
But... as it turns out, I didn't quite make my goal. I'd had a goal of 6 full rounds going into it... and finished just short of that - finishing 5 full rounds, a length of lunges and 3 more burpees. (Honestly, I think I'm most proud of those last 3 burpees... I could've dogged the lunges and not had to do any burpees, but I squeezed them in, even though I didn't want to!).
I was a bit disappointed. Somehow, I felt I was moving faster, or the time was longer, or... I dunno. 5 full rounds and change just didn't seem like very much, for the way my body felt.
As I drove home, my quad quivered in protest every time I had to press down the clutch (driving a stick isn't awesome after leg wods!). It was clear I'd worked hard.... but I wasn't satisfied with it. Thoughts of re-doing the WOD for a better score started rattling around my brain.
I seriously considered repeating 16.1 on Monday to see if I could get 6 full rounds. I think I could. However, the thought of doing that 20 miserable minutes again, was decidedly not appealing. Particularly as my quads began to stiffen over the course of the evening, despite my best efforts of foam rolling.
I looked at the leaderboard online, on Friday night - which didn't have a lot of scores yet, as it was really the first full day people could do the WOD - but I was solidly in the last page or two for people that'd done the scaled WOD. Bottom percentile, for sure.
My inner competitor didn't - and doesn't - like that. However, I had a long talk with myself, after reading a good article online. The article suggested that there was no benefit to re-doing one of these WODs for a slightly better score, unless you were on the cusp of placing in a competitive situation. If you had a major mishap during the WOD, sure, redo it... but people in my case - where you gave it a solid go and you're just not happy with what you got.... let it stand. You're not going to learn anything from obsessing over getting a few more reps.
After looking at the situation with a critical eye, my competitive side wanted another go at things, to hit my 6 round goal. However, the reality of the situation was that this was a LONG, endurance wod, with a lot of burpees (relatively) that was not a strong point of mine, and wasn't going to suddenly become a strong point of mine in a couple extra days. I'm a heavy person, still struggling with cardio, that gets thrashed by burpees, no matter the quantity. Yes, I could redo it and get a few more reps and probably cross my personal goal of 6 rounds, but really, what would I benefit from that?
Instead, I took a deep breath and submitted my score - 138 reps - online today.
AND... I'm okay. I have warned myself that I'm going to be in the bottom of the leader board after this wod - and THAT is okay too. I'm not doing this to compete with the world, but to compete with myself and have the experience of participating in the Open, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, understanding where my weaknesses are and moving forward.
That said.... Dear Dave Castro (the guy that masterminds the Open Wods), if we could move on to some heavy barbells now, that'd be great...... k thx.
With that, I'll leave you BlogLand with a quote sent to me by my GT. YOU can - whatever it is, compete in the Open next year, kill that long run, sign up for that race, whatever it may be. You Can. You just need to choose to let yourself:
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
“The resistance that you fight physically in the gym and the resistance that you fight in life can only build a strong character.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger
Happy Wednesday, Blogland!
I am proud to say that I did it: My powerlifting competition entry went in the mail on Monday night, so it would be postmarked before the deadline. I'm in it for squat and deadlift, and am feeling pretty okay about that. Although, note to self, I need to kick up my bench press game, as it's WAY cheaper to register for a full boat - squat, bench and deadlift - than to register for separates. I even bought myself a few pairs of tall socks to celebrate..... here's hoping they fit over my tree-trunk calves!
Now, I have begun the agonizing search for ... a singlet. I'm really trying to make my peace with this stupid piece of spandex, as I know it shouldn't be this big of a deal. Sadly, I'm not super psyched about my body right now, so the concept of squeezing it into an unflattering tube of spandex is not high on my list..... But, then again, this is power lifting, not CrossFit.... it seems that (from looking at pictures), the power lifting bodies are less about perfectly chiseled abs and more about sheer power and strength - there's definitely a beer gut or two that a singlet is stretched over, while pulling some massive deadlift.
So, I have turned to the almighty amazon for some singlet options. It is disheartening to find that they don't make "women's" singlets in size Aja.... but they do seem to make unisex ones that will work, so I've ordered a bunch and we shall see. I'm prepping myself, and trying to front load all this information before hand, so when they come and I try them on, it's not instant meltdown. Everyone looks horrible in a singlet, right?
Anyway, although the weather derailed my squatting plans for yesterday, I managed to squeeze in my squats AND bootcamp today, back to back. I am decidedly starving now, but I feel pretty accomplished.
Today was week 11, day 1 of our Hatch Squat program. This means, it was 103% of your one rep max day - something the program has been working you up to for the last 11 weeks. Initially, I was a little nervous about this, as this was going to be something like 8 pounds over the max I started with.... but, thanks to following this squat program so regularly, I crushed that weight in the competition last week... so today was really just a test to make sure I could do it without all the adrenaline running through my legs! I am actually really exciting to finish up this program next week, with my coach Robyn, and retest our max lifts. This program seems to have really helped make some big gains... so it's going to be really exciting to see how far that went!
After lifting, I switched gears (and shoes!) and got my brain in cardio mode.... which for me just means a mantra to the effect of "You're not dying, it only feels like it." (repeat).
A warm up of jump ropes, rowing and goblet squats reminded me of how incredibly much I suck at jump rope, once my legs have done ANYthing else that day. If I'm fresh out of the gate, I can string them together (slowly)... but after squats, my legs were cranky masses doing their best impression of concrete blocks, while I tried to will them to jump in a coordinated manner. Jump rope, you win today... but I will be back to fight again.
Lucky for me, bootcamp was a two-small-WOD day. I really find that these smaller chunks of time help my brain get through workouts. If I know I only have to do something for 7 minutes, it seems a lot more manageable, because I can usually get to minute 3 before my lungs begin the "we're dying!" cries.
Today's opener was 12 wall balls and then 8 knees to elbows, as many rounds as you could, for like 7 minutes. Let me just make this clear.... wall balls are not super fun to do on a good day, because of the cardio-killer aspect of them... but they were waaaay less super fun today, after doing heavy squats. Go Go Gadget Leg Reserves!
After having two minutes to "recover" after that, it was on to part two - 10 kettle bell swings, and 10 step ups, as many rounds as you could for 7 minutes. Kettlebell swings are my jam, generally, but pairing them with box jumps/step ups (high on my list of gym-unpleasantness, right behind burpees) was definitely some work. I was most definitely digging deep for this one, trying to remind myself that if the other ladies in the room could keep moving, then I certainly could too. I would not die from step ups. That was not in fact the feeling of my lungs exploding, simply my brain getting in my way.
Amazingly, I did not die, but instead was a tired, sweaty mess after the whole thing. That's the goal right? Goal Achieved!
One more step in the right direction (man, it's a long road sometimes).
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
"Continuous effort - not strength or intelligence - is the key to unlocking our potential." ~ Winston Churchill
Here I am again, Blog.
It seems like every year around this time, I dedicate some time to you, in hopes of getting back in the habit of writing about my life. Why do I keep coming back to write? Because, I think, in some way, spewing out the struggles, the day to day, the wins, the questions, helps me process through it and get to some sort of mental peace about it. Working on yourself - physically or mentally - isn't easy, but for me, writing it out makes it just a little bit easier.
There's been a lot that's happened in the last year... I've bought my first house (!!!! #ADULTING!!!)
which has over 2 acres of lovely land, mountain views, a tiny pool (not kidding), and something like 60 high bush blueberry plants. Yep - I have a field of blueberries. I've been learning the "joys" of home-ownership, while also trying to enjoy home ownership. After all, I no longer have to care what the inevitable downstairs neighbor thinks of my music, or whether we're going to have a fight over parking.
However, with the excitement of moving just before the holidays, the holidays, learning all this house stuff, and Life in General, I found that perhaps I wasn't doing a very good job taking care of me. I started having random, intermittent panic attacks (for anyone that knows me, you'll understand how incredibly out of character this was!), was having trouble focusing on various tasks, just never felt motivated, and was struggling with seasonal depression (Damn. You. Winter.) more than ever. Upon really coming to realize this... after an amazing anxiety attack that involved throwing around a lot of wrapping paper (go ahead... laugh.).... I determined it was time to really make some effort on getting things back on the right track. AND SO.... here we are.
I've been doing a lot of training over at my gym - once a week for a personal training session, a couple days a week of bootcamp (think: ALL CARDIO), and 2x a week of a squat program. I've made some pretty significant progress, even though it - frustratingly - doesn't show. I can say I've definitely improved my cardio capacity, as much as my current weight will allow, and I've made massive gains in my strength.
I'm happy to report that at last weekend's in-house comp at the gym, I pulled a 340# Deadlift and a 263# Backsquat, which I think is pretty good for a fat kid!
I'm still actively working on the nutrition piece of things, working with a stellar nutritionist, who understands the demands of my lifting and crossfitting workouts, who doesn't believe in filling me full of shakes and powders, but instead, adjusting slowly for success. I will admit (deep breath) that I'm at an all-time high for my weight. It's depressing, I'm not at peace with that and I don't "love my body" at this point. I appreciate my body's strength, and I understand the potential it has, but I can't say that I'm "okay" with my current status. My current weight is uncomfortable, in the way, and not healthy.... so, on the quest I go to get rid of it.
(Sidenote: I'm logging obsessively on MyFitnessPal to track my macros and such, so if any of you are particularly militant about it and want to help keep each other on track - friend me!)
So, I guess that's the State of the Aja for the moment. Not great, but working to get better.
Victories for today (Let's keep it positive, shall we?):
- Went to the gym and got my squat session in!
- Tracked all my food for today, and am pretty close in my macros
- Wrote this blog. :-)
With that, I'm off for today, BlogLand - I've got an amazing Roast Chicken in the oven, flavored with honey from my Dad's bees and calamondin oranges that I grew myself. NOM NOM NOM!
... But I'll be back. Stay Tuned. I have a really good feeling about this year!
It seems like every year around this time, I dedicate some time to you, in hopes of getting back in the habit of writing about my life. Why do I keep coming back to write? Because, I think, in some way, spewing out the struggles, the day to day, the wins, the questions, helps me process through it and get to some sort of mental peace about it. Working on yourself - physically or mentally - isn't easy, but for me, writing it out makes it just a little bit easier.
There's been a lot that's happened in the last year... I've bought my first house (!!!! #ADULTING!!!)
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| The view of my new backyard... |
However, with the excitement of moving just before the holidays, the holidays, learning all this house stuff, and Life in General, I found that perhaps I wasn't doing a very good job taking care of me. I started having random, intermittent panic attacks (for anyone that knows me, you'll understand how incredibly out of character this was!), was having trouble focusing on various tasks, just never felt motivated, and was struggling with seasonal depression (Damn. You. Winter.) more than ever. Upon really coming to realize this... after an amazing anxiety attack that involved throwing around a lot of wrapping paper (go ahead... laugh.).... I determined it was time to really make some effort on getting things back on the right track. AND SO.... here we are.
I've been doing a lot of training over at my gym - once a week for a personal training session, a couple days a week of bootcamp (think: ALL CARDIO), and 2x a week of a squat program. I've made some pretty significant progress, even though it - frustratingly - doesn't show. I can say I've definitely improved my cardio capacity, as much as my current weight will allow, and I've made massive gains in my strength.
I'm happy to report that at last weekend's in-house comp at the gym, I pulled a 340# Deadlift and a 263# Backsquat, which I think is pretty good for a fat kid!
I'm still actively working on the nutrition piece of things, working with a stellar nutritionist, who understands the demands of my lifting and crossfitting workouts, who doesn't believe in filling me full of shakes and powders, but instead, adjusting slowly for success. I will admit (deep breath) that I'm at an all-time high for my weight. It's depressing, I'm not at peace with that and I don't "love my body" at this point. I appreciate my body's strength, and I understand the potential it has, but I can't say that I'm "okay" with my current status. My current weight is uncomfortable, in the way, and not healthy.... so, on the quest I go to get rid of it.
(Sidenote: I'm logging obsessively on MyFitnessPal to track my macros and such, so if any of you are particularly militant about it and want to help keep each other on track - friend me!)
So, I guess that's the State of the Aja for the moment. Not great, but working to get better.
Victories for today (Let's keep it positive, shall we?):
- Went to the gym and got my squat session in!
- Tracked all my food for today, and am pretty close in my macros
- Wrote this blog. :-)
With that, I'm off for today, BlogLand - I've got an amazing Roast Chicken in the oven, flavored with honey from my Dad's bees and calamondin oranges that I grew myself. NOM NOM NOM!
... But I'll be back. Stay Tuned. I have a really good feeling about this year!
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