Mere Mortal Amongst Gods

I finished work yesterday morning and slept very little before being a mom to the girls and crashing early in bed. We have a busy day today: Béatrice is getting her big girl furniture delivered and we have to go buy her a mattress for her new bed. Ben also has to work this morning which meant I couldn’t go to the 0930 Crossfit class. I managed to convince him to let me go to the 0600 and that meant he had to get Rina ready for school, yet again today. He’s a good hubby and he didn’t mind, just for today!

Now that I’m back home, I almost wish I had decided to stay home. I forgot how beastly the 0600 crew is and how slow I am to all of them. The WOD was long and hard and I struggled with all my might to finish. I felt like a mere mortal amongst gods! These people are real beasts!

Pre-Crossfit 5am cuddles with my little sleepy head!

 

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Skill: Squat Thrusters 8×1 EMOM

I warmed up to 75# and that’s what I chose to do for these. They felt good. I had tried 85#, but could only power clean it, so that wasn’t going to fly. I stayed at 75# for all my reps and made sure I had good form for them.

 

WOD: Midline Basic

There was a lot of people this morning and I did my Box Jumps off of 6×45# plates stacked on top of another. I chose the 35# KB for the American swings and I knew the DUs would be my weak area. My shins ares still very sore from the 5k I ran on Tuesday and from slamming the bar into my leg last week.

Bruising up nicely!

As I was warming up my DUs, I could feel my shins protesting heavily so I decided to do FG with 5DUs per rounds and single skips for the rest. My goal was to do all the AKBS without any breaks and do all my BJ Rx (we jump up but do step downs in our Box as a safety measure). 6 rounds was gonna be hard and Trevor joked that it would be an easy WOD. At least, I think he was joking, but then again, maybe not! 😉 I already felt tired and low energy before we even started, so I didn’t have high expectations in terms of time.

3-2-1-Go!

1st round was uneventful other than I was in pain from whipping my butt so hard with my skipping rope. Round 2 was a little slower, but I was really trying to keep things moving. Only 3 deep breaths to recover and low though. Round 3 was such a mental struggle. My head just wanted to quit so badly. I had to really convince myself to just do one more rep and snap out of it. I won that battle against my head, but the rest was a struggle. I finished well after everyone else, but I finished nonetheless and I accomplished my goals: I managed to jump all my BJ and did all my AKBS without taking a rest at 35#. I also managed 5DUs per rounds, but they were mostly 1s and 2s. I couldn’t string them along. I was glad when it was over!

I put away my equipment and hurried home to send Rina off to the school bus.

I have now cleaned up and moved out Béatrice’s old furniture and am awaiting the delivery guys who will bring in her new furniture! I am also very much looking forward to nap time! 🙂

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, but Man, do I love this place!

 

 

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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!

A Good Day

I went to bed last night in the middle of a pretty intense windstorm. Nothing unusual for the island in the fall/winter. The pattern is usually rain for a few days, windstorm, sunny day, repeat. Ever since we moved into our new house, the windstorms make me very uneasy. I don’t know if it’s because we’re not on the lower level of our house and I feel/hear the wind more, but I just keep having to reassure myself that the house has been here since 1918 and it has seen plenty of windstorms. It’s probably sturdy enough to weather a few more! 😉

Once again, I was up way before my alarm (set at 0500). I stayed in bed, trying to fall back asleep and got up in the end to go to Crossfit. I really wish I didn’t have to see 0430 on the alarm clock some days! Sleeping has become a luxury and I long for the days I used to sleep in until 1000-1100!

 

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Skill: Kipping pull-ups 5x20sec E2M

I was determined to challenge myself with this today and I decided to forgo the red and blue bands and used the red and purple bands instead. I was happy to manage 5-7 reps/ rounds with these and I really focused on working on the follow-through at the bottom. I managed to do a max of 3 in a row and that was good enough for me!

WOD: Grunt

As we were warming-up for this one, Coach Caleb came by to assess our Hang power snatches and I had planned on doing the TG with the empty bar. Doing 5 reps with the bar alone was challenging enough, let alone 8 reps x 5 rounds. Upon Coach Caleb’s examination, he suggested I added weight to my bar because I looked “very powerful”. Dave got into it as well and I was convinced to add 10# for a total of 45#. I did the first round unbroken, but had to break them into 2×4 reps for all the other rounds. I did all my rounds with the TG modifications:

• 8x Hang power snatch @45#
• 10 Hand Release Push-ups (all on my toes)
• 10 double crunches

I finished with a time of 13:14 and was pretty happy about this. The Hang power snatches were a real struggle for all my second sets (#5-8). I was afraid of dropping the bar on all my last reps, but I pushed through and managed to do it all! Thanks to Dave and Coach Caleb for convincing me to go heavier! 🙂

Before we started the WOD, I jumped on the rig and attempted a few T2B. I’m not quite there yet, but I,m getting so close, I can taste it!

I came home to shower and decided to do my hair. When I came back downstairs, Rina was staring and saying: “Wow! Beautiful hair mom!” LOL! The girls are not used to me taking time to pretty myself up!

All dolled-up and nowhere to go!

Then, I guess Béatrice was inspired to doll herself up as well because she kept asking for a “ponytail”. After Rina had butchered her hair earlier this week and fellow Crossfitter Jordan fixed it up for her, I was skeptical about my ability to pull off a ponytail, but she seemed happy with the end result!

Cutie with a fringe!

Now, I get to spend the day with Ben and the girls and enjoy this beautiful sun with the family! 🙂

Something Weird Happened Today…

I’m still not over this nasty cold and I have a hacking couch that just can’t seem to want to go away anytime soon (Rina is also hacking like a 90-year-old chain smoker and Béatrice remains snotty, but we’re all doing miles better), but it didn’t stop me from getting up at 0500 to get ready for the 0600 class at the Box! 😉

TRAINING FRIDAY-SATURDAY

WARM-UP: 3 ROUNDS

Frog walk 1 pole length

4 Burpee broad jumps – increasing in distance

30-45 second plank hold

STRENGTH: Back Squat 10 – 8 – 6 – 4 E2M

Last time through this set! Make it count!

WOD:  OTM 2

These will be alternating tasks on the minute. One pair of movements will be performed on the even minutes, the other on the odd minutes. Scale appropriately and aim for smooth movement!

Rx: 6 Rounds of

Even minutes: 3 Hang Power Snatch (65/95), 6 Overhead Squat

Odd minutes: 20 du’s, 8 double crunch.

TG:  Scale bar weight as needed, consider 4 rounds of each, 20 single skips
FG1:  Bar weight 45/65, 20 singles
FG2:  Bar weight 55/75, 10 doubles
COMP PREP:  Bar weight 75/115, sub toes-to-bar for double crunch

The warm-up felt good and I managed to do the planks for 45s for the last 2 sets. Yay core strength after having babies! 🙂

For the Strength section, I did my reps as follows:

• 80# x 10
• 85# x 8
• 90# x 6
• 95# x 4 (a new PR) 🙂

I wonder what I could get for a 1RM on my back squat?

For the WOD, I did FG1+ (6 rounds at 35# for the hang power snatches and OHS, 40 DU and 8 Double Crunches)

I used an empty bar (35#) and it felt like I could have added an extra 5# for the Hang Power Clean, but the OHS were challenging. Maybe I could have pushed myself and done everything at 40#? One thing for sure, the double crunches were a breeze. Not that I normally struggle through them, but I could just string them along at a fast pace today without slowing down on any rounds. Not sure if it was from doing the planks in the warm-up, but I felt really strong and, for once, didn’t feel like my belly was getting in the way when I was crunching.

I was still working hard through the rounds to the point where I was wondering when we would be done. Thank goodness, at that point, we were on the last round! That’s also when something weird happened… I was hot, wearing a cotton tank top that was sticking to me and making everything hotter. The garage doors were close and it was raining and muggy outside. On a whim, I took my tank top off. Don’t worry, I was still wearing my workout bra and shorts (actually, I was a walking advertisement for Reebok Crossfit this morning: workout bra, shorts and oly lifting shoes were all Reebok! 😉 ), but I just couldn’t take the heat from the tank top anymore. Even weirder, I didn’t care if anybody saw my flabby baby belly. I just wanted to get through this last round and be less sweaty/hot. I also figured, if anybody gets offended by my flabby belly, then they obviously are not working hard enough on the WOD, because honestly, I don’t notice anybody EVER when I’m doing a WOD, I’m just too busy focusing on my form and trying to breathe! I finished my set and put the tank top back on to do my cool off, but it was nice to be able to feel OK with my body and not care what other people thought around me. Yet another reason I love Crossfit so much: gained confidence, better self-image and accepting people all around me!