Crossfit week 6: It's all fun and games until they know your name.

For the last five weeks my coaches as crossfit could not remember my name. If you know me in person then you will probably find this weird since I'm not usually very forgettable but I don't say much when I'm there since I'm still so far out of my comfort zone. Therefore if you have ever been dreaming of the day when you are around me and I am not talking 24/7, crossfit is the place to follow me to.

However on Monday Ralph asked me what my name was (again) and I said, "Dude, I have told you 85 times!" so he and the other coach (who I will call Hobbes, he's way too young for me to be calling hot. Pretty sure I have socks older than him) spent the entire time repeating my name and correcting every last thing that I did. Every. Last. Thing. Oh, and when I wanted to just curl in the corner wrapped around my Nalgene bottle and forget crossfit even existed? They were all over me to push harder, life my knees up higher, get in 5 more reps until the clock was out, etc.

Today was the exact same way. There I was on the far side of the gym, minding my own business and getting my reps in, when Hobbes had to get on me about how I was doing my pushups. He said I was never going to get better at them if I kept doing them the way I was and I grumbled about it but agreed. He didn't correct any of the other girls on anything and neither did Ralph so I was annoyed but then I realized it's because I am so much more awesome. Do you love my reasoning and logic? Because I do.

Honestly though, it's annoying when I'm in it but I appreciate it afterwards because they are right, I won't progress if I keep doing things wrong and I appreciate them correcting me. It goes against my personal laws, aka I am never ever wrong, but I'm learning how to take it. Sort of. Only in regards to crossfit. Until I know more than them. And then it will stop.

I also met a new girl I've never talked to and was <thisclose> to convincing her to come to run club. Every single person I talk to at crossfit mentions how much they hate running and it's my personal goal to convince one or more to run with me. Because I like converts, they just need to be shown the way.

Warmup today was a 1 mile run. I took it easy, as always. I was the third to last person in but made up for time during workout so it's all good. I thought about running a mile after we were done as a cool down but I don't want everyone to know what a crazy runner I am. Yet. My constant race shirts might give it away though.

Workout today was circuits. 4 rounds of 500m rowing, 40 squats, 30 sit ups, 20 push ups, 10 pull ups. I am telling you, I need to get a rowing machine. It is seriously the love of my life and I like trying to beat the people next to me. Everything is an opportunity for a competition in my world. Until I'm losing, that is.

Sadly, I got some pretty awful rug burn that was bleeding by the end of class today. My poor hands and knees, they just hate that weird rug stuff. And have I told you about the bruises I am constantly rocking?

Hot, right? That second one is my back from the clasp on my sports bra after doing a metric ton of sit ups. Learned that lesson the hard way, it's a running only bra now.

Oh! And can I tell you about my new obsession? Sweet potatoes. I cut them up into fries, toss with 1tsp of olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic and bake them for 10 minutes at 475, flip and then another 8-10 minutes. I can't eat enough of them and Trixie is always trying to get at them too.

One of these days I'll stop eat them with ketchup. One of these days. But not today.

Have a great weekend!

Crossfit week 6: Don't take a week off. Trust me on this.

This is what a post bunny rager looks like:

Phone book pages everywhere, carrots in her pellets, glazed glassy eyes, no remorse. My rabbit needs an intervention.

(Side note: sorry for the lack of bun pics since I restarted the blog. I'll work on throwing some in sometimes since I know she is far more popular than I will ever be.)


Sunday I ran the race I signed up for last week. I've never run it before but it was fun, 4 miles of just enough hills to make it tough but not bad. It was part of the evil 10 mile all hills race course that I run in May so I was familiar with the area. There were a lot more downhills than I expected which was nice since I made some bad decisions the night before. Remind me not to go on my own rager the night before a race no matter how short the distance and how free the shots, ok? Thanks in advance. But it was the perfect day for a race, sunny and about 60 degrees which is my ideal running weather. I'm really glad I signed up for it last minute even if my time sucked because I am not convinced I was 100% sober yet.

After the race there was cold water and Gatorade and half moon cookies and free homemade ice cream from a local ice cream place called Gannon's. Post race food is my reason for living so I get pretty annoyed when all they have are bananas (I loathe bananas to the core of my being) and orange slices. I've been meaning to go to Gannon's all summer since I've never been but I didn't got the chance so even better, it came to me! I could have gotten vanilla or cookies and cream but as soon as I saw the Milky Way flavor with tons of caramel and chocolate pieces I knew it was THE ONE. It took me two days to eat it (they had them in individual cups) since my sugar tolerance is pretty low these days* but it was worth every bit.

*I'm going to have to go into sugar training to get ready for Easter and all the Cadbury Eggs it entails.


Today I made my (not so) triumphant return to crossfit. I didn't go Friday or yesterday so I found out the hard way that when you take a week off it's almost like starting all over again. We did a lot of shoulder work and arm work today and I am going to be crying tomorrow but no pain is no....pain? Ha! That would be nice.

Warm up was 1 pushup, 1 situp, 1 squat, then 2 of each, then 3, all the way up to 7 and finish with a 400m run. The workout was circuits of pistol squats (they make me feel like I have no leg strength whatsoever), L sits, box push ups, weighted lunges and then some barbell weight lifting thing (someday I'll learn all the terms but I swear I learn a new exercise in every single class). We did those for 1 minute at each station, then a 40 second transition where we had to do 5 body builders. We did 4 rounds of that and ran 200m in between each one. Oh yeah, and we did a bunch of ab work after round 3 (6 minutes of V ups and Russian twists with a medicine ball). It was the first class ever that I was counting the minutes until it was done because I felt weak and was made at myself for it but like always I felt awesome when it was over and like I was superwoman so I'll take it.

Check out my hands though, which I noticed the other day:

That's from the flooring that's in the section we work out in the most, it's this weird plastic carpet stuff that makes me think of the loop side of velcro. Turns out my princess hands just can't handle it.

I need your help...and you could get free Starbucks for it!

Crossfit posting will be back on Friday but here's what we did today:
Warmup was 100 jumping jacks with 5 push ups after every 20
WOD was the Hotshot 19 in honor of 9/11. It was created for the 19 firemen who lost their lives in Arizona in June.

6 rounds of:
30 squats
19 power cleans
7 pull ups
400m run

Did I mention that it's 90 degrees today? So I almost didn't go. But I was clearly rewarded for my determination because I was the only girl in a class of 8 guys plus 3 coaches. Remember when I said the tick pen day was the best day ever? I was wrong.



I mentioned last week that I am going to start training for a very special race and I need YOUR help with it.

On October 13 I am going to run A Run for Their Life, a 15K race that benefits a breast cancer research foundation here in central New York. It's a race that I have never done although I hear the course is kind of killer (aka my favorite kind).

Almost one year ago exactly one of the greatest women I have ever met was diagnosed with breast cancer. I, of course, freaked out because I can't handle anyone I know having cancer in any capacity but she took it like the amazing person she is, with strength and grace. If you were reading my blog back then you may remember that I was doing Curltember, where I was curling my hair every day in honor of her because she has amazing curly hair and had to shave it off. I never mentioned why I was doing it exactly but it was in solidarity of her, my awesome friend Libby.

She is now in remission and came out of it like a rockstar. To honor her journey and strength I am doing something I have never done before: I am fundraising for this race to make a donation in her name.

This race is not only important for me to fund raise in honor of her, it's also in honor of an amazing woman who is a friend of a friend who was recently rediagnosed with breast cancer. The money I can raise will directly impact her as she lives in Central NY (Libs is in St. Louis) but the research will benefit ALL women.

As I said I have never fund raised for a race before but I have donated to many others' endeavors and I am hopeful that you will help me reach my goal by October 14. Even if you can only donate $1 it's a dollar that they didn't have before.

I also have some incentive for this...

I am offering up two $10 gift cards to Starbucks in a drawing to anyone who donates. If you want to donate anonymously you can, just email me and let me know you did. After the race I will put everyone's name in a hat and draw out two winners and mail off your gift cards so you can enjoy a Pumpkin Spiced Latte or whatever else your heart desires (I've never had one since I can't have caffeine but my facebook and twitter are blowing up with proclamations of love about them so they must be good?).

So how do you donate and enter the drawing, you ask??

Just go to this link and donate on my donation page.

If the link does not take you to my page (you will see a picture of Libby and I and an awesome story about her if you're in the right place) then just search my name in the side bar where it says "sponsor participant". If you just donate to the general site it won't show up under my name or count towards my goal.

If you're on a smart phone and the link doesn't take you to my page make sure you click "non-mobile version" to get to the right webpage to search me (I found that out on my phone).

If you want to donate and don't know my last name to search me and my link doesn't work, thank you, I appreciate it! Just email me and I'll let you know what it is.


Thank you all so much in advance. I know how tight money can be and asking for donations is difficult but I really appreciate it and I know Libby and Kelly will, too!

Crossfit week 5: I have a date tomorrow.

I got the greatest present of all time in the mail today from one of my ridiculously awesome friends:

I am sure you are asking yourself, "Is that TICKS in her pen?!".

Yes. Yes they are. Not real ones (that would be way too awesome) but still. In theory I'm sure they're meant to be modeled after deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis, the most common transmitter of Lyme disease in the Northeast) but the head seems to round.

Anyway.... It was too awesome not to show off. Best. Day. Ever.

Yeah yeah, my nerd is showing. Let me put the cap back on that...



Crossfit wasn't too killer today. Warm up was five rounds of running (a little less than 200m), 5 push ups, 10 squats, 15 full body sit ups. Workout was another AMRAP, 30 minutes, of 7 sit ups, 5 wall balls, 3 handstand push ups (I scaled that, there's no upper arm strength for that yet, so I put my feet up on a 24 inch box and lower my arms until my head touches the floor and back up) and one burpee. The goal was to do 30 rounds in 30 minutes.

At first I was wondering why everyone else was going so fast and then I realized that I was doing more reps with each move than required. Oops. The good news is I figured that out within my third round so I was good. But here's the annoying thing...there were two girls next to me who were going at about the same speed I was. I'm no good with directions but when it comes to speed my running years kick in and I'm pretty good at pace. At one point coach Karate Kid came around and asked where we were at. I said 19 and they said 26. 26?! I'm all for not doing the whole thing if you can't but don't be a liar. It gets you nowhere.

Lying is my number one pet peeve, in case you couldn't tell. I don't tolerate it in any capacity (particularly lying by omission but that's a whole other issue). But seriously, who are you hurting when lying in a case like this? Just yourself. So annoying.

Guess I won't be befriending those girls. I bet they're the type to steal your boyfriend and then pretend they didn't starting dating until after you broke up.

No, I don't think I'm overreacting at all. Why do you ask?

YOU CAN'T SIT WITH US!

There's my rant of the week. I'm done now.

At the end of class we did sprints which I hate. I am not good at sprints and it's unlikely I ever will be. I can run full out, as hard as my body will go, and still be the slowest one every stinking time and barely be out of breath when I get past the stop line. It makes no sense. It frustrates me because I am really competitive and I hate losing (at anything, ever), especially when I am always with the other slow girls and I am often wearing some sort of random race shirt which then makes me look like a poser. So I asked my friend who goes to the same box and is a really amazing runner (as in I will never, ever run with him ever because it would be far too embarrassing for me) and here's what he told me:

I have no idea what he is talking about but now I have something to google.

After class I drove over to visit this hill I've been eyeing for the last few weeks. It's fairly close to my house and I've seen it a hundred times but since I've been spending more time over that way and passing it a lot more I keep thinking about how badly I want to run it. It's starting to consume all my running thoughts (don't judge, all it takes is one post to figure out my insanity with running) so I drove around it and mapped the mileage (about 1.2 miles from the route I figured out per my car) so tomorrow morning at 8am I have a date with myself to go run around this baby. If it goes well I may start doing my hill work over there because it's a lot closer than the lake I usually go to and a lot steeper...I think. I'll see what the elevation says on my Garmin and of course tell you all.

For some reason this picture does not show the proper steepness. And I kind of want to just run up the grass.

Anyway, sorry about the ticks at the beginning. Here's a gorgeous picture of the sky that I took when I was coming home from visiting the hill to make up for it.

Sunday Runday: Another race I didn't expect to do but am now

Let me tell you about the truest words ever spoken:

Let me show you proof from my run this morning:

Those are my beloved skull shorts and they're almost too big for me, sad face.

Yeah, that's me in a long sleeved tshirt to run in, hallelujah!! It was 62 degrees when I ran this morning and seeing as my ideal temperature to run is is between 50-60 I was ecstatic.

I planned to run yesterday but when the time came around I had to bail on my running friends because my legs just hurt too much from crossfit and I didn't want an injury. Then we made plans to run at 11:30 today (MUCH later than I like to run, btw. I'm a total early morning runner) but I forgot I had to be somewhere at 2 so I went on my own. I would have run at 7:30am but somehow I slept until 9:30am which is unheard of from me, I always wake up really early. It's ok though, I haven't slept that good in two months (and I'm not sure I'll ever sleep as good as I used to then) and that's just an important as a run, I guess. At least that's what I keep reading.

My plan initially was to run 6-7 miles with my friends today but I did an easy 3 on my own since I didn't have a lot of time. And I do mean an EASY 3 miles, until I saw a snake on the path that is and jumped straight in the air, screamed and flew down the path until I could inhale again.

I hate snakes.

I listened to the running playlist I made a few weeks ago finally and it'll be pretty good with some tweaking. I made it for someone who has just started running so I doubt it would affect his pace but it definitely was mine because I know the songs too well. When I get mad I run a lot faster and I had The Best of You by the Foo Fighters on repeat for a while and ran my last mile at a sub 9 (which is not my current easy pace at all). But that's why I don't like listening to music when I run anyway, I get way too caught up in it.

My legs felt really....different though. It's hard to explain. They were a little tired and tight and I had some pain behind my right knee in the first half mile but that wasn't it. They felt like they were heavier (in a good way) and had more power. Like I mentioned on Friday, I didn't run all week outside of crossfit which isn't at my normal pace or concentration to my body so it was really interesting to feel the difference. I hope that mean the 500 squats I do a day are finally helping.

In the last quarter mile I ran (literally, ha!) into the friends I was going to run with. One of them convinced me to run a race next week and by convinced he said, "I'm doing the Strathmore run next Sunday" so I said, "Oh, I'll sign up for it then". I can't help myself, FALL TIME IS RACE TIME!!! You can all keep your pumpkin spice lattes, I'm going to run as much as I can and not be a sweat drenched mess by mile 2, hooray! And I have a very special (to me) race to get ready for in October so I want to start focusing more on running and racing (I'll post about that on its own).

So I guess I'll have another race shirt to add to the stack I never wear (yes Newman, I know you want it :P) but it's a race I've never run so that will be fun. And I heard there are some killer hills, I'm getting a little hot and bothered just thinking about it.

Back to the crossfit grind tomorrow! Maybe it will finally be the day I run there and back. Maybe.

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.