Before I went in, I overlooked the part that was actually the hardest, haha. We started out with 40 back squats for time, at body weight. Well, I can’t do that… I can back squat what I weigh, but not 40 times! I dropped the weight down to 135lbs, which I knew would be doable at that quantity, but still tough.

I did 10 before the time even started, so I guess I actually did FIFTY back squats at 135lbs, instead of the 40 everyone else did. No sweat.

I did it, it was hard, but the soreness I felt in my inner thighs and quads for the next like FOUR DAYS was something I hadn’t felt in awhile! It sucked but it was awesome. It was a constant reminder that I can still push myself to that point. Only heavy rep at high counts weightlifting (rare) and movements I’m not used to make me sore like that. The last time I was sore on that level was when I did those 30 toes to rings, and my lats were sore for days. Another soreness that came close was when I did 39 bench presses at 95lbs earlier this week. My neck and traps were SO SORE the next few days! I loved it.

Our WOD was easy, I thought.

12 min AMRAP
7 push presses 135/95lbs (I did 75 cause my shoulder was NOT happy with the 95lbs)
7 SDHP KB 55/35

I completed 10 rounds + 7 push presses YEAH.

Our warm up today was the damn ladder.. those things… after running the day before, my calves had had enough, but then we did several sets of ladder drills on two separate ladders, and well, you’re really on your toes for the most part, so that kinda sucked. Ah well, it’s a damn good workout.

Moving along, we worked on Bench Presses today! It was supposed to be 5 sets of max reps at body weight.. I can’t quite do that yet, nor do I think I should be able to. My max was 145 and there’s no way I could do lots of sets of those! We went for 95lbs instead, and that was tough!!

I ended up doing 39 reps total. My neck and shoulders and traps were paying the price for it the next day, but to me that’s a good thing. I WANT to work those muscles more! Good stuff.

The WOD was the following:

Climbing Ladder – 13 min – increase by 2 each round
2 chest to bar
2 HSPU
2 sit ups
2 ball slams

I did 5 rounds plus 36

Overall a good number! Was happy with that. Like I said though, traps and neck were murdered the next day though! In fact, they’re still sore.. (This is 2 days later..) Nuts. Tells me I’m doing something right though. Working these muscles that aren’t used to it. 🙂

I suppose my Strongman Cert would account for Crossfit Day 159 but whatever. I’ll leave it how it is.

I really really really didn’t want to go today.. I told myself all day long that I didn’t want to go, I wasn’t going to go, I wouldn’t go. It wasn’t happening.

I went.

I talked myself into it. I felt guilty for giving up on the shit I should be better at. I should be better at running. I should be better at burpees. I should be better at this shit! Why cherry pick? Just go. If I didn’t know what it was ahead of time, I would’ve gone. So I went. I sucked it up and went, damn it!

It really wasn’t that big of a deal, looking back on it now. Just 4 times around the block, no big deal, right? I fucking did it. My mile time SUCKS, I might add.. took me 11 minutes, and I even ran/jogged the majority of the time. I was super proud of myself (sounds so cheesy) for running twice around the block without stopping. I used to not be able to do that once.. I stopped to walk 3 separate times, and each time I walked about the length of the block or less.

My lungs didn’t really hurt. This was my biggest thing before with running, was my lungs burning. This time, my calves started hurting, but whichever, it really wasn’t that bad. I’m just proud that I went and did it.

The actual WOD was the following:

10 min
Run 1 mile
remaining time do deadlifts (I came in at 11min and Russ had me do 10 deadlifts)
and then 5 min break

and then 5 min max double unders. I didn’t skimp out and do singles, and I ended up getting 4 double unders in a row, several times! Pretty proud of that, too.

I had no idea who this guy was.. Rob Orlando. Just sounds like a badass name. But anyway, even as he was talking, I had no idea who he was. It wasn’t until he started talking about competing in the games, and his workouts and his history with Crossfit and his company did I think, “huh, this guy has done some cool shit.”

Well, first of all, Rob Orlando is 37. Holy crap. Dude does NOT look or act 37.. just goes to show you how youthful people seem to remain when they get involved in Crossfit. He is married, a father of two (3 and 6 years old), he owns his own Crossfit facility, Hybrid Athletics, he operates StrongmanWOD.com , he has competed in the Crossfit Games in both 2009 and 2010 as an individual (and finished 22nd and 15th, respectively), and I believe competed again in 2011 with his team, he makes time to train almost daily, and he travels around the world teaching Crossfit Strongman Certification! I’m sure there’s more, but this all impressed me so much. And I complain there’s not enough time in the day to shower, eat 2 meals, work and work out. Good lord.

I had such an amazing time in Miami this past weekend with my coach, Russell, who invited me to come down with him for this cert. Learned a great deal about heavy lifting, more techniques, alternate methods, better efficiency. Got to move yolks, kegs, atlas stones, logs. Good stuff! I loved it.

Anyway, this all took place at Caution Crossfit in Hialeah Gardens. What a great place! HUGE facility, new, nice, clean, and tons of toys! Totally impressed. This is probably one of the coolest weekends I’ve spent in Miami. Not only was there perfect weather for the training, but I stayed at this beautiful hotel that we’ve previously been to, got to visit family and friends, got to see my sister, got to work out and train with my coach. It was just awesome.  I soak this stuff up and it leaves me wanting MORE.

So I signed up for my next competition, Wodapalooza, which takes place on my birthday weekend in January down in Miami. I’m really excited about this, because it’s supposed to be huge AND it’ll commemorate my one year anniversary of starting CrossFit.

In anticipation of lots of burpees, I decided to get serious on my Paleo Diet and really try to cut out all the shit I’m not supposed to be eating, or at least bringing it way down. (White rice here and there, beans, cheese, Clif bars and dark chocolate, not in that order.. I type this as I just finished a clif bar, sigh, because I was hungry and haven’t had anything since breakfast.)

Anyway, my goal is to lean down a bit, about 20lbs by my birthday. I officially started back on The Whole 30 (Paleo Challenge) this past Monday, which gives me a total of 76 days to lose the weight. I’m not concerned about Thanksgiving or Christmas, because we really don’t do anything crazy anyway.

As of this morning, I’m already down a pound from my starting weight. My starting weight this week was my lowest weight since starting Crossfit and Paleo up until today. Eek! I haven’t been this weight since umm… I dunno, 2007? That’s when I really started gaining weight, when my Dad got sick, when Dave and I started riding our motorcycles everywhere, going out to eat a lot, and just not exercising much anymore.

Seeing that number on the scale is a motivator, and it’s kept me going all day today. 🙂 Makes my workouts seem even more purposeful, every bite of food I consume is eaten with intention, to fuel my body. I make decisions based on how I will function, operate and feel, and then narrow it down from that to what sounds good. (Some celery, a larabar, some prunes, a handful of almonds, or.. if I’m not that hungry, how about a big glass of water instead? Or some of my BCAAs? Maybe I’m feeling sluggish or hungry because my muscles are recovering right now, or because I’m thirsty.)

Tonight we had chicken and some chicken sausage, and I made a spinach salad with bell peppers, tomatoes, balsamic dressing and some slices of mozzarella cheese. It was awesome! I made Dave some white rice which is great on his stomach, and it’s gluten-free, so it won’t agitate any heartburn or acid reflux.

Food is everything.. I’m becoming sooo aware of this, even more so now as time goes on. It’s really amazing. I feel like I’ve been given a secret to great health and longevity, and yet, when I am asked about my diet and how I’ve lost the weight and I try to explain it to others, they sort of shut down because they focus on all the negatives (all the things to avoid, when the question arises). Everyone feels like shit but nobody’s willing to change anything. Talk about frustrating! I see people eating garbage; processed food, refined sugars, starchy, gross foods, and as a result they feel like garbage, all sluggish and whatnot and I want to be like “STOP!!! Don’t you see what you’re doing to yourself!?!” But it’s not my role or place, and people can only help themselves if they truly want to make changes.

Anyway.. didn’t mean for it to go in that direction, but that’s how I feel.. seriously, it’s like a veil has been lifted. I love it. 🙂 This journey has been incredible so far!

PRed my push press at 155lbs. Hadn’t tried to find a 1 rep max before, so I was pretty happy with this number.

Our WOD was the following:

50-40-30-20-10
Wallballs
situps
double unders (or x3 singles)

I stopped the situps when I got to the 30 reps set, because I didn’t feel like rubbing all the skin off my tailbone/butt crack again. That shit hurts for days, and it’s not worth it. The sit ups don’t bother me, it’s that my tailbone I guess is bony, and that much movement that quickly just rubs the skin raw. Sucks.

So our Crossfit box hosted a pub run, and we decided to call it the Pub Run for Puppies, where all proceeds would go to a local animal shelter. Because I helped design and complete the t-shirts for the event, I know we ended up making 85 t-shirts total. Some were extras, so I’m estimating that we had 65 people at the event? Maybe more, either way, there were a LOT of us!! It was great.
I’ve never done a pub run or pub crawl before, simply because I’m not that much of a drinker, or runner, or bar hopper, haha but of course I wanted the tshirt and I wanted to hang out with my awesome crossfit family.

The route started up on Atlantic Beach at 6p. We met at RagTime, and that’s when I realized how many people were actually participating!

From there, we headed to Poe’s Tavern, then we hoofed it about a mile down to Landshark (we actually ran, yes..) Then Mellow Mushroom, then Casa Marina, then Lynch’s, our final stop.

Enjoy the pics. They are the best part! 🙂

The start of the Evening

Our original meeting spot, Ragtime.

Everyone at Poe’s.

At Mellow Mushroom!

At Lynch’s. The end of the evening!

Hang cleans! Love me some hang cleans. I’m good at them. Clean and jerk, too! If I can clean it, I can jerk it. 😀

Today’s WOD was the following:

1000m Row
15 Hang Cleans 135/95
15 Clean and Jerk 135/95
30 T2B

I ended up doing 75lbs for the WOD, which worked out great! I also ended up doing toes to rings, instead of T2B. Which was awesome, because I was actually able to finish! Using the rings instead allows you to give yourself more momentum when kipping. (if you can call it kipping on the rings..) Either way, I loved it. And my lats and pecs were so sore from it, which I’m happy about! I don’t get sore so often anymore, so it’s nice to know I’m still working my muscles. 🙂 

So we had to dress up for the Halloween WOD or we got publicly ridiculed by the rest of the class.. I chose to be a Viking Fairy. I have the braids for a viking, but I really wanted to wear butterfly/fairy wings and knee high socks. Makes perfect sense!

Our WOD was hard (endurance-wise).. and my wings didn’t really make it any easier, unfortunately.

200m run
31 ring push ups (regular push ups for me, it hurts my shoulder..)
31 KB swings (55/35lb)
400m run
31 sit ups
31 ball slams (30/20lb)
200m run
31 overhead plate lunges (45/25lb)
31 burpees

Those fucking burpees.. they get me every time! Even the running didn’t phase me so much.. but when I saw burpees, I was like, oh god.. this is gonna be awful. It went from doable to goddamn it, with one prescribed movement. haha Oh well. I finished!

Viking Fairy! Makes perfect sense.

Fairies do push ups too.

Our awesome CFTC Family on Halloween

Front Squat Periodization! I haven’t improved on these.. I’m better at 1RM than I am at higher reps and higher weights. I’m okay with that, but I feel like a failure when I can’t lift my 1RM or close to it after doing so many reps leading up to it. Oh well..

WOD was the following:

4RFT
50 DU/100 singles
2 Squat Cleans at 70% (I think I did cheesy easy at 75 or 85 lbs or something.. cake.)

Finished at 6 min 14 sec.
12 min time cap.