Round 33 - 12/28/10

So I’m extremely delayed in this posting, I know. I had a crazy day at work yesterday and I just couldn’t find the energy to write anything. Hopefully today won’t be as much insanity (though I’m thinking it will be). Is it Christmas again yet?

On Tuesday I did Monday’s WOD because I just really didn’t feel like doing Tuesday's (it had a lot of abs and double unders and after the hellish workout from Sunday I was still sore). The workout was kind of a 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off thing. I had to do 3 power cleans, 6 burpees and 9 jumping squats as many times as I could in 5 minutes. After that, I rested for 5 minutes before doing it again.

I ended up doing just over 6 rounds in the ten minutes of exertion. My legs were dying during the first set of power cleans. I was way more exhausted from the day before than I had realized and I’m extremely glad I didn’t opt to do a workout with a lot of skipping in it. I was doing 65lbs for my power cleans and boy, was I feeling that. Hopefully I’m better rested for today’s workout, because I have to clean again.

I’ll be going by after work so I’ll let you guys know how that goes!

- N

Round 32 - 12/27/10

I’m back! Hello everyone! I hope your holidays were excellent and you’re well rested now. I go back to work on Wednesday and the very thought is making me sick. I’m ready to be back in school and having to work for another 8 months at a job I really hate is just...ugh.

But anyway, as promised I’m updating you on my workout routine for the last few days. On Friday I did the Christmas Eve workout which consisted of 20 pushups, 30 sit ups and 40 squats repeated 4 times. I did that in 16:37, so not too shabby! I’m amazed at how much faster my pushups have gotten since I started CrossFit. I used to be able to do 15 pushups, but I would do them slowly (and not by choice). Now I can pound out 20 no problem. Mixing up your tempo is a great way to challenge your muscles, but I’m stronger now so I have more control over how my pushups turn out.

On Sunday (Boxing Day) I ran 4.5 miles. My knee was bugging me again and I really need to get some new shoes. It was extremely cold and though I was bundled up nicely I wasn’t moving fast enough to really work up a sweat. I’ve run for years and I’ve never had knee problems. I think my IT band is really tight when I do a lot of one leg exercise (like squats or lunges), so I’ve been trying to use the foam rollers on that every time I go to the gym. Hopefully this won’t plague me for too much longer. I love running and it’s frustrating to have to keep stopping.

Today was my first day back at the gym. I ended up doing Sundays workout because it just...looked completely insane. I had to try it. I wanted to leave the gym totally exhausted and this was a surefire way to do it.

This was the workout:

30 Thrusters
30 Jumping pull ups
30 Box Jumps
30 Squats
30 Walking Lunge Steps
30 Ground-to-Overhead
30 Pushups
30 Kettlebell Swings
30 Push Press
30 Burpees

As the trainer described it...it was just gross. My legs were stiff from the run and I was feeling my quads from the first few thrusters. I only had the bar at 42lbs so instead of cleaning to go from ground-to-overhead I snatched it (cleans would have been too light for me at that weight). Most of the exercises were exercises I don’t mind doing in a workout usually...but when they were all combined together it seemed to take forever. By the time I got to the burpees it felt like I was moving in super slow motion. My arms and my legs just had absolutely nothing left. I even felt my legs during the pushups.

I finished the workout in 25:54. Everyone was right around 25-30 minutes so I think I was pretty consistent. It was an awesome workout. We all just dropped to the ground after and didn’t move for a few minutes. Hahah. I kind of love workouts like that.

I’ll go back tomorrow and possibly do today’s workout because I really want to work on my power cleans with some real weight. We’ll see how I feel in the morning (blegh, I hate going in the morning).

Talk to you soon guys!

- N

Round 31 - 12/23/10

I can’t believe this was my last day of CrossFit before Christmas. I loooove Christmas, it’s my favourite holiday, hands down. I always look forward to the break from my daily routine, but for some reason I’m going to miss going to the gym. Yeah, I know it’s only for a few days but it’s a social environment as much as it is a workout environment. I enjoy being there, even when it kicks my ass (which is pretty much always, haha).

Annnyyway, the gym was busier than I expected today. I guess everyone wanted to get one round in before all the holiday indulgences. We started with our choice of a Frog Stand or an L-sit. I chose the L-sit because I wanted to see if I had improved from the last time. I had...drastically. I don’t know if it’s because I’m stronger or because I’ve got better balance, but it was a massive improvement. My longest “run” was 20 seconds last time and today that was my shortest run (and only because I was getting tired). The trainer said the difference was night and day.

After the L-sit we moved onto the 21-15-9 workout that involved overhead squats and pull ups. I switched up the pull up bands this time to the thick green band and the thin purple (which is even thinner than the black band I was using before. I’d never seen it before). It was just enough of a change that they were difficult, but that I was still able to complete them, so I’m glad for that. The trainer said I was doing good pull ups, but he could tell I was working for them.

My overhead squat technique wasn’t too great to start out with, so they made me use the torture device before I could start the workout. Just for fun, here’s a picture I discovered on the webpage under last Saturday’s workout. That’s me, in pain, using the torture device. Enjoy ;)

I ended up using 25lbs on the overhead squats and completed the workout in 6:02. All-in-all this was one of our easier days. The exercises individually were challenging, but we got a lot of rest on the L-sits and the second half of the workout was over very quickly. I’m sure I’ll be feeling the pull ups tomorrow.

I also was feeling brave and decided to see how far away I am from a real pull up. As I mentioned before, that’s one of my biggest goals and I wanted to see how much I’d improved…

I know I have improved significantly in my pull ups, but I’m still nowhere close to doing a real one. Oh well! I might have to make that my 6 month goal instead of my 3 month. It’ll happen eventually, I just need to get some patience.

I went on the website after the gym tonight and they helpfully included an at-home workout in case you’re missing the gym. I probably won’t post about doing that, but I’ll definitely give it a go tomorrow before we do family stuff.

Thanks so much for reading everyone. I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave me. They make my day :) I hope everyone has a great holidays with their families and I’ll see you guys in a few days!

- N

Round 30 - 12/21/10: Wahoo! 30 days of CrossFit!

Phew. Finally found time to post this. I had to do all of my Christmas shopping today (my sister and I were on a roll though). Sorry for the delay! I hope everyone’s getting ready for the holidays (or the time off if you don’t celebrate the holidays!)...

Today’s WOD started with bench press. We were going for 5 sets of 3 or a 5 rep max. For a change I decided to do 5 sets of 3. I ended up doing the sets at 85lbs (when my 5 rep max was 82.5lbs two weeks ago). The improvement was definitely significant, but it felt less exciting than benching 100lbs last week. Next time I’ll probably try 5 sets of 3 at 90 or 95.

The next part of WOD was four rounds of 10 pull ups, 30 sit ups and 10 burpees. I’m getting really frustrated with my pull ups. I’m using the green (thickest) and black (thinnest) band to assist me and the pull ups are easy. However, just the green band is too hard. It’s annoying because I feel like I won’t progress if the pull ups aren’t hard, but the next level is too hard. It’s just annoying.

I finished the four rounds in 11:19. My time was solid, but I really felt the burpees draining me. Even after conquering 100 of them...I just hate burpees.

I’m going back tomorrow (my last chance before Christmas!). Hopefully we get to do something awesome as a final send off…

Have a great night guys!

- N

Round 29 - 12/20/10

I really enjoyed the WOD today. It was way more relaxed than the one on Friday. I finally got to do some heavy weight back squats again (I’ve been missing out on them for the last few weeks). I wasn’t sure what my weight was going to be (we were looking for a 3 rep max). Since my front squats were 105 on Friday I just knew I was going for more than that. I ended up doing 125, but I think next time I’ll be able to break 130.

The second half of the workout was AMRAP for 7 minutes. We had to do 7 front squats and 7 push presses. My bar was (don’t laugh at me) either 53 or 65lbs. I have no idea what the weight of the bar was. Normally I can tell as soon as I lift it, but today I wasn’t sure. I was either sore in the shoulders from Friday still so 53lbs felt like a lot more...or I was lifting 65lbs.

Either way, the push presses got heavy fast. The front squats were okay, but the hardest part of the workout was transitioning from a front squat bar hold (where the bar’s on 2 fingers, your elbows are up high and the bar’s pretty much against your chest/neck/shoulders), and a push press hold (where you need to wrap your hands around the bar completely). The guy I did the AMRAP with said the same thing, so we kind of laughed about it. Of all the things to cause problems it was shifting our grips, haha.

And that was it for today. I’m going back tomorrow so I’ll be sure to update then!

- N

Update (a.k.a. How much pain I'm in today)

I'm sitting here finishing my coffee about to get ready to go to work, but I thought I'd give everyone a little update on my...err..."condition".

Well, I'm not gonna lie. I'm definitely sore. It's mostly in my quads (when I use the stairs) and my upper back.

What I will also say though, is I still have not felt pain or stiffness like I did those first few days after I started. Those workouts were shorter and less gruelling than what I did yesterday, but I'm functioning way better today than I was then.

I know some people attempt weight training for a day and then use their soreness as a reason to skip it a day or 2 later. But the truth is, once you start moving and working out again the blood starts flowing and the pain goes away. And after a few weeks you will start to recover faster. I'm recovering so much faster after harder workouts because I'm training my body to do so. You just have to push a little bit and be prepared to be uncomfortable and the rest will come. It's not supposed to feel good...if it does you're not pushing hard enough.

Kay, that's my advice for the morning. Everybody go feel some pain! LOL.

- N

Round 28 - 12/17/10: ‘G.I. Jane’

Today was insanity. Literally. For the first time since my first day of CrossFit I thought I might puke. It was one of those days where you’re constantly playing mental games with yourself to make it through the workout because you know how amazing it’ll feel when you’re done (yes, feeling sore counts as feeling amazing in my book. Feeling “good pain” means you worked your ass off...and isn’t that the point?).

I came in and looked at the board and saw WOD only had 2 exercises: 2-2-2-2-2 front squat reps and 50 burpee pull ups. Uhhh...whaaat? My reaction was “I can’t do one unassisted pull up, what the hell’s a burpee pull up and how am I gonna do that?”

One of the interns demonstrated for me what exactly it was and assured me it was more of a jumping pull up than a regular pull up. This video shows people doing them at all different levels. I didn’t use a box (like the girls in the back on the video), but the bar was a little tall for me so I stood on a 45lb weight to give me room to squat.

But let’s come back to burpee pull ups. For starters we did front squats. I haven’t done front squats on their own (as an isolated heavy weight exercise) in weeks, so I had no idea what my max would be. I kind of just kept adding weight to see what would happen. My sets went like this: 1) 65lbs, 2)75lbs, 3) 85lbs, 4)95lbs, 5)105lbs.

Hitting 105lbs on front squat for me was huge. They’re tough to execute so I wasn’t able to really max out my legs in the squat until now. Hitting 105 just showed me how far my technique has come since those first few weeks.

After, I went to do my 50 burpee pull ups...or so I thought. I was then informed I had the option of doing 50 or doing “G.I. Jane”...which is 100 burpee pull ups.

I thought about it for a second and decided I was going to do 100. I figured it was only going to take 20 minutes (25 max) and I would just pace myself and try and finish.

Well... it was brutal. The first 50 were bad and they asked me if I wanted to stop (as I was doubled over panting)...but I really, really didn’t. I had said I was going to attempt 100 and I felt like I could continue...just slower. Once I hit 70 I actually thought I might throw up. I wanted to quit at 70...but who quits when you’ve done 70 and only have 30 left? I would’ve kicked myself all night for stopping there...I was almost 3/4 of the way done!

For the last 20 I had three people watching me and a) counting for me (thankfully, I didn’t want to have to think, lol), b) timing how long I rested for and encouraging me to keep going. I felt like I was barely moving by the end of it. Everyone was really supportive though and I actually finished 100 burpee pullups in 17:24.

Not bad for a semi-newbie still!

Everything hurts right now (especially my back), but I can’t complain (much). I’m still kind of on a high from accomplishing that. It was worth every torturous second.

And now I rest, haha. I’m working tomorrow (my last time before Christmas, yay!) and probably running on Sunday. Today was awesome, but recovering will be just as awesome.

Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend guys!

- N