Week Two

Sunday 5/1/2011
Skillwork: Butterfly work!! Need to start with feet back and scoop them up without starting with a swinging motion. Need to tighten lats and core for this to be an easier movement.

WOD: 150 push-ups for time. Every break for 2 seconds or more results in a 50m sprint. Steve's creation. Time: 14:04. Good arm killer.

Monday 5/2/2011
WOD 8pm: 3 Rds: 10 BJ @ 24”, 10 KBS @ 1 pood, 10 sit-ups. Time 4:26. 1st rd of BJs unbroken but 2nd and 3rd were not. Need to get better to string BJs at a slightly uncomfortable height.

Skillwork: 8pm: Lots of rope climb instruction while A-coaching (@7pm), then 2 full-out rope climbs before my WOD. 2nd went probably 75% as fast as the first – need to get better upper body strength so that I don’t slow down until after 3rd rope climbs in a row. Then worked on butterflies for about 30 minutes. I got the legs movement down and can rep out 3 in a row though my chin isn’t over the bar. Conversely, can get 1 rep with chin over the bar, but then I drop down hard. In order to get the legs motion I am overly controlling the movement which makes it hard to get enough power to get up over the bar, and when I am going all out I am able to get the 1 rep over the bar but can’t get the rhythm. Need to work on both of these to nail the movement.

Tuesday 5/3/2011
Skillwork: 6 am: Clean bar path work. Need to get my knees coming forward on the second pull to the hang position. Worked on sets of 3 mainly, though stayed at 83# and 93# for awhile as Dan suggested form improvements. Worked @ 33#, 53#, 63#, 73#, 83#, 93#, 103# in preparation for Helen meets Grace event on Friday. Then moved on to Jerks in sets of 3 @ 53# & 63#, 2 sets of 3 @ 73#, 2 sets of 3 @ 83#, and a few singles @ 93#.

WOD 1: 7 am: Half Grace. 2:57. I expected this to take much longer. Felt good.

WOD 2 series/Personal Punishment session with Coach Dan: 8am: 3 rounds of 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 10 x 9’ WB @ 14#. Time- 5 min-ish. 2 min rest then, 1 mile run – Time 8:20. Followed by 5x back and forth bag penalties for running too slowly of cleaning the heavy bag once, then dragging in from ladder edge to ladder edge across the box floor. Followed by 5 isometric WB pushup, clean & squat – with my left hand on the WB with right hand on the ground do a push-up then jump over and transfer hands (not rolling the ball but moving my body over the ball) so left hand is on ground and right hand on the WB and do a push-up, followed by jumping up into a squatted position, clean the WB into a full squat. Those 5 were the hardest parts I think!! I am not coordinated.

Wednesday 5/4/11
Strength set: Find 1RM Press. PR today!! 5x 33#, 3x 53, 63#, then 2 @ 73, 83#, 1 @ 88# (PR), 93f, 90.5 f, 90.5f. Could’ve hit 90.5# fresh though. Then worked Push Press @ 63, 83, 103#. Slight jerk in 2nd set of 103#.

Thursday 5/5/11
Skillwork: 12:30 pm Bikram Yoga!

Heavy Metal Strength 5pm: Front Squat 5-5-5-5-5 (ended @ 115#)

Heavy Metal WOD 5pm: 3 rounds for time of: 50m Tire Flips, 15 Front Squats 135/95#, 25 Dumbbell Snatches 35/25#, 400 m Row. Time: 24:30 Was SOOO overheated during this workout. No more bikram pre-metcons!

Friday 5/6/11
Team CF Competition - Helen Meets Grace: 8:30 pm Partner WOD 3 rds: 400m run, 21 KBS, 12 pull-ups, 30 C&J @ 95. Time: 13:42.

Saturday & Sunday 5/7 - 5/8/11
Rest days - in CHI-TOWN! CFC Anniversary Party. Thank god I wasn't tracking my nutrition on this trip. good LORD!

--> This week I didn't really stick to my goals of 7-10 min metcons and laying low. Fail. I did, however, cut back and not workout 10 times this week, which when I get really excited about working out is actually quite difficult for me. So, that's a win. Next week I'll be back to two-a-days and awesome punishment, but the following week I really need to get in more of the short time domains.

Holy shit I'm about to get on a plane to Chicago!!

Friday 10/15/10 Nutrition:
2 eggs + cheese + top half of a mini croissant + 1/2 t Tabasco. 16 oz coffee + sugary non-dairy creamer.

"Pure protein" bar.

Sashimi and some random Japanese veggies, a bit of fresh mango and avocado. 2-3 glasses vodka+ club soda.

Post-bikram 1/2 extra big chocolate muscle milk

Prob 2 1/2 oz. of chicken, 1 italian mini meatball, 1/3 c cavatelli pasta with ricotta and tomato sauce. Plus 1/2 caraffe delicious delicious bellini :) and then one more kettle on the rocks.
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Workout: bikram yoga. I wanted to go to CFC but my traps are still pretty sore so I wanna give them some additional rest since I'll be kiting all day tomorrow and Sunday.

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I'm so excited to head back to Chi-town for a weekend of olympic lifting training and fun fun CFC times. I don't even know what to do with myself I'm so excited. I miss my box, and this will be a fantastic reunion. Plus, I spent the last few days hitting up Northern VA boxes, training at GMG, and having a fucking phenomenally relaxing and rejuvenating time. AND we just locked our lead actor for the shoot, which means we'll finally start shooting this upcoming Tuesday.

I. Love. My. Life.

Day One of tracking food and workouts... Let's hope I make it to day two...

Sunday 10/10/10. Day One. It's not really a paleo challenge for me so much as a "track my eating and workout habits" challenge so I don't forget to take care of myself while I'm working on this movie. And so I don't get fat and lazy ;)

Coffee + hazelnut non-dairy creamer. 2 whole eggs plus 1 egg white.
~7 oz shrimp sauteed with 1 oz ham
Small bowl Special K cereal with soy milk (I've been craving chocolate ALL DAY today)
Pre-bikram: 1 1/2 oz turkey breast
Post-bikram: chocolate muscle milk lite
2 1/4 lb. turkey burger patties

Workout(s):
20 min wii fit with Sara. It was fun to workout with her, though it wasn't as intense a workout as I hoped it would be... But as a pre-bikram warmup workout it was fun.
90 min bikram yoga.

Apparently bikram is my new best friend

This week was certainly a stressful week as we were trying to ramp up for shooting. I went to bikram once earlier in the week, and then was going to go to a spin/yoga class with my roommate Sara Thursday evening, but I got into a car accident :(

It was minor. Seriously. I got rear ended about two years ago and it was awful- I was in pain for weeks, had to go to the chiropractor three times a week, and take muscle relaxers and some heavy pain killers that knocked my ass out every day. But this accident, thankfully, wasn't so bad... I was going probably under 20 when I hit the guy (who, ps, was a total jerk. He called later and was nicer, actually saying "I hope the rest of your day gets better, kiddo" which would've been appreciated more if he hadn't been such an a-hole after the accident).

So I went to the Chiro Friday morning, he seems great. He said I have some muscle guarding around my neck and traps and took some x-rays of my neck/shoulders. He was cool though, and understood that I wasn't going to sit around for weeks and not workout (I acknowledged that I probably should doing any overhead heavy lifting and asked if I was allowed to run, to which he replied "I assume you're not going to offer walking as an option?"), so we agreed that I was allowed to go to bikram this weekend, and then I'd come back in Monday to go over the x-rays and reassess what I'm allowed to do.

PLUS the awesome dr said he thinks one of his clients CFs at a box five minutes down the road, so I'm excited sbout that. Right now the only CF nearby that I know of is juuust too far away for me to make classes during the week so I'm excited!

Saturday 10/9/10. Bikram!

Sunday 10/10/10. CFC started a paleo challenge today... I'm so jealous and wish I could be there for team paleo challenge!!!! So fun! I had decided to track things with the fit bit anyway, so I guess I'll start tracking foods (and workouts) today and take a photo (which I'm totally not posting until the end and only maybe would I post it then) and see what happens during a month long shoot, and see if I can manage to maintain or hopefully get even leaner! Getting stronger right now is much less likely to happen with reduced energy from not sleeping much and working ridiculously long days plus my current lack of access to the gym, so I'm hoping to manage my nutrition and workouts and improve the areas I think I'll have a better chance controlling- improving stretching, getting leaner, and eating well.

10/1 and 10/2 workouts

Friday 10/1: Late night workout. Swam 20 lengths of the pool at my apt complex, treaded water arms only until I felt like I might drown, then switched to legs only till the same, then arms and legs. Then finished up with fourteen lengths.

Saturday 10/2:

3 rds of-
1/3 mile on treadmill on 12% incline @4.6 mi pace
10 lat pull downs @ 90#
30 air squats
20 sit ups/20 leg raises/20 (per side) oblique twists (situps in rd 1, leg raises in rd 2, oblique twists in rd 3)

I didn't do it for time because there was no clock in the room. I bought a watch with a timer for just this sort of instance, but didn't have it on me. I just went through the exercises as fast as i could and aimed for unbroken everything. Unbroken is one of those things I haven't yet mastered... The ability to keep pushing through those last few (or sometimes not so few) reps. I'm better with time priority than task. Tell me I have ten seconds left on a box jump, I'm likely to crank out as many as possible in that time, but tell me i have ten more reps and I'm likely to stop, take a breath and then finish. Guess we all have shit to work on, no??

Then I swam a quick lap in the pool to cool off and laid out by the pool and started The Alchemist by Paolo Cuehlo. Lovely little Saturday :)

Back to Bikram

Thursday 9/23. travel day. Wanted to wod at CFC in the morning but was hella sore so took the day off since I would be sitting in a plane for four hours and then traffic for one or more so opted to have coffee with Jonny Vu instead :) Way more fun.

Friday 9/24. Bikram at 6:45am!!

There's a bikram yoga studio in between the apartment I'm staying in and my office in LA that I plan to utilize whenever I know I won't be able to get over to CF Hollywood. I figured I could use a good stretching/cardio/sweat-it-all-out session. 90 minutes of sweating my ass off. Sounds about right :)

I expected to be pretty worn out for the rest of the day but I actually felt great. Still do! I mean, I had a low-carb Monster (delicious) with lunch, not sure if I would've been struggling or not without it.

2k row - could've been better

2 k Row today. Finished 8:34.9 Prev 2k row was 8:39, so 5 sec PR.

I RUSHED out of the gate on this one. Had my iPhone and Rihanna's Shut up and Drive was the first song up. Sooo, I jammed to the song and I rowed. Fast. Stayed under 1:48 for the first 500m. What a mistake. I crashed and burned and the rest of my row was around 2:10. Super disappointing, but lesson learned - music is something new I'm adding into my training and so I've gotta work out the kinks. Also, I've been pulling 1:45 for my 250m and 500m rows for the past few weeks which got me a bit too excited about my improvement. Thought I could row at that pace and then slow to 1:55 for the remainder. Should've paced to go under 2:02 all the way through the row and no faster than 1:55 until the last sprint at the very end. Next time :)

Ended the workout with a bunch of HandStand holds, and a few HSPU to 2 abmats. Also scared the shit outta Mandie, Bryce, and Emmitt by trying to get my ass up on the wall on paralettes. It was NOT a successful attempt. The 2nd time though Emm and Steve pulled me up a bit and then I held on up there for a little while. Nice to change it up adn try something new, even if I suck at it :)

Then, played 6 games of vball. We came in second in our season. Wanted first obviously, but was okay getting beat by the team who took first. They were better than us, so I can accept that. Also, the captain of their team (I am making that up - who knows if he the capt was but he seemed in charge) invited me to go to the bathroom with him while we were waiting on Megan and Jason to get back from the bathroom. So, there's that.

Developed a supplemental workouts calendar to supplement my training with the things I want to focus on the most. Will include:

• 1 full day of rest each week. FULL-ON REST. This is important if I am going to be able to continue to myself as hard as I want to with supplemental work and our regular programming.
• 1 active rest day (bikram yoga and/or skills but no metcon or heavy lifts)
• 1 day gymnastic work (pull-ups, muscle-ups, KTE, TTB, etc.)
• 1 day OH work (OH lunges, HSPU, HS negatives, HS holds, OH squats)
• 1 day Oly work (most likely this will be my day with Roger and Mike)
• 1 day cardio/respiratory endurance work (row, run, mostly sprints but some long distances too, jump rope)
• 1 day deadlifting with Emily

Sounds exhausting really, but I'm excited. I'm excited to have a focused plan set out, and I think it'll be good for me to learn to lay out programming for myself, as all coaches need to know a bit about programming so this should help me learn a new skill that will help me in my CrossFit future :)

Also talked to Bryce a bit about focus. I really wanted to push myself on the CF Total on Monday and was really proud of the numbers I put up. I had my headphones on and only focused on myself and I think I need to incorporate more of that focus into my daily training. Only way I'm gonna improve is to get serious about it... so we'll see where that takes me.
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8:00am - 2 eggs; 3 1/2 oz. mushrooms; 1 cup coffee + 1/8 c coconut milk.
1:15 pm - 4 oz. steak; ~7 oz. mixed butter lettuce, sauteed asparagus & roasted yellow peppers (homemade so not soaking in oil), with 1/3 avocado, white truffle infused grapeseed oil & balsamic vinegar, black pepper and a shake of sea salt. Delicious. Anyone who doesn't like salads isn't doing it right. Amazing.
-Had some cashew/almond/macadamia nut butter today at some point as a snack. Not sure when :)
4:30 pm [Pre-wod] - 4 oz swordfish; 1/2 coconut cream larabar.

5:30 pm [Post wod] - 2 oz. skate wing.

6:30 pm [Pre-vball] - 1 oz. skate wing; 1/2 coconut cream larabar.

-During vball - 1 L water plus 2 bites of Jason's oatmeal raisin power bar.

10:15 pm - 3-4 oz. no salt rotisserie chicken; kale, roasted yellow peppers, handful raspberries with 1/4 avocado; white truffle infused grapeseed oil & balsamic vinegar

You want me to nail myself in the chest?

Ugh. So, tonight was the last couple counseling session with Travis. Seemed kinda dumb to keep going when I've already moved out, and my lawyer's gotta call his lawyer... so tonight we agreed to stop going. But it was not a fun hour at all. I cried. Haven't cried in a long while, so that definitely caught me of guard. That was definitely NOT what I wanted to be doing the week of sectionals, but what are ya gonna do, eh? Went to the box immediately after and it took a little while to feel under control. We did some crazy push-up modification in the warm-up where I was supposed to nail myself in the chest. I have two things to say about that.

One. Sometimes I think the coaches have too much free time and make this shit up. Like pistols. Or one-legged deadlifts. Or, doing a push up and nailing yourself in the chest at the top. WHEN THE F AM I GOING TO NEED TO KNOW HOW TO DO THESE THINGS?!? ISN'T CROSSFIT ABOUT FUNCTIONAL MOVEMENTS???

Two. It is obvious to me that guys make up these fucking workouts. No woman creates a workout when she has to nail her chest into anything (ie chest to bar pullups, or Bryce's crazy chest-nailing push-ups). Hello? CrossFit has made them small enough already do I have to punish them by smashing them into things??

Regardless of today's smash-my-chest warm-up, I wanted to be there. I was happy to arrive at the box and see Rudy holding a box of shiny new Sectionals t-shirts (okay they weren't shiny but they were new and AWESOME and they put a huge smile on my face). After the hour I just had, the box was the only place I wanted to be... and I got there and was suddenly surrounded by some of my very favorite people. As usually happens at the box after a rough day, by the end of the pass-throughs all the frustrating/sad feelings had drifted from my mind and I was able to focus on lifting and sectionals and my new life since the split (which, by the way, is way better than my life pre-me-moving-out).

I had come in with the intention of doing a met-con, wasn't sure which one but wanted to get one in this week, but ended up just working on a few skills. Did some HSPUs, worked on stabilizing at the bottom of OH squats with light weights, and watched/cheered on people going through the Air Force wod.

Earlier in the day I got an amazing 90 minute massage today where the fantastic Ruby Room masseuse, Kimberlyn, stretched my body, got a bajillion knots out, released trigger points out the wazoo, and massaged my fascia (sp?) until I was nice and tender. After the massage my shoulders literally lowered and dropped back about 2 inches into the proper place. What a world of difference. I did the stretches that Mike taught me after the massage and got so much deeper into the stretches than I ever could before - I couldn't believe it. I'm including going to start including massage into my routine every two weeks. If I can get my muscles to stop locking up so I can get full range of motion I bet I'll be able to do much more weight. WHICH is obviously a goal of mine. She also suggested I include yoga into my routine once a week, though thought bikram might dehydrate my body too much which would make those trigger point harder to release. Too bad it's the only kind of yoga I can stomach. I'll just have to drink a gallon of coconut water beforehand (YES!!).

Well, I'm off to bed. It's 12:30 (wasn't I going to go to bed before midnight every night this week? haven't made it once), and I should rest. Tomorrow Amy, Emmitt and I leave for Sectionals. We're driving up a day early so we can be well rested and ENJOY the day tomorrow. I think we'll get manicures while in St Charles (Amy and I anyway - I'm pretty sure Emmitt's not gonna join us for that). OOOH and maybe go see a movie!! Mmm, a day to ourselves. I can not wait.
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Nutrition

9:30am - 1 egg; 2 oz. filet; 6 oz. of rutabagas, red chard, & eggplant sauteed in 1/2 T. avocado oil; 1 shot worth of coffee (all that was left, sigh) 1 t. with raw sugar and coconut milk - basically slightly coffee flavored coconut milk; fish oil, vit. c.

12:00 pm - 1 c. herbal tea

2:30 pm - 1 c. herbal tea

4:30 pm - 4 oz. (low sodium) roast beef; salad greens, yellow peppers, rutabagas, 1/3 avocado, with 1 T. wild maine blueberry dressing; 1/8 c. coconut milk with walnuts, pecans, dried cranberries, & 1 t. unsweetened cocoa powder

8:00 pm [Post-skills] - 2 oz. filet

10:00 pm - 7 oz. chicken/apple salad (with olive oil, fennel, dried apricots, and lemon juice); 5 oz. spinach with garlic, marinated mushrooms, pine nuts; 1 T. cashew butter (YUM), 2 T. sunbutter

Front Squat PR, Jeremy PR almost 3x heavier, AND FASTER!

Bikram @ 10 this morning. Sore muscles did not want to stretch very much. I felt sleepy during the 90 min workout, and wanted to close my eyes in the "dead body" pose every time we got into it (which is after, like, half of the poses). I realized after I was in class that I hadn't eaten any fat this am which probably contributed to my sleepiness. Plus I cut back my coconut water intake pre and post wod by 1/2. I think I was having too much and while my performance was feeling great, I just felt heavier than usual... dunno what's been going on recently but I think I should cut back my fat intake and also my fruit/coconut water intake and replace (if I need more sustenance) with vegis with lower glycemic loads.

After class ended I stuck around a few minutes and used the hot room to get in one of the stretches Mike showed me (sit against the wall with butt up against wall at all times, butterfly the legs out, feet in close, arms back against the wall at the sides with palms out, elbows at the sides to start then stretch the hands up and over the head moving so that finger tips meet in the center above the head, then back to the sides and repeat). Did it six times and progressively held the stretch a bit longer each time. It still hurts, but that's okay - once it finally stretches those muscles out and doesn't hurt anymore it'll be all the more sweet.

After bikram and lunch I was SUPER tired. I need to get more sleep (says the girl as she writes in a blog at 11:45 pm).

CF at 6:30pm.  Strength portion felt great. Front Squat - Find new 1RM. Got 155#, failed at 160#.10# PR!!

"Jeremy"
Three rounds, 21-15-9 reps for time, of:
Overhead Squats (95/65# Rx'd, or 50% of 1RM OHS)
Burpees

So, I've done Jeremy before. In May 09 @ 8:46 using the 15#... or as I called it (on the CFC site) using the "tiny silver extra girl girl bar." Tonight I used 53# and my form was messy. Sloppy. Ugly. I dunno if I got low enough every time, and I sure as shit lost my locked arms repeatedly and has to press back out (does that count?). I wasn't tired because the weight wasn't heavy and I didn't go fast because I had to concentrate to get my form at least passable, so it was never muscle fatigue. Just poor form and struggling through the that. The burpees were all unbroken and the OH Squats were 5/5/5 in rd 2 and 4/5 in rd 3. I dunno how I broke rd 1 b/c I was too frustrated. Amy pushed me through the burpees and reminded me to throw my ass on the ground instead of controlling my descent and shouted not to break or even think about breaking. Didn't write down my time - will look it up tomorrow and put it in this post. <--My time was about 8:16. Ugly as shit form, but heavier and faster, so that's at least partially good :)

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Nutrition

8:30 am [Pre-bikram yoga] - 1 egg, 2 oz. turkey breast, 8 oz. coconut water

12:00 pm [Post-bikram yoga] - 4 oz. coconut water, 8 oz. chili, 2 T. guacamole.

1:45 pm - 2 1/2 T. sunbutter, 1 cup coffee + coconut milk and 1 t. raw sugar

6:10 pm [Pre-wod]- 2 oz. no salt turkey, 8 oz. coconut water, 2 T. sunbutter

7:30 pm [Post-wod] - 2 oz. grd turkey

9 pm - Dinner at Vermillion with Danielle, Alex, and Amy. Enjoyed 2 drinks (one with hot chilis... my lips tingled for the rest of dinner - amazing); amuse bouche of white chocolate/cauliflower soup + bean something fritter; appetizers split b/w all us - artichokes, mussels, scallops, duck vindaloo; amazing fall off the bone ribs (only ate about 3 oz of this); then split b/w all of us dark chocolate molten cake, pumpkin bread pudding, masala hot chocolate. The food was A-MAZING. I love that place. And while I cheated, it wasn't that bad. I didn't feel bad anyway. Glad I got 2 workouts in today to make it worthwhile :)

What I didn't eat today...

Rudy - we took this pic on New Years thinking of that HUGE piece of cake you ate at FGB IV.

And by "piece" I mean the entire right side of the cake.

Bikram Yoga!

Today I had a very active rest day. I played vball from 6:30-7:45, then took a bikram yoga class (hot yoga) from 8-9:30. VB was fine  - played with people I don't know (Jason's friend from work and his friend's friends) who do a weird ass rotation with four and sometimes five people receiving the serve (WHY?! so we can be crowded and manage to cover LESS of the court?!) in a trapezoidal fashion. But whatever, vball is vball and it was still fun. Had to leave a stitch early to make my bikram class (which Amy and Erin C ditched... j/k i didn't mind going alone).

Bikram was AMAZING. I used to go often before I started CrossFit and was just terrible at it. I didn't have the strength to hold the poses long enough or the flexibility to get as far into the poses as I would have liked. I enjoyed it though - it was intense and would just exhaust my body and I found that type of yoga to be the only type relaxing for me. Bikram is like the crossfit of yoga - super intense - at my old studio they used to say "if you feel like you're going to die then you're doing it right." Tonight though... what a difference. My flexibility is very improved, i got into positions I could NEVER get into before, my stability was fantastic,and my endurance was well beyond what it had been before. When I left I felt SUPER relaxed, like all my tension and all the toxins in my body had melted away during yoga and I was left peaceful and whole. And, hi, does anyone believe this is me talking? I don't think I've ever said I felt peaceful, but I do have to say I feel amazing. I am going to bed early tonight and I am going to enjoy it. After I ice my back. The lower back is hurting again. Stupid back. I want a new one.
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Nutrition:

Busy morning. I forgot to eat breakfast. Threw off the timing of my eating all day.

11:30am - 1 T. sunbutter

12:45pm - 4 oz. pan seared marlin (delicious), 4 oz. mixed greens with 1 t. oil + balsamic vinegar, 1/4 avocado, a few bites watermelon/grape/honeydew salad, 8 oz. coffee with 2 raw sugars

5:20pm - chocolate tea with coconut milk and 1 t. raw sugar

6:00 pm [Pre-wod] - 3 1/2 oz. grilled catfish, 4 oz. sauteed (in coconut oil) kale + eggplant + yellow peppers with lemon juice, 1 T. coconut cream

1 serving Coconut water consumed during vball game and in b/w game and bikram)

10:00 pm [Post-wod] - 1 serving coconut water, 2 1/2 oz. Dominoe's chicken kickers (I know, but I forgot to bring protein so got stuck with this)

10:45 pm - dinner - 1 1/2 oz. chicken kickers, 2 T. sunbutter, 20 fresh blueberries
I wouldn't normally have Dominoe's anything, but I forgot to bring protein with me for post-wod so had to eat what I found in Travis' fridge when I stopped by to feed his cat. It was either that, pizza, or cheesy bread. I think I made the right choice.