My 2nd day of Crossfit in Vegas, and this was on a Thursday. It was great because my friend Josh lives out there, and he’s sort of been doing his own workout routine from home, and was incredibly familiar with most of the movements involved with doing Crossfit, so he came along! I was so excited!! Of course, that day we had to run 800m 3 times for the WOD, do 15 deadlifts or something (HEAVY) and then 50 situps. We also had an 800m warm up run and I about died. Up until last week, I was a 400m or less kinda girl. I still am, but yeah.. that’s at SEA level.. Vegas is 2000ft elevation! ughhhh just thinking about it makes me cringe and shudder.

Anyway, so yeah.. I made it through the 800m warmup run without stopping and Josh jogged alongside me. For the actual WOD though, I scaled it down to 600m, and 30 sit ups, both of which were nearly impossible for me.. I don’t know why, but I was beat. I’m going to blame elevation.

Either way, I was wildly proud of him! He got through all of it, and did a great job. 

CF Max Effort was AWESOME. They were welcoming, encouraging, all around. Great facility, great people, great members. They gave excellent constructive criticism. They listened to what I had to say. I totally recommend them and if we ever go back to Vegas, I’ll definitely stop in there again. Thank you, guys!!

Josh’s first official day of Crossfit. I’m beaming!

I got to work out with Elaine!!! So cool!! She and I were both in Vegas at the same time. I didn’t really have a good experience here, only because the coach spent SO much time correcting everything I did from the minute I walked in there. It was like he saw the fat girl at Crossfit and thought “oh shit I’m gonna rip this chick apart, coming in here like she knows what she’s doing!!”

He corrected my squats, and when I told him that was how I did squats (245lb backsquat, fuck off) he said “Oh, well we don’t do ‘that’s how I do it’ around here..” and I said “no offense dude, and I don’t want to be that person, but I’ve been doing this for a year, and I can rattle off my PRs if you like. I also have my Level 1. I know how to squat, and this is how I squat..”

Didn’t matter.. he blew off my shitty squats (my feet are too far apart for his liking, and my toes pointed too far outwards. Fuck off.) and went on to be impressed with my warm up runs. Oh wow, that fat chick can run back and forth the gym as fast as everyone else, wow.. look at that!

He didn’t stop there.. Next he tried to correct my push presses. Said my hands had to be in a Neutral or Forward grip at the top of the push press, and not in the Extended position as I always have them. He went on to tell me, as I put my wrist wraps on, that if I did them correctly I wouldn’t need to wear those silly things. FUCK OFF. I tried it his way to appease him and ended up hurting my wrist. It still hurts and is now hindering my mobility and movements at the gym. Low and behold, LBEB posted this awesome article today as well. Good timing, guys!

http://www.liftbigeatbig.com/2013/02/fixing-your-overhead-wrist-position.html

Then… we were doing KB swings, and I told him my shoulder was hurt from snowboarding and I had to be careful with heavy KB swings (esp one armed Russian ones, like we were doing) and he said, oh.. I didn’t realize they had snowboarding in Florida! Haha funny guy.  Fuck off.

Next correction was my box jumps. Apparently they’re beautiful, but he needed something to fix, so he told me that my chin had to be up at the top of the landing on the box. I guess I’m looking down towards the box when I jump (you know, to make sure I land where I want to, and to see where I’m going) and that in turn makes my chin point down a bit. Yeah.. that’s wrong. Chin up! And I wasn’t straight enough. My back was too curved on my box jumps and push presses, too! Wow..

The only reason I stayed was because Elaine was there with me. He didn’t pick on anyone else the entire time, but from the looks of it, he wasn’t a popular coach.. there were only a handful of people there for both of the afternoon classes. I expect a Vegas gym close to the strip to be wildly popular, especially for the afternoon crowds. This one wasn’t.

It’s too bad, because the owner was super nice, very helpful, completely welcoming… but this coach was a douche and gave me no fucking credit whatsoever. I didn’t even talk back to him, give him attitude or respond to him. I figured if I’m representing my box, I needed to just STFU and get it over with. Bleh…

The WOD itself was good though.. left me on the ground. AND Dave showed up!!! He had finished hitting at the range around the corner and came by to watch the rest of our WOD. Aawwww! 🙂

I love these! Death by Hang Cleans! Start at 1 min, do 1, at 2 min, do 2, at 3 min, do 3 and so on, until you can’t do anymore.

I got up to 14 and had had enough. I did the Rx weight of 75lbs YEAH. I love 7am classes. 🙂

Open Gym! Anna ran a mile with me.. 🙂 I did 1.62km at 8.1km/hr and finished in 11:57. YEAH.

This was my own WOD. We had a rowing seminar that Saturday, but I opted to come in, run and just do some back squats. Which is exactly what I did!

We had been talking about running a mile a day, for time. Just to get better at it. Well, it JUST so happens that my badass friend Streaky had just told me that at one point, she started working on the shit that she wasn’t so great at. Rowing, Running, Double Unders. Geez sounds AWFULLY familiar…. ugh, I hate running. and Double Unders. If I could do more than 3 at a time, I wouldn’t hate them so much! Grr…

So I decided that today, I was just gonna do like a 400m run.. and then come back in and do some heavy squats.  I pulled out my ipod, cause this stuff is better with music, got through my first 400m, and I was like, fuck it, let’s keep going.  So I went another 400… and then I thought about what Streaky had said, which encouraged me to push on for another 400m.  This was the first time I had to stop and walk for a few seconds, for about half a block.. and then  I thought, okay Im done now.. that was all.. but as I finished my 3rd lap around the block (400m) I said to myself, this is stupid. You’ll regret not finishing the damn 4 laps. So I pressed on. My ankle tendons (the ones on the outsides of my legs/ankles) were on fire (just like they do when I go snowboarding) and my calves weren’t too happy with me BUT I DID IT!!!!!! I checked my Cardio Trainer app and it showed that I finished in 11:23.. WHAAAA!?!?! I did a mile in less than 12 minutes? I’VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE!! Ecstatic!!

Here’s what I wrote on FB:

I have never ever in my life ran a 12 min mile.. (I rarely even run more than 400m..) But today I ran a mile in 11:23. Yeah!! Pretty proud of myself. 🙂 — with Jenn Streaky Yates.

🙂 Badass!

I suck!!!!! This is what happens when I don’t keep up with my blog! I’m a freakin week + behind on my updates.. we went to Vegas, and yeah well.. that’s what happens. I didn’t even drink or party. Good god..

Okay… here we go:

Day 202 – 1/25/13
100 KB SWINGS!!! Oh yes, I remember now!!! 100 KB swings for time. Easy right?? Yeah.. except that if you put the KB down or stop swinging it, you have to do 100m run, 10 ring dips and 10 squats. SUUURE. Well, we all know that I hate running, and to do 10 ring dips just.. well, I wouldn’t be able to RX this workout if I put the stupid kettlebell down. So what do I do??? 100.. Straight. Yep. It was with a 35lb KB, which apparently I’m not allowed to use anymore, but yes!!!

The record so far for the day was 67 straight KB swings by one of the guys. My goal was to exceed that so I could say I did 70 or whatever, before I put it down. I got to 30, then 40, and then 67, and then 70, and I was like fuck this, I might as well keep going!! IT WAS SO HARD. I saw everyone slow down as they neared their 30, and 40 and 50 reps and head out for a run.. they’d come back in, I was still going. They started ignoring their workouts and cheering ME on! All eyes on me. Russ tried no-repping me a few times, which I made up for, but my shoulder was really bugging me.. I FUCKING DID IT. I did 100 KB swings, without stopping! 3:34 YEAH.

It was the first time I FELL to the floor after a workout. I usually crash, lay down, whatever, not this time. I tumbled to the floor and rolled around, Russell-style, after I finished. Of course my mom was there with me and she came up and was like oh honey are you okay?? YES MOM GO FINISH YOUR WORKOUT GEEZ. 🙂

and then they told me no more 35lb kettlebells anymore. 🙁

AND THEN.. of course I posted this on FB, and my friend Pete said CHALLENGE ACCEPTED ALICIA. Here’s his own account of 100 kb swings. 😀

http://cephas365.blogspot.com/2013/01/029-new-nemesis.html

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY I started Crossfit… here was the first thing I wrote about it..

Copy/pasted from FB:
Last week we had a new customer email us about making some decals for their Crossfit studio that they’re opening right next to our warehouse. I spoke with her today and she invited me to come and try them out tonight, as they have a beginners’ class this evening. So yeah. Wish me luck tonight at CrossFit Inertia. I’m a little nervous!
(and then after I tried it..)
Aahahahaaa Crossfit day 1 was incredible! I’m hooked!

HAAA… I know that wasn’t very exciting, but still… I remember how awful, fat, gross I felt a year ago.. How I was hoping I would pick this amazing thing and stick with it, and hopefully see results soon. Now.. while I wish the results would show faster, I am still thrilled at the progress I’ve made..

I snapped these shots tonight (a day later..) for fun. Quadzilla, what?

Nevermind the exceptional Instagram quality.. 😉

Two Hundred Days of Crossfit!!! I finished them. I made it this far! Weird….. And it was one day before my 1 year anniversary, too. YEAH. I like that a LOT.. 🙂

So here’s what we did for my 200th Day..

5 Rounds

90 Seconds of work
50 DU Buy or 75 Singles
Remaining time
RX+ Max Reps Muscle Ups one attempt
RX+Max Reps OHS 155/95
or
RX Chest to Bar
RX OHS 115/65

REST 3Min between each round

MUST COMPLETE ATLEAST 1 of each rep each round

I did banded chest to bar pull ups, but I only used ONE big green band, instead of a big green band and a purple one.. time to grow a pair, Alicia!

I finished with 54 as my total # of reps, and used the RX weight for OHS at 65lbs. 🙂 I need to continue working on those. I WILL get better at them! 🙂 

I don’t even know where to start.. Wodapalooza was amazing! I thought it was going to be way more intense, and mean, and nasty than it really was. It was definitely intense, and dirty, but it was fun, and friendly, and encouraging, and all around awesome. We were surrounded by our closest friends from Crossfit Total Control as well as neighboring gyms, so it was like, the 904 tent gathering.  and speaking of tents, there were tents (canopies, those popup things people use for craft fairs and whatnot) EVERYWHERE! Little communities and home bases for every Crossfit gym across the Southeast that had come to participate in the events.

It was also the first time I’ve spent two days at Bayfront Park where people WEREN’T doing drugs and smoking everything you can think of left and right. That was also pretty amusing. It was the healthiest group of people (and by group, I mean hundreds of people who were competing! Not even counting the spectators!) that I’ve ever seen at Bayfront. The entire time, I only saw two people smoking cigarettes.

Jesus.. a whole day later and I still haven’t finished this damn post..

Alright.. just gonna finish it now.

So… Wodapalooza. My 2nd competition, my first two day competition. I expected so much worse.. I expected soreness like when we moved back to FL from NC.. I expected soreness like when I run 3 miles and try to walk the next day and can’t cause my feet hurt so badly.. I expected soreness like after my USAW cert where I had practiced lifts for two days over and over and over. But nope.. I was fine. I felt fine, I felt good, I felt ready to go. I only got nervous right before the WODs, and even then I was like, so what? Just finish them.. and then I went into them.. and did them, and that was it. 🙂

I finished 30th out of 50 in the scaled division. I did my best to do everything as I had learned it. No cheating, no wimping out, no sneaking by the judges with crappy form. This cost me some time, but I know that I didn’t cheat myself and that I played and performed the best to my abilities.

I was originally going to make this into two posts, but whatever.. it’s all turning into one and the details are fuzzy now. As far as the 4 WODs that scaled had to do, I was happy to be done with everything, come Sunday!! I was surprised with a cool shirt from the girls. And everyone wished me Happy Birthday all day long. 🙂 Our friend MJ came down to spend both days with us, and my friend Lori also drove down for a bit on Sunday. Was so good to have everyone around me! And Dave was there with all of our camera equipment, which ended up being AWESOME because he made it a point to take pictures of everyone from CFTC. Everyone has this awesome collection of pictures from the weekend. We finished the evening with a Group Rope Climb and a delicious dinner at Hooters. YES.

Our CFTC Group Rope Climb after Wodapalooza II

My placement.

here were the WODs.

WOD 1 the scaled division was exempt from… huge relief, yes! Because it involved paddleboarding around Biscayne Bay.. Something I’ve never done before, and it was cold. So yeah, no thanks! 😀

WOD 2:
With the heaviest weight possible achieve:
3 hang cleans (power, squat, or split)
3 front squats
3 shoulder to overhead
Without dropping the bar
– 3 attempts (each attempt has a 60 second time frame and 2 minutes of rest I between the next attempt; you can increase the weight, decrease the weight, or keep it the same.)
– if you do not complete all 9 repetitions successfully in a single attempt it is considered a no rep and you will receive 0lbs lifted for that attempt.
– must make 3 separate attempts
– clips must be on the bar
– tie breaker is done only with the weight that was successfully lifted all 9 times. After accomplishing all 9 reps without dropping the bar, the athlete can choose to deadlift the same barbel for the remaining time of the minute to achieve more points in the case of a tie. Example (275 + 7 deadlifts would be = 275.07)

I did 125lbs for this one and then 13 deadlifts. I finished 4th overall in scaled for this one. I probably should’ve tried for 135, but I didn’t. I stuck with it and I was happy with it. 🙂

WOD 3:
5 Rounds for time
ELITE
5/3 Ring Muscle ups
10 DB Snatches (85#, 55#)
15 Box Jumps (30, 24)

RX / MASTERS
8/6 C2B Pullups
8 DB Snatches (70#, 45#)
12 Box Jumps (30, 24)

SCALED
10 Inverted Ring Rows
10 DB Snatches (45, 30)
10 Box Jumps (24, 20)

WOD 4:
Complete For Time:
ELITE
21-15-9
Hand Stand Pushup (Women- hspu 15, 12, 9 and 21-15-9 oh squats)
OH Squat (155, 105)
Buyout of 100 Double Unders

RX / MASTERS
9 wall walks – 21 OH Squats (115, 85)
7 wall walks – 15 OH Squats
5 Wall walks – 9 OH Squats
Buyout 50 Double unders

SCALED
21-15-9
Pushups (Hand Release)
OH Squats (95, 65)
Buyout 100 Singles

WOD 5: This was the hardest one for me.. and almost nobody finished it. Only people in RX and Elite got all the way through.. CRAZY. I only got through 6 of the 2nd set of burpee pull ups.

Complete For Time

ELITE

• 30 Meter Burpee Broad Jump
• 25 Calorie Row
• 20 Toes to Bar
• 15 Burpee Pullups
• 10 Back Squats (225, 145)
• 5/5 Split Jerks (right and left)
• 10 Back Squats
• 15 Burpee Pullups
• 20 Toes to Bar
• 25 Calorie Row
• 30 Meter Burpee Broad Jump

RX / MASTERS

• 30 Meter Burpee Broad Jump
• 25 Calorie Row
• 20 Toes to Bar
• 15 Burpee Pullups
• 10 Back Squats (185, 115)
•5/5SplitJerks(right and left)
• 10 Back Squats
• 15 Burpee Pullups
• 20 Toes to Bar
• 25 Calorie Row
• 30 Meter Burpee Broad Jump

SCALED

• 30 Meter Burpee Broad Jump
• 20 Calorie Row
• 20 Knees to Elbow
• 15 Burpee Jumping Pullups
• 10 Back Squats (135, 85)
• 5/5 Split Jerks
• 10 Back Squats
• 15 Burpee Jumping Pullups
• 20 Knees to Elbow
• 20 Calorie Row
• 30 Meter Burpee Broad Jump

Getting closer to Wodapalooza!!

10Min Weakness Elimination Wod
3 Choices
50wall balls or 50 Ring Dips/MU/ or OHS

I did wall balls, since they were the least likely to hurt my shoulder!

Complete as many rounds and reps as possible in 5 minutes of:
CrossFit Games 11.3 Wod

Squat Clean and Jerk (M 165lb / W 110lb)
Instead of doing this 5min thing, I worked on my Wodapalooza WOD #2. Where we have to do 3 hang cleans, 3 front squats and 3 shoulder to overhead without putting the bar down. I got 125lbs each time I tried it, so that’s what I’m gonna stick with.

30 Strict toes to bar
accumulate 2min of LSIT (skipped, bleh)

Tomorrow we leave for Miami.. nervous, trying to get all my shit together, hoping I don’t forget anything!! I have a special surprise for everyone who’s competing, and I can’t wait to show them. 🙂