Today was FRAN! I haven’t done Fran since May, and the last time I did, I was using a box for jumping pull ups. With that being said, my last Fran time was 7:36, with the Rx weight of 65lbs.

This time, I did Fran in 9:25, which sounds shitty compared to the last time, but I’m doing banded pull ups now. Also, at 65lbs for Thrusters.

21-15-9
Thrusters 65lbs
Pull ups

Yay… It felt good though. 🙂

The days are rolling into one another. I can’t believe the 18th is almost over, and that 12 hours ago, I did my workout for the day. Seems like this morning was a lifetime ago. Not sure what brought this mood on?

Been thinking.. I have this amazing friend who’s literally on the other side of the world, who I have a very small window twice a day to talk to. She’s 14 hours ahead of me, so right now it’s 1p and she’s well into her Sunday. I don’t make it a point to talk to her each day, but usually, via some form of social media, whether it’s her blog, FB or instagram now, it seems we communicate almost daily. So.. I was thinking earlier, how is it that someone I’ve never met in person, or ‘known’ for very long, can understand me so well? And vice versa. When she posts things, I’m like.. YEAH I get that too! OR, I just feel this beaming sense of pride for her and her accomplishments. Like, when she hits a milestone, I feel proud and excited for her (whereas so many other people in our lives are like, yeah whatever, big deal, now will you STFU about crossfit..?) I love that I feel that way for her accomplishments without even thinking about it. It royally bums me out that someone I think would be so much fun, and so motivating, and so great to work out with IRL is a world away. I am so grateful to have her in my life, and by complete chance on the internet, no less, (like a pin on Pinterest or something led me to her blog) but the chances to hang out, or meet, or spend time together, will be so few and far between during the rest of our lifetimes.

Kinda sad about that.

Anyway, moving along:

Our Saturday WOD.. usually a buddy WOD, and Russell didn’t disappoint today.

My partner was a girl who I hadn’t met before, and she was great! Lisa and I teamed up and did the best we could.

So, for 30 seconds you do one of the two exercises, and your partner does the other, and then switch.
4 min of
wall ball sit ups (HARD. Tailbone was not happy with these..)
sandbag cleans

1 min rest

4 min of
holding chin over pull up bar
burpees (this was the only time ever that I preferred to do burpees over something else..)

1 min rest

4 min of
firehose slams
dips on the parallel bars

I went to visit a dear friend who will be a mother for the first time in the next two weeks or so.  It was a perfect excuse to end my 10 days in a row of Crossfit, and we had an awesome time. 🙂

I did my measurements yesterday before I left for Gainesville, and I have lost 3 inches on my waist, and 3 inches on my hips.  My quads are still massive (which I have grown to appreciate) and my calves, although they’ve trimmed down, are still giant as well. The insides of my legs have definitely slimmed down and leaned out, despite my giant muscles. My arms have, too.

The changes are small, and most people wouldn’t notice on a day to day basis, but my pictures definitely show the progress.

Unfortunately, I’m way too embarrassed to post my before and current photos, because I’m so ashamed of how much I actually weighed a year ago and how bad I looked. Maybe when I get closer to my goals, I will be more comfortable with the idea of sharing those here.

So my 30 Day Paleo Challenge ended today. I wasn’t thrilled with the results, but I wasn’t unhappy either!

According to the measurements, I lost 2 lbs, and 1% bodyfat.  I’m going to do my actual measurements again tomorrow morning to compare with those I took last month, to see how much of a physical size difference there is.

I also knocked 2 min off of my workout time! We did a workout 30 days ago, that we would repeat again today and compare times.. I did 16:45 or something last time, and today I finished in 14:52!!!!

We did the following:

500m row
15 squat cleans (65lbs)
15 box jumps (20″)
20 KB (35lbs)
15 ground to overhead (however, snatch, clean and jerk, whatever, 65lbs)
15 box jumps
20 KB swings
400m run

TWO MINUTES! That’s huge.. I was pretty excited about that. 🙂 

Tabata Mash Up Day! Today was the day a friend of mine was supposed to come, but she could only make the 7a class.. Sooooooo I got up at 6a so that I could go with her, and.. I got a text at 6:30a saying she couldn’t make it and she wouldn’t be joining right now, money reasons, etc. (things you know about sooner than 30 min prior to the obligation you’re cancelling, but whatever..)

Being that I got up at 6a to workout with her, I kind of expected a text with that sort of news to be delivered the night before or something, but.. it didn’t, and I was already dressed and ready, and I didn’t want to back out then. Soo. I went to work out at freaking 7 am.

I was one of 3 people, plus Russell, which was cool because I like smaller classes, but hell. I don’t know how people do things that early. That is just NOT for me…
I get up at 6 am to do very few things…
a) pee
b) let my dogs out to pee because they’re bugging me
c) go to the airport

That’s about it.. working out does not make that list, nor does it come close to making that list..

With that being said, it was nice to knock it out, as we had a busy day ahead of us anyway.

Sooo Tabata Mash Up! yes.. 20 sec on, 10 sec off, 8 times.

Four 20 second sets of the following (each, alternating)
Ball Slams
Ring Dips

1 min rest

Then another four 20 second sets of the following (each, and alternating)
double unders
wall balls

1 min rest

(same time)
plate facing burpees
sit ups

Your score is the lowest number of reps per group.. so I did 63 reps in the first set, 60 reps in the 2nd and 57 in the 3rd, so 57 was my score. I was happy with that! Luckily, in each grouping, there was one thing I was really awesome at, so that helped. 😀

Slacker! I know.. I know.. I just said it’s better when I do this shit the same day as the workout, and here I am 3 days behind! Sorrrryyy..

Okay so Monday we did “Cindy” and it was my first time in awhile doing a benchmark WOD! Was nice to do, so I can have something to compare it to later on when I do Cindy again.

Cindy is:
AMRAP 20 min
5 pull ups (big green band)
10 push ups
15 squats

I completed 10 full rounds + 6. Yaay.

So this past Sunday was supposed to be a rest day, but it was our friend’s birthday the night before, and the Open Gym Sunday WOD looked good.. I was like, screw it, I’ll go!

Ended up being Tom, Amanda, me Jenny and Brent. Ken had been there earlier but he left before the picture happened! (and the only proof that anything ever happens is either a score or a picture..)

 We ended up doing Brent’s Over the Hill 30th Birthday WOD!

30 ball slams (20lbs)
30 reverse curls (ha ha, power cleans) 65 lbs for me
30 KB swings (35 lbs)
30 sandbag lunges (supposed to be 20lbs, but I used a 25lb bar instead)
30 T2B (I did these laying down, with the 25lb bar overhead)

and then 300 DUs.. I did singles.

Ended up being a great Sunday workout, and we had fun, just like almost always. 😀

Good lord Im up early.. We woke up around 7am so we could go eat together before Dave’s golf tournament at the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club. Now it’s 9a and I have no idea what to do this early! Hah

Anyway, yesterday was a special day. We got to do the 31 Heroes WOD at CFTC and it supports a really great cause!

AMRAP 31 minutes (As Many Reps As Possible)
8 Thrusters (155/105#)
6 Rope Climbs (15 ft. ascent)
11 Box Jumps (30/24″)

This is a Partner WOD – Partner #1 will perform the work listed above. Partner #2 will run 400m with a sandbag (45/25). Once Partner #2 returns from the run, Partner #1 will grab the sandbag and begin their 400m, while Partner #2 continues work wherever #1 left off.

Score is your total # of reps

This WOD was created specifically to honor the 30 men and one dog that gave their lives for our country on August 6, 2011. It is 31 minutes long—one minute in remembrance of each hero. The rep scheme is 8-6-11—the date of their ultimate sacrifice. Finally, this is a partner WOD. The men who gave their lives were from multiple branches of our military, working together as a team.  In the workout you and your team member will constantly be taking the load from each other providing much needed support and relief. We realize that no physical sacrifice made during a workout can come close to the sacrifice our brave heroes made, but we consider this WOD a CrossFitters ‘moment of silence’. This is how we can honor those that gave all in the name of freedom.

 So.. yeah, there you have it! My partner, Jaclyn and I went during the first heat, which was great! We ended up completing 7 rounds + 5 thrusters. She was a great help! I felt like I was running with the damn sandbags the whole time, and doing the modified rope things (where you lower yourself to the ground and pull back up). It’s for people who can’t do 6 rope climbs in a row.  It was awesome though. I’m so glad we got to participate.

Amazing what a difference a week will make! Holy crap. Yesterday.. I didn’t even feel like going, but I had to talk to Russell about my friend Rhian who wants to start coming, and I had even said “I’ll see you tomorrow” on Thursday, and I feel badly when I say I’m gonna be somewhere and then I don’t show up. SO.. I went. That’s the only reason I went. and because I knew I needed to work out. I always need to work out, but yeah.. I went. Reluctantly, whatever. I WENT damn it.

So… I was a little skeptical that we’d have to start with a 400m run, because that’s what we seem to do on Fridays. I’m starting to get the patterns and habits of things now, so I was like shit, if we have to run, and I show up on a day that I didn’t wanna go, then it’s going to be JUST like last week and damn it I don’t feel like crying today!

I walked in.. and saw a 400m row instead. SWEET. I can totally do that! The usual warm ups, whatever. Do your own mobility, whatever, fine. Push ups, squats. Easy Peasy. So we did all that, and then we did a max # of ball slams in 1 min.  The record is currently at 40, but Jenny and I took 2nd place (tied) at 39, YEAH..

Then.. the WOD was the following:

In 8 minutes:
1000m row for time
Do burpees for the rest of the remaining time

I did my 1000m row in 4:33 and then did 27 burpees for the remaining time. Felt pretty good.

Then I decided to jump on a 24″ box, because I’ve never done it before. and I DID IT! I shrieked. Scared some people.. haha I was so excited.

THEN I was talking to Marc, one of the guys, and he was doing rope climbs, and I was like “maaaaannn I so wanna be able to do those! I just can’t do them! I haven’t figured out how yet..” So.. he started walking me through it. Keep in mind I’ve tried before and failed. Which makes trying to do something again that much harder, knowing you’ve failed before.

But.. I got the rope and leg technique thing down… and I jumped up.. and.. I started climbing.. and my feet did what they were supposed to do, and I kept climbing.. and climbing.. and at one point, I didn’t hear anyone say anything (I didn’t look down) and I yelled. UM HELLO!!?? ISN’T ANYONE SEEING THIS HAPPEN!?! ahahhhahah and they all were like YES!!! KEEP GOING!!! Do ittt!!!!

And I got to the top! I touched the top of the rope!! Everyone cheered, and I was FREAKING out with excitement, because I’ve NEVER been able to do it before, and then I just lowered myself down, just like you’re supposed to! AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!! When my feet got back on the ground, I didn’t know what to do.. I was SO EXCITED. I started jumping up and down and laughing and cheering myself on. Everyone was doing the same along with me.

I can’t even begin to describe how good that felt! I tried doing it again, but I already felt the rope burn on the outside of my right ankle, so my attempts to get up again weren’t successful, BUT Marc did get a picture of my 2nd attempt.. 🙂  What’s great is, last weekend he was even talking to me about it, trying to tell me that he just had to walk me through it, and that I could get it. I was almost annoyed with him last weekend because in my head I was thinking, dude you don’t understand.. I know what to do, I’m just not able to do it yet! And then I did it.. THANK YOU MARC!!

I love my CF family. ♥

Laughing with excitement after just getting my first rope climb

Went to the 10 am class today! Dave comes home tonight from his week-long golf tournament across the midwest, so I wanted to make sure I had enough time to get to the airport and all that. The 10 am class was so refreshing! Was nice to work out with some other friends who I hadn’t seen in awhile. 🙂

Today we worked on our clean and jerks. AND I GOT A NEW 1 REP MAX! FINAAALLY.. omg. I’ve been stuck on 135 for forever, it seems! (since June, really) and I hit 140 today. Was so excited that I yelled YESSS!!!!! when I was able to clean it up to my shoulders, and then again when I got it over my head. haha It was awesome! SO PR on my clean and jerk of 140lbs!

Our WOD today was easy. It was hard, but it was fun, easy, whatever. Hard would be if you threw burpees into the mix.. but no burpees and no running made this pretty easy. haha We had to do

10 min EMOM
3 clean and jerks at 70% of our 1 rep max. So mine was 100 lbs.

And that was it! Thank god for my leather gymnast straps. Saved my palms today.