I decided I needed to give my knees a break today.. I feel guilty for skipping out on spinning, but I feel good because I didn’t let the day go to a total waste!! Spent the afternoon with mom and John, bought a couple more Paleo cookbooks to check out when the time comes (tomorrow..) and then cleaned out the fridge, went to the store, and bought all sorts of good stuff for this week.  I don’t think I’ve ever bought this much chicken before, hah.

Dave asked if I was going to have like a ‘one last meal’ sort of thing going tonight for dinner, but I don’t really feel like eating anything I’m not supposed to. Weird? Maybe. I’m kind of anxious to just get it started.

We bought the following:
12 chicken breasts (greenwise, from Publix, because they last FOREVER since they’re from Florida and super fresh..)
some sirloin,
sausage
tons of vegetables (frozen, I throw that shit in the microwave),
more olive oil,
balsamic vinegar,
 ummm a couple dressings that didn’t have anything bad in them,
a bowl of fresh berries (raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, blackberries..),
spinach,
romaine,
mixed greens,
onions,
grapefruit juice
orange juice

I’m ready!! I think I’m going to start tonight. I’m pretty hungry.

Today was the last Saturday workout until April, I believe! Not sure what I will do now with all this luxurious time I’ll have left over on the weekends now.. And without a Saturday workout, I’ll be even more inclined to drive the 17 miles each way to Einstein Bagels NOT THAT I WOULD DO THAT for the next 30 days or so or anything… maybe I’ll have to build up some sort of shopping habit or something.. or.. clean the house, or take the dogs to the dog park. Something worthwhile would be ideal! Hmm.. Well, I suppose we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it, next week.

Today was a HUGE day at Crossfit Inertia! We had an entire girls’ softball team visit for the day, as well as my Mom, Mitch (one of our employees) and Robin, our friend and UPS Rep! Because of the large crowd, the Erins had to modify the workout to accommodate so many people. And now, what do you think we had in store for us? What’s free, heart-pumping, and everyone can go and do it? Running. Yes. My favorite. and LOTS of it, of course.. good lord.

Our warm up alone was a bit grueling, especially the 3 rounds of push ups in the back of the warehouse, gravel in the palms and all. A 200m warm up run, and then we moved right into our WOD.

3RFT or a max of 20 min
200m Run
30 box jumps (or air squats, I got to do the box jumps)
200m Run
30 KB swings (35lbs)

I got through one complete round, and was starting in on my 2nd set of 30 box jumps. Holy moly.  Good thing Luke (Erin C’s husband) was there to motivate me.. I was ready to be done! Instead, he stood there and high fived me with every box jump I finished, right up to the end. Thanks Luke!

This was one of those workouts that when you’re done, nothing is comfortable. Sitting, standing, laying down, legs out, legs bent, NOTHING feels good.  I had messed up my knees (left one particularly) during the lunges, long jumps and the run, all from the warm up in the beginning, but I pushed through it.  I didn’t realize how much my left knee had been hurting til I tried to kneel down and sit back on my heels during our cool down stretching. PAAAIN. My left knee felt all swollen and stiff.

Luckily, I got to go see Jessica today over at Massage Envy this afternoon, and she worked on it quite a bit. Felt SO GOOD.. Later on though, during my Paleo Book Search, of course the Paleo books were floor level so I kneeled down to get them. Big mistake! My knees felt like they were going to explode from the pressure.. Getting back up was even weirder, because the pressure on my joints to lift myself back up was crazy.  I hobbled around a bit more, and was thankful I didn’t have to climb any stairs. Hah.

Once I got home, I took some Advil and complained to Dave for awhile.  Surprisingly, the Advil and complaining helped, not to mention doing absolutely nothing for the majority of the evening. Now, they’re both a bit stiff, but nothing like they were earlier. Advil actually worked, like I could do a commercial for them.

My chocolate chip bagels were delicious today. I even told the staff at Einsteins that I wouldn’t be in for a month, because of our Paleo challenge. They were shocked when I said I wouldn’t be around for 4 weeks! What does that tell you? I AM DEDICATED TO EINSTEINS ON SATURDAYS, that’s what. Those people know me.  Oh well, they’ll know me next month too when I go in for my celebratory carbs.

Tomorrow – Spinning at 1:30p. Steve said he’d join me but we’ll see! Then Paleo and Crossfit at 11 on Monday!

Day 12 of Crossfit! Next Friday will be 1 full month of doing this (Day 16) which is crazy. It feels like I’ve been doing this for so much longer than 3 weeks! I’ve immersed myself into the challenges and the exhilaration of pushing myself to do things I’ve never really done before. Or, to do things I’ve sort of done before, but was never taught properly. Most of my weight lifting was stuff I had played around with in high school, or what felt natural as far as heaving heavy weights around. Good thing most of it’s not too far off from where it should be!!

Our warm ups with Erin C today were pretty basic. Did some side to side lunges with some jumping action, as well as some jumping squats for the warm up. My heart was pounding after the warm up, so I was a little nervous about our workout today.. at this rate!

Today was a pretty big group! And still, I was the only girl. Intimidating with all these guys lifting all sorts of insane weights!! It was Charlie, Kyle, Will, Elskin, Scott and myself. I teamed up with Kyle and we took turns practicing Shoulder Presses. HARD! No momentum or push or anything from your legs. You just have the bar with the weights resting on your chest, and then you push it up over your head. Good lord.

I started with 55lbs, which is where I should’ve been, and moved up to 65lbs with a bit of a struggle but I had it. Then I did 85lbs, which was definitely more of a struggle but it was more like I was wavering once I had it pushed up, it wasn’t really an issue pushing it all the way up.  So I decided 105 would be my PR, but yeah.. I got it up to my nose, and my elbows just, I don’t know, I couldn’t do it. I physically could not push it up any higher. Super frustrating, especially with everyone cheering me on, and I was like, it’s not happening, guys!! So, I put it down.. tried to go back down to 85lbs, but my arms/elbows were shot by then.

Kyle killed it! Did like, 155lbs or some insane weight. The guys are awesome at this, and I know I’ll get better, but pushing up a dead weight over your head.. wow.. that was hard!

Our WOD today was the following:

4 Rounds for Time
30 burpees
20 box jumps (20″)
10 K2E (knees to elbows)

I hate burpees!!! I was really good at it this time around though, at least for the first 5. Then I exhausted myself so quickly! Still, much better this time around than my first burpee experience. Box jumps I love, but after doing 30 burpees, you’re so winded that the thought of elevating yourself 20″ 20 times seems a little unattainable.  The 10 knees to elbows I thought I for sure wouldn’t be able to do, even the modified ones! BUT I was wrong.. I was surprisingly good at the modified ones! I had never done them before, and I was happy with what I was capable of. I even threw in a few where I pulled my knees higher up than I thought I was capable of. The only issue with being good at those was that I had to start all over again.. and again.. haha

I managed to finish 2 rounds and 15 burpees (first part of my 3rd round) within 20 min. We were all spent after today’s workout. Everyone was drenched in sweat, much more than I had ever seen, and when the music stopped for a few seconds, all you could hear was everyone gasping for air. Nice job, guys!

Tomorrow is our last free Saturday workout! At least until April.  Hoping my mom will make it, but Mitch (one of our employees) and Robin (our UPS Rep) said they’d try it out. It should be good. And THEN… Monday, I start my 30 day Paleo challenge! Kind of excited for this..

So after re-reading my last post, I was like, this is stupid. Just because I didn’t go to spin class doesn’t mean I can’t work out today! Yes I’m aware that you guys were probably already saying that, but you just don’t understand Diana’s spin class..

Anyway, yeah, so.. I sucked it up, went and got my measly 20lb kettlebell, put on my workout clothes, locked myself up in my office, blasted Katatonia (just for Erin C!) and found an online stop watch.

I then proceeded to do my typical Erin M warm ups. High knees, fast feet, jumping jacks, repeat. Then, 10 squats, 10 push ups, and repeat. I skipped out on the toy soldiers, bear crawls, froggers and figure 4s.. I’ll have time for those tomorrow and Saturday, I’m sure!

After my little warm up, I went back to my desk and spent a minute or so trying to come up with my own little WOD. I thought about things that I knew I was good at, knew how to do, and things I had just done at recent workouts. I then went back to my online stop watch and began.

My mini WOD was the following:

3 rounds for time.
10 sit ups
10 squats
10 KB swings (20 lbs)
10 push ups
10 wall balls (just the motions, since I don’t have a medicine ball, and I don’t have any concrete walls to throw one against unless I go outside.. the neighbors would definitely wonder..)

My time was 7:34.  It was hard enough that my legs will be sore tomorrow, but not so hard that I’ll be suffering through tomorrow’s workout (well, I’m sure I’ll be suffering through tomorrow’s workout, but not because of what I did tonight!) It was challenging enough to get my heart rate up and to sweat, and to feel like I actually did something. 🙂 Weee!!

Total fail. Her 5:30p class is so popular that you typically have to be there 15-20 min ahead of time to get a wristband. I got there at 5:05p today, walked inside in a hurry, they scanned my thing, I asked for a wristband and the guy at the counter was like, “They’re all out. There are no more left..” as if I should have known. I WAS 25 MINUTES EARLY!!! Jesus Christ.

So.. I went to walk out and then I was like, no.. go the hell upstairs and maybe some ass will have taken a band and then decide not to go. Smart! Right? Yeah, then so were the 3 other people without wristbands upstairs waiting with the 30 who got them.. I stood there for 5 min thinking about it. There is never an empty bike in Diana’s class, and today just wasn’t my day.

Was it a sign? Maybe. I’m annoyed that I didn’t get to spin today, but I was also a little relieved because I was feeling light headed and sort of dizzy all day. A bit lethargic, even though I got plenty of sleep. I even had an extra cup of coffee this morning along with a delicious omelet.  Marisa says I didn’t eat enough, okay fine, maybe, so I had a Clif bar later in the afternoon. Still felt the same. Still got my shit together and went to the gym. No workout. 🙁

I would’ve stayed at the Y but I only had my spinning shoes (clip ins) and my birkenstocks. Neither are workout friendly and at that point, I was a bit discouraged. Once I have my mind made up to do something, I either do it, or I leave sorely disappointed that I didn’t get to do it. You may be able to relate to this in a planned event sort of way, I know I can. Like the following scenario:

Other person: “Hey!! Who wants to get ice cream after we leave here?”

Me: “Oh hell yes!! I am totally down. If everyone else is eating YogaBerry then I sure as shit can too.. When are we going!?!? Let’s go NOW!!” (gathering my things and waiting at the door…)

Other people; 20 min later: “Eh… I don’t really need yogurt, I’m kinda full from dinner still..” “Yeah, it’s cool, we can skip it..”

Me: “WTFFFFFFF noo we had PLANS to get frozen yogurt!! You can’t bail on that!! Noo!! I stopped eating my dinner because I thought we were doing this!! I will never get another chance to go again! YOU DONT UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS TO MEEEE!”

Everyone else: “Whatever, it’s just yogaberry, no big deal, we can just go another time..”

Me: “Noooooooooooo!!!!!!! (panicking.. cause now wtf am I gonna do.. I made life plans to do this!!) Nooo…. (ending in a whimper.. and then pouting.) 🙁

Everyone else: “err….”

So yes.. I actually have the same sort of reaction to not getting to spin when I had plans to spin as the above YogaBerry scenario. It’s gut wrenching and leaves me in a panicked WTF do I do now state of mind. (not really, I get over it.. I didn’t really need frozen yogurt, but damn it, it sounded good!) But spinning.. I walked in with the mentality that that’s what I was going to do tonight! Spinning fail.

I drove back to the office, defeated, stuck in traffic, pissed because I could’ve been spinning but all these other assholes (who, prior to today, were my bestest closest spin buddies, but not today..) got there before me and snagged all the wristbands.  Oh well.

There WILL be Crossfit tomorrow at 11a. There will be NO wristbands, and I won’t leave til I finish my damn workout. Looking forward to it!

Holy rowing… I am still physically drained from today’s WOD!!  I got in today, was a little excited that we didn’t do regular warm ups because I don’t really like bear crawls and froggers.  We got to warm up with kettlebells, I used the 35lb one while Will and Charlie got to heave around the 55 pounders.  Did some arm extension things where you bend over, grab the kettlebell and twist it around and extend your arm all the way straight up, with a little push from the knees for momentum. Totally don’t remember the name, sorry!
Then we did these Turkish Get Ups where we had to lay flat on the ground, extend our arm straight up with the KB, and then GET UP while keeping that arm extended. A lot harder than it sounds! Good lord.  Then we moved on to some more warm ups which included 2 rounds of

10 good mornings
10 dead lifts
10 rowing motions

I just used the 35lb bar for this.

Moving along, we did 8 and then 6 and then 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 dead lifts with increased weight. I got up to 115lbs but had to bring it back down to 55lbs because it was really hurting my lower right back muscles. (not working them, but hurting them..) I was able to focus more on my form than on how much my back hurt from it. Usually I don’t hurt, but instead my muscles burn from the work being done.

Our WOD today was 4x 500m Rows with 1 min of rest in between. Sounds easy, right? Oh my goodness. It was so hard!!! The rowing is great, easy peasy. I got off to a great start, and had an average of 1min 45sec for my time, but the muscles around my shins, whatever the hell they’re called were BURRRRNING after the first set. Not to mention, I needed to try and get these done in under 2 min per 500m, which didn’t happen. 🙁  The second set, I felt like the boys were already way ahead of me, which was discouraging.  Why do my shins hurt so much?? I had to yank my feet out of the straps after the 2nd and 3rd set, and by the 4th set, I couldn’t lift my legs up without using my hands to physically lift them. The feeling in my calves and shins was gone, they were numb, and they wouldn’t move. Can’t say I had ever experienced that before!
My times were as follows:
1st 2:08
2nd 2:38
3rd 2:43
4th 2:31
for a total time of 10 min.

When I left today, I couldnt even lift my legs up to get into the Denali. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to move my foot from the gas pedal to the brake pedal for the 2 min drive back to the office. And then when I got to the office, I couldn’t even lift my feet up to take my socks off, or to change into my jeans! hahaha I was laughing while leaning over the chairs at the conference table because I couldn’t even lift my damn feet. Caryn, Marisa and Megan were just staring at me, and then of course couldn’t resist my laughter and joined in.

I’ve been like, drained all day from that workout. But I feel so good!

Before our workout started, Erin RC took my measurements and body fat percentages. I explained what my goals were and where I’d like to ultimately be. I also officially committed to do The Whole 30, which is 30 days of the Paleo Diet. We’ll see how that goes.

A couple links that a friend recommends to me are listed below:

www.everydaypaleo.com
www.primal-palate.com
www.elanaspantry.com

Spin tomorrow at 5:30. Hopefully my shin muscles won’t be necessary. They don’t hurt, and I’ve regained most of my strength, but man… that was rough! 

Yay Valentine’s Spin Class! Was pretty awesome today, as usual.  I was still sore from yesterday’s power crossfit workout, holy moly. Only my legs though! And mainly, my quads, as in, when we had to do a standing run on the bikes, the muscles above my knees were burrrrning. That’s okay, that’s what spin class is supposed to do! Usually I don’t get that burning because my body is used to it, but spinning after yesterday’s WOD? Wow.

Steve came with me today!! Steve is one of our awesome employees who joined the Y awhile ago, and I somehow convinced him that going to spin class with me would be an excellent idea. We’ll see how awesome of an idea it really was tomorrow morning. He was a total trooper though.. Major credit to Steve!!

She played one song tonight that I’d been waiting to Shazam for the last 2 weeks! I finally nabbed it! It’s going to sound totally stupid outside of spin class, but here it is:

haha hope you enjoy. Anyway, that’s about it! Crossfit tomorrow at 10:30a. Going in to discuss my progress, goals, and to take my measurements. Excited to start keeping track!

Day 10 of Crossfit complete! Kicked my ass today. I have officially committed to 3 days of Crossfit per week, which is really what I’ve been doing with Freebie Saturdays (which I’m going to miss, since it was an extra day!) But yeah, I’m excited to be a part of this whole community and see this whole mutually beneficial relationship. I love it!

Today our WOD was killer but surprisingly Im not sure, which is amaazing. My lower back muscles are sore more than anything! The leg soreness is just expected at this point and my arms are fine. One thing that surprised me though, was the kettlebells worked my stomach and sides much more than I expected! I didn’t even realize it would work those muscles, AWESOME. I’ll have to do those more.

So today it was Me, Charlie, Will and Terry. Me and the 3 boys, and Erin RC training us. Our usual Erin RC warm ups, froggers, toy soldiers, high knees across the gym and back. Then we did a 500m row, 250 with our feet strapped in and 250m without. (Very strange to row with your feet unstrapped! I didn’t like that..)

We moved on to some kettlebell stuff. I had the 35lb one, lucky me! Boys had the 55lb ones. We had to sit in a full squat while holding the kettle bell up to our chest or above for about a minute on two separate occasions. Wasn’t so bad, except it was hard to hold the kettle bell. Ah well.

Our WOD was the following: One Round for time

30 ring dips
30 front squats
30 push ups
30 SDLHP (sumo dead lift high pulls)
30 kettle bell lifts
30 wall balls

GOOD GOD. This was hard! Granted, I sweat more when I have to run, cause I hate running, but this was hard. I had to stop several times and just breathe in order to keep going.

I did my squats and SDLHPs with 65 lbs of weight. My KB was 35 lbs, and my medicine ball was 14lb. I was expecting my arms to hurt more, but really, they don’t bother me. It’s just my lower back that’s sore, from the KBs I think, and my legs a little.  The KB training was cool, because I worked muscles I didn’t realize I was working (my sides, muscles just below my ribs, and my stomach) AWESOME. Those muscles need it! Will have to do this more at home with my KB.

Let’s see.. that’s about it. Marisa and Mom are still sore from Saturday. They’re both sort of into the idea of trying it again though! Would be so cool for them to keep it up! We’re even talking about having the Erins come do a corporate sponsorship for us at the office, so our people can be a part of this. Would be a neat challenge for everyone, I think.

Tomorrow, 5:30p spin with Diana.

Erin M invited me to join her and Elaine at LuluLemon in Town Center for a free yoga class this morning, and after a bit of thought, I agreed. Now, I haven’t done yoga in like 10 years, and from what I remembered of it, it really wasn’t my thing. Too ‘namaste’ and ‘centered’ and whatever else you want to say about it that’s new age and alternative.  I have a hard time getting into that sort of mode and ‘finding the light’ and all that, it’s just not me, BUT.. I will say, it felt really good today! Especially after Crossfit yesterday and Friday, since I was still tight in my hamstrings from all the lunges and squats we did.

I showed up early at around 8:45a, which was nice, because had I shown up when everyone else got there (9:30a) I would’ve been super self conscious and I would have felt awkward squeezing in between others.  Because we got there before the crowds, we took our time in finding a comfy spot. Whew!

Some of the stretches and poses were challenging, but nothing I couldn’t handle.  Like I said, it felt really good to stretch out my body and push myself, literally, into positions I wouldn’t have thought of trying. The class lasted well over an hour, which was surprising, because it went by pretty quickly.  Afterwards, we opted for a nice caffeinated coffee from Starbucks up the street.  It was a good day. 🙂

Elaine, Me and Erin in front of Lulu Lemon after Yoga

Quite the workout today! I’m really enjoying Saturdays because it’s the day where new people come and try Crossfit for the first time. Today, my mom and Marisa joined me, and they both did such an awesome job!! Both stuck with it the whole time, and their soreness tonight and tomorrow (and Monday) will just remind them of how hard they worked.. I love it. It was also really cool to share this experience with them. This is something Ive been doing for almost 3 weeks now, and it’s so neat to have them be involved and see this new part of my life. I can’t believe it’s only been 3 weeks.. I feel like I’ve been a part of this community for so much longer, but I’m so excited to see how things unfold as time goes on.

Warm ups today:
high knees, fast feet, jumping jacks x 3
10 squats, 10 push ups x 2

Moving outside, we did toy soldiers, lunge and twist things, figure 4s, and we stood on one foot and pulled the other behind our butts to stretch out our legs. (don’t know what this is called.. hip stretchers? err..)

Then, we headed back inside to go over some movements for the group. Our WOD today was a cool series that I really enjoyed. There were stations, and we spent 1 minute at each station. When time was called, we’d rotate to the next. We did one round as a warm up, and then 2 more for our workout. It was hard but it felt good!

Station 1: Calorie Row (burn as many calories as you can in 1 min)
Station 2: Wall Balls (I used the 12 lb ball for this)
Station 3: Dips (either on the boxes or on the rings, I did the ring dips today.) Quite the burner on my triceps!
Station 4: SDLHP with the Kettle Bells (I used a 20 lb I believe)
Station 5: Push Ups

We had a 2 min break in between Round 2 and Round 3. All in all, it was awesome. 😀  Thanks, Erin!!

Me doing ring push ups at yesterday’s workout.

Tomorrow, Marisa and I will be joining Erin for a yoga class held over at Lulu Lemon, in the Town Center. I’m curious to see how Marisa feels tomorrow morning after today’s workout. Yoga will feel good!