Snatch-Limited

Today was another fun one at the Box. I walked in apprehending the work, but other than the last 2 rounds, it was right up my alley. I was reminded once again that I need to work on my snatches, but I feel like I have to start from the beginning. Let me explain:

Warm-up: I was happy I was able to get through this one without any leakage in my pants. Could it be that the days of urinary leakage are finally behind me?

WOD: Metabolic HEAT

This one looked daunting when I peaked at it online last night, but I was determined to give it a go. I was thinking of using 55# for the snatches, but I quickly realized I would struggle enough with 45#. I was also using 4×45# plates as a box in order to really work on not jutting out my hips when I step down.  It feels like I’m starting to control my step-down better, but when it comes to the snatch, I am back to square one. I have to relearn how to squat using my deep abdominals and controlling how low I allow myself to get at the bottom of the squat. In order to do that, I did a few rounds of the WOD using the MedBall as a guide for the depth of my squat. It’s hard to correct something that you have been doing wrong from the beginning and even more so to keep my internal ab muscles contracted when my legs are open at the bottom of the squat. And for all those reasons, I decided to stay at 45# and work on form instead of weight. It made for a fairly easy WOD (we were to use the same bar throughout), but, again, I focused on form and re-learning my snatch, squat and box jumps. I’m still weak in the stepping-down of the BJ, but I met with my physic again today and we’re working on that. It is pretty much a return to the basics for me in all of the lifts, but at least, I’ll do them right this time around.

I got sweaty on round 3 and the last 2 rounds were horrible for the snatches as I just couldn’t drop below my bar fast enough anymore, but I was glad I went and got to work on technique!

On the home front, Ben just got over a bout of food poisoning that kept him in bed, sleeping for 30hrs. Must be nice! When I get sick, I still have to keep up with the house and the kids! Women are the weaker sex my butt! 😉

Our basement is slowly getting dried up from the flood we had 2 weeks ago, then they’ll start the rebuilding and replacing what needs to be replaced. The fans and dehumidifier are going on full blast 24/7 and it’s driving me bananas. I can only imagine the noise level for our tenants who have decided to stay in the chaos for now! They are troopers! I’d be out of there in a heartbeat!

 

Random Béatrice 

For those who know her, you also know that Béatrice can be a little space cadet and random at times.

Today will go down in my little life as one of the shittiest. Let’s see why:

Basement that flooded last Thursday was finally dry, until water started coming in again
I got rear-ended on my way to work by somebody who had expired insurance and registrations. I’m fine, my bumper has a little scratch, we’ll live.
I had to go to work, then pick up Béatrice, rush home, go to physio, go shopping for birthday presents and Christmas, rush back home and decide if I was going to take the girls to Crossfit. I really wasn’t in he mood, but I know Rina would enjoy it so I sucked it up and we went.
It’s been crazy with wind and rain all day and all I’ve wanted to do was curl up on the couch with my hot water bottle and my knitting. Unfortunately, I still have to clean the kitchen, fold the laundry and the girls aren’t even close to being in bed.

As I head upstairs for a quick bath, BeZU calls out to me

Béatrice: Mom!… Mom?… MOM!

Me: (exhausted and a little annoyed) Yeah buddy?

Béatrice: I love you Mom!

Well done, clever girl, well done!

Pushing The Envelope

Well, actually, I’ve been pushing weights, more than an envelope, but you get my gist, right?

After a restful night of sleep where NOBODY woke up in the middle of the night (Whoot! Whoot!), I woke up at 0500 again for the Oly class.

I wasn’t sure I was gonna make it there as my gas light turned on, on my way to the Box, but I managed to make it and there’s a gas station across the street so my plan was to fill up after class. Worst comes to worst, I knew I would be able to push my car to the station! 😉 BAM!

Today marked my 8th training session in 14 days. I’ve never trained this much in my life! It’s my last week before my month-long vacation comes to an end and my plan was to squeeze as many workouts as I can before I go back to my usual 2-3 sessions/week. I am definitely starting to feel it though and combined with it being my 1st week back on the Whole30 and all the cloudy/rainy weather we’ve had this week, all I want to do is sleep. Unfortunately, I have 2 cuties that have other plans for me:

Every time I tried to nap on the couch, they would come bother me!

Every time I tried to nap on the couch, they would come bother me!

Who needs sleep, right?

Anyway, back to Oly class, here’s what we did today:

Photo 2015-09-03, 5 46 42 AM

I wonder if those Forehead Jerks made me look as stupid as they made me feel??? Those were weird!

C&J EMOM X10 @85%

That meant 76.5# for me. Coach Caleb told me I had soft elbows on my jerk during my warm-up to that weight, but apparently, I corrected once I reached my target weight. Maybe I just needed more weight in order to really lock my elbows? I was trying not to pause between the clean and the jerk all while keeping the lift smooth and I was tired by rep 7. I started to take a few breaths in the transition and I was glad when we were done.

OHS 6×2 E3M

I teamed up with Linda who saved my hair crisis this morning. You know the drill: you go to put your hair up and your elastic just breaks in your hand and you realize you don’t have a spare one? Well, Linda gave me one of hers and my life was perfect again! So, we teamed up together and we started low (I’m not strong and Linda is recovering from a back injury.

I knew I could do 65# since I had done that weight for 15.2 during the Open. Looking back, I should have aimed for 70# or 75#, but I’m sore everywhere and my wrists have taken a huge hit with all the freakin’ cleaning I’ve been doing lately. Here were my reps:

40#-45#-50#-55#-60#-65#

My wrists were hurting on the last set, but I felt stable in my core and getting out of the bottom of the squat felt relatively easy. Oh well, my previous number for OHS was 6×3 @60# so I think that’s a new PR for me. I’m amazed I can still have PRs this week as I’m feeling so sore everywhere! I can’t wait for my massage Friday!

I came back home and did some laundry with the hubs (OK, he did most of the laundry while I cleaned and vacuumed the upstairs).

Look Mom! I'm hiding!

Look Mom! I’m hiding! (Typical Béa on laundry day)

I also did some food prep for the Whole30 since I had nothing but eggs and avocados left (I had thawed some chicken thighs and ground turkey) and I feel better now that I have healthy options in the house.

I managed to close my eyes for about 10 minutes after lunch and I tried to cuddle to the girls on the couch while they watched Frozen (I may have turned the TV on with hopes of napping next to them. Don’t judge!) but they kept poking me, pulling my hair and staring at me. Major fail, but we still watched the movie! 😉

I just have to make it through tomorrow’s class and possibly a last training session with Kathleen on Sunday and then I can go back to slacking off my regular training/work schedule.

 

From Rhino To Rabbit

I went to bed early and had a hard time falling asleep last night. I was then woken up at 2330 by our new tenants moving in. SERIOUSLY!!! I was up until 0130, reading in bed and had just fallen back asleep when the husband walked into the bedroom. No way was he reading in bed, I’d had enough already!

I got woken up again at 0330 by people scavenging the recycling bins that were left out for pickup today (yes, that’s a thing in Victoria, people look for “empties” in other people’s recycling, and they don’t do so quietly).

My alarm went off at 0500 and my first thought was: “Oh, Hell no!” I got up anyway and got ready for some hard work.

It's dark outside at 0540!

It’s dark outside at 0540, but Man, do I love this place!

 

 

Skill: 3RM Strick Press

Before the 12 mins were on the clock, we were only allowed to warm up with an empty bar. Once the 12 minutes started, my strategy was to go E2M and increase by 5# every set. My previous 3RM was 62# and my goal was 65#. I teamed up with Telsey and we got going.

40#-45#-50#-55#-60#-65#

My last rep at 65# was probably the wonkiest, ugliest rep, but I got the bar up and that was a new 3# PR for me! I had my doubts that I would be able to do it, but I pushed through (literally) and was super happy to get the bar overhead!

Telsey managed 1 rep at 65# and she totally had the 2nd one as well, but I think her head said no. We dropped the weight down to 62# and she managed 3 reps! She will be passing me in no time, she’s so strong!

WOD: Run to the Bar

I did the FG for this one and set my heart out on 5 rounds of:

  • 400m run
  • 20 lunges
  • 10 double crunches

It was chilly this morning and my hip flexors were screaming at me on the 1st run (from the squats on Monday) so I took it easy and made sure to warm-up before I pushed it on the runs. The lunges didn’t help, but I felt good during the double crunches.

Rounds 1 and 2 were uneventful. I felt gassed on round 3. Coach Caleb told me not to pause the lunges and, whaddyaknow, I could do them with a full extension at the top without pausing! I made up some time by doing that! Thanks Coach!

On round 4, Tracey passed me during the run and as she did so, she said: “It’s getting harder and harder to catch up to you!” Uhm, I couldn’t speak (Come on, I was barely breathing and was really focusing on keeping Pukie the Clown at bay during this round), but I was determined to become the fastest rabbit she’d ever have to chase. I finished round 4 and set out on my last round.

Instead of picturing myself as  rhino charging out, I kept reminding myself of Kathleen’s cues: Lengthen the stride, stay loose and bend a bit forward. It was hard on the uphill, but Tracey didn’t catch up to me so that was something to me. Mind you, Tracey is a beast and she was doing the Comp Prep version (aka athlete version) while I was scaling it, but still, a goal is a goal!

I came back inside to finish up my lunges and my double crunches and clocked in at 21:01. Not too far behind all the Rxs and the Comp Prep, so I know I worked hard!

Hopefully, I’ll get a nap at some point today, because, guess what? There’s more cleaning to do upstairs! Ugh!

Get Your Sweat On!

After yesterday’s workout at Kathleen’s, I felt super energized and ready to take on anything this morning. I was pleased when I saw this:

 

Skill: Back squat 3×10 E2M

I paired up with Telsey and Jen and truly didn’t know what to tackle for weight for these. I did 85#-90#-95#. The last round felt challenging, but I think I could have done 100#. Dang! Next time!

WOD: Escape the Trap

That was a fun team WOD and I remained paired up with Telsey and Jen. Because there were so many of us we had to start the WOD with the burpee BJ. I started our trio off by doing 8 true to form, then I did step-ups. At some point, I resorted to granny-style burpees, but picked it back up again. Second round was fairly similar, except we were taking a long time and Coach Caleb told us to go to the Trap DL part of the WOD after our second round and to come back to the burpee BJ afterwards if we still had time.

We were using 75# for the trap DL and that was way too light. I was even able to trot carrying the bar across the gym, so next time, I should go up to 85-90#. Once we were done with the Trap DL, Jen had to leave to get home in time for her hubby to get to work, and Telsey was getting close to her cutoff time as well so she did her 3rd round of burpee BJ and I took it upon myself to finish the last 30 reps (my 15 and Jen’s 15). It was slow, but I tried to keep things moving as best I could and we finished with a time of 23:06. I was pouring sweat from everywhere and even my hair was dripping.

Sweaty deer stuck in headlights. "What the heck just happened to me?!?"

Sweaty deer stuck in headlights. “What the heck just happened to me?!?”

I came back home and had an interesting text exchange with Kath about where I’m at as a Crossfitter.  I feel that even though I still scale pretty much every WOD, I’m definitely out of the “newbie” category, but I’m still worlds away from the true athletes. Which makes partnering with people difficult at times. I love hanging out with new people because I was just there not so long ago, so I understand the struggle. At the same time, I think sometimes it would be worth it to challenge myself and team up with people I consider “beasts”. At the same time, I also would feel very bad if I slowed them down.

The mental struggle is real, I tell ya!

Once I had showered and refuelled with breakfast, I realized I had forgotten to clean the inside of my freezer and fridge last week, during the Deep House Cleaning, so I got right on that. Then, our tenants finally moved out and it was time to start cleaning the suite after they left. We still have a little bit to do tomorrow morning before the new tenants move in, but overall it went well. Except when I broke the telescopic mop. I was vigorously cleaning the ceilings (I was also amazed at how people can get ceilings so dirty, but I digress) and the silly thing broke in two.

I broke that thing like a twig!

I broke that thing like a twig!

I had no time to fiddle with that kind of crap, so I took my step-stool (midgets unite!) and got scrubbing with the old rag-and-cleaner method! 6hrs later, we have the bathroom left, vacuuming and mopping the kitchen floor as well as priming the holes that have been patched and painting the walls.

Yeah, not how I had anticipated my day or my last week off before heading back into work. Hopefully, I can still manage to book myself a massage. I’m pretty sure if Crossfit came out with a WOD involving having to wash walls, windows and vacuum, I would RX the crap out of that! Ugh! One last cleaning boom to do tomorrow and then I should be done for at least 24hrs!

Yeah right, one can only wish!

I’m A Crossfitter

Kathleen is in the process of moving to her new mansion house and she has been wanting to inaugurate Jim’s Gym V2.0 so we all got together today for some special workout she had come up with.

I drove up to her new place and couldn’t help from swearing to myself as I pulled up the her new place. IT IS MASSIVE! Massive and gorgeous and she will have a library and I can’t wait to see it when it’s all done and it has an awesome gym space as well. Even bigger than her previous one. I told her I’d like to move in. She laughed. I don’t think she understood I was being serious! 😉

There were 4 of us today and  I got to meet Lisa (Kath’s friend) and Keith (Kath’s brother). Lisa joined us a little late as she had a previous engagement and when I introduced myself to her, she asked if I knew Kath from Crossfit. Keith’s answer was: “Of course she does, she has the same shoulders as Kath. Crossfire shoulders.” I never thought of myself as having a “Crossfitter’s body shape”, but apparently, I have the shoulders of one and I totally took that as a compliment! Before Lisa showed up, Kath, Keith and I warmed up with this:

Warm-up!

Warm-up!

I can’t remember which weight I did for the KB hold, I think it was 26# in each hand. That was brutal enough for me, especially on the last round. I was having a hard time catching my breath from the erg and my arms were shaking while Keith rowed his last round. I managed to keep my rowing around 2:02-2:04 for each rounds and I was happy with that.

Once we were all warmed-up, we got into two teams (Keith and Lisa, Kathleen and myself) and went through the workout and strategized as to how to break it down. Kath and I decided to split the group work into 10 reps each, but we broke away from the original plan a bit as we went along.

Kath's masterplan!

Kath’s masterplan!

We set up outside of the garage and it was nice to workout in the last sun of the summer!

3-2-1-GO! Everybody took off running with Kath and Lisa literally gunning it. Keith was in the middle and I was bringing up the rear. Kath go back in first and because there was only 1 box to do BJ, she got dibs on it and the other team had to start on the KBS (we all did Russians). Kath did 15 BJs, I did 15 BJs, then she did 11 and I followed suit and she finished off the rest before we moved onto RKBS where we broke them off in sets of 15 (I was using 35#).

For the carries, I sandbagged it down to 26# because I couldn’t do the overhead carry with 35#. We each did 3 rounds and competition was kicking in with Keith and myself doing a little trot at some point to try to gain distance on the other team.

Kath and Lisa, doing some carries

Kath and Lisa, doing some carries. Do you see how gorgeous it is to workout in that scenery?

Kath and I finished the carries first and I hopped onto the assault bike first (after we fiddled with the seat height, me being the shorty that I am, had to drop it down to 2, while Kath had to crank it back up to 8)! We each did 0.6 on the assault bike and moved onto the GTO with the plates (I used 25#, maybe next time I’ll try 35#?)

We then set off for the last 400m run and Kath stayed behind, but I told her I had this and wanted to run by myself. Keith and Lisa had the crappy part seeing as there was only 1 assault bike, they had to start with the GTO plates, THEN do the assault bike, THEN go straight into the last run. With Keith being the last one on the bike, I really felt for him as he had no rest at all between the bike and the run. I went back out with him to help him finish up his run and he totally sprinted the last part! Well done!

I think Kath and mine’s time was around 23:51 and Keith and Lisa was 24:32 if I remember properly. It was fun! I got sweaty for the 5th time this week and it felt good.

Keith and I stayed in the garage and discussed the Whole30 for a bit (I’m starting a second round of it on September 1st) and he seemed intrigued! I will share some of my knowledge with him!

I came back home to an empty house, received a text from Ben that they were at the pool and went back out to meet up with them. It was a nice way to relax after a sweat fest and I even enjoyed some of the sprinklers in the kids’ pool on my Crossfitter’s shoulders! 😉

As we normally come home after the pool for dinner and the girls’ bedtime, I had only packed my PJs to wear afterwards (sweat pants and a tank top. This is something we normally do as it’s easier to just get the girls in their PJs at the pool, instead of having to change them back once home). Ben had other plans though and we ended up going out for dinner, me in my sweats and all! Super classy!!! Oh well, I didn’t care (too much)!

We are now back home, relaxing on the couch and the girls are already in bed. I think the pool tuckered them out and I will follow suit soon as I have Crossfit in the morning, followed by our suite inspection (our tenants are moving out) and I’m fairly sure I’ll have some cleaning to do in the suit before our new tenants move in! Yay! More cleaning, said no one ever!

Grace

I got up at 0500 for the 3rd day in a row and got ready to hit the Box for this:

 

Dark and wet

Dark and wet

It was raining for the 1st day in about 3 months this morning and I’ve been noticing how dark it is already when I get up for the 0600 class. Back to fall weather soon, I guess.

 

WOD: I warmed up with 55#, then moved on to 65# as suggested by Tracey and Coach Caleb. I had a plan of breaking my reps into sets of 3 for the first 15, then do single reps. I got to 15 according to my plan and I still felt good so I kept going with sets of 3. I figured I would keep it up until I felt unable to do so, but it turns out I finished all 30 reps broken into sets of 3. According to Mark, I looked strong doing it too. Does that mean I sandbagged this one? Should I have gone with 75# instead? I’m not sure. Coach Caleb was very adamant that we make sure our form was perfect the whole way through and I apparently managed to do just that. I wasn’t last to finish, I think I finished in the middle or towards the end of the pack, so maybe my scaling was on point? I’m not sure. I’m so used to scaling and finishing last that I feel like maybe I screwed up when I’m not last and maybe I didn’t work hard enough. Maybe I should see it as myself getting stronger instead? I’m not sure how to analyze this, but at least, I now have a benchmark for Grace and it gives me something to go from here on out.

I paired up with Neil aka Boy and we did our 5 rounds of the Skill #2. That ab wheel was something new and it hurt my wrists for some reason.

lifeline-powerwheel

Strap your feet in and bring your knees into a tuck or pike

I only managed to string 10 DUs once. The rest of my reps were singles upwards of 4 in-a-row. Not my best performance, but today is my 4th day of Crossfit this week and I feel beat up. I was pouring sweat after the Skill #2 and I came back home, dreading having to attempt the entire house cleaning for yet another day this week.

Walking into the house, I noticed our black “leather” couch had been decorated with gold Sharpie… I hopped back into my car and drove to the only grocery store open to get a Magic Eraser. Some of the disaster has disappeared, but not all of it. Ben thinks if we draw over it with a dry-erase marker and then wipe that down, it will lift off the Sharpie as well. We’ll try that later. That’s one of the reason I didn’t want to get a real leather couch just yet… I knew it would get ruined at some point by the girls, I just didn’t think it would happen 8 months after getting our couch! 😦 Ugh!

Ben and Nanny have agreed on a plan in order to help keep me sane today: Ben will take the girls out of the house and Nanny will help me (hopefully) finish cleaning the main floor. This way, the girls have a better chance of staying alive to see another day and Nanny and I will power through the cleaning.

She looks all innocent wrapped up in my blanket, but son't get fooled by appearances. She's the gold Sharpie culprit

She looks all innocent wrapped up in my blanket, but don’t get fooled by appearances… She’s the gold Sharpie culprit and is grounded for today!

Apprehension

I looked up the WOD last night and was uneasy about the entire thing: from the warm-up to the WOD.

 

Ever since I came back from Cuba, I’ve been feeling off my game (jet lag or just vacation mode?) at the gym and it doesn’t help that my calluses have been exfoliated down to nothing by the sand and ocean. Crossfire problems, I know!

I had looked up the warm-up and thought to myself: Geez, even that looks like a tough one. Yet, when I did it, it went way better than anticipated. I was really focusing on keeping the bar close to my thighs on the DL and keeping it close to my body on the power clean. I was afraid of landing the bar on my lovely bruise from the dropped bar on Monday (it’s nice and tender and turning a nice shade of brown/green), but it turns out I was landing the bar in a higher front rack, closer to my collar bone so I was good and never hit the bruise.

Skill: I teamed up with Tracey for the skill and she was beasting it at 140# for the entire 10 reps. I couldn’t remember what my 1RM was so I looked up my previous 10×1 EMOM and decided to go above that, which brought me to 110#. Turns out that was 96% of my 1RM and Coach Caleb had said to work up to 85-90% of our 1RM. Whoops! I managed all 10 reps fairly well, I just have to watch the dip on the up part. I was super nervous about the front squats because of the last time I had attempted them , my quad had seized up on me. Turns out I was fine and my sciatic didn’t even bother me.

WOD: I thought I had done Half Cindy before, but it turns out I had done different variations of Cindy, just not Half Cindy. I really wanted to try to do the pull-ups with the red band only, but had to add the purple band as well on my first round and I was upset at wasting time to do that. I really tried to not waste anymore time in-between each different exercises and would try to do a few reps before resting. My aim was to keep my elbows close to my body for the HRPU and  I also really tried to hustle on the front squats. I managed to finish 6 full rounds + 1 pull-up for a total of 181 reps. I don’t know how to compare that since it was my 1st time doing this WOD. Coach Caleb said that 10 rounds was good, so I’ll assume that 6+1 was somewhat ok for me.

Overall, the entire workout was much better than I had anticipated and I felt like I had my energy back. Hopefully I can keep it up today and really give a big push on the house cleaning. I’m so fed up with it and am now on the main floor, i.e.: kitchen, living room, dining room and half-bath. Not looking forward to cleaning all the kitchen shelves and behind the fridge 😦

 

WallBalls… ‘Nough Said!

Béatrice has fallen back into her old patterns of waking up in the middle of the night and it’s taken its toll on this Mama… My alarm woke me up at 0500 for this:

190c173bbe188425fc6132e3c1c76f56

Albert said it best!

 

Skill: Those we new today and it was fun to learn new technique. I teamed up with Marika, Tracey and Telsey and we got to learn the different techniques. We worked up to about 105# for the trap bar and that was enough for me. As for the axle bar, I think Telsey and I were working with around 60# and my grip was definitely challenged with this weight, even with a reverse grip.

WOD: Money Ball

The last time I had done this one was back in December 2013 and I had scaled it with 10# wall balls. Today was my first attempt RX and I teamed up with Telsey. I had forgotten that 14# wallballs were RX for women and I thought I was still scaling it down. Telsey stuck with the 14# ball even though she had been off for 6 weeks for an ankle issue. I realized mid-WOD that we were both doing RX and the rowing was killing me slowly. I tried to break down the wallballs in sets of 5, but the erg was just sucking the life out of me. My pace was beyond crap and I was hanging on to the handle for dear life.

Telsey had to drop the erg on the second go at it because her ankle was bugging her too much and she switched to the Airdyne and pushed through the wallballs. She managed to finish her last stint on the Airdyne, but had to leave, so Tracey was kind enough to finish the wallballs (unbroken, such a BAM!!!) after I was done with mine.

Overall time: 25:43 RX! Pretty happy to add another RX next to that one because that means a new PR for me!

I came back home and kept going with the deep cleaning of the house. I finished the upstairs as well as the staircase and Nanny was nice enough to help me sort out the girls’ crap toys while they were in their quiet time upstairs. 1 full garbage bag of crap was pulled out and will be going to the dump (toys that are useless to other kids, missing parts, broken, etc…) and we can now close the lids of the window boxes. On the books for tomorrow, vacuuming downstairs and then, resting a bit before tackling the downstairs! I’m pretty optimist that I will manage to clean the entire house before I head back to work!

Mentally Gone

I had a long weird day at work yesterday and I was hoping a good night’s sleep would set my head straight, but it didn’t. Maybe I am still jet lagged or maybe I’m still just on vacation mode. Who knows?

What I do know is that I woke up bracing to face Fran.

You know you are struggling in the warm-up when you try jumping pull-ups from a 35# plate and Coach AJ come by and adds a 45# plate under your feet. I’m vertically challenged and the struggle for pull-ups is real! #truestory

Skill: Power clean 6×3 E90s

Originally, I was gonna aim for 85# on my 6th set. Even though I was a bit tired, I figured, maybe I could go for 90#? I managed my first 2 reps beautifully with maybe a slight early elbow bend in the pull (according to Coach AJ) and I was getting tired. I didn’t dip low enough to catch the bar in the proper position and I landed it on my boobs, instead of on my collar bone. Needless to say it knocked the wind out of me and I dropped the bar then and there. I was working on catching my breath and stopping the dizziness that had begun when Coach AJ came to check up on me. I didn’t try again and got my stuff ready for Fran. I also realized that 90# used to be my 1RM and I had done 2 successfully before failing my 3rd rep… Food for thought.

WOD: Fran

I was tempted to try my pull-ups with the red band only, but then thought better and added the purple one as well. I also toyed with the idea (for a very brief time) of trying the thrusters at 65#, but then revised that down to 55#. I was already tired and dropped one bar today. No need to try to repeat that a second time around.

I’m not quite sure what happened to me, but I clocked out mentally during the WOD. I don’t go into negative self-talk, I don’t repeat my mantra (“one more rep, just one more rep”), I just zone out. I don’t care about where I’m at and how long I’m taking. I’m just not in the moment. It’s a weird place to be and I’ve felt that way on Wednesday as well. I was talking to Tracey and she said it was because of my vacation and I just need some time to get back into the rhythm of things. I was in the first heat and I was so slow, that people from the second heat were finishing their 21 thrusters before I was done with my round of 9. Oh well! I got to the pull-up bar and finished my 9 reps painfully. My time was 12:21. I had done it back in December 2014 with the same modifications, but using the box to get onto the pull-up bar and finished in 12:03. I was hoping to beat that time today, but it didn’t happen. Still, Bo thought it was pretty good to do Fran so close to my PR time not even a week after coming back from vacation.

I felt just Meh! about it all and made my way home. I showered and could feel a nice little egg on my chest where I landed the bar and it had started to bruise up nicely. Whoops! I’ll have to camouflage those bruises tonight as we are going to a birthday party for a little while before putting the girls to bed.

Bruising up nicely!

Bruising up nicely!

We went to play mini-golf with the girls this morning before going to look at patio furniture in town, but the sales are crap and we didn’t find the “perfect bench” for our front porch. Next year, maybe.

We came back home after lunch and I cleaned up our entire bedroom (ceilings, walls, mouldings, etc) as well as go through my clothes and got rid of a ton of stuff. I plan on going through every room in the house for the remainder of my vacations. I’ll go slow and hopefully, will have time to get it all done! For now, I’m very much looking forward to a weekend of rest!