Feb 22 - WOD

Friday. Even the word looks optimistic. And today has been a pretty good Friday. It's been a busy day, but still a good one.

Decided to skip the side planks because they are hurting my rickety old shoulder. But I managed to hold on for a 3:11 regular plank. And, as usual, I finished up with 100 air squats.

But the real workout came after our day jobs were done. Today's WOD featured power snatches and Burpees, as follows:
12 - power snatches
12 - Burpees
9 - power snatches
9 - Burpees
6 - power snatches
6 - Burpees
3 - power snatches
3 - Burpees

When I look at it listed like that, it really doesn't look like much. But the reality is, again, it is much more difficult than it looks. This effort took me 9 minutes and 30 seconds, but I think I stayed gasping on the floor for at least that long afterward.

We finished out the day with 50 "21 crunches". I don't like that exercise at all. And I hope never to try it again. But at least today I can say I finished every part of our workout.

Feb 18 - WOD

Today's WOD featured kettle bells! So this gave us our first opportunity to use the KBs we picked up at the end of February (at the Fringe Sports garage sale.

The goal was to do as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes. Each round was made up of:
10 - Kettle Bell Swings
10 - Box Jumps
10 - Ring Dips

As with all of our crossfit workouts, this one was SUPER TOUGH! And the hardest part (for me) was the ring dips. I have worked my shoulder strength/stability back up to where I can do a decent dip on a dip stand, but the ring dips were another matter all together. I couldn't do a single good dip, so I opted to do negatives. I could have switched to the dip stand, but I figure I have to start building up the stabilizing muscles that are needed for the ring dips. I probably need to dig out the paralletes and do some L-sits as well. But I'll tackle that on another day.

The box jumps went much better today. I don't know if I am starting to get comfortable with this new box or if I am getting stronger. Maybe it's a combination of both (I hope). But I was glad that this was not the stumbling block (yes, pun intended) that it has been in the last few workouts.

We finished off our WOD with 50 v-sit ups. Those are always tough! But we did them. So I'm happy.

Feb 13 - WOD

Another sleepless night, an all morning meeting, and a couple of 11 year old boys = one worn out old girl.

But I am oh so pleased to let you know that we stuck to our workouts today. We went looking for a WOD with some running in it since we missed our run yesterday. Thought we would get a two for one out of it. So today we did "Nancy."

"Nancy" consists of 5 rounds of the following:
400 M run
15 - overhead squats

"Nancy" took me just over 20 minutes to complete.

I am still doing my overhead squats using only a PVC pipe instead of a weighted bar. And while I hate to admit that little fact, I am really happy with how they are starting to feel. I am confident in the form I am building and plan to try some light weight bars at the gym the next time we get there for a workout.

In addition to the WOD, I did my plank (2 minutes & 50 seconds) and squats (70) for the Planks A Lot challenge and even completed 50 "penguins" for the February Fab Abs challenge. Ths was another silly sounding exercise, but at least I felt it a little in my oblique abs.

Is it too much to hope for a restful night tonight? I just know I am beyond done with all this coughing.

Feb 11 - WOD

Doing a little better today though still coughing a lot more than I would like. Despite that, we managed a full compliment in our workout.

First, I managed to hold a 2 minute and 30 second plank followed by 50 squats for the Planks A Lot challenge. I was only shooting to hit 2 minutes today, kind of a break in day, so I felt pretty good that I made it to 2:30. The 50 squats weren't too bad either. Could have kept going but I've been low on energy and didn't want to push it.

Our WOD for today was 7 sets of hanging squat cleans, 2 reps each. If you have never seen a hanging squat clean, check out this quick video. I started at 65 lbs and worked my way up in 5 lb increments, ending at 95 lbs. I'm good with that for today. I barely managed the last rep. But I think that's good. I pushed myself, but not so hard that wasn't able to finish the WOD.

Finally, we finished up with 50 Sumo Crunches for the Feb Fab Abs Challenge. I'll admit, I felt like this one was pretty dorky and am glad only Wonder Dad was watching me get through them.

I really hope I can manage some sleep tonight because tomorrow is a run day and I really don't want to wimp out on it after being sedentary for so many days.

Feb 10 - Back In The Saddle

In my last post, I bragged that even though I felt bad, I managed at least part of our workout. I guess I shouldn't tempt the fates like that because that was the last physical thing I have managed in 4 days, unless you count the crunches I've done while doubled over coughing.

It's been a tough couple of days, but today we took the first step to getting back on track.

Our WOD went like this, 2 rounds of:
100 - jump rope revolutions
50 - barbell shoulder presses
25 - toes to bar

My time was somewhere in the neighborhood of 16:36.

We followed it up with 50 "heels to heaven" for the February Fab Abs Challenge. I'll get back on the planking bandwagon tomorrow.

I'm beyond exhausted now. And my coughing has come back with a vengeance. But even though I can't say I feel better since the workout, I am really glad we did it. Hopefully, I can remember that tomorrow.

Feb 6 - Down But Not Out

Woke up this morning feeling like my head was going to explode. Looks like I am coming down with the bug Wonder Dad has been struggling with.

I made it into work, but I didn't last long.

But before throwing in the towel and heading home, I completed my challenge tasks for the day:
* 2 minutes 40 seconds on my plank
* 50 squats
* 50 Russian twists

That's all I could manage today and I sucked wind throu it all. But I did it. Now I am off to try and find a comfy spot on the couch.

Feb 5 - Crazy 8s

Today has been pretty good. Managed 2 minutes & 35 seconds on my plank and followed that up with 45 squats mid-morning. I have been doing this challenge at the point of the morning when I normally start to get the munchies. It happens that it is at this time of day when I am often getting out of meetings. It has just worked out this way but I am really thankful. I end up getting the challenge work in, it breaks up my morning, and staves off my sweet tooth.

This evening I was able to squeeze in a run between judo class and dinner. I was just running the loop that our street makes. And to mix things up a bit, I ran it a bit differently. Ya see, our street makes a loop, but there is another street that cuts the circle almost in half, so I used that to turn my circuit into a figure eight.

It's the little things, ya know. Just adding that extra turn made all the difference in the world. And I could feel an immediate change in my attitude. I even used that extra spark to push myself on the "hill" on the back stretch of the loop. Granted it's barely more than an incline, but it felt like a mountain on my 3rd loop around. And on my last lap I rewarded myself with a gentle pace after busting up that "hill" to finish my run.

And finally, I wrapped up the day's efforts with 50 oblique crunches for the February Fab Abs Challenge.

I plan to ride this new inertia wave as long as I can!

Feb 4 - Inertia

Inertia, I have read, is the resistance of any physical object to a change in its state of motion or rest, or the tendency of an object to resist any change in its motion.

What that means for me is, after taking yesterday off for the most part, I have had a really tough time getting my body back in motion today. But despite feeling magnetically drawn to the couch, I actually checked a few things off my fitness to-do list today.

I did my plank (2 minutes & 30 seconds) followed by 40 squats for the Planks A Lot Challenge. Not a bad effort for a sleepy Monday morning.

And then this evening Wonder Boy and I took the pooch out for a neighborhood romp and then finished up with 50 - leg lifts and 50 - 90/90 crunches for the Delta Life Fab Abs Challenge.

I really did want to come home from the office and become one with the couch. And getting up off of it once I had settled down on it was NOT an easy thing to do. But I am feeling better about myself for having managed to overcome the inertia to get my body back in motion. Here's to continuing that into tomorrow.

Feb 2 - WOD

Today was one of those days that just wasn't quite what we had planned.

First though, we have to back up to last night since that is where we started to get off track. Our plan had been to get in our WOD so that we could take a road trip "back home" the next day to enjoy some barbecue ribs with my dad for a late birthday celebration. But as the day ore on, Wonder Dad and I both just started feeling really run down. It had been a long week both at work and in our workouts. And we were feeling it. So we decided to take it easy and rest so that we could pick it back up after our little road trip.

We turned off the alarm clock and gave ourselves a chance to wake up once we were rested. We haven't done that in weeks and it felt great! I woke up feeling e best I have in days and started in on breakfast. It didn't take long though to find out that I was the only one feeling that way. Wonder Dad had taken a turn for the worse over night.

So that changed our day quite considerably. We called my dad to reschedule and switched gears to focus on needs around the house. I don't regret one minute of it. And by late afternoon, Wonder Dad felt well enough to attempt our WOD with me.

Today's WOD was made up of 3 exercises: pull ups, dead lifts, and box jumps. For each round, we were supposed to do 30 reps of each exercise. And the goal was to do 3 rounds in as little time as possible. That breaks down to 90 pull-ups, 90 dead lifts (135#), and 90 box jumps.

In true crossfit fashion, this totally kicked my bum! It took me a bit over 25 minutes to make it through all 3 rounds. I am making some improvements on my pull-ups though. I was able to do about 10 unassisted reps in each 30 rep set. That is a fairly nice improvement for me and it makes me hopeful for future progress.

When we finished our workouts, I tried to work in a plank, but my body totally gave out by the time I hit 2 minutes. That was kind of disappointing. But at least I did something.

For the "Fab Abs" challenge, we were actually a day behind since we took the night off last night. So we decided to catch up and do a set for yesterday (50 donkey crunches) and a set for today (50 bicycles). We should be back on track for everything tomorrow, but I am pretty pleased with our efforts from today, even when not feeling our best.

Feb 1 - a Challenging Month

This month, I plan to continue to try to keep up with my pal Wendy over at One Tough Mother Runner and her Planks a Lot daily challenge. This month she's adding squats to the agenda. I'm going to keep to air squats for that part of the challenge and see how many I can build up, going unbroken, after I finish my plank each day.

Today I hit another personal best on my plank: 2 minutes and 25 seconds! I was shaking like a leaf in a hurricane though. And I was glad to do something different when I finished with my 30 squats. Not a bad effort in between meetings.

The other challenge for this month is another that will target my abs. It's called the Delta Life Fab Abs February. The goal is to complete 28 different ab movements in 28 days. So they pick one exercise per day and you do 50 repetitions of that one move. Today we have "donkey crunches." Wonder Dad is doing this one with me, so we plan to add it to the end of our WOD each day.

Hopefully we will both come out on the other side of February with some seriously improved abs!