SELF Day 11.12 (New 1 Rep Maxes)

Flowers from one of my girlfriends - felt so loved!

You may feel like I have a lot of Self Days over here.

Well, I do.

I try to take one every month, especially since I've noticed that if I miss a month...it shows, and everyone kinda suffers for it.

This Tuesday was November's day off to enjoy life and rejuvenate myself. 

Little things in life (like hippie playdough and
monster dish-scrubbies) go a long way

I started out with a bang by lifting weights at the box.

It was my day to retest my deadlift and overhead press one rep maxes.  After a month of Wendler training, I was so ready to see if my dedication had paid off.

Technically I probably should have retested at the gym instead of at CrossFit, since the bars and plates are different, but I knew I'd have the box to myself and so I caved to my introvert criteria.

The overhead press seemed a little harder at the box than at the gym, because the bar itself is heavier (45 pounds instead of 40) and so I think the weight distribution at the ends makes balancing a little more difficult?  (I welcome your opinions...I honestly don't know much about lifting yet and don't know what role the bar can play.)

I warmed up really well, then started progessing up in weight until I hit my previous one rep max of #70.

It went up alright, and so after a few minutes of rest, I went on to try #75.

My first attempt failed, so I took a little break, and then did a few reps with the #15 bar, just to remind my body that I do know how to do this.

I went up  to try again with good focus on form, and well...here's what happened:

After getting a new PR of #75 I was debating whether to try for more, since the lift was a struggle.  I figured I could at least try #80, and if it didn't work...oh, well.

I could hardly get the bar off my shoulders...so we'll say #75 is an improvement over #70, and so I'm content.

My deadlift was another story - the plates in the fitness center have a much smaller diameter, so the range of motion for a deadlift from the floor is a lot greater.  The bar is also kinda slippery, even with the hook grip, which makes the lifts more challenging.  At the box, I knew it would be much easier and I could definitely nail my goal of breaking #175 and hitting at least #180.

I warmed up sufficiently, and worked up in weight to my previous max of #175.  I felt great and decided to jump to #185 instead of #180.  I made #185 with no trouble, hit #195, and then decided to try for #205!  This would be the first time I'd ever lifted anything so heavy...but I knew some of the gals at my box had recently done #205 and it really motivated me.

After sufficient rest, I went for the lift:

Not the prettiest form, but I got my hips fully extended at the top and was SUPER proud (as you can tell from me skipping and applauding myself).  I thought about trying for #210, but didn't want to hurt myself and decided to just be proud and call it a day.

This was my first experience videoing myself while lifting, and I must say, it was really eye-opening.  I was able to see where I was weak and where my form slipped on things - I bet you aren't surprised to hear that my back was sore and my hamstrings were not...oops.  I decided to set up my own YouTube channel and am excited to have realized this (free) resource for improving.

The rest of the day was delightful!  I got to catch up with my dear friend Beth and her adorable son, Charlie.  We had coffee and then ended up walking and talking for hours.

Charlie's a total lightweight, though.  He crashed about 30 seconds into the walk.

Afterwards I ran a few errands and then went home to enjoy snacks, my latest murder mystery (a Lord Wimsey), and the company of my space heater.

I went out later to take my husband some dinner before his basketball games, and then went to visit my buddy Meghan on her break between teaching (she's a kempo karate instructor).

Meghan and Meghan

I got there early, and figured she'd want protein (as usual), so I stopped at Emerald City to grab some smoothies and read a little more.

I peeked in for the end of her class and then we got to chat a little while consuming frozen produce and protein powder through straws.  She's a champ.

Then I finished up the evening with my sweet mother-in-law watching Jared play basketball and win.

Such a good day.


You tell me:  Do you ever take vacation days just because?  What's your favorite smoothie joint?  Any tricks you've learned to improve your lifting techniques?

Hey, Mr. Grumpy Pants

Well, I guess that's MRS. Grumpy Pants to you!

I am now halfway done with our Paleo challenge (which ends the night of 9/2).

I've been very consistent - no cheats so far...and also very whiny.  Maybe it's because I don't have any dairy or gluten intolerances or maybe it's because I rarely eat sugar or processed foods anyhow...but I haven't had the life-altering "wow I have so much energy and my workouts are great" feeling. 

On the contrary, I have been getting 8 or more hours of sleep every night but one, but I still feel more tired than I usually did before the challenge.  I've been very emotional and hormonal and my workouts at least the second week were worse instead of better.

But...the winner gets a prize...plus I know it's easier for Jared if we're both eating Paleo, so I'm not giving up just yet.  Only two weeks left!!!

Here's a recap of some bad and good from last week:

Monday (The Bad):

I fell during box jumps and seriously bruised my leg.  Today (a week later) it is less red and more green and purple.

Monday (The Good):

My walk to the bus from the box was gorgeous!

My medicine ball arrived!  I was like a little kid at Christmas, running around the office to tell/show everyone.  I'm gonna take this guy camping this weekend and make up a WOD to do!  (If you've got ideas, let me know!  No jumprope stuff, though.  I have one but it's made of actual rope and basically sucks.)

Tuesday (The Bad):

I felt like puking after the evening WOD...sometimes it helps if I have something to eat after...so I guzzled my protein shake and felt worse.  Oops.

Tuesday (The Good):

I RX'ed Helen!  They let me do "real" Helen (running instead of rowing) since I knew I had it in me to do the pullups.  The last time I tried an RX, it took me 20 minutes to get through 2 rounds.  And when I scaled Helen about a month ago, it took me 14:47 - so I'm now faster RXing than scaling. WOOHOO!!!

Wednesday (The Bad):

Work kinda sucked.  I spent the majority of the day fixing mistakes (mine and others'), and the system would not process my jobs for me.  I was in a MAJOR hurry to leave because I had a date with a really cute boy!

Wednesday (The UBER AMAZING GOOD):

This boy, in fact!

My best friend gave birth to her first, an absolutely perfect little guy!!!!

His name is Charlie.  Well, Charles, but I'm a sucker for nicknames and I refuse to call this dude Chuck.

Charlie with my mom

Charlie with his mom

And yes, she wore pearls in labor.  So classy!  Oh, and did I mention she had pre-made birthday cupcakes in honor of Charlie's real birth day?

Seriously, that was the hardest Paleo moment so far...I may just have to celebrate Charlie with some killer doughnuts or something in two weeks.  And sing to him.  Boy, this kid is a cutie!

Thursday (The Bad):

My major meltdown.  I don't know why, but these so often happen on Thursdays.  Apparently Thursday is my Monday.  I went out to lunch with my momma and even got Paleo approved food! 

But I forgot that club soda counts as a carbonated beverage for the challenge.  I was miffed that what is to me an excellent healthy alternative to soda was not acceptable to the Paleo gods.  Poop.

I had another long day at work, and then I went to play racquetball which shoulda made me feel better, but I felt all out of sorts and wiped out.  My game was just not "on" at all, and while usually I can play at least an hour hard core, I made it through three games (about 30 minutes) and could barely do a fourth!

Thursday (The Good):

My sweet dad prayed for me when he dropped me off after our match, but I still felt defeated and sick of feeling like crap while I'm supposedly doing something healthy.

I went inside the apartment and sat against the wall and blubbered away while I texted a dear friend for wisdom and support.  She's a gem...as is my husband, who came home, made me some food, and suggested we spend the evening watching Batman and Wonder Woman cartoons.

What?  It's not like I'm a total sucker for superheroes.  At all.

Thursday was a great reminder of how blessed I am to have so many people in my life to encourage me and point me to Christ when I am feeling overwhelmed, stupid, and helpless.

Friday (The Bad):

I was feeling stressed (what's new) about "missing" a workout.  I'd planned to tackle "Karen" on Thursday but my schedule didn't work out...plus I was so tired just playing racquetball that I thought it wouldn't be wise to have 150 wall balls as dessert.

I was hopeful that Friday evening's WOD would be a good one since I'd had two days off from CrossFit...but it was not to be.  I felt tired even during parts of the warmup (although Coach Jared had some good tips for me on my rope climbs - by which I mean rope-holds-for-dear-life-about-3-feet-off-the-ground).

I did pretty well on the strength - keeping my knees wide and really making sure to get low on the front squats.  But the WOD was something else.

From the first pull on the rower, I felt exhausted.  And of course, my mental trash talker leapt into action, telling me how much the five rounds would suck and how I'd probably have to give up.  I'd already scaled the power cleans to #75, and usually I'm pretty decent with power cleans.

But even in the first round, I could hardly link two or three at a time!!!

I even ended up using the purple band for pullups, which kinda crushed my spirit even more.  The high point of the WOD was the third round, when "Fake ID" came on and my mom and I started singing.  They never play my kind of music at the box (possibly because I'm into Sinatra, Elvis, and musical theatre?) so it was super energizing to have something I loved to workout to.  But after the song was over, I kinda plodded my way slowly to the end. 

Friday (The Good):

My drugstore.com order finally came!

I had ordered egg protein so we could be even more Paleo.

I was surprised at how little the container was...but apparently 1 scoop equals a serving, and our other protein powder needs 2 scoops to get the same amount of protein, so maybe it evens out.

I will warn you - we tried this stuff on Saturday and we both found it almost undrinkable (I mixed with water and Jared with almond milk).  I honestly almost gagged.  Sunday we put it into a smoothie with fruit and it was a lot more bearable.

And of course my favorite bars:

Weekend (one long piece of delightful):

I got a massage - the best I've had in my life.

I watched my dear friend Meghan (the blonde above) win trophies in her karate tournament (incidentally, she's the one who talked me off the ledge on Thursday).

I got to have some unexpected time in the gym with the hubby, who gave me pointers on my deadlift form.

We had date night and finally went to see The Dark Knight Rises.  I cried.

Jared did a buttload of chores and we got our fridge stocked and our apartment inhabitable.

We went to bed at 7pm last night.  Glory.


And now:

I am hanging in there with Paleo for yet another week...we will see how this goes. 

I am going to "deload" this week, which may help a lot.  For me, this means same number of workouts, but scaling everything.  The timing will be nice since the upcoming strenth session this Saturday is a deload as well.  It seems like that's what my body really needs right now - maybe it's not Paleo...maybe I'm just whupped and need to chill a little.


Well, thanks for hanging in there with me and all my happenings.  How was your week?

Fitness Face-off Friday: Rattlesnake Challenge

First off, a recap of last week's faceoff:

I spent the evening with my amazing, lovely friend, Meghan S.  (Obviously we are some sort of soul mates since we both have the H.  Or our parents are baby name soul mates?)  She paints, tutors math, does ballet...

Graceful Meghan

And is pretty much coocoo for cocoa puffs...er, karate...

Butt-kicking insane Meghan

So last week she convinced me to tag along with her to the DoJo.  We started things off with a picnic inside Whole Foods (yes, gotta love Seattle summer weather) - most of our food was healthy...until Meghan yelled, "Oh my gosh!  Organic maple bars!!!"  Then she tried to walk away but I was already hooked.  We split one.  Soul mates ^ 2?

Then off we toodled to Z Ultimate for a private lesson followed by the tail end of a group class.  I have to say, karate was way more fun and much less intimidating than I'd expected.  There were a few traditional rules, like bowing a certain way when walking in the door, but for the most part, everyone seemed really chill and just focused on getting a good workout and having a good time.

I learned a series of 8 blocks, and then had to put them together with footwork.  Nothing fancy, but coordination of this sort is not my forte.  Then I had to try to kick Bob to the ground.  Bob weighs about 200 pounds...so I never quite succeeded.

BOB

If you want to test your Bob-kicking powers, you can buy him on Amazon.
Then I got to punch and kick our sensei.  He had pads and such...plus I'm tiny and not very scary.  Meghan worked on her super awesome sequences that were very fast and made her look like part of a ninja video game.

We headed to group class after that, and got to kick and punch each other, and one of those big punching bags.  Meghan actually kicked me in the leg once...she felt bad, but I felt VERY cool for taking a real kick and not screaming like the little girl I am.

All in all, I would highly recommend Z-Ultimate.  If you aren't sure your life calling is to become a black belt, you should still check out their women's self-defense classes.  You will work up a sweat and gain a ton of confidence along with useful, real-life skills.  And that's what fitness is all about, right?

This week's face-off: The Rattlesnake Challenge

A family friend has been hosting this killer event every summer for several years.  This will be the 4th one...and I've missed every R.C. so far.  Italy, weddings, etc. kept getting in the way.  Tomorrow, that's all going to end. 

The challenge is thus:

• Run 2 miles
• Bike 6 miles
• Swim 200 meters
• Hike up Rattlesnake Ledge

You can do it alone, or as part of a team.  My dear friend Bethy and her husband Kyle asked Jared and me to join them.  We're still working out whose leg is whose (limbs are so confusing!) but it looks like I might end up with the swim.  Yikes!  I have a serious looking swimsuit and I've done the Dara Torres ab workout from a magazine...but I'm not really a swimmer.  I guess that's why it will be a challenge?

If I don't drown, I look forward to posting photos of this crazy shindig.

Happy Friday!  Get moving this weekend!