Apprehension

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

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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 😦

 

Meeting Inspiration

I am so lucky to get to work out next to people I really look up to for inspiration! Most days, I am coached by an amazing Coach, but he is also a very strong competitor, the one and only Caleb Woiwod. Sometimes, I get to work out next to Lindsay McCardle who is just warming up on the floor (no big deal, this girl makes it to Regionals on a regular basis)! I also get to tackle some lifts while Lucas Parker drops his barbell when he does DL in the corner. I try not to cringe at the noise his bar make when it hits the floor. That bar is HEAVY, let me tell you! Then, there are the lesser known (to you)  people I look up to, like Tracey, Mark, and all my buddies in the 0600 class.

This morning, I got to meet Rachel Siemens. Rachel started as a Crossfitter and is now solely focusing on weightlifting. She is mighty(!) good at it too! She is ranked 3rd in her weight class in Canada and is pretty down to earth. I’ve been following her on Instagram and her lifts are impressive and she seems pretty goofy too! I bit the bullet and introduced myself. I’m pretty sure I sounded a little star-struck (combined with the high of my new PR, more on that below!), but I don’t really care. She talked about setting up a weight lifting class on Sundays and that would be awesome!

Let me back track and have a look at what we did this morning:

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Skill: Back squat 6×3 E90s

I was a little apprehensive trying those again. I’ve been missing a lot of the back squat skills on this rotation (a girl’s gotta work!) and the last time I tried these, I couldn’t repeat my PR of 125# and had to settle for 120#. I wasn’t super optimistic about surpassing 125# today, but I was still going to try it. Here were my reps:

105#-110#-115#-120#-125#-130#

That’s right! Not only did I manage my PR weight, I ended up with a new one! I was really focusing on keeping my knees out on the “up” and even though I was shaking in between rounds, I managed to get all 3 reps! I was beaming! That means I’m only 18# away from √’ing another one of my goals: hitting a bodyweight squat! 🙂

WOD: Boulder Shoulder

Sarah Showed up for the WOD this morning. I can’t remember if I’ve ever worked out with her, but she looked really good! I think she is recovering from an injury, but even in recovery mode, she kicked some serious butts! I was mesmerized by her pull-ups! I still finished dead last, but I was happy about my work today. Maybe I was flying high from my squat PR! 😉 Coach Caleb said that the previous times were from 4-5 mins to about 10. I was aiming for around 12:00 since I’m usually a lot slower than the average.  Here’s what I ended up doing:

• red and orange pull-ups
• full HRPU
• Rx AKBS @ 35#

I was really trying to hustle on this one, but the pull-ups did me in. I broke them into 4-3, 3-4, 3-2-2, 3-2-2, 3-2-2. As you can see, I wasn’t able to keep my consistency throughout the rounds. I did manage all the HRPU Rx, but I had to take breaks throughout the rounds: 9, 5-4, 9, 6-3, 6-3. I was pretty proud that I did manage to do all the AKBS Rx non-stop for each rounds. That’s probably what stopped me from reaching my original thought of time of 12:00 and I finished at 10:27. Not stellar by any means, yet I am super happy with this time! Celebrate the little victories in life!

Overall, it’s been another great day at the Box and I was energized to come home to do my usually pre night shift cleaning, laundry, blah, blah, blah! Ben took the girls to their gymnastics class this morning, which helped a lot. At one point, the washer and dryer were both off and there was absolutely no noise in the house. It was something I’m not used to, but it was nice while I finished my coffee! Hope your day is going well too! Until next time!

Getting Under

I was very much looking forward to going for a workout this morning, then, upon waking up, I was met with a crying, clingy Rina, eyes full of dried secretions, stuffy nose and a harsh cough. I cuddled with her a little, then it was Béa’s turn to start to cry, so I cuddled her as well and finally rushed to get ready for the Box. I was pooped and the day hadn’t even started yet! 😦

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Skill: Power Clean 8×2 E90s

Coach Caleb said we should work up to a heavy double. I knew that if I started at 55#, I would finish at 95# and I honestly don’t think I had it in me this morning. Here’s what I did instead:

65#-70#-70#-75#-80#-80#

Whenever I repeated the weight was because I didn’t feel confident in my reps, so I repeated in order to get it just right. I then tried 85#, managed my 1st rep and could not for the life of me repeat it for a second one. I rested longer, and managed my second rep. Coach Caleb came by and, just like for my snatch, I have a mental blockage about getting under the bar. I stayed at 85# and repeated my 2 reps with much better ease and confidence. I need to stop over- analyzing the movement and just do it!

WOD: 21-7

I knew I would have to do FG1 because of my pull-ups but I wanted to challenge myself and I did by starting with the red band only (I normally use the red and purple). I managed 3 rounds without the help of the extra band, but I ended up using both bands for the rest of the workout. I did all my push ups from my toes and I was amazed at how easy they felt once I remember to keep my feet together. Air squats was when I would try to recover. I managed 6 full rounds and completed 4 pull-ups into the next round, which gave me a score of 214.

I came back home and kept Rina home with me while Ben took Béa to gymnastics class. I cleaned up the upstairs, finished 3 loads of laundry and then took the girls for a quick errand to the grocery store. Rina was so lethargic, she asked that I pick her up. Good thing I work out! Carrying a 4 year-old, a grocery bag and managing a 2 year-old through a parking lot is no small feat!

I came home and took the car seats out of my car as I’m bringing my car to get fixed in the morning and they will give me a loaner in the meantime. I was rear-ended 2 weeks ago and my rear bumper was dented, hence bringing my car to get fixed.

Once I was done fiddling with the car seats, I came back inside and here’s what was awaiting on the couch:

She looks so rough!

Now if you excuse me, I need to go fold 3 loads of laundry and take care of a sick child before heading in to work for my night shift! Phew!

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)

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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!

Beetlejuice Hard At Work

I woke up this morning and dragged my feet to the bathroom in order to get ready for the Box. I turned the lights on and this is pretty much what I saw staring back at me in the mirror:

 

Beetlejuice hair!

I had a bad case of crazy hair going on! I did a half ponytail which helped little to make matters better, but I honestly couldn’t care at this point. It was 0500 and I was heading in to workout. Nobody expects me to look my best when I do a WOD. Another perk of Crossfit! 😉

Jumana showed up for the early morning class and I hadn’t seen her in a long time! It was nice to see her again and to goof around with her. I paired up with her for the skill.

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Skill: Push Press 5×5 E90s

Those were hard and Jumana was crushing it like they were nothing. I was struggling a little more, but I still managed a 5# PR with my last reps being at 85#.

My reps: 65#-70#-75#-80#-85#

There was a lot of us gearing up for the WOD and it made finding a spot on the rig to do my pul-lups a little challenging, but we all figured it out and then we were off.

WOD: Chups

14 min AMRAP of:

• 6 pull-ups (I scaled mine to the blue and purple bands, kipping. I’m sure I could have done the red and purple bands, but all the red bands were being used by other people)
• 8 HRPU
• 10 AKBS (35#)
• 12 reverse lunges (6/leg)

I remembered to keep my feet together for the HRPU and I was able to do 3 rounds without taking any breaks for those. I wasn’t moving very fast through the rounds, but I kept moving for the most part. I tried to use the reverse lunges as a recovery as much as I could. I have come to the conclusion that I’m really not a fan of the American kettle bell swing. At 35#, I can do them, but they are a challenge and I just don’t feel comfortable when I do them. I managed to do 6 rounds even (216 reps total) I was happy with that because, like I said earlier, I tried to keep moving as much as I could throughout this one. I remember looking at the clock around the 6-min mark and thinking I wasn’t gonna make it. I looked at the clock again around the 8-min mark and felt so discouraged that we weren’t further into this one that I just decided to keep working and not look at the clock anymore. It worked! I finished and I was happy with what I’d done!

Rina is back in preschool today and I’m just blogging on the couch with  little Béa snuggled up to me! It’s raining pouring outside and once I’m done folding the laundry, I plan to just rest and relax before heading in to work tomorrow! Wish me luck, I’m on a 28-day detox and that means no caffeine, no sugar and no gluten. Sounds like fun, but I have goals and this is a means to get to my goals!

 

 

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!

Embrace The Suck!

Not much to say this morning other than it was another cold morning heading in to the Box for my workout:

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http://crossfitviccity.com/size-and-strength

Skill: HSPU+ rope climb

I finally managed to get 1 kipping HSPU from the yoga block + 3×2.5# plates. I was so excited that I got out of my handstand and wasn’t able to get back to it afterwards since my shoulders were getting tired. I’m just glad I finally managed to do one though as it was very elusive to me before today. I credit Tracey and her wonderful advice to push towards the ceiling with my feet! 🙂 I tried a regular rope climb, but even with my long sock, I wasn’t able to tolerate the pain on the scabs remaining on my shins. I did lying down ones instead.

WOD: Triow

Kevin was back and he needed to do the Airdyne instead of the rowing since he’s still recovering from surgery. Tracey was also doing Aridyne because her shoulder was bothering her so I offered to be their 3rd partner for the WOD on the death bike Airdyne. That’s right, I actually volunteered for the Airdyne. I guess I was all about embracing the suck or something. Marika also offered to team up with us so we then split up into two teams of 2  (I was with Kevin) and made up an imaginary 3rd partner. We ended up adding an extra rest period for each round to make up for our missing partner. Here’s what we had to do distance-wise on the ‘dyne:

• 0.35 x3 (each partner)
• 0.75
• 0.35 x3 (each partner)
• 0.75

Coach Caleb had given us the wrong distance for the first interval so we all ended up doing 0.45 instead of 0.35. Bleh! My goal for today was to simply not stop and not take my hands from the handles. I just wanted to keep pushing for each interval and I managed to do so! During the struggle, I would just close my eyes, focus on the music and try to keep up the cadence to the rhythm of the music. It worked!  We had to come up with team names and the theme was Galactic Warriors. I suggested and Schwinners (Schwinn is the brand of the death bike) of the Universe and Kevin agreed. We finished in 36:42. It was a long one and I was glad it was over! I guess I’m slowly getting fitter since I didn’t stop at all during the intervals, just like I can now run (very slowly albeit, but run nonetheless) all the intervals when running is involved! Yay. Slowly getting there!

I am very much looking forward to tomorrow’s Skills Plus class and see what’s in store for us!

A Good Day

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

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

 

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Skill: Kipping pull-ups 5x20sec E2M

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

WOD: Grunt

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

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

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

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

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

All dolled-up and nowhere to go!

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

Cutie with a fringe!

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