March 12 (day 188) – Welcome to Tabata…Are you ready…? 3-2-1-GO!

Posted on by Sandy

SOME day, I’m going to have to re-do my Categories . . . not looking forward to that! (I am trying to file these posts under Categories, but some are nested under others . . . oy. Never mind)

Anyway – so today I decided to do 3 of the 4 GiveIt100.com workouts I’m doing as Tabatas. To get the workouts into the 10 second video clip required, I had to speed up the video. They look so silly that I had to share:

Tabata Situps: I did 83, but as you can see, assisted (holding onto the back of my legs). I did the first 2 or 3 and realized that was about it for “regular” situps (for now). Here’s the link (can’t figure out how to get the Media Player to just insert it here, sorry 🙁 )

Tabata Rope Climbs: I did 21 (with going down and standing back up counting as “1”) – sometimes I would be “down” when he called Stop, so I’d just lie there and finish that number when the count started again. I got to 21. Here’s the link. Be sure you watch to the end LOL.

Tabata Jump Rope: Since double unders have gone the way of the dodo bird for me, I figure I’ll just work on cardio. So I jumped during the “Go” periods – couldn’t make a full one without tripping, though did do one with only one trip! Here’s the link.

and while I’m at it . . .

Here’s my other Project for GiveIt100 (though not a Tabata) – trying to get into a Handstand. This is the closest to upright I’ve gotten, and when I tried at first to have my hands closer, it just felt too “tip over backwards,” so I went back down to what was comfortable. Easy does it, as the saying goes – I could hold it for 30 seconds.

I’ve got that barking cough today, so didn’t go to Crossfit. Can’t make this a habit – that’s 3 weekdays (and of course 2 weekend days) off, which is not good. Granted one of the weekend days I was doing the Bay Swim stuff, but I gotta go tomorrow whatever it takes. Hopefully H will want to go with me – he hasn’t been since before he went to Basel!

 

AmericanGut.org

Posted on by Sandy

gutI was listening to the America’s Test Kitchen Radio yesterday, and I heard of a project that I think the word must be spread about.

It’s AmericanGut.org.

What’s it about? From their website:

“The Human Microbiome Project and other microbiome projects worldwide have laid an important foundation for understanding the trillions of microbes that inhabits each of our bodies. However, opportunities for the public to get involved in such research has been limited. Now, American Gut gives you an opportunity to participate and to compare the microbes in your gut to those in the guts of thousands of other people in the US and around the world. American Gut is a project built on open-source, open-access principles. Our data are for the good of understanding and will be shared both with participants and with other scientists. Our experience has been that our best ideas and work come when we involve people in as many steps of our work as possible, be they scientists, educators, roofers, ultra-marathon runners or corporate leaders. Everyone has something to offer, whether their sample, their hypotheses, their analyses or their dog (yes, their dog, we will get back to that). The more we can understand the complex microbial ecosystems on which we depend, the more everyone will benefit.”
genome

HERE is a PDF with more from the American Academy of Microbiology.

Basically – we’ve all heard about DNA sequencing and the “Human Genome” project. The problem is that it’s VERY hard to affect your DNA. However, many people still don’t know that our bodies (as creepy as this sounds) are basically 37 trillion human (skin, blood, muscle) cells – the “human genome” – and three times that in microbes – the “human microbiome.”

And we can affect microbes.

vennMicrobes are on our skin, in our gut, etc. And you can affect those microbes immediately by what you “do to them.”

Hence, the “Microbe Genome” project.

Example: We’ve all heard that if we take antibiotics, we can “wipe out” not only the bad bacteria that’s making us sick, but also good bacteria. That “good bacteria” then has to reCOLONize in our body – yes, emphasis on “colon.”

What happens if what we’re eating and doing means that we wipe them out – then we can’t get all the good ones back? What we eat “feeds” them – so there is a dramatic, immediate way to affect our own health and performance by investigating what we have, and what we don’t have, growing inside us.

This project even postulates that they might get diets down to about 8 different ones – depending on what you seem to “host best” (yes, we are just all hosts for these microbes!). Eat what feeds your “good bacteria” best, have an immediate and lasting affect on your performance, life, mental and physical health. Really.

Just about everyone now knows about seratonin. It’s a neurotransmitter tied to learning, memory, aging, sleep, sexual function, mood (it’s called the “happiness hormone” because you need it to experience the feeling of  “well being”). And it’s made in the gut. What if your gut doesn’t have the right bacteria to help you out? No seratonin – no good. Depression and misery! And that’s just one of the many, many things that are tied intimately to your gut.

microbesI just purchased one kit for myself, and one for my grandboy. He’s been having terrible health issues that the doctors have just thrown up their hands about. We’re talking about screaming pain, throwing up, inability even to go to school or Boy Scouts. For months and months. This is a normal, social boy, and it’s just killing us. It’s been going on for forever and it’s wearing him down. Who knows? Maybe once we send in for his microbe test, we’ll find he’s “over colonized” by some bacteria, or is missing another. I’m super excited about the possibilities.

As for me, I am a confirmed biohacker, and my change to eating gluten-free and attacking “leaky gut” issues was a choice designed to address thyroid and other hormone issues that are wreaking havoc in my life. I joined the “Citizen Scientist” human genome project – but, as their website says, you can have a FAR more immediate affect on yourself if you work on yourself from the microbe level.

You should check this out! I think it’s important! Again – you can still be a part of it!!! AmericanGut.org.

Amazing Race tips from 24-3

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Amazing Race tips from 24-3!

1. One team (guy and girl) the girl is only wearing a Camelbak, the guy has the pack. We’ve discussed having one pack – that’s an even better idea.

2.  The cowboy rappelled down the waterfall, and was only looking one direction, so missed the clue! Look both ways! (Wonder if they could have seen the yellow clues up the waterfall by looking before “leaping” as it were?)

3.  OMG I SO WANT TO GO to Borneo! OMG OMG Beautiful beautiful!

4.  We really gotta figure out knots and such. They had to put a raft together, and that was a HUGE part of it. KNOTS CLASS!

5. “We’re like Huck Finn and Oliver Twist” (the Country Singers) – OMG laugh out loud!!! In Love with the Harlem Globetrotters – missed the year they were on, and really enjoying them and their attitude.

6.  Keep the clue available! Digging through their pockets, Dave and Conner missed where they had to drop off the food!

7. I am SO PROUD of the Afghanimals!!!! They actually helped out the Cowboys when asked. They realized that being the “liars” last time didn’t serve them well (and likely is what put them into 4th place – SO CLOSE to the final 3). NICE! Be NICE! Help if you’re asked…though there is a real balance to it – when making the kiddie cars, one team helped the other and except for a mistake made by another team, it would have made them race for last place. That’s a tough one – I guess, NEVER LIE, but you might not want to actually, physically HELP.

8.  Did I mention knots? OMG, Must. Know. Knots.

9.  John Wayne is one of the Country Singers’ grampa?? How’d I miss that last time! (She mentions it because she totally KNOCKS down the bird with a blow dart!)

10. MAKE YOUR TAXI WAIT, don’t pay it off! Especially – Es-pec-ially if you’re in the middle of no-freakin’-where. OMG.

 

March 11 (day 187) – I’ve caught the evil BaselVirus

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I think I mentioned that Sunday I got up at 0-dark-00 to help the LLS Team In Training tribabies on their first Open Water triathlon. It was “Spring Forward” day, and my husband just laughed himself silly that I was getting up so early, as he snuggled himself back down in bed…

The current was BRUTAL where I was stationed to stay – so much so that I couldn’t hold the board in place with just my arms. I tried putting my feet against the buoy I was stationed at (they did 3 rounds around buoys in Paradise Park/S.F. Bay), and I couldn’t even hold it that way. So I spent a couple hours (maybe not that long, but longer than an hour) holding onto the board if folks needed a breather, and kicking like a maniac against the rip.

At one point (first round, when folks havent settled down yet) I had three gals hanging onto the board – I couldn’t keep us in place so I said if they were going to hang out, they had to kick, too! Funny – so much for letting them rest…

I think that being in the not-so-warm Bay, with my thinner “shortie” wetsuit set me up. I have to wear the less warm wetsuit, because right now my warmer wetsuit fits me like a sausage casing, so there would have been NO WAY I could have gotten on the board – can’t maneuver my legs in it. (Fine for swimming, not so fine for getting on a surfboard.)

Anyway, I got home and slept until 6:30 p.m., got up, made dinner, then went back to bed. And then yesterday, I must have touched some doorknob or counter or another that H had touched when he came back from Basel with that AWFUL dog-bark-cough virus – because now, I’ve got it. Just as H is cold/virus free, after having it in Hawaii, too! Dang it!

Yesterday I did go to Bikram, and did the work with a different perspective. I’ve been thinking a lot about squats and the fact I don’t “have” about 3/4 of the range of motion required for one. So yesterday, I sat out some of the moves (I really wasn’t feeling all that great), but the ones that I did, I did with an aim at stretching my abilities/paying attention to my abilities in the “squat arena.” I’m also paying attention walking up the innumerable stairs up to and in our house – I can feel I don’t climb stairs in a way that even uses my glutes or hamstrings, it’s all quads, so working on that.

After Bikram, I did what I said I would do – I stayed after and worked on the move that the founder/coach at Crossfit Pohaku gave me for better mobility in squats.  “All” it entails is putting your feet flat on the wall, as far apart as you can spread them, with your tailbone against the wall, knees tracking over feet. Then you put your elbows on the inside of your knees, and “press out” (hands together).

The best way to think about it is it’s as if you are deep squatting, but that wall is the floor.

As I’d said yesterday, I held this for 4 minutes (the length of a Tabata workout). Oh My Living God. By the end I was panting, and I wasn’t actually able to stand up out of it – I had to put my legs up straight on the wall (so, tailbone still against the wall, but now legs up straight on the wall) by MOVING my legs with my HANDS into that position…then after a little while, I was able to roll on my side, and get up.

So there you go – I’m going to record a video of that position and post it onto GiveIt100 today (for yesterday), then I will do the Tabata situps today. Here’s the workout for today:

3/11…
Pull Up 5 x 2

Shoulder Press 5 x 3

7 Min AMRAP
7 Thruster 43/30KG
7 Box Jump 30/24″

CONDITIONING
4 Rounds
2 Min AMRAP
200M Run
ME Pull Up

Immediately Following
4 Rounds
2 Min AMRAP
200M Run
ME Shoulder Press 50/35KG

same as reg. part C

H is feeling well enough to go at 6:30 p.m., so I’ll be seeing how much of the Conditioning workout I can do with him then.

UPDATE: H didn’t feel like going – so I didn’t go. Can’t stop coughing. Harrumph.

 

Another GiveIt100 – this time, Tabatas

Posted on by Sandy

I have 3 “GiveIt100.com” projects going. I’ve talked about this a lot – it’s a free website where you post 10 seconds of you doing whatever it is that you decide to do as a project, every day for 100 or 365 days. When you get to 100 (or 365) you get to post a minute video. It was the brainchild of a gal who taught herself how to breakdance that way.

I have 3 going – I think if you go to this link:

https://giveit100.com/@fempowerment

you can see my projects.

I have rope climbing, handstands, and double unders going. I didn’t really do much while I was on vacation or for the week after – particularly the week after, as we were “catching up” from being gone.

Today, I posted new videos for those three – re-located my rope to the back of the property, realized that my fancy-schmancy Momentum Crossfit speed rope just DOES NOT WORK for me (sigh), and spent 30 humbling seconds trying to figure out how I could possibly move myself closer to the wall holding me up in the handstand.

I know that I have to work on mobility for my squat, and I also need to work on core. So I’ve decided to add a FOURTH GiveIt100 Project – this time, I’m going to do Tabata situps, and on alternate days, mobility.

“Tabata mobility”??? Huh? Well, I have a couple Tabata “songs” on my iTunes, and I need to do something on the “every other” day, because I can’t do Tabata situps every day or I will die (laugh). I thought about burpees, but what I actually HAVE to do is mobility work. So I figure I will call it “Tabata mobility” – and maybe even do it for longer (since a Tabata is 4 minutes) – but I will do it for AT LEAST 4 minutes.

What the heck is Tabata training?

Tabata training is a style of interval training developed by a guy named Dr. Izumi Tabata at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan. He conducted tests on two groups of athletes, comparing moderate intensity training (such as long distance running) to high intensity interval training (such as sprinting).

Not only did the athletes doing high intensity interval training increase their overall aerobic and anaerobic capacity, their VO2 max, resting metabolic rate, it also helped them burn more fat—resulting in a leaner physique much quicker than their moderate intensity training counterparts.

Training  Tabata-style means:

  • Burning more fat
  • Boosting metabolism all day long
  • Getting in shape quicker than medium intensity training (such as long-distance running)
  • Getting more done in less time

The only caveat? During Tabata training you have to work really, really hard during the entire 4 minutes—or the whole exercise will be pointless and you’ll never get the results you’re looking for. To complete a Tabata workout, you either get a song that has the count in it (that’s what I have, or you set a timer for 8 rounds of 10 and 20 second intervals.

The workout looks like this:

:10 – Get ready
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work
:10 – Rest
:20 – Work

For a total of a 4-minute workout. You record your total score for each of the “Work” portions. The idea is to try to get that number as high as you can – to really bust a gut doing the “Work” portions.

Granted, “Mobility” is something that doesn’t exactly lend itself to Tabatas. It’s stretching, after all. But I don’t spend 4 minutes stretching every day – I should, I just don’t. So I figure if I make that my “alternate” to 3 days of Tabata situps (3 days of Mobility, then 1 day off), I will at least be doing it every other day. My squats will hopefully thank me for it.

One thing I must say about GiveIt100.com is that it’s taught me how to “ghetto edit” videos, that’s for sure. I can speed up the film, put in captions, etc. So it should be sort of fun with the Tabatas – just speed up 4 minutes of Work and rest into 10 seconds. Hair flyin’!

Now I”m off to yoga. Yes, I really am. I recorded my 3 project videos, cleaned up my email, and it’s a brand new day…

March 10 (day 186) – a restart (sort of)

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My TAR buddy Moddie and I worked yesterday supporting the LLS Team In Training Tri team in their first open water tri. Go Team!

The current was SO STRONG in Paradise Park that I wasn’t even able to stay on top of the surf board. Holy cats. I tried, but I couldn’t paddle in place fast enough! So I wound up holding onto the board, treading water for about two hours. And then, I slept all day. Yes, I really did. Because H had a bunch of “honey do” chores for me, I told the Team that I didn’t want to SAG (if you don’t know what SAG is, it’s driving around supporting the bike leg of the tri, making sure that folks haven’t broken down, helping them if they have, etc. – don’t know what S.A.G. stands for). I am usually asked to SAG because we have a van (also why Moddie and I are a prime water team – she has a contact with a board and a kayak, I have a van to carry them!) Anyway – I got home, and fell asleep on the couch until 6:30!!! H woke me up at I want to say like 3 or 4, and then I did make a very faboo dinner, but I spent the rest of a beautiful day cutting Z’s! (I have a sore throat now, so I have a feeling that being in the Bay for 2 hours just sped up my FINALLY getting H’s cold. Harrumph.)

And, on the “Spring Forward” day too, I might add – H just laughed as he curled up in the nice, warm bed when I got up at 6:00 a/k/a 7:00 a.m.!

Somehow, I’ve fallen off the TAR “wagon” a bit. Moddie and I talked about this Sunday. She’s done it too. I think that both of us are in the situation where we don’t have a “goal” that we’re working towards, so we slack off a bit, slack off a bit, then…stall. If we absolutely KNEW that TAR had picked us (come on, TAR!), you KNOW that we’d be working out like banshees, eschewing food/drink that’s bad for us (WHO went to In-And-Out Burger after the Bay lifeguarding? OMG that couldn’t have been ME was it??), etc.

There’s that “scare” factor when you know you have a marathon, tri, etc. coming up in T-minus-X days, that gets you out there on that run, bike, or in the pool.

Anyway – so today, though I didn’t make it to Crossfit this morning, I’m re-energized to get back in the saddle. I have to do 3 GiveIt100.com videos (being in Hawaii set me back on that two weeks!), do yoga today (I have work-trade, so I’ll go to the 1:30 class), and I need to think about doing another GiveIt100 that’s related to mobility and core.

There’s a gal on GiveIt100 I’ve “made friends” with, and she actually sent me a note saying “Where oh where” did I go – 🙂 She wants to do sort of a “tag team” GiveIt100 – which I wholeheartedly support. She wants to climb stairs on her side. I suggested that we do it in Tabata format – she could do Tabata on stairs UP on one day, DOWN on the next. I’d do Tabata situps, and I was going to do burpees on the other day, but I’m actually thinking that I need to “make myself” do mobility exercises tied to squatting, so I might do that instead. GiveIt100 does seem to work for me.

I have SO many “logging” things that I’m tied to, it’s funny. I just “caught up” my EveryMove.com page – though I haven’t been wearing my BodyBugg for a while (again, Hawaii is the culprit there).

Moddie suggested that we get going on the whole “carrying packs up a hill” exercise we discussed, which I agree about. She found a super steep hill near her house (in Mill Valley) that she said would be perfect for it. So we have to set some dates for that.

I don’t have a lot of work to do – which I’m not very happy about on the one hand (no money coming in) but of course love on the other (ability to noodle around online, and if I get my act together, work on my physicality).

So that’s my update. OH, and I have $100 “worth” of private sessions that I can use at the box ($50 for each person I got to sign up to do Conditioning – yes, I made a deal with the box owner), which means 2 sessions with Sera (who is the cheapest at $50 – Bill is next at $55). I want to do the “1 rep max” stuff. I also need to work on mobility (yes, we know that), and Bill really is super good with that, but I think that basically entails doing the WOD when he’s the coach. I need to go and look at the online schedule, because that’s changed a lot since I last printed it out.

That’s where I’m at. I’m still over 180 pounds, I’m still not in any of my clothes (one pair of jeans, and then all “stretch” pants), I’m at 30% body fat. I have fat hanging off me, which the “I-am-still-mad-about-this” endocrinologist (Male) just said “oh, that’s just what happens to Women Your Age, live with it.” (thanks.) I don’t really care particularly about weight on the scale (much), but I really would like to be able to wear a closet full of clothes. Menopause is such a bitch, I tell you. Harrumph. Though we definitely cracked on the eating regimen in Hawaii, I’m back on track with that, too, and need to make a date with my nutritionist to get my blood levels done again (since my endocrinologist through my insurance won’t do it – since I’m, you know, “in range for a woman my age”).

And so it goes!

PODCASTS!

Posted on by Sandy

I wonder if this is going to work.

Starting back in like . . . OMG 2008 . . . I had a number of podcasts related to my book – then podcasting fell to the wayside for a while. I think my last podcast was in around 2010.

I’d like to get them back into iTunes, because (IMHO) they’re great.

I paid a guy and I think they are now back in iTunes. At least – ~I~ see them. Do you?

Go to iTunes, put in “Bond Girl” or “Fempowerment” (I think either of those work) and see if you see them?

The problem is that a few of them dealt with sex, and so ALL of them got marked “explicit.” I think that’s funny when they deal with closet reorganization (no, I don’t mean coming OUT of the closet, I mean CLOTHES in the closet….LOL) – but so it goes. Apparently the one thing that wouldn’t “regenerate” was how long each one was. But at least it seems like they’re “there.” But I’m curious if you see them?

 

 

Failing Doesn’t Make You A Failure, But…

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…quitting makes you a quitter.

So, another blog post related to the Crossfit Games. (Enough already!)

This morning I couldn’t sleep, so read a blog post and responded to it. At length. Before coffee. With typos. Then I went off to do the Crossfit Games 14.2 workout.

Well, not really. I went to Crossfit, was UNABLE to do the 14.2 workout, and did the scaled workout.

One of the main reasons I couldn’t even get 1 in the actual Open workout is that it was Overhead Squats and then Pullups.

Who knows, a fairy might have sprinkled dust to me to get a pullup (unlikely), but the OHS were first – and I can’t squat.

Since it was quite early early when I got up, I curiously Googled this issue. HERE is a great article about it, HERE is a video about Overhead Squats (which presume you can DO a squat).

The blog I responded to railed about people “feeling like failures” for not doing the Open workout, and then rhapsodized about how that’s “not what this is all about.” As I said in my Comment to the post, well, NO, that’s NOT what it’s all about.

If you don’t do the workout, you get a 0. If you get a 0, you are off the Leaderboard. You have failed. But failing doesn’t MAKE YOU A FAILURE.

QUITTING, however, DOES make you a quitter.

As I have said in a previous post, I walk a very, very thin balancing act between the whole “failing/quitting” thing. For the past 20 years, I have balanced extremely well (thank you) – mainly because I don’t get into things that are so far outside my abilities that they are out of sight. Sure, I did an Ironman. But I did know how to swim, to run, and to bike. When I started, I had a bike from the 80s, and couldn’t run 3 blocks. But as I had a year, I actually KNEW that it was POSSIBLE to train up to the Ironman. And I did.

I listened to the “siren song” of a bunch of folks I follow in the Crossfit area online, and signed up for the Open. I’m not quite sure WHAT I was thinking. I have discussed this ad nauseum before.

I really didn’t want to QUIT doing Crossfit WHEN (not if!) I couldn’t progress in the Open. I do know that this is my modus operandi. And so, the day before 14.1, I was REALLY UPSET at myself for signing up.

FOR THE OPEN.

I wasn’t upset that I would “feel like a failure,” I didn’t “feel like a failure,” I am doing the best I can. But I was upset I would push myself over the edge by failing to get something on the Leaderboard, and then quit/shut down.

The nice part is that, in this area at least, I’ve discovered I’m not a quitter 😉

Wait, weren’t we talking about squats?

Last night, I was talking to Herbert about the whole “squatting thing” and he made me try to get down into a third world squat. I can NOT do it without toppling over backwards. He found this the funniest thing he’s ever seen (thanks hon!) No, seriously, there he was squatting like an Aborigine and I’m falling backwards like one of those weighted clowns or a Weeble.

I’ve always thought it’s just my ass. I have a HUGE ass. I figured it was weighting me down. In actual fact, now that I’ve watched videos about it, it’s more likely caused by a lifetime’s worth of not only doing all my work in a chair (or lying on a sofa – like now!) but also tucking my “butt in” for umpteen-zillion times after someone’s said “DANG, your butt is so BIG! I mean it is so ROUND” (Yeah, HERE is my theme song, guys). By tilting your butt under, you’ve got a “butt wink” – which disengages your glutes/hamstrings in favor of your quads. This is what you’re doing every time, as my mother CONSTANTLY would say to me, you’re scolded to “tuck your tail in.”

So what happened today at the box? Well Bo (who was coaching) of COURSE knows that I can’t get a squat on. I can’t even bring my thighbone from standing to 45 degrees without going up on tiptoe. So I would be off the Leaderboard for the Open. But HONESTLY, what the HELL was I doing signing up?!? He and I talked it out – I wound up doing the OHS with the 10 pound “swirly bar” and jumping the pull-ups. For some reason he likes jumping pullups better than banded ones – banded ones are harder for me frankly, because they use my arms more, but Ya Do What Bo Says 😉

I paired up with Heather – finally got her name (she doesn’t look a THING like a Heather). She’s the gal who told Margo she didn’t “want to get bulky, like her” and purposely does half of every workout, won’t do double unders, etc. She wound up actually making it THROUGH the 16 rep round (if you know 14.2, you know what I’m talking about) but with about 15 seconds on the clock she stopped her last pullup at 15, so that she wouldn’t “have to keep going.” She was the only person in the box – Rx or Scaled – to make it out of the 14s and she would have made it through the 16s had she not pulled up. The reason we paired up was that she grabbed the 10 pound (swirly) bar, though I KNOW she could have done the orange bar, because I’ve seen her work out. And she wouldn’t give it up, so I was sort of thinking I was going to have to do the workout with the PVC pipe. But then Bo paired us all up to judge/coach/yell for each other, since we didn’t need a “real” Open judge, since we were not doing the Rx – which meant we shared the bar.

Her form was really amazing. She can squat all the way down – the only thing I had to remind her was to keep looking straight, because every time she’d look down, her arms would shift forward. When she does jumping pullups, she gets a whole kip in, and she can jump herself basically an entire head up and over the bar.

When it came to me, Bo put my heels up on 5kg plates, to try to give me a bit of an edge in the squat. I started with too narrow of a grip, and was having a Hell of a time watching my shoulder, watching my knees, blah blah. By the end of the round of 10s I had quite a wide grip, and realized that the reason Bo always has me do these with the bands is that you need to “pull out” on the bar (as you MUST do on a band) to stabilize yourself. That was interesting.

I still can’t squat more than just bending my knees. One of the things us Scalers got to do was to discuss with our judges what we wanted a “No Rep” to be. In other words, did you really want to be No Repped for not getting your butt below your knee crease? Heather and I both decided that ANY “dip” of the legs as long as the bar was “overhead” was fine by us.

Funniest part was that by the 2nd and 3rd round, I just rested the bar on my head. I obviously had to have a super wide grip to do that and still have my arms straight – which I did. My hands were literally at the very very end of the bar. But there was no way that I could support the bar any other way than resting on the top of my head. Moreover, a couple of times, I went to do a little squat (think like a perfunctory curtsey – no self-respecting person would call these “squats”) and I could feel my bad (right) shoulder starting to roll out of the socket. That’s that WHOA WHOA WHOA feeling – after that I didn’t even try to do the move without having the bar on my head (laugh). Man am I glad no one was videoing 😉

I did the jumping pullups in various ways – chin ups, one hand forward one hand back (surprisingly easier), regular hands in pullup position. I wound up getting 141reps total  – so all of the first round (10s), all the second round (12s) and then not quite all of the third round (14s – I got part of the last pullups).

I had fun, but I really could absolutely KICK myself for ACTUALLY “signing up for the Open.” The good thing that came out of it? Not sure I would have gone to Crossfit on the Big Island otherwise, which was the BEST experience. I learned a LOT there and also feel pretty sure that without the coaching I got while doing 14.1, I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. I mean, come on, I got 30 double unders and 5 PR cleans – that’s awesome. So from the “every cloud has a silver lining” side of things, that was a HUGE silver lining.

The downside is how ridiculously upset I was before doing 14.1. I HATE being embarrassed, signing up for things through peer pressure, etc.  Also, I feel as if I was “that girl” that I personally hate in the Crossfit arena – the girl who says she “has to be more fit to do this.” I hear this time and TIME again from friends who I KNOW could benefit from doing Crossfit – if they would just start! The thing is, that’s not what this was, at all. So I was upset I had somehow made it sound like that. (Yeah, I was just upset.)

What it was is jumping into the deep end when I basically can’t swim a lap without a noodle. Setting myself up.

I know now that what I want to do is set up some personal sessions with Sera (because I have 2 coming to me) and do the whole “1 rep max” thing. Now I understand that I HAVE to know that, because it’s how WODs are really structured. If it says that a snatch is supposed to be (let’s say) 65 pounds, you can go up to the coach and say “how heavy is that supposed to be?” and s/he will say to you “it should be pretty much your 1 rep max” OR “it should be about 75% of your 1 rep max” or whatever. That makes scaling not just a hit and miss thing. I didn’t “get” that until I actually heard folks doing it in Hawaii. Duh! Not sure how I missed that, but of COURSE it makes sense.

I also haven’t ever really kept track of my times in Hero or Girls WODs, etc. either – because I’m scaling SO mightily. I figure if I get the 1 rep max thing knocked out, then I can scale “appropriately” (if that makes sense), and keep track.

Which is the Virgo/Year of the Ox/Lawyerly thing to do 😉

 

14.1 v 14.2 – “I can’t do that anyway”

Posted on by Sandy

You know, at some point I will catch up and talk about Hawaii, post photos (including those from 14.1), etc. But right now it’s time to discuss my feelings about 14.2.

Crossfit Open 14.2 involves Overhead Squats and Chest-To-Bar pullups. It doesn’t matter what the workout is – it has rounds over time, some rests, etc. – because it doesn’t really matter to me.

Why? Today (interestingly enough!) I TRIED a squat move, and I even tried a pullup. Granted I was trying a front squat, but I still don’t have the action in my “posterior chain” to do a squat without holding onto a vertical. Coach Bill was working with me – our (A) today was actually supposed to be 5×5 front squats, I wound up doing 5×5 push presses (with the red KG bar, which is a PR for me), then 10 squats with Bill watching me and working with me on form. Yes, holding onto the vertical.

Coach Bill says that because I’ve mainly been a long distance runner for the past few years, my body and brain have “disconnected” with respect to some movements. When I get even somewhat low in a squat, my tail tucks under, and my body uses my quads to get me down there instead of my hamstrings/glutes. When he put his hand on my lower back to keep my butt “pushed out” when I was practicing, I literally had to climb myself hand-over-hand back up the vertical, because I didn’t have any “push” from that position. He explained that I just had to re-learn this movement.

It’s frustrating, because I thought I was FINALLY getting a LITTLE closer to being able to do a squat without holding on (it’s been five months, after all), but though now my knees are in the right place, my chest is up, I’m actually back on my heels and pushing “out” on my feet (the “tearing paper with your feet” thing that Coach Anthony talks about), I’m still not there yet. Feels like being back at square one – back months ago when hand-to-hand climbing up the vertical was my squat “way of life.”

We also had jumping pullups in the warmup, and because I was curious, I tried about 15 different ways to get a chest-to-bar pullup. I also tried toes-to-bar, because I was fairly certain one of the two would come up. Coach Bo was there, and he said no, that they wouldn’t get those into the Open until at best the 3rd week, because they’re harder and he guessed that HQ would want folks to be able to move on to at LEAST week three. He guessed box jumps, because last year, you could “do anything to get yourself over the box” which he demonstrated by putting one knee up, one elbow, then the other knee, etc. (Pretty hilarious.)

Anyway – so with 14.2 being Overhead Squats BEFORE you can get to Chest-To-Bar, I’m actually very philosophical, “easy” in my mind with being “out” of the Open. It would have been the same thing had the “floor to overhead” move from 14.1 been BEFORE the DoubleUnders – I knew that weight was physically beyond me, so I would have been “at peace” with not moving on/being out.

And yes, I am “out” of the Open. If you don’t log any number, you can’t move on to the next workout. Oh of COURSE you can MOVE ON to the next workout – anyone can “do the workout.” But you are locked off the leaderboard. This is sort of a bummer, in that NEXT year, it’d be nice to have a bit more than 30 (my double unders from 14.1), but hey, so it goes.

The thing that got me upset last week was that I’ve been practicing Double Unders for about a straight month (through GiveIt100.com) and would do one every now and again like unicorns – they’d pop up, but with no rhyme or reason as to WHY I would get one then and then not get them for weeks nad weeks. I was really afraid that I wouldn’t get even 1, even though I HAD had a few show up in the past. Sort of the “bad day” thing.

However, my “PR” for an Overhead Squat is to squat with a band – not even a bar. And I can’t get my butt below my knees, either. Just not (yet) possible without holding onto the vertical. As for the Chest-To-Bar pullups, who knows? One MIGHT visit me tomorrow at the workout, could happen, UNLIKELY but could happen. The thing is, that the Chest-To-Bar is AFTER the Overhead Squats. And those are a complete no-go.

I talked to Bo (we were talking about what 14.2 “might be”) and apparently how “we” do it is that everyone is paired up, so that you judge (and cheer) for someone, then they do it for you. So I’ll go tomorrow at my usual (9:00 a.m.) WOD, but I’m not quite sure what will happen. I’d love it if Coach Bill did 14.2 with us (he sometimes shows up to the 9:00 WOD), because he knows what I actually can’t do (especially after we discussed my Marine Corps injuries, etc. today when he was trying to help me with the squats and dips – that was another part of the WOD today – rings dips, so that’s the shoulder). Not sure that’ll happen, but I can wish!

We have a BIG Open “leaderboard” on the wall – and Karen was saying that given their numbers, we might field a team (or two!) to the Regionals. I asked her if my score was weighing them down (that would REALLY suck) and she said as she understood it, an individual can’t “hurt” you, so no. The scores are all in the 300s and high 200s. The one before my 30 is 125 😉

Anyway – so now (on Twitter) my “cast of characters” is saying I’m “not out” of the Open and chastising me for what I said last week. The difference is, this time I AM out (physically) – so I’m not particularly upset about it. I was SO upset last week, now, I’m just philosophical. I did something I was not ready to do, I was upset about it BECAUSE I knew it was a silly thing to have done at this stage in the game. With so many of the moves not actually possible for me (as I detailed in the previous blog), I did something outside mY ‘better judgment’ because I felt peer pressure. I wasn’t upset that “I might get a zero,” I was upset I had set myself up. I “knew better” than to be in this position.

So I’ll go tomorrow, and we’ll see what happens! Obviously, I’ll judge first if that’s how they do it – then I’ll just do a workout as much as I can. But I also won’t do something that is not possible, or where I might REALLY hurt myself, just to “see if I can.” If the chest-to-bar pullups were first, I might imagine getting SOMETHING on the board, because that MIGHT be physically possible (once upon a time, I could do pullups, 30 years ago). But OHS? Nope!

And so it goes! 😉

OH AND  – caught up (almost!) with Amazing Race last night – learnings:
1. TAKE THE METRO IF YOU CAN. Man, folks really wasted time trying to get cabs. They were in China – good to know 😉
2. If someone is trying to tell you how long something is going to take you, GET CLEAR on what they are saying. The Cowboys went from first to last because they thought someone was saying something was “5 minutes” away when he was saying it was “FIFTY minutes” – and by car!
3. Don’t just run into anyone on the street and try to get them to help you. I think that was a huge learning – folks kept trying to just “ask anyone” and “just anyone” didn’t speak English. I would generally say to start with a hotel, or even a shopkeeper.
4. KEEP TRACK OF YOUR BAG! I had to turn it off right as one of the teams realized that the gal – who had been ASKED if she “had the bag” of the guy – and she SAID YES – had left it behind. AWFUL! I don’t know what’s going to happen – wish I could sneak in some more minutes but not possible right now (did watch the 14.2 competition on YouTube though… 🙂 )
5. At one point, the twins were neck-and-neck with the country singers for last place. They ran up to the road block, and it was obvious that teams were getting out of the (ferris wheel) cars and going on their way to the next clue. The country singers got into a car where the team was obviously “on their way” (successful). The twins just jumped into the first one that opened. Now, this could have gone badly – in other words, the clue could have been something you had to TAKE WITH YOU, in which case the country singers would have been out of luck and would have had to have waited for an entire (SLOW SLOW SLOW) round of the wheel to jump into another car. However, presuming that the clue was “stuck to” the car (as it was), getting into one that a successful team was leaving jumped them in front of the twins, who had to get into another car to find that clue (and were ultimately eliminated).

CROSSFIT:
1. Push Press – did this with the red bar today. We had to do 5x5s (as I mentioned above) – the red bar was HEAVY but I did it. Not sure I could go up – MAYBE, but not much.
2. Left my (climbing) rope outside! Upset! We had a ton of rain while I was gone, sure hope that it will dry out and not rot. Grrrr!
3. Squat – need to think “sway back” or “duck back” to engage glutes/hamstrings. It’s not what it will ultimately be, but exaggerate it for now, to get brain/body to work together.
4. Dip – did with the green and the red band. Not sure why I’m doing worse – used to just do it with the green band (on the stationary parallel bars, not the rings). Also wasn’t really able to extend all the way down and up – somehow losing strength there. If it’s not one thing it’s the other 😉

 

 

When NOT to do the Crossfit Open… Alea iacta est

Posted on by Sandy

You know, I actually know myself pretty well – having been with myself 50+ years now.

And when you know yourself, it’s best to LISTEN to yourself.

I have joined the “Crossfit Community,” now about 5 months ago. Seems amazing it can be that long, since I still can’t do most of the movements required by the sport. Oh sure – I’m doing WAY BETTER than at the beginning – but there are 15 moves that are “generally” in the Crossfit Open, and how they stack up for me:

“Non-Bar” Moves:
Double Unders: I have had ONE “magical” day when I was able to do double unders (one at at time, mind you). The stars aligned or something. I have been doing this as a GiveIt100.com project, and I’m up to Day 25 or so, doing them EVERY day, and I have had ONE day when I could do one.

Box Jumps: I’d have to jump on (surprise!) a box. I can jump on 2 plates stacked up. Not a chance on a box. I’d kill myself 😉

Burpees/Pushups: When I started, the doctor said NO WAY I was NOT to do these. Now, I am checked out to do them, so that’s at least something. I of course have my special flop down on the ground, rest on my forehead, go back up method, but i can get a few done.

Pullups/Muscle Ups/etc.: Still doing this with the black (80 pound) resistance band and a box.

Toes-To-Bar: I can BARELY hang there and get my knees up into a sitting position.

Wall Balls: Can’t squat low enough to get a rep counted, though I imagine I could get ONE if I had like 10 minutes. The “ball” part I’m fine at.

“Bar” Moves:
Deadlift: I can do this YAY ME.
Clean: I’m doing better at this actually, but I can’t do the weight that the Open would be for – then again, I could probably get one though it wouldn’t be pretty.
Anything that uses a squat: Nope. Can’t go low enough by FAR – can’t squat lower than about 45 degrees with my thighbone without holding on. So any “squat” move (front/back/overhead) is a no-can-do for a rep that would count.
Press moves – I might be able to do one, but not sure I could do it at weight. I’m still doing most of these with a 10 pound bar, except squat ones where I do it with a band, because I can’t both try to squat and try to watch my shoulder.

So there you have it. Now, because I like the idea of being “one of the girls” (NEVER having been “one of the girls”), I listened to a Crossfit Community that I’ve joined online, and paid my $20 to do the Open. Everyone in our box is doing it as well, but that isn’t really the deal – they were SHOCKED that I signed up (probably because they have SEEN me do this stuff).

First workout came out yesterday – two moves I can’t do, basically. It’s 10 minutes to get as many rounds of 30 Double Unders and I think it was 10 snatches (floor to overhead) at 45 pounds as you can.

Yesterday, after absorbing this, I tried double unders (in the condo) for 300 times – no joy. I DID get TWO of them when I did my daily Double Unders (or, shall we say, “whipping myself”) down at the spa (did I mention I’m in Hawaii? So I have to do the Open workout at a “foreign” gym?), so I actually know it’s POSSIBLE with the rope I have (got one measured and fitted to me at the last competition I photographed), but I don’t think I’ll let on I have a rope when I go into the box.

I was REALLY UPSET last night. Not that I “can’t do Double Unders,” it’s hit and miss for a lot of people. No. Because I let myself get “talked into something” that I had a gut feeling was stupid for me, in that it would likely be upsetting. More because I’m doing this at a foreign box, so presuming I get a “zero” (you can’t advance to the next week if you don’t get at least 1), I return to my box and though I will of course DO the Open workouts on Friday (because that’s what you do), I will be already wiped off the leaderboard.

My husband has NEVER seen me try something that I don’t even have a BIT of the possibility of success with. Example – when I did the Ironman, I knew I could run, ride and swim – just not that far. And I had a year to get it done. Which I did. He doesn’t know what to do with me, and I feel bad about that, too.

He even pulled up a ton of YouTube videos on Double Unders, trying to figure out how to help. He finally said it’s obviously “a zen thing” and just to try to get into that mindset. Poor guy.

The last time I tried to do something to be “one of the gang” was grammar school. I SWORE that I wouldn’t do it again. And I also swore that if I did something physical (never been a physical kinda girl, always much more mental…or….couch potato…) that I would KNOW that I could do at least what was required.

Why? Because I’m a quitter. I remember trying to learn how to ski, and as I obviously seemed to be doing well enough, being taken up to a slope too much for me. Instead of making the class wait while I did it, I actually MADE THE TEACHER LEAVE ME. Yes, really! Imagine! I think she sent the ski patrol up (wow, this is SO long ago, imagine the liability concerns now LOL) because they showed up to “help me down” and I convinced THEM to leave me, too. A pretty convincing young adult I was, then.

So now it’s time to get dressed, make coffee, and go get a Double Under.

But if you’re a person like me – if any of this rings true to you – and you happen to read this blog, I’d suggest NOT to sign up for the Open. It will blow your confidence in anything that you “can” do in Crossfit (if the WOD that comes out of the roulette wheel isn’t those moves), and you will say to yourself “I’m an adult, I don’t have to do this” and you’ll QUIT.

Even though you really like Crossfit.

So, save your $20, do it next year when you’re closer to being able to do what’s required – but don’t listen to the siren song of everyone saying “it’s just $20,” “oh, it’s fun,” “they’ll be doing that WOD anyway on Fridays, why not?” and go buy a few lattes with the money.

I’ll let you know if I get that Double Under . . .

================

I did wind up getting the Double Unders – the WOD (did I say this?) was 10 minute AMRAP of 30 Double Unders then 15 55 pound snatches. Coach Andy of Crossfit Pohaku set me up with both a judge AND a coach (who was suuuuper cute, always helpful LOL). He also went through three different jump ropes (including mine) until he found “the right one” for me. The coach literally watched everything I did, and his patter went basically “Faster wrists! Higher! That one caught the back of your feet! Good, you got one leg over, this time both, Higher! Faster! Higher! Faster! Tuck! Jump! Yes, ONE!….” The judge was funny – she was counting the times that I got ONE leg over so at one point the coach said “how many is she at?” (I was at 11) and she said “26” just as I said “11.” I knew I was right, so I started counting out loud when I would get all the way over the rope.

On the snatch there was not a prayer I would get it overhead (best snatch I have done is like 10 pounds) but I did get it cleaned like 5 times – which is 10 pounds heavier than I’ve done the clean. I said I was done at about 8 or 9 minutes, because I wasn’t going to get the snatch.

I was of course ECSTATIC that I got the Double Unders. But that doesn’t change what I said above. I did have one experience that made me laugh – got back to the hotel (H was at breakfast, so met him at Ulu) and I asked him what he had thought when I sent him the text I had gotten the Double Unders. He said he’d been practicing all sorts of phrases because he was terrified I would be the grumpy crying wreck I’d been the day before. 😉 Then I was talking a bit about how the Pohaku owner had given me a coach, etc. and the bartender (we were eating at the bar) zeroed in on us and came over and said “I don’t want to interrupt but, are you talking about 14.1?” I laughed out loud. This is what “all the Crossfit folks” have said about the Open – that it gives you something like your Fran time, etc. to discuss. He was going to be doing it Saturday, at the other box on this side of the island doing the Open. (The one that didn’t return my calls or emails when I wrote – he said he was going to “take the owner down” about that – ha ha)

I’ll post photos that Dana (other owner of Pohaku) took – but what a great, great box. I would have to say that in my very limited experience of Crossfit boxes (3 in Marin and now this one) that this was the best Crossfit box I have ever, ever been to. Fantastic group warm up, mobility work, really caring owner/coach, etc.

SO, I guess that signing up for the Open – which made me go search this box out – which was a WONDERFUL experience might have evened itself out.