Monday, July 14, 2008

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! :)

14 comments:

Darcy 'D2' said...

4 minute improvement is nothing to sneeze at good job! Good luck on the chin (I assume that's a pullup) PR. I'm going for one myself tonight but will be shocked if I get even close to 30. Anything over 20 will make me happy.

Katie said...

Go for it Darcy!! I bet you're going to surprise yourself.

P.T. said...

I think rural areas are hit even harder by obesity. I don't know if it's economics, education, or a little bit of both. Empty calories are cheap and easy, I think that's probably the main appeal. My recent visit to Black Moshannon state park in rural PA gave me a whole new meaning for the word beach body.

Katie said...

PT, it was seriously disturbing. I mean literally, we were buying groceries for the picnic, and I just couldn't believe it! I know I'm not as skinny as I could be, I have a few more pounds to go, but just looking around, it was really upsetting. It was enough to make me join the 12 week challenge and rethink the free pass I gave myself this weekend.

Diarist said...

I love the crossfit videos, I really find them educational!

Its weird watching somebody you 'know' (well sort of..well maybe erm...)

I'm with you on the whole obesity thing too, I posted something similar today.

Robin said...

Hooray, you linked me! Thanks. We did "Grindy" for the first time recently... a lot of our people now say it's their new favorite. Who knew?!

Kim said...

First, I love the video! Some strong ladies you got down there!

I totally know what you mean about seeing people so out of shape. It's so sad, and they COULD prevent it! It's all about choices. And yes, I know all about certain diseases/meds that cause weight gain, but I'm not talking about those people! I know it's been in the news a lot, but what's even scarier is the childhood obesity. One of the people you like to, Forts, has a great post with an african child starving, and an American kid at McDonalds. Definitely worth checking out! Americans even tried those video games to "try to get kids moving" but why not go outside? Ok, I'll stop my rant. Do you see a lot of overweight kids in your school? I know you said the weight problem is worse back home... just curious.

Its great you are committing to the zone! It can be difficult, but nothing has worked like it for me! Have you checked out CF santa cruz blog about the zone? It's got some pretty good ideas, although they use bread/pita/wraps more than I tend to. It's http://cfscceat.blogspot.com/ if you haven't seen it :)

Katie said...

Robin, this is not my new favorite. Anything with push ups cannot be a favorite of mine.

Kim, I have been zoning for sometime, however, the last few weeks have been less than stellar. The complete trainwreck this weekend has let me know that I need to get my butt back in gear.

Robin said...

Katie, what is your favorite workout? I like anything with clean & jerk, so Grace is in my top 5.

Anonymous said...

Nice job on Grindy!

I hear you on the weight issue. I work from home, so I don't get out much :-) but when I do it's usually to martial arts class or out hiking or something where everyone I see is relatively fit. But the one time a week I go to Wal-Mart it's literally shocking to see the people there. It really is hard not to stare. Like everyone else says you just want to grab them and say "It doesn't have to be this way."

Katie said...

Robin, to be honest, I don't really have a favorite named workout, but there are a bunch that Jerry has made up that I like. I struggle a lot with body weight exercises, but I love barbell work. So really, anything with clean and presses, or deads or anything like that I love. Tiger was fun, I just wish I would have done it with the correct weight! :P

Tami, that was exactly how I felt. I just wanted to shake people. I want to shake myself when I cheat on the Zone because I know what the ramifications are, but what I was seeing was just kinda disturbing. I don't know why I didn't particularly notice it until I went home this time, I don't know what made this trip any different, but it really opened my eyes!

Anonymous said...

It's good to have short term goals like these. It keeps you focused on moving forward. Having reminders of the average person around can help keep you on track too!

Anonymous said...

hola! yo también soy de Perú (hey! i´m from Peru too) y es cierto que acá no es muy popular Crossfit, en realidad nadie lo conoce (and it´s true that here Crossfit isn´t very popular, actually nobody knows about it) Pero gracias a jaime y sus ideas se está logrando dar a conocer este tipo de entrenamiento que como tu bien dices es para todos y es divertido y muy efectivo (but thanks to jaime and his ideas this type of trainingthat, as you say, if for everybody anda fun and effective is getting more popular)
saludos!

Katie said...

Justa, I'm going to do my best to keep moving forward.

Marian, thanks for dropping by and commenting! Bienvenido! :)