“so there” (laugh)

As I’ve mentioned before, I keep messing up what “day” it is of my 365-TAR days. Not that that number or amount was something “sacrosanct,” but it is what got me started writing again, and so there you go. Now, I have a post “heading” that will help me “know where I am” if I don’t blog for a few days!!

Yesterday Moddie did the WOD with me – whoot whoot! She did great! She did it with the 20 kg (red) bar – I did it with the 15 kg (orange) bar with 2 5kg plates for a total of 25 kg. Rx was:

20 min AMRAP
10 hang clean 60/40kg
10 back squat 60/40kg
400m run

It was super duper cold again (I actually went next door to the new neighbors’ house – because they’re on holiday – and covered all their citrus, etc. with sheets – even WITH sheets on we got a couple “melted” jade plants) . So part of the WOD was trying to figure out if you would put your sweatshirt and hat on each time you went out for the 400! I did for the first 2 or 3 and then after I just “braved” it.

I can’t remember how many I did – I do know that I did the last one as a sprint 200m instead of the full 400, because we only had a bit of time left. I want to say that I did 5 full ones and then the 6th with 200 instead of 400m. (That sounds right.)

Then Moddie and I did the 90 second planks – I was amazed because she is usually SO MUCH stronger than I am, and she had to pike up and also to stop midway. I did fine. I texted her and said that I thought we had to keep at this “level” in the planks and not go “higher” seconds (like the “30 Day Plank” thing says) until we can do whatever level we are “on” competently. I did 90 totally fine though it killed me – or, at least, comparatively. So I texted that I thought she should do 90 until she’s pretty proficient at it, and I think I am going to move up to 100 seconds. Shoot me now 😉

As for the WOD, the hang clean went OK – the main thing to remember is of course keeping elbows “up and out” on the return, or else you wind up just bicep muscling the bar down. (I put a video below to show what I’m talking about.) I did start it from the rack, because I had to do the back squat by getting under it on the rack – since I was doing that, I basically did 10-1/2 cleans each time (because I did a full 10 then one up to the rack).

For the back squat, after a couple rounds my bad shoulder really started to ache. So instead of holding the bar “palms forward,” I turned my right (bad) hand around, so I was holding it “palm backward” and that shifted the shoulder so that it felt OK. It looked really odd, I’m sure, but felt fine.

I realized today (the day after) that I do need to start keeping track of what weight I do what at. I probably need to figure out my 1 rep max, which is ALWAYS the question that you’re asked if you’re trying to figure out how much weight to put on a bar. Maybe at some point I can ask Anthony (who is only there on Wednesday mornings now) to give me some extra coaching afterwards on that – maybe every Wednesday do one exercise as a 1 rep max or something. SO as of today, I’m going to start listing those at the bottom of the post, so that I can keep track.

I went home afterwards and H was in San Jose, so I sat up until 2 a.m. watching old Farscape episodes and eating paleo “crap” – meaning protein balls, cookies, etc. I mean – are you kidding me – ?!?! BAD! And it was like Evil Sandy would come out and say “yeah, just 2 more.”

I woke up this morning with the WORST sugar hangover EVER. I don’t think I have ever had one. That’s what it had to be – because I didn’t have anything to drink – and I felt like I had a hangover. I had to get in the shower, and I was hacking up mucus and snot (TMI!) and felt completely vile. Like, dry heaves. OMG! I was already out of the shower and had “decided” to go to yoga to try to “detox it out” but then I snuck a peek at the WOD and saw that it was something that I wanted to do, and so I Tweeted that I needed #WODPenance and off I went. (I also had bagged up turkey soup to give out to the 9 a.m. folks because H told me AFTER I went to all the trouble that he doesn’t LIKE turkey soup, and of course I had enough for a swarm of lumber jacks.)

Today was:
CONDITIONING
5 rounds 3 min AMRAP 1 min rest
3 push press 50kg
6 deadlift 50kg
9 lateral bar burpee

So in this photo, the bottom (1,2,3,4,5) is the rounds, and as you can see I did 2 rounds (that’s the 2) and then I wrote “what I got to” in the 3rd round. So it says 5D, which means I got in the 3 Push Presses and then 5 of the 6 Deadlifts; next is 1B so that means I got through the push presses and the deadlifts of the 3rd round but only 1 “burpee” (see below for what I did), etc. For your “score” you took how many full rounds you did (here 10, or 2 rounds 5 times), and then added up the “numbers” of what you did on the “partial” rounds. (example, on Round 2, 3 push presses plus 6 deadlifts plus 1 “burpee” would equal 3 + 6 +1 or 10). Then you divided that number by 18 (that’s the amount of a “full round”) and added that to the full round number. For me, that was 2 more full rounds and 10 left over, for a total of 12 + 10. I know, I know, SO MUCH MATH…right??? And on a sugar hangover, too!

I had to do the push press with barbells – I did it with 10 lbs, and I MIGHT have been able to go up to 12.5 (that’s what the next ones say on the rack – not 12!). I did the deadlift however with 15k (orange) bar plus 2 10k plates so 35k (77.2 lbs). For some reason I thought that was the women’s Rx, though that’s not what it says on the website (I think they might just not have posted the women’s Rx – I really do think it was 35k because I was feeling good that I was doing it).

For the lateral bar/burpee combos, not only can I not do a burpee, but I can’t jump over a bar! Yes, really. I am SO un-jumpy it is NOT FUNNY. So what I did instead is to set down the dumbbells after the push press, do my deadlifts (must remember the BACK END, front side looks good, see below where I am putting NOTES now), then I jumped over the dumbbells – basically jumping to the middle in between them and then to the other side, and then back the other way. And that was a LOT for me. Pathetic! I know I will get better, but I feel so lame.

Steve (the one with the cute baby daughter and his wife is Allison) said to me “Well, you can just jump over the bar” (when I said I couldn’t jump over the bar or do burpees) and he just “sproing!” goes up and over the bar and looks questioningly at me with his Clark-Kent look, and I’m all “um, I can’t get UP that high…” at which point (it was pretty funny) he looked all embarrassed, which just made me laugh. He thought the burpee was the issue. No, the whole THING was the issue, and NO I am not a little gemsbok like you. I think (we did the WOD next to one another) that at first he was surprised that just jumping over a DUMB BELL was a “consideration” for me, and then once we got to like the 3rd round he would cheer me on if he was coming out of one of the other elements and looked over. (I think he felt guilty with his whole “oh, you can just do this!” SPROING!) It was tough going. It was a tough WOD!!!! It felt really fun though.

Now all day I’ve been “dithering” or as H would say, “puttering” – basically doing nothing and it’s 4:00 p.m. already, meaning I have a couple hours then I have to go to (my second to last) class at JLI. I should have done like 10 hours’ worth of CLE, but noooooooooooo. This is really bad. I have only had coffee with butter, brain octane oil, and first egg yolks and then collagen protein, to try to explain to my body that, yes, I suck, and yes, please, go into ketosis baby, burn fat, don’t store it. I don’t feel as sick any more but O-M-G!!!!!! I bagged up the cookies/protein balls and put them WAY in the BACK BACK of the freezer. For lunch I had an avocado wrapped in Romaine lettuce leaves.

Now a bit about The Amazing Race. I think that I mentioned this already in the last post, but Marie (of “Tim and Marie” e.g. Pinky and the Ex) said something in her “exit interview” for TAR that I found super interesting and don’t understand. She said that she and Tim had agreed to split things 60/40. On the mat, she said that she’d picked Tim because “he was the only person around” when she did the video, which she did “on the last day to get it in” (sounds familiar!) Then, she said in this exit interview that “she did all the work for 8 months” to “get them in it” and so she deserved more because he “didn’t do anything.” Yes, I know I did blog about this, because I was trying to puzzle out what she was doing for 8 months. I’m sure that they went through the same issues that we did – you put the video submission in, then you wait. They were obviously picked for the “next thing” which I have been imagining is going down to L.A. so they can get a look at you and see how you act/are on camera/etc. It’s not like you can do anything to “help the process along” as far as I can see. Perhaps (as seems to be indicated by some of the YouTube videos) there is something where you try to get a certain number of “likes” on your video (once you’ve moved past the “coming to L.A.” bit obviously) – but the interesting thing is that nowhere can I find a video from a couple that MADE IT onto TAR, on YouTube. So I’m not quite sure what that means. PERHAPS they posted them on the actual TAR website (which would make sense – driving traffic and all) and that’s where folks had to “vote” – or (more likely) perhaps folks “believe” that if their video has a lot of likes, they will be more likely to be picked – I don’t think so. Anyway – still puzzling about the whole “I did everything for 8 months” thing. It’s gotta be shopping and such. (By the way, I just looked them up in the CAST section and indeed, she is a gym owner/personal trainer – NO SURPRISE – and he’s actually a sports agent.)

I do know that I have to stop eating like I’m going to be hibernating for 4 months without food, and I have to get stronger and faster. I really believe that Moddie and I are “smart” – but neither of us (right now) is STRONG. I keep thinking about that last episode (the Final 3) where they had to climb across a GLACIAL RAVINE on a LADDER lying across the ravine in ICE SHOES (I would have thrown up right there), then pick-axe their way up the other side, plus pick-axe out the clue sheets from an ice wall. There were guys on each team, so the guys did the pick-axing out of the wall. I do wonder how many all -girls teams have won (I went back and skimmed through YouTube and found at least one – but NEVER has a team over I want to say FORTY years old ever won – much less me at over 50). One thing that we are going to have to do WHEN we get on is to freakin’ practice kayaking, paddleboarding, and canoeing together – oh my goodness, that was a HUGE downfall for a couple of the teams. And that’s TOTALLY something you can get to work beforehand.

Yeah, that’s enough for now. I’m really procrastinating and that’s no mistake.

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WEIGHT MAXES AND STRATEGY:

12/10 – 6 x 10 each in WOD (I think)

back squat: 25k – backed under bar – GO UP 5k. Used Medium box to “sit down to” – good height STAY.
NOTES: orange (15k)/2 5k plates. Could have gone up another 5k (2.5 each side) for this WOD. Used R hand backwards 4 shoulder. HERE is a good video – note however that I am squatting down to the box because there is just NO WAY I can get all the way down. The box gives me some “security” – I think that for me, the idea is to work “down” to the lowest box jump box.

hang clean: 25k STAY HERE FOR NOW.
NOTES: my elbows hurt some today – I might have been able to go up a bit from here, but this is probably a good weight for now. Make sure to keep elbows “up and out” on the return (down) so that you aren’t just “bicep lifting” the bar down. Also remember the sort of “alley oop” movement. HERE is a good video that shows both Power Clean and Hang Clean.

12/11 – about 9 ea x 5 for push press, about 18 ea x 5 for the deadlifts

PushPress: 10lb dumbbells. GO UP, if doing fewer reps (maybe 2x – 15 pounders), STAY for higher reps.
NOTES: I think I could have done it at one set higher (12.5lbs), but no higher than that for this WOD. Jimmy helped me try to figure it out – because though the 10lb dumbbells didn’t feel light, they didn’t feel super heavy (I tried, and I could do 3x on the 15 pounders). Anthony called me out that you need to keep your butt “under” your legs, not stuck out. It’s very much an “up and down” thing, just squatting enough to “boost” the weights. That’s why I think the 10 pounders were too light, I didn’t need to “boost” them which messed up my form. HERE is a good tutorial. He doesn’t talk about the “return elbow” thing but if you watch, you can see it.

Deadlift: 35k. Maybe GO UP 5k (e.g. 2.5k each side), BUT read NOTES.
NOTES: I looked good on the “up” of the movement, back straight, bar close to legs, squeezing butt at the end to pop the pelvis out, seating shoulders. However, have to work on the “down” movement. Basically, butt goes out with the legs still straight, keep looking ahead, then knees bend, then drop down. Don’t round the back. Really concentrate on keeping the back flat – which means going down, your butt goes out first, to “unlock” the movement so you can set the bar back down. HERE is a long video  (especially compares Deadlift to Squats), HERE is a shorter one (and HELLO is HE easy on the eyes!!) Also to remember for all “squatting” movements – keep CHEST OUT and think CHEST OUT (‘proud”). This is what keeps you from having back injuries. You can’t “round” your back without caving in your chest.

Alternative to Burpees (shoulder issue):
1. Once, Anthony had me doing a 100m row – when the burpees were just to get my heart rate up.
2. Today, with “jump over the bar, do a burpee, jump back,” I did 1 count being starting at the left of both dumbbells on the floor with a space in between, jumping over the first dumbbell to the middle, then over the 2nd dumbbell to the other side. Then back was 2, etc. This was harder than it looked. I don’t understand why I have absolutely zero “jump.” Question for Anthony.

Air Squats: Anthony had me working on squats today doing my usual “holding onto the vertical,” but he had me actually put my feet out a lot wider, so that when I came back up, my butt was more “under” me than out. Remember of course pressure on “outside” of feet, don’t let knees cave in. He also said to go as forward as I could until my heels are JUST about to come up off the floor – and that’s where I needed to drive up from.