nap time?

Made the leader board again 🙂  and only almost died or puked or passed out.

Fri. Aug. 26:

Part A:
3 Rounds
100m Jog
10 Wallballs
10 KB Sumo Deadlift High Pull
25 Single Skips
Part B: Empty Bar
2 Rounds
5 Good Morning
5 Shoulder Press from Back Rack
5 Back Squats
5 Romanian Deadlifts

HERO WOD – WOOD
400m Run
10 Burpee Box Jumps 24″/20″
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull  #65
10 Thrusters  #65
1 minute Rest

Time – 27:28 Rx

Day dreaming of steak… and Gluten-free banana muffins from the little coffee place around the corner from my store.  After avoiding them for quite some time I finally justified getting one with myself yesterday.  My face must have totally hit the floor when I walked over and she told me they were out!  “I’ll make more tonight!” she said.  But today… same thing!  Emotionally devastating.  I might have to make a loaf of banana bread now.  lol!  Otherwise, I’ve been on point with my food goals.  I’m going to go broke from keeping up my chicken supply, but I’m giving it a fair shot anyway.

progress

I can’t believe I’ve even touched on this yet, but last week I got the BEST news last week!  Got a phone call from my MS doc last week to hear my MRI showed no change from last year!!  8 months now completely free of meds and there is no sign of any damage caused 🙂  I couldn’t be happier to hear that!  Now to just continue to look for solutions to resolve some of the damage the meds caused over the years, such as my effed up stomach.  So far the naturopath’s diet suggestions seem to be providing a sense of hope there too.

Nutritional point – First… I’m SO friggin hungry today!!  Arg!  Second… I’m finally really getting my shit together and planning my meals for each day rather than just stuffing my lunch bag with healthy stuff and hoping for the best.  Saddest part – 2tbsp of peanut butter.  I don’t know how anyone can call that a serving it’s such a tease!  The protein part I’m struggling with a bit though cause even with my omelet in the morning, 1/2 chicken breast for snack, full chicken breast at lunch, other half breast for 2nd snack and full chicken or salmon portion at dinner, I’m STILL 30g short for protein!!  Work in progress I guess.  Might have to turn to protein powder for a little help, but NOT the hemp crap the naturopath recommended.  That shit’s gross!  Gotta draw the line somewhere…

On to crossfit details.  After my crash landing last Friday my body was kinda wrecked for a few days.  Saturday rest day, Sunday slow-as-f*ck at ball hockey, Monday WOD, Tuesday scaled WOD and Tuesday rest day – CHECK.  I seem to have my shit together again now, just in time for today’s deceiving slice of hell and tomorrow’s HERO Friday.  On paper, today didn’t sound all that bad but in reality… OH GOD MY LEGS!!

Thurs. Aug. 25:

Every 3:00 Minutes for 30:00 Minutes:
20- Air Squats
20/15- Calories on Rower
10- Box Jumps

Round 2 – Dave “You’ve been through worse!!”   Kate “Yes, but not much!!!”  True story.  Round 3 finished the row and my quads felt like they were completely seized and screaming STOP!!  Again in round 10 but at least then we were so close to the end.

Tues. Aug. 23:

4 Rounds for Time
10- Sumo Deadlift High Pulls #95/#65 Cal. Row
10- Push Press #95/#65  #55
20- Back Squat #95/#65  #55

Time?  Not good, but not awful

Mon. Aug. 22:

6:00am @ CFD

BUY IN – OTM for 10:00 Minutes: 1 Power Snatch + 1 Full Snatch
0:00- 4:00 Minutes at  #35 – 1 each
4:00-7:00 Minutes at #45 – 1 each
7:00-10:00 Minutes at #55– 1 each

OTM for 9:00 Minutes: Full Snatch
0:00- 3:00 Minutes at  #65 – 1 Rep
3:00-6:00 Minutes at #75 – 1 Rep
6:00-9:00 Minutes at #75 – 1 Rep  <- tried #80, not today!

FINALLY starting to feel less like a fish out of water with the snatch.  Especially the “full” (squat) Snatch 🙂  Finally.  Still can’t wrap my head around a heavy bar, but the movement doesn’t feel as foreign as it did.  Progress baby.  I’ll take it!

6:00pm @ CFC

BUY IN – OTM for 12:00 minutes:
 Odd minutes – 6 High Box Jumps  24″
Even minutes – 3 Heavy Deadlifts (INCREASE each round) max #205

WOD – 4 Rounds for time:
 200m Run
10 Deadlifts   #135
10 Burpees
30 Double Unders (slow singles)

Time – 12:37

LOVED the buy in 🙂  but that’s no surprise really… 2 of my favourite movements and high and heavy!

rebound

Fri. Aug. 19:

One year minus a day from the last time I did this spicy Hero WOD.  My time was better last time through, but I didn’t jump all the box jumps then (or any!).  Plus I didn’t crash pretty hard, spend a good 15 seconds on my butt trying to figure out A – what the hell happened?!? and B – well, now what??  A little proud of myself for picking myself up off the ground and continuing.

Hero Friday @ CFC

“Wittman”

Seven rounds for time of:
15- Kettlebell Swings  #35
15- Power Cleans #65
15- Box Jumps

Time – 20:13

Yeah, I don’t know where my head was today.  Round 1 I went from KBS to box jumps, then realized my mistake and corrected myself.  First little fail.  The bigger fail was round 3 of box jumps when I completely ate it on my 15th rep.  Unbroken was not my best plan of attack apparently.  I would have maybe recovered if I hadn’t put my box like 18″ from the pull-up rig… I tried to jump sideways when my shin made contact with the box, but somehow ended up crashing down on my tailbone HARD.  Ouch!  Ego hurt a little too.  All things considered, box jumps are still kinda new in my bag of tricks and I did manage to recover and carry on.  My time wasn’t even that bad.

Nutrition note – I may have briefly touched on the ever-changing game plan in the last post.  The naturopath has suggested taking a look at the FODmap diet to help deal with my stomach.  I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I miss broccoli!  Like, to the point I said “screw it!” and tossed it in the dinner stir fry last night.  Essentially, I have every intention of carrying on with the game plan I developed a week earlier after seeing Jen, however I’m limiting the foods that could be causing problems.  I can live without asparagus and I guess I can limit broccoli and avocado.  Thankfully I don’t eat dairy or bread and stuff or I’d have a lot more changes in store.  I won’t complain.

all in

Another hero WOD tomorrow, so I better actually publish this post already!  Had planned to add stuff, but haven’t had much free time!

Fri. Aug. 12: 

Hero Friday at CFC

Rx Deadlift – 275/185

Game plan involved step-ups as usual, until 2 minutes before the WOD started when Coach Sue announced Rx meant you had to jump up but could step down!  Last minute amendment to the game plan cause Rx was my goal!  Find a pace an just keep moving was the new plan.  Don’t know what was different today, but I kinda killed it.  Set my bar up facing my girl and we chased/pushed each other the whole way through!  In the end, Amanda beat my by 1 rep with scaled weight and step-ups, but we still BOTH crushed this sweat fest!  First time doing McGhee (I think!) and definitely first time doing it Rx!  I even made the leader board for the day 🙂

Result – 15 full rounds  <– I did the math.  75 deadlifts, 195 push-ups, 135 box jumps!!

Friday was a day of appointments that I luckily got to dress up with a fun morning WOD.  Coach Jen from my nutrition session at CFC recommended I go see a naturopath who also works out at the box.  Interesting stuff and some thoughts on how I can fix some of my “problems”.  One of the take-aways… stop eating broccoli and asparagus.  What??  And cut my caffeine intake by 50%.  😦  but my stomach has been so messed up since at least January that I’ll try anything really.  At least she didn’t say no more peanut butter.  Actually, at one point she said “so when you have a cheat day… wait… what is a cheat day for you?”  LOL!!  A jar of peanut butter and a spoon.  Anyways… the 2 days after my appointment with Jordan were interesting.  Sat. was alright, Sunday and Monday my stomach was a disaster.  My assistant looked at weird me a bunch of times cause the noises coming from my tummy were ridiculous.  So I take out the bad stuff and it gets angrier? WTF?  Plus I’m in the process of trying to figure out what the heck to bring for lunch every day other than chicken.

Mon. Aug. 15:

5 Rounds of:
20- Wallballs 20/14
15- Hang Power Cleans #155/#105  #75/#55

Sunday sucked.  Got in some skill work at open gym in the morning at CFD with my girl, then got home and showered for a 2:00pm breakfast.  What?  Dinner, or should I call it lunch? happened around 5:00 and crashed early.  Second day in a row lacking calories and man did I feel it for the Monday morning WOD!  Flat and tired and still sore from Friday’s annihilation made this WOD even suckier than normal.  Started with a 75lb bar but something shifted in my back then spasmed like crazy in round 4 so once I got my shit together I stripped the weight to continue.

Tues. Aug. 16:

Yuko’s meet and greet night!  I should have invested in Kleenex stocks before heading to this event.  Sad tears, happy tears, and so incredibly proud of my little wonder-pup!  I was allowed some time to say hi properly down on the floor with lots of excited cuddles and kisses, but after “our” time I think he told me “it’s ok mom.  I’m ready for this!”.  The rest of the time was spent talking with his new best friend’s mom while he lay calmly on her feet.  Today my boy is boarding a plane to make the trip to eastern Canada where he will change the lives of a family with a little girl with Autism.  5 year old Nancy has only seen Yuko through facetime conversations with her mom and is already beaming and calling him her dog 🙂  I couldn’t be prouder to have been a part of making this possible for them!  Nancy’s mom told me over and over that this felt like winning the lottery… only BETTER.

Wed. Aug. 17:

7:00am 5km run

7:00pm @ CFC

Buy In – All About the Snatch
0-5:00 – establish a 3RM Overhead Squat  #105
 5:00-10:00 – establish a 2RM Snatch Balance  #95
 10:00-14:00 – establish a 1RM High Hang Snatch  #75
14:00-18:00 – establish a 1RM Snatch  #85

 WOD – 10 minute time cap
400m Run
 40 Burpees over the Bar
MAX reps Thrusters #75/#55
Result – 66 thrusters

 

sleep, eat, WOD, repeat

Game plan update – I’m still working to figure out what needs to be done and how to make it happen.  Pretty sure the minute Jen said I need to eat more my stomach was right on board.  I’ve been hungrier than ever since lol!  I may need to raise chickens somewhere cause I’m eating like double what I used to.  One success so far, I haven’t even looked at a Quest bar since Friday.  Peanut butter is a work in progress, but I’ll get there.  I decided that’s the lesser of 3 evils and I have a partner in crime when it comes to peanut butter from the jar with a spoon…

Wed. Aug. 10:

With a running clock, every minute perform 1 lift and add 10lbs.
Start with an empty barbell and Snatch for as long as possible.
Once you cannot snatch the weight, Clean for as long as possible.
 Once you cannot clean the weight, Deadlift for as long as possible.
Max weights – 85 / 110 / 245

Just mentioned to Amanda Monday night that I feel like I haven’t seen the snatch in a workout for ever!  Today felt good.  I loved the format of this workout and even though I kinda had hopes to PR something, it wasn’t happening today but at least I came very close.  Matched my current snatch 1RM and fell 5lbs shy of my deadlift 1RM.  The dead was almost 30 minutes in, so all good.  First attempt at 245 I could swear the plates were glued to the ground!  Shot Dave a WTF?!?! look, he responded “CHALK!!”, so I chalked up and lifted the bar.  It wasn’t pretty, certainly wasn’t fast, but I got it up.

Tues. Aug. 9:

Morning WOD with my girl at CFC 🙂

Buy in – 3 round:
 8 back squats  #125
5 front squats   #105
 10 jumping lunges (per leg)

WOD – for time:
400m Run
30- KBS #16kg
 30- Sit-ups
300m Run
 30- KBS
30 Sit-ups
200m Run
 30- KBS
30- Sit-ups
 100m Run
30- KBS
30- Sit-ups
 Time – 15:25

When I first read this one I wasn’t super-pumped, but I totally liked it!  Third day of testing Jen’s “timing” methods and the squats felt really good.  Maybe the sweet potato helped?  Not out of bed early enough for the full 2 hours pre-WOD, but I guess by the time we warmed up and actually started lifting it wasn’t too far off.  The WOD was a sweat fest 🙂  Kept all of the KBS unbroken except for the last round which I had to split to 15/15 cause my hands were slipping.  Also getting into the habit of American (overhead) swings where I always used to only go to eye-level.  My shoulder was angry the first few times but seems to be getting over it.

Mon. Aug. 8:

AMRAP 14:00 Minutes
7- Muscle Ups  (transitions)
50- Wallballs 20/14
100- Double Unders  (200 singles)

Result – 2 rounds + 25 wallballs (finished 3rd round after time expired)

15.3 flashback??  Except the scaled version eliminated the muscle ups all together and left me pretty wrecked for like 2 days.  So… 150 wallballs was enough today and skipped the “balls to the wall” effort level the Open brings out 😉

Sat. Aug. 6:

CFC Partner WOD – for time:   
400m Run
21-15-9
Wallballs
Burpees
300m Run
 21-15-9
KB Swings
 Goblet Squats
 200m Run
21-15-9
Lunges (per leg)
 Push-ups
100m Run

**Both work at same time.  Ex. partner A does 21 wallballs while partner B does 21 burpees, then switch.  When both have completed 21’s, both move on to 15’s, etc.
Time – 25:40

Pushed Amanda a bit with this one 🙂  No scheduled rest and when your partner is a speed demon through pretty much every movement there really is NO rest :p  What goes around comes around, I know.  One day she’ll return the favour.

game plan

Today was so incredibly interesting!  I’ve mentioned before I find nutrition fascinating and this morning I finally got to a body composition and nutritional counseling session I’ve been trying to make happen for a few weeks.  Won’t lie and say I wasn’t nervous of what I was going to hear on the body composition side.  I fully expected to be pretty disappointed in the weight and body fat percentage stuff, but I’m pretty happy to admit I was kinda pleasantly surprised.  The weight was in line with what I had expected, but my lean muscle mass is actually pretty good!  (happy dance in my head).  Anyways… the main reason I wanted to get to see Jen was for the nutritional counseling.  My stomach has been wrecked pretty much since I took myself of the Tecfidera in January.  I’ve also been frustrated for years as weight seems to slowly creep up again even though I eat super-clean and exercise a shit-ton.  A bunch of people have given different suggestions and opinions, but I wanted to talk to someone with the educational background to support her point of view.  Plus, forever I’ve heard and suspected I’m not eating enough.  Well, great.  Need more information than that to make a change.  Not like I can add anything I want and have a positive impact… I mean, I could easily eat more bacon and a whole jar of peanut butter but pretty sure my workouts would suffer and NONE of my clothes would fit.  Anyways, for once I have a plan.  It might not be perfect, but it’s a place to start and I’m pretty excited 🙂  Excited enough that the commitment to no more Quest bars or peanut butter is one I think I can live with.  Plus I have a follow-up session in like 2 months, so I have some accountability to stick to the plan.  Good.  Game on.

Guess I should be a little more clear as to what I’m hoping to accomplish.

Goals:

• 5lbs ish increase in muscle mass
• revamp of my daily food plan:
  • 140-150g protein
  • 100g or less carbs (rest day) / 140-150g carbs (active day)
  • 75g or more fats (but less nuts!  more avo/seeds)
• timing of carbs to give my body the fuel it needs for workouts.  Sweet potatoes are BACK!!!  Woot!!
• Figure out what the hell is going on with hormones.  That’s a whole topic on its own, but not getting into details.
• Bottom line – I want to feel better, sleep better, lift heavier and look good naked.  Doesn’t seem like too much to ask lol!!

Post session with Jen, Amanda and I jumped right into the warm-up for this treat of a workout.  Had to arrive to the body comp thing with an empty stomach, and after Sharon’s bday WOD Thursday night at 5:30 I went to watch my girl play hockey and completely missed dinner too!  A tbsp. of peanut butter (tisk, tisk I know!) was my only fuel post Thursday WOD and pre Friday WOD.  Fail.  I suffered.

Fri. Aug. 5:

“Daniel”

50 Pull-ups
400m Run
21 Thrusters
800m Run
21 Thrusters
400m Run
50 Pull-ups
Time – 21:14

OMG sooooo hot out this morning!!!  The run tried to suck any remaining life out of me.  Pretty sure I actually asked Amanda if I could lay down at one point.  Otherwise pretty happy with this one 🙂  Got through 30 of the opening pull-ups before scaling and the thrusters felt pretty solid as Rx.  Wanted to continue with the pull-ups in the final batch, but even well-chalked I just couldn’t keep a grip on the bar.  Progress though!  My still-sore abs didn’t even complain all that much about all the kipping!

Thurs. Aug. 4:

AMRAP in 30:00 Minutes
3- Back Squat (Heavy)   #95
6- HSPU
9- Burpees

Result – 10 rounds + 1 back squat :p

Today should have been my rest day… except it was Coach Sharon’s birthday WOD so I really didn’t want to miss it even though it sounded pretty awful and I was already tired and sore.  I finished it.  That’s about all the credit I can give myself though.  I DID stick with the HSPU all the way through aside from 1 round where I thought regular push-ups would be a good little break but was sadly mistaken.  I don’t usually sandbag WODs, but I certainly didn’t give this one the effort it deserved.

Last note – I love my new shoes #ReebokNano5

just be :)

Once a week seems to be my max for blogging right now.  It’s not a bad thing at all cause there’s just so much fun stuff happening that I don’t have a ton of extra time.  Amanda and I have gotten to the point a few times now where we’ve made do-nothing dates!  I mean, we have lots of do stuff dates too, but some days planning an evening to just sit on the couch is so appreciated.  A sign of a busy life, or a sign of getting old?  Nah :p lol!

Sat. July 30:

Island Unplugged Festival – Pelee Island 🙂  Rode the ferry, explored the island, checked out our 5th of 6 concerts in 2016, slept on the ferry ride back, and slept in a Tim Horton’s parking lot.  <– don’t judge!  It was 1:30am and no time to attempt a 3 hour drive home.  And kinda fun lol!  5 concerts done, and every single one of them has been a whole new adventure.  This was no different!  Best way to describe it would be “it felt like we were crashing some ones family BBQ”.  Totally cool way to check out some good music and people watch 🙂  We food-prepped the hell out of this and were pretty well supplied for the adventure.  So well prepared with water we could have survived on the island for another 2 days, but better than not enough!  Still… cooler food can only take you so far.  The concert had a few food tents – fish and chips, grilled cheese, pie, or pulled pork.  Yup, a whole table devoted to each!  Who comes up with a grilled cheese table?  Pulled pork was the winner.

Mon. Aug. 1:

Buy In – 
Work up to heavy 1-3 reps Deadlift
#205
Work up to heavy 1-3 reps Back Squat
#155

Partner WOD – “The hundreds” (ish), for time:
150 calorie Row
(25 cal each, x2)
100 Kettlebell Swings
100 Burpee Box Jump Overs
100 Wallballs

Done in a team of 3.  Amanda and I did everything after the row as synchronized as possible, similar to the Team Throwdown.
Time – 24:48

Pretty happy with our time!  This was done as an AMRAP in the comp and the wallballs were deadlifts.  We got through an extra 25 cals today and there’s never an expectation of recreating the same level of intensity on a regular day that comes out in a comp!  The burpee box jump overs didn’t disappoint.  They hurt for all.

Tues. Aug. 2:

For Time:
10- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
8- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
6- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
4- Bench Press #185/#115  #85
20- Abmat Situps/Knees-Elbows/Toes-Bar GHD Sit Ups
2- Bench Press #185/#115  #95

Ok, maybe should have gone heavier from the start.  The GHD however… ouch.  No idea what my time was on this one, but GHD sit-ups make my head really fuzzy so finishing was my main focus.  Almost didn’t make it to work later cause I still felt pretty shaky and nauseous but an hour and a half nap on my couch helped.

Wed. Aug. 3:

2 Rounds for Time:
50- Wallballs 20lbs/14lbs
40- Box Jumps
30- Deadlifts #155/#105  #85
20- Calorie Row
15- Front Squats #155/105  #85
10- Shoulder to Overhead #155/#105  #85

Time – 24:18

Worked out with Amanda again this morning 🙂  Always a nice surprise to get a text on my way home from work asking if she can come over.  ❤  Anyways… nasty WOD!  My legs!!!  I anticipated the shoulder to overhead being the major suck factor here, but the front squats were actually pretty horrible!  Wallballs – legs.  Box Jumps – legs.  Deadlifts – legs.  Row – legs.  Front Squats?  Seriously?  lol!!  Round 2 I could have cried like a baby a few times, but my girl was there so I toughed it out :-p  Even squeezed in just under the 25 minute time cap!  After the WOD, we box jumped.  Cause that’s the logical thing to do 😉  Although I didn’t eat it once! (for once!)

24″ baby!