Whoa, now. Two days in a row! What’s happening here?! I saw this WOD posted and FREAKED out. I was so excited for it! Finally, something I can RX without killing myself or ripping my hands open, whatever.

We had our Hatch Cycle, and we all know how I feel about that.

The WOD was: 
10 Min AMRAP

4 – Front Squats (95/65)
4 – Thrusters (95/65)
4 – Push Press (95/65)

YES. So awesome!

I did the first two rounds unbroken and in 1 minute.  After that, I’d rest 25-30 seconds, and then blow through the next round in 30 seconds, repeat.

By round 10, I had about 30 seconds left, and just kept going. I ended up getting an additional 7 reps in before TIME was called, so 10 + 7.

I later asked Anne what she did, and she got 11+6, so I was TOTALLY okay with 10 plus! Lauren got 13 plus, which is insane. But yeah, I was really happy with my score. 🙂 *beaming!*

Back squats during hatch cycle. This was 155lbs

Bench Press Day! I didn’t get very far. I laughed during 145 and couldn’t push the weight up. Stupid. My 1RM is 145 or 150, so whatever. I stopped at 125 and was okay with that. 🙂

The WOD consisted of banded push ups, which suck. I did my first 13 or 14 with the resistance band, and then said okay, I’m not doing this anymore.

The WOD was:

30 – Banded Push Ups (Green/Purple)
30 – T2B
20 – Banded Push Ups (Green/Purple)
20 – T2B
10 – Banded Push Ups (Green/Purple)
10 – T2B

I just pushed through this one, completely scaled. I did legit push ups, but no band. I also did these really great knees to air, too. haha

I finished in 8:13.

WOO! I did this one. I went, I got excited after my CF Day 364 post and made it happen. It was awesome.

We’re doing Hatch Cycle again, and as I’ve said a hundred times, I hate it. So I just do back squats. Anywhere from 5-8 reps at a moderate weight. I think we went up to 145 today, and I was like, eh, that’s cool. I’m really not trying here. And my right knee has been hurting under heavy squats, so yeah. Good reason to not max out, IMO.

Our WOD was:

9 min AMRAP

100 DU buy in (double singles)
10 box step ups (75/55lbs) 20″ box (with loaded bar on our backs)
4 wall walks

As I said in my previous post, I wasn’t doing wall walks. I don’t like them. I CAN do them, but they make me cry, and since I didn’t feel like feeling defeated, I decided to do push ups, and figured I’d still get a good upper body workout in. Derek made a deal with me. Double rep count, and hand release. Fine.. 8 hand release push ups. DONE.

I completed 4 rounds + 10 reps in 9 min, this was after spending 3 min attempting to do DUs and then settling for 170 singles.

Sweet.

I wrote this two days ago.. but then didn’t post it. So here it is.

I feel like a slacker, but then I look at how busy I’ve been, and how drained I’ve been, and then I wonder what’s missing. I’ll get moody, sad, grumpy, whatever, but.. honestly, it’s probably because I haven’t been working out as much. Let me rephrase.. I haven’t been going to CrossFit as much, which in turn, means I don’t take my BCAAs as much, or my Magnesium or Taurine, which in turn elevates my stress levels, and makes me feel like shit, cause I’m sore, and.. boom. Bad downward spiral.

I’ve been going to yoga, but it’s not nearly the same thing. I sweat more in yoga than I do at CF, but.. it doesn’t give me the same workout. I still leave red-faced, exhausted, sweating, feeling amazing, but it’s an emotional experience too with yoga. There are days that I’ll break down and cry in half pigeon (why is it always half pigeon that I cry?) And other days where I’m just numb. Numb to the process, the experience.

Some days I know will be crying days, just like when I see rope climbs at CF and I’m having one of those days. Today of course (May 5th) we have wall walks. Those are crying triggers for me. Fuck wall walks! Seriously, I’m going to do push ups instead. I’ll get more out of it, and I’ll feel better about myself. There.

(and I did push ups, btw. Post coming soon.)

We worked on our max snatch, and I pulled 125 and left it at that. 125 is my PR. Or 130. I don’t remember. I think it’s 130 from Wodapalooza but I couldn’t find any info on it grrr…

WOD: Amanda
9-7-5
Muscle Ups (3 ring rows/3 ring dips per MU)
Squat Snatch (135/95)

Now.. I know this is wrong, but I don’t need to squat snatch 95lbs, so I power snatched 95 lbs. I was already modifying it by doing 1000 ring rows and ring dips, so whatever. Squat whatevering also hurts my lower back when I do them high reps and quickly, so I opted for NOT hurting myself instead. I finished in 9:12.

The cool thing is.. the first time I did this WOD, I finished in 14:23, the second time I did it, 9 months later in Oct 2013, I finished in 13:23.

I did it over FOUR minutes faster this time around. That’s pretty awesome! I didn’t even realize how much faster I had done it! Holy shit. Now I’m excited to go work out. 🙂

Rope Climbs. I have this love/hate relationship with them, I love them because I can do them, I hate them because they hurt and they wear me out. They hurt my hands, they hurt the top of my right foot where I pinch the rope, and yeah. They’re exhausting. But damn it, I can do them, so I do them.

Well, we had rope climbs on Tuesday. I went. I did them. Supposedly you had to do FIVE rope climbs each round in order for it to be RX which I think is fucking stupid, cause if you can do a rope climb you can do a rope climb. See below for WOD:

WOD:
3 Rounds
2 min max effort row for calories
2 min max effort rope climbs
2 min max effort slam ball sit ups
2 min rest.

So… if you can do 3 rope climbs in 2 minutes, but they’re real rope climbs, why not have them be RX? It’s not like you didn’t DO the rope climbs. Anyway, that was my problem. I told Derek at the end, GODDAMN IT I DID REAL ROPE CLIMBS. That shit was RX! Doesn’t matter that I didn’t do 5 each round!

He wrote RX next to my name.

I started on the ropes, because I knew I’d be worn out, so I was maximizing my energy efficiency. I did 3 rope climbs the first round, 2 the second round and 2 the third. I barely got the 2nd rope climb on the 3rd round, but I saw someone (a friend Richard) watching me, and he mouthed some words of encouragement from across the room, so.. I did one more.  On that last one, that feeling of crying almost came over me, but I knew it was my last one so I sucked it up and finished.

I ended up with a score of 146. Slam ball sit ups were awkward. (sit ups with a slam ball on your chest/belly/midsection) But I was happy with my score. And I did all my rope climbs! And I have red marks on the top of my right foot and ankle to prove it, even with my sock on! Oh well.

Like nothing happened, I went to Crossfit yesterday. I took it easy with the back squats, only going up to 105, and doing 10 reps or so. I did it a few times and worked with a buddy. The great part was, she’s new to heavier squatting, so I was able to help her with her form and technique, instead of focusing on the weight. (super important!)

I was worried a little that I’d be sore from it, but I was fine. The WOD was a good one!

9 min AMRAP
4 lateral box jump overs (24/20)
8 T2B
12 lunges with the bar in the front rack. 75lbs for girls.

I finished 4 rounds plus 1 rep. I RXed most of it. I did 2 rounds of the T2B Rx and 2 rounds knees to air. Shit hurts my hands!

Those weighted lunges were rough. 75 lbs? My ass hurts big time today! It’s good.. if it’s sore, it means I need to more of it. 🙂

OH. and the pain.. Still some tension in the spot I highlighted previously, but I’m not immobile. I’ve been sleeping well and moving well, so I’m happy again. YAY.

I even held a little Noga class after the WOD, to help people get some post wod mobility done! It was great, I had about 10-12 people stay for it. I’m not trying to start a business, but more promote the helpfulness of post wod stretching after class. It just helps keep everything loose and moving. 🙂 

This shit is debilitating. I can’t even describe it. It’s worse to sit and lay down than anything else, too. So ‘resting’ is actually painful.

It started the day we did the last HBBS 1RM and then it went away, and then it came back when I did the crazy cleans WOD and then I got sick. Like virus sick. Like, I was fine one day, a little sore, and that night it hit me like food poisoning, almost. I was achy, sore, couldn’t eat, didn’t want to eat, lethargic, drained, miserable, hot, then cold. WTF. I was out of commission from the night of April 12th (when it started) to April 16th. That’s when I finally felt human enough to go to Yoga again.

But the soreness. First, when the virus shit when away, yoga felt AMAZING. That Wednesday class on April 16th was remarkable. I have honestly NEVER felt better. I felt so good. I felt strong, capable, like I had finally achieved this long coming goal that I had been working towards. Practice felt smooth and movements came with ease. I didn’t struggle, I loved every second of it. THIS is what I’ve been waiting for! This is how I’m supposed to feel!!!

Then I went to Crossfit Thursday.  And it was great. I loved every second of it, except for the stupid Hatch Cycle but whatever.

123 wall balls/weighted squats/thrusters in 8 min.. and well, my fucking quads still feel like they’re going to explode. I knew it would happen. I felt it after I was done. My legs were shaking and I knew it was a stupid WOD to do after not working out for a week, but damn it, I can do wall balls! I’m good at wall balls!

So here I am, a couple days later, and not only are my quads still sore as shit which is something I can deal with, but my spine. My neck and spine are miserable. I even tried the giant massage hook thing that we have. I can’t say that it helped.

I have foam rolled. I have BCAAed, I have Ibuprofened (even though I really hate taking stuff now). I have stretched, rag dolled, rested. I can’t make this pain go away. It SUCKS. I’m seriously ready to call a chiropractor, and I really never ever do that. I’m ready to find the strongest muscle relaxer we have in the depths of our medicine cabinets and take double the dosage.

my spine and neck and shoulder blade pain location

 I have a hot date booked with Chuck tomorrow, my massage therapist, but I’m actually worried that this is beyond muscular now. I keep imagining the worst, like my spine is actually broken and my muscles are what’s keeping everything held together. Do I get a massage? Do I take a muscle relaxer? What do I do?? It’s not bad enough to go to the ER, and Dave’s not here anyways. I wouldn’t go without him with me.

The thing is, what did I do? Nothing that I did was out of the ordinary. And there was no sudden impact or anything. It was all the heavy weight stuff I always do. I don’t even know if it’s crossfit related, because really, the pain came after two nights of using the wrong pillow and I didn’t realize it, so my head was elevated more than usual. Two nights of that and I had my gross stomach virus shit. And the pain went away too, and then came back after Thursday’s workout. 🙁 I hope I feel better tomorrow.

I got sick. It was gross. I will discuss it in my next post.

Basically, took a week off because of it, and finally had the strength to get back into the gym. I felt SO good when I went back in, too! Amazing.

Strength: Hatch Cycle W1:D2
HBBS: 1×10 @ 60%, 1×8 @65%, 1×8 @70%, 1×8@ 70%
Front Squat: 1×5 @ 60%, 1×5 @65%, 1×5 @70%, 1×5@ 75%

WOD: 8 Minute AMRAP
Wall Balls (20/16#)

So.. I hate the Hatch Cycle. I hated it last year and I still hate it.

I did my 10 reps at 135, increased a bit and did 8, then increased a bit and did 5, and then I was done.

I did 5 front squats at 135, and said, I’m not doing this anymore. I hate this strength program. And I stopped. That was that.

Our WOD was 8 minutes of as many wall balls as possible.

I was seriously hoping for 80. Then, I had a lofty goal mid WOD and said, no.. let’s go for 100. Let’s do 20 the first minute and 10 each min after that, and hopefully pick up the rest along the way.

I did 40 in the first 2 minutes! By the time I got to 100, I still had about 2 minutes left. I kept going.

I ended up getting 123 wall balls in 8 minutes. I was pretty happy with that! Love attaining and beating goals. Now I need to do Karen again, and beat my last time of 9:20, and my previous time of 9:13! Eek.

My legs are going to hurt.

8 minutes of wall balls.

Ugh. One rep max clean and jerk. I say ugh because I was having a great day til this WOD came around.

So.. My newest 1RM clean, squat clean rather, is 175. I was really hoping I could jerk 175, but it didn’t happen. So I went for a new clean PR of 180, and I couldn’t get it. I was just psyching myself out. Just picking up the bar was difficult and I’d psych myself out, and people were watching and I hate it. It makes me nervous and I’d rather only do it with a few close people around me, OR with a bunch of people around me who aren’t paying attention and who I don’t know. I dunno. It’s all in my head.

I ended up power cleaning 175 twice, which basically means I can do more than that now, but I just couldn’t get under it enough to jerk it overhead. I need to work more on squat cleans again, and on split jerking. #crossfitproblems

At one point, I just freaked out and walked outside. The tears came (jesus, what’s with the crying lately?) and Tom came out after me and was like, “What’s the deal? Get out of your head. Go lift some shit. Just pick it up and make it happen.”  I was able to power clean the 175 again, but no overhead. 🙁

What sucks is, Anne and Gina both got insane numbers that day. Anne pulled a 190 C&J and Gina 175. I felt like such a failure. 🙁

The most I ended up C&J was 155. After that, I was just a mess. Fell apart. I’m gonna chalk it up to emotions and being drained and hopefully I’ll be able to come back stronger and better the next go around.

SO… the WOD. It was hard, but I wanted to beat myself up, especially after my stupid emotional girl breakdown.

WOD:
10 min EMOM
2 cleans (squat or power) 205/145
ME HSPUs for the remainder of that minute

So I use an ab mat and a 35 or 45lb plate for my HSPUs, but I will say that these were some of the strongest ones I have ever done. I don’t kip. I can, but it’s super taxing, so I just do a little lower, tap of the head, and back up, strict style.

The cleans were heavy. Especially after trying so many times to get that C&J and maxing out twice. To pull 145 twice every minute for 10 minutes was the pain and torture I wanted. My shoulder was a little aggravated, but I stuck with it. I only missed one clean out of all of those, and I made up for it. So.. 20 power cleans at 145lbs. That’s a lot of weight. We normally don’t do heavy stuff like that, but I was happy to RX the weight, at least.

Final score, 65 HSPUs with my ab mat and 45lb plate. Awesome. I left feeling like shit though. Like a total asshole for reacting the way I did, even though it was entirely unintended, unexpected, and uncontrolled. Stupid hormones.