So Close I Can Taste It

I’m tired. I have been on mommy duty by myself since Friday and I’m pooped. The girls are good, but I’m exhausted and trying to get the last-minute purchases done for the girls while I am married-single-parenting is exhausting. Thank goodness I had planned ahead and booked Nanny to the rescue for today. She came in just in time for me to go to Crossfit and since she was curious about the whole thing, we packed everybody in the car and Béa and Nanny came to watch me workout!

I did my usual solo warm-up and then I went onto the rig to try some TTB. I managed the usual 2 and went for an extra one and managed this one as well! I got greedy and tried for a 4th, but no luck. Still, a PR during the warm-up was nice! I teased Rob about it on Facebook (we have a bet as to whom will get to 10 TTB first. Although, now that I think of it, I don’t think we’ve ever established what the winner gets… Rob, if you’re reading, I say bragging rights!) and then moved onto the team warm-up:

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I teamed up with Marie who recently graduated from the OnRamp and since we’re about the same height, I figured it would take us similar time to get through the erg.

 

Skill: Back Squat 5×3 E90s

I was trying to PR on this one and go for 140#. It would have been a 5# PR. It didn’t happen, but I was close and considering I was still feeling my new depth at the bottom of the squat, it felt REALLY good. I felt strong, more able to keep my chest up and didn’t feel like I was “butt-stripping” getting out of the squat. Here was my progression:

120#-125#-130#-135#-140# (managed 1 rep and bailed coming out of my 2nd).

I think there was a lot happening for me on these:

1. I was seeing stars coming up from my 1st rep @ 140# and I didn’t take a long enough pause to breathe and recoup at the top
2. I was in my head a lot. I knew that if I managed to do this today, I was literally 5# away from my bodyweight back squat and I’ve been chasing this one for close to 2 years now. My heart was pumping fast and I could tell I was in a hyper mode.

I may not have PR’d my 5×3 and I don’t have a 1RM, but I’m confident that 140# was an amazing 1RM for me! The fact that I felt so good and strong during my reps gave me a ton of confidence. Also, being able to bail out of the lift safely made me feel good too. It’s nice to know that I not only have the technique to do my lifts in a safe manner, but I also have the knowledge to get out of them if I can’t complete a rep.

WOD: 4 Hundred

I paired up with Marie again and even though she was doing the FG+, I firmly believe that we both were working equally hard at it. I decided to try this one RX and it did not disappoint! I started us off on the wallballs because, well, in all honesty, I just wanted to get them done and over with! Lol! We broke them up in sets of 10 and I then had to break my sets into 2×5, pretty early in the game. Marie was doing squats while holding the med ball because of shoulder issues, which meant that she was done a lot quicker for her sets and I had less time to recover. She was nice enough to get us started on the push-ups and surprisingly to me, I was really struggling through those. We both did them all RX and Marie was so strong and straight throughout them all, I was super impressed! We split them up into sets of 5.

I took over for the reverse lunges and I was apprehensive about those as any split movement is usually what gives me sciatic pain. I tried my best to brace my deep abdominals and so far, *knocks on wood*, no butt pain! We split those up into 10s and got through them fairly quick.

I started us off for the Plates ground to overhead and it was my 1st time using the 25# plate for those. They felt really strong. It felt like I was really able to keep the plate close to my body and really use my hips to get it overhead. There were two reps towards the end where I struggled to get the plate to actually touched the ground, but even if we finished last, I felt really good about our work today.

Once I was done, I clean dup quickly in the bathroom and BeZU, Nanny and I were off to hit the stores. I managed to find one item on the girls’ Santa list and I was happy with that. I hid my purchases in the trunk and Béa was none the wiser.

After lunch, we came back home where I finished laundry and relaxed a bit on the couch. We then went to pick-up Rina at themes stop and we trooped everyone to a smaller mall where I was hoping to get the girls’ picture taken with Santa.  I had scoped the hours ahead of time and I knew the big guy was supposed to be there until 5pm. To my surprise, there was nobody in line when we got there. I forked out the $14 for one 5×7 pic (not without some grumbling) and approached the jolly red dude. Béatrice was scared to death and wanted nothing to do with him. She kept hiding behind my legs and I could feel her little body shaking against my leg. I asked Santa if I could sit next to him to warm her up to him and once he said it was fine, she climbed on my lap. I tried to get her to sit on his lap: No. I tried to get her to sit next to him: No. I tried to get her to stand in front of here sister (who was, by then, telling Santa everything she wanted for Christmas): No. In the end, I decided it was going to be a family picture and I got in there with the girls. After all, I wanted them both to have their picture taken, but I wasn’t gonna hang around there forever!

It turned out much better than I thought and at least both girls are smiling. I look like an exhausted, sweaty mom (because I am), but I couldn’t care less!

Once we were done, I went to get the envelope with the picture and noticed there was another sheet in there. At first I thought it was an order sheet to order extras, but when I took it out, I saw this:

Rina, handing Santa a drawing she had done

I was so unaware that the photographer had taken this one and I was really touched that she had included it in the envelope. I thanked her profusely and we all went on our merry way home, where we had dinner, I bathed everyone, made lunches for tomorrow, took my work clothes out and now, I’m about to make myself a cup of broth with my hot water bottle on my back and do my version of #NetflixandChill which is #Netflixandbroth 🙂

 

New Traditions

We celebrated Christmas yesterday morning by having breakfast with my in-laws (eggs, sausages and coffee) and then, we all sat in the living room and opened up presents. I have to admit I had so much fun watching the girls opening up their presents. There truly is something magical about re-discovering Christmas though the eyes of a child. I was just as happy as Rina when she opened up the box containing her purple unicorn and to see Béatrice kissing her own pink unicorn was priceless:

Full of love!

After the gift opening, we took everyone for a walk to the closest playground for some fun in the chilly Christmas day:

Her gorgeous brow eyes!

Rosy cheeks from the crisp air!

She kept singing: “Up in the sky!” when I was pushing her on the swing!

No snow for us, but plenty of dead leaves on the ground for Christmas

I would have posted some pics of Rina, but she was making a grumpy face on all the shots I took of her yesterday 😦

We were also able to live some of the Christmas magic as I was able to convince Ben to go walk downtown Victoria to go see the Christmas lights in action at the Parliament. You see, my wonderful husband doesn’t like it when we do non-physical family activities, so I had a bit of convincing to do, but with the help of my in-laws, we all packed up in two cars and headed downtown. It was perfect! Seeing as it was December 25 and around 4-5pm, there was barely anybody in the streets, making it easy to find parking and take wonderful pictures of the deserted streets. Below are some of my favourite shots I took:

The Parliament is on the left, blurry on purpose

Some of the Parliament buildings, all lit up.

The Empress Hotel from the Inner Harbour

The Inner Harbour

Christmas day sunset on the Inner Harbour

The moon, the Parliament and the Inner Harbour

Merry Christmas!

This morning, I was able to lounge in bed for a bit before I had a hearty breakfast and headed out for the Box for this:

Skills: Back Squat 6×3 E2M

I paired up with Tracey for these. My last PR for these were at 110#. I was going for 115#, but my math being what it is, I ended up my 6th round at 120# and even though my last rep was hard and I struggled to come out from the bottom, I managed to do it! Yay! A 10# PR on a 3-rep isn’t too shabby! The amazing Tracey managed 150#!!! I was in awe! She made it look easy too! Something to aspire to, fo’ sho’!

WOD: Baseline

This one is a basic one for our Box. I had first done it at the beginning of my On-Ramp program and finished in 7:55, using the black (widest) band and doing knee push-ups. The last time I did it was at the end of my On-Ramp program and I had done it in 6:55, using the black band and doing my HRPU from my knees. We had to separate into two heats today and I was part of the second one. I took two short breaks during the air squats (one after 10 reps, just to catch my breath, the other after 25 reps, to stretch my hip flexors a bit) and managed to do all the sit-ups unbroken. I was struggling through the push-ups, but I managed to do them all full HRPU, no knee push-ups for me, no siree! 😉 I then moved onto the pull-ups and they were hard. I broke them into 3-3-2-2. I finished in 7:35. Smack between my 2 previous times, but really, this was a PR for me as well, considering I did all my HRPU Rx and used way smaller bands for my pull-ups! A good day of hard work! 🙂 When the girls wake up from their nap, we will be going out to buy our new sectional for our living room! I’m so thrilled to say that I will finally be rid of our futon! It has served us well over the years, but at 36-years-old, I am ready for a REAL couch in my life! 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season! Mine just keeps getting better and better!

Feeling Slightly Buck!

After the Skills Plus class yesterday, I made sure to fuel up properly for the rest of the day so that I would have energy for today’s WOD. For some reason, the WODs have been tougher over the past month so I always make sure to keep my nutrition and hydration in check as much as I can. I’m also looking into getting some meals delivered to my house that I would just need to warm up and would fit into my macros. I’ll keep you posted if and when I go with the delivery service.

Here’s what we did today:

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No skills on the board as we just warmed up appropriately for the WOD.

WOD: Buckshot

We had to split the class in 2 as there was 17 of us at the 0600 class. I was happy I got selected to start with the 2nd AMRAP as I thought I would struggle more with the Thrusters than the Hang power cleans. Turns out, the struggle was pretty much equal! 😉

I decided to go with the FG because I still don’t have my TTB and 65# felt like a lot to do the thrusters with. I loaded my bar with 55#  and planned to do hanging knee raises. Off we go! I managed to finish 4 full rounds and did 2 thrusters into the 5th round for a total of 98 reps. I was just glad I managed to not trip on the box jumps over! I was wearing my wrist wraps that I bought on Etsy, from BravoWraps. I have the Turquoise skulls like the ones in the picture below and I really like them. I like that they are well made, easy to wash, easy to adjust (tighten or loosen with just a twist of the fabric) and I’ve gotten a few compliments on them whenever I wear them for Skill Plus class or during the regular classes. I find they help a lot for the snatch, the thrusters and my HSPU! Check them out, they are not super expensive and she has tons of different models available.

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For the 1st AMRAP, we were to keep the same weight on the bar and I stuck to 55#. The hang power cleans proved to be harder than I originally thought. I kept trying to get my hook grip on and had a hard time hanging onto the bar. My index fingers barely make it over the bar and on top of my thumbs and then, I’m so focused on that I don’t know what to do with the rest of my fingers! #crossfitterproblem! I managed to get 4 full sets and the timer stopped after while I was completing my 2nd barhop burpee from the 5th set for a total of 73 reps (I didn’t count the 2nd burpee). I lied down for about 5 seconds on the floor before I picked myself up onto all fours. I hate lying down after a WOD. I feel like if I lied down, the WOD has won over me and until I RX all my WODs, there is no reason for me to lie down after a WOD! #stubborn. I was pretty happy with my final score of 171. Not quite up there with all the people doing the Rx, but no super far behind either. I came home and just before I entered the shower, I noticed my chin was all black. I guess you can say I went totally flat for the burpees. So flat, that I got my chin on the ground for every rep and picked up the dirt from the black mats on the floor! Ha! Can’t say I didn’t do my burpees according to form! 🙂

We still have some errands to run today and Rina is suffering from her 2nd bout of Hand, Food and Mouth disease in about 2 months. She is under the weather so I think that once we are done with our errands, we will cocoon up on the couch and be mellow for the rest of the weekend. I’m back to work Monday and have to work a few shifts before I get to celebrate Christmas with our little family and my in-laws! Yay!

RX Baby!

It is now 1130 and I’m ready for nap. I woke up at 0300 because Béatrice was having a bad dream and just as I was about to fall back asleep around 0345, the hubster started snoring… That was it for my night. I tossed and turned in bed, but I never regained the land of the unconscious. The wind was howling outside and the downpour of rain sounded pretty impressive against the window panes, nothing to make me want to get out of bed. I then looked at the WOD. It didn’t help with getting me out of bed.

Temperature was warm for being so early

Wind warning in effect 😦

Legs day! Squats, rowing and running! I got ready and was waiting in the parking lot at 0530. There was no point in me staying home and tiptoeing around to avoid waking everybody up. At least, in the car, I can listen to the radio and catch up on the current events happening in town.

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I managed to do 3×7 K2E during the warmup and they felt somewhat decent with a little kip. Could it be that I’ll finally be able to do a T2B sometime this year?!?

Skill: Back squat 5×5 E90S

I paired up with Jackie and started my way up from 80#. Reps were as follows:

80#-85#-90#-95#-100#

I thought about going a bit lighter to save my legs for the WOD, but then, I just couldn’t!

WOD: Aerobix

I partnered up with Chris and it turned out to be a really good partnership. We pretty much didn’t have any rest time as we were of equal strength (my running was pretty much to his rowing speed and vice versa). We decided to go RX and although we were the last team to finish, we managed to do so just under the 30 mins mark. We finished in 29:49. I was so proud of myself for running non-stop all the intervals. The hardest one was definitely the 600m run and the 750m row. I was struggling to keep my pace below 2:30/500m on the Erg. Running in the rain and wind was fun (?) and it was nice and refreshing. The downside was my feet got wet in no time and my socks were drenched, but I didn’t care. I just wanted to give it my best and not disappoint my partner!

I rushed back home to have a quick shower, breakfast and coffee (priorities!) and hauled the girls to Rina’s preschool. They were having an outing at the Empress Hotel to go see the Christmas trees. Every year, there is a Christmas tree exhibit and you can vote for your favourite and give a donation. The donations go towards the BC Children’s Hospital. It was fun, but Béatrice got tired quickly which meant I had to carry her for most of the 2hrs we were there. I’m pooped!

Goofball in front of the giant Tree in the lobby of the Empress Hotel

Rina’s hair is soaked!

I hope the girls nap this afternoon so I’ll be able to do the same on the couch!

Living The Life!

I have to admit, having 2 weeks off from work feels pretty fantastic! I will have gone to Crossfit 4x this week by tomorrow (3 WODS and 1 Skills Plus class) and I’ve had time to cook some pretty fantastic meals, which, in return has given results in my fat loss (almost 3lbs since last week). 🙂

Below is my favourite breakfast as of late: Nuevos Rancheros

2 scrambled eggs, 2 tbsp grated cheddar, 2 tbsp salsa, cherry tomatoes and a tangerine. Add a coffee and you’re good to go! Yum!

 

Here’s what I plan to cook for tonight:

From The Formula 40-30-30 book

To top it all off, I’ve had a really good time just hanging out with my girls and we’ve been up to some pretty cool adventures this week. We’ve had their picture taken with Santa at the mall, we’ve browsed through the toys section at Walmart and Toys R Us.We’ve put up our Christmas tree:

She’s so excited about Santa!

Christmas wonder

We’ve sang some carols:

and Rina even wrote a letter to Santa (with some help):

I’ve gotten tons of cuddles from the girls and it warms my heart whenever they tell me: “Mama, you’re my best friend”.

This morning was my Skills Plus class at Crossfit and I had no idea what we were up to, but I was ready for it! We did Power Clean & Jerk 5×2 E2M @75%. My 75% weight was supposed to be 52#, but I rounded it up to 55#. It was challenging. I need to remember to keep the bar along my body in the power clean and split a bit wider in the jerk.

Then, we moved on to the Bear complex 5×2. It was my first time actually tackling the bear complex and I was a bit apprehensive. I decided to stay at 55# for this. It was challenging, but in a good way. Again, I need to remember to keep the bar close to my body during the squat clean and actually drop under the bar to catch it. Also, I have a tendency to cushion the bar on my spine in the back squat portion of the complex and I need to remember to cushion it on my shoulder muscles instead. So much to learn, but I’m really glad I get to learn the technique in a more detailed fashion!

You see! I’m having such a blast when I don’t have to work! I also find that I’m a lot more patient with the girls too! Win-win! If only I could find a way to keep it up for the rest of my life! 😉

Merry Christmas

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Christmas WOD aka Screaming Rudolph

I read the Box’s blog last night and I knew I should be bracing myself for today’s WOD. Heck, the warmup felt like a WOD!

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I totally wimped out for the warm-up and used the training bar (about 15#, but I’m not sure). I just wanted to save my energy for the skill and the WOD. To be honest, I’m not sure I could have done the push-press with an empty 35# bar…

For the skill, I was aiming for a new PR of 95#, but on my 90# rep, my form left a little bit to be desired, so I stayed at 90#. Not a new PR, but it has been my max so it’s not like I failed either! 😉 Here were my reps:

75#-80#-85#-90#-90#

For the WOD, I was paired up with Amrit and Kevin. There were 6 of us that showed up this morning and, once again, I was the only girl, while 2 out-of-towners showed up and someone else who usually comes later in the day. Coach Caleb split us up in two teams of 3 (the usual 0600 class against the “newcomers”). We finished with a total combined score of 638 (my contribution was 175 or 27% of our total score. Not too bad, but not quite 1/3 f our score which is where I’d like to be. Mind you, my partners are STRONG LIKE OX, so I can’t really complain for my share).

I modified with 25# Plate Floor to Overhead and 21# KB Goblet walking lunges.

The lunges killed me. I was grunting and screaming to get through my last set like I never have before. The last time I screamed in pain like this was during my delivery of Béatrice into this world. It was that bad! It just felt like everything today was focused on hamstrings and glutes and my glutes were seizing by the time we were done with the WOD. I have never been so happy to roll my butt and sit on a Lacrosse ball in my entire life! There is no Crossfit on Wednesday as it’s Christmas and I was pretty keen on going Thursday AND Friday to make up for Wednesday, but judging by how sore my glutes already are, I might need the rest! Now, I have to go clean half the apartment and let’s just say I’m glad my mother-in-law has offered to make chill for dinner tonight! 🙂

If I don’t blog until then, Merry Christmas to all my readers. It is a pleasure to know I am not alone in this and, please, leave comments; I love to hear from you all! 🙂

From my family to yours, may you have a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones!

 

Dec. 27, 2010: Christmas, Houdini and letting go of the guilt

Sweet Rina!,

We got back from our trip to the mainland yesterday and I have to admit, you travelled really well. All our relatives thought you were the cutest thing ever. I thought so too, but then again, I am your mom! I even got to dress you up in a few cute outfits you were given by a few friend of your dad’s and I’s before you ended up puking on them! 🙂 Overall, we had a very good Christmas and you were spoiled rotten. People are being way too generous and we don’t know how we’ll ever thank everyone enough.  Below is a picture of how we found you on Boxing Day morning in your playpen. I nicknamed you Houdini the escape artist because when I left you earlier, all your limbs were in your pyjama and you were bundled like a burrito.

 

Mini Houdini

 

Sorry for the crappy quality of the pic, it was taken from my phone and the curtains were drawn as it was early in the morning. The socks on your hands were to keep them warm as they had a tendency to get ice cold during the night. I know, not very fashionable, but effective!

 

Now comes the part about the guilt. You are almost 3 weeks old and although I have given breastfeeding a fair try, I just don’t feel like I can do it anymore. I haven’t been without pain in my breasts for over 12hrs in those 3 weeks and I was starting to dread feeding you because I know it will be painful, burning and prickling the whole way through and it will last even between your feeds. Add to all that the fact that you are colicky and have spent 6hrs straight this morning howling at the top of your lung and another 1.5hrs tonight doing the same (despite your dad and I burping you, holding you upright, giving you gripe water, etc, etc) and my heart was just breaking for you. You cried so much, you are losing your voice and now sound raspy. I have decided to keep pumping my milk for now and we’ll see if you keep suffering from colics. I have tried my best to help you with latching on properly, but my letdown is so strong that you gulp milk down with tons of air, which doesn’t help your belly cramps. Your dad and I have also discussed a plan B if that didn’t help you with the colics and we are not opposed to giving your formula for a few feeds throughout the day if need be. I am at peace with my decision and so is your dad. Right now, it is more important for me to bond with you than to achieve successful breastfeeding. It is a conclusion that has taken me a few days to reach and it wasn’t all that easy to accept, but I have come to terms with it and your dad just wants me to feel good about any decision I make. I have been talking with your Mamie a lot lately and she has been helping me a lot by reassuring me that whatever decision I made, I was a good mom to you as I was doing what is best for the both of us. So there. I am letting go of the guilt and moving on. If some readers of this post object to my decision, I don’t really care or want to know to be honest as I’ve been struggling with my decision for the past few days and am finally comfortable with my choice. It might not be the best choice, but it’s the best choice for our family right now. Here are a few more pictures taken during the Christmas break from my phone:

 

Already rolling your eyes at your parents!

 

Your cute smile, when you finally manage to break wind!

 

Love,

Mom & Dad Xxo

W40D6: Football, Christmas and Follow-up!

Little Monkey!,

FOOTBALL & CHRISTMAS

Yesterday, we put up our Christmas decorations while watching the Grey Cup and I was happy “my team” won for the 2nd year in a row. I will always be a true Montreal Alouette fan at heart, even though we live on the complete opposite coast now! Football is about the only sport I get really passionate about when I see a game (that and when your dad plays squash)!

Below are a few pictures of our Holiday decorations. Our tree is a bit bare, but that’s just because I’m waiting for the end of season sale to buy decorations to make it fuller 😉

 

Our little Tree

Santa greeting us at the front door!

The fireplace is missing your stocking... Still looking for a nice one for you!

Yesterday, in a failed effort to bring on labor (and bring you out too!), your dad and I decided to go do some shopping by foot. I was wearing my Sockwa for the 1st time outside. I had decided to wear the black ones (you can see them by clicking on the link). I was wearing some thin Smartwool socks with them just because it was a bit cold outside and the streets were wet and I was afraid my feet were going to get cold as it was my 1st attempt at wearing them outside. Overall, they were pretty comfortable and you can really feel the ground and the different types of surface when walking with them (even when wearing socks). We were out for about 1h30, walking mainly in stores and on sidewalks and streets. I managed to keep my feet warm and dry so that was good too! I could tell my feet were getting tired towards the end of our trip and I was glad to be back home. At home, I am usually always barefoot or only wearing socks walking around on the laminate ir carpet. I know I’ll have to do the switch progressively when it comes to minimalist footwear, but I quite enjoyed the experience today. Mind you, I might not have had the best stepping form with my waddling and all, but I’ll correct that once you come out!

FOLLOW-UP

It is now 12:50pm and we just got back from your follow-up appointment. I am still only 50% effaced and 1cm dilated. Your head is down, but remains unengaged. I was awarded another stripping of the membranes (which wasn’t anymore fun the 2nd time around 😦 ) and told it might be another 7 days before you show up. Mentally, I am not doing so well, but physically, we are both top shape! 🙂 I will go for my NST later this afternoon and if everything is fine, will have another one scheduled either Thursday or Friday. Following that 2nd NST, if I haven’t delivered yet, I will be put on the induction waiting list for either next Monday or Tuesday, with another NST on Monday in the event I don’t get induced then. I am very thankful for this blog as I get to update everyone without having to talk to anyone as, right now, I am not really in a chatty mood. I understand that everyone is excited about meeting you and well-meaning in their enquiry, but the constant asking about your imminent arrival does nothing to help your dad and I deal with our stress and anxiety. To think I stressed so much about everything that could go wrong before I reached 35 weeks of gestational age! If I would’ve known you were planning on cooking for so long, I would’ve relaxed a lot sooner!

 

Since this post is already pretty long, I will update with another one once I get back from my NST appointment.

Love,

Mom & Dad Xxo

W40D5: in the Christmas spirit!

Hello Monkey!,

After 2 good nights of sleep in a row, we find ourselves still waiting for you to make an appearance! Oh well, all in due time! Your dad is getting pretty impatient though!

Speaking of your dad, it’s really nice to have him around for the entire weekend. It had been a while since he had a full weekend off and it’s nice to see him relaxed. Relaxed and impatient! Nice combo! 🙂 His job for today is to dig out the Christmas tree from the storage under the staircase so I can put it up and decorate it.

On a sadder note, I can no longer wear my wedding ring as my fingers are too swollen and the ring is digging in my finger. See all the things you put your mom through?!? 😉

We’ve been going for walks after dinner for the past 2 nights and it’s really nice to be able to spend some downtime together. Your dad keeps hoping the walks will bring on labor! I guess we’ll see what the doctor has to say tomorrow! In the meantime, just know that we love you and cannot wait to meet you!

Love,
Mom & Dad Xxo