Christmas Week 2012

Merry Christmas!  What a whirlwind of a week!

Friday was my first trip back to the box after over a week off.  Brutal WOD to come back to...the 12 Days of Christmas!

I RX'ed (except the handstand pushups, which I did to 2 #15 plates) but man I thought I was gonna die.  I spent probably half the WOD standing around and breathing hard and sweating.  I got so mad during the wall balls (I kept missing reps) that I kicked the ball.  That'll show it.

Jess B. was my hero!  She was my WOD buddy and kept encouraging me to keep pushing when it got tough.  Love working out with this chick.

 

Yeah, 37:21.  Yikes.  Honestly, I could have done a lot better.  My mental game sucked on this one.  I kept telling myself I couldn't do it and that it was too hard...not helpful.  Also Jared said I need to work on the catch and release for my wall balls - it should help me if I can improve consistency.

Saturday morning I hit up the Olympic lifting class with my fave, Coach Jared.  Every time I go to this class I feel like I learn a TON!  It's usually a very small class and we get extra time to go over technique for our lifts.  So much fun.  For the WOD, my mental game was way better!  Every time I had to rest, I gave myself a count of 8 and got right back into it.  I was so proud of myself!

Sunday we did parking team at church, and then had Jared's sister and her husband over for lunch...and then saw the Hobbit with them!  So fun - although we were up front and my eyes hurt and that night I dreamed I was going blind.

Monday (Christmas Eve) Jared had to work at 6, so we got up at 4:30 like a typical Monday.  I went and did my Wendler W1 lifts.  I decided to do another cycle of dumbbell rows and dumbbell overhead presses.  They're not as glamorous as deadlifts and backsquats, but I've seen a lot of payoff in how they affect my pullups, lifts, and handstand pushups, so I decided to keep at it.

I was only planning to lift on Monday, but Sunday evening Jess texted me to ask if I was gonna WOD on Christmas Eve...so I said I'd hit the 9:45 class with her.  The perk of lifting at 6 is you can go home, do chores, and wrap presents before coming back for CrossFit!
 

 

The WOD was "Frandy" - a mix of Fran and Cindy. 

There were a ton of people at the class, my forearms were bugging me a little, and I didn't want to have to lose my cute hat to WOD...so I scooted into the court across the hall and subbed out the thrusters for wall balls (to work on my catch and release) and the pullups for handstand pushups to plates.  Jess and I both said we'd shoot for 10 rounds in the 20 minute time cap.

It was harder than I expected to do the regular pushups - Jared explained that it was because I was doing 3 pushing movements in a row.  But I finally got the kip on my handstand pushups!  I was so excited!  Plus I tied with Jess for 9 rounds and 7 reps.

Poor Jared ripped up his hand on his WOD...bar muscle-ups on a textured bar = no bueno.

But we were both still glad to have started out the day at the gym.  Go Team Matson!

We showered at home and loaded up the sleigh to head to Jared's mom's for Christmas Eve!  Jared and Michelle made some incredible food, including butternut squash soup and cherry vanilla rum bread pudding.

 

 

 

We opened presents, played games, and later had a gift exchange with some of the rest of the family.  It was a really fun and relaxing day!

Christmas was spent at my folks.  McDevitt Christmas requires a breakfast of sticky buns and pineapple.

 

 

 

After stuffing ourselves silly, we headed over to open presents.  My mom and dad got each other snowshoes!

My mom and I took a walk in the afternoon, and we all caught some of the Heat/Thunder game.  More good food was followed by a hilarious family screening of Despicable Me, complete with Jared's Tom and Jerry drinks.

Wednesday was goal time for me.  I only have a few days left to finish my "end of 2012 goals", so I needed to get in the box and get after it!  I had "open gym" all to myself, and after warming up and doing 15 minutes of mobility, I went to work on my full range of motion handstand pushup! 

I started with some box pushups to get warmed up, and then went for gold.  It didn't go so well.

I shook out, grabbed a #15 plate and did one to the plate.  It went great, so I figured I could try again.

Success!  I was SO proud and excited!  Not only will kipping help me go faster, but now I can start RXing more workouts - so many times I was RXing everything except the handstand pushups.  Watch out, WODs!

After one success I was ready to beat another goal: a sub-10 minute "Diane" with the handstand pushups to one #15 plate.

It was ugly.  The last two times I've done Diane, I used #135.  For some reason, I thought #135 was the RX weight, but apparently the girls RX weight is actually #155.  I was expecting to blow through the deadlifts and slow down on the handstand pushups, but that was not the case.  I linked the first 10 deadlifts but went to fewer and fewer reps at a time.  My form also wasn't good (my back is so sore today) and then the handstand pushups were killer.  By 9:59, I had done 21 deadlifts, 21 handstand pushups, and 14 deadlifts.  I was only about two thirds done with the WOD.

The good news is that even though I didn't reach that particular goal, I can tell I've REALLY improved.  I'm keeping this goal on my list for the next quarter.  And my folks got me the CrossFit Nanos for Christmas, so this coming year I know I'm really gonna tear it up at the box!


You tell me: How was your Christmas/Hanukkah/Etc.?  Any year-end goals you're squeezing in?  Eat anything really killer?