It's Been A Long Time Coming!

Well my friends, I finally got to do a couple of Crossfit WODs. And let's just say.....I'm exhausted. Friday night, Phoenix had to work late. So I decided that I was not going to sit at home and wait for him. So I texted Mel, and decided to go for Friday's night class.

WOD:
3 rounds for time:
3 Power Cleans
3 Front Squats
3 Deadlifts
50 Double Unders

I knew going into this that it was not going to be the prettiest workout. Squats (especially Front squats) have been a weakness of mine. Power cleans and deadlifts I was not worried about. I ended up using 52# for the lifts. I know that I could have done more on the power cleans and deadlifts, but stupid front squats. I looked back, and 2 years ago I could do 100# on front squat, and now....half that. Kind of depressing. I had to substitute 2x for the double unders, but I finished in a decent time of 5:47. I didn't have to do any burpee penalties because I didn't let go of the bar. I was determined not to!

Saturday comes, and I am sore. It was a struggle to get out of bed. But I did. This workout was not fun. I did enjoy Friday's workout, but today. Ug. I really really did not like it at all. It wasn't that bad. I just came close to throwing up several times. And my legs were like jello.

WOD:
In 12 minutes with a partner (completing everything together with no separating out reps)
30 air squats
100m shuttle run
15 push ups
100m shuttle run

My partner and I were only able to complete 3 full sets.

Reading it, it isn't a difficult workout. I was having so many problems with the squats, and then combined with the extreme nausea....it just wasn't happening. :( I had to scale back the squats to 15 during my last set. I am sure that 98% of this was mental, but I just couldn't get it together.


After examining these past two workouts, I am left with conflicting emotions. I missed the training so much, but I feel like I am back at square one. True, I haven't been training in two years, but still is hard to see how much I have regressed. I hate feeling like the worst, and I am surrounded by all these women who are so much tinier than I am, and I feel like the fat kid back in elementary school. I have to keep reminding myself that I lost over 30 pounds over a year ago, and have kept every bit of that off. But I feel like I am at a crossroads. I want so much to come back, but I feel like I have no self confidence in myself. I truly hate not being good at something, and well....I am right back to where I started. And all my CF friends remember how good I used to be, and where I am now is no where near where I was back then. I feel that when I start coming back there will be added pressure on me to preform to where I was, not where I am now. I am just so conflicted. I want to go, but absolutely hate scaling back reps and weight because it makes me feel not good enough. Again, I know this is all mental, but it is hard to get through those emotions. And on top of everything else I have going on, it just seems like too much and I don't know what to do or where to go. :(

Getting back into the swing of things

Today was our second Crossfit workout. (And by our, I mean the 4 of us). This was a pretty fun, and tiring WOD. We partnered up in teams of two, and then had to complete:

400m run
Air Squats
300m run
Push Ups
200m run
Kettle Bell Swings
100m run
Wall Balls

Each run and a movement had a time frame associated with it. After you and your partner ran the 400m, then you had the rest of 5 mintues to do Air Squats. The push ups was 4 minutes, kettlebell swings 3 minutes, and wall balls for the remainer of the 2 minutes. This was more fun than it sounds. I partnered with Sarah (David's wife). I debated on partnering with her or with Phoenix. I probably would have gotten a better workout with Phoenix (Sarah is not the best runner, and she had to walk for some of it...a lot more than I would have). The thing is, you couldn't start the movement until you both finished the run. So, I went a lot slower than I should have, but I didn't want to leave Sarah all by herself. I really want them to enjoy Crossfit, so, I chose to jog in place and wait for her to catch up to me. It also doesn't help that I am almost a foot taller than her, and I have much longer strides. Which is why it probably would have worked out better my partnering with Phoenix since we are both so much taller than Sarah and David...but oh well. :) I still had a great time. On the other three runs, I actually did run faster than her, I had to get some kind of workout in.

Hopefully they won't be so sore tomorrow, but we are having such a good time coming to CrossFit Deep! So, the plan is to come next week!

Oh....and Lindsey....so great seeing you!!!! I am so glad that you got to meet Phoenix!

Rainy Day!

So, I did a quick workout after preclinical. Here it was...

1 mile warm up on the elliptical
10-8-6-4-2
Pull ups
Push ups
50 sit up cool down

My made up metcon took me 4:30. It could have been a lot quicker, but stupid pull ups slowed me down! Oh well. It was nice. Abs are finally feeling better!

So, I get home after my workout, took my shower, and was getting ready to finish my preclinical paper work and.....my clinical is cancelled tomorrow. So, I have tomorrow off. A day off, and I don't have ANYTHING to do. Hmm...I wonder what I am going to do!

Gotta Push On!

WOD for 8-18-2009

Push Press (main site)
1-1-1-1-1

Cookie:
21-15-9
Push Ups
Sit Ups
Pull Ups

My workout ended up changing pretty much until I actually did it. My friend Amber and her boyfriend who does CrossFit as well, came up to the hospital at lunch. Matt and I started talking, and the plan was for him to meet me at the gym for a workout. I was actually excited. Someone to seriously CrossFit with. We had planned to meet at 7 after the Aqua Fit class. Well...he had to help Amber's grandparents move furniture, and by the time he got done, it was almost 7 and he hadn't eaten, so he asked for a raincheck. Which I will give him the rain check, but he will have some kind of burpee penatly!!

I know that CFDC had the clean and press for the WOD, but I was not feeling comfortable with my clean without having an additional person to watch my form. Hurting my back is NOT going to be beneficial to me. Especially with school starting in less than two weeks! Ahh! So, it was great that the push press was on the main site, so it's like I did part of the CFDC workout.

OK...onto the press. I couldn't remember what my 1 rep max was. So, I just went as heavy as could. Granted, it wasn't that much.

Working Set:
45-50-55-60-65-70-75-80-85-90(f)-90-(f)

Sadness....failed at 90. Got home, and looked at my past 1 rep max, and it was like 90# back in April. So, major sadness. I think the fail from the first attempt got into my head. Or I am just weaker. I would really like to think it is the first of the two choices. Did the best I could today, and that's all I can ask for.

I hadn't planned on doing a cookie, but Matt and I were texting back and forth and he told me that I had to do this workout. So, I did. Time was slower than I would have liked. Didn't break things up too much, but I feel there was a lot of room for improvement. Abs are still wicked sore from Annie yesterday. I don't ever remember them being this sore. That just made the 21-15-9 worse. ugg...Time for my cookie was 6:50. I will attempt this again soon, and see if I improve!

Diet:
Breakfast: egg white omelet, 1/2 bagel, 1/2c yogurt, almonds
Lunch: Fajita meat and Salad
Dinner: lime chicken breast, celery, almonds, 1/2c raspberries

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!

New Week, New Beginning

WOD for 8-3-2009

100 push ups for time.

Ok, so the original WOD was 100 push ups for time, and every time you stopped, run 400m. I knew that I would have had to modify this because I didn't really have any idea of where 400m run would be in an gym. There wasn't really any room to run on the treadmill after doing push ups, and the rowers were both taken. SO, I just decided to do the 100 push ups, and then do some elliptical work. Not as exciting, but still kinda doing the same thing.

I did the elliptical work first. I did a little over a mile in about 11 minutes. I started doing tabata style on the elliptical for the last 3 minutes. That made it a little more interesting. After that, I went and did my 100 push ups. Don't really know my exact time, because I left my timer at home, so I was working off my phone. It was somewhere around 5 minutes. So, if you add both of my times, you get approximately 16 minutes of working out. That seems to make sense for this WOD for me.

Oh, on another random note....Crossfit has seriously been paying off! Everyone at work keeps telling me how great I look, and that I am like a whole new person! *Big Grin*

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: a couple of bites of scrambled eggs, bacon, 1/2c yogurt
Lunch: Salad, peanuts
Dinner: chicken breast cooked in olive oil, diced sweet potatoes, almonds, peach
Total Water Intake: 2.5L

Are You Ready My Friend?

After hearing me talk about how much I love CrossFit, one of my friends decided that she wanted to work out with me and have me talk her through the joy of CrossFit! Boy did she not know what she got herself into....:)

WOD for 7-21-2009
21-15-9
Dumbbell Thrusters
Push Ups

Rest 3 minutes
4 x 100m row sprints

Cool Down:
50 sit ups

The posted WOD was a running workout. I wouldn't have minded doing this WOD, but my friend Kelsey has problems with her hips, something about them literally dislocating if she does too much running, so I had to change it up.

I think the workout that I came up with was a nice introduction to CrossFit. I had a mini skill session to show her how to do Thrusters. She did really well. Results are as follows:

Kelsey: 4:47 with 8# DB
Me: 5:07 (Take a few seconds off as I had to start the timer and put it down) with 15# DB

Now for some strange reason, while I was doing my last set, I thought I had to do 12, so I ended up doing 21-15-12....no sure why, but that's what ended up happening, so my time would have been about 15 seconds faster...Kelsey's time would have been faster but before the last set she took about a 20 second water break...I think she was tired! Hehe...

After this fun little met con, and we are sitting on the ground out of breath, I asked her how long would it take you on the elliptical to get this out of breath and your heart pumping this fast? Her response "Oh, about an hour and a half.." So, I took an hour and a half of work and got the same results in 5 minutes...not bad!

Rows:
They do have two rowers, but one of the straps was broken. Kelsey tried to use the broken one, but that didn't work out too well as her time was 33 seconds for the first row. She used my rower after that. Her second and third rows were about 26-27 seconds, and her last row was 23 seconds!

For my rows, the times were between 20-21 seconds. Which is my usual...not sure how to get this under 20, will work more on it.

Sit Ups:
She laughed at me when I told her that Sandy, Carrie, and I do 100 situps for cool downs. Being that this was her first, I cut the number down to 50. About halfway through, she had this pulling in her hip and it was really uncomfortable, she felt like her hip was popping, so she finished it out with crunches. Not quite sure how to fix this, but will talk to one of the coaches to see what's going on.

Times:
Kelsey: 2:07
Me: 2:01

Overall, I think it was a good experience. I think she thinks I am a little crazy, but hey, that comes with the territory. Diet for yesterday was fair. I did well for breakfast and lunch, but dinner was sushi! Yum yum!

Breakfast: Egg White Omelet, 2 pieces of bacon, 1/2c pineapple
Lunch: Salad with 1 large pecan crusted chicken breast, 7 almonds
Dinner: Sushi: Catepillar Roll (had avocados, eel, another type of fish, rice, seaweed, and eel sauce) and Crazy Monkey Roll (more avocado, salmon, cashews, rice, seaweed, and cucumbers)
**Dinner was shared with another person, so I didn't eat the whole roll by myself. I probably only had about 6 pieces. Oh, and 3 alcholic drinks. I bought two and the bartender gave me one when he was making some for another customer....always pays to flirt with the bartender!!!

Another Mini CF Workout

WOD for 6-30-2009

10-20-30
Squats
Push Ups
Squats
Sit Ups

OK....my time was horrible for this. I never had the best endurance when doing air squats. My hips always seem to tighten up. Which given that I was born with my hips rotated inwards and my history of sciatica. But I still get the workout done. I may never be the fastest, but I get it done. Just more for me to work towards.

Time was 9:28

Diet:
Breakfast: 1/2 cinnamon raisin bagel, egg whites, apple slices, 4 almonds
Lunch: Chick-fil-a chicken sandwich, minus the bread,
Snack: apple slices with yogurt
Dinner: Salad, baked chicken, sun flower seeds

Mini CF Workout

WOD for 6-28-2009

"Invisible Fran"
21-15-9

Air Squats
Push Ups

100 sit ups

SO, thank you Sandy! I really appreciate you making me take a break. Wow...do I miss CrossFit more than ever. First of all, my apartment is not a very motivating place to workout. Second, it is not nearly as hot as the CFDC gym, so it doesn't really make me feel like I am getting the added bonus of sweating a ton. Third, I miss the people.

Results:
Invisible Fran: Time: 3:03

Not too horrible seeing that I have been away from CFDC for almost 3 weeks.

Sit Ups: 4:40

Horrible time. Tried to use a pillow to sub for an ab mat...yeah, that didn't work out quite so well. But hey, I did it. OK, enough break time, must go grab a shower, and then eat and finish studying for my test tomorrow morning!

Diet:
Breakfast: 2 whole wheat fiber waffles (CrossFit recipe approved), 1c strawberries, 2 pieces of turkey bacon
Lunch: 1 chicken breast, 10 baked sour cream and onion lays potato chips, 2 pieces of celery, 7 almonds
Dinner: 4 slices of turkey, salad with sunflower seeds

No Ifs Ands or Buts...These Kids Got Guts!

WOD for 6-7-2009

Push Press
10-10-10

Met Con:
21-15-9
Box Jumps
Push Ups
Pull Ups

So normally I blog the day after my workout, but I start school tomorrow, so I figured I would go ahead, blog now and get it out of the way. Today was a pretty low key today. Finished an 8 day working streak...man...54 hours takes a lot out of you. So, for the first half of the day I just relaxed...such a strange feeling actually.....People at work always ask me where I find the energy to go workout after working a shift, thing is, you just do it. Yeah, you are a little tired, but you go and do it. You are either tired at 5 in the morning working out, or at 5 in the afternoon. People need to stop making excuses and just get their butts in the gym and go work out. Ok...no idea where that little tandem came from.....ok, back to the WOD.

Push Press....I was really excited to do this (I must sound like a friggin' after school special....excited to do a workout? :) My upper body strength is one thing that has always been lacking. I have got really strong legs, and I just wish that I could build up my upper body as quickly as I have my lower body. I can do the Rx'd weight for girls in FGB, which is a plus in my "win" column for being able to do SOMETHING Rx'd. The trick to this workout wasn't just about strength, it was about endurance. Can you do the weight 10 times without resting?

Working Sets:
45-55-65-75x 8

I felt that starting off with the 45# was a good place since I knew that I could do 10 of those. Then we went up to 55#...still felt good with that weight. So, for the third set, we jumped to 65#. Still felt really good after the 65#, so for "fun", I tried 75#. I knew I could get it at least once. Several months ago, I did 90# once, so 75# once shouldn't have been a problem. Well, I did 75# 8 times....I ALMOST had the last 2. My arms were so tired. I will take the eight!

Then, I did a cool down with Carrie. 3 rounds: 15 glute ham sit ups, 15 back extensions.

I thought that the workout was done after that...but oh no...Spencer had a nice little Met Con for us. 21-15-9 Box jumps, push ups, pull ups....grrr...and I didn't wear tennis shoes today. So, I substituted box steps. I used the medium box for the step ups. I figured that doing step ups on the small box wouldn't do me much good. By going to the taller box it was definitely more tiring than the smaller box. Still doing knee push ups, but they are 1000X easier than when I started. I can knock out those push ups fairly quickly now. Pull ups...used the green band. I need to get back to the blue band. I can do several with the blue band, just nervous because they aren't as consistent.

Time for Met Con:
5:46

Diet for Today:
Breakfast: 2 whole wheat flax seed waffles (recipe taken from another Crossfit site, threw in several almonds), scrambled egg whites (cooked in 1tsp olive oil), 2 peaches,
Lunch: breakfast was eaten later in the morning, so no lunch for me
Dinner: chest meal! sandwich from Baker's Brothers (only ate half the bread), 1/2c baked potato soup, 9 almonds, 3 carrots, 2 strawberries
Total Water Intake: 2.5L

My Spirits Evokin’

WOD for 5-21-2009

"Tabata Something Else"

Pull Ups
Push Ups
Sit Ups
Squats

This was my first time to do this WOD. It doesn't sound too bad from looking at it, but man...it is exhausting! And I am only talking about after the first tabata! Pull ups were done with the Green band. Yes, I can do blue band pull ups, but I have only done the blue band in a couple of WODs, and it was better for me to get more reps. Didn't get that many...arms for some reason just didn't want to work. Push ups were done on knees. I am feeling better about push ups though. It is getting easier to do them. By the time that I got to the squats, my whole body was tingling. I am not quite sure how some of the guys could crank out 100+ on the squats. My legs were killing me by the 4th round!

I actually had a day off where I didn't have ANYTHING planned. It was nice! I went and worked out with the noon crew! It was great getting to workout with Jamie! Thank you so much girl for pushing me on the squats. I really appreciate the help!

Score:
Pull Ups: 52
Push Ups: 72
Sit Ups: 70
Squats: 73

Obviously lots of room for improvement. But I am happy with my starting numbers. Now I know which areas I can really improve in!

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: egg white omelet, 1/2c strawberries, 6 almonds
Lunch: 1 glass of milk with protein powder, almonds, 3 slices of turkey
Dinner: baked chicken, 8 cherries, salad
Total Water Intake: 1.5L

Currently Listening to: "The Band Marches On" by Ghostland Observatory

You'll Make It Through, Just Keep Holding On

WOD for 5-1-2009

For time:
800m run
30 Ring Push-Ups
30 Hip Extensions
30 Dumbbell Push-Press
400m run
20 Ring Push-Ups
20 Hip Extensions
20 Dumbbell Push-Press
200m run
10 Ring Push-Ups
10 Hip Extensions
10 Dumbbell Push-Press

Holy cow! So, I saw this workout...and was like this is not going to be fun! Even though I didn't want to go, I went. I was the only girl in the class...which is cool, but then it is hard. I did parallette push ups for the sub on the first round. The hip extensions were easy! And for the push press, 20# DB. The first round was a killer! Second round...not so much...the third round...you can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I did finish the workout! It was great to have the guys cheering me on even though they finished minutes ahead of me. Koy...I really do appreciate you pushing me to get sub 20. I needed it! I am so lucky to work out with such an amazing group of people.

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: egg white omelet, 1 apple, 6 almonds
Lunch: 4 slices of turkey, 2 tablespoons almond butter with apple slices
Dinner: 4 ounces of chicken, salad, strawberries, 12 peanuts
Total Water Intake: 2L

Currently Listening to: "All if Forgiven" by Default

Finally Found Myself

WOD for 4-10-2009

WOD #1 with Sandy
3 rounds:
10 ring dips
10 box jumps
10 KB swings
200m run

WOD #2
"Cindy"
As many rounds as possible in 20 minutes:
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 squats

Woo Hoo for Sandy doing her first 2 a day!!! I'm so proud of her! The first time you do a two a day, it can be really tiring....wait, all 2 a days are tiring. I made up this Pre-WOD WOD. I was just wanting to go for something quick and work on things that I knew I needed work on. This was actually pretty fun. The ring dips are still a killer! Green band on ring dips, small box for box jumps, and 35# KB.

Ahh...Cindy...what can I say about Cindy. Cindy is a bitch! I think overall, I did OK. I tried to have a idea of at least the number of rounds I wanted to complete. I did a half Cindy several months ago, and was able to get 6 rounds with a 10 pound weight vest and jumping pull ups. So, I wanted to get at least 12 rounds. I got 12 rounds and 4 pull ups. (Pull ups were with the Green band, and I did knee push ups). I would have rather gotten a few more rounds, but I just didn't pull it out today. Jen was great motivation today. She kept me going on Cindy, which I really needed it! I was dragging some yesterday, and I think it was due to the 1/4 cup mashed potatoes I had. (I have a weakness for potatoes....) I do apologize to Wade though...I think I kicked him a few times while I was doing my pull ups....sorry Wade!

So, the title of this blog is "Finally Found Myself". I always thought I knew what I was made of. Since beginning Crossfit....I have learned so much about myself. I found out how tough I was, and how much my body can take. My body can handle a lot more than I ever imagined. I don't ever remember feeling the way that I have felt after doing some of these workouts in high school. I had never worked out until I cried from sheer exhaustion. I didn't think that was possible back then. In high school, we did weight training, but I never really progressed. And I am not sure why. Maybe it was because I was never motivated to lift 5 more pounds. I thought that I was fairly motivated in high school. (I was All-State in basketball my senior year, valedictorian...not bragging...just saying, I had motivation to be the best). So, where did all of this extra motivation come from? The difference now is simple....amazing coaches (not that my high school ones were amazing, just different) and the wonderful people that I have met. Linda, Mel, Dee, Lindsey and Sandy.....You guys push me when I don't think I can give anymore. I look at you guys during the workout, and it helps me continue on and finish strong. So thank you! With your help, I know more about myself and I look forward to continuing this amazing journey!

Diet for yesterday:
Breakfast: 3 pieces of bacon, 1 cooked egg white, 1 apple
Lunch: salad with chicken (not sure what the chicken was cooked with, but it was in some kind of tomato based sauce. I drained as much of the sauce out as I could since I didn't know what was in it...probably a lot of salt and tomatoes....) 1/4c mashed potatoes (I know...I know...cut them out....)
Dinner: 2 balsamic chicken wraps from Fireside Pies, 2 sangrias, 1/2 walnut brownie (friends birthday brownie)
Snack: handful of peanuts, blackberries
Total Water Intake: ~2L

Currently Listening to: "The Kill" by 30 Seconds to Mars

*This will be my last blog post until I get back from Boston! Hopefully I won't go into too many CFDC withdrawals!!!

Well You're the Real Tough Cookie

WOD for 4-2-2009

WOD #1 with Mel and Linda:
3 rounds
400m run
5 pull ups
10 push ups
15 weighted squats

WOD #2:
Squat Cleans with Mel

So, I had planned a different workout for my first workout yesterday, but Mel changed it up. So, I will pull that out later. But the first workout is what the competitors will be doing this weekend at the Fittest Games. (Well, they will be doing 4 rounds, but this was just to get a feel for it). It wasn't horrible, but it was a workout. I was feeling it! For the pull ups, Green band, and worked on getting chest to bar, not just chin to bar. And for the squats, I just did 45#. We didn't time it, but Mel and Linda finished at about 12 minutes, and I think I was about 2 minutes after that. So, around 14 minutes, not too bad.

For the Squat cleans, I was just working on form. I started out going to do 4 sets of 5, and then ended up adding more on at the end. I did 3 sets at 45# with little difficulty (form wise, weight wasn't bad). I added 5 more pounds, and ended up rounding out my back. So, Bobby and Pat helped me out. Bobby made a really good correction, or at least I think it will help me. When I get in the bottom position, I start to bend forward and this is where my back begins to round. So, in order to correct this, I need to either start looking upwards or look down but adjust my focus to further up. I did the second option, and wow....even that little improvement made such a huge difference. The lift didn't seem as hard.

Diet for yesterday:
Not sure that I really want to talk about what I ate yesterday, because it was not good....but being that I do record what I eat, I will....
Breakfast: Egg white omelet, 4 pieces of bacon
Lunch: 5 baked chicken strips, 7 almonds
Dinner: Chicken Gyro Sandwich and 2 alcoholic drinks
Snack: strawberries......and 1 amazingly delicious cupcake.
Total Water Intake: 1.5L

So, lets tackle the really bad thing that I ate yesterday....the cupcake. My friend Amber at work made me "Congrats for getting into Nursing School" cupcakes. So, I HAD to eat the cupcake. I didn't have a choice....lol. She did tell me that she thought about making cake, but she was like "I knew you would eat "this" (a bite) much and I wanted you to eat more and enjoy it, so I made cupcakes". And then the Gyro Sandwich....mmm...it was yummy! I went to Stratos with my friends. Amber was belly dancing, and so a few of us go and watch her. The alcohol....well, I wanted some. No excuses for it, I just wanted to. I will make up for my diet yesterday today.

Currently Listening To: "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar.

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)

But You Don’t Like it, You Love IT!!

WOD for 3-4-2009

Tabata Mash-Up
Virtual Shoveling*, 24 inch barrier
Push-Ups

This is one of those workouts that it "doesn't have to be fun, to be fun". OMG...I am so freaking sore today. It's great. I used the 45# bar with a 10# plate. My lowest score of the Tabata shoveling was 10. For the most part, I got 13 reps per 20 seconds. I got 13 x 4, 11 x 1, and then 12 x 2, and the 7th round was the 10. Grr....

Push ups....a whole different story. I started off strong by getting 13 reps in 20 seconds x 2, then 11, then 10 x 2, then 6 (ick), and then 8, and 9. Dang 6th round. Oh well.

Then, for the cool down was reverse Tabata L-Hangs...I did Knees to Elbows. Straining the hand again on the bar. But I pushed through. I am so ready for my hand to be healed. I never would have thought that this stupid ripped callus would hurt this bad when doing pull ups or hanging from the bar.

Diet For yesterday:
Breakfast: cranberry-orange muffin (bad, I know...but oh so good), turkey bacon, and grapes
Lunch: Salad with bacon bits, and baked chicken breast
Snack: 1 tablespoon almond butter, and snacked on strawberries and blackberries throughtout the shift
Dinner: 1/2 baked chicken breast, peanuts, glass of milk (mmm...milk)
Total Water Intake: 1.5L

Currently Listening to: "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" by Weezer