I did some easy stretching on Sunday.. and then my 50 GHD situps.. it’s crazy now.. I’m not even the slightest bit sore from GHD sit ups anymore.. wtf. That only took 2 weeks for it to just, not affect me. Here I was, worried about rhabdo the first week.. sigh.

I need to step it up now, for realz.

Okay.. Partner WOD on Saturday!!! This one’s kind of weird.. but it was fun! Tiffany was my partner and she’s great, so definitely wasn’t complaining with that!

Partners will Perform Tasks in an odd/even format
Partner 1: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 reps
Partner 2: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 reps

1st station: synchronized wall balls, so your partner does 1, you do 2, your partner does 3.. and you pass it back and forth. BUT you’re both squatting at the same time, even if you don’t have the ball.

then you do 2 rope climbs each (I did 2, one practice, one actual.. Tiff carried me on the rest of these, cause she’s awesome and I was beat..)

2nd station: Power Cleans 95lbs (I did a few extra here for her, since 95lbs was easier for me than it was for Tiff to do multiples)

another 2 rope climbs each (I did modified ones)

3rd station: burpees (Tiff did a couple extra for me at the end.. she’s great.)

another 2 rope climbs

holy moly that was rough! Fun though. 🙂

I decided to take today to practice one of the competition WODs for my upcoming competition, just to see where I’d stand.  I opted to do the 10 min AMRAP of the following:

10 burpees
20 wall balls (I used a 20lb slam ball, even though we’ll really be using a 15lb one there)
30 ball slams (20 lb)

I finished 2 complete rounds, plus 10 burpees and 2 wall balls. Basically, I set a baseline for myself. That shit was hard!!

Bring a Friend Day!!! Ashley, who Dave and I know from the *says with an upturned nose* country club, has been asking me about Crossfit for awhile now. Most of the girls who work there know that I do Crossfit because well, it’s all I talk about! I let her know last week that today was Bring a Friend Day, and said that if she wanted to come, she was more than welcome to!! She was able to work it into her schedule and we went to the 5:30p class. WEEE!

It was pretty awesome. It was harder than most ‘beginning’ workouts, with some technical stuff involved (which I didn’t expect, I’m sorry Ashley!) but it was good! Our WOD was the following:

Partner: Sandbag Run (400m, 60 lbs for guys, 40 lbs for girls)
so basically, you were supposed to carry the sandbag with your partner and run the 400m. 

Partner 1: 30 deadlifts (135/95lbs)
Partner 2: air squats (as many as you can do, while the other person does 30 deadlifts)
Switch.

Partner Overhead Plate Run (400m run with 25 lb plate overhead. Can pass it back and forth when necessary)

Partner 1: 30 box jumps 30/24″
Partner 2: push ups (again, do as many as you can while the other person does their 30 box jumps)
Switch.

Score is the number of squats and pushups both partners did, combined. 🙂

We ended up scoring 130. Woot! Nice job, Ashley!!!

The days of September are flying by.. It will be Fall before we know it, and the seasons will turn, change into those cooler temps, breezy nights, darker afternoons. I’m excited for the dark, really. I have my moments, but right now I’m craving it to be darker earlier.

My memories of Fall and Winter I’m sure are far more pleasant in my head than they probably actually really were, but.. when I think about Winter time in Naples, I remember sitting outside at barnes and noble on the patio, drinking a hot tea and writing in my journal. Yes, I used to do that shit in high school.. I was that kid. But I remember the wind, the weather, my loneliness but I also remember how content I was with the season, that current condition, right there in that moment. I must’ve been what, 17? I don’t know. I remember it being slightly cold, and slightly cold to us Florida kids is like, 60s. I can even remember the dark grey sweater (men’s knit shirt, from Banana Republic.. I loved that shirt!) I had on and how much I loved it, and how good that weather felt. Any time I’ve ever tried to recreate that moment and feel that again, no matter where I’ve been, it’s been unsuccessful. Maybe the problem has always been that I’ve tried to recreate that moment, instead of just enjoying the current one. I will try it this year, enjoying the current moment, instead of thinking about one that happened 14 years ago.

In any case, snapping out of that, as I realize it’s still 85* out.. My trusty weather.com flow chart says the average temps for Sept are between 74 and 86, so we’re right on schedule.. It won’t be until late October, November and December that I get to feel the 50s and 60s again. I’m ready. 🙂

Death by Pull Ups sounds much more awful than it actually is. 🙂

The first minute you do 1, second minute you do 2, and so on.. up until you can’t do any more in that 60 second span of time.

I did 11, and then decided I was done, and that I didn’t want to do anymore. I was okay with that! That was banded, yes, but I was still happy. I felt pretty strong!

I had this incredible realization yesterday, and it might sound so stupid, but since my clean and jerk 1RM is only 140.. that means that I have to be around 140lbs to be able to do a pull up. Right?? If the most that I can push over my head is 140 pounds, then that should also be the most I can pull up on a bar, right? Doesn’t that make sense?? It does to me.. and that also means that I have a long ways to go. 🙁 Unless I keep pushing my 1 rep max higher, which is going to take months to do, and only happens in increments of 5 pounds anyway. fucking pull ups.

So… anyway, from positive to negative, yes. Sorry.

Our workout was good. Exhausting but that’s okay. That’s the idea.

10min AMRAP
20 hose slams (I’m really good at these!)
10 kb (55/35lbs)
8 pistols (used the band, don’t want to kill my knees)
6 burpees

I completed 4 full rounds, which I was happy with. My lats are a little sore, but that’s from the pull ups. I like it when my muscles remind me (just a little bit) that I did a workout the day before. When I’m not sore, I feel like I’m not doing enough sometimes, even though I’m dying during the workout, and my recovery is just really fast now, still.. It’s like if it doesn’t hurt a day later, you’re not doing enough. Awesome.

As of today, I am officially down 30 lbs since I started Crossfit at the end of January. I stepped on the scale, not expecting to see any change in numbers, but sure enough. 🙂 It doesn’t seem like a lot, especially considering it’s taken me about 7 months to do it, but that’s okay. I’m alright with slower weight loss, because that means less loose skin, and a healthier lifestyle change.

What a crazy experience it’s been so far… I am now about the same size that I was when Dave and I met 6 years ago, even though I’m still about 25-30 lbs heavier weight-wise, I’m wearing my old clothes from that time. Just goes to show you how much more muscle really weighs.

Because I started on a mostly Paleo diet, I am eating good food.. I am conscious about what I’m putting into my body to fuel it. And I REALLY do think of food as fuel now.  In turn, Dave has really started paying attention to how he’s eating as well. My diet change has been a positive influence on him, and he wants to feel better, also. It’s been a win/win situation all around. 🙂

I am the healthiest I have ever been. I’m definitely the most confident and happiest I’ve ever been. I have better endurance, I’m strong, I’m seeing muscles show that I never knew would ‘show’ on me. Each day is a new surprise with my body, and each day it proves itself to me and what it’s capable of. 

In turn, I listen to it and give it the rest it needs. If I don’t make it to 6-7 workouts a week, I realize that’s okay. If I only get to 5, that’s fine. I don’t like missing more than that, but I also don’t want to overwork myself, or worse, hurt or injure myself.

AND.. I wasn’t sore from the 50 GHD sit ups I did on Sunday.. wtf? Yeah… That means I just need to do more of them. 🙂

We did “Donkey Kong” today which was exhausting as all hell!! I don’t know what my problem was, but I was lightheaded from the minute I started our 400m run all the way through the end. Through the warm ups, the strength stuff, it was weird.

We worked on our 1RM Press Cluster, but again, I’m not pushing the heavy weight right now with my shoulder. I got up to 95lbs on the cluster of a push press, push jerk and split jerk. That stuff isn’t difficult for me, but my wrists were sore, and I was just worn out.

Moving on to the workout.. “Donkey Kong”
3 RFT
5 deadlifts (315/225) I did 155 as did many of the other girls
10 HSPUs (I can do these, but I can’t go all the way down unless I have a plate or an ab mat, so Russ had me do regular push ups instead)
20 lateral box jumps (24/20)

I finished in 10:10.

Those lateral box jumps were interesting! The guys were flying across the boxes like it was nothing. I had to think about it every time I did one. haha

Open Gym!! I showed up at 10:30a and did my now weekly 50 GHD situps. I’m going to do these on a weekly basis and get my shit in order.  They’re such a good abdominal workout, that it will only benefit me to keep it up! AND the good thing with GHD situps is that your tailbone and ass cheeks aren’t rubbed raw because your butt isn’t on the ground.

THIS is a GHD situp, and those are the abs that I want, too. 🙂 Love the Crossfit Games! So, you lean all the way back, touch the ground behind/under you, and then power yourself back up with your quads. You never actually feel the movement in your abs, (not until the next day or two anyway..)

GHD Sit up, courtesy of http://jameshanfit.wordpress.com/

This is what it looks like when you come up. So all the way back, all the way up.

I get crazy light headed from them, cause you’re constantly throwing yourself around, so I did 10 at a time, and took a tiny break in between. If I didn’t get headaches/lightheaded from them, I would’ve done them faster. I guess that can be one of my goals. 50 unbroken. 🙂

THEN Marc showed up, and we had a WOD planned, so that was awesome! We did 10-1, 1-10 wall balls and box jumps. That means, we did 10 wall balls, 1 box jump, 9 wall balls 2 box jumps, 8 wall balls, 3 box jumps and so on.

I finished at 7:45. Going from that squat position to an immediate jumping position is killer on the shins! I did it though. I like those kinds of workouts!

It’s SEPTEMBER! By the end of this month, it’ll be Fall, and I am so ready for the cooler temps! The Fall season is one of my favorites, especially now that we’re in Northern Florida. We’ll actually be able to wear hoodies by November, and I can’t wait to see what the cooler temps mean as far as Crossfit goes! Should be a good time.

Anyway…! Saturday was our buddy WOD, and Jaclyn and I partnered up. Sweet!

They called it an “Active Rest” day… 🙂 It was actually a pretty easy going WOD, which was great. We did the following:

3 min per round, with 1 min rest in between.
Partner med ball sit ups (YAAY we each did 64 sit ups, and passed the ball back and forth each time.)
50m stone carry (other partner runs along side) we used a 65lb stone and did 12 total.
Toes through rings. One person works, other rests. When working partner stops, other steps in and takes over. We did 30 of these total.
Push Ups with sand bad slide (20 lb sand bag slid underneath each time you do a push up) Again, one works, one rests, and then switch. I did 20 push ups, Jaclyn did 30, for a total of 50.

All in all a good workout, but by situp 52, my butt was feeling raw and I KNEW what was happening.. yep… my skin was completely rubbed raw from how rapidly and hastily I was doing them. Sucks.. I’ll pay for those sit ups for the next week or so as my skin heals. Go figure, my stomach won’t be affected at all by that, but I can’t sit normally for days.