Hello? Is it me you're looking for....

Wow, ok so it's October and my last post was the first week of August. So what have I done on my summer vacation?

The summer ended with a fantastic vacation in The Outer Banks NC. Between the fabulous weather, good friends, excellent meals and the fact that all our children were content to spend every waking minute playing nicely on the beach or in the pool, it was one of the most relaxing vacations we have had in a very long time. Anyone with small children will know 'family vacations' are usually anything but. We did not get to take surfing lessons but did get a fun 1/2 hour on the wave runners with the kids. I was with my daughter this year who had to keep reminding me I was going too slow. Yeah, 37 on a wave runner is fast enough for me. All I heard was 'daddy got his up to 42!'. Hey how about a thank you for taking me out on the wave runner for my birthday!?

Yes my kids both had birthdays in the past 2 months too. My daughter is now 8 and the dude is 6. And let me just tell you before you get any crazy ideas about having 9 girls between the ages of 8-10 over for a sleep over, DON'T DO IT. It was a waking nightmare. They all arrived about 7 and I lost control about 7:15. It was a crazy high pitched scream festival filled with candy, makeup, nail polish and drama. Oh the drama. They of course had a blast, Bob and I on the other hand were awake until 3am when I finally yelled at them to go to bed or I was going to start calling their parents to come pick them up. I now understand why parents shill out $300 on parties at Bounce U and other germ infested money suckers. It's totally worth it even if we all catch some flesh eating bacteria. Bud's birthday on the other hand was great. He had a few little friends over had some ice cream cake, candy and chased each other around with plastic guns and foam swords. A little boys dream.

Workouts. Well, between coaching my moms, vacation, Bob taking time off and having only 2 hours of free time, they have suffered. I've definitely lost some strength this summer which was apparent 2 weeks ago when I struggled to get a 185 back squat. My 1rm a few months ago was 205. I am however gaining in cleans and snatches and hit a new 3rm pr on clean and jerk at 95. The Outlaw Way programming has really helped me with that. And with the amount of back squat programming they do I should be up to 215 but like I said, I haven't been the best student. Hopefully I can get my shit together and get back on track. What I need to do is get started earlier so I can get my strength done first then do a metcon with the moms when they get here. The problem has been scaling. Some of the Outlaw stuff is way too much for them even scaled down. We've been managing but it's time consuming to find a good sub, watch and correct while I'm trying to do my own thing. What I'll probably have to do is take rest days and just teach, then on days they don't come over, do my own wods. I do enjoy it and so do they I assume... Even when I'm beating them up. Bob and I have been riding the bikes a least once a week putting in about 12-15 miles each time. That has been great and am looking forward to getting a road bike some day. I can't believe I just said that.

And believe it or not, I bought my own long board last week and bombed my first big hill that same night. Yeah, I wasn't supposed to do that but hey we all have to learn some time. Luckily for me when I got 'the shakes' (and if you have ridden a skateboard before you know exactly what I mean) I was able to keep it loose and not fall on my face doing 30 miles per hour. Yes, I bought a brain case too. Once I hit the bottom the street starts to go up a bit so I was able to naturally slow down without having to bail in someone's front yard. I'll tell you what, even though it was scary as hell, it was so god damn exciting that I couldn't stop smiling. Although, I won't be doing that again anytime soon. I might be dumb but I'm not stupid.

Skateboarding love

Thank god for vacation bible school camp. For 3 hours a day for the next 2 weeks my house will be quiet and clean. I won't have to listen to 'but she, well I, can we, it's my turn', well,  at least for a few hours a day anyway. Pure heaven.

*Edit - it's been 8 days since I started this post so technically I have 2 days left of my meager alone time in which I still can't seem to find time to actually get a post completely written and published.

Nothing special to report on the wod front. Still plugging away at The Way's programming. They've been ok. And by ok I really mean heavy and time consuming. Finally finished the Smolov squatting series. Man that sucked. I think I managed an average of 100 squats a week all between 80-90%. I did do my 1rm retest the other day and am still stuck at 205. Maybe it just wasn't a good day. Next time I'll have to actually eat breakfast first. I know. Duh. I'm so used to working out fasted that it really doesn't seem to affect me so much anymore with the exception of the strength test days... as it would seem.

The summer has been flying by and what have I been doing? Well, I took a few days off to move the kids rooms and paint. My daughter has graduated into the 'big room' and has been enjoying rubbing her friends faces in it. Not only was it a ton of work moving the furniture from room to room but I had to pick the hottest week EVER to do this. It was 100 degrees and a million percent humidity.

Bob and I decided to drain and move the pool since it was ever so slowly rolling down the backyard. That was a big pain in the ass, but it's level now and if the sun ever comes out again we'll be able to enjoy it once more.

My other new found passion this summer has been something quite unexpected for me, skateboarding. Bob got himself a long board for father's day this year and has spent most of his free time this summer cruising around the neighborhood while trying to teach the rest of us how to do it. As expected I was the most reluctant to just hop on give it a go so needless to say it took some a lot of liquid courage in the form of tequila before I would even let Bob talk me into it. My kids however fell in love with it immediately and my daughter now has her own board. Bud soon to follow I'm sure. Me on the other hand, well, I've been practicing the past few weeks and with my 7 year olds encouraging words, I have finally gotten to the point where I can ride down my street by myself. Let me tell you, the first ride was so fucking scary and yet exhilarating at the same time. Now I'm hooked.  And hell, it's just another fun outdoor activity the family can do together. Anything to get Bud away from the incessant use of technology.

With that, my free time has come to end, time to get the kids.

summertime

Summer is here and I'll tell ya, what the hell was I thinking when I said 'oh in the summer when the kids are finished school I'll have plenty of time to start The Outlaw Way programming'. Holy shit. First of all some days it's taking me an hour just to get thru warm up and barbell gymnastics let alone the strength and metcon. The kids are normally good about my exercise time but anything longer than an hour and I'm asking for trouble. Bud could care less what I do as long as he has the iPad but H needs to be busy and that involves me doing something...which 90% of the time, it's something I don't want to do.

And lucky me, I seemed to have joined The Way programming in the middle of this Smolov squat series. I got in on the second 3 week session and wow it is a tough one. Last week I couldn't make my 8x4 @160 and had to lower to 145. The other day I was able to get them at 160 but it was a struggle and I swear I almost blew a blood vessel on the last one. At this point I believe I've done about 156 squats in about 9 days. Yeah right? All of them pretty heavy too. 70%-85% of 200. Heavy enough. I'm pretty sure this is the last week so I'll be curious for my next 1RM test. If I was smart I would have done the CF total a few weeks ago then done it again after this session but sometimes I'm just not that smart.

Other wods have been pretty good lately now that I'm about 99% healthy. No, I just can't give myself that  1% because there is always something bugging me. Lately it's been my thumb and wrist, actually right in the middle between my thumb and forefinger. Hurts like a mother when I extend all the way or do something like grip and twist a door knob. I have no clue as to how it happened but it's been lingering for about 2 weeks now and is very annoying. Anyway, I did this ass kicker over the weekend. Oh my. 12 min amrap of 100' burpee broad jumps, 100' walking oh lunges with a 25# plate. Ok first of all, I'm short and so is my 'broad' jump. Yeah, the 'broad' part  is suspect, so needless to say I did more burpees than I would have liked. Walking lunges are already terrible let alone holding a plate over your head. Maybe I'm complaining more because it was so stinking hot that day, don't know but it certainly sucked. And this was after 35 back squats so my legs were already jelly.

Oh well. Suck it up and move on.

Off to go watch the kiddies in the pool 

I'm back! Sort of....

I can't even begin to remember what has been happening the past ummm, month or so since I last posted but all I know is I've been sick for the past 10 days, I made a pretty damn good stuffed chicken breast dinner last week and I got my first kipping pull ups.

So where to begin. Well, it's finally starting to wind down in the Chase household. Bud graduated preschool last week and the baseball/softball season is coming to a close. H will wrap up school this week and has her final softball game Thursday night under the lights on the 'big girl' field. It's been a pretty fun season for both of them. H really enjoyed playing and has already requested to play next year.

Bob and I have been busy as usual not only with the kids scheduled parties and play dates but between me starting to make the rounds with some touch up painting (trim and ceilings right now), coaching my moms in the garage, working on new recipes and him busy with work, the yard, the pool and replacing the bathroom sink it seems like the time has just flown by without a break. We did have one fantastic weekend a few weeks ago when it was really hot. We spent ALL day outside in the pool with the kids, I brought everything outside and cooked dinner on the grill, Bob brought the barbell out into the grass and kept our glasses filled with tequila... it was a much needed relaxing family bonding time weekend for all of us. I'm hoping we can get a few more of those in this summer... if it ever stops raining.

The garage mom training is going well. Well, was going well. I've been sick for almost 2 weeks, A has some sort of sickness and muscle spasm thing (not related to me and training thank god) and the other 2 have been busy with kid stuff. Hopefully next week we'll all get a chance to start fresh and keep a good schedule.

Speaking of that, I'm going to give myself one week to get back on the horse after this bout of sickness before I start on The Way's programming. Eeek. I'm making some good progress so it's time to move on and take it up another notch. And finally after almost 3 years of blood sweat and tears, literally, I was able to manage some kipping pull ups! Not sure how or why all of a sudden, but I finally got it. They were ugly and I could only manage about 3 at a time but it's a start. I'm pretty sure it has a lot to do with the fact that my shoulders are, dare I say 100%. Knock on wood, I haven't had any pain in months. I did however end up pretty sore on Saturday from the kipping. Wow. I must have done something right. Anyway, looking forward to practicing more so I can actually feel confident enough to try for my level 1. Yes, I think Bob and I are going to do it. We may get some help with the finance end of it, now all I have to do is look over the requirements and just get it over with. I'm hoping once Bud is in school full day I'll have enough time and experience under my belt to actually get a real job. We'll see.

Recipes? Lets see, last week I made this bacon wrapped stuffed chicken dish on the fly and it came out really well. Once I tweak a few technique issues, I'll post. Stuffing chicken is not my favorite thing to do since it's messy and could easily go horribly wrong in an instant, but, it is better than boring plain ole grilled or sauteed chicken. I had another go at stuffed peppers, trying to change it up. That still needs some work too. They were good but there is room for improvement. I don't make deserts so nothing new there other than I found that Talenti salted caramel gelato, which if you haven't tried it, it's freaking awesome, now comes in a dark chocolate covered popsicle. Yeah, it's no good for you but if you're going to treat yourself, treat yourself. Unfortunately when I bought them I was going thru this 'I've gained weight and not good weight, no junk for me ever again!' phase so Bob ate them all before I could try them. Oh well. Yes, I put on some good muscle weight, but I also added a little bad weight. Too much snacking but I cleaned up and cut out some little things and feel much better. Dropped 5lbs in a week so yeah, bad weight.

Got some stuff to get done outside before the rain, again. Gah. Oh and the garden has been great minus the little baby bunnies that ate ALL my spinach. We even put a fence. They still got at it. Bastards.

Ok, so it's been weeks

since I last posted. I'm sure I've mentioned before, I have no time anymore and I'm not quite sure what happened there. I also haven't been in the kitchen testing and making anything post worthy lately. Not that we haven't been eating well, but nothing has come up that I thought I needed to share. With that being said, I'm going to have to just post recipes when I can. Not sure what I was thinking when I said I would post one every week cause clearly, that ain't happenin.

Hmm, so what have I done. Well, I've added two more ladies to my list, Elizabeth and Helen. Both great wods. I could not do Liz as rx'd but came in close with 85# and 10 minutes. Helen was rx'd at 13 minutes. Most of my wods have been pretty good lately and I almost got a cool 95# on my shoulder press. I tried just for the hell of it and almost got it. Last year I struggled with 85. I will be starting The Way wods in a few weeks, probably when my little guy is finished school so I'll actually have time to get thru them. Overall been feeling good. My body has taken a beating with close to 200 kettlebell swings in 24 hours but it's all good. I feel stronger than ever, my shoulder pain is almost non existant and I'm still making good gains.

The girls are still with me in the garage gym and actually coming along quite nicely. I've decided to just have them do scaled versions of my Outlaw wods. Snicker snicker. There has been a lot of whining and complaining but overall, I think they like it. They keep coming back so I'll keep beating them up. We haven't been working on snatches or front squats yet and only briefly touched on cleans, deadlifts and overhead squats (with the stick). But as far as everything else, the girls are making some great improvements. Once school is over and things settle down we'll all have more time to devote to actual lifting which I'm looking forward too. Just last week Ali was able to back squat 2x3 @85 and do 30/ 45# thrusters. This is someone who has never done anything like this before so I think she is starting to see that this 'weightlifting thing' is no joke.

We haven't tried any new recipes lately, at least nothing to brag about. Now that it is warming up it's salad season for us. Nothing like a good hearty salad. My favs lately have been marinated artichoke hearts, radishes, olive medleys and arugula. I've been adding them to everything. Left over chicken, shrimp, tuna fish... it's all good. Recipe tip for you right there! See, I'm not a complete slacker.

The future coach K?

In my quest to do all the girls this year, I'm 5 down with 25 more to go? I don't know. A lot. Elizabeth was on the menu today. Love cleans, don't love dips but I am making progress on them. I came in at 10 minutes using 85# and doing the dips on the handles of our ghd. I can do ring dips but not 45 of them with any consistency. Last weekend I screwed my right wrist up, not sure how but it's still bothering me. Now that we have The Book in the house, I've tried the dreaded and painful floss band technique a few times hoping that would give me some relief. Unsure if it is or it's just a matter of rest and time. Neither of which I can afford.

Since the last time I've posted my training partner has made some great progress. And since then, we now have another victim, err... puppy (I'm stealing the 'puppy' term from BrandX because it is fitting) in training and possibly a third tomorrow. Not that I don't love that there is interest in all things Crossfit, but hell, I'm stretched to my max right now. Programming for 3 is challenging. Ali has been thru all the basic lifts and movements so the past week now she has been doing modified versions of either my Outlaw wod or mainsite which has been great for both of us. Everyone always needs a little competition/motivation. I don't get it that often. But Krista doesn't know most of the lifts and movements yet. Unfortunately for her I think that she's going to learn on the fly for most of it. She's pretty strong and athletic already. She has good flexibility and can actually do one unassisted pull up so honestly I think she'll be able to handle most of what I throw at her if she sticks with it. I'm hoping once summer rolls around we'll all be less pressed for time with kid stuff and I'll be able to really get them moving some decent weight and push them harder. Now if I only had more equipment.

I wil say this, even though this has been time consuming and throwing my schedule out of whack, I'm learning a little more each day. When you're explaining how to do a back squat or throw a wall ball, something that I take for granted after 3 years, you realize that A, you know more than you think you do and B, it's really hard to describe something that seems to come natural like squatting. I'm amazed at how many people physically cannot get down in that position. For me, as someone who can express more with her face than words, it's hard to watch sometimes lets be honest. But you gotta start somewhere.

Anyway, so my goal is to get these ladies in shape this summer and hopefully turn this into something worth while. Maybe if we're lucky Bob and I can get certified and really do this for real one day.

Recipe: Kale, bacon and shallot stuffed chicken breast

This was a spur of the moment 'I have all those ingredients' meal and it came out fantastic. Chicken is boring so I'm always trying to think of new ways to serve it. Stuffing it isn't fun and it's messy, but it is worth it in the end. For you people who do a bit of dairy every so often, add some blue cheese. You'll thank me later. Not the best photo but by the time it was time to eat, I forgot. Happens sometimes.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts
serves 2 

What you need:
2 skinless breasts
2 good handfuls of chopped kale
1/2 medium shallot, sliced thin
3-4 pieces uncured bacon
kosher salt & pepper
couple nuggets blue cheese *optional

toothpicks or string to secure chicken

What to do:
Chop bacon into pieces, (not too small) and cook it in a cast iron or chefs pan til it's crispy but not burned. Meanwhile chop kale into bite size pieces and slice shallot. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and put aside. Cook kale and shallot in bacon fat for about 7-8 minutes on medium high heat, sprinkle with salt and pepper.


While that stuff is cooking place chicken on cutting board, cover with plastic wrap and pound the crap out of it until it's relatively thin. Salt and pepper both sides.

Preheat oven 350. 

When kale is wilted and the onion is translucent remove from the pan with the slotted spoon and transfer to the bowl with the bacon. We want any bacon fat to sear the chicken. Let kale mixture cool a bit. Once cooled place half of the mixture in the center of the chicken, almost like you're making a taco. (If you can remember how to do that) Add your blue cheese if using. Start rolling at one end, then secure closed with a few toothpicks or string. Toothpicks are way easier. Don't overstuff.

Heat cast iron on high, add a little more fat, 1-2 tbsp if needed. Your reserved bacon fat that you diligently keep in the fridge in a mason jar would be awesome at this point, but you can use whatever oil/fat you like. Add the chicken seam side down first and sear about 3 minutes. Sear all sides 2-3 min each. When browned, throw whole cast iron skillet into oven and finish cooking about 10-12 minutes. Poke test it around 10 minutes. If it springs back, it's done.

Remove skillet from oven, remove chicken from skillet and let it rest about 5 min. Done!


I served mine with roasted brussels sprouts and a sliced tomato with basil, evoo and red wine vinegar.

You can basically stuff chicken with anything. If you have spinach or collard greens they work just as well. Only rule with stuffing chicken is have at least one item with a lot of flavor or punch. IE - blue cheese, feta cheese, olives, capers, sun dried tomatoes etc since chicken is mild.