saturday WODs, rest days

saturday morning
muscle up progressions

the WOD was
15 minute AMRAP

• 5 push press (53#, rx=75#)
• 10 walking OH lunge (25#)
• 15 box jumps (20")

7 rounds + 5 push press

this was a successful WOD for me - i jumped for all the box jumps, and though it was definitely challenging and a bit time-consuming, i learned that it's not really that much harder than stepping. so i might as well stop being afraid of them and just jump. even if it's slow. i missed the box once but caught myself before going down. that's what i'm scared of, so it's always good when it happens and there are no terrible consequences.

then doug, mats and i did a little mini WOD after:
21-15-9

• kb snatches (25#)
• pullups (red band)

took me about 5:45 i think? pullups slowed me down, and my grip was definitely hurting from the combo of the snatches/pullups. ouch.

sunday was a rest day, and today is, too, as i'm still pretty sore from last week. in retrospect, jamming 7 WODs & some heavy lifting into 4 days might not have been the smartest idea. this week i'll try to spread them out a bit more.

tomorrow i plan on making up tonight's endurance WOD around 5pm - come join me if you'd like!

in which i act like a child. again.

double unders for the second time this week. that's what started it. why am i still terrified of double unders, anyway? i'm actually pretty good at them. but i saw them on the WOD last night, and the whining began. "but we already DID double unders this week! i don't WANNA do double unders tomorrow!! FIVE rounds?! UGH" these statements were punctuated by much flouncing and frowning and petulant arm-crossing.

but i got up, i got dressed, i got to the gym. then i discovered our warmup was burpees. 30 burpees for 2 misplaced 15# plates from yesterday. no one saw who did it, no one knew what class time it was, so every class has to pay the penalty (1 burpee for every pound of misplaced weight on the stacks of plates). UGH.

but i did my burpees, i got through them, i didn't even whine (which was actually quite an achievement for me this morning). then we did the skill/strength work: supermans to hollow rocks, 50 strict reps. they were pretty terrible. i whined a little bit after 6, "i can't do 50 of these! hmph." but i did, and it was fine.

then we started the WOD:
5 rounds

• 20 DUs
• 25 abmat situps
• 30 kb swings (35#)

and i had a full blown temper tantrum at the end of the 2nd round. i don't know what it was about those kb swings, but i did them in 2 sets of 15 and i thought, "i can't do anymore of this." and then i said, out loud, to doug (who was coaching), "i'm not doing this anymore. i just can't do it." in that moment, with the clock running, surrounded by people who were just digging in and getting it done, my petulant inner child came roaring out of me, crossed her arms defiantly, set her feet and refused to budge.

but eventually i picked up my jumprope and tried again. and i finished. and i lost about 2 minutes to my mid-WOD temper tantrum, and i posted the slowest time in both AM classes (and probably all day...). 20:35 rx.

here's the score: i lost it. i had a fit, i acted poorly, i said, "i quit." i lost all faith in myself. and then i kept going, anyway.

i guess it balances out.

someday i'd like to learn how to live less melodramatically, not constantly caught in the swirl of a thousand different emotions, without my brain judging every little thing i do. it's really quite exhausting.

oh and last night i did the endurance WOD:
row (or run, but i rowed)
1min on, 1 min off
1 min on, 50 sec off
1 min on, 40 sec off
1 min on, 30 sec off
1 min on 20 sec off
1 min on, 10 sec off
then back up the ladder finishing with 1 min on, 50 sec off, 1 min on

it was hard. i wasn't quite able to keep my 500m split down under 2:00 for all rounds (the middle rounds in particular were more like 2:09... ugh). and my total meters were around 245-250 for the bookending rounds, but more like 230 for the middle ones. but i think my form is getting better without me having to think about it all the time, so i'm happy about that.

strikes and gutters, man. strikes and gutters.

also: chicken pot pie, oh yes i did

let's discuss my holly homemaker week, shall we?
monday night: roasted a 4.5lb organic free range chicken @ 450°. set off the fire alarm 3x. had to leave the window open for 2 hours to air the place out. my apt still smell faintly of smoke. oops. the chicken turns out to be AMAZING (although due to the copious fire-alarm-fanning it was not quite as easy as advertised). i also made roasted butternut squash with cumin, and roasted broccoli that night.

tuesday night: lazy bones deluxe. cooked nothing, watched the first part of this emotional life. enjoyed it immensely.

crappy phone pic, brilliant pot pie

wednesday night: tossed the chicken carcass from monday night into a soup pot with some water, simmered for a few hours. my very first ever homemade chicken stock. and it was so easy. then i used the chicken stock and about 1/2 of the chicken meat to make paleo chicken pot pie (also instead of butter i used lard for the biscuit topping and it worked great). i put the rest of the chicken stock in 2 cup measurements into ziplock baggies in the freezer so they're ready the next time i need some.

now i have delicious leftover chicken pot pie to look forward to for the rest of the week, homemade stock in the freezer, and a 175# 1RM back squat.

yeah, i'm pretty awesome.

back squats <3

oh back squats, how i love you. you make me feel so strong. it's one of the two lifts i can legitimately put weight on the bar for (the other being deadlifts), and i just LOVE the way those 25/35# plates look all snuggled up against each other. yay, back squat day.

last night i joined some other awesome CFD women for monday's endurance WOD. it was brutal:
10 rounds
1 minute max effort row
3 minute active recovery (light rowing)

40 total minutes of rowing, blegh. i was able to consistently hit 247-249m for each minute of max effort (my first minute was 265, my second was 238, but every other round was either 249, 248, or 247). i'm really happy i was able to be consistent on these.

then this morning we found our 1RM back squat, and i PR'd by 15#!!! that is huge. from 160# (set a few weeks ago during CFTotal) to 175#. as ashley said, it was a 'true 1RM' as i struggled mightily getting up out of the hole and almost didn't make it. so i know i hit my limit - all thanks to lori, who persuaded me to keep going after 170# (where i was going to stop). thank you, lori!

now i'm a little bit concerned that i can back squat as much as i can deadlift. i think i should be able to deadlift more. but i also think this is unlikely to happen until deadlifts are programmed (which i think/hope they will be in the next strength cycle), and that's ok. can't work every lift at the same time.

the WOD was a power snatch version of elizabeth:
21-15-9

• power snatch (45#, rx=65#)
• ring dip (red band)

9:02

ring dips are such a limiting factor - once your muscles stop being able to do them, it's not like you can force yourself to keep going (i can't, anyway). the snatches went alright, i feel like i paced myself as well as i could have with the weight i used. i think it's the heaviest weight i've used for any type of snatch in a WOD before - i usually use 35#, maybe i've used 40# once. so i'm glad i pushed myself on that one.

this was a fun one!

debauchery at 30, or: i'm too old for this shit

the weekend was full of debauchery and i've spent the past 3 days paying for it. seriously: 3 days. i guess this is what happens when you get old - recovery from any sort of excess takes three times as long. i know this, however history shows that i have a remarkable inability to actually learn from my mistakes, so don't be surprised if this is repeated.

i did go in on saturday morning, and it was a fun WOD (250m row, 25 115# deadlift, 250m row, 25 wall ball, 250m row, 25 KTE, 250m row) although i posted a very slow time. i also participated in the new mobility WOD at 11am on saturday. it was exquisitely torturous and i felt loose and limber afterwards. then saturday night happened, and given my performance today, i think i'm not exactly recovered from it even now. ouch.

press 3 reps @ 65/70/80/85/95% 1RM
i didn't quite follow the percentage scheme and only got up to 63# for my heaviest set (which is 90%, 66# would have been 95%). i hate the press, but i'm glad we've been working on it lately. i would really like to get my 1RM back up to 75# at the very least.

3 rounds

• 10 deadlifts (60% 1RM = 105#)
• 50 double unders

10:35 rx

most people finished this in 7ish minutes. i was the slowest person in the class today. not so awesome. i took some long breaks in between DU reps, which might have not been a great idea but might not have been terrible - i notice that when i take longer breaks to get my legs back, i can string together 10-15 at a time, whereas if i just try to force my way through it, i am struggling to hit 1 rep at a time. basically, same old story: i gotta get better at DUs when i'm tired.

in spite of this lackluster performance, i am thinking about going in tonight to make up the endurance WOD from monday. i don't really want to as it looks brutal (40 total minutes of rowing, 30 minutes "recovery" pace & 10 minutes all out), but i think i've given into the "i don't want to"s enough this week. all i can think of is that mrs. piggle-wiggle story, the radish cure (i looked for the picture to embed here because it's so great but i couldn't find it). actually lots of the stories are about people not wanting to do something, but that was always my favorite. what i'm saying is: i don't want to get caked with dirt and have radishes planted on me. and if you don't know what i'm talking about, i'm so sorry that your childhood lacked mrs piggle-wiggle, but at least your adult life doesn't have to - get thee to the library!

my morning looked a little something like this:

i'll try again at 5pm, in the hopes that there are rowers available and time to use them.

tabata rowing, in which i curse dr. tabata's name

woke up this AM with some serious sciatic twinges happening on my left side, so instead of going to a morning class i decided to take it easy. then i spent the day feeling super lazy for not doing the WOD, so i did the 5pm regular class then the 6pm endurance WOD, which i'm pretty sure means i totally failed at taking it easy. but my back doesn't hurt any more (or less) than it did before so i suppose it wasn't a bad thing.

the regular class started with tabata double unders and situps. my DUs felt good and i was able to string together consecutive reps for the whole 20 seconds in the first few rounds. the situps were exquisitely painful after yesterday's 125 reps, and i may have yelped a few times. then we did 50 strict KTE. the good news is that i am about 4" away from touching my knees to my elbows without any kip! when i first started crossfit, i was able to get my knees up to my waist. then a few months later i could get them kinda chest height. now, i can ALMOST get them to my knees - and if i kip, i can totally touch my knees! the bad news is that i no longer have any excuse to settle for less in WODs.

the WOD today was a 15 minute AMRAP of

• 5 power cleans (70#, rx=95#)
• 10 pistols
• 15 double unders

7 rounds

rich kept tell me to bring the bar closer to my body with the cleans. i was having a *really* hard time doing this - and after thinking about it, i think i know why. i'm scared of how tender/painful my thighs get when do cleans the "right" way. i haven't gotten a bruise on my thighs from cleans in a few weeks now, and it's clearly because now i'm doing them wrong - i leave the bar way out in front of my body and i'm not getting the explosive hip momentum anymore. not good. the pistols i used a red band on the pullup bar to assist. the DUs were great in the first 4 rounds then they fell apart and i had to do 1 rep at a time (or no reps sometimes. ugh). hate that.

for the endurance WOD, bea had us do tabata rowing. the first 4 minutes, we had the damper setting on 3 (i think), and aimed to produce the following watts for each interval:

1. bodyweight (150)
2. bodyweight + 10%
3. bodyweight + 20%
4. bodyweight + 30%
5. bodyweight + 40%
6. bodyweight + 50%
7. bodyweight + 60%
8. highest possible watts

then we did the same for a damper setting of 7, then 10, then 5, then 1. i wasn't really able to get my wattage up past about 200 (so bodyweight + 40%), so for all of the last rounds i just tried to get the highest watts possible. it wasn't very successful. on the last set (damper setting of 1), the resistance was so minimal i almost shot off the back of the rower, which would have been hilarious but probably also quite painful.

whoever dr. tabata is (was?), i hope he feels the hate emanating from me every time i have to do tabata intervals.

rowing form & back squats

i made up monday's endurance WOD last night at 6pm, and was lucky enough to have the company of gwen for the WOD and suggestions on form from big E before the WOD. big win for me! erin attended the rowing cert held at CFD last saturday (and read the c2 manual, which may have been where her form suggestions came from - i guess i should read me some of that) and was gracious enough to share her newly acquired knowledge with gwen & i. i worked on making my recovery 2x as long as the pull, and making the transition from the pull into the recovery a smooth movement instead of a jerky stop-at-the-end-of-the-pull-then-return movement. both were very helpful cues, and i think i was able to consistently generate more power than in previous sessions. as an added bonus, i wasn't ramming myself in the chest with the bar at the end of every pull - one less bruise, huzzah! i'm also still trying to correct my posture, to keep a tight core and strong shoulders throughout the pull and recovery -i have a tendency to bow my shoulders forward at the start of the pull and it's really inefficient.

6 rounds
row 2 minutes for max watts
rest 1 minute
my average watts for all 6 rounds was 150, and kept creeping down throughout the rounds. i was able to pull it back up to the 170's for the last row, tho. so that was an achievement.

this morning i attended the 6:15 class (yay! i missed the 6:15'ers!). stew had us do some stretching (i love stew's group warmups), then we did the strength segment.

back squats
warmup 3 reps @ 65/70/80/85% 1RM (105/115/125/135#)
max reps @ 95% (150#) - 3 reps

once again i was doing a weird shimmy on the way up from my heavy reps. i tried really hard each time to think about pushing through both my heels on the way up, but it didn't seem to help. and then i noticed a twinge in my sciatic nerve, and i can't tell if i was doing the shimmy to protect it, or if the shimmy caused it. i'll need to investigate.

5 rounds

• 20 GHD situps (subbed 25 abmat situps)
• 5 push jerk @ 75% 1RM (75# was hurting my triceps, so i went down to 65#)

7:39

this was a fun workout. i liked how it was pretty quick so i could keep going. i think i took a tiny break on the situps in the 4th round, but that was it - otherwise it was go go go. i subbed for the GHD situps b/c a) there's only 3 machines and there was 6-7 of us and b) i can only do a few full ROM GHD situps anyway. i should work on that, too.

the hard thing about being an adolescent crossfitter, aside from the mood swings, violent rages, tendency to question authority, and the terrible acne (ok i don't really have the last two but it makes the metaphor so much better to pretend i do), is that even though i can do more things than i used to be able to, i still can't do anything *well*. i have my license, i can parallel park, but it takes me 15 tries and i'm still a foot and a half away from the curb. i guess at least crossfit is more fun than parallel parking... right?

popeye forearms

heavy kb swings concern me. i worry about them because it's a motion that's *so* easy to slack on when you're doing lots of reps and you're tired - and if you do, you can really hurt your back. i *hate* hurting my back. i've thrown it out a few times (pre-crossfit days, admittedly) and been prostrate for weeks. not fun. so i worry about heavy kb swings (and don't even get me started on high rep deadlifts for time). but today went well, heavy kb swings and all, and i think part of that was the structure of the WOD (nice one, dave!) and part of it was the constant reminder while working to pop our hips (thanks, doug!). and a tiny part may have been that i am stronger so 44# doesn't feel quite as ridiculous as it used to, but i don't really want to admit that because then i have to go up to 52# and (whine) i don't wanna.

we started with the press, which is just the worst lift ever. ugly, boring, and really really hard. but not fun hard, just hard hard. i do not like it.
warmup
5 reps @ 55/65/70/80% 1 RM (i used 38/43/53/58# b/c of the bar & weight increments)
max reps @ 85% (60.5#) - 3 reps

my first set at 58#, i did 3 reps, then another 2 after racking the bar. couldn't do 5 in a row. then lori shared a suggestion from ashley with me - tighten your butt muscles and lock out your knees, in addition to keeping the core strong. i always take a big breath and tighten up my core before pressing, but i hadn't been thinking about anything below my torso. so i took a break, then picked up the 58# again, this time focusing on squeezing my butt really hard - and it worked! those 5 reps went up way easier than the previous sets of 3 & 2. so i added a few more baby plates (1.25#! they are so cute) and went for my max reps. only got in 3, but i'm pretty sure that's 2 more than i could have without lori's advice - thanks, lori!

then the WOD.
on the minute for 10 minutes

• 30 kb swings in a minute (44#, rx=52#)
• 1 minute rest

*for every round you don't complete all reps inside of a minute, row 1k.

i finished all my rounds unbroken with about 5 seconds to go. if i'd dropped the kb even once i think i wouldn't have gotten all 30 reps in. i also did all the swings russian style, so raising the kb to eye level instead of all the way overhead like we normally do. it felt to me like the decision was between lighter weight & full swing or heavier & russian swing. given how i finished each round in just under a minute, i think this was the right call.

gripping onto that heavy kb for 5 minutes and tossing it around definitely caused popeye forearm syndrome, where i felt like my forearms were bulging in cartoonish ways. and my hips/hammies were on fire, too. sitting down tomorrow is going to be fun.

tonight: endurance WOD make-up! i will improve my row times, dammit.

"sure, fran sounds like a great idea"

that was my response to doug when he suggested doing fran as our 2nd WOD on saturday morning. you know when fran sounds like a great idea? never. but it especially doesn't sound like a great idea 10 minutes after doing another WOD, and after doing 6 WODs in 4 days. not a great idea.

saturday morning started out with cleans, and i PR'd my 1RM by 5#, up to 110#. every other time i've gone for max weight on a lift, i have worked my way up to my previous 1RM, and lately i've been failing there a lot. so this time, i went from 100# right up to 110#, do not pass go, do not collect $100, and most importantly, do not attempt your previous 1RM of 105#. it worked like a charm. seriously magic mental trickery. had to bail on my single attempt at 115#, but it didn't feel too far off. yay.

then we did the WOD, which was kinda brutal but also kinda just what i needed after the shadow of thursday's AMRAP is still making me feel a bit unsteady on my crossfit feet. it certainly helped to watch the 9am class kill the workout, especially lori, who rocked as per usual, and amy, who stuck with it and finished out strong. nice work, ladies!

5 rounds

• 10 wall balls (12# rx)
• 10 KTE (almost rx!)
• 20 box jumps (20" box, 1st rd jumps, 2-5 steps)

11:01

i really wanted to come in under 11 minutes, but i just missed it. rough. the box jumps were ok in the first rounds, but then i started feeling wobbly and i wanted to keep moving instead of push myself to jump. so that's what i did. i hate wall balls but i learned that i don't hate them quite as much in manageable chunks of 10 reps at a time. KTE are getting better, although my core strength is still lacking a bit.

then we fran'd.

21-15-9

• thrusters (50#, rx=65#)
• pullups ((red band + skinny purple band)

7:38

i've only done fran once before, it was my first week of foundations back in june '10, and i used a 33# bar for the thrusters and i did jumping pullups - did it in 6:26. so while i was slower this time, i significantly increased the weight on all the movements. and i did it 10 minutes after another WOD. not too shabby.

today i've been resting for time, and i have to say, i've pretty much killed it. lots of video games, sports (oh pats, you broke my heart. again.), napping. good times.

tomorrow i'll be taking some time to reflect and remember dr. martin luther king jr. by reading "letter from a birmingham jail" and listening to "i have a dream". join me.

jerk, burpee pullups, rowing

as you may remember, i'm not very good at burpees. the lack of ability and the general suck of the exercise add up to: not a huge fan. and then sometimes we add other movements to burpees (box jumps, pullups, KTEs, etc) just to make them extra awesome (where awesome = terrible, a popular crossfit equation). but weirdly this morning! this morning i fell in love with burpee pullups. no, i did not fall and hit my head. instead, i discovered that i can do (jumping) pullups on the new squat stands! they are a tiny bit lower than the regular pullup bar so i felt like i was doing REAL burpee pullups for the first time ever! previously i had to jump (step) onto a low box, then do a jumping pullup, which takes a LOT longer than just doing a pullup on the burpee jump. burpee pullups are fun (see equation above & sub 'fun' for 'awesome')!

we started out with jerks (from the rack).
3 reps @ 65/70/75/80/85% 1RM (my 1RM is 100#, which i love b/c it makes the math so easy)
max reps @ 95% - i got 2.

split jerks went ok. i had a few wobbly catches, but then i focused on getting under the bar fast (actually what i told myself is 'make your feet loud when they hit the ground', which worked so whatever). i also focused on widening my stance in the split - i have a tendency to pull my feet in so they line up in the split, and last time dave suggested i work on leaving them at about shoulder width on the split, to provide a more solid base. and it does! also doug pointed out that i'm starting with the bar in more of a front squat position (so pulling my wrists back) and suggested that i aim for a more neutral wrist position to take some of the pressure off. this was helpful feedback that i practiced a few times with just the bar at the end, and plan on practicing more next time we do them.

then our WOD
burpee pullups!
3 minutes of work
90 seconds rest
2 minutes work
90 seconds rest
1 minute work
total reps = 56

it's fun to do jumping pullups from the floor - makes me feel like i'm almost doing pullups, which is so awesome i didn't even mind the burpees. amazing.

oh and last night i did another endurance WOD. terrible, as per usual.
2 rounds
row 8 minutes for max wattage
2 minutes rest

my avg wattage was 130. 8 minutes is a LONG time on the rower. that is all.

thursday failday: or, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable

i suppose it was just a matter of time before i just totally failed on a WOD, but damn, it made me feel *terrible*. although, i guess i failed on a few of those "power clean every minute on the minute for 10 minutes" type WODs. so it wasn't exactly my first DNF (did not finish), which somehow makes me feel slightly better.

here's how it went down:

we started the class with ~20 minutes of double under work. i realized far too late that i was wearing the wrong pants for double unders. how can you have the 'wrong' double under pants, you ask? well friends, this is an excellent question. these particular pants fall down while i do my double unders. i don't know how this happens - they are tight lululemon workout pants, which everyone says are awesome specifically because they don't ride up (i.e. they should STAY PUT). but after about 15 consecutive DUs, i can feel them 1/2 down my butt.

i am not a gangster (see? i even say "gangster", instead of gagsta'... this proves how un-gangster i am), i am not a young co-ed trying to show off my butterfly thong, i am just not the kind of person who wants to wear my pants anywhere but firmly around my waist. so i have to stop to hike them back up, even if i'm not winded or failing on the DUs. it's incredibly frustrating. alternately, i could just flash the gym (and all of geer st thanks to those large windows!), but this isn't really a viable alternative for me. i'm cool with other people getting 1/2 way nekkid while they work out, but it's not for me. and no one at our gym takes off their pants (thank the stars), so i think it would be pretty weird if i just kept DU'ing with my pants around my ankles. not to mention a safety hazard.

anyway. that's how the class started. from there we went into the WOD. which, of course, also included DUs.

20 minute AMRAP

• 10 power cleans (65#, rx=75#)
• 20 kb swing (35# rx)
• 30 DUs

it started so well (and *almost* rx!). my first round i completed the first two exercises unbroken, then i got to the DUs, when i had to stop to hike up my goddamn pants. but i still did them in 2-3 sets. then the 2nd round of PCs my stomach started to do some twisty, horrible things. i did the PCs ok, but the kb swings were done in sets of 5 with long breaks in between, where i knelt on the ground and tried not to throw up or worse (no i will not explain what i mean by 'or worse'. use your imagination). this wasn't your regular workout pain, my tummy was unhappy. but also my head just wasn't in it. i kept thinking about (of all things) the endurance WOD later tonight. i was dreading it. then my tummy was doing some crazy gymnastics-cramping-bullshit and i kept thinking about how lame i was and how weak and mentally untough and loser-ish i was and how much my stomach hurt and... well. i think you understand what i mean when i say my head wasn't in it.

8 minutes into the WOD i was only on my 3rd round, a round that i never finished. with 3 minutes left, i just threw down my jump rope and walked outside, where i sat with my head between my legs trying not to cry and/or throw up for 5 minutes. then i stomped back inside, angrily set my bar back up (because doug had nicely put it away while i was outside feeling sorry for myself), snottily asked for the clock to be reset to 5 minutes, then proceeded to get through 1 round before having another mini breakdown whereupon i threw my log book on the ground. i am so f'ing charming it's unbelievable.

seriously, folks, this is what happened. i am not proud of my behavior, i am ashamed, i am unhappy, i am sad with myself. but it happened, it was my day at the gym, so here i am telling you about it.

i will practice my mental toughness again tonight at the endurance WOD, i will keep plugging away, i will get better - and still, some days (most days) i will fail at something. i will fail at the WOD, or i will fail at a lift, or i will fail at my reaction to my failure. i'm trying to learn to be comfortable with this failure - not to accept it and stop trying, but just to let it be part of my training. i'm trying to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

it's really, really hard.

i love my ugly new shoes

there's recently been a shoe revolution at crossfit durham. everywhere you look people are sporting the inov8 flite 230s (which now come in different colors!). at first i was skeptical of this fad. they're just a pair of shoes AND they're kind of ugly, what's the big deal? obviously i am not a girl who has special weight-lifting shoes (although i am starting to think i should). but then, i'm just not a shoe person. i have 3 pairs of work (business casual) shoes: 1 pair black heels, 1 pair brown heels, 1 pair black flats. this easily covers pretty much any outfit i could wear to work. i suppose it's helpful that my wardrobe is also pretty barren as i hate shopping with the fire of a thousand suns. for the gym, i've been wearing the same pair of saucony running shoes for the past year and a half - and i should add that i trained for and completed the avon walk in these shoes. they are really really worthless at this point.

but i got an amazon gift card for my birthday (thanks, dad) and it just about covered a pair of inov8s, so i went for it. i got a pair of the 220s because they're apparently a bit wider and my sasquatch feet need the room. my shoes looks like this:

yes the laces are spotted. also, the tread is clear rubber. they are described as an 'urban racing shoe,' and i can only guess that design choices provide some sort of urban camouflage because they clearly aren't happening to make the shoe look good.

but no matter how ugly they are, i f'ing love these shoes. yesterday, for example, we did a minute of a few exercises, ending with air squats. my muscles were hurting and i was kinda winded at this point, but my first squat felt so damn easy i knew i could rep them out like a champ (and i did!). far superior to regular running shoes (which are so heavily cushioned at the heel that you have to fight not to lean forward on your toes), not quite as ugly as the other ubiquitous crossfit shoe (vibram five fingers, i'm looking at you), and good for both WOD'ing and lifting. i used to take my shoes off for the lifts (again with the cushioned heel problem) and put them back on for the WOD, which isn't really all that much trouble but it's nice to just have one pair of shoes that gets the job done. i haven't run in them yet but i'm sure the lack of cushioning will be a helpful (read: painful) reminder not to heel strike.

so yeah, 2 thumbs up for the inov8s from this girl (but if you ever see me wearing these shoes out in the world and thinking i look good, please put me out of my misery).

yesterday we did back squats (love) and a short but surprisingly intense metcon.

back squats
5 reps @ 55/65/70/80% 1RM (85/105/115/125#)
max reps @ 85% 1RM (135#) - 8 reps
this was fine until the weight got heavy (135#) and i was fighting for as many reps as i could - i started pushing off my right (stronger) left at the bottom to get out of the squat and shifting my weight over to my left leg. it was ugly, weird, and inefficient. also it's the 2nd time a coach has pointed this out to me. gotta fix it.

1 min each for max reps of:

• deadhang pullups (blue band + skinny purple band)
• hand release pushups (knees)
• abmat situps
• air squats

110 reps

pulled out 50 squats in the last minute and the shoes really made a difference. obviously i had far fewer reps of everything else. i think situps i got 30, and only 15 each of the others. muscle failure is a bitch.

i also came in for the endurance WOD on monday night, and it was truly harrowing. i just didn't have the mental toughness and wasn't able to push past the physical pain. i finished, but it was a lot of real slow rowing. not a good performance.
6 rounds
500m row holding best possible pace, 2 minute rest

1st round, i did in 1:58 and held a sub-2 minute 500m split for most of it. 2nd round was truly terrible and my split crept up to the 2:20's. this continued for rounds 3-5. ouch. i think i dialed it back in for the last round and finished the 500 in 2:10 (?). i am just hoping that by doing the endurance WODs 2x a week, i get better. i don't feel like i'm getting better, but if i put in the time, it has to happen... right?

cindy tore me up

on saturday, we did cindy and that girl ripped me wide open (my hand, at least). i lost an inch of skin off my right palm. i have got to learn to tape my hands.

cindy
AMRAP in 20 minutes

• 5 pullups (red band / blue band for ~3 rds)
• 10 pushups (knees)
• 15 air squats

13 rounds + 5 pullups

this was an improvement over my first meeting with cindy, which was my very first foundations class back in June. we only did 10 minutes, and i got in 8 rounds with jumping pullups. not an exact measure (as it was only 1/2 the time) but it was the first time i've used the red band in a WOD and i'm glad i could mostly stick with it. yay progress.

we're back on a more regular strength cycle now, which i am happy about. this morning we did press, and i discovered for the 2nd time in a week that my 1RM really is 70#. i will get back up to 75#, though - and beyond!!

as a side note, i hate press.

for our WOD today, we did:
21-15-9

• overhead squat (50#, rx=65#)
• box jumps (20")

5:55

i jumped for the set of 21, stepped for the set of 15, and did 1/2 jumps 1/2 steps for the set of 9. i did the OHS mostly unbroken, although i did rack the bar on my back a few times in the round of 15. 50# felt good, i think it's the heaviest i've done in a WOD, and i'm really glad i'm getting closer to the rx weight.

tonight: endurance WOD? all i *want* to do is go home, lie down, and moan about how much my shoulders/back hurt. but that doesn't help me get faster for DIRT - if it did, i would be the champ! i am a really good whiner.

double unders: i own you

so yesterday before the (miserable) endurance WOD, we did 50 double unders for time. i was pretty worn out from elizabeth and didn't expect much from myself, but i warmed up and found myself stringing DU's together like a champ. i guess my (admittedly spotty) practice is finally paying off.

when we started the 50, i strung together 29 DUs in a row - the most i've ever done consecutively.

hells YES.

elizabeth & rowing

i scrapped my plan to get up for the 6:15am class when i was still wide awake at midnight last night. instead, i left work a bit early and did the regular WOD at 5pm, then followed it up with the endurance WOD at 6pm. 1/4 of the way into the endurance WOD i was cursing myself for not getting up early and earning a break between the two WODs, but by the end i was just happy i finished.

benchmark week continued today with elizabeth. the last few times we've done this WOD, it's been with power cleans instead of full squat cleans, but today we did it as prescribed. or in my case, as close to prescribed as i could. it was a lot harder.

elizabeth

• cleans (70#, rx=95#)
• ring dips (15 reps w/red band, rest w/blue band)

14:47 yikes. not a great performance. those cleans were painful. i held on and finished out the WOD with the 70# bar, but it was feeling mighty heavy by the round of 15. maybe i should have taken some weight off, but i'm glad i stuck with the heavy weight even if i wasn't able to go quickly with it. also, no failures on the cleans. huzzah. the endurance WOD was 3 rounds

• row 125m, rest same amount of time
• row 250m, rest same amount of time
• row 500m, rest same amount of time

this was ugly. i don't even want to talk about it, except to say my slowest 500m was 2:12 and my fastest was only 2:05 :( i just didn't have any go today. oh well. gotta keep up the rowing work in the next 6 weeks to prepare for DIRT.

now i'm going to lay down for a while. the combo of cleans + rowing has caused my hips/butt to seize up and sitting up hurts.

crossfit total

yesterday i returned to the gym at the lazy hour of 11:30am after a long weekend spent in vermont with family and massachusetts with friends. i didn't do much of anything on my mini-break except eat and play kinect with my 12 year old nephew (which is surprisingly fun and exhausting). i got *2* kinds of cake for my birthday! friendly's ice cream cake with chocolate crunchies in the middle (nom) and homemade vanilla cake with a buttercream frosting teddy ruxpin on it. fellow children of the 80's, yes it was just as awesome as it sounds. the rest of you - i weep for a childhood without the glory that was teddy ruxpin.

but anyway. back to the gym. we're doing benchmark week at CFD, so that we can have a baseline for the beginning of 2011. i missed fran & nancy earlier in the week; my sorrow knows no bounds (cough). yesterday was crossfit total, which is the sum of the weights of the heaviest completed lift for: back squat, press, and deadlift. i used this as an opportunity to figure out where i am and to set some solid goals for the coming year.

backsquat 160
press 70
deadlift 175
total: 405

PR'd on my deadlift by 5#, which isn't too shabby given that we haven't been DL'ing very much lately. i guess i PR'd my backsquat by 15#, but this is mostly because i found my last 1RM 6 months ago. my press lost #5 off my previous 1RM. boo.

lifting goals for 2011:

• 2x bw deadlift (300#)
• 1.5 bw backsquat (225#)
• put 20# on my press (90#)
• 100# snatch (currently 70#, i think? maybe only 55#? who knows)
• bw clean & jerk (150#, currently 105#/100#)

some of these are reaches, and i doubt i can achieve all of them at the same time (for example, when my backsquats and deadlifts are strongest, my snatches and cleans are probably won't be stellar). but i think they are all good goals for the year. first up: backsquats, deadlifts, presses. after i get wicked strong with these, i'll move onto the oly lifts and own those.

bring it, 2011.