Well, so much for my commitment to blog at least once a week. Life has taken me off the grid for a little while. It has been quite a whirlwind, and blogging is the first thing to fall off of the “to do” list when things go crazy.

To be honest, there’s too much at this point to be able to really go back and do a recap of life. Between the hubs and I doing our best to get more involved in our church, planning for some upcoming family stuff, and dealing with some of the kinks that everyday life has thrown at our schedule in the recent past, I’m doing good to still make it to CrossFit. Speaking of which, one BIG thing that has happened since my last blog entry is that I managed to up my Deadlift PR by 40 lbs to 235 lbs! I’m super happy about that!

Anyways. I’m going to try to get back on track with my posting regularly on here. Hopefully, the groove won’t be too difficult to find again.

Sorry about the delays in getting back to posting. It’s been a pretty hectic week overall. So, I’ll get right down to business.

Thursday, 01/26/12
21-15-9
Power Clean (135/95)
Wall Ball Sit Up

This was probably the first WOD I’ve done in a while as RX’d. I finished in 9:27 using 95#. It felt great. Well, until I got another migraine. My first migraine since going to the doc a couple weeks back started just like all the previous ones. Almost exactly an hour after finishing the WOD, the sparklies started. So, I took the meds the doc gave me. It did seem to delay the onset of the headache at least. I’m not sure if it made it less intense though because I went to bed and was asleep shortly after the headache started. Apparently though, Imitrex affects me in a funny way. The hubby was telling me the next day about some of the things that I did throughout the night. Like turning on the lights and waking him up to tell him that it was time to go to work at 2am. Needless to say, he wants me to forwarn him next time I take the meds so he can just plan on sleeping on the couch cause I woke him up several times in like fashion during that night. He said that I even slapped him in the face at one point in time… I’ve decided that if he has similar stories to tell after the next time that I have to take it, I’ll talk to my doc about figuring something else out…

Saturday, 01/28/12
20 min AMRAP
5 Stone to shoulder
10 KB push presses (alt. arms)
15 Wall Balls

I finished 6 rounds plus 10 reps. The most challenging part of this WOD was the KB push presses. The first couple rounds took me a little bit, but I seemed to get the hang of how to push press the awkwardly off balance weight. As far as Saturday work outs are concerned. This one did not disappoint. It left me gasping by the end of it.

Tuesday, 01/31/12
Grace
30 Cleand and jerks for time (135/95)

After last Thursday’s WOD, I was pretty confident in lifting the RX’d 95#. So, I determined that I was going to complete it…even if it took me a while. By rep 5, I was questioning my judgement. However, I just kept going. I completed jerk #30 when the clock read 6:53. I was just proud that I actually did it! I think I found my forte. I may not be that great at all the metabolic conditioning stuff, but I love lifting the weights. Now, all I have to do is get my hips and wrists mobile enough to be able to get all the squat related stuff down.

Sorry if I come accross as a little so-so today. For some reason, I’m just not feeling it. I’m not UNhappy. I’m just kinda here. You know?

Anyways. I’ll just cut to the chase.

Wednesday, 1/18/12: “Freddy’s Revenge” (not sure who Freddy is unless it’s referring to Nightmare on Elm Street…)
5 rounds for time:
5 push jerks
10 burpees

I used 85# and finished in 15:44. I have a bad habit of just muscling the weight the rest of the way up once the momentum stops instead of dropping under it like I’m supposed to; but with 85# (I know it doesn’t seem like much to some of you), that only lasted the first round. I was unable to muscle it up by the second round, so I had to figure out how to actually do a proper push jerk. Oh, and our coach told all of us girls to start out with 65#, but I knew I could do more, so I put 75# on to start out. Apparently the coach didn’t notice, cause after making me add another 10#, he wrote that I was lifting 75# on the board. I didn’t notice until just now when I was referencing the pic I took of the board for my time. Way to pay attention, J.K.!

Saturday, 1/21/12:
10 minutes AMRAP
5 thrusters
5 KB swings
75ft shuttle sprint

My total reps were 60. Btw, I really haven’t developed that love of thrusters that I said I was going to. I need to work on that some more.

Tonight:
Tabata
4 min tabata double unders (I will be doing singles)
1 min rest
4 min tabata squats
1 min rest
4 min tabata pull ups
1 min rest
4 min tabata push ups
1 min rest
4 min tabata abmat sit ups

Results are to follow in the next post. For those of you who are unfamiliar with tabata, but want to know what I’m talking about, Google is a magnificent thing. Especially when I don’t feel like taking the time to type it all out here right now. Maybe I’ll put some sort of description of what it is here in the next post….or maybe not. I’ll decide when the time comes.

In the mean time, peace out, homies.

***UPDATE***

My tabata score was 59 reps.

Each tabata round consists of 8 periods of 20 sec. work and 10 sec. rest. Making each round 4 minutes long. The score was tallied by taking the round from each exercise that the least number of reps were completed and adding them together for a total. Sounds simple, right? It’s actually quite painful. Try it sometime and see for yourself.

So last I wrote, I was planning on going to the doc to get checked out. Well, I did. And the diagnosis was … MIGRAINES! Surprise, surprise. Doc said he didn’t see any reasons to think that there might be some other underlying cause, and that probably this is just a “cluster” and it will eventually pass. In the meantime, he gave me some Imatrex to take at the onset and see if that helps. Only thing is, in order to see if it works, I have to have a migraine. Which I haven’t. At least not in the last week. Which is a good thing. Anyways.

We started our 9 week nutritional challenge at Crossfit Fortify on Monday. For the first 30 days we are doing….(drumroll please)….. Whole 30! And the rest of it, we get to choose to continue Whole30 style eating, or doing just paleo and/or zone. I’ll probably just continue Whole 30. It’s close enough over all to being a zone-ish approach to paleo that I feel it would be a good thing to continue. Besides, I’ll already really be in the swing of things by then.

I skipped out on Saturday’s workout this last weekend. Instead, I got an early start on spending the day with my family. That’s okay though, cause Monday’s workout (the one that we are using to measure preformance improvements over our nutritional challenge) was greulling to say the least.

 

Kelly

5 rounds for time:

400m run

30 wall balls

30 box jumps

 

I was fighting the urge to just lay down by the end of the first round. That’s right. This one made me feel like a whiney baby. You can imagine my relief when the coach let us know (as I was finishing the box jumps on round 2) that we were only going to do 3 rounds. I finished my 3rd round just as the clock hit 29:47. Afterwards, I proceeded to lay down on the cool concrete while my heart tried to find its way back into my chest from my throat. My only thought was, “and we have to do this all over again in 9 weeks…” It’ll be fun! Right?…

My official starting off measurements:

Height: 5′  5 1/4″

Weight: 180.6 lbs

BF: 34.7%

Waist: 37″

There were a few other measurements that were taken, but I don’t remember what they were off the top of my head. I guess that I should take a picture before we get too far into this challenge. That way I have before and after pics to show off.

Well, I’m off to the box for what promises to be a fun WOD! Cleans, and jerks, and burpees, oh MY!

So, this has been a pull up heavy week. Which is totally great with me with my goal being to be able to do unassisted pull ups and all. So, let’s just dive right in to the past 2 work outs

Monday, 1/9/12:
15 min AMRAP
1 rope climb
10 up downs
20 air squats

I finished 6 rounds and 7 reps doing 5 pull ups (with the black band of course) in place of the 1 rope climb. I can’t seem to get more than a few feet off of the ground when it comes to the rope climbs. Of course, that might be in part to my lack of readiness on that front. I’m not particularly fond of rope burns on my unprotected short shod legs and bare ankles. Since I usually just go straight from work and picking up kiddos to Crossfit, I don’t get to go home and gather the appropriate gear if I am missing anything. Answer? Keep stuff in the car for just such cases. I still have to purchase some good climbing shoes though… the barfoot shoes don’t cut it when it comes to protecting your feet from the strains of rope climbing. Well, at least not until I get stronger.

Wednesday, 1/11/12:
5 rounds for time
20 pull ups
30 KB swings (1 pood/35 lbs)
40 double unders (or 120 singles)

I finished in 31:09. This one was a killer. The KB swings were AWFUL, and my grip was completely shot by the end of it all.

As far as the zone/paleo thing is going; I really don’t like eating this many times in a day. I’m pretty sure that I’ve already disclosed this on here, but it makes me WAY too neurotic about my food when I have to put so much planning into it. I’m pretty good at eating clean in general, but having to measure out and time every single meal is really bothersome. I have continued to do it with the hopes that if I do it for a while, it’ll eventually get easier, but I don’t know that this is going to be a long term thing. We shall see.

So, that was my coverage so far of the pull ups and the food… “so, what about the flashy things?” you wonder. Well, people who have known me for a while know that I do tend to suffer from the occasional migraine. It sucks. And usually they are very occiasional… like once every 6 months to a year kind of occasional. So, last night, about an hour after I finished my WOD, I noticed the onslaught (via flashy thingies in my vision) of what turned out to be the 3rd migraine in a week!

I know! Right?!? WTF?!? I’m eating clean, working out, avoiding caffiene and other known triggers, haven’t had a migraine attack in months, and all of a sudden Bam! Bam! Bam! This is SO NOT cool. The worse part? The only common denominator that I can put my finger on between these 3 migraines are that they all started about an hour after some pretty greulling longish met con type Crossfit WODs. I have an appointment with my doctor tomorrow to see if I can get some tests done to make sure that there isn’t some other underlying cause. If there is, I’ll get treatment for it. If there isn’t, then I’ll have to play around and figure out what all I can do without triggering a migraine. I’m wondering if there’s maybe a threshhold when it comes to the relationship between high intensity work and the duration of said work that maybe if I can find a way to not cross, it won’t be a problem… I guess we’ll find out.

Has anyone else had problems with possibly exercise induced migraines? All 3 of the headaches I’ve had in the past week are almost exactly the same in every way. The timing post workout, the type and duration of the aura preceding it, and the location of the pain. If anyone has any advice or knowledge on this matter, I’d love to hear it!

Time to start my Whole 30 for reals!!! To make things especially interesting (aka difficult for myself) I have also chosen to at least TRY to use the Zone to ration my food during my Whole 30. Today has been fun, let me tell you. My body doesn’t quite know what to think about eating every couple of hours. I know that it’ll be an adjustment, but hopefully it will be all for the best.

For breakfast this morning, I had some coconut milk with berries, and some baby spinach with some turkey and an egg. Some almonds and salami acted as my midmorning snack. Sardines, coconut milk, and berries were my lunch. I have some more salami, almonds, and a small clementine orange for my afternoon snack. And I plan on having a 4 block meal after Crossfit tonight that will include a sweet potatoe with cocononut oil on it and some steak. My zone prescription is 12 blocks, but since I am trying to lean out, I will be subbing a few of the carb blocks every day for some fat. We shall see how my body responds to this experiment.

Anyways, last week, I got to do a great workout for getting me closer to my goal. On Thursday the WOD was as follows: run 400 m, pull ups til failure AMRAP in 20 minutes. The goal was for pull up reps. I did 76 (with the black pull up band of course). Of course, I also ran/jogged/dragged myself 1600m, but who’s counting that?

Saturdays WOD was great…. mostly…

400m barbell run; 21-15-9 KB swings, 45# push press; 400m barbell run

The KB swings were a breeze, the push presses were a little more challenging. Of course, given the fact that my traps were already burning from the barbell run (which was more of a walk), I feel pretty good about them. I was able to get a better rhythm going on my second run, but by the time I was done, I was ready to collapse. Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE Saturday WODs? Just sayin…

 

For introducing me to all of these amazing people who write amazing things that I can take into my life. Whether it’s things that make me laugh my a** off, or things that make me think about life, I love reading each and every blog that I come across.

I’m a geek in the biggest sense of the word, and my blog reading obsession started as just research on health and fitness. But it has turned into so much more. I’m always reading about other moms and their journeys through life and sometime fitness, or funny stories that have been passed on from person to person. I have read inspirational stories and insight that has made me look deeper into life and appreciate all that I have, and I have read about loss which inspires me to try to make the most of the time that I have.

I read tips on my poker game (which I love, btw), and how to feed my family in a paleo style on a budget. I am constantly amazed at just how many creative and inspiring people are out there. Each one with their own unique twist.

I want to thank every one of you bloggers out there for just being who you are and being willing to share it with the world. You are a blessing.

I hope that your new year is moving along as well as mine. After several days, I am finally starting to feel recovered from the New Year’s Eve party we hosted. I didn’t have much to drink, but we did have people at our house visiting well into the morning, and sleep was very much cut short.
Now that life is starting to feel somewhat normal again, I felt that it was time to talk about my goals for this year…well, mainly there’s really only one at this point. My goal is to work up to being able to do unassisted pull ups. That’s right. That means MORE THAN ONE. Right now, my ability is poor, and I have to use the biggest resistance band we have in order to get my chin up over that bar.
My resistance bands that I ordered on Amazon came in last night, so I will be working on my pull ups regularly at home as well as at the box. Also, tonight just happens to be a pull up heavy WOD. I’m excited about it, but at the same time hesitant. I know that I will be doing my best at pull ups if for no other reason than we are going to be running in between sets as we hit the failure point on pull ups. And I really don’t like running… at least not for very long.
Not only do I want to accomplish this goal this year, but I want to accomplish it by my the time I turn 30 in August. Not really sure if this is an unrealistic goal or not, but I’m darn sure gonna try.
Due mainly to still getting rid of some leftover treats from the holidays, the hubby and I have not started the 30 day challenge as of yet. For the most part, we are back on the paleo band wagon, just not 100%. My intention is to start our 30 days on Monday, the 9th. By then, the left over ice cream, cheese stuffed and bacon wrapped grilled jalepenos, and Lo Carb Monsters should be gone. Once that happens, our house will be dairy, sugar, and fake sweetener free once again.

So, Tuesday’s workout was all about wall balls:
21-15-9
wall ball sit ups
wall ball 2-for-1s

This was my first introduction to either of these moves. Using a 14# wall ball, I faced the wall with the abmat behind me, and at the top of the sit up you throw the ball at the wall and catch it again. It wasn’t a difficult move, but it did leave my serratus anterior pretty sore the next day. In 2-for-1′s, you squat, throw the ball when you come up, squat again while the ball is in the air, and catch the ball when you come back up again. Sounds simple enough, but you either have to get the ball way up or have a really fast squat in order to make it back up in time. I was half way back up when the ball was getting back to me, and it was pretty jarring. So, instead of killing my wrists with the high impact, I just did regular wall balls.
My time when all was said and done? 5:58

Welcome to 2012! I’m certain that this will be a year to remember. Both my husband and I will be celebrating our 30th birthdays and our 10th anniversary this year. PLUS, all those February 29th birthday peeps will get to celebrate their REAL birthdays, AND we get to elect a new president. These facts alone are more than enough to ensure a fascinating year is ahead of us.
To top it all off, however, I got the hubby on board with me to do the new 2012 Whole 30 challenge!! Any of you who have never made it a point to eat really clean, non processed foods for at least 30 days should really consider giving it a ho. Most people would be amazed at the difference in how you feel overall in that short period of time. Heck, it might even be enough to make you consider converting fully to a paleolithic lifestyle!

During the next month or so, if there is an influx of food related posts, do not be alarmed. I will still be documenting my Crossfit experience here, but I may use this as something of a food diary as well.
Speaking of Crossfit, I have had 2 classes since my last post, one of which introduced me for the first time to the atlas stone. Lets just say heaving a 40# concrete sphere onto your shoulder repeatedly can cause some soreness later. It was fun though. The burpees, however, were not fun...not fun at all.

After a nice, long weekend, it was back to the daily grind for me today. It was kind of nice getting back to work. I mean, I spent most of yesterday trying to do as little as possible, so it was time to come back.

 I actually love the last week of work at my current job. For the most part, everyone is on vacation, so it leaves us time to play catch up without feeling like we’re killing ourselves. It’s one of the few times of the year that I am not so stressed out over work. And it’s really nice to not be so stressed out.

Yesterday’s crossfit class was welcome after spending most of the afternoon playing Portal on the Xbox: 5 rounds for time of 7 heavy thrusters (only 65# for me, tyvm) and 30 double unders (or 100 singles as a sub).

The thrusters were killer, and I did singles since my double unders still aren’t up to par in spite of my recent breakthrough. I finished in 15:24.

The bad news? My shins are feeling really tight and sore today. I think the back to back jumprope preceded by back to back running has started to bring back my old high school nemesis…. shin splints… I’ll do some stretching and exercises to loosen them up and let them rest for the next couple days and hopefully that’ll help. I want to be fresh as a daisy come Thursday evenings WOD.