where did 2017 go?

I spend so much time one social media these days that I never seem to get the chance to write blog entries. Life is good! Except I made the mistake of drinking a double dose of ketones at work yesterday, both of which were caffeinated so I’ve been WIDE awake since like 2am. Anyone want to join me for a run kind of awake. It’s been so long I can’t remember where I left off!

2017 has been a good one for me after a rocky start. Career realignment when I stepped down to part time at sport chek and started working with my dad. Still not entirely sure if that is going to live up to all the dreams we had for it, but it still has potential in my mind.

Got engaged to the most amazing girl 😍

Found success for myself personally with drinking ketones. 😁 I have way better and more consistent energy. 😁My brain fog is no longer a challenge I face daily. The inflammation I can physically see has improved big time, which makes me believe the systemic inflammation has improved as well. I’m in a really good mood like all the time. 😁Oh! And I’ve lost nearly 20lbs 😁 Have you heard of ketones? If not, watch this!!! Or drop me a comment or whatever.  katemcdowell.experienceketo.com

 

 

Just got back from vacationing in Florida again.  Timing and coincidence could not hav worked out better for this round! Festivus Games happened for the second time for us while we were away! At first I was bummed cause I thought we were going to have to sell our spot when we decided to go away but I was able to switch our location so we could complete in Bradenton. Then right after we finished our last WOD we jumped in the car and drove 3 hours to Orlando. Yup. Right after finishing 4 WODs. No more explanation is likely needed than getting out of the car was a stiff situation.

Any-who… made it just in time to get to the stadium for the National Women’s Soccer League championship game where Amanda’s team (Portland) won! 😁 That was our insanely crazy day and the rest of the trip was beach walks, sunshine, and just enjoying each other’s company. My mom is still not really talking to me cause I didn’t invite her to join us to watch the sunset on our last night there, but happy Kate doesn’t stress over stuff as much. As my sister said when I told her – “yeah! I totally invite my roommates on dates when me and my boyfriend!”  Well put Claire 😉

 

Life is good

Life is good.  Like, been walking around with a big smile on my face for days kinda good.  This past Saturday I asked my girl to marry me.  Like, for real.  We’ve daydreamed together about our wedding for a long time and I was ready to finally work towards making it actually happen. ❤ A friend commented on Sunday out of the blue how much he admires our relationship.  He loves how much we obviously care about each other and the respect we both share.  There was more to his little speech but my not-so-rock-solid memory has misplaced it at the moment… Anyways, he made me smile cause it’s true 🙂  We can truly be ourselves together.  A couple of geeks who do silly things and laugh non-stop.  We both could spend the whole day cuddling and watching neflix and be perfectly happy.  We like adventures together but we also like the less exciting times too! Life is good. 😀

Last weekend was a long weekend and for once we had no real plans, so what do you do when you have a whole 3 days to waste? Workout and make food!!  By Monday my pretty much everything hurt.  It was awesome!!

I’m going to talk food in a separate post, cause the workout recap is tedious and I can ramble on about food and nutrition for ages too.

Friday Sept 1 2017

HERO Friday – Brownwood Dallas 5
50 Burpees
then…
10 Wallballs
10 Shoulder to Overhead 65lbs
10 Pull-ups
10 Box Jumps
10 Sit-ups
5 Rounds
then…
800m Run
Time – 28:25 Rx

Well, this was a challenging one no question.  My cardio is horrible right now.  I’m disappointed in myself for letting it get so bad, but overall I feel better when I’m not squeezing runs in on top of my already busy life so I’ll survive I guess.  Except we’re competing in Festivus Games again in just over a month and I don’t want to totally suck.

Saturday Sept 2 2017

100 Air Squats
90 Double Unders
80 Jumping Pull-ups
70 Sit Ups
60 Push Ups
50 KB Sumo Deadlifts 32kg
40 DB Push Press 25lbs
30 Weighted DB Box Step Ups 25lbs
20 Burpees
10 Man Makers 25lbs

We did this one as a partner WOD, cause Saturday is partner WOD day.  Even split in half if was pretty rough! Can’t imagine doing it as individuals.

Sunday Sept 3 2017

1. STRENGTH – BACK SQUAT
8 Minutes to Build to a HEAVY 5 Reps 135lbs
7 Minutes to Build to a HEAVY 3 Reps 155lbs
6 Minutes to Build to a HEAVY 1 Rep 175lbs
2. OLYMPIC LIFTING – SPLIT JERK
EMOM, 12 Minutes
Complete 1 Split Jerk, adding weight each round
3. SKILLS (skipped today!)
4. CONDITIONING
800m Run
30 Cal Row
25 Burpees
20 Squat Clean 75lbs
5.BARBARA
20 Pull-ups
30 Push-ups
40 Sit-ups
50 Air Squats
5 Rounds

Ok, I was tired today.  Friday and Saturday flattened me a little… well the legs anyways.  Got chatting and missed the skills portion which I was relatively ok with since I really didn’t feel like 55 HSPU (or going upside down at all if I’m being honest).  I kinda fluffed Barbara as well.  Still got a good workout though! 😀 Sundays are so much fun and now that hoceky is done we can actually go to them.

Monday Sept 4 2017

Partner Workout – Run together, split all others as desired
400m Run
100 Front Rack Lunges 65lbs
50 Toes to Bar
100 Double Unders
50 Calorie Row (while partner holds plank)
100 Hang Power Cleans 65lbs
50 Burpees
100 Shoulder to Overhead 65lbs
50 Deadlifts 165lbs
400m Run
Time – 41:41 Rx

HOLY CRAP!!  But I’d totally do this one again.

 

Work in progress

I have so much I want to write about that I don’t even know where to begin… a friend who was researching MS for her thesis a few years ago told me that many people with MS have a difficult time putting thoughts in “order”. Probably not the only thing that can cause this, but definitely something I’ve struggled with. But this post isn’t about that… this one is about food and health mostly and things that relate. I’ll try to keep on track 😉

Finally got in to see the new doctor on Friday.  Finally a doctor who was very thorough and ordered all the tests needed to figure out what’s going on.  Vainity plays a part for sure, but I also question WHY things are the way they are out of interest.  WHY when I exercise regularly and eat very clean am I still struggling with my weight? WHY with the same exercise routine and healthier eating than previously have I GAINED 45lbs in the last 5 years? “It’s probably muscle!” Is the lamest excuse I’ve heard over and over. Yes, I’ve definitely put on some muscle when going from a ball hockey 3x a week runner who lifted moderate weights from time to time to a crossfit junkie, but that really doesn’t explain the body fat %!! Wii Fit would tell me I’m obese again and get itself tossed off the balcony.

So the new doctor order so much blood work that the ladies at the clinic didn’t know what to do with themselves.  Best part was he went through it ALL with me and explained all the red highlights on my results.  My iron, vitamin D, B12, testosterone and cortisol are lower than he’d like to see.  My thyroid is fucky and my adrenals are waving the white flag. I take 5000IU of vitamin D religiously every day!  Increase it he said.  Also gave other recommendations to add/increase other vitamins/minerals and gave me prescriptions for T3 and DHEA.

Next he looked at the sample day of my diet that I sent him.  There was a bunch of red highlights here too! 😮 “You say you follow a ketogenic diet? There’s a LOT of sugar here” he said.  What?!? In fairness to myself, the sample day I sent him was two months ago and a lot has changed since then, but I was still shocked to hear that!! I could be causing my weight because I eat a little tomato sauce, some snap peas and a few baby carrots once or twice a week, and onions.  Not the onions!!!  The rest could go but the onions stay.  Besides, I’ve decided I’m going to try the supplements and the prescriptions before altering my diet any further.  If I change everything all at once, how do I know what works?  (Still fuming a bit… I sit beside my girl as she munches on a bag of chocolate things each night but I’m overweight cause I put onions in the BBQ veggie mix. Pffft)

I mentioned that a lot has changed since I sent my sample day to the doc.  I March of this year Amanda and I gave the exogenous ketones a try and were disappointed with our lack of success. We decided to give them another go and things have been better this time around. For me I think it all started when Jen addded me to the 60 hour fast group on Facebook.  I had tried the fast before but didn’t make it all the way through. This time I wasn’t entirely into it from the start either! Made it 20 hours and ate a little something which I initially saw as throwing in the towel, but actually shifted my mindset somehow! After that I completed the 60 hours and have since followed the intermittent fasting which a ketogenic diet is intended to accompany. I wake up, drink coffee with MTC oil, drink my ketones (slowly), and LOTS of water. When I’m hungry, I eat. During the week when I work all day and head to the box shortly after, there are days I don’t chew anything until 7:30-8pm.  Others I eat lunch and dinner.  I still don’t know what is the right method for ME, but it’s all a work in progress really… and in the first 10 days I lost 10lb! I haven’t been able to shed ANYTHING in forever, so it feels like something is going right.

Wahls Protocol

If there’s any interest… my Wahls Diary will be on this blog: https://battleworthfighting.wordpress.com/2017/04/26/my-wahls-diary-prequel/

We survived Festivus Games his past weekend 🙂 Amanda as a competitor and myself as photographer. Still digging myself out after more than 1,500 images were captured, but I’m excited to share these soon! Only a handful of the 130 competitors were from CFC and while it was kinda nice to shoot some different people, I’m always most concerned with capturing “family”. Especially when things are crazy intense like they were at this one with 14 lanes per heat!

Re-Inspired

This is one of those posts I was torn on which blog to write it under… it follows the crossfit/nutrition path I often follow with this one, but will have a large amount of MS content as well.  Anyways, it’s happening after quite some time bouncing around in my head.

2017 seems to be a year of “Full Circle” with me.  What I originally saw as full circle in terms of going from working at Sport Chek in Milton in 2005 to Henry’s and right back to Sport Chek in Milton in 2016 wasn’t even the whole picture.  Before Chek I was a professional photographer, and now I’m getting back into that scene as well 🙂  Not the same format however, but once again shooting something I’m passionate about.  It’s a whole different game now though, but exciting none the less!

Another full circle journey is my attempt to improve my life with my disease through nutrition and exercise.  I’ll come back to the exercise topic in a minute, but for now lets talk nutrition.  In 2012 I stumbled upon this: Dr. Terry Wahls – Minding Your Mitochondria and I was curious.  In 2012 I wasn’t in a good place with my mind and my health and I needed to try something, so I gave it a shot.  Cut dairy and grains from my diet and figured that was enough and don’t get me wrong, it did make a difference!  I was able to eliminate a drug I was taking just to stay awake as my energy improved and combined with exercise and just being overall fed-up with conventional medicine and the downward spiral it seemed to cause in terms of my quality of life, I eventually eliminated drugs all together.  That’s where I stand now.  A little over a year drug-free, but I still deal with the effects of my disease every day and would like to see if I can take things further to improve that.  I’ve done some of my own research lately and learned that relapsing-remitting MS typically transitions into secondary-progressive over time.  My relapses have certainly tapered off, either through my own influence with diet and exercise or simply as a progression of the disease, but the pain is still something I live with 24/7.  It used to be occasionally almost unbearable in intensity, but now it gets to that point pretty much every week and some days I just sort of crack emotionally.  Not something I’m proud of, but some days I just can’t be strong anymore.  Bright side – I have a massively supportive girlfriend who will be there for me every step of the way.  I came home last week and Dr. Wahls’ book The Wahls Protocol was waiting for me on the counter 🙂  Inspiration take 2!  This book is absolutely awesome!  So many of the things she mentions have me staring wide-eyed like “oh my god!  That’s ME!”  And you know it’s true love when your girl says “I’d try liver if it will help you” ❤  Liver!  GAG!!!  I’m weird about the odd bits you find in a boneless-skinless chicken breast!  But if it helps with the pain, I’ll give it a try.

Another part of my spring re-vamp involves the crossfit routine.  I took Coach Jen’s advice a few months ago and scaled back the WODs while introducing some lifting days back into my world.  Between the Open and helping Amanda prepare for the Festivus comp, the whole WOD portion has been all but abandoned for longer than I would have liked.  I went to a class this week and cardio-struggled (as expected) and ball hockey has been harder than I’d like.  Coach Jay and I crossed paths after the WOD Thursday and he said “how was that?!  Been a LONG time since you’ve gone a class!”  Sad face.  It probably showed!  My legs were NOT happy with the box jumps or the wallballs, but at least the cleans were a piece of cake right?  Festivus is today, so starting Monday I hope to get back into the WOD routine so I can confidently call myself a legit crossfitter again!  Oh, and I’ve added a short run to my morning routine as well.  Hoping it all helps 🙂

Finding my rhythm

“So, this week has been different. I figured I’d ease into the transition of WODing less and lifting more,  but when Amanda decided she wanted to try to we sorta jumped in with both feet! The game plan was (and I think still is essentially) lift Monday and Wednesday with a Coach Carson, Tuesday by ourselves, then WOD Friday and Saturday. Except yesterday’s WOD didn’t sound great so we lifted Friday too! The only problem I see that could happen is I never used to cherry pick workouts. The WOD was the only option, so I just sucked it up and did it even when it sounded horrible. Now there’s another option 😳 I mean, we still got a great workout, but I haven’t really sweat yet this week and my Fitbit thinks I’ve maybe died or been kidnapped or something. There’s a huge positive note coming… Tuesday I PR’d my snatch!!! Finally after like 100 years!! 😁 AND my girl PR’d pretty much everything. Snatch, overhead squat, deadlift (200lb club!!), strict press, back squat… it’s been a great week.  Saturday partner WOD was a sweat fest, so nice way to round things off too.

 

On the nutrition front, I’m trying to not fall into old habits in terms of mindset. When I change something and don’t see mad results after two weeks I tend to get discouraged… I don’t think my clothes are fitting any different and the number on the scale hasn’t really budged. I know there are other factors that could be affecting that (like being a GIRL), but my negativity still wants to trash talk my efforts. Anyways… I’m sticking to the plan and hoping I’m on the right path. My days are pretty routine for food:

Breakfast – 2 eggs, 1/3 sweet potato

Snack – beef protein shake, 1/4 cup oats+1 tbsp flax+1/2 tbsp chia+6 almonds+1/2 banana

Lunch – BBQ’d chicken breast, BBQ’d veggies

Snack – 1/2 chicken breast, 2 tbsp BBQ sauce, snap peas, carrots

Dinner – BBQ’d chicken breast or salmon, BBQ’d veggies

*sometimes there’s a second protein shake, or double oatmeal depending on the day/WOD. My one guilty pleasure is the BBQ sauce 😦 one days I might get over that but maybe not. Not much variety, but SO tasty and Amanda and I are both cool with it, so whatever. All works out to around 1,400 cals per day with 130-150g protein, 100-125g carbs, 40g fat. I’ve basically cut the fat in half and doubled the carbs. Now my fingers are crossed it’s the right recipe for my stupid body.

Now there’s a plan

Let us back-track for a moment… 5 years ago I had just moved to Waterloo.  I had been living a pretty crazy life with a long drive to and from work every day and LOTS of ball hockey. Also quite committed to the global gym scene.  I had recently started the whole Paleo routine trying to fix some health crap. Oh! And I was skinny!! Not healthy necessarily despite all my efforts, but shopping for pants mad me happy for the first time in my life. Unfortunately that was the only thing really at time, but it was pretty huge. Life in Waterloo was a real change. I was 6km from my job, with an awesome gym in between. I had so much time on my hands I didn’t really know what to do with it at first, but I figured it out. Reconnected with an old friend from work who had gotten into personal training and started lifting. You probably know that drill… Monday leg day, Tuesday back and biceps, etc.  Pretty boring stuff, but I wanted to gain some muscle. Then one day I found crossfit. It was new for me, but brought the cardio element back to my world which I had been missing (Waterloo doesn’t offer the same ball hockey opportunities Toronto did!!). It was new, and scary, and exciting… and FUN!!  Downside… I slowly started to gain weight. At first I thought, all good its muscle. And in a sense I was right! But every season I was shopping for new clothes cause the old ones didn’t fit anymore. After a while I started to freak out a bit, so I tightened up my diet (which was pretty strictly Paleo already) and worked out more. But the weight kept creeping up. Could I have been going about things all wrong?! Fast forward to today and finally realizing that crossfit and Paleo could be responsible for my weight gain!! WTF!?!? I read this a few days ago which really got the ball rolling in my mind:

paleo-made-fat-pop-tarts-got-shredded/

I felt like this guy completely understood how I’ve felt!! I mean, I have a pretty decent 6-pack that I’ve worked really hard for, but there’s this layer of body fat covering everything.  I did a bit more reading and decided it was time for a change. I had already made the decision to give up nut butters, which at least had me in the right direction, but I’m increasing my carbs as well. After 5 years of quite a low carb intake, it might be just what my body needs? Or I might get fatter. I’m really hoping option A is reality.   There’s a part 2 to this rant. With dropping the fat content, my macros were in line with what Coach Jen had recommended at my nutrition consult, but my calories were still quite low.  So I asked! Explained my frustration and what I was looking for and got another response I hadn’t been expecting!  My focus had been set on adjusting the diet component once again, but Jen’s thoughts were along a different line.  Could crossfit be to blame?  Seriously??  So now it’s a matter of trying to determine wether my super-clean eating or intense workout routine is the reason I can’t shed a few pounds.  Not binge eating, or nights of drinking, or sitting on the couch… a clean diet or exercise.  What. The. FUCK.  Jen is also looking to lean out before a very important event in June, so she is readjusting her workout routine with the same goal in mind.  “We could lift together!  Misery loves company, right?” she said haha!  Anyways, her plan involves just lifting 3 times a week and cutting the WODs to 2 per week MAX.  They are great, but they cause stress on your body (says Jen) Some people handle stress by loosing weight, some bodies go into panic mode and store everything as fat!  So… sitting on the couch might actually be a more effective way to lose weight?  I don’t know… so confused.  What I DO know is crossfit keeps me sane and happy, so I’m making some adjustment to my workout routine for now but focusing more on the nutrition part.  Last night we went to Olympic lifting class instead of the WOD for the first time in ages 🙂  It’s kinda strange how I used to feel like I was ripping myself off from the sweatfest I needed and just went through the motions of the class without much enthusiasm.  Last night was so different!  I loved it 🙂  and Coach Carson is amazing!  The crossfit side of things will benefit SO much from working with him too.  Plus if I can actually lean out a little the gymnastic parts should improve as well.

Anyways… long rant.  I have always had a goal, but now I feel like I have a plan too.  Hopefully that’s the difference this time.  To be continued…

Chaotic

This post could be a chaotic one… just saying.  I’ve got a bunch of thoughts swimming around in my head and I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to put them all down quite yet. 🙂

Tomorrow a good-sized group from CFC are starting the Whole Life Challenge.  I considered it, but A: I’ve already done it.  Twice.  B: I can think of better ways to spend money right now.  C: Although I did seriously consider it, I just couldn’t see how it would create enough of an impact to make a difference.  I eat clean.  Other than the once a month pizza night cheat meal, I’d have to give up gum and spend more $$ on clean bacon.  Just not enough of a difference to make a difference.  Anywho… I’ve decided to give up nut butter for the duration of the challenge instead.  Cause as always, I’m not happy with my body and want to find whatever is making me carry around extra fat.  I mean, I have abs!  I can see them sometimes… like when I move or whatever.  But I want to just see them.  So maybe no nut butter will help.

I’m dealing with an MS relapse this week.  Not a bad one, but still not fun and in a totally new environment makes it challenging.  My Henry’s crew new me.  They new what was normal and how to help when things were rough.  So did my CFD crew.  This is a new experience with Amanda too and I’m really doing my best to communicate things with her and help her understand.  I know how it feels to be on the other side of things too where you just want to help but you have no idea how.  I read a post yesterday (while sitting on my butt with a warm Magic Bag draped over my legs) that described very well the communication challenges.  I shared the post with Amanda cause it seemed easier than trying to interpret my own version.  The author refers to MS as her sidekick.  It’s something that has an invisible but constant impact on your physical well-being and state of mind.  Yet no matter how long you’ve been living with this sidekick, it can still be quite challenging to decide how much to keep to yourself.  It’s also challenging cause when things are my normal I have no need to share anything, but when something comes up I mentally often don’t have the space in my mind to also take into consideration how to explain what I’m dealing with.  My mind is occupied with “Just get through this.  It will pass.”  I mentioned to Amanda yesterday, it’s a battle in my mind cause there can be a fine line between I don’t want you to feel like I’m shutting you out and I don’t want to get to the point where it’s like a broken record.  This week os thankfully not too bad.  I can still crossfit (although not quite at my usual intensity but it’s something!).  Coach Jason approached me after the WOD on Tuesday where I had scaled to a 75lb bar when I really wanted to try at least 95 and commented “is that YOUR bar?! You could have done heavier! 😉 ” Oh, trust me… it’s a tough enough mental battle to convince myself to be smart.  I did call in sick to work yesterday, which is hugely odd for me, but the pain in my legs has been pretty intense.  Ever had frostbite?  Know how it feels when your frozen bits start to warm up again?  Well, that painful burning sensation has moved in from just above my knees to my toes and doesn’t seem to want to leave quite yet.  Anyways, if it interests you here’s the post I read:

https://www.msconnection.org/Blog/October-2016/An-Inconvenient-Sidekick#

I had my weekly dose of puppy therapy on Wednesday 🙂  Pluto came to work with me and kept me smiling.  He’s actually the only reason I didn’t call in sick Wednesday too, but look at this kid?  How could I pass up the chance to chill with him?

Amanda and I are starting a little side project together.  I’ve been hired to shoot at CFC (like, NOT for free!) and  my awesome girl wants to join the fun too!  When we shoot together I figured it wasn’t right to just put my signature on the photos so yesterday we came up with a name and logo 🙂  With the Open right around the corner, we’ll have plenty of opportunity to shoot too!

 

Happy Halloween :)

 

Sat. Oct 29:

Pairs comp #2 in the books 🙂  When we first signed up for a Halloween comp and new costumes were a must, my first comment to Amanda was “I just want to wear a cape.”  LOL!!!  After a few weeks of trying to come up with something that was good and wouldn’t get in the way of working out, we settled.  No cape 😦 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Raphael and Donatello took on Halloween Havoc at Crossfit Outlaw North.  Super fun day in a totally new environment with lots of great people!  I really give my girl some huge credit!  Just started crossfit in July and she’s a great WOD partner already 🙂  Trying to come up with some highlights from the comp… quote from Amanda “Made it through and no one barfed.  That’s a victory in itself!”  Touché!  Although, post WOD 1 that was questionable from my side.  Don’t know why rowing kicks my butt SO hard, but I kinda wanted to curl up in a ball somewhere after it was over.  Oh!  And in WOD 2 Amanda dropped the bar during a 115lb jerk attempt and I walked over all “I got your back!”, cleaned it, and put it back in the rack for another try.  Matched my current power clean PR without even thinking about it.  That’s some brain trickery I might try again sometime…  Definitely talk myself out of lifting more often than not when things get heavy.

Halloween Havoc #crossfitoutlawnorth

WOD 1 – Fitness & Skill

AMRAP, 15 minutes:
 Row 500 meters
15 Pull-ups OR 30 Jumping Pull-ups

 Score – 5 Rounds + 57m  (2nd)

WOD 2 – Heavy Hitters

 10 minutes for both partners to establish MAX complex:
Front Squat + Jerk
*Bar comes from rack

 Score – 225 (120 K + 105 A)  (3rd)

WOD 3 – Hard, Fast, NO Cuddling

 8 Minute Power Clean Ladder:
30 Reps at 35, 55, 75, MAX reps at 95
*At 0:00, 3:00, 6:00 teams must perform 20 Sit-ups combined

Score – 111 Reps (3rd)

WOD 4 – One:One Sprint

 200m Sled Push #45
50 Deadlifts #105
50 Burpees over the Bar

Time – 5:42 (2nd)

Made the podium again!  3rd this time and very narrowly edged out of 2nd.  The team that took first was solid!  They won every event 🙂  Another highlight was hearing one of the winners mention after the last workout that they were chasing our time!  And we only came 2nd in that one 9 seconds behind the leaders  🙂  Like anything, it’s nice to take inventory of the areas to work on for next time and from this experience heavier and faster are one the list.  In my opinion the most important parts of any partner comp are 80% communication and 20% badass… I think we’ve got both of those pretty much under control!  We didn’t really struggle in any of the workouts, but succeeding with a heavier 1RM for WOD 2 and moving through the deads and burpees faster in WOD 4 are goals for future comps together.  There will be many 🙂  Next year I’m wearing a cape.

**Only nutrition note from the day – pretty much ran on carbs until all 4 WODs were complete.  Half a sweet potato w/1 tbsp flax seed and some cinnamon for breakfast, a “Kind” bar after WOD 2 cause I needed some more fuel in the tank, and a few mouthfuls of butternut squash before WOD 4.  Then we crushed some chicken on the way home and had big veggie filled omelets for dinner.  Seemed to work!

untitled.

I have a TON of crossfit logging to catch up on.  To the point I almost didn’t bother… until last night when I wanted to compare to the last time I did hang cleans for multiple reps in a WOD and I had nothing to compare too.  With the Halloween Havoc comp in 2 days I didn’t have a workout to get to this morning, so I drove to work in the pitch black 😐 andgot to work on catching up before my shift started.  I’m a Mac junkie, but blogging on my work PC is still the easiest method…  Not much else is new really.  Work. Eat. WOD. EAT. Sleep. Eat…  So lucky to have a girlfriend who’s completely on the same page!  Actually one little newer bit… I brought my guitar to Burlington this week cause I’ve really missed it 🙂  AND… I’m booked to start shooting at CFC in November!!  So excited to get shooting again and finally getting paid for all the hard work I put into it.  I was so worn out “crossing oceans for people who won’t jump in puddles for me”.

Wed. Oct 26:

7:00 am 5km Run @ World Gym

7:00pm @ CFC
BUY IN – Gymnastics, Every Minute for 16 Minutes
Min 1 – 5 Strict Pull-ups
Min 2 – 5 Handstand Push-ups
Min 3 – 10 Pistol Squats
Min 4 – 5 Ring Dips

WOD –
Part A – 4 Minutes:
12 Deadlifts  #65
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 Front Squats
*3 Rounds
MAX reps Burpee Box Jumps

Rest 3 Minutes

Part B – 4 Minutes:
12 Deadlifts  #85
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 Front Squats
*2 Rounds
MAX reps Burpee Box Jumps

Rest 3 Minutes

Part C – 4 Minutes:
12 Deadlifts  #105
9 Hang Power Cleans
6 Front Squats
*3 Rounds
MAX reps Burpee Box Jumps

Score – 43 Burpee Box Jumps, Rx

Part C was SO F#$KING HARD!!!  I totally love that we do hang cleans a sh*t ton at Connection cause they are not one of my strengths!  9 reps at 105lbs were probably totally ugly, but I went into that round aiming for 1 burpee box jump and I got through 13.  More than a little victory there!  Now 2 rest days in preparation for the comp on Saturday.

Tues. Oct 25:

7:30 am @ CFD
Row 250m/500m/1000m/500m/250m
*Rest 1 minute between rounds
Times – :50 / 1:50 / 4:12 / 1:54 / :53

7:00 pm Olympic Lifting Class @ CFC

5×5 Behind the Neck SOD press
*Increase weight each round  15-20-25-30-35

Power Snatch, 3 reps
35-40-45-50-55-60-65-70-75-*85lbs
*Only managed 1 rep @ 85, then the wheels fell off.

Snatch-grip Deadlift, find 5RM

By the time we got to the snatch-grip deadlift chunk I was DONE.  And thinking about dinner…  So tried a bunch with 55lbs but couldn’t wrap my head around the “scoop” part of the movement so I called it a day.  So much to learn 🙂

Mon. Oct 24:

BUY IN – Every minute for 7 minutes complete 3 Strict Press
*Increase weight each round 35-45-55-65-75-80-85

WOD – Lucky 7’s
7 Hang Power Cleans #75
7 Push-ups
3 Rounds

7 Push Press #75
7 Sit-ups
3 Rounds

7 Hang Power Clean + Push Jerk  #75
7 Push-ups
7 Sit-ups
3 Rounds

Time – 8:23 Rx

Kinda loved this WOD.  My forearms hated it, but whatever.  In the first portion the push-ups were a piece of cake, but in the final chunk it was all I could do to string 4 together lol!!

Fri. Oct 21:

Open WOD 12.4/13.3
AMRAP, 12 Minutes:
150 Wallballs
90 Double Unders*
30 Muscle Ups*
Score – 241 reps

*Scaled version – Double Unders=1 minute attempting + remaining reps as bar hops, Muscle Ups=2 pull-ups + 1 dip.

Now that the weather in Canada is getting colder, Hero Fridays have changed to Open WOD Fridays.  To get everyone prepped and ready for the Open in a few months we’re doing past Open WODs which translates to reliving the horrors of Opens past.  When 15.5/16.5 reappears I might need therapy.

Thurs Oct 20:

BUY IN – 5×5 Bench Press    95-100-110-115-110

WOD – 3 Rounds, 3 minutes each:
250m Row
15 Deadlifts  #65
10 Hang Cleans  #65
5 Front Squats  #65
MAX reps Burpees

Rest 3 minutes between rounds

Score – 54 Burpees Rx

Wed Oct 19:

BUY IN – Every minute for 8 minutes complete 1 Snatch-grip Deadlift + 1 Hang Snatch + 1 Squat Snatch
*Increase weight each round  55-60-65*-70*-75*  *2 rounds
WOD – For time, *21-15-9:
*Overhead Squats #65
*Toes to Bar
400m Run
Time – 14:14 Rx

My shoulder just might be recovering 🙂  Toes to bar felt awesome today!  Plowed through all of the OHS unbroken as well.

Tues Oct 18:

BUY IN – Every 90 seconds for 15 minutes complete 1 Push Press + 1 Push Jerk + 1 Split Jerk
*Increase weight each round  35-45-55-65-75-85-95-100-105-110

WOD – AMRAP, 8 minutes:
Clean and Jerks  #95
Bar hop Burpees
2-4-6-8-10-12…

Score – 60 reps

Mon Oct 17:

BUY IN – Every 2 minutes for 12 minutes complete 4 unbroken Deadlifts

WOD – AMRAP, 12 minutes:
6 jumping Chest to Bar Pull-ups
12 Box Jumps 20″
18 Sumo Deadlift High Pull #35
Score – 5 Rounds +11 reps