Crossfit week 4: The day my arms almost fell off and another progress picture

I'm writing this from my phone for the first time so bear with me if it doesn't go well.

I almost went to Crossfit yesterday to make up for not going Monday but a friend of mine asked me to go to lunch with him so who is going to pass up free lunch? Not this girl.

I did go today though and when I got there my coach had far too gleeful of a look on his face. I shortly found out why...

Warm up was 3 or 4 excercises for a minute each and then a 400m run. Buy in for the WOD (when there is a buy in/buy out you have to do that before you start/finish the WOD) was to carry weights around the block. Easy, right? I sure thought so. Ha! We had to carry at least 25lb in each hand and I went for 35lb dumbells and wanted to hide them under a bush within 200m. Ouch.

We had a 30 minute AMRAP (as many reps as possible) for the actual WOD and our lap around the block counted towards that. WOD was 20 box jumps and 20 thrusters until time was up. I got through 7 reps and by the time I was done my arms were shaking so bad I wasn't sure I could put my keys in my car to even drive home. I was so happy when that 30 minutes was done and was so proud of myself....until they told us there was a buy out and I almost had a temper tantrum on the floor because really? Hadn't I suffered enough? And the buy out? Carry the same amount of weight around the block again.

Do I really pay for this torture?

But for all my whining it was a good workout as always although my arms are still really weak hours later and I'm having a hard time even holding my phone up. No, I'm not a wuss (yes I am). But the best part of really hard workouts is commiserating with my fellow prisoners...I mean gym people. It was the hardest workout I've done by far in regards to strength training, I rarely feel the after effects so soon after class so I can't wait to see how I feel tomorrow *sob*

My arms are starting to look killer though so I'll keep going, I guess. Actually, after 4 weeks I'm seeing a lot of changes. Here's another progress pic I took on Wednesday before I went to class (I'm not sure I'll ever get sick of looking at progress pictures, mine or anyone else's so I hope you don't mind them. And if you do...what are you doing here? Go look up the orange peanut video on YouTube instead.

I didn't run at all outside of Crossfit this week which is making me pretty sad so I'll have to make sure to run more next week. I did this mostly to improve my running so it will defeat the purpose if I lose my base (and I'll be really mad at myself). 

Anyway, I hope you all have a great weekend. I plan on going to Irish Fest to celebrate my heritage the way it's meant to be celebrated and then getting some good runs in. But this is going on on my lap right now. Viscous teething beast!

Crossfit Week 4: Can I get you tickets to my gun show?

Note to self: when you are told that the WOD is the closest it has made someone come to vomiting since they started then you should probably heed that advice and hide under a rock instead of going to class.

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I would like to tell you I made it to crossfit on Monday. Or on Tuesday. Or this morning at 5am like I told my friend I would. But none of these happened, sad to say. My stomach is on a collision course to kill me and I actually went over there yesterday AND this morning only to turn around and come right back home and set up camp in my bathroom for a few hours. The good news is my bathroom floor has never been cleaner since I'm basically living on it and my house permanently smells like bleach. Can someone please send me a Mahogony Teakwood candle from Bath and Body Works so I can get this place smelling like a 17 year old male Abercrombie employee again? It's an emergency. Thanks.

The good news is I was able to make it to a later class today because I had to miss my normal class time. And can I tell you how much more amazing the eye candy is in this class? I may not be going to run club on Wednesdays for a while so I might have to hit up this later class more often because apparently I like dripping sweat off my nose in front of really hot guys (Yeah, that happened).

Warm up today was a run, less than a mile, more than a quarter mile, not sure exactly how far. WOD was poker. Each suit had an exercise (hearts were dumbell thrusters, spades were full body sit ups, clubs were prison jump squats, diamonds were push ups) and each number was the reps you had to do. Drawing a 2 meant you had to double the reps of the next card you pulled, Ace was 10 burpees, Joker was a one mile run and we went through the whole deck.

Sweat dripping off my nose, rug burn on my elbows and knees like I put them through a cheese grater, almost threw up at least three times (which would be consistent with my morning), thought for sure death was right around the corner.

In other words an awesome work out, I so needed it. It shut my brain right off and I might not be able to overthink anything for at least 12 hours.


Sometimes when I run if I am really careful and pin my hair up just right I can let it down when I'm done and it will still look decent. Sad to say this will NEVER happen with crossfit.

Case in point, here I am right before I changed to go to class:

CHEESE!

And here's what I looked like directly after walking our the front door:

Maybe I will stick to my normal class with the usual guys who know me and see me turn into a hot mess three times a week and are used to it.

Oh, and can we talk about my baby biceps for a second?

I could have put up a different picture but this one is too funny.

That's my flexing face and it's why I get charged more than anyone else to attend crossfit.

But really, I've never had muscles in my arms before! And yeah, they're basically non existent still but work with me here, I'm pretty excited about it.

Crossfit week 3: Jello arms and a progress picture

Yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. One of my top 5 worst, to be quite honest.

The good news is I have many amazing friends. Friends who let me hang out in their kitchen for hours and cry into a bottle of wine while holding their adorable brand new boxer puppy.

You can't be sad for long with a sleepy, cuddly, farting puppy on your lap. Well you can but then they lick you in the nostril and you can't help but laugh.

I don't have a ton I want to say today but I didn't want to not post on a crossfit day. The workout was hard and my arms are jello which was good and I forgot about life outside the box for an hour and a half. Hot Coach saw I was down and kept telling me lame jokes which was sweet of him until I nailed him with the classic, "What do you call cheese that isn't yours?".

The answer? 

Nacho cheese.

Boom.

Gets them every time.

Warm up was a 200m run, 10 push ups, 10 kettle ball swings, 10 weighted walking lunges x3. Workout was 5 clean and jerks then 3 jumping pull ups and 3 knee to chests then 5 clean and jerks and 6 pull up and knee to chests then 5 clean and jerks and 9 pull ups and 9 knee to chests and so on for 20 minutes. I got through 7 rounds because I was just killing it today. I killed my hands too despite using enough chalk to be on the Olympic Gymnastics team.

End of class was a series of planks, V ups, medicine ball V ups and all sorts of other things I have blocked out. Oh yeah, and 12 rounds of burpees, 20 seconds on and 10 seconds rest.

If I can brush my hair tomorrow it will be a miracle.

I made this comparison picture the other day to show my progress. Maybe you don't see it (I'm looking at you, Justin) but I do and I'm pretty happy so far with how I'm progressing. That dress never used to have wiggle room so now that it fits more loosely I can definitely see the difference. How funny is it that I stand the exact same way without even thinking about it?

I hope you all have a wonderful labor day weekend. I've heard that Labor Day's workout (there's only one class all day) is killer and involves a 10 mile run so I'm counting the minutes until then.

And don't let this post worry you, I'll be fine, everything happens for a reason.

Crossfit week 3: The day I almost killed myself. But not intentionally.

What to say about yesterday.

Oh, yesterday.

Let me start at Tuesday night. I got a text around 5 asking if I wanted to go for an easy 4 miles at 8pm and I said no. I said no, people. I thought it would be a good thing to take an entire rest day since I ran the half marathon on Sunday, went to Crossfit Monday, yesterday was the dreaded/beloved Wednesday and in the middle of all of that I had been spending a lot of hours scraping wallpaper glue off my friend's dining room walls and painting them. Should you need proof here is what I discovered when I got home on Tuesday night:

What paint on my arm? What toilet in the background in an otherwise legit selfie? I am a classy gal.

So yeah, full rest day. I took one. And I was ready for Wednesday! But then I got a text asking if I wanted to go running yesterday morning and of course I said yes because saying no twice in two days is against my religion. We did almost 4 miles and it was an ok 4, not my best. My legs were/are tired and it was crazy hot (for me, I've been all about the 65 degree days so 84 wasn't my happy place) but I did get to run a trail I really love (and get lost on it) with someone I don't get to run with often so it was worth it. I walked some of it, not gonna lie, but I'm not going to beat myself up over it since I ran 13 miles on Sunday (aka I'm totally mad at myself for it).

As soon as we got done running I had to rush right over to crossfit where the warm up was...to run a mile. Really, guys? To be fair my friend called to tell me the WOD but I was running and missed it but it wouldn't have changed anything anyway. I was already stretched out and warmed up which was good so the mile was going much better than the 4 I had just finished but at the half mile turn around I saw a girl really struggling. I asked her if she was ok and she said it hurt to breathe so I taught her some breathing techniques and then stayed with her while she ran/walked back. We were the last in by a long shot and Ralph (the coach who looks like the Karate Kid so that's going to be his name here now) yelled, "Oh, there they are!" when we got back. Thanks dude, I'm sure that made her feel better.

The actual workout was to row 500m for time which we did in groups of 5. I talked to the new guy some that started last week and he said he was scared of the rowing machine, ha! But I noticed he ran a lot better today than he did Monday so he's already doing better and he killed the 500m. It's funny how crossfit can worry you when you first see the workout but once you're in the middle of it you just go for it.

After the rowing we broke into partners and had to do four excercises at 21 reps each and then 15 reps and then 9 reps. We had to get on our knees and push a barbell with weights on it as far out as we could go and then pull it back in, throw wall balls over the pull up bar to our partner, do push ups with one person doing them regular and the other person putting their feet on their partner's back and doing the pushup that way (which hurt, a lot) and then do waves on the battle rope. My partner is a personal trainer and she is beyond ripped so we got done pretty fast and she helped me work on my form a lot which was awesome. She also teaches a spin class on Wednesdays and invited me to come try it so I probably will because I'm crazy and don't work out enough, right? But really, it was super nice of her to invite me to her class and I've always wanted to try it so I'm excited about that.

Then last night was run club, as I've mentioned/whined about before and I warned the people I was running with that I was probably going to end up on the side of the road somewhere and to just send someone for my body. The whole way to the bar I was praying that we weren't running Tipp Hill (I have no idea why, all of our other routes are just as hilly but I really didn't want to do Tipp Hill) but of course that's what we ended up doing. I got two miles in and had lost my people because I was running easy so I decided to stop at the top of a hill near Coleman's and sit on some church stairs until I saw them again. I waited 15 minutes and started to see the fast runners who usually do 8 miles come back through (Will even asked if I needed help, embarrassing) before I realized they probably went another way. So I ran back to the bar and there they were, already slugging water and eating all the flatbread. Jerks ;) It wasn't a bad run though, I just clearly did too much in one day. If you're keeping track (because I was) I ran 9 miles and went to crossfit yesterday. My shoulders are on fire this morning and I would pay someone a significant amount of money to rub them out although as soon as they touched me I would probably punch them in the face because they're that sore. My feet are pretty shredded too, I got some blisters at my race and the 9 miles I did yesterday did nothing good for that situation (I'll spare you the details, it's not pretty).

Never. Again.*

On a side note, if you read my blog last year you may remember my unholy love of Nalgene bottles. I probably haven't been seen without one since 1999 when I declared my major as geoscience the second I was able to in college and the head of the department gave me one and since then I always have one with me and usually 3-4 in my fridge at any given moment. Well look at the coolest one of all time:

That's the bar I run at, BTW.

It GLOWS in the DARK. And I need one. Because that's not mine, I have bought two for other people and don't own one of my own yet but it was pretty awesome at the bar once it got dark.

So if you're looking to buy me a present EMS carries these....just saying.



*Who am I kidding? We all know it will probably happen again.

Crossfit week 3: You should run with me. No, really.

If you let Ben and Jerry's chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream melt to the consistency of a protein smoothie it's basically the same thing, right? Asking for a friend....

If you want me to sum up crossfit today (but I'm posting this tomorrow, Tuesday, so stay with me) it would go like this:

Yeah, I called it easy. What has become of me?

I was a little worried about going today because my body was tired. Really tired. Crossfit has been wearing me out (in a good way) and running a half marathon isn't a small feat (even though I keep my base mileage around that range so it's not going to kill me) so I wasn't sure how much I could do. Right up until the second I walked through the door I didn't want to go but I'm glad I made myself.

Warm up was a half mile run and then we did what they called Partner Gauntlet. We each had a partner and we moved through different stations. The first person had to do the exercise for 30 seconds, then we had 15 seconds to switch and the next person tried to beat their time. Then we moved on to the next station and the person who finished the station before was the first person to go at the next station. The stations were the ski machine, biking, rowing, box jumps and burpees. After we went through an entire round we had to run a half mile and then we did it again but this time for 40 seconds. After that round we ran a half mile then did it for 50 seconds. When we were done with that we finished the class with 3 minutes of Up Downs or as I like to call them, Mary Face Plants. It was fun to see my entire body outlined in sweat on the black floor mats like some sort of crossfit crime scene especially since it was my first time doing them and a minute and a half in I was convinced I was dead anyway and was ready to contact the police to report a homicide. Although if I am paying for it would it be suicide? Hmmm.

Anyway, if you followed all that then you will see that it was all cardio, aka my bread and butter. Hallelujah because I had tight legs to work out and I wasn't interested in lifting anything heavier than my Nalgene bottle to my mouth. My partner was a girl I met my first week, she is one of the slower girls at cardio but she is a power house with weight lifting. She also has a dinosaur skeleton tattoo on her back which is why I geeked out the first week and decided we should talk (turns out she went to school to be a geologist/paleontologist too but she likes vertebrates... I am trying not to hold that against her though).

I did really well with the workout which surprised me. I was definitely tired but not lifeless after and nothing really hurt. I am starting to get good enough at box jumps that I'm almost ready to try it full out (I step up on the box, I don't jump on it with both feet but it's getting too easy so I'm almost ready). Burpees still killed me but they are getting easier too somehow, who ever thought that would happen? I salivate when I see the rowing machine, we're now in a committed relationship and I don't want to look at any other piece of equipment because I love it that much. And biking...eh. I could take it or leave it but it's a fun change. The ski machine is the same, it doesn't seem that hard but I may not be doing it with the correct form (I used to think squats were easy before I started crossfit and learned proper form and now I can only do 30 before I want to die). So I did work out hard and I loved it but it wasn't one of the workouts that had me in a fetal postion on my bedroom floor the second I got home.

Despite feeling really good during the workout I got a splitting migraine the second I got in my car.  Like it felt like someone had an ax and was trying to break through my skull from the inside out. I drove right to McDonald's and got a Coke and that took care of it, I think because I was on top of it so fast (I can't have caffeine because it will give me migraines but if I have one it will sometimes take it away if I can get a soda ASAP). I guess it defeats the purpose to work your butt off to go and drink a half gallon of soda but it doesn't happen often so I'll deal with it.

The running was really easy because I'm never interested in pushing myself really hard with it at crossfit, why would I? I've got nothing to prove there with running. I do feel bad though whenever we run in class and there are people who are clearly not runners struggling. My mothering/helper instincts kick in and I always try to run at the back of the pack and help encourage people. They don't always like it but I don't care ;) The first half mile I ran really easy and at my warm up pace. The second I ran a quarter mile easy and then pushed myself in at the end (I was probably at about an 8mm pace) but my partner was the last one so I went back out to get her as soon as I hit the door. She told me it wasn't necessary because she is always the last one in but I told her that's not how runners are, we stay with our partner. My coach (I have three that rotate and today was the really hot one) said he really liked that I did that so I stuttered something unintelligible at him as per usual because I was gross and sweaty and he was...hot and not. Plus I didn't even really think about it, she wasn't back yet and I was so I went back out to run her in, we do it all the time in my run clubs. The third time she and a guy that is newer than me (I think he started last week) were last so I sprinted to the turn around point just to stretch my legs and then stayed with them on the way back and convinced them to sprint in at the very end. They may have done it just to shut me up (and they complained about it a lot) but I'll take it.

Moral of the story: don't run with me if you don't want me to push you. Even if I say I won't I will, you just won't always know it at the time. I'm tricky like that.

Actually, you SHOULD run with me for two reasons:
1) I want everyone to run because running makes me happy and I think it will make you happy, too
2) I am awesome and you will get to spend time with me and listen to me sing Will Smith or Rob Zombie or Bon Jovi on repeat and who doesn't want that?

Honestly.

Turning Stone Half Marathon review

The best and worst shower you will ever take is one directly following a double digit run. The best because getting all the dried salt off is amazing (especially if you're like me and forget that it's on your face and then go through the sprinklers at the finish line and scream silently inside when your eyes feel like they're melting out of your head) and the worst because you figure out every spot you should have put Body Glide on but forgot to. Thankfully for me it wasn't many yesterday.

So yes, race! It happened! And it was great!

It was at the Turning Stone Casino so how cool is the medal that's supposed to be three cards? The same image is on the tech shirt I got but I'll never wear it so I will probably give it to a friend of mine who I force all of my race shirts on.

Ironically I forgot my Body Glide yesterday. I got home pretty late on Saturday night but I laid out (what I thought was) all of my stuff for the next morning since I was getting picked up at 6:30am but I forgot my running sunglasses, my Body Glide and to load my new running play list on my phone. Sunglasses and playlist I can live without, Body Glide I can not. Luckily there was a vendor at the race that was selling it so I forked over $10 for a stick and lived a happier life (Body Glide is an anti chafing substance, it looks just like deodorant but doesn't really feel like anything on your skin but it protects all that needs protecting. It's a gift from God and I use it for everything including when I am breaking in new high heels).

I was pretty excited about running when I got up yesterday and told my friend that was running with me (and who gave me the bib) that it was just a mental health run. I realized on the way there that I hadn't run more than 9 mile since the Mountain Goat in May because of my asthma issues I was having for a few weeks and I really just wanted a nice easy run to clear my head out. I took my phone and headphones with me but didn't use them (which I didn't think I would). It seemed like a pretty small race, the half marathon started at 8am and the 10k at 8:30am and I am really bad at number estimates but it wasn't large by any means. Which is nice, I hate jostling for a good comfortable spot (I'm looking at you, Boilermaker and you, Nike Women's Half).

The course was beautiful, it was near where I grew up and was all rural running so no cars to compete with. It was also pretty easy, all rolling hills and the "serious" hills were gradual so it didn't really feel like I was putting in a ton of effort to get up them. The first 10 miles I felt great, I kept a really easy pace (about 10:30-11 minute miles) and just enjoyed running and talking to people. Oh, and singing. I like to sing when I run easy and I am 100% sure everyone around me appreciated it. There were a good amount of water stops every two miles or so and every one had water and Gatorade as options.

At mile 10 things got a little hairy for me, I told my friend (he stayed with me until that point) that I felt like I hit a wall. Not "the" wall, just a wall. He asked me if I needed a Gu and I said no, I literally felt like I was running against a wall and not going anywhere. So he left me. Typical (I would have done it to him).

I got through mile 10 and mile 11 was a little rough mentally (which is exactly what I have been using crossfit to try and work through). At one point I remember thinking, "I either need a downhill, some shade or some water...or a gun". The gun part was just me trying to be funny in my own head, it was nowhere near the hardest mile I have ever run. That, in case you are wondering, is tied for first place. Hardest physical mile was during the Yuengling half marathon in VA Beach in 2012 when I wasn't trained for it at all and did it anyway and hit the literal running wall so hard at mile 9 that I was shuffling along looking for a place to lay down on the side of the road and never get up. Hardest mental mile was the Mountain Goat this year when at mile 9.25 of 10 it finally hit me that that was the day I was supposed to get married (but obviously wasn't) and I had a total meltdown on the side of the road about it for 15 minutes straight in the middle of downtown Syracuse .75 miles from the finish. Not one of my best moments for sure but I lived.

Anyway, THIS mile 11 was just mental and I thought to myself, "Can I keep going?" and the answer was, "Yes but I don't want to" which was  fair assesment seeing as I was running it for fun. So I walked for a little bit, encouraged some people who were running a half for the first time and enjoyed the scenery. At mile 12 I got back on it and ran it in and only finished 5 minutes after my friend. Up until mile 11 I was set to PR (personal record) it but I decided I didn't want to anyway because I was running under someone else's name. Right before I crossed the finish line I saw my mom which made me happy that she came, she's a hit or miss on such things so I crossed, got my medal and Gatorade and then went to see her. I got a lecture about life for about 15 minutes (she can't help herself) and then I went inside to drink my weight in (free!!) chocolate milk (My love for chocolate milk knows no bounds and I rarely share it, FYI. So don't be asking).

Overall it was a really fun race and I'm glad I did it. I was pretty tired yesterday afternoon because I spent the entire day before at the state fair so my legs were shot but I feel ok today and am still going to go to crossfit. I'm not sure yet if that's a good idea or a bad one so I'll let you know tomorrow if I live through it today.

Crossfit Week 2: Guess what I'm doing on Sunday?

Today I yet again give thanks to Urban Decay's 24/7 liquid eyeliner that somehow made it through my entire workout without budging. This stuff is miraculous, I tell you. But don't ask me why I was even wearing it to crossfit, I know not what I do (ok fine, I was too tired to wash my face when I went to bed last night).

And that face I'm making...lord have mercy.


Today I learned what squat cleans are. And then I learned what a thruster is. And then I learned what a squat clean thruster is. And then I tweeted my chiropractor as soon as class was done and asked him if it's normal for my hands to be tingly or numb after I lift weights (I only recommend using social media to contact your doctors unless you graduated high school with them...and possibly if you dressed up as them for Halloween in the 10th grade...although that's just heresay). If you want to see what move I'm talking about I found it for you here...

Our warm up today was to run a half mile outside and at every corner we turned on to do 5 squats. There were about 5 corners and the way there so I did around 50 squats I think. The work out for today (WOD) was 1 squat clean thruster and then run 200m, 2 squat clean thrusters and then run 200m, 3 squat clean thrusters and then run 200m all the way up to 10. We had 35 minutes to complete it and I did it in about 26 minutes which I was happy with. My legs were SOLID today, they haven't felt that good running in a long time which made me insanely happy. I even finished the 10th round of running much faster than the first and was pushing hard which is so good for me. I'm really trying to focus on my endurance and not killing myself at the beginning so that I have more to give at the end of a race. I left not feeling like a shell of myself which is good and bad, bad because I really love pushing myself and good because...

I didn't mention this but as soon as I got to run club the other night a friend of mine said, "Do you want to run a half on Sunday?" and I said, "Uhhh......sure" to which he said, "Wow, you must still be sick because you actually hesitated" and he's partially right. My hesitation was because I'm still not eating great (I usually carb load 4 days or so before a half) and I have been focusing more on Crossfit the last two weeks and haven't logged a double digit run in a few weeks but eh, I'll give it a go since he has an extra bib and because I rarely, if ever, turn down a run invite. Plus I managed to eat pretty well yesterday and my legs are feeling awesome today so I'm starting to look forward to it now. So it looks like I'm running a half marathon on Sunday which will be my third of the year. I think I will probably end up running with music since I am not really doing it for time, I'm doing it just to do it and I just made a friend of mine an awesome running playlist that I haven't actually tried out yet. Or I'll just listen to this on repeat which is much more likely...

I'll let you know how it goes on Monday, have a great weekend!