What’s In A Name?

I had a hard time going to bed last night and that meant I was still awake at 2330. With a 0600 wake-up call to get Rina for school, that meant I was slightly sleep-deprived and waking up was hard this morning. Turns out Rina stayed home from school again today as she is still sick (fever yesterday and sore throat today), so I tried to get back to bed, but my dreams have been filled with Ryan Gosling, so that was a bit disturbing. I guess that’s what you get when you google “Ryan Gosling Crossfit Memes” before bedtime! Lol! 🙂 Speaking of weird dreams, it seems I have crossfit on my mind a lot lately. Earlier this week, I dreamt that I managed my 1st bar MU and then, manage a couple more. I was kind of sad when I woke up, but at the same time, it leaves me hungry for the Open coming up!

Here’s what we did this morning:

Source

Skill: Tempo Back Squat (4-2-1) 6×2 E90s

Coach Caleb was coaching the 0930 today and he said to go lighter than what we had done last time we did the tempo (3-2-1). I didn’t bother to check and I thought if I finished at 120#, that would be close enough. The reps were hard and I was struggling at the bottom, but managed to do all 6 sets with the following weights:

95#-100#-105#-110#-115#-120#

When I came back home, I looked back on my log and realized I had actually gone HEAVIER on the tempo than the last time. 15# heavier to be exact. No wonder I was struggling! I must have been on the Gainz Train or something! Maybe I was thinking of my recent PR (145#) and thought I’d be ok at 120# today! Oh well, more fitness in for me today!

Yes, Ryan! Whatever you want!

WOD: Gripper Ripper

I wasn’t quite sure how to tackle this one. I have been struggling with my American KBS at 35# lately and I’m not sure if it’s because I’m rebalancing my sciatic or what, but I keep losing my grip and the bell keeps flipping backwards. I also wanted to try the pull-ups with the blue band only (instead of blue and purple) so I discussed my issues with Coach Caleb and after he told me to slightly cock my wrists forward in the hold of the KB (while maintaining my arms straight), I decided to set-up with a 35# KB and a 26# one as a back up, in case I couldn’t manage the 35# for all 4 rounds. It was just me and 2 newer male members (that sounds wrong for some reason…)

3-2-1-Go!

I managed the first round of AKBS without any breaks and moved onto the rig for the pull-ups. The boys passed me very quickly as I was doing 2-3 at-a-time. It was slow and painful, but I got my 1st round done.

I went onto my 2nd round of AKBS and managed 4 before the bell flipped backwards on the 5th rep. I no-repped myself for that one, chalked up some more and made it for 5 more reps before I took another break. Once I regulated my breath, I picked up the KB and managed the remaining 8 swings left. Onto the rig again for the pull-ups. I think the boys were onto their 3rd and 4th rounds while I was in the middle of my 2nd. Still, I kept going with mostly 2 pull-ups before coming off the rig for a breather.

I chalked up well before starting my 3rd round and managed my goal of doing the KBS into splits of 9-8. I quickly (for me) moved onto the rig for the pull-ups and was trying to keep my sets of 2 alive, but I couldn’t keep it up. I had to break them into singles and that also when I realized I was well into my 1st hand tear into my “Crossfitter career”. That WOD was aptly named! I had a huge bubbling white blister in my right hand and I knew it wasn’t going to hold on for much longer. I kept going with my single reps and chalked up for the last round.

I’m pretty sure the boys were done by then and I was working solo. Again, I managed to do my AKBS into splits of 9-8 and I was super happy I had managed all 4 rounds with the 35#, with only 1 no-rep! I went onto the rig for my last set of pull-ups and did them all single. I was able to catch my breath faster in-between and Coach Caleb and Phil’s cheering helped me to finish them all. I got it done in 12:45. Much slower than everyone else, but I had kept up with the increased difficulty (for me, anyways) of the heavier KB and smaller bands for the pull-ups. All 3 of us got tears today, so I don’t feel too bad about it!

Once I was done, I put my equipment aways, wiped my KB and my spot on the rig of the blood and torn up skin I may have let behind, I then cut up the flap of skin that was hanging off my palm and (painfully) washed my hands. The skin is tender and it’s a decent rip, but with a little bit of Polysporin, it should heal in no time. I covered it after my shower, and although it feels fine at the moment, I will keep it covered for a bit in order to promote healing (as per this article in Tabata Times

It doesn’t look too bad, right?

I’m fairly confident I ripped up just the dead skin layer of my calluses and it will heal up quickly. Keeping my fingers crossed it does as I’m back to work Monday and I have a feeling that the antibacterial soap and hand sanitizer will zing furiously if it’s not completely healed by then! Oh well, we all go through it and it’s a rite of passage as a Crossfitter! Another first I can now tick off my list!

Progress Update and Goals

Since it’s my 1st post in the new year, I thought I’d share yet another progress update report as well as some goal for the upcoming year. I don’t do resolutions because I don’t believe in them, but goals, I can do!

What has the past 2 1/2 years of my life have looked like? Well, in numbers, it has looked like this:

 

Not much change in size and weight since my 1st Whole30, but the fact that I have maintained the progress for the past 6 months is something new for me. I have felt myself slip up from my healthy eating habits and have reeled myself back into them by doing a second round of Whole30 back in November-December and it has paid off.

In terms of what I look like now vs then, well, here it is:

My biceps have finally made an appearance and I can see a faint shadow of upper abs starting to shoe as well. The most dramatic changes remain my back and my butt and I have to say, I love all the ripples created by new muscles on my back. I may have lost “only” 11 lbs, but I know I’ve lost more fat that I have replaced with muscles and I’m very happy with where I’m at today!

In terms of goals, I have a few that I have rolled over from year to year, but the list is getting smaller now and I will focus on these 2 for a bit:

• Consistently managing at least 20 DUs in a row
• 10 TTB without getting off the rig

The Open is coming fast upon us and it’s made me realize that 2 1/2 year into my crazy fitness adventure, I shouldn’t be struggling with my DUs anymore. So I’m working on them and doing drills to prepare for the open. TTB are a consistent part of my warm-ups and my max so far is 3. Much better than 0 last year for the Open, if I do say so myself! 😉

This morning was back to school for the little ones and back to work for Ben, which meant back to the crazy morning rush of getting everybody ready and out the door in time, cleaning up the house and getting myself to Class for 0930. I was pretty excited because I saw this on the WOD website last night:

Source

I sure love me some deadlifts! Lol! I don’t know if I like deadlifting or squatting more, but those are definitely my favourite top two lifts! It shows too! I have added 80# to my back squat (from 65# to 145# last week) and 75# to my deadlift (from 85# to 160#) and 70# to my front squat (from 45# to 115#). This BabyMama’s got booty and apparently, I know how to use it!

Here’s what I did today:

Skill: Deadlift 5×5 E90s

I started at 120 and increased by 5# for every round, finishing up at 140#. Not too bad considering my 1RM deadlift is 160# (back in August 2014). I’d be curious to re-test this as I have a feeling I could maybe get heavier. 5 x 140# felt good today and it felt like I could have gone heavier on those as well.

WOD: Gritty

I was excited to see it was mostly bodyweight stuff for today, but I knew it would be a lot of work. I managed to do RX, but some people who were doing the Comp Prep still managed to beat my time. It’s all good though as I was cautious on the BJ and I managed to do all of them RX! I didn’t do any step ups. I also managed to do most of the burpees RX as well, with maybe 5-6 granny-style to catch my breath. I finished in 7:50 and I was pretty happy with that, even though that still puts me way after everyone else. After those heavy DL, my legs got sore fast and my plan of attack went out the window very quickly once I started the WOD. I really wanted to do all exercises with only a break in the middle point, but I had to take way more breaks than anticipated. It’s ok though, I’m ok with that.

I then talked to Coach Caileigh about the Open and what to do about registration. I know for a fact that I will have to miss one of the WODs because we have a planned vacation in a remote area for March break and I’m just not willing to drive for 3.5hrs in order to kill myself compete and drive back afterwards. So unless an affiliate miraculously opens up in that neck of the woods between now and February, I will score a big fat “0” for 16.4 and that is ok with me. It’s not like I’m going anywhere fast, but it’s always nice to keep track of progress!

In The Nick Of Time

Let’s be honest here. Why do we put ourselves through Crossfit if it’s not to improve our fitness?

For me, it has never been about me against others (ok, maybe a little bit of secret competition between me and others, but they don’t need to know! 😉 ), but mainly, a quest at getting stronger, both mentally and physically.

From the get-go, I have set goals for myself. One of them was to back squat my body weight. In the past few weeks, I have been so close to achieving this goal, but I was still 5lbs short. I knew I wanted to go in for the WOD this morning because our skill was back squats and it would be my last attempt for this goal for the year (my current deadline for this goal). I have set many goals throughout the year and just roll them over to the next year when they are not achieved. I stepped on the scale this morning just because I wanted to know which weight I needed to hit in order to make it happen. The scale read 144.8lbs. Alright! 145# would have to happen somehow today in order for me to make my goal happen.

Source

Skill: Back Squat 6×2 E90s

Coach Adrianna was coaching us today and I was super happy to get to see her before she leaves us for Seattle. Those Seattle people are so lucky to have her and they don’t even know it. I will miss her terribly and I was gonna take advantage of today to make the most of it. She told me to try to hit 140# on my 5th set and if I missed, I could always lower the weight on my bar for the 6th round. If I succeeded, then I was golden to try at 145# on the 6th round. Ben and the girls also came to cheer me on so that was good too! Marika was there and we were doing stupid shit throughout our warm-up, doing the Hullk pose similar to this:

 

all while grunting and saying stupid things like “Bro sesh!”

We warmed up individually and then we all set off for our sets, just as Mr Lucas Parker walked in. That’s right! He trains at our gym and I get to see him a lot, but I’m still way too intimidated to talk to him, so I go about my business as usual when he’s there.  I started at 120# and made 5# increments with each rounds. When I got to 135#, it started to get heavy. I was nervous about hitting 140# x2 because I had missed my 2nd rep just 17 days ago. I managed to pull through the two reps and got ready to attack 145#. I went down with the bar on my back and started to go up. I got stuck for what felt like an eternity. I was out of the bottom of the squat, but couldn’t straighten my legs anymore. CRAP! I really wanted to hit my goal this year and I didn’t want to let go of the bar! I kept the bar on my back, pulled on it with all my might and, somehow, managed to get out of the squat and get back out.

YYYYYYEEEEEESSSSSS!

I let out a huge victory scream as I had finally achieved the goal I had set for myself 2 weeks after my 1st Crossfit class!

I’ve never been prouder of a yellow star!

I tried to go for a 2nd rep, but I really couldn’t get out of the bottom and bailed out safely. Still though! I was so pumped! I have had this goal for 868 days (2 years, 4 months and 16 days, but who’s counting, really?!?) and I can finally put a check mark next to it, all on the last day of my target date! Nothing was gonna wipe the goofy smile off my face!

Kathleen walked in literally a minute too late to witness my feat, but she was still super pumped for me! As I was getting my stuff ready for the WOD, Lucas commented on my squat and said “That was a good lift!”

Seriously? Could this day get any better? Not only do I reach a massive goal, but Lucas Parker compliments me on it! Hell yeah! I thanked him and got my spot ready for the WOD.

WOD: You Lift Me Up

That was a tough one as you were supposed to go all out at max effort for 2 mins and use the built-in rest after. I was gonna try the FG with my bar at 65# for the thrusters and use the 35# KB. It was my 1st time doing thrusters at 65# outside the Open and I was struggling. I managed 24 reps (2 cycles) on the 1st round and 19 reps on the 2nd cycle. Coach Adrianna came by and switched my KB down for a 26# for the other 2 rounds. On my 3rd round, I managed another 24 reps and I was then able to do the AKBS without breaking them, but I was getting tired. The struggle became real on my last round when I couldn’t push the bar overhead for the thrusters and had to set it down. Most of my thruster reps were muscled overhead and that got exhausting really fast. I only managed 15 reps for that round before I slumped on the floor, tired, giggling with happiness and exhausted!

Sweat angel! I got junk in my trunk, but that butt helped me squat my body weight, so there!

I celebrated a little more with Marika, Adrianna, Kathleen, Ben and the girls before I got cleaned up a bit. I then met “new Adam” (a new coach at our Box) and he seems very friendly! We spoke French a bit as well since he’s from Ottawa! I then had to say goodbye to Coach Adrianna. She asked if she could hug me. I wasn’t even going to offer because I was afraid it would tip both of us into a puddle of tears. It felt like I could have hung on to her hug forever. She has been an amazing coach and supporter and her encouragements and tips haven’t gone into deaf ears. I will make sure to remember her advices and hopefully will go to visit her in Seattle sometime in the next 2 years.

We left the Box and got groceries, ran errands downtown, finished laundry at home and made dinner. My legs are shaking when I get on my tippy toes and for some weird reason, my right heel hurts. My traps are also sore from all those muscled thrusters and I can’t wait to sit with my hot water bottle, my blanket and my knitting in front of the TV. I’m not sure I’ll be up to ring in the new year as I can feel my body slowly shutting down from the adrenaline and excitement from today.

In all honesty, it’s been a very rough end of the year for reasons I won’t get into on the blog (what? I’m allowed some privacy, no?!? Lol!) and I certainly wish 2016 will get better for me. In any case, the only resolution I plan on making for the next year is to put myself and my needs at the top of my list, just below my children’s needs. I have proven to myself that I am strong and that when I have something in mind, nothing will get in the way of my determination. I will now apply that in my personal life as well. If people around me thought I was ruthless before, they ain’t seen nothin’ yet!

I’m currently holding on, but will hopefully soon relax and exhale…

May your celebrations of the end of 2015 be merry and safe. May your 2016 be bold, relentless and strong. I know mine will be because that’s what I want it to be.

Games Standing And Family Life

As promised earlier, here’s my standing in the Games. For some reason, every time I check my standing, it keeps changing. I don’t know why people are still allowed to enter/validate their scores, but I’ll keep with the standing I had as of earlier this morning (0900) for the purpose of this post:

Open 2015 standing

51760 out of 108,764 women worldwide places me in the top 55% (I was in the bottom 14% last year).

I also managed to place 1538 out of 2777 women on the Canada West division, which places me in the top  44% (I don’t have those stats from last year). Just to give you an idea of how strong my little Box is, I came in at 76/83 total registrants, placing me in the bottom 8% (I was in the bottom 6% last year). Now do you believe me when I tell you that I work out with fit/beastly people?!? Lol!

Looking back at those numbers, I’m pretty happy about my accomplishments on the worldwide front, that’s a huge improvement! I also noticed the number of women registered worldwide has more than doubled from last year (from 52550 to 108,764)! That’s insane!

I got up before dawn again for my Oly class. Here’s what we did:

For the Squat Snatch, if we failed a rep, we had to drop back to our last successful weight, which is why I dropped back to 50# since I had failed my 2nd rep at 55#. Overall though, it felt a lot smoother than it ever has before and the concept of pulling the bar while dropping underneath it is slowly coming around… if I don’t think about it too much! 😉

 

We had to start at 65% of our PR for our Power Clean and Jerk which meant 40# for me. I progressed with every round and finished at 65#. The Split Jerk comes naturally to me and I was working on really dropping lower under the bar. It felt good to do so and the reps felt strong throughout.

I came back home to walk Duke and was rewarded by this gorgeous sunrise once I reached the park:

Modern Day Rapunzel tower as the girls like to pretend when I take them with me! 😉

Once we came back home, I lounged in bed for a little bit with Ben and Rina and then she decided to blow raspberries on my belly. We were both laughing hysterically. Fart noises are funny at any age! 😉

Then it was onto breakfast, laundry and cleaning. The girls have been easily upset and a puddle of cries and tears all morning. So much so that I had to put both of them in their rooms with the doors closed in order for them to calm down. This BabyMama is very much looking forward to quiet time and nap time before I head in to work before my night shift!

 

 

Rest

Last night, I thought about going in to the Box for a workout… for about 3 mins. Then, I painfully made my way upstairs to go brush my teeth and considering it literally took me 2 minutes to make it up the 16 steps, I decided against. While I was brushing my teeth, I thought about doing this workout instead, the one with the burpees and the double under from stayfitmom.com once I was done with all my cooking and food prep for the week, then I had to sit down on my bed and since I did it the geriatric way (keep your legs straight as long as possible, then collapse onto said bed), I decided to just have a rest day today.

Rest should probably be in quotation marks however, since I was still up at 0630 to go on my walk with Duke. Although, 0630 is now considered “sleeping in” for this BabyMama who’s used to waking up at 0500 now. I quite enjoy those early walks with the pooch. Everything is still sleepy, there’s nobody at the reservoir, which means, I’m an outlaw and let him run off-leash. He likes it and it allows him to burn some energy as well. Here are a few shots I took as I was listening to the birds. I even heard (but couldn’t find) a woodpecker.

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I came back home, showered and helped out with breakfast before heading out to get groceries and work on my menu for the week:

Yummy food for the week

In the midst of all this food prep, I managed to go get Rina from school on time, avoid “accidents” in the house from both Béatrice and Duke and write this blog post. I only have to make the curry dressing for the salad and cook dinner and then, I’ll be ready to go back to work tomorrow.

A friend of mine sent me some pics she took of me during 15.5. Some of them are funny, others slightly embarrassing as they were taken during my meltdown. Although, the more I think about it, the more I feel like I shouldn’t be embarrassed about them. They show strength when I felt like quitting, relentlessness when faced with adversity and through it all, even when I was sobbing and tears were flowing down my cheeks, I managed to do every rep successfully, without ever getting a “No rep” from my judge. I showed the hubby last night and he said something pretty sweet.

You’re an entirely different person than who you were when you first started. It’s a pretty big transformation, babe.

Now, my husband is a man of few words and not someone I would qualify as romantic, but to me, that was the epitome of romance coming from him!

Below are the pictures, so you can see by yourself:

On the erg, at the beginning. Rowing at 5’1″ is never pleasant

“Deer stuck in headlights” look on my face as I just realized my original game plan will not work and I have so many reps of thrusters to do. I was on the round of 27…

Pushing through the pain on the round of 21

Meltdown in full force. The mind wants to quit way before the body does

Trying to get a grip on my emotions and finishing this one, once and for all.

Finally, a little comparison from a year ago to this year. Crazy how much straighter my back is (not so much of a “stripper butt” thing going on) and how much more relaxed my shoulders are, even in full effort! Progress is progress!

Fight The Suck

15.5 was announced on Thursday. Here’s what was awaiting me for the final Open 2015 workout:

My first reaction was:

Then, I saw the girls go through it (Sam, Annie and Camille) and I saw how the struggle was real for these phenomenal athletes and my confidence was slowly fading away. My initial goal was a sub 25:00 to finish. As time went on, I started thinking that a sub 30:00 would be great, then a sub 35:00 would be ok. Really, I just wanted to finish under my 14.5 score of 38:53. That would be my end goal for this one. I was getting scared beyond belief. I remembered how much 14.5 sucked and I knew 15.5 would probably be equally sucky.

I got up at 0630 to go walk the Duke and although it was early to get up for on a day off, it was nice. We walked up to the reservoir and since it was so early, there was nobody there and I was able to let him off leash so he could run to his little heart’s content! He still has the puppy run and trips over his legs, so I had a few good laughs with him.

We came back home, I showered and had a lazy breakfast. I was sure the class was starting at 0930 this morning, but I checked the website just to be safe. Good thing I did because class was starting in 30 mins (0900, not 0930). I gobbled the rest of my breakfast and got going. I paired up with Megan and she would go first and would judge me in the second heat. Megan did awesome and it was empowering yet intimidating to see her accomplish her goal for each rounds of thrusters.

Then it was my turn. My breakfast resurfaced in my throat and stayed there for the entire WOD. I got on the erg and was aiming at around 900cals/500m for that round. I managed to keep that up and moved onto the thrusters.

Wearing my “Two Peas In A WOD” tank with the hopes that Krista (my other pea) would somehow give me some of her strength.

I had set out a goal of 7-5-5-5-5 for the first round of thrusters. Yeah no. I dropped that goal quickly. I broke everything into rounds of 3 for all the rounds. Which made the suck last this much longer.

Already have my “hurt face” on… It was still early in the WOD as I’m still wearing my tank top…

Back to the erg for a row of 21cals. I managed to keep everything around 900cals/500m for that one as well and even though it was hard, I felt like this was my recovery. Onto the thrusters I went. I tried my best to do more than 3 reps in a row, but I just couldn’t keep it up. Rounds of 3 reps and I managed to squat clean my 1st rep on almost all rounds. And then, the WOD broke me. I was trying my best not to have an emotional breakdown, but the sobs just came out and the tears flowed out.

Back on the erg for 15 more calories. For the first 10 calories, I was just trying to control the sobs and my breathing.  I fought to keep my strokes above 800cals/500m. I kept thinking of my darling girls and how I was doing this so I can be a better mom for them. It was already hard enough, I needed to get my breathing back under control in order to keep going. I think I managed to do so before stepping off the erg and it took all my mental fortitude not to break down again as I made my way to the thrusters. I just wanted to rest and recover a little longer before going back to that damn bar. No such luck. I broke the 15 in sets of 3 again and there was one set where I just couldn’t get that bar on my shoulders. I dropped it back, got my breath under control, picked it up again and kept fighting for every rep. For the remainder of the Thrusters, I kept thinking about my mom, who fought through 2 bouts of breast cancer and chemo weekly for almost 8 months. The pain I was feeling was nothing compared to all the struggles she has gone through. I just needed to suck it up and keep going.

Pain. Plain and simple, all over my face. Also, abs are making their first appearance in over a decade. This is good!

Back to the erg for the final 9 calories-row. I tried to maintain my strokes above 750cals/500m. I just want more time to recover. I don’t want to go back to the thrusters. NO. MORE. THRUSTERS. PLEASE!

I broke them into sets of 3 again and finished dead last. Didn’t even care about my final time, I just broke down in tears, yet again. I literally left it all on the floor. Megan came by and told me I crushed my 30 mins goal. I looked up at my time on that little piece of paper and saw the magic number:

23:09.

I had done it and not only had I crushed my goal of finishing under my 14.5 time, I had also crushed my original goal of sub 25:00. Am I happy with my score? Yes and no. I really wish I hadn’t broken down like I did, but I still managed to push through and finished under my goal time.

Krista texted me just as I was finishing the WOD and she wanted to see my post-WOD face. Here’s the pic I sent her:

Not a pretty face, but then again, nothing was pretty about 15.5!

 

The 2015 Crossfit Open Games are now officially over for me. All I need now is to wait until next Tuesday to see where I finish up in the rankings. I hope I’ll finish better than last year but only time will tell.

The inside of my shorts. I don’t know that I destroyed 15.5, but I finished and that’s all I wanted in the end!

 

Poop Galore

*If you get offended by the word poop or a discussion about poop, you might want to skip reading this one*

Poop. Poop everywhere. Potty training Béatrice and a 5 month-old pup means you clean up a lot of poop and pee. Add to that your job field (NICU RN) and, sometimes, I feel like my days revolve around poop and pee. My patients often pee in their beds, which means having to change linens frequently. Béatrice poops and pees her pants on average once a day, which means hosing her down in the bathtub, rinsing out her clothes and cleaning up the tub. Duke has his good and bad days. Today isn’t a good one. I’ve had to clean 4 different spots on the carpet upstairs. Why can’t he do his business on the hardwood floor downstairs??? Bleh, I’m done with this sh**ty day.

I got up early to go do this:

Source

I had a chat with Coach Caleb about my progress. If you’ve been reading lately, I’ve been kind of doubting my progress and abilities to do certain things at the Box, mainly TTB and pull-ups. I feel like I should at least be able to do 1 rep of these unassisted, but I can’t so I’ve been feeling a bit defeated lately. After talking to Coach Caleb, he feels I’m doing good considering where I started from, the frequency of my attendance and where I’m at in my fat loss. He says I just need to work on double crunches, ring rows, push-ups and such and the TTB and pull-ups will come along as I develop more strength and, hopefully, lose more fat. That made me feel a little better about the whole thing, but it doesn’t mean I’m just going to sit back and relax, I’m going to try my best to put in the time and effort into these goals, I’ll just have to do it on my own, at the playground when I go with the girls. I can rarely stay after the WOD classes as I have to go straight home and help Ben out with the girls and our morning routine, so I’ll have to make it work somehow. Here are some goals I really want to work on for the next following months:

• unassisted pull-ups
• TTB
• unassisted pistol squats
• double unders
• HSPU Rx (without the use of yoga blocks)

Yeah, that will require a lot of work, but I am also very stubborn and determined, so unless there is poop to deal with, I will be working on these! 😉

Skill: Hang Power Snatch 6×3 E90S

I did those at 45# because I really wanted to concentrate on dropping below the bar more than I’m used to and keeping the bar close to my body. I think I managed ok. I felt like I was dropping lower under the bar and it made the lift a tiny bit easier, so I’d say it’s progress.

WOD: Calorow

I teamed up with Tracey and Linda for this one. They are serious Beasts when it comes to the erg. I knew I wouldn’t be able to keep up with them, but I set a personal goals to keep my average above 900 cals/500m throughout. I started strong with going close to 1100cals/500m, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sustain that for all rounds, so I dialled it back a bit on the 2nd round and managed to remain fairly consistent throughout the WOD. I dipped a few times below my goal of 900 cals, but always managed to pull back a little stronger and aim for my goal. We finished with a total of 294 cals in 18 minutes. I was a sweaty mess after that one and hurried on home to do my mom thing.

I have found this workout on the stayfitmom.com website and I plan on doing it sometime over the weekend.

Source

I’m not sure if I should attempt it on Friday after my last night shift or on Sunday, post 15.5… Do I try to do it Friday and risk being sore for Saturday, when I plan on doing 15.5? So many questions, so much strategy!

I also found this on Instagram and it made me laugh!

https://instagram.com/p/0qOEXvtDRF/

 

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go rescue my puppy who has been invaded!

Let’s see how many children and puppy we can fit in a medium crate!

Poor Duke has been invaded!

 

 

Compare And Contrast

I was so happy when 15.4 was announced last night. Obviously, not for the Rx category, but for the scaled one.

There was no way I was going to clean 125#, let alone do one unassisted HSPU. I was going to be able to do rounds of 10 Push Press @ 65# and 10 Cleans at 75#, though, so I was super happy with that. I knew that the cleans would be a lot harder than the push press, but I was ready for that.

Krista was also able to come join me this morning and it made the WOD that much more fun. I was glad she was able to meet a few of my Crossfit Family people 🙂

I went on first and I managed to do the first set of push press unbroken. Then it was onto the cleans. Ugh! They were hard, but I managed a full round. Back to the push press. I did 5, dropped the bar, then did 3 , rested the bar on my front rack position and did the next 2 in the same fashion.

I went back to the cleans and they were that much harder. Coach Caleb came by at one point and told me to use my glutes more, I was jerking it with my shoulders. That threw me off my game and I wasn’t able to lift the bar up to my chest. I put it back down, shook my arms out and went on to complete another round.

Back to the push press I went. They were definitely getting harder, but they were still easier than the cleans. I think I strung 5, then 2 then 3x singles (either resting the bar on my front rack position or dropping it on the floor). I had only 30 seconds left and managed to do 2 more cleans for a total of 52 reps.

I was then on to judge Krista. She pounded through it all. It was pretty amazing to watch her just keep going without ever dropping the bar (she has a mental blockage about dropping the bar and puts it nicely back on the floor). She looked so strong working through it and she crushed it with 72 reps. Yeah, she beat me alright! Lol!

I know I say I do Crossfit for myself and it’s to better myself, but it’s hard sometimes not to compare myself to others. Krista started Crossfit after me and she’s already mastering the unassisted pull-ups and the TTB. She also crushed my score today and she can probably lift heavier than me. At the same time, I can’t really compare myself to her. She has a background as an endurance athlete (she’s a runner and a triathlete) and she has years of training behind her belt. Yes, she may have beaten my score this morning, or overall in the Games, but at the same time, I’m not too far behind and, to me, THAT is an achievement in itself. To be so close to such an accomplished athlete when I was the biggest couch potato two years ago isn’t so bad in itself. It’s all about perspective and remaining positive in your outlook, really!

I came back home to a super energetic Duke, so I took him for our morning walk.

Just in time to catch the first sun rays of the day

I’m currently reading a book about training him for certain commands and so far, it’s going well. He has also started asking for the door when he needs to go outside, which makes life a little easier on me.

I showered and took this pic because I thought I looked decent for a 37 year-old mom who does Crossfit! 😉 Oh yeah, I celebrated my birthday earlier this week. It wasn’t anything to write home about: I was working a night shift on the day before and the day of my birthday, which meant I turned 37 at work, came back home to sleep and work the rest of my birthday. My co-workers were nice and threw me a potluck dinner of yummy food, so that made up for it!

A few grey hairs, but 37 ain’t so bad, except for the bruised collarbone! #cleans

Prove Your Fitness

“Prove your fitness” is the slogan for the 2015 Crossfit Games. Since the Open has started, I haven’t really thought about how this has applied to me because:

1. I have done 2 of the 3 WODs scaled
2. The only Rx WOD I have attempted (15.2), I only got 10 reps (the OHS).

So yeah, not really proving anything there! I did, however, prove some fitness this morning for the team WOD. I also proved I can accomplish almost anything even when suffering from sleep deprivation. Béatrice was up to no good again last night and she kept me up until 0130. That made for a long day considering I had been up since 0500 and had to get back up at 0530. I get up early, go walk Duke for 30 minutes, feed him and then go about my normal routine. So far, it’s working great. If I need to leave the house, I put him back in his crate until Ben gets him out. The lucky dog got breakfast twice this morning… We are all adjusting to our new routine and Ben didn’t know I fed him before leaving for Crossfit, so he fed him again! 😉

Alright, back to proving my fitness:

Source

WOD: Pull Popper

I teamed up with Megan and Tayna for this one and we all did a version of TG+. We all had different bar weight to start with on the hang power snatch, but I started mine at 40# and stayed there for the entire WOD. We all did 4 rounds of:

• 150m row
• 10x hang power snatch (40#)
• 5 bar hop burpees
• 150m row

I volunteered to go first and I gave too much too fast on my 1st row, with a pace close to 1:59 (way fast for this tiny turtle). I was gassed for the hang power snatches and 40# felt real heavy, real quick. The burpees were fluid and I managed to do them all throughout without ever resorting to “granny” burpees. I went back to the erg and keep a pace closer to 2:06, more reasonable, but still a sprint for me.

2nd round came about and I did kept my first row close to 2:05. My new goal was to keep my first row pace somewhere 2:05-2:10 go do the hang power snatched and burpees, come back to the erg and keep my second pace around 2:10-2:15. It worked. I was able to maintain those paces and somewhat pick up the speed on the 3rd round of hang power snatches and burpees. I love how fluid the burpees felt today, no struggle at all. I felt strong doing them, mind you, it was only 5, so maybe that’s why. I was pooped when I was done with my fourth round and was glad I only had to cheer my partners now that I was done! We finished with a team total of 36:24. My throat was dry and sore for breathing so heavy and no amount of water helped 😦 Had I just experience my first Firebreather moment? I looked it up online and here’s what I found:

Firebreather – Fie-r’-brë-th-er: (n) 1. One who faces the triumphs and tribulations of great physical opposition with an indomitable spirit. 2. An optimistic energy associated with the heart of an athlete. In the modern fitness culture, every athlete yearns for the day they will be referred to by their athletic capacity as a Firebreather. However, as the definition implies, the term “Firebreather” is representative of both body, mind and spirit. Any athlete who strives valiantly during exercise while displaying an indomitable spirit is walking the path of a true Firebreather. (Source)

Come to think of it, I may have been a Firebreather all along without my knowledge. I sure never quit during a workout and I try to remain positive through the tough ones… Learn something new everyday!

I cam back home, helped the girls get ready for gymnastics, enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee before I tackled the “pre-night shift cleaning and laundry” tasks. Duke was sad when the crew left fro gymnastics:

I was almost done with the cleaning when they all came back and then I took everyone for a walk to to the grocery store to get us some lunch. I could tell everyone was tired and Béatrice has been sleeping ever since I put her down for nap. Rina hasn’t, but she is playing quietly upstairs. Duke, is catching some weed deserved Zzzs.

I think everybody is slowly falling into their new routine with the dog being our newest addition to the household and Béatrice is slightly less neurotic today about the dog being in the house… Slightly is the key word. I am hoping everybody goes back to normal within reasonable delays and we all learn to live as a united family with a dog very soon!

 

 

Their Balls Are Bigger Than Ours…

…wallballs that is!

I got to sleep in this morning because I was meeting up with Krista to go throw down at Keating Crossfit. Since she is working a night shift tonight, she wanted to do a later class so we decided upon the 0730 class. I was there early and warmed up a bit on my own before Krista arrived. I signed up the waiver and then we did a general warm-up. Once we were warmed, Coach Brent said he was ready when I was. I tried a few wallballs with their balls because I had never used balls like these before to do wall balls. They use the “wall ball” whether we use something more similar to a medicine ball. Here’s the difference:

Med ball

Wall ball

 

I have to say, the wall ball is a lot more forgiving when you smack it on your chest. I can’t say for sure how it feels like when you smash your face with it because I managed to avoid doing that today. Maybe it felt more forgiving because it was 10# instead of the 14# I’m now used to using, but I still needed to get used to it. Once I did a few reps, I felt like I was good to go. I had brought my own rope so I knew I was good in that department as well. There was no way I was going to even attempt Rx, so Scaled division was what I was aiming for. My goal was to finish two rounds.

I got started on the wall balls. I managed 8, then I tried for 7, but decided on breaking my rounds into 5 reps, as much as I could. My technique wasn’t the greatest and I kept catching the ball, stopping, then dropping into the squat. That was a poor strategy and I wasted a lot of energy doing that. I got my 50 reps in and moved onto the 200 single skips. I was trying my best to get to 100, then rest, then do 100 again. I managed pretty close to that, with only a few tripping in my own feet.

Back to the wallballs. I broke all my reps into 5’s again and this time around, I was much more efficient at catching the ball into a squat. I got a few no-reps, but I just kept pushing through.

Back to the single skips. I was trying to speed up a bit, but it only made me trip on my feet more frequently so I slowed down my pace for more accurate reps.

I got back to the wallballs and managed 12 more reps before time was called.

Total reps: 512 (2 full rounds + 12 wallballs) Goal surpassed!

For once, I kind of felt good doing wallballs today. Don’t get me wrong, they are still my most disliked move so far, but I didn’t feel too defeated doing them. Must have been because of the lighter weight!

Wallballs: short people’s nemesis!

Then it was time for Krista aka Power House aka Little K. That girl is a machine. She does triathlons and I knew she had the lungs for this one and I was sure she would beat my score easily. She totally did too! Here she is in action:

Fully extended for the reach!

Squatting below parallel in the catch

Breathing through the skipping

She did amazing with a score of 535!

sweaty short people unite!

Once we were done, we cooled down and discussed wallball technique (I gave her a few tips) and worked on our kip for the pull ups. It was nice because I usually don’t have time to stay behind and work on anything once I’m done, I usually have to rush home to Ben and the girls. I also gave her some pointers for her DUs and she worked on that for a little bit. Now that she knows my tricks, Krista has texted me that she may attempt 15.3 again on Monday. I won’t

I swung by the grocery store to get what I was missing to make these Crab Cakes and this Zucchini Chocolate Bread, had a quick shower and made myself a hearty breakfast! Now that I’m done with this post, I will get my cooking going! Keeping in mind with the secret I mentioned yesterday, we have a fun afternoon planned and, hopefully, I will be able to divulge my little secret antic back here soon! In the meantime, I hope you enjoy your weekend, I get to spend mine with my husband and my kids, a rare event lately!