Monday, 11/9
6:30pm, CFLA

Barely squeaked in… I’m on a roll!

Warm Up:
Jump rope to catch up

3X (PVC, 22#, 45#)
10 OH Squats
5 Pressing Snatch Balance
5 Heaving Snatch Balance

...I somehow spaced and did 10 of everything for the first two rounds. No wonder my arms felt shot when I got to 45.

Workout:
AMRAP 20 Minutes
10 Snatch Balance, 55#
500m Row

= 4 rounds + 5 snatches

You know what, I never thought I’d say this, but I prefer the full squat snatch, if only to avoid the constant slamming of the bar back down onto my neck / atlas bone. For me to prefer full squat anything is saying something. Not that you don’t full squat in the balance too but…you know.

(Sorry for “failing loudly” on that last set of snatches y’all. We need 5lb plates that are made to bounce. ..I…I.. tried to yelp as a warning…)

Hmm…where did the comment “log” go? Looks like it got un-stickied from the top, so I’ll put this here.

Erica - 08 November 2009 05:36 PM

11/8/09 One Hip Down, One To Go

But for one month, I get to CrossFit again.  Yippee!

Erica, SO rad to have you back in action, if only for a little while!

I FINALLY MADE IT TO CLASS FRIDAY NIGHT. It took me sending my boss an e-mail that said “HEY. YEAH. I AM F’&%!@$&%$! LEAVING AT 5:15 NO MATTER WHAT.” ... but I got there. (she took it ok) Thanks to everyone that sent well wishes while witnessing my plight and various meltdowns over the last few weeks while I’ve been struggling to release myself from my job’s unwarranted overtime death-grip.

...I am seriously considering becoming a specialty coffee roaster for a living. But anyway.

Friday, 11/6
6:30 CFLA

Warmup:
Row 1500m at 100m sprint, 100m recovery.

Various clean & jerk drills with PVC.

Workout:

5-5-5-5 clean and jerk

65
75
75
85
(then a few bonus at 85)

...I vaguely remember 85 being my “1 rep” a while back for full squat C&J, but I also remember consciously stopping at that weight to just work on form since I’ve always struggled not to muscle cleans. Regardless, I felt very good about being able to cleanly bang out 5 of these at 85. Still having trouble getting stalled at the bottom of the squat though. (And getting “clean holes” in the web of my thumbs. Ew.)

Saturday, 11/7

Hit the globo gym for the first time since this summer to do an old school burnout workout to get the sludge out of my veins.

5k on the track = 25:30ish
*Kind* of annoyed since I felt like I was trucking and have hit 22:20 on that track for a 5k before, but then again, I haven’t steamed through a track 5k in a good 6 months. Eager to try it again and really push it.

Also, kind of funny, I’ve been running at that gym for over 4 years now, yet the one time in recent memory that I was actually annoyed with my pace was when not 1, but 2 people stopped me as I was walking a lap afterward to ask me if I ran marathons and “damn that’s some pace you had there!” etc. Very very weird, but nice! One guy asked me how long I can go at that pace to which I responded “well, evidently less than 5k, but thanks!”

Hit the stepmill for 30 min, then cruised on the bike for 30 min. (then fell down.)

Tuesday 9/29
CFLA 6:30pm

Row 1500m

...blanking on the exact warm-up, but it involved reverse grip pull-ups and pop-ups…then a max set of reverse grip pull-ups (I got 5 before I fell off the stupid bar. Learning curve on adjusting grip there.)

Workout:

Row Row Row Your Boat, in a pyramid-type fashion.

1 min / 2 min / 3 min / 4 min / 3 min / 2 min / 1 min sprints, w/ 1 min rest between each.

246m / 485 / 708 / 916 / 680 / 451 / 242

Those last 3 and 2 minute ones were the suck.

Wednesday, 9/30

Day of blessed rest. First since FGB.

Thursday, 10/1
CFLA, 6:30pm

Warm-up:

Run 1300m

3x:
10 front squats (increasing weight each round: 22, 22, 45lbs)
15 archrocks
30 bicycles
....I feel like there was something else in here. Oh well.

Workout:
Cindy Likes To C&J

AMRAP 20:

3 C&J (75lbs)
2x
5 pull-ups (I switched off between red mini band and unassisted)
10 push-ups (knees…push-ups are so broken lately)
15 squats (oli ball…and oli was there! All is right with the world.)

= 6 2/3 rounds.

Liked this! I’m digging the frequent-but -low-rep pull-ups dynamic lately.

Friday, 10/2

Rest day. Schedule just broke down weirdly.

Sat, 10/3

Rest day…accidentally on purpose.

Sun, 10/4

Stupid !^%@$&! triathlon trapped me in my neighborhood, literally. The only way out was on foot, so I escaped for a 10k run.

53 min ...2 min improvement since my last timed one. Sweet! (Sure didn’t FEEL sweet. UGH.)

Then 4 miles walking to and from the grocery store. I kind of hate triathletes now.

Monday, 10/5
YAS, 6:30pm

Brick:
45 min spinning / 1 hr yoga

...the yoga for athletes continues to brutally beat my ass, but not quite as bad as last time—no foot cramping! Getting there. I have a sneaky feeling that keeping this up will do wonders for my push-ups and jerks. Lots of supporting body weight at various plank heights and bracing arms overhead when they want to fall apart. Lots of evil ab work too…like being in plank then dropping/bending the knees until they almost touch the floor then going back to plank over and over….HELL. Arms like noodles, abs on fire, very crossfit.

For my next experiment, I want to do the yoga first, THEN spin…and see if being loosened up creates greater power output on the bike, ala K-Star strategery. Will report back any findings!

WOO…was all gung ho to do a spin/yoga brick last night but my FGB/Sunday WOD brick caught up with my quads about 1 p.m….so uh yeah.

Monday, 9/28

45 min spin class at YAS ...focused on going all out on the sprints with control and dialing up the evil on the climbs.

Then promptly went home like a responsible athelete and AMBAP’d a banana to combat all the foot cramping I’ve been having (“as many bites as possible”).

Legs feel back up to snuff today!

Time to play catch-up..

Thursday, 9/24

1300m run

2x
10 GHD hip-to-back extensions
10 1-arm OH squat (20lb)
1 crabwalk
5 reverse grip (chin-up) deadhangs

Workout:

400m run
50 hollow rocks
50 push-ups (yeah…went for knees)
20 1-arm DB snatch (25lbs)
400m run
20 1-arm DB snatch
50 push-ups
50 hollow rocks
400m run

= 21:27

Really liked this one….minus the push-ups. Triceps were screaming.

Friday, 9/25

Pre-FGB rest and some serious K-Starr rec’d stretching out and bonding with the little lacrosse ball that hurts like a m&@$F’er

Saturday, 9/26

FGB! Class B
= 222

With life getting out from under me and getting no time to do any practice FGBs, all I wanted to do this year was beat last year’s score, which I did by 2 points for a PR. WOOT. The real winner here though is all our causes. 1 MILLION DOLLARS. Totally amazing.

I told someone that had never done FGB before that every year, this is like our “Christmas.” It really is.

Sunday, 9/27
CFLA, 9:30am

Warmup
1300 m run

Burch’s laundry list of Minutae (tm)

3x
-slow push-up (3x)
-regular push-up (3x)
-clapping push-up (3x)

3x
-slow squat (3x)
-regular squat (3x)
-jumping squat (3x)

3x
-slow dh pullup (3x)
-regular pullup (3x)

1x
-inchworm across width of room (with upward/downward dog in the middle)
-spiderman pushups across width of room
-“tiny baby little crawling tiger” or something, across width of room (yeah…I know, who knows.)

Workout:

100 thrusters at a weight you can finish ~12 - 15 min
Every time you have to drop the bar from chest height, do 3 burpees.

= 12:56 (? need whiteboard photo)

Did this w/ 45lb bar in about 5 sets….wrists were on FIRE from latent FGB-ness. OW.

Whoa. I haven’t logged since Monday? Whoops.

Last week I did an assload of spinning, running, snatches and yoga for athletes that DECIMATED my quads and hip flexors. Anything that’s not crossfit that can leave me a shaky, crampy mess at this level of fitness I will definitely be doing again!!

Yesterday was K-Starr’s mobility seminar and DAMN it was awesome. Can wait to put his stuff into practice and see if I can’t up my deadlift max (in particular) and improve my pull-ups. “Stabilize the midline like a motherfucker!”

Tonight is Evan Kleiman’s KCRW private subscriber dinner….it will be a big fat non-paleo rest day full of amazing food!

I’m 95% sure I’m going to do another 30 day strict paleo segment starting tomorrow. Our big health and wellness event falls right in the middle though, which (ironically) requires a lot of wine-ing and dining of clients and VIPs…but I’m sure I could get by with tonic and lime. Will decide first thing tomorrow. The 30-day pay-off would coincide with my very-probable trip to Oregon….mmm microbrews and fall!

Monday, 9/14

10k around the ‘hood, ~55 min

Felt like butt. I blame the wine and cheese. Strict paleo really is the way kids.

Wednesday, 9/9

45 min spin class

Went with co-workers to go try out a spin/yoga studio in Silverlake. Was very rad! Very convenient to work, not crowded, low key, good vibe. I got sucked into their special offers and bought a grip o’ classes since they don’t expire. I miss the bike!

Thursday, 9/10

Unplanned mental health rest day…...work was….so very bad.

Friday, 9/11

45 min spin class

Heavy FGB just wasn’t in the cards time-wise… I hit the spin studio for another class then had to clean up and run some errands.

Find myself considering getting spin instructor certified here and there. I mean, I’ve been doing it for 11 years now and have trained with some of the best (and some of the worst) instructors nationwide.

Maybe?.....maybe not. Nice to know there’s SOME vocational back-up I could go to I guess. Would you guys come to my classes if I taught? Maybe make everyone listen to Ministry and Run DMC for 45 min straight? HA!

Saturday, 9/12
CFLA 8:30 a.m.

Warm-up
-1300m run (whoa, already feeling better cardio capacity from the return to spinning, damn!)
3x
-10 jump shrugs (PVC to 22lb bar)
-10 OH squat (PVC, to 22lb bar)
-20 archrocks (my nemesis, but good for warming up the back in the morning, no doubt)

Workout
“Row row row your snatch, violently across the gyyyyyyym…” (My name, not Jonesy’s)

5x
-Row 500m
-15 Full squat snatch (35lbs)

=23:36

I really liked this workout a lot (which I would have vehemently denied until 10 min after I was done), even if the 5 rounds was a little hellish. The row at the beginning of round 3 was like “ugh GOD!”

Last time I did a snatch workout, I did 55lbs I think…..... how?! Maybe there were only like 3 reps. Amazing. Feel like I could have *handled* 45, but it uh….would’ve sucked. My traps have traps now, it feels like.

***edit: it was a snatch BALANCE. I feel much better now.

Finally got back in my heels enough for Becca by falling on my ass and tossing the bar. After that she said she was satisfied haha.

Sunday, 9/13

I took a True Blood finale rest day. I admit it. And it was worth it.

Tuesday 9/8
CFLA, 6:30 p.m.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Warm-up
1300m run
Max unassisted pull-ups: 10 (sad, but inching up on 15, one at a time)

Workout:

Have never clocked any rowing times, so I started with that…
1k Row: 4:15
(I mentioned to Andy that I want to try this with a 20lb weight vest. Rowing, after a certain learning curve I’m convinced, just becomes a body weight crapshoot. If I gained 25lbs all of the sudden, I have a feeling I’d become a world-class rower. :P )

Then about 10 min later did Karen (150 12# wallballs for time) because I realized that I’m pretty sure I haven’t done a single wallball since Fight Gone Bad last year. It just hasn’t come up.

This is a disconcerting realization to have in…September. My time also reflected that.

Last time I did Karen (about a year and a half ago), I got around 9:30 or so. In fact I think I was on the board for like 2-3 days.

Last night = 12:25 or so. Yikes.

Good practice though, and didn’t go home feeling like I didn’t do enough. (there’s nothing worse than driving all the way across town, then going home having done a total of 8-10 min work. Seriously. I don’t care how hard those 8 min were!)

Tonight, agreed to try a spin class at the Silverlake YAS/Kimberly Fowler place with co-workers. Sad to miss badger badger badger again. :( But glad that my hands will be intact tomorrow.

Wednesday, 9/2

Unplanned rest day. I had some “mental” workouts I was inspired to do instead. This month is about growing my life in all directions. (except my physical size…I’d like that to shrink in an inward direction, thanks.)

Thursday, 9/3

Planned rest day (night event)

Friday, 9/4

Unplanned rest day. ARGh. Took the day off work to run errands, go to appointments, etc and just ran out of daylight. But happy to get a lot done.

Saturday, 9/5
CFLA, 8:30 AM

I looooove being able to make early classes and not feel like a zombie!

Warm-up:

1300m run

(Andy put together this laundry list warm-up that’s not in the whiteboard photo…will try to remember)
10 wall squats
5 shoulder press (20#)
10 hollow rocks
5 shoulder press
20 arch rocks
10 front squat (45#)
5 shoulder press ...?
...something like that.

Workout:
10 Power Clean & Jerks, 75#
(the Chief taught me many things. Things like “Colleen cannot clean 95# effectively at the moment”)
15 Box Jumps, 25”
1 mi Run

9:56

Kicking myself for not clocking what my mile split was…. and have to admit I’m not toooootally convinced that route was a mile run. Just sayin’.

Thanks to Rebecca M. for breathing hard over my shoulder in the last leg of the mile. Definitely flipped on my “AW HELL NO nobody’s passing me!” mode heheh. Way to make me work for it (and almost puke afterward) girl.

Sunday, 9/6
SaMo, 8:30 AM

Met up with Andy (and his brother-in-law) at the totem pole in Santa Monica to tag-in for the last 7ish mile leg of their 16 mi run. FUN!

I never run with other people—it’s such a different dynamic. For me, it’s a LOT harder…I think everyone feels more compelled to push the pace and keep it constant. Really challenging. Definitely up for more training runs in the future.

Monday, 9/7

Rest day to actually sleep in for the first time all weekend and prep for the week and our BBQ!

Now I have to decide what the hell I’m doing for my two choose-your-own-adventure workouts tonight. I think one will be unassisted pull-ups. I wonder if Andy will let me do the jackie un assisted or the helen? A sick, twisted part of me is considering the Karen to train for FGB. I kind of kicked Karen’s ass the last time we did it in class a year-plus ago, to be honest. Hmmmm!

Tuesday, 9/1
CFLA, 6:30 p.m.

1300m run

Warm Up:
100 Hollow Rocks
2:30 Flexed Arm Hang
50 Teeter Tottlers

—>broke this up into roughly 3 rounds.

Workout:
16kg (green) KB
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 of:
Clean
Front Squat
Thruster
Windmills

23:00 (cut off after finishing round 5)

Haha yeaaaaaaah. Ugly. I have never done any of these movements with a kettlebell (I know, excuses are like assholes, but this fact only occurred to me when I got to the 8 rep round and was freaking out in my head wondering why this seemed so hard. Oh well.), and trying to learn the technique to balance the different center of gravity vs. a dumbbell wore my brain out quickly.

Also a huge discrepancy between my ability to handle and blow throw the cleans and front squats vs. being really challenged on the thrusters and then just too unfocused to muscle the windmills into place. Regardless of the DNF, I still feel like this was the right weight. Fuck it. It happens. What’s next.

Monday, 8/31

10k twilight run around Miracle Mile…. and for the second run n a row, my iPod went rogue and reset when I tried to un-pause it 2.5k in. BOO! I reset it though, then added up the two times and it totaled about 55 min, averaging 5:36/k pace. Much better than I expected from how sluggish my legs felt for the first half.

Lemme tell you, the heartburn and joint aching that one red velvet cupcake causes is definitely not worth it. Cardio endurance felt good though. Excited to get back in the gym and start throwing heavy things around again!

Athletic goals for September:

1) get a lot closer to an under 1:20 400m sprint.
(leaving this a little vague at the moment because I need to time a fresh-legged 400m sprint this weekend to see how doable this is in 4 weeks) *sigh* All track sprints, all the time! I’ve always just run sprints at levels of capacity, not for time. Time to start putting some metrics on ‘em.

2) 15 unbroken/max unassisted pull-ups

Wed 8/26 - Sun 8/30

Birthday rest days, w/AMRAP brunching and putzing, though I did take a 9:39ish break to do “Jackie” at the intermediate level on Saturday.

I’m curious, now that my hands are healed and normal, if I could do the advanced level in the same amount of time. Jumping pull-ups suck!

Really looking forward to some long slow cardio tonight to burn off the evil I ingested this weekend. I’m feeling it….tried putting heavy whipping cream in my coffee this weekend and it tied my body in knots. While I’m not fully resuming super orthodox strict, definitely going to maintain no added sugar, no processed food, no dairy and very limited alcohol. I felt so bad Friday and Sunday morning that wow, it is soooo not worth it.

Friday 8/21

Took Friday off for a particular reason I can’t recall at the moment… worked late?

Saturday, 8/22

Hooverball!

Then AMRAP standing around in blistering sun, working sunset junction

Sunday, 8/23

10k run around the mile.

Switched it up and did this run late in the evening as opposed to first thing in the morning. Felt really great—as if a switch flipped this weekend and my endurance went up 15%. Was all excited to see what my pace/time would be when I finished and thennnnnnnn….my iPod ate it 5k in. I got the remaining 5k, running in silence, in the dark, to think about how good my legs felt. HA. Oh well.

Monday, 8/24

Decided to test this upped-feeling endurance at the gym.

3 mi “forced” pace tempo at 7.8 (7:45 pace?)
—As you may recall, I’ve been barely hacking it at 7.5.
7.8 wasn’t a cakewalk, but I didn’t go anaerobic until about 1.5 miles in and could definitely hang. YAY.

Then:
30 min stairmill
30 min bike

Tuesday, 8/25
CFLA 6:30

Warmed up by jogging the loops and some dynamic stretching ala Jane Fonda.

Workout:

Evil Sprints of Devastation (tm)

1200m = 5:27—I’d love to know what this would’ve been had I not run right past the alley. Nice.
[2 min rest]

800m = 3:26 (I think this is faster than the last forced split I did on a treadmill…rad!)
[3 min rest]

400m = 1:35
[4 min rest]

400m = 1:34

...so all this really tells me is that I definitely need to work on longer sprints. The 100m workouts clearly help my VO2 max and drop my 10k time and help endurance, but my 400m is sad. Back to the lab.

And while I HATE IT, it seems the 800 is my distance. Just long enough to suck ass, just short enough to survive.

So when we finished and were putzing around in the gym, somehow there was a rip in the time/space continuum and Rodney convinced me to do Fran.  ...I know, wtf. Andy called it, and I believe this was the direct quote, “incredibly stupid.” Awesome.

I wanted to, you know, finish and go home sometime that same night, so I did “Diet Fran”

21 - 15 - 9
45# thrusters
Pull-ups (w/ blk band)
= 6:47

...I don’t think I’ve ever done Fran proper, only variations on it, so this was interesting. Was very pleased to find out the black band was way too much assistance. Please welcome back my pull-ups ladies and gentleman! They’ve been on vacation the last six months, and how I have missed them.

For the record, two years ago around this time, I watched Rodney do Fran as Rx’d in about 18 minutes. Last night he did it in 9:07 or something sick like that. There’s a rumor that this Crossfit noise works.

Wednesday, 8/19

Cooking / rest day.

Decided that being overzealous and doing a 5 or 6 day week with three sprint-based workouts probably wasn’t the right plan with how poorly I’ve been sleeping. Slow and steady wins the something something…

Thursday, 8/20

Heh, Thursday wasn’t meant to be… and was a seminar on why eating all your calories is important on paleo. I forgot my big pound bag of almonds and everything slowly unraveled from there as my brain descended into fat-free fog….

CFLA, 7:30pm

Warm-up
1300m run (rolled my left ankle on the last corner with a horrible crackle and snap. Um, ow.)

3x
-10 jump shrugs w/PVC (totally spaced on adding weight each round…ominous foreshadowing)
-5 “weighted” dead hangs
(black band/red mini…I can do three deadhangs now w/ the black band…YAY!)
-15 sit-ups

Workout:

“The Chief”
5x AMRAP 3 min, rest 1 minute

-3 power cleans (95 / 75)
-6 push-ups (standard)
-9 squats (no ball)

1 1/3—3 1/3—3 1/3—3 1/3—3 1/3

UHhhh yeaaaaaah. Sometimes I can clean. Sometimes…I cannot. The Chief is a favorite of mine, but I’ve never gotten to do it in class. I set up at 95lbs, thinking nothing of it. I did a75# power clean workout that had multiple rounds of higher reps in mid-May, so 3 at 95 lbs would make sense 3 months+ later right? Not tonight. I couldn’t clean that shit to save my life….yanking with my arms, not turning over my wrists, not using my legs, totally psyched out after two attempts. It was like watching a body I wasn’t in control of attempt the cleans.

So Becca was like “yeah, no.” after one round and I agreed. Still had trouble getting back in the groove and out of deadlifting / muscling it-mode so I just accepted that this wouldn’t be pretty, and didn’t push it. Just made sure to at least hit the same number each round. That I could do.

LESSON 1: Warm up with weight to warm up the brain! No brain, no train.

LESSON 2: I need to find a time to have a skill session on cleans… they just never clicked after messing myself up attempting the Grace.

LESSON 3: Eat your fat!

Ah well. Tomorrow’s another day. (And hooverball! B-) )