Purling Sprite

Crossfit Open: WOD 1

The CrossFit Open is going on right now. What is the CrossFit Open you ask? The Crossfit Open is the starting line to the 2012 Crossfit Games. The Open consists of 5 workouts, over 5 weeks. They start on February 22 – March 25. All athletes interested in participating have the option to perform each workout at a registered affiliate or even their own garage (you submit a videotape of your  performance to the Games website and others can judge you on your performance).

Now, the fun part about the Open is that it is for everyone! Even those who are just starting in their CrossFit journey. Yep, you read that right, EVERYONE!  Pin up CrossFit nailed it with the following statement "EVERYONE is able to participate in these weekly workouts. It’s an opportunity for you to gain an appreciation for your strengths, weaknesses and mental toughness."

After the Open, comes the second stage Regionals! Using the scores from the Open, the top 60 men and women in each region move on to this second stage of competition! Each Regional is  a 3-day competition.

After Regionals, obviously the creme de la creme move onto the Crossfit Games! The top 3 individual men and women and the top 3 teams at Regionals will head to California to compete in the 2012 Crossfit Games!

Every part of it sounds exciting and super scary at the same time and of course, I wanted to be a apart of it.

I know that I don't have the physical strength to push a lot of weight, at least not yet, but I still wanted to test my heart out in the Open, so without further ado. Here is my first Open WOD.

Total: 91

I did the workout out twice! Yes, I am a masochist! My first time, I crank out 83. It was alright but my legs were super tired from my previous day's workout. Second time: 91. I am happier with the second time around, so I am sticking to it.

The Open WODs are taking over my Benchmark days for the next five weeks, so if you don't see any Benchmarks for a bit, now you know the reason :).

50 Pull-ups
100 Push-ups
150 Squats
200 Sit-ups

Time 23:23

Tooth Fairy Duty

She has lost 2 teeth! Last week, she pulled one off and then this weekend, the second one! The second one was wiggly and we kept telling her that we were going to pull it off.  She wouldn't have it. She didn't want anyone in the house to pull it out. She wanted to do it herself. Then on Saturday, I saw her with a towel and an ice in front of the mirror. I told her to just keep moving it and numbing it with the ice. I went in to get a shower and by the time I was out, she was proudly smiling up at me, showing me that she had pull it out herself!

Tooth Fairy duty came that night and I won mother of the year award by forgetting. Sunday, she was in tears because the tooth fairy had completely forgotten to stop by and pick up her tooth. We made up a little story and thankfully, she believed it.

The amazing part is that we called Grandma in NY on Sunday to tell her that NyNy had lost another tooth. Grandma quickly responded by saying that the Tooth Fairy had stopped at her house the night before and looked for NyNy's tooth there and when he couldn't find it, he left the money and a note telling Mom and Dad to save the tooth. My wonderful Momma, although, I didn't tell her that I had forgotten, she saved my butt and my little darling was super happy that the tooth fairy had not forgotten about her.

I only have a few years left of this wonderful stage with my children and I am cherishing each and every moment. They are my life!

 

A Peek into my Box

A small peek into my box :)

Till I Collapse

There is something in this world that I love and sends me into fright mode immediately-TRIATHLON. It is challenging. I love it. It tries every ounce of will in me. Open water swims are frightful, it is like a bunch of sharks are out there ready to swim over ya, the bike portion is seriously the worst part for me, I shake during the entire time, just thinking that I will crash and bleed to death on the road, the run it is the easy part, unless I kill my legs during the bike portion. BUT there is still nothing else that I love more. It is raw. It is pure mental power. The will to survive. The will to get to the end and cross that finish line, even if its just with your fingertips. Triathlon--pure love of testing your body.

This video portrays it and pumps me up! I want to do a full Ironman but before I must conquer a half one. I did do a half one before but I didn't conquer it, it conquered me and that is not the way things should be, not in my book!

Jack

Benchmark day is here! It was a busy Friday. I spent it on the phone and at the computer working most of the time. Then, I had planned all day to go to the 4:15 class time and 15minutes before 4pm, my phone reminded me that I had Parent Teacher conferences, crappers! My entire workout was out the window and I got crabby right away. I don't like missing my workouts and if I didn't go at 4:15pm, it meant I couldn't go at all as I had to teach class at 5:30pm.

After parent teacher conferences, I hurried and changed and showed up at the box, crossing fingers that I could be squished in and be able to do the workout.  Awesome coach Josh, started a clock just for my hubby and me, so that I could get my workout done before heading to work.Thank you Coach!

Jack was on the menu--it consists of a main course of push and presses, with a side of kettlebell swings and for desert-box jumps! 

I am terrifed of box jumps, have been from the moment I went into the box and saw them. They intimidate me and make me double guess myself all the time. I have fallen from them and had a nice black and purple bruise on my quad from them and I have had a more misses than I can count. It is my achilles tendon in the box. Whenever there are box jumps, I know for sure that I am going to be dead last. I fear falling. I fear hitting my shins and being out of running for a few weeks, especially right now that season has started. My coach as suggested, I go down in box height while my running season is going, but I am stubborn and I want to keep trying to get better at them. I will probably go down in the middle of the season when my legs are super tired. Speaking of box jumps, I found this great article about box jumps and its benefits/cons.

Jack calls for Push & Presses of 75 lbs. I can't do that. I can lift 75 lbs as my max but doing it more than 4 times would send my right shoulder into the ER. Therefore, scaled down for me until my shoulder can get stronger. I lifted a 55 lb bar. It is low, probably the lowest in the box but it is all my shoulder can handle without me screaming for my Mom. Kettle bell swings were easy this time around, 35 lbs. On my first round, I grabbed that kettle bell and it literally felt super light. Perhaps, it is time to go up to a 38 and get a little stronger. Box jumps, well you already read about my nemesis. She is a 20 inch B!*%# who makes me double guess my abilities each and every time.

My stats for today's benchmark: no RX for me this time around. Gotta get stronger to be able to lift that 75# bar more than a couple of times.  I was joking with hubby that I could have probably RXed but would have probably completed 1 rep during the whole 20 minutes.

Body Stats

Last year, I had a chance to use this little gadget at the gym that tells me body mass index and body fat percentage. It was neat to have that done and find out more details about my body.

Today, I had the same chance and I ran with it. I entered all my details and I got the following stats:

BMI=20.5
Body fat percentage=18%

Last year, my body fat percentage was 2 points higher and I weighed the same exact weight I am now. Yes! Progress!

Caring

Benchmark Day: Karen

RX

I have come to love Friday's, not only because it is the end of the work week, but also because it is the day when we do our benchmarks at crossfit. I love to keep track of my workouts just to see if I have improved and benchmarks allow me to just that. I can look back and see my progress.

I have been wanting to time myself throwing the 14lb ball up to the line for just 100 times, well, today, I got the chance to do that, except 150 times! I have had a cold for a few days and being under the weather is good thing at all but I still went in there hoping to do my best under the circumstances. I prepared myself this morning by drinking my green smoothie :). I know, I am a dork but it does make me feel better when I drink it. It somehow makes me feel healthier, stronger, cleaner.

Gave it a good effort and only took breaks after the first 35 or so then I took a break every 10 or if I dropped the ball, I would take a mini break. My time for 100 was 5:10 and I was stoked! :) My final time, 7:57!!!

Yes, I kind of slid down the 8 minute mark and I am so proud of myself. It is my first time doing Karen and now I have a benchmark to beat. I am so stoked about it, I want to go back again this afternoon with my hubby and do it again, but I shouldn't. My arms are tired from this week's workouts and I should rest up and get rid of this cold.

The peeps from WOD Love send me this awesome tank top this week for entering a contest on their FB page. It is my new favorite!!! Of course, I just had to wear it to benchmark day :) and I jumped up on the bar to snap a few pictures with my phone. Thank you at WOD Love. I truly love my tank top :). I am also sporting my new sockies from SockittoMe.com, love the fact that they have an actual heel, hate tube socks! I would just like to see them in smaller size. I am a size 6 and the heel to toe length is a little bit too big for me but still the socks are amazing!

 

And in other crossfit progress: I can now do 3 chin ups unassisted! For two weeks now, I have been testing the arms to see if I could pull myself up and for two weeks, I have been able to do pull myself up 3 times, full extension on the way down and then all the way up. Next--see if I can do 4 :)

 

Tabata Something Else

Tabata Something Else

RX--So freaking proud of this one. It was difficult and it truly took everything in me to stay focus, especially in the push ups (thanks to Hubby for pushing me through it all)

20 seconds of work 10 seconds of rest
8 Rounds of each movement

• Pull-ups
• Push-ups
• Sit-ups
• Squats

Add all the reps for total score.

My total: 411

Kipping pull ups killed me this time around. My arms are tired from swimming this week and I felt it on the pull ups. I knew that if I could get thru the pull ups, the rest would be easier. Then half-way through the pull ups, I hit my bottom teeth on the bar-ouch!

Push ups were easy at first but as I kept going my arms were on fire! I was trying to stay as close to hubby as I could but he is a machine when it comes to push ups.

Sit ups were ok. Again, tried to keep up with hubby but he was just a tad faster. I averaged about 12 in most of the reps.

My strongest part was the squats. I was cranking out 20+ in 20 seconds with a max of 24 in one of them. It was my saving grace in this WOD and the only part were I could make up some reps.