I think I have Neosporin in my hair... thanks CrossFit!

So... needless to say it's been a rough week on the hands. With the 120 chins on Tuesday, my hands took a beating, and still have not fully healed. Today's circuit and bar work pulled at them a little more and they are a bit tender. To help speed the healing process, I put Neosporin on them, but since the tears are in my palms (unusual I know) I can't keep bandaids on them. Well, as I was sitting here preparing all my final stuff (sub plans, flight confirmation etc) I couldn't figure out why my hair was kind of wet, but kind of greasy, and then I realized. Apparently, as I was playing with my hair throughout the day, I managed to get a good amount of Neosporin in it. Ah, well, at least I can be sure my hair is not getting infected... :P

But back to today's good CrossFit fun. We were sitting there this morning trying to figure out what was going to pop up today. I don't know why I do that though, because you know, I'm never ever right. Although, today I did say to Gar, "You know, we haven't done cleans all week, but I don't think we'll do cleans today since we did OHS yesterday." Well, little me had to go and open my mouth, cause guess what we did?! :P Clean and press. Woot! :) Here's what the fun looked like.

Warm-up
Form work with light loads
Working up to a moderate load of 5 reps

WOD "Crazy 8's"
8 Clean and press
8 Burpees
8 Chins
8 Dips

Jerry recommended 55 on the cleans, but my stupid ingenious self decided that was too light today and took the route of 65. The burpees felt awful, but then again, burpees NEVER feel good, so I'm not sure why I was expecting any different. I managed to grit out a few rounds of chins, hands and all, and unfortunately had to stop. I just couldn't. I could feel my skin sliding into another blister, and with Windy City tomorrow, I really don't want to tear it off completely. I'm stoked to head out with Jerry to Windy City, and I'm hoping that it's Fran so that he and I can throw down. Me obviously having the advantage since I'm pretty sure he'll be hungover..... now would be a great time to but out that 6 minute Fran I've been wanting to hit. ;) LOL. Yeah right! But anyway, it should be good. But I've got to make sure the hands can make it. So, I did 6 full rounds, then another 1 1/3 with no chins. The cleans felt pretty smooth, although I did royally bust up my collar bone on one of the cleans and I now have what looks like a beautiful hickey. Good thing I wore a V neck today so everyone could make some insinuations about my personal life at work! :P Love it.

All in all, not a bad day in the Blue Room. Speaking of the Blue Room. Jerry got new shirts. I paid for mine early so I can sport them in Chicago. Speaking of Chicago, holy crap I need to get a move on! Cara's picking me up and I'm totally nervous. I don't have all my stuff together yet. Gots to pack the carry on and get the incidentals. Need to stop at the ATM... come to think of it... why am I still typing!? Gots to jet!!! Hahahahaha... get it! JET... like a plane?!?! Oh I KILL ME.... I'll be back late Monday... look for updates early in the week next week... or Monday night if I can't contain my stories... :)

It's the final countdown...

Doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.... IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN! Sadly, you cannot hear my AMAZING Europe impersonation that I was just doing... it really was great. :) And yes, I really did post a picture of Europ on my blog. Ha! (C'mon, don't lie. I know you TOTALLY heart 80's music!) But for cereal, it is on. I'm counting the hours I have left until I get on that plane tomorrow. I'm uber excited! In a twist, Mr. Mirek decided not to join me at Windy City on Saturday, but J-Dawg (also known as J-2 so I don't get he and Jerry confused) will be joining me! How exciting! Then Georgia and I have a romantic dinner date planned on Saturday evening at Room 21, my 5K is on Sunday, and then after that, I'm all Tanyas... ;) She is going to show me the town. And I highly suspect probably get me intoxicated in the process. :) So... literally... we are in the final countdown. And I couldn't be more excited and nervous at the same time.

But, all that will get updated when I get back. Let's talk CrossFit! Today we worked on some OHS. We haven't hit these in awhile so it felt good to work those out today. We didn't work up heavy, but we were working hard on form. Here's what our fun looked like today.

Warm-Up
Hallow rocks :15 on :10 off 6 rounds
OHS with PVS
OHS x10
35X10
45X10
55X10
55X15
65X15

WOD "A Quick Little Burner"
5 Jumping slamballs
10 Jumping pull ups
15 Sit ups

Originally Jerry said, 10 rounds for time, or 15 minutes. Well, then he said, holler after 1 round. So we did. Then he said holler after 5. We did. I hollered at 10 rounds (8:00) and he said, eh, just keep going. Can you get 15 rounds? GACK! I hate it when Jerry sneaks those in on me. So then I hollered after 15 rounds, and he said, just go the full 15 minutes. How many rounds can you do? Well, I hit 17 rounds, and there were 15 seconds left and I probably could've gotten 2/3 more of a round, but I was spent. I was clippin through that puppy this morning. And you all know, through prior reading experience, that I'm not a natural sprinter. I am more like a good hearty draft horse. I will keep working, but I will not move faster than my prescribed pace. :P Ah yes... Chicago tomorrow! WOOT! Have to get through CrossFit first though. I hope the hand holds up. It's lookin better, but it's still pretty ugly. As my sister would say... "Now it matches your face." :P

There is no new CrossFit post today...

.....because if you looked at the picture below you know that my hand hurt like a SOB... I know, I know, you are shocked and startled and panicked without new things to read, and you feel lost without some new ramblings... well, I can't help you today... I have no workout, and my brain is too tired from stress to think or be funny... so, instead, now would be a good time to go back and get caught up on some of my blogs you might have missed instead... so allow me to suggest a few... ;)

Top 34 ways you know you're LEGIT CrossFit

Should CrossFit save the fitness world?

My CrossFit Story


A Small Request

CrossFit Pulls a C*ck Block

CrossFit versus Globo Gym and the Stairmaster Nazis

If I should die doing CrossFit

Katie CrossFit Birthday Video

I hope these provide you with some good reads and some interesting thoughts. Enjoy, or if you already read them, enjoy again! :) But don't worry... I'll be back in the Blue Room tomorrow... AND you know I have my trip to Chicago coming this weekend with Windy City CrossFit drop in in the works, and a 5K. So you know there will be much to read and blog about... get caught up now so you have time for the fun new stuff when it comes. :)

CrossFit eats my hand...

Do I really actually even need to add a post? Or can I just leave the picture here and say 'nuff said? LOL. My hand hurts like crap after today's workout. It was still torn from Trevor last weekend and was finally starting to heal until today's nice doozy did me in. Here's what today's fun looked like.

Warm-Up
Work up on 3 reps of strict, push, push jerk

WOD
40 chins
800 meter run
40 chins
800 meter run
40 chins

The blood blister sprang up at the start of the last 40. I did the last 40 in sets of 1. How demoralizing to be so close to being done and not to actually be able to hold onto the bar. :( This took me roughly 37 minutes I think. I would have broken 30 I do believe had I been able to keep a hold of the bar.... dangit.

OH! Almost forgot! Today's good news! I have officially been off soda for 20 days. Not a drop! I also jumped on the scale today (even after my bad week last week) and I'm now down 16 lbs. which was VERY exciting. I also hit a new PR on chins today. Im now at 16. Again, wondering if I could have done more had my hand been ok. Guess we'll have to wait and see. There's always next time...

The Power of CrossFit: What's YOUR CrossFit story?

****Author's note- As of 12/6/09 parts of this blog have been changed from the original posting on the main page in June '08, however the original message is still intact.****

You know, I've been thinking. I know I know, I already put the fire out, and don't worry, I didn't really damage anything, but anyhoo. Seriously. I got to thinking the other day about my CrossFit story. The other day, someone told me that I could be an "unabashed poster child" for CrossFit. And that got me to thinking. Moi? A poster child for CrossFit? No. I'm not good enough. I don't know all the moves, I can't complete several of them (muscle ups, Full ROM HSPU's etc), and therefore there was no way that statement was true. But then he said something else. He said, "Define good enough. You're constantly improving, routinely hitting the WOD. Dedicated to CrossFit. I call that good enough."

Now, let me be the first to say, that when it comes to the actual movements of CrossFit, I still don't think I'm good at CrossFit. My form isn't perfect, and I'm certainly not strong enough to be considered good. But what this person said about the poster child got me to thinking. What if MY story could help someone else? What if MY story could help someone else see that they too can do it? What if my story inspired someone else to hang in there? My CrossFit story isn't necessarily pretty. In fact, there are parts of it that are downright unpleasant, but I think, I THINK that it's a good story to tell, because I think it shows the power that CrossFit can have. How forging that elite community can bring to you more than just a fun workout. How in essence, CrossFit saved me. I am going to air a lot of dirty laundry in this post, several things I'm sure that some of you would never have imagined of me, so please accept my cautions in advance. But hopefully, if you stick with me and read this long mess, you may be inspired to post your own story, and you may realize just how strong this program is. So, here's My CrossFit Story.

Through a very strange twist of fate in May '07, I met a wonderful man. I worked with his cousin at my old school, and while he was in Iraq, she was looking for people to correspond with him. My students were in between writing projects at the time, so I used the opportunity to review writing friendly letters and we began to correspond with him. Well, it seemed that he and I had quite a bit to talk about and it wasn't long until our class project had taken a different turn. When he came home on leave in mid-July we decided to meet up and spend a few days together. It was great. A terrific few days. While he was here, he mentioned that he had a friend who had just moved to Alexandria and started his own CrossFit program. Now, Bobby showed me Jerry's website and truly deserves the credit for first opening my eyes to CrossFit. Bobby had every intention of visiting Jerry while he was in town, however, I fed him one too many beers the night before we were going to go and thus we did not wake up in time the next morning. (Sorry Jerry, I take the blame for that one)

Well, Bobby of course had to return to Iraq and it broke my heart to watch him go, but I was really hopeful that when he came back things would work themselves out. Well, almost immediately following Bobby's return, trouble arose at my job and I was basically left with one option: quit. So I did. In my adult life I had never really quit a job. I had moved on, but there was never a severing of ties that was so unpleasant. My old principal was a jerk basically. I was swimming at this time, 3 days a week, but it wasn't doing much to help me. My stress was through the roof, I was panicking about finding a new job, and the end of the summer was drawing very close. I wasn't sleeping through the night, in fact I was barely sleeping three hours. I was not happy at all. Not with my situation, and certainly not with myself. I have always had weight issues. In fact for the middle of my high school years, by clinical definition you probably could have defined me as anoerexic. I didn't eat. It was a control issue. I hated my weight, and not eating was my control over it. Never mind the fact that I was a high school athelete and worked out at whatever sport it was that I did for at least 2 hours a day, usually more during soccer season. My high school sweetheart was a high school wrestler (and football player, and baseball player... yes, I was a good student, honor society lead in the show, and we were disgustingly cute) and eating was a no no back then. So moving into August of last year, some of those bad habits resurfaced, and I really wasn't happy.

I got to thinking about Jerry. Bobby had told me that Jerry's classes would make me fit, but that they were packaged in "hard work and sweat". So, I decided to email Jerry, and give this CrossFit thing a try. Well, I tried CrossFit, and wow. Was it hard. But I figured if I wanted to get better, I had to sign on the dotted line. So I did. I was lifting 15lb dumbbells for everything. TGU's were a nightmare for me. Push presses were difficult with 35 pounds. I loved the movements, but felt terrible about my output. Compared to others, I sucked! At the time, I was doing Tuesdays and Thursdays with only about 5 other people in the room. I started with Jerry only 2 days a week, and continued with master's swimming 3 days a week. I will fully admit that during this time I was a train wreck. I had found a new job, and had started at my new school, only to find that no one at my old school would speak to me any longer. I had esentially lost every friend I had made in VA, and at the same time, I was stressed out trying to learn a new grade level, and things with Bobby began to go downhill. Maintaining a long distance relationship was hard enough, but throw in my life complications and the fact that he was in the middle of Iraq and things became even more complex. I had a lot going on in my life and was having a hard time being supportive while he was in Iraq. It wasn't easy, and I commend the people who can do that because I couldn't get my head out of my own backside to do it. I failed miserably. But to me, the ending of that relationship just seemed like one more thing in my life that was falling apart. To me, it seemed everything in my life was falling apart at once. It seemed that life was certainly kicking me in my proverbial nuts. I certainly don't blame Bobby for it, a lot of it WAS on me, but all the same, the timing of it really stunk.

But, through all these things, I stuck with CrossFit. I was miserable, but I did it. I will admit to everyone that I could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. I was at the bottom of the barrel. I could not have sunk any lower. CrossFit at times was the only reason I drug myself out of bed in the morning. Now, was I using CrossFit in a way it was not designed to be used, yes, but did it keep me up and alive? Yes. And that's where the power of CrossFit is amazing. When I was at my very lowest, I still wanted to CrossFit. I was slowly seeing improvements, and slowly was making friends in that elite ocmmunity. I can't tell you how much getting to know those people in that room and going through things with the people in that room helped me. Coach Glassman's idea of Elite Community doesn't end at the workout site. The elite community goes beyond the walls and beyond the doors. Once you have fought through things together at CrossFit, you feel as if you can rely on those people to help you with other things, and slowly but surely I did. And with those people, I was slowly able to pull myself up from the bottom of the barrel, and eventually slowly climb out. I won't lie. It wasn't easy. Letting people go hurt. I probably cried more betwen October and February then I would like to admit. There were days that I know Jerry looked at me with much concern. (hands down, talk about a wonderful trainer who cared that much!) But I was finding the more CrossFit I did, the stronger I became. When I felt physically more fit, I felt mentally more fit. I felt that if I could pick up a 60 lb bar, I should be able to deal with debt, or my weight, or losing a man or friends. And you know what? I was RIGHT.

CrossFit brought back a part of me that I thought I lost several years ago. My strength. Now, I don't want you to get confused. I don't mean my physical stregth, I mean my tenacity, my drive, my strength to be able to keep going and persevere when things in life get rough. I had gotten so wound up in everything, I couldn't see it. I didn't think I had it. CrossFit showed me the way. CrossFit taught me how to be physically strong, and it also taught me how to mentally be strong. I finally had to give up swimming because CrossFit two days a week just wasn't enough. I wanted more. I wanted to be around those people more. And as CrossFit helped me realize and remember all these things about myself, I knew that there was one final hurdle I needed to overcome. My weight. I have always had weight issues since those days in high school. CrossFit showed me how the Zone combined with exercise can work. It's showed me how the will power to eat right, instead of the will power NOT to eat, is a far better thing. CrossFit has not only helped to make me healthy mentally, it has FINNALLY showed me how to be healthy physically, and accept myself. For the first time in 26 years, I am comfortable with how I look. I like ME. And for a girl who used to cry because she hated how she looked, you can't possibly imagine the journey that has been. And I owe every ounce of that to CrossFit, and to Jerry. CrossFit can give you the tools to be a healthy person. I've gladly accepted the tools. I now CrossFit 4-6 days a week depending, and I love it and I pray to God that I never have to give it up, and that someday maybe I can have the money to do a cert and maybe be as contagious as Jerry and pass my love along. Remember me saying that when I started I used 15lb dumbbells for everything? Imagine yourself going from 15lb thrusters to 65. Squat cleaning 110lbs from not knowing what a squat clean was. Front squating 115lbs. Doing a PR 15 chins when before you couldn't even pull yourself over the bar. And that room that only had 5 other people? Now has somewhere between 12-15 other people depending. Obviously, they've caught onto the power of CrossFit too.

Perhaps this story makes me a poster child. Eh, I don't know. Nor is it really important if I am or not. But I know that my story shows the power of CrossFit. If this is what I can do, it can work for you. It can be more than just a workout for you. If you are feeling frustrated, that's ok. We've been there. If you are down, we've been there too. Hang with it. It will come and you will be amazed at how different you have become. But let's not get off track, this is MY CrossFit story.

What's yours?

What you've been waiting for... Katie's CrossFit Birthday Video...

I know you've been sitting beside your computer all weekend, waiting to see the footage of me taking a beating on my birthday. Well, wait no longer. Now you may enjoy my pain! :P Thanks Jerry for putting this together! It's certainly a birthday I won't forget anytime soon! (My calves won't let me... :P) A special thanks to everyone who wrote me/texted me/saw me and wished me a happy birthday! It was a rough week and your birthday wishes were greatly appreciated!! :) Enjoy!

A CrossFit Birthday...

Ok, so I guess the secret got out a little sooner than I was hoping for. You know, like after the workout was over? But thanks to Keturah's singing birthday card, Jerry deduced that it was my birthday. So my first present today, was that I got to wear a 12lb weight vest to do my workout. Hoooo ah. Let me tell you what fun that was. Actually, in a way it kind of was... 12 lbs. is just shy of what I have lost since I started zoning in March. To put all that back on and try to complete a workout was nothing short of amazing. I didn't realize as I was losing the weight, exactly how much of a difference it was. Now, after adding it back on, I have extra incentive to stick the Zone and try to stay healthy. I don't want to put those 12 pounds back on. Not for anything in the world. There is plenty of great footage, however, it's not up yet. Once Jerry posts it for me to steal, I'll allow you to see me dying in my weight vest. Today's fun looked like this:

Warm-up
Hallow rocks-6 rounds
9 Minutes
3 L-sit chins
3 HSPU

WOD
5 Ring dips
10 Front squats (65lbs)
15 Box jumps

I finished 8 rounds today. I think. In the fog, I got a little lost. I'm not going to lie. So, that was CrossFit birthday present numero uno. CrossFit birthday present numero dos came courtesy of Mr. Mirek. Lord he cracks me up. Go add to my birthday present. DO IT!!!! --------> Katie's Birthday Present Jeff, this is a good opportunity for you to get a little payback. :)

CrossFit Old Town BBQ?

So Adrienne brought up the idea and I'm just throwing it out there... my place for another CFOT BBQ? Wiffleball and KB throwing anyone? If you're interested, post to comments, and I'll check with the roommates. Also... post some potential dates... the more the merrier and last time I picked a date when a lot of people had family in town. So let me know! :)

I am not a girly man.... I have some muscles... yah!

Ah yes... it's Thursday. Almost Friday. I rolled out of bed after another unusual night's sleep. I went home after work yesterday and sat down on the couch feeling very drowsy. I ate dinner and threw some laundry in (hence why yesterday I was wearing unmatched socks!) and I decided to watch tv in bed. Bad move. I was out like a light by 745. 745! No joke. I then, for the second night in a row, woke up around 1230. Luckily I was able to go back to bed, but that meant that I slept for about 10 hours. A little too much. So I woke up feeling a little wonky today. I contemplated just coming into work, but no, I sucked it up and headed for CrossFit.

Jerry decided to hit some deadlifts today. I've seen them cropping up in the WOD's a lot lately and wondered when we were going to hit them. Well, we were working up today, focusing mostly on form, but using some weights, and guess what!! I hit a new PR! I deadlifted 150X5 this morning. That's not a huge amount of weight. I mean, look at the main site and my weights pale to some of those women. But for me, that was pretty tight.

Our fun today looked like this.

Warm-up
Work up to a perfect 5 reps with a moderate load deadlift
65X5
85X5
105X5
115X5
150X5

WOD
10 rounds or 20 minutes
6 chins
9 push ups (rx'd)
12 snatches (25 lbs)

I have to say, the deadlifts today felt pretty good, and dare I say (I may regret this later) that I think that I actually could have gone heavier. I don't think that 150 is my true max. So maybe one day we'll see if it is. Hmmmm....

I was a little upset that I only managed to get through 8 rounds of our circuit today. I really wanted to finish the full 10, but this was a hard one for me. The snatches felt great, but I'm still dealing with the tear in the middle of my hand, so chins are mad hurtin' right now. Push ups are getting better for me, but they are still difficult. I think I did a pretty decent job today of getting through those though.

The snatches felt easy. I should have used 30 lbs. Jerry asked me partway through the circuit and I declined, but I should have gone for it. In truth, I don't think I'm still fully aware of what my strength level is. I remember doing snatches not too long ago and 20 was sufficient. But today, the 25 just felt light. I don't know. Maybe I have gotten that much stronger, but it just seems odd to me.



I was pretty stoked about the blue room work today... but then... I don't know... there's other stuff going on right now that just seems to negate all the good things... it's hard to keep perspective today.

Jen-nay, I was run-ning....

Oh lord was I ever!! You know... I have got to hand it to Jerry. He is one sneaky little son of a gun. You know, you think he likes you, and then bam! He puts the circuit on the board, and you think to yourself, "I swear this man hates me." That's exactly how I felt yesterday. Honestly, since signing up for the 1/2 marathon, I've been doing a fair amount of running. I def need to increase the length, but I've been running a lot actually. So, running doesn't bother me that much anymore... but it bothers me when we do circuits and then run. That is still a swift kick to the pants.

So yesterday at zero dark thirty, I went outside to get in my car to head to CrossFit, and my first thought when I walked out the door was that, it's almost warm. Oh shit, we're running. And lo and behold, Jerry walked out the door and said, "hey guys, we're going to be outside today." Shit.... shit shit shit. My socks didn't match again! How can I run with mismatched socks?! Anyway... we took out some toys and headed out.

After a quick review of KB swings, really focusing on core tightness, Jerry let's us in on the circuit secret. So here's what today's fun looked like....

Warm-Up
400M run
Stretches
KB review
Wall ball review

WOD "I was run-ning"
50 KB Swings (36 lbs)
50 Wall ball (12 lbs)
800 M run
35 KB swings
35 Wall ball
800 M run
20 KB swings
20 Wall ball
800 M run

My total time for this was under 30 minutes. I'm not 100% sure of the time though. I think it was 29:21. All things considered? Not too shabby. I need to go back and review my KB swings though. I think my slow hips are really what is holding me back on these. I am gassed after about 16. I need to find a way to ramp these up because they are holding me back in any circuit than involves them. The key is faster hips. I just don't know how to make them faster. I think I may also still be muscling these too much and not allowing my hips to do the work. Another area where I can continue to improve.

I swear though, I felt like I was running my butt off and not going anywhere. KB swings paired with wall balls totally tore my quads up. I felt like lead weight. I swear, I was run-ning. Just not very fast. But, you know what. I made it. So that's what counts. I'll post up today's good news in a little while.... ;)

The Black Box Caption Contest: Part Deux

So this morning when I got back from CrossFit, there was a little email waiting for me in my inbox bearing the subject of "Caption". Now, by this point, I had already figured out that something I had written had been posted somewhere, because my page was going bananas. Soooo... I discovered that someone from The Black Box had seen my post and posted the link to it in their comments. (CrossFit Virtuosity also posted me today. Thanks for posting that link! :) ) So my first thought when I saw my email was, "Oh f***". Someone is PISSED about my caption. But then when I read it, I started laughing hysterically. The email was from Jeff, one of the gentleman in the picture, and after reading my list of 34 ways, he had created his own caption for the photo. After reading the caption he wrote, I started laughing hysterically. It was hysterical. It won't make sense if you haven't read #30 below, so do that first, and then laugh at Jeff... well with him. Thanks for being a great sport Jeff! And thanks for reading! :)

Jeff's caption:

Jeff: "...and then you just tell people that you spilled 'yogurt' on your crotch and no ones the wiser!"

The Top 34 Ways You Know You Are LEGIT CrossFit...

Oh, now I know you saw that title and just cheered. :) It's been awhile, but my list is making a comeback. I had some things that just had to be added up there. They were too good not to add on. For those of you who are just reading for the first time, awhile back I began compling a list of ways to know if you are truly a LEGIT CrossFitter or one of those faux ones like in my C*ck Block blog... So, since they are sort of scattered in other blogs, I'm recreating the full list, and adding on #33 and #34... Enjoy! :)

The Top 34 Ways You Know You Are Legit CrossFit

34. You hit 7 straight CrossFit days in a row because you don't want to miss any of the fun during the workouts. During these said seven days, you manage to hit the Trevor Win'E workout, and Miami Vice.

33. One of your friends asks you a question. What 3 things would you take with you on a deserted island. You immediately reply chocolate then stop to think about number 2. You decide on a solar powered wireless laptop so that you can continue to keep up your CrossFit blog because you decide you will continue to do CrossFit on the island. You spend the better part of your afternoon then trying to devise a method of using set numbers of coconuts on a straight branch as a adjustable weight bar, while using coconuts weighted with sand as dumbbells so that you can hit some CrossFit workouts. You do of course realize that this is completely hypothetical and will probably never happen, and that you are completely wasting your time, but nonetheless you do it anyway. You also devise a new implement called a coconut bell, which has palm fronds linked through holes in the sides of the coconut that you made with a rock, so that you can swing it. Ah yes... creativity (and CrossFit addiction) at its finest! :)

32. While your students are playing on the playground, you notice that one of your boys on the monkey bars swings really well. You think to yourself that he would be a great candidate for learning a kipping pull up. You debate about teaching him before you realize that he'll probably hit his head on the monkey bars, thus prompting a law suit, and you therefore opt against it. (Hey, school's for learning right? ;) )

31. After traveling 500 miles and dropping $$ on a hotel room for an awesome beer festival, you decide to be the DD and not partake, all so you can hit your CrossFit workout in the morning.

30. In an effort to eat healthy so you can nail a few extra reps/pounds at your next workout, you decide to have yogurt for breakfast. In your morning haste, you drop the yogurt in the *ehem* area on your nice black pants. You then walk around the rest of the day with some suspicious looking white stains on the front of your pants in your *ehem* region and are forced to deal with all the suspicious stares of your coworkers. Oh for the love of CrossFit!

29. While your wife is busy using your car, you are determined to find a way to get your new weights into your CrossFit room for your morning workout. You resort to using a wheelbarrow, only to get pulled over by the cops because you "look suspicious" pushing a wheelbarrow full of weights. (Apparently at 5am weights in a wheelbarrow closely resemble a dead body)

28. When you hear T-pain sing about zoning, you assume he is on the same diet plan that you are.

27. When told two days in advance what your workout will be, it causes you to have nightmares about people breaking limbs and doing ring dips over a moat full of alligators.

26. In order not to miss a regularly scheduled workout, you make sure that when you drop your car off at the garage that they schedule a loaner for you. You then spend the next few days driving around in a busted up, brokedown, baby blue, 1988 Buick hooptie all so you can CrossFit.

25. Due to all your CrossFit bruises, you find yourself making comments like, "It's a good thing I don't have a boyfriend 'cause he'd swear I was cheating on him."

24. You know how many CrossFitters it takes to screw in a light bulb. (3...1 to screw it in, 1 to count their reps, and 1 to photograph it.)

23. You come up with random questions like, "If CrossFit were a superhero, what super power would it have?" or, "If CrossFit and Xena Warrior Princess were to fight, who would win?"

22. You find yourself speaking about CrossFit as if it were a real person.

21. You understand what WOD, AMRAP, and all the other CrossFit acronyms mean.

20. You're boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse refuses to hold your hand because of your calluses. Your boyfriend/girlfriend/spouse may also at some other point have asked you to stop rubbing their arm, back, shoulder, etc. because your calluses were scratching them.

19. While looking online to buy CrossFit toys for home, you burst into laughter when you find that the site you are looking at recommends that a women start with a "challenging" 15lb kettlebell, while men work with a 35.

18. You are on a first name basis and regularly hang out with Angie, Fran, Helen, Grace, Nancy, Elizabeth, Cindy, Karen, and all the other ladies.

17. After listening to you describe your workouts, your family and friends have suggested that you seek psychiatric treatment.

16. The laundry pile in your room is so rank it could probably stand up and walk out on its own.

15. After being injured doing your workout, you recruit people to CrossFit while they exmine you in the ER.

14. You talk about CrossFit so much that your friends and family are not 100% sure you have not joined a mysterious new occult.

13. You don't count reps if you don't get your chest to the deck, or your chin over the bar.

12. You're so beefed up that your instructor has to buy heavier kettlebells just for you.

11. The Zone requires you to hit the grocery store so often that all the cashiers know you by first name.

10. You've kipped yourself off a bar.

9. You've called in sick to work because you busted through an epic the day before and now can't walk/lift your arms/move.

8. You can no longer attend church because it interferes with your Sunday workouts. (not to mention CrossFit and Pukie are your gods now)

7. You get upset if the WOD DOESN'T make you sweat so much that you are forced to change your shirt halfway through your workout. (Visit Rick at Crossfit Alamo for more on this one... ;) )

6. To you, the "Filthy Fifty" does not carry any sexual innuendo or reference someone's age.

5. You use CrossFit for dating advice.

4. You have been caught telling eight year olds (spouses, your own children, or fellow coworkers) to "Rest Later" and get their work done NOW. There's plenty of time for rest when it's finished!

3. While at the bar with your friends you debate whether or not you should take your next shot because you don't have a string cheese in your pocket for the block of protein you need to balance with the block of carbs in your shot of tequila/JD/Hennesey/Hypnotiq. (But let's be honest, some of these choices should probably be more carefully considered anyway....)

2. When your boss pulls a surprise added shift to your schedule that requires you to work a double and would require you to miss a planned CrossFit hero workout, you immediately plan to show up late so you can hit the workout anyway. You hit the workout and pay a $15 shower fee at the gym before going to work, all so you can hit Daniel. In the hurry to shower and get to work, you realize in your rush out of the house, you forgot a towel, so you are forced to drip dry/dry yourself with your sweat drenched clothes so you can manage to only be a half hour late to work. All for the love of Daniel.

And the number one way you know you are CrossFit LEGIT....

1. You chose your vacation desitinations based on their proximity to a CrossFit affiliate. You also actively plan your vacation activities around their workout schedule so you can still hit four workouts per week.

I got hosed by CrossFit Tommy... I got hosed...

So, I have to tell you. 7 days of CrossFit didn't hurt as bad as I thought it was going to... until rest day on day 8. Trevor smoked my backside. I have never done more than 20-25 RX'd push ups in a set before. They are by far a weakness for me. Well on Sunday I was hell bent and determined to see them through without modifying to my knees. I did, and I was proud of my effort, even though it was significantly less than Keturah's output. That girl was a machine! Big ups to her! So anyway, I went happily (snicker) to work that night and felt alright. Usually after epics I'm exhausted and sore, but I really didn't feel it. Then rest day came. I figured 8 days of straight CrossFit would be too much, not to mention the tear in my hand is pretty sizeable and difficult to cover, so I figured I'd just chillax on Monday.

Well, alarm went off, and I rolled over to turn off the alarm. As I moved my arm, I swore a whole whole lot. I couldn't move my shoulders or arms without pain. Oh the price was being paid. I thought after yesterday it would lesson and I went in today, but man, when Jerry said ring dips. I almost cried. Then when Jerry said burpees later, I think I did tear up. So, it was a sore day in the blue room, but I got there. So points for that. Here's what the fun looked like today.

Warm-up
Quick cals X2 rounds
Hallow rocks X6 rounds X :20
Tabata sit-ups

Circuit #1
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12 Ring dips
2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18-20 Jumping squats

Circuit #2
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 Burpees
2-4-6-8-10-12-14-16-18- Chins

So, when I saw Jerry writing only two exercises on the board this morning, I kind of thought to myself that this circuit wouldn't be too bad. Wow, what a mistake that was. I got hosed, Tommy, I got hosed. By 2 stinkin exercises! I really thought my arms would loosen up and I'd be ok. No, no. They just hurt more. I have to say though, I was pretty impressed. I was still able to gut through the dips, and I was able to complete the round of 12-dips and 24-jumping squats. I thought that was a pretty nice number. Then the bombshell. The J-Bomb. (Jerry Bomb)

"Ok, now circuit 2 is gonna look like this. Burpees and chins." I think at that point I did actually tear up. Push-ups? Ow ow ow... chins... with the torn hand? Ow ow ow. I am somewhat of a wuss when it comes to the tears and gripping the bar. I want to cover them, but can't get the same feel on the bar, so it just sucks. So today, I subbed ring rows for the chins. No lie, those suckers hurt like no other. Your forearms are just on fire. On this circuit, my output dropped SIGNIFICANTLY. I was only able to get through the round of 8 and 14 and half of the round of 9 and 16. I was smoked. Man, I am starting to feel more confident in my pushups, but burpees still just stink man. No matter how you slice it. I walked out today like a puppy with my tail between my legs. Even with a pretty solid week last week, man, there are days where CrossFit just hoses you. Don't worry Tommy. I feel you. I got hosed by CrossFit Tommy, I got hosed.

Some Zone Math....

So today marks day 13 without soda. 13 days. Wow. Day 1 seems very long ago... and I remember going through day 1 thinking I had lost my ever loving mind (although in all fairness, I think that a lot.... a mind is a terrible thing to lose) and that there was no way I was ever going to give up soda. I've been having a rough few days and I'm having some trouble hanging onto the Zone and my goals. So today, to help inspire me, at least in the soda department, I did a little bit of Zone math. When you start to look at different numbers, it's amazing what you can see. So here is my day of Zone Math.

In the 13 days I have given up soda, this is what I have saved myself....

Number of sodas
3 (per day) X 13 days = 39 cans of soda

Sugar
3 (cans per day) X 42g (per soda)= 126g sugar per day

126g X 13 days= 1638g sugar

Calories
3 (cans per day) X 155 cal= 465 cal per day

465 (cal per day) X 13 days= 6045 cal in 13 days

Money
3 (cans per day) X $.75=$2.25 per day

$2.25 (per day) X 13 days= $29.25

Now, let's analyze our data shall we? First off, let's start with the calories. 6,045 calories. If you think that the average person bases their diet on 2,000 calories, I was DRINKING the calories for 3+ days worth of food. Wow. Just wow. I wasted more than 3 days of eating by drinking soda. That's a real mind blower. Furthermore, $30 in 13 days? Good lord! No wonder I was always broke! But perhaps the best part, is that that $30 that I saved. Yeah, it went to sign me up for my first 5K. So let's talk about choices shall we? How good do you think these choices are? Wanna kick your habit? You can too! Go for it! Set your goal, and take one day at a time. I want to make it to a month before I even allow myself one with dinner sometime. Only then will I truly feel like I've broken the addiction.

Habits are hard to break, but if you are willing to work hard, you can really make some good changes in your life. This is hard, but a good change for me to make. I hope to keep going. My chocolate habit is not gone, but it has lessened greatly. Soon, I will also have that managed as well.

The Black Box Caption Contest...

So The Black Box posted this picture for a caption contest this morning and as soon as I saw it a conversation jumped into my head. But since I don't know the people up there very well, I was hesitant to post on their site. So I just decided to post it here instead. I don't want to piss off an entire affiliate, not to mention Allyson who I'm pretty sure could "break" me. (Imagine break being said with a really bad Russian accent. Have you seen her arms? No joke, she could snap me...) Anyway, my caption conversation would have gone something like this...

Jeff: So did you catch those episodes of "Sex in the City" on TBS last night?

Coach: Yeah. I'm trying to watch them all over again so I can be ready for the movie release next week. You know it comes out next Friday right? Dude, what was with Carrie's outfit?

Jeff: Oh yeah. It totally sucked. Her wardrobe was way better in first season. After watching though I kinda wanted a Cosmo.

Coach: Yeah that actually sounds pretty good.

Jeff: You wanna grab one when we're done with these tabata planks?

Coach: Sounds killer.

Jeff: Word.

CrossFit Old Town hits Trevor...

In honor of Trevor Win'e, CrossFit affiliates across the country are trying to raise money to purchase cooling vests for our soldiers serving in Iraq. CrossFit Old Town kicked off the memorial workout early, hitting it this weekend. I can't even tell jokes about this workout. This was day 7 in a row for me, and I was fatigued when we started. From there, it was an all out fight between me and my body wanting to quit. But, you don't punk out in a memorial workout. Hell no. Day 7 or not, you finish it.

Halfway through the chins, I felt my skin on my hand start to slide and I knew what was coming. Oh yeah, when you're halfway through on 75 chins, and the skin on your hand slides, you know what's coming. And luckily for me, I've felt it enough times to consider the lesson learned. I got off the bar and the tear on my hand was there. It's a nice 3/4 inch tear going diagonal across my palm. You know the kind. The kind that no matter how hard you try to cover, the band-aid just won't stick. So, there I was last night at work, putting lemons on ice tea with an open blister. Nice.

Anyway, Keturah busted my butt through the whole thing, and our team completed the workout in roughly 42:00. She, James, and Stuart put forth one hell of an effort. I was sort of along for the ride. This was just a brutal workout. Chins, push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Not difficult movements, but when done in high reps, they are enough to kill. I had to take a rest day today. 8 days would have been overkill, even for the girl who just can't seem to stop drinking the CrossFit Kool-Aid. My arms are still fried from the chins and push-ups. To use my quote from the other day, you could serve my arms with a little bit of wonton sauce and call it a day. That's how fried they are! My legs on the other hand feel great and I can only attribute that to the squats and running that I've been doing lately. In total, Jerry said that CFOT raised over $1,000 during our memorial workout. To that all I can say is Hooah! Great work team!

A small request...

So the cool thing about the little Feedjit thingie is that I can see you. Hehehe.... ok so that sounds kinda creepy, but I can. It tells me where people are who are reading my blog. I have noticed that the same cities/towns show up a lot, so that tells me that there are people who have become daily readers or at least regular. Yay for daily readers! A lot of you thought don't post comments, so I have no idea who you are. So, here's a compromise since you don't like commenting. If you are a daily reader, or even a semi-regular reader, and you have a blog, send me the link. I'd love to post you up under the "Friends of the Kult" section on my blog. You can leave it in my comments, or you can use the email link on the side of my page. I've noticed that there are a few regular hits from Boston, Canada, Redwood, North Carolina, Greenville, and a few that I can't remember from Tennessee and Kansas. I love to make new friends, so don't be a stranger! :) I'd love to add you!

I go absolutely CrossFit psycho and hit day #6.... plus the return of the draft horse...

Dude, I seriously need to stop drinking the CrossFit Kool-aid. Despite the fact that I hit 5 days straight this week, I decided to get up and hit a workout today. Now, you have to understand that part of my reasoning was because that I made a workout and the name was so cool that I just had to do it. :) Isn't that a great reason to do a workout? :)

So, I nearly got killed (AGAIN!) on the way to go workout this morning because people don't seem to understand that when you go down Diagonal Lane, the left lane is a turning lane and does NOT proceed through the intersection!!! GRRRRR... anyway, I was a little loopy from the near accident miss when I rolled up to Jungle's and the thought of turning around crossed my mind several times. But I really needed to run again this week, and I really wanted to hit this workout, so determination prevailed over the rest of my body, which really wanted to take a rest day. So, here's what my fun looked like today:

"Miami Vice"
Warm-up
Tabata wall ball

WOD
4X800 Meter run
25 Lunges (each leg)
4X400 Meter run
Tabata squats

So, this sounds like a lot of legs right? Well there is a theory to my madness and a logic to why I called this Miami Vice. See, here's the thing. What do you do when you break the law? Well, you ditch the stuff over the fence (wall ball), then you run like hell, (running), you sneak through the bushes (lunges), then run like hell some more (running), and then dodge the bullets (squats). Now, if I would have had the ability, I also would have put some sledgehammer hits at the beginning to to simulate the breaking and entering, but, sadly, I cannot do sledgehammer hits. I think they would be fun though. I guess I could have subbed some jumping slamball but eh, I think I did enough.

The wall ball felt a little tight, I think just because of the other workouts this week, but I was able to hold 9's. I started with 10, but I was trying to focus on form, and stop popping my knees. I'm really conscious of that now that Jerry pointed out my MHF (muted hip function). Gotta work on that. After that, I got myself set for my 4X800's. I was a little disappointed as these weren't as fast as last time, but they were still not too shabby. Round 1- 4:16 Round 2- 4:14 Round 3- 4:10 Round 4- 4:22. Same thing happened as last time. Pretty consistant on the first 3 rounds, round 4 slipped a bit. But still, not too bad. In fact, my fourth rounds were nearly identical. Round 4 two weeks ago- 4:21 Round 4 today- 4:22. Can't get much more consistant than that. I rested as needed between rounds, and held the rest to 2 minutes. I started to cramp up towards the end, and noticed a twinge in my shins. I hope it's not the start of shin splints.

After that I hit my lunges. The lunges were part of my master theory behind this workout which I'll get to in a minute. But I learned another very valuable lesson about working out outside. When you do lunges outside, it's advisable to do them over grass and not pavement. Smashing the crap out of your knees on pavement kinda hurts. This goes well with my former valuable lesson about not doing burpees on pavement as it tears the crap out of your hands. Remember these lessons. :)

After the lunges it was time to run a little more. My 4x400's looked like this. Round 1- 1:43 Round 2- 1:42 Round 3- 1:40 Round 4- 1:37 Hellooooo draft horse. It looks like even with being sick for the last week or so I haven't lost my touch. I'm proud of the fact, not that I'm the fastest, but that I can find that pace and hit it, and continue on it. This bodes well for me. I kept the rest the same at 2:00, but feel like maybe since it's a shorter distance I should have dropped it to 1:30. Eh, maybe if I do this again I will.

After the 400's I was debating about the squats. My legs were twitching. You know what I mean. When your twitch fibers are just firing on all cylinders and your legs are shaking. I thought squats would be too much, but I figured with my theory that I've compiled, it would work well. So, my finisher was Tabata squats. I started with 12, ended with 11. Not great, not terrible, but I felt the knee bounce. I was tired, and I wasn't being as good about form as I should have been. Boo on me. Not too bad though after everything else I put myself through.

Now, as for my theory. My theory for this workout was this, push your legs to the limit, then keep going. Why? Because 13.1 miles is not going to be user friendly. I am going to want to quit. My legs will burn. They will feel like Jello and I will have to keep going. If I can push my legs to their limit now, I will thank myself immensely in October. Now, you can completely disagree with my theory. That is ok. But this marathon will be just as much mental as it will be physical. When my legs turn to Jello, I'm going to have to find a way to keep going. I'm going to have to force myself to run. If I can push myself through 800's, then 400, plus lunges, tabata squats, and tabata wall balls, I figure my chances of finishing this 1/2 marathon increase greatly. So, here's to pushing the limits and killing myself. Hopefully it will help in the long run.

Life grants nothing to us mortals without hard work.~Horace

Sick

I just had to post this... this dude is freakin' sick. 6:59 Helen. Freakin' sick. He is a machine. Watchin' the chins though... eh... looks like there were a couple not over the bar... ;) Either way, dude still rocked it.

My apologies to Mr. Mirek, and CrossFit day #5 this week...

So, if you've been following along this week, I wrote this really nasty workout after Mr. Mirek made me angry the other day, and I entitled it "The Beating of a High School English Teacher".Since Mr. Mirek is such a strong, strapping man, he ponied up and said he would hit my workout. Well, he decided to hit it this morning and I arrived back in my classroom after a meeting this morning to this message:

Paul: can you rename that the homicide of an english teacher

Now, in all fairness, I did want to challenge him, and me because I intend to hit that at some point later, however, it was not my intent to murder him. Now also in all fairness, part of this was his own fault. Mr. Mirek was not 100% comfortable doing jumping slamballs since he had never done them before, and he wanted to sub. That's a smart athelte for you. However, he subbed his 25 jumping slamballs with 25 burpees. The slamballs in the circuit should only take 1-2 minutes. But the burpees, oh lord. 25 burpees takes me at least like 5! He told me that he only hit two rounds because he did not want to get in trouble for being late to work. So Mr. Mirek, my apologies to you for your epic this morning. I'll consider your debt to the Kult leader paid in full. I do want to ask though, is there any photographic evidence of the homicide? I'd be interested to see what my wrath can create. :)

Ah... poor Mr. Mirek. I demolished him. I feel bad. Almost as bad as I felt for me this am. My crazy self hit day 5 of straight CrossFit this week. And we've hit some doozies this week too. Woo! I'm feelin the burn today. In my quads mostly, but wow! What a week! Yesterday the front squats, Monday was the cleans, Tuesday was a metcon with the rower, Wednesday was "The Quickening". We've had a rough week. If it doesn't rain, I still think that I might try to hit Miami Vice tomorrow, probably in the Jungle's parking lot, but we'll see how that goes. I was watching an interesting interview that Allyson of The Black Box: CrossFit NYC had with Eva. She was asking about overtraing and Eva said that sometimes you have to be careful not to overtrain. She said to hit the WOD hard and then let CrossFit do its job. She also said you need to make sure you have quality recovery, which should be a no brainer to us, but we know, especially living in a crazy metro area like this, that jobs and schedules can be demanding and sometimes we don't get to bed when we should. I have been getting lots of rest (bed by 9... wow I know... I'm a crazy wild party girl) and I am seeing some good output. So hopefully that will just keep going. I don't feel like I'm overtraining, at least in Eva's definition of it. She said you'll want to cry, and it will be like everyday is the day right before your period. I love it. I think that's such a great analogy. Haha. I have never done a full 5 day CrossFit week and I'm feeling a little wonky. But hopefully things for me in the blue room will just keep going strong. Today's fun looked like this.

Warm-up
PVC work on "The Presses"
Strict-Push-Push Jerk
3 Perfect reps
Work up slow (55)

WOD
5 rounds for time
5 Burpees
10 Jumping slamball (12)
15 KB swings (35)

*Finisher
100 Sit-ups for time

*only for those not planning to come on Sunday

Keturah and I stopped at 55 today just because it was the smart thing to do. I'm very leery of strict presses now after the two stingers that I gave myself down my back and involved me not being able to really turn my head for two days. So we worked up smart and worked on my form for the strict, and the push jerk. We've never really done those, so it was good to see a new move come into play. We all know how much I enjoy throwing weights above my head, so I hope to see this again sometime. :)

My WOD I started off with a 10 lb slamball and realized that that was way to light when I threw it and it bounced halfway up my chest. Hmmmm... so I grabbed a 12 for the remaining rounds. The KB was the opposite. I tried to snap my hips and squeeze my glutes and tighten up my quads, and my body cried. After those insane front squats yesterday, my legs were fried. So I scaled back to 35 and did the remaining rounds. I think I finished this in 9:24. I'm not a good sprinter, but I always get it done, which makes me feel good. Jerry told people who weren't coming in on Sunday to get 100 situps in for time, and even though I will be there, I did them anyway. I hit 100 situps for time in 3:14. For no rest day this week, and all the hard work I've put in, I say this one's not too shabby. :)

I hope I get to do Miami Vice tomorrow and hurt myself... ;) Wow... that sounds so sadistic... LOL.

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

I get a little CrossFit crazy... and I also hit day 8...

Big ups to all my haters.... duh duh duh duh duh, dah dah dah, duh duh duh duh duh... Waaaa! So for those of you who listen to rap, you're probably wondering why in the world I'm singing that song. For those of you who don't listen to rap, you're probably wondering, what in the hell I'm singing. And for those of you who listen to rap and know what I'm singing, you're probably wondering how in the world someone like me likes rap. Well now, just another interesting little tidbit you learned about me today. :P Yes, it's true, a blonde backwoods country girl from BFE (Bumble f*** Egypt) can and does listen to rap. So the answer to your question? Why am I singing? Well, because it's stuck in my head and cause I can! :)

So anyway, back to the whole reason I'm writing this blog today. I got a little CrossFit crazy this week. What exactly does that entail? Well, I'm very glad you asked. Since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you. :) I got out of bed on Monday for the Murph that never happened, and hit some squat cleans instead. So then Tuesday rolled around, and I sort of figured, eh, I've already started the CrossFit week, so hey what the hell, and in I went. Well then yesterday rolled around, and I was like, well this is one of my normal days to go in, so I did. And then today, I was like, well, it's Thursday. So, in I went. So, that makes 4 days this week... and the week isn't over yet. So, that in an of itself is a little crazy. But the REAL CrossFit craziness that I was talking about is what I did today.

Jerry told us this morning that we were going to work on some front squats in order to work on elbow positioning and core tightness. I was kind of disappointed that we weren't working up to a heavy max, but eh. You know, not everyday can be a PR kind of day. Well anyway, we were to do about 4 rounds of 5 reps. I worked up pretty solid on 95 but time ran out so I didn't go any higher. Then Jerry said to load the bars to the prescribed weights for our circuit. He posted the weights, and then said that if you needed to scale up or down you could. Well I think I heard wrong, or maybe I'm just inheriting my grandmother's selective hearing, but either way I chose to scale up. Jerry had listed 85 lbs as pro level weight for our circuit, and I scaled up. I went to 95. I'm not sure why in the world that idea just popped into my head, but it did, and well, I went for it. We discovered that my squat problem now, now that I've semi corrected my issue of being on my toes, is that I bounce on the bottom. To try to get momentum to drive out of the hole on the bottom, I drop down a little further and try to bounce out of the hole. This does put stress on my knees I think, and we will need to correct so I don't hurt myself, but aside from that, they felt ok. Obviously towards the end I got tired, but they still felt pretty strong. But I guess the video that Jerry has will be the true test. I will post it when I can steal it from him. :)

YOINK!


So, today's fun looked like this:

Warm-up
Work up to a moderate load front squats
3-4 rounds X 5

WOD
AMRAP in 20 minutes
7 front squats (95 lbs)
7 chins
7 dips (double floss)

Like I said, things didn't feel too bad today. I felt that bounce on the bottom, but I was pretty solid on my heels. So it felt good to feel that improvement. I hit 6 1/3 rounds today. Not a land speed record, but pretty solid considering I went heavy. Yay for throwing heavy weights around! :)

Now, as for the other part of my title. My 8th day. What the heck does that mean? Well, I didn't blog about it, for fear of failure, and then having to publically admit that I couldn't do something I said I was going to do. (So I'm somewhat image conscious... who isn't? :P ) Anyway, last Thursday after the horrific two days with the scale, I made the decision that soda needed to go. I was drinking all diet and caffeine free diet, but I was still drinking way too much. So it had to go. So, today marks the 8th day in a row without a soda. Now, I'm not sure if you realize that before I started to zone, I was drinking 3 Coke's at least a day. No, I didn't stutter and no you didn't read that wrong. I was seriously addicted. It is especially hard for me considering that when I'm at work there is a soda fountain right there. I don't have to pay for it, and it's right there! To be 8 days without is terrific for me, and I hope to keep going. I made it through one weekend at work without it, but we'll see if I can keep going. Adrienne was my inspiration on this one. She gave up soda long before I did, so I have to give some props to her. She's now been (I think) over 2 months soda free. It may even be longer. I hope that I can be like her someday. In more ways then one. She kicks my butt on everything too.... :P

So, here's to being a crazy psycho this am and hitting day 8!

Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity.~Louis Pasteur

Playing CrossFit Catch-Up

So, I was so busy last night writing my uber serious and thought provoking blog that I didn't have time to update you all about my workouts. I know. I'm sorry that I've let you all down, and I'm sorry that my insane and mindless ramblings were not here to entertain you during your work day. How can I ever make it up to you? Well, for starters I think by giving you a double dose of CrossFit. :0)

Because of my work schedule at the restaurant, I usually don't CrossFit on Mondays and instead go into work before 7 to get myself organized. Then because I usually don't accomplish everything on Monday, I take off Tuesday morning and go into work before 7 as well. So Wednesday is normally my first CF day of the week. Well, lucky for you, not only did I hit Monday, but yesterday and today. Talk about some serious interval training! WWWWooooo boy! Here we go!

Tuesday
Warm-up
AMRAP TGU in 6 minutes (I forgot to count, but I used a 35 lb barbell... I'm trying to get used to the feel of the barbell on the TGU so I can prepare to work up heavier)

WOD
Interval Training
Row
300 Meters
30 KB Swings
30 Box Jumps
30 Jumping Pull-ups
30 Wallball
Repeat X1
Row 200 Meters
20 KB Swings
20 Box Jumps
20 Jumping Pull-ups
20 Wall Ball

Round 1-7:00
Round 2-7:15
Round 3-4:07

Oooh, ah, and ouch! This one was a gasser. This one comes with my money back guarantee. Yup, you will be covered in sweat when this one is done. I give you my word!

Wednesday
Warm-Up
Skips, butt kickers, side shuffles
800 Meter run

WOD
"The Quickening"
400 Meter run
20 KB High Pulls
20 DB Push Press
X3 Rounds
For time

400 Meter run
10 KB High Pulls
10 DB Push Press
X3 Rounds
Trying to beat your previous time

I brought the first 3 rounds in in 10:41. That was almost :45 seconds faster than when we did this workout two weeks ago. I felt really sluggish on the runs, but the high pulls and the push presses felt good, although I know I wasn't in active shoulder during some of the push presses. I was trying really hard just to zip through them since I have such strong shoulders, but I compromised form a bit.

Overall though, this was another great gasser. Jerry gave us to great Metcon workouts back to back. Wooo... I think I may need a rest day soon... but I'll probably be in tomorrow and Friday, and I have "Miami Vice" planned for Saturday. :) Rest day on Sunday maybe? I don't have a team... boo... :(

A CrossFit Workout: The Beating of a High School English Teacher

So, Mr. Mirek decided the other day that he was going to be very cheeky. He said that he was going to come to DC and not stop by and visit CFOT! I took offense and became indignant. Imagine that. :P I then told him that I was going to have to kick his butt for that. He said that first I would have to find him. I assured him that Tanya would be more than willing to help me out on that one. I told him then that I was going to write a workout called "The Beating of a High School English Teacher" in honor of him. He didn't work out today and said he would have done my workout if he knew what it entailed. Well, Mr. Mirek, no more excuses. 3-2-1 GO! You can post your loads and time to comments.

"The Beating of a High School English Teacher"
Run 800 Meters
[25 Box Jumps
25 Jumping Slamball
25 Knees to Elbows
25 KB Swings (Sub sledgehammer hits if possible X 5)]
Run 800 Meters
[ ] exercises X 4 rounds

Game on.... ;)

Should CrossFit save the fitness world?

As CrossFitters, we have discovered something wonderful. Something only a select few (comparitively speaking relative to the total population of the world) people in this world have found. We have discovered a brand of fitness that allows us to push ourselves to the limits. We have found something that allows us to be more fit than some people would ever dare to imagine they could be. We are under the tutalage of some of the best coaches this world has to offer, and we are happy people. We are taught, nay bred, to be elite athletes, able to compete at top levels, or just against ourselves. We are taught to use good form, work hard, rest smart, eat smart, and be healthy fit people.

We have fallen so in love with CrossFit that we dub ourselves things like psychos, firebreathers, and "Legit" CrossFit. We often feel offended if someone insults or questions CrossFit or our methods and we drink the CrossFit Kool-Aid the way some people drink their morning cups of coffee. Our version of fun is doing tabata on the weekends and at parties we like to see who can throw kettlebells the farthest. We are our own unique brand. We revel in torn calluses and bruises, and throwing up is a badge of honor that tells the whole world just how hard you pushed it in that circuit. We love CrossFit to the point of obsession. In fact, we love CrossFit so much that we recruit people to it at any cost. Anytime, anywhere. But the question on my mind is, should CrossFit save the fitness world? Should we continue to give people the information that we know? This is not to say that as CrossFitters we know everything. We are constantly learning. But we know the basics, and the theory behind it all. So should we continue to recruit people to our ways and give the fitness world globo gymers the information they really need?

We as CrossFitters know, and are walking/talking/living/breathing proof, that working your total body 4-5 days a week makes waaaay more sense and is way better for you than the old Tommy Trainer routine. You know that routine. That routine of cardio and arm and leg days with some abs thrown in so you can get your nice six pack to show off while you down 40's at Dewey beach on the weekends. We know that being completely fit is better for your body. We know all of this information and we try to pass it along to others. We talk about it, blog about it, do free drop ins, but the question that remains is, should we?

Let's be honest for a moment shall we? How good does it feel to be considered an elite athelete? How good does it feel to be able to, as Adrienne put it, walk among mere mortals and know that their entire workout probably equals your warm-up? We don't CrossFit so we can get that feeling, we do it because we love it, but man, it's nice to know that you can rock through a circuit, while some Joe Schmoes are telling you how hard their lat pull downs were today. It is a smidge of an ego boost.

But one of the really cool things about CrossFit is the kind of underground mentality that seems to persist. I remember an early Jerry saying that he doesn't like to advertise. He'd rather his name be spread through word of mouth. (PS-Jerry, don't think you need to worry about that anymore) We don't make lots of fancy pretty gyms. Hell, we don't need them or want them. Give us an open warehouse with a garage door and we're like kids in a candy store. We see lines of C-2 rowers and racks of weights, a few climbing ropes, a full scale chin up bar, and we can't wait to get some mats and a white board and be good to go. Hell, we don't even need paint. This mentality is part of what makes CrossFit CrossFit. How will that mentality change if we continue to up our membership and CrossFit becomes mainstream? And by mainstream, I mean like globo gym. We as CrossFitters fight to keep standards high, but even now, we know that some affiliates do not hold to the same standards. As we grow, will we be able to still maintain that high standard or will it slip? Will a few bad apples ruin the reputation of a really good program?

Think about it for a moment. Everyone, save the people with medical conditions or other impairing issues, can CrossFit. The scalability of CrossFit is part of what makes it unique and is what would make it possible for everyone to do. It's functionability would also help people the world over. So in truth, everyone should CrossFit. But let's say that as CrossFitters, we do such a good job of getting the word out, that lots of people do join CrossFit, and now there's a CrossFit on every corner. Or let's say, that Hollywood begins to push CrossFit even more after the 300 movie and Meet the Spartans. How does that affect us? With so many people, we can no longer call ourselves elite. Elite refers to a small select group. How can that be the case when CrossFit has won the world over?

Now, before everyone jumps on my hind end for posting this, I want you to understand one thing. I am neither agreeing nor disagreeing with this post. I am posting it with the intention of making you think. I can see the positives and negatives to CrossFit ruling the fitness world and in truth saving it from itself right now. The fitness world needs more functional athletes as opposed to athletes who specialize or just plain old aren't working hard enough. Or athletes who are convinced they are strong because they can't put their arms down. That's great. But when you need to drop down and pick up something off the floor, can you do it without injuring yourself?

Bringing CrossFit to a mainstream stage would show the world just how much functional athletism kicks the backside of specialized athleticisim and is better overall for your body, but my question is, what would the ramifications be? Our program basically practices natural selection. It is difficult enough that it weeds out those who are not able, for whatever reason, to participate and only the truely elite, not necessarily in body, but in determination and will, stay and choose to challenge themselves. If it is brought to the main stage will the program remain that way or will it be altered to accomodate those who are not determined enough? Will people begin to scale in a negative way? We know that as things gain popularity with the mass markets they tend to change. Perhaps as CrossFit grows, it will evolve. Perhaps we will have something similar to martial arts and have to level our skills. Who knows? But if change is in the cards and that is the case, what shape will the CrossFit evolution take? Where will CrossFit be in 5 years? 10?

Coach says that CrossFit is forging elite fitness while also forming elite community. I'm not sure your community could get much bigger if CrossFit were to hit the mainstream. Think of how amazing it would be to speak the CrossFit language wherever you go. But at the same time, it would no longer be an elite language. It may no longer be the "I workout in the downstairs basement of my neighbors house and we tore out the drop ceiling so we could hang a chin up bar" kind of mentality, which is often what draws some people to CrossFit. Like I said before, I'm neither agreeing nor disagreeing with what I've written. I'm merely posing a few ramblings. Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments.

Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better. ~King Whitney Jr.

A random CrossFit thought for the day...

In a fight between Xena Warrior Princess and CrossFit, who would win?

"I can't get it up!"

Funny, that's what he said. Bah dum dum ch! Tehehe. So picture this... I make it through my double yesterday at work, and crawl home. Wait, back up one sec. Before I crawled home after the debacle that was yesterday, I met another Cf'er! He was also from Boston and in town for the cert and was pretty cool. Really tall, but pretty cool. I was resetting my tables when I heard someone start talking about kettlebell swings and box jumps. It's not very often that you hear those words being thrown around in public, so naturally my ears perked up. If you can picture me with imaginary antennae, they were laying down, and then it was like boing! And they sprung up. Ok, gay analogy? Perhaps, but work with me (I'm trying to procrastinate here!) Anyhoo, he was in town for the cert, and also had great things to say about Jerry as well.

I'm beginning to feel like I'm sitting on a gold mine with Jerry. Seriously, I was a college athlete, and I don't feel like even at that level I ever had a coach like Jerry. In a way, Jerry is kind of like a disease, well a communicable one at that. I'm sure Jerry is pleased to be reffered to as a communicable disease but hear me out on this piece of randomness. Jerry and his love of fitness are contagious. Bobby warned me when I started at 2 days a week with Jerry, that soon I would be attending all his classes, and I would be addicted to CF. I laughed at Bobby and said it wouldn't happen, blah blah blah. I wish that damned man wasn't right all the flippin' time. It's enough to drive me nuts! Anyway, I am. Jerry obviously enjoys what he does and it shows. I love chins and hang squat cleans and I need them in the way an alcoholic needs a beer. If I can't get them, I start to get a little wonky. I don't even mind getting up at 0500 to let him beat me up. That in and of itself is insane. But so is the fact that I got this off topic... well, not insane actually. It's kind of the norm for me. Back on the grind here... where was I? Oh yes! Getting it up...

Ehem... so anyway... I got up today after the debacle that was my double yesterday because Jerry said we were going to hit Murph. I usually don't go in on Monday's because of work on Sunday, but I was ready to get me some. Well, it was cold and it was wet, and I wasn't thrilled about the idea of hitting Murph in this weather, but I went back in the house, grabbed a pair of windpants, and prepared to do battle with the elements, and with Murph. When I got there though, Jerry told me we weren't going to hit Murph. I was really disappointed. But then Jerry said we were going to hit hang squat cleans..... :) :) :) :) :) We worked up heavy this am. I was stoked. Even being sick and exhausted from yesterday, I posted a definite PR for my 3 rep max. Last time, I tried to jump from 95 to 100 and faulted so my 3 rep max was 95. I hit 105 for 3 today and it felt pretty solid. So I tried 110, and got 2 reps (they weren't pretty by any stretch of the means), but just couldn't get up the 3rd rep. I tried again, but I was smoked by that point and just couldn't get it up. *snicker* That still makes me laugh. Anyway, after that we hit a little circuit, so today's fun goes something like this.

Warm up
Hang squat clean
Work up heavy to 3 rep max
65X5
75X3
75X3
85X3
95X3
105X3
110X2

Check me out in the video... watching that, I was closer than I thought on the last one. I should have given it another go. Damnit!



WOD
I took the express one on this workout because the other one had too many pushups
6 hang squat cleans (85)
9 chins
12 push ups

I hit 5 rounds of the WOD in 18 and some change. I'm not sure exactly. The pushups felt strong, just slow. The chins felt good. I felt way over the bar today. Pat complimented me today on them actually, and I really needed to hear that. I've just been in the crapper for the last couple days, and it felt good to hear someone say I'm doing something good. I was a little fried from the earlier cleans though, and 85 felt way hard in that circuit. I was having a hard time tying 6 together. It was a little rough. I felt myself up on my toes again too. I was getting frustrated with cleans today. On a fun side note, all my bruises on my legs are back from the cleans, so now I have a great conversation starter again. My favorite? "So Katie, how'd you get those bruises?" "Well, funny story. I met this guy at the bar the other night, and you're not going to BELIEVE what we did." (All the while I'm snickering to myself about the complete load of BS that just came out of my mouth....) Well, these papers won't grade themselves... hmmm... paper grading for time? How many piles? 8 rounds for time you say? 3-2-1 and GO!

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.~William James

A funny coincidence occurs at work, and my newest thing I heart...

Ok, so you're probably thinking I'm completely off my rocker. Well, I'm not quite there, but I'm getting closer. When is the last day of school again??!?! Just kidding, well actually no I'm not. I'm ready to be done. But I'm totally digressing. I have a fun story from work tonight, but before I get there, I want to share something else I discovered this week. So, so far this week you've learned about my new love of my steamer bags. Now I'm going to tell you about my new favorite things. Tissues. I know I know. You're probably saying to yourself, how in the world can tissues be her favorite thing? Just listen.

So I've come down with the bubonic plague again. Curses! But I ran out of tissues today. So while I was in Target looking for a medicine ball today I remembered to get some. Well, needless to say, I'm attracted to shiny and bright things, and I saw a tissue box with a little sign on it that said New! Puff's plus with lotion and Vick's. Wha?! I said. Well I pulled them off the shelf and bought them. Can I just tell you they are the best things ever for sick stuffed noses! So not only do you get the lotion so your nose doesn't get all red, but you get Vick's in each tissues which helps your nose to unclog, which in turn makes you feel better. Well as good as you can feel when you've been infected with the bubonic plague. So anyway, if you are in need of tissues to be soft on your nose, and help unclog it, these things rock!

Now, for my funny story from work. So there I was, about to get cut, when Tata brought up a table of 7 for me. I wasn't too bummed about it because it was still pretty early, so I went ahead and did my usual hi how are you schpeal and got their drinks. When I went back to take their order, one of the guys had pulled out a camera and was using the video function to record him asking people questions. I didn't want to interrupt so I let them go and then heard someone mention tabata squats. I said, whoa, somebody's talking my language and they all started to laugh, and I asked them if they were at the cert. Then I told them that my trainer was there and that they had worked with him.

They of course had wonderful things to say about Jerry, and the one girl said that she took away a lot from his part of the cert. They seemed like they were all really glad to be in town and had had a good experience with the cert. Now they did threaten not to tip me if I didn't do tabata squats for them, but I really didn't want to embarass myself. Not only was I hurting from "Legs" earlier and all the stairs I ran, but they also didn't look like the type of people who would be impressed with my 11 on tabata squats. They seemed more like the Chriss' of the world who can hold 20 on tabata squats. So, I politely begged off, but still thought that they were all very nice people. They said that they were from Boston, so big ups to Boston! :) I hope they had a good time at KSB!

A CrossFit workout I'm calling "Legs"...

So even though I have contracted the bubonic plague yet again, I went to go hit a workout this morning. Yes, I'm well aware that this was probably not the smartest idea I've ever had, but at this point, I really can't afford to miss a training day. With a 5K in 20 days, I need to make sure I'm working out 4 days a week at least with CrossFit and still running. So, the other day, I was talking to Jerry about my races, and he had asked if I had seen the WOD where the whole workout was 4x800M for time. I said I had seen it but hadn't done it. Well today I decided was a good day to go hit that, so I did. Here's what my fun looked like today.

"Legs"
Warm-up
4 rounds
Rock bottom squat hold x:20
:10 rest between
Squat form work

WOD
4X800 Meters rested 2:00 between rounds
Tabata wall ball-Full 8 rounds (I had to use 8 lbs because that was all I had)

I have really been struggling with my squat form lately which is why I went so leg heavy today. I really wanted to work on getting my weight back on my heels when I'm dropping into my squat. I've been popping up a lot on my toes and I want to try to make sure that I'm getting my form down so that I can improve my squat cleans, and the sots press if we hit that again. I have to say, I was a little disappointed in the run times considering that my 400M time is lower than a 1:30. Using the law of averages, 800M should take me 3:00, just over 3:00 if I have some lag time since I'm doing two 400M runs back to back. But today that just wasn't happening. The Indy Pace Car stayed true though. Round 1-4:00 Round 2-3:58 Round 3-4:05 Round 4- 4:20

After that I decided to hit the tabatas. I was only going to hit 6 rounds, but then decided to hang for the full 8. My tabata wall ball was only 7, 3 or 4 less than normal, but I was really trying to focus more on my form as I dropped than on speed. All in all, I didn't think this one was too bad, but it still hurt. Now it's time to go get ready for work. I'm on the 3rd floor... so stairs for time tonight... 3-2-1 GO!

The Lion of Fallujah... a CrossFit Hero

So today Jerry decided that we were going to hit a hero workout. Under normal circumstances, I love the heroes, but feel bad about them at the same time. I love the workouts that just beat the crap out of you. I know that sounds really strange, but you feel so good when you finish because you're like, hey, I just did all that stuff, and it feels good to know that you are actually capable of accomplishing that. At the same time though, the heroes make me feel bad because, well, in order to have a hero workout, you have to have a fallen soldier. It's very bittersweet. Today's workout was named after Doug Zembiec. He was described as being a man who would support you, but who would also put a boot in your ass when you needed it. It's said that he gave directions from the top of a tank, while injured. He sounds like a true leader. Our workout was in honor of him, and came courtesy of someone who served with him. This gentleman stopped into CFOT last year when he was in town for Zembiec's funeral at Arlington National Cememtary. He wrote this workout to honor Maj. Zembiec, and tore it right out of his notebook and gave it to Jerry. Jerry told the gentleman that we would hit it next year in honor of his death. Jerry kept his word, and we did. To see the photo of his notebook page, click here.

But, like I said, under normal circumstances, I love the heroes. Yesterday though, I just couldn't find a groove. I was really, really struggling. Lately, I've been having an easier time of tying reps together and just moving through a workout. This week for whatever reason has been much harder than other recent weeks. I thought perhaps it was stress since school has me strung as tight as a wire. But when I woke up yesterday, and then this morning, it all started to make more sense. I'm very sick.... AGAIN. Apparently my body was trying to tell me something, just like it did when I tried to do party with the girls.

Just once, I would like to be totally healthy for a month, but it NEVER happens. I always do something dumb. No really, I do. Either I get sick, or I get the wierdest injuries possible. I mean, come on, who else do you know that pulls a freakin' hip flexer? Anyway, I drug myself in yesterday, and apparently I was not good company to keep in the blue room. Once we were done, someone I work out with said I was a total Debbie Downer the whole time, and that really upset me. That's not normally me. Normally Gar and I keep a pretty steady flow of words to make each other laugh and we're really upbeat. Lately, because things are getting easier for me (I said easiER, not EASY! I think it largely has to do with the fact that there is less of me to carry around these days.) I've found myself encouraging others a lot more than I used to. Yesterday though, I was in a tunnel by myself, and I really hurt. I guess I didn't realize that I was complaining that much during the workout and it really bothered me to hear someone else say that. Anyhoo... I shouldn't dwell...

All in all yesterday I still managed to complete 3 rounds of this. I would have done the 4th, but since we did this on a weekday, I had to get to work, which was a bummer. I finished my three rounds in 42:57. It's no land speed record, but I still completed it. The Lion of Fallujah, also called Warriors Never Die, looks something like this:

Repeat for 4 rounds (or as many rounds as you have time for)
25X Jumping pullups
25X Walking lunges (each leg)
25X Knees to elbows
25X Thrusters (15 lbs)
25X Push press (15 lbs)
25X Kettlebell swings (35 lbs)
25X Burpees

Like I said, I got 3 rounds of this in, but I certainly was not very speedy. It was a rough one for me. The knees to elbows and the burpees were what really slowed me down. I just couldn't get through them. Then once I got through, the next exercise just felt like crap. Sheer crap. I probably looked like crap all over the place today too.

It also didn't help that I was really upset yesterday because when I stepped on the scale before my workout, I discovered that I have regained 2 lbs of what I originally thought I had lost. I know that sounds stupid to the rest of you, but in all fairness, I haven't lost that much. To see 2 pounds go back on the scale was just heartbreaking, especially since I had broken 170 lbs, which I haven't done in over 3 years. To now go back over that number was just heartbreaking. After everything I went through this week with teacher appreciation week and getting all those things as far away from me as possible, it was just like someone had sucker punched me in the stomach. It was a defeat in the worst possible way. Everyone at school keeps commenting on my will power, well, truth be told, I don't have any. What I have is a reason. Which would I rather carry through 13.1 miles? 10 lbs more? 10 lbs less? I know the answer, and I know that if I cave and eat some of the things I really want to... I'll wind up having to carry 10 pounds more through the race. I don't want to do that. But nonetheless, to see the scale yesterday really sucked.

I've decided that I need to tighten up even more on the zone. I've allowed myself minimal wiggle room, and I guess that I have to go with no wiggle room at all. I've also decided that soda, even though I've been drinking diet and caffeine free diet, must go. I've only made it through two days. The headaches are killing me, which also tells me that my body is still receiving large amounts of sugar from the soda, even though it says there isn't any... and that my body is obviously still addicted to it. So I know that in order to break that addiction, I need at least 3 solid weeks without the soda, and we'll take it from there. This is going to be very difficult for me. Not so much right now because I'm sick and I just want some hot tea, but it will be a large challenge for me. I hope I have to gumption to stick with it.

Do or do not, there is no try. ~Yoda, Jedi Master