My Man Nate....

WOD for 3-19-2009

"Nate"
2 Muscle Ups
4 HSPU (subbed shoulder press)
8 KB Swings

OK...was not even thinking about arms when I was doing yesterdays workout. But CFDC wanted to do Nate. So I did Nate. I checked the blog before I left, and didn't know the substitution for the muscle ups. So, I just did a 1:1 substitution with pull ups and ring dips. Later, I found out that I should have done 4:1. Will remember that for next time. I used 15# DB for the presses and for the KB swings. Arms were feeling sore from yesterday as were the abs. I shouldn't have taken it easy on the presses and swings, but oh well. It's over now. Can't go back and redo it. I just won't let myself take it easier next time. Granted, even though I took it easier, it was still a hard workout. I was dripping in sweat when I was finished, so maybe I didn't take it THAT easy.

I finished 15 rounds on the buzzer! Sweet! And then I had my 50 minute cool down with Aqua Fit. I have to admit, it is kinda fun. It's nice to go get in the pool after you have worked hard doing a CF workout to a cool pool and still having constant movement for 50 minutes.

After that, a nice relaxing 2 hours by the pool reading pharmacology and Harry Potter! Not at the same time, but would switch books whenever I would switch sides. If I have to study, might as well do it by the pool right? :)

Diet:
Breakfast/Lunch: Don't usually eat before working out. On days off from work, I usually work out from 8-10. So, for this meal, I had 1/2c granola, almonds, 2 pieces of turkey bacon, 1/2c blackberries
Dinner: Not sure what I am doing yet. Going to Happy Hour with my friend for her 40th Birthday! I am going to TRY to be good and not drink alcohol. But what's worse on the Paleo scale, alcohol or a soda?

Catching Up

Sorry guys, I have been kinda lax on posting. But I did work out Friday and today.

WOD for 8-7-2009
Overhead squats
1-1-1-1-1-1-1


It's been a LONG time since I've done OHS. I looked back when the last time I did OHS and it was when we did the 4 sets of 15. I managed to get 45# all 15 times. I was working out alone, so I was kinda nervous because there weren't any coaches there to make sure that I was doing it right. So, I took it kinda easy to see where I was at. I did:

45-50-55-60-65-65-65

I probably could have done 70#, but when I got up to 65# my arms started getting shaky and I started to go forward on the squats. And as Koy says, you have to know your body. I really didn't want to go heavier and possibly hurt myself. So, for my last two reps, I really worked on form and next time I will get at least 75# if not more!

While I was doing my OHS, I noticed something extremely concerning. There was a trainer working with a client and they were doing deadlifts. The guy who was deadlifting was totally rounding his back! And the trainer wasn't saying a word! I should have spoken up. But the guy wasn't paying me to coach him. And then I was thinking that I shouldn't piss the staff off since I was working out there. Note to self, next time I see that trainer teaching him wrong, will speak up.

After the OHS, my friend Amber from work came up to the gym and we did 2 miles on the elliptical. In the past, I used to hate the elliptical, but now, I have come to a love-hate relationship with it. I am starting to enjoy my time on it. I get 20 or so minutes on it and have time to just blank out, listen to my music and get a nice warm up, and a nice cool down. It actually relaxes me.

WOD for 8-9-2009
J.T.
21-15-9
HSPUs
Ring Dips
Knee Push Ups

Thanks to Carrie's Blog, I found out what CFDC did for the Saturday workout. Funny thing is, I have been thinking about doing J.T. for a few days, and since CFDC did it, I went ahead and did it. I couldn't remember what my time was for this the last time I did it, and forgot to look it up. I was hoping for about 11 minutes. That sounded reasonable to me.

I used 15# DB for the shoulder press and the ring dip machine for my substitution, and of course knee push ups (sometimes, I feel like I will be doing these for the rest of my life). I almost did the first set of presses unbroken, but had to stop at rep 16 due to me slacking on form. Dips were another story all together. I only seemed to be able to do 5 in a row. Push ups went well. I got to 15 before I needed to stop and shake my arms out. Last time I did J.T. when I got to my push ups, I went to do my first one and my arms just collapsed! LOL. So, an improvement from last time.

Time: 9:40

Time from last J.T. on 3-12-09: 16:59

Wow! I totally cut off about 6 minutes off my previous time! Woo hoo! Even though I did a good job, there was a lot of room for improvement. I took a couple of breathing breaks in between movements. And I am still not able to finish a set unbroken. If I can do that, I really think I can cut off about 40 seconds off my time. New goal: J.T. 9 minutes or less!

Day 2....

WOD for 7-21-2009

15-12-9-6-3
Deadlift
HSPU
Vertical Jump 1 ft above max reach

This is a great WOD. High intensity and works your entire body! For Deadlift, I used 95#. I still can't do HSPU, so I subbed 15# DB. This was done with my friend Kelsey. I asked her yesterday morning if she was sore, and she was like I feel it a little in my thighs, but not too bad....hehe...just wait until later.

Kelsey used the 45# bar and 10# DB. She finished in 6:01, and I finished in 6:11. technically, it should be a few seconds faster since I have to start and stop the time on my ipod. Oh well. Last time I did this workout, I used 65# on the deadlift and 15# DB. My time was just a little over 5 minutes. I didn't realize that the extra 30# would add a minute to my time. There is a lot of room for improvement with this WOD. We will probably revisit this next month.

Cooldown: I did 50 situps, time: 2:00, one second faster than yesterday! Kelsey did 100 crunches in 2:05

I actually had a day off yesterday! It was such an interesting concept. I am so used to working a ton, that when I have days off, I am not quite sure what to do. Caught up on my grocery shopping, tanning, and cleared off my TiVo. Very productive day!

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: 1/2 c granola with 1/2c 2% milk, 2 tbsp protein powder, 10 almonds, 3 strawberries, 2 slice of turkey bacon
Lunch: baked chicken breast, salad, 8 pecans
Dinner: California Club at Applebees, a few fries, small piece of banana split cake (Another dinner with my friends for a birthday. I took the cheese off, and didn't use the ranch dressing that was supposed to come on it. And the banana split cake was what she wanted for her birthday, if you haven't had my cake, you should seriously try it! It's amazing!)

After dinner, I had left over banana split cake. So, instead of taking it home where it would eventually go in my mouth and straight to my ass, I took it to work and made them eat it! Kelsey was at work, and I was asking her how she was feeling...she could barely move! LOL. The soreness finally sunk in from Monday's WOD. Will probably work on upper body today due to our soreness.

Wrote the book on Pain

WOD for 5-11-2009

8 hang power snatch, unbroken
8 handstand push-ups, unbroken
15 double unders, unbroken


Last night was fun! Ok, a lot more fun when I finished than when I was actually doing the workout. Went to the first 5PM class! I like it! It looks like it will be smaller than the 6PM, which is great! The one thing that I will miss will be Lindsey and Sandy! You guys are great! You push me farther than I think I can push myself. I may have to drop in the 6PM every now and then.

So, for the workout...hang power snatch. If I had to pick any snatch movement, I would pick this one. I think that this one really helps me work on my snatch form, which is by far my weakest lift. The point of this workout was to do everything unbroken. We warmed up, and looking back on the workout, I could have done more. Sam and I decided to use 35# as a weight that I could manage without dropping the bar. I did manage it, but when I got finished, Sam told me that since I finished so quickly that I needed to use heavier weight next time. For the HSPU's, I used the "prison-shower-push ups". Now, if you have not seen these, these are a sight to see! You put your feet on a box, pike your butt up in the air, and then do a push up. Feels awkward, and I bet it is hilarious to watch all of these people, lined up against the wall with their butts in the air....glad that no one caught that on a picture. For the double unders, I used the vertical jumping sub. (Like this one way better than tuck jumps, would rather do 2X the number of jumps with the vertical jumps than single tuck jumps).

I was really happy that I was able to do this work out unbroken! A good way to start the week!

Time for WOD: 9:18

Diet for Yesterday:
Breakfast: Bagel (a friend bought it for me when I got to work, it was delicious, but regretted it at the workout), 2 egg whites, 5 strawberries
Lunch: 2 slices of turkey, 9 almonds, 4 baby carrots (wasn't very hungry at lunch)
Dinner: baked chicken, salad with sunflower seeds, mixed veggies, 1/2 c blackberries
Total Water Intake: 1.5L

Currently Listening to: "The Sound of Madness" by Shinedown

'Cause I'd Rather Feel Pain Than Nothing At All

WOD for 4-23-2009

WOD #1:
5 Rounds
10 Sumo Deadlift High Pull
5 HSPU

WOD #2:
Back Squat
3-3-3-3-3

While browsing through other CrossFit sites, I came across the WOD #1. It looked like a lot of fun, so Linda and I did this one. For the SDHP, I used 45#. This was fairly eary. I should have gone with more weight, but with the back squat workout, I didn't want to go too heavy. For my HSPU, I subbed 20# dumbbells. Time for the WOD was 5:11. This is actually a fantastic warm up. A great intense 5 minute workout. I felt great when it was time for back squats!

WOD #2: Back Squats.
I really needed this workout after yesterday! I was so ready for this! I did low bar back squat instead of high bar. Low bar back squat is soooo much more comfortable than high bar. Old 2 rep PR was 105#. I knew that I wanted to get at least 120#.
The Work Set looked like this:
105-110-115-120-130 (PR)

A new PR by 25! Great progress in my opinion. Weight days are my favorite. I feel like I can really see improvement. It's hard to argue with a 25# jump. Back in high school, we did squats. But I was never able to break 90, nor did I ever add any weight. The entire 4 years of high school, I would work up to 95# and that was it. I never went any higher. With just a few months of Crossfit, I not only have gotten the 95#, but have increased my max to 130#. I wonder what the difference is between then and now. I thought was in better shape back in high school, but with Crossfit I have been able to lift more than I ever thought I could. Maybe it's the diet. Maybe it's the amazing coaches. Maybe it's the people I workout with that give me that extra motivation. Maybe it's my decision to be better than I was before. It's all of those things and so much more! If only there was Crossfit in high school....

Diet for yesterday:
Morning snack on the drive to work: 15 peanuts
Breakfast: Egg white omelet, 1 orange, 1 cup strawberries, 5 almonds
Lunch: 1 1/2 chicken breasts (normally I would just eat one, but trying to increase protein), 1 1/2 cups mixed vegetables
Snack: 1 cup blackberries, 12 almonds
Dinner: Salad with mixed vegetables & 3 baked chicken strips cut up in the salad
Total Water Intake: ~2.5L

Currently Listening to: "Pain" by Three Days Grace

Watch As We All Fly Away

WOD for 3-31-2009

WOD #1 with Mel and Victoria:
5 rounds:
10 burpees
10 Handstand Push Ups

WOD #2
3 rounds (was supposed to be 4 but I had to leave early)
10 Mutant Makers (Squat clean to a Thruster)
400 m run
(Rest in between each round)

For the first workout, man, it was tiring! I still don't like burpees. And I can't even do the full burpee where you go all the way to the ground. With the handstand push ups, Mel was having me work on the form. I can't really go down very far at all, but I am getting the idea down.

The second workout...ugg...not fun at all! I used 15# for the Mutant Makers. My times were slow, but as Lindsey and I were talking about, just finish. Which finishing still seemed tough for some reason. Times for my rounds were:
2:45, 3:05, 2:56

Like I said, slow, and I still need a lot of work on the running. I have never been fast at long distances, but at quick short sprints, like down a basketball court or for a a couple of routes for football passes, I can sprint well. But after that....back to being slower. I am sure that 90% of it is mental. Just something that I have to overcome.

Back is feeling much much better after being on the steroids. I am feeling back to 100%, now I just need to get that extra 10% back!

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: Wasn't hungry, did eat 1 kiwi
Lunch: 5 slices of turkey bacon, roasted almonds, 1 apples
Dinner: baked chicken breast, salad
Snack: 2 gummy bears, slice of turkey
Total Water Intake: 1.5L


On another side note.....seems like we are having CFDC super heros! There has been talk of a pub crawl with everyone dressed up. Somehow...Mel thinks that I would be a great Poison Ivy...while she is not a superhero....she is considered one of the sexiest villians, and makes love potions and kills men with a kiss. While I may not be the sexiest....I like the idea of being able to kill a man with a kiss....lol. I think it would be fun, and I could totally make this character work. So, we will see if the Superhero/villian pub crawl happens!

Currently Listening to: "Hero" by Nickelback

It's Trying to Break Me Down

WOD for 3-12-2009

“J.T.”

21-15-9
Handstand Push-Ups
Ring Dips
Push-Ups

Holy crap batman....this workout killed me...and I think everyone in the gym. I used the 15# dumbbell for the HSPU. I used the Green band for the ring dips (first time to use a band on ring dips), and knee push ups. Lots of subs there....but I am proud that I finished it! I totally hit muscle failure during the set of the 15 ring dips. Time was 16:59.

I actually did this workout back in November. (11-21-2008). My time then was 9:40. The only thing that I changed this time was adding in the band ring dips. I did jumping ring dips the first time.

What a HUGE difference in time the harder ring dips made! Granted, I did use a band, but to be able to finish with the band is a big improvement for me. I am excited to see what I do next time I do this workout.

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: Didn't eat.
Lunch: CHEAT MEAL (For Stepdad's Birthday): Deli chicken sandwhich with cup of baked potato soup..yum
Dinner: salad with grilled chiken and sunflower seeds
Snack: none
Total Water Intake: 1.5L

So, my thoughts on my diet for this day....it sucked. Yeah, I get that I get to eat a cheat meal a couple of times a week, but looking back on this day, it wasn't good overall. I didn't eat breakfast, which was a mistake. Even if it was a piece of fruit, I should have eaten something. Also, not having a snack was a no no. It seems that on days that I work (I had this day off), my diet is not as great as it should be. Water intake tends to be on the lower side. It is possible that this could have contributed to my slower time, but then again, this was a hard workout. I need to make a better effort on my days off to keep my diet spot on.

Currently listening to: "Tuesday" by The Opus Flux (formerly Frolic)