Recovery Week/My Paleo Prizes

In the foyer at Graham CrossFit - love it!

As the saying goes (I'm paraphrasing from memory here), "You don't get fitter and stronger lifting weights.  You get fitter and strong recovering from lifting weights."

Many fitness fanatics (Team Matson included) tend a little towards overtraining.  Rest days can be few and far between and things that start out as restoration - yoga, for example - can turn into yet another opportunity to push limits and challenge our bodies. 

We can feel like it's lazy to take a day off, or fear that in just 24 hours all our hard work will be undone and our body fat percentage will suddenly skyrocket.  Or, if you've struggled with exercise addiction, like I have, missing a workout (planned or unplanned) can send you into a downward spiral of panic and sheer emotional ugly.

I've learned over the years to take at least two rest days a week, where I'm not allowed any intense exercise.  Sometimes I keep it to walking home from the bus stop and some PT exercises...and sometimes I don't do anything at all.

It's really awesome to workout at a box that emphasizes the importance of rest and recovery in a workout cycle.  Mercer Island CrossFit designated all of last week as a Recovery Week!

From Coach Corey on the MICF blog: "We are going to use this week as a de-loading week. Its been 3 months and 3 weeks since our last recovery week and its time to let our bodies heal up and recoup while we spent extra time on mobility."

Monday was a day off for me...I spent August working out pretty hard core 5 days a week, RXing a lot of WODs, and doing the Paleo challenge.  My body was ready for a break, so for most of September I ratcheted down to 4 workouts a week.

Tuesday was my overhead press strength work day, along with the CrossFit WOD: Row 3k.

Apparently I forgot to snap a photo of the results...thank heaven I use WODHub since you are obviously dying to know my time. 14:37.  It was really fun to have a strictly cardio workout, and I love rowing even though I'm still not very good at it.  I've gotten good tips on form from our coaches (explosive pull, slower return) which is helping.

Wednesday was actually another trip to Graham CrossFit!  We had visited Graham the week before, and since an appointment was taking us south and our box was closed due to a Jewish holiday, we ask Diana if she'd mind having us for a return visit.  She was totally gracious as always and said they'd love to have us back.

Jared stuck with his Invictus programming, and I joined the 10am class!  I got to see my new WOD buddy Elizabeth as she finished up the 9am, which was a nice surprise.

I thought the warmup was really fun - I'd never heard of "junkyard dog" before.  It totally made me think of something I would do as a kid...jumping over your partner's arms or crawling under a "bridge." I love that CrossFit incorporates a lot of fun movements and keeps things from being too serious.

I wasn't sure what to use for my hang clean, so I went with 70% of my recent squat clean max...70# even.  They felt actually really easy...although apparently I was catching the bar with my collarbone instead of my shoulders and ended up with a bruise.  Oops.  The WOD was really hard but really fun.  I scaled down the weight for both exercises...recovery week!  And it was still killer linking all the reps.

Nothing better after a fall workout than a pumpkin protein smoothie made by the hubby!

Smoothie

Smoothie maker!

I was stoked to get my hands on a GCF tank top on this trip.  It's a few sizes up from what I'd normally get, but they were almost out and I wanted the blue!

Hiding in my new bag...

This tank top is actually one of my "prizes" from winning our box's Paleo challenge.  Jared and I tied for first and split the cash prize, so I got to do some shopping!

Item #1: New red dress from H&M!

Looks like a skirt here, but you get the idea

Item #2: lululemon Daily Gym Bag! 

Dun dun dun

It's like a gym bag/purse -
it holds a ton and looks adorable

Item #3: Relentless tank top from Graham CrossFit!

Sorry...new stuff is distracting!!!

Thursday was another day off.  (Great trend!)

Friday my mom joined me for the 4pm WOD after we got off work.  I was stoked to be wearing my new tank top.

I apparently never did my first test...so I just did my best and ended up with 27 calories. 

Can't get enough mobility - I love it when it's programmed into class! 

"Death by" WODs are crazy.  You start by doing 1 rep of the movement, then you rest the remainder of the first minute.  Next, you do 2 reps and rest the remainder of the minute.  You "die" when you can't complete the number of reps within the minute.  Everyone was going all out by the end!  I made it through the 15th round of the 10 meter sprint but "died" on the 16th...couldn't finish in time.  Jessie set a record for the Mercer Island ladies, which was awesome! 

Afterwards I played a few games of racquetball with my dad.  One of the CrossFit principles is to "try new sports."  Racquetball isn't new to me anymore, but it is really cool to see how CrossFit helps me improve my game!

Saturday was Olympic lifting and a "Girl."  Usually the Girls are really heavy and tough, so I wasn't sure how that fit with the recovery week...

The snatch movement was pretty complicated for me, so I was glad to be going light and focusing on form.  We worked for about 40 minutes, all told.

The Girl turned out to be Annie!

I was excited to try to RX since I can finally do a few double-unders now.  Coach Jared said he'd be capping the workout at 15 minutes.  It ended up REALLY motivating me to hustle since it was slow going for me, but I kicked it into gear and finished just in time!

Hard work!

I followed up the workout with a trip to the sauna, a hot shower, and a solid hour of mobility (30 minutes upper body and 30 minutes lower). 

Great recovery week - thanks, Coach Corey for having it on the agenda!  Feeling good and looking forward to kicking it up a notch in October.


Like this post?  Find me on Facebook and Twitter!

Fall 2012 Sweataway: Day 1

Happy Fall Equinox, Jewish New Year, etc.  Whatever you call this lovely season where the days are still warm and the leaves get pretty...we have plenty to celebrate here at Team Matson:

• This Sunday, we sent off the last of Jared's med school secondary applications!  We've only been prepping for this round of applications for, like, 10 months.  We started the secondary applications in June and have been able to submit one each for the thirteen schools to which Jared applied.  Now we're just waiting for a final letter of recommendation to be submitted, and then it's on to interview season! 
• We both PR'ed on our Paleo Baseline WOD retests! (I beat my previous time by almost a minute.)

• After much suffering (not sure whose was worse...ours or the suffering of those who had to put up with us), we won our box's Paleo challenge!  Team Matson tied for first and split the prize money.  (lululemon, here I come.)  I intend to write a post soon recapping our caveperson experience and results, but for now, here's the money shot:

• God has been exceedingly gracious to us, and we've found that through His mercy and guidance, we actually like each other more now than we did when we were dating.  Crazy!

Once a quarter, we like to take a few days for a mini vacation.  Sometimes, depending on work schedules, holidays, and budgets, we don't actually go away.  We stay home, unplug from the world, and enjoy our local scenery.  The main point is that we are focused on enjoying each other's company.

In May, we went to Portland for the Rock 'n' Roll half marathon, so we were about due for the next little excursion.  We coordinated our work schedules to see what days we could both take off, and then we pulled out our "Best Places to Kiss in the Northwest" guidebook to figure out where we wanted to go.

We came up with a few options and finally settled on a trip to Mount Rainier and booked the Sunrise Guest House at Almost Paradise Lodging.

As usual, when making our plans of how to spend time, we wanted to factor in great food and great workouts.  Jared took the helm on the food and dug out about 20 cookbooks and offered me some options for meals and desserts. 

I scoped out a few CrossFit gyms in the surrounding areas so we could be sure to get our WOD on!  Jared also wanted to go for a trail run at Mount Rainier - I love hiking but it's not quite hard core enough for him, so slow trail "running" has been a great compromise for us.

Sunday ended up a little stressful.  We had intended to finish the final secondary application on Saturday...but we both kinda forgot about it.  Between church and the application and a classic Meghan 3 hour packing fiasco that involved a load of laundry and several loads of drama, we got started much later than we'd hoped to leave home.  We even had to stop on the way to fill up our cooler with groceries (thank God Trader Joe's is a chain)!!!

Getting closer...

Eventually, after Lucy (our adorable but inconsistent GPS) tried to lead us down an old gated dirt road, we made it to Almost Paradise around 6 in the evening.  I can't tell you what time it was exactly, because I had left my phone at home.  Nope, not a packing mistake.  We decided we would take zero calls over the weekend...and that meant no texting, either.  I figured it would be more freeing and less tempting if I just left the hell-beast behind.  (It seems no one broke a limb or caught rabies while we was gone...apparently the world can go on without us.  Who knew?)

You'll see this main house/lodge when you pull in.

We were greeted upon arrival by Dugan, the owners' sweet dog.  I am not a dog person (probably from years of people saying, "Oh, he's very sweet" before their pet jumps on you, slobbers on your face, or actually bites you), but this guy was really a sweetie.  No barking, jumping, or anything.  Just friendly and cute.  He was followed by Carol, who runs the place.  She greeted us kindly before inviting us in to do a little paperwork.  Afterwards, she led us around to our guest house, the Sunrise Guesthouse.

I have to admit, I was a little disappointed at first.  From reading the BPTK guidebook, I had pictured us being in a little cabin off in the woods all by ourselves.  I believe this is the case for one of the cabins, but some of the guesthouses are actually like condos within the main lodge. The view above of the main lodge is from our parking space:

You can see the back of "our" sauna on the right

So I realized almost at once that, even though our area was enclosed with its own fences and such, as far as total privacy, it wasn't what I was expecting since if we were talking loudly in the outdoor area, anyone in the driveway could probably hear us and vice versa.

Walking up the little trail...hot tub on the left, sauna on the right

However, once I got over my initial surpise, I started to feel excited to be there.  Carol assured us that our guesthouse did not share walls with the other guesthouse...all the spaces between were storage space, and all guests were asked not to venture around to other areas, so that you could be sure of having your own space all to yourselves.

Plus, did I mention we had our own hot tub and sauna?

There was a burn ban on, so no campfire this time.
Note the grill in the back if you want to barbeque!

Our own sauna (post WOD heaven)

Hot tub complete with Ernie's best friend!!!

The inside of the guesthouse was perfect!  Rustic cabin flair...without being outdated or losing any comforts.

Fireplace in the kitchen

Full fridge/freezer stocked with condiments;
popcorn near the microwave

Sitting room with television (no reception for TV)
and DVD player, along with CD player and the option of
turning on outdoor speakers if you want to sing the
Rubber Ducky song in the hot tub with full soundtrack

Slippers and extra towels in the bathroom

Robes!!!

Jared made us an amazing frittata for dinner.  As usual, he built on the original recipe, adding extra spices and cheese. 

It was killer - but so much food we decided to save some for breakfast the next day!
We generally don't play board games or card games, but Jared did bring along our knock-off Jenga game.  We took turns in the midst of cooking and unpacking.

Yes, I am usually the one who makes it fall.  Oops.

After dinner, Jared decided to go ahead and bake the pumpkin whoopie pies so we could enjoy them during the trip.  Holy yum, to quote Tina from CNC.

We finished off the evening with a soak in the hot tub.  Boy, what a treat to be away from everything and just relax!


Up next...goin' WODding at Graham CrossFit.