Days 7 & 8

Day 7 (Thursday)
7:45am - wake up

9:00am - 16 oz. mixed MateVana + white ayurvedic chai tea. Yum. And the ayurvedic tea is good for digestion :)

12:00pm - 5 oz chicken cooked in homemade salsa (just veggies, a teensy amount of avocado oil, and spices), with homemade salsa on top of spinach greens, with a splash of balsamic.

2:30pm - 1 oz no salt roasted turkey breast and nitrate free genoa salami. 15 blueberries, 6 blackberries.
3:30pm - nap till 4:45pm. soo sleepy!

4:40pm - slammed down 10g BCAA since I didn't have time to eat.

5:00pm - Heavy Metal! Warmup was a 7 minute AMRAP including sprints and 65# push press (maybe a third movement, but I can't remember). Turns out that was the guys weight but I only found that out in my last rd, so figured fuck it might as well finish at that weight. Don't know how many rds I got through, as I had JUST woken up and was outta my mind at the time.

WOD: 5 rounds for time of:

3 Push Presses 90#
15 Box Jump (24 in.)s
10 Burpee Pull-ups
3 Push Presses 90#
2 Muscle-up progressions

Time: 25 minutes. ish. The clock got turned off, so I'm not 100% sure.

6:45pm - ACCEL gel. Had been wanting to try it for ages. Little chocolatey packet. Not bad.

7:00pm - a-coach for Dan.

...I planned to have dinner but didn't get out of the box until 9 and that was way past my eating window so I skipped last meal. Went and got a massage instead to pass some time, then had a nice long bath and went to bed.

Day 8 (Friday)
7:30am - wake up.

9:00am - 24oz tea: 2/3 My Morning Mate Tea + 1/3 white ayurvedic chai.

11:30am - 10g BCAA

11:45am - Metcon:

5 rounds for time of:
6 Deadlifts @75% 1RM (190#)
100 Jump Rope (Singles)
6 Ring Dips
100 m Sprint

Time: 18:35. This hurt. I dropped almost every DL from the top instead of carrying the load to the ground because it was so damn heavy. Also my left side lower back has been hurting all day from this. Fuck. I iced it once and am gonna ice it again. I also put some arnica on it and even took arnica pills. Intended to throw double unders into a wod today but seriously I just couldn't focus on them. I failed them repeatedly before starting the wod so decided that if i couldn't do doubles today I'd at least punish myself by makinge myself do 5x the number of singles as I would've programmed doubles. That'll learn yo ass.

1:45pm - sashimi salad with 3 oz mixed fish, mixed greend, and cucumbers plus some kinda japanese dressing. 4 tiny pieces of miso broiled eggplant (absolutely spectacular). Still super hungry so ate some of my friend's lunch of tempura veggies (a few bites) and onions/mushrooms/kale in some kinda brown sauce.

4:15pm - 3 oz no salt turkey breast. 15 blueberries, 3 blackberries.

6:45pm - 4oz turkey burger, 1 whole egg, spinach + eggplant cooked with 1/8 c. coconut milk, beets and peppers. Wanted some kind of cheaty chocolate thing to celebrate how good I felt all week and had half of this chocolate bar and was totally disappointed. Not worth the cheat so I threw the rest away.

9:20pm - 1 1/2 c. coffee with creamer. 1/2 snickers bar. WHAT?! I said I wanted a cheaty celebratory thing! I damn well earned it this week thank you very much. And snickers was the best I could do b/c it was all that was at the venue I was at. AND they had free wine after the play which I did NOT have b/c it was after 10pm and that kinda cheating isn't okay. Cheating as in having not perfectly paleo food is one thing, but eating after my feeding window is like being up past curfew. Not allowed.

Day 4 IF and mobility cert talk

I mean... when there's a motorcycle club having a BBQ next door to a CF box,

what else am I to do??

Day 4. Monday.

5:45am - wake up. Sooooo tired. 2 droppers of "kung fu fighter" herbal-don't-be-sick stuff.

6:45am - 10 oz. Coffee. Couldn't stomach this coffee black. ~1 1/2 T 2% milk (all they had...ugh), 1 packet sugar. I haven't added sugar to my coffee in ages but the milk just wasn't cutting it. And I had to drive to the airport so needed this coffee. 2%?! ugh.

8:15-10:30am - Napped on the plane ride Portland to Oakland. Woke up a bit hungry, but it went away pretty fast.

1:30pm - 4oz roasted no salt turkey breast, and a salad of arugula + roasted sweet potato, ~3 t. white truffle oil with 2 pinches sea salt and a fried egg on top. Yum. Possibly my new favorite salad.

3:00pm - still felt hungry, so had ~1 1/2 oz grilled chicken, 15 blueberries, and a handful of arugula. Also remembered I hadn't taken vitamins today so 2 tsp. fish oil, multi-vitamin, 3 vit C, 1 more dropper of kung fu fighter.

6:00pm - About 45 min. mobility work.

Hips:
1) Lacrosse ball in the hip crevice down to the bottom of my quads - good ouch. switch legs and repeat.
2) lay on ground butt with on wall, heels down (essentially a squat position) back flat on the floor, press knees out.
3) deep lunge with back knee on the ground and forward knee @ 90 degrees. hold front foot with same side of body hand and gently press out and hold for 5 sec, release, go deeper and hold 5 sec release until knee is almost on the ground. switch legs and repeat.
4) go back to the other leg adn actually lay that front leg down with knee on ground (same basic position but deeper and with front leg flat on ground) and press body down 5 sec, release, go deeper, release until chest and arms are flat or close to flat on ground in front of you. switch legs and repeat.

Shoulders:
1) using only one arm, tuck elbow in tight and raise arm like a front rack position but grab a band that is hanging from a bar. pull forward (extrernal rotation of the shoulder) for 15-20 sec, release, repeat. switch arms and repeat.
2) using only one arm at a time, get into a front rack position with elbow pressing hard against a bar just below shoulder height, pushing heading through the hole. switch arms and repeat a few times.
3)  using a hanging band, get body inside the band with arms over head, bands touching under the arms almost into the biceps. step forward and lean hard into this stretch. You should feel like youre almost about to fall onto the floor. Repeat three times and push deeper each time. Don't fall.
4) Pass-throughs.
5) Snatch balances.

7:00pm - a-coach. Pretty much led the whole class which was fun. AND Coach James said he was impressed by how much better my overhead squat was. he actually said wow :) woohoo!!

8:25pm - chugged down 10g BCAA pre-wod with only about 5 oz water b/c i was in a hurry and realized I hadn't eaten in a few hours. After the workout I was practically foaming at the mouth. More water next time, brainiac.

8:30pm - Metcon:

3 OHS, 21 box jumps @ 24" [OHS @ 75% 1RM, so 73#]
3 OHS, 21 burpees
3 OHS, 21 KBS @ 44#
3 OHS, 15 bj
3 OHS, 15 burpees
3 OHS, 15 KBS
3 OHS, 9 bj
3 OHS, 9 burpees
3 OHS, 9 KBS

Time: 13:59. OHS were much better than in the previous OHS wod, though I did fail 3 reps. Also realized that the nerve pain I feel is when i'm not holding the bar properly and am internally rotating my wrist into the bar. So, um, don't do that anymore.

9:30pm - RUSHED home from the gym, cooked super fast and pounded dinner down b/c  I was supposed to stop eating at 9:30! Ate in 15 minutes, so technically my feeding window was 8 hrs 15 mins today. Cheater.

--
Mobility Cert!

The movement and mobility cert was great! Kelly Starrett is funny and engaging... A great lecturer. And the material was phenomenal. He gave us testable and measurable ways to improve muscle and joint function, as well as simple tools that we can bring with us to help our athletes. I have a feeling a small foam roller or rolley stick, lacrosse ball, and band will become staples in my workout bag from now on. With the tools he gave us and the videos on his mobility WOD website, I feel much more prepared to work with athletes on how to teach them to improve their mobility.

I highly suggest this cert for other coaches, and intend to implement mobility work into my every day training. I also intend to implement at least one mobility movement into every warm-up (these to me are far better than the traditional stretching exercises I've done in the past).

Today in the warm-up I led the athletes through #s 3 and 4 of my above hip mobilizing things as we were working on OHS as the strength portion today, and so when we moved on to basic air squats I looked around and throughout the class everyone actually looked pretty damn good, and it was mainly a class of beginners. I was pretty damn astonished. Yaaay Mobility!!! Thank you Kelly Starrett!!!!!

Days 2-4... Coulda been worse...

Monday 10/11/10.
2 eggs + 1 egg white, 1 cup coffee plus non-dairy sugary creamer.

2 turkey burgers.

~8 oz. Shrimp + 1/4 red pepper + handful of lettuce + green goddess dressing salad

~2 1/2 glasses effen black cherry vodka. Handful of peanut butter m&ms. Too much effen to get a clear picture as to how many sunchips I had. Damn sunchips.
---

Tuesday 10/12/10. Flight from LA to VA.

2 eggs + 1 egg white, plus 1 1/2 cup coffee plus non-dairy but sugary creamer.

Turkey + mozeralla + tomato + pesto mayo sandwich (sans the bread... and mostly sans the pesto mayo since that was mostly just on the bread). And a little bit of pasta salad. Oops.

1/2 - 3/4 cup "Meat mush" with 1 T ketchup (this is Elijah's go-to protein packed creation... Grd turkey, grd beef?, onions, wheat germ, probably some eggs). Sounds kinda weird but tastes like meatloaf. Surprisingly tasty.

---definitely not enough food for a normal whole day, but I was on a place for much of it so didn't need that much energy.---
--

Wednesday 10/13/10.
3 egg whites + 1 T cheddar cheese. First scrambled eggs in months. Delicious!

Post-wod muscle milk lite

Diet a&w root beer. 1/4 lb. low sodium chicken deli meat

Pre-cardio circuits 1/4 lb. low sodium chicken deli meat

Post-wod muscle milk lite

2 1/4 lb. Turkey burgers with cheese and 2 T salsa.

WOD at CF Lorton.
Strength work: 5x5 overhead squats.
My Chiro cleared me to workout but just told me to be careful. This past wkend he said absolutely no overhead work, but Monday he did clear me officially. On my first warmup set of 5 with the 33# bar I could feel my shoudlers tense and tighten right around the base of my neck, which I thought was not a good thing, but it wasn't a sharp pain or anything, more like a warning sign. So, I decided that I could still do OH squats today, but I went pretty light (only went up to 63#) and stuck to sets of 3 instead so as not to aggravate it. Until my last set, which I pushed to 5 reps unnecessarily. Which was probably stupid.

Metcon- 3 rds of:
1 min power cleans @ 135/95#
1 min rest
1 min burpee pull ups
1 min rest
1 min jerks @ 135/95#
1 min rest.

Rd 1: 11/9/6
Rd 2: 9/12/4
Rd 3: 10/10/4. Total 75.

2nd workout of the day...

Cardio circuits at Gold Medal Grappling.
2 rds:
1 min of stairs, hammer slam, giant tire box jumps (21-24in?), deadlifts at 135#, burpees, rest

Followed by, I dunno, twenty-thirty minutes of boxing? I rested as needed for a few seconds, but worked as hard as I could for a long time. I was surprised by my cardio endurance today.. I expected to be hurting much more during the workout at GMG, but I actually felt super strong and capable, even though I haven't been CFing as much as usual.

Fran at CF Hollywood and MMA circuits

Thursday 9/9.

I went in to CF Hollywood thinking I had to do Nancy (OH squats and runs), which would've sucked b/c my quads were pretty damn sore from the previous day's wod and the 7 mile run the day before that. So, when I found out we were doing Fran instead and was happy. Okay not happy, but glad not to have to do Nancy. Fran, however, was not happy to have me and she kicked me in the face. I finished a full 1:30 slower than my previous PR.

Fran: 21-15-9 reps of thrusters 95/65#, pull-ups. 8:42 (prev PR 7:12)

*to be fair- I did 63# b/c there were no baby weights to use to pull it up to 75. I actually considered dropping the weight to 58# before I started b/c I knew my strength/cardio isn't where it used to be. But I'm glad I fuckin manned up and went Rx'd. No reason to drop weight as long as I can do Fran sub-ten.

I know I'm not where I was before. When I did Fran it was at my Level I Cert and I was very close to the peak of my performance I've had since starting CF. God, I can HEAR a million excuses in my head right now- haven't trained enough recently, when I am training it's less weight training and more cardio MMA circuits vs CF wods, I am getting over a cold... Ugh. All that matters is I have a fucking lot of work to do to get back to where I was and then get even stronger. Faster. Fitter.

[Friday 9/10 traveled from CA to VA. Damn. 9 hrs of travel su-ucks.]

Saturday 9/11.

12 min cardio circuit, 1 min each station, no rest: hitting/punching/kicking/etc the heavy bag, burpees, heavy bag, bear crawls. Yuck.

Five minute rest, then was supposed to alternate b/w heavy bag and gorilla drills but I couldn't figure the damn gorilla drills out today. I was having a rough day mentally, and while hitting the bag certainly helped, doing a drill I don't get just irritated me more. So, I did 1 or 2 rounds of burpees as a sub and then just alternated b/w the bag and a rest pd.

I think I rested about ten minutes or so, and then hit another circuit. 1 min each station - 22" (?) box jumps (not sure of the height but it was higher than our 20" box but not by a substantial amount), stairs, hammer slams, rest. Twice through.

Then I just dicked around the gym for awhile. I did a few sets of 7 pull-ups (I need to get back into doing these for max reps but when I'm fresh, not after a lot of cardio), did 30 sec of sit-ups, leg raises, side-to-side oblique work, I climbed the rope at some point (20/30ft?). And THEN I worked on snatch form for awhile at light weights. Just practiced good bar path, speed through the second pull, landing in the full squat (versus landing and dropping down into the squat afterward). Worked at about 30/40#... didn't know what the weird bar I was lifting weighed. I only know the weights of traditional 33/45# bars.

And ps can I just say it irritates the hell out of me when people tell me and insist that a 33# bar is 35#?? It's 33#.

I'm eating dinner at 11, I'm tired, and I have to stay up and work. Suck.

WOD:

Press 3x3 @ 75# (1RM is 85#)
Was heavy and struggled on the 3rd rep of each set but think I should've gone a bit heavier... maybe 78 or 80#.

3 rounds for time of:
20 Wall balls (20/14)
15 Burpees
400M Run

This felt fucking awful. Awful. Awful. I'm shite at wallball, this we know, and shite at running, but burpees? Seriously those were awful too. WB in the first rd was 10/10 which I was actually really good for me and I thought would be something I could maintain. Nope. Don't remember round 2 ( I think 5s maybe?), but the 3rd rd I was back to my old standby with sets of 2s, 3s, and 4s.  Burpees should've been all unbroken, but the last set I stopped at 10 and literally whined inside my head to myself, begging myself to quit. They were also slower than I usually do them. Didn't notice my run times but in the last rd I was in LAST PLACE and forced myself to sprint to catch up and pass the girl who was last. 14:41. Awful.

I waited about 15-20 mins and then wanted to get the snatch strength set in but just didn't have the form today. Maybe it was my Nike Free's. Maybe it was just not my day today. Was getting under the bar easily every time, but was exaggerating the hip extension into a back bend (which I know thanks to Kurt's watchful eye - thanks Kurt). 

Snatches:

3-2-2 @ 65#-70#-75#

Was supposed to do 3-2-2-1-1 but just wasn't feeling, so thought I should listen to my body and give it a rest.

Then, played 3 games of vball. Not an impressive showing by anyone on our team... except Jonny - who subbed for us tonight and played great! Did I mention he learned to play vball today? Definitely makes a difference being super athletic and learning a new sport. I love CFers. We're the best at everything ;)

--

Nutrition:

9:30ish - 2 eggs over sauteed rainbow chard.

11 am - 10 oz. iced coffee w/ 1/8 c. coconut milk.

Forgot about lunch. Oops.

4:30 pm [Pre-wod] - 3 oz. sauteed sole, 6 oz. kale with WF sauteed vegis (red onion and various peppers), with a pinch of white truffle oil and maybe 1 1/2 t. balsamic vinegar; 1 t cashew butter.

6:15pm [Post-wod] - 1/2 container Vanilla Creme Muscle Milk (8g fat, 7g carbs, 16g protein)

7:45 pm [After 2nd and 3rd vball game, so during and post vball] - other 1/2 of the muscle milk.

11:00 pm - (who eats dinner at 11pm??) 3 oz. grilled grassfed sirloin, 6 oz. kale with WF sauteed vegis (red onion, zuzhini, mushroom and various peppers), with a pinch of white truffle oil and maybe 1 t. balsamic vinegar.

"I'm no longer wincing when I watch you do an OH squat"

Workout:

Strength set - OH Squat 5x1 @ 80#. I used my 1RM b/c I know that isn't the heaviest I can go based on strength, I'm just being limited by my  horrendous form. And when I say horrendous, please know I am not exaggerating. Need to remember to lead with my butt and not let my knees drift forward. Today I practiced getting down into an OH squat in front of a bench - about four-five inches away. Need to repeat that with a PVC until it becomes natural. I did make progress. It's still really ugly, but Rudy managed to give me a pretty big compliment about it after I worked it for awhile... see the title of this blog.

Met con was an AMRAP. 12 min: 5 burpees, 10 pull ups, 15 sit ups. Post WOD skill - 3 x max handstand push ups with 1 controlled negative at conclusion of each set (90 seconds rest)

6 Rounds + 5 burpees/10 pull-ups/6 sit-ups

Used the fat bar since I need to get used to working on it. Strung 5/5 the first 2 sets, then broken into 2/3s after. Started ripping my left hand down near my palm, realized I was overgripping and loosened my grip a bit, sorta releasing/relaxing my grip once my chin was over the bar. Then I ripped on my right hand. Go figure. Not bad though, doesn't hurt today at all.

Good workout. Kept moving throughout but would've like to be closer to unbroken on the pull-ups. Need to work on those on the new bar more.

--

8:30 am (ish) - 2 eggs, ~4oz rainbow chard.

12:30 pm (ish) - 4 oz. assorted butter lettuce, 2 oz. baked eggplant, 3 oz. grilled sole with 1 t. avocado oil + balsamic vinegar

3:30 pm - ~2 T. cashew/almond/macadamia nut butters, 3 slivers dried organic apples (no sugar/additives). i c. chocolate puerh tea with 2 T. coconut milk.

5:45 pm [Pre-wod] - 3 oz. grd. lamb with ~4 oz. rainbow chard and 4 slivers dried organic apples.

10:30 pm - steak fajita meat with onions and red peppers (whole thing was probably 10 oz. though I'm not sure of the ratio vegis:meat). Ate some of the rice & refried beans.

1st Qualifier WOD for the A-Team

Qualifier Wod. Current Rank: 5th
3 rds: 10 thrusters @ 85#/ 10 burpees
8:something. Maybe 8:15? :17?

Got through round 2 at 3:30 and thought I was just gonna crush this wod. Then apparently took a nap. Not sure what took so long in the last rd. Once I realized I wasn't gonna finish before the current 3rd place I stopped and was gonna quit, thinking it didn't matter anymore but then remembered that every place gets points so had to get back in. That likely cost me 4th place in this wod. Idiot. Oh well, back in for another qualifier tomorrow!

Also, followed the metcon up with some power snatch work: 5-3-1 reps of 70-80-90% of max snatch. Too bad I thought my max snatch was 83#. It's actually 78# (I can muscle 83# up, but haven't hit it properly) . Oops. Did 58#-68#-75#. Took a bit to get into a rhythm (plus I was kinda burnt out after the metcon), but the 58# felt good in reps 3-5, 68# felt good on the 3rd rep. The other non-good-feeling reps were mostly muscled-up overhead. When I first learned snatches I couldn't get my ass down into a full squat, so they were all power. Now that I can get down, I hate power snatches. You'd gotta throw the damn bar way too high for my liking. Meh. Then did a few OHS with the pvc, the 15#, and 20# bars. Worked on form and fast sets of 10 at each weight. Felt SUPER easy. Didn't want to go up in weight at all - just waned to run through the motion and get my body more accustomed to this lift.
--

Nutrition

8:35 am - 2 eggs, 7 oz, rainbow chard sauteed in 2/3 T. coconut oil.

11:00am - 8 oz coffee with 1/2 c. coconut milk

1:30 pm - 2 1/2 oz. skate wing sauteed in garlic, pepper, and 1/2 t. avocado oil; 1 1/2 oz. raw kale tossed with 1/2 t. white truffle infused grapeseed oil, 10 cut up blueberries, squeeze of fresh lemon. This wasn't a lot of food in ounces, but kale takes up so much damn room on a plate! We'll see if I get hungry early or if this tides me through to my next meal :)

3:15 pm  [Pre wod] -  Nope. 1 T. cashew butter, 2 oz. no salt rotisserie chicken breast. (Didn't realize this was my pre-wod meal. Forgot that I had to work out at 4!!)

4:00 om [Pre-wod cont'd] - chugged ~8 oz coconut water

4:45 pm [Post wod] - 2 1/2 oz. skate wing sauteed in garlic, pepper, and 1/2 t. avocado oil; ~8 oz coconut water

6-7 pm [During vball] - ~8 oz. coconut water.

7:30 pm - 1 tagalong. I heart Chris Skafidas. After these damn qualifier wods are over I'm eating the other four. Not all at once mind you. The donut coma is still too fresh a memory. I'm keeping them in the freezer so they won't go stale, Chris, don't you worry.

9:30 pm - 4 oz. no salt rotisserie chicken breast sauteed with white truffle infused grapeseed oil and 3 oz. cooked mushrooms on top of 3 oz. kale with lemon and avocado oil. Approx. 1 T. oil total. Plus 1 T. cashew butter.

Tomorrow (Weds) is a SNEAK PREVIEW of the NEW CFC LOCATION!!

WE HAVE A NEW BOX!!!!

I'm super excited about Open House at the new box, 1444 W. Willow, with classes at 4, 5, 6, and 7pm tomorrow! Thursday and Friday classes will resume at the old box location (1962 N Clybourn), and then effective Saturday 2/20 classes will officially be moved to the new location!! AND THEN SATURDAY IS A PALEO CHILI AND DESSERT COOK-OFF?!?! Amazing. I love our new box already. I bought some elk meat for Amy that's been sitting in my freezer, and I'm totally stealing it to make paleo chili with it (sorry Amy).

As excited as I am for a new box, I think I'll be sad at the last Friday evening class at the old box. I'll miss that place. It's where I got to know all my friends in Chicago, and it's the first place I felt at home in this whole city. It's where I go when my head is full of unnecessary things that I want cleared out or when I need to get away. I am forever grateful to that place and to the people in it for my new life, and it will be sad when we move out. Sadder than moving out of my condo, actually, which is kind of funny. I'm sure I will grow to love our new box as I loved the old one, especially since the new one is even CLOSER to my apartment than the current box, and we'll have showers, and hand dryers, and a heated parking garage, and it's so much bigger than our current box... all of which is awesome. Plus, all the people I love will be moving to the new box which is key. Dinner at my place post-wod? Sure, it's only a few blocks away!! We can walk :)

And tomorrow we'll start a new initiative called Proving Grounds where we'll set a goal for ourselves and then work to achieve that goal by October 15th. WELL... I've already been thinking about just that sort of thing, except I have a boat load of goals to achieve. To achieve my enormous list I'm setting a deadline for 12/31/2010, but for Proving Grounds I've selected one very special goal to be accomplished sooner than that. I look forward to learning what everyone's goals are and am excited to be a part of helping everyone reach their goals.

--

Today's workout:
Deadlift 5-5-5+
(1RM+10#) 58.5%/67.5%/76.5%
146# - 170# - 191# x 10 reps!!

12 min AMRAP of:
3 hang squat clean (60-65% of 1RM clean) used 73#
6 burpees
9 kbs (heavy) used 55# 

6 rds + 1 HSC

This was a horrible workout.  My back ACHED afterward and it took a long time to feel right again. The KBS were NOT unbroken - I got 5-4 most rounds, but got 4-3-2 in rd 5 or 6. HSC were all unbroken but slower than I wanted them to be. Everytime I dropped the bar back to the hang position it hurt my back - I should maybe learn a more comfortable way of doing that. Burpees were unbroken.

--

Nutrition

8:30am - 1 egg, 2 oz. no salt turkey, 6 oz. spinach, 1 cup iced coffee w/ 1 t. raw sugar and 1/8 c. coconut milk. 4 fish oil, 1 vit. C

1:30 pm - 3 oz. no salt turkey; 9 oz. of: rainbow chard sauteed in 1/4 T. coconut oil, plus mushrooms and onions; sprinkle of sea salt & pepper. 1/3 L. Water. 4 fish oil.

2:15 pm - 1/8 c. Mint Galactica Organic Coconut Bliss... it's coconut milk ice cream. And it's amazing. Ingredients listed below. Apparently I'm not through cheating... but as far as cheating goes this BARELY counts.

3:30 pm [Pre-wod] - 4 oz. tuna sashimi, 1 1/2 t. almond butter, 8 oz. coconut water

5:20 pm [Post-wod/Pre-vball] - 3 oz. salmon sashimi, 8 oz. coconut water

6:30-7:00 pm [During/Post vball] - 8 oz. coconut water

10:20 pm - 4 oz. Halibut; 6 oz. broccoli & mushrooms with fresh sauteed garlic in 1 t. avocado oil; 2 t. almond butter. Am craving coconut milk, but think I need to cut down on my fat intake, as I'm feeling heavier recently (though the scale doesn't show it, I feel it). We'll see if I can tough it out and get to bed without caving.

--

Ingredients of Mint Galactica Coconut Bliss : OG coconut milk, OG Agave Syrup, OG Fair Trade Dark Chocolate (OG Choc. liquor, OG sugar, OG cocoa powder, OG cocoa butter, OG Vanilla extract), OG coconut oil, OG Peppermint extract, OG Vanilla Extract. And Happiness.

Double-unders. I own them.

Okay, I don't own them. But I did WELL on them today. I was super proud.

The first time I picked up the rope tonight I hit a new PR - 16!!!! Prev. PR - 7!!! I was so excited I jumped around the room (and maybe screamed "16!!!" a few times) and considered walking out right then and calling it a night! For the rest of the night I would sometimes get up to 9 or so in a row, other times only 4, but I kept stringing at least a few together every time. I felt so good about the double-unders tonight. So exciting :)

Then "Freddy's Revenge"
5 rounds for time of:
5 shoulder to overhead (185/105 or 110% of 1RM press)
10 burpees

Went Rx'd @ 105#. Heavy as shit. All burpees unbroken. I was going through them quickly but then Bryce said to go slower (which hadn't occurred to me) to save energy for the jerks. Jerks - 1st rd unbroken (thanks for showin' me how, Mo!). Dropped and had to clean the bar on the 1st rep of my 2nd set. BUT I CLEANED IT!!! Remember a week/few weeks ago I tried a front squat wod @ 105 and couldn't clean then bar? WELL I COULD TODAY. I was actually happy that I dropped it (wtf?) because I just put my hands on the bar, and cleaned the bar on the first try. It felt amazing. All the snatch and clean work Roger and Mike have been doing with me for the past few weeks absolutely paid off today. Next four sets broken into a few 2s and a 3 set or two, but mainly singles. Failed probably 3 reps, but only dropped the bar to the ground the one time. Time- 12:15.
--

Nutrition (I'm starting to track supplements & water so I remember to have them)

9:30 am - 1 egg; 2 oz no salt turkey; small glass water; 5 oz. dandelion greens sauteed in 1 t. coconut oil, with 1/4 apple, 1 pinch coconut flakes, and a splash coconut water. The dandelion greens were super bitter. I should've used something stronger (maybe the dried cranberries) to cut the bitterness. Was not a fan. Can't wait to eat the leftovers :(

12 pm - 3 oz. monkfish (seasoned with dill and black pepper, then sauteed in 1 t. coconut oil with a sprinkling of fennel seeds - DELICIOUS); salad (4 oz. lettuce, 3 oz yellow peppers, 5 oz dandelion greens/apple mix from this morning, plus wild maine blueberry dressing); 2 glasses of water b/w breakfast & lunch; 1 g Vit. C; 5 fish oil

2 pm - 1 glass chai tea with some coconut milk & 1 t. raw sugar, 2 T. sunbutter

5:30 pm [Pre-wod] - 2 oz. sauteed rabbit tenderloin, 8 oz coconut water, few walnuts/macadamias/almonds/dried cranberries

7:15 pm [Post-wod] - $11 sushi. That's right. $11 on one meal. Big spender here. Had salmon, tuna, vegis, avocado, and DID NOT HAVE ANY PEANUTS (My dear Bryce and Matt - you suck). And I didn't eat the rice paper the rolls were wrapped in. In case anyone reading was judging... or sneaking peeks at the ingredient list... weirdo...

10:15 pm - 3 oz. monkfish (which I was told is the poor man's lobster. Take that, Chris! Are you happy I bought a poor man's fish??); 5 oz baked sunchokes with avocado oil, black pepper and a bit of sea salt; 2 1/2 T. sunbutter. B/w the workout and dinner I drank 2/3 liter of water. 4 fish oil.

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 :)

--

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.

...maybe I did have a bit too much caffeine today

Good workout day.

6pm

Deadlift 3-3-3+
1RM (CFT weight=240) @ 63%-72%-81%
155-175-195x 7reps

Metcon: 5 rounds for time of:
7 Hang Squat Cleans (Rx'd @95#)
7 burpees
Time- 10:13

Heavy as all get out. Broken into sets of mostly 3s in the beginning, broke down to sets of 2s, and a few singles (failed 3 cleans trying to string them, hence the singles) for the middle of the wod. Felt strong on the last set though - that wasn't a bad one at all. FLEW through the burpees - faster pace than usual on those. 7 is a nice number of burpees to do. Thanks Bryce (first and last time I'll ever thank you for burpees, so I hope you appreciate it)!

Post WOD
2x10 GHD

9pm

3 games volleyball. Frustrating - this was the best team we've played against... which would have been exciting. Would have been. But, instead of motivating us and us playing a super exciting game, we played our worst games ever. To be fair, we cleaned up our game in the 3rd and almost came back and beat them. Almost. And, now my shoulders are tight as shit. HOPEFULLY I'll got to bed within the next 30min and at least get into bed before midnight (for the first time since, what, 2009?).

--
Nutrition

8:30 am - 1 egg, 2 oz. no salt turkey, 3 t. sunbutter, ~4 oz. coconut water

12:30 pm - 8 oz paleo chili (3:8 protein to carb, so ~3 oz. turkey/bison and ~5 oz. vegis), 1 T. guacamole

1:45 pm - small handful dried cranberries/walnuts/macadamias, 6 oz. coffee w/ coconut milk and 1 t. raw sugar

3:15 pm - 6 oz. coffee w/ coconut milk and 1 t. raw sugar. 2 t. dried cranberries/walnuts/macadamias. What? I know I shouldn't be drinking so much coffee and eating all these nuts today. But, they're delicious. And they're making me happy. And work sucks today, so suck it (... i just told my blog to suck it. maybe I did have a bit too much caffeine today).

5:45 pm [Pre-wod]- 3 oz. grilled swordfish, some coconut juice, 1 T sunbutter

Forgot post-wod meal again...
Consumed approx 18 oz. coconut water after workout and during 9 pm vball games

8:40 pm - (Oops! forgot about this meal) yellowtail tuna & reg tuna sashimi, plus vegi/salmon roll in rice paper (no rice, but did eat the rice paper)... probably only 2 oz vegis and 4 1/2 - 5  oz fish plus ~2 1/2 oz kale/tomatoes/pinenuts/oil/lemon juice salad.


10:45 pm - ~2-3 T. sunbutter, 8 oz. paleo chili

Hells Half Acre... my first 2-a-day

First - thank you Amy, Alison, and Mo! These girls went through these together with me, and it was nice to push through heavy and tiring wods together and to train together - cheering for and competing against one another. Both wods were tough and were well worth pushing ourselves through. I was proud of all of us today :)

Also, thank you Rudy for pushing us to do these wods and for the fun sled work after the 2nd wod. MAN is that gonna be fun (and by fun I mean awful)... why exactly I'm looking forward to those in a wod I have NO idea, but I have to say I am!!

Hell Half Acre Wod #1 @ 9:00 am

3 Rds:

10 Squat Clean & Jerk (105# Rx'd - used 95#)

500m row

Time - 15:57

Hell's Half Acre Wod # 2 @ 1:00 pm

50 CTB Pull-ups

50 Burpees

Time - 9:53

The 1st wod was heavy as shit and very tiring. I only failed one clean (due to a shite grip, not muscle fatigue) so I probably stared at the bar a little too long and could've moved through these a bit faster. Had trouble locking out a few times and pressed it up at the end instead of a proper jerk, and twice forgot to step back together. I need to learn to trust the split jerk with locked arms. 1st round of the row started off with the rower not working so I wasted about 8 pulls not knowing what else to do even though the rows weren't counting. Wasted energy/time there. My row stayed under 2:15 pretty much the whole time, which is much slower than usual. The 1st 2 rds I kept it around 2:05-2:08 through the first 250/300m, but the last 200/250m - 100m I struggled to stay under 2:15. Kept the last 100m in rds 1 and 2 under 2:10. The 3rd rd, I thought I'd try and game the row better by rowing a bit slower in the beginning in order to save enough energy to kick it up faster (2:00 or less) for the last 200m but that wasn't the case. As planned, I stayed around 2:10-2:15 for the first 300m, as I planned but then only had enough juice to kick it up to around 2:05 for the last 200m. I don't think that helped my row, I think it was slower actually, so next time I'll let myself go faster from the start, and only "game it" and pace myself on longer rows (1K or more).

The 2nd wod was more of a mental challenge. Tim (Megan's bf) taped my hands, but the tape moved and shifted and made it nearly impossible to stay on the bar. It also cut off the circulation in my left wrist for the rest of the wod as I tried ripping the tape off mid-wod and couldn't get it off. The tape kept bunching up at the top of my palm right where I grip the bar. Also, the bucket I was jumping off was unstable so kept moving around and falling over. Eventually I gave up on the bucket, and started jumping up to the pull-up bar from this little blue step thing that was only about 6" off the ground. Never done this before, I've always done pull-ups from being able to reach the bar, so this was a new challenge for me, and, so much of a challenge that I decided to skip CTB and just do regular pull-ups to finish out the wod. Thankfully, Heather and the others at the box started bringing weights over to build a step I could reach from for the rest of my pull-ups. After the last weight was placed for me to stand on, it was still lower than usual for me, but as I said, coming at the bar from lower than usual was a new challenge for me and I thought probably a good thing for me to push through as who knows how close I'll be the the pull-up bar at sectionals. The burpees were a blur. Broken more than usual, wasn't sure if I was more tired than usual on these due to this being the 2nd wod of the day or whether I was just tired due to the 50 pull-ups.

As for the energy level of the two-a-day, I felt prepared for it. I have things I could improve for sure (1-I wish I had gotten more sleep the night before, as I did need a nap today after my 2nd wod, 2-I forgot to eat post-wod 2, which contributed to my tired feeling, 3-I want to play with my food choices) but I felt full capable of the work. That was good to know. I just need to remember how important sleep is and stop staying up past midnight. Damn it, it's 12:30 right now.

I'd like to try a few more two-a-days (not too many - I know I shouldn't wear myself out before sectionals) to play around with what foods and how much to eat. I ate steak because red meat tends to make me feel good (either the potassium or iron - something about it seems to wake me up when I'm tired), but I think I should've stuck with something more quickly and easily digestible like fish or eggs like I normally have pre-wod and then maybe add a cup of coffee pre-wod #2, if I feel the need for an extra kick.

I also need to get better at getting full nights of sleep. So, off to bed! Sweet dreams, all.

--

Nutrition

8:00 am [Pre-wod #1] - 1 egg, 2 oz. no salt turkey, 16 oz. coconut water, 2 T. sunbutter

9:45 am [Post-wod #1] - 3 oz. no salt turkey, ~8 oz. coconut water, 4 oz. blackberry applesauce (no sugar added - thanks, mo!)

12:30 pm [Pre-wod #2] - steak burrito bowl from Whole Foods with double meat (~4 oz steak), guacamole (~2-3 T), lettuce, jalepenos, pico de gallo, tomatillo salsa, 2 T. sunbutter

[no Post-wod #2 meal - forgot until about 45 min after workout and was not hungry then at all, so skipped the meal since I'd already passed the 30 min window]

2:30 pm - 2 t. sunbutter

5:45 pm - handful of walnuts/macadamias/pecans/dried cranberries

8:30 pm - 3/4 hamburger (mmm!), sauteed rutabagas and carrots, salad of greens, sunflower seeds, mandarin oranges, dried cranberries, peppers, red onions, blackened chicken.

9:45 pm - one delicious glass of Effen Black Cherry vodka. The owner bought us the drink, how could we say no, right Mo??

Rough Day

I'm switching the order up and posting workout first, food second. On to today's workout.

Press 5-5-5+ @ 58.5%/67.5%/76.5% of my 1RM (85#)
50#-57#-60# x7
15 Handstand negatives
Didn't scream once (success!). Felt better on these, however I failed to maintain speed/stay on the wall every time Bryce was watching. And when I nailed it a few times and jumped up excited, he was talking to Chris... not watching. Once I hit the wall and fell immediately on my head. Yep - he saw that one. 

WOD#2 from the Rocky Mountain Regionals 2009
Three rounds for time of:
10 CTB pull-ups
10 Front Squats 165/105 or (50% of 1RM back squat)
10 burpees

Wow. Going in tonight I had a healthy respect for the workout. I was excited to go Rx'd on and '09 Regionals wod. I knew 105 was gonna be heavy, but I also knew I have done thrusters at 85# for 15 reps that were heavy but not heavy enough to crush me. I also knew that I could front squat, what, 1 1/2 times Rx'd weight so while this should hurt, I should be able to get through it.

What I didn't take into account was that the bar would start not on a rack, but from the ground. So, not only did I have to front squat that weight, I'd have to clean it. My 1RM squat clean is 105.

Of course, I didn't think about this until after I was standing in front of the bar 30 seconds or so into round one. Hitting my 1RM after not doing any cleans in the warm-up did not happen today. I tried. I really really tried. I tried over and over again. I focused on my breathing. I walked away from the bar and came back, trying to give myself enough energy to get the bar up. Trying to give myself enough of whatever I needed to get it up. I was trying to power clean the bar, and then Bryce told me to squat clean it. I was so flustered I didn't know what that meant. "Get under the bar. You're lifting the bar high enough to get under it, so just get under it." Oh, riiiiight, a squat clean. Receive the bar in a squat. Got it. Except, I just couldn't do it. I don't know how many times I tried and failed. I thought - maybe this is an opportunity for me to just pound away at this weight until I hit it. I'll get it, I know I will, I've done it before and it doesn't feel impossible, I'm just not getting it. Bryce came over and started to take weight off. I didn't want to go down in weight. I wanted to fight for it. I WANTED TO FUCKING GO RX'D. I decided the other day that no matter what, when I compete at sectionals, I'm going Rx'd. I don't care if the wod takes me all fucking day, I'm not lowering the weight and D'Qing. So that's what I wanted to do today - finish. Rx'd.

But I also know that I need to trust my coaches. One of the things that makes working out in a CrossFit box, and our box specifically, better than working out anywhere else is having coaches around to help you, to train you, to push you, and sometimes even to know what's best for you when you don't.

Recently I've been reading blogs and discussing with other athletes how we push ourselves when we should stop because we're too proud or frustrated or whatever the reason. I'm committed to listening to our coaches. I believe in them, and believe they want what's best from me and for me. I don't always agree with them, but I always do what they say. And tonight, when Bryce grabbed the bar and started taking the weight off, I simply reached down to the other side of the bar, asked what he was taking off and followed suit (dropping the weight to 85#). I was disappointed. I heard Chris shout that I had to get these unbroken now. Well, fuck, I was so far behind in this workout of course I had to! Plus, I told myself that if I wasn't gonna go Rx'd weight on the front squats then I would at least do them unbroken. Oh yeah, and the thought of more failed cleans was not especially appealing.

The burpees were next, and those went slower than usual as I felt defeated, but I was still pushing through. Not as fast as I wanted, but unbroken as well. I knew I had to push extra hard to get my head back in the game. Once I got to Round 2 though, I just sorta fell into the wod. I had things to do - 10 CTB, another fucking clean and then 10 front squats, more burpees and then 1 more round. I finished at 9:50.

After the wod, I was disappointed. I was irritated. I thought about how I was going to try this wod again with 85# or 95#. I thought about how I needed to improve my clean strength and technique. I hung out, I ate my post-wod meal, and I rested. I talked with Jonny for awhile about casual things (not relating to my workout, thankfully) and eventually I went home to make dinner and watch Heroes. I enjoyed eating my paleo chili and had a delicious cup of chocolate tea.

Tomorrow I'll have a whole wod's worth of cleans to fight through (I may ask to do full squat cleans instead of hang power cleans to strengthen that movement, since I struggled so with it today). At least I know I'll get an opportunity quickly to work on what I failed at today. So, at least there's that :) See you tomorrow.
--
Nutrition
9:30am - 3 oz. grassfed filet, 7 oz. of yellow peppers, eggplant, & portabella mushrooms sauteed in 1 t. coconut oil

10:30am - 1 T. sunbutter

1pm - 4 oz macademia crusted catfish, 2 T. sunbutter, 1/8 c. blueberries

6:20pm [Pre-wod] - 4 oz. imitation crab meat (all gone now - only good meat from here on out), coconut water, 2 T. sunbutter

8:40ishpm [Post-wod] - 4 oz. salmon sashimi, coconut water

9:30pm - 10 oz. paleo chili plus 1 T. guacamole

11pm - chocolate tea w/ coconut milk and 1 T. raw sugar

Lean meat!!

8:30am - Pre wod - 1 egg, 2 oz. grd turkey, 3 oz. leftover dandelion greens+red chard, 6 walnut halves plus 15 dried cranberries. Was not feeling today's breakfast. I put all those things together - big mistake. Sigh.

10:15am - Post wod - coconut juice, 3 oz. Whole Foods low-sodium processed turkey breast

1:30pm - 1/16 c. heavy cream to taste
1:45pm - 6 oz (?) coffee, 1/16 c, heavy cream, 2 raw sugars

2:30pm - 3 oz. grd turkey, 3 oz. yellow pepper, 1 T. sunbutter. I was really craving a 2nd T but I think I may be overdoing my fat intake... so I denied myself. I didn't stop craving that 2nd spoonful until almost 3 pm. At least I stopped craving it at some point.

6:45pm- Paleo Chili! I don't know the exact proportions that I ate, but I ate about 3/4 c. chili. Mo and I made it with 1 lb. grd. elk + 1 lb. grd turkey thigh, and tripled the amount of vegis we put in (different varieties of peppers, onions, and mushrooms). Used about 4 T. organic EVOO, just a little sea salt, and everything was totally paleo (spices,vegis, etc). And delicious. Added 2 thin slices avocado on top with and some guacamole. AMAZING.

12:15am - was putting away the chili and couldn't resist a few (2) spoonfuls. And then, when I opened the fridge the sunbutter reminded me that I had I wasn't paying enough attention to it. So I had a T. of that before bed :)

--

Back Squat (Based on 175# 1RM)
125# x5- 142# x3- 158# x1

Metcon: 4 Rds:
5 Power Snatches (Rx'd was 80, did 65#)
10 burpees

Time 6:01.

I wanted to go heavier but my snatch form isn't there yet. Need to improve my form on those so I can get up in weight before sectionals. Annoyingly, I pressed out EVERY one. I may have nailed the first snatch. But that was it. My lift was more accurately called "ground to overhead is a sloppy and haphazard fashion."

3x12 GHD (Post Metcon).

The time was okay and since I wasn't really snatching anyway I kinda feel like I should've gone heavier to force myself through at a heavier weight, as I expect the wods at sectionals to be at high weights that I'm not yet comfortable with. But, if they were only counting true snatches then I may've been screwed anyway. Hearing "does not count" on every rep would not have made this a very successful day for me. Guess I'll work on snatches tomorrow morning.
--
Oh, and one last thing - today I went to the Green City Market with some of my favorite CFCers and it was fantastic (while there I tried heavy cream -from grassfed cows- like you said I could have Zack, and it was amazing. I had about 1/8 c. in total since the nice guy working the table gave me a free sample, and then gave me a second sample the next time I passed his booth so I could have it in my coffee, with 2 raw sugars. Heaven!).

I'm posting a picture of my freezer because it is ridiculous. After ordering from US Wellness Meats on Monday and my Green City Market trip today, I have a freezer FULL of meat and vegis. And that is all.

That's 3 packages of broccoli, 3 of spinach, 1 of asparagus on the top shelf. On the bottom, in various forms (such as ground/tenderloins/chops/etc), is grassfed beef, elk, bison, lamb, turkey, goat (not kidding), rabbit, shrimp and mussels. And of course I've got eggs and bacon in the fridge below. So... I'm pretty good for awhile. This next month is going to be one hell of an experiment in cooking.

Weekend workouts

Saturday 1/9/10

Bench Press 3-3-3+
70%/80%/90% of 1RM+5 (1RM = 110)
73/83/93# (x3 reps, failed on 4th)

Metcon (from NorCal CF Games Qualifier):
500 M Row
30 burpees (subbed 30 knee push-ups + 30 overhead lunges)
10 shoulder to overhead (95#)

I kept pace with my heat on the row, but finished did OH lunges and knee push-ups (I did these on my knees as Bryce instructed so that I would speed through them, not due to muscle fatigue/failure or b/c I was a wuss) before anyone else finished their burpees, so got to the bar for shoulder to overhead first. These took longer than I expected or wanted them to take, but Coach said to wait and not lift the weight until I was ready and committed. This is the first time I've ever been given that instruction in a WOD, so I took it seriously and took more breaths than usual. The jerks were broken 3-2-2(+1 fail)-2(+1 fail)-1. I was glad I did Rx'd, though it took a bit longer than I wanted it to. Finished about 6:52. I don't remember the exact time but I finished just after Megan and I am pretty sure it was sub 7. I'd like to do this wod again after I get my stitches out with burpees to gauge my time better. If I do it again I'd like to break the shoulder to overhead less, but it may be worse after burpees - who knows.

Sunday 1/10/10 (Active Rest Day) BEGIN PALEO CHALLENGE



Today begins the Paleo Challenge. I'd like to say I ate well today, but not really. I'm going to start tracking my food in this blog too.



9am - 2 eggs, 4 bites jicama/blood orange/jalapeno salad


10:30-1:30 pm - Drank coconut water (about 1/4 liter) while listening to the Paleo Challenge intro and then doing skills work



2:15pm - Whole Foods!!! The buffet there is amazing and today I fully appreciated it. 4-5 oz. pulled turkey+red peppers+onions (fajita meat); plus 10-12 oz of: kale salad, zuchini, squash, artichoke hearts, whole garlic cloves, cucumber+tomato salad. Delicious.


4:30pm - 3 t. sunbutter + 1 t. forestberry preserves (lots of berries plus very little sugar)


9:30pm - 3 oz halibut, 4-5 oz eggplant and yellow peppers sauteed in water + a little grapeseed oil

The problems with what I ate today are: 
-breakfast/pre-workout: no fat, not enough carbs. Also not close enough to my workout.
-no post-wod meal
-By lunch I was starving so ate more than I usually eat. Also, it was delicious. 
-no protein in my snack, which I justified at the time because i ate extra protein at lunch... but i know better. Also, too much fat, though most meals I lack fat so maybe once a day having too much fat is okay? probably only if it's pre-wod though and I'm doing a long/extreme workout.


Skills work:


Talked to Jonny about my grip for pull-ups. I'm over-gripping and gripping lower in my hand than he does (which is why i tear so often and so badly). Need to work on releasing a bit once I have my chin above the bar. The changed grip makes it tougher to string stuff together but I think that's just until I get used to it.


2 sets (Pull-ups 45 sec on/45 sec off): Got 10/13.
2 sets (Static hold pull-ups: chin/eye/head 20 sec on/20 sec off). Switched back and forth b/w palms toward me and away from me. Palms towards me KILLED my biceps. Never done those before. 1st set: 1st 20sec easy, 2nd 20sec burned like crazy from the palms away grip, 3rd 20 sec starting sliding down away from the height I should've been holding at. 2nd set: 1st 20 sec hard b/c I used the palms away grip but manageable, 2nd 20 sec started slipping downward at 15 sec, 3rd 20 sec started slipping at 12 and dropped at 15 sec.


Worked HSPUs. Didn't feel good on these today, this is the second time recently I've struggled on these more so than usual which is annoying. Strung together a max of 4 with 3 abmats.


Worked on Wall Ball form. 3 sets of 10 (rest in b/w). 1st set 14# unbroken to the red! Landed every one!! COUNT THAT JONNY!! 2nd set had to more to the wooden beam, and was nervous about throwing the ball through the hole, so switched to 12#, all 10 unbroken! 3rd set, disaster. Well, not disaster but frustrating. 6 unbroken, failed 3, got 2, failed 1, got 3. Not sure if I was tired or what caused the disappointing third round. And who was around watching my third round? Jonny darling. Of course. Why he wasn't around when I was nailing them?!



Worked with Amy on throwing myself against the wall for HSPUs. I have a hitch in my form (just like in wall ball) where I lose all my power. I'm not sure why in multiple movements I stop myself from using my full body strength and resort to only using arms- it's dumb. I think I worked through the hitch with Amy, but I guess we'll see if I can do it tomorrow sans hitch.


Had a stuffy nose all day today. Got worse after dinner. Took stinging nettle and quercitin - hope that helps so i can avoid cold medicine. Also, I think I might have a fever. Chicago winters are going to be the death of me. Going to bed early tonight (it's 11pm now), so expect 8-8 1/2 hrs of rest. Hopefully that plus 2 aleve will clear the fever/sick feeling and I'll be better tomorrow.

1st day back at CFC... effen kettlebell

Today was my first workout back at CFC. I can't express what a difference it makes to be at our box versus working our at home or working out at another CrossFit.

Strength work:
Press 5-5-5+: 53-61-69 (x5)
Ring dips clear band Max (x3): 10-8-8 (last time 5-5-5)

I need work on technique for presses. Need to keep my hands outside my elbows (wider grip), need to flex my muscles all through my legs and lock my knees, need to increase speed out of the bottom. Should work on this tomorrow at light weights so I don't forget what I learned.

I doubled the ring dips I could do since 12/14, so was hoping I could bang out at least one unassisted tonight after the metcon. Didn't happen. Will keep working on these - I will be able to get at least one unassisted before Sectionals.

Metcon:
4rds: Burpees, KBS (55#), Row (calories) 45 sec on/15 off
Burpees: 15/11/11/12
KBS @ 55#: 8/6/5/7
Row: 12/11/10/11
Total: 119

Those KBS were fucking heavy. Heaviest I've ever gone. Good to step it up for Sectionals... but it was definitely a struggle. By the last 2 rds I could string 2-3 together, but the 1st 2 rds I couldn't get more than singles. I imagine it was just getting used to the weight.

Also started reading Paleo for Athletes (Loren Cordain & Joe Friel). It has a great listing of foods to eat pre- and post-workout... I'm going to switch my current nutrition focus from a weight loss focus to a performance-enhancing focus. I imagine I'll still lose the rest of weight I was hoping to lose, but this book seems to emphasize (so far anyway) reducing recovery time and making the most of your workouts. I'm only 60 pgs in but I'll post about it when I learn something I need to remember. I bought a bunch of fish today... book pushed for fish post-wod... not sure how interested I'm gonna be in eating that but I'll try it and see how it goes.

I'll post about the next girl I'm following tomorrow. This shit is long enough already and I wanna put a heating pad on my back. Fucking 55# kettlebell.