Back Squats, Front Squats. I’m getting back into a lull here with CF. Don’t want to be hurting and sore, and after being on my feet for several hours a day, I’m just not feeling it lately. WTF.

Anyway… This one definitely made itself known a day later in the glutes! Kinda loved it. I kinda wanna go to the gym just to do weighted lunges now.

WOD: 9 Minute AMRAP

10-Push Jerks

12-Front Rack Lunges

20-Abmat Sit Ups

I did  3 rounds plus 33.

After the first round, I did back racked lunges instead. THOSE WERE SO HARD. 85lbs for girls. Eesh.

I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that this was Day 300! It was awful enough to be Day 300! Good god, I don’t need milestone awful WODs to commemorate this shit.. I would’ve been a little more excited about this one, had I known it was my 300th day of wodding. Hahaha

You can only imagine my misery…

800m Run

20- HSPU

40-Slam Balls (30/20)

60-Burpees

40-Slam Balls (30/20)

20-HSPU

800m Run

I finished in  27:57, which was better than I had expected, honestly! That last 800m run.. there was nothing magical about it, except it meant that once I got back into the gym, that I could fall down and lay there for a minute. Thank goodness for headphones and good music.

Yay for meee!

Another ‘normally I wouldn’t have gone to CrossFit’ post, BUT.. it was our very first day at our NEW GYM!!! So I totally had to. And honestly, I wasn’t sore really from my competition (Rex Rumble) so what the hell!? I HAD to be there. This day would never come again, and it was the very first day in our new gym. 🙂

HDR Shot of Crossfit Total Control

Thankfully, Dave was coming in to work on our lobby artwork that we’ve been busting ass, trying to get done for weeks now, and brought the camera. This became ‘the shot’ of the new gym. LOVE how it turned out! I’m over on the left, and you can see a bunch of stuff going on. Running, deadlifts, more running, so awesome!

The WOD was the following:

10 min AMRAP
7 – Deadlifts (225/155)
14- Russian Twists (45/25)
200m Run

I did 4 rounds + 7. My goal was 4, wee! But I went light on the deadlifts, since we had done a shit ton at the competition. And I was glad I went light. Whew.

Some other shots from the new gym! Enjoy!

I made Russ stand up on the scaffolding with me as we installed the decals. 🙂 These are some of the biggest decals I’ve ever personally installed. They turned out great!

Moving the outdoor pull up rig two blocks south.. it was so badass. They wheeled it all the way down the street, like it was the space shuttle being transported from the hangar to the launch pad..

Ahhh the night before. Russell, Vanessa and Odyssey on the Eve of opening.

A sneak peak of what Dave and I had been working on.

YAY! Competition day in Ocala! Got to spend the day with Helen, and Shae and David at Crossfit Zoo.

Great people! Love them.. I woke up EARLY, at what.. 4am? To drive down to Ocala to be there by 7a for check in. Ended up hanging with several members of our awesome crew from CFTC.

The WODs were tough, but they were great. Throughout the day, we all kept checking our scores, and at one point, I was 1st first for the floater WOD of max KB swings in a minute (I had 42!!) Some chick came in and beat me by one, at the last minute! Grr….

My highest ranking overall was 8th, but I moved down to 12th in the end. 12 out of 49 WHAAAT? So cool!
I was pretty excited about that!

The WODs were:

WOD #1
Scaled: Deadlift 165/105
You will have two and and half minutes to accumulate as many reps/lbs as possible. At the end of that time you will have 30 seconds to increase weight by 20 lbs for men and ten lbs for women. You MUST increase weight. You will then have an additional 90 seconds at the increased weight. When that time ends you will have 30 seconds to transition to a rower. You will then have 90 seconds to row for meters. Total score is pounds lifted plus meters rowed.

I placed 16th for this one, and moved 9850lbs. So… I did 64 deadlifts at 105lbs in the first 2:30, and then an additional 26 deadlifts in the last 90 seconds at 115 lbs and then finished with 270m of rowing.

WOD #2
4 minutes of wallballs 15lbs
3 minutes of ball slams 15lbs
2 minutes of Burpees
1 minute of jumping rope singles

This one was not my specialty! Some I’m good at, some not so much. The wall balls I got through 60, then 30 or 40 ball slams? I don’t remember, then 15 burpees (HAH awful) and then 80ish singles. I placed 28th for this one.

WOD #3 (floater WOD)
10 goblet squats with a 45lb KB
then, pick up another 45lb KB at same weight and do a farmer carry 150m.

I finished mine in 1:31, which was pretty good! And placed 12th. The fastest girl did this in 1:13.

WOD #4 (floater)
Max KB swings in a minute, 35 lb KB.

I did 42 and placed 2nd.

WOD #5

I didn’t have to do WOD #5, and most people didn’t.. You only did WOD #5 if you placed top 6 in your division. We all were fortunate enough to be done. 🙂

The Rex Rumble II CFTC CrossFit Girls

The entire CFTC Crew, minus Jesse, Beth and Ben!

Had a great time!! The drive home? Not so great…. SO TIRED!

I would NOT have gone to this WOD if hadn’t been September 11th.. I remember waking up and reading the WOD for the day and thinking, wtf why are we doing some random, hard ass WOD today??? And then it hit me.. Oh shit, it’s Sept 11th. I have to go.

Now… a few days before a competition is NOT ideal for doing some crazy ass Hero WOD, but this one seemed special to me. Hero WOD 343 is representative of every firefighter who died on 9/11/01.

It was the following:

100 wall balls
100 burpees
100 sit ups
43 push press (shoulder to overhead, I basically did push jerks) 115/75

32 min time cap

Now.. 100 wall balls, fine. 100 burpees, fine, 100 sit ups, ehhh my tailbone curls when I see this.. 43 push press, fine.

combine all that? Holy fuck. I literally had to keep reminding myself that this was not for me. Each rep was representative of someone’s life taken. As Tom said, that person would much rather be there, at that moment, alive and doing burpees than dead.

So I kept going.

The only thing.. which I’m ashamed of, but at the same time, glad of for personal, long term reasons, is that I stopped my sit ups 62 reps in. I could feel the skin on my tailbone getting raw, and each rep I did I felt it starting to burn more and more. Raw tailbone and butt crack, esp before a day in the heat at a comp is not what I wanted. So I opted to stop and move on to the push jerks.

I will go ahead and apologize to the 38 people whose lives I skipped over and didn’t honor by not finishing the sit ups. 🙁

I had gotten through 21 push jerks, and time was called. Tom made me finish. I ended up finishing in 33:51.

This one was right up there with Murph and Kelsu and those other chippers. Good God.

It was not for me.

Hatch Cycle.. stupid hatch cycle.. I didn’t follow it! I just did what I would’ve normally done.. warmed up with the empty bar, and added weight as I wanted. Started with 25lb plates, added 10s, switched to 45s, added my 10s back on, then 15s and so on.. when I hit 185 for my HBBS, I was like, jesus this is heavy.. I don’t know HOW I can back squat 245 when this feels heavy! Ugh.. walked away for a bit.. Came back, added more weight, except this time there was 255 on the bar. Jesus.. 255.. There’s no way.. I got under the bar and went to stand up and said, PSH no.. not happening. I turned around and Justin was right there.

“Come on, kid! Let’s get it! I’ve got you. Let’s go.. come on.”

I’m sure I said something not so nice, like WTF you weren’t supposed to be standing there! So.. I did a few jumps and amped myself up, got the adrenaline going.. and go under the bar. Stood up with it and all of a sudden it was no big deal.

Backed up, got my feet ready, deep breath, and there I went. BOOM. Hit the bottom of my squat and bounced back up (as I usually do) and let out a loud RARRGHHHAAAAGHH!!!! on the way back up.

I GOT 255!!!! I back squatted 255 lbs! Holy moly. Definitely what I needed! Totally didn’t expect it. Fist bumps all around, wooo!

Then I did some front squats, and just wanted to work on getting my elbows up. They’re getting higher and higher, but at the risk of straining my wrists here and there. I didn’t go too heavy on those, 150-160, maybe. But that was fine.

Our WOD was an 8 min AMRAP of the following:

5 chest to bar pull ups (I subbed ring rows, because my palms are still tender and I don’t want my hands to be wrecked for Rex Rumble this weekend!)
10 HSPUs

Ended up getting 5 rounds + 1. Good for meee!

OH. and I made those Paleo-ish sweet potato brownies tonight. Again. With almond slices on top. 🙂

So after my awful crying DNF episode the other day, I invested in some Liquid Bandage to cover my Jesus holes (nobody else finds this funny.. I love calling them that, and will continue to do so.)

As I sat in the car, in the parking lot at our office, I read through the box like it wasn’t self explanatory. At the bottom, in tiny, fine print, it said “may sting temporarily during initial application” or something.

Riiiiiight. This means this shit’s gonna HURT.

So, I braved it and said screw it, I need to cover these puppies up. I did my right hand first, and the sting set in.. I sat there and yelped and cried out about how much it hurt, and then quickly decided to do the other hand too, so I at least had simultaneous stinging, and not long, drawn out, back to back stinging. Jesus Christ. I almost knocked the bottle over by flailing my hands around, that stuff hurt so badly!

I held my hands up in front of the blasting AC, in hopes that it would help. There was no turning back now! Deal with it, Alicia. (btw, my name is pronounced A-lee-see-a for those of you who read this and say Alisha.. it’s not, and don’t call me that. It’s A-lee-see-a. I’m half Cuban, be respectful to my parents and me and the name they chose for me and say that shit the right way.)

So yeah, deal with it, Alicia! Get over it. It’s your fault this happened!

So that was what, Tuesday or something? I think so. Yes. The healing that has already occurred is pretty amazing. I wish I took before and after pics, but I just expected them to be pretty bad and for a longer period of time, especially considering how raw and open they were. I’m surprised these things didn’t bleed. Man, they hurt so badly the next day, that I asked Dave to wash my hair! (He did.. such a good sport..)

Here’s how they look now. They don’t really hurt anymore (right side is a little tender) but it is about time to shave those callouses off.. too bad I’ve been slacking and haven’t bought the amazing callous shaver that Jamie is always enticing me with!

My healing Jesus holes. AKA I ripped my hands during toes to bar.

First WOD of September.. been busy as shit at the office, and then had a jetsetting trip to Wisconsin to see the fam Saturday-Monday, so didn’t have much of a chance to work out. I contacted my Mommy’s old Crossfit Gym to see if I could at least get a Labor Day WOD in, but they were closed for the holiday. 🙁

So.. I got home late last night/early this morning from Milwaukee, and ended up spending the day at the office moving everything around. Holy pallet racking, boxes, vinyl, tables, machines, etc.

Here’s kind of what we ended up with, although this only shows a portion of this particular warehouse space.

a part of Dali Decals’ cut production.

My hands, back, shoulders and feet were sore from moving all this shit around, but I still wanted to go to the gym. After almost a week of not working out (again!) I was determined to go in and do something!

When I got there, I got my 400m warm up run in, and today was back squat day. I’m really not into this whole cycle, so I just did some squats at the beginning percentages, and was like, screw this. I don’t want to do this..I’m just going to hurt myself.

I ended up lowering the weight down to 95lbs and just did sets of 10 back squats, and 10 front squats. I put the weights away and wandered around for a while. I didn’t want to destroy myself and not be able to come back for a few days.

The WOD sounded easy..

10-1 burpees
1-10 T2B

I was determined to RX this one. I saw the other scores at around 10-11 min and figured if I DID Rx it, I’d take a little longer, but at the risk of ripping my hands. I wanted to give it a shot anyway.

I started in on the WOD and surprisingly, got almost every single T2B, which was really motivating, because it kept me going with the movement. I had gotten so far and was almost done with the WOD that was determined to stick with the T2B, and I did! I got through my burpees and was on my set of 9 T2B when my hands ripped. Searing pain set in after I realized what had happened and I cried out in pain and frustration. I did my last set of 2 burpees and walked up to Justin.. I couldn’t keep going with ripped palms. BOTH palms were ripped (I didn’t know they were both ripped just yet!) I showed him my hands along with a pouty, frustrated face, and he asked me if I was done. I nodded, all pissed off, and he asked me if I was sure, as he began to write DNF next to my name.. (along with RX).

I nodded again, knowing that I didn’t want to further destroy my hands and worsen the tearing, and as I saw him write DNF on the board.. I couldn’t help but feel the tears emerge in my eyes.

I had worked so hard for that RX today. To get through my set of 9 and choose not to finish my last rep count of 10 was REALLY frustrating and defeating for me. I turned and walked out of the gym, knowing I wasn’t going to be able to hold back my tears. Justin ran out after me and crouched next to me as I leaned on the glass doors with my head in my hands, just fucking crying.

I felt like such a failure. How is it that I’m RXing a WOD, and I’m STILL NOT GOOD ENOUGH? All I could think about was not being good enough. Never good enough. I suck. I can’t even finish a fucking burpee and T2B workout. What. The. Fuck.

And I couldn’t stop crying. 🙁 I just stayed crouched down and kept crying. It’s a miserable feeling. He tried cheering me up and fist bumped and all that, telling me my toes to bar looked good, I’ve come a long way, etc, but it didn’t erase the fact that I DNFed. He left and then Russ came out to talk to me as well.  I don’t know how these people do it.. he knew what to say and how to say it. I left feeling better, but still.. fucking DNF. and my hands hurt! Both my palms each have a giant raw hole in them.
I felt like Ricky Bobby for the remainder of the evening.. I didn’t know what to do with my hands and just held them up.

Ah well. It is what it is. At least I did a shit ton of T2B and RXed those motherfuckers.

I took this picture last night and I love how it turned out. The main focus is Terrell doing firehose slams, and he even commented that he looked “mildly strong in this pic”. HAH. He looks like a badass!

Firehose Slams at Crossfit Total Control

I had booked a last minute massage with my friend Chuck, and whenever I book appointments with him, I find myself eagerly awaiting and counting down the hours til I get to see him. Sounds like a creepy, one-sided romance, doesn’t it?

It is quite heavenly.  I’ve always been weirded out about male massage therapists. The thought of some guy rubbing all over me sorta creeped me out, and I dunno. I was just never okay with it. My regular LMT recommended him though, knowing the kind of pressure I had been looking for as of late, and I trusted her judgment and gave Chuck a try.

It was awesome. HE is awesome.

Usually, my first time with a new therapist is weird. Awkward. They don’t know your body, they don’t understand why you’re sore. I feel for these people, because they have to deal with new people all the time, and this is why I’ve kept the same massage therapist for so long. Because she’s AWESOME. But, she can only do 90 min at a time, and only on the weekends, and she gets booked up fast. 🙁

With what I’ve been putting my body through lately, I’ve been toying with the idea of seeing someone who actually practiced structural integration, and when Dave’s friend Jaret, who’s also a massage therapist/healer/structural integrationist/crystal collector/spiritual human being/beatboxer, visited a couple months back, he spent some time working on both of us. Once he put his hands on my back and neck, I instantly changed my mind on having a male therapist. (That’s when I asked my regular girl who she might recommend, and without hesitation, she referred me to Chuck.)

So anyway, all that for this. I’ve only seen him a few times, but each time, he finds spots on me that he ends up spending FOREVER on. My quads, my shoulders, my calves, my lower back, my upper back, my traps. It’s ridiculous. If he booked 3 hour appointments, I’d take one, with a pee break, followed by another 2 hour appointment.

It’s like when Dave touches me, he finds tension on me that I didn’t even know existed. But his wrists get so sore so quickly, that I hate even asking him to work on me, even though he’s spectacular at it. 🙁

Finding the time to care for my body, and give it the therapy it needs has really made me focus on continuing to care for it. Story time.

Our new employee, Frank, asked me what our process was for creating new products today. I laughed, mainly because it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately, especially since I haven’t devoted much time to creating new products in the last couple months (which bothers me). If only had a clone! (JAMIE!)

So.. after I laughed, and he probably felt like an ass since I laughed at his question, I went on to explain that my best products are designed at night, while I’m drinking.

Herein lies the problem. I don’t really drink anymore. I don’t even consider it. It’s not even an option.

This whole being healthy thing and caring about what goes into my body has led me to the point where I just have ZERO desire to drink, be drunk, or recover from being drunk. I don’t want it, I don’t like it, I don’t miss it.

WTF?!

My old trusty vodka cranberry beverage, in my tall, ice-filled tervis tumbler, just isn’t there anymore. I spend all this time and effort making myself better, with good, clean, healthy foods, and intense exercise that would blow most people out of the water.. why on earth would I go and pour some alcohol down afterwards?

So.. I told him my creativity has apparently suffered because of my Crossfit problem. It’s not that my creativity has suffered, we’ve just been really stupid busy, and I’ve spent more time doing competitions, working out, and writing my own blog than I have creating new products. It also goes in waves. If I’m not feeling it, it’s not happening. This will be changing soon, since I’ve been contemplating some good stuff lately. 🙂

I snapped this picture of my arm and hip while I was in Fort Lauderdale. The veins in my arms and hands have been showing a lot more over the last few months, which is something I’m not used to.. but I actually really like. It’s a symbol of progress, in my opinion.

You can also see my Competitor Number from The Crush Games, A4407, as well as my appendectomy scar (hole shape right above curly tattoo), a couple of my tattoos, and my stretch marks. None of which bother me. I liked the shot, although it’s not something I’d post normally, I figured it was tasteful enough to share here. Hopefully you also enjoy my little photo effects.

Veins, less fat and smoother skin = progress.

Moving along… Man, it felt good to work out today!! I had gotten home from the office, taken the puppies out, and by this time it was about 6:40p and I thought, damn it.. I should really go. I feel good, I’m ready, Dave’s playing in his weekly scramble (golf), so.. why not?

I quickly got dressed for the gym and instantly felt like I had made the right decision.

I got there and there were a TON of people there for the 6:30p class. It was also the 2nd Bring a Friend Day for the month, and there were plenty of unfamiliar faces (a good thing!) If you didn’t know, seeing a lot of people at the gym always makes me happy! It means we’re continuing to grow, and new people are continually interested in what it is we do.

I was there for the 7:30p class, so I had a nice break to braid my hair (essential), say hello to everyone, etc, before I headed out for my 400m run warm up. 🙂

The WOD ended up being a Partner Chipper.

200 firehose slams (25 at a time before alternating partners)
100 T2B (switching every 10) Christine and I did Knees to Air 😀
100 Thrusters at 55lbs (we switched every 10 or 15)
100 ball slams at 20lbs (again, switching every 10 or 15)

We finished in at 18:43 which was awesome, since I was hoping for a 20 min time on this one!
I felt really strong and mentally capable tonight. I felt empowered and willing and awesome. I don’t know how to describe it, but I definitely didn’t feel defeated in any way tonight. It was incredible.