Days 31, 32, 33

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.)