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?

Beast Mode!

I got up early today to get Rina ready for school and as soon as she got up, she came to our bedroom for a muscle flexing throwdown. That’s her new thing lately, she flexes and show me her big muscles. I think she puts as much tension in her face as she does in her biceps! It kills me every time!

So intense… Beast Mode!

I cropped out the pic in order to avoid child nudity and what you can’t see in the background is my husband in bed, half awake with a look on his face that says “What the …”! also priceless!

We made it to the bus stop in time, but I swear, that bus gets there earlier and earlier everyday! I ran some quick errands and came back home to get ready for the WOD:

I warmed up and decided to try a TTB on the rig. Something magical happened! I managed one rep on my 1st attempt! After 2 years, I could finally √ that one off my goal list! I was so freaking happy, I may have done a cartwheel! I tried to get a second one and it didn’t happen, but still I was pumped!

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Skill: (Widowmaker) Back Squat 1×20

I had been texting with Kathleen and she strongly recommended I used 85# for these, even though I was planning on using 78#. Whaddyaknow! Apparently, friends know me better than I know myself since it felt like I sandbagged it a little. I think I could have gone up to 87.5# or even 90#. The last 2 reps were a bit more of a struggle, but otherwise, it was good.

As for the WOD itself, it was a no score one, but I kept a tally of my reps & cals/rounds and here’s what I ended up scaling down to:

• Ring rows: 8-7-7-9
• walking lunges with KB (26#): 11-11-12-13
• L-sits (instead of strict TTB): 7-8-8-8
• Row (cals): 7-7-7-8
• HSPU (from box): 7-8-8-4

On my last round of the HSPU, I didn’t position my hands properly and wasted a lot of time trying to get a rep in, to finally reposition my hands and get going. Oh well, I’ve been on a high ever since I’ve come back home. To look back and reminisce about how frustrated I was 2 years ago to not be able to roll my back on the foam roller because I had no abdominal strength whatsoever, to now finally getting my 1st TTB and doing L-sits is pretty amazing to me. I love how I keep getting stronger and fitter with time by doing Crossfit. I’m so glad I’ve finally found what works for me AND I love doing it and breaking my own limits day in and day out!

I came back home and did some housewifey stuff (food prep for the week, laundry, watched Frozen with Béa and sang the songs with her!, welcomed Rina back from the school bus, you know, the usual!)

Now, I plan on putting the hot water bottle on my back and trying to schedule a chiro appointment (my sciatic has been bugging me for a bit) and see if that could help!

 

Partner Nurwor AKA The One That Destroyed Me

I looked at the WOD this morning and was not super thrilled with what I found. Partner Nurwor aka rowing and running. Not my best display of fitness, but I was determined to give it my all (as usual).

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Skill: HSPU Progression

I started those with 1 yoga block and 2×5# plates, did 2 reps and couldn’t do more so I went to get a 3rd plate. On the second round, I was really struggling with coming out of the bottom, so I chose to do balance holds instead. I managed a few 10-20s holds off the wall and was happy with that. Some days, your body just refuses to do what you want it to and there’s no point fighting it!

WOD: Partner Nurwor

Today was my 4th go at this WOD. I paired up with Tracey (she’s now been my partner for 3 of those 4th attempts, Thanks Tracey!) and we set up quickly. I started on the Erg 1st and we got going. I was so slow on that Erg. I forgot to look at my splits, but as the rounds progressed, I got slower and slower. I know that I was around 2:10 for my 1st round and between 2:30-2:35 for my last one. On the 3rd round, I felt empty. Coach Caleb came by with a wooden dowel to prevent me dipping too low. I was struggling really hard and trying to maintain form was a tremendous challenge. I kind of wish he could have done that for my last 2 rounds as well, but I had to be disciplined and take it upon myself to correct my bad form. A slug in peanut butter probably was faster than me. And that’s not even mentioning the runs. I was so slow that Tracey managed to get about 30 secs rest periods on each rounds while I just kept chugging through. On my last run, Bo and Dave came to run with me. I knew I had an escort, but I never turned around to see who was there. I just pretended they were after me and tried to outrun them. I picked up the pace so much that I felt like I was flying on the last 200m (downhill, thank you Sweet Baby Jesus!). I don’t think I’ve ever ran that fast in my entire life! I came back inside, made my way up the stairs, looked at the clock and fell on all fours. I didn’t even make it onto the mats, I just crouched down on the concrete floor. Not long after, I collapsed on my belly. I broke my promise to never lie down after a WOD. Nurwor broke me. Once I caught my breath, I got back up and hugged Tracey. I then looked at my previous times and realized I had PR’d the crap out of Nurwor by 1:46 with my trustee partner! That put the smile back on my face and I was elated! 🙂

Sometimes, you have to give credit where credit is due. I give massive props to Tracey for pushing me, even though she probably didn’t know it. That woman brings it and she’s a beast. You cannot help but try to bring your inner beast out, just so you keep up with her! Then, there were my two angels, Dave and Bo, who literally gave me wings on my last run. I was probably running at a slow pace still for them, but their cheers and support pushed me to finish strong. So happy to see how I’ve progressed on this WOD and to have had the support of my Crossfit family!:

Progress!

I honestly think this WOD should be renamed Let’s Destroy Val though… Just a thought! 😉 Time to shower off the stink and get ready to tackle the rest of my day with my darling girls! 🙂 Hopefully, I can nurse those nasty blisters too!

Hello blisters!

Yet another reason this shorty isn’t a fan of the Erg. I get blisters every time I get on that machine. I think it’s slowly become a toss-up between the Erg and the Airdyne as to which is the devil’s spawn between these two torture devices… Something to ponder! 😉

*Funnily enough, WordPress just reminded me that this is my 666th post on my blog… How fitting! 😉

When A PR Disappoints

We had a busy weekend, spent family-style and running around. Saturday, we got up early and did our errands. We had intended to go to the Quadra Village Community Celebrations, but we had so much running around to do that we ended up missing the festivities. That’s ok, we ended up planting our herb garden and I was reminded that gardening, sometimes, feel like a workout:

Burpee… Why you gotta haunt me so?

 

However, after Friday’s WOD, my sciatic was brutally letting me know that it was angry with me and things didn’t improve much over the weekend. 😦

We went out for breakfast for Mother’s Day. Who am I kidding, we went out for breakfast because it was Sunday! LoL! Afterwards, we decided to bike downtown and Ben hooked up the stroller to his bike. The girls traveled in style with the Jambox speaker in the stroller with them and music playing while poor Ben had to pull them through town. We parked the bikes and stroller while we strolled around. Rina got a blister on her toe from her plastic sandals and took them off. Béatrice didn’t want to be left behind so she copied her big sister. Their feet were filthy when we came back home! I thought the bike ride would help with the sciatic pain, but it didn’t. It didn’t make it worst either. It was just a constant throbbing, burning pain in my left buttock. We came back home to a late lunch and I took the girls to bed with me. Nobody slept, but it was nice to get some cuddles and relaxing time together. Ben also made me a stand for my iPad Mini and, although it wasn’t the costliest of Mother’s Day presents, I was really thankful for it. He had made one for himself a few months ago and I kept hogging borrowing it when he wasn’t using it. Now, I have my very own and don’t have to steal his! 😉

I was excited to see the WOD last night. Funny enough, I had been thinking about Baseline lately because it was my 1st WOD ever and I was curious to see where I stood compared to my humble beginnings. Well, here it goes:

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Skill: Back squat 5×5 with HSPU 5-7reps E60s

Since I could feel EVERY butt giggle (not in a fun way, but in a “my sciatic is painful” way) on the warm-up run, I decided to avoid the squats today. Coach Caleb suggested I try some deadlifts instead. I chose a low weight to not irritate my sciatic even more, but even at the low 85#, I had to stop on the 3rd round. It was burning and pulling and hurting, so Coach Caleb said to just rest during the squats and keep working on the HSPU. I managed those with 1 yoga block and 3×5# plates. I did them strict and they were hard. During the back squats, I stretched and tried to do some active release in my glutes and hip flexors.

WOD: Baseline

I was ready for this one. Tracey and I paired up in order to score one another. I had a strategy and was ready to tackle it. I really wanted to get the most of my row and I extended back and reached forward as much as I could which resulted in me keeping my average stroke per 500m around the 2:10. Unheard of for me. I went above that towards the end as I fatigued, but I was able to bring it back for the last 50 metres. So far so good.

For the air squats, I wasn’t overly fast, but I only stopped twice if I remember properly and for only a few short seconds.

Then, it was onto the sit-ups. Again, I wasn’t overly fast, but I only took 2 short breaks before completing the 30 reps.I also no-repped myself for a rep because my hands didn’t touch the ground behind me on one rep. I was honest and corrected Tracey on her count! Accountability, people, accountability! If you cheat on a rep, you only cheat yourself! 😉

The push-ups were hard. I had a hard time stringing them along at the beginning, but managed to do 5 in-a-row towards the end. I did them all RX though and didn’t need to drop to my knees. Onto the pull-ups we go!

I had set-up with the red band and only managed a max of 2 in-a-row. They were mostly done singles and I think that’s where I lost most of my time. I never looked at the clock during the WOD (and waste precious seconds turning my head around?!? No siree!, Not me!) and I was expecting to finish around the 8:00 mark. I was incredibly disappointed when Tracey called out 8:37. Yep, even though it was a PR, I was angry. Yes, I had done the push-ups RX and my band for the pull-ups was the smallest I’d ever used for Baseline, but I was still mad that I wasn’t closer to my goal. Below is my progression for my multiple attempts at this WOD (The most recent on top):

Baseline progress

I tried to shake it off, came back home showered and did my hair. I was still upset:

Not a happy camper

Then I thought: You have your lovely cozy yellow hoodie on and your freckles make you look good and you’re wearing funky leggings that show off your hamstrings and quads. Turn that frown upside-down and celebrate the fact that you can pull off wearing a banana-yellow hoodie and rock the rest of your day, even if it’s grey and chilly outside!

Mindset is everything! Focus on the positive, let go of the negative!

I took my own thought to heart and decided that even though I wasn’t close to my goal, my score is still progress and I can only achieve progress with some failures thrown into the mix. Failure is growth and growth is progress!

Now, if I could just get rid of my sciatic pain, life would be just peachy, cuddling on the couch with my little Béa! 🙂

Not Up To Par, But Still Pushing

Been single parenting for 6 days. Only 4 more to go. Last night was still sub-optimal for sleep, but it was way better than the previous one. I went to bed at 2100, read until 2115 and was probably asleep by 2120. I was beyond exhausted. BeZU has the bad habit of waking up at 11pm (way past my bedtime) and trying to sneak her way into my bed. Sorry buddy, not on my watch! I rocked her, gave her a sip of water and then told her she had to go back to sleep in her bed because Maman was tired. She didn’t appreciate that and cried for about 5 minutes before she fell silent. Good.

Then, Rina had a nightmare at 0130 and I went to comfort her. She was afraid of the dark so I left her bedroom door open. They both joined me into bed at 0600. I was up at 0630 to shower and make them breakfast before we all headed on out to drop Rina off at pre-school followed by Crossfit for me. Béa was the perfect little angel and didn’t disturb me too much. She was actually better behaved than she had been on Monday. Still, it was a little frustrating being at the Box today, here’s why:

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I couldn’t find my previous weight for this so I was attempting to do 65# on my last rep. It didn’t happen. My first few reps went ok. I did 45#-50#-55# without too much issue. I then tried 1 rep at 60# and that was wonky as heck. I tried for a second rep at 60# and I ended up pressing it more than anything else. I unloaded my bar back down to 55# and finished the last round better. I felt disappointed about this, but when I came back home, I looked up my result and saw that my previous weight was 45#. 10# PR today it was! So why am I still disappointed that I couldn’t get 60#??? Because I know I have done 60# for my hang power snatch, just not 5×3 E90S. Meh! 

WOD: ToeRow

There were 6 of us today and when it was time to get into teams, the boys got together and that meant that us girls were together as well. I was with Michelle and Lennea. Each of us would be doing a different version of TG/FG. I was going for FG1+ I guess with the following modifications:

3 rounds of : 

• 300m row
• 12 strict HSPU down to 2 yoga blocks
• 12 hanging knee raises

I attempted 1 rep of a TTB and I was really close! Maybe it will happen during the Open?!? I also almost got 5 DUs in a row. I normally trip on the 4th, but I managed a 4th without tripping and didn’t get the 5th. Soon! Back to the WOD. On my last row, I had a really bad pinch/cramp in the left part of my neck. I was almost done rowing so I just grabbed the bar with my right hand, kept rowing and pinched my neck with my left hand. My left trap is pretty tense, I will roll it when the girls go for nap and will apply heat after. We finished with a time of 14:05 and I was happy to be done. It just felt like it wasn’t a good day, even though it wasn’t a bad day either.

Tonight, I’m going out for dinner with the girls from work. I think I deserve to dress up a little and go have some fun. Nanny will come and sleep over so I can go to my Oly class in the morning. I even called the restaurant ahead to make sure there were gluten-free/dairy-free options for dinner so that I wouldn’t fall off my meal plan for today (today is only meat and veggies, maybe that’s why I felt so weak?!?) I will stick to drinking water with lemon and will be home relatively early considering I have to wake up at 0500 for my Oly class! Now, I just have to figure out what I’ll wear in order to be presentable, yet comfortable! 😉

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:

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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!

 

Upside Down And Pumpkin Farm

I was awake again at 0400, for the second night in a row. Nothing else to do but get ready to WOD!

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Skill: Hand stand push-up (HSPU). That was a new thing for me. You go into a handstand, then lower your head and try to push back up, like a push-up upside-down. Yeah, that was tricky! I managed to lower my head onto 2 yoga blocks stacked up one on top of the other, doing a strict HSPU, but I couldn’t figure out the kipping HSPU to save my life! 🙂 Oh well, practice will make things better in time, I hope! 😉

WOD: DIANA I ended up doing the FG1 because of the following modifications:

5 rounds for time of:

• 5×105# deadlifts
• 2x strict HSPU onto yoga blocks
• 9x kipping C2B with red and blue band

I finished in 10:34 and, for once, wasn’t the last to finish! I think I was the 3rd or so to finish today and I must have surprised Coach Caleb because he was cheering me on to keep going when I replied I was done! Haha!

I came back home and got ready for a fun outing with the girls. Rina’s preschool was going to Galey Farms and although it’s not a usual preschool day for Rina’s class, we were all invited to tag along. It was actually more fun than I expected and the girls had a blast riding the train, going on a hay ride and picking their pumpkins. I managed to get a few good pictures of the girls and it was fun to watch their faces while we were discovering everything!

Béa, unsure about the train moving

Rina is loving it!

The Blenkinsop Trestle and all the geese. One more reason I love Fall so much!

Train ride!

BeZU, enjoying the bumps on the hay ride

My very own Pumpkin Patch kids!

A rare picture with me in it!