time for play

So had I known today would be a Crossfit Total day, I may have done things a little differently on Friday.  Not complaining though 🙂

#245 Deadlift 1RM – NEW PR!!

 

CrossFit Total

1 Rep Max Deadlift – #245
1 Rep Max Back Squat – #170
1 Rep Max Strict Press – #80

After the 9:30am WOD, there was an Olympic Lifting Clinic with Coach Will focusing on the Snatch.  The biggest GOAT in my farm yard, so just couldn’t skip that.  Although I had a crap load of stuff I should have been doing instead, like oh… maybe my TAXES!!  But come on….  it had my name written all over it.  2 hours working on my snatch.  How does a girl turn that down?  It was AWESOME.  We broke the movement down in such detail and practiced each part to the point where I actually felt like it was sinking in!  Didn’t pull from the ground 😀  Although did rush the top bit a few times and landed on my butt.  But all good 🙂  I’m a little curious to see how my legs hold up for ball hockey tonight 😮

Half way through the snatch sesh, my stomach started complaining about how long ago breakfast was and when might lunch finally arrive.  I guess it was justified after that WOD, but story of my life is usually:

I need a break of some sort.  Not a rest day, but a mental break I guess.  This week was long and I found yesterday I was counting the minutes until my shift was done.  I don’t want it to be that way… I like my job, like the people I work with, I just need a break.  Maybe it will get better when this week is over cause I’ve been dreading the manager conference that will keep me from my non-work life for 3 days.  Tuesday-Thursday in seminars in Toronto and staying in a hotel.  Yuko was not invited and will be staying at a guide dog bed & breakfast sorta place for the duration.  Crossfit will go on without me too.  And I’ll do my best not to slap someone lol.  I did everything in my power to get out of this one, but even though my DM admitted that I don’t need to be there and could sleep through it without missing anything new, I’m still on the list.  I’ll just have to lift heavy Tuesday morning to tide myself over until Friday.

Yuko and I checked out the off-leash park last night for the first time.  He’s still a little young to romp with the big kids, so he stayed on his leash but played with a sweet little husky and seemed to enjoy it.

living the dream

This week has kicked my butt a bit!  On top of the heavy work load at the box, my head has had a few moments of considering my total disappointment in this round of Whol30 and wanting to throw in the towel.  I mean, what a waste that would be when I have less than a week to go.  Yesterday I had a random daydream about an Oreo cookie.  Just one… I’m not even sure I remember what they taste like after 3+ years grain free, but a girl can dream…  Great.  Now I’m thinking about Oreos again, so back to the good stuff.  Heavy squats Monday, then Wednesday was a leg destroyer, Thursday made the hands more than a little tender, then this morning I PR’d my 3 rep max deadlift.  Not complaining, actually feeling pretty satisfied with the accomplishments, but my body is relieved tomorrow is a rest day.

That’s pretty much been the story of my life since Monday :-p

Fri. Apr. 24:

Part 1. Another BIG sexy Squat Clean + Jerk Complex
2- Squat Cleans+ 1-Jerk  #75
1- Squat Clean+1-Jerk  #85
2- Squat Cleans+1- Jerk  #95
1- Squat Clean+1- Jerk  #105
*Increase load after each set*
Part 2. Deadlifts: Work up to a HEAVY set of 3 Reps, drop the loading 10%-15% and then go for MAX reps

HEAVY 3 reps – #215, rep out – #135 x20

Yaaaaaaa-BUDDY!!!  215lbs for 3 reps 😀  Don’t suspect my 1RM is reasonable at #240 anymore!!

Thurs. Apr. 23:

Part 2. Teams of 2, AMRAP 20 Minutes:
30- Lateral Barbell Burpees
30- Chest to Bar Pullups  pull-ups
30- Power Cleans
*Power Clean weight increases each round.

P. Cleans – #65/#75/#80

Ok, there’s something wrong with this statement, but I’ll make it anyways.  I loved the lateral barbell burpees today 🙂  Found a rhythm to them and strung them together all fast and seamlessly.  Fun times 🙂  The pull-ups were a mess and came down to 1 rep each, so we didn’t get as through as many rounds as this WOD intended, but TB and I had fun anyways.

Wed. Apr. 22:

21 – 15 – 9 Reps of:
Thrusters #95/#65   #55
Front Squats #95/#65   #55
Wallballs 20lbs/14lbs

Time – 8:26

Sweet jeeeeezuz!!  This was ridiculous!  Kinda reminded me of 15.5, or maybe worse?  At least part of 15.5 was sitting on a rower!  In a sneaky sort of way, this was 135 squats.  Not heavy squats, but 135 reps with a PVC pipe still feels heavy near the end.  I nearly cried when I got home and remembered how many stairs were involved every time my pup had to pee.

winter – I’m over you

We’re in a bit of a build phase at the box right now.  Monday and Friday have offered the same lifts for the last 2 weeks, with slight adjustments in rep scheme at times.  However, while I pushed friggin’ hard both this Monday and last as well, I’m not sure it would be considered an improvement on 3rd portion of the workout.

Part 1                                                       April 13                             April 20

build to heavy Squat Snatch                       #65                                     #75

Part 2

build to heavy 3 Back Squat                       #135                                     #140

Part 3

strip 10-15% – B. Squat MAX reps         #105 x 31                          #115 x 25

Either way, good times.  I’ve been in an “I just want to lift HEAVY!” mindset lately.  Don’t know why, cause I usually prefer the medium weight longer chippers.

Took a rest day yesterday which screwed up my normal routine a little.  Actually I guess going in Saturday for Murph was actually what screwed up my routine… but in an effort to play by the rules and prevent a lecture from Coach Sharon about being smart and not over training, I took Tuesday off.  Made good use of my free pre-work time and made some FOOD 🙂  A veggie-packed taco-ish casserole thing with spiralized sweet potato noodle topping.  Ok… it was topping.  Till it met the microwave and became a hot mess.  Looks like crap, but it’s pretty awesome.

step up

I need to vent for a minute.  I agree that everyone is different and the only person I am responsible for is myself.  If you want to cheat on your diet, or cheat reps in a WOD that’s up to you.  It’s generally none of my business.  There’s an exception to that.  When you join our Whole30 discussion group and post a pic of a chocolate skor cluster with a comment “is this Whole30? hehe!” it becomes my concern.  This might not have bothered me all that much if you hadn’t been my partner for Murph and cheated a rep or two off every round.  And if I wasn’t already waking up thinking about chocolate I may have cut you a little more slack too.  But listen, it’s not my job to count your reps for you, but when trying to transition smooth and efficient, counting reps is the way to go.  When my usual WOD buddy doesn’t have to miss a WOD for an exam, we are seamless.  So while yes, you are only cheating yourself in the end… don’t try to drag me down with you!  I’m committed and hard-working.  Get with the program.

Sat. Apr. 18:

Ok, I probably shouldn’t be blogging about today at all considering I called in sick.  I never call in sick, but after a 4th night of not sleeping much I felt justified.  PLUS the mobility workshop going on at CFD seemed like something I really needed.  As for the WOD first, maybe not so much… but I was there, so… yeah.

Ahh… Murph.  Done as a partner WOD today thankfully!  Cause had it been solo I might have said “eff this!!” during either of the runs.  It was a beautiful sunny day, but heading up the hill to the turnaround point was running head first in a wind tunnel lol!  Maddy and I paired up and decided to split the middle chunk in to rounds of Cindy.  Good plan I think 🙂  Kept us moving at a steady pace the whole time, although I have no idea what our end time was.

Fri. Apr. 17:

So much for the chiro miracle I had hoped for.  Day 3 running on very little sleep.  Day 3 getting out of bed at 3-something cause I just couldn’t get comfortable enough to hope for more sleep.  As soon as I got up and got moving around, the back feels fine.  Arg.

4 Sets:
1 Power Clean+ 2 Front Squat + 2 Jerk Complex
*Increase loading for each set*

75 / 85 / 95 / 100

Got up to #100, but my clean was ugly, squatted easy-peasy, then failed the jerk.  Shook it off and tried again.  This time failed the clean!  Again, and again…  Took me a few attempts, but I finally completed the complex at #100.  Same weight as last Friday…  that’s not the point of this exercise but running on fumes I decided to be ok with that.  Also didn’t want to really mess up whatever is going on with my back.

Thurs. Apr. 16:

Team 10k Row
*Teams of 3, switching every 250m*
*Every 5 Minutes, perform 3 plate pushes (1Each)*

Time – 48:47

Sweet jeezuz this was rough!  Learned my lesson when I took the bait of Greg encouraging me to row harder to reach 5800 meters before the 5 minute plate push.  I switched gears and rowed HARD.  Then wanted to die for the next 10:00.  Noted.  I figured this one would take a while, but didn’t expect nearly 50 minutes.  Clearly, cause post-WOD I had to toss Yuko in the car, rush home to inhale some food (cause I was starving and kinda dizzy!) and book it to my chiro appointment.  Thank God I made that!  She cracked me like crazy!  Maybe I’ll be able to sleep properly again without being unable to breathe every time I move.  Not fun.

Wed. Apr. 15:

Pretty proud of my little man today 🙂 Who turned 3 months on Monday.  Yes, that is a thing.  I’ll only have him till he’s a year, so we’re gonna celebrate.  Happy 1/4 birthday Yuko lol.  Back to today – first we got up early and headed to the track. It’s been quite some time since I’ve brought Yuko along, like the last time we were still at the point where I had to carry him up and down stairs and he really sucked at walking. Today we managed to run together (super-slow, but it’s a start!) for almost a whole lap!  Then we walked another, and he settled down and slept on my hoody while we went through a Rachel WOD creation. 5 rounds with a partner – jog 1/2 lap, sprint 1/2 lap, 10 burpees, 30 second plank hold, tag your partner.  Ok, I did sprint-ish.  The first 3 anyways. I’m disgruntled at how downhill my running capacity has slipped. Something to work on. And not the point of this story.

After the track we headed to Yuko’s first day of puppy school 🙂 ok, I was a little nervous that he might poop in the classroom, but also excited to meet the rest of his litter 🙂  From the minute we walked into the centre he was a bit of a spaz, but there were dogs everywhere and lots of stuff to sniff. I had to pretty much tackle him so the vet could give his vaccines and he jiggled like a jumping bean on the scale.  Wish I new what his weight was when I got him, cause today was 10.5kg… Ever seen the movie Best In Show? The group of people which I share the “Y” litter with sort of reminded me of the movie.  An eclectic group, although all very nice. There was Yorkie and his stereotypical gay couple who have avoided any dog socialization up to this point as they were fearful that others may not have vaccinated their beasts. And I’m not making an assumption here, the more chatty of the pair threw in a “me and my husband” comment at one point that made hubby turn a bright shade of red. Then there was the French woman who got paired with Yvette. That doesn’t happen by accident, right?  There was also a young couple who had Yugo. Seriously? That was confusing when she kept saying his name and my little fur ball didn’t know what to think. I mean, I guess when you pick the letter “Y” for a litter, there are only so many options. One thing I did pick up from the little meet and greet while we all sat in the waiting room (the people sat, the dogs strained to sneak in a little play session) is that while I’m really pretty easy on Yuko in terms of demands, he’s really pretty awesome.  He settled in the chaos better than most. He doesn’t bark a lot, which many voiced as a concern. AND he’s the only of his litter who sleeps through the night! That’s lucky for him since we’ve had the pups 6 weeks now! He would have got the old “return to sender” ages ago.

Yup.  That’s my boy.  Sure I’ll listen to you and “Sit”, but don’t expect my attention to be undivided.

 

out of the dark

All too commonly my posts are sitting in draft stage until the “news” is no longer new, and my stories no longer interest me.  This one should have been posted yesterday, but I got hung up on a name again.  Who cares really?  Update for today on the Whole30 game.  It’s actually day 8, but day 2 of cutting my nut addiction.  Yesterday had awful stages.  Today I just want to lay down.  Like on the floor… of my office…  Bright side, my pants feel looser.  But my boobs grew.  WTF?

YEAH! SNOW! (what?!)

Despite waking up to a snow-covered landscape yesterday morning, it was a really great day.  Snow is pretty… in December.  It’s April.  Started my day with my first WOD that I didn’t have to scale (other than the #95, which I would have scaled on any old day), then a nice Easter Sunday with my mom and aunt.

Sun. Apr. 5:

“Cheif”

Partner WOD – 5 Rounds, AMRAP 5 minutes:

3 Power Cleans (#135/#95)   #85
6 Push-ups
9 Air Squats

Result – 51 rounds + 7 reps

Part 2 – Build up to HEAVY 1 rep Power Clean  #105

78 Power Cleans at #85 pain-free!  Yes!  To both bits of that.  My partner and I decided we’d scale the cleans to #80, but I grabbed the wrong plates so we decided “awww… screw it!” and stuck with #85.  As it turned out, the cleans were possibly the easiest part of this little sweat-fest.  And I surrender.  Rest is worth it.

So, you know the dark place you get to when you’re 50 reps into a WOD and realize there’s still 200 to go?  Maybe that gives you an idea of a place I’ve found myself on a few occasions recently.  I can’t pin point why, but there’s a pile of things that have contributed.  I’ve been battling injury since last Sunday so haven’t really worked out in a week!  I mean, I went Monday and scaled “Luke” beyond recognition.  Then realized I should really take a few days to let my sore hip recover.  I mean, I survived the Open relatively injury-free, so one should not complain, but my mind will always have a hard time with the whole “rest day” concept.  Let’s add to the list SP and I decided it was time we needed to get our sh*t together on the nutrition front.  I may have confessed already – my chocolate problem had gotten entirely out of hand.  We’re talking every day chocolate chips and nuts.  It had to stop!  SP and a whole pile of CFD ladies are going to Trinidad in May, so a Trinidad Whole30 group was formed and I jumped right on in.  Who starts Whole30 3 days before Easter?  Yes, that part wasn’t well thought out, but so far I think we’ve all survived.  First time through, I saw whole30 as a challenge and jumped right on board.  This time I’m happy to have the public accountability of the CFD group or I’m not sure I would have survived day 1.

I’ve been somewhat hesitant to write about food.  Some good discussion has come up with a few ladies at the box.  A few comments made recently have stuck with me.  “Sometimes knowing where you’ve been makes it worse” – in regards to having been smaller and fitting into clothes easier.  I have been there.  I still have the size 2 jeans hanging in my closet.  When I lost all the weight before, I held on to my “heavy pants” as a security blanket just in case I gained the weight back.  Until one day when I told myself that would never happen again and in the donation bin they went!  So… while I’m not suggesting I’m the fat kid of so many years ago, I wish I would have kept some of my heavy pants now!  Cause I’m now in a place where I think I need to come to the realization that I won’t be a size 2 again.  And really never should have been.  I wasn’t happier, except for when it came to shopping for pants.  That’s not life.  And I can bet there would have been no chance I could lift like a badass either.

The other comment that registered was “I’m just waiting for the day where I’m happy with my body.” – to which I responded “but when will that be?”.  If you’re a guy reading this, maybe you understand, maybe you don’t.  To all the females, I’m sure you do on some level.  My hesitation comes not from a feeling of being alone, but from an understanding that I’ve been down this road many times before.  I’ve cried to you all the same woes, but still haven’t found peace.  The definition of insanity – Doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result.  I mean, I’m happy I can lift like a badass and that should be enough, but I’m still human.  I still just want to fit in last summers’ shorts and not feel like I’ve been laced into a corset when I zip up my lulu hoody.

crockpot chicken curry w/zucchini noodles

It’s not the easiest thing in the world to get a good food pic when your meal is in a Pyrex container.  But that’s just reality cause without good food prep, I end up really struggling.  Like Tuesday when I had a bowl of Romaine lettuce with some cucumber for lunch.  Fail.  As Coach Dave said when SP threw me under the bus – That’s like all water.  Yup.  Anyways, the name of the game is preparation.  My crockpot has been reborn and holds a semi-permenant spot in my kitchen for the rest of the 30 days and the good old spiralizer has made a regular appearance as well.  If you don’t have one, they’re awesome!  Zucchini noodles are so easy and versatile and the thing even has a great recipe website – inspiralized.com

This is one of my favourites!  Teriyaki something-something. My mom is vegetarian, so I omitted the shrimp and egg and it still turns out incredible.