I was ill for several days -- flattened for two, then walking around with a permanent ice cream headache and sense of motion sickness for another three -- so I didn't get any exercise in until yesterday:
Warm up
Clean progression
MAIN
AMRAP in 7 min
1-5 ladder hang squat cleans 75/115
Once you complete 1 set of 1-5, that is 1 round
Once you pick up the bar for each set, you cannot put it down, or you must repeat that set
AMRAP in 7 min
1-5 ladder push jerk
Same rules apply
5 min rest between
First part I did 40lbs, 2+3 (two complete rounds, plus three reps). Some time got used up because the instructor had me put on more weight.
Second part, he took off 10lbs, and I got 3+3
I will be really glad when my form is better. It's annoying to have to think instead of just do.
I've taken this training one step further. I bought an e-book awhile ago about how to improve your pull-ups; it's written by a fellow named Brad McCleod, a former Navy SEAL. I figured if anyone knew how to teach you to do them, it would be a former Navy SEAL. (www.sealgrinderpt.com). I can't quite recall how I came across his Facebook page and website.
That wasn't the one step further, however.
He offers online coaching, two levels; one that's just basic, the other was with more tools plus email access to him. I signed up for that. I felt like I needed some extra accountability, and this is really going to help, as I have to "turn in" my CrossFit WODs to him, plus do ones he creates, based around what I'm wanting to do.
So no slacking, and definitely no whining. I look at the coaching as a birthday present to myself.
So the WOD for today, July 2, was my doing the CrossFit Basline workout for time for him (he has four other workouts he wants me to do so he has an idea of where I am):
500 m Row
40 BW Squat (body weight)
30 Abmat Situps (the Abmat is that pillow-like thing you put under the small of your back)
20 Push Ups
10 Pullups
My push-ups were modified, and I had to use the pull-up machine at the gym, set to where I was pulling up a weight of 57 pounds.
TIME: 8:52
Then I went into the studio to practice jumping rope or 20 minutes, then I stretched/did yoga for another 20 minutes.
AMRAP (As Many Reps as Possible)
[Demonstration videos will be below]
5 Min
5 Burpees (mine were modified)
5 OH Squats (overhead squats)
TOTAL: 5 Burpees/4 OH Squats
3 Min Rest
Row for calories 3Min
TOTAL: 47 Cal
3 Min Rest
5min
10 Dips
5 Hang Power Snatch
TOTAL: 5 Dip/4 HPS
I'm still feeling like I could do a bit more weight...but I'm more concerned about form, still. I'm going to start taking the Olympic lifting class they're offering, as it's a smaller class, Mike said, and the focus is on form, not on time.
I'm noticing fast improvements, too; I can almost do several un-modified push-ups, for one. When I did the sit-ups, my feet weren't popping up off the floor as I came up, and I was almost able to do a full chin-up on my own (I had to have assistance for the rest.)
I'm really looking forward to when I've got the form down and I can start focusing on weight, and when I can also go faster. Then when I can do what they call an "Rx" (prescribed) weight/workout, which means you're doing the CrossFit recommended weight and so on.
VIDEOS:
Overhead Squat:
Hang Power Snatch:
Burpee:
(Later, what he's doing is a burpee + a muscle-up)
WARM UP
Chin up pyramid 1-7-1
MAIN
7 x 7
(7reps 7rounds)
Box jumps 24/30
Push up hands free
(You go all the way down to your chest, then remove your hands, then push back up)
Sit ups
Hang power clean 75/115 (I did 30; I could have done an extra 10 pounds, I think)
Pull ups dead hang (jumping for me -- jump up, lower yourself slowly)
Dips
Wall ball
TIME: 25:37
Note to Self: Use a mat on your modified push-ups...you keep making the bruise on your left kneecap worse! :-)
I didn't split as shown in the video; I just jumped slightly as I pushed up. I'll work on the split later. That way I can focus on learning form for one thing at a time.
Strength = OH Press
3x3 @ 85%
MAIN
20 box jumps 24/30
15 KB sw 53/70
10 Back squat 65/95-----85/115
5 Jerks 65/95----85/115
3 rounds for time
I used a fairly light weight as I'm still working on form (I still feel like I could have done about ten pounds more, though). 18lb kettlebell.
OH = Overhead Press:
Back Squat:
Kettlebell Swing:
Stepped up on 20" box. I was a tad uncertain of my coordination at 5:45 in the morning.
WARM UP
MAIN
DOUBLE DATE
Annie and Nicole….Good times!
[There are several CF workouts named after people. Many of them are for men who have died in
service; mostly military, a few police, SWAT and firemen.]
Annie
50-40-30-20-10
DUs
[This is where you jumprope, passing the rope under your feet twice before landing; I hadn't
touched a jumprope since I don't know when, so I had to do singles; Mike said for those of us
doing that, it was 3:1, so the progression was 150-120-90-60-30. Yes, I did them all. I think I left
my right calf muscle somewhere in the gym, though my left was also sore by the next afternoon!.]
Abmat sit ups
[An Abmat is something you put at the small of your back for the situp; it works you harder, but it
also takes the stress off your lower back, making it easier -- at least it feels easier to me.]
50-40-30-20-10
What you do for the workout above, is the DUs/singles, then you do the situps, then the next number of jumps, then situps, and so on.
Time: 16:07 Max was 20.
Nicole
400m run
Max rep pull-ups
[I did jumping pull-ups, where you jump to the height of your collar bone, then lower yourself
down into a semi-crouching position, hands still on the bars. I used an 18" stool. My deltoids
weren't as sore the next day as I expected.]
(So you do the pull-ups, run, pull-ups, run....)
20 min AMRAP (As Many Reps As Possible); Mike had those of us doing jumping pull-ups do a max of 25 each time, but I felt like I could do more.)
Score is total # of pull-ups
400m is once around the building where the gym is (well, "gym" is more like a big storage space with equipment. It's about as bare as you can get. I love it). I did fine the first time, though I discovered I chose a direction opposite from everyone else. Ha.
Second time around I started thinking, Gee, where is everyone this time? Did I get that much out of sync? Then, Man -- I don't remember it feeling this far last time -- !
Not that I felt strained...just time-wise it felt farther. Then I rounded the corner of the building and realized I'd gone around both buildings for a total of 700m that time. As I approached the gym door again, Mike was outside, looking thoroughly amused, and serenaded me with the old Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the other / One of these things, doesn't belong...!"
Har har. :-)
I asked if I got extra credit for that and he said no; I asked if that made up for not doing the double-unders...nope. Heehee.
For the last two 400m I chose to row. My left knee felt a touch persnickety. Years ago, I had minor surgery on it and I still think they left a barometer in it, as I can really feel the change in weather sometimes.
My total number of jumping pull-ups was 100.
17JUN11
Rest day; I was pooped.
18JUN11
Warm up
MAIN
“ Bear Complex”
5 rounds of
Clean
Front squat
OH press
Back squat
OH press
Touch down and go
This is 1 rep, 7 reps is 1 round
Women's start weight is 65
Men's is 95
Increase weight each round to max successful round
You may rest anywhere except with bar on ground during each round
I'm still working on form, so Mike had me do a slightly different version of a clean, which is this:
I couldn't get the form down right on that today, so Mike had me do this, instead:
So the movement was to do the thruster, squat, come up and press into the overhead press (as shown in the second video), then lower the bar so it sits on your shoulders (picture someone carrying a pole with water buckets on each end), squat, come up and into a thrust, then lower.
That was considered one rep. So you do all that seven times for one round. Then you pause, add weight and start over.
The weights given above are for people in primo shape; little neophytes like me start at less. I started with 40 and got up to a whopping 45 (Hooyah!). :-D
I probably could have done more, but Mike wanted me to focus more on form, which is more important right now than weight.
I also discovered I deadlifted 10 more pounds than I thought on Monday; I thought the bar I took from a corner were the 35lb ones, but I found out they were the 45lb ones. No wonder I felt like Quasimodo all the next day and much of the following -- !
I'm getting there!
One other thing I love about CrossFit, other than the results and the fun, is that I'm meeting some really great, nice, fun people (Mike and Christine, the owners are awesome, too), and what's even "awesomer" (if that's a word) is that it's also a place where I can say, "Well, F&$%!" or "Holy SH$%!" with an "outside voice".
Or any tantalizing, tasty combination of words that might make the heartiest and gruffest of Merchant Marines blush.
Something you can't do at a standard gym. :-)
Well, I have, but usually under my breath. At least I think it was that soft; sometimes, with the music in my ears I'll hear myself say, "Well #$%&!" and then think, Oops! Did I just say that out loud? And, if so, at what volume?!
So far, I've never found anyone looking at me afterwards, so that's a good sign.
Oh, I did place an order for a jumprope and an Abmat to use on my own; as Mike said, the 3:1 ratio (CrossFit standard is 10:1 -- yikes!) is a good incentive to learn how to do the double-unders. Yes. Yes, it is...!
Yesterday's WOD consisted of my coming home, showering, having dinner and crashing into sleep on my couch around 7:30, iPhone clutched in my hands as I checked Facebook. I managed to pause the episode of Pushing Daisies streaming through Netflix and my PS3, but when I woke up (well, raised my eyelids to confront a state of grogginess) around 8:15 , I couldn't even keep them up long enough to finish the last ten minutes. I kept nodding off and sort of half-dreaming/half-hallucinating about what I could hear.
I also spent that day lurching around the office and my home like Quasimoto (though I can say I'm a heck of a lot prettier) due to the incredible sore back I had from the workout the day before. To that, I do have to say w00t! because it means I'm breaking through that nasty plateau I was in. I guess in Military-ese that would be Booyah, Hooyah, Oo-rah or Hooah depending on your branch. I can't recall having one in the Air Force. :-)
Anyhoo. That was my workout yesterday: managing to bathe and feed myself before I crashed into sleep consisting of weird dreams. I woke up at one point thinking it had been hours of sleep, but it had only been about ninety minutes. I did sleep very well, but I'm guessing the muscle relaxant and melatonin I took had something to do with that. And the dreams.
I woke up to a less-sore back, and repeated my efforts yesterday of sitting against a heating pad on low, then stretching when I stood to do something. Which I could barely do yesterday...though I did manage to use my trusty rolling pin over my back to work over the sorest spots. Handy things, rolling pins. I rarely never bake, and if I do it's cookies and nothing that requires rolling out dough (it got left behind by my brother when he lived with me for awhile), but it works nicely as a massage implement.
I (briefly) considered going to a class tonight, but when I did I felt my back leap out of me and scamper out the door leaving a trail of barking sounds akin to a yelping dog running away in sheer terror. So I opted out and did an hour or so of yoga instead.
In the immortal words of Judge Harry T. Stone's father on Night Court, I'm feeling MUCH better now.
I left the gym that day feeling good, like I'd gotten a decent workout, but not like I'd done too much. But as the next couple of hours wobbled on, I started feeling it. Now, in any other moment, I'd have taken it easy on my terrace with a book or my laptop, but it was the afternoon of the Fruit Beer Beerfest.
I thought my legs hadn't gotten much done, given all I did was some squats with a 16lb medicine ball and some swings with it. But they began to ache as my hour of departure left, and I could really feel them as I drove over to my brother's house, then as we walked...then as we stood around -- in the sun. I did get to sit down in the shade at some point; it wasn't terribly hot, but it was a heck of a lot warmer than it has been, so it caught us all off-guard. I did smartly wear shorts. Most people were in jeans.
I didn't have a lot of beer -- maybe the equivalent of a pint or two over a few hours, and I did have a lo of water before and after, but I apparently was still really dehydrated. All I did was suck down Gatorade-laced water on Sunday (I fell asleep on my couch the night before on Saturday at about 7:40), and that's where I stayed all the next day.
I'm still on the tired side, but not exhausted. (Really, really weird dreams last night).
My mother thought I ought to go down to the wharf where the Navy ships for the Rose Festival are docked and do some competition that happens every year with the SEALs that come. It would be fun, but I think that's something that's a few more CrossFit workouts away. :-)
Anyhoo. Today's:
WARM UP -- Wall balls with partners, 800m run
Stretch
MAIN
1-10 ring dips/dips
10-1 Dead lift
[What this means is you do 10 dips, then 1 deadlift, then 9 dips and 2 deadlifts -- and so on, making it so you do a total of 11 each set].
My deadlift weight was 85. I feel like I could have done a touch more...which means it was just right. (My hamstrings are saying something different, however....)
12 min time limit
My time: 9:57
Scale so you can finish in time and keep working through the entire WOD…if you stop for more than a few seconds you are not getting the proper response to the WOD…I want you going hard the whole time, little to no breaks
I did have to stop and catch my breath a couple of times, but not too much.
Then
Squat snatch progression/drills
Build to max
[I had to substitute rowing as I was really pooped by then; still a bit on the tired side from Saturday].
And, in the immortal words of the Professor on Futurama: Good news, everyone! I've lost 3 lbs since I've started all this.
5 rounds in 19:23, 2 1-minute rests between two rounds.
Push-ups: modified
Dips/Chin-ups: gravitron, set to 90 (w00t! Before -- just last week -- it was on 110 or 100!)
I'm getting there. I need to do something focused on legs tomorrow. Or maybe I'll do another round of yoga. We'll see.
I know that in the last several years, yoga's become a big part of a lot of fitness routines. I used to think it was just fancy stretching, and then I started taking classes at my gym and had a big eye-opener. I reached a growing edge there, as she only does so much since it isn't a studio with levels of learning you can do.
I then came across some DVDs by a yogini named Shiva Rea, and she's awesome. Her DVDs are cool because you can either do preset routines, or you can create your own. And they're all "grow-with-me" DVDs, as she has moves that are for beginners, intermediate and advanced students. I have to get a new one of one of them, though, as my Playstation refuses to read it, even though my Mac does.
Even though I know yoga has become far more widely-accepted in all levels of fitness, I was still amused when I looked at the SEALFit.com site at their class schedules, and one day (the first one for an academy set of classes) was something to the effect of:
Orientation
Macho stuff
Manly stuff
Hard stuff
Running
Yoga
Their classes are based on Hell Week (though with more sleep, I'm guessing) as I had this picture in my head of a bunch of dudes in Downward Dog with their butts in the air or Warrior Pose, or standing in the graceful Mountan Pose looking serenely out at the rolling ocean. Heehee.
The CrossFit gym I go to wants to put in a yoga class, too, because it does so much for you -- strength training, core training, flexibility.
I've read in some places that if you do yoga you should NEVER EVER NEVER EVER even come within 50 feet of any kind of weights...but I think that's a big load of steaming poo. I get better results from my gym stuff when I do it, and better results from yoga with my gym stuff. Plus yoga really helps with strengthening your c ore -- where I'm the weakest, I think.
Well, now I'm off to get cleaned up and ready for a fruit beer brewfest. I nice way to eradicate all my hard work this morning, don't you think?
I had every intention of getting up and going to a CrossFit class, except this is the "conversation" I had with my body.
Me: Yes! It looks like fun. Plus I'm up and I have a feeling I'll be groggier if I sleep for another hour and a half.
Body: Uuunnggggg....
Me: Oh, come on. You can do it!
Body: Uhhhhhhnnnnnnggggguhhhh................
Me: Look! You get to climb ropes. Remember? You've been looking forward to a workout with that, and remember how much fun it was at basic?
Body: Meh.
Me: Come on....!
Body: Dude, if you go, you're going to crap out. If not in the middle of it, in the middle of the day. You're still tired.
Me: But –
Body. No.
Me: Fine. I'll look and see if there's one later. No – the afternoon classes have been cancelled because Mike's going to regionals.
Body: So?
Me: But it'll be fun!
Body: Muhhh....I don't want to make the effort of cooking breakfast to take. Then cleaning up at the office. Just. Not. Feeling it.
Me: Oh, come on. YOU CAN DOOOOOOOOO EEEEEEEEEEEEET!
Body: FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU
Me: Well, okay. Fine. But since I'm awake, and it's too late to go back to sleep, how about yoga.
Body: [Thinking].
Me: Well?
Body: [Thinking some more].
Me: Hello? Yoga? It's nice out (though at that moment, I then got a whiff of someone's cigarette smoke wafting through my open terrace door; I have one in my bedroom and one in the living room).
Body: Mmmmmrrph...well.........maybe. Me: Come on. I'll make some coffee? Get you going? It'll be fun.
Body: That's what you said about the ropes.
Me: Yoga. Come on.
Body: [Thinking again]. *sigh*. Well...........Okay. I can do that.
So I did 90 minutes of yoga and felt a lot better. Still on the tired side. I know I just have to be more mindful of both sleep and nutrition as my body is working so much harder than it was. Stooopid plateaus. :-)
I'm already seeing really awesome results with all of this. I love that I've found my growing edge, and that when the workouts are done I'm left feeling like I've both done a lot, but could also do more.
Walking lunge 100 ft.
21 Pull-ups
21 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
18 Pull-ups
18 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
15 Pull-ups
15 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
12 Pull-ups
12 Sit-ups
Walking lunge 100 ft.
9 Pull-ups
9 Sit-ups
Walking Lunge 100 ft.
6 Pull-ups
6 Sit-ups
I did, once again, use the gravitron, set at 110; however, I think I really needed to have it at 100 with a 5lb weight on it or on the pad. I'm getting there!
Time: 25:17
End: .5 mi "rog"
Stretching.
Not bad time, I think, given I was exhausted yesterday from having gotten about 4 hours of (crappy) sleep due to causing my iPhone to die and fighting to bring it back to life. (Note to everyone who reads this: if you forget your armband, just let the music go, my people. Do not tuck your iPhone or whatever between your sports bra and your skin. You will kill it.)
This fiasco caused my 6:00 alarm to not come on and, instead, cause the alarm app to grasp for the only other one in its list: 4:45 am. This was after falling asleep maybe around midnight after an hour of the doze-START AWAKE-doze-START AWAKE tango. I always feel more washed out the day after something like that.
If I don't go to the CrossFit gym, I look at the WOD and see if I can replicate it at Bally; not only could I not replicate today's, I didn't understand half the lingo. :-)
So I culled through the archives at www.crossfit.com and found one I could do:
10 Rounds of each for time of:
10 Pull-ups
10 Dips
10 Sit-ups
10 Squats
(I'll call this "Part 1)
I then added, afterwards, a 500m row for time (Part 2), as well as a 1 mile run (Part 3) for time.
I still can't do a pull-up using my own weight yet, so I have to use the gravitron doohickey at Bally. Since the CrossFit dip is done on rings and not only are there none at Bally, I couldn't do more than about one or two of those. The www.crossfit.com website says to substitute three paralell bar dips for every one "regular" dip, but that's a bit far-fetched for me at the moment. Someday, soon.
At the moment, I weigh about 150, so I set the gravitron at 110 for the pull-ups (100 was too much, though 110 was a bit too light. I didn't think until later to put a 5lb weight on the pad) and 100 for the dips (same thing there, too; 100 was too light, 90 was too much).
For those who don't know what a gravitron does, it supports you. So if you weigh 150, and you set it at 110, that means you're lifting 40 lbs.
Part 1: 24:32
Part 2: 2:19
Part 3: 10:14
TOTAL TIME: 37:50
I'm getting there. Right now I hear a shower, veggies, chicken and a beer calling me :-) (Hey -- I've read beer helps with recovery! And it's a microbrew! They have nutrients and probiotics!)
I finished today's WOD in 16:14, which is pretty good. Originally I was going to the 9 am class, but I woke up at 5:20, wide awake, and went to the 7:45 one.
20 Cal Row
30 Burpees
40 Dumbell-to-Ground (or some title like that; you squat down, touch the dumbells to the ground, stand, reach to the sky)
50 Legs-to-Bar -- meaning you hang and bend so your toes touch the bar you dangle from (you fold at the waist so that your toes touch it)
100' Lunge
150' Sprint
(I'm having to go by memory because, haha, the WOD he posted online was NOT the one Mike gave to us. He looked rather pleased by his deviousness, I will say.)
However, I think I shorted myself 5-6 burpees; I lost count around 15-ish, and then had to pause, then lost count again around 20-21. However, I misread the board and did 50 dumbells; I used 10 lbs as 15 lbs felt too heavy, but 10 felt too light. I should have looked for 12.
The Legs-to-Bar I had to just dangle and do knee crunches, with a couple of breaks in-between. I used a 15lb disk for the lunging; when holding it above my head it felt heavy (I had to rest it on my head for a bit), but for the actual lunging, it felt a touch too light.
Ah, growing edges.
Then I sprinted, finishing. I misunderstood the coach and I thought he said we had to do it all through again. I asked, and he said no, laughing. I was willing to do it, since that was why I was there, but at the same time I thought:
AAAAAaaaahhhhheeeeeeeoooooogghhhhhhh....
16:14, even with it being intense, didn't feel like enough, so when I came home I "rogged" 2.50 miles in a little over 22 minutes (I say "rogged" as I wasn't quite jogging, but neither was I running...it was somewhere in-between). I did this on the hill profile on a treadmill downstairs in the little exercise room. I'm not quite an outdoor runner...yet. For one thing it's hilly around here (yeah, yeah -- I know. All the better...but I know the difference between masochism and pushing myself! :-) ) Next time I'll try "random", which seems to better mimic outdoors.
Then, for another 20ish minutes I alternated between walking at 2.5 mph for 1.5 min, give or take, and
I tried to go for minute, and did so up until about 10mph where it ended up being about 30-40 seconds. I capped out at about 15-20 seconds and had zero wind after that.
But the last 9 mph sprint was for about 30 seconds.
Then I came upstairs, had Second Breakfast, as the Hobbits do, showered, picked up the apartment, played some Boggle on my iPhone, watched some TV and...zonked out for about an hour.
I've done something every day since Monday, which is rare for me, as it usually leads towards sheer mental and physical exhaustion...but so far I'm okay. I'm considering taking a full day off tomorrow, but I might do something really easy.
GAH!
I get the "smoking only outside" rule for the apartments here, but I always have at least two smoking inhabitants near me. So that means, on a day like today when it's nice, their stinky stench of second-hand smoke comes wafting into my apartment -- like right now. It's even more bothersome in the morning when I'm doing yoga and they get up to have that necessary first smoke of the day. I just do not get sucking in something that's the equivalent of putting your mouth around the exhaust pipe of a car. It's their lungs, of course, so they can do whatever they want. I just shouldn't have to join in.
There's a dude who lived (or still does) below me who also smokes weed. And the thing is -- it's cheap weed. I've never smoked it, but if I I can tell it's cheap and crappy, then it's cheap and crappy. Dude needs to up his allotment for the stuff and get a quarter bag instead of a dime bag, especially if I'm going to have to smell it, too.
Anyway.
I'm tired, but it's a good kind of tired.
My plan is to schlep myself to the grocery store to get some salmon and fresh veggies to eat raw. Then I'm going to bed early. Just please let me sleep in past 5:20, body. It's the freaking weekend!
I was convinced by a co-worker yesterday to go to the gym with her and take a "Boot Camp" class at lunchtime. It was awesome, if not an enormously high intensity-driven class. Oy! But I had a lot of fun, and they apparently have Boot Camp-only packages, but the girl at the front desk quoted me $199 for ten.
Um, no. I had a blast, though.
My colleague said she believed I was quoted an incorrect price, and that the next time we were there and the owner was free, she would talk to him and see if I could get a better deal. The girl at the front desk suggested I spend $99 a month to have access to the gym and unlimited Boot Camp classes, but that was also a resounding "no". I don't need to belong to three gyms, and if it is $199, that's more expensive than CrossFit packages. I also already have a membership at Bally Total Fitness, which is about $17 a month.
Besides -- I don't want unlimited Boot Camp classes, just something to do once a week or so in addition to CrossFit, yoga and my regular gym. I can't imagine doing that Boot Camp all the time, anyway.
I do want to take a couple more CrossFit classes a week, but the issue for me was that they're usually from 6:00pm-7:00pm. Sorta late, which also means I'd have to hang around the office for 45 minutes after we close at 5. No, thanks. They have early morning classes, which I wouldn't mind factoring in -- the only issue was the showering.
We have a shower room at work for women, but it got turned into a storage room. It still is, and there's books in there, but in thick, cardboard boxes. I just asked the office manager if I could go ahead and use the shower, even though, several years ago, we women all signed a sheet saying we wouldn't use it. She said it should be fine. So I just cleaned it up. Mostly just dust, but whomever it was who used it last (there was a female employee who used it fairly often before it got renovated into the storage facility) never cleaned out the drain, so It was all thick with her long hair.
Barf.
/shudder
When my hair was long, I didn't even like pulling out my own hair from the drain. Gave me heebie jeebies on par with cockroaches. I used about three paper towels layered together to clean the one here.
I do love a long, hot shower (don't we all?), but I can reserve those for home, and just use the one here once or twice a week so that I'm not sitting at my desk feeling slimy all day. Yeah, I could drive up to the Bally gym that's up the road, but it's not the most convenient solution. And I can just use some old rubber flip flops for shower shoes while in there as well.
So that's solved. It just means I have to bring breakfast with me. The class is from 5:45am-6:45, which means I'll be able to get everything done in time to start work at 8:00 am.
I really hope I can get a better deal on the Boot Camp classes; I'd do 20 for $199, but not 10. That's way too much, considering CrossFit is $128.50 for 10. We'll see! I can say that while I was challenged by "The Murph" on Monday, the Boot Camp class thoroughly spanked me. Awesome.
Moo. Ow. Mooooo.
So speaketh my calves. I just hope they don't have a cow, man.
That tomorrow the stock in Advil, Aleve, Tylenol, Flexeril, etc. will all jump about 5 points each. For me, it'll be the Advil and Aleve, with a small dent in my Flexeril stash.
Why?
----- woo! -----
[Just heard one of our Air National Guard F-15s go screaming overhead, afterburner in full burn. Damn...I will NEVER get tired of that sound!]
Ahem. Back to our regularly-scheduled programming.
Well, there's something called the "Memorial Day Murph" that's done in honor of a SEAL who died during a mission called Operation Red Wing (or "Wed Wing" as my tired fingers almost wrote); it was a mission that had the greatest loss of SEAL life in the history of the SEALs -- since World War II. Those who know me know I enjoy military history, something I inherited from my father.
I am also fourth generation Air Force; beginning with my maternal great-grandfather who was in the Army Balloon Corps in WW I, my maternal grandfather who flew a B-17 at Guadalcanal (he also witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor) and then my father who served stateside during the Vietnam War. I served during the First Gulf War at Carswell, AFB, as an Air Crew Life Support Specialist.
"The Murph" as the workout is called, consists of:
1 mile run
100 pull-ups
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run
There are lots of people all over the nation today doing that, many of whom (like me) who are new and going to be sore...but that's weakness leaving the body, right? (Yeah, um...right! :-) )
I had my doubts about really chipping off much of that, due to my brand-spankin'-new-car-smell status off CrossFit, even though I've been a pretty avid gym goer for awhile and have been in pretty good shape lately.
Actually, the thought of getting through most of it made me do this (especially the thought of 100 pull-ups):
I did donate $25 to the "Memorial Day Murph" Fund, which also gifted me to a neat t-shirt (which didn't come in time to wear this weekend, sadly); the funds go to three charities: The Michael P. Murphy Scholarship Fund, The Wounded Warrior Project, and the Lone Survivor Foundation (started by Marcus Luttrel, the only man to survive Operation Red Wing). However, I have to say I felt a little funny wearing the shirt if I didn't attempt to do anything.
So my thought was to come up with something I could do. Most of yesterday was spent watching Generation Kill, and today I started The Pacific, as part of my Memorial Day tribute (excellent programs, by the way), and so about 1:45 I started my version.
My plan was to do two hours of challenging yoga, but about an hour into it I got inspired as I looked at my flag that I have hanging out on my terrace for today. I had already done 35 push-ups towards the end of my yoga, and so by then I was pretty warmed up. I decided to keep going, and did, at that point:
200 squats
25 push-ups
Break to get some much-needed Gatorade-laced water
10 push-ups
25 squats
10 push-ups
25 squats
10 push-ups
25 squats
10 push-ups
25 squats
10 push-ups
[Scramble to get out of my yoga clothes and into my running shoes, shorts and top]
2 mile run on treadmill downstairs, using hill profile (alternated between #1 and #2), finishing in 22:14
25 more push-ups (after a cool-down walk outside on what became a beautiful afternoon!)
So, that was a total of:
300 squats
125 push-ups
2 mile run
1 hour of challenging yoga
The "Murph" part took about 50 minutes, so overall, though it was about a 2-hour workout when you factor in the yoga I did before. I feel pretty damn pleased with myself, and I'd like to think he'd be grinning as well. It was really more a tribute to myself than to him, which is how I think he'd perhaps more likely want me to view it.
My thought is that if I can manage all of that now, that maybe I can do a full one next year. That's what I'm going to strive for, at least. I know I couldn't have done 100 pull-ups, even if they were assisted (well, maybe on a Gravatron machine with all but about 10 of my own pounds assisted...) and I sorta wish I'd tried that today.
Next year: A full one
Year after: With the suggested 20lb vest (more likely to find that than the other option: body armor).
Well, I can always try throughout the year, too. Use it as a litmus test for fitness, if you will. But I do know that, come tomorrow morning, I'm going to be feelin' the Tin Man's cry:
Oil can!
Still, this weekend has left me feeling rather sad, both from my own personal reflections about what Memorial Day means, and as I think about Michael Murphy's family, friends, and the fiancee he left behind, who has, if you ask me, the best name ever: Heather. :-)
I understand what's behind the charities and the workout itself, but it seems like handing someone with a starving 15-person family 1/4 of rice. There's a part of me that thinks of him, of the fellow on the MIA bracelet on my wrist, and of all the headstones at any cemetery like Arlington or Punchbowl, and I think, What a waste of life of good men and women.
At least I feel like I earned the "privilege", if you will, to wear the t-shirt when it comes.
MUSIC: Yoga: Meditation music through an app on my iPhone
Running: Crystal Method, Vegas
P.S. Bite me, upcoming "milestone" birthday in July! :-)
I had bizarre dreams all night, and I woke up feeling just like that fellow in my first post, the fellow in the Far Side cartoon. But that's good!
Besides, I have a Timbers soccer game to watch later and there's going to be beer. I have to rest up for that. Yes -- this does get me to my goals! Beer has minerals and vitamins and probiotics (craft beer, at least, the kind we get a-plenty here in Portland), and has been shown to help promote recovery after a workout.
As if we Portlanders needed another excuse to drink beer -- but what a good one!
1000m run (on a treadmill, using the hill program)
22 Burpees (squat-jump thingy, not gardening with Burpee seeds)
1000m run
22 assisted-weight pull-ups
22 weighted lunges with a 25lb disk weight (or a scrounged kettlebell, if I can)
22 thrusts, since I don't have wall balls there, either
WHAT I DID:
1100m run @ 6.5 mph on the hill profile
22 burpees, modified with knees on ground
1000m run @ 6.5 mph on the hill profile; for the last 3 minutes, down to 5.5
25 lunges (I believe I'm supposed to count a lunge with the right and a lunge with the left as one). So first 10 was with 20lbs (2 10lb dumbells), small rest, another 10 with 20lbs, then last 5 with no weight.
44 assisted-weight pull-ups; 40/30/20 for assisting weights (Gravitron). Used widest placement possible for my hands.
22 thrusts with 25lb barbell, then another 22 with an 18lb bar
11 burpees/rest/11 burpees (modified both times)
1000m row xoolsoqb @ 7:02 (as I was typing all of this with one finger on my iPhone, which was strapped to my arm, I believe that was supposed to be "1000m row cooldown").
Stretch
TOTAL TIME for the main workout (not including the "xoolsoqb"): 50 minutes
MUSIC: Metallica -- classic (Ride the Lightning and Master of Puppets). None of that St. Anger crap.
I think I smell a nap on the air, kind of like smelling rain on the wind.... :-)
I am tired. But, then, I didn't go to bed early enough last night, I don't think.
(Note: My mother emailed me about the above sentence, and I proved the last part right: no, I don't think. Given I used a double negative.)
Here's to you, Mom: But, then, I didn't go to bed early enough last night, I think.
Is that better? Heehee.
If you're family and you're reading this, then you know I've started CrossFitting, as they say. I've spent the last year getting healthy again after being under the weather, apparently due to a clunker of a gall bladder. So far, it's been a year, and I've come down about 26.6 pounds (a caloric deficit of 93,100!) and I was shocked last Monday to discover a summer skirt I could comfortably wear last October was too big. I left early for Fred Meyer (those of you who aren't local, it's like Target-meets-Safeway, as there's a big grocery area, but also clothing, electronics, gardening and so on) and found I'd lost four sizes over the winter!
Not that the weather's been all that cooperative. It's cloudy, cold and about 50 degrees outside right now. But who am I kidding? It is only May 28. Way to early to expect some warm weather....It seems someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that it's not November anymore.
Anyway.
My grandmother kindly fronted me the money to pay for my first 20 CrossFit classes, and now that I have a doctor's letter saying that it's his opinion I need a gym membership for my general well-being, I can charge them to my medical flex card. But I'll need to leapfrog -- my own pocket, then the card, my own pocket -- and so on. I use the card for prescriptions, too. Then, next spring, when I re-up on the card, I can put more on. I opted for a lesser amount this year as I struggled to use up everything I'd budgeted to it (for those of you who don't know what a medical flex card is, it's this card where you can up to $3000 on it, and then you pay back the company over the course of the year, with money that comes out of your paycheck pre-tax).
Before I'd used it all up as I was going to acupuncture and the doctor more often because I was so under the weather (didn't know it was the gall bladder), and I just didn't use it all up this past year as I was healthier. I ended up buying four pairs of glasses and four pairs of really nice sunglasses (can I just say that Oakleys are the best ever?) So this year, I got less money put on the card, thinking I'd have the same trouble. I wasn't thinking in terms of CrossFitting yet.
But next year will be different. Besides -- I can take 2-3 classes a week, then just use their WOD (workout of the day, for you non-CFers) as a guideline for what I can do at the gym. Yesterday was my first official class, and I did lots better than I expected as it was easier than I anticipated (always nice to find out you're in better shape than you think), but I could also feel myself getting pushed when it came to the run and the row. An image of trying to move through Silly Puddy comes to mind.
I need it, though. I'd hit one hell of a plateau with my normal workouts, and I feel like I'm starting over in some ways. Or am brand new. I was a former "gym rat" until I kept getting sick all the time and wound up putting about 40 lbs back on over three years of the 60 I lost initially back in 2000-2001.
I'm definitely going to have to scale down what I can do (obviously), and there's some things I have to really learn how to do (handstand pushups for one; I have enough trouble with my balance on my own two feet sometimes :-) ). I also have a tendency towards fatigue. I always have. It just seems to be me; nutrition I'm told is fine, my sleeping habits are good...I just go through phases where I get really tired. Sometimes, in the early times of PMS it can be debilitating.
However, with the exercise I've been doing in recent months, it seems to be improving. I just also have a tendency to get all gung-ho and over-confident. I can confuse pushing myself to keep improving and over-pushing myself beyond what I can really do. It's not quite burnout...it just leads to fatigue.
The workouts:
My first workout was a week ago yesterday (May 20) where they put me through a "new athlete WOD", and I was pleased by how well I did, given I was exhausted due to a long, long week that was enormously busy (the busiest week in two years). The exhaustion was mental, emotional and physical (I'd also worked out harder a couple of days that week), and it was nice to see what I could do on a low day.
Yesterday was my first class.
I ran a mile in 9:02 out doors with hills (my running is usually done indoors on a treadmill), so that was pleasing.
I did 30 Clean and Jerk with 30 lbs total; I struggled a little towards the end, but I seriously felt like I could do more, especially since I upped the total number to 35 in my head so I didn't start cheating around 28-29.
2000m row in 10:44 (I had to rest for a minute or two at 1000m).
I got laughed at towards the end when I said, "Is that it?"
A classmate grinned and said, "You want more?"
I was both expecting a little more, but I was also making sure that I wasn't skedaddling out of there before it was done.
But better to be easier, rather than ending up like this the following day:
So today I'm going to attempt a scaled-back WOD from the Beaverton CrossFit site:
Theirs:
1600m Run
44 Burpees
1600m Run
44 Pull-ups
44 weighted lunges w/44 lb kettlebell
44 wall balls
Mine (planned)
1000m run (on a treadmill, using the hill program)
22 Burpees (squat-jump thingy, not gardening with Burpee seeds)
1000m run
22 assisted-weight pull-ups
22 weighted lunges with a 25lb disk weight (or a scrounged kettlebell, if I can)
22 thrusts, since I don't have wall balls there, either
I wish Bally had kettlebells I could use; maybe if I buy a few they'd let me store them there. They have some, but not for the general public's use...but maybe since I've been a longtime member there (10 years), I could borrow theirs.
I can tell, nutritionally, I'm breaking through a plateau as I feel hungrier again...I've also been doing Weight Watchers, and I think I may need to pull a bit more from my 49 freebie points than I have been. But it's also an adjustment, forcing my body to start using up its own stores.
I have to say I'm really excited about all of this! I'll post my results later. Right now, I'm going to go play some Borderlands.
