Stronger

On Friday, we did a workout that we had done in September, a hero WOD called Jack.

Complete as many rounds as possible in 20 minutes of:

115 pound Push press, 10 reps

10 KB Swings, 1.5 pood

10 Box jumps, 24 inch box

Once I looked it up again, I remembered it. It doesn't look like much, but it is. When we did it in September, I did 55# Push Press, 1 pood KB, and 20" box. I had to switch to 45# after 4 rounds because 55# was just too heavy. I got 8 rounds total.

When I came in on Friday, my goal was to do the same weight, stay at 55#, and get more rounds. I commented to a friend that I didn't feel that strong and that I wasn't sure if I could stay at 55. Well, I did. And I did 9 rounds. I am stronger.

It's hard to see improvements day-to-day, especially when you go as much as I do. But it really does happen. Crossfit gets harder because you make it harder, and by doing that, you get stronger. It's nice how that happens.

And I did 6 pull-ups in a row the other day. Real ones. Very real ones.

Stick to the Plan

I've started a new blog: http://sticktotheplan.wordpress.com/. This is a place where we can share recipes, goals, and tips for eating right. It's also a place to support each other as we try to do the right thing when it comes to eating. I can show up and do the work at the gym 5 days a week, but my eating is crap and I know it. Support is crucial when you're trying to make real changes.

Getting Fit for the New Year

I don't have to worry about that. I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. Thanks Crossfit!

The Next Round of Goals

When I started Crossfit, I wrote down a few goals that I've managed to reach this year. One was running a 10K - I actually ran a Half-Marathon. I'm going to run another this year (http://www.eugenemarathon.com/) so I can get a better time. Do I like running? No. Do I see it as a challenge? Definitely! My half-marathon was physically the most difficult thing I've ever done, but I know I can do better.


I also got my first RX pull-up this year. I tried doing my first WOD with RX pull-ups - Baseline - but that didn't go so well. But that's the thing with Crossfit; it will come up again and I'll do better. There's always another opportunity for improvement.


So here are my new sets of goals. They shouldn't coincide with new year's resolutions - it's just taken me a while to get these down. I'll totally achieve these by June.

Finish Half-Marathon in under 2:20

RX Fran

Do a handstand push-up

Go Paleo for a full month - no cheating

RX Cindy

RX Fight Gone Bad

I may not get the best times, but whatever I get is better than before. I can't stress enough how I was never an athlete before any of this and I still have a hard time calling myself that. But if I can reach these goals, I'll feel a little better about it.

The Cheering Section

On Wednesday, I was lucky enough to do the Filthy Fifty. This is a workout that's truly .... filthy. It goes a little something like this:

For time:

50 Box jump, 24/20 inch box

50 Jumping pull-ups

50 Kettlebell swings, 1/ 3/4 pood

Walking Lunge, 50 steps

50 Knees to elbows

50 Push press, 45/35 pounds

50 Back extensions

50 Wall ball shots, 20/14 pound ball

50 Burpees

50 Double unders

The second numbers are the women's RX. But someone in the morning decided that the womens' RX kettlebell should be 1 pood, so that's what I did. We'll get back to that.
Anyway, I've done the Filthy Fifty twice before. The first time, I did the scaled version, "The Dirty Thirty," which was brutal enough. The second time, this summer, I did all 50 reps of everything, but I scaled it to my level (I think I stepped up on some of the box jumps and used a 10# wall ball). This time, my goal was to RX it, ideally in under 30 minutes. This was the intention anyway.
The box jumps were fine. The jumping pull-ups were fine. When I got to the kettlebells, I was still upset that I had to use 1 pood, which was the same weight much stronger men were using. I usually use 1 pood during a workout, but we usually don't have to do 50 in a row. And I knew, I knew, that the RX for women was 3/4 pood. Whatev. Enough complaining. I'll let it go now.
Lunges will suck any day, but the most deceptive move came next - knees to elbows. Since I've done this workout before, I know that this is the hardest move. You basically hang from a bar and swing your knees up to your elbows - 50 times. It's a core workout, but it kills the grip on your hands and it doesn't feel great on the shoulders, which were already smoked from the KB swings. I could only do 4 at a time, so I made an executive decision. It's my workout, my conscious, so I modified them. I did them on the floor. Doing it this way meant I wouldn't put an RX next to my name, but it wouldn't take me an hour. It still hurt and it still took a while. Damn those knees to elbows.
Because I'm so weak, the push press also sucked. The back extensions are like a mini-vacation. You know how I feel about wall balls. I threw one 14# in the air and decided to use the 10#. I had already scaled it, so I didn't care at this point. I just wanted to finish. Then came the worst part of the WOD. There were only a few of us left when I started the burpees and the next class had started to trickle in. After a couple minutes, I was the last person doing burpees.
One of the great things about Crossfit is that you have a community of people cheering you on. I often appreciate it. It really helps me through some tough workouts. Sometimes, it works against me. When people started cheering me on during the Filthy Fifty, I still had 40 burpees to go. I know how long it takes me to do 40 burpees and I really didn't want a bunch of people standing around yelling at me for 5 minutes. I was also getting upset because I kept losing count. I didn't want to do anymore burpees than I had to. So I made it clear that I did not want encouragement during the WOD; I just wanted to finish on my own. So that's what I did.
I feel bad when I yell at people who have good intentions, but I know how I can get through these workouts. Often times, I yell at people when I'm trying to finish my pull-ups. I know how fast I can do pull-ups. Cheering won't help when my shoulders give out. But I still appreciate the cheering most of the time and I'm happy to cheer on my friends. But if I get that look, I know to shut it and cheer in my head.

This Will All be Over in Five Minutes

That's usually what's going through my head during a workout. If we're doing something I really don't like, something like wall balls, I just try to think, "This will all be over in 5/10/15 minutes." That usually helps me get through it.


I watched The Amazing Race tonight (anyone want to sign up with me?), and they had to hang from this tall bridge or platform or something - something involving heights that scared the crap out of some of them. They didn't really have time to be scared since this was the final episode and there was a million dollars in sight, so they just did it. I think if I were in that situation and my challenge was really scary, like something in the water, I'd tell myself that it will all be over in an hour and I won't have to do it again.


Wall balls can be scary, too, especially when they hit you in the face.

Random Thoughts

• Pull-ups are hard.
• Finally got new shoes - Nike Frees. Now I'll RX everything!
• I can usually tune out the terrible music played at Crossfit, but when an awful cover band does Depeche Mode, I have to say something, even if it's in the middle of a WOD.
• Are there any Depeche Mode songs that would be good for Crossfit? I tried to figure that out last night. I'm still not convinced, but if there were they would come off either Ultra or Songs of Faith and Devotion. (I'm pretty sure David Gahan wasn't in a good place when they made those albums.)
• TV has been abysmal since LOST ended.
• Sometimes I watch The Biggest Loser. I know, I can watch commercials anytime, but I still tune into this show anyway. I guess now when they get down to the final four they have them run a Biggest Loser marathon. I'm not sure this is sending the right message. These people were like 400 pounds 4 months ago. I just don't think a marathon is a realistic goal for someone who is 400 pounds right now (sitting on their couch) and wants to do this in 6 months. Sure, it's an accomplishment, but a marathon is really, really hard*.
• So are pull-ups.
• I'm pretty sure Crossfit is a front for the Fish Oil industry.

*I'm going to sign up for the Eugene Half Marathon in May. I can get a much better time the second time around, especially with my new kicks!

Murph

Most Crossfit workouts take 10-25 minutes. You work really, really hard for a short amount of time and then you're done. What gets me through most workouts is knowing that it will be over soon. So why is my favorite Crossfit workout the one that can take almost an hour?

Murph is a hero workout named after "Navy Lieutenant Michael Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., who was killed in Afghanistan June 28th, 2005. This workout was one of Mike's favorites and he'd named it "Body Armor". From here on it will be referred to as "Murph" in honor of the focused warrior and great American who wanted nothing more in life than to serve this great country and the beautiful people who make it what it is." (Crossfit.com)

Murph:

Run 1 mile

100 pull-ups

200 push-ups

300 squats

Run 1 mile

You can do the pull-ups, push-ups, and squats in any order you want, but you have to do the mile run first and last. To truly RX it, you should wear a 20 pound weight vest.

We did this WOD back in April. It looks pretty impossible when you read it, but you can do it. It's a workout where you have a lot of time to think. You're out there running on your own, then you get back in the box and you have to think about how you can best get all these reps done, and while you do that you think about how much your quads burn and the push-ups hurt, and then you have to go run again. In April, I did the workout with a blue band for pull-ups and knee push-ups. I finished in 50 minutes. That's a long time to be working hard, but I finished. 

I knew this was coming up again this week.I got really excited because it's such a challenge. I was hoping I could do it with real push-ups this time, but I'm just not there yet. 200 is a lot of push-ups to do. I also wanted to use a red band for pull-ups. My pull-ups are getting better and I'm so close to RXing them during a WOD. But not this one. I had a tan band on hand just in case I couldn't handle the red, but I really, really wanted to stick with the red. I was also thinking of trying 10 rounds of 10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups, and 30 squats. This changed at the last minute. 

Wednesday was a very cold night. I was in a 5:30pm class with 6 other women. We were all at different levels. We had to bundle up for the first run, since we weren't quite warm yet. When I got back inside, I decided to do 20 sets of 5-10-15. Although it would take more time to get in and out of the pull-up band, I wasn't too confident with my push-ups. For Murph, you just keep on going. I ran the first mile in 9 minutes and left for my last mile around 34 minutes. That's 25 minutes of pull-ups, push-ups, and squats. That's a lot of time to think about those moves and why you're doing them. But I kept marking my rounds and they kept piling up. After round 13, I decided to try a longer round. That worked that time, but it wasn't going to work the rest of the time. I must work on my push-ups. Also, I didn't stretch out enough beforehand and my quads started burning after a few squats. But I kept on going.

That last run was one of the hardest runs of my life. It had gotten colder and I had been working hard for 35 minutes. My lungs felt like they couldn't handle the work. I was short of breath, but I had to keep going. My body wanted to walk,  but my mind wanted to finish. As I rounded the corner after 800 meters, I looked at the clock and saw that I was still under 40 minutes. I could do this. I could make my goal of 45 minutes. I wanted to walk so badly, my breathing was so strained, but I kept running. It helped to run past the other women who were finishing, knowing that we were all trying to get this thing done and finish. I came in at 44:31. I beat my previous time by 6 minutes using a lighter band. I could hardly breathe at first, but I finished.

Murph is a marathon WOD. You have to battle with yourself to finish. This is what I love about Crossfit. In our regular lives, we make decisions every day and choose our battles. In Crossfit, someone else chooses our battles, but we have to decide how to get them done. It's physical and mental. Finishing is all that matters.

The Perfect Food

The most perfect food in the world is a sweet potato. Whoever first dug these up out of the ground has a special place in my heart. I'm not even sure of the difference between a sweet potato and a yam, but if it's orange in the middle, I'll eat it. You could do so much with them, but the great thing about them is that you don't have to. You could simply throw it in the oven for an hour, open it up, sprinkle cinnamon on it, and eat it. Even I can do that (and I do)! ?They're even great after a long, hard workout. They'll replenish some of that energy you spent. They're bursting with vitamins!


No matter where I am, I make my mom's sweet potato recipe for Thanksgiving. Unless I'm with my mom, of course. Then she'll take care of it. It seems like wherever I go and I show up with my sweet potatoes, someone asks if I put marshmallows on them. Blasphemy! Why would I do that to a perfectly good food? A sweet potato is perfect as is, but can be so much sweeter with just a few little tweaks. 


So against my better judgment, I'm going to share my mom's sweet potato recipe. Please don't steal it, awful cooking website. This is sacred stuff here.


Mom's Best Ever Sweet Potato Crisp
2 18 oz. cans sweet potatoes, drained & sliced 3/8 inch thick. OR 4 sweet potatoes cooked and sliced
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup flour*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/4 cup finely chopped nuts


Place potatoes in a greased, shallow baking dish. Cover and bake at 350 about 15 minutes. Mix butter, flour, & brown sugar. Add cream & nuts. Mix well. Remove cover from potatoes. Spread mixture over sliced potatoes and broil 5 inches from the heat source for 5-7 minutes or until bubbly. It's best if some of it burns just a little.


*Since I'm generally gluten-free, I didn't have regular flour yesterday, so I used sorghum flour. It tasted fine but the consistency was weird. Just stick to the basics if you can.

The Key to Decreasing Pants Sizes

Some people start working out because they want to lose weight. I started working out, and continue to work out, because I wanted smaller pants sizes. I wasn't ready to move into the double-digit category (I know, a 10 is fine, but not for my body), so I did something about it. Now I'm a 4 (depending on the pants). This is probably where I should be, so I'm going to stick with it for a while. How did I get here?

A kettlebell. This is even the weight I use - 35 pounds - or 1 pood if you like Russians. We swing them overhead. It's a good time. Before I started Crossfit, I used to play around with some kettlebells at home. They were only about 10 pounds. That seems like such a long time ago. Anyway, I'm sure there were a lot of factors that led to size 4 jeans, but I think kettlebells play a big part of it.


A successful kettlebell swing needs strong hips. If you're letting your arms do all the work, they're going to get tired pretty quick. If you're doing a workout like Helen, which we did yesterday, that calls for 63 total kettlebell swings, your arms are going to give out if you don't use your hips. I felt like my arms were going numb during Helen yesterday (running in the cold rain was also involved), but I managed to get those three sets of kettlebell swings unbroken. I used my hips! (On a side note, I almost got my pull-ups unbroken too. Almost) I found a great video last week that shows the proper hip thrust for kettlebells.





That's a lot of work for your hips. And the more the hips get some good work, the smaller they get. I'm convinced of this.


And here are some kettlebells in action at Eugene Crossfit. I'm totally in control of that swing.

My Testimonials

I was asked to submit a testimonial for the Grand Opening of our new box this weekend. No problem! Pictures? Ugh. Before Crossfit, I was really hating how I looked in pictures. But I don't look that way anymore, so I submitted 2:

This was me after we first moved out here. Not awful, just wider.

This was me just before I started Crossfit. I wasn't crazy about the hair either.

I never joined a gym until I was 27. Besides the occasional step class, I would usually zone out on the elliptical for a half hour and call it good. I consistently gained weight throughout my late 20s. I started hating how I looked in pictures. I read so many fitness magazines and I knew what I had to do, but I didn't have the drive to do it. I knew I could get my body smokin' if I just made the commitment. My fiancee introduced me to Crossfit in July 2009. The first day, I had to hold a sandbag over my head and flip tires (not at the same time). I felt really slow compared to everyone else. But it was something I had never done before and I wanted to do more. My body changed instantly. I lost 7 pounds in the first 2 and a half weeks. I started going 3-4 times a week. I started chatting with the other people. From the beginning, the community has brought me back. Everyone cheers for each other and encourages each other to do better. Crossfit not only helped me physically, but it helped me emotionally. Winters can be tough here, but I show up to Crossfit knowing I'll do something that will challenge me and I'll see people that I like to see. I've never been a runner, but I recently finished a half-marathon. That felt pretty amazing, and I could finish it because of Crossfit. I've lost about 15 pounds so far and I've had to get rid of a lot of pants that don't fit anymore. I'm not an athlete, but I play one when I come to Crossfit.

This is me in August, running the Scandia 10K Run.

I post my workouts on Beyond the Whiteboard, which tracks numbers. I even found a testimonial button on there!

My name is Robin. I have been CrossFitting for over 1 year. I usually workout around 3.0 times per week. I have posted 243 workouts and set 39 personal records. Along the way I have run 180,344 meters and lifted 38,408 pounds. I have also done 1,591 push-ups, 1,126 pull-ups, and 2,647 sit-ups.

So these are my stories. I'm sticking to them.

Power Hour

Last Thursday I had to grade papers. This was the most important thing I had to do on Thursday. When I have to do something, it's much easier to do other things I don't like, such as housework. But I thought of something ingenious. I set the timer on the over for one hour. I sat down and graded - I didn't look at the clock the whole time. When that hour was done, I saw that I got a lot done and I was pretty happy with myself. I called up my friend who was coming over for lunch and told her to come over in about an hour. Then I cleaned up the place - for an hour. Wow! What a concept - finishing a task in an allotted time! 


But this is so normal to me! Crossfit takes one hour (aside from travel and getting dress and showering - OK, Crossfit takes a couple hours). Generally we get there, warm up for a while, work on skills, and do the workout. Sometimes the workout is shorter and so we take more time warming up. Sometimes the workout is long (like I know today's will be) and we don't have a lot of time for skills or warm up. But it takes an hour. This hour is so important to me. I don't do anything else. I'm not grading or cleaning or watching Mad Men - I'm spending that hour becoming even more awesome. Really, what else would I be doing?

The Real Crossfit

This month, Eugene Crossfit is doing the WODs from the main Crossfit site. Usually our coach will do the programming for the workouts, and he does a good job, but with anything in life, sometimes change is good. The main site WODs can get pretty intense. Of course, everything is scaled to your ability, but it's still a killer workout. This is what we did:


Monday - Heavy thrusters and weighted pull-ups 15-12-9. This is also known as heavy Fran. We had done Fran the Thursday before and I was still sore. But I knew what I was getting into and I did the work. The greatest part of this workout was that I did 3 real pull-ups in the first set. I had only done one pull-up at a time before, and never during a workout, so this was big for me. After more pull-ups with a band and more heavy thrusters, I couldn't do anymore real pull-ups. But those three were a huge victory for me. I'm totally getting somewhere.


Tuesday - 5 rounds of 7 inverted ring hangs and 15 ring push-ups. This was a different kind of Crossfit workout. The inverted ring work was supposed to be done really slow. Basically, you grab a hold of some rings that are just about your height. You bend your knees so your arms are straight, and you swing yourself up, tucking your legs in, until you're upside down. Then you straighten your legs so you're completely upside down and slowly lower your legs to the ground. This is intense. Despite my lack of gymnastic ability, I'm actually able to get myself up on those rings. It was quite difficult to slowly go down, so the scaled back version involved lying on the ground, swinging your legs up and over, and slowly lowering them. This was hard enough. The ring push-ups were difficult, so I did them on my knees. The WOD wasn't timed and I was actually able to sing along to Lady Gaga during the WOD. My abs hurt afterwards. My work was done.


Wednesday - Kelly. Seriously? I have issues with Kelly. We did this in June during Benchmark week. I nearly had a breakdown. Kelly is

5 rounds for time:

400m run

30 box jumps

30 wall balls

It doesn't seem bad just by looking at it, but this WOD is brutal. And when I came in on Wednesday, I knew how hard it was. I let it get to me. When I did this in June, I only completed 4 rounds and I think the last 3 were only 20 reps. I stopped after 25 minutes and felt awful. Throughout the WOD on Wednesday, I knew I wouldn't finish it. We had a 35 minute cap. I was moving slow. There was no way. By the end of the 4th round, I knew I had time for at least the run and maybe some box jumps. There was still time. So I picked up the wall ball, which I didn't want to do. Emilee was next to me, feeling the pain, and to my surprise, I finished the WOD in just over 36 minutes. Sure, I could have stopped at 35 minutes and not finished the last 15 wall balls. 


So those were my three days of solid Crossfit WODs. We're going to keep doing them, which is awesome. They're really challenging and very rewarding.


How can I do better? My eating has been .... I can't even say. I've been eating so much sugar lately. There's no excuse except stress. I've made some major changes in my life. Once it starts settling down, I want to commit. I should say that I will commit now. I know I'll do better. If I can do these main site WODs, I can cut out the sugar. It will certainly make the workouts more tolerable. Except wall balls. Wall balls are never tolerable.

My Butt

I stole this picture from another great blog - RX Girls Miami. We see ladies of all shapes and sizes at Crossfit, and they all work their asses off (ha!). A lot of women come into Crossfit expecting to lose weight and that's it. They soon realize it's so much more than that. They can run faster. They can lift more weight. They can do things they didn't think they can do. And they keep coming back. It's pretty great.

My Hips Don't Lie

This is me finishing the Eugene Women's Half Marathon this morning:

You can't see the finish line, but I crossed it about 20 seconds later. And I was running. I can't say that I was running for much of the last half of the race. I actually felt good up until mile 6. Then it went downhill fast. These are the lessons I've learned:


*Listen to your body. My knee has been bothering me all summer. Stupid knee. It didn't hurt, but it felt uncomfortable and other people could tell that I was favoring my other leg when I was running. If there's something wrong with your knee, there's going to be something wrong with your whole leg in general. I really should have taken care of my knee when it started feeling weird, not just when it was close to go-time. I tend to think things will be fine, even when they're not, but as I've said before, I avoided running for the first 29 years of my life. Then I gave it up for a while again. It really wasn't until this year that I decided to get better. I'm learning.


OK, that was really the only lesson learned. Around mile 6, I started to feel like my hips were completely displaced from my body. It's not a great feeling (and I feel so dumb saying this, as I've never given birth). But I knew I had to finish the race. At mile 7, I started walking a little. Then I realized that running felt better than walking. But when I started running again, I don't know, it just didn't feel right. No matter how many times I played Ke$ha on repeat, I couldn't talk myself into running more. It was really frustrating - and lonely. In those first 8 miles, there were people all over the place cheering us on. Then - no one. I was just watching people pass me. I'd run a little, then walk more. I finished running. I wanted to run the entire last mile, but it just wasn't in me. Every time I ran, everything felt more and more disjointed. Maybe I just need to get used to feeling more uncomfortable. Anyway, I looked at my Garmin and I knew the end was near. I ran the last quarter mile. It was pretty cool finishing, but it was tough. I wanted to quit a million times during that race. But I didn't. I kept going and I finished.


I'm not a runner. I don't even like running. But a year ago, this half marathon would have been out of the question. Now I know that if I get an idea that seems near-impossible, I can do it. It might be uncomfortable. It might hurt. It might not turn out the way I want it to. But I will have supportive people cheering me on and I will finish. Sometimes that's enough.


But I can tell you for sure that 26.2 miles isn't anywhere in my near future.