Round 46 - 01/24/11: ‘Angie’

Well the good news is when I woke up this morning my knee wasn’t sore at all. Last week on Monday morning my knee felt creaky and was really bothering me, so that gives me hope this knee pain I’m having won’t last for long. I also started reading up on some of the athlete profiles for a competition our gym is having this week and one of the girls ran a 30k race and a half marathon while doing CrossFit. You can run distance and do CF, so I just need to be patient. My knee’s already feeling better and maybe next week I won’t feel any pain at all on my run!

I wasn’t feeling so hot today so when I got to the gym I wanted to do Saturday’s workout (I definitely didn’t want to back squat something heavy which was the workout today). Saturday’s workout started with deadlifts to a 3 rep max, so that’s what I did. My 3 rep max was 145. I probably could’ve gone to 150 (maybe even 155), but the bar just felt like it was slipping and my hands hurt. The trainer asked me if my hands were hurting and suggested I use a different grip next time to neutralize the bar (since I’m lifting pretty heavy now). Hopefully that’ll help.

Saturday’s second part of the workout was a pull up progression, which I was pretty certain I was going to do. I felt better after deadlifts, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to risk crashing and burning in the middle of today’s workout (which was ‘Angie’).

However, as the trainer helpfully pointed out to me there was no way a pull up progression workout was going to force me to do as many pull ups as ‘Angie’ was going to make me do and it was probably better just to do her.

Sooo...Angie is what I did.

100 pull ups

100 pushups

100 sit ups

100 squats

The squats were also kind of deterring me from Angie because I was afraid it would bother my knee, but that actually felt fine. Angie wasn’t as hard as I anticipated her to be (except for the pull ups, which took the longest by far, I used the thick band and the absolute skinniest band during). I finished the entire workout in 21:58. That was the second fastest time (fastest time for the girls) when I completed it (but then again, the night was young, haha). I was really happy. I probably went that fast because I just wanted it done before I started feeling crappy again and I just blasted through it. I was happy with my time.

And that was Monday’s workout. Have a great day guys!

- N

Round 45 - 01/21/11: 'Arnie'

Alright, Friday was brutal. Haha. I took one look at the workout and almost wanted to cry a little. I have a new nemesis and his name is Arnie. He will be defeated next time. ;)

For starters we had the choice of bench press or Pendlay rows (which I have yet to try) for either a 5 rep max or 3 sets of 5. I opted for bench press because I was kind of disappointed in myself from last time. I talked to the trainer and she gave me a really helpful piece of advice. She said when you attempt a max and fail (like I did last week) you shouldn’t attempt a max again for a few weeks. Instead you should work on increasing you 3 sets of 5 weight by a small amount because that is the best way to increase your overall max. Once you fail at a certain weight for 3 sets of 5, then you attempt a max again. I thought this was really helpful and I’m going to make a note to do this from now on.

I ended up doing 3 sets of 5 at 80lbs. Next week I’ll try 82lbs for 3 sets of 5. Week after I will try 85lbs at 3 sets of 5...and so on and so on until I fail. Then I’ll go back and try my 5 rep max. I think this little bit of extra structure is going to really help.

The second half the workout was “Arnie”. Arnie is just plain brutal and I actually only did half of that workout (to be fair, a lot of people only did half of that workout). The full Arnie looks like this:

21 Turkish get-ups, Right arm
50 Swings
21 Overhead squats, Left arm
50 Swings
21 Overhead squats, Right arm
50 Swings
21 Turkish get-ups, Left arm

Turkish get-ups suuuuuuck (note: in the video they use a dumbell, but we used a kettlebell). Big time. The right arm wasn’t so bad but the left arm was just awkward. I felt like I couldn’t move that way and my leg kept cramping. The kettlebell I used was only 15lbs, but that felt plenty heavy, trust me. The version of Arnie I ended up doing was:

10 Turkish get-ups, R-arm

25 swings

21 squats

25 swings

21 squats

25 swings

10 Turkish get-ups, L-arm

It was plenty hard, let me tell you. The worst part was easily the Turkish get-ups (the rest actually wasn’t too bad). I finished in 12:18. The most shocking thing for me was the difference between my left and right side during the get-ups. My left arm was shaking for a while after I finished. It was kind of remarkable.

And that was Friday’s workout. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I’ll post more later.

- N

Round 44 - 01/20/11

I’m sorry for the delay! I wasn’t in the blogging mood this weekend and my posts just weren’t coming together. This will both be short and sweet and I’ll try and be better about posting this week, but I’m thinking after January I may “revamp” my format a bit in terms of what I talk about and how detailed I get into my exercises. Just to spice things up…

But until then, let me tell you what I did on Thursday.

I went in the afternoon (despite my best attempts to get my butt out of bed and go that morning), and warmed up with rowing again (and yes, my form was better, I took my time, but at least I did it right...my apparently fragile ego has mended from Tuesday, haha). After that we did L-sit practice. These actually felt pretty good. I have no idea how to get my legs up so I’m completely parallel, but I was able to straighten them and hold them up at slightly more than a 45 degree angle. My abs were dying more than anything and I thought they looked pretty good. My progression on those has been quite measurable. I could barely hold myself up for 10 seconds the first time, let alone attempt to straighten and lift my legs. Overall, it felt good.

Our next part of the workout was just...gross. We did a 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 workout with

Pushups, Russian kettlebell swings (with a 35lb one) and double unders. My pushups felt great and I kind of just blasted through them. The kettlebell swings were tough, but I got through them fairly quickly and the double unders killed my time. It still takes me forever to get the hang of those. You have to really crank your arms around to get the rope to spin fast enough and I wasn’t doing that at first. My record for double unders in sequence is 6 and I got those at the very end of the workout. It was hellish.

I finished in just over 19 minutes. Like I said, the double unders were my undoing.

- N

Round 43 - 01/18/11

Today was not good. Let’s just get that right out of the way. I was, uh…a little embarrassed. Last week I was watching some of the new guys in our gym getting instructed on how to row properly. I thought I had been doing it wrong this whole time and these last few days did what I thought I had observed the new guys doing...

Well, that was a little awkward, because apparently I was doing it very wrong now. Haha. One of the trainers came over and was like “stop that right now, that looks awful!” just teasingly and corrected me but ...yeah, embarrassing. I mean I’m glad they corrected me, I just kind of feel like an idiot for messing up something as simple as rowing. I should know how to row properly. I guess I wasn’t doing it “wrong enough” before to have anyone notice so today must have been really awful...

Ugh, okay. I feel a bit better. I had to get that off my chest. It’s not a big deal, right? No one’s going to remember how badly I was rowing for a day or two. I’ll get used to the proper technique and it’ll all be good. It’s really not as easy as it looks and I’ll just take it slow instead of worrying about a time.

Just...like I said. A little embarrassing.

Anyway, after that I was kind of second guessing myself the whole workout, which I didn’t like. We started off with presses and I only made it to a 5 rep max of 65lbs. I attempted 70lbs but I only managed to get 3 reps.

For the workout we did 5 rounds of 5 clean and jerks and 10 chest-to-bar pull ups. I had never done a clean and jerk before, but it’s basically a clean and press only you can jump into the press so you have some more power. My cleans started out okay but kind of wavered a little at the end. With my pull ups I started using just one band and ended up having to add another one because I wasn’t getting my chest all the way to the bar. I used 53lbs for the clean and jerks. I’ll be honest, this whole week has kind of shaken me a little. With my knee injury I’m wondering if I haven’t been squatting correctly or something...and now I’m wondering if I’m just trying to progress myself too quickly in general. The rowing thing was kind of the final straw. It’s not a great feeling...but maybe I’m just a little oversensitive today. Either way, it’s time to regroup. I think I need a day off. I’ve never had a workout program that was so reliant on technique where someone was there to watch you carefully and correct you so I’ve never felt like this before. Taking a step back will be good.

I hope you guys have a good night. I’ll let you know how it goes on Thursday (if I do go). Hopefully I have a better day. Haha.

- N

Round 42 - 01/17/11: Injured.

It’s official...I am injured. I ran on the treadmill yesterday (which I hate with a passion) in brand new shoes (that sometimes bug my feet until they’re broken in but nothing else) and my stupid knee still hurt 5 minutes into my run. I tried everything I could think of: I stretched randomly, I decreased the incline, I decreased the speed (to a snail’s pace for me), nothing worked. I couldn’t run a few steps without pain after those few minutes. It. Totally. Sucks.

I wanted to start training for another half marathon and I (stupidly) thought the shoes would fix my knee pain. Cut to me lying on my bed with my knee elevated and an ice pack for most of last night. It hurt for the rest of the night and this morning and I’ve been trying to self-diagnose this whole time. I’m fairly certain it’s Iliotibial Band Syndrome. The pain seems mostly on the outside of my knee or surrounding it and it’s always running that causes it. Running is hard on your joints (compared to anything else) and if your IT band is tight your knee won't getting the cushioning and support it requires for the impact...so it hurts. My IT band is tight. Haha. It was confirmed today when I tried two different rollers at the gym (one foam, one plastic - ouch!). It seemed to help because my knee pain is down now even after I did some squats. My treatment for this problem of mine will consist of the following:

1. Stop walking at a crazy high incline on the treadmill to warm up for CF. We’re going to stick to rowing for the next 2 weeks and see if that makes a difference.
2. Take fish oil supplements again (I should be anyway, but they help reduce inflammation in this case).
3. Use the foam roller regularly at the gym (and possibly purchase my own).
4. Do the stretches my sister’s physiotherapist gave her when she was having knee pain during our half marathon training.
5. Keep my squat weights low for the next two weeks and focus on my knee position throughout the entire movement.
6. Ice whenever I do feel pain. 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off.

Anyone have any tips or suggestions that have worked for them? I’m a runner by trade and I need to be able to run. As much as I love CF…I still have to be able to run.

Alright enough knee talk. Onto CrossFit!

So WOD started with back squat (and yes, I did row to warm up). I also used the foam rollers to loosen up before starting, but I knew right away I wasn’t going for a max. Instead I did 3 sets of 5 (one at 125 and two at 105). It just wasn’t worth risking it today.

For the second part of WOD we did a 21-15-9 workout of deadlifts and pushups (or HSPUs for those that were able to). The progression was HSPU -> parallette pushups -> chest-to-ground pushups -> knee pushups. I stuck with chest-to-ground pushups and did my deadlifts at 105 (which I was pretty proud of!). Deadlifts will always feel the heaviest when you grab the bar, but that doesn’t mean you can’t lift the weight. I felt the exercise, but it was definitely doable. I might go up to 115 next time.

And that was my WOD. I’m going back tomorrow so I’ll let you guys know how it goes and how the knee feels. Have a good night!

- N

Round 41 - 01/14/11

Today I hit the gym around 3 after I spent the morning running errands and (finally) getting myself a new pair of running shoes (I’ll keep my old ones for CrossFit). My knees have been bugging me during my runs for the last few weeks and it’s extremely frustrating. I’m hoping new shoes will do the trick, but I fear I might have to start doing yoga again. I’m not a yogi. At all. I’m not flexible (yes, I know that improves with practice and time), and I’m not into calmness and serenity and pressing your heart to the sky...at least not when I workout. I’ve tried a few times and I just can’t get into it personally, but I might need to try again. It seemed to help a bit during my half marathon training.

Sorry. Tangent. So, I came home from errand running and didn’t feel too spectacular. I bummed around on the couch for a bit before finally deciding to force myself out the door.

I’m really, really glad I went. Friday workouts are usually short and sweet and this was no exception. We did 3 rounds of 7 power cleans, 10 front squats and 10 burpees. My bar was 65lbs (last time it was 55 for power cleans!) and that weight felt really good. My cleans felt pretty spectacular, to be honest. Hahaha. I mean it. It was like everything was just clicking and I didn’t have to think about it and spend time psyching myself up for each rep. I just did them and they felt great (and, according to the trainer, looked good too!). It’s kind of amazing when stuff like that happens. Yeah, they’ve been feeling better little by little and I had the hang of motion and I knew what I had to do...but today the pieces just fell into place. It was a good feeling.

I finished the workout in 9:04, which I was very happy with. I also had a really delicious protein smoothie when I came home as my recovery snack. I’m going to enjoy the weekend off CF. Break in my runners maybe Saturday and Sunday and just let my muscles rest.

Ten weeks in everyone! (And incidentally just over 100 days until our vacation that I apparently need a bathing suit for.) Thanks for sticking with me thus far. Have a great weekend!

Round 40 - 01/13/11

Alright, I have a bit of a headache so this post will be short and sweet. Today’s WOD consisted of two things - HSPU practice (headstands for me) and an AMRAP workout. For the HSPU I started by trying to walk myself into the wall...but for some reason my left wrist has been bugging me since yesterday afternoon and that was just too much weight on it. After a few (pointless) tries at that I moved onto headstands. I actually did several without any help from the trainer. He said he was going to come over and help me, but by the time he did I was already upside down, haha. I had a little headache so the blood rush was really uncomfortable. For that reason, the headstands were short and sweet. I’m still feeling kind of sinus-y now so I’m sure that’s part of it. My main objective for today was to get myself into a headstand on my own...and I did that. It was night and day from the last time I tried to get up myself, so I definitely felt accomplished. I can’t believe I was so afraid of being upside down! Haha.

Like I said, the second part of the workout was an AMRAP for 15 minutes. It was 15 pull ups, 30 squats and 15 pushups (scaled down from ring dips which I’m not even close to yet; pushups were bad enough today). I tried my bands from last week and the trainer came over and told me to take one off. He said that was too easy and I keep underestimating myself. I guess that’s something to keep in mind. He said it should always be a struggle to get to the top of the movement, but something you can achieve. I definitely struggled for every single one of those pull ups today, so mission accomplished! Haha.

The squats were okay, the pushups were killer on my shoulders and started to bug my wrist towards the end. I was completely done by the end of it. I did 5 rounds plus a round of pull ups in the 15 minutes. I was glad to be done. I jumped in the hot tub when I got home to ease some aching muscles. I just hope I don’t have to press or push anything tomorrow. My poor shoulders can’t take it!

And that’s my recap for today! I hope everyone has a great night!

- N