Holler! Today is day 30!!! I feel good, and not so inclined to cheat, especially since I can't really decide what is worth it, and I am still trying to win :)!!

Workouts:
Have felt medium, I have felt strong but not at all fast. I overhead squatted 115 last week, and matched my one rep max push press. I took a dance class on Thursday and am pretty sure it is the reason my legs have been wrecked (but it hurts so good). Saturday a few of us travelled the hour to CROSSFIT zeal for filthy fifty one of my least favorites, but I finished in 43:18 maybe a pr.

Cranky pants

So week three started yesterday. All in all I feel good, uninflamed (which is a feeling you don't understand until you cut everything out) energy high, I have been sleepy, (but not fatigued) but I added my multivitamin back in and I think that makes the difference. Cravings have been generally low but this afternoon I would have cut you for a special maguro roll from shiki sushi...

Yesterday at CROSSFIT (I don't know why my iPad does that) we worked on inversions, my headstand has improved , I was able to hold a handstand against the wall for a while, and then we got to the wod to steal my joy. Five rounds row 500 run 400. I was the slowest in my group and it made me sad. I have a hard time running fast in a wod.

Today we worked on back squat (my nemesis). I worked up to 185 for one but it was not low enough :(. It is just a scary lift that I don't do enough. The wod was an amrap of 10 deadlifts, 10 bar facing burpees run 100. I was defeated before I started so I struggled.

Rough day but 16 days in, 14 left of my whole 30, many fore for 63 days, still feeling strong!

Day 9...54 to go!

I am going to attempt to blog more regularly!  Promise!  When I looked at Sunday's schedule,  there was a 9 am Endurance coached by one of my favorites: Pauly P, as well as an endurance-y wod coached by Paul.  When I woke up I was tired, so let myself sleep in until the 11 AM wod.  I did not feel like getting up to make myself real food, so instead I ate what I could find, one meatball, one egg, and fruit...not my best work.  I walked in to a warm up of glute bridges, jumping air squats, and kettlebell swings (and geez were my glutes warm).  We then did tabata rowing (20 seconds on, 10 off), and we were to row our bodyweight in watts.  This for me at my high bodyweight was a challenge, Paul said it proves I just need to be more powerful...oh okay.  Then the wod, as there were three of us, Paul offered to be my partner, for:.


In team of two, complete the following for time:
8 x 200 Meter Runs – Alternate Athletes (each run 4)
200 Double Unders
2K Row (Switch every 250 Meters)
200 Double Unders
8 x 200 Meter Runs


If you were unaware, Paul runs really fast, we likened him to a wind up toy during the wod as his feet just move.... So I got little rest.  My first 200 felt good, the rest felt like torture.  I could not string together double unders, and owe him like a thousand.  Rows felt fine, but all in all this was terrible, I think especially because it was cold outside, and my ears hurt pretty bad from pressure when I came back in.  We finished in 30:27, just 27 seconds shy of Paul's goal, I just wish I'd looked at the clock to see where our miles started and ended.


Yesterday we worked on overhead squats for the strength work.  I just did not have it.  I was gunning for 105 x 3 but when I dropped the weight at 95, I knew it was not happening.  The wod was 50 reps of shoulder to overhead, Rx was 95, I used 75.  Every time you put the bar down, you had to do 6 pull ups.  This was tougher than expected, I paused 6 times, and finished in 11:51. 


I am still going strong on diet, I am sick of eggs, and yesterday I was pretty cranky, but I think I can make it, at least through my whole 30 no cheating.  I do plan to reintroduce things in my diet to see how I feel during the challenge... I can't decide what first, bread? cheese? ...what do you think?

Pre-challenge stats

To prepare for awesome success stories we took some measurements pre challenge and will compare in (now 8!) weeks. Dave also asked us for before and after shots only to be shared if we were comfortable. Honestly I was planning on sharing them here but when I saw them I asked John if that was in fact what I looked like. He said no but they are pretty hideous so I imagine the afters will be amazing at which point I can share both. But here are my numbers.

Weight: 170
Body fat: 28.2
Bmi: 26.2
Blood pressure: 143/85

So the numbers are indeed high. My blood pressure is not generally that high but I had some road rage on the way to the gym (chapel hill drivers are the worst) I was going to check again but i figured it would make for a good success story.

Wods
Christine 14:34
3 rounds: row 500 m, 12 deadlifts, 21 box jumps
Body weight is the prescribed deadlift weight but as I hurt my back a week prior I just used 95.

CROSSFIT total 455
Squat: 165
Press: 85
Deadlift: 205
This was a terrible performance on my part, my goal was to match my prs for each lift but missed on all accounts. This leaves room for a good amount of improvement.

Goals
500+ CROSSFIT total
Sub 14:34 Christine with my actual bodyweight
As far as weight I don't have a number goal I just want my clothes to fit better.

Everybody be proud of me!

I have fallen off the blogging wagon. And I have meant to post for the new year, but I was waiting to set new goals as my 2011 goals are just 2010 goals repackaged... Then I decided to set goals one at a time to focus on, but then the first one, climb a rope, happened within a week, so GO ME! So I will update them soon, I have been working on ring dips lately.

We started a nine week nutrition challenge at the gym this week (yup 63 days) today is day 6. And so far, so good. Day one was a challenge as we were on the road and only had fruit and nuts and ate only two big meals, and today was hard because I tried to add so some variety and didn't add enough fat to lunch and ended up famished. I think this challenge is the proper way to kick start proper eating habits, as 63 days is a long time. I have already faced such challenges as a friend eating French fries in my car, yeast rolls at dinner, baking for a friend, and the office (bagels, sweets, cheese balls etc) , but have remained victorious.

Last night I went to the gym for endurance and decided to stay for the regular class as well. I kicked butt in endurance! The wod was a thirty second row sprint, burpee broad jump across the turf, sprint back then row thirty seconds. It was fun, yet sucky in the Fran way as we were challenging anaerobic pathways science etc. Of the five of us in class I started thirty seconds behind and managed to catch up with the first group. I had the advantage of rower placement but I will take that achievement!

Happy Thanksgiving back!

So as Thanksgiving is the gluttonous holiday that encourages to eat ridiculous amounts of food, Crossfit encourages us to do ridiculous workouts  before and after to conterbalance the effects.  Yesterday's wod involved a lot of bodyweight exercises and a 500 m row.  By the end, I could not use my arms, but it felt great.  I scaled a bunch, with push ups, ring dips, and scaled back the turkish get ups, but I finished in a respectable amount of time.

Today we did a painstorm wod. We were to lift our bodyweight ground to overhead for as many years as we are old, and double under for 100-age times 10...so for me that is 28 clean and jerks at (really heavy) and 720 double unders.  I scaled back to middle school weight, and as we could choose our own strategy, I did my clean and jerks first, and then used the rest of 30 minutes to complete double unders, but as my feet wanted to get in the way of the rope, I struggled with stringing them together.  I ended up with only 253 double unders, so my strategy may have been flawed, but still a great workout.

Last week I was able to deadlift 223, which is not quite near my max, but more than I have lifted in a year.  That day we did a wod involving box jumps deadlifts and pullups.  There were a bunch of us in attendance...like a lot like I had to hunt for a box to jump on.  In the middle of the wod, a smaller, newer member yelled to Dave who was coaching, "I am one of the shortest people here, why I am I the one of the few jumping on an Rx box (20 inches)."  It took all I had not to comment on the fact that I outweighed her by (at least) 50 pounds yet I was doing pull ups without a band, but Dave politely replied, "because you can".   I understand that her comment came out of pride, and doubt that it was meant to be hurtful, but it rubbed me the wrong way.  I was not using a 20 inch box because when I got to the boxes, they were all gone... pick your battles.  But suggestion to all crossfitters, compare you to you, and leave everyone else out of it...

I leave you with this photo of myself:

sometimes Dave gets some good shots, but this was the worst, first of all I paused so many times at the top for a good shot.  and if you were wondering, I see my poor form, my legs are a bit far apart, my back is rounded, and my hips are high, but i still had a commenter, a trainer, not a crossfitter, one I have done training sessions with (that is saying a lot at a globo gym as not everyone is qualified) but still UGH.  But check out my arms, and my legs I imagined to be quite fatty are actually kinda diesel... and look at my eyeballs! so large!

Go me!

I have had a medium amount of success at crossfit the past couple of days. I had another fun weekend where I skipped working out (Sunday was beautiful and I skipped because I thought it would be cold oops!) i planned a two a day for Monday, the regular wod began with deadlifts. I am still reworking form so I stayed light on those and for the wod as well 15-9-6 6-9-15 deadlifts and burpee pullups. I knew this would take me a while as I am slow at everything but I finished in 27:12 just about fifteen minutes behind EVERYONE else. I came back in the evening for the endurance wod which was 500m row repeats. Paul suggested my goal be about ten seconds slower than 2:15, and I did much better than that at 2:19, 2:15, 2:13, 2:12, 2:11, 2:12 and grand finale 2:05... Did you forget about my slow score? Yeah me too.

Today I planned for a morning session but when I slept through that, chances of making the evening session were slim but I made it. Strength work was the push press, I had to ask dave where the pr board was as I have no idea in which of my 4 wod books I would find it. My pr from the board was 105, I worked up to that then did a conservative five pound jump. I hit it. I told rich I would ring the bell later but went up by ten. I hit it. I went up another ten. I hit it. Are you counting? Twenty pounds!!! The wod was another valley style, 21-15-9 800 m run 9-15-21 wall balls and push ups, I finished just five minutes behind most, but I was satisfied!