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!

 

Our New Normal

So, I have two kids in school as of today! Rina is in kindergarten full-time and Béatrice has started preschool 2 mornings a week yesterday.

When it was time for us to leave Béatrice in her classroom yesterday, Rina burst into tears. She didn’t want to leave her little sister! That almost broke my heart, but she soon forgot about her heartache once I took her to the playground! 😉

These are the best pictures I could take of Béatrice on her first day of pre-school! Typical Béa!

This morning, we had to wake up much earlier than our usual. Rina was starting school and the bus comes by really early to pick her up.

Rina is now in kindergarten!

She did really well getting on the bus, sat next to another little girl and forgot all about us! She’s so freakin’ independent that one!

With her starting school early, that also means that I won’t be able to go to the 0600 WOD anymore because Ben isn’t an early riser and I need to pitch in to get the girls ready to go in time when I’m not at work. I’m hoping to still be able to go to the Olympic lifting class at 0600 though, but I’ll have to negotiate that with my other half! We do things very give and take and since he’s not an early riser, I’ll pitch in A LOT when I’m not working. When I’m at work, he’ll have to do it all by himself, so I feel it’s only fair! Parenting is a 2-person job in this household!

After we dropped her off on the bus, I went to get some groceries, came back home and rested a bit before I headed out for the 0930 WOD. I was not excited because to me, it’s a new class, which means, new people who I don’t know and also, the WOD was crazy. I looked at it last night and thought: “I may need 45-60 mins to finish this one.” And there you have it: my goal was to finish sub 45:00!

 

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WOD: The Pyramid Effect

We all got ready outside and we took off for the 1st mile (1600m, broken into 4x400m out and back). That was brutal, but I managed to do it without rest. Of course, everybody was done before me, but I didn’t care!

I was really hoping to do my pull-ups strict with the blue and purple bands, but even in the warm-up to the WOD, I knew I would struggle. On my 1st round of pull-ups, I asked advice from Coach France as to how to exactly DO a strict pull-up! I have never been really good at doing them and she told me I was kipping them. I paused at the bottom to really stop the swing and plowed through doing that for the rest of the reps. I broke up the pull-ups into sets of 3, the push-ups, I did Rx and broke them up into sets of 5.

Then, I was onto the 100 lunges that I broke into sets of 10. I was much more effective at doing them almost without pause and they were the easy part of this WOD for me.

Back to the push-ups (again, broken into sets of 5 mostly and Rx) and banded pull-ups. I was the last one out on the mile run and I took a lot of little walking breaks. I really was trying to not walk, but my legs were toast! I kept pushing and finished my 3rd and did all of my 4th running round by myself. I tried to pick up the pace on the 4th round and came back inside with a time of 42:19. Goal crushed!I was done though! That was a tough one!

Sweaty mess!

I rushed home to shower quickly before Ben left for work and I’m now waiting for Rina to come back home from school. I can’t wait to hear how her first morning went! Now, I just need to figure out when I’ll have time to do all my cleaning since I was out for most of the morning and I need to nap before tonight’s night shift!

 

 

 

 

 

From Rhino To Rabbit

I went to bed early and had a hard time falling asleep last night. I was then woken up at 2330 by our new tenants moving in. SERIOUSLY!!! I was up until 0130, reading in bed and had just fallen back asleep when the husband walked into the bedroom. No way was he reading in bed, I’d had enough already!

I got woken up again at 0330 by people scavenging the recycling bins that were left out for pickup today (yes, that’s a thing in Victoria, people look for “empties” in other people’s recycling, and they don’t do so quietly).

My alarm went off at 0500 and my first thought was: “Oh, Hell no!” I got up anyway and got ready for some hard work.

It’s dark outside at 0540, but Man, do I love this place!

 

 

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Skill: 3RM Strick Press

Before the 12 mins were on the clock, we were only allowed to warm up with an empty bar. Once the 12 minutes started, my strategy was to go E2M and increase by 5# every set. My previous 3RM was 62# and my goal was 65#. I teamed up with Telsey and we got going.

40#-45#-50#-55#-60#-65#

My last rep at 65# was probably the wonkiest, ugliest rep, but I got the bar up and that was a new 3# PR for me! I had my doubts that I would be able to do it, but I pushed through (literally) and was super happy to get the bar overhead!

Telsey managed 1 rep at 65# and she totally had the 2nd one as well, but I think her head said no. We dropped the weight down to 62# and she managed 3 reps! She will be passing me in no time, she’s so strong!

WOD: Run to the Bar

I did the FG for this one and set my heart out on 5 rounds of:

• 400m run
• 20 lunges
• 10 double crunches

It was chilly this morning and my hip flexors were screaming at me on the 1st run (from the squats on Monday) so I took it easy and made sure to warm-up before I pushed it on the runs. The lunges didn’t help, but I felt good during the double crunches.

Rounds 1 and 2 were uneventful. I felt gassed on round 3. Coach Caleb told me not to pause the lunges and, whaddyaknow, I could do them with a full extension at the top without pausing! I made up some time by doing that! Thanks Coach!

On round 4, Tracey passed me during the run and as she did so, she said: “It’s getting harder and harder to catch up to you!” Uhm, I couldn’t speak (Come on, I was barely breathing and was really focusing on keeping Pukie the Clown at bay during this round), but I was determined to become the fastest rabbit she’d ever have to chase. I finished round 4 and set out on my last round.

Instead of picturing myself as  rhino charging out, I kept reminding myself of Kathleen’s cues: Lengthen the stride, stay loose and bend a bit forward. It was hard on the uphill, but Tracey didn’t catch up to me so that was something to me. Mind you, Tracey is a beast and she was doing the Comp Prep version (aka athlete version) while I was scaling it, but still, a goal is a goal!

I came back inside to finish up my lunges and my double crunches and clocked in at 21:01. Not too far behind all the Rxs and the Comp Prep, so I know I worked hard!

Hopefully, I’ll get a nap at some point today, because, guess what? There’s more cleaning to do upstairs! Ugh!

Inspiration…Me? Who Knew?

Look what I got in the mail yesterday:

Class act post card from Coach Be over at Crossfit Stasis! I love the French Thanks at the bottom! 

 

Yesterday was rough. I only managed to sleep for 3hrs after my night shift and I was so relieved when I was granted the night off (without pay, of course). I swear, the night shifts are slowly killing me. I managed to string another solid 6hrs when I finally went to bed for the night and then, I was up bright and early for Crossfit!

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The warmup was Bring Sally Up where you do squats on the Moby song. Overtime he says “down” you squat down and only get up when he says “bring Sally up”. The Rx weight is 135# for men and 95# for women, but unless you have impeccable form, it shouldn’t be attempted at those weights. We did it doing air squats and Coach Caleb let us out of our misery early by cutting the song a little short. My hip flexors were screaming!

WOD: Deadlimp

I was determined to use a little bit heavier for the DL than I normally use (105#), so I went with 115# for all rounds. I was doing ok for the first few rounds, using the 35# KB for the lunges, but on round 4, my left quad started to seize up and I had to resort to stepping up the box jumps and dropped down to 26# for the reverse lunges. I finished all rounds, but I had to roll my quad during the “rest” periods. That was a tough one!

The legs failed me, but I stayed strong and focused until the finish!

When we were done, Tracey asked me if she could introduce me to her friend Lara and Kelsey showed up a little later. They have just started in the On-Ramp class. Tracey had been sharing some of my blog posts and tagged both Lara and Telsey in it so that they could see Crossfit is feasible for EVERYONE! We chatted up a bit about being moms, our insecurities and the challenges that Crossfit bring about, but I also mentioned some of the tremendous benefits. It was ver humbling to know that these two women were inspired by little old me and my little blog. Heck, I had just celebrated the fact that I didn’t come last in the WOD on Wednesday (by a mere 7 seconds, but still, I wasn’t last! 🙂 ) So, to know that even though I far from excel at this, but yet can still inspire others to take it on (and surpass my accomplishments) is extremely humbling and it made me feel good about my whole journey.

I came back home, cleaned up and took this pic:

 

 

Hello Traps! 🙂

Now, I’m looking forward to a relaxing day with the girls and Ben in the afternoon!

 

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!

 

 

Tough Day All Around

* Bloody shins and bruised forearms will appear in this post. You’ve been warned*

Who knew I was going to get up at 0500 for this:

 

Bruised forearms

and this:

 

Bloody, swollen and bruised shins

Oh Yeah! The box ate my shins and forearms before I even had breakfast this morning. And I was actually looking forward to a good WOD before all of this happened 😦

I’ve been home alone with the girls a lot lately when I’m not at work because Ben’s busy coaching season is in full swing and he’s barely home. I haven’t really seen him since he left last Thursday, even though he came back Sunday evening. I sent him this text last night before going to bed. You can see the following texts were sent this morning.

True love!

My man’s got my back (and eggs and Polysporin)! Here’s how it all went down:

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Skill: Front Squat 7×1 followed by 4x high box jumps E2M

I was looking forward to the front squats and my goal was to attempt a PR at 120#. I normally do box jumps at 20″ so I decided to go with 24″. I don’t know how I did my calculations, but I ended up at 120# on my 6th set and still had one more round to go. I managed to get up from 120#, but I struggled through the drive. Off to the box jumps I went. Everything was fine until I attempted my 3rd rep and somehow, missed the box, landed on all fours smack on the side of the box and proceeded to howl and cry… 😦 The pain was brutal and unlike anything I’d ever felt. Labour was probably less painful because, at least, you were prepared mentally for the pain. I was not prepared mentally for any of this, this early in my day! Let’s just say my shin splints were totally not happy about that intrusion in their daily pain afflicting gig. They thought they were reigning in the shin pain department! I wanted to punch back the box so bad, but just had to keep reasoning that I would just hurt my knuckles and was crippled enough as it was already. It took me a while to even get off the box and walk it off. I never finished the 7th round of squats, let alone the box jumps. Still, I’ll celebrate my little PR for my front squats! Almost body weight! Maybe I’ll bridge the 35# gap sometime this year! 🙂

WOD: Power Lunge

I probably could have done a little heavier in the weights, but my shins were swelling up nicely and getting all tingly. Plus, I knew I had to run with mangled shins + shin splints for 2km, so I went low in the weights. Once I was done with the snot and tears fest, I set up for the WOD. 35# for the bar (empty bar) was enough for me. It was a bit easy on the Hang Power Snatch, but challenging for the lunges. I was wobbly on the lunges on rounds 2 and 4, but I stabilized the bar and managed o get through. I had to rest the bar on my back for the lunges on round 3. I finished round 5 dead last, running all by myself. People stayed and cheered me on when I came back in at 20:31. Yeppers! Slow as heck, but I ran non-stop all the 400m stretches and, once again, I finished!

I came home to finish 3 loads of laundry, dusting, vacuuming and mopping, then picking up Rina from preschool. I may have cried again when I asked Ben to vacuum the staircase and he said he was on his way to work and didn’t have time to do it just then. The throbbing in my shins has slowly decreased and the swelling is going down as the bruising darkens hourly! I hope they feel better by Sunday because I registered last night for our in-house team competition! I am exhausted and have nothing left in me. I cannot wait for 1500 to come around and Nanny to get here so I can go for a nap before heading in to work tonight. I’m pooped and ready to crash. Over and out!

Crossfit, Sparkling Toes and Hot Water Bottles With Friends = Perfect Day

I have been waiting for Saturday since I got off work on Thursday morning. Why you ask? Well, duh, Crossfit is why!

My lovely husband left for the cold Calgary on Thursday and that meant I couldn’t go to my beloved 0600 class on Friday as there was no way I would have gotten the girls ready in time for Crossfit and then manage the mayhem to get Rina in time for preschool. BUT! There’s a huge but (and I’m not talking about my back side here) in this story and my husband was caring enough to book the Nanny for this morning so I could go to Crossfit and get to my pedicure (paid for by the love of my life!) without having to drag the girls with me. 🙂

The class was huge (16 or 17 of us showed up) and I ran into Victoria and Bonnie! Here’s what we did:

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Skill: HSPU practice

We were to do 4-6 reps of progressive HSPU followed by 8-10 ring rows x 6 sets. I managed to get down to 2×5# plates + 1 yoga block on my 5th rep, but I could only muster 2 reps that low before I just crumbled down onto my shoulders. I tried again for the next set, but could only do 1 rep. I was done! I did 8 ring rows for each rounds.

WOD: DL

That was a quick powerful one. I paired up with Georgia (she must be all of 13 years old and kicked my butt royally, but in a good way!) and let her go in the first heat. She destroyed it, doing the FG2 in 4:07. She’s small, but mighty! I tried my best to imitate her, but my old and overweight body just couldn’t do it. I finished in 6:40 for the same category (DL @ 95# and full box jumps for all rounds). Not a bad feat if I do say so myself and I probably would have taken longer had I not been trying to keep up with this little powerhouse!

Then, I rushed home, showered and took off for my pedicure. That foot rub was heavenly and it’s always nice when I have sparkly purple toes! My husband truly knows the way to my heart!

Purple Perfection!

I came back home and had a lovely visit with Victoria! We were both sore and sat hot packs and hot water bottles like the sore Crossfitters we are while catching up and chatting. It was a nice visit and broke the monotony of just me with the girls! 🙂 Now, of course, Rina and Béatrice also want their toenails painted so I will oblige before we go play outside! 😉

 

 

Finally!

Ben came home after I went to bed last night and although my 0500 wake-up call came a bit too quick, I was ready to go. Why, you might ask? DEADLIFTS is why! I was so happy to see deadlifts on the skill for today when I checked the WOD last night. I have been doing Crossfit for a year and I have done deadlifts only 3 times before today. That’s because I’ve missed almost all deadlift days due to work.  Yeah, being a shift-worker really sucks sometimes!

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Skill: I love me some tempo skills! It was nice to work on the deadlifts and I feel like I could have gone a bit heavier on them too. My thumbs are a bit sore from the hook grip, but it’s all good. Here were my reps:

65#-65#-75#-75#-85#

WOD: I was literally aiming for 3 rounds of FG2 for this. I know this is low, but I wanted to do all my push-ups from the toes. Also, it was my 1st attempt at doing lunges and farmer carries with a 25# plate (I usually take the 15#). The farmer carries were hard on the grip. The plate is wide for my little hands and I was glad to be switching hands every length of the gym. It was a lot easier from my right hand than my left one. I just kept telling myself “You’re holding on to Béatrice, if you let go, she will fall and injure herself”. It worked, I didn’t put the plate down once. I managed to surpass my expectations by doing 4 full rounds + 1 lunge for a total score of 121. I was proud as punch and it felt good.

I came back home to the usual dusting, cleaning, laundry and a quick walk to the grocery store with the girls. It’s nice that Béatrice can now walk to and from the grocery store without being picked up (except to cross streets). It makes for a longer trip, but I’m ok with it as long as I’ve planned for it. Ben was in and out of the house, still having to work before we head out on a little R&R trip to the beach and a friend’s wedding. Speaking of, I bought a very cute dress for the wedding and it’s a size bigger than I normally wear because it was too tight around my back and shoulder. I’m ok with that. I know I have gotten broader since starting Crossfit and I don’t mind the bigger size to accommodate my new-found muscles! I just hope my Crossfit bruises will heal in time and I will be able to show somewhat decent legs in my cute dress. I dropped a bar loaded with 80# last Friday when I was cleaning my front squats and it just glided off my leg before landing on the floor…

Not-so-sexy leg

If it doesn’t go away, I’m sure I’ll hear a lot of negative talk about how unsafe Crossfit is… Oh well, it was my fault for not moving fast enough from under the bar.

We are in day 2 of weaning Béatrice from her soother and she’s still very vocal about how she’s not on-par with my plan. I have cut the tip of her soother, so it’s not as bouncy anymore and she doesn’t appreciate this change. Which means I have to go settle her down every 15 minutes upstairs. Which also means that I can feel my sore glutes from the deadlifts and lunges today. It’s a good soreness and I don’t mind the stairs! She only gets her soother for nap and bedtime. I’m hoping to get her off it completely by the end of the week. Keeping my fingers crossed!

 

Improved Mobility

I was up bright and early at 0430 this morning and was trying to will myself back to sleep for an extra 30 mins without much luck. I finally got up, put my newly acquired contact lenses (Hurray, no more glasses when being active!) and got ready for Crossfit.

Skill: After looking up my previous set of these (back in October), I was aiming for a 4 rep at 80#. Here’s what I ended up doing:

Back Squats

• 10 x 70#
• 8 x 75#
• 6 x 80#
• 4 x 90# (PR for the 10-8-6-4 component) 🙂

I’m pretty sure I could have have gone heavier, but I was trying to remain close to my previous set without going too much overboard.

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WOD: There was a ton of people this morning at the 0600 class and the rig was full for the pull-ups since we weren’t staggering them, I decided to do ring rows instead. I chose to do the FG1 and I’m not sure if it was because of the ring rows, but it felt like an easy WOD to me. Here’s what I ended up doing:

5 rounds:

• 5 ring rows, 40 single skips
• 8 russian KBS (26#), 10 goblet reverse lunges (26#)

I was struggling so much with the skips. I had a rope that was too big for me so I had to make knots in it and it felt like my rope pulled to the left when I was skipping, it made me trip a lot. Normally, I would’ve strung out 40 single skips easily, but not today. I really need to look into getting my own rope, even if it’s just to do single skips. The most challenging part of the WOD was the goblet reverse lunges at 26#. It pretty much felt like I was kneeling and getting back up carrying Béatrice all the time! 🙂 I could definitely feel the burn in my bum!

I went to my chiropractor appointment this morning and although I’m still black and green from all the bruises the treatment is giving me (there is an active release component to the adjustment which is bruising me, the adjustment itself isn’t a bruise-inducing process) but is it very effective in getting rid of the tenacious knots in my lower back. All those knots were the culprits for my “fake sciatic ” pain as my chiropractor put it. This morning was the first time I could definitely see a difference in my lower back mobility. As I was warming up to my usual stretches before the class began, I realized that I could finally reach the floor with my hands while doing a lying torso twist (without lifting my bent knee off the floor). My chiropractor thinks I should be ok to end my treatments after my Friday adjustment. Hurray!

A New Sunny Day!

Even though I was awaken extra early by Béa (good morning 0300!) and never really managed to fall back asleep, I showed up for the 0600 class this morning.

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My pecs, armpits and shoulders were so very sore from all my failed attempts at TTB yesterday, so I stuck with a very light weight for the Thrusters and that was enough for me: 45#.

Then it was time for the WOD. I wasn’t fully in the mood, but I thought it would go fast so I just got to it and finished with the following score: 140 reps total RX

• Burpees: 13-11-9
• Russian KBS (35#): 25-20-15
• Lunges: 22-15-10

Those KBS were TOUGH! Nevermind the shoulder stiffness, I’ve only done a handful of WODs at 35# so I’m still struggling with that weight. Even though my reps were a bit low, I was happy to get that much Rx! No more moping around about my results on the Open, I’m trying to refocus on the positive and find my happy Crossfit place again!

I was thinking about it all in the early hours after I put Béatrice back to bed, and I came to this conclusion. THere’s 1 workout left to the OPEN. Suck it up and do it and then you can move on to your regular workouts. If you’re not happy anymore doing Crossfit, why is that? Nobody forces you to go and if you keep going, why? Here are the conclusions I have come to:

• I do Crossfit for myself. Stop comparing your scores with others and refocus on yourself and your achievements.
• I’m not happy with my results and my performances lately, but I also know that I haven’t been focused on the fuel I put in my body. Stop complaining and get back to your happy place.
• I love Crossfit. I’ve been at it for 8 months now and I like that I am still sore / sweaty / exhausted after every workout. It has been my therapist, my friend and has put me back on track both physically and mentally on more than one occasion.

So there, 1 more week of Open and I can then go back to being happy at Crossfit. In the meantime, I’ll enjoy the sunny day with the girls when they awake from nap. We walked to the grocery store this morning and we stopped at the Dollar Store on the way to get Rina some little toys for outside (a watering can shaped like a duck, some windmills shaped like flowers) and we have big plans of using them when they wake up! For now, I’ll go fold some laundry and knit for a bit! 🙂