12/18 - Butterfly pull-ups!!!

Let me get right to the best part of last night (if the title of the post didn't already give it away)…

BUTTERFLY KIPPING PULL-UPS

Yes, all caps AND bold required there. 

I had mentioned to Tim on Monday night that this was next on my list of goals as the muscle up is being slowed by my shoulder issues.  I figured it would take a bit of time and more than anything switching up the mental rhythm of the movement (similar to going from alternating double/single skips to full on double unders).  It was much easier than that.  The trick – well, just watch the video below (thanks Tim for recommending it!).  That’s all that it took for me to get it on my first attempt.

I managed at least three every time I tried.  Definitely requires more thinking (for now) but I love having the skill whether or not I actually use it anytime soon.

On to the class…

We did a fun partner workout.  Jaimie and I partnered up – he said it was because he could justify going with a super light (KB) weight being paired with a chick (his words, paraphrased).   He made me laugh my ass off so it was totally worth it.

Warm-up

(pairs)

300m run (together)

30 (each) KB SDHP

30 (each) KB Swings

30 (each) KB Upright Row

30 (each) HR push-ups

30 (each) partner sit-ups

I talked a lot of crap on the run which was fun and enjoyable (at least for me) and we worked well through the SDHP’s.  Then on the swings – which by the way were ridiculously light (for me) and I almost threw the first rep – Jaimie decided that doing sets of 10 was a better option even though Coach Match had explicitly stated that we were to only do sets of 5 each.  Silly boys, unable to listen to directions (no surprise).  Ha!  Apparently I was sounding like a nagging wife because of this.  Oh well…. Live and learn and definitely laugh.  I found it all amusing.  It was a fun start to the class.

Strength

5-5-5

Bench Press

30-35-35(PR)

I managed a PR on this one basically because I’d never done a set of 5.  I also realized just how bad this movement is for my shoulder.  I was definitely not going heavier than 35kg and I wasn’t doing a third set at 35kg either.  It was too much already and I definitely felt my shoulder rebelling.  Hmmm, not sure what to do about it other than just not do it?  I asked Jaimie to spot me for the last set as it was tough and I knew I’d need him to keep me on it – he has a good way of pushing me in both a hard-ass and also supportive way.  It’s a skill.  He’s also probably the only person that can call me dwarf and I’m okay with it.  He’s a good one (but no Jaimie, I’m still not going to set you up with my single girl friends).

WOD

12-6-12-6-12-6

SDHP (30/45kg)

Burpee bar hops

Jump squats

7:47 Rx.5

The 12-6-12-6-12-6 combo is starting to become as dreaded as anything 21-15-9.  Both are deceivingly hard. 

I did the first set of 12 SDHP’s unbroken then was down to sets of 6 for the rest of the WOD – though I didn’t take much time in between, just enough to question myself as to why I was stopping because it wasn’t that hard (except for my racing heart but still).  The burpee bar hops (almost) made me happy.  I didn’t mind them but again, Jaimie made a comment that they’re not that hard when I’m already so close to the ground.  Fair but also awesome.  I was steady through all of them – the first 6 would always be pretty quick then I’d slow down a bit on the second 6 (in the rounds of 12) but only a little.  By this point my heart was racing and my legs were aching.  The jumps squats were just an evil addition.  My quads were burning (need to work on my squat form obviously) but I managed to get through them.  It was quite similar to a WOD that Cam gave me when I was up at site that had both burpees and jump squats in them.  I felt like I smashed through this WOD but there are still a few girls I have to (try and) chase down – Tash, Chriselle, Kirst…  thanks for continually pushing me (indirectly).

10/30 - Rx 'Grace'!

After two days of C&J’s and easily power cleaning 50kg I started thinking about Grace on the way to the box – more specifically ‘Grace Off’ which is happening this weekend at SF Gym as a breast cancer fundraiser.  I was thinking about whether I should do it and if so if I should register as intermediate or Rx thinking I could probably do Rx but knowing that it would take a  bit longer – I’ve been wanting to Rx ‘Grace’ for a long time and knowing I can now do it was really cool – I figured it’d be awesome to Rx ‘Grace’ on my 36^th birthday (Saturday conveniently).  As I was going through these thoughts I also vividly recalled watching Coach Match write both ‘Grace’ and ‘Isabel’ on the PR boards in the box on Monday night knowing that we’d (clearly) be filling them in soon – I thought we might do ‘Grace’ soon as we’d just done heavy C&J’s but didn’t think he program it the very next night – still, it was on my mind.

As I walked into the box I saw Tim doing some shoulder mobility and he looked at me with that twinkle in his eye and asked me to guess what we were doing – I got a bit excited then – knew I would like it – and as he was starting to say ‘what you did last night’ I was bursting forth with ‘grace?’ (and there may have been a little happy dance that followed).  I knew right then and there that I would be Rx-ing ‘Grace’ – I texted Cam to tell him exactly that – there was no doubt.  I was ready.  More than ready.

We did a warm-up.  There were burpees and shuttle sprints (and I didn’t mind the burpees again, what?).  I raced Tim a bit just for fun even though we were just warming up. Shonelle and I partnered up for some partner resisted sprints with the bands and we did other stuff – really I was just going through the motions super excited to meet ‘Grace’, full on this time.
 
WOD: Benchmark 'Grace'
 30 Clean & Jerk (45/60kg)
5:51 Rx(!)

Coach Match informed me that there was a 10 minute cut-off.  Ok, that’s three reps a minute just to finish – easy.  I checked out the times of the other girls who Rx-ed earlier in the day – there were only three – Kayla, Tash and Chriselle – and knowing Kayla (pretty much) warms up at 45kg and that Tash is the unstoppable energizer bunny in every WOD (superfast) I just hoped I could keep up with Chriselle.  Goal was under 7 minutes – that meant about 4 a minute.  Then I upped that a bit – figured I could do  probably do 5 every minute and if I did I could get under 6 minutes.  Game on though I knew it’d be tough.

Tim had told me to try and push jerk the reps if I could rather than split jerking which would take more time.  Noted.  Coach Match also suggested minimizing rest time between reps as this was the biggest hurdle in getting a good time.  Noted.  I heard Jack and Tim discussing a game plan and I made the comment that game plans were dangerous (you never know how things are going to go) but I clearly had one – 5 reps a minute until I was done.  Go.

The first rep I push jerked and it was tough.  I also tried to lower the bar back to the ground, also tough.  From then on I split jerked each rep.  I also did single reps dropping the bar every time.  The bar would take one bounce, I’d pat it down and pick it right back up again focusing on tightening my shoulder blades and getting a solid clean (ignoring the protest from my already bruised clavicle) and then part two – quick jerk with focus on locking out my arms over head.  I stopped for chalk after 15 reps but quickly got back on the bar.  I was racing the clock.  I managed to get up by two reps in the first minute (7 reps done) and lost a few somewhere after that – four minutes in I had 10 to go.  I could do this.  I was on track.   

Because I was dropping the bar every rep the collars became quite loose though in my mind I had no time to fix that – I needed to pick the bar right back up, the game was most definitely on.  I pushed through the last 5 starting them with one minute remaining. I worked really hard for every single one but hearing the others cheering me on really helped and as I dropped the bar one final time I burst out into the hugest grin.  I had won.  5:51.  Done.  Tim came over for a high-five and he got a hug.  I was beaming.  I truly was.  I still am.  It is a huge achievement for me – something that I’ve wanted for so long – I final made it.  I beat ‘Grace’.  All of ‘Grace’.  There is no looking back now.  Next up is ‘Isabel’.  I have a lot more work to get there but I’m eager.  Aiming high.

As a follow up – I was too excited for the follow up text with Cam to let him know I did it… he got a call as soon as I got home – the excitement that had built  all through my drive burst out at him.  The awesome part – he was just as excited for me and let me repeat my accomplishment a gazillion times.  Oh, and he reminded me of it again this morning – made me smile all over again.  Thanks!

Post-WOD
Once recovered, run 1 mile or  row 1km for time
4:00

After all the excitement and joy of finishing ‘Grace’ I didn’t have much left in me but knew I had to get this done.  I went for the row as I already have a mile run time on the PR board (even though it was from a day I was sick and I know I can better it).  It hurt.  That’s about all I can add here.  I wanted to quit many times though kept pushing through and tried to find a nice efficient rate/ combo of strokes per minute and 500m split time.  By the end my glutes were cramped and I crawled off the erg but I got it done.  Four minutes exactly.  Done.

Mobility (and gossip with Angie – and Jaimie)

Glutes

Pecs

Source

10/29 - More clean and jerks, more PR's...

So there were a lot of PR’s set yesterday at the box, more specifically there were a lot of PR’s published on facebook throughout the day which after many comments and iterations clearly outlined that we’d be doing C&J’s and there was a lot of time to pull off PR’s.  After power clean and jerking 50kg on Sunday at Tim’s I was ready to see how far I could go.  Needless to say I was excited all day and ready to do it once I got there.

Warm-up

300m run

Leg swings

Partner sprints (with resistant bands)

Air squats

Shoulder mobility

Air squats

Barbell warm-up

We spent a good 25 minutes on the warm-up which worried me a bit as I knew that trying to go heavy in only 20 minutes would be tough – need adequate rest between heavy reps and also I need to work up to heave and I didn’t want to be rushed – the benefit of strength in the Albert Street Gym – usually unlimited lifting time – you just go until you’re done not until time runs out.

WOD

1-1-1-1

Clean and Jerk

28-40-45-50-52.5-55-57.5(f)-57.5 PR

Did the warm-up with the 8kg bar and then knowing that I’d started at 35kg on Sunday started at a higher weight than I usually would (due to time as noted above).  I did a couple of reps at 28kgs just to get used to the squat clean aspect of the lift (the hardest part typically for me, especially with the lighter weight that I can easily power clean).  I knew that if I was going really heavy I’d need to squat clean and I also know that just jumping right into squat cleans at heavy weight doesn’t work either (watch the guys from the Crossfit Games clean ladder – I think Froning started with squat cleans from the start for this reason as did many others). 

I really tried to focus on my squat clean and keep this solid though as the bar got heavier it was the scarier part for me and took the most out of me mentally to just pick up the bar for phase 1.  It was odd as well that my hands felt like they were in the wrong spot on in the rack position but I think that maybe that was just because of the quantity of work that my shoulders had been through in the two days. 

I jumped up to 40k on the second set mostly because I was switching from the 8kg bar to the 20kg bar and it is just how it went.  As I progressed from there I started shadowing Kayla for a bit – going 45 then 50 but knew I needed to stop that if I was going to PR so I started taking smaller increases to work up.  The jerk portion never truly got that hard as I was going – it was more fighting through the squat cleans.  I dumped the 57.5kg on the first try as I didn’t get it balanced overhead though it was high enough (clearly) as it went behind me – I just stepped forward.  I think it looked worse to Kayla who only caught it out of her peripheral vision – it did feel like it dropped in slo-mo though.

Coach Match came by after that attempt and told me that while I am fast at dropping under the bar/ locking it out – I’m a bit too slow (fractions) in my dip/explosion, he said if I could get just slightly faster then there would be that extra tenth of a second of lightness in the bar that would make it effortless – and it did.  I knew I had the 57.5kg lift in me (I really wanted 60kg but my squat clean was getting tough even at 57.5).  At this point it was 5:45 (class ending time) but I was giving it one more go.  I pushed through the squat clean (barely) and as Coach Match instructed really focused on speed on the front portion of the jerk and it was solid – much easier.  I loved it and yes, there was more PR dancing and lots of hugs – specifically for Coach Tim who knew how badly I wanted it.  Also hugs for Jaimie who is finally back (woo-hoo) – haven’t seen him forever and still love that he calls me all things short.  Also for Bonnie who I haven’t had much time to catch up with lately and also more for Tim because he’s awesome… haha.  It was a pretty fantastic evening after being built up (in my head) all day.  Two PRs in two days… now I know why Tim lifts all the time – it feels amazing.

Mobility

Glutes

Shoulders

Hanging from pull-up bar

Beat swings (for fun – these feel so different/easier now)

WLC

Made a couple of new ‘recipes’ Sunday night for food for this week – first off was mango chicken (yay, mango season is back) with capsicum and sweet onion served to Brenda and Angie (tonight) with a side of roasted brussel sprouts (veggie challenge this week).  The other was stuffed capsicum – stuffed with a mixture of beef mince, onion, diced zucchini and mushrooms – cooked these in the slow cooker (beef mince was raw when stuffed) and they are fantastic – I added the extra mixture just into the bottom and it was so tasty.  Highly recommend both though they’re ‘recipes’ I don’t  have any how-tos… I just tend to wing it but it still ends up tasty!

9/29 - 10/1 - Life in the 'fast (swim) lane'

Catching up…

It was quite a satisfying long weekend here.  The weather brightened up and got (much) warmer, there was swimming and sleeping, wod-ing and beaching… all good times.  From the beginning…

Friday night I got a text from Shonelle asking if I wanted to meet up for some swimming and the bright and early Saturday morning time of 9:30am.  I love sleep so making a choice to voluntarily leave my bed on a long weekend to workout of all things is generally a big deal.  But I did it and it was fun.  Firstly I got on my bike again (after a week of freezing).  As I was uncovering it I realized that my lovely little mailman had hidden a package I was expecting (too big for the mailbox) under the cover.  Even though I knew exactly what it was (a necklace and print I’d ordered from my darling friend Robyn) – I still had to run back inside to open it up and check it out.  Christmas in September.

I met up with Shonelle and Challenge Stadium (and actually remembered my swim goggles and cap this time) and she told me the boys were all still asleep (slackers)… so it was just us girls (rockstars).  We proceeded the long and winding journey to the 10 lane outdoor pools (not the 8 apparently) – seriously if Shonelle hadn’t met me at the front desk I likely would have never found her out there.  We got ready and in we went. 

It was life in the 'fast lane' for me.  We were smack dab in the middle of the pool which was in fact marked 'fast' which I am in fact not.  We were however the only people in it and it worked well.  On my last two laps two girls jumped into the lane so I made sure to stay out of their way and get done fast(ish) while avoiding back stroke where I can't go straight at all (more on that below).
 
It was quite amazing how quickly everything went without the boys  for both good and bad.  The good – we had our workouts done in an hour, the bad – there was much (much) less rest for me without the boys.  I warmed up with some lengths to focus on my bi-lateral breathing.  I finished three and then she let me play around with some backstroke as well.  In my head I figured at least with backstroke your head is above water which makes breathing easier – I was so wrong about the easy part on so many levels.  First, I continually splashed myself in the face as I was inhaling which meant choking on water and secondly if anyone was watching from the sidelines it would have looked like I was drunk – no ability whatsoever to hold a straight line – I was all over that lane.

It should be noted that for every 50m’s I did, Shonelle did 150m.  We met up at one end and she gave me my workout – 4-6 lengths of alternating front stroke and back stroke.  Working on my bi-lateral breathing on the front stroke and trying to go as far as I could – matching or going beyond the previous rep each time.  And off I went.  It went pretty well.  I managed at least 25m on each of the 4 lengths of front stroke I did which for me is great.  I would then finish off the rest of the length with really ugly breast stroke because the pool at Challenge is too deep in the middle for me to stand up in (good thing Shonelle warned me of this in advance).  The backstroke was fun and also challenging.  Lots of focus on keeping my hips high which definitely helps. 

Now here’s the funny story.  In my head I thought I’d done 800m after the warm-up and lengths.  Wishful thinking, apparently I suck at math.  I did 200m on the warm-up and then (in my head)_proceeded to count those 6 laps in the middle (3 front stroke, 3 back stroke) as 600m.  Um, ya, not so much.  It was actually only 300m  But there was a good part to this story – because I thought I was so close to 1000m (in my head) I did another two laps before calling it a day (and I wouldn’t have if I could actually add)… so – all good.  But in the end I managed 600m for the day (not the 1000m I initially told people I did)… still a significant effort for me since it’s technically only swim lesson number 3. 

Sunday was spent being lazy.  Sleeping in, walking around and drinking beer and it was awesome.  There is no guilt here.  Totally worth it as summer slowly starts to ramp up.

Monday was a public holiday here.  We had one Crossfit WOD on the books at 8am and the boys (Jack and Tim) programmed it.   There was a wicked turn out and it was both hard (extremely) and fun (when it was over).

WOD

25 burpee buy-in

5 rounds

Run to KB (at back of building) – approx. 75m

15 KB swings

Run back to box and around to tires – approx. 450m

15 tire jumps

Run back to box – approx. 75m

15 pull-ups

Repeat

25 burpee cash-out

26:58 (14kg KB, Rx pull-ups)

It was the first decently hot day we’ve had this year and the workout was mostly outside which I think affected a lot of us more than we’re used to.  It was hot.  I kept a fairly steady pace throughout but the pull-ups definitely slowed me down.  I managed them all Rx though and loved that I don’t need to find a specific band so I can just jump on the bars where there is space.  I had Jane looking over me for the last round of burpees which helped me push through them with very little rest which would have been harder to accomplish otherwise.

We followed up the WOD with coffee at the Kiosk at Floreat followed by a dip into the ocean and a bit of a lie on the beach.  Good times though the water was FREEZING.  It felt glacial cold.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to get my Canadian status revoked at any time given my inability to deal with cold temperatures now.  Oh well – I love it here more anyway.  Ha.

Busy week this week with Crossfit tonight and Thursday and some SUP thrown in after work tomorrow, and a pairs chipper WOD on Saturday with Jane...  looking forward to it!

9/12 - Crossfit Total

Spoiler Alert: I increased my CFT score today by 7.5kg!!! Carry on…

As I posted yesterday afternoon – it was CFT* day at Cooee and I was excited.  I had been gearing up for it all day (obviously) and was ready.  I was a little worried about only having 10 minutes to do each lift but I was focused on hitting 75kg for my backsquat.  Game time!

* it wasn’t *true* CFT in that we did press/squat/deadlift rather than squat/press/deadlift per Mark Rippetoe’s Rules and there wasn’t any hard rule that only 3 tries at your 1RM was legit but still, it was good to give it a go again.

Benchmark WOD – CrossFit Total
1 RM Strict Press
1 RM Back Squat
1 RM Deadlift
Score = the total of all 3 lifts 

35+77.5+102.5 = 215!! PR!!

I was really happy with this.

Strict Press

5x20kg

3x30kg

1x35kg

1x37.5kg(f)

1x36kg(f)

Going in I just wanted to match my previous CFT attempt (and current PR) of 35kg and I did.  Easily.  Suprisingly easy (and I was worried about not being able to, hmmm).  So I jumped the weight to 37.5 because 35 was easy.  I can’t convey just how easy it went up.  Shocker – 37.5kg would not budge, I got it about 2 inches (5cm) from the start position and it just stopped, would not move.  It was like I was pushing against a wall.  Fail.  I dropped the weight down to 36kg, just trying to set a new PR and I thought it should have been doable (again, 35kg was ridiculously easy) but nope.  Same situation, I got the bar a bit higher but just couldn’t get it past that sweet spot (around my ear height).  Stuck again and that bar was going nowhere.  Fail.  I gave it a good go and was still happy with matching on the 35kg so I was off to the start that I wanted. 

I realized too though that I need to work on my full range of motion for handstand push-ups as well since it’s about that same point that I get ‘stuck’ in the movement.  I can do HSPU’s to an ab-mat height but when I go to the bottom there’s that point just beyond the start on the way up that I also get ‘stuck’.  Good thought.

Backsquat

3x60kg

3x65kg

2x70kg

1x75kg

1x77.5kg (PR)

1x80kg(f)

Game time.  This was the movement that I was waiting for all day.  I believed it was my best chance at improving my score.  I was hoping for a 2.5kg gain but when I did two reps (easy enough) at 70kg I jumped right to 75kg knowing full well I could get it.  Although my legs were hurting a bit I focused on good technique (knees out is the biggest cue for me) and staying engaged at the bottom of the squat (I sometimes go too low and lose that power position by collapsing).  I nailed it and it felt really good.  I didn’t stop to focus on it much though as there was still about 5 minutes left and I knew I could get to more solid attempts in.  I didn’t want the jumps to be too big so I went up by 2.5kg and with Jaimie ready to spot me and more importantly – his voice in my ear pushing me along I got 77.5kg.  So stoked.  One more try at 80kg coming my way.  I took a long break knowing it was my last shot, waiting until there was a minute or so left on the clock and got ready.  Once again Jaimie was right there pushing me on (if you know Jaimie, you know that ‘cheering’ isn’t the right word, it’s more intense than that, more powerful and rough). 

As I approached the bar I remembered my struggle just to get the bar on my back at 77.5kg.  I stumbled a little as the weight seemed to crush me straight through my spine and knew that I needed solid focus while picking up the 80kg.  I managed it (without the stumble this time) but it literally felt like someone was squeezing every vertebrae in my spine together and that I was shortening in height by inches from the weight alone.  Breath in, core tight, focus, knees out, lower, hit the bottom (not too low) and start to push back up, knees out and I fell a bit too far forward, rolled onto my toes a bit and was rescued by Jaimie pulling me back in line and helping me up.  I missed it.  I know, fully on, that I can lift 80kg and will get it next time without a doubt it just wasn’t my day for it.  A momentary slip of focus and I lost it.  But I was still pretty happy (and jumping around) at having bested my previous PR by 5kg!!  Twice what I was aiming for going in.

Deadlift

5x60kg

3x80kg

2x90kg

1x100kg

1x102.5kg (PR)

1x105kg(f)

I remember the last time doing CFT and how hard 100kg was for me to lift.  I also remember recently reading the article on 3 Tips to Help you Set a Deadlift PR and was ready to give it a go.  I was confident I’d get 100kg again but anything beyond that I wasn’t so sure about.  I knew I wanted to get at least 102.5 though the pressure was reduced after the 5kg PR on the backsquat (over the 2.5kg I was aiming for).  I got 100 and although hard it wasn’t impossible – I did however know I only had one rep at this weight, no more.  I loaded up another 2.5kg and distracted myself a bit knowing I needed to rest a bit more between lifts.  There were still about 5 minutes left until class was over.  Jaimie was sidelined now and in between his cursing and whimpering (he pulled/tore something pretty badly in his quad while doing his heavy backsquats – I heard(!) it) he was urging me on.  I can’t remember the exact nickname he’d come up with but it was something along the lines of shortling or shortie or short-something and I actually didn’t mind it – coming from him… I think that makes a huge difference.  Anyway, it was awesome having his push.  I stared back at the bar loaded to 105kg.  I had just over minute to go and I approached the bar – knees out – once again my foucs, engage my legs, heels into the floor, don’t round my back.  Go.   I pulled and pulled and pulled a bit more and the bar did not even budge.  There’s a point in the article above about pulling for longer than you think, just keep pulling and still, nothing.  I was going to give it one more go.  Once again Jaimie pointed out that when I start the pull my knees tend to collapse in.  Focus.  One more try.  Again, nothing.  PR was set at 102.5kg and I’m okay with that.  I do however realize how much work my deadlift requires.  It’s stuck and I want to get stronger.  Add it to the list.

Overall I was very pleased with my CFT score from today.  I visualized it all day, really wanted a 75kg backsquat and to increase my total by 5kg so to exceed them both is awesome.  I’ll take it.  I think it had to do with the outfit.