Mentally Gone

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

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

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

Skill: Power clean 6×3 E90s

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

WOD: Fran

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

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

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

Bruising up nicely!

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

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

When Fran Fights You, Fight Back!

I woke up a few minutes before my alarm and felt so groggy. Béatrice was up a few times last night as she has a cold and even though I only got up once for her (thanks Babe, you’re the best!), I was really tired. Once I finally woke up, I was happy and ready to go have another round at FRAN!

There were 20 of us for the 0600 class this morning! 20! I don’t know how we magically worked it out, but there wasn’t a bar left in the Box and yet, nobody was missing a bar to lift!

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Skill: Deadlift 5×5 E90s

I went with 105# for these and decided to stick with that weight for all the reps since I wanted to work on my form. We had to do the hook grip for all reps and couldn’t drop the bar (burpee penalty if you did, but nobody did!). I also wanted to work on the hook grip with the mixed grip as I struggle with my mix grip. I know it will help me lift heavier in the long run. It was fun to see everyone just chatting in-between sets, the mood was festive and the Box felt so lively this early in the morning!

WOD: Fran

Fran is yet another 4-letter word. I was not dreading her before I started the WOD, because I’d done her a few times before. I had chosen to go with 55# (a weight approved by Coach Caleb. He said he would have recommended that weight for me had I not chosen it for myself) and I wanted to use the red and purple bands for the pull-ups since I always end up doing C2B with the red and blue ones (too much momentum). On my round of 15, Fran tried to kick me down to the ground. I had to break my thrusters so many times. I wanted to just keep going, but my shoulders wouldn’t go along with my plan. After yesterday’s Bear Complex, I had little left in me. And then, Fran got in my head. She was trying to tell me that I wouldn’t be able to finish her. I was so frustrated with her, tears welled up in my eyes and then I was annoyed at myself for tearing up. I let out a groan, bucked up and kicked that Fran right in the teeth. I kept going and went on to do the round of 9 thrusters (broke it into 5 and 4) and then really fought for my pull-ups. I finished in 12:03. My slowest time ever for Fran, but at the same time, I PR’d. I used smaller bands than previous attempts and heavier weights. I am 10# away from doing the thrusters RX and, to me, that’s a big improvement.

My Fran evolution

I may never be an RX athlete for the WODs, I’m ok with that, but it won’t be for lack of trying. I will always fight for my time, fight for my rep, fight for my weight. As long as I keep up the fight, I will be content with my results. Speaking of fighting for it, here’s a picture I took of Mark O. He’s had a shoulder surgery a few months back and I was in awe, watching him do his pull-ups. That was true inspiration for me today:

Inspiration!

I sent him the picture and we had a little chat afterwards:

My lovely hubby was telling me last night that my body has changed in the past 2 months. According to him, my bum is more defined and firm, my legs and arms have toned up and my boobs are firmer (sorry about the TMI, that was his thoughts, not mine)! He said I was starting to look like Camille! Bwahaha! I laughed at that, but I understand he was paying me a compliment and it meant a lot coming from the love of my life!

As for us, we are slowly getting ready for the girls’ birthday on Sunday. Some of you might not know, but our daughters share a birthday, 2 years apart. BeZU will turn 2 and Rina will be 4! Looking forward to their special day! 🙂

If You’re Gonna Do Fran, Make It Hard!

It’s been a rough week peeps and I’ve had to take a few days off from work. I’ve had a terrible cold with cough, stuffy nose and lost my voice at some point. It’s not completely back yet and I’m still coughing, but I’m feeling much better. I had all the best intentions in the world to make it to the Box on Monday morning, but I felt like I would just hit the last nail in my coffin and chose to spend the day resting at home with the rest of the sickies (both girls also have a nasty cold as well, so it’s been a blast in this house! NOT).

Watching Curious George with the sickies. Everybody looks tired, myself included! 😉

The reason I decided to stay home and attempt the WOD on Tuesday instead of Monday is the following:

A 4-letter word that makes me shiver… Not as much as 14.5, but I still shiver!

Although I have done Fran once before, I was afraid to tackle it healthy, let alone with a residual cold. Here’s what I did at the Box today:

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Skill: The last time I did the power cleans, I was at 65# and I wanted to try to PR that today. I did the following reps:

50#-55#-60#-65#-75#

My last set at 75# was hard. I no-repped myself for the 2nd rep because it was simply ugly, so I repeated that one. I tried for my 3rd and failed. Coach Caleb gave me some good advice and I picked up the bar again and managed my 3rd at 75#! A new PR! 🙂

WOD: Fran. ‘Nough said! My last (and first) attempt at this one was back in December. I had finished in 7:11 with 35# thrusters and green and purple banded pull-ups. Today, I wanted a real challenge (like Fran isn’t enough of a challenge to begin with?!?) and I did my all my pull-ups with blue and purple bands (1st time I tried those) and I did my thrusters at 45#.

The round of 21, I was pumped! I managed to string 2-3 pull-ups in a row for the set and I split up my thrusters 11-6-4.

The round of 15, I was confused. I no repped myself for a pull-up (I don’t think my chin made it over the bar) and I thought I was done after nine so I jumped off the rig and went to my barbell, only to realize I still had 6 pull-ups to do! I climbed back on the bar and finished them and went onto the thrusters. I broke them into 3×5 reps.

The round of 9, I was tired. I couldn’t do more than 2 pull-ups in a row and finished my set stringing single ones. I did, however, managed to do all thrusters unbroken, so there’s that! I added a good 3+ minutes to my time, but I still consider today’s attempt a PR because I increased the weights for the thrusters and decreased the resistance in my bands. Progress is progress and I felt happy finishing it. I had absolutely no negative self-talk during the WOD and it felt good to be back lifting heavy sh** and dropping down! I’m sure if I can stop coughing, I’ll enjoy myself even more! 😉

True that!

I came home to 2 fed sickies and jumped in the shower before inhaling a marvellous coffee and frittata I had made yesterday. I love when breakfast is quick and simple and I don’t have to think about it too much!

My trustee readership will remember I had mentioned big plans about a month ago. Well, here’s the big reveal: WE ARE HOUSE HUNTING!!! Some of you might remember the view of my backyard at the same time last year:

The wonderful view from our patio back in August 2013.

Nothing much has changed since that picture as you can see from the next picture:

Still not a safe place for toddlers to play… 😦

I am done living here. I cannot believe they have been renovating that bachelor pad in our yard for over a year and we need more room for ourselves, so yeah, time to move on! We have seen a few houses last week and going to see more later this morning with our realtor. You can rest assured I will let you all know when we make an offer on a house, I’m so excited about this new phase of our lives! 🙂

A Crossfit Girl, My girl And My “Girls”!

When nothing seems to be going right in your life, get up and go to Crossfit… That’s what I do! Best outlet to frustrations, sadness and just plain raw emotions.

Rina and Béa didn’t go to sleep until 2100 last night (2hrs after their usual bedtime) and even then, it was a struggle to get them down. Ben came home early because of a general power outage at the Rec Centre (and a big part of the city as well), and we both struggled to put the girls down. Needless to say that the late bedtime was a precursor to a bad night of sleep all around. Crazy what a little snow will do to people’s bio-rhythm!

Snow in Victoria. A rare occurrence, but it shuts down the city!

Rina woke up at 0300 with a sore throat and came to sleep with us. Béa woke up at 0430 and after I put Rina back into her bed, I gave BeZU a bottle and put her back to bed. I couldn’t fall back asleep and Rina woke up again at 0520, so I made the judgement call to bring her with me to the BOX so Ben could catch a few more Zs (lucky man)!

My personal cheerleader!

She did very well at staying on the couch while I did my skill and WOD and then, she came to cuddle in her mommy’s arms while we watched the 2nd group do their WOD (I think we were 14 this morning and not enough room on the pull-up rig meant we had to split it into 2 groups). I wasn’t complaining, I love cuddling that little person! 🙂

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For the Power Snatch + OHS, I did 40#, 40#, 40#, 45#, 45#. This is pretty much similar to what I had done on November 13, except I didn’t fall on my butt this time and the sequence of movements seemed easier to execute this time around. Yay! 🙂

Then, it was time for Fran. As per Coach Caleb, Fran is a bit of a benchmark of Crossfit and I was a bit nervous about getting to know the beast her. I got even more nervous when I overheard Coach Caleb say that

Sub 5 mins is a good time for Fran.

SUB 5 MINUTES!!! Have you met me? I thought I had about 20 minutes to finish this one! Oh well, I guess I will TG this one  too (shocking, I know)!

I did the thrusters at 35# and did my pull-up with the green and purple band. Guess what time I finished with?

7:11! Surprising how my body can do so much better than my mind is willing to give it credit for!

I had to hurry home and shower quickly because today, I was had my very 1st mammogram. I know, you’ll say I’m too young at 35 for a mammogram, but you’ll remember that Mamie battled through breast cancer and she has now been cancer-free for a year! I also had a maternal aunt go through breast cancer as well, so my doctor and I decided we would do prevention and do early detection and today was my baseline for my future mammograms. I wasn’t really apprehensive about the whole thing. I knew my tatas were going to get squished, but I wasn’t scared about the process. I went in, we took 4 x-rays (2 on each sides) and that was it. Yes, it was a firm squeeze, but nothing to cry out in pain. After all, I can take the pain. I’m strong, I do Crossfit! 😉

So there, if you’re on the fence about getting your “girls” checked out, it’s really nothing to write home about! Get it done ladies!