Weekly workout recap – or the one where I almost vomited

With self-discipline, most anything is possible. – Theodore Roosevelt

Hi there!

It’s been quite the week of workouts. I’m actually pretty thankful to have a rest day today (rain + homework = stay inside all day) and tomorrow. My quads still need some rolling out and my shoulders, pecs, and hands (yes, hands!) are still recovering. But, I’m not complaining. That’s the best kind of sore. 🙂

Monday

I could have gone to the box on Monday. But, I went shopping with Thing 2 instead. Mother/daughter time vs WOD? Yeah, I made the right decision. 🙂

Tuesday

6pm CrossFit

On the surface, this looks like it wouldn’t be too rough. Which is why you should never just look at the surface (did you ever notice how ‘surface’ is a strange word?) or judge a book by its cover or think any workout that involves both running AND rowing and manages to throw in burpees and lasts 30. Minutes. Long. is anything BUT rough.

Of course, I’m still not running so I had to sub 10 calories on the air dyne bike.

source

The idea was to finish whatever you were doing around the 50 second mark so you would have a small amount of breathing/transition time. Coach told us most people would scale the workout and that was recommended. He even had to scale the run! Then, he also said he spent a little bit of time with his head hanging over the trash can. Oh goodie.

So, I started off pretty well but by round 4, maintaining 10 calories on both the rower and the bike was getting really, really hard to do. By round 5, I scaled down to 8-9 calories on the rower, 7-8 burpees, and 8 calories on the bike. And that’s pretty much where I stayed. And, it was quite possibly one of the toughest things I’ve ever done. I wanted to quit. For reals. Just stop and breathe. But I didn’t. Not until Coach called time, that is, and I fell off the bike and laid on the floor. And, I didn’t vomit. But I thought about it.

Wednesday

5:30am Spin Class at the Y

Because I am a glutton for punishment.

This class was so much better than the first class I went to! Got in a great leg burning workout! After the class, I went out to the floor and did a little core work – mostly planks, Russian twists with a 10lb ball, and V-ups. I definitely felt that later.

6pm CrossFit

thankfully, NOT a metcon

The snatch is one of the most difficult and complex olympic lift. Most people really struggle with it and I am definitely one of those people. BUT, I’m getting better!

Coach had us warm up with 2 rounds of 5 push ups, 5 ring dips, 5 GHD sit-ups, 5 GHD back extensions, 10 walking lunges, 5 supermans, and 5 PVC overhead squats.

That was in addition to the standard warm-up that I had already completed. OY!

I started off with just the 35# bar working on the complex. Coach really wanted us to work on our hook grip and form during this stage – it wasn’t about the weight.

The hook grip is SUPER difficult. Basically, when you wrap your hands around the bar, your thumb goes UNDER your first two fingers. So, you’re not actually holding the bar, per se; you’re more holding your thumb. This helps with control of the bar – since you’re holding your thumbs, the bar is less likely to slip out of your hands. It’s very uncomfortable until you get used to it. And I’m definitely not used to it. My hands were TORE UP and so stiff by the time we were done.

I ended up finishing the complex at 45#. Coach gave me some great critique and said that he could see that I’ve improved and that I’m really concentrating on getting it right. I struggle with speed in my hips (but, they’re a LOT faster than they used to be!) and sometimes, the bar goes too far out in front of me but I’m getting there. It’s work in progress.

For the 1 rep max of the hang snatch, I got 55#. I tried 60# but failed. A few times. That’s alright, though. Work in progress. 🙂

Thursday

6pm CrossFit

I wore my cute new grey capris!

*Note to self – don’t wear the cute grey capris to a sweat-inducing workout. Especially if you take sweating very seriously. Or you are a sweaty betty. It’s not attractive when it’s all over.*

This workout, though.

My hands were still pretty stiff from the snatch complex so I wasn’t sure how all those pull-ups were going to go. But, somehow, I managed to Rx this workout. Without ripping my hands! I finished in 18:52.

Friday

5:30am Spin Class at the Y

Why do I do this to myself? Oh yeah, glutton for punishment. Crazy. Nuckin’ futs, as my sailor likes to say.

Apparently, Fridays are the “advanced” class. Um, yeah. This workout was a beast. One of the students had a heart rate monitor and he said it showed 900-some odd calories burned. Yeah, I could see that.

Then, I did an abs circuit I found on Pinterest.

 

Dude, this was NO joke. I couldn’t do all 6 rounds. I did 4 rounds and couldn’t do any more. I couldn’t do all the movements for 30 seconds – the V-sits, bicycle crunches, and tummy tucks kicked my butt. My abs were on FIRE. It was awesome!

Talk to me: How long did it take for you to get comfortable with the hook grip? What core workouts are your least (or most) favorite? Are wall balls the worst thing ever?

– jennifer

Weekly workout recap – or that week I got to run again!

Hello!

Another week of workouts in the books!

This week was actually pretty difficult but pretty awesome at the same time. 🙂

Monday

I had originally planned on hopping on the treadmill in the morning but when my alarm went off, I just wasn’t feeling it. My nose was all runny and my eyes were itchy and I was cold. So, I reset my alarm and got a few more Zs.

Blew my nose pretty much all day long and considered taking a nap at one point. Pretty sure that would have been frowned upon at my office. So, I took some Emergen-C instead. 🙂

6pm CrossFit

Holy. Cow.

Whoever programmed this WOD was out for punishment.

It looks pretty unassuming on the surface.

But, when you’re actually doing it? Well, that’s a whole different story.

Thank goodness I took that Emergen-C!

I set up my bar with 165# for the deadlifts. There were quite a few of us so we were sharing rings and bands (used a thin red band) and wall balls (14#).

That’s where I started. Wall balls.

You know what? 30 minutes is a looooonnnnnggg time.

30 minutes of 40 deadlifts, 80 ring dips, and 120 wall balls.

Those wall balls were making me lightheaded and the 165# deadlifts did not get any lighter and I’m pretty sure the minutes got shorter.

Relieved would be a good word to describe how I felt when time was called. Exhausted would be a GREAT word to describe how that WOD made me feel.

Tuesday

Again considered getting up for an AM elliptical workout but decided against it. I only felt like a tiny little slacker so I’m pretty sure I needed to stay in bed.

Thank goodness I did.

6pm CrossFit

Seriously, people. 2 ridiculous workouts in as many days?!

I was still pretty sore from Monday – my triceps were sore, my hamstrings were sore, my whole body was sore.

We did burpees and air squats as our warm-up and those were plenty difficult.

CrossFit – where the warm-up can be as difficult as the workout. Haha!

I really, really, really wanted to run the 400s but chickened out and opted for the row instead. Seriously, runners have it easy sometimes. Running and rowing are so NOT the same thing!

So, for this WOD, you had to do 3 rounds of Cindy in each round. But, you couldn’t just knock out the 15 pull ups, 30 push ups, and 45 air squats all at one time. Nope, you had to go in order – 5, 10, 15, 5, 10, 15, 5, 10, 15. Honestly, I think that’s the best way to break that up anyway.

I kipped every single one of my pull ups. That’s 75!!! I was able to consistently string together the first 3 and then the next 2. Sometimes, I got 4 in a row. I think I might have gotten all 5 in a row one time during that first round.

I did every single push up on my knees. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do them all Rx and my triceps were hurting anyway. I decided to go for good form over Rx with bad form.

I finished in 40:22 and I was a big ole sweaty mess. Holy cow what a burner!

These past two workouts have really tested my mental strength – kinda like a long run does. I was tired, both physically and mentally (end of a long work day) and I wanted to stop and just curl up into a ball but I didn’t. I pushed through it. The reward was on the other side – a sense of accomplishment and knowledge that I worked hard. 🙂

Wednesday

AM Garage workout

I did it!! I made it out of bed for a spin on my elliptical!

Man, were my legs sore, though!

I opted for a slightly less strenuous workout – just something to get the blood flowing and help stretch my legs. I did a basic 30 minute workout but bumped the incline up to 20%.

Felt pretty good when I was done although I was still a little stiff when I was stretching.

I need to run. I want to run. I think I’m ready to run.

Interestingly enough, tonight’s WOD includes running……hmmmm…….

6pm CrossFit

We started off with strength – 5 rounds of 5 reps of Pendlay Rows.

I’ve never done Pendlay Rows before. Heck, I’d never ever heard of them so I YouTubed it.

They were interesting. And definitely not easy!

Then, the WOD.

5 minutes of hell Burpees and then a mile run for time.

Yep, a RUN! Not a ROW!

I decided to run!! OMG, I was so excited!!!

I was so excited about the running that I didn’t even CARE about the burpees!

Of which I did 50, btw.

5 minutes of burpees is a long time and a LOT of burpees.

Then, we headed out the door for the run.

BLISS!

It is possible that I ran a little faster than I should have (7:55) but I felt like I had a good, smooth, easy, steady pace. Yes, I probably should have run slower but I felt like I was going so slowly already! And my foot felt pretty good!

I was definitely a happy girl. 😀

I plan on resting my foot on Thursday and doing nothing. There’s running in the WOD on Friday and I’m going to play it by ear.

Thursday

Rest day

Ginny had to go to the vet in the morning for her comprehensive exam and that’s a drop off appointment. So, I’ll be picking her up after work which leaves out CrossFit. Plus, I had to leave earlier to get her there and still make it on time to work so, no morning garage workout for me!

But, that’s okay. I need to rest my foot.

Now, let’s talk about my foot.

I’m not sure. My foot feels a little stiff (I guess that’s the best word) but it doesn’t really hurt. Maybe it’s a tiny bit achey but maybe I’m just focusing too much on it. Maybe I’m just stressed out about it. Maybe I shouldn’t have run a 7:55. I don’t know.

It’s not swollen and it doesn’t hurt. I’m probably just over-sensitive and worried. Definitely glad I’m resting it today and I may row instead of run in tomorrow’s WOD, just to be safe. We’ll see.

Friday

6pm CrossFit

This workout…

that whole “not for time” business makes it seem easier and more laid back….

but, yeah, this one was something else.

Tough.

Snuck up on you.

Basically, it was bench press, row, spot your partner, bench press, row, spot your partner, bench press, row, spot your partner…..etc

I started with 75# but failed at rep 8 in my first round, went and did my row, and then came back to spot my partner.

I decided to drop my weight down to 70# even though the board said to pick a weight and stick with it. I didn’t intentionally pick too heavy a weight – I wasn’t sure what I could do and just started with 75#.

I finished out the whole workout at 70#.

As the bench press reps got smaller, the row got harder and harder.

This one was a surprising lung burner!

Then, we did the 400m run for time.

Everyone else sprinted, I just ran.

My time didn’t matter to me, the actual act of running was what made me happy. 🙂

And, my foot felt pretty good. The stiffness that I felt on Wednesday/early Thursday went away.

I’m definitely going to take it easy getting back into running but I really loved the little bits of running I had this week. 🙂

Saturday

Rest day.

Because of all the cardio and the running yesterday.

Okay, honestly, my iPod wasn’t charged and I didn’t want to elliptical without music.

That’s pretty bad, isn’t it? #dontjudgeme

Talk to me: What did your week of workouts look like? Have any surprisingly tough workouts? Did you do anything that made you blissfully happy?

– jennifer

Weekly workout recap, aka holy sore muscles, batman!

Hello!!

Happy Saturday!

Had a great week of workouts this week. 🙂

Week 2 without the boot! Whoop!

Monday

6pm CrossFit

Man, I knew this workout was going to hurt, especially after the fun we had on Saturday night. I got a good 9 hours of sleep Sunday night but still, I’m too old to party and stay up late. Haha.

We started off with the 10 minute EMOM of 1 clean & 3 shoulder to overheads. Didn’t matter HOW we got the bar over our head (strict press, push press, or push jerk), just that we did. I went with the push press.

I decided on 75# (in retrospect, probably could (should!) have gone with 80#) and got set up. 95# is still my max for power clean but this was a full clean which meant we had to go into a full squat. I actually haven’t tried that at 95# so I don’t know how I would do. I decided on 75# because I didn’t want to overload the bar after taking it easy while my foot was in the boot.

During this part of the workout, I assigned myself the task of “dog-sitter.”

Brian (yes, that’s really his name! Don’t ask me what his dad’s name is though. He’s just the guy who brings Brian to the box.) decided he wanted to chew on his doggy-bags and bag holder and I had to admonish him a few times. His dad was on the other side of the gym and couldn’t see what was going on. Of course you know I had to WOD near the adorable puppy! J

I dropped the weight down to 65# for the WOD because there were so many and thrusters involve a squat each time. Oof. Of course, I can’t do muscle ups so I grabbed a band and worked on my chest-to-bar pull-ups – scaling was 2/1.

I’ll tell you what – I was BEAT after this workout. Getting the 4 and 2 reps of thrusters done was tough work. I finished in 9:15.

Tuesday

Garage workout

Because I’m not really in my right mind, I got up before the sun and headed out to the garage for a turn on my elliptical. 🙂

I know heading out the door for a run is still a few weeks away but I still want to keep up on my cardio, now that the boot is gone. I figure I’ll do a couple doubles a week with elliptical/spin bike workouts in the morning.

My elliptical is ancient (had it since 2007) but it does have some pretty good programmed 30 minute and 45 minute workouts. And, I can adjust the incline! There are 3 settings: 10%, 15%, and 20%. I had it set at 15% this morning.

One of the 30 minute workouts is Target Toning II and that one really focuses on the lower body. There’s a lot of backwards pedaling and squatting involved.

If you’ve never tried squatting while running on the elliptical, you should. Just be prepared to cry a little while you’re doing it. Holy. Hard.

And, I finished before the sun came up! It’s going to be soooo much darker when we “fall back” on November 2^nd.

6pm CrossFit

I was so sore from yesterday’s workout by the time I got to CrossFit. I was looking forward to the warm-up just so I could loosen up a little!

Some of finished the warm-up before the class so Coach had us work on skills we didn’t have yet. I went for some kipping swings on the rings as part of muscle up progression. I’m nowhere near a muscle up but I’ll never get there if I don’t try! My kip is really coming along though and that’s a good start!

We started with deadlifts – 3 sets of 10. I warmed up with 85# just to get the blood flowing and then we started putting weight on the bar. I did 115#, 135#, and 155#. Those last few at 155# were tough but I know it’s not my 10 rep max.

Okay, 10 rep max just sounds weird to say. Haha!

For the WOD, we ran out of kettlebells pretty quickly for the kettlebell deadlifts so I went for the 25# dumbbells. The backward lunges (with the weight) were designed to simulate a walking lunge but I was nervous about stepping back with my healing foot. Coach had me do weighted box step ups (one 25# dumbbell, 20-inch box) – alternating step up foot but I stepped down with my left foot each time. I’m still nervous about stepping blindly with that foot – last thing I want is to have to put that boot back on!

For the knees to elbows, I managed a pretty good kipping swing the whole time! I think I may have finally figured it out! The secret is to drive your legs down straight rather than let gravity take them and you end up swinging like you’re a little kid on the monkey bars.

I knocked out 5 rounds and was 5 deadlifts into the 6^th round at 8 minutes.

Wednesday

6pm CrossFit

Okay, so overhead squats are my nemesis.

So, doing them before the WOD and as part of the WOD is pretty intimidating.

I have been working on my hip flexibility and mobility so I was pleased that my OHS improved but I stuck with 35# because adding weight made me wonky. Less wonky than before but still wonky. Coach wanted me to work on being less wonky so that’s why I stuck with the lower weight.

For the WOD, I did 35# and did GHD sit-ups as a sub for the box jump overs. GHD sit-ups mimic the explosive movement in the box jump overs without the hard landing on the feet.

I’d like to say I remember my time but…..

Afterwards, I worked with Coach a little bit on technique. I wanted to understand what I looked like when I was doing it right and wrong.  I can only improve with understanding of the movement and the way I approach it. I WILL master overhead squats!!!

Thursday

Garage workout

I’ll tell you what. I was TIRED heading into Thursday morning.

My wings (lats) hurt and my legs were so very, very tired.

I figured that a turn on the elliptical was probably a good idea just to stretch me out.

I opted for a lighter workout – especially since I knew what was in store for me at CrossFit.

6pm CrossFit

Oh, hello rowing!

Only 6 of us showed up for the 6pm class (bunch of scaredy-cats!!) and, interestingly enough, there were 3 girls and 3 guys. So, we did girls against guys!

Of course, us girls lost but we kicked ass anyway. 🙂

I actually totally enjoyed this workout but that’s because I kinda like rowing.

All those time when I couldn’t run and I turned to rowing = I kick ASS at rowing! 🙂

Friday

I had a free day off of work and I took it.

The first thing I did (okay, maybe not exactly the first) was take Eliza to the vet for her immunizations.

She was sick at her last appointment so they just gave her antibiotics and avoided the immunizations. Well, she finished her meds and it was time.

She was less than thrilled.

Then, I went crazy and cleaned the house and garage and fixed things, including dinner.

I was WIPED OUT by the time the day ended.

A full day of manual labor trumps CrossFit any day of the week!

(although, I must admit, I was thanking CrossFit when I was shoving boxes up into the attic in our garage!) 🙂

Saturday

My plan for today was to elliptical for 45 minutes.

Except, I was physically beat.

So, I just watched the sun rise and called it a rest day. 🙂

Talk to me: What did your week of workouts look like?

– jennifer