ok with break even

Tues. Nov. 25:

Rest day tomorrow, I’ve promised myself!  Well except for hockey, but that doesn’t really count.  Coach Dave posted a blurb about the importance of taking rest days a few days ago.  I read it, but went anyway.  Today was 6 in a row, and I will admit my legs are more than ready for a day off.  I’m generally very good at sticking to the 3 on, 1 off, 2 on, 1 off routine.  Wheels only fell off this week cause I was actually able to make the Saturday class, but the busy retail season is just about upon us, so rest days will sadly become more frequent.

Teams of 2: 2 Rounds of

2:00 Air Squats
One Partner holds the bottom of a squat

2:00 Deadlifts (185/135)   #125 FAT bar
One Partner holds a second Barbell in the hang position

2:00 Hand Release Pushups
One Partner holds a handstand  plank

2:00 Toes to Bar
One Partner hangs from pull-up bar

Score is Max Reps – 365

Secret to getting so many reps – a couple of air squat speed demons.  Paired up with speedy Sam again and crushed this fun little WOD.  However, if I never again see an air squat, my legs would be overjoyed.  “The most underappreciated movement there is” according to both Dave and Sharon.  I totally get that, but at the moment my legs are so not interested in anything resembling a squat.  Or stairs.  The worst part of todays WOD – trying to squat after holding it.  Or more so, trying to stand up I guess.  Never used the fat bar before and totally expected it to be way harder, but it was ok.  Goal for next time this WOD comes around – hold a handstand instead of a plank.

Mon. Nov. 24:

PRs are super exciting, but some days just breaking even has to be satisfaction as well.  Walked in to the box today with a goal to clean at least #100, with a small hope to get a new PR.  Well, I beat my goal by 5lbs.  🙂  No new PR, but broke even with my current one and today, I’m ok with that.

Part 1. Power Clean: Build to a Heavy Single   #105
Part 2. OTM for 10 Minutes:
2- Power Cleans (75%)   #80
5- Burpees over Bar

So, I loaded up my bar for part 2 with my typical comfort zone weight #75.  Till my friend said “no… we should do #80.”  Ok then, game on.  When all was said and done, we both could have done #85, but all good.  Note to self – when trying to find the most efficient burpee over the bar strategy, I tried to jump my feet up out of the burpee to land as close to the bar as possible so I could simply hop on over right from my landing spot.  This worked out alright, till an over-ambitious jump kicked my wrist.  Stuck the landing thankfully, but made sure not to repeat that nonsense.

Sun. Nov. 23:

Pre-WOD Sunday skill work included attempting the handstand walk.  My first thought:

but after trying to kill myself on my first attempt and flipping right over with an alarming landing facing the ceiling… I actually was somewhat successful!  After that first total disaster, I figured out how to land on my feet.  Then how to kick up and hold it for a few seconds.  Then I got a few attempts complete with 2-3 walking steps.  Yes!!  I’ll consider THAT a huge success considering a few months ago I was still terrified to kick into a handstand against a wall.  Will be practicing that business a bunch now I’m sure 😉

So, since I made it to the WOD yesterday, today possibly should have been a rest day.  (hahahaha! right!)  When Dave mentioned yesterday that it would be a day of skill work, I figured that gave me justification to take a pass on the resting.  Then this happened:

3 Rounds, for time:

400m run

50 air squats

Time – 10:14

Sound pretty simple??  Try it!  I dare you!  Just walking to the door after 50 air squats is hard enough… I think I finished 2nd on this one, but only cause I was determined to chase my little speedster friend.  She took off right away and beat me on the first run by about 5 seconds.  I wasn’t able to catch her, but was still happy with the push it provided 🙂  Well, until I got to work and had to climb the stairs anyway.  Haha!

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Lazy? Or wise?

This chart takes me back to the elements program.  We often chat about the different levels of physical exertion and where each WOD fits into this stuff.  ya-da, ya-da I know.

Yesterday, I actually had the day off and got myself to a Saturday WOD.  This sh*t never happens!  Like, to the point that Coach Sharon looked shocked to see me.  Haha!  I took the day off from Henry’s for a double family Christmas portrait session I had arranged months ago, only to learn that one of the kids was sick and the whole session was cancelled.  Ah well, glad I made it to a Saturday WOD 🙂  Well, I can say that now anyways.  The “buy in” portion was all done in the Phosphagen blue squiggly I’m pretty sure.  My team broke up the 3000m row into 250m each x3.  A team-mate suggested 500m, but my idea of cutting it to 250m and going HARD won the vote.  Go HARD I did.  For the first 2 rounds anyways.  Not entirely sure how it translates to split time, or even what my 250m time was (cause I was DEAD by the time I reached it) but I fought to keep the watts above 300.  And I thought I might barf.  Rounds 3 and 4 300 watts was not an option.  My rowing capacity flew out the window entirely.

Sat. Nov. 22:

In teams of 2 3, AMRAP 20 minutes:

buy in – 3000m row  12:22

partner 1 – 5 Deadlifts  #155

partner 2 – max reps box jumps 30″/24″  step ups

Score – 78 box “jumps”

Cause of the odd number, I jumped into a team of 3.  Thank gawd I guess!  Meant 2x 250m less on the rower.  I may or may not have survived that.  I was the last to row as it was, then we jumped right on in to the deadlift/box jump part.  Cause we had a threesome, and I was dumb enough to go heavy, I loaded up my own bar and just tried to keep pace with the other 2.  Pretty happy with my score considering many teams struggled to hit 100 between the 2 athletes.  It was pretty awful though :p  Coach Dave mentioned during the warm-up “Someone might even die today!” in typical Coach Dave fashion.  I had moments of thinking he may have been right :p

A casual comment was made Friday when Coach Dave was taking our coffee orders for the Friday morning coffee WOD.  He joked about the McDonalds people hating him for going through the drive thru and ordering 13 coffees!  LOL!  Not to mention the line up of cars behind him that would be less than impressed.  Anyways, the comment was :

Crossfitters are lazy

We all sort of laughed it off, but yesterday I got thinking about that a little and it’s kinda true!  Even though my photo shoot was cancelled yesterday, I still headed to Brampton to visit my mom, etc. and when I got there she wanted to go a bunch of places to shop and stuff and all I wanted to do was just chill.  haha!  Are we lazy?  Or is it just an instinct to attempt to conserve energy when not at the box for when we ARE at the box?  Although, one thing is for sure – my productivity is at its best in the morning.  That’s why I WOD in the morning.  And cook.  Etc.  Ohhh… cook.  That was an epic fail yesterday even though I took care of it in the morning.  Note to self – label spices with CARE.  I made a huge batch of beefy sweet potato chili with full intention of freezing it to start building my reserves for December retail insanity.  The fail – 3 tbsp of chill powder.  While the mixture simmered away on my stove top for an hour, I kinda wondered why it smelled different, but didn’t really sweat it cause I was running around cleaning and stuff.  Then when I tasted things, I realized my mistake!  My “chill powder” was actually mis-labeled chipotle powder.  Not the same thing!!!

True story.  A valuable lesson learned, and another reason I stick with the same sh*t  variety may be the spice of life, but if it involves chipotle powder, I’ll stick with the same old stuff.

and then there was 1

Well, I handed my key to the castle in Cambridge back to the regular store manager on Saturday. It was a moment I had been looking forward to for quite some time, however it felt somewhat bittersweet. While I’m relieved to focus my energy back solely towards my own store, it was a good 6 months and I will miss the team I built there. Ah well, I achieved my key goal. I left the store in a better place than it was left to me.  **amendment to this little rambling – I figured out why I’m less excited than expected to jump back into the groove in Waterloo.  I really enjoyed my 6 months with no assistant manager.  When discussing it with a friend, she agreed.  “I’d rather just have minions.  Hot ones!”  she said.  Amen to that!  Not that I don’t like my assistant manager as a person, but I spend more time putting out fires he creates than doing my job.  There’s a mission.

So, I’ve been on board with the November Whole30 for 2 weeks now, and my energy has returned full force 🙂 I’d also noticed about a week into it that the “flushing” reaction I got quite regularly from my MS drugs had become far less frequent.  Today I was having a great day at work, all happy and smiles, when I was hit with the worst flushing reaction I’ve ever had.  Tomato red, feeling like I’d gotten a sudden painful/itchy sun burn, when DK paged me out from my hiding spot in the office for a manager override.  DK just got this shocked look on his face and kept asking if I was ok.  Thankfully it went away, but took probably a half hour!  Geez!  Care to know what I did “differently”?  Chewed a piece of gum.  Seriously?!  May have been completely un-related, but also may not.  I’ll try again and see what happens I guess.

Speaking of food.  A few of my staples lately:

Bacon, eggs & sweet potato

Ground turkey, tomato paste, onion/garlic powder & zucchini noodles

Both meals I really enjoy, but I’m starting to feel the need to change things up before I get totally bored.  Just need inspiration.  Although after yesterday’s WOD, I was hungry enough I wasn’t picky at all.  Maybe that’s the trick?  Plan my eating routine to follow my trip to the box and I’ll be satisfied eating anything.  Yesterday was a Will WOD.  As was mentioned on the CFD site “you know what that means!” and if you’ve been here a little while, you should!  A fellow 6am’er whole generally avoids the weekend WODs mainly because the details are rarely posted sent me a text yesterday morning.  She wanted to come try a “Will WOD” but was nervous cause she didn’t know what to expect.  My response – Expect everything.  A gymnastic bit, heavy lifting and some cardio.  Expect it to be long, and HARD.  And pray for a partner WOD.  Guess what?!  I hit that one right on the mark.  And I loved it!  😀

As has been my norm recently, time for a batch of WOD catch-up.

Mon. Nov. 17:

5 Rounds of:
12- Kettlebell Swings (70/53) #35
12- Toes to Bar scaled
200 Meter Run  4 row/1 sally (air dyne)

Time – 11:31

Yes, scaled the crap out of this one.  Coach Dave tried to get me to grab a heavier kettlebell, but my back is feeling a bit sketchy again so I went lighter but unbroken.  I’ve come to the conclusion I may become a regular at the chiropractor if I plan to continue beating myself up 5 times a week at the box.  Not to mention hockey where I have this amazing ability to get in front of shots quite regularly.  Last week I caught the follow thru in the form of a stick whacking right across the knee cap.  It’s a different sort of game in Mississauga in the winter.  We play 4 on 4 in this small little arena thing.  I’ll take a picture next time… but it’s been called pinball by a goalie friend.  The name fits.  Ok, wandered quite a bit with that one.  Unbroken.  Right.  Yes, my reps were unbroken, not sure I can say the same for my legs!  Soooo tight by midday!  I blame Sunday’s wallballs more than today though.  And maybe sally.  I was walking funny after I got off and Dave totally called me on it haha!

Sun. Nov. 16:

Partner WOD:
50 Power Cleans  #75
100 Deadlifts  #125
200 Wallballs  #14
*Every minute, both partners complete 4 burpees  88 burpees

Time – 23:22

OMG a Will WOD that didn’t totally suck all the life out of me 🙂  I loved this.  Even with the evil burped twist to it.  I’m a “chipper” kinda girl.  Give me big reps that once you get through them, you’re done with that movement and I’m a happy camper.  Dreaded the 200 wallballs at the end, but I had my competitive partner for this and we kept a really good 5 reps each rotation that worked all the way through.  I wimped out of one of the burpee rounds near the beginning of the wallballs to avoid passing out, but otherwise just kept moving 🙂

Fri. Nov. 14:

Teams of 2 CRANK OUT
AMRAP 20 Minutes:

1 Burpee Box Jump (24/20), 1 Calorie Row
2 Burpee Box Jumps (24/20), 2 Calorie Row
3 Burpee Box Jumps (24/20), 3 Calorie Row

Score – 10 rounds +3 burped box jumps

Thurs. Nov. 13:

Part 1. Sumo Deadlift: Build to a Heavy Set of 3 Reps  #185
Part 2. OTM for 14 Minutes
Odd Minutes:
5- Sumo Deadlifts (75%)  #135
15- Air Squats
AMRAP Double-Unders
Even Minutes: Rest

LOVED the sumo deadlift 🙂  First time ever trying this out.  It felt really unsteady when the bar was lighter, but as the weights pilled on things just came together nicely.

home stretch

I’ve been un-interesting lately.  Like, in general.  Into my last week in Cambridge now and while I somewhat expected it to be an exciting time as I’ve been looking forward to it for a while, it’s proving to be more of a challenge than I anticipated.  I’m leaving behind a store that runs more efficiently and profitably than the one I walked in to 6 months ago.  That much I can be proud of.  But I’m also leaving behind some of the staff challenges I’ve seen and been unable to resolve.  I thought things were golden.  Thought I had an eager new associate to fill in the gap, but received an email from him this morning to say he had decided Henry’s was not the right fit for him at this time.  Balls.  4 days is simply not enough time to find someone else!  As for Waterloo, I’ll be picking up the reins in my old familiar hood.  PLUS… this means I’ll actually be able to get back into a routine which includes 7:30am WODs again! 😀  Not at all that I haven’t enjoyed 6:00am, cause I totally love the group of people, but the 3-4 days per week of a 4:15am alarm clock is catching up with me lately.

Speaking of WODs…

Tues. Nov. 11:

“Grace”

30- Clean and Jerks #135/#95   #75

Time – 3:43

Yes, 9 seconds slower than barbells for boobs and I was totally set up to rock this today. Went with the non-slip headband, taped up my thumbs, and had my bar positioned to face my friend which I’ve developed a mutual you push me, I’ll push you understanding with.  I’m not crying, it was only 9 seconds. Considering when I was kicked back on the foam roller pre-WOD and watching the 5 am class battle this little gem of a WOD my internal commentary included lines such as “why couldn’t you just stay in bed today?!” The result was really not too shabby.  Grace and I aren’t friends.  I like the longer WODs and she’s short and fast, but stepping out of your comfort zone is part of the game 😉

Mon. Nov. 10:

Part 1. Back Squat
1 set of 20 Reps   #85 #95

Part 2.
Choose one of the following:
A) 2-Minute Assault Bike for Calories   22 cal (barf!)
B) 1,000 Meter Row   time??
C) “Lipson Test” – 400 Meter Sled Drag (Bodyweight)

I don’t like being wrong, but I will admit it when I am.  Stepped up to the bar this morning with a game plan of #85.  I justified it with myself cause 20 reps is plenty and I’m just tired lately.  Smarti looked at me and said “you’re doing #95” Nope.  I don’t usually argue, but today I just had no compromise in me.  5 reps in to my 20 I realized “damn it!! She was right!”  So I finished the 20, admitted my mistake (which was viewed as completely hilarious) and slapped the extra 10lbs on for another 20 squats.

I don’t want to talk about Sally.  Or how I fell for the bait when Coach Dave stared me down with that “Someone’s gonna get a hurt real bad!” look on his face and urged me to get on the b*tch.  After 2 minutes of torture I got on the rower just to avoid staggering around like a drunk and had to stop for a minute 100m in to avoid barfing.  She just has that effect on me.  It’s not charming.

Sun. Nov. 9:

Partner WOD:

Partner 1 – Row 30 calories

Partner 2 – Deadlift HOLD  #155

—- 20 rope climbs —-

Partner 2 – Row 30 calories

Partner 1 – Deadlift HOLD   #155

Rx for this insanity??  #285!!!  Seriously David?!?  :-p  I mean, I realize you should only have to deadlift it maybe 3 times, but still!  My hands are still sore as hell from Friday and I was really surprised how much my triceps got involved with this one.  Maybe they’re not intended too?  Something to google… I was partner 2 and after the 90ish second deadliest hold my grip was pretty shaky.  Not overly comforting for 20 rope climbs.  Fun times!  Went with a seated sled pull scaling option for some reps, but did get 6 rope climbs in despite the fact that my brain somewhat shut off on my and it took me a few failed attempts before I could remember how to “j-hook” 🙂

Fri. Nov. 7:

AMRAP 30 Minutes:
10 Chest-to-Bar Pull-Ups
400 Meter Run

Result – 8 rounds + 5 pull-ups

YA BABY!!  51 kipping pull-ups today!  It’s progress, and it feels great 🙂  Sets of 3 seems to be my capacity at the moment, but I’ll continue to work to build that up.  *Once my hands heal!!  Made it to rep 49 before things got ugly though, which is an improvement.  Ripped hands suck.

finding the “why”

Ok… would it be considered unhealthy working conditions when I  deal with an Internet browser that’s so out of date wordpress and Pinterest don’t know what to do? Not so much, huh?  Cramps my blogging styles though, so I feel one could argue…

A bunch of my CFD girls decided November would be a great month for another whole30. I was kind of in to it, but trying to find a “why” to lean on when things get hard. When the idea was presented of using this 30 days as a test to prove the concept of Eat to Perform, I was on board. The plan was to pick a WOD to do at the beginning of the 30 days, and redo it at the end to see just how much of an impact clean eating can provide. Filthy 50 was the wod of choice, although I came to the disturbing realization that this means I get to tuff it through 30 days only to get to tuff it through another Filthy 50. haha!  Sounds awesome, right?

Rules are a bit different this time around. Bacon is invited to this party. I’ll cough up the $$$ for the natural stuff, but I’m not giving it up.  After only a few days, I’ve already accepted that this round could prove more challenging than the last.  It’s November, and it’s cold.  I can handle a salad meal every day when it’s hot out, but when it’s cold outside I just want to eat something warm.  About half way through day 2, I was ready to quit already.  My mind said “you don’t need to do this.”  And truth be told, my mind is kind of right.  I eat really clean on a daily basis.  I cook all of my meals.  I drink lots of water.  Although by some standards, I probably drink too much coffee… I like it black.  Starting a program such as Whole30 can open up your eyes to all the crap you put in your body, or if you’re like me not so much.  To be 100% compliant, I’d be giving up bacon, Quest bars and gum.  Yup.  That’s it.  I’ve already mentioned I’m not giving up the bacon this round, well I’m not entirely giving up gum either.  But the Quest bars I will live without for 30 days.  Not happily, but I can do that.  And I’m committing to more green veggies plus more of an effort put towards food prep.  Don’t think i can eat eggs and sweet potato for dinner like 4 nights of the week and expect to improve my Filthy 50 time.

Got into an interesting conversation Wednesday with a friend.  When I mentioned that I was doing the Whole30 thing again and I was grumpy cause I was hungry, she asked a simple question that really made me think.  “When will the day come that you look in the mirror and just be happy with what you see?  Will it ever come?”  It was the second part that really sunk in.  We chatted a bit about the last few years and the different attempts I have made to find a nutritional component which will give me whatever it is I’m looking for.  But I’ve never really gotten complete satisfaction from anything I’ve tried.  Will it ever come… my immediate answer was “Probably not.”  “That’s a problem.” she relied.  It was a bit of a harsh reality.  I’ve known for quite some time that this was the area I need to work on, but have continued to drive myself slightly crazy trying to fix the other things in an attempt to get myself closer to happy with ME.  Shared some of this conversation this morning pre-WOD with a fellow November reset girl and she had a similar reaction that I did.  It caught her off guard too.  But after a totally suck-fest of a WOD, the follow-up text I got later was a thought filled one.  The goal initially was to look at this month as a test of the impact of nutrition on athletic capacity.  She wrote “yeah we may be doing this to look better, but we are also doing it to see if eating clean really helps improve performance…. AND I really want to get a muscle up.” (A goal we both share by the way) Well said my friend!!  Besides, although my mind has given me the “eff YOU!  This is dumb!” on several occasions, I’m still sticking to the game plan.

#makeothersbetter

I need some WOD catching-up.

Thurs. Nov. 6:

3 Rounds: 
60 Double-Unders
30 Wallballs (20/14) #14
15 Deadlifts (245/175)  #145

Time – 12:15

This was pretty rough.  Round 1 I figured I could maybe get through the deads unbroken.  Fail.  Broke the rounds in to 10/5, 8/7, 5/5/5.  It wasn’t that it was super heavy, but the wallballs had me breathing pretty hard and my grip just couldn’t keep up.  AND… I had a good day for double unders!!  Didn’t get 3 rounds of 60, but I got 3 rounds of 6-10!  That’s HUGE in my world. 😀

Tues. Nov. 4:

0:00- 12:00: Push Jerk Build to a Heavy Single  #105

12:00 – 24:00: Split Jerk Build to a Heavy Single  #110

24:00- 29:00: REST

29:00 – 41:00: On the Minute for 12 Minutes:
Minute# 1 – 7 Push Jerks (60%)  #65
Minute# 2 – 45 seconds- Hollow Rock 
Minute# 3 – 7 Strict Pull-Ups  kipping

Mon. Nov. 3:

10 – 9 – 8 – 7 – 6 – 5 – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1 Front Squats (#155/#105)   #85
200 Meter Run after each round

Time – 17:13

The non-runners loathe this WOD format.  I kind of love it!  By the time you pick up the bar to start the 4th round of 7 reps, the over all rep volume has been nearly cut in half!  Score.  Because every round I went through unbroken, I considered that possibly the weight could have been heavier, but when I mentioned this to Coach Dave he said #85 was good cause I executed this within the time domain he had intended.  Not always about go HEAVY.

PR Baby!!!

Halloween ambition – down the drain.  Long work week + Filthy 50 + 12 work day = out cold around the time you’d turn all the house lights out and pretend no one’s home to avoid the older trick or treaters who don’t even bother with a costume but grab an old pillow case and knock on your door hoping for some free candy.  I didn’t even feel bad about it.  As I mentioned to Smarti (who was also having trouble keeping her eyes open) we do more before 9am than some do all day.  Or all week!

Fri. Oct. 31:

Happy Halloween!!  Dressing up?  I had been hoping to head down the Toronto to check out the Church St. scene, but got an invite to a party and the opportunity to keep things local was hard to pass up.  Plus, I’m cleaning up the mess in Cambridge today (not unlike every other day this week) in the form of an open-close shift.  The price of being responsible can be quite high sometimes I guess.  Got to the box this morning to find my girl Smarti dressed as an M&M.  :p  Thankfully she offered to lend me the costume for work cause my creativity was steam rollered this week with all the silly hours I’ve been working.  Saved it for post-1:00 interview though.  Just not the impression I was looking to impress upon a potential new staff member :p

Got to the box already feeling just generally “beat” today.  I’ve put in way too many hours in a Henry’s monkey suit this week, pushed HARD at the box, and my mind and body are ready for tomorrows rest day.  Even more so, ready for my day OFF on Sunday.

Not the day to be tired from the start.  Scariest part of my day so far:

“Filthy 50″

50 Box Jumps   step-ups
50 Jumping Pullups
50 Kettlebell Swings   #35
50 Walking Lunge Steps
50 Knees-to-Elbows
50 Push Press   #35
50 Back Extensions
50 Wallballs   #14
50 Burpees
50 Double unders   100 singles*

Time – 24:34

*100 singles, which I made it to 64 unbroken before Coach Sharon’s watchful eye caught on.  “At least try some doubles!  Aim for 10!”  Ah sh*t.  Busted.  She’s totally right, I need to stop opting for the doubled up reps of singles to avoid working on my doubles in a WOD…  BUT… I wish I would have crushed out my remaining 36 singles, then practiced doubles :-p  Could have beat my previous Filthy 50 time (24:00).  550 reps later, and a couple of good rope lashes from unsuccessful double unders practice, I was TOAST.  A good chipper is my kind of workout, although had you seen the look of determined despair on my face during the wallballs or burpees it may not be obvious, but today it completely kicked my a**.  Another note – when I first started crossfit, I had huge ambition to jump the box jumps every WOD.  Now that it’s considered “games standard” to step up and down, I don’t stress it so much.  Soooo much easier on the body to do the step up option, and can still be quite efficient.

Thurs. Oct. 29:

Oh ya!  When I read the WOD details last night I was super pumped.  We haven’t worked up to a heavy 1 rep in a while, and it was my FAV. LIFT!

Part 1. Deadlifts: 5–4–3–2–1 (etc…)

5@145- 4@165- 3@185- 2@205- 1@225- 1@230– 1@240 PR BABY!!

Part 2. AMRAP 7 Mintues:
Burpee Burpee Box Jumps (24/20)   step-ups
On the Minute – Complete 7 Deadlifts (#225/#155)   #135

Result – 49 burpee box jumps

Before I even got to the box, my mind was made up.  I was there to focus my efforts on part 1, then make it through part 2.  The push today was to attempt a new 1RM, not to give ‘er during the AMRAP.  That being said, I was ok with 49 reps 😉  Step-ups were an absolute MUST today.  My legs were SHOT.