80th Place

So that's where we finished up--80th in the Intermediate/Scaled teams of 3 category for women.  Out of 266 that doesn't seem too shabby.  I recognize a few other local teams that finished a little ways ahead of us--Rachel Rosenthal, Amber Zlotnik, etc. 

The workouts went ok, after I made my peace with being inferior at EVERYTHING in comparison to Jess.  She's basically superhuman, with like a 7th gear to kick into or something.  I only have 3: slow, medium, and will-die-soon (reserve this gear for when there's only 30 seconds left in the workout). I beat Lisa at 3 of the 6, a 4th is hard to compare (each athletes did different weights of deadlift-clean-overhead combos), and the 5th involved double-unders which tragically I struggled with, in spite of having been doing SO WELL LATELY with Nick.  I did the workout twice, inconceivably (it was an 18 minute AMRAP!!!!), and did better round two by a little bit, but still pretty poorly.  Anyway, it's over, I gave a good effort, and now I can get back to normal things.  Or not?

Hurt my shoulder at work doing the most retarded benign action of pushing against a heavy door.  It's right at the humeral head, and rather intensely painful with a variety of pushing/lifting movements whenever my arm isn't T-Rexed to my body to spare it.  How interesting that my perspective changes SOOOOOOO quickly.  The hours and days before I was lamenting the difficulty of working out HARD.  Then I hurt myself and ALL I WANT IS TO BE ABLE TO WORK OUT HARD!  God, PLEASE let this be brief, and minor.  I saw Dave Yancey at Accelerate yesterday and he monkeyed around with it and my feet which have been bugging me after double-unders.  HOLY MOLY on the feet, OW!  Give the girl a bullet to bite on.  The shoulder he didn't seem to find anything significant...so I guess I baby it for a while, use the quack root-beer oil, ice, ibuprofen, and hope it stops being mad.

The feet haven't been getting WORSE really, so I'm relieved about that, but also I went to Endurunce today to get properly fitted and the right pair of shoes.  Asics.  Ugly.  Better be worth it. 

I note that eating was a major lament of my last post, and that, encouragingly, has been much better.  Nothing much else to report...the Tri is coming up next, so I'll try to be diligent about the biking, running, swimming the next two weeks.  I've decided not to get clip-ins and a wet-suit...though I'll probably have a lot of explaining to do to Joel.  I don't have the money right now, and all I want to do is to DO one.  Not make an amazing time or anything.  So we'll have to swim in a sport's bra and shortie-shorts, ride with tennis shoes, and make it work.  Hopefully people will think I'm just adorable and not a pathetic idiot. 

Ctrl+Alt+Delete

That's what I feel like I should do to this entire past week.  It's been a pretty demoralizing disaster, which makes me FEEL like all the work done before equates to NOTHING.  But I don't think that can actually be true.  I HOPE that can't actually be true.  It was the 4th of July Weekend, we went quickly from OVERKILL on workouts the week before to UNDERKILL, giving up on my scheduled plan, attempts at healthy eating, etc.  The last workout with Nick was busy with people, and we didn't even get to snatches/overhead squats--the thing which should be my priority.  I did a couple cross-fit workouts at integration which went fine, but I'm totally unexceptional at (sorry for ending that sentence and this one with "at").  My GG partner was there and it's still awkward, and she got a PR on split jerk--170lbs I think.  I did 155 poorly.  Awesome.  That made me crabby all day, as I stuffed my face.  Monday I did the workout, and was thinking it was going pretty well with a number of 135lb cleans--a weight that's challenging for me.  Tyler came over and tried to fix my clean, which apparently is not improving at all.  I have a MAJOR BLOCK WITH ALL LIFTS that I CAN'T GET OVER apparently.  I DON'T extend my hips, and it's like I CAN'T.  I just smack the bar into the crease when I try, and it doesn't help me move it up.  I felt embarrassed because my form sucks so bad and I hate that.  Not that he wasn't nice--he kept saying, "You're SO STRONG," which is code for "how in the world can you even get THAT weight up with such sucky technique?" 

Monday night I skipped the swim I was gonna do. Tuesday, July 4th, I ate crap all day long and didn't work out.  That brings us to the present.  Today I DID swim, thank goodness.  It's exactly one month to the Triathlon.  Today also happens to be the day the team workouts are released (7pm), so I get to look forward to finding out JUST how much of a deficit I'm going to cause my Crossfit team.  Nick is waiting to plan my month based on these qualifiers.  Siiiiiiigggggggh.  I just feel so out-of-control and demoralized.  The optimism of the first week has disappeared with the conclusion of the month, and the feeling of minimal improvement. 

At the least I have been biking a lot for the tri, and swimming a few times also.  So my lifts still suck?  I'll just horse it up to the best of my ability like always, and then people will always hold hope for my potential ("Wow!  Think how good she would be if she fixed her technique!").  Good.  Even if that potential is never realized.

Be back sometime after the qualifier workout *eeeek.*  That'll be great when THAT'S in the past.  :D

Week 1 in the Books

Can you believe it took only two days for me to fall off the workout wagon?  Okay, I didn't fall off, but neither did I do the workout on day two.  Work itself was long, then cousin Sarah came to visit, and it felt both disappointing and rude to dismiss myself immediately for a workout.  So I got up pretty early, and used my own weights to do it--minus ten pounds since I'm short a little bit with my barbell.  It was as follows, and I completed in 11:58:

5 Rounds with 105lbs
12 deadlift
9 hang clean
6 overhead press

Left me exhausted, burning, and with a gory scrape on my right collar bone that just looks worse and worse as the days go on, haha!

The next two days I did Nick's workouts.  On Thursday I got an overhead squat PR of 85.  It's very very encouraging--he keeps saying, and I can tell he means it, we'll be able to fix the things I consider my weaknesses.  Not that it will come easily--I feel very frustrated trying to fix my extension problems with cleans and snatches. 

Friday, like a dedicated little saint, I went to row a monster metcon before my shift: a total of 5400m which is most definitely my greatest length ever.  There were scheduled breaks of 21 minutes altogether, and my time of completion was 42.04.  I think that's decent.  When I tried to break it down today in my mind, I think it comes out to sub 2 minutes 500s.  1:57 or something.  

Today after work I was gonna take a relatively leisurely bike ride, but ended up actually feeling pretty good this hot, hot day, and rode 10 miles, and beat my last time by over a minute.  Time for 10.11 miles was 35:40.  Tomorrow is another work shift, so who knows if I'll work out, but I'm excited for week 2 :).

Running...Swimming

I did a CrossFit partner workout yesterday with my dear friend and police lieutenant, Lori.  Only 7 minutes long, I guess the rest of the gym had had a hard week of workouts.  We did a bunch of rope climbs and handstand pushups, as well as some light (135lb) deadlifts.  The handstand push-ups were assisted, and hurt my head.  It would seem one really does build up a tolerance to being upside down, and I apparently have lost it.  We did 3 max weight thruster clusters before the WOD, and I got to 95 pounds, though I could have gone a bit heavier. 

I ran three miles on the treadmill at StaFit later in the evening, a 6.5mph pace, and it felt fine and good, minus the left achilles which is starting to make itself known...and really actually makes me nervous.  I can't have that bother me again!  It's so debilitating!!!!!  Today I stayed off it and biked a couple miles each way to Caribou for my study sesh, and then swam a half mile tonight at StaFit.  Super hot day, so good time for it.  I completed it in around 15:30, resting about every 100m for half a minute or so after the first 200. 

99 Days

I biked 10 miles, and got a little nervous about the burn I was feeling in my quads early on (at a 20mph pace) since I was scheduled to work out with Nick for the first time later in the afternoon.  I slowed up and finished 10 in around 37 minutes, which I think is about a 15/16mph average speed.  I hope to get up to 20 miles before the mini triathlon without too much trouble.

Working out with Nick was everything I hoped it would and wouldn't be.  A lot of very specific movements to fix the things I hate doing.  First off was 5RM front squats (125lbs) for a couple sets, then some complexes of 3x hang-clean + 2x front squat...build to heavy.  I got up to 115 on that one I think.  Lastly (and plenty), 4 rounds of some slow Bulgarian squats, ring assisted pistols, and stationary glute holds.  Burrrrrrrrrrrrns so baaaaaaaaaad.  But good.

Nick agreed to work out a plan where I come in for two sessions/week, and then do three other workouts per week at Sta-Fit.  Lauren is going to get on board for the summer too, and workout a volleyball program.  Jess said she would sign us up for the qualifier tonight.  Hurray!

Just a gorgeous hot day.  Took the dog for a long walk this evening, and now she's panting like she's in labor because she thinks she hears thunder.  GAH, STAHHHHHP!  Might have to lock her out of my room tonight. Ha! G'night!

It's gonna be a sweeeeeeeeeeet summer!

So it's June.  I like it.  I'm glad.  I have happy anticipation of things to come.  I'm making home and garden improvements, I'm a little tan already from my trips to Arizona, and my little sister is dedicated to working out, as am I.  My summer Spanish class is beating me up, but hey!  It'll be over in three weeks, and I'll be giving a 'C' attempt all I've got! Ha!

I was surprised at the opportunity almost instantly offered me to create a team for the Granite Games when I inquired at CrossFit on Tuesday.  And something in me wants to try for it, even though my teammates would both be both physically and psychologically stronger than me.  I mentioned it to Nick Stram of Apex, who has already drawn up a short plan to work on some glaring CrossFit weaknesses--most notably overhead squats, squats in general, and double-unders.  He thought the team would be a great fit, and thought he could also get me in the best shape I'd ever been in by the games if I work hard and work on a plan with him.  I want it.  I've always been motivated by the vision of others on my behalf, and here from the comfort of my couch on June first I want it.  This blog will hopefully serve to tell the story for myself--whether a mediocre tale of half-assed attempts at fitness and nutrition, and the usual progression towards apathy after my grandeous plans for myself...or perhaps a really inspirational growth spurt, well-rewarded in 100 days at the Granite Games.

Today...today I worked a 12 hour shift in Litchfield, ate pretty well, jumped 1000 jumps and ran a mile.  My best effort at double-unders was 17 in a row.  Then Lauren and I did chest and triceps.  Done.