Another go round with Grindy, why I need the Zone, and I join the 12 week challenge...

I've been out of town since Thursday, and packed with every intention of working out at home, but for once I listened to what my body was saying and took some rest. I was exhausted. Since the end of school, I really haven't stopped. I had a week of class, and then went straight into my 11 day run at work. So, this week, I began to crash. The days off at home were great. I got to see my grandfather and he was having a good day. It was great to see him have one of those. It struck me though, when he asked about my teaching and said how proud he was of me. I can't really describe it, but it hit me hard. He's been through so much and still thinks about things like that. It just amazes me. But nevertheless, it felt great to be back in the Blue Room this morning. Thanks to beer inventory last night I wasn't awake and vertical at my usual 0600 time, but I made it in for the 730 class.

I heard barbells the second I walked up the stairs and was excited because I thought we would be throwing heavy weights around. But, I was a little disappointed to learn that instead we were hitting "Grindy" for another go. We hit Grindy back in April and on that day I went Rx'd weight, but didn't yet have the strength to do all the push-ups to standard. My time was 29:33 Today, I went Rx'd weight AND did all the push-ups to standard. :) So that in and of itself was a marked improvement. I felt like I was smoking through the first round and actually kept up pretty well with Andrea, who is a freakin' firebreather if there ever was one. But on round 2, she smoked me because the push-ups held me up. I suck at push-ups. I really felt my lack of push-up strength today. I could have done this 2-3 minutes faster if I wouldn't have wasted so much time on them I feel. But overall, I was pretty happy to be back and I brought this one in in 25:36, nearly 4 minutes off my previous time. So that was pretty exciting for me.

After class, we were talking about the 12 week challenge that Jerry is running for us. We are on teams, and each member is working towards their own goals. If any member doesn't meet their goal or benchmark towards their goal on their test week, then the whole group pulls a "Funishment" workout. Well, because of my traveling, and the goals that I have for myself, I wasn't sure it was going to be a good idea for me to join. My goals are a little challenging to measure but I think I've found a way. My one main goal, especially after the cabin party this weekend, is to stay strict on the Zone for 12 weeks. This is going to definitely be challenging. But, I went home for the Cabin party and 2 things happened. 1, I gave myself a free pass at the party, and completely overate. My body did not know what to do with the extra food or sugar. I wound up waking up at 130 to throw up. It was not a fun time, and was definitely a learning experience. I need the Zone. I need to make sure that I keep myself healthy, and don't wind up the way I was or worse. The second thing that happened while I was home, was that I realized something. While I was home, I was in the grocery store, and Wal-Mart and couldn't believe what I saw. The AVERAGE person that I was seeing, was probably at least 15-20 lbs overweight. It was mind boggling. I don't notice it as much down here, and I can't explain the difference between here and home, unless maybe it's just accessibility to programs and information, but whatever the difference, it was astonishing. I was watching people put things in their cart, and I was seriously appalled. I wanted to yell at them! I wanted to stop them and save them from themselves, but it's kinda like the situation the other day on the main site with the good captain. If people are uninformed, there is little you can do or say until they decide to pay attention. I don't want to look like the people I saw. I am going to do my damndest to stay on the Zone strict for the next 12 weeks and stop eating the way I have been for the last week or so.

My other two goals are goals that I've had, but have not yet met. My second goal is my sub 10:00 Fran. I have missed Fran the last two times we hit her, but my old time is 11:39. I've broken the time and weeks down to try to make gains every 3 weeks. So we'll see how well things happen. My other goal is the 30 chins. My goal is to increase my max by 2 every 4 weeks. Right now I'm at 24. I need 6 more. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can do this. I don't want my team to have to have some "Funishment"!

One last fun note today. Jaime of CrossFit Peru emailed me to ask if he could translate and publish some of my work on their site. Now I'll be bilingual! :) He is trying to spread the good word of CrossFit to the people of his country. Jaime said that the idea of functional fitness has not yet caught up with the people in Peru. He wants to try to use my writing to help encourage the idea that women can be strong and beautiful, (one of my main topics last week), and encourage them to try CrossFit! He also wants to encourage "normal" people to try CrossFit and thinks that hearing from a "normal" person would be helpful. I think it's awesome that he is trying so hard to share the Kool-aid. I hope that whatever he takes off of here will help and I wish him the best! :)