Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Oh (cr)happy day!

**Sorry this post is late. I went home, cooked dinner, and passed out til this morning. At least I feel a bit better.**

Today is not one of my best days. Woke up tired... I think because someone else was hogging the bed, plus I had to get up twice(!) to pee. Apparently, staying hydrated will do that to ya. Plus, I was just achy enough from yesterday's ring pullups to feel it.

Nevertheless, made it to the box for this:

Good times... add in 3x3 of heavy push press and deadlifts before it as well. #crossfit #wod

But that's not it. Due to the fact that it's a relativel short wod, Casey added in some strength before we started. Not that I would mind. I live for strength. Unfortunately, a heavy strenth session before this wod has left my entire body aching for the remainder of the day. I also forgot my fish oil this morning... everything is just against me.

The unseen strength portion included 3x3 of heavy deadlifts and push press. I started with the deadlifts. My three "heavy" sets were at 165, 175, 185. 165 isn't too bad for me. Don't ask me to bust out more then 10 of those though. I was happy with getting the 185 with good form and rhythm for all the reps. A couple months ago, my 1RM was 180. Constant improvements even if you're not working that specific skill. It's what I love about CrossFit.

I didn't go so heavy with the push press due to my shoulders being achy. After warmups, I did 75, 85, and 95. I wanted to get to 100, but really I was just too lazy to add the extra plates when we were already close to the actual wod starting. Maybe next time.

Tabata is tabata. I don't think anyone actually cheers for doing tabata. After the first round it sucks the rest of the time. Here's the breakdown of my sets:

Pullups: 12-6-5-4-4-4-5-5
Burpees: 5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5
Situps: 11-10-10-10-10-10-10-10

Hey, at least I was consistent in my pacing of the burpees and the situps. 4 seconds to do a single burpee. Does that sound slow to anyone? I don't think I ever timed myself on them before, but I feel like they should go slightly faster than that. On the pullups, I felt great the first round and then immediately ran out of gas. Looking back, I think that needed better pacing. It was a battle for each pullups after the first round. My arms and hands just did not want to be hanging from the bar.

A good day at the box. I really liked the strenth and the metcon portioning. My body definitely feels it too, even though I wish it didn't feel it quite as much. Tomorrow is going to be another challenge to get through. I'll just hope for less shoulder involving exercises. Ha!

Whole30 day 23. Dinner. What do you make when your lazy and feeling blah? Burgers!! Yum. #paleo
Here was dinner. I managed to get down a burger without too much trouble. It was tasty.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Barbells and Rings

I'm woke up this morning hoping for a good metcon... I got this instead:

Monday goodness. #wod #crossfit

No biggie. I like squats. Ring pushups? Not so much, but gotta get them done. Plus, we haven't done them in a while so they need work.

Due to the large number of people that showed up this morning (odd because normally everyone is in recovery mode from the weekend) we were broken into two groups. I was in the second and would be doing the ring pushups first.

My strategy was to do sets of 10. Um, yeah. That worked for the first 10. After that, it was just as many as I could do at once. Usually, I got out 8 or 9. By the time that I made it to 40 though, I had to break it up into 5 and 5. My chest was burning and my forearms were becoming raw. Nothing like the rings to start off the week.

Next, it was on to the squat work. I grabbed a bar and did some warm-up squats. We had already done some during the group warm-up. Then a loaded up a mid-weight and a few more warm-up reps. I was hoping to do the 20 reps at body weight but... when I went to see how 10 reps felt at 115, I knew there was no stopping.

The first 5 felt good. The second 5 were a bit tougher. The last 10, went 1 by 1. Every one I had to get set and focus again. I know that 115 isn't that heavy, but c'mon... I ain't that big either. I got through all 20 without setting the bar down.

On a side note... did you see that last play in GBvsSEA??? Craziness!

Misty Imperial Beach. Can't even see the end of the pier. #nofilter
It was so misty in IB this afternoon, you couldn't see the end of the pier.

Isn't she just the prettiest? #corgi #corgistagram #puppy
Isn't my girl the prettiest?

Friday, September 21, 2012

Friday (not-so-much) Fun

I woke up this morning, stumbled into the bathroom and squinted to read the wod. After I read it, I wanted to go back to bed.

Here's what I saw.

Friday not-so-much fun. #wod #crossfit

How is that supposed to be any fun? Get-ups suck... and 76 of them sucks even more. I, however, don't pick and choose the wods that I want to do. I do what is programmed. So I got dressed and trudged into the box.

I expected this to be hard. Believe me, it was. Not helping was the fact that I've still got bruises on the back of my forearm from the kb c&j earlier this week.

I started off by aiming for 5 reps before switching hands. That worked for about the first half of the get-ups. Not so much for the other half. Those had to be done in 2s and 3s. Finally after about 25 minutes, I made it all the way through. I was way more taxed than I thought I would be. I just laid there for another few minutes before moving. Talk about a whole body workout... that's whole body!!

Hope that everyone has a great weekend!

On a side note, it must be fall now, because after the haze, some fog rolled into IB this afternoon.

Hazy afternoon in IB. #nofilter

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Forgetful me...

So I forgot to post yesterday's workout. Bummer too, because I really enjoyed it (or as much as you can enjoy a wod while it's going on). I felt that it was right up my alley.

Here's what was on the menu:

Back at the box. Doing my thing. #wod #crossfit

Yay for me! Short rowing distance, followed by strength skills. I live for these. They are not always kind to me though.

My goal was to be under 15:00 minutes. I figured that was reasonable considering it was five rounds, I definitely expected to be slowing down on the C&J and pushups by the last rounds.

The rows felt good. It was a good distance because I could keep good form and still feel like I was rowing with the pack. Usually for me to even kinda sorta keep up with everyone else and not feel like a total loser, I pretty much have to go buck wild on the thing. Not my style. Each of my row splits was about 1:01. Couldn't break the 1 min barrier but I tried.

The C&J went flying by, especially in the first round. I did 5 straight with one arm and then switched so I could avoid putting the kettlebell down unnesassarily. It worked out. I did slow a bit by round 3, but not too significantly.

The pushups went fine in the early stages and sucked a lot by the end. In the last round, I couldn't even do 5 unbroken. My arms would just not lock out at the top. Boo. Still...

My time: 11:00! Woo. Smoked my goal.

Now, fast forward to this morning and this moderately confusing thing.

Late post of today's #wod. Much harder than it looked. #crossfit



Once explained it was simple enough. Do all the front squats each round, then do all the push press for that round. The goal is to not put the barbell down until you've completed all five rounds. Seemed not bad. For the first three rounds it wasn't. Then the fourth round started and it was like I hit a wall. After the front squats I had to drop the bar. I just couldn't seem to inch it forward enough to grip it for the push press. Down it went. I finished the 4 push press and the last round with another try.

Active rest was to jog a lap around the block and then get ready to start again when you were ready. Here we go... same result. I felt great through the third round, then just couldn't keep the bar up anymore. I mean, sure I could have stood there in the front rack position for a while, but that wasn't going to help my arms let the bar roll forward to press it any easier.

In the end, it turned out to be a much tougher wod than I anticipated. I guess that's my fault for underestimating those two lifts.

On a side note: Whole30 day 18 is almost over. Things are winding down, only a week left. I'll be ending after 25 days, instead of 30. My sister will be in town to visit and I would hate for her to miss out on some of the truly great San Diego and SoCal offerings because of me. This is only her second trip to SoCal ever in her life, so might as well get some In-n-Out and mexican in there. Oh and another trip to Disney, where this time, I will be indulging a bit.

Whole30 day 17. Dinner. Green chile taco meatballs with chipotle tomato sauce and avocado salsa over greens. Mmmm.
Dinner last night. A new fave. Green chile chipotle taco meatballs. 

Conquered the 30in box during warmups. Next up: plates! #crossfit
And a new PR!! I cleared the 30in box today!! Woo. Big things happenin'.

Monday, September 17, 2012

Oh the troubles...

No wod today. So sad. Unfortunately, my car spent the weekend at the shop so I couldn't make it to the box this morning. It will be there until tomorrow afternoon, so no wod tomorrow either. I feel so lost and unproductive without my workout!! Can't wait until Wednesday, when I can get back there. I hope nothing happens tomorrow that interferes with that. 

In good news, I made it through a record heat weekend at Disneyland and stayed Whole30 compliant!!! Granted, I may have a bit more than the recommended servings of fruit and nuts, but stayed away from all the other fatty, bad for you goodness while I was there. 

Trust me, it took every once of willpower that I had. Being as hot as it was (100+ deg) and watching everyone else walking around with ice cream cones and frozen lemonade... it was like torture! I did make it through though. Albeit with some weird looks from servers when I asked for a plain burger with extra veggies but no ketchup or mustard. 

I even learned something! That when it's really hot and I'm spending time outside, I crave coke. The real Coca-cola, not the drug! For some reason I just want a huge gulp of the sweet, fizzy goodness. Ugh. That was the worst craving I've had to manage these two weeks so far. 

As much as I hate to admit it either, I know that I was better off spending so much time walking and standing in the heat for not indulging in those sugar cravings. I even saw a teenager who passed out waiting in line from the heat. What did she have in her cup? Coke! I, instead, was guzzling water from my Camelbak all day. And I do mean, ALL DAY. 

There'll be another opportunity for Disney when my sister visits at the end of the month. You can bet that there will be some indulgences during that trip. Hopefully the weather cools off a bit by then!

The waiting game to ride Radiator Springs Racers. Over an hour. Woo!
During the 2-hour wait for Radiator Springs Racers. Worth it for the new ride.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Busy Wednesday

In case one workout wasn't enough... I decided to do two today.

Here's how I started the day off:

Early morning #wod fun. Now off to run a 5k!

Well... almost. I decided to sub GHD sit-ups for the goblet squats. Still undecided whether that was a good idea or not.

The kettlebell swings were fine enough (I used 35lbs). The first round I managed unbroken. The second and third rounds I did 15/15.

The GHD sit-ups on the other hand... The most that I could do at one time was 5! Mostly because I got soooo dizzy going up and down. I tried closing my eyes, looking at only one spot, every time I still got dizzy. By the end, I was doing 1 or 2 at a time. Anyone got some tips?

Pushups were pushups. After killing my chest and shoulders on those though, the pull-ups were not just pull-ups. The most I ended up getting unbroken today was 7. That's not usually like me. Huh...

My time: 16:26 (my goal was under 15:00)


On to the next event.


I ran the POW/MIA 5K with a couple other girls in my office. It was a good time. A LOT of people showed up, almost 2000. However, that made for a slightly crowded run, an entertaining one though. Never once did I wonder how far we had to go, we just kept going.

I wish I could say that I felt great during the whole thing, but sadly no. After about mile 2, I was dragging a bit. Didn't help that due to the amount of people, you were always dodging people and the beginning was egregiously slow, even for me.

We crossed in 31 something. There was a clock but so many people that I couldn't see it. Oh well. The point of the race, was to honor the POWs and MIAs. And that, we did.

My shirt for the POW/MIA 5k. This is post run, so pardon the sweat.
My shirt from the run that I made. Commemorating my grandfather who spent over 3 years as a POW in Korea. My hero.



Friday, September 7, 2012

Friday Fun and Cravings!!!

For the third (count it THIRD) time this week I woke up to see overhead squats. I guess someone knows how much we all dread these and yet how badly we need to work on them.

Here's what we had:

Friday fun. #wod #crossfit

Shoulder killer.

Like yesterday, I decided to do this wod at 65lbs. Even though most of the guys were using 75lbs. Can't get stronger if you don't push yourself right? I figure if I could do Fran at 65lbs, then I should be able to do this. My goal was 15 minutes.

I didn't expect do finish any of the sets unbroken. I didn't. The most OHS I did unbroken were 10. After that it was all mostly by 5 and 6. A couple times I didn't make the lift and had to ditch. Once a got a rhythm going I could usually get to at least 5. Hint... OHS is much easier if you go down all the way. Don't short change yourself and just go part way, you're not benefitting from the lift and it will be harder.

After holding that bar up for all those reps, HSPU were not the easiest. I can usually do about 10 at a time. Ha! Today, I was averaging 5 and even that was tough. 

Unfortunately, I didn't make my goal of 15 minutes... sad face.

My time: 16:23

Oh well. Good effort.

In a Whole30 update, I am having the worst cravings today!! Every time that I pass some fast food joint, kitchen, farmers market I get a whiff of all the smells and it's driving me nuts!! Nothing specific, but just everything smells good all over the place. It's going to be a long rest of the month. 

Anyways, here's some of my food for the day.

Followed by post-wod moms of chicken and butternut squash. #whole30 #paleo
Post-wod fuel of chicken and butternut squash.

Breakfast for days!! Mexican quiche! #paleo #whole30
Breakfast was a mexican quiche that I cooked last night.

My lunch @ Urban Chicken. Perfectly whole30 friendly. Love to see good food eating out.
Lunch from Urban Chicken. Free range roasted chicken with organic grilled veggies and salad.

Whole30 day 5. Dinner. Chicken and veggie stir fry. #paleo
Dinner was chicken stir fry that I made up off the top of my head. Tasty!

p.s. I got my bushwoman brows taken care of today by Brenda of Browtastik. If anyone is the SD area needs a recommendation let me know. She is awesome!!




Thursday, September 6, 2012

Kickin' it in the Kitchen

My kitchen is taking over my life.

But first today's wod.

This wasn't as easy as at looked. #wod  #crossfit

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

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

My time: 9:48

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

Now... about that kitchen stuff.

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

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

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

Win!!!

Whole30 day 4. Dinner. Mediterranean porkchops with roasted garlic butternut squash and cucumber. See @kainoe808 I ate a cucumber!
My plate tonight: Mediterranean pork chops with garlic roasted butternut squash and cucumber.



Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Whole30

So my friend Lea has me acting as a sort of guinea pig in doing the Whole30 program. She wants to see what the results are and possibly do this as the next challenge for her box. Yay me. 

Here are the basics on the program. I won't go into too much detail. You can read for yourself or ask me questions.

The big tenets are:

1. No sugar. That includes honey, agave, the sugar that's in store bought bacon (bet you didn't know that!)
2. No alcohol. Not even for cooking.
3. No grains whatsoever.
4. No legumes.
5. No dairy. The exception is clarified butter or ghee (which is damn near impossible to find unless you order online and pay an arm and a leg for shipping.)
6. No MSG.
7. No white potatoes.

And no paleo-fying desserts or junk food choices. So long chocolate zucchini bread. 

Right now, I'm just about to finish the second day. It hasn't been too bad. The things that I miss the most are my post-wod protein shake, which has now been replaced by a post-wod meal of salmon/chicken with sweet potato. Also, my coconut milk creamer. Today, I drank my coffee black, not horrible. Tomorrow, I'm going to try it with some refrigerated pure coconut milk and see how that goes.

Only 28 more days to go!

Some shots from the weekend.

Some crazy lady came up with this torturous event. We finished though!! #wod #crossfit
This was our crazy Labor Day wod. Yeah...

6am wod team!!
My team (missing Carlos)

Mahalo @rissmoore10 for the board. Super stoked! Good luck in the future, keep up the work girl! Wish I was home to have met you, but thanks to my awesome dad for biting the bullet on this one and picking it up. Must have been so hard.
I bought a 8'0 fun board from Carissa Moore. If you don't know who she is then we can't be friends.
So jealous my dad got to meet her to pick it up.

Whole30 day 1. Lunchtime. Ultimate tuna salad. #paleo
Whole30 lunch. Ultimate tuna salad.


If I couldz just reach a little more... #corgi #corgistagram #puppy
Someone wishes she was just a little taller.

The pit of black coffee. I miss my creamer already. #whole30
The pit of black coffee.






Saturday, September 1, 2012

Just a quick note...

This is how I spent my morning...

Had a date with this thing this morning. Trying to recover from the week. #crossfit

It was necessary after the wods this week. I feel much better now.

And on Monday (yes, the holiday) I'm going to be starting the Whole30 challenge. My friend Lea suggested it. Mostly, I'm going to be a guinea pig along with her and her bf. We're going to see if this will be a good option for her box's next nutrition challenge. It's gonna be a long month!

Happy Saturday!