Sophomore slump...

It seems that despite the awesome day I had the other day, I was doomed to have a sophomore slump today. Today was deadlifts. I rounded out at 195 and Jerry made me drop the weight. Jerry has NEVER told me to drop a weight. I'm a little bit meticulous when it comes to form and I try very hard to make sure that it is on point, but today, apparently it was just not to be. I hit my old PR and Jerry made me put it down.

After that, I was shot. Mentally that just f'd with me in the worst way. Jerry told me to drop to 80% and do a few reps and I couldn't. I just could not focus to save my life. I was so concerned with rounding out that I didn't want to pick up another bar. We were working on some ring dips in between sets of deadlifts, and I felt weak on those too. It just sucked. Afterwards we hit a short circuit that was a little smoker. So overall, today's fun looked like this.

Warm-up
50% of max X 5
60% of max X 5
80% of max X 3
Max X 1

WOD
10 rounds or 15 minutes
7 Pull-ups
7 Burpees

My time on the WOD was 12:49. It didn't feel too bad actually. The burpees, for me, were actually pretty fast. I'm not a speed demon, so the fact that I was one of the first to call time was actually a little out of the ordinary. Of course, I then got smoked by Mel, Danny, Jack, Joel, and Andrea, but eh, I got it done.

I know this is going to sound off for me, and it feels off to say, but I'm having a little trouble in the Blue Room these last few days. I don't know what it is, but I feel, out of it, sort of disconnected. I don't mean from the workouts, just from the people. I'm not sure how to describe it, but I definitely have sort of been feeling like a loner lately. I don't know why, or how to correct it, but I just feel... I don't know.... Off is the only way I can put it really. I'm having trouble finding the words for it. I don't know if it's just because I've been bouncing around between classes or if it's because I've been out of town a lot the last few weeks, but I don't like it. I just kinda feel like I have somehow missed out on a lot and I feel like I can't talk to people. I just wish I knew how to fix that feeling....

Here's to hoping tomorrow is a much better day... cause this one sucked.

Now additional thoughts and comments...

As much fun as I had in NYC this weekend, it really felt good to be back in the Blue Room. There is just something about being with my own affiliate which just feels right, and no offense to the Black Box, but it just feels more like home. Team 0730 was very quiet this morning with just Dianne and I representing, but I think we did a pretty good job. Dianne was working on her front squat form and she's come a long way. In a few more weeks she'll be picking up the 85. :)

Today's workout was a little bit different for us, because it was untimed.
This WOD was
5 rounds untimed
Max front squats (95lbs-prescribed was 85)
Max weighted chins, l-sits, deadhangs, or progressions

The video was the first round only
The rounds looked like this on the squats
Round 1- 20
Round 2- 13
Round 3- 10 (lost my rack)
Round 4- 15
Round 5- 17

Total 75

For the chins today, I used a 12 lb weight vest to start, then a 10 lb dumbbell, and then for the last few, just my bodyweight. I'm not sure how many chins I actually hit, but they felt GOOD. I know that this post today may sound cocky, but I was damn proud of my work today. I was (I think) the only person to go 95 for all 5 rounds, and considering that I just hit my first deadhang last week, and have now used weight in two different workouts, I think that's pretty freakin' awesome. My strength is definitely improving. I wish I could say the same about my speed, but eh, one thing at a time. I seriously just felt like a beast today. Do you ever have those days? Those days where you just feel like you could lift 8,000 lbs and take on the world and that nothing can possibly hurt you? I kinda had a day like that today. Coming out of the Blue Room, I felt pretty badass. I don't know why badass and not just proud of the accomplishment, but I seriously wanted a set of Ray Bans and some form of weapon just to look as tough as I felt. I have never in my life been able to do a deadhang chin. To be able to lift my bodyweight was HUGE for me. I don't know if anyone quite understands.

But after doing all those squats, plus all those chins, I felt kinda like a rockstar. It was just a good feeling. But then, I decided to see how fast I could do a 500 meter row. Not that 75 front squats and weighted chins weren't enough, I went for the extra work. Woo boy. I felt that row. I went balls to the wall and rowed in a 1:51. The last 150 meters my pace was 1:46 and then it slipped. I got tired and couldn't hold it. I was so close to breaking 1:50! But for doing this after the workout, I'll take it! It was funny though, because I'm not a very vocal person when I workout. I may grunt a little here and there, but I'm not someone who needs to talk to herself every set or every rep. During that row, I was VERY VERY vocal. I wish I could have had a video of that. I probably both looked and sounded like a crazed individual. I bet it was kind of funny. :P

It was great to be back today, and I'm not sure if I'll make it in tomorrow seeing as how I'm just now eating my dinner that I ordered at work, and I just got home. So we'll see if I make it for team 0600, or any team for that matter. We'll see. But, on a positive note, Dell is sending me a new computer, AND I have fallen madly in love with Jeff Yan. (Apparently he is a wicked chick magnet) Yup.. the week is looking up.... ;)

Thing I forgot from NYC:Part 1, plus NYC Parts 2 and 3...

Ok, so I forgot to mention in part 1 of my NYC trip details, that I also managed to hail a cab in NYC. For a minute, I felt so Carrie Bradshaw! :P LOL. I know that sounds like a joke to you guys, but if you know me well enough, you know and understand that I drive EVERYWHERE so taking a bus/train/hailing my own cab is actually a little bit special. It's sort of out of my comfort zone, which I realize in truth makes me a total retard. Ok, but here are some pictures from day 1 and my trip to the box.





I have to say that Day 1 in NYC was a lot of fun. The show and going to the box were great, but Day 2 was pretty cool too. My sister and I walked down into Soho and then into Chinatown, which was an experience all in itself. I have never been so thoroughly harassed in my entire life. Seriously, there were some seriously sketch people following us down the street telling us to come to their cars and buy Gucci handbags. It was a little bit entertaining at first, but by the time the fourth person followed me down the street, I got a little annoyed. After that, we walked back up the street to head to Lombardi's for some true New York Style pizza. It was quite good actually. Tanya, I'm sorry to say that I liked the New York pizza better than Chicago. :P After that we rested up for the big game... :) Oh that's right. The LA Galaxy VS. the New York Redbulls. Talk about delightful corporate sponsorship but whatever. The game was awesome! It was a really good game, and of course, even better since Mr. David Fairman, er, I mean Beckham was in town. When we get married he's going to take my name.... ;) The game wound up at 2-2 because LA scored in the 91st minutes. Freakin' stoppage time. Grrrr... After that we showered (again) because it was so stinkin' hot in NYC this weekend, and then hit the Telephone Bar for a late dinner. It was cool. I know you're all wondering why I don't have any drunken pics to share, but seriously, I didn't want another pic like the one Tanya got to take in Chicago. :P We did tailgate a little bit at the game, but I was sure to behave myself. :) Not to mention, the Zone doesn't allow you to drink a whole lot.







Since I had to travel back yesterday, we didn't have much on the agenda, but I got to meet up with Jeff and have brunch, which was tons of fun. He's a lot of fun to be around. I have also learned that Jeff apparently likes bacon. ;) After that my sis and I had some mani pedis before putting me back on the bus. Now, the only sucky part about this weekend was that on my way back yesterday, my computer, which is only 5 days old stopped working right. So I called Dell, and spent 3 hours on the phone with them only to have them tell me that I needed to reinstall my drivers. Are you kidding? On a brand new computer? They're getting that piece of crap back and I'm not paying a cent until they fix it. Jerks. Anyway, New York was fun, but it's nice to be back. There's a vid of me from this morning during the workout, and I'll be sure to blog about it when Jerry gets it up so I can steal it. :)

NYC:Part 1

I was totally bummed on Wednesday when Jerry sent out the email telling us that we were doing Fran yesterday. I wanted to have an opportunity to hit her and see where my time was. I had this marked for a test on week 3 of my challenge, but nevertheless, wanted a chance to try my hand early. But it was not to be since I am visiting NYC! :)

Today is day 2 in the city for me. I arrived by bus (an hour and a half late mind you!) to NYC on Thursday night. Aside from the issue that held us up for an hour (something about a sick bus driver and needing to carry a bus driver to the other bus and blah blah blah and we sat in DELAWARE for an hour!) the ride was great. I highly recommend the Bolt Bus. It's cheap if you buy in early, very spacious, and equipped with Wi-Fi (so you can write ridiculous blogs on the way to New York :P) and also computer jacks so you can watch movies etc. It's really a nice way to ride to New York. It's actually cheaper than the train if you buy early, and YOU don't have to try to navigate the Manhattan traffic!!! Double bonus!

My first stop in New York was a pizerria. No really, I know, what about the Zone right? Well, smarty, the bus drop was at the pizzeria. :P So, after that I was going to try to meet up with Keith (CrossFit Viruosity) for a drink when I got into town, but since we were so stinking late, he said he would try EXTRA hard to get out of bed and come work out with me instead on Friday. As I have learned, Keith, much like Garfield, is not a big fan of mornings. ;) So, my first night in NYC, I crashed. :P

I got up early yesterday morning (which was actually sleeping IN for me) and headed out to the Manhattan Box to see Elise and Keith, who managed to make it out of bed to see me, and give me a great big bear hug. I heart hugs! :) I didn't get to see Allison because she was running the 1230 class yesterday, and my silly self forgot to email Jeff back and tell him I was going for sure (I'm sorry Jeff! I heart you!) but I may pop in tomorrow for another workout before I go home. But, I did get to see Elise and Keith, and when my camera cord is present and accounted for (it's currently resting safely in its box back home) I'll upload the cute photos that we took. :)

As for the WOD, dude, I was such a Nancy yesterday. Only getting 4 hours of sleep and that stinking bus ride, combined with the STILL sore body from Grindy and the jumping lunges on Wednesday made me too out of it to do much. The mainsite WOD was just deadhang pullups yesterday, so after a little warm-up (which PS, in which I did a set of 10 straight chest to deck push ups! That was a goal for me awhile back that I still had not broken!) we set to work. Now, I just hit my first deadhang chin with Danny on Tuesday. That wasn't my first good one or what have you, that was my first EVER. So I was going to just work the deadhang and use my bodyweight as my "weight". I consider my weight (I weigh a lot) to be sufficient. But, I think Keith is kinda like Jerry in some respects as a trainer. He doesn't push really really hard to make you do things, but he kinda makes these little suggestions and kind of tricks you. Because as I was standing on the box (their bars are too tall for a vertically challenged person like me) Keith goes, now all you're going to do is put your feet like this, and then put this weight here, and put your other foot here and you're good to go. And before I knew it, Keith had put 10 lbs in between my feet. Well, when you're already on the box and people are waiting for your real estate, you don't want to look like a Nancy and argue about the weight that someone just put between your feet.

So... I did it. In fact, I did it once, then repeated it a few times. And then he put a KB between my feet. A 17 lb KB. Now, to date (thanks to my header OFF the Zone wagon) I have lost about 17 lbs. It was 19, but the end of school plus too much cheating brought a little bit of that back. But regardless, to date, the amount of weight that Keith put between my feet is everything I lost. On my first attempt, my chin just maybe eeked over the bar. It was very close. On the second attempt, I coudn't get it over. I got stuck being about dead level with the bar. After one more try, which was even lower, I went back to the 10 for the final round and just eeked that one over. So all in all, my weights went 10-10-10-17-17(f?)-17(f)-10. Now, I know that my cheesy weighted deadhang pullups don't hold a candle to what some people did in Fran yesterday, but it felt good to do that WOD. It's not a workout even a few weeks ago I would have even thought to attempt. I was surprised for the second time this week by my own strength. After that, Elise had brought in some maniacal ab workout she wanted to do, so Jacinto (yup met him too and he's wicked cool) decided we should all do it. It was supposed to be 5 round for time. Elise apparently smoked a little too much, and for once I listened to my aching and tired body and scaled to 3 rounds. It was
25 KB swings (not sure of the weight, we don't use the metric system! But it felt like the 36)
25 Abmat sits
25 Back extensions (I subbed "Good Mornings")
25 KTE

This was my first time with the Good Mornings, and I'm not a fan. They were akward and uncomfortable on my insanely tight hamstrings. (See, told you I was being a Nancy yesterday!)

And it's funny to me, the amount of people I have heard already during this 12 week challenge, who have already broken their goals. So many of us aren't really aware of how strong or how powerful we are. Some of us don't realize how far we've come! In week 1 of the challenge, I can think of at least 5 people who now have to rewrite their goals. While it's awesome that it happened so early, I think it is interesting how many of us didn't think some of our goals were really that close. That they were that possible. Sometimes I think that truly the only thing holding us back in some of our goals is just our mind. That being said, my muscle up progression is going to get a lot of work this week. Before I thought it was my strength holding me back. I know now I'm strong enough. Now I need to get the form down. Danny are you listening?! :P

After the workout, Elise and I grabbed a cup of coffee before she headed off for her own fun weekend. I met my sis at her office later in the afternoon and we had lunch at Mickey Mantle's and then took a nap before we hit a show last night. PS, we saw Passing Strange, and it was wonderful. I was very much raised a Rogers and Hammerstein type girl, so I'm used to big sets and lots of props and big costumes. This show didn't have all that. What this show did have, was a very realistic plot about a man looking for "the real" in life. Something, God knows, I have spent the better part of the last year trying to find. Making decisions about life and love and trying to find out what is right for me. Who is me? It was funny to see it played out the way it was, but it was a great show I thought. The music was AMAZING and the narrator has a one of a kind voice that it just terrific. I would highly recommend it. We had to walk through Times Square after the show and can I just say, Holy Insanity Batman! I was on sensory overload from the minute we walked up. There is so much neon in that place! But, nonetheless, it was cool to see it.

I'm still trying to stick in the Zone, although there was rice in my dinner last night so it was probably a little carb heavy, and there was waaay too much butter on my lunch so I'm sure that was fat heavy. I'm trying Jerry! Today the sister and I are off to do some touristy stuff so it should be fun. We're also going to be attending a soccer game this evening! And oh yes, that's correct. A one Mr. David Beckham will be in town. ;) Even if he is just some soccer player, well, he's a damned good looking one and I'm going to enjoy staring at him. :) (not that I'll really be THAT close, but you know what I mean. :P It's true love... he just doesn't know it yet.... ;)

An interview...

"Katie is a dedicated CrossFitter who enjoys her workouts and the CrossFit community. She is the leader of the Katie Kult and has been known to write a blog or two. She used to swim and play soccer, loves to write, eat chocolate and watch sappy Jane Austen movies. In her free time, she likes to plot her eventual take over of the internet, and write some nasty CrossFit workouts to make herself do. She is a very unique individual and today I had the opportunity to sit down with her on the bus and ask her a couple of questions for our little magazine called 'Mindless Ramblings'."

Katie: "Hi, Katie. How are you today?"
Katie: "I'm great! I'm pretty stoked actually. I'm headed out of town for the weekend."
Katie: "Well that sounds awesome. Where are you going Katie?"
Katie: "Well, since you got on the bus with me, I assumed you were aware that we were headed to New York City."
Katie: "New York City? Huh... well this should be fun!"
Katie: "Yeah it should be. I'm really stoked actually. I'm going to be working out with the Black Box Manhattan tomorrow morning and meeting a whole bunch of cool people."
Katie: "Oh really? Like who?"
Katie: "Well Allison of the Black Box, Keith of CrossFit Virtuosity, Jeff of the Black Blox, and I'm hoping to see my good fried Elise, who used to be at CFOT but is in NYC for the summer."
Katie: "Wow. It sounds like you have a whole busy weekend planned. Tell me Katie, wasn't it the Black Box who originally picked up on some of your writing?"
Katie: "Yeah it was. Awhile back I had actually written a blog about a guy who I was talking to who told me he could kill CF workouts. Thanks to CrossFit, I kicked him to the curb and didn't waste any more time on him. Keith found it and Allison posted it. They're really cool and I'm looking forward to seeing them."
Katie: "So tell me Katie, cause your readers are dying to know, whatever happened to that guy? Did he ever contact you again?"
Katie: "Actually, after I deleted him from my Gmail account, he emailed me and tried to chat with me a few more times. I thought maybe I had been too hasty, but after one or two more convos I knew I was right."
Katie: "So tell me then Katie, are you still single?"
Katie: "Oh geez. That question? Ok... well... after I captioned his photo, Jeff from the Black Box fell madly in love with me (who wouldn't) and he kept calling me and professing his never ending love for me, but I thought it was just too soon for all that. So, it just didn't work out. There is a guy now in PA would I'd love to see, but I'm not sure, short of me hitting him over the head with something large and heavy, that he's going to pick up on the fact that I'm really intersted. So, yes, technically I am single."
Katie: "Hmmm. I see. Very interesting. So tell me Katie, what do you look for in a man?"
Katie: "Ok, now you're stretching. We're not going there."
Katie: "Well ok, that's fine. But just tell me this, if he had a humpback and some minimal disfiguration would you date him?"
Katie: "Next question."
Katie: "Fair enough. Now, Katie, the Black Box isn't the only affiliate who's found your sense of humor interesting. The CrossFit main page posted up an article of yours. You gave us your CrossFit story. Is there an update to that story?"
Katie: "Well, I've been meaning to blog about that actually, but just haven't gotten to it yet, but yeah. There are some updates. CrossFit has done so much for me that putting everything down would simply take forever, but for starters I guess I could say that CrossFit got me to fly. I'd never flown until the week after I wrote that blog, and CrossFit got me on a plane to go visit my blog friend Tanya in Chicago and work out at Windy City CrossFit. It also got me to run my first 5K, and train for my first half marathon. It's gotten me to lose 17 lbs total (there was a little gain back at the end of school) and maintain a fairly healthy Zone lifestyle. CrossFit has gotten me to set goals and stick with them. CrossFit's gotten me to deadlift nearly 200lbs, earn my first dead hang pull up, do 24 chins, clean 120 lbs, strict press 85, and do a whole host of things I never would have thought possible. Really, it's changed my life for the better."
Katie: "That's awesome. What would you do if you ever had to give up CrossFit?"
Katie: "Cry. A lot."
Katie: "Do you have any CrossFit goals now?"
Katie: "Well, in the next year I'd like to become more educated about the movements of CrossFit, the body in terms of the muscles and their relation to each other, and become a certified level 1 trainer. I'd love to work with beginning CrossFitters. I think that would be a great way for me to use my teaching background and mesh it with CrossFit."
Katie: "Hmmm, if I joined your beginners class would you make me do Miami Vice?"
Katie: *laughing* "Not right away, but maybe if you stuck around for awhile. I will say though that it may be someone's "Funishment" workout though."
Katie: "I'm not sure what that means, but it sounds painful. So now Katie, your readers also want to know, how often do you have to shave your legs?"
Katie: "What? What the hell kind of question is that?
Katie: "Well, inquiring minds want to know."
Katie: "Are you kidding? Alright, well whenever I have to I guess. I mean, I'm not a fan. It annoys me, but our society is apparently not very fond of hair on the body. Although funny story. When I used to swim, we would stop shaving partway through the season. Usually about December."
Katie: "Ok, that seems kind of gross."
Katie: "Well, there was a logic behind it."
Katie: "Such as?"
Katie: "Well, the theory is that as you train with all that excess hair, it acts as drag, in the same way our multiple swim suits did. You qualify for your big meet with all of it there, then the day of the meet you shave it all off and get your tightest racing suit and go to town. It's actually been proven to have very little pysiological affects, but I think the psychological one is huge."
Katie: "Intersting story, Katie. You're of course just full of those. So Katie, next question. In a fight between Xena and Chuck Norris, who would win?"
Katie: "Honestly, is that even worth asking? It's Chuck Norris. Dude he has the Total Gym, and the roundhouse kick. He'd roundhouse kick Xena before she could burst his ear drums with her piercing war cry and then it'd be all over."
Katie: "Fair enough. Well, Katie we're getting to the end of our time together."
Katie: "We are? Funny, we're no where near New York yet."
Katie: "True, but I just can't talk to you anymore. You're driving me nuts."
Katie: "Oh, ok fair enough, but you picked the questions."
Katie: "So, Katie, any last thoughts you'd like to share with your readers?
Katie: "Hmmmm... Drink the Kool-aid. Train hard, and REST LATER!"
Katie: "There you have it folks, inspiring words from... well, a very UNIQUE individual."

***DISCLAIMER
"Mindless Ramblings" is not a known magazine. Jeff did not really call Katie and profess his undying love. Katie just thought he would get a kick out of being mentioned on her blog again, but then again... maybe he won't. Keith and Allison really are cool. And yes, Katie realizes that writing insane blogs where herself interviews...herself... is slightly crazy... but Katie also realizes that it's a long bus ride to New York and she needs to entertain herself since she's not driving. Katie says, thank God Al Gore invented pants and the internet. And thank God the Bolt Bus has comfy leather seats and a Wi-Fi.

See you folks in New York. ;)

"I'm gonna come at you like a spider monkey!"

If you've never seen this movie, well, you're not missing the year's best drama, but it was pretty crude and comical. But, I love the line that Walker, or is it Texas Ranger?, spits out about going at someone like a Spider Monkey. I think it's just a great way of saying you're going to go absolutely nuts on someone. Now, why did I use it as a title to a blog post? C'mon, you should know me well enough by now to know that eventually I'll get around to explaining my logic. :)

Last week, CrossFit.com posted up a piece from an article written by Captain Picker of the United States Navy. This piece garnered over 600 comments on the main site, and not very many of them happy with the good captain. With just a few words, the Captain had managed to enrage a community, many of whom are brothers and sisters in arms. After reading the comments, I have to say I was pretty peeved myself. It seemed as if the captain really didn't know much about CrossFit at all, and how much it has already helped hundreds and thousands of soldiers, who are currently IN or have been in harm's way. It bothered me a lot that he made such blanket statements about the program such as, well it causes injury. Without proper form and attention to performance, ANY exercise program can potentially cause injury. Furthermore, he made the statement that CrossFit is an "off the shelf program". The good captain obviously missed the memo the CrossFit is anything but based on the fact that it is scaled and tailored to each individual's athletic abilities.

Now, I'm not trying to set up an argument about whether the captain was right or wrong or just plain uneducated. That point has been debated and rehashed on the main site literally hundreds of times. But what I thought was so interesting was the way that the CrossFit community went at him like a spider monkey. We flew into attack mode. So, it made me kind of stop and think. I'll admit that I posted something in our own personal affiliate forum in which I said I hope his email box was flooded since CF.com posted his email, but afterwards I felt a little guilty for saying that. The guy does have a job to do, and I'm sure 800 emails probably doesn't make anyone's day, but still. I didn't attack him and call him all sorts of names like many on the main site did, and it almost shocked me how angry some of the people who responded were. So, my restful ramblings today... why do we get so defensive about CrossFit when their is dissention?

Again, I'll admit, when I saw the person last week searching for "Why CrossFit sucks", I really had a strong urge to smack that person up alongside the head. But why? Why do we suddenly seem to resort to the most primal and basic of instincts when people have a single negative word to say about what we do? Well, I think that it has a lot to do with paternal instincts. I think whether we realize it or not, we all sort of treat CrossFit like it was one of our own children. The desire to protect it is strong. We love CrossFit because of what it has done for each and every one of us and know its potential. We therefore believe in it and want to watch it grow and prosper. We don't ever want to see it struggle or be put down. Much like a child, we know it will face trials and tribulations, but even as much as parents want to let their children learn, they fight with the same idea to protect and never let their children be hurt in any way.

We don't want ANYONE to hurt CrossFit. We don't want people to have negative things to say. We take CrossFit to heart because of what it has done for so many of us. Look at all the testimonials that are posted everyday about what this program has done, whether it is phsyically or mentally and emotionally. Is it any wonder that when someone insults it, we get a little defensive? If you have been a loyal reader, you know what CrossFit has done for me, or even if you jumped to me from the affiliate blog two months back you know. It pains me that there are people out there that don't want that same experience. Their lives could be better, if only they would try. But, the thing that we as CrossFit parents need to remember and realize, is that people fear the unknown. Think of how afraid you were the first time you did a full fledged workout. Think of how afraid you were the first time you saw a hero workout posted on your board. Fear. Some people face fear and have a determined will to defeat it and not let fear cage them into a life full of safety. Others are controlled by it and will never dare to take a risk that could lead to them being hurt in any way, whether emotionally or physically. For some people fear is a motivating factor. For others, it's a hindering one.

Many of the people out there who look at this program fear change. They are afraid of what they don't know and can't comprehend and understand. They can't understand why people would want to push so hard that it may make them sick. They can't understand why people would want to subject themselves to exercises that hurt so much. To them, all I can say is that it's their loss. They don't understand how much more confidence and strength they could have. But that's ok, all the more for me! :)

Now, will everyone in the world learn to love CrossFit? No. That is doubtful. So what we as CrossFit parents need to realize is that we can't always fight the school bully for our kid. CrossFit will stand up for itself. The power of CrossFit will shine through. Just like kids, CrossFit will take care of itself. What we as parents need to do, is take a step back and stop going at people like spider monkeys, otherwise, we're going to be the crazy parents in the parking lot picking up their kids. I read a great quote the other day, but can't remember where. But the gist of the quote was to do your work, and step back. I think that that is the best thing I've ever heard. Hit your workouts hard, hit the Zone hard. Then step back. Let the people in the navy wonder why the army and marine are always kicking their asses. Let the dude in the next cubical wonder why you've lost 20 lbs. Let the girl down the hall be jealous of the great legs that you've gotten from all those lunges and box jumps and squats. Your work speaks for itself. You don't need to speak for it. The work of this community is the same. The power of this community will speak without saying a word. All you need to do is answer the questions when they finally come.

I understand that many may still feel angry with the good captain even after reading this. But here's just one final thought. Stop to think for one second that his words are a great thing for CrossFit. "What?!?" you say. How so? Well, think of it this way. When there is dissention, most often, this breeds discussion. If his words got people to discuss CrossFit, and start taking a look at it, can this be a bad thing?

When you're on... you're on...

And when you're not... you look like I did this morning. Slouchy and very tired, and somewhat cranky. One might even say for the first part of the day I had my cranky pants on (as shown above). My body was screaming for more sleep this morning, but I know that with the traveling this weekend I'm going to miss Sunday, and my run on Saturday, so I needed to get another workout in. I knew we would be working on HSPU's too, and I wanted to get some work in on those. But that was sort of a stupid thought since I was so sore from doing Grindy on Monday. Today definitely qualifies as a day that I get points in the good column cause I showed up.

In the fore front of my mind are all the goals that I have set for the 12 week challenge. Yesterday showed me that my strength has come further than I thought, but that I still have a lot of work to go if I want to meet those goals. I also need to get my butt in gear for this marathon. Yikes! With the traveling and the end of school, my running has been slacking. But yesterday's run too showed me that I'm still pretty good at holding a pace. Problem is, Jerry didn't want me to hold a pace. :P But I guess I'm just concerned that I'm not going to hit those goals in the 12 week time frame. I know that at some point they will come. That I'm not too worried about. But I'm worried that I won't meet them in the 12 week period, and then my teammates will suffer because of me.

I'm doing pretty well with the Zone goal. All meals have been dead on, or pretty close. Work is hard for me because I need to eat, but I can't control the ingredients, so I try to make do with the best I can. I usually order a salad with grilled chicken and use the dressing for my fat, or I order a grilled chicken sandwich with no bun, eat some cucumber salad, and a small side salad with dressing for fat and I'm pretty close. I even went out last night and ordered Fah Eata My Weeds, which was a salad with fajita stuff on top. I ate the greens and veggies and chicken and used a little sour cream on the stuff for fat. So, not perfect, but it was pretty darn close. The problem area for me has been, and I'm sure will continue to be, snacking in between meals. It's so hard to walk by the bin of chips at work and not eat any. Not to mention, people just keep having food around! There is always candy or something else just floating around the restaurant. It's definitely going to be a challenge.

I fear the Zone goal, almost more than the Fran or chins goal. I don't know why, but I do. But hopefully I'll be able to stay on track and keep working out hard and smart. I really think that's the key. This morning wasn't so smart on my part. I really should have backed off, but me and my lovely Irish/Scotch/German stubborness don't know how to do that sometimes. It gets me in trouble a bit. In truth, the workout this morning didn't take me THAT much longer than most, but it still felt pretty bad, and I'm sure I looked terrible. But here's what the fun looked like.

Buy In-
25 L-sit chins (or progression)
25 HSPUs (or progression)
Then, once you've bought in...
2 Rounds for time
25 Jumping lunges (W20 M30)
25 KB swings overhead (45)
25 Wall ball (12)
25 Box jumps (4 steps!)
25 Jumping pull-ups
25 Burpees (with clap)

Jerry told us to call time after we had finished the buy in because some people were really taking the time to work on the L-sits and HSPUs because they are a 12 week goal. I was just too sore to do those quickly so my first part took me 17:00. Then I jumped into the circuit. The KB swings felt pretty good. They have been a bear with the 45 in the recent past but today they went overhead with little problem. I had to break the set, which I wasn't happy about, but aside from that they were good. The burpees are what hurt me though. I just couldn't push through today. The push ups were excruciating. But, again, points cause I did them all. In total, the whole thing took me 42:55, which if you subtract the 17 initial minutes, means that I did the circuit in 25:55. So, that's not too shabby for 300 reps of work. I'll take it. Just wish it would have been faster.

I need a nap... and I smell again... so I'm going to shower and take a nap. I've earned it this week....