A rest day...with some rest day discussion...

So, I think I'm taking a rest day today. Stop, I just heard you all gasp. :P I had a long drive yesterday and a late night last night with some sleep interrupted by the dog, so... I'm a little beat, but we'll see if after a nap I feel like trekking to the nearest globo gym to stir up a little trouble. ;) But to take a page from a few other affiliates' posts, even though today is a rest day, I'm going to start two rest day discussions. One question is for the ladies, and one question for both ladies and gents. But gents if you want to go across the board and answer the ladies' question, feel free. But before I get there, I need to say one thing. Jerry, the poll has closed, and it looks like people would like to see Tony and Sevan at CFOT. Perhaps we could invite the "Ass Whooping Chronicles" to the Blue Room. ;)

Alright, my first question sort of pertains to the Zone and is for the ladies. My question is this, in that God awful week that happens to us all once a month, how do you hold the Zone? While buying groceries this morning for a Zone friendly breakfast, I did a horrible and terrible thing. I also bought ice cream. Seriously, I have not done that in months, and it felt terrible, but while I was in the grocery store, my sweet tooth was SCREAMING. I really thought other people were going to be able to hear it. Seriously, it was that loud. So, what tips/tricks do you have for calming yourself, or do you just tap into your steel resolve and head past all the desserts etc.? My resolve over the last two weeks has weakened, and I feel awful because I have left the world of strict Zone and headed into the world of approximate Zone, with way too much cheating. I keep saying I need to go through the two weeks again, but with a half gallon of ice cream already with a (small) dent in it, it doesn't seem likely that the 2 week refresher will start today. But ladies, or gents if you know of your wife's/so's tricks, please feel free to pass them along because I seriously want to go polish off that entire gallon right now.

Now, my question for both sexes... if you had the opportunity to date someone but it involved distance, would you do it? I put myself on dating hiatus for awhile because I felt like I had just been beaten by the relationship stick way to much recently, and it's been awhile since I've been really interested in dating anyone. I met a very nice man a while back, and would like to start seeing him. Trouble is, I'm not sure I should express those thoughts since any situation, regardless of the seriousness, would involve distance. He is a good guy and would be worth the effort from my end, but I'm curious on others' thoughts on this. I realize this does not pertain to CrossFit, but let's be honest, we all love CrossFit, but it's not the only thing in our lives, and we do have opinions on other topics. Thoughts today are helpful... and you'd better comment quickly and keep me away from the ice cream!!!!

WOOOOOOOT!

I will create an aptly stimulating and exciting blog shortly, however, my excitement about today's workout is bursting out... and I can't wait to write a whole long thing... so this will be brief... I AM NOW A MEMBER OF THE 20 CHINS CLUB!!!!!! WOOT! WOOT! WOOT! (Picture me dancing around my bedroom and not caring that I'm going to be late to work since it's also my LAST CONTRACT DAY!!!!! WOOT! WOOT! WOOT!) I am not sure if this day can get better... :)

Handstand push-ups, L-sit chins, and a sneaky little workout...

Woooo boy. I didn't realize it until I went in this morning just how sore my traps were. Holy cow. Apparently cleaning 120 lbs will put a whoopin' on ya. Whoda thunk it? But for cereal... Jerry had us get out some bars this morning, but then had us warm-up with some handstand practice and also some L-sit work for about 20 minutes. I cannot under any circumstances do a strict chin. I can't do it. I don't have the strength to lift my own body weight. It sucks, but I'm working on it. So I kipped up and worked on the negative. I was pretty surprised at how high I was able to kip. Jerry got a shot of me and my shoulders were actually over the bar and I held the L for about 10-15 seconds. I was pretty stoked with that. That's no small feat.

With handstands though, I have no problem getting to active shoulder and holding a pretty good line against the wall, but I have the same problem with the handstand that I have with the L-sit. My weight is too much for me to lift. Now, I've lost about 15 lbs... ok, it's probably still closer to 17 but I'm going based on what the scale said today... and today it wasn't friendly. But anyway, I've lost about 17 lbs, but I still can't lift my own bodyweight. I get close to the floor and it's like I freeze. I'm so terrified of falling on my head that my arms lock up and I just can't get down. I need to work it so I can get used to hitting the floor, so when I then do a full one, I don't panic. So, HSPU's are still on the goal list. As are my 20 chins, but those are getting preeeettty darned close. I'm at 16 right now, and I think I have more in me. I lost my grip on 16. Tomorrow maybe I'll ask if we can hit a set of max chins... ;) Before we hit the circuit though, Jerry yelled that we had a minute and half left. Gar got the idea to challenge me to a handstand contest. Look at this picture. Who do you think won?

However, after the handstand contest, my shoulders were fried, and boy was I ticked! :P CURSE you GAR!:P So anyway, from there we hit the WOD. Today's fun looked like this.

WOD
3 rounds for time
15 reps across the board
Kettlebell swing (35 so I could go overhead)
Box jumps
Push presses (65)
Burpees

Oh, and PS, I did this with an 8 lb weight vest on... :) First one since my birthday. It was actually not too horrific. The burpees with a weight vest were hard becuase the vest was interferring with my range of motion, and cause my shoulders hurt, and cause burpees are just well, ew. Brought this one in under 15, 14:59. ;) Doesn't get closer than that folks. :) This was a good workout for me today. Bar work, handstand work, and a weight vest. We finished with some OEW, Optimal Extra Work. 100 perfect situps, not timed, on an ab mat. I am going to hurt a lot tomorrow. I'm traveling back to PA tomorrow morning to visit with my grandfather, and spend some time with some family, and HOPEFULLY some people I haven't seen in awhile if the schedules allow. I hope they allow. :) So basically, I may be off the radar, but don't fret. I might not. I may do a few CrossFit style workouts at the globo gyms back home in Central PA to see what kind of stuff I can stir up. :) It has potential folks to be a lot of fun... :) hehehe...

*In this picture I am silently telling myself in my head how much I love burpees... clearly from the expression on my face... my delight with them is clear... :P

Cleanin' up the joint...

This is from yesterday's 120 PR. The first two looked pretty solid. The third was so close! I need to dive a bit more.

In answer to Jerry's comment... I felt that I would be doing a disservice if I did not post this... click here.

CrossFit Catch Up: Saturday's run, Dad's Strength, and My Horizontal Love Line...

Alright, so let's start with Saturday shall we? The party on Friday wound down around midnight which should have been plenty of time for me to get to sleep and then wake up in time to run. But when I woke up, well, I just wasn't feeling the run. The party wiped me out and I didn't have any matching socks, and we all know that I can't run if my socks don't match. Everyone else would think I was a total nerd, and well, I can't have THAT! So, I opted for doing my laundry so I could have matching socks for work, and then taking a nap. I know, I know. But, let me ask you guys who are Zoning a question. I think largely the big reason I felt so awful had to do with my eating. Everything, sans Stewart's freakin' cheesecake, was Zone friendly. I don't feel like I overate at all, in fact, I was so busy grilling I think I didn't eat enough! But, since Zoning, I've all but stopped drinking. I just don't do it anymore that often. So, Saturday, I woke up just feeling disgustly. I just wanted to get everything out of my body and just get some strawberries and yogurt with some string cheese on the side. Does this ever happen to you? I just felt like I needed to just go through detox or something. It was gross. I went to work thinking maybe I was hungover, and tried the eat something greasy to settle my stomach trick, and that had the opposite affect and then I felt even worse. So I guess my question amongst this story is, do you feel as if you are now uber sensitive to changes in your daily diet? I feel as if Zoning makes my stomach super super sensitive. It, like me, does not appreciate change apparently. Does anyone else ever find this to be the case? Any ideas on how to cure that issue? I'd like to be able to enjoy my ocassional lapses in Zone and not suffer for 24 hours following.

Well, I got home from work late Saturday night since I closed, and immediately collapsed into bed, since obviously there was CrossFit in the morning. Now, I always stretch and spend about 15 minutes getting loose before CF because I learned the hard way with the hip flexer what a lack of stretching can do. So as I watched Jerry get out our toys, I got a little concerned. There were kettlebells tied to ropes, mats set out next to each other, wall ball stations, weights for the kettlebells on ropes, and then he added that this was a two part workout called "Dad's Strength". I have to say, it was actually fun to get away from the normal routine to pay a tribute to the dads yesterday. All the men in yesterday were dads, and it was fitting for them. Jerry talked about how dads always seem to be able to perform these weird feats of strength. Chopping wood, picking up kids, piggy back rides, throwing kids in the air... so all of our circuit movements mimicked a dad's "strength". Our fun looked like this yesterday.

Warm-Up
Two rounds quick cals

WOD "Dad's Strength"
Interval work
2:00 on each station
Clock never stops until after 5 exercises
2:00 rest
Complete second round

Rope kettlebell swings standing on weights (45)
Sledgehammer slamball standing elevated on mats (15)
Walking lunges (20)
Wall Ball (12)
TGU (20)

This was scored like FGB with one rep equaling one point, except for TGU's which were doubled since they have such a slow cycle rate. I had 289 for my final score and man was I sweaty. Those sledgehammer slamballs really knocked it out of me. Not to mention those kettlebell rope swings. Phew. For the new moves, check out the pics. For some fun at the end of class, we did some farmer's walks to see how far we could go holding the dumbbells by the tops. Wow did that ever make things more challenging. I could barely get my hand around the top of the bell! Then, we finished by throwing some toys. We push pressed and backwards tossed some med balls. What a fun way to end class! :) I love the picture up top that Jerry snapped of me as I let go of the ball. It looks really cool with the ball and the sky in the background. Definitely got full hip extension in that picture! :)





After CrossFit I had time to grab some lunch with a friend before heading off to work. I made a pretty significant obvservation last night at work, based on our steady flow of customers. Dad's like ribs. :P WHODA THUNK IT!?! But anyway, since we were so steady, and since it was floor night where we have to stack the tables to wax the floors, AND it was beer inventory night and I had to count all the beer in our cooler, I didn't get home from work until neigh onto midnight. I finally crawled into bed around 1, and when the alarm went off around 5, I nearly had another "Five more minutes" day. It was rough getting out of bed this am, but I was certainly glad I did when I got to CF. CLEANS!!!! :) Ahhhhh yeeeeeahhhhhhhh... :) I heart cleans. Really, I do. So today Jerry told us we were going to do some form and weight work with the cleans. He set us up to start like this today.

Warm-Up
Workin' the clean
35-55-65-75-85-95
x5

I was hittin' the cleans today and feeling a little rusty at the start, but felt more confident as the weight got heavier. When I got to 95 I was still able to tie about 3 together before stopping for 3 breaths. Lifting heavy really zaps you no doubt. But after 95 I asked how much time we had. I had cleaned 115 before in a squat clean, and just wanted to see if I could get it up. Well, I made a VERY agressive jump and decided to go for it. I dropped to 3's for the 115 set and nailed them pretty solidly. Jerry said we had a little more time to play. I didn't hesitate and grabbed the 2 1/2's for each side and decided to go for the PR. We don't normally just work the cleans. Normally we clean and press, or squat, or jerk. So I really liked just doing cleans today. :) Well, as I put 120 on the bar, Jerry grabbed the camera, and McCall started regressing to her cheerleading days and told me to be aggressive. B-E A-G-G-R-E-S-S-I-V-E... no lie... she cheered. :) I love her. Anyway, I got good tension on the bottom and deadlifted fairly easily into the hang. From the hang I got up rep 1 with little problem. Rep 2 was a little low, but I managed to scoot under it. Rep 3 I lost the left side. It's always the left side, but I def had the height. I think because I did so many trials up I was a little smoked, but I was pleased with 120X2. That's a new PR by 5 lbs. :) Psyched! :) Only thing is that I kept crackin' my collar with the bar. As Adrienne says, I have given myself a "horizontal love line". :) She cracks me up! From there we hit a short little circuit with hang squat cleans today. Collapsed a bit on the bottom of some of my squats but was able to pull in 5 2/3 rounds of this.

WOD
AMRAP 20 minutes
7 Hang squat cleans (65)
9 Chins
11 Push-ups

Push-ups are still a nemesis, but I tied 6 together today. Hooah! :) Ahhhhhh the end is near... and soon there will be more time to play at CrossFit! Only two more days! :) WOOOOOOT! :)

PS- I should be packing up my classroom... but I like you all so much I decided to write a blog for you all instead... ;)

A mish mash of mindless CrossFit ramblings today...

I have a bunch of things to say today so this post may not be the most coherent, so I apologize in advance. :P First today I want to start out by talking a little bit about this week and how crazy it's been. Now, I posted a little blog the other day saying thank you to everyone who read my story when it was posted on the main site. I think maybe I should have waited a little bit before posting that. I didn't understand that even though it was posted on Tuesday, people would still be reading it and posting it, and posting comments on it, throughout the rest of the week. Don't ask why I didn't think of that... I really don't know... it was a little silly not to, but anyhoo, back on point here. On Tuesday, I was pretty stoked when I wrote that thank you blog because, although YOU can't see it, I do have a counter on my blog, and it lets me know how many people have viewed things, what they're viewing, where they're coming from, where they're leaving to, etc. Well, I was so stoked because when I wrote that "Thank You" blog, 600 people had read that story.

That felt amazing. 600 people? 600 people thought my story was worth a look. Wow. Well, as the week continued, people continued to jump to the link from CrossFit.com. A few affiliates also posted up the link, and as a result, to date....wait for it... wait for it... 1700+ people have read that story. Nope, I didn't stutter... add an extra zero by chance. 1700 people. That's amazing! I never expected any of this to come out of that posting. It's amazing and it feels great to know that people are finding something to relate to in that story. That was the whole point of the post I've gotten tons of comments, a couple emails, and I think I have also gained a few members to the Katie Kult. ;) It's amazing and I can't tell you how much of a roller coaster this week has been. I've been on such a high with all this CrossFit stuff, that the end of school (well with kids) has just added to it, and everything is just, wow. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to read or comment on that story, and especially a big thank you Jerry for submitting it, and CrossFit.com for posting it. I also want to post up a list of the affiliates who have posted links to me. They deserve some shouts for supporting me. They are:

Alamo CrossFit
CrossFit New England
CrossFit Boston
CrossFit NYC: The Black Box
CrossFit Dahlonega
Cynergy CrossFit
CrossFit O-Zone

Before I jump over to talk about the fun had at our BBQ last night, I have to share this story. A little while back, there was a CF cert in Alexandria which brought a bunch of CF'ers into town. Well I wrote a blog because I waited on a bunch of CF'ers at the restaurant that weekend and thought it was awesome. Well, this week, I tried to send notes to the affiliates that posted my things and say thanks. Well, I did that with CrossFit New England and got this as part of a response back...

"I think we might have met. Do you work at Blue Street
Grille (or name similar to that)? I was down there
for the level 1 cert, and I think you waited on us"

Indeed I had! They were trying to get me to do Tabata squats for them, but that was the day I did "Legs", not to mention, I was pretty sure they wouldn't be impressed by my tabata squat number. :( Anyway, it was really funny because when CrossFit Boston posted my link, I thought of that group and actually looked at some of the pics on the Boston site to see if I recognized any of them. Then lo and behold the next day... LOL. How funny is that? It really makes me want to start singing, "It's a Small World After All". Really it is...

Now, enough of this bologna.... I'm sure you're sick of that story stuff, so let's move on to the fun stuff! :) The CrossFit BBQ... oh yes... I'm not going to name any names, but last night, SOMEONE thought it'd be a good idea to do tequila shots... hmmmmm... I also think that the $2.00 I spent on water guns may have been the best money I ever spent. There are a ton of good stories to tell from last night... but I don't think I could fit them all into this post. But some highlights? Keturah and Kara with a K having water battles with the kids, lots of beer and tequila shots, great company, great food, Jerry grilling on my grill, Jerry taking a shot of tequila with the crew (!!!!!!), Keturah trying to arm wrestle Wes, the kids demolishing the m&m's (good! at least I didn't eat them! :) and Charlie and Bryn were left to deal with the sugar high....hehehe) Keturah telling her story about how one time she was teaching a woman to do dips correctly in a hair salon (I'm not kidding... she'll recruit for CrossFit anywhere... ER, hair salon.... ;) ) the kids abusing Danny in water battle fights, lots of good CF discussions and some butterfly kip footage... ahh... it was a fun night! We finally wrapped around midnight, and I think that the neighbors were probably glad... ;) But.... guess what... there's lots of leftover beer... so I think we need to do a part deux some Saturday or Sunday afternoon... any takers? ;) Check out the photos below... :)


Keturah uses the tree for cover...

Keturah taking out the enemy...

Keturah is dangerous with a loaded weapon...

"Uh...excuse me folks. Have you been drinking?" "No officer. We haven't had a sip of anything all night! We're CrossFitters sir. We don't drink."

Kara and Keturah school the kids...

A picture of some good people who stopped by my house... but only because I said I'd feed them... ;)

I'm not sure she has a license for those guns...

Tequila anyone?

I do believe that that is THE Jerry Hill doing a tequila shot with his crew... ;)

Yes folks... THE Jerry Hill touched my grill... I'm now going to have to bronze it and keep it as a momento... ;) (btw... apparently he was commenting as the flames were shooting off my grill that my burgers were not 93% lean... uh... sorry Jerry...)

Pogo... SCHOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLL'SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS OUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!! Thank you God! I know that sounds terrible... really. But I need a break. I had a very challenging class this year, and I am so ready just for some down time. You have no idea.

I need to run today, but I have no matching socks... hmmmmmm... no run then? Yeah... I know... I'm going to do laundry... *shush* Or... I'm just going to go to Target and buy more socks... ;) That sounds like a better way to solve my problem... ;)

Told you this wouldn't be coherent.... ;)

There's a first time for everything...

So I totally overslept this morning... I woke up when the alarm went off at 5 and then said "Just five more minutes." We all know that that is the kiss of death. It's never just five more minutes. But I was up late cleaning and prepping a lot of yummy food for tonight and was just super tired. I hope there are a lot of you coming! There is a perfect video to detail what I went through this morning. I can't link right to it though, so follow the directions below to watch. *Warning* There is some bad language, so please watch sans children or with the volume low. If you are easily offended... skip this one... Visit this link and scroll down to the bottom row and watch "5 more minutes."

Don't worry though. I'll be back in the saddle tomorrow with a run and Sunday with a CF workout, AND not only is tonight the CF BBQ... today is the last day of school with kids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Uh... sorry... got a little carried away there. Can you tell I'm ready for this year to be over? We still have 3 inservice days, but I'll take the packing over dealing with these kids right now. They are way out of control. So, anyway, I'll have a lot to blog about over the next few days. Oh and if you didn't happen to read my thoughts yesterday on the end of the school year, please do. They are pretty solid thoughts if I do say so. Shower on the last day! WOOT WOOT WOOT! I think I'll wear my "Funishment" t-shirt today... ;) Tanya if you wear yours... we can be twins....:)

What is "Funishment" you ask? Well as it so happens, Jerry Hill has explained it very well on a T-shirt. It says, "Funishment (noun) Entering into some kind of fun activity that will leave you feeling pretty sore the next day, but with no regrets. Some examples include, stair diving, an audition for American Gladiator, and Jerry Hill's CrossFit Challenge."

(Georgia, I capitalized the G for you... ;) ) Until tomorrow!!! Or later today if I have some mindless ramlinbgs... which I very well may... ;) HAPPY FRIDAY!!!