I ran into Amy yesterday and she said to say hi to everyone. It was great to see her.
I had to take Tuesday off of swimming due to hip soreness after Helen. Hips stiff this morning but ready to swim after stretching.
easy 50 warmup
16 25s: alternate rotation drill/front stroke, no interval
10 50s: 1, 4, 7, 10 on 1:00, the rest on 1:05
10 50s: 1, 4, 7, 10 on 1:05, the rest on 1:00
10 75s: 1, 4, 7, 10 on 1:25, the rest on 1:35
easy 50 cool down
2250 total
Hips more sore after swimming than they’ve been in a long time. That’s frustrating because it feels like a step backwards. I constantly have to revise my expectations of what this recovery will look like. Apparently, my surgeon used a scalpel instead of a magic wand and all of this takes a long time. Really, I’m fortunate to be working out at all.
I tried running this week during the warmup and my left knee wasn’t having it, but box jumps last week were no problem. I will either jump rope or run for about 5 minutes a day this week and see if I can build up more strength for and tolerance of high-impact exercise. My hip joints are fine with running. There was one muscle in my right thigh that felt weak/tight when I ran, but I think it’s just from lack of use.
warmup:
400m run
3x:
8 GHD hip extensions
10 situps
8 knees to elbows
(these were so pathetic they almost made me cry)
(plus my callouses are gone - that’s a whole other nightmare)
max pushups: 23 from knees
considering I thought I’d get 12, I’m thrilled. It’s all about managing expectations!
workout:
Helen 16:17
500m row
21 12k kb swings
12 pullups green + black band
(I thought for sure I’d need 2 green bands, so this was a relief)
My last Helen was in 11/9/08 and my time was 14:17. Back then I was running, using a 16k kettlebell and a purple band for the pullups. Today it was all I could do to get myself to just finish the damn thing. I wanted to do 2 1/2 rounds just so I wouldn’t be last, but you can’t do Crossfit and worry about what other people think at the same time. I’m glad I pushed myself to finish. If I don’t have the mental toughness for this, I’ll never get the strength or stamina back.
This was my first workout back after the 2nd surgery. I took Jonesy’s advice to stop when I wasn’t having any more fun, in the spirit of not pushing myself too hard before I know what I can do.
“Fun” isn’t quite the word I would use, but after 4 rounds, even scaling the workout way back, things got grim. That’s when I stopped, and I’m glad I did.
warmup:
750m row; ~ 2:16 pace
3x:
10 good mornings w/ pvc
10 situps
30 single unders
I’ve been swimming since February, which has made all the difference. Reading my posts from my return last November, I think it was a mistake to do Crossfit more than once a week. Now that I can swim as a workout, I won’t pressure myself to ramp up Crossfit too quickly.
Sunday 11/15 10:30am
730m row - flexing hip at beginning of stroke feeling better, able to flex deeper than last week
shoulder dislocates
10 kbs - 2x white, 1x yellow - these continue to go well, despite the fact they’re so hip-intensive
4x (instead of 5x)
10 knee pushups (instead of 5 burpees)
10 15# db push press (instead of wall ball)
15 ring rows
20 15# db hang power cleans (instead of slam ball)
25 situps (instead of 25 du’s)
26:40
couldn’t do burpees, wall ball or slam ball, and tried to do du’s but knee was very quickly toast, so lots of substitutions. Cleans and situps put my left SI joint out, so I called it after 4 rounds. Iced back, hip and knees twice for 15min each, plus 2 advil. What finally fixed everything was rolling - but without a foam roller, I used a wooden rolling pin. Outside, front and back of legs, plus outside and back hips. Totally fixed all the pain. It’s amazing how tight muscles will pull my joints into painful positions – and what an easy fix it is.
warmup:
rowed, not flexing hips deeply at beginning of stroke
3-rep hang power clean and split jerk
25/30/35/40/45
left wrist about gave out when I tried to start with 35#, but after I had warmed up, wrist was fine past 35#. These were great. Don’t think they’d be great starting or ending any lower, though. I could maybe do a few at a light weight, but not for reps. Didn’t take any chances.
7 rounds
10 knee pushups (instead of 5 burpees)
10 kbs - yellow
15 dus for 3 rounds
60 sus for 4 rounds
17:42
The Fallout: I finished all 7 rounds, but that may have been a mistake. Iced both knees and both hips after workout, but woke up with tendinitis in back of left knee. Did intensive stretching, took advil, gone by that evening. I’m pretty sure it was the jumping rope, because the same thing has happened when I tried jumping rope in physical therapy. Hip was fine after kbs. So sad that my pushups suck, but I’ll get over it.
My workout log right now is basically me tracking what I’m able to do, so that when I come back from this next surgery, I can refer to these notes. I’m scaling and substituting a _lot_, but it’s nice to be back and to see everyone!
After last Sunday’s workout, iced, stretched extra on Monday, everything A-OK.
Tuesday 11/10 7:30pm
warm-up:
3 rounds:
did about 50 single unders each round, they were ok, stayed away from du’s
16 walking lunges rather than jumping lunges
regular air squats tentatively to med ball instead of wall squats - med ball height dicey but okay for a few reps (under 10)
Did light back squats (15#) to med ball, then heavier (22#, 32#) to box with 45# weight plate on top. Not feeling good to go weight-bearing into a below-parallel squat. Was able to do 10-15 of each.
9-6-3
SDHP (nervous about these, but they were ok!)
split jerks
25# bar
1:47
The fallout:
Needed to ice after workout and stretch extra the next day, but hip was basically golden. Encouraging!
Wow, I can’t believe I haven’t posted since March. I had arthroscopic surgery on May 1st on my left hip to repair torn cartilage and reshape my femur bone, which was malformed and was the cause of the torn cartilage. Now I’m scheduled to have the same surgery December 8th on my right hip.
But for one month, I get to CrossFit again. Yippee!
So today I went to Jonesy’s 10:30 class. I did 4 rounds of 12 hang power snatches w/ a 15# bar and 10 pushups from my knees in 8:39. I almost died just from doing practice snatches with the PVC. Yeah, your warmup is my workout - for now.
So good to be back. Thanks to Jonesy for the big welcome. And extra special thanks to Jim for being my inspiration to get back in, if even for a month.
It was SO great to see everyone at the Tabata This finals. Jim hauled ass and made me proud, as usual.
My last entry referred to some twingey weird pains I started getting on my left side in late Nov/early Dec. I laid off of CF and gradually my back and knee pain subsided, but the pain in my groin didn’t go away. So after not doing anything but massage for 6 weeks, I went to an orthopedist who diagnosed bursitis and tendonitis of the hip and sent me to physical therapy. After 6 weeks of physical therapy and no change, I’m going to see a hip specialist on the 16th. As yet I have not had any x-rays or MRIs, so that’s the next step.
I found out about a place that specializes in water therapy hip rehab and I went to a “workout” yesterday afternoon. Don’t get me wrong, this was the highest heart rate I’ve had in 3 months, and it was great to work entire muscle groups again. But wow, if other people’s workouts are our warmups, other people’s physical therapy is like what we do when we stand outside in the courtyard waiting for the next class. I’m looking into other water aerobics classes and I may end up just swimming laps.
Knowing how much I once hated running and how I got over it, I’m sure the same will be true of swimming, which I’ve always hated _much_ more than running. Call me crazy, but I really prefer oxygen-rich environments over those that require gills to breathe. And don’t get me started about having to wear a bathing suit.
Anyway, I’ll probably post here from time to time to stay in touch with this great, inspiring community. I like CrossFit workouts, but it’s all of you that make CFLA my own personal Happiest Place on Earth.
Well, my wrists are fine, but my left leg and lower back are a morass of weird twinge-y pains which have been slowly getting worse for the past several weeks. I got a bodywork-type of massage on Thursday, which helped for all of an hour. I kind of tried to do a workout at the gym Saturday, but I decided that maybe I should stop ignoring, and perhaps as a consequence aggravating, these pains and so I haven’t worked out, stretched or anything since Friday. Jennifer F. wrote that she wouldn’t freak out over her back injury, which I think is an admirable attitude to take. I’m much less mature than she is and I have reverted to crawling under a rock and indulging in mopey bitterness. Which makes for good times for Jim. I had even stopped reading workout logs, but I caught up today and they cheered me up infinitely. So thanks, everyone, for improving my outlook and mood. It’s always good to hear from the CrossFit front lines.
12/5/08 1pm class w/ Andy...I think. I can’t even remember that.
warmup
1000m row
2x
1 arm OH walking lunges 20# db
v-twists 12#
good mornings 25#
didn’t write down reps. feeling off so only did 2x.
The first 2 rounds I used 25#, which was light due to injuries, but it really felt too light so I went up to 35# for the last 4 rounds. I took it pretty slow in this workout, even stopping in the middle of the first round to put my weightlifting shoes on when I realized I had forgotten to do that. I don’t know if this workout aggravated my condition, whatever it is, but it certainly didn’t feel super-great. On the up side, 4 knees to elbows is the perfect number for me to do in a row. After that, my knees do not seem able to make contact with any part of my arms, but a set of 4 is perfect.
Today is day 71 of my 100-day Mid-life Crisis Pushup Challenge. My original intent was to have day 100 coincide with my 40th birthday (which is 29 days from now in case you can’t be bothered to do the math there). However, I’ve reached the limit of the number of pushups my wrists can sustain on a daily basis while still doing CrossFit workouts and not getting any days off.
So here’s the new plan:
Today I’ve done 40 pushups to bring me up to 2,525 pushups done in the last 71 days. That is the halfway point of a true 100-day challenge, which is 5,050 pushups total. I’m taking the next 8 days off from pushups, except for any in class workouts, in order to give my wrists a rest before the Nancy finals next Saturday.
AND, that day will also be day 1 of pushups again. That’s right, I’m going to repeat the first 71 days all over again, making this a 150-day pushup challenge (again, for those of you who are math-challenged: 2 rounds of 71 equals 142, plus 8 days of rest in between). I’ve gotten so many benefits from the first 71 days, I think it’s worth repeating. It will be interesting to see how different this round of 71 days will be. I’m going to focus on doing the pushups in larger sets this time around, and after taking a break and scaling back the number of pushups for a while, I think my wrists will come back stronger than ever. It will also enable me to finish the 5,050 pushups I originally intended to do, it’ll just take me longer to do it, which I can live with. It will also mean that I won’t be doing 100 pushups on my 40th birthday.
Stayed true to my pledge to do no burpees until my 100 days of pushups are over and subbed pushups and squat jumps for burpees (I used dumbbells on the pushups to take the pressure off my wrists). I knew from the first OHS that my wrists were in trouble. Every time I put the bar down, which was often, I had to ask myself if it was wise to pick it back up again, or if I was doing permanent damage to my wrists. I’m considering bailing on the 100 days of pushups. If it was the only thing I was doing, that’d be fine, but to do that and CrossFit is maybe not such a great idea.
Burch was telling me I needed to get 5 degrees straighter when I stood up on the OHS and I dumped the bar and told him I really didn’t care about that right now, that I was just trying to hold onto the bar. See? Right there’s a good reason for me to stop doing the pushups if my wrist pain is causing me to get cranky with Burch, because honestly I do value his opinion and he usually has good feedback. He even helped improve my pushup form! So, Burch, I apologize. I seem to end up yelling at people when I’m doing OHSs in the courtyard. Just ask Mike.
Today is day 70 and I did 70 pushups from my toes. Tomorrow, when I’ve done 40 of the 71 pushups for the day, I will be at the halfway mark of this challenge, having completed 2,525 of the 5,050 pushups I’m scheduled to do. This seems like it should be cause for celebration, but it’s filling me with dread. God I’m melodramatic today.
warmup
1100 m row (knee pain)
3x
10 GH back extensions
5 pushups
20 14# med ball v-twists
only 1 round of 14# med ball cleans due to knee pain
workout
Nicole…in a boat
AMRAP
500m row
max pullups (round 1 purple band, rounds 2-5 purple plus black band)
7/16/10/13/11 = 57
Day 69 of 100-day mid-life crisis pushup challenge. 69 pushups.
Arms are trashed…hard to type…losing will to live…or maybe just losing enthusiasm for pushups, hard to tell the difference these days.
Here’s a first: I really wished I could have run in tonight’s workout. It would have given my arms a rest, plus I wouldn’t have had to stay inside and listen to the Steely Dan song that came on about 12 minutes in. Apologies to any fans out there, but that’s a lifelong revulsion for me. Blecch.
Team workout with Fader, who runs like a deer and has a will and determination that is both admirable and awesome to behold. So there.
5x, one person working at a time
250m row
9 45# thrusters
7 pullups (purple band) 27:23
Thrusters after rowing really suck. We did Heavy Fran a while ago, which for me meant 65# thrusters, and I remember thinking I could probably do 75#. But not after rowing, no, no, no. On the up side, the more mass you have the faster you can row, so my post-Thanksgiving row time was faster than usual. And the seat was a lot more comfortable with the extra padding.
68 pushups today. Wrists say “ow.” Having to use pushup bars (little parallettes) to give my wrists as much of a break as I can. 32 more days and 2,704 more pushups? Really? I’m predicting tears will be shed before this is over.
11/30/08 Rest Day
Another rest day to hang out with the sick-but-getting-better hubby. 66 pushups today. After 181 yesterday, it all seems like cake from here on out.
11/29/08 10:30 class w/ Mtanwyck warmup
1200m run
3x
20 walking lunges
10 pushups
10 25# windmills
I like the name because it sounds like “carnage.” Original cut-off time for this was 25:00, but I requested extending it to 30:00. I just hate doing all that work and not getting to finish. Warden Stanwyck granted the extension. BTW, am I the only one who’s mourning the loss of the Marky Mark quote in Stanwyck’s signature? Jim and I tried to watch Shooter this weekend (we quit halfway through), but there were a couple of scenes that made me think of the “Mark Wahlberg Talks to Animals” skit on SNL. Uh, _anyway_, wall ball (wahl ball?) was the worst part of this. My arms felt terrible. I was able to do the last round of 10 double unders straight through. I was also able to tangle the rope in my feet after zero double unders many, many times. I have numerous talents.
Wow! Today I did 50 pushups from 11/27, plus yesterday’s 65, plus today’s 66, for a grand total of 181. I’ll say it again: wow! Surprised myself that I actually caught up. Did them while watching football, Wall-E, Lord of the Rings and Spiderman. Somehow, I don’t think the point of a 100-day challenge is to get me to watch more TV, but it’s happening. My arms are shot. I’m now really looking forward to turning 40 because it’ll mean no more #$(*ing pushups.
11/28/08 Rest Day
Hung out w/ Jim, who has caught a cold, rather than work out today. Did 58 pushups from 11/26 and 14 from 11/27 for a total of 72. ...still…so…far…behind…
11/27/08 Rest Day
Did 5 pushups and discovered wrists were toasted after yesterday’s burpees. Did no more pushups. Note to self: no more burpees till all 5050 pushups are done.
11/26/08 9:30 class w/ Mtanwyck warmup
double-under practice due to rain
3x
12 spidermans
8 pullups (purple band)
10 wall squats
Team workout w/ Kevin, Courtney and Jeff
all members work on same exercise at the same time to accrue as many points as possible in 20 minutes
24 cumulative burpees = 1 point
32 cumulative pushups = 1 point
48 cumulative squats = 1 point
Our score: 42 points
I only did a few rounds of pushups from my toes before it became ridiculous and I did knee pushups the rest of the time. For the most part we stayed away from burpees, but apparently not enough because my wrists were wiped out from the few rounds we did. With pushups I can set an angle that won’t aggravate my wrists, but it’s hard to be exact with my wrist placement doing burpees. I have no idea how many of everything I did.
warmup
1200m run
21 pushups while everyone else did max burpees in 2 minutes. Sorry, burpees, but I’m saving my wrists for pushups. That’s just how it’s got to be for now, but we can still be friends. From a long, long distance.
workout
21-15-9
65# OHS
knees to elbows
20# db cleans 19:33
Woo-hoo, did rx weight for the OHS, and they felt pretty good. I usually do 25# for db cleans, which was the rx weight, but I decided to make it more about the OHS’s and backed off on the cleans, which I’m so glad I did because that set of 21 db cleans just about killed me. During the whole workout, starting with the warmup, I felt like I was running on fumes. It’s so weird how my energy levels can change from day to day. I wish I could bottle the good-energy days because they feel so great. But despite not feeling like I was at the top of my game, I’m thrilled I did at least one out of two at the rx’d weight.
100-day pushup challenge update
Today is day 62 of the 100-day mid-life crisis pushup challenge, and I did 61 pushups from yesterday and 30 from today for a grand total of 91. Only have to do 95 tomorrow and I’m all caught up. In Lionel Richie’s words, Good times never felt so good. He was obviously doing a 100-day challenge when he wrote that.
In Lionel Richie’s words, Good times never felt so good. He was obviously doing a 100-day challenge when he wrote that.