Presents of Mind

I made an important decision...well, maybe not to you.  But to me.

I recently altered my workout schedule from 5 days per week to 4 days per week.  This is giving me more time at home to get chores done and relax and consequently helping me be less stressed and anxious, which I think we all can agree is a major win?

New plan:
Monday - lift (currently on dumbbell rows and overhead dumbbell presses), core work, mobility
Tuesday - REST (this can include walking to or from the bus, shoulder stability, yoga, and mobility)
Wednesday - CrossFit, core, mobility
Thursday - REST (see Tuesday)
Friday - CrossFit, core, racquetball, mobility
Saturday - CrossFit, mobility
Sunday - More Happy REST!

Yesterday was a Thursday and I was crazy sore from my attempt at Diane (and also my successful handstand pushup).  Thank God it was a planned rest day.

I was at the office for over 10 hours and was ready to be done for the day.  I ate a crap ton of food for dinner (1 spinach salad with dried cherries and olive oil, 2 eggs with 1 piece of prosciutto and half a piece of Swiss cheese on an English muffin, 2 MORE eggs with another English muffin).  I say your body is a pretty good judge of what you need.  After the first round of McMuffin, I had some water and waited a little while and read Self magazine.  When I still definitely felt hungry, I went back for seconds.  I didn't feel at all stuffed or like I overate.  Clearly I needed those calories!

Wednesday I'd made myself a small list of To-Dos for Thursday evening.  I tend towards two extremes: either make a huge list and leave no time for relaxing, or make no list and waste an evening being totally unproductive and later kick myself for it because I get stressed the next day.  I limited the list to 5 things:

Take out trash/recycling
Unload dishwasher
Reload dishwasher
Fold laundry
Yoga/mobility

I got everything done except folding laundry.  I realized we were set on clothes at least until Saturday and if we needed anything...we could dig it out of the baskets of clean clothes.

I took a bath instead of folding laundry. 

Massage bar (works in place of post-bath lotion) from my dear friend Meghan.  Apparently this one is for people with "tired muscles and busy brains."  Yes, that would be me.  It smells like lavendar.  Mmmm.  Poirot murder mystery from the library.  Not precisely a Christmas present but definitely crucial for relaxing.

Bath bomb from my sweet sister-in-law, Lauren.  You want a bath bomb, too? (Of course you do.) Here's the one I had: LUSH party popper! It makes fun fizzy and popping noises and looks pretty and smells incredible:

After bath bombing, reading, and lavendaring myself to bliss, I threw on the comfy sweats Jared bought me at H&M.  They make me feel like a little kid cause I think they look like Jasmine pants...they swell out before bunching in at the ankles.

And then I busted out 15 minutes of moblity and another 10 of yoga.  Great way to celebrate a rest day!


You tell me: How many rest days do you program per week?  Do you notice emotional burnout before you see physical burnout?  What's your favorite way to unwind?

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?

Advent Mobility: Day 24 - Last Day!

Happy Christmas Eve!  And happy end of the #AdventMobilityChallenge!

Team Matson Christmas Season 2012!

Everyone has done really great work this month.  It's so encouraging to hear athletes tell me they are working more on their range of motion and getting those messed up tissues worked on!

For today, just spend 15 minutes doing your favorite (or least favorite) mobility from the month.  If you still want something new, Mobility WOD is my go-to resource. 

Jared and I will be spending the day celebrating with his family...and then tomorrow we hit up my fam for craziness and pecan sticky buns. 

Have a very Merry Christmas and I'll post a winner of the challenge soon.

Post your time to the comments.  And try to avoid the malls today - yikes!

Advent Mobility: Day 22

Merry Christmas!

Peppermint Bark Progenex just in time for the holidays!

Only a couple of days left for our challenge.  Ready to squeeze in 15 minutes of mobility work today?  Me, too! 

Today let's get our hamstrings.  I don't know about you, but I've been sitting a little more than usual lately and my hamstrings are getting tight!

Mobility WOD has a video for us.  This should help with our rowing!

Want a little more than just mobility?  To crush some Christmas calories, check out my 12 Days of Christmas WOD!  You can do this with almost zero equipment...and it really works you hard!

Only 2 days left to win your copy of Supple Leopard!  Lorie's still in the lead but if you get your extra credit in and update me on how you're doing, you might still squeeze ahead!

Post your time to the comments.  Merry Christmas!

12 Days of Christmas WOD/24 Days of Togetherness

Merry Christmas from TheMeghaMix!

I am sporting Christmas-y workout gear at the office today, because tonight is the 12 Days of Christmas WOD at MICF!

As my Christmas present to you, I worked out a 12 Days of Christmas workout that you can do yourself at home.  You need a wall and a chair.  That's pretty much it!  I couldn't make it to the box on Wednesday night, so I did this workout in my living room.  It took me 22:33 and really kicked my butt!

Here's the WOD!  You do it like you sing the song: 1 rep of the first movement, then 2 reps of the second movement and 1 rep of the first movement...etc.

12 Days of Christmas Bodyweight WOD

 

1 Handstand Pushup

2 Alternating Pistol Squats (1 each leg)

3 Bridgeups

4 V-ups

5 Pushups

6 Air Squats

7 Burpees

8 Dips

9 Situps

10 Alternating Lunges (5 each leg)

11 Supermans

12 Mountain Climbers (left + right = 1 rep)

If you aren't up to handstand pushups yet, you can scale by doing pike pushups (from downward dog) or box pushups on the chair.  Be sure to bring your hands as close to the chair as you can and get your head all the way to the ground!

You can do the pistol squats without a target (I still need one) if you're really good, or if you need more help, do them to the chair instead of a medicine ball. 

For bridgeups you can scale to hip raises.

For v-ups, you can bend your knees, but make sure those shoulders get off the ground!

For pushups, you can do knees on the ground, but keep your core rock solid from shoulders to knees!

Most of the other moves are pretty straight forward.  Get some great music going and have fun!  Let me know how you did!


Jared and I are still having a great time with the #24DaysofTogetherness from Carrots 'N' Cake.  One of our things this week was "Buy each other a small gift."  I got him a magazine and took me to lunch and got me a really cute hat!  It was a cold day and the hat even went with my outfit - score!

 

Ponytail spot in the back!

 

 

I wore my workout clothes under the sweater to the office since I knew my motivation to workout at home would be low.  This way I was ready to roll when I walked in the door!  And I wore my cute hat during the workout.

Plus I got the latest issue of The Box Magazine in the mail - talk about motivation!

Well, I'll have a few scheduled posts for the final Advent Mobility days, but I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and I'll see you next week!!!

You tell me: Did you like the WOD?  Any suggestions for another at-home WOD?  What great presents have you gotten so far?

12ks of Christmas Recap/Advent Mobility Day 19

One Team Matson holiday tradition is the annual 12ks of Christmas run in Kirkland, WA.  We've run this every year since we've been married, and even last year when I had a knee issue, it was still a blast.

They raise money for Toys for Tots, and people can also donate toys at the event!  Jared got our race packets ahead of time, and also picked out some awesome toys for us to bring.  Not gonna lie - I really wanted to keep the Spidey basketball game for myself!

This year was extra fun since my girlfriend Meghan was running with us - her first "real" race!  She actually put in more training runs than we did.  (She's a total champ.)

We had Meghan meet us at our apartment so we could carpool together.  Jared was showing her how to put the timing chip on her shoe.

 

We loaded up and headed over to downtown Kirkland.  Thankfully we found a great spot near the start line, dropped off our toys, and headed for Caffe Ladro and some warmth.  It was CHILLY!

 

I highly recommend getting to your races early and chilling at a local coffee shop.  Standing out in the cold is no way to warm up for a run.  For me personally, I've found a hot beverage is no bueno right before running, but definitely buy something so you can have an excuse to use the restroom!  Beats a porta potty for sure.

Pretty soon it was time to get ready to run!  We dropped our gear and coats at the car.  Meghan wisely suggested a pre-race photo since we were cute and not sweaty yet.

We warmed up as best we could down by the start line.  Jared was doing "real" warmup stuff.  Meghan did some karate forms and I did pushups.  We also ran into our friends Matt and Katy, who were also running the race!  Sadly I didn't have my camera with me anymore...but so you can see how cool they are:

We all decided to start together towards the back of the pack, since none of us had REALLY trained for the event.  We started out at a good, chatty pace, and enjoyed hanging out and watching all the speedy people and fun costumes.

Around the 3rd mile, there's a big hill - the biggest of the race.  Somehow Meghan and I got separated from Jared, Matt, and Katy on the hill, and never quite caught back up.  This was also the point where, despite having gone to the bathroom right before the race started...I had to pee.  I decided to try to tough it out even after reading this exciting race day tale.

We carried on and crested the mean hill, and toodled on our merry way.  I'm glad to say that my new New Balance trail shoes held up great (even though I'd never suggest wearing new shoes in a race) and treated my feet really well - in addition to not being slipperly on the wet ground.

Things got a little harder for us when we hit the halfway point...usually there's gatorade but this time there was just water.  We continued talking away and hit the long, steep downhill and thankfully didn't trip and fall or flail into anyone.

Towards the 10k mark, Meghan was starting to get tired.  Thankfully the Lord gave me the gift of gab so I babbled and cheered and distracted and encouraged all the way to the end of the run. 

We didn't hit any amazing pace (this was actually my slowest time at 1:26 and change), but we achieved our two goals: beat 1:30 and don't feel miserable.  Done and done!  Jared finished around 1:10 and Matt and Katy around 1:20.  Go team! 

Much as I whined about training for this one, I am really glad as always that we did it.  Big thanks to Jared for putting up with me and to Meghan, Matt and Katy for being awesome race buddies!


On to mobility...my shoulders and lats are feeling kinda tight, so I will be focusing on those today.  Here's a video from Mobility WOD if you need some ideas!

This challenge has been a HUGE motivator for me.  Any time I am losing steam and don't want to take the 15 minutes, I think of you guys and get out the old lacrosse ball and foam roller.  Keep it up!  We only have five days left after today!

Also...this week's "extra credit" is meditation.  It gets really nuts as we get close to Christmas, so give yourself some much needed brain mobility!  Just five minutes sitting alone with your eyes closed to focus on breathing in and breathing out can go a really long way. 

Post your time to the comments - I love hearing about other people doing work!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas/Advent Mobility Day 18

Yesterday I decided not to do a Day 17 post. 

I hope everyone had enough Mobility WOD videos on hand to still get your work done?  I spent 10 minutes last night on my calves and feet, and then another 5 or so on my quads and lats and traps.  Anyone else finding it tougher and tougher to squeeze in those 15 minutes a day?  Last night I had someone coming over and thankfully she was later than expected, so I just did my mobility until she arrived.

Today, let's focus on forearms (this one's on an airplane)! 

hese are so often overlooked, and yet we use them in almost EVERYTHING we do at CrossFit.  And even if you don't CrossFit, you are wrapping presents and hauling groceries and moving fudge from a plate to your mouth, so we all could use the work.  Plus you can easily do forearm mobility work at your desk or while hanging out with people...which is how I'm going to sneak in mine today.

Post your time to the comments.  Help me avoid slacking off in our final week!


In other news, things are looking pretty cheery for Team Matson these days:

Watched Little Women while decorating my little tree...I'm also a huge fan of the June Allyson/Peter Lawford version but unfortunately my copy is a VHS.

Foil-covered goodies from coworkers!  With ice skate card - yes!!! 

Jared and I do Christmas as we like throughout the month.  A gift I gave him: 

A gift he gave me (after I had a crappy day).  He's the best. 

Picked a gift for my coworkers from World Vision.  Check it out!

Jared couldn't wait to give me the adorable coat he bought me at H&M.  This guy has killer taste.

Hastings (named for Poirot's friend) getting all decorated - I love tiny trees.

Hope you are all having a wonderful December of much celebration and minimal stress!

Are You Havin' Any Fun?

This week I saw a great video of my favorite CrossFit athlete, Camille Leblanc-Bazinet. 

Source

In the video, she talks about having fun with the sport, even in the midst of competition or a really tough workout.

Yesterday morning I went in to the box and asked Coach Corey if I could do some strength and skill work, and he said to me, "Sure, do whatever you need to.  Have fun!"

Have fun.

When I first started CrossFit, I thought it was a blast.  I really looked forward to coming to every workout and seeing what the WOD was.

I've had a rough patch or two where I needed an attitude adjustment or motivation to get into the box.

Since I've started getting more serious about CrossFit, I've gotten SERIOUS.  "I have to nail this lift, I have to work my skills, I have to focus on form."  "Is this a WOD I can do quickly with RX?  Am I going to be competitive today with anyone else, or just me?"  "Will I be able to achieve my end of year goals???"

And I have forgotten a little bit that this is supposed to be fun.

Havin' fun with my girls for my birthday WOD!

I am stoked for rope climbs on the programming tonight.  I used to do these as a kid because they were FUN.  I got my first one recently and hope to get all four tonight with a big smile on my face!  My goal for the WOD tonight is to have a good time while doing it.  Period.


Speaking of fun...Jared and I have been following along with Tina's 24 Days of Togetherness! 

 

Tuesday night we drew "Go out for a cocktail." But since Jared makes great drinks, we decided to hit up the store for ingredients and make our own at home.

Jared was in heaven at BevMo - he wanted to buy one of everything!

 

 

 

This bottle was just under $2,000!!!

I cheated a little and told Jared one of the activities coming up was to try a holiday themed beer together, so we got it on Tuesday to save for the day we draw that slip!

We went with the Lump of Coal Stout - can't wait to try it.

We came home and Jared mixed up our gingerbread cocktails.

 

They were very sweet, but really good and Christmas-y!  Plus it was fun to make a date night out of the experience of shopping together. 

Wednesday night we were supposed to get a photo together.  For all the pictures I'm snapping, I almost never get the two of us, so it was nice to have an excuse.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!  Don't forget to check back in Saturday and Sunday for mobility suggestions.