The in-between week

Ahh, the in-between week. All the preparation, stress and over indulgence of food and drink of the Christmas season is over already. Just like that. Now comes the few days between Christmas and the New Year where you kinda feel like you're still on vacation, still eating the few remaining holiday cookies, traffic is still a mess, the stores are still crowded which makes the normal every day shopping even more annoying and motivation to exercise has come to a screeching eh. I've been good, not great but good about not letting myself fall into the black hole of the holidays where you feel like you've lost a week of your life and did nothing productive except for finishing the leftovers. I haven't kept to my regular schedule but I haven't taken any more than one rest day in a row.

Christmas was nice. Spent Christmas Eve with the inlaws, had way too much ham, keilbasa and indulged in pasta, dairy and sugar. I knew going in it would make for a long night but I was willing to take one for the team. Christmas day dinner was filet with sauteed mushrooms, bacon and brussle sprout side. Amazing what a nice lean non carb dinner can do for you. I was able to PR on my front squats the next day. By 10lbs. Haven't done heavy front squats in a long time so that was a nice bonus. Got some new New Balance sneakers and exercise/comfy clothes from Bob. The sneakers are more of an every day sneaker since I will not wear my Innovates for anything other than CrossFit (I know spaz) and my Reeboks are pretty beat up since the Mudder. My only other sneakers are dead Nikes, old Pumas and Chucks. And everyone knows Chucks are not a winter shoe. Might as well be wearing news paper. Haven't owned a pair of NB's in a very long time and seemed pretty good during the box jumps today. Little more cushion for the jump. Ah, enough about sneakers.

Going to shoot for new 1RMs this week since I'm done with month 3 of the 5-3-1 program. Need to see where I'm at. I'm assuming my back squat and bench press went up by at least 10. Shoulder press and dead lifts probably will stay the same. Maybe I'll increase by 5 on the DL if I'm lucky. Anything is progress at this point. I'm hoping with Bob home the next few days he'll get my ass going on the metcons. I think I did OK today, came in just shy of 4 rounds. Seemed like the top guys got between 5-7 at 20 minutes. I only did 15. But I was able to manage 42 out of 45 unassisted pull ups. Used the blue band for 3 and took it off. Wanted to suffer thru it and see how I could do. Happy with what I was able to accomplish today. Pull ups were always one of my weakest. Still need to get my mojo back to push thru and stop overthinking how much of a breather I need between reps. Tough to get back once you've been taking it easy. Hopefully the CF Games marathon will inspire me. I think that's on ESPN New Years day.

Friday (12/23)
warmup:
10x
kb squats
kb swings
good mornings
stretching

CFSB3 w4/d2
Deadlifts
deload: 5x85, 105, 125#

Recon Ron
Step 8/7: 5-4-3-2-2Saturday

Saturday (12/24)

*breakfast - bacon, eggs w/meat, broccoli. Lunch/Dinner - meatballs and smoked salmon apps, ham, keilbasa, pasta, brussle sprouts, stuffed cabbage, cookies, biscotti. Rest Day
Recon Ron
Step 8/8: 5-4-3-2-2

Sunday (12/25)

*breakfast-oatmeal. No lunch. Dinner - filet w/shrooms, brussle sprouts.
warmup:
10x
kb squats - 20#
kb swings
ohs - broomstick
good mornings - 45#
KTE
stretching

CFSB3 w4/d4
Bench Press
deload: 5x35, 40, 50#

WOD
2x10 55# bench press
2x10 tricep pull downs - blue band
2x15 ab roll outs
*notes - felt strong. must have been all the carbs night before.

Monday (12/26)

*breakfast - eggs. Lunch -?, Dinner - salmon salad
warmup:
jump rope
kb squats
stretching
2x55, 85, 105# front squats

Front Squats
2-2-2-2-2
115, 125, 135, 140, 145, 150#(PR)

Recon Ron
Step 8/9: 5-4-3-2-2

Last 2rm for front squats was 140#.

Tuesday (12/27)

Rest Day

*breakfast - muffin w/almond butter. Lunch - nothing. Snack - almonds, protein ball, pretzel rods. Dinner- spaghetti w/turkey meatballs

Wednesday (12/28)

*no breakfast. Lunch-Protein ball, hummus, turkey, swiss. Dinner - pork w/mango chutney, broccoli rabe
warmup:
squats
ohs
kb swings
stretching

WOD
Puppies
Complete as many rounds as possible in 12-15minutes of: 15
18 Box jumps, 12-15” box - 15”
15 Toes to bar
12 Pull-ups

3 rounds + 18 + 15 + 9 pull ups

*All but 3 pull ups unassisted.

Dear Santa

I have a few things I need to ask you to take into consideration this year. Most of the requests on this list as you will see, will benefit more than just me. I know you're not God, but see what you can do.

1. Run over Justin Beiber and whoever came up with the Christmas Lexus commercials with your sleigh.
2. Clean out my garage so I can make it a dedicated CrossFit gym, heat and air conditioning would be nice.
3. Ban Mariah Carey's 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' from the airwaves.
4. Give BrandX and Recon Ron an extra special present this year.
5. A bottle of Patron... or two.
6. Keep my kids in bed until 6:00am on Christmas morning.
7. Help me to like Burpees.
8. More bumper plates.
9. C2 Rower
10. Make bread paleo friendly.
11. Bury Bill O'Reilly in a snowbank until next Christmas.
12. One muscle up. Just one.
13. A stable housing market and jail time for crooked politicians.

Much appreciated,
Karen

Chocolate Biscotti baking day for me today since I was pigheaded with my cleans yesterday. Not that I can't do 65#, but doing 45 of them was probably a bit much for my shoulder. Live, learn and BenGay.

*breakfast - muffin w/almond butter. Lunch - hummus, turkey, beef jerky, almonds. Dinner - sauteed shrimp w/veggies. 
Wednesday
warmup:
10x
kb squats - 20#
good mornings - 45#
tuck jumps
stretching

CFSB3 w4/d2
Shoulder Press
deload: 5x35, 45, 55#

WOD
Pack
21-15-9 reps for time of:
95 pound Clean - 65#
Sit-up - anchored
Women 65
6:54

*Notes - did the sit ups anchored since the original wod was for ghd sit ups, increased speed when anchored. Also increased pukieness. Had to give myself a few seconds before the cleans to get over the dizzies. Couldn't do cleans unbroken, felt good though, no shoulder pain during. Next day soreness. Biceps a bit fried too. Haven't done that many cleans in a while at that weight.

My tolerance for pain

I've noticed has increased as I get older. Case in point, I do CrossFit and didn't start until I was 38. This past weekend I got a tattoo. My first one. And it's a big one, on my shoulder blade. Well, not enormous but big enough for a virgin. I thought the pain was pretty tolerable for the most part and I had to laugh at myself when I was equating the pain of the tattoo as opposed to doing say... a Fran, double unders or deadlifts and running or thrusters and pushups, fill in the blank. And who the hell ever said the outline is more painful than the fill? That is so not true. When I met my artist Frank before I sat down I asked him what happens if I flinch? He said I'll fuck up your tattoo so don't flinch. OK, no flinching, check. Anyway, it looks awesome and a big thanks to Frank and Charlie at Philadelphia Eddie's for making it a pleasant experience.

Between shopping and baking (some of which were paleo cookies) and all the other stuff that comes along with Christmas I've been busy. Took an unscheduled rest day yesterday since I had a long day of shopping ahead of me. And those of you with little kids know the worse time for shopping is anywhere near lunch or nap time. The last thing I needed was to be dragging my 4 year old by his belt loops out of a store screaming so I had to make an early start. Besides, my shoulders have been bothering me pretty bad so the extra rest day was needed. I think between the stress and the white knuckle grip I had on the chair during my tattoo and bench presses on Sunday, they just did me in.

My plan this week was to do deload on the strength and go hard on the metcons but I'm thinking now that I'm just going to keep my own pace this week and just do what I can when I can instead of stressing myself out trying to keep a strict WOD schedule. I know, but hey, I'm not using the holidays as an excuse not to do anything, I'm just not doing as much as I would. Thats gotta count for something. As long as my diet can stay in check, which it has with the exception of a few butter/sugar/fattening/high calorie homemade christmas cookies. Oh and I even passed up the opportunity to have a Jim's steak in Philly on Saturday. If anyone has had one or a REAL Philly steak... from Philly people, not an imitation, you know it's hard to pass up, especially since it was right across the street from the tattoo place. Sigh. Instead of dreams of sugarplums and candycanes I'll be dreaming of gooey cheesey oniony delicious steak sandwiches for christmas.

Saturday:
Rest Day
Recon Ron
Step 8/5: 5-4-3-2-2

Sunday:
warmup:
10x
kettlbell squats - 20#
kettlebell swings
kettlebell cleans
good morings
med ball sit ups - 12#
stretching

CFSB3 w3/d4
Bench Press
warmup: 5x30, 40, 50#
work: 5c60, 3x70, 1x80#(3)
last set max reps

Recon Ron
Step 8/6: 5-4-3-2-2

2x10 tricep pull downs (blue band)
2x15 curl grip barbell rows - 65#
2x10 ab roll outs

Monday:

Rest Day

Tuesday:

*breakfast - oatmeal w/flax, coconut, bananas

warmup:
10x
kb squats - 20#
ohs
good mornings
chair dips

CFSB3 w4/d1
Back Squat
deload: 5x70, 85, 100#

Front Squats
2x10 @60% - 75#

Recon Ron
Step 8/6: 5-4-3-2-2

Sad day in the Chase household

I'm trying to keep my blog focused on CrossFit and health and skip a majority of my personal life but this little story I feel warranted a post. Yesterday when I went to wake up my son from his nap, I was sitting on his bed and noticed that something was missing on his dresser. "Um, Bud, where's your fish?" I waited for him to answer while I checked the bottom of my shoes. "He's right here." As he points to his bed. Great. "What do you mean he's right here, where is here Bud, on your bed?!" As panic sets in. I was expecting to see a smashed beta fish under the covers. I looked behind the pillow and there he was. "He was taking a nap with me." Bud said. Poor poor fishy. I scooped him up and low and behold he flopped when I touched him. WTF? Now, I don't know how long a fish can survive without water but he was 'napping' for at least an hour. I picked him up and threw him back in his bowl and don't you know he actually swum around? Well, at least for a few hours anyway. Sorry to report fishy passed away sometime during the night. I was shocked he lived as long as he did between the missed feedings, dirty bowls, being dropped in the sink (by me while cleaning his bowl) and being tortured by a 4 year old boy, but still, it's a sad day. Services will be held at noon in the backyard. All are welcome and donations can be made to the 'fish need water to live awareness foundation.'

On to my deadlifts. Not too bad today. Couldn't budge a second off the ground @195 but felt like I maintained good form on the one. My back will tell the tale tomorrow. I may have rounded a bit @175 but a few minutes on the pain foam usually helps with that.

*breakfast (before wod)- oatmeal w/flax, coconut, walnuts, pb, maple syrup
*lunch - don't know

*dinner - will be filet, broccoli rabe, squash

warmup:
10x
burpees
good mornings
12# med ball sit ups
20# kb squats
20# kb cleans
stretching

CFSB3 w3/d3
Deadlifts
warmup: 5x85, 105, 125#
work: 5x155, 3x175, 1x195#(1)
last set max reps

Recon Ron
Step 8/5: 5-4-3-2-2

No metcon, shoulders sore, need to rest.

My 2 cents on toes to bar

Yesterdays WOD included a total of 45 toes to bar or knees to elbows if you can't make it that high. I saw quite a few people had trouble with them, and rightly so, they are not easy. It's all about baby steps and as with anything else, practice practice practice. Now, I do mine on the rings. I'm sure some will disagree whether it's strict and proper form, but I'm doing them. I'm getting my toes to touch the rings and that still requires the same effort as toes touching a bar. I can do them on the bar but it's a logistical nightmare during a metcon. The bar is too high for me to get on without a chair and the chair gets in the way when I swing my legs. So with that, I'll lay out the progressions that worked for me, take it for what it's worth.

Start on rings if you have them. I'm assuming most of us do. Lower the rings so you're elbows are chest high and that you're feet can touch the ground. Tighten up and pull your knees up until they touch you're elbows, obviously. Practice knees to elbows until you can do 20 without resting or touching the ground. Next time raise the rings up higher. Do another successful 20, raise, 20 etc until you can pull the feet up to touch the rings. I think the lower rings at the beginning just helped me learn how to control my lower half since I was able to rely on a bit of arm strength too. Like I said, my 2 cents. Everyone has they're own methods.

Now to my utter fail on my shoulder press. Blah. My previous 1RM was 80#. Today I had to get at least one at 85#. Couldn't do it. Got a few inches up and had to push press the rest. Damnit! My shoulder just didn't want to do it today. Today was the first failure in 3 months of this program. I should be happy with that I guess but no. I'm disappointed. Even though the overall weight did increase by.... 20lbs approx since I started, I'm still pissed. Gah.

*no breakfast

lunch - eggs w/veggies

dinner - will be turkey burger on a portabella w/guacomole, sweet pot fries

warmup:
10 good mornings
10x45# front squat
20 kb swings
stretching

CFSB3 w3/d2
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x35, 45, 55#
work: 5x65, 3x75, 1x85#(F)
*had to jerk it @85 so counting as fail.

WOD
Puppies
Three rounds for time of:
5-15 pound Dumbbell squat snatch, 15 reps, right arm - 10#
15 Sit-ups
5-15 pound Dumbbell squat snatch, 15 reps, left arm
15 Toes to bar

12:25

Yoga

Took the day today to do some Yoga. Much needed yoga at that. If you've never tried it you should. Unless of course, you're Gumby. I bet he doesn't have any flexibility issues. Want to improve your squatting position, yoga. Want to get those elbows up farther, yoga. I just did a 35 minute session and it was great. Stretched out the tender spots and got to actually relax for a few even though my son was intent on explaining the finer details of his new favorite show The Power Rangers. Which of course is only slightly less annoying than Cailou. If you have kids, you know that 4 year old brat is pretty annoying. I do my yoga at home thru Verizon OnDemand, Exercise TV. Hopefully I can sign up for a class sometime soon to get the full hands on experience. I took a pilates class a while ago and I really liked it. So start slow, learn the movements. Even if you only do it once, you could at least learn some new stretches to use after warmup or on days you're feeling tight.

No strength training for me today since it would be shoulder presses and my shoulder is acting up. Need to rest and ice. Not much else to report.

Power Yoga - 35 minutes

*Food Tip: Mara Natha Organic Peanut Butter. Awesome.

Welcome back motivation

If you've kept up with me this far you know I've been feeling pretty unmotivated, tired, lazy, sore etc... thank god thats over with, at least for now. Even with less sleep (thank you Dallas Cowboys) and no breakfast this morning I felt good.  Got a new PR on my back squat. My max was 1@160. Today I hit 3@160 plus one more but I may not have been completely parallel. Even my pull ups felt good. Did a little mish mash of stuff after. Bob did some dumbbell split squats last week that I wanted to try so I worked on them, did some lunges which are always a 'why did I choose to do these' exercise for me and kettlebell swings. KB swings don't come easy for me, at least done properly. I tend to squat and pull instead of using the hips and core to drive. I'm sure my legs will be crying tomorrow but it's all good. I can work thru the sore squat legs. They tend to warm up faster than the sore back, shoulder, abs, traps... basically any other part of my body.

Didn't do much CF this weekend which has been nice. I needed to take a mini break and I feel like its paying off. It was a balmy 34 degrees when I was out in the garage at 8:45am this morning but I was ready to go. Haven't been able to say that lately.

The diet hit a little bump in the road on Saturday afternoon. We met some friends at the Christmas tree farm then stopped at a great restaurant afterwards. Little tradition we started a few years ago. It's the one time around the holidays we can all get together since everyone is so busy all the time. So my 'linner' (lunch and dinner) was snapper soup, 5-6 deep fried zucchini sticks, 2 crab cakes (no bread), 2 large onion rings and a Blue Moon. Doesn't sound that terrible right? Let me tell you something, when the body hasn't had deep fried anything, ranch dressing, mayo relish and a large beer at one sitting, it doesn't respond well. I felt like the bottom of a shoe in horse shit the rest of the night. While I was eating I knew it was going to make me miserable but I justified it by saying 'I've been so good, this will be my dinner too, I'll work it off, it's a special occasion', yadda yadda yadda. When you have to justify eating something, it's probably not worth it. At least thats what I came up with after my 5th Tums.

Saturday
*eggs w/broccoli, collards, beef. Crab cakes, soup, onion rings, zucchini sticks, beer linner. Cracker snacks later,
warmup:
10-5 count
supermans
ironmans
hollowrocks
squats
good mornings
stretching

CFSB3 w2/d4
Bench Press
warmup: 5x35, 40, 50#
work: 3x60, 65, 75#(5)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 8/2: 5-4-3-2-2

Random stuff
10 TTB
20 kettlebell swings
10 20# med ball cleans
10x45# front squat

Sunday

*muffin w/pb breakfast, turkey, hummus, pretzels snack, chili w/brown rice dinner.Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 8/2: 5-4-3-2-2
Rest Day

Monday

*no breakfast, eggs w/chili and cheddar lunch, almonds snack, dinner will be roaster chicken and veggies.
warmup:
10 good mornings
10 hpc
10 tuck jumps
10 squats
pt stretching/lacrosse ball mobility

CFSB3 w3/d1
Back Squats
warmup: 5x70, 80, 100#
work: 5x125, 3x145, 1x160#(4)PR!
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups:
Step 8/3: 5-4-3-2-2

Squatastic WOD - (nft)
10x20# dumbbell lunges
20 kettlebell swings
10x20# bulgarian split squats
10x20# dumbbell lunges
20 kettlebell swings
10x20# bulgarian split squats

Happy happy deadlift day

So today I decided to do my deadlift strength work. I usually do them on Saturdays with Bob then we do a workout together. But 99.9% of the time I'm slightly hungover on Saturday so I decided to do them today instead. Smart am I. Last weeks almost failure @175 had my panties in a bunch all week. I know I can do better. Today I got 4@185 off the ground pretty successfully. Most of the time I have Bob there to tell me you're doing this or that.. or looks good etc. I recorded it so I can see if my form was lacking at that weight and I'll tell you, after watching tons and TONS of videos and reading commentary on what was wrong or right, I think I'm doing pretty well.  All in all a happy day. I didn't do a metcon today though, still struggling with 'do I take time off or lighten the load'. Think I'm going to lighten the load instead for a few days. My body feels good so I don't want to take time off, but mentally I'm tired. So tired. Gearing up for a heavy day or horrible sounding wod is tough on the brain as well as the body. Not to mention all the other shit I have to do like take care of my kids and the house. My son has been especially tough this week so I'm feeling a little beat down by that. Anyone that has kids knows some days are just exhausting and you can't wait to put them to bed.... or yourself for that matter. Anyway, for all the trouble he's caused I know he'll turn it around and be my sweet little guy again. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Not much else going on, ordered some presents online to avoid actually shopping in the store. Hate holiday shopping. Too hot, too crowded and way too many assholes out. Like today for example... there is this major intersection, 4 lanes all directions and construction screwing everything up. I was in the left hand turn lane, the two cars in front of me started to go then had to stop in the middle of the intersection so a construction truck could pass thru. The workers held up the stop sign until the truck passed. At this point my light had turned red and the opposite lights turned green. Don't you know, instead of letting the two cars that were stuck in the middle of the fucking intersection continue to make their left turn the cars in the other lanes started going around them. In front and behind so the stuck cars couldn't move if they wanted to. Unbelievable. What a bunch of assholes. Ok expletive laced rant over.

Friday
warmup:
20 kettlebell swings
10 good mornings
10 hpc
10 snatch
10 squats
yoga stretching

CFSB3 w2/d3
Deadlifts
warmup: 5x85, 105, 125#
work: 3x145, 165, 185#(4)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 8/1: 5-4-3-2-2

*Food tip - want 'tacos' but not all the fat? We did marinated grilled flank steak, sliced thin, smashed avocado w/lime and s&p, tomato and onion relish w/red wine vinegar and oil and topped with a little greek yogurt and wrapped them in a lettuce leaf. Messy but really good and light on calories. Settles the taco craving. 

 

So I was reading this post

on my forum today about doing extra work besides the daily wods and it got me thinking. My opinion and its just that, is I think people stress out too much about numbers and times and percentages and how much they feel they should be lifting or how fast they should be. Now, with that said, I think it's great to have numbers to strive for and expectations that want to be met but come on, don't overanalyze it. Just do it. Just look at the workout and adjust to what you can handle. It's not rocket science. If you can handle more or need less, note it for next time. If you suck at something, practice it. If you're good at something use it to your advantage. I see the times for the metcons posted by inhuman athletes and they should be unobtainable to a certain extent. Most of them have been Crossfitting for years and train really hard every day. I'm not one of them and I'm fine with that. I know I can't or won't come close to those numbers... and if by some small miracle I do, kudos to me. I do my workouts at my speed and to my capability. If that means I'm 10 minutes slower, so be it. It's still a very challenging workout, it still excites me to know I can complete it and I still look forward to doing it 5-6 days a week. Not everyone can say that about an exercise program.

Now the main point of the post was why do people do extra work and it was answered with some people shouldn't and some people should depending on your capabilities.... more or less. I do strength work to get stronger. Period. I was at the point where I needed to push myself a little bit more and I didn't start it until after a year of suffering thru 5-6 workouts a week and learning proper movements. Do I post great times on metcons? Not all the time but I fall pretty close to some of the stronger people on the board. And you know what? I'm happy with that. I don't need to post a 3 minute Fran to prove anything. I'm 40 years old and in the best shape of my life. I feel great, my diet is clean, I'm at my lowest weight since I was 21 years old, my flab is gone and I can deadlift 205lbs. Thats proof enough for me that I've been doing something right over the past 18 months. I think sometimes people expect results too soon. No one likes to put in the time or the effort and those people fail. Be happy with your accomplishments whether it takes 6 months or 2 years. The end result is a healthier, fitter stronger you. Thats the only real goal right?

Tuesday
warmup:
10 good mornings
10 ohs
10 c&j
10 squats
20 mini ghd sit ups (on physio ball)
stretching

CFSB3 w2/d1
Back Squats
warmup: 5x70, 85, 100
work: 3x120, 135, 150#(3)
last set max reps

WOD
3x
5 OHS - 45#
10 TTB
20 wall balls - 12#
6:22

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/14: 4-4-2-2-2

Wednesday

warmup:
10 good mornings
5x45 cleans
10 squats
stretching

CFSB3 w2/d2
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x35, 45, 55#
work: 3x60, 70 80#(3)PR!
last set max reps
**Previous 1RM was 80.

“Wood”
Pack
5 Rounds for time of: 3 rounds
Run 400 meters - subbed jump rope 2 min ea
10 Burpee box jumps, 20” box
65 pound Sumo-deadlift high-pull, 10 reps - curl grip barbell rows
65 pound Thruster, 10 reps
Rest 1 minute
18:09 w/rest

*Notes - Felt good today. Actually beat my 1rm on the press and got 3. Couldn't eek out another but at least I got 2 more than before. Hero wod was tough. Had to sub 2 things but still a good one. Legs are feeling the heavy squats the other day. May need a break tomorrow... we'll see. 

Strength training or just lifting heavy stuff

I'm into my third month of a strength training program and I think it's going well. Haven't tested my 1RM yet to see what improvements I've made but I can tell you, it's kicking my ass. Over the weekend I did deadlifts. My last set was 5@175. I barely got it off the floor each time. It felt like someone was pulling it back down. My 1RM for DLs is 205. So yeah, technically I should be able to lift 175 with no problem....well, I shouldn't say no problem, because it was. I usually like the deadlift but Saturday, not so much. They felt really heavy. Really heavy. Did I forget to mention I drank tequila and stayed up way too late the night before? Oh right, yeah, that may have something to do with it. Lots of tequila + little sleep + heavy deadlifts = misery. Got it.

Today was back squats. Last set was 3@150. Felt good and should have pushed for max reps but I didn't.  Total lack of motivation today. All I want to do is take a nap. Maybe its the weather, dark and rainy today, maybe its pms, the kids, stress of Christmas coming up... I don't know but I'm in a funk. I'm doing the work, hating it, but doing it, I'm eating right, I'm sleeping, 10 hours last night. I hate to think I'm overtrained because that means I need a break longer than one rest day. I'm afraid if I take more than 2 days I'll have a hard time finding the zone again. Take it day by day I guess. I think I should take a few weeks off the strength stuff after this round and get back into suffering thru some ugly metcons at heavier weights. Need to move out of my comfort zone. My shoulder has also been an issue. It's been pretty painful over the last few days so thats bumming me out as well. It will be almost a year since I've been suffering with it. I will say it's not as bad as it used to be, but it still forces me to alter my WODs which I'm tired of doing. If I didn't have this problem my OHS which I used to love, would be higher than 65#. Before last March I was able to get 85# over my head. Now 65# is hard. Oh well, enough whinning, I'll get over it.

Saturday
warmup:
10 snatch balance
10 ohs
10 good mornings

CFSB3 w1/d3
Deadlifts
warmup: 5x85, 105, 125#
work: 5x135, 165, 175#(5)
last set max reps
*No metcon*

Sunday
warmup:
w/16.5# bar
10 good mornings
10 ohs
10 c&j
10 snatch
stretching

CFSB3 w1/d4
Bench Press
warmup: 5x35, 40, 50#
work: 5x55, 60, 70#(10)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/13: 4-4-2-2-2

WOD - nft
2x15 incline dumbbell - 15#
2x10 tricep pressdown - blue band
2x10 curl grip barbell row - 45, 55#
2x15 ab rollouts

Monday - Rest day

Tuesday
warmup:
10 good mornings
10 ohs
10 c&j
10 squats
20 mini ghd sit ups (on physio ball)
stretching

CFSB3 w2/d1
Back Squats
warmup: 5x70, 85, 100
work: 3x120, 135, 150#(3)
last set max reps

WOD
3x
5 OHS - 45#
10 TTB
20 wall balls - 12#

6:22

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/14: 4-4-2-2-2

Can't. Lift. Arms.

OK, thats a bit dramatic. I can lift them, just not very high or for very long. Wow. Take a few days off from the weights and ouch. Between the shoulder presses and the damn rope climbs yesterday my upper body is beat up. I am happy that I was able to get up the rope pretty easily though even after not doing it for quite a while. I guess it's like riding a bike, once you learn you can always do it, it just hurts when you haven't done it in a while. The key is learning to use the rope around one foot and gripping it with the other. Once you get that down, it's pretty easy to pull yourself up. Well, easier. If you don't have access to a rope or can't climb it, you can wrap a towel around a pull up bar and simulate climbing. I don't know if the towel pull up sub ever did anything for me. I think it was overall upper body strength from all the training then doing rope climbs with my feet on the tree...like I was walking up the tree. Doing that is much more difficult than towel pull ups and you actually get the feel of gripping the rope and pulling your body weight. Much more effective but not everyone has access to a rope or a good tree to hang it from so I get the sub. Just don't like it I guess.

Regardless, I like the rope climbs but my arms are shot and my shoulder is killing me. Taking a rest day today. Not that I actually rest, but I'm not exercising at all and I have some important stuff to do today. Buy new boots, go food shopping and play Modern Warfare 3. Yep, I'm a gaming nerd. Love video games. If I could, I would play all day long. No lie. It's as much of a sickness for me as CrossFit and cheese. Although at least with CrossFit, I know when to stop.... most of the time.

Have a good one!

Phew... that was a long week

Here I am. I made it thru a long week filled with too much food and alcohol (2 1/2 bottles of Patron, coffee flavored vodka, wine and bloody marys), little sleep, visiting parents, dogs, family stomach virus and turning 40. Not even sure where to begin but I'll make it short. Thanksgiving dinner was awesome as usual and I didn't completely lose control on the deserts. One piece of pumpkin pie and a few pieces of homemade chocolate candy brittle. Come on who could pass that up.

Saturday morning about 3am my daughter threw up all over her bed. Fucking fabulous. What a way to start the day. That continued for the rest of the day but thanks to the generosity of my parents, they told us to keep our plans for my 40th birthday. So we stayed overnight at a great little hotel in Phila. We had a wine sampling, a fantastic dinner, veal stuffed with proscuitto and moz, and biscotti and coffee for desert. Sunday morning we ran up to the Phila Art Museum which was about 2.5 miles, ran the steps.... 3 times for me, about 6 for Bob, then did 10 burpees and back 2.5 to the hotel. It was a beautiful morning. From the top of the steps you could see down to city hall, the sun was coming up behind it, there were 3 people and no traffic. Couldn't ask for a better day.... it could have been a tad warmer for me, but for those of you who do run, it was a perfectly cool 50-55 degrees.

Then the magic began. My son got sick that morning and we were home about 2 hours before I fell ill. I was in bed from 1pm Sunday until 7am Monday. It was a horrible day even though I don't remember much of it. I do know this, I will probably never eat a soft boiled egg again. Shudder. Both Bob and my mom were sick the next 2 days. What a nightmare. But anyway happy to report everyone is feeling good... or maybe I should just keep my mouth shut so I don't jinx us.

I did keep up my workout schedule for the most part. Obviously the virus kept me down 2 days but I'm proud I stuck with it last week. My eating was ok, too many carbs and grains and I can feel the difference. I just feel shitty. Well, felt. Yesterday was detox day, turkey, hummus, grilled salmon salad with lemon caper dressing.... back on track. Amazing how the body reacts to good food.

Oh and the best part, I got a new iPhone for my birthday. Yahoo! Mine was dying a slow death so this was a timely replacement. And Siri is terrific. Used her this morning as a matter of fact. 'Hey Siri, how many feet in 200 meters?' Answered me in 2 seconds. Fantastic. Also got to talk to our tattoo artists on Saturday. Seemed like really nice guys. Got some artwork priced out. Now it's just finding the time to get down to the city and someone to watch the kids. I'm finally going to do it. I figured how bad could it hurt, shit I've had 2 kids, can't be any worse than that right? Maybe I'll ask Siri.

Just going to start with todays WOD.

warmup:
10 good mornings
10 snatch
10 clean and jerk
10 sdhp
stretching

CFSB3 w1/d2
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x35, 45, 55#
work: 5x60, 65, 75#(5)
last set max reps

WOD
Pack
Complete as many rounds in fifteen minutes of:
15 foot Rope climb, 2 ascents
20 Wall ball shots, 14 pound ball - 12#
Run 200 meters
Women - 10

3 rounds + 2 rope climbs + 20 wall balls

*Notes - rope climbs were good, one of them I didn't make all the way up. Couldn't get a grip since my shoes were muddy and arms were tired but did better than I thought I would. Max rep @75 couldn't get past 5, had to jerk it a tiny bit to finish. Shoulder was hurting pretty bad last night, not to terrible this morning but aggravated it with the presses.

Busy busy

Haven't been able to post the last few days. The parents are in town from Florida for the holiday and the house has just been crazy. But I have been sticking to my workout schedule as much as possible. I refuse to get lazy and fall off the wagon. Today I basically did Fran, which I suck at. Just couldn't get those thrusters up fast enough. The pull ups were supposed to be weighted but since I can barely do regular why would I torture myself further? I was however able to do all 35 pull ups unassisted today. It may be the first time I've done that many unassisted. Proud moment for someone who couldn't pull herself up an inch when I first started.

Anyway, gearing up for turkey day. Menu is planned, not all the food is bought but hey, I'll get to it. Going to start cooking today at some point. Can you tell I'm super motivated about it? Maybe I need some wine or tequila. That will probably help. Yep, theres my plan.

Can't remember where I left off on the wod posts but I'll start from Saturday.

Saturday
warmup:
10xbroomstick ohs
10x16.5# HPC
10x16.5# snatch balance
10x16.5# good mornings
10 kte
stretching/mobility

CFSB2 w4/d1
Deadlifts
warmup: 5x80, 100, 120#
work: 5x150, 3x170, 1x190#(2)
last set max reps

CFSB2 w4/d2
Bench Press
warmup: 5x30,40,45
work: 5x60, 3x65, 1x75#(6)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/9: 4-4-2-2-2

No WOD today, short on time.

Sunday

warmup:
400m
10x16.5 snatch balance
10 good mornings

WOD

Snatch Balance
1-1-1-1-1-1-1
45-45-55-55-55-65-65#

Form was just ok. Need to practice.

Monday

warmup: 

10x16# good mornings
5 burpees
5x45# ohs
10 kte
squats
stretching

CFSB2 w4/d4
Back Squat - deload
5x60, 80, 95#

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/9: 4-4-2-2-2

Tuesday

warmup:
stretching
10x16# good mornings
10x16# snatch balance
10 squats

CFSB2 w4/d4
Shoulder Press - deload
5x30, 40, 45#

WOD
Pack: (Those of you who normally do not do Fran with 95#‘s)
Three rounds, 15-12-and 9 reps, for time of:
95 pound barbell Thrusters - 65#
30 pound weighted Pull-ups - regular unassisted
Women:
65# Thrusters
15# Pull ups
8:28

GTO

There's something to be said about the GTO. No not the car, although they are pretty cool. The ground to overhead movement. In theory you think hmmm, I can do whatever I want as long as it comes off the ground and goes over my head. Piece of cake. Until the cake starts to crumble and you end up with... well, crumbs. My gtos weren't bad although some of them were squat clean push jerks, or deadlift hang clean shoulder press... you get the picture. I'll be the first to admit I'm a dumbbell dumbo. I just don't practice enough with them and get annoyed when two 20# dumbbells seem harder to lift over my head than doing 55# overhead squats. What is the deal there? My main theory, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that one arm is not as strong as two arms. Genius.

I am improving though. I can now safely do 20# without hurting myself. Well, not too much anyway. Todays workout wasn't too bad and I say that after having done burpees and 200m runs. They used to be two of my worst enemies. But now, eh, I can honestly say I would rather do them than thrusters and double unders. Thrusters are the devil and double unders the pitch fork.

Still pretty busy with the exception of right now of course. I decided to chill for a bit and get my turkey day menu in order. With a week away you say? Yes, control freak remember. I did check out some paleo recipes but wasn't thrilled by any of them so far. Definitely sticking with the favs but tweaking them a bit. If there is any one day of the year I will eat bread and white potatoes it will be my stuffing and mashed potatoes with gravy. It's one day, why suffer. I'll save that for my 40th birthday wod the next day. Oh and I won't be doing 150 wall balls thats for sure.

Wednesday
warmup:
10 good mornings
10 squats
tuck jumps
20 mountain climbers
stretching/mobility

WOD
Pack
21-15-9 reps for time of:
Sit up Wall ball, 6-8 pound ball - 12#
Wallball “2-fer-1s”, 14 pound ball - regular
Women - 6/10 pound ball
4:26

Thursday

warmup:
10 good mornings
10 broomstick ohs
10 box jumps
stretching

CFSB2 w2/d4
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x35, 40, 50#
work: 3x60, 65, 75#(3)
last set max reps

WOD
3x
10 burpees
200m
10 dumbbell GTO 20#
11:15

Recon Ron Pull ups

Step 7/8: 4-4-2-2-2

*Notes - easy wod on wednesday. Short on time so it was perfect. Use the 20# ball next time. SPs were ok today. Just couldn't get that 4th @75 up. Still an improvement. Think last 3rm was like 70. Shortened Bob's wod for time today. Still a good one. Pull ups felt ok. Delt is fine but lost some strength over the past week of not doing them. 

Tip - Need gloves to work out in your home garage in the winter? I grabbed mechanics gloves, $4.99 @Home Depot (for the race) used them today and they are awesome. Thin, rubber grip, mesh top. Not the warmest but good for days when the bar is really cold and your grip is poor. 

Oh and another thing...

I was so wrapped up in describing the obstacles on yesterdays post I forgot to mention the best part. My teammates. We had 13 great competitors with Bob and I on Sunday. There were plenty of laughs, cheers and encouragement. Everyone was supportive and always willing to lend a hand....even other fellow mudders. I can't tell you how many times strangers were yelling support and helping me get over or thru an obstacle. Thats what made it fun. We were all in the same boat, all tired, cold, wet and sometimes hurting but we all stuck together. The event itself was pretty well coordinated as well. There were plenty of water and food stops. They had bananas, protein shots and bars... the volunteers would cheer you on. It was quite the positive athletic atmosphere. Hopefully our teammate will send us some of the pictures his brother took from the sidelines. They should be awesome and I can't wait to share them.


I have to say, any of you that can do a 3 minute Fran rx'd, that right there is more pain in 3 minutes than any 10 obstacles I faced on Sunday. Yeah, believe it. But don't let that fool you into thinking the Mudder wasn't that bad because it was certainly hard, but for a strong CrossFitter, it was at times just a nice day in the park. Sure, I can say that now.

On to today. I couldn't bare the thought of heavy deadlifts since my shins and knees are still pretty bruised so I skipped them and did back squats and thrusters. My book has come to a complete hault. Haven't touched it since last Friday. 10000 and counting. Hopefully I can get some time this week to work on it. Odds are it's probably not going to happen since my parents will be here this weekend and I still have some things to get done. And I'm still trying to get the mud out of our shoes. 3 soakings so far and still dirty and sandy. Speaking of shoes, I've never been a Reebok fan. Haven't owned a pair in 20 years but I picked these up for the race and they were awesome. They are not flat but not thick soled like regular running sneakers either. I was really happy with them. No blisters, no toenail issues, they drain well, and as far as grip on the mud trails, they were pretty awesome. Happy with my choice.

Tuesday
warmup:
stretching/mobility
5 burpees
10 squats
20 ball slams
10 good mornings

CFSB2 w2/d3
Back Squats
warmup: 5x65, 80, 95#
work: 3x110, 125, 140(6)
last set max reps

WOD
Thrusters

1-1-1-1-1-1-1 reps
45-65-75-85-90-95-95#

Compare to 101020:
60-65-65-70-75-85(f)-85#

*Notes - felt strong today even with no breakfast. Lack of motivation, strength last week or so may be due to pms. Have to check next month to see the pattern. Thought I could pull out 100 on the 1 rep thruster but not today. Rep 6@95 was weak so just stayed with it for the 7th. Was more like a squat then a push press. Left delt felt like I strained it on the first 4 pull ups. May have tweaked it on sunday and not realized it. Bugger. 

I've been tenderized....

So here I am. I experienced the Tough Mudder and live to tell about it. I've got plenty of nasty bruises and possibly a burn mark on my back from the shock therapy but it was all worth it. Physically it was demanding, but there wasn't one second where I thought I couldn't do it. Don't get me wrong, the obstacles were tough, but... and not to sound like a broken record, if I hadn't been doing CrossFit this past year or so, I wouldn't have made it thru as well as I did. Today I feel fine with the exception of the bruises but I don't have any sore muscles or aching body parts. I've actually felt worse after a normal WOD. Funny how CrossFit raises your tolerance for the suck. As far as the mudder, endurance and upper body strength is key. If you don't have at least one of those, you will not make it. Ok, maybe you will, but you will need a lot of help from some friendly mudders.

The first obstacle was an ice bath. You jumped into a big box filled with ice (up to my neck) and had to swim under a wall in the middle. I think shear adrenaline got me thru that because when you went under it was hard to push thru all the ice. For a split second I thought there was another wall it was so thick. But I got out and moved on. Second was a rope swim across a river. Now that was cold. You think the ice bath would have been worse but the 'swim' across the water was longer. My body was numb and I actually thought I wouldn't be able to finish it I was so cold. I couldn't even get my body to move to climb up the rope ladder. I had to bail on that and crawl out on the side. The next one was the 20' platform jump back into the river to another rope swim across. When I got to the top and looked over my first reaction was no way, can't do it. Too high. Bob jumped immediately and I stood there, and stood there, even let another person go ahead of me. I think for me at that point I was just so cold and I didn't want to get back in the water. Had it been a summer day I would have done a cannonball off that thing. Finally I said fuck it and screamed all the way down. I got a nice nose full of water and I swear it took me 30 seconds to get to the top, but it was probably more like 4 or 5. All I remember is Bob yelling and the safety guy saying, you're ok, keep moving and I did. That was terrifying and probably the worst obstacle mentally for me. I've never jumped off of anything that high but I'm so glad I did it. I would have regretted not doing it afterwards.

After that it was a run to the shorter Berlin Walls, maybe some hay bail obstacle... can't remember. The 'Mud Mile' was interesting. It was literally a long trench filled with mud and water. The tricky part was that you couldn't see the holes and bumps under the water so if you hit one you slipped off  and you went down. The cargo nets were cool, if only other people were smart enough to just roll it would have been a breeze. Instead you had people trying to crawl on them and get stuck. There was a good few miles of plain ole running, up and down muddy hills. They weren't bad at all. There was one giant hill which looked daunting when you came upon it but as long as you got some speed and kept moving it wasn't bad either. I could see where some people wouldn't be able to get up because it is mud after all, but I didn't have a problem with that.

The belly crawl under the cargo net was a bit tougher than I thought it would be. As long as you had people in front of you, especially someone who was bigger than you, they would hold it up and clear a path. For me I got thru 3/4 of it pretty easily until the people in front of me got out. Then the net dropped and man, it was heavy. Heavier than I expected. The underground tunnels were challenging because of the whole claustrophobia issue. You had to crawl in the mud underground. At least it wasn't filled with water but it was completely dark, black, and there were turns and bends to screw up your sense of direction. I was happy I had a team mate behind me so I could hear his voice. If I was alone, there might have been a problem. The second set of tubes were filled with some water you had to crawl on your belly thru. And just incase you thought you would get up to avoid crawling thru on your belly, there was barb wire over it. Tricky bastards. That wasn't bad for me since I'm small. I was able to crawl on my hands and knees thru the last one that went a bit uphill... it was slippery but a friendly mudder helped me out.

There were another set of walls, higher this time. Probably 12'. I got over them with two guys giving me a shove up. It's the drop on the other side thats scary. I skipped the second one since my shoulder was starting to hurt. Dummy me hung on too long on the drop and tweaked my shoulder. After that was the 1/4 pipe. Think of the half pipe that snowboarders and skaters use, but obviously open on one side. It was about 20' high.. I think. Daunting to say the least. Bob ran up it like a monkey climbing a tree and got up on the first attempt. I think about 3-4 of the guys were up there to help the rest of us. I was the first girl to take off. I just ran my ass off got about 2 inches from they're hands, missed and slid on my stomach all the way back down. That was actually fun. I heard a lot of 'awwwwws' as I did which made it funnier. I let a few more people go then I took another run at it and actually was able to grab someone.... or they grabbed me. And then my biggest fear, they started pulling me up with my right arm, my bad shoulder before I was able to grab someone elses hand with my left. That really hurt. I almost passed out. After they pulled me up I was afraid my shoulder was going to be dislocated. I'm actually surprised it wasn't. But I will say this, when I first saw that thing I thought there would be no way in hell I would make it up and I think the satisfaction of doing it actually helped me ignore the pain. That was one of the funniest obstacles to watch. There were some big dudes that couldn't get halfway up. I think Bob and our other teammates were trying to pull one of the big guys up by his shirt for like 30 seconds. His ass was hanging out, it was a mess, then they had to let him go. Hilarious.

The tire run around the race track wasn't too hard, then I think we were back on the mud hills for a few miles, over a rope fence and thru some deep mud trail in the woods. The fire mud pit was just nasty. You didn't have to run on hot coals or anything like that. It was just hay bails on fire and you ran in the middle of them thru the mud. It was hard to breath and see obviously. Not my favorite with the exception of it being really warm in there which was a blessing. There were some balance beams over water which I did no problem. I had to yell at some big guy who wanted to get on the beam with me. I think I said 'hey man get off!' I don't remember. I just remember thinking I am not going for a swim because of that guy, I'm almost to the end! He was shaking that thing all over the place! I didn't want to get wet again, it was just starting to get warm. Bob ended up falling off like a foot from the end because too many people were on the same beam. I didn't even try the monkey bar challenge with my bad shoulder. I would just hurt it more. I knew that going in if there was one I couldn't do, it would be that. Bob almost got to the end and slipped off with 2 more to go. I thought for sure he would make it. But of course you landed in water, or if you chose to skip it, you still had to wade thru waist high water and pull yourself out on to the landing. The next one was swimming under barrels in the lake. I chickened out. I'm woman enough to admit I was scared. It was freezing and I just didn't think I could swim under them without panicking.

After another mile or so we came up to the last obstacle. Electric shock therapy. Funny thing about this was when I saw the videos, I thought wow, that would be scary but cool and blew it off as eh, I'm not worried about that. Wow, talk about karma. It was by far the most painful experience for me next to giving birth. There were beams over head with dangling shock wires but you couldn't just run thru them like in the videos I saw. They put hay bails under neath so you had to crawl over them which meant you were going to touch the wires no mater what. And if that didn't suck enough, the hay bails were wired with shocks too. Tricky sons of bitches. It wasn't very big and there were a few people stuck in there afraid to move (now I understand why) so only a few could go at a time. Bob took off, Mike took off after him. Once they moved up past the first set of hay I just dove in. Fuck it. Didn't even think about it. I immediately got a small shock on my back or arm, then I crawled over a barrel that shocked me so bad my whole body twitched. I actually heard the buzzing sound. Then I completely freaked out and jumped over the next bail which caused me not only to get shocked really bad again across my whole body, but I hit the dangling wires on top at the same time. The second shocked me so hard it caused my mouth to snap shut. With one final leap I was finally out hitting a few danglers as I crawled on my hands and knees. I was in so much pain for about 10 seconds I collapsed on the ground after muttering something incoherent, and probably dropped a few f bombs too. Bob actually blacked out in there two times. He said it was weird he didn't feel the shock but it was like he couldn't move. It was definitely scary. Seeing the other girls faces after I got out, I could tell they were scared. They even told me when they were done that when they saw me drop to the ground they were thinking oh no. But we all made it, hooked arms and crossed the finish line together.

It was such a surreal experience. While I was doing it I wasn't thinking. It was ok, what do we have to do, ok, do it, help the others, move on. Just like a 'chipper'. You know its probably going to suck, but you suck it up do it and keep going. Endurance wise, I felt great. Doing the obstacles, I was usually the first one to try it out of the women. The mental game is tough. You can't over think anything otherwise you would be too scared to do any of it. There were always ways around the obstacles. You technically didn't have to do anything. But why would you do that? What's the point? I was proud after all 30 or so obstacles I only wussed out on 1. And according to everyone that did that one, they said I made a good choice.

If I learned anything its that I'm more capable that I thought. I will never forget jumping off that platform. For me that was huge. I've never been so scared. But sometimes you just have to say fuck it and jump in.

Saturday
Rest day

Sunday
12 mile mudder.

Monday
Active Rest day - cleaning the 10lbs of mud out of our clothes and shoes.

Guilt

I know I needed a rest day yesterday but why do I feel so guilty when I take one? I also noticed I feel so sluggish and tired by the end of the day. You would think the opposite would be true since I didn't do anything other than 14 pull ups. Big whoop. I didn't eat properly either... appetite is all over the place right now. I'm just not hungry some days which isn't good. My calorie consumption has been really low. Good to lose a few pounds but not good for my energy levels at all. I've also had little to no motivation this week for WODs. Maybe I'm going thru a lull. I haven't been doing my regular WODs from my forum since they've all been heavy on overhead stuff lately. My shoulder has been giving me some problems and the last thing I want to do is aggravate it for Sunday. I watched about 45 minutes of mudder videos yesterday for some inspiration... or laughs. What could be funnier than a person getting shocked and doing a face plant in the mud right? Ut oh, I think I hear karma knocking on the door. Oh wait, thats actually my 4 year old son smashing his sisters bedroom door with a transformer. She has her little girlfriend over today and they've locked themselves in her room with the words no boys allowed. Poor bud. I had a feeling this would happen.

Not much else to report other than the bbq sauce I made the other day works really well with turkey meatloaf. Tomorrow will be another rest day with some foam rolling and plenty of water, carbs and protein. Off to the race by 5:30am on Sunday. I'll post the torturous details when I can lift my arms.

Thursday
Rest day
Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/6: 4-4-2-2-2

Friday
warmup:
stretching
squats

WOD - from CrossFit Phoenixville
21-15-9
kettlebell swing - 20#
kettlebell squats
kettlebell snatch R
kettlebell snatch L

9:15

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/7: 4-4-2-2-2

*Notes - feeling sluggish thursday, in a crappy mood, body still sore and overworked. Kb workout was ok. Focused on good form for snatches, not so much time. Still need more practice with the kb's. 9 set was done without putting the kb down. Pull ups felt weak today. Not sure why.

Lets get this over with

That was my approach to working out today. Sucks when I feel this way but some days it happens. Usually I only feel the 'lets get this over with' when I see a WOD thats taking people 30 minutes or more to finish. You just know it's going to be a sufferfest. But today between having too much other stuff to do and being sore, all I could muster was my strength and pull up programs. Hey, at least I did something. It's easy to just say eh, I'm taking a rest day but I can't do that without feeling guilty since I just had one 2 days ago. I'm starting to realize that the day after I eat chicken breast for dinner that it doesn't really hold me over. Don't get me wrong, I love the recipe and I made MDA's primal bbq sauce... which is awesome by the way, but I just don't think it's enough calories to hold me over for a morning workout with no breakfast. Now I know, and thats why I blog about it. I'm finally learning, yay me.

Yesterday I did pretty well with the heavy back squats. Actually got 9@135. Thats 5 pounds over bodyweight. I didn't eat before, but I did have spaghetti and meatballs for dinner the night before. Carbs help. I try to stay away from too many for obvious reasons, but I guess sometimes my body just needs a few extra in storage.

The book is coming along. Slowly but surely. It's hard to find any extended period of quiet time to focus so thats been holding me back. I'm up to 11-12 pages, about 7700 words. Got stuck last night but thats because I was half watching Biggest Loser at the same time. Love that show. If you're ever feeling down about your weight or struggling mentally to get in a groove with working out, watch that show. It's downright inspirational. Although I could do without all the crying all the time. I have gotten a few ideas from the trainers which by the way I notice they do a lot of modified CrossFit stuff. I do think they spend too much time on the dreadmills, but hey, I'm no trainer and these people are losing 60-100 pounds in 6 weeks. Doesn't sound healthy to me but it makes for good tv. Now if only I could break my Wednesday night viewing of 'American Horror Story'. That show is way to creepy to watch before bed but I can't look away. Check it out if you like creepy shows. Although, if you haven't seen it, I would wait until the whole season is available on Hulu or something.

Tuesday
warmup:
400m
10x25# plate squats
stretching

CFSB2 w1/d3
Back Squats
warmup: 5x65, 85, 95#
work: 5x105, 120, 135#(9)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/4: 4-4-2-2-2

WOD - NFT
mini chippy
20 kettlebell swings - 20#
20 wall ball - 12#
20 push ups
20 sit ups
10 ohs - 16.5#
20 burpees

Wednesday
warmup:
jump rope
squats
stretching

CFSB2 w1/d4
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x35, 40, 50#
work: 5x55, 60, 70#(5)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/5: 4-4-2-2-2

*Notes - felt great on the back squats. Just did a made up wod after. Want to keep the shoulder happy which means no heavy barbell stuff. Shoulder presses were ok. 70 felt really heavy today, could only get 5 and struggled with the last one. No breakfast, light dinner night before of bbq chicken breast. Pull ups are getting easier, but still need to stick with this step for another week until I get them done without taking too much rest between. Right now I'm taking about 1-2 minutes between the 4's, about 30 seconds between the 2's. Still feeling good about them though. 

Wonder Twin powers activate

So it looks like my nickname may be 'wonder twin' according to my Mudder team leader. Bob being the other twin of course. Got up at 4:15am yesterday (thanks god for the extra hour) to go to the last Mudder training run at Valley Forge Park before the race this weekend. When I arrived, after I introduced myself to the other mudders I haven't met before, our team is 20 strong, I got a 'I heard you rocked' response. Then I was referred to as Bob's wife 'the other half of the wonder twins'. Thought that was nice of them although I don't like to be automatically pinned as someone who is going to smash the mudder course because it's more than likely going to smash me. I will say this, for the second time I beat most of my team mates on the course. No it's not about that, but it makes me feel better. I'm a glass half empty girl, I just assumed the women that had done this before would kick my butt. I always thrived on competition, maybe thats why I picked up on CrossFit so well. I like the challenge. There are a few men on my CF forum that I used as a standard to come close too. Unfortunately there really aren't enough women that post often enough to compare myself too.

The run went well yesterday. It was a bit cold at 6am but what can you do. I skipped the belly crawl thru the water this time. There were 2 other opportunities so I opted to hold out getting wet as long as I could. When we got to the last water crossing which should be about waist high for me.... I say should because I slipped on a slimy rock and the left half of my body was submerged up to my shoulder. Yikes. It was effin cold. After a few choice curse words I pulled myself out to the sound of laughter from my fellow mudders. Nice. After that it took me quite a while to get warm. Luckily the last part of the run was in the sun. There was a photographer there at the waterfall where some of the guys went in. He took a few pictures of them and a group shot of us which was cool. I have his site and will post it when he puts the photos up. He thought we were nuts but hey, you have to be to do the Mudder right?

I think this week I'll take it easy. Taking an unscheduled rest day today after the 6.5 mile run yesterday and the heavy deadlifts on Saturday. The legs are shot. Today would have been heavy back squats, thats not going to happen. I also have a ton of stuff to do. Too much on my plate as usual. My parents are coming up from Florida in 2 weeks for turkey day which means cleaning out the guest room, hanging the blinds in the family room, doing some yard work, stressing out about the race and I'm writing this 'book'. I'll use the word loosely since like I've said, I'm not a writer. Anyone who reads this blog would probably agree. My thoughts are all over the place most of the time. Oh and taking care of the normal daily stuff around the house and my kids too.

Saturday
*bacon and eggs w/kale. Filet w/sweet pots, sauteed collards
warmup:
jump rope ladder (increments of 5, mess up start over) - up to 40
stretching/mobility
10x25# plate squats

CFSB2 w1/d1
Deadlifts
warmup: 5x80, 100, 120#
work: 5x130, 150, 170#(6)
last set max reps

w1/d2
Bench Press
warmup: 5x30, 40, 45#
work: 5x50, 60, 65#(10)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
Step 7/2: 4-4-2-2-2

WOD
3 rounds
10 wall ball - 12#
10 push jerk - 55#
10 bar facing burpees
6:40

Sunday

6.5 mile training run

*Oatmeal w/pb, nuts, flax, shredded coconut. Good fuel for the run. Post run: gatorade, cereal bar, eggs w/turkey, collards, cheese. Dinner: boboli pizza w/peppers, onions and chicken sausage. (treat)

Monday

Recon Ron Pull ups

Step 7/3: 4-4-2-2-2

Ut oh, 1 more week

to go before the Tough Mudder. What did I get myself into. I'm already freaking out and it's 9 days away. I think training wise I've done just about as much as I can. Physically I'm ready, mentally, well, thats another story. The mental aspect of any workout is usually the most difficult to work thru. We all know that. Sometimes you'll see a WOD and think, shit, this is going to suck and it usually does. Sometimes you think, eh, that doesn't sound so bad, but it's much worse. I know this, any CrossFitter knows this. Looking at the tough mudder video and course map is scary. I'm pretty sure I can handle 90% of the obstacles. It's the other 10% I'm worried about. It's the crawling on my belly thru a tube filled with mud and water that frightens me the most. I'm claustrophobic, and like most people I'm afraid of drowning. I know I won't drown since I'm a pretty decent swimmer, in a pool with a bathing suit. In mud, fully clothed who knows what will happen. But I can't dwell on it. I'll look at it as a 'chipper'. Just take my time, go thru each obstacle and do the best I can. The mental part for me other than claustrophobia is the cold and wet. That will be my downfall. I'm always cold. And running in wet clothes and shoes is no fun. I did it a few weeks ago during one of our training runs. Like anything else, I dealt with it because I had to. So hopefully that mentality will pull me thru the race. We found out we take off at 8am, the first wave of teams. Looking at the bright side of being the first team, is maybe the water won't be as disgusting. I've heard terrible stories of all sorts of shit floating in the water. Maybe the obstacles won't be as caked with mud and there won't be too much of a bottleneck at the obstacles. That could work to my advantage or not. Waiting in line to complete an obstacle would give me a much needed rest, but if not that means we could get thru the 11 miles at a fairly decent pace. Bare with me, my control freak is trying to organize the day. Thats what I do, can't help it. I'll move on.

My 50,000 word novel is coming along. One of the reasons I haven't posted in 3 days. I'm up to 7 pages, almost 4,000 words. I have the story in my head and it's all I can think about. My problem is that I'm not a writer. I'm not sure what the correct format is at times. If only I can rough draft it then have an actual writer clean it up. The contest is more about just writing though, just using this opportunity to try something new and thats how I'm looking at it. I am a little shocked at how violent I can be at times. I've seen too many horror movies I guess.

The workouts have been decent this week. I'm a little sore today, thank god it's a rest day for me. My shoulder has been acting up a little more than usual for some reason so I need to take a real break today. Well, I'll do my pull ups, but I swear, thats it! For anyone who is struggling with unassisted pull ups, the Recon Ron pull up program seems to be working. I actually did 13 dead hang pull ups yesterday. First time I've ever done that. No, not 13 consecutive yet. The most I had to do in a row was 4. The rest I took a 30 second or so break in between sets. Feel good about it. Although I have to practice using the  overhand grip rather than 'underhand' which is easier for me. Bob said it doesn't really matter. All that matters is that I get full extension each time and I'm doing them every day. That alone will make me better.

So here we go.

Wednesday
warmup:
stretching/mobility
10 burpees
squats

CFSB w4/d4
Shoulder Press - deload
5x30, 40, 45#

Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 5: 4-2-2-2-2

WOD (From CrossFit Phoenixville)
200m
3 thrusters (135/95) - 65#
200m
6 thrusters
200m
9 thrusters
200m
12 thrusters
200m
15 thrusters
*200m

14:22
*I did the last 200m by mistake.

Thursday
warmup:
stretching/mobility
squats

WOD (made up)
3 rounds for time:
10 dumbbell cleans - 20#
10 step ups - 17” 20#
10 renegade rows - 20#
6:57

Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 6: 4-3-2-2-2

*Notes - Pull ups getting easier. Thruster wod was tough. Last 2 rounds of thrusters had to break up into 3-4 sets. Dumbbell wod was good. 20# was tough on the cleans for me but all unbroken. wanted to try the whole wod without putting the dumbbells down but couldn't do it. The knurling on the handles killed my hands, and it was cold in the garage. Hands were killing me. Body is a bit sore today, abs still hurt from the kte 4 days ago. Must be doing something right. 

Recipe: Found a good recipe the other day. Baked rigatoni w/brussle sprouts, figs and blue cheese. No, not paleo friendly but for those of us who eat a little pasta and cheese every so often, this is a good one. Two improvements I would make, add chopped bacon, pancetta or proscuitto (if you can afford the extra fat and sodium that day), and put the blue cheese on top instead of mixing it in the hot pot like he says. It melted too much. I think the chunks of blue cheese would work better. And cover the dish with foil if you top with cheese otherwise it will burn. Remove cover for the last 5-7 minutes or so just to get golden. It was really good last night, but next time it will be awesome. 

Have a good weekend. 

Gotta work off the candy

Halloween is usually the beginning of a downward spiral of food overindulgence for me. It always starts with I'll have a few, then before you know the holidays are in full swing and I'm drinking a lot, eating apple pie, sugar cookies and cream whipped mashed potatoes. I can't let that happen this year.

We usually end up with way too much left over candy plus whatever the kids bring home. This year I didn't buy as much so there isn't much left thank god. I've already had 3 so far since last night. A mini Butterfinger, Snickers and a KitKat. So today I tortured myself with a 20 minute WOD. And I have a feeling I'll be doing the same the rest of the week. I also think I may do 5 burpees for every piece of candy I eat. Guess I better get going on that. Shoulder feels kinda iffy so I had to scale back on the weight today. Not sure why it's acting up since I took a rest day yesterday and did nothing but run on Sunday. Anyway, good workout today. Tough on the forearms. They totally locked up on me during the cleans in round two. Wrists also took a beating for some reason. I'm thinking the lack of glucosomine and fish oil the past few days may have something to do with that. Proof that it does work.

This week I'll probably push myself a little harder and then take an easy week next since the Mudder is in 2 weeks. I certainly don't want to be sore or overworked for that. I have a feeling I'm going to need every ounce of strength.

Not much else going on today. Going to try my hand at writing a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. We'll see how that goes. I have what I think may be a pretty decent story, it's just a matter of finding the time to get it all out and in some sort of order that makes sense.

Brunch (after wod) : eggs w/turkey, kale and shrooms.
Snacks: Almonds, protein ball, dates
Dinner: Will be turkey meatloaf w/primal bbq (hopefully), squash, roasted carrots and brussle sprouts.

Monday
Rest day

Tuesday
warmup:
jump rope
10x broomstick ohs
squats
stretching/mobility

CFSB w4/d3
Back squats - deload
5x60, 75, 90#

Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 4: 3-2-2-2-1

WOD
3 rounds
15 overhead squats
15 pull ups
15 split jerk
15 knees to elbows
15 hang clean
15 good mornings w/16# bar
45# for all

19:02

*Notes - stamina felt good, body other than shoulder felt great. Wanted to do 55 but shoulder said no. RR pull ups getting... dare I say a tiny bit easier?

October snow, say it ain't so

Well it snowed here this weekend. If there's one thing you should know about me it's this, I don't like snow. OK, the first snow of the season is cool and I'm all for sledding with the kids and skiing, if I get the opportunity, but snow and 27 degree temps on October 29th? Come on already. Anyway that made for a cold and challenging trail run this morning. We couldn't do our normal Mudder Training at Valley Forge Park since the roads were pretty bad at 6am so we went to our local park. We started out at a creek bridge which was flooded out. It was certainly passable but at 8:30 and 32 degrees, we decided we didn't want to start off the run with freezing feet so we drove to another part of the park and got started there. We picked up the paved path for a while and then headed off road. Lots of icy rocks and leaves to trip us up and there were also a ton of downed trees in our way but we just looked at it a natural obstacle course. Most of the run seemed like it was uphill and my legs were not feeling that early on. Once we got warmed up and got into a groove the next few miles went pretty smoothly and we did cross over the flooded bridge, we're not sissies afterall. Overall it was a good run. Not quite as challenging as VF Park but a good workout.

Saturday Bob and I did a killer WOD. Five rounds 6 rep ground to overhead at half bodyweight for me or 65 pounds, 12 pull ups and 18 double unders. Doesn't sound like much but after round two I was beat. Wouldn't have been so bad if I didn't suck at double unders. I mean, what purpose do double unders serve except to annoy me? I should know better by now that if something 'doesn't sound so bad' it's worse.

Finished the weekend off with good comfort food MDA recipe called Moussaka. If anyone has seen it on the site today, word of warning, it took quite a while to make and it's very involved but it was worth it.

Saturday
warmup:
jump rope
stretching/mobility
10x5# ohs
squats

CFSB w4/d1
Deadlift - (deload week)
5x75, 95, 115#

CFSB w4/d2
Bench Press  - (deload week)
5x30, 40, 45#

Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 3: 3-2-2-1-1

WOD
Fat Jesus
5 rounds
6 GTO - 65#
12 Pull ups
18 Double unders
13:16

Sunday
Mudder Training
5 mile trail run

*Notes - Felt good saturday morning, good wod, felt like I kept a good pace. DLs and BPs were light so no problems there at all. The run sunday was tough in the beginning, felt slow and heavy. Ate 1/2 bowl of oatmeal, wasn't feeling great. After about 1 mile felt better, warmed up. Ankles and knees a little achy after.

General Tip: I love Under Armor clothes but today I realized the $23 Champion thermal shirt worked just as well as the $60 UA.

Tabata butt kicking

Not sure why I felt so beat up during and after todays Tabata WOD. Maybe because the 20 second work and the laughable 10 second rest just completely kills me. I like the idea of it, short, fast endurance based, but it is exhausting. Maybe it's because I didn't eat and didn't sleep well who knows. I do have a lot on my plate this weekend again so the control freak in me is already overwhelmed and that I'm assuming affects my performance. Remember, this blog is a work in progress. It's for me to figure out why I feel fantastic one day and crappy the next. We all know stress, poor diet and poor sleep are significant factors in performance and motivation and I'm not too motivated to get anything done today period. But... and I hate to use something that sounds so cliche, but, I think one major ideas that CrossFit has taught me is that you just keep going and don't give up. I used to give up and say something was too hard, too painful, too whatever, but not anymore.

Saw the Ortho again yesterday for a follow up. He thinks I may have biceps tendonitis. Which my physical therapist told me about 2 months ago. I'm still having pain in the shoulder but more in the front where the bicep tendon is. I am making progress with my flexibility and overall pain is diminishing so we are on a 'wait and see' approach. Give it another 6 weeks or so and see how I'm feeling. If I'm feeling better then just keep doing what I'm doing, if not we do an MRI/X-ray and see whats what. I've done some research on my own and it sounds like it could be anything from tendonitis to a torn rotator cuff. I think after the Mudder I'm going to call and request an MRI and get it over with so we know for sure. Very frustrating.

Thursday 
Rest day
Recon Ron Pull ups
Day 2: 2-2-1-1-1

Friday
Warmup:
jump rope
10 walking lunges w/10# plate overhead
stretching/mobility

Tabata Something Else
8 rounds each, 20 second on, 10 second rest
Pull ups - 11-14-10-10-9-7-8-8= 77
Push ups - 12-11-9-8-7-7-5-5= 64
Sit ups - 10-10-10-9-9-9-9-8= 74
Squats - 15-14-15-13-12-11-11-12= 103
Total: 318

*Notes - not feeling it today. Push ups were very hard. Sit ups almost made me puke and the squats wrecked my legs. Last time I did this wod I scored 360. I'm willing to bet I used the green band for the pull ups so that would add some reps. This time I used the blue band. Slow progress but progress none the less.

Go forth young grasshopper

Wow. Just got finished today's WOD and it was a core killer. Actually a full body killer. It was slow going since there were some new movements today which focused more on core strength and they are always a weakness for me. The 'Grasshopper' beat me up. For this movement you have to touch your shins to your arms from a piked position. Yeah, my body just doesn't bend like that. The video makes it look easy enough but we all know how that goes. The athletes that do the video demos are hardcore and can probably do them in their sleep. For the average xfitter like me, they weren't pretty. But I got them done. The up and downs which can be described as the burpees lazy sister weren't that bad but still tough on the arms and core. My lower back felt everyone of those since I obviously didn't tighten up like I should have. Lesson learned.

My strength program is coming along. Today was shoulder press for me which is another weakness. My 1 rep max was 80 last time I did them, meaning I barely got one up. But today I was able to get 4 reps at 75#. I've never gotten any more than 2-3. I'm pretty sure I'm supposed to hit some sort of pr every time, which I am so I guess I'm making progress. I'm basically just following the program Bob put together for me based on my numbers, a lot of it I don't understand to be honest, but it's a proven system and I want to get stronger so I just check my chart and do what needs to be done. At first I thought that there was no way I could do strength and a metcon in one day but actually it's not that bad. My tolerance for pain and suffering has improved immensely over the past year.

Also started the Recon Ron pull up program today. My pull ups are a thorn in my side. I can do a few dead hang now but can't really do more than 2-3 at a time. When I first started CrossFit I couldn't pull myself up an inch so I've definitely made improvements there, I'm just not where I want to be with them yet. Hopefully this program will help me get to where I can do them in a metcon without assistance.

I've noticed recently I've been having a snacking problem. Some nights I'm in the kitchen picking at stuff 5-6 times. I'm not eating crap, but eating none the less. Probably need more calories during the day. I've fallen into the habit of not eating in the morning and just making a huge lunch which may be working against me. Funny how the more food I eat meaning a solid breakfast, good lunch and dinner the better I feel and the more weight I lose. I know, duh? Bob told me the strength program zaps a lot of calories so I'm probably not eating enough. Hmmmm, does this mean I can eat cheese steaks and Italian hoagies for lunch? Oh how I wish.

Tuesday
warmup:
jump rope
10x25# plate squats
stretching/mobility

CFSB w3/d3
Back Squats
warmup: 5x60, 75, 3x90#
work: 5x110, 3x125, 1x140#(6)
last set max reps

WOD
21-15-9
left arm kettlebell swings - 20#
right arm kettlebell swings
pull ups - blue band assisted
8:04

Wednesday
warmup:
jump rope
10x35# plate squats
stretching/mobility

CFSB w3/d4
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x30, 40, 3x45
work: 5x60, 3x65, 1x75#(4)
last set max reps

Recon Ron Pull ups
day 1: 1-1-1-1-1

WOD
amrap 12 minutes:
30 second plank holds
10 up and downs
5 parallette pass thrus
10 grasshoppers

4 rounds + 30 sec plank hold + 8 up and downs

*Notes - need to practice grasshoppers. Not flexible enough. Parallettes ok forward, backwards tough. 75# shoulder press felt heavy today even though I ate some oatmeal for breakfast. Pull ups were ok, took about 30 sec-1 min in between.

Scary sites all around

Another busy weekend for the Chase household. Saturday we took the kids to the farm for the Pumpkin Festival and let me tell you, I was more horrified by the sheer mass (pun intended) of overweight families attending the festival this year than the actual Halloween attractions. Some were so frightening they were actually worth posting on Facebook for all to enjoy. While we were waiting for the pig races to start, there was a young woman sitting on a huge pumpkin in front of us. The scary part was the red thong hanging out of the top of her two sizes too small spandex pants. My friend joked that it looked like her ass was actually eating the pumpkin. It certainly did. Yikes. There was another child I saw, she couldn't be any older than 10 and looked to be bigger than me. I'm 130 pounds. Oh and I believe she was holding a soda in one hand and some sort of fried sugared treat in the other. I'm not trying to be mean but Jesus Christ people come on already, learn to say no. I'm all for letting kids have treats now and then but there has to be a limit. Kids learn from their parents and if the parents eat 4 pounds of funnel cake the kids will think that is OK. It's NOT! I couldn't tell you how many times I shuddered at the fact that there were more obese people in one area than not. Not chunky, not chubby, not big boned, obese. Obese to the point where the women cannot wear anything other than spandex. And let me tell you, that is not a pretty sight my friends. I understand it's not easy to change habits or to lose weight, we've all had our battles, but it's a battle you can win if you try. Sorry, I'll get off my soapbox now.

We did have some fun dragging two 6 year old girls thru the haunted house. Yes, literally dragged. It wasn't scary, all the lights were on and there were no people running around in there trying to scare you. It was totally kid friendly, with the exception of the creepy dolls that is. I did make my daughter look away but she couldn't. My 4 year old boy took five steps and turned around screaming. Maybe next year for chicken little. There were plenty of smelly animals, a funny pig race and over priced attractions like the monster truck ride. $6 a person for a 3 minute ride. No thank you. I was curious to try the corn and tomato shooters but it would be a nightmare with the kids. I could see it now, 'no Bud you can't shoot your sister!'.

Sunday I couldn't make the Mudder training since my daughter was coming down with a little cold, that was a bummer, but I did torture myself a bit by practicing some double unders. That's always a fun time. Fasting and active rest day today. Since it is a beautiful fall day I walked about 1.5 miles to the farm with my little guy.

Saturday:
Warmup:
400m
10 air squats
10x25# plate squats
stretching/mobility

CFSB w3/d1:
Deadlifts
warmup: 5x75, 95, 3x115#
work: 5x140, 3x160, 1x180#(4)
last set max reps

CFSB w3/d2:
Bench Press
warmup: 5x30, 35, 3x45#
work: 5x55, 3x60, 1x70#(12)
last set max reps

Sunday:
Warmup:
400m
stretching
10x25# plate squats

Skill Day WOD:
3 rounds:
10 OHS - 45#
50 Double unders
8:40

Monday:
Active Rest Day - 1.5 mile walk

*Notes - Since I was supposed to do the Mudder training sunday I did 2 strength days on saturday. Couldn't go so did a skill day instead. Not focused on time, made sure ohs's were great form and depth, practiced dus. Got 20 in a row. Shoulder ok throughout ohs.

Run Forrest Run

Another running WOD today. Not that I actually did the other 2 yet since I'm on a different schedule now with the strength stuff. I think it's been about 3-4 in the past week. Yuck. I used to love to run but now, not so much. I think I burned myself out last year when I was running 10-15 miles a week. In fact, that is definitely it. Todays workout was run 200m do 20 of this, run 200m do 20 of that... you get my drift, 4 times and 3 rounds of it. It wasn't the most challenging workout, but proved to be a great test of stamina of which I had during... but now, not so much. I've had 4 cups of coffee and am about to try a Monster Revive, resuscitate, reborn, relive, whatever lemonade and tea mix drink to help me get thru the rest of the day.

Today's workout looked like it would be a tough one considering when I checked out everyone else's time on my forum they were coming in at 30-45 minutes. Ouch, this is going to be a long one. But then when I started I thought by the end of round 2 that yeah, it does kinda suck but not as much as I expected. Although I only did 3 rounds instead of 5. Had I done 2 more I would have actually thrown up in the street rather than just feel like I was going to for about an hour after I was done. It was one of those sneaky workouts, kinda like chinese food, it always comes back to bite you later.

Another busy weekend. Tomorrow heavy deadlifts in the am, meeting a friend and taking kids to the farm for some Halloween fun then Sunday another Mudder training. I'm tired already.

No breakfast.
Brunch: (after wod) eggs w/beef, kale, shrooms and tomatoes
Dinner: will be tuna steaks w/mango, avocado, lime, cilantro salsa, acorn squash, broccoli rabe.

Warmup:
Not much, squats, stretching

WOD:
3 rounds:
200m
20 push ups
200m
20 pull ups
200m
20 sit ups
200m
20 squats

24:57

*Notes - felt pretty good. Paced myself pretty well. Everything was unbroken except for the pull ups which I used the blue band. Wiped out and nauseous after. Could have pushed thru 5 rounds had I had more time and had eaten a good breakfast.

Food Tip: Need another way to cook veggies? Try roasting them. Cut and lay them out on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil, s&p. Roast @425 about 10-15 min. I usually mix things like, carrots, peppers, broccoli, onions, green beans etc.. Just keep an eye on them since they cook quick.

I'm not sleeping, I'm looking at the inside of my eyelids

I wasn't sure what I was going to post about today then it hit me when my son said to me 'mommy I want you to keep your eyes open'. My response was 'dude, I'm trying my best'. Need. More. Coffee. Some days I really struggle to stay awake. It's usually around 2-3pm that I notice it. A majority of the days I set the alarm on my watch to make sure I'm awake before my daughter gets off the bus. You just never know. I've been known to be awake one minute and then snoring for 15. Maybe CrossFit makes you narcoleptic. I did do burpees (yay burpees!) today. Burpee box jumps actually. Just when you think they suck enough, there's always someone out there making them suck even more.

Back to my narcolepsy. CrossFit may be a little sadistic. Sometimes more than a little. I mean, the idea behind it is to make you stronger, fitter and enhance your overall endurance to get stuff done. To get thru life and be active. At least, that is my impression. On any given day a WOD will kick your ass to the point where you need to A) throw up, B) collapse, C) feel like you're going to throw up or D) take a nap. Doesn't anyone see the irony here? The very thing that is supposed to be making us stronger is actually draining us. No it's not all the time, but I can say 75% of the time I'm wiped and/or sore. Why do I keep doing this to myself? Because the other 25% feels awesome. There are those days when I feel like I can keep going, I get everything accomplished that I set out to do AND do it while maintaining a happy and positive mood. They may be rare but they are priceless.

Breakfast: oatmeal w/flax, peanut butter, coconut, walnuts.
Lunch: greek yogurt, almonds, turkey, hummus, grapes.
Dinner: will be sauteed chicken/spinach sausage w/collard greens, onion, mushrooms, raddichio and yellow peppers.

Warmup:
4oom
shoulder/hip mobility stretching
squats

CFSB w2/d4:
Shoulder Press
warmup: 5x30, 40, 45#
work: 3x55, 60, 70#(5)
last set max reps

WOD:
15, 12, 9
Burpee Box Jumps
Push Press - 65#
8:04

*Notes - shoulder felt good on shoulder presses. 5@70 is good considering my 1rm is 80. (i think, have to check the board). wod was challenging, had to break up presses, burpees unbroken. Overall felt good. Dinner last night was a ton of meat and veggies.

Food Tip: Try split chicken breasts with the bone and skin. Season w/s&p, lemon slices and rosemary sprigs under the skin and grill. You'll never eat boring plain breasts again. And they are meatier and cheaper!

Grilled Chicken Recipe

MMA aka face punching

Wednesday, my favorite night of the week. It's The Ultimate Fighter night which means MMA will be on for about 3 hours before the show starts. We love face punching in our house. Well, my 6 year old daughter doesn't appreciate it as much as the rest of us, but I'm hoping the more we force her to watch it the more she will like it. Maybe it's because after about 15-20 minutes of it her 4 year old brother starts practicing his moves on her. At that point it wouldn't be unusual to hear one of us saying "go for the arm bar Bud!" or "Hey you missed the rear naked choke!" It's all in good fun and we always put a stop to it when someone starts crying. If anyone is thinking what horrible parents we are, at least we are teaching our children to get some exercise and defend themselves rather than be the fat kid that gets bullied. OK, thats not the sole reason, but it sounded good.

I'm finding out that sometimes CrossFit gets in the way of life. You heard me. I may be a stay at home mom but I'm busy and a control freak so every minute is pretty much scheduled out. It has to be that way. And the morning is scheduled around the WOD. So once that is done regardless of how much time it takes and/or how much time it takes me to recover, then I can get on with my day and sometimes that means I can't get everything done. I'm not complaining about it, it's just a fact of life I'm learning to deal with. I would rather get my workout in and feel good and keep to my schedule rather than skip a day because I have to go food shopping or to the doctors. Once I miss a WOD, or have a change in plans, I feel lousy and out of sync. Then it's hard to get back on track. The holidays are the hardest. My challenge will come Thanksgiving week when my parents come up from Florida for the week. Between wanting to spend time with them, my daughter being home from school, cooking Turkey day dinner, I'm going to be a disaster if I can't keep my WOD schedule and that means pushing life aside regardless of the consequences for an hour a day. Yeah, doesn't sound hard but we all know it can be challenging and thats what makes xfitters different. Any other time I would chalk the week up to 'hey it's a holiday' and do nothing but eat, drink and feel sluggish and fat. NOT this year my friends. And while I'm on the topic of holidays, the big calorie killer is coming up next weekend. Halloween. I'm going to try my best to buy non chocolate treats this year for the kids. They may not like it but hell, I'm trying to save them from a lifetime of insulin shots. And shit, I don't need all that temptation in the house. We'll have enough junk from the all the kids candy. I have to find the houses that give away almonds and dark chocolate. Hmmm.

No WOD today for me. Been 4 days plus physical therapy workout last night, need a day off.

Brunch was eggs w/ground turkey, peppers, tomatoes. Snack, cereal bar, almonds and coffee.  Dinner will be coffee marinated flank steak and bacon, apple brussle sprouts.

Tuesday:

Warmup:
jump rope
stretching/mobility
squats

CFSB w2/d3
Back Squat
warmup: 5x60, 75, 95#
work: 3x105, 120, 135(11)
last set max reps

WOD:
5 rounds:
7 rep squat clean - 45#
14 rep kettlebell swings - 25#

5:38

PT:
5 min treadmill jog
30 alternating grip assisted pull ups
15 physio ball push ups
10 9# ohs

*Notes - felt great on the squats. Got a new pr @135. Never done more than 5, if that. Also killed the wod, was light since I did strength stuff, was sore and had pt. Didn't want to kill myself. Shoulder is killing me today. Must be from the cleans.

Food Tip: Try uncured bacon. It's not as salty as regular but it is sweeter and smokier. Excellent. I get the 'Open Nature' brand, steroid, hormone and antibiotic free pork. And it's not any more expensive than regular.

Mudder Effer

My title could be used to describe any part of my weekend since it was one of those weekends where you need an extra day off to recover. Saturday went just as expected when you are on the move from 12 until 8pm with a 4 year old who ate birthday cake for lunch, missed his nap and crapped his pants.... twice. And then there was all the deliciously tempting sugary calorie laden foods screaming at me. I did treat myself to a small piece of homemade brownie, banana bread and a pastry cookie. Dinner was OK, left out the bread on the brat and saurkrat 'sandwiches', had some vinegar based slaw and a tablespoon of German potato salad. Bob convinced me it was OK since it had bacon in it. How could I refuse. After all that food and a single beer, I was done. I could have had a piece of butter cake and pretzels dipped in cinnamon sugar whipped butter but I just couldn't bare the consequences. It's all good going down but I couldn't afford to feel like shit again the next day with the mudder training at 6 am.

Speaking of that. What an awesome workout that was. Got to Valley Forge Park at 6:15 am, it was dark, windy and pretty chilly. Once everyone got there we started off by dragging the tire a few times as a little warmup then we took off on a dark and ankle twisting trail run. Walked along some railroad tracks to practice balance then back onto the trail to a pretty step hill where we had to carry a large rock up and down, twice. Ran some more then came to a memorial stone about 6.5' high. There we practiced getting up and over safely and how to help each other get over since the actual wall at the race will be at least double the height. Another run down to the park rest area where we stopped to rest, stretch and do about 100 various style push ups and 25 dips. Bob and I suggested starting off with 10 burpees. Not everyone was happy with that. Snicker snicker. From there we walked down the ramps which had hand rails that were perfect for pull ups. Then down to the bottom where we needed to learn how to hop a fence. I can't tell you the last time I hopped over a fence but I did it pretty easily. After that up and down some stairs 4 times.

Then my friends, the fun began. Belly crawl thru a cold shallow rocky creek. Did I mention it was cold? I wasn't the first one but I sucked it up and got it over with pretty quickly. Think I let few f bombs fly, unsure since my body and brain went into shock. Second time wasn't as bad but the rocks were hard on the knees and elbows. I'm pretty bruised up today. Once we all got thru that, off running again. Let me tell you it's not fun running in wet clothes and shoes. I was freezing. After a mile or so we came up to the river in which we had to cross. It was about waist high for me until I fell. The bank was so muddy my foot got completely stuck and I lost my balance. Holy hell it was cold but at this point we were already wet and cold so it wasn't quite as bad this time. After I got out and started running again my hands and feet were so numb it was painful. Gotta keep moving though onto the 'rock wall'. This was a large rock pile on the side of a mountain. It was very steep and the footing was a challenge since the rocks were loose. Happy to say I scaled it pretty well but that was tough. It was really high. More running up to another part of the creek, crossed that then on to the switch backs, uphill. That was killer. My legs were burning at this point. Once we got to the top I think we ran down to another paved trail that led up to this beautiful old church. It was probably a 2 mile run. Once we all met at the church we took our shoes off and ran the last 3/4 mile or so barefoot. I'm NOT a big fan of this and am not sure why our team leader made us do this other than to just torture us. I may have missed some things, it was a long 6 miles and took us about 4 hours all together.

CrossFit has definitely gotten me prepared for this race. Endurance and strength wise, I felt great. I even beat some of the boys at the different check points. It was a tough workout but I will say this, there are some 30 minute hero WODS that wrecked me more than what I did yesterday. CrossFit is no joke thats for sure.

Saturday:
CFSB w2/d1
Deadlifts:
warmup: 5x75, 95, 115#
work: 3x130, 150, 170#(6)
last set max reps

Sunday:
Mudder training 6 miles, 4 hours

Monday:
warmup:
200m
stretching

CFSB w2/d2
Bench Press:
warmup: 5x30, 35, 45#
work: 3x50, 60, 65#(11)
last set max reps

*Notes - Metcon rest day today (monday). Hips and knees sore. Chest sore from push ups. Need the extra rest. No breakfast. Had oatmeal before mudder training on sunday, needed food by mile 6. Bring GU to race.