CFOT Hopper Challenge

This past Saturday, I was able to participate in the CFOT Hopper Challenge. I know that I'm a little late in the write up, but it was a long day with lots of stuff, and I knew that getting it all down was going to take awhile. Not to mention, I was super cranky pants this week for two days so I needed some time before I could write without being all sorts of poopy pants.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about the Hopper. I'm an uber competitive person, and I hate to lose. This does not bode well for competitions because, well, there's always going to be somebody bigger, stronger, and faster than you. Not to mention, I'm not a metcon ninja. You can't tell me that in a Hopper challenge it's not all about speed. Even if you do do a strength wod, it comes back to speed in the end. How fast can you get crap done? So, for me, I'm not sure that competing in things is necessarily the way to go. Yes, being in that environment, in that atmosphere, did cause me to push a little more than I would in a normal WOD, but I'm not sure for me there was a HUGE difference.

There are those who will argue that doing something like the Hopper challenge teaches you about weaknesses, and that's definitely true. But most of us, if we've been doing this long enough, know our weaknesses already. Some people use the Hopper as a driving force to progress. Eh, I am not sure that I really do or don't. I realized I sucked at double unders, muscle ups, kettle bell swings, burpees, HSPU, running, and push-ups LONG before the Hopper. Regardless of my performance at the Hopper, I am still going to work them. So, I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. I loved doing the first wod, hated getting trounced in everything else, so honestly, I go back and forth on the whole thing. Regardless of my feelings on MY competing, Jerry put together a great day. For the most part, it was a lot of fun. I got to spend my day with some awesome friends, and who doesn't love that?

The one thing that was so really super cool about the Hopper was the team atmosphere. CFOT has always been hands down one of the strongest communities, if not THE strongest community I've ever been a part of. I've been on a lot of teams in my life, but they all pale drastically in comparison to the support from CFOT members. There were athletes who really struggled with some of the stuff that came out of the hat, and instead of quitting, just gritted through. It was AMAZING to see their determination and it was AWESOME to see people support each other like that. I have to say that is my FAVORITE thing about CFOT. We are a team, and we don't let each other forget that.

But, enough of me trying to wax all philosophical. Let's get to the WODS!

Jerry told us in advance that there would definitely be two wods. A strength component and also a couplet or triplet. Coin toss would decide couplet or triplet on the day of, and bag pull would decide the strength wod on the day. For certain cards in the strength bag, Jerry wrote the word "Joker". If we pulled a strength wod with a joker, we had to throw in a third wod which would come between the strength wod and the more metconish wod.

As it happened, the bag pull resulted in a 1 rep max jerk. Needless to say, I was pleased with that. I've been wanting to max jerk for awhile and I was pleased to see it. I wasn't so happy though with the fact that I had demolished myself the day before at first Friday by doing Grace and Isabelle. Me doing the Hopper was not planned in advance (clearly) and was only done with the expressed written permission of my middle sister who allowed me to come late to an event we had scheduled in advance. Regardless though, I had the shiny shoes on hand and I was ready to throw down with what I could. But, on the jerk card was the word joker. Sooooo... that meant three wods. The extra wod was done immediately when all lifts were completed and it was 30 jerks with an 800 meter run for time using 50% of your max effort.

Now, I will admit that I was feeling really good with the jerks that day. I was all sorts of excited about jerking. I have a goal to hit 200lbs by Christmas, and I don't get to jerk 1 rep maxes often, so I really wanted to go hard. So I did. I landed a 180 jerk cleanly. I mean, it didn't feel difficult AT ALL. I was stoked. Cised as Soni would say. So I hurriedly threw 185 on the bar as time was ticking away. With 15 seconds remaining in the lifting portion of the day, I unracked the bar. I had the bar over my head, but wasn't able to lock. I HAVE that weight, and I mean, I HAVE it. It's in me. I can feel 200 so close. But then, I had to turn around and take 50% of that 180 for 30 reps. I mean, I had 90 on the bar, while some people had 45/65, and yes I know it's all relative and blah blah blah, but still, 90 for 30? I don't care who you are. Immediately following a 1 rep max? It's going to suck regardless of how good you are at the movement. I should have stopped when I lifted enough to win, but I didn't. I think it was stupid on my part to keep going. I should have stopped. With two wods the day before, and 30 coming after, I should have stopped at 140. But I didn't. If this happens again, my strategy will probably be different.

Needless to say, I was the last person lifting, had no down time before we jumped into that joker wod, and I was the slowest female on the 30 wod. It sucked. I was angry and basically felt like I'd just been punished for being strong. I wasn't happy.

The final wod wound up being a couplet of front squats and kb swings. The load on the front squats was 100lbs, and the kb was 35. It was an ascending/descending ladder so the front squats went down 21-15-9, and the kb swings went up 18-30-42. It's a bit like Josh. (My FAVORITE!) I have to say that by the time I got to the third wod, I was pretty wiped. It's hard to say from what, but I was. The weight felt heavy, and my back started to seize up on the KB swings. It was quite painful in the end. I know that a few people dnf'd on the last wod, so although it looks quick and dirty, it really was a beating. I wasn't pleased that it took me 8:29 to bring this in. I wasn't. I'm not going to lie. Getting my ass handed to me on both the second and third wod, sorta put a big damper on the first wod.

And this is where the whole, "I'm not sure I should compete" thing comes into play. Most people would walk away from the day going, I had a great lift, and that's awesome. In my psyche, the getting pounded almost completely negated the lift. So, you know, I'm not sure what I will do in the future. I'm already signed up for the finals in December technically, but I'm not sure I want to do it. I may just go cheer, as for me, that was the most fun part of the day. Maybe work is clouding my judgement now, but we'll see what I decide to do. Regardless of what my feelings are regarding competing etc, the atmosphere at the Hopper was awesome, and it was quite an ass kicker. Jerry and the other coaches really put together a great day and it was really cool to see.

Veteran's Day: Honoring those who have served or are serving

Dear God,

I understand the need to acknowlege our military members. I think Veteran's Day is an important holiday and one that we need to have. Our servicemen and women have an important job defending our country and keeping our citizens safe. However, our hero wod, Hensen, just seriously put me in the hurt locker. Doing 5 rounds in 44:59 of 30 kb swings with 53 lbs, 30 burpees, and 30 GHD sit-ups was just brutual. If you could arrange it so that now I do not need to move for the rest of the day, that would be wonderful. Thanks.

Love,
Katie

PS- If you could arrange to keep me alive without me breathing for the day, that would be great, as breathing hurts now too. I have the utmost appreciation for your consideration.

All joking aside, Veteran's Day is an opportunity to honor those brave men and women who defend or have defended our country and our freedoms. Very often they are the unsung heroes. Sort of like the stage crew in a big Broadway production. They do a lot of work that very rarely gets recognized or seen. Regardless though, without them, the show would not go on. It doesn't matter if there's a lead actor or actress. Without some serious backstage support, all their singing and acting would be for naught. Without our servicemen and women, we wouldn't be able to go on. Without the protection of our freedoms, our lives would all be EXTREMELY different.

I understand that it is a small price to pay to suffer through a hero wod today. But, if it helps to let our servicemen and women know that we appreciate them, then I'm all for it. (aside from the crippling pain afterwards... I'm not necessarily all for that!:P) All joking aside though, to all the men and women who have served or are serving, God Bless and THANK YOU!

A small thing to be happy about on Monday morning...

So in keeping with my idea that sometimes you need to focus on small things... this morning, I remembered it was Monday (booooo!), but then I also remembered that 94.7 Wash FM goes commercial free in an attempt to make your Mondays not suck quite so bad! It's not always the BEST in musical selection, but it's great for continuous music. Sometimes I hear songs that I'm like, wow, I haven't heard this in forever.

***** Hold for musical break *****

(Picture me rockin' out in my car)

Damn I wish I was your lover, I'd rock you til the daylight comes, make sure you are smiling and more...

***** This has been a test of the random musical break system. Had this been an actual emergency, by no means would you be reading my blog right now! *****

See what I mean? When was the last time you heard THAT song?!?!?

And no it does NOT count if you've been to Rockit Grill recently. *shudders* There is some creepy sorta crazy chick that sings that song EVERYTIME I go to sing karaoke there. Apparently she's a regular! Zoinks! Anyway, good small thing for the Monday morning. No commercials! Yay!

Now back to your regularly scheduled Monday! :P

Soreness leads to resting which leads straight into a state of Grace...

So yesterday was a good 'ole fashioned rest day. Yup. A rest day. I was really tempted to go in when I saw that the wod had moderately heavy deads and GHD's in it, but I was pretty sore from that blistering Wod we hit on Wednesday. Holy cow. So Jerry didn't put a clock on Wednesday's wod, but told us there was a 20 minute time limit. So basically, when you broke it down, there was about 2 minutes for each exercise, and 4 minutes per round (yes there were five rounds... good math!).

So here's what it looked like
max strict press 55 lbs
max strict chins

Record highest round and total

So my total for the strict press was 75 and my highest round for strict chins was 5. This wod was one of those where your forearms get kind of frid and you feel like your arms kind of want to fall off... yeah. One of those, so needless to say, after working late Wednesday plus that wod, I just had to take Thursday as a rest day. Besides, 3 on, 1 off right? Well, I rested right into First Friday. And you know, most first Friday's I do Josh because it's an opportunity for me to work overhead squats. I love that wod. OHS and pull-ups. Yum. But, you know, I wasn't really feeling Josh for some reason on Friday. I was thinking of mixing it up. So I was thinking that I've never done Grace as prescribed. The only times I've done Grace I've done uber rx'd. Last year during the Grace challenge I did it with 100lbs, and then once before that, I let Jerry talk me into doing it with 115. So, I wanted to see what would happen if I did Grace with 85lbs.

So, I warmed up and jumped on the clock at 8 minutes into First Friday. I finished at 10:44. Yup. Grace in 2:44. That's pretty smokin. At least I think it is. I'm sure there are ladies and gents who can do it faster, but I thought that was pretty doggone good. The last few I was doing as singles, so I think I could easily do this in 2:30 if I stop doing singles, but I did the first 12 no break and I think that messed me up a bit. I was really winded for the last 6 or 7. I really should have gritted through more. But afterwards, since the wod was so short, I was thinking of hitting Josh anyway. But as I was warming up, my OHS just didn't feel good. I was having a hard time staying stable and my OHS just was off. So Jerry said, "Why don't you do Isabelle?"

I couldn't really think of a reason not to or a reason to argue with Jerry, so I turned around, pulled some weight off the bar to hit a few snatches and then went for an rx'd Isabelle. I was already gassed at this point, and so really it was like doing 30 singles. I couldn't tie any of the snatches together, but regardless, I gritted through with minimal rest, meaning, I didn't put my hands on my legs and rest a whole lot. I kept chasing the bar and kept at it. I did this in 8:29. Not great, not bad, but room for improvement of course. Maybe next month I'll start with Isabelle and finish with Grace.... :P Regardless, I was really happy with the Grace wod, and proud of myself for slugging through Isabelle. It was another good First Friday!

Back it up!!!

Another day for the new shoes!!! I had an alarm clock FAIL yesterday morning, and so I was forced to make a choice. Hit CFOT after school, or bag the back squats. The last three times we've done BS I've missed them for one reason or another, so I couldn't bag 'em. I had to give 'em the old college try. So I took my new Buddy Lee jump rope (WOOOT!) and hit some DU's before our warm-up and then we jumped right in. The board said to warm up with a few light sets, and then attempt a 3 rep max and lower the weight. Usually we all do the opposite.

I understand the logic behind this type of lifting. Obviously you have more energy to find your true max early on as opposed to later, but at the same time, I don't like it, especially with back squats. The difference in how the weight feels doesn't make me confident. For me I have found that my lifting depends on how I feel. If I feel good warming up, the big weights will go up over. If not, too bad so sad, try another day. To go from such a light weight to a heavy one was really rough for me. It just didn't feel good. I didn't feel confident and that wrecked me. So we backed me down to lighter weight and worked up. I felt more confident jumping and doing singles, then tried for a new 3 rep max PR. I almost got it. Almost. I got 200X2, and halfway up on the 3rd on, I faultered. I lost core tension and started to lean forward and that was all she wrote. Andrea maintains she didn't really help me, but I know they did. It's ok though, I put up 205 X 1 and I put up 200X2. The 200X3 would have been nice though. :P

Regardless, don't you totally just love the new shoes!?!!? They are even better than the silver sequined ones. :) Now, just wait until I throw that 200lb jerk over my head with those babies on. Then they'll HAVE to respect the shiny shoes! :P

When the big things get in the way, enjoy the smaller ones...

I'm sure that in all of our lives, there are times where things just seem to overwhelm us. These "big" things, seem to run our lives, dictate or attitudes, and in general, turn us into people we don't want to be.

I'll be the first to admit that in looking through my blog and over my FB, I've realized the big things are really blocking my path these days. Lots of really "down" sounding days, and lots of stormy rain clouds seeming to hang over my head and my posts.

It's hard to see around the big things when they get in your way. For me, work things and relationship issues have been simply plaguing me. But, I'm tired of letting the big things get in the way of all the good stuff. Just because the big things are big, doesn't mean they should get to run the place. I had to walk to get my car today because it was in the shop, and you know what I realized as I was walking? It's gorgeous out today! The leaves are drying out from all the rain, they crackle now when you walk on them, the sun is shining, the temperature is just right for fall. It's a wonderful day. It's a small thing. But it made me smile. It made my day a little better.

I'm realizing that when the big things seem insurmountable, sometimes you need to keep finding the small things because you know, lots of little teeny tiny things, eventually add up. I'm hoping that eventually, the small things will add up, and I'll realize that the small things are more important than the big ones anyway. The scarey thing about this blog, it's public and ANYONE can read it. The neat thing about this blog? I'm able to watch my journey. I can go back and reread now YEARS of wod's and personal moments. It's pretty cool actually. I'd like to think that I'm turning a corner. I'd like to think that this getting back to me is the start of an upswing but only time will tell. Thank goodness my blog doesn't have an expiration date! :P Just in case though anyone reading has been feeling like me... here's a list of small things to smile about and enjoy today. :)

* Good coffee (Starbucks holiday flavors returned TODAY! MMM peppermint mocha!)
* Warm apple cider with cinamon
* A good book
* Michael Buble (he's dreamy)
* Car tunes (you know, the ones you rock out to and belt at the top of your lungs)
* Slippers (mine are ladybugs, with antennae.. be very jealous, even though the
anntenae are slightly broken)
* Fleecy pants (they're just too comfy for words!)

Go... try one... I bet it makes you smile... if for no other reason than because I'm sorta kinda crazy and you had to laugh at me!

It must be the shoes!

So, I got to break out my new shoes yesterday! :) It's the small things in life that make me happy... :P Jerry has been throwin' down with some serious short metcons that have included barbell work lately, and I have to say, I'm all about it. I love me some metcon with barbells. It's dee-licious! :) I was sad that I'm still unable to do muscle ups and had to sub, but this was actually a good workout for me. I felt pretty solid. I waffled a little here and there on some of the snatches but I had a hard time keeping core tension breathing the way I was. :P Imagine that, it's hard keeping a tight core when you can't breathe... :P

5rft
3 snatches (85)
6 lou burpees (2x push-ups)
9 24" box jumps
Time:9:43

I jokingly wrote in the title that this wod was all about the shoes, but I really actually felt good on the boxes today so I can't help but wonder if it's not all about the shoes. No really. I know I keep talking about them too, so I'll have to get a picture up soon! :) I just felt really bouncy today. They're Converse so I nkow there's no cushion but for whatever reason, today they just seemed to work for me. Normally I'm very slow at box jumps and the force really hurts my knees. Whatever it was, today I was sort of flyin'. I'm sure the metcon/push-up ninjas can finish this in 6 something, but for me not being Speedy McSpeederson, I was happy with this. It was a while back I think, but I likened myself more to a draft horse. I'll give you lots and lots of good work, and I'll just keep going for awhile, but don't ask me to do it fast. I just seem to have one gear. :P But it sort of feels like maybe I'm finding a second gear lately. Still not super super fast, but faster than before. It never gets easier, no no, but it is seeming to get a little faster anyway. :P It must be the shoes! :)