May 26th – cautiously optimistic!

Posted on by Sandy
20140525_122837
muscle percentage – up!
20140525_122828
fat percentage – down!

Well, I’m cautiously optimistic. I’m down 1.2 pounds, BUT most importantly, I’m down 3.4% in fat – !! My muscle percentage is up – I’d have to go check the scale because I can’t remember exactly what it was (luckily, it keeps a record). But I know it was 30.something. Pastor/Coach Bill even said to me today that it looked like I was “leaning out” which felt good. He was the one who was quite overweight, then started doing Crossfit (a while back – I want to say 5-6 year ago) and after his first year – and ever since! – he’s gotten to the Games – !!!

I’m not particularly hungry on this “eating plan.” Granted, sure, I “cheat” – as in, we still have “champagne Sundays.” But it’s interesting – I feel odd when I “cheat eat” . . . as “cheating” as I get, mind you. This is not a bag of potato chips, or a cupcake. Example – we went out for sushi yesterday after the theatre with Mom and Dad (3-1/2 hour play! It was good but – holy cats!), and (since I’m allergic to fish) I had a number of California rolls. Then I went home, and went to bed! (laugh!) The rice just did me in. I suppose it’s good, in a way – and as I said, I don’t feel faint, lightheaded, angry, or “whatever” at all, like I have on other eating regimes.

One thing though that’s kinda funny – H mentioned it to me yesterday. I have become an organizing FREAK. I’m usually pretty much a proponent of the entropy style of drawer and cabinet organization…but I’ve been FANATICALLY cleaning out and organizing all the drawers in the kitchen, etc. One thing that this eating regime is supposed to do – if it’s WORKING – is to eliminate the “brain fog” that’s part of having hormone dysregulation. I didn’t really think I had it – but now, I have so much energy, and this “desire” for organization, I’m thinking that I’ve had “brain fog” for a long, long time and just didn’t know what it was. H thinks it’s hilarious, mind you. I mean, all the pots and lids are together . . . even the dreaded “junk drawer” and “tupperware cabinet” are now completely organized.

Yesterday I painted the air conditioning units – my TAR workout for the day. Way up on a ladder – well, “way up” for me (2nd story of our house), and leaning out off the ladder to paint the units on all sides. Today, I have some law work to do, but I did Murph at Crossfit with Tracy and her daughter Lilly (and their dog Tai lol). It’s run a mile (we all did that), then 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 squats (which we just did “round robin”), then run a mile (which we split, I did 1/2 mile, they did 1/2 mile). The pullups was the one where we’d each fail the soonest, so whenever the pullup person would do “enough” they would basically tag out the push up person, who would then tag out the squat person, who would go do pullups. I thought I could do the pullups with the black band, but not today! So I had to have the black band plus the red band. Tracy did it on the red band, Lilly did jumping. The interesting thing is this black band didn’t feel as “thick” as usual – I’m curious if they’re all lifting the same weight. (Yes, that’s me trying to somehow reconcile why I could do the green band Friday and I couldn’t even do the black today…)

We were the only team – most folks did it alone, or did it alone AND with weights (Martin, Karen, Mikaela, etc.) After, I went with Tracy J. to get a book for her travels with Guy to Poland and wine tasting in France. She hadn’t read “Almost French” so she got that, plus The Railway Men – Guy is reading a book about the Washington (State?) crew team that she’s going to read then loan to me.

And, that’s all she wrote for today ;-) I have to go do the work that needs to be done – I’ve procrastinated all weekend about it.

 

May 20 – Day 267 – YAY Dave and Connor!

Posted on by Sandy

I am SO EXCITED – finally watched the final episode of The Amazing Race last night – and Dave & Connor won it, and the Country Singer Girls came in 2nd! SO SO excited!

The weirdest part is that last week (I WISH I had written it here!) I had this “premonition” – when I was up on the ladder painting the air conditioning units, thinking about TAR – that went something like ‘Wonder if they’d ever put teams up to do like window washing?” Yes, I really did. I can’t believe it – since the 2nd to last Challenge was for them to go up in window washing “rigs” and change bulbs in the “I” on the “Mirage” hotel sign in Vegas. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it.

I often have “premonition” thoughts like this (my friend Joy from Girls Gone WOD Podcast and I have discussed this), and unfortunately I VERY RARELY write them down, or tell someone about them. Then when they happen, I have this “DANG IT!” experience – because of course the reaction is “Oh yeah, sure, you thought of this.” Amazing!

So as for a TAR Tip: When they were screwing in the lightbulbs, it seemed that each person on each team kept track of how many they personally did, then added the two up. I think it would have been better, perhaps better Television, and also kept the fear at bay (holy moley they were WAY UP THERE!) to do it out loud. It would have especially been better Television, because you would have had the team going 1-2…then they could cut away, then 50…. then 241! (That was the final number.) I was thinking that if (when!) Moddie and I were doing it, I’d be doing them top down, she would be doing them bottom up! (All the teams did it top down, but then again, they didn’t have such disparate sizes.)

So why am I blogging again? I know- shock – 3 posts in 2 days! Probably because I didn’t go to Crossfit again this morning.

H is gone on a work trip, and I didn’t go yesterday because I had to get him out of here. Tuesday I normally go to Crossfit with him, at 6:30 p.m., and I might still do it. But I just set an alarm to go off this afternoon, and to go out and do a hike up the hill and back, with weights on my back. I really do think I gotta get on the stick with that stuff. So I am starting today.

I did wind up quitting yoga work/trade. I do feel “bad” about it. But not perhaps how you’d think. I feel “bad” in more of a “stupid” fashion. I have done that work/trade for . . . lord, 1-1/2 years now . . . and I would have to say that I haven’t even averaged 1x/week if you look at it across the entirety of the time I did it. Gail did say that I still get “credit” through I think she said June 21st to “use” work/trade, which I really do need to do. (Note there the “need” not “want” – that’s interesting.)

I spoke with Wendy (the yoga instructor) about this yesterday. I talked about having to lose the weight, and really being committed to that more than anything else right now. She said that she understood that. It’s not like I’m weak, or faint, or anything (actually far from it) with this “new eating plan” – in fact, I feel more “galvanized” to REALLY lose it this time. (For whatever reason.) I think it’s probably all the weighing of every single thing I eat – it’s SUCH a pain in the neck, but I keep telling myself I can stop, AFTER I lose the 35 pounds. As such, I have to cut anything out that is not moving me toward that goal. The yoga was great, and I actually know that people that do yoga (especially Power Yoga) really burn a TON of fat and get into AMAZING shape. I just think that’s not me “right now.” Right now, I’m “thicker” than I’ve ever been, and, as Wendy said to me, I can always start work/trade again if I want, and I can do yoga when I’m happier in my body.

That’s what happened with pole dancing for me – I gave it up when I started to gain weight, and it was just not comfortable for me to do it any more. I loved it – but that extra weight just made it too difficult to do what I wanted to do. Moreover, where I had learned had not spent a lot of time on “preventative” issues – hence, my shoulder getting so messed up. (They didn’t even have you swap hands – you always have one dominant “pole hand” that you’re holding on with, and the other hand that is generally off the pole e.g. when you’re twirling, etc. – and my pole hand was my right hand – which led to the shoulder issues that just never cleared up – until Crossfit.)

I feel pretty motivated today by how things are moving forward. We’ll see. I’m cautiously optimistic, and feel that I can “stick this eating plan out” until the weight is gone – then add back things SLOWLY but I am now committed to the understanding (as two of my doctors have been harping on me about) that “this is how it goes after menopause” – that my portions/calories have to be DRAMATICALLY lower than someone younger. It’s sad, but it’s the “granny on the ice flow” issue – once you’re past your reproductive heyday, to keep from being “pushed out on the ice flow,” metabolically, you need FAR FAR FAR less food than you did before, because you just use it more efficiently/don’t burn it up as fast.

weight body fat 2 7 14I thought that I could just cut all the “bad stuff” (not that we ate that much “bad stuff”) out of my diet, and the fat would just melt off. Seriously, I did. So now for the past…wow, LONG TIME, I have been gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-and-sugar-substitute-free (except a drop or two of stevia in my tea), bean/legume-free, soy-free, starchy-vegetable-free (e.g., potatoes, etc.), white-food-free (no rice, etc.) . . . yeah, as I’ve always said, my “eating clouds and unicorn feathers” diet! I had, however, moved into a higher fat diet (e.g., Bulletproof coffee, etc.) I just think that will be fine once I have actually lost the fat I already have – but I don’t think that it lends itself to burning that fat. That’s what “the experts say” should happen – but it didn’t. Whether it’s just that I don’t need as much “energy” as “the experts” imagine, or what, but though I didn’t gain weight – and I felt better than I’ve likely ever had! – the higher-fat diet didn’t affect my own personal fat percentage (31%) at ALL.

So now, I’m eating the same dang thing every day (I get to swap out the “green” vegetable – but everything has to be weighed). I’m also eating things that were completely off my list (like corn). I’m willing to give it a go. As Jen from Wine to Weighlifting said, she would never be able to sustain this eating plan/number of calories. The thing is – that I don’t feel hungry, I don’t feel faint, etc. Though I do feel “nosh-y” – the desire to eat something – that’s really just a “mouth thing” not a “hunger” thing. It’s interesting. This is only week two, but we’ll see how it goes.

The picture is my weight, and fat percentage (180.8 lbs., 30.1%). I was up as high as 185, but I was at 182 when I started it last Monday (didn’t take a picture), same fa percentage. This is where I am now. I figure I will weigh myself every Monday. What is my “ideal” weight? 150-155. Yes, I’m tall, but I am skin-nee. That’s what I weighed at my best shape ever, very buff and lean. (Not “lean and no muscle” – 155 is my “lean and buff” weight.) All during my 20s until I really started working out I was 140 – that gives you some idea.

And, what’s the eating plan again? Just so you remember, it’s from a nutritionist (in Ecuador), and is based on chemistry balancing:
Breakfast: gluten-free English Muffin with no yeast in the ingredients (or 2 slices yeast-free bread) with 2.0 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese; BIG glass (16 oz) water with Alkalime added, BIG cup of tea with stevia. (you can have coffee but it has to be black, or black with stevia, and I only do coffee with cream.)
Snack: 150g. watermelon or 2 tangerines, or 1 passion fruit, tea/stevia, water. If before either of the two snacks I’ve worked out, replace that snack with a 30g protein shake immediately after the workout (if I don’t have it between finishing and 20 minutes after, I don’t get it, I get the usual snack).
Lunch: 1 ear corn, 8 oz green veg (asparagus, salad with 1t. olive oil/lemon, spinach), 4oz meat (chicken, beef, pork, fish, etc.)
Snack: 4 gluten-free crackers, tea/stevia, water
Dinner: Same as lunch.
In Bed: 16 oz. water with full spectrum minerals, herbal tea.
Herbal tea, water, water with lemon/lime/ginger, black coffee or tea with stevia any time.

So that’s all she wrote, folks ;-)

To continue…or not to continue…that is the puzzler (yoga work trade)

Posted on by Sandy

So.

Back seemingly a billion years ago (I think it’s coming up on a year, but it might actually be 2!), I started yoga at a bikram studio nearby. I was doing it with my friend Belinda which was great – we each got a Groupon (actually, I got the Groupon for her so she’d go with me!), and we went pretty religiously.

In fact, I’m almost sure that it was coming up on 2 years ago (wow!) – because I always seem to do these crazy things around my birthday and the holidays – and “this past” year, I started Crossfit. so this was like a year and a half ago.

Belinda found out that we could do work-trade, which would give us free yoga in exchange for working for the studio 2-1/2 hours/week. That sounded like a great deal, because yoga is not inexpensive. We both started doing work-trade, and would meet for yoga. Ultimately though, the heat was really bothering her, and so she wasn’t able to use the yoga like she’d thought she would, and after a while, she dropped out of doing the work-trade.

I’ve kept at it, and I keep telling myself that the 2-1/2 hours that I’m working will “goad” me into using the yoga weekly. It just isn’t happening.

Part if it always comes down to that “community” thing. I haven’t really found the “community” or “social” aspect in the yoga studio that I have at, for example, Crossfit, or Spin when I used to do that. The idea that if I don’t show up, someone will ask where I’ve been.

I want to want to go to yoga. And when I do go, I do like it – I do a one hour (not 90 minute) bikram class, and I do like how it makes me feel.

But right now, I feel like I have a lot going on. I want to work long-distance aerobics back into my schedule (as per the previous post), and if I weren’t doing work-trade, I could do it Mondays at that “sweet spot” of time (2:30-5:00 p.m.) Considering that I try to get to the bikram class before that (1:30-2:30) – and that’s usually the only yoga class that I wind up making – I am out of pocket from 1:15-5:15 p.m. on Mondays, and I think I could do something more productive with this time.

That said, as H is usually working in the city on Mondays, I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m likely to just fritter the time away.

I think I’m going to send an email to the manager before I chicken out, telling her that I have to quit doing this. It’s just not “time economically” smart for me. I know that I”m one of the best work trade people she has – she was VERY upset when Belinda left, and I know that I’m at least as good if not better than she was. (I also steam clean the floor, which no one does otherwise.)

I’ve written to Moddie, to see whether she might be able to do something TAR-ish on Mondays with me at that time – and it would also mean I would go back to doing Crossfit on Mondays, because I wouldn’t be “stuck” with a day that was cut up too badly to get any work done.

I wish I had more “will power” – because I do know that yoga is “good for me” and would be “good for me” to do. But at this moment, my goals really are to lose the weight, which in my own little pea brain is better served by going back to doing something more highly aerobic during that time – and who knows, after I lose the 35 pounds, I’m quite sure the manager would welcome me back with open arms (as I KNOW that I’m good at this). The key is not pissing her off, which is not a simple task. Part of the issue is not only that I wind up not going to yoga because (like today!) I wind up having a work teleconference scheduled smack when class would be, but also H doesn’t really particularly “like” me doing the work-trade, because he sees it as a stupid trade-off, ROI-wise. He feels (which I think is probably true) that I should be doing something that gives me a better ROI – whether it’s working on my business during that time, or on myself.

That said – HERE GOES – I think I’m going to send that email now before I chicken out!!!

May 19 – Day 256 – catching up; regrouping for TAR

Posted on by Sandy

Last night, caught up on back episodes of The Amazing Race in anticipation of the finale – then didn’t watch it (don’t tell me! I’ll be watching it tonight.)

As always, my biggest Tip is: READ THE CLUE! Team “Brenchel” really messed up – actually read the clue OUT LOUD saying that they had to pick a boot (for a boot throw) that was either “an 9 and an 11” (as in, one of each) or “an 9 or an 11” (meaning, a pair from either size 9 or size 11), then Rachel specifically picks up a 10. It was odd. I actually replayed it (I was making dinner and listening) because I thought “oh, they must have read the clue to say “a size BETWEEN 9 and 11” – but, nope. READ THE CLUE! :-)

At one point, the two Challenges were either learn to dance Flamenco, or do this “run through the streets with the bulls” thing where big beefy guys in big bull “bubbles” tried to run you down as you tried to read the clues. I know Moddie doesn’t like dancing, but HELLO, that comes up, WE ARE DANCING (laugh). That was brutal! One of the Afghanimals twisted his knee, which was a real bummer, as they’ve turned out to be rather likeable guys, and they wound up coming in 4th. They had said they would U-Turn the Brenchels, and they U-Turned the Cowboys – who came in 4th on that round. Interestingly, they probably made the right decision (thinking that the Cowboys are a stronger force to be reckoned with than the Brenchels), but I’m sure it was bittersweet when the Brenchels beat them out into the Top 3! Interestingly, Connor and Dave didn’t U-Turn anyone, saying they “couldn’t” – not sure why “couldn’t” versus “wouldn’t.” They wound up coming into the finale in first place, and I do want them to win, though I wouldn’t mind if the Country Singer Girls won. Seems implausible, but they’ve gotten “saved” twice by coming in dead last on non-elimination rounds. One I watched yesterday was in Switzerland, and watching the gal drag full metal jugs of milk down off a hillside made me want to lift weights while watching :-) Another “tip” – if given the chance to pick a dog to do something that involves dragging, PICK THE BIGGEST DOG. In this same Challenge, Connor picked a very energetic, sweet, female Bernese Mountain Dog to pull the milk cart, whereas the Cowboy picked a big beefy male. They were “neck and neck” but the Cowboy’s dog was just that much stronger, and Connor sort of had to pull his dog along.

Well, that’s enough of strategic thinking. My supposition at this point is that Moddie and my video wasn’t picked, sadly – because I think we would have learned by now. I think that they are going to do the filming sometime fairly soon, and as has been pointed out by other competitors, there is a LOT to do before the filming – getting visas, shots, etc. – so I think we have to send in another video on the next intake. :-)

One thing that I’ve discovered this past week is that Crossfit is great, but it’s not enough. Yeah, I generally go 5 days a week, but I had two experiences this past week that were humiliating to say the least.

The first I think I wrote about – I went running with the Hash House Harriers in San Francisco. Granted, it was basically climbs up stairs and the worst hills in S.F. followed by long straightaways (not the most ingenious run), but I was completely done in after it. I don’t think we ran more than 4 miles.

Then yesterday, H and I went on a bike ride (both times I forgot my Garmin – which I just went and fetched in the disaster of construction in my ex-office and put into my new office) – it was all of 12 miles or so, from here around China Camp the “Trader Joe’s way” and back – and it just went disastrously. H had to wait, and wait, and wait – I wound up in an asthma attack at one point. What happened to the gal who could do 100+ mile rides, and handle China Camp three times around as an “off” day?

Well, she’s 35 pounds heavier, for one – and I now realize that while doing Crossfit has helped me to build some “aerobic capacity,” it’s more on the “sprint”-type side, than on the long distance side.

I suppose that should be self-evident, but I had thought that Crossfit would help in biking or running at least SOMEWHAT. Nope.

Okay – perhaps one thing – my shoulder didn’t ache after the biking as it’s been known to do, so that’s a good thing and I did notice that.

What this means is that after writing this, I need to go and to actually “slot in” longer aerobic periods. If I’m going to aim this at TAR, I think that I need to actually get on the stick and haul out H’s backpack, and start loading it up with weights and trudging it up to the top of the hill across the valley and back. It’s not hard, won’t take all that long, and will be good practice. I forget how long that turn-around is – I used to do it daily as part of marathon training (and used to run it!) – I don’t think it’s more than 2-3 miles round trip.

(Oh, as an aside, one of the Challenges – where the Brenchels chose the Wellington boot throwing – was at a manor home, and teams got to dress up in sort of “Downton Abbey”-esque clothing and skeet shoot. I’m not sure if Moddie would choose skeet shooting, but that is something I Have ALWAYS wanted to try!)

Anyway – so that’s where things stand. Second week of this eating regime, not particularly hungry, not weak, haven’t lost any weight or fat. Last week was:
Monday (5/12): Did the Hash run in the evening – killer, as detailed above.
Tuesday (5/13): Wound up having work to do, so didn’t make it to Crossfit, but walked Tam Valley to the ocean and back with Francine. It was SO HOT! (Up in the 100s Monday through Thursday – ridiculous!)
Wednesday (5/14): Did Work-Trade and Crossfit…I have my times and weights in my book, but it’s downstairs – this was a killer….
PART A: 5 Rounds For Max Reps
30 Sec On 30 Sec Off
Front Squat 40/25KG
Double Under
PART B: For Time
30 Wall Ball
40 Pull Up
50 Burpee
60 V-Up
70 Thruster 20/15KG
800M Run
Thursday: Did something not great to my shoulder on Wednesday (think it was the burpees), so took a pass (also had work to do). Archery with Kat – our first time on the range “alone” (without instructors).
Friday:
5 Rounds For Max Reps
30 Sec On 30 Sec Off
Rest 5 Min Between Each Couplet

Russian KBS 2/1.5P
Toes 2 Bar

Push Press 40/25KG
SDHP 40/25KG

Box Jump
Burpee
This took nearly 40 minutes just by the time alone. It was fun, but a killer. I didn’t do burpees (shoulder) – did “reverse” burpees which are like candlestick rocks, but in a ball instead of feet up. Hard on my knees near the end, but it was basically fun. Actually took my computer to the box, and worked on work there because I was supposed to get a call to go to coffee – it didn’t come, but got some work done on the couch there. Sometimes, when I get home and shower, etc., I spin my wheels – so I actually did get a good bit of work done though folks kept coming up and talking to me ;-) Friday night Tracy L. and Margo from the box came over for wine and appetizers – so I did break the “diet” for a couple glasses of white wine – the heat had lifted so it was super nice.

Saturday: H and I worked outside, including getting me up on a 2-story ladder to wash the air conditioning units and the top of the outdoor fireplace, in “anticipation” of painting. Raaaawr! (laugh) That night I had a Cookhouse cooking/dinner class, and I was exceedingly good (sigh). No wine, though it was flowing, etc. I did however have a fresh-baked chocolate chip cookie (gluten-free, blah blah blah, as all the Cookhouse classes are for “allergenistas”), but did NOT have any of the birthday cake they were passing around for one of the guys – helped clear the table instead.

Sunday: Yesterday was the bike ride, then champagne, yeah, and then I wonder why I’m not losing weight (laugh). Didn’t actually have lunch or snacks, and both breakfast and dinner were on the eating plan…made H a BUNCH of appetizers to have with the champagne…out of all the things that I didn’t want to have in the fridge any more! :-)

Monday (today) – trying to catch up still – will try to get to yoga, though not sure I will make it, do have work trade to do. Also need to get H out – he has a trip to SLC. The plan for today is really mainly to get him out, get my desk and computer “cleared up,” make a couple calls, and prepare for tomorrow, when I plan to really start getting things up into the attic. (We christened the new attic stairs, etc. yesterday – YAY!)

My grandboy’s surgery is coming up in a bit more than a week (the 28th). REALLY HOPING that it works. Fingers crossed!

May 13 – Day 250!

Posted on by Sandy

Sometimes, things just snowball ;-)

I used to have a great assistant, Chris, at the beginning of having my own law firm. (She, VERY SADLY, retired once she was of age to get social security – still miss her!) She had worked at my Big City Law Firm, and unfortunately they’d done a few stupid things, leading to her getting permanently disabled. (What sort of stupid things could get someone permanently disabled? Well, how’s about completely re-rigging the secretary/word processor stations so that you couldn’t “see” the computers if you were walking down the hall – meaning, all the computers and keyboards were completely unergonomic – and no matter how much she complained about it or tried to put her screen up on books, etc., they kept “citing her” for doing it – so ultimately, yup, like 4 carpal tunnel and neck surgeries later – POOF disabled.)

Oh – but I digress (how unusual!)

Chris used to commute into the city on the transit bus from Petaluma – which is a LONG WAY. She would get up at something like 5:00 a.m. to get to work on time and not get home until like 8 p.m. She raised two daughters, had community interests, paid her bills, went to the gym, and did this.

After she was just working for me (which was mostly virtual), she commented at one point that she couldn’t figure out how she could have DONE what she used to do. Meaning – that she was NOT working 40 hours a week, commuting, etc. – but seemed to still be running around like crazy.

That’s how I feel!

I am lucky to not have to work all that hard. Now, mainly that’s because I am The Best Wife Ever. My husband has a SUPER stressful job, and my “job” (as his career has advanced) is basically to take better and better care of him. I still have my law firm, still make $ on an MLM and also on my books. But I don’t have that 40+ hour a week job, commuting, etc.

And STILL I wind up not having “time enough” to do everything I want to do! HOW could that happen?!?!

Anyway – so I haven’t blogged for a while (my daughter nudged me about it today ;-) ) I have had some great stuff happen – got to spend some time with the grandboys which was a BLAST, been on a couple of weekend trips with the hubby, been shopping for a new car.

I have been going to Crossfit – and doing my work trade at yoga, and SOMETIMES even USING the yoga.

I am back doing a fantastic learning class with JLI on Wednesday nights, and Thursday nights, I’m doing Archery with my friend’s daughter Kat (which is a BLAST, I have to say!)

But I have stuff popping up constantly to “remind me” that I haven’t done my GiveIt100, my EveryMove, MyFitnessPal, name-that-tune.

I think that “way back when” I was actually sitting at a desk in the city every day, I somehow had “more time” to do things like that. Because you always had “lag” time – and you were in an office (not at home). When I have “lag time” at home, there’s always a cabinet to re-arrange or a shelf to tidy (or, face it, the cat to play with).

Today I did have a couple of billable client things to do – but I’ve been trying to clean out my FollowUpThen.com account some, before heading off to a walk with a friend in Tam Valley. I use FollowUpThen to “push forward” things that I want to read, or do, or reply to. The problem is that I just keep forwarding them! So I actually watched/read/replied to some, so I feel like I’ve gotten them a bit more manageable.

I started ANOTHER new eating thing today. Yes, yes, once again. I did a 21 day “Challenge” with some friends, and though I ate as I do (no gluten, blah blah blah) – plus this one allowed one glass of wine a week – I didn’t lose a pound OR any % of fat. So I’m going off the rails a bit.

I spoke with a friend, who is a nutritionist from Ecuador. This plan is based on alkaline/acid balance, and is quite regimented. As in, you have to weigh all your food (she loaned me a scale). It’s eating VERY different things that I’ve eaten in the past while. Her point is that I’m over 30 pounds higher than where I want to be, and have been for a LONG TIME now. Nothing seems to budge it. So she’s putting me on this plan, and we’re going to see how it goes. It’s very different than anything I’ve ever done. But her theory is that if I can get my body fat % down, FAR down, then I can add back things after that, and even if I fluctuate some, I’ll be at or around “goal.”

So, what does it consist of? Basically, eating every 2 hours – black coffee, 2 pieces gluten-free/yeast-free bread (I’m doing English Muffins) and 2 oz part skim cheese for breakfast, snack of 8 oz watermelon or 2 tangerines, lunch of 3 oz chicken, ear of corn, greens with lemon (asparagus, spinach, salad greens), snack again (or a glass of a protein shake if I work out – that’s what replaces the snack either morning or evening after Crossfit), dinner same as lunch. Herbal tea and 10 glasses of water during the day. It comes out to about what I have been eating “calorie-wise,” but it contains a lot of foods I haven’t had in forever (bread, cheese, fruit). What the Hell. At this point, I’ll try anything – SERIOUSLY!

Yesterday, I ran with the Hash House Harriers for the first time in YEARS. A friend wants to hash in Brunei and Borneo, and so wanted me to “take her” to a Hash basically. She’s a FAR better runner than I am – especially as I haven’t run AT ALL since September when I did the last Nike! Just a few 200m or 400m “here and there” at Crossfit. So we went, I basically clued her in on the do’s and don’ts of hashing, and she loped off (laugh). Seriously – it was BRUTAL. It went up to Coit Tower, up Little Lombard, up the Coit Gardens, around and up over Broadway and some hills over there – yes, we went down, too, but it was mainly stairs, stairs, and ridiculous climbs, with long, straight runs in between. NOT a “clever” Hash at all, and it basically knocked me out! It also went WAY later than I’d thought, because it was a “wine stop” run. What that means is that 3 times during the run, there is a 5 liter box of Franzia merlot along the way, and you can’t “progress” until the entire box of wine is drunk. Yeah, really. I was wearing a white shirt, so begged off (she doesn’t drink) – but there were certainly enough people to make that wine disappear. AND there was a beer check, too, then beer at the end. Ah, the Hash LOL.

It’s supposed to be 100 degrees today and HOTTER tomorrow. What a SMART idea to be going off hiking with a friend now at the heat of the day! (laugh). Well, off I go – then to Crossfit with H.

:-)

April 24 (Day 231) – REMEMBER THIS when things go sideways…

Posted on by Sandy

nyad oneHaven’t written in a while. Things are all basically the same ole’ same ole’ – Crossfit, work, a little yoga, etc. We went to Calistoga which was fun, planning our trip to Vancouver Island, etc.

One new thing is I started Archery lessons last week – I am NOT VERY GOOD but it feels awesome. I even conned my BFF Alex’s daughter to come with me tonight. She’s the one that YEARS ago when Hunger Games (the book) first came out said I would love it – then we both eagerly awaited the next books together! It’s going to be fun to go with her. She’s a great kid.

In fact – in Archery, I not once but TWICE hit a steel beam from the length of the shooting area SO hard that the arrow “panged” off it and back BEHIND the shooting line – yeah, shattered the arrow. What a bad *ss. LOL. Funniest part was (this steel beam is not very wide), the instructor joked “betcha can’t do THAT again,” and within about 4 more shoots I “pang!!!” – had indeed done it. I said “good thing we didn’t put money on that, huh?” Oh so impressive in my missing-the-target-ness. (I quit when I actually quite accidentally hit the bull’s eye. I was wrapping up anyway because it’s killer on the shoulders and a lot to think about – but that happened and I didn’t even shoot the rest of the quiver – I just said “I’m GOOD!” which made the 2 other small children in my class laugh.)

HOWEVER, the reason I’m writing is I had “one of those days” in Crossfit today. Part of it was just general fear, in that because I am doing Archery class in the evening, I can’t do the Conditioning WOD as usual. I have to do the other track, in the morning now, on Thursdays before heading to the Farmer’s Market.

chalkGranted, usually, the Conditioning WOD is actually HARDER (example: You have to do the same WOD as the Pro WOD, with lighter weights, but add a 1 mile run before and after). But this time, the “Pro” WOD had all sorts of things like muscle ups, hand stand pushups, etc. During the Conditioning times that I go (M, W, F mornings) there are people doing both – Tuesday and Thursday nights is JUST Conditioning, but Tuesday and Thursday mornings is JUST Pro.

Anyway – I went – even though I’d peeked at the WOD. Coach Russ was leading. I love Coach Russ! The only problem, though, is that he’s a very “concerned” coach. So every time he’s watching me scale like a freakin’ boa, he comes over to discuss other things I might do, and he’s so earnest that I wind up crying. (I have only worked out under Coach Russ like two other times, and it happened both times then, too.)

Today, it was squats. I have been doing Crossfit for something like 7 months now. When I say I “can’t squat” folks all sagely nod their heads, but they don’t realize I REALLY can’t squat. I know that it’s partially because of all the training I have done for the last few years – my quads are WAY overdeveloped, and my hamstrings and glutes basically aren’t even turned on. Plus, I have a BIG bubble butt, which pulls me backwards (yes, really).

muscle up armThe WOD had muscle up practice first. I worked on “standing muscle up” practice. This means you have to grab the ring with the “reverse grip” first (seen to the left). Of course, I had to have Coach Sera (who was eating breakfast!) come over and SHOW me for the 1,000th time, since Coach Russ was helping all the bad asses who were doing REAL muscle-ups. Trying to get this grip makes me feel like a complete spazz. I can NEVER EVER do it. So I made Margo take a PHOTO of my hand, so that I can LOOK AT IT next time.

The idea of the standing practice is to hold the rings in the reverse grip, then lean all the way back to straight arms (feet under the rings), then pull up, keeping the rings right in at your body, flipping them as you put your head through. So you wind up with your elbows bent and your shoulder blades pinched together, quite low in between the rings. (Some folks can lift their feet off the ground at this point – I can’t.) I worked on this, and “my version” of kip swings which just means hanging there and doing a hollow rock and a superman – because when I try to “alley oop” even an INCH, it hurts my shoulder.

Next practice is what did me in – everyone was doing front squat 5 x 5s. So. I can’t even do front squats with a BAR. Not even the 10 pound “swirly bar.” I can ONLY do it with a 7.5 pound dumb bell held under my chin, and even THEN I often wind up not making it “up” at the bottom, thereby sitting down BOOM on the box. (I ALWAYS do ANY squat move with a 20″ box behind me – so my legs are either side of the “corner” of the box. NOTE, however, that I started with the tallest box and have at least worked DOWN to the shortest one. Yay me.)

Coach Russ came over, and asked what was the issue with the squat – was I actually injured, did it hurt, or was it just strength? This is where the tears started (I feel them even writing now!) It’s that “itchy nose, watery eyes welling up, hold your eyes REALLY open and DON’T BLINK so that no tears come out” thing. I was so frustrated. I would have LOVED to have said “no, it’s pain,” or it’s my knees, or it’s SOMETHING, but no, it’s just No Strength.

He made me show him squats, my “style.” Here’s the deal, I can squat down oh, about 3 inches (yes, really). Then, I don’t have any “midrange” really at all – and though I can get to the bottom of a squat, I either have to hold onto a vertical or I have to have my body so far forward to balance my booty that my forehead is NEARLY on the ground. (That’s an exaggeration, of course, but not TOO far off.) So Coach Russ worked with me on that “midrange” level. He said that I really just have to do that, working it down slowly, until I have the squat. That any time there is a move with “squats in it” that I’m doing myself a disservice to “try to” do that move when I don’t have the squat part.

Now, I know that. But FOR GOODNESS SAKE! Feeling SO defeated! Half the moves in the box involve squats (and it’s not like I can do OTHER things, mind you – but lots of folks use bands on pullups etc. – this squat is just me, all me.)

The next part of WOD I actually got the okay from Russ to just do the Conditioning one (since it was the same time – an 8 minute AMRAP). Theirs were 3 handstand pushups, 3 chest-to-bar, and 6 box jumps. Conditioning was 6 regular pushups, 6 pullups, 12 box jumps. So I did that, with the black band for the pullups, and kneeling pushups, but working on form the way Coach Anthony taught me, then actual box jumps (not step-ups) onto the 2-25k plates.

Michael photobombing Margo
Michael photobombing Margo

At the end of the WOD, Michael was over helping Margo with a ring thing. He’d seen that I was basically crying during the WOD, and asked about it. I said it was frustration (and then of course talking about it made it happen again!) He said that he was watching me do the pushups and that my form was REALLY great, and that he actually admired that I was really trying to do moves RIGHT instead of trying to get the most rounds in a bad-form way, or hurting myself. He’s hurt now – as are a few folks in the gym. I said what I said above – that I was just SO frustrated that 7 months in and I can’t even do a squat. He said that at least I wasn’t injured.

And then it hit me. I actually said to him: “Wait a second. When I came into Crossfit, I was injured. Both my shoulders and my knees were totally screwed up. Remember how I used to have to even do burpees against the wall for months and months?” And his eyes got big (since of course it takes a while for people to “get to know” you so he didn’t “know” who I was really back then), and he said “OMG that was YOU?! So you’re actually saying that NOTHING hurts you to do now?” And I started laughing. He laughed too, said “Well, that’s probably a first in Crossfit, someone who comes broken and gets un-broken, you gotta remember that!”

He also said that he’d been doing Crossfit for about 5 years, and that there are SO MANY people that make it a month, or two, and don’t really particularly progress, and then just QUIT. Now, with no false humility at ALL here, I am BY FAR the worst person in my box – at EVERYTHING. I don’t have ONE thing I can say “oh, I’m better than <her> at that.” But Michael’s point was that where “physical moves” are concerned, sure, I was the  lowest, but mentally, I was in the Top 1% for Perseverance.

 _IGP5837I wrote that in my training diary today. It’s hard to remember a lot of the time. I read blogs and listen to podcasts and such and I feel like such a lame-oh. There are gals saying “oh, but I only have a 90 pound snatch” (or whatever) and I think “I have a PVC pipe still, after 7 months.” But I work really, really hard. I don’t ever slack off, I go as hard as I can. (I’ve gotten “Fran lung” with the best of them!) And I guess that’s the thing – and that’s why the Regionals folks from our box and such know who I am now. They even cheer me, when I’m still heading out to run or jumping on the box or picking up the bar when they finished 10 minutes before me. 

I have to remember that.

April 16 (Day 223) – catching up.

Posted on by Sandy

Too much going on to blog, do my GiveIt100 videos, etc.

Well, maybe not too much going on – but this thyroid stuff is knocking me for a loop. Can only do one or two things in a day (versus my usual 12,000) and I just have to lie down. It’s so weird.

Yesterday, H wanted to plan our trip to Vancouver Island instead of going to Crossfit. So I made him do Tabatas with me (then film the last “round” so I could put it on GiveIt100.com!). Jump rope, rope climb (just lying down to standing up), situp/pushup, and handstands up against the wall. HERE is the video (remember, GiveIt100.com you can only post 10 second clips).

I’m trying to keep track of what I’m doing every workout in Crossfit – today was:

10 Min Kipping Skill Work – Coach Anthony worked with me on this. I wore my Natural Grips – what a difference! Took a second to get used to them but WOW if you do not have these, go buy them now! Coach Anthony basically had us “rock” our feet as LITTLE as possible, to be sure we are NOT using our legs, but more our core. He also said we had to point our toes. Just basically squeeze your abs (hollow rock), then arch your back (supermans) – and let your feet follow, don’t SWING your feet. He said that until you really had that going, then you shouldn’t use your legs/feet because you’ll never get the “core” part if you start by swinging your legs. Makes sense, actually. And with the Grips I could hold on for 4-5 tries without falling off.

7 Min AMRAP – 3 rounds plus 4
20 Lunge Step – I did this holding onto the upright, because I am working on form, form, form.
12 Pull Up – Did this with the black (80 pound) band and the low box).

14 Min AMRAP – 4 rounds plus 10m row
200M Run – I did 250 row instead, as I’m working the row. Did MUCH better. Put the erg on 6.
10 Burpee – these just suck. Did them as best I could, but I am doing “real” burpees now.

There were pushups in the warmup, and Coach Anthony worked with me on them (me on my knees) to really get my forearms straight. He said folks rarely work specifically on this form fault and it wears you out. Also keeping my elbows right in at my sides. We had jumping rope in the warmup (just 3 minutes of straight jumping) and though he corrected a lot of form faults, he didn’t correct me which made me feel good. He did say I have to work on lunge steps because I have to get away from the vertical – the balance part being part of the exercise. I do know that, but I’m still working on the form. As Coach Bo showed me, I’m stepping backward into the lunge, because that’s a better simulator of the actual move (versus stepping forward but holding on). Also you can really concentrate on stretching out that back leg and getting the knee to the floor.

Day before yesterday (yesterday being Tabatas with H) was:

 Practice Kip Swings – Coach Bill had a different method than Coach Anthony, where he DID want us to swing hard forward, back, then at the next forward, bend at the knee and get enough “oomph” to bend the elbows/approach the bar. I liked Coach Anthony’s way better, because I understand where he’s coming from. If I’d known it then I would have done it (remember, this is “chronologically backwards”)

4 RFT – I have my time in the book, but that’s in the car. ;-)
400M Run – I did a 500m Row instead, working on form. It still sucked!
15 OHS 20KG – on this, I tried the PVC pipe, Coach Bill said my squat is just so bad not to use the overhead at all. So I squatted down to the short box, but no overhead.
10 Toes 2 Bar – as usual this was just knees up for me. I was REALLY missing the Natural Grips!

For Time – Once again I have my time in the book, but that’s in the car. Will fill in.
25-20-15-10
KBS 1P – I did 0.75 pood (Orange kettlebell)
Box Jump 20″ – I jumped up to 2 stacked 25k plates. Everyone was stepping up to their box so I felt good to be jumping.

This weekend (again, remember, working backwards) H and I did a lot of gardening again, plus we walked to San Anselmo for breakfast on Sunday (I sent photos on the way to try to entice J to come ;-) ) When we were coming home, we passed a “final final” sale at Roger Barbour, and we wound up getting a few things. That of course started me on a round-robin of cleaning out first the sideboard in the dining room, then the glass cabinet, then the upstairs where there are some kitchen things, then the pantry. H had cleaned the pantry out when we got the new TV (it has to slide back to be put away, so H had to cut some of the shelves in the pantry! He organizes things totally differently than I do. For me, I put (as an example) all the baking things together – so bowls I use in baking, whisks, cookie cutters, pans, etc. Then in other spot is all my ikebana/flower arranging stuff – so bowls/vases for that, “frogs” to hold the flowers, etc. What H did was to take ALL the ceramics and put them together (cooking or not), ALL the glass together, etc. I just followed his lead, moving more of the “serving ceramics” and such into the pantry. It freed up a LOT of space, and it’s much easier to find them than some here, some in the sideboard, some upstairs, etc. Then I moved the good crystal to the sideboard, freeing up the glasses cabinet, and stopping me from panicking that I will knock one down when getting down a glass. That also allowed me to move our good water glasses, etc. (that were UPSTAIRS) down into the sideboard too.

What we had gotten at the Roger Barbour “garage sale” (if you don’t know Roger Barbour) was of course Japanese antique-type stuff. I got a tea caddy, a couple of hand-thrown raku “tea ceremony” tea cups, etc. Then after everything was away, H mentioned that he was surprised I hadn’t put anything we’d gotten out for display on the display shelves in the downstairs half bath. Well, of course, I never thought of it! So that made me clear out the shelves (dusty, dusty) and re-arrange things onto them. I mentioned how odd I thought this was to my Mom and she said that (TMI!) since H would “face” the shelves (they surround the toilet), he would of course notice what was on them, whereas we would not be “examining” them as it were! That made me laugh.

We had Kimmie Powell’s Jahrzeit at Brian’s house on Sunday. It made me SO SAD! I just can’t believe that she’s gone. SERIOUSLY. Brian seems a LOT better, but he was SO bereft. They didn’t have kids, and had been married since I think Kimmie was like 19 and Brian 22 or so – meaning like 35 years. I remember when she’d first passed away (we were in fact in Austria), Brian said he just didn’t know what to do with himself. I’m glad he’s looking a lot better.

One last thing, then I gotta get to work. When getting dressed for Kim’s Memorial, I went to put on my “tried and true” memorial dress. It’s a longish short-sleeved black dress with a nice pattern of leaves on it, buttons in front. Well, I slipped it on my arms, then went to “oomph” it up my back – and it BOUND on my biceps and I got STUCK! Funniest part was that I could move my hands, but I sort of looked like a chicken. I of course immediately texted a friend to tell her I was STUCK (she’s a Crossfitter), then I had to call H to come up and release me. He laughed so hard I thought he was going to fall down the stairs. Frankly, I should have had him take a photo because I KNOW it was funny looking! (Even funnier is this is the SAME DRESS that I slammed into a door on the cruise ship just as we realized that we’d left the key inside – so once again TRAPPED. That time H was trying to convince me to just unbutton “those three wee buttons” that hold the dress together from the front . . . uh, oh, call the purser!

That’s enough of that! Tomorrow I’m subbing at BNI (really wish I hadn’t agreed to do that – would rather go to Crossfit), then Farmer’s Market, then meeting with M and K at Cafe Verde at 11:30 regarding the paleo food company, and then I have my first archery lesson that night in Novato. Tonight is “Skype swap” with J – not quite sure HOW we are going to do this, but I’m sure it will be fun ;-)

 

 

April 11 (Day 218) – be vewy vewy qwiet…

Posted on by Sandy

So, if you’re ever my Crossfit coach, and I ever just stop moving, best not to bark at me to keep going. (Even a nice bark, Coach Bo.) Because it means I’m trying to stay very, very quiet so I won’t throw up.

I’ve heard about this “work so hard I threw up” syndrome from various gals, but this was a first for me. Oh sure, I’ve worked out when I was sick, and that’s made me heave-ho, but I mean being totally 100% well and then doing a workout that makes ya wanna barf.

And now for a little non sequiter commercial break: A law client, who is a very “wears a business suit and tie, probably to bed”-kinda guy, contacted me yesterday to tell me that “a channel” had given some information to him about my past life. If I “didn’t want to hear about it or that weirded me out” then just to say the word, but of course, HELL NO, tell me! So HERE’s a link to the guy that I was . . . and speaking of getting a ‘roiling stomach,’ the thing that FREAKS ME OUT about this reference is: (1) I have a serious fascination with all things Teddy Roosevelt, and he was Secretary of State under Roosevelt, (2) I had mastoiditis when I was a tiny baby but all went fine, (3) I have family high up in the State Department, and that’s what I thought I’d be doing (or a spy) with my life, though it just didn’t happen to go that way, and  (4) Harvard is actually built on land that came from my (Shepard-side) family. Enough of that freaky commercial break. Oh – no – one more thing – I have a super friendly “feeling” for Kevin Bacon (the actor). Hard to explain. My friend Theresa is actually his agent, and we were talking about this just last week when she was with him at an event in Tampa. I wonder if (dot dot dot) – Great-great-great-great-great-grandson, perhaps?

SO, back to Crossfit.

Yesterday’s WOD (which I did at 6:30pm with H) was:

Part A: 10 Min AMRAP
15 Sec Ring Support
30 Sec Squat Hold

Part B: For Time
1000M Row
75 Wall Ball
1000M Row

On Part A, I did the ring support with the blue band (not as easy as red but easier than green, purple, black – yeah, don’t ask, the only one I KNOW is black because I use that for pullups and it’s an 80 pound assist). I could have done this with the red band. What this involved (Rx) was getting yourself up off the floor between the rings, straight arms, hands gripping facing “palms forward” to lock the arms out, shoulders down. You could do “palms toward your legs” if you couldn’t get the arm lock “palms forward,” but the key was to have yourself perfectly straight, not hunched forward, shoulders down. I didn’t have a problem with this, and felt pretty good, actually. I could have done this with the red band. (Note re the band use: For the scaled, what you do is loop one end of the band on one ring to anchor it, put it over to the other ring, where your other palm holds it. Then you put one knee onto the band between the two rings. In the warm-up, we were doing dips this way. But in the WOD, you just held straight. So your one foot is off the ground, but your other knee is in/on the band.)

That 15 seconds was a TOTAL rest for me, because of course the other part was a squat hold. The THEORY was to squat just below knee level, and hold it. Ha ha ha.

I can either squat (yes, holding the vertical, but only with one hand now, to keep from tipping backwards – so sort of a “claw” not a real “hold”) where my thighbone is at like 45 degrees (so 1/2 way down to thighs horizontal/knee level), OR I can squat ALL the way down, but not in between. It’s a no-woman’s-land of squatting for me. So Coach Bo had me go to the full (“third world squat”) squat, and “bounce” from there for 30 seconds up “towards” where he wanted me to be. I could bounce up MAYBE an inch. The problem with that of course is that at the end of the 30 seconds, I had to just let go with my hand, fall backwards to my butt, roll to my side, and use the wall to get back up. There wass NO WAY for me to “stand up” from there.

I only ALMOST cried once. I feel so pathetic when I do this!!!! Luckily it was almost at the end of the squat, when Coach Bo came over and basically said “No, you’re not doing it high/hard enough” – so I rolled over, stood up, surreptitiously wiped my eyes facing the wall, and then did the hang, which I was rocking at.

I got 5 + 15 seconds.

On Part B, I tried to do everything Karen had said on the erg, and the BIGGEST difference was my straight body position. Coach Bo kept coming up to me though and telling me that I was STILL not getting the “full ride” off the back of the pull, so (like Karen had said), he said I had to really wait at LEAST a “beat” before pulling back. That said, I felt a LOT more “fresh” at the end of the 1000 meters (both times) than I usually do. I do know that I have to “push/pull harder” and get more “oomph” out of the forward part of the movement – but in reality, I was mainly concentrating on form. And, yeah, I gave as much as I had to give!

In the wall balls, I used the corner of the short box to squat down to. I see so many people who don’t do wall balls the “way they are supposed to be done” (e.g., squatting below knee level). Now, granted, that’s always been me, too. But it’s just not right. So I’m trying to rectify that by using the box. This allows me to go down to 20″ (which is right at or a bit below my knee level, as my calf measures out to 21″) without fearing that I’m going to wind up on my ass.

75 is a LOT of wall balls. I did this with the 10 pound ball – yeah, fine, it’s the “lightest” one we have (all the other girls did 14), but again, I really wanted to work on form, PARTICULARLY as I’ve never really done a good squat for a wall ball. So that meant my routine went something like this:

Hoist ball to under my chin.
Squat down until butt grazes the box.
Stand up, using the momentum to launch the ball over the line.
Catch the ball with “scooped” arms (elbows pointing to the floor, if that makes sense).
Hoist ball to chin.
Repeat.

I know that you’re supposed to use the ball coming down off the wall to get you “back down to” the squat. But that dog don’t hunt for me. I actually got a routine going pretty well – I did them in sets of 10 until about 50, then sets of 5, though I never actually really “stopped,” I would just rest for a beat or two with the ball up to my chin. I felt fairly happy with that. I laughed because Joy and Claire of Girls Gone WOD, Joy hates rowing, Claire hates wall balls. So I messaged Joy I’d just done the “Joy and Claire’s worst workout” WOD :-)

This was followed by another 1000m row – I forgot to see what my first one was, but the second was 2:18, for a total time of 18:27.

Best part of the night? Oh, I’m SO SO EVIL. Coach Bo was wearing khaki board shorts, and squatted down to show what he meant for the Squat Hold (e.g., not all the way down, but below the knee), and in showing what he did NOT want us to do (“third world squat”) he SERIOUSLY ripped the shorts. I mean, the whole crotch gusset split. I was watching from the side but I just hope that he wasn’t Commando in those shorts!

It had been Farmer’s Market day (YAY!) and so I’d picked up some awesome fresh mussels & veggies. I made mussels in reisling, fresh spring garlic, and sun-dried tomatoes, and a salad of “picked that day” lettuce (H even commented on how fresh it was), avocado, and langostino tails with of course the standard homemade awesome dressing (mac nut oil, fresh garlic, glop of Dijon, coconut vinegar, Andy’s Rub seasoning). Tonight I’m making a pot roast using our new pressure cooker (so chuck roast AND bone-in lamb stew meat from the 1/2 lamb we got, plus fresh ox tails from the grass-fed guy at the Farmer’s Market).

SO TODAY, the WOD was:

Part A: Min AMRAP
3 Burpee
6 Deadlift 55KG
9 V-Up

Part B: Tabata
Pull Up
KBS 1P
Box Jump 20″
Overhead Squat 15KG

Part A wasn’t so bad, and I did it at Rx (yay!) – I did 4 rounds plus the burpees. I have to do the “very careful” burpees because of my shoulder, but I’m SO happy I am doing “real” burpees now. (WHO ever said “I’m happy to be doing burpees?” Yeah, no one, ever. But I do actually mean it). What that means, as the physio showed me, is I put my hands on the floor at my feet, walk my feet back to the “plank” position (one foot, then the other), then let myself down, elbows in/by my sides SLOWLY until I’m on the floor, then get up by doing a reverse “Downward Dog,” walk my feet in, stand, clap. Of course, it takes forever – I mean, I can do 3 when everyone else is doing like 10. But I feel great about it so I’m not really fussed about it.

I did the Deadlift at Rx, which was HEAVY. Not as heavy though as the one that was in the Open workout with Deadlifts, so I did know I could do it. I felt very accomplished (pat, pat on my back). For the V’ups, I just don’t have that move. So I did the scale on those – flat/face up, then knees in, sitting up, and back down. I can’t put my hands over my head either, because it strains my shoulder too much (have this issue with a number of moves in yoga, too – ones that look totally easy, like Balancing Stick – have to do them with my hands back). Anyway – I still count this as doing the workout “Rx” because I did “a version” of the V-Up and I DID do the burpees and the deadlifts Rx. (I used to do burpees against the wall, or against the desk, because I couldn’t put the strain on my shoulder.) Gotta figure out a way to “work on” the V-Up, and I’m afraid it’s going to just be starting with regular situps. Can’t even do a Tabata set of “regular” situps without having to grab behind my knees somewhere after the 2nd or 3rd one to get myself up.

ANYWAY, so for Part B, yeah, Wow. That sucked.

Pullups: I did these as jumping pullups in my corner, off plates. I can’t do the “swing forward” part, so I just hunker down (knees bent) ’til my arms are straight, then spring up using my knees to get my chin up and over the bar. I don’t like doing this. I would MUCH rather use the band, because I actually feel like I’m “doing” pullups. I probably should have done that this time, because on the “rest” in the Tabata I could have just stood on a box. I was thinking that we were going to have to do the Tabatas as 1 Pullup, 1 KBS, 1 BJ, 1 OHS and back, around and around (everyone did) until Bo explained that no, it was a full 8 round Tabata set of pullups (4 mins – standard), then the 10 second Tabata rest, then a full Tabata set of KBS, etc. Anyway – I got 60.

Kettlebell swings: Funniest part about this was EVERYONE (okay, except me, such the Virgo) was wandering around trying to find their kettlebells, spots, etc. when Bo shouted “3-2-1-GO”! I had my kettlebell sitting on a tall box right next to me. It really made me laugh. (Made Bo laugh more, mind you). This was supposed to be 1 pood (red), I did it at 0.75 pood (orange). I got 52. HOWEVER, somewhere around the 5th or so round, I realized I was about to puke. Of course, it was JUST as Coach Bo was looking at me. I didn’t start the next round. He “yelled” at me to get going, and I just sort of pointed to my eyes – because I was seeing stars – I probably should have pointed to my stomach. I was able to breathe, and then get going after, and didn’t actually throw up, but it was touch and go there. I got 52 reps.

Box Jumps: I had cavalierly set up the 2x25k + 1x5k in a stack to “do” jumps up to, because in my last post about Crossfit/box jumps, I had thought I could go a bit higher than just 2x25k. HOWEVER, I was right on the edge of losing my cookies, so I stepped up instead. I wasn’t the only one, though. I just didn’t look at Coach Bo at all during that round because he kept saying “ONLY step up if you can NOT do a jump at ALL.” I just pretended that he probably wasn’t looking at the back of my neck. I did 71 reps, stepping up.

Overhead Squats: Yeah, another nemesis move. I made Coach Bo show me for the umpteenth time how to do these (I keep thinking they are Thrusters). I thought I’d be able to do it with the swirly bar (10 pounds), but, yeah, nope. I did squat down to the lowest box, so at least the squat was good. I tried in the first round to do the 10 pound bar and I could only do one, and only about 1/2 way down to the box. It felt scary on my shoulder, the weight was not good, etc. I tried one more time on the 2nd round, no go, so during the rest I sprinted over to get a PVC pipe. I did the rest down to the low box, with the PVC pipe.

The thing that’s really weird is that when I do this move (I remember this from the Open workout that had them), the bar isn’t actually over my head. It’s almost more “behind” my head (almost “on” my head). I’m not sure if that’s because I’m doing what Coach Bo says and have a wide, “arms-all-the-way-straight” grip, or what. My freakin’ condor wing arms mean I am holding right at the end of the bar. But it’s not actually over my head – when I squat down, it’s up straight and I look like everyone else, but when I’m standing up, theirs is over their head, whereas mine is more behind or on top of mine. Could be a shoulder thing. I figure I will work out with Sera on this and she can help me when we get to the 1-Rep Maxs.

I couldn’t drive away from the box for a LONG TIME after, I really still felt sick. Went with M to Trader Joe’s to get stuff because we’re going to try our ideas on Paleo recipes. I had to sit in my car at the grocery store, then when I left her, sit AGAIN in the lot at United and at Whole Foods. I finally got a Perfect Bar and a cup of coffee at Whole Foods, just in case it wasn’t that I was beat to sh*t but that I was having low blood sugar ;-) I knew I was feeling better when I tweeted two postings that made me laugh….

“Why can’t we be more like the male lion, who just has to loll around and look pretty while the lady lions do Tabatas around him?” (Can’t you see the visual?!) and

“You know that feeling @ the end of an Ironman when you’re about to puke but happy? Yeah, I did that in Crossfit today, like 16 hours faster.”

(It should be “efficient” fitness not “functional” fitness LOL)

Once I got home, I realized there was NO WAY I could meet with a client as planned, so cancelled that until tomorrow. Hate to work on Saturday, but there wasn’t a chance in Hell. And that’s my check-in! Long, as usual, but so it goes!

April 9 (Day 216) – erg – erg!

Posted on by Sandy

Ok so yesterday I had a ton of stuff to do (today, too actually), so I didn’t get to the box. I went to my chiropractor and the only time he could see me was right in the sweet spot of when I could work out. Luckily, he’s right down the road from the box, so after my appointment I went over and just did some pull up practice (with the black band), “hanging” practice (from chin above bar to straight arm), and then just “skipping rope fast” (not double under, just practicing single unders, but fast).

The black band is such that when I use it, I’m still lifting 100 pounds of “me.” No I will not tell you what the black band represents ;-) You can figure it out ;-)

I did set up another set of chiropractor appointments for every other week (WHY do I ever stop – ?!?! I feel SO MUCH better after!) – so now I just have to contact my masseuse. I buy “packages” from them – and I have some to use! (Again, WHY do I stop? I ask you…)

So last night, we went out with some friends to use an auction “win” that they’d gotten of a wine/dinner at Il Fornaio. We drank TOO MUCH great wine. Even had dessert. (Yes I stayed gluten-free – found out my friend is also g-f, also because of Hashimoto’s.) We haven’t seen them in like – lord – has to be at least 5 years, and I’d forgotten how much fun it is. Best part is the guys got on fabulously.

This morning I was feelin’ every glass of that wine but went to the box anyway – funniest part was that 3 of the OTHER girls were in the same boat. Apparently there’d been a school fundraiser that all of them had been to and “though the food was terrible” the wine was flowing – so it was maybe even WORSE than my situation – they’d been “wining it up” but NOT eating!

The WOD today was:
Part A: 10 Rounds For Max Cal On Rower (20 Sec On 40 Sec Off)

Part B: For Time
20-18-16-14-12-10-8-6-4-2 – KBS 1P
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 – Toes 2 Bar

There weren’t enough rowers, so Mikaela and I buddied up. This meant that we finished way later than everyone else (we did our last 3 sets side-by-side to save some time) – so when it got to Part B, none of the orange (0.75 pood) kettlebells were left. So I used a yellow (0.50) because I couldn’t do that WOD with the red (full 1 pood).

AH, you ask, what is a “pood”? According to Wikipedia:

A Pood (Russian: пуд, pud), is a unit of mass equal to 40 funt (фунт, Russian pound). It is approximately 16.38 kilograms (36.11 pounds) and is used in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine.

(So there).

Since our bars, weights, and kettlebells are all metric (and the kettlebells are in “poods”), the “red-taped kettlebell” is about 36 pounds, meaning the orange is about 27, the yellow is about 18. (Hey, I know you were wondering.)

I wrote down how many calories I got on the row, and also how long the Part B took me – but I managed to lose the paper. I suck at this “logging” thing, obviously. I want to say that Part A was 63 calories. That sounds about right. Rowing for 20 seconds is like NO TIME AT ALL.

In Part B, I was doing “knees up hangs” and as I mentioned, scaled to 0.5 pood. Tracy-the-tennis-gal was back (YAY!) and she had an orange and a yellow next to her – so I stood by her side, and when she swapped down to the yellow (at the 12), I took her orange and swapped up. (Such a stud, am I LOL). She can do toes to bar like a champ, which was quite amazing, since she and I are pretty evenly matched in running, erg, weights, etc. But DANG she just whipped them out.

Because of the pull up/hang practice yesterday, my forearms were SHOT, and the hang/knees up were killing me. By the end I was sort of doing an “ally-oop” of one knee up to ‘get’ the other knee up. Yes, I do it from the floor, I just couldn’t do it from a full hang or I would have had to do them one at a time. My hands definitely were feeling it, so I came home and ordered The Natural Grip – the last thing I want is to start ripping.

Karen, one of our box athletes going to Regionals, came up to me when I left the erg to “yell at me” about my form. She is not as tall as I am, but close (I bet she’s about 5’10”) and she said I was “wasting” my leg length on the erg.

I KNOW that this is true. When I was rowing at Georgetown, we didn’t do much (read: any) erg work, so I know the cues and dynamic on how to get the most power out, but in general, it’s for “real” rowing. I do okay, but H always smokes me on the erg (which of course pisses me off – hey, what can I say!).

So Karen took time after the WOD to actually sit me down (her on the erg) and walking me through EVERY part of it. She had someone waiting for her, so this was AMAZINGLY nice. (Remember, she was the one who was yelling at me when I was doing the Open WOD with the row in it – this is what, I think, raised me to her “attention” considering she does the WOD with the other Regionals-going athletes designed for them, and I’m over the corner doing scaled stuff ;-) Trying not to get in anyone’s way :-) )

When I was rowing in Part A, we had the ergs outside facing the mountain, and everyone was laughing because each time I would pull the erg literally shimmied an inch forward. (At about round 3 Coach Anthony came and rolled the tractor tire in front of the erg to stop it – Makaela and I were laughing so hard, it was bad, ESPECIALLY as I was laughing and rowing!)

So here’s the cues:
1. I have always “stomped” my feet but K really talked me through that. At the most “squatted” portion of the row, the heels of your shoes need to really be in the cups of the shoe holder (and strapped down tight), so you can LIFT YOUR HEELS as HIGH AS YOU CAN at the “most squatted” position. Then, as you push, you stomp your HEELS down hard. This will sort of “raise your toes,” but they are strapped in across the widest part of the toebox of your shoes, which holds them in. So the “stomp” is NOT ONLY stomping the heels, but you are also sort of “lifting your toes” up from the cup (though they don’t actually lift, because they are strapped down).

2. Pull the handle back to just below your breasts – basically where the bottom of a jogbra would be. You can pull it anywhere, but this is where you want to pull it. Just do it.

3. Arms stay straight until legs are straight, then arms bend to bring the handle up to the jogbra.

4. Then WAIT TWO BEATS. The erg is “still moving” at this point, don’t start back, this is your rest. In “real rowing” this is the “glide” portion of the row, right before you feather and return. Do NOT LEAVE THIS OUT.

5. Your BODY STAYS STRAIGHT. Karen says this is the one thing you will see that’s the biggest difference between men and women. Your head should stay “level” through the whole pull. If you’re tall, there is NO NEED to reach your arms “forward” (as a very short girl will need to do, as she can’t “push back” as long with her legs). So don’t hunch, don’t bring your head down, don’t collapse your chest, STAY STRAIGHT. (You will to some extent “tip forward” when your arms go forward, but don’t “reach” forward, there is no need if your legs are long.)

6. Your body should be VERY STILL. We all know that the erg is a “leg thing” not an “arm thing,” but it is not a “body thing” either. It’s really just legs – squatting with heels up, pushing heels down and legs going straight, then sliding back.

7. Though you can get SOME extra power “pulling back” against the straps (which I’ve been taught), it’s better to “relax” back to the starting position. Don’t think about it until you get REALLY good at all the rest. However, the straps DO need to be tight, because that will be integral to keeping the power going backwards in the push back (see above).

8. Practice S-L-O-W-L-Y and at a LOW number on the erg until form is perfect. Think: STOMP (push/stomp) until legs straight, PULL (Handle to jogbra bottom), 1-2 (WAIT with handle up at jogbra – e.g. the “glide” to get the power out of the erg before you go back), RELAX (back to start – head EVEN, body STILL).

9. Trying to move FASTER is not important. It’s getting all the power “out of” the erg, and understanding how it works. If you start back before you’ve done the “glide,” you are NOT getting any more cals/meters “out of” the erg on the “return.” That’s why you want the “glide” – the erg is still moving in a direction that will give you more cals/meters. This is something I hadn’t really thought about, but that was a “lightbulb moment.” If you’re returning “too soon” the handle goes back, and you haven’t “tapped out” the power that the erg could “give you” for the pull that you just did. Again – think about when you really row. It’s pull-feather-GLIDE-push back-oars in, pull-feather-GLIDE-push back-oars in. Duh!

So I think I have to start going like 15 minutes early and work on this. I also think I have to just not run when running is programmed, and row instead. (This is what H has done for the last while – as running hurts his knee but rowing doesn’t – and I think that’s one reason that he’s surpassed me in rowing. Practice.) As Karen said – start with the erg REALLY low numbers, and go slowly.

Also spoke with Sera – we’re going to work on my 1 rep maxes in 2 privates, starting next week.

So there you go.
 

April 7 (Day 214) – ouch.

Posted on by Sandy

So, the WOD for today was:

Part A: 8 minutes straight of “kipping practice.”

Part B: Front squats, 8 x (20 secs on 40 sec rest)

Part C: Helen = 3 x (400 run, 21 KBS @ 1 pood, 12 pullups)

I wound up being late because not only did I hit the “crazy SUV mommies” at the grade school at the bottom of the hill, but JUST as I turned into the complex the box is in, a DUMP TRUCK backed up to block the driveway. Oy! Okay also my stars must be in “messed up” mode because I had  all sorts of mini-disasters just getting out of the house (including quite the classic “slip on the rug bringing H a cup of coffee while he’s on an open conference call, then wiping up the mess with my socks before putting on my shoes to go to Crossfit” moment).

Part A: The funniest part about “kipping” is that we were SO NOT ALLOWED to do this when I was in the Marines. I wonder if someone else has ever written about this? So the whole thing always makes me have this drill sergeant way-way back in my head going “SHEPARD!!!!” (laugh). Anyway – so as we all know, I’m about as strong as a feather, and I’m also lifting over 180 pounds. I did the swing back and forth, but and when I got to the “knees up” in the front (and lifting up at the shoulders in the back) I could get a tiny bit of lift. In fact, I made Coach Bill watch me to be sure I wasn’t just making it up. I also “get” how people rip their hands. Lord! When I do pullups in the WOD, I do them straight (with a band, or jumping, depending on if it’s a strength WOD or a speed WOD), so I don’t get the “hand” thing – and never go it in the Marines. Now I get why it happens – it’s the kip. Ouch.

Part B: I did this down to the smallest box (21″), with the orange bar (10 kg). It was supposed to be with 30 kg – I could have done the red bar (15 kg) but there weren’t any left. All girls doing this WOD and I wasn’t quick enough! I should have grabbed a couple of plates, but there were so many people (plus the folks doing their own programming, practicing for Regionals) that it was sort of madness. I got 63 reps. Didn’t have a problem not sitting on the box, which was good, made me feel good. I don’t have a lot of “issues” with front squats because I can get my elbows almost straight forward, and I don’t have a problem smashing the bar into my neck (laugh). Just reminds me of the yoga poses that do that.

Part C: This was funny – I knew I couldn’t do the red kettlebell (1 pood) without injuring myself, but there were no orange (0.75 pood) kettlebells left! Then I saw that Susannah had stashed one behind her “in case.” She handed me the red one and I just gave her the stink eye. (She gave me the orange!) Coach Bill said to do jumping pullups versus banded, because Helen is a “speed” working on the pullup side, not a “strength” workout. So with the 0.75 pood and the jumping pullups, I did it in 12:21. Still last, even of all the scalers. Sometimes this is just depressing.

Going backwards, this weekend was glorious, and so we did a lot of gardening. We went to the Berkeley Women’s Club for dinner on Saturday before going to hear “Celli” (a 12 cello concerto I’d Kickstarter-funded) at the UCB Film/Art Institute. Friday evening was the party at the Silver Peso for the Open, which was fun, a LOT of folks showed up. I smuggled in 3 bottles of GOOD wine (theirs is SO AWFUL and gives you a TERRIBLE headache) and avoided getting bounced out while I surreptitiously poured for about 5 of us. I made them go buy a glass, then dump it in the bathroom so we had “glasses on the table.” H came and got me then we went down to get dinner – he had had a hard day, so he was in super grumpy mode when he showed up at the Peso. I realized I had to do the “drop everything and dash” but it was just as Coaches Bo and Amanda had come in – and glad I stayed because I wound up getting the “Spirit of the Games” award – for my 150 points (total) – laugh! A pair of “Bad Ass” socks with an arrow pointing up. As I’m known for having CRAZY socks at the box (my claim to fame) they were perfect. Walking down the street with Mr. Grumpy to get him a cocktail before dinner, I was throwing away each of the 3 bottles in a garbage can as we went along – he’s all “How much did you DRINK in there?!?!?!” I started laughing…”Um, this was NOT all ME….”

So that’s my check-in for today. Somewhere along the line (probably gardening then doing the kettlebell swings today, that’s when I started to feel it) I tweaked an area between my ribs in my back (right side) so I went STRAIGHT to Chappy’s office and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. Now after I pound this out, I’m going to call his office and also Kristina’s office, and book out some chirorpractic AND massages! I still have like 8 on my package with Kristina, but I have to buy another with Chappy.

And that’s all she wrote – for now!