The morning after...

So last night we celebrated Crossfit's first birthday. Crossfit has grown tremendously, even since my early days as a Crossfitter. Crossfit is no longer a baby but now a growing toddler. Our numbers are growing, and so are the size of our weights. No mercy was shown this morning on those of us who celebrated a bit too hard...

Warm Up
TGU- start light, work up heavy
5 Rounds or 25 minutes
20 KB Swings
10X Front Squat
10X Chins
20X Wall Ball

So aside from being really tired from our great celebration last night, today's workout actually seemed like a good one. I was using heavier weights than I used before the bubonic plague! It seems that things many finally be starting to come back on line. I'm still not back a full 100%. I couldn't bust through that circuit today, but things are certainly starting to feel stronger again.

On my work heavy today, I posted up a 45 pound barbell TGU! That's a PB. I've never done a TGU with anything heavier than a 20 lb. dumbbell. That felt pretty good, although since Jerry was taking pictures, and the whole class was watching, I was a little bit nervous that I wasn't going to get it up. (*snicker* That's what he said.... tehehehehehe) But, with a good post, I was able to get my 45 pound TGU up on both sides, even with my lopsided right arm dominance.

My circuit today was a little slower than I would have liked, but I was able to do the full 20 and 10 and get 4 rounds in. I also picked up a heavier kettlebell for the first time ever as well. I was swinging 45 pounds for my kettlebell swings. Talk about a bang up day! It felt good to be in this morning. It felt good to be out last night with a quality group of people. Now if my personal life would just fall in line... we'd be all good. But until that happens, I'll settle for just being good in the blue room.

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.- Jane Austen

Happy Birthday Crossfit!

On February 26th Crossfit Old Town officially turned one year old. On February 28th we celebrated. A stinker of a little circuit that certainly hurt by the end. Happy Birthday Crossfit!

Warm Up

Deadlifts x 10

Handstands

AMRAP

10X

Deadlifts

Dips

Chins

Handstand Shrugs

I spent some time working on some deadlift form and didn't get through as many rounds as I would have liked, but I still felt those 50 or so deadlifts later. Ouch!

Young gunz....

Ahhhh... team training!

Team Young Gunz...

TEAM YOUNG GUNS VS. TEAM 30 AND OVERS

25X

Bullwhip

Jumping Slamball

Box Jumps

(In the words of Will Smith, SWITCH!)

KB Swings

Row (for cals)

Wall Ball

Ok, so team training is always chaotic, but today was a doozy. (Have I bean using that word a lot lately?) Doozy! Ha! So yeah, team young gunz tried to represent, but unfortunately, got beaten by team 30 and Over. I would like to blame James and his 5 or 6 25 calorie rows. Damnit James! Why couldn't you just let us have one more category! (*side note, wall ball actually ended in a tie, so really it's not James fault, but I will blame him due to information given later in this blog.)

So anyway, team Young Gunz started out pretty strong. We gave a dominating bull whip performance, which I think I can actually take a little credit for today. I had a lot of anger to get out yesterday morning (*side note, men are confusing!) and bull whip certainly helped! So team Young Gunz looked to take a victory early. But after our SWITCH (heeeey, heeeey, <--- insert Will Smith's voice here) the Young Gunz were a little ragged. I was really jazzed and looking to take out some more agression, and I was convinced that I would be able to really help out in the rowing category. I'm not sure why I thought that since I know, especially per my previous blog, that rowing turns my legs to J-E-L-L-O, but regardless, I think I took too many retarded pills before the workout. So I was like, hey, if James can do 5 rows, I can too. In fact, I'll do 6. Yeah, how retarded am I? (DON'T ANSWER THAT! That was a rhetorical question.) Needless to say, after 2 I was off the rower and done. And basically worthless after that. Had I done one more wall ball instead of the rower, we would have won. And this is the point where I blame James! :P All in good fun though.

Team Young Gunz took a defeat at the hands of team 30 and Over.... ouch! :(

A workout I'll lovingly call more pain...

Warm up- Quick cals

WOD (1:00 of work per station, 1:00 rest after each round, by 4 rounds)

Row for calories

AMRAP Thrusters

AMRAP Chins

Ok, two things. First, what the crap is up with me and this freakin' bubonic plague? My patience wore off with this thing weeks ago. Second, what is up with Jerry and rowing? As I stated in my previous blog, Katie + rowing = a whole lot of suck. So Katie + rowing+ bubonic plague= even more suck... if that's humanly possible! I felt like a double s this morning, but again, I was vertical, and I was there, which right now is about 65% of the fight. (The other percentages are made up of mental efforts, and actual physical efforts, but getting to the blue room and not turning and running the second I get there is the biggest part of the fight right now.) To be honest, things have been feeling so bad lately that I'm honestly afraid of the WOD's. Yeah, that's not good. I really hope that that feeling goes away soon.

Today's workout was another gasser since it involved rowing. I really don't understand it. I mean, I'm not terrible at rowing. But geez, I get off the rower and I can't function. It's like my body just decided that it thinks playing "Jello" for a few minutes might be fun. Seriously, I get all jiggly and sort of kind of can't walk right. Although, if I may give myself one ounce of credit, some of my former Crossfit training really stuck with me today despite my Jello legs, and when I got off that rower I did not hesitate to pick up the bar for the thrusters that followed. I was able to pick up the bar and eek out about 5 or 6 before taking a few breaths and continuing on. I did not do as well as I would have liked on the chins, but I still did an ok job. After looking at all four rounds I have to say that despite how bad I felt during the circuit I was pretty pleased with the output. I was able to almost perfectly maintain my numbers across the circuit. My row was off by one calorie, my thrusters were maintained within one, and except for one slip in the third round my chins were all the same.

This tells me that things are starting to come back online, although they are not as high as I would like. But more importantly what I would really like is to feel good. My movements just don't feel fluid or feel like they used to at all. Patience, yes, yes, I know, but I would just like to at least feel like things are good, even if the numbers are not where I would like. Does anyone know where I can buy some patience? Do they sell that at Tar-zhay (Please note that this is really Target, but I was trying to write it as I say it... with a really BAD French accent! )

That which we persist in doing becomes easier, not that the task itself has become easier, but that our ability to perform it has improved. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A workout I'll lovingly call pain...

So it was your atypical Thursday morning. I was awake, well, ha, I was vertical, and off to Crossfit early in the am. I have to hand it to Jerry though. He's certainly been handing out the doozies lately to me as I'm trying to recover my Crossfit shape.

I've discovered that anything that involves the rower gases me for the rest of the circuit. Doesn't matter what it is. I could be doing 15 pound push presses, and I'd be gassed after five and bent over, hands on my knees (randon dance break... hands on your knees, hands on your knees, everybody clap your hands! Elise, I know you're laughing right now... that was for you.) praying for some sort of higher power to take me towards the light. Ok, slightly dramatic? Yes, but I think you get the point, amidst the random dance break. Rowing + Katie= a whole lot of suck.

So today was no exception, especially since Jerry put in a set of ring dips between the rower and the chins. Good lord man! Two of my worst things back to back. I'm working seriously on my push up form and trying to get my tris in shape so dips are actually possible for me, but it's going to take some time. It's already getting stronger after just two weeks, but that is one of those things I'm going to have to keep working. So after the 500 meter row to start, I had to try to eek out a set of ring dips with a band, and then pull myself over the bar. Now, I don't know if anyone else ever feels this way, but I swear, I gained 30 pounds that day. It hurt to pull myself up over that bar. Eesh. Needless to say, my efforts in the blue room didn't really look or feel good this day, but hey, at least I was there. I only managed to get through two of the prescribed three rounds, but I'm glad I got them done. I'm going to have to keep kicking my own ass, but I will soon be back in the shape I was before this stupid freakin' plague!

Warm Up- Med Ball Clean

WOD

3 rounds (15, 12, 9)

500 Meter Row

Ring Dips

Chins

We are made to persist. That's how we find out who we are. - Tobias Wolff

After partying with the girls, I was seriously hungover...or the one that got away...

You know, I met these really great girls. Nancy, Helen, Elizabeth, Grace, Fran, Cindy... wonderful, wonderful ladies. Really. Terrific. The best. Unfortunatley, I tried to party with them. You know what happened? Those biotches drank me straight under the table. Left me singing bad karaoke and wearing one NASTY set of beer goggles. No lie, they left me feeling a pain that I didn't know existed!

Ok so maybe this blog sounds slightly too much like a late night Friday night back in my younger (and much wilder) days, but the bit about the ladies is correct. They left me feeling an immense amount of pain. I often wonder to myself (only afterwards of course) why I go to Crossfit on holidays. EVERYONE KNOWS that Jerry loves holidays. It's an opportunity to hit a workout that is guaranteed to hurt you. But of course, I still wake up regardless and like a happy little lemming head straight for my death. (Yes, the photo is a lemming... hence the lemming reference.)

Presidents day was no different. I jumped out of bed, happy for a few additional hours from my normal zero dark hundred wake up time, and headed off to Crossfit. I was thinking to myself as I was helping Jerry set up that this workout sounded particularly tough. But me being my usual stubborn self was hell bent and determined to finish it. The only problem was, my body and my head got into a fight about four ladies in. Unfortunately again, my body won. My calluses tore for what I swear has got to be the upteenth time, and I simply could not pick up a bar bell anymore. After eeking out the clean and jerks one at a time, I simply decided to give up.

Wow, talk about a blow. I have never given up on an epic. EVER. Even in my early days of Fight Gone Bad, 300, a full flippin' Murph, and Meet the Spartans. NEVER. Trying to come back from the bubonic plague is more difficult (and frustrating) than I imagined it would be. I said in my last blog that I need to be patient. Unfortunately, while I am perfect in every other way (I sincerely hope you can pick up on my sarcasm here) God missed me on the day that he doled out his healthy heaping mounds of patience.

I was able to complete of the ladies, Cindy, Fran, Helen, and got stuck nearly finished with Grace. Perhaps starting with Cindy and heading straight to Fran wasn't the way to go. Irregardless, this workout shall forever be known as the one that got away. I'm hoping in another month to finally be back where I was before this damned plague. If you are feeling particularly frisky, give this one a go.

“Party with the Girls”
Kelly – 400 m Run – 30 Box Jumps – 30 Wall Ball Shots
Elizabeth – 21 Squat Cleans (55-75) – 21 Ring Dips
Nancy – 400 m Run – 15 OHS (55-75)
Cindy [5 Pull-ups 10 Push-ups 15 Squats] x 4 rounds
Fran – 21 Thrusters (55-75) – 21 Pullups
Helen – 400 m Run – 21 Swings (35-52) – 12 Pullups
Grace – 30 Clean and Jerks (55-75)

Ahhh... feels good to finally have my computer back! Now I can rant to you all! Some quick quotes before I end the madness...

You can take from every experience what it has to offer you. And you cannot be defeated if you just keep taking one breath followed by another. - Oprah Winfrey

Guess who's back! Back again... Katie's back... tell your friends...

Dah, dah, dah, dah, dahhhh, duh, dah, dah, dah, dah, duh, dah, dah, dah, KIDS! Ok, so if you've never listened to Eminem, you're probably thinking right now I'm even more off my rocker than usual... but don't worry, I'm still just my normal unusual self. Thoroughly confused? SWEET! :) My work here is done, it's been a good day! :) Tehe. If you have heard the song, now it's stuck in your head and you're probably sitting there bobbing your head as you sit at the computer singing it to yourself... tehe!

Anyhew, as my blog title so aptly states, I am back. After my long hiatus due to a craptastic knee and then my experience with the bubonic plague, I have finally made it back into the blue room. It's been an ok week so far. I feel about as bad as I expected, but didn't lose as much as I thought I did. We did a max set of chins today and I was still able to hit 11 which felt good, but I really would have liked to have bettered that number. At least by one! But alas, it was not to be this morning, but it felt good to be back. Amidst many jokes about boobs being in the way for dips and flying arm bars, McCall having a pep talk with her girls to keep them out of the way, and Chriss (yes two s') commenting on his nuts, it was a pretty humorous morning in the blue room. I must say there was a lot of love on this Valentine's Day. And I can't think of anyone I would rather spend Valentine's Day with than all my X-fitters.... aww! I heart you guys! And especially all my fans out there. I am apparently getting a fan club... big shout out to Elise! I'm sorry that I haven't been able to keep you entertained during class. I'll do better this week! I promise! Please don't fire me! Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked.. back to the workout of Love.

To be frank, Jerry picked a doozy today. A sellout on a ton of exercises.... 30 seconds on 15 off for 5 rounds... ouch! I felt ok with high pulls, sits, tgu's, and chins, but man did I ever realize A.) just how out of X-fit shape I am, and B.) how much I am missing my tris. Before my hiatus Jerry and Andrea were trying to help me get my push up form right. Now I finally understand why I always hurt in my elbows afterwards, which is good. This is also why I have a ton of shoulder strength and NO triceps. So it was great to understand what was wrong, terrible to try to fix it on a sell out today. I really need to focus on getting my arms under me instead of in front or to the side. It's the same with my ring dips. I tend to not roll far enough forward over the rings and then my form goes straight to hell in a handbasket. I am not sure where I put my paper from this morning so I can't log my new stats, although, to be honest, stats don't mean much right now. Right now I just want to get back to where I was and really dial in on some form issues that I'm having, because ultimately those form issues, and the lack of my tris, are what are keeping me from getting a muscle up.

I wish I could put in here the drawing of me that I made. I made a stick figure drawing of this girl with ginormous shoulders, and itty bitty triceps. It was funny, and very accurate. Think Superman looking stick figure with a ponytail. :) But alas, I am technologically challenged and don't know how to add doodles to my blog. I know that the strength will come in time with the correct form, so I just have to be patient. It's just that the day that God made me, he made me perfect in every way, except that he was so please with me that he got all excited and then forgot to give me my dose of patience. :P

So, patience... I can buy that somewhere right? :P I know truthfully I just need to keep working hard, and slowly I will get back into X-fit shape. And hopefully by the end of March my short term goals will be achieved. My sub 10 minute Fran with a pro level weight, and my 20 chins. I think I'll get there. I just need to let my body heal completely from the bubonic plague and get back in the game. In the meantime, I'm going to keep doin' how I do... Kickin' butt... and makin' some of you laugh in the process! :)

Two fitting quotes of the day today... :) Happy Valentine's Day to all!

The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. - E.E. Cummings
All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon sand.- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

All this sittin' ain't good for the Crossfittin'....

It's been a few days since I've blogged.... well that's because it's been a few days since I've been able to hit Crossfit. If you would have told 6 months ago when I started working out with the Crossfit group that I would actually miss getting up at 500 to go have my ass handed to me by Jerry's workouts, I would have seriously laughed at you. No, seriously. I really would have. But I have come to have an extreme like, no ok, not like, love, well ok, let's call it a love/hate relationship with Crossfit. I hate how badly sometimes it kicks my butt, but I love the group and the personalities of the people on the team. It's amazing how off I feel because I can't see them 3-4 times a week right now.

I understand, as the doctor so BLUNTLY put it, that things in my body are not as they should be right now, and this is my body's way of telling me to slow down. However, all this sittin' around "gettin better", isn't helping me reach my Crossfit goals. As I sit on my coach and watch another movie mindlessly I can slowly feel my sub 10 minute pro level Fran slipping away, and I worry about just how far I am going to have to back pedal to be at a point where I can complete circuits and head back on my way towards reaching my goals. With each day that involves me eating toast and gingerale and *gasp* pre-packaged Ramen noodles because I can keep them down, I hear the Zone tsk tsking me. (I'm sorry for the Ramen noodles Jerry. :( ) Is that even a verb? I'm digressing... My whole point is... well did I really have one to start with? Yeah, I guess I did. My whole point is, that although Crossfit is slightly on the crazy side, the people there are great, and I miss them tremendously right now. I'm waiting on my mono test and hoping it comes back negative, so that I can get back into the Blue Room next week. It looks like everyone has logged some serious numbers this week. Way to go! Hopefully I will be rejoining everyone soon.

"Health is not valued until sickness comes." - Dr. Thomas Fuller

"A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses. " -Hippocrates