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!

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!

 

Gone Floating!

I was excited this morning because I had some “me” time scheduled for later! But before I could go and enjoy some peace and quiet, I had to get through this!

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Skill: Strict press 1×10 E90S 90-95% of 1RM

That meant I should stick to 60# (90%) or 65# (95%) of my 1-rep max (67#). I managed the following reps:

• 5x 60#
• 6x 65# (I had to do an extra one because Coach Caleb said I had the slightest knee bending during my last rep, therefore making it a push press and not a strict press. I didn’t mind the extra work! 🙂

WOD: This one was interesting. I have to say, the burpees really broke the flow of this one and made it a challenging WOD. Also, for the first time, I did my strict pull-ups with the red and blue bands! No more green band for me! 🙂 I didn’t pace myself very well for the first round and was winded after that. I also did all my burpees granny-style. I used to be able to do more “real” burpees, but nit so much anymore and when I do, I just deplete the gas tank super quickly, so I’d rather pace myself on those and have some gas left for everything else. I finished up with a score of 166 (FG). That means 4 full rounds and I completed my 8 double crunches on the 5th round. I was so close to finishing the 5th round, all I was missing were the 14 box jumps. Next time, hopefully, I can get it done! I did, however, do all my push-ups from the toes. It really helps not to drop the knees onto the floor when you release your hands and I’m pretty sure that’s what got me through all the rounds!

I came back home to more laundry than I could ever care for, dusting, vacuuming and  mopping. I was trying to get it all done before I had to leave to go floating. That’s right, I went floating! For mother’s day, my lovely hubby bought me 90-minutes in a sensory-deprivation pod. You float in water that is warmed up to 34°C (body temperature) and full of Epsom salt (think the Dead Sea floating and you’re close). The whole experience was perfect after a tough WOD. As soon as my time in the pod started, I shut the lights off and was anxiously awaiting for the music to stop. You see, I am a bit of a loner. I like people and spending time with loved ones, but my days are filled with loud noises either at work (all the alarms from the monitors, cpap, ventilators, phones, etc) or just plain loud noises at home (hello, I have two toddlers who love nothing more than begin screaming matches at 0730)!

To say that I was very much looking forward to 90 minutes of peace and quiet at Float House Victoria is an understatement. My husband knows me well and that was the perfect present for me. I truly enjoyed floating around without any stimuli. Some people are a bit put-off by having to wear the earplugs, but it’s something I do on a daily basis when I have to sleep after a night shift at home, so it wasn’t anything new to me. To be able to be in the dark, in complete silence (except for the sound of my heart beating) was delightful! I kept waking myself off because I was twitching in my sleep so much. Yes, I’m a twitcher and yes, I fell asleep in the tank… Numerous times! Haha!  That just means that I was fully able to relax and let go. I truly enjoyed the healthy benefits of the relaxation, but also the Epsom salts were great on my sore and tired muscles! At first, I was thinking that 90 minutes was a long time to be in that tank, but when my time was up and the music came back on, I was sad to have to get out of there so quickly! I felt like all my limbs weighed a ton, yet I felt rejuvenated! I would definitely recommend it to anyone wanting to spend some quality alone time as well as for any athlete out there looking for some recovery. If I had one down side to say about my whole experience is that I would like the water maybe 1/2 or 1° warmer, but that’s just me, I like my water scolding hot! I also made up for that by having a nice  hot shower getting out of the tank. Go see Erik (a friend of ours) or his wife Svetlana and let go of all your preconceptions to fully enjoy the float! It is amazingly refreshing and rejuvenating as well! 🙂

Click on pic to be redirected to the Float House Victoria Website!

Ramblings Of A BabyMama

This post truly epitomizes the name of my little blog, so either you bear with me or you don’t, I honestly don’t mind either way!

I was awaken at 0430 by my lovely hubby’s sleep talk and I knew I wasn’t going to go back to sleep until 0500 when it was time for me to get up and get ready to attack the WOD.

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Skill: We worked on the hang power clean and strict press in preparation for the WOD. I was hoping to do this WOD with an empty bar to be honest since my strict press is only at 55# and I didn’t think I could do 55 reps at that weight, but once again, Coach Caleb pushed me to do 45# and he was right.

WOD: District 10. This is a WOD I had last done on May 1 of this year. Back then, I had done TG+ with these modifications:

• 45# hang power clean and strict press
• kipping pull-ups with red band

I had finished in 19:34

 

Today, I did TG+ again, but with these modifications:

• 45# hang power clean and strict press
• Strict pull-ups with red and green band

I finished in 21:01. Yes it is slower than what I had done back in May, but it was harder because I was doing strict pull-ups. I don’t always realize how strong I’m becoming. I’ve been hitting the typical 10-14 months plateau at Crossfit and I’m not getting PRs as much as I used to. Let’s face it, I use to PR almost every class I was coming from such a lack of fitness!

Fitness. There’s a word I haven’t used when speaking about myself in a long while. Since we have moved, 3 weeks ago, we haven’t had a full length mirror hanging in the house and while I was out today, I had the nice surprise of noticing my trapezius and they were just right there, in my face! Don’t get me wrong, I still have abdominal fat that I need to lose, but my whole body is reshaping and I can see muscles in place I haven’t seen muscles in almost a decade! I remember putting a picture of myself at 18 years old on my fridge as a motivation to lose weight. I can’t find the pic just now, but I was a dancer with a  6-pack and I’m in a bikini on a boat. I’m nowhere near that body, but I am a heck of a lot stronger (mind you, slower too) than I was at that age and I’m loving the person I’m becoming. Mentally, I am so much stronger, determined and positive about new things in my life. Physically, I still have work to do, but I’m on my way there. Like I said before, it took me years to destroy my body and the changes I’ve done in the past 12 months is more than good enough for me! 🙂

Now, on a completely different topic, letters to the girls.

Happy Rina zip lining!

Rina-Bina, my BabyGirl!

We are both under the weather with a lovely summer cold at the moment, but it amazes me how fast you are changing and how quickly you are growing. You are definitely not a baby anymore and my mind has a hard time wrapping itself around that concept. It seems that only a year ago, you came into our lives, yet you will turn four in 5 short months! When did that happen?

You are tremendously curious, you love going on adventures everyday (which is quickly draining my creativity), you love learning through play and helping out. Your favourite activities are the playground, the beach, baking, gardening and pretending to go to Crossfit. You have your sweet moments of tenderness and you care about each and every one of us so much, always wearing your heart on your hand. You are a tremendous little helper and are very good-natured. I’m afraid you will one day become a nurse as well (wonderful profession, killer hours make for a  tough lifestyle) just because you are always at the ready to help out.

You are also exploding in your learning of letters, numbers and colours, sometimes mixing your English and French, but that’s what makes you unique. The best part of my day is when we sit together to do some drawings or garden the flowers or cuddle. Ok. Cuddles will always win, but I’ll settle for other fun things to do with you as well. I hope you feel better by the morning (and I do too) so we can enjoy the little mommy-Rina date I have planned for us!

Je t’aime ma Cocotte, beaucoup, beaucoup, beaucoup!

Maman Xxo

 

My sweet Béatrice. 

You are my cuddle bug. I’m so glad I have you in my life. You are exploding in your development this month and I can see that for me to be on vacation and spending time at home with you girls is doing tremendous things on the little sponge you are becoming. You are learning French at a tremendous speed. You are a wonderfully mischievous little girl, caring and loving beyond words. You absolutely love reading books and you absolutely hate it when I sing to you! 🙂 

You love to get your back massaged and although sometimes I am tired when it time to put you to bed and you just want to cuddle with me, I try to remember that these days won’t last and soon enough, you won’t let me cuddle you much longer and I need to appreciate these precious moments while they are happening.

I love you ma chouette, through and through!

Maman Xxo

BeZU also zip lining (under Daddy’s watchful and intent eye)!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Snot, Sweat And Tears

Woke up bright and early wayyyyyyy before my alarm went off and lounged in bed before getting up and getting ready for today’s WOD.

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Skill: The strict press were fun, except I had way better expectations on what I could achieve for them. I thought I could do 85# and it turns out that, even after warming up, 65# was where I was going to be today. I probably could have pushed for 70#, but Coach Caleb said it would be a good place for me to be at.

WOD: I was hoping to do the WOD with 35# KB, but I’m still not breathing fine and decided on 26# instead for FG2. I also used red and green bands for the strict pull-ups and managed to actually DO strict pull-ups! Coach Caleb said not to engage the hips and something clicked for me. I even managed to do 2 rounds of unbroken 6 strict pull-ups with these bands so I’m thinking I should probably upgrade to green and purple bands next time.

I won’t lie though, I left everything on the mat after this WOD. We all know by now that I am not a runner, so running with a stuffed up nose wasn’t ideal. I kept choking on my mucus and needed to take a few more walking breaks than I would have liked. I did appreciate Mark honking at me on one of my runs while he was driving to work though! Thanks for the support, buddy! 😉

It was just Traci and myself this morning and I was hoping to finish this one in 20:00 or less. I finished in 20:58, got down on all four and started to bawl like a baby. I was absolutely spent after this one and the thought of tackling my day was just too much for me to handle: laundry, going to look at 3 houses (our offer wasn’t good enough on the previous house and we were not wiling to offer more, so we walked away), picking up Rina from pre-school, tending to some visitors from out-of-town, cleaning and napping before my night at work tonight, all while still coughing my little heart out and blowing snots galore! Bleh!

After I was done with my mini pity-party for one, I picked myself up, cleaned up my gear and headed on home to do all the above (except for cleaning, it will have to wait until after my night shifts), because really, what other choice did I have?

The 3 houses we saw today weren’t ideal at all. I guess we’ll keep looking until we find something that fits our needs!

Gotta remind myself of that sometimes!

Everyday Superhero

Even though it was hard to stay away from the box for 5 days, I knew it would pay off in the end! I went back today and here’s what was on the program:

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Skill: I started off warming up with 45#x3, 50#x2, 60#x1 and then started the 1RM with the following:

60#-65#-70# Fail

66#-67#-70# Fail

New 1RM is now 67# (it was 65# back in December). Not a huge improvement, but I’ll take any I can get! 🙂 Also, no pain whatsoever in my shoulder so I guess the rest period paid off in the end!

WOD: We all know how much I love running and how efficient I am at it (NOT), so I asked Coach Caleb if he thought I should go for the Rx distances and he said: “Can you run?” Me: “Yeah.” Coach: “Then you are running Rx!”. That settled that I guess!

I managed to finish in 24:15 and I did all my strict pull-ups with 2 blue bands. It’s been a long time since I’ve worked on pull-ups and strict ones are always harder for me for some reason.

For my faithful readers, I had mentioned a few months ago that I was working on a special project and it has finally come to see the light of day. I did a short interview for the Box where I work out (Crossfit Vic City). Coach Cam had thought of me because I came from the OnRamp program and am juggling family, shift work and Crossfit. Unfortunately, the audio didn’t turn out so he ended up making a video montage. I am sharing it with you all here. Hope you enjoy my goofiness! 😉