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

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