10/7/11

7:30am - Private Yoga Lesson, at Inner Elements

Willow suggested I do private training with her once or twice a month to set some individual goals, so this was my first session. It was great! Basically it was an hour of standing still, shaking, and dripping sweat. Wow. But, the really cool thing is we went over the issues I’ve got going on with my body and how I can adjust the poses we do in class to work on my particular things. I have a whole sheet of homework also. So in between privates with her I can practice these things at home and practice things in class from my own perspective as well. Really great session.

5:30-7:00pm - Olympic Lifting, at PDX Weightlifting

I mentioned in an earlier entry, PDX Weightlifting is the only strictly O-Lifting gym here. Which is pretty cool - we don’t even really have one of those in LA! Closest thing in LA was going down to Sean Waxman’s. So, it’s really great to have access to that here, about 10 minutes from my apartment.

Nick, the owner/coach, starts everybody with the bar on snatch. Last week I only did the bar and did a bazillion of the same snatch drill. This week we did a slightly different drill and he let me work my way up to 65#. He made some adjustments to my positions and speed that are definitely very different for me, but make a lot of sense. I was thinking about it a lot right before I fell asleep last night, too. LOL I am excited to keep working on the new technique and see what happens. Also, it just feels awesome to move a bar around.

I also did a bunch of front squats after doing snatches for an hour. The way Nick runs his gym is based on the Bulgarian method of training, so it’s pretty much going for 1RM’s all the time in everything you do. Even when he has me practicing technique I only do 2-5 reps per set and then take a break. So I started with sets of 5 on front squat and Nick told me “that’s a lot of reps!” LOL, so I went heavier and switched to 2’s then 1’s. I made it up to 135#, which for me, not having lifted heavy in many months was pretty good, so I was happy.

10/6/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back. Total downpour on the way home. First time riding in that. Thank goodness for fenders on the bike!!

5:45pm - Yoga, at Inner Elements

Thursday nights are a special class that is an 8 class series for Yoga basics. It was a really mellow class, which was nice. Lots of breathing practice and opening body parts, but nothing strenuous.

10/4/11

Rest Day

Cats knocked my bike over, chain got mangled instantaneously, no idea how to fix it. Had to have a friend come over and fix it in the evening, so I drove to work.

10/5/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back. Yay for fixed bike!

10/3/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back…in the rain! Yay!

5:45pm - Yoga at Inner Elements Yoga

Willow teaching! Yay!

So much happier in class than I was last week. We did a lot of warrior pose, a lot of shoulder opening, and a lot of practice of different types of breathing.

10/1-10/2/11

Rest Days

Errand running galore. Exploring new neighborhoods. Craft store shopping. Good food eating.

9/30/11

5:00-7:00pm - Olympic Lifting at PDX Weightlifting

Located the one and only gym here in Portland dedicated to Olympic Weightlifting - PDX Weightlifting. The coach, Nick, invited me to come train with them and chat about the website I’m working for. We worked on basic snatch technique, only with the 45# bar and with lots of rest in between sets. He trains/coaches very much along the lines of the Bulgarian method of training. So, once your technique is up to snuff, lots of heavy singles and small sets, lots of rest, lots of strength training. I think I am going back next week. Fun stuff and boy, oh boy, do I miss moving some weights around!

9/29/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back.

5:45pm - Yoga at Inner Elements Yoga

Had a different instructor, who was not Willow (in every sense)...and I got really cranky by half way through class. Spent the second half of class working on letting go of why the instructor irritated me. In the process I gained some new insights on coaching, what works and doesn’t work, and decided I’m going to write a book on coaching. So, irritation proved to be the seed of inspiration.

9/28/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back. Really really really windy. Felt like I was pedaling and going almost nowhere more than once.

9/27/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back.

6:00pm - CrossFit, at CrossFit Woodstock

My shoulder is steadily getting worse, despite the fact I am generally not using it. That is seriously frustrating. Going to up the fish oil and be really good about staying off grains and see if that unangers it at all.

5 rounds, for time:
5 straight legged deadlifts (Done with 2 d-bells - 30# each)
5 squat cleans (Done with 2 d-bells - 30# each)
5 weighted situps (w/ 20# med ball on chest)
11:34 (??)

I am so sucking at writing down times.

This was originally written with shoulder press, but I swapped it out for situps.

9/26/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back. For some reason the Steel Bridge was up and never came back down so my ride home was a little crazy. Waited for 20 minute then found another way to get over the river.

5:45pm - Yoga, at Inner Elements

My weekly Monday night class with Willow at Inner Elements. We did a lot of hip opening stuff, which was great (and painful) for me. My shoulder seems to be getting worse, which is really annoying considering I’m not really working out much. Trying to be more diligent about my fish oil in the hopes that helps. Still working on remembering to breathe during yoga and how to inhale deeply. Why is that hard?

9/24-9/25/11

Rest Days

No exercise this weekend! Was my birthday on Sunday so the weekend was all about celebrating and doing whatever I wanted. I actually went to a Powerlifting Meet on Saturday to watch for a while, which was really cool.

9/23/11

9-10 Mile Bike Ride

Rode my bike to work this morning and then rode it all the way down to Sellwood to the bike shop to get fenders and a rear rack put on it. Need fenders since rain is about to start (and never stop again) any moment and need the rear rack so I can ditch my back pack, not be so sweaty, and sit properly on my bike.

9/22/11

6:30pm - CrossFit, at CrossFit Portland

No bike ride today as the CEO was in town and everybody got all cleaned up and dressed nice. lol

Went to CFP for a workout. I visited them in their previous location, last December, but hadn’t yet been to their new gym. They are, according to my phone, .9 miles from my apartment. So about a 10 minute walk.

10 HSPU
1 K-bell swing
9 HSPU
2 KBS
8 HSPU
3 KBS
7 HSPU
4 KBS
6 HSPU
5 KBS
5 HSPU
6 KBS
4 HSPU
7 KBS
3 HSPU
8 KBS
2 HSPU
9 KBS
1 HSPU
10 KBS
15:07

Time was not stressed on this at all.  In fact, the coach invited us to take as long as we felt like and said some people took up to half an hour earlier in the day.

I did the 24kg k-bell and did HSPU strict to 1 abmat plus a small metal weight underneath. My shoulder has been irritated to all hell for weeks now, but neither of these exercises seemed to pinpoint the injured area, so it was good workout.

9/21/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back. I really love bike commuting.

9/20/11

6 Mile Bike Ride

Rode to work and back. Getting a rear rack and at least one Ortlieb bag (omg so expensive!) this weekend so I don’t have to deal with wearing a backpack anymore to commute to work. Makes me sweaty and makes me have bad posture. Excited to get my bike accessorized!

6:00pm - CrossFit at CrossFit Woodstock

7 rounds, for time:
3 Dips (on paralettes - like bench dips)
5 Pull Ups (deadhang, w/ rubber band - not sure which size?)
15 SDLHP (45#)
11:??

Crud - totally forgot to write down time or take a picture. Need to make sure to throw my workout journal in my gym bag from now on and rely on remembering to take a photo of the board.

They don’t have a ton of rubberbands, so I just did bench dips. Did pullups deadhang, pronated - working on that! SDLHP was 45# RX’d, so that’s what I did.