Grace... is my middle name...

So, it was Isabel, Cindy, and now Grace... you'll have to wait for the details... but I'll give you a little taste...

I did not do prescribed weight (85lbs) for Grace.... now you ponder what that means until later... :P

You know, I'm not going to have time to write out all the sordid details before work tonight... so... just watch the video instead... the embed is being silly... so just go here... it's the top video... THEN.....

Jerry caught a little bit of Isabel on film the other day... I thought he was taking pictures... eh... oh well.... :P You can watch that video too if you want... :)It's the second one... :)

"Oh Sandy... er... uh I mean, Cindy..."

Oh Sandy baaaaaby, I'm alllll alone, I sit, I wonder why-iiiiiiiiii oh why... you left me... Oh Sandy baby... uh oh, crap I mean Cindy, I mean, why am I singing Grease? I mean, DOH! HA, have I mentioned recently that I am a complete and total nerd? Cause I am... in case you hadn't noticed.

Ok, so bad John Travolta singing aside, today was an alright day. I have to say I was wicked sore today from Isabel. Jerry says that means I was doing it right. Dang, I thought it just meant I lifted a bunch of heavy weight! :P LOL... I know I know, I'm a complete smart aleck....

But so seriously, when I walked in and saw that it was Cindy today, I cringed a bit. I'm still not really all that good with push-ups, so it was hard to get excited for this one. Cindy of course is

AMRAP in 20 minutes
5 chins
10 push-ups
15 squats

The last time CFOT hit Cindy, I missed the workout for some reason, and I made it up at home in PA at a globo gym. Definitely a very different experience, and I think the old guy that was watching me do it was totally floored. Anyway, I managed to muster about 11 2/3 rounds that time, and was pretty disappointed with that. So today, I was just aiming to beat that, and beat it I did. I went a full round and 2/3 more than that so I was pretty stoked. I finished with 13 1/3 rounds in. Not too shabby for a girl who still really stinks at push-ups. :P

I'm pretty excited for tomorrow though. Jerry gave us the head's up that tomorrow is another named WOD. So it will be Isabel, Cindy, and then Grace all back to back. WOOT! :) I can't wait to try to tackle Grace. I've never done her either so two new ladies in one week will be quite the feat. I'm excited to see how this one goes. Clean and jerks... yeeeeeeahhhh buddy! :) Woot woot woot! :)

Invite only blog...

I posted up a blog last week about opening an invite only blog to my regular readers... if you're someone who's been around for awhile and you'd like an invite, please just shoot me an email and I'll add you. Some of you may need to look in your spam boxes for the email that came from blogger....

For those of you who got invites but were having trouble, you apparently have to go to blogger and sign in first, before you accept the invite (I don't know why) but Cara was having problems with it and gave me the heads up. So, sign in, then accept. If you tried that and it didn't work, let me know and I'll see what I can do to fix it.

I've been posting lots of my own writing there, and would love to let you read it if you're interested. Questions? Let me know! :)

Snatch me if you can....

Ha! Get it? "Snatch me if you can?" Like "Catch me if you can?" Uh... yeah... that's right... I'm a total nerd... So, between my slllllooooow healing from the race last weekend and the Blackberry Phantom, I haven't been able to get into CF much this week. So I really wanted to get in today and hit a workout and boy am I glad I did. Jerry had another workout that was right up my alley.

Today we started with some PVC work and really dialed in on snatch form. In the past I've felt like I have had pretty decent snatch form, but today was really great. We did a bunch of different moves and it was great for muscle memory. After about a half hour or so, Jerry flipped the board and told us we had a choice of two workouts, each of course involving snatches. We did a workout awhile back where we did 75 push presses with 75 snatches, so I felt like doing "Randy" which is 75 snatches for time, would be a repeat, even though it wasn't exactly the same. So, I chose the other workout, which was Isabel.

Now, Isabel is only 30 snatches for time, as opposed to Randy's 75. However, Isabel is with a much heavier weight. Whereas Randy is 75 snatches using 55 lbs, Isabel is 30 snatches using 85 lbs. I will be the first to admit that 85 lbs sounded very intimidating to me. After a few warm-ups with some weight on the bar, I hit 55 and then thought I'd give 85 a try. The highest I've ever actually snatched was 65lbs. I've never hit a max snatch. So, I loaded the bar, and barely got 85 to my nose. Jerry looked at me and told me that I was strong enough but that I wasn't diving under the bar, and I wasn't lifting with confidence. Wow did he ever hit the nail on the head with that. I was "giving it a try" but not really thinking it was possible. So, he told me to back down and go with a lighter weight, but still work heavy on the 30.

Now, if you've been reading my blog for sometime, you know that I have a stubborn streak about as long as the Mississippi. I really didn't like giving up on the 85, so I gave it one more go. I got under the bar that time, but boy did it feel heavy. I asked Jerry if he would watch me do it a third time, and so he watched me while I threw 85 lbs over my head. He told me form looked good, and so I decided to give Isabel a go. I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Isabel was going to be a good challenge (strength wise) for me. But, Jerry was right. Going with the heavy lift, it's really all about confidence. One I hit a few reps of the 85, I was sure I could keep going with it and I did. Isabel is supposed to be a power snatch from the floor, but I wasn't comfortable with my power snatch form. It was just unusual, and so Jerry said it was fine to go from the hang instead of the floor. So technically my Isabel wasn't RX'd, but I used RX'd weight. Isabel did push me. I started out in sets of 2, but by the last 10 was down to singles. Everyone was cheering me in, so when I got to the last 4-5 I was really pushing them in. Jerry got a few pictures, so I'll have to see how they turned out. My overall time was 9:29. Not too bad I thought. 30 reps in under 10 minutes at a heavy weight. I'll take it....

I can't wait to get back into the blue room tomorrow.... :)

The case of the Blackberry Phantom... Mystery Solved!

I didn't make it to CF this morning, largely because I didn't fall asleep until after 1am (I have no idea why) but also because after I did fall asleep, I was awoken by the Blackberry Phantom at 2am. What is the Blackberry Phantom you ask? I will tell you... but not now because I don't have time... but seriously... it's one of the most random things ever and I swear... no one else in this world has as many random things happen to them as I do... I swear! I'm going to start a book about this.... seriously... :P For cereal...

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Ok, so lately, I've been making a serious effort to get to bed at a decent hour. I was really pushing the limits with the schedule I was keeping, and I've been trying to change that. I went to bed last night early (like 930ish) and I was convinced that I would lull myself off to never never land. Well.... 930 came, and then 1000 came, and then 1030 came, and I stared at the ceiling... and then 1100 and 1130... and so on until about 130. I finally fell asleep. It was then that the Blackberry Phantom struck. In the middle of the night, he snuck up on me. Not long after, my phone rang. This is odd for many reasons. The first being that I very, very, very, VERY rarely ever have my ringer on. Secondly, no one in their right mind calls me after 10. So imagine my surprise to be woken up by my phone.

Well I answered it, in a sleep induced haze, and woke to a man's voice. Now, the man asked for me by my full name, which was enough to wake me up right quick. I don't give out my full name to anyone. You know me as Katie, not my real name, and certainly not by my middle name. So, needless to say, I was a little bit freaked. He asked me then if I'd lost a Blackberry. He said he found it in the cab. And I said no I hadn't, and then he kept going. Are you sure you don't know whose it is? I'm trying to be a good citizen and blah blah blah. I get that he was trying to be nice, but most people wouldn't call at 2am. They would wait until the next day. Anyhoo, he kept going, are you sure you don't know? Your name was in this phone. The phone call continued for about 5 more minutes before I politely reminded him that it was 2am, and no I didn't know whose phone it was.

He had said he found the phone in the cab and was just trying to return it and since I didn't know whose phone it was he was going to throw it away. Well after I hung up, I was really freaking out. I never thought to ask his name or where he was or anything of the sort... cut me some slack! I had been dead asleep! But anyhoo, so few people know my real name that I was just well, floored. I wondered what in the world had happened. Well, needless to say, my freak out kept me from immediately falling back asleep again and I didn't hit sleep until around 3. When I woke up this morning though, my wits were a bit more about me. I checked the area code on the call and found out it was registered to a Michigan number. Well, I thought that didn't really help. But then I thought about who I knew who actually owned a Blackberry. So I emailed my sister, and lo and behold a few hours later, she let me know she had indeed lost her Blackberry.

She called the guy this morning and thankfully got her Blackberry back, thus saving her about $300... and thus relieving my semi-panicked self... I swear though... why doesn't stuff like this everyone else? The Case of the Blackberry Phantom has been solved... but I'm going to go to bed early tonight... WITHOUT my ringer on.... :P

Still recovering...

I like this picture!!!! Two guesses why!!! The first one doesn't count!!!!!!

I'm going to head to CF tomorrow and see how I feel but I'm still recovering from the half. My feet have really been bugging me. The swelling in my knee finally went down, but for some reason my feet are being about as stubborn as I am! :P Anyhoo... hopefully I'll be able to regale you all with more CF tales tomorrow... :P

Strict, Push, Jerk...(updated)

Holy cow! I looked ripped!

Yup... that's 110 lbs over my head... ;)

Ohhhhh... this so had my name written all over it.... :) I will try to update later... but I will preface this blog by saying the next two days are going to SUCK immensely... do you like meetings? No? Ok, well in the next two days I have 5, PLUS, I am going to be observed and videotaped tomorrow in between all those meetings... doesn't that sound like good FUN? No? Well, you're right... I agree... it's not going to be... so bottom line, if the post doesn't make it up later, it's probably because I electrocuted myself in a bathtub with a toaster... ok ok... fine... it's probably just because I'm really busy... :P

And PS I totally stole the toaster bit from my friend Foamy... if you are in dire need of distractions at work, my stupid sense of humor finds these very funny... my favorite one is Five More Minutes... and I just found the best ones ever! Foamy has been around for awhile but they have archived his old things. The Foamy Fan Mail series was hysterical... well at least to me... just be forewarned that he swears a lot...

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So, let's be honest here, we're all friends right? So my knee and my feet are still hurting like a mother. I'm not kidding. Whatever I did is quasi-serious. It's not uber serious, cause I can still walk, but I'm walking with pain (more severe in my feet than in my knee) and I'm actually considering *GASP* calling a doctor. Say what? Did I? Oh you read that right... I did say I actually considered calling a doctor. Have I ever mentioned that I don't like doctors? I don't. Nothing good usually happens when I go see them. But, my STUBBORN self (I know you're having a hard time imagining me being stubborn) is actually considering calling one. I'm sure that whatever happened to my feet and knees is probably related, but I just don't know what I did. I'm practically sleeping in ice and being sure even to ice at school... YES... the old lady keeps an ice pack in the freezer for these such occassions. But regardless of all that, I still went to CrossFit this morning. :) Oh yes indeed, I just can't stay away.... :) But that's ok, because today was something that actually wasn't too bad on the knees or feet... there were a couple times when the jump to land caught me with a grimace on my face, but for the most part, I felt pretty good.... know why? Of course you do... because I got to throw heavy weights around today. :)

So... the fun today looked like this....

1-1-1 Strict (working to heavy single)
3-3-3 Push press (working to heavy 3 rep max)
5-5-5 Push jerk (working to heavy 5 rep max)

Ok, I didn't CF last Thursday and they hit a max clean and jerk and I was so sad that I missed it. I was inconsolable. Ok ok fine, maybe not that bad, but I was bummed, so today sort of made up for it. I was just happy that I wouldn't have to modify the whole workout like I did on Monday... just kinda made stuff up as I went.... :P But anyhoo, here's what my lifts looked like today.

Strict
90- 92(F)- 91(F)
Push Press
110-115-120
Push Jerk
105-110(SOF)

Ok, so clearly, I was happy with this workout. Last week I finally broke through that 90lb strict press barrier, and then today, I hit it again. I didn't really expect to max on the strict again, although it would have been nice to meet it, so I was sort of bummed that I couldn't nail down 93 again... Boo pants, but I was happy that I hit 90 again. So, then I moved onto the push presses... I know that I can push more than I can strict, of course since we use the momentum from our legs, but I wasn't quite sure how much more since it was a 3 rep max and not a 1 rep max. I knew I could at least hit 95 because I can do 95 lb thrusters, so I just used the bar that I already had loaded from the strict presses and started my way up. I won't lie, by the time I hit my 3 rep max on the pushes, I was pretty tired. To do all the stricts, then work up on the pushes, it was taking a little out of me. But, BUT, I still put up 120 X 3, so I can't argue against that. I was pretty pleased. I think I could have maybe done 125, but I was pretty smoked so I think that would have been the end of me for the day.

We did realize today though while using the uber heavy weight, that I'm not locking my core for push presses. I was leaning a bit forward and was losing core tension with the heavy weight. A minor form fault when you're using 65lbs, but a more major one with a pretty serious load over your head. After the stricts though it was off to do some jerks. I was pretty wiped out after all those presses, but I did a decent job with the jerks. I put up 105X5 which is really nothing to sneeze at, and then did 110. I'm sure you're probably wondering what SOF means. Well in Katie terms it means, "Sort of Failed". I did 4 out of the 5 reps and had the other one 3/4 of the way up and lost core tension. Were I not already a little bit spent, I would have had that easy. So, I say I sort of failed... because I still got 4 up... :P So... a good day in the blue room... it feels good to be back... I just wish this stupid stuff with my feet would go away. I still have a goal of a handstand push-up and thirty chins to work on. Now that this half is out of the way, it's full speed ahead on those! :P

Never a dull moment folks... never a dull moment.... LOL.... :)