Day 112 (December 18) – Crossfit Rx – !!! – and more…

Posted on by Sandy

1st rx deadlifts photoSO excited!

Last night I did my first “Rx” in even a PART of a Crossfit WOD.

The warmup included 3 minutes of jumping rope (really MUST start practicing that now that I have my super duper rope that’s of course still in the BAG), then pullups (did them with the black band – so I was lifting 100 lbs of my big self) and such.

The WOD – as you can see from the chalk photo to the left, was an A/B WOD. We did 5 rounds of 30 seconds on, 30 seconds off. “A” was Deadlifts and Pushups. “B” was PushPress and Box Jumps. I tried to “crop” the photo and enlarge it, but I’m obviously a WordPress Media idiot and no could do ;-(

I knew the WOD because I’d looked it up online in the morning, and had “decided” to do the Deadlifts at the 45kg Rx. This was a 20kg (44 lb) increase from my previous P.R. It was tough, but not THAT tough. Bo even came up to me – since I did WAY more than the guys did – and said that in reality I needed to up the weight. OVER the Rx! How’s about that!

Pushups I am back doing with my hands on the “desk table” – this shoulder thing really does suck.

We had a break to “set up” the 2nd round – the Rx for girls was to do the Pushpress with a bar without weights, but it would generally be the 15kg bar (red bar). I had only done Pushpresses with 2 5lb dumb bells. So my setup (which looked pretty funny) was the 10lb “swirly” bar plus the 10 kg bar, both on the PVC “U”stands, and then the 2 dumb bells to the side. Bo came up to find out what I was doing – I said I felt strong, and so I was going to start with the 1okg bar, but if that wound up really whacking my shoulder, I would scale down. (the “Chinese menu” of Pushpresses.) I was actually fairly sure I could do at least 2 with the 10kg bar, and I’d have to scale down around round 3 – did the whole thing with it! YAY! It was hard, but I might be able to do the red (15kg) bar next time (which would be the Rx for girls).

On the box jumps, I had been able to do 2 25k plates and a 5k plate, but not this time. We haven’t done box jumps in a while, I think I have to start practicing something like that at home. Unfortunately, after a couple rounds, Bo came up to me too, and explained that I was “plyo-jumping” up. What that basically means is that you’re jumping from your calves, versus getting thrust from your hamstrings/glutes. The way to see if you’re doing this is if you take a little “bounce” before you hop up. Holy cow, it was hard to do it the “right” way! (You can see where I started that in the photo above – that’s the round I went down to 10.) I had been jumping up and stepping down – once I started doing the box jumps “right” it took longer to get my “up” going (yeah, I really suck at box jumps) and so I would jump back down, trying to keep my reps up.

I felt super happy with this WOD and in particular that I FINALLY did SOME part of the WOD at Rx!

This morning I went in – yeah, okay, I totally did it because I knew the “big kids” would be there and I wanted to say I’d done Rx. Pfffft! Well of course this WOD showed ME! LOL.

Warmup was a 400m run (chilly but not bad – we’re back in shorts, but with a sweatshirt), then pushups (did it against the Roman chair), pullups (did the black band as noted from yesterday – again, think I can move to green), V-ups (shoot me now), squats.

The WOD was:

For Time
1 mile run
30 Back squat 85/55KG
10 Muscle Up
30 Back Squat
1 mile run

I really am slow at running and getting slower. Margo lapped me on both rounds! The Muscle Up I did scaled (see below what that meant). Back squat from the rack I did 30kg, I can push that up, maybe just 2-10k plates and red bar (that would be up 5k), but I might actually be able to do the orange (10k) bar and 2-20k plates – MAYBE MAYBE. Key to being comfortable doing this is the box behind my tush! I was hoping I could scale that down (from the medium box to the shortest one) but not a chance.

I’m not really that sore from yesterday’s WOD, amazingly. I’m a bit, in the “crease” of my hips. Not sure what that’s from. Probably the Deadlifts – also, at the top of the box jump Bo was making SURE everyone was standing “straight up” at the top. How Martin did that at the Games was to basically pop his hips forward, so that’s what I did.

And that’s it for today! Going to go see Francine, have my last JLI class tonight, and GOTTA get back on track because I’m a week behind in the Nutrition Certification. I feel bad because Shendl got hers done over a week ago. We just have one tranche of stuff left before the test, too!

Oh – I know, one other thing – quite addicted to the Carrie Brown/Jonathan Bailor podcasts. His book was called something like “The Science of Slim” but that’s now off the market because his “The Calorie Myth” (which I have pre-ordered) is coming out January 1st. I’m starting WAY back with their podcasts from 2012 and working my way up. I definitely understand what they’re saying – very similar to Rosedale. The main credo is eat food that’s high in water, high in fiber, high in protein. Don’t eat fat “alone” (e.g., a stick of butter). I think I talked about the whole S.A.N.E. thing before in the blog – the one thing he talks about that I need to understand is his 20 minutes/week of e-centric exercise. It’s definitely strength/weights, just don’t know what.

 

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CROSSFIT NOTES:

Pullups: Off the right side of the new shorter “wall” side of the box, using a short box-jump box and a black band. TRY A GREEN BAND NEXT TIME.

Deadlifts: 45kg! SO EXCITED – that was not only the Rx but also a P.R. (by like 20 kg!) I could do this with effort but not “full” effort. GO UP.

Pushups: Back to hands on the box. Box Jumps: 2 25 kg plates – don’t “plyojump” – STAY.

Push/Press: Did with the 10kg bar, believe I could do it with the 15kg bar, or maybe 10kg with 2 1-kg or 2-kg plates. This is exciting because last time I tracked Push/Press – a week ago – I was doing the 10 kb dumbbells. Even USING a bar was big for me and my stupid shoulder! 🙂 GO UP.

Back Squats: 10kg bar with 2-10kg weights for a total of 30kg. Believe I could have done it with the 15kg bar – but this is what I said I wanted to try, from the last time we did back squats, so I did what I said I’d do. So I need to GO UP AGAIN – DEFINITELY 5k eg from orange to red bar (total of 35k). Sat back on the middle-high box, STAY with that. 

Scale for Muscle Up: 3 dips (with green band) and 3 “pushups” on the dip bars. Had to do 10 rounds of 3/3, and by the end was “bouncing” off the floor to “help” myself up on the dips. The pushups were fine, the dips, not so much. STAY. (so the scale is 3 dips & 3 pushups = 1 muscleup)

 

Day 110 (December 16 2013) – A new start…

Posted on by Sandy

I sooooo didn’t want to do this.

Last night, I finally talked to my nutritionist about the blood tests I took a week or so ago. Any time that your nutritionist calls you again – and again – over the weekend, you know something is up.

Sigh.

I also did the “dunk tank” body composition (read: waterboarding) on Saturday – and that was depressing too . . . do I need a HUGE load of depressing “data” about myself to actually get a move on? I think that the answer is YES.

Well – let me catch up, first, since I haven’t blogged in a while:

Thursday: Went to the Bullivant holiday party at La Folie – it was fab (of course). Was out drinking rich-rich food and wine until like 11 p.m.

Friday: Got up, realized it was time for WODPenance, even though H had a meeting and I didn’t want to go. Went. Did it.

CONDITIONING
10 RFT
200m run
8 snatch 35/25kg
5 burpee

Mainly ran with Tracy (the Hong Kong gal) – we actually were just the same pace running (read: “not so fast”). For the snatches, I did it with the swirly bar (10 lbs.) – it wasn’t exactly heavy enough because I just worked on the “arm portion” – didn’t “have to” squat to get it up – hard to explain.

For the 5 burpees, up to about 6 rounds, I did the “hopping over the dumbbells” thing (2 dumbbells, jumping from left to middle to right, then back for 1). Unfortunately by the 6th round it really hurt my knee (laterals) – so I moved to doing squats holding onto the 25 kg stack. All the equipment was in the middle of the room, scaffolding, etc. because of the remodel, so we had to be careful not to touch the walls, etc. (It was pretty funny.) Just finding the equipment you wanted was tough. For example, the warmup included 3 minutes of double unders (or 5 of regular singles) – and we were all running around trying to figure out where the jump ropes were (over in the gymnastics room). LOTS of work – Bo came to be Coach and his eyes were so red – I don’t think he’s been sleeping more than like 2 hours a night with all the remodelling, since he’s driving it.

Friday night, once again, had a paleo cookie chowfest.

Listened to David Asprey’s podcast, and he had Jonathan Bailor on, who was SUPER interesting. His new book “The Calorie Myth” is coming out December 31st, so I signed up for that and a bunch of his podcasts to listen to on the way to Concord the next day (Reindeer Games).

Saturday:

Did the “body composition analysis” a/k/a dunk truck a/k/a – hello – WATERBOARDING. O-M-G! NOW I get how Joy at GirlsGoneWod podcast totally had a crazy time doing it. INSANE…Sheri (from the box) was the one who called it waterboarding and I just laughed and laughed – IT WAS SO WATERBOARDING!!!

I had done the body comp with the impedence machine with Kat/Bay Club, and it came out at 23 percent, which was fine, and I have to admit, it didn’t really push me very dramatically. Obviously, since I’ve been having my chowfests!

This one – FAR more specific – came out yeah a WEE BIT DIFFERENT.

Body Fat Percentage? 29.2% – 53.1 pounds. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is just NOT OKAY. It’s depressing AS HELL frankly. This is way far below the “high set point line” that is more around 21-22% (which is what the Bay Club said I was at).

What does this mean . . . losing fat only, I’d need to lose about 19 pounds of fat to be at a better set point. And – ta da! – that’s about what I’ve been saying (but not really doing all that much towards) – for a year.

The great thing, though, is that Jonathan Bailor really seems to have taken the Rosedale information and his book is based on that. I’m getting a little excited. Moreover, I signed up for his book now, and so I got a bunch of free stuff from TheSmarterScienceofSlim.com – so the plan is to read through it and perhaps get started today.

On his first podcasts, Bailor (and Carrie Brown, his co-host) analogize the idea of why we can’t get out metabolism/set point/etc. where we want to a clog in a shower. If you have a clog of hair in your shower, just bailing water out of the backed up water, or taking fewer showers, etc. does NOT fix things. You have to pull the clog out (icky!) – which is re-setting your set point – and then you’re going to be good. So it’s not “eat less/exercise more” and it’s not taking the wrong road (which can be worse than doing nothing at all).

Similarly, once you re-set your set point, if you “go off the ranch” and eat stuff not good for you, it’s like a little bit of hair falling down the shower now and again.

Another thing Bailor talks about is a quote by Emmanuel Kant – basically, that if you can’t do it FOREVER then don’t do at all. He also talks about how this is really more like someone “going” vegetarian or eating a certain way due to religious strictures – once you’ve “decided” then (like a vegetarian quitting meat for moral reasons) it’s not “hard” to give things up just like it’s not “hard” for a vegetarian to pass a nice juicy steak.

Bailor also talks about e-centric exercises 20 minutes/week – not sure what that is, listening to the podcasts now to find that out. (Carrie Brown makes a point that they are HARD even though they’re “only” 20 minutes/week.)

How unusual – I’m wandering . . . (laugh)

FROM THE WATERBOARDING, I went to Concord to support The Cavers (Martin, Mark, Karen and Ashley) at the Reindeer Games. Long story short, they came in second! It was quite the story at the end. I took about 400 photos, culled them down to about 200, and sent them to them, which made me feel good. Looks like Mark was actually in the Crossfit Games – WOW. And now they know who “I am” which is good too.

I managed to forget to wear my BodyBugg, but I was running around like crazy (while trying to stay out of the way of the athletes, etc.) Carol Wu from Ironteam was a volunteer – SO GREAT to see her and catch up a wee bit.

Bought a jump rope – not like that WILL get me to doing double unders (and I SO can’t tell H that I bought a jump rope…especially a $30 jump rope “made for me” LOL) – but Carol actually said that she took a clinic with the folks who make the ropes and she can now do double unders – she gave me a couple tips which sounded like good points.

Came back from the Games to the box, and then sort of “worked” the Christmas Party because they didn’t have enough folks who could. Set up and “womanned” the wine and beer table, and Margo hung with me most of the time, which was great. Ate fine while I was there (they had Tara Firma Farms meat – nice!), but then took cheese home for H, and of course, chowed down on it. NOM NOM NOM (bad girl).

Came home to messages from my nutritionist to call her NOW regarding my thyroid and leptin levels. I did text her whether I was, like, going to die or anything – no, but then she called me again Sunday….

SUNDAY:
Worked outside with H, got more cleaned up. Walked over the hill to San Anselmo for breakfast – once again had “stomach issues” though stuck with poached eggs, but this time on meatloaf with tomatoes – I just think that they have to use something on where they cook the meatloaf/bacon/whatever that I’m reacting to. This time, we did a little shopping in San Anselmo (didn’t buy anything, just looking), so that was way better than last time when we walked straight back home and I had “an accident” (TMI) before we got there. This time, I was able to “have a blowout” (T-M-I-!) in the coffee roastery bathroom instead of 1/2 way back up the hill.

Listened more to podcasts – cleaned house – etc. I’m sure I did more. I do know that today I realized I haven’t done the planks (what is WRONG WITH ME) for a while. Gotta start again.

Caught up with my nutritionist finally Sunday evening – and my thyroid hormones are TOTALLY out of whack. Interestingly, she thought my leptin was “fine” at 13.1 but Rosedale says that anything over 10 is way whacked. Supposed to be more like 4-6 (ml/dL or whatever it is). So now I know, my leptin is whacked, and my thyroid is way whacked even though I’m on 2 meds now. She thinks that one of the meds should be about 3x what I’m taking now. So I have those lab results in to the endocrinologist.

I will admit that the thing that tipped the “scales” (as it were) was the 30% body fat PLUS the leptin completely in the resistance range (WELL over the line). I gotta get this fixed. So of course I drank champagne and ate cheese, cheese, cheese 😉

MONDAY:

Yeah. so didn’t make it to Crossfit today. Right now, I have 15 minutes to decide if I’m going to go to yoga. MUST GO! I mean – seriously…The problem is that I will have yoga, working at yoga, going to Sheri’s Xmas party, then fire dancing (!!) with Moddie all in a row. I guess that’s okay – it’s just that generally I’d rather go to Sheri’s and out with Moddie without having wet hair pulled back after yoga shower (I do Bikram – hence – shower required).

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NOTES (SANE eating regime e.g. from “The Calorie Myth” plus a Crossfit max):

SANE = S.atiety, A.ggression (how LIKELY something is to be stored as fat), N.utrition, E.fficiency (how MANY of the calories can be stored of what you eat as fat). These clear your metabolic clogs. (want to feel sated, to be high in nutrition, and LOW in Aggression and Efficiency).

SNATCH: 10 lb “swirly bar” – not enough. GO UP.

 

Day 106 – ‘Bucket List’

Posted on by Sandy

Today my best grrl Allison came over – she had to do some work, but I was folding laundry (OMG we are SO adults now huh?) – it was great to catch up at least a little. We both commented how when she lived in the CITY we saw each other more. It’s really really weird. I know that both the boys mention it – this is ridiculous! We don’t have a freakin’ BRIDGE between us now (LOL!) Then again, she’s got 2 kids, we are both married now (we WERE dating, but that’s so different), etc. Cray-cray. Anyway, it was SO GREAT to see her and we even set another date for “same time next week.”

In the meantime, tonight I have the big “soiree” at Bullivant – thank GOD they sent out a “reminder” because I thought it was on Friday! OMG! Makes sense though that it’s NOT because it’s at a Michelin-rated restaurant and I imagine that they don’t want to close the whole thing down on a weekend-night (Friday).

Not sure what I’m going to wear. I’m more than a little depressed (ya think, given this blog?) about how much weight I’ve gained. They’re still working on my hormone “cocktail” but I am also gearing myself up to do the Rosedale Diet to attack it from the leptin angle. (Yeah, after eating about 150 cookies and protein balls the other night, sure.) I’m not sure WHAT might fit. H isn’t coming – he’d LOVE to go to this restaurant especially with free-flowing wine and it has GREAT food – but he doesn’t want to be social, and the reason I’m being invited is that I’m super social and make the managing partner look good. I forward my litigation and such to them, and I really like the managing partner anyway, too. So it’s nice to have been invited. Last year I came and really talked up their firm to the high-end clients that are invited – which of course looks good because the room is made up of THEIR lawyers, their high end clients, and ME. If their lawyers talk the firm up, it’s bragging. If ~I~ talk their firm up, it’s not.

Allison just left, so I have to get some things done (including the end of the laundry), shower, and figure out what to wear. It’s a good long drive because the restaurant is in the depths of the City, so I have to leave enough time to get there – want to say it starts at 6:30 so I for SURE have to leave by 5:30, maybe even 5:15.

I MUST get out and HIKE today. I MUST. Moddie and I talked about this – I gotta get that going again especially for WHEN we are on TAR. It’s a nice day outside, it’s just probably crack-&ss cold. (Compared to WHAT of course – yeah – it’s like 20 degrees colder in Colorado….)

NOW back to what I have been thinking of, which is a Bucket List. I have a bunch of things in Pinterest that are bucket list-y, but in reality I’ve never REALLY had much of a bucket list. When I turned 40, H told me I could have a trip anywhere in the world, no holds barred, whatever I wanted. That was SUCH a blast – the only “structure” was that he didn’t have to plan it (laugh!) So we wound up doing the hike from Mt. Blanc to the Mediterranean (the length of the French Alps), but “our” way – meaning, we started at Mt. Blanc, hiked for however-many miles (a good bit), with a guide, the OTHER guide drove all our stuff forward to a super nice B&B, then hiked up the trail and met us, brought us down off the trail to the van to cocktails, drove us to the B&B, then the next morning, we’d drive some to the next place they wanted to put us on the trail, repeat. So we were doing a “best of” hike, and only had to stay one night “overnight” on the trail itself. (Yeah, I know, pampered much??) We got to Menton (the end, at the Mediterranean), then H and I took a train to Italy and spent time in Cinqueterre, which we hadn’t planned on, but which was great.

For my 50th birthday, I had my “do the Ironman before I’m 50” promise I made to myself (foolishly) when I was in my 20s – so I did that. I don’t want to say this is “do before I’m 60 (holy COW how did THAT happen??) – but there really are things I’d like to do and so I thought I’d set them out here, in no particular order (though they do pretty much entail H and me being in “good working order” physically still!)

BUCKET LIST:
1. Do the “temple walk” in Kyoto, Japan.
2. Go to Bali and environs.
3. DO THE AMAZING RACE! (Duh…)
4. Surf. Really surf – be able to stand up on the board. That will entail more mobility that’s for sure!
5. Get another dog. I’m not sure that will happen, though I’d like to. I fantasize about different “sorts” of dogs. I’d love to have another border collie because I really understand them – but they’re such “wooses.” I would love to have a pit mix with long legs (like Michael’s new WODdog Moo), or a dobie (so so gorgeous, but has to be a SMART one, remember Eisen? DUMB AS A ROCK!), or a bull terrier (OMG SO CUTE and have you seen the MINI ones??? Like a purse bull terrier!)
6. Some Crossfit thing. Not sure. Probably a pull up. Things like muscle ups and handstand pushups and such are so far in the future as to be laughable. Oh – how about a double under!? One!
7. Paddleboard. I so want to try that. Maybe we can when we go to Kona for H’s birthday?
8. Kidnap H somewhere. I just love that idea.
9. Learn how to shoot my hunting bow. PLEASE PLEASE want to do this! (Need to ask for a bale and target from H for Xmas)
10. A Tough Mudder
11. Dog sledding to the Ice Hotel (Mt. Travel Sobek trip) – HUGE HUGE BUCKET LIST THING!
12. That’s it for now 😉 I might add more later – I’ll just try to do it here.

Day 105 = 11 Dec 2013 (btw, 1kg = about 2.21 lbs.)

Posted on by Sandy

“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.)

946072_10151892060912615_284687522_nToday 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.

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

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.

Is it day 103? Plank day 14.

Posted on by Sandy

OK so I THINK it is Day 103. Counting back from my last post. If it’s not, I will fix it – but today is 12/9/2013 so that NEXT time I try to figure this out, I have both the day AND the date on the first line LOL.

This past weekend, Saturday, H and I did a bunch of errands, then Sunday we did “hike” to breakfast over the San Anselmo hill. Dad’s 80th last night, went and saw Charity and Del Sol and Fenix Supper Club – which was GREAT! So happy that worked out.

It was 23 degrees when we went to Crossfit today – brrrrr!!! There was ice all over the parking lot, and our WOD included 1200 m run on both sides of it. The first time through I semi-skidded on some of the black ice and then instead of running on the tarmac, just ran on the sidewalk. We normally don’t do that because people come in and out of the offices behind the box – but so it goes. Watch out, people! LOL.

The WOD was 6 x (15 wall balls, 10 overhead lunges (5 each leg), 5 chest-to-bar). I did the wall balls with a 10 pounder, and really concentrated on the squat portion, getting my hip crease as close as I can possibly go “below my knee” – but that meant that I had to basically stand up, then throw the ball. I can’t use the squat to “oomph” the ball up if I do the squat low enough. I don’t know why.

I tried doing the OHL with a 5 kg plate over my head – made it 3 or 4 rounds then my shoulder started to hurt. So did the final I want to say 2 rounds with the power band.

Used 3 25 kg plates to get “up to” the tallest pullup bar, but couldn’t get the chest to the bar. I did get my head/chin over the bar each time. I really do NOT have any “jump.” I mean, we are talking NO JUMP. NONE.

Today is Plank Day 14 – I did do 90 seconds of plank each day for the past 2 days, which sucked. LAUGH! I will do 90 today.

I went to Crossfit today because H has to stay overnight in San Jose tomorrow, so he needed to do Crossfit. That means of course that right now, when I should be at yoga, I’m clearing out email. I really can only do one or the other on Monday. The stupid thing is if I don’t do yoga on Monday, then I don’t do it. I used to be so good! Every time I have this situation, I think “WHY am I working at the yoga studio to get free yoga, then not doing yoga!”

This reminds me of a little email exchange Moddie had I had today. I have a BUNCH of things that I do or belong to, where I keep doing or belonging because if I were to stop, I couldn’t afford to start again! Example – Moddie has a great deal at our local gym, because she used to work there. When she stopped, they never upped her rate. She was thinking about stopping it – because even at that rate, it’s not inexpensive – but I mentioned to her the problem is that she could NEVER get that rate back (and it’s by far the best gym in our area – gorgeous non-chlorinated pools, etc.) This is similar to the yoga/work trade situation – WHEN we get into TAR, I think that we are both going to work our little butts off (yeah, BIG butts…) EVERY day, sort of like IronTeam training – e.g., something in the morning, something in the evening. So ti might be Crossfit/yoga, then swim/yoga, swim/Crossfit, run/yoga, hike with pack/yoga – etc. And I think yoga HAS to be part of that, because flexibility is SO important. All the other stuff that I/we do doesn’t build on flexibility. So I keep doing work trade – because WHEN we get our callback, I have to be able to say “yes, I can do yoga 3x/week every week” or something like that. If that makes sense.

Back to work…

DAY 100!!! And Plank Day 11 (again!) – plank schedule at bottom

Posted on by Sandy

Man! It’s been a week since I blogged. Bad me. It’s gotten a little crazy in my life – in a good way, just a little crazy.

It was Thanksgiving week (obviously, which I’ve talked about) – then this past week, I did to yoga (and worked) on Monday and did 60 seconds of plank. I woke up on Tuesday with my buns ON FIRE – O.M.G. I really mean like “call the firemen, bring the hose” fire. I have heard people say “my muscles are on fire” before but I thought that was a metaphor for something other than . . . fire. 😉 I’m not sure if it was because I did the planks after yoga (which worked my core) so I had to clench my glutes like a madwoman to get it done or what, but . . . holy cats!

Tuesday the workout was:

CONDITIONING
20 Min AMRAP
8 Push Press 50/35KG
8 Burpee
8 Toes 2 Bar
8 Jumping Squat

Unfortunately I have managed to hurt my shoulder again (BIG SIGH) – though not “horribly” so – and so I did 8 ring rows, 100m row (the burpees are to get your heart rate up so I had to row as fast as I could), 8 “knees up” (my version of toes 2 bar anyway), and 8 jumping squats. H went with me.

Wednesday morning the workout was “Nate” which is:

20 Min AMRAP
2 Muscle Up
4 Handstand Pushups
8 Kettlebell swings

So, once again, I had to modify for the shoulder. I did … man, what DID I do? I think it was 6 jumping pullups, then I know it was a 10 second plank, then 8 kettlebell dead lifts. I did the dead lifts with the 2nd to heaviest kettlebell, which felt good. Anthony started me doing 5 second planks but I realized (since I was “so scaled”) that my rep number was going to be SO much higher than anyone else’s, that I had to do at least 10 seconds.

Yesterday the PLAN was to go to the 6:30 WOD – but H said that actually he could go today (Friday) and so I bailed. I also had a HELLACIOUS day of “to-ing and fro-ing” – also a client who had written down the wrong time for our meeting so I had to re-schedule it for today, etc. I even (shock shock) had work to do – and then H and I went and got our flu shots . . . after that I just said “will you take me out to dinner?” (laugh) and we went to Vin Antico, which was nice. Then we had a “no TV day” as we had said we would once a week and I went to bed and snuggled in and read!

I got up early this morning (though not as early as my alarm went off) – it has been SUPER DUPER cold and there was frost everywhere. Thank goodness H had “towel covered” the jade plants, etc. When I got to the box today the tractor tires outside, etc. were all covered in frost. I thought I was going to be hella late because there was an accident and I had started out to get there late (trying to finish some client work). But traffic was backed up BOTH ways so we wound up all being late.

Today was:

“Jackie” x 2
1000M Row
50 Thruster 20/15Kg
30 Pull Up

I did it at 22:24 for the 2 – with the thrusters with the 10 pound swirly bar and jumping pullups. I still can’t “swing under” the bar for the jumping pullups because of my shoulder. Then I did, after, the minute of planks so it was done.

Can I say one thing? Chalk plus sweat on eyeglasses = cement. Just sayin’.

There are a BUNCH of teams going to a competition tomorrow in Merced. I’m toying with going. H wouldn’t be happy and it’s a long drive. I am for sure going to the competition next Saturday because it’s only in the East Bay – I would like to go and show support though.

No word from The Amazing Race. They SO should pick us! Seriously! Our video is so cute!

And that said, I have more client work to do – I’m not complaining! – and then I have to get out to the meeting that was postponed from yesterday.

Moddie suggested that we set some sort of goal and suggested a photo shoot goal. I think that’s a GREAT idea. We do need to do “Ice Ice Baby” and also H and I are going to go to Hawaii for his birthday in February – so it’s really TIME to get this all “on.” (Or, as the case is, “off”!) I posted a bunch of my wedding photos (candids that were emailed to me, as the professional ones are on a CD somewhere!) onto Facebook, and it is STRIKING how different I look when HELLO 40 lbs slimmer. I want that back. I was SO FIT, too. Wow – 40 lbs. Dang.

Here is the plank schedule again:

The 30-Day Plank Challenge will send your core strength through the roof!
Day 1 – 20 seconds
Day 2 – 20 seconds
Day 3 – 30 seconds
Day 4 – 30 seconds
Day 5 – 40 seconds
Day 6 – REST
Day 7 – 45 seconds
Day 8 – 45 seconds
Day 9 – 60 seconds
Day 10 – 60 seconds
Day 11 – 60 seconds
Day 12 – 90 seconds
Day 13 – REST
Day 14 – 90 seconds
Day 15 – 90 seconds
Day 16 – 120 seconds
Day 17 – 120 seconds
Day 18 – 150 seconds
Day 19 – REST
Day 20 – 150 seconds
Day 21 – 150 seconds
Day 22 – 180 seconds
Day 23 – 180 seconds
Day 24 – 210 seconds
Day 25 – 210 seconds
Day 26 – REST
Day 27 – 240 seconds
Day 28 – 240 seconds
Day 29 – 270 seconds
Day 30 – PLANK FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE!!

Day 94 – and, I remembered what I forgot! (Sarongs) – and new category TAR Tips

Posted on by Sandy

At some point, I’m going to have to re-tag and re-categorize some of these posts. I think I might start, in fact, NOW, with THIS one.

There, done. 🙂

Now there is a category called “TAR Tips.” This means that WHEN (smile) we get picked we could “sort back through” all these blog posts and find tips to consider. Not that I’m going to go back and do it now, but I can at least do it “going forward from this point.”

The thing that I had had in the back of my mind and then forgotten was how indispensable a towel, and an Arab head scarf, were to two of the teams. When they did the “feed the elephant” challenge, the Afghanimals and the fiances each had something to “wrap and carry” the fruit in, which kept it on the hand truck.

This reminded me of something I’d said before (when the baseball bunnies were getting the dried fish down off of the ladder?) – the benefit of each having a SARONG.

First of all, of course, a sarong would have been helpful if found in the situation in the mines – when the teams had to add salt to a bath and then float in it. One of the teams was not “in their suits” and I can’t quite remember how they changed into them. But a sarong would work, especially as I would imagine I would have a Handfuls bra as my top at all times (which doubles as a swim suit top). If you put on a sarong, you can put on the bottoms without any issue.

Similarly, when the teams were in the temple in the UAR, the women had to wear black full-body covers. Now, a sarong wouldn’t do quite so well there, but a “makeshift” one at least in a Jewish or Buddhist temple could be a long-sleeved shirt, a sarong, and something over the hair (handkerchief?).

In the “dried fish” situation, I was unclear if they just couldn’t put the fish “on the ground” – if that was the case, then a sarong could have been spread out to lie the fish on instead of having the other team member have to carry them and wait.

I also really wondered, in the “cook the wedding meal” challenge, if the knives that they had to cut everything up with were sharp. Perhaps a FLINT could be a good addition – not sure about that.

Finally, I think it’s pretty integral to have SWIM GOGGLES. There has only been one “swimming” task so far (when they had to swing off the bridge, let go, then swim to the clue), but I think that swim goggles would be SUPER useful for some of the other challenges from other seasons.

One thing that they ALWAYS make you do is to “recount” where you have been if you’re the last teams standing. I think that we are one episode from that now, since we are down to 4 teams (fiances, ER dox, Afghanimals, Pinky and the ex). I wonder if on the first plane ride, ripping out the world map (that’s always in the flight magazine you get) might not be a good idea. Then keeping track on it. As you’re allowed at least one notebook per team, I would think that the best thing to have would likely be something like a mechanical pencil – because if you had a pen and it ran out of ink that would SO suck.

I noticed when the teams were leaving the UAE, they all were carrying little bags in addition to their backpacks. I’ve been thinking of all the things that they have had to have collected – I wonder what happened to the Viking shields? Interestingly, the baseball bunnies in their exit interview said that they had too MANY “hair products,” whereas the Ice princesses said that hey had “run out of” hair products. Not sure what that means – !

Today I haven’t done a doggone single thing – got up, and have had contracts to do. It’s Saturday, but tomorrow is the first of December, when clients have asked for things to be done. So I gotta do it. H wants to go look at cars today, but it’s already 3:40. (We didn’t get out of bed until 10, mind you.) We MUST do that – the BMW is on its last legs.

I have two more contracts for another client, and I have my Nutritional Cert questions to get to Shendl. Theatre tomorrow – though H somehow didn’t get the Calendar invite, so made plans with Analiz. I’m bringing Kat on his ticket – she came to Thanksgiving and Mom and Dad liked her. And then TAR! Where they are eating cobras, among other things 😉

Today is the 29th (“Black Friday”) – Day 93!

Posted on by Sandy

H and I did the WOD today – it was “Atonement” v. “Repentance” v. “Retribution” – basically just each one longer than the next. H wanted to do the shortest (Atonement) – which was 3 x (200m run, 10 squat/cleans, 10 dips). It felt like basically a “cheater” WOD (laugh) especially as everyone ELSE was going for the biggie (middle was 400m/20/20, biggie was 800m/30/30) – so I wound up carrying plates from one side of the box to the other because they’re doing something in the gymnastics portion, and they had the “spring floor” pulled up and needed the plates moved from where they normally are (between the “garage” that’s the Crossfit box and the ‘garage’ that’s the gymnastics floor) to the far side. So I did it until H basically just walked to the car to wait for me. (He didn’t want to move the plates, and I knew that he wouldn’t hang around all that long, but I did it until he stopped stretching and just walked to the car – any longer and I always have a funny feeling he’ll just leave me to find my own way back home!)

This week has been mainly prepping for Thanksgiving. It went off well. I can’t remember if I worked out Monday (how bad is that?!?!), Tuesday I was in the city basically all day meeting with clients, then the plan was to get back for Crossfit, but the traffic was SO hellacious, even if H had met me at the box with clothes I would have been late. H went to the Wednesday morning workout, but I was meeting another client that morning then it was Farmer’s Market and shopping day, then prepping evening. I did get a personal training sesh from Kat, who was going to put me through a Chipper, but instead worked on Mobility stuff which was probably better! Thursday was a lot of cleaning up outside/around the house, as actually was today (after the WOD). Tomorrow we’re supposed to go car shopping again, plus I have client work to do that’s due “before December” which is (!!) Sunday!!

Have had a few things to say about Amazing Race “ah-has” that keep coming to me when I’m doing things like, oh, cleaning the attic (laugh). I keep saying I will remember them but, yeah, not so much.

I was keeping up on our Plank 30 Days until like Wednesday – Monday and Tuesday I got out of bed and did the planks on the floor next to the bed – and Wednesday I actually did the planks IN BED because I was almost asleep when I remembered. Totally did not do them yesterday – will do them after I write this today.

The Superhero Challenge is over – but I still need to do the last 3 days. I want to do them since it was pretty fun. I also got some good ideas for “personal/home” workouts.

Wish that we would get a callback from TAR. I’m obviously not sure we WILL get one, but I think our video really was cute. The thing I like about it is that it’s TOTALLY natural. The casting director said that’s one thing she really likes – and frankly, that’s the only way it COULD be! Some of the ones I have seen on YouTube seem to be “trying too hard.” A LOT aren’t 3 minutes, they are over! (It makes a HUGE point that they can’t be more than 3 minutes – ours is 3 on the nose – wonder if that wasn’t as “clear” before because a lot are like 3:12, 3:15, etc. some are 5:00!) On the “paying attention to directions” I would imagine if you go over 3 minutes that you get a big zero 😉

Well, hopefully I will remember my “learnings” that I wanted to remember and perhaps I will post them as a postscript to this post 😉

I think Monday/Crossfit is just not going to work out…

Posted on by Sandy

SO today is:

Day 89 in 365-TAR

Day 8 in the Plank Challenge

Day 19 in the SuperHero Challenge.

Today’s WOD was:

5 Rounds 30 on 30 off
clean 40/25KG
hspu
rest 5 min
5 Rounds 30 on 30 off
shuttle run 10M
v-up Tabatas

I realized last week that Mondays are REALLY difficult for me to make it to Crossfit. Why? Because I work at Red Dragon Mondays (so that I can get yoga for free – then I never use the benefit!) And H also works from the City on Mondays. What with all the work we’ve been doing around the house, my Sat-Sun-Mon usually looks like this:

Saturday: Lift Heavy Things (laugh). No – really – basically what it involves is doing whatever H tells me to do that has to do with the “outside” of the house. This weekend, it was sacks of river rock, staining fence boards, moving plants, moving furniture, sweeping, etc.

Sunday: Clean and sort inside. Sundays (if we’re not doing something else e.g. going to theatre with my folks), Sundays now, for me, mainly seem to be “cleaning and sorting” days. H goes for a long hike to breakfast, and I SHOULD do the same, but I am always “itching” to get after something that needs done inside. It’s always something that’s bugging ME but that H can’t see at all (laugh). Such as, for example, this past Sunday I took ALL the books out of the HUGE bookshelf behind our bed, and re-sorted them into subjects and also books that I really want to keep or to use or read – not books I “should” keep or “should” read. Sadly, a bunch of my coffee-table gardening books are going to have to go bye-bye, because our property is so hard to grow things on. It’s not only super duper steep, but it’s also NASTY clay soil. We don’t really have a flat area ANYWHERE – well, not quite true, NOW we have a flat front area because H built up the top end of the driveway to make one. The slope was so precipitous that it was easily 3 feet built up in a “wedge” to meet the bottom stair of our stairs up to the house.

Anyway – so Sunday involve cleaning out the bookshelves, cleaning and sorting things on my desk (not really done yet!), sorting through all the charitables that we give (those are lying on the floor right now – envelopes matched up – now I just have to see what is “missing”), packaging up some Fempowerment books for some of my 2DGirlGang that I need to mail today, etc.

I also completely re-did my wall calendar AND moved it (duh) from the wall ACROSS from my desk to the wall BEHIND my desk, so that I can actually SEE IT and WRITE ON IT. (How long did that take me? Like, a year??)

I didn’t “sort through” any email at all this past weekend, so of course I have about 500 things in my inbox. Thank goodness for @followupthen – it saves me (when I remember to use it). It’s like Oprius – which I also love for followups – but I haven’t used in months (oy).

SO WHY am I not doing Crossfit Mondays any more, I think? Because getting H ready, getting him his breakfast (he always has the “dreaded” 7 a.m. meeting then has to jet), getting him a “ferry pack” snack for coming home, getting laundry started (how can one man who doesn’t have a blue collar job wear SO MANY clothes??), folding laundry (from the weekend/sheets/etc.) then actually checking email and answering after sandbagging on the weekend…it’s TOUGH to get to a 9:00 a.m. WOD. Like, right now, sitting down to write this, it’s 9:30 a.m. (and I’ve been up since 6:30 – though I did spend about 1/2 hour posting photos of the new fence and front area on Instagram LOL).

I’d be done with the WOD, then usually do some errands (for example, I need to post the packages I made up, etc.) – and then “suddenly” it’s already noon. I haven’t had time to do any work or “meaningful” computer time, and if I want to make it to yoga, that’s at 1:30. So I usually DON’T. Then I work (to get free yoga…) from 2:30-5:00. Then it’s time to get home and start dinner. (I’m worthless working after about 3:30).

I really do want to be going to yoga at least ONCE a week. So that’s my thought – I’ll still go to Crossfit Weds and Fri mornings, and then Tuesday and Thursday nights if H can go. Sometimes he can go Friday morning, then we don’t do Thursday night. I heard that Amanda is coaching Thursday 9:00 WOD now, so if H can’t go Thursday maybe I’ll do that. That’s still a good load of Crossfit.

I’m doing the plank challenge assiduously, although twice now I have had to get out of bed RIGHT as I’m going over my day before dropping off to sleep, to do it! I think we’re up to a minute. At least – let’s put it this way – ~I~ am doing a minute. I will have to ask Moddie when it changes. Or, I could of course put it on my CALENDAR since it’s RIGHT HERE NOW (don’t you love it when bloggers obviously type as they think??)

Still haven’t heard from TAR. I SO think we should get at LEAST an interview!

Need to get more CLE done because my number’s up in January. I bought it – just haven’t done it. Time to put it on the CALENDAR 🙂

Speaking of The Amazing Race, LEARNINGS from Sunday:

1.  Read the clue and THINK ABOUT IT. I’m sad(ish) the Ice Princesses are gone, but HELLO, if they were still in it it would be a MIRACLE. First, they didn’t read the clue, so they go to the “end” of the Challenge instead of the beginning. Then, they allow themselves to be “bullied” by a taxi driver so have to take 2 trips. It was a shame, because they lost a TON and I mean a T-O-N of time.

2.  Don’t say something that might come back and bite you in the *ss. The female ER Doc took like an hour (per what she said during the challenge) to put together a little gamelon thing. THEN (oh that was REALLY BAD) she went to look at the one the Afghanimals had put together – after b*tching that they had “lied” that they had turned the Oklahomas around, and that is “why” the ER Docs U-turned the Afghanimals. I mean, that is REALLY BAD – cheating to “get a look” after saying that. Then, the affianced couple, the gal, had to help the ER Doc put it together, and her fiance was FREAKING out that they were losing so much time – which I understand, because they have been in the “crazy lost taxi driver” situation before. The ER Dox and the fiances showed up to the mat right about the same time, and the female ER Doc gave the fiancee a huge hug and said “I will never, ever, forget you” – and that is FOR SURE true. The fiancee went WAY out of her way – though her fiance had SAID to her “go help her” he just didn’t realize she would take so long (or that the ER Doc needed so much help).

I actually DREAMED about TAR last night – the elephant challenge part. It was a VERY INVOLVED dream!!! Holy cow.

AND, a final thing. I went and saw Willie this past week, because my weight is going up and up. It’s getting really super bad now. I have a “jiggly belly” which I have NEVER EVER had – it’s super duper bad. Willie took me off EVERY supplement that I’m on, and then put me back on very specific ones night and day. She suspects that my leptin is out of whack – which I suspect too after reading Primal Body, Primal Mind. There is a leptin-related book/cookbook that they recommend, and it was 75 cents on Half.com so I got it (yeah, make room for MORE books!)

I have to honestly believe that what I’m doing now is WORKING even though if you were to want “instant results” I would totally STOP what I’m doing because I’m getting fatter by the second. I’ve moved to being completely gluten-free, paleo, and doing the Bulletproof method e.g. Bulletproof coffee with egg yolks/MCT oil/butter in the morning (which holds me until way late in the day – so it’s sort of an “intermittent fasting” thing too). I’m not doing the long distance cardio training that everyone “says” is so bad. I even went to Kristina Lentz and had her do an “energy scan” on me – which was interesting and she validated a lot of stuff I’ve felt.

But like I said, my weight goes up and up. Four pounds in like 2 weeks! And it is NOT muscle, believe me. I was doing goblet squats (SuperHero Challenge) facing the mirror, watching my belly bounce up and down. It was IMMENSELY depressing. Any time I’ve “had to lose weight” (though NEVER this sort of weight – we’re talking like 30 lbs now) I have gone on something completely BAD for my health (you know, 10 days of the Master Cleanser, that sort of thing) and I feel that I just can NOT do that now, because I KNOW how bad it is for me/my metabolism/etc. But for chrissakes, would this “good eating” PLEASE kick in so that I don’t go on some sort of lemon/cayenne/maple syrup until Thanksgiving bender??? Please?

 

Some days, I just am bummed…

Posted on by Sandy

Days 85 and 86 (11/22/13) of my 365-TAR

Day 4 and 5 of Plank Challenge (up to 40 seconds today)

Day 15 and 16 of SuperHero Challenge….

Let’s see.

Yesterday, I didn’t do Crossfit or actually the SuperHero Challenge, because I was running around the bulk of the day. I did do the Plank Challenge though (30 seconds). Today the plan is to catch up on the SuperHero Challenge, I already did Crossfit, plus I did the Plank Challenge (45 seconds).

Crossfit was:

10 Rounds
25 Squats
10 Pull Ups
250M Row

It’s funny, on their page it’s listed as 6 rounds, but it was 10!

There were a ton of folks there today, so I shared a rower with H, and I started with the Row and did the WOD “backwards” and he did it “forwards” so that we could trade off. I did it in 33:34 but it whacked the crap out of me. I REALLY concentrated on form – as much as someone who scales as much as I do can! – but even doing the jumping pullups from 3 plates, I was barely able to get my chin above the bar even in the beginning. Not sure what’s up. I did the squats holding onto the stanchion, because I wanted to do them RIGHT. Everyone was doing Air Squats in all sorts of forms – of course, they finished like 3 rounds ahead of me! – but I am trying to take to heart what Kelly S in @mobilitywod and @GirlsGoneWODPodcast were talking about in the last episodes I listened to of them (Kelly S was on @BarbellShrugged Podcast) – to WATCH YOUR FORM – don’t just “do the WOD” if it means bad form. I could have done air squats not breaking my hip crease below my knees too, but I went ALL the way to the bottom and ALL the way up – though I scaled the middle 8 to 15 squats otherwise I would have been there all day! (I did the first one and the last one at 25, that was tough enough!)

I am not sure why I felt so depressed after finishing. PROBABLY because H finished at least one round ahead of me. I’m not competitive generally – except I guess I am.

Every time he’d come up to the rower, he’d have to wait as I was finishing my 250m. That was probably what sort of weighed me down. I was always “close” (within say 50m) but he’d have to wait. And then when I’d get back on, he’d usually rowed “past” his 250, sort of like I had a “head start.” Yeah, not sure what’s up there.

I did get to love on Michael’s absolutely CUTEST EVER puppy/dog Moo (white pit-mix with black spots and a black spot on her eye – like a Holstein – hence, “Moo”). OMG. I am IN LOVE.

The day was TOTALLY made, however, as I was featured in @winetoweights Lady Lifter spotlight. There are a few gals on Twitter that I follow and have a “girl gang” with, Jennifer being one of them. I really do feel like they are my “tribe.” I post Instagram photos going around and about my day and tag them so that they are sort of “with” me. I guess that’s part and parcel of working from home – I don’t “see” people all that much (except at Crossfit) – and though that’s a little weird, it’s like a “2D” gang of gal pals to me.

Well, I’m off now to get a massage – not a “aaaaah massage,” a “OMG that HURTS, do it again” massage. I need to work on my right hip, not sure what’s up there, but something. Then I have to do something else, then I have a facial – Mom got me facials like TWO holidays ago (thank GOD they don’t expire) and I FINALLY booked one. Yes, it’s pamper day in the OK Corral. 😉

Still haven’t heard from TAR (obviously) – though yesterday their intake closed. (At least, I HOPE it REALLY closed this time – they haven’t updated their website, and it said that Applications were “extended” to 11/21 at 5:00 PST.) We’ll see.

I might also be bummed because I went to the doctor again yesterday, and my hormones, inflammatory response, etc. is still CRAZY out of whack. She took me off EVERY supplement, vitamin, etc. except specific ones – 2 thyroid ones, 2 bioidenticals, glutathione, glutathione recycler, red yeast rice, Co Q-10, krill oil, tumero, a full mineral supplement plus an extra magnesium, a probiotic. We’ll see how this goes. I can NOT believe how “clean” my eating is – our house has been gone through like it was freakin’ Passover for gluten, etc. – and I keep gaining weight and putting on inflammatory water/puffiness. She’s concerned, and so I have to have more labs done for Free T3, T4, T-whatever-the-Hell.

Off to the “hurt me and make me stronger” massage 😉