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 ;-)