When You PR Your Bad Day!

Got woken up by Rina slapping me in the face at 0500! Slept in until 0600, feeling exhausted after two challenging days at work. I am currently transitioning into a new position and assuming my new role has proven to be testing. I think I’m doing ok though, it’s just different to step from bedside nursing after 10 years to assume a more managerial position.

Got the little ones ready for school and got ready for the Box. On my way downstairs with the empty laundry baskets, I was telling Béa to be careful in the staircase and missed the last step myself. Baskets went flying, I caught myself just in time and only have a small bruise on my wrist. Seriously universe? I also got a speeding ticket on the way in to Crossfit so that was awesome… NOT. The officer was a bit of a douche so I stopped talking when he told me I wasn’t driving safely after I told him I had seen my speedometer at 60km/h. Seriously, Dude…

I didn’t have time to warm up as well as I wanted to, but I figured the anger from the speeding ticket and adrenaline rushing through my body would do the rest. Plus, Rob was there, so I felt obliged to work on my TTB. I got 2! New PR!

Source

Skill: 1 Hang Clean + 2 front squats x 5 E90s

I was thinking of going up to 90# on those. I know I can squat that weight, but the hang clean would be challenging. Here’s what my reps looked like:

70#-75#-80#-85#-95#

That’s right! I thought, screw it! Get all the anger out and try at 95#. I knew I could do 90#, but I wanted to try to push myself. The hang clean wasn’t pretty at all, but I managed to catch it and then, it was all a matter of doing my 2 squats. Heck yeah! I felt good after that.

WOD: Helen

I had done this one back in April and had used the blue and purple bands for the pull-ups, but the 26#KB. I was a little confused today. I thought we had to do 4 rounds so I used the 35#KB, but the red and blue bands for the pull-ups. My runs felt really slow and I couldn’t believe it when I came back in from my 3rd run and everyone was done. I thought I still had one more round to do. Coach AJ was cheering me on and I mentioned I still had another round to go. She corrected me and confirmed it was only 3 rounds, not 4, and apparently, my face lit up like Christmas had come early!

I finished in 16:38 with a new PR (to me). Looking back, I should have used the blue and purple bands today as well because I was doing C2B. Oh well! I did increase the KB and I really wanted to break them into 11-10 for all sets, but  I just didn’t have it in me on the second round. I did 11-5-5  and on my 3rd round I did 11-6-4.

That’s it for me, I have to go cuddle with Béa before I head in to work for the night!

 

Out Like A Belly Button

I swear, the kids are adorable and all, but I sure wish they would sleep through the night. Béa was up multiple times last night which means I’m not getting the rest I need to recover from all the intensity I’ve been putting my body through lately.

She’s got gorgeous brown eyes! I just wish she’d keep them closed through the night! 😉

 

Yesterday Kathleen cancelled our mesh on Sunday and I wasn’t too sad she did so. She’s been bombarded with visitors and hasn’t had time to unpack into her new house, so she will make time for that this weekend. I, on the other hand, will use this opportunity to do nothing (workout-wise) and just enjoy the long weekend with Ben and the girls, before I head back into work on Monday.

I woke up startled by my alarm at 0500 and somehow managed to get up and ready for my last workout this week:

I saw this on Facebook as I was fuelling up before the workout and thought: Yep!

 

Source

 

 

I teamed up with Tracey for the warm-up and literally was biting my arm during the wallsits! The plank holds weren’t as bad and I felt like I could have held a little longer on them, but those wallsits were pretty horrible, considering I had just finished those air squats at a good speed (for me!)

Skill: Kipping pull-ups 4×6 E2M

I focused on my strict for these and used the red and blue, but maybe I should have used the red and purple instead. It somewhat easy to do the 6 reps, but I my hands felt like they were on the verge of ripping.

WOD: Snatch & Grab

I had never done this one before and since it involved the ever elusive snatch, I had to resort to TG for today. I felt like a wimp using such a low weight, but then again, seeing as my 1RM is 60# made it easier to swallow. Here’s how I scaled it:

4 rounds of

• 6 Hang power snatch @ 45#
• 8 burpee bar hops
• 10 front squats @45#

I really thought the front squats would be a piece of cake at that weight, but man, was I wrong! I had to break them into 3 sets for every round! I tried my best to keep all the burpee bar hops Rx, but had to drop to granny-style for a few reps each rounds. Jess walked in and smiled at me after one of my rounds. She was dancing and the best I could do was to give my Bitchy Resting Face. Sorry Jess! I was trying to save every calorie of energy for the WOD and smiling was impeding on that! 😉

I have BRF and I own it!

 

Oh well, not my best WOD at all. To be honest, I didn’t really care. I just wanted to be done. Done with the WOD, but also done with the intense week I’d just put my body through. Here were my times for the rounds:

1:35 – 1:45 – 1:45 – 1:34

Which gives me 3:19 for this WOD.

I can’t wait to go for my massage this morning! That’ll start recovery painfully well! I don’t go for fluffy massages. I prefer the deep tissue kind and my RMT is also a Crossfitter, so she knows which muscles we work and what needs to be worked on. She’s awesome in a dominatrix kind of way! Teehee! I find myself breathing through the pain when she works on certain areas, but I know I always feel better after!

In the meantime, don’t expect a lot of posts until next week, because I’ll be out like a belly-button for some well-deserved rest & recovery!

 

Apprehension

I looked up the WOD last night and was uneasy about the entire thing: from the warm-up to the WOD.

Source

 

Ever since I came back from Cuba, I’ve been feeling off my game (jet lag or just vacation mode?) at the gym and it doesn’t help that my calluses have been exfoliated down to nothing by the sand and ocean. Crossfire problems, I know!

I had looked up the warm-up and thought to myself: Geez, even that looks like a tough one. Yet, when I did it, it went way better than anticipated. I was really focusing on keeping the bar close to my thighs on the DL and keeping it close to my body on the power clean. I was afraid of landing the bar on my lovely bruise from the dropped bar on Monday (it’s nice and tender and turning a nice shade of brown/green), but it turns out I was landing the bar in a higher front rack, closer to my collar bone so I was good and never hit the bruise.

Skill: I teamed up with Tracey for the skill and she was beasting it at 140# for the entire 10 reps. I couldn’t remember what my 1RM was so I looked up my previous 10×1 EMOM and decided to go above that, which brought me to 110#. Turns out that was 96% of my 1RM and Coach Caleb had said to work up to 85-90% of our 1RM. Whoops! I managed all 10 reps fairly well, I just have to watch the dip on the up part. I was super nervous about the front squats because of the last time I had attempted them , my quad had seized up on me. Turns out I was fine and my sciatic didn’t even bother me.

WOD: I thought I had done Half Cindy before, but it turns out I had done different variations of Cindy, just not Half Cindy. I really wanted to try to do the pull-ups with the red band only, but had to add the purple band as well on my first round and I was upset at wasting time to do that. I really tried to not waste anymore time in-between each different exercises and would try to do a few reps before resting. My aim was to keep my elbows close to my body for the HRPU and  I also really tried to hustle on the front squats. I managed to finish 6 full rounds + 1 pull-up for a total of 181 reps. I don’t know how to compare that since it was my 1st time doing this WOD. Coach Caleb said that 10 rounds was good, so I’ll assume that 6+1 was somewhat ok for me.

Overall, the entire workout was much better than I had anticipated and I felt like I had my energy back. Hopefully I can keep it up today and really give a big push on the house cleaning. I’m so fed up with it and am now on the main floor, i.e.: kitchen, living room, dining room and half-bath. Not looking forward to cleaning all the kitchen shelves and behind the fridge 😦

 

Sigh

It’s been a busy week and I’ll try to recap quickly.

Last Monday was a Civic Holiday here and we enjoyed the day at the beach with Ben’s mom who was visiting from Kingston. We hiked to Mystic Beach and had fun in the sun and sand before we headed out for the typical lunch at Mom’s Café.

Béa’s natural summer highlights! I’d kill for these!

Rina, swinging from the rope swing on the beach

Cutie pie!

Rina, wave jumping

I had only 2 days at work before I was officially on vacation and although I was counting the hours on Wednesday. Let’s be real though, I kind of clocked out mentally around 1500, even though I was working until 1930. Nothing fazed me on that day and I was happy and lighthearted to make my way to my car at the end of the day! Off for a full month and I was more than ready for some time off. I already had 2 overtime calls to come in to work tonight so far… Not gonna happen!

I’ve spent yesterday and today getting some last minute shopping and making packing lists, getting everything organized and packed for our Cuban vacation! I can now say we are 98% ready to go, with little adjustments left to be done for our carry-on luggages.

I went to the Oly class yesterday morning and I was stoked to see Ryan show up: I wasn’t absolutely certain if there actually was a class or not and I was starting to think I’d gotten up at 0500 for nothing! Here’s what we did:

High hang, low hang, full squat snatch x6 E3M

Lots of rest for these and we were to work up to 75% of our 1RM. Mine was supposed to be 48.75#, but the closest I could get to was 48.5# (not enough small plates to make it a real 75%, but close enough). I was struggling on some reps and had to repeat a few, but as I warmed up, it felt smoother towards the end.

Squat Clean, Front Squat, Split jerk x6 E3M

Again, we were supposed to only go up to 75% of our 1RM so I used 67.5# for all my reps. The split jerk was unstable at times, but I managed all my reps. I was exhausted by the end! So much rest and yet, I was done for!

 

This morning, I woke up at 0500 again and I was still tired. I’ve been going to bed a little later than usual and I could definitely feel it this morning:

Source

I had misread the WOD last night and thought it was only 1 round. Gulp! There was no way I could do this RX seeing as my 1RM DL is 160# and my 1RM clean is 90#. That would have been cutting it too close to exhaustion and Coach Caleb wanted us to do close to 30 reps/30 secs. Sometimes, the guy cracks me up! 😉 No way I was going to achieve that either, but I was happy that I managed some pretty stable rep scheme throughout all rounds. I did FG with the following reps:

DL @ 115#:8-8-9-8-8

Front squats @ 65#: 9-9-9-8-8

DUs:5-7-8-11-12

Sometimes, I look at my reps and feel a bit discouraged at how low they are. Then, I analyze them in a different way and I’m pretty happy with my work. For example, my reps are low on the DL, but if you tally it all, it comes up to 4715 lbs moved in 2:30. For the front squats, it comes up to 2797 lbs squatted in the same amount of time.  As for my DUs, I only managed to string 8 in a row (last round), but they felt smoother with each rounds. Funny how I can do those better when I’m more physically tired. Maybe it’s because I’m not as tensed up?

I’m ready to put a hot pack on my shoulders and real for the evening before yet another busy day tomorrow!

I’m Out!

I woke up at 0430 this morning and as much as I tried to fall back asleep for 30 minutes, I just couldn’t. I finally got up at 0500 and got ready for the WOD. As I made my way downstairs, I realized we were out of chicken and I had no back-up plan for my pre-workout snack. This morning was just not panning out as I had anticipated.

I made my way to the Box and warmed-up for the WOD. My hamstrings were still tight from the lifting class on Sunday and I was apprehending the front squats.

Source

Skill: Front Squats EMOM x 10

We were supposed to work to 85% of our 1RM (120# for me) and that meant 102# for me. I warmed-up to 105# and although it felt hard, it was only 1 rep with lots of rest in between, so I thought I could pull it off and so did Coach Caleb. We started the first round and I felt ok. On my 2nd rep, I had a pinch in my right quad. I rubbed it off once I was done my rep and was hoping the rubbing would make it go away. On my 3rd rep, the pinching came back stronger and as I finished my rep, I knew I was done for today. I talked it through with Coach Caleb, went to the foam roller, the Lacrosse ball and the Airdyne (very slow and just as a recovery), but even with all that, I still couldn’t squat more than 25º without any pain. We had to split the class in two heats and Coach Caleb asked me if I was in. “I’m out!” was my answer. I went to sit myself down and ice my quad while cheering on the others.

It was frustrating, but there was nothing I could do about it and I’m smarter than to push through the pain. Maybe my quad was just over-compensating for my tight hamstrings. Hopefully, some rest will mean a quick recovery and I will be able to join Kathleen on our planned WOD over the weekend.

I came back home and shared my frustrations with my hubby. He made things better by making me coffee. There’s no word for how such a small gesture in the morning can remind me how much I am loved. It’s not a big thing, but I am always thankful and I never take it for granted. Babe, you are amazing and I love you! Not only did he make me coffee, but he also helped me out with the cleaning and the laundry and went out to get more chicken as well! That meant I was done with my chores early and was able to spend some time with the girls and treat them to a lunch out. They were pretty stoked and making my girls happy makes me happy in return, so even though the day started on a crappy note, it definitely got better. Now, I am looking forward to rubbing my quad with some arnica gel and relax on the couch before going for my nap and heading in for my night at work tonight.

Where’s My Tiger Blood At???

We had a busy Father’s Day yesterday, biking downtown to the first Victoria’s Car-Free day in the downtown core. There were tons of vendors out in the streets and the girls were in heaven when they got balloons (purple ones, obviously)! I was also pretty stoked to find myself a second bikini for our upcoming trip and I also found 2nd bathing suits for the girls for the same trip as well as new sandals for Béa (her toes were curling over the sole at the front of her old ones)! Overall, it was a nice sunny day, filled with lots of people and I was glad to come back home for dinner. Let me just say, there’s isn’t much Whole30-approved when you’re out and about in the real world! I came home to cook some hamburgers with my sous-chef (Rina) and I was surprised when she asked for “Maman’s meat” for dinner. Not only did she finish her 1st serving, she asked for seconds! Victory!

I fell asleep on the couch at 2100 last night.  I woke up at 2130 and went to bed, hoping for a full night of deep sleep. Yeah, that didn’t happen. The husband came to bed before I fell asleep and he fell quickly asleep (ahem, snoring, ahem) and then Béatrice was crying because her eczema was itchy and Rina was also awake with a bad dream. I must have fallen asleep around midnight.  SLEEP FAIL!

I woke up early and grumpy for the WOD:

Source

Skill: Deadlift 10×1 EMOM

We were to use the last weight we had used recently on our 5×5. Mine was 135# and that’s what I used. It felt good and somewhat easy. I felt like I could have gone a little heavier on those.

WOD: Froggy

I was tempted to try this one Rx, but knowing that I had not fueled, hydrated and slept properly yesterday, I went with FG2, with 65# on my bar. I had gone into it with the plan of breaking up my front squats as such, per rounds:

• 8-7-6 (21)
• 6-5-4 (15)
• 5-4 (9)

I stuck to my plan, except on the last round where I did 6-3 before going to the box jumps. Those were slow. I knew I was the last one to work on this, but I was hoping to be closer to the pack. No such luck. I finished at 8:05 and most people were around the 4-6 minutes. I felt discouraged. I sat and mulled on the floor. Mark and I got to talking and he said: “Even though you’re last, you still lapped everyone that stayed on the couch!” I told him this was motivation enough for maybe a year, but at close to 2 years of usually coming in last and so far behind everyone else, I needed something else. He told me to go home and blog about it to get it out of my system. He knows me better than I think he does! 😉

He’s right though. He said you have two options:

• find newer, slower people you can beat
• get faster at it

I guess I’ll just have to get faster at it! 🙂

At the same time, I need to cut myself some slack. I am not Wonder Woman and I can’t do it all. I do make Crossfit a priority because I choose to. Maybe I should have a “deload week” like Kathleen suggested where I cut back on my weights. Maybe it will be easier when Rina is out of school for the summer and the girls don’t have gymnastics either. I have to say, parenting has been a challenge for the past few months and I feel like I need a break. Our little vacation in Cuba cannot come soon enough! It will be nice to not have to clean, cook, do laundry and all that crap for 7 days. I plan on getting some much deserved rest, that’s for sure! For now, I just need to get a nap. Although, I think this will have to wait as I just heard Béatrice fall upstairs…

(…)

Tracey is kind enough to host a Whole30-friendly get-together tonight and I’m seriously wondering if it would be totally inappropriate to show up in my sweat pants. What do you think?

Right, nap first, then reassess! 😉

And that’s why I show up even when not in top shape!

*Tiger blood: As per Whole30:

Days 16-27: Tiger Blood!

You’ve hit the downhill slope of your Whole30 and life is beautiful—which means different things for different people. For some (generally people who came to the program eating well, exercising regularly, and feeling pretty good to begin with), Tiger Blood means someone flipped a switch and turned on the awesome. Energy is through the roof, cravings are under control, clothes are fitting better, workouts are stronger.

For others, this Tiger Blood stage feels more like a real sense of self-efficacy. It doesn’t mean things are perfect (or even easy), but you’re proving to yourself that you can do this, things are getting better, and you’re seeing improvements (small or large) almost daily. Your energy is steadier, you’ve got a firmer handle on the cravings, and you’re experimenting with new, delicious foods.  You may notice that your ability to focus is keener, your body composition is changing, your moods are more stable, you’re stepping up your exercise, or you’re just plain happier these days.

Of course, this may not happen like magic at the halfway point. There are a huge number of factors that influence which benefits you see and when. If you’re one of those folks who has hit the halfway mark and isn’t seeing or feeling the dramatic changes others have reported*, know this: You’re not doing it wrong. If you began the Whole30 with a medical condition, a long and rooted history of unhealthy food habits, or a chronically stressful lifestyle, your “magic” may take longer to appear, and probably won’t be a “light switch” moment. Don’t stress about whether you’re feeling honest-to-goodness “Tiger Blood”—be patient, and be on the lookout for small, gradual improvements to keep

– See more at: http://whole30.com/2013/08/revised-timeline/#sthash.sHD2loAh.dpuf

Back In The Saddle And Saving Grace

After a (very long to me) break of 13 days, I finally made my comeback to the Box this morning. I’m still snuffly and coughing, but I couldn’t face another day without a workout, so I dragged my butt out of bed at 0500 and got ready for the 0600 class. It felt good to be back. I warmed-up a little on my own, worked on my (still elusive) DUs (I managed 3 in a row) and I was happy to see the familiar faces I know so well and some new ones as well.  I had looked at the WOD last night and I knew I would be looking for my lung capacity on that one, with still being sick and all, but I was ready to tackle it.

 

Source

Skill: Front Squat 7×2 EMOM @ 85% 1RM

For me, that meant 100#. I was already feeling tired, but I stuck to that weight for all reps. I really need to work on keeping my chest up on the “up” and engage my glutes instead of leading up with my butt. Yeah, that was tiresome. I tried as best I could to correct my form, but just couldn’t do it today. 😦

 

WOD: Mullback Mile

I did FG1 for this one with the following modifications:

4 rounds of

• 400m run (ha!)
• 6x power clean @65#
• 12 SD box jumps

I knew 65# would be hard after all those squats and combined with the box jumps and the runs, but I was determined to do it at this weight. We set off and I quickly fell off the pack. Running is not my strong suit, running when sick, even less so. I still managed to “run” all my rounds without stopping, even though it felt like I was crawling at times, I just kept moving. Upon returning from my last run, I needed to get out of my head in order to forget the work left to accomplish once I got inside. I chose to focus on the majestic sunrise I was privy to watch on the downhill part of our running course:

My saving grace this morning

Don’t worry, I didn’t take this pic while I was running, I went back outside once I was finished to immortalize that gorgeous sunrise. 😉

I finished the WOD second-to-last at 18:14. Kris was still working and Mark was his usual gentleman and accompanied him (while he cheered me on) for his last run. It’s people like that who make all the difference when you are struggling during a WOD. I heard every encouragement and cheer coming my way. I may be too out of breath to answer back, but I hope “my people” know how much this means to me and how appreciated it is. I try to reciprocate whenever I catch my breath as well!

I came back home and Rina was complaining of having goobers in her eyes as well. Oh yeah, I ended back up in the walk-in clinic yesterday for Béatrice this time. She has pink eye and green crap was oozing out of both her eyes. She is now on antibiotics. That’s a total of 4 visits to the walk-in clinic in 2 weeks. Maybe I should cancel my Crossfit membership and take one at the walk-in clinic instead… On second thought, maybe not! I’d rather work out and be healthy than spending my days in a waiting room to see a doctor. I do enough sitting and doctors at work! 😉

Feeling Good

So, I started this 28-day detox last Monday (from Haylie Pomroy’s The Fast Metabolism Diet). It’s pretty much a paleo kind of diet that allows for legumes. It splits the week in 3 phases according to the days:

• Phase 1: Monday and Tuesday
• Phase 2: Wednesday and Thursday
• Phase 3: Friday, Saturday, Sunday

You eat certain foods according to the phase of the week. Some days are high carbs (sprouted grain and fruits), some days are heavy protein and some days are a combo of carbs, protein and healthy fats. You have to cut processed sugars, gluten, dairy, soy and caffeine and I did that cold turkey (cold cut just for you Krista if you happen to read 😉 ) I had a massive headache for 3 days at the beginning of all this last week, but I’m now fine. I still miss my coffee though and that’s one thing I plan on re-integrating when I’m done with this.

So far, I’ve lost 4.2lbs in a week, so yeah, the detox is working. I also feel more energized and felt like I had more stamina this morning during the WOD. All bonuses if you ask me! It takes a lot of planning and prep, but it’s giving me results so I’m going to stick with it and re-assess at the end of the 28 days.

Here’s what I had stamina for this morning:

I worked on my DUs and managed to slow down my speed on the jumps in order to have the same speed when I do a single and when I do a DU. I managed to get 10, not in a row, but in a much smaller time than before, so I guess it’s slowly working. I just have to keep at it! (Thanks Linda and Mark for the inspiration and the tips)

Source

Skill: Push Jerk 6×3 E90s

Those felt good at the beginning and I found myself struggling with 70#, but I kept going and managed a new PR at 80#. My shoulders were definitely feeling it!

55#-60#-65#-70#75#-80#

WOD: Escalator

There were a lot of us so 7 of us agreed to do the front squat from the ground instead of from the rack. The one perk was that if we clean squatted it, that squat counted towards our reps. I scaled with these modifications:

• HSPU: I did those from 2×5# plates + 1 yoga block stacked. I did a mix of strict and kipping reps
• C2B: red and blue bands of those. I managed to string 5 in a row
• Front squat: 65# from the ground

I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to finish all rounds within the time cap, but I was pretty happy with where I ended up: 8 full rounds + 5 HSPU.

All this HSPU gave me quite the hairdo and I only realized once I got home:

Instant pompadour!

I got a chance to talk to Coach Phil (sub-ing in for Coach Caleb) about the Open coming up and I think I will register in the scaled category in order to be able to do more of the workout and enjoy myself!

Alright, I have to leave the computer in order to cook some meals in advance for this week since I’m back to work in a few days!

Double Unders And Weak Bladders

I am off work until December 13 and I plan on making the most of my time at the Box until I get back to work! I started off this morning with this:

 

It was cold this morning. So cold that the lock of my car door was frozen in the “open” position and I had to hold my car door closed while I was driving. Good thing I didn’t have to drive too far in order to get my workout in! It was cold when I got in the Box and I hopped on the death bike Airdyne for a few minutes in order to warm-up. It worked well and then, I went to stretch for the WOD. To be honest with you, the warm-up kind of felt like a WOD in itself, but it helped with getting warm!

Source

 

WOD: Spealler Virtuosity

That was a short one, but we had to split the class in two heats since there was so many of us. I really wanted to try the FG2, but I warmed up my squats with 85# and I could barely do 2 in a row before having to re-rack the bar. I decided to go down to FG1 and use 75# instead.  I was in the 1st heat and I managed to do the first set of 10 front squats without having to rack my bar. I then moved on to the burpees. I did my first set geriatric-style and managed to jump the 6″ to touch the pull-up bar for each rep. That was the 1st time we ever did burpees with the mandatory 6″ jump. It went better than I originally thought. I then got onto the rig for my pull-ups. I had the red and blue band and got so much momentum that I ended up doing C2B for all my reps.

The second round was harder. I had to rack my bar after 5 front squats, did 3 more before I racked it again and finished up my last 2 reps. I moved onto the burps and forced myself to do them the proper way before getting onto the rig for the C2B. I finished with a time of 6:09. At first, I was kind of disappointed in myself for my time and the weight I used. I really wanted to do 95#. I know I have to be patient with myself and my progress. I’m really trying to focus on nutrition lately and am doing the 40-30-30 Formula / Zone with hopes of losing some fat without losing muscle mass. Thinking back on it, I did end up squatting 1500lbs in just a little over 6 mins so it’s not too bad in itself, but I want to be faster and stronger. Baby steps, Val, baby steps!

After I was done and while the 2nd heat was giving it a go, I decided to work on my double unders for a bit. I wanted to practice until I did a total of 20 DUs. Now, I’ve never talked about it on the blog before, but I’ve had 2 kids in 2 years so my bladder isn’t as strong as it used to be. No matter how much I make sure to empty it before doing any heavy lift (Squats, mainly) or jumping (burpees, DUs), there is always a small amount of leakage happening. This morning was particularly brutal in that department. I was afraid during my DUs that I’d have to mop the floor once I was done. It didn’t get to that point, but let’s just say I was a tad uncomfortable. 😦

I found out the ever-cheerful M. at Crossfit is expecting a girl and that sparked all kinds of knitting tingles and thinking about girly projects I could cast-on. I’ll have to have a look at my Revelry library and pick a few projects to get going on! 😉

Team Throwdown

 

Today was my first Crossfit Team Throwdown. It was an in-house team competition and was meticulously run by Coach Cam and his lovely wife Michelle. I’m always impressed at how well-put-together and on time these events are run. Today was no different. My first event started at 1215 and I showed up a little earlier to warm-up and meet my teammates (Jaclyn, Matt and Kristjan). I knew some of them from seeing them around the box, but had never formally introduced myself so once we got the official introductions out of the way, we decided to talk strategy a bit. Someone asked me if I had the girls with me today and I replied:

No, today is my me-time. Although, I’m not sure what it says about me that I want to use my me-time to come and compete in a Crossfit Team Throwdown, but here I am!

Here were the events:

Source

We were to do WOD 1a, followed by a rest of 5 mins and then move on to WOD 1b. Jaclyn and I warmed-up for the strict presses and then off we went. I finished with a 1RM of 70#, which is a 5# PR from my previous one. I had one very slanted attempt at 75# in which my left arm kept going up higher while the right one just stayed about eye level. I eventually gave up on that one and tried for a second attempt at that weight, but failed again. Still a PR though! 🙂

I then moved onto the strict pull-ups and although I did mine with the red and blue bands, they would count towards a tie breaker if there were such a case. I managed 11 banded pull-ups.

Then, it was onto the WOD 1b. I was registered for the event in the FG category. I was the last member of our team to tackle this one and although I was deathly afraid of slowing us down, I decided to go RX for all the moves, except the DUs, which I did TG (60 singles). We had a time-cap of 60 mins for that one and I brought the rear for our team finishing at 58:42. I even managed to keep all my rowing under 2:08 avg/500m which was really strong for me.

I then came back home to fuel up (I hadn’t packed any food with me as I knew I needed a break in order not to get in my head too much) and was unpleasantly surprised to come home to this:

Somebody used our fence as a canvas 😦

That tag is about 5′ long and about 3′ tall. We had just painted the fence back in August too 😦 I made a report with the police and then fuelled up before heading back in to the Box for our second round of Skills and WODs.

My goal for the front squats was 105#. I warmed up to 95# and that felt heavy already. My sciatica was acting up already and no amount of foam rolling would help. I was surprised when 105# came and went. I ended up at 115#. Not too bad considering I had just PR’d on my 1RM at 120# Another PR for a 3RM for my front squats! Yay!

I tried a HSPU to 1 yoga block and although I was able to get down to the block, I just couldn’t get myself back up. I then had just enough time to complete 1 wall walk.

We had 5 mins to rest (ha!) / set up for the next WOD. I decided to stick with the FG category for this one, which meant, lying rope climbs, 10# wall balls, 20″ over box jumps and 25# plate ground-to-overhead. The first round of box jumps were a bit painful as my legs were still a bit swollen and tight from my fall earlier this week, but I loosened up quickly and managed not to injure myself anymore today! Here’s what my legs looked like this morning. The blood has somehow pooled at my ankles now and it looks a lot worst than it actually is.

Never want to experience that again!

Blood pooling at my ankles

I can’t remember what our score was, but I know it was in the 900’s for that one. I know it certainly wasn’t thanks to me because I’m pretty sure I only contributed to about 15-17% of that score, but we apparently won that WOD. I didn’t stay until the score announcement as I was already feeling the general soreness invading my body and wanted to make it home before I wouldn’t be able to move anymore! My teammates just shared the news via Facebook! Go team! I came home to a take-out dinner ready to be engulfed and then this:

Another 20 mins of soaking all by myself! Well, almost by myself if you exclude creepy mermaid Barbie stalking me and my bruised up shins!

It was nice to relax my tired muscles by candlelight and soak for a bit before we were treated to meltdown #367 because Rina didn’t have her polka-dot pyjamas pants. They are in the laundry and I was too busy to wash them today. She didn’t want to wear any other pants so I settled the matter by telling her she could just wear her undies to go to bed tonight while I threw a load of laundry in the washing machine. I just didn’t have it in me to fight her for something silly like pj pants. I am currently sitting with my hot water bottle on my lower back while my lovely other half is snoring next to me on the couch. All before 9pm. We live exciting lives, I tell you!