Moving Forward

2015 ended on a high note in my fitness life (finally reached a huge goal of mine to back squat my body weight), but it was very sour and looking bleak on a more personal level. I am taking the appropriate steps to change and that and I’m remaining positive that this year will be better than the last and I’m looking forward to acquiring new tools to make this year better. Always growing and always learning makes you a better person. I’m a firm believer that we should always strive to better our personality and if it’s not a priority of yours, I strongly believe we wouldn’t have much in common.

As such, I made it a priority to get a workout in today and, after discussing it with my other half, I was cleared to make it to the 0600 class this morning. Yesterday was stressful at work and I felt like I was putting out fires all day, but it all comes with the territory of being a charge nurse. I did my best and came home feeling accomplished. Exhausted, but accomplished! I think it is slowly becoming apparent that my fitness is important to me as my co-workers are blurting out comments to me. I had 3 that made me laugh a lot because they were as random and out-of-the-blue as they come.  When I told a co-worker I was going on break, she asked: “Will you be back squatting your bodyweight in the break room?” Then, another (female) co-worker blurted out that “Your ass is tight!” clarifying shortly afterwards that I looked lean and fit and a third co-worked noted how I “Eat healthy all the time”. Preach by example, don’t impose your beliefs on people and answer questions is my way to make people understand that it’s all about hard work and dedication, but the rewards make it worth it by the ten-folds! I came home bone tired, my sciatic was acting up and I was ready for a long night of uninterrupted sleep.

My night was uninterrupted, but didn’t feel long enough with a 0500 alarm! I was happy to be back with my OG crew (the 0600!) and to be surrounded with people who share a passion for hard work. Here are the shenanigans we got up to today:

 

Skill: Deadlift 4-8-12-16 E2:30

I’ve been having a hard time concentrating lately. I read the WOD at night, elaborate a game plan and then, somehow, in the morning, I forget about my plan or can’t focus enough and can’t count plates properly. I was meaning to start the DL at 135# and take off 10# with each set, but instead, here’s what I did:

145#x4

125#x8

105#x12

85#x16

Meh! Can’t win them all. I was also wondering why I was struggling so hard to hang onto the bar on my 1st set and then realized I wasn’t using my mixed grip, like I normally am when DL heavy! See what I mean?!? Can’t focus to save my life!

Mixed grip demo. Not my legs, in case you were wondering! Lol!

I did manage to hang on to the bar for all my rounds without having to drop it, so I was pretty happy with that!

WOD: Bingo Bango

I could have scaled this the same way I normally do, with banded pull-ups, but I decided to go a little harder. I had talked to Coach Caleb last week about my pull-ups and he suggested doing some building up with this little gem:

It’s more of a strict pull-up drill, but it really recruits the appropriate muscles needed for a pull-up and I was ready to put in the work today. I set-up my bar on the rig and we put a 70#KB in front of my feet so that I wouldn’t slide forward as the reps increased and I was set to go.  I wrote my rep scheme on a small whiteboard and I had written up to 10 pull-ups, thinking I would probably make it to the round of 7. Much to my surprise, I completed the 9th round for an AMRAP of 135. I was really conscious of my BJ and made a strong effort to not become sloppy for my reps. I was pretty happy with the work I put in today and came home to were proudly my new muscle shirt, gifted by the Nanny. She gets me so well and had given me this shirt that says: “Muscles and Mascara” on it.

My muscle shirt!

 

BeZU, flexing like a beast with Mama!

Having people who think like you, support and encourage you in your crazy adventures make the world of a difference and I was happy I got to see reconnect with my bunch of fit people this morning. These people are a source of inspiration on a daily basis and I consider myself lucky to have like-minded people in my life who provide friendship, love and support when it is needed! I am lucky to have a bunch of them in my life!

 

Rough One

I had planned on going to the morning Crossfit class today. With it being Remembrance Day, there are only 2 classes being held today and I really wanted to go to the morning one. This being said, Ben had scheduled himself a lesson at around the same time and I made the decision to take the girls with me to Crossfit. I told them they had to stay in the play area, that there was going to be a lot of people and that it would be dangerous if they moved. I got them toys and snacks and got to warming up. The girls were total little angels during the long WOD and I was glad I didn’t have to discipline them at all. The WOD was brutal, even with me scaling it the way I did. I probably scaled a little too much seeing as I was in the first few to finish it. You know there’s something wrong when I finish first! Lol! The WOD was one they had done last year (I was probably at work and unable to do it last year)

Here’s what we did and how I modified it.

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I managed 2 TTB during my personal warm-up and I was pretty happy with that. I didn’t go for a 3rd, maybe I should have!?!

Warm-up: As per my PT’s recommendations, I modified the KBS to RKBS. We are diligently trying to avoid any strain on my lower back, hence the RKBS instead of the American ones.

WOD: CSOR

After discussing this with my PT (she also does Crossfit with me, so that is very convenient when I need to ask her advice!), we came up with these modifications:

• 30 hang power clean @55#
• 800m run
• 21-15-9 push jerks @55#
  • pull-ups with blue and purple bands
• 800m run
• 30 burpee box jumps
• 800m run

I felt good during the power cleans and was the first one out for the run (!) which, in my head, was a good indicator that maybe I should have gone heavier, but at the same time, I really didn’t want to irritate my sciatic, so I played it on the safer side. I was soon joined by all the others outside and we worked on getting our specific mileages in. I had chosen to do 800m and I managed to do that non-stop.

I came back inside and got to working on the push jerks. I broke my 21 into 11-5-2-3. Onto the rig for the pull-ups. I broke all my pull-up sets into 3s and that worked well for me. The 15 push jerks were done in 8-7 and the last round was done unbroken.

Back outside for another 800m run. I lost some time on towards the end as I noticed someone in crutches waiting to cross the street. Our box is right across from City Hall and they were having celebrations for Remembrance Day. These people were trying to make their way to City Hall and I asked them if they needed help to cross the street. When they said yes, I slowly made my way into the boulevard and stopped traffic to let them go through. I ran back inside once I was done and got started on the burpee box jumps. I managed all 30, but they were all very slow.

I went back out again for my last 800m run and I was so slow. My left hip flexor was so sore and I finished with a slight limp of my left leg. I couldn’t get over the fact that Mark was doing all this with a weighted vest. He really inspired me to finish strong (at least, as strong as I could). I came back inside and was probably in the first 10 to finish. You know I scaled too much when I finish in the first batch. I’m usually dead last. Like I said, I was just careful and didn’t want to make things worst with my sciatic. I finished in 38:12 and I was just glad I had kept on working with minimal breather breaks pretty much for the whole duration of my time!

After we were done, Michelle (my PT) told me I probably shouldn’t have done the box jumps. I should have done just regular burpees. I didn’t think about it either at the time, but she was right. Since we do step-downs and my dominant leg is my right, I got down on my right a lot which meant a hyper flexion of my left hip and it’s probably why my hip flexor was so bad on the last run.

As soon as I was done, the girls stated to let loose  and started running around and shrieking. Brett and Kim had brought their dog (gorgeous Sherman) inside and both girls and the dog were playing together. I then went to run some errands downtown.

On the way downtown, Béa banged her head on the car door and she then proceeded to fall on the sidewalk while holding my hand, which resulted in me inadvertently stepping on her other hand. She got a good scrape on a few fingers and was inconsolable so I called it a day and brought everybody back home for lunch. Rough day for the little one!

Once lunch was over, I was finally able to go clean myself up. Good thing too because the WOD had left me with some crazy hairdo!

Crazy hair, don’t care!

Now that laundry is folded, I was finally able to finish my morning coffee. Sometimes, I like to drink my coffee in a mug I took from my parents when I moved out. These mugs were purchased at a gas station at some point in the 80’s and it somehow brings me closer to my parents when I stop to think about my mom drinking her coffee from that same mug, a few decades ago! It is pretty ugly, but I love that it says “Mom” in french on it! 🙂

My “mom” mug!

 

Modified Fitness Is Still Fitness

My sciatic has been acting up since Monday and hasn’t let up really. I was limping badly yesterday and even though I did my ROMWOD, foam rolled, LaCrosse-balled it, it is still pinching. I showed up to the Box this morning and didn’t have high hopes of being able to perform the WOD, but after I spoke with Coach France, we came up with a plan of attack on how to modify the WOD and still get a good workout in. The only warning she gave me was: “If it’s not feeling good, don’t push through, just do some push-ups instead.” With those modifications and that one rule, I was ready to go. Anxious, but ready! 😉

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I started modifying during the warm-up when the air squats were a bit much for me. I could feel a pinch and therefore, dropped and did push-ups instead.

As for the WOD, here’s what I did instead:

• 800m run x 1 (non stop, at an easy pace) followed by an AMRAP of
• 10 x push press @55#
• 10 burpees (no bar hop for me)

I tried my best to bounce back quickly on the turnarounds on the run, instead of taking a few walking steps, I just pushed off and bounced back into it. I managed to complete only 43 reps of this one, but I was still happy to just be moving at all!

We then had a 10-mins rest before we tackled the second part of the WOD:

• 1200m on the Airdyne (non-stop and I never let go of the handles either, pretty proud of this new feat!) followed by AMRAP of
• 10 pullups (blue and purple bands)
• 10 air squats

I completed 82 reps on this one and it felt good. I know I probably didn’t spend as much energy as everyone else, but like I said, I was sweaty, I worked hard and managed to get some fitness in, even though I had a pretty bad bum bugging me. The air squats felt good on the last part of the WOD, maybe because I was warmed up a bit?

All in all, I was pretty pleased with my work today. The pull-ups were banded perfectly and I was able to string 4 and 3 of them throughout the whole workout. I was in a good place mentally and blocked out all negative self-talk during the workout. The Airdyne was sure challenging, but when it got too much, I just closed my eyes, focused on breathing and kept going. I was truly happy to be able to move and get my heart pumping for a bit!

I am now back home, showered and ready to go to a short meeting at work. When I come back, I will try to book myself a physio appointment and see if they can give me pointers to help out with my sciatic! In the meantime, I will keep up with my ROMWOD tonight, without pushing it. After all, I have my Kitty and Cougar Throwdown comp I need to be ready for with Kathleen! Look for us , we are team Beasty Belles!

Body Weight, I’m Coming For You!

Béatrice is finally on the mend which means, I have had a solid, uninterrupted night of sleep until 0600, when Rina came to ask me if she was still grounded… She had been without iPad privileges yesterday for not listening and giving me attitude and she was anxious for the sanctions to be lifted. I told her it was too early to discuss that and that she needed to go back to bed. I half expected her to stay in her room for a short while and then go downstairs, but she fell back asleep until I woke up at 0715! Last night, I was debating going to the 0600 class, but I kind of wanted to sleep in this morning since Rina has a Pr0-D day. That meant attempting to sleep in was something fathomable and I chose to do just that! Hurray for sneaking in extra rest!

I got up, made the girls pancakes while I made myself an egg, 1/3 sweet potato, with salsa and 1/4 avocado! Yum! Topped it off with a coffee and got ready for Crossfit.

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Skill: Back Squats 5×3 E90S

I’ve been chasing my goal of squatting my body weight on the back squat and I was wanting to try to get up to 135# today. I’m usually cautious with any squat and deadlift since my sciatic has a tendency to get angry with them, so I wasn’t feeling too hot for these this morning. I remembered the last time I had tried 130#, I was seeing stars and had to back out of a lift, so I wasn’t hopeful that I could get to 135# today, but I made it my goal.

I warmed up to 115# and we got going. At 125#, Coach AJ came over to tell me I was “stripping” my lift (not keeping my shoulders up on the up of the squat and leading with my butt instead of my shoulder). She reminded me to keep the shoulders back and the core tights, all the while, pressing my shoulders into the bar.

I loaded up my bar with 130# and tried as best I could to do everything Coach AJ had just told me. Yes! 3 reps done! One set to go.

I loaded up my bar with 135# and shared my plates with Marika. We had a nice system going and it worked out well. I managed 2 reps with some effort, but I think I managed to keep my form proper. The 3rd rep was a little stripper-ish, but I dug deep, pulling the bar into my shoulders and managed to get back up for my 3rd rep! OH YEAH! Heaviest squat I’ve ever done in my life! That means I am officially 10# away from back squatting my body weight! Gainz and weights going up! Woot! Woot!

WOD: Hung Up

After celebrating the high of my back squat, I had shaky legs and was very apprehensive about the WOD. Coach AJ had said we should aim for a time of 10:00 try to break our snatches into two for each rounds. Ha! Here I was aiming for 3 reps before putting the bar down! I scaled down the weight to 40# and was planning to do all the reps. For my pull-ups, I scaled it with the red and blue bands. I tried with the red and purple, but I was struggling way too much.

3-2-1-Go! The snatches were hard, but then again, they are my weakest lift I feel. I’m still not able to snatch a decent weight (in my opinion) and I struggle with these. I made sure to have perfect form on most of my reps though and I think I managed to do so. I broke the pull-ups into sets of 3s, then 2s. 21 was a lot and I was drained.

I got to the bar for my set of 15s and I wanted to quit sooooo bad! I was really trying to break them into 8-7, but I had to do 4-4-5-2. My forearms were done and the thought of 15 pull-ups was crushing my spirit, let alone another full round of 9s. I broke all the pull-ups into sets of 2 and made my way back to the bar.

I managed to break the last snatches into 5-4, then onto the rig for my last pull-ups where I broke them up into 2, except for the last 3 that I somehow managed in-a-row.

That WOD looked all innocent and cute, but it was a monster in disguise. I’m so proud of myself for not quitting on the round of 15, though because, once again, it means I am stronger than I think I am physically and I just need to keep pushing through the mental barrier in order to succeed.

That was me today, and pretty much everyday at the gym!

It gives me hope for my upcoming 5k that I plan to run on October 5th. I’ll talk more about that in a separate post… That run will be all mental and I’m going to need to dig deep into my mental fortitude in order to finish, I just know it! I left the Box with shaky legs from the squats and shaky arms and hands from all the grip of the snatch and pull-ups!

On my way home, I saw a biker that had been hit by a car, so I stopped and asked if he was ok. He was bloody and couldn’t move one of his shoulders, but I didn’t have to intervene since the ambulance and cops arrived just shortly after I did.

I am now planning to take the girls to Hotel Transylvania 2 this afternoon. It will be their very first time watching a movie on a big screen! I’m not sure that Béatrice will tolerate the noise and length of the movie, but I plan on going with my sister-in-law, who would then say with Rina at the theatre while I take Béatrice home if she’s too bored. Keeping my fingers crossed it will be a successful outing! Who knows, maybe I’ll even be able to sneak in a nap in the dark! 😉

 

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!

 

 

 

 

 

Mentally Gone

I had a long weird day at work yesterday and I was hoping a good night’s sleep would set my head straight, but it didn’t. Maybe I am still jet lagged or maybe I’m still just on vacation mode. Who knows?

What I do know is that I woke up bracing to face Fran.

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You know you are struggling in the warm-up when you try jumping pull-ups from a 35# plate and Coach AJ come by and adds a 45# plate under your feet. I’m vertically challenged and the struggle for pull-ups is real! #truestory

Skill: Power clean 6×3 E90s

Originally, I was gonna aim for 85# on my 6th set. Even though I was a bit tired, I figured, maybe I could go for 90#? I managed my first 2 reps beautifully with maybe a slight early elbow bend in the pull (according to Coach AJ) and I was getting tired. I didn’t dip low enough to catch the bar in the proper position and I landed it on my boobs, instead of on my collar bone. Needless to say it knocked the wind out of me and I dropped the bar then and there. I was working on catching my breath and stopping the dizziness that had begun when Coach AJ came to check up on me. I didn’t try again and got my stuff ready for Fran. I also realized that 90# used to be my 1RM and I had done 2 successfully before failing my 3rd rep… Food for thought.

WOD: Fran

I was tempted to try my pull-ups with the red band only, but then thought better and added the purple one as well. I also toyed with the idea (for a very brief time) of trying the thrusters at 65#, but then revised that down to 55#. I was already tired and dropped one bar today. No need to try to repeat that a second time around.

I’m not quite sure what happened to me, but I clocked out mentally during the WOD. I don’t go into negative self-talk, I don’t repeat my mantra (“one more rep, just one more rep”), I just zone out. I don’t care about where I’m at and how long I’m taking. I’m just not in the moment. It’s a weird place to be and I’ve felt that way on Wednesday as well. I was talking to Tracey and she said it was because of my vacation and I just need some time to get back into the rhythm of things. I was in the first heat and I was so slow, that people from the second heat were finishing their 21 thrusters before I was done with my round of 9. Oh well! I got to the pull-up bar and finished my 9 reps painfully. My time was 12:21. I had done it back in December 2014 with the same modifications, but using the box to get onto the pull-up bar and finished in 12:03. I was hoping to beat that time today, but it didn’t happen. Still, Bo thought it was pretty good to do Fran so close to my PR time not even a week after coming back from vacation.

I felt just Meh! about it all and made my way home. I showered and could feel a nice little egg on my chest where I landed the bar and it had started to bruise up nicely. Whoops! I’ll have to camouflage those bruises tonight as we are going to a birthday party for a little while before putting the girls to bed.

Bruising up nicely!

We went to play mini-golf with the girls this morning before going to look at patio furniture in town, but the sales are crap and we didn’t find the “perfect bench” for our front porch. Next year, maybe.

We came back home after lunch and I cleaned up our entire bedroom (ceilings, walls, mouldings, etc) as well as go through my clothes and got rid of a ton of stuff. I plan on going through every room in the house for the remainder of my vacations. I’ll go slow and hopefully, will have time to get it all done! For now, I’m very much looking forward to a weekend of rest!

Gentle reminders

I went to bed last night petrified. I had looked up the WOD for this morning and saw that it was Mini Murph. Yikes! I woke up before my alarm and made sure I fuelled up appropriately for it:

• 1/4 cup ground turkey (Tex Mex seasoned with lime juice)
• 1/2 oz cashews
• 1/2 banana (normally, I don’t do the banana, but this morning, I felt I could use the extra carbs. I’m glad I did this!)

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I hopped in the car and tried to get my head in the game. My butt was still sore from all the lunges on Monday so my head slowly started to tremble with fear. Just e gentle reminder that my butt still needs working on. I tried to keep a cool attitude though. Fake it until you make it kind of attitude!

Bo showed up and then there were two of us dreading the WOD. He also kindly gave me a 2-month supply of multivitamins for free. His wife had extras and he figured: share the love!

Coach AJ showed up and we warmed up. We discussed the WOD and strategy and I chose a plan of attack: 800m run, 10 x (5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 air squats), 800m run. That seemed a little more decent than trying to do everything at once. The warm-up had some running in it and that made me dread the WOD even more. Just a gentle reminder that I am not an efficient runner.

We came back inside and set up our pull-up stations. I tried to do a few with just the red band, but seeing as there were 50 to do, I added the purple band as well. I was already tired and the WOD hadn’t even started. Just a gentle reminder that shift work, no matter the amount of sleep you get, wreaks havoc on your body.

3-2-1-GO!

I let everybody pass me easily and held out at the back. I did my 1st 800m run without stopping. It had rained earlier and although it wasn’t raining anymore, the air was cool and it felt good to run in cooler weather.I came back inside and jump don the rig to tackle my 1st set of pull-ups. I pretty much went with little rest for the 1st 5 rounds. I then allowed myself a sip of water and went back to work. I was determined to do all my push-ups RX and as I rested on my 6th set, I inhaled deeply and could smell the very typical rain smell in the air. It calmed me down and I kept going. Rounds 7, 8, 9 and 10 were a struggle. Not so much for the push-ups as I had anticipated, but the pull-ups were slowly doing my head in. I kept staring at the bar and my head was just telling me “Nope! No more!” Thank goodness, Coach AJ and Tracey were there to tell me to get back onto the bar. I listened to them, instead of my head and keep going.

After round 10, I took another sip of water and headed out for the last 800m run. Mark and Gail came out and ran with me. We did the first 400m and I was trying to potentialize on the downhills as much as I could and tried to pick up the spreed. I was struggling. I took of for the last 400m and Mark stayed with me. I felt like telling him to go back inside, I got this (after all, he had done the WOD with a 20# vest on and had finished way before I did), but I’m glad I didn’t. He was chatting me up while I picked up the speed a little more on the downhills. On the last uphill, Mark told me to give ‘er and not save anything. My head was saying I didn’t have anything left. Once again, I listened to Mark and picked up the pace until I was running full speed and made my way back inside. Just a gentle reminder that your head will want to quit before your body does. I looked at the clock: 31:10! I was exhausted, but so proud! I was expecting this to take me an hour! Just a gentle reminder that I am stronger and fitter than I think. When you doubt yourself, trust in the people who believe and support you.

I came back home on such a high! I showered,  dolled myself up and am now ready to spend a day with my entire family. The rain has picked up now and is a gentle reminder of the fall and winter weather slowly approaching.

All dolled up and on a natural high!

 

Rain on my car and Crossfit on my mind!

I still can’t believe how much my fitness has improved in the last few months. I am stronger, physically and mentally and a tad faster too. I am also more confident in what I can achieve and it is empowering to see how much I can get done. Just a gentle reminder to trust your body more than your head. While your head will screw with you, your body will show you how strong you really are.

In other news, French Nanny (from now on, she will be Nanny) is a delight to work with. She has picked up the slack this week when temporary Nanny got sick and she has raised above and beyond the call of duty. She has cleaned up my floors more than I do myself, has done our laundry, even though it wasn’t asked of her and she plays tirelessly with the girls, so much so that they fall asleep before hitting their pillows at night. To top it all off, she woke me up with coffee in bed yesterday afternoon, after my night shift! I told Ben he had some fierce competition: she makes me coffee AND she cleans! Lol! He said she was Mary Freakin’ Poppin! I will make sure to do everything in my power so she doesn’t fly away from us. Just a gentle reminder that there are still good, loving people out there.

When All Else Fails, Just Do One More Rep

I came home yesterday from an absolutely exhausting shift in the NICU. I had been busy all day, missed my dinner break and was very much looking forward to putting my feet up on the couch and devouring my dinner when I got home. The girls were both asleep and I thought I was in the clear for a relaxing evening. I showered and just as I sat with my dinner, BeZU woke up crying, so I delayed (further) my dinner and went to soothe her and give her some water. When she finally calmed back down, I stuffed food in my mouth at light speed. It was 2100 and I had lunch around 1300. Once I was done inhaling my food, I numbed myself with some mindless reality TV until Ben came home. We did our usual 10mins check-in with one another before I went to bed. I slept like a rock, despite the heat wave still in full force (30-32C in our room last night), but just before I went to bed, I looked up the WOD:

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I had vivid dreams of hang power snatches and, in my dream, I could easily do 65#, something I have yet to achieve in real life. In my dream, my reps were fluid and easy and I really nailed it. I woke up and felt like today was gonna be the day I would finally surpass 60#.

Walked in the Box this morning and found beauty in the bare space:

Early morning glory

We did the warm-up and then I had to demo the hang power snatch for everyone. Once that was out of the way, I set up my bar and my weights and got ready to tackle this:

Skill: Hang power snatch + OHS 6×1 E90s

I started with 40# and worked my way up. Once I reached 50#, I could definitely tell that it was getting heavier. I slowly feared my determination to reach 65# wouldn’t be enough for today. I did 60# and although the snatch felt challenging, the OHS felt really good. I loaded my bar with 65# and waited until it was time to go. I picked up the bar, went into the hang position and had a mental blockage. I got back up, reset the bar into the hang position and just lifted it up. I landed it in the power position, but had to do a double jump to stabilize the bar overhead. Once I did, I dipped into the overhead squat and that felt really good. Could it be that after 7 months of being stuck at 60# for any kind of snatch, I had finally broken through that barrier? Just to make sure, I put the bar down, waited a few seconds and re-did one more rep of just the hang power snatch. Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t a fluke because I got the bar back up, landed it in the power position and didn’t have to do a second jump to stabilize it this time around! Woot! Woot! I was one very happy girl!

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

WOD: Jackita

I teamed up with Tracey and Kelsey for this one and everything that could go wrong pretty much did during this WOD. I set up the red and orange bands for my pull-ups (as well as a box to get myself onto the bar) and was planning on using 55# for the thrusters. Here were my reps:

• Thrusters: 8-6-5
• Pull-ups: 2-11-6

I started on the erg and rowed my 1 minute before going over to the thrusters. they felt good at 55# and I moved over to the rig for the pull-ups. I couldn’t do a strict pull-up with those bands, so I rushed back, switched the orange band for a blue one (the 1st band I could get my hand onto) and managed 2 reps before the minute was up. Not good 😦

I went back on the erg and I was breathing heavily. I went onto the thrusters and although I didn’t get as many reps as I did on my 1st round, it wasn’t too bad either. Back to the pull-up rig where I felt like I was sand-bagging the pull-ups as it was clearly too easy with those two bands. Oh well! That’ll teach me to look up what I did previously on the WOD instead of just winging it!

3rd round on the erg. I was wheezing pretty badly. I don’t know if it was because it was so humid this morning, but I had a sudden onset of asthma and I knew I didn’t have my inhaler with me. My last asthma episode was probably about 2 years ago and, although I have my inhaler in my work purse, it is probably long expired! I was really trying to catch my breath on the thrusters, but it took me a long time, hence the 5 reps. I moved onto the rig and, again, was trying to calm myself down. I know that the more I get into a panic about my asthma, the more I wheeze and the more constricted I get. I was just trying to calm down  and I was happy when it was all done and over with. I regulated my breath as best I could and Tracey helped me with her healing powers. I swear, she’s a unicorn in disguise: magical at Crossfit and in life! 😉 All in all, it was a pretty bad WOD for me and I did poorly compared to the previous time I had done this one, but I kept pushing through no matter what and, really, that’s all I can ask of myself.

I came home and then saw this on Facebook:

Burpee Punishment!

I forgot to put my bands AND my box away after the WOD. 1st time in 2 years that it happens, but I have been a space cadet over the past 2 days, to be honest. CFVC’s policy is a burpee punishment when you forget to put your equipment away. I videoed my punishment and posted it to FB so Coach Caleb would see that I kept my word, and then realized I had done only 28 burpees on the video so I did 2 more in the kitchen. Apparently, not only am I a space cadet, I also cannot count when doing burpees! 😉

I started my day slow and then got into the cleaning and laundry. My energy was dwindling by the time I finished and was glad to sit down for lunch a bit. Now, I can’t wait to go for nap before heading in to work tonight.

Higher Intensity, Lower Reps

My alarm woke me up this morning and I felt like I could have used another 5hrs of sleep. Meh! I got up and instantly felt the soreness in my hamstrings, shoulders and butt from yesterday’s Beach WOD. I could also feel the bruises on my biceps and forearms from the KB thrusters. I had a feeling today was gonna be a little ugly at the gym!

Source

Skill: Back Squat 6×3 E90S

I had worked up to 130# the last time I did these and I was determined to attempt 135# today, but my body had other plans. Here were my reps:

110#-115#-120#-125# up to then, I had no problem. I then loaded my bar with 130# did my 1st squat and, although I struggled to come up from it, I managed my 1st rep. I couldn’t get out from the bottom on the second, so I bailed out safely. Coach Caleb came by to help me re-rack my bar and after we chatted about the weight, He suggested I go back to 125#. I did just that, did my 1st rep successfully, but had to bail out of my 2nd rep because I couldn’t come out of the bottom. It’s all good, I know my body was tired and I had that piece of cake as well yesterday… 😉

WOD: Over Under Up

I decided to go with FG1+ on this one with the following modifications in order to challenge myself:

• 75# Shoulder to overhead (I did press jerks). We had to clean the bar up from the ground and I had never used that weight for a WOD until today. My 3RM for push jerks was 80# back in January and I knew using 75# today would be really hard, but I was determined to give it a go.
• DUs (I had a feeling I would struggle to get any reps on these, but still wanted to challenge myself to doing them Rx)
• banded pull-ups with the red band only (1st time I let go of the red and purple bands combined)

To say my score was very low is the understatement of the year. I ended up with a combined total of 58, but I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone. The DUs really killed me. Here’s how my rounds broke down:

1. 5 push jerks, 3 DUs, 3 pull-ups
2. 7 push jerks, 7 DUs, 4 pull-ups
3. 5 push jerks, 6 DUs, 4 pull-ups
4. 7 push jerks, 2 DUs, 5 pull-ups

Like I said, not the best numbers, but I managed to increase my pull-ups on each rounds and finished strong with the push jerks, so I’m happy with that.

Since Rina is now done with preschool for the summer, I had the luxury of taking my time after the WOD and I even went to get some groceries. I had a plan in mind and, boy, am I glad I stuck to my plan. Ever since Tracey had us over for our little Whole30 girls’ night, I have been craving ribs (she had made a delicious recipe on that night). I perused my cookbooks and the internet and finally settled on this recipe, from Holly Would If She Could, since it is Whole30-compliant AND slow-cooker friendly. We had a bit of a break in the heat wave yesterday, but it came back in full swing today and there is no way I would turn on the oven to cook anything in this heat. The girls are having quiet time in their rooms, fans are blasting on full-speed and Béa even asked that she just stays in her diaper. Poor munchkin is HOT! As I was driving to the grocery store in the early morning, I rolled down my windows and there was a faint breeze coming in from the ocean and you could smell the sea breeze in the air. It lingered around until around 10am and every time the wind would pick up gently, you could smell the ocean. It was lovely and it made me thankful I get to live so close to the ocean that I get to smell it in the air, once in a while, without having to leave my house!

The ribs are filling the house with a lovely scent (I didn’t change anything to the recipe and used the same BBQ sauce. The only difference is I didn’t boil the sauce. Nobody got time for that and I figured the slow cooker would take care of that step for me! 😉 I will serve this on a bed of lettuce because it’s too hot to eat anything else. Tomorrow, I plan on making Salmon À l’Afrique Du Nord that was recommended from Kathleen. You can find the recipe in Well Fed by Melissa Joulwan, or on her blog here. I have everything at home to make it and using the BBQ means avoiding turning on the oven = WIN! I also plan on grilling Blueberry Breakfast Sausage on the BBQ, but I will replace the pork with ground turkey. You can find the recipe on the Whole30 FB page, in their photo album.

That’s it! The girls have decided that quiet time is over and I must go back to being a mom! See you all in a few days!

Being Bloated Blows

Notice the nice alliteration in the title?!? Yep! That’s what you get from someone who almost finished her B.A in English Lit! Nice to see those 3 years of university REALLY paid off! Lol!

 

Yep, if you refer to the Whole30 timeline, I’ve hit the bloated stage, right on target! Bleh! My abdomen is already not the smallest to begin with, now I look like a stuffed sausage when I try to fit in my workout pants and shorts. Still, it didn’t deter me from going to the 0600 WOD for this:

Source

Skill: (Hang power clean x2 + Push press/ jerk x2) EMOM x10

I may have been bloated, but dang, I was ready for this fun stuff. My left shoulder and trap have been bugging me lately, but I still wanted to work somewhat hard on theses. I settled for 65#  and did Push jerks all the way and it felt really, really good. I felt like I could have kept going for more rounds when we were done and I managed to correct my landing on the power clean after Coach Caleb gave me tips. I wasn’t landing wider than my beginning stance and felt comfortable correcting that little thing!

WOD: Pulp

There were 14 of us so we split up into two random heats and I was into the 1st one. I decided on FG with the red and orange bands for the pull-ups and made the mental commitment to do all my HRPU Rx. Here’s how it went.

First round of HRPU I did 10, rested and then did sets of 5 to the end. My left shoulder was getting unnerved and I was happy when I was done this round. Onto the rig I went and I split up my reps as such:

4-3-3-3-3-2-2

Those were hard, I won’t lie. Back on the floor I went for my second round of HRPU:

5-5-5-5-5-5

Onto the rig I went. I split up my pull-ups like this:

2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2

I was the last one of my heat to finish (not surprisingly) at 8:44. Not bad. My shoulder was really bugging me by then and I was glad I was done. Ryan killed it doing it the Comp version with the weighted vest and Tracey was simply amazing to watch as she fought for every pull-up Rx. She was doing them with a 2-kip motion and she was out of this world!

I came back home and felt like I had a ton of energy left. I showered, made breakfast for the girls while my other half made me coffee (with Whole30 unsweetened almond milk!) and once everybody was good for breakfast, I made myself this wonderful plate:

That was the perfect breakfast. AS you can see, I had already started to eat it but still wanted to capture all the gorgeous colours of this plate! My breakfast consisted of:

• 2 eggs, over easy
• unsweetened salsa
• 1/2 avocado
• 1 yellow bell pepper
• my hubby-made coffee

It was perfect and it hit the spot. I have no problem getting my pre-WOD snack in (usually chicken and a few nuts) in the optimal time range, but I really struggle to get my post-WOD one in on time. It’s usually around 1hr post WOD that I’m able to sit down and get some fuel in my body. Meh! I’m a busy mom/wife and will always make sure the little ones are fed so my hubby can get out the door on time for school drop-off or gymnastics. When they’re older and more autonomous, I’ll work on getting my recovery meal in on time! 🙂

Once I was done with breakfast, I loaded up the dishwasher, finished the laundry and cleaned upstairs. That took 2hrs and then it was time for school pick-up! Phew! I think I will crash when I nap before work tonight!