Wod wod wod

Quick recap on my workouts so far this week...

Monday:
Kelly: 5 Rds:
400m run
30 Box Jump @20"
30 WB @ 14# to 9' (no marks where I was hitting the ball... maybe to the 10' but am not really sure but at least for sure I was hitting the 9)

Time: 31:03 Did this one by myself after I coached all day. Was pretty grueling but I made it through and in a decent time especially considering my slow ass running pace and my fear/hatred for WB.

Tuesday:
45 min mobility work in the am, then a few hours later did my first oly session with Coach Takano. Worked up to 73# snatch for 2 reps, then back off to 63# to work at for a few more. Then worked up to a 95# clean and jerk. Coach said I need to work on snatch balances and muscle snatches because I'm swinging the bar up and above me and need to push myself below the bar better. For cleans, he said I need to work the clean deadlift pausing below the knee for 3 sec, then above the knee for 3 sec. Wants me to work on the snatch drills at 75% and clean drills at 85%. Takano said he expects me to begin lifting significantly heavier weights which is exciting. Also said that my thighs will get thicker (totally fine with me, it'll just make my waist look smaller in comparison). And that I might need to start eating more in order to keep up with heavier oly training. Sounds awful ;)

Wednesday:
Filthy Fifty:
50 Box jumps 20"
50 Jumping pull-ups
50 KBS @ 24# (is this right?!)
Walking Lunges 50 steps
50 KTEs
50 Push press 33#
50 Back extensions (subbed 50 good mornings with 33#)
50 WB @14#
50 Burpees
50 Double unders

Time: 28:14.
[PREV Filthy Times.... 11/6/09- 38:01, 5/13/10- 32:07. Good to know I'm steadily improving!!!] Push presses were fast as a mofo, felt awesome on those. Did 20/10/10/10 all way faster than I've ever done before. Wanted to go 25/25 but broke them as soon as i started to slow down, rested a sec or two and got back at it. WBs were better then expected, I really have finally gotten to a place where these aren't the worst things in the entire world. Yaaaay! KTEs were sad but I'm still nursing a huge ass tear in my left hand center of my palm which made repping these painful... so I pussed out to save my hand.
Can't decide what I'm gonna do today - rest day, snatch/clean drills or do heavy metal since it's my favorite workout at TCF with my favorite coach and this is the last time he's coaching it before he leaves to coach at another gym.

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.

Back at it

Monday 12/14/10. Back in VA for the holidays!

Nutrition:
2 eggs + 1 egg white
2 c. coffee w/ half and half + 2 sugars, ~8 oz. gyro meat, one bite of pita, prob 1/4 c tzasiki (yogurt) sauce, small greek salad, w/ greek/italian dressing
pre-workout: 2 oz (?) Carl Buddig sliced turkey breast
post: 100 cal vanilla muscle milk
scrambled egg whites (3 or 4 eggs maybe?) with 2 % cheddar

Workout @ Gold Medal Graplling:
3 Rds of 1:30 each interval:
stairs
keg/hammer slam (keg rd 1, hammer rd 2, keg rd 3)
21" tire jumps
25# dumbbell cleans
push-ups
sit-ups
rest

That was tiring and got a good sweat going. Didn't track reps just tried to block out the world and pushed myself. Prob could've pushed harder if I had a counter or could've tracked and compared my reps round by round. Did most of the push-ups on my knees b/c I was aiming at 45 per interval, but did a few full-out in rd 3 (aafter being called out for being a girl). Then, worked on DLs.

DL @ 95#x5 - 135x5 - 185x3 - 205x3 - 225x2 - 245x1

Finished out with 10 sets of 5 kipping pull-ups.

I dunno if I'm gonna keep tracking my nutrition. It was necessary when I first started to keep myself accountable, but now I'm accustomed to eatng this way and really only cheat prob once a week with something I feel bad about. I also decided to switch to a more primal than paleo approach as I allow myself dairy, and occassionally sea salt.

Charles Staley Oly Lift seminar day 2 & day 8 of nutrition tracking

Sunday 10/18/10.

Nutrition:
2 eggs + 1 egg white.

1/2 extra big choc muscle milk light

Chipotle burrito bowl...double chicken, pico de gallo, guac, lettuce... And a little bit of spicy corn salsa.

1/2 extra big choc muscle milk light

Steak lettuce wraps... Prob 4 oz steak, 1/3 c peppers and onions, lettuce wraps, guac

A shit ton of vodka sodas... 8-10? And another car bomb. Man, those are delicious.

Prob about 1/3 c cheese tortellini in cream sauce with peas and proscioutto. And 1/3 carafe of bellinis.
---

Maybe not my best wkend as far as food goes... Next week I'll have to make up for that. Whatever though- we're starting to shoot on Tuesday so I needed to get all my misbehaving out before then. Plus one of my oldest friends came into town and we had a lot of fun. And apparently both are secretly fatties who miss pasta :)

I worked out hard though- another 9-3 day of lifting with Charles Staley. I snatched up to 70 or 80 some #s, I cant believe I didn't write that down, but it wasn't a PR... Just much prettier than prev PRs. I C&J up to 103#, but was really struggling with the pull. I wasn't getting that weightless moment - that shrug that happens when you rally nail the pull. So, instead of continuing up in weight I dropped down to work just on that. I need to spend some time this week on these lifts... I hope i can find a gym in LA with barbells I can play with as i want to.

Charles Staley seminar on Oly Lifting - day 1 of 2

Saturday 10/16/10.
Nutrition:
Pure protein bar.

1/2 extra big chocolate muscle milk (during oly lifting training).

Lunch at Flat Top Grill - 3 oz chicken, stirfried with broccoli, spinach, peppers, a few pineapple chunks, mushrooms, and green onions plus Indian coconut curry sauce, garlic and sriacha sauce.

1/2 extra big chocolate muscle milk (at end of oly lifting training).

Barbacoa burrito bowl from Whole Foods- 4 oz barbacoa steak, 1 1/2 T guacamole, pico de gallo, and lettuce.

And... Later on I will be having copious amounts of alcohol.

Later on's update is... I think I drank 4 vodka sodas, plus a car bomb (amazing...happy bday Erin), a shot of tequila...

And I was starving coming home. And wanted fucking taco bell. Like really wanted it. I settled for 1 oz of no salt turkey deli meat. Ugh.
--
Workout:
9am- 3pm Olympic Lifitng training seminar with Charles Staley.

Great day!! Worked first on cleans, then snatches, then jerks. Broke for lunch and then returned to snatches, and then put together the clean and the jerk. Worked up to 73# snatch, 30% off my prev ugly as shit 1RM, which didn't make me especially happy but it was okay. I then worked up to a 103# clean and jerk, which was only 10% off my prev 1RM, which felt great. I wanted to push for 108, but I was tired. I recognized that I had reached my end for the day so didn't try it. But tomorrow!! Tomorrow I'm getting it. Actually tomorrow I'm hitting 125#. :) Charles suggested writing it down ahead of time... Not waiting until you hit the PR but announcing it first. Making it happen. So, I'm making it happen. Tomorrow.

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.

Nice to see you again, old friend.

Soooo... it's been awhile. I know. I'm not very good at this keeping at this sort of thing. I came back though didn't I?

Let's see... the number of cupcakes I've had since Sectionals... at least six. The number of cupcakes I've had since moving to Chicago in August 2007... probably also six. Seriously?! What's my deal? No more cheating. Well, okay, no more big sugar craving indulgences... like delicious cupcakes. I don't think I'll make it until Regionals without a few cheats... like the Beer pairing dinner at Publican that I'm totally stoked about next Monday :) I think trying to go an entire month without cheating would be a huge pain in my ass and I just don't wanna do it. So I'm gonna allow a few minor cheats... minor. If I could cut it down to 1 cheat meal per week I think I'll be good as gold. And hopefully not a full cheat meal each time, hopefully just 1 cheat item in that meal. We'll see.

I have a calendar listing all the CFC programmed workouts, all my supplemental wods and any other active things (like volleyball and trips to Roger and Mike's for oly lifting work). I've decided to put off the Deadlift work until after Regionals so I can focus on bigger weaknesses (double-unders, HSPUs, OH squats, running most specifically) that might trip me up there. It's a little absurd, my calendar... but I feel good about it.

Yesterday's Regionals Tune-up WODs:

WOD 1: In 12 minutes, find 1RM snatch. Add 2lb bonus for each muscle-up completed.

Score = 85#- 7#PR! Attempted MUs pre-wod but I just don't have them so didn't bother during the 12min.

WOD 2: 3 rds for time of: Row 500m, 21 Kettlebell Swings (20kg), Run 400m.

Time = A year. Will check the actual time and repost later tonight.

WOD 3: AMRAP in 10 minutes of: 6 Squat cleans (95#), 9 CTB Pull-ups, 12 BJ (20").

Score = 3 rds + 6 Cleans + 2 CTB

What a killer day. The 2nd WOD kicked my ass. Lung burn like I have NEVER felt it before. Whooping cough forever afterward.

During the 2nd wod literally thought I couldn't finish during the 2nd row and the 3rd run. It felt absolutely horrendous. I think I only made it through that event b/c of Kurt shouting in my ear on the row and Rudy/Zack/E-Diesel guiding me in on that last run. Need to start working in that awful pain threshold more often so I can push harder in it and not cash out. You know that place where you wanna die? Yea, I'm saying I need to get there more often (what?! does that sound ridiculous to anyone else?). It's weird though - as much as I thought my last rds were horrendous and felt like I was quitting and not pushing hard enough - I wasn't that far off my time from the earlier rounds... so, somehow I think I'm managing it okay, I'm just not sure what to do while in that place and instead of looking outward to a coach I need to learn to look inward and push through it.

Then, 3 games of volleyball. Felt great while playing actually - super open hip flexors, no muscle fatigue, just the tiniest bit sluggish on a couple plays. Served deeper and harder than usual, which was fun and unexpected. Totally expected to feel like shit b/c of all the work I did earlier in the day but actually felt pretty awesome.

A-Team... what what?!

Super excited to have made the CFC Affiliate Team and to be competing at Regionals. I had lots of goals for where I wanted to be and what I wanted to improve on and now they've just gotten completely restructured and the time table moved up substantially. In addition to the below goals I just want to improve my pacing on the row and on my runs. I want to be able to sprint my ass off and not crash. Overall, I just wanna get better.

I just barely made this A-Team. In fact, I kinda didn't make it - I'm first alternate, but since our #2 girl can't make it to Regionals, I'm in. I'm proud of earning this opportunity and am going to work my ass off to show that I earned my spot on this team and that I belong on the team. I'm a competitor and I'm not gonna let up, I'm gonna work as hard as possible over these next few months and I'm gonna be ready to compete at Regionals. I'm gonna be more than ready. Seriously. I can't fucking wait.

Box jumps @ 20” x 50 reps unbroken

Clean and Jerk – 125# 1RM

Double-unders – 100 reps in 2 minutes (not necessarily unbroken)

HSPU – 3 unbroken reps, no abmat

Muscle-up - 1 kipping and/or strict

OH squat – 110# 1RM

Pull-ups - 25 unbroken (kipping) on the Big Boy Bar

Push-ups – 25 unbroken

Ring dips - 10 unbroken

Run 1 mile Sub-9 min

Snatch – 1RM 90#
Wall Ball - 3 x 20 reps @ 14#, 60 sec rest in b/w rds. Unbroken or under 60 sec per round.

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

2008 Games Grace WOD

2008 Games Grace- 

30 reps Clean & Jerks @ 155#/100# (must pass through full squat) for time.

Ten minute cap.

DNF - 27 reps (failed 2 jerks). Finished at 11:11 (?i think? I laid down on the floor once I hit the time cap, and John told me to get up and finish. So I did. Thanks, John.)

I knew this would hurt, but was not prepared for how much it would hurt.

I got all cleans without fail. Yaay! 29 cleans in ten minutes @ 10# below my PR. That's something I'm definitely proud of. I started with (full squat) cleans but as I got tired they slowly became power cleans into front squats. I failed two jerks. I would've had 29 if I hadn't failed those two damn jerks. I probably could've pushed through, no? If I only had one more needed rep? John was counting for me and said my jerks were almost all pressed out at the top. If my technique were better and I could've jerked these instead of pressing them could I have finished? Would I have had been have to push myself enough to finish?

I read Gillian Mounsey's blog about doing double fran. She talked about how double fran crushed her mentally. I read about it the day before this workout... fitting. It's exactly how I felt. I wanted to quit. Desperately wanted to quit. She talked about not being able to will herself to go unbroken. For me it was struggling to will myself to pick up the bar. I haven't done much work at that level of pain, I simple haven't worked at that pain threshold.I remember a row a month or so ago where I paused for a moment in total pain. That's the threshold I'm talking about.

I think that's where I need to starts working. Heavier, faster, and harder than I've ever gone before. I've got to learn to be able to push myself there, stay there and work there.

Last week and Level I Cert!!

So, it's kinda been awhile. I know. After sectionals I got super busy with work and lost some of the energy I was putting into CrossFit. I was tired and while I didn't wanna take a break from working out, but my workouts weren't impressive, and blogging just stopped all together. My apartment is a disaster. It looks like a bomb exploded. I can be messy and disorganized but this is beyond compare. And that's how I know I'm floundering and need something. Some kind of change.

Last week I flew to VA Monday morning and was there until I flew to LA on Friday morning. I worked out Monday evening, Tuesday morning, skipped Weds b/c the WOD there was running (I didn't wanna pay $20 to run so I thought I'd take a rest day and get back at it Thursday). Thursday the gym I was working out at was closed (oops) and I was going to take off work early and work out but I had an awful day at work, stayed four hours later than I anticipated and had dinner plans so had to skip working out that day. Friday I got into LA mid-afternoon and saw some of my favorite friends in the world. Planned to leave LA around 6, get to my hotel and work out, but dinner ran late and since I never see those friends I decided to forgo my workout to spend more time with them.

Saturday morning I tried to get up early and workout in the hotel "gym" - so sad. I ran on the treadmill (did I mention it was POURING down rain??) for about 1 1/4 miles switching back and forth b/w sprinting and running and jogging. I also set the treadmill to adjust the hill randomly (though it was less random and more like steadily going up throughout the run which was fine). I did 10 push-ups and my arms were exhausted! I thought you've got to be kidding me...

In retrospect, non-paleo eating DOES affect my workouts and my overall level of energy. I was EXHAUSTED on Saturday during my early morning workout.

Thursday night I ate a delicious but non-paleo dinner prepared by a friend of my sister's (pan friend and breaded fish, salad with goat cheese, carrots and string beans) on Thursday and a shit ton of alcohol that night - no mixers of course, but wine, sparkling rose, and a bunch of straight liquor. I know I shouldn't have but the week I'd had was long and exhausting and the day I had was HORRENDOUS ("I wanna quit my job" horrendous) so I cheated.

Friday I was good - ate paleo all day and even brought steak and sauteed swiss chard on the plane so I wouldn't have to eat bad plan food. I allowed myself two glasses of tequila, and then planned on calling it a night and then the waiter brought the table a gift - creme brulee and this chocolate fudgey mousse cake. I do not have that kind of self-control, so I definitely ate some of both of them. Damn it. I did feel bad about that one. Especially since I hadn't worked out the day before and knew I wasn't working out that night since it was already so late and I had an hour drive ahead of me.

Saturday and Sunday I ate well (though breakfast wasn't so great Sat - ate the "buffet" breakfast food - eggs, piece of sausage, & some hashbrowns, 1 c. coffee with coconut milk & 1 t. sugar. I thought they had a person cooking breakfast not a buffet, which is why I didn't plan anything for breakfast. Lunch was 4 oz. no-salt turkey, peppers, and sunbutter. Dinner was halibut with steamed spinach and a tomato/cucumber/red onion salad. I asked for no salt on my dinner and I think they doubled the salt instead... it tasted super salty. I need to plan ahead better for breakfast when I got on trips. Sunday breakfast was much better - eggs, peppers, and 1 c. coffee with coconut milk & 1 t. sugar. Lunch was 4 oz. no-salt turkey, peppers, and 1 T. sunbutter. Snack around 5:30 was 2 oz. turkey and some peppers. Dinner was a burger (no bun, cheese or anything non-paleo) with bacon and avocado and a small side salad with oil and vinegar. No drinks.

Monday I woke at a friends place and was able to cook again. Lovely. I had 1 egg, 2 oz. no-salt turkey and some peppers, 8 oz. coffee with coconut milk. No sugar. I'm quitting refined sugar for real. 4 oz. carne asada from Whole Foods plus 4 oz. kale with mushrooms and red peppers and olive oil, plus 8 oz coconut water. For dinner I had 4 more oz. carne asada from another Whole Foods, 1 T. cashew butter, and 5 oz. collard greens prepared with orange juice and raisins. I wanted to work out (specifically run sprints) Monday night after I got home from the airport but my body was still pretty sore from the weekend workouts and drills, so I was convinced to take the day as a rest day since I'd have a qualifying wod for the A-team the following day and should be fresh for that.

Saturday and Sunday I was at my Level I Certification. Amazing weekend. Learned so much about proper form and learned not only to better my own form but how to teach better form and how to correct improper form. Also got to hang out with some fantastic CFers. Loved the people I met who were getting theirs certs as well as the super impressive instructor roster including Pat Barber, Jason Khalipa, and Jolie Gentry (who is pregnant and still has better form than probably anyone I know) and Stephane Rochet and Andrew Thompson - the list goes on. I had an amazing time, and got a lot out of the cert both individually and as a coach-in-training! Individually, I was told my pull-ups are super strong, got my squats significantly improved, sped up my Fran time by 45 sec and went Rx'd for the 1st time. As far as learning to be a better coach, I learned form MUCH better, got to see faults and how to correct those faults, and learned what I believe to be the most important lesson - technique needs to get better before intensity should. I can't be afraid to tell someone to drop weight if I think their form isn't good enough to support that weight. If I don't do that for an athlete I'm coaching, I'm doing them a disservice.

Sat wods: tabata air squats, drills on DL/SDHP/MedBallCleans, Squat/FS/OHS, Press/PP/PushJerk, Fran
Sun wods: Muscle-up work, pull-up work, Snatch work, Team wod: 1 person at each of these stations for (I think) 12 mins: 1 pood KBS, push-ups, run, rest. Score is total # of KBS+pushups amongst entire team.

PS my new Fran time is 7:12!!

Three Days of catch-up

Weekend wods, first.

Sat: FUN Team wod with JJ, Emmitt, and Tina:

Round 1: 2 rope climbs
Round 2: 50 ball slams
Round 3: 10 muscle ups
Round 4: 40 toe to bars
Round 5: A hallways length of lunges with a 25# plate

Each round each team member had to run the length of the hallway 2x. Felt awesome to sprint again - hadn't run in forever.

Time: 19:21

Post-wod on Sat I ate way too much at the paleo cook off, and then wanted a nap but instead had three cups of black coffee, followed by more food and bunch of vodka. Late night after getting up at 6am.

Sun: Was exhausted!! Got up to a-coach and then hit up the West Loop for open gym with Jonny. Did a 500m row super slow. Stuck around 2:15. I got off the rower, went and got some water and tried to shake that slow ass row off. Got back on a few minutes later, and rowed 500m in 2:00.5! Much better time. Only went above 2:00 in the first few strokes. Felt waaay better! My right deltoid has been troubling me the past few days so since the 2nd row started to hurt towards the end I opted to stop working out and rest. Then got a phenomenal massage. She focused on my lower body and stripped away so many trigger points and so much whatever was in there. My thighs feel a bit tender but I'm not in pain in my hip flexors anymore and the muscle that goes on top of my IT band (don't remember its name) was apparently the problem, but it's better now. My snatches on Monday were easy to get into the bottom of and without pain :)

Mon: Olympic Total!

"Olympic Total"
1RM Snatch - 78# (failed 83# 3x)
1RM Clean and Jerk - 118#
(failed clean @ 123# 3x)

Total: 196.

My prev ugly-as-crap-total-press-out power snatch (from the oly meet) was 75#... My prev. full squat snatch PR was 63#. SO, 78# felt great tonight! Think I can get more if I get under the bar faster and with better hip extension. I muscled up the 83# pretty easily, but it wasn't a good snatch so didn't count it. Danced around like a silly little girl afterward.

Prev Clean PR was 110, Prev Jerk PR was 115. 118 was exciting, though I was disappointed b/c I felt I could've gotten 123 but just wasn't getting my elbows under fast enough... or I wasn't getting low enough fast enough. Wasn't sure, and the coach there had newer CFers working on 1RM Power Cleans so his focus was on them.

Have to workout tomorrow at 6:30 am in order to get a wod in while in VA. Not sure how that's gonna go... never tried working out that early. Maybe I should go to bed...

Aim for the Moon. If you miss, you'll still be amongst the stars

Rest Day today. A for real one too - no workout OR volleyball!!

Proving Ground Goal - to be achieved by 10/15/2010:
Complete WOD 1 from the MidWestern Sectionals with a Top Thirty qualifying time. That means in 12:43 or better.

And, here are the rest of my 2010 goals. The rest of these goals I want to have achieved by 12/31/2010:

Back Squat - 185# x 10 reps unbroken

Bench Press – 125# 1RM

Box jumps @ 20” x 50 reps unbroken

Clean and Jerk – 135# 1RM

Deadlift – 250# x 5 reps unbroken

Double-unders – 100 reps in 2 minutes (not necessarily unbroken)

FGB - 300 points or more

Fran - sub-4 min

Front Squat – 165# 1RM

HSPU – 10 unbroken reps, no abmat

Muscle-up - 1 kipping

Muscle-up - 1 strict

OH squat – 80# x 10 unbroken reps

Pull-ups - 35 unbroken (kipping)

Push-ups – 30 unbroken

Ring dips - 10 unbroken

Run 1 mile Sub-9 min

Run 400m Sub-1:35 min

Run 8K Sub-48 min

Skin the Cat on the bar

Snatch – 1RM 90#

Some of these goals will be tough as hell to achieve (10 OHS reps @ my current 1RM? On my worst lift? wtf?!), while others I'm much closer to so think I'll be able to achieve them relatively soon (My current Bench is 110# so 125# seems more than reasonable to achieve soon). But, I wanted to set goals for myself in as many areas as possible so that I know not only where I stand today but where I want to be. I am going to try and review these goals on a ~monthly(ish) basis to track my progress and to see what areas I am neglecting so that I can in fact reach as many of these goals as possible... hopefully all of them :) I'll have to sit down and work out a plan to reach each of them (just stating them won't make them happen)... I'll post as I have more stuff ironed out. 
--
Nutrition
9:00 am - 1 egg; 2oz no salt turkey; 5 oz rainbow chard + spinach; "cereal" 1/8 c. coconut milk with a schlook of coconut water, pinch coconut flakes, ~6 walnut halves, ~5 pecans, 12 fresh blueberries. Mmmmm.

11:15 am - coffee with 1 1/2 t. raw sugar and 1/8 c. coconut milk

3:00 pm - 3 oz. halibut; 8 oz salad (lettuce, a handful of sauteed rhutabagas, 17 blueberries, pinch of coconut flakes, ~3 crushed walnut halves, ~1 1/2 T. wild maine blueberry dressing). Not bad, though I'm so sick of these damn rhutabagas. SUCH a strong flavor. I'm never cooking up two of them at the same time again. One would've been plenty.

9:45 pm - 1/4 c. mint galactica coconut milk ice cream (while cooking dinner)

10:15 pm - 4 oz. grass-fed grilled beef shoulder (delicious and tender); 6 oz. parsnips baked with coconut oil; 1 t. almond butter and 1 t. macadamia nut butter with 10 blueberries.

11:15 pm - 2 T. sunbutter. I TRIED to give it up. I tried.

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.

Meh. Thursday was not my favorite day in the world.

Thursday, after 11am a-coaching, my non-workout/non-nutrition related personal life su-ucked. I had to deal with something I wasn't prepared to deal with and ended up taking the whole afternoon off work to recover. I ran a few errands to take my mind off things, and while waiting for some pictures at Walgreens, stopped at a nearby bar for lunch... which turned out to be a great idea. I love love love dive bars, and the old men in them. I got a free delicious Smithwick's beer (yea I know - i didn't care. it was so tasty) and the awesome bartender brought me extra jalapenos, and while that may seem silly, it made my day just a little bit better. Oh, plus the guy at walgreens was extra helpful getting my camera to work when I couldn't get it to. I don't really care that I cheated on paleo today - I was having a shite day.

The workout was alright. I worked on finding my new PR with a power clean, but was struggling getting the motions right even after all the work with Rog & Mike. I feel stronger on snatches after focusing on it two weeks in a row, but we've only worked cleans once so I think I need to pump my brakes (thanks, Rudy, for bringing that back into my vocab) and give myself time to really get set on the technique before I try and go up in weight.

I still PR'ed, but not as high as I think I should be lifting. If I can consistently work at 95# for an hour, can and have done 30 reps @ 95# cleans during multiple metcons, and can clean a 105# bar during a metcon, I'm sure I can lift heavier than my newly established PR, but until I can get the form cleaner and more consistent I'm not going to see that transferred to a heavier weight.

Find your IRM Power Clean - 110# (failed at 115# 3x)

Metcon - 5 rounds for unbroken reps of:
Wall Ball
Hang Power Clean (45% of 1RM Clean)
30 seconds of rest in-between exercises. 

I am an a-hole, and used Ben Wood's Inspirational Weight Calculator wrong. YES, I work in accounting and finance. It's true. I used 45% of 85.5% of my 1RM by accident... 43#. SO obviously I crushed the HPC portion of this wod. I thought my arms were going to fall off. The last rd of HPC my arms had gone completely numb.

I also forgot my paper listing my score in my car, but I think I remember some parts so will list what I remember now, and correct this after I check :)

WB @ 10# ??-??-??-??-19
HPC @ 43# 30-30-30-30-38

My forearms BURNED. And then, I had Vball. I thought it was going to kill me, but it wasn't bad actually. My body was able to put off most of the soreness until this morning.
--
Nutrition
8:30 am - 1 egg, 2 oz no salt turkey, 5 oz. sunchokes, 4 fish oil, 1 Vit C

2:20 pm - chicken + bacon + avocado + jalapeno sandwich (minus the bread) ~4 oz. chicken, 1 strip bacon, 1/4 avocado. Free Smithwick's beer (I know I should've have but who turns down a free beer from the owner?! I didn't want to be rude...); and sweet potato fries. So, well, at least I didn't eat the bread. Guess I just gave up the beer I was gonna have after sectionals.

3:45 pm - 1 1/2 T sunbutter

6:30 pm [Pre-wod] - 2 oz. no salt turkey, 8 oz. coconut water, 1 t. sunbutter

8:30 pm [Post-wod] - 2 oz. no salt turkey, 8 oz. coconut water

10:00 pm [Post-vball] - 6 oz coconut water

10:45 pm - 3 oz. monkfish; 7 oz of brocoli plus the remaining shitty chard mix I made the other day, a few cranberries and coconut flakes.

12:15 pm - 2 t. sunbutter
--

 I did watch a 30 sec video on YouTube that made me smile... called "How Not to Snatch"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf-M8_oLlAg&feature=related

Oly Day

Couldn't make it in to the 9am this morning due to heavy work sched and morning conference call. Thankfully Amy and I have a session with Roger and Mike this evening (yaay) so it's probably good that I'll be fresh for that.

Great work today. Started with snatches (refresher course from last week). Felt strong with these. Don't remember what weight we went up to (but Amy did - 31 kilos - 68#), but it felt good :) Switched to cleans and worked on those for awhile. Worked up to 41 kilos - 90#. It never occurred to me how similar the two lifts are at set up (which seems silly now) and really enjoyed switching from the snatch work into the clean. Next week we move on to jerks!!

Mike also showed me more stretches and ways to use the roller to improve the mobility in my upper back muscles. The problems I'm having with the technique are all flexibility based. My upper spine doesn't bend, and my lower spine over bends. Turns out that's a problem.
--
Nutrition
8:15 am - 4 oz. braised ribs (leftover from Vermillion), 2-3 oz. coconut water, 1 T sunbutter

10:15 am - 1/2 oz. spicy turkey jerky strip (no cooties)

12:00 pm - 5 oz paleo chili (~2oz protein, 3oz vegis), 2 t. sunbutter. I will be hungry later. Probably pretty soon actually.

1:15 pm - Yep. Chocolate tea with 1 t. raw sugar and coconut milk.

3:30 pm [Pre skills work] - 3 oz. spicy turkey jerky, 8 oz. coconut water, handful almonds/walnuts/macadamias/dried cranberries

7:45ish [Post wod] - 10 oz peppercorn crusted filet (mmmm), ~6 oz. roasted zuchini/mushrooms/red onions/eggplant in balsamic, with ~6 oz. salad (greens, apples, pecans, cranberries, celery with oil & vinegar & a smidgen of "apple ranch dressing"), chammoile tea.
--
Read a few interesting things on the CFC Paleo blog today (from Mark's Daily Apple - yes, we get it Rudy, we should be following this site. I promise to start).

It talked about intermittent fasting - which I generally feel is stupid, but wondered how it would affect training. I think it would be negative, since we work our bodies so hard during wods and need as much fuel and recovery time as possible. But, I've never really studied the benefits of fasting for the body... I may look into those at some point in the future, as I'm always interested in how to improve my health (though I have to say it sounds unhealthy. And sucky).

It also talked about an individual's "healthy homeostasis." I really feel that's what I've reached. I've been at or around this weight/shape for a few weeks now without any major changes. I eat the way I should eat and have few cheats (dab of sea salt or raw sugar here and there). OBVIOUSLY I'm not counting my major cheat weekend. But one wkend in 6 mos of cheating? I think I'm okay. I eat mainly vegis for my carb intake (plus coconut water) and I don't eat nearly as many carbs as allowed by Zone, so not only am I not overeating, I am not even sure that I've even getting enough calories in during the day (since I NEVER EVER count them... thank god), though since I'm not seeing performance dropping I guess I am probably okay. Although, maybe my performance would improve if I ate more and I have been performing sub-par for months without knowing it... I dunno. I doubt it though. I think I would feel it if I was lacking in sustenance, and I doubt I'd be hitting any PRs. I think most realistically I've reached the homeostasis that my body believes is right for me and that's why I've stagnated. I'm not as lean as I'd like to be, though according to Mark's Daily Apple that's common for women to have higher than they'd like body fat percentage at homeostasis. He went on to say it would take some serious fighting (adjusting levels of carbs, calories, activity levels, sleep, and stress) to drop any more weight. He also suggested adding some more sprinting into my workout routine, although I would venture to say that many of our metcons (the 8 minutes or less ones) include a decent amount of sprint activity. Hmm. Lots to think about.

The Return of Effen

Saturday
Find your 1RM Jerk

Got 115#, failed @125# twice. I still think I can get it, and maybe even go higher, I'm just not driving under the bar with enough power. I watched Bryce on his jerks and he slams the shit out of the ground when he hits the position, and I am definitely not doing that. I tried to, but I just don't get it. I'm not a timid person, but I just wasn't able to get that SLAM! down. I'll be seeing Mike and Roger this week and working cleans, so maybe we can talk about that.

Workout #3 from 2009 Dirty South Regional:
8 minute AMRAP of:
5 Clean and Jerk (Sectional Athletes 135/95) or (60% of 1RM jerk)
10 CTB pull-ups

3 full rds. We looked up the rankings and I would've ranked 19th for this wod (top 30 girls at sectionals move on, so while this isn't as high as I would've liked to be, I can be okay with it. It's pretty shitty really, when you look at all the other numbers that people put up but again, 19th is in the top 30 and then I'll have a few months to really step up my game and get better). I failed a bunch of reps - only counting CTB where I knew I hit it (I had huge red marks all across my chest after this wod from slamming into the bar), and re-did a few jerks b/c I pressed them out. Heavy as shit and a bit frustrating. Took more time than I probably needed to on the C&Js but could have failed less reps if I took a bit more time on the pull-ups. I hate wasting energy on a failed rep - I should've been smarter in this wod.
 
Post WOD
3x5 GH Raises

3x max ring dips. 3-5-3

--

Nutrition - yea so my sister and her husband were in town and it was a cheat weekend. Saturday I REALLY cheated. More cheats than I've had in one day BY FAR since I can't even remember. I'm only going to list the cheats since I'm catching up and don't feel like typing for an hour.

• 1 slice stuffed deep dish sausage pizza from Art of Pizza at lunch
• 1 latte (2 shots espresso, sweetened condensed milk and whipped cream) after lunch
• coffee gelato (with the latte after lunch)
• spaeztle (served underneath mahi-mahi) at dinner
• bite of quinoa at dinner
• And, um, 8 or 9 effen black cherry and waters (at dinner and after dinner). 
• Plus a shot of Stoli O and... something. What? It was some guy's bday. What was I supposed to do??

----
Sunday

Rest Day. Went into the WL for a bit of double-under work. Strung 7 in a row - new PR! Old PR was 6 :) Practiced split jerks with the 33# bar to work on that SLAM! I'm not getting. It seemed better by the end, but still not where I want it.

--

Nutrition

9:30 am - 2 eggs, 3-4 strips nitrate free bacon, 4 oz coconut water, cup of coffee with coconut milk and 1 t. raw sugar

2 pm - 2 pieces turkey jerky, 1 cup coffee with coconut milk, 1 t. raw sugar

3:45 pm - chopped CDL salad from Caffe de Lucca

9pm ish - Paleo lasagna (eggplant, zuchini, portabellas, lamb italian sausage (cootie-free, only non-paleo ingred was celtic sea salt), olive oil, onions and tomato sauce) over a bed of spaghetti squash with coconut oil. Delicious. Ate 2 plates, which is ridiculously unusual for me, but it was toooo delicious. I hadn't had any paleo meal like it before so was phenomenally taken aback. Cooking with Mo is fun!!!

...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.

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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??

Today's workout > yesterday's workout

Power Snatch 5-5-5+
43#-51#-57# x12 reps.
Stopped not due to muscle fatigue but because I started pressing out in the last 2 reps, and figured crappy form shouldn't get extra reps counted.

3x5 Glute-Ham Raise (I like these)

Then for time, reps of:
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
Hang power clean 60%1RM =63#
Ring Dips (purple band)

Time: 5:27

Workout felt great. I ate only 20 mins before I started the strength portion and I think that really helped. I also ate fish, which digests super quickly. I felt strong moving through that and then the metcon felt fantastic. Getting to go through a fast workout that I could easily handle the weights and just speed through almost entirely unbroken was a phenomenal way to get over the failing of yesterday's wod.

I ate my post-wod food and then stuck around to work on a few skills - some handstands, attempted muscle-ups with JJ and Steve, double-unders.

Then I had volleyball. I continued to drink coconut water before volleyball and a bit during the break b/w games to stay hydrated. My left calf was tight before I started playing, and while it didn't seem to affect my play, it did feel tighter after I got home. Halfway through the second game (of three) my hip flexers really started hurting. Then by the time I got home, my shoulders and back were sore too. Not as sore, but sore nonetheless. I am going to try and get a massage in this week from Amy!

I just went through my blogs and realized I haven't had a true rest day since January 3rd. I've been active every day for 16 days?! No true rest days?! And while I haven't done any two-a-day metcons, I have done strength work and a metcon, and then added on a few hours of skills work or an hour of volleyball. I still need to get a two-a-day metcon in, but considering my activity level right now I think I'll be able to manage it well. The 3 days where I didn't do a metcon, I've either worked on skills for a few hours or played vball (active rest is not actual rest). I should probably look into an actual rest day soon. I just like CrossFit too much, and I'm really enjoying pushing so hard. Rest days are silly. And the only reason I'm contemplating a rest day now is because I'm sore. But, hopefully the massage will get rid of the soreness and I can get back at it :)
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Nutrition:
8:20am - 1 egg, 2 oz. grd. turkey + 3 1/2 oz. yellow peppers sauteed in 1 t. white truffle oil

10:45am - 2 t. sunbutter

12:45pm - 6 oz. paleo chili (carbs + protein)
1:20pm - Still hungry. 2 t. coconut cream and a glass of chocolate tea with 1 t. raw sugar

3:10pm [Pre-wod] - 2 oz. macadamia crusted catfish, coconut water, macadamia/walnut/cranberry mixture - maybe 7 walnut halves, 2 macadamias, 15 dried cranberries.  Plus 10 fresh blueberries.

4:45/5pm [Post-wod] - 3 oz. macadamia crusted catfish, coconut water

8:30 pm - 10 oz. paleo chili, macadamia/walnut/cranberry mixture - maybe 4 walnut halves, 1 macadamia, 8 dried cranberries.  Plus 20 fresh blueberries.