Saw this on a friend’s Facebook, and while I wholeheartedly agree, good God, could I please get some consistency in my happiness? And excuse the personal-ness here, but for someone who doesn’t get a period, ever (I have a Mirena IUD), I certainly have enough hormone fluctuation to share with the menopausal neighbors..

Sigh. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Maybe I need to go to the 7a WOD tomorrow and try to fix this shit.

I laid in bed for two hours trying to decide if I was going to go.. I had finally decided on “No.” as I made my coffee and sat down at the computer around 9a, and then I started to feel guilty.

WHY AM I FEELING GUILTY ABOUT NOT GOING??? I’m sore as shit, my quads feel like they’re about to explode, my feet hurt, I could’ve slept for another 3 hours… but yeah, I felt guilty. I told Russ I was gonna come in today, and to not show up would be going against my word; something I have a SERIOUS problem with.

So… at 9:15a, I changed my decision to “Yes.” We are going to the gym. Awesome. Around 9:30a I was pretty pumped and excited about my new decision, and was feeling good about it.

I got to the gym, saw everyone smiling, waving at me, and it felt so great. I love being a part of this amazing community! Tom gave me a disgusting, sweaty, wet and gross hug (which I happily returned the favor about 90 min later..) and I was just so pleased with my decision to go in today.

We ran a 400m, we played some dodgeball, it was great.

Then Justin wrote the WOD on the board.

200 DUs
10 rounds of Cindy
(5 pull ups, 10 push ups, 15 air squats)
800m run
10 rounds of Cindy
200 DUs

DOUBLE YOU TEE EFF. Holy fucking shit, are you serious?

Then we were told it was a Buddy WOD, and it was one partner works while the other rests. Okay fine. Amanda and I teamed up, which worked out really well. But at one point I remember thinking, good god, I just did Karen a few days ago, 150 weighted squats, essentially. 150 spring loaded 16lb squats/thrusters for time.. and here we are, 300 more squats in our faces.. oh god.. Can I leave? Is it too late?? Will they notice? Shit, my name’s already on the board. Oh mann.

Alright, let’s do this!

I did about 100 DUs, which I was REALLY excited about, (and our coach Derek was beaming! Since he’s the one who helped me perfect my form.) and then we finished the rest with singles. Then we alternated rounds of Cindy, and we walked more than half of that 800m run. Had to.

On the 2nd half, we cut down to 6 rounds of Cindy instead of 10. We were both spent, and we were both already very pleased with our accomplishments thus far.

We finished with 600 singles and our time was 36:02. Good lord.

My quads really hurt.

Oh Karen… 150 wall balls for time. We do them differently at CFTC… we don’t do the standard 14lbs for women, nooo.. We do 16lbs.

I’ve done Karen twice in my life. Once in May 2012 at 10:09 with a 14lb ball, once at the end of June 2012, where I supposedly did it in 9:13. (Assuming a 16lb ball, but I’m not sure..)

So.. I did it last night at CFTC, and was kind of excited about this! I wanted to beat my last time of 9:13. I tried to pace myself.. and when I say pace myself, I mean, go nuts and do as many as possible at first, and then pace myself after I’m beat. So, I did 30 in the first minute, and 15 in the 2nd minute, and by 6 min I had done my 100 which I was happy with. 3ish minutes to do 50 more, no big deal.

I ended up finishing at 9:20, which was upsetting, because goddamn it, there’s no way I had better stamina or strength 17 months ago vs now. Granted, Dave and I did just have dinner before I went to CF (sushi, bad idea). So… I’m going to blame that and maybe say that I didn’t count properly the 2nd time I did Karen, both of which are possibilities!

In any case, I’m still happy with my time. It was the 4th best time out of all the girls yesterday who RXed it, so that’s great.

And my quads felt like they were going to explode after. As in, they were so sore I couldn’t bend my legs. Today has been interesting.. walking rather stiff-legged.. and of course I went to yoga tonight, which felt amazing, but doing my Warrior 1s and prayer twists were something else, Jesus.

I became BFF with my BCAAs again. Need to drink some more of them tonight, speaking of…

Last day of November, holy moly it’s gonna be December in an hour! Where did 2013 go?? So crazy how time seems to fly by faster than ever as we get older.

My teenage years seem SO LONG AGO. A different lifetime ago. Was that really me? Did I really do that? I identify myself mainly with who I am NOW, what I’ve done here and what we’ve built here. The business, Crossfit, our puppies. I don’t really factor yoga into “Me” yet because it’s still new to me. But Crossfit and Dali Decals are ME. That’s my life. The fact that I did such stupid shit 17 years ago is just… embarrassing. Hah AND THAT IT WAS 17 YEARS AGO. God.. that’s a person! An ADULT person! I could’ve had a kid when I was 15 and if I did, they’d be 17 years old right now! That’s insane to think about.  *shaking off that thought*

ANYWAY.

Crossfit! Today was a great Saturday WOD! I told Kimberlee, who is Russell’s older sister, visiting from Long Island, that I would be there today! We’ve been corresponding via FB for awhile now, and we finally got to meet! It was really cool, and we got along just as well in person as we do online. Always fun. 🙂

My wrists held out, although warming up with burpees was a shock to the system! We did this crazy warm up to Thunderstruck? by AC/DC. Every time they say ah ahh ahhh ah you squat, and every time they say Thunder or Thunderstruck you do a burpee. So we got into a BIIIIG circle around the whole gym (big class today!) and did it. Pretty awesome!

May I also add that I killed it on the 400m warm up run, as well! A RUNNER even commented how fast I ran it. Heeyyoo.. good thing we didn’t have an 800m run though, just saying.

Anyway, first we started out with this stupid Death by Split Jumps, starting with 10 the first minute and increasing by 2 reps each minute. I didn’t get very far! I got through 6 full minutes, and than half assed them for another 3-4 min and then just finally stopped.

The 2nd part was a 16 min EMOM with a partner, even though it ended up not mattering what your partner did, haha.

So.. for one minute you do max effort kettlebells, and then the next minute you do max effort push ups (ouch, wrists!).

I made it a goal to do 15 KB swings and 10 push ups each round, which gave me about 30 seconds of work and 30 seconds of rest each minute. The coaches didn’t count right and we ended up doing an extra minute’s worth of work, which for me was KBs, so I cranked out 25 instead of 15, for a total of 225. YEAH.

Kettlebell Happiness

Big Saturday Group today! Must’ve had lots of people in town visiting family for Thanksgiving, because there were quite a few new faces. So awesome!

Saturday WOD at Crossfit Total Control

I did it! I took the plunge and bought an annual membership to Big Fish, where I practice yoga. They had a ‘Bright Friday’ sale today with 30% off annual memberships, so I did the math, and it just made sense. I’ve been going 10 times a month, and if I paid the monthly unlimited rate, it would be $12.50 per class. If I bought the 10 class pass, it would be $12 per class. If I bought the annual membership, it would be $8.40 per class. AND I can go more than 10 times a month if I decide to.

I find myself wanting to plan my yoga ahead of time, because you can go right online and schedule your week, or month even, and add it right to your calendar, which I REALLY like. With Crossfit, it depends on how I feel, what hurts, what’s injured (wrists). Which in writing, sounds like a bunch of excuses, but man, when you’re hurting, like injured-hurting, Crossfit is kinda hard.

Don’t get me wrong, Up Dog sucks with sore/injured/whatever wrists! I didn’t know if I was gonna make it tonight. The only saving grace was that it was Happy Hour Yoga and our instructor Mat played Thievery Corporation throughout the class. I felt so uncoordinated and worn out, it wasn’t very invigorating. Then I remembered reading that it’s those times where you benefit the most from your practice. 🙂

Anyway, my wrists still hurt, but my right one seems to be worse than my left as far as recovery goes. BUT they look much better. Swelling has gone way down. I can’t imagine what I did tonight at yoga was all that great, but.. God, the stupidest things hurt them. Hooking and unhooking my bra behind my back, taking off tight clothing over my head. It’s that turning inward position under pressure or strain or resistance. Like, if I turn them inwards, they’re a little tender, but I turn them inward, and then put weight on them (like resistance from tight clothing, or sports bra, etc, it’s like. omg hurry up and get this off so the pain stops!  Sigh. The most basic of functions. I keep hurting the important things! I guess they’re all important if I have and use them.

My wrist swelling has gone down. Starting to look normal again.

Going to attempt the 10a WOD tomorrow. I’m looking forward to easy stuff. Running, lunges, squats, sit ups? GHDs? Saturday workouts are always a surprise, so I guess I just have to show up and see for myself. 🙂 #makeithappen

My wrists are achy and sore today.. They have been all day. And if I rotate them or turn them certain ways, they pop and crackle, that can’t be good.

I’ve been trying to stretch them gently, which feels good actually, but then when I ‘put’ them back into their natural resting position, it doesn’t feel so great. The stupidest things hurt.. if I hold my phone a certain way and push the power button to turn the screen on, if I turn the steering wheel more than for just a 90* turn, if I grab my glass too ‘aggressively’. Any sort of squeezing hurts. Shampoo bottle, forget it. I couldn’t open a plastic package today (where you grab each side and pull apart, like a bag of cereal) because the pressure/strain hurt.

I must have let the bar fall back before I pushed it off of me. I remember my hands getting stuck under it and yanking them away as I dropped the bar. I was at the bottom of my squat though, and I remember jumping up and shaking out my hands from the shock of it. Dave thinks I just hyperextended them, stretching them too far the wrong way. Hopefully that’s all it is. Anything that requires pressure on the muscles beyond my thumbs hurts. Propping myself up out of bed, off the floor, scooting out of a booth. All the shit you take for granted. Pushing myself up on the armrests of my desk chair to get my leg underneath me (and then again to switch legs, cause I sit on my feet..)

Hoping this heals quickly. You can’t tell from the picture, because you’re not used to seeing my hands and wrists, but I’m almost positive there’s swelling and inflammation going on in there. Usually that spot (tendon?) that connects to my thumb when I stretch my thumb out is much more pronounced and hollowed out.

“the pain is here”

Today felt SO GOOD!!!!! When we finished our WOD, I was just so ecstatic and happy and felt so amazing! What a cool, exhilarating feeling!

First we worked on front squats, which I haven’t maxed out since September 2012. WHOA. That was over a year ago! So.. back then I was training differently, I had more time, I spent more time at the gym and dedicated more time to ME and not so much to work. I’ve also gotten smaller since then, I mean, although my weight has stayed the same, I have gotten smaller, built more muscle, lost some of my bulk and fat. Back then I was wearing size 12 lululemon crops.. today I wore my 8s, just to demonstrate the difference in my size. Pretty crazy.

Anyway, my last max was 215lbs. I really haven’t worked on them since then, because front squats hurt my wrists. Tonight they felt really good! I jumped right up in weight, went from 45lbs to 135lbs and it felt awesome. Then added another 50lbs, which felt great too. Then I got to 215. I missed my first attempt and dumped it, but then Derek amped me all up and I GOT IT! Awesome!

I tried for 225 a bit later, but had to bail at the bottom. It ended up catching my hands wrong and strained/stretched my wrists weird, so they’re a little sore now, but they feel okay. I was able to WOD with no issues, it’s just when I rotate them and twist them around that they’re a little tender.

I was PSYCHED that I got 215 again. I’m happy that I can keep and maintain my strength while working on getting smaller. I’m happy I’m able to front squat the same weight as a year ago with minimal training. So cool.

And yes, I’m the asshole that didn’t take my necklace off until after the first few FSs..

Anyway, our WOD:

10 min AMRAP
3 front squats (155/105) which meant you had to clean that weight too, I did 105!
6 KB swings (2pd/1.5pd) (again, I did RX weight)
9 box jumps (24/20)

YEAH. I finished 6 rounds + 3. I was going for 5, so I was happy with that. 🙂 WEEE!

I was looking at this awesome, but short, Ravers from the 90s tumbr account, and it just brought back so many memories, good and bad. Mostly nostalgic, because I was totally one of those kids for a few years. JNCOs, goodwill Adidas t-shirt and track jacket, hoodie, whatever and Adidas shoes. Hair in pig tails or Leia buns and just.. doing all sorts of stupid shit. Dancing, driving, sneaking out, being with friends, being a teenager.

Once I reached the end of the page (which I didn’t realize was possible with tumblr, because usually they just scroll endlessly) I decided I wanted to find an old album and play the shit out of it, so I did.

The first artist that came to mind that I’d actually have in my music collection on my computer was BT. The CD/album I selected was Emotional Technology, which is one of my all-time favorite albums of his, yet one of those albums that’s been overlooked all these years. I’ve had this CD for OVER TEN YEARS. This shit’s over 10 years old. That’s unbelievable. Totally getting old, since I’m still listening to music from 10 years ago like it’s still cutting edge. But man, listening to some of my favorite songs, I still know all the words, I still elicit the same emotions when I hear these songs as I did back then. Some of them trigger old memories, feelings of my old life. Being in college, graduating from college, driving around South Florida, working at Bahama Breeze. I dunno.

While this CD didn’t even come close to existing when I was in high school and still attending raves, it’s still one of those older albums of mine that I associate so many memories and history with. It probably sat in my CD player in my Camaro and then my Envoy and was played endlessly. I’m one of those people that when I find an album or song that I like, I’ll listen to it over and over and over and OVER.. and it’s borderline obsessive. (and if you’ve followed my blog at all, you should know by now that I tend to be slightly obsessive when I discover something new and amazing. There I admitted it.)

Anyway, if you want to listen to it, I suppose you can find it somewhere online or on Youtube, but it’s one of those albums that I probably wouldn’t play for someone who had never heard it. I’d say someone who had never heard BT’s stuff before would have to listen to it a few times to truly appreciate it, if they even liked electronica at all. Shit, I still call it techno. TECHNO. IT’S TECHNO, DAMN IT.

And now some pictures from the past for your viewing pleasure.

Me when I was….. 16 maybe? 17?

Same. Pre-18. Love my pants. 🙂

The classic DARE shirt. and that was my Adidas hoodie in the top right!

Cassandra and Me. Ohhh the stupid things we did.

Anyway, it was fun. I’m going to continue to reminisce and listen to my old music. I have now gotten through Emotional Technology and have gone even further back to ESCM.  Now THIS one is high school! Released in 1997, so I was a grand age of 16.. ohh to be 16 again. Good night, all.

I love it when my crossfit boyfriend sends me videos of himself working out! So thoughtful and sweet of him..

YESSSSSSS!!!!! So… I haven’t run in awhile.. My feet have been bothering me so much that I’ve been afraid to run at ALL. Not to mention, walking has been painful on its own, so.. yeah, running has been out of the question.

However.. I have this great massage therapist who has done some great work on my calves and feet over the last month or so, and it’s amazing how much it has helped. It’s actually therapeutic and healing. Of course I keep doing stupid things which continue to prolong my injuries, but, he keeps fixing them. Last week was box jumps which prevented me from walking comfortably for 2 days because it obliterated my feet so badly, but then an amazing Power Yoga Level 2 sesh fixed that right up.

(Who knew? Stretching for extended periods of time actually helps, too!)

So.. this combination of Power Yoga and massage therapy has been awesome. It’s been keeping me able and moving. I can only imagine how many people are out there who are just in this constant state of pain, and their doctors tell them to rest and stay off of it and don’t move too much and cease all activity, and then those muscles don’t get used, they don’t get stretched, or worked, and.. the problem never goes away.

Here I am, fresh off a muscular injury in each foot, two separate issues, and between yoga and massage, I’m still moving and feeling better than ever. I’m still in it, and more excited than ever to keep going!

Okay, so, tonight was an HOA meeting that I thought I had to attend (turns out I didn’t, I’m an asshole.) So.. I thought I had to go, so I went to the gym early to do the WOD on my own in order to get home on time. I did my own little warm up and got my bar ready.

The WOD tonight was

In 12 min
1 mile run
and in the remainder of the time, as many clean and jerks as you can. 185/125

I knew I could do this on my own, so I did. I had my headphones and all that, and it was awesome. My first lap felt really good. I marveled actually at how good I felt, how good my feet felt, and how I just functioned perfectly.  The 2nd lap I was like, ehhh… okay halfway done. The 3rd lap was wearing on me a bit because I could feel it in my lower back (time for some new flat running shoes) and the 4th lap, I was like. FUCK YEAH I’M GONNA GO FASTER! So I did. 🙂

And.. I ran right through the gates and hit Stop on my cardio trainer app at 10:32. WHAAAT??? 10:32 mile!??! I’ve NEVER done that before! (My last mile was 10:58 on Sept 8th.)

I quick ran over to my bar and took a breath and cleaned it. 125, oh yeah! Jerked it. No problem. I ended up doing 4 more in my remaining time. WOOOOO!!!!! I LOVE RXing workouts! Such a good feeling!!

and I fucking ran a mile in 10:32!!!