Today was the baseline workout for the Cindy Challenge. I haven’t done Cindy in a while and I did not even match my old personal record this time around. Push ups are so frustrating. Could be a lot of different reasons for it. I plan to put in some dedicated time each day toward working on push ups from here until the challenge finals.
I do love watching all the students on these days, though. So proud of all of you for putting it out there and be amazing teammates and supporters of each other.
“Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be cumbered with your old nonsense.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was excited about today’s workout because I really like handstand push ups and have slowly been getting better and better at them. Doing deadlifts is also good practice, but not one of my strong points, so I have mixed feelings on that one. I had a couple BIG highlights in this class though!
First - we spent 20 minutes working on muscle up technique and practicing. I can do a ton in a row using a small rubber band as assistance, but when I’ve tried to use only one half of the band in the past, I’ve failed miserably. Today, thanks to some tips from Michael, I was able to do a bunch with just half the mini band. Yay! I think with a little practice I’m pretty darn close to a muscle up.
I thought this was going to take WAAAAAY longer than it did. I did all sets of both exercises unbroken. I didn’t know I could do that with the HSPU’s! I think I could have put another 10# on the deadlifts, too. I was super excited about the HSPUs, though. Afterward I did a couple more practicing to something slightly lower than the abmat. I think before long I’ll be able to do them to the floor! Craziness!
5:20pm - Fencing Lesson
Not my greatest lesson tonight, but still a good one. I was all in my head about a million things and wasn’t totally focused. All my shoulders were TIRED from the CrossFit workout, which makes me all tight for fencing.
All in all, though, this was a really good day in terms of fitness that just appeared out of the blue!
How nice to run into Nic at IndoRow! The class was packed this morning and felt a little disjointed, but still got some good rowing work in. Our first wave was a 10 minute endurance wave, the second wave was sprint intervals, and then we did a race where between a pair of people you had to row 1500m. My partner and I went back and forth six times - she did 100m and I did 150m. It was a good strategy!
I definitely was not feeling my strongest today—couldn’t pull my normal numbers and my lungs were aching by the end, but it felt good to push it and try to get the gunk out of the lungs.
12:00pm - CrossFit, Advanced
I hummed and hawed about whether I should do a second workout, since I’m “easing” back into working out after taking all last week off, but I just couldn’t say no to an opportunity to practice snatches.
3 rounds:
400m run
10 squat snatches (52#) 11:48
I went a little lighter on the weight than prescribed to stick with the “easing” myself in theme. I’ve done workouts at 65# plenty in the fast, but figured since it was my second workout I should be nice to myself and not exhaust my body while I’m still a bit sick.
I did full squat snatches every time and never had to bail on any of the reps. The runs felt HORRIBLE. My hip flexors weren’t working at all and my hamstrings were super tight. I was slow and shuffley. I was glad every time I got back in to the snatches.
As a side note:
...I cooked an awesome meal tonight, so I’m attaching some photos. The main dish was “Eggs In Purgatory,” which I’d never heard of before this week and was very pleased with this modern take on it from Bon Appetit (eggs, tomato, potatoes, artichoke, capers, etc, etc), and on the side swiss chard with garlic, bacon and olives.
I had intended to do both CrossFit and fencing today, but got a migraine while at work this morning. So, I skipped the CrossFit and actually felt better by the end of the day.
Fencing was fun - as always! Learned more new stuff and worked on fine tuning the foot work some tonight. At one point my coach showed me something (he pushes my sabre to the side with his, and then I circle my sabre around and push his aside the opposite direction), and then he went to do it coming at me from the opposite angle and I responded accordingly. He looked at me and said, “How did you know how to do that?” and I said, “Well, it just made sense.” He laughed and looked over his shoulders really quickly, then whispered to me, “Not to everybody.” lol!
We did some foot work sequences - small advance, jump, faster advance, lunge. I’m working on having less of a vertical arc on my jumps and lunges and making it more horizontal movement. My coach tonight did a neat trick—he put a quarter under my foot and if I did the lunge incorrectly, the quarter didn’t move, but if I did it properly, the quarter slid forward and across the floor.
I felt a little more out of breath than normal due to not CrossFitting last week. That will soon be remedied! And next Tuesday, my friend Tony is coming to take photos of me fencing - his schedule finally cleared up. Can’t wait - that is going to be FUN.
Back to working out! Yay! I didn’t do the full weight on the workout because I wasn’t sure how my lungs were going to feel. I felt surprisingly okay after the first round, so I picked up speed and tried to sprint straight through after that.
“Barbara on Roids”
5 rounds for time of:
5 push press (47# on all movements)
10 front squat
15 hang power clean
20 deadlift
3 min rest between rounds
1. 2:08
2. 1:34
3. 1:26
4. 1:11
5. 1:10
Total time: 19:39
The only round I stopped during any of the sets was the first round - I stopped during the hang power cleans. Every round after that I went straight through all the movements. This definitely was not a “challenging” weight in that sense, but it did get my heart rate up and my lungs pumping, which hasn’t happened in a week, so I was happy.
Today is the final day of rest that I’m giving myself to get over this cold/laryngitis thing. Tomorrow I am going to work out and just go slow and light, to ramp myself back into things. On the up side, my voice did start coming back today, so that was good.
I really wanted to work out today. I’m tired of sitting around. But, when I woke up this morning, I was really congested and I decided even if I did a super light weight, I’d still be tiring out my system when I shouldn’t be. Bummer.
But, I did go over to Willow Spa (just 2 doors down from us on Santa Monica) and treat myself to an awesome Sports Massage. They are a little pricey there, but they are totally worth it if you want to treat yourself. My massage therapist was great and the ambiance there is so mellow and relaxing. I highly recommend checking them out.
Still feeling really yucky and have completely lost my voice, but I figured a fencing lesson wouldn’t do any further harm, and it felt really good to not be a total slug.
I learned some more new things today - new footwork, new defensive moves and new offensive moves! I felt pretty “on” today, so that was rewarding. I’m getting much better about the coordination (or lack thereof compared to kickboxing) between my feet and sabre. I feel like I’m initiating with the tip of the sabre rather than my hands, like I used to. I still need to work on not telegraphing the movements with my shoulders or, for that matter, getting my shoulders involved at all when they shouldn’t be.
My coach asked me if I lost my voice from drinking too much brandy. Not quite!
Still feeling coughy and yucky. Hoping if I rest tomorrow that I can ease back in on Friday and Saturday. I feel like I haven’t been really locked in on my workouts since the new year started, due to travel, sickness, etc, etc. ARGH.
Taking a break from CrossFit for a few days since I’m genuinely sick now. Coughing, runny nose, sore throat, etc, etc. I think I picked it up while traveling to Colorado. Oh well.
My fencing lesson was good—we did some new stuff that I’d never done before. I have no idea what it was called, but it was fun to learn some new techniques. I need to look it up in the books I have, so I know what I’m doing! We also spent some time clarifying more aspects of the right of way rules.
Ingrid was the Kahuna this week and came up with a great little workout. It was a nice combo of movements! I went with the intermediate weight on the deadlifts, which was bodyweight for me, since my back was feeling tight from all the box jumps yesterday. I feel good about the weight I picked as I finished in the proper time frame for the workout. If I did it again in the future, I’d go for the prescribed 155# for women.
21 deadlifts (135#)
42 abmat situps
800m run
15 deadlifts
30 abmat situps
400m run
9 deadlifts
18 abmat situps
200m run 14:40
I almost caught up with Shirley on round two—I knew situps were my only hope of making up ground. I also knew when I came back in from the run and went to do the last set of deadlifts that if I didn’t do 9 straight she was going to get way back ahead of me again….which I didn’t end up doing and she did end up out front again! lol! I tried!
