A small peek into my box :)
February 19, 2012
February 18, 2012
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.
February 10, 2012
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 :)
January 27, 2012
January 23, 2012
Goals Achieved
As you guys remember, I have been attending CrossFit classes and a lot of the movements in there are mostly technique. Once you have the technique down, it becomes a little bit less painful/grueling to do the workouts.
Being new to a box is filled with new challenges: box jumps, kettlebell swings, kipping pull ups, double unders, ring dips, handstand push ups, the list goes on and on. The first thing I wanted to learn was kipping pull ups. It was amazing to see the gals in the box just wiping them out and me not even being able to swing the proper way.
At the end of November , I decided that enough was enough and that I was going to learn to kip. I would stay after the workout and learn to swing on the bar, head through kick legs back, legs forward head back. Gosh, it was grueling not being able to get the rhythm down and once you had it down to keep it going. I worked on it for about 2 weeks continuously, then one day, up and over the bar my chin went. I had done it! I had completed one kipping pull up. It was the BEST feeling ever! I continued practicing on the following days, then one of my coaches saw me and told me that from that moment on, I would only do kipping pull ups for all my workouts, even if it took me an hour to complete it. A few days later, on Dec. 5th I completed and Rx-ed my very first workout with kipping pull ups (17 of them). My hands were tired and I had torn them up but my heart was swelling with pride. Since then, I have completed many workouts that include kipping pull ups and although I can only string about 4-5 in a row, I have completed over 120 in a single workout! Yay me!
Once kipping pull ups were conquered, next the bigger more painful beast came. Double Unders. Double Unders--jump rope and make the rope go twice under your feet with one single jump. It may sound easy to a lot of you, including my 9 year old son, who can do about 100 with no trouble at all. But for me, just doing singles was a feat in itself. When I started crossfit, I was one of those jumpers who would need to jump twice to make the rope go once under her feet. I never played with a jump rope as a kid so this was all new territory for me.
I didn't care if I could only do 1 and then a bunch of singles in between. I worked and worked and after thousands of lashings around my legs, forearms and fingers, I conquered! I am now able to do a few double unders with singles in between. They are not consecutive double unders but I'll take it and keep working on them. It is one of my greatest achievements in crossfit. Yes, I am not smooth and I probably look like a chicken flappin' my wings but it is awesome to be able to Rx a workout when it has doubles.
Next on the agenda, handstand push ups....this one is going to take me at least two months to master. I don't like the feeling of being on my head, having my feet higher than my head. The blood rushes to my head and I hate the feeling. Not to mention, I can't even do a handstand, hahaha!
