A fresh perspective

Let me backtrack for a second… Last Friday a group of CFD peeps went out for breakfast after the Friday WOD. Fun times! Kinda funny too cause they restaurant offered us a good-sized wrap around booth, but didn’t expect us to keep filtering in to the tune of 12 people. It was cozy! Like, tuck your elbows in and eat like a T-Rex kind of deal. Haha!  There IS a point to this story, I promise 😉 I was sardined in between KT and AM and somehow the conversation of school and “what are you doing for your thesis?” Came up. Yes, school. I live in a city with 2 major universities.  A huge percentage of my crossfit buds are a good 10 years younger than me, but everyone gets along very well regardless. So… AM answered the question. The positive effect resistance training can provide for Multiple Sclerosis. That’s not a direct quote, but you get the idea. Anyways, I sat there stunned for a moment… Then half stuttered “seriously??”  I think I got a “would I lie?” look and conversation continued. Anyways, we got to talking a little later and I shared the connection. AM was shocked!  Said she had NO idea and never would have guessed. 🙂 In my books, that’s a win! I’m doing something right!  But what an incredible opportunity this presented. I was more than willing to share my story, especially if it was of any use to AM’s school work, and I figured I could learn a little as well.

Fast forward to today – we arranged to grab a coffee after the WOD and chat. I’m trying not to ramble excessively but I find this kind of stuff fascinating!  Since learning about me, AM has been watching me more closely. How I lift, whip myself with the rope, ya know… just function. “I hope that’s not creepy!” She mentioned after telling me that.  Haha!  The thing is, I’m coming up to 10 years since diagnosis this March. I’ve quite literally “grown up” (22-32 is still growing up. You never stop…) with this disease. To hear someone acknowledge things that I do or things that I struggle with as being traits of my disease can be very interesting.  “Your struggles with double unders make perfect sense.  You will get there, just need to realize it could take you a while.”  She mentioned.  The next question I didn’t expect. “Do you also have trouble with the snatch? That’s another highly technical one.” Umm… unless you’re new here, you KNOW that’s the case!  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not going to change my self-competitive ways and start leaning on this as an excuse for my struggles. But I am going to try to not beat myself up over what I’ve considered failures in the past.  I need to accept that it could take longer to pick up on certain things, but that doesn’t mean all hope is lost.

We got in to lots of other really interesting stuff, but I’ll change gears for now. I have a few little experiments to do which I will share at a later date.  I truly DO believe in the benefits of physical activity. One of the many big wins in my books – I’m a week away from the heading to the Dominican with my mom again. When we went 2 years ago, second day of the trip I was running and just fell. I used to do that a LOT. Now two years later, my balance and coordination are soooo much better!  I mean, I’ve now completed more than 300 laps around the track without even a slight stumble.  Hopefully the day will come where modern medicine offers more support towards educating their patients on the powers of fitness and nutrition rather than just focusing on writing a prescription.

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Marathon of a day

Random thoughts.  I’ll get more into details at a later date…  Thoughts circling around in my mind – trip 🙂 trip  🙂 TRIP 🙂  puppy?  😮 Especially prevalent yesterday.  Rest days are mental anguish. Dave and Sharon are away this weekend, sooooo today was an infamous Coach Will WOD. Those deserve their very own post. Plus I decided today I could give myself my very own throwdown showdown sort of day. Started with another #makeothersbetter sesh at the track with Smarti. Last night Smarti sent me a text to suggest running outside.  Yup, a change of scenery would be nice, but my car read -12 on the way to the track so I was pretty glad we decided against it!  We went for the routine of last time – run 1km, walk 250m x2. Then on the third and fourth round, I picked up the pace for the walk lap and got in a speedy 500m in the time Smarti walked 250m. At the end, I ran my 5km and walked another 1km. Happy with that 🙂  Another step towards my goal.  Today I reached 65km.  I’ve had to battle to celebrate how far I’ve come and not get caught up on how far I still have to go.  65km is a long way!

just kidding burpees! Love you ❤ (reverse psychology)

Part – 2 was an hour skill session with Coach Will, working on my snatch!  Over and over and over we worked the deadlift, the scarecrow something, the hang snatch and the power snatch. EVERY one included a squat!  In Coach Will’s words “always squat in practice!” Ok. Noted. But my BUTT might hate me tomorrow. Cause ya know the wod obviously had squats too.

Part 3 – the WOD. We’ve nicknamed this one:

Death.

By: Will

in teams of 2, for time:

2000m row  Sally    partner holds plank

100 deadlifts   #95    partner holds top of deadlift

100 front squats   #75   partner holds bar in front rack

100 wallballs   #14   partner holds wall sit

100 pullups   ring pulls   partner hangs from bar

100 push ups   partner holds plank

2000m row   partner holds plank

*** Every 3 minutes, both partners complete 10 burpees each

time – 46:23

Yes, typical Will WOD.  Lots of reps.  Lots of sweat.  Death by the end.  One of those long-ass grinds that you get to the end and you no longer have anything in you to even sweat out!  Brushing the salt off dry skin is not a good scene.  I’ve drank gallons since and still thirsty!

Part 4 – locate couch, park butt. And catch up on a few episodes of Wentworth 🙂

Aim high. Way high.

Crossfit + running has made this even more of an issue:

I need that shirt, it’s the story of my life.  Anyways, I set a pretty ridiculous goal for myself at the beginning of January to run 100km before heading to the Dominican.  It’s not going to happen!  But I’m ok with that.  As of today I’ve achieved 60km and my flight leaves in 2 weeks, less a day.  I’ll come pretty close though and I’m proud of that 😉

My good #makeotherpeoplebetter moment for the week – convinced Smarti to meet me at the track for a run this morning 🙂 she killed it and I trotted another 5km toward my lofty ambition.

This morning I also stuck to my pact to just run and take a pass on the Friday WOD.  There was a CFD group breakfast planned for after, so I still went to mobilize and cheer people on.  It sounded awful when I read it last night and the look on the face of everyone doing it told me this was actually the truth. OTM for 30 minutes – even: 15 calorie row, odd: 15 burpees.  Ya, my rest day earned even more justification.

I couldn’t post this yesterday cause Dave wanted to keep the insanity a secret for the classes later in the day.  It also wasn’t posted last night. I checked the site over and over and finally came to the conclusion it wasn’t coming.  Probably for the best. It was awful.  But looking back there’s a sick little part of me that loved it.  And wishes I would have pushed a little harder.

Thurs. Jan. 22:

Start Wallballs #20/#14 and see how long you can stay ahead of these milestones and at failure, REST 2 minutes and perform MAX set of strict Muscle Ups:

30 Seconds- 12 Reps
1 Min- 25 Reps
1:30- 37 Reps
2:00- 50 Reps
2:30- 62 Reps *
3:00- 75 Reps
3:30- 87 Reps
4:00- 100 Reps
4:30- 112 Reps
5:00- 125 Reps
5:30- 137 Reps
6:00- 150 Reps
Rest 3 Minutes between rounds.

Result – 12+25+37+50+61 / 27 muscle up transitions

Ok, I scaled a little with a #12 wallball but no sandbagging it, I just wanted to be able to make it farther through the rounds.  In the 2:30 round, I got through 61 reps.  Yup, 1 rep short.  Let’s consider this though.  My mind had the split-second decision – do I fight for as many reps as possible (without completing the task) or dig deeper and finish the round?  The later would be a WIN, right?  Or maybe not… cause the “reward” would be the chance to attempt to complete 75 more.  75 more wallballs.  Half of Karen isn’t my idea of a reward…  Yet it was one of those WODs I’ve replayed in my mind a few times already.

 

untitled.

That’s right, untitled.  Cause I’ve hit “save draft” too many times already trying to think of a name. :-p

Thankfully despite my mental un-clarity, it would appear that physically I’m still able to live the dream 🙂  This being said, tonight I need to really focus and get some food prep done.  It’s a bit of a problem when I sit on my couch for a ridiculously long amount of time and consider all of the things I want/need to get done.  I either start something, and fail to follow through to completion, or forget all together.  For all of you who are thinking “pffft!  I forget things all the time!”  You have no idea.  I forget things on a good day too, but this is to a whole different level.  If you get me, you’ll understand.  If you don’t, I hope you never do!  Several times throughout the day, I just get lost within my own mind.  It’s ugly.

Tues. Jan. 20:

Team Lumberjack 20, Teams of 2 SMASH OUT
For Time:
 40- Deadlifts #275/#185  #115
400m Run  row
 40- KB Swings
400m Run  row
40- Overhead Squats #115/#75  #55
400m Run  row
 40- Burpees
400m Run  row
 40- Chest-Bar Pullups  ring pulls
400m Run  row
 40- Box Jumps
400m Run   row
40- Squat Cleans #115/#75  #55
400m Run  row
Workout done with partner, reps/runs split in half (20 each/200m), only one partner moving at a time.

Time – 26:40

Yesterday I admitted to myself that today should have been a rest day.  My mind needs this stuff though.  There’s an element of strategy and a mental grit that I can understand, even when other things are complicated. Plus this one sounded awesome, AND it was a partner WOD.  My running buddy was the perfect partner though cause she was tired too and perfectly happy to go lighter on the weight.  We both need a rest day, but complimented each other today in terms of intensity and got through the laundry list of movements efficiently.

Mon. Jan. 19:

6:00am 3km run/stair run, followed by 7:30:

7 x 2:00 Minute Rounds:
200 Meter Run/Row/AirDyne
3 5– Pull-Ups
6 10– Pushups
9 15– Air Squats
AMRAP Power Cleans in Time Remaining #135/#95  #75
Rest 1:00 Between Rounds
Score – 42 Power Cleans

Name of the game – find a rhythm and keep consistent.  Survived 4 rounds of pull-ups, then switched to ring pulls.  My legs felt the stairs when it got to the last few rounds of air squats!  My running buddy and I decided this morning to mix things up a little.  Got in our 3km, then circled the stadium running up and down the stairs.  Alternated between the quick single step method and taking the stairs 2 at a time.  I like that better!  The singles I nearly face-planted a few times.

Fri. Jan. 16:

6:00am 5km Run, followed by 7:30:

AMRAP 8 Minutes:
3 Power Snatches (95/65), 3 Box Jump Overs (24/20)
6 Power Snatches (95/65), 6 Box Jump Overs (24/20)
9 Power Snatches (95/65), 9 Box Jump Overs (24/20)
Continue to add 3 reps per round until time is called.

Result – 15’s +13 Snatch #55

Deceiving WOD!  “How bad can it be?  It’s only 8 minutes.”  WRONG!  It was pretty brutal.  The 3’s and 6’s went super fast, then suddenly it jumped to 9’s.  I stared at the clock in disbelief when I got to my 9 box jump overs and there was still 5+ minutes left.

Thurs. Jan. 15:

CrossFit Division WOD
15-12-9 Reps:
Toes to Bar
Burpees over ERG
300 Meter Row after each round

Time – 10:16

 Yup.  This was kinda shitty.  Although despite my near fail in the 15’s where my mind wandered for a brief second and I quite nearly ate it jumping over the rower, I actually enjoyed the burpee portion!  What?!  lol

scattered. again

If I were smart, I would share bits of my MS story when things are great.  But when things are great, I try to pretend I’m invincible and it’s a part of me that just doesn’t exist.  When relapses hit, it’s often out of nowhere and sometimes unrecognizable at first.  I’ve had many times where the effect is a physical one.  Difficulty walking, loss of feeling in my hands, arm, leg, feet or a kind of burning feeling like when your frost-bitten fingers start to warm up.  The physical relapses are shitty, but I can deal with those.  It’s the cognitive ones I find the most frustrating.  I haven’t blogged in several days, after a pretty good stretch of remaining consistent.  It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s that my mind exists in an open-ended sentence right now.  This is when I really need a vacation.  This is when I find my job to be difficult.  I held the weekly meeting with my team yesterday morning and struggled to present them with the topics I had planned to discuss.  It’s not at all that I don’t know what I want to say.  It’s all clear as day in my mind, but gets lost in translation between the thought and the words.  What does that have to do with why I haven’t been blogging?  There’s not the same short-circuit between thought and type, but there’s a level of disarray in my head right now that makes it hard to put all the thoughts in an order that makes any sense.  So… I’ve reasoned with myself that until I get my ducks back in a row, I can settle on shorter posts or completely scattered ones.  You’ll figure it out.  If not, chest la vie.

There should be a disclaimer on this one, cause I’m sure to make some controversial comments.  It’s all just my own personal experiences and wacked out opinion.  This post has sat in “draft” status for a few days now, cause my head needed to be in the right place to hit “publish”.

Any-hoo, I’ve come to the conclusion that for ME, crossfit alone isn’t enough.  It’s not at all that I haven’t improved in huge ways since starting, but there are also areas where I’ve back-tracked a bit.  I only noticed cause of the recent choice to re-introduce running to the mix.  It’s been less than 2 weeks, but already I feel like there’s a difference.  The morning runs are become second nature again.  The post-run WODs I find I perform better than the ones where I walk in cold.  AND my clothes are fitting better 🙂  I just feel more well-rounded, and a little less round in places too :p  So I felt a bit guilty at the beginning cause I respect my coaches and don’t want to feel like I’m hiding anything from them, but I’ve thought a lot about my situation and really don’t feel I’m doing anything wrong.  I completely understand Coach Sharon’s “over-training” pitch.  I even got a slightly toned-down speech from a fellow box-mate, but I really don’t feel irresponsible at all.  This week maybe… but in general I plan to add in 3 runs per week, and the days I’ve done a pre-WOD run this week have pretty much all turned out to be short ones anyways!  Friday after our 8 minute AMRAP (which was BRUTAL, don’t get me wrong!) my running buddy whispered “I’m glad we got our run in!”  I have a partner in crime 😉

Today I had every intention of being a busy one.  There was a Gymnastics Clinic at the box this morning from 10:00-12:30 which I’d been looking forward to for some time 🙂  Miss naturally awkward here was eager to get some pointers on some stuff and the coaches didn’t disappoint!  I kicked up into a handstand at one point, and time stood still… “oh… ok… so, I’m doing this…” went through my mind.  Felt like I held it forever!  Ok, reality was probably 5 seconds, but it’s forever compared to ever before!  Stoked.  Only downside to a 2 1/2 hour gymnastics clinic… that’s probably 2 1/4 more hours than my head can handle of rolls, cartwheels, upside-downess, etc.  Felt like hell after.  Came home, had some food in hopes the “I may pass out” feeling would go away.  Not so much.  So my planned super-productive day needed to wedge in a 90 minute nap.  Today also needs to be a food prep day!  That didn’t happen.  Other than a trip to the grocery store to replen my veggie stock pile (on a Sunday too!  Arg)  There have been more than one occasion this week where I’ve eaten lunch but not dinner, or had breakfast again.  Talking with DK yesterday we agreed that some nights you really just want something quick and easy!  A Paleo lifestyle simply doesn’t allow for quick and easy unless you are prepared ahead of time!  Pulling a pizza out of the freezer to pop in the oven just isn’t a part of my world.  Today I was hoping to hit up the good ‘ole Pinterest for some fresh ideas.  Guess I know what Monday night will entail.

run along

From my blog readings I’ve enjoyed experiencing all of the different perspectives people take to the start of a new year.  Most of you have opted to map out a solid set of goals for yourself to work on in 2015.  Got me thinking… What are MY goals for the year?  Do I even want to paint things with such a wide brush?  I mean, a year is a long time!  So for now, I’m going to focus on smaller goals and see where that takes me.  I mean, it wasn’t even a goal of mine, but my blogging dedication has returned at the moment 🙂  That feels good cause there’s a whole world of random sh*t going on in my head at any given time which just needs to be shared sometimes.  I can ramble here.  No one looks at me funny.

Anyway, I read something today about setting realistic goals and adjusting your training to be successful.  I’ve been crossfitting for a year and a half.  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE it.  Love lifting heavy.  Love chasing PR’s.  Love the community environment most of all!  But for today, and really the next month, my goals will shift from a performance focus to one geared towards the aesthetic side of things.  At least until after my trip…  I completely had to come to terms with the fact that I may not be able to lift as heavy, but it won’t be forever…

Wed. Jan. 14:

7:00am 5km run

Although my running buddies bailed on me again today, still had a great run 🙂  Running with someone is a great way to make the distance pass quickly, but running alone is by far my fav. time to think!

Ain’t that the truth!  But most of the ones I create in my head are just too weird to share 😉
Tues. Jan. 13:

6:30am 2.5km run, followed by 7:30am WOD –

Teams of 2 AMRAP 20 Minutes:
10 Push Presses (115/80) #65
10 Kettlebell Swings (53/35)
10 Box Jumps (24/20)

Result – 16 rounds +20 reps

Yes, I’m addicted.  Even if it’s just a short one, I really like my pre-WOD run.  I AMRAP better after the trot around the track, I swear!  And if it’s all just in my head, so be it.  If nothing else, Tuesday’s visit to the rec. centre may become routine just cause the Laurier girls’ hockey team practices there while I run :-p

Mon. Jan. 12:

6:00am 5km run, followed by 7:30am WOD –

At the 0:00…
AMRAP 5 Minutes:
5- Squat Cleans #155/#105  #65
5- Bar Muscle-Ups  MU transitions
5- Box Jumps (40/30)   #24
At the 5:00…
5 Minutes to Establish a Max Effort:
Clean + Hang Squat Clean + Front Squat + Jerk  #90
At the 10:00…
18 – 12 – 6 Reps:
Deadlift #275/#185   #145
Strict Handstand Pushup  30sec handstand hold

Time – 15:18

Yes, my squat cleans were sandbaggin it a little in terms of weight, but my legs were still feeling all of Sunday’s wallballs.  I made up for it in part 2 though, first attempt @ 90lbs I failed the hang squat clean but I got my sh*t together and completed the set 😀  Very little time between parts today so when the 10 minute mark came, I just slapped some plates on the bar and started dead lifting.  Initially I thought I was loading things a bit light, but 18 reps was hard!  Wasn’t till after that I added things up… I’m ok with 36 reps @ 145lbs.

Sun. Jan. 11:

Every 5:00 Minutes for as long as possible, perform:
35- Wallballs 20lbs/14lbs
10- Double Unders
6- Muscle Ups  MU transitions

Survived 3 rounds.  Up waaaaay past my bed time Saturday night and I felt it for sure!  First round of wallballs were a borderline-pass-out situation, but I got it together.  Enough to keep moving anyways.  Got in my 10 DU each round too 🙂  not unbroken, but it’s progress.

Don’t make me laugh

Please!! It hurts! Haha

Of note, to self – Next time (cause I’m sure there will be several) you decide to set yourself up next to one of your idols and set a goal to match them rep for rep during a WOD… EXPECT to be sooooore the next day.  Especially when it involves the GHD.  Oh, and 75 reps.  Oh my gawd my abs, or realistically, my entire “trunk” (just for you Coach Dave) feels like it’s been run over by a steam roller.  Todays warm-up included 2x 1 minute of toes to bar, or scaled version was sit-ups.  Very first toes to bar attempt my core screamed bloody murder.  I scaled.  That sucked too.  :-p  So did the burpees, but that’s no surprise.

My running buddy stood me up again this morning.  Didn’t see the message till last-minute or I would have dragged my speedy friend along with me.  Took a bit of self-negotiation to head to the track for a lone 20 laps, but between my iPod playing a good way-back mix and some solid people watching opportunity, I had a good run!  When I was leaving the rec centre, speedy sent me a message asking if I was going to the box for the WOD.  I had only planned to run today, but… twist my rubber arm.  10 minutes into a 40+ minute WOD I wasn’t in love with the decision, but I so rarely get to the box on a Saturday.

Question – Is it wrong that I ate breakfast twice today?  I guess technically I ate breakfast food twice, but once could have been considered lunch.  Still…. Dashed home after my run for eggs and half a sweet potato, then again after the WOD for the same thing.  I couldn’t help it.  It’s just so good!  I’ll eat a real dinner, I promise.

Sat. Jan. 10:

Teams of 4, complete for time:

10,000m Row

*switch every 250m, then complete 1 rope climb

Time – 45:18

So having today off served another purpose as well.  Tonight is my work Christmas party.  We decided this year to just have a big potluck party at one of my staff member’s house 🙂  Should be good times!  Also meant I needed to make something.  I had a few ideas, but wasn’t totally sold.  Smarti suggested cookies, but I turned that one down on account of my expert cookie dough taste-testing skills.  Defeats the purpose of my morning run a bit.  Ended up settling on a spaghetti squash casserole that I’ve made many times before.  Also the dish our party hostess hinted she kind of loves.  Super-healthy, super-tasty, and my hour prepping/cooking put my expert taste-testing skills to work on some leftover baby carrots.  My condo smells incredible.