Oh, hello.

Oh, hello, it's been awhile - for a lot of things.

Life has been a little nuts...about three months of super strict eating that left me pretty mentally fatigued by the end of things. August 1-31 was a personal Whole30 and had me gritting my teeth through a lot of fun occasions, then early September kicked off the Body Change Composition Challenge at my gym, in which I gave up caffeine and kept the rest of my eating pretty clean (but jeez that was tough) and then Angel decided to do a Whole30 for the month of October, so it was the end of October before I really went off the rails. 

So, I've been pretty relaxed so far this month and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm still working thinking about food based on how it makes me feel physically, rather than emotionally (that is, disentangling myself from the idea that I've done something BAD or WRONG or that I'm inherently WEAK for eating something that's BAD or WRONG - see what I mean?) I have a feeling that it's going to take me awhile to really separate myself from years of disordered eating. I'm comfortable admitting that (and I'm fairly certain that I'm not alone here). I don't want to hold myself up to be a paradigm of "perfect" eating - what is that, anyway? I'm on a journey, just like everyone else. 

Things that I have been missing recently:
1) Training regularly. I've been kind of floating aimlessly here (yes, I'm aware that's ironic given my place of work, but working at a gym doesn't make me less given to laziness!) 
2) Cooking my own food / planning / packing meals
3) Salads. Say, what? 

Today was lovely. I slept really well - my house was freezing last night and we put an extra comforter on the bed. Woke up at 8:15 and made a cup of coffee. 

Did the Endurance workout at CFCC at 10am: 30 minute time trial on the erg, damper at 4. 

I rowed 6174m. 

Kept my stroke rate real low, between 19-23s/m for the majority of the time, just because I didn't want to die. As it was, the whole thing was a huge test of mental fortitude more than anything. I was SO BORED. I tried to treat it as meditation, but kept getting distracted by how bored I was. Tried to think about my to-do list, that didn't work. Tried to push the monitor out of my line of sight so I wouldn't focus on how slowly the clock was going down, but then I couldn't keep my stroke rate steady. Sigh. Next time, I want to do this with a movie playing. Or music and a fan, at least. Definitely want to aim for 7k - the best woman on the C2 forums (she's 21) pulled 7608 in 30 minutes. OY. 

Walked home from the gym, because it was nice out (3.5miles). Stopped for a coconut water and 8 ounces of roast beef, which I ate at the park. Then came home and was still starving, so I microwaved a huge sweet potato and ate it with 2 tbsp salted butter. Plopped on the couch for the majority of the afternoon, then ate some pizza and ice cream for dinner (first gluten-y pizza in a REALLY long time. I'm sleeping with one eye open tonight, maybe literally. It was really, really good though.) 

Row....Shh.

Snuck into the 6am for a partner row. Overslept though so didn't have coffee, didn't warm up, kill me now.

There were 3 of us so we did a 3K for time, switching off 500s. My splits were decent, not my best, but see above. Both were sub-2. Our total time was almost exactly 13 minutes, which is pretty awesome considering time spent switching out. Wanted to die after this was over, I hit a HUGE wall in the last 250. So, I need to do just a TEENSY bit more conditioning. Like a 4 minute something, once a week.

The first half of the first 500 was amazing. My split stayed at like, 1:34

YES!

Slaughtered a PR today!

Training @ 6am, coffee before.

Rear delts are feeling a little janky. Hit them a lot with the lax ball and the pain hook.

Strength/Power: Snatch Grip Deadlifts, Snatch Pulls @ 85% of max snatch or OHS

Jen and I worked at 80#. It felt super light but we both had issues. She leaned back, my arms bent, we are stupid at snatching. So we're working on it. We did deadlift/deadlift/snatch pull/snatch pull (all x 5)

Metcon: 1000m row time trial
3:57!!!!


Woooohooo! I told Sammy I was hoping to get 4 minutes flat, so I am REALLY pleased with it. I felt myself hit a giant wall at the 500m mark, so if I can work on getting over the hump with that I bet I could shave off a few more seconds. This was done fasted, so maybe having some carbs in me would help?

I am deliriously happy. And hungry. Hah.

Breakfast was leftover roast chicken, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and pureed pumpkin w/ ghee.

So sore today. Lower back, rear delts, front of shoulders, everything.

Forgot to eat breakfast but had 2x espresso.

Meal #1: salmon, butternut squash with ghee and cinnamon, guacamole

Meal #2: Chicken, curry, coconut sauce, lemongrass, broccoli. I feel a little sluggish though, feeling like there might have been sugar in that sauce. Oops.

*there was definitely sugar in there. I felt very sluggish and sleepy after eating it. Oh well, on to the next one.

Snack: 2 hardboiled eggs when I got home from work

Meal #3 (8:30ish): 6 ounces of chicken sauteed in ghee, salsa and avocado on top, bell peppers

Training:

Horrid.

1000m row

50 burpees

50 box jumps, 20"

800m run

50 box jumps

50 burpees

1000m row

30 minute time cap. I got through 10 of the 2nd set of burpees. I have never been so fatigued and destroyed. WTF. Everything felt horrible except the row. At least I was able to rep the box jumps.

Welp, this is another one to try at the end of the summer since it's all body weight stuff.

5/20/11

7:30ish at Erin Kelly's

Push Press - 3x5

53, 73, 93 easy sets of 5

Team WOD, stadium style (teams of 3)

20 cal row

30 burpees

30 KB swings (1pd)

30 situps

100 ft. walking lunge w/ 25# plate overhead

20 box jumps, 20" box

20 cal row

=18:37 for the team

-Row was awesome. Pulled HARD to get 1cal per pull. Burpees sucked but really tried to push through. KB swings straight through, situps 10-10-5-5, walking lunge was fine, box jumps were slow and steady. This was really fun!

Training Fail.

5/11/11
7pm-ish

Wasn't planning on going then thought I had time so performed some miracles to sneak into the 6:30 session late. In Elena's sneakers, Erin's shorts, and a CFCC tshirt because I hadn't brought any of my own.

Also, full disclosure and I TOTALLY regret this, but I ate a bunch of sweet potato fries at happy hour right before this. Didn't drink, thank God, but I immediately regretted having food in my system of any kind as soon as I got in the car.

Because....

2x500m rows, rest as needed between attempts.

1st attempt - 1.49.5
*PR! My last 500m was 1.52. This one, the footstraps were coming undone for the last 150 m so I didn't have anything to push off of. Thus, had a ton of gas left in the tank. THUS, could have smoked this even more. So that made me happy.

But then, I started getting horrible stomach cramps. Like, get me home NOW stomach cramps. So, there. We've all learned something today. Never eat before rowing. Evereverever. I went home. Didn't want to puke all over the C2, after all.

Another 500m attempt soon. Like, Friday.

5/10/11 6am
Not enough sleep. Not enough food yesterday.

Iced coffee.

Warmup: 3 rounds, 5 supinated pullup-LB/10sec handstand hold/15 wall squats

strength: Thruster, 1RM
45, 55, 65, 75 and called it. Right shoulder felt pinchy. Really not terribly concerned with having a spectacularly heavy thruster - the ROM is not good for my shoulder and if I need to, I will front squat and push press or jerk it. So.

JACKIE
1000m row
50 thrusters (45#)
30 pullups (LB)
=13:39

Meh. Gassed out entirely on the row. I almost PR'd it at 4:10ish - best ever is 4:01 in the middle of a 2k, 2nd best is 4:05 a couple weeks ago. Had to break up the thrusters way too much. Should have been like, 25 and 25. Bleh. Grip went on the pullups.

So, not thrilled. But looking forward to coming back to this one on a day following good food and good sleep.

Also, i say that too much. I just need to eat well and sleep well constantly and then I won't need to do these workouts on an empty tank. Hmph. Also other thing to focus on over the next couple weeks - pick the thing that I'm worst at and save my energy for that. In this case, going all out on the row was stupid. I'm good at rowing. I don't need to use up my energy on that.

Quote:

Saturday, 3/14/09

Visited CrossFit York

JACKIE
1000 m row
50 thrusters (used a 35# bar then scaled it halfway through to a 15# bar...haven't rowed in awhile and forgot how much it would shred my shoulders/legs)
30 pullups (assisted with green band)

14:49 total

FUN STUFF. The rower totally effed me up. I forgot how difficult 1000 meters is on that thing.

3/29/11 8pm-ish

Waited for half an hour for the next sectionals workout to be posted starting at 8pm. Waited, waited waited then decided to row a 1K with Erin for time. Totally unprofessional, HQ, kindly get your **** together.

1000m row = 4:05

This felt good. Low stroke rate but need to keep up the strength throughout. I thought this was pretty good but read that I hit 4:01 last summer, so eh. Need to work these into the plan more.

Um, I'm not thrilled at all about this but I'm logging it just to log it. So, I am unexpectedly REALLY sore from yesterday's WOD. Especially in the pecs and anterior everything, just from the pushups. So I hopped on the pullup bar just to do some kipping swings today, and when I came down suddenly something hurt sharply in the front of my shoulder where the anterior deltoid inserts. It didn't hurt when I was doing it, but when I came down I lifted my arm up and front from a neutral hanging position and felt this icky pain. Also, my whole shoulder felt really clicky when I rolled it around. I'm thinking I strained it a bit because it was so tight, and I was swinging with bodyweight too soon. The pain has subsided substantially since it happened. I don't know. I'm going to ice it and take it easy for the rest of the week. Irritating.

12/31/10 12pm @ 12th Street Gym

Shoulders are pretty sore and tight but felt better as I moved around.

5x5 tuck jumps for height (no way to measure, really, but these were fun and got my blood moving)

2K row
9:05

*Couldn't see my pace, I didn't set the display correctly.

*Breath was not the issue, muscular endurance was. This is both good (that I wasn't dying of lack of breathing) and bad (that my muscles want to stop after 1K).

*Damper was at 8 but it still felt like I wasn't getting much distance per stroke, like I wasn't getting enough resistance from the damper? The 12th Street rowers suck. Taping your feet to the rower is also a little claustrophobic. haha.

*Followed by max time side/front/side plank [15sec on left, hah, 1:30 front, 35? on right]. My arms and hands were burning really painfully. Blood rushing back? Lactic acid that I ignored then became aware of after I collapsed to the floor after?

*That's what I get for taking a month off and then doing this my 3rd day on. I don't know why I am annoyed by this more than anything else that has dropped after time away. Damn it all. NEVER AGAIN. Sub-8:00 row, you are my ***** in 2011.

For comparison:

Quote:

12/30/09 - 9:35
6/17/10 - 8:35

6/17/10 5:30pm @ Tribe

2K Row - 8:35

Last time I did this was on 12/30/2009 and got 9:35. Am pretty happy with a 1 minute PR. A few notes:
Focused on pulling slow and hard through my legs. Tried to keep my hands really loose so I wasn't pulling with my arms but I must have been near the end because my wrists were fatigued. Erin said my back was rounding, not sure if that happened just near the end or the whole time, no one said anything early on. I killed the first 1000m in 4:02 and was barely winded, honestly, but I hit the wall suddenly and it really started to suck at the 1000m mark. Also, the damper was wacked out. Flat on the ground for a good ten minutes after this. BCAAs before, oats&whey after. A few bites of Angel's chicken strips when I got home, nothing major.

6/18/10 6am @ CFCC
Single arm dumbbell press/push press, 3R peak set
Worked up to 30# press and 45# PP. Neither of which are maxes for me but I ran out of time. Alternated with recoiled medball throws and, oops, just remembered I never did perfect pullups. Haha.

Metcon: AMRAP in 12 minutes of 10 sec HS hold/8 ring row/12 single leg squats (6/leg)
1. Kicking up into a handstand sometimes irritates my adductor. I got mad when it did it today. Will walk up from now on I guess.
2. Had to leave and cut this short at 5 minutes so I only got 4 rounds.
3. Couldn't focus, kept thinking that I had to go to work. Ugh.

-Adductor report: I have been icing daily. Going for 5 times but haven't gotten consistent yet. I need to put a reminder on my phone or something. I've been using a frozen water bottle but can't quite hit the sore spot all the time, it's weird. so I keep the general area cold which is....comfy, lol....and hope for the best. Also been taking extra fish oil (4.5 grams/day) to bring down any inflammation. But this thing is not healing like I want it to and unless some miracle occurs I will be making a doctor's appt as soon as my health insurance kicks in to get this fixed once and for all.

Nancy WENT. It was not my day.

First of all, i was all set to go with my running and my OHSs after watching the 5:30 group basically kill it on all counts. But then I ended up being by myself at 6:30, which is no fun because I'm competing against myself, and myself is a lazy ***.

THEN it started to rain and lightning, and Greg and I were like, okay rain and lightning + giant metal bar overhead is probably a bad decision. So we lugged all the bars upstairs and I commenced to my sub: 500 meters rowing for each 400 meter run. KILL ME NOW.

So I did:

For time, 5 rounds
500 meter row
15 OHS, 45#

I made it through one round and started to get dizzy/blurry vision and numb hands after the OHS. Maybe I was holding my breath too long or something, but it was no good. Fought through the next couple rounds but my rests were SO long between OHS and rowing while I tried to make the spots in front of my eyes stop. Finally Greg told me we were capping it at 25 minutes.

4 rounds=24:40

Ugh. Oh well, as Greg said, it was still 25 minutes of hard work. My poor arms were sore from thrusters the other day, and I know they'll be crying tomorrow. At least I know that my showing HAS to be better next time right?

Moral of the story, I think rowing is way harder than running.