Lessen the Suck: 2009

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Making a plan

Last night I did the unthinkable. It's an abomination. It was a disgrace to all the hard work and nausea that I had endured for the last 4 days:

I ATE PIZZA

GASP! I know. It's horrible. But you know what? I made a conscious choice to go out and eat the tasty round treat. I thought long and hard about the consequences and the potential set backs, and I still chose to endulge. I feel good knowing that I went 4 days eating incredibly strict. I allowed myself to eat pizza, and I braced myself for the consequences and it's not so bad. The scale wasn't as nice to me this morning as it has been for the last 4 days, but I was prepared for that.

There, a cheat meal. I had one cheat meal and now I'm moving on past it. I'm not going to let it turn into a cheat weekened, or a cheat week. It was an endulgence, and I'm right back on the horse.

I have my food all planned out for today. While browsing the aisles at Trader Joe's, Bill and I searched for other high fat food options because quite honestly Ghee makes me ill just smelling it. We found that olives are a good alternative to nuts! Kalamata olives have a high amount of fat, a low amount of protein, and best of all they're free from the poly unsaturated fats that nuts contain. We also found some hard Havarti cheese that has 11g's of fat and 5g's of protein per 1oz serving. ANOTHER SCORE. My tolerance for dairy has yet to be seen. The paleo diet does not allow for dairy, but I thought I'd test the waters and see if it causes any issues for me. I realize that dairy is an inflammatory and can irriritate my gut, but it's something I really enjoy and during this initial phase I'm just focusing on getting away from nuts!

Here's my plan for the day:

Salad around 12:30PM

2 cups arugula

120g's blanched asparagus

8 chopped kalamata olives

2 chopped hard boiled eggs

30ml olive oil

15ml apple cider vinegar

snack at 3PM

1oz Havarti cheese

(Bill wants me to avoid snacking, so we'll see if I actually eat this, or save it for dinner)

Dinner at 8:30PM

8oz meat loaf

1T Ghee

Mega Dose Fish Oil

I'm not excited about having to put ghee on the meat loaf, but at least it's only 1T instead of the usual 2T. (shudders)

The workout tonight should be interesting. I have a mixture of 4 days of limited protein AND PIZZA running through my veins!

Monday, September 7, 2009

Oh thank GOD

Thank you to everyone for all of your encouragement and concern after reading my pathetic post on Sunday. I am happy to report that I woke up this morning feeling 100% better. The soreness is still lingering, but the nausea is gone. THANK.GOD.

And no, Mr. Mohr, I'm not pregnant. :-)

I didn't get to participate in the workout today, but I'm not even a little bit sad about that. The workout had 2 miles of running in it, overhead walking lunges, and burpees. My lower back is still really mad after all those dead lifts last week, so I decided not to push it....Ok, ok...I just didn't want to friggin' run 2 miles. Ok? Are you happy? I STILL DON'T LIKE TO RUN A MILE.

After everyone was gone I thought I'd grab a quick workout just to kind of gauge where I'm at physically. I'm feeling a little weak, and my performance was definitely lame. I did:

400M run

50 squats

400M run

50 squats

It took me 9:06 to do this! I had to break the squats up into really small sets because my legs were like jello. Even though this wasn't a stellar workout, I'm still really glad I did it. It seems to have loosened up my lower back a LOT.

So yeah, I've lost 5.5lbs now, and I'm going strong! I didn't eat much Sunday due to the nausea, but here's what I managed to get down:

2 eggs + 1 yolk cooked in 2T of ghee (eat ALL the ghee...clean the bowl with a spoon)

30g raw pistachio nutmeats

2 splashes of Louisiana hot sauce

1 cup coffee

3 slices of orange

15g raw pistachio nutmeats

3oz meatloaf

1 tsp peanut butter

mega dose of fish oil

My skin is clearing up, which is part of the "good news" department. Hopefully 60 days of being uber strict will help me narrow down the food that makes me break out.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

OMGIH8DAY3

I have officially hit the part where it sucks. Today started out great. We were going to hang out with friends, have a little bit of fun and really enjoy our holiday weekend.

AND THEN DAY 3 CAUGHT UP TO ME.

I'm already down 5 lbs from my Friday morning weight, so that is promising. However, I feel like total crap. My body is adjusting to the increased fat and decreased carbs in a way that I never expected. I'm highly nauseous, weak, VERY sore and tired. We went to the mall so Kate could use some gift cards, and we had to leave abruptly because I just felt awful. I'm sure the people in Macy's were horrified as they watched me walk past. At one point I think I had my mouth hanging open. Sexy.

Bill stopped at Sunset foods and bought me an orange and a bottle of water to see if it would help. I had 3 slices of orange, and it didn't seem to help. I fed the rest of the orange to Kate, and went up to bed and took an hour long nap.

I woke up still VERY nauseous, but I knew I couldn't sleep anymore or I'd never get to bed tonight. I have force-fed myself water with a lime in it, about 2 nibbles of meat loaf and 1/2 a serving of pistachios. I'm upright and typing this post, so it must mean I'm feeling a little better. Let's just hope this passes quickly. Ugh. Eating less protein means I'm more sore than usual...or maybe it was all those damn push ups I did yesterday.

Back on the right track!

Any time I'm unhappy with what the scale says, I always go back to Bill.

Me: "Hey sweetie...um yeah. I need some help."

Bill: "You're perfect just the way you are but I can help." (puts on superhero cape and gets a plan together)

Me: (thinking to myself)"Ok good, Bill's got a plan. This shouldn't be too hard!"

Here's what my food intake looks like:

20g carbs or less (I'm allowed 20g's, but I've been in single digits)

54 - 59g protein - but no more than 60g

130 - 190g fat

Friday was my first official day following this quantity of food. It wasn't too bad, and neither was Saturday. I weighed myself this morning and I'm already down 3 lbs. SWEETNESS! I've been eating the same thing for 2 days now, because I know it will get me exactly to the numbers I need:

8oz meat loaf with 2T Olive Oil drizzled on it

Salad made with:

2 cups arugula

2 T Olive Oil

1 T apple cider vinegar

2 hard boiled eggs

120g steamed asparagus

1 serving walnuts

Ok, YUM. That salad is like heaven, but I think that's just because I like vinegar so much! Overall I'm feeling good. I did Team Barbie with Zach today, and our strategy sucked, but our performance was strong. I'm hungry, but nothing overly horrible! Hooray!

Saturday, September 5, 2009

I don't like Kilo's birthday either

Ugh...My lower back fatigues so quickly, and I'm a big baby. Anyone who witnessed my pathetic workout attempt last night should be emailing me pictures of babies all day today. WHERE ARE THE BABY EMAILS!?

We started yesterday with some sets of 5 on dead lift

I did 65-75-79.6

Woo! 79.6 for 5 reps! I'm king of the world! Not. Having witnessed my brute strength, Bill thought I should go through the workout at 65kg's, even though I was protesting loudly. Here was the workout:

3 rounds of:
7 dead lifts
7 box jumps

and then 400m run

3 rounds of:
5 dead lifts
5 box jumps

and then 400m run

3 rounds of:
3 dead lifts
3 box jumps

and then 400m run

Yeah! High rep dead lifts! I complained for a few minutes about the weight, but figured I'd give it the old girlscout try. Well, I crashed and burned. I got 7 reps at 65kg's, completed my box jumps, and then returned to the bar only to find it was stuck to the ground. STUCK. I couldn't budge it. In a fit of frustration, I stripped off the weight bringing my bar down to 55kg's and kept going.

In the 2nd round the unthinkable happened. I missed the friggin box. My shin made direct contact at full force with the edge of that wooden box. I fell to the ground and CRIED. Bill came over to see if I was still in one piece, and even offered to get me an ice pack. I was determined to keep going, so I did my 2nd 400m run CRYING. I'm sure people driving by were wondering what that crazy lady was doing.

I ended up finishing in just over 22 minutes...which is really slow. I'm disappointed with my performance, but that's just the way the cards fell for me yesterday.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

EAT

I have been playing around with my protein and fat intake for the last 2 weeks....come to think of it, when am I NOT playing around with fat/protein intake???

Bill made me a deal that I could have as much fat and protein as I want as long as I stay under 20g's of carbs. SWEET! I've been enjoying copious amounts of meatloaf, eggs, steak, lunch meat and walnuts. I've felt full and satisfied, and the extra food helped curb my carb cravings. My times at the Fort have been good, and I've felt really strong.

BUT I'M STEADILY GAINING WEIGHT.

We're back to that old problem again. Why can't I just be lean AND strong? Sigh. It's back to the old dilemma of "what's more important? Your times in the WODs, or reaching that leanness you so desperately want?"

The truth is that it's a trick question. Carey Kepler, Lindsay Smith and Crystal McReynolds are top on my list of CrossFitters that I aspire to become, and they are all lean AND strong. They have their nutrition dialed in to the point where they have beautiful lean bodies, and they DOMINATED the games. So what's the difference? I think the difference for me is that I never quite break through the point where my performance picks back up again, even with smaller food allowances. They have worked hard and made their bodies efficient, and I just cry like a little b*tch and start eating more so I don't suck at the Fort.

Gotta get in the right mindset....

The workout last night was hard, but mostly because I am not good at thrusters, and Stacy was going kind of fast.

10 thrusters (40kg)

50 double unders

8 thrusters

40 double unders

6 thrusters

30 double unders

4 thrusters

20 double unders

2 thrusters

10 double unders

40kg feels pretty darn heavy for thrusters, and Stacy beat me to the jump rope the first 3 rounds. Fortunately, my double unders were almost all unbroken, and I was able to make up a little bit of time each round on these. I had to keep stopping to stretch out my aching calves, and this definitely sucked up precious seconds of my WOD. I think I finished in 9:09, but I can't say for sure. Stacy was hot on my heels and finished about 6 seconds after me.

Props to Brittany for going through this one Rx'd!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

No PR train for me

Why is it that I expect to set a PR every time I walk into the Fort? I have tried to convince myself that it's OK if I don't PR, because I'm no longer in "beginner land". Power Clean PR's are just so near and dear to my heart, that I'm DYING to get to 65kg's. Sigh...I'll get you next time!

Power Cleans:

3-2-1-1-1

Ended up tying my old PR at 62.2kg's.

Metcon:

7 rounds for time
3 cleans (50kg n= 85% of your SRM PR)
6 box jumps (31")
200m run

I liked this workout, despite the fact that it had running in it. I don't have my workout log with me, otherwise I'd tell you how remarkably slow I did it. 50KG isn't too bad for me on the cleans, and it definitely got heavy in about round 5.

One positive thing is that I learned how resilient my windpipe is. I slammed myself in the THROAT on my 2nd to last rep. The bar hit me so hard that I actually let out a little "ekchhh!" noise. It makes me giggle to think of how funny the noise was.

Ooh boy is that a lotta butt in this picture...

Sunday, August 30, 2009

OMGTHEPAIN

OW. All I have to say is F-ING OW! My calves felt a little tight after all that running yesterday, but this morning I woke up and wanted to die. If I had the ability to physically remove my lower legs without staining my carpet I would have. I'm serious. My first thought this morning was, "Good Lord, please tell me someone is pressing hot pokers against my calves, and that I'm not really THAT SORE."

Sigh. Bill and I got to the Fort at 8AM this morning so we could meet some of our fellow rowing team members for an awesome rowing WOD. I warmed up and stretched for a few minutes, but walking around was really painful. I strapped into the rower and readied myself for 8 x 500m rows with 2:00 rest in between.

The first two and 2/3's rounds were great. My pace was under 1:58 on each row, and I felt strong in the arms. Calves were protesting a little, but nothing too bad. When the rower hit 165m's to go on the 3rd row, my life sucked. A LOT. My left calf seized up. I couldn't straighten my foot to save my life. All I could do was unstrap from the rower and roll around on the floor. Bill was trying to be helpful, but the pain was so severe that I couldn't even process the simple instructions he was giving me. SUCKED. I walked it off for a bit, and ended up getting back on the rower to finish the workout.

Brittany and I did Team Saturday together because the workout looked like "fun".

Run 400m

80 dead lifts

80 box jumps

80 push press

Run 400m

Brittany's dead lifts are crazy strong. She max's out a solid 10kg's heavier than I do on her SRM, and she can rep through higher weights like it's nothing. We originally were going to grind through the WOD at 65kg's for the dead lifts, and 35kg's for the push presses. I grabbed a couple at 65kg's and decided that I simply didn't have it in me to get 40 reps at that weight.

The first run of the workout I was cautious with my legs, because I felt like at any minute it would seize up again. Brittany and I blasted through the workout. It was silly how light the weights we used were...I actually feel guilty claiming the championship belt when we CLEARLY scaled too much. The last run of the WOD was my favorite part of the WHOLE DAY. Brittany was jogging backwards trying to convince me that this was not a 400m WALK, but rather a run. She says, "better hurry! Someone's coming out the doors now! Don't let them catch us!" Without a moment's hesitation I just said, "you're lying". She smiled and said, "Yes. Yes I am. NO WALKING!"

It was her encouragement that kept me running through the last 400m's. Oh, that, and the fact that we were linked elbow in elbow and she was literally DRAGGING ME.

Brittany, what were you looking at? It's my hamstrings....they're mesmerizing, aren't they? ;-)

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Brittany's birthday

Hooray! Yesterday was Brittany's birthday! While I'm quite glad that my buddy is another year older, I was NOT glad that she was in charge of picking my workout for the day. I knew before I even heard what the workout was that it was going to involve RUNNING. Probably not just a little running either....copious amount of running.

When I got to the Fort, the workout "Caleb" was written on the white board. HUGE SURPRISE. LOOK AT ME, I'M JENNIE AND I'M TOTALLY SURPRISED.

8 rounds for time:

400m run

8 walking lunges

8 box jumps

My time: Brittany's time plus 5 minutes or something.

I think it was around 26:49. HA! I just checked Brittany's time for this workout, and I was actually 6 minutes slower than her. :-) In my next life, I want to come back with Brittany's speed and lovely legs. She could run 5 thousand miles, and then she'll run 5 thousand more...just to be the girl who runs 10 thousand miles to fall down at my doooooor. Wow, random. I don't even LIKE that song.

Look at me...I just ran...don't I look happy?!

Thursday, August 27, 2009

I'M ITCHY

I woke up 4 times last night just to sit in the bathroom and itch my mosquito bites. After reviewing the bites this morning, I discovered there were at least 10 that I didn't see before, bringing the grand total to 24 mosquito bites. I would rather poke myself in the eye with a sharp object than to have this constant itchy feeling!

Despite the itchiness, I did manage to squeeze in another AMRAP workout last night. I was pretty stiff in the hamstrings and lower back, so I decided to scale my KB swings.

"Nate"

2 muscle ups (progressions)

4 handstand push ups (done with 15kg plate and ab mat)

8 kb swings (32/24kg) and I scaled down to 20kg

I got 13 rounds, plus all 4 handstand push ups in round 14. I made a mad dash to the KB, but alas, I didn't even get one swing in before Bill yelled TIME!

I still suck at muscle ups. If there is one thing I want to accomplish by the end of 2009, it's to successfully complete at least one muscle up.

In the good news department, I ate remarkably well yesterday. I'm not concerned with how much protein and fat I'm consuming...all I'm focusing on right now is staying UNDER 20g's of carbs. It's tough....there's even 1 carb in hard boiled eggs! Strangely enough, my uber cravings are gone. I might even be bold enough to say that I'm craving fruit WAY less than when I was trying to stay around 40g's of carbs a day. I'm going to spend the next 60 days under 20g's of carbs and see where it gets me.

Workout secret of the day: Even if you're using a REALLY easy progression, at least TRY and make it look hard...or the trainers will bust you and make you do something more challenging. See? Like this:

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

14

14 is a very special number to me today. It represents several things:

1. The number of times I thought to myself "this workout sucks"

2. The number of times I looked over and realized Stacy was more than 2 rounds ahead of me

3. At 14 minutes into this workout, I still only had 5 rounds.

4. The number of blurry pictures Bill took of the 7PM class

5. The number of mosquito bites I got on my ankles during this WOD

GOOD.LORD. I absolutely HATE AMRAP workouts, and this is the second day in a row I've had to do one. The workout was:

AMRAP in 20:00 of

5 thrusters (40/30kg)

7 hang power cleans

10 SDHP

I set my bar down after completing round one, looked at Stacy and said something to the effect of, "Holy crap...this sucks". She, of course, just kept cranking away beside me throughout the whole workout. I wish I had half the endurance in my legs that she has! In the end, I ended up with 7 complete rounds, and a bajillion mosquito bites. I was driving home and I realized that my legs were itching REAL BAD. Stacy and I thought we were being so clever by bringing our bars outside, but I got eaten alive! Brittany had the right idea, and stayed inside. Even though she was WAY sweatier than I was, I'm willing to bet her legs aren't NEARLY as itchy as mine are today!

Here's one of the many fabulous and blurry pictures from the 7PM class. :-)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Working out with one eye open

OMG you GYG people are insane. Completely insane. I made special arrangements for Katelyn so that I could attend the 5:30AM class yesterday. Afterall, I HAD to see what all the hype was about!

It was cold and dark, so I figured I didn't need to wear any makeup. It wasn't until AFTER the workout that I actually caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realized my mistake. Sheesh.

The workout yesterday was cleans 1-1-1. I LOVE CLEANS. My previous PR was 62.2kg's, so I thought I'd work my way up to 65kg's for a body weight clean PR. (Man that would have been cool) Here's what my sets looked like:

55-62.2 - 65(fail) - 65(fail)

You see, the problem with 65kg's is that it's starting to get HEAVY. I get into position, hook grip the SHIT out of the bar and prepare to receive this massive load on my collar bone. With the hook grip of death I didn't release the bar enough to get my elbows under it. I caught it, but elbows were probably just past parallel with the bar, and down it went. Twice. I'll get you next time, 65kg's!

The Metcon was Cindy. This was my first time doing it as rx'd, and I think I did pretty well. I mean, I didn't get 18 rounds like Stacy....but my 13 rounds felt pretty decent.

In addition to the morning workout, I got in my first CrossFit Fire Rowing Team WOD yesterday. We had to do 8 x 250 meter rows, with 1:00 rest between. My average was around 57 seconds, so that's pretty good. Lots of room to NOT SANDBAG next time.

This is a picture of me and Clark doing a workout with push-ups in it. This picture makes me sad because Clark doesn't come anymore. He goes to CrossFit Naperville. :-(

How sad does it make me when people leave? SAD. REAL SAD.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

HERCULEAN

1 : of, relating to, or characteristic of Hercules 2 often not capitalized : of extraordinary power, extent, intensity, or difficulty <Herculean tasks> <Herculean proportions>

Yep, HERCULEAN. It's a real word, and it was really what the workout was like on Saturday. Bill dreamt up this workout, and it was awesome! He split us up into teams of 6, and we did:

1 lap around the building of tire flips (400lb tire)

250 double unders

250 burpees

250 wall ball shots (20/14lb)

250 calories on the rower

sled drag 230kg's from one end of the parking lot to the other

I was teamed up with Tommy Mo, Mark R, Beth, Giles, and Jamie. We were a great team! We huddled after we knew our team assignments and came up with a strategy. Tommy Mo and Mark would team up and flip that big ass tire around the building, I would attack double unders, Beth & Giles would rower/burpees, and Jamie would start dragging some weight. By the time the tire flips were over, we had a sizeable lead. We were the 2nd to last team to finish inside on the wall ball shots, but when I got outside I saw the most amazing thing; our sled drags were almost done! Mark and Tommy Mo had CRUSHED the sled drags, and we were the champs!

My forearms are PISSED after all those double unders though!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Come on grip! Keep working!

Yesterday was fun. :-) Do I say that every day? Yeah, ok....I like most of our WODs. We started yesterday with 3 single rep max attempts of Press. My sets looked like this:

35-40 (FAIL) - 37.2

My old PR for press is 40kg's, and I wasn't able to tie that yesterday. But ya know what? THAT'S OK. Press is notoriously hard, and even setting a 2.2kg PR is a big deal. 40kg's is an elusive number for me, and if the stars aren't lined up just right, it's not going to get above my eyeballs. I did set a 500m Row PR! 1:48.5! I PR'd by a whopping tenth of a second.

The metcon was great - I friggin' love cleans.

Every minute for 12:00 you must complete:

3 hang power cleans

3 power cleans

3 hang power cleans

This workout wasn't too bad until about round 9. I just had nothing left in my grip. Even my trusty hook-grip technique was failing me! I did this WOD at 35kg's, and I probably could have gutted out 40kg's. It would have been tough, but toughness is character building, right? Kelli has more character than anybody I know - because she's TOUGH. You can't see her in this picture, but she was working out directly across from me. She didn't even get a second of rest from round 9 through the end....but she made it!

Friday, August 21, 2009

The almighty rest day

Ah, rest days....how I love thee. After my run-in with over training, I have come to cherish rest days. CHERISH. And it's not even a make-believe cherishing either. I honestly love them. I wish I could remember where I read this, and exactly how it goes, but there's a saying about how rest and recovery are just as important to your overall bad-ass-ness as the time you spend in the gym. (I added bad-ass-ness just to give it my own twist)

I'd like to take a moment to say how much I enjoy CrossFit Watertown's blog. Lisbeth Darsh is a CrossFit buddy of mine, and she is a brilliant writer. I read one of her posts last week, and it inspired me. It was called "It's not okay". Read it. Also read the post from the day before called "Grow or Die".

Thursday, August 20, 2009

PR SHOES!!

Yesterday was a busy day. I didn't get a chance to work out with the 6PM class because...well....I was coaching it. Bill had basketball, so I filled in. After class I had about 20 mintues to kill before heading out to pickup Katelyn from cheerleading. I decided to do the strength work:

Front Squat

1-1-1

My previous PR was 65KG's. I attempted 70KG's and failed the last time we did this. So, just like Mr. Rodgers, I change my shoes when I do strength work...or is that when I walk inside the gym? EITHER WAY I was going to change my shoes and get after this workout. Unfortunately, my lifting shoes were GONE. I searched all over for those damn shoes, wasting my previous minutes I had before my cheer carpool obligations were going to kick in. GAH! I decided to throw on my Nike Free's and go after it. I grabbed 5 reps at 35KG's to warm up, and away I went.

Before I started, I was looking at this:

Stacy: 55-60-65

If you know anything about me, you know that I made up my mind before I even touched a barbell that I was going to try and front squat at least 67.2kg's. When it comes to strength work, Stacy sets the pace. She's insanely strong for someone her size. If we compared all our lifts relative to our body sizes, she's got me beat hands-down.

Here's what my sets looked like:

60-67.2-70

Ladies and gentlemen, I like you to meet my new front squat PR. Boo Yah! I still haven't been keeping real tight on my consumption. I'm looking a little squishier than I'd like, but I feel really strong. This is my dilemma people. What's more important? How do you choose between being a BEAST in the gym, or a BABE on the beach? Can't I have both???

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

My tire was just slippery...don't feel bad

Yesterday was a good day at the Fort. It started off kind of rough; I had a neck ache, and my head was aching. I leaned on a medicine ball with an ice pack on my neck for about 20 minutes, and I think that numbed me sufficiently. I started warming up with the 6PM class, but my head was POUNDING. Took a couple ibuprofen and decided to suck it up....I was NOT going to miss CLEANS.

The strength work was 3-3-3 of cleans. It was friggin humid, but I felt like I could have a PR in me. I did 45-50-55, and feel really good about it. Turns out three sets of heavy cleans was all I needed to get rid of my headache, cuz I felt GREAT when I was done. (weird)

After my PR, we went outside to drag some tires around. Bill loaded Brittany and me up with 10kg plates, and Matt L and Todd got 20kg plates. My first pull was slow...I was trying to pace myself. When I got to the end of the parking lot and didn't feel gassed, I knew I could push harder. My first pull was 17 seconds, 2nd pull was 16 seconds, and my 3rd and 4th were 14 seconds each. I was FLYING. I sprinted the whole parking lot and smoked everyone! Woo hoo! I knew having a big ass would be good for something. :-)

I've been eating a lot of fat & protein lately, and trying to keep my carbs under 20g's. I am fully willing to attribute my fast sled drags to MEAT. So, thanks MEAT for making me so fast.

Here's my single rep max from a while back - 62.2kg's!

Jennie Cleans 62.2 kg from Jennie Yundt on Vimeo.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

All of the other reindeer...used to laugh and call him names...

They never let poor Rudolph, join in any reindeer games!

Now I know how he felt. That POOR reindeer! Team Saturday was shaping up to be a really wonderful day for me, but I ended up being the odd man out. I volunteered to do the WOD by myself, but Bill didn't want me taking up space on the pull-up bar and the rowers since we had exactly 6 teams. *shrugs* Turns out, that workout SUCKED anyways. That WOD probably picks its nose and eats its boogers.

I watched my CrossForters struggle through team Saturday, and actually felt compelled to hug them on several occasions. I think Dawn and Kelli both got hugs of encouragement from me because the WOD looked really hard. There was a lot of "I'm going to throw up" coming from both men and women. Ugh. Sorry guys!

After the masses had departed, I stood staring at the record board. I wanted a quick-ish workout, and it HAD to be something on the record board. I wasn't feeling particularly interested in running, so I decided to try and take the #1 spot on the board for Annie.

50-40-30-20-10 of:

Double unders
Sit-ups

Stacy is currently the #1 lady on the board (not surprising) with an amazing 7:59 for her time. I was behind her at 8:37. I grabbed a few warmup spins on my jump rope, and waited for the 3-2-1 GO from Bill.

3, 2, 1, GO! And away I went! My first round was FAST. I did all my double unders unbroken, and Bill told me I was at a 6:00 pace. I knew I wasn't going to be able to sustain that pace, but I was hoping for sub 8:00. 2nd round came and went, all double unders unbroken again. AND THEN THE WORST THING HAPPENED. Ok, the second worse thing next to my jump rope breaking. My shoe came untied. I broke the set of 30 into 3 sets because the rope kept grabbing my flapping shoe lace. DAMMIT. I kicked off my shoe and finished my round of 30 and got right to the sit-ups. Bill swooped in and valiantly tried helping me get my shoe back on without interrupting sit-ups, but I stopped for a couple seconds to help him get my heel into my shoe.

My double unders ROCKED, but my sit-ups were only medium. They can definitely get faster!

Time: 8:05

Yep, that's right folks. She still has me beat by 6 seconds! Stupid shoe....

Friday, August 14, 2009

Taking a vacation in the village of "highly nauseous"

I'm not sure what went wrong with me yesterday. Around lunch time I felt nauseous, but after eating I felt better. As soon as I started warming up, the nausea came back. YUCK.

The workout was AMRAP in 20:00 of

400m run

max set of pull-ups

Your final score was your total # of pull-ups

I barely made it through the runs, especially after being knee'd in the EYE by Brittany. I could just feel it in my throat about 1/4 of the way into each run. It was awful. I think it's the fact that I'm cutting my carb intake in half, so hopefully it goes away. I'll keep my Almond Butter handy in case I'm feeling yucky, as it seems to help a lot.

As for the WOD, I don't really remember how many pull-ups I did...but I think it went like this:

8-13-13-15

Definitely had more in me, but I just felt AWFUL.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

OHMYGODDOMYHAMSTRINGSHURT

After these last two days, my hammies are killing me! The workout last night was "DT"

5 rounds:

12 deadlifts

9 hang power cleans

6 push jerks

I did this at 35kg, which felt pretty light at first, but quickly caught up to me. Every part of my body thought 35kg was a good weight except for my "grip". I was surprised that by round 3 I was struggling to hang onto the bar, even with a hook grip. I was reverse gripping the deadlifts to make it a little easier on my hands, but still....ow.

I finished in 13:40ish, which was just under our cut off of 15:00.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Kettlebell DOMINATION

I think you can see my smile today FROM SPACE. The workout last night was a little scary...I watched the 5PM'ers struggle through. Jessica could barely hold her car keys as she was leaving.

We started with some strength work - Power Cleans 1-1-1

Warm up: 45kg

1: 55kg

2: 60kg

3: Bill had me drop back down because 60kg was UGLY 57.2kg

4: 57.2kg

5: 57.2kg

6: 62.2kg - caught and did a full squat, so it was kind of a fail

Power cleans are feeling good. Need to work on finding that middle depth. I was either catching too high and trying to scoop it, or I was catching too low and failing by going below parallel. Sigh...

The Metcon was 200kb swings for time. Stacy showed up and served as my evening motivation, as usual. I stood behind her so that I could keep pace with her, and away we went. I have a pretty efficient swing, so I was quickly 20 swings ahead of her. I ended up finishing in 9:34, which was the fastest time of the day. Boo-Yah!

Score: Old guys - 2

Hot chicks in tall sock - 1

I didn't like the pictures from last night - I think I looked quite squishy, so I'll post this one from March.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Box Jump Bryce

Saturday was awesome! We had 22 people at the Fort for Team Saturday. It was totally crazypants. I didn't think I was going to get to play the reindeer games (I thought we had 23) but at the last minute I realized I would make 22 people! Hooray for Team Saturday! When everyone was pairing up, I was standing next to Bryce from CrossFit Chicago. Bryce is a BADASS. Don't be fooled by his tall, lanky frame....Bryce is STRONG and FAST. He has the fastest hips I've ever seen, and that came in awfully handy for the workout:

100 burpees (we did sets of 10)

150KB swings (we did sets of 15)

200 box jumps (I would do 10, he would do 20)

I think my 10 box jumps took as long as his 20. I have got to start practicing that lighting fast rebound technique!

This workout left me SORE.

Friday, August 7, 2009

STABBING WRIST PAIN!

Tonight is "fractured Fran" night, and here I am with a bum freakin' wrist. DAMMIT ALL. No pain if my wrist is straight, no pain if it's back at 30 degrees, but anything beyond that is a horrible stabbing pain.

Sigh....

My broccoli train to crazy town is going pretty well. I feel....not hungry...but just not satisfied. Nothing makes me feel better than a big cup of berries and some almond butter....(drooling) My muffin tops measured 34-1/8th last night, and my resting heart rate was 69 this morning. I'm kind of pissed about my RHR....it was getting lower for a while, and now it's back up near 70 again.

My food log for today:

copious amounts of coffee

200g ribeye

28g almond butter

2 scrambled eggs

1 cup broccoli

Arugula/leaf lettuce salad

15ml olive oil

15ml balsamic vinaigrette

2 squares dark chocolate.

28g raw pecans

I'm at 108g fat, 18g carbs, and 63g protein so far. Normally I'd have a little turkey tonight to even out my protein, but Bill wants me to stay away from processed meats.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

All the cool kids are doing it!

So, as I understand it, ALL THE COOL KIDS have blogs. My husband has a blog, my CrossFitters have blogs, my friends all have blogs. In order to NOT be beaten to blogging by my Mother, I am BLOGGING. I'll blog about whatever the heck I feel like, but mostly about my CrossFit adventures.

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