Swole And Flexy

I have recently discovered ROMWOD, through a friend on Facebook and it has been one of those very nice little discoveries. Pat (my FB friend: we have never met. We both have a friend in common and we all do Crossfit. We became friends on FB during the Open and have been cheering each other on ever since! Crossfit is such a great community, even with strangers who become friends!) had posted about it on IG and I was curious so I asked him about it. After looking into it more myself, I registered and am I ever glad I did! Below is my review of the site:

ROMWOD stands for Range Of Motion Workout Of the Day. Long name for something that could be called yoga for Crossfitters or any other athlete, really. When you register, you need to give them your credit card number, but they give you access to the site for 7 days for free before they start charging you $13.95/month. What it gives you is the following: access to a daily online yoga session ranging from 10-45 mins in length, targeted at increasing your flexibility and range of motion, which then, helps out in your mobility and lifts when you do Crossfit or weightlifting. They have “warrior” sessions on Thursdays that are  longer (45mins) and I have enjoyed all the sessions tremendously.

Each video session is lead in a different Crossfit affiliate and while some are lend by very bendy people, some are also led by your average flexible Joe and makes it easy to see what modifications you could do for each poses. They also have a detailed instruction for each pose on the website as well as how to modify each poses according to flexibility.

Here’s what I have enjoyed so far since I started, a week ago:

• The narrator isn’t annoying at all and doesn’t talk through the entire session
• You mostly stay in the poses for longer periods of time (2-4 mins/pose) and deepen your stretching over this length of time, with deep breathing. I really enjoy this because while you’re not imposing the stretch on your body, you can work into it.
• The sessions are short enough that I can do them everyday, even after a long day at work.
• Some of the poses are easier for me. I was a dancer in my younger days, so I’m fairly flexible, but I’ve lost a lot of my flexibility over the last 10-15 years because I haven’t worked on it very much. I see fast progress on the seated folds and I think I could probably get back into a straddle split and maybe even a front split before the end of the year if I keep at it. The butterfly is also easy and I believe I will be able to complete i with a full fold soon too.

Front Split. Still need to go much lower with my upper body, but it’s a good start!

 

Butterfly pose. Look at how low my knees are already!

• While some of the poses are easy, others are quite challenging and I have to use the modifications for them: the Saddle, particularly is challenging for me. I really feel it in the knees and the Standing Straddle is usually challenging for me to hold for long periods of time. But I’m making progress in them and that’s all that matters to me!
• Although I wouldn’t recommend doing these everyday with the kiddos, it is doable! I have done one with the girls before their bed time. It was a little challenging and I couldn’t really relax as well into the poses, but I still managed to get my stretch in and the girls had fun getting on the floor with me!

Family Standing Straddle!

• You can do these in the comfort of your living room (in your pjs even, in my case) without requiring massive props. I sometimes wish I had a yoga block (Béatrice chewed it all up when she was younger and teething), but that’s easy enough to get and for now, I deal with couch pillows!

As for the benefits, I really felt I was able to get deeper into my squat on my C&J this morning. Also, I’m not sure if it has anything to do with helping with my shoulder mobility (thanks to the Puppy Dog), but I’ve been able to successfully do 2 TTB earlier this week (which I have never been able to do before). I’ve also only had one very short episode of sciatic pinch since I’ve started the program, even though I have been lifting heavy at Crossfit. Usually, running, squatting and deadlifts do my sciatic a world of pain and I haven’t felt it as much this week. If anything, it allows me to wind down and de-stress after a long day at work and, to me, that’s very beneficial.

Alright! Enough about my ROMWOD and here’s what we did in our Oly class this morning. Last week was Snatch testing and I missed it because of work. 😦 Although I’m not a fan of snatching (sorry Coach Caleb), I was really curious to see if I could hit my “fake PR” of 65#. Next time! Here’s what we did this morning:

2.5# PR on my C&J!

I PR’d my C&J by 2.5#! It’s not a huge increase, but I was happy with that! I tried at 95# and although I had a good high pull on both attempts, I just didn’t have anything left in me to drop into the squat and catch it there. The jerk was also a challenge at 92.5# and I knew I was pushing it by trying at 95#, but I just had to give it a shot! 😉

Good lifting session in the books for today!

 

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!

Who needs sleep, right?

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

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! (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.

 

One Of Those Weeks

This week has been one of those weeks. You know the ones: Your workouts couldn’t have gone any better, you train hard, eat clean-ish, get some rest, spend quality time with the kiddos and make the most of it. Today is my last day off before going back to work tomorrow and I have yet another lovely day planned. Coffee with a friend all while letting the girls running in the water fountain at Uptown. Then, getting some groceries and stuff at Walmart, finishing up laundry and preparing for work tomorrow.

Already, I feel accomplished. This morning was Oly lifting class and I was mentally prepared for Clean & Jerk testing week. We kept the same pattern as we did for the Snatch last week and I was struggling a bit more with the rep scheme, but it went really well in the end. Here’s what we had to do:

• 3x@75%
• 3x@80%
• 2x@85%
• 2x@90%
• 1x@95%
• 1x@100%

Since my 1RM for the C&J is 80#, below are the weights I worked with:

I had to modify some of the weights (either rounding up or down), but it worked well. The numbers on the right are just time cues for me to start my reps at. On my 1st set at 70#, Coach Caleb came by and told me I was doing a weird jerking motion from the ground up. I needed to slow my pull from the shin to the knee in order to work that kink out. I did and managed to do all my rounds, up to 80#.

Coach Caleb told me to switch and put 25# plates on my bar, but I knew that would psych me out, so I kept the 15# and added 2×10# on each side for my test. We had 3 attempts for a 1RM and I went for 85# on my 1st attempt and nailed it. I was so excited that I dropped the bar before bringing my feet back under my shoulders. Oops! I asked Coach Caleb if he wanted me to repeat it and he said to just increase my weight on the bar.

I obliged him and went up to 90#. I was starting to fatigue and coming out of the squat was hard. I managed to do it, I jerked it (and didn’t forget about my feet) and dropped that bar to the floor! Yes! 10# PR! Apparently, I do a little nod before I throw the bar down. I guess that’s my way of acknowledging that I destroyed this weight, now I will drop it like a fly! BAM!

I then tried to go for 95#.

1st attempt: Tracey recorded my attempts. When I reviewed the video, I saw that I could totally pull it high enough, but I wasn’t committing to dropping under the bar. Sounds familiar since I struggle with the same issue on my Snatch.

2nd attempt: Same thing happened here. Pulled high enough, didn’t drop. I had a chat with myself, trying to convince me that the worst I could do would be drop on my bum, so, just commit to it already!

3rd attempt: After reviewing the video, Coach Caleb noticed I hesitated a fraction of a second on the pull before dropping into the squat. I did drop though, but I fell down, since I wasn’t fast enough. Still! I was super happy I had committed to dropping since that’s a big issue for me.

Failed 95#, but I’m gunning for triple digits!

Like I said, I may have failed at 95#, but I’m hoping to get into the triple digits this year! The perfect end to a perfect week of training. I love how supportive my Crossfit peeps are and how encouraging they are. I may not be at my ideal fitness / weight / appearance, but I feel strong as heck and I’m proud of my achievements this week. Not too shabby for someone who can only attend class 2x/week on a normal basis!

 

Sis Sesh

You know how they call a bunch of guys working out together a “bro sesh”? Well, this morning, we had a “sis sesh”. Tracey and I were the only ones who showed up for the Oly lifting class this morning. It was nice to have Coach Caleb totally focused on us. Not that he normally isn’t during the classes, but today was different. Here’s what we worked on:

Power Snatch + Hang Squat Snatch x5 E3M @ 75%

Those were hard. Coach Caleb wanted me to go to 55# (which would have been 90% for me from our testing week) since I’m not really lifting heavy yet, but once we warmed up, I was struggling for the squat snatch at 50# so he then advised me to stay at that weight for the reps. I became a little more stable in the hang squat snatch as we progressed through the reps, but I was ok with staying at that weight for all reps. I still have a hard time committing to dropping below the bar and I worked hard on that today. I think I was a little less tentative and paused less doing these today. I guess you could say I somewhat improved?

Clean High Pull + Squat Clean + 2 Split Jerk E2M @ 75%

Well, I knew that my new PR for this was 90# (since I had just achieved this for 15.1A!) and that meant that my weight for today should have been 67.5#. Coach Caleb and I settled for 65#. At first, I struggled a bit with the high pull, but once I got into it, it felt a little more natural. The squat clean felt fine for all reps. Where I struggled the most was during the split jerk. For some reason that eluded me, I couldn’t find any stability in my split. Coach Caleb pinpointed my problem easily and all I had to do was widened my steps to about shoulder width. Easy enough fix and once I listened to him, I felt a lot stronger in the move.

I came home to my family slowly waking up and we all had breakfast together before Aunt Sandy came over to pick up her birthday present. I think she was happy. 😉 She had her dog Ruby with her and I was happy to see Béatrice not being as scared of Ruby as she used to be. She has been a little more comfortable around bigger dogs lately and it gives me hope for when we actually get a dog into our family. I like bigger breeds and I was a bit afraid Béatrice wouldn’t do well with a bigger dog in the house. I would totally go the rescue route if we were to adopt a dog as I don’t want to deal with puppy antics! I have enough on my plate as it is and I firmly believe that a rescue dog is the way to go for this family!

Once we were done chatting, we decided to go for a little hike to Mt. Doug with the girls and the dog in tow. Béatrice walked for a short distance before she asked to hop into the hiking back pack. I could tell she was getting tired and the terrain (slow incline, roots and rocks protruding) were getting the best of her. I strapped her into the bag, lifted her up on my shoulders and off we went! My calves were slightly screaming from yesterday’s DUs, but it was a good active recovery activity for all of us.

One of the reason I workout: Being able to carry both my girls at once!

Now, I’m just waiting for the Open 15.2 announcement to decide when I’ll be going in to do the WOD tomorrow! All in all, a very fun day, spent with lovely ladies! See… Sis sesh all the way! 🙂

Yeah Baby!

After 10 days of being a single parent, I was really looking forward to my husband coming home tonight. Of course, I woke up with a cold sore on my lip so celebrating with a kiss will have to wait just a little longer. Also, I realized when I woke up that I am working a night shift tonight and I will leave the house before my husband gets here, so technically, I will have to wait until tomorrow morning to catch a glimpse of him before I head to bed. Meh!

Anyway, I got up this morning and hurried to make breakfast, clean the house and do the laundry so I could go to the Box and tackle 15.1. That’s right! If you’re not into Crossfit, let me remind you that the Crossfit Open 2015 has officially begun and the 1st workout has been released last Thursday. Here’s what it consists of:

I did not do the Rx version since I do not have my TTB yet. Scaled it was for me. I would do hanging knee raises from the rig and the weight on my bar was 55#. I didn’t have a judge going into the workout today, but I figured I could always ask someone at the Box to judge me once I got there.

I warmed up a bit by myself and then I took a bar to one corner of the gym and warmed up my snatches, deadlifts, and clean & jerks at 55#. The snatches were the hardest, but I could manage them. I had a plan to split all my hanging knee raises into 8 & 7 for all the rounds. Now, I was on the lookout for a judge. I felt super start struck when I asked Lindsay to be my judge. She is an amazing athlete and she usually competes in the Regionals. She is super friendly, but I felt like who was I to ask her to be my judge? She accepted readily and she actually gave me pointers throughout the workout which helped out a lot.

My goals for today was to complete at least 3 rounds of 15.1 and try to PR my Clean & Jerk by 5# for 15.1A. I managed to do just that and more! I finished 4 full rounds + 13 hanging knee raises for a total of 133 reps for 15.1 and I also managed 90# on my clean & jerk on 15.1A, which was a 10# PR from 10 days ago! I tried 95# twice, but I was trying to power clean it and didn’t think of trying to squat cleaning it instead. I managed to get the bar up, but I wasn’t fast enough to get under the bar. Oh well, I’m still super happy of what I achieved today! Now, I’m looking forward to my nap before heading into work tonight. 🙂

Go Home February, You’re Drunk

While I was at work last evening, I received a text from Nanny with some pictures of Béatrice. She had a weird rash all over her body and some pustules as well. My co-workers were super nice and picked-up my assignment so I could go home early and take her to the walk-in clinic… AGAIN! Only our 5th visit in 2 weeks… I was not thrilled to say the least. Turns out she had hives from an allergic reaction to something. We walked in to the drugstore just as they were closing and I must have looked like I was at the end of my rope because the pharmacist was nice enough to unlock the cupboard and give me some children Benadryl. Thank you x 1000 pharmacist, you’re the best!

I drove us back home where Ben had cut his evening short at work also in order to let Nanny go home and he put Béatrice down while I showered the day away. This month has been challenging and exhausting. I don’t think I could handle much more. Oh wait, scratch that. Ben is leaving tomorrow for 10 days, which means I will be doing some single parenting for that many days. Ugh. I guess I’ll just have to survive, somehow…

Olympic lifting class test week

I was finally able to show up for Oly class this morning after having missed quite a few Thursday classes because of illness and work. I was looking forward to it, feeling the cold bar and working on my technique. Except today was test day. That got me nervous and took out all the little energy I had left in me. I didn’t feel confident at all and I’m still not 100% back to optimal health, so I didn’t think I was going to do well at all.

 

Snatch 5×1 E3M Test

That ever elusive snatch. I was warming up with an empty bar and had a hard enough time to drop into the squat. Coach Caleb came by and made me promise him that I would just COMMIT to dropping into the squat. That was all it took to get me to cry. I just didn’t think I had it in me, and somehow, I didn’t want to disappoint my coach. It’s silly I know, but that’s what I felt like at the time. I think the combination of illness, lack of confidence and exhaustion did my head in. I took a few good breathers and set my head in the game. I started at 50# and was successful. I failed my next rep at 55# because I over-arched my arms and try to correct too much. I lost my balance in the squat and dropped the bar forward. I practiced on the side with a dowel and stayed at 55# of my next rep. Success! I moved on to 60# for my next rep and succeeded at that weight. That was my previous PR. I set up for 65# on my last rep, but couldn’t get the bar overhead, therefore, staying at my previous PR of 6 weeks earlier. I was ok with that, considering my mental state just before we started.

Here’s my girl (Camille Leblanc-Bazinet) lifting a snatch at 85kg (187#). She makes it look so easy!

Clean & jerk 5×1 Test

I warmed up with a max of 55# because my previous PR was 70# for this lift. I started my 1st rep at 60# and it was fairly easy. 65# felt pretty much the same. 70# came around and although the clean felt a little more challenging, I felt really strong in the jerk. 75# was pretty much a repeat of my previous rep. It felt good and I had just achieved a new PR. Last rep came around and I was going for 80#. The clean felt challenging, but at the same time, I think I could have gone heavier. I took a few breaths and then went for the jerk. Coach Caleb was cheering me on the side saying: “Come on Val, this is where you shine!” I felt strong and just did it. Who knew I could shine at something Crossfit related! Bam! A new 10# PR for that lift and it honestly felt like I could have gone heavier. Next time! 🙂

Here’s Camille again, doing the clean & jerk at 108kg (238#).

Now, I wish I had my lift on video, but I don’t. I know 80# isn’t heavy compared to accomplished athletes, but that was a huge improvement for me and I am very proud of it, considering I don’t get to work out nearly as much as I would like to and I missed a few practice weeks. Hopefully, we are done with all the visits to the walk-in clinic and we can start working on getting healthy. Now, I just have to figure out how I’m going to do the Open workouts with my work schedule, a husband who’s away and minimal childcare…

 

Lifting Test Week

I was up at 0300 and never managed to fall back asleep after that. I had just mentioned to some co-workers that I was sleeping so much better since I had started my detox. That’ll teach me to brag! I finally got up at 0445 and got ready for the Skill Plus class. I forgot to take a picture of the board, but the warm-up was a challenge for me today. Here’s what we had to do, with an empty bar:

3 rounds of

• 5 high snatch
• 5 OHS
• 5 power cleans

The high snatch were so freakin’ awkward. I had the hardest time just shrugging that bar up, without dipping. It did get me warm though, so I guess that’s good!

This week was Test/Technique week i.e. we could chose to either test ourselves on our lifts with a 5x1RM E3M (starting at 90%) on both lifts or keep working on the technique with a 5×2 E3M (starting at 85%).

I chose to test myself on my Snatch and work on technique for the Clean & Jerk. Here’s what I did:

Snatch Test 5×1 RM Test

I started on my previous PR, so I guess I just had to get comfortable from there and push forward:

55#-55#-60#-60#-65#

I managed the one rep at 65, but it was so ugly, I kind of just pressed it up before going into the OHS, so I definitely no-repped myself on that one. It’s still a 5# PR on my hardest lift, and I only started the Skills Plus classes about a month ago, so I’m happy with that!

We then warmed up for our Clean & Jerk. My previous 1RM was 70# and I wanted to work on my technique towards that weight today.

Coach Caleb had me start at 65#, so once again, I just had to push through (I started at 92% of my 1RM):

Clean & Jerk 5×2 E3M Technique

65#-65#-65#-70#-70#

Coach Caleb told me to maintain contact with my thighs and I went off to the side in-between rounds to practice with a dowel. Crazy what a little muscle memory can do to your lift! I was done though. I’ve been in a fog since I started my detox on Monday and today is actually the 1st day I don’t have a headache at lunchtime. Here’s hoping I’m done with the sugar and caffeine withdrawal and I’ll be able to go about my day normally. I didn’t feel weak lifting today, but I could definitely tell I needed a hearty breakfast upon returning home. I made myself an egg-white omelet and although it wasn’t very satisfying taste-wise, it did the trick. I cleaned up the upstairs, finished folding the laundry and then took the girls to play outside. Rina is getting really good at kicking the soccer ball between my legs and Béatrice is getting better at kicking the ball period. We had a good lunch and now, they are doing puzzles while I’m blogging. They will go for nap/quiet time soon and I will go for (hopefully) a good nap as well before heading in to work tonight.