Friday, August 29, 2008

The end of the week, a new row PR, and my lowest weight yet...

So, I know I've been crazy busy this week and I haven't been keeping up with all your blogs and I'm sorry. I counted it up yesterday and between Monday and yesterday I worked 51 hours between my two jobs. That's INSANE. Who works overtime in 4 days? Uh... apparently I do. So anyway, I'm sorry that I haven't been around much, but I've been a little occupied. But I still made it to CF this week! :)

After the craziness that was Fran, I took Tuesday off. I needed to recover. So then on Wendesday, we hit a nice little circuit with some HSPU's (or shrugs for those of us who can't yet do those)and running. Wednesday's fun looked like this:

21-15-9
HSPU's
L-sits
Run 800 meters

I had to sub 6 shrugs for 3 HSPU's and I did strict chins since I can't do L-sits. Definitely worked my tris on Wednesday! I love working out with my older brother Gar, but working out with Lt. Col. Dan is fun too! I like to give him crap while we're working out.... ;) Nothing like picking on a marine. ;)

Yesterday was a little metcon gasser, and man, I was feeling it. It looked like this:
6 TGU (20 lbs)
9 Jumping slamballs (12 lbs)
12 Box jumps (4 mats)
15 Abmat sit-ups

Jerry gave us a half hour time limit for this and I went through 8 1/2 rounds. Craig was telling me I should have had to use 5 mats, but I don't think I could have done it. I had to jet because Open House was yesterday, but most other people stayed and finished 10 rounds. Except for Matt who finished 10 before I finished my 8 1/2. I dislike Matt sometimes....:P

I rolled home from work last night sometime after 800 cooked dinner, did laundry, folded my other laundry, talked on the phone and literally collapsed in bed after 11. I'm not sure how I managed to roll myself out of bed this am, but I made it up at 5, and made it to CF. My body was aching. My hip flexers are uber tight and I just felt sluggish. Jerry said to me today that sometimes you need to know when to say when, and I know I have a really hard time with that. But I need CF. It's a good way to let out toxins and stress, and I like being around the people. So, I guess I'll take a sub par performance and settle for just finishing if it means I get to see people.

Since I wasn't feeling the all out sprint today, I decided to really slow down and focus on my squats. I'm still struggling with them a bit, so I really need to hit them hard. Today's workout went like this

5 rounds for time
400 M run
15 KB swings (35lbs)
30 Squats

It seems weird that after so long I still have to make a really conscious effort to get my hips back before I squat, but I guess everyone has their weak areas. Body weight exercises like dips and push-ups are a bear for me, but so are squats. My time today was not awful, but not terribly great. It was 19 something. I did a cool down 400 M run, and then went inside. Gar pulled a Funishment today, and I decided to hang with him. After watching him row a little, I decided to test my row. I haven't done a 500 M row in a minute, so I decided to see where I was. I also felt a bit like a Nancy for that workout today, and I was sort of kicking my own ass.

Now, I mentioned this the last time I did a 500 M row, that I'm not a very vocal person. I don't yell at myself or grunt much at all, but today when I was rowing, I was yelling. Everyone was outside besides Gar, so I wasn't really worried or embarassed about it, but I know had I not been telling myself to keep going, I wouldn't have gotten my new row PR. (Don't you just love how I always have these brilliant ideas AFTER the workout? :P ) Anyway, I joined a pretty lonely club today because until today, Stacey was the only woman in the under 1:50 club. I joined her today. My previous 500 M row PR was 1:51. My new 500 M row PR is 1:48.8. Gar and I tried to take a picture to submit as evidence, but we took so long to figure out how to work the camera, the monitor on the rower went off! So then we hit memory and luckily the C-2's are smart little cookies and they record each row, so it was in the history, and I took a picture of that, but it was blurry, so who knows if you can actually see it.

Believe it or not, the row itself felt good. Looking at my shoulder actually helps. I can see the form for some reason. Don't ask, I know it's weird, but I wrote about that two weeks ago when I rowed the 2K PR. Now, walking down the stairs AFTER the PR wasn't fun at all. In fact, I stepped confidently onto the first step and nearly fell down the stairs cause my leg almost gave out. No lie. I had to grab the railing. :P

On another good note from today, I hopped onto the scale this morning before the workout. Lately, the scale has been more my enemy than my friend. Being around food all summer at the restaurant kept me in a constant flux of 157-159. But this week I've really made a conscious effort to stop drinking any soda, kick the Starbucks (jerks keep putting crack in my drinks), and really get back on a strict Zone versus an approximate one. My good lookin' out in staying away from the PTA breakfast and all the treaty treats this week did me good... I hit my lowest weight to date. 156.6. That means I'm officially down 22.2 lbs. It is finally starting to hit me just how much that is. Even on "fat days" now, my size 10 pants are still loose. It feels amazing. I just hope I can keep going with it. Leslie said my arms looked cut today... I hope so... I wanna be a BEEFCAKE! :)

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congrats on the PR, Katie...on the row and the scale!

So...have you broke it to the kids yet that they're gonna get CF workouts for homework?

Katie said...

LOL... I'm going to start making them do CF kids... ;)

Diarist said...

1:50 for a 500m row?

ARGHHH


But how?

What resistance?

How many S/PM?

I keep trying but I'm still on 2:08 as my lowest time.

Saying that Karl told me that I row inefficiently like a maniac, so that probably doesn't help.

Katie said...

Steve, I usually set the damper around 4/5 and try to be sure to work on using legs first, then arms on the way out. I also try to be sure to finish the stroke by leaning back just slightly. On the way in, it's the opposite. You release the arms first, then legs. Be careful of over-reaching and pulling too soon. It can really make you "row like a maniac" because your stroke becomes ineffective.

*all of this is IMO so please don't take it as gospel.

Anonymous said...

Good for you! Way to set an example

Katie said...

Thanks Ben!