Can You Lift?

Over the Christmas break, Ben and I went out to buy a new sectional for our living room in order to finally get rid of our futon. As Ben was putting away the mattress of the futon to make room for the new couch to be delivered, I started moving the frame by myself. Just as I was bending down to lift it up on its side, Ben stopped and asked:

Can you lift?

Hahaha! Can I lift?!? Yeah, I can lift this empty maple couch frame all by myself! Not a problem honey! Thanks for making sure though! I know he meant “Are you too sore to lift”, but I was just fine! It made me laugh. I almost replied back:

Yeah bro, I can lift!

The couch is nice and our living room will be a much nicer place to sit and cuddle and watch movies once the buyer of our futon comes to pick it up! Although, I don’t think the girls mind at all!

Feeling right at home on the new sectional!

I was happy to get up early this morning and squeeze in a WOD before all the relatives arrive later this morning!

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WOD: Triphasic

I asked Coach Caleb about scaling this one down in order to get the recommended recovery time, but then, he looked at me with a smirk and said: “It’s only a suggestion!” Alrighty then! I was gearing up for a 30-min workout without any recovery!

We split the 1st part in two heats: 5 of us started with the 2nd WOD while the remaining 4 started with the 1st one. It was chilly and windy (so much so that I kept my hoodie on for the run part) and the stars were shining bright in the dark sky this early in the morning. I quickly fell behind the pack in the running and was not quite about half way when the lovely Tracey double-backed and ran with me. Where we run on the street, there are often homeless people and beggars on the street corner and she didn’t want me to run by myself in the dark early morning, seeing as there was an abandoned shopping cart with stuff in it. She ran alongside me for a bit and once the car traffic picked up, she picked up to her pace and I was trotting along behind. I finished the 800m in just under 5 mins. Not the best, but also not my worst time. I then tackled the 30 pull-ups with the red and blue bands. I probably could have done them with the red and purple, but I was trying to maintain a bit of rest in the WODs. I managed to break the pull-ups into sets of 5, except for my last set which I broke into 3-2. I finished this one in 7:44

I caught my breath quickly and then got ready for the 2nd WOD. I rowed 21 cals, then did 21 HRPU Rx, then rowed 15 cals followed by 15HRPU Rx. As I was completing the HRPU, Coach Caleb told me to keep my feet together during the HRPU in order to maintain a better plank and avoid the snake-ing motion. It felt more efficient as well, so I was glad he gave me that cue! I rowed my 9 cals and did my 9HRPU. I finished in 7:14. Great! I had a bit of time to recover for the last WOD!

I still haven’t mastered my DUs so I asked Coach Caleb if I could sub them with 60 singles for all rounds (instead of scaling back to 30 singles for each rounds) and he said yes. I got myself a 35# KB, but I also brought a 26# one on  my mat, just in case. I surprised myself by doing all 5 rounds with the 35# KB. My 4th round was hard and my 8th-9th-10th reps were all broken ones because I kept dropping the KB at the top of my swing. For my 5th round, I broke the swings in 2×5 and finished the WOD in 6:37 for a total time of 21:35. I was pretty happy with that and although I was really dreading this entire WOD, it was a lot more fun than I anticipated! Now, I’m all showered up and ready to tackle the day! I have a lot on my list: running a few errands and working on our new nanny contract before she starts next week!

New Traditions

We celebrated Christmas yesterday morning by having breakfast with my in-laws (eggs, sausages and coffee) and then, we all sat in the living room and opened up presents. I have to admit I had so much fun watching the girls opening up their presents. There truly is something magical about re-discovering Christmas though the eyes of a child. I was just as happy as Rina when she opened up the box containing her purple unicorn and to see Béatrice kissing her own pink unicorn was priceless:

Full of love!

After the gift opening, we took everyone for a walk to the closest playground for some fun in the chilly Christmas day:

Her gorgeous brow eyes!

Rosy cheeks from the crisp air!

She kept singing: “Up in the sky!” when I was pushing her on the swing!

No snow for us, but plenty of dead leaves on the ground for Christmas

I would have posted some pics of Rina, but she was making a grumpy face on all the shots I took of her yesterday 😦

We were also able to live some of the Christmas magic as I was able to convince Ben to go walk downtown Victoria to go see the Christmas lights in action at the Parliament. You see, my wonderful husband doesn’t like it when we do non-physical family activities, so I had a bit of convincing to do, but with the help of my in-laws, we all packed up in two cars and headed downtown. It was perfect! Seeing as it was December 25 and around 4-5pm, there was barely anybody in the streets, making it easy to find parking and take wonderful pictures of the deserted streets. Below are some of my favourite shots I took:

The Parliament is on the left, blurry on purpose

Some of the Parliament buildings, all lit up.

The Empress Hotel from the Inner Harbour

The Inner Harbour

Christmas day sunset on the Inner Harbour

The moon, the Parliament and the Inner Harbour

Merry Christmas!

This morning, I was able to lounge in bed for a bit before I had a hearty breakfast and headed out for the Box for this:

Skills: Back Squat 6×3 E2M

I paired up with Tracey for these. My last PR for these were at 110#. I was going for 115#, but my math being what it is, I ended up my 6th round at 120# and even though my last rep was hard and I struggled to come out from the bottom, I managed to do it! Yay! A 10# PR on a 3-rep isn’t too shabby! The amazing Tracey managed 150#!!! I was in awe! She made it look easy too! Something to aspire to, fo’ sho’!

WOD: Baseline

This one is a basic one for our Box. I had first done it at the beginning of my On-Ramp program and finished in 7:55, using the black (widest) band and doing knee push-ups. The last time I did it was at the end of my On-Ramp program and I had done it in 6:55, using the black band and doing my HRPU from my knees. We had to separate into two heats today and I was part of the second one. I took two short breaks during the air squats (one after 10 reps, just to catch my breath, the other after 25 reps, to stretch my hip flexors a bit) and managed to do all the sit-ups unbroken. I was struggling through the push-ups, but I managed to do them all full HRPU, no knee push-ups for me, no siree! 😉 I then moved onto the pull-ups and they were hard. I broke them into 3-3-2-2. I finished in 7:35. Smack between my 2 previous times, but really, this was a PR for me as well, considering I did all my HRPU Rx and used way smaller bands for my pull-ups! A good day of hard work! 🙂 When the girls wake up from their nap, we will be going out to buy our new sectional for our living room! I’m so thrilled to say that I will finally be rid of our futon! It has served us well over the years, but at 36-years-old, I am ready for a REAL couch in my life! 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful Holiday season! Mine just keeps getting better and better!

Marital Thanks

It is Thanksgiving here in Canada and I thought I would take this opportunity to give thanks to the most important and amazing man in my life: my husband.

We both work crazy schedules and hours and he is most understanding of my need to escape and get some alone time. Lately, I’ve been struggling with being a full-time mother and although I love my daughters to no end, I also sometimes wish I wasn’t a mom. Let’s get real here.

We moved 5000km away from friends and family 6 years ago and have made the decision to start a family knowing full-well that we wouldn’t have any family support. We are adults and understand the consequences to our decision, but that doesn’t mean it’s always a walk in the park. Wanna go out for coffee with your friends? Oh wait, either you drag along the kiddlets (forget about uninterrupted grown-up talk) or, even worst, even going together as a couple since that involves getting a babysitter (make that coffee about $25 please and thank you).

Yesterday, I was trying to explore our neighbourhood and going out to see a park with some walking trails. I was trying to capture some of the fall foliage with my camera and decided to give my husband a break by taking both girls to the park with me and luring them by calling it a “hiking park”. I packed Béatrice in the hiking backpack (it’s mostly uphill from our house to the park) and carried her until we got to the park. Once there, I let her walk since the grounds were mostly levelled. We did very little exploring because as soon as we hit the trails, Rina had “to go poopoo” even though I asked her repeatedly if she needed to go before we left home. I asked her if she could hold it in for a little bit and her answer was “Maybe”. Hmmm.  A bit dodgy coming from an almost 4-year-old.

A few minutes of snapping some shots and walking around exploring before I recognized the all too familiar wiggle of the “I need to go” quickly followed by some whining and more wriggling about (is she a human or a dog?!?) before she finally announced she “really had to go now”.

I didn’t have any bags with me, wipes or any toilet paper and this child has been hiking since she was a newborn, so we did the natural thing: I dropped her pants down in a bushy area, got her to squat and she did her business in the grass while I foraged for some wet leaves to wiper her bum with… See what I mean? A little 1hr-long walk and you can’t even leave the house without an arsenal of equipment! 😉 After that little poopisode, Rina was pretty much done with hiking and wanted to go back home. Here are a few of my shots before we made our way back home

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So this morning, I was very thankful for my lovely husband to let me off the hook for the morning. I got to go to Crossfit AND coffee with a friend without having to worry about the girls. I knew he would get them to run around the squash club chasing and hitting balls with rackets (perks of marrying a squash pro) and I got some greatly needed “me-time”. Did the girls have McDonald’s cupcakes and cookies for lunch? They sure did! Do I mind? Not one bit! It’s all about give and take and I needed alone time more than I needed my kids fed nutritious foods. I’m very grateful for my husband taking notice that I was in dire need of some alone time and for him to make sure I TOOK this time for myself. It’s not always easy parenting when you live away from family, but having a wonderful and understanding husband helps a ton. I am grateful to have you in my life and to give me breaks when I need them. Babe, you truly are the best and although I nag and complain a lot, know that I love you and am tremendously grateful to have you in my life. I wouldn’t have it any other way, good days and bad ones! 🙂

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Skill: Handstands and Kipping Pull-ups

I chose to work on those two skills for the 15 mins. I started with the kipping pull-ups. I was trying to make them a bit more challenging seeing as I’ve been using the red and blue bands for a long time now. I tried doing them with the red only, but no such luck. I had to add the purple band to it as well. I managed to string 3 in a row and once I got to talking to Coach France about the movement, I got too much in my head and focused about the pushing back down and couldn’t figure it out anymore. I’ll just need to practice them more!

As for the handstands, I managed to prop myself up on the wall very easily and according to Laura, My kick-up was very fluid and graceful. It felt good and almost felt like I won’t need the wall for much longer. Once I stabilized off the wall, I also managed a few reps of balancing on my own! 🙂 Progress!

WOD: Turkey Trot

This one was tough and I somehow knew running would be involved in today’s WOD. I even called it to Ben last night before the WOD was posted! 😉

I did the FG2 with the following modifications: 5 rounds for time of

• 400m run with a 14# ball
• 15 Taters with a 26#KB

The 3rd round was the hardest and although I was completely exhausted and dead last to finish, the 5th round was good. I managed to run for the entire stretch. Mind you, I don’t know if walking with a slight bounce could be qualified as running, but that’s what I did nonstop before heading back inside and doing the Taters non-stop as well. Looking back, I feel like I should have strategize a little better and set a goal for this WOD: either run all the rounds non-stop or do my Taters non-stop for every rounds. I feel like I was all over the place with both parts of this WOD and it might have been my demise. I brought back the rear and finished in 25:49. Good times!

I wish all my Canadian a happy Thanksgiving and may you be as lucky as I am to have an understanding partner who allows you to focus on yourself once in a while! 🙂

 

Christmas WOD aka Screaming Rudolph

I read the Box’s blog last night and I knew I should be bracing myself for today’s WOD. Heck, the warmup felt like a WOD!

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I totally wimped out for the warm-up and used the training bar (about 15#, but I’m not sure). I just wanted to save my energy for the skill and the WOD. To be honest, I’m not sure I could have done the push-press with an empty 35# bar…

For the skill, I was aiming for a new PR of 95#, but on my 90# rep, my form left a little bit to be desired, so I stayed at 90#. Not a new PR, but it has been my max so it’s not like I failed either! 😉 Here were my reps:

75#-80#-85#-90#-90#

For the WOD, I was paired up with Amrit and Kevin. There were 6 of us that showed up this morning and, once again, I was the only girl, while 2 out-of-towners showed up and someone else who usually comes later in the day. Coach Caleb split us up in two teams of 3 (the usual 0600 class against the “newcomers”). We finished with a total combined score of 638 (my contribution was 175 or 27% of our total score. Not too bad, but not quite 1/3 f our score which is where I’d like to be. Mind you, my partners are STRONG LIKE OX, so I can’t really complain for my share).

I modified with 25# Plate Floor to Overhead and 21# KB Goblet walking lunges.

The lunges killed me. I was grunting and screaming to get through my last set like I never have before. The last time I screamed in pain like this was during my delivery of Béatrice into this world. It was that bad! It just felt like everything today was focused on hamstrings and glutes and my glutes were seizing by the time we were done with the WOD. I have never been so happy to roll my butt and sit on a Lacrosse ball in my entire life! There is no Crossfit on Wednesday as it’s Christmas and I was pretty keen on going Thursday AND Friday to make up for Wednesday, but judging by how sore my glutes already are, I might need the rest! Now, I have to go clean half the apartment and let’s just say I’m glad my mother-in-law has offered to make chill for dinner tonight! 🙂

If I don’t blog until then, Merry Christmas to all my readers. It is a pleasure to know I am not alone in this and, please, leave comments; I love to hear from you all! 🙂

From my family to yours, may you have a very Merry Christmas with your loved ones!

 

Jan. 2, 2011: Happy New Year!

Hello precious girl!

 

In your daddy’s hand

We had some friends over to come celebrate the New Year and although it was a small gathering, we had tons of food and tons of fun. I fell asleep on the couch and your dad came to wake me up 5mins before midnight. So much for partying it up! Overall, the holidays this year were priceless and you are a big part of it. We are slowly falling into a routine and I don’t know if it’s thanks to the probiotics we have been giving you, or because I am more relaxed about the whole feeding issue, but you’ve had a complete turn around and are much calmer and not as colicky anymore. You’ll cry for maybe a total of 2hrs/day, which is nothing really, and as soon as you burp or toots, you calm right down. The sun has also been making an appearance for the past week and I’ve taken every opportunity to take you out for a walk to enjoy it. It helps my mental state a lot and it puts you to sleep usually! 🙂

For Christmas, your dad and I were keeping it low profile when it came to presents. I got him a jacket he had seen months before (and miraculously, he didn’t run out and buy it before Christmas!) and a travel tea mug. He got me a gorgeous white gold ring that has my birthstone in the middle and a few diamonds on each side. He calls it the “Pushing Ring” as it was a combined present for Christmas and for bringing you into the world. It’s very beautiful and I catch myself staring at it a lot 🙂 The best Christmas present we gave each other though, is displayed below:

 

Gorgeous Rina!

 

We were also lucky enough to have had another photo shoot  with Tannis and she took all the pictures featured in this post! She did a fantastic job, as always and we are tremendously lucky to get to know such a talented photographer! Here are a few of your dad and I giving you some lovin’!

Your Mamie (French grandmother, my mom) will be here in 8 days to come and meet you and spend some time with us! I can’t wait to be able to spend some time with her! As for you, on our most recent doctor’s visit, you had grown by 2cm and had put on an extra 7.5oz. You are between the 25-50% for your weight and in the 80% for your height! You’ll be tall and skinny apparently (who are you really? Obviously not my child!) with your big blue eyes (they haven’t changed color yet) and your blond wispy hair! It’s a good thing I pushed you out because I wouldn’t believe you are mine otherwise!

Our love for you grows daily and we cannot imagine it will ever stop. You make us laugh on a daily basis and we love interacting with you. Already, you have us wrapped around your little finger and we wouldn’t have it any other way! I can’t wait to see what this year will have in store for this new family!

 

Love,

Mom & Dad Xxo