Lighten Up!

I got off night shift yesterday morning and only slept for 3hrs before giving up on sleeping. The house was noisy, but I knew it would be so I made peace with it and got up for the day at 1pm. Needless to say I passed out on the couch at 2130! I had planned to get up at 0500 for the 0600 class this morning (the girls don’t have school today) and I was regretting that decision when my alarm went off! I got up anyway and made my way to the Box for this:

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Warm-Up: Cindy x 3 rounds (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats)

I couldn’t get my pull-ups with just the blue band so I added up the purple band and was n’t impressed with how I was doing, but at least, I was warming up.

Skills: Handstand push-ups: 4-5 x 6-10 reps

I’ve been struggling to find the ideal “tripod” position between my hands and head and I only managed one successful round of 5  strict reps from a yoga block + 3×5# plates. I’ve done better in the past, but I just wasn’t feeling it today. I did try a kipping rep and it is SO MUCH EASIER!!! I guess I should master a strict without any scaling before I start thinking about kipping my reps though, right?!? 😉

 

WOD: Lift Up Step Down

Coach Caleb said we should aim at 75-80% for our DL. That meant I should have gone with 120#-125# for my reps, but as I was warming up, 105# felt challenging enough as it was and I stuck with that for the WOD. My DUs are still elusive and I can only manage one-at-a-time interspersed with single skips in-between. I aimed at the FG for 8 DUs + 16 SUs for each rounds.

We got going and I managed the 1st round doing all the BJ Rx. I did, however, scale it back to step-ups for the rest of the rounds as I felt my form was suffering and I didn’t want to make my sciatic angry. I know DL usually make it angry, so I wasn’t gonna push it too much with the BJ.

Here were my times for each rounds:

1:55 – 1:40 – 1:37 – 1:32 – 1:37

fastest + slowest = 3:27

Was I happy about my performance today? Nope, but at least I went and did the work. Sometimes, you have to cut yourself some slack and not allow a crappy workout to turn your day into crap. Funny enough, the Box blog post was all about scaling and how there’s no shame in scaling movements or weights once in a while!

I realize I haven’t blogged at all last week. I made a conscious decision to deal with more important family affairs and that meant the blog took the back burner. Our nanny is moving at the end of February, so I’m trying to find a suitable replacement. It feels like my days off are spent working out, cleaning, cooking and having nanny interviews. Not my idea of a fun day off and since the girls have a pro-D day today, I’m cutting this post short so I can make the most of our day together!

In other news, Béatrice drew this this morning. It’s her 1st “character” drawing where you can actually recognize the features. Apparently, I’m the one on the right because I’m “the angriest!” Lol!

Budding artist makes me so proud!

 

The one at the top reminds me of Barbapapa!

Anybody else used to watch this show as a kid?

5 And 3! Oh My!

If you’ve been a reader of my Ramblings for a while, you’ll know that my wonderful daughters share a birthday, 2 years apart. If you’re new to this little blog of mine, well, now you’re in the know as well! 😉

Today is the girls’ birthdays. They are turning 5 (Rina) and 3 (Béatrice). I have been busy trying to organize their special day, getting birthday and christmas presents done and finding a good paleo cake recipe.

I have managed to get the birthdays all done and under control and I still have a few items to pick up for the girls for Christmas. I have made a futile attempt at writing my Christmas cards with high hopes of sending them out later this week and I managed to only write up one so far! Man! I tell you, I feel like I’m somewhat organized in my day-to-day life, then December rolls around and all hell breaks loose! I get nothing done and stress levels go through the roof. Fortunately, the hubster has been pitching in a lot lately and I’m secretly hoping it will be a trend that lasts. 😉

We went to the truck light parade on Saturday evening and I think the girls enjoyed it very much. Rina was squealing like the most high-pitched piglet out there and Béatrice was dancing on my shoulders. Then, yesterday, we celebrated the girls since Rina had school today.

 

I’d say they managed a decent loot!

After we were done with lunch and it was time for me to bring out the less than impressive cake I made. I really don’t enjoy baking. To make it worst, I’m not really talented at it either. I’m just not crafty that way! I tried really hard to make them a cute birthday cake and it turned out more like a laughable mommy-fail of the year. I made a paleo cake from PaleOMG’s book and although I was told the cake and icing tasted good, the decorating was similar to Rina’s drawings… Not quite what I was going for. We sang “Happy birthday” twice and the girls blew their candles. BeZU even hugged me while she said: “Thank you for my cake Maman!” Bless her heart, that kid is simply amazing!

Once we were done eating lunch, cake and opening presents, we decided to go to the park atop the reservoir and have a little walk. We split up into two groups and somehow, lost Rina by doing so. I thought she was with the husband’s group and vice versa. A quick run along the trails surrounding the park and I found her sitting at the lookout, just waiting there. She got a quick scolding and I thing she was pretty scared off as she was all teary when she ran back to me. I told her she did good by waiting in one place and we went over other safety things before rejoining the rest of the group.

Before we lost Rina

This morning, I went to Crossfit and even though I wasn’t feeling it at all (still sore from 1/2 Cindy on Friday), I was determined to get the juice flowing again in my sore body. Here’s what we did:

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Skill: (1 Hang squat clean + 3 Front squats) x 5 E90s

I was aiming for 95# on my last set, with a realistic goal of 90#. I ended up doing this:

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

I was stripping my butt out of the squat and I really wanted to focus on NOT doing that in order not to screw up my sciatica even more. Also, I was using the slam ball as a guide as to how low to get to at the bottom and hoping to create muscle memory without going lower than I need to. It’s still a work in progress, but it’s getting better, I think. It’s so hard to have to re-program all my lifts and not dropping as low as I can go into them, but I know I’m taking a few steps back in order to keep moving forward injury-free.

WOD: Swing And Pop

That was my first attempt at this one and what was written on our white board is different from what’s written on our blog so I’m a little confused, but I ended up doing what was on our white board, FG:

8min AMRAP:

• 5  DUs + 15 singles
• 15 AKB @ 26#
• 5 KB push press / arm @ 26#

I didn’t think I would be strong enough to do all my rounds with the 26# KB for the KB push press and I had the 18# on my mat as a back up, but I managed just fine. It was a lot of hard work and my reps were low compared to everyone else, but I am so skittish of injuring my sciatic again, that I really don’t mind. I’m still working hard and making the best of it all while remaining safe. So far, so good!

I came back home, showered, ate lunch with Béa and then I was off to finally deliver baby Bailey’s blanket. I finished it a while back and finally managed to deliver it today. She’s such a cutie and so friendly! She was singing and cuddling and just adorable! I could have squeezed her all day, but I had to go back to my chores. I made some food for dinner and then it was time to pick up Rina from school and our evening routine. Hopefully, I can get to my christmas cards tomorrow and get those done and over with! Here’s to hoping! 😉

 

 

Long Day

0400: Snoring and emergency vehicle alarms going on. The snoring I can deal with by nudging the culprit, the alarms go on for an unnatural long time.

0500: Feels like I just fell back asleep. Time to wake up and get ready for the WOD. Looking forward to this one, even though I can barely walk my quads are still so stiff from the squats and GTO from Wednesday. Pre workout fuel-up of cashews and turkey. Out the door at 0530

0600:

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Skill: Trap Bar or Axle Bar DL 4×6 E2M

Last time, I had done the trap bar DL, so today was time to switch it up and use the axle bar one. I wasn’t sure where to start weight-wise on the bar so here’s what I did:

90#-95#-100#-105#

I felt good still at 105# and I think my grip could have taken more. Good to know for next time! ;

 

WOD: Three Fifteen

I teamed up with Telsey and Jenny for this one and it was nice to be able to workout with Telsey again. It was my first time meeting Jenny and she was such  sweet woman! I was really wanting to try this WOD FG at 65#, but I was also very happy to scale it down for my team. I remember too well being the newbie in the class and being terrified of holding people back. I didn’t mind lowering the weight on the bar today, it allows me to really focus on form and being explosive at the hips on the thrusters. I had devised a plan of attack for the WOD and we all agreed on it:

• switch the thrusters every 5 reps
• switch the BJ every 10 reps
• switch the DUs every 30s.

I started us off on the thrusters and was a bit slow on the account that I was cleaning EVERY REP! Coach Caleb came by and corrected my mistake! I’m such a keener! The rest of the rounds were uneventful and we moved through the 6 mins quickly.

Onto the BJ, I managed to jump up all my reps and I was super stoked with that. I also managed not to mangle my shins, so bonus there as well! 😉

The DUs is where we slowed down considerably. I was the only one on our team who could get some reps at DUs, but even at that, all my reps were single ones. I couldn’t string them at all today. Oh well, it is what it is! Honestly, I was just happy to be moving today. My body is so freakin’ sore from Wednesday. I know I’ve said it before, but it’s been a while since a skill/WOD combo destroyed my body this much!

We finished with a total of 214 and my personal stats were:

• 25 thrusters
• 50 BJ
• 14 DUs

If you do the math (or if I do it for you), you’ll see that I was responsible for 41.6% of my team’s score. I’m not doing the stats to brag. I remember doing partner WODs over a year ago and wanting to pull my fair share of the work, yet somehow not managing to accomplish that goal. If it was a 3-person team, I would always hover around the 27-29% mark. If it was a 2-person team, I would hover around the 40-43% mark. The fact that I managed to hit almost 42% of our score today lets me know that I am doing something right.

0700: Rush home, say goodbye to Rina before she leaves for school, shower, breakfast and get ready to head out with BeZU to the pumpkin patch at Galey Farms with her pre-school.

0915: Leave 1/2 of untouched coffee behind (still morning this one) to go pick up other preschool mom and son who live 1 street away from us.

0930-1130: Snacks, train ride, hay ride, pumpkin picking in the field and finish it off with a quick trip to The Root Cellar to pick up ingredients I’m missing for my food prep before work tomorrow.

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1200: Getting lunch ready for Béa and making this Paleo fried rice (I subbed the soy sauce for coconut aminos) 

I also wanted to make this, but by the time I was finished the fried rice, it was time to get Béatrice ready and out the door to pick up Rina at the bus stop.

1545: All the family is back home and I now have to figure out dinner. I am done with cooking at this point, so take-out it is for the girls and I have some of the fried rice for myself (needless to say the kids won’t eat it if it’s not orange). Cleaning up the kitchen, unloading the dishwasher, clearing the table, picking up the toys all over the house, another quick shower for myself before I bathe the girls and then a surprise pop-by visit by my sweet SIL who dropped off this little beauty:

She knows me well!

I packed my food for tomorrow’s work day, put the girls in bed, did my ROMWOD (Thank you sweet baby Jezus it was only 9mins-long) and am now cuddling with the hot water bottle. I have been awake for almost 15hrs, have been going non-stop all day and I’m ready for bed. A few technicalities to take care of (finish this post, floss, brush teeth, set alarm, triple check that I’ve set alarm to AM mode, not PM, read 1 line of my book on my iPad) before I finally fall asleep for what I’m hoping will be a restful night.

There were a few times when I wanted to call it quit today, but I applied my tried and true strategy that I use in Crossfit: it’s just one more rep hour, you can do this. Just finish your meal prep, then you can rest. Just unload the dishwasher, then you can rest. Just get the girls to bed, then you can rest.

Now I rest for a bit. I’m out y’all!

 

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! 🙂

Grace

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

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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.

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 don’t get fooled by appearances… She’s the gold Sharpie culprit and is grounded for today!

Higher Intensity, Lower Reps

My alarm woke me up this morning and I felt like I could have used another 5hrs of sleep. Meh! I got up and instantly felt the soreness in my hamstrings, shoulders and butt from yesterday’s Beach WOD. I could also feel the bruises on my biceps and forearms from the KB thrusters. I had a feeling today was gonna be a little ugly at the gym!

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Skill: Back Squat 6×3 E90S

I had worked up to 130# the last time I did these and I was determined to attempt 135# today, but my body had other plans. Here were my reps:

110#-115#-120#-125# up to then, I had no problem. I then loaded my bar with 130# did my 1st squat and, although I struggled to come up from it, I managed my 1st rep. I couldn’t get out from the bottom on the second, so I bailed out safely. Coach Caleb came by to help me re-rack my bar and after we chatted about the weight, He suggested I go back to 125#. I did just that, did my 1st rep successfully, but had to bail out of my 2nd rep because I couldn’t come out of the bottom. It’s all good, I know my body was tired and I had that piece of cake as well yesterday… 😉

WOD: Over Under Up

I decided to go with FG1+ on this one with the following modifications in order to challenge myself:

• 75# Shoulder to overhead (I did press jerks). We had to clean the bar up from the ground and I had never used that weight for a WOD until today. My 3RM for push jerks was 80# back in January and I knew using 75# today would be really hard, but I was determined to give it a go.
• DUs (I had a feeling I would struggle to get any reps on these, but still wanted to challenge myself to doing them Rx)
• banded pull-ups with the red band only (1st time I let go of the red and purple bands combined)

To say my score was very low is the understatement of the year. I ended up with a combined total of 58, but I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone. The DUs really killed me. Here’s how my rounds broke down:

1. 5 push jerks, 3 DUs, 3 pull-ups
2. 7 push jerks, 7 DUs, 4 pull-ups
3. 5 push jerks, 6 DUs, 4 pull-ups
4. 7 push jerks, 2 DUs, 5 pull-ups

Like I said, not the best numbers, but I managed to increase my pull-ups on each rounds and finished strong with the push jerks, so I’m happy with that.

Since Rina is now done with preschool for the summer, I had the luxury of taking my time after the WOD and I even went to get some groceries. I had a plan in mind and, boy, am I glad I stuck to my plan. Ever since Tracey had us over for our little Whole30 girls’ night, I have been craving ribs (she had made a delicious recipe on that night). I perused my cookbooks and the internet and finally settled on this recipe, from Holly Would If She Could, since it is Whole30-compliant AND slow-cooker friendly. We had a bit of a break in the heat wave yesterday, but it came back in full swing today and there is no way I would turn on the oven to cook anything in this heat. The girls are having quiet time in their rooms, fans are blasting on full-speed and Béa even asked that she just stays in her diaper. Poor munchkin is HOT! As I was driving to the grocery store in the early morning, I rolled down my windows and there was a faint breeze coming in from the ocean and you could smell the sea breeze in the air. It lingered around until around 10am and every time the wind would pick up gently, you could smell the ocean. It was lovely and it made me thankful I get to live so close to the ocean that I get to smell it in the air, once in a while, without having to leave my house!

The ribs are filling the house with a lovely scent (I didn’t change anything to the recipe and used the same BBQ sauce. The only difference is I didn’t boil the sauce. Nobody got time for that and I figured the slow cooker would take care of that step for me! 😉 I will serve this on a bed of lettuce because it’s too hot to eat anything else. Tomorrow, I plan on making Salmon À l’Afrique Du Nord that was recommended from Kathleen. You can find the recipe in Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan, or on her blog here. I have everything at home to make it and using the BBQ means avoiding turning on the oven = WIN! I also plan on grilling Blueberry Breakfast Sausage on the BBQ, but I will replace the pork with ground turkey. You can find the recipe on the Whole30 FB page, in their photo album.

That’s it! The girls have decided that quiet time is over and I must go back to being a mom! See you all in a few days!

One Last Time

I got up yesterday morning, rolled over to turn my alarm off and considering that everything was hurting on my little body, I chose to just roll over and “sleep in”. I could barely walk from all the wallballs on Wednesday, let alone pick-up the girls (thanks rope climb practice), so I chose to rest. I did make it in this morning though because it was a special one.

Since our Box is moving to a new, yet undisclosed, location, it was the last time I would WOD with my 0600 crew at the location that has seen me go from couch potato to semi-fit. I have to admit, I was a bit sad when I drove in this morning, reflecting on all the achievements I had accomplished in the past 22 months.

Most of the rubber mats have been taken away

The PR wall has been taken down

Where our logo used to hang

There were only 8 of us for the 0600 class this morning since some of our crew is in Seattle for the Regionals. Coach Brendan was filling in and he led us through this:

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Skill: DUs practice

I was hoping to finally reach into the double-digits for those today and my goal was to get 10 in a row. I was super stoked when I achieved this:

New DUs PR! 16 in a row!

We then paired up into teams of 4 and got ready for the WOD

WOD: Team 8K

Each partner had to row a minimum of 1km, but we decided to all do 2km and split the intervals in 4x500m. I was teamed up with David, Bo and Linda and fate would have it that I would be the last member of my team to go on the erg. That meant I had to bring us to the finish. Eww! I tried my best to keep consistent throughout, but I know I faltered. I can only remember my last round, where I managed to keep it around 2:15, then drifted off around 2:27, only to finish the last 100m at around 2:02, which brought us to a finish time of 31:26 for the entire thing. I was glad it was over. I was a sweaty mess when I was done!

I rushed home to get the girls ready in order to drop Rina off to school. Since Ben had a work thing early today, that meant I was on driving duty as well as groceries, laundry and cooking. It was a whirlwind morning and now, I’m watching the Regionals Team Events I missed this morning, with my feet comfortably up on the couch!

Tonight, I get to dress up and be proud of my man as he receives an award for viaSPORT British Columbia Regional/Provincial Coach of the Year Award! Pretty proud of my man and to see all his hard work pay off! Can’t wait to celebrate him (and have a pretend date-night)!

Breathe

After the exhausting day we had yesterday and being up for 30hrs+ straight, I looked at the WOD last night and didn’t feel like going to Crossfit. However I knew I’d feel better just stepping foot into the Box so I forced myself to go. It wasn’t pretty, but I got it done.

I was greeted by a huge hug from Tracey and that opened up my floodgates, but I honestly didn’t care.I expected today to be a release of the said gates and I was ready for it.

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Skill: Hang power snatch + OHS x 8

We had done something similar in a Oly class so I started at 50# for 4 reps and bumped it up to 55# for the last 4. My 2 middle reps at 55# were ugly, but I had a self-talk about bracing core, punching the bar up and dropping underneath it and finished off with better form.

WOD: Kitty Paws

I knew this would be hard, but I didn’t know just how hard it would be. I did a combo of TG+, which meant I used a 55# bar and decided on doing 10 DUs for each rounds. I may have been able to do 65, but I wasn’t feeling it at all, being on the verge of tears and all… The first round was uneventful and it took me a long time to get my 10 DUs done. It’s different doing them in my lifting shoes. The second round is where everything started to go downhill. I was tearing up a lot and had a hard time staying focused on the task at hand. I closed my eyes for the single skips and repeated that technique for all the remaining rounds in order to regroup. I honestly can’t tell you my time. I think it was around the 19:00 mark, but I didn’t even look at the clock when I finished. I just sank to my knees, put my head on them and bawled. I just needed to release all the sadness about Duke in order to be strong for the girls today. My goal is to not cry today with them, so I had a good go at it this morning. I was way last to finish and I’m sure people were probably wondering what the heck was wrong with me, but I really didn’t care. I have said it many times before, Crossfit is my therapy. I got my money’s worth today! 😉 After a few minutes, I tried to settle my breathing, taking one breath in, one breath out. I got up, picked up my gear and left.

A wise woman (my mom ;)) once told me to focus on the things I had power to change. I can’t change anything about the Duke situation. I can’t dwell on the “what if’s” and I need to be there for my girls. I need to be strong for them in order to let them feel their emotions about the whole thing. So instead, I will focus on the things I have control over: being a wife, a mom, planning my meals, enjoying my workouts and making the most of my days off with my little family all while breathing, one breath at-a-time.

Easter Saturday

I started my weekend with an unexpected night off from work and that made it the best night ever because it meant I could tag along with Ben and the girls for the Easter Egg Hunt he had registered them for!

I woke up early this morning and walked up to the reservoir with my trusted Duke to watch the sun rise above the clouds:

It seemed like the park had put on its Easter colour scheme to celebrate for tomorrow:

Nature does it best! Purple and yellow flowers for Easter

I came back home, cleaned up and made breakfast before we headed on out for the girl Easter Egg Hunt organized by the Rec Centre. Béa called the bunny “the Monster Bunny” so I’m not sure she was impressed with the whole thing, but I think they had fun chasing the few eggs left around:

We then went around to get some dog food and had lunch. When we came back home, it was time for the girls to nap and while Ben was taking care of the lawn and the compost, I finally came around to doing the Burpees and Double Unders workout from StayFitMom. I had to take a few breaks for the rounds of 25 and 20 burpees and I have to admit that the rounds of 50 and 40 DUs took me quite a long time with A LOT of single reps mixed in with even more whipping of the legs/butt/arms/shins in-between. I did, however, manage to string 8 DUs in a row (once) and a few 7 and 6 in a row as well, which is a new PR for me! 🙂

My cheat sheet hanging outside so I wouldn’t lose track of where I was in the WOD.

When all was said and done, it took me 24:17 to finish it all. Here’s what I looked like after:

Yep! I’m pooped!

Now the girls are up, eating candy (bedtime should be fun… NOT) and I have to go wash up before dinnertime. Hop you all have a fun-filled Happy Easter!

 

 

Earning My Stripes!

So, this happened this morning:

BAM! Earning my stripes, one failed DU at-a-time! 🙂

50 shades of whip!

My lovely husband has finally come home from his long trip away and I was very much looking forward to spending the night snuggled up to him in bed… until he started snoring at 0230. He kept it up with me nudging and poking him for another hour before I headed downstairs to sleep on the couch. The heat was down in the living room and I was freezing. I think I fell asleep 15 mins before my 0500 wake-up call to go to the Box. Ugh. I was slowly regretting those two glasses of wine I had at dinner with my lovely Krista last night. She had asked me if I wanted to go out to dinner after my last night shift and I was very much looking forward. We tried a new-to-us restaurant/pub called Little Jumbo where the vibe was really nice and the food was excellent! I enjoyed the dinner, the company and the wine, but this morning, I was slightly regretting the second glass of wine I had last night! Oh well, I would sweat it out at Crossfit, right?!?

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Skill: Pull-ups practice

We did a bit of swinging from the rig, getting out shoulders relaxed then engaged, then we practiced the swing and then we practiced a few reps E90S. I had to use the red and purple bands for my reps. I’m really trying to make a conscious effort of hooking my thumb over the bar for pull-ups, but it still doesn’t come naturally. That’s ok, practice makes perfect, right?!?

WOD: DUBKUB

I was excited about attempting this one Rx. It took me a long time to row the 40 cals (about 2:35-2:40, can’t remember) and then, I was really winded for the DUs. I was struggling through the 1st round, but managed a few 3 and 4 in-a-row. I moved on to the AKBS (I used the Rx weight of 35#) and split them into 9-4-2. Not effective and I was going to switch my strategy on the second round. Coach Caleb came by and told me to keep loose during my DUs and keep jumping on my toes. I managed 6 in-a-row (a new PR!) on that round and finished my 30 reps before going back to the AKBS. I decided to split them into 8 and 7 and that worked out way better. Back to the DUs for my 3rd round. I was pooped and kept missing. There were a lot of single reps, but then, I managed another 6 in-a-row and I just kept chipping at them. People around me were finished or finishing up, but I just kept working. I did the AKBS in 8 and 7 again. Everybody else was now done and Coach Caleb was cheering me on, telling me I could finish in under 20 minutes if I worked really hard. I stayed loose, on my toes and got my DUs done, before moving to the AKBS. I split them again in 8 and 7 and I could hear Tracey and Marika, cheering me on. I put the KB down and looked at the clock: 19:22! I was dead last by a huge margin, but I did it Rx! I felt so proud and I was so thankful for Coach Caleb to let me attempt it Rx. I knew it would take me a long time, but I also knew I could get it done! Yay! New PR and a rare Rx next to my WOD today! Not too bad for a tired, hungover BabyMama! 🙂