Category Archives: Crossfit

Weekly Workouts + Eats

I want to get back to re-capping workouts and meals because I enjoy getting inspiration from others in this area (I’M ALWAYS INTERESTED IN WHAT YOU ARE HAVING FOR DINNER, TELL MEEEEEEEEEEEE!) but I was sick this week and I’m a little rusty at remembering to photograph our dinners so this week is not really starting off with a bang now is it.

Studies show people should invest in home gym workout equipment to improve their mental state. I had some wins though, chest cold be damned, so here’s what last week looked like:

Monday

Garrett and I were up bright and early for 5am Crossfit. I felt like my cold was much better and was happy to get back to working out. Here’s what we did:
workout

It was one of those workouts that looks nice and inviting but then when you are finished, you feel like this:
workout pic

That night I also hit up a yoga class over at CorePower Yoga in Fair Oaks. They were doing a friends and family night and my friend Amy is teaching there so I joined because my body has been craving a bit more yoga lately.

Dinner was a Beef Pot Roast with Cauliflower Mash and Carrots that I had made in the crock pot. My crock pot regularly saves my ass on Monday nights. ๐Ÿ™‚

Tuesday

Tuesday morning when I woke up (after doing two workouts the day before) I thought to myself “Maybe that cold *wasn’t* actually over.” GRUMBLE. I took it easy that morning (usually I will go to spin) and then by the end of the day I felt okay so I thought I would see if a little hot yoga would help me sweat out whatever my body was trying to get rid of. I know, just go with it. It made sense in my head. Look – even the Mayo Clinic says it is good to workout when you don’t feel well! Usually working out *does* make me feel better, but I think this cold was getting good and ready to move down into my chest. Asshole.

YOGA

Came home and on tap for dinner was Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs. I cooked them in the Trader Joe’s Bolognese sauce and seriously — THAT IS THE BEST JARRED TOMATO SAUCE! (I mostly hate jarred tomato sauce, so that is quite the compliment coming from me.) I wasn’t super hungry so I ended up just making a smoothie and going to bed, but that made some BOMB lunch leftovers! ๐Ÿ™‚

Wednesday

Oh Wednesday.

Wednesday was the day that my body woke me up saying “NO MORE WORKING OUT, YA DICK! GET SOME REST.” So that was nice. :/

Dinner was Garlic Pork Chops that I had sous vide on Sunday (thank god! because I did not want to cook.) + Green Beans from Trader Joe’s.

Garrett was stoked. I went to bed early.

Thursday

Thursday was more of the same. More rest, more coughing, less working out. I considered going to Crossfit but the workout was The Filthy 50 and even I’m not that stupid.

Dinner was some basic Burgers + Salad + Sweet Potato Fries. I am currently obsessed with Brianna’s Italian Vinaigrette. I wish it wasn’t true, but it is!

Friday

I had high hopes for Friday but I was mostly chugging cough syrup and leaving work early. I would like to tell you we ate something super duper healthy. Instead, I made BBQ Bacon Cheeseburger Nachos.

Nachos

I don’t even regret it. I made sure my corn chips were organic you know. BAHAHAHAAHHA

Sat + Sun

We spent the weekend eating leftovers and mostly I was chugging water and taking monolaurin.

monolaurin

It was sexy, as you can imagine.

*******

I have higher hopes for this week. I’ll still balancing rest, but I’m on the mend for sure and I’m just ready to get back to real life! Cross your fingers for me, and have a great week, friends!

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Don’t Call It A Comeback, I’ve Been Here For Years

My first CrossFit workout was on October 9, 2010. The funny thing is I didn’t actually start writing about it here until December of that year. In fact, at one point I even professed this would not become a “CrossFit Blog.”

Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeah, sorry about that guys. ๐Ÿ™‚

The point of all of that is to say, holy crap that is almost FIVE YEARS. That is the longest I have ever committed to any type fitness routine.

I have learned a lot about myself through CrossFit in these last five years. The most memorable: “skinny” is just a descriptor – not a goal state, fitness can TOTALLY be fun, and finally that yes — often times running is, in fact for recovery.

photo

But, can I confess something to you? There is still occasionally a little nagging voice in the back of my head that says, five years into CrossFit you should look more like this:
camille
I mostly have that thought while doing burpees, btw. And for the record, she only started CrossFit in 2009 so is it THAT unrealistic?

Ok, ok — so MAYBE it is not realistic to want to look like a 26 year old, full time, sponsored athlete. ๐Ÿ™‚ย  I get it. But I would be lying if I said there weren’t times where I feel embarrassed to have been doing this for so long and still be a middle-aged lady who has a good 80 lbs to lose. With the surge in popularity of CrossFit in the last few years I almost cringe anytime someone says “Oh Holly is a CrossFitter.” I feel like I’m a walking anti-poster child.

So some contributing facts: I worked out 4-6 days a week for the first 3 years I trained at the gym. I got phenomenal results.
Then I really began reducing the amount of training I did in February of 2013 when I got a new position at work. I guess in hindsight I literally sold my fitness level for a raise. Of course it was more complicated than that, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat if offered the same type of opportunity, but obviously when you make a serious amendment in input, the output also changes. And that has left me in a little bit of a weird fitness space.

End of 2010: starts CrossFit
2011-12: Busts ass in the gym working out 4-6 days per week. Ran my first 5k. Ran my first half marathon. Lost 100 lbs. You know, no big deal.

Mid 2012: Really hit my CrossFit Peak!

UntitledIt’s blurry, but one doesn’t need a clear photo to see the lack of a mid-section spare tire. These days I can hardly remember how that feelsย  ๐Ÿ™‚
Most of 2013: The Lost Year and yet I still managed to run 20 miles of a relay race while living out of a van with 7 other people.
2014: Lots of time trying to get my fitness routine right. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I failed.

But the question I keep asking myself is what will 2015 hold? And that is the question I still haven’t answered with one quarter down. Let’s not even get into that stress that is adding a September wedding to the mix. I think I’m supposed to be OBSESSED with working out, right? Which makes my fitness struggle feel even more confusing.

Is this the year I will recommit myself to CrossFit? Is this the year I find something else completely? Have I run my course with CrossFit? There are SO MANY variables and I don’t have any of them worked out, frankly. At this point I am taking it on a week by week basis but I can tell you my instinct is to mount a CrossFit comeback.

I have to be honest though you guys: COMEBACKS ARE HARD.

But I am very invested in my own fitness. I’m also invested in my sanity. And strangely enough, the two are very intertwined. I have no idea how this story is going to end, but I definitely feel like there is hope that the little ass kicker within me ain’t down for the count.

Starting my day off on a good note. Also on a stack of truck tires. Same diff...

*****
Psssst: CrossFit Advice For Newbies

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CrossFit! Trashy Celebrity Talk!

50 shades

Tonight at the gym the workout was “The Filthy Fifty” and I swear to you, I don’t care how many times you do that workout IT NEVER GETS ANY EASIER. Couldn’t agree with this assessment more. I’ve probably done this workout 10 times since I started CrossFitting (I almost just wrote “in my CrossFit career — what? What would that even mean?) and it is just Hard. As. F*ck. each time. The only thing that got my through was that I had told myself if I dragged my ass to the gym and did this, we could pick up takeout for dinner and I could go home and finish reading my new trashy magazine!

Yesterday's blog post was about my favorite coffee replacements (link in profile) but I think we can all agree that just about anything tastes good when you get drink it while reading @peoplemag

Celebrity Bribery, FTW!

I finished the cover story about Katie Holmes and I’ve decided that whatever reporter interviewed her must be kind of pissed at her because the article made her sound a little bit dippy and uninteresting and WHAT IS UP WITH THAT COVER PHOTO? She looks like she’s been hanging out with Wiz Khalifa.

In unrelated celebritrash news, after a short binge to catch-up on last season, I’ve gotten sucked in to watching Tori Spelling’s newest train wreck reality series True Tori. ENOUGH WITH THE TORI PUNS, SPELLING. WE GET IT! Anyway, I don’t want to be watching it but frankly I can’t look away. It is so awful and every time I am watching it and Garrett is in the other room he will periodically come out and just shake his head and say “Why are they doing this show?” The awkwardness level is off the charts. And yet.

Related to all of the above: Swistle’s post about Celebrity Women and Whether Theyโ€™d Steal Other Womenโ€™s Guys made me chuckle today. I think I’m on board with all of her delineation except for Kate Hudson. What say you?

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Twelve Weeks // 235

photo

We are 4 weeks in to some new squat programming at my gym and frankly it is killing my will to walk.

It’s called the Hatch Squat Program and it’s a 12 week cycle that basically includes 2 days a week of A WHOLE LOT OF HEAVY SQUATTING with bonus spreadsheets! I’m serious about the spreadsheet, you can find it here if you endeavor to do this on your own, you crazy squatting beast!

A month in, I think it just might be working mostly because my legs feel mostly immobile about 4 days per week. I have to pep talk myself at least once a day to take the stairs at work. It must be because my legs are getting stronger, right? TELL ME THEY ARE GETTING STRONGER. It’s the kind of workout programming that makes you ask yourself the following day “Do I really need to go to bathroom right this second, or can it wait?” because sitting down is requires reinforcement.

One of the other things kind of blowing my mind is that one of our coaches was somewhat pregnant when we started this cycle, but when we are done with Hatch she very well might no longer be pregnant and will have a real, live baby. A new squat PR? A human baby that you’ve grown with YOUR OWN BODY? So much can be accomplished in just 12 weeks.

Measuring progress is one of my favorite things and for some reason I always find it more enjoyable to work toward something new that has a finite end up ahead. I think that is why I enjoy AMRAP workouts in CrossFit so much more than Rounds For Time workouts. Sure things are going to be hard and get ugly, but when I know it’s only going to be ugly for 10 minutes, or 12 weeks, or just until “Race Day” I somehow tap into this fount of available energy that otherwise seems unreachable. I should probably chew on that a little bit more before figuring out what I want to accomplish next. Bite size pieces, for the win.

Anyway, when we started Hatch my Squat 1 Rep Max was 235. I’ll let you know where it is in 8 weeks. Any of you ever survived a 12 week Hatch cycle? Talk to me…and my jello legs. ๐Ÿ™‚

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The Week In Workouts

The Week In Workouts

Another Monday here and another week to get in some good workouts. I need a clean slate after last week’s ups and downs with respect to gym time. To obtain better results you cn combine the workout with natural testosterone boosters.

Here’s how it shook out:

Monday

LIFT

Snatch: Spend 15 minutes working up to a heavy 1 rm – I worked up to 110 lbs and it’s like I have a mental breakdown afterward. It’s all in my head that I can’t catch 115 and beyond, so I’m going to work on that, dang it!

Then: 3 x 3 of Overhead Squats @ 50% of that weight with a 3 second pause at the bottom

METCON

For Timeโ€ฆ
15 Snatch* (Rx’d was 95lbs. I scaled to 75lbs)
30 push-ups
400m run
10 Snatch
20 push-ups
400m run
5 Snatch
10 push-ups

Despite the fact that I don’t love running, I really loved this workout! It was challenging in all the best ways.

Tuesday

LIFT

Clean & Jerk
Take 15 min and build to a heavy 1RM, then
3ร—3 Front Squat @ 50% of C&J w/3 second pause at the bottom of each rep

I ended up with a 1 RM of 155lbs on my clean and jerk, which I think is a new PR. It felt dang heavy, so I’ll take it. I’m also having a love affair with front squats lately. Maybe this sounds weird, but they are seriously THE BEST ab exercise. Heavier front squats always make me feel like I did a billion situps the next day.

3 Rounds For Time:

20 T2B (scaled)
30 KB Swings (53 lbs)
40 Double Unders

I broke in my new jump rope on this workout (I know, it’s obnoxious) and enjoyed myself.

Wednesday

Rest!

Thursday

Still Resting! Actually, I had planned to go to the gym this evening but Garrett ended up getting some good news at work and I was feeling celebratory, so we stayed home and cooked steaks and drank cider on the patio.

Friday

Ok, now I was just being lazy. This is what happens to me when I take a couple days off in a row. Someone asked me last week how many days I’d like to be crossfitting, and the answer to that varies. But mostly I can say this: I like to be active 6 days a week with 1 day of just complete rest. In my ideal world I’d CrossFit 4-5 days per week, do yoga 1-2 days per week (a mix of bikram, vinyasa or yin — depending on what is calling to me), and then do something active and outside 1 day on the weekend like take my dog for a longer walk or run or something. So that is my overall goal. It keeps me feeling alive, happy, energized and engaged. When I skip a few too many workouts I start to feel lethargic and then sort of fall headfirst into a bag of sweet potato chips on the couch — which is sort of what happened this weekend.

OBVIOUSLY I did not make that workout goal this week. ๐Ÿ™‚

Saturday

Over the weekend I did this workout with a 53lb kettlebell because that is the only size we have at homoe (OOF!) and it was super quick and fun. Neghar’s You Tube Channel is awesome.

Garrett actually went to open gym (I couldn’t drag myself because I was SO DANG TIRED from the week, and he re-did Workout 14.4. Crazy person! He got 16 more reps though so he was pretty proud of himself. )

Sunday

On Sunday the beasty got a nice long walk, and then I ate a lot of sweet potato chips on the couch. We were both pretty thrilled.

Buster is acting like a nutter butter this morning and is OBSESSED with his toy. Not good for getting ready for work, but I'm SO GLAD he's not feeling sick anymore!
*****

And that’s how this week shaped up! Any PRs or awesome workouts for you?

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The Week In Workouts

The Week In Workouts

Happy Monday! It’s Monday all darn day, isn’t it? HUMPH. I started my Monday off with an early morning workout, so I’m feeling like this week will be manageable, but before we get into that, let’s talk about last week’s workouts.

Monday

LIFT
Deadlift:
Spend 15 minutes working up to a heavy 5 rm

I worked up to about 205 and then called it a day. I find that I don’t lift as heavy in the mornings as I do in the afternoons, but generally perform better with metcons. Weird. Anyway.

METCON

21-15-9*
Power Clean
Strict Pull-Up

*Complete 35 double-unders before each round

The Rx’d weight was 105, but I scaled and did 95lbs. And thank god, because that ended up being HARD. My grips strength sucks, so after dead lifts and then doing pullups (which I scaled too!) my grip strenth struggled with 95lb cleans. This was one was harder than I thought it would be.

Tuesday

I had an early am teleconference so I couldn’t get in at 5am. And then honestly after a long day when it was still 80 degrees at 5pm, I just didn’t feel like doing the workout. ๐Ÿ™‚ The weather is ready for tank tops but my arms are NOT. I’m going to have to wrap my brain around tank tops no matter what here shortly because it’s getting too warm to workout in sleeves.

Wednesday

Lift
Hang Clean 3-3-3
Power Clean 3-3-3
Squat Clean 3-3-3

I started these sets around 75lbs and worked my way up to 135lbs.

Metcon
7 min AMRAP
Row for Cal
Box Jumps (24/20)

(3, 3, 6, 6, 9, 9, 12, 12โ€ฆ)

Buy Out:
10 wall walks

NY Res to get better at body weight exercises like wall walks. Also to NOT play dead on the gym floor  #htcone #trooponex

OOF!

Thursday

Thursday was pretty much the same story as Tuesday. I had a pretty intense week at work this week, and on week’s like that if I’m not hitting 5 or 6am, I’m not working out. By the time I get to the end of the day I’m just mentally worked!

Friday

LIFT

Floor Press:
Work toward a 3RM
Once found, 3 x 3 @ 60-65% of your 3RM weight

I had never done floor presses before. Super different! I think I worked up to 115lbs.

METCON
โ€œThe Chiefโ€
Max rounds in 3 minutes:
3 power clean (95lbs)
6 push ups
9 squats
rest 1 minute (Our coach says “The “Rest” portion just means breathe really hard for 60 seconds” And that about summed it up.)

Repeat 4 more times for 5 total cycles.

This was AWESOME/AWFUL! I loved this workout and it sucked supremely all at the same time. You know how that is, right? Like it was awful but I can’t wait to do it again. I dunno. I’m crazy. Whenever I see air squats in a workout I feel like “Oh, this should be nice” but then when the workout is done and you realize you just did EIGHTEEN ROUNDS of those air squats, all of a sudden it’s like “Oh shit, that’s gonna hurt tomorrow.”

And it did. ๐Ÿ™‚

Open gym. Woot! ( that's a fake it til you make it woot. I'm tired.)

Saturday

Saturday I did a bazillion errands, took Buster to get his weekly B12 shot and then took him for a long walk. That was about it on the workout frong.

Sunday

I did bicep curls with my mimosa glass. ๐Ÿ™‚ hehe

We had Easter brunch with my whole family and I spent the day catching up with people instead of working out. It was nice.

*****

What about you? Any PRs, or crazy fun workouts? Do tell….

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The Week In Workouts

The Week In Workouts

I had a pretty good run of posting workouts for a while and loved how they made me accountable! I think people are often looking for the next great workout craze to get them into tip top shape. While I love trying new things, I’ve also found that when I personally am at my fittest it isn’t necessarily WHAT I’m doing but HOW I’m doing it: With Some Consistency. I’ve spent the last 5 weeks laying a really good foundation of consistent workouts. I’m hoping that starting to share them again will help me keep it up!

Also I love to hear what you guys are doing. Had a completely awesome workout that was enjoyable or where you really kicked ass? Tell me about it. It gives me good ideas for open gym days, home workouts, or just when I’m trying to spice up my fitness life! Share the wealth. ๐Ÿ™‚

*****

Monday

Garrett and I have been regularly doing 5 am workouts on Monday/Tuesday/Thursdays and we are loving it. (Well, uh, not the part where the alarm goes off at 4am, but the part where our evenings are completely free and we don’t have to drag our butts to the gym after long days at work.) But this Monday was the day we had to take Buster into the emergency vet so we actually didn’t workout at all.

(Update on Buster: He’s medicated and seems to be doing better symptoms-wise, although we are still waiting for some test results to get to the root of his digestive problems.)

Tuesday

We played a little catch up on Tuesday morning at 5am and did the lifting from Monday’s workout.

Front Squat:

10 @ 50% of 1 rm (I didn’t have my last 1RM written down [Bad CrossFitter!] so I just used 140lbs)
8 @ 60%
6 @ 70%
max reps @ 80%

The Metcon seemed fairly simple but WOW did it pack a punch!

Tabata
(8 rounds of 20 sec on/10 seconds off for each movement. Finish all 8 before moving to the next movement)
Row
Jumping Pull-Up
Double-Under
Push Up

My shoulders were super smoked after this one!

Wednesday

Wednesday is usually an evening workout, but Buster was back at the vet so I skipped it. (I wrote about Wednesday, it was not a great day frankly.) But the workout was something I was DYING to do, so I made a promise to myself that I’d do it during open gym on Saturday.

Thursday

Another 5am-er.

STRENGTH:

4 Rounds
50m Sled Pull forward
50m Sled Pull backward

The limiting factor here was definitely those sled pulls backward. I was only about to do about 215lbs and man did it make my quads BURN!

METCON:

800m Run
50 Ball Slams (30lbs)
800m Run
50 Toes to Bar (Scaled these)

The running was just awful, but the rest of this workout was fine. I actually really enjoyed how challenging the sled pulls were. It’s been a while since I’ve done them.

Friday

STRENGTH:

4 Power Clean + 4 Jerk @ 50% of jerk 1 rm (Started using 155lbs as my 1RM)
3 PC + 3 Jerk @ 60
3 PC + 2 Jerk @ 70
2 PC + 1 Jerk @ 80
2 PC + 1 Jerk @ 85

So this was funny because as I got to the last few rounds the jerks were just SO DAMN HEAVY and I couldn’t figure out why — until I realized I was using my Clean 1RM weight and not my Jerk 1RM weight. My Jerk 1RM is only 135 and I had been doing the math off of 155lbs so AY YAY YAY, let’s just say my shoulders got some extra work in!

METCON:

“Jackieโ€
1000 m row
50 thrusters (45 barbell)
30 pull ups

OOF. You can imagine how this went after totally burning out my shoulders on the lift. This workout was HA-ARD!

Saturday

I was up bright and early kind of giddy to do that workout that I missed on Wednesday. It involves a number of my favorite things and despite being a running workout, I just thought it would be really fun!

4 Rounds for Time:

400 m run
10 power snatch (65 lbs)
15 overhead squat

HAHAHAHAHAHA. FUN???? Oh man, this was so much harder than I anticipated.

Snatches and Overhead Squats are my favorite but I think because my shoulders definitely got a working this week, I was not at my strongest by Saturday and wow did I feel it during this particular metcon. I mean, I actually looked forward to the running each round, and that NEVER happens! It took a little over 20 minutes and my arms were just quivering when I was done. I went home and immediately took a hot bath and a nap. Worth it!

Sunday

Sunday I talked Garrett into taking a Vinyasa Flow class with me at my yoga studio and you guys: HE LIKED IT!!!

I feel prepared to take on hostage negotiation now. ๐Ÿ™‚

*****

So that was my week in workouts. Did you do any workouts that rocked your world this week? Hit any PRs? Do tell.

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The Most Wonderful Time Of Year?

Guess what time it is?
CrossFit Games Open

 

It’s CrossFit Games Open time.

*****

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, consider yourself lucky. ๐Ÿ™‚

But since I’ll probably mention it a time or two over the next 5 weeks, here are the cliffs notes from good old Wikipedia:

In 2011, the Games adopted an online format for the sectional event, facilitating participation by athletes worldwide. During the “CrossFit Open”, a new workout is released each week. Athletes have several days to complete the workout and submit their scores online, with either a video or validation by a CrossFit affiliate. The top CrossFit Open performers in each region advance to the regional events, held over the following two months. As of 2013 there are 17 regional divisions, including 12 in North America (North West, Canada West, Canada East, North Central, Central East, North East, Mid Atlantic, South East, South Central, South West, Southern California, and Northern California), and five in the rest of the world (Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australia). The top athletes (up to 3 of each gender) from each region are eligible to compete in the CrossFit Games.

They began last Thursday with the release of the first workout (Aptly called 14.1 — as in Workout #1 of the 2014 CrossFit Games Open):
14.1

To be honest, I almost didn’t sign up to participate this year. I am not feeling in the best shape, I am only starting to get my workouts back on track after a year of inconsistent training, I am carrying some significant extra lbs, and I just thought the stress of doing a weekly workout that was “officially judged,” that would most certainly be hard for me, that I would then have to make public each week — ARGH — it was just something I wasn’t really feel like I was needing in my life at the moment.

But the more I thought about it, the more I remembered what a fun time it is at the gym just participating. And usually when people are new and they are scared to sign up I always say “Don’t stress! It’s a great bench mark and the scores don’t matter! It’s just for fun and so you can see your own progress.”

So, AHEM, I figured I needed to put my money where my mouth is and just sign up. IT’S FOR FUN, and dammit I’m going to have some doing it! (Also, if we’re being honest, I didn’t want to have a blank year in my Games Profile because then my data would be messed up and YES I AM A CRAZY PERSON THANK YOU FOR ASKING.)

Garrett + I spent a lot of time nervously speculating on what the workout would include and my only hope was that it would include snatches. And it did! Hooray. Too bad it also included double unders. Double unders and I get along most of the time, but when I am off, I am ROYALLY OFF.

14.1 Re-do this morning at 5. Showed the rope what I really thought of it. #crossfit

Saturday we headed down to the gym to do this beast, and let me tell you it was a rough 10 minutes. I had shortened my rope the night before and about 2 minutes into the workout I realized that had been an ENORMOUS mistake. Not that I thought I would end up doing a million rounds of this, but it was just clear early on I was not on my game. Double unders are also SUPER mental and once you let a few misses get in your head, it’s the pits. It was hard to eek out 100 reps. Luckily Garrett and I both felt sort of disappointed in our performances so we hatched a plan to retest before work today, which meant going to the 5am class.

5 am and Double Unders are just a special way to start a Monday. ๐Ÿ˜‰

Anyway — in the end it was great — I added some additional reps to my score (171 in the end), and I just felt like it was more representative of my skill level right now. I am still feeling super out of shape (FOR ME) right now, AND HOOOOOOO BOY will double unders remind you that you are out of shape (gasping for air – hey, let’s go do some snatches), but at least I feel like this is more representative of where I’m at. Saturday was just a mess. So Workout #1 is in the books and now it is on to the next! The workouts get progressively harder as the weeks go on and I usually tap out around workout # 3 because it always seems to have MY NEMESIS Toes to Bar in it, so I am excited to see what’s coming next.

Until Thursday, we’ll just be over here tapping our toes, waiting.
Glass Slippers...or something.
 

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Embracing The Suck

8 mile run with @homesweetsarah -- there was, ahem, a lot of embracing.

Tough work out at the gym last night.

For my ego.

The first 15 minutes? Pull up practice.

There was a time in the recent past where I was actually close to figuring out how to do an actual, legit, unassisted pullup. Last night I had to use the heaviest band and it was a complete struggle to do them strict. When dealing with sore muscles pain, Synchronicity hemp oil is the ideal product to help with pain and inflammation.

The metcon? One I used to love:

15 Minute AMRAP (As Many Rounds As Possible)
10 Box Jump Overs (20 inch box)
15 Kettlebell Swings (53 lb KB)
25 Double Unders

For the record, these are some of my favorite exercises that don’t involve lifting.

Ok then.

I started the box jump overs on my 20 inch box and on the fourth rep I almost bit it. Like shin-goudging screw up. Luckily I was able to move in a way that saved me from that uglyness, but it was a really close call. The fifth rep I missed again. The 6th rep I barely got up there. I looked up at the clock and less than a minute had passed. I knew this was only going to get harder, so I made the call to scale it and do step ups for the box jump overs.

photo

Onto the Kettlebell swings. I LOVE A HEAVY KETTLEBELL!!! 53 is a good weight for me, but with the lower back stuff I’ve had going on in the last two weeks I wanted to play things conservative. I had grabbed a 45lb Kettlebell and figured I would bang out all the swings for recovery in this workout. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA WRONG. I did the first 10 and they were sort of exhausting. Then I finished the last 5 and moved over to my jump rope.

For some reason double unders are my thing. It took me a while to get them, but once I finally did I’ve just really never lost the rhythm. I think they are super fun and man, what a great exercise! Great cardio with all of the jumping, a great leg workout (and if you don’t believe that, just try jumping rope after 150 wall balls, OY! Clearly I’m having CrossFit Games Open PTSD. :)) And they are also an awesome shoulder burner. You don’t realize what a great shoulder workout jumping rope is until you do double unders, I don’t think. So these are my jam! I was ready to go! And then I could hardly string 5 together. The other fun thing about double unders worth mentioning of course, is that when you miss — you actually whip yourself. If you prefer your cardio workout outdoors with a partner, check out the brilliant ecosmo folding tandem bicycle available here. And if you want to improve your cycling skills and be a pro someday, then you may consider enrolling in cycling coaching programs.

So there I was, minutes in, totally failing and continuing to just whip myself over and over. And honest to god I have never seen 15 minutes move slower. The workout just went on forever and ever, and it felt like I was moving from one Station of Suck to the next. Each one was this painful reminder of what I *used to* be able to do. And it suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked.

The upside? I still got a good workout (OBVIOUSLY.) And I made it home with shins and lower back in tact (albeit with a few jump rope whip marks on my arms and legs.) But I spent most of the night trying to shake this ghost of Fitness Levels Past. I’m still not sure how to shake it. And it’s nagging at me like toddler. So I need your advice. Probably everyone who reads this has been through something like this. Whether you have gotten injured or had a baby. Whether you’ve put on a few pounds, or taken a break from your physical activity. I know that collectively, there is a lot of motivation out there about getting back on the horse. How do you do it? What works? How do you keep your ego at bay? WHAAAAAAT IS YOUR SEEEEEEEEECRET?

Will you share? For me, and for anyone else who may need some advice on this topic today? Because I am needing a good pep talk, friends.

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The Lost Year

It's been almost a year since my last 5am workout. Hoping to make a habit if it because being done at 6am FEELS GREAT!

I planned to workout at 5am this morning, and when my alarm went off — well, it hurt. But I got up, put on my workout clothes that I set out the night before, made myself a cup of coffee, squeezed in a couple snuggles with the pooch, brushed my teeth and headed out the door. The workout was HARD. I felt slow. I swear I can feel every single stress related pound that I have gained this year and it sucks. (Especially when doing wall balls and box jumps and HEY LOOK AT THAT, both have been programmed in my last two workouts. BOO.)

But when I was done, it felt AMAZING. And it is literally the best decision I’ve made today, and I am so so happy I dragged my ass out of bed. I know it’s cliche to say you never regret a workout, but man — I don’t think I ever have.

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Years ago, when I started blogging about my fitness journey and when I seriously committed to CrossFit — I used to workout in the morning regularly. It is my preference, and it just sort of became a non-negotiable. Getting up and getting it done was just what I did — and I experienced some great results. I can’t remember exactly when I stopped doing that, but I can tell you why. I mean to be honest there are a million reasons — some are flimsy excuses (But it’s so much more fun to workout with Garrett! And he is definitely a night exerciser) but some reasons are legit (when I was CRAZY STRESSED at the beginning of the year with my job, the nicest thing I did for myself was give myself permission to just focus on SLEEEEEP!) But the fact is, the last 6 months have been a roller coaster of commitment when it comes to my fitness. And as you can imagine, that has yielded its own set of results. grumblegrumblegrumble

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I’ve been thinking A LOT about how to right this fitness ship lately. Mentally and Physically.

For the record, I think it is worth mentioning that I am not spending any time beating myself up over it. Life is long, and seasons change, and this has been a big year for me professionally and something had to give. This year it was fitness. I am a firm believer in the idea that we can have it all but we can’t have it all AT ONCE, and honestly, if I could go back and change the way this year has played out, I wouldn’t, so I’m not really coming from the perspective of “Where did I go wrong?” This has been a learning year and I am so 100% happy with the investments that I’ve made in my job and in my life, and the struggles I’ve had this year have honestly taught me so much. And one of those things I see so clearly now is I am SO MUCH HAPPIER in my life when I ensure that fitness plays a major role in my life. So I am coming from a place of prioritizing happines.

self care

I’ve realized this year that my fitness routine goes beyond getting to the gym because I should. It goes beyond wanting to “look good naked.” It even goes beyond what the scale says or how my pants fit or how much weight I’ve lost or gained and how much I have left to lose. For me, the act of having fitness goals, pursuing them, trying hard, doing it with a community, giving and getting support, seeing my friends succeed, experimenting with results, tracking my progress, celebrating that progress — all of those things are things that I truly ENJOY! Things I NEED, even. That hour every day is this little gift that I give myself above and beyond all the stuff that I am REQUIRED to do in life. Sure sometimes it feels hard, or there are things I’d rather be doing — but more often than not it’s my sanity saver. My happy place.

Also I realized last Friday — after a workout that felt especially BRUTAL, mostly because my last two weeks of gym attendance had been spotty — that it is SO. SO. MUCH. EASIER. to just show and up and do this regularly even when it is hard, than it is to find the time and energy to make a “come back.” When I am committed to what I am doing in the gym, it helps me focus better on my commitments OUTSIDE the gym. And without that over the last year I have truly felt a little bit lost. I was missing this essential piece of self-care.

I’ve been rolling it over in my mind comparing what I *was* doing when my workouts were just going off without a hitch and what I’ve been doing. And there were two main observations that kept popping up.

1. I used to be COMMITTED to working out mostly in the mornings.

AND

2. I shared a lot more about my workouts.

crossfit-ecard

The morning workouts are an easy fix. I’m going to set my alarm early a couple days a week and just GET IT DONE. The second one, well – I haven’t quite found that solution yet. Somewhere over the last year I started feeling a little self conscious about talking about workouts. I mean, I’m the first one to roll my eyes about That Guy’s Instagram and Facebook feed with 500 hashtags talking about his squat PR. Enough already! But there is also something so motivating about sharing and connecting with like minded folks who are trying to take care of themselves in that same way that you are. There is a fine line in overshaing and while I’m not sure I always stay on the right side of it, I have to say: blogging, tweeting, instagramming, facebooking about fitness goals and successes have kept me super motivated in the past. It may seem like a cheesy little thing, but I am going to commit to doing a little bit more of that in the coming days too.

I’m determined to get my groove back, friends. And I hope you don’t mind if I talk a little incessantly about it for a minute. ๐Ÿ™‚

I don’t know that it will be easy, but I definitely learned this past year that the alternative sure isn’t a cake walk either.

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