Snow in Utah

It is nice to be visiting Jo in Provo. Jackson has been a bit cranky but that's understandable since his molars are coming in. We checked out BYU and she showed me where she spent a lot of time while in law school. Jackson and I played in the grass and are becoming buddies. But it is cold out here. It was 22 degrees when we were leaving this morning to go snowmobiling. That is cold! You forget that it is still winter and cold in other places when you live in San Diego!

I am really trying to stick with working out and eating well. So far so good. I had some ice cream tonight and it was good. I can't remember the last time I had ice cream.

2/27/09: Went to Crossfit Utah Valley. It was a cool gym. Tucked away in some industrial buildings but had everything that you needed to get in a good workout.

3 rounds: 25 knees to elbows, 25 wall ball (16# @ 8ft), 25 KB swings (35#) Time 13:07. There were some good athletes there at the gym and they really pushed the time fast. That was fun. The KTE sucked but the wall balls I was able to go straight through and the KB swings I broke up 15 - 10 except for the last round when I went a straight 25 to try to catch the girl next to me. She beat me with a time of 13:03. So close.

2/28/09: Went snowmobiling. Had a ton of fun and was a pretty good upper body workout pulling the sled around.

I did get a workout in at the gym in the garage and it was a good one. I did:

5 rounds: 20 (10 each leg) overhead lunges (8# dumbbell in each arm), 21 burpees Time: no clue

This was a lot harder then I though. But when I started to think about it that's over 100 burpees. I don't care what else you are doing in a workout 100 burpees is sucky enough!

In UTAH!

Monday: Deadlifts 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3
I like strength days and it is nice to come to the gym on a Monday and do a strength day. I recently did a 3rep max deadlift session while I was at Crossfit Phoenix but that was just a 3 x 3. So this was a few more reps but I wanted to get a new pr. I went 199 - 204 - 209 - 214 - 219(1). So that is a 3lb increase from when I did it at CF Phoenix. That made me happy. I might have been able to get 219 but I could feel that I could not keep the arch or at least a flat back and it's just not worth it to hurt myself. So next time I know to shot for 219.

Tuesday: 100 thrusters and at the top of the minute 3 burpees, 3 knees to elbow.
This sucked. I mean really. The logic was to try to get in 5 thrusters each minute after you were done with the burpees and knees to elbow. Yeah right. After I completed the burpees and KTE I only had about 30 seconds to do thrusters. So if I could get 3 or 4 I was happy. Time: 27:42.

Wednesday: shoulder press 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 push jerk 5 - 5 - 5 - 5 - 5
I had my numbers from the last time that we did this in November so I had a place to start and a weight to shoot for.
Here are my new numbers:
SP 66 - 76 - 81 - 86 - 91(f)
PJ 86 - 91 - 96 - 106 - 116(3)

So since I last did this we didn't have the whole 36# bar issue. So taking that into consideration it's a 10# PR for me on the shoulder press. That's a cool thing to see that my shoulders and arms are getting stronger.

As for the push jerk. Same thing a 10# PR for the 5 rep. I was able to get 116 three times but every time that fourth one got me. I would be able to get it to about head level but did not want to drop lower to get it up. I wish I would have tired to do the heavy weight without split jerking because I think I might have gotten lower because I am more comfortable in the squat then I am the split jerk. Maybe next time. But overall I am happy to see my numbers.

So I am in Provo Utah right now visiting my best friend from high school. Plan on having a ton of fun with Jo, Corey and their 1 year old Jackson. I will post pictures of the kid cause he is cute! Plus I am going to go to Crossfit Utah Valley to get a workout in.

Good Stuff!

Back to San Diego

Back to my gym! It's always nice to come back to the gym and see all of my friends. After a great trip to Phoenix it was nice to come home. The hotel was nice and it was good to get out of town but nothing beats your own bed. While I was in Phoenix I was looking through my pictures the other day and came across one of the farm that I used to spend a lot of time at when I lived in Corvallis. I really miss this place, the amazing people here and the memories I have. Got a little sentimental.

Monday was holiday so I went to the 9am class because Mel and I wanted to go and see Slumdog Millionaire. The 9am class is fun to go to every once in awhile but the make-up of the class was different since it was a holiday.

WOD Front squats 3 – 3 – 3 – 3 – 3. I went 120 – 125 – 130 – 135 – 135 (2)
So that was good. A new PR!

Tuesday was a killer. Truly a reminder that Andy is slightly sadistic.
5 rounds: 7 deadlifts (188#), 15 pull-ups. Everything about it sucked. The weight was heavy, I’m not great at stringing a ton of pull-ups in a row and by round two I had to break the deadlifts up 3 - 4 and then it was 3 -2 – 2- and the it was singles for the last two rounds. Not fun and I was sore. Time was 14:52

Wednesday Kayla and I went to Coach B’s to work on our oly lifts. A ton of fun and great advice. I worked mostly on position to make sure I was pulling the weight off the ground properly. Kayla really worked on getting deeper into the squat position but slowly lowering herself down and stretching. By the end of the night she was able to get pretty low into the squat. Good stuff.

Thursday – rest day! Thank goodness because they were doing Murph at the gym and that just sucks.

Friday – thruster, burpee workout. 1st minute one thruster, 2nd minute 2 burpees, 3rd minute, 4th minute 4 burpee…and so on. Do as many rounds as possible until you can’t complete the required number of exercises. I was able to complete 12 burpees but was not able to get 13 thrusters in. I think I probably could have if I was feeling 100% and pushed myself but oh well.

Saturday – open gm and I just played around a bit. Did some ab’s, jump roped, double unders, overhead lunges with 15# bar and some other stuff. Wasn’t really feeling a workout but wanted to move around a bit.

Aches, bruises, soreness, exhaustion.... also known as Crossfit!

So I don't think there is an extended period of time that I have gone without being sore, having bruises and just feeling exhausted after a workout since I have started Crossfit and have been doing the three on one off routine. Yeah If I go away and am not able to workout that's a totally different story. But when I'm hitting it hard my body get worked. I like it. I sleep better.

A quick inventory......
I've got some serious bruises on my collarbones from Ben's workout
I've got bruises on my thighs from lowering the bar during Bens workout
My shins are bruised from Bens workout and doing deadlifts at Crossfit phoenix
I got a few bruises on my knees from not getting them out of the way when doing quick deadlifts

All I have to say is I look like a battered wife. Not sexy!

So working out while in Phoenix has been great. Crossfit Phoenix is awesome and I will make an effort to come back and get a workout in when ever I am in town. Alisha and Scott were great and got a sweet gym. I did two workout with the crew there. A great group and fun to workout with.

2-9-09
Back squats 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3
I went 130 - 135 - 140 - 145 - 150 A new PR for me. What was interesting was this was day one for me and when we did back squats at the gym it was day three after squat cleans and sprints. So again it shows me that rest is needed and when I come back from a rest day I should be able to hit it hard an get faster times and PR's. Watch out Mel here I come!

Then after the strength we did a half Cindy: 10 mins AMRAP of 5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats. It felt good to get some cardio in after the strength. I got 6 rounds plus pullups. Pushups were still the area that slowed me way down.

2-10-09
Back at Crossfit Phoenix
Deadlift 3 - 3 - 3
I went 185 - 205 - 210 Awesome. I am not sure what my 3 rep max was but I think it was around 200. So again an improvement. There were a few other women in the class that were getting some and that was fun to watch.

Then for the workout we did....
21-15-9
Deadlifts 135#
Overhead Squats 65#

Shit man this sucked and I was tired. My time was 6:35. I crushed it but it still sucked! My hammies, arms, lats, triceps are sore. But it was a good workout. I haven't done deadlifts for awhile and I was glad to see it in the workout.

Overall a great time at Crossfit Phonix!

2-11-09
Decided to checkout a different gym today. So I went to Crossfit Scottsdale and it is a totally different gym then Crossfit Phoenix. I think that's the cool thing about Crossfit gyms. All of them are different and have different workouts based on trainers, clients, location, space and much more. Crossfit Scottsdale is in a small area behind a nutrition and wellness clinic. It is probably as big as the new side of my gym in Coronado. So they can't really do a ton of weight work. So the workout was a cardio-kick-my-ass workout.

We started with 5 min of jump rope. 5 minutes is a long time to jump rope. Then to continue to warm up we did all of the following with a jump rope
100 singles
50 double under
50 one leg
50 other leg
50 side to side (where you just jump side to side)
50 front to backs (jumping front to back)
50 forward jumps in a line
50 backwards jumps in a line
100 high steps

I think my calves are going to be pretty miserable tomorrow. Jump ropes are a creation from the devil!

Then my workout was:
2 rounds of
500 m row (he wanted it sub 2 min which he got but sucked)
25 jumping pullups
10 kipping pullups
25 push presses 65#
15 HSPU with bands (which rocked! Fun to get inverted but made the HSPU hard!)
25 jumping squats 15# bar
10 throwing ball squats 20# ball
1 min hold overhead squat 15# bar

This was right up there in sucky-ness as fight gone bad. You don't stop, your legs are killing you and your heart feels like it is going to jump out of your chest. It sucked but something I needed after two really hard strength day and more weight workouts. So I am glad I did it.

Then to finish off the class we each got a wallball (I got the 14# one) and did
10 shoulder presses - rest 10 seconds
10 push presses - rest 10 seconds
10 thrusters - rest 10 seconds

10 shoulder presses, 10 push presses, 10 thrusters - no rest in between
rest 15 seconds then again
10 shoulder presses, 10 push presses, 10 thrusters - no rest in between

then 20 burpees

I know what you are thinking. You've got to be kidding me. That's totally how I felt. My arms were killing me. I could barely hold the ball up. This was a tough workout. I spent about 30 minutes in the hot tub at the hotel!

Thanks to Crossfit Scottsdale and Luke for putting me through the misery. It was a good one!

So now I am off to bed. I think I am going to sleep really well tonight! Tomorrow REST DAY!

Off to Phoenix

So I am headed to Phoenix tomorrow for a web development training for the USFWS. It should be fun. I enjoy traveling for work and I am staying in a nice hotel. Plus I am going to visit a few Crossfit gyms while I am out there. This is going to be a teat for me to see how I stand among other girls. If I go into these gyms and do the workout prescribed and beat all of the other girls in the gym I will feel good about where I am in terms of training. If I go and get crushed and am not on the top of my game then I will know that I need to pick it up a notch and train harder. I don't want to go to the Regionals and look like someone who shouldn't even be there. I'll keep you posted.



2-4-09 Back squat 3-3-3-3-3

I went 136 - 141 - 146 - 151 (only was able to get 2) 146 I looked and my last 3 rep was 146 but it was when we didn't have the whole "bar" controversy. So before it was actually only 135 and now it is a true 146. So that is a new pr. But still disappointing. I really need to work on my leg strength because this is what keeping my clean numbers down and potentially my snatch and OHS. Need to do more squatting!

2 -5 -09 Went up to Coach B's with Ben for a little Olympic Weightlifting. I really like going up here because I learn a lot and I get to watch other people lift and learn a lot about cues and what coach has then do to build strength and power. Good times. Worked on snatch and cleans. I could tell that my hamstrings were tired from the sprints,cleans and squats that we did at the gym. So my pull from the ground was not looking too hot and coach made sure to tell me. Next time I am going to be taking Kayla up with me. I think it is going to be good for her to come up and work with Coach. I think she is going to like it and it will make her stronger!

2-6-09 Ben 4 Rounds of 90 sec 0f power cleans (max reps) then 20 burpees 90 sec rest between rounds. This one sucked. It wasn't a cardio workout for me. It was a muscle fatigue on the cleans. Quads burned, grip went to shit and the weight seemed to get heavier each round. Kayla and I worked together. We did 80# and my score went 25, 22, 20, 20. Good stuff.

On a side note I must comment on how crazy hard Kayla hit this workout! I have never seen her get it like this before. It was nits. Her whole goal was to beat Ben. That's what she wanted to do. She had to get more reps then Ben. I was worried that she was going to hard out of the gates and was going to taper off at the end but she didn't. She stayed strong the whole time and was able to get more reps then he did. Good stuff.

2-7-08 Skill day
I decided to work on things that I am not good at for the Saturday workout. So I did some handstand push-ups, ring holds, ring dips and ring push-ups. It was good to work on these and my triceps were sore today. It's hard to work on the things that you are not good at but it is necessary!

Kayla peed in the woods!

1/25/09 - Went on a hike with Evan, Kayla, Mel and Max. It was a hike I have done already but we decided to go up river a bit and do some rock hopping and bouldering. I had a blast and so did Max. Kayla was really funny and took her awhile to get her rock climbing feet on. But she did finally and gained a lot of confidence by the end. Mel changed shoes mid trip and felt a lot more comfortable with her Keens on. Good time had by all. Kayla peed outside. Quite an accomplishment. We are so proud of her!

1/26/09 - Tabata Deadlifts 115# and box jumps 24''. Score total reps. 121. The deadlifts were light and I was able to get at least 10 each round. The box jumps was were my number went down. I wanted to challenge myself with a bigger box and 24'' is pretty high. But is was a good challenge.

1/27/09
8 rounds: 20 sec max effort thrusters 66#, 10 seconds rest, 20 sec max effort pull-ups, 10 sec rest, 50 meter sprint. Score total reps. 105. I went to the morning class and it was really hard to get any sort of motivation to go harder or faster. I am just not quite awake and my body isn't ready to be doing thrusters and pull-ups. I was able to get 7 or 8 on the thrusters but only 5 - 7 on the pull-ups. Still weak at stringing together pull-ups.

1/28/09 and 1/29/09 - Rest days

1/30/09 - 5 - 15 - 20 - 15 - 5 Squat snatches 200 m sprint in between reps. The weight called for 75# but my one rep max for snatch is 86# so I didn't think I could do it. Looking back now I should have done it prescribed. Oh well. For the first 5 - 15 - 20 I used 66# and then for the last 15 and 5 I increased the weight to 71#. Time was something in the 25 minute range.

I really liked this workout and I was able to get deep into the squat each time I did a snatch. Which made me feel really good. I want to feel comfortable in the full squat with weight overhead. But I also need to work on leg strength so that when the weight gets heavier and heavier I will be able to get out of the squat and stand up.

1/31/09
Ben's crazy workout
Ball Slams 80 - 60 - 35 - 15
Hollow Rocks 40 - 30 - 20 - 10
Burpees 20 - 15 - 10 - 5

This sucked and my legs were sore the next day because of the ball slams. I used a 20# ball for the ball slams and it became very clear to me from the beginning that I was going to have to clean and jerk the ball up for better use of stronger muscles rather then curling it. My arms would be trashed if I had to curl it everything I caught it from the ground. Yuck. Time was 20:30.

2/1/09
Rest day but an active rest day. I did an easy 100 squats and 100 sit-ups. It took close to 10 mins. This was more to get the legs moving and get the muscles engaged because they were sore and I did not want to stiffen up during the day and get tighter.

2/2/09
Squat Clean 1 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 1
I love strength days and I love squat cleans so this put a smile on my face. Plus I was able to workout with Kayla and Mel and that is fun. Those two girls are strong and like to go heavy.
I went 100 - 115 - 120 - 125 - 130 (f). I totally had the 130 on my rack and was good to go but could not stand out of the squat. Bummer. One of the lifts I got so low in the squat my elbows hit my knees. So that's good but I need to also remember to get full hip extension. I don't want to get under the too fast that I don't pull enough. Something to think about.

After the workout i felt like I needed some cardio and Max was full of energy so we went on a run. I really didn't know how far we were going to go but it ended up being a 4 mile run. Boy would I pay for this when I saw what tomorrows WOD was!

2/3/09
Partner workout: Sprints
4 - 800m (2 each)
8 - 400m (4 each)
12 - 200m (6 each)

Time was 36:36. This was a lot of sprinting and it really sucked! I mean really. Plus the fact that I decided to do a little extra running after yesterday's workout. What a stupid idea! Kayla and I partnered together and my splits were about 10 - 15 seconds faster which meant she got a little less rest but she wants to get stronger so her you go sweetheart! Get stronger!