Front Squat Periodization week 2. This shit’s HARD!

Basically, you do several reps at various percentages of your 1RM, which will increase your 1RM when the time comes to do your 1RM again. 🙂 I always have to find boys to work with on this stuff, because none of the girls are front squatting anything near me, except Gina, cause she’s a beast. Todd and I worked on these together, at 5@65% 5@70% 5@75% 5@80% and 4@85% (I managed 3 at 85% and then I was done)

The WOD was a 12 min AMRAP
2 squat cleans 115/75
5 burpee pullups
10 ball slams

I finished 6 rounds plus 11 reps. Good stuff!

2nd day of Fall and it’s been spectacular out.. Not cool or anything, but nice, tolerable warm temps with beautiful breezes. I LOVE IT.

Today, Jaclyn and I headed to Open Gym to get a workout in. Something easy..

3 rounds of:
10 box jumps
10 GHD sit ups
400m run

I had already done 20 GHD situps before we started, for a total of 50 today. Woot. I had Jaclyn take some pics, too. 

GHD Sit Ups

As Karla would say.. GHD Sit Ups like a Boss. 😉 and yes.. my braid hits me in the face every time, unless I tuck it into my shirt. Good times.

I nailed it! I had 3 of my BCAA drinks today.. 2 before my workout throughout the day, and one after. I felt INCREDIBLE. Felt so much more normal and energetic. Like my muscles were actually responding. Jesus Christ, I’m addicted to Branched Chain Amino Acids… green apple flavor.

Anyway, today was great. It was hard and I knew it, and I did well! I even PRed my snatch AGAIN!! I bumped up from 110 lbs on Sept 10th to 115 lbs today!! I struuugggled with that 110 lbs, so to bump it up again was pretty cool. 🙂 I got it twice today! Once with a squat snatch and once with a power snatch. YEAH BUDDY.

So.. our WOD was a 12 Min AMRAP
1 rope climb
6 HSPUs
9 OHS 95/65lbs

I Rxed it except for the HSPUs! I had a 45lb plate and an ab mat to use. It felt good though, because usually those aggravate my shoulder and today they didn’t!

I ended up doing 4 complete rounds, and 1 rope climb into the 5th round.

I DID FIVE ROPE CLIMBS TODAY IN TWELVE MINUTES!! Not something I expected to be doing this quickly!! I love it. I’m so ecstatic that I learned how to do them and that I can ACTUALLY do them now!! Very happy day.

My ankle is rope-burned to shit now, but whatevs.. I’m proud of the scar it will eventually leave. 😀

I did my first official WOD yesterday since the competition, and I was DRAGGING ASS.

I have determined what the problem is for this week’s lethargy… not eating enough during the day, or not enough proteins (BCAAs!!!)  Our typical meal times are late morning breakfast (around 10a) and then we don’t eat again til dinner (8p?) Before the competition, this was no big deal, and I’d have a protein bar or shake or whatever in between, but holy hell, I haven’t been able to pull it together and work out this week, with the exception of yesterday, but each day I was feeling like this, it would completely dissipate once I ate.

Another thing I realized, on days that I work out, I drink 2, 3, 4 of my BCAA drinks, the Scivation Xtend. On days that I don’t work out, I only have maybe 1. Well.. since I haven’t been feeling well enough to work out, I haven’t been drinking my BCAAs, and without the BCAAs, I haven’t been getting those extra proteins in my muscles, which has left me feeling lethargic and mopey and awful. Good god. I’m an idiot. It’s a awful cycle that took me 4 days to figure out. GEENIUS.

Anyway… the WOD yesterday was a good one. We had to run a mile for time, but in an effort to save my foot (and I hate running more than 1 time around the block at a time) I rowed instead. My 1600m row time was 7:29.

We had a 15 min AMRAP of:
8 pistols
10 pushups
2 deadlifts

I did 8 + 7 rounds and I went light on the deadlifts and did 135lbs. I felt alright when we were done, but I felt super sluggish during the pushups, like my arms weren’t responding the way I expected them to.

I AM GOING TO KICK SO MUCH ASS TOMORROW! And I’m taking my damn BCAAs to bed with me too. I’m ready to get back into this 6-7 day a week Crossfit thing. 🙂

I have been tired, lethargic, drained, and sluggish in the days following my first competition. Not sure why, but I’ve been reassured that 3 WODs in one day will do that to you… I’ve never pushed myself harder or faster so much in one day, so I suppose there’s some truth to it.

I went in yesterday and did a quick 400m run and then 60 GHD sit ups. Normally I do 50, but 60 was my number yesterday, and I did them much faster than usual.  Today I’m actually sore from them, which is nice for a change! Usually, they don’t even affect me anymore, so I like knowing that what I did actually had an impact on me.

Aside from that, I haven’t done any CF workouts since Saturday. I honestly just want to crawl in bed and nap and read instead of anything else. Tonight, Dave and I went to dinner, and I had just posted on our CF Group Page about how gross I was feeling. The minute I put a bite of food in my mouth, I felt better instantly. Dave even said, maybe you just haven’t been eating often enough? Could totally be the case. I’ve never been so affected or so aware of my food and how it fuels my body. I learn this more and more as time goes on.

After we were done eating, I felt totally normal. (I had a big leafy salad with chicken and some delicious blue cheese dressing, don’t judge..) I even went out with a couple CF friends tonight to watch another CFer at his open mic night. I’m hoping this normalness carries through to tomorrow, and I can conquer the WOD without any issues.. (1 mile run for time.. wtf.. I hate running..) We’ll see.

Hannah and Me at Chad’s open mic night

Weee!! I was so nervous.. but my very first crossfit competition day was a success!! I was so fortunate to have Dave and my awesome friend Elaine there with me to support me, as well!

Dave, me and Elaine watching the 2nd WOD. Getting nervouuusss!

 A handful of us from Crossfit Total Control were there (it was at a box that was about 2 hours away.. not a local one.) So that was good to have some of my people there!

I ended up placing 15th out of 24 in my division. I am quite pleased with my scores!! The WODs were as follows:

WOD#1. This WOD is the same for all divisions. You will have 4 minutes to accumulate as much weight from ground to overhead as possible.

You will chose your weight and movement. Both can be adjusted during the WOD.

Your score at the end of the 4 minutes will be the weight moved times the number of reps.

If the same amount of weight is moved by two competitors, the one that used the heaviest weight for any one rep moves ahead.

You will have 1 min to set up prior to the 4 minutes. Any loss of control of the bar results in a 5 burpee penalty before the bar is lifted again.

 I ended up doing 65 lbs a total of 45 times. I was in 12th place for this one. The girl who placed first for this WOD did 75 lbs 51 times.

WOD #2
10 min AMRAP
10 burpees
20 wallballs 20 lbs/ 15 lbs except Jrs.
30 ball slams
wallballs and ball slams will be performed with “slammer” balls.

This one was just downright out of breath exhausting. I placed 16th in this one.

Going over the Wall Ball Rules with coolest judge ever, Helen!

In the middle doing 15lb slam balls.

Completely done with this WOD!

 I would totally like to point out that I was wearing my brand new HipFit shirt though!! They made this one custom for me, as I’m not comfortable enough to wear the womens tank yet. How awesome of them!! I loved it and got all kinds of fantastic compliments on it, too!

Anyway, moving along!

WOD #3
For Time:
250m run
7 rds
14 kettlebell swings
( non-games standard, open hip, bell at between 10 and 11 o’clock overhead)
7 goblet squats
Rx + masters 70lbs / 55 lbs , scaled 55 lbs/ 35 lbs, Jrs 25 lbs
250m run

Because of time constraints, they ended up cutting this one down to 5 rounds instead of 7, thank the good lord above…(I am NOT religious, fwiw.) My back was on fire from those kettlebells!! The first 250m part, I finished quickly, and even passed quite a few of the girls, but for the KBs, they totally slowed me down. After everything else that day, I was beat and exhausted! My back was sore, and so were my quads. To squat more to do the KBs properly made my legs just burn and ache. I finished it though! 19th place for this one.. this one definitely slowed me down. I was in slow motion on that last 250m run, and saving my energy for the burst at the end (which happened, btw!)

I was lucky enough to have Helen as my judge for all 3 rounds. From the beginning, she pushed me, motivated me, kept me going, encouraged me, yelled at me, and even no-repped me on some of those wall balls. (They were deserved.) Fair, honest, awesome, and she honestly made my experience comfortable and she put me at ease. I knew what to expect with her, and I knew I could count on her to push me through each workout. THANK YOU HELEN!!!!!

A big thanks to Elaine and Dave too.. for being there to support me! No matter what I was doing, I could hear Elaine’s voice over everyone else’s, cheering me on and yelling at me to keep going. Thinking about it makes me sad because I miss that about our old Crossfit experience. When everything else was noise, I could hear Elaine’s voice telling me to get back up, pick up the ball, pick up the bar, don’t stop moving, just keep going!! Dave is not a cheerer, but wherever Elaine’s voice was coming from, I knew I could look in that direction and see him rooting me on, too. 🙂 I have such amazing people in my life. I am so lucky! ♥

Another day where I said I wasn’t going to go in, I was just going to take it easy and give my body a break.. yeah that didn’t happen.. Why?

IT WAS FRONT SQUAT DAY!!! Time to PR again!!! I also said I wasn’t going to go for a PR, but then what’s the point, right?

I teamed up with two other nice gentlemen, whose weights for Front Squats were in the high 100s. My last PR was 205, so already I could do more than them, but still, it made sense to team up with them. It also pushes them to do more, too.. since most guys don’t like it when girls beat them, especially at weight lifting. 😀

We started at 135, easy peasy. upped it to 185 and already it was more than both guys’ 1RM weights.. They both did it, oh yeah!  Then I added on another 20 lbs to reach my previous 1RM, and I did it no problem. They both tried and dropped the bar. They were baffled that I did it, though! I then added on another 10lbs to total 215lbs, and did it again.. so they were determined to at least get the 205lb mark! They both got it. WOO HOO!!

See? I can motivate people. 🙂

I attribute it all to my giant legs. I can’t help it! My quads, my powerhouses. Pretty solid now too.

Anyway, our WOD was rough.. harder than I thought it would be, actually.
12 min AMRAP
3 squat cleans (95/65lbs)
4 front squats
5 push presses
(all with 65 lbs, for me.. which I Rxed!)

I ended up finishing 9 rounds. That last one was brutal though! I made it happen.

My 105lb Power Clean during the Holleyman Hero WOD

I love what this says about women who do Crossfit. 🙂 The confidence boost alone in myself is worth it.. not to mention all the amazing physical changes, as well.

Intense day, for sure. Mainly because it was a memorial Hero WOD for 9/11.. I really enjoy these, because there’s more too it than just my battling through the workout. They mean more to me, and it honestly gives me something to think about and focus on while I’m knocking out the rounds.

We did Holleyman on September 11th.  The story behind the name: Aaron Holleyman was in the US Army, and was killed in action in Iraq on Aug 30th, 2004.

His namesake WOD consists of the following:

30 rounds for time
5 wall balls (20/16lbs)
3 HSPUs (I opted for regular push ups because of my shoulder.. I also can’t go all the way down to the floor yet on regular HSPUs and back up..)
1 Power clean 225/155 (I did 105lbs)

As far as I know, none of the girls can clean 155 yet, so none of the girls at CFTC would have been able to Rx this workout. My 1RM is 140, so far. I wasn’t throwing on another 15lbs and hoping for the best, hah. During the wall balls, around the 15th or 16th round, I remember thinking, my god, I can only imagine the kind of hell some of our men and women go through during wartime, or battles, or even just being in the service by itself.  Here I am, ‘suffering’ for a mere 30 minutes or less.. Those sorts of things really help me to push myself that much more. It’s humbling. 

So yes.. 30 rounds. Honestly, I like more rounds, less reps. Short bursts of energy for each movement, and then transition to the next. If the WOD was say, 150 wall balls, 90 HSPUs and 30 power cleans, it would’ve been killer. But because it was broken up into 30 rounds, it cuts it up in this more easily measurable, doable way. (at least for me)

I finished first in my class, at 25:26.. the longest anyone took was around 48 minutes. Some of the guys (only 4) were able to Rx it at 225lbs. Insane strength.. especially after the HSPUs and wall balls, good lord.

The fastest time for the full 30 rounds was 23:54, but even his wasn’t Rx! Mine was 2nd fastest time for the full 30 rounds out of EVERYONE in the gym all day. *BEAMING WITH PRIDE* I know my strengths.. this was an amazing workout.

Snatch Day! I even PRed my snatch!!! I went from 105 to 110lbs something I certainly wasn’t expecting to do, especially with the babying of my shoulder that I’ve been doing lately.. hahahaaa so awesome.

Our workout was all snatches.. 10 min EMOM
1 power snatch, 1 squat snatch at 80% of your 1RM so I did 90 lbs.

Weee!! Easy peasy. I almost wanted to go for a 400m run after I finished.. but I didn’t. 😉