Fortune cookie foul up...

Ok, so tonight I did a bad thing. In the words of Chris Issak, "Baby did a bad bad thing." So, I caved and ordered Chinese food. Now before you go balls to the wall and yell at me, understand that since I've gone on the Zone, I've only ordered Chinese food a handful of times. Before Zoning, I used to call the Chinese place and they had my order and my address memorized. I was also awarded preferential customer status. While I can not prove said status, I do believe the fact that they were at my door within 15 minutes of me ordering my food everytime supports my theory. I highly doubt that other people routinely got service that was that speedy. But back on track here. I actually ordered a decently Zone meal. I did order Chicken and Veggies. I did not order anything deep fried and smothered in sauce. I ate too much of the rice, but the entree was ok. But here's the thing, usually the best thing about ordering Chinese food is the good, yummy, and prophetic fortune cookie at the end. So I ate my dinner, and happily hopped downstairs to go see what my fortune said, and I went from happy to steaming in 10 seconds. I got the worst fortune EVER! Seriously! It wasn't even a fortune. It was a big load of disappointing crap. It was so inaccurate it wasn't even funny. You know what my fortune said?

"You love sports, horses, and gambling, but not in excess."

WHAT? First off, that's not even a fortune! What the hell!? Secondly, I don't like horses and I don't gamble! WTF? I'm seriously disappointed in the people who write the fortune cookies. How could they seriously foul up my fortune that badly? I hope that they know they're going to be getting a strongly worded letter regarding the crappiness of their fortune telling capabilities. Even the bad fortunes you can usually add "in bed" to and then they become funny and ok. This one makes absolutely no sense if you add "in bed". "You love sports, horses and gambling but not in excess... in bed." Seriously. Who gambles in bed? I'm perturbed. Damn fortune cookie people ruined my night!!! >:-0

A deadlift PR and a whole day off...

It's been 12 days since I had a day all to myself, and I was going to go to the zoo today, but I honestly don't feel up for moving. Seriously. I have one ice pack on my shoulder, one on my wrist... I feel like a broken down jalopy! And seriously, I started this post 4 hours ago, and then fell asleep. Wow. I am one exciting girl let me tell you... :P There goes my idea to go to the zoo today! But I only got 4 hours of sleep last night because of the crappiness that was work, so I needed the added sleep. Seriously, we had no food runner last night or bus boy, so after all those freakin' squats yesterday, what happened? I wound up running about 50 some odd sets of stairs. My legs hurt so bad. And of course, since we were short staffed we got busy, and we had to put people on the third floor, which made more running. And of course since we were short staffed people took it out on me and tipped me like crap because food took awhile and because I wasn't be attentive. Well, it's hard to be attentive when you're doing the jobs of 3 people!!!!!! RAWR!!!! Seriously, I'm really starting to hate my job. And if you guys go to restaurants, please please please, don't ever take the faults of the kitchen or short staffing on the server. That's not fair. If they suck and screw everything up, that's one thing, but if they're generally pleasant and attentive, tip them accordingly. $15 on $130 is NOT accordingly, contrary to belief!!!! RAWR again! Ok, enough. I'll stop complaining.... but I was really mad last night.

Back to today.... well. I almost cried when Jerry posted today's workout. Deadlift work. My legs were still shakey from Sunday and from all the squats yesterday but as Jerry said, "That's what rest days are for, and if you come in, better be prepared to work." Well, very true. Should have slept and taken the rest day today. :P But, Jerry wanted us to work up to a heavy single today, so I did. I managed to PR at 195. That's the best I've ever pulled by over 45 pounds. That's quite a bit. But, at 185 and 195 I started to lose a little core tension. The round wasn't huge, it was realatively small, but still, it was there. So I didn't even try 200, but I'd like to hit over that. I think that'd be pretty sweet. I do need to change my grip though. A while back with the cleans, Jerry told me I should work on the hook grip when pulling heavy. The same is true with the deads, I need to change up my grip. I need to work the over/under. I pulled heavy today with just the over for both hands. That was hard. I had a rough time getting tension on the bar with the double over. Well after hitting the heavy deads, Jerry gave us a short conditioning circuit to work through. So, the fun today looked like this:

Warm-up
*20 minutes*
Work up to a heavy deadlife single
75X5
95X5
115X3
135X1
155X1
175X1
185X1
195X1

WOD
AMRAP in 20 minutes
15 wall ball sit-ups (12 lbs)
12 push ups
9 KB swings

I finished exactly 7 rounds of this. I don't know or understand though how it is possible for me to deadlift 200 lbs and STILL not be able to do push-ups. I feel seriously retarded. They really slowed me today. I was fine through the swings and wall balls I was actually flying but I would get to the push ups and each set was taking like 2 1/2-3 minutes. Talk about a ball buster. Eesh! :P Well, my proverbial balls, since I don't really have any. :P The good news is though that I've really focused in my energy on my KB swings and am now going overhead with the 45. That was hard for me for whatever reason. I think at one point today I did pick up the 50 put they look so much like the 45 I'm not really sure. Next time we do a low circuit with the 45 I'll look into the 52. :P Tehe...

After the circuit, I hung out and watched the 645 class go at it, and I'm going back to my previous statement from last week, the ladies of CFOT are strong and beautiful. In total, we had 4 women pull 195 today and we had 1 pull 185. You sure you want to mess with us? ;P After that, I played a little bit with the muscle up work. I was doing a few jumping ones and locking them out up top which felt cool, so now I need to work on the bottom part. Danny was really helping but I was pretty fried. The muscle up is probably about 3 months away. I suspect that the 30 chins is about another month away. Both are going to come, but they are going to take a little more time. I am feeling a little weak, so I need some more time. It will happen though. I have all the faith. :)

So no zoo today, but I'm maxin and relaxin. Very important today. :)

Pull up and jump squat ladders...

My first thought today after hearing about the ladder... "Oh f*ck. This is going to hurt." Well, in keeping with the theme of me always being right (in case you didn't get that memo, uh, well I am), well, I was right. :P This seriously hurt. If you have ever done a ladder, you know that it looks deceivingly easy. If you have never done a ladder, pray that you are never forced to. When I was done today, I sat in the chair through most of the second class simply because I couldn't move. For those of you who thought it was just cause I wanted to stay and watch, FOOOOOOLED YOU!!!! :P

So anyhoo, the ladder. If you've never done one, allow me a quick explanation. The ladder works like this. When the clock starts you have 1 minute. In the first minute, do 1 of your excercise, then rest. When the minute is over, a new minute starts and you do 2 of your exercise. When that minute is over, a new minute starts and you do 3 of your excercise and so on and so forth. Now, the ladder is done, when you get to a number of excercises you cannot complete in 1 minute.

Today we got a double dose of ladders. We started first with a chin ladder, and followed by a jump squat ladder. Let me just tell you, balls. Just balls. Both of these hurt like you would not believe. My lats are on permafire right now. You know, when they're on fire, but it's continuous and doesn't stop? :P Yeah that.

I started with the chins and I got through round 13. I just eeked out 13 so I knew 14 wasn't going to happen. So I stopped myself. I took a minute or so and then got busy on the jump squats. I completed round 20 of the jump squats. A jump squat is a regular squat done with a dumbbell in the front rack position, and done with a jump at the end. Now, these rounds may look a little low, and it may seem easy, but let me assure you. I didn't quite understand why I hurt so bad either until I did the math. Oh yes, the school teacher did the math. :P In total, I wound up doing 91 chins. Dang! That's a lot, and enough to hurt you. Or well, me. Also, in going through round 20 of the squats, I wound up doing 210 squats! Remember, those were weighted so they were even worse than just regular air squats. Owwwwww... :P No wonder I can't walk... dang it.

I was talking after class with Ray today who dropped in from New York!!! and we were talking about deadlift form. I bent over to try to pick up the bar and my legs started shaking. Talk about the fatigue talking! :P This is a good gasser. Seriously... it's another one of those, "this really sucks, but I like it" workouts. :) Tomorrow may be a complete rest day for me... I haven't decided yet. I was T-I-R-E-D this morning. I almost gave myself five more minutes, which would have probably been detremental this morning. Thankfully I did not. Can't wait til tomorrow!!! I think I may go to the zoo! If anyone else wants to play hooky and come let me know! :) :) :) We can see the Pandas!!! :)

This one sucks, but I like it...

I know when halfway through the workout I'm complaining that I hate something, it's a good workout. Even though it's the holiday weekend, Jerry wasn't taking it easy on us. Today we ran a little bit of a different format so I'll do my best to 'splain. Here's what today's fun looked like...

Warm-up
Chins, push ups, and Abmat sit-ups

WOD
Choose 1

Option 1 CFOT conditioning circuit
5 rounds for time
21 KB swings
15 DB Thrusters
9 Push-ups

Option 2 (my choice)
5 rounds for time
15 DL
12 Hang power cleans
9 Front squats
6 Push jerk/presses

I chose option 2, and man 2 rounds in, I wanted to quit. All movements were done with an 85 lb bar so there was no scaling. Meaning, you couldn't do 85 lb squats, but only 65 presses. This flat out hurt.... no lie. I think I did a really good job with this though. I put the bar down a lot, but I was pretty quick to pick it back up. I didn't rest that much, and I was actually able to tie all the deads together and most of the squats. I had to break the cleans and the presses. My legs really really hurt cause the bar was tearing them up, and 85 was just a lot for the presses. But overall this one felt pretty good. I finished in just over 24. 24:04. Jerry said 24:11, but he missed me the first two times I called time. :P Otherwise I wouldn't argue. :P

On a side note, I have to say, being on work for this long I think is having an effect on my Blue Room performance. I know you guys think it's just waitressing no big, but I don't think you understand. We were slammed on both Thursday and last night, and I ran a heck of a lot of stairs. Working, especially when I don't crawl home until after 11 really wears me down.... :( On Tuesday that will be my first day off in 11 days. I'm going to sleep. A lot...

Some strict work and my sitcom... and it's in the mail....

Seriously, I think they should make a sitcom about my life. For as much random crap as happens to me, it should at the very least be entertaining. So yesterday, I was still trying to accomplish the goal I had set the on Wednesday, so I had pushed my blog writing until the afternoon. Well, I decided to make lunch and then write. Since it was so nice I thought, hey, I'll grill! So I took my chicken outside, started the grill, and went inside while it heated up. Well, apparently, when we had the barbeque, I didn't clean the grill, because the next thing I know, my grill was basically on fire, and I don't mean because of the gas. I seriously had visions of the whole danged thing going up in flames, but I shut off the gas, and the flames died after a few moments. I think I managed to damage the ignition switch though, because now it won't light at all! Ack!

So, I finally had just gotten the lunch situation sorted out, and sat down to watch my movie, Persuasion (how I do love my Jane Austen....shut it... I do), and write at my computer when, that noise. You know. That noise that tells you all the power in your house has just gone out. There was no storm, no apparent reason for it, so imagine my frustration. I had to get ready for work without power, and then when I finally got home last night after an utter ass kicking (at one point I had a seven and two sixes on the third floor, with a five, two threes, and a two on the second floor) we STILL had no power at 1130. I finally went to bed and the power kicked back on around 230 this morning. So, now I can tell you all about yesterday! Aren't you absolutely ecstatic?!!?! ;)

Yesterday was a little bit of a different circuit and it only had 2 exercises. Compared to the list from Wednesday, that is very different. So, here's what it looked like.

5 Rounds
Every 2:30
Max strict press
Max chins

Strict press has notoriously been bad for me because the last three times I've done it, I've wound up not being able to move my neck. So, I was going to sub push presses, but instead just dialed the weight back a bit. Normally I would have used 65 for this, but went with 55 for safety's sake. I think I had a bit of a head case with the stricts yesterday, especially on round one. I was so worried about screwing my neck up that I felt like I was just being very conservative. My numbers on the five rounds broke down like this:

Round Strict Chins
1 10 19
2 10 11
3 11 12
4 11 13
5 12 13

Doing chins after strict ps is hard! My shoulders felt all wonked out and stuff..... it just didn't feel good. The raise in the number towards the end tells me I was def too easy in the first few rounds. So, if we do this again, I'll try the heavier weight and quit being such a Nancy. :P We finished with some Tabatas, but since mine were so pitiful, I don't even want to mention them. My hamstrings are STILL tight from the deads on Tuesday... this should tell you something. Andrea's comment about me being quad dom is way true. I have no posterior chain!!!!!!! Ack! Another thing to work on... :( It's always something CrossFit, it's always something... :P

Now, I bet you're wondering what the last part of my title is all about and why I keep mentioning this mystery "goal" that I needed to accomplish this week. Well, just cool your heels, I'm gonna tell you. :P So, if you've been reading my blog for awhile, you may remember that back around spring break I was talking about getting some of my writing published, and I mentioned that I happen to enjoy writing children's stories. Well, SOL's came and Chicago came, and the end of the year came, and the writing just got shelved. Well, the story has been finished for some time, and I've just needed to get off my butt and finish a query letter so I could send it out. Well, I found a publisher that seems to be looking for what I have, and I finished my query letter (after 3 days!!!) and I have officially submitted my first story. Well, not officially, it's not in New York yet, it's in the mail obviously, but it will be officially submitted soon.

I know that this is a terrible long shot. Editors receive hundreds and hundreds of things each week/month. But, here's what I'm hoping. I'm hoping that she at least likes the concept, and may make a suggestion or two. This is my first go round, and I'm still trying to get the hang of formatting a manuscript, and query letters. That first letter took me three days to write and it was only 1 page! GACK! So anyway, "tink happy toughts" for me, and maybe who knows, maybe I'll be that lucky diamond in the rough who gets picked. That'd be the best thing ever, but I'm not holding my breath. I'm fully expecting rejection, but hoping for a little critique to push me along the way.

So in keeping with the wrap up for yesterday, I have a few final thoughts to add. Beautiful women are strong physically, but also mentally. They have a mental toughness that keeps them going. They have the drive and determination to chase down their goals and dreams, not worrying about rejection or failure, and never being afraid of sweat and a little hard work. They take risks, they go for it, not worrying what others may think. They look the odds in the face and tell them to "kiss off". Strong women look adversity in the face and say, "bring it on". Strong women get off their asses while others say, "I wish I could do that." The ladies of CFOT and the ladies that read this blog are strong. Don't doubt that each and every one of them has every single one of those qualities. I'm proud of them and I'm proud to be their friend and teammate.

Happy 4th everyone!

The Battle of the Sexes rages at CFOT...

So, today I got up and headed off to CFOT like a happy little lemming, ready to get my daily dose of ass whooping, but was unprepared for the MADNESS that ensued today. Before I get into that though, I apologize for the delay in the ramblings... I had a goal of something I was trying to accomplish today, and I had to work tonight, so my ramblings were waylaid. Anyhoo, back to the topic at hand.

When I got to the Blue Room of Pain this morning, Jerry said today was going to be a rematch. While I was out of town a few weeks ago and was busy trying to muscle my way through "Tiger", CFOT had a raging Young Gunz vs. Old Timerz workout. Old Timerz squeaked out a win at the end, and after realizing what Jerry meant, I thought today was going to be a great rematch. But then, from the peanut gallery came a voice. A voice which so clearly said, "Or we could just do boys versus girls" and oh shit, it was on like Donkey Kong. Adrienne's one little spark, set off a freakin' prairie fire. So here's how this all went down. Jerry did some number crunching, so I'll include that at the end as well.

Certain exercises were worth a certain number of points... we'll start with the highest one...
6 points for 400 meter Farmer's Walk 25lbs for women
5 points for 1200 meter run

2 points for all of the below
OHS X 20 45 for women (changed after my first set from 65)
Knees to Elbows X 20
Burpees X 20
Bullwhips X 100
Abmat situps X 40
Row X 500 meters
Wall Ball X 30
Ring dips X 20
Muscle ups X 10
HSPU X 10

During the last 10 minutes of the battle we were allowed to team up with a teammate. Adrienne and I rocked through sets of situps like it was our job. We also hit some ring dips there at the end. We were lean mean fighting machines. Jerry, being the number cruncher that he is, crunched numbers throughout the whole day to see how this was going to break down. Going into the 1700 class, the women had a marginal lead... although I had though after the massive showing at 0645 today that we had lost the huge lead we had, but we hung in there! So, my contribution today to the team was... 33 points. Not too shabby. I did the bullwhips though, and 2 sets of OHS... they took me awhile. So anyhoo, numbers, right... gotta love Dick, er... I mean Jerry... ;)

At 0600 there were 7 people
4 Women scored 144 - 3 men scored 100

At 0645 there were 18 people!
8 Women scored 273 - 10 men scored 343

At 0730 there were 10 people
3 Women scored 97 - 7 men scored 238

At 0900 there were 4 people
1 Woman scored 31 - 3 men scored 87

At 1700 there were 14 people
7 Woman scored 226 - 7 men scored 255

Final:
23 Women scored 771
30 Men Scored 1023

Women 33.5
Men 34.1

.6 points! I honestly think that this says a lot about the women at CFOT. We have some serious fire breathing men out there, and for us to hang in there with them shows just how tough we are. I am very proud of all the ladies who jumped into the fray today! Speaking of Battle of the Sexes, and ladies and girl power and all that... I saw this article the other day and it just seems to fit so well with the post today. This is courtesy of Jon Gilson at Again Faster. It resonates with me at the moment.

"If I were feeling a little more lawless, I’d gather all the copies of Cosmo and Seventeen, douse them in kerosene, and strike a match. I’d throw in reams of print ads from Calvin Klein and watch with delight as Kate Moss’ stick-thin image was reduced to carbon. I’d add copies of Shape and Runner’s World until the flames reached toward the heavens, and then I’d crank call the editorial desk at Muscle and Fitness until they stopped publishing pictures of women on steroids.

I’d get the master tapes of America’s Next Top Model and dub over them with “Nasty Girls”, broadcasting the results on every television station in America. I’d skywrite “CrossFit.com” across the Boston skyline, and gently admonish the hoards of long distance runners trotting along the Charles River—with a bullhorn.

I’d take every woman with mass media-induced ideals of beauty, and I’d show them what it really means to be beautiful.

Beautiful women are strong and powerful. They are athletes, capable of every feat under the sun. They have muscles, borne of hard work and sweat. They gauge their self-worth through accomplishments, not by the numbers on the bathroom scale. They understand that muscle weighs more than fat, and they love the fact that designer jeans don’t fit over their well-developed quads.

They know that high repetitions using light weights is a path to mediocrity, and “toning” is a complete and utter myth. They refuse to succumb to the marketers that prey on insecurity, leaving the pre-packaged diet dinners and fat-burning pills on the shelf to pass their expiration date.

Beautiful women train with intensity. The derive self-image from the quality of their work and their ability to excel. They don’t wear makeup to the gym, and they wouldn’t be caught dead with a vinyl pink dumbbell. They move iron, they do pull-ups, they jump, sprint, punch, and kick, and they use the elliptical machine—as a place to hang their jump rope.

They spend their weekends in sport, climbing walls, winning races, and running rivers. They laugh as they sprint circles around the unschooled, turning the image-obsessed into benchwarmers. Beautiful women don’t care if they’re soaked in sweat and covered in dirt, if their nails are chipped or their hair out of place. They care only about quality of life.

Beautiful women are happy, healthy, and strong, and they’re right there beside me, tossing conventional beauty on the ever-growing flames of what used to be.

Be beautiful."

I wish Jon would have added in there that he would also be replacing shows like the Real Housewives of Orange County with tapes of Fran, and pictures of torn calluses. You don't need to wear a $1000 dress to be beautiful and you certainly don't need plastic surgery. Strength and determination are beautiful. Tell me it doesn't take determination to push through Angie with 3 torn and bleeding calluses... I gotta tell you... I hope that there is a fire station close to Jungle's, cause the ladies of CFOT are smokin! They are strong and beautiful, and men, don't worry... we'll get you in the rematch. You better all sleep with one eye open... ;)

Back in the saddle...

So after 3 days off, it was inevitable that I was going to have to get back in the CrossFit saddle. I picked quite a day to do that. No usual lifting warm-ups or quick cals today. Oh no, we get straight into the running. I'm not sure how really to explain what is going on with my knees except to say they feel tight and too many stairs or too much walking makes them throb. Running was getting a lot better for me, but it seems to have slipped back into a nemesis for me. I'm not sure why. I haven't stopped running. In fact we're running on average twice a week in circuits, plus I'm doing things on my own on Saturdays. But I'll tell you, the last few runs I've done have been terrible. Badger, Saturday, and today were so slow for me. I really have felt disgusted with the effort. I was just sucking wind big time. I know we are all allowed to have off days, and sometimes off weeks, but this seems ridiculous. I felt like poo all last week, and now it's continuing and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm sleeping, I'm still Zoning (for the most part), and nothing has changed. I really don't get it. I just feel heavy, like lead. It really sucks. But enough of my complaining because that's not why you dropped by. You dropped by to see what kind of pain Jerry hath brought. Our fun looked like this...

Warm-up
3 rounds for time
400 meter run
25 jumping slamballs (15 lbs)

WOD
5 rounds
1:00 on each station
Clock never stops
AMRAP at each station
Calculate total 1 pt per excercise

Deadlifts (85 lbs)
Box jumps
Abmat sit-ups

The circuit today was a metcon gasser, but it felt pretty good. Way better than the running/slamball circuit. I actually totalled 289 on this, but I kinda feel like I cheated. The girls in the 0645 class used 4 mats for box jumps and I only did 3. I still put in the work, don't get me wrong, but I felt after the fact that I should have done 4. You know how that always goes... :P The dealifts felt pretty solid, and I actually was able to crank out a decent number for each round. I was really working on keeping my butt high and back. Andrea mentioned the other day that she thought I was really quad dominant on some of my movements, so today was a good day to get that posterior chain to work. Abmat sits felt a little off, but I think it's just form. So, all in all, not a bad day's work.

Now, if you didn't read yesterday's post, you should... I don't very often get very uppity up about something I write, but I like the way that the post yesterday came out... so go read it! :P