Hello, hello!
Happy Saturday! Do you have Monday off? 🙂
So, I’m out of the boot and I’m not sick (although, I still have a little congestion hanging around and there’s a dry spot in my nose that gets very painful sometimes. ugh. tmi?) and I was really motivated to get some good workouts in this week. Time to get back in the saddle!
Monday
I started Monday morning off with a cycling class (we were on Spin bikes, I guess it wasn’t called Spin because….?) at the Y.
I didn’t take a picture of the room because I didn’t bring my phone in there. I wasn’t sure what protocol was and I didn’t want to do something wrong and get yelled at. 🙂
It’s been a couple of years since I took a spin class but it felt pretty nice to be back on the bike. I was really looking forward to a good workout!
Except, I didn’t really get one. I mean, I got an okay workout but it wasn’t as dynamic and fun as I had hoped. The Monday instructor is apparently ‘not a morning person’ (as stated by one of the other riders. I’m sorry, who teaches a 5:30AM spin class and isn’t a morning person? Isn’t it almost a requirement?!) and she most certainly wasn’t peppy. I guess she had started a learning series the week before and this Monday was working on climbs – mostly seated – and cadence. I was a little bored. It’s an hour long class – that’s a long time to be actively doing stuff and still be bored. 
I’m going to check out a couple of the other instructors (on other days, of course) and see how they are.
6pm CrossFit
It has been quite some time since I’ve done the “Total” workout and I was really, really, REALLY looking forward to it. ESPECIALLY since I’m not in the boot! I know I’ve made strength gains and I wanted to see where I’m at.
Basically, in this workout, you warm up and then you get 3 attempts at your 1 Rep Max of that lift and then you move on to the next. It’s not “add weight on in the smallest increments possible, starting really low, and go until you can’t anymore.” You have to be aware (and this is why my Journal Menu Wod book is so helpful!) of what your previous weights were and start somewhere near there so you can build appropriately.
I HIT PRs in 2 of my lifts!!!!!
And, to be fair, I PRd my press last week so I wasn’t expecting to set a new one this week. My previous PR at back squat was 125#. Whoop! A 20# PR!!! And, that’s legitimately my 1RM because I was halfway in the ‘up’ part of the squat and I wasn’t sure I was going to make it. I had to really push myself. I was so proud when I got it back up!!!
I wish I knew what my 1RM of deadlift used to be but I think it was around 180-185#. Honestly, it’s probably in one of these entries but I don’t have it written down and, yes, I’m too lazy to search. 🙂 But, I can tell you I have never lifted more than 200# until Monday and I hit 205#!!!
So, the reason why it’s called CrossFit Total is because your score is the total of all your weights. So, mine was 425. (I know that it looks like I’m the weakest link but these numbers are excellent for me. And, Lauren and Theresa are bad ass chicks, so there’s that.) Based on my weight class, I fall in between intermediate and advanced on the ranking chart. I’ll take that!
Tuesday
6pm CrossFit
Yes, they called this workout “Helen”-ish. It should have been called “Hell-ish.” Oof.
Helen is a benchmark WOD and is 3 rounds, for time, of 400m run, 21 kb swings, and 12 pull-ups. I last did Helen in October (was in between boots and able to run!) and scored 13:13.
“Helen”-ish was designed to be an interval workout and was to be scaled, if necessary. Coach wanted each athlete to be able to complete at least 2 rounds and if your previous Helen time was not 12:00 or less, you had to scale.
I am not yet ready to run so I rowed and Coach scaled me down to 300m and do the rest as prescribed. I did all 21 KB swings at 35# but, when I got to the pull-ups, could only get 9 done. So, I made the decision to stick with 9 and go from there.
I completed 4 rounds and was on my 5th pull up in round 5 when my 4 minutes were up. So, my score was 4 rounds.
Man, all those swings and pull ups were so HARD after all the pulling on the rower!
Wednesday
My arms/shoulders needed a break so I took a rest day. I had planned on going to an AM spin class but we had an “ice storm” and I wasn’t sure what the roads were going to be like. Hindsight is always 20/20 and I could have gone but better safe than sorry, right?!
Anyway, instead of an evening CrossFit class, I took half a day off work and went and help unload equipment at a new CrossFit box. Where I’m going to start going. 🙂
That counts as a workout, right? 🙂
Thursday
6pm CrossFit
30 muscle ups.
Yeah, right.
I don’t even have 1 muscle up yet!
So, obviously, I scaled the workout.
I did option 3 because my hands were still pretty sore from Tuesday. Plus, ring rows help with the pulling aspect that helps in the muscle up transition from pulling to throwing yourself through the rings. I finished in 11:00.
The part I liked the best about this workout was we did muscle up practice and skill work before. So, I worked on my kip (swinging on the rings and trying to bring my hips up to touch the rings) and then I worked on the transition on a low set of rings. That’s seriously the hardest part!
Friday
Rest day!
I had the day off (YAY!) and had homework to do, housecleaning to get done, got my hair did, and went grocery shopping.
Phew!
Saturday
Back at the new box helping out. Pictures later! You can always follow me on Instagram if you want pictures faster than that! 🙂
Talk to me: How was your week of workouts? 🙂
– jennifer
A Hungry Runner 