Overloaded

WOD:

25 burpees
10-8-6-4-2 front squats
10-8-6-4-2 hang cleans
25 burpees

Rx for women: 95#

I don't know why, but I walked into the gym feeling weird today. Different. Unmotivated. I've apparently got shin splints that have really been bothering me lately, so much so that I am not doing anything impact related this week per my own prescription. My tummy has been crummy for the last week, but that could have everything to do with the fact I've been doing creatine for about a week and a half. I'm not entirely sure I'm going to continue with it, but I've known several people who do get results from using it and thought it was worth a try. So far I can't say I'm having huge results, and I promise there's no pun intended there.

I used 75# today, which was a good weight for me. Challenging but not overwhelming amounts of weight. Thankfully, I did not psyche myself into thinking I needed to attempt this one as Rx'ed. I did the first set of burpees as Rx'ed with full blown push ups. The last set I did on my knees. I've seen lots of improvements in my push ups over the last month or so, which I'm proud of. Things like push ups and pull ups are my nemesis, so it's motivating to finally see some progress.

But something funny happened to me today during the weight portion of the WOD. I started crying.

For some reason, keeping my elbows up during front squats or at the bottom of squat cleans is always hard for me. I can tell I'm letting them drop, and I know better than to do it. At one point on rep 8 in the first set of hang cleans I just couldn't get the weight up. My whole body felt heavy, and the bar just wouldn't float for me. I was sweaty, hot, frustrated, and emotional. This was the second WOD I've ever done where I seriously considered walking away. In fact, I even let my mind go there about walking up to my coach, telling her I was outta there, and then getting my keys, getting in my car, and leaving.

Then I let my mind start wondering to what Coach Jodi would say if she could hear what I was thinking. She would say that what we do here at CrossFit is supposed to make us better outside the gym. Physically we will perform better when we train our bodies, and mentally we will perform better by taking the skills of focusing and motivating ourselves and others that we practice here in the box and taking that away with us. I started thinking about everything going on in my life right now. How, I asked myself, would I ever be able to handle some of the big chunks of life I've got on my plate if I can't make it through this WOD? Sure, it's hard, but it's not un-completeable. I just had to tell myself I was going to finish it, regardless of how long it took.

Just like overloading your bar can ruin your workout, or worse yet, end up in physical injury, being emotionally overloaded or having too many irons in the fire can be too much. For me, the emotional overload caught up to me today. I am packing up my family and moving several states away in a matter of weeks. I'm moving from a life of widowhood and single parenting of small children to that of a military wife (again), parenting kids who are definitely not little anymore, and hoping to add to the brood. I have said goodbye to my friends at church as of yesterday, and there are many more goodbyes yet to come. And while goodbyes are sad, in my opinion, they are also indicative of a new, untravelled road in life, one that will lead to more adventures, more precious friends, and irreplacable life experiences. I truly am excited about all the positive things that this move will bring, but right now I just need to put down the bar and cry. After I have come to terms with it, I will have to give myself a "3-2-1-GO!"

These are some of my 0830 girls. They are what keeps me going when, left to my own wiles, I would quit and walk away from a WOD. I definitely know how to push myself and go hard, but I have learned that you cannot place a price tag on sweat-forged camraderie and friends who will holler at you to believe in yourself and to keep pushing. Just looking at this picture makes me laugh out loud and cry at the same time.

Coach Jodi talked to us today about how the coaches' goals for us include not just focusing on coming and working out. They really want us to work hard while we're there and then focus on the rest of our lives, too. True, many of us -- myself included -- place a lot of emphasis on our time at CF CenTex, and maybe too much so. I'm glad I finished the WOD, because if I hadn't I would've been more upset about giving up on something that shouldn't have conquered me. But I also feel that the time I've spent up there has been well spent in the friendships I've made and learning the value of leaning on others.

Table For One in the "Smoked" Section

Holy shnikes, Batman. I am smoked this week. I participated in Warrior Dash in Forney, Texas, on Saturday. It was more of a fun run that anything, but I've never done a race or event at all, so I was super nervous. My cousin graciously ran with me and agreed before the race that she wouldn't leave me behind, so I did have a battle buddy to go through it with me. Come to find out the obstacles really weren't all that challenging, and the running part of it was broken down into manageable chunks. The hardest part was how uneven the "track" was since we were running through a pasture. I was experiencing a little pain in my legs by the end. It's kind of hard to pinpoint it. I couldn't really tell if it was my shins or my muscles along and behind them that were hurting. Either way, the running was the equivalent of a 5K, so it was a decent stretch of running -- think trail running here with tons of mud.



On Monday I pogued out and stayed in Dallas with my sister, so no workout that day. I was still tired from the hustle bustle from the weekend anyhow. But trust me, we made up for it for the rest of the week.

Tuesday, 04 MAY 10

WOD: 10 minutes of work at each station. Stations consist of 15 lb. ball slammers on your knees, prowler sprints, 10 lb. sledgehammers against a tractor tire, and tire flipping.

The key to doing the sledgehammers right was putting your hand up near the top of the tool and sliding it down to the bottom hand as you came over and down, planting your feet firmly and moving at the waist. Other than that, this was pretty easy. Just amazing how tired you can get after 10 minutes, though.

Wednesday, 05 MAY 10

WOD: 10-1 clean and jerks and 1-10 100m run for time

HA! This one kicked my butt in ways it has not been kicked since we did "Murph" back last fall. When I read this WOD, I wondered just how this was supposed to work. Let me break it down for you:

Round 1: 10 clean and jerks, run 100m
Round 2: 9 clean and jerks, run 200m
...
Round 10: 1 clean and jerk, run 1000m

As you decrease reps of C&J, you increase reps of running.

Rx for women was 95#. Personally, my clean max is 100# or so. My jerk max is somewhere around 85# or 90#. I ended up doing this, ambitiously, with 85#. What's funny is -- I DID IT! It took me a full round or so to get in my groove and work my form better but it got there. At first the feel of the weight trying to get it overhead was a little overwhelming, but I just kept getting one more and miraculously got it done. My right wrist was really giving me fits, though. This has been going on quite a little bit lately. I don't think I've hurt it, thankfully. I think it is just really weak and I've got to really watch my form so that the weakness doesn't set me up for injury. Taping it may have helped a little, but I have never messed with that before and don't know how to do that properly. One thing I know I need to work on is transitioning the grip b/w doing the cleans and the jerk portion of the movement. I know going into the jerk with my grip still poised from the clean is incorrect but due to the wrist stuff, I don't trust my wrist under the bar to bear that weight. Two days later, as I'm writing this, I can still feel where it was hurting and I could feel it during today's WOD, but we'll get to that in a minute.

By the end of this workout, we calculated that the running portion was roughly a 5K -- 3.44 miles -- and there were 55 reps of C&J. I ran another 200m with the girl who was finishing last due to some muscle issues, so I guess I went about 3.5 miles or so. Also, doing 55 reps of 85# means I lifted over 4600 total lbs of weight -- woo hoo!! I was feeling that leg crampy stuff like I had after WD, though... grrr...

The bottom line on this workout is that I pushed through uncomfortability and doubt about whether or not I could get that weight up. I don't think many women went very heavy on this workout, and but I wanted to do it as close to Rx'ed as possible and I still posted a good time. Then I proceeded to come home and sleep for two hours. :)

Posted time: 59:49

Friday, 07 MAY 10

WOD: 10 min. of kettlebell swings. Every minute on the minute, stop and do 10 push ups. Quit at the end of 10 min. or 150 reps, whichever comes first.

At first the word was that we were doing "Fran" today, which both scared and excited me at the same time. I haven't done "Fran" since last October, and I would like to see how much I have improved. Alas, they changed it up, but I know we'll be doing it again in the next week or so.

I'll be honest. I'm not a fan of the kettlebell. To me it seems like goofing off when you could be doing real work. This WOD didn't look very hard, and it wasn't until the last 90 seconds of it that I realized I may not actually get 150 reps. I used 1 pood and knocked out at least 25 swings before the first set of push ups. Then it got hard. It felt like I had just barely gotten back up and swinging before I had to stop again and do more stinkin' push ups! I did the first set of push ups on my toes but went to knees after that. Still, this one was just as hard for me mentally as Wednesday's WOD. I remember thinking, 'I hate this! Man, if I was doing this WOD at home, I would stop! This is BS!' And the sad fact is that, had I not been in a class with others to holler at me to keep moving or fellow athletes motivating me to keep pushing, I would've wimped out and been less of a competitor in my mind. This is a very real scenario for me, as I am moving in a month's time to a town where there is no CrossFit within a 45 minute drive of where I will live. It will be up to me to self-motivate, and quite frankly it scares me that I won't be able or willing to do it. But that's a sob story for a different day...

Thank God it's the weekend!

Posted reps: 132 with 1 pood

Chasing The Rabbit

WOD:

1600m run
30 goblet squats
1200m run
25 goblet squats
800m run
20 goblet squats
400m run
15 goblet squats

This was actually our WOD from Wednesday, but I was out of town with my daughter. I met a CrossFit couple up at the box and the wife and I did the workout and her hubby kept time for us and was our cheerleader. I love working out with this couple. They are both as sweet as the day is long, and they make an incredible team. They truly seem to enjoy being in each other's company and bring out the best in each other. When I see them together, the term "best friends" really does come to mind. The icing on the cake for me, though, is how hard they workout. She is this cute, petite little lady who is quite glamorous when she's all made up, but put some weight on a bar and she turns into a machine! I love it! She really gets me charged up. I really love working out with other women who have a little testosterone flowing through them. Her husband is this nice, friendly guy who completely takes you off guard with how much weight he can move or how fast he is. What a great team!

Thursdays are generally rest days at the box. There was really no one else there but us. Someone else came in later to work on skills, but she was mainly doing her own thing. This workout, while not being the hardest in the world, was a real grinder. It was definitely one of those where you needed to have at least one other person out there working with you. When we started off, my workout buddy and I were literally shoulder-to-shoulder for the first leg of the workout (1600m or one mile run). We finished our squats more or less at the same time, but she pulled ahead of me for the run. I knew she would, and that was fine. I was having the worst cramps in my abs. This wasn't like getting a stitch in your side. This was like muscle cramps from muscles that haven't been used in waaay too long. I was trying all my tricks of trying not to hunch over, looking forward instead of down, taking large, open-mouthed breaths of air to oxygenate, etc., but those abs were just crampy right in the middle of my body just under my ribs. Was it more of a diaphragm thing? Certainly could've been. Definitely in the right area. Who knows. I had to stop and walk several times, more times than I wanted to. But there were also times when I forced myself to run, and not just trot up and down, but try to open my stride and focus on forward movement and not up and down movement.

The whole time I was running today I was fretting about how much worse the Army Ten Miler is going to be in October, wondering why in the name of all things sane I signed up for that!?!!! Then my mind wandered to how hard it would be to do a WOD like this in the neighborhood I'm moving to this summer. I will have no choice for 6-12 months than to CF by myself in my garage, and the subdivision is very hilly. I've been trying to really get all I can out of my last months here at CF Centex, because you don't realize what a sweet set-up you've got until you haven't got it anymore.

At any rate, watching my buddy as she hopped along in front of me was motivation to keep moving. She wasn't so far ahead of me that I couldn't have caught her if I had really pushed hard, balls to the walls. I appreciated again today something that I think about often, and that is the value of having someone to chase, almost like the greyhounds chasing the mechanical rabbit at a dog race. Whether or not I catch up to or pass someone is not the point. For me, the point is to have someone to follow, thinking if they can do this I know I sure can, and not wanting them to get so far ahead of me that they lap me. Had she not been there today, I would've had no way to gage my pace and would've slowly winded down instead of trying to keep up a steady pace and put this miserable WOD behind me. Now that I think about it, I'd rather be the chaser than the chasee!

Posted time: 29:49

Don't Be A Jerk

WOD: Split jerk 1RM, 10 min. of HSPUs, 10 min. of ring rows

So, yet again, I've been back out of the gym. I'm tired and jet lagged, yet again. Ad nauseum. I am getting so tired of popping in and out of my workout routine. I went on a "business" trip out of state, didn't work out for five days, ate like a pig and drank like a fish, and I wonder why I'm worn out?!?

I am fairly certain I've strained my back somehow a few weeks ago when we were working on push press maxes. I can feel a very specific spot, somewhere around T7 or so, something that feels like a spot where I could just crack in half. It doesn't bother me at all until I'm doing things at the gym, and then it only bothers me during specific lifts or ranges of motion. I'm trying very hard to be aware of it, intentionally engage my core, and know my limits. I suspect that I have lost a lot of core strength. I think this has been happening gradually, just like my shoulders seem to have lost some strength. I can't really tell what's been going on or just what my "problem" is these days with my core and arms. I just know that things don't seem right. Considering where my back is hurting, T7 would make a lot of sense. It might be worth taking a stop into a chiropractor's office sometime soon to further investigate.

At any rate, the split jerk was a new one for me. I've done plenty of clean and jerks, so this was a little bit less work on the rest of my body. I was soooo close to 95# but just either didn't explode fast enough, get under the bar quick enough, or a combination of the two to complete the lift at 95#. I think I would be able to tell what was lacking had I seen a playback, but as I don't tape this stuff, I can't look at it objectively. I suspect it was explosion that was lacking.

The ring rows were much harder than the modified HSPUs. Again, there is a lot of core involved in the ring rows, and I think that made it the harder of the two for me. I was only able to get about 35 ring rows but got around 65 modified HSPUs.

I made a point to do some ab mat sit ups, kettlebell swings, and pull ups with the green band before I left for a little bit of skill work to make up for missing class yesterday as I was travelling. YET AGAIN I will miss tomorrow to chaperone a field trip for one of my kids but will make it up on Thursday, God willing. It looks like a doozie...

Posted Split Jerk Max: 90#

A Full Measure of Grace

After watching the affiliate team tryouts on Sunday, I have been supermotivated to push harder and go the extra mile, regardless of what my body is whining about. I will say that I refuse to ignore pain that is on the verge of injury -- I'm not that extreme. But taking breaks and stopping in the middle of an intense workout has got to stop. Today. Actually, yesterday.

It's been a long time since we did any of the named WODs, and I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about how this one would go today.

WOD: "Grace"

30 reps of squat clean and jerks, 85# Rx for women

I've really been trying to push myself to do everything as Rx'ed lately, so I was pumped to do that today. I really had to get my mind in the zone: I was trying to envision myself going through the movement, listening to my motivational, fast tempo, metal workout music. One thing about my class that is a mixed blessing is the level of intensity. On one hand, I love this group because they are awesome and supportive. No one makes you feel like you are too slow or aren't working hard enough. It's a very positive environment. On the other hand, sometimes I really need the loud, frenzied environment to help me play off the adrenaline rush. I need someone telling me to hurry and get back on that bar, or keep getting one more, or 3-2-1-GO! When I don't have that for a WOD like this, I feel heavy and slow. No good on a day when you're cashing in on your explosive power.

So I started off with 85#. I remember thinking to myself, "Geez, this feels sooo heavy!" Regardless, I did about five of them with the 85#, and let me tell ya, they weren't pretty. I really detest going down in weight during a WOD, but today was a day when I could tell that I would have to in order to complete this WOD with speed and intensity. So I did the rest at 75#, which felt much better. I still had to fight for it, and there were several times when I was as mentally tired as I was physically tired when I let my elbows point down, which dropped the bar down too low onto my chest. Thankfully my coach came over there and told me I had better get my elbows out. I just kept getting them one at a time, and for some reason, the number 30 didn't bother me so much. I was pooped at the end of the WOD, but not devastatingly so.

We went out and jogged a half mile when it was all said and done, and I hopped on the rower after that. I've been making a point to do some 500m sprints on the rower at the end of the day. Yesterday I logged 2:05, and today I dropped to 2:12 since I was already pretty smoked. On Monday I rowed 1150m in 5:00. Slowly but surely improvements will come.

Thank God tomorrow is a rest day!

Posted time: 10:15

This-N-That

Obviously I've neglected my blog as of late! I don't know if there's a soul left that reads this, but that's OK. This is mainly for my accountability and to shed some light for anyone out there who is CrossFittting as well or considering it.

Since I last posted, I have had tons of life going on outside of the box. My family went out of state for two weeks over the holidays (didn't work out then), I had various out of state visitors (didn't work out then), GOT MARRIED (surely didn't work out then!), and have been sick here and there. Needless to say, I have really struggled to get back into the groove and push for more improvements. Nothing is more frustrating to me that seeing myself make such great gains and backslide so quickly. Mentally it is quite defeating to realize that your max one day is a good ten pounds lighter that your personal best several months ago. I've been back at it regularly now for two or three weeks, and as Celine says, it's all coming back to me now.

Before I launch into the WODs I've been doing lately, I thought I would make public the crazy committments I have recently made. In May I will be participating in the Warrior Dash at their Texas location. I have to admit a few things:

1) I'm totally in it for the awesome viking hat.
2) I'm scared to death about being able to do some of the obstacles, and I don't know if any of my friends are in the same heat as me.
3) I've never been in any kind of race or fun run before, so the fear of the unknown is killing me!

As if that wasn't enough, I have also registered to run the Army Ten Miler in October in Washington, D.C. My husband will be running as well, albeit he will finish hours before I do! He's a great runner, despite what he may tell you. I run around an 8:50 mile or so, and you have to keep at least a 15:00 mile pace, so I think time is on my side. I have never run further than two miles at once, so I have some serious training for endurance to work on. Thankfully I have a friend who is a triathlete who said she would develop a running program for me. Now I just have to convince myself to get out there and run.

Back to CrossFit. I have made a point this week to push myself and do all the WODs as Rx'ed. Somehow I have been able to do this and survive with relatively little damage or soreness!

MONDAY, 05 APR 10

WOD: 3 rounds for time of 30 wall balls (14#) and 30 SDHPs (65#)

Posted time: 17:39

TUESDAY, 06 APR 10

WOD: 1RM (rep max) front squats, 4x10 deadhang pull-ups, 3xL-holds for max time w/ 1 min. rest between attempts.

Posted results: New PR for front squats of 120#. Back to using colored bands for pull ups -- GRRR! Best time for L-holds was 0:40. This last exercise is harder than you think!

WEDNESDAY, 07 APR 10

"SUCKFIT"

2 rounds for points, 1 min. at each station, 1 min. rest b/w each round of:

Double unders
Lateral jumps (over bars w/ weights on them)
Push press (65#)
Kettlebell swings (1 pood or 35#)
Rowing for calories

I think I ended up w/ a 30# kettlebell b/c that was all I could find. Otherwise, done as Rx'ed.

Posted points: Round 1 -- 101; Round 2 -- 94

FRIDAY, 09 APR 10

WOD: 3x400m run for time, 3xheavy prowler pushes for length of building and back

Posted time for runs: 1:43, 1:45, 1:46. This was five to ten seconds slower than my last time; however, last time we were running on a slight downhill grade the entire way. This time was partially up and downhill at times. And the last time I even had to stop so some lady in a minivan could go get her glut on at the local donut shop. Ick. :)

We did a WOD last week that LAID.ME.OUT. It was 4 rounds for time of 10 box jump burpees, 20 air squats, 50 yd. broad jumps. It was probably all the broad jumps that did me in. I could hardly walk all week. Lastly, on Friday, we had to run a mile for time. I posted 8:50, but was really hurting most of the time in my quads. I suspect that: a) had I not been sore and had lactic acid already built up in my muscles, and b) had I been drinking more water all week, I would've been closer to 8:30, but it's still a decent time to post for me.

There we go -- all caught up! We'll see how long this lasts...!

CrossFitting in Your Underwear

I'm just wondering... If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around, does it make a sound? If you are doing the WOD at home in your bedroom or living room and no one is around, is it OK to do the WOD in your underwear? Or naked? Just wondering. ;)

Due to insane time constraints the week before I go out of town for a while, I have not been making it up to the box, but I did do "Angie" this morning. Everyone else did it yesterday. It is a perfect WOD to do at home or anywhere, really. The only equipment you need is a pull up bar or something on which to do pull ups. I don't have an ab mat, so I doubled over a really firm pillow to go under my lower back.

I haven't worked out since "Filthy Fifty". The last two days I was fairly sore, especially in my left gastrocnemus (calf muscle). But today was the day that I needed to do something physical or I was going to start sacrificing my "edge". I'm glad I made the time to do it.

Here is "Angie":

For time,

100 pull ups
100 push ups
100 sit ups
100 squats

Do each exercise in sequence, i.e., complete each exercise before moving on to the next one.

It's important that "they" point this out to CrossFitters, because we are notorious for breaking things down into easier chunks. For some of us, it's a physical thing. As in my case, any time I can break up squats into smaller sets and even interject an exercise that focuses on a different group of muscles, I will do that to save my knees. It can also serve the purpose of keeping you from reaching muscle failure. For others, they do this for mental reasons. Doing 100 pull ups may freak some people out, but if they have ten sets of 10, mixed in with other stuff, it's not such a daunting, intimidating task at which to chip away.

Overall, this isn't a bad little WOD. It's an easy one to take on the road, so to speak, and I can do all of the exercises with relative ease. The hardest thing is just trying to stretch out a muscle before it cramps up on you while still pushing to go as far and as fast as you can. To me, that was a real challenge.

Posted time: 20:31