Do Over

The open workouts couldn't have come at a worse time this year.

Just as 14.1 came out, I was working my way through a nasty upper respiratory infection. And, as you might expect, just as I finally started to shake it off, Wonder Dad picked it up. *sigh* And he didn't just pick it up, this bug slammed him even harder than it did me and has kept him struggling for air for almost a full MONTH.

Not fair!

The two of us have wheezed our way through all of the open WODs so far. But as we muddled through and recorded our scores, such as they were, we promised ourselves that we would revisit them once we started feeling better.

This week has FINALLY seen us both on the rebound from this awful bug and ready to re-tackle some of these WODs. We decided to start with 14.3 - the deadlift & box jump beast.

WOD 14.3 looks like this for women:

Complete as many reps as possible in 8 minutes of:

Round 1

95-lb. deadlifts, 10 reps

15 box jumps, 20-inch

Round 2

135-lb. deadlifts, 15 reps

15 box jumps, 20-inch

Round 3

155-lb. deadlifts, 20 reps

15 box jumps, 20-inch

Round 4

185-lb. deadlifts, 25 reps

15 box jumps, 20-inch

Round 5

205-lb. deadlifts, 30 reps

15 box jumps, 20-inch

Round 6

225-lb. deadlifts, 35 reps

15 box jumps, 20-inch

The first time we attempted it, I made it to the 4th round and managed to get 13 deadlifts at 185#s (for a socre of 108). And, despite the fact that I had to hit my inhaler 2x during the WOD, I felt pretty good about it afterward.

But as OK as I felt about it, I knew. I just KNEW I could do better. This WOD was just DESIGNED for someone like me! Since I am ... how do you say it ... a bit vertically challenged ... deadlifts are one of my all time favorite exercises. My body type actually works FOR ME with deadlifts (unlike so many exercises where I dream of being long and lean just to make it "fair"). Box jumps are not exactly my favorite, but the standard for this WOD allows you to actually do step ups, if you wish.

So I was really looking forward to the do-over on this WOD to see just how hard I could push it!

And I gotta tell ya ... I was FLOATING ON AIR (as well as gasping for it) by the time we finished our re-do of 14.3!

This time I made it all the way to the 5th round (where I did 2 deadlifts before running out of time)!!! That means I did a full 132 reps this time! WHOOP!

And sure, I'm super sore in the aftermath of this effort. My ham strings feel so tight you could bounce quarters off of them. And even sitting is not comfortable. But I am SO BEYOND happy with this effort!

I have struggled to feel like I am getting any stronger since dropping a bunch of weight last fall (more on that coming soon). I get frustrated when I feel like I'm only treading water in my workouts. And having to scale workouts that I would normally be able to solider though has been a blow to my pride, I'll admit and my motivation.

But I knew that losing the weight had to be the priority. And I just hoped and prayed that once I got to where I needed to be that I would be able to rebuild at least some of my strength.

With this WOD (& a few more for the past month or two), I am beginning to see that happen. And despite the totally chest thumping improvement in my performance in this specific WOD, what really has me floating on air is the feeling that the OLD me is coming back ... or at least the parts of the "old Me" that I want to bring into this "new body" I'm wearing. THAT makes me feel good! Like I can take on the world!

So Bring it Baby! This chick is ready!

Resurrection Day

It's lame. I know it. I've been meaning to get back on here for MONTHS. I've had a lot I have wanted to post, but once you get behind, it's just hard to get going again.

Excuses, excuses.

I know.

So I guess before I can get back into the swing of things, I'm due for a massive catch up.

And maybe an explanation for the (lack of) posting.

That last one is going to be a bit hard. I fell behind. And then I didn't feel like sharing. And then I realized how far behind I was in posting that it was just easier to ignore.

But the truth is, I really like blogging these things. So ... while I make no promises that I won't let life get in the way again, I'm all for starting anew. Hopefully it'll be worth the read.

Now ... as for what I've been doing for the past ... oh ... I don't know ... 8 months or so ...

Well ... really, I've been doing a lot of the same things as the last time I sat down to blog ... crossfit about 3 times per week; judo here and there; neighborhood jogging 2-3 times per week (depending on the weather) ... still trying to eat the Paleo way ... and just trying to stick with the healthiest of choices all the way around.

In fact, one of my favorite distractions from THIS blog, has been my food blog: Mama G's Go-To Meals. I've been collecting and modifying recipes for almost a year now and the food blog has given me a place to keep my favorite recipes in one place. I'm a bit behind in posting there as well, but I do have a few more recipes lined up. And hopefully more inspiration will hit before I run out of those I have queued up for posting.

And that's really it. I mean, there is work and family and such, but nothing BIG has changed. I just need to get back in the proverbial saddle. And with this post, that is what I'm doing.

So ... what to look forward to?

My thoughts on this year's Crossfit Games Open workouts, a few successes and milestones, and maybe I'll even share a few pictures too.

Until then ... stay tuned. I intend to be back much sooner than the last time I signed off on a post!

July 31 - WOD

Today's WOD, featuring shoulder presses, was a nice change of pace from the high intensity we've faced the last few times out.

Today we were tasked with 5 sets of 5 reps each of strict shoulder presses. I managed the following:

Set 1: 65# * 5
Set 2: 67.5# * 5
Set 3: 70# * 5
Set 4: 75# * 5
Set 5: 80# * 1 + 77.5 * 3

As I say quite often, my shoulders are probably the weakest muscle group in my body. I was a bit rough on them in my younger years and they like to complain long and loud about it these days.

But even with that said, I am finally starting to see some strength and range of motion improvements in my shoulders. Doing this movement super strictly made sure that my shoulders were not getting help from any other muscle group. Often, I will resort to a slight dip in the knees to help me propel the weight up. But, of course, that doesn't push my shoulders to where they need to be.

I'm really glad we had this WOD today. Sure. I'll need Advil tonight, but at least I feel like I am pushing my body to where it needs to be.

We finished up with pistols (5 each, left and right) and 35 knees to elbows.

A good solid WOD. I'm happy.

July 29 - Isabel

Today's spin of the hopper landed on "Isabel." This is the first time this calendar year we've tried to do this WOD. Snatches are one of the more difficult exercises for me.

For those who have never seen a snatch, it looks like this when done right.

I know I don't look like that yet, but I am now able to get the bar from the floor to overhead without a pause (like the clean and jerk). I need to work more on getting under the bar for the press up. This has a lot of advantages, not the least of which is that you can use your legs to get the weight to full height and not have to rely on the smaller upper body muscles to do that part of the work.

I intend to keep working on it.

For today though, I managed my 30 snatches (with a 65# bar) in just under 5 minutes (4:46). And I'm good with that for now. I hope that, as my overhead squats get better, this exercise will improve as well.

We followed this up with a walk around our loop (X2). And despite the oppressive Texas summer evening, it was a nice way to wind down after the workout.

July 27 - Cindy

Last Monday's tabata workout really put us off our schedule, so instead of staying off schedule and following up yesterday's WOD with a run day, we opted to do another WOD today. So we spun the hopper and ended up with "Cindy."

With "Cindy," you do AMRAP (as many rounds as possible) of the following:

5 - Pull Ups
10 - Push Ups
15 - Squats

When we last did this WOD (back in January) we couldn't last the prescribed 20 minutes, so we cut it to 10. Today we decided to push ourselves and our already aching bodies to do the full 20 minutes.

I'm awful proud (& terribly sore) to report that we DID last the full 20 minutes and managed to do a full 17 rounds in that time. I am, of course, still using the bands to assist my pull ups. I like that a whole lot more than doing negatives.

Going the full 20 minutes, the day after another taxing WOD, well ... let's just say I didn't have the gas left for anything else. No ab work, no pistols. But I am really pleased that we got out there and did this WOD. It was hard and there was a point, around the 15 minute mark when I thought, "I've already done more/better than last time, I can quit now." But I held on and finished the workout.

And if for no other reason, that makes me feel good today.

July 26 - Elizabeth

After Monday's WOD, I wasn't sure we would make it back out to the garage again this week and we almost didn't! We walked a nice slow pace on Tuesday and then completely took the day off on Wednesday because I was just so beyond sore. We made it out to the weekly soccer scrimmage yesterday, but we both knew we had to get in a real workout today. Even if my legs still feel like they are stuck in cement.

Wonder Boy is off at a birthday party so we wanted something fairly quick in order to allow for clean up time before having to go pick him up. So we decided to do "Elizabeth" again (we last did it on June 8)

If you don't recall, "Elizabeth" is comprised of 3 rounds of cleans and ring dips, for time as follows:

21 - Cleans (95#)
21 - Ring Dips
15 - Cleans (95#)
15 - Ring Dips
9 - Cleans (95#)
9 - Ring Dips

Today I managed a time of 10:21.8, which is a couple of seconds slower than last time. I guess that is the best I can hope for since I am still feeling the effects of Monday's killer WOD.

Last time we finished up w/ ab work as well, but there was no way I was doing that today.

So ... I guess today is just about getting back on the bandwagon. Hopefully our next WOD will feel a little better.

July 22 - Tabata This

I'm almost too worn out to type in this little write up of our most recent WOD called "Tabata This," but here it goes...

Today we did this WOD which consisted of 5 exercises, 8 rounds each. In each round, you exercise for 20 seconds, rest for 10 seconds. Then you get 1 minute rest between each exercise.

Tally up your score, you take the lowest number of reps you got in a round for each exercise and add them up. My efforts looked like this:

Rows (45#): 13, 12, 12, 12, 8, 9, 8, 7 [score=7]
Squats: 24, 24, 24, 23, 23, 23, 24, 24 [score=23]
Pull Ups (green band): 13, 9, 10, 9, 7, 5, 5, 5 [score=5]
Push Ups: 14, 13, 11, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10 [score=10]
Sit Ups: 22, 22, 22, 21, 21, 21, 20, 20 [score=20]
Total: 65

I'm so worn out and sore. There is not a single muscle south of my chin that doesn't hurt. I actually started to tremble just by standing in the kitchen to get dinner together after this WOD. And then I couldn't even eat.

We *should* have done a reduced effort version of this WOD since we had never done it (or one like it) before today. But we didn't think of that until the damage was already done.

I seriously would like to go to bed and just stay there for the next week. *sigh*

I hope I burned some serious calories because I think chocolate is the only thing that can revive me at this point.