Rise and Shine…More like Rise and Sweat!

I was up at 6am today to head to CrossFit for the 6:30 class.  I will admit, I was not crazy about having to get up so early, but this was the only time that would work for me today to get my WOD in.

It was a great WOD:

Part 1 was actually FUN!  I really like snatches!  There is a lot going on in the lift, but I love it.  I’m still not lifting very heavy, but my form is really coming along.  My overhead squats were much better today too.  I focused on keeping my arms pushing “up” and also on squeezing my shoulder blades/upper back to give stability.  I have no idea what my max hang snatch is.  I just used 35lbs for part 1 and that was enough to be challenging, but not sloppy. 

Part 2 was tough.  There were just so many reps to get through – apparently they call this type of WOD a “Chipper”.  I used 10lb dumb bells for this part of the WOD.  The toughest part for me was the thrusters…those 10lb weights felt like 100lbs!  The rest was tough, but really not that horrible.  Well, burpees are always horrible, and doing them with an additional 20lbs is not much fun, but I just kept moving and chipping away at them.  There was a 15 minute time cap to Part 2 of the WOD, and I finished in 14:11.  At the end, I was dripping with sweat and between the burpees and the push-ups, I left a puddle on the floor.  That made me happy! 

Tonight was supposed to be my golf league, but the weather was a bit crazy with heavy downpours so we took the night off.

That just left ball hockey.  My team played at 8pm, which was why I needed to go to CrossFit this morning since ball hockey conflicted with my usual 8:30pm class time.

Ball hockey was good.  The arena was much warmer this week, which made for another good sweat!  Plus we won, which is always good! 

Now I’m home, tired, a bit sore from the WOD this morning, and also sore from running on a concrete floor (I feel it in my hips) and I took a ball in the shoulder, which left a nice mark and is achy.  All these aches and pains should make for a fun WOD tomorrow….which looks killer.  Seems like the theme of the week is 2 part WODs!

This should be another fun WOD.  Lots of different moves, some which I can do, some that I can’t, so it will be hard….but that’s why I go! 

Okay, now I need to take my tired ass and sore body to bed.  I’ve got a busy day at work and a killer WOD, so I need my rest!

Hope your Tuesday was a good one!
What’s your favourite CrossFit move?

My Offline Weekend

This was May 24 long weekend for us in Canada.  This is the unofficial kick off to summer…and for the first time in a long time, the weather was FANTASTIC!

I had planned on posting lots of pics to Instagram and posting a blog entry or two, but the Wi-Fi at the cottage didn’t work this weekend.  Despite calls to the service dept. and going into town to get a new modem, it still didn’t work.  I also had incredibly crappy cell reception.  Every once in a while a few emails would come in, but other than that, nothing much really worked on my phone.  Instagram wouldn’t update, Facebook wouldn’t update, twitter wouldn’t update…it was a bit frustrating!  All this meant I had an impromptu offline weekend.

Although I wasn’t able to post them, I still took quite a few pics this weekend.  Here are just a few images from our weekend of long weekend fun!

Top Left:  Nick taking the cousins for trips in the punt. They cruised up and down the lake and had a ball out there.  Top Right:  Jumping off the dock, even though the water was freezing!  Bottom Left:  Sitting at the locks, enjoying ice cream, watching the boats go through the lock.  Bottom Middle:  Catching crayfish.  Bottom Right:  My delicious Kawartha Lakes Dark Chocolate Bear Claw  ice cream cone – dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate covered cashews.  YUM!

Now, from the yummy to the gross…my rope climb rope burn is not doing very well.  I think it’s infected.  I have been putting polysporin on it all weekend, but today it was quite oozy and then my son accidentally kicked it when we were sitting at the table…OUCH!  It started to bleed and man, did it hurt.  Gross, eh!

I’ve got another busy week ahead:

Tuesday:  CrossFit at 6:30AM!  Golf 4:30 and ball hockey 8pm. It is supposed to rain tomorrow for most of the day, so golf may not happen.
Wednesday:  Jackson ball hockey 7pm, CrossFit 8:30pm
Thursday:   CrossFit 8:30pm
Friday:   Massage 5pm – can’t wait!!!!!
Saturday:  SpringFest 11am-3pm at my son’s school.  Since I’m on parent council, I need to be there around 10am to help set up.  Fingers crossed for good weather!
Sunday:  Day of rest! 

I’m not really looking forward to getting up at the crack of dawn to hit CrossFit tomorrow morning, but it was the only time I could make it work with my crazy schedule this week.  Tomorrow’s WOD looks like an interesting one…lots going on for sure:

I’m sure this WOD will be tough…especially since I can’t eat before I go.  I need to get some routine blood work done tomorrow that needs to be taken after fasting for 12 hours.  My appointment is at 9:10am, so that means no food until after that. Good thing for me I ate like a trooper this weekend, so I should have some reserves to get me through the WOD!  I will let you know tomorrow!

Now, I should get my oozy leg and tired ass to bed.  6:30 is going to come early.

How was your weekend?
Here’s hoping the short week ahead flies by!!!

The Friday Five

HAPPY FRIDAY!  Let’s get right to it!

1.  It’s a LONG WEEKEND! 

This extra day off is coming just at the right time.  Both Hubs and I have had a bit of a week from hell at work, so an extra day away from our respective offices is just what the doctor ordered.  I seriously think the doctor needs to order a week of sun and sand on a Caribbean island, but I don’t think that prescription will be filled any time soon   So, until then, whenever that may be, we will make the most of this extended weekend.

We are heading up to the cottage later tonight.  We are totally not organized to go.  Everyone has to pack, we need to find the linens that we brought home to wash last fall, I need to plan and shop for Saturday lunch and dinner for the whole gang, and before any of that can happen, I need to hit CrossFit for my 5pm class.  I have no idea what time we will start the drive tonight…good thing the cottage is only about an hour and 20 minutes away.  Whatever time it is, I know when we finally get there and unpack everything, I am having a nice, cold Corona!  I can almost taste it now!

2.  I got beat up at CrossFit this week!  Between slashes on my arms and legs from double unders, bruises on my chest from push presses, and now a giant rope burn on my leg from last night’s rope climbs, I look like I’ve been through a war!

Of all of them, I think the rope burns are the worst.  They are actually quite tender and let me know they were there when the water hit them in the shower this morning.  Yowzers!  That stung!  I need to remember to bring my antibiotic ointment to the cottage this weekend so I can apply a few times and hopefully speed healing.

3.  Despite getting beat up, I can’t wait to hit the Box for my third workout of the week!  Tonight we are working on overhead squats again. Until a few weeks ago I hadn’t done one of these.  Now they seem to be in at least one WOD each week.  They are a great movement and although they are complicated and I can’t lift very much yet, I kind of like them.  Hopefully tonight I will be able to add a few more pounds to the bar. I’ve got my wrist wraps now, so hopefully that will give me a bit more stability and let me lift heavier too.  After the strength, we move into the WOD for a 21-15-9 back squats and shoulders to overhead.  Last time we had a workout like this I finished with 2 seconds to spare.  Hopefully tonight I can make it through all reps in the 10 minute time limit.  I will let you know!

(PS…I finished in 8:52 or something like that!)

4. I have finished my 30 day Isagenix cleanse.  Overall, I have to say I’m pleased with the results.  Most change seemed to happen in the first 11 days or so in terms of weight change and measurements.  At that point I had lost 8 lbs and 12 inches and that’s pretty much where I ended.  Although I’m sure if I took a body fat measure, that would have changed over the course of the month as well.  My clothes are fitting completely differently and things “look” better…and that’s really what I’m more concerned about, although a lower number on the scale is always nice. Between this and the CrossFit I’m pretty sure I’ve gained muscle over the last month.  Now I need to focus on eating clean and continue with all my workouts/activities to make sure I’m getting stronger.

I still have a few shakes left in my cleanse pack and I ordered some more of these as well as some bars and the energetix stix.  I hope to have a shake for breakfast still, and if things are crazy I may have the odd one for lunch as well. The bars are mainly for days when I’ve got lots going on and need a little boost – like Tuesday’s when I have golf and ball hockey on the same night.  The energenix stix turn water into a healthy Gatorade type drink that I really liked on ball hockey days or WOD days when I don’t get to eat before I hit the gym.

I will see how this does this next month and adjust as needed.

5.  My weekly videos!   Seems to have become a regular feature on my blog that I’ve got a couple of videos.  This week I’ve got 2 for you.  One funny, and one motivational.  Hope you like them! (I have no idea why they won’t insert directly in my post this time.  You will have to click on the links…Sorry )

Will Ferrell is sad about the Leafs too!

You boys aren’t so tough!

and here’s a bonus:
6.  I found some will power today!  We are driving up to the cottage tonight (I’m actually putting the finishing touches to this post from the car!  Gotta love rocket sticks!)  I got home from CrossFit shortly after 6, had a quick shower, packed my bag, put together 3 Tupperware of protein powder for my breakfasts at the cottage, and was out the door.  But not before I heated some leftover spinach and spiced chick peas.  I ate them in the car as the rest of my family went into McDonald’s for dinner. I have to say I am quite impressed with myself. I like McDonald’s and don’t think it’s too bad to have it once in a while, but just didn’t want to wreck my great day of food and exercise, so I  stuck to the plan and enjoyed a clean, healthy, delicious meal.  (I did treat myself to a $1 diet coke once I finished my chick peas!  not great, but could have been a LOT worse!)

And that’s it!  I’m almost to the cottage…about another 15 minutes or so.  I can almost taste that first Corona!

Have a great weekend, everyone!
Got any big plans?

What a Week!

Wow, this week has just flown by…and I’ve been super busy.

Here’s what’s been going on in my world.

Monday:  CrossFit WOD…the Filthy Fifty.  Wow, what a WOD.  You can read all about the torture here

Tuesday: Golf! This was my second league night of the year, and despite being a bit on the cool side temperature-wise, I had a great night out on the course.  My driver was working, I had decent second shots (which often give me a bit of trouble), and I felt confident when I stepped up to the ball to make each shot.  I only had one really bad hole (an 8 on a par 4 –ugh!), but other than that, I played a decent round…for me at least! Here’s how my scorecard looked:

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	OUT
Par	4	3	4	4	4	5	5	3	4	36
Me	6	4	6	6	8	6	7	3	6	52

While some people would not be pleased with a 52, I am thrilled.  This was my second best night on the course ever…and only 2 shots away from my goal of shooting a 50 this season.  Hopefully I keep it up for the rest of the season.  I’m confident that 50 is within my sights this year…I will get it, I know I will!

I was supposed to play ball hockey Tuesday night, after golf, but my stomach was a bit off and it didn’t seem like a great idea to go run around when things were so unsettled!

Wednesday:    Both Jack and I had ball hockey Wednesday night.  He played at 8 at one rink and I played at 9 at a rink across town.  Before we all headed out (Nick was going out as well to babysit for my sister so she could go teach her body attack class), I whipped up a quick clean eating dinner of Spinach and Spiced Chick Peas.  Yum!

After dinner, we all headed out the door.  Hubs dropped Nick off to babysit and Jack and I headed to the rink for his game.  He really loves it, and I love watching him play.  He runs his little heart out there and gives all he’s got every shift.  He usually plays defense in his regular hockey, but in ball hockey, he gets a chance to play all positions and is really enjoying playing forward.  He seems to like taking shots!  I they were tied when I left, but in the end, Jacko’s team lost.  He was a bit disappointed but said he still had fun.

I was able to watch most of his game, but missed the last 5 minutes or so as I had to leave to drive across town for my own game.  I was glad to be feeling better and able to go run around, sweat like crazy and have fun!  We tied our game 1-1.  I got our team’s goal! 

Thursday: Tonight I was back to the Box.  Here’s what the WOD:

This was another night with a new movement.  I hadn’t done a rope climb yet.  Seems like I wasn’t alone in that, as when Andrew (our coach) asked who had done it before, the gym went silent!  He gave us a few very quick tips about how to wrap the rope around our leg, trap the rope between our feet, stand up tall, and pull up our legs and do it all again….and then we were off.

I was the first one in my pair to try.  I probably got about half way up the rope and then I got a bit freaked out about the height and came back down.  I tried a couple more times, but didn’t make it to the top of the rope   Once I felt pretty good and had a good rhythm going, but just couldn’t get up there.  I kept trying to tell my legs to move up the rope, but they just wouldn’t move.  Oh well, I will get it next time.  And, hopefully by the time we do rope climbs again, the rope burn on my leg heals up!  It is a bit shredded.  I’ve dosed it with antibiotic ointment, so hopefully it heals up quickly.

Once we finished the rope climb, it was right into the WOD…a long one, at 20 minutes.  For the pull-ups, I used a purple and black band for part but added a red as well for most of the WOD…I just can’t do pull-ups yet.  Although I did do a bit better tonight, and seemed to get a little kip into the pull-up, which made them easier.  I used a 25lb KB and did the 20 inch box jump.  The pull-ups really slowed me down.  In the end, I finished 6 full rounds, plus the pull-ups, swings and 8 box jumps, for 206 total reps.  Not sure if that is good or bad, but it sure made me tired!  I have to say, I like box jumps.  I’m pretty good at them and was able to crank through 12 in a row each round.  I’m not able to do the jump up, jump down, spring back up motion yet, but I jump up and step down and jump right back up.  One day I will try the jump up, jump down, spring back up and see how it goes….one day!

My class wasn’t until 8:30 tonight, so I had lots of time to make a good, clean eating dinner.  I wasn’t too sure what dinner would be when I left for work this morning.  On our drive to school/work Nick asked what dinner was going to be.  I told him I wasn’t sure and he asked if I could make the “pasta with the white beans and feta”.  I knew exactly the dish he meant, and thought it was a fantastic choice.  It is quick and absolutely delicious!  The official recipe is called Mediterranean Vegetable, White Bean & Feta Penne.  See here for recipe….and give it a try.  It really is good!

I gotta say, the fact that my kid requests a clean eating dinner makes me quite happy.

Tomorrow:   is Friday!  Wohoo!  I’m hoping for a quiet day at work and a quick drive home when I pick the kids up from school right at 3:30.  It’s the May 24 long weekend, so traffic will likely be heavier than usual as everyone skips town early and heads north to cottage country.  We will be heading to the cottage as well, but before we go, I’ve got a 5pm CrossFit class to do.  The WOD tomorrow is a lot of overhead work:

I wasn’t doing CrossFit yet back in January when they did the WOD before, so I don’t have a base score to compare to.  I’ve got my wrist wraps now, so hopefully I will be able to add some pounds to my overhead squat.  I’m not sure I will be able to Rx the Met Con WOD, but I will see…I will give it my best shot.

While writing this post, I got caught up on all of my recorded TV.  I watched How I Met Your Mother from Monday night, Grey’s Anatomy from tonight, and The Big Bang Theory from tonight too.  Now, it’s late…really late (12:30) and I need to go to bed.  I need a good sleep so I’ve got enough energy to make it though CrossFit tomorrow!

Have you done a rope climb?  Did it shred your leg?  I may need to get myself a pair of kick ass socks from TheSoxBox so I can save my legs from any more CrossFit abuse! 

Goodnight!

I Survived…Barely!

So, as I mentioned today in my earlier post, today’s WOD was The Filthy Fifty:

This was my first workout in the new Box.  It is an amazing space!  Ryan and Michele did an amazing job.  The new space has 2 gym areas, a personal training area, a kid zone, showers, a lounge area, and a ton of new equipment.  It was very exciting to be part of the first day, with a killer workout that used so many different pieces of equipment.  Nothing like putting the new space to the test by having 2 separate classes working though 10 stations in each gym!  And it went as smooth as can be. 

Now, onto the WOD…Holy CRAP…this was killer!  My class split into 3 groups, each starting at different stations and working our way down the movements.  My group started on the knees to elbows.  I am getting better at these.  I think my hands hurt the worst of all with this movement.  Luckily they didn’t rip this time. 

I used a 35lb bar for the push press and these were pretty good.  I broke them down into sets of 10 to start, and then did the last 10 in 2 sets of 5. 

The back extensions were actually pretty good.  I hadn’t done them before, but kind of liked them.  I could certainly feel them in my hamstrings. 

I used a 12lb med ball for the wall balls, although the Rx was 14lbs.  12lbs is still 2 lbs heavier than any wall balls I had done before ( I think so anyways, will have to check my WODBook again!).  These were tough, but I broke them down into sets of 10 and then sets of 5, but got them done…and didn’t put the ball down for the whole time.  When I rested, I wedged the ball between my chest and the wall.  That was part of my plan, and I stuck to it…so that makes me happy.  (it’s the small victories, right!)

The burpees were f’ing awful…as always!  50 of them sure sucked, but I plugged away.  I was not fast at them at all, but I did them, and that’s what counts…at least that’s what I’m telling myself!

The double unders started out okay…12 in a row…and then that was it.  Just one or two at a time.  It made me so mad…and just reinforced that I need to get back to practicing in the basement.

The box jumps actually weren’t too bad.  I did the 20inch box and they were actually okay.  I was able to jump most of them and just took a couple of breaks where I stepped up and down for a couple of sets of 5 and then got back to jumping. 

And that’s as far as I got.   There was a 35 minute time cap to the WOD and I only got through 7 stations before time was up.  I was exhausted at the end and a little disappointed that I wasn’t able to finish, but at least now I have a base to build from the next time this WOD comes around. 

After my WOD I rushed home to watch Game 7 of the Leafs – Bruins series.  My boys in blue were playing so well…up 4-2 with just over a minute to go…and then the wheels sort of fell off.  The Bruins got 2 quick ones to tie it up, after pulling their goalie.  That put the game into OT.  The boys put up a good fight, but in the end the big Bruins were just too much and they got the OT goal that gave them the series.  There were 4 sad people in my household when that Bruin goal went in, but we really enjoyed watching the Leafs in the playoffs.  They did better than they were expected and should be proud of their efforts.  We are already looking forward to next season.  They showed they can come together and play well, and we expect bigger and better things next year.

Tomorrow I’ve got golf – teeing off at 4:30  – and then ball hockey at 10pm.  Gonna be a long day, so I should get my butt to bed!

Hope Monday treated you well. 
Only 4 more days until the weekend…and it’s a long one for us Canadians. 
Can’t wait!

They Are Trying To Kill Me!

Today is the first day for my CrossFit Box in it’s new home.

CrossFit Newmarket Central moved from a small-ish 2000 square foot space to a brand new, wonderfully large, 9000 square foot space this past weekend.

Over the weekend I followed along on their Facebook page as the posted pics of the progress being made on the new space.  It looks amazing and I can’t wait to see it live and in person tonight for my WOD.

Well, I was super excited to go to class tonight to check out the new, and definitely improved space….until I saw what the WOD is going to be:

I’m pretty sure they are trying to kill me on the first day in the new digs!  I’ve never done the Filthy Fifty before, but I’ve heard it’s killer:

There are just so many moves and so many reps!  Here’s how I’m going to attack it:

1. Box jumps – should be okay.  I’ve done 20 inch jumps before (I’m pretty sure I’ve done 24 inch jumps before), so I will just try to count them off in sets of 10 and move on!
2. Jumping pull-ups – I am thanking God these are not regular pull-ups!  Jumping pull-ups give me a fighting chance.  They are still hard for me, but at least I can do them.  50 won’t be fun, but again, hopefully I can crank them out in sets of 10.
3. Kettlebell swings – 1 pood = 16 kilograms = 35.3 pounds.  I think this is the yellow kettlebell, which I “graduated” to last time we had a WOD that had kettlebells in them.  I’m pretty sure I can get through this one without too much trouble.  I like kettlebell swings, so hopefully this is an easier one to cross off the list!
4. Walking lunges – 50 is nothing compared to the 200m walking lunges carrying 10lb dumb bells I did in a WOD a few Friday’s ago, so this shouldn’t be too bad…at least its just the lunge, no weights!
5. Knees to Elbows – UGH…I can’t do these yet, so will be doing either the “knees to boobs” version or the “knees to anywhere” version, depending how much energy I have left after the 200 reps I’ve already done to get to this point of the WOD.  I just hope I don’t rip my hands again.  Last time we did K2E, I ripped my left palm just a tiny bit and it only just finally healed.
6. 45lb Push Press – I’ve only done these once before and managed to get up to 70lbs, for 1 rep…hopefully in can do 50 with the 45lb bar, or may scale to 35lbs…will see what my coach says.
7. Back extensions – I haven’t done these before.  No idea how hard or easy 50 of them might be.  Guess I will find out tonight!
8. Wall balls – I have done wall balls before…lots of them, but never with a 14lb ball.  I think the max I’ve done is 12lbs maybe?  Will have to look back in my WODBook and see.  50 with a 14lb ball towards the end of this workout might just be too much!  Whatever weight I do go with, I will break it down into sets of 10 and try not to set the ball down between sets since that just means I will need to pick it up again.  Instead, I will rest it between my chest and the wall when I take my breaks.  A little trick I learned when watching Kristan Clever do the Open 13.3 on announcement night.
9. Burpees – I can do burpees, sure, but 50 of them at the end of this is going to be pure hell.  I will try to do sets of 10 and just survive.
10. Double Unders – I haven’t practiced my double unders in quite a while.  Damn…really wish I had kept that up now!  I think I got to 16 in a row, maybe once.  I will try to do 10 in a row and go from there.

I will post my time when I get home from class.  Wish me luck!

Have you done the Filthy Fifty?
What was your time?
What move do you find the hardest?

My Day In Pictures

It’s the end of another weekend. 

I hope all the moms out there enjoyed their day.

My day started with a bit of a sleep in, waking to gifts from hubby and the boys.  Hubby got me a book that we learned about on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  It’s written by David Sedaris and we really could not tell from the interview what the book was about, but the stories that Sedaris was telling sounded pretty funny and we were intrigued.  I laughed when I looked in the bag and saw the book there. 

I also got a gift card to Lululemon.  Whatever I buy with this $100 gift card will be my first EVER Lulu purchase. 

I have looked at the website and there are lots of things that I would like, but at the top of the list is a pair of Studio pants.  Just about everyone that I know who owns anything Lulu has at least 1 pair of these and I know a few people with multiple pairs.  I’m told that no matter what your shape or size, Lulu’s studio pants make your ass look great.  I think I will put that theory to the test! 

Along with the book and Lulu gift card, my Mother’s Day also included dinner out at Glow Fresh Grill.  Hubs picked this restaurant since it was an option that came up when he searched Clean Eating restaurants in Toronto.  I thought that it was very sweet that he thought to find a healthier place to go for dinner as he knows I am trying to eat clean and healthy.  I have actually been to this restaurant before with folks from work.  We do birthday lunches and one year on my birthday I chose this restaurant for it’s healthy options as well! 

Dinner reservations were early, 5:45, so we would have time to eat and be back home in time to watch the Leafs – Bruins Game 6.  Although it was freezing today (it rained, snowed, hailed and was generally a miserable day here), I still wore my new Crocs that I got yesterday.   They are comfy and cute, and as I was hoping, work perfectly with my boyfriend jeans! 

Dinner was good. We started with some complimentary dips and crackers.  There were 3 varieties of hummus – beet, garlic, and carrot.  The garlic and carrot were the most popular!  Before we knew we were getting the complimentary dips, we had already ordered some edamame and a veggie flatbread as appetizers.

Jackson loves, and I mean LOVES edamame.  I think he ate half of that huge platter himself!

For my main, I chose a Thai curry bowl with chicken, bok choy, and bean sprouts. I had them hold the mushrooms that were supposed to be included. The dish was okay, not great, but okay.  Now that I look at the menu again to see exactly what I ordered, I realized that there actually wasn’t any bok choy in the dish, but there were a lot of tomatoes instead.  So, not quite what the menu said, but still okay. 

I didn’t get pics of what everyone else ordered, but hubs had a beef stir-fry that he said was also okay, but not great, Jacko had a Caesar salad, and Nick had linguini with tomato sauce that he said didn’t have much flavour (once he added some hot pepper flakes and a bunch more parmesan cheese, he said it was okay). 

So, although everything looked great, we were all a little disappointed in the flavours of our dinners.  To hopefully make up for this, the boys said they “saved room” for a chocolate fondue! 

The fondue – which was on the menu as a “fondue for two” – was just the perfect size.  It came with strawberries, mango, pineapple, white chocolate and dark chocolate almond bark, and some biscotti.  It was very good and was the perfect end to the meal.  Everyone enjoyed it…especially Nick, who practically licked the bowl! 

After dinner, we booted it back up the 404 to get home and watch the game.  Jacko quickly changed into his “cheering outfit” – boxers and his Leafs jersey! 

His outfit seemed to do the trick as the Boys in Blue played an awesome game and defeated the Bruins 2-1 (Boston got a goal in the final minute of the game, but the Leafs managed to hang on for the win).  Now, Game 7 will be tomorrow at 7pm.  This is not great, since I’ve got CrossFit at 8:30 and will miss a good chunk of the game   I may seriously have to consider changing my class time so I can watch the whole game.  ….yep, made the decision and changed to the 7pm class.  I will miss the first period, but be able to see the 2nd and 3rd. 

I’m excited to get back to the Box tomorrow as it will be the first day in the new gym space.  The coaches worked hard over the weekend to get things all moved over and ready for the big unveil tomorrow.  I can’t wait to see how the new space looks.  They have been posting pics over the weekend as they make progress on getting things ready, and tonight posted a ton of pictures of how the ready space looks….see here…it’s awesome!   I particularly like the signs for the men’s and ladies’ washrooms.  Aren’t they great! (it’s a panoramic pic, so a little skewed, but aren’t the weightlifting figures fantastic!)

Not quite sure what the WOD will be tomorrow.  I’m sure it will be killer….they all seem to be.  But I’m ready for it.  Love, Love, Love my CrossFit!

Hope you all had a great weekend.
Here’s hoping the week flies by as we’ve got a long weekend coming up here in Canada!

GO LEAFS GO!!!

Snacks, Shoes, and a Snooze

Happy Saturday, peeps!  Hope all is well on this fine day. 

Despite a strong desire, I didn’t get the sleep-in I was hoping for today.  I woke up around 8am and couldn’t get back to sleep.  That’s still an hour and a half later than my normal weekday wake-up, so I can’t really complain.  And I did enjoy lying in bed, staying cozy under the covers, just chillin”.

I tried a few new snacks this week. My sister had won a Twitter giveaway a while ago and gave me a few samples to try. 

I’d never heard of this brand – I think it’s “Simply”.  The one of the left was a protein bar made with whey protein crisps.  It was quite tasty and full of nutrients. At 150 calories, the bar packed 15g protein, 5g fibre, and 4g sugar.  They claim that it is suitable for specialized diets, including gluten free, peanut free, kosher, vegetarian and it’s low in sodium.  This was the apple cinnamon flavour and it was pretty tasty.  I ate this on the way to golf Tuesday afternoon, to give me a little boost to carry me over until dinner after our round.  I will have to check if my sister has any of these left and steal a few more if I can.

The second snack was a protein chip made with pea protein.  These were spicy little crisps that definitely had a chili kick!  I was surprised at how many chips there were in the bag, since it felt very light.  The entire bag of ships was only 140 calories, and packed 15g of protein, only 2g of sugar.  The fibre content of the chips wasn’t quite as good as the bar, at only 1g.  I enjoyed this bag of chips yesterday while I was running an errand yesterday afternoon.  They were pretty good and I did enjoy the spicy kick, but I can imagine that it might be too hot for some people. 

I’ve got one more bag of chips in my office at work.  I think they are and herb and garlic flavour.  I might give them a try on Tuesday on my drive to the golf course. 

This afternoon we hit the mall to pick up a few things.  Hubs needed some new shoes for work and cleats for baseball and my son needed some new shorts.  While hubs looked for his shoes, I snuck into the Crocs store to see about some new flip flops.  I’ve been wearing my current pair for a few years now and they have absolutely no tread left, so are a bit of a death trap when on wet, slick surfaces.  I found a suitable replacement for the flops, and also found a cute little pair of top-sider style shoes that I think will look cute with shorts and capris.  I was quite please with my purchases!

Now I’m home watching some of the TPC Golf.  The horn just went to pull the players off the course due to threat of lightening.  This seems like a perfect time to maybe take a little siesta.

But, before I sign off, here’s a little video that I thought was just awesome.  It’s cute, it’s got some Bon Jovi, and a couple of pretty good singers – who have also got some good dance moves!  I love how the wife is laughing her head off in the car.   Enjoy!

From The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Hope you are having a great Saturday.
Make any good purchases today?

PS…did you see my Leafs hang on to beat the Bruins last night?  Game 6 is back in Toronto tomorrow night.  Can’t wait!  GO LEAFS GO!!!

The Friday Five

It’s Friday…it’s Friday…it’s Friday!!!!  Can you tell I’m excited it’s the weekend.

Let’s get right to it…here is this week’s Friday Five!

1.  It’s been another busy week.  I have had 5 days of exercise and I am looking forward to a few days off this weekend.  Here’s how my week of workouts looked:

Monday:  CrossFit: WOD was Nancy.  It was hard, but awesome…as always!
Tuesday:  Golf league opening night.  Didn’t play all that well, but had some great shots once in a while and had fun with my friends, and that’s what it’s all about!
Wednesday:  Ball hockey.  This was a fun workout, and we won 3-0.  I got 2 assists and a goal, which made it even more fun!
Thursday:  CrossFit:  Strength work was 20 minutes to find 2 rep max snatch.  I think I got up to 60lbs.  Still not lifting quite a much as I probably can, but a new max for me and I was still able to have good form.  I was able to use my new wrist wraps and was glad I spent the $30 on them…my wrists were very happy!  The WOD was 10 min AMRAP:  10 one arm DB thrusters Right arm, 10 one are DB snatch with alternating arms, 10 DB thrusters left arm.  I got through 4 full rounds, plus 10 right side thrusters.  I used a 20lb DB and was proud of myself for doing full squats, all the way down, for each and every one of my DB thrusters.
Friday:  CrossFit:  Strength was 20 mins to find 5 rep max bench press.  I was able to do 75lbs tonight.  Not my best (I got to 85lbs before, but only for 3 reps), but I was still pretty happy with it.  Then we had a 1 set at 70% 1rep max, to failure.  I used 65lbs for this and was able to crank out 17reps.  The last couple were a very big challenge, but I guess that’s how it should be.  The WOD was killer. 12 minute AMRAP Ascending ladder 1,1,2,2,3,3 etc of pushups and med ball cleans.  I’d never done a med ball clean.  They were kind of fun, and once again, I was proud of myself for doing full squats for each and every clean.  As if this wasn’t going to be tough enough, every minute on the minute we had to do 5 burpees.  In the 12 minutes, I got through 8 full rounds, plus 7 pushups for 79 total reps….plus 60 burpees.  GOD…all these WODs lately have been killer.  I was a sweaty mess at the end of the 12 minutes.  But you know what they say….

I’m not dead yet, so hopefully I’m getting stronger!!

2.  I have no workouts planned for this weekend!  I crammed my 3 CrossFit classes into the weekdays so I don’t have to go to the box this weekend.  I did this mainly because my Box is moving to a new home this weekend.  The current Box is about 2000 square feet (which includes the lobby and office area).  There is one washroom and no shower or change room.  The new space, which is just behind the current space, is 9000 glorious square feet.  The new space has 2 gyms in it, plus change rooms and showers.  I haven’t seen it yet, but from what we’ve been told and by the pics that they are posting as they have been working on the new Box, it is going to be awesome!  I will get to see it first hand Monday night at 8:30 for my usual Monday night class.  While I don’t have an official class to go to, I may take this opportunity to get some double under practice in and maybe work on my kips.  I’ve kind of been slacking on these, so should make an effort to get down to the basement to practice.

3.  I get to sleep in this weekend!  With no CrossFit class tomorrow morning I get to sleep in!  This makes me so happy.  I have not been having the greatest sleeps this week.  We’ve got the windows open since the weather has been so nice.  The fresh air is wonderful, but the birds are killing me.  They start at about 4am and despite trying to ignore them and just roll over and go back to sleep, it is not happening for me.  It has cooled off a bit, and it’s raining here today, so I’ve closed the windows and got the blinds closed tight, so hopefully a nice quiet, dark room will lead to a wonderfully peaceful, long night’s sleep.  Fingers crossed.

4.  This week’s funny.  I don’t have a funny dance video this week, but I do have something that made me laugh, and hopefully you get a smile or chuckle out of it too.  This is from earlier this week at a Fresno Grizzlies ball game.  This is kiss cam gone bad.  Enjoy!

Just kiss her!

 
5.  As I write this, we are 9 minutes into the 3rd period of the Toronto – Boston game…..and my Leafs are winning 2-0.  I’m going to sign off and enjoy the last 10 minutes of the game, devoting 100% of my attention to the Boys in Blue.  Come on boys, you can do it!

Here’s to a great weekend.
Got any big plans?

Damn…Boston just scored to get it to 2-1 Toronto….oh boy! 

It’s A Beautiful Day To Go GOLFING!

I am very excited.  Today is the first night of my EWGA York-Simcoe golf league.  Once again, we are playing out of Cardinal Golf Club’s RedCrest course.

It’s a tough course, so it is always a challenge, but still lots of fun.  We have got 64 ladies coming out for our opening night event.  It should be a good time.

Since tonight is the start of my golf season, I thought it would be a good time to put my golf goals for the summer out there. So, here they are:

1. Shoot 50 or under on a league night.  This was one of my goals last year as well.  I came close, with a 51 one night, but never cracked the 50 mark. Hopefully this year will be my year.
2. Win Chapter Championships with my Scramble Team.  This one should be fairly achievable, since last year we were the only scramble team in our chapter, so we qualified for Sectionals just by finishing our round.  We may have some competition this year as our chapter is growing.  We will know in a few weeks.  My team has some issues to sort out with respect to membership since one of last year’s members knows she won’t be able to play in sectionals as she will be away on a course and can’t miss school or change the date. So, we are trying to find a replacement player.  We think we have one lined up, and hopefully we will get that all sorted out tonight when we all see each other.
3. Become more consistent with my driver.  I play golf left handed and have a fairly good slice a lot of the time when I strike the ball.  This means the ball goes out and then hangs a pretty good “left” and curves away.  This often puts me in trouble as I am not in the fairway. My goal for the year is to get rid of the slice.  I changed my grip a bit last year and that seemed to help.  This year I am also going to see if ball position in my stance makes a difference.  This one will be tough, but if I can figure it out, it will do nothing but good things for my game.

I could come up with a lot more golf related goals, since I’ve got many things that need improvement, but I don’t need to overwhelm myself.  If I cross these off early in the season, I can always add a few more things to my list later.

Last night I was back at the Box for another WOD.  My knees and ass had finally recovered from Friday’s killer WOD, and I was ready to get back at it!  The WOD last night was “Nancy” a benchmark WOD.  This was 400m run and 15 Overhead Squats, 5 rounds for time.  This workout actually wasn’t too bad.  The worst part of it was how much my wrists hurt during the OHS.  The squats weren’t bad at all, and I’m sure I could have lifted more weight as I seem to have the form down for this one, but my wrists absolutely kill. So, I only did 35 lbs again.  On my last set of OHS, I borrowed a set of wrist wraps from the guy behind me who had already finished.  When I came in from my last run I saw his wraps laying on the floor.  He wasn’t around to ask, but I grabbed them and threw them on anyways.  Man, what a difference.  I was able to plough through the 15 without much trouble at all.  Once my wrists didn’t kill, I was able to keep the bar nice and still and things felt great.  I finished in 22:19 (I think..or something around there).  I’m not breaking any speed records with my WOD times, but at least I’m getting them done!

After class I bought myself a set of wraps.  I think it’s $30 well spent.  Hopefully I get to use them on Thursday when I’m back at the box for my next WOD.

I tried another new clean eating recipe last night…this one from the June 2013 issue that I just came into my Zinio account over the weekend.

I made the Turkey Zucchini Burgers with Tahini sauce, salsa and feta…and they were AMAZING!
I did all the prep work Sunday night…made the turkey zucchini patties, prepared the tahini sauce, and got the salsa ready.  All that was left to do yesterday was grill the burgers and assemble into a pita pocket.
(the sauce doesn’t look that pretty, but it sure was tasty!)

The final product was absolutely delicious. The kids and hubby all gave two thumbs up for this meal.  I will definitely be making these again…soon!

Do you use wrist wraps when you lift?  Do you find they make a difference?
Have a great Tuesday!