So I was able to watch the first episode of The Amazing Race last night.

As I have said to R, my “wish upon a star” goal right now is: (1) to get on TAR and (2) not to finish last. I figure that #2 could actually get us right on to the winning position (laugh!) – but rather than being one of those annoying “WE are SO going to WIN!” people, deciding “never to be last” is a very very good mantra.

So what was the take-away from this particular episode?

READ THE CLUES!

That’s one of those “yeah, duh” things, but right in the first episode we had three teams really blow it because they didn’t read the clues. Starting from the end, a team I think I am going to like (husband/wife ER doctors) wound up taking a cab to the final check-in, though the clue very specifically said to walk. They missed out on first place (and an Express Pass plus an Express Pass to give to another team) because they had to sit it out for 30 minutes.

In my head, I actually thought that if I’d come in “second” and seen them sitting there – and had been told by Phil that they were cooling their jets because they’d actually made it in first, but had mis-read a clue, I would have walked over and given them the other Express Pass right there. It’s supposed to be a “strategic” thing, to give it to someone and make a big political play of it, but frankly, I would have done it right then and there. Not only would it make great theatre (which is of course good), but it would have REALLY surprised them, and they actually seem determined but not too young and not full of themselves – so in some respects, a team that I probably would have liked to have helped out anyway. Obviously R would have to sign on to this decision – but I think it would have been the “right” thing to do, and would have been so dramatically great, that hopefully she would agree. Anyway – that’s what I would have done.

The “oldest couple” are a theatrical duo who play women in a play called something “Bingo.” The one guy is definitely quite heavy-set, which is interesting since all the waiver, etc. that you have to sign specifically states you have to be in like “Top 1%” shape. They came in comfortably in the middle, which was heartening.

So that was one of the “mis-reading” issues. The other one not one but two teams did. The first task (besides getting out of the U.S. and to the country) was paragliding in Chile, with the 2nd team member having to get a taxi and meet them down on the beach (note to self: Start listening to Spanish tapes in the car!) The clue said “Who Wants To Follow The Leader” – and I believe just about everyone who said “I’ll do it” thought that it would be them doing the paragliding. In fact, as the “follower” (per the title of the clue) they were actually “following” their team mate, who was the paraglider.

The next task was basically rowing a huge old boat and getting fish. The clue said that “the person who had done the paragliding” had to do that task. So that meant that….the person who had done the paragliding….had to do….the task.

Two groups got it wrong. Unfortunately, one of the two teams was already slow – they’d had to catch the 2nd plane to Chile, then there was some mix-up with the taxi getting the team mate to pick up her partner at the beach – so they wound up being eliminated way after dark. It was sad, because they’d obviously tried really hard, and just gotten a couple of “wrong turns” that knocked them out of contention. Interestingly, it was a daughter and a father (Indian – he kept telling her that Father Knows Best and that his one wish was that she’d let him arrange her marriage) – and I actually have to wonder whether they stayed within the speed limit, didn’t act crazy, etc. – because of their team “dynamic” with one another. They did wind up too late to the airport to get on the first plane (I think 5 of the 11 teams wound up in that predicament), and then for whatever reason, her taxi took way longer than any other one to get to the beach.

AND ANOTHER THING – DO WHAT YOUR INSTRUCTOR TELLS YOU TO DO.

That was a funny one – the instructors told ALL of the people who were doing the paragliding to run off the edge of the cliff and basically “keep running” until they were well into the air. The one of the “live in the woods, bearded best friends” who did the paragliding got to the edge and just sort of “sat down” imagining that the paraglider would fill with air or … whatever. So he wound up getting himself and the strapped-on instructor dragged down the cliffside, the paraglider collapsing, etc. – DO WHAT YOU’RE TOLD.

OH, AND, DON’T DISMISS YOUR TAXI UNTIL YOU COMPLETELY KNOW YOU WON’T NEED HIM ANY MORE.

There is a team that are calling themselves the “Afghanimals” – young buck Afghani background guys – and they dismissed their taxi, as did the gals that they are calling their “wives” (pretty gross actually – I don’t like it) – who are ice “cleaners” (“Ice girls”) for some hockey team. There is another pair of gals, but they are baseball wives. All 3 of these pairs dismissed their taxis, then the guys called for TWO taxis – for them and “their wives” (but specifically NOT for the baseball wives). BOTH pairs of the women started walking down from the paragliding place, whereas the guys just “waited for the taxis” and were trying to get “their wives” to “wait for the taxis” with them. What happened? Of course! The taxis came up, and both groups of women snagged them – so the guys got all bent out of shape because “the baseball wives” stole “their” taxi. Oh Puh-leeze. Karma’s a b*tch, and if you call for a taxi for only TWO teams, who do you think karma is going to bite in the *ss? (I think actually the guy that they’d asked to call for “two taxis” called for three, because there WAS another taxi coming up the mountain to the paraglider port so the guys DID get a taxi, but it was pretty funny how them trying to “game” the baseball wives bit them IMMEDIATELY in the *ss.)

So who are the teams? Let me see if I can remember. The Indian father/daughter are now gone (he was around 60, I actually think he was an ER doctor as well as the couple who are BOTH ER doctors – she was probably late 20s/30). There are the baseball wives (late 20s) (2), the Afghanimals who are I think cousins (late 20s) (3), the hockey ice girls  from L.A. (is the hockey team the Kings?) (early 20s) (4), two guys who are oil riggers from like Oklahoma, and one of them’s wife is very sick so that’s why he wants the $ (late 20s) (5), the theatre guys (I’d say the heavier one is 60, the skinnier one is 50 – think like Lou Costello and Don Knotts) (6), the ER doctors (early 40s) (7), a couple who used to date but “hate each other” but “can’t get enough of one another” (he thinks she’s a nag, she thinks he’s stupid – she’s beyond annoying) (30s) (8), a either dating or affianced couple from the Boston area (30s) (9), the bearded backwoods guys from Chico (early 30s) (10), a football player duo (the one guy was a football player, he went to a grocery store and told the bagger to “get his big self” into football and they wound up both on the same team – Houston I think – that was a pretty funny story!) (early 30s) (11) oh, oops that would be the father/daughter (I forgot to number them).

In an hour is Crossfit, but the WOD isn’t up on the site. Hmmmm. I’m sore from yesterday, but still REALLY excited I was able to do those “candlesticks.”

On a separate note, I was able, after doing some other errands, to accompany H to the East Bay and order the 4 tons (!!) of stone that we need for the patio area. So that’s done and done 😉

 

I have to remember to get some sort of “counting app” for my computer – every time I go to write a blog post on our “365 days to TAR” I have to go back and physically figure it out from the calendar. Duh. I also have to say right off the bat here that TAR started on Sunday, but I don’t think I will get a chance to watch it until tonight (Monday) earliest – and probably not until H works out of the city. R recommended just pulling it up on my computer and watching from there – so that might be a great way to do it sooner than I can on the actual TV.

Saturday: Day 31 * Sunday: Day 32 * Monday: Day 33

Saturday was our “longest run” for Nike. I went out with the 6:40 a.m. group, and basically took photos – Golden Gate Park is so pretty! I went down into the park and looped back (doing a fartlek training through the sprinklers!), then back down the beach, and I turned around at Lincoln and back. I’ve gotten quite “laissez-faire” about running as you can see – I’m pretty much exhausted by all the marathons I’ve done in the past year, and as I “know I can go the distance” (and I’m not interested in winning any prizes!). I ate a bunch of crap that they had there – bagels and such – though I know I gotta knock that off. Been reading It Starts With Food, which is a super duper book on the whole inflammation, etc. part of gaining weight. Very much what my nutritionist hammers on about 😉

Sunday was the Hero 5K, though I volunteered for it, then went to the Thelen Reunion Picnic. Ate crap (at both) and WAY too much wine (at Thelen) – bad, bad bad. I know better. Woke up Monday morning at like 2:00 a.m. with cotton mouth from not drinking “a glass of water with each glass of wine” – I’m not quite sure what’s the matter with me in that I love the wine – until I don’t.

Monday (today) was Crossfit. The WOD was:

8 RFT
25 Squats – Anthony told me I could scale, so after the first 2 rounds I did 20
200M Run
10 Dead Lift 70/45KG – I did this with the bar one heavier than orange, and then 2 of the lightest plates on it
1 Rope Climb – “scaling” for this was to walk yourself down the rope until you were lying down, then to walk your hands back up, 3x, so you’re using your legs to help you “climb up” with your hands. This is called a “sitting” climb.

I can’t remember my time, though I was a round to a round and a half after everyone else finished – but that was okay because I did it 😉 I know that it was minutes :58 – meaning like I did it in 36:58 – when doing the final “up” on the rope climb all I cared about was that the minutes didn’t tick over!

The warmup was 100 single unders, then 3x 10 wall squats (I did regular), 10 pullups (I did these from the floor, jumping up to the lowest bar – I didn’t get my chin over each time, but I didn’t feel like dragging a box over), 10 “candlestick rolls” (more on that in a second), then 30 seconds “hang” with feet locked, from the rope. I still suck at that. My issue is really that these ropes aren’t “seasoned” so they are very slick – so even though I jump up, my hands slide down. I’ve mastered the 30 second “lock” ONE time so far. I asked H for a rope for a present – yes, I really did! If I can work on the foot lock, plus work on the “seated” rope climb,” I will feel a lot happier. This is one of the few things in the box that I just can’t do – I mean, sure, I can’t do a LOT of things, but they are “scaled” for me. This you can’t scale on. (Similar to holding yourself up on the rings, or doing the toes-to-bar – there just isn’t a “scale” for those.)

The “candlestick rolls” were actually really great. One thing Herbert said to me over the weekend was how much he’s noticing that Crossfit is ALREADY changing his abilities to do things. For example, as I mentioned, he tweaked his back going too heavy on Friday. So, to sit down or reach something, he has to do basically a squat with his back straight – he couldn’t bend from his back. He said that the thing that was so interesting to him was that before doing Crossfit he doesn’t feel that he could have “done that” – sort of “Sumo squatting” for the floor.

That’s how I felt doing these candlestick rolls. When Anthony showed us what they were, I thought “oh, that’s not going to work….” What you do is you stand on the edge of a gymnastics matt, and you squat down with your feet together as far as you “like” basically, then you “fall backwards” onto you back, using your momentum to throw your legs up – so that at the apex of the move your legs are straight up in the air (hence the “candlestick” moniker), then you go back the other way, using the momentum of your legs thrown forward to stand back up on your feet.

HERE is a video of it.

I was POSITIVE that there was no way in the world I’d be able to stand back up. I was also fairly sure I couldn’t get “low enough” in the front squat, so I was envisioning rolling back basically starting from about 1/2 way up in the air (oof!)

Well, I’m here to tell you that NOT ONLY could I do it all, but I did it really just like the guy in the video. I could get my butt all the way down, I could do the roll, and then I could GET BACK UP! Now, I was grunting like a little piglet as I did it (hey, it helps!), but I could DO IT. I really can’t believe it. Since it was 3x around, that means I did 30 of them.

Also on the deadlift, the most I’d ever lifted was the “swirly” dumbbell bar, and no plates. I asked Karen (the very slim blonde gal – she scales, but she’s been doing Crossfit for 3 years) what to use, and she suggested I do the bar that’s one heavier than the orange bar (which is by far heavier than the “swirly” bar which is only 10 lbs.), plus a couple plates. She said when she started she did like 70 lbs. for her deadlift but hurt her back, and so she was down at like 35. I’m not sure how much weight each of the varying bars are – I actually might mention to Bo that it would be great if the “colors” were posted somewhere (like they are for the jump rope lengths) so that it would be easy to pick a bar or a kettlebell. (I’m not exactly clear whether the kettlebell colors and the dumbbell bar colors are the same – e.g., if an “orange” wrapped dumbbell bar and an orange wrapped kettlebell are let’s say both 20 lbs.)

So I was also proud of myself about the deadlift with a “real” bar (not the swirly bar) and “real” plates (albeit they were the lightest ones).

Afterwards, one of the “athletic girls” (Traci) happened to have heard that I had run that past weekend, and mentioned she was bummed she couldn’t run because she was having a hip issue. I mentioned the Supple Leopard book to her and am going to bring it in for her to borrow. Then, Margo, Karen (the slim blonde “scaling” gal) and another gal whose name I don’t know (she looks a lot like Traci) were talking about a business venture they’re going to do with The Cave (fruit leathers) and asked my opinion about a few things – then I asked what “they did in real life” and none was a business/attorney person – I said that’s what I was and they just about fell over, asking it tomorrow I could be in on a meeting with them at 11:00 at The Cave because The Cave was helping sponsor their venture (somehow). I said I couldn’t, unfortunately, but told them to write me so that I could be in the loop. I also said that if The Cave is going to be part of their venture, instead of payment, maybe H and I could get our memberships in lieu of $$. That would be great because then we wouldn’t have to pay taxes on the income, plus we wouldn’t have to pay for Crossfit in post-taxed dollars. We’ll see how that goes – pretty funny/serendipitous! Hopefully they will email.

Now, once again, I have missed yoga class. I feel like I have to stop doing work trade (I think I said that last week), but I was going to tell Gail I had to quit last week and she’d brought me in a book to borrow and stuff and I just felt like I couldn’t do it. Not good – and H is pissed because he wants me to go with him to the East Bay to go and look at some stone for the entry area, and since I can’t do it tomorrow (doctors’ appointments basically all day) and he can’t do it Wednesday, he’s all bent out of shape that “it won’t be for another week.” This is the one thing that frustrates me – when he comes in and says “we have to do X now” but then gets pissed if I have something in my calendar.

I think we’ve made it that after my doctors appointments (which go from 11 to 3) I will text him and then we will meet somewhere and go from there. Not sure what that means in regards to Crossfit tomorrow evening with Bo, but I guess I’ll just bring my clothes with me in the morning.

I’m already feeling tight from the WOD today. I was doing the squats on slightly uneven ground (we set up the deadlifts outside facing the mountain), and I think that’s why one side feels tighter than the other. When I got to about round 5 I realized I was doing that, and went and did the squats in another place. Because I have to hold onto a vertical to do them, I had been doing them on the “lip” of the garage door, so one foot was a small bit higher than the other. I just went and found another spot where both would be on the same “edge” of the lip – but my right side of my lower back isn’t happy. Not bad, just “I can feel it.”

Man, Ibuprofen should purchase stock in Crossfit – or vice versa!!!

POSTSCRIPT: I did find a “count up” calendar timer app (all the ones I could find were “count down”!) – so I installed it on my phone and more importantly my tablet. It’s so funny that there aren’t “apps” for the “computer” per se – probably there are if I had Windows 8, but I don’t. So at least I’ll be able to plug in the date that “Day 1” was, and have it easily accessible on my tablet. Heck, maybe I will do a “count down” one, too 😉 (I have a count down app that I like, which I already use on my tablet and phone, but I am not “counting down” to anything right now so not using it.)

Just came back from Crossfit and HAD to post. I think the main reason I HAD to post is that I had a BLAST today (whilst – ahem – H lifted too heavy and has tweaked his lower back, so I can’t be excited in his presence).

Today was a warmup of 400 m run, then 3x 5 pullups (I did them off a box on the middle bar – a little too high, but I practiced really extending my arms straight like I’m supposed to) + 10 pushups (on the parallel bar for me) + 15 squats (holding vertical bar – man these exhaust me)…then I think it was leg swings and shoulder rolls.

The WOD was:

 

6 RFT
400M Run
12 OHS 45/30k
12 SDHP 45/30k

I did 500m row on 10 (hardest), because I have the long run tomorrow for the Nike Marathon – our last long run before taper. (How did THAT happen! Dang the marathon is in like 2 weeks!); then 12 overhead squats, but I used the red “power band’ instead of a bar, because even the 10 lb bar was too heavy for me to do it, then SDHP is “Sumo Dead Lift High Pull” – I did that first with the 10 pound bar, then that was a little too easy so after 2 rounds I asked Bo to swap it out for the orange bar (not sure how much more that is, but it’s more 😉 )

I did it all in something like 24:44 or 25:44, now I can’t remember.

The idea of using the red “power band” held like a “bar” and pulling it tight is that this works on the mobility/stability of my shoulder. It’s still really hard for me to squat  to any depth at all “unaided.” I got down as far as I could, but it’s not that far. The idea of the overhead squat is you have (ultimately) a barbell in sort of the “crease” of your pelvis, if you’re standing up (as in, lean forward, and it’s between your navel and your pubic bone). You want to have your arms straight the whole time, so you hold the bar as wide as you can but still be able to get it over your head with your arms straight. You go from holding it at that “crease” spot, then up and squat down, so your arms are straight up over your hips, but that puts your hands behind your head (if your hands were in front, gravity would pull the weight down). I’ve done this before but just with PVC pipe – the coolest part is that when you look at someone doing it, it looks like their shoulders should rip off backwards (pleasant…), but that “behind the head, arms straight, palms facing forward” position is VERY stable and fairly comfortable.

The “Sumo Dead Lift High Pull” means that you have your hands close together in the middle of the bar and your feet pretty wide apart. You squat down, keeping your back straight and chest forward (like a Sumo wrestler) and grab the bar with your palms backwards. You lift it up to your chin (so that’s the “high pull” part) and then back all the way down. You’re “helping” with your legs and hips of course. So the idea being that you get it up with the right “tempo” so that you are doing it with your legs mostly.

Because I didn’t have any weight on my bar I didn’t go all the way down to the ground, because everyone else did it with a bar with weight plates in it – meaning they could “grab the bar” about a foot off the ground (if that makes sense – whereas my bar was just flat on the ground). I still had to go down to that “a foot off the ground” level tho – I couldn’t just stop in a high-ish squat – I had to “go Sumo.”

I was really proud of myself asking Bo to get me a heavier bar. I asked him to leave the lighter one there for one round “just in case,” but when I did the round with the heavier one I knew I could finish with it, so I asked him to take it away. That felt good. It’s also important to me that Bo knows I’m not “sandbagging” – especially as so much of this I have to do with something like a PVC pipe or like 5 pounds when everyone else is doing 40 or 50. You never know when you first meet someone if they’re “just trying to get by” or are really going for it. I want it to be clear that, even though I’m lifting a PVC pipe, I’m “going for it.”

All the ‘regulars’ (but Margo – but she was doing the Rx!) finished before me, then I finished before Herbert and the 2 new guys I don’t really know their names yet. The best part was that when Margo was doing her OHS and I was finishing my SDHP, Jimmy and Michael were yelling for us – GO MARGO! and GO SANDY! I loooooooooove that. I loved in the beginning that no one bothered me – and you there are folks that work out there that aren’t part of the “bantering” etc. They come in, do the WOD, and leave, and it’s all good. But once you start playing with the dogs outside, or joking a little with folks, or handing people chalk, or whatever, they realize you “want to” be part of the “gang” and they make you part of the gang. I really like that about this box, because at first I wanted to be invisible (smile), then a few WODs later, I wasn’t in Panic Attack Mode about the whole thing, so I played with the dogs (first dogs…then people LOL) – and now we’re where we are. H doesn’t really talk to anyone, and so they don’t really talk to him – same place I was in in the beginning. Well – not quite true – he talks to the couple guys who are newer than he is. I think that’s a fairly standard “pecking order” thing – I did the same, I didn’t talk to the “super duper fit amazing” athletes there at first, I just stayed out of their way, and talked more with folks finishing or running somewhat close to my time. (Of course they were going Rx and I was scaling, but let’s not quibble over details!)

One gal – the super skinny blonde – said to me today “This is just a new box for you, right? You did Crossfit before?” And I said, no, I’d started whenever I had – couple weeks ago. She said I was a Natural. That made me feel WONDERFUL (I mean, of course it would, right?)

I’ve been using a lacrosse ball to work on the back of my calves as per the “Supple Leopard” book, which is paaaaainful but Bo has been making a point that my ankles and calves (and of course the dang shoulders/knees) are super duper tight and I have to work them EVERY time.

So that’s my check-in.

P.S.: As you can see, Raja fixed the blog so I can insert media – yay! And it is SO MUCH EASIER than it’s ever been. He’s the BEST WordPress guy EVER!

P.P.S.: TAR starts in 2 days!

P.P.P.S.: HERE is a super blog post from a blogger that I read about banishing negative self-talk. I really quite like this one. Take a read.

Tuesday (Day 27), Wednesday (Day 28), Thursday (Day 29)….

I’m having my resident WordPress guru work on my ability to  be able to “add media” and spruce up these posts with photos, but for now I’m stuck with just text and linking out to websites.

Hm. So Tuesday I had a much-needed appointment with my chiropractor, who unjammed my pinkie finger from an ill-caught Crossfit “wall ball” (he’s pretty flexible…maybe I could pack him …), three law-related meetings, then Crossfit with Bo (and Herbert) in The Cave. There was also a “new guy” there – big black dude, probably late 50s, definitely had the “old pro football player” vibe going. I didn’t get his name. (He did ask me at the end how long I’d been doing this, and I told him – he said “And..?” and I said “It still sucks” and he broke out laughing and said “HEY you’re supposed to say ‘it gets easier!’ ” which was pretty funny as I was standing there trying not to puke…)

We did whatever the warmup was, then we were supposed to do:

8 RFT
400M Run
10 Thruster 45/30KG

A “thruster” is when you bring the barbell up to your neck/resting on your shoulders in a squat, then as you come up “out” of the squat, you push the bar up over your head.

I tried to do it with the 10 lb. bar and was unable to. So I picked up the PVC pipe to do it with that – to which H made snarky comments – and then remember what I’d said obviously the LAST time he’d made snarky comments and shut up (smart boy).

Bo told football-guy and H that they would do 25 minutes, as many as they could instead of the 8 RFT. I could do what I wanted. He also gave me 2 5 lb. dumbbells, and I had to put them up at my shoulders while squatting (palms facing in), and then as I came up out of the squat push and press them up over my head (palms still in). I could do that, so that is what I did for “thrusters.”

I wound up doing the whole thing in 25:36, which make me feel good. I think the “boys” did 6 rounds. It was SUPER DUPER windy outside, and so I told H when I passed him on one of the 400s that he had to run the other direction – otherwise when you came down on the “long side” of the building you were pushing hard against the wind. The warmup had included a 800 meter, where I’d been running the “usual” direction and ran smack into that wind and decided that was a BAD idea for the RFT!

Tuesday night after the workout I got the chills and really REALLY felt like crap, also likely to do with a virus I’m dealing with and I didn’t have the meds for (got them Wednesday morning). I took a jug of protein drink to bed, and then H made me chicken soup and rice, the sweetie.

Tuesday late my law school had contacted me that they had had 2 people “bail” (turned out ultimately to be 3!) for a transactional law panel and they were “hoping against hope” I could do it. Luckily, I could, and that also put me in the city to do the Team In Training/Wednesday evening workout. (Funny part of that is that I changed out of my “lawyer duds” before going to the workout but I still had my makeup on, earrings, hair up – I must have had 5 people go “Whoa, what’s the model look, sis?”)

Wednesday morning Crossfit was a bit odd because I drove up and none of the garage doors were open – I thought I’d “missed a memo” – but it was because of the wind. Bo was there, not Anthony.

We did whatever the warmup was (you probably are wondering why I can’t remember, especially because the warmups are always at least 20 minutes and involve things like pushups, etc. It’s because The Cave actually LISTS the actual WODs on their website, but not the warmups. So I can cheat and look at the WODs, but I have to remember the warmups).

Then the WOD was 21 minutes AMRAP

400 m run, 20 box jumps, 50 foot “worm.”

OK so on the box jumps, I did it on the gym mats folded up as I had before, and Bo said that “soon” we were “going to have to get me onto a real box.” Which was a nice thing to say since I suck at practically everything. Margo – one of the gals – commented that I “sure have a lot of race Tshirts that I wear,” and I said well, they give them to you at the end of the race and they’re technical shirts, so pretty much all I have in my closet. She was DUMBFOUNDED (kinda funny) and said – “WAIT, you’ve DONE all those races?!?” And I laughed and said – um, yeah, that’s why I have the shirts…?!?!? I think because I TOTALLY and COMPLETELY SUCK at Crossfit she – and perhaps all the other participants (I’m really the only newbie in the morning) – thought I’d … um… bought them? Anyway I assured her that I was slow, so it’s not like I WON any of these races….

And – The Worm. Lord. What that means is that you start out in “Downward Dog” position (butt up, piked). Then you walk your hands out as far as you can. The super people could walk them out even farther than their heads. (Arms and legs have to stay straight.) I could get mine to “plank” position (straight under my shoulders). Then, you walk your feet up to your hands. Then you walk your hands back out. For 50 feet.

If your ankles, calves and hip flexors are stiff or completely locked (like, for example, mine) you basically are trying to slide your feet little baby inches up towards your hands in the 2nd 1/2. The “arms back out” isn’t so bad – just tiring – but the feet up is AWFUL. (Go ahead, try it. I’ll wait. Just go across the room. No, no worries – I’ll wait….)

My worm sort of looked like this: (a) put my hands on the floor at the line. Walk my hands out until they were under my shoulders – so I’m in “plank” on my palms and the tips of my shoes. (Arms and legs must move separately, and must remain straight.) (b) rest a bit in plank, elbows locked. (c) sweat. (d) stare at floor. (e) pike up to downward dog. (This was essential. Everyone else just started walking their feet forward from their flat-out position. No could do.) (f) slide each foot forward about 4″ at a time, until feet were close enough to hands so that if I went forward any more, I’d have to take my hands off the ground (another no-no). (g) rest a bit. (h) sweat. (i) groan. (j) repeat.

I could see a little evil number like this being in TAR. I wonder how soon – now that CrossFit has become SUCH a big deal internationally – it’s going to be before TAR heads to a CrossFit in, like, Australia. I can totally see it. They did the muscle pose-down, why not something like a worm race? (NOT LIKE I’M SUGGESTING ANYTHING HERE!)

So, how many did I get? Three rounds. It was 20 minutes when I hit the end of the third round, so Margo and I headed out for one more run “before time was up” – she made it in, I got in in 21:12 though Bo let me keep it. (I was just about ready to throw up, that’s for sure – that last run did me in but I needed to do it, because I needed to prove I was “game.” Even the super-duper fit blonde, whose name I still don’t know, who was out on the rower when Margo and I headed back out shouted “Go Margo!” and then “Go Sandy!” which felt WONDERFUL. No one else went out for a final round.)

Everyone else did like 5-6. Yeah, well, so sue me, what can I tell you. Doing that last run was important to me. I also TRIED to catch Margo, and on the backside she literally just sprinted away from me. I didn’t have any more gas in my tank at all.

The thing that this is totally teaching me (besides humility…) is the truth of an old adage. The old adage is that you basically are going to be as “X” as the 10 people you hang out with the most. So you’re going to be as wealthy, as smart, as fit, as “X.” Well, the 10 people I hang out with the most are not that particularly healthy. I mean – H and I both know it – and have “complained” about it – for years. I spend 85% of my time with him – and not only does he hate to exercise, but he hates to “eat right” and all that jazz. Sure, once he gets on a bike, or on a hike, he really does like doing it (same as me), but he HATES to “stay in shape” and will do just about anything to avoid it.

Heck, look at my background! I mean – EVERY year in grammar school I’d try to convince my dad – at some point or another – that I was “too sick” or “too injured” to do gym class and to “write me a doctor’s note.” And I went to a Catholic school – so we’re NOT talking “regular gym and recess” here. It was low level to start. (However, the “main” gym was gymnastics and swimming. And I was SO allergic to those that they would give me panic attacks at the grand old age of like 8. So though the swimming itself was fine, I still cannot dive into a pool, and I can’t even do a rudimentary movement that is gymnastic. Granted I was always 2 heads taller and a lot gawkier/clumsier than the other girls, but to this day anything that smacks of “balancing” or “putting my feet over my head” or my “blood rushing to my head” pushes me into Fear Factor.

ANYWAY – H grew up in Europe and didn’t HAVE gym at all – and all the better for him to be in the library (yeah, that sounds familiar).

So back to that adage. I would have to say of the people that I see regularly, Trish is DEFINITELY in better shape than I am – though mainly because she’s kept training hard since we first met (Lavaman run-up last year), whereas I did my usual “fall off” from training. It’s interesting, because I actually beat her in, when we did Lavaman, because she ran out of gas on the run – but now she’s 10x more fit than I am. (And that there shows to go ya’ that you CAN do it if you just keep at it…) But other than Trish, I don’t think, really, that ANYONE I hang with is even “fit-ish.” Oh – Kat – but she’s a new friend (and it’s her fault I’m in Crossfit.)

And that’s been the problem. Since I’m probably (not meant in ANY sort of bragging way!) the “fittest of the bunch” I’ve kinda started thinking of myself that way.

Until now.

Which, I have to say, is GOOD. I don’t think I REALLY realized JUST how dramatically sucky my fitness was, because I was congratulating myself that Hell, I can run a marathon and touch my toes, and no one AROUND me can do that, and they all think I’m the bomb, so I must be.

Ha Ha Hardee Har Har.

Oh – so the workout today – which I WILL GO TO (she says . . . H just bailed, but he said he’d go tomorrow) is:

15 RFT
100M Run
6 DB Hang Squat Clean 40/25lb
8 V-up

A V-up is a situp where you touch your toes and your hands together, so you sit up in a “V” (so your toes wind up – legs straight – sort of over your stomach – I know you can imagine it… you start from flat). Don’t know what a hang/squat/clean is.

SO, one thing I just realized I’d forgotten is that I DID run with the Team yesterday – but I was exhausted, and I wasn’t really able to do the core workout. And when I got home, which was late, I just dragged my sorry ass up to bed.

And now I’m thinking – I think I might NOT go to Crossfit tonight (in an hour). Why? Because I think that I need to make H a nice dinner tonight, since it’s been since, like, SUNDAY. (Yikes.)

Now, mind you, the housecleaner comes in like 10 minutes – which means I need to clear out. I think I will go for a hike or a run. And bring a podcast to listen to.

Then H and I will go to Crossfit tomorrow morning.

AND ABOUT THE SHOES:
R and I have been going back and forth on email about “packing things.” We both realized we have to bring reading glasses (or we won’t be able to read the directions – classic – we’d be just standing at the pole waiting for someone to read where we have to go <snark>).

Then she was asking about hikers – I really discovered this past weekend that lighter “sneaker/hikers” work – and will be run-able but also give traction, and not be too heavy. Mine are Vasques, and though they do have the potential to make my big toes smash on the front (versus my big hiking boots which are ankle-high so hold my toes “back”), tying the shoelace behind my ankle seemed to help this past weekend. Then I said that I thought we should get some flat black, fold up, ballerina shoes (a la Tieks) and also have a “balls up to nothing” little black dress “just in case” – and then have some Keen’s – like the gals have at the swim pull-out at Ironman Louisville – they give you traction, can go in/out of water, and have a heel and also a toe cover so you can’t “stub your toe” like you can with something like Tiva’s. These (and hiker/sneakers) DO need to be broken in – the Keen’s especially broken in FIRST with socks, THEN in bare feet (if planning to wear in the water).

We also discussed having swim goggles 😉 I said we’d also need at least one special pair of scorpion-plucking gloves between us, but R sent the following email:

Maybe we can use those ballerina flats for picking up scorpions. Fold them in half and use them like tongs.

BEST EMAIL EVER!

I also mentioned that in re hiking sneakers and snow and such, that gaiters would be the best idea in my opinion, R said that she agreed and had been reading this: http://friends.backcountry.net/m_factor/footwear.html

Now I must scurry out of my “was shopping at the farmer’s market then sat down on the couch for the past eight hours on my sorry *ss to wade through email) Jam’s World sundress, get into some walking/jogging/podcast-listening clothing, and jet!

 

Thursday (Day 22); Friday (Day 23); Saturday/Sunday (Days 24/25); Monday (Day 26)

Thursday: On Thursday, we went up to the Mountain Home Inn, where we were staying for our anniversary and my birthday. Unfortunately, it was quite expensive and the physical “plant” of the inn was last refurbished in 1985 (yes, really). H was pretty pissed off. But what are you going to do? It’s a great “launching point” for hiking, etc.

This entire week I have been completely idiotic in my eating. I mean, anniversary/birthday, whatcha gunna do? I haven’t drunk this much wine and champagne in months and months and months. I’m writing this on Monday, and I’m back on track. Well – I mean, after the morning treat of apple pastry and hand-whipped cream hizzoner brought to me, as I lolled in bed trying to get it together after Crossfit this morning. I know, what can I tell you – ??

Thursday, we walked down to Mill Valley from The Mountain Home Inn (TMHI) down the Dipsea stairs. If you don’t know the Dipsea stairs, HERE is a link. TMHI is at Edgewood and Panoramic – so if you look at the photos, just scroll down until you see where it says “Edgewood and Panoramic” and then scroll back up. (We were walking that part of the Dipsea “backwards”). We went to a nice Italian dinner at d’Angelo’s, then we called a cab to take us back to TMHI. We of course wound up with an insane cab driver who talked nonstop about the “Patriarch” Act…he kept turning around in his seat to be “sure” we were listening, so I just made listening noises to keep him from driving off the edge of the curvy crazy road. H thought it was hilarious.

So Friday we were going to take a “short” hike from Muir Woods (about 2 miles or so from The Mountain Home) to Stinson Beach, using the Dipsea Trail (so the idea is to now go to the same link above, and skip over the little bit from where you left off, and pick up where it says “Muir Woods Road – that’s where we started from, heading to the end of the Dipsea). I’m not sure exactly HOW H thought that the whole thing was going to be like three miles, but it was Gilligan’s Island hike. And OMG there were as many stairs as on the “front” side! I had my 2 walking sticks that H had gotten for me, which were awesome – not sure (will need to pay more attention) if I would “need them” during TAR. In the end H was super duper sore not only from the hike but also from the Crossfit from Monday and Tuesday, so he used one of the sticks and I used the other.

I had discovered on the walk down from TMHI to Mill Valley the night before that my left shoe (smaller foot) actually rubs my big toe – think that the shoe has to be a little “too big” on the left side to fit the right. I tied my laces back and around my ankle on the left side to keep the hiking shoes from slipping, which worked fairly well. I also used a bandaid on the blister that had started to come up – NOTE TO SELF – MUST HAVE BANDAIDS!

The “Plan” had been to get to Stinson Beach and eat lunch then hike back, but just as he FINALLY hit town (after commenting that perhaps we should have brought out Passports as “obviously” we had walked to freakin’ Canada) it started to rain. We went to The Sand Dollar and I got a rum and Coke to H’s wine, we split a bunch of stuff including a burger with blue cheese AND bacon AND mushrooms, and H smartly thought to check the bus schedule – 10 minutes later we were on the bus going back to TMHI. Only $2.00 each! That’s one of the bus schedules that is “on the chopping block” H said – basically because it goes from the boondocks to nowhere – but wow we were sure glad it was still running!

So we got back to TMHI and – surprise! – our car was still back at Muir Woods! H was really looking grey – he was super hurting from the Crossfit, where I think he over-exerted himself the 2 days he did it, plus the hike. I told him to take ibuprofin (which he didn’t do – opting for wine instead LOL), and I said I’d go get the car.

Now THIS is a HUGE thing for us. H ALWAYS is the one to do stuff like that. I would have to say in the 14-plus years we have been together, I have done this . . . . um . . . . well, you see. He’s always the one to do it. Which is immensely chivalrous and all that, but he really looked bad and I of course was thinking TAR/push your limits.

So I grabbed my iPod, walking sticks, and headset, and off I went.

The trails were cut off, blah blah – there were some “dramatic” moments (basically I decided to not pay attention to a “trail closed” sign because it was literally the only way to get down the mountain without spending 2x as long going all the way back and around) – but I did it. The funniest part was as I basically “slid” down a closed path to the pavement in Muir Woods – because they’d removed the stairs – a guy and his daughter were looking at a sign, and I surprised them . . . sort of Bond-esque . . . I said to him “Um, which way is out?” and he pointed to the Left – I had NO idea how to get out of Muir Woods, as the paths there turn back on themselves. He thought that was hilarious. He and his daughter were looking at a map, and he said “Where’d you come from?” and I looked and where I’d come from was literally off the map. So I sort of waved in the air over it and said “Um, here.”

My “goal” was to make it down to Muir Woods and get the car and get back in as close to 1/2 hour as I could. So basically what I did was “run/hiking” – I used the sticks almost as you would in cross-country skiing, and ran (yes, in my hiking shoes). So that looked pretty funny to the tourists in Muir Woods, I’m sure. Doing this was great though especially on the (ahem) part of the trail that was closed, because there were roots, divots, etc. and of course it just dropped off to the right. I realized that if I kept my eyes to the path, I wasn’t that bothered by the drop off.

I made it back to TMHI in very good time (pretty doggone close to the 1/2 hour), and the bartender commented on it. H had already set up champagne in our room, so I took a shower and we had that, then we went to dinner up in the dining room.

The next day, we were SUPPOSED to do our long hike – but it was POURING. It had been pouring all night, and the ceiling was basically soaked through in the bathroom of our suite (as in, it’s going to come down soon if they don’t get it fixed). So they brought out buckets – and H and I went somewhere (forget!) and then had late lunch at Piatti’s, which he’d never been to. By then the weather had cleared, which was great. We had a “picnic lunch” of pate, etc. in our room – and I ate WAY WAY too much in celebration of our anniversary/birthday, what can I tell you!

OH, I remember what we did – we went to Joseph Smith’s and did the 1/2 hour hot tub and then an hour long massage each. His masseur basically pointed out how f*cked up his muscles were, and my masseuse and I tried very hard not to dissolve into giggles as H groaned through the hour. His masseur actually MADE him agree to taking a “bolus” of ibuprofen – and between that and the massage he was MUCH MUCH better by the next day. MUCH.

Sunday, Mom and Dad came up and we had breakfast together at TMHI, then went to the Mill Valley Arts Festival. Still eating and drinking way too much. Came back home, and had to laugh as I made my own birthday dinner (Sunday was actually my birthday) of my roast chicken recipe, brussels sprouts, and Japanese sweet potatoes, plus tiramisu (a little one from United – like a “muffin” sized one). We had gone to lunch at The Blue Rock/Left Bank for lunch, which was nice, and it was a GLORIOUS day. The reason I laughed at my dinner was that R had said that she was “not going to allow me” to bring my grandma’s cast iron skillets with me on TAR – and of course, that’s my “secret weapon” for my chicken and sprouts! So that gave me a good grin.

Today the warmup was 100 jumping jacks – which I did 40 of and it hurt my shoulder too much so I quit and did 500 m row. Then it was 3x 10 squats/10 kips/10 pushups – I did the squats of course holding on, but I feel like I’m better, and the pushups on the parallel bars. My shoulder really sucks. The masseuse worked on it HARD and I think she made some progress. I have to make more appointments for that – I have 10 with Kathryn, time to use them.

The WOD was 10 x (200m run, 10 wall balls, 10 kettle bell swings, 10 pullups). Anthony had H do 10 x 7 on all of them – and I told H to do them at the weight I was doing, so that he wouldn’t get wasted like he had been from the week before. I had been doing the “jumping” pullups wrong – I had been doing it from 3 of the biggest plates, I think I have to do it from 2, because I wasn’t “squatting and letting my arms hang off the bar” then using the squat to get me over the bar. I was more “jumping” off the plates to chin over the bar.

I figure that this can be my “birthday WOD” (smile). I think I did it in 36:42. I am going to have to check tomorrow to be sure.

I didn’t get to Red Dragon again today – and I think I have to talk to Gail. It’s just silly for me to continue doing work study when I literally NEVER get to yoga. And I did at least do the “hold” for the JCC – just need to get that signed and back to them.

So that’s my check-in. I was super proud that I was the one to go get the car in Muir Woods – and I felt super proud that I did the WOD today at Rx (meaning, the number you’re supposed to do – though I was scaling). I did the wall balls at 10 lbs (so did H), and the kettle bell swings and 1 up from the 5 lb (I don’t know what the weight is, it’s not written on it, but the tape on it is yellow). I have to remember to use my hips to “pop” the KBS. I was forgetting that. Also now I have to work on the pullup the “right” way.

Time to go do work trade. I have a LOT of stuff that I have to catch up on – now strewn all across the office. Argh.

Did download and send R a copy of a Kindle book on Memory today – so I think that will be useful. Also Raja is nearly done re-vamping this website.

I really like Anthony. He’s the morning trainer at The Cave. I am getting to know the “gang” that comes in in the mornings – I don’t think they know my name particularly, but they know “who I am.”

Today in the warmup we had to do a hang from the rope for 30 seconds as part of a 3x thing – the idea being that you had to get your feet right. It’s pretty much like pole dancing – or what we did in the Marines. You have to ‘wrap” your one leg around, then put your other foot under that foot, so you are “standing on” your feet, crossed. (In other words, you are standing, if you wrapped the rope from your left hip inside your left knee and then under your left foot, with your left foot pointing right, and you jump up with your hands, and then put your right foot under your left, but with your right foot pointing left, so you are now standing with your left foot on your right foot, which locks the rope in between them.

There were other things in the warm-up too, but I forget what they were. I had looked online, and it seems like on Wednesdays are more “lifting” than “running” days – so I wore my new red Chuck Taylors’ 😉 Indeed – we had to do a 500m row for the warmup, but then just pullups, pushups, squats, etc.

I feel that my squat is getting better and better. Anthony told me to put my feet even more spread apart, and more with the toes pointed out. I seem more straight up than ever before, though I still have to hold onto the pole.

I am still doing the pushups on the parallel bar, though I saw a really cool thing today – one of the gals put a band around the pullup bar, then another band that she “figure-8’d” around her shoulders attached to that – and she did pushups using that to help her “up” (if that makes sense). It was genius. And you’re in the “real” pushup position doing it that way, versus “girls” or “on the knees” pushups which isn’t great for your knees and really isn’t the right position.

The workout today was:

21 Min AMRAP
12 DB Snatch each arm 50/35lb
12 Pull Up
21 Double Under

The dumbbell “snatch” is going from a deep squat with your arm straight down (should be on the floor between your feet, mine is not of course), then you stand up out of the squat “explosively” so that your hips are really the thing that “drive” your arm up over your head. So in other words, your arm is straight until your hips ‘pop’ and then you are bending it up and over your head.

I did it (ahem) with basically a hand weight – so it was maybe 1-2 lbs. (A soft weight.) My right shoulder is definitely sore, but not “hurt sore” more like “I could be hurt if you did this with any more weight at all” sore. Anthony ROCKS in keeping watch over that. I really like him a LOT. I think if I were to do personal training I’d want to do it with him. As H said last night, Bo is more the “stoic” type. H said he looked super bored by the whole thing. I said no, I thought that was just the whole “Marine-esque” look. I’m not sure if Bo was in the military, but he has “that look.”

I can’t do a double under, of course, so I had to do 105 single unders for the 21 double unders. Oy. I did the pull ups with 3 of the biggest plates stacked up under the tallest bar.

I wound up doing 5 rounds, and then how you count your “partial” round is you count the reps. So since I didn’t do the jump rope but I did the rest, I had 12 of the dumbbell snatches on each arm (total 24) plus the 12 pullups (sum total of 36). So the report for the board is 5 + 36. Learn something new every day!

H was super duper sore last night and today. He worked in the city today – I think he REALLY did it just to avoid the WOD 🙂

I would like to go in tomorrow before we go to our anniversary/birthday thingie at the Mountain Home Inn, but there isn’t a Conditioning in the morning (except maybe at like 6:00 a.m. and I don’t even want to think about that). I want to work more with the whole “locking the feet on the rope” thing. I think that could be a VERY IMPORTANT POTENTIAL SKILL on TAR. That’s one of those things where you see it and think “Yeah, I can TOTALLY see having to do that.” Same basically with the pull-up – I can TOTALLY see how that “skill” could come in handy. That’s also why the Parkour stuff is attractive, because the idea of being able to jump “up and over” something (a la a fence) instead of “climbing” up and over it is very very attractive.

So that’s my writeup for today – as I mentioned, we’re going to be hiking mostly, so no Crossfit for Thursday and Friday – or the weekend. This is the 2nd to last “long run” on a Saturday – the marathon is coming up fast! I’m really not doing much of ANYTHING when it comes to training for that – but with a lot of the running we are doing for Crossfit, plus that training, etc. (and the fact I did 14 the other Saturday just to be sure I could – !) I still feel capable. Heck, I’m not going for speed. 😉

Gotta get R back blogging and checking in!!!

Dang, TWENTY days?

I’m pretty pleased with that. I mean – 20???

So Day 18 was Sunday, and H’s real first day home from Switzerland. We did a bunch of stuff around the house and all that jazz. We also walked to San Anselmo (H is still on “European time”) – which was great, because it did get my bee-hind out and exercising. He noticed that I was “walking taller” and asked about it – so he signed up for the Crossfit Groupon too – !

Day 19 was H’s first day of Crossfit, and also our Anniversary. The WOD was:

CONDITIONING
6 RFT
400M Run
10 Burpee
15 Kettle Bell Swings (KBS)
10 Ring Dip

The warmup was a bunch of stuff – 500 meter row, then various nefarious things (laugh). Anthony showed H what to do, and there was another new gal in the class, too. One of the things was double-unders. I was surprised to see that the blonde gal that’s so ripped can’t do them. They have jump rope “wire” with a wiffle ball on the end that you can use, to try to get both your hands working (apparently normally you only turn with one hand, which doesn’t work for double unders) and gets you to keep your hands steady and not swing from the elbow. They aren’t attached – it’s a jump rope handle and a jump rope wire, but then the wiffle ball on the end, x2. H had to use that because he couldn’t do the single unders, he was jumping to high and moving from the elbow. Interestingly, I did MUCH better than when I did it last Wednesday night. I think it might be because I was wearing my Newton’s instead of my regular Asics, which have a far higher “heel” (the Newton’s don’t have a lot of “help” for running shoes, they are quite flat a la the Zoot’s). I think I might have been “catching” the rope under the architecture of the shoe last time around. Note to self! 🙂

I wound up doing the 6 times around in somewhere around 25 minutes, I was 3rd to last, H was 2nd to last, the other gal was last. The thing that was the hardest on H I think was the run – he said he walked most of it. I did “my” burpees on the parallel bar, and though I was trying to be careful with that and the ring dips, I definitely could feel it in my right shoulder. (Went to the chiropractor today for some therapy on it, though that’s a continuing weak point.) We did the “ring dip” by laying the strongest band “over” the parallel bars (you loop it through itself on one side, but then hold the other side down with your hand), and you put one knee in it, then do the dips. I could literally just “shrug my shoulders” up and down – I might need to go one more down which would be doing tricep dips against the box.

Anthony showed us that instead of “chalking” each round when you finish, to put your name then 6 “chalk marks” and “wipe them off” one at a time with your foot as you finish. That way you’re not losing time bending down and marking. Smart. I also did what I’ve seen folks do, which is write the WOD next to where I was doing the workout. It’s a little disconcerting that there are only 4 things “in it” and you can’t remember them – !!!

So today would be Bo at 6:30. H doesn’t really want to go because he’s sore. Of course that means he has to go 😉

We took the ferry to the city and had dinner at La Mar for our anniversary. It was great – we had like 8 different Peruvian appetizers and WAY too much wine and Pisco Sours. Since I haven’t really been drinking, I’ve discovered that I just put my lips to the glass and take a tiny tiny sip. Since H and I always share glasses, that way he drinks more. He hasn’t stopped drinking so this way I get what my system deems as “my half” even though it’s far less than 1/2 the glass!

That’s the bad part of this past week – definitely back having wine, champagne, etc. I will stop again, but it’s hard, what with the wedding on Friday IN the wine country, then H coming home (champagne!) and then our anniversary dinner. I don’t really WANT to not have some wine.

As for eating, I’m finding that the “Bulletproof” coffee in the morning (Brain Octane Oil, butter, 2 egg yolks, coffee in a blender) is AMAZING. I “sip” it (v coffee-coffee where I need like 3 cups), and it’s basically a meal. It rocks. I am also back making the green drinks mainly for lunch – and then just now I had an almond-butter-in-teff-tortilla “sandwich” because I know that with Crossfit at 6:30 we won’t get home until like 8:00 then I have to make dinner, meaning we will be eating late. There’s no way that H would eat at like 5:00, so I have to go with the late eating thing.

We test-drove cars yesterday as well (Minis) and I managed to not make it to yoga again, though I did do my work trade. I pretend that The Amazing Race will have us steam-cleaning some yoga studio, and I figure out how to do it 100% the fastest way possible (laugh).

I went through my email inboxes today, and also got a lot of stuff tagged and put out on Facebook and such. We will be gone probably Thursday through Sunday for our anniversary and my birthday – so I wanted to see “where I was” before I headed off again. It’s been a month of this – !

The Amazing Race starts on September 29th – Melody and Leann had never heard of it, so I told them to “tune in” to see if they agreed this would be a good adventure for me 😉

Our “DietBet” was up on September 10th, and I wound up losing 60% of what I wanted. Well – 58%. How we did it was that everyone put in a “virtual” $100, and told the moderator what they believed they could get down to in three months. So YOU set your goal and no one knew what anyone else said. (I set mine way too high, but live and learn!) Anyway – so then depending how much of your weight you had LOST is how much $$ you had to “put in” at the end. So as I had lost 58% of my weight, I had to put in $42. Jim and Stacy – Leann’s brother and his girlfriend – both lost 100% so they GOT all the $. It was a good bit of $$ at the end even though EVERYONE lost weight – and the good part, unlike other “Biggest Loser” bets I’ve been in is that your weight loss actually “helped” you in that you would not owe the entire $100 to “whoever won,” you would just owe “what you had not lost” – and if you got to 100%, you partook in the “kitty.” There were some other rules for if you went over 100% – but since it was only Jim and Stacy that even got to 100% (each went a bit over) I figure they will duke out how they split up the $ 🙂 They really did great!

I still need to lose about 15 lbs. until I’m at a comfortable weight (now if you’re good at math, you can figure out how much I lost LOL). I have slacked off some this past week, as it’s H coming home week, Megan’s wedding, the girls here, then our anniversary and my birthday. But then I’m back on. I actually like eating the way that I’ve been eating, and it’s pretty easy. I also went and saw Willie (the nutritionist) and I have to get her some information, so that she can see where my thyroid, etc. is – that’s on my “list” for next week.

SO again – Crossfit, Crossfit, and more Crossfit. I have the marathon on October 20th (or is it the 12th?) and I’m not doing that much running for that – though the other day with the team I did 14 Miles, and in Crossfit we always seem to have 100m, 200m, or 400m repeats in the WOD, so I’m not too worried.

Tonight’s workout (not including the warmup):

8 RFT
200M Run
15 DB Thruster 35/20lb
10 Toes 2 Bar

We wound up only having to do 5 rounds – I did the dumbbell thrusters with 5 lbs each hand (wowie zowie)…on about round 3 H said to me when I was doing my darndest to get my toes to the bar (which means basically I get my knees forward) that “if he could do it like that” he’d be a lot more happy – PISSED me off because, of course, I took it as basically saying I was sandbagging – we talked about it in the car and he said he didn’t mean that at all, he was just trying to keep himself going . . . I laughed, had a definite “Amazing Race” feel to it though, you constantly see the couples where one gets pissed at the other then they don’t talk about it! So there’s the learning – if you get pissed, SAY SOMETHING, it’s likely NOT that they are trying to belittle you they’re just trying to buck themselves up 😉

 

So here’s a quickie check-in . . .

Wednesday (Day 14) I went to Crossfit in the morning, and some of the folks from the Monday “friendly uncaring” class actually did the whole “wow, you came back” thing which was nice. I did tell them that since I couldn’t get out of my car, I just slept in the parking lot . . . did I mention that last post?

Day 14:

CONDITIONING
20 Min AMRAP
100M Run
7 Burpee
7 Pull Up

I am pretty sure I did write about this the last post . . . so I’m not going to say anything more.

I picked up “The Girls” that afternoon at OAK, and they said they’d go with me to CrossFit Thursday (Day 15). I took them ALL over South Marin (we even got to see the Americas Cup racing!), then we went to The Cave. There was one other guy doing the WOD, and then the 3 of us. So it was like a personally session with Bo. I was glad that they were with me, otherwise it would have been just me plus Bo, which might have been a little intimidating.

CONDITIONING: For Time
40 Wall Ball
40 sec Ring Support
400M Run
30 Wall Ball
30 sec Ring Support
400M Run
20 Wall Ball
20 sec Ring Support
400M Run
10 Wall Ball
10 sec Ring Support
400M Run

We got to split the wall balls and ring supports in 1/2, so we did 20-15-10-5. By the end it was SO hard! We did the ring support by taking a stretchy band and holding it under our palms, then putting one knee up on it. Bo showed me (when I couldn’t get back up and off the ground at all the 2nd round) that the rings also had to be pretty far apart, or it’s too hard to hoist yourself up. Good learning). We did it with 10 lb medicine balls. No one got a ball in the face, though I managed to jam my pinky finger. I didn’t even know about it until the next day, the adrenaline was flowing so hard 😉

Did you know that you actually can’t really feel pain if you’re in a full-bore adrenaline situation? I didn’t realize that until I was listening to a podcast the other day, though it makes sense. The receptors are the same.

Anyway – the girls did GREAT! Our warmup was wall squats – they could both get totally to the floor with their heels down, we all know that’s not in my body right now – then some of those “shoulder rolls with the PVC pipe” and then we had to practice a . . . well, some sort of a “lift” with the PVC pipe, and pushups. The “lift” is a practice for doing it with a barbell. I can’t remember what it’s called. You squat, get the weight up to your chin with a sort of “alley-oop,” then you get it from under your chin to squatting, arms extended – and you have to be sure your arms are still “straight up” (while your body is sort of bent forward – if you didn’t do that – so your hands are up and behind your head – the weight would get pulled by gravity forward and you wouldn’t be able to hold it). It was a two-part move that Leann got right away, Melody and I did our best. I think it’s probably odder to do it with the PVC pipe/no weight since you don’t have a frame of reference as to “why” you’re doing this double “alley-oop” move to get the weight over your head. (Again – I’ve seen this move in videos, but I couldn’t tell you what it’s actually called.)

We also had to do jumping rope – OMG I ~sucked~ at it and Leann ~rocked.~ I couldn’t get more than 9 single-unders. We had to do 100, which basically took Leann like 2 minutes and me like 10. I wound up with the 3rd from the end rope – I can’t remember the color, but that’s one of the things I’m trying to list here so I DO remember (but of course I am typing this days later, because I didn’t have time to blog while they were here).

The next day we were all kinda sore, and the girls decided that they would go for a walk while I did CrossFit with the morning conditioning crew. We left super early (8:10) because on the Wednesday I’d been late to the warmup due to traffic. We got there super early instead (of course!) and two of the other participants were there (Michael and Margo) working on things that they had to work on. There is a Level 1 before the Conditioning class (in fact, there might be 2 of them) and so the box is open, etc.

The Warm-up had some things I didn’t know how to do, so Michael showed me. Bo was the trainer, but he wasn’t there when I got there (it was around 8:40 or so). Then everyone started to arrive, same crew as Monday/Wednesday. I met more of them, they were very friendly, again, very “wow, you really are coming back you must be a glutton for punishment” and such.

The workout was

20 AMRAP
100m dash
5 toes to bar
10 kettlebell swings.

Toes to bar SUCKS. It’s just what you’d think – the idea is to hang off the pull up bar (so you are in the air) and then get your toes to touch that pull up bar “however you can.” There was NO way that I could do that, but Bo said just to “do what I could” but to “try really hard.” The first round I tried to swing my legs up (straight) but of course my body is so long and I’m so heavy that didn’t work at ALL. The next rounds I swung in sort of a “kip” but bent my knees and tried to get my knees up as high as possible. It was so hard that I had to drop off between each one. It was exhausting.

Bo helped me with the kettlebell swings, which I thought I was doing right (as I have a kettlebell at home, and have watched the Tim Ferriss videos, etc.). Of course – I was not 🙁 The key is that the kettlebell swings JUST under your crotch (not lower), and your chest stays facing the far wall, “like headlights.” Also it’s not really an arm move, but a “popping hip” move.

I wound up doing 7 full rounds, and then the dash and the toes-to-bar (or “kip lift my knees”). The super-duper folks did around 16-17, the next lowest to mine was 12, but I really did work as hard as I could, and I felt good about that. Once again – like the time before with the Burpees where I thought I’d do 4 MAYBE 5, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t get more than 3, so I was super happy with myself.

That evening we took off early for Megan D’s wedding in the wine country, and stopped by Sattui, which was fun and of course I bought too much wine but what can I say? Bad me. I also was pretty good when the appetizers were coming around but then they served this amazing blue cheese cole slaw, mac and cheese, pulled pork, yeah, fine, I had like 3 servings. And red wine. And Scharfenberger chocolate mousse cups. Urp.

Got up this morning to get the girls off at 0-dark-30, because Leann figured that instead of leaving Sunday, that they REALLY should be leaving before H gets home tonight at 6:00 p.m. (Which I do agree with, though I miss them terribly already!) I actually felt really good, not sore at all. They could barely get down the stairs, and of course, I have a ~lot~ of stairs!!! One of the funnier things from yesterday was all of our grunts when we would do something that our bodies would scream at us about. Mine was lying down on the sofa bed when we were all chatting, then just trying to get up by using my abs – oh, oh no. I had to roll over on my side and push up with my arms. They laughed out loud until they each tried to do something comparable. You would hear these little “ouchy sounds” coming from various parts of the house depending on where each of us was, then laughter coming from some other part of the house. It cracked me up.

I got them to OAK in time for their flight and Melody even remembered in the “nick of time” (we had already taken the Hegenberger exit) that we’d wanted to buy Powerball tickets because it’s up to like $300 million. So they each got one for their kids (and Melody got one for her dog Sophie too LOL) and I got one – in reality I only had $1.00 in my pocket, so Melody gave me $1.00. If I win I think that somehow I’m going to owe Melody $150 million! 🙂

I got back home and listened to Girls Gone WOD where they gave me a shout-out which was fun – and snoozed until nearly 1:00 p.m. Yeah, I have to admit, having guests no matter how much you love them is exhausting! So I’m going to go make sure that everything looks nice around the house and the grounds for H getting home – and then come up with my excuses for why I didn’t do ANYTHING he wanted me to in the TWO WEEKS he was gone (such as, big one, test-driving all these cars that he wants us to pick our new car from).

No CrossFit for me this weekend. I’m going to do 5 days a week, take the weekends off. So I’m also going to have to break it to H I have this new “thing” I’m doing. I don’t think he’ll mind all that much since I am doing it based on a Groupon. The key will be finding the $210/month to keep doing it . . . ! I feel bad that I don’t use the JCC as much as I should, and I’m sure he will point that out because it’s quite pricey for us to have that membership. But CrossFit is a whole different animal. I “get” that now, and the whole “functional fitness” thing. An example would be that the Warm-Up on Friday morning included squats, and of course I knew that I needed to do them holding onto the vertical stanchion. HOWEVER, I didn’t need to “climb back up” the stanchion with my hands this time – I did have to hold onto it for balance, but not literally “heave” myself back up it. So that’s an unbelievable achievement since Monday I honestly would have told you that I will never, ever, EVER be able to bend my legs in that way.

Who knows, it’s possible that I will also be able to do the squat-things in Bikram better, too – once my body realizes it “can” do it!

Oh – took the girls to meet Mom at the Thursday Farmer’s Market, too (I forgot that) – and they LOVED it. It really is a great market. I also really pampered them with meals – fresh Cherokee tomatoes (O-M-G delish) and basil and fresh mozzarella salads, iron skillet chicken, pork tenderloin roast with roasted asparagus and Japanese sweet potatoes, Bulletproof coffee for Melody (with the egg yolks too). Oh and I took them to lunch at the SFYC too. The weather was glorious while they were here – though it had been obviously POURING in Salt Lake when they left because their luggage was SO SOPPING that their CLOTHES had to be wrung out and put in the dryer or on my outside rack – !!!!!! When we were heading into OAK, it started to “mist/rain” on us, and Melody said “what’s WITH us and the RAIN?” I had to laugh!

Megan’s wedding was hugely fun – the best part was a “surprise” where the “minister” (Zach’s best friend from law school) had 2 of the groomsmen bring up two plates so that each of Zach and Megan could “partake” of the “food of the ancestors” of the other – Megan had to eat some chicken parm with sauerkraut (Zach is Italian/German), and in “favor” of Megan’s Mormon heritage Zach had to eat a Wonderbread sandwich with a filling of green Jello with grated carrots in it. I thought he might throw up. It was SO HILARIOUS and obviously was “sprung” on them. Our table was Jordan and Sierra, Zoe (who now does Nerium), Melody Leann and me, and Casey. That was all the SOC folks that were there. We had one extra chair at our table which we just “designated” (when Jordan wasn’t there) to be for Curtis who was supposed to come but wound up not coming because of the “potential drama” with Jordan that he’d left SOC to go to Seacret. But in front of Jordan we said it was for H, because of course he was supposed to come to the wedding but got called to Switzerland by his boss. Everyone at the table did tease that “everyone has heard” about H for the past 5 years, but “no one has actually seen him” (not really true – Leann has – but anyway). Someone – I think Curtis – had said I should bring one of those old-school voiceboxes like “Charlie” had used on “Charlie’s Angels” which I thought was hilarious.

OK, that’s enough checking in for today. I haven’t done anything particularly TAR-ish today, but driving on basically no sleep and keeping my temper in check when traffic was COMPLETELY stopped on the way to the Airport and people were doing CRAZY things to get away from it (as in, trying to drive DOWN the UP highway onramp!) It was down from 4 to 1 lane because they were working on the road. The one thing that I am really REALLY learning is that driving TAKES TIME. I know that sounds stupid, but I am almost always late because I just don’t leave enough time to get places, or I hit traffic at ALL or even a red light and it doesn’t allow me to skate on in “under the wire.” Oh – I know what’s TAR-ish – maneuvering the van while backing up. Melody and Leann said that they’d never seen anything like it. I think since our driveway when I was first learning to drive was so narrow – and our current driveway curving, steep, and an obstacle course with the building and the other car, that I might just be the best “backing up” driver ever. I wonder if the same person has to drive the car all the time on TAR? If so I’m going to see if R will let me be the driver. I wonder how she is with navigating. I actually am so-so at it . . . better than I used to be because when H and I are together, he always drives (and in fact he’s an even better “backer-upper” than I am, he NEVER has to ‘cut and fill’) – but I have a mean backup 😉

That’s enough 😉

so yesterday was Day 12. I was running around going to my nutritionist, chiropractor (threw out my neck SLEEPING – OMG!), walk with my friend Francine (about an hour), then Crossfit.

The guy who was the coach is the guy who I was going back and forth on email with, when I was trying to decide which box to start at. (Then there was the Living Social coupon which made it a “fait accompli.”) I’m not sure if he’s the owner, or a “head coach” or whatever.

The warmup was 500 m row, and then 2x a ton of stuff – kip, pull up, push ups, a shoulder “roll” (PVC pipe held in front, then you keep your arms straight and put it up and over your head so that it’s now held with your arms straight, behind your back like against the small of your back), wall squats (which is facing a wall and doing a squat, which keeps your body in an upright position – I just didn’t have to go down that far), etc. I can’t remember all the things, but Bo (the coach) had to basically show me how to do them all.

And NO, of COURSE I couldn’t do a pull up or a push up. So he gave me different ones to do – for example, they have parallel bars (like the men use at the Olympics?) and “my” pushup was against one of those bars, with my feet up on a mat.

The key to the whole enterprise is doing it with the right FORM. I think that has to be the hallmark of Crossfit. For example, when we’re doing “calesthenics” at Wednesday night LLS workouts, it doesn’t matter “how” you do a pushup, you just have to do it. So I’m on my knees, and my elbows are winged way out from my body. That’s just not “allowed” here – the idea is to keep your elbows close to your body, and you just have to change your position (as I said, I was almost standing up – !) until you can “do it” with the right form.

That’s like the squats the first day – where I had to do it “right” and keep my heels down, so I had to climb up and down a vertical stanchion.

The workout was

8 RFT – Row 300M / 10 DL 80/55KG / 12 Box Jump 24/20″

In “words” this is 8 “rounds for time” (I was pretty right on what RFT stands for), you do 300M row, then 10 dead lifts, then 12 box jumps.

I think the “Rx” (meaning “Prescription” in Crossfit-speak..or the amount you are “supposed” to do) is what the number is after the exercise – so for example I think that “12 box jump 24/20” means 24 inch box for men, 20 inch box for women. I don’t think I have to worry about that for a LONG TIME LOL!

Bo showed me how to “use” the rowing machine, how to do a dead lift (butt out…butt back…arms straight…), how to box jump (2 feet up, step down).

The thing about the rowing machine that was interesting is it has a numbered “wheel” on the right side where the “Fan” is. 10 means that it’s harder to pull, but you “go farther” with each pull (think like on a bike). 1 means that it’s easier to pull, but you go “shorter distance” per pull. I started at 6, and worked up so that the last 2 rounds I was doing it at 10. It was hard but it was so much better that you go farther per pull! Bo said that usually somehow who is shorter/more fast twitch does the lower number and the taller/more slow twitch does a higher number.

I did the dead lift with 10 lbs on the bar – which was actually super surprising to me. I’m not sure why but I didn’t think I was going to even be able to lift the barbell.

The best part was the box jump though.

There was no way that I could jump up to a box-box – this girl don’t got jump. So Bo set me up so that I was jumping “up onto” 4 gymnastics “squishy mats” (you know the kind – from high school – they fold up onto each other and have a velcro strip at the end to attach them?). It looked super duper stupid low but that was high enough for me. HOWEVER, the BEST PART was in showing me “how” to do a box jump, Bo caught his foot on the edge, and nearly tripped on his face. I started laughing so hard (way too hard – because I was nervous)! I couldn’t do the jump for like 30 seconds because I was laughing so hard. I told Bo that OBVIOUSLY he’d done that on purpose to make me feel okay. Then he started to laugh which made me laugh harder.

I even posted on Twitter and Facebook that “obviously this was the box for me” because of that.

This group of folks had one gal (Eileen) who was SUPER nice. She said that everyone who does that class is or has been hurt, and they’re not competitive. I asked her about the 9:00 class, and she said that they have all been together since the beginning, so it’s likely kinda weird to start in that one because though they’re super friendly they have literally been working out for years and years together.

So who came in first (granted I wasn’t doing the Rx, but…) – me! By a few seconds – Eileen came in 2nd doing the Rx. That was super cool. I can’t tell you how “long it took me” because it didn’t really matter – it’s not like this is one of the WODs that people “know” it’s just a conditioning WOD. I asked Eileen what happens to the names/times on the board, etc. and she said that every week they actually take a photo of it and will send it to you if you want.

Bo was super nice in that perfect “friendly/uncaring” way. He would give me tips as I was doing the rounds – just like Anthony had, with a little tip each time. The biggest tip for me was that I was rolling my shoulders forward on the dead lift, and I had to leave them more “neutral.”

Today the workout is:

CONDITIONING
20 Min AMRAP
100M Run
7 Burpee
7 Pull Up

OK can I say one thing? Burpees are my Waterloo. I mean – sure I can’t do pull ups or push ups or anything but Burpees have ALWAYS been something that just doesn’t work for me. I’m not quite sure what to do about this. The class is in a bit less than an hour and I’m sitting here considering whether I “should go.” I just gotta go. Whoever is the coach is going to have to give me some scaling for it, that’s just going to have to be what happens. I mean, it’s 20 minutes, for goodness’ sake. For some reason the schedule doesn’t show what the Warm Up is (it has before), but we’ll see. I think it’s a different coach too, not Anthony or Bo (I think it’s Bill).

Oh – AMRAP means “as many as you can in the time” (as opposed to doing a certain number of rounds, you do as many rounds as you can in that time).

I also discovered yesterday that there is a box of chalk, and you can “chalk” whatever you want next to where you are working out. So, like, yesterday, I just kept “score” of how many rounds I had done on my way to 8. Genius. Then I don’t have to keep it in my head.

How do I feel? I thought when I got up yesterday I was pretty unscathed – my inner thighs were “sore” but not super duper sore. Okay, as the day progressed, my inner thighs got sore-er and sore-er so by the end of the day (and now), I am pretty much a freakin’ Frankenstein trying to walk. As I said to Bo yesterday, though, I noticed that I felt like I was standing taller (which is one of the biggies for H – he says I HAVE to start working on something to stop me from having “computer shoulder slump”) – HOWEVER, I couldn’t get out of the car. LOL but um not really laughing! (Maybe I should be driving the van so I step DOWN to the road instead of the lower-slung car!)

Today Melody and Leann get here tonight at about 6:00. I was supposed to do a hike with Jane M. but I have too much to do so I emailed and texted her yesterday for a raincheck – I’m sad but I just don’t have the time if I go to Crossfit, and am going to clean the house, etc. and pick up Leann and Melody at the airport. I’m not quite sure what I’m going to do about Crossfit Th and F – I think I just have to go. I will have Melody and Leann play amongst themselves (laugh). Tomorrow would be the 6:30 p.m. class, so maybe I could even get them to go walking on the bike path for the hour I’m doing it. Then on Friday (Megan’s wedding day) I would go to the 9:00-10:00 class – I think that’ll still be fine, because I think that the wedding starts at 3:00. They can loll around at home 😉

So it’s 8:15 so I gotta jet. Short checkin – yesterday, long long fast walk with Francine, Crossfit. Today, Crossfit – but we’ll see what Bill does to fix the Burpees and pullups.

POSTSCRIPT: Leaving the house has to actually HAPPEN at 8:15 or I’m late. I was late. GRRRRRR. Note to self – that time of morning is STILL peak traffic time! (That’s why it’s such a bummer The Cave is by far the farthest Crossfit from me in Marin). HOWEVER, not only did people give me the whole good-natured “OMG you came back” thing (which was great), but I did WAY more repeats in the AMRAP than I thought I would. Anthony had me do the Burpees basically against the big “desk/box” that’s in the middle of the garage right as you walk in – but I still had to get my chest through and I had to jump up after each push. Then, for the pullups, I did a “jumping” pullup. What this means is that they take weight plates (which they have some special magic Crossfit word for, but I forget it) and stack them up until when you stand on them, the pull-up bar comes midway between your wrist and elbow if you hold your hands up. So, to do a pull-up, you stand on the stack of plates, hold onto the bar, and literally “jump” up, helping with your legs so that your chin comes over the bar. This was SO MUCH BETTER than the other way that the other box had me do it, with the resistance bands. Those were not only scary (because I had to have so many that when I released my legs they sort of shot them up, loosening my grip), but also just felt a lot more “stupid.” My stack of plates was 2 5s and 2 50s to get up to the bar at the right height. And I did NINE repeats, plus the run on the 10th in the 20 minutes! I was OVER THE MOON about this – I thought I’d do 5 MAX. I guess the best part about starting a new sport is that every day is a new PR (lol)

POSTSCRIPT 2: I asked where the bathroom was today 😉 SO BRAVE…